Biker romance book bundl.., p.357
Biker Romance Book Bundle: 17 Full Length Novels, page 357
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He looked at me. “It wasn’t that way with them. They were both cool. Much better than my parents, that’s for sure. His grandmother baked cookies all the time, and that’d get us over there after school. Half the time we’d all eat dinner there. Five of us. Right before our freshmen year, his grandmother died. Breast cancer. It crushed all of us. She wasn’t just his grandmother, she was our grandmother.”
“That’s sad that she died,” I said. “But it’s sweet you all looked at her that way.”
He nodded and then shifted his gaze to the ceiling. “Well, we made it to our senior year, and his mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. They said it wasn’t that bad, but halfway through our senior year, she died.”
“Oh my gosh,” I gasped. “He didn’t tell me that.”
“He didn’t like talking about it,” he said. “None of us did. We all came from pretty fucked up homes, and not all of us had parents. Good parents, anyway. She was the closest thing to a mother some of us had.”
“That’s so sad. For all of you.”
“So, the funeral.” He let out a sigh. “Cash’s mom went. Tito’s mom went. Baker’s aunt went. Out of respect, of course. My parents said they were coming. The night before the funeral, I’d stayed all night with Ghost. It wasn’t an easy time for him, you know. So, the next day, we went to the funeral. My parents didn’t show. Afterward, I had Ghost drive me by the tavern. They were in there, drunker than a couple of fuckin’ monkeys. They got sloshed instead of paying their respects to a woman we all loved and respected. That was the last straw for me. It was disrespectful, and embarrassing. I decided that was the last time they were going to make me feel like shit, and it was.”
I knew a little about the poor decisions that drunks made. It was time I tell Goose a little more about my father.
“I never reached that point with my father,” I said. “Where I gave up, that is.”
“What do you mean?”
It was my turn to stare at the ceiling for a while.
Admitting the truth wasn’t an easy thing to do. Luckily, there was only one person I trusted with my heart, so there was only one person for me to tell. Considering the story of what his parents had done, it was easy to convince myself that he’d understand.
“My father died from cirrhosis of the liver,” I admitted. “He drank himself to death.”
It was difficult to believe that the man I’d earlier claimed was my hero was a drunk. A drunk that was so deep in his addiction that he drank himself through four stages of cirrhosis, and to death.
“Oh, shit. I just assumed…I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. Me, too. Before he got sick, his hands shook really bad if he went any period of time without a drink. That’s why he taught me to crack safes. He could not hold still enough to do it himself. He lost his touch. I started doing it at his place of business when I was a teenager. Then, one night when he was drunk, he told me why he really did it.”
“Damn. At least you guys were close until the end, though.” He rolled onto his side. “You were, right?”
“He was pretty much my only friend,” I said. “That doesn’t mean I didn’t get frustrated with him. He did dumb stuff. He said dumb stuff. But, I knew it wasn’t really him. It was a drunken version of him. I’ve heard people say if you get a drunken asshole to sober up, you’re left with an asshole. Well, my father was a good guy. So, when he was drunk, he was a pretty good drunken guy.” I laughed. “Most of the time.”
“Sounds like you guys maintained a good relationship.”
“We did,” I said. “That’s the point I was going to make. We maintained a good relationship despite him making a butt-load of bad decisions. I’m not telling you what to do, but I’ll suggest that it’s been eighteen years. That’s a long, long time.”
“Not going to happen,” he said. “I’ve got my life, and they’ve got theirs. There’s no sense in me giving them a chance to do something to hurt me again.”
“So, if someone disrespects you, you’re done with them?”
“If someone does it repeatedly,” he said. “Absolutely. I write them off.”
I didn’t know his parents, and I couldn’t pretend to know the grief that they’d put him thorough. I could do my best to cause him to consider giving them a chance to make amends, though.
“Using that logic,” I reasoned. “I should just walk away from the club now.”
He sat up. “What are you talking about?”
“Not what,” I said. “Who.”
Then, at the same time, we both said his name.
“Cash.”
152
Goose
We were called to Baker’s office for an impromptu Monday morning meeting. While Reno, Tito, Cash and I were gathered around Baker’s desk, Ally admired the view from the third-floor window.
“I’ve cut each of you a check through the LLC.” Baker said as he began passing out envelopes. “I know the holidays are a few months past, but I called it a Holiday Bonus. Just keeping everything legit.”
Cash snatched his pocket knife from his jeans and cut the envelope open before Baker passed out the last one.
“Fifty g’s,” Cash said, slapping the check against his open palm. “That’s what I’m fucking talking about.”
I folded my envelope and put it in my back pocket.
“What’d you get?” Cash asked.
“I’m sure it’s the same as yours?”
“You ain’t gonna look at it?”
“I’ll see it when I take it to the bank.”
Dressed in jeans, sneakers and a tee shirt, Ally was seated along the window’s ledge, just taking it all in. With her hair in a ponytail and wearing her new choice of attire, she looked much different than she did in the dresses and sneakers that I ‘d become accustomed to.
