This night is not how I pictured it to be. I wanted to have a quiet night, watch a movie, have some ice cream, and sleep. The last few days have been long since I’m not used to the dragging hours of working in a bar. I’m not complaining, just stating a fact. This job is certainly not something for me, but my brother deserved a vacation and I had some free time.
Another thing I didn’t anticipate is Lochlan stalking into the bar. His mood changes when I’m around or he usually just leaves when he’s in the clubhouse or in Ramrod’s house when I come to visit my friend, Doll.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I’d end up with his dick shoved inside me with him snoring on top of me. Shit. I’m beat too, and with this hot man covering me, I let myself drift off to a comfortable sleep.
Stumbling wakes me up. I’m cold and when I scan the room, I notice Lochlan’s gone. Muffled sounds are coming from downstairs. Dammit. Did he leave and left the door open? I quickly throw on my robe and grab my phone as I slowly descend the stairs. Halfway down I notice Lochlan is sitting on the floor against the bar drinking straight out of a new bottle of whiskey.
What the hell is wrong with him? Carefully—without making a sound—I manage to go upstairs where I call the clubhouse. Glancing at the clock on the wall I notice it’s almost six in the morning.
“Kray,” a dark voice grunts on the other side.
“Hey. I have Ramrod’s bestie, drunk off his ass, in my bar and I need for one of you to come get him because I seriously think something’s wrong with him,” I ramble.
“Address,” the voice simply grunts.
How odd. “Don’t you need to know who I am or who Ramrod’s bestie is?”
“Lady, you called the clubhouse, you mentioned one of my brother’s names and how—I can imagine bestie is the female version of best friends—one of our own needs a ride ‘cause he’s drunk. And not to mention you said you think something’s wrong. I’d rather not waste time, now give me the address so I can bring him home.” All righty then. At least he stopped grunting and used normal words.
I rattle off the address and as soon as I do, the line disconnects. I repeat, how odd. Then again, these guys are always there for one another. I’ve seen with my own eyes how my best friend is treasured by her ol’man and it’s the same way with all of them, like one big happy family. I hear a loud bang and glass shattering downstairs. I slide my phone into the pocket of my robe and head downstairs.
Shit, it would have been smart to put on some shoes. It seems Lochlan threw the whiskey bottle against the wall where it shattered on impact. Lochlan is still sitting in the same spot except he’s holding his head in his hands. It pains me to see him like this. Clearly, he’s hurting and I have no idea why. To be honest, I don’t even know him other than the few glimpses I’ve seen over the past few weeks since he always leaves as soon as he sees me.
I tiptoe to the storage room and grab the broom. I’m halfway done cleaning up the mess when there’s a knock on the window. Luckily these guys all wear the same leather cut so I can open the door without worrying they’re going to harm me or rob me blind. Two guys stroll inside, and holy wow. Talk about a double tag team.
“What happened?” one guy questions as the other one trails his eyes all over me.
Suddenly I don’t feel as comfortable as I was with only having a robe covering me. I take a step back and, “Ouch, dammit,” I snap and hold my foot up. Before I know it, I’m swooped off my feet and carefully placed on a barstool.
One biker is crouched down, holding me by the ankle while inspecting my wound as the other rushes behind the bar and comes back with the first aid kit. Jeez, these guys work well together without words. The guy’s eyes trail up—the one who’s holding my foot—and a sly smile spreads his face. Suddenly I’m aware my leg is slightly raised, the dude is crouched down, and I’m only wearing a freaking robe. I’m totally flashing my goods here.
“Let go you pervert,” I snap and kick him in the shoulder while I shove the robe along with my hand between my legs.
Lochlan gives a war growl, jumps up and takes the guy down to the floor, his fist starts to fly through the air, landing punches on the guy I flashed.
“Fuck,” the other guy grunts while he tries to drag Lochlan off his buddy.
I’m seriously annoyed I don’t know these guys’ names.
“Stop!” I snap. “All of you stop. Lochlan, please.”
