"You seen my cuts?" he asked through a mouthful of toothpaste.
But of course I was standing there looking at Uriel, the friendly, vibrant octopus that twirled a tentacle around one of his nipple piercings.
I coughed, dragging my eyes up to his bristly beard. "What?"
"My cuts."
"What's that?"
He lowered his chin in disbelief. "My cuts, babe. My MC vest. You seen it?"
The redhead flashed through my memory. Again. I had to fight the urge to call him an idiot for leaving me at his house alone that day. I'm sure my nostrils flared as I plastered a pleasant smile on my face. I'd completely forgotten to tell him about his stupid vest the day before since he'd been so busy with clients. "It's at the shop. Your lady friend dropped it off a couple days ago."
His forehead crinkled. "Who?"
Just how many houses had he gone to that night? You know what? I didn't want to know. God, of all the people in Austin—hell, in the Gulf Coast, that I could have grown feelings for, it'd been Dex. I was a total idiot.
"The redhead," I probably snapped a bit more harshly than I would've liked. "Sky-something."
Dex's lips turned down just a fraction, the lining of his forehead staying in place. "When?"
"That day you were planning on skinning me alive." I might have glanced down at Uriel—not his pierced nipples—again.
He looked at me like he didn't believe me. "Why?"
Why? "She said you left it at her house the night before." Crap, I really did sound a lot more crabby than I would have liked.
At the sound of my tone and the words that had come out of my mouth, Dex pulled the red toothbrush out of his mouth and spit in the sink. He glanced up once before rinsing out his mouth, quirking an eyebrow in my direction. Slowly, he straightened up, those sooty cobalt eyes lingering on me for longer than I was comfortable with.
He narrowed his eyes. "Why do you sound so pissed off?"
"Because you left me alone here all night," I replied just a little too fast. It wasn't because he'd spent the night with a pretty redhead. No, siree. "I kept thinking someone was going to break in and murder me since we're in the middle of nowhere."
"I wouldn't let that happen, Ritz."
I almost rolled my eyes. How would he have stopped that from happening if he hadn't even been around? "All right," I said a little more sarcastically than I intended.
The line of Dex's unshaved jaw twitched. "I wouldn't," he insisted.
"All right," I repeated myself. "It's fine."
I had a sickening feeling that he didn't exactly believe me. "You sure?"
Still, my response of a nod was too instinctual to be played off as cool and distant.
Dex kept that heavy gaze on me as he crossed his darkly tattooed arms over his chest, muscles and colors popping with the movement. He was watching carefully, way too carefully.
Suddenly, I didn't want to keep standing in front of him like I was waiting to go to trial. One foot out of the door, I rolled my eyes at myself for being so dang transparent. "Your thing is at Pins, and I'm going to shower real quick and get dressed."
"Bathing suit, Ritz!" he called out after me.
Like I could forget.
~ * ~ *
The only positive thing I could think of while Dex drove my car down the dusty road that led toward the lake, was that I was extremely grateful I'd been a Floridian before coming to Texas.
I'd grown up a short drive from the beach. I'd lived most of my life right by the ocean. And when you're broke as a joke, you can always go to the beach for free. So it was inevitable that I had almost as many clothes for sand and water as I did for a normal day. Specifically beach wear that could cover me up.
Dex and I had to make a stop at Sonny's to get my things because I hadn't brought anything to his house that was water-friendly. I found a really thin long-sleeved beach dress—plus shorts—to cover my royal purple two-piece.
I'd come up with my game plan somewhere between Sonny's and the toy store for going undetected. I could either simply not get into the water, or I'd just make sure to keep my arms down constantly. I'd only done that a few times while at the local beach back home but that was because the strangers that saw my scar were just that—people I'd never see again.
But Dex? And his family?
My secret was better off safe for a while.
"Chill out," Dex murmured as he maneuvered the car toward a grouping of cars the furthest away from the entrance to the state park.
"I'm fine." Lie.
He chuckled low, turning the wheel into the first spot he found by his family's collection of cars. "Babe, you're all tense. Quit worryin'. My sisters are all right, and my ma's been houndin’ me to bring you around since she found out you worked for me." He flashed a little grin over. "The worst you gotta worry about is Han not likin' her present."
"I think you should be worried about your sister when she finds out you got her a karaoke machine." I'd gotten Hannah, Dex's youngest niece, an alarm clock of that kitty character that she supposedly really liked. The big brute had spent an arm and a leg on a pink karaoke machine with two microphones that he swore the little girl would love.
Obviously this man had never been around children for longer than a couple of hours if that was the kind of present he liked to buy.
"She won't do shit," he murmured, waving me out of the car.
