“Sure.” Gonzo looked back for a moment at the supine blonde. She opened her eyes lazily. Smirking, she lifted a lacquered finger and wiped a dribble of cum from the corner of her mouth as she winked at him. Gonzo turned his gaze back toward his buddy and walked toward the bar. The club that plays together, stays together, he thought to himself wryly.
Chapter Two
One Year Later
“What’s wrong with it?” Brenna asked impatiently as she shifted her weight from side to side. She rubbed her hands up and down on her arms to warm up as Chad peered under the hood of the car.
“How the fuck should I know?” Chad snapped. He was pissed because this was a new car, courtesy of his bank president father. He was doubly pissed because he and Brenna were late for the restaurant reservation he had made for their two-year anniversary. Brenna was trying as hard as she could not to say or do anything to aggravate Chad and ruin the mood. Unfortunately, she had a sinking feeling it was too late for that.
The car trouble notwithstanding, his temper had been fouler and fouler lately. It had gotten to the point where she found herself unconsciously taking his attitudinal temperature before she said anything. Normally, a few flattering words about how smart or hot he was would do the trick, but she doubted very much that would work here – at least, not until the car was fixed and they were on their way.
“Is there anything I can do?” she began timidly. Looking at her wristwatch, she murmured, “Our reservation is in ten minutes.”
“No!” Chad replied angrily. “We’ll make it as long as I can figure out what’s wrong. Now, shut the fuck up and let me think!”
Brenna stifled a sigh. She knew it wasn’t likely Chad would be able to get the car running. A lifetime of hiring other people to do the unpleasant and boring tasks of everyday life didn’t leave one very well equipped to handle unexpected situations like this one by yourself. Brenna realized that she was being uncharitable toward Chad in having thoughts like this. After all, she herself didn’t know the first thing about cars, either. She supposed it was sexist to expect him to know more than she did. Still, Chad’s main skill set, other than being fashion-model handsome and looking fantastic in a pair of jeans, seemed to be limited to spending other people’s money and accepting compliments like he was owed them. Even now, he would almost look like an ad for the BMW he was leaning over, if not for the angry scowl creasing his brow and making his square jaw tense in frustration.
Brenna shivered a little in her flimsy dress as she shifted from foot to foot. Her sweater was in the car – hell, she could just get in the car and out of the cool evening air – but she somehow sensed that this gesture would be interpreted by Chad as a sign of disloyalty. As though by grabbing her sweater or going inside to warm up was a sign that she had no faith in his ability to find a speedy solution to their car problem. Chad was normally almost aggressively chivalrous – especially when other people were around – but when he got angry or impatient, he turned sullen and mercurial. Brenna had known him long enough to know this about him.
Chad’s character limitations hadn’t been such a big deal when they were seniors in high school. Back then, the only really important factors in considering a boyfriend were looks and popularity, and Chad had plenty of both. It had been enough for her to be seen on the arm of the best-looking guy in the senior class, captain of the football team. She had loved appearing on his arm at dances; it was as though there was a beacon above her head that flashed “HE chose me!” Having been raised without a mother by a father who was often absent, Brenna had craved the attention of Bear Connor growing up. Unfortunately, Bear’s duties with the city kept him away from home a good chunk of the time. He would sometimes bring her as his “date” to political functions when she was a girl, and Brenna remembered how special she felt when he paraded her around and introduced her to influential donors and business people as “his little princess.” Chad’s attentions had given her a similar special feeling, and she had mistaken it for real affection at first. Superficially, Chad was the natural partner for her, complementing her dark hair and eyes and creamy skin with his blond, surfer boy good looks. Both of them were the children of important figures in town. The two of them were such an all-star couple, so admired, that Brenna had found it easy at first to push away the nagging thoughts of how bored she was when they were alone together.
Chad seemed to like having Brenna as arm candy as much as she liked appearing next to him. But when it was just the two of them alone, it was expected that the conversation would be all about Chad. Brenna couldn’t even count how many endless hours she had spent on his parents’ couch, watching him play video games and cooing with admiration at his skill. In many ways, she found, being Chad Burke’s girlfriend was a lot like being Bear Connor’s daughter: she was the ornament that accentuated his success.
