“You okay?” he asked from where he still lay on the couch.
It was easy for her just to go ahead and nod. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear, tell me the truth.”
That was hard for her. She was used to hiding how she felt from everyone all the time. At the club, she had to hide the disgust she felt when certain men rubbed up against her. She had to hide the look of recognition when she saw regulars on the street. When she was little she had to hide how she felt about using those paper dollar food stamps at the grocery store. People had looked and pointed at her, whispering that her mother had gotten pregnant with her to ‘draw a check’. She was very good at hiding her true feelings.
Worry caused her to pull her bottom lip between her teeth. “This paper is so important to my grade, it’s making me nervous. I always feel like I’m at a disadvantage.”
“Why do you think that?” he asked, his forehead crinkling with the question.
“Because I’m so much older than everybody else.”
A gut-busting laugh came out of his mouth. “You are not so much older than everybody else. You’re what? Twenty-five?”
“Almost twenty-six, but most everybody in my classes aren’t on the ‘other side’ of twenty. Speaking of which, how old are you?”
Being a new member of the club, she wondered if maybe he was younger than she had initially thought.
“I just turned twenty-four. Not that much younger than you.”
That was weird; she had never in her life dated a younger man. He was right though, he wasn’t that much younger.
“I didn’t scare you off, did I?” he asked as he saw the spooked look on her face.
“Not at all. I’ve just never dated a younger man.”
He sucked in a breath and acted shocked. “For shame. Please baby, whatever you do, corrupt me,” he playfully egged her on.
“Stop!” She couldn’t help the laugh that came from out of her chest. “I have to keep studying.”
“Then do it, nobody stopping you here but yourself.”
Embarrassment burned her cheeks. He was right. She was the only person in her whole life that had stopped her. She’d pushed everybody else away. When you only had yourself to count on, you only had yourself to blame if things didn’t work out.
“You’re right. I’m gonna get back to work.”
Unbeknownst to her, he watched her instead of reading his book. He liked watching her. She was always so intense with everything that she did. He would watch her at Wet Wanda’s and see how intent she was on getting all the orders correct and making sure that the tables she waited on had what they needed. It was the same here. She looked beyond cute with her brow knitted in concentration, the length of a pen sticking out of her mouth, and her fingers flying across her laptop.
He noticed something else about her too. Here, in this setting, without the makeup and the outfit and her hair done just so, she looked so much younger than her years. She really did look like a fresh-faced college student trying to make her way in the world. Not someone who had been hardened by the harsh realities of life. He liked her this way much more than the woman he saw at the club.
“Why are you staring at me?” she asked, not looking away from the screen of her laptop.
“I like looking at you.”
“Don’t do this to me, Jagger,” she pleaded, not looking him in the eye.
“Don’t do what?”
“I like you, I’m not going to lie, but I’m not really relationship material. I work at a strip club, and I’m a college student.”
He slid from the couch and sat down on the floor next to her. “And I’m a member of a motorcycle club who plays guitar and sings. Let’s not forget I’m also one of the only members of the club who lives exclusively at the dorm. If I wanted to take you somewhere else, we’d have to meet here or go to a hotel. I don’t even own a car like most of the other members do. So if you wanna talk about somebody not being relationship material? Baby, I think I got ya beat.”
She took a deep breath, trying to hide her face with her long dark blonde tresses. He reached in and pushed the hair back from her face. “Don’t hide from me. C’mon, we’re having a conversation here.”
“You really do make me feel like I can do anything that I want to, and for someone like me, that’s dangerous.”
“It’s not dangerous at all. You can do anything you set your mind to.” He wasn’t sure what she meant with the “someone like her” comment, but he didn’t want to bring attention to it either.
“Do you have a second career as a motivational speaker?” The atmosphere was getting so tense and serious that she had to crack a joke.
“No,” he laughed. “But I do want to get to know you better, and I do want to spend my time with you. I get the feeling if I let you, you’d run away from me just as fast as the wind could carry you.”
She had to be honest with him. “You’re probably right.”
“But I’m not gonna let you,” he told her, giving her a wink. His tone held a promise that she knew he would uphold if threatened.
It was cold when Jagger left her apartment a few hours later. He wasn’t exactly ready to leave but knew that she had to get some sleep. As he eased out onto Smallhouse Road, he checked both ways. Nothing coming, he made his way out onto the main thoroughfare. This time of night was the best time, in his opinion, to ride, but it could be dangerous.
As he approached the Covington Woods area, he saw a van come up behind him. Something about the van made him pay attention. Not seeing any cops around, he made the decision to take off at a higher speed than normal. As he came up beside a local park, the vehicle swerved around him, knocking into him as it passed. He and his bike went down in a tumble, and with clarity he realized he hadn’t bothered to put his helmet on for his little excursion around town.
“Fuck!” he cursed as he tried to push the bike off his leg while trying to get a good look at the license plate of the van that had hit him.
