“And I know your mom isn’t doing too good again,” Knox continued.
It was the truth, she wasn’t, but that didn’t mean he had a right to know that and use it against me. He had no idea what it was like to have the one person who was meant to love you above all else not give two fucks if you ate that day. Knox had everything he could ever possibly want thanks to his rich parents, and yet he still chose to be with me. He didn’t choose the head cheerleader. He didn’t want the popular girl or the girl who could match him in wealth. He chose me, the girl with a fucked-up life and a trailer she called home. I was lucky he wanted me, but that didn’t mean I agreed with what he’d said.
“She isn’t.” I tried to pull away, but he didn’t let up his grip. All I wanted was to get to the dance studio right then. I didn’t want to hang around and see what else Knox was going to say. I needed to get out of here STAT. “Fine,” I huffed out. “I won’t talk to him again.”
Knox smiled big and wide like he’d won the grand prize and dipped his head down. “Good girl.” I held the masked expression on my face, not letting the disgust at his words slip. I was used to hearing so much worse than that on a daily basis, but it was the way he said it, as if I were a puppy who’d learned how to sit and he was rewarding me.
His lips pressed against mine, and I gave him what he wanted, knowing the sooner I did, the quicker I could get into my car and get the hell out of here. “I gotta go,” I told him, pulling away and stepping back. This time he let me go without a fight. “I’ve got dance class.”
“I can pick you up later?” Knox said, his gaze moving to the left and then back to me.
“Nah, it’s Friday.” I smiled up at him. “I know there’s probably a party you want to go to.” I placed my hand on the side of his face and was reminded of the kind young kid I’d first met. He was so different back then, and yet I spotted glimpses of that boy now and again, and I was sure he only allowed me to witness that side of him. “We can meet before I go to work tomorrow night?”
He grinned and nodded. “Yeah.” He planted one last kiss on my lips. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay.” I spun around and slowly made my way down the stairs, trying not to seem too eager to get away from him. And even though part of me wanted to run, the other part didn’t.
I’d always been conflicted when it came to Knox. One minute he’d be the sweetest guy I ever knew, but then he’d get this look in his eyes, a look I’d seen one too many times from the people in our trailer park and Mom’s dealers. He had a darkness to him. I wasn’t sure whether he was aware of it and holding it back or if he didn’t know it was there.
I maneuvered through the crowd of seniors and to my beat-up Toyota, pushed the key inside the lock on the driver’s door, and yanked it open. It wasn’t until I had the engine running, and I’d managed to take a calming breath, that I spotted Leo walking to the bus stop outside of school. Knox may have been right about him moving up four grades, but I didn’t for one second think Leo thought he was better than anyone else. It wasn’t like Leo and I would be best friends—he was just my table buddy in French class. But that wouldn’t mean I would ignore him. What Knox didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. After all, I was keeping a bigger secret from him than that.
One he had no idea about.
ASHER
It wasn’t often that the MC closed the club they owned, but when one of their members came back from being away—whether that be war or prison—it was members only. Well, members and family, and I was like family. So, as I walked across the parking lot, the stones crunching under my boots, I knew I wouldn’t be stopped at the entrance by the prospects.
The large neon sign above the door read Pink Feather, and my lips quirked at the woman sitting in a large martini glass. The sign was trying to say classy, and considering it was a strip club, it managed to achieve it. It wasn’t like the seedy strip joint on the other side of town. Pink Feather wasn’t full of dealers looking to sell to the dancers and anyone looking to party. Instead, it was a sanctuary for people who were struggling and needed help, even if it was only a job taking off their clothes.
“Well, fuck me!” a large, booming voice shouted. “That ain’t Asher in my club, is it?”
I snorted and turned to face Ryder, the president of the MC, also known as Jax and Al’s dad. His bulging arms wrapped around me, and even though I matched him in height, he still made me feel like a kid in his embrace. He slapped my back, almost knocking the wind out of me, and then pulled back and placed his hands on my shoulders.
