“So damn much I should have been there for,” he growled out. “I know it’s my fault, but damn it Jamie, it kills me to think you were going to have a child of your own and I didn’t know. Then to hear you lost it, and you’re struggling with that loss still. Jesus.”
I took a moment to fill my dad in on my daughter, and how far along I’d been when I lost her, as well as the complications afterward. He actually shed tears, right there in front of anyone who cared to watch, and that in itself – more so than the grief I still felt for my daughter’s loss – gutted me.
Once we got ourselves pulled back together, my father hugged me close again, and whispered in my ear. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t the father you needed after your mom passed. Please, take my advice now though. Don’t hold my shit against Sweet, Jamie. He’s a better man than I was. I pushed in the wrong way before, but I did it because it was obvious you both belonged to one another.”
I hugged him back tightly and discreetly wiped away the traitor of a tear that dared slip from my watery eyes. I could feel my dad’s body shake beneath me as he chuckled at my using him as a tissue.
When I moved away from him, Leanne was beaming at us both and looking more appreciatively at my dad. Oh boy! My mom always used to say the man could charm snakes. No doubt it was true and now Leanne appeared to be falling under his spell. I guess I couldn’t hold it against her these days.
Deciding I needed to behave more like the president of an MC that I was, and less like a crybaby, I moved away after grabbing a drink.
Mingling in a crowd full of Aces High guys was both entertaining and enlightening. One in particular seemed fairly smitten with me. He was either watching me closely or immersing himself into conversations I started with other people. Actually, I was in the middle of telling Crusher, the Tallahassee President, about our security business when Sandman walked up once more. Sandman was an enforcer for a small chapter of Aces near the beach in South Carolina. He struck me as possible former military with the way he carried himself. He was also one of the few men here with shorn hair and a clean shave. His vibrant blue eyes twinkled in my direction once again, while that smirk of his kicked up a notch when he noticed me watching him right back. It was a cute smirk, if you were into that sort of think. One side of his mouth seemed to perpetually be slightly higher than the other, and coupled with the mischievous glint in his eyes, it made him damn near irresistible. At the very least, he was hard to look away from.
“Damn girl, I’d love to sit down with you and go over your business plan some time. We’ve been branching out into more legit businesses, or trying to, since that last dust up we had. We have a bunch of guys who operate as bouncers at local clubs, but I like the idea of becoming hired muscle, and looking into the security sector better.”
“Recruit the right people for the jobs. Former military seem to have the perfect work ethic, demeanor, and air of legitimacy needed to make clients feel secure.” I glanced at Sandman who was now beaming at me. “I have a few vets working at Redemption Inc., but also a few beefy civilian guys who were struggling to make ends meet as private investigators and skip tracers before coming to work for us.” I smiled back over at Crusher as I explained who was in my employ. “I’m not sure what your crew looks like these days, or if you have any who could handle the professionalism needed. It does help if you have a few who look a bit more clean cut like him,” I nodded at Sandman who was still standing there entirely focused on me. Crusher tipped his chin to him, and then just grinned at the man when he was completely oblivious to the gesture.
“Looks like I’m not the only one interested in your business plan,” Crusher teased.
“Nah,” Sandman finally acknowledged him briefly before locking his gaze with mine once more. “I’m interested in the whole package. Had I known there was such a fine prize waiting here to be collected in the mountains I would have accepted the offer to be Prez here months ago when Ghost first offered it.”
The presence suddenly crowding in behind me was unmistakable even before the rough timbre of his voice vibrated through me and sent gooseflesh out to pepper across my skin. “Damn shame on all counts for you then, Sandman,” Sweet announced with far too much cocky confidence considering I’d shot him down in the bathroom a couple hours ago.
