Broken & Burned

by A. J. Downey

  “I don’t want to see him, or deal with him.” I said softly.

  “I know, but I do.” He said and his voice was steely and underlying the hardness was the heat of his anger.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because I want him to give me an excuse to pound his fucking face in.” he said simply in the same tone of voice. I was quiet for a moment while I processed what he said.

  “Is it wrong of me that I wouldn’t mind so much if you did?” I asked and he turned a feral grin in my direction.

  “Is that permission?” he asked.

  I stayed quiet. My da’ had always told me that what had never been said never needed to be unsaid so I thought that would be a good policy to adopt for this particular situation. Dray gave a dark little chuckle at my silence and I smiled a little to myself. I snuck a glance in his direction and surreptitiously studied his profile. He had his hair drawn back under a dirt and grease smudged gray bandana. Having the raven wing locks back away from his face served to show just how sharp and angular his cheekbones were, sweeping into slightly shadowed hollows before being rescued from looking gaunt by an equally strong and defined jaw.

  “Like what you see?” he asked teasing and I felt myself blush but my da’ had always taught me to give as good as I got for the most part so with a stubborn set to my chin I told him,

  “Yes.” He laughed and gave me a slow careful sweep of his gaze.

  “Good to know.” He said and I wondered when the hell we’d started flirting. No, no, no and no! Flirting was such a bad idea! A really bad idea! I wasn’t even twenty four hours out from the disaster with Jerry. I shouldn’t be flirting!

  “Dray look, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to flirt I shouldn’t…” he barked a laugh.

  “I’m the VP of an MC, trust me Sweetheart, I know when a woman is looking at me to get some and when one is just admiring the view. You’re fine.” He said, pulling up to the curb in front of the dry cleaners.

  “Arrogant much!?” I exclaimed laughing.

  “Am I?” he asked and turned that dark intense gaze full of so much raw heat on me. I felt things low in my body uncoil with a spark of lust that so should not be there.

  “Maybe a little.” I said honestly, “I can’t really tell yet.” It could be arrogance or it could be false bravado, I really couldn’t tell. Dray, from what I’d been able to see so far, was often times withdrawn and mercurial. He shut off the engine and I got out of the car before he could get the door. I pulled the suitcase out of the back and contemplated the glass door that led up the narrow staircase and ultimately to my apartment. I so did not want to go up those stairs.

  “Maybe I should have called first.” I said. Dray made a rude noise.

  “Naw, fuck that. You paid the rent, you live here. Let’s go get your shit so you can be done with him.” He opened the door for me and I got the mail. I needed to get a PO Box or something. I slid my mail into the front pocket of the suitcase and put Jerry’s mail back. Dray followed me up the stairs, a resolute presence at my back, pressing me inexorably forward. With him at my back I almost felt like currents of wind being pushed forward by a dark thunderhead. I was a little mixed up over it, being both grateful and resentful in the same breath. When we reached my apartment I stared at the door for too long I think because Dray took my key ring which hung limp from my fingers and slid the correct one home into the lock for me. He opened the door.

  “Evy?” Jerry called and he sounded hopeful. I closed my eyes and went through the door. He stood up from the couch, his game controller forgotten in his hand. He looked at my suitcase and smiled. “I knew you’d be back. Ready to talk?” he asked and it was Dray’s voice from behind me as he followed me into the apartment that saved me from having to shriek my outrage.

  “Think again asshole, she’s here for the rest of her shit.” I blinked, and swept down the hall to go for more of my belongings before Jerry could say anything or move to stop me.

  Was I ready to talk?! Really!? As if I was being the unreasonable one! Un-fucking-believable. My eyes swam with tears, the hot and angry kind as I lined the bottom of my suitcase with the rest of my shoes and pulled the hanging things out of my closet. I had just made off with socks, underwear, jeans and shirts out of and off of the dresser yesterday. I finished cleaning out the dresser, grabbed my framed photograph of me and my da’ off the night table and my phone charger.

