by Cathryn Cade
No time to think about that now, though. Kit set her sandwich down, took another gulp of beer, and rose.
“Hi, Velvet. Hi, Mom.”
She braced herself for the mother of all lectures. Velvet was scowling as she strode across the shop, clearly not happy at having to chase Kit up here.
But to Kit’s shock, Deni was all smiles, her avid gaze darting from Kit to Keys and back. Oh, no. Kit could read her mom like a book. Deni still thought her daughter had found herself a cushy spot right here with Keys, and that’s why Kit didn’t want Bouncer. Kit just hoped Deni didn’t gush all over Keys like he was her new son-in-law or something. Embarrassing wouldn’t even begin to cover that.
“Can I offer you ladies a beer?” she said.
Just then the bathroom door opened, and Sheena stepped out. Kit’s mother and Velvet both gasped.
“What the ever-loving hell are you doing back here?” Velvet barked at the other redhead, hands on her skinny hips, her long scarlet-tipped nails like claws. She was glaring at Sheena with what looked like hatred.
Sheena sat, and picked up her beer daintily. “Nice to see you too, Velvet. Still making Webb’s life a living hell?”
Velvet drew in a hissing breath, and Kit took a step back, between her mom and Keys. Holy rhinestones, there was some history there, and she was not getting in the middle of two feuding biker women.
“Don’t mention my husband, you two-timing bitch!” Velvet snapped. “Everyone knows you walked out on poor Bounce, left him for some slick operator traveling through town. A carnie, wasn’t he? What’s the matter, you fall off that ride?”
Sheena, to Kit’s fascination, ignored this viperous challenge—maybe because it was true? Instead the redhead looked to Kit’s mom and smiled sweetly.
“So, Denise, you’re still around? Keys tells me your girl here is a friend of the club now. Like mother, like daughter, hmm?”
Kit and Deni’s indrawn breaths were nearly identical. That was beyond bitchy—and after Kit had fed her smug face, too. Deni might have been a serial old lady, but that was several high steps above whoring for any biker who crooked his finger.
But Deni was looking to Keys, with a look of outrage only a mother can achieve. “You said that about my baby girl?” she demanded. “Well! I certainly thought better of you, Keys Younger. I guess Kit ain’t quite as smart at pickin’ men as she thinks.”
She turned to Kit. “Go and pack your bag. You’re comin’ with me and Velvet.”
Kit opened her mouth but her mom wasn’t done.
“And as for you, Sheena Batts,” Deni added with dignity. “You don’t know near as much as you think. If you ask me, Bouncer is better off without you.”
Kit had never been so proud of her mom. As the old lady of the sergeant-at-arms, in her time Sheena would have had sway in her time over most of the other women around the club house. Even now, Deni looked pale under her makeup, but she answered Sheena’s poisonous glare with one of her own.
Kit gave Deni a squeeze. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Preach on, Deni,” Velvet approved. “He is better off. Once a slut, always a slut.”
“Well, the men don’t seem to mind,” Sheena replied. “Yours sure didn’t.”
Deni gasped, and Kit curled her lip. Euww, Sheena had slept with Webb too? No wonder Velvet hated her.
“All right, that’s enough.” Keys’ deep voice cut through theirs like thunder. He gave first Sheena and then Velvet a look that had them both closing their mouths fast.
“Enough bringin’ your old fights into my place. Sheena, seems you didn’t just drop in to say hello, but to stir up trouble all over again. So you can finish your lunch, and then get on your way. And if I see you again, your mouth better not be runnin’ on the other club women, or you’re gonna be right back in the middle of a shit storm.”
Sheena nodded, her gaze wide and penitent. If Keys bought that act, he was a lot dumber than Kit thought.
“Velvet,” Keys went on. “I’m glad to have you here any time. And it was real nice of you to bring Deni up here to see her daughter. But Kit’s not gonna be goin’ back with you today. She’s agreed to stay here and run my office for me, while I’m startin’ up my auto business.’
‘Tell you what, when you get home, tell Webb to give me a ring, and we’ll talk about fixin’ up that old Charger of his. Then he can take you ridin’ up beside him in the car shows.”
