"Open the fucking door, Peaches."
Unable to form words, I just shook my head, once. No way in hell.
"Don't make me fucking smash this window."
I could tell from how he was holding himself he would do it. He was seconds away from acting on those words.
Slowly I pushed the door open, not attempting to move a muscle to actually get out of the car though.
"What the fuck, Peaches? Why are you sleeping in your car, AGAIN, in the fucking church parking lot?" Unable to form any words, all I could do was stare at him. Why did he care so damned much? "You need to use words before I fucking smash something."
"Why do you care?"
"What fucking happened?"
"Huh?"
"Pinky said you…"
"He said what?" my voice was the one getting louder now, and I couldn't stop myself from getting out of the car, standing in front of him as he staggered backward. This time anger was pouring off of me and not him.
"Wanna tell me what you and Molly talked about?" Molly? God, was that her name? I didn't want to know that, somehow it made everything worse.
"Why don't you ask her?"
Snorting "Peaches, I spend more time making sure I don't have to speak to her than be around her"
"But…"
Raising one brow, he was goading me into finishing that sentence without saying a damned word.
"She's your girlfriend."
Blowing out a breath, he looked down at me, and I could literally see the anger evaporating. "That's what she tells people," casting his eyes across the street as a couple of men, who looked more than drunk, stumbled along the sidewalk.
"What do you mean by that? Is it not true?"
Clearing his throat, "It's not untrue, but I have never, we ain't ever been on a date, and I sure as shit haven't been calling her my girlfriend, ever" the way he was looking at me, I knew it was true. But what did that make me?
So, what, they just slept together?
That thought alone was enough to make my stomach churn the same way it did when those pills had been in my system.
"You slept with me."
"You slept with me when you failed to tell me you no longer had a boyfriend, either," his face twisted in disgust.
How did he know I had ended things with Brandon?
"How?"
"Your little friend told Pinky," Claire? When had she seen him?
Something told me things were going on that my best friend was not telling me about. Her and Pinky? I couldn't even, no, actually, I totally could see it. Why had she kept it from me, though? I suppose I had myself to blame, though. I'd been ignoring her calls and texts lately. When did she even have the opportunity to tell me?
"Why are you here?"
Rolling his eyes, he went to take a step towards me but stopped, "You think I am about to let you sleep out here?"
"You don't get to tell me what to do."
"Get back in the fucking car."
"What?"
"We're going back."
"To the clubhouse?"
"Yep, I ain't about to let you sleep out here, Peaches."
Why did he care so god damned much?
Remembering the threat, that she had given me, I shrank back, leaning against the cool metal of my car next to the open door.
"What the fuck did she say to you, Peaches?" Swallowing the excessive saliva, I stayed silent. There was no way I could go back there, not tonight. "You better start speaking NOW."
"I can't go back, Ash."
"Why?" Coming closer, he left an inch between us as he slammed a hand down on the metal beside my shoulder. "Peaches?"
"I can't go back to the clubhouse."
"Yes, you can."
The threat that Molly had given me meant I couldn't agree.
"You've been avoiding me" Dropping his eyes, he suddenly became mute. He didn't even attempt to deny it. Son of a bitch. "Why, because of her?"
"No," dropping his eyes to the same level as mine, he added, "Because I'm a fuck up and there are things…"
"Things?"
"Home. Now." Was all he said before crashing his lips down onto mine. I pushed my hands against his hard chest but ignoring me, he pressed me harder againt the car.
Entering the clubhouse bar, all eyes were on us. It was close to ten, and most of them were already five sheets to the wind. The raven-haired woman, Molly, stood on shaky legs clutching a bottle of beer in her hand. Pure anger in her eyes, directed right at me.
Ignoring her, Ashby just continued to drag me along with him towards the bedrooms. The crowd in the bar parted like the freaking Red Sea.
"Ash?" I tried to get him to slow down, but he ignored me and continued to drag me along with him. Once we got to the hall and there was no one else here he dropped my hand, opening the door to his room he turned back to me. Standing there, just looking down at me, he said one word, one annoying word "Stay" he dropped all three duffle bags he had been holding in just one hand, down at my feet.
"I'm not a dog, Ash."
Smirking, he rephrased his words "Wait, here" before turning on his heel and storming back to the bar, each step sounded like a clap of thunder.
Unable to stop myself, I followed him. Watching as everyone turned to watch what was about to go down.
Molly shrank back a little when she realized that he was coming for her. She knew that whatever had been between them before, well, it better be fucking over, or I would be the one walking back out of this bar. And this time, he would not be able to get me to come back by kissing me. Even if his kisses were intoxicating.
