by A. J. Downey
Chapter 9
Rush
She followed me, her resistance to the hold I had on her vanishing in an instant and I had to hide my smile. She liked riding, which was good, because when the world went to shit around me, I had only two options, my shop or my bike. The time I spent in my shop, I just couldn’t share with anyone. This, though? This I could, and I was surprised to find just how much I enjoyed sharing it with her.
She got on behind me wordlessly and I dug out my spare helmet, which I’d made sure to put with the bike, out of one of the hard sided saddlebags. She put it on, I put mine on buckling up the chinstrap and fired up the bike. She pulled herself snug against my back and my cock began to stir. I told it to shut it, not that it would listen to me, and pulled out onto the drive and down the long track leading to the road.
I’d shot a text to Dragon telling him what was up and he assured me he’d have some guys out to the farm to keep an eye on things. I’d told him that what was up with Boaz might not have been an oversight on Data and Zeb’s the night before, that if he were poisoned, it could have just as easily happened the day before, there just wasn’t any telling. He’d shot back a ‘roger that’ and now I was hoping both our phones could go on ignore for a while.
I took her out on the highway, out past the club and up into the hills and this park with hiking and campgrounds. There were these easy gravel hiking trails and shit and she almost yelped when I took us down one on the bike. I didn’t give a fuck. I knew what I was doing. I pulled off and into a field and through the long grass, stopping and shutting off the bike. I tapped her knee and she got off saying, “What the hell was that?” as I leaned my ride onto its kickstand.
I shrugged with a wry smile and said, “A shortcut.”
“God, you all really have no respect for people, their property or anything do you?” she demanded.
“Hard to explain, but if you want I could try.” I pulled an old knock-off Navajo blanket out of the same saddlebag her helmet had come out of and laid it out by the bike, flopping down onto it on my back.
She sat down gingerly on the edge, keeping her boots off it. I sighed, she could suit herself.
“Okay, explain; you can start with your tattoos.”
I raised an eyebrow, “My tattoos?”
“Yeah, your tattoos.”
I plucked a piece of grass and stuck the end in my mouth, chewing thoughtfully. The bright green flavor tinting my taste buds while I thought how to put it into so many words.
I finally gave a shrug and said, “To get ‘em you’re gonna have to get me.”
“Okay, whatever that means…”
I rolled my eyes and sat up, pulling her down so she lay beside me. She wiggled a bit and finally put her head on my chest to stare into the bright blue sky traced with light white clouds with me.
“Why did you join the club?” she asked finally.
“Wasn’t no other place for me,” I told her.
“How could you think that?”
“You know, not everyone’s rich, right?” I laughed when I said it to take any sting out of it.
“I know that,” she sounded affronted anyways and it was cute.
“You and me, we couldn’t be more different that way,” I said with a dying chuckle.
“So you were poor…”
“No, baby, I was dirt floor poor. I was so poor I couldn’t afford the two o’s and the r. I was just ‘p.’”
She giggled a little at that, “I never looked at myself as rich growing up, I always thought of it as my parent’s money. Not Philip, though…” she adjusted her head, more up onto my shoulder and snuggled a little closer trying to get comfortable. I gave her a light squeeze in my direction.
“Yeah, but your parents had money growing up. Hell, you had parents…”
“Oh come on, surely you had parents!” she said and I went real quiet.
“You couldn’t call ‘em that. Me and Nox were wards of the state. Same with Arch and Grind. We all came up under the same roof, but our foster parents weren’t parents. Not even close.”
“What about your mom?” she asked softly.
“Lot lizard, something our piece of shit foster daddy just loved reminding us about on the regular.”
“I don’t know what that means…” she said quietly and I could tell it bothered her to ask.
“A lot lizard is a hooker at a truck stop. That’s how Nox and I came to be the medical marvels we are today.”
“Medical marvels?”
“We’re twins, but we don’t share the same daddy.” I let her think about that for a while. Finally she gave a little startled ‘oh!’ I nodded, “Yeah.”
“So you have no idea who your fathers are then?”
“Just what they sort of look like and that they drove truck for a living. That’s about it.”
“Oh my god, I don’t know if I could even imagine such a thing.”
“Not gonna sugar coat shit because I ain’t Willy Wonka, there aren’t many kids that had it worse than us comin’ up. Usually the ones that did, well, they didn’t make it.”
“I still don’t understand what that has to do with joining a motorcycle gang.”
“Club.”
“Yeah, but –“
“No buts, it’s a club, a brotherhood that’s given us everything that the life you citizen motherfuckers scorned us for. I’m not gonna lie to you. There was more ‘n one time when I was as young as six or seven when I wished our mamma had done the right thing and aborted us before we’d ever come to term.”
“That’s horrible!” she cried, sitting up and staring down at me aghast.
“That’s the truth of it,” I said. “These fuckin’ red states and their pro-life bullshit. Where are they once kids like me and my brothers are born? Oh yeah, that’s right, screamin’ in our mom’s faces to get a job, and to stop moochin’ off their precious system… Well, my mom had a job, the only one she could get to feed her drug habit that she took on to forget how shitty her life was. Only problem was, she was either too high or didn’t have access to birth control, and so here I am.”