Hell, she could wear anything and look good in it. As I watched her watching us, I felt that she was being ostracized. Sadly, the only person in the room that hadn’t accepted her was Cash.
He noticed me looking at her and glanced in her direction. “She better not get the same amount we did.”
I balled my fists. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
He looked me up and down quickly before giving me a dismissive wave of his hand. “You better grow up before you bow up, motherfucker.”
I puffed my chest and put my nose mere inches from his. “I mean it, Cash,” I said through my teeth. “I’m done with your bullshit.”
“Really, motherfucker? You’re going to let a bitch get between us?” he asked. “After all we’ve been—”
I swung my right fist into his chin with all my might. I followed with a left hook to his temple that I’d been wanting to swing for fifteen years. The first punch obviously caught him unprepared. The second took every bit of remaining wind from his sails.
He fell to the floor like a sack of shit.
“What in the fuck is going on?” Baker howled. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
Fuming with anger and brimming with adrenaline, I loomed over Cash, waiting for him to stir.
“Holy shit,” Reno gasped.
I glared down at his motionless body. “He needed it.”
“Been needing it for a while,” Tito whispered.
Baker bent down and removed Cash’s pistol from his waistband. “Sure as fuck don’t need him pulling this out.” He handed Tito the gun. “Put this somewhere.” He unclipped Cash’s knife from his pocket and held it in the air. “This too.”
Tito took the knife and gun to the other side of the office.
Baker looked at me and shook his head. “Want to tell me what happened?”
“He got what he deserved.”
“Is there something I need to know about?” Baker asked.
I shrugged. “If you don’t know about it by now, I guess not.”
He scowled. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means Cash has had a big mouth for a long, long time, and I’m fucking tired of it. He can either learn to control it, or you’ll all have to get used to me reminding him that I’m not going to listen to it anymore.”
“What did he say?” Baker asked.
There was an unwritten rule amongst bikers. One biker didn’t disrespect another biker’s Ol’ Lady. If he did, there was hell to pay.
Some of the things Cash said to Ally were on the cusp of crossing that line. I’d let them slide, knowing—or at least hoping—that they were comments made without ill intentions. His most recent remark couldn’t be construed as being anything other than what it was.
Disrespectful to Ally, and to me. He’d disrespected all of the men at some point in time, me included. I wasn’t about to let him disrespect Ally, though. Not now, or ever.
“Remember Cash and Reno at the barbeque?” I asked, making reference to Cash whipping Reno’s ass over a disrespectful remark Reno made about Kimberly, who was Cash’s Ol’ Lady.
As Cash began to stir, Baker responded. “Sure do.”
“It was a similar deal,” I muttered.
“There’s one difference,” Baker argued. “A big difference.”
Still angry beyond belief, I glared at him, not really caring to hear his opinion. At least not at that moment.
“What?” I snapped. “What’s this big difference?”
“She’s not officially your Ol’ Lady,” he said. “If she is, you’re going to need make sure everyone knows it, including her.”
153
Ally
I had my suspicions about why Goose knocked Cash on his ass, but I knew nothing for sure. If he didn’t say something soon, I was going to start prying.
I put the mayonnaise in the fridge, carried my plate to the island, and sat down across from him. I picked up my sandwich and paused. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”
Sipping his coffee, he lowered the cup just enough to speak over it. “Sooner or later.”
“The sooner is long gone,” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, when I asked on the elevator, you said I don’t want to talk about it. When we got to the basement, you didn’t say want to talk about it. Now, we’re here, and you haven’t said shit the entire time it took me to make a sandwich. So, the sooner is gone. We’re on the later. Spill your guts, dude.”
“I want to talk about our relationship,” he said.
“Good, me too.” I took a bite of the sandwich. “Tell me what happened first.”
“Relationship first,” he said.
“Fuck it. If that’s how you’ve got to do it, fine.” I took another bite. “Relationship. Go.”
“You go first.”
I laughed. “You’re the one that started this. Now, suddenly, you’re afraid to talk?”
His gaze lowered to his coffee cup. Obviously troubled by whatever it was he intended to say, he peered into it long enough that I became anxious. I wondered if he shared my feelings about the problems that had developed recently.
He stood and turned toward the counter. “Kind of.”
“Do you want me to talk about our relationship?” I asked. “My thoughts on it?”
“Sure.”
I hated that word. Sure. Not quite a yes. Not a no. Somewhere in between. I bit the sandwich and rolled my eyes.
I swallowed the food and began my no-holds-barred explanation. “When we started this, it was us meeting at the diner. That was kind of cool and nostalgic or whatever. When it came to sex, I flirted, and you didn’t react. Then, one night, you reacted. We boned. It was great. You eventually invited me here. That was a big step—for me, anyway. We had sex in a real bed and I didn’t have to leave before the ten o’clock checkout time. You asked me to stay for a few days. We had more sex. You cooked meals. We had sex in the kitchen. You said I could stay as long as I wanted to.”
