Scenic Route Page 7

  There would be a swimming pool, a skate park, playground, and several small cottages on the property, too. Jenna went on to explain that a few members had teenagers who liked skateboarding and that Spencer had nearly gone pro with his skating and now, a charity the brotherhood had established called Biker Big Bros, was started in memory of a recently killed member, Luke “Lick” Hanson, that matched boys who either had gotten in legal trouble, or who had experienced loss of their fathers related to motorcycle accidents, so they’d have good male role models.

  This surprised and impressed me, until I caught Jenna’s expression and realized what she was doing.

  She was trying to sell me on Spencer. I gave her a narrow-eyed look, earning me her signature innocent ‘what?’ expression. This earned her an eyeroll from me.

  We headed inside and were greeted by Bronto, our assigned Dominion Brotherhood prospect for the evening.

  Things had been quiet with the remaining Wyld Jackals sticking to their patch in Ipswich the last few months, but I knew Rider wasn’t convinced the drama was over and a girlie night typically meant we got assigned a prospect to do the driving, fetching, and protecting. The Wyld Jackals’ local chapter’s president, Gordino, was someone that couldn’t be trusted. Their Sioux Falls president, Mantis, was in hiding and was being sought out by all the Doms for the brutal rape and murder in the Fall of a Dominion Brotherhood Sioux Falls member’s woman.

  That score had yet to be settled, and Jenna had said it would all be heating up soon, as something was in the works for getting them patched over. I knew very little about biker politics; I just hoped all my friends and their men stayed safe.

  Bronto, whose real name is Ted, is a tall, wide ginger-haired bearded biker-in-training. He’s around my age (I’m twenty-three) and he has a crush on me.

  He looks at me with stars in his puppy-dog eyes. When Jenna and Rider first met, and she had to have a 24/7 bodyguard due to all kinds of drama, Bronto had been around a lot. He did a bad job of hiding his crush on me. But, it was harmless and not terrible for my ego. I did nothing to stoke that fire, though. He was never lewd or disrespectful or anything like that. But, even Joe had noticed the way he looked at me and had made a few jokes about it.

  Bronto had been working out and had taken at least 20-30 pounds off since I met him, and Joe joked that he’d take off another fifty and get buff to try to steal me.

  I suspected Bronto would jump at the first opportunity, if I so much as batted eyelashes at him. I wouldn’t. Being single for the past month was what I needed. I suspected I could be single for another year or two and still feel like it was what I needed.

  I hadn’t seen him since I got hurt, and as we walked in, I saw a look on his face as he looked at me that I was absolutely shocked to see. Never anything other than jolly, smiling, laughing, Bronto looked like a different person. Angry. Hardened. His eyes, usually smiling and filled with light, looked cold and angry.

  He held the door open. Andie and Lulu went ahead.

  “Bront,” Jenna, ahead of me greeted, fake punching him. He didn’t react like he usually did, which would be to grab the opposite arm in mock pain. This time, he didn’t react at all and his eyes were fixed on me.

  I was the last one in.

  “Hiya,” I said softly.

  His lip curled, and my heart skipped a beat.

  “Hey,” he said belatedly. Angrily.

  I moved to a table near the bar where the girls sat and within a minute, Little John, the big, older giant dancing biker bartender (yes, he constantly tried to dance with us) came over with a tray of drinks.

  A cosmo filled with cherries for Jenna. A Bellini for Andie. A beer for Lulu. And a rum and Coke with lime for me. I switched between rum and Coke (when I only wanted one or two) and screwdrivers (when I wanted to tie one on) or sometimes I’d drink Jack Daniels and ginger ale (usually if I was in a bad mood or had a rough day, though I tried not to drink out of a bad mood often). Little John had accurately assessed my beverage preference today.

  We’d been coming in regularly since Deke’s Roadhouse had reopened and Jenna and Ella started dating the two Dom brothers six months previous, so all the regulars knew who we were. He evidently knew we were coming, too, by how fast our drinks got delivered. The Roadhouse had wait staff, but Little John had delivered those himself, which I’d never seen him do before.

