Bonus Scene: Distraction, a bonus PoV for Savage Vandal

Liam

Having the bed kicked to wake me up was not my favorite, particularly when I’d had less than two hours of sleep. As it was, I ignored the bullshit flying around the room and the glares they hurled at me. Fuck my life, I’d been on the go for two solid damn days and I’d had time in the ring the night before. I didn’t have time for the posturing or the egos.

“Sleeping beauty didn’t even notice she’d left her room, and he hadn’t locked the door.” Vaughn wasn’t happy.

Too bad.

I shrugged and headed for the fridge for a beer. If I had to deal with all of them this fucking early in my day, then I deserved a beer.

“Where the hell is Rome?” Jasper demanded. “Why did he leave you watching her?”

Man, Jasper never changed. I kind of hoped he never did. I smirked as I pulled out the beer. “You’re welcome that I came over to do a favor. I didn’t have to show up, you know.”

Jasper’s expression had turned thunderous, and Kestrel let out an aggrieved sigh. “Where is he, Liam?”

“I didn’t ask,” I told them and flashed a grin at the object of Rome’s obsessions. She was a lot prettier up close. A lot tougher too. Surrounded by all this angry testosterone and she didn’t flinch. Rome worried about her, to the point he’d asked me to help. A request he knew I wouldn’t refuse. “You don’t look so fragile and scared to me.”

Little vixen blew smoke in my direction and I wanted to laugh. What did Rome see that had him so concerned? Jasper, Kellan, and Vaughn were all glaring at me.

What the fuck ever. Rolling my head from side to side, I cracked the vertebrae and took a long slug of beer before saying, “I don’t know where he had to go. Just said he had something he was working on. Man, you know how he gets when he has a project. He said the squirrel didn’t do much and I just needed to be on hand until you got back. I was fucking tired, so I slept.”

The squirrel comment just rolled off her but she still flicked her gaze to me like she was trying to figure me out. Good luck with that one, princess. Oddly enough, the last appellation fit her. She was a princess, regal even while she bled down the inside of her leg.

Maybe it was being too hyped up from the fights, but you couldn’t miss the distinctive copper note in the air and I knocked back more beer. And these three hardasses were too busy glaring at me to notice.

Fuckers.

“Vaughn…” Jasper started.

“No. I am not going to look for him. If Liam doesn’t know where he is, I’m not wasting hours hunting all over town. I have appointments booked all afternoon. I’m eating, then I’m out of here.”

Never said I didn’t know where he was. Just said I didn’t ask or where he had to go—you know later. Absolute and total semantics. They were too distracted to notice.

“Don’t look at me,” Kestrel said. “I’ve got Sparrow duty.”

“Sparrow?” I snorted. “She’s not a sparrow.” I took the opportunity to study her, openly, and maybe to tweak the rest of them a little. But she was obviously uncomfortable even if she’d done a damn good job of hiding it so far. “You’re quiet, but you’re tough. Or you wouldn’t be sitting there bleeding without an ounce of complaint.”

Jasper jerked to his feet. “What the fuck do you mean she’s bleeding?”

Kestrel yanked her chair around, and Vaughn shoved me to the side to get to her. And just like that, they forgot all about me and I settled in to watch. The guys were crazy for her and that made a certain amount of sense. In some ways, she was the missing piece.

In others, this was not the place for her. She shouldn’t even be inside this warehouse much less the clubhouse. Vaughn took off to grab Doc as Jasper and Kellan asked her questions.

She got her period. It was hardly the first time any of us saw period blood, but you’d think she’d been shot. I downed another swallow of beer as the chaos surrounding her pulled them in.

Emersyn Sharpe was a serious damn distraction. Serious enough, they forgot I was here. Serious enough that Jasper was snapping at Doc, Kellan looked like he wanted to punch Jasper, and Vaughn stared at her like she hung the moon.

Rome would die for her. All of them would.

But she was a distraction none of us could afford, least of all my brother.

And he’d asked me to be here.

Asked for my assistance. Rome never had to ask me for a damn thing. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t give him. He didn’t have to ask me for this, either. Doc, Jasper, and Emersyn headed upstairs in a happy little clutch. Yeah, that looked like about as much fun as shooting myself in the foot.

The little minx glared at me. Definitely not a squirrel. The others had forgotten me.

She hadn’t.

I dropped the empty beer bottle into the trash. The sound of the bottle clinking yanked Vaughn and Kellan’s attention toward me.

Yep. She was going to get them all killed.

None of us needed this distraction.

Fuck.

“Don’t say it,” I told Kellan. “I’ll grab my shit and go as long as you’re here now.”

“Yeah,” Kellan told me slowly. “Rome shouldn’t have asked you.”

I shrugged and headed out. We weren’t going to have this argument again. I had my reasons. They had theirs.

It was what it was. Snatches of conversation leaked through the door separating the princess from Kellan’s room and I shook my head. Jasper had all but peed on her to mark his territory. Doc was not one I would have suspected as falling into the orbit of her allure.

I could see why though.

I just had to make sure it didn’t happen to me.

Yeah, I’d help keep an eye on her. I’d protect her if necessary.

But I wasn’t about to let her distract me.

Distractions got you killed. 

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