“I saw him yesterday,” she said cautiously.
“At least, that’s one of us,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry, honey. If it makes you feel any better, he looked like hell. King won’t tell me anything, but he says that’s because he doesn’t know anything. Rigid isn’t talking to anyone. King said he was fine heading back to the hotel and when they left. But he said something was different when they got back to clubhouse,” Meg said, I know trying to make me feel better.
“Well, I guess whatever it is, he’s not telling anyone. Let’s go.” I dumped my coffee into a travel mug and screwed the cover on.
“Maybe he just needs time,” Meg said as she slipped her flip flops on.
“Or, maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. After taking care of Asshat for me, maybe he realized I wasn’t what he wanted. We got thrown together so quickly because of what happened to me.’ I opened the front door and headed to Meg’s truck. ‘You got lucky with King. I honestly don’t think there can be too many people like him. Rigid and I just aren’t meant to be.”
“Stop,’ Meg ordered, grabbing my hand. ‘You can’t believe that. I saw the way he looked at you. He looked just like King does at me. Something had to have happened when they were gone.”
I gently pulled my hand out from hers and ran my fingers through my hair. “Maybe, Meg. But I can’t help him or make him be with me if he doesn’t want me too. He knows where I live, I haven’t gone anywhere, he has.” I felt a tear run down my cheek and quickly wiped it away. I had been fighting crying over him the past couple of days. He didn’t want me anymore. He was done with me, and now I had to figure out how to be done with him.
“Give it time. Please,” Meg pleaded.
I nodded my head, wanting the conversation to be over. Meg pulled me into a quick hug and then we both climbed into her truck.
I buckled up and looked out the side window. I wanted Rigid so badly that it hurt, but I didn’t think he was going to be there to help ease the pain anymore. The only person I had left to rely on was myself. I was going to fix myself, this time, I just didn’t know if I would be able to recognize myself anymore. Cyn might be gone for good.
<<<<<<<<
Rigid
“That Chevelle needs to be done by the end of the week,” King said as he walked past me as I was mixing up paint.
“Yeah,” I said, screwing the cap back on the Candy Apple red color and put it back on the paint shelf.
“That all you got to say?” King asked, pissed off.
“Not much else to say. You want it done by Friday, it’ll be done.” I knew what King was talking about, but I seriously didn’t want to talk about it.
“You’re a fucking ass, you know that right? What the fuck crawled up your ass and changed your mind about Cyn? I got Meg breathing down my fucking neck wanting to know why you dropped Cyn like she was nothing.” King threw his clipboard at me, hitting me right in the chest.
“She’s not nothing,” I said, picking up the clipboard and handed it back to him. King grabbed it and threw it across the paint room.
“What the fuck is your deal?! All you’ve done since we’ve gotten back is stay in your room and work. You don’t fucking talk to anyone unless it’s about work and anyone that does try to talk to you about the club or Cyn you act like you’re going to rip their fucking heads off. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH YOU?!” King yelled at me.
I scrubbed my hands down my face, trying to wipe the fatigue and sleeplessness away. I looked at King, his arms crossed over his chest, waiting for an answer. I didn’t have an answer that was good enough, though.
After we had climbed on our bikes and back to Rockton, all I had was time to think on the way home. I wanted to go home to Cyn, climb into bed with her and never get out. Something stopped me, though.
“She deserves something better than what I am,” I said, finally saying the words out loud.
King threw his head back and laughed. “You’re fucking kidding me with this bullshit, right?”
I shook my head and grabbed the color I had just mixed up and headed for the paint booth. I know I sounded like a fucking pussy, but I just couldn’t go to Cyn.
“You think she won’t want you now that you’ve got blood on your hands?” King asked.
I stopped in my tracks, my head falling down. “She deserves better.”
“Better? What, some douchebag that beats the shit out of her and leaves her for dead is better than you? Or maybe she can find some douche canoe who can be her little whipping boy. You think that’s what she deserves?”
“No.”
