by Jade Kuzma
“Did you make sure to—”
“Keep the pilot on and turn off the gas,” I said. “Yeah, I got it. How many months have I been doing this?”
“You can never be too sure.”
I moved over to some of the dough I was mixing. It didn’t take me more than a second to notice that Lydia was standing right behind me, looking over my shoulder.
“Listen,” I sighed. “I know I can’t tell you to leave. But do you have to stand so close to me?”
“I just wanted to watch.”
There was a weird look on her face. I raised my eyebrows at her.
“What’s wrong?” I said. “Tell me.”
“Well…” she sighed. “It’s just… Sean is out of town. You know, he’s dealing with some of the distributors in the big city, so he won’t have to travel as much for the ingredients we need.”
“And you’re bored. Yeah, I get it… I suppose it won’t hurt if you help me with some of this.”
“Thank you.”
Lydia got to work right next to me. She made her way around the kitchen as well as anybody I’d ever seen. She moved to Ivory less than a year ago but she’d already carved a comfortable spot out for herself.
“You got any plans tonight?” she asked.
“I…”
As I stared at the mixer in front of me, I blinked my eyes in confusion.
“…I’m not doing anything,” I said. “I’m just gonna go home and relax like I always do.”
“Maybe you should go out.”
I thought I’d misheard her.
“W-what?” I stuttered.
“Maybe you should go out tonight,” she repeated.
I still couldn’t believe what she said to me.
“Am I hearing you right?” I said. “It sounded like you just told me to go out.”
“Gina…”
She slowly walked up to me. The mild look of concern on her face made me more confused than I already was.
“You’ve been working hard,” she said. “With me being pregnant and not being around as much, you’ve been in charge.”
“I know. And I’m grateful for the opportunity. It means a lot to me that you trust me.”
“I trust you and I care about you. That’s why I don’t want you working any harder than you have to.”
“I’m not working much harder,” I said with a shrug. “Some of the new employees you hired have made it easier.”
“But you’re still working more hours than normal because I’m not around.”
“So, what are you saying?” I said, shaking my head. “Are you gonna cut my hours?”
“I’m not cutting your hours,” she said as she giggled softly. “I’m saying you should think about going out tonight. Maybe have a little fun. It’s been a long time. Longer than it should have been.”
“Yeah…”
I looked away from her.
Ivory was a small town and I’d been here all my life. I knew everywhere to go if you wanted to have a good time. But I couldn’t remember the last time I was in the mood to go out.
“You don’t have to do anything crazy,” Lydia said. “Just go out and have a few drinks. Relax. Forget about the bakery for one day.”
“I don’t know,” I said, turning my attention to the mixer in front of me. “It’s not the same when I’m not going out with you.”
“Well, I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do. But I really think you should get out. You’re still young. You should still be having fun.”
“I guess…”
I tried not to think too much about what Lydia told me.
She was right. I was still young. Twenty-three years old and in my prime. Most women like me in Ivory spent their late nights getting plastered while they tried to find a hookup. I’d experienced all of that myself.
“…I don’t know,” I said, my attention focused on my work. “After what happened that night… When that guy took advantage of me… I don’t know if I’ll ever be the same.”
“I know,” Lydia sighed. “I can’t imagine what that was like for you. But it might help to get over it if you head out. The sooner you go out, the sooner you’ll be able to have fun like you used to.”
My intimate conversation with Lydia was interrupted when the bell on the front door rang.
“I’ll get it,” I said.
Lydia ignored me and followed right behind me as I headed back to the front of the bakery. A man in uniform walked up to the counter with a friendly smile on his face.
“Sheriff Sutton!” I said. “How are you doing?”
“I’m doing just fine, Gina.”
“Sutton Special?”
“Is there anything else I get?”
Lydia helped to grab a cup of coffee and donut for him.
If Amy’s Bakery was an institution in Ivory, Sheriff Sutton was the man who knew all about it.
Sutton had been around for as long as I could remember and you could see it on his face. His head was bald and blemished. The skin on his face sagged with wrinkles. I couldn’t imagine all the things he’d seen in his life. But he moved around with a remarkable amount of pep. With everything going on in this town, I suppose you had to have some energy when you were in charge of the police.
“How are you doing?” Lydia asked him. “Anything going on?”
“Nothing special,” he said.
“Catch any bad guys?” I added.
“Not yet. But they’re out there. And with the feds in town, it’s only a matter of time. We’ve got this Special Agent. Lieberman. You should see her. She’s a frightening woman. If anybody thinks about trying anything funny, they’re in trouble.”
“That’s good to hear,” Lydia said.
“It is good. In fact, it’s giving me a chance to relax. I’m heading out to a celebration tonight.”
“Celebration?” I said.
Sutton pulled out the newspaper he had folded underneath his arm. He laid it down in front of me and pointed down at it.
