by Rose Briner
Thunder starts his engine, and the power of this bike is a thousand times louder than Jimbo’s was, and the vibration beneath me has me mouthing a silent wow behind my helmet. When I don’t move closer to him to hold on, Thunder sighs loudly and drags me by arms until I am flush against him as he forces my arms around his body. I can’t feel his hands through his gloves, but he’s nice and warm, so I snuggle closer to him, earning something akin to a groan from him. From frustration or something else, who knows, but the others try to hide their chuckles behind the sound of their engines.
We silently pull away from the house I’ve lived in for most of my life, and he quickly enters the highway and heads towards Everett, he doesn’t stop until we get there and pulls into a Mexican restaurant drive-thru. I didn’t even know they had drive-thru Mexican restaurants.
“What would you like?” he asks me. His voice rumbling through me gives me some weird feeling I’ve never felt before. I feel uneasy and don’t trust my voice, so I silently point to the picture of a sandwich. I haven’t had Mexican food in so long that I’m not sure if I’ll still like it. The sandwich is probably my best bet.
I can hear his sigh in frustration, “What kind of meat?”
Again, I point this time to steak, and I’m sure he wants to kill me right now, he probably thinks I’m some privileged princess who can’t order her own shit.
He doesn’t say anything else as he orders, pays, and hands me the bag to put in the bag attached to the side of his bike. The rest of the drive to the small lodge just outside of Everett and next to a large lake is long and tedious. I don’t bother to look at the name of the lodge as Thunder dismounts, and I get off behind him. My legs wobble beneath me, and he barely catches me before I fall to the ground.
“Christ,” he mumbles as he steadies me by placing an arm around my waist. “You okay now?” he asks as he releases me. He probably thinks I’m some annoying, attention seeking brat.
I slowly nod as I remove my helmet. I can’t even look at him right now.
“Stay here with the bike, I’m going to go and get the room key,” he doesn’t wait for my response as he walks off in the direction of the office. I’m left standing there watching his retreating form.
I bite my lip as I slowly look around me and walk off a few feet away to look down at the lake. I haven’t seen a lake in so long; I almost forgot they existed. The mist in the air is refreshing against my face, so I take several more steps towards the water before I realize how far off I’ve ventured.
“Natalie? Fuck, Natalie where are you?” I hear the frantic calling of Thunder and quickly turn back around and make my way back over to the bike. I’m in for it now.
“Shit, didn’t I tell you to stay right here? You almost gave me a heart attack; Drag will never forgive me if something happens to you,” I can hear the anger in his voice.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper softly. “I didn’t mean to upset you,” I say as I turn away from him so he can’t see how scared I am.
“That’s okay,” he says softly as he reaches one hand towards me. When I step away from him, he drops his hand back to his side, “I really am sorry Natalie, I just don’t want anything to happen to you, it isn’t safe for you just yet. I need you to remember that. I don’t want anything to happen to you; I care just as much as the others do, I just want to understand what’s going on right now. No one seems to care enough to tell me what’s going on.”
I start to open my mouth to tell him, but quickly shut it when I find him turned away from me. I think he was talking to himself more than he was talking to me. Now I feel awful, but he gathers our belongings, including a bag of his own and walks off towards the room, leaving me to follow behind him.
Guess this conversation is officially over now.
Chapter Six
Parker
“I’m going to take a shower,” I tell Natalie as we walk into the room and set my stuff on the bed closest to the door. “You eat and watch some TV if you want. I want you to have this bed here,” I point to the one closest to the bathroom. “I don’t want you too close to the door in case of emergency.”
I hate how concerned I sound as I dump my bag out and take some shorts and a shirt with me into the bathroom. Not because I don’t care about her, but because even before knowing what happened to this chick, I want to be closer to her. Fuck that shit, every girl I’ve ever been close to has fucked me in some way. Either fucked with my feelings or fucked all of my friends. This girl could be different, but with Brandon reentering my life, that’s not a chance I can afford to take right now. I won’t allow myself to go there right now.
I shut the door behind me and step out of my dirty clothes. Dirty from more than just the ride and cleaning the house this morning, but the fucking stench of that whore is still on me as well, and all I want to do is wash her away. I’m pretty sure that was the last time I invite that hooker to my bed. I still can’t believe she expects me to put a ring on it. The woman who wins my heart and becomes my Old Lady will be someone who deserves it, and I won’t be leaving her until I hit the grave. I’ve got maybe another twenty years until I have to worry about that. Women chase my bike, patch, and dick. One has yet actually to care about me, the man behind the club and bike.
I turn on the water as hot as I can stand it and step inside, shutting the curtain behind me. I close my eyes and try not to think about what happened when Drag saw Natalie earlier. I’m dying to know what happened; I suspect someone beat the shit out of her and if that’s the case, I hope we get to bury that motherfucker. I don’t know Natalie, but I know my brothers well enough to know that if they were that affected by what happened to her, then that fucker is going six feet under someday very soon.
I’m putting soap in my hair when there’s a soft knock, and I hear the door slowly opening.
