Twisted Christmas

by Sara Cate

  She glances up at me, passing the piece of paper my way. “I know things aren’t always easy, and this time of year has to be hard, but if you need anything, just text me, okay?”

  My eyebrows furrow as I take a step forward, pulling the slip from between her fingers. Glancing down, I see a delicate scrawl of her phone number. “Um, thanks?”

  She smiles. “No pressure. Just know I’m here if you need me.”

  I nod, tossing my thumb over my shoulder. “I don’t want to miss the bus…”

  She nods. “Oh, of course. Go ahead. Have a great break.”

  I smile at her and spin around, racing out of the classroom. As expected, the hallways are empty, and sweat starts dampening my temples. My legs speed up, and I punch my palms into the front doors of the school, just to see the city bus rolling down the street.

  My hands fling into the air in exasperation. “Well, isn’t that fucking great!”

  I want to cry. I want to cry so damn bad.

  I glance around, seeing a mostly empty parking lot. Even the teachers fled the moment the bell rang. Well, isn’t this pathetic.

  With a sigh, I start walking down the street. The chill air instantly nips at my skin, and I bury my fist in my sweatshirt and shove them into my front pocket.

  Only after minutes do I hear the slow sound of tired crunching next to me, followed by a familiar voice. “Iris?” I stop, glancing over my shoulder, my eyes widening when one of the most popular girls in school.

  “Hi, Violet.” I wipe my face, not wanting to act like the pitiful, broke loser to her.

  She gets along with everyone. But it shouldn’t be a shock, because her pseudo-dad owns a motorcycle club up in the mountains.

  Violet used to be my very best friend. I used to go to her house all the time, and we used to be inseparable. But as time went on, we grew apart. She’s never been mean to me, but she’s so busy at the clubhouse, and I’m so busy… avoiding everyone.

  “Miss the bus?” she asks with a frown.

  I nod. “Yeah, but I’ll just catch the next one.” I lift my hand in a wave, not wanting her to see how pathetic I am. “Have a good break.” I start walking away when she calls my name again.

  “I can just give you a ride home, you know.” The way she looks at me makes my stomach twist. She knows another bus doesn’t come here, at least for hours. She’s calling my bluff, but she doesn’t say anything because she doesn’t want to embarrass me.

  “You don’t have to do that. It’s in the completely opposite direction of your house.”

  She laughs, her long blonde hair falling down to her shoulders. A complete contradiction to me, with my dark, nearly black hair and gray-blue eyes. She’s gorgeous.

  I’m awkward.

  “It’s no trouble. Come on, I feel like I haven’t talked to you in forever. We can catch up.”

  I sigh, a mixture of relief and anxiety hitting me at once. “Okay. Thank you.” I pull my backpack from my shoulder, opening the door to her small sedan and sliding onto the leather seats. It’s a newer car, and I feel uneasy, sitting in something that costs more than everything in my apartment combined. I’m sure I look goofy, with my holey jeans and beat-up backpack, next to her in her Harley Davidson leather jacket and leggings.

  “How have you been? I haven’t talked to you in a while,” she says as she pulls out of the parking lot.

  I shrug. “Fine, I guess. Same old. Thinking about getting a job.” More than thinking about it, actually. I’ve been applying everywhere on the weekends. I’ll never be able to afford college, so getting a decent paying job to be able to afford my own place is at the top of my priorities. “What about you?”

  She giggles. “It’s been chaos at the club. People are going damn crazy this year, decorating for Christmas and shit. Aziel, you remember him?” I nod. “He’s with this girl named Ivy, and she’s gone full out psychotic, getting the biggest tree in the woods and planting it right in the middle of the clubhouse. She has a little daughter…” she trails off, laughing while she shakes her head. “She’s cute, but fucking hell is she exhausting.”

  A genuine smile lifts my lips. I only wish I could have that type of chaos in my life. It’s a good chaos, not my kind, which includes picking up beer bottles and shot glasses after a binger, and sleeping with a knife because I’m afraid of the random guy that decided to sleep over. “Sounds nice.”