“Then who should she be with, Rigid? If not you, who? You think you can handle her being with someone else? Knowing there is someone else sleeping in her bed at night, giving all those smiles you love to someone else. You can handle that?”
“No!” I yelled, my heart being ripped out of my chest just at the thought of Cyn even thinking about someone else, let alone being with them.
“Then get your fucking head out of your ass and go get your woman before she realizes she can live without you. That’s the only thing you're not there is showing her. The more you’re not around, the more she’ll realize she can make it on her own without you there.”
“I’ll go over there tonight. I got shit to catch up on around here,” I said as I walked into the paint booth and shut the door behind me. I walked over to the bench along the wall and set the paint down, leaning against the workbench, putting my full weight on my arms as I thought about the ass chewing King had just given me. I hung my head down and stared vacantly at my boots, thinking of Cyn.
King was right, but I still felt that Cyn deserved something better. She deserved to be worshiped for the rest of her life. Put up on a pedestal and never be let down.
But son of a bitch, I wanted her more than anything. The past four days had been torture. I would work all day until my hands wouldn’t work anymore and then I would go to my room and drink till I passed out. I had thought about getting some pussy to come to my room, but I knew that wouldn’t take away the craving and want I had for Cyn. There was only one thing that was going to make me feel better, and that was Cyn.
There was only one thing to do. I had to be what she deserved. I would be the one to worship her and put her on the pedestal she deserved. I would be everything she deserved and more.
She was mine, and no one was going to get her but me.
<<<<<<<<<<
Chapter 26
Cyn
“I’m starving. Let’s hit the drive thru and then we can head back to your house,” Meg said as she slammed her door shut and started the truck up.
“Sounds good to me,” I mumbled as I buckled my seat belt.
We had hit up the Dollar Store where Meg had reenacted the meeting of Lo and Ethel. She had cracked me up as she imitated Lo’s gravelly voice and Ethel’s bossy persistence for Meg to come over for lunch. After the dollar store, we headed to the hardware store where Meg picked up a shovel, garbage bags, and a sledgehammer. After the cashier gave us a concerned look and asked us what our plans were for the night, we stumbled out to the truck laughing our asses off thinking the cashier thought we had murder planned for the night, or, at least, burying a body.
“What the hell do you need a sledgehammer for anyway?” I asked as we crossed traffic and got in line at the drive-thru.
“King wants to put a privacy fence up at the house. We picked up all the wood and stuff yesterday, but forgot to get something to help pound the shit into the ground. I told him I would pick something up today,” Meg explained as she rolled down her window and rattled off our usual order of tacos and burritos.
“You should put a pool in,” I said as I grabbed the exact change out of her ashtray and handed it to her.
“Ugh, are you going to come over every day and put chemicals and shit in it?” She asked as she counted out the change in her hand.
“Um, no. I’m just going to come over and sun my ass and then jump i
n the pool.” I giggled.
“Mmhmm. Just like Remy. There will be no pool, other than the little kiddy one I put out for Blue to plop his butt into.” Meg said as she handed the cashier the money.
“Shit,” Meg said as I heard change drop onto the ground.
“Let me see if you have any more,” I said as I rummaged through her truck.
“How much did I drop?” Meg asked the cashier.
“Looks like two quarters and a dime,” The cashier said, obviously not amused by Meg and me.
“All you have is two nickels and a penny,” I said as I looked into her glove box and found none.
“I’ll just grab this,” Meg said as she swung her door open and hit the wall of the restaurant with a sickening thud.
“Oh fuck,” I said, watching Meg’s eyes bug out of her head.
“Holy shit! I didn’t just do that! Oh my God, my dad is going to kill me!” Meg screeched.
“Aren’t you like fifty or something?’ The cashier asked. ‘You seem too old to be worrying about what your dad is going to say.”
“Why you little fucking twerp. I ought to grab you-.’ I threw my hand over Meg’s mouth, interrupting her rant.
“Here,’ I said, grabbing a dollar out of my purse. ‘Take this.” I thrust the dollar at the cashier and removed my hand from Meg’s mouth.
