Lucas looked at her with bewilderment. “You’re not buying us food?”
“You should be lucky I am so confused by what just happened that I don’t call the cops,” she replied, glaring at him.
“Whatever,” he answered. “You know what I say about cops, anyway.”
“No, what is that?” Laura asked.
Lucas smiled. “What can they do?”
Laura sunk back against the booth. She had no idea who this young man was who vaguely resembled the kid brother she had been trying so hard to raise up right these past few years. She had tried so hard – she never dated; she stayed at the same steady job; she even enrolled herself in school and spent her time volunteering at the local Boys and Girls Center so she could be the best example and spend the most quality time with her brother. The only real relationship she had was with Will Shriner, the captain of the Knights’ Disciples, who came into their lives because he volunteered at the Boys and Girls Center and was there at the right time when Lucas was running for his life from Members of Park Heights street gang. This muscle bound teen with an indifferent attitude who just basically took her car from her was a virtual stranger.
“So are you keeping the car? Borrowing it? What’s the plan?” Laura looked him straight in the eye to see if she could muster up any shame.
“Let’s just say we’re borrowing it indefinitely,” Lucas laughed. Laura noticed his friend wasn’t laughing. She detected that he was borrowed by the situation. She turned to him. “What’s your name?” Laura asked directly.
“None of your business,” Lucas replied.
“I was asking him, not you,” she hissed. Laura was never tough on her brother, but since he had fallen in with the wrong crowd, she was toughening up. Lucas directed him to not answer. Laura decided then that she would just play it cool, let him have the car, and make her own way home. She didn’t like the idea of getting in the car with him. And once she was safely away, she was going to call Detective Frank Vasquez and inform him that her dear sweet brother just stole her car. “Okay, I guess if I can’t even talk to your friend and since you got what you came for, I will be going.”
“We’ll give you a lift,” said Lucas and began to get up.
“Don’t bother,” she said. She pulled out twenty dollars from her wallet. “Here. Enjoy your dinner.”
Lucas quickly rushed over to her. “Laura –” he began.
“Are you concerned for me now, Lucas?” she shamed him. “I can take care of myself. Because that’s what I do. I have taken care of you since you were a baby. When mom had you, she was a little bit older and I was already in high school. I have been taking care of you since before our parents died and afterwards. So I have lots of practice. Goodbye.”
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Laura stepped out onto the cold Baltimore street and realized she was being extremely foolish. But she didn’t trust Lucas and she wasn’t so sure it was any safer riding home with him. Luckily, as she stepped out into the light, a taxi pulled up and she wasn’t outside for too long.
The real dilemma began once she was inside the door of her home. Suddenly it not only felt empty, but abandoned. A million feelings swirled within her. On top of that, she had a renewed sense of fear for own safety. She was clear after tonight that her little brother would throw her under the bus if necessary. There was no sign of conscience in that kid at all.
Almost as if on automatic, she did what Will told her to do if she ever needed anything. She called him. Only when she heard his voice did she start to sob and nothing came out of her mouth so that he could understand her.
“Laura?” he called, fear rising in his voice. At first his voice was sleepy, as though she had woken him up, but now it was bright and clear. She knew he thought something was wrong with her.
“I’m fine,” she struggled to say. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. Where are you?” he demanded.
“Home,” she answered.
“I’m coming over,” he said.
Laura disconnected the call. She went into the kitchen and filled a glass of ice fully intending to have a glass of water. But she went out to the sideboard in the dining room and made herself a glass of bourbon. She foolishly drank one shot and then another poured over the ice. She sucked the last drop of chilly alcohol until it was all gone and then she filled the glass with water.
She sat at the dining room table – a very long, extraordinarily beautiful and sturdy piece that seem to extend the length of the room. She waited for Will, who was only minutes away. Her whole insides warmed when she heard the hum of his Harley pulling up front. She stood to get the door, but the liquor hit her. She was not a drinker at all and she estimated the equivalent to shots. In truth, she had no idea whether she over-poured or not. She hadn’t eaten much all day. The liquor went straight to her head. She teetered, tried to steady herself and by that time Will was already letting himself in.
“Are you okay?” he asked her gently.
“I think I might be drunk,” she answered as the room wobbled around her.
“Sit down,” he continued in a soft tone. He joined her in the dining room. “What’s going on.” Laura crumbled emotionally. “It’s okay.”
“Lucas took my car,” she began.
“What?” Will demanded.
“I was thinking about him a lot today and I texted him a couple of times. I went to go see him at the Tasty. He had a little friend with him.”
“Okay I am going to stop you right there, Laura,” Will touched her arm firmly. “He has no ‘little’ friends. Your brother is sixteen? Is that right? He is the member of a gang. He’s not a baby anymore, sweetheart.”
