“Pyro you want this?”
I rub at my leg; the therapy Ripley gave me last week helped, but not enough. I’m still sore as fuck.
“Pyro?”
I shake my head. “Go ahead, brother.”
Smokey shrugs and goes back to looking at his phone and smoking the rest of his joint.
“Your leg bothering you again?”
I watch Jinx climb the picnic table and sit on the top of it beside me. “A little stiff.”
She gives me a sad smile, and I give her one back because I’m not always an asshole.
“I haven’t gotten a chance to thank you for my birthday party.”
Before her sweet face and blue eyes slay me, I turn back around. “Welcome, darlin’.”
“Well, I won’t keep you. I only wanted to thank you in person,” she says quietly as she climbs off the picnic table.
“Jinx—” I’m interrupted by Winter chasing Braxxon out of the housing building.
“I don’t give a fuck, Brax!”
I stretch my leg out and hop off the picnic table and reach for my crutches but decide against it; Winter is squaring up against our president, I don’t have time to crutch my way over there.
I hobble run to where they are with Smokey hot on my tail. Winter is bawling her eyes out and pushing against Braxxon’s chest; her screams are a jumbled mess in-between her hiccups.
“Hey, hey,” I say gently, wrapping my arm around her midriff to pull her back.
“If you knew,” she gasps, “the shit he’s keeping from you, you’d knock him the fuck out.”
My attention snaps to Braxxon’s; he looks away, the muscles in his jaw ticking with anger.
“Let me go, Pyro,” Winter demands.
I loosen my grip; once she’s free, she’s back in his face pointing her finger. “I will never forgive you for this, never,” she yells at the top of her lungs.
His head snaps around, and his voice seethes with anger. “What the fuck were you doin’ in my phone? Huh? You fuckin’ know better. I’ve been too fuckin’ lax with you. Get the fuck over it and if I ever catch you in my phone again,” Braxxon leans down into her face, her finger slides off his cheek when he does, “there will be consequences.”
Winter takes a step back and delivers a blow to his heart. “The worst thing I have ever done in my life was marrying you.”
She looks to me, all red-faced from crying. “You’re his VP, and you honestly know jack shit.”
I turn around to face Braxxon. “What the fuck is she talkin’ about, Prez?”
His eyes go cold. “I’m the fuckin’ president, don’t fuckin’ worry about it.”
“Woah, what the hell is goin’ on with you,” Smokey demands from him, pushing me back a few steps in the process. I didn’t even realize I stepped up to him, that’s how fucking angry I am.
“I’m your goddamn president, I don’t fuckin’ answer to any of you,” he growls. “You’d be best to remember that.”
Smokey also takes a step back, I lower my gaze down to his hands and notice he’s balling his fists at his sides as well.
Sniper comes riding in through the gate with Rap; they park and jog over to us. “What’s goin’ on, brothers?”
“Your brother has lost his fuckin’ mind,” I seethe. “You best drag him away, Snipe. Smokey and I two seconds away from beating the fuck out of him.”
“Smokey?” Sniper questions, not sure he heard me right.
“Get him the fuck away from me,” Smokey growls. “President or not, treatin’ me like shit gets you no fuckin’ respect from me.”
“Is that so, motherfucker?” Braxxon hisses through clenched teeth. “You wanna fight me, asshole!”
Rap moves next to Sniper and Brax tries to push him out of the way. “Move your fuckin’ ass!” he roars.
“We ain’t movin’, Prez,” Smokey says calmly. “You’re out of control. We don’t disrespect our brothers, rank or no rank.”
Brax eyes his brother for a moment, then me and Smokey and turns away. “Fuck all of you!”
I shake my stiff leg out and breathe a sigh of relief I didn’t need to knock the shit out of our president.
“What the fuck happened?” Sniper questions.
