“Your protection deal wasn’t the reason I noticed Beth, and the fucking bet wasn’t the reason I wanted to talk to her,” I snapped. And Reid and Ash thought that I was the problem Brody? I wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for them. I could have just approached Beth on my own, and I wouldn’t have any of this shit hanging over my head.
Still, Ash was right about one thing. After the way Beth initially reacted to the violence of the fight tent, if she thought someone like that was after her, she might just run home to safety. And that might mean I’d never see her again. I didn’t know much about this Rumspringa thing, but I was pretty sure it was a one-time deal. Once you came home, you weren’t allowed out to go try it again. I wasn’t willing to risk losing her. Not now. Not when I was really starting to feel something.
“Fine,” I practically spit the word at the phone. “I’ll find some place to take Beth tomorrow night, and I won’t say anything. For now.” I then hung up before Ash had a chance to piss me off any more.
I jammed my phone in my pocket and swung my head around until I saw what I needed. Luckily it was hanging unused at the far end of the gym.
I couldn’t let Beth go home right now, that much was certain. Not until we figured out whether she was in any actual danger, or who it was from.
I stomped across the matted floor, oblivious to the looks I was getting as people almost jumped out of my way.
If she stayed here, I could keep her safe. Or safer, at least, then a bunch of backwards hicks armed with pitchforks and torches, anyway.
Drawing my arm back, I threw a punch forward as hard as I could, making the heavy bag in front of me shudder and swing violently away.
I would call Beth later. I needed some time to think about what I was going to do. Where I was going to take her. But I still had a lot of anger and frustration that I needed to deal with first. I stopped the swinging canvas bag and then pulled back, landing another solid punch.
I was going to be here awhile.
11
Beth
I was a little ashamed to admit how envious I was when I first heard that Sarah and Reid were going up to a house in the woods to be alone. For the whole night.
Of course, Sarah had all sorts of objections at first, reasons why she couldn’t—or shouldn’t—go seemed to flow from her like water flowing over a dam after a week of heavy rainfall.
As usual, it was up to Hannah to try and talk some sense into her. That was the thing about Sarah, she was always looking to be told what to do by someone who she deemed wiser or more experienced. She had very little sense of adventure.
Yet I was still surprised that she finally agreed to go.
And I really was envious at first.
Until Hannah got a phone call, which she handed to me after answering it. Wyatt’s voice came through, and just hearing it warmed me from my toes to my nose.
He’d called to ask me to go away with him as well, arguing that Reid and Sarah shouldn’t be the only ones to get a bit of privacy, and that he had a special place that he wanted to show me. That was all he would say, leaving the actual details to be a surprise, of course.
I needed no convincing from my sister to say yes.
So Sarah and I had spent most of yesterday packing our bags and getting speeches from Hannah about what may or may not happen when we were alone with the Brody boys. She had no idea what had already happened between Wyatt and I the night before, although how I was able to keep it to myself I’ll never know. On one hand, I was filled with shame and guilt for what we’d done and how utterly incredible it had felt—temptation and lust were sins that we were supposed to be strong enough to turn from, at least until marriage, but I had given in with barely a fight. But on the other hand, I couldn’t stop thinking about it and wanted nothing more than to discuss it with my sisters. In great detail.
Yet I could only guess at all of the things that Sarah would have had to say about it, and I didn’t want her to sour my mood or the sweet memories of the experience. And while I knew Hannah would understand and not judge—especially given how Ash had tried to sneak out of her room this morning only to run into Sarah and I in the kitchen—I didn’t really have an opportunity to talk with her alone for long enough to get into it.
She did find enough time to give us both a cell phone to use to call in an emergency, and to slip me a condom, along with quick but detailed instructions on its use and purpose. I wondered idly whether she had done the same for Sarah, and what her reaction must have been. Even I blushed a little while she was describing it, but that didn’t stop me from paying close attention. Just in case.
“Here we are!”
Wyatt’s voice snapped me out of my own thoughts, and I blinked against the bright sunlight that sparkled through the window as it poked through the gaps between the leaves and branches of the trees surrounding us. My first thought was that somehow we’d ended up in another forest, and memories of the other night flooded back into my head. I had to continue to pretend to be staring out the window for a few moments, until I felt like I could look over at Wyatt again and now have him wonder if I was coming down with a heat rash.
“What’s this?” I asked, as we both pushed open the doors to his truck at the same time and stepped out. There was a little dirt path that wound away from where he’d parked, and I could just make out the edges of a building not far from where we stood.
Wyatt started to walk along the dirt path, reaching his hand out for mine and grasping it firmly. I couldn’t help the smile that turned the edges of my lips at the now familiar and welcome touch.
“This place used to belong to the MC my father used to head up,” he said. I raised my eyebrow at this, and he grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, MC is just a lazy way of saying motorcycle club. My dad used to run the biggest one for miles and miles, called the Bright Falls Beasts. They started here, this was their first clubhouse. Then when they outgrew it, they just used it as a bar or for storage. There’s still a room with a bunch of boxes that I haven’t ever bothered to go through. There may even be some weapons in there.”
