by Lena Bourne
Sleep sounds like a good idea. A very good idea. I hope he hurries up.
“You feel better?” he asks as he exits the reception and walks back to me.
“Yeah, I think so,” I say, wrapping my jacket tighter around my body because I think I’m about to start shivering again. My voice is still very frail and wispy.
“Room 6,” he says, showing me the key. “This place looks all right. For a night at least.”
“Yeah,” I say, and it’s all I can say.
We ride to the room, he parks right by the door, then helps me off his bike like a perfect gentleman. I honestly can’t remember the last time a guy was this thoughtful with me. This caring. This concerned. Maybe it hasn’t happened since my dad died. But I hold my own. I don’t really need a guy to take care of me. Still, it’s so good to have his arm around me leading me to the door, as I lean against him.
The room smells musky and disused, bleach the strongest aroma in the room. It’s practically a palace room compared to my bedroom at the Sinners’ clubhouse.
I should shower. I really need it. But by the time we stop at the side of the bed, all I can think of is lying down. I don’t even have the energy to pull back the covers. Good thing he does it for me.
Man, I hope he doesn’t expect gratitude sex right away. And if he does, I hope he’ll be content with me just lying there like a log, because I got nothing left.
“Here, at least take your jacket off first,” he says with a chuckle as I take the last shaky, unsupported step to the bed.
He helps me with it, and then with my shoes when I sit on the bed. And that’s it. I can’t stay upright any longer.
The bed shakes and bounces as he gets in beside me, but he stays on his side of the bed, makes no move to come any closer to me. That’s not right either. I already miss the feel of his strong, warm body in my arms. So I use the last of my wakefulness to scoot over to him, wrap my arm back around his waist where it actually belongs, and lay my head against his chest. I could sleep for a thousand years if he held me. And I think I just might.
Colt
I’ve never seen a woman that out of it. I’ve seen them blackout drunk or so high they couldn’t walk straight, but none of that compares to this spaced-out, head in the clouds, mind nowhere to be found state she was in. I’m glad she just went right to sleep, else I have no idea what I’d do with her. I’m glad she chose to go to sleep pressed close to me, and I can think of plenty of things I’d like to do to her if she was functioning, but this works for now.
She’s out cold, breathing so slowly and deeply, I’m sure she’ll be asleep for hours. This room is exactly like every other motel room I’ve been to. A box dominated by a king-sized bed, a small desk, and a table with three chairs. That bothers me. There should be four chairs, or two… three is just no kind of number for a set of chairs. What do they call that?
Every so often a car speeds by on the road we arrived here on, illuminating the room, showing me the weird pattern on the wallpaper… some kind of lines, but they’re ornate, like braids or some such. The light never lasts long enough for me to be sure.
Her head is heavy against my chest, and her hair is tickling my neck, but I don’t dare move. If I move, I’ll have to figure out what to do next, and I’m not ready to face that. I’m perfectly happy to make this might last just like this for a long, long time.
As it is, my heart starts pounding every time a car passes. The Sinners could be looking for me, for Brenda, and I have no idea if we’re far enough away that they won’t find us. Have no idea if the receptionist at this motel is someone who might give us away. Have to idea how I’ll get back to the Devils tomorrow. Have no idea what to do with Brenda. I just know I don’t really want to put her on the bus to Vegas. I want to get to know her first.
None of the cars passing are bikes. None of them stop at the motel. Pretty soon the quiet darkness and the silence filled only with Brenda’s even breaths start mellowing me out too. So I killed three Sinners ahead of schedule… well, two, and Brenda got the third. I was just doing the job we were gonna carry out eventually, anyway. Cross will see it my way. He’s gotta. I hope.
Brenda
A truck honks as it speeds by outside, and I’m sitting bolt upright, my heart racing, the bright light in the room blinding me. The room makes no sense at first, my fear even less.
Last night starts coming back to me in patches of memory, the sight of Crow’s dead, glowing eyes as he shows me the big knife he’s gonna cut me up with, Colt losing the fight with him, Mouse’s gun cold and heavy in my hand as I squeeze the trigger. Any one of those memories is nauseating, all of them together are enough to make me want to throw up.
Colt is sleeping soundly beside me. Neither the truck honking nor me thrashing around while I got my bearings woke him.
Good.
He’s still wearing all his clothes, except his boots. That’s the only thing he took off before getting into bed with me.
I could just lie back down by his side and go back to sleep too. Like I did last night. I remember the moment I got up real close to him and rested my head on his chest very clearly, clearer than anything else that happened last night. It felt good. It felt right. It felt safe.
But I’m acutely aware that I need a shower. I was in that cell for at least a couple of days, and I needed a shower before they locked me in there. I’ll feel more like myself after I’m clean. I’ll know what to do next then. I’ll know that staying right here with this guy for as long as he’ll have me is a bad idea.
Colt
My phone’s buzzing when I open my eyes, only to be blinded by the glaring light outside. I close them again, but the whole rickety table with the three chairs is rattling against the floor from the phone’s buzzing in the pocket of my jacket, which I tossed on it last night. And Brenda’s gone, I realize as I reach for her. It’s that more than the phone that makes me open my eyes again.
