The Middle of Nowhere

by Piper Phoenix

  My dad didn’t like the club members in the house when they were sober, he sure wouldn’t want them in the house when they were drunk. He kept the house pretty much off limits to the MC unless it was an emergency, or if my dad otherwise approved it. And for some reason I didn’t think my dad had approved this entry.

  “It’s fine,” he said opening the fridge. “This”

  He turned around holding a six-pack of beer and smiling his sexy smile at me. I wondered how many women were outside waiting for him to return so they could hang on him.

  “Isn’t there a keg out there?”

  “Running dry,” he said as if he was proud of the club’s accomplishment.

  “Of course it is,” I said as I took a step towards my room. He weaved backwards and accidentally bumped into me. We’d only touched for half a second but my heart skipped a beat.

  He put his hands on my shoulders to help steady me. Or maybe it was more so that he could steady himself. When he looked down into my eyes, it almost seemed as if he knew what he was doing. That maybe he had planned the whole thing, but that was probably just my imagination.

  Stone wouldn’t do that when he could have any woman he wanted. And it wasn’t like he would make any kind of move on the president of the MC’s daughter. There was no way he’d ever do anything to get on my dad’s bad side. Unless he did it in such a way that it would look like a total accident.

  My heart felt like it was making extra beats. I wondered if Stone could feel it pounding through every vein in my body. Could he tell what he was doing to me?

  He looked down at his feet and flashed me that half-smile that melted panties before he stepped away. “Sorry, sweetheart,” he said as he cracked open one of the cans of beer.

  “It’s OK,” I said wishing I could step forward, and he’d kiss me. If I could just know that one kiss that would be enough. That’s all I needed. Then I could stop thinking about him. I could walk away from this easier just knowing what I would be like to kiss him. To feel his arms wrapped around me. His body pressed into mine.

  I looked at him and pinched at my lip nervously. He was so fucking hot I couldn’t stand it. I had to get more space between us.

  I let out a quick breath and reminded myself he was in the MC. Hot or not it didn’t matter. Not only did I want nothing to do with the club, being with him wouldn’t ever be allowed. I took started to walk backwards and didn’t stop until I bumped into the wall.

  He watched me and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was thinking the same thing. The look in his eyes seemed hungry, but then again he was drunk. He probably looked at all women that way.

  “I have to go. Good night,” I said and turned to go to my room. I thought my breathing would return to normal once I couldn’t see him anymore, but it didn’t.

  “You’ll be back, sweetheart… mmm-mm, they always come back,” he said after me. I practically had to force myself to keep walking away from him. His words were like a magnet pulling me back towards him. I closed my bedroom door and let the breath I’d been holding out of my lungs.

  I closed my eyes and tried to calm my racing heart when I felt a hand clamp down over my mouth. It couldn’t have been Stone because I’d closed the door. I opened my eyes wide as I tried to make sense of what was happening.

  Someone was in my room and they were pressing their body against the side of mine. I tried to turn but whoever it was held me in place.

  “Don’t even think,” the voice said, and I instantly recognized the voice. It was the voice I’d heard every day for the last several years. Troy had somehow gotten inside my room.

  I shook my head. If there was one thing I knew how to do, it was how to keep Troy from freaking out. Well, at least most of the time I did and ninety percent of the time it worked.

  As long as I remained calm and didn’t question him, I’d probably be OK. At least that’s what I was hoping for, that was until I smelled the alcohol on his breath. I was now down to about twenty percent chance of being able to keep him calm.

  He dragged me across the floor and over to my bed. I didn’t fight back even though he was hurting me. For now, I’d save my energy.

  He lifted me up and threw me down on the bed. Troy stepped backwards and tripped over his own feet. It took everything I had not to laugh at him as he crashed loudly to the floor. But if I would have laughed, he would have definitely made me regret it.

