“No, it’s not,” Emma said surprisingly.
“What?”
“I know you, son,” Emma said with a smile. “There’s something other than the gang war that’s got you concerned.”
Keith hesitated for a moment.
“Does it have something to do with Natalie?” Emma asked cautiously, knowing that Keith hated to talk about her. “Is this upcoming conflict bringing up bad memories?"
Keith nodded slowly. “I suppose so….”
“Do you still have dreams about her?” Emma asked gently.
“Not anymore,” Keith said, realizing that it had been quite a while since he dreamed of Emma. “I still dream… but they’re different now.”
“Have you ever…” Emma started, and then she faltered somewhat before her sentence died away completely.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Mom,” Keith coaxed. “What were you about to ask?”
“Well, I just wondered if… you might be a little happier… if you met someone?” Emma suggested.
Keith felt his face grow hard, but he kept his tone gentle. “What makes you think I’m not happy?"
“It’s in your eyes, Keith,” Emma said calmly. “There’s no true contentment there. The only thing that I can recognize is pain and loss and bitterness. I understand you’ve been through a lot, and I understand that has made you protective of your heart… but there’s no point closing yourself off to every opportunity that comes your way.”
“I see women,” Keith shrugged.
“You sleep with women,” Emma said, giving him a pointed look. “Don’t think I am under any delusions as to what that kind of relationship really is. You’re just hiding, Keith.”
“Hiding from what?”
“From life,” Emma said bluntly. “You’re scared to get hurt again, so you’re refusing to live.”
“I’m refusing to have a relationship with anyone,” Keith corrected her. “That’s only a part of life.”
“It’s the most important part of life, son,” Emma said gently. “The whole point of it is to find someone you can trust, someone you can live your life with, someone to share in your joys and sorrows.”
“It didn’t exactly work out for you did it, Mom?” Keith asked. “You bought into that whole romantic notion, and what did you get for it? An abusive husband and bruises all over your body.”
“You’re forgetting the most important part,” Emma said with a smile.
Taken back, Keith looked at her questioningly. “What did I miss?”
“You,” Emma said. “I got you. It’s true I didn’t have a good husband, but I got the best son a mother could hope for.”
“That’s sad,” Keith said, turning his gaze downward.
“Why?” Emma asked. “Because I don’t have a man in my life? The beauty of it is that I can find one if and when I choose to.”
“So can I,” Keith pointed out. “If and when I choose to.”
“Yes, but the difference is that I am not scared,” Emma said gently. “You are.”
“Can you blame me?”
“Not at all,” Emma said with understanding. “I’m just letting you know that it is worth the risk.”
“Noted,” Keith said finally after a long pause.
He understood where his mother was coming from, but she had never lost anyone she loved that much. She had not lost the love of her life, and so Keith felt as though in this matter, he needed to rely on his own judgment and no one else’s. He wished that he could just go over to Kristina’s place. He wasn’t even looking for sex; he just wanted to be in her company. Of course, sex would also have been nice, but he knew that was a gray area. Just thinking about it made Keith’s dick perk up a little. The only thing that stopped a full on hard-on was the fact that he was in his mother’s house, sitting across from her.
He turned his mind to other things, and he felt his thoughts turn in a different direction. “Do you think that Natalie would still be alive today if I had… chosen a different life?” Keith asked.
“Oh, Keith,” Emma said softly. “Don’t look back now. It’s the surest way of saying goodbye to sanity.”
Chapter Fifteen
Kristina
Kristina left Seton and Lee Motors in a fog of disappointment. She had not seen Keith all day, and she had been sure he would be in the auto shop at some point during the day. She had been on the verge of asking Miles where he was, but then she had stopped herself at the last moment. She was sure that Miles would tell Keith she had asked after him, and she didn’t want him to get the wrong idea.
The wrong idea in question would have been completely accurate in this case, considering that Kristina’s infatuation for Keith only seemed to be growing. She thought about him constantly, and when her doubt took over, she would take to going over the moments they had shared together and analyzing every little smile and look. It was only in her bed at night that she allowed herself to think of the two times Keith had fucked her.
“Leaving Kris?” Tucker asked, as she passed him on her way out.
Since starting work at Lee and Seton she had come to know some of the bikers that passed through the garage. Some were polite and distant, and others were friendlier, like Tucker. He was tall and muscled, his skin was a pale bronze and his eyes seemed to match the hue perfectly. He was perhaps the friendliest of all the bikers, and by far the most talkative.