  After my drink (the last on the tray) was put in front of me, he put his big hand on the back of my head and gave me a smile. No one else got that. I didn’t get this the last time I was in, either.

  Word had gotten around. Shit. This did not make me happy.

  No. Beyond that, I hated it. I gave Jenna a look after he ambled back over to the bar.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “How come everyone is being weird with me? I was here a few weeks ago and they weren’t like this.”

  Jenna bit her lip.

  “What?” I asked.

  “There was a meeting,” she said, shifting uncomfortably. “When they found out Joe got out of rehab.”

  “A meeting?” I tried to confirm.

  “Yeah. Not sure of the details, but I think Spencer either called a meeting about you or added you to the agenda of the last Doms church session.”

  And there he was, speak of the devil, sauntering over from the bar. He was wearing a navy-blue button-down shirt that stretched across his broad chest, straining at his biceps, rolled up to his elbows, showing off his corded forearms.

  Lulu hopped up from her seat beside me and headed toward the bar, excitedly. My eyes followed her, and I saw she approached her sister, Lola, at the bar with another girl.

  They were all eyeballing Spencer as he walked toward us, all lustfully. His shirt was half unbuttoned. He wore dark-wash jeans and motorcycle boots. He had a beer bottle neck between his fingers as he sauntered over. He sat in the seat beside me that Lulu had vacated.

  “Girls,” he greeted everyone.

  “Hey Spencer,” Andie and Jenna greeted in unison.

  My eyes were on him. And on my face was a scowl.

  His eyes moved over my face and he raised his eyebrows in question.

  “You called a meeting about me?” I asked softly, menacingly.

  He blinked in surprise. “Not exactly.”

  “Not exactly? You think maybe you maybe should’ve asked me first if I was okay with you talking about me?” I snapped.

  He blinked again and flexed his jaw muscles.

  “Everyone is looking at me funny, Spencer. I didn’t want all of that spread around.” I folded my arms across my chest.

  Jenna winced and grabbed Andie’s hand and they moved over to the bar with Lulu, Lola, and Lola’s friend, giving us privacy. Bronto stayed put and I glanced at him and saw his eyes were hard.

  Spencer leaned in and tucked my hair behind my ear. I recoiled. Spencer gave Bronto a look that said, “Get lost.”

  Bronto looked at Spencer as if he was a bull getting ready to charge a matador.

  “Go,” Spencer ordered, “Give us a minute.”

  The angry redheaded and red-faced biker glared some more, then moved to the bar beside where the girls were congregated, though his eyes remained on us. Jenna was watching, doing a poor job of trying to pretend like she wasn’t.

  Spencer looked at Bronto with irritation for a second.

  “Spencer!” I hissed.

  His gaze swung to me. “It’s only brothers that were there, babe. Brothers and prospects, and---”

  I glared. “It wasn’t your call.”

  His eyebrows shot up.

  “I didn’t ask you to set up a patrol, to have him followed.” I took a healthy sip of my rum and Coke. “I don’t appreciate everyone knowing my business.”

  He pulled his mouth tight and his eyes were intense on me. He didn’t speak. So, I kept going.

  “Thanks a fucking bunch for making me feel like a pity case.”

  “Done?” he asked.

  I sneered
at him. “Probably not. I’m probably gonna want to mouth off to you any time someone gives me that look tonight.”

  “That look?”

  “The look like Little John gave me, like he felt sorry for me. The look Bronto gave me like he wanted to go find my ex and crush his bones. The looks I feel burning into me from 360 degrees in here since so many people know what happened to me. That wasn’t yours to share.”

  He took a sip of his beer and then leaned forward. “I’m sorry you’re feelin’ this way. But, it wasn’t me that shared.”

  I stared, trying to shoot daggers at him. “Right.”

  He leaned even closer to me. “I was pissed when I found out they let him out. I wanted him to know he wasn’t to get near you.”

  I tilted my head in confusion.

  “I was about to express that when my brothers stopped me. We were in the middle of arguin’ about it when your brother showed up at the garage and asked for a word before he left for Washington. He wanted to see me n’ Ride, to ask us all to keep an eye out while he’s outta town. He shared in front of a bunch of brothers who were at the garage. So, yeah, our regular meeting had you as an agenda item, ‘cuz word was gettin’ around and brothers wanted to know what the fuck your brother was goin’ on about in the garage.”

