Innocent Ride

by Chelsea Camaron

  “Rex—”

  I throw my hand up. “Friends, Lux. At the end of this, I’m a better man for having had a woman like you for even just one night. Call yourself a whore if that’s what makes you feel better, but I’ve had whores, honey, and you aren’t one of them.” Rather than allow her another word, I walk past her to my bike.

  She follows, and when she tries to talk, I rudely start my motorcycle and rev the engine to keep her quiet. Taking the hint, she climbs on behind me. Surprisingly, there is no hesitation as she wraps her arms around me, squeezing as she settles in.

  Selfish bastard I am, we take the long ride back to her office to pick up her car. Pulling up, I almost turn around and take off back out of the parking garage. However, there are three motorcycles and two additional cars I recognize as I pull up beside her car.

  Tripp is trying to slim-jim his way into the car while Roundman stands there with his arm around Doll. Tank is there with a pregnant Sass, while Jake stands to the side with Kenna. Shooter is here as well with Tessie. Doll and Sass recently found out they are both pregnant as Sass is trying to rebuild her life since Tank woke up from his coma. I am surprised to see them all here, especially Roundman.

  Time to face the punishment. I shouldn’t have blown Tripp off. No way he could call Roundman here this fast, though. He must have already been on his way when I took off on Tripp earlier.

  While I pull up and park, curiosity builds as I wonder why Roundman and Tank are here from the coast unexpectedly.

  Lux takes off my helmet as I only had one with me. Her eyes are puffy as if she was crying, and my gut twists that I have upset her. Before Lux can climb off the bike, Doll is beside us, hugging her friend awkwardly.

  “Where the hell is your phone?” Doll asks as she slaps me in the back of the head. “When shithead wouldn’t answer Tripp’s calls, we tried to call you. I haven’t been this scared in a long damn time, Caroline.”

  “We needed to go for a ride to clear some things up,” I answer for us, hoping no further questions will come up. Her phone is most likely in her bag that is inside her car. Neither of us planned to go off, so it wasn’t like a phone was a primary concern.

  “Take her home, Rex. We’ll follow you there,” Roundman commands, as Lux continues to awkwardly climb off my bike.

  “I am perfectly capable of driving myself home,” Lux smarts off to our club Prez.

  Tripp may be the Catawba Prez and Roundman the Haywood’s Landing Prez, but our entire Hellions club must answer to Roundman, and this little spitfire is mouthing off to him like Doll would. If I wasn’t so overwhelmed with the sadness that I have lost her before I really had the opportunity to have her, I would be turned on watching her verbally spar with the big man.

  “Caroline, I don’t want to open the closet of your dirty laundry in a parking lot, but we have shit to sort. Rex claimed you, so he takes you home. Plus, the fucker watching you can get an eyeful of that.”

  She gasps.

  Someone is watching her? Dammit, I failed again. I knew it by the way she was acting, but I couldn’t prove it yet.

  She looks to me as tears fill her eyes. The fear shows, and a rage boils inside me. I never want to see this look on her face ever again.

  “That’s right, someone is watching your ass. Everywhere. You. Go.” Roundman accents each word by the end of his statement.

  “She gets it, Roundman. I’ll take her home,” I try to diffuse the situation without setting off the Haywood’s Landing Hellions President.

  “She doesn’t fuckin’ get it.” He throws back at me while staring at Lux. “The Hellions have had your back longer than you know, pretty girl. Only, you’re too good to accept our help. Come down a peg or two, or end up like your momma. Call me an ass—I don’t give a fuck. Rex is all that’s keepin’ you breathin’ easy right now. I’ve kept your secrets long enough.

  “I see the way you came in here. I’ve had enough of the judgments, Caroline. You obviously have questions, and I have the answers you need. Now, put your fancy ass on that bike, ride out with your arms around your man, and go home. We’ll be right behind you. Got some shit to discuss. Make it hard or make it easy, choice is yours. I think you know all about choices, don’t ya?” Roundman gives it to her straight.

