Halligan To My Axe (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 2)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  I winced, seeing where this was going before she’d even recounted the eye witness accounts.

  “Yeah, I was thrown across the carport and my head struck the outside brick wall. I don’t remember anything past that terrifying moment when the bike sped forward and we hit.” Viddy explained.

  “So Viddy hit the wall and got a concussion, while I was thrown into the old 5-speed motor under the carport.” She grimaced.

  Trance groaned, and I had to swallow the bile that was threatening the back of my throat. “You were impaled.”

  It wasn’t a question, but a statement. I was waiting for confirmation.

  “Right. I woke up in the hospital lying on my side with the arm of the shifter sticking out of my lower chest.” Adeline confirmed.

  “Fuck,” Trance and I said at the same time.

  “Yeah, daddy was frantic. He wanted to yell and scream at us, but we were both so hurt that he couldn’t. The yelling didn’t come till later when we were released from the hospital. He’d gotten rid of the bikes, the motor, and anything else hazardous in the house after that day. We didn’t even drive until we were eighteen and moved out of the house because he refused to teach us.”

  “And what about you, Viddy?” Trance asked.

  “Viddy was diagnosed with a severe form of Cortical Visual Impairment after our accident. The doctor’s and specialists she saw had high hopes that Viddy would gain some of her vision back, like most do, and she did gain some back, but not enough to make anything easier on her. She can make out the difference between bright and dark. She can see a very narrow field through her peripheral vision, but only such a minimal amount that it only does her more harm than good.” Adeline explained.

  Viddy nodded her head with the explanation.

  “So this was your first time riding on motorcycles since?” I asked Adeline.

  She laughed. “Oh, we were little devils in high school. It was our father’s fault though. He was so freaking strict after that that we barely got to go out of the house without him following us. Viddy in particular. He hated the fact that she was out there with a disability, but Viddy didn’t let anything stop her. Hell, she even competed in track in high school.”

  Viddy snorted, drawing our eyes to her. “I competed in the high jump because it pissed my dad off. Nobody even knew I was blind until I completely missed the bag one time and fell flat on my back after jumping into the air.”

  Silence hung in thick waves before Adeline’s tinkling laughter broke it.

  “Oh, God. That was the funniest thing in the world to see.” She giggled.

  “That’s kind of morbid that you find it funny that your blind sister fell,” I said to her just before I took a drink of my water. “I kind of like it.”

  “It’s either you laugh or cry, and we made a pact ten years ago that neither one of us would cry about our disabilities.” Viddy confirmed.

  “Disabilities?” Trance asked with a raised brow.

  “Yes, I’m blind and Adeline’s stupid.” Viddy said with a straight face.

  “I am not stupid! I’m a science teacher; how much smarter do I have to be?” She laughed and threw a chip at her sister.

  Trance caught it and popped it in my mouth, while Viddy smiled at him, knowing he’d done something to thwart her sister’s attack.

  “Do y’all have family?” Viddy asked Trance and me.

  “No,” Trance answered. “Kettle has a sister, though.”

  I was saved from having to talk about my eccentric sister when the food arrived, causing the table to lapse into silence.

  “Damn,” Viddy said as she felt her food. “They didn’t cut it up like I asked.”

  I looked at her plate of parmesan chicken and realized how truly hard it would be to be blind.

  I’d never thought that being blind meant you couldn’t see to cut up your food. It’d never occurred to me.

  Sure, the usual about not seeing where you walk and not being able to drive had occurred to me, but it’d never struck me how hard just simple everyday tasks, such as cutting your food up, could be.

  “I got it. Here,” Trance said as he started cutting up Viddy’s chicken.

  I didn’t watch Trance or Viddy, though; I watched Adeline.

  I’d learned a lot about her tonight, and each new thing I learned made me more and more curious as to what made her tick. What made Adeline, Adeline.

  Dinner passed in relative swiftness after that, and we were heading out to the parking lot less than an hour after arriving.

