Crash

by Elana Johnson

  “We want what’s best for you, and what’s best for the club,” Electron continued. “This way, you’ll get to be with Julie and help your brothers in arms.”

  Lucas turned and sat down in the front row, his arms folded and his eyes on something on the wall behind the row of men still standing up front. Stupid Electron. Of course he knew exactly how to appeal to Lucas too. He’d do anything for this club.

  But how did he know he desperately wanted to stay with Julie too?

  Several people asked questions, but Lucas didn’t listen. He didn’t need to. He just needed to know the outcome.

  So thirty minutes later, when Vice said, “And that’s everyone. It’s unanimous, Boss,” Lucas stood up, growled at the men in the front row, and stormed out of the clubhouse without looking back.

  Chapter Nine

  Julie had just poured a splash of chocolate syrup into her warm milk when someone pounded on her front door. Riley’s booming bark filled the air in the next moment, further startling her.

  Her heart pounded so hard it sent vibrations down her arms. She stared at the front door as Riley ran over to it, almost skidding into the flimsy piece of wood separating her from the world outside. In that moment, she was glad she’d done what Lucas had asked her to do when he’d suggested she make sure she locked everything.

  Riley barked and barked, and she looked over her shoulder to Julie, as if she hadn’t heard the pounding. Amidst the continued barking, Julie wasn’t sure if the person had knocked again or not.

  “It’s probably Lucas,” Julie said as she started toward the door. “Hush, Riley.” She wasn’t going to hide behind a closed door, that was for sure. And if it was Lucas, he’d know she was here. Anyone who knew what car she drove would know.

  The Breathers ran through her mind, and she hesitated with her hand on the doorknob. Riley hovered right behind her, and she almost wanted the Daniff to be between her and the door. She’d probably dart in front of Julie once she opened the door, but she still called, “Who is it?”

  Lucas hadn’t texted, and he always had before coming over in the past.

  “It’s Lucas,” he said, and she wasn’t sure how he could put so much anger into such simple words.

  She pulled the door open, and Riley did wedge herself past her to greet Lucas. She loved him, and Julie knew there was something wrong when he barely bent down to greet the dog before coming in. He wore a pure storm on his face as he glanced at her. “We need to talk.”

  “I—okay.” She closed the door behind him and twisted the lock.

  He paced into her kitchen, exhaled, and then faced her.

  “You’re scaring me a little,” she said. Riley wasn’t acting weird, and his bad mood didn’t translate to the dog.

  He did bend down then, scrubbing the dog behind the ears and under her jowls. “Mom doesn’t take you out, does she?” When he looked up again, he was the soft, vulnerable Lucas Julie had started to fall for.

  “It’s cold outside,” she said. “I was just making hot chocolate. Do you want some?”

  Lucas straightened and took in the spread on the counter. “With chocolate syrup?”

  “Yeah, I’m not melting down chocolate or anything,” she said. “If you’re not happy about it, there’s a Starbucks down the street.”

  “They’re closed,” he said. “It’s late. I’m surprised you’re up.”

  “With the way you pounded on my door, you would’ve woken me.” Julie had felt cold since she’d gotten home from work, and she currently wore a pair of gray leggings and an oversized sweater in a shade of pink she would’ve never gone out in public wearing. She pulled down the sleeves to cover her hands and folded her arms.

  “I’m sorry.” Lucas opened his arms to her, and Julie stepped into them.

  “Bad day at work?” she asked, though she knew that his job had nothing to do with this mood. She’d never seen Lucas like this, so angry and so filled with frustration.

  “No.”

  “Something with the club then.” But church had been last night. She knew he spent every evening at Ruby’s, even though he told her very little. He answered questions about motorcycle clubs in general, but she wasn’t a member of his club, and he wouldn’t take her to church. He had mentioned that Julie could possibly come to Ruby’s and meet his friends if they weren’t holding a church meeting. But she hadn’t pushed the issue about meeting his friends. She’d met Jordan and Felicia, and she hadn’t needed more.