  She doesn’t look at anyone, only keeps her eyes locked to mine. She has pushed all of her emotions down. As she climbs on behind me, she is completely unreadable. I know this has to feel harsh to her. I know she may feel backed into a corner but truly Roundman is trying to get her out of an open parking garage to sit down and discuss everything. He is rough around the edges and has never been one to hold back. If she is going to be in my world even for a short time, this is shit she has to get used to.

  What does Roundman know that the rest of us don’t? Who the fuck has been following her? Why is Roundman even here? Lux, what kind of danger are you really in?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Exposed

  ~Caroline~

  My mind spins. Would Roundman really spill all my dirty little secrets? What exactly does he know?

  “The Hellions might have saved you from Alvin Higgins years ago,” Chad’s voice plays in my head.

  “Plus, the fucker watching you can get an eyeful of that,” Roundman’s confirmation that I am being watched only adds to the concerns doing a dance in my mind.

  I am being followed. The Hellions have had my back longer than I have known. Roundman knows my past. He knows my choices. He knows my bad decisions. I feel like I am going to fall off the bike when I feel Rex squeeze my left thigh before returning his hand to the handlebar again in a gesture of silent reassurance, a small reminder that he is here.

  He is here … for me. He wants to protect me.

  No, he wants to protect anyone. I can’t allow myself to believe this is about me. Live in the realities of what a man is and what a man wants. Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in your own illusions. He doesn’t want to fail again, because Tessie was hurt by his choices. It has nothing to do with having feelings for me. I must remember that so I don’t allow my fool heart to go and fall in love with the biker in front of me.

  We pull up to my apartment long before I am mentally prepared to face Roundman and whatever the hell is going on here.

  Rex looks at me over his shoulder. “I don’t know what’s going on, Lux. I obviously don’t know shit about your past, but whatever it is, I’m here to ride it out with you. The club, Lux, it’s family. Let us help you. Let me protect you,” he pleads as I remove the helmet.

  Getting off the bike, I don’t know what to say or do. Therefore, I simply lean over and touch my lips to his softly.

  “I’m sorry, Rex.” Without adding to it, I make my way past him and inside.

  Quickly, I change into leggings and an oversized shirt. Something feels off inside my apartment. I can’t put my finger on it, and I don’t have time to dwell on it, because I can hear Roundman outside my door as I make my way into my living room.

  “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” I hear Doll question from the other side of my front door.

  “Wasn’t your business, Doll,” Roundman replies calmly.

  “You searched my best friend, my roommate. You dug up who knows what, yet you didn’t say one fuckin’ word to me.”

  I have a feeling her attitude has nothing to do with her pregnancy hormones. Tripp and Doll are having a baby, but it isn’t holding her back one bit.

  “Come on, did you really think Danza and I would let someone live with you and Sass without checking them out? Nothing was damaging to the two of you. We handled what Caroline needed handling, and no one was the wiser about the whole ordeal, until now.”

  “Why won’t you let me in there when you talk to her?” Doll asks, calming down finally.

  “Not my story to tell, Doll. If Caroline wants you to know, she will share the information. I’m here to handle some blowback. Rex will go in with me to talk to her. No one else unless she wants them, ‘cause
it’s not anyone’s business. Rex claimed her; he’s got a right to know what he’s really up against. The rest of it is water under the bridge, ya hear me?” Roundman informs everyone.

  “I hear ya,” Doll relents unhappily.

  Opening my door, I decide to face the firing squad. The quicker this is over, the sooner I can sort out my life. I step back for Rex and Roundman to enter.

  “Come on, Doll. Have Sass come, too. It’s not fair to keep you out of it any longer.”

  I was expecting my two best friends to stomp past me in anger. They don’t, though. Rather, Doll reaches out and squeezes my hand, and Sass pulls me into a big hug.

  I am surprised when Tripp and Tank remain outside. Tessie, Shooter, and everyone else from the parking garage have all gone back to their lives. All that remain are my two friends, their men, what is supposed to be my man, and Roundman.