I put my sandwich down and turned my stool to face him. “That’s progress. Measurable progress. I liked that. I can look at it and see things started one way and eventually turned into something else. Don’t get me wrong, I was okay with how it was in the beginning. Seeing that progress kind of excited me, though. Then, the wheels fell off.”
Fresh coffee cup in hand, he faced me. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve never heard that phrase?”
“I’ve heard it, yeah.” He sat down. “But what do you mean, the wheels fell off? What happened?”
“I mean the fucking wheels fell off. You introduced me to the club. Your little bearded boss is cool, and everything. Everyone else is okay, except for you-know-who. But you-know-who is causing a lot of tension. That tension carries through to our relationship. If that’s what being in the club is going to be like, it’s not for me. We bring that shit home with us. And, that’s exactly what it is. Shit.”
“The club really needs you.”
“Well.” I reached for my sandwich. “I don’t need the club. I was fine flying solo. I’ll be fine flying solo. I’m used to it. I’m good at it. If that’s what it takes to save us, that’s what I’ll do”
As if the coffee held the answers to our woes, he gazed into the cup with glazed eyes.
“I don’t want you to fly solo,” he said, looking up as he spoke. “I want this to work out. All of it.”
“Why?”
“Because seeing you work makes me proud of you. Listening to you make suggestions for a job makes me proud. Seeing you stand up for yourself after the bank job convinced me you’re the kind of woman I want to be with. I can’t stand a pushover. You’re not. You’re intelligent, witty, and courageous. That’s what I need in a woman. Well, that and someone I can be honest with. That someone’s you.”
Learning that he’d recognized I was exactly what he wanted caused me to swell with pride. I leaned onto the edge of the counter and looked him in the eyes. “Those things? That’s who I am, not something I’ve done. I’m all those things with or without the club. Working, or retired from work. That’s me. I don’t need the club to be that person for you.”
“I like working with you.”
I leaned away from the counter. “Sounds like you’re making excuses, now.”
“I’m not.”
I picked at my sandwich’s crust. “Sounds like it.”
He set his cup aside. “I’m going to be in that club. It’s part of who I am. I don’t need you in it. If you are, great. If you’re not, the club get by. We’d be much better with you, I know that much. I’d just hate to see you give up.”
He could have said a lot of things. Suggesting that I was giving up wasn’t what I wanted to hear. It hinted at failure. I wasn’t a failure. If walking away from the club was required for me to succeed in life, I’d walk away. I’d succeed. My successes, however, wouldn’t be club related.
“Maybe I didn’t do a good job of explaining myself,” I said. “Let me rephrase it. Right now, nothing’s more important to me than making sure whatever it is that you and I have succeeds. Everything else is secondary. The club creates tension. That tension comes home with us. I don’t like it. The tension’s got to stop, or our relationship’s going to suffer. So, either the tension stops, or I walk away from the club.” I did the biker thing and crossed my arms over my chest. “Now, why’d you punch Cash?”
His mouth twisted into a smirk. “To relieve tension.”
“Bullshit. Here’s your second chance,” I said. “Why’d you punch Cash?”
His gaze fell to the coffee cup. “I really don’t want to tell you the specifics.”
“Well. Tough shit, mister. I want to hear them. We’re being honest with each other, remember?”
He looked up, but not at me. He let out a sigh. “He called you a bitch.”
My heart fluttered. Having a man stand up for my honor was flattering. Having Goose stand up to Cash for my honor was heart-warming. “Really? You punched him because he called me a name?”
He nodded. “I did.”
“Thank you.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “You’re not mad?”
“Heck no. I’m flattered.”
“Not at me,” he said. “At him.”
Getting mad at Cash for being a dick was like getting angry at a dog for barking. “No. I’m not mad at him. I’m disappointed. There’s a difference. My point a few minutes ago was this: I don’t have to put up with it. That’s my choice.”
“Understood.”
“Now,” I said. “What did you want to say about our relationship?”
“What do we have right now?” he wagged his finger back and forth, between us. “This. What is it?”
For me to have a man in my life on a permanent basis required a long list of boxes to be checked. Attractive. Fearless. Witty. Willing to stand up for himself. Eager to take risks. Picks up after himself. Decisive. Has hobbies other than going to the bars. Wants me for more than a place to poke his dick. Lastly, but most importantly, he had to accept me for who I really was.
Goose checked them all.
I fell head over heels for Goose the evening that he kissed me on the roof. But, our relationship was nothing more than what it was. Putting a label on it would be impossible.
I looked him in the eyes. “I don’t make assumptions, and we haven’t discussed it, so I’m sure this isn’t what you want to hear.”
His face washed with worry. “Go ahead.”
I drew a breath of hope. “Well, we became friends, I guess. We had sex. You invited me to sleep here. I agreed. So, I guess I’m kind of a convenient piece of ass.”
His eyes went wide. “That’s what you think you are?”
I laughed. “It’s what I am.”
He scowled. “You’re more than that to me.”
I was elated that he felt I was more than a convenient piece of ass. I liked thinking I was more than that, but he’d said nothing to lead me to believe otherwise. In the absence of that declaration, I was left to make my own decisions about what it was that we had.
