It was late afternoon when we walked back into the compound. Diego was sitting with a bunch of the guys in the yard. When he saw Prosper and me walk in from the woods, he raised his head and watched us approach. It had been a wonderful afternoon filled with good memories, homemade cookies, perfectly sung music, and well, love. A perfect day. Because I was still feeling that, and I was sick of being at the receiving end of Diego’s petal-pulling game of “I love her and I love her not,” I met Diego’s eyes from across the field and smiled big, wide, and happily at him.
Let’s see what he does with that, I thought wickedly.
The response lifted him off his chair. I just couldn’t figure him out. But just then I wanted to be happy, so I let myself be.
Diego nodded to Prosper. He put his arm around me. “Good day, Babe?” He pulled me close.
“The best,” I answered because I was still feeling it and because he was being nice again and I wanted to go with that.
Prosper did a backhand wave as he walked away from us.
“You up for a ride?” Diego was asking me.
I nodded happily because this was definitely going to be my day. I loved motorcycles and the thought of being on the back of Diego’s excited me. He took my hand and led me to the bike. He passed me the helmet. I tried to put it on, but the heavy bun in back of my head was in the way. So I unpinned my hair and shook it out. I dipped my head back and ran my fingers through it. I pulled the heavy strands all to the side and began to weave it into a braid. I dipped my fingers into my pocket and pulled out the cloth-covered rubber band that I always kept on me for hair emergencies. I heard the sound of someone clearing his throat and looked to the picnic area where the eight guys that Diego had just left were all sitting in absolute silence staring at me.
I looked at Diego. To my surprise, he just looked at me and smirked.
“Damn fucking wet dream,” he murmured. Then he said, “You good, Raine?”
I nodded and pulled my leg over the bike and adjusted the helmet. I wrapped my arms around him.
We roared out of there and I held on tight. The beautiful day was turning into an equally beautiful dusk with red and deep-blue streaks shooting across the sky. The wind was fresh and cool against my skin. Diego was a great driver and I was an experienced rider, so our bodies dipped and straightened. Weight shifting in harmony. It felt like a dance. Along the way, he would slow down and point out little things that he thought might interest me.
Eventually we pulled into a little cantina. He took my hand and pulled me along behind him. Once inside he pushed me in front of him, his hand guiding me by the small of my back. A pretty, obviously pregnant woman smiled when she saw him. He said something to her in Spanish that made her blush and place a hand on her stomach. Her eyes were warm when she smiled at me.
She seated us at a table at the end of the room, and I noticed that Diego seated himself with his back against the wall. The woman put her hand on his shoulder. Diego grabbed it, turned it palm out, and planted a kiss right in the middle of it. The woman laughed and hit him with a towel. Her dark eyes shining.
“Ah! Diego, when are you going to get a woman of your own and stop making my wife blush?” A smiling man had come upon us quickly. He put his hand protectively and more than a little proudly over his wife’s baby bump and stated, “All this excitement is not good for my son.”
He had a long dark ponytail, a rosary hanging around his neck, a silver wedding ring on his left hand, and a detailed scripted tattoo on his neck that read Alejandra. The pretty pregnant woman, whom I assumed was Alejandra, looked lovingly into her husband’s eyes. She nodded at me. She said something softly in Spanish. Her husband turned to me in an exaggerated display of surprise. I knew he had noticed me and was up for giving Diego a hard time.
“Well, well, well! Who do we have here?” He smiled at me.
I extended my hand and introduced myself. “My name is Raine. Nice to meet you. I’m a friend of Diego’s.”
At “friend” Diego lost a little of the mirth that danced behind his eyes, but just a little.
Alejandra’s husband took my hand, then turned it palm down and placed a kiss upon it. His wife shook her head, smiling, and Diego actually rolled his eyes. Someone called him from the kitchen. He winked at me and said, “Unfortunately, duty calls. But I’m very pleased to meet the new friend of Diego Montesalto.”
He turned to Diego. “Anything you want, Brother.”
He slapped him on the shoulder and they did a thing where they shook each other’s hand, but they extended themselves way up so they were grasping each other’s arms. That thing that guys do.
Diego ordered for us. The food was cheesy, spicy, and perfect. I had a margarita and Diego had a Dos Equis. Diego Montesalto, the most interesting man in the world. I smiled into my margarita thinking of the ad for beer. Diego was relaxed and entertaining. He told me how he had met Alejandra and her husband, Rafe. It was a good story and made me laugh.
It was late when we started back and the night had turned really cool. Diego reached into the leather bag on the bike and took out a big thick sweatshirt. He stood close and raised my hands over my head. He slipped the sweatshirt on and pulled my braid out. He bent down and touched his lips to mine briefly, then full-on kissed me. I pulled away when I heard a shrill whistle coming from the cantina and turned to see Rafe standing in the shadows smoking a cigarette and wagging his finger. Diego good-naturedly flipped him the bird, and we were off.