Sexually, Chad seemed to view her purpose in a similar fashion. Chad approached fucking like he approached football: he wasn’t much of a team player, but he had enough bravado that most people were taken in by his performance. Brenna had lost her virginity to him one disappointing night at his parents’ house, feeling like a secondary character in a porn film while he flexed, postured, and hammered away at her. After he had come, pulling out and spraying his release on her stomach, she had wordlessly followed him back downstairs to watch him play video games some more.
As Brenna stood now watching her boyfriend fume and putter around the car, she stifled a heavy sigh. Since graduation, she had stayed with him more out of inertia than anything else. Chad had applied and been accepted at the state university mostly because his old man had expected him to. He had gone for a year, during which time his grades had suffered from his lack of attendance and interest, and then decided to take a break. Since the beginning of the summer, he had done nothing but party and act like he was still in high school. His buddies, most of who were still in Crystal Spring, were still ready to cheer him on in his juvenile antics.
Brenna, for her part, had not applied to college right out of high school. Instead, she had continued to work for Dr. Harper’s veterinary clinic as she had since her junior year. She enjoyed the work, especially the animals, and reasoned that it didn’t make sense to go to college unless she really knew what she wanted to do with her education. This decision had angered her father, who thought that college for young women was still mostly about getting an “M.R.S.” degree – a sort of finishing school for the future wives of important men. But Brenna had held firm and kept working at the vet clinic, even though it meant that she was still living at her father’s house at twenty years old.
In many ways, life for Brenna now was almost exactly like it had been in high school. Except that Brenna’s boredom, easier to stifle back then, was reaching a tipping point. She knew that everyone in their old crowd, including her father and Chad’s parents, assumed that Chad and Brenna would eventually get married. Chad, too, seemed to take this for granted. Brenna’s father was the mayor of Crystal Spring, and Chad’s father was president of the biggest bank in town. Both men had offered Chad jobs, and both had indulgently accepted his request to wait until summer was over to make his decision, so he could have one last time to party before assuming his adult responsibilities. Now that it was September, the time had come for him to decide. Chad was leaning toward the mayor’s offer to be Brenna’s father’s assistant, and Brenna knew that time was running out if she wanted to break things off with him.
“Fuck!” he sputtered now as he burned himself on the car’s engine. Brenna felt a rising wave of irritation course through her. “Why don’t we walk down the road and find a house? We can call someone to come tow the car, or something?” she suggested. “And we can cancel the reservation. It’s not a big deal.” Suddenly, the idea of celebrating their anniversary exhausted her.
“Goddamn it,” Chad muttered. He didn’t acknowledge her suggestion, but began talking as though to himself. “Maybe we could call Tack and have him come pick us up,” he said, glancing down the road t
o see whether there were any houses near. Brenna didn’t relish the idea of having to ride back into town with the loudest and most obnoxious of Chad’s friends, but she knew better than to say anything.
Suddenly, Brenna turned toward the sound of motors rumbling in the distance. Over the crest of the hill came two motorcycles – Harleys, from the sound of them – headed in their direction. Brenna stepped out toward the center of the road and waved her arms to flag them down. The two bikes slowed and pulled over to the side of the road behind their car. One after another, they leaned their bikes on the stands and pulled off their half helmets. Brenna recognized both of them as having been a couple of grades ahead of her in high school. One, she knew, was Kyle Hendricks – the blond one with the scruffy shadow of a beard. The other, the one with dark hair, she recognized but couldn’t remember his name.
“Hey,” the one named Kyle nodded at her. There was a flicker of recognition in his eyes as he looked her over. He was larger, more muscular than she remembered, and there was a frank masculinity about him that made her stomach flutter a little. His gaze lingered on her briefly, slipping down to appreciate her curves, and then he turned to Chad. “What seems to be the problem?”
