by Voss, Deja
“Do it again,” I beg. “Make me bleed.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you two?” Brooks shouts, grabbing Stacy by the hair, pulling her away from me.
“It’s called self-defense,” I mumble, spitting out a tooth in the process. “Now someone hold me back and let this bitch hit me.”
She smashes the beer bottle off the ground and jams a piece of jagged glass into my shoulder. The men stand there with their hands over their mouths.
“That should be good enough. You’re not gonna bleed out, I promise,” she says. “I’m assuming you guys have a good lawyer?”
“I’ll call him now,” Gavin stammers, wide-eyed, as Tank just stands there, clenching the pistol in his hand.
“What about the cameras in here?” Stacy asks.
“They’re just dummies.”
“Gimme that,” I say to Tank. I use my shirt to wipe his fingerprints from the pistol to the best of my ability and toss it on the floor. “You guys gotta go.”
“Olive,” he says. “You’re making a huge mistake.”
I pull his face to mine for a kiss. “I’ll see you soon. It’s going to be ok.”
“All the police need to know is what you told them on the phone. Don’t talk to anyone until you have your lawyer there. They’re probably going to keep you in holding over the weekend, but I’m pretty sure the DA won’t even think twice about trying this one,” Stacy says, kneeling next to me, squeezing my hand.
“He’s an FBI agent,” Gavin shouts.
“Doesn’t matter,” Stacy assures him. “Stick to the story.”
“Who are you?” I ask her, my vision blurry.
“Just someone who’s seen a few things in her day. You’re gonna do great,” she says. “Come on, guys. Clock is ticking.”
“You call me as soon as you’re allowed,” Gavin says. “I’ll have our lawyer on standby.”
“You’re insane, Olive,” Brooks says. “We owe you big time.”
“Go on,” I whisper. I look up at Tank and smile through bloodied teeth. “Please don’t worry.”
“I can’t leave you like this,” he says.
“If you stay here with me, this will all be a waste. Just trust me.”
He presses his lips to my forehead. “I love you, Olive.”
“I love you too. I’ll see you soon, I promise,” I say.
I watch as the room clears and close my eyes as I hear the rumble of motorcycles in the parking lot. When these men came into my life, they saved me. They shaped me into who I am today. Now that the tables have turned, I feel like this is the best decision I’ve ever made. I smile, blood running from my mouth. I know the next few days are going to be rough, but I feel like I’ve finally figured out my purpose in life. Like I’ve finally found a family of my own.
Chapter 27
“You’re a lifesaver, Sloan,” I sigh as she hands me my backpack. The prison issued clothes were a lot more comfortable than these two-day-old leather shorts. I’m dirty. I’m tired. All I want are these sweatpants. I crawl into the back seat of her SUV and start to change.
“I brought you a little something, too,” Esther says, tossing me a pack of cigarettes and a bag of her special gummy bears. “I figured after this weekend you could probably use these.”
I lay on my back across the back seat and hold a cigarette to my lips.
“Where do you want to go?” Sloan asks. “I got a pile of cash and nowhere to be for the next forty-eight hours.”
I hadn’t really thought about what was going to happen once I got out of jail. I was pleasantly surprised at how not bad my time there was. Knowing that what I was doing was protecting the people I love made it so much more tolerable. Every time I wanted to break, I just thought about Tank and Red and how much they love me, how much I love them.
The police, the district attorney, hell, even my lawyer, nobody even questioned my innocence. Turns out Buzzy was not an FBI agent, but a former FBI agent who was let go years ago for misconduct. He was known for his violent behavior, and even had a couple of assaults on his record. The last anyone knew of him, he was working as a private investigator. I don’t know who hired him to tail me, or even if I wasn’t the main target, but instead a weak link into the club, and maybe we’ll never find out, but it was a harsh reality check for me that, even when everything seems like it’s going good and smooth, the Mountain Misfits are under constant scrutiny.
Of course the local news is all over the story.