“Brother, I’ve got no fuckin’ idea,” Smokey admits. “Brax and Winter came stormin’ out of the housing unit, and we had to drag Winter off of him.” He shakes his head and lights a cigarette. “Then Winter told Pyro Brax was hidin’ shit from his VP, and Pyro only questioned what she was talking about.” He shrugs. “Your bother snapped suddenly. Shit was weird as fuck.”
“Pyro?” Sniper confirms.
“It was fuckin’ quick,” I confirm. “You need to get him under control. We all have bad days, but if he keeps it up and someone calls for a vote to impeach his ass,” I growl. “It’ll be his fuckin’ fault.”
I shake my head. “My fuckin’ leg hurts. I’m gonna see if Ripley’s free for a rub. Fix your brother, Sniper. I’m fuckin’ serious.”
“Fuck,” Sniper yells out.
“We’re falling apart at the goddamn seam,” Smokey grumbles when I turn away.
“No shit,” I agree.
I reach my crutches and put them to use, when I get into the housing building I call out for Ripley, stopping in my tracks when I see Jinx sitting in one of the recliners. “You okay?”
She looks up, swipes her cheeks, giving me a fake smile. “Yes.”
I don’t believe it, so I sit down on the couch, and drop my crutches to the floor as Ripley turns the corner.
“What?” she questions.
“Can you work out my leg?”
“Yeah, let me go get your therapy bag,” she grumbles and walks off.
“Damn, everyone is moody today.”
“Everyone is emotional, if you trap a bunch of females up and they are going through stuff, you’re bound to have days like this,” Jinx defends.
“I didn’t mean anything by it, darlin’.”
“Take off your pants,” Ripley orders when she’s back in the room. Jinx picks up a book from the side table, ignoring us as she flips to the first page.
I shouldn’t have brushed her off earlier when she was trying to thank me. She was only being kind, and I dismissed her as if she was nothing, I guess I’m an asshole after all.
The entire time Ripley is working out my leg, I replay the way I dissed her through my mind. It’s eating me up, and every time I hiss in pain, I beg for her to look up and give me her eyes. Something to let me know we’re alright, I hate knowing I hurt her feelings when she was only being kind, she wasn’t even hitting on me.
Ripley’s hands stop, and I know my therapy is finished. “Feel any better,” she questions me, rolling up the therapy band and recapping the muscle cream she massaged into my leg.
“It isn’t stiff anymore.”
“Good,” she replies tersely.
“You okay, Ripley?”
“I’m good,” she mumbles while she packs up my therapy shit. “Bad day.”
I know she’s lying, she isn’t okay. Ripley isn’t an emotional woman; she’s too much of a tomboy. In fact, I’ve never even seen her cry, so when she’s upset, it shows.
I ignore my irritation with her brush off and peek back over at Jinx who is wrapped up tight in her novel. When she flips her page, I know she wasn’t paying me the slightest bit of attention, even with my pants down.
Ouch to my fucking man-ego.
“Use your damn crutches, Pyro. You have about a month left on them, and if you want to ride when the month is up, I suggest you use the things,” she warns before she leaves me alone with Jinx.
“Got it,” I grunt when I stand to put my pants back on.
I don’t turn to look at Jinx when I pick up my crutches and leave the room. I know Akela and Ripley being in the same vicinity was supposed to remind me of Lana and sizzle out my attraction to Jinx, but it hasn’t.
*
Chapter Six
Jinx
I dog-ear the page and set the book back on the table when I hear Pyro rummaging around in the kitchen. I don’t want any awkwardness with us, and I get up determined to figure out what I did wrong. I’m tired of wondering if I offended him in some way.
When I get to the kitchen, he’s sitting down at the table with a sandwich on a plate and cup of tea beside it with his prescription bottle.
“Can we talk for a second?”
Pyro nods to one of the kitchen chairs. “What’s up?”
“Did I do something to offend you,” I ask him when I’m seated. I tuck my hands in my lap to stow the shaking of them.
He swallows a couple of pills and downs his sweet tea. “No, shit. I’m sorry.”
“Oh….” Is all I can come up with.
