Three bags of chips, four candy bars, and two big drinks later and Mayra still wasn’t out of the bathroom.
“You see a girl go into the bathroom?” I asked the clerk.
They guy shook his head. “I saw her, but she didn’t go into the bathroom. She asked me if there was a back way out.”
“A back way out?” I repeated.
“Yeah. That’s all she said. I told her back by the bathrooms was a back entrance.”
I left the bag and drinks sitting on the counter and stalked back to the bathroom. I barged into the women’s and looked in each stall. “Fuck,” I growled.
Mayra had taken off.
*
Mayra
This was not my best idea.
My shirt was plastered to my body by the blowing rain, and I was chilled to the bone.
I had no clue where the hell we were and not one single car had passed me yet.
Hitchhiking to the bus stop seemed like a good idea while I pretended to sleep in the truck, but now I was seeing all of the flaws.
“You’re an idiot, Mayra,” I chattered. I had been walking for about fifteen minutes and was praying for a bus stop to magically appear.
Instead, I heard the roar of an engine behind me and turned around hopefully. I knew hitchhiking was not the brightest idea, but I planned on only getting in a car with a woman and keep my hand on the door handle the whole time.
“Oh, hell no.” The car came closer, and, of course, it was Boink.
How in the heck had he found me? I had taken off down a road that was behind the gas station and figured by the time he noticed I was gone, he wouldn’t be able to find me.
I was obviously wrong.
“What in the hell are you doing?” he shouted through the open window.
“Go away, Boink!” I shouted. I continued my walk down the side of the road, hoping he would take the hint that I didn’t want to go with him. He was upset that he had been banished from the clubhouse because of me. Well, if I disappeared, he could go back to the clubhouse.
“Mayra, get in the fucking truck! It’s a goddamn monsoon out here.” He followed next to me and crept closer to the edge of the road.
I stomped down into the muddy shoulder and forged on. “It’s raining?” I hollered. “I didn't notice. Maybe you should roll up your window so your truck doesn't get wet.” I may have been doubting my choice to hitchhike minutes ago, but I was not going to get into his truck.
No way, no how.
“Mayra, you’re acting crazy. Get in the truck!”
I shook my head and double-timed my walking. I knew I couldn’t out-run him, but if I didn’t stop, hopefully someone would drive by and think he was harassing me or something.
“For fuck’s sake.” He gunned the truck, got about twenty feet in front of me, and veered into the shoulder.
“Shit!” I squeaked.
The driver’s side door opened, and I spun around as his feet hit the road.
“God dammit, woman,” he yelled.
I glanced over my shoulder to see him rounding the back of the truck with a scowl on his face.
Now he was even more pissed off than he was when we had left the clubhouse. Shit.
I ran.
My worn Chucks slipped on the wet pavement, and I curled my toes, praying to get better traction. My head swiveled to glimpse him now full-on running to catch me. My feet sputtered on the road, and I felt my shitty shoes slip out from under me.
I landed on my ass with a wet thump, and I rocked back, cracking my head on the pavement. “Ugh,” I grunted. That was going to leave a mark.
My brain yelled at me to get up and keep running, but my sore ass protested, and I clamped my eyes shut to silence the pain coursing through my head.
“Fuck, Mayra.” Boink appeared over me. “Are you okay?”
I opened my mouth to talk to him but realized there were two of him. “Which one of you asked me that?”
“What in the hell are you talking about, woman?” He crouched down next to me and grabbed my hand. He hauled me up to sit and put an arm behind my back.
“It’s raining,” I mumbled incoherently.
“I noticed.” He scooped me up into his arms and headed back toward the truck. “I wanna look at your head. You smacked the hell out of it when you fell.”
“Still attached,” I sang out. I sank into the warmth of his body and closed my eyes. “A bit swirly though,” I mumbled.
“Keep your eyes open for me, M-baby.”
“I like that much better than woman,” I sighed.
He held me close to his body and opened the door to the truck. “Sit here, don’t move.” He set me down, made sure my legs were in the truck, and slammed the door.
I winced when I tried to reach for my seat belt and wondered if Boink would let me lie down in the back.
“What are you doing?” Boink demanded. He had opened the driver’s door and pulled himself up into the truck.
I tried once more to grab the seat belt. “Buckling up,” I whimpered.
He reached over and grabbed my arm. “We’re not going anywhere until I take a look at your head.”
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back. “I’m fine. Just a little bump.”
“Can you sit forward?” he asked.
I looked over at him. “I just sat back.”
“And now I want you to sit forward so I can check your head.”
He was so freaking demanding. Did he not realize I had just busted my ass in the middle of the road? He could be a little bit more understanding of my sore bottom side. A groan escaped my lips as I leaned forward. “I am so going to feel this in the morning.”
“I think you’re feeling it right now, M-baby.” He leaned across the center console and gently ran his fingers through my hair. “Shit, Mayra. You got a huge fucking bump on the back of your head.”
I slowly leaned back against the seat. Boink’s face was right next to mine, and he watched me closely. “Let me out of the truck and you won’t have to worry about that huge freaking bump.”
