God damn she was beautiful.
And she was mine.
“I was looking for you.” She crossed her arms across her chest, pressing out her braless tits against the fabric of the t-shirt I’d given her to wear the night before. “I woke up and you were gone. You know it’s okay to be nice. You don’t have to snap at me all the time.”
“I didn’t sleep much,” I said, standing up and taking a drag of my smoke. I felt bad for snapping at her but the truth was when I saw her leaving I had a flashback of her trying to run away and I immediately got heated.
“I can’t sleep with your tight ass pressed against my cock. You need something?” I asked, taking another deep drag off my smoke and letting the nicotine invade my brain. Truth was also that it had been days since I’d hit the hard stuff and the headache I was sporting made it seem like the world was yelling at me.
She looked down to the gravel. “Yes. No. I mean…yes?”
“Ti, spit it out,” I said, looking down at her rapidly healing face. The bruises around her eye were barely visible. Each minute that passed she looked more and more fuckable, and now that I’d actually had her, all I wanted was more.
I used to think that I wanted to go out in a blaze of bullets and glory. Now I think that I’d like to go out balls deep inside my girl.
MY girl.
“Can we just…for today, can we just, pretend?” she asked, rocking back on her heels and biting her lip.
“Pretend? Pretend what?” I took a drag of my smoke and slipped my other hand into my back pocket, leaning up against the side of the garage.
“Let’s pretend that I’m just Thia Andrews, a girl whose parents aren’t…” She looked away and sniffled, shaking her head. “And you’re just Bear, and you’re not pissed off at the world.” She smiled and cocked her head to the side. “Not today anyway.”
I searched her face for the punch line, but there were no signs of a joke.
She drew a circle in the gravel with her flip flop. “Today I want to be a normal girl and you can be a normal boy and we are going to do whatever normal people do so we don’t get stuck thinking on all the bad shit that’s been happening.” She closed the distance between us and came to stand under me, looking up with pleading pale green eyes. “Please, Bear. Please. Just give me today. Be normal with me. Just for today.”
The idea was ludicrous, I didn’t even know what normal was. Normal was what I’d been battling since I’d left the club. I didn’t know how the fuck to do normal. I opened my mouth to tell her just that, but the hurt in her eyes when she saw the rejection coming broke me.
She shook her head and turned around. “Never mind. I knew you wouldn’t…”
I reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her back to me. “Go put some clothes on,” I said. “Be back out here in twenty minutes.” I sounded like an asshole again, giving orders to a girl who only wanted to hang out like a normal kid, but after years of actually being an asshole, it was a hard habit to break.
“Really?” she asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet and smiling from ear to ear. The girl didn’t have a stitch of makeup on, there wasn’t a false thing about her and yet she was prettier than any supermodel I’d ever seen on the cover of any magazine and not to mention the absolute most amazing fucking pussy I’d ever had the pleasure of sticking my cock in.
I really need to start thinking about something else…
“Twenty minutes,” I repeated, coughing when my traitor of a heart actually skipped a fucking beat.
Who are you? A fucking preteen girl?
With her new brilliant smile plastered on her face, she spun around and skipped back into the dark garage toward the apartment.
I stomped out my cigarette on my boot and headed up to the main house. “Wait!” Ti called. I turned around to find her back outside again. “Where are you going?” she asked.
I pointed up to the main house. “You want to be normal today, right?”
“Yeah?”
I started walking again, calling back to Ti, “Then I gotta go figure out what the fuck it is that normal people do.”
* * *
Ray had looked at me like I’d sprouted an extra head when I asked her where she thought I should take Ti. “Bear, I’m nineteen, technically widowed, and engaged with three kids. That’s not normal no matter how you look at it,” she’d said.
She had a point.
I couldn’t take Ti anywhere remote so I decided on the Rosinus State Park. It was public enough that if the MC did know where we were they still wouldn’t make a move.
“Here, wear this,” I said, handing her a plain black baseball cap.
“What? Is this supposed to be some sort of disguise?” she asked.
“Just put it on,” I said, watching her thread her hair through the opening at the back.
“Can you recognize me?” she asked sarcastically.
“Smart ass.”
“Okay so where is your brilliant disguise?” she asked.
I pulled the black v-neck t-shirt over my head. “Viola.”
“A shirt? Your disguise is a shirt?”
“Yep.”
“The funny thing is I can actually see how that could work,” Ti said, looking me up and down.
“Really?”
“Nope!” She opened the door and bolted out of the truck, jumping up on top of the nearest picnic table, her tits bouncing as she danced around.
The park was small, no more than five acres with a beach type area, except instead of sand it was covered with pine needles that butted up against a huge lake. Tall pine trees lined the edge of the water, every tenth tree or so had been removed to make room for a picnic table or bench. There were people around but not too many to make it crowded, just enough to make witnesses.
Ti held out her arms and took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh air. She looked down at me as I approached and my chest tightened.
“This place is perfect,” she said, flashing me another brilliant smile. She hopped down onto the bench part of the table and walked to the edge, leaping off dramatically before landing on her feet in the dirt like she was a gymnast, raising her arms above her head and taking a step back like she was in the Olympics.