  “Yeah… hey, do you actually want to come? It’s been what, like five, six years since you’ve been over?”

  I nod, chewing on my lower lip. It has been a long time, and it sounds like so much fun. But I really shouldn’t. I don’t know if my mom will be home, and maybe she’ll need me for something. I’d hate for her to wonder where I am. Not like she can call me; neither of us have enough money to have a cell phone. She usually uses her boyfriend’s, and I, well, I’m always home.

  I should go home, but the other part of me knows that I need friends, and I shouldn’t let my mom ruin my whole life. I should go.

  I need to go.

  “Okay, yeah, let’s do it.” Indecision weighs in my stomach, but I ignore it as she smiles at me.

  “Perfect.”

  Chapter 3

  Arriving at the clubhouse is nerve-racking. A massive iron gate blocks the outside from the inside. A guy who looks to be only a few years older than us sits in a small office outside the gate, with a pistol on his belt and an angry look on his face. “Hey, Violet.”

  “Bronson.” Violet’s tone is snarky, and the guy named Bronson lifts his eyebrow in irritation. Pushing a button, the gate slowly opens, and Violet rolls through. “Bronson is the newest member of the club. He’s been here for maybe a year now. I give him shit because he’s new, but he’s actually pretty dope.”

  I nod my head, feeling overwhelmed with it all. I haven’t been out of the city in so long. It feels like I’m in a different state now that I’m surrounded by trees and mountains, and a massive compound that looks twenty times larger than I remember. It almost looks like a big strip mall, but with one building instead of ten. The main structure is two stories, with a large garage or mechanic’s shop built into the side.

  “This place looks different,” I mumble.

  Violet laughs as she pulls in front of the garage. “They’ve built onto it a little bit, but overall, it’s the same. It’s just been a long time since you’ve seen it.” She shifts into park, turning toward me. “Ready to go meet everyone?”

  I chew on my lip, the skin turning raw from the constant gnawing. “Not really,” I say honestly.

  She pulls her keys out of the ignition, tossing them on the dash. “You’ll be fine. Come on.”

  Opening her door, she steps out, stretching her arms over her head. I swallow down a groan, leaving my backpack on the floor.

  I won’t stay long. Maybe just a visit and then she can take me home.

  Hopping out, I shut the door gently, walking around just as the door to the main building opens, and a kid with dark, spindly hair runs out.

  “Violet!” she squeals.

  Violet giggles, getting down on her knees just in time for the girl to jump into them. “Lilah! How was your last day of school?”

  “It was so much fun.” She leans forward, bending her lips near Violet’s ear. “We made a present for Mommy and Daddy Z. I put it under the tree.”

  Violet leans back, a secretive look on her face. “I bet it’s awesome.”

  She nods, her curls bouncing around her face. And just like that, she slides off Violet’s lap and sprints back inside.

  “Is that Aziel’s daughter?” I can barely remember him, but I remember he was drop dead fucking gorgeous. The girl has to be about six, though. Which means he had to of knocked a girl up around the last time I was around.

  She nods. “That’s his daughter. But not by blood. Doesn’t matter, though, he’s the best dad she could ever have and her sperm donor is dead.” She starts walking toward the front door, like she didn’t just drop that bomb shell. I
blink at her as she opens the door for me. Biting on my lip, I walk through the doorway, my eyes widening at the massive tree that’s pushed all the way up to the ceiling. It’s huge, like ten feet wide, and the top almost crests the ceiling, only leaving an inch of room for a star to be hung on the top.

  “Holy shit,” I mumble.

  Violet laughs. “I told you.”

  Glancing around, I see every single branch hung with different ornaments, handmade and store bought. Kids crafts and Harley Davidson figurines—a mixture that should clash and look bad, but it doesn’t. It looks phenomenal.

  Underneath the tree sits piles and piles of presents, so tall that the bottom row of branches bends and contorts around the colorful boxes. It looks ridiculous.

  So ridiculous I want to cry.

  I so badly wish this was my life. Even though it’s unconventional, I want as much love as these people get.