  Troy looked at me almost as if he was daring me to laugh. He wanted to fight. Troy hadn’t come here to play nice. He was daring me to do or say anything that could flip his switch. But of course I bit my tongue.

  Troy stood up and weaved right into my nightstand and the lamp tipped over and fell to the floor. I watched as it broke into several pieces. He got down on his knee and started to pick up the pieces but then he remembered he didn’t care about the lamp.

  There was knock on my door and I hugged myself. I didn’t know if I should call out for help or just be still. If I got a chance, maybe I’d be able to convince Troy to leave on his own.

  “Josie? Are you all right?”

  It was Stone. He must have heard all the noises. Troy looked at me as if I should handle it. Make him go away. But it felt like my lips were glued together.

  Troy looked at me nervously as if he wasn’t sure what he should do. He looked afraid of what might happen if someone came in and found him there.

  I opened my mouth ready to call out for Stone, but Troy must have been able to tell by the look in my eyes that I wasn’t going to tell them to go away. He jumped down on top of my and clamped his hand down over my mouth. I could tell he changed his mind and was afraid of what I might say.

  “Josie?” Stone shouted as he pounded on the door again. There was something about the way he was calling for me that I knew he wasn’t going to leave until I answered him. Somehow Stone must have figured something was wrong. “Josie, I’m coming in.”

  The door shook as he slammed what I assumed was his shoulder into it. But it didn’t budge. There was a brief pause before whatever he had done caused the door to pop open so hard it swung around and hit the wall.

  He looked around the room, and when he saw Troy on top of me with his hand over my mouth, he instantly reacted. Stone peeled Troy off of me like he was ripping a Band-Aid off. He pulled his fist back and launched it forward into Troy’s face.

  Troy’s head seemed to move one way while his body moved the other. He looked around the room as if he had no idea where he was. Stone let go of him and he fell like a rock to the floor. Troy grabbed at his head while Stone stood over him looking as though he’d hit him again if he tried to get up.

  “Do you know him?” Stone shouted barely taking his eyes off of Troy.

  I nodded, “Sort of.”

  “Didn’t look like you wanted him here to me,” Stone said looking confused.

  “He’s my ex.”

  “He’s supposed to be in here?” Stone asked as if he was trying to think what my dad would have done if it had been him to find Troy in here. Stone seemed worried that he wasn’t doing enough.

  I shook my head side to side. He wasn’t supposed to be in my room. Troy wasn’t supposed to come anywhere near me.

  Stone twisted his fist around the front of Troy’s shirt and effortlessly lifted him off the floor. The next thing I knew, he was dragging him out of my room and down the hall.

  I followed as he hauled him through the living room and towards the front door. Stone stopped and looked at me as if he was waiting for me to do something. I quickly realized he wanted me to open the door, so I twisted the knob and opened the front door as wide as it would go.

  The music in the backyard was playing some upbeat tune. I could hear the guys chuckling while the women were laughing and giggling. None of them knew what was going on in the front yard.

  Stone lifted Troy off the ground, his feet dangling as he pointed his toes down trying to find his footing. He hurled him into the front lawn as if he weighed nothing. Troy hit the grou
nd and rolled several times before his body came to a stop.

  I looked around and noticed over to the side of the house there was a small group of guys discussing something that looked serious as they puffed on their cigarettes. They stopped talking the second their realized something was going on.

  “Everything OK, Stone?” one of the guys with messy hair asked. He had an unusual slightly higher pitched voice that I would have imagined would come out of a biker.

  “Under control, man,” Stone said, brushing his hands on his jeans. He took a step towards Troy who was still laying on the ground looking at them almost as if he was waiting for permission to move. “This party crasher was just leaving.”

  I was glad he didn’t mention that the man on my front lawn was my ex. If anyone of this got back to my dad, I would worry about what he would do, or have done, to Troy. I didn’t like him and I didn’t want to be with him anymore, but I also didn’t want him dead. It was definitely a possibility if the club was involved. My dad would do what it took to keep me safe and it wouldn’t take much to convince the MC to back him up.

