by Brook Wilder
Although my mother was going to make me late if she didn’t turn up anytime soon. Nate sounded surprised.
“Oh, really? Congratulations. And good luck. Although I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
I grunted. I hoped so, although I would rather Noah told me that than Nate.
“You know,” Nate continued smoothly as if that was what he had been working up to, “I could take you for a drink afterwards to celebrate.”
I sighed. I could almost set my watch by him.
“First, Nate, I won’t know if I’ve got the job straightaway. Second, absolutely not.”
“Why not? Come on, Liz, why do you keep turning me down?”
For someone who had graduated third in his class, he was incredibly stupid. I gritted my teeth as I prepared the spiel I said every time Nate asked that question.
“Because, like the other times, I don’t want to go out with you. I don’t even like you. How many times have you asked me out since Noah went to prison?”
“I don’t know.”
“Seventy-three times.” I had made a notation of it. “That’s seventy-two times more than you should have asked. I said no the first time and I meant no. That does not mean you get to keep asking me.”
Nate snorted rudely. “You mean you would rather wait for a drug-dealing biker who’s compensating for his dick size than someone who’s got a clean record.”
I bit back a snarl. I didn’t know certain things about Noah, not the new one anyway, but I knew one thing for definite about Noah Calder.
“Noah has never dealt drugs,” I snapped.
“That’s not what the papers said.”
“The journalists are fucking idiots.” I winced when I realized I had cursed in Hunter’s earshot. “And if you knew Noah like I did, you’d know he’s never taken drugs, never mind sold them. I’ve never seen him take an aspirin.”
“That you know of.”
“I wouldn’t have had a child with him if I knew about the drugs.”
Not that Hunter was planned but I wasn’t telling Nate that. That would be certainly adding fuel to the fire.
“Maybe that’s why he kept the drugs a secret,” Nate said.
I wanted to hit something. I wished Nate was here, so she could hit him. Realizing I was going to get out of control with my temper, I began to pace.
“You’re a fucking asshole, do you know that?” I hissed. “Get it through your thick skull, I don’t want to go out with you. At all. What, you think insulting Noah is going to make me fall in love with you? Stop calling me and lose my fucking number!”
“Liz, I’m sorry…”
But I had already hung up. Nate had tried my last patience yet again. I wasn’t about to deal with his attitude. He hadn’t taken the hint before and chances were he wouldn’t take the hint now. I wondered if he thought I would be easy just like my friend. He had gotten away with what he had done to her and my friend had been practically run out of town.
I wasn’t about to go through that, even if I was tempted. But I did have the Riders at my back. They treated me like family; if they heard about me being mistreated by Nate, they would make sure he spoke several octaves higher for the rest of his life.
I was startled out of my thoughts when the front door opened, and my mother’s voice shrilled through the house. “Hello? Anyone home?”
I rolled my eyes. As if the house would be empty. Glancing at the clock, I realized I would be cutting it very fine for the interview.
“We’re in the kitchen, Mom,” I called, putting my cell phone into my purse and checking through the contents. I didn’t want to leave anything behind.
Gloria Fisher waltzed into the kitchen like she owned the place, her eyes going straight to her grandson. Hunter, his mouth full of banana that was melting, gurgled happily at her. Gloria beamed and planted a big on his forehead.
“Hello, you. How’s my little baby?”
I sighed. I had been over this with my mother before; Hunter was my son, not Gloria’s. But Gloria was determined to have Hunter as her do-over child. At fifty, she considered herself too young to be a grandmother. But I had to point out to her that she had been a teenager when she had had Amy. I had no idea why Gloria wanted to be the parent to Hunter but, thankfully, Hunter didn’t fall for her attempts to get him to call her ‘Mama’ instead of ‘Nanna’.
“My little baby is doing well, Mom. Your little baby is a bundle of nerves on account of the interview she’s about to be late for because her couldn’t show up on time.”
Gloria flushed. She had been caught out again.
“Sorry, honey.” Eyes averted, she hurried to me and kissed my cheek. “And you look great. You’re going to knock them flat.”
I raised an eyebrow. What did that mean?
“I want to impress them with my qualifications and my capability, not my looks.”
“But it wouldn’t hurt.” Gloria grinned and gave me a wink. “You never know, one of them might find you attractive.”
I groaned. This again. Like Amy and Nate, Gloria kept trying to pull me away from Noah and onto someone else. I had been with Noah for some time and, while our relationship had been up and down, I didn’t want to be with anyone else. Even if our relationship was strange and different now Noah was back.
It wasn’t the same, but I couldn’t bring myself to break away.
“What is it with everyone right now?” I demanded. “Why are you so determined to have me paired off with someone else?”