Pyro curses. “I’ve got a ton on my mind.”
I slouch in my seat, relieved he isn’t angry with me. “Okay. I’ll let you get back to your sandwich.” I wave my hand at his uneaten food.
“Forget the food.” He stands with his crutches. “Come to the courtyard with me so I can smoke a cigarette?”
“As long as it’s in the shade,” I agree. “I may not be as pale as your average redhead, but I still burn.”
He chuckles.
When we get to the door, I hold it open, and he squeezes through the small frame with his crutches. Pyro picks a picnic table with an umbrella, and I fight to contain my smile when he struggles to open it up. “I can get it,” I say, coming up behind him.
“I got it,” he grumbles.
I sit down when the umbrella is up. “Thanks.”
“No biggie, darlin’,” he assures me and tosses his crutches down to the ground. “Fuckers are getting’ on my nerves.”
I’m not big on giggling, but one slips out with his hate for his crutches; for a manly man, he’s adorable when flustered.
“I wanted to ask you about therapy.”
My smile slips. “What about it?”
He lights a cigarette. “Do you believe it helps?”
I lean into the palm of my hand. “It has mentally, not physically. I still panic when I even think about a male touching me or vice versa.”
Pyro exhales. “Shit.”
“Why are you asking?”
He rubs his face, his eyes telling me he’s in debate on whether to tell me the truth or not.
“Pyro, I won’t repeat anything you ask or tell me. I’m not much of a gossip, I understand the need and want for privacy,” I say with a stern tone to assure him. “What’s on your mind?”
“You heard of my binge a year ago?” he asks.
“Honestly,” I say, “not really. I try to stay out of business that doesn’t involve me.”
He breathes a deep sigh and tosses his cigarette to the ground. “My drinking bender was more about guilt than grief.” He takes a deep breath. “I’m fucked up about it.”
“How so?” I question him with sincerity.
Pyro groans, leans his elbows on the table and curses under his breath for a beat. “I didn’t know Lana for long before she was killed. I don’t know if I was in love with her or if I feel responsible for her death. I went on a drinking and fucking bender when I couldn’t make heads or tails of my emotions. I still can’t. I fucking struggle every goddamn day, Shortcake. It’s ripping me apart.”
I hear the emotion in his voice and reach out to touch one of his hands for comfort; I squeeze for him to go on.
“I drank and fucked for months after her death and the guilt isn’t because of my actions. The guilt is because I blame myself for her death, she was Winter’s best friend, and I know even if I wasn’t fuckin’ her, she would still be dead,” he gulps, “women tend to get hurt around us.”
I remove my hand from his and struggle to sit up straight, ungodly uncomfortable with the direction our conversation is heading.
“My point is, I’m attracted to you Jinx, and you’ve already been hurt. I’m fucked up, mentally. I want to keep this,” he motions between us, “from going further than friendship.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. “I’m on the same page,” I assure him. “Really.”
His upper lip lifts. “Yeah?”
“Yeah, as for therapy, it could help you sort through all of the confusing thoughts.”
“Yeah, maybe. Thanks, darlin’.”
I give him a wink when I stand. “You’re welcome.”
When I’m near the door, he calls out my name, and I turn towards him. “Yeah.”
“You placed your hand on me in comfort.”
I suck in a breath when I replay our conversation and my movements in my head; he’s right, I did. “See. Therapy helps.”
“I’ll think about it,” he says with a chuckle.
“You do that.” I wave.
When the door closes behind me when I step inside, I lean against the wall and let out a happy cry. I touched a man. I don’t care if it was innocent and for his comfort or my mind didn’t realize I was doing it at the time, but it happened, and I couldn’t be happier.
“I’m healing,” I whisper to myself, and place a hand over my heart with tears coming down my face. “I’m healing.”
I never thought an innocent touch would affect my emotions so profoundly, but when you go months upon months believing you’ll never experience something as small as a human touch again, it breaks you in ways you can’t even imagine.