  Troy had been lucky it was Stone that found him. Anyone else and who knows if he would be leaving in one piece. In fact, depending on who would have found him, he probably wouldn’t be.

  I watched as Troy finally came to his senses and started scrambling to his feet. He started running away only to make it about three steps before he tripped and fell flat on his face. He got up quicker than I thought was possible and kept running.

  “Bang! Bang!” Stone shouted sharply after him and he almost tripped again. The other club members laughed as if it had been the funniest thing they’d ever seen.

  Once I saw Troy wasn’t being pursued anymore, I went back inside the house. He’d be OK and maybe this would be enough to scare him away from me. At least for a while.

  Before I could even close the door, Stone was standing behind me with his palms pressed against the thick wood. “Are you going to be OK?”

  “I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me,” I said and stopped abruptly when I saw my dad step around the corner. The look on his face showed that he knew something was amiss. But then again, he kind of always looked that way.

  “It was a good thing you were in the house, Stone,” he bellowed from across the living room. His deep voice sounded rough and I couldn’t tell if he had meant the words or not. Somehow he knew what had happened. Or at least he partially knew. “Thank to you, my daughter is safe.”

  I crossed my arms in front of my chest. For some reason I felt very exposed. It felt as though everyone on the property suddenly knew my business… everything about Troy and what had happened between him and I.

  Not to mention I had just been attacked. It felt like everyone had their eyes glued to me. I almost couldn’t handle it.

  “It’s not a big deal… I heard—”

  “Thanks for saving my daughter…,” my dad said as he looked down at his fingernails. “But what were you doing in my house in the first place?”

  Chapter 4

  “Sorry, pres, I was just getting more beer. Dust said we were out so I…,” he said gesturing towards the kitchen counter where the six-pack of beer was still waiting. The can he had opened was right next to it. He had set it down before going off to check on the noises he had heard.

  “Mmm,” my dad said looking down the hallway towards my room as if he was looking for clues. It seemed as though he was suspicious of why Stone had really been in the house when he knew he wasn’t supposed to be.

  “I heard the noises and when she didn’t answer,” Stone said almost sounding as though he was getting pissed off at my dad. And I wouldn’t have blamed him if he did. I was glad Stone had been there. Not that I thought Troy would have really done anything, but it was better this way. If he would have gotten away with it, he would have thought he could sneak in the house whenever he wanted.

  My dad slowly walked to my room looking at the walls as he walked. He ran his finger down the door frame as he examined it. I hadn’t noticed before but a big chunk of wood had been broken off near the doorknob and was barely hanging on. The door looked as if it would still close, but it was clearly damaged.

  “I’ll pay for the door,” Stone said when my dad looked at him.

  “Of course you will—”

  “Dad! He will not,” I said putting my hands on my hips. He’d just saved me… my dad was out of line.

  My dad stared at me and my skin started to feel hot. I could see he was thinking something over, but then he smiled and lightly jabbed Stone in the shoulder. “Of course that was just a joke. You don’t have to pay for the door, but you do have to pay for the six-pack you stole from my fridge.”

  “Oh God,” I groaned.

  My dad looked inside the room and saw the broken lamp laying on the floor. He didn’t look at Stone for an explanation instead he looked at me. He tilted his head and waited as if I was supposed to give him the play-by-play.

  “Troy,” I said and snapped my mouth shut. I didn’t want to talk about it in front of Stone. I didn’t want to talk about it to my dad. It was bad enough he knew Troy had somehow gotten inside of the house. Tomorrow there would probably be metals bars on my window, or maybe Troy’s name in the obituary.

  I jerked when I felt hands touching my shoulders. I turned around quickly my eyes wide and panicked. Once I realized it was my mom relief washed over me. She was looking at me with eyes filled with concern and worry. I saw her shoot a look at my dad before she ushered me away from both of the men and my room.