“I know and it hurts,” she sobbed.
Will placed a hand on her shoulder. “Tell me what happened.”
“So I went to the diner and he asked to look at my keys. It was random, but I didn’t think anything of it. He said he was borrowing my car forever.”
Will reached to a holder of napkins in the middle of the table and pulled out a paper napkin. He put it to her nose. “Blow,” he said.
She laughed self-consciously. “I can’t blow my nose in front of you,” she said bashfully.
He raised an eyebrow. “I think we’ve done more than that in front of each other. Blow.” He wasn’t asking, he was telling. “When did this happen? When did he drop you off?”
“He didn’t. I took a cab,” she said. Laura could feel Will’s mood shift from where she sat. She sensed he was furious. “Before you explode, I opted not to get a ride with him I don’t know when the last time you saw him, but Lucas is enormous now. He’s been lifting weights and he has muscles almost like yours.”
“So you felt intimidated? Why didn’t you call the police?” he asked.
“Well I was going to. I just got home and kind of fell apart. I didn’t mean to get snockered. It just kind of happened,” said Laura.
“Okay,” he said. He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “It’s a good thing you caught me. I was going to go out myself.” He walked into the kitchen, completely familiar with it. He and Laura swapped houses for a period after Lucas first got involved with the gang, for safety reasons. She spied on him while he worked. He pulled out an egg pan and set it on the stove. He drizzled it with olive oil, cranked some sea salt over it and let it all heat up. He reached into the refrigerator for eggs and cracked about five in a bowl.
“Good night,” she exclaimed. “You expecting company?”
He looked at her semi-seriously and answered her question with a question. “Have you eaten today?”
“Not really,” she said.
“Well then,” he replied. He dumped the eggs in the pan and whisked them. Within seconds he was heaping mounds of fluffy eggs onto a couple of plates for them.
“Aren’t you wonderful to have around the house,” she murmured. She realized she was, indeed, drunk. Not out of control, but, still, she was somewhat embarrassed. She stared at her plate somberly.
“If I haven’t said thank you, I mean for everything. . . I mean I don’t think I really have and I just want to tell you how much you mean to me. I mean how much all that you’ve done means to me,” she said.
“That’s very sweet and, yes, you have thanked me. A gazillion times in a gazillion ways.” He spiked some eggs with his fork and fed her. “Now eat before you ask me to marry you,” he winked.
“Mm,” she said. “These are really good.” She took another bite. “I would have to say these are the best I’ve ever eaten.” She devoured them and then drank down most of the water, which was ever-so-slightly laced with bourbon. She set it down.
“What?” he asked.
“I forgot there’s some liquor in that,” she said.
Will sipped from the glass. “Where’s the bourbon?” he asked.
Laura nodded in the direction of her very sparse collection of liquor. He got up and brought the bottle back to the table. He drank directly from the bottle and leaned in to kiss her. His mouth was warm from the liquor and slightly chilled from the ice water. His tongue was soft and firm at the same time and it slipped and slid into her mouth, twisting with her tongue.
They clutched each other, raking their fingers through one another’s hair. The haze of the liquor dissipated and the arousal that heated her from head to toe ironically made her clear-headed. For the first time ever, Laura truly considered life on her terms, not in terms of anyone else – what she wanted and needed, not her parents, not her beloved younger brother.
And Laura Mills needed Will Shriner.
Laura did something she often fantasized about doing. Still locked in a kiss with him, she leaned back on the polished surface of the dining room table. She wanted to be taken on the table. It was her table, after all.
Will smiled as he caught on. He came even more alive, stripping her ritualistically and tossing her jeans across the room. She sat up, now in her bra and panties, draped with an unbuttoned shirt, and skimmed off his shirt. Will had such an amazing physique. Every muscle absolutely chiseled and cut to perfection with a religious workout regimen. His body was as hard as the black walnut wood Laura was perched on. She stroked his belly and he shivered.
She unfastened his pants, feasting on his sweet mouth as she did. And when he was sufficiently free, she wantonly got on all fours and crawled up onto the table. Will did a quick check underneath the table to see if it would hold. He leaned over and took hold of her thighs. He carefully slid her towards him so as not to wreck her form. Laura lowered her upper body so that her bottom flexed and jutted up for him to take. She could not see what he was doing but she surely felt it.
He bent down and nibbled the soft sensitive spot where her buttocks met the back of her thighs. He used his tongue, delving into the hot and steamy cleft of her body. He plunged into her with both fingers and tongue. Laura’s plan deliciously backfired on her. She had meant to tease and excite him, and instead she was being tortured blissfully.
Laura moaned, splaying her thighs so she could lay even closer to the tabletop, positioning her to be able to crane around and look at him. “Will,” she whispered. “Will.” He looked up from his carnal work. “Come around to this side of the table.”
