Riding the Line (Devil's Knights 2nd Generation)

by Winter Travers

  “Is that so?” she laughed. “I gotta say, I’ve never had someone stand up for me like you did with Grit, but I’ll hold my judgment on whether or not I really think you’re a good guy until after we find Royal.”

  “Is that how it’s going to be?” I laughed.

  She shrugged. “I really don’t know at all, but that sounded good.”

  “Well, I’m not going anywhere, darlin’.”

  “That sort of sounds like a threat, though a sweet one.”

  I shook my head. “Not a threat, darlin’, it’s a promise. I do barely know anything about you, Indiana, but I know I want to know everything. Why you left Destin. How you wound up here. Who your mama and daddy are. What you were like when you were young. Do you think about kissing me as much as I think about kissing you? You know, the usual.”

  Indiana’s cheeks flushed pink, and her eyes darted to the floor. “Uh, well. That’s a lot of things you want to know about me. Do you want the long or short answers to those?”

  I leaned into her ‘til my lips were a breath away from hers. She didn’t move. Her eyes connected with mine, and I breathed in her sweet scent. “With you, darlin’, I want it all.” I pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, and her breath hitched. “You may not know it yet, or you may not be ready to admit it, but you’re gonna be mine, Indiana. I’ve bided my time, watched you to make sure you were safe, no harm came to you, but now, time is up. I’m not waiting anymore.”

  She gulped, and her eyes dipped to stare at my lips. “Uh, I don’t know what to say.”

  “Nothing to say. Just letting you know.”

  “Uh, well, got it.” She licked her lips, and her eyes reconnected with mine. “You know that last thing you said you wanted to know?”

  I nodded.

  She closed the small gap between our lips and pressed hers to mine. It was a short and sweet kiss, but she was the one who had made the move. She was the one who was in control in that moment. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she pressed her lips to mine for a second. She stepped back, out of my personal space, and sighed. “More times than I can count.”

  She darted from church, and I took a deep breath.

  I knew what I felt for Indiana and that it was just the tip of the iceberg of what I could eventually feel for her.

  Now, I knew she felt that way, too. I wasn’t the only one dreaming what a kiss would be like between us.

  I went from ready to beat the shit out of Grit to calm and relaxed. I was drawn to Indiana, and while I was still trying to figure her out and everything in her past, I knew I was going to do everything I could to show her I was one of the good guys.

  In the end, it was going to be up to her if I got to stick around or not.

  *

  Chapter Seven

  Indiana

  “Oh, my God. I am so fucking bored,” Greta complained. “I never, in a million years, thought being trapped in the Devil’s Knights’ clubhouse could be so fucking boring.” She flopped back on the couch and raised her arms over her head. “There has to be somewhere we can go or something we can do.”

  “You’re not leaving,” Easy called.

  I rolled my eyes and tried to focus on the TV. A few of the girls had put on reruns of The Bachelor. They were glued to the show, gabbing about all the girls, but this shit didn’t hold my attention. Living in a house with a bunch of girls who were trying to get with the same guy as me? Hell to the no.

  It had only been a few hours since the impromptu meeting with King and the Knights, so I knew there weren’t any new developments with Royal.

  Grit had actually left without a fuss, and now Zig and Zag were bummed out that they weren’t able to beat the shit out of him or slash his tires. Though, I had heard that Zig had been able to fire off a couple of eggs before Grit pulled out of the parking lot.

  “Hey,” Greta called. “Where is Reva?”

  “Probably in Hero’s room,” I guessed.

  Greta sat up. “And Luna? Where the hell is she? Why are we cooped up in the clubhouse while those two get to be lollygagging around?”

  “Did you just say gagging?” Easy groaned. “Can you please never say that word again?”

  Greta flipped him off. “Not that type of gagging, you idiot.” She jumped off the couch and pointed to the front door. “We’re going on an adventure.”

  “The fuck you are,” Easy called. “I was told to keep an eye on you two while Hero and Frost took care of shit at the shop. Hell, even Zig and Zag got to go to the shop today,” he pouted.

