“I thought I would try to make a cake.”
My gaze traveled from the TV and landed on Wren, who was standing in front of the open fridge. “Cake?” Now she had my attention.
“Yeah. I watched a baking challenge thing the other night when you were sleeping, and now I’ve been craving cake.” She shut the fridge and opened the cabinet above the stove.
“You sure you’re okay, darlin’?” All morning, she had been up and down, unable to sit still for more than a few minutes.
“Just restless,” she muttered.
It had been five days since Wrecker had brought the news of the Captains heading for Jezebel and her kid. After I had given her space to talk to her friend, something had changed with her.
It was like the light I was always looking for inside her was finally starting to spark. She was more open, talked to me, and even hung out with me without me having to badger her into it. We had plowed through all of the movies in the cabinet, and now she was currently addicted to watching the food channel. Hence her wanting a cake. Not that I was going to argue with her making one.
“I’ll call the store, and we can go tonight.”
She slammed the cabinet and turned around. She put her hands on her hips and smiled. “Can we just go now?”
I glanced out the window. “Uh, you know there are people out there, right?”
She rolled her eyes and grabbed a piece of paper off the counter. “Yeah, I kind of figured.” She scribbled a few things on the paper and tucked it into her back pocket. “So, can we go?” She looked up at me expectantly.
“Uh, yeah. If you want.”
“I want.” She padded over to the door, while I sat dumbly on the couch. I was struck stupid by the fact she wanted to leave the house, in the daylight, with me. “You think we can take your bike, or is it too cold?”
And those words were music to my ears. “Not too cold at all, darlin’. Although, I’m not sure how much you’re going to buy at the store.” I had the saddlebags, but they weren’t going to fit a ton of shit in them.
“Just a handful of things. Nothing big.”
I watched as she shoved her feet into a pair of sandals and grabbed her purse off the small table by the door. “We take the bike, you need to put shoes on.”
She glared at me but kicked off the sandals. “Men,” she mumbled under her breath.
“What does being a man have to do with it?” I tossed the remote on the couch and slowly rose.
“Always telling me what to wear or do.” She stalked to the bed and bent over, her ass wagging at me in the air while she looked under the bed.
God damn. I had been trying to be a gentleman and not look at Wren like the fine piece of woman she was, but she hadn’t been making it easy on me. I would have to be blind to not notice her, but ever since she started coming out of her shell, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Now with her ass in the air, my eyes were unable to look anywhere else, and I wanted Wren. Bad. “Last I checked, that was the first time I’ve ever commented on what you were wearing, and it’s only because I don’t want your pretty feet to get ate up by the black top.”
She huffed but didn’t respond. While she strapped a pair of black converse on her feet, I managed to get my wits about me and stuff my feet into my boots.
“Do I need a coat?”
I grabbed my cut and tugged it on. “Sweatshirt should be good enough.” She was wearing the same damn pale pink sweatshirt, but it would do for today. There was only a slight breeze, and it was over sixty. “Ready?”
She stood up and hitched her purse over her shoulder. “As I’ll ever be.”
I wanted to ask her if she was sure she wanted to do this, but I didn’t want her to think twice and not want to go. I was a selfish bastard who wanted her body wrapped around me on the back of my bike. “Let’s hit it, darlin’.”
*
Wren
The trip to the store took twice as long as normal.
Maniac managed to find a back way that more than likely weaved us around the town of Durham and back to the store.
Maniac killed the bike in front of the store, and my arms relaxed around his middle.
That was amazing.
Whenever I had been on the back of Rack’s bike, I hated it. I hated it because I knew we were either headed to some party I would just be passed around at, or back to the clubhouse where I would either be used or ignored.
On the back of Maniac’s bike, I didn’t feel that. I felt free. The weight of the world wasn’t weighing down on me as he glided through turns, and I felt the bike rumble beneath me.
With Maniac, I felt free.
“You gotta get off first, darlin’.”
