by L. N. Pearl
Table of Contents
Title page
Copyright
Chapter 1 - Trinity
Chapter 2 - Tyler
Chapter 3 - Trinity
Chapter 4 - Tyler
Chapter 5 - Trinity
Chapter 6 - Tyler
Chapter 7 - Tyler
Chapter 8 - Trinity
Rough Rider 4
Fast Life Series
L.N. PEARL & S.K. LEE
Copyright © 2016 by L.N. Pearl. All rights reserved worldwide.
No part of this publication may be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any form without the prior written consent of the author/publisher or the terms relayed to you herein.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Chapter 1 - Trinity
I could hardly believe what Tyler and I had done.
The entire time we had sex on his bike, overlooking the town, I couldn’t stop worrying about whether we’d get caught. There was no mistaking what we were doing—we weren’t discreet about it.
Once or twice, I had wanted to stop. My body had taken over, though. I had no choice but to keep going. The possibility of being caught only made it more exciting after a little while.
It was mind-blowing.
I stretched out in bed, running my hands over the sheets, thinking about the way Tyler felt beneath my hands. I giggled to myself when I remembered the way he had touched me, how good it felt.
It was naughty and dirty and daring. I loved it.
I stretched again, languidly. I was on top of the world.
Then, my phone rang. I scrambled for it when I saw Tyler’s name on the screen.
“Hi, everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, fine. I just wanted to make sure everything’s okay with you.”
I smiled, biting my lip. That was so like him, checking in on me even though we had just seen each other minutes earlier.
He was like a knight in shining armor…only the armor was a little tarnished, and his horse was a motorbike.
“I’m fine. Dad’s not home yet. It’s just me. I was thinking about you,” I said, giggling.
“Oh, yeah?”
He sounded a little distracted, like he was only reacting to what I had said rather than actually listening to me. His mind was somewhere else.
Immediately, my mind spiraled out of control. I had disappointed him, hadn’t I?
I wasn’t experienced, like the other girls he had been with. Sure, he might have finally come but wasn’t it easy for guys to do that?
It was the biological imperative, for heaven’s sake. It didn’t take much for them. I must have messed up, somehow. Maybe he was already tired of me.
“Are you okay? Did I do something?”
Was that why he was calling me? To let me down easy? He didn’t have the guts to tell me to my face, I guessed. I braced myself for the inevitable.
“What? No, you didn’t do anything. Why do you instantly go there?”
He sounded tired, and irritated.
“Sorry. I can’t help it. Why did you call, then? You sound out of it.”
“I am, a little. Listen, I have somewhere to take you tomorrow.”
My heart leaped. He had already taken me somewhere pretty special earlier. What did he have in mind this time? I could only imagine…
“Wait—when do you plan on going?” I asked, reality ripping into my thoughts.
“In the morning. First thing.”
“I can’t! I have class. Can’t it wait until evening? Late afternoon, even?”
He snorted. “No. It has to be first thing in the morning, and you have to come with me. It’s super important.”
I sighed heavily, letting him know how put out I felt. I could go, of course, because he wanted me to. But I wasn’t happy about it.
“Can you at least tell me what this is all about?”
“Not yet,” he said. “But I will.”
It seemed ridiculous, but it sounded very serious, too. “All right. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I hung up, then immediately called Maggie.
“Where is he taking you?”
“I don’t know.” I threw myself back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. “He wouldn’t say. He’ll tell me tomorrow.”
“What you think he has in mind? Any ideas of a special place he’d want to take you?”
I couldn’t hold back a giggle. He’d already taken me to a special place.
“What’s so funny? Oh, girl. You just had sex tonight. Didn’t you?”
I told Maggie about it—most of it. Some things I couldn’t repeat. Even the sanitized version left me blushing and feeling warm between my legs.
“So that was a special place for him?” Maggie asked.
“That’s what he said.”
“Wow. That’s a big deal. I mean, he cares enough to take you to a place that means a lot to him. Do you think he’s starting to become more attached to you?”
I wasn’t sure what to say. I was tongue-tied. “Um, I don’t know. Do you think so?”
“How do you feel about that?”
“I have no idea.”
It was a little scary. I didn’t know if I wanted a guy like Tyler to become attached to me, now that it was looking like more of a possibility. It was one thing to imagine it, but another to face it.
“Well, I think you need to take care of yourself. Protect your heart. I mean, Tyler seems like a nice enough guy, but he’s still got a past, and he knows some pretty scary people. There’s no telling how this will end up. Just be careful.”
I promised to take her advice to heart.
***
The next morning, I was up before the sun. Where was he taking me? Why?
It was all too exciting. I knew it wasn’t important where we were, as long as we were together. I wondered what that meant. Was I falling for him?
He pulled up in front of my house at seven o’clock, and I eagerly ran down the front steps and climbed on behind him without a second thought.