  “Something with the club,” Lucas murmured, swaying on his feet and taking her with him. They danced to a tune only he could hear in his head, and Julie let him hold her and breathe in the scent of her hair. The way he seemed to need her made her feel special and cherished, but Julie didn’t like how he wouldn’t say what was going on.

  Several minutes later, he said, “Mav said he wants to meet you.” He cleared his throat and stepped back. He went into her kitchen and picked up where she’d left off making her hot chocolate. “He has some questions for you.”

  “Questions?”

  “About Lawrence.” He put the chocolate milk in the microwave and pushed the minute button to turn it into hot chocolate. “Nothing hard, Jules.”

  “I don’t know anything,” Julie said automatically.

  “More than we do,” he said. “We just want to know a few things about your brother. What he did for a living, and what kind of person he was.”

  Julie exhaled as she looked at Riley. Lawrence was the kind of person who liked big dogs and loud music. He knew stuff about the law no one else did, and she’d teased him more than once about the useless knowledge that he held inside his head. He’d always won the trivia games they’d played growing up, to the point that Julie and Charlie wouldn’t play with him anymore.

  Lawrence had liked Italian food, and dark coffee, and running early in the morning.

  She hated that she was thinking of him in past tense, as if he had died. But in a lot of ways, he had. Even the man that had shown up on her porch last week hadn’t been the Lawrence she’d known. Whatever he’d been through the last six months had changed him, and Julie didn’t know if it was for the better or not.

  Lucas set the steaming mug in front of her and sat at the counter. “Saturday night?” He looked at her expectantly. “You don’t have to work Sunday, right?”

  “Or Monday.” Nerves fluttered in her chest. “What kind of questions?”

  “I’ll be there,” Lucas said, lacing his fingers through hers. “Julie, if they claim you….” He shook his head.

  She took a shaky sip of her hot chocolate, unsure of what to say to him. He said he’d be there on Saturday night, but what if she’d been claimed by then? She hated the very fact that this rival club had any sway over her life at all. A few weeks ago, she didn’t even know the Devil’s Breath existed.

  “I should go.” Lucas stood up, planted a kiss on her temple, and headed for the door.

  A couple of seconds passed before Julie’s brain caught up to the situation, and she blurted, “Wait,” as Lucas opened the front door. He turned back as she slid off the barstool. “If this is about to be over, you better kiss me before you go.”

  She’d hoped that would earn her a smile, but it didn’t. He watched her approach with a dark glint in his eyes, but he didn’t protest when she tilted her head back and stretched up to kiss him.

  He let her, taking control of the kiss easily a few seconds later, moving it from slow and sweet to something filled with passion and desire. All of the things Julie felt for him too, and she didn’t care about the chill leaking into the house or what the neighbors would think if they saw her kissing him.

  “See you tomorrow at work,” he finally said, his lips catching on hers before he stepped back. She held onto the door as he went down the front steps and started his motorcycle. When she finally closed it, she pressed her back into the wood as she locked the door.

  She really didn’t want to lose him, not when it felt like their relationship
had just started. She felt stuck in a position she had never imagined before, and that was almost impossible to get out of.

  Eyeing her hot chocolate still on the counter, she left it right where it was and headed down the hallway to her bedroom, saying, “Come on, Riley. Time for bed.” She’d wait until Saturday and answer all of Maverick’s questions.

  She had a few for him too.

  Her stomach woke angry with her on Saturday morning. She went to work anyway, and no matter how many sips of water she took, or how many people she helped, or the pie-only lunch she ate, it wouldn’t settle down.

  Lucas pulled up to her house right on time, ready to fulfill his promise to take her to dinner before their meeting with Maverick.

