Free For the Love of His Life by Fiona McGier Page A

calling to be sure this is the Crossroads… your Crossroads since they saw that on-line picture of you shooting pool in here.”
    Raul smiled weakly. “Good. I’m glad to be helping your business. But running with that blonde Amazon every day is going to kill me! Do me a favor and say nice things about me at my funeral, okay?”
    Tom snorted with laughter. “You’re running with Veronica? Jesus, no wonder you’re hurting! She started running cross-country when she was in grade school and she’s been at it ever since. She parlayed those long legs of hers into a partial scholarship to U. of M. so she could join their track team.”
    Raul stared at him morosely. “We’ve been running in the morning after she’s done with the pies, then we swim a few laps around the lake.”
    Tom shook his head. “You couldn’t have found a better trainer but she’s not going to cut you any slack for being out of shape to begin with. When she started doing my books years ago, I asked her if I could run with her just to be friendly.” He leaned over conspiratorially. “And the fact that she wears only those tiny shorts and a bra while she runs made it an even better idea…or so I thought. After a week I had to stop because I sprained one ankle and tore a ligament in my knee on the other side. I could hardly stand and I need to be on my feet to work. It was nice watching her juicy ass while she runs, but not worth losing my business over it! Now, I just leer at her like the dirty old man that I am when she comes over to do my accounting. She always reminds me I’m old enough to be her dad. That hurts, but it’s true.”
    Raul smiled at him as they both remembered her ass…suddenly the door slammed open, hitting the wall behind it and a tidal wave of bikers made their way inside. Some of the men strode quickly over to the bar and Tom hustled to pour them multiple pitchers of beer. Some of them scouted out the few empty tables and picked them up or pushed them around until they had made themselves a long table with almost enough chairs for all of them. The women with them made their way over to the table slowly, taking the measure of the people around them. One of the women—a tall, stunning redhead, covered with tattoos, wearing a black leather bra, skin-tight jeans shorts and high-heeled sandals—strode over to a table to talk to the young couple sitting there.
    “Whatchu lookin’ at, honey?” she drawled. “Ain’t you never seen a woman with big tits before?” She laughed as she leaned over, making sure if he hadn’t seen her cleavage before, he sure was seeing it now.
    The man blushed and the woman looked angry as she got up, leaving her wine glass half-full on the table.
    “I think it’s time we get on home, Billy. The babysitter can’t be out that late or her Mom won’t let her sit for us again.”
    The biker woman looked her up and down then laughed rudely.
    “That’s right, Billy. You just go along now and have some vanilla fun with the little woman when you get home. Don’t go making any noise though. It’ll wake the baby and then you’ll have to wait until next week for another chance!”
    Some of the other bikers joined her in laughing at her words. Billy got up and took his wife’s elbow to lead her out of the bar. As they walked past a particularly big, burly and bearded man in a black leather vest with chains on it, he leaned over and growled then barked at the woman. She jumped and squeaked. Billy glared at him as they hurried past to get out quickly.
    The woman who’d started the trouble waved to some men who moved over to grab the two chairs and bring them over to the long table they had made. She walked over to sit and grabbed one of the beer glasses, filled it from a pitcher and chugged it down before she refilled it. Then she began to look around for someone else to cause trouble with.
    Raul kept his back to them, thinking it wise not to be recognized by people who obviously liked to cause