“So? Where are we going?”
“Good morning to you, too,” he laughed. “Somebody’s excited.”
“You don’t tell a person you’re taking them someplace special and expect them not to be excited. So, where are we going?”
He didn’t answer right away, pulling away from the house to park at the convenience store down the block.
“Sorry,” he said, cutting the engine. “I didn’t want your Dad to come out and find us.”
He turned his head to look at me. “I got a text message last night from Crystal…Drake’s current girlfriend. She knows where he is, and she told me where I can find him.”
I gasped, climbing off the bike to face him. “What? Where are we going, exactly?”
“It’s around three hours from here. His grandmother’s house. I forgot she was still alive, honestly. That’s where he ran off to.”
“And you want me to go with you?”
“I think you deserve to hear from him what happened. Don’t you?”
I could have kissed him, and I wanted to. I just didn’t think it was a good idea, out in public.
Especially here, where my neighbors might see. Instead, I climbed behind him again and threw my arms around his waist.
“Let’s go.”
I felt sort of honored that he wanted me to go with him. Like he thought I was cool enough, or trustworthy enough.
I knew that I was, of course, but it meant a lot that he thought so. I wasn’t a liability, in his eyes.
It was so excitin
g, being on the back of the bike with him. There was a feeling of freedom I’d never experienced before.
I was starting to understand the big deal about motorbikes. It was a thrill, and totally different than driving a car. In a car, you were still separated from the world. There was no sense of unity with the road, with the fresh air.
I had a lot of time to think while we were on the road. One drawback to being on a bike, was that there was no chance for conversation.
But the flip side was that it gave me time to get my thoughts together. One thing I was sure of was how happy it made me, knowing Tyler was invested in finding out what happened to Angela.
It meant something to him…her death and my pain. He could have turned tail and ran when he found out someone involved with his club had something to do with it.
He did just the opposite, and stepped up, even taking an active role. I couldn’t believe he would do that for me.
Was Maggie right? Was he falling for me?
My arms tightened a little around him, and I took the chance of resting my cheek against his back for a moment. I felt his heart beating. It was a strong, true sound.
He was a good person. A diamond in the rough. Maybe I didn’t mind so much that he seemed to be getting more attached.
We pulled into a gas station to fuel up and get drinks. “Where are we?” I asked, climbing down.
I felt a little sore after straddling the bike for nearly two hours, but otherwise, it was all great and still pretty exciting. We were that much closer to Drake, and to the truth.
“About an hour away from where we need to be. Some little pit stop nobody’s ever heard of.”
He went inside to pick up snacks and drinks while I stretched my legs a bit.
What Tyler saw as a pathetic little pit stop, I saw as a beautiful and charming little town. The sort of place I would like to live one day, I decided.
White picket fences, green lawns, plenty of shady trees. I took a few pictures with my phone—the trees were finally starting to blossom after a long winter, and I had to capture the scene.
“What are you doing?” He sounded amused. “You want to remember this trip for some reason?”
My cheeks burned hotly. I didn’t feel like I could tell him this trip was special to me because it was the first trip he and I took together.
Even though the reason wasn’t the best, it was still nice to be with him. I just couldn’t admit that, though. Instead, I laughed it off.
“Definitely. Come on, I wanna get a shot of the two of us together.”
“Uh-uh. No way.” He waved his hands and shaked his head emphatically.
“Why not?”
“I don’t like pictures, I always look stupid.” He took a swig of his soda, as though that was the end of the conversation.
That was a new one for me, hearing a guy say they didn’t like the way they looked. I thought only girls felt that way.
“Come on. Please. Just one shot for me.” I pouted playfully, and when he wouldn’t look at me I elbowed him until he did. “Please?”
He laughed. “Fine, okay. Just one, though. I don’t want this turning into a photo shoot.”
He leaned back slightly, and I leaned forward, so both of our faces were in the picture. When I examined it, I couldn’t keep the smile from my face.
“I probably look like an idiot,” he muttered, starting the engine.
He didn’t…anything but.
The person in the picture was the one I saw whenever I was with him and Gigi. The playful, shy, boyish person. Not the tough guy, racer bad boy who laughed in the face of death.
He had a sweet smile and he looked younger.
My arms snaked around his waist again, and I looked at the back of his head. The way his hair fell over his neck, brushing his collar.
There was no guessing to be done. I was falling for him.
Chapter 2 - Tyler
This was new for me, having a girl on my bike for such a long trip.
Yeah, I had ridden around with girls before, but just through town. Nothing as far as this. It was weird, feeling her arms around me the way they were.
Every once in a while, she would lean her face against my back. It took me a while to get used to it, but I didn’t hate it.
It was nice having her with me, actually. I was so used to being alone, and I thought it would be a drag to have somebody with me for such a long ride. Even Trinity.