He clumsily made his way around to the other side, hindered by a throbbing erection. She gripped the edge of the table and hoisted herself so her upper body was slightly over the side, and put her mouth on him. He arched over her and braced himself with his hands, flat on the surface.
The position was awesome for her because it gave her great range of motion. She could tell that the idea alone had enormous aphrodisiacal powers on him. He leaned to the side so she could better access. Laura worked rigorously. She reached between his legs and fondled him. He let her know when it was far enough. Will gently, but most definitely gripped her hair. He spun her around. She lifted her legs straight up into the air and V-ed them. He supported them with his powerful hands and plunged deeply inside of her.
She was trying so hard to be patient, prolonging the sheer pleasure of his sweet friction within her. Their chemistry, the way their bodies fit and hit in all the perfect places, made orgasm most definite. She strained against him trying to resist the urge to make it happen until she could stand it no more. Laura stroked the wet and salty flesh between her legs for his viewing pleasure.
Will worked her thighs in an out rhythmically as he pistoned in and out of her. Both of them hit climax at the same time. Will arched his back causing him to drive more deeply into her. She lowered her legs so she could wrap them around him and hold him until their ecstasy peaked and ebbed. It was the most incredible feeling for her to pulse on him. Both of them driven to keep moving but the rapture of the moment was virtually paralyzing. It was tough to move but tough to not experience those last spasms of bliss.
Laura sat up and kiss Will who was half doped with the heat of sex. They stayed connected for as long as they could until she finally hopped off the table. Laura scurried to her bedroom to the master bath to quickly freshen up and put on a sexy night shirt before returning to the scene of their passion. Will emerged from the guest bath dressed.
Laura cleared the plates and gathered her clothes strewn in the heat of the moment. Will built a fire in the living room fireplace. He sat before the hearth on the rug and invited her to join him. She sat with his arm around her, her head tucked on his shoulder.
"I know you're tired but I thought this was kind of nice," he said.
"It is," she said. "I might grab a blanket and sleep out here."
With that, Will marched off towards her room. "Be right back," he announced. And he was, with arms filled with pillows and her comforter. "I thought we could both sleep out here?" he said. And then his voice got soft and low. "Would it be okay if I stayed?"
Laura threw her arms around his incredibly broad shoulder. "Yes," whispered. And they snuggled on the early winter night before the warmth and romance of a roaring fire.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Laura decided she would not beg Lucas for her car. She discussed at length with Will the notion of reporting the theft to the police but she didn't quite have it in her to risk him a prison sentence. They even put the discussion before the Knights’ Disciples who unanimously said to turn Lucas in.
"It might be the best thing for him," Will suggested. "I have no problem giving you rides but I don't want to enable him. Besides, did you even clean your stuff out before hand?"
No she hadn't. There was no way to spin it. There was no good argument for not reporting the car. "I'll think about it. I'll do it. I just got to think about when."
"Don't think too long. He may rob someone else. You might have been a baby step crime. Sort of show he was willing. They don't call themselves the Mauraders for nothing."
They shelved the conversation and Will didn't push. It was a strange coincidence that when they went out to dinner, they just happen to bump into Det. Frank Vasquez. He was in the bar area. They said hello on the way to their table. Even though she was resolved she was powerless over her brother's choices, despite his being a minor, she felt sad. It was obvious. Will took her hand in his.
"Nope," she said cheerfully. "I am not going to all of this ruin our evening."
"There you go," Will winked.
Just after they were seated, Will excused himself from the table to the restroom. When he returned to the table, Laura's conscience was getting the better of her. Seeing the detective in the bar was some kind of sign to her that she should in fact turn in her kid brother in. But she didn't have the nerve. Her dilemma must have showed on her face for Will asked her. "What's the matter?"
"I am thinking I should go over to Detective Vasquez and let him know about Lucas and the car," she said guiltily.
"I think you can do that," he answered.
"Why is that?" Laura asked.
"Well he's not there," Will answered. "He was here just for drinks. I was going to ask h
im to join us but he wasn't there."
Laura took a deep breath. "Okay, well…I'll call him first thing in the morning then. I can't sit on this anymore."
Will covered her hand with his. "Good girl. I think it's for the best. It's really doing Lucas a favor."
"A favor?" Laura asked half-heartedly. "By sending him to prison with people who are worse than gang members? Talk about a rock and a hard place."
"I'd like two minutes with Lucas right now." Will shook his head.
"Why’s that?" Laura asked, confused by his remark.
"Forgive me for saying so, baby, but he's a little jerk for putting you in this position. If he only knew how hard all this is on you."
"I only hope he survives long enough to grow up to realize it. If he gets past all of this and changes his ways, I can forgive him," she said.
Disciple: Knights Disciples MC Page 10
