Page 17
He rolls his eyes, but I bite my lip. What he doesn’t know is that Stacey works at the bar and grill with me because she wants to, not because she needs to. She loves people and being social, and what started as a sort of an experiment turned into something bigger. Now she has a huge social media following, all based around her viewing and reviewing places and the people she encounters. She talks about everything from the food to the hospitality, and if she wanted to, she could have this place trending across the world for all the wrong reasons.
“It’s fine, Stacey. I just want to go home.”
“You heard the lady, she just wants to go home, now that she’s started all the trouble in the first place.”
I let my eyes drift closed in defeat for a moment. So much for defusing the situation.
“You guys are such pricks. She did nothing wrong. All she wanted to do was get a message to Lick, and that bitch went all psycho bunny boiler on her.”
“You know what,” the asshole behind us states, sounding pissed that he’s had to deal with us. “Why don’t you head on up to the Royal Bastards clubhouse. They’ll tell you where Lick is.”
“Fuck’s sake, Rob, are you insane? You’re not supposed to tell people that,” one of the others snaps as he opens the door for us to step outside. He faces me and shakes his head. “Ignore Rob. He doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about.”
“Oh, fuck you, Jim. If she knew what she was dealing with, she wouldn’t be starting trouble—”
“I swear to god, man, if you value your job, you’ll shut your mouth.” Jim focuses back on me. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll forget about what he said, forget about Lick and this place. You don’t want to get yourself tangled up with the Royal Bastards.”
I look at Stacey. She frowns, shaking her head before turning back to the guy with the warning. “What are the Royal Bastards?”
His shoulders slump as he throws a glare at the dick behind me. “Not what. Who? They’re a one-percent biker club, and they won’t be too happy about what went down here tonight.”
8
Lick
Ihead home from the run, dead on my feet, needing a hot shower and to sleep for a week. I don’t usually do runs, mostly to keep my identity within the club separate from the music business while we get shit up and running.
This time, though, I went as a favour. Since our sister chapter isn’t that far, it was easy enough to keep my helmet on and face covered, riding without stopping. It was nice to get away from the grind for two weeks, but I’m more than ready to sleep in my own bed again.
I pull up to my place and park my bike in the garage, then tug my helmet off and set it on the seat. I stretch out the kinks as I head into the kitchen and grab a bottle of juice from the fridge. I hang my cut on the back of one of the kitchen stools and toe off my boots before I take my drink and head upstairs to the bedroom. I plug in my phone, which died on the way home, before finishing my drink, stripping off my clothes, and chucking them in the laundry basket.
I step under the warm water and wash away the day’s grime, tipping my head back and letting the water pour over me. When it starts to cool, I step out, drying off before wrapping a towel around my waist. Walking back to the bedroom, I tug on a pair of clean boxers and collapse face down on the bed, where I pass out cold. I don’t know how long I’m out for before the ringing of my phone wakes me up.
I reach for it, blindly, yanking the charging cable free before I hold it to my ear. “Yeah?”
“Lick.”
I resist sighing. The man on the other end might be my father, but he’s also my president. Showing him any disrespect, especially when I don’t know who is with him, is a no-go. “Hey, what’s up?”
“That’s what I wanted to know. You back home?”
“Yeah.” I glance at my watch and see it’s a little after eight. I slept for five hours. “Shit. I came back, showered, and thought I’d grab an hour, which was five hours ago.”
He chuckles. “You young’uns seem to think you can live on caffeine and cigarettes. It catches up to us all eventually.”
“I quit smoking six years ago, you know that. And caffeine is the only thing stopping me from going on a murder spree most days.”
“Yeah, I hear ya. How did it go?”
“Good. The Pres and VP are gonna give you a call so you can hammer out the details, but they like what I presented them with.”
“That’s what I like to hear. You heading to the club tonight or Shooters? I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“Aww, you miss me, old man?”
“Like a fucking hole in the head.” He sighs. We both know he has. On paper, my dad is never gonna win Father of the Year. But I’ve never doubted he loved me, even when I was a teenager, and I thought the whole world was out to get me.
“Listen, something went down while you were gone. Cops were called. As you’re heading down to Shooters anyway, find out what happened, yeah? The last thing we need is the cops hanging around.”