“There was a fire,” he said. “Firefighters came and saved the day. They’re holding a celebration for this guy down at The Grindhouse.”
He pointed at the front page of the newspaper. I narrowed my eyes at the photo of the man on the front.
He looks familiar…
As soon as I read the caption, I realized why he looked so familiar.
Dorian Sullivan.
“Wait a second,” Lydia said. “They’re holding a celebration for a firefighter at an MC clubhouse?”
“Turns out the firefighter who saved the man in the building is a patch, too. And they invited me.”
“They invited you?” Lydia said. “The sheriff? That just makes it even stranger.”
“Hey, with the feds in town, my workload isn’t as heavy as it used to be. I figure I might as well have some fun.”
Sutton scooped up the paper along with his order. As he shuffled out of the bakery, I turned to Lydia.
“I know that guy,” I said.
“Who? Sheriff Sutton?”
“No, the guy in the paper. The firefighter. Dorian Sullivan.”
“How do you know him?”
“I went to high school with him.”
“Oh, okay,” she said with a nod. “He was your friend.”
“Yeah, right,” I scoffed. “Dorian was the most popular guy at school. I’d be surprised if he even recognized me.”
“Well, maybe now he does.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sutton said they’re having a celebration for him at The Grindhouse. You’ve been there before.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t see why that matters.”
Lydia put her hands on my shoulders and looked me right in the eye.
“Maybe you should go out tonight,” she said. “You know the guy. And Sheriff Sutton is going to be there. You shouldn’t have anything to worry about.”
I bit my bottom lip and looked away from Lydia. It made a lot of sense but I was still hesit
ant.
“It’s been a long time since I had a drink,” I sighed.
“You’ve worked too hard, Gina. Go out. Have a drink and have a good time. I insist.”
She gritted her teeth when she said it. We stared at one another, and after a few seconds, we both burst into laughter.
“All right,” I said as I shook my head. “Maybe I’ll head out for a drink tonight.”
“The bakery will still be here. I promise I won’t fire you.”
“Thanks, boss.”
Lydia put her arm around me as we headed to the back of the bakery. It was nice knowing that there was someone in town who would always be there for me. Heading out and enjoying myself at her insistence was the least I could do for her.
Chapter 3
DORIAN
“Let’s go already…”
I ignored Needle’s attempt to spur me on.
“Hold on just a second,” I sighed.
“What’s there to think about? You see the cards on the table. You see your cards.”
“Don’t be mad just because I got all your chips.”
“You don’t have all my chips.”
“Not yet…”
I looked up from my cards and gave Needle a quick glance. He gave me a half-smirk and rolled his eyes at me.
I knew guys like Needle. A real smart ass. Always confusing confidence with arrogance. He was the guy in class who always had to have everybody’s attention. A real fucking clown.
I enjoyed watching him sit and wait while I decided what to do with my hand.
“Enough already,” Ghost said. “You keep thinking any longer, we’re all gonna be as old as Sutton over here.”
The sheriff raised an eyebrow at Ghost, who immediately realized what he’d said and chuckled nervously.
“Of course, we all want to look as good as Sutton when we’re his age,” Ghost said to correct himself.
Ghost was the vice president of the Black Reapers. If anybody knew how to sweet talk someone, even a sheriff, it would be him.
Everybody at the table had their eyes on me. I looked down at the cards on the table then at the old man across from me. Sutton stared right back at me. It didn’t matter that he was the sheriff. I could play poker with the best of them. And when I looked into his eyes, I could see that I had him beat.
Fortunately for him, I didn’t take any pride in beating an old man.
“I fold,” I said as I threw my cards down on the table.
“Ha!”
Sutton celebrated as he raked all of the chips in the center of the table toward himself. I laughed softly at his celebration.
The rest of the table wasn’t as enthusiastic. The other club members just glared at me, knowing I gave up a better hand.
“Thanks, boys,” Sutton said. “It looks like the Black Reapers are in a giving mood tonight.”
“They sure are,” Needle said, his eyes locked on me.
“Giving indeed,” Ghost added.
I shrugged at the both of them. It was a small price to pay to see the town sheriff in a good mood.
“I think I’ve had enough,” I sighed as I got up from my seat. “It looks like it’s just not my night.”
Needle rolled his eyes at me again. Ghost sighed as he leaned back in his seat.
“All right, boys,” Sutton said as he took the deck of cards. “Ante up.”
I watched as Sutton dealt the cards out to the rest of the table.
Anybody looking on from the outside would have thought it was a strange sight. An old man in uniform playing cards with one of the most infamous biker clubs in town. That was how I knew tonight was different from all the rest.
The Grindhouse was more crowded than it usually was. Everybody was out to celebrate. The alcohol was flowing. The music was blasting. The conversations were lively. I made my way through the crowd and leaned up against the bar.
“What’s wrong?”
I heard a voice next to me. I turned and saw Michelle preparing a few drinks.