“That so, Sweet?” Sandman asked in an amused tone. “I don’t even have to take an officer position to know I’d travel here for a chance with you, sweetheart.” Sandman’s attention was once again fully tuned in to me at that point. The growl emanating from the man behind me had Sandman glancing up and over my shoulder. He cocked a brow. “I asked around. I was under the impression you were a free woman?” It was both a statement and a question as the man’s gaze settled on me once again. I didn’t get a chance to answer though as a large, warm hand splayed out across my hip, pulling me back into his body.
“Angel Girl belongs with me. She’s her own woman with her own club, so she doesn’t get patched like a traditional old lady would, but make no mistake, she’s had my heart from the moment I saw her almost nine years ago.”
At that both Crusher and Sandman’s brows rose. Then Crusher looked pissy. “Eight years, huh? You were just down my way a couple months ago, and again last year.” The implication of what he’d been doing when he was visiting the other club was clear. It was also scandalous in the biker world for him to call that out in front of a supposed claimed woman. Sweet didn’t miss a beat though.
“We weren’t together then,” he admitted.
Sandman chose to ignore their interaction and regarded me closer. I wasn’t sinking back into Sweet’s embrace, but I also wasn’t denying his claim. His claim. Sweet just claimed me, and told two prominent figures in his MC, along with anyone else in earshot, that I’d had his heart for almost nine years. He’d had mine too. There was no denying the feelings we both had. The only thing standing in our way was my fear, and our shitty history with other people interfering in our relationship. My fear was based around other people’s lies for the most part. What my heart felt when I saw him, when he was near, those were things based in truth. Our truth. It was time I listened to my heart and not everyone around me or the confused ramblings going on in my head. Him and I deserved a real chance, knowing everything that we both finally knew. I leaned back allowing myself to finally melt into Sweet’s body while his arms twined around my midsection and held on tight.
“We had a bumpy road, a private one, to get here. We are together now, though.” I felt his finger flex harder against my stomach as I spoke. Then his lips were resting near my ear as he ducked his head closer to mine.
“We need to talk,” he whispered out before placing a kiss on my neck just behind my ear and letting up on the hold he had tightened when he spoke.
Crusher smiled then. “I get it. My old lady gave me hell for a while too. Didn’t want to be owned by the biker lifestyle.” He chuckled then. “That’s one hell of a woman you’ve got there, Sweet. I’m assuming the two of you coming together will mean a merger of sorts between the two clubs concerned?”
I flinched at that. I hoped that wasn’t why my father and Sweet had been trying so hard to mend fences of late. “No,” Sweet announced. “Sierra High Evermore operates just fine on their own. I’m sure no one in Aces would object, because they’d be nothing but an asset to us, but they’re completely independent. They’ll remain so unless the girls collectively decide on something different one day.” My father had wound his way over to us by then, and had caught the tail end of the conversation.
“My daughter’s club will be an ally. Nothing more. She worked damn hard to build it from the ground up, and made it more successful in just a few years than some of our long running chapters. Fact is, she didn’t need us to accomplish it and certainly doesn’t need us to maintain it.” He smiled at me and then Sweet. “We’ll be there at her back if she ever needs us though.
“Ghost,” Crusher nodded. “You have a brilliant girl. I was just picking her brain about th
e security business she operates.”
Ghost laughed. “Yeah, she has that shit on lock down. They run a tight, very lucrative, ship over there.” My dad glanced at Sandman with a bit of his own smirk then. “Sandman, feeling a little pang of regret about not taking the job now?”
The man simply shrugged his shoulders. “Seems I would have been too late for the perks anyway.”
“Nah,” my dad laughed. “They’ve been apart for seven damn years. Just found each other again when Sweet had to come set Peety straight after you refused the job.” My father’s taunt had the desired effect. The man bristled realizing he really could have had a chance if he’d accepted Ghost’s offer. “Could have saved me that headache with Peety too.” My dad shrugged it off then. “Maybe next time I make you an offer you won’t be so quick to shoot it down.” With that he tossed a gleeful look towards Sweet and I before sauntering away. Sweet’s arm pulled me tighter to his body once more as he noticed Sandman looking my way regretfully again.
