Without Consequence

by Victoria L. James

  It was when those thoughts started to creep in, and hit me I was looking at her through a whole new pair of post-ride eyes, that I forced myself to turn away. Coughing, just for something to do, I lifted my fist to my mouth, pointing to the bike next to mine with my free hand as she approached.

  “Grab Kenny’s helmet. You can’t ride without one. Not on my watch.”

  Reaching out with trembling hands, she fumbled around for it, her eyes studying the thing as though it was an alien rather than a safety measure. Reaching up to pull the tie from her bun, she shook back her hair and pulled the overly large helmet over her head, seemingly comfortable with the feel of it as she waited for me to climb on. “Thanks for doing this.”

  I had to look away again, throwing my own helmet over my head to distract myself as I swung my leg onto the bike and frowned. “No bother. Get on.”

  Her body moved quickly, her legs sliding into place on either side of mine. There was an awkward pause when she didn’t seem sure of where her hands should go, and rather than her front pressed against my back, all I felt was air as she gripped the seat below her. “Where… I mean, what would you prefer I, um, hold onto?”

  “As tempting as it would be for me to tell you to hold onto my dick, I think you’d be safer gripping the seat or wrapping your arms around my waist. It’s up to you. I don’t have a problem with either,” I said casually, backing the bike away with my feet again without waiting for her to figure out what the hell she wanted to do. I wasn’t sure which I would have preferred – for her to hold on or for her to stay away. Blowing out all the air I could, I started up the bike and curled my fingers even tighter around the handgrips, closing my eyes briefly before opening them again. “I’d make your mind up quickly.”

  Her arms folded around my waist, but her hands locked on her wrists. There wasn’t anything between our bodies as she pressed against me, her hips shimmying forward, her cheek firm against my back. The only sound she made was a chirping as though she’d chosen wrong.

  I didn’t let myself give that too much thought. Before she had time to move another inch, I let the bike growl to life beneath us both and set off slowly through the yard. It took me a moment or two to really think whether or not I needed to turn left or right. Harry had done the driving the other night and I was about eighty seven percent full of alcohol at the time. I could practically feel Ayda behind me, desperate to give me the instruction, when a memory of the roads we took came flooding back and I made a left out of the gates.

  The first few streets we had to take were pretty empty. There wasn’t a lot of life on this side of town, which was one of the many reasons we were stationed where we were. It was a lot easier to keep your head down and your cuts out of sight when you weren’t positioned right next to the local police station or church. But the closer we got into Babylon, the tenser Ayda’s hold became around me. I knew that for her, being seen riding with me would be social suicide, especially given that I crashed her brother’s game on Friday night. She would be the talk of the town, the gossip, part of the whispers and, not to brag, but probably the envy of a lot of the Hound whores who sniffed around our hut waiting for me to get tanked up enough to allow any of them to suck my…

  Yeah.

  This wasn’t a good move for her, or me, for that matter. The last thing I needed was people thinking that Drew Tucker had gotten out of the cells and jumped straight into a life of domesticity with Little Miss Mom-Slash-Waitress. It seemed we both had a lot to lose on this one.

  I tried to weave the bike around the cars as quickly as I could once we hit the main streets, even though I knew that just the sound of the Harley we were riding on would have everyone’s heads turning, no matter how slick I rode that thing or how fast I allowed us to go. I pretty much thought we’d made it through the main high street without attracting too much attention, when the lights turned to red just before I had time to pick up our speed and fly us through. Even though a part of me thought about running that light, the last place I needed to end up right now was face to face with a cop.

  The seconds seemed to pass by slower than ever before as we came to a stop and waited. Ayda twitched and kept her head facing down, the front of the helmet pressed almost painfully into the middle of my back as we both held our breath and tried to act like it didn't matter. I was a little bit too proud and a hell of a lot too stubborn to go down that same route though. My head turned from side to side, my eyes narrowing at every shop window that had an old man or an old woman creeping up to press their nose against it to be the first to get the new gossip. This place never changed, no matter how long you were gone. There was nothing to bring the people together quite like a biker love scandal.