Lochlan stops midswing and let’s himself fall back on his ass. He points at the guy he was pounding on and grunts, “Touch her again, and die.” Then he just crumbles to the floor completely and passes out.
The guy—the one who’s still standing—is laughing his ass off.
“Hey!” I snap. “Stop it. And tell me your name so I can remember who I need to call and ask how he’s doing later today.”
“Kray,” the one who stops laughing tells me and stretches out his hand to pull his buddy up. “And this here is North.”
“Come on, ma’am, enough with the formal introductions. We need to wrap this up and get you to the ER. You need stitches. Kray, get Lochlan in the car and I’ll carry her.”
Kray grabs some bandages and quickly wraps up my foot.
“Wait! I’m not wearing any underwear!” I gasp as North scoops me up and starts to stalk to the door. “Keys! I need to have my keys to lock up.”
Ugh, all the yelling makes me feel less like myself. What a crazy night. No, wait, it’s early morning so last night was insane and now this new day is starting out even worse.
“Be careful with him,” I tell Kray in a stern voice that earns me a raised eyebrow from him in return.
When Kray finally parks in front of the ER, they both jump out and North scoops me up. They start to walk away but clearly, they’re insane.
“You can’t leave him, one of you needs to stay here with him.” I try to wiggle free, I can’t leave Lochlan. “What if he wakes up again? He did when he slept on top of me and went downstairs to drink more and we all saw how that ended.”
“He slept on top of you?” North glances at Kray and they share a look. “We’ll be right back,” North tells Kray, and leaves him to stay with the car.
“He’ll be right back! I can get a cab home,” I tell Kray over North’s shoulder.
“Not happening, pretty one. We picked Lochlan up from your place. He fought a brother to stop him from touching you, and you stood up for him three times now. We need to make sure you’re taken care of,” North simply states.
These two guys are very annoying. Even after a few hours—and lots of stitches and bandages later—we finally get to the clubhouse. This time Kray is dead set on carrying me inside because North explained to Kray how the doctor told me not to put pressure on the wound for the next couple of days to let it heal.
I hate the stitches and hate even more I can’t stand on it and have to give it time to let it heal. I had an audition scheduled the day after tomorrow for a huge part in a musical. One I can now kiss goodbye for sure. Not to mention I am bar-sitting for my brother. But I still had my phone in my robe pocket so I texted Faith.
Shit, Doll. Still getting used to calling her Doll instead of her given name, but ever since she met Ramrod, he’s called her Doll and with it everyone else is sticking with Doll. Anyway...I’m happy to see her standing in front of the clubhouse.
“What the hell, Xena?” she scolds and it actually makes me cringe.
“Help me out here, Doll.” I sigh. “I need you to tell these overgrown muscles I can handle myself perfectly fine and then give me a ride to my brother’s house so I can make a few calls to have the bar covered tonight.”
Ramrod is giving North a hand with dragging Lochlan, who’s still out cold from all the booze he consumed, out of the car.
Doll’s eyes widen. “What did you do to him?”
“Great,” I mutter, “good to know you’re on my side of things, being my bestie and all...me being the one with the stitches.”
Doll’s head tips back a
nd she laughs, dammit.
“Oh, shut up, we both know you’re the one in the center when something happens,” Doll snickers.
“I really didn’t do anything,” I mutter again and suddenly the events of the last few hours—and lack of sleep—come crushing in, making me snap at her. “Just get me to my brother’s place, okay? These bozos won’t let me leave their sight.”
“Don’t snap at my ol’lady,” Ramrod growls. “I’ll drive you home when I’ve dragged Lochlan to his room.”
“She can’t go, look at her foot.” Doll points at the thing attached to me as it is starting to painfully throb. Dammit, they weren’t kidding when they said I needed to keep it raised.
“I’m going. The only thing I’m wearing is the bandage around my foot and a freaking robe. I. Am. Going. The hell. H. O. M. E.”
“Correction, to your brother’s home. You know, because you don’t have one of those home thingies.” Leave it to my best friend to shoot me an all-knowing smile, showing how she isn’t affected at all by my little outburst and instead rubs my current situation back in my face for her own amusement.