  Greta’s eyes lit up. “So if Hero is at the shop, then where is Reva?” she asked.

  “Oh, hell,” Easy groaned.

  “She’s working, isn’t she?”

  Easy hung his head. “Dammit, Greta. Why the hell can’t you just be quiet and watch this trash tv show?”

  Greta cackled and rubbed her hands together. “Because there is absolutely no fun in that, Easy.” She turned to me and smiled. “Get your shoes on, Indy. We’re going on a field trip.”

  I lifted my shoe-clad feet and wiggled them. “I’m ready.”

  This was my chance to break out of here without Frost stopping me.

  Was he going to be happy I busted out?

  Probably not, but I would deal with that later.

  “Onward!” Greta shouted. “There’s fuckery to be had!”

  Easy groaned, and I genuinely smiled for the first time in days. What harm would come from leaving my worries behind for a couple of hours?

  *

  Frost

  “That it?”

  Hero nodded. “Yeah. That was the last car for the day. Seemed like everyone in town decided they needed a fucking oil change today.” Hero pulled down the garage door and slid the lock into place. “Beer?”

  “Nothing sounds better than that.” I hadn’t planned on being in the shop all afternoon, but we were swamped, and I didn’t have a choice but to be there. “Gotta admit, I’m even looking forward to Meg coming back. I’m not cut out for doing the books and my usual work.”

  Hero laughed and clapped me on the back. “Now you know how I felt when my dad stepped back from painting so much, and I had to pick up the slack. Thank God he showed me everything he knew before he tossed all the work on me.”

  Rigid was the best painter in the shop, and he thankfully had shown Hero, his son, everything he knew. Now Hero was pretty damn close to being better than his dad. “Though all you were doing today was fucking oil changes and tire rotations,” I laughed.

  “Yeah, we need to stop scheduling so many of those.”

  I shook my head and wiped my hands on a shop towel. “Except those are the bread and butter of the shop. Your paint jobs bring in money, but it’s not like you’re doing fifteen a day like we do oil changes.”

  “You actually learning shit from doing the books?”

  I shrugged. Maybe I was. I was able to see the money coming in and where it went. It wasn’t cheap to run a mechanical and body shop. “I’ll tell you all about it over that beer.”

  We walked into the clubhouse, and the club girls were everywhere.

  I cringed and scanned the faces of all of them. “You know, the idea of having girls all over seems appealing, but now that we actually have it, I have to say, I miss the quiet.”

  “You’re telling me,” Hero grunted. “How about we get that beer and head to the backyard?”

  I nodded. “Sounds good. I’m just gonna check in on Indiana, and I’ll meet you back there.”

  Out of all of the guys, Hero was the one I was closest with. Somehow, we always ended up playing with each other when we were younger, and that just seemed to be the theme through adolescence into adulthood. I was a couple of years younger than him, but that didn’t matter.

  “Yo,” I called to Zag. “You see Indiana?”

  He shook his head. “Haven’t seen her all afternoon. Check with Easy.”

  Again, I scanned the common area but didn’t see Indiana. Or Easy. I jogged back to her room a
nd found the door open, but she wasn’t inside.

  I pulled out my phone and called Easy.

  “Yo,” he called into the phone.

  “Where the fuck are you?” I growled.

  “Uh, well…”

  Jesus Christ. “Where. Are. You?”

  “Across the street,” he mumbled. “And so are Indiana and Greta.”

  “Field trip,” Greta yelled into the phone.

  “What the fuck are you doing across the street?”

  What the hell was Easy thinking? There was a fucking serial killer on the loose, and he was taking Indiana on a damn field trip?

  “Look, brother. I can’t control my sister. She does whatever the fuck she wants, and she drug Indiana along with her. I’m doing the best I can here.”

  “You can’t control two women who are half your size?” I demanded.

  “Look, you come over to Reva’s, and you can handle these two since I’m doing such a shit job at it.”

  I ended the call and shoved my phone in my pocket.