  My hands twisted and turned on the grips as I kept looking from left to right, almost challenging them to keep on fucking staring if they dared. Eventually the light turned to green, forcing me to finally face forward again and take off.

  One thing that was crystal clear was that I didn’t have long to get her back home. Now that we’d been seen, and given Jedd’s warning the other night about me staying out of the way, I had a feeling that there would be someone on my tail within a matter of minutes. My wrist snapped down to twist the throttle even harder and before I knew it, we’d taken the last turn into her street and I was finally able to pull the bike to a slow crawl.

  Ayda must have sensed me glancing at all the familiar looking houses as I tried to remember which one was hers. Her muffled cry out to me indicating that I should turn right had me pulling up onto her driveway as far as I could before I finally knocked off the motor and landed my feet on the ground beneath us.

  She followed my lead, removing the helmet and shaking out her hair before hopping off. “Thanks. I’ll get my car as soon as I can.”

  Running my rough palm over my forehead and down my face, I let out a tired breath and shook my head. “Your car will be on your drive in the morning. One of the boys will bring it back around. You can work off the-” I didn’t get time to finish before I heard the sound of a car pull up on the curb behind me. My eyes glanced up at Ayda while she turned to look at who had arrived. For reasons I couldn’t figure out, I decided that if I watched her reaction rather than look for myself, I might have at least a second to get my anger in check.

  The color drained from her cheeks, and her eyes flickered from the car. “What is he doing here?”

  My nostrils flared as I closed my eyes and rolled my head back over my shoulder to finally take a look. It was only when I opened them to see the chief of police, Howard Sutton himself, sauntering towards us with his hand on his belt that I allowed myself to shake my head and turn away. “I think I can take a guess,” I whispered.

  She gave me a look before plastering a welcoming smile on her lips at the approaching Sutton. “Evening, Chief. If Sloane’s here I can go and get her for you if you like?”

  Sloane Sutton – Tate Hanagan’s squeeze and Howard’s precious baby daughter. I knew her name. Keeping my head dropped down and the smirk plastered on my face, I avoided looking up again until it was absolutely necessary.

  That didn’t mean I couldn’t feel Sutton’s eyes burning holes through my back, though. His glare was throwing knives at all my vital organs.

  Ouch.

  “Ayda,” he said firmly, pausing for effect as the sound of his shoes slowed against the ground. “Not here about Sloane, thank you very much. Just calling on by to see if everything’s okay.”

  Ayda looked between the two of us and shuffled her feet in discomfort. “Everything’s fine, Chief. I had a couple of flats and Mr. Tucker here was kind enough to give me a ride home.”

  “Mr. Tucker and kind don’t usually go hand in hand, so forgive me if I sound skeptical about that,” he droned on, drawing out his words to try and make himself sound more confident and in control of the situation. I was pretty sure the idiot thought he intimidated me because I wasn’t looking him in the eye for this one. It wasn’t long before his feet shuffled forw
ard again. For every second I stayed quiet, his balls grew two sizes and his bravery tripled. “Feel good to be out, Mr. Tucker?”

  My lips pressed into a flat line as I gave a small, sarcastic nod.

  With my eyes aimed the way they were, I saw the subtle hand gesture from Ayda. I’m not sure it was aimed at me so much as her desperate discomfort had prompted her to react, but before Sutton could start asking more questions, she jumped in, her Texan accent becoming more distinct with her manners. “Oh, I don’t know about that, Chief. He’s been very helpful this evening, and I certainly don’t want to keep him from his evening plans.”

  Lifting my chin slowly, my eyes flickered up to look at her and her alone while the cop carried on beside me. If I hadn’t known any better, I would almost have believed that she was on my side.

  “Helpful or not, I’m sure Drew has zero plans for the rest of the evening on account of his fresh-out-of-prison curfew.” His voice trailed off before he waited a moment to speak up again. “Ain’t that right, Mr. Tucker.”

