by Nicole Fox
The two of them sat there for a long moment in silence, thinking about how miserable they were and yet grateful that they had someone to share it with. Skid knew that both Park and Mina had learned a little bit about his time in the war from that conversation in his room, but they could never know all of it. Maybe he should tell her. Maybe he should let her know everything he had seen and done, every man he had ever killed, so she would really know what she was getting into. Mina would go running for the hills if she was smart, and Skid couldn’t blame her.
“I ought to get going,” Skid finally said, his voice sounding too loud despite the wailing jukebox in the corner. “I have things to do tomorrow.”
Stomper nodded and raised his glass, but he caught Skid by the sleeve before he could leave. “The invitation is always there, man. If you need me, you just let me know.”
“I’ll do that.” His steps were a little wobbly as he returned to his bike, and the roaring of the engine seemed loud and annoying. He shook his face as he picked up speed and the cool evening air washed over him, ready for it to sober him up a little and return him to the real world, the reality he had worked so hard to build for himself.
It was late when he got back to the clubhouse, and most of the other members had gone to bed. The television played quietly to a sleeping Grill on the couch, and Skid let him lie. He stumbled up the stairs to find his room, but the floor didn’t quite seem to want to cooperate.
He rested his hand on the doorknob but didn’t want to turn it. What waited for him behind that door? A room that held his few possessions, but nothing else. There was no warmth there, no happiness, nothing that he felt committed to.
Instead, he turned and continued down the hall. His feet automatically stopped in front of Mina’s door, as though they were telling him what he really needed to be doing. He happened to agree with them. Without knocking, he turned the handle quietly and stepped inside.
The lights were out, but the moonlight made a large rectangle of pale blue on her bed. Mina sat in the middle of it, her hands cradling her stomach and her legs folded against the sheets. She turned to him, her face pale and her eyes full of surprise. “Skid? What are you doing here?” she asked quietly.
Skid put a finger to his lips though her voice had barely been above a whisper. “I needed to see you.”
“About what?”
“About nothing. I just wanted to see you.” He stumbled as he went to the bed and dropped himself on the edge of the mattress. “What are you doing up?”
She ran a hand through her hair, sending the ends into wayward spikes, about to blow off his question, but she stopped. “Honestly? I can’t stop thinking about us.”
“What about us?”
Mina’s snort of laughter was loud, and she stifled it quickly. “There’s a lot to think about when it comes to us. Mostly, though, I’ve been wondering if we’ll truly end up together. I’ve been talking to one of the other club girls, and I’ve heard some really sad stories. I don’t like to think about my baby growing up and leaving me, or you leaving me.” A glistening tear ran down her cheek.
Skid caught it on his finger and wiped the crystalline droplet away. “Hey, why would you worry about that? I’m right here.”
“But you’re not,” she countered. “I thought for a while that you were, but I realized that you haven’t been, ever since my father asked you to start talking to Stomper.”
“I didn’t realize I was spending so much time away from you.”
“No.” She touched his arm, her fingers cold against the heat of his skin. “I can tell you’re a little drunk, so I don’t really expect you to understand. Maybe you wouldn’t even if you were sober, but I’m not talking about being here physically. I mean mentally, emotionally. You’ve changed since these meetings started, and I’m worried about you.”
Her words mined into his brain, and he sat up a little straighter. “There’s nothing to worry about. I’m fine.”
Mina turned her face back toward the window. “I’m going to be honest with you. I’ve decided it’s the only way to be, and if someone else can’t handle the truth, well, then that’s not my problem. Talking with Stomper has been bad for you, Skid. You’re miserable. You don’t know where your loyalties lie, and I hate it. It’s not that I’m concerned about you leaving the Legion. I want you to stay, but I don’t think that’s the issue. I just want you to be happy again. I love you, and I care about you.”
Her words sobered him in a way that the cold wind could never do. Skid took her into his arms and pulled her close, letting her wet cheek rest against his chest as he ran his hand down her side to cradle her belly. “Mina …”
“I’m sorry, Skid, I just had to tell you.”
“No. Don’t apologize. Don’t you dare.” His heart warmed, knowing that he really did have a place he belonged. It didn’t matter what happened with Satan’s Legion and with Park. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t go back to his days in the army or really ever forget about them. It didn’t even matter that Stomper wanted so badly to recruit him. He had Mina and the baby, so he would always have a family. “I love you, too.”
She relaxed against him, the tension dissipating from every muscle in her body. “So things really will be all right?”
“They will, and they are. First thing in the morning, I’m going to tell your father about us. I don’t care what he has to say anymore, it’s time the truth came out.” He felt more determined about this than he had felt about anything in a long time. His life had just been a series of days that he got through, without much to work towards. That was all changing. Right now.
“But what if he kicks you out? Or kicks both of us out? He’s going to be so mad, Skid, and doubly so because we didn’t just tell him in the first place.”