“We’re not even going to talk about how stupid it was for you to take off in the middle of a rain storm. I don’t know what the hell you were thinking.”
“I was thinking that you were better off with me gone.” I closed my eyes and sighed. “Just open the door and push me out. I’ll tuck and roll.” Something brushed against my cheek, and I cracked open one eye to see Boink still leaning into me. His fingers stroked my cheek, and the anger he had in his eyes had dissipated, replaced with the concern.
“Don’t fall asleep. I’m worried you might have a concussion. Are you tired?”
I shook my head and instantly regretted it. “Not tired. Just a headache.”
“I bet,” he mumbled. “We need to find a place to stay for the night.”
“You need to find a place for yourself. I need to get to the bus stop.”
“You’re not going anywhere, Mayra.”
I closed my eyes. “I need to. All I’m doing is causing problems for you. Let me go and you can go back to whatever it was that you were doing before.” It was such an easy solution that would fix everything.
“Not happening. I don’t want anyone to get hurt and that includes you.”
“Too late,” I croaked. My ass was broke, and my head was split in half.
“Anymore,” he clarified.
“I really don’t have it in me to fight you right now, Boink. Just let me go.”
I felt him press against me, and the sound of the seat belt clicking. “Not letting you go, and since you knocked yourself out, I don’t have to worry about you trying to escape again.”
“Ugh, you’re passing up a good opportunity here, Boinky.”
“Boinky?” he chuckled.
Argh. I didn’t even know why I called him that. The pounding in my head was messing up my thoughts. “Maybe I should just take a nap.”
“Nope.”
I felt him move away and heard him shift the t
ruck. “I saw a motel a couple miles back. We’re getting a room there for the night until I know that you’re okay.”
“I’m fine, Boink. There’s no reason to waste money on room for the night.”
“It’s not wasting money.”
I opened one eye and saw we were headed back in the direction of the gas station. There wasn’t any point in arguing with Boink. He wasn’t listening to me. “This is all your fault.”
“Say what?”
“It’s your fault. I never would have fallen if you wouldn’t have chased after me.” I opened both eyes and sat up.
He glanced over at me. “If you wouldn’t have taken off in the middle of a rain storm, I wouldn’t have had to chase after you.”
“This is not my fault at all. All I was trying to do was get out of your hair.”
“You’re not in my hair, Mayra.”
“Mmhmm,” I hummed. That was why he acted like a dick to me before, because I wasn’t a burden to him?
“Look, things are complicated right now, Mayra, and adding in your troubles with the Banachi’s was not something any of us saw coming.”
“Well,” I drawled, “it wasn’t something I expected to happen either, but yet, here I am.”
He sighed, and I closed my eyes again. “Let’s just get a room for the night and we’ll finish the drive tomorrow.”
“Isn’t Wrecker going to be mad that we’re stopping and not driving straight through?” I asked.
“What Wrecker doesn’t know won’t piss him off.”
That sounded like a sure-fire way for him to piss off Wrecker even more, but I knew that my opinion didn’t matter when it came to the club. “You’re the boss,” I muttered.
We drove past the gas station where I had made my mistake then turned into a small town that boasted having a twenty-room motel.
Boink parked in front of the motel that was painted pale blue and shifted the truck into park. “Can I trust you to stay here while I check us in?”
I lamely waved my hand. “Pretty sure I can’t even get out of the truck under my own power right now so you’re good to go. Scout’s honor, I’m not going anywhere.”
He wearily looked me up and down, then got out of the truck.
I must have truly looked pathetic since he so easily agreed to leave me alone not even an hour after my escape attempt. As much I thought I should try to take off again, I knew that I wouldn’t make it down the sidewalk before Boink caught up to me.
I closed my eyes for a quick second and jumped when my door swung open.
“No sleeping.”
“What?” I croaked. “I wasn’t sleeping.”
“M-baby, you were sleeping. I knocked on the window, and you didn’t even budge. You can’t sleep with a concussion.” He leaned into the truck and slipped his arm under my legs. “Can you put your arm across my shoulders?”
I honestly didn’t know what I was capable of at the moment. I gingerly put my arm over his shoulders, and he slipped his arm behind my back.
“Hold on, Mayra. I’ll have you in bed in no time.”
Under normal circumstances, those would have been some hot words coming out of Boink’s mouth, but I knew he didn’t mean them in the sexy time way at all. “You sure do know how to sweep a girl off of her feet,” I joked.
“You did a pretty good job of that yourself when you went airborne in the middle of the road,” he chuckled.
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” I moaned. He lifted me out of the truck and pushed the door shut with his hip. “I got a room on the end away from all of the other guests.”
“And why is that?” He stepped up onto the sidewalk, and I moaned as he adjusted me in his arms.
“For that reason right there. You’re gonna be doing a lot of moaning tonight, and I don’t want anyone to think I’m beating you or something.” He walked to the end of the long building and stopped at the last door.
“I don’t think that would be a problem seeing as we’re the only car in the parking lot.”
“Just being safe.”
“Key?” I asked.
