“He’s like Hollywood, a fucking boy scout that occasionally kicks ass.” Shit, pushing him over the line would be next to impossible.
“But he’s fair,” Baldy said. “And that’s more than we can say for most men. Rushing him ain’t gonna help.”
“We don’t have a month to form a committee,” Freaky snapped.
“No, but we do have a majority.”
Turning her head to the side, Meadow played with the image before her. Adjusting the contrast to turn the raindrops into crystals. Why hadn’t she pulled Freaky into the rain to dance? Going up to his room had been wonderful, but now she wished she’d danced in the rain with him.
All the times Clive had choked her, smacked her around to the point she was dizzy and she’d never thought if only I had experienced this wonderful thing with him. Instead, she made her peace with the fact she may die. Her mind going down a road she hadn’t expected.
A knock on her door made her jump a bit.
Leaving the kitchen table where she’d been trying to edit photos, she peeked out the window above the sink to see Lil’ Mama with the youngest, Maddox in her arms. When she opened the door, she saw the twins by her side. The bright eyes of youth blinking up at her with long lashes.
“Hi,” the bright little princess Murphy said passing Meadow a branch of full blooming lilacs, with a wet paper towel wrapped around the bottom. “Ms. Hannah shared-ded.”
“And you’re sharing with me,” Meadow said crouching down to be on eye level with the little girl.
“Mama says you teachin’,” Murphy said in her broken toddler English.
“I am a teacher,” she replied. “Would you like to help me put these in water?”
The smell of springtime came with the flowers as the family came into the trailer.
“Dis was mine,” Braxton said climbing on the couch and grabbing a pillow.
“It was,” his mother said as he ruffled his dark curls. “But you’re a good sharer too.”
Braxton’s face pinched to the side as his little legs dangled off the edge of the couch.
“I assume the visit is more than sharing flowers,” Meadow said as she retrieved a glass from the cupboard, ran some water into it and placed the stem, minus the paper towel, into the glass.
“We were coming to visit Nana Maggie,” Lil’ Mama said, the deep hazel of her skin flawless as her lips smiled, but her eyes did not. “And we thought we’d stop in and check on you.”
“Lots of checks going on today,” Meadow said as she pulled out bag round globe grapes and rinsed them off before placing them on the table for the kids. “I’m fine.”
“You’ve had two big scares in less than twenty four hours,” Lil’ Mama said placing Maddox on the floor with a few toys from the diaper bag. “It’s probably normal at this point, but it shouldn’t be.” Lil’ Mama moved around the kitchen that used to be hers, pulling out a plate from the cabinet and a paring knife from a drawer. She proceeded to slice the large grapes in half, then a few into quarters to give to the baby. “I remember that normal,” she confessed. “The brace for the hit you know will come. There are times when Cass will move quickly to grab something and I cringe.” Lil’ Mama then sat at the table.
Meadow closed her laptop, not ready to share the images.
Murphy climbed up on the chair and sat on her knees to be high enough. Braxton was enjoying a little picnic with his brother on the carpet.
“But that’s my background not yours,” Lil’ Mama said. “And my motives are a bit selfish for coming over here. I know you haven’t been put into the Hard Road’s database to get a new start. I also saw the way you and Freaky have been getting close.”
“It’s much too soon—” Meadow fought the reality staring her in the face.
“Yeah, it took me a bit with Cass too, but I was growing bigger everyday so that didn’t help.” Lil’ Mama diced up more grapes and Braxton ran over with his hands cupped to take more. “I’m gonna have to hit the grocery store for you.”
“It’s fine.”
“The thing is, this place is my home and I love that for the most part, the kids can run a little wild.”
“But?” Meadow led.
“We’re a pretty tight-knit group and I heard about the school discussion.”
“I’m kind of a people pleaser when I hear someone needs something, I actually know about. Those things are few and far between.” Now Murphy saying she was a teacher made much more sense.
“When I came here, I didn’t think I had a place, even as I fell deeper in love with Cass, but I made one. Doing something I never thought I’d do.”
“Be a mom?”
“No,” she replied with a happy sigh. “Being a mom saved me. When I found out I was pregnant, I knew I had to get out. When I found out, they were twins I really knew it. For a few months, I tried to convince myself I could make him change. They would.” A dark cloud floated across Lil’ Mama’s face for a moment. “Now I have a sister in Lil’ Bit. I work in the clinic. Accounting, billing, and stuff I’d been told I was too stupid to understand.” She shook off the sadness. “Turnabout Creek was well named. Cass let me grow and discover who I was all with the giant safety net of this family. One growing fast.”
Meadow was about to sit down at the table when the roar of a motorcycle made her stop. Glancing out the window the figure of Freaky rolling toward the trailer made her smile.
“Time to see Nana Maggie,” Lil’ Mama said as she began to gather the toys and kids.
“Clive knows where I am,” Meadow said. “That’s more of a factor than anything.”
“It doesn’t have to be.” The eyes of a woman who’d made choices peered into her. “Not just because I don’t want to put my kids on a school bus at age five, for two to three hours a day.”
“Jeez, I know about smaller districts, but I didn’t know it could be like that.”