Stopping right in front of her, he dropped a hand on each side, caging her in against the mahogany bar. She had no escape. I was too far away to hear what was being said. Finding myself moving unconsciously, I watched as Pinky and Maxi both raised their brows in my direction before turning back to the show.
"Wanna explain that Molly" I had never heard his voice this dark before. It sent unpleasant shivers down my spine "'cause I am sure as shit I ain't ever had an actual girlfriend before. We may fuck, a lot, but you need to get this straight" dropping down to an almost whisper, he spoke closely to her ear so no one else in the room could hear a word that was being said. The fear on her face said everything, though. She was about two seconds from either slapping him across his handsome face or bursting into tears. Actually, maybe both.
Backing away from her, he almost knocked me to the ground as he turned. "I thought I told you to wait out in the hall."
Shrugging my shoulders, I was a second away from making some kind of a sarcastic comment when he grabbed me roughly with both hands, digging those fingers into my flesh before crashing his lips down onto mine again, just like when we had been against my car.
Molly gasped, so loudly that I thought something had happened, breaking the kiss and looking around the room, which was suddenly silent, apart from the jukebox. "Why is everyone staring at us like that?"
Quirking a brow, he didn't answer my question. Instead, he all but dragged me back to his bedroom before slamming the door shut, leaving us alone.
Peaches was sleeping in my arms, in my bed. A bed that no other person had ever slept in, apart from me. She was changing everything in my life, everything inside of me, and I was going to let her. No matter what others had to say in the god damned matter. I would leave, just like Harley, if I had too. Nala was all that mattered to me now, and I was not about to let her go just because of him, because of Weston. Even if he was who he was. My job was to protect her now, no matter what.
She began to stir in my arms, waking from her sleep.
"Ash?" Her voice full of sleep and as she stretched her naked body pressed firmly into mine. Not daring to speak, I simply pressed a kiss into her hair as her fingers began exploring the tattoos covering my arm, the club tattoo.
"Why would you have to get this covered?" I knew she was referring to Harley. The blacked-out club tattoo he had on his own forearm.
"The
pres of the club, back in the fifties, ruled that if a member of the crew left, they would have their club tattoo blacked out," her fingers continued to move, tracing the cross. "In the eighties, the then pres changed the rule, the one we live with to this very day. If you leave the club, circumstances depending, of course, but stay in the town and stay associated with the club, then you didn't have to black it out."
"But?"
"But," I sighed, tightening my arms around her. "If you leave town, then you have too.”
"Is that what happened to Mr. Bronx, to Harley, he left town, so he had to have his blacked out?"
"There's a lot more to his story, but yeah, he left town," I said, leaving it at that. It was not my story to tell.
"Would you?" confused by her question, she continued to speak, "Would you leave town if you had too?"
Taking a moment to think, I told her the truth, "If it meant protecting you, then yeah, I would," I said with a hundred percent certainty. Without a second thought, I would be over that border and gone before anyone would be able to do anything about it. For a second, the idea of doing that right now, this very second crossed my mind. It would fix everything, taking her away from here, with me. Everything that had happened with Harley cleared for me in that very second, I understood why he had done what he had back then.
Lifting her chin, she didn't speak; instead, she kissed me deeply.
Breaking the kiss I couldn't stop myself from saying, "Last night when you asked why everyone was staring when I kissed you, why she reacted that way….."
I could tell that she wanted to speak, but she kept silent, just looking up at me with those big, pale green eyes. Questions swimming in them.
"They call me Stag because I was always alone, craved to be, and apart from… shit, apart from fucking I had never had so much as a friendship outside of the crew. I don't, didn't, ever want anything else, before you".
"Why?"
Shrugging my shoulder, I didn't know how to answer that. All I knew is that there was this pull to her, one that I was going to let happen. No matter where it took me.
"I don't get close to girls, hell I never" why was this so god damned difficult? "Fuck Peaches, I ain't ever kissed a girl before you."
"What?" She sounded shocked, far more shocked than I wanted her to be.
"The thought of…. I didn't want that connection with anyone" fucking was one thing but kissing. Hell, that was something else entirely.
Clearing my throat, I felt almost fucking vulnerable "Come on," I went to move, but she held me down, well as much as her small, naked body could.
She didn't have to say a word because I could see everything in her eyes that she wanted to say. She was falling as hard as I was.
"Get dressed, its time I made you some of my pancakes," kissing the tip of her nose "You're my girl, Nala Reeves."