  I look over to Rex, and he gives me a soft smile while patting the couch beside him as Roundman takes the chair in my living room. I look to my friend’s husbands then back to Doll and Sass.

  “They’re only coming in if you want them in here, Caroline. They won’t know anything that isn’t club business.” Sass answers my unspoken question. “That’s how this works.”

  “Well, haven’t you settled into biker domestication well,” I reply sarcastically, knowing there was a time not too long ago my friend wanted nothing to do with the club.

  “It’s easier than you think if you open your mind to the possibilities,” Sass says back, equally as sarcastic.

  “I don’t judge the choices you’ve made, Caroline, so don’t judge the lifestyle we freely choose. Before I tell you anything, I need to be clear. What we discuss in here is only shared with the ones you allow to be present and anyone I feel necessary later on; otherwise, it goes no further,” Roundman states as he stares me down.

  “I haven’t judged anyone.” I try to defend, but my tone comes off too sharp.

  Rex pins me with his stare in a non-vocal reprimand. When I don’t back down, he throws me off my guard.

  “Lux, the attitude isn’t necessary. This is about protecting you. If you need me to take you to your bedroom, I’m happy to pull that stick outta your ass. I’ll even replace it with my cock to work out some of that tension you got goin’ on. Otherwise, bring your uptight self over here and let’s sort your shit.”

  I blush as both of my friends burst out laughing, and Roundman only shakes his head. Rex sits back, completely unfazed, on my couch. He is going to pay for my embarrassment. I am going to leave him with the biggest pair of blue balls known to man before he leaves tonight.

  Going into the room, I purposely sit on the arm of the couch to avoid following Rex’s instructions to sit beside him. Too bad he doesn’t take the hint.

  “Wanna play games, do ya?” Rex asks as he moves to my end of the couch.

  Just when I think he will leave it at that, I am wrong. Hands grip my waist and pull me onto his lap before I have time to react.

  “Relax, Lux. Roundman is just here to talk to you. Calm your shit before I take you in your room and fuck you senseless so you have no other thought beyond the next orgasm I’m gonna give you. Then maybe someone can get a word in edgewise to fix what’s going on here. I know I’m not explaining things in a way that you will allow your pretty little head to grasp, so maybe Roundman and the girls can.”

  I don’t know if I want to kick him in the balls with my overpriced shoes or let him take me to my room and fuck me senseless.

  “Promises, promises,” I whisper back to him as Doll and Sass both take a seat beside us.

  “Caroline, you should know that I know your history. When you lived in the dorm with the girls, it wasn’t my place to intervene with Higgins. Then, when the girls took you to the apartment with them, we tried, Caroline. The club paid everything we could without stepping on your toes, but it wasn’t enough, was it?” Roundman looks at me, rubbing his goatee as if my answer would ease something inside him.

  “I had tuition and books and regular expenses.”

  “You had money. You always had money. The boxes from your mom with all the clothes and shoes. Why would the club need to help? I feel like we are missing something here,” Doll chimes in.

  “I was a whore,” I blurt out as Rex goes stiff under me. I drop my head in shame. “My mom is a housekeeper. Well, that’s her official job title. Her salary is minimal, but her housing is included for convenience, so she couldn’t afford to pay for my school. The clothes are from the governor’s wife and daughter. Hell, she still sends them to me.” Sass gasps beside me. “Yup, the governor. My mom is the governor’s maid, or mistress, choose the title you prefer. Hired help. I was born to a whore, and I became one.”

  “Became one? Who? How? When?” Sass fires questions at me.

  “Oh, come on, you aren’t that naïve. I became one by having sex for money.” Anger builds inside me. I don’t even know who I am so pissed at as I let it all fly out. “Okay, so I didn’t actually have sex with Alvin Higgins. We had an agreement, and he performed sexual things to me and paid me to get off. He had some erectile dysfunction that even the little blue pills couldn’t help.”

  “So he did things to you to try to get himself hard?” Doll asks, unable to mask the disgust in her voice.

  I don’t blame her. I want to vomit every time I think about it.