“Hey, Ryder.”
“Where the fuck you been, Ash?” he asked. Anyone else would have thought he was threatening me, but I knew it was simply the way he talked. He was brash and straight to the point, something which I found refreshing. On the outside, he looked like a big bad biker, but on the inside, he was a big softie to those he cared about.
“Working,” I replied, and it was the truth. I didn’t have time to go out, not when I had clients who wanted drawings prepared for the next day.
“Heard business is going well,” Ryder commented, placing his arm around my shoulders and pulling me toward a booth near the stage. There were several girls dancing and spinning around poles, but I didn’t take any notice of them. I was too busy looking at Al, who sat at the edge of the booth, his gaze focused on his boots, and I knew, in his mind, he was somewhere else, probably back in the war zone he’d just come home from.
“I need to book a tattoo,” Ryder continued, stroking his gray beard.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, only half listening to him. “You know I’ll get you in anytime.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Ryder grunted and halted in front of the booth. “Look who I found lurking around,” he announced to the table, and several laughs followed. The table was surrounded by the higher members of the club, including its VP and Ryder’s best friend, Torch.
“Well, damn, we ain’t seen you in forever.” Torch stood and held his hand out, and I placed mine in his, shaking it. You wouldn’t have thought a bunch of rough guys who wore leather cuts would greet you with a handshake, but respect to them was paramount, and no matter what your background was, you were always an equal in their eyes. Where Ryder was rough and tumble, Torch was more logical, unless it came to his family, and then he fought fire with fire, hence his name.
“Been busy,” I grunted and pushed my hands in the front pockets of my jeans.
Conversation flowed around us, the table excited to have Al back home, but Al didn’t seem bothered one bit. He was in his own world, and although I wanted to greet him, I knew if I spooked him, it wouldn’t bode well, so I waited as Ryder and Torch spoke for a couple of minutes. As soon as I felt a sharp slap to my back and a belting laugh, my shoulders drooped, and my body relaxed.
“You fuckin’ came,” Jax boomed, trying to be heard over the new track playing in the club. I spun to face him, and my gaze drifted over the stage. Gone were the several dancers, and in their place was a lone woman.
“Yep.” I flicked my gaze to Jax, to Al, and then back to the stage. “How’s he doing?”
Jax’s sigh was loud and clear and told me more than any words could. “Not good.” He held his beer in the air as a club girl walked past us. “Get us two,” he told her. Thirty seconds later, we were both handed a beer, but the silence stretched between us.
“It’s just gonna take time,” I told him, even though he already knew that. At least when we’d come home, we could talk to each other, or simply sit in silence, but Al was alone. And I was guessing he hadn’t spoken to anyone about what happened while he was on tour.
“Yeah.” Jax’s gaze moved to something behind me, and I pushed my shoulders back as the hairs on the back on my neck stood on end. My instincts were on high alert as someone moved closer to us.
“Hey,” a new voice said, and I moved my attention to the other side of Jax and met Al’s stare. There was pain in his dark eyes, but secrets too. Secrets I knew he would
never talk about but wouldn’t be able to get out of his mind, no matter how hard he tried.
Jax cleared his throat. “Hey, bro.” He took a swig of his beer and widened his eyes at me, but I didn’t know what he wanted me to do. They were brothers, and I was the outsider, but I’d also been the logical one when we talked about the past. Maybe he wanted me to try and talk to him but now wasn’t the time or place, not in this club surrounded by club members.
“You good?” I asked Al, not able to help myself.
I’d predicted he’d nod and pretend he was, so I was surprised when he shook his head in the negative. “I can’t sit with them.” He grimaced and shuffled from foot to foot. “I just want some quiet, you know?”
“I get it,” I told him and glanced around the darkened club. The woman was still dancing to the same track as I spotted an empty table in the corner. “Let’s go sit over there and chill.” I wasn’t sure if I was saying the right thing, but I knew from experience that sometimes you simply wanted to be around people who understood and didn’t want to talk.
