Jaded: (Beautiful Biker MC Romance Series), page 16
“Oh! Coincidence?”
“I suspect Archer asked for the solid, havin’ a thing for Ma. Didn’t really know him well before I got out. My guess – he asked Deke and Rudy to have someone look out for me in there and they sorted it with Torque, who let me jump that queue on purpose.”
“Ah.”
“Not that I can’t look after myself. But bein’ on assignment with Torque helped pass the time. Bein’ welcomed into his circle saved me some hassles. Good man to have in your corner.”
“I’m glad you had that,” she said softly.
She was fidgety, mucking around with her blindfold behind her shades, so I put my hand on her leg again.
“Won’t be much longer; we’re not far.”
“Okay,” she whispered and grasped my hand and held on.
“Then I got out,” I went on. “Stayed with Ma and Archer and bounced at The Playpen again for a while. Shocked the shit outta me that she’d moved in with him. Figure he bought the bar to save her job when the old owner put it up for sale. Guessin’ he also bought leverage tellin’ her he had someone looking out for me on the inside. Though if I asked neither of them’d admit anything.”
“That’s sweet. If that’s what they did. Maybe it was just fate.”
“Deke let something slip that pretty much confirmed it for me later on. Arch took me to Sioux Falls for some bullshit reason that I figured out was an excuse to introduce me to Deke and Rudy not long after I was out. Partied at the clubhouse and the next morning at breakfast, Rudy invited me to prospect. I wasn’t sure I wanted it; he asked me to think on it. Deke joked he was gonna scoop me if he could convince me to come to Aberdeen where he was starting a new chapter. Deke later told me he saw Torque on a visiting day and Torque had good things to say about me, thought I’d fit. I wasn’t interested in prospecting for a big club like Sioux Falls, not real stoked at the idea of being a grunt for a year or two, but the guys that were headin’ there were guys I gelled with. Deke invited me to stay at his place in Sioux Falls with him and his boys for a week, offering me cash to help them get their house cleared out and set up at the new place. Helped them get to Aberdeen and they invited me to try it for a month and let ‘em know. No hard feelings if it didn’t work out. I told ‘em I was game if they made a coupla assurances. They made those promises.”
“Promises?”
“Didn’t wanna be a grunt longer than necessary. Didn’t want a road name. Other shit I wanted to be sure of, to know what sort of club they were. I tried it out and now here we are.”
“So you haven’t been around too long.”
“Last summer, so close to a year. Surprised our paths never crossed.”
“Rider banned me from the clubhouses when I tried to go to Lick’s funeral,” she said with sadness.
“Ah.”
“You’re not still prospecting though? Got your patch I noticed.”
“Got my patch a while back. Quick new recruit stint. Wasn’t sure I wanted to do it, know a lot of clubs use up and spit out their prospects as quickly as the club – ”
Shit.
Her mouth contorted and she finished for me, “As quickly as they use up and spit out club whores. Yeah.”
“Fuck,” I said, otherwise lost for words.
After a beat of awkward silence, she leaned over and tapped my thigh. “It’s okay, I get it.”
I caught her hand and pulled it to my mouth, dropping a kiss on her knuckle. “Just a turn of phrase, I wasn’t thinkin’.”
“Looks like I’m not the only one with foot-in-mouth-itis,” she put in, with a grin.
I groaned. “Believe it or not, I don’t really think that way. Just a phrase chameleon, spendin’ time with the brothers. You know what my ma does. That’d be pretty fuckin’ hypocritical of me if I did think that way. I don’t look down on club hang-arounds, male or female. Just like I don’t look at strippers as second-class citizens.”
She shrugged, still grinning.
But I’d bet if she wasn’t wearing that blindfold I’d see the grin wasn’t touching her eyes. I bit my tongue and cussed under my breath.
She sighed and shifted in her seat. “I am a natural blonde, Jesse, but I’m not a total bimbo. Probably only fifty per-cent bimbo. I know how hang-around females are viewed. Keep talkin’.”
I squeezed her hand. And I didn’t wanna continue the conversation, but it’d be awkward if I didn’t.
“You were saying?” she pressed.
