“Brother, I ain’t fucking kidding.”
“Fucking shit.” I sprang up, and the barstool under me skidded backward. “Why the hell didn’t you stop her?” I demanded.
Brinks held up his hands. “Not my fucking problem.”
That right there was bullshit. “You can tell Wrecker that when Raven blows up the fucking clubhouse and you saw her with the damn matches before.” I jogged down the hallway past all of the bedrooms and out the back door.
“I wondered how long it would take for Brinks to rat me out.” Raven stood in front of the firepit with her arm extended, emptying the contents of the gas can.
“What in the ever-loving fuck are you doing?”
She shook the empty gas can making sure to get every drop out. “Having a bonfire.” She tossed the can on the ground and bent over to pick up the pack of matches.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I snagged the matches from her hand. “You really think emptying a can of gas on to…” I looked down in the firepit, and my jaw dropped. “Are those Barbie dolls?”
That was an interesting kindling.
She tried to grab the matches from me, but I dodged her reach. “Uh, yeah. You done being Smokey the Bear and gonna let me have the matches?”
“Hell no.” I shoved the matches in my pocket. “You ain’t lighting this shit on fire.”
“Then you light it on fire,” she insisted.
“You have a fucking gallon of gas on this shit, Raven. I light that on fire, you and I are likely to go up in flames with it.”
She shrugged and folded her arms across her chest. “Some days, that wouldn’t be too bad.”
“What in the hell is going on with you?”
“None of your fucking business, bike boy. Just give me back my matches and be on your way.”
“Bike boy? Have you reached a whole new level of bitch?”
I was at my wits’ end with Raven. She was so pissed off at life, but she didn’t want to tell anyone why. Wrecker had given me the abbreviated rundown.
Mom dead.
Foster care.
No family but Wrecker.
Shitty hand, but she wasn’t the only one who had been dealt shit cards. To me, it was all about how you chose to play them. Right now, Raven was living on the corner of Poor Me Street and I’m A Bitch.
“And have you reached a whole new level of asshole? Last I heard, guys weren’t supposed to call chicks bitches.”
“Well, the shoe fucking fits, and damned if you don’t put that shit on and lace it up.”
“Remind me again why you thought you needed to come out here?” she drawled.
Always just talking in circles when it came to Raven. While the chick was hot as fuck, she would fuck with your head without blinking.
“Trying to prevent you from burning down the clubhouse. Pretty sure Wrecker would shit an actual brick if that happened.”
“Wrecker, Wrecker,” she mumbled under her breath. “Everything leads back to that asshole.” She spun on her heel and plopped down in one of the chairs.
“He is the prez, darlin’, and you’re staying at the clubhouse.”
I knew she had major issues with Wrecker, but none of us really knew what they were.
She sighed and stretched her feet out in front of her. “The gas can was only a quarter of the way full. I know you don’t want anything to do with me, but can you just light the damn fire?”
“It really that important to you?” I questioned.
She leaned her head back and looked up at the sky. “I don’t have anything that’s important to me, Clash.”
The weight of her words hung in the air. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Also don’t have much to believe in either,” she said softly. “Light the damn fire and leave me alone, Clash. I promise not to light the clubhouse on fire.”
“I’m not leaving you out here by yourself.”
She pointed to the other side of the firepit. “Then your ass can sit over there and keep your lips zipped. I came out here and didn’t tell anyone because I wanna be alone.” She leaned down and grabbed a bottle off the ground. “I’m not sharing my bottle with you either.”
“Not drinking,” I drawled. At least, I wasn’t anymore. Raven was in a mood I had never seen before. Don’t get me wrong, she was still being a bitch, but for once, I saw something more than that. “I light this fire and I’m the one in charge of it.”
“Whatever. Just light the damn thing.”
I pulled the book of matches from my pocket and struck a match against the back of it. The fire sparked to life immediately. The flames rose, and I had to take a step back.
“Thought you said it was only a quarter of the can,” I murmured.
“Quarter, half? Not like I had a fucking measuring cup or anything.”
The flames died down quickly, and the Barbie dolls on top of the wood melted quickly.
“Do I get to ask why we’re burning Barbie dolls?”
She took a swig from the bottle and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Sit your ass down, bike boy, and shut your mouth.”
There was the hard-mouthed bitch Raven was so good at being. “I’ll take that as a no and make up some weird story why we’re burning dolls at midnight.”
“You do that,” she mumbled.
I shook my head and sat down in the chair opposite of her. I watched as she drank from the bottle and looked up at the sky when she wasn’t drinking. The moon reflected off her pitch black hair, and I could make out the curve of her lips as her tongue swooped out to catch the drop of liquor.
“You think you can stop being a creeper, bike boy? If you’re just gonna stare at me then you might as well talk.”
“You are one of a kind, Raven.”
She winked and tipped the bottle toward me. “Right back at ya, Clash. Not a lot of guys would follow another guy around like a puppy dog and call it brotherhood.”