“It’ll still be fine. He can be mad all he wants to, but Park won’t be the first father to be angry about such a thing. The deed’s already been done, and it can’t be changed. If he doesn’t understand now, he will soon enough.”
“You really think so?”
Skid couldn’t miss the hope in her voice, because he felt it, too. “I do. Come here.”
Tenderly, gently, as though she could be bruised just by him looking at her the wrong way, Skid laid her down. He carefully removed the loose T-shirt she wore, taking a moment to enjoy her pale breasts in the moonlight. Next came her panties, a dark fringe of lace that disappeared when he tossed it off the bed. Her tattoos were shadows of lace against her skin, delicate embellishments that only added to her glory. Skid let out an appreciative breath as he ran a finger from the sharp line of her jaw, down the curve of her neck, around the globe of her breast, up the slope of her stomach, and down the length of her leg. He knew she would look completely different in the sunlight, a negative of what she was now, with golden skin and brilliant white tattoos. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Prove it to me,” she whispered.
When he tried to think of it later, Skid didn’t remember how his clothes came off. It was like being with Mina made magic things happen, and the only thing that mattered was the end result. He was on top of her in an instant, his cock raging and ready to go, but he forced himself to hold back. Mina was everything. He had to make this count.
Still, his body wanted her, needed her. He lowered himself on top of her and slowly sank into her warmth, feeling his very soul rejuvenated by doing so. As his hips moved steadily, Mina’s legs came up to wrap around his waist and her arms around his neck. She clung to him as though he was life itself, and he knew the feeling. Their souls melded as their bodies blended, and Skid kissed her as he slowly thrust. They were the only two people in the world. No, she was his world, and he wished he could find a way to tell her that.
He let out a moan as he grew more engorged, every cell of his body rushing to at once to be closest to Mina. She returned his cry, clinging to the skin of his back and letting him know that she needed him just as badly. Her body felt his satisfact
ion coming and responded in kind, waves undulating around him and pulling him in deeper as he came. In the midst of their raw passion, Skid had never felt more alive in his life.
Their energies spent, Skid pulled her to him and covered them up in the bed. He wasn’t going to let go of her, no matter what happened. “I really do love you, Mina.”
She turned her face upward to kiss his chin. “I know.”
Skid slipped into the deepest sleep he’d had in a long time. It was only disturbed when the light was shining fully in the window and the sounds of the house were beginning to rouse him. The door slammed open, banging against the wall. Skid looked up to see Park standing in the doorway.
Chapter Fifteen
Mina
“Dad! What are you doing in here?” Mina sat bolt upright in bed, pulling the sheet up around her naked form. She felt a rush of heat over her face as she realized just who was in bed with her and what this meant.
“I’m doing something I should have done a long time ago, Mina. I shouldn’t have waited for you to tell me, or counted on anyone else to do so. I should have found out for myself!”
Skid was out of bed and pulling his pants on. “Park, you’ve got to listen to me. I’ve got so much to say.”
“Then you shouldn’t have waited until now to say it!” Park roared. His fist went back, and when it shot forward it made a hard, crunching sound as it made contact with Skid’s face.
Staggering backward and putting up his hands, Skid reached for his shirt. “Please, it’s not what it looks like. I mean, it is, but it’s not what you think.”
“That enough talking!” Park yanked Skid out into the hallway and threw him to the floor. He jumped on top of the bigger man, his fists waling. “How dare you do this to my daughter? And right under my nose, you bastard! I should fucking kill you! Maybe I will!”
The other members had come out of their rooms and jogged up the stairs from the other floors. They crowded around the scene, standing on their toes to get a good look at the bastard who had betrayed their president.
“Stop! Stop! You don’t understand! You can’t do this!” Mina didn’t know if she was going to faint or throw up. As wonderful as the night before had been, everything had changed in the matter of a moment. Skid had been wrong. Everything was not all right.
“I can, and I fucking will!” He punctuated his words with his hits. “This is my club, my daughter, and my right to beat you to a bloody pulp!”
Skid’s nose was bleeding, and splatters of blood stained the hallway carpet with every strike. He murmured something between the blows, but it wasn’t loud enough to be heard.
With a ripple of realization that made her lean against the doorway for support, Mina realized that Skid was letting Park do this to him. Her father was older and leaner, and there was no way he could take Skid if he would just get up and fight back. But she knew why he was doing this. Skid thought he deserved this. Though Mina had been just as guilty, Skid had done something awful. He had betrayed his president.
When his face was little more than a mass of red and purple, Skid managed to put his arm up and block several of Park’s blows. The president jumped to his feet, clearly ready for more as his fists danced in the air. “You have something to say, son?”
Slowly, Skid got to his feet. He looked at Park, and then his dark eyes landed on Mina. That small glance said everything.
