Tread: Biker Romance (Ronin MC Series Book 1)

by Morrow, Justin

  “Come, Bella.” I pulled her to the side and found an empty patch of Spartan grass that looked like it would go up as tinder at the first flicker. She helpfully watered the site as I looked up and down at the small town. Everything was in shades of brown. All of the buildings looked dusty and old, if not falling down. There were signs for a general store, an antique store, and a pawnshop. No one walked either the paved sidewalks or the wooden boardwalks closer to the shops. Occasionally a car rolled by sleepily, as if it was just waking up as well.

  Bella tugged the leash and I followed her to the side of the saloon, past the chain link gate that lay open, leading to the auto repair shop where my car stubbornly refused to let us leave.

  Of course I knew I could call my father. He would come in a cloud of rapture, spouting the sins of the devil and waving his Bible. I shuddered at the thought. No. I would get myself out of this mess. Things seemed dire, but absurdly the alternative of being stranded in this hellhole was more appealing at the moment.

  Bella led with her nose to the backdoor that I entered yesterday and into the kitchen. Veesa must sleep at the counter with a butcher knife in her hand, because she was still there chopping away.

  She looked up from her cutting board and scowled at me. I offered a wan smile and pathetic wave. “Good morning, ma’am. I’m sorry to interrupt.”

  “You no interrupt. You trespass.” She waved the big knife towards the door. “You wait for food there. Take that and leave.” She gestured to Bella and I could clearly picture her chopping up my dog, so I hightailed it to the bar. One of the doors in the hall that was shut the day before was now open, and I heard voices. I peeked in, seeing Tatum and Marley sitting at a table with a few men wearing leather vests.

  Tatum spotted me first and beckoned me with her finger. “Aye. You come and eat, little bird. We’re out of here soon.” She shoveled what looked like potatoes O’Brien into her mouth and chewed, thankfully with her mouth closed.

  “Hello. Good morning,” I said hesitantly as Bella practically dragged me into the room. “Where are we going?” I asked.

  Marley took a quick drink of orange juice. “We have to get to the gym. You stick with us until the boys get back. Then they’ll figure out what to do with you.”

  My heart picked up at the mention of the infamous boys. I wanted to ask, “Do we really have to do that?” but I stayed silent until seated. A plate was placed so forcefully in front of me that I jumped, causing snickers across the room. “Gym?”

  “Yeah.” Marley swallowed her food. “You got any workout clothes?”

  I looked down at my sensible trousers, button down shirt, and flats. “I—no. I can’t say that I packed any of that.”

  “I’ll get you something, chica,” Tatum offered.

  “Thank you,” I muttered, knowing I didn’t have any choice but to accept what these people offered. My dwindling money stash wasn’t going to get me out of town with no wheels.

  “Right. Eat up. Veesa doesn’t cook for the looks. Stuff your face before she comes in here to check.” Marley peered over her shoulder at the door, and I did the same, my eyes widening. She laughed.

  “That woman scared the bejeezus out of me,” I offered in explanation, causing everyone at the table to burst into laughter, making my face turn red.

  “She does that to everyone. But you, you should watch that dog,” one of the scruffy men offered.

  I knew it!

  LICKING MY LIPS NERVOUSLY, I tugged on the top I was loaned as we walked through the front door. It looked like any gym in the world: big black machines being run by sweaty people. Or so I assumed since I’d never actually set foot in one. I had to borrow shoes from Kit.

  The girls made me sign in and show my ID as well as fill out a waiver in case I got hurt. I started to sweat in the air conditioning, wondering what they were going to make me do. Because make no mistake, I was in this until I got my car back.

  “Are you sure that dog isn’t going to disrupt the class?” Marley asked again.

  I nodded and swallowed.

  “She’ll be fine. I’ve got the bed.” I lifted a shoulder awkwardly, holding the huge, puffy dog bed I could ill afford.

  “All right. We’ll put you in the back, just in case.”

  I hated that these people doubted me, even though there was no reason for them to trust my word. But I knew my dog, dang it, even if I hadn’t known her long. She liked to sleep and eat food she wasn’t supposed to. In essence, she was channeling a geriatric. I looked down at Bella’s saggy eyes and knew that she was going to collapse. I just hoped she wouldn’t snore over the music.