I grabbed the two gift bags from the backseat while Dex dug around in the trunk for the stuff he'd thrown in there. Even though we were parked quite a way down from the concentration of the cars—and motorcycles I noticed a little late—the loud laughs and screaming children could be heard pretty darn clearly.
Something jabbed me in the side. "Ya ready?" he asked, pulling his elbow away from my ribs. He'd traded in his black and navy blue t-shirts for a plain white one. But those friggin' light jeans that were perfectly molded to his butt hadn't been replaced.
"Did you bring a bathing suit?" I asked him, looking down at the new pair of Nike's he had on instead of boots.
"Nope." He elbowed my side again, raising both of those pure black eyebrows. "I'm on babysittin' duty."
"You? Why?"
Dex tipped his chin up. "I brought you along, didn't I, babe?"
Asshole.
“Waah.” I rolled my eyes and reached to pinch the back of his arm. "You get on my nerves, you know that, right?"
He ducked out of the way, his mouth splitting into a wide smile, all pretty white teeth, before laughing. "Nobody’s tried to do that shit to me since back in the day when I’d piss off my ma.”
“It’s overdue then,” I told him, aiming for his arm again before he wrapped his hot palm around my fingers.
He squeezed his grip gently for a moment before dropping his hold, still grinning. “C'mon, you little shit."
It should probably bother me that he called me a little shit but with the big grin on his face and the loud burst of his laugh, I kind of thought that he was using it as a pet name. He let out another lower, huskier laugh and I was completely convinced it was like his way of calling me... what? Whatever you'd call a pet baby rabbit.
"How many nieces and nephews do you have total?"
"Lisa has three girls, and Marie has a girl and a boy."
The noises from the group in the tree-lined area ahead of us got louder each step we took. "Lisa's your oldest sister?"
Dex nodded. "She's Hannah's mom." The birthday girl, he meant.
I tried my best to mentally prepare myself to face three women that were potentially female versions of Dex, and I couldn't help but feel just a little intimidated. From what I've learned over the course of my stay in Austin, there was probably a big chance that Dex's mom knew my mom back when she was going to college here. Who knew how that could go. If her father was a member of the Widows' Original 12, then she was more heavily invested in the club than just about anyone else.
More than likely, it also didn't help that my crap-ass father left the
MC for my mom.
Hmm.
Slowly, the group came clearly into view. What looked like two dozen adults and at least a dozen kids scrambled around a circle of four picnic tables, while a thick column of smoke spiraled in the background. From the looks of it, most of the men wore WMC vests.
You know, besides Dex.
My stomach couldn't help but clench up at the reminder.
I didn't recognize hardly anyone beside a couple of the women I'd met at Mayhem weeks back, but I couldn't remember their names to save my life. No one paid us any attention as we walked up to the group until we stopped alongside the picnic table furthest away from the lake shore.
"I'll leave our shit right here—" Dex started to say, dropping our two bags onto the bench.
"It's about time you got here," a woman's voice suddenly said. "We've been waiting for you to start grilling, Dex."
Holy crap.
The woman standing just to the side of Dex had to be his mom. The hair color, that square jaw line, the eye color—it was all the same. Well, minus the boobs and the gray hairs that peppered her blue-black mane. She even had the same smirk as she looked at what had to be her son.
"I'm not even late, Ma," Dex confirmed it, turning around with a matching sneer on his full, pink mouth. Holding out his arms, the woman stepped into them, slapping him on the back, hard.
"You're never late." She laughed. Her dark blue gaze moved from the ground and zeroed in on me just standing there. Her eyes went up, up, up, before they stopped on my face, and she frowned. "Oh dear."
I wanted to say something but I didn't because my stomach dropped nervously. Why hadn't I stayed at his house?
"You look just like Delia," she choked out.
My mom? Suddenly my voice seemed to find its way back to my throat. "Hi, Mrs. Locke." Shit. I hope she still went by Locke or this was going to be incredibly awkward.
Before I even realized what the hell was going on, Mrs. Locke—I hoped—was pushing Dex out of the way to stand right in front of me. Nearly eye to eye if it wasn't for the inch or two she had on me. Her fingertips moved to my face, prodding at my cheekbones. "Girl, you could pass for your mama," she breathed.
Of course, I started smiling like a fool, all overwhelmed nerves. "Thank you. You're really pretty." How lame was that?
It must not have been that lame because Mrs. Locke laughed right in my face. "I know."
Dear God, this woman really was a female Dex.
But just as quickly as she laughed, her face sobered, and no. I knew that face. I knew the words that were going to come out her mouth before they actually did. "I'm so sorry about your mama," she said in a low voice. Those dark blue eyes turned sad and heavy, and shit, shit, shit this was too soon after my conversation with Sonny to think about her.
"Thanks," I somehow managed to cough out.
"Ma, where's the food?" Dex rudely interrupted.
