His Old Lady (Patches: Tarkio MC Book 2)

by Debra Kayn

  "Fuck," he muttered, bringing the smoke up to his lips.

  What if something went wrong? She had no way of getting ahold of Walker without writing him a letter or waiting for a phone call from him. If she needed help, he'd be out of town. He wasn't confident that she'd approach the clubhouse.

  Priest walked out of the building. "Warm them up, men."

  It was going to be a long ride to California to oversee the marijuana crops brought in and distributed. Worried about his old lady, he took one more drag and snuffed the cigarette out with his boot.

  Priest walked over to him. "Ready?"

  "Yeah. The sooner we get out of here, the faster we can get home."

  "What's your hurry?" asked Priest.

  "Faye." He walked over to his Harley and started the engine.

  It was times like now that he'd give his left nut to talk to Walker again. Brother to brother.

  But that would never happen. Walker had made it clear where Curley stood after he claimed Faye.

  Chapter 5

  Faye

  Tracy walked into the living room, carrying a glass of water and a wine cooler. Faye took the bottle and sipped the chilled liquid.

  "Will you listen to that?" Tracy lifted her brows. "That's the sound of calmness."

  With the babies put to bed, the only noise was the slight hum coming from the baby monitor on the coffee table.

  "I don't know how you don't collapse once the kids are bathed and put in their rooms. Girl, you're the strongest woman I know." Faye leaned back on the couch. "I'm exhausted from watching you keep everything together by yourself."

  Tracy flapped her hand, disregarding the compliment. "I'm gaining my second wind. I've got hours left in me."

  "Yet, you give me the alcohol. I'll probably start yawning before you." She licked her upper lip and raised her brows. "Do you remember when we stole a beer from the clubhouse and drank it in one of the empty rooms?"

  Tracy groaned. "I remember all the cotton candy and corndogs we ate at the fair beforehand because it all came up." Tracy groaned, shaking her head. "What were we...six years old?"

  "Seven." She sighed. "That was a good day, despite getting sick, and then your dad grounding us, so Uncle Walker and your mom had to take us home and miss the party."

  Tracy stared at her without commenting.

  Aware of something going on but not understanding what, she asked, "What are you thinking?"

  Tracy gave her head a small shake. "Nothing."

  "It's something. What?"

  "You talk about the past as if it was normal." Tracy put her glass on the coffee table, then curled her feet up under her on the sofa. "Do you know how nice that is to hear?"

  She wasn't following. They shared a past. Of course, she was going to remember bits and pieces she hadn't thought about in years.

  "Don't you talk about your past with Rick?" she asked.

  "Yeah, but it's different." Tracy shrugged. "He listens, but he wasn't there. Besides the Tarkio members and my brother, you knew my family. I guess it surprised me to hear you talk about my dad as if..."

  "As if he's still alive?" she whispered. "I understand. Sometimes, I just want to talk about Uncle Walker, but I hold back because I don't want to explain where he is now with people who don't know the story. I'm sure it's that way with you and your folks."

  Good times were turned into memories because speaking about them often brought more pain than joy. She was the same way when she thought of Uncle Walker or Grandma June. Or, Curley.

  "Look at us." Tracy snorted. "Adults and living life, moving on, and—"

  "Unemployed." Faye sipped from her bottle. "At least I am."

  It wasn't only her who was out of a job. She had three friends who also quit because of her, and she felt responsible. If she could grow the nursery business, she'd hire them to work for her, but the greenhouse wasn't big enough, and the land was too small. That's why she needed to work a second job. She had big plans and little time.

  "What about getting a job at the casino?" Tracy grabbed the throw pillow and hugged it to her stomach. "Though, from what I hear, they have a high turnover of employees. It doesn't seem like people stay there long."

  She'd already thought of contacting the casino. The Blackfoot Resort & Casino was run by the Native Americans. She knew even less about how they ran their business, being part of the reservation. Not under the watch of the government, they had their own laws and regulations—that could be good or bad for her. She wanted a steady job, but if they hired outsiders only to lay them off, she'd be better trying somewhere else.