The shower is running in the bathroom, and the relief I feel over her not splitting on me in the night is confusing more than anything else.
I sit on the edge of the bed, feeling strangely hungover. The design on the beige wallpaper is in fact braids, kinda like fishing lines coiled or something. The shower is still running and I have a very strong urge to go join Brenda under the shower. Practically everything in me is saying, no, yelling, that’d be the best idea I ever had.
Going to save her from the Sinners was the best idea I ever had. And it went spectacularly wrong. My phone won’t stop buzzing. It’s time to face that music, no matter how much I wish I didn’t have to.
“Yeah?” I say as I pick up the phone, seeing it’s Blaze.
“What the fuck happened to you?” he barks. “I’ve been calling you for hours.”
“I fell asleep,” I mutter.
“You feel asleep, how sweet,” he says mockingly. “Well, you need to get back here and explain yourself. Cross wants to know exactly what happened.”
That wakes me up better than any cup of coffee ever had. Or maybe the sight of Brenda wrapped in just a flimsy towel emerging from the bathroom did it. I’m not sure. All I know is that only one of those two things makes me feel more alive than I have in ages. Maybe ever. And it’s not Blaze with his ominous message.
“I’ll be right there,” I tell him and hang up since I know exactly what he would’ve said.
“Are you in trouble?” she asks, her dark blue eyes like a warm summer night sky, and her dark wet hair dripping fat drops of water like she’s a nymph that just emerged from some forgotten lake to be mine. Forbidden lake, more like.
“Usually,” I say, standing up to be closer to her.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “But I’m not sorry you came after me.”
The wicked light that gleams over the gratitude in her eyes makes my cock throb. Oh, the things I would do to her if I had the time.
“I gotta go,” I stutter, finally stopping in my approach towards her. We’re so close I can smell the water on
her skin. “Gotta report back to my club.”
She nods, smiles kinda sadly. “Pity. But you gotta do what you gotta do.”
The only thing I gotta do is kiss her. So I do.
She tastes like the water dripping off her, like the perfect summer night she spawned from, like all the time in the world to do only what feels good and right.
“My…” she says as I pull away from the kiss because we have none of that time. If I don’t stop myself now, I’ll fuck things up even worse with Cross, because I could spend days with this woman. I don’t think I’d even have to eat.
But all that’s just my cock talking. It’s been a while since I’ve been this attracted to a woman.
“I gotta go,” I repeat stupidly. It’s just me convincing myself.
“You’re just gonna leave me here?” she asks coyly, batting her eyelashes at me. She knows what she’s doing. She knows I’m speechless right now. She knows what I want. She knows I’m torn.
“I’ll wait right here if you promise you’ll be back soon,” she says, saving me the trouble of asking her myself.
She definitely knows what she’s doing.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I promise her and rush to get my jacket before she can take her magical words back. “You get some more rest.”
She’s smiling seductively, like a gorgeous creature from every guy’s dream when I turn back to her.
“How about you give me one more of those kisses before you leave,” she says, and she knows how much I want to. But I think she wants it too.
So I don’t think, just obey. And a long, long time passes as our tongues chase each other and the taste of perfection floods me. I’d take it further, take it all the way and damn the consequences if my phone didn’t start buzzing again. Good thing Blaze knows me so well. Good thing he always has my back, even when it’s a lost cause.
I won’t repay that by leaving him to face all the music for my fuck-up last night.
“I’ll be back,” I say breathlessly as I break the kiss.
“Good,” she whispers. “Hurry.”
I dare not look back at her as I exit the motel room. If I did, I’d stay right here.
Colt
The heat starts beating down on the back of my neck even worse than it was for the whole ride back once I pull in through the gate in the wall surrounding the desert compound that’s out MC’s on these parts. Nothing but dried up bushes dotting the wide-open plain of dry orangey-brown sand around the rectangular concrete building, and even those are sparse. It feels and looks like I’m riding straight into hell and I slow down instinctually.
How bad did I fuck up?
But that’s just the idiot in me talking. I did what I had to in order to survive. Nothing more. Nothing less. Cross will understand that.
I speed up again, my tires kicking more dust that cuts my already parched throat like shards of glass. By the time I near the building, I’ve already breathed in almost more than I can handle. But I’m gonna take it like a man. Whatever comes.
Blaze is alone by the front door, clearly waiting for me. Even from a distance, I know exactly what expression he’s got on his face—the classic scowl, with the worried, shifty eyes that make him look like he’s gotta go relieve himself. I nod at him then veer off and park my bike under a dark green tarp held up by thin metal rods that serves as a makeshift garage for our bikes here. It does nothing about the heat, but at least it’s possible to actually sit on your bike after it’s been parked out here all day.
“What the fuck took you so long?” he barks at me while I’m still a couple of yards away from him. He sounds like a mom scolding a wayward child. I gave up hoping he’d stop that shit a long time ago. He’s like an older brother to me, and always has and always will have my back. Just as I’ll always have his. This mothering shit is just part of the package.
“Is it a big deal?” I ask once I reach him.
“Is it a big deal, he asks,” Blaze scoffs shaking his head. “Come on, they told me to bring you right in.”
