I gasped and pressed a hand to my chest. “Not what I meant.”
“You sure about that?”
I nodded and took a step back. “Sure.”
I wasn’t going to deny Freak was a good-looking guy, but I really wasn’t up for a roll in the hay with a man I just met while there was some psycho out there trying to possibly kill me.
Freak raised an eyebrow. I could tell he doubted me, but I wasn’t lying. While I was almost twenty-one and still a virgin, I didn’t want to rectify that situation tonight.
“Hit the lights and go to bed, doll. Been a long day.”
I scurried over to the light switch and flipped it down. “Night, Freak,” I mumbled while I burrowed under the covers.
“Night, doll.”
I closed my eyes and tried not to think about the man lying on the couch six feet away. My world was tipped upside down right now, and adding a man to the equation was not what I needed. Even if he was as handsome and kind as Freak.
*
Freak
Yup.
I was doomed.
Sweet yet sassy.
Carnie was exactly what I wasn’t looking for, but I knew I wanted.
*
Chapter Four
Carnie
“Nemn plinv muck by tien.”
I grabbed the pillow off Wendy’s face and tossed it on the floor. “Wanna try that again?”
“Never, ever drinking again.” She held up her hand and closed her eyes. “Swear to God and anyone listening. Those biker chicks do not play.” She pulled the blanket over her head and moaned loudly.
“Well, seeing as you’ve drank a handful of times before last night, then yeah, you can’t really hang with them.” I plopped down on the end of her bed and patted her feet. “You need to work up to that.”
“Like you actually know what you are talking about,” she grumbled.
She was right, but it’s what I had heard, and it made sense. “Are you going to get up or just stay in bed all day?”
“I’m not moving from this bed for at least four hours. You’re on your own today, Carnie.”
I rolled my eyes and stood. “Take some Tylenol and try to pull yourself together, Wendy.”
“Hey,” she called.
My hand was on the door handle, and I turned around to see her head peeking out from under the blanket. “What?”
“Do you have a hottie assigned to you?” she whispered.
“Freak.”
“What?” she hissed. “I had some hot guy take me to bed, help me get undressed, and then he slept next to me all night. On top of the covers.”
I shook my head. “Freak is the name of the guy watching me. Not sure who yours is.”
“Smoke?” She squinted one eye shut. “Or was it Slinger?”
“You should probably get that figured out.”
She waved her hand. “Whatever. I just need to know if you have a hottie sleeping in your bed or if I just got lucky?”
I bit my lip and tipped my head to the side. “Covered in tattoos, ocean blue eyes, and nice as pie. Though he slept on the couch, not on the bed with me.”
The fact he didn’t even try to sleep in the bed with me knocked Freak up a notch in my book.
Wendy scoffed. “That doesn’t exist.”
I pictured Freak and smiled. It did. I know I had only spent a scant few minutes awake with him, but contrary to popular belief, I was a good judge of character. Bobby had been a horrible fluke. “I’m gonna grab something to eat and try to find Mayra. Try to haul your cookies out of bed today, sister.” I slipped out the door as she snorted and ran smack dab into Freak.
He grabbed me by the shoulders to keep me from going ass over tea kettle. “All good?”
I tipped my head back and looked up at him. “She’s hungover and slightly grumpy, but other than that, she’s good.”
The warmth of his hands seeped through my shirt and butterflies rose in my stomach.
“Slayer in there with her?” he asked.
“Nope.” I shook my head. “But it’s good to know what his name is. Wendy tried to tell me, but what she said was not Slayer.”
Freak chuckled. “He couldn’t remember her name last night so I guess it’s only fair game she not remember his.” His blue eyes sparkled with amusement, and I leaned into him. “You doing okay?”
When I had woken up, Freak has been sitting upright on the couch watching the news. I had scurried off to the bathroom to answer the call of my bladder and came out dressed and ready for the day. He asked if I was hungry, and while I was actually starving, I had asked to see where Wendy was.
Now, after I had seen that she was good except for being hungover, my stomach was demanding to be fed. “Hungry.”
“‘Bout time.” He dropped his hands and turned on his heel. “I was wondering if you were one of those chicks that never ate.” He walked down the hallway and turned toward the common room.
“Girls like that actually exist?” I was not a wilting flower who didn’t eat. I was the exact opposite.
Freak glanced over his shoulder. “They do, and they are not my favorite.”
I looked away and wondered just who were his favorite. None of my business. I had to remind myself I was here to stay safe, not snag myself a biker. I followed Freak into the large common room and was surprised to see everyone crowded around two tables and a mountain of food on each.
“About time!” Mayra called. “Boink and I were wondering if you and Wendy were going to sleep all day.”
I sat down next to Mayra. “I’m up, but I’m pretty sure Wendy is back to sleep.”
A plate appeared in front of me, and I followed the tattooed arm and saw it was Freak holding it. “What do you want to drink?” he asked.
“Uh.”
“Coffee? Orange juice?”
I shook my head. “Soda?” I didn’t have an acquired taste for coffee. It was no different than dirt to me. Coke was my drink of choice in the morning. And the rest of the day too. “Coke, if you have it.”