Even though we live way out in the woods, I wouldn’t put it past the media from making the trip out there to try and get my story. It’s best I just lay low for a couple days and let the dust settle. I had Sloan plug my phone into the charger in the car as soon as we got in, and when it turned on, I thought it was going to explode from all the noises and vibrations it was making. I should’ve just thrown it out the window. I don’t really need to talk to anyone right now.
“Are all the guys ok?” I ask. I know I said I needed a few days away from the club, from the chaos, from everything, which is why I had my girlfriends come get me, but I still really miss everyone.
“They’re busy building you a shrine,” Esther giggles.
“You know I don’t need all that,” I laugh. “Actually, I think all I need right now is a milkshake. A hot tub would be nice, too.”
“Want to go get some drive-through junk and crash at a hotel for the night?”
“As long as there’s a hot tub,” I say. I didn’t really need severe medical attention after Stacy’s attack, but I can’t keep my tongue out of this hole I have in my mouth where my tooth used to be, and my body is pretty sore from sleeping on a metal cot for the last three nights. “And can we go to the dentist tomorrow?”
“I think I have enough cash here to buy you your own hot tub AND a whole new set of teeth if you really want,” Sloan says.
“Where’d you get all that?” I ask. I know I took one for the team, but I didn’t do it for a paycheck. I did it because I wanted to, although, I am getting my tooth fixed before anyone can see me like this.
“I’m not supposed to say,” she says, shrugging, “but I’m going to anyway. Red’s coach dropped it off at the clubhouse for you. It’s an advance on his check. He wanted to make sure you had everything you needed, and your legal fees are covered.”
“I don’t want it,” I say. “I just want him to come home. He doesn’t have to worry. All our problems are solved. Where is he hiding anyway?”
Esther sighs. She turns around in her seat and grabs my knee.
“You really should just take the money, sweetie,” she says. “Red needs to be on his own for a little bit.”
“He just made a mistake, guys. He was standing up for me. Any of the other guys would’ve done the same thing if I asked them to.”
“I know, honey, but he has too much riding on the line right now to be out making mistakes like that. This isn’t a good place for him to be. Maybe someday, but right now it’s better if he just focuses on his thing, don’t you think?”
I feel sick to my stomach. The one thing worse than being broken up with is NOT being broken up with. It’s like being in purgatory. I know there’s a piece of my heart out there somewhere, and while I should just be upset for a little bit and move on, I’ll always be waiting for the day when he comes back so I can just forgive him and let him do it all over again.
It’s exactly what he predicted all along, and I just blindly ignored it, thinking that maybe things would be different, maybe I would be the woman that saved him.
Sloan pulls up to the drive-through window and orders enough food to feed a small army. That girl knows me. The food wasn’t terrible in the jail, but I eat a lot. A lot more than they fed me. She hands the milkshake over the back seat and I take a little sip, but my stomach still feels queasy. It’s probably from crying so much and swallowing so much blood. Maybe it’s from riding in the backseat. I don’t think too much about it, just set it in the cupholder and roll down the window
.
She pulls up to the nearest hotel, and Esther gets out of the car.
“Are you alright back there?” Sloan asks me. “I hope you know I’m doing my best to keep my shit together for you, but I’m actually so pissed at you right now I want to throw you out in traffic. As your best friend, I want you to know that what you did was totally utterly stupid. I also think Red is a piece of shit scumbag for pulling that stunt and bailing instead of owning up to what he did. I’m glad he’s gone. I know you love him, but that’s some bullshit right there. We’re going to spend every penny of this money on you, and then we’re going to tell him we want more.”
I have to laugh. She is my smart friend. She’s a surgeon for fuck’s sake.
“Take a deep breath, woman,” I giggle. “I haven’t seen you this riled up since I decided I wanted to be a stripper that one time.”
“Yeah, well, look where that got us,” she groans. The night it all began. The night we went to the clubhouse together so I could make my debut as a stripper and she could make out with, and subsequently fall in love with, Gavin.