“Lotta MCs have problems even gettin’ prospects nowadays because guys interested in the life know that unless you’re with the right club you’ll be a grunt, doin’ the hard and dirty work, subject to the hazing, and may wind up doing time or pushin’ up daisies before you even earn your patch. Earned my patch doin’ some stuff that others might think’ll stain my soul, but I knew what I was doin’, I believed in it, and these guys are the brothers I never had. Especially the Valentines. Got tight with those guys fast.”
“They’re good guys.”
“They didn’t keep me prospectin’ any longer than necessary instead of milkin’ it like some clubs do. I earned it in their eyes, and they gave it to me. I wasn’t gonna join just any club. Agreed to do a test run partly because of Torque. The rest, because of Deke Valentine and his boys. Didn’t have aspirations as a kid to join an MC and be a biker.”
“Well, you fit the part.”
“Feels right. Love riding. Bought my first motorcycle when I was seventeen, spent a shit-ton of time fixing it since it was as old as time. Anyway, how’d you wind up hanging around the Sioux Falls clubhouse? You grow up around there?”
“Born in Montana, but my dad moved to South Dakota when my parents split. Momma got into some trouble, so I got shipped to SD to live with Daddy while she did some time. There, here… uh, are we still in North Dakota or are we back in SD? Wait. Don’t tell me, I’m not allowed to know. Anyway, it was my dad’s uncle, my great Uncle Billy that made me intrigued with the MC life – it was Uncle Billy that left me the Gibson. He was a biker as far back as I can remember. Joined up after Vietnam; told me the MC saved his life, his sanity. Gave him a family when the one he had wasn’t so hot. Since it was my family too, I got that. Said when he got back after the war, he was fucked up. And if not for the MC, he might not have made it.”
“Lotta clubs right after the war saved the veterans.”
“Mm hm,” she nodded. “I spent some time around Uncle Billy’s biker friends when I was a kid, and they were always so nice to me. And a few of the couples seemed so happy. The bikers treated their women like gold. Or so I thought. Kailey got us invited to a party at a clubhouse and it was the Freebooters. The club that patched over Uncle Billy’s MC, though it was after he was gone. I thought it’d feel like family.”
“It didn’t?”
“It didn’t. Not remotely. Guess I was looking for that old feeling I got around Uncle Billy’s friends, that family atmosphere they talked about and that I saw a little of. Took a minute to find this club. Met Skip when I was workin’ at this coffee shop. Asked me out. Though that didn’t go well, as you know, I quickly figured out that at their core, most of the Doms are good guys. Real good guys. Care about their families, most of ‘em. Put the people they love ahead of the club stuff. Not like some clubs where club business comes first and families are an afterthought.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, thinking on the fact that she wrote she was an accidental club bunny. And now it made sense. She was lookin’ for the family she wanted, liked the feel of the Dominion Brotherhood, but got labelled a sweet butt before she found a man to bring her into the fold as family.
“You said you didn’t wanna always be in an MC. What did you used to wanna be?” she asked.
“Before I got locked up I was a bouncer at the bar Ma manages. We talked about buying it from the owner, tryin’ to find a way to swing it. Then things went fucked when I went down for assault. Arch bought it so she got her bar anyway.”
She smiled. “That’s sweet.”
“Yeah. She’s made of tough stuff, though. Rough home life, needed an escape, a way to pay her own way even if the way she paved wasn’t somethin’ most people would aspire to. She didn’t intend to go back to it after she had me. Went to hairdressing school and worked doin’ that for a bit, but when she suddenly found herself with a kid and no man to take her back, she did what she had to do. Cut hair during the day and worked a pole at night. Eventually, stuck to the pole ‘cuz she was burnin’ the candle at both ends and didn’t wanna let me down. Made more money on the stage than with scissors in her hand so she did what she needed to do.”
“They seem happy. Her and Archer. I like her a lot.”