  She stared at the framed picture of Tracy, Rick, and the babies sitting on the fireplace mantel. "Enough about my joblessness. Tell me how you met Rick."

  Tracy laughed softly. "Oh, that's a story you don't want to hear."

  "Well, you've made me curious." She turned sideways. "Tell me."

  "The short version, he walked out of prison and went to the clubhouse. I gave him a BJ and—"

  "Wait." She laughed. "You gave him a blow job?"

  "Worse." She grinned. "I gave a complete stranger a blow job, and he was high on drugs because he had some injuries to his feet."

  "Oh, my God. Tell me more," she said.

  "Well, he started working at the Towing company, and things were up and down for a long time, but we worked it all out."

  "Sex stuff with a stranger." Faye sighed. "I didn't know you had it in you."

  "To be fair. I knew who he was before he arrived in Missoula. He was in the same cell as Whip when he was on the inside."

  She leaned forward. "What was he in for?"

  "Murder." Tracy scrunched her nose. "Seven years."

  "Hm." She looked away.

  No matter how many court cases she studied, she couldn't understand how some people got less than others for the same crime. Sure, Uncle Walker killed two people, but he was in for a total of twenty-five years.

  "You'll have to take my word for it that he's a good man," said Tracy.

  "Oh, I trust you. As long as you're happy, and I can see that you are, I'm thrilled for you." She smiled. "You and all your babies."

  Tracy grinned. "Crazy how life changed, huh?"

  For her friend, all the changes were good.

  For her, the jury was still out.

  "Do you hear that?" Tracy got up from the couch and walked to the window. "A rider is coming up the driveway. I am so glad the babies can sleep through anything."

  Faye groaned. "Don't tell me it's Curley."

  "Um." Tracy walked over to the door and turned the deadbolt. "It's not Curley."

  She sat straighter. "It's not?"

  "Nope. It's Aaron."

  Half glad Curley hadn't shown up to ruin her fun, and half disappointed that he hadn't checked up on her to see if she was okay, she stayed on the couch. Obviously, Tarkio members took care of Tracy when Rick was gone.

  While she always felt like she belonged to the club, no ties were holding her close to them, and she wasn't anyone's responsibility anymore. Uncle Walker never talked about Tarkio during her visits since the last time Curley took her to prison. When she'd tried to bring up Curley and discuss breaking up their relationship with her uncle, he'd gone silent and refused to discuss the matter.

  Since she and Curley weren't in a real relationship and she was busy building her business, she'd let the matter of breaking up with him go. She picked at the rip in the thigh of her jeans. Maybe it was time to revisit that subject on her next visit with Uncle Walker. After she got a job.

  If she started working in Missoula and expanded her business the way she wanted to, she could change her life. Right now, she needed to stay under Curley's radar and secure herself another job.

  Her independence would be the only thing that kept Curley out of her life. As long as he believed she needed money, he'd throw cash at her at every turn—soon, he'd call her a burden, and that was the last thing she wanted to happen.

  Aaron stuck his head int
o the house. Faye waved, though she'd never had more than two conversations with the man.

  Sometimes, she wondered if the older members, the longstanding members, who were around when Uncle Walker committed murder, were equally responsible for him being in prison. From everything she remembered, Tarkio members were loyal to a fault. They had each other's backs.

  Maybe Uncle Walker was the only one caught. So many things would've changed in her life if he hadn't got arrested.

  She'd still have her uncle in her life, and maybe she would be doing something else with her time. Maybe it wouldn't have taken this long to figure out that growing the nursery was what she wanted to do.

  Maybe Curley wouldn't have claimed her, because she wouldn't have had the opportunity to sleep with him.

  "How're you doing?" asked Aaron.

  "Good." Faye crossed her legs and held on to her cooler.

  Aaron nodded and turned back to Tracy. "I'll let you girls get on with your slumber party. If you need anything, give me a call."

  Tracy patted Aaron's chest. "We'll be fine."