I frowned as I looked over at him. “Why would we need those?” I asked.
Wyatt just turned back quickly to look at the building. “We wouldn’t, I was just thinking out loud. Anyway, eventually, the MC outgrew even that use for it, and everyone just sort of forgot about this place. I still come up here sometimes when I want to be alone, or to think.”
The building seemed to be built of wood from the surrounding forest, but it had an aged and worn look of something that had been there for years. It didn’t seem in bad shape, likely protected from many of the elements by the trees that it was nestled within. Wyatt pulled a key from his pocket and used it to open the front door.
Inside it was dark, but after pushing aside the curtains it almost reminded me of back home. No electric lights, everything made of wood, the trees just outside. I could almost imagine my father or mother reminding me to do my chores from the next room. Of course, if they actually were here, I’d be getting a lot more than a lecture about getting my tasks done on time. I shuddered to think of how my father would react to my being alone here with Wyatt.
The main room that we had entered into was fairly large, enough to hold at least ten or twenty men, I would guess. There were couches at the ends of the room, and a few tables and chairs, all of which oriented towards the large bar that took up most of the far side of the room. Bottles stood in a colorful—yet dusty—line along the back of the bar, although most of them looked empty. Decorating the room were quite a number of large photographs and paintings. Most of the images were of motorcycles, however there were more than a few images of women in varying states of undress.
Wyatt must have noticed my startled reaction.
“Sorry,” he murmured, “I forgot about those.”
“Are these the normal decorations for…” I paused, trying to remember what he’d called them, “…for an MC?”
The sheepish look returned to
his face as he shrugged. “Kinda, yeah.”
“Well, then I guess they’re appropriate,” I said, trying to look unbothered. I’m in the English world, I have to get used to the English ways. Wyatt looked at me for a long moment, and then he just shook his head and smiled.
“So no one uses this place at all anymore?” It seemed strange that someone would go to the trouble of building something like this and then abandon it. Back home, even if a family outgrew their house and couldn’t expand it, for whatever reason, then it would at least be given to someone else in the family, usually a son, after a new one was built.
Wyatt brushed the dust off of one of the couches and both of us sat down. His eyes seemed to shift from green to brown, depending on how the sunlight streaming through the windows caught them. But I’d never before seen them look so alive as he spoke. He was excited to talk about this place, which meant it was probably very important to him.
“Well, it’s not like this place is on the books, if you know what I mean.” One look told him I did not. “That means that it wasn’t exactly built… legally. Like with permits and shit. My dad told me that the he and some friends just got together one summer and built it. This was before the MC had officially even formed. But once they had a clubhouse, I guess it all just sort of came together. They used it to meet for a couple years, and then when they outgrew it, it just became a biker bar. Hell, I think Ash got his first job as a bouncer working here. Unofficially, anyway. But I don’t think even he ever thinks about this place anymore.
“Anyway, even that came to an end once the club grew to a certain size. The Beasts eventually moved their headquarters out of Bright Falls, despite this town being their namesake.” Wyatt’s face took on a sour expression when he said that. “Even now that they’re so much smaller and have moved back into town, no one remembers this place exists. No one remembers the history.” He was no longer looking at me, but instead staring blankly off into space.
“What is it that they used to do, this motorcycle club?” I was interested in hearing more about them since they seemed so important to Wyatt.
“They were into everything when my old man ran things. Back then, the Beasts were respected by everyone. Even the cops new better than to cross them.”
“Wait,” I said, shaking my head. I was fairly certain that cops were another word for police. The Amish did things very differently than the English world, handling our problems internally, mostly by shunning or sanctioning our rule breakers. However, I was still somewhat aware of how things were supposed to work here in the “Devil’s Playground”, as the English world was so often called by our elders. Here we were told that crime ran rampant, and the only thing stopping complete anarchy and social breakdown was their use of laws and police to enforce them. “Do you mean that the MC was a club of… criminals?”
I watched Wyatt as he swallowed and looked around the room, seemingly everywhere but at me. “Well, I mean, it’s not really about that,” he began. “It was more about respect, you know? The Beasts did a lot of good for this community, too. And they kept a lot of even worse groups, like the cartel, from gaining a foothold in Bright Falls.”
“But isn’t that the job of the police? To stop the criminals?”
Wyatt was looking increasingly uncomfortable, almost flustered, as he answered my questions. “Well, yeah, I guess. But, sometimes you have to break a few laws to prove you aren’t to be messed with. I mean, there were much worse people out there than the Beasts, and if they thought that this town was sitting around, unprotected, they would have moved in and—“
“But they weren’t unprotected, they had the police.” I was confused.
“It’s hard to explain,” he just said, his voice low and expression pained.