I shook my head. This wasn’t the first time Raven had said something like this to me. At first, it had pissed me the hell off, but now, I knew her hate and rage wasn’t directed at me. Since I was the one who was always around that meant I got the brunt of it. That didn’t mean I wasn’t a little irritated by it, but I got it.
“You want me to stare at the fucking stars or something?”
“Or something,” she murmured.
“You glad Mayra is back?”
“Is she back?” She laughed dryly and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a pack of cigarettes and stuck one in the corner of her mouth. “Can I have those matches you confiscated from me?”
I strolled around the fire, struck a match, and held it up to the cigarette. I tossed it in the fire and sat back down. “I still don’t trust you with the matches.”
Lord knows what else she might have in mind to light on fire.
The light of the fire flickered off the small hoop in her nose, and she smiled. “You expect so little from me, Clash.”
“Or is it I expect a lot and I’m just hoping for a break from the madness?”
“Touché,” she chuckled. “Now shut up and let me enjoy the sizzle of plastic melting from the Barbies.”
“You got it.”
I kicked my feet out, crossed them at the ankles, and slouched down in my chair until my head touched the backrest. If this was how Raven wanted to spend the rest of the night, I wasn’t going to argue with her.
This was the most relaxed I had been in months, and I was going to take full advantage of it.
Melting Barbies over a bonfire was more peaceful than you would think.
*
Chapter Two
Raven
“Where were you last night?” Mayra eyed me from where she was seated at the table in the common room.
“Fire.” I grabbed a coffee cup out of the cabinet and filled it to the brim with milk.
“Excuse me?” Mayra sat up straight in her chair. “What the hell did you set on fire?”
I rolled my eyes
and reached into the back of the pantry. I felt around until my hand connected with the tell-tale crinkle of the double-stuffed Oreo bag. “Barbies and wood.”
Raven pulled out the chair next to her, and I plopped down with my milk and cookies.
“As usual, I have so many questions.”
“As you should.” I peeled back the top of the Oreos and grabbed a stack. I placed them in front of me and stole Mayra’s fork off her plate.
“Uh, you know there are clean ones in the drawer, right?”
By now, Mayra should know I just didn’t give a fuck about anything. That also included the fact she had used the fork before me. “This will do.”
I expertly wedged the tine of my fork into the cream of the Oreo then dunked it into my milk.
“Can we get back to what you were burning last night?”
“I told you.” I swirled the Oreo around in the milk and drowned it until the bubbles stopped.
“Where did you get Barbies from? Aren’t you a little old for them?”
I waited five more seconds then pulled the cookie from the milk. “It’s not like I bought them last week, Mayra. They were from when I was a kid.”
“Okay,” she drawled. “Then why did you burn them? Wouldn’t it have been better to just throw them away.”
I crammed the cookie into my mouth and wrapped my lips around the tines to clean them off as I pulled the fork out. “Where's the fun in that?” I mumbled with a mouthful of mushy cookie goodness.
“Are you really eating Oreos for breakfast?”
I stabbed another cookie in the cream then dropped it into the milk. “If I would have known breakfast was going to be an inquisition from you, I would have taken my cookies and milk back to my room.”
“Then you wouldn’t have seen me.”
I shrugged. It wasn’t like I saw her much anyway. “I would have caught you later.”
Mayra rested her elbows on the table and leaned toward me. “Raven.”
I looked up from watching the bubbles. “Yeah?”
“What’s going on?”
“I’m waiting for the last breath from this Oreo before I eat it.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s not what I mean.”
“Then what do you mean, Mayra?”
I had woken up ten minutes ago and was eating cookies. That was all I knew at the moment. If she wanted to have some deep talk, she needed to not expect me to actually have something to contribute to it so fucking early in the morning.
“I mean, what are you doing?”
I blinked slowly. “I just told you want I’m doing. Killing Oreos and eating their delicious carcasses.”
Was I stuttering?
Mayra sighed heavily. “So we’re not going to have this talk right now?”
I pulled the cookie from the milk and let it drip. “If you want to have a talk, then talk. I don’t know what you’re trying to talk about so I can’t have the talk unless you tell me what the talk is about.” I shoved the cookie into my mouth. “Too soggy,” I moaned.
There was a fine line when it came to drowning Oreos, and Mayra had just made me cross it by trying to have a talk without me even knowing what the talk was about.
Now, it’s Mayra’s turn to blink slowly. “I don’t even know what you just said.”
“Mayra!”
“Oh,” I smiled. “Your badass biker is calling you. Run along.” I shooed my hand at her and stabbed another Oreo.
“We’re not done with this conversation.”
Boink called for Mayra again.
I held up the fork with the Oreo on the end and nodded toward Boink standing by the front door of the clubhouse. “I think Boinkers might disagree with that.”
Mayra glared over her shoulder at Boink and held up one finger. “I’m coming.”
“You see my warden lately?” I hollered to Boink.
Clash had been absent since I woke up. Normally, he was on my tail before my feet even hit to floor.
“He had an errand he needed to run this morning.” Boink nodded toward Freak who was sitting on the couch in front of the TV with a huge bowl of cereal in his hands. “Freak’s got you until he gets back.”