She sat there staring at me, chewing her lip, I hated the pity in her eyes, but it was to be expected. Not a lot of human beings out there could listen to my story and not be moved to pity. The ones that weren’t were typically men or women like me who knew what it was like, or the real monsters that people needed to be afraid of but rarely ever saw them for who they were until it was too late. People like my foster parents, real pieces of shit.
“So the club is what? A way to get back at everyone?”
I laughed, “That’s right where all you citizens go, right from the get go, every damn one of you. You’re about as smart as you are sexy, Bailey. I need you to use those smarts and think about it.”
She blushed and averted her gaze out over the grass to the sound of the nearby river. Finally her shoulders dropped and she sighed, “A place to belong?” she asked finally.
“Bingo.”
“I still don’t quite understand.”
“My brothers have my back and I have theirs. I’m not just talkin’ my twin or my foster brothers. I’m talkin’ men like Dragon and Dray. They had family come callin’ and by all rights, the way your mamma, and yeah by default even you, have treated ‘em they had every reason to tell y’all to fuck off, but did they?”
“No.”
“Did I?”
“No.”
“That’s the point of the club. We just don’t really have time to try and live up to and follow the rules of a society that doesn’t give a good goddamn about us. Y’all have your preconceived notions and we could give a fuck less about correcting your ignorant asses.”
“Wouldn’t it make life easier if you did?”
“Baby, since when has life ever been easy for a man like me?”
She twisted her lips to keep from smiling and picked at the grass by her hip. She looked thoughtful, and finally said, “You know it’s not all sunshine and ros
es on this side of the fence either, don’t you?”
I put my hands behind my head and stared at the sky, “There’s this saying that comes to mind when you said that just now. ‘The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence…’” I said.
“I think everybody knows that saying.”
“You know the rest of it?” I asked and glanced her way. She shook her head.
“On a kind of it’s fertilized with a bunch of bullshit.”
She laughed, a spontaneous sound that wasn’t forced but came from genuine surprise. I liked it on her, she hung her head, smiling, her single braid falling over her shoulder and I took in the moment. Long brown hair, the color of a good chestnut wood dark with stain fell in that braid to just below her breast. Longer than when I’d seen her that first time in the dim light of The Spot.
Her skin was lightly sun kissed. Probably two or three shades darker where she’d tanned than what was underneath her clothes. Her skin smooth and perfect, not battered and scarred like my hide.
She was in her typical work wear of ladies cowboy boots, light denim boot cut jeans, and one of those white spaghetti strapped tank top things with the fancy name that escaped me. Over it, she had on one of them white and blue plaid, snap button, ladies fitted blouses with the sleeves rolled up to the elbow.
For a rich bitch, she worked. Her hands rough and chapped from handling the horses back on the farm. Her liquid dark eyes were definitely a family trait from her mamma’s side. She looked just like the pictures of Dray’s mamma I’d seen. Probably enough like her it’d make Dragon shit a brick sideways if he saw her.
I could see why he was so all over Tillie if the stories were half as true as everyone said they were. I was inclined to believe ‘em. The man was wrapped around the axle for his woman and it seemed to grow more that way, not less, with every passing year that she’d been gone.
Of course, the rich side of Tillie’s family probably never saw it. Never knew anything about the depths any one of us would go… Shit, I was putting even money on the fact mommy dearest would have a full on conniption fit if she saw what her darling daughter was up to with the big, scary, outlaw right now. Good enough to protect her, I’d bet, but so not good enough to fuck her.
I closed my eyes on the vision that was Bailey staring at me curiously, and said, “Any rate, all o’ this aside, I’m sorry about your horse. He was a damn fine animal.”
“I’m more worried about Renaldo. Boaz hurts, but now I’m afraid people think I care more about my horse than I do my friend.”
“The joys of living the socialite life?”
“People judge, it’s not mutually exclusive to the rich, you know. Your people do it just as much as mine do if you want to put it in such a way.” I jumped when she cuddled to my side, laying her head on my shoulder again. “I’d like to think that people are just people, regardless of their socio-economic status.”
I chuckled but kept the thought, spoken like a true rich girl, to myself. We were comfortable, and as adorable as she was when she got all pissypants, I was enjoying this momentary truce. I knew that we couldn’t keep this a secret forever, and that eventually I was going to get burned, but for now I let myself pretend that this could be something.
Chapter 10
Bailey
I drowsed against him the sun warm and with his arm around me, I felt safe. I mean, kind of hard not to when you’d seen the guy take out five others in a few quick moments. I thought about what he’d told me and realized he’d opened up to me, likely in a way he didn’t to many people. I wondered about that. Why he would. Why me of all people? He had that sexy tortured bad boy thing going on now and I wanted to go there. I so wanted to go there, but I was afraid to. Not just because of my mother, I loved her, but honestly her and my father had some seriously skewed views of reality.