  I followed the girls into a room that was all hardwood and mirrors. Marley gestured to an empty corner, and I took that to mean it was Bella’s spot. While she did something with the CD player looking thing against the other wall, I rubbed Bella’s belly after she crawled in and soon enough she closed her eyes. It was naptime, after all.

  Tatum, Kit, and Marley were butt up with their legs spread wide, and as I watched, they all changed position to grab their other ankle.

  “Come stretch, Grace. We’ve got a long day of this.” I walked over silently and tried to replicate what they were doing. Based on how short my hands fell from reaching my own foot, it was going to be a long day, indeed.

  When we were done ‘warming up,’ I was sweating I was so warm. Other women, some I recognized as Soiled Doves from the night before, others older, mom looking types and a few grandmotherly filled the room. Marley spoke to everyone and they were all excited to be there.

  I took my position in the back while everyone else spread out, preparing for something. I smiled wanly at the girl next to me as she bounced on her toes. The music blared suddenly and scared me so badly I yelped. Thank goodness it was drowned out. Marley yelled over the music, “Left, right, up high,” and the room followed her. No matter how fast I tried to follow, I was always a step behind everyone else.

  We did knee kicks, twists, what looked like line dancing, and punches. One song rolled into the other, the beat getting faster. So much faster than I could move. When Marley called for a cool down, I was ready to collapse. Sweat stuck to my head and I couldn’t feel my feet. My hands felt swollen. I could actually feel my pulse in my fingertips.

  “Awesome work out, ladies. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” Oh my goodness, they did this every day?

  I staggered to the counter with the crowd and grabbed a bottled water from a cooler on the floor. When I turned, I almost bumped into Kit. She did a once over and started giggling.

  Tatum pushed her out of the way to see me. “Holy shit, are you going to pass out?” I shook my head, though I wasn’t sure.

  “This is the beginners class, hun. You gonna make it?” Kit asked me before taking a gulp of water. I noticed that her hair wasn’t plastered to her face. Her face was hardly flushed, and I got annoyed.

  “I’ll make it.” Even though I’d never done any type of boogieing in my life, I was not a quitter. Wait, did she say beginner? “How many classes are there?”

  Kit threw back her blonde head and laughed. It was a husky sound and I imagined men drooling when she let it out. “Four today. Yoga is three times a week. Luckily, you came on the weekend.”

  “You do four classes on the weekend?” I asked incredulously.

  “Yeah, chica,” Tatum answered.

  “Why?”

  “Because I work here, genius,” Marley said now that the crowd had dispersed. Already I could see others filling the room.

  “What’s next?” I asked with trepidation.

  “Intermediate,” Marley said with a knowing smile.

  “Is there an advanced class?” Please say no. Please.

  “Of course. If you can’t keep up, take a breather with your bulldog over there.” Tatum tossed her bottle into the trashcan five feet away.

  I tried not to be intimidated, but of course, I was. How could I not be? “What is this?” I almost added hell onto the sentence, but I neve
r cussed. I still thought it, and by the look on the girls’ faces, they knew it.

  “Zumba. You ever heard of it?”

  I nodded. Sure, I knew there were DVDs on sale at Wal-Mart of Zumba you could do in your living room.

  “So you’re all working at the gym and the bar?” I wondered aloud.

  Kit shrugged. “Nah. Marley gets paid to be an instructor. I work the bar and they pick up tips when they feel like it. Tatum has her own job we help with when it’s needed. We all pull our weight.”

  Well, I assumed they did. She didn’t have to sound so defensive. “Of course,” I mumbled.

  “Let’s go. Class is starting.” I was shoved towards the back of the room and noticed Bella still snoozing away, her fat cheeks puffing out with each exhale. If only I could fit on the bed with her.

  After the next class, I was tempted to just push her over. Zumba was the devil’s work. I was sure of it. My lungs burned, my eyes stung, and I for sure could not lift my legs to get the much needed water at the end of class.

  “You gonna pass out, Grace?” I heard the voice, knew it was directed at me by my name, but could not find the muscles to move my head that way. I shook my head anyway and swayed on my feet.