Girls were always a pain in the ass, wanting to stop every few miles, complaining about the wind in their hair. At least, that’s what I had always heard.
But she was nothing like that.
I should have known better than to think she was like the others, I thought as we rode. She was nothing like any other woman I’d known.
She was strong and fierce. She didn’t take shit from anybody—even her dad, who she stood up to.
She was brave enough to go to one of the club’s parties all by herself, even though she knew her sister died because she was involved with us.
Nothing phased her.
Most of the girls I’d known were kind of a hassle, and I had my hands full already, taking care of Gigi. But Trinity was different. She didn’t drag me down…she made me stronger.
After our stop at the gas station, it seemed like no time before we reached the town where Drake’s grandma lived.
As we rode toward the address, I wondered what Trinity was thinking. It was a pretty crappy neighborhood, a lot like mine. I thought she might have wished we hadn’t come.
But I underestimated her again since she didn’t seem to mind. She was too focused on talking to Drake to notice anything else.
The house was just as shabby as he had always made it sound. This was where he grew up, since his parents were never in the picture.
He only moved after he got into so much trouble here, his grandma finally kicked him out. They patched things up after that, though.
There was no car or bike in the driveway, but we knocked anyway. No answer.
I looked around at the broken windows in their chipped frames, and noticed that much of the siding was rotten and falling apart. The sidewalk was all cracked and full of weeds.
The place looked like hell, and I wondered why he didn’t help the old lady out, since she raised him.
“What do you think?” I asked. “Doesn’t look like anybody’s home.”
“What do you want to do? I mean, we made the ride,” she said.
“I don’t wanna go home so soon, just because nobody’s here right now. You think we should wait out front, or maybe get something to eat? You hungry?”
She shook her head, and her dark ponytail swung from one shoulder to the other. She was too worked up to eat. And I thought she wouldn’t want to be away from the house, either, in case someone did show up.
She didn’t wanna waste a minute when she could be asking questions instead.
Was it weird, knowing her so well already? It was almost like I could read her mind.
Trinity sat on the front steps while I paced the sidewalk. I decided to call Sabina, to check on Gigi.
“She’s fine,” Sabina said.
I heard the iciness in her voice, and it was all I could do not to groan in her ear. She was really testing my patience over Trinity.
When I told her I was going out of town, she had acted all jealous. Asking questions and making faces when she thought I couldn’t see. She would never say Trinity’s name.
She only called her “her” or “she.” Like “Is she going with you?” It was irritating as hell. She still hadn’t gotten over it and let me know constantly.
Oh well, I thought. She was gonna have to get used to it.
Trinity was part of my life. I didn’t want to lose Sabina as a friend or a babysitter, but that was the way it would have to be if she didn’t get right with my relationship.
My relationship. It sounded weird in my head—I couldn’t imagine trying to say it out loud. My relationship.
W
as that what I was in? It felt like one. Whenever I wasn’t with her, all I could do was think about how much I wanted to be.
Sometimes I would see something I thought she would like, and I’d wish she was with me. Or Gigi would do something cute, and I’d wish Trinity was there to see it.
She had sneaked into my life when I wasn’t looking. I guess fallen into it might be more accurate. And when I looked at her now—sitting on the front steps of the house—I didn’t know if I’d be able to get her out of it.
Or if I wanted to.
I hung up, and we waited. The neighborhood was depressed in general, full of garbage and weeds, with broken toys on overgrown front lawns. No wonder Drake ended up the way he did if he grew up in a place like this.
His grandma sounded like a nice lady though, from what he told me about her anyway. She couldn’t help that his parents treated him like shit and abandoned him when he was six.
It was too late to do anything for him by then…the damage was done. He never would tell me everything that had happened to him when he was a kid, but I knew it was bad.
By the time he was sixteen, his grandma had made him leave. He had become too much for her to handle. I wondered what she thought about him being back, now. I wished she were home.
My ears pricked up as I heard a sound. A bike, coming toward us, but still quite far. It was his bike though. I’d recognize it anywhere. I had an ear for these things, I guess.
I got to my feet, and Trinity joined me…but she hadn’t heard it yet.
We waited…and there he was. He hadn’t seen us yet. I put a hand on Trinity’s arm to keep her still. We waited some more.
Then he saw us. The look on his face was almost funny. Terror? Surprise? He shook it off right away, then pulled a U-turn and sped off.
“Shit!” We ran for the bike, Trinity gripping me tight as we peeled away from the house.
“Hold on!” I called back to her. I put on some speed to close the distance between us.
His bike was fast, but nowhere near as fast as mine.
Except it was daytime, and we were out on the streets. This wasn’t the same as racing at night.
Drake was well ahead of us, weaving in and out of traffic. My blood ran cold. If I wanted to catch him, I would have to do the same things—with Trinity on the back of the bike.