“Thunder? I need to use the bathroom. I tried to wait, but you’ve been in here for over an hour,” Natalie’s soft voice floats through the door and hits me straight in the balls.
“Fuck,” I groan as the urge to pull my dick floods me. When was the last time I felt so much desire? I’m used to Daisy jerking me off for at least half an hour before I can even make my cock hard, and this girl speaks a few words, and I’m ready to jack off right here, right now. I don’t know if it has to do with her, or something in that sweet and sexy as fuck voice she’s sporting right now.
She’s hurt and alone right now, stop it. You don’t need her baggage; you have enough of your own right now.
“Never-m-mind,” she stutters as she starts to reclose the door.
“No, wait,” why am I stopping her? “Go ahead; I promise I won’t peek,” I tell her as I turn the water as cold as it will go. I almost curse out loud when the cold water hits me, and I watch my dick die a slow and evil death. Yup, that will do it for me. I almost laugh at how quickly it goes limp, like a wet noodle.
“T-thank you,” she whispers as she washes her hands, and shuts the door behind her.
Warm water hits me after she flushes and I fight against the urge to pull my dick the rest of the way until its hard as a rock again.
“You can’t give into this, and you know it, if you do, you’ll want her,” I remind myself as I squeeze my eyes shut. “Fuck!” I shout as the cold water assaults me again.
Well, there just went my lovely little shower, I forgot to tell her not to flush the damn thing.
I shut off the water and step out to dry myself off. I admire my tattoos in the mirror as I stand there and stare into the mirror, I want to add some more ink, but I won’t do it right now. I can’t figure out what I want to get and I don’t have the money right now. Wish I did, I could use some pain right now to clear my head.
There’s another soft knock at the door just as I am getting ready to brush my hair.
“Come in, I’m decent,” I shout over the blow dryer.
The door slowly moves open, and I look over to find Natalie still wearing her jacket and sunglasses. She is admiring my hair,
and I think I hear her mouth the word wow, but I can’t hear over the blow dryer.
“Drag is on the phone. I tried to ignore it and not answer, but he started threatening to kill you through text messages if you didn’t quote ‘answer the fucking phone right this minute.’ So I figured you might want me to answer it,” she is still looking at my hair as she talks, refusing to focus on my face.
I turn off the blow dryer and offer her a small smile, “You did the right thing, Natalie,” I tell her as I reach forward and stroke a hand through the hair hanging down in front of her face. When I touch her sunglasses, she flinches and sets the phone down on the counter before she quickly leaves the room.
I sigh as I watch her retreating figure as she sits down and continues to pick at her sandwich.
“Yeah,” I grunt into the phone, forgetting who I’m talking to.
“What. The. Fuck. Do. You. Mean. Yeah?” there’s a growl at the end, and I realize I’m in deep fucking shit.
“Sorry Pres, I needed a shower, and the door was unlocked the entire time, she’s safe, I won’t let anything happen to her,” I say with a sigh as I slowly shut the door behind me.
“What’s wrong Thunder? I know something is wrong,” there’s this slight smile in his voice.
“Nothing, what are you talking about?” I try to lie.
“You forget that I know you like my right hand, VP. What is it?”
I hit the marble counter in front of me and instantly regret it, “Shit!” I softly groan as I shake my hand.
“She affecting you that much, huh? I don’t blame you she’s a gorgeous girl. But let me warn you, she’s very fragile right now, she’s had a tough life, my brother. You hurt her, and I’ll kill you, do you understand? I love you like a son, but I’d kill for that girl. Someone has to fight for her; no one else has her entire life.”
“What do you mean? What aren’t you guys telling me? How can you guys expect me to protect her if I don’t know what’s going on here?” I run my hand through my hair and let it fall around my face. I haven’t worn my hair down since, forever. I miss a woman’s hand running through it. God, I’m turning into such a pussy all of a sudden. I don’t like it one fucking bit.
“Listen, Thunder. I can’t tell you; I protect her because she told me. It took Nat more than a year to trust me enough to tell me, so take your time with her, it will be worth it when she opens up to you. She’s one hell of a woman, and whomever she ends up with will be one hell of a lucky motherfucking bastard,” his laugh catches me off guard. “I forgot why I was calling you. We’re outside; I want you to step outside while the three of us examine her. Then you can be alone with the sweet little butterfly, okay?”
“What. The. Fuck. Man, you are acting like I care about this chick,” I roll my eyes skyward and push the hair out of my face.
“Whether you want to admit it, or even realize it Thunder, you care for that girl more than you care to admit even to yourself, just remember what I said, okay?”
“I’ll be out in a minute, does she know you guys are coming in?” I question as I pull the door open, completely ignoring his comments and warning.
“She doesn’t. Pass her the phone, will you?” I silently give her the phone and turn around to pull my converse on as she speaks to Drag quietly.
“I know, Roman, thanks,” I can hear the smile in her voice.
I look over at her in confusion and find her looking back in my direction curiously. No one calls Drag Roman besides Dorothy; I never thought I’d see the day he’d let someone else call him that. This girl must be special or something.
Focus, you damn dickweed.