“Cass fell in love with me so quick, I was petrified. How could someone see me and instantly decide I need to protect her? I didn’t know who Cass was before me, but I’ve heard rumors. Now when I see Freaky, I get why people knew instantly he’d fallen for me. The man changed. He shifted. Freaky’s a new man and for us that have known him for a few years, we see it. Plain as day. All he has to do is look at you.”
Meadow followed the small family out as the twins ran toward the original home for the ranch and Lil’ Mama gave Freaky a nod.
“Thanks for the flowers,” Meadow said as the late afternoon sunshine warmed her face.
Freaky leaned on his bike. Every bit of him sexy and brooding. His long legs stretched out as he tucked his sunglasses into the top of his shirt then rushed her when the Coe family was gone. “Dreamer, baby. Are you alright?” he asked as he clasped her elbow and brought her into the trailer.
“It’s not like you were that worried about me.”
“What makes you think I wasn’t worried?” he asked turning her around.
Instantly, she braced, like Lil’ Mama talked about. Her mouth writing checks her ass didn’t want to cash anymore. “You pulled and sat out there, it’s not like you rushed in here. And this was hours ago.”
“I saw Lil’ Mama’s van,” he said. “And I found out about twenty minutes ago, you’d been threatened—”
She reached up and placed her index finger over his lips. “No, I was scared because I didn’t understand what was going on, but no one hurt me.” Lowering her finger, she wrapped her arms around herself.
“I didn’t say hurt,” he replied. “I said threatened. Right now, you think I didn’t see you pull away when you said I didn’t care?”
“Can I claim PTSD?” she asked then shook her head.
“How?”
“My mouth tends to get me in trouble.”
Freaky’s rough palm cupped her cheek as the pad of this thumb stroked along her lower lip. “This little thing? Nah.”
“It’s a troublemaker, I’m telling you,” she said hoping to find moisture in her suddenly ar
id throat.
“Have I ever told you how much I like troublemakers?”
“No.” A smile curled on her lips as her body, no longer tense, softened against him.
Leaning down, he captured her lips and she fisted his shirt. The prickly bits of his five o’clock shadow trailed along her jaw and down the column of her throat as he found the small crook between her shoulder and neck sending fireflies dancing along her skin.
“I wish you could have seen the blue of the sky where I was painting,” she said. “This town really is special.”
“I should have been with you.” He shook his head, pulling away from her as guilt washed over his face and he sat at the table. “That stupid house, waste of time when we could have stayed in bed and you would have never been approached.”
“And you say, my mouth doesn’t get me in trouble,” she replied the warmth of the moment lost from her day dreamy thoughts as the man she wanted touching her stopped.
“You were exposed, I was tasked with guarding you.”
“Is that what you call this?” Meadow wondered why she was thinking long term, if Freaky was only seeing her as a momentary job. Had she misread what was going on between them? Casual sex. That’s it and yet, Lil’ Mama was acting as if the man was in love with her. One week they’d known each other and her foolish flighty self, moved from an abusive and unrelenting man to one who saw her as a project.
“No, Dreamer.” Freaky’s hand reached for hers. “Us, is why I went to work, us is why I’m pissed the fuck off that the moron Blood Sports approached you blowing up a potential windfall for the club and me.”
“Us?” she questioned.
“Yes, us, the club backs us for flipping houses. I put in the labor, I get money on the backend when it sells,” he explained. “I even though your artistic eye might help us with staging since houses don’t exactly sell quickly here, but the guys in charge want this town to come back to life.”
“But without a school you can’t get the young families.” She realized the greater part she could play in the growth of the town. How she could be a partner to Freaky and a member of the club on a bigger level.
“Yeah, that doesn’t help,” he said. “Guess I wasn’t thinking about that since we don’t have kids yet.”
“First us, now we,” she said trying to search her memories for anytime Clive combined the two of them into a couple. She was his girlfriend. Or his woman. Never did he say they lived together. His girlfriend had moved in with him. It didn’t matter the times Meadow had to pay to keep the house going. Digging in cushions and taking out payday loans in hopes of getting bills covered. Much like when he came to her at the church, she was his.
“I love getting lost in your world, the one with beautiful skies and where you set off alarm bells for the poor prospects watching our perimeter.” His hand shifted from holding hers to webbing their fingers together. “Meadow, when Blood Sport approached us, I was excited because my back hurt and I wanted a little extra cash. Not a lot because I didn’t have many needs not met by the club.”
“And now?” she asked.
“And now, I want to fix up a place for you and me. I want a place where you can paint naked as your belly swells with our baby and I can watch you like the sick voyeur I am.”
His vision made her smile.
“I’ve fallen for you, and every dream I have of my future has you in it. I watched as you moved around the church yesterday and wondered who would shoot ours.” He shook his head. “That’s not who I was before you came here.”
“Did you get something accomplished?” she asked nudging his legs apart and lifting his chin. “At the house, did you make progress?”
“That’s not the point,” he replied.
“Yes it is,” she said. “I should have thrown myself into the wedding pictures and not sat outside in the sun, painting.”