I jumped slightly and dropped my arms from around him. “Sorry.” I scrambled off the back and stood on the sidewalk with my arms folded around my middle.
“Nothing to be sorry about.” He kicked down the kickstand and held his hand out to me. “Helmet.”
My fingers fumbled with the clasp, and I yanked it off my head. “I suppose I don’t need to wear that walking around the store.”
His laugh rumbled around me, and he hooked it on the handlebars. “Don’t think I need to worry about that with you. Unless I get a couple of drinks in you.”
“Bourbon really isn’t my thing.” That was the only type of alcohol we had in the cabin. Once I had gotten comfortable in the kitchen, I took stock of what we had, and the liquor cabinet was lacking.
“We’ll get you something you like.” He gracefully dismounted the bike and slid his sunglasses on the top of his head. “I’m more of a whiskey man myself.”
“Wine.” I could totally go for a bottle or wine. Or ten.
“Wine it is,” he chuckled. He stepped close and placed his hand on the small of my back. I pivoted, and he propelled me into the store, with his hand touching me the whole way.
And I didn’t freak out.
I was finally getting used to being around him. It had only taken weeks.
I grabbed a basket from by the door and exhaled. Three people bustled past me, and two were standing in line at the checkout.
Deep breathes, Wren. No one knew about me. Hell, they didn’t even know my name, let alone the things I had been through, or the scars I carried beneath my sweatshirt.
Maniac’s warm touch radiated through the thick material at my back. “Breathe, Wren. No one is looking at you.” His breath was hot on my ear, and his body was slightly pressed against me.
How did he know what I was thinking?
“Uh, okay,” I whispered.
“Think about that cake you’re going to make me. What did you have on your list?” He was trying to distract me, and I was going to grab onto it.
“Sugar. Flour. Vanilla. Maybe almond extract. Butter. Powder sugar. Baking powder. Maybe ice cream.”
His chuckle radiated next to me. “Maybe we should have brought the truck.”
“Most of that is small besides the flour and sugar.” He guided me through produce, and my eyes landed on green peppers. “What are your thoughts on stuffed peppers?”
“Sounds good as long as we can fit them in my saddlebags.”
I looked up at him over my shoulder. “All we need is green peppers and rice. We have everything else.”
He grabbed the basket from me and pointed at the peppers. “Load ‘em up, darlin’. I’m never gonna tell you no when you want to cook or bake. If anything, we can come back with the truck to pick shit up if it doesn’t fit on the bike.”
We made our way down the rice aisle with six large green peppers in my basket. “We just need a bag of white rice.” I mentally ran through the canned food cupboard. “And maybe a can of diced tomatoes.”
Maniac shook his head but didn’t say no.
By the time we made it to the checkout, my basket was overflowing, and there was no way in hell we were going to be able to fit everything in his saddlebags. I turned to put back a bunch of things and ran smack dab into Maniac.
“Where you going?�
�� he asked as he wrapped his arms around my waist to steady me.
“I’m gonna put some of this back. I don’t want you to have to drive back in to town.”
He grabbed the basket out of my hand and reached around to set it on the checkout. “I got it figured out, darlin’.” He looked down at me. “You can make it up to me later.” He winked and stepped around me.
Whoa, whoa. Make it up to him? I had no idea what he was talking about.
“You think we can get this all delivered to the house, Ron? We drove the bike today.”
I turned to see the guy who always lets us in, when the store was closed, standing behind the cash register. “Sure thing. At your folk’s place, right?”
Maniac nodded and started unloading the basket onto the moving belt. “Yeah.”
“Damn shame what happened to your folks.”
My interest piqued, and I stepped closer to Maniac.
“She loved him something fierce, Dalton.”
It was strange to hear Maniac’s real name from someone’s lips. Even though I knew his real name, I still only thought of him as Maniac. At first, it had been strange to call him that, but now it just felt right.