  Jerry was in the living room squared off with Dray who was as unmovable and unflappable as a small dark mountain. I went into the kitchen determined to get all of the last of my things. I returned with two trash bags for clothes and bathroom essentials and gave Jerry a dark look before sweeping into action.

  “Evy what are you doing with this guy!?” Jerry demanded, “I mean shit, I forgive you if you fucked him, Christ… You need to stop. Ev, just stop!” He was following me from room to room. I threw all of my toiletries, and I mean all of them into my first trash bag. Shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush and paste, tampons all of it haphazardly into the bag. Razors and refills, even the Q-tips, my makeup all with Jerry standing in the door way shouting at me to fucking say something, anything to him. My anger boiled over.

  “You want me to say something!? Fine Jerry! How about fuck you and get out of my way!?” I shouted. He stopped talking and blinked at me.

  “You don’t talk to me that way.” He said imperiously and I shoved past him.

  “I just did, what are you going to do about it?” I scoffed and he grabbed my upper arm. It was a mistake. He’d missed Dray stalking up the hallway behind us quietly, like some kind of black leather clad panther or something. Dray grabbed him around the back of his collar, fisting his hand in Jerry’s tee shirt and ripped him off of me. I turned my back on them and went into the bedroom and finished getting all of the rest of my things. Dray was talking, low and controlled barely inches from Jerry’s face who looked like he was going to take a swing. He didn’t. Smart move, I was pretty sure Dray could have would have taken him apart. His dark eyes tempestuous, he pinned Jerry to the spot with his gaze, his hands fisted at his sides.

  “This is it Jerry, I’m done. We’re leaving I’m not coming back. Don’t call, don’t write, have a nice life.” Dray’s fingers uncurled from the fists he made as he took the over full suitcase and a trash bag from me. I hauled my hangars full of stuff over my shoulder and hefted the other trash bag with my other hand. Jerry glared at me and crossed his arms over his narrow chest.

  “Stupid bitch, you think he’s going to treat you better?” Jerry asked but when he opened his mouth to say more he swallowed Dray’s fist, Jerry fetched up against the wall and slid down it, his hands going to his mouth. Blood smearing his fingers. I gaped open mouthed at Dray. I hadn’t even seen him drop the trash bag let alone move! Violence crackled around him like heat lightning as he stood over my now very ex-boyfriend.

  “I told you last time I was here that you’d see what’d happen if you called her a bitch again.” Dray picked up the trash bag and transferred it to the hand my suitcase dangled out of. He put his free hand on the back of my shoulder to guide me out of the narrow hallway. I shivered and stepped over Jerry. He did the same and we left the apartment and went down to the car. He shoved the suitcase in the back seat and the rest in the trunk. Jerry spilled out of the entryway, blood coating his chin and teeth.

  “I’m calling the cops you asshole! I’m pressing charges!” he shouted and I felt myself pale. Dray motioned for me to get into the car and I complied.

  “Wouldn’t be my first time.” Dray shot over the roof of the Trans Am. He got in and fired it up leaving Jerry behind on the sidewalk gasping like a landed fish. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the headrest.

  “Don’t sweat it.” Dray said and I opened my eyes and pinned him with a look.

  “Thanks.” I said and his lips curled into a nasty little smile.

  “Really, it was my pleasure.” He said simply.

  “You didn’t have to hit him.�
�� He gave me a side long look. I rolled my eyes exasperated. “I’m not feeling bad about it, or for him, he deserved it. I’m more worried about you.” I said and he nodded.

  “Don’t.” he grunted and we finished the rest of the ride in silence. I ignored him and worried about him anyways. I was pretty sure Jerry wouldn’t call the cops. He’d have to explain and he wouldn’t want the wounded pride but I had been wrong about him before. Dray gripped the steering wheel tightly to the point it creaked and my gaze flicked to him.

  “How the fuck a girl like you land with a guy like him?” he demanded and I opened my mouth to reply and closed it.

  “We went to high school together, he was on the basketball team, star player, and I was a cheerleader.” He looked me over.

  “I can believe it.” he grunted and I raised an eyebrow and wondered just what that was supposed to mean.