When we pulled into the MC compound there was music playing, loud conversation, and firelight. The Hells Saints were gathered around the fire pit with their women. They were casting long shadows, and it made me uneasy. Something wicked this way comes. I hadn’t liked these gatherings as a child, and I still didn’t like them. I wanted to go inside. I turned away from Diego to undo my helmet and saw her. The woman who had flashed me the superior smile and had plastered herself against Diego when I first arrived. Had that only been a couple of nights ago? It seemed like a lifetime.
She was staring at me and not looking happy. At all. She looked mean. Crazy and mean. I stared back, a chill running up my spine. I had had enough of crazy to last a lifetime. I knew this kind of crazy and where it was coming from. If she thought she had a claim on Diego, so be it. I barely knew him, and if it came down to that, that’s what I would say. Have. At. It.
I wasn’t the kind of woman who fought over men. I never got that. There were so many other things you had to fight to keep in this life, a man should not be one of them. But I knew there were some that didn’t see it that way. This woman full-on worried me. I pulled my arms around me and held on tight. Diego had been talking to Reno. When he turned and looked at me, a frown crossed his brow. He looked past me and his eyes skirted the wooded edge. By then she was gone.
“Raine.”
I looked at him.
“You okay, Babe?”
I managed a smile. “Yeah, thanks for a nice night. I’m going to head in now.”
Diego shook his head. “No, Babe, you’re not. Prosper got his groove on the harp. You seriously gonna miss that?”
“What time is it?” Something had just occurred to me. All of a sudden, the time had become very important.
He looked at his phone. “11:05. Why?”
I had only fifty-five minutes left to end a day that had been just about perfect. I honestly could not ever remember having that before. Ever. And it was something I had aspired to. One day of not worrying about anything. One whole day. I really didn’t want anything to mess that up for me. But Diego had grabbed my hand and was pulling me along. What could possibly happen in fifty-five minutes? Then the wind tugged at my hair, loosening a tendril and whispering in my ear. Something wicked this way comes.
The air was electric in the way I remembered it as a kid. But now I forced myself to look at the scene before me with adult eyes, and damn if I
didn’t feel that same shiver go up my spine. It wasn’t the good kind of shiver. It was the kind of shiver that came from being a lifelong watcher and knowing that the secrets that lay deep within these shadow people were dangerous ones. They were the kind of secrets that knowing about could hurt you. Even get you killed. These might be Prosper’s people and Diego’s people, but they were not my people. These were the kind of people that scared me.
As I walked through the sea of badass outlaws and their women, I felt cold inside. No matter who my dad was or who my Prosper was or who the man I was on the arm of was, I wasn’t a part of this. A bunch of bikers and their women. Their women. Some of them were old ladies, some were girlfriends, and some were honest-to-goodness whores. They were definitely a type. They were fat and skinny, short and tall, blondes, brunettes, and redheads. Some were older, some younger, but definitely a type. Big hair, lots of makeup, and lots of tit showing. Whether those tits were large or small, they were on display. They smelled of cheap perfume, cheap booze, and desperation. They were hard women. Hard-loving, hard-living, hard-hearted women. Dangerous women wanting to be owned by dangerous men. Willing to do anything to make that happen. The men knowing that and taking that on. The air crackled with it.
I looked past all that to Prosper. Prosper definitely had his groove on. He was jamming with Crow, and they were both playing some mean guitar. I recognized some of the riffs and my fingers were itching to blow them on my harp. Prosper looked at me and crooked his finger. Oh no! No . . . no . . . nope! There was no way I was going to make a display of myself in front of a bunch of bikers. It was one thing belting out a tune in my own backyard or this afternoon with Prosper alone and soaking in the sunshine. But sharing my music with the people of the shadows seemed wrong.
Then Prosper was on me and pulling me with him. When he sat me down next to him and called out to the night, “This one is for Maggie,” I came undone. How could I refuse to sing along to a song dedicated to my mom? He had me there. Crow began to strum out the beginning chords of Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page.” I took the harp out of my back pocket and replaced the soulful sax with some sweet harmonica. I had been playing this for years by myself, and honestly playing with Prosper was a dream come true. Prosper and I sang Seger in perfect harmony, taking twists and turns that, while not in the original version, worked well for us. This had been my mother’s swan song. I was going to sing the shit out of it. And I did.
When it was over, Crow, Prosper, and I were grinning the hell out of each other, and the shadows were going wild with applause. Almost against my will, I turned my eyes to look for Diego. I saw him walking with Ellie away from me and towards the porch area. I felt a burst of jealousy that I pushed down. I turned my attention to Prosper when I realized he had been saying something. The something was that Pinky’s sister had gotten into a pretty serious car accident, and Prosper was flying down that night to be with Pinky while she sat with her sister. He had just been waiting for me so he could tell me, and the playing, I think, had taken his mind off it for a moment. I was grateful he had given me that moment and hoped with all my heart that Pinky’s sister would be okay. He thought no longer than a week and that I should stay at the compound.
I didn’t want him to go. And if he had to go, I wanted to go with him. I didn’t want to stay with people I didn’t know. Now I was really starting to miss Claire. We had never been apart this long, and I knew she missed me as much as I missed her.
But if he had to leave me, I wanted Prosper to go with a clear state of mind. So I smiled, kissed him on the cheek, and told him that I would be fine. And I would be. Because this was my perfectly happy day. He got on his bike and left for the airport. It was 11:45.