  Once the door shut, Tracy yawned. Knowing her friend had a long day taking care of the kids and a big week ahead while Rick was gone, Faye drank the rest of the wine and walked into the kitchen to set the bottle in the garbage can under the sink.

  "Can I ask you a question?" said Tracy behind her.

  "Sure." She turned around and leaned against the counter.

  "How do you handle being Curley's old lady when you don't have any kind of relationship with him?" Tracy hopped up on the counter. "I know it's none of my business, and we've been out of each other's lives for years, and I probably don't have a right to ask, but I never could figure out the dynamics of your relationship with him. You're the same age as I am, and yet you don't live with Curley. I thought by now, he'd move you into his house."

  "He doesn't have plans to share a life with me." She shrugged. "He's got his own life, and he's settled."

  "How did you two get together?" whispered Tracy as if it was a secret.

  "Doesn't everybody know?"

  Tracy shook her head. "When I heard the news, I asked around, but nobody would tell me."

  "Hm."

  "You know how it is with those bikers. Anything that has to do with one of them, they don't share the info with the ladies." She scrunched her nose. "I even tried to get Rick to find out for me—because it happened before he came into the picture. But he wasn't interested in snooping for me."

  "It wasn't that big of a deal." She blew out her breath. "He claimed me because I was young. Maybe because of his age, he felt responsible for me because I'm Uncle Walker's niece. I never asked him to claim me or wanted to tie him down."

  "Rick is a lot older than me, and I was young when we got together. Trust me, I wanted him to claim me. I couldn't imagine life without him." Tracy shrugged. "It kills me when he's gone a week on a run."

  "I've never had that because we've never been together," she said.

  "So, tell me what wasn't a big deal. What made him claim you?"

  There was no getting out of not answering Tracy. In her effort to reconnect their friendship, her friend deserved to know the truth. As far as she knew, nobody in Tarkio was aware of what happened. They all assumed she was a bitch who refused to live with Curley.

  "Do you remember the night everyone got together at the clubhouse for Banks and Mrs. Banks' anniversary party when we were seventeen years old?" she asked.

  Tracy frowned. "That was a long time ago, but I think so."

  To her, it seemed like yesterday. She continually played that night in her head, wondering what she could've done differently. In the end, all she could do was blame her lack of judgment on immaturity.

  "I had just got my license, and I wanted to go out. It was a Friday night." She wet her lips, remembering exactly how everything had happened. "I lied to Grandma June and told her I was going over to one of my friend's house. Instead, I drove all the way to Missoula because I knew about the party. When I got there, Curley was already toasted. I didn't want him riding home in his condition, and he was hanging on Lynn. Remember her?"

  Tracy curled her lip. "Bitch."

  "I know, right?" She rubbed the base of her neck. "Anyway, I convinced him to get in the car with me, and I took him home and put him to bed."

  "Uh, oh," muttered Tracy.

  "It wasn't my intention to sleep with him." Her eyes burned. "I was only going to close my eyes for a little while, and he was...he wanted to cuddle. He was very clear and persistent that I get on the bed with him."

  "Cuddle?" Tracy widened her eyes. "Really?"

  She nodded. "That's what he said."

  Curley had kept touching her and pulling her down beside him on the bed. He wrapped his arms around her and spooned her back. It started as only a cuddle.

  "Then, you had sex with him?"

  She shook her head. "Not until the next morning."

  "Okay, I have to ask. Did you want to have sex with him?"

  "I..." She swallowed hard. "That morning, yes. I never planned to sleep with him. It just happened. I was a teenager full of hormones, and yeah, I thought about sex all the time. It was the mysterious thing that I knew would happen, and I wanted to do it."

  "You always had a crush on Curley. Remember playing M.A.S.H, and if another boy's name came up, you'd still circle Curley's name? " said Tracy.

  She nodded. "I'm pretty sure everyone knew I had a crush on him and laughed about it because I was little Faye, Uncle Walker's poor niece."

  "No...they never thought that," said Tracy softly.