  The last time my mom told me she loved me?

  I don’t even remember.

  Maybe never.

  “Iris?” Violet places her hand on my arm, and my head whips to the side. “Whoa, where’d you go? You were zoned the fuck out.”

  “Sorry. This tree is amazing,” I breathe.

  She smiles sadly, like she knows exactly where my thoughts strayed to. “Do you have a tree at home? Do you and your mom celebrate?”

  I frown. “No. Not really.” Not at all, but I don’t want the pity.

  “Violet, who’s your friend?” Comes a clipped voice from the other end of the room.

  Both Violet and I spin around and see a woman in her mid-thirties behind the bar, a Harley tank pushing her breasts up. Her hair sits in a high ponytail and a dishrag is grasped in her hands. She looks edgy and not like someone I’d ever want to mess around with.

  My mom is scrappy, but this woman looks like she can throw hands.

  Violet sighs. “Haley, this is Iris. You met a while back.”

  I did?

  My face scrunches up, my eyes popping wide when I remember. She just got here when I used to come around. She looked like my mom back in the day, living on the streets of LA and in shitty relationship after shitty relationship.

  She looks different. Healthy.

  “Oh, yeah! I remember you. You’ve grown up, kid. How you doin’?” She sets two glasses on the table, filling them up with what looks to be soda.

  I shrug. “Not much. Glad school’s out—”

  A door behind me opens, and a flood of huge men in leather walk out. They all stare at us—stare at me—and I instantly feel on edge as they walk from the room.

  My breath leaves my lungs as I glance at each man. They are all equally rugged, raw, brutal-looking with their tousled hair and beards, leather jackets and biker boots. Not to mention the Glock each one of them has holstered on their belt.

  Fuck, these men are deadly.

  Then the last man; he’s older than the rest, yet still young enough to be handsome. His blondish hair is pulled back to the base of his skull, a trimmed beard sits on his face, his body lean and toned, but still so dangerous.

  His gaze steels on mine, and I can’t blink away when he stops, his eyes widening a fraction, his nostrils flaring and his jaw clenching as he stays halted in place. His hands fist at his sides before he takes another step toward me, then another. One more until he’s only feet away, and the masculine, smoky scent invades my nostrils.

  “Who are you?” he barks at me.

  “Don’t be a fucking asshole, Lynx,” Violet snaps.

  See, I’ve known Violet a long time. She grew up like me, actually. With shitty parents that basically abandoned her on the streets of Los Angeles. The clubhouse brought her in, raised her like their own.

  “You look so fuckin’ familiar.” His hand goes to his jaw, and he rubs back and forth, inspecting me from head to toe. “But… it couldn’t be.”

  “My name is Iris. I go to school with Violet.”

  “You’ve met her before, Lynx. She used to come to the clubhouse all the time years back.”

  He takes another step toward me, and I can barely breathe as he invades my space. Not enough that it’s awkward, but enough that I can feel the energy radiating from him. It’s intense, and I can barely breathe as I inhale a shaky breath.

  “You aren’t her,” he mumbles, spinning on his feet and stomping out of the clubhouse.

  I blink, then hear the squeaking of Violet’s chair as she spins around to Haley. “What the fuck was that?”

  I glance at Haley, and she has a strange look on her face. “I have no idea. But that was weird as hell.”

  Chapter 4

  “I should probably go home,” I tell Violet hours later. We eventually moved from the bar to the nearby couches. Everyone has stayed out of our way, though they did eventually move into the bar area. I can hear them talking, swearing, talking about shit that makes the hair on my arms raise.

  These men are… ruthless.

  “Already? You know you can spend the night, right?” Violet asks, her arm elbow deep in a bag of Doritos.

  I’ve already stayed long enough. I know I could stay the night, and maybe I should. Maybe getting away from my mom and the toxic environment of our apartment would be a good idea.

  But my stomach has been uneasy since the encounter with the man earlier, and I have felt his eyes on the back of my head numerous times throughout the night. I don’t know how I could tell they were his, when there’re several other people sitting behind me.

