She sat up and grabbed the glass. “Oh, you added cherries. Cherries make everything better.” She took a hesitant sip and smiled. “That is super good, Wrecker. You should give everyone the Wrecker Special.”
Jesus. It was like she didn’t have a filter from her brain to her mouth. If she thought it, she was going to say it.
She laid back down, her eyes trained on the TV. “Did Nickel and Pipe send you here again to check on me?”
“Nobody sends me to do anything.”
She glanced up at me. “Is that so?” She looked back at the TV.
I didn’t answer.
“Oh-kay,” she sang. “Then why are you here again?”
“Thought you might need some company.” A simple answer.
One she thankfully bought. “Company is good sometimes.” She looked up at me. “Are you going to stand there all night looking at me?”
“Just making sure you’re good.”
She hiccuped and tucked her legs to her butt. “Is anyone ever really good?”
She looked so tiny and frail lying on the couch. One minute, she was happy-go-lucky Alice, and the next, she transformed into a shell of the person she normally was. It was fucking trippy, and I didn’t like it at all.
The oven timer buzzed, interrupting my thought. “Still hungry?”
She scoffed. “Does a bear shit in the woods?”
I laughed and walked into the kitchen. “Hang tight, babe. Pizza coming up.” I didn’t know how to help Alice just yet, but I could at least give her the things she was actually asking for.
Pizza and Back to the Future were what she was getting tonight. She was going to need a whole fuck of a lot more than that, though.
*
Chapter 6
Alice
It happened again.
I don’t know how it did, but it did.
I got drunk and woke up to Wrecker in my house.
It was like he had some drunk radar. It was like the bat signal, but instead of signaling bad guys doing shit, it signaled to him that I was tanked.
At least this morning he wasn’t in bed with me. Instead, he was sleeping on my couch, and I felt rather sorry for him. My couch sucked.
It had been my mom’s couch, but it still sucked. The only reason I had it was because it had lived in her house for over twenty years. That was why the cushions were so worn and random springs poked and prodded you when you sat on it. I was used to it, but there was no way in hell Wrecker could be.
It was half-past eight, and I should have been getting ready for work, but instead, I was standing over Wrecker, watching him breath.
If you would have told me watching someone sleep was fascinating, I would have asked what the hell you were smoking, but yet, there I stood, unable to take my eyes off the man.
His eyes popped open, and I jumped back. My calves bumped into the coffee table, and I struggled to keep my balance. I was hung over with a whole ton of wobbliness still affecting me. “What the hell, man?” I gasped. Who in the hell wakes up like that? Dead sleep, and then suddenly he was wide awake.
“You were watching me.”
Uh, yeah. But his damn eyes had been closed, and as far as I could tell, he was sleeping. “No, I wasn’t.” Deny, deny, deny.
“Then what the hell are you doing standing over me?”
“I’m not standing over you,” I scoffed.
“Alice.”
“Wrecker.”
“Are you still drunk?”
“What?” I scoffed. “Of course not.” Maybe just a little.
“Then you wanna take a step to the right so I can stand up?”
“You don’t need to get up. I’m just going to go to work.” I wasn’t going to be able to function with him moving around while I tried to shower and get dressed.
“Babe. I gotta take a leak.”
I wrinkled my nose and moved to the side of the couch. “Classy.”
He rolled his eyes and swung his legs off the couch. “I’m the president of a motorcycle club. Classy isn’t in my vocabulary.” He jack-knifed off the couch and stood toe to toe with me.
“Huh, hi.” My eyes were glued to his feet. Seeing Wrecker with no burly boots on was straight-up weird. “You have feet.” Shoot. Me. Now.
He looked down. “Yeah. So do you, babe.”
“I meant it’s weird that you have feet.” My God. The stupid just kept falling out of my mouth.
“Not sure what you thought I had other than feet,” he drawled.
“I just meant, I never thought of you having feet.”
We both raised our heads, and he quirked an eyebrow. “Not sure what you thought I would have other than feet,” he repeated.
“I really don’t have an answer to that question without sounding like a complete idiot.” Laying it all out there. The man had to have figured out by now that I was weird in so many ways. It was normally just best to accept I was crazy and go with the flow.
“Has that ever stopped you before?” A smirk spread across his lips, and there was a twinkle in his eye.
Was Wrecker flirting with me? Or at the very least, being nice to me? I was used to surly, rough man who barely spoke, but when he did, you listened. This was new, and to be honest, it completely threw me off my game. “Normally no, but with you, I have no idea what to say.”
“I’d ask why that is, but I’m sure you’d start rambling about cows and the price of popcorn.”
“Popcorn?” I laughed. “I think my randomness might be rubbing off on you.”
He brushed my hair behind my ear. “Doubtful, babe. I just know to expect random shit from you.”
Was I supposed to be flattered? “Can we get back to why you are here?”
“As soon as we talk about why you were standing over me while I slept.”
Pfft, like that was going to happen. “I need to shower.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“I’m not sure I like your tone.”