“Whatever,” I grumble.
I want to be by myself and catch up on some sleep after I’ve made sure I can actually keep my foot up the next few days. I don’t want to call my brother—no need to cut his vacation short—he needs and mostly deserves a break from work. Dammit.
And she’s also right about me not having a house. I tend to move from time to time, just grab my personal stuff and move on, fresh start and all. I’m not tied to anything and only have myself to care for; just the way I like it.
“Come on, put her in the car, I’ll drive.” Ramrod walks out of the clubhouse and addresses Kray who’s still holding me. Me. As if I weigh nothing. Well, I might be tall but I’m thin so it balances it out some. I’m not used to being carried around—not like the swift lifts during dancing on the stage anyway—and it all adds to the screwed-up day I’m having.
Kray helps me get inside their car and I can’t help but snap, “You’d better keep an eye on him.” I don’t need to add Lochlan’s name for Kray to know who I’m talking about.
Kray gives a nod and grabs his phone to hold it out to me. “Put your number in there and I’ll send you a text when he wakes up.”
I quickly do as he says before we finally head to my brother’s house. I can’t help but wonder what went on in Lochlan’s head. Something’s up, that’s for sure...and not even his brothers seem to have an idea. This makes worry flare up inside me even more. I have to let it go, though. He’s not mine. We’re not even friends. Besides, I have bigger things to deal with right now...taking care of my foot being one of those.
Chapter 03
***Lochlan***
If my head wasn’t bound to explode any damn second, I’d rush to the bathroom and try to puke my guts out. But I hate puking. And I hate booze even more. I never fucking drink more than a beer or two. Twice a year more than a bottle of stronger shit to drown myself in the misery my life will always be wrapped up in.
Today is Harmony’s birthday—my usual drinking day—and now I fucking can’t because of the way I feel. Dammit, this hangover is kicking my ass; I’ll never fucking drink ever again.
Harmony. Not the name I’d pick for my daughter but it wasn’t like I had a choice. Her mother didn’t even allow me to have a say in any of it. She just needed my sperm—without me knowing—because she wanted a kid.
I never wanted kids. I actually threw up when Melody told me she was pregnant. Melody. Harmony. I mentioned I didn’t have any say in anything, right? Yeah. A meaningless one-night stand turned into a connection for life. Young and stupid, not prepared for tricks desperate woman do to obtain something for their own stinking self-benefit.
But Harmony did turn out to be my fucking everything...until I lost everything. The memory makes bile rise up into my throat and I stride into the bathroom to empty my stomach. Fucking memories...a love hate thing. A never-ending loop of heart pull.
It’s the reason I don’t date—I might flirt and keep up appearances around my brothers—but I don’t want an ol’lady and for fucking sure never shove my...fuck. The mere thought of sliding my cock inside a woman’s pussy brings out an overwhelming feeling of comfort. Almost realistic, a memory. I fall back on my ass and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, closing my eyes for a brief instant.
The vision of Xena stretched out underneath me, naked, flashes before my eyes and again my cock tingles with the reminder of being wrapped in the tightest, and hottest, pussy. Impossible. I’d never do something that stupid. It didn’t happen, my mind is playing tricks on me. It’s Xena, she’s got me all in fucking knots. The first damn woman who rises shit inside me I not only repel, but don’t fucking need or will ever give into.
Not normally. But shit...the fucking whiskey. I groan and hold on to my head and again a vivid image appears where I take one of her breasts in my hand. In my mouth, my cock shoving deep...then nothing. Fuck.
No memory of wrapping up, I don’t even carry fucking condoms and I’m pretty sure the feeling of entering her body isn’t a fragment of my imagination. I went to her brother’s bar. I remember her being there...dammit, the whiskey is making shit blurry.
Today of all days, fucking hell. I gotta head over to her and make sure she takes a morning after pill, even if she tells me we used a condom. One can never trust women; I learned that the hard way with Melody. Hence the reason I made sure it won’t ever happen again.
