Life to My Flight

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Then my stomach started to knot.

  “That could’ve been her,” I said aloud, but not meaning to.

  “That’s something else I wanted to talk to you about,” Loki said quietly. “That’s why I invited myself over. Audrey said something to me today. Something you’re not going to like.”

  I closed my eyes and waited, knowing down deep that it was going to be bad.

  “Audrey said today while she confirmed her statement that the man said something,” Loki said quietly as he watched the door where Rue had disappeared earlier. “Audrey and Rue were seen together the day it’d happened. Audrey was a message…to Rue.”

  The men surrounding me stayed silent as I processed what was said.

  “She got punished for being friends with Rue,” I stated softly.

  Tunnel’s face was set in stone, and Loki’s was just as hard as he nodded his head in confirmation. “Yeah.”

  I took a long, deep breath. “Don’t let Rue find out. That’d gut her.”

  Fuck.

  Rue came out of the house moments after my epiphany and I knew, right then and there, that whatever I had to do, I’d keep her safe.

  It wouldn’t happen to her.

  Oh, she’d be watched like a hawk, and she’d feel smothered, but that wouldn’t be happening. Not now. Not fucking ever.

  Chapter 16

  Treat your woman like a princess, and fuck her like a whore.

  -Biker rule number fifty seven

  Cleo

  “You’re buying the company?” Rue asked in surprised.

  Silas, who’d just informed us that he’d already set plans in motion to buy Life Flight, said it’d be finalized within the next couple of months.

  In the meantime, he had complete control of who did and didn’t work there. So I now had my job back, as well as a new supervisor position to boot.

  “I’m not really supervisor material,” I said worriedly.

  Rue snorted. “He’s really not.”

  I winked at her.

  “To be honest, I don’t really care if you are or not. You’re doing this, because I want you to do this. There’s no other reason,” Silas informed me.

  I sighed.

  I knew chain of command.

  I also knew our MC.

  If my president wanted me to do it, I’d do it. But I wouldn’t necessarily like it.

  “I don’t have to have his office, do I?” I clarified.

  He shook his head. “No, for now, Alfonzo is staying in place. He’s still got his title, just not any pull, or rank. He can no longer make those decisions, either. The man I bought it from, Ulysses, was a buddy of mine from Desert Storm. He’s got prostate and rectal cancer, and isn’t doing so well any more. His kids are all dead, and he’s unaware of what’s been going on. The partner who’d helped found the Life Flight here in Shreveport died a couple of years ago, but left it all to Ulysses. Kid was pretty bitter about it, so Ulysses gave him the job as ‘director’ about a year ago. Then he got sick, and the kid had to pick up quite a bit of the slack.”

  I grimaced. “I knew the prick. His name’s Forrester. Brenton Forrester.”

  Silas nodded, flicking his eyes once to Rue before moving them back to me. “Yeah, it is. He’s the one you’ve been showing off for. The new bird you got a couple of weeks ago is his doing. He’s also pulled the money out of somewhere, but none of it has anything to do with the business. That’s what has Ulysses in a tither. He thinks the kid is into some bad shit, and after seeing some of the shit he’s bought in the last couple months, with no money trail in sight, I’m wanting to agree with him.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense. Why the heck would he want to buy stuff for the company? And aren’t helicopters like…a million dollars? What was wrong with the old one? I seem to remember hearing the ER talking about that a couple of months ago. They’d just gotten a new one around four years ago, right?” Rue asked me.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. I started working within a week after getting the new bird.”

  “Where do they house the old one, or is it still used?” Silas asked.

  I shook my head. “Not anywhere that I know of. We use just the one.”

  Silas sat back in his chair, looking out the window thoughtfully.

  Silas lived almost directly across the same lake that Kettle and Sebastian lived on; Silas’ house was much smaller, though. It was a nice place, but there wasn’t much to it.

  Which I guess suited Silas. And also explained why he was able to afford buying a company like it was no skin off his nose.

  I wasn’t doing badly, but I wasn’t a millionaire, either.

  I made an honest living, but I lived paycheck to paycheck just like the rest of the world.

  No one would think by the way Silas lived that he had the kind of money to throw around like that, either.

  “I’ll do some looking into it. In the meantime, just go about doing your job. Keep an ear out, though. You never know what you’ll hear,” Silas said before standing, which was our cue to leave.

  Rue stood along with me, and we all started walking towards Silas’ front door.

  I opened it, interrupting a woman’s attempted knock.

  “Oh!” The woman exclaimed. “You scared me. Is Silas- Oh! Hey, Silas! I wanted to see if I could trouble you for a cup of beer.”

  I blinked.

  Well that line was original.

  I’d heard of asking the neighbor for sugar…but beer was definitely unique.

  “Oh, sure thing Reba, darlin’,” Silas said as he disappeared into the kitchen.

  We all stared at each other.

  Rue and Reba looked at each other quizzically for long moments before they both came to a realization at the same time.

  “Reba!”

  “Rue!”

  They both yelled each other’s names and then started laughing.

  “I take it you two know each other?” I asked dryly.