“I’m healing,” I repeat in wonder.
*
Chapter Seven
Pyro
Almost the entire Breakneck family is waiting here in the parking lot for our new arrivals. The only ones not here are ZZ and the Red Ladies, their watch locations are of the most value when it comes to keeping our town safe, they couldn’t pull away, but our president didn’t hesitate to call the rest of us back.
I check my watch when I hear their bikes in the distance, right on time. I gaze over at our president, still fucking irritated with how he’s treating me. Shit hasn’t been right with us since I took off on my bender, if I didn’t know any better, I would believe the fucker was jealous I was able to dip out without a care.
Akela and Ripley move near me and each wrap an arm around one of mine, careful not to bump my crutches. “How’s the leg?” Rip questions me while the sound of their bikes grows near.
“It’s not too bad,” I tell her, she was right, it’s getting better because I haven’t gone without the crutches in a week.
Who fucking knew, right?
I chuckle. “You were spot on with the crutch bullshit.”
“Good.”
With a roll of my eyes, I question her behavior from last week and feel her body stiffen. “Nothing,” she grumbles and peers over at Akela where she too has hardened.
“I don’t know what the fuck is goin’ on with you people,” I growl, rip away from them and move. “All of you are off your fuckin’ rockers.”
One of the prospects open the gate and in ride our three new members, trailers attached to their fat ladies.
I whistle when they pull in, admiring their rides.
They shut down their bikes, remove their helmets and stand simultaneously.
“Welcome,” Braxxon says, walking up to them and shaking their hands.
I study them as they make their rounds with introductions; I should have been the second one introduced being vice president and all, but Braxxon still has a fucking dildo up his ass. When they finally stand in front of me, and he presents them, I shake their hands. “It’s good to have more help.”
“It’s good to be somewhere busier.” The one named Seneca says with honesty. “Too much time spent working on our bikes.”
I grin. “Fuckin’ lovely creatures though.”
“Thanks,” Krew chuckles. “Old as shit doin’ the same thing day in and day out.”
“It’s gonna be fun seein’ if your reputations are true,” I tell them, adjusting my crutches. “I’m hopin’ they are. We’ve got a bit of a fuckin’ problem here.”
“We’ve heard. I’m glad we can be of help for our Mother Chapter,” he admits. “Got a large family here, yeah?”
I smirk while we gaze around the compound. “We do. A lot of bodies to protect, a town to protect, businesses to run. Our hands are fuckin’ full.”
Braxxon huffs with my words. “Brothers follow me. I’ll show you your quarters so you can unpack, shower, and shit. Tour can be after you settle in.”
“Berry, ZZ’s mom, has been cookin’ up a storm since this morning. You’ll be able to eat soon,” I inform them since our president is fucking rude, they’ve been on the road, he knows how hungry men get from riding all fucking day. “ZZ’s on watch, you’ll meet him later.”
“Gotcha. Alright, catch ya later, man,” Krew says while the other two only nod and turn away.
When they are out of sight, the women begin their whispers.
No doubt excited with the looks of our three new brothers, I’m man enough to admit they aren’t bad looking dudes, but damn, most of these ladies are taken.
I chuckle to myself as I gimp inside the housing building and up the stairs to my room to grab my pain medicine.
A knock sounds at my door a few minutes later, and I holler for whoever it is to come in. No way am I getting off my bed, I want to keep the instant ache in my leg to a minimum.
“You got a minute?” Jinx questions, closing the door behind her.
“Sure, darlin’, have a seat there.” I point to my recliner.
I prop a pillow under my leg and watch her with steady eyes when she sits down in my chair. “What’s up?”
Jinx slumps down, her gaze on my blank walls. “Shit. I feel incredibly stupid right now.”
I frown. “Why?”
She swings her head in my direction, her blue eyes clouded with unshed tears. “I don’t know these men, Pyro.”
Fuck!
We’re fucking idiots, all of us men.
Reconstruct Me (Breakneck Book 5) Page 4