  Julie had dressed in the tightest pair of jeans she owned, and leather boots that she could ride a motorcycle in, and a navy blue sweater with small, red hearts on it. The leather jacket she’d bought would fit over the sweater, and she’d learned how cold it could be on the back of a bike. So she’d bought herself a scarf, and she got up from the dining room table when she’d been paying bills to retrieve the scarf.

  Riley barked before Lucas knocked, and Julie shushed the dog before letting in her boyfriend. He was like the polar opposite of the man who’d stopped by on Thursday night, a bright ray of sunshine on this mid-January evening. “Hey.” He grinned at her, stole a kiss as he entered, and bent down with a more exuberant greeting for the Daniff.

  Julie continued to get ready to face the arctic temperatures while Lucas worked on teaching Riley how to give him high five. “I’ll be back tomorrow,” he promised the dog, and Julie supposed she’d get to see him then too.

  “Ready?” he asked, straightening and pulling his gloves on again.

  She nodded and turned back to the door. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt like she was marching to something bad. Dangerous. Even Lucas’s arm around her shoulders didn’t comfort her, and she told herself to relax as she climbed onto the back of his bike.

  Riding with him did give her a thrill, and she pressed right into his back and moved with him. They became a single unit, and Julie breathed in deeply as he pulled up to restaurant he’d chosen for dinner.

  It wasn’t anything fancy, and Julie didn’t mind. She knew Lucas didn’t have a lot of money, and she finally started to feel more like herself as she stepped off the bike and waited for Lucas to hang up their helmets. She reached for his hand, and they went inside Mustang’s, the best place in Forbidden Lake for a unique burger and crispy shoestring fries.

  “They have a killer meatball sandwich here,” Lucas said as he held the door open for her.

  “Really?” Julie asked. “I always get the bacon hickory avocado burger.”

  “Do you actually eat all of that?”

  “Half, at least,” she said. “We can share if you want, but I want all the fries.”

  “Then I’m not sharing.” He grinned at her, and they seated themselves. Julie held onto the normalcy of it, enjoyed her burger—only half of it—and almost forgot why they couldn’t stay in the booth until they were hungry again.

  Lucas’s anxiety seeped into the air as they drove over to Ruby’s, and they both stayed on his bike after he’d turned it off.

  “Okay,” Julie said, removing her helmet and shaking out her hair. “It’s too cold to stay out here.”

  “And Mav’s waiting.” Lucas nodded toward the door, and she caught sight of a man standing there. She’d never met Maverick Malone before, but Lucas had told her volumes about the man. Lucas held him in high regard, and he said “Mav” had a loud bark with almost no bite.

  “Depending,” he’d said.

  When Julie had asked, “On what?” he hadn’t answered.

  He got off the motorcycle too, and after hanging their helmets on the handlebars, he took her hand, and they faced the door together. Maverick still stood there, and Jordan had joined him. Neither of them looked happy, and Julie’s whole body wanted to revolt. Run as far from Ruby’s as possible and never come back.

  Instead, she stepped inside, going in front of Lucas as Maverick held the door open.

  “Julie,” Lucas said, and it seemed like he was talking so slow. “This is Maverick Malone. He runs this place. You remember Jordan.”

  “Yes,” Julie said, her voice more of a croak than anything else.

  “Guys, this is Julie Paige.”

  Maverick’s eyes slid down to her feet and back to her eyes, a smile blooming on his face. “Nice to meet you.” He shook her hand, and Julie relaxed a little bit more. “My wife made some bread for you.”

  She took the loaf with a red ribbon wrapped around it, trying to make the pieces of this place line up. A tall, broad man wearing leather from head to toe wielding…honey wheat bread. And a wife.

  “How’s she feeling?” Julie asked, remembering that Lucas had said Maverick’s wife was pregnant.

  “She’s doing great.” Maverick gestured for her to go toward a room down the hall a little bit, and Julie managed to get her feet moving in that direction. The room she entered was filled with benches and chairs, and they all faced a large, flat-screen TV, which was dark.

  “Have you told her?” Jordan asked, almost under his breath.