  “He was sweet, persistent even. Walked me to every class, would leave notes and flowers at my locker until I agreed to let him take me to homecoming. We had a few things in common… we were different but it was good. Then it was comfortable, and then it wasn’t but I guess by then it was normal.” Dray looked at me and I lifted a shoulder in a shrug.

  “He was my first,” I whispered, “I suppose it was naïve of me to think he would be my last.” I leaned my head back and watched storm clouds of emotion cross his face. He gripped the wheel with the strength to make it creak and I looked at his hands. The knuckles of the right one were starting to swell and turn purple. A cut, likely from one of Jerry’s teeth, was bleeding freely, a trickle of crimson disappearing between his ring and middle finger.

  “You had plans for him and you?” he asked and I thought about it, I mean really thought about it.

  “I have plans for me.” I said startled to realize that I had stopped believing Jerry would be a part of them a long time ago.

  “Good.” Dray said and turned onto his street. He didn’t ask what my plans were and so I didn’t volunteer them. I had some things to sort out, that was for sure. This was definitely an unscheduled detour on my life’s highway. He pulled the old muscle car smoothly into his driveway just behind a motorcycle parked in front of the garage. He left plenty of room for the bike to get around his car.

  “Dragon’s home.” He uttered.

  “I’m sorry?” I said.

  “My pops. He’s here.” He said.

  “You call your da’ Dragon?” I asked curiously. Dray shrugged.

  “That’s his name, you say dad funny.” He remarked.

  “I say it the way I was raised to say it, my da’ was full on Irish, accent and all.” I felt myself slip into my half brogue and smiled.

  “Accent is hot. You might want to use it to pick up dudes when you’re ready.” He got out of the car before I could say anything to the smart ass comment. He began extracting my suitcase from the back seat as I shut my door and the front door of the house opened.

  If I ever wondered what Dray might look like in twenty or thirty years, now I knew. I looked from father to son and back and shut my mouth.

  “Alright boy. You’re good to go.” The president of the Sacred Hearts MC and father of Draven… damn it, I still didn’t know his last name. Well I could try to fix that. Anyways, Dragon, was more built than Dray and a few inches shorter. His leather was time and care worn and looked comfortable. He came down the steps in blue jeans and used faded black leather chaps. He looked me over with the same intense burning gaze as his son, all though it was different somehow, friendlier than Dray’s. He had a dark, full beard where Dray usually went clean shaven or at the worst, with a little more than a five o’clock shadow. His smile was very white set in the deep black whiskers and his hair was long, but pulled into a low pony tail that hung down his back.

  “You must be her.” He said.

  “You must be him.” I said back and smiled. I stuck out my hand.

  “Everett Moran, pleased to meet you Mr. … “ I trailed off in hopes he would supply his last name.

  “Dragon.” He said and shook my hand firmly but carefully. I smiled and shook it back.

  “Dragon.” I repeated and said, “Most people call me Ev or Evy.” I said. I heard Dray snort behind me.

  “The ass clown calls her that. I call her Em.” He said. Dragon’s eyes shifted to his son and I could see the love and pride radiate from the older man.

  “Em, huh? I like it. Pleased to meet you Em.” I took back my hand.

  “Pleased to meet you too sir.” I murmured then haltingly, “I really can’t let you move out of your own home for me, I can get a hotel room there’s an inexpensive one that…”

  “Naw!” he said. “It’s nothin’. I’ve got a lot of business to take care of and a room over at the club house. I’m hardly ever here anyways. You take the boy’s room he can have mine till you get back on your feet. It ain’t no thing.”

  “I don’t know how to thank you or your son.” I said and the tears welled up again, I dashed at them with my fingers embarrassed.

  “You need to introduce her to Sunshine.” Dragon muttered, Dray nodded.

  “See yah pops.” He said.

  “You coming to the clubhouse tonight?” he asked. Dray frowned and shook his head, he looked exhausted and it was all my fault.

  “Naw, if I don’t get some sleep soon I’m gonna pass out anyways.” Dray answered and I winced.