  Trance offered to drive Viddy straight home, and Viddy accepted.

  We’d said our goodbyes before Adeline came to a stop beside my Harley Soft Tail.

  “This is really pretty. It reminds me of my dad’s old one.” Adeline said as she ran her hand along the shiny gray paint.

  “He didn’t ride ever again?” I asked as I handed her the helmet.

  “Yes and no,” she shook her head. “We were never around when he did.”

  I’d witnessed quite a few motorcyclists over the years that never rode again after a bad accident. It wasn’t unheard of and didn’t surprise me in the least. After an accident of any type, there comes that time where you get back on just to say you did; but for some, that courage just isn’t there.

  I nodded in understanding, and mounted the bike before offering her my hand.

  She took it and settled herself against my back, pressing her soft breasts against me, igniting a fire in me that I’d not felt in a very long time.

  I hadn’t been aware that a certain something was missing until I saw my best friend get it, making me realize that I needed to get my head on straight or life would pass me right by.

  I was thirty-four, and not getting any younger.

  I wanted kids. A wife. And a place to call home, not just a house.

  I wanted what Sebastian had.

  What I’d almost had once.

  And with Adeline wrapped around me on the ride home, I felt that, maybe, I could find that with her.

  Pulling into the apartment’s lot, I parked the bike in my assigned spot, and shut off the bike before dismounting.

  “Jesus, but that seat sucks,” Adeline said as she swung her leg over the bike.

  I laughed. “Sorry, girl. It’s only a small pad. You keep riding with me and I’ll see about getting something different.”

  “Thanks. I don’t know what the point in having a pad there is. I felt like I was riding on the back wheel. Didn’t notice it so much before when we were looking for my sister, but now I’m feeling it.”

  I smirked. “It ain’t called a p-pad for nothing, girl. Seriously, all it’s meant to do is keep your pussy off the fender and not much more. Hence why it’s called the pussy pad.”

  Her face flamed when I said pussy, and didn’t stop flaming as she gave me a quick kiss on my cheek and hightailed it up her stairs.

  “Night, Kettle!” She called from the top and then entered her apartment, closing it quietly behind her.

  It wasn’t until I was in my room shedding my clothes, and hanging up my vest that I realized that she hadn’t asked about my cut.

  I knew she had to have noticed that I was wearing it. Hell, her tits had been plastered up against my back the entire time, right up against my colors. It wasn’t as if I was hiding it.

  I was proud to be a member of the Dixie Wardens MC. I’d have told her everything I could have if she’d asked, but she hadn’t. She hadn’t given the cut a second glance. She hadn’t stared at it in disgust, as Annalise had. She acted like it was just a part of who I was.

  Which made me wonder...was this an okay thing in her book, or was she just that unobservant?

  Chapter 4

  If you don’t understand how a woman could love her sister but also want to kill her, you probably were an only child.

  -Adeline to a coworker

  Adeline

  “Oh, fuck.” I breathed as I entered
The Tug and Chug, one of the only bars in Benton, and stopped abruptly.

  Viddy, who’d been following closely behind me, came to a stop abruptly as well. By way of her face hitting my shoulder.

  “Owww,” Viddy whined. “That hurt. Why’d you stop?”

  Viddy’s cane that she normally used started flailing wildly between my legs, making me yelp and jump to escape it.

  Oh, and drawing the attention of my neighbor who currently had his arms wrapped around a blonde woman from behind.

  A very beautiful woman.

  I grabbed Viddy’s cane that was thrashing between my legs like a snake with its head cut off, and firmly yanked it from my sister’s hands.

  “Stop,” I hissed. “It’s my neighbor, and he has his hands around a woman.”

  I hadn’t realized he was seeing anyone.

  Every time I’d seen the man in the last week since he’d help rescue my sister, he’d never had anyone but the other men in his club with him.

  I’d also seen his bike.

  I was no newbie to the biker way of life.

