He found Wheels and Hollywood standing next to the pool table, but Traeger and the idiot Necro were gone. “Where’s our buddy?” he asked.
Wheels looked toward the front door and tipped his chin up. No more questions needed to be asked, nor would he expect to get an answer. Shit just got handled. “Ember needs us to check on Lux at their shop. You guys cool with going down there with me?”
Both Wheels and Hollywood agreed, downing the rest of their beer before they followed him back down the hallway to the back entrance.
The feeling that he was being watched disappeared like it had never been there, making him think he’d imagined it. They left their bikes in the parking lot behind the bar, acting like three men just taking a stroll. Wheels and Hollywood went toward the front, while he rounded the back. He’d never entered the shop from the front, which made the back his preferred way to go in since it was familiar. The big truck with the fancy wheels and fancy paint job, it was new. T-Rex walked up to the driver’s side as if he didn’t have a care in the world. The fucker behind the wheel was paying too close attention to the back door, he nearly jumped out of his seat as T-Rex knocked on the window. Of course, he opened the door at the same time. What a dumbass.
“Hey, man. Whatcha doin?” he asked the smaller man standing on the siderail of the truck.
“Who the fuck are you?”
T-Rex let out a sigh. “Don’t you know it’s not polite to answer a question with a question?”
The other man reached for something on the seat next to him, but T-Rex was smarter than the average stalker. And this idiot was average at best. He reached across the seat, slamming his arm down before he could pick up the club next to him.
“If you don’t get the fuck off of me, I’ll call the cops,” the man yelled.
“What’re you gonna tell ’em? You gonna tell em you were sitting outside a tattoo shop stalking a couple women, when some big guy came along and beat the fuck out of you?” He squeezed the guy’s arm a little tighter, knowing he was close to breaking it.
“I’m not... you don’t have any proof I’m stalking anyone.” He tried to jerk away.
“Well, then why the fuck are you sitting out here in the dark? And why the fuck are you in a private parking lot to begin with?”
T-Rex cursed at the incessant buzz of his phone in his pocket. He shifted slightly to get a better footing on the step bar, praying the flimsy thing didn’t give way under his weight. The small window of time allowed the asshole, who T-Rex was sure was lacking braincells between his ears, a chance to slam his truck into gear.
T-Rex only had a second to react as the bastard pressed his foot on the gas, making the truck jerk forward, and he lost his footing. He had a couple choices. Jump backward and let the asshole go or hold on and possibly get fucked up in an accident. He used the muscles in his legs to propel himself away from the moving vehicle, rolling to his feet in time to see the truck gaining speed, and red-tail lights disappearing around the corner. He squinted to see if he could catch a glimpse of the license plate, but it was missing. He recognized the make and model of the rig along with the image of the asshole, down to the perfect pearly whites. However, T-Rex had a feeling the fucker was a slippery little shit who wasn’t going to be that easy to catch.
“Fucker got away,” Hollywood said, holding onto his side.
T-Rex wiped at his knees, bits of gravel falling off from his tuck and roll. “Yeah, he’s slick.”
Wheels came running from the opposite end, his MC brother’s tall lanky form coming to a stop as he eyed them both. “Off the lot truck, no upgrades other than the normal rich boy shit. Looks like he took his plates off in case he did something illegal, but the dumb ass must’ve forgot there’s security cameras on every damn corner these days. What the hell was he thinking?”
T-Rex had a sinking feeling the shithead was assuming he had an out no matter what. The gold Rolex on the man’s wrist was an indicator the asshole had money, along with the high-end truck he drove. Although he might not have done any cool shit like after-market upgrades, he didn’t skimp on purchasing an expensive rig to begin with.
“I’m going to go and see what I can find out from Lux and her friend. You two good with making sure he doesn’t return?” T-Rex felt pretty confident the fucker wasn’t going to show back up tonight. Yet he also knew sociopaths were unpredictable.
After both men gave a nod and moved to take up a post, one in front and one in back, he walked up to the back door. The camera above was no doubt recording his every move. He lifted his right hand and flipped off the men who were probably watching or would be rewinding to see what had transpired later. With a brisk knock followed by two more, he hollered loud enough that whoever was inside wouldn’t be in any doubt of who it was outside. Of course, Lux might not answer since she had some sort of aversion toward him. Not that he blamed her or anything. She was too damn classy for the likes of his ass. Shit, just thinking about her sexy little ass made his dick twitch in his jeans, which would not be a good look if and when she opened the door to him.
He didn’t know how long he stood there waiting for her to open the door, but it was long enough he contemplated ripping the fucker off the hinges. Finally, he heard the familiar roll of locks disengaging. His heart did a little thump he put down to normal adrenaline after nearly being run over, which he knew was total bullshit. Hell, he’d swum in gator infested water without so much as a rise in blood pressure. Faced a girl’s daddy holding a shotgun loaded and aimed right between his eyes, buckass nekkid, and didn’t even blink or break a sweat. So, yeah, this strange thump was just that, a weird phenomenon. He was getting old or some shit.
“Hi,” Lux breathed.
Her black hair shone like a raven’s wing under the overhead light. The long tresses nearly reached all the way down to her ass, giving him many fantasies. He recently stopped sporting a chrome dome himself. He couldn’t wait to see his fucking cousins who had made him keep his head shaved bald for years thanks to a fucking bet, but Lux’s style with half her head shaved on one side, or partly, gave her an edgy look. Although he never thought he’d like it on a woman, on Lux it was sexy as fuck and made him itch to wrap his fist in the back of it and see if it was as soft as it looked. Shit, who was he kidding? He wanted to do a lot more than see if her hair was soft once he had it wrapped around his fist. At six-foot-five, he towered over just about everyone, and this tiny slip of a woman was no different. However, he wanted to wrap her up in his arms and protect her from everyone, even himself. That had been one of the reasons he had steered clear of her when he’d visited Twisted Ink.
“How’re you doing?” He let his eyes search her slim figure on the pretense he was inspecting her for injuries. In all actuality, he truly wanted to use his hands, lips, and tongue to see for himself she was okay. Get your mind outta the gutter, Raptor. His parents had named him Theriot Raptor Guidry. He’d never been called by his first name ’cause that was his daddy’s name. As a kid they’d begun calling him T-Rex, using the T of his first name, and fucking with him on his middle. His mama said it was because he was always much bigger than the other kids. Of course, he’d been a brute even when he’d been just a little tyke in diapers. Once, he’d thought of going by Theo, but he’d changed his mind really fucking quick.