  “You should probably sit out the next one. You’re not gonna make it.”

  “I’ll make it.” The words came out of my mouth. Maybe I had more heart than sense because there was no way I was making it. But I was already lacking in these girls’ eyes. I didn’t want to be a quitter on top of it. I did ask for adventure, right? Right?

  I staggered to the cooler and got a water bottle to the chest. I mumbled a ‘thanks’ in between gasps.

  Marley pushed on my shoulders and I lost my balance, hitting the cinder block wall and slid down. My knees gave out. I looked up at her willowy form and saw that she didn’t even have pit stains. How unfair.

  “Please, don’t be a bully,” I said without thinking, fighting with the cap to get to the cold hydration I desperately needed.

  “Bully? Shit, is that what you think?” Marley asked.

  I nodded.

  “Yes. You three were the cool kids, always had everything. I’m the frumpy kid with Goodwill clothes that doesn’t measure up and you want me to know it.”

  “Holy shit,” Marley said, backing away from me.

  “It’s okay. I’m used to it, but it doesn’t mean I can take it all the time. I am stuck here, after all.”

  Kit tried to be helpful. “I think that we’re just used to our brand of motivation. We’re a competitive group and have always been together. I’m sorry, Grace.”

  “Thanks,” I said weakly. Had I been harsh? But then they’d been judging me since I came into their lives.

  “Shit, now I feel like a total douche. We’ve been around the guys so long, do we really not know how to deal with women?” Tatum asked the others. They were all silent, speaking with their eyes and giving shrugs. Finally, Marley crouched in front of me.

  “You’re right. You need a different type of motivation. Do you have a man?” I snorted. “Okay, do you want one?”

  I blinked. What in the world would I do with a man? I had just gotten rid of one, for Pete’s sake. What would I do with one that I actually wanted to be around? As much as a fantasized about it before, just the word ‘man’ made me shake in my borrowed Nikes. I shrugged as casually as my stiff shoulders allowed.

  “Do you want to take your dog for a run?” I laughed out loud at that, picturing Bella wheezing more than me. She rolled her eyes. “Okay, not a run. Jog, then? It might be good for her,” Marley tried again.

  I looked over at my upside down dog and thought about her getting winded walking around the corner of the saloon earlier in the day. She might have a heart attack. “A jog would be good.”

  Marley slapped her hands together, the clap echoing in the room. “All right. So you’re going to get up and do this next dance with her in mind. Fifty minutes of cardio closer to a healthy dog.”

  “Yeah, okay,” I said, my knees shaking as I stood up.

  This Zumba class wasn’t line dancing. It was all hips and dragging hands all over your body. It was crouching until your butt almost hit the floor, then back up, down again, and rolling those hips one more time, in case you didn’t see it the first time. It was . . . sexy. I watched the girls in the mirror and couldn’t believe the no nonsense group could dislodge their bones the way they did. And I kind of envied them for it.

  It was not so much cardio as Club Dancing 101. Never have I tried to do what they were capable of, not even in my bedroom with Bruno Mars blaring from my headphones.

  When the class ended, I felt more rejuvenated than ready to pass out this time. I was still behind on the steps and had no idea what I was doing, but it was fun, too. Actual fun.

  This time the crowd wasn’t fighting to get to water bottles so much as giving high fives and laughing. I startled when I saw two men at the back of the room next to the doors. They were all in black. Black jeans, black shirts, and black leather vests. I instinctively moved nearer to the crowd, throwing occasional glances over my shoulder. I recognized the vests from the men at the bar the night before and this morning. Was one of them the man I walked over on the stairs? I shuddered when I thought about the fact that the only way I would know him was if his pants were undone.

  Tatum shoulder checked me. “Don’t worry about the probies. They’re our bodyguards.”

  My eyes shot to hers in alarm.

  “Do you have problems with men in here accosting you?” I asked.

  She smirked. “Nah, but our brothers don’t believe it. The new guys get babysitting duty.”

  “Probies, you said? I still don’t understand what they’re all a part of. Like . . .” I hesitated using the word gang.

  “A club. They’re a club. You ever watch SOA?” she asked expectantly. I shook my head. S. O. what?