  My father had been in a motorcycle club until the day he’d died, when I was twenty-three.

  Of a motorcycle wreck, at that.

  After Viddy and I had left the house, my father had finally felt comfortable enough to bring his bike back home.

  He’d kept it at the club when we were still living at home, and had driven his truck home from there.

  Inconvenient, yes, but whatever helped him sleep at night and all.

  He’d died doing what he loved, and that was all that mattered to me.

  Sure, it sucked horribly to not have him there to harp on my lifestyle choices, but I knew he’d died happy, and was finally with my mother, blissful in their afterlife.

  Therefore, that was how I knew that a man that had women riding on his bike often didn’t have p-pads on their bikes because it was incredibly uncomfortable for the women. Instead, they invested in a seat, allowing the woman to have a more comfortable ride.

  “What’s the big deal? Y’all aren’t going steady.” Viddy whimper-yelled back and started feeling me up so she could get her cane.

  I thrust it back into her hand before she could check my boobs, and started to walk forward to the hostess stand.

  “How many?” The young girl asked, eyeing Viddy as if she had leprosy.

  “Blindness isn’t contagious,” I growled.

  I hated it when they stared at my sister as if she was infectious. Hated it with a passion.

  “Uh,” the young woman stuttered. “Will it be two?”

  At my nod, she asked, “Smoking or non?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Non,” I said impatiently.

  “Are you sure?” The hostess asked.

  Viddy, who’d been quiet up until now, started snickering behind me, burying her face into my hair. “D-do you p-plan on taking up s-smoking in the next few minutes, Addy?” She laughed.

  “Shut up or you’ll draw their attention. You’re embarrassing me.” I hissed.

  “Ladies,” a deep voice said from behind us.

  Directly behind us.

  We both shrieked and whirled.

  The cane in Viddy’s hand spun with her movement, striking the older man that was behind us across his right calf, making him jump back in surprise.

  Both of us stared in shock as the man winced and rubbed his bruised leg.

  “Jesus, you just hit their leader.” I moaned to my sister.

  “Like the alien leader or their president leader?” Viddy asked worriedly.

  “President leader,” an amused voice said from behind us.

  We whirled again, but this time, the intimidating man standing behind us caught the cane with his hand, preventing it from smacking him as it had done his president.

  “Kettle,” I said breathily. “Hi.”

  He grinned. “Not many people can get away with taking a pot shot at our president. He’s usually a little quicker than that. He must be getting slow to get taken out by a blind woman.”

  My eyes widened in humor, but I didn’t dare laugh. I knew better.

  “Funny,” the man said, as he walked past us towards the tables that the lot of them were occupying in the back.

  Kettle was dressed in his fire department uniform of navy blue pants, navy blue shirt with the fire department logo on it, and black boots.

  The outfit itself wasn’t that great, but the man filling it out made it look orgasmic.

  His large arms made the sleeves of the shirt strain. It fit tightly across his chest, shoulders and abdomen, leaving very little underneath it to the imagination.

  It also made my frumpy sweat pants and old cut-off t-shirt I was wearing look hideous.

  What was I thinking when I wore this? Oh, yeah. My face hurt like a mother.

  “Y’all want to come join us?” Kettle asked.

  My eyes left the man’s straining biceps and landed on the five men that were gathered around three tables that had been pushed hastily together at the back of The Tug and Chug.

  “Uhh,” I hesitated. “It doesn’t look like you have that much room.”

  “Come on, it’ll be enough.” He said extending both arms. “I’m holding out my arm for you, darlin’.” He said to Viddy, making her laugh.

  Viddy and I curled our hands around his massive bulging biceps, and walked cautiously towards the group.

  “Ladies, I’d like you to meet Loki, Silas, Sebastian, Dixie, and you already know Trance.” He introduced them from left to right.

  Loki looked like a golden God. That is if you didn’t take the scar that ran across his throat into consideration.

