by Hazel Parker
On the one hand, he was less concerned now that Nina was with him than he normally was making the trek down to the greenhouse. One guy riding his chopper into and especially back out of the desert alone was suspicious, likely to be pulled over by the cops with all the money that the Kings gave him for laundering. However, with a lady on the back of the bike, he just looked like any of the other 99% of bikers, just a couple out for a ride. On the other hand, every moment that passed brought them closer to potentially the worst decision either of them had ever made. The guys could get pissed and kick him out of the club; they could decide that Nina would be too much of a liability and threaten her to keep her quiet; they could be jumped by a Disciple who recognized them along the way and injured, or worse. All these things ran through his mind and even the loud hum of the bike wasn’t enough to drown out his thoughts this time.
He’d decided not to warn the guys that he was bringing Nina because he knew that their answer would be “no” and that she wouldn’t accept that. Surprising them might be worse, but at least it might tie their hands a little bit—if she already knew all their secrets by the time they even found out who she was, then what did they really have to lose by giving her what she wanted? What the hell did she want, anyway?
The ride felt both the longest and shortest it had ever been, and when they finally parked it a good distance from the greenhouse so as not to be seen before Vance had a chance to explain himself, Nina was hopping off the bike and giggling. He shot her a glare.
“Be cool,” he ordered. “My brothers aren’t gonna think that this is funny, so I suggest you put on a business face.” Nina’s expression dropped, a hint of sarcasm about the whole thing that Vance didn’t appreciate, and nodded solemnly.
“You need to take this seriously,” he warned, and she rolled her eyes.
“I am taking this seriously,” she argued. “Just not with you. I’ve met people; I think I know how to handle them.”
He frowned. “You go in there cocky like that and they’ll eat you alive.”
After a pensive, short pause, she flashed him a knowing smile and put her hand over his arm caringly.
“You don’t have to worry about me so much,” she reassured him. “It’s going to be okay. I know what I want and I know how to ask for it. Just trust me.”
Vance didn’t want to, but he had a feeling that he didn’t have a whole lot of choice, so he took the helmet from her as she handed it to him and secured it to his bike handlebars.
“Alright,” he finally said, unable to stall for any longer, “follow me.”
They hadn’t parked the bike too far away, but it was a good several minutes of walking. They spent a bit of it in silence before he decided to ask her the question that was still burning in his mind.
“I have to know,” he prefaced, “what’s your big deal with motorcycles?”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, when I first met you, you had a big problem with them. But now you seem like you love being on mine. What’s that about?”
Nina hesitated, choking on her words in a way so unlike her that Vance wondered exactly what he’d said that had thrown her for such a loop.
“It’s nothing,” she said in a clipped tone, not sounding angry but also not sounding like she really wanted to talk about it. However, he’d made a lot of sacrifices of his own comfort levels just to get her out here, so he decided that he wasn’t going to back down. She owed him at least a little bit of an explanation, right?
“Why don’t you want to talk about it?” he asked. He’d be content just with knowing why it was so personal, but she started to speed up instead of answering, walking faster than he could with the pain of the wound.
“Hey, wait,” he called after her, and she did, stopping and turning on one heel.
“It’s just… personal,” she said.
“And you don’t trust me?”
“It’s not that.”
“Then what?”
A deep breath in and a shaky exhale prepared her to finally reply, her eyes sparkling ever so slightly with tears that made him regret pushing her.
“My dad was really into them,” she said. “Always told me never to go near them because they were too dangerous, even though he was always fixing up his and road a lot. Turns out, he was right: they are dangerous.”
Vance’s stomach sank. “Jesus, Red,” he breathed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“He went out on the highway after dark and got hit by a tractor-trailer. The guy was speeding and hadn’t even seen him on the road.”
Vance sighed. “I didn’t know,” he offered as a sort of half apology, and she shrugged.
“Because I don’t really talk about it.”
“Can I ask one more question?” he asked, and she nodded warily.