Though I’m pretty sure I didn’t use a condom. Even if the chance is very fucking tiny—more like one in a billion—since nothing is ever a hundred percent safe. Because if the unthinkable happens...again...that’s on me, I’ll take full responsibility. But I can’t even remember having sex. This is bad. Again, I groan at my own stupidity. I knew this woman would be trouble, I fucking knew it.
From the moment I laid eyes on Xena when she came to check on her best friend, Doll, I knew she’d be the kind of trouble I don’t need in my fucked-up life. Doll’s a nice person though, and even when she had all the odds against her, there was something about her that made me step up and give her some of my trust.
Turns out, I was right and Doll could be trusted. Like all the other ol’ladies in this club. These are the only women who have my complete respect and trust. Something I don’t give easily. I stepped up for Doll because my gut told me she could be trusted. Like how my gut is telling me now Xena will be a woman who can shake my heart on its foundation. Not something I’ll ever fucking need.
I’ve slept like the dead for hours. I check the time and notice it’s ten at night. Great, a whole day wasted. I take a quick shower, some painkillers, and leave my room fully dressed and head for my bike.
Once I’m on the road and heading for Xena, I notice in the rearview mirror both Kray and North are following me. Nothing I can do about it right now, and maybe it’s just a coincidence. Meanwhile my mind is racing about what to say when I get there. Going to be one hell of a weird conversation, that’s for damn sure.
I manage to park my bike and enter the bar before Kray and North get off their bikes. Not a coincidence...they were following me. Damn, makes me wonder what the hell went on last night since I also had a flashback of punching North and my knuckles show they had some action. Not something I want to go into, I have more important shit to deal with right now.
There are a few people sitting at the bar and some more at the tables alongside the walls. It’s quite busy. I give a nod to the bouncer who’s eying me with his arms crossed in front of his chest. I bet many guys would be intimidated, for damn sure I ain’t one of them.
A glimpse of fiery red hair catches my attention and I notice Xena serving some dude a beer. She gives the man a smile, one that doesn’t reach her eyes and when I get closer, I can tell she’s hiding pain. Don’t ask me how I know, I just do. It’s one of my many talents to notice people’s emotions through the tiny tells in a face or how one holds their body.
And she’s been around the clubhouse many times visiting her friend. I’d always stay in the background with my eyes pinned on her. Until she’d notice me, then I’d hightail out, avoiding any contact.
Xena stumbles but catches herself. More fucking pain laces her face and it makes anger take root inside my veins. I slam my hand on top of the counter, catching her attention. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Okay, wrong of me to throw it out like this, but cutting right to the bullshit and into the ‘get to the bottom of it’ is something we both need.
“I could ask you the same question,” she spits back.
“Lochlan, come on, man...take it easy,” Kray says from behind me.
“Yes, listen to Kray, take it easy.” Her gaze slides to Kray. “Why didn’t you keep him at the clubhouse? And why didn’t you text me?”
Text her? Kray’s got her number? What the hell? Dismissing this tiny piece of information for now, I growl, “Hey, I’m talking to you, answer the damn question. Why the fuck are you in pain?”
“It’s none of your business, now leave. I have customers waiting,” she snaps and is about to step away.
I can’t let her and wrap my fingers around her wrist. “I’m not done talking to you.” I lean over the bar and lower my voice. “Did we fuck? Did we use a condom? Either way, you need to get the morning after pill, just to be sure.”
“To answer your questions—and be done with this discussion—no, not exactly. No, and no. Trust me, there’s no need for me to take a morning after pill. Now I’m telling you nicely for the last damn time...Get. The. Motherfucking hell. Out of here.”
“Not before I see you take...wait, what do you mean not exactly?”
She groans and shakes her head. “You don’t remember,” her voice drops to a whisper, “you shoved it in there and fell asleep.”
Great. Not counting I failed my ego stroking reputation that links with my damn appearance—guaranteed and able to prevail—I can’t even vividly remember shoving my cock inside the woman who knocks me off my damn rocker.
Lochlan (Broken Deeds MC, #5) Page 2