Al didn’t answer me. Instead, he made a beeline for the table, and Jax and I followed after him. “Fuck, man.” Jax took another pull of his beer. “It’s like he went away as my little brother and came back a complete stranger.”
“How long has he been back?” I asked, my gaze carefully zoned in on Al. It’d take months for him to adjust, but the first couple of weeks were always the worst.
“Couple days.”
I shook my head and clenched, then unclenched my fists. My hands were restless, and I craved to have a pencil gripped between my fingers. “Not enough time. He needs to work through the images in his head.” I gave Jax a pointed look. “Remember what it was like when we came back. I know that I lost parts of me over there. We’re never the same.”
Jax didn’t answer as we got to the table and sat in the chair next to Al. I sat on the other side, preferring not to be in the middle so I could make a quick getaway if I needed to, and from the expression on Al’s face, and the way he was sizing up everyone in the club, he was thinking the same thing. The club wanted to celebrate him being home, and their intentions were good, but it wasn’t helping him. The answer was never clear, not in a situation like this.
More beers were brought to the table, and we all sat in silence as the woman on the stage finished up, and another took her place. The longer we sat there, the more relaxed Al became. His shoulders drooped, and finally, he leaned back. And as if we took our cues from him, both Jax and I leaned back too. I hadn’t come here to have fun and watch the women dance. I’d come here to support a fellow Marine, but as soon as the first beats to the music played over the system, and the woman slinked onto the stage, I found myself forgetting why I was here.
I couldn’t stop staring as she took each step closer to the edge of the main stage. She didn’t have clear stripper heels on like everyone else. She was barefoot as she moved toward the runway part of the stage. I couldn’t stop watching her. She was sexy but also addictive. Her long hair was curled and flowed down her back, and even though I wasn’t close enough, I was sure her face wasn’t caked with makeup like the other women.
“Might wanna close your mouth before you catch a fly, bro,” Jax jeered, laughing, and I slammed my mouth closed, but still, I couldn’t look away. She came farther down the runway, right to the edge, and did the splits, sticking her chest out and slowly undoing the straps on her bra. For some reason, it was the thought of seeing her mostly naked that had me looking away.
“Seriously?” Jax asked, raising his brows. “This is the best part of her routine.”
I shrugged, acting unaffected. “You know strippers aren’t my thing.”
“Exotic dancers,” Al joined in, leaning forward and resting his forearms on the table. “The correct term is exotic dancers.”
I held my hands in the air in surrender and laughed. “I’m calling it as I see it. They take their clothes off, so therefore, they are strippers.”
“And they dance,” Al continued. “Exotically.”
“Can’t argue with that,” I told him, taking another swig of my beer and trying to keep my gaze off the stage for as long as I could. It wasn’t until the lights went down, and the song stopped playing, that I finally moved my attention back there. She was sitting on the edge of the stage, her hand covering her chest as the other one slipped the straps of her bra back on. I was mesmerized by the way each move was slow and methodical. She wasn’t putting on a show now. In fact, she probably thought no one was watching, but a quick glance around the room told me that everyone else was staring at her too.
“Lotus!” Jax shouted, and the table wobbled as he stood. My head whipped around to face him, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was waving his arm at the woman on the stage. “Come 'ere.”
My nostrils flared, and I refused to turn when his lips quirked at the corner. The fucker knew what he was doing. “Dick,” I grunted, but all Jax did was laugh.
“Hey,” a soft voice said, and I swore to fuckin’ god, my entire body broke out in goose bumps. I needed to turn and face her, but I couldn’t get my body to follow my brain’s instructions.
“Wanted to introduce you to my pal Asher,” Jax said, and Al snorted.
“Oh,” she said, and it was that that had me turning and facing her. She was so much closer now, and I could make out all of her features. Her straight button nose covered with a splattering of freckles and her navy-blue eyes, which were focused entirely on me, but as soon as our gazes met, she abruptly turned her head to face Al.