  I swallowed. He kept talking.

  “So, fast forward to now when he’s been let out and we’ve made no secret of the fact that we’re watching him. When he got picked up from rehab, there was a four-bike escort following the car. No Valentines, no prospects. Other members he doesn’t know and therefore doesn’t know what they’re capable of. He knows we’re watching. He even gets a thought in his head about approaching you, he’ll know he has to get through us.”

  I took a sip of my drink, then spoke, “This isn’t your fight, Spencer. You don’t have a personal stake in it. You and Joe stopped hanging out, so I don’t know why you think you have a right---”

  “I have a right.”

  “Oh yeah? How do you figure? Because my brother asked? My brother had no right.”

  “Disagree there. My sister was in your shoes, I’d have that right. Fuckin’ right, I would. And it’s not just ‘cuz of Phil. I’m the one who found you bleeding, Sunshine.”

  I flinched.

  His eyes were burning into mine. “I’m the one who carried you, bloody, beaten up, unconscious upstairs. I’m the one who saw what that fucker did, saw the motherfuckin’ boot print on your ribs. I’m the one who felt you cower away from me when you woke up not knowing where you were or if he was about to hurt you again. I’m the one who woke you every two hours that endless goddamn night to make sure you were gonna actually wake up after a head injury he fuckin’ inflicted.”

  “And I appreciated all that, I’m sorry you got stuck with me that night, but that doesn’t mean---”

  “To me, it does. I’m not giving him another opportunity to get near you. And I don’t think of it as getting stuck with you, Sunshine. At all.”

  “You think he’ll attack me?”

  He shrugged.

  “You think I’ll be stupid enough to take him back?”

  He stared at me with intensity. Familiar intensity, familiar as in the same vibe I got from Deacon the other day.

  “I’m not taking him back.”

  “Good. Just don’t want him near you. He doesn’t deserve to set eyes on you. He gave you up when he took his fists and his fuckin’ boots to you.”

  “Don’t want him near me because you’re afraid I’ll forgive him?”

  God, I hoped people didn’t think I’d take him back. I shook my head, feeling disoriented about that notion.

  “Didn’t say that,” Spencer said. “Of course, you’re not gonna take that piece of shit back after that. Only a broken, pathetic bitch who was afraid not to take a guy back after that---”

  I winced.

  “No. Don’t take that on. You takin’ him back before wasn’t this. You know it.”

  “Well, I appreciate your concern. But, you had no right to tell people my business.”

  “Didn’t give anyone details about your business, Pippa. Your brother spouted off details I hadn’t shared. All I said was that the guy hurt you and he was outta jail, out of rehab waiting on a court date to answer for hurtin’ you and that I didn’t want him gettin’ near you. I gave nobody any other details. It’s not like it was a secret, either. Rumor mill is churnin’ and not because of the brotherhood. Maybe because Phil put word out on the street that if he saw Joe, he’d break all four of his limbs, every rib, as well as his face. Maybe because all the bitches at his mother’s job are all talking about it, too.”

  I was breathing hard. Jan worked at the supermarket. It was a gossip mill, for sure.

  “I wouldn’t do that to you; said nothing to anyone with any details,” he added. “What happened that night was between you and me. Yeah, I spouted to your brother a bit, but he’s your blood and he needed to fuckin’ know. As a man with a little sister, I’d wanna know.”

  Anger was melting into a threat of tears.

  He gave me a soft look and then he grabbed my hand, which was drumming on the table anxiously.

  I stared at my hand inside his. He gave it a squeeze. I looked up into his eyes. He was looking at me with warmth, with concern.

  I pulled my hand back. “Thank you for all you did that night. I appreciate it, but at this stage, feel free to stay out of it. Okay?”

  His tongue moved to his cheek, poking out, and he gave me a nod. He reached for his beer and then moved away and headed back to the bar, looking irritated.

  Bronto continued to stare at him, an angry look on his face.