Freak set the plate down in front of me and disappeared.
“We’re going shopping today. You want to come with?” Alice asked.
Mayra scooped eggs onto my plate and dropped two sausages next to them. “Eat.”
“Yes, mother,” I laughed.
“Since your mom and aunt aren’t here, I get to take their place.” Mayra looked up from her plate. “How in the hell aren’t your mom and aunt here?”
A soda appeared in front of me, and Freak sat in the chair next to me. He filled his plate without a word and tucked into eating.
“Uh, Wendy and I just told them we were coming here for a visit.” Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Freak shovel food into his mouth.
“An out of the blue visit,” Mayra chuckled.
I shook my head. “Not really. We had talked about it before and well, it’s you. They weren’t really going to say no to me coming here.”
Alice tapped her fork on the table. “Don’t ignore the pregnant one.”
Mayra and I looked at Alice. “Say what?” Mayra laughed.
Alice pointed her fork at me. “I asked her if she wanted to come shopping, and she didn’t answer.”
Mayra quirked her eyebrows. “Did you not get enough sleep last night? You’re a little cranky.”
Alice sat back in her chair and rubbed her stomach. “This little terror woke me up at four and at four ten, I proceeded to empty the contents of my stomach into the toilet.”
“Damn,” Wren whistled.
“What are you damning?” Alice demanded. “You are having the easiest pregnancy known to man while I’m over here absolutely miserable half the time.”
Wren put her arm over Alice’s shoulders. “I’m sure once you pop that baby out, he’ll be a complete angel.”
Alice wrinkled her nose. “Then that means yours is going to be hell on wheels and I’ll have a bearded angel and not a bearded demon.”
“Don’t put that bad juju on me,” Wre
n gasped.
“Woman.”
I twisted around in my chair to see Wrecker walk into the clubhouse.
“Yes, bearded wonder,” Alice giggled.
“What’d I tell you about that?” he grumbled.
“Only call you that in the bedroom,” Alice droned.
Wrecker folded his arms over his chest. “Not what I said. And I’m talking about you calling our baby a bearded demon.”
Alice shrugged. “If the shoe fits.”
“It don’t fit,” he growled.
“Don’t look so shocked,” Mayra whispered to me.
“There must be something in the water here. All of you girls are gorgeous, and the guys are like they stepped out of a romance novel.” I eyed my can of Coke and wondered if I should start drinking the water.
Mayra burst out laughing and patted me on the shoulder. “You’re too funny, Carnie.”
“Then you’re in the right place,” Freak said quietly.
Mayra’s eyes bugged out, and she sat back.
I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that. Was he implying I was just as gorgeous as the rest of the girls? I didn’t agree with that at all. I always felt I acted older than I actually was, but my looks were what always gave me away as being so young.
“Are you coming shopping?” Alice shouted.
Everyone snapped to attention and looked at Alice.
Wrecker moved behind Alice and brushed her hair off her neck. “I think you need to take a nap, woman, not go shopping.”
Alice rolled her eyes. “I need to run to the Walmart. I have a coupon for diapers, and it expires today.”
“We have six months to buy diapers, mama.” Wrecker brushed his hand over her cheek.
Alice leaned into his touch and closed her eyes. “But the coupon, Wrecker,” she whined.
“Freak needs to do the grocery shopping today. Give him the coupon and he can pick them up.”
Freak grunted and dropped his fork on the plate. “Really? Can’t you have one of the other guys do it?”
“Why?” Wrecker demanded. “Last I knew, grocery shopping was your responsibility.”
“Yeah, but I normally didn’t have a someone I had to keep an eye on.”
Wrecker glanced over at me. “Take her with you.”
“Sounds easy to the guy that doesn’t have to do it.”
Wrecker pulled Alice out of her chair and put an arm over her shoulder. “You’re right. Because the guy who suggested it is trying to find the guy trying to kill her. That sound easier to you?”
“Get two packs of newborn, then three packs each of sizes one and two.” Alice reached into her back pocket and handed Freak a stack of coupons. “You should have enough coupons. You might have to do a couple of transactions since there is a limit of two per order.”
Freak grabbed the coupons and grumbled under his breath.
“I can do that,” I volunteered.
“You’re not leaving my sight while we are at the store. We’ll do it together.” Freak shoveled two more bites of food into his mouth and finished the rest of his juice. “Finish eating. We’ll leave in ten minutes.” He shoved his chair back and stormed out of the room.
“That should be an interesting shopping trip,” Mayra laughed.
My appetite was gone, and now, my happy outlook for having a quiet day was too.
I already felt like a burden to Freak, and now, it was even worse.
*
Freak
“How the hell is one little baby going to use this many diapers?”
Carnie dropped one last package into the cart and laughed. “Well, newborns probably use six to eight diapers a day so that means this one hundred twenty pack is only going to last around two weeks.”
I pushed the cart toward the self-checkout and shook my head. “Freaking crazy.”
“It is, but that’s why Alice probably wanted to use up these coupons to save a little money.” Carnie fanned out the coupons and laughed. “This was definitely not something I thought I would be doing when I pulled up to the clubhouse yesterday.”