  “For real?” her eyebrows shot up. “Sons of Anarchy? No? Wow, I think you’re the only one left in America. Our guys are nothing like that, though. Shit, you have no idea what I’m talking about. Okay, they’re a motorcycle club. They love bikes and do business together that involves that.” Tatum looked over her shoulder at the others and shook her head with a shrug.

  I thought about the bikes at the front of the saloon and made the connection. I made a mental note to look up the show as soon as possible. If I could ever find a Wal-Mart, it might be worth splurging on, just for the education.

  “Maybe it’s time for Bella’s walk?” Marley suggested. “We have to send a guy out with you, though, so don’t freak out. None of us go anywhere alone.”

  I looked to Bella and caught her mid-yawn. “But you didn’t have anyone with you at the custard stand yesterday.”

  “Yeah, we did, hun. They just know the pipes are annoying so they stop down the street. It’s not nice to have a welcome song everywhere you go,” Kit said with a smirk .

  “All right.” What else could I say? They obviously wanted me gone. I grabbed Bella’s leash and left the building, now filled to the brim with men. Lots of muscles and sweat, clanking of metal and F bombs rang out through the once vacant building.

  Bella sniffed everything, and I tried to ignore the hulk behind me. More bikes lined the front of the gym, all shiny chrome, and black. A motorcycle club, huh? Like the old guys that were into hot rod cars from the 50s? My brothers had posters up in their room. Classics, they were called. I took a peek over my shoulder. Definitely not old. The guy looked twenty-five, if that.

  Bella did her business and I headed back in. Men were hitting each other, the sounds and grunts making me flinch. I speed walked to the closed doors and burst into the room filled with sexual chaos. My feet stuttered, making them squeak loudly as women whipped their head at the sound. I blinked rapidly, taking in the sports bras and tiny biker shorts. But there were heels now. There were chairs now.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled, moving to the dog bed, and took a seat with Bella, trying to hide my body beh
ind her.

  “Start from the top, 5, 6, 7, 8, and . . .” Marley yelled over the music and the women fell into the routine. I was shocked and wondered instantly if they had in fact had me leave on purpose like I thought. This was a lap dance if I’d ever seen one. My eyes felt like they were bugging out of my head again. They were insane, practically humping chairs. I looked nervously at the men near the door and saw them eating it up. If they could touch themselves, I was positive they would have. They were in lap dance wonderland right then. Their eyes roved over the crowd, not knowing where to land next. Thank Jesus I was not attempting their moves. I couldn’t take their heated eyes, hungry or not. No way.

  But I wondered, a small part of me couldn’t help but ponder the possibility of what it would be like to get a response other than indifference and hesitancy from the opposite sex. No one had looked at me like these guys looked at them. Not my fiancé, or any other man on the street. Then again, I was always the Pastor’s daughter, destined for one man.

  Yes. I couldn’t help but wonder what that would feel like.

  THE FAINT LIGHTS ON THE horizon grew close. I could almost taste the pussy and whiskey. Without noticing what I was doing, I heard the van downshift and the straight pipes started a low, throaty roar. I tapped the brakes in response. If I got any more excited to be home, I would probably just whip it out right there and go to town. Maybe I should? I mean, I didn’t want to get down with the ladies and be a two-pump-chump.

  “Fuck it,” I said aloud.

  Pulling out my trusty glass pipe, I fired a bowl. If I couldn’t get my wood to go away normally, I’d just detach my mind for a bid. The head rush kicked in, and just like clockwork, so did the ringing in my ears. Not now . . . This shit couldn’t wait? I flashed back to the orchards, pinned down in a firefight lasting over four hours, A-10 warthogs overhead firing 30mm rounds at over three thousand rounds per minute. The look on the guys’ faces were a mix between fear and bloodlust. Empty magazines were changed, the medic frantically dealing with the wounded from the ambush. The worried faces on the leaders, the non-commissioned officers expressions as they feared they would lose a man. Thumps of RPGs incoming and going out as Afghani soldiers freaked out in their opium-laced Rambo moments. I felt the warmth flow down my face, and I reached up to touch it. My palm turned red in the light of the beating sun, then suddenly to the shaded darkness of the truck cab. I looked up to see brake lights and jammed my own.