***
“I don’t think you’ll understand,” Tank said as he sat beside me, studying my face carefully.
“Try me,” I said, and he took in a deep breath.
“I don’t think you’ll like what you’ll hear,” he continued, and I smiled.
“I promise that I won’t judge you for anything you say,” I reassured him, and Tank ran a hand through his long wavy hair.
“I’m part of a Motorcycle Club,” he said, and I nodded my head.
“The Bad Disciples,” I added and he knotted his brows.
“How do you know that?” he asked and I smiled again.
“I saw a patch on your friend’s jacket. I was wondering if you belonged to the same club,” I explained and Tank clenched his jaw. He was expecting me to break at any point now. I was breaking. The fact that he had now admitted in his own words that he belonged to an MC was terrifying, but I tried to remain calm and hear him out.
“Do you know what that means?” he asked and I gulped before I nodded my head.
“I have some idea, but only from perception. I’ve never met anyone from an MC before,” I admitted, and Tank’s eyes grew a little diffused like he was beginning to feel sorry for me.
“We don’t exactly have jobs, but we make a lot of money. Do you understand what I’m saying?” he continued, and I could feel my mouth growing dry.
“You mean you earn the money through…by…committing crimes?” I asked, and Tank sighed.
“According to some laws, yes, through criminal activity. But, Noelle, you should know that neither I nor any of my brothers from the MC would ever hurt a civilian. Someone outside our clubs,” he said, and I could feel a tremble in my fingertips. I could never have imagined myself having a conversation like this with a stranger. With someone I hardly knew. I gulped and nodded my head.
“I want you to understand, that we run our lives and our clubs like any other business, and we keep our problems within our own world. We operate on strict rules and codes of conduct. We would never hurt any women or children, you have to trust me on that,” he was peering into my eyes as he spoke, trying to judge my reaction. Even though I could feel my mind exploding with all the information he was giving me, I nodded my head.
“I trust you, Tank,” I said in a quiet voice, and he nodded as well.
“We trade in drugs and weapons, that is our business model. Any violence as a result of that is because we can’t help it. We would like nothing more than peace. We don’t go looking for violence. We’re not sadistic bastards as the world would like to believe we are,” he went on, and I nodded my head.
“I never thought you were,” I said, and I met his eyes. He knew I was frightened by everything he was saying, but I had asked for it. He was only telling me what I requested to know.
“Is that how you got shot?” I asked, and Tank took a few moments to reply. He stared at me like he was deciding whether to trust me or not. This was working two-ways. He needed to trust me as much as I needed to believe him.
“We got ambushed. We were overseeing a delivery of weapons shipment at the docks, and we got ambushed by a rival club. I walked into a round of fire to catch them, and I got shot,” Tank said, and I saw his biceps clench with fury. I could see how he was affected by the incident. Like he wanted to get out of the hospital as fast as he could so that he could do something about it.
“Are you going to take vengeance on them? On the rival gang?” I asked, in a meek voice. I didn’t want to verbally admit it, but I was afraid for his life. What would a confrontation lead to? Would Tank get shot again? Would he narrowly escape death again the way he had this time?
Tank didn’t reply. Instead, he continued staring at me, and I knew my answer.
I stood up from the bed with a jerk.
“I didn’t mean to scare you, Noelle. You wanted to know,” he said, and I wrung my hands together.
“But you’re going to walk into gunfire again, aren’t you? You’re going to put your life at risk again!” I argued and noticed how my voice was quivering as I spoke.
Tank breathed in deeply, his gaze flitting intensely over my body again.
“Every day involves putting my life at risk, on this job, Noelle. That is the world I live in, and the code I live by. I don’t want to scare you,” he replied, and I backed away from him. What was I thinking? I shouldn’t have visited him here. I shouldn’t have asked him to explain his life to me.
“You could get shot again!” I cried out, and Tank stood up. He towered over me and followed me as I backed away towards the wall.
“Yes, Noelle, I could get shot again,” he said, and I could feel my neck burning up, a cry rising in my throat. Even if I never saw this man again, I didn’t want him to get shot. I didn’t want him to put his life in danger every day. I wanted to scream, I wanted him to promise me that he would get out of the MC. But what right did I have over him? We had met only a few days ago. We weren’t even in a relationship, and after today, I might never see him again.
“So, now you know the truth. You know the world I belong to. Do you regret coming here and speaking to me?” he asked and I tried to even my heavy breathing. The closer he drew to me, the more I was reminded of how much I wanted him.
“No. I needed to know, and now I know,” I said, and for a second, I thought Tank was going to reach for me. His arms flinched, but he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his track pants instead. He had changed his mind.
“I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed you,” he said, in a low gruff voice and I shook my head.
“You’ve not disappointed me, Tank. I just want you to be safe. I don’t want to find you in the corridors of this hospital again, on a gurney, bleeding out of your stomach. I don't want to have to see an open wound on your body again!” I felt crazy as I said the words. I could feel my whole body shaking. Nothing was making sense to me anymore. Why was I losing my self-control like this? What kind of hold did Tank have on me to make me behave this way?