I was tired and started heading away from the crowd and back to my room. I felt Jules fall in step with me. I was glad because I didn’t want to walk alone in the dark. I also didn’t want to run into Ellie and Diego doing whatever the hell they were doing. I couldn’t help it. I wanted to help it but I couldn’t. As I walked by, my eyes searched for them. And bingo. There they were. Ellie was plastered against him again, but this time Diego had his hands in her hair and his mouth was moving against hers. Just great. While I watched I saw him pull her head away from him. He had a scowl on his face, and she was smiling up at him. My heart hurt. Before I could look away, he saw me.
“Raine.” He frowned, still holding her away from him. He dropped his grip on her and moved towards me.
Ellie pulled at him and he growled at her, “Get off me!”
I took a step back, feeling broken. Damn. I wished it hadn’t hurt seeing them together like that. But it did and not just a little bit. Especially after the time we had just shared. What was going on? Was it really that easy for Diego to go from me to Ellie and then back again? I knew what I needed to do. I needed to keep walking and let tonight be forgotten.
Walk-away Joe.
Diego stood in my path. Big arms crossed, feet wide apart. Blocking my way and blotting out my view of the she-devil he had just seconds ago been wrapped around.
Ellie wasn’t going to be forgotten that easily. She moved quickly to put herself in front of Diego and way too close to me.
“Yeah, that’s right, Pocahontas,” she sneered.
Oh no, she didn’t.
“Me and Diego. Bitch. For two years now.” She did one of those head-bob things.
“Shut up, Ellie.” Diego, face dark and body tense. Watching me.
“Really, honey, she should know.” Ellie looked back at him, smiled brilliantly, and tossed her hair.
Then she was back on me at full attention and she wasn’t smiling.
“Yeah, that’s right, Raine.” She spat my name out as though it tasted bad on her tongue.
“Diego took you for a ride on his bike tonight, but it’s me that he has been riding in his bed. You were sitting on his bike, I was sitting on his face.”
Oh my God! Who says that?
“Come to think of it, I was wearing that same sweatshirt the last time I went down on him. Yeah, on my knees for my man with nothing on but his sweatshirt. Is that why she’s wearing it, baby? Because you like the smell of me on her?”
Her words hit me like they meant to and pierced a spray of heavy artillery right through me. My stomach cramped, and my fingers were so tight at my sides I broke skin. I felt that shot everywhere. It filled me with such a deep ache that it didn’t even leave any room for me to go into. So I had to just stand there all-out and take it. Then I wrapped my arms so tight around me that my ribs hurt.
Jules flew into action and wrapped his fingers around Ellie’s throat, almost lifting her off the ground. Diego and I were locked in an eye battle. He almost looked as shocked as I felt. Almost.
“Shut up, you fucking skank,” Jules roared.
Ellie wasn’t done. She still wasn’t done.
How could she not be done?
“Let me go, Jules!” she spat out. She twisted violently. Her eyes were on me with hate. She was heaving and there was spittle at the edges of her mouth.
Jules let go of her neck but wrapped his big arms around her middle, trying to drag her away from me. She was so angry she was convulsing.
“How stupid are you, bitch? You think for a minute he is going to choose a beat-up, beat-down, dirty little Indian whore over me? You think you’re special? You think he’s into you? You’re just the flavor of the month, bitch.”
Then she sneered, “You’re being used. And if you don’t believe me, just wait and see. Wait long enough, you’ll even get used to it. Christ, half your body is black and blue. You’re used to it already.” Ellie’s voice cracked. “You feeling me, bitch?”
I heard something in her fall apart, and I watched Ellie then. Under all that venom and teased hair and heavy makeup, Ellie was young. And desperate. And hurt. And fighting for something she felt slipping away from her. We were not dissimilar in that way.
But life had twisted Ellie in a way that I had worked hard to keep from happening to me. And to Claire. Ellie was spiteful and mean and dangerous. Ellie was poison. And Ellie was wrong.
I was all over it then and cat-spitting mad.
“You done? You done now, Ellie?”
Then I took a step closer and leaned into her.
“I get that you’re not happy seeing me with Diego. I get that you don’t like me being anywhere near him. I get that he has had you . . . let me see if I’ve got this right . . . in his bed, on his face, and what was that last one? Oh yeah, blowing him, for the past two years. I get that you’re his regular fuck buddy, and to you that means he’s your man. Am I feeling you so far, Ellie?”
Jules was holding on to the finally subdued Ellie. Diego hadn’t taken his eyes off me the entire time. His eyes dark with fury and his mouth grim. I couldn’t even look at him. My eyes were hard on Ellie and hers were harder on me. I had her full attention, and she was certainly feeling me.
“I get because of your fuck-buddy status that you don’t appreciate a . . . hmmm, what was that again? Oh yeah, a beaten-up, beaten-down, dirty little Pocahontas coming in to threaten that. I get that you think I’m too stupid to understand that I’m nothing more than a flavor of the month. I get that you think beaten-up whores like me should be used to life’s little disappointments.”
Raine Falling (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club) Page 9