  She couldn't stand still any longer and paced. That twelve hours she'd spent with Curley so long ago had gone by fast. Too fast for her young brain to understand the consequences.

  "The things he was doing and saying to me were..." She hugged her middle. "He was like nothing I'd experienced before, and I liked it."

  "You did?"

  "Yes." She inhaled deeply. "Everything blew up afterward, though. He wasn't even aware I was the girl in bed with him until after he was done, and he's hated me ever since."

  "He claimed you."

  "I think Uncle Walker made him."

  "Are you sure?"

  She blew out her breath. "No."

  "Aw, Faye." Tracy slipped off the edge of the counter and stood on the floor. "It's been six years, and you've hated him this whole time?"

  She snapped her head up and met Tracy's gaze. "I don't hate him."

  Tracy raised her brows. "You love him?"

  "I miss him. He was always mine. I felt like he belonged to me." She groaned. "I'm frustrated—because he's an ass. I hate myself because I know if he had a choice, he never would've had sex with me."

  One of the babies cried in the other room. Tracy held up her finger. "Hold that thought."

  Left alone in the kitchen while Tracy soothed the baby, Faye hugged her middle. She'd never confessed that she had feelings for Curley to anyone else. As if saying the words brought out more feelings, her stomach fluttered.

  She couldn't keep living like this.

  Curley either needed to let her go or let her back into his life.

  Chapter 6

  Curley

  Smoke filled the meeting room at the clubhouse. Curley, covered in road dust, and a week's worth of sweat, joined the others in celebrating a successful run into Northern California to oversee the transport of marijuana.

  The recent buyout over the killer bud gave them all a little more money in their pocket every month. From here on out, they'd only send a small team every three months down south to keep an eye on the operation. That would allow them to take care of business in Missoula.

  "Before you go off to celebrate, remember to get some sleep. There's a meeting at ten o'clock in the morning with the whole club." Priest hit the gavel against the table. "I'm going home."

  Curley stood from the table, intending to follow Priest to his driveway and see him safely home.

  "Stay back
and take some stress off, brother. I'll take Rick with me." Priest clasped Curley's hand. "Good ride, brother. I'll see you in the morning."

  "Sounds good." He walked out of the office, snagged Brandi from the hallway out of the line of women hoping to get lucky and hook up with a Tarkio member, and took her into the main room. "Get me a tall glass of whiskey, hon."

  Brandi sashayed her ass away from him. He took that time alone to seek out Aaron. While he was gone, he'd talked to his MC brother and found out that Faye had spent the whole night with Tracy and left the next day at noon.

  "Hey." He lifted his chin and motioned Aaron away from the others.

  Near the door, he said, "Did you have someone ride over to Superior throughout the week and check on Faye?"

  "Slick went and spent a few hours each day watching her place. Most of the time, she was out in the greenhouse. One day, she had a few girlfriends swing by the house, but stayed home." Aaron passed Curley a joint. "I know Tracy enjoyed having her over, too."

  "I imagine she did." He exhaled the smoke, passing the stub back. "Thanks for keeping an eye on her for me."

  As long as Faye stayed away, she could live her life how she wanted.

  Brandi returned, handing him the drink. He looped his arm around her and took her to the couch. Kicking the boot of a prospect, moving him off the seat, he took the spot on the sofa and pulled Brandi down on his lap.

  The long ride was hard on his body. Sleeping on the fucking ground killed his back. All he wanted was the alcohol to numb the pain and a woman's softness to cushion him.

  Brandi trailed the palm of her hand down his chest. "Want me to make you feel good?"

  "Just sit still and stop talking." He drank half the contents and let his head fall to the back of the couch.

  Brandi pouted. He ran his thumb over her lower lip, admiring her pliable mouth. He'd like nothing more than to shove his dick into that warm wetness.

  Paco jumped over the back of the couch and sat beside him. Nudging Brandi, he said, "Dance for us, honey."

  She slid off his lap, unbuttoned her shirt down to her navel, giving a glimpse of tit, and moved to the music. Without looking at Paco, he knew his MC brother had something to say.