“It got us a pretty good life, I think.” I smile. “Minus a tooth,” I say, getting a look at myself in the rearview mirror.
“You’ve always tried to protect me, Ollie,” she says. “Now I’m going to be a good friend and protect you. You have a man at home who loves you more than anything in the world. A good man. A steady man. He’s been a fucking disaster since you’ve been gone. The guys have been taking turns staying over at his house. I don’t like dumping this on you right now after what you’ve been through. I’m just saying. I think you know in your heart how this was going to turn out. And I think you know what the right choice is to make at this point.”
Esther comes walking out of the front of the hotel. “They don’t have any private rooms with hot tubs right now, but there’s a public one at the pool if that’s ok,” she says. “We can run over to the mall and pick you up a swimsuit. Or we can just keep trying until we find one.”
“I’m not worried about it,” I say. “Let’s just go eat some food, be lazy, and get a good night’s sleep so I can go home in the morning and get back to reality.”
Sloan is absolutely right. I know what the right choice is to make right now. The right choice is to hit the reset button.
If that means dating neither of the guys and being alone for awhile, I will be ok.
If it means starting all over again with Tank and pretending like what we had in the past never happened, that’s fine too.
If it means Red will just be a memory, I’ll have to accept that.
I know, no matter what, as long as I have my girlfriends I’ll be alright.
I slide my sunglasses over my face and pull up the hood of my sweatshirt, hoping we are far enough away from home that nobody will recognize me as we go inside. The room has two queen-sized beds and I fall on my back on the closest one.
“Don’t you want to eat?” Sloan asks. “You gotta be starving.”
“I’ll try in a little bit,” I say. I’m really not hungry anymore. I’m not anything but tired and a little bit nauseated. Maybe I just have to go to the bathroom. I wasn’t really a fan of the toilet situation in the holding cell.
“You need a shower,” Esther says. “You probably have prison cooties all over you.”
I hear the water running in the bathroom, and the idea of a shower does sound really good to me, but I feel like I’ve just been hit over the head with this overwhelming exhaustion. Trying to move my legs to walk to the bathroom is taking more effort than it should.
Sloan helps me with my clothes and gets a big fluffy towel and robe ready for me. I step into the steaming hot water, underneath the rainfall style showerhead and feel my body relaxing.
Like really really relaxing.
Like maybe not falling asleep relaxing, but my eyes are definitely closing and I’m laying on the floor.
“Ollie!” Sloan screams.
“Oh shit,” Esther says. I feel her cold hands on my face. I feel the water stop running. I feel my body sprawled out on the tile of the bathroom floor and the towel being wrapped around my body.
I’m awake, but I don’t feel like opening my eyes. I feel like I need to just rest here for a minute.
“Olive! Wake up!” Sloan says, shaking me.
“Leave me alone,” I mumble. “I’m fine.”
“You fainted,” Esther says. “You’re not fine.”
“Please,” I groan. “I just watched my boyfriend barehand damn near beat a man to death, and my other boyfriend shot him in the head. Then I went to jail for the weekend, where I was interrogated for hours straight. I think I’m allowed to faint. I’m fucking exhausted.”
“Well at least let me put you to bed,” Sloan says. “I’ll keep an eye on you, but if I think something isn’t right, I’m taking you to the hospital.”
“Fine,” I say. I go to lift myself up from the floor, but my stomach starts doing cartwheels. I drag myself to the toilet and promptly put my head inside to unload whatever is in it. Fortunately, chocolate milkshake tastes about the same coming up as it does going down.
“Olive,” Sloan says, holding my hair back as I continue to dry heave. “Did you get hit in the head?”
“Does my face count?” I ask, coming up for air.
“I don’t think that would give you a concussion.”
“Let me ask you this,” Esther says. “How do your boobs feel?”
I grab for my chest, confused. “They’re still there.”
“I mean, do they hurt?”