I blamed the fact that they had both come from money and their relationship and marriage had practically been an arranged one. I know my mother had found love with my father eventually, but I also knew he hadn’t made it easy on her. It was one of the most depressing things about being a child of privilege and knowing it. Knowing that pretty much the exact same fate awaited me…
I lost track of how many dates my mother had set me up on with her socialite friend’s sons. The ladies from her garden club, and that was laughable all on its own considering not a single one of them would know a hoe from a trowel… anyways, they would always crow about their son’s achievements in this sport or that club and the next thing I knew my Friday night when I was home from school would be all lined up for me with whatever function was the going thing. He’d pick me up at eight in his fancy car that was likely a gift for this or that achievement, birthday, or graduation. Hell, one of them had even gotten a car for beating his first DUI! It was all so ludicrous, awkward, and unbelievable.
“Bailey…” My name startled me coming in that low, almost husky growl from between his lips.
“Yeah?”
“What are you thinking about so hard over there?”
“You’d laugh at me.”
“Try me.”
Well, he opened up to me…
“When I was thirteen, my brother got himself in trouble with this girl.”
Rush chuckled, “Got a girl knocked up, eh?” I think I was silent too long because he jostled me a bit against his shoulder and said, “Bailey, what happened?”
“More like a rape accusation, a bad one. He was sixteen at the time, and as a result, I was sent to boarding school.”
“What the fuck is that?” he demanded.
“Um, I think it was my parent’s way of protecting me from the fall out. You know the ass backwards way of the Bible belt, the first born son can do no wrong and women are all basically property to do with what you will. Well, that was kind of how my father ran our house. Mom and I were just ornaments, although, I think he did listen to my mother in private, you know?”
“I like my women with a fire inside, so no, I really don’t know.”
I snorted, “Seems like you’re just like my father in some ways, or did you forget what happened in the barn so soon?”
“A deal’s a deal. I promised I’d try to forget, but we both know encounters like that, those are the things you never forget. Besides, there’s a difference between breaking a horse’s spirit and taming one.”
I rolled my eyes, “Yes, because comparing our sexual encounter to taming a horse is totally making me feel like less of a piece of property or livestock.”
He laughed, “Okay, fair point, but I can’t think of a better comparison that won’t get me into even deeper shit with you, so gimme a break?”
“Just this one time.”
“Cool, thanks, and I think you know what I meant.”
“I do, I had the choice to walk away.”
“But you didn’t, why is that?”
I blushed furiously and ran through just about every possibility I could come up with and immediately discarded it, because you’re the only man to make me come like that. Nope, I didn’t need to inflate his ego any worse than it already was. Because maybe deep down I’m a rebellious little shit and I wanted to stick it to my rich bitch family like my aunt did? Not only no but hell no, all that would do was reinforce his already poor view of me and my family that all we did was use people.
“Bailey?”
“Honestly?”
“It’s the best policy with someone like me,” he said frankly.
Ouch, okay…
“Nothing that is going to come out of my mouth is going to sound very flattering,” I told him.
“Eh, why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”
“The first time, at the bar, I picked you because I was angry at my brother, my mother, and Caleb. They all just made me so…”
“Pissed off?” he supplied.
“Yes, angry. I saw it as an opportunity to get what I wanted which was a good hard –”
“Fuck.”
“Yes
, thank you; and a way to just stick it to the lot of them all at the same time.”
“I can appreciate the practicality.”
“Really? You’re not mad?”
“Naw, I was out lookin’ for the same thing sort of. A one night stand, a one and done. Was a little butt-hurt you wouldn’t give me your name, though.”
“Wouldn’t have been a one and done if I had, now would it?”
He laughed and said, “Fate seemed to have a few other ideas where that was concerned,” he agreed.
“Yeah, well…”
“So let me ask you this? Why round two?”
I groaned, “Were you there for round one?” He laughed, a rich outpouring of sound that did my heart some surprising good.
“I’m not like them, you know. I don’t want to be like them…”
“I’m kind of getting that,” he said. “Making Blue Hills your last stand that you are your own woman and won’t do what you’re told anymore?”
“Yeah, sort of.”
“Welcome to your first step into the life, then. That’s part of what this is about. Carving something from nothing, making a life that’s better for you going forward and shirking the conventions that ‘the man’ whoever that is to you, has put on you. It’s just one of the reasons people join this life, but it’s usually the most popular.”
“I don’t know about all of that,” I said waving a hand ineffectually.
“Sounds to me you know more than a thing or two about it. Tired of your male relatives and hell, even your mom pigeonholing you as the little woman.”
“I think my mom sort of woke up on that front when my dad died.”
“Why you think that is?”
“I don’t know. I’d have to ask her.”
“Why haven’t you?”
I thought about that for a little bit and finally said, “I guess I don’t want her to hurt, you know? Seem like the thing that would drag up some painful stuff.”
“Yeah, I get that.”
I lay there and wondered what it would be like if I did give it a go, actually dating this guy. I mean, we were from completely different worlds, not to mention it’d probably devastate my mother. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder about a lot of things. Not just what an actual relationship would be like, but all of it. I mean, I already knew the sex would be hot, but what about five, ten, or twenty years from now?