“I’m thirty-six you little pencil dick,” Meg shouted through the window.
I busted out laughing at the fact that Meg just called a seventeen-year-old a pencil dick.
“Shut up,’ Meg snapped as she looked at her door. She slammed it shut, and the latch didn’t catch. ‘Fuck me. I can’t even shut the fucking door.” Meg moaned as she tried shutting it again.
“Stop trying, you’re just going to wreck it more.” I gasped, laughing as she tried again.
“Oh my god! How the hell am I even going to drive! I’m going to fall out,” Meg whined as she held the door shut.
“Here’s your change and your food,” The cashier said, holding the food and change out to Meg.
Meg grabbed the change, handing it to me and then the food, setting it on the seat in between us.
“You might want to get that looked at,” The cashier said as he slid the window shut, a smirk on his face.
“Pencil dick!” Meg screamed at the now closed drive-thru window.
“Oh my god. Stop, please,” I pleaded through the laughter and tears running down my face.
“I’m a fucking idiot.’ Meg said as she held her door shut with her left arm and shifted the truck into drive and slowly drove forward. ‘I have to take this to the shop. Hopefully, I can make it that far.” Meg said as her left arm slipped on the door and it popped open.
“Oh my god!” I screamed as Meg leaned out to grab the door and swerved, almost hitting a parked car.
“I got it, I got it,” Meg said as she barely missed the parked car and held the door shut.
“Maybe you should call King to come and get us.’ I giggled, watching Meg steer with her knee and trying to grab food out of the bag. ‘Or at least, wait until we get to the garage to eat.” I grabbed the bag out of her hand and set it by my feet.
“But I’m hungry, and I just messed up my precious truck, I need to eat. Please!”
I shook my head, still laughing. “Nope. Concentrate on the road old lady.”
“Ugh, now I really need to eat. I don’t look fifty do I?” Meg asked, flipping down her visor and looking at herself in the small mirror.
“Stop,’ I said, flipping her visor back up. ‘I don’t know how you even managed to flip that thing down without killing us. The garage is five miles from here. Can you control yourself that long so you don’t kill us?” I scolded. Meg was a freaking nutbag. One minute ranting about her truck and the next checking herself out in the mirror.
“Only if you feed me, at least, one bite of my burrito. Otherwise, I make no promise not to crash this truck out of hunger pains.”
“You’re such a pain in my ass, you know that,” I said as I grabbed a burrito, unwrapped it and held it up to Meg’s mouth. She ripped off a big chunk and smiled at me.
“Ye ke lev wit o ma,” Meg said around a mouthful.
“Try chewing and then talking,” I suggested as I grabbed my bottle of water and handed it to her.
She swallowed and grabbed the bottle of water as she steered with her knee. “I said, you can’t live without me.”
“Mmhmm, sure,” I said as I held the burrito out for her to take another bite.
In a matter of minutes, Meg had devoured the burrito and my whole bottle of water. “Lo is going to shit bricks when he sees what I did to the truck.” Meg worried as she pulled on the main road that headed to the body shop.
“Tell him to take a pill. It was an accident.’ I said, digging through my bag looking for a piece of gum for Meg. ‘Here,” I said, handing the unwrapped piece of gum to her mouth.
“Thanks. I’m sure Lo doesn’t want to taste my lunch while I distract him by kissing him when I tell him about my door.”
“Solid plan.’ I said. ‘Jump him, and he probably won’t even notice you can’t shut the door.” I joked as we pulled into the parking lot. It was filled with various cars and bikes.
I saw Hammer and Crowbar by the entrance to the clubhouse and gave them a little wave as Meg and I got out of the truck. “Shit, Rigid is here, isn’t he?” I said scurrying over to Meg.
“More than likely. Come on, I’ll protect you,” Meg said, throwing her arm over my shoulder.
“Hey, babe,’ King said walking out of the front office of the body shop. ‘You pick that shit up I asked you to?” He said, wiping his hands on a blue shop towel and stuck it in the back pocket of his jeans.
