by Karen Renee
Vamp threw his voice over his shoulder and said, “Baby, go somewhere else.”
I wanted to argue, but I could see Mark’s eyes, and they looked crazed. I surely didn’t want any more blows to my face, so I rounded the corner to the den. I was out of sight, but perfectly positioned to eavesdrop.
Vamp said, “You’re not gettin’ to Frankie. You don’t think it’s date rape. What about extortion? You’re blackmailing her for sex. Blackmail’s a slippery slope. Not sure RS&H’ll be on board with that.”
“That a threat?” Mark asked in a low, angry voice.
“It’s a fact. You wanna fuck Frankie over because she won’t let you fuck her any more. A couple of well-placed calls, one to Dr. Stone’s staff and then one to Emily, your sister-in-law who doesn’t care too much for you‒why, I can’t imagine‒ but between those two items, your wife is going to have some serious questions. Frankie scraped your ass off. Get gone.”
There was an excruciatingly long pause, and then I heard the door being gently closed and locked. Shortly thereafter, I heard the muffled sound of a car peeling out. Someone left unhappy. Good.
I wandered out to the foyer and Vamp asked me, “You ever call your boss late at night?”
“Yeah. Why?” I asked.
“You might wanna do that tonight. Get the jump on Stillman.”
I could do that, but first I needed some clarification.
“How did you know all that shit? I didn’t say where he works when I spoke to you guys at the wing place. And I damn sure didn’t know her doctor’s name, or anything about a sister. How did you get that info?”
Vamp’s chin tilted up slightly. “I have my ways.”
“What ways?”
“Go call your boss. Give her the details on this whole situation. I don’t think that asshole’s gonna leave well enough alone.”
Sadly, I suspected Vamp was right, so I went to my bedroom and called Roxanne.
I came out thinking Vamp would have left, but he was leaning against the sofa in my living room.
He looked at me briefly and then sighed. “Totally fucked up with you, F—”
“Vamp, don’t. It’s the past.”
“We were young. So damn young.”
I nodded, “That we were.”
His eyes were boring into me, “You’re so damn gorgeous.”
I scoffed, “I have a shiner the size of Rhode Island. Pretty safe to say I’m not gorgeous these days.”
His head tilted, “Gives you character. But even back at Jared’s, God, your figure, you’ve filled out since I last saw you. We had such great times. Do you ever think –”
I had to make him stop. I could feel a warm comfort that I always got when I thought about our good times. I hoped it wasn’t showing on my face. Reggie and his partner Tucker always told me that they could see the warm feeling on my face when I’d tell them about Vamp, normally on drunken nights when I was trying to battle my PMS.
I did the only thing I could think of and interrupted him. “No. It’s done.”
My hopes about my face were dashed when he said, “You think about us, I can see it in your eyes. If I could take it all back, I would.”
I snorted, “Quoting more alt-rock, are you? But you can’t take it back. You need variety and apparently lots of it. I hope you’re doing well.”
“No. I‒This will sound… Well, fuck it. I’m tired of variety.”
“So now you’re after quality instead of quantity? Well, good luck with that.”
“You were the only quality in my life, ever, Rainey.”
Oh, God, he couldn’t do this. I couldn’t listen to this.
“Honey, it’s late. I need to get some sleep.”
His face said there was more that he wanted to say to me, so I was surprised when he said, “Ok, girl. I’m gonna be out in the driveway, keepin’ watch from inside Mallory’s car.”
I looked at him askance. “You can’t do that.”
Vamp’s face shifted and I could see he was getting irritated. “I can, and I am. You think that asshole won’t come back? Hell, you think he won’t fuckin’ come back here with one, or even three other guys? I know you said he’s just an engineer, but somehow, some damn way, he’s been steppin’ out on his pregnant wife, which tells me he’s one cold-hearted bastard. And when you say it’s over, he decks you? A woman? Frankie, I don’t trust this motherfucker at all.”
Vamp had totally misunderstood me. I took a deep breath and said, “I meant, you can’t sleep in a car.”