Velvet looked mollified by this. “I’ll tell him.”
Last, Keys turned to Deni. “Deni, I’m sorry about the disrespect to you and your daughter. You’re right, neither one of you ladies deserve to be labeled as less than class. I shouldn’t have let that misunderstanding slide. That won’t happen again. Now, we good?”
Kit sighed inwardly. Her mom was not gonna be able to stand against an apology like that. She only had to wait a few seconds before Deni softened into smiles. “I guess when you put it that way, Keys.”
Keys gave Deni his own smile, the one that melted panties and hearts. He then completely sealed the deal by moving in and planting a kiss on Deni’s cheek, and murmuring something only she could hear. Something that made her blink, and then smile up at him like he was the second coming of Elvis.
Kit didn’t know how much more of this goodness she could take before she threw herself in his arms and forgave him every harsh word he’d ever spoken.
To quell the impulse, she tried her hostess skills one more time. “So, Velvet, Mom, who wants a beer?”
“Thank you, hon,” Velvet said, turning to Kit as if Sheena was no longer there. “But I gotta get back. There’s a big steak fry at the VFW tonight, and Webb wants to go. And I’m the kind of old lady who likes to keep her man happy.”
Sheena snorted, but once again the women ignored her, although Velvet’s cheeks went scarlet under her makeup.
“Oh, that’s right,” Deni said hurriedly, already shifting toward the door. “Bullet wants to go to that too. So I guess we’d better get back.” She gave Keys a last smile.
Kit figured she’d better try some sugar too. “I’m real sorry about your wasted drive,” she said to Velvet. “Let me know any time you need a favor, and I’ll be there.”
The older woman raised her brows. “Hmm. I’ll take you up on that, honey.” Then she looked from Kit to Keys and back, and gave Kit a wink. “All right, Deni, let’s haul ass home to our men.”
“Okay.” Deni gave Kit a quick hug, looked her over and said approvingly, “That’s a real pretty dress, baby girl. Did Keys buy you that? Bye now. I’ll see you soon, ‘kay?”
“‘Kay. Bye, mom.”
Kit watched the two women strut back across the shop, and then let out a long breath. Her stomach growled again. She picked up her plate and beer from the table.
“I’m just going to get back to work,” she said without meeting either Keys’ or Sheena’s gaze. “Sheena, it was ... interesting meeting you.”
Sheena laughed again. “Same here, girl. You go ahead. Keys and I have lots of old times to talk about, right, big guy?”
Kit didn’t wait to hear what he had to say about that. She gave herself major points for not up-ending her beer all over the bitch’s smirking face.
Her back stiff, she hurried upstairs and into the office-bedroom, where she sat down at the desk, put in her ear-buds to listen to some music and started on her unfinished lunch. She didn’t want to hear any further conversation, about ‘old times’ or anything else between Keys and Sheena.
Her first bite of sandwich told her that Keys—the sneaky biker bastard—had switched out his plate for hers while her back was turned.
She choked, dropped the overly-spicy sandwich and forked up a big mouthful of cool, creamy potato salad to douse the fire in her mouth. Scowling, she peeled off the piece of bread and lettuce where she’d hidden the hot peppers, and ate the rest.
She drained her beer, and phoned Lindi.
“Can we have that girls’ night soon?” she asked the moment Lindi’s mess
aging picked up. “Like tonight? I need some bestie time, stat.”
Chapter Sixteen
Kit was dreaming. Must be, ‘cause she was being spooned in her sleep by a hot biker man. He was warm and strong, all wrapped around her from behind, and he smelled of sexy musk. His warm, heavy arm lay over hers, his hand draped over her breast, his thumb sweeping slowly back and forth over her nipple.
“Kit,” he murmured in her hair, his breath tickling her nape, since he’d swept her hair up and back, to use as his pillow cover. “Kit, wake up now, babe. Need to talk to you.”
With a grumpy noise, Kit wriggled her bottom deeper into the hard angle of his lap. A long, hard shape was pressed against the cleft of her ass, familiar and enticing.
“You want me to fuck you awake?” he asked. “That it, Red? ‘Cause I’m happy to do that. Just thought we should probably clear a few things up first.”