“Um, yeah. Except there was a bit of an accident,’ Meg mumbled as she walked over to King and placed her hands on his chest and looked up at him.
“You ok?” He asked, concerned. So sweet with Meg. I sighed, wishing I had what they had.
“I’m fine and so is Cyn,’ Meg said, throwing a look my way. ‘I can’t really say the same about my truck, though.” Meg mumbled.
I smothered my giggle with my hand as King’s gaze travel over Meg’s truck, his eyes stopping on the door that Meg had left open. “What happened?” He asked as he walked over to the door.
“Well, I was trying to hand this little pencil dick my change when I dropped it on the ground. Cyn and I couldn’t find any more in the truck, so I kind of opened my door, not thinking, and smacked the hell out of it against the building. Then that pencil dick had the freaking nerve to tell me I was fifty! Can you believe that shit?” Meg shrilled, more outraged over being called fifty then messing up her truck.
“Why did he say you looked fifty?” King asked as he ran his hand over the edge of the door.
“She said, and I quote, ‘My dad is going to kill me.’ I think he thought she was a little too old to be worried about what her dad was going to say.” I laughed.
“Babe, you’re a fucking nut,” King said shaking his head at Meg. She flipped him off, and he laughed even harder.
“Can you fix it?” Meg said, her hands propped on her hips.
“Yeah, hold on,’ King said as he walked back into the office.
“I got to pee,’ Meg said, hopping back and forth. ‘I’ll be right back,” she said as she dashed into the office, following King.
I leaned against the front fender of Meg’s truck and leaned my head up to look at the sky. It was a beautiful clear day with no clouds in sight. I heard a garage door open, and a car pulled out. The car door slamming and a person walking towards me.
“Cyn.”
I knew that voice. I had been praying to hear that voice again. I tilted my head down and came face to face with the man I thought had left me behind.
“Rigid.” I breathed out. Fuck.
<<<<<<<<<
Chapter 27
Rigid
I saw her tanned legs the second I pulled the car out of the garage bay. S
he was leaning against Meg’s truck looking like a fucking goddess with her head tilted back, looking up at the sky. I was supposed to be pulling the Chevelle out of the body shop bay and into the paint booth, but the instant I saw Cyn, I had stopped the car and gotten out.
I had called her name before I got to her and her eyes connected with mine.
“Rigid.” She almost sighed out. I forgot how beautiful she was. She had her hair tied up, and all I wanted to do was tug that fucking tie out of her hair and bury my face in her sweet scent.
“You ok?” I asked, wondering why she was here in Meg’s truck.
“Um, yeah. Meg kind of hurt her truck and we had to bring it here. She can’t shut the door, so it’s really not safe to drive it right now,” She said as she motioned to the open driver’s side door.
I walked past her, moving to the open door and crouched down to look at it.
“There you are,” King said as he walked out of the office door.
“Yeah, here I am,” I said as I ran my hand over the bent edge and chipped paint of Meg’s door. She really had done a fucking number on it.
“Fixable or you think I’m going to have to find a new door?”
“I should be able to bend it back and touch up the clear coat. That’s the one good thing about having a patina paint job; dents and scratched kind of blend in.” I chuckled as clear coat peeled off in my hand.
“Shit,’ Meg said as she walked out of the office door. “You’re not supposed to be here,” Meg said to me.
“I kind of work here,” I replied as I stood up, brushing my hands off on the overalls I had on. It had gotten hot in the paint booth, so I had peeled the arms off and wrapped them around my waist.
Meg curled her lip at me, snarling. “Ass,” she spit out at me. Apparently, Meg was still Cyn’s pit-bull.
“Babe,” King said as he curled his arm around Meg’s shoulder, pulling her to him. “Let’s go check the books and see when I can fit you in.”
“I know the owner, there shouldn’t have to be any fitting me in,” she said as she let King steer her back into the office, thrown an eat shit look at me.
Devil’s Knights MC Box Set 1 Page 36