  “Right. Nice to meet you Em.” Dragon nodded and slung an old army green back pack higher on his wide shoulder. He went for his bike and Dray ushered me into the house. I went inside and to Dray’s bedroom and he followed, depositing the suitcase onto his bed. I made my way past him and into the kitchen.

  “Still want me to feed you right?” I asked.

  “Fuck I don’t even care anymore.” He said and shrugged out of his jacket and hung it on the same chair as yesterday. He slid past me and disappeared into Dragon’s room. I heard him flop onto the bed with a groan.

  I sighed, weary as well and went into his bedroom. I shoved everything into an inglorious pile in the middle of the floor with every intention of figuring it out later and pulled off my boots. I lay down and was asleep the minute my head touched the pillow.

  Chapter 6

  Dray…

  My suspicions about her not getting enough rest were confirmed when I heard her moving around in my room and then silence. I couldn’t bring myself to feel one way or the other about it as I slid the rest of the way into sleep. I slept hard, and when I woke up it was in the same position I’d flopped down in. I hadn’t budged. The house smelled like food and my stomach growled. I got up and took off my boots, stripping off my socks. My feet were hot as hell after sleeping in ‘em. I padded out to the dining area and looked into the kitchen. Em was pulling something carefully out of the oven with pot holders and setting it onto the stove top. When she was clear of anything that might burn her I spoke up.

  “Smells good.” She startled something fierce, arms snapping in to protect her chest, one leg coming clean up off the floor she bent at the middle and turned her side to me and let out a short shriek of fear. I couldn’t help but smile at the same time I noted that every movement she’d made, even unconsciously, was elegant, graceful and precise.

  “Sorry.” I said as she gasped for breath.

  “You scared the life out of me!” she panted and her accent was thicker.

  “You sure you grew up in the states?” I asked her. She nodded.

  “Just mostly with my da’ around other of our people.” She straightened and looked me over.

  Yeah, I was sleep rumpled but I was home so I didn’t much care. She wore some of her pajamas which made it hard as hell to concentrate on anything else. Her nap looked to be much shorter than mine by the laptop and piles of papers set out on one end of the table.

  “How long was I out?” I asked gruffly.

  “A little over six hours.” She said.

  “How long were you?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “A little
under two. I tried to be quiet, did I wake you?” she bit her lip and roved me with her bright clear eyes. I shook my head and pulled out a chair so I could face her, dropping into it.

  “Naw.” I said. It was dark outside the windows and the dim glow of the lamps she had turned on made the space more intimate. She moved around the kitchen and by the smell of things I had lucked out and rescued a stray who could cook.

  “What’d you make?” I asked her.

  “Guinness and steak pie, traditional Irish Soda Bread and some salad.” She moved around dishing up two plates. My eyebrows went up.

  “We had all of the stuff to make that?” I asked.

  “I walked to the grocery store and picked up what you didn’t have. Like I said, I had some good tips today.” She set a plate in front of me along with a paper towel and some silverware. I looked up at her.

  “You’re supposed to be saving money.” I said she smiled and shook her head.

  “You can’t expect me not to pitch in at all.” She sat down with me and sighed.

  “Fair enough, try to keep it to a minimum though. You’ve got a life to build, and didn’t you say you had plans?” I raised my eye brows and took a bite of food and Christ as a cracker the girl could cook. Bet she could even give Ashton a run for her money. Score.

  “I did.” She affirmed, but the way she said it, the glimpse of deep sorrow in her eyes had me wondering if that’s what she really meant. Was that an affirmation or was she giving up?

  “What are they?” I asked, then added, “If you don’t mind my asking.” She looked over at me, chewing carefully, considering.

  “I want to open a coffee and chocolate shop.” She answered. Not what I expected.

  “Okay coffee I get, and chocolate I get, but together? Like how together?” She smiled.

  “Coffee drinks, drinking chocolate but also specialty chocolates, truffles, bonbons and the like.” She set down her fork and got up.

  “Something to drink?” She asked.