  The girls moved back over, bringing Lola and her friend, who was introduced to us. Marnie, a blonde bombshell, watched Spence walk away and blew out a breath. “You were not jokin’” she said pointedly to Lulu and Lola.

  “I told them this was the place to be on a Saturday night. All kinds of prime man-meat,” Lulu told us.

  Jenna laughed. “Just be careful. Saturdays tend to be biker couple date night around here. Lots of man-meat around here is taken and not all of the biker broads around here look like us. A lot of them are hard as nails, know how to fight, and will not hesitate to take a bitch down.”

  “Is he taken by one of those hard as nails bitches or would I be able to take her?” Marnie asked, looking at Spencer who was back at the bar and then looking to me. “Or is he yours?”

  “Noooo…” Jenna said hesitantly, “he’s kind of single.”

  “Kind of?” Marnie’s eyes followed Jenna’s gaze to me again.

  I shook my head and raised my hands. “He ain’t mine.”

  “He’s being protective of Pippa,” Lulu said.

  “Ah,” Marnie replied pointedly, looking down at her drink.

  I glared at Lulu and her face went red. Fuck sakes. Did anyone not know what’d happened to me? I was about to get up and storm away, but then I was a witness to a flurry of dark curly hair and excited girlie screams as a girl ran toward us. Jenna jumped up and grabbed her.

  Jojo Valentine, the youngest Valentine sibling, Spencer’s baby sister, had arrived. She and Jenna jumped up and down and they both squealed.

  The bouncing women were drawing attention. Every biker’s eyes in the place were aimed at our table.

  Jojo and Jenna moved aside and were excitedly talking, and I could hear them discussing the fact that she was visiting from New York until Easter. Jojo had moved to New York just temporarily a few months back and Jenna and Ella had been talking a few days ago about the fact that she’d just gotten a job as a nanny to some wealthy people starting after Easter and until the end of the summer. She was planning to move to Aberdeen before September, so she could get back to teacher’s college. She’d been through a lot in recent months and I’d only met her a couple times, but I liked her unreservedly. She fit easily into our group of friends.

  ***

  Lola and Lulu changed the subject and were highly ent
ertaining, so somehow, I started to enjoy myself, despite the bad start to Saturday night at Deke’s Roadhouse. We were only supposed to be there for a drink or two, but with the arrival of Lola and her friend and then Jojo, it became a girlie night.

  Jenna announced that we’d have her man as our designated driver, who she’d found out would be in by last call to get us home. There was no band tonight, just a DJ, and the music was good, the drinks were good, and all the girls were having a laugh. This was good; I needed this.

  Jojo had infectious laughter. Jenna was on the phone trying to get Ella to the Roadhouse despite some special night Ella and Deacon had planned. Ella was insisting she’d see Jojo the next day, but Jenna was being relentless.

  “Boo, she shut her phone off. But Deacon probably hasn’t.” She pressed her screen and put her phone to her ear with a look of mischief in her eyes.

  Bronto put a drink in front of me and handed drinks out to the other girls, too.

  “Thanks, Bronto,” I said and took a big sip. It was drink number four.

  He was still quiet, still not smiling, but he’d stopped scowling.

  “You been nominated my dance partner, Lil’ Lady!” Little John moved in and pulled me onto the dance floor for Runaround Sue and was doing some jitterbug-like moves and it cracked me up. Two more songs dancing with Little John and laughing and I was glad I’d come out tonight. I was trying to ignore Marnie giving Spencer flirty eyes.

  He was at the bar with Jesse, another very good-looking biker, but Marnie was making her flirting quite obvious. Why couldn’t she flirt with Jesse? He was all dark and tattooed and the personification of bad boy biker. Not that Spencer wasn’t kind of the same, but --- I caught that train of thought and chastised myself.

  I saw from the corner of my eye a bit of a ruckus as Jojo angrily marched up to Spencer and took a swing at him. He ducked just in time and then put her in a headlock and messed up her hair with his palm. She looked furious and swung at his crotch, connecting. He bent over and let her go. She must not have hit him too hard, because then he was laughing, looking like he was enjoying messing with her. She wasn’t happy about whatever was going on and was pointing at Spencer, red-faced and I could read f-words coming off her lips.