Free Hellbent (Four Horsemen MC Book 5) by Sara Rayne

way back, he clicked on the overhead vent fans and lit a cigarette. Ryker didn't care afterhours, as long as the front room didn't reek like an ashtray. He exhaled up the line of the vent, following the smoke vacuumed through the air ducts.
    Fucking Shep making out with a goddamn hellion.
    Anger burned in the pit in his gut. His hands in her hair as she arched, mouth in a silent gasp, obviously loving every damn second. He could picture the nimble lines of her body wrapped around the biker, the sharp contrast of her pale skin and dark hair against all that gilded tawny that was Shep. His Shep.
    He took another drag of his smoke and tossed it in the garbage disposal, taking a rather savage amount of satisfaction from the loud grinding sound it made. He bee-lined for the bar and a taste of peachy keen with a side of white lightning.
    But he was no longer drinking alone. Posted up at the corner stool, slouching against the wall behind him, Shep watched him with hooded eyes. He had twisted the cork out of the jug of shine, but his eyes were too alert for him to have partaken. His silver Zippo flashed between his lean fingers as he tumbled it over his knuckles.
    Pretty Boy didn't say a goddamn word to him.
    The Horsemen had gotten him the lighter for his birthday a few months ago. Engraved on the front were the words, "Shepherd is Nigh." Apparently it had been Duke's idea to carve the final lines of the prospects' respect call to the VP; a tradition in place since Shep took the position.  Shep was really the only one Pretty Boy had seen Duke show any sort of friendly feelings for. Pretty Boy knew it was one of his most prized possessions. Shep always got it refilled, trimmed up and kept it well-shined.
    "Ryker know you're smoking in his bar?" Shep drawled, the lazy indolence of the tone masked the intensity of a rear-backed rattler. Pretty Boy knew that look all too well.
    "Why? You gonna tattle on me?" He pulled a stool from the kitchen up to the bartenders' side of the bar, facing Shep and elbowed down.
    Shep drew a smoke from his pack in one fluid movement. The Zippo snapped open and he rolled the wheel down his jean-clad knee. It flared to life. Pretty Boy could hear the crackle as he lit the cigarette, the sweet sharp scent of tobacco in the air. He met Pretty Boy's gaze through the tendrils of smoke. "I won't tell if you don't."
     
     
     
     
    Shep watched Pretty Boy the way he'd watch a coyote on his six. He'd drained his flask in the parking lot after he had ditched Wendy, chain-smoking until he was certain everyone but Pretty Boy had gone home for the night. This was not how he'd pictured this little talk going.
     But fuck if he could picture how it should go either.
    Pretty Boy's jaw tensed, the muscle jumping against his teeth. "Is that why you're here? To see who I'd tell?"
    "Didn't figure you were planning on telling anyone." Shep shrugged. "Was I wrong?"
    "Oh no. I'm not playing this game with you." Pretty Boy narrowed his eyes.
    "And what game do you want to play with me?" Demons rode his tongue. He gritted his teeth as if he could bite the words back.
    "I'm getting to that. Believe me." Pretty Boy smirked. He snagged the smoke out Shep's hand with two fingers, turning his wrist to hit it once and passed it back. "You put the brutal in honesty. Draw confessions out of people they didn't even know were there."
    Shep cocked his head to the side. "But?"
    He smiled grimly. "You don't confide in anyone."
    "Just because I don't tell you—"
    "Oh, you going to come in tomorrow and tell Ryker you were making out with me in the alley behind his bar?"
    He raised an eyebrow. "Your point?"
    Pretty Boy smiled tightly and splashed a good deal of moonshine into both glasses. "Taste that."
    Shep's hand tilted the moonshine down his throat before his brain gave him permission. The warm tart of the peach soothed the burn of the alcohol. "Almost as good as the apple."
    "There should be more of that on the way soon." He refilled