  Rue nodded. “Yep. She’s a float nurse. Reba, this is Cleo. Cleo, Reba. I don’t see her all that often. I knew I’d seen you somewhere.”

  The last statement had been directed towards Reba who’d held out her hand for me to shake.

  Reba nodded. “Yep. I don’t like being in one place too long. It’s a good way to keep out of the drama that goes on with each floor.”

  “I know that’s right,” Rue agreed. “Sometimes when I’m working, I swear it feels like I’m in high school. Whispering about other people behind the other’s back. Groups of popular kids, the jocks, and then the loners. We don’t even sit at the same table when we have lunch together.”

  I’d never experienced that in high school.

  When I was sixteen, I was in the work program and at work once lunch time hit.

  I’d joined the Air Force immediately out of high school, shocking not only my sisters, but my mother as well.

  I’d needed out, though.

  I was being smothered by estrogen.

  “Exactly. I’m sorry to hear about that young girl. The sitter. How’s she doing?” Reba asked.

  That sobered the two of them up quickly.

  For me, though, that only just served to set fire to my blood even more.

  I’d managed to mask it slightly while we were discussing what my part in this was, but now that I’d been reminded of it, yet again, it was right back to the forefront of my mind.

  Which brought up another uncomfortable topic.

  That Rue was now staying with me.

  I’d only have to tell her.

  Which sounded about as fun as baptizing a cat.

  “Here you go,” Silas said as he came back with an unopened beer.

  He handed it over to Reba, who blushed. “Thank you, but I didn’t need the whole can, just a cup.”

  He took the beer out of her hand, opened it, and then took a few chugs before handing it back to her. “There you go.”

  Reba rolled her eyes. “I’m making beer bread again. I may need s
omeone to make sure it tastes all right.”

  I sensed that we were no longer needed here. “Well, all right, I’ll see you later in the week, Silas. Good to meet you, Reba.”

  “Night,” Silas said, “Be good,” he continued and then resumed ignoring us.

  “Silas and Reba sitting in a tree, k-i-s-,” Rue sang before I stopped her with my palm over her mouth.

  Her eyes were dancing with mirth as I let her mouth go and kept walking to the bike that was parked at the end of the drive.

  “The man has super hearing. I guarantee he heard you,” I said once we were to the bike.

  She shook her head vehemently. “No, he didn’t.”

  “Yes I did,” Silas called from the porch, causing me to burst out laughing, and Rue’s face to turn a cherry red.

  “You wanna go for a little ride, and then head to my place?” I asked hopefully.

  She turned her head to the side before straightening up and throwing one long leg over the side as she straddled the bike. “Yep.

  Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I mounted the bike in front of her and started the bike. “Let’s ride.”

  “Take us on a back road,” Rue ordered before the wind drowned the sound of her voice out.

  We drove to Rue’s apartment first, only staying long enough for her to pack a bag for a couple of nights.

  Then we set off on the back roads of Louisiana.

  I’d found through numerous rides through the Eastern half of Louisiana that I could get lost in the landscape very easily.

  Louisiana was infamous for its bayous.

  They were everywhere you went.

  On each and every road you passed, there’d be no less than two bridges that you had to cross to go over bayou after bayou.

  That’s why I wanted to live on the bayou.

  It was peaceful.

  I was always the one who took the road less traveled, and it was nice to find someone that wanted to do the same with me.

  It was near midnight when I finally turned into my driveway.

  Rue had been laying with her head on my back for the past forty five minutes, but she wasn’t complaining.

  In fact, she was on the opposite end of the spectrum, very nearly at contentment.

  I pulled under the house and turned off the bike, sitting like that with Rue for a long minute before I patted her hand. “Let’s go inside. I’m beat.”

  Just as those words left my mouth, a set of headlights that’d caught my attention as it turned onto the road, turned into my driveway.

  “Fuck,” I sighed.

  I’d known that this confrontation was going to happen, but I’d thought that they’d at least give me a couple of days.

  Of course, my sisters were lost when their only brother was mad at them, and I should’ve known better.

  “I’d really hoped that they’d leave it until tomorrow,” I sighed and raised up off the bike.

  Rue laughed as she, too, rose from her perch and stretched her arms up. “Honestly? I didn’t. I thought they’d be here waiting for you to get home. Do you remember when Molly borrowed your truck without your permission, and then wrecked it? You stayed mad at her for all of an hour before you were comforting her and telling her it’d be all right.”

  I smiled sheepishly.

  I remembered that instance well.

  Mainly because I’d just bought a brand new truck and I’d left it at my sister’s place while I was on a ride with the club.

  I’d only left the keys there in case my sister’s needed to move it, not so Molly could take it out because she ran low on gas.

  I’d come home to a huge dent down the entire right side where Molly had hit a telephone pole.

  Then she’d left it there hoping I wouldn’t fucking notice the massive dent because I ‘never went on that side.’

  Needless to say, I’d never left my vehicles or belongings under her care again.

  Meredith’s champagne colored Trail Blazer pulled up to the back of my bike and shut off.

  Meredith was the first to exit, followed by Molly and Mikayla.

