The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [242]
All hell broke loose.
The bouncer who’d just witnessed Jordan’s retaliation came charging forward. Jordan sighed. He wasn’t a regular, which he supposed meant he was automatically tagged as the troublemaker.
Looking quickly around for the older men who’d come with him, Jordan found them safely ensconced in the far corner near the front door where they could watch while staying unharmed. He didn’t have time to breathe a sigh of relief.
The bouncer grabbed Jordan’s arm and jerked him forward. Normally Jordan would have attempted to talk his way out of the confrontation. He wasn’t, in the usual course of things, a combative man. But the bar had opened up to a free-for-all. Chairs flew around him, bottles and glasses were thrown. Men were shouting and punching and cursing.
Jordan locked his jaw. He needed to get the woman out of harm’s way, and he needed to take his cohorts back to Buckhorn. Before he had time to really think about what he would do, he ducked under the bouncer’s meaty arm and came up behind him. The guy was huge, easily four inches taller than Jordan’s six foot one, with a neck the size of a tree trunk. Jordan gripped the man’s fingers and applied just enough negative pressure for the big guy to issue a moan of pain. Jordan wrapped his free arm around the bouncer’s throat and squeezed.
“Just hold still,” Jordan said in disgust, wondering what the hell he should do now. He ducked a body that came staggering past, inadvertently hurting the bouncer further. Damn, things had gotten out of hand.
Jordan wasn’t a fighter, but he had grown up with two older brothers and one younger. Being the pacifist in a family full of physical aggressors, he’d been taught to give as well as take. Not that he and his brothers had ever had any serious fistfights. But his brothers played as hard as they fought, so Jordan had learned how to hold his own.
Morgan, his second oldest brother, was built like a solid brick wall and Jordan had practiced up on him most of his life. There were few things that Morgan enjoyed more than a good skirmish. And though he was beyond fair, Morgan always finished as the victor.
Jordan knew how to handle the big ones. Morgan had generously seen to that.
Sirens sounded outside, adding to the confusion. In strangled tones, the bouncer demanded to be released, but Jordan ignored him, maintaining his awkward hold and refusing to lose the upper hand. Using the large man as a shield, Jordan turned to the woman and shouted, “Get away from here.”
She hesitated for only a moment, sending a regretful look at the money scattered across the stage. Then her gray eyes met his and she nodded her agreement. But before she could go, her eyes widened and she looked beyond Jordan. He twisted just in time to avoid getting hit from behind. The bouncer ended up taking the brunt of the blow, which left him cursing and very disgruntled, but still very alert. Jordan raised his brows. It was a good thing he’d immobilized the big bruiser, because he wasn’t at all certain he could have bested him face-to-face.
He turned back in time to see the woman scrambling up onto the stage. In her retreat, she gave Jordan a delectable view of her bottom in the skimpy costume. Despite his precarious position—having his arms filled with an outraged bouncer—Jordan felt his heartbeat accelerate at the luscious sight of her. She was almost to the curtain when several policemen charged through the doors.
With a feeling of dread, Jordan saw the officers draw their guns as they issued the clichéd order of ” everybody freeze.”
Zenny, Walt, Newton and the others were nowhere in sight, having evidently made a run