Maniac nodded his head and set the empty basket under the checkout. “Yeah, they were good together.” His voice was strained, and I could tell this wasn’t something he wanted to talk about.
“You actually planning on staying in Durham?” Ron glanced at me. “It’s a good place to start a family.”
Ha! This man was crazy.
Maniac chuckled and fished a few twenties out of his wallet. “Just here for a little bit, Ron. Weston is home for me now.”
Ron tsked and shook his head. He opened the register and started counting out change. “Weston is too big.”
Maniac shook his head at the change Ron held out to him. “Keep it for delivery. Think you can drop them off around seven?”
I looked at the clock above the door. It was only one-thirty. How did the man expect me to bake a cake, when he wasn’t going to have the ingredients delivered for over five hours?
“Can do.”
Maniac dropped his sunglasses over his eyes and ushered me out of the store.
“Um, why did you tell him to deliver everything at seven?” I was wanting cake now.
Maniac kicked his leg over the bike and looked up at me. “Thought we could go for a ride.”
That sounded nice, but for five hours? “Uh, where are we going?”
He shrugged and cranked up the bike. “Wherever the road takes us, darlin’,” he hollered over the roar of the engine.
I looked up and down the sidewalk, my mind racing trying to find a way to tell him no. I didn’t have any other choice.
Maniac held out the helmet to me, a smug smile on his lips. He knew I didn’t have any other choice.
I strapped on the helmet and swung my leg over the bike. Not that I would ever say it out loud, but getting back on the bike with Maniac really wasn’t that bad.
It was right where I wanted to be.
*
Chapter 8
Maniac
“You good with this?”
Wren tilted her head back and looked up at The Bar. “We drove an hour to come to a bar?” She seemed less than impressed.
This hadn’t been my planned destination when I had started driving, but before I knew it, we were in Kales Corners and a beer sounded good.
“Yeah.” No sense in letting her know I had no idea where we were headed.
“We couldn’t have gone to bar in Durham?”
I threaded my fingers through hers. “We could have, but I wanted to go for a ride too. Now, you wanna get a beer, or stand here?”
“Not really a beer girl.”
I looked down at her and smiled. “Pretty sure we can find you something else to drink.”
“But will the glass be clean?” she muttered.
A huge, old Cadillac careened into the parking lot and parked in front of The Bar. I quickly tucked Wren behind me and rested my hand on the butt of my gun.
I had kept an eye out the whole way here, but that didn’t mean the Hell Captains hadn’t found us. “Stay behind me, Wren. Don’t move unless I tell you to.”
“Okay,” she whispered. Her body was pressed firmly against my back, and her hands were clutching my cut.
The door to the Caddy opened.
“You gotta be fucking kidding me,” I cursed.
“You two are in Kales Corners, and the only way I find out is by chance driving past The Bar and seeing it with my own eyes.”
Alice. Exactly what I didn’t want.
Wren was finally opening up to me and not running like a scared deer. I didn’t need Alice’s loud mouth and craziness to drive her back into her shell.
“We’re just driving through.” The thought of a beer wasn’t so appealing anymore if Alice was going to be joining us.
Alice stood next to her car with her hands on her hips. “You’re a mountain of a man, Maniac, and while I can’t see her, I know Wren is behind you. Stop hiding her like I’m the devil come to snatch your souls.”
Wren giggled behind me. “I think she would more likely snatch our underwear than our souls.”
I glanced over my shoulder down at Wren. A small smile played on her lips, and there was a slight sparkle in her eyes. “More accurate,” I agreed.
“So are you two going to come in for a drink, or are we just going to keep shouting across the parking lot?” Alice called.
“You wanna stay or go?” This was all up to Wren.
“Uh, well, I really wanna make a cake, but you made it so I can’t make it ‘til tonight, so we might as well kill a little bit of time with Alice. She’s kooky, but she appears to be harmless.”
Harmless. I suppose she was. “Two drinks, and then we head back to Durham.”
