The combination of her peppermint breath and her subtle perfume clouds my senses, and I find myself stumbling over my own tongue.“Yes...I mean, are you sure?”
Bones cocks a beautifully prominent dark brow before rolling her eyes.“I’m sure, sweetheart.Now, come on.Let’s go get you a cold drink before you pass out.”
“Okay,” I say, nodding.With my heart skipping beats, I suck in my lips as she takes my hand and leads me through the sea of eye-wateringly expensive cars and bikes to the wide-open roller shutter doors of the chop shop.A welcome blast of cool air flows over me as central air conditioning fights the Floridian heat.Several men look up from the vehicles they’re working on as we walk in, and I lick my lips self-consciously.My free hand unconsciously strays to the black eye hidden behind my playfully garish sunglasses and I feel my body tense.
“Hey,” says Bones, briefly stopping to look down at me.My reflection stares back at me from the lenses of her shades.“You’re safe here, I promise.If anyone so much as looks at you funny, I’ll cut their fucking cock off.”
The vicious ferality in her voice has me almost swooning on my feet.Who is this gorgeous, badass?I wonder, as she draws me deeper into the shop.I can’t wait to find out.
Chapter Four
Bones
“Hey, Bones.Who’s thebackpack?”asks my brother, leaning against a workbench as he rolls a joint.
“Hey, asswipe,” I retort, shoving my heavily tattooed sibling.“This is Sunny.Sunny, this is Marcus, my brother.”
Sunny steps out from beside me and extends her hand in welcome, that trademark Daisy Girl grin I’m already obsessed with plastered on her rosy-cheeked face.“Hi, it’s nice to meet you Marcus,” she says.
My brother finishes licking his paper and rolling his joint, forcing Sunny to hang all the while his gaze remains unbroken.“Sunny,” he finally says when I shove him again.He reaches out and shakes the short woman’s hand, seemingly trying to take her measure.“How did you meet Maria?”he asks, lighting his blunt and inhaling deeply with his usual swagger.
Sunny doesn’t miss a beat and speaks her truth without so much as flinching.“I just got out of a bad relationship and needed a lift,” she says, a wry smile teasing her lips as she glances at me, “and Maria was there.”
“You must be someone pretty special.Bones don’t stop for just anybody,” my brother drawls before offering Sunny a toke.
Surprising me, Sunny accepts and takes a puff, exhaling casually—as if it were something she’d done a hundred times before.“I don’t know about that,” she says.“I’m just me.”Her humble gaze finds the floor and her kitsch sunglasses fall off her nose, the heavy, decorative plastic frames bouncing on the concrete workshop floor.“Shit,” she breathes, crouching to fetch them in a panic.But when she rises, she slows down as if taking ownership of her fear.She meets Marcus’s eye, then mine, before passing me the blunt.
My brother’s gaze lingers on her eye as Sunny puts her shades back on and his lax attitude becomes a little more rigid.His dismissive tone shifts and in its place, sincerity steps up and I see the noble man beneath the tough and callous mask my brother so regularly wears for the Sons.“Any friend of Maria’s is a friend of mine.You’re welcome to the hospitality and protection of the club,” he says.“And don’t worry.Bones has got your back.”He turns to me and steals back the spliff.“Don’t boggart the joint, sis,” he says, shaking his head and sucking in a deep breath before blowing it back in my face.He offers Sunny a quick smile and a wink, then takes his leave.
“Jackass,” I gripe after him, inhaling the sweet smoke.
Sunny’s cheeks are adorably rosy as she adjusts my cuts on her shoulders to better cover herself.“So, am I right in guessing that if you’re the Vice President, then your brother is ...the President?”she asks with a wry grimace.
“Mmhm.He’s got twelve months on me, so naturally he thinks he’s hot shit,” I joke.Sunny’s answering smile pierces the walls I’ve formed around my heart like a shard of light lancing through the gloom, and I feel a strange twinge in my chest.I clear my throat.“So, anyway, let’s get you that drink.Then you can take a shower to cool off.You probably want to get changed too.”
“There’s showers here?”Sunny asks incredulously, a small, newfound bounce of hope in her step as she follows me into the offices beyond the noisy, music-filled workshop.