She cried out to him, but he turned away. Mina knew what was happening. It was her worst nightmare coming true. He was leaving. All her dreams of a house with a man and a baby, maybe even a white picket fence, were disappearing in front of her eyes.
“Don’t, Mina,” Park growled, putting his arm in front of the doorway to keep her from advancing into the hallway. “Skid is finally doing the right thing, making the right decision. He’s leaving.”
“No,” she whispered. “This can’t be happening.” But she watched as Skid went to his own room to gather his things. Several of the other men stood nearby, ready to act in case of trouble. From Skid. The man who had risen to become their vice president was now an outlaw.
Through the blur of her tears, Mina’s eyes landed on two people standing just across the hall from her door. They’d had a front-row view of the scene, and they stood close together with smug looks on their faces. Like a bitter pill, Mina understood it all. Jewel had heard what she’d said to Rose that day, and she’d figured out who the father of Mina’s baby was. With Animal at her side—a man desperate to rise in the ranks of Satan’s Legion—they had gone to Park.
“Dad—”
“I don’t want to hear any of it, Mina. You get dressed and get down to my office. Now! As for the rest of you,” he pointed a finger at the members of the crowd, “get back to whatever you were doing. There’s nothing else to see here.”
* * *
She wasn’t able to stop the tears. She could blame it on the hormones, but she knew it was so much more. It was Skid, it was the baby, it was her father. It was even Animal and Jewel, who had betrayed her just to gain traction of their own. She hoped they enjoyed where it had gotten them, especially since Park hadn’t had anything else to say to them before he’d stormed down to his office.
Mina had dressed and run a brush through her hair, but there was little else she could do to make herself presentable. She just didn’t have the energy. What was left for her? Park would confine her to the clubhouse for good. She would have her baby, but she wouldn’t be able to find any joy in it. Not without Skid.
With her face turned to the floor to avoid the stares she didn’t doubt she was getting, Mina slowly made her way down into the bowels of the building. She didn’t knock on the old oak door that led to Park’s office; he would be expecting her.
“Sit,” he commanded.
She slumped down into the chair on the opposite side of his desk but refused to look at him.
“Mina, why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Really?” Her sadness was quickly replaced by anger, and it was all directed at her father. “You really want to know why I didn’t tell you when you just beat the shit out of Skid? Come on, how stupid can you be?”
“Don’t you take that tone with me, young lady.”
“And don’t you call me a young lady. I’m not. I’m not even close. I’m a woman, Dad, and I think it’s pretty fucking obvious that I’m not a lady.” She tried to look at him now, but the tears were flowing so fast she couldn’t see.
“Yes, that’s quite clear! A lady wouldn’t have gotten herself into this situation, and even if she had, she wouldn’t have tried to hide it. She would have come to her father for help, damn it!” Park swiped the papers off his desk with one stroke, sending them flying up into the air so the surface was free for him to slam his fists on. “Damn it, Mina, this isn’t how any of this was supposed to happen.”
“What? Did you think you could just pick out someone for me to be with? Or that I would just wait until you one day magically decided I was old enough to be in an adult relationship? I’m not a child, and it’s time you understood that. Especially since I’m about to have one of my own.” She put her hand protectively in front of her belly, fully aware of the suggestions Park had made before about getting rid of the baby.
“Look, I know that raising you in a clubhouse full of men hasn’t been the best thing. What choice did I have? I did the best I could, and clearly it wasn’t enough.” He sat back down and covered his face with his hands.
She felt a pang of sympathy for him, but it didn’t outweigh the fury she felt for what he’d done to Skid. “I don’t think that’s it. You’re just so busy trying to protect me and keep me to yourself that you haven’t been letting me live my own life. I’m tired of it, Dad. You say you wanted me to come to you for help, but how could I ever have done that when I knew you would just explode? There’s no denying it. We all saw what you did to Skid, and quite frankly you never could have beaten him down like that if he had actually been up for fighting you.”
&nb
sp; “Don’t start on that,” Park warned, dropping his hands into his lap and glaring at her. “That was the first thing he’s done right. He should have been honest about it in the first place, Mina, and you know it. How can either one of you expect me to be happy after I’ve been lied to for so long?”
Picking up the hem of her T-shirt and swiping at her eyes, Mina could see the pain in her father’s face. “I don’t think any of us did the right thing, if you ask me. And that includes you.” Her voice was calm but bitter. This whole thing had been a disaster.
“Maybe you’re right,” he sighed. “But there’s no changing any of it. I just wish you had been able to talk to me about it.”
“So do I.” Mina heard footsteps above her head and wondered if any of them were Skid, leaving the clubhouse and taking her heart with him. No, he’d probably left before she ever even made it out of her room. He was likely long gone on his motorcycle, his blood leaving droplets on the pavement behind him. Secretly, she hoped he’d accidentally left something in her room, even if it was something small and insignificant. That way, she would still have something of him.