The Middle of Nowhere

by Piper Phoenix

  I couldn’t help but wonder how long ago his ex and him had been together. She was still coming to his house which seemed odd, but it wasn’t really any of my business. If she had lived with him clearly she hadn’t been much for interior decorating.

  There were papers scattered all over his kitchen table. In the kitchen there was a box of cereal on the counter and a bowl sitting near the sink.

  I wasn’t the least bit surprised by the workout equipment and weights sitting on the floor in the living room next to his small TV. His arms were so muscular and toned that I was sure he spent every free moment building his muscles.

  “Have a seat,” he said gesturing towards his couch.

  “Sure,” I said resisting the urge to brushing off the cereal crumbs first. “I’m sorry to drop by like this… I hadn’t thought it through. Anyway I just wanted to—”

  “Can I get you something to drink?”

  “No thanks,” I said with a smile. “Anyway, I just wanted to stop by so I could thank you for last night.”

  “Ah, it was nothing. You didn’t have to trouble yourself coming out here for that,” he said sitting down next to me. He was so close I could feel the warmth of his body. “Any of the guys would have done the same.”

  “I would have said something last night but my dad, well, he was in one of his moods after what happened,” I said folding my hands neatly into my lap.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off of Stone. We were so close together I could smell the masculine scent from the soap he’d used in the shower. Which led to me thinking about him in the shower. What was I really doing here?

  Before I could stop myself, I boldly put my hand on his forearm. I could feel his tight, silky skin under my fingers. It was like my mind had been erased, I couldn’t think of what I had wanted to say and instead I bit my lip.

  His eyes shifted down to my hand and then back to my eyes. He sighed as if something was wrong. I opened my mouth to ask, but before I could even get a word out, he put his hand behind my neck.

  We looked another one another, slowly inching closer and closer. My heart was pounding, and it felt like my breath was caught somewhere in my throat.

  When I was inches away, he pulled my lips to his, and it felt like electricity jolted through my body. Stone’s soft, perfectly lips were on mine as if he was hungry and the only thing that could satisfy him, was me.

  Our tongues danced perfectly together as if it was what they meant to be doing. I needed him and he needed me. To hell with everything else.

  “Mmm,” he said in a low, needy voice. “Shit baby.”

  I slid my hand off of his forearm and down to his thigh. It was almost as if my hand had a mind of its own and there wasn’t anything I could do to reel it back in.

  He grabbed me around the waist and pulled me on top of his lap. He broke our kiss to watch me as he cupped my breast. I parted my lips as my need for him was practically uncontrollable.

  “Oh God, Stone,” I moaned as I pressed myself down against the hardness that I could feel growing inside his jeans. I put my hand down on his stomach and felt the muscles under his T-shirt.

  He grabbed, squeezed and stroked my breast as he reached around with his other hand to grab my ass. Stone guided me as I rolled myself around on top of him. I wanted to rip his clothes off. I wanted to feel him inside me.

  Stone leaned forward and kissed me, but the kiss slowed. He stopped moving his hands. Everything came to a screeching halt.

  I looked at him, my eyebrows pinched together. I didn’t understand what had happened. Had he not been enjoying it as much as I was? What had I done wrong? Deep down I knew coming here was going to be a mistake.

  Maybe I should be happy it was stopping. I didn’t want to be involved with a club member. Clearly my brain hadn’t been in charge when it came to Stone. I didn’t know why but at least I hadn’t done something I would regret.

  “Hmm… I don’t think this is a good idea, sweetheart,” he said as he carefully eased me off of his lap. I could see exactly by the size of the bulge in his pants that parts of him thought it was an exceptionally great idea. “I respect your dad too much. But more importantly, I value my life.”

  I straightened my clothes and stood up. My dad shouldn’t really be involved in decisions when it came to my sex life, or lack thereof, but this was because of him. It didn’t matter that I had let things go too far with someone that I shouldn’t be involved with but the choice should have been mine, and it didn’t feel as though it had been.

  I was annoyed, but I tried not to let it show. It wasn’t Stone’s fault my dad was the way he was. If anyone was at fault, it was me for coming here.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to sweetheart,” he said grabbing my hand and looking into my eyes. “There is nothing I want more than to put this… mmm,” he said adjusting himself not even the slight bit embarrassed to be handling himself right in front of me the way he was. And unfortunately for me, it only turned me on more than I already was.

  “I shouldn’t have come here,” I said shaking my hand free. I could tell my anger was showing by my tone. But I didn’t care. I was embarrassed, frustrated, and I felt stupid for letting things get out of hand. It was almost as if I had broken a rule I had with myself. “Thanks again for helping me last night. I appreciate it.”

  “Josie… wait,” he said as I walked to the front door. I pretended not to hear him and let myself out. I wanted to run across the yard and get into my car as fast as I could but I refused to run. It wasn’t like I wanted him to know I was upset. A fast walk would have to do.

  I could hear his front door open but I didn’t hear footsteps coming after me. By the time I was inside my car his door was closed and he was presumably back inside.