  “Look, I didn’t have a club to pay my tuition. I knew my career wouldn’t pay great the first few years, and I would struggle if I was drowning in student loans, so I did what my mother taught me to do—sell your assets or your ass. Doesn’t matter how you look at it, the bills got paid.”

  “How long?” Doll continues her inquisition.

  I try to stand up, the nervous energy running through me making me need to move. Rex firmly grips my hips, pulling me back against him and unable to escape. Although, as I exhale, I don’t know that I want to escape. There is a security in his arms that keeps me continuing.

  “Two years, give or take. I started as his legitimate dog walker. I never expected to be his escort and then his play thing, but money talks when times are hard. I made the wrong choice, and I live with that every day when I look in the mirror.”

  “Only two years; why not all of school?” Sass questions now.

  “I was released. He paid me off, and I haven’t heard a word from him or about him until Chad.”

  “That’s what Chad was holding against you?” Doll pipes in.

  “No, Chad took me to dinner the night I ended up at your house, Doll. He wanted more than a friendly celebration, though. When I rejected his advances, he didn’t take that well, let’s just say. He dug up my past and made sure to make it part of my present.”

  “And you knew all of this, Dad?” Doll turns her attention to Roundman.

  “Not about Chad, just about her college years. When Caroline got the new car after y’all moved to the apartment, we had to put the tags on the lease. When they ran them, the car was registered to Alvin Higgins, so the boys and I did some research. Then we bought out Higgins’s tie to Caroline. We paid him to back the fuck off. We paid the check to cover your car and your school.”

  I lay my head back onto Rex’s shoulder as I push the tears back.

  “The Hellions are family, Caroline. You’ve always been a part of us in your own way. I don’t know what you got going on with Rex here, not my business. He’s claimed you as his, and with that comes security, but also responsibility. You represent him. Save all that Hell fire attitude you got for the bedroom; in front of his brothers is never the time or the place to try to lead him by his dick. Club business is just that—club fuckin’ business, not broad business. Your business stays your business unless it impacts the club.

  “Chad dug up all this shit. He called out the wrong people. He paid the price. The club just needs to sort out who those wrong people were and how they tie to you. That means you gotta trust us. You also gotta stow away that resting bitch face you got goin’ on.
Take away the disdain you have for what you think my world is and understand dressing up a dollar store doll doesn’t make it anything more than a dollar store doll. Be who you are and be okay with that. The rest of this shit, trust your man to handle it.” Roundman boldly states.

  I start to argue that Rex isn’t my man—my instincts scream to clarify that Rex and I aren’t together—but Rex squeezes my thigh, as if he senses my internal battle to ‘stow my resting bitch face and save my Hell fire attitude.’

  “Quick learner,” Doll adds, watching me and laughing.

  “I don’t judge you like you think I do,” I try to explain. Doll and Sass are two of my closest friends, after all. “I have this vision of who I’m supposed to be. I’ve been chasing this dream so long I don’t know what reality is anymore. It’s not about you at all. Please don’t think that,” I add, making sure to make eye contact with Roundman.

  “Growin’ up like you did, appearances were deceiving. We get it, Caroline. Gotta sort this out, though, to keep you safe.”

  Once Roundman stands to leave, Doll and Sass quickly follow suit. Only then does Rex loosen his grip, letting me know it is finally okay for me to get up.

  As I hug my friends and say goodbye, Rex is in the corner whispering with Roundman.

  I should feel ashamed. I should be falling apart right now. Instead, I don’t. I find relief in letting it all out. The Hellions paid my way out. Where would I be today if the club hadn’t paid off Alvin Higgins all those years ago?

  ~Rex~

  “The blue sedan following her is two rows over and four spots back from her assigned parking. The right person could see right inside here. Don’t scare her more. We ran the plates. The car is registered to Evangeline Jones. She’s an eighty-five year old woman living in a retirement home. The car was reported stolen. We’re on it so don’t let her worry over this. She’s had a lot to process tonight,” Roundman informs me as Caroline says goodbye to the girls. I nod in understanding as my mind continues to race with who is following her.