  My smirk turned into a full on smile as I continued to just stare up at Ayda. Even sweaty and tired, she was a beautiful girl and for today, she’d suffered enough. The last thing she needed was my shit on her doorstep making her day even uglier. “Ayda, could you do me a small favor and tell Mr. Sutton that I got out of prison without the need for a curfew or a probation officer, and if he was any kind of decent cop, he would have known that before he started trying to wind me up.” I flashed her an even brighter grin, my head tilting to the side as I hooked her helmet securely behind me and started to drop mine back down on my head. “I’ll have your car back here for you tomorrow. This one’s on me.”

  “I’m sure he heard you,” she said with a small smile, before her eyes widened and she swallowed, her gaze moving to Sutton and the hand he had firmly placed on his gun. “But thank you. You’ve been great. Really.”

  “My pleasure.” I huffed out a laugh, backing up the bike and making out like Sutton wasn’t there at all as my head looked every which way but in his direction. The insults about his wife were sitting on the tip of my tongue, and I had to bite down harder than ever to stop myself from asking how she was. Not that I cared. I just wanted to see him squirm; only it didn’t feel right talking like that in front of Ayda. “Later…”

  “Try to avoid the latter part of that statement, Mr. Tucker. You’re not welcome on this side of town, not now and not anytime in the foreseeable. Stay on your own turf, with your own men and everyone will be happy. This is a good neighborhood and nobody wants any trouble, you hear me?” Sutton yelled out as I twisted my bike back around onto the road and waited to fire up. My head dropped down once again, and this time I failed to hold onto the laughter, my arms shaking as I let it free and let my head roll back up to look at him. He hadn’t changed much in all the time I’d been away. His uniform was still too big for him, his badge hung limply off the left side of his shirt. His mustache was curled up at the ends, making him look like he’d have been better suited to circus life rather than the law. Not that there was much difference between the two around Babylon.

  To sum it up – he looked as much of a dick as he acted.

  Still huffing out a few fits of laughter as I spoke, I looked back at Ayda just one more time before aiming all my humor right at Mr. Howard-The-Hitman-Sutton. “You got it, Chief. Whatever you say. Tell Maisey I said hi.”

  And with a parting wink, I drove off down that road, leaving only my words as a memory as the roar of my bike filled the air around us.

  So much for biting my tongue.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Ayda

  It seemed like a mutual thing between me and Chief Sutton. We both stood unmoving, our eyes following the bike as it took off down the road, accelerating the moment it was clear of the drive. The instant it was gone, my eyes met the chief’s and I saw the unmistakable anger shining back from his gaze.

  I honestly don’t know why I felt so compelled to defend Drew. By all rights, I should have been waxing lyrical about how abhorrent he was and how much I despised his involvement in my life, but it would have been a lie. A huge, bald-faced lie. I didn’t hate Drew Tucker. I feared him. I didn’t despise his involvement in my life; it was just the unknown and it was confusing me, which in and of itself was actually confusing.

  Unfortunately, I couldn’t say any of that to the man staring at me as though he didn’t know who I was.

  “What were you thinking, Ayda?”

  “I’m sorry, Chief?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me, girl. That’s Drew Tucker. He wouldn’t piss on you if you were in flames, and you’re standing there defending him like he can’t look after himself.”

  For a moment, I stood still, completely unsure of what to say to this man or how to say it. I appreciated his concern, mainly because I knew men in a position like that took it upon themselves to protect people they saw as weaker. However, I wasn’t weak, and I was more than capable of making my own decisions. I knew who Drew Tucker was in terms of the ex-convict who had a reputation for violence without consequence. I knew he thrived off of that reputation, too, but I was sure there was a man inside that no one else could see, and didn’t want to see. Maybe I wouldn’t ever meet that man, but it didn’t mean the whole world needed to write him off.

