“Maybe you should come hang out sometime,” he offered, stepping forward with his arms out like he was welcoming me. “You wanna be a whore, that’s cool. We’ve never had one, but I don’t think the boys would object to permanent pussy in the house.”
The fucking balls on this kid.
I’d dealt with alpha males every day at the clubhouse, and this wasn’t it.
This was entitled rich boy.
And that shit didn’t fly.
“I like to fuck men,” I informed him equally as loud as he had spoken, enjoying the gasps that followed. My gaze wandered to the crotch of his expensive khakis before returning to his face with a sweet grin. “You ever become one, call me!”
The muscle in his jaw twitched as he clenched his teeth. Poor pretty boy ready to lose his shit at me, but desperately trying to keep from looking like he was affected when I basically called him a little bitch.
The motorcycle shut off behind me. “Avery,” Tyler growled. “Get on.”
Cooper didn’t miss a beat.
“Go on. Be a good little bitch and do what you’re told,” he mocked.
His friends cracking with laughter finally, offering high fives.
Fist clenched, I got two steps toward the shithead, ready to drive my knee into his baby maker, so he couldn’t reproduce before Tyler hooked me around the waist and tugged me back against his chest. It forced the air out of my lungs for a second, and I made a mental note to ask the girls at the clubhouse when the hell Tyler had grown into his muscles.
“Listen, shit for brains,” Ty threatened over my shoulder, the smug little group of bastards suddenly standing incredibly still, their eyes growing wider. “You call her a bitch again… I’m gonna go to your mom’s house and make her my bitch. Then you can call me fucking daddy.”
“Come on,” Holly urged, finally stepping in and pressing her hands to Cooper’s chest. His glare was dark and narrowed, right on me. Instead of stroking his ego, I’d effectively strangled it in front of his buddies and a handful of students who had stuck around the parking lot to witness the drama. “I’ll see you later, Ave.”
“Su—”
“Don’t count on it. You’ve been told once, Holly,” Ty snapped, slowly releasing me in case I made another run for it. Holly seemed to sink away, sliding herself into the group of boys as a disguise as they shuffled slowly away. “Come on.”
I let Tyler pull me back to the curb, where his ride was still waiting for us. “What did you mean about her being told once?” I questioned, the heightened fuzz around my brain starting to seep away and the reality sinking in. Tyler threw his leg over the motorcycle, bracing his hands on the handlebars as he waited for me to climb on behind him. “Ty.”
He scrunched up his nose, which would be cute had he not had this heavy frown to go with it. “Holly hasn’t been around in a while because Shotgun told her not to come back until she sorted her shit out.”
“He what?” I balked.
“Don’t be that friend who ignores what’s going on, Avery,” Tyler warned, the sternness of his features finally softening. I looked back at where she had disappeared with the group of assholes, trying to remind myself why Holly and I were still friends.
We weren’t alike.
Though, at some point, I’d thought we were.
Yeah, the point when you were at your darkest.
The club helped me get better.
But what if while I was pulling myself out, I just left her there.
She was there when you needed someone.
She’s never judged you.
“Come on,” Tyler encouraged softly and pulled at my shirt.
I spun around, forcing a smile and pulling my backpack a little tighter over my shoulders. Placing my hand on Tyler’s shoulder, I used him to support my body as I threw my leg over the back of his ride, ignoring that feeling of dread in my stomach. “Let’s go home.”
SHOTGUN
“How is she?”
I didn’t even bother to look up from the drink in my hand as Glitch took the seat beside me. Amy, one of the club girls, was quick to scoot around the bar and slide him a drink. This man had been like a father to me for years. He’d stepped in and taken the place of a man who I hated with my entire being.
“Doing fucking amazing, as expected,” I grumbled, looking down at the glass of water in my hand.
Glitch chuckled at the slump in my shoulders, slamming his palm against my back. “Well, we did raise her to be that way. We just all thought for some reason, she’d still need us for something. Possibly changing a light bulb occasionally?”
I couldn’t help but grin as I thought about my little sister.
I’d come to Colorado for a couple of days to surprise her for her birthday. It was something I never missed, and the club had a cookout planned for her tonight, so it really wasn’t that much of a surprise to her finding me waiting outside her house last night when she got home from work.
She’d had an unexpected delivery.
Scarlet had always loved kids, so when she became a midwife, I knew that was where she was meant to be. The natural urge she had to nurture others was something I’d never experienced in another human being before. It was as simple as breathing for her, as though her soul was undoubtedly made to love—and love something fierce. I was glad she’d turned out that way because with our parents’ genes—addicts and abusers—I was scared of which way she could go.
Scarlet was strong.
The girl had more balls than a lot of the men here.
And it wasn’t often she was afraid to show them.
It was the only reason I decided to take the president’s placement down in Phoenix because I knew my little sister could take care of herself, and if there was some time she couldn’t, that the club was right there to step in for her.
“Slate’s been hanging out to see you,” Glitch announced, throwing back the drink Amy had made him before sliding the glass back across the bar and getting to his feet. Slate had been my best friend since we were fucking ten years old, the two of us practically inseparable. He didn’t grow up in the club like I did, but he fell in love with the brotherhood after spending so much time with me at the clubhouse.
Much to his strictly Christian parents’ disgust.
All they saw were criminals and a life that led to only one place—hell.
So he had to make that choice—keep them in his life and stay away from the club and me or take his chances with the devil.
“He moved into your pop’s place.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
The house Scarlet and I grew up in was a couple of streets away. The club owned several properties on the surrounding blocks. Far enough that club members could have their own places if they wanted them or if they were raising families, but close enough they could be called in within minutes. Scarlet could have stayed in that place if she’d wanted to, for as long as she liked, but as far as either of us were concerned, it was better off burned to the ground.
And all the memories with it.
Glitch nodded.
“Why?”
“Plans on doing it up, making it new.”
I raised my brow. “Jesus, you aren’t working the bastard hard enough if he has time to do that shit.”