Kit’s eyes flew open and she woke up with a start. It was still daylight, and she lay in the middle of Keys’ big mattress bed. Oh, right, she’d called Lindi and then flopped down on the mattress to flip through some sites on her phone ... and fallen asleep.
“Not talking to you,” she muttered, her voice husky with sleep. “Go ‘way.”
She shoved his arm off of her. Surprisingly, he let her do this.
Then she tried to move her head and discovered why he was not worried about her getting away—he had her trapped by her hair. At once, a completely illogical and suffocating panic seized her.
She jerked in his grasp, a mewl rising from her throat.
“No, no, let go! I can’t move. I can’t move.”
“Shit!” Instantly, the weight disappeared from her hair and Keys was up and leaning over her.
He turned her onto her back and carefully pulled her hair forward over her shoulder, placing her own hands on it, letting her feel that it was free. “There, baby. It’s okay, you’re not caught. You’re okay.”
His gaze searched hers, a frown cut between his brows. “What was that about, Red? Did some asshole hold you by your hair and hurt you?” He looked ready to murder someone.
Kit drew a shaky breath and let it out. She lifted her hand to her face and hid behind it.
“No, nothing like that. It’s ... it’s stupid.”
“Don’t care, baby. Tell me.”
“Okay, so ... it was when we lived over near Seattle. I was a little kid, climbing under a fence with some other kids. A bunch of us were roaming away from the club house, I think. Anyway, a big dog came running out to the fence, barking at us. He sounded vicious like he wanted to chomp us to bits. They all made it through the fence. I was last. My hair got caught in the wire. I couldn’t move.’
‘The dog was barking and growling right behind me, and I could—I could feel his hot breath. I screamed so loud that one of the brothers, I can’t remember who, heard me and came running. He scared the dog away, but then had to cut my hair loose with his knife. Ever since then, I can’t stand to have anyone on my hair, you know? It’s stupid, but ... I can’t help it.”
“Whoa,” Keys said, sinking onto his elbow at her side. He covered her hands with his, and squeezed. “Promise you this, babe. We’ll make sure that no one lays on your hair or holds you by it again, all right? I’m sorry. Your hair is just so soft and pretty, guess I was kind of rolling in it like a pup in the grass.”
“It’s okay,” she mumbled, embarrassed.
He was silent, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. “Fuck, I hate thinkin’ about a pretty little red-haired girl screamin’ and terrified, with no one to grab you right up off the ground and hold you, tell you it’d be okay. That you were safe.”
She looked at him and then down, concentrating on his hand caressing hers. Without even noticing, she’d begun to turn her hand under his, inviting him to stroke the inner curve of her wrist, the web between her thumb and forefinger, the sensitive tips of her fingers.
“So if you’d been there, you would’ve saved me?” She smiled a little at the silliness of the question.
“Fuck yeah,” he grinned back at her. “Would’ve swept you up and hollered at that dog to git, go away from my girl. Then I would’ve given hell to those kids who left you alone.”
“That would’ve been nice.”
He grunted, then sank on his side beside her, cradling her hand to his own chest. “Red, earlier ... I fucked up. Thought if I let Sheena believe you were just a club whore, she’d just ignore you, concentrate on spilling her guts and then get gone.”
She turned her head to look at him. “Is she really a friend of yours? Because I don’t like her.”
“After today, gotta say I’m right there with you,” he agreed. “When she went after you and your mom, I honest to God wanted to pick her up and throw her out of here on her ass in the gravel.”
“My mom stood up to her,” Kit remembered. “That’s really hard for her.”
He squeezed her hand. “She did it for her girl. And Velvet was pissed. Maybe I should’ve let her go after Sheena, see if she could take her.”
Startled, she snickered. “I’m betting she could, although you probably would’ve had a wrecked kitchenette. Velvet is scary as hell when she’s mad. Even Webb does what she says—oh.” she clapped a hand over her mouth. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
He chuckled. “Not gonna repeat it, baby. Webb’s a good guy, but he’s pretty damn easy-going.”
“Yeah. And he’s sweet, but ... not really that hot. Why would Sheena want to cheat with him?”