  King walked out of the hallway and stopped in front of me. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “Easy can’t seem to handle watching Greta and Indiana.”

  “He lose them?” King laughed.

  “He lost who?” Hero asked.

  Jesus. I didn’t want to explain what was going on. I just wanted to get over to Hair of the Dog and see with my own eyes that Indiana was okay.

  King smiled. “Easy was supposed to keep an eye on Indy for Frost, and instead, his sister staged a prison break.”

  “Greta is fucking nuts. Swear to Christ; she took notes from Aunt Meg when she was younger.” Hero shook his head. “You remember that time when she was fourteen and managed to get all of the ducks from the pond to follow her home?”

  King busted out laughing. “Gwen spent all day trying to figure out how the two loaves of bread she just bought disappeared. Greta came walking into the kitchen with two empty bread bags and fifty ducks marching right behind her. I never saw Gambler grab a broom in my life, but you can bet your ass that day he brandished that thing like a fucking sword and shooed all of those ducks out.”

  Hero was laughing so hard that he leaned over and rested his hands on his knees.

  “Can we take this trip down memory lane after we make sure Indiana is okay?” I drawled.

  King clapped me on the shoulder. “I have a feeling this isn’t going to be the first time that your woman goes off on a wild tear, but you might want to accept my advice to just take a deep breath and not go off the deep end. Greta was at least smart enough to make Easy tag along with them.”

  “That is why his road name is Easy. You can talk him into doing anything ‘cause he just isn’t into putting up a fight.” Hero stood up straight and ran his fingers through his hair. “Fuck, I haven’t laughed that hard in a minute.”

  I headed out the front door with Hero and King trailing me.

  “How about that time Meg took Snapper to the fair and came home with a goat and three chickens?” Hero wheezed.

  We made it to the edge of the road and had to wait for traffic to pass.

  “Snapper loved those damn chickens,” King laughed. “Had no clue for two years that when they died, they were his birthday dinner.”

  Hero flew into another fit of laughter. “Thank God you guys sold the goat and didn’t eat him.”

  I jogged across the road and hoped Hero and King just stayed behind to keep reminiscing. I wasn’t so lucky.

  King’s voice came from behind me. “He was a mean son of a bitch. I figured out real quick why the guy at the fair threw him in with the three chickens. He ate three of Meg’s candles and all of her underwear drawer. That was the final straw with him.”

  “The fact that she thought she could dress him in pajamas and have him be a house goat was hilarious,” Hero chuckled.

  When I was halfway across the parking lot to Hair of the Dog, Easy stepped out with a ball of fur in his arms.

  “I don’t know why the hell you are so pissed off, brother,” Easy hollered.

  I wasn’t pissed. Well, okay, I was pissed but only because Easy hadn’t told me he was going on a fucking field trip across the street with Indiana in tow. A little heads up might have been nice.

  “At least they only went across the street,” Hero called.

  Easy cringed, and his eyes dropped to the pavement.

  “Where else did Greta drag you?” King asked.

  Easy lifted his head and ran his fingers through his hair. “We might have gone to the strip club to check up on Luna.”

  “Jesus,” Hero groaned. “I don’t think I can talk Frost out of being pissed off at that one, Easy. Chicks are getting killed, and you take Greta and Indiana to the place that’s the connection between all of the girls?”

  Easy pointed into the Hair of the Dog. “Have you met my sister? It was either go along with whatever she wanted to do or tell her no and know that she was going to do it still. Decisions were made, and I’m pretty sure I made the right one. Next time, I’ll just let those two go off by themselves.”

  “You made the right choice, Easy,” King replied. “Next time, maybe bring one of the guys along with you for backup. Greta has Gwen’s blood pumping through her veins, and God knows Gwen got into her fair share of shenanigans.”

  “Thanks to Meg and Cyn,” Hero laughed.

  Meg and Cyn were the catalysts when it came to ol’ ladies getting into trouble. Now, it looked like Greta was going to take over that role. Hopefully, Indiana wasn’t going to be the Cyn to her Meg.

  “She in there?” I asked.

