Snake (Signal Bend Heritage Book 2) by Susan Fanetti

Author:Susan Fanetti [Fanetti, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Susan Fanetti
Published: 2024-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“Do you play pool?” Cox asked and threw Autumn for a small loop. She wasn’t sure why he was talking to her at all, he clearly didn’t like her and he apparently had his sights on the girl across the room, but here he was.

What a room it was. Her only prior understanding of what a bikers’ clubhouse looked like came from television, so she wasn’t surprised to find a large bar as a prominent feature. Nor was she shocked by the pinball games, the enormous TV, the various well-used seating arrangements, the impressive number of Harley posters and other branded décor, or the bulletin board of photos and other mementos that bordered on or crossed well into obscene territory. Hollywood had gotten those details right.

What surprised her, however, was the beautiful bar-top, a glossy, ruddy wood with an intricately carved rolled edge. And things like a large, elaborate chess set with the inlaid-wood board as the top of a table, where a game was clearly in progress. Or the full wall of family photos, of children and pets and wholesome memories like trips to beaches or amusement parks, or the kids’ play area below that wall. She was surprised by the number of scented candles scattered around the room and suspected that one of these men’s ‘old ladies’ was trying (and largely failing) to combat the smell of a lot of men being men. But most of all, she was surprised by the beautiful mosaic piece on the front wall, something like eight by eight feet in size, of the Night Horde patch, what they called the ‘Flaming Mane.’

That piece was true art. She wanted to get up close and study the tesserae, because from here they looked like gems—ruby and onyx and nacre. That chess set was art, too. And the bar-top.

She hadn’t expected a biker clubhouse to be beautiful.

Chase brayed loudly again, an ugly blast of noise. She’d never heard that particular laugh from him, and it was severely off-putting. The three generous pours—she’d been counting—the Horde had eagerly served him had obviously mixed with whatever was left of his airplane bender and given it new life.

At this rate, her boss was going to be blackout drunk before the night went full dark. The Horde really seemed to have a knack for getting people far drunker than they had any intention of becoming.

Then again, Chase wasn’t exactly hesitating over there. He wasn’t fighting with his better nature. She wondered if he had a better nature, or only a mask that made a fairly close impression of decency. Either way, Chase’s sense of decency was on sabbatical.

“Autumn?” Cox prodded, and she returned her attention to him.

Cox. Standing right in front of her for the first time since she’d puked on him (or at least near him), looking down at her with that perpetual scowl. No one who spent so much time looking one last irritation from bloody murder should be so good looking. The man had the healthy blond sheen of a California surfer and the personality of a Russian dissident.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.