  Good. He got the message. And now I just had to get over my infatuation. He was in the club. I wasn’t interested in him or anyone else that had anything to do with my dad or The Brother’s Rebellion motorcycle club.

  Chapter 5

  The next day when I was in my dad’s old office working, I wouldn’t allow myself to think about Stone. I didn’t want to think about him being in the clubhouse only a short distance away. Even if he was there, what did it matter anyway. He had made it clear nothing would happen, and I was OK with that because I didn’t want anything to happen anyway.

  My dad barged into the room swinging the door open roughly. He looked panicked. He started walking around the room as if he was looking for something but he wasn’t sure where to look.

  “Dad? Are you OK?” I asked standing up.

  “Get Memorial on the phone!” he shouted as he started rifling through a stack of papers.

  “Oh my God, you’re scaring me… what’s going on?” I said looking up the hospital’s phone number on the internet. I grabbed my cell phone and tapped in the number as quickly as my fingers would go.

  “It’s Stone. Something fucking went wrong,” he said ripping the phone out of my hand.

  My heart sank into my stomach and my mind started to go through all the things that could have gone wrong. Was he OK? Was he alive? Oh my God, what if he was dead? I didn’t want a relationship with him, but I didn’t want him dead. I didn’t want anyone in the club dead.

  My dad started shouting into the phone at whoever was on the other end. He scribbled down some information and handed the phone back. I followed him through the house. He poked his head in and out of rooms and when he found my mom he grabbed her. My dad probably carried her through the house while he attempted to tell her what he knew, which didn’t seem to be much.

  “I’m coming along,” I said hoping they wouldn’t question me as to why I cared. I thought they rub my disdain for all things club related in my face, but they didn’t bother. They were too worried to care.

  My dad sped through the streets and we drove in silence all the way to the hospital. I heard my mom clicking her fingernails together, so I knew she was worried sick about Stone.

  My dad was recklessly weaving in
and out of traffic so dangerously that I was surprised we hadn’t gotten pulled over at least once by the time we had gotten to the hospital. But then again my dad had a special relationship with the sheriff. There were probably several things he’d look the other way for, even though they might have had to pull him over just for appearances.

  There were officers on the force that wouldn’t look the other way, but thankfully we hadn’t run into any of those. I took in a deep breath as my dad haphazardly pulled into a parking spot.

  I’ve known for about as long as Stone has been involved with the MC that he didn’t have any living relatives, at least none that he spoke to. So it would just be the club at the hospital, but as far as they were concerned they were his family.

  When we got inside several club members greeted us in the lobby. They hopped to their feet the second my dad made his grand entrance.

  “Where is he? Is he OK?” my dad bellowed as if he was the only one in the hospital with someone in rough shape. Everyone in the waiting room and behind the reception desks looked at him.

  Pike stood next to my dad as we walked down the hallway. He shook his head and tried to say something but nothing came out.

  Stone and Pike had been close friend for as long as I could remember. I didn’t know Pike’s real name, but they had been prospects at roughly the same time. If I remembered correctly, they had been friends long before they were part of the MC.

  Rager and Dust joined our little circle, and they didn’t look they wanted to talk either. Rager was shaking his head. He was a forty-fire year old man with thick-framed glasses and he looked as tough as nails, but even he seemed torn up.

  I was about to freak out. What was going on? If he wasn’t OK someone should tell us. Rager looked at me as if he was confused about my presence but spoke to my dad anyway.

  “They haven’t told us anything yet, man,” Rager said glancing at the receptionist briefly. “The ladies over there say the doctors will talk to family as soon as they can. Which I think means they won’t tell us anything.”

  My dad looked around the waiting room as if he was doing roll call, “Where’s Stretch?”

  “We don’t know,” Rager said after a long pause. “Hoping Stone will know.”

  “You know he was out there with him right?” my dad said the frustration and fear obvious in his tone. I could only guess he was worried about why only one of his men came back. And he came back via trip to the hospital. Hell, no one even knew if he was OK yet.

  If either Stretch or Stone was dead, there would be a club war. There was no doubt about that.

  “We know,” Dust said rubbing at his nose. Dust was the member I’d overheard my parents talking about. He was working on getting himself clean. My dad even footed the bill for one of his stints in rehab.

  It works for awhile, but then Dust always seems to fall back into his old ways. Especially in times of stress. I wondered if this was one of those times.

  “See if you can get in touch with Stretch. If you can’t, I want you and Dust to go and see what you can find out. Stay out of trouble and stay away from The Henchmen,” my dad said pointing his finger at them. “Don’t come back until you have something for me. Go!”

  “Yes, sir,” Dust said yanking Rager’s leather jacket. I hope that they were going to take one of the club’s cars so that Dust wouldn’t be out riding his bike. Last thing the club needed right now was Dust getting into an accident when he was strung out.

  After about ten minutes of pacing back and forth, my dad finally sat down next to my mom. She took his hand into her and rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb.

  I grabbed a magazine, but I couldn’t read it. My fingers flipped at the pages as I glanced at the pictures. I was basically just going through the motions since I was too worried something was wrong.

  My dad had gone up to the nurse’s station so many times that the last time they spoke to him, three nurses gathered together, and told him if they heard anything they promised he’d be the first to know. He practically growled at them before he hit the desk and walked away.