At that statement, which I thought would clarify where I was coming from, Vamp looked at me as if I were obtuse. “I won’t be sleepin’, baby,” he said in a low voice, and I knew he threw in the ‘baby’ to rile me.
I shook my head. “If you stake out my place from inside, you could at least lay on the couch. Don’t tell me you’ve suddenly developed a heavy-sleeping habit? You used to jolt awake at any little sound.”
This was true. It had been six years since I last saw Vamp, but we had been together for a year and a half. That meant, when he first asked me out, Vamp had been twenty-five and I had just turned twenty. Vamp had recently been honorably discharged from the Marines. Due to the action he saw overseas, he had post-traumatic stress. His sleep was as fitful as it could possibly be. It was difficult for him. The second time we had sex, it was nighttime and I slept over. I wasn’t a complete balm to his sleep deprivation, but he did manage to sleep four hours straight with me at his side. It was the longest stretch of continuous sleep he had had in nearly three years. We became far more serious shortly after that. When I would let myself contemplate all that was me and Vamp back in the day, I often wondered if he believed an abundance of sex would help him sleep. I never asked after finding him with all those women. He had known my hot button, and he had known I was still at the party being held at the compound.
“My sleep has improved over the years, but I still sleep pretty light.”
I shrugged as if this were a no-brainer. “Then, I’ll make up the couch.”
Vamp rolled his shoulders once. “Um, no.”
“Why?”
“You want me here to protect you?”
This seemed like a stupid question. “Isn’t that the point of sitting in a car in my driveway? Why sweat your balls off out there, when you can be in the AC? I mean, it’s nighttime, but it’s still the month of May, which around here means it’s summer already. Take the couch.”
Vamp modified his question by a single word (I told you cheaters were vocabulary savants), “You want me ‒in‒ here to protect you?”
Still unaware of what he was driving at, my reply was a tad snippy. “Ye-ah.”
“Inside to protect you, means I’m in your bed to protect you. Now, for the last time, you want me here to protect you?”
Well, now the penny dropped. I was in a quandary. My attitude was ready to flow from my mouth, but it would do nothing more than satisfy Vamp. Yet, I did not understand how being in my bed was required, when the couch was only ten feet away from my room, and further, it was between my bedroom door and both the front and back doors.
Working very hard to keep my tone light, I said, “So you know, my couch is just five feet from where I’ll be sleeping. It also obstructs my doorway if the asshole comes in from the front door or the back door.”
“There an obstacle if that asshole comes in through one of your large bedroom windows? You got a gun under your pillow, baby?”
I mentioned the nefarious dealings Riot MC used to have when Vamp was prospecting. Some of those deals were guns and moving them from point A to point B. Vamp had guns, knew guns, and was called on to help with the nefarious gun business. I was never told this. I put it together over time. He also knew guns made me nervous in the extreme, so I knew he knew the answer to his own question. Therefore, I merely shook my head at him.
His eyes were intense when he said, “In or out, which will it be, babe?”
I knew he would doze in the car. I didn’t
care how warm it was, or if he kept the car engine running. My every instinct told me he’d nod off. My heart, my brain, and a few of my other organs told me having Vamp sleep next to me was a bad idea. No, not ‘bad’. Visiting Siberia in winter was a bad idea. Letting Vamp into my bed was probably the most harmful and outrageous thing I could do right now. But my head filled with a vision of him dozing off and Mark’s sorry ass attacking him, and then attacking me.
With that vision in mind, I said, “In.”
His eyebrow lifted, and he gave me a small chin-lift. I left the living room and went to my bathroom to wash off my make-up with only one good hand. I wouldn’t take my right hand for granted ever again. The most mundane tasks took two to three times longer than they should have. Using my right hand was such an ingrained habit, and it was damn frustrating to try to start a task only to realize I had to switch hands. Fifteen minutes later, I had a clean face and was rubbing in my night moisturizer.
I exited my bathroom to find Vamp sitting on my queen bed taking off his motorcycle boots. Dammit! What had I been thinking? This was going to be a feat. Between feeling a little schitzo about Vamp even being here to resisting the urge to snuggle with him in my bed, it was going to be a rough night. No doubt about it. I had to be sure I could keep my buried feelings where they were, buried deep in the bottom of my heart. If those feelings came up, I’d be setting myself up for another God-awful heartache.