“You shouldn’t have to choose,” he replied, his arms wrapping around her waist. “The club that approached you is new. They don’t know the rules but we’re gonna teach them.”
“I don’t know the rules,” she countered, holding his chin in her hand. “But if I broke them, what would you do?”
His devilish smile made her warm. This is what she needed, to be locked away in a room with a man who saw her as a partner, not property. One who was on equal footing with her and that was the way the Steels were. Not just here but even the polyamorous relationship with Sal, Hawk and Mickey. A triad that was equal. She saw no less love for either man by the woman and that was the crazy part. “Would you make me get down on my knees?” she asked as she lowered herself between his legs. “Beg your forgiveness?”
Cupping her cheek, he turned her head to him. “And here I thought you were gonna ask for a spanking.”
“Thought you didn’t get your nickname from anything sexual,” she teased, her fingers deftly unbuckling his belt, the swelling of his cock below the denim evident and she no longer had an arid mouth.
His hips shifted and he leaned back. “I didn’t,” he said, the smirk returning.
Bringing her finger to her lips, Meadow eyed Freaky’s pants. “You like troublemakers right?”
“I think I’m about to love a trouble maker,” he replied capturing her lips and bringing her close, the zip of his jeans made him moan into her mouth. “Dreamer.”
“Yes Christopher,” she purred lowering her head and licking the now freed tip of his cock as his fingers stroked her hair.
“I don’t know about you troublemaker, but I’m about to be a very bad boy.”
16
A warm cup of coffee and sunrise had never been his idea of a good time. The coffee was a physical necessity brought on by years of caffeine addiction. Early mornings were hard, the sun blinding if he had to ride, but as he sat on the steps of the trailer with Dreamer resting her head on his shoulder the waking world had his whole body relaxed.
The chill of the dewy air made his skin raise, his t-shirt and jeans not quite enough to keep him warm. At least on one side of his body. The other had Meadow wrapped in a blanket with just her bare toes exposed as she sipped from her own mug.
Silence, something often filled by unease, was calming even as the liquid upper made its way through his veins. How could he not fall in love with the woman who’d opened up the world he’d been blind to for decades? There was no need to fall into random act of sharing or discussing the weather with her. They were joined in the experience, much like the night before.
Each, exploring the other’s body, finding parts foreign in a way to both of them. Freaky had to admit, she found pleasure zones he didn’t know he had until her tongue, finger or hair teased it. Her long copper locks had their own little way of tempting him.
A rumble from road they’d built on the ranch to connect the homes had Dreamer stretching her legs out. Under the blanket, she was naked and he wasn’t in the mood to share her body with others, so when she gave him a kiss then headed inside, he didn’t protest her leaving him.
Red’s bike finally came into view and Freaky’s spine tingled. Lynch was right, he needed to approach the man directly. The other Steels would be rolling out soon and that would be the final determination when it came to Meadow and her staying. He needed to move forward with his plan, a life with her and the only barrier was cash.
Not surprisingly, Red stopped at his mother’s house. He glanced at Freaky and gave him a nod before dismounting his bike.
“Red,” he said wanting to catch him before he headed inside. “You got a minute?”
“Yeah,” he replied.
Freaky walked over to the porch of the house Red grew up in.
Red sat on the railing, as his mom poked her head out for a second before seeing Freaky and heading back inside.
“What’s up?” he said as the men clasped hands, then pulled in for a quick hug.
Standing straight, Freaky finally spoke up, “I need to know what the hesitation is when it comes to the guns.”
Running h
is fingers through his hair, Red grumbled a bit.
“You shut us down without discussion, table it because of the wedding, now table it because you don’t like how they act. You move it down the table it anymore and it’s gonna fall off and shatter on the floor.” Shoving his hands in his pockets, Freaky made sure to keep his posture relaxed. “I joined this MC because we hashed out shit. We all had a voice. Yeah, everything falls on your shoulders, but we sure as hell were willing to take the weight right next to you.”
“I know,” he said. “It’s not like I’m such a fucking saint who hasn’t run with illegal shit before.”
“But?”
“Roadkill had to make a choice early on, one that she’s had to make peace with,” he began. “One choice. Each run you’d make would be a choice. It’s not just me saying okay, we’re gonna make this money.”
“You worried about our souls or something?”
“Nah I save that shit for Sundays.” Red let out a light laugh. “My wife, little girl and mama mean everything to me and I never want them to see me as anything less than honorable. But I know the clinic is hemorrhaging and will continue to because that’s health care. I’m torn between the club’s needs and my fucking ego.”
“Zeus was still worshiped even though he did fucked up shit,” Freaky offered. “God on high and all.”
“Considering most of his fucked up shit involved screwing half the gods and quite a few mortals, let’s not use him as an example.”
“Point made.”
“Truth is, I’m scared now,” he admitted. “These men are trying to make a name in our area. Not going for territory, but they will be passing through. Either we know what they’re doing or are on guard, unsure when they’ll be coming back through.”
“I’m not trying to be best friends with them,” Freaky said. “Or have them patch over. Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about the dangers, I was thinking about the cash.”
“You feeling strapped?” he asked.
Dreamer: Book 7 of The Steel MC Montana Charter Page 17