“Crusher, you can continue to pick Angel Girl’s brain later. Right now, she and I have some business to discuss,” Sweet informed the man.
“Sure,” the man offered with a chuckle as he turned and slapped a hand to Sandman’s shoulder. “Easy come, easy go, brother. Let’s go grab a drink and you can check out the club pussy to dull that heartache.”
“Fuck off!” Sandman grumbled as he allowed Crusher to turn him towards the bar.
“You just claimed me,” I told Sweet.
“I did.” He grinned as I turned in his arms and stood watching him for a moment. “I know we still have a lot to work out, but I’d rather not do it with others involved. Outside influence always seemed to be the downfall of our relationship. Besides, I know how you feel based on our complicated history, but I think it would be harder to work through that if either of us were entertaining outside interests with other people.” He glanced at Sandman who had just made himself cozy at the bar with a few of the guys.
“Oh, yeah, you mean like your girlfriend in the bathroom? The one you allowed to wrap her body around you the morning after we finally got together for the first time?” I could see the frustration written on his face as he blew out a breath. I held up my hand to stop him from saying anything. “I know, you’ve already explained yourself. It doesn’t change how it made me feel to see that. Fair or not, I can’t just turn that kind of hurt off. It doesn’t work like that. So, I agree, we need to not have any other distractions while we figure each other out. You need to be really honest with me, and let me know if that’s possible from your end though. Whether or not it’s a misunderstanding, if I walk in on – or hear about – another situation like that, I’ll be done. I’ve had one too many heartaches because of women I’ve seen or heard about with you when we were supposed to be together, or on our way to being together. I can’t handle any more of that shit.”
Sweet scrubbed his hands down his face. “I already told you about what I had going on before I found you again. It was a whole bunch of nothing, Jamie. There was really only one chick that I’d been seeing exclusively for all of about a couple weeks when I left to go on runs and didn’t come back.”
“Alice?” I asked thinking it had to be her since she was the one that came here for him.
“No. Her name was Becca. I had been seeing her and Alice for a couple years on and off. I was also with other women at the time, because none of them ever had me. You feel?”
“But you almost settled down with Becca?”
“Only because I was tired of all the random hookups. It sure as fuck wasn’t because I was in love with her or anyone else over the years that you were gone. Look, I want us to figure this out. We were robbed of seven years because of someone’s lies though, so I need you to promise me that you’ll come to me first if you do hear some bullshit. I can’t help what other people may say or do out of jealousy or for whatever other petty reason. Alice coming here was a good example of that. I haven’t even touched that girl since November of last year, but she would have had you believe it was last night. I can’t make sure you know the truth if you aren’t talking to me though. I promise no lies, only the truth from here on out. I promise it is only you while we figure this out, and if we decide this is what we both want, it will only ever be you.”
“I agree. You’re right about that. We never should have had those seven years taken away. That was my fault.” It hurt deep down inside to admit that, not just to myself, but also out loud for the first time ever. I had allowed my ex-best friend to take my man and my family from me. I’d let her take it all, because I couldn’t bring myself to confront the one person who could have set it all straight. I may have only lost a friend to her bullshit, but instead everything else I lost was on me and my dumb, impetuous decision. If I was ever going to forgive Sweet for his perceived part in our demise, I had to be able to forgive myself for my part too.
“We’re a damn mess,” I finally admitted. Sweet pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me, planting a small kiss on the top of my head once more.
“We’ll figure it all out, sugar, I promise,” Sweet murmured into my hair. “Come on, let’s get you a drink for now. We can spend a little while longer here with everyone before we leave to start working our shit out.”
“Yeah, sounds good.” Sweet walked us over to the bar and snagged us both a beer, handing me one before sitting down. We each took a stool, and just quietly watched the goings on for a few moments. It didn’t take long before Miranda, one of the S.H.E. Riding Club members, came sashaying and twitching her ass over to where we sat.
