Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 52357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 262(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 262(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
“Thanks for picking me up, Justin.”
“No problem.” I don’t actually know what to say. I don’t want to be the dick that says I really didn’t have a choice. BW issued the order and he’s fully patched now, just in the last couple of months actually. I’m not going to question his order. I don’t dare risk my final rocker over a ride.
“Most prospects aren’t this relaxed when they pull ‘Dia Duty’ to grab me.”
“I’m not most prospects.”
She studies me, eyes laser focused as she seems to be sobering up. “No, Justin, you’re not like any other man.”
We sit in silence as she takes me in. I don’t avoid her stare and I find I’m comfortable with her even without saying a word.
“Do you like it?”
“Do I like what?” I run my hands over my thighs, the denim of my jeans against my palms. “Being a prospect?”
She nods.
I laugh, “Darlin’ no one likes being a prospect. Do you like it? Growing up in it?”
She smiles proudly. “It’s all I know. I can’t imagine life any other way. People hear the words motorcycle club or Hellion, they make assumptions. It pisses me off. Guns, drugs, whores, trouble. In school some people wouldn’t let me come to their houses because of who my dad is.”
“Their loss, missing out on you.”
She pulls her tangled hair up into a messy bun using a hair tie on her wrist, but continues on her ramble. “There is so much more to club life. As a brother, it’s loyalty, it’s family. As a female, it’s about unity. We are a community that sticks together through the good and the bad times. The world is an ugly place, I’ll take the Hellions all day over sorting life outside of it. That’s my family thick and thin.”
Our conversation flows easily and before I know it, the clock reads 4:13 and she’s half-asleep beside me on her couch.
“I should go,” I whisper softly.
Her eyes flutter, “you don’t have to.”
Oh, yes, I do. The longer I stay, the more the lines blur. She’s eighteen. I’m twenty-three. I’m a prospect in a club that her dad leads. She is the kind of woman people protect from guys like me, not the kind who stay up and talk until dawn with.
However, I don’t move. “You ever been on a real ride?”
She seems to wake up at that questions. “Wide open, free?”
I nod.
She shakes her head. “Tonight, maybe. With you, it’s the closest I’ve ever had.”
“No, a ride without a destination. No purpose. Just open air, miles, and opportunity.”
She smiles slow, in a sleepy daze, “that sounds perfect.”
Without thinking, I reply, “maybe I’ll take you sometime.”
She smirks, “Yeah, maybe you should.”
And just like that, we’re something. We aren’t quite friends, no longer strangers. Not something that can be defined or explained.
We are something.
ONE
TOON
In the face of adversity stand tall and roar like a grizzly bear in the wild.
Catawba, North Carolina. My home. Double sits beside me at the bar nursing a Corona longneck bottle looking like a sad puppy. It’s not a good look. His road-name is Double because he’s literally a double take of his dad, Drexel “Rex” Crews. Rex is the Catawba Hellions President and overall one crazy motherfucker. Double, on the other hand is softer, but still lethal. The man is Rex’s son by blood, and our VP Shooter’s step-son. They have this weird family dynamic that works, but none of them are men I want to cross.
“Damn, it ain’t that bad,” I mutter taking a long pull of my beer. “It’s a girl’s trip. They will be back in a few days.”
Axel “Double” Crews slaps my shoulder playfully. “You ain’t been wrapped tight yet. One day, though, it’s gonna happen. A woman will come along and knock that cocky smirk right off your face. When she’s in the room, you won’t be able to be close enough. Like a fuckin’ man starved you won’t be able to taste enough of her. And like an inmate in prison, she leaves, you’ll feel like you’re locked in a fucking box.”
“So poetic,” I joke even though inside I feel every bit of what he’s describing. “Yesnia know you got it this bad?”
He smiles with pride, “damn straight she does. I’m not ashamed of loving my lady.”
I don’t share with him that I already know what it is to feel boxed in from missing a female. Catawba, once my sanctuary now my personal, private jail. I gave myself a life sentence here. Not that I will share any of it with any of them. This is my burden to carry alone.
My brothers, absolutely they are family. Some days this club is the only reason I have to wake up. Double sits to my right, his younger brother Little Foot to my left. Hawk is on the other side of Double with Rex and Shooter, our club president and VP at the end of the bar. Apparently this weekend was dubbed “girl’s weekend, no men allowed” and every one of these fools is beside himself to be without their women.