He had initiated conversation with Kristina one morning, and from then on, they had always shared a pleasant rapport that had helped her feel less out of place in her new job.
“Yeah Tucker,” she said. “Done for the day.”
“How was work?”
“Slow,” Kristina replied.
“I don’t know why you work here,” Tucker said, shaking his head. “You’re a college kid; you could do anything else.”
Kristina smiled. “I wanted to do something different.”
“Being a receptionist is different?” Tucker asked incredulously.
Kristina sighed, realizing that the difference she was talking about had nothing to do with her job and everything to do with Keith. “I guess not,” she said.
Tucker walked over to where she was. “Something bothering you?” he asked with concern.
Kristina tried to smooth out her expression. “I’m fine.”
“You don’t look it,” Tucker said bluntly.
“Hey cum-bucket!” one of the older bikers with a heavy mustache called out. “Leave the poor girl alone and let her get on with her day.
Kristina couldn’t help but smile. “Cum-bucket?” she asked with raised eyebrows.
Tucker didn’t look the least bit embarrassed by his unusual nickname. “When I was a kid I used to masturbate into a bucket,” he said with a mischievous smile. “Then I used to take the bucket outside and wash it out so that my parents would never know.”
“Wow,” Kristina said. “You covered your tracks. Couldn’t you have just flushed it down the toilet?”
Tucker laughed. “I was convinced that my parents would know if it was anywhere in the house. I didn’t think washing it down the sink or flushing it down the toilet would help. I thought they’d be able to smell it in the air. Hence the bucket.”
“And you told this to your friends?” Kristina asked.
Tucker shrugged. “It’s a good story… and we were sharing stuff.”
Kristina laughed out loud, feeling the stress of the last few days fall away… at least for a few short moments. “Thanks for telling me the story, Tucker,” Kristina said. “It’s not one I’m likely to forget anytime soon.”
“Anytime,” Tucker said with a wink. “I’ll see you around then, Kris.”
Kristina nodded and started on the walk back home. She was so engrossed thinking about the conversation she had just had with Tucker that she didn’t realize for a moment that there seemed to be someone just behind her. For a moment she thought it was Tucker, but when she turned around it was someone alto
gether different.
The man was tall and beefy, with large muscular arms and a shaved head. He had tattoos along his neck and arms, but unlike Keith’s tattoos, which were beautiful and artistic, these ones looked crude and somehow threatening. When she turned around to look at him, he didn’t turn from her gaze. He looked straight at her, as though he wanted her to know that he was following her.
Kristina felt her heart beat race upwards, but she refused to quicken her pace. She didn’t want to give the brute the satisfaction of knowing he had gotten under her skin. She didn’t turn back to him, even once, after that. Much as she wanted to, she didn’t want him to know that she was nervous. Instead, she kept her normal pace and listened hard to see if he was keeping the distance between them or if he was closing in on it.
The ten-minute walk back to campus seemed as though it had been ten times as long. Kristina turned the corner into one of the campus lawns. Students milled around, several more sat on the grass in groups with food and drink or books and bags, talking, laughing, and studying in packs. Grateful for the crowd, Kristina milled around and moved towards her dorm. She was climbing the steps on her dorm building when she allowed herself a glance backwards, but he had disappeared.
Kristina went inside and moved to one of the windows. She stayed in the corner and peered through the window, looking carefully for any sign of him. She had just decided that he had probably turned tail at the student lawn and left when she saw him some distance away, standing in the shade of a large tree. He was looking straight at her building; even worse, he was looking straight at her.
Kristina jumped backwards so that she was no longer in his line of sight. She felt her skin crawl and goosebumps filled her skin. She turned and ran upstairs to her room where Marie was at her laptop doing some research.
“Hi,” Marie said as she turned around. “How was class?”
“I don’t have any classes scheduled for this morning,” Kristina replied. “I had work today remember?”
“Oh right,” Marie nodded. “How was work?”
“Uneventful,” Kristina said shortly.
“Are you ok?”
“What?”
“I asked if you were ok,” Marie said, wrinkling her brow and looking at Kristina closely.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Kristina asked, trying not to sound defensive.
“You just look a little flushed.”
“I set a brisk pace on my walk back to campus,” Kristina replied, the lie coming easily to her lips.
Marie seemed to accept this, as she turned back to her laptop screen. “Don’t you have a class in a bit?”
“In fifteen minutes,” Kristina nodded. “It’s only the building over though, I’ll leave in a bit.”
“Which building?”
“Frasier building,” Kristina replied.