Chad was clearly uncomfortable at the prospect of two bikers showing up his masculinity, but he did his best not to show it. “Not sure,” he replied, unconsciously imitating the clipped speech of the biker. “Just stopped running. Haven’t had much time to look under the hood before you guys got here.” Chad cut his eyes at Brenna with annoyance.
“Let’s take a look,” Kyle said easily. He and the other biker approached the car and peered under the hood. “Try to start it, Spider, let’s see what it does,” said Kyle to the other man.
The biker named Spider turned toward the driver’s side door, and Brenna caught a glimpse of the rockers and logo on his leather cut: Fugitives MC, California. She recognized the name and symbols from seeing the vests around town. Chad was put out that the two men weren’t including him in their conversation about the car, but tried not to show it. “Could be the plugs, maybe,” he offered.
“Nah, not likely,” Spider replied from the driver’s seat. Chad’s eyes clouded over in anger. He was not used to being dismissed so casually. “Ready, Gonzo?”
“Yeah,” Kyle called. Spider turned the ignition. Kyle – apparently called Gonzo, now? – listened to the engine turn over
“Was the car overheating?” Gonzo asked Chad.
“Uh, yeah, I guess it was running kind of hot,” Chad said. “It’s a new car, though. I just figured that was the temperature it ran at.”
Gonzo reached down and pulled out a large knife from a holster at his ankle. Using the blade as a screwdriver, he leaned into the car and made a small adjustment. He cocked his head, frowning. “Bad fuel injector, I think,” he called to Spider.
“Yeah,” Spider agreed, getting out of the car.
“What does that mean?” Chad asked.
“You’re gonna have to get the fuel injector replaced. Or it could be an electrical failure of the circuit that drives the injector.”
“How do you know?” Chad challenged him.
“I just do,” Gonzo shrugged. “You need a ride somewhere?”
“Should we go call my dad or someone?” Brenna offered.
“Shut up!” Chad spat at her. Turning to Gonzo, he smirked, “Look, I get that you think you know what you’re talking about, but this is a BMW. Pretty sure you don’t have one of these at home.”
A flash of something unreadable flared in Gonzo’s gaze. “Apologize to the lady,” he said quietly.
“Ex-fucking-cuse me?” Chad laughed in disbelief.
“I said apologize to your lady friend,” Gonzo repeated. “It’s not her fault you don’t know anything about your own car. She was just trying to help.”
“You better shut your fucking mouth and keep your nose out of my business,” Chad hissed back. “I didn’t ask you to stop. I got everything under control here.”
“Your lady friend here didn’t seem to think so,” Spider smirked. Oh, shit, Brenna thought. There was gonna be hell to pay with Chad once these guys left. She knew instantly that Chad was going to blame her for this whole thing now. She mentally prepared herself for the screaming match she was likely to have to endure.
“Speakin’ of which,” Gonzo continued, “she looks cold, standin’ out here in that tiny little dress. You cold, darlin’?” Gonzo winked, turning to her. His frank gaze bored into her, sliding over her curves as though the dress wasn’t even there. Brenna found herself getting aroused by the heat and intensity of this man, who was so different from the pampered rich boy beside him that was sputtering with rage.
“I… I have a sweater in the car,” she stammered, blushing, and retreated to the passenger side door to get some distance between her and this man who was causing her panties to dampen alarmingly.
“Look, why don’t you two just get the fuck out of here,” Chad snarled, his eyes locked on Gonzo in hate.
“Glad to,” Gonzo replied easily. “But I ain’t leaving her out here alone with a jackass.” He turned to look at Brenna, his eyes descending briefly to caress her breasts. “Either she comes with me, or we’ll wait here until you get someone out to help you.”
“She doesn’t want to go with you, asswipe.” Chad took a step closer to Gonzo, leaning in with a menacing look. “You think she’s gonna want to get on the back of a shitty bike with a fuckin’ grease monkey, you’re outta your goddamn mind.” He looked at Brenna for confirmation.