“Why’d you let me give you that first ride, if you think they’re so bad?”
She shrugged and he believed the sentiment: it probably didn’t make any sense, even to her, why she’d grow up thinking that the bikes were nothing but death traps, then watch that belief become reality when it killed her father, but still give in when that secret, inner desire for fear and risk settled in her heart. It was the same itch that made Vance wild, the same need for danger that ran through his blood. Finally, he felt like he understood her a little better. She wasn’t scared at all, not of anything other than the burning desire inside of her to take the things that should scare her and make them her own, to let them remain wild and untamed but still very much hers.
Vance stepped forward toward her, snaking one arm around her waist and using the other hand to cup her cheek as he leaned in and kissed her hard. This time, for the first time, she melted into it right away, almost as though she’d been thinking of doing the same thing herself and that he’d just beaten her to the punch. Their lips parted as they kissed, the air that they shared hot and damp as they fought for breath against the passion and ferocity of the kiss.
When they finally broke away, both breathless and warm from more than just the desert sun, Nina was smiling widely, but she bit down on it almost immediately; he’d have missed it if he hadn’t been staring at her pink swollen lips. She immediately started walking toward the greenhouse once more, not forgetting for even a moment what she was here for, and he followed her to the door, where she stopped and waited for him.
“You wait here for just a second,” he said, “until the guys see me. Then you can follow.” Nina nodded and he pulled the door open, trying to look calmer than he felt.
“Yo, Vance,” Flip greeted excitedly. Vance could tell immediately that he’d been drinking with lunch, which was actually not a bad thing—Flip was an amicable drunk and was more likely to take his side if he wasn’t thinking clearly. Vance waved to both him and Aces, who was, unfortunately, sitting at the table and eating his own lunch.
“Murphy?” Aces asked, sounding confused and disapproving. “This isn’t a cash day. Why aren’t you at the bar?”
Vance nodded. “Yeah, I know,” he said, “this isn’t really—”
“Who the hell are you?”
Vance set his jaw tightly as Nina walked through the door and stood next to him confidently.
“This is Nina,” Vance introduced, not backing down even under the angry, venomous stares of his friend and the club leader.
“Oh, she’s the girl that owned that motel, ain’t she?”
“Yeah? And what the fuck is she doing here?” Aces demanded. He directed the question toward Vance, but it was Nina who answered.
“I’m a friend of Vance’s,” she said, “and yes, I own the Oasis Motel. Vance was staying there for a while. I heard that you’ve got beef with the Devil’s Disciples, and so do I.” Vance couldn’t help but admire how fearless she sounded even if he could feel her trembling slightly next to him.
Aces didn’t find any of it impressive or amusing. Actually, he didn’t seem to want to hear it at all, opting instead to gesture toward Vance to bec
kon him close, but Flip, who was older in years but less senior in ranking, waved a hand in an attempt to get him to pause for a moment.
“I want to hear what she’s got to say,” he said. He sounded more curious than sympathetic and Vance knew for a fact that he wasn’t taking her seriously, but at least he was listening. Aces was silent.
“Well?” Flip asked. “What’s your problem with the Disciples? They sellin’ pot too close to your good Christian neighborhood or somethin’?”
Nina’s gaze was cool and patient. “They set fire to a building I own, actually,” she corrected. “The shed behind my motel. Burned it and everything inside all the way to the ground.”
To Vance’s surprise, Aces let out a long, low whistle.
“And why would they do something like that?” he asked, once again addressing Vance.
“They think she’s working for us,” he replied. “Amelia saw her with me and got jealous, I think. Now she’s on a warpath to ruin Nina.”
Aces nodded, considering. “Look, that’s sad and all, but I don’t know what you want us to do about it. Ain’t this the cops’ job?”
“If I get the police involved, they’re gonna start to unravel the threads,” Nina explained. “That could mean coming after Vance, which would mean bringing all of you down. I don’t want to do that.”