Was it? As with the fight tent, I was left to ponder just who this man was that I was spending so much time with. Did he really feel like the group he was describing was doing the right thing, or is he only defending them because of his father’s affiliation? As much as being with someone so strong and confident made me feel safe, that feeling would disappear if he was using that strength to terrorize others. How could a man like that ever really be trusted, if his morals were so fluid, being applied differently to different people? Perhaps Sarah’s mistrust and concern about English men in general had more truth to it than I wanted to admit.
“Anyway, that was a long time ago,” he finally said. “The Beasts barely exist anymore, and haven’t for a while.”
“And so without their protection,” I asked, “have those other, much worse groups moved in?”
Wyatt pursed his lips as he regarded me. “No, not yet,” he admitted. Then he laughed lightly. “You really are something,” he muttered, before jumping to his feet and offering me a hand. “Come on, I want to show you the rest of this place.”
I took his hand, letting him pull me easily to my feet, gratified to feel the same warmth and security in his grip that I had noticed earlier. Despite everything, I still couldn’t imagine Wyatt doing anything to harm me. He just gave off a feeling of safety that surrounded me whenever I was around him. I couldn’t imagine him ever doing anything to change that. I still had the feeling of “rightness” when I was near him.
He led me to the back room, which was set up like a little kitchen. It was covered in a thick layer of dust, but it was nothing a little bit of cleaning couldn’t fix. There was also a restroom with a shower, and a small room filled with boxes that looked like it may have been used as a bedroom at some point.
“I actually spend most of my time in the basement when I’m here,” he explained. “It’s a bit cooler down there on sunny days, but it’s dark and I’d need to get the generator going before I take you down there. Otherwise we won’t be able to see a damn thing and will end up spending our whole afternoon groping around….” His eyes met mine as he spoke and I raised an eyebrow, memories of the other night flooding through me. We both burst out in nervous laughter then, as he obviously had a similar mental image.
“The generator is out back, lemme go see if I can get it running,” he said, his face redder than usual as he slipped out the front door.
It was pleasing to me to see that, as strong and confident as Wyatt Brody was, he wasn’t immune to being embarrassed or flustered. For some reason that only made him seem safer and more trustworthy to me.
I thought back again to what we’d done the other night. Not only to how far we’d gone and how freely I had allowed him to explore my body, but to what we didn’t do. Everything he’d done to me had been completely one-sided. He had given me so much pleasure and yet I’d done nothing to him. His body had remained completely untouched, like a vast undiscovered country that lay tantalizingly close, but had so far remained just out of reach.
I decided then that I would not be ready to leave without getting a chance for a little exploring of my own…
12
Wyatt
I didn’t always remember to bring gas for the old generator—since when I was here alone I didn’t mind sitting around in the dark, alone with my thoughts—but this time I was glad I did. Not that spending time in the dark with Beth sounded like a bad idea, and the way she looked at me when I mentioned it made me wonder if she didn’t share the same thoughts, but still, it was always helpful to have power up here. If for nothing else, then to power up the radio for some soft romantic music. My phone battery wouldn’t last all night.
I tossed the empty gas can aside, closing up the generator tank. The rust around the edges was going to need to be cleaned or water would start to get in every time it rained. I made a mental note to bring a tarp to keep it covered between visits.
This generator had been purchased for when this place was running at full steam, so it was actually a lot bigger than would normally be necessary to power a place this size. But running a bar frequented by bikers, even a small one, took a lot of power. For my purposes, though, a single can of gas was usually enough to last a couple of days.
Despite having this place virtually to myself for the last few years, I’d never actually brought a woman here. If I were Ash, I would have probably turned this place into my own private love nest, kind of like he did with the cabin he inherited from dad. Although the difference was that the cabin was more like a house, furnished beautifully, with full power and all the amenities. Compared to that, this place was like a shack you’d find a hobo living in. Or it would be, if I hadn’t come up a few times a year to take care of it and make sure the windows and doors were always locked.
Still, even if I’d wanted to use it like that, a place like this would never have impressed the typical woman I’d dated in the past. It was too rustic. But that was exactly why I knew it would be perfect for Beth. Not only because a lack of power and modern comforts were what she was used to, but because she wasn’t a high maintenance princess worried about breaking a nail or looking to be impressed. That’s what I really liked about her. I didn’t have to try and be something I wasn’t, worried about what she may think.
Well, maybe that wasn’t entirely true. She clearly wasn’t excited to hear about the Beasts, at least not once I got into the details. Things had been going well until that point, and then she started asking questions about the shit they were into, and all of a sudden I felt like I was defending myself to Ash and Reid again. Why were people so bothered by the MC? Sure, they broke a few laws, but it wasn’t like they went around hurting innocent people. Not anymore, anyway. The way they were now, it was closer to how it was back when they first got started, when a place like this was enough to hold the whole MC.
The Brody Bunch Collection: Bad Boy Romance Page 48