“I’ve had enough poker for tonight,” I said. “Sutton is getting enough action from the rest of the club.”
“Sheriff Sutton breaking bread with the Black Reapers,” she said as she looked over at the card table. “I never thought I would see the day… And we have you to thank for it.”
“Me?”
“Yes, sweetie. You’re a hero. The way you saved that family in that fire. It’s nice to have someone in the club who does something good for a change.”
Seeing Michelle’s sarcastic smile made me laugh.
Michelle had been around the club longer than I even knew it existed. She was the president’s old lady, so she had as much clout as any female involved with the group. And she was a gorgeous woman, too. Dark hair, nice figure. It was easy to understand why someone had decided to make her an old lady.
“I’m not much for celebration,” I said as I looked out into the crowd. “I was just doing my job.”
“Well, whatever reason you’re doing it for, keep it up. A little good publicity never hurt the Reapers.”
“I think I’m gonna have to save a lot more people from burning buildings for people to think differently about the Reapers.”
“Why don’t you at least have a drink to celebrate?”
“You know I don’t drink. I just… I just wanna relax.”
“Suit yourself.”
Michelle grabbed the drinks she’d prepared and made her way back through the bar.
I spent most of my free time in The Grindhouse. From the moment I got patched into the Black Reapers, it became like a second home to me. The wild scene before me was something I was used to seeing but the circumstances were a little different.
A front-page spread in the local paper put a spotlight on me. Garnet, the president of the club, decided to take the opportunity to use it for some good publicity. I couldn’t object.
But as I leaned up against the bar and watched the scene all around me, I realized that the celebration wasn’t going to change anybody’s minds. The people in this town already felt one way or another about the Reapers. What I did wasn’t going to make a difference.
It was late in the evening but the night was just getting started for some people. You would have thought they were trying to kill themselves with how much they were drinking. Sheriff Sutton continued playing poker with the rest of the club. Everybody else was crowded on the dance floor.
Men eyeballed all of the ladies moving around like they were pieces of meat. The women all danced seductively, trying to catch the eye of some lucky biker for the night. I couldn’t blame anybody for doing what they did. I was just as distracted as the rest of the guys in the club.
And nobody caught my eye more than a girl in the center of the floor.
That girl…
She moved her hips like she’d done it before. And they were nice hips. The rest of her wasn’t bad either. Her shorts were barely enough to cover her ass and her white top was bursting at the seams trying to hold her tits back.
Her skin was pale and the red lipstick she wore made her hair that much more striking. Her black hair was put up in a bun behind her head.
She was about a foot shorter than everybody else, so she stood out more than she would have with just the way she moved.
But there was something else about her.
I narrowed my eyes as I stared at her.
Why does she look so familiar?
She caught me staring. A quick glance from her before she coyly looked away. Just long enough to let me know that she saw me.
I wasn’t much for playing hard to get. The women in this town drove me crazy trying to figure them out. At the same time, there was a part of me that just wanted to go out there and say something.
It’s my night. Why not?
Emboldened by a feeling I couldn’t explain, I slowly stepped forward to the middle of the floor. Everybody else continued to dance all around me. I ignored all of them as I approached the girl who caught my att
ention.
Her head was down, so she didn’t notice me when I stood right in front of her.
“Hey.”
With the music and conversations so loud all around us, she didn’t hear me.
“Hey!”
She jerked her head up and stopped moving. Our eyes locked on one another. She stared at me with those brown eyes of hers for a second before a sly smile formed on her lips.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
She giggled to herself, her smile growing even bigger.
“Is something funny?” I said, slightly confused.
“Gina,” she said. “Gina Newman.”
“Gina. It’s nice to meet you, I’m—”
“Dorian. Dorian Sullivan. I know who you are.”
“You must have read the papers.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head softly. “I don’t read the papers. But I still know who you are.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. I couldn’t shake the feeling of how familiar she looked.
“All right, Gina,” I said. “How are you doing tonight?”
“Do you usually interrupt a girl when she’s dancing in the middle of the floor?”
“Usually? No. I thought I’d make an exception for you though.”
I couldn’t help a smile from coming to my face. Gina didn’t seem to mind. If anything, she welcomed it. Seeing her red cheeks blush was even more apparent against her pale skin.
“You want a drink?” I asked.
“A drink…”
She narrowed her gaze at me before nodding.
“Okay,” she said. “A drink sounds like fun.”
I took her hand. She didn’t protest as I led her off the dance floor and toward the bar. I ordered a drink for her, my eyes locked on her the entire time. I shook my head and finally gave up.
“Why do you look so familiar?” I asked.
“Ivory High,” she said.
“What?”
“Ivory High. We went to school together.”
“We did?”
“Yeah, we did. I sat next to you in history class your senior year.”
I searched my memories, trying to remember my history class. If a girl like this sat next to me, I would have fucking remembered it.