  We all stood there in silence.

  Me, because I wasn’t sure I was ready to forgive them yet, and them because they didn’t want to admit they were wrong in front of Rue.

  “So…” Rue said. “Do y’all want me to go upstairs while y’all talk?”

  The bullfrogs in the bayou behind us started croaking loud while we all watched each other in silence.

  “Well, okay,” she said as she started walking. “I’ll just be up there.”

  Before she passed, I stopped her with a hand on her wrist and pulled her into me.

  Kissing her on the lips, I said, “Thanks baby.”

  Then I let her go.

  “You’re welcome,” she said before walking quietly away.

  She turned back about halfway there and walked back to grab my keys, and then headed back in the direction she came.

  They waited until she was up the stairs before they spoke.

  At once.

  “We’re really sorry.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “We were horrible. I’m sorry.”

  I smiled sadly. “I know. Just…don’t do it again, okay?”

  They all nodded. “We don’t want to lose you.”

  I hung my head and ran my hand against the back of my neck.

  It was sore, and I was seriously over this day.

  “We want to get to know her,” Mikayla said. “We know she’s the one.”

  I turned my head slightly to the side, wondering how they’d come to that conclusion when they were so against her earlier in the day.

  “You love her. It’s obvious to us now,” Meredith said quietly.

  I nodded. “I do.”

  “Then it’s best that we start trying to get along now. We don’t want to make anything harder for you when it comes to her,” Molly sighed.

  Molly didn’t sound as truthful about what she said as the other two did, but I’d take what I could get.

  Molly was still the baby, even if she was twenty years old now.

  “Okay, well then it’s time y’all get back home. Maybe you can start getting to know her next week,” I ordered.

  They looked upset that I was telling them to go home, but we’d gotten the hard part out of the way. They were going to try with Rue and, at this moment in time, that was all I really cared about.

  “Be careful, and let me know when you get home,” I ordered as I opened Meredith and Molly’s doors.

  They got in the cars and buckled up.

  With a final kiss to each of their cheeks, they backed out of the driveway, waving as they went.

  I watched until their headlights disappeared into the distance before heading up the stairs and into my place.

  I found her in the bathtub.

  I’d never been in it, but damned if the thing didn’t look extremely inviting right then.

  I toed off my boots, hung up my vest, emptied my pockets, unstrapped my gun and holster from my ankle, and then shucked off my remaining clothes all under the watchful eye of Rue.

  She scrutinized each of my movements avidly, eyes glued to my hands as they went through the monotonous task of removing my belongings.

  “Your eyes will pop out of your head if you keep watching me like that,” I teased.

  She grinned unrepentantly. “Oh, but what a way to go.”

  My cock was half hard as I finally slipped into the low slung copper tub on the opposite side of her.

  My legs settled on either side of her hips as I sank into the steaming water up to my armpits.

  “I’ve never been in here before, but it’s kinda cozy,” I said as I let my head fall back against the tub.

  I’d purchased the tub with Rue in mind.

  We’d been at an estate sale to buy her Nonnie a few nice things for her birthday when she’d spied the tub.

  At the time, she’d gone through the entire house looking at all the thi
ngs, and the one thing I saw draw her eyes over and over was this tub.

  However, it’d been extremely overpriced, so we’d left with empty arms, despite wanting the beautiful piece.

  I’d gone back over later that night after the sale had ended to see an older man loading the piece into the back of his truck.

  When I’d pulled into his driveway, I’d asked him what he planned on doing with it, and he’d said he was taking it to an auction house later on in the week.

  When I’d told him how much my girl had liked it, he’d smiled wistfully and told me about his own wife and how much she’d liked it when they’d purchased it over fifty years ago.

  He told me that it held so much sentimental value that he hadn’t wanted to let it go, so he’d set the price too high, knowing no one would want to buy it. He also had nowhere to take it anymore since he was moving in with his son later that week.

  I’d purchased it from him for half the price, and left with him knowing that I planned to give it to my girl for her birthday one day soon.

  However, I’d fucked up and ruined it, and I’d been kicking myself for it ever since.

  “Do you remember looking at that tub at the estate sale when we went for your grandmother’s birthday present?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Sure do. This one looks nearly exactly like it. Where’d you find it?”

  Reaching forward, I grabbed the foot that was slipping closer and closer to my balls, and lifted it into my hands. Rubbing it softly, I encouraged a moan out of her before I told her what I did next.

  A smile tilted up the corners of my mouth. “This is it.”

  Her mouth fell open and she froze. “You’re kidding me.”

  I shook my head. “Nope. This is it. I bought it for you the week before we…yeah.”

  She closed her eyes and when she opened them again, there were tears gathering in the beautiful depths. “You bought it for me?”

  I nodded once. “Yes. You couldn’t keep your eyes off it that day. The man was more than happy to give it to someone that could make some more memories in it like he did.”

  “That’s kind of gross to think about,” she said as she leaned forward and swam to me. “But I’m pretty sure we can make some hellacious memories in this bitch.”

  I grinned so wide my face hurt. “We sure as hell can.”