Wren stepped out from behind me and grasped my hand. “You’re driving. One for you, three for me.”
Why that little minx. “We’ll see about that, darlin’.”
*
Wren
“And then he just dropped me at the door and rode off.” Alice fanned herself with her hand and lifted the other to the bartender. “We need another round, Reierson.”
The bartender lifted the lid off the blender. “The fact you have a blender in your trunk boggles my damn mind, Alice.”
She shrugged and pushed her glass toward him. “If you guys would get with the times and realize blended drinks are the shit, then I wouldn’t need to.”
Yes, after we had sat down and Alice ordered two margaritas, Reierson had shot her down and said they didn’t make ‘em. Alice then proceeded to go to her car and came back with a blender. All Maniac had done was shake his head and sip his beer next to me.
I, on the other hand, was equal parts shocked and impressed.
“If the market was open down the street, you’d be making those strawberry margaritas,” Alice hummed.
Reierson rolled his eyes and dumped a shit-ton of tequila into the blender. “You ever think you should get your head checked? Maybe your daddy and mama dropped you on your head when you were little and never told you.”
Alice flipped him off. “And maybe you should ask yourself why you’re still single and working in a bar.”
He dumped ice into the blender. “You’re single and work at the diner. You wanna tell me what the hell the difference is between the two?”
These two were like brother and sister. Alice would throw a zinger at him, and he would come right back at her. I would say there was some sexual tension between the two, but Alice had said straight out they had dated for two point three seconds before they figured out it wouldn’t work.
Alice waved her hand at him. “Just make our drinks, boy, and you can come to the diner for breakfast and I promise not to spit in your food this time.”
Maniac choked on his beer next to me, and Reierson slammed the bottle of tequila on the bar. “Dammit, woman. You better not be saying you’ve
spit in my food before,” he thundered.
Alice giggled. “Who knows?”
Reierson added lime juice, triple sec, and lemon juice to the blender. He turned it on and glared at Alice. “It’s a good thing I like your mama, Alice,” he hollered over the noise.
Maniac leaned into me, his lips next to my ear. “I’m gonna hit the head quick, darlin’, and then we gotta get back to Durham after your drink.”
I slightly turned my head and felt his lips brush against my cheek. Things had changed between us. I welcomed him being close and knowing he wasn’t ever far away. “I’ll be here,” I mumbled. He nodded and smiled.
My eyes watched him until he disappeared into the bathroom, and Alice elbowed me in the side.
“Giiiirl, what on Earth is going on?”
Reierson set a glass filled with frothy margarita in front of me.
That was a question I didn’t have an answer to. “What do you mean?” Before today, Alice and I had barely spent any time together, but after a pitcher of margaritas, she was talking like we were best friends.
“I mean, that hunk of a man who is looking at you like you’re the only person in this bar.”
Reierson stuck a straw in my drink and ambled down to the other end of the bar. He was apparently done bickering with Alice and didn’t care to hear about whatever the hell was going on with Maniac and me.
“Technically, I am pretty close to being the only person in this bar.” Alice and Reierson were the only other people here. The Bar was not exactly a happening place. Although that might have something to do with the fact it was only four o’clock in the afternoon.
Alice shook her head. “You know what I mean, girl. What has been going on since he kidnapped you and has been hiding you away from us all?”
Kidnapping was a pretty accurate word. “Not much has happened. Other than the Lords having to rescue my friend in Kentucky from the Hell Captains, there hasn’t been any excitement.”
She nodded and took a sip of her margarita. I had to say I was rather impressed by the fact she was on her third one and she didn’t show any signs of being tipsy or drunk. Her normal flare and funkiness must have helped to hide it. “Heard about Jezebel and Jake. Nikki called the other night to catch me up on all things Fallen Lords. I haven’t been able to get to visit her in the past month because I’ve been busy between work and taking care of my mom.”
Maniac Page 5
