“I’m screwed,” Grace said, panicking. “Ice will be furious at me that I’m in here.”

“Why?” Penni said, picking up a wing and tearing into it with her teeth. “He comes in here all the time.”

“What?” Grace asked.

“Yep, this is a regular hangout for the Predators.”

Grace’s hands flattened on the counter.

When she remained quiet, Penni threw the bone back into the basket. “I thought you knew. You drive past the bar on your way home from work. Haven’t you ever seen his bike parked outside?”

“No.” But then again, she hadn’t been looking, too preoccupied thinking of what she was going to cook for Ice’s dinner. Penni was right; she was a doormat.

The bartender took away their empty baskets.

“Give me a shot of tequila.” Grace laid some cash down on the bar.

“Now we’re talking.” Penni said enthusiastically, smiling flirtatiously at the handsome bartender. “Make it two.”

* * *

Jackal sat in the shadows, watching the women who thought he hadn’t seen them. They obviously had forgotten the mirror they were sitting in front of reflected their image to the room behind them. He took out his phone, texting Ice as he leaned back and took a drink of his beer. He then watched Penni flirt with the bartender who doubled as a male escort. Ice wasn’t the only one getting pissed at the moment.

When Max, Fade, and Buzzard came downstairs, the women picked up a bar menu to hide their faces.

“What are they doing?” Max asked as they filled up the table.

“I think they’re trying to hide,” Jackal answered.

“Ice isn’t going to be happy,” Buzzard said in anticipation.

“I already texted him,” Jackal told the brothers, knowing they would hang around to see the fight.

The brothers were on the fence about accepting Grace. Jackal was aware of the predicament it placed Ice in; however, personally, it didn’t bother him. Ice hadn’t softened. If anything, he was being a bigger hard-ass, trying to prove that living with her hadn’t changed him. Jackal wished they would get settled down so things could get back to normal. If Ice was smart, and Jackal knew he was, Ice would use the opportunity he had just given him.

* * *

Grace was about to ask for another shot of tequila when she saw Ice coming toward her in the mirror.

His hand attached itself to her upper arm in a hard grip. “It’s time to go home.”

Her hand held onto the bottom of her barstool, refusing to be budged, so Ice quit pulling at her, trying a different tactic. “I left the dogs waiting to go out for their night walk.”

His attempt of persuasion backfired as it dawned on her how she would feel if Ice someday used their children in the same way. What if she wanted to leave him and he used their children to keep her? She needed to rethink things before it was too late and both their lives were destroyed.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Ice’s face turned harsh.

Grace realized she must have spoken her thoughts out loud. “If you don’t love me enough to stay out of a strip club, then you’re not ever going to change your mind about getting married.”

“Is this about wanting a ring? If it means that much to you, I’ll buy you a damn ring,” Ice snapped.

“I did, but now I don’t,” she said, reaching for her drink, but Ice snatched it up before she could, setting it out of her reach. Penni picked it up and tossed it back like a pro.

“If you want to talk, we can do it at home.”

Grace laid her head down on the bar. “I don’t have a home anymore. I sold it three months ago,” she reminded him in a slurred voice. “You have a home, and I live with you. There’s a difference.”

Ice tried to lift her from the barstool, but she grabbed the stool again. “Christ! Grace, you’re being ridiculous.”

“Come on, Grace. You can spend the night with me,” Penni offered, getting shakily to her feet.

“You need to butt out,” Jackal told her. He had been standing behind Ice.

“How’s your lip?” She snickered with her brow raised in a drunken question.

Ice took a step to the side, blocking Jackal from reaching for her.

“Ready, Grace?” Penni asked.

Ice belatedly wished he hadn’t stopped Jackal.

“Can we go get my dogs first?”

“Surrre,” Penni slurred. “I lovvvve dogs.”

“You’re not taking my dogs,” Ice said, moving out of Jackal’s way. The troublemaking blonde was on her own now.

It took Jackal all of a second to have the woman over his shoulder.

“Put her down, Jackal,” Henry ordered as he came down the steps.

Jackal turned back toward Henry. “She’s too drunk to drive,” Jackal said, ignoring Henry’s order.

“I’ll take her home. Set her down!” Henry argued.

Penni had placed her hands on Jackal’s back, rearing her head up. A woman walked by the stage, catching Penni’s attention. “Sherri! I want to talk to you and Jazz. Do you…?”

Henry cut her off. “Pack her to my car and keep her there. I’ll be a minute.”

Jackal didn’t wait to be told twice, carrying Penni outside over his shoulder.

Henry stood, staring down at Grace with a ferocious look. “She was here to try to steal Sherri again, wasn’t she?”

“No…” she lied. “Maybe…” she confessed. The big man was scaring her.

“Cut it out, Henry. Go take Penni home before Jackal kills her,” Ice told him.

He walked away, tight-lipped.

“Wait, I was going to go with her. I need to get my dogs…” Grace tried to gracefully jump off the barstool to follow Henry, who didn’t slow down. She almost fell at Ice’s feet, but he managed to catch her.

“You’re not taking my dogs.”

“Those dogs are legally mine,” Grace reminded him.

“We’re getting married,” Ice told her. “Then I’ll have as much legal right as you. If we break up, a judge can decide.”

“What?” In her drunken stupor, she was imagining Ice proposing.

“I said, we’re getting married and you’re not taking my dogs.”

“Damn, woman thinks she’s going to take off with his dogs,” Grace heard Buzzard’s voice behind her back.

“He’ll show her. No woman is going to run over Ice,” Max said then cheered Ice on. “Tell her like it is.”

“I thought he hated those fucking dogs?” Fade asked.

“It’s the point of it. He’s showing her who’s boss,” Max said proudly.

Grace wondered if the barstool was too heavy to lift. She wanted to bang it over Max’s head. Ice’s hold on her wouldn’t let her find out, though.

“Ice…” She started to let him have it, lifting her wobbly head until she saw his face. She closed her mouth, thinking, which wasn’t easy with the tequila shots working their way through her bloodstream.

“Well?” Ice snapped, but the love in his eyes made her mind up for her.

“I guess we can get married, then. If you insist. You deserve a legal right to the dogs since you help feed and walk them,” Grace said with fake seriousness.