Rome's Chance (Reapers MC #6.6)(14)
“Maybe hit something on the ground,” he suggested, shining his light down over where I’d fallen. Sure enough, there were beer bottles scattered across the concrete. I swallowed.
“Good thing those weren’t broken,” I managed to say, my mouth feeling dry. “I could’ve lost my eye.”
Sirens sounded in the distance. A minute later, I heard them pulling into the parking lot—the police were finally here. But despite the sirens, there were still shouts coming from inside the building. The cowboys must be fighting again. Why on earth did people have to be so stupid? I decided I didn’t like the Starkwood Saloon.
“I want to go home,” I said, not even realizing that I’d spoken out loud until the boy nodded. A slender girl slipped out of the darkness to stand next to him. He wrapped his arm around her, and they shared a worried look.
“Yeah, we want to go home too. But I’m not sure how we can get out of here without getting in trouble.”
“Why are you worried?” I asked. “You weren’t part of the fight.”
“I borrowed my sister’s license to get in, and his is fake,” the girl said, her voice wavering. “Now the place will be crawling with cops. We should’ve gone already, but we were afraid of getting hurt.”
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. That was enough to send a fresh bolt of pain through my face. Ouch. I needed to be a lot more careful. I could tell my eyelid was puffing up bad, too. It was getting harder and harder to see out of the right side. Knowing my luck, it would swell shut completely.
Fuck my life, but this sucked.
The two kids watched me hopefully, and I realized they were waiting for someone to tell them what to do.
Double fuck my life.
“Do you think we should try to climb the fence?” the girl asked, and I shook my head.
“That’ll just draw attention. There’s gotta be at least a hundred people here, and I doubt they’ll question all of us. The owner told people that they’d clean up and start the music again soon. I don’t think he expects the cops to stay long. And I guess he would know—apparently this happens here a lot. I think you should just stay out here for now.”
“This was such a stupid idea, Steph,” the kid said. “I’m really sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she replied, and they gave each other such sweet, cloying little smiles that I nearly threw up a little in the back of my mouth.
Of course, that might just be the Coors Light trying to escape.
“So… you think you could go inside, maybe let us know when it’s safe to leave?” the boy asked. I tried to nod, but even that hurt my face.
“Sure,” I said, sighing. “But it might take a while. Just hang tight. I’m sure things will be fine.”
I had no idea whether things would be fine or not, of course. But they looked so hopeful and appreciative, I didn’t have the heart to admit it, so I took a deep breath and started toward the door.
Chapter Four
The wave of light and noise from the bar was almost enough to send me scuttling back to the patio. I needed to find Rome, though. And maybe some ice for my eye. Not only that, I’d promised the kids outside that I’d help them. Steph had been right—they’d been stupid to come here—but it wasn’t like they’d been fighting. I didn’t think they deserved to get in trouble.
Once I accomplished that, though, I’d ask Rome to take me home because hooking up was no longer an option. Sure, he was attractive and I’d had a great time for a while. That didn’t change the fact that tomorrow night I’d be going to my class reunion looking like a boxer who’d gotten his ass kicked.
Not only that, I was starting to develop one hell of a headache.
All because I’d been stupid enough to come to the Starkwood Saloon with a man I hardly knew.
In my defense, he was a man I hardly knew who was extremely sexy. A man I’d had a crush on for a very long time. And it wasn’t like he’d personally caused the fight… But it’d been his idea to come here, and while I could respect the fact that he helped patch a guy up, I’d reached my limit.
Rome would just have to go down in history as the one who got away twice.
This was probably for the best, because ultimately, our worlds didn’t align. I liked to go on dates to places where there was good dancing, but a very low likelihood of flying attack cowboys. He liked to go on dates with good dancing, too, but the cowboys weren’t a deal breaker for him. I reached up and touched my throbbing face, wondering what my family would say when they saw it.
Fuck. Knowing Lexi, she’d decide to hunt him down and slash his tires for bringing me here. Given that she’d already been busted for shoplifting, that probably wouldn’t end very well.
We needed less drama in the Whittaker family, not more. I hated to admit it, but this disaster of a date might’ve been a good thing. I liked Rome—liked him a lot—and if I ended up back in Hallies Falls, it’d be way too easy to get addicted to those kisses of his. Now I had a great big shiner to remind me why those kisses were dangerous.
Things had settled back down in the bar. The ambulance had arrived with the cops, and I could see the EMTs rolling Rome’s patient onto a backboard. Both of the cowboys who’d come over the fence were facedown on the ground, arms cuffed behind them. Peaches was busy cleaning up the mess, and quite a few of the remaining patrons were helping her set the chairs and tables to rights.