Up close, she was smaller than he’d thought, maybe five-four in her combat boots, but every inch was carried with attitude.An attractive tiny silver hoop glinted in her septum.Each of her tattoos were isolated, telling a story.One I’d surely like the chance to learn.
Dan’s gaze dropped to the abandoned customer, still half-naked and shaking in the chair.“You want me to call somebody for him?You were here by yourself?”
She snorted.“Kid I had watching the register bolted out the back door the second the grabbing started.Probably halfway out of town by now.It was his first day, and a bust-and-run must not have been what he expected.I’ll take care of Mr.Gandy there.”A frown flashed across her face, and she angled that chin up just a little more.“Once I catch my breath, and not one instant sooner, seeing as how he didn’t lift a finger.”She wiped her hands on a towel, then offered one slim-fingered hand to Dan.“Riley Monroe.I own the place.Thanks for the assist, Raggedy Dan.”
“Dan Sharp.”He stared at her hand a second too long before taking it.Her grip was strong, calloused, and warm.“Just Dan’s fine.”
“Noted.But the street already gave you the name, big guy.Might as well own it.”She let go and crossed her arms, studying the ruin of her shop.“You always introduce yourself by redecorating, Just Dan?”
“Only when the welcoming party’s overly rude.”
A surprised laugh burst out of her.“Fair.”
He felt that laugh in his gut like a slug of hard liquor.She could be dangerous.
Riley stepped over one of the unconscious HHMC patch-holders, straddling his torso as she grabbed a bottle of whiskey from under the counter.She spun the top off, and, still standing over the fallen enemy, she took a pull straight from the neck.Then she held it out to him.“Medicinal.You’re bleeding.”
He glanced down.A shallow slice across his knuckles.Not a big deal.Still, he accepted the bottle, tipped it back for a healthy swallow, and then handed it over.Their fingers brushed, just the barest of touches, hardly anything at all, but in an instant, heat flared down his spine and curled around his balls.
Christ on a stick.
Time to get myself under control.
He pulled the bandana up, covering the bottom half of his face before asking, “You got a med kit?”
“Back room.”She stared at him for a second, then jerked her chin towards a curtained doorway.“Come on, hero.Least I can do is patch you up before you ride off into the sunset.”
Dan hesitated.He should call Denver and get cleanup rolling, make sure these assholes were escorted out of RMMC territory permanently.Instead, he found himself going with Riley Monroe through the beaded curtain and into the back of her shop like a goddamn teenager following a high school crush.
***
Riley
She was intensely aware of the scarred man walking at her back.And even more so of the jackasses still lying on the shop’s main area floor.Practical things first.She asked, “Should I contact the cops?I’ll be honest, I hesitate to even give them a call, because it was a hell of a job to get my license as it was.This county’s a motherfucker for jobs like mine.”
Dan, Just Dan, or as he was in her mind, Raggedy Dan, laughed low.“I’ll call a crew of my guys in a minute.Those manchild assholes just found out what happens when you don’t vacate a territory after being told, definitively but nicely.”
“In that case I’m gonna let you handle it.”Her gaze caught at the rearing horse on her bicep.RIP, as she called him, was stomping at a handful of snakes, with wild eyes and bared teeth.Kinda how I feel right now.“On second thought.”She jerked her chin down the hallway.“The med kit is in the kitchen just up there.You can bring it back out front.I need to make sure those jackasses don’t get any ideas.I don’t know what I was thinking.My register isn’t locked or anything.”
“Is that what they wanted?The cash from the till?”he asked like he hadn’t seen her about to be raped by the biggest one.
She shook her head as she let him walk past her, forcing those memories to the back of her mind.“Oh, he was planning on taking the cash all right, but he planned on taking other things first.”
Raggedy Dan was following her back up front, only this time it sounded like he was on the phone.The ringing in her ears didn’t let her hear a word he said.In the few seconds it took to return to the front, no one had moved.Not even Mr.Gandy, who’d been wincing and jerking his way through the rib tattoo piece he’d sworn he could sit for.She glanced at it with a sigh.Not even half of the line work was done, and there was still all the color to block in.Fucking pussy.
“Mr.Gandy, let me get you cleaned up, and you can go.Call me for a rescheduling appointment, and we’ll knock that tattoo out in no time.”She put action to words and blasted sanitizer on a wad of paper towels to wipe his tattoo clean of blood and ink smears, then collected a couple of sterile gauze pads to tape to his ribs.“There you go, good as new.”
When he moved to reach for his wallet, she shook her head.
“We’ll settle up when you come again.You parked out back, right?”He nodded, pale as a ghost.“Go straight out the door at the end of the hallway, then.”He shrugged on his shirt, buttoning things crossways as he walked away.“Call for that appointment, don’t forget.”Riley got a half-wave for her trouble.
He won’t be returning.She’d seen that level of fear before.He thought riding the edge of outlaw with a tattoo was going to be gangster, but the little fella can’t really handle gangster.
“Good god, that man’s a waste.”She turned and found Just Dan kneeling over the top of the guy who’d been promising her the ride of her life.She asked, “Is that asshole alive?”
“For now.His health is directly connected to how he answers my questions, though.”Dan didn’t look around.“I’m doing my best to make sure he stays hale and fit, but he’s not helping his own cause.”
She stepped between the man’s legs and put the toe of one boot right in the man’s taint, pressing down on what had to be his balls, given the way he tried to clutch at himself.“Hey, jackass, you might want to answer the nice man’s questions.Because if he leaves it up to me, you’ll depart here a eunuch.”