  Easy nodded and stroked the head of the dog he was holding. “They’ve been helping Reva.”

  “Why the hell are you holding a dog?” King asked.

  Easy shrugged. “He likes me.”

  Hero pointed his finger at Easy. “You know you got some of that Greta weirdness in you, right?”

  Easy lifted the dog closer to his face and pressed a kiss to its nose. “Whatever, brother. You gotta have a heart of stone to resist this cute face.”

  I pushed past Easy and his irresistible dog. It was a cute little shit, but right now, I just needed to get my eyes on Indiana.

  Laughter sounded as soon as I opened the door, and I could hear Greta shouting. No one was at the front check-in area, but I could hear water running along with the laughing.

  “Would you stop squirting me with the water!” Greta whined.

  Indiana’s voice sounded. “You’re the one holding the hose!”

  “No, no, Grunt. Stay in there, buddy.” I didn’t know Reva well, but that had to be her voice.

  “Yo!” I called. “You guys decent back there?”

  “What the hell does he think we are doing? Jell-O wrestling with the dogs?” Greta cracked.

  “We’re in the back,” Reva called. “Just be careful. It’s slippery.”

  I moved around the front counter, past a dog bath, and into a backroom that had a row of kennels. The three girls stood in the back, all soaked and on their knees with a dog in between them.

  Indiana pushed her wet hair back from her face and smiled up at me. “Hi.”

  And that was where my anger subsided. Indiana’s smile could cure me of anything. “Darlin’.”

  “That’s it?” Greta growled. “Here we were all prepared for you to come in here like a damn moose with a stubbed toe, and all you have to say is darlin’?”

  I shrugged. “You get into any trouble?” I asked.

  “Not here,” Greta chirped.

  Reva raised her hand. “For the record, I did not go to their other field trip destination. I’ve been working.”

  “Rolling around with Grunt seems like a pretty sweet job,” Hero called from the front.

  Reva rolled her eyes. “Put a sock in it, Hero. You’re the one who likes to come in when it’s Barbara’s spa day.”

  Hero peaked his head around the wall separating the front and back. “What can I say? T
he bitch loves me.”

  King and Easy both walked into the back. King kneeled in front of a cage and cooed to the dog inside.

  Reva nodded to the cage King was in front of. “That’s cranky Elvis. He’s not too happy with me after giving him a bath and expressing his glands.”

  King cringed. “I gotta say the guy has a right to be a little cranky, then.”

  Easy held the same dog in his arms.

  “You do know you’re going to have to give Bixby up when his owner gets here, right?” Greta laughed.

  “Reva said I could hold him,” Easy whined.

  “I think you’re the one who should have become a vet,” Greta laughed.

  Easy shook his head. “Nope. You got all of the smarts. I’m good with fixing bikes and coming over to Reva’s to pet the dogs.”

  “I’m good with that as long as you let me get my work done.” Reva nodded to Greta and Indiana. “We need to finish Grunt and get him in the drier before his owner gets here.”

  I watched Indiana for a few minutes as she helped Reva but wandered to the front when they got the dog under the drier.

  “How is it I’ve never been in here?” King asked. “Damn place is right across the street from the clubhouse.”

  “Probably because you don’t have a dog?” Hero suggested. “Not much of a reason to come into a dog groomers when you don’t have a dog.”

  King sighed and leaned against the front desk. “It’s been two years since Red died. Meg’s been bugging me to get another dog, but it’s kind of nice not to have that kind of responsibility.”

  “Still can’t believe that dog lived to almost sixteen,” Hero sighed. “He really was a good dog.”

  “Sure was. Probably has something to do with the way Meg babied him.” King laughed. “I about shit my pants the day she came home with a fucking doggie stroller. Damn dog couldn’t go on walks anymore because his hips were going out, but Meg insisted he loved them so much, so she was going to walk him in that damn stroller.”

  “I remember seeing her the first time with the stroller and thought she had somehow adopted a baby without any of us knowing,” I laughed. Cruising home from school on my bike, I about crashed when I saw Meg pushing the stroller.