“You and me both,” I mumbled.
After doing four separate transactions for the damn diapers, Carnie and I were back in the store with an empty cart and a long list of food needed for the clubhouse.
“How often do you have to grocery shop?”
I grabbed a large jar of pickles and one of mayo and set them in the cart. “Twice a month.” I pulled out a list from my pocket and read it over.
“Holy crap. We’re going to buy all of that?” Carnie leaned into me with her jaw dropped and her eyes bugged out.
“It’s not as big of a list as it looks. I’ve read paper plates three times already.” The grocery list notepad hung on the fridge during the week and everyone added to it as the days passed. Of course, they never looked to see if someone had already written down what they wanted. “Let’s hit it, doll.”
Carnie pushed the cart while we walked up and down the aisles filling it to the brim.
“Uh, do you want me to get another cart?” she asked.
I nodded. “I do, but you’re not going by yourself.” I pushed the cart out to the main aisle and pointed to the floor. “I’m going to stand here. I can see directly to the carts. You’ve got thirty seconds.”
“Wait, what?” she gasped. “There’s no way I can make it there and back that fast.”
“Thirty, twenty-nine.”
Carnie took off toward the carts, and I couldn’t help but laugh. She dodged two grandmas who were taking up the whole aisle; a man in a motorized wheelchair pulled out in front of her; and then, she somehow managed to trip on thin air right before she made it to the carts.
On the way back to me, she grabbed three bags of chips and threw a box of Poptarts into the cart. “Did I make it back in time?” she panted.
I shook my head and turned the cart toward the aisles we hadn’t gone down yet. “I don’t know. I was too busy watching you run the Walmart obstacle course to the carts.”
Carnie scoffed and followed me down the cereal aisle. “You’re a butthead.”
I glanced over my shoulder at her. “Butthead?”
“Yeah,” she insisted.
“Been called a hell of a lot worse than that, doll. I’ll take that as a compliment.” I grabbed three boxes of Cheerios and four boxes of some fruity cereal all the guys devoured.
“You know, if someone were to look in these carts, they would think you were grocery shopping for a daycare, not a motorcycle club.”
“Ask Wrecker and he would tell you they are the same thing.” Wrecker was always complaining about the fact that he should be paid for babysitting us. It was fitting we ate like a bunch of ten-year-old’s.
After going down the chip aisle and making a huge dent in it, we breezed through the dairy section and grabbed a few gallons of milk and butter. “That’s it.”
Carnie stood next to me and looked at the overflowing carts. “This is insane.”
“This is a motorcycle club, doll. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
We dropped over five hundred dollars at the register, and Carnie’s jaw dropped a little bit each time the price climbed.
Carnie finally opened her mouth after we loaded all of the groceries into the back of one of the club trucks. “So who does all of the cooking if you have to do the shopping?”
She pulled the seat belt over her shoulder and clicked it into place.
“Depends. Some days, everyone just fends for themselves, and then, there are days one of the girls feels like cooking.”
“Like this morning?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“So, if I feel like cooking or baking, I can?”
I nodded and pulled out of the parking lot. “As long as it’s edible, it will get eaten.”
“Are you insinuating that I might not know how to cook?” she laughed.
I held up my hands. “Never said that.”
She rested her head on the headrest. �
�I’m a pretty good cook and an even better baker.”
“That so?” I was mediocre, at best, when it came to cooking so if someone else wanted to cook, I was all for it.
“I was thinking of going to school for it until this whole Bobby thing happened.”
“College?” I asked. It was a miracle I had graduated high school, let alone thought of going to college.
“I don’t really know if it’s considered college. It’s like a program. Back home, there was a culinary program at the local tech college I was thinking about.”
“This Bobby shit isn’t going to be going on forever.”
She rolled her head toward me. “I know that, Freak. I just don’t know if cooking for a living is something I want to do. I love doing it, but would I love doing it for eight hours every single day of my life?”
“In my head, if you did something you loved, it would never feel like work. Guess you’ll never know unless you try.”
“Are those biker words of wisdom?” she chuckled.
I glanced over at her. “Don’t know how much wisdom I have but take it for what it is.”
“You wouldn’t, by chance, have a handbook on motorcycle clubs for beginners with all your wisdom, would you?”
“Sassy,” I mumbled.
Her cheeks blushed pink, but she smiled wide. “Slightly.”
I shook my head and turned into the driveway of the clubhouse. “You’ll fit in just fine with the rest of the girls, then. Lord knows they all have their own brand of sass.” I backed the truck up to the front door of the clubhouse and killed the engine. “Cook as good as you say, and you’ll fit in just fine with the guys, too.”
“I guess that’s all I really want while this whole Bobby thing gets sorted out.” She rested her hand on the door handle and glanced over her shoulder at me. “At least, for now.” She hopped out of the truck, and I didn’t move.
Lord have mercy. I felt it happening. Those four words spoke so much, and I knew exactly what it was saying.
Maybe I was going to be the next Fallen Lord to fall, and to be honest, I wasn’t even mad about it.
*
Carnie
“Doll.”
Fallen Lords MC: Books 7-9 Page 3