"Yo' Stag," a dirty oil covered rag was thrown in my face, blocking my view from that sack of shit Skinny, as I walked out of the clubhouse.
"What the fuck, man?" My eyes stayed on the rag that had now fallen to the ground at my feet. Peaches was inside reading or some shit.
"You are one dirty son of a bitch” he clicked his tongue "Always wanted a cheerleader when I was in high school."
"'cuse you?" Moving towards him, my fists curled, ready to take a swing at the motherfucker.
"Shit, look, I was joking," holding his hands up in surrender, backing away as fear filled every ounce of his body. Good.
"Next time, I will make you bleed."
Slowly raising my eyes, he shrank back and the fear shining out of them.
"Jesus, kid," Maxi eyed me as he walked out of the bar behind me "You get a girlfriend, and now you're going to knock every one of these fuckers heads off who make so much as a comment about her?”
"Damn straight."
Stepping into the parlor, I was shocked to see my Uncle leaning against the counter, no sign of my best friend insight.
The sound of a tattoo gun buzzing in the air told me that he was in the back. Scarring someone's flesh with one of his designs.
"Alright?" Nodding my head at him, I sunk into the red velvet armchair by the door.
For a moment, he stayed silent, as though he was thinking about the words he wanted to say, "It true?"
"Is what true?"
"You and the girl?"
"Peaches?"
"I was actually talking about Molly. Heard you had a showdown with her the other night".
"Word travels fast, thought you and Marilyn were busy?"
"Ears in the walls, son," he winked "No matter where I am, I know everything that happens in my fucking club. Plus, Marilyn is with her right now" sometimes, it was easy to forget that they were sisters. Polar opposites if there ever was one.
"She was spreading bullshit, had to put her place."
"Finally," he winked again, with an approving nod, "She's real young" now I knew he was referring to Peaches.
"And?"
"Just be careful."
"You saying that for my benefit or hers?"
"Both," slapping a firm hand on my shoulder, "You'll do the right thing, even if Weston……" and then he just left me sitting there. Every part of me wanted to get back to the clubhouse, where she was, but I had business to deal with first. We all did.
It was too quiet.
Dropping my cell phone onto Ash's bed after sending a message to Claire, the sense of uneasiness continued to fill me.
In the short time I had been around these people, around The Unholy Confession bikers, I had never known it to be this quiet, not at this time of day at least. Ashby had gone to the parlor to deal with some business with Pinky. Maybe that was why it was so quiet, perhaps they had all gone there too, for some kind of club business?
Looking down at my cell one last time, I huffed. Annoyed that Claire had not responded to me as quickly as she had been. I knew that she was keeping something from me, that something was going on between her and Pinky. What I couldn't work out though was why was she keeping it from me, her best friend?
She knew I was kind of involved with Ashby, so why wouldn't she confide in me about him? It just didn't make sense.
Knowing that something felt off in this building, I could not stop my feet from moving forwards and cracking the door open to Ashby's room. Listening out for any sign of life on the other side.
The fear of facing Molly alone was not something I wanted to repeat. Even if Ashby had warned her off, embarrassed her in front of everyone. She had still been here last night in the bar, standing next to Marilyn when we had gone to the kitchen for him to make me his infamous pancakes. They were, without a doubt, the best pancakes I had ever eaten. That black hair of hers has been shining like a crow, watching and waiting to attack a corpse on the side of the road. Strip the bones of everything that was left. Her threat had been clear, and I was waiting for that shoe to drop, even with what Ashby had done. I did not trust her at all.
Stepping fully out into the hall, I could see one solo light on in the clubhouse bar. Like a moth to a flame, I closed the distance. Stopping when half a dozen men came into view. One look, and I knew that they were nothing to do with the usual residents of this establishment. No, these men were dressed in expensive designer suits.
Slapping my hand against my denim shorts pocket, my heart sunk, realizing that I had left my cell on Ash's bed. Damn it.
Taking a single step back, my white sneakers squeaked on the floor, heads swing in my direction, and on instinct, I turned to run when a voice stopped me in my tracks.
"Nala"
Slowly, so much so I felt as though I was animated in slow motion.
One of the men dressed in a suit came over to me, towering over my small frame. His auburn hair glowing as the light above his head flickered, almost making it look like his head was aflame. His hands gripped ahold of me as he dragged me, my feet skidding, back towards the light.
"Dad?" I couldn't see him, but I knew that voice anywhere. Why was
he here?
I had not seen or heard from him since Christmas last year, I think?
Why was he here, now?
Why was he in The Unholy Confessions clubhouse?
Peaches: MC Romance (The Unholy Confessions Book 1) Page 11