“I gotta go.”
“What?” Adley cried. “We haven't even put any ornaments on the tree?”
That’s because it had taken an hour to get the damn lights on the tree. It had been too long since I had decorated a tree and forgot how long it actually took.
Wrecker had just messaged me saying we had church, and I had to go.
“Uh, we can do the ornaments while he’s gone, and then, when he gets back, he can help us put the star on,” Wendy suggested.
Adley folded her arms over her chest and pouted out her bottom lip. “I thought we were going to do the tree together.”
“Or,” Wendy drawled. “We could make hot cocoa, bake a batch of cookies, and listen to Christmas music until he comes home?” Wendy plastered a smile on her face and did a little shimmy. “I’ve been jonesing to listen to some sleigh bells jingling.”
“What kind of cookies?” Adley asked.
“Uh, well, I think we are going to have to look at a couple of recipes and see what we can do.”
Adley pursed her lips and tapped her chin. “I guess that sounds okay.” She turned to Slayer and pointed her finger at him. “But once you get home, we are going to decorate the tree.”
I nodded. “You got a deal, doll.”
“No matter what time it is,” she clarified.
It was only five o’clock, and I didn’t think I would be gone that long. “Scout’s honor.” I placed my hand over my heart and gave Adley a nod.
“Like you were a boy scout,” Wendy laughed.
“When I was a boy, but I might have outgrown them.”
“Understatement of the year,” she mumbled under her breath.
“Shoo! Shoo!” Adley called. “The sooner you leave, the sooner you will be back.”
I chuckled under my breath. “You got it, kid. Let me just talk to Wendy in the kitchen quickly.”
Adley plopped down on the couch and grabbed the remote. “I’ll try to find one of your Christmas movies, Wendy.”
“Good thinking,” Wendy called. She followed me into the kitchen and moved by the door so we were out of sight and earshot of Adley.
“Is something wrong?” Wendy whispered.
“Not sure. I know Wrecker, Pipe, and Freak are back from some club business.”
She glanced over her shoulder and then looked back up at me. “Don’t be gone long.”
“Is that your request or Adley’s?”
Wendy’s cheeks heated red. “For Adley, of course.”
I reached up and brushed her hair from her face. When we had gotten home from picking the tree and then going to the store to get decorations, Wendy had piled her hair on top of her head, but it was slowly falling out of the hair tie and framing her face.
“What about you, sugar?” I whispered.
“I, uh, what about me?” She licked her lips and fidgeted under my gaze.
God damn, but Wendy was beautiful. She never wore makeup, and I had never known a woman who was able to get ready in under five minutes. She was easy going and extremely low maintenance. She also had no idea just how sexy that made her and how bad I wanted her.
I tried to drop little hints and flirt with her, but most of the time, she missed it or got embarrassed. “You gonna miss me while I’m gone?”
“Oh, uh, well, about that. Would it, well…” She cleared her throat, and her eyes dropped to the floor. “Can I? Or would it be inappropriate. You know, I’m supposed to be here for Adley, after all.”
I chuckled and hooked my finger under her chin. I tipped her head back and moved closer. “Can’t you be here for Adley and me?”
She bit her bottom lip and held her breath. “Slayer,” she breathed out.
“About damn time you said my name?”
“What are we doing?” she whispered.
We both moved. Her head tipped back, and my lips hovered above hers.
“I’m gonna kiss you, sugar. You okay with that?”
She slightly nodded, and her eyes fluttered shut.
My arm snaked around her waist, and my other hand cupped her cheek. My lips lightly pressed against hers, and she sighed from my touch.
Her hands were pressed against my chest, but she relaxed her arms and wrapped them around my neck. My tongue skimmed along the seam of her lips, and she gasped softly. I swept inside, her sweet taste covering my tongue.
Her tongue moved against mine, and a growl escaped my mouth. My hand moved down, and I squeezed her plush ass. “Wendy,” I whispered against her lips.
Her eyes fluttered opened, and she looked like she had just had the best kiss of her life. “Yeah?” she replied, dazed.
I didn’t want to leave, but I knew I had to. “I gotta go. We can continue this later.”
She stared at my lips. “What exactly was this?”
“A goodbye kiss, but I can tell you I’m gonna need a hell of a lot more later.”
Her eyes connected with mine. “Maybe.”
“You still gonna act like you don’t like me?”
She leaned up, pressed a quick kiss to my lips, then stepped back. “I never said I didn’t like you.” She patted me on the chest then moved out of my arms. “Go do your biker thing, and I’ll try to keep Adley distracted from decorating the tree without you.”
She walked back into the living room without a backward glance. I watched the sway of her hips wishing I could just stay and not leave, but I knew that wasn’t possible.
I grabbed my keys from the hook by the door and headed out to my truck.
Kissing Wendy wasn’t something I planned, but I had known it was going to happen.
Now that it had, I was going to do everything I could to make it happen over and over. At least, until I worked her out of my system.
*
Wendy
Adley was passed out on the couch, and I glanced at the clock.
It was half past eleven, and Slayer still wasn’t home.
Adley and I had made two kinds of cookies, drank three cups of hot cocoa, and watched two Christmas movies and Slayer never showed up.