He turns and walks into the building and I follow, sighing in relief as the cool air inside engulfs me. Some cold water would be perfect too, but I’m not about to antagonize Blaze, or Cross who’s waiting for me, for that matter, by stopping to get some.
“I’ll take care of it, Blaze. Don’t worry so much,” I tell him once we reach the narrow, windowless hallway that leads to the offices part of this bunker.
“You better. I already told Cross everything you told me last night,” Blaze says.
“What? You think I’m gonna lie to him?” I say, meaning to sound offended, but it just comes out flat.
“I hope she was worth it,” Blaze says, giving me a piercing look over his shoulder. “Because she just might get us kicked out of this club.”
“We just slept last night,” I mutter, wishing it wasn’t the truth. “And kissed a little bit.”
He chuckles. “Yeah, she was pretty out of it. Too bad for you.”
Damn straight. Because I might never see her again. That’s been in the back of my mind for the whole, almost hour-long ride back to this place. I should’ve fucked her before I left. She’s probably not gonna stick around for me to get back. Why would she? She was just saying that.
But it’s time I push all that aside. Come what may, at least I’ll always remember the taste of her lips—sweet like honey, but with a tang of something sharp, the perfect blend of nice and naughty, just like I knew it would be.
Blaze stops at the closed door of the room Cross uses as his office here. He knocks, then opens the door after Cross tells him to come in. Then he steps aside for me to enter on my own.
It’s not a big room, five men would be crowded in here, as we were when Blaze and I were given the order to get Ace out of the Sinners’ bar. Now it’s just me and Cross in here, and that look he’s giving me is dark as night as it slices through me like a hot knife.
“Colt,” he says quietly and evenly, but it feels like he screamed it. “What the hell happened last night?”
I open my mouth to reply, but the words just aren’t forming. I close it and try again, but it’s still not working. Cross’ look maybe grows a little less dark, as he watches me struggle, but not by much.
“I’m waiting,” he says pointedly after a few more seconds that stretch into hours go by.
“I went to the Sinners’ bar to get a woman out…a woman they were holding prisoner. It was supposed to be a simple in and out job. But…” I finally manage.
I totally don’t want to tell him how bad I messed up. That’s why I’m speechless. That’s why my words just trailed off into silence.
“But that’s not what happened,” Cross supplies with an edge to his voice. He already knows what happened, and I’m acting like a middle school kid who’d just been sent to the principal’s office. I gotta pull myself together.
“They already had her locked up when I got there and were planning to kill her. When I started asking around for her, they just grabbed me and tried to kill me too. I killed three of them to save myself. Well, I killed two, and she killed the third, to be precise. They had it coming. I’m sorry it went like that, but I’m not sorry I got her out. She’d be dead right now if I hadn’t. And the guy they sent to kill her, he was a real wacko with a knife and was really looking forward to cutting her up. No one should go like that. He sliced up my jacket real good. I only have my reflexes to thank that he didn’t slice my arm up too.” I show him the slash in my leather jacket like an idiot. Luckily the leather absorbed most of the cut else I’d probably need stitches. “And I only have her to thank that I’m even standing here talking to you.”
Cross leans back in his chair once I finally shut up again. He steeples his hands and looks at me over his fingers, his gaze still as pointed and dark, but not as piercing.
“Who were they? Do you know?” he asks.
“I didn’t get their names. The one with the knife was a dark-haired, wiry guy. Quick on his feet.
The other two were aging gorillas of the type their MC is full of.”
Cross nods, leaving me wishing I could give him more information.
“And what am I gonna do with you?”
“It won’t happen again,” I assure him. “I won’t go doing stupid things on my own again.”
Spoken like a true idiot. Seriously, sometimes I’m sure my father was right about my witlessness all along. I really didn’t want Cross to come to the same conclusion, but I fear that the boat has sailed on that one right now, never to return.
“Their President and his sons are dead,” Cross says. “As are the guys he brought with him to meet us last night. We’ll start taking out the rest of them tonight. So by now, they know they’re under attack. Did you tell them you were with us?”
I shake my head. “No, they asked me no questions. And I wouldn’t have told them anything if they had.”
“At least there’s that,” Cross says. “But I want you to stick close by from now on. No more going off on your own, is that understood?”
I nod eagerly, then stop so suddenly my neck cramps up. Partly because I must’ve looked like an idiot doing it, but mostly because I need to go back to Brenda as soon as I can. Only now, I can’t.
“I won’t let you down again, Prez,” I say, and I do mean it, I honestly do. But another part is already making plans to disobey him. Because even if Brenda is waiting for me to return to that shabby motel room, she won’t wait forever. And I don’t want to face forever without knowing what the rest of her tastes like.
Brenda
That was the sweetest kiss I’ve gotten in years. The hungriest too. So for a while, after he left, I just lay there on the bed, enjoying my freedom, enjoying the knowledge that a guy rode to my rescue like some knight in shining armor on a white horse that was actually a well-kept Harley. Never did I imagine anything like that would happen for real. Sure, I tried to make it happen often, most recently with Josh. Who died in the cold pre-dawn hours half a year ago.