“Did it take you that long just to wash your face?”
I nodded.
He hissed out, “Goddamn motherfucker. I really should have beaten his ass when he was here. Can I help you at all?”
I wanted to sound bitchy, I really did, but I couldn’t pull it off. “No. I’m the one who got myself into this mess. I can deal with the consequences.”
“That’s got fuck-all to do with me helpin’ you. Please, Rai-, I mean, Frankie. I can smooth the way for you at least a little bit. Who helped you yesterday?”
“Reggie and his partner, Tucker.”
A smile fleeted across Vamp’s face, “Good guy, Reggie. I remember he was one crazy-ass man. This Tucker dude all right?”
The latent feelings started to bubble up in me. Cary had been totally cool with Reggie and me hanging out, and when he wasn’t busting his ass as a prospect, he’d hang with me and Reg, too. It made me feel good that he wanted to know about Reggie and that he was concerned about whether or not his partner was “all right.” I had to not-feel the good feeling. Where was some Novocain when I needed it?
My smile did not fleet on my face though; it stayed on my face, because thoughts of Reggie and Tucker always made me happy.
“If you can believe this, he’s probably more protective of me than Reggie is, and he’s built like a damn ox. He came to the hospital, and I thought they were going to have to restrain him. He wanted to hunt Mark down and bury him. They had to call security. So, yeah, I’d say Tuck is better than ‘all right.’”
“I’m glad for him. And it sounds like I’d like this Tucker guy. I’d have gone ape-shit if I had seen your ass at the hospital, too. Hell, I wanted to go ape-shit after I touched your ribs, but my President talked me down.”
“I’m glad to know someone is able to do that. How is Teach, anyway?” I asked, and I noticed a look wash over Vamp’s face.
“Teach is gone. Volt is our new Prez,” Vamp said, tucking his socks inside his boots.
“Where’d he go?”
Vamp pressed his lips together, and I realized Teach had died. Teach was a fun guy. He loved food almost as much as he loved life. They called him ‘Teach’ because he taught everyone in the club about guns, fighting, self-defense, and knife skills. He started out as Sergeant at Arms, and I suspected that was why Cal had been Riot’s SAA for so long. Cal supposedly got his cut when he was eighteen, which was a very rare thing. However, Cal’s time in the foster care system had softened Teach’s heart. Cal and Teach had formed a bond that seemed to go beyond the brotherhood.
My thoughts of Teach and Cal vanished when Vamp asked, “You still sleep naked, babe?”
My eyes bulged, my lips pursed, and my eyebrows felt like they were pointed down towards my nose. I probably looked like a complete emoji of myself.
Vamp chuckled lightly, “I was kidding, babe.”
“I’m beginning to rethink my ‘in or out’ answer. Let me guess, you’re going to tell me you still sleep in the buff, and you have to, tonight, because you don’t have anything to wear?”
Vamp smirked, “I hadn’t thought about that. I should’ve played that card, but no, I’m gonna stretch out in my clothes, and a prospect should be comin’ by in a few with clothes for me for tomorrow. Do you want some help getting into whatever it is that you’re gonna wear to bed?”
Well, shit. That was a really appealing offer. Getting dressed for work this morning had been a bitch, but I had managed. Help with my clothes would have been a godsend, if it were from anyone except Vamp. He saw the indecision in my face.
“C’mon. I’m not gonna touch you, and I’m not gonna try anything with you.”
Maybe it was his tone of voice or maybe it was my imagination, but I could swear he wanted to say ‘Yet’ after his statement. So, I decided to hold firm. I shook my head and went to my dresser to get my pajamas. I had a black camisole and a pair of black, teal, and gold plaid men’s boxers with a Jacksonville Jaguars logo on the left leg. I went into the bathroom and took my clothes off slowly, so as to not press or bump my ribs or hurt my hand. My day at work had kept me inside the bulk of the day, which meant I hadn't gotten sweaty. With that in mind, I made the decision to wear my bra to bed. Removing a bra with one hand was a trick-and-a-half. It wouldn’t be very comfy tonight, but it would be one less thing to contend with in the morning. I threaded my hand with the cast into the appropriate armhole, and proceeded to get the cami on my torso. I laid the boxers down on the floor carefully, stepped into each leg, and then pulled them up, one-handed with my left hand. I took my work clothes out to my hamper in my closet.