She was looking for all the world like a two-bit hooker with her overdone makeup and barely-there clothing. The bottom of her ass cheeks were visible from the belt she was wearing as a skirt, and I was fairly certain she had a little nipple slipping out from the side of the bathing suit she was using as a shirt. It was fucking April in north Georgia, not exactly bathing suit weather. Sadly, the tiny jacket draped across her arms, and slipping down her shoulders had our patch on it. I was embarrassed for her, and because she was associated with my club that meant I had to be embarrassed for the way she was conducting herself in front of another club too. She was making herself look more like a club whore than a club member, and it was ticking me off. I decided to just sit back and see how this played out though.
Miranda offered me a cursory glance before putting on a wide smile for Sweet. I knew all the flirting he’d done at my clubhouse would come back to bite me, now us, in the ass. And here she was, chomping at the bit to get to my man. I stunned myself with that admission, and wondered if he really could be my man one day if we managed to work everything out.
“Hey Sweet. You’re looking lonely over here,” as she said it I watched her eyes try not to shift to me. Sweet just stared at her with a mask of indifference on his face while reaching back to the bar for his beer. He took a sip as she started to trail a fingertip up his jeans-clad thigh.
“That’s funny, I know you saw Angel Girl and me sitting here together, and I don’t think many people here missed our interactions over the past hour or so. She’s your club president, right?”
Miranda straightened, glanced at me again, and then brought her attention back to Sweet. “I’m pretty sure Angel Girl is a dyke. I figured you were being brotherly to her.” I quirked up an eyebrow at her statement while Sweet huffed out a surprised laugh.
“You have no sense of self preservation, do you, girl?” Sweet asked a still clueless Miranda. I reached over and tapped the S.H.E. RC member patch she wore on her jacket.
“You need to rip that patch off your jacket and turn it in.” My tone was even and business-like. Once the words were out of my mouth I picked up my beer again and took another swig of it while keeping my eyes on the woman.
“W-what?” Miranda’s eyes had gone wide then.
“No loyalty, no patch.” I expanded on the reason for her needing to remove it.
“B-but what did I do?”
“You can’t be that stupid!” I looked up to see JoJo standing not far off watching the whole scene play out. She moved in closer so as not to draw any further attention. “You insult our prez, her sexuality, and try hitting on her man in front of both of their clubs? Fucking idiot!” I normally didn’t care much for JoJo. Something about her rubbed me the wrong way, but I watched with pride as she pulled a knife out of one of her cargo pockets and started stripping Miranda’s patch off of her jacket for her. “The door is over there,” JoJo pointed when she was done. Miranda’s eyes welled up with tears.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
“Yes, you did!” I finally said. “See your way out.”
“I’m surprised you waited so long to take care of that,” Sweet said to me.
JoJo snickered. “That was your mess. Angel was waiting to see how you would handle cleaning it up.” I smiled at JoJo then, because she got it. She was damned perceptive, that girl.
“My mess?” Sweet asked clueless.
“Did you think you could blow into my clubhouse, flirt with every single woman there, and have no blow back when you finally pulled your head out of your ass? We’ve already had to eighty-six several of our members thanks to your antics when you first got here.”
Sweet blanched, wincing as he sat his beer to the side. “Fuck,” he hissed out. “No wonder we had to spend seven years apart. When I fuck shit up, I go big.” I shrugged at his response.
“Whatever. You did us a favor, and tested loyalties that hadn’t been put to any real tests yet.”
“Still, she won’t be the only one to try that shit, will she?”
“Nope!” I stated before draining the rest of my beer.
“Okay, no worries, I’ve got this.” Sweet stood and yelled out to everyone. “Listen up!” Once he had everyone’s undivided attention he launched into his proclamation. “This here is my woman! Any of you guys fuck with her, and you deal with me. Any of you bitches even think you compare, I’ll leave it to Angel Girl to show you why you don’t. And trust me, you don’t.”
Angel Girl (S.H.E. Book 1) Page 19