“Likely just because she could,” he said. “Some bitch’s just like knowing they’re one up on another woman, or that they can wind any man around their finger. There’s men like that too.”
“I figured Bouncer’s old lady left him because he cheated on her,” Kit said. “But maybe he threw her out.”
He sighed. “Judging from what we saw today, might not have been the dumbest thing he ever did.”
“So I don’t get it,” she said. “Why did you invite her up here?”
“What? Fuck, wasn’t me. She just showed up, all smiles and compliments on the place, said she’s in the area for a visit and wanted to say hey. I was curious, because we never said two words to each other the few times I saw her when she was with Bouncer, and I was living in Cali. Now, unfortunately, I get it. She heard from one of her bitches that he’s after you, and wanted a look at her rival.”
“Her rival?” Kit sat straight up, clasping her hands prayerfully. “God, please let her take him back. Then maybe he’ll leave me alone.”
Keys grinned at her, but shook his head. “Dunno, babe. I’m thinkin’ she’s bad, bad news. I met Bouncer not long after she left—or he booted her out. The man was so fuckin’ cut up, no one mentioned her name in his presence. May even have somethin’ to do with how ugly he can act now—not that that’s anyone’s but his choice.”
“So, do you think he’ll take her back?”
“Y’know, I ain’t even gonna guess. That knife edge between love and hate is a powerful place to hold.
This was true.
“Although,” he said, “I may have egged her on a bit, by coloring certain events a little. Like him getting drunk and calling her name while he watched you at the club house ... shit like that.”
“Wow, that’s pretty … devious. So you think if they get back together …”
He nodded. “I think if she makes a play, that’ll at least get him off your trail, yeah. After that I don’t give a damn what either of ‘em do.”
Remembered hurt spurred her next words. “So you don’t mind if she ‘leaves a trail of shit right through the middle of the club that’ll burn all the brothers and everyone we know’?”
He had the grace to wince. “Right. That was harsh, and I’m sorry, Red. But here’s what I meant. You leave here and Bouncer gets his hands on you, I’ll have to come after him. Jack’s with me, so are Rocker, Moke and T-Bear, ‘cause none of them like seein’ women slapped around. A few other
s I don’t know.’
‘Webb will likely fall in with whoever grabs him by the ear. Bullet is Bouncer’s friend from way back, although to ease your mind about your mom, Bullet seems like a good man himself. Slag, Cooler and Knife will side with Bouncer. Stick will stay out of it unless he has to, then he’ll wade in, do whatever’s necessary to keep the club from bein’ ripped apart.”
Kit stared up at a strand of cobweb dancing lazily in the afternoon breeze through the open window. The picture he painted was an ugly one, of the club divided and possible blood flowing. She did not want that to happen, much less with her in the middle of it all.
“Remi would jump in too,” she realized with a chill. “To have your back.”
“Yep,” Keys said. The clipped word said just what he thought of that.
Kit rolled to face him. “I would never, ever want to be the cause of trouble for you guys. I thought if I left I could keep you safe from it. And draw Bouncer’s attention away from you.”
He brushed her hair back and rubbed a curl between his fingers, his gaze sober.
“Baby, this is a small community. There’s no place you could hide this red head for long. And that’s no way to live, hidin’ out and lookin’ over your shoulder. So here’s my plan—we give Sheena time to get in there, then you and I make a showing at the club, making it clear you’re my property and you’re pleased as fuck about it. Let all the brothers and their old ladies see you with me. Once that happens, it’d be Bouncer trying to take you from a brother, and that’s not cool with the club. “
A thrill of pleasure warmed Kit at his words, followed by uncertainty. “You never did say—what would that involve, the property bit?” And how real would it be? She bit her lip hard rather than ask this.
“Well,” he said, his gaze dropping to the low neckline of her sun dress, “I’m thinkin’ a tattoo should just about do it. My name on your tit, scrolling over that butterfly in big, black letters.”
Kit stared at him. Then, when his lips twitched, she smacked him on his arm. “You asshole. You are so full of it.”
Even laughing, he managed to capture her hands and haul her over on top of him in no time.