“Pocket of my shirt. Can you get it?”
I reached in and pulled a single key out. “Lord. How old is this place?”
“I don’t care as long as there is a bed, and a warm shower.”
I had to agree with him, although I wasn’t sure I would be able to take advantage of the warm shower.
Boink managed to crouch down enough for me to get the key into the door, and then he pushed it open. He kept the door open to shine light into the room and walked over to the bed. He laid me down, and a loud moan escaped my lips as my butt touched the bed. “Holy smoked salmon,” I panted. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to sit down again in my life.”
He rolled me over onto my side, and I sighed in relief. “Better?” he asked.
“Much.” My ass was still sore, but at least I wasn’t putting all my weight onto it.
“I’m gonna grab the bags out of the truck and figure out what to eat for dinner.”
“A bottle of Tylenol and a bottle of water will do for me.” Thankfully, Boink had laid me on the side of the bed that I was still able to see the rest of the room and not just a wall.
He grabbed the TV remote and turned it on. “Anything you want watch while I’m gone?”
“Sure you don’t need to chain me to the bed while you’re gone?”
He shook his head and flipped through the channels. “For the next couple of days, I know you’re not going to be able to make an escape so no chains for the time being.”
“What happens after a couple of days?”
He winked at me. “You’ll just have to wait and see, M-baby.”
I rolled my eyes. “Shouldn’t you be fetching my bag and a bottle of pills?”
He flipped the channel a couple more times then stopped on the Food Network channel. “This okay?”
I had plans of falling asleep within two minutes of him leaving the room so it didn’t matter what he put on. “That’ll do.”
“Get comfy but don’t fall asleep.” He set down the remote and looked down at me. “Anything else you need?”
“Maybe some chicken nuggets?” I may want a bottle of pills to numb my pain, but I also knew I needed to get some food in my stomach.
“Pills, water, and nuggets. I think I can make all of that happen.” He walked out the door and closed it behind him.
I watched a chef try to beat Bobby Flay for about two minutes before I felt my eyes flutter. My ass hurt, my head was pounding, and the only thing that seemed like a good idea was taking a nap.
I closed my eyes and sighed. Boink told me I wasn’t allowed to sleep, but it was the only thing that made sense right now.
If I slept, I wouldn’t feel my butt hurt or my head pound.
Screw Boink.
Sleep won.
*
Chapter Seven
Boink
For the past two hours, I had watched her chest rise up and down and woken her three times. Each time I woke her, she would look up at me with glassy eyes and smile. I was ninety percent sure she had a concussion and I was going to have to keep waking her up every hour ‘til morning.
It was going to be a long fucking night, and it was only eight o’clock.
“Why are you staring at me?”
“How do you know I’m staring at you? Your eyes aren’t even open,” I asked.
“I can feel it,” she mumbled. “Also, why are you in bed with me?”
“‘Cause it’s the only place to sit.” There were two chairs next to the table by the air conditioner, but after trying to sit in them for an hour, I had given up. The bed wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was better than the rock-hard chairs.
“Did you bring me nuggets?”
“Sure did.”
“What about the Tylenol?”
“Over on the counter.”
She moaned and lifted her arm. “Bathroom, pills, nuggets.”
> “Can you make it to the bathroom?”
“Just get me standing.”
I didn’t think she was going to be able to make it on her own. “How about I get you in the bathroom, and then you can try to do your business.”
“Fine,” she whined. “Just do it now.”
I rolled off the bed, walked to the side she was on, and gingerly lifted her up into my arms. She whimpered and curled herself into my chest. “How does my whole body hurt?” she moaned.
Going airborne and then landing on hard pavement was exactly why her whole body hurt, but she already knew that. I had left the bathroom door open and was able to maneuver her inside. I set her down on her feet, and she thankfully didn’t crumple into a pile on the floor. “You need anything else from me?”
Her eyes were squeezed shut and she shook her head. “No. Go.”
I knew she didn’t have much time before she fell over so I made sure she was stable, then slipped out the door.
Thirty seconds later, after a shit-ton of moaning, she called for me. “Boink. I need you to come in, but you have to keep your eyes shut.”
“Mayra. How am I supposed to keep my eyes shut and help you?”
She moaned again. “Because I can’t get off of the toilet, and my pants are around my ankles.”
“I’m not going to close my eyes.”
“Then just leave me here to die because I will not let you see me sitting on the toilet.”
“Are you all done, well…taking care of business?”
“Yeah,” she said meekly.
I twisted the door handle and pushed open the door. “Boink,” she screeched. “Get the heck out of here.”
I scooped her off the toilet, set her on her feet for two seconds, pulled her underwear up, and her pants off. “You won’t be needing those anymore tonight.”
“Boink, you better put my pants back on.”
“Not happening.” I hoisted her back up into my arms and stalked back toward the bed.
“I didn’t wash my hands,” she protested.
I laid her down on her side, fluffed the pillow under her head, and walked back into the bathroom. “Don’t move,” I called.
“No chance of that happening,” she said meekly.
Boink (Fallen Lords MC Book 5) Page 4