I couldn’t even message him to find out if he was okay or if he just got held up at the clubhouse.
Maybe Carnie would know what was going on.
Hey. I didn’t know how to ask about Slayer without it sounding like I cared about him.
What’s up? Carnie replied.
Not much. Just wondering what you’re up to.
It took a minute but she finally replied. Impromptu get together at the clubhouse.
Oh. They were having a party. Sounds fun.
What are you doing?
Pining away for Slayer?
Contemplating drinking a bottle of wine?
Perhaps ordering a whole pizza and eating it all?
None of those were good answers. They each gave away more than I was ready to say.
Watching Christmas movies with Adley. I mean, Adley was technically asleep, but there was a Christmas movie playing.
Fun!
It was. I did have a great night with Adley. I just kind of thought Slayer would have been a part of it. Especially after that kiss we shared in the kitchen.
Yup! Have fun and I’ll call you tomorrow. I tossed my phone on the coffee table and sighed.
Twenty-two years old.
Sunday night.
All alone watching Christmas movies while I stayed up waiting for Slayer.
Lame, lame, lame.
*
Chapter Eleven
Slayer
“You should have brought Wendy and Adley.”
I shrugged on my coat and pulled my keys out of the pocket. “Next time, I will.” I hadn’t expected to be at the clubhouse for longer than an hour.
It was half past eleven, and Wrecker finally called it a night for the club.
We still had no fucking clue what had happened to Brinks. Wrecker was frustrated as hell, and he was ready to turn the whole town of River Valley upside down to find him. Leo thought he would be able to thr
ow his weight around and find Jenkins, but he came up short on every lead he managed to find. Oakley seemed to have a little bit more luck with his tactics, but at the end of the day, we weren’t any closer to Jenkins.
It was crazy to think Jenkins was able to outrun and maneuver Wrecker, Leo, and Oakley. The guy had to be living in a hole in the ground and not coming up for air.
“She texted me earlier.”
“Oh yeah?” If I would have been home, Wendy would have been much too busy to text her sister. Especially this late.
“She was just seeing what I was up to. I told her we were hanging out at the clubhouse.”
“What’d she say?” If I had known all of the girls were going to be at the clubhouse, then I would have brought Wendy and Adley.
“She was just watching movies with Adley.” Carnie sighed. “I was going to invite her over, but I knew she didn’t have a way to get here.”
“Yeah, I got to work on getting her a car.”
“Why?” Freak laughed.
“Uh, because when I’m not home, she and Adley are basically trapped there unless they walk to wherever they want to go.”
“I mean why do you have to buy her a car when hers is sitting in the parking lot.”
Carnie smacked Freak on the arm. “Hey! If she takes the car, then what am I supposed to drive?”
“Baby, you’re the one who told me that the car belonged to Wendy.” He leaned close to her and clucked his tongue. “Pretty sure you were chomping at the bit to go look at cars when she said she was heading back to Pines Peak.”
“That’s because I saw a Beetle in the paper I wanted but you drug your feet on it and it was gone before we could even go look at it. Now I just want to keep Wendy’s car, and she can get a new one.”
“Uh,” I chuckled. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how that works.”
Freak and Carnie argued back and forth as I made my way to the door.
“Church at four tomorrow,” Wrecker called from over by the bar.
I raised my arm in acknowledgment and pushed out the door. I loved this club and I would do anything for them, but after over six hours tonight, I was not eager to come back tomorrow. Especially now that I had Adley and Wendy at home.
“Slayer.” Cora sat off to the right of the door and motioned me over. She had a lit cigarette in her hand and a glass filled with amber liquid in the other.
“Surprised you’re not in there hanging out with everyone else.”
She shrugged and took a sip. “Not really in the mood to hangout.”
Cora never really was one to be social, but it had seemed like she was close with the other girls. “Everything okay?”
She glanced at me. “Brinks is gone?” It was more of a question than a statement.
“Uh, he’s doing some stuff for us…somewhere else.” Cora asking about Brinks was not what I expected.
She laughed flatly. “Eleven days ago, he stopped answering his phone.” She took a long drink from her glass. “Now ask me how I would know that.”
I looked around and wondered if I was getting pranked or something. Who the hell would have told Cora about Brinks going black almost two weeks ago. “Uh, well, how do you know that?”
She smirked and shook her head. “You bikers think you know everything.” She stretched her legs out in front of her. “Brinks fell into my bed months ago and not one person in this club knew about it.”
I tried to not act shocked, but frankly, I was flabbergasted. “Uh, well,” I cleared my throat. “How?”
There was no way I could pretend I knew Brinks and Cora were shacking up.
She shrugged. “Not really sure how it happened, but it did.” She took a drag off her cigarette and exhaled. “He told me he was heading to River Valley for a while but that he would be back.” Her eyes connected with mine. “He’s not coming back, is he?”
Cora was smart. She knew the ways of an MC since her brother had been the prez of the River Valley chapter of the Fallen Lords before he drove it into the ground. “We don’t know where he is right now, but we’re working on it.”
She shook her head. “You guys are clueless. He was there, and then, he was suddenly gone.”