  They probably had experience in dealing with my dad. This wasn’t the first time he’s had to come in because someone from the club was being treated. They were fully aware of the fact that he was the president of the well-known Brother’s Rebellion MC in Greenwood Pass. Everyone knew my dad even though many wished they hadn’t.

  With all the ‘injuries’ and ‘accidents’ the club has had over the years the nurses were probably on a first name basis with my dad. But this time since he was close to Stone, it was different. And the nurses seemed to realize that.

  “Mr. Vincent?” a man wearing blue scrubs said as he walked towards my father. I was pretty sure he must have been the doctor that had been treating Stone. He shook my dad’s hand. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to find out that they had worked together outside of office hours if a club member got hurt and they didn’t want anyone to find out about it.

  “Yes. Tell me doc, just tell me straight,” my dad said standing next to him as he towered over the doctor by nearly a full foot.

  “Come,” the doctor said leading us out of the waiting room. He didn’t even question who I was or try to stop me from following along. It was OK with the doctor if it was OK with my dad.

  Chapter 6

  He led us into a smaller waiting room and closed the door once I was inside. My looked at him with wide eyes. “What is it?”

  “Stone is going to be fine. We had to remove the bullet, and it’s going to take some time for him to recover. There wasn’t any major damage. He’s lucky it hadn’t been worse. Terry, these kids need to be more careful,” the doctor said using my dad’s name.

  That confirmed my suspicions about them being well acquainted. No one used my dad’s first name. The only people I’ve ever heard use is name was his father, my grandpa before he passed, my mom and the Sheriff. It was as if someone had to earn it. Clearly the doctor had earned it because my dad didn’t punch him in the face for saying it.

  “Oh, thank God!” my mom said hugging me. “You had us worried there, doc.”

  It almost sounded as if my mom was scolding him which seemed a bit strange considering they were probably around the same age. He didn’t seem to be bothered.

  “We can we see him?” my dad asked, but I knew he wanted more information about what happened. Information he hoped Stone would have. My dad and the club was desperate, they needed to find Stretch as soon as possible.

  “Now, Terry, he’s going to have to talk to the cops about what happened. I have to report this… you know that,” he said tapping his clipboard.

  “Understood. Get the Sheriff.” My dad nodded in a strange way. It was almost like it was some kind of secret code. Maybe something the doctor would pass along to the Sheriff to get this sorted out in a way my dad would be OK with.

  I didn’t even want to know. Besides, maybe I was just imagining it all. Maybe there was no secret code.

  The doctor gave us directions to Stone’s room, and I followed my parents as they twisted through the hallways. When we finally got to Stone’s room I paused not sure if he’d even want to see me.

  I probably shouldn’t have come. I was developing a bad habit of showing up where I didn’t necessarily belong when it came to Stone.

  My mom and dad walked into the room but I waited in the doorway. When he saw me standing there, he waved me forward. He was smiling although he looked a little under the influences of whatever painkiller the hospital had given him during the bullet removing procedure.

  “You scared the shit out of us there, Stone,” my mom said hugging him gently and placing a light kiss on his forehead.

  “Don’t do it again,” my dad said pointing his finger at him. He looked angry, but I knew he meant well. Stone knew it too because he was grinning at my dad.

  “I’ll try my damnedest not to ever do it again,” Stone said glancing at me. “Glad you came.”

  “And I’m glad
you’re OK,” I said quietly. My mom looked back and forth between us but then turned back to Stone as if she was dismissing whatever thought had crossed her mind.

  My dad’s phone buzzed before he could question Stone about what had happened. He quickly dashed out of the room. I wondered if it was because he didn’t want to talk about Stretch in front of Stone. He didn’t want him to know he was MIA. At least not yet while he was recovering from a gunshot wound.

  “I’m going to go check on him,” my mom said as she held Stone’s hand and kissed him on the forehead in the exact same spot. “Do what the doctors say, you hear? Be good, Stone.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Stone said watching my mom as she walked out of the room.

  Stone started to lift his arms so he could put them behind his head when he remembered he’d just been shot. He winced and slowly put his arm back down. I couldn’t help but smile at him.

  He grimaced, “Aw fuck.”

  “Does it hurt?” I said stupidly asking a question I was pretty sure I knew the answer to. I stepped closer to make sure he hadn’t messed up his bandages.

  “Yeah… it really fucking hurts,” he said as he reached over and grabbed my hand. “But I feel so much better when you’re close to me sweetheart.”

  “Oh please,” I said rolling my eyes at him. “I know that’s the painkillers talking.”

  “No, I mean it,” he said and pulled me down so I was sitting on the bed next to him.

  “I shouldn’t sit here,” I said trying to get up. “I don’t want to cause you any pain.”

  “The only pain I’m in is when you are away,” he said putting his finger on my chin.

  I narrowed my eyes at him, “What do they have you on?”

  “I’m not sure but I hope I can some of this shit to go,” he said with a laugh. “Drugs or not, the truth is… I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. I think when I was out during surgery I was even dreaming about you.”