“Behave,” Mayra said softy.
I feigned looking offended and held my hand to my chest. “Are you insinuating that I don’t behave, Mayra?”
A smirk spread across her lips. She reached over and rested her hand on my arm. “We both know you don’t behave, Raven. I just mean try not to kill Freak before Clash gets back here to keep your ass under control.”
“He wished he had control of this ass,” I mumbled.
She squeezed my arm and stood up. “We’ll continue our discussion later.”
I nodded. “I look forward to avoiding that at all costs.”
“Lord,” she mumbled under her breath. “Later, girl.”
Mayra practically ran across the clubhouse and right into Boink’s arms. Boink nodded to me, and I flipped him off. I had to keep these guys on their toes. Swear to God, they all thought they just needed to tip their heads and women would do their bidding.
Not this chick.
No fucking way.
“Do I need to put my running shoes on?” Freak called from the couch.
“You looking for a workout, Freak? I’m sure I could show you a couple of things you ain’t never even heard of.”
I heard him audibly choke on his cereal.
That was what you got when you tried to one-up me.
I finished the last of my cookies and dropped my cup into the sink. I contemplated putting the Oreos back but knew I would be eating them for lunch so just left them on the counter.
“I actually need to get a crap-ton of work done today, Freak, so you lucked out on warden duty.”
“Seriously?”
I rolled my eyes and headed down the hallway to my room. There were horror stories circulating around about me, and that was the way I wanted it to be. If any of these assholes took to heart any of the shit being said then I knew they would stay the hell away.
Most did stay away unless they were forced to be by me.
Boinkers had been my initial warden but when Mayra had decided to tangle with the mafia, he moved to protect her, and somehow, I ended up with Clash.
I rolled my eyes and opened my bedroom door.
Clash was the one I was unsure about.
There were moments when I noticed he had the same attitude I did. Fuck everything.
I grabbed my laptop and a pile of folders and notebooks. The one good thing about working online was I could work wherever I wanted as long as I had good Wi-Fi
If I lingered too long in my room, I knew Freak would be at my door, and I didn’t want that to happen. My room was the only place that was mine. No one came in here unless I wanted them to. That meant the only person who had been in here was Mayra. Even the rest of the chicks had stayed out. Though Clash had managed to muscle his way into my room before I laid down the rules. He could watch me all he wanted, but once I was in my room, his ass did not come in.
“Yeah, she said she’s got a ton of work to do. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do.” Freak was on the phone with, I assumed, either Clash or Wrecker when I walked back into the common.
“You get a free pass, Freakers. That’s what that means. I like to keep my crazy shit for Clash.” I set my computer on a table close to the TV. “Is that my usual warden on the phone with you?”
“Yeah. He wanted to know if you hogtied me yet.”
I smiled sweetly. “Don’t spoil my plans for him later, Clash.”
I heard Clash’s chuckle rumble through the phone.
Freak ended the call with a couple of “yeahs” and “okays.” “He said he’ll be here in a couple of hours since you’re behaving today.”
I rolled my eyes and plopped down in the chair in front of my computer. “It depends on your definition of behave, Freak. From my point of view, I’ve done nothing but behave the whole time I’ve been here.�
�
“Right,” Freak drawled.
“Watch your Dr. Phil and leave me alone, Freaker. Mama needs to make some money today.” I logged into my computer and got straight to work.
“What are you doing on there?” he asked after five minutes.
“Working. You should try it sometime.” I organized my two notebooks and pulled out the sheet of notes I had started.
“You do the same thing as Cora?”
I looked up from my screen. “Huh?”
“Cora is on the computer all of the time. I think she edits books or some shit like that.”
I shook my head and looked back down. “Written word is not my thing, Freak. I’ll stick with designing shit.”
“Better you than me,” he mumbled.
Being a graphic designer was better for me. It was what I loved. Being a freelancer left me wide open to do what I wanted and work with who I wanted. Right now, I was working on a rebranding for a large textile company. They had basically shown me their old logo and asked for something better but had no idea what that would be.
To some people, that might seem like a nightmare, not knowing what the client wanted, but to me, it was absolute heaven. These were the jobs where my creativity came to life.
I got lost in my work and didn’t have a worry in the world when I was creating.
*
Clash
“How long has she been working?”
Freak looked over his shoulder at Raven. “Since I got off the phone with you this morning.”
Raven’s head was down, her eyes pointed at her computer screen, and she had no idea I was even back.
“She eat?”
“Nope.”
It was half past one and five hours since I talked to Freak. I hadn’t planned on being gone for that long, but with Raven actually behaving herself, it was the perfect time for me to run to see my mom and dad.
“Thanks for keeping an eye on her, brother.”
Freak turned off the TV and stood. “No problem. Don’t know what the hell you guys are talking about when you say she’s hard to keep up with.”
I clapped him on the back. “Trust me. What you dealt with today is not the normal.”
Freak walked down the hallway shaking his head.
Fallen Lords MC: Books 4-6 Page 33