“Still just as damn stubborn, I see,” Vamp said to my back.
I shrugged, and turned around to find Vamp stretched out on the bed with his arm folded behind his head. He was holding my remote in his hand and was channel-surfing at warp speed. That was something I absolutely did not miss. I had been going to take a short break before brushing my teeth, but decided to hit the bathroom again to get away from the incessant whirl of colors and sounds coming from the TV.
When I came back into the room this time, the television was off and Vamp had removed his cut. It was folded and placed neatly in a small chair near my closet. He was still stretched out on the bed in the same pose, but instead of holding the remote, now he was holding his Smartphone. He looked so good on my bed, just like he belonged there. His jeans might have actually been new because they weren’t half as faded as the jeans I remembered him wearing six years ago. He was wearing a faded-black Iron Horse Saloon t-shirt and it had come untucked at the waist of his jeans.
Without looking at me, he asked, “How’s your mama?”
I snorted lightly, “Same as always. We had our quarterly chat a couple of weeks ago, but as usual, she did ninety percent of the talking, and didn’t seem to care about anything going on with me. I may only speak to her four times in the year, but since we only see each other every other year at best, it’d be nice if she’d actually give a shit about my life.”
He gave me a look that I saw a lot when we lived together, and then he shook his head at me.
“Shit ain’t right,” he whispered.
He was right about that, but this wasn’t the time to talk about my dysfunctional relationship with my mom. “So, how’re the club parties? I hope you aren’t missing any primo action back at the compound in order to babysit me tonight.”
His eyes came to mine and he said, “I’m on hiatus from sex right now.”
“Television shows go on hiatus, Vamp. You don’t go a day without sex or a couple of bjs at a mini
mum.”
Now Vamp’s lips pursed, putting his lip ring in a new light. I want to kiss and nibble around that damn thing. Dammit! Stupid mind. I didn’t want him here specifically so that I could keep those kinds of thoughts at bay, but part of me did want him here. I needed to fire up some music; maybe Janet Jackson could help me gain some control.
My thoughts of eighties music were interrupted when Vamp said, “Some serious-ass shit went down almost two months ago. Forced me to reevaluate all kinds of shit. Now, are you ready for bed?”
“I’m gonna read out on the couch.”
“Still a bookworm. So, what sci-fi book are you reading now?”
I went to the opposite side of the bed and pulled my Kindle from the charger. I looked at Vamp. “Stopped reading sci-fi half-a-dozen years ago.”
I rounded the bed and was headed to the living room, but Vamp stopped my progress by standing in the doorway.
“Where you go, I’m gonna go. So, if you still read in bed like you always did, then go lay down. I’m serious. I’m not gonna pull any shit. You were just attacked forty-eight hours ago for fuck's sake. I might have been a selfish and colossal dumbass douchebag six years ago, but really, I’m not gonna do anything but stay here, and keep you safe.”
I moved to the right, and Vamp moved with me. I frowned, turned on my heel and went to the other side of the bed again. I curled a leg under my butt and sat down on my foot.
Vamp was still standing by the bed and watching me closely. I had stacked two pillows behind me and situated myself to read, when the doorbell rang. I jumped at the sound, and heard Vamp hiss out a sigh through his nose.
“I’ll get that. Should be the prospect with my shit.”
He left the room, and I did some deep breathing. I didn’t think Mark had rattled me, but clearly that was not the case. Vamp came back into the bedroom after about five minutes or so. He seemed tense and angry. Oh, well. He was not my issue any more. I could survive the next eight hours with him in my bed. Vamp set a small duffel-bag on top of his cut and removed a toothbrush and toothpaste. He went into my bathroom and closed the door. A few minutes later, he opened the door and returned his stuff to his bag.