  A thin, raised line went from one side of his jaw to the other.

  His eyes were a pale blue, and trained on our every move. Dissecting us as if we were insects.

  He nodded, but said nothing else at the introduction.

  Silas was the President, and the person that Viddy had hit with her cane. He was older with silverish, brown hair shaved short, and a wicked looking beard that came to a point about two inches under his chin.

  His eyes were sharp and focused, as if he’d seen it all and lived to tell about it.

  Sebastian was the man I’d met at the fire, and the VP, according to the patch on his vest. He was wearing a black ball cap over his brown hair, and severe eyes peaked out underneath the bill of the hat. He took in our surroundings as if waiting for something unseen to pop out around the corner and bludgeon us all to death.

  Dixie was the oldest of them all; he also had a pudge that rivaled Santa Claus.

  Viddy kicked me under the cover of the table, and I became aware that I was drawing attention with my less than flattering description of Dixie.

  I liked to make Viddy feel like she was included. So I spoke about where everything was, what everyone was doing, where she was sitting. Who was behind her. I told her everything. It was so much of a habit that I hadn’t even realized I’d been doing it. Describing nuances of what each one of them looked like.

  “Sorry,” I flushed.

  They all laughed, and then Trance spoke. “Have a seat.”

  Then there was Trance. I hadn’t seen him well the other night, due to the dark of the night, and then the dimness of the restaurant, but with the bright fluorescent lights of The Tug and Chug shining down and illuminating him visibly, I clearly saw the different colors of the man’s eyes.

  “Holy shit!” I exclaimed. “You have the same color eyes as Viddy!”

  I reached across Kettle, pressing myself flush against him, and ripped the glasses off of Viddy’s face, allowing her eyes to become visible to all those that were in front of us.

  “Viddy!” I said. “His eyes are the exact same as yours. One blue and one green!”

  Trance had sat forward when I ripped the glasses off her face, and was smiling now. “Sweet. Never seen another person with two different colored eyes like my own. They’re
gorgeous.”

  Viddy blinked a few times, processing that fact, and then smiled. “Awesome.”

  “Take a seat, ladies.” Silas ordered.

  We sat.

  It was just a simple fact. The man ordered it and we did it.

  We’d just sat down when the woman Kettle had had his arms wrapped around earlier came up and sat down drinks for everyone.

  She was really pretty with blonde perky hair, big, bouncy boobs, and a small, trim waist; exactly what I’d picture any man with. She was what every woman secretly strived to be.

  “Shannon,” Kettle stood wrapping his hand around my waist. “I’d like you to meet my neighbor, Adeline and her sister, Viddy. Ladies, this is my sister, Shannon.”

  I didn’t really know what to think of the fact that I was relieved. I wasn’t ready for a relationship with a man like Kettle.

  I was tired of being understanding. I wanted a man that put me first for once, not someone that would always put his club before me, or his job.

  The last man I’d been in a relationship with had done that to me, and I hadn’t realized it until he’d proposed to me.

  Jaxton was a great man. He was honest, caring, and committed.

  To his job.

  He was an OB/GYN in Henderson, TX where I used to live with him.

  He was a great doctor but a lousy boyfriend, and I realized that now, and knew that I had to have someone that would be willing to put me and our relationship first.

  Which was why it was scary that I actually felt relieved that the beauty was his sister, and not his woman.

  “Jesus, Shannon.” Silas spat. “I said a beer, not a Bud Light.”

  Whatever internal battle I was struggling with dissipated at that comment, and conversation began to flow.

  “What brings y’all to The Tug and Chug, Adeline?” Kettle asked me after telling Shannon their drink orders.

  Viddy, who’d been busy speaking quietly with Trance at the end of the table perked up at Kettle’s question, and just had to tell everyone about my awful day.

  “Addy got punched in the face by one of her students. He was a football player.” Viddy crowed. “So I brought her here for a sundae and a cheeseburger to cheer her up.”