“When was the last time you talked to him?”
Wrecker had said he tried to call Brinks a couple times the day Adley showed up at the clubhouse, but before that, he hadn’t been in contact with him for almost a week.
“The day before Adley showed up.” She stared out into the dim parking lot. “We talked for about half an hour, and then, I had to get off the phone to get some work done.”
“He tell you anything about what was going on?”
She shook her head. “He said he was trying to find my brother. That was all he would tell me.”
“You know you gotta tell Wrecker, right, Cora?”
She held up her half empty glass. “Got my liquid courage right here. I figured I could run it by you first to gauge how you reacted.”
I didn’t know how Wrecker would react to the news that Cora and Brinks were hooking up under his nose. Not that he would care, but now that Brinks was missing, Wrecker was going to want to know everything Cora knew. “I gotta head home, but if you want to wait until tomorrow, I can be there when you tell him.”
Cora shook her head. “I’m a big girl, Slayer. I don’t need you there holding my hand.”
Typical Cora. She really was a tough chick. “Whatever you want. Just don’t wait too long to talk to Wrecker.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she mumbled. “Run on home to Wendy and Adley then.”
Brinks was one crazy son of a bitch to be hooking up with Cora. I was halfway to my truck when she called, “You kiss her yet?”
“Who?” I yelled back.
“Wendy, you fool.”
“Maybe.”
Cora laughed loudly, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.
“Be careful with both of them, Slayer,” she warned.
‘Yeah, yeah, Cora.” I hopped into my truck and slammed the door shut. I longed for the days and nights where I could ride my bike without worrying about getting frostbite.
Ten minutes later, I stepped into the house and locked the door behind me. The TV was on in the living room and part of me hoped Wendy was still awake. All the lights in the kitchen were turned off except for one over the sink.
My hope plummeted when I walked into the living room to see Wendy and Adley sprawled out on the couch, dead to the world. Wendy’s mouth was hanging wide open, and Adley was snoring lightly.
I turned the volume down on the TV, pulled the blankets over each of them, and headed up the stairs.
By the time I fell into bed after showering, it was close to one o’clock and my eyes were heavy with sleep. It had been a long fucking day, and even though I should have had a ton of things on my mind, I was asleep within minutes.
There was always tomorrow to figure everything out.
*
Chapter Twelve
Wendy
“That’s the last ornament, right?”
I held up the empty box and shook it. “Yup, that’s it.”
Slayer stood on the third to the top rung of the ladder and grimaced. “We probably should have gotten a few more.”
He wasn’t wrong. We had placed all of the ornaments on the tree, and there were quite a few sparse spots. “I can move a couple of them around,” I muttered.
“Wait!” Adley called. “We forgot some.” She ran into the kitchen and came running back with a plastic bag in her hand.
“Oh, hell. I forgot about those, too.” Slayer climbed down the ladder and helped Adley take the three boxes out.
Last night after I had texted Carnie, I had passed out on the couch and didn’t even know what time Slayer had gotten home. When I had woken up, Adley and Slayer were down in the kitchen making pancakes and talking about putting the ornaments on the tree.
Thankfully, Slayer had a cup of coffee ready for me, and I just sat at the table slowly
waking up drinking my coffee and just listening to them.
“Let’s put yours up first, Wendy.” Adley handed me a box, and I tried not to cringe.
Yesterday when we were picking out decorations and ornaments, Adley had spotted a store in a strip mall that was only Christmas. She begged and pleaded for Slayer to walk across the street to it, and of course, Slayer gave in.
Adley had picked out a llama with a red Santa hat and a cartoon motorcycle for Slayer. Each was personalized with their names. Then, she had found a gorgeous ornament of an intricately decorated stocking. She insisted since they were each getting an ornament with their names on them, that I needed one, too.
I placed a hook onto the gold string and moved to the side of the tree. If I hid it toward the back, then no one would see it when they came over. I was only here for a little bit and didn’t think I needed to have my own ornament with my name on it.
“No,” Adley protested. She grabbed the ornament from me and moved to the front of the tree. She moved a couple of the red and gold balls around and then hung my stocking ornament front and center.
“Good spot.” Slayer grabbed the motorcycle ornament and held out his hand for a hook.
I couldn’t help but snicker at the name on his ornament. “I still can’t believe your name is Dwayne.” I handed him a hook and cleared my throat. “Not that there's anything wrong with that.”
He grabbed the hook and scowled. “I’ll have you know that I was named after my great grandfather, thank you very much.”
I held my hands up defensively. “If it’s all the same, I'll just stick with Slayer or any other name I can think of that starts with an S.”
Slayer laced the gold thread on the hook and hung the motorcycle close to mine.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “We need to spread out the ornaments because we don’t have enough.”
“Wait,” Adley called. “I have an idea.” She grabbed a hook from me and hung her ornament right above Slayer’s and mine. She moved a few other ornaments and then stood back. “There, that’s perfect.”
Slayer and I stood back next to her, and I couldn’t deny that it really was perfect. The red, gold, and green balls were all over the tree except for the center where our three ornaments hung.
Fallen Lords MC: Books 7-9 Page 22