  There was a chance, from Drew’s parting comment, that whatever rivalry or bad blood there was between them, it was personal. If that was the case then it was nothing to do with me and I’d just ended up being a pawn in that showdown. As much as I didn’t appreciate it, it hadn’t been Drew’s doing. He’d been kind enough to drive me home. That was the only reason he’d been there. Although, I didn’t really think it through when I accepted, and I felt every eye in town on me as we passed through – the falter in the steps of the pedestrians, the conversations that had turned to hanging mouths as they stared at us through the windows. Some things never changed.

  “He did me a favor, Chief Sutton. I had two flat tires and no way to get home. He saved me time and money. I’m not sure why you choose to see the worst in him, and I don’t want to know, but please don’t interrogate me for accepting the kindness of someone, when my pride is already wounded.”

  “Let’s not be naive, Ayda. He was here last week, he showed up at the game and you’ve been seen at their holding yard two days in a row. It’s none of my business. You’re right about that, but be careful what you get yourself into. It’s not always so easy to get yourself out again.”

  He turned to walk back to his cruiser, but froze and looked over his shoulder, his hand on his weapon as he stared me down.

  “Sloane won’t be coming over here again. She is my business, and I won’t have her around this mess.”

  “Wait. You’re going to stop her from seeing Tate?”

  “I didn’t say that, but it doesn’t mean I’m not considering it. Good evening, Ayda.”

  I didn’t return the statement. He honestly didn’t deserve my politeness. He had just drawn a line in the sand, and whether it was smart or not, I had decided that I wasn’t going to let him bully me into making a decision about anything. The fact that he presumed to know me, or anything about my life, just pissed me the hell off. How dare he dictate where I went and who I mingled with? I was an adult, for Christ’s sake.

  I stood there and watched as he backed out of my drive, his face lost in the flare of lights as he popped his brights on and off. He went the same way as Drew had, the V8 growling as he put his foot down.

  I was absolutely shocked. I felt like a child that had been disciplined for her choice of friends. The police had a lot of influence in this town, but the MC had respect and fear. Did he honestly think I would cross them so he could fluff his ego and say he’d won some moral battle? It was like standing in a sand pit in a Pre-K class, watching two kids fight over a toy car. At least Drew had the decency to let me think for myself and not judge me for living my life. He could have just as easily ostracized me for not mentio
ning Tate’s involvement with Sloane, but he hadn’t, and in my opinion, it made him the better man.

  Now all I had to do was explain to Tate why he couldn’t screw his girlfriend in the comfort of his own bed while I was working all the hours God sent.

  “Your life is turning into a soap opera. You could charge people for this, you know.”

  “Thanks, Jan. That makes me feel much better.”

  She laughed and patted my shoulder as she passed, her ass hitting the swinging door. “He’s a teenager. They get pissed off about everything. He’ll get over it.”

  “Oh, I don’t care about that,” I said, realizing I was talking to the swinging door.

  Tate hadn’t taken our conversation well at all. Trying to explain that he was essentially to blame for his girlfriend’s banishment from our home felt harsh, but it was the roundabout truth. If he hadn’t broken into the hut, I wouldn’t be repaying a debt, and the chief wouldn’t be all preachy about who I was associating with and banishing his daughter from our home.

  I’d ended the conversation when he shouted, ‘You want me to fuck my girlfriend in the chief of police’s house?’ I might as well have been speaking to a brick wall; the muttering of you should have thought about that, fell on deaf ears as he slammed the door on my ass. Oh, the lesson of ramifications was a bitter pill to swallow.

  “Just remember one thing,” Jan said, popping back in through the door with an empty tray. “If they don’t hate you, you’re not doing it right. Kids, they don’t always think straight. The hormones cross their wires and shit, so you have to play conscience occasionally. The fact that you didn’t give him hell for screwing his girlfriend in the first place, and just drilled into him to be safe, well that was a generous thing and it was made possible by the fact that you knew it was gonna happen anyway.”

  “Ugh, don’t remind me.”