“Well, you need a man in your life.” Gloria stroked Hunter’s head as he drank from his sippy cup. “And your need a father for Hunter.”
“He has a father. Noah. And he’s going to be a part of Hunter’s life.” I folded my arms, staring my mother down. “Whether we’re together or not, is, another matter but he’s going to be a permanent fixture for Hunter from now on.”
“Permanent fixture. You mean…?” Gloria’s face paled and her eyes widened in horror. “You mean you actually told him about Hunter? What did you do that for?”
“Because he’s Hunter’s father! I’ve kept it from him for long enough to protect him and Hunter while he was away. It wasn’t because I didn’t want him to be in my life.” I narrowed my eyes at my mother. “I’m not cruel, Mom. I’m not going to deprive him of his son. I’ve been doing that for too long as it is.”
“You shouldn’t have told him at all,” Gloria said icily. She was stroking Hunter’s hair hard enough for me to worry she was going to pull it out. “That man doesn’t deserve to be a father. Hunter doesn’t need to have a junkie around him.”
“I’ve just told Nate, I told Amy last night and I’m telling you, Noah has never touched drugs, legal or otherwise, and he’s never dealt them. He’s got better standards than that.”
“Maybe you didn’t really know him. Everything just takes a bit of God’s sweet time.”
We were going to go around in circles. Gloria was determined to see the worst in Noah. It didn’t help that Noah had done his best to antagonize her. I had found it amusing. My mother was incredibly old school and practically fainted when she realized her youngest daughter was having sex outside of wedlock. I was sure my mother wouldn’t like the new Noah, but I didn’t get with Noah to annoy my mother.
If I was still with him. The way we had been acting around each other, it was like we were complete strangers again. Hissing out a breath, I snatched up my keys.
“I’m going to my interview. Hunter’s diaper is clean, and he’ll need a nap at nine-thirty. The list of his schedule and what he needs is on the counter.”
Gloria huffed and flapped her hands. “I know, I know.”
That meant she wasn’t going to pay attention at all. I gritted my teeth.
“Mom, last time I told you what to do with Hunter, you didn’t feed him properly or put him down for his nap and then he was up until half one in the morning. I’m not having that again.”
Gloria narrowed her eyes. “I’ve raised two children. I know
what I’m doing.”
I doubted that. But there had been no one else and, despite ignoring my wishes about Hunter, Gloria did adore her grandson. I just had to be careful that my mother didn’t do anything to steal Hunter away. From the way she had been acting lately, that wouldn’t be too far a stretch.
Chapter 7
Liz
I couldn’t believe it. The traffic was awful. It had virtually been standstill for the past half an hour. I had moved about four miles in forty-five minutes. My prospective employers were going to wonder where I was.
I hated being late. I would have been cutting it fine with Gloria turning up late. But now, with the traffic, it was pressing down on my nerves. I felt ready to explode. This was not the day to mess me about. Not at all. I didn’t want it.
First Nate, and then Gloria, and now this. I just needed one more person to goad me and I would flip. That side of me hadn’t come out in a while but I wasn’t afraid to let loose. Why was everyone trying to get me to do what they wanted? Why couldn’t I just do things my way? Hunter was thriving and happy and his father was back in the picture. It was nobody’s fault that Noah hadn’t been there at the start. Apart from the bastard who put him there under false pretenses.
I wished I knew who had set Noah up for the fall. I would cut off his balls and ram them down his throat for making Noah miss what should have been a joyous moment for us. I had missed Noah badly, but I couldn’t bring myself to see him. It would have been obvious. Then there would be all the questions and I knew we would be watched. I didn’t want Noah hurt more by making my family a target.
Although I would happily push my mother and sister into the line of fire.
My cell phone started ringing again. I growled, gripping onto the steering wheel with white-knuckle force. I was already late and in a bad mood. I did not need to be dealing with Nate pestering me for a date that would never happen.
I pressed the cancel button and the ringing stopped. Then it started again. Gritting my teeth, I picked up my phone from the center console and slotted it into its holder on the dash. Then I put it on loudspeaker.
“Listen, Nate, I’ve told you too many fucking times: leave me the fuck alone. Fuck off!”
“Excuse me?”
Then I realized it wasn’t Nate at all. Unless Nate had been kicked where it hurts. The voice was too high. My face reddening, I did my best to calm down.
“Cassie. I’m sorry about that, I thought you were Nate.”
“I’ve been considered many things but that’s a first,” Cassie Rogers laughed. “I take it Nate’s still bothering you?”
I grimaced.
“You could say that.” I put the handbrake on—I wasn’t going anywhere—and sat back with a heavy sigh. I was beginning to get a headache. “You’d think after the amount of times I’ve turned him down he would get the message.”