  I should have thanked Stone. My dad should have stood there listening as I told him how I felt about what he had done for me. But I hadn’t thought of it quick enough, and by the time I realized, I was already in the kitchen with my mom.

  “I’ll make you some tea,” my mom said wrapping her arm around my shoulders.

  “I’m not going to talk about it,” I said, shivering even though I wasn’t cold.

  “You don’t have to… at least not now,” my mom said as she placed me in a chair at the kitchen table. “Unless you think we should call Sheriff Bayley?”

  “No, we don’t need to do that,” I said knowing neither her nor my dad would do that. Calling the police was almost always a last resort.

  She made the tea and didn’t say another word about what had happened although I knew she was dying to hear about it from me. But really it didn’t matter because she probably already knew. My parents always seemed to know everything anyway.

  I had trouble sleeping that night. Between the pleasant thoughts of Stone and the nightmarish thoughts of Troy I’d wake up frequently. After tossing and turning for most of the night I turned on the TV and watched infomercials until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. The white noise from the TV helped keep my mind quiet.

  The next day when I was sitting in the office all I could think about was how I had to find a way to thank Stone. And maybe even apologize for how my dad had acted, but he probably knew him well enough to know how he was.

  If Stone hadn’t been there things could have gotten much worse. I didn’t think Troy had been there to kill me, but he definitely was capable of other things I wouldn’t have wanted to happen either. Troy often commented on how I was his and if he wanted me to do something it was my job to do it.

  I didn’t want to think about what Troy would have done if he would have had the opportunity. But I did want to thank Stone for what he did and move on. In fact, I wasn’t even sure I could move on until I thanked him. He didn’t have to do anything, but he did.

  I started digging around in the drawers and sifted through the junk inside. The top middle drawer had a pistol and a small black book. I opened the book and found the names and addresses of all of the club members written inside.

  It seemed like information my dad should have kept locked up somewhere, like inside the safe. Although, if someone was determined enough, they could probably find out all the club members names and addresses without a little black bo
ok.

  I was tempted to bring the book to my dad and suggest he lock it up but then I decided against it. He’d probably just forgotten about it, and it was safer in the house that it would be in his office in the clubhouse.

  I wrote down Stone’s address on a scrap of paper and tucked it into my purse. Before I could change my mind, not that I would have, I was in my car heading for Stone’s house.

  When I spotted the small house, I wasn’t sure if he still lived there. There was a tall, dark haired woman walking down the driveway. She was almost too skinny. I watched as she teetered down the drive on her impossibly high stilettos.

  She looked down the road in my direction but then she looked down the other way. It almost seemed as though she was looking for something or someone. She seemed nervous.

  I wanted to keep driving. I probably should have kept driving, but I didn’t. My car squeaked as I put the brakes on and pulled up to the curb. The thin girl got into her rickety old Ford and sped down the road.

  The girl hadn’t seemed to notice me and even if she did it didn’t seem as though she’d cared about my presence in the least. I walked up to Stone’s front door and watched as she turned the corner.

  It didn’t matter to me in the lease who she was. It wasn’t like it was any of my business anyway.

  “Ex,” he said, and I jumped at least two inches straight up into the air, or at least it had felt that way. “What are you doing here?”

  It felt weird. He almost sounded perturbed that I was at his place. But then again, maybe he had the right to feel that way since I hadn’t bothered to call first. I did just show up on his property unannounced.

  “I’m sorry, I should have called first,” I said shaking my head as I took a step away from him.

  “Come on in,” he said pushing his squeaky front door open. I looked around as if I’d see my dad staring at me from across the street, but of course he wasn’t there.

  I stepped inside his quaint house and I couldn’t help but look around. He had minimal furniture and a few pictures on the wall but overall it was very plainly decorated. It was obvious that it was the house of a bachelor. Not a feminine touch anywhere inside… not that it mattered.