“Yeah. First serious relationship she’s had since… him.” I cleared my throat and then went on, “So I didn’t know what I wanted to be. Woulda helped Ma with the bar and looked for somethin’ else eventually. Always liked to figure out how shit worked, didn’t like school – hated bein’ treated like a kid. Problem with authority, so couldn’t figure out a way to tolerate it past getting my high school diploma. But I work for the Valentines’ garage now as a mechanic. Apprentice really, still learnin’, knew more than the basics helpin’ my father work on cars as a kid and fixing my own whips instead of takin’ them to a shop. Learned even more from Brady’s pop inside. Learnin’ a lot from Deacon and Rider after they took me on to help out. Between the garage and the club, I’m content for the moment. Make decent money. Might see if I can get my mechanic ticket down the road. Like the people I work and live with. We’re here.” I put my truck in park. “You can take it off while I’m in the store.”
“Okay.” She took the glasses off and pulled the bandana down.
I leaned over and kissed her, before asking, “Want anything else?”
She shook her head. “Um… Fruit Roll-Ups.”
“Fruit Roll-Ups?”
“Yeah. If that’s cool?”
“Sure,” I muttered. “They gluten-free?”
“Yep.”
I was in and out quickly, seeing her reclined in her seat, eyes closed, the bandana pulled down to rest around her throat.
“All right, baby,” I said when I was back in, tossing the bag to her lap. “That’ll keep us goin’ a couple days.”
She laughed when she peered inside.
“This classified as an incidental hostage expense?”
“Nah. I paid for those. Well worth it.” I grinned.
“Hm,” she mused, “Hamburger buns, too? Kinky.”
“Yeah,” I wiggled my eyebrows. “Though they’ve probably got gluten.”
She dug in further and I knew she wasn’t just eyeballing the two thirty-six count boxes of condoms and the box of Fruit Roll-Ups.
“What’s this for?” she asked, pulling out a bottle of KY jelly. “Condiment for your kinky burger?”
I barked out laughter.
“Considering you haven’t needed any of that yet, three guesses and the first two don’t count.”
She laughed. “Oh really? Mr. Tall Dark and Tattooed sure is sure of himself.”
“A guy can hope,” I muttered with a shrug and a grin.
She scoffed with an eyeroll and pulled her blindfold back up. “I’m savin’ my butt virginity for marriage, sorry to burst your kinky bubble.”
I laughed. “Kinky bubble. You can be funny sometimes.”
She smirked. “Sometimes. But I’m bein’ serious. The sweet butt is still a butt virgin. Are you shocked?”
I smiled, though she couldn’t see it. “Believe in marriage, do ya?” I asked.
“Not sure,” she said, then cautiously added, “You?”
“Not sure either. Maybe.”
Her body language changed. And the air felt unnecessarily thick, so I launched into more questions. “So, what did you wanna be when you were a kid?” I grabbed her hand. “A singer?”
She was shaking. She seemed to calm at my touch. I liked that.
“Just a quick drive. I’ll get us there fast. Don’t worry; I’ve got you.”
She smiled a little.
“So? A singer? Doctor? Teacher?”
“As crazy as this sounds, I wanted to marry a nice man, take care of his house, and give him a bunch of babies.”
I said nothing.
She quickly added, “That was my first dream. Writing love notes for his lunch. For the kids, too. Baking bread and sewing. Bake sales. Ballet lessons. But reality set in. I don’t cook. I don’t sew and the rest was…anyway… Yeah. If I ever become a mom and wife I probably can’t pull off the Pinterest mom gig but…” She went quiet a second, then spoke quickly, “Anyway, I’ve worked plenty of minimum wage jobs. Fast food, hotel maid, coffee houses, shit like that. A couple years ago I went back to school and took a course, so now I help people out in the nursing homes. Bring meals. Feed the ones who can’t feed themselves. Help with their hygiene. Spend time with them. Change beds, basic first aid, do their nails, stuff like that.”
“You like it?”
“Some parts of it aren’t fun. Sometimes it’s dirty work, but people need help, you know? And they deserve to have it. And to be treated with dignity. Sometimes it’s hard. You get attached and then you see them suffering. You lose ‘em.” She deflated. “Yeah, that’s hard.”
“I bet.”
“I got fired.” She slumped further in her seat.
“Yeah?”
“The home I was workin’ at, the new manager didn’t like me. Don’t know why, but she just took one look at me when she started and hated my guts immediately. Story of my life. Ridin’ the struggle bus and waiting to get off. Not sure what it is about me that makes chicks take an instant disliking to me. I try so hard to not come across as a bitch.”