Aces’ expression was unreadable. “Why not?” Vance was curious about how she’d answer that question, too, and when she didn’t, Aces provided his own version of an explanation. “You in love with him or somethin’?”
Her cheeks turned bright red. “We’re friends,” she reiterated, “and unless you actually want me to call the police on this whole mess, I think that we should become friends, too.”
“We don’t need any more friends,” Flip said.
“Lay off her, Flip,” Vance said gently, knowing better than to add fuel to the fire by making a command but feeling the need to stand up for Nina.
“So, what do you want,” Aces asked, “to join the Rebels? Get yourself a leather jacket and a bike and live happily ever after with your boyfriend here? ‘Cause that ain’t the way it’s gonna happen.”
Nina shook her head. “That’s the last thing I want,” she reassured. “I didn’t ask for this to be dropped into my lap, but I’m dealing with it now, and that means that I’m going to do whatever I have to in order to protect myself and my motel.”
“What makes you think they’d hurt you?” Flip asked, and Nina gestured toward Vance’s stomach, reaching gently for the shirt (which he’d changed that morning so he wouldn’t be bloodstained, borrowing one of Adam’s that he’d left at Nina’s house) and revealing the bandaged cut. Flip’s eyes went wide.
“What the hell?” he demanded, and Vance rolled his eyes. “This is from last night? You said you were fine!”
“I’m fine,” he reassured. “Just a little cut.”
“Yeah, which I had to stitch shut for you because you couldn’t go to the hospital,” Nina accused. She turned back to Flip and Aces defiantly. “I’m involved in your business whether you want me in it or not; whether I want to be or not. And believe me, I don’t.”
Aces was silent for a long moment. “She really stitched you up, no questions asked?”
Vance couldn’t resist a smirk. “Oh, there were questions,” he said, but sobered when no one else was laughing. “But yeah. I knocked on her door bleeding last night and she put me back together; no cops; no hospitals.”
“That’s something you don’t see every day,” Flip muttered, talking to Aces but too drunk to realize that he was addressing the whole room.
“Murphy,” Aces demanded, nodding in a way that demanded he come to the table. He squeezed Nina’s hand once reassuringly before obeying, sitting down at the table next to them.
“You shouldn’t have brought her here,” Aces spat. “I should kick you out right now just for compromising our location. She could be bugged; she could be a plant. You’re a real fuckin’ dumbass, sometimes.”
Vance shook his head. “She’s not like that,” he argued. “I know better than to let somebody in on our business, Aces. I’ve been around long enough, and I’m nothin’ but loyal.”
“Then what’s this about? You like her? You fuckin’ her or something?”
“Look, all she wants is to save her motel,” Vance defended. None of them had taken their eyes off Nina and she was looking pointedly away, pretending not to notice them staring. “She doesn’t give a shit about the rest. The only thing she’s asking for is to be in the loop when shit hits the fan with the Disciples so she can keep herself safe.”
“You really think they’d touch her?” Flip asked. It wasn’t something Vance had really bothered to ask himself, but an important question, nevertheless. Did he think that Amelia was capable of hurting Nina just because she was jealous?
“I think that if Amelia’s angry, she’s capable of anything,” Vance dodged. “She already burned down part of the motel. Plus, one of those assholes tried to kill me yesterday. If she’s in the middle of that, whether I think they’d hurt her or not, she deserves to know what’s happening and our protection.”
“So this is because you feel guilty,” Aces assumed. “You brought her into this mess and you can’t pull her out, so you’re asking us to compromise our Brotherhood to save your little girlfriend?”
Vance sighed. “I guess,” he admitted.
He expected the conversation to be done there, that Aces would decide that Nina had no business knowing anything about the Kings, threaten to ruin her if she talked and kick Vance out on his ass, but instead, he just slammed the table with his fist in frustration.