  Julie felt like everyone in the room knew something she didn’t, and it was not a good feeling. “In here?” she asked. Seemed like a weird place to have a casual meeting with his friends. A really big conference room for a couple of easy questions.

  She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but it wasn’t this. The room was longer than it was wide, and Julie had taken a couple of steps inside when more voices joined the room behind her.

  Lucas blocked her view. She took a deep breath of the almost sterile scent in the air, along with motor oil and…chocolate?

  “Ice cream,” someone said, and a thin man pushed through the bigger bikers to the table beside the door. Several more men followed, some carrying utensils, some bowls, and some various ice cream toppings. All of them looked at her, and none of them seemed surprised to see her there. A couple of them actually nodded at her, and she edged closer to Lucas.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  A muscle in his jaw jumped, and his mouth barely moved as he said, “I’m sorry, Julie. I wanted to tell you, but we thought this might be best.”

  “What might be best?”

  “Let’s gather in,” Maverick said. “Everyone, take a seat.”

  Julie watched with horror and surprise as the room started filling with motorcycle club members. Where they’d all been hiding when she’d arrived, she had no idea. But the benches and chairs filled up quickly. She sat in the front row with Lucas and Jordan while Maverick loitered up front.

  Only a few seconds later he said, “Okay, church is open. Lucas, introduce our newest member of the club.”

  Church? Julie wondered. She didn’t think she was allowed to come to their church meetings. She looked at Lucas and then down the row of men, expecting the new person to be there.

  Her boyfriend stood up, cleared his throat, and faced the group. “Guys, this is Julie Paige.” He reached his hand out toward her, as if she’d jump to her feet, all smiles.

  She couldn’t breathe, and her eyes opened as widely as they could go. So did her mouth.

  “Newest member of the club?” she blurted out. “What does that mean?”

  “See, guys?” Lucas said, glaring around at everyone.

  Julie got to her feet, her gaze boring a hole in Lucas’s face, willing him to look at her. “Lucas Miner,” she said. “You better tell me what’s going on right now.”

  He exhaled and wiped his hand down his face. “Julie, you’re a Sentinel now. And when the Breathers claim you, both of us—me and you—and going to leave this club and join theirs.” He looked at her then. “It sounds bad, I’ll admit.”

  “Bad?” Her voice could’ve called dogs. “This isn’t happening.” She turned around and faced the group. But that only fed her nerves, which vib
rated at her powerfully. Not one biker was smiling, and she didn’t think she’d make it two steps before someone would grab her.

  She had to try though.

  After focusing back on Lucas, she glared at him. “You should’ve told me.” She slapped his bicep, her hand making an angry sound against his jacket. “Come for a few questions, Jules. Easy questions. I can’t believe this.”

  She stomped away from him, and sure enough, two men got up and blocked the exit before she even made it to the end of the row.

  Her heart pounced in her chest, and she heaved breath after breath, trying to figure out which was worse—being stuck here with all these bikers or having to deal with Lucas’s betrayal.

  Chapter Ten

  Lucas wanted to rip Maverick’s face off. His fingers clenched as Julie searched the room, presumably for a way out. “Just hear us out,” he said. At least she’d shown what her mouth could do. Maybe Jordan, Maverick, and the others would have second-thoughts now.

  “Hear you out?” she said, and he wished he didn’t have to have this argument with her in front of everyone. He refused to shuffle his feet though. Refused to let anyone know how uncomfortable he was.

  “We can help you find Lawrence,” he said, his voice quiet and deadly. “They’re going to claim you, Julie, and this way, I’ll be able to stay with you. Protect you on the inside.”

  She glanced at the crowd and looked back at him. “I don’t want to be part of any club.”

  “It’s too late for that,” Maverick said. “They have your brother, ma’am, and—”

  “She doesn’t like being called ma’am,” Lucas said at the same time Julie switched her sharp glare to Maverick and said, “Don’t call me ma’am.”