“Here you go,” she says as she stands and gingerly sets my phone down next to me on the bed. I resist the urge to pull her to me and force her to tell me what’s going on.
“I’ll be back in a few,” I whisper as I reach the door and pull it open. I stop and look at her one final time before I step out and shut the door behind me.
I put my head against the door and close my eyes as I fight the shaking going through me. I don’t understand what the shaking is about. Maybe it’s from not knowing what is happening with this girl and the fact that it's slowly killing me.
“Hey yo, VP, you doing okay?” I hear Satch and Fig chuckling behind me.
“Not really, no one wants to tell me what the fuck is going on and I need to get back to the house and finish setting it up before Brandon gets to me,” it’s then that I realize how heavy my shoulders feel right now. It suddenly dawns on me that this is more than just what is going on with Natalie. It’s the stress of everything happening to me right now. I don’t like this feeling of not being in control. I’ve fought for a long time not to feel this way again.
“Don’t worry about the house, brother; it’s already being taken care of,” states Drag as he walks past me and to the door.
“But Drag, I-”
His hand in front of my face stops me, “I said don’t worry about it. I want you to focus all your energy and attention on Nat right now, okay? Natalie is the most important thing right now. If something happens to this girl, I’ll die, are we clear? Protect her with your life brother, because I will protect her with mine, is that clear? Nothing else matters right now, not Brandon, not Allison, not Daisy, absolutely fucking nothing else matters.
“Dorothy’s got you on everything okay? Just relax and take a walk for a while,” I watch as he knocks the door and calls out to Natalie before he opens it and the three of them go inside and shut the door behind them.
I hear Drag talking to Natalie before she says something and the crying starts. I can handle it up until the point that the wailing begins, and I want to rip the fucking door off the hinges and tell all three to get the fuck away from her.
Yeah, I need to take a fucking walk. What the fuck is happening to me?
Chapter Seven
Natalie
I know the moment of truth is about to be upon me when Thunder’s phone starts to go nuts. Either I’m about to die, or Thunder is because his cell just will not stop. I try not to go over to it and read the display, but when I see another missed call from Pres, and a text message that follows that says if he doesn’t answer the phone, Thunder is going to die, I know I have to go back and bother him once again.
I hesitantly pick up the phone and answer it.
“Hello?” I ask softly.
“Oh, hi Natalie, where is he?”
I can tell he wants to growl at me, but he’s fighting hard not to because the growl isn’t for me. “Everything is fine Drag; he’s in the shower. You want me to get him?” I ask afraid Thunder is going to kill me for answering his phone.
“If you don’t mind,” he replies. He’s getting impatient; I can sense it. I can almost picture him gesturing for me to go.
I walk over to the door and hesitate when I hear the blow dryer. Just do it. I knock loudly on the door so that he can hear me.
“You can come in, I’m decent,” he says as I listen to the blow dryer die down. I didn’t have the courage to take off my sunglasses yet, so I try to look away when I open the door, but he’s running his hand through those gorgeous brown locks of his, and I about die when I see him doing it.
Without even thinking about it, I find myself saying, “Wow,” I hope he didn’t hear me. I have this feeling he did, but he doesn’t show it if he heard me.
“Thunder, I hope you aren’t mad. Drag is on the phone, he kept calling, and then he texted quote, ‘If you don’t answer this phone I will fucking kill you,’ so I answered it. I hope you aren’t too mad at me,” I say as I refuse to look at his face. I can’t stop looking at that fucking hair of his. I really, really want to run my fingers through it and see if it’s as soft as I think it is.
Lucky he can’t see my eyes through my glasses as I force myself to hold still. Don’t fucking do it; he’ll probably throw you off the back of his Harley one of these days if you do. Do. Not. Fucking. Do. It.
“You did the right thing,
Natalie,” he says as I feel his breathing suddenly go erratic in the small room as I feel his fingers brush some of my hair out of my face and I almost lean in until his hand touches my sunglasses and I freak out and flinch away from him. I can’t bear to let him see my face.
I think I see hurt flash in his eyes as I set the phone down next to him and step out of the bathroom and go back to sit down at the table and nibble my sandwich. It is good, I just for some reason can’t eat with this fear I feel for when he sees what I look like under all of this. That’s why I still have on my glasses and jacket. I want to take everything off, but I can’t –no I won’t- take it off until I’m sure he won’t run away screaming or call me some stupid bitch for putting up with the abuse or worse accuse me of bringing this all on myself.
I sit quietly and stare at the TV as the door clicks shut behind him. I can faintly hear him through the door, and I want to get up and lean against the wall so I can hear, but I don’t do it. I don’t think I want to listen to what’s going on behind that closed door.
When the door reopens, and he comes back out, he walks over and hands me the phone.
“Natalie, Thunder is going to step outside, and Satch, Fig, and I are going to come in and fix you up a bit, okay? Take it easy on Thunder; he’s really worried about you.”
“Okay Roman, thank you,” I reply vaguely, and his chuckle says I’ve pleased him. He’s been telling me for months to call him Roman, but this is the first time I’ve done it.
