“Yeah?” Vinny rubbed the back of his neck, glancing away to hide his smirk.
“That’s fucked.” Ellen tossed her cigarette at his feet. “Sasha’s gonna be totally blindsided at tomorrow’s meeting.”
“I know. I’m sorry, Ellen.” Vinny glanced up at Sasha’s door. He’d run up there and deliver the bad news, but it would ruin everything they just did. Then he’d never be able to do all those amazingly dirty things to her again. “Can’t you just tell Sasha in the morning?”
Ellen walked down the porch steps, pulling him from the commotion of a slowly dying party. “As her mother, I’d like to warn her, but as club president, it’s…inappropriate.” She paused as a group of men staggered to their trucks. “That’s why I was counting on you. Just, whatever. Go home.”
Vinny shoved his hands into his pockets, turning away.
Chapter Four
Sasha
A high-pitched ring pulled Sasha from a deep sleep. She slipped her head under the pillow, only dulling the phone’s blare. When the noise finally stopped and a heavy silence returned, she closed her eyes. It was no use. She’d already glimpsed the light of a new day. Her brain wasn’t shutting off now.
The phone screamed once again, and Sasha slapped the nightstand. She grabbed a lighter, a handful of cigarette butts, and an empty beer bottle before finding the phone. The ring stopped once she lifted the receiver. She considered hanging up, but the idiot in her pulled the receiver under the pillow.
“Hello,” she grumbled.
“Hey. Did I wake you?”
Candy’s silky voice sent a flutter from Sasha’s chest to her gut and right into the deepest parts of her soul. “No. I was up.” She moved the pillow aside, clutching onto the phone’s wide mouthpiece. “Crazy party last night, huh?”
“Are you dating Vinny?”
“What?” Sasha sat up, the phone’s cord yanking its base from the nightstand.
“Ellen was telling everyone you two are a thing.”
“Is that why you gave Otis a blowjob in the parking lot?”
“You saw that?” Candy asked softly.
“A lot of people saw that.”
There was a long pause. Sasha could see Candy’s cute frown and the girl’s remorseful eyes clearly inside her mind. If they were face to face, she would wither against Candy’s smooth skin. Hell, she almost crumbled through the phone.
“Sasha—”
A clicking noise cut off Candy’s words, and Sasha groped for the phone’s base.
“Hold on a sec.” Sasha clicked a skinny red button, flashing over to the other line. “Yeah.”
“Oh, hey. It’s Vinny.”
“So formal. Use the phone much?”
“I…umm…”
“What’d you want?” Sasha asked, almost hanging up before she even got an answer.
“I really need to talk to you before the meeting.”
Sasha moved a wall of beer bottles away from the clock on her nightstand. “We got an hour. Just come over now.”
“No, I can’t. I—”
Sasha groaned. Vinny could babble for hours and never about anything major, which was why she clicked back over to Candy. “You still there?”
“Of course,” Candy said in a throaty whisper. “I always wait for you.”
For just a second, a fleeting thought crossed Sasha’s mind. She could jump in her truck, pick up Candy, and drive to San Francisco. They could open a flower shop or maybe sell makeup. It was a nice thought to have, for just that second.
“You busy tonight?”
“No,” Candy said, almost before Sasha could finish the question.
“I’m gonna come pick you up later, like nine or ten.”
“Should I wear something pretty?”
“Nah.” Sasha tried to sound cool, but the frown stuck on her lips warped her words into ones filled with gloom. “I just wanna talk. You know.”
“Oh. Yeah, I ah…see you then.”
With a click, the line went dead. Sasha gathered up the phone and returned it to her nightstand, rising from the bed.
***
Light spilled into Sasha’s room as she opened her door, forcing her back a few steps. The cigarette stuck to her chapped lips decided to waft its smoke right into her eyes, making the whole sunshine situation much worse. She pushed a pair of shades up the bridge of her nose, thumping down the narrow stairs.
“Caffeine,” Sasha muttered, her feet dragging across gravel. She climbed the porch steps, and Kev blocked the clubhouse door.
“It’s almost noon,” Kev said, crossing his arms to bar her from squeezing by him. “Are you just getting up?”
A mix of a grunt and a grumble erupted from Sasha’s lips, coaxing Kev aside. Her eyes locked onto a steaming pot of coffee. The scent of liquid energy filled her lungs, and she hurried toward the aroma, nearly tripping when a tall blonde chick stepped in front of her.
“Hey, Sasha!”
“Hey, umm…”
“Robin!”
“Right.” Sasha moved to the side, but the chick followed like a shadow.
“Are you busy right now?” Robin asked. “I was gonna step outside for a smoke.”
Sasha glanced around the now-trashed clubhouse. The usual batch of women decorated the bar while most of the crew crowded into the backroom. Thankfully, none of them had noticed her.
“Sure. Just,” Sasha pointed around Robin to the silver urn on the bar, “coffee.”
“Oh! I’ll get that for you.” Robin turned, glass clinking. “No cream, five sugars. Right?” She peeked over her shoulder, a sly smile on her red lips.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Robin handed Sasha a mug and headed for the porch. “Come on.”
While sipping her coffee, Sasha enjoyed the sway of Robin’s ass in tight leather pants. She strolled to the porch, sitting on the bench. In every attempt to be casual, she eyed the woman beside her. Feathered hair straight from a bottle, bright eyeshadow in hues of blue and green. A regular bleached Barbie.
“Are you going with Vinny?” Robin asked, cringing as if expecting a slap for an answer.
A chuckle burst from Sasha’s lips. That seemed to be the question of the day. “No.” Except that wasn’t the game they were playing. “I don’t know. Maybe.” She lit a cigarette, passing it to Robin before popping one in her own mouth. “Why, you into him?”
“No,” Robin said, a little too fast. “He’s not extremely sexy at all.” She batted her eyes, which wavered in fear. “Please don’t beat me up.”
“Why would I beat you up?” Sasha asked, taking another sip of her coffee.
“I didn’t know about you two, and I was laying it on kinda thick last night before you got here. I might have touched his—”
“Whoa! I don’t need to know all that. Vinny is free to do whatever he wants with whoever he likes.”
“I get that.” Robin scooted closer, leaning in and bringing the scent of Halston with her. “You have to be a different type of gal around these men, hard. Even if it really doesn’t bother you, I’ll still keep my hands off. Until you’re done with him, anyway.”