Cassie was a good friend to me. Ever since she had come into the fold as Mason’s girl, our shared experience in Khloe’s brothel, and relying on each other when the Riders and cartel started shooting each other, I had taken a liking to her. We had our usual banter, but Cassie was a good sounding board.
I wished I had used Cassie as someone for emotional support instead of Amy. There would have been a lot less grief.
“Well, from what you told me, Nate wasn’t known for being good at taking a hint.”
I grunted. I could remember the incidents from high school very clearly. It pained me just to remember them.
“Yeah. He kept asking my friend Meghan out and she was constantly turning him down. But he wore her down and got her to go to the senior prom with him.”
“How did that turn out?”
“He date-raped her.”
Cassie gasped. “What the fuck… He didn’t get arrested for it? You normally get ten years, at the least, for that.”
“Oh, he got arrested,” I said grimly. “But eighteen years old, first time offender, a perfect model student with a scholarship to a good university, and a judge as a friend of the family meant he got a slap on the wrist.”
It didn’t help that the prosecutor hadn’t been able to get the judge to recuse himself. I could still remember Nate waltzing out of court, smirking like he had won the jackpot, while my friend walked away in tears.
“What happened to Meghan?”
“She left Eden as soon as she graduated. I had no idea where she went.”
“And now he’s turned to you,” Cassie said.
“Probably sees me as easy meat. I’ll fuck a biker, so that must mean I’ll fuck anyone.”
“Maybe you should threaten him with some garden sheers,” Cassie giggled. “That worked wonders.”
“I don’t carry those in my trunk, sadly.” Then I saw the time and groaned. “Shit, this isn’t good.”
“What?”
“I’m going to be very late.”
“Where are you off to?”
“An interview. But I’m stuck in heavy traffic that’s barely moved. And I was due to have my interview…” I made a face and groaned. “Twenty minutes ago.”
“Shit.”
I felt like crying. The first time I was going for a job in three years and I was flunking it already. This was not how I wanted it to go. I slammed my fist onto the steering wheel.
“Fuck!”
“Listen, it sounds like you’re not going to get there. Take the next exit off and meet me at the annex. I’m here with Mason. You and I can moan about crappy men and crappy commutes.”
That sounded like a plan. My mouth felt very dry.
“Add a pizza to that and I’ll gladly come.”
“Okay,” Cassie laughed. “See you soon.”
“Yeah.” I hung up and glowered at the traffic. “If I get out of this.”
I had no idea how anyone dealt with the early morning or evening commute. This was horrendous. I made a silent vow not to get a job that involved getting on the highway; I didn’t want to be caught in this again.
About ten minutes later, the traffic started moving again. I found they were starting to slowly merge into one lane just before the junction. I slotted my car in and did my best not to rubber-neck as I drove very slowly past the accident.
What I did see made my heart stop. There was a big black truck with a Harley in a crumpled mess on the floor in front of it. It looked almost like it had been flattened. Then I saw the body covered with a blanket at the side of the road. It was up over its head, but I saw the arm. Muscular with tiger stripes tattooed on the forearm with a black sweatband on the wrist.
Noah had tiger stripes on his arms. And he had a black sweatband on his wrists. I felt as though my heart was about to stop. God, no. Not Noah. Not now.
My whole body shaking, I managed to get off the highway at the next junction a few minutes later and pulled over. My hands were trembling as I reached for my cell phone and drew it out of the holder. It took a few goes but I managed to dial Noah’s number. It rang a few times and then it went to voicemail. I tried again. It did the same thing.
The third time, it went straight to voicemail. Someone had turned the phone off. I didn’t know whether to scream in anger or burst into tears.
“Fucking hell! Noah!”
Now I had no idea if Noah was alive or dead. It could be him lying back there, mangled from the crash. And I had no way of knowing.
I had to see if he was alive. I had to. Gunning the car, I turned it in the direction of the annex.
Chapter 8
Noah
“Are you sure you want to come back to work so soon?” Mason asked.
I sat back and stretched out my legs. We had been sitting in Mason’s office for the last half-hour and my legs were starting to cramp up.
“What else am I going to do? Sit on the sofa with my thumb up my ass? I’ve got a family to provide for now.”
Mason arched an eyebrow. “Does Liz know about this?”
I snorted.
“Do I need to run things past Liz every time I m
ake a decision? She’s not my keeper and she’d be pleased to know I’m making an effort to provide for our son.”
Mason stared at me for a moment. Then he shrugged and sat back.
“Fair enough. I think I might have something for you. A buddy of mine was asking me the other day if I had anyone to spare for doorman work at his club. You used to do that sort of work, so I thought you’d be perfect.”
“Yes, but…” I hesitated and took a moment to compose myself. “Mason, I didn’t fucking come back to do Prospect work. I was the fucking Road Captain.”