“Thankfully for you, she don’t seem anything like Amelia,” he said, “‘cause she’s not in this for you; she’s fighting for herself.” Vance perked up, ungluing his eyes from the table to look at Nina, who was now staring at them wondering what the noise had been about.
“If this bites me in the ass,” he warned, pointing an accusatory finger at Vance, “you’re the one who’s paying for it.” Vance nodded. “She can stay. We’ll work something out to keep her safe, and whatever she needs to know, you can tell her but nothing more.”
Nina kept her composure as she shook Aces’ hand, thanking him and then wasting no time letting Vance usher her out the door and back to the bike. There, she remained surprisingly quiet, simply putting her helmet back on her head and waiting for Vance to take them back to the motel. They rode in silence except for the sounds of the road beneath them. It wasn’t until they finally got back to the motel that Nina finally broke into a wide grin.
“I can’t believe it was that easy,” she admitted, and Vance laughed slightly.
“Me neither, honestly,” he agreed. “You were great in there.” She was glowing, the confidence she exuded shining through every pore of her clear skin, brightening her eyes in a way that was nearly enchanting. He wanted to kiss her, but she beat him to the punch this time, pulling him in gingerly so as to avoid aggravating the cut and pressing a tender, warm kiss on his lips.
“Looks like you’re stuck with me for a while, Vance Murphy,” she smiled, and he couldn’t help but grin back.
“Looks like it,” he returned. He managed to keep his hands off her just long enough for her to unlock the motel door so they could slip inside, where he pressed her up against the wall immediately, pinning her hands to her sides and kissing her hard.
He could sense that she was trying to be cautious with him, afraid of injuring him further. He couldn’t blame her, of course—he’d asked her to do something pretty gruesome last night, and she would probably need a little time to recover from that. Vance leaned away from the kiss, taking one of her overly-careful hands and pressing it to the wound.
“You aren’t gonna hurt me,” he told her, and she nodded.
“If I do—”
“If you do, I’ll say something,” he promised. He leaned in once more, kissing her deeply and roughly. He began to take off her shirt, slo
wly at first to allow his fingers to dance along her stomach and waist, before tugging it off in one swift motion and throwing it down on the floor. Her bra followed, revealing her tight, round breasts. She was the kind of person who was beautiful standing in a sweater and jeans with her hair pulled up, but seeing her like this was, of course, much different. She was sexy and vulnerable, and he wanted to do nothing more than pounce on her and kiss every inch of her perfect skin.
Predicting that Nina wouldn’t want to risk hurting him to take his clothes off for him, Vance decided to take care of it himself, taking off his own shirt for her. Once that was finished, he sank to his knees, kissing down her arm the whole way before finally arriving at her jeans, which he unzipped. That, he unzipped with his teeth, watching it fall to the floor around her feet and then taking a moment to appreciate her wearing nothing but lacy panties and sneakers, which she stepped out of as soon as he rose to his feet again. Nina began to coax him toward the bed, but Vance didn’t let her. He pulled her underwear off and allowed her to reach forward and unbutton his own pants and boxers so that they both stood there, equally naked and equally yearning.
He took her legs on either side of his body while they kissed. Nina’s one leg had a habit of trying to join in on the groping, and when she began to use it to try to pull him closer, he grabbed it below the thigh and held it steady. That gave him all the access he needed to pull her hips forward and begin to thrust against her. The rhythm was slow but steady, like a ship against the waves. This was the calm, and he wanted the storm. Even just this minor amount of touch was enough to feel electricity, and he hoped that Nina was feeling it, too.
Placing wet, heavy kisses near enough her ears that it left her shivering, Vance was already getting off on her small, shaky moans. She barely even needed to touch him to turn him on, but he was going to ensure that he’d use his gusto to make sure that this was the best sex she’d ever had.
While he still had her pressed against the wall, her hips angled toward him, he used his hard cock to tease her. He could tell what she needed based on how much harder she began breathing as he deepened the touch, got nearer to the eventual goal, but for now, he wanted to make her wait.