Pulling his phone out, he breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t cracked. He hit a button and hoped like hell somebody would answer. Grimacing, he tried to move his leg, but the bike was heavy and his leg was at an awkward angle.
“Liam?” he asked as the clubhouse phone was answered by their current president.
“Yeah, Jagger, I thought you were out. You sound like something’s happened.”
Not bothering to ask his president why the hell he was at the clubhouse and not at home with his pregnant girlfriend, he finished in a rush, “A van ran me off the road when I was coming back from Bianca’s. I’m on Covington with my bike turned over on my leg. I can’t move it, and I think I was hit on purpose. I got a decent look at the vehicle, but I’m in some pain right now. I wasn’t wearing my helmet, I may have hit my head.”
“We’ll be there to pick you up in a minute. Try to get that bike off yourself. I’ll see if someone’s in the area and can offer you some help. We haven’t had good relations with the Vojnik lately, so keep your head down.”
“Yeah, like I’m gonna be startin’ shit right now,” he mumbled as he hung up the phone.
Using what strength he had left, he moved the bike just enough to alleviate the pressure off his leg. Taking a deep breath to keep from passing out, he laid his head down back on the ground and tried his best to remain calm.
Chapter Eight
Jagger was in agony. He didn’t think anything was broken, but it sure hurt to move. It seemed to be taking hours for the guys to get to him, but looking at his phone he saw it had only been about fifteen minutes. If they were hauling ass, they would be there soon. Sighing, he lay his head back down on the ground, thinking about the time he had spent with Bianca. The night had been going so well until this.
The roar of bikes brought him back. He tensed, palming the gun he kept in a holster under his cut. With the number of bikes he heard, it wouldn’t be much of a fight. The only thing he could do was pray
they were friendly.
“You okay?”
He finally breathed when he heard the voice of his president.
“My leg is all jacked up, I think. Other than that, I’ve got some bumps and bruises, think I hit my head, but really can’t remember.”
Relief washed over him as numerous members of the club lifted the bike fully off his body and helped him up. He ground his back teeth as he put pressure on his leg. There was something definitely off with it and his vision clouded.
“We’ll get you back to the clubhouse and call Ashley,” Liam told him.
For the first time, he noticed that Liam hadn’t ridden his bike, he’d brought his truck. The guys loaded his bike up in the bed of the truck and helped him into the passenger seat. Once he was situated, he released the lever on the seat and leaned back, thankful that it was a quad cab.
“You alright?” Liam pressed, trying to make sure he didn’t pass out.
“I will be.”
Liam watched as Jagger grabbed himself around the stomach. “You feel sick?”
“A little bit.” He was sweating bullets and it was the middle of January.
“Head hurt?” Liam nudged him again as he noticed Jagger’s eyes becoming heavy.
He tried to focus on the question, but it was all running together and he couldn’t really make heads or tails of what Liam said anymore. “I don’t know,” he admitted.
“Maybe we should just take you straight to the hospital.”
It was on the tip of Jagger’s tongue to say no when he was hit with a wave of dizziness that caused him to pitch to the side. “Yeah, I think you should take me.”
In the background, he could hear Liam calling Ashley, asking her to meet them at the hospital. As a doctor, she could admit and treat him. Then everything finally, blessedly, went black.
Bianca groaned. Homework would be the death of her, that she was sure. Even after Jagger had left, she knew there were still hours of it ahead of her. Beside her, her cell phone rang, showing Jagger’s number. A little smile spread over her face as she answered.
“Hey,” she answered, the smile evident in her voice.
“Bianca?”
The voice on the other end was not Jagger. Not at all. He sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it. “Who is this?” she questioned.
“This is Liam.”
Immediately a bad feeling caused her stomach to sink. Why would Liam be calling her? They were friendly when he came to the club with his girlfriend and when he escorted Wanda’s girls to their cars, but they weren’t exactly telephone buddies. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m calling to let you know that Jagger’s been in an accident.”
Panic seized her, and she wasn’t sure why. They had only been hanging out for a couple of weeks really, but fear squeezed her heart. “Is he okay?” she asked, her voice sounding a little raspy, even to her ears.
“They have him doing a CT scan right now. He lost consciousness in the truck on the way over. They may keep him overnight, I’m still not sure. We’ve got our doctor working on it.”
She wondered what that meant. Their doctor working on it. So much of this town was affected by this MC. Places that she’d never even thought would be under their reach. That sobered her up a lot as to who and what she would be getting herself into by seeing Jagger.
“Are you still there?” Liam asked, when he didn’t hear anything else on the line.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Do you want to come down and sit with him? When he was conscious, he asked for you.”
That caught her off guard but warmed her heart at the same time. She glanced around at all the work she still had to do. It could easily be done while waiting on Jagger. “Okay, I’ll be there in a few minutes. My apartment isn’t far away.”
“If you want me to, I can have someone come pick you up.”