“I didn’t know you were back,” she said, and this time her voice had an edge of excitement to it.
At her words, Al stood and wrapped his arms around her, and my gut churned. I couldn’t place my emotions as I watched him embrace her and then fling his arm around her shoulders, but I knew it wasn’t anything I’d felt before. And right then, I didn’t want or need to think about it.
I stood, took the last pull of my beer, and slammed the bottle down on the table. “I gotta head out,” I told them all, but I didn’t wait for an answer as I spun around and walked out of the club and back to my car. I didn’t think about the way my body had reacted to her from far away or up close. She was a stripper, which meant she had that effect on a lot of men. I was just another unsuspecting soul caught in her trap, but at least I hadn’t thrown any dollar bills at her.
And with that final thought and my engine roaring to life, I headed home, intent on losing myself in my drawings until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.
Chapter Three
ELODIE
My eyes felt like sandpaper as I walked to the edge of the trailer park where Knox was waiting for me in his shiny black SUV. He refused to come into the trailer park because he said they’d rob him and his car. I didn’t know who they were, but it was a testament to the limits Knox would push. He talked trash about most people who lived here, and although he was mostly spot on with the things he said, he didn’t truly know them. He didn’t understand that people took drugs to forget about things. He didn’t understand the struggle of trying to pay rent each month and almost always being short. In his perfect life, no one had any problems, but in reality, the world was full of them, and I wasn’t sure if he was unaware or didn’t care. We all had our demons. We just dealt with them in different ways.
I lifted my arm in a wave to Tony, the park owner, but his hand beckoning me had me halting. “Your mom missed rent again,” he grunted, his lips in a straight line. Tony had been running this trailer park for over twenty years, and I had no doubt he’d seen everything and anything. There was almost always a party happening in one of the trailers, and a daycare in another. Each section of the trailer park had its own community, and ours was right in the middle of the last row, also known as drug row.
He slammed his hands down onto his hips, and my gaze tracked his work jeans and stained T-shirt. He was always fixing something to sell or refurbishing a new trailer to get m
ore tenants into. It was all about how much money he could make, and I didn’t blame him, not when at least half of the people who lived here missed rent on the regular.
“What do you mean ‘again’?”
He raised a brow. “She didn’t pay last month.”
I huffed out a breath at his words and flicked my gaze over to Knox. His window was down, his narrowed eyes focused on me. I didn’t have a choice in what I had to do. It was either pay or be homeless, and right then, I needed somewhere to go back to each night. “I’ll come pay you when I get back.” I mentally counted the amount of money I had saved, and knew the rent for last month would eat at least half of that money up. Dammit.
“Make sure you do,” Tony grunted, his tone brooking no room for argument. He had a strict policy on how many missed payments you could have—three—and if you didn’t pay up, you were out and never allowed back in. “She’s on her last warning. I already told her this.”
“I didn’t know,” I said because I truly didn’t. At this stage, Tony should have known to come to me and not my mom. She wouldn’t tell me shit, and plenty of times I’d come home from school to find our stuff in trash bags because we’d been kicked out of a trailer park again. This was our last chance. If we got kicked out of here, there was nowhere else we could go, not unless we moved out of the area completely, which would mean I wouldn’t be able to graduate high school. Being able to stay here wasn’t a want, it was a need—a necessity.
A horn honking had me jumping, and both Tony and I turned to stare at Knox’s car. His arm hung out of the window, and he lifted his hand in impatience. “El! You coming or what?”
His attitude had me on alert, and although the last thing I wanted right then was to hang out with Knox, I needed out of the trailer, if only for a little while. “I’ll get that money to you today,” I told Tony and stepped away from him. “Promise.” He nodded in response, so I spun around and ran to Knox’s car.
Burned Duet: Asher & Elodie: Fast Burn & Deep Burn (Easton Family Duet Boxsets Book 4) Page 3