He leaned in and rested a hand on my hip. “I’m not sure I care if you like it or not.”
My jaw dropped. “You’re an ass.”
“Been called worse, babe. Let me hit the john and then it’s all yours.” He headed down the hallway before I could sputter out a reply.
He wasn’t even gone a minute before he walked back into the living room. “All yours, babe.” He walked into the kitchen as if he lived here and grabbed a coffee pod from the bin next to the Keurig.
“What’s happening?” I whispered.
Wrecker popped the pod in and snapped the lid shut. He turned around, leaned on the counter, and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m making you a cup of coffee; you’re jumping in the shower; and then, we both have to get to work.”
I shook my head. “Let’s start at the beginni—”
“Babe. We ain’t got time to go over whatever the hell is going on in your head. You need to be to work in twenty minutes, and I got a two-hour ride back to the clubhouse.”
I glanced at the clock on the stove. He was right. I didn’t have time to stand around and argue with him. I pointed a finger at him. “I’m only going to take a shower because I can’t be late for work. Not because that is what you decided we were going to do.”
He held up his hands. “Whatever you say.”
I humphed, knowing he was only patronizing me. After I stomped down the hallway to the bathroom, I slammed the door shut and let out a frustrated scream. Things were happening, and I had absolutely no freaking control over them.
A week ago, I had no one besides my mom. Now, my mom was gone and Wrecker was here. “I’d like a trade.” Send Wrecker back to Weston and give me back my mom.
I closed my eyes and shook my head. “If only it were that easy.”
Mom was gone, and Wrecker kept popping up like a damn pimple on prom night.
It was time to pop that sucker and get rid of him. Wrecker needed to go away, and I was going to do everything I could to make sure he did.
*<
br />
Wrecker
“Bye.” Alice ducked into her car and slammed the door shut.
I walked over to her door, rapped on the window, and crossed my arms over my chest.
She started the car and looked up at me but didn’t roll down the window.
I reached for the door handle, but she locked the door before I could tug it open.
“What do you want?” she shouted through the glass.
“For you to open the damn window.”
She shook her head. “Remember? I have to get to work.”
“You flip your bitch switch on, babe?”
Her jaw dropped, and it looked like her head was either going to explode or she was going to punch me in the junk. She rolled down the window with a death glare. “You did not just say that.”
I had. Wasn’t going to deny it. “Not sure what happened from talking to you in the living room to now, where you won’t even look at me.”
“I’m looking at you, Wrecker,” she ground out between clenched teeth.
I draped my forearm above her door and leaned into her window. “No, babe. You aren’t looking at me. Not how you should be.”
She rolled her eyes and shifted into reverse. “There’s only one way to look at you, Wrecker, with my eyes.”
I shook my head. “Not what I mean, but I don’t think you’re ready to have that discussion.”
“Good. Now move away from my car before I run over your foot.”
A chuckle rumbled from my throat. “Is that a threat?”
“A warning,” she replied sweetly.
“What time are you going to be home?”
“I won’t be to my home until late. I have plans after work.”
What the hell was there to do in this town? “What time are you going to be home?”
She growled and plastered a fake smile on her face. “I’m not sure, Wrecker. But the last time I checked, you aren’t my father so I don’t really need to check in with you. Get on your bike and drive away.”
“Planned on it. Got some things going on with the club.” Though I think she meant she didn’t want me to come back.
“Cool. Have a nice life, Wrecker.” She rolled up her window with a jaunty little wave and backed out of the driveway.
I watched her drive away and noticed she had her license plate personalized with “craycray.” “At least she embraces it,” I muttered.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out to see Boink had texted me.
What the hell did you get me into?
Boink must have met Raven. What’s wrong?
There’s too much to fuxing type.
Jesus Christ. All he had to do was keep an eye on Raven and make sure she didn’t get in too deep with The Ultra. What was so fucking hard about that? I connected the call to him and put the phone to my ear.
“How the hell do I keep an eye on someone that I don’t even know who they are?”
I walked back onto the porch and sat down on the rocking chair. “I told you she works at Sparky’s.”
He scoffed in my ear. “Because there is only one chick that works here, right? Jesus, Wrecker.”
“Look at the damn name tags.”
“I tried that last night. There are four fucking Raven’s that work there. Four!” he yelled. “How does that even happen?”
Probably because most of the girls who work there didn’t use their real name. Raven was probably the only one whose real name was actually that. “Long black hair. White as fuck skin. Talking ghost-like skin. Looks like she could rip your balls off with one look.” The Raven I wanted him to watch was hard to miss.
“Now why the hell couldn’t you have told me that yesterday? Would have saved me a ton of running after four chicks yesterday.”
Fuck, Boink drove me insane. “Why didn’t you call and ask me when you were there?”
“‘Cause you said you were dealing with personal shit, and I didn’t want to interrupt.”
All he would have interrupted was me making Alice a damn pizza. “Was that the only problem you had?” I seriously had given him one task. Watch Raven when she was working. Didn’t even need to talk to her if he didn’t want to. She was still trying to gain the trust of Oakley Mykel. It had been slow going, but Oakley was starting to notice her.