Kristina took a moment to walk down to the bathrooms. She had a quick cat wash and swapped the light teal sweater she was wearing for a dark hoodie. She combed down her hair and went back to the room to gather her things. She thought about mentioning the man who had followed her back to campus to Marie, but she knew how Marie would react to that. She would instantly blame Keith, and that was the last thing that Kristina needed at the moment.
Pushing back the sense of panic that was clutching at her heart, she set off for her class. She walked down the steps and took the most direct path that would lead her to the Frasier building. She had been walking barely a minute when she became aware of a presence behind her. She stumbled over her own feet, but she managed to regain her balance almost immediately. She kept walking without looking back, but by the time she got inside Frasier building realization had set in and she knew she needed to tell Keith about this.
She moved into a quiet corner of ground floor and took out her cell phone. She dialed Keith’s number quickly and counted the number of rings until he answered with baited breath.
“Kristina?” his voice was clear and concerned. It was the first time she had ever called him.
“Keith?” Kristina asked, unable to keep the panic from her tone.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, sensing the panic immediately.
“I think I’m being followed,” she stammered, the reality of saying the words out loud made it more real and more terrifying for her.
There was a split second of silence on the other end. “How sure are you?” Keith asked in a new tone that Kristina barely recognized.
“Pretty sure,” she replied. “I just finished my shift and Seton and Lee. I spoke to Tucker for a few minutes, and then I started walking back home. Halfway there I noticed that someone was following me.”
“Did you get a look at the guy?”
“Big, burly, and white,” Kristina replied. “He had tattoos on his arms and neck, and his head was shaved.”
“Any other characteristics you noticed?”
“No,” Kristina said. “I didn’t look for too long. He didn’t seem to care that I saw him.”
“How long did he follow you?”
“Until I got into my dorm,” Kristina replied. “When I was in the building, I looked outside from one of the windows, and I caught him staring at me, as though he knew I would look.”
“Are you still in your dorm room?” Keith asked urgently.
“No, I had a class to get to,” Kristina replied. “I’m here now. But… I think he followed me here, too.”
“Did you see him?”
“No,” Kristina said, wishing she had glanced behind her now. “But I could feel him.”
“Did he speak… did you hear him say anything?”
“No,” Kristina shook his head. “But Keith… he looked like…”
“Yes?”
“A gang member,” she said softly, lowering her voice to avoid being overheard by the other students milling past her. “He looked like a biker. But I knew he wasn’t a part of the Dragons. I’ve seen everyone in your gang now, and I can recognize all of them. This guy… was from a different gang altogether.”
There was a moment’s pause before Keith spoke. “When does your class finish?” he asked.
“I… In two hours’ time,” Kristina said.
“Where is it being held?”
“Close to my dorm,” Kristina replied. “Frasier building.”
“Ok,” Keith said, and she could almost imagine the look on his face when he spoke. “I’ll meet you outside in two hours once you’re done with your class.”
“I… You’re going to… walk me home?”
“Yes.”
“Keith,” Kristina said softly. “I appreciate that but… it’s not far at all. I can manage getting myself home. I just thought you should know…in case it was… who I think it was.”
“And who do you think it was?” Keith asked.
“Kovic,” Kristina said. “Or someone who works with him.”
“I’ll be there in two hours’ time,” was all Keith said.
“Keith—”
“No arguments, Kristina,” Keith interrupted her before she could insist that he didn’t have to babysit her. “I’ll see you soon.”
Before she could say another word, he had hung up. She put away her phone and stared at her hands for a few moments wondering if she had done the right thing by calling Keith. Her panic had been real though—and so had the man who had been following her. Kristina wondered for a moment if Marie had been right, and she had been completely naïve and stupid for thinking that she could stay out of the gang politics and keep her relationship with Keith separate from all that.
Kristina took a deep, steadying breath and made her way to class, feeling a huge sense of relief knowing that Keith was going to be waiting outside for her when she had finished.
Chapter Sixteen
Keith
“And who do you think it was?” Keith asked, feeling his stress levels rise just thinking about a man, any man following Kristina.
“Kovic,” she replied cautiously. “Or someone who works with him.”<
br />
She was a smart girl and she had picked up on lots of little things that she should have been kept in the dark about. Keith knew there was no chance of hiding much from her now. “I’ll be there in two hours’ time,” he said.
“Keith—” she started, trying to dissuade him from going to her.
“No arguments, Kristina,” Keith interrupted abruptly. “I’ll see you soon.”
Savage: Iron Dragons MC Page 11