“Seven,” I said, holding up a fake scorecard.
“Bullshit, biker-boy,” she scoffed. “That was at least an eleven. Seven? Please!” She jumped back up onto another bench and pointed her index finger in the air. “Let’s go to the tapes!” she announced, queuing up her imaginary replay.
“Sorry,” I said, sucking air in between my teeth and bobbing my head from side to side. I stood below her, my face just inches away from the top of her thighs. “The judges have reviewed the tape, and they all agree. Although it would have been a two…” I said, turning her around by her legs so that she was facing away from me. “But you got the extra points because I really dig your ass being at eye level.” I turned my head to the side and rested my cheek on her ass like it was a pillow that I wanted to take a nap on.
Because it was.
I wasn’t able to linger on the phenomenally sexy image of my face pressed against her naked ass for too long because she reached back and swatted at my head with her hat like I was a bee buzzing around her legs. “Bear!” she screeched playfully, jumping back down from the bench and then running around it, holding onto her butt like we were in a locker room and she was protecting it from an impending towel swat.
“Just watching you jump around is exhausting,” I said, reaching into my jeans and pulling out my cigarettes. I lit one and waved the smoke away from my face.
“Mama used to call me her little jumping bean because they could never get me to sit still,” she admitted, finally sitting down on top of the picnic table.
“Fitting,” I said, feeling like I was able to relax now that the jumping bean had stopped jumping.
I took a drag of my cigarette and blew out the smoke. It had taken me forever to figure out where to take Ti. So long now that the sun h
ad just started to set into the horizon. I liked the night. I liked the dark. Smoking in the dark always held more appeal for me than smoking during the day. Maybe it had something to do with being able to see the smoke against the dark background of the night sky. Or maybe it was being able to see the glowing ember from the end of the cigarette or the bright yellow flame when I fired up my lighter. Smoking was familiar to me. It felt good.
It also reminded me of home.
I’d be shit at making one of those anti-smoking public service announcements.
Ti leaned back on the table, closing her eyes like she was soaking up rays that had long disappeared with the setting of the sun.
“I feel like you know so much about me,” she said, although I didn’t think that was true. I don’t think I’d tapped into even half of what made Thia Andrews tick. “But I don’t know that much about you.”
“You know more than anyone else,” I said, and that really was true, but for the exception of King and maybe Grace. In the short time I’d spent with her, she learned more about me than the men back at the club.
Men who were supposed to be my brothers.
Most of whom I’d known since the day I was born.
I leaned back on my elbows, the same way Ti had, soaking in the same imaginary rays. An eerie sense of calm washed over me. I wanted to burn the feeling into my memory, because I knew it wouldn’t last. After the meeting with Bethany tomorrow plans needed to be made.
Decisions needed to be made.
Quickly.
My phone rang. “It’s Bethany,” I told Ti, holding the phone up to my ear. “Yeah,” I answered.
“We have a problem,” Bethany said. I looked over to Ti who thankfully hadn’t heard her. I stood up and walked away casually.
“Go ahead,” I said as calmly as I could muster.
“She’s no longer wanted for questioning,” Bethany snapped.
“That’s great,” I said, looking back over to Ti who smiled.
“No, she’s no longer wanted for questioning because there is a warrant out for her arrest.”
Fuck.
“They finished analyzing the gun and they called in some fancy CSI from Atlanta. There is only three sets of prints in that entire house and only two sets of prints on both guns. The mother’s and Thia’s and since the mom is dead…”
“How do we proceed from here?”
“She turns herself in. I try to call in as many favors as possible and in the meantime I’ll put together a self-defense strategy in case it moves to trial.”
“Is there an alternative?” I asked, wandering around looking at the trees like I was actually interested in the same fucking pine trees that had been growing in that park since before I was born.
“I have another idea,” Bethany said, “But you may not like it. In fact, you’re not going to like it at all.” I didn’t have to like it. Ti was dead if she got locked up. Might as well drive her over to the MC and dump her off at the gate.
Wasn’t going to happen.
“Shoot,” I said.
“How attached are you to this girl?”
“What?” I asked.
“I need to know if this is a fling or a fuck or if you knocked her up or I need to know if this is the real deal, trust me. It’s important.”
I looked over to Thia and didn’t have to search long for the answer. She had picked up a dandelion and was waving it in the wind, spitting them out when the breeze blew the little white petals directly into her mouth.
“Real deal.”
I let Bethany say her piece then hung up the phone and walked back over to Ti. I promised her a normal day and I was going to give it to her no matter what. We still had today.
Not tomorrow.
But we had today.
“What did the lawyer lady say?” Ti asked as I came to sit beside her.
“Just making sure we would be on time tomorrow. She’s kind of a stickler for details,” I said, which was the truth, I just didn’t add the part about the cops that would be there waiting with a warrant.
I thought about running. Taking Ti on the back of my bike and heading out of state as fast as my bike could take us. The alternative Bethany offered wasn’t much of an alternative at all.
The choice I had to make was an easy one.