He had been staring at me, with a blank expression on his face, so that I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“Will you have dinner with me tomorrow night?” he asked, and I crossed my brows in surprise.
“What?” I snapped, and Tank stepped closer to me. He kept his hands to himself, as though he was afraid that if he touched me, he would break me.
“Will you let me take you out on a real date?” he asked, and I could feel my breathing returning.
“You want me to have dinner with you?” my heart was thudding in my chest. What made Tank think, that after everything he had just told me about himself, that I would want to have dinner with him?
“Yes. I want to see you again,” he said, and another one of Tank's rare smiles had begun to appear on his face. I stared at him, into his hazel eyes, at the thick beard that had grown on his jaw, at his scruffy long hair, at his wide muscular shoulders…
“Yes. I’ll have dinner with you tomorrow,” I said, and Tank stepped away from me.
“Good,” he said and returned to his bed and sat down again. I could feel my knees weakening like he had released an imaginary hand from around my throat.
“Meet me at Corleone's at seven tomorrow night. I’ll be waiting there for you,” he said, and I realized that I had run out of words. So, I ran out of his room, like I was trying to get away from him.
Outside in the corridor, I tried to catch my breath. I hadn’t even responded to him, I was so afraid of what I had agreed to do. But I couldn’t help myself, I felt like he was an addiction growing on me.
CHAPTER 9
Tank
I didn’t expect Noelle to turn up. I had been sitting at the table for two that I had booked earlier that day, and by now, I was on my third beer. When Noelle walked in, a little after seven thirty, I noticed how heads in the restaurant turned to look at her.
She was speaking to the hostess near the door, who then started leading her towards me, and I stood up from my table with a jerk.
I hadn’t seen her in anything but her hospital scrubs yet, and now that I saw her, in a red silk cocktail dress, I felt like I was running out of breath.
Like a nervous, giddy teenager, I walked around and held a chair out for her. Noelle smiled at me like this was all completely normal for her, and she sat down. The dress clung to her curves, its neck dipped deep down so that her cleavage was revealed…making promises of how juicy her breasts were. She had her hair loose, and it delicately grazed her hips as she flipped it over one shoulder. She had parted her bangs, and it lay across her forehead now on the right.
Noelle was staring back at me as I looked at her. She was this gorgeous, perfect princess out of a fairytale or something, and I felt like the ogre who had no chance with her.
Even though I knew this restaurant was relatively fancy and way different from the usual joints we hung out at; I was still in my usual leather jacket and dark jeans. My hair was hung down on my shoulders, but it was brushed, which was probably the only extra mile I had gone for tonight.
“I didn’t expect you to come,” I said to her, and she blinked her eyes as a smile spread across her face.
“I didn’t expect me to come, either. But here I am,” Noelle replied in a soft, seductive voice and already, I could feel my cock moving in my pants.
“What made you change your mind?” I asked her and Noelle reached for the glass of sparkling water that the hostess had poured for her. I watched her as she took a sip, leaving a faint mark of her red lipstick on the rim of the glass. I wanted those lips on me, on my cock…and I shifted in my chair. Being around her made me uncomfortable with a desperate desire for her body. I wanted her to know what she was capable of doing to me.
“I wanted to see you again,” she said, in a matter of fact voice and I picked up my bottle of beer.
“Order anything you want,” I told her, and she gazed at the menu.
“Do you know what you want?” she asked.
“I’ll have what you’re having,” I replied and she smiled as she looked down at the menu, her bangs falling over her eyes.
“Not a fussy eater! You don’t fail to surprise me do you?” she said and looked up at me again.
“What made you think that I was a fussy eater?” I asked her, leaning over the table a little towards her. I got a whiff of her expensive floral perfume, and I breathed in the scent, allowing it to take over my senses.
Noelle shrugged her shoulders.
“Just something about you told me that you like things a certain way, and if you don’t get your way, you make sure to put up a fuss,” she said with a smile. I could see from the twinkle in her eyes that she was teasing me.
I didn’t like being teased, but with Noelle, I quickly realized that she was allowed to do anything she wanted with me. I smiled at her, and her eyes glowed.
“You should smile more often, Tank. It makes you look more approachable,” she said.
“I don’t have any business being more approachable,” I said and leaned closer to her. She did the same so that there was a distance of only a few inches between us over the table now.
“What if I told you that I want to make it my business to make you smile more?” she asked, in a soft husky voice. I looked into her dark blue eyes, she was calming me down, she had that magic about her.
“Then I would say that you have a long road ahead of you,” I replied and with a comical roll of her eyes, that made her look more childish than she was, Noelle sat back down on her chair and drew her glass of water up to her lips again.
“I’ve decided what I want. The Garganelli with mussels in a white wine sauce,” she said and laughed when she saw that I had no idea what she was talking about. All I knew about Italian food was pizza and pasta.
“I’ll have the same then,” I said, and she arched her eyebrows at me.
“Are you sure?” she asked with the smile still tugging her lips. She was testing me against my claim about being a non-fussy eater. I decided to present her with a smile.