  I just know.

  He’s the guy that brought Violet in. Her pseudo-father. The guy who looked so old years ago, but now I swear he doesn’t look like an old man. He looks vicious, fucking handsome.

  I shake my head, ridding my thoughts that feel so, incredibly forbidden.

  “Maybe another time? I don’t want my mom freaking out.”

  She frowns. “Why don’t you just call her?”

  I laugh, feeling slightly embarrassed, though I shouldn’t, because once upon a time Violet was in the same circumstance. “Don’t have a phone.”

  She frowns at that, a chip extended halfway to her mouth. “Fuck.”

  I nod my head. “Yeah.”

  She pops the chip into her mouth, then rolls up the red bag, setting it on the table in front of her. “Yeah, I can take you home.”

  “Can I use the bathroom first?”

  She lifts her eyebrows. “Obviously. Right upstairs.”

  I nod my head, vaguely remembering where it is. My hand goes to the rustic railing as I head to the second level. I know some people sleep up here, but I don’t remember who.

  I peek in a few rooms, noticing two bedrooms, one messy and one clean. The next room I step into is the bathroom, and I let out a sigh of relief, my bladder being held off long enough. I don’t take long, rushing through and washing my hands. I switch off the light before opening the door, stepping into the hallway.

  “Shit.” I jump back, my eyes immediately connecting with Lynx. He leans against the wall, his ankles crossed over one another and his arms fold over his chest. He looks angry, closed off, and I don’t understand why he’s up here.

  It’s like he’s… waiting for me.

  He’s so fucking handsome. Like, I see handsome. I live in California, and once you comb through the preppy or surfer fucks that don’t know their dick from their feet, you’ll find a goldmine of good-looking men. But there’s something different about Lynx. He’s his own species. Rugged, brutal.

  He’s a fucking savage.

  “Hi…” I whisper.

  He unhooks his feet, stomping toward me until his toes touch mine. His hand goes below my chin, and he tilts my head up, so far up my neck hurts. He’s tall, well over six feet, towering over my five-foot-two frame. His fingers go below my eyes, pulling on the skin and making my eyes widen in front of his. He stares into me, and the air is stolen from my lungs.

  He takes my breath away.

  He’s so much of a man. So much that I can barely think straight. T
he tips of his fingers burn against my skin yet freeze me in place.

  My mouth pops open, and his eyes zero in on my lips. My tongue darts out, because I suddenly feel dried of every ounce of fluid in my body. I can’t think, I can’t breathe. Whatever Lynx is doing to me is making me turn upside down and all fucking twisted around.

  He releases my cheek, and my skin is suddenly ice cold where his hand once lay. His thumb is darkened, and I’m wondering if a smudge of grease was left in its wake.

  “You look so much like her,” he whispers.

  “Like who?”

  He shakes his head, anger and disappointment in his gaze. “No one. She was absolutely no one.”

  I sense a heavy story there. One that would break my heart. Lynx doesn’t seem like a complete man. I mean, he seems like he’s got his head on his shoulders. He doesn’t seem broken, but he seems… missing, maybe?

  Like there’s a piece of him that’s lost and he’s just waiting for it to fit into place.

  I want to ask him about it. I want to delve into the depths of him and uncover all his secrets. I don’t know why. I haven’t talked to or seen him in over five years. He’s Violet’s father, in a sense. I shouldn’t be feeling as… out of sorts as I am at the moment.

  But there’s something about him.

  Some thread that tethers me in place. Keeps our feet cemented to this worn and stained floor in front of each other.

  “I shouldn’t… I shouldn’t be here,” I whisper.

  He steps back, like I’ve snapped him out of his trance. “No, kid. It’s me that shouldn’t fuckin’ be here.” He spins around, stomping down the stairs and out of sight.

  Holy fucking shit.

  What the hell just happened?

  And why is my heart beating out of my chest?

  Chapter 5

  Knock, knock.

  Fucking hell.

  I turn over in bed, refusing to answer to Bo or any of my shady ass neighbors that stare at me like I’m some slut with her legs spread.