“Aren’t they going to notice me there all the time?”
“Well, if you make it fucking obvious what you are doing, then yeah, they are going to figure you out.” Did I really have to do everything?
“So just look like a local drunk going to the bar every night.”
“Yes. Exactly.” It really shouldn’t be that far a stretch for him. “Just watch her ‘til I get my shit figured out here.”
He cleared his throat. “And just where is exactly is here?”
“Where I am.”
“How is it you can disappear without anyone knowing where you are, but we can’t take a piss without you knowing?”
“‘Cause I’m the prez, that’s why. As soon as one of you dipshits decides that they can do my job, I’ll gladly hand over the reins. I might like just having to do one thing and not have to worry about all the shit that keeps the club going.”
Boink grumbled but didn’t say he wanted prez. “All right, all right. I get your point.”
“Any other questions? Or can I get on with the rest of my day now?” I was pissed. Questioning me on my shit was a sure-fire way to piss me off and maybe get your ass kicked. It was a good thing for Boink he wasn’t here.
“Ah, no. That’s all.”
“Good. Figure out which one Raven is, keep your damn eye on her, and make sure nothing happens to her.”
“Wait. I do have one question.”
Fuck me running. “Yeah?”
“What do I do if something happens?”
“You fucking protect her, Boink. Protect. Her.” I jabbed my finger at the end call button and shoved it in my pocket.
Was what I wanted him to do really that fucking hard? Raven had the shit job of trying to get in with Oakley. All Boink had to do was watch her and drink beer her whole shift. The bonehead somehow had questions on how to do that.
I needed to get to the clubhouse for church today. Most of the guys were wondering what was going on, and I had gone as far as I could with keeping them in the dark. Dealing with The Ultra was like nothing we had ever done before.
They were a well-oiled machine of crime that could easily wipe the Fallen Lords MC off the map if they felt like it. The same went with Raven. At the end of the day, she was just a woman to Oakley who could easily be replaced if she didn’t play her cards right.
I was banking on Oakley falling for Raven and her giving us an in to have Oakley realize the mess Jenkins had made had nothing to do with the Weston chapter. No one got to Oakley by just walking off the street to talk to him. Raven was my plan, and it was going to have to fucking work.
I had planned on taking care of everything myself, but I couldn’t be in two places at once, and I felt that I needed to be here more than there. I was one of those suckers I always made fun of. Alice drew me to her, and I couldn’t just walk away knowing what I did or what I thought I knew. She was drowning. I saw it each time when she opened the door to me. She couldn’t hide it away behind her craziness before I saw it.
Alice was headed down a dangerous path. A path those who followed down didn’t come back the same person. If they even made it back at all.
She was lost and trying to find her way in the bottom of a bottle, and I was going to be the one to help her find the way out.
*
Chapter 7
Alice
“You wanna go out tonight?”
Bos looked up from the grill. “I know you ain’t talking to me, girl.”
I looked around the deserted restaurant. “Well, you’re the only one here, so yes, I’m talking to you.”
“Don’t you got some Girl Gang you should be hanging out with? Last I checked, you and I didn’t hang out
unless I was standing in front of a hot ass grill and you were slinging coffee.”
That was true, but I didn’t want to go home. “Then I think we are overdue to hang out. We should get to know each other better.”
Bos looked at me like I had sprouted wings. “Are you feeling okay?”
No, I wasn’t. I could feel the loneliness creeping in, and I didn’t want to deal with it at that moment. If I was with people, I wouldn’t feel alone, right? That was why I was begging Bos to hang out with me. “Nothing a beer and a game of pool won’t fix. Just come to The Bar with me for one drink, Bos.” Or ten beers.
“I had plans with Mazie tonight.”
“Then bring her along! The more, the merrier.”
He wearily leaned against the grill. “If I agree to go, then you have to clean the grill and the deep fryer tomorrow.”
Damn, he drove a hard bargain. “Yes, to the grill, but no to the fryer.” Cleaning the grill sucked monster donkey balls. I wasn’t into donkey balls.
He shook his head. “Sorry, doll. But if you want me going out with you tonight, that is the only way it’s going to happen.”
I could just go to The Bar myself. There had to be someone there I could hang with. Although, there could also be people there I didn’t want to hang out with. At least if I brought Bos, I could ignore them since I had someone else to talk to. I stuck my hand through the window pass. “Fine, you have a deal. But I’m not happy about your trickery and demands.”
He shook my hand and grinned. “Glad to see we could come to an agreement.”
“The fact I have to do your dirty work in order for you to hang out with me doesn’t bode well for our blossoming friendship.”
He shrugged. “I don’t see a problem with it from where I’m standing.”
I grabbed my rag off the counter. “Well, maybe you’ll have a problem with it when you’re the one having to walk me home tonight.”
“Hey, I never signed up for being your designated walker.”
“Eh.” I shrugged and walked to the far end of the diner to start wiping down all the tables. “Make sure you have your walking shoes on, Bos.”
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