“Yes, I’m absolutely sure, Noelle. Order away,” I replied and indicated to one of the waiters to come over to our table.
Noelle was beaming widely at me, studying my face.
“I think I’m going to have a lot of fun getting to know you tonight, Tank,” she said as the waiter approached us.
He had his notebook ready to take down our orders, and Noelle looked up at him, after passing me a flourishing look.
“We’ll both have the best pasta dish on your menu,” she said. “That’s a relief to say!” she looked at me again and noticed the confused expression on my face.
“I’m tired of ordering fancy,” she admitted with a slight laugh. Watching her laugh made me happier than I could have possibly imagined and I knew I was in deep trouble.
***
“And his investments really paid off. He retired at fifty and hasn’t worked a day in his life since,” Noelle was telling me about her father’s work, and from the sounds of it; she came from a family that was not only wealthy but mixed with the higher strata of society that I was completely unfamiliar with.
I nodded my head and watched her as she ate. She was delicate and feminine with her food…was that a sign of good breeding? There was nothing about this woman that was familiar to me, and yet, it felt like I knew her already.
“And what about your mom?” I asked, and Noelle arched her eyebrows like she was going to tell me a joke.
“Well, mom is a lady who lunches,” she said and let out a soft laugh. I didn’t have any idea what she was talking about, but I smiled along, paying more attention to the curves of her lips as she laughed.
My gaze fell over her shoulder then, at the two men at the bar at the back of the restaurant. They had been looking in our direction, and I looked back at them; recognizing their Dragon Knights patches immediately. A wave of rage washed over me, and I shifted in my chair. My leather jacket was off, and I hoped they hadn’t noticed who I was.
“What about you, Tank? Tell me about your parents,” I heard Noelle say, but my eyes were fixed on the men behind her. They were both drinking beers, staring openly at me and I glared back at them. They wanted to be found. They wanted me to know that I was being watched.
“Tank?” Noelle’s voice interrupted my glare, and I turned back to her, no doubt she would have noticed the icy coldness of my gaze.
“What?” I snapped, and she knotted her brows.
“I was asking about your parents, but you don’t have to talk about them if you don’t want to,” she said, the humor in her voice had dropped instantly. I clenched my jaws and stuck a fork into my plate of pasta.
“Nothing to tell. I left home when I was fifteen, and I haven’t seen or spoken to them since then,” I said in a low growl and to my surprise, Noelle reached a hand out to me and clasped mine in hers. I clenched my fists, my eyes shifting to the two DK assholes behind her, who were watching everything. How had I not noticed them before? I was cursing myself to have led them to Noelle.
“Do you want to talk about it? We don’t have to if you don’t want to, I’ll understand,” I heard her say and I looked at her again.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” I said to her again, but Noelle was patient with me. She assumed that my enraged mood was the result of the topic about my parents. She was looking at me with a softened gaze.
“Tank, these things happen. I know from my own complicated relationship with my parents how hard these things are. If you left home at that early age, and if you’ve not stayed in touch with them, I’m sure you’ve had good reason not to,” she said and squeezed my hand.
The men at the bar raised their bottles of beer in the air at that moment, and I yanked my hand away from Noelle’s hold.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, in a bruised voice as I started tapping my feet on the ground. I needed to get her out of that place, but I also didn’t want to scare her.
“Nothing. Nothing’s wrong. I just don’t know what else to tell you about my
parents,” I said and stared at her half eaten plate of pasta. I was toying with the idea of asking her to leave her food and walk out with me, but that would upset her or scare her. I needed to handle the situation delicately.
“You can tell me what happened. What made you leave home and join an MC?” she asked, and I watched as she lifted a forkful of pasta to her mouth. She had a kindness in her eyes and voice, and it made me sick that there were two Dragon Knights members who were watching me and her now.
I was glad that this was a public place though, which meant that chances of a shootout happening here were far less. However, I still tried to discreetly feel the gun I had stuffed in my belt. I needed to be prepared for anything happening.
“Noelle, I really don’t want to talk about it right now,” I said and glanced at the guys at the counter again. They were smiling at me, goading me. I had to do everything in my power to not charge at them with guns blazing. The last thing I wanted tonight, was to put Noelle’s life in danger. But that was exactly what I had led her to. Once again, I had underestimated the Dragon Knights. I had assumed that they wouldn’t be watching me. That they wouldn’t follow me on a date. How they fuck did they even know I was here?
“I understand, Tank. We don’t have to talk about it. It’s just that sometimes, it makes life easier just to relieve yourself of these kinds of burdens,” Noelle continued. She had tilted her head to the side as she watched me, but she couldn’t understand why exactly it was that I was angry.
I nodded my head and pushed my plate away from me.
“I think I’m done,” I said and looked at her expectantly, hoping that she would say the same. But instead, Noelle smirked and raised another forkful of pasta to her mouth.
“You’ve barely eaten it. You were lying when you said you’re not a fussy eater!” she exclaimed and smiled with a mouthful of pasta.
Snake (The Road Rebels MC Book 3) Page 36