It would also be an ending to something that hadn’t yet had a chance to begin.
“I guess that’s a good thing for a lawyer to be.”
“Guess so,” I said.
“So as I was saying,” she said, breaking me out of my thoughts. “I don’t even know what your favorite color is—” She stopped mid sentence to look me over, taking in my shirt, boots, and jeans, which were all black. “Okay, never mind, so your favorite color is black, but what is your favorite movie? Favorite holiday?”
I chuckled and shook my head.
“Okay fine, but besides being a big bad biker dude who has issues with his pop, and has eyes that could melt the lock off a chastity belt, I don’t know much about you and you know everything about me, so give it up. Spill the beans, Bear. Rake the dirt. Dish out the good stuff.” Ti ordered, nudging me with her sharp little elbow. She pulled her legs up onto the table and hugged her knees to her chest.
“Melt the lock off a chastity belt, huh?” I asked, raising my eyebrow at her suggestively.
She rolled her eyes. “It figures that’s the only part that registered with you. It’s only an expression.”
“Uh huh, one I’ve never heard,” I teased, feeling a little bad when her face started to redden. I cleared my throat. “But then again I’ve never heard half the shit that comes out of your mouth.”
She shrugged. “You’re not the first person to tell me that. My dad used to say that all the time.”
“Okay, Ti. You win,” I said, changing the subject. “But favorite movie is a tough one, what category are we talking about?”
“All of them,” she said with a smile. “Start with drama.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “The lady is demanding.”
“Yes she is,” she said. “I bet it’s Scarface. Is it Scarface?”
I laughed. “Ask anyone else in the club and I think that’s the answer they’d give you. But I like the classics. Watched a lot of old westerns growing up. I don’t have one particular favorite, but anything with Clint Eastwood, and the older the better.”
“Westerns? Westerns? I was positive you were going to say The Godfather or Scarface.”
“What the fuck is wrong with Westerns? Westerns are the shit.”
“Oh yeah, tell me, why are westerns THE SHIT?” Ti said, air quoting around THE SHIT.
“Because back in the old west, the men were real men. They took charge of the situation. They handled their business by earning respect and gunning down anyone who stood in their way. Cowboys were the first guys to have the balls to be lawless and say fuck-all to society.” I held my cigarette between my lips and pulled up my shirt, pointing to one of the tattoos on my ribcage. “This was one of my very first tattoos.”
Thia gasped. “Clint Eastwood? You have a Clint Eastwood tattoo?” She covered her mouth with her hand. “I mean I’ve seen you without your shirt on and I knew that was a portrait but I didn’t realize it was actually Clint Eastwood.”
I pulled my shirt back down and took a drag of my cigarette. “Laugh all you want, Ti. C.E. was Chuck Norris before there was a Chuck Norris.”
“Oh my god please don’t tell me you have a Chuck Norris tattoo,” she said, grabbing her stomach and continuing to laugh at my expense.
I loved that sound.
I would remember that sound.
“What’s wrong with a Chuck Norris tattoo?” I deadpanned.
“Oh, I didn’t mean. He’s ummm…” I burst out laughing as she tried to backtrack.
I could have let her struggle a little while longer, she looked adorable when she was all flustered, but I was having trouble keeping a straight face. “I’m just fucking with you,” I finally said.<
br />
She let out a sigh of relief. “Oh thank god. I didn’t know how I was going to get out of that one.”
“Okay, so now you know my favorite, so what’s yours? Same category.”
Thia smiled so big and brightly I thought her mouth was about to swallow her face. “I have two.”
“And…?” I pressed.
“Scarface and The Godfather.”
I laughed more that day than I had in the last twenty-some-odd years, all because of the girl with the crazy pink hair.
The girl I’d fallen in love with.
Fuck.
“You’re different, Ti,” I said, when we’d both recovered enough to speak again. “But I’ve known that since the day I met you.”
“You mean the day your friend held a gun on me,” she corrected.
“Yes, I mean the day the little kid version of you almost took out a biker seven times your size,” I said.
“Well, serves him right. He shouldn’t have been trying to rob a kid,” she argued.
“Technically, he was trying to rob a store, not a kid,” I countered.
She shot me a look that said ‘oh please.’ “So you’re saying that if it was Emma May at the counter it would’ve somehow ended things better? Because I can tell you right now, it wouldn’t have been a lick better for Skid or Skud or Skuzz or whatever his name was, because Emma May is a shoot-first, don’t-care-about-asking-questions kind of old lady. Just ask her first husband.” She scratched her chin and wrinkled her nose. “Or her fourth…”
The way Thia talked with her hands, reminded me of a character you would find in a comic book.
One with really, really nice tits.
“See what I mean?” I pointed out. “I’ve never heard anyone say the kind of shit you say. You’re just…different.”
“Different,” she said the word slowly like she was examining it, turning it over on her tongue. She twirled a strand of her hair around in her fingers. “Isn’t different just a nicer word for bat-shit-crazy?” she asked, her face serious.
She looked down at her feet.
KING SERIES FIRSTS: King, Lawless & Preppy Part One Page 43