Those strangely familiar cobalt blue eyes narrowed in the direction of the man that unhinged me half the time. What came out of her mouth next made me laugh because I couldn't help but believe she was one of the select few that could talk to her Dex so crisply. "Open your eyes, dipshit."
~ * ~ *
"What are you doing out here all alone?" Dex's mom asked just as I'd started pulling my dress over my head.
For the last twenty or so minutes, I'd been sitting on the edge of the sandy shore, watching the group of shrieking little heathens throw sand at each other. After spending the last hour sitting and watching the group of people I barely knew interact with each other, it'd gotten to be too much. Their familiarity, their easiness, made me nostalgic.
It wasn't often that I was really struck by how lonely I was. Well, at least how lonely I'd become since Will left, even while living with Lanie.
Before, I always had someone. After The Greatest Disappointment left, it was Mom, Will, yia-yia and me. Then, everyone started getting picked off. We'd always been a tight-knit group. Everything was communal. We all worked in whatever way we could for the other, for the greater good of the family.
And now all I had left was Sonny. My little brother, the same little brother that I'd busted my ass for, couldn't even email me back.
So being around Dex's family, both the biological and the motorcycle club, reminded me of how in-between I was. I was but I wasn't one of them. I was but I wasn't Sonny's sister. I was but I wasn't a lot of things.
After getting introduced to a cousin of Mrs. Locke—or Debra as she'd asked me to call her—I made my way toward the beach where all the kids were. I realized it was rude but it just made me too sad to be around such a close group at least in that moment.
It made me want something that I wasn't sure I'd ever have again.
"I just needed a little break. I have a headache," I told her before throwing my dress onto the towel I'd bunched up on the sand.
She smiled sadly, and I had to wonder whether she had any idea that I was lying. She probably did. My mom had always known and so had yia-yia. It had to be some weird mom-instinct that gave them bullshit meters.
Wading out into the murky greenish-brown lake water, I fought back the urge to think it was gross. There's no competition between fresh and salt water. The calm made me miss the waves and the salty air. This room temperature water was just... strange.
"I can never get used to how warm this damn water is," she said once we were about waist deep.
I had to make sure to keep my bad arm down as I nodded at her. "It feels really weird." More like gross but I didn't want to be completely rude.
Dex's mom snorted. "Every time we come out here, I have to pray that the water isn't too hot. I don't feel like getting some flesh-eating virus."
And, I stopped walking. "What?"
"You didn't hear about the cases these last few years?"
"No...” Holy crap, I started walking backward slowly.
Debra laughed and waved me forward. "Don't worry about it. Lisa made sure with the ranger that the water was over eighty degrees before we came."
I was still tempted to get out but I didn't want to seem like a big baby. Crap. I mean, I kind of liked my arms and legs.
"Trust me," she snorted.
I was left with no other choice but to trust her as we swam out to the floating dock not too far away. I was a little glad she wasn't in the mood to talk as I hoisted myself up onto the edge while she treaded water nearby. My head did hurt but I knew it was more because I felt a little disappointed than anything else.
"Are you healthy now?"
The question was like a punch to the gut. "Hmm?"
Her head bobbed just ten feet away from the dock, she tipped it toward me. "Your cancer. Is it all gone now?"
Blood rushed to my face like there was a fire it was trying to get away from, and my mind went reeling right along with it. I shouldn't be surprised that she knew. If I gave myself more than ten seconds to take in her question, I would probably think about the fact that she'd been involved in the Club long enough to remember hearing about me as a kid.
But answering her still didn't seem natural. "Yes. I've been in remission for almost six years now."
"Good." She smiled wide like I'd just told her that I'd bought a new car. "No one's said anything about it, so I figured you were probably one-hundred percent again."
"I'm okay." I returned her smile, even moving my arm a little so that she could see a hint of the scarring. When the hell was the last time I showed it to someone? I couldn't remember. "Thank you for asking though."
Debra winked. "Glad to hear that. Dex been treating you okay?"
Now that made me snort. Why did everyone always ask a variation of the same question? "Except for his little temper tantrums, he's been good." I was tempted to say very good to me but luckily I managed not to. It just sounded dirty in my head.
And I'm surprised to have been disappointed that it wasn't like that at all.
"I'm even more glad to hear that. I love that boy—," like Dex could st
ill be considered a boy. Ha. "But I know how he is. I'm sorry to say he gets that shitty temper from me and his pa."
What do you say to something like that? It's okay? No. Absolutely not.
Thankfully she wasn't expecting an answer. "That's just about all he gets from his pa." The tight laugh was so bitter I definitely didn't know what to say afterward. I understood what she meant. I had an idea of what his father was like after Houston and I think Dex needed to hear that even his mom didn't see him in the same light.
Under Locke Page 28