There wasn’t a bitchy bone in her body from what I’ve seen so far. Even when she was pissed at me, her bitch scale only went to maybe two when most women could take it to eight without breaking a sweat.
I’d lay down coin she endures that because they’re jealous. Because she’s the kind of beautiful that turns a lot of women catty. Beautiful women who are bitches don’t let people walk on them. Beautiful women who are the kind of sweet Gianna Jones is need protection. And it didn’t sound like anyone had protected this girl in her life.
And that pissed me off.
“And of course I can’t go back and say goodbye, they won’t allow it,” she mumbled.
“To your coworkers?”
“To the residents. Wasn’t super tight with any of my coworkers, but some of the residents’ll wonder where I went, why I didn’t say goodbye.”
“Ah.”
“She wrote me up for bullshit reasons a couple times. I called in before I headed for Aberdeen to warn you guys and said I needed some personal time. She told me if I couldn’t make it in the next day, I’d be fired. And it was shitty because I’d just been off for two weeks unpaid vacation that she pushed on me because she said they were overstaffed, but I figure she was tryin’ to push me out. Kept cuttin’ my hours. She hired two friends of hers, so they were getting my hours and it left me uber-strapped.”
“Too strapped to put a new tire on your junker?”
“Yeah. So strapped I barely coasted in on what little gas money I had to get to Aberdeen and my phone’s now cut off.”
“Not safe to drive far on the donut. How long has that been on your car?”
“Three weeks.”
“Fuck. Bad idea, G.”
“I know it. Not much I could do about it. Brakes are squealing too, but what am I gonna do?”
“We’ve got a cache of decent used tires out back of the garage. I’m sure I can hook you up. I’ll take care of your brakes, too.”
She said nothing.
“Though that junker isn’t really roadworthy. I’ll have a look at it when we get back. And when we get to the cabin I’ll pay your phone bill. Turn your phone back on,” I added.
“No. No, no. That’s okay.” She shook her head decisively.
“You should have a phone so your sister can get ahold of you.”
She shook her head. “Kai usually uses Insta anyway. I don’t need a phone line for that. Your hotspot is fine, Jesse, I don’t want you payin’ my phone bill or payin’ for anything else. It’s unnecessary.”
“Your call. But if you need it, I can do it.”
“I don’t need it. Make it a rule to never let anybody else pay my bills. But thanks.”
She squeezed my hand and then grabbed my thigh and kept her hand there. I put my hand on top of hers and held it.
Though I couldn’t see her eyes, it felt like she was troubled. The conversation, the blindfold, her stepsister. Shitty car. Lost her job. The fuckin’ stress of the Jackals.
“More quizzin’ or music?” I asked, pushing away the foreign urge to take all her problems on my shoulders. It wasn’t my style to be the knight on the white horse, swooping in to save the day. But this girl… everything about her … she was getting under my skin.
“How ‘bout music?” she suggested.
I turned the radio up. Supertramp. Take the Long Way Home. I cranked it. She looked relaxed beside me; she sang along, knew the lyrics. Goodbye Stranger came on right afterwards and she sang all of that, too.
***
We rustled up some breakfast when we got back, me dazzling her by putting the salsa and cheese into an omelet instead of a scramble, then lazed around all afternoon watching a marathon of action movies before making burgers when it got dark. She was quiet. Seemed lost in thought a lot. But the quiet was nice. She ate her burger without bread, salad on the side. She was down to just a few slices left of that bread so I wondered where we could get more around here. After we ate, we hiked the property a bit. She carried a can of bear spray with her and insisted I carry my gun. We saw no bears, but we did see deer and rabbits and she told me she was a city girl now but lived in the country when her folks were together and loved it, always thought she’d like to live somewhere with rabbits and deer running around. Some place with a yard where she could have flowers. On a river, lake, or with an ocean view. Told her I felt the same. Liked quiet. Hated traffic. Noise. Didn’t need neighbors. Told her I could see myself in a place like the Valentine cabin, that it’d be perfection if there were a lake where I could sink a line. She softly said she could see herself in a place like it, too.