As she looked from Chad to Gonzo and back again, both men’s gazes locked on her, something inside Brenna gave way. She realized, with a clarity that she had lacked before, that it was already over between her and Chad. It had been for a while now. She just hadn’t had the courage to end it properly. Suddenly, all she wanted was for it to be finished for good. “Actually,” she said, meeting Gonzo’s gaze, “I do want to go with you.” She reached into the car through the open window and grabbed her purse along with her sweater. She stepped back toward the men and drew herself up straight. “Chad, I’m going home,” she said firmly. “Sorry about leaving you like this, but… I think it’s better this way.”
“The fuck do you think you’re talking about?” Chad demanded, grabbing her painfully by the arm. Brenna winced and tried to pull away, but his hold on her was too tight. Chad’s outrage at being humiliated in front of the two bikers came out as he yanked her violently to his side, causing her to stumble and almost fall. Gonzo stepped forward and caught her.
“Let go of her,” he said. His tone was calm, but there was an undercurrent of steel beneath it that both frightened and excited Brenna.
“Fuck you, asshole,” Chad sneered.
Before Brenna could react, Gonzo had Chad’s left arm behind his back and was yanking it upwards, causing Chad to yelp in pain. “I said, Let. Go. Of. Her.”
Chad slowly released his hold on Brenna’s arm. She stepped back away from him and massaged her bicep with her other hand.
“That’s better,” Gonzo said smoothly, releasing his hold on Chad. Turning to Brenna, he began to speak: “You…”
But he had no time to finish his sentence as Chad launched himself at the biker, his fist raised to punch Gonzo in the face. The first punch connected, but badly, and Gonzo staggered a bit as he turned toward the other man. Brenna stifled a cry and stepped out of the way as Gonzo pivoted and smashed Chad solidly in the chin, knocking him to the ground. Then Gonzo was on top of him, punching rhythmically as Chad tried to deflect the blows. Spider watched impassively for a few seconds, and then calmly said, “That’s enough, brother.”
Swearing under his breath, Gonzo stood up and looked at Chad as he lay writhing on the ground. “You got a fucking attitude problem,” Gonzo said conversationally. “Might wanna fix that. And another thing,” he continued, glancing at Brenna. “You got a few things to learn about how to treat women.”
Gonzo spat on the ground next to Chad, a
nd muttered, “Asshole.” Then, turning to Brenna, he addressed her as if nothing had happened. “You ever been on a bike before?”
“No,” Brenna replied shakily.
“It’s gonna be a little cold, in that dress,” he replied, giving her an appreciative once-over. “But you’ll make it.” He walked back to his bike and handed her his half-helmet, watching silently as she put it on. “Let’s go.” Gonzo nodded to Spider: “Go on ahead without me. I’ll see you at the Horse in a while.”
Spider nodded wordlessly and got on his bike. He started the engine, then pulled out onto the highway and sped away. Gonzo stepped close to his bike and straddled it, then motioned for Brenna to get on behind him. “Just put your feet on those pegs there,” he said, pointing, “and hold on to me. Lean when the bike leans, and keep your feet on the pegs. Don’t put them down at intersections.”
“Hey!” Chad cried. “You’re not leaving me out here!”
“Really?” Gonzo replied mildly. “That’s sure what it looks like.”
Gonzo pressed the ignition and the engine of the Harley roared to life. Brenna placed her high-heeled feet on the pegs and wrapped her arms around the biker’s muscled torso, taking in the aroma of leather and sunshine that permeated it. Leaning into him for warmth, she felt the bike take off underneath her as her stomach dropped with fear and exhilaration. As they pulled out onto the deserted road, Brenna looked back to catch a last glimpse of Chad, his face bloodied and his hands curled into fists. She turned her head and watched silently as he grew smaller and smaller behind her, finally disappearing into the distance. Sighing, the corners of her mouth turning up just slightly, she turned her head forward toward the open road.
Chapter Three
Mike Rubensen leaned back in his chair as he picked up the call from the front desk. “Yeah,” he barked.
Holly’s crisp voice answered him: “Bear Connor is here to see you.”
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