“I guess, but I haven’t had my period in awhile, so it’s probably that.”
The way they’re both staring at each other is making me uncomfortable.
“Sloan, you give me shots every year so I don’t have to worry about that!”
“Nothing is 100 percent effective, Olive. You should know that!”
“Apparently, one of those boys has some potent as fuck sperm,” Esther says, raising her eyebrows. “Or maybe when their powers combine, it turns into something so powerful that no birth control in the world can stop it.”
“You’re not making this better,” I whine. Still, I can’t help but laugh. “You’re sick, Esther.”
“And you’re pregnant,” she says, shrugging.
“I don’t think I am, but if I don’t get my period by tomorrow, I promise I’ll take a test.” It has been an overwhelming few days. Maybe now that the madness has settled down, my body is just finally also coming down from riding that crazy adrenaline high. I’m not trying to deny the possibility that I could be pregnant, but right now I don’t want to think about it.
All I want to think about is that fluffy looking queen bed with my name all over it. Sloan grabs my bag for me and I fish out my toothbrush and mouthwash. I wrap myself in the big warm robe and brush my teeth and splash some cold water on my face.
“I think I’m ready for a cheeseburger now,” I say as I join them in the hotel room.
“Well I got you three,” Sloan says, smiling and tossing me the take-out bag. “And fries.”
We spend the rest of the night watching shitty reality shows and talking about nothing. It feels really good. I think I’ve earned one night of irresponsibility with my girlfriends. They get me. Not another word is brought up about my potential new development, and instead, we’re just three normal chicks hanging out and having a ladies’ night. We’re not old ladies right now. Tomorrow I need to face the reality of what the future might hold, but right now, I’m happy being ignorant.
Chapter 28
Tank:
“Hello?” I whisper into the phone, my voice still hoarse with sleep. I don’t know what time it is, it’s still dark outside, and I don’t know why I’m sleeping on the couch. I don’t really know what I’ve been doing the last few days besides existing.
I do know Brooks is snoring away in Red’s room. My brothers haven’t left my side since Friday night. I think they think I’m going to kill m
yself. I’m suffering a fate much worse, though. Without Olive, I’m already dead. What we did to her, living with that, it’s the ultimate punishment. I don’t deserve to die. I need to live with this pain to make it up to her, even if she never speaks to me again.
“Hey,” she says, my heart skipping a beat when I realize it’s her voice I’m hearing. “I’m sorry, I turned my phone off. I couldn’t deal with it right now.”
“Where are you?” I ask. I need to see her. I need to make sure she’s alright. Our lawyer made us stay far away from the jail this weekend, and none of the guys would’ve let me near her, even if I tried.
“Sloan and Esther and I got a room for the night. We’re fine. I just wasn’t ready to come home yet. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. Don’t apologize ever again. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I miss you, Tank,” she says, and it sounds like she’s about to cry. I’d never admit it, but I’m about to, too. “I thought about you all weekend. I hope you know that.”
“Trust me, Olive, I couldn’t think of anything but you this weekend. Are you ok? Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine. I’m so exhausted I can’t sleep, hence the 3 a.m. phone call, but I’m fine.”
“I don’t care what time you call me, Olive. Hell, if you just want to put the phone on your pillowcase, I’ll stay awake all night and listen to you snore. I’m just really happy to hear from you.”
She’s silent for a moment, and I don’t know if she actually has dozed off or if she’s just trying to think of something to say. I don’t care either way. I’m just glad she’s speaking to me.
“I’m sorry your friend had to go away. I know how much he means to you.”
“He’s your friend, too, Olive. And he’s a grown man. He made some choices. He’ll be back, babe.”
“Yeah,” she whispers.
“Nothing has to change between you and me. Maybe things are going to be different, but the way I feel about you hasn’t changed since the day I met you. Nobody else can change that. That’s only you and me, and there’s nothing in the world you could do to make me care about you any less. Hell, I owe you my freedom right now. We all do.”