She glanced outside at the ice on her windows. It was cold just from the looks of things. It would be nice if someone drove her for a change. “If it’s not a problem.”
“Tyler will be there to pick you up in a few minutes. We called him in tonight.”
Vaguely, she remembered that Jagger had actually taken Tyler’s spot on this night’s run. Tyler had wanted to spend the evening with his wife. “Alright, thank you.”
She hung up and quickly went about putting her stuff in the bag that served as her lifeline during the school year. She had just put her books and a couple of snacks in it and zipped it up when a knock sounded on her door.
Walking to it, she pulled back her curtain and saw Tyler standing there. He really was intimidating, but at the same time he reminded her of a gentle giant. He smiled when she caught sight of him, waving at her.
“Hey, thanks for coming to get me,” she told him as she opened the door and stepped out beside him.
“Careful, it’s been snowing and these stairs don’t seem to be the safest.” He held his hand out to her, which she grabbed gratefully.
“You’re preachin’ to the choir. I’ve complained about them since I moved in,” she agreed as she held his hand for stability when they started their descent.
Once they got to the bottom, she saw a large truck waiting on them. “You drive a truck?”
He grinned. “Why does everybody always ask me that question? Do I not look like a pickup man?”
“Not really,” she admitted as she hopped in the backseat of the quad cab. Once there, she saw a woman sitting in the passenger side.
“I’m Meredith,” the woman smiled, waving at her.
“I figured,” Bianca smiled back. “I’ve seen you around the club every once in a while when Jagger plays. You always come with Tyler.”
“That’s right. I don’t let my woman outta my sight.”
“Sorry your night together got ruined. I know you took Jagger’s night last time in order for us to spend some time together. So I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault,” Meredith told her. “Nobody ever plans on being hit by a van.”
“He got hit by a van? I thought he was in an accident!”
Tyler, ever the peacemaker, answered from his seat. “None of us in this truck have seen him, we don’t really know what happened. Let’s not jump to conclusions.”
Bianca nodded and sat back in her seat, chewing on her bottom lip. Something about this felt really bad. All she wanted to do was see Jagger and make sure he was okay.
Chapter Nine
Bianca sat in the waiting room that had been secured for the club. It was amazing the power these men held. They asked for their own private waiting room and they got it. She was still working on the paper for her class, but nothing sounded right.
“This paper is going to be the death of me. It’s half my grade, and I’m so going to fail,” Bianca moaned, putting her face in her hands.
Meredith looked over from where she sat and felt sympathy for the other woman. Having already been through college, she knew just how stressful one paper being that much of a grade could be. She walked over to Bianca and sat beside her. Putting her hand on the other woman’s forearm, Meredith squeezed.
“Don’t stress about it too much. They made us write articles and stuff, like we really worked for a major paper, in one of my classes. I got an F on my very first one and pretty much wanted to drop out. Half the class failed, and then they dropped the class. When we came back the next day and saw that half of us were gone, the teacher congratulated us. She said that she had given everyone an F and those that had come back had what it took to be journalists. It’s not always about how well you do. It’s about how much you believe in yourself and how much you want it.”
“Thanks,” Bianca smiled. “I really do appreciate that because sometimes it feels like I’m spinning my wheels. I feel like I’m never going to be where I want to.”
Meredith shook her head. “Don’t ever feel that way. It’s the best thing you will ever do. Even though I’m not sure that I’m going to stick with what I went to school for, I
am so glad I finished. If you want me to look over it for any grammatical errors, I would be glad to,” she offered.
This was exactly what she had needed. Someone to reinforce the fact that she was doing something good. That her dreams weren’t just in vain. It also kept her mind off of the fact that Jagger sat somewhere in the hospital having his head scanned.
“You don’t know how much I would appreciate that. I don’t really have anyone in class that I’m close enough with to ask them to proofread or bounce ideas off of.”
“So Jagger, huh?” she smiled at Bianca, wagging her eyebrows.
“Yeah, but really it’s more like Jagger just won’t take no for an answer.”
Meredith laughed. “Don’t I know that. He’s a really good guy though.”
“How long have you known him?”
“Since Tyler brought me to the clubhouse. He was a prospect then and got patched a few weeks afterwards. We’ve been friends since. He even purposefully pissed off Tyler to do something just because I asked it of him. He’s very loyal and has a great heart.”
Bianca knew all of this about him. She’d seen it in the way he fixed her car, not expecting payment. The way he treated her, not like she worked in strip club, but that she deserved the same respect given to others. He was special, and she wanted to explore where their feelings could take them. Silently, she asked God to please let everything be alright. He could be hurt, but she wanted him to least be there so that they could have a chance.
Everyone in the waiting room looked up as a female doctor came in. Liam and Tyler walked right up to her, hands in their pockets.
“What do we know?” Liam asked, rocking back on his heels.
“Has somebody called his parents?” the woman asked pointedly.
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