“If I’m going to live here, we’re going to need some ground rules,” I told him.
“Yeah, we are. I’ll let you know my schedule, and if I can’t make it home when expected you’ll either hear from me or the person manning the RTMC control room. I expect you to let me know your schedule as well, and to give me a heads up to any changes.”
I shook my head, “That’s not what I’m talking about. My body is my body. You don’t get to tell me what to wear or who I can have sex with.”
“I get to tell you what you can wear around my brothers, and you’ll have to deal with the fact my MC brothers are all off limits to you. I also get to make sure you stay safe, and that means you don’t dress like a whore and prance around downtown.”
I sighed. “You also don’t get to call me a whore in that tone of voice again.” I’d been making money and not taking handouts, dammit. I was never going to be ashamed of doing what it took to pay for college.
He pushed the pan off the burner and walked to me. “Okay. I’m sorry, Shortstuff.” He pulled me into his arms but I stayed stiff, and he let me go with a growl. “Fine, just don’t act like one, dress like one, or be one, and I won’t have reason to call you one.”
“Don’t be mean because I didn’t hug you back.”
“You don’t mind the wolf comforting you.”
He said it like an accusation and I didn’t know how to respond, so I changed the subject. “I don’t eat breakfast, but I know you need it. I’m gonna sit on your deck and log into some class stuff with my phone.”
“You have homework to do before class?”
“No, I just want to look the material over since I have some time.”
* * *
Ghost
I dropped Hailey off at one of the UTC buildings a little before ten, verified I’d pick her up in the same spot at four that afternoon, and drove to the whore hotel to meet a prospect so we could get Hailey’s car to the bike shop.
I followed the prospect across town, and waved to Bash as I told the prospect to get another prospect to take him back to his bike.
Bash frowned as he opened the hood. “I don’t think this one’s worth pouring any money into, brother.”
“She was told it’d take around three hundred dollars to fix the heater.”
“Let me drive it around the block and get a feel for what kind of shape it’s in. The belts and hoses aren’t ancient, so she’s kept it maintained. If the transmission and engine are solid, I’ll fix it. If not, you need to talk to her about putting that three hundred dollars into buying a new car.”
I nodded and he drove off, and I leaned against a wall as I waited for him to return.
Brain pulled into the restaurant, waved at me, and walked across the parking lots to talk to me. “I understand you took one of the working girls home last night, and you’re asking Bash to fix her car?”
“She’s my sister.”
He raised his eyebrows. “She’s part Cherokee and you’re… not. Slick says she’s your stepsister, but I happen to know your dad’s single.”
“Used to be my stepsister. We grew up together. I was eleven when I moved in with them, moved out at eighteen.”
“So we’re down a working girl?”
“Yeah. Don’t suppose we need a waitress?”
“No. Harmony’ll be nice to her, but be prepared for the ol’ladies to look down their noses at her. Word gets around.”
I sighed. “Yeah. I’ll do my best to keep her away from everyone until we get everything figured out. When does Duke get to take his Duchess and little Max home?”
“This afternoon. He’s informed her family they can come for a visit at two o’clock tomorrow, and thinks he’s going to keep them away this evening. I have a feeling her mom will show up anyway. Fuck, that woman is bossy.”
“Any problem with me taking a few days off at the gun store to get Hailey squared away? I’m scheduled to teach a class the day after tomorrow, but otherwise I’m clear until the weekend. I’m moving her in with me to help her save on living expenses, but she’ll still need a part time job. She has three years left on her degree.”
“What’s her major?”
I briefly told him about her talent, her injury, and her hope to be a creative director somewhere, and maybe even a composer.
“Come in long enough to teach the class, but otherwise — take a few days. I’ll send someone else to help out in the store, just let Horse know when you’re ready to come back. If we need you for something specific, I assume you’ll be able to get away?”
“Yeah.” I stepped away from the wall as Bash pulled back in.
“Let us know if you need anything,” Brain said before he headed to the restaurant. “We’re here for you, but I get the feeling you just need us to back off until you get some shit sorted.”
Brain was halfway across the lot when Bash got out of the little blue Focus. “Someone’s taken decent care of it — it’s worth looking to see what’s wrong. Leave it with me and I’ll call you in a while.”
“Thanks.”
I went to the grocery store and bought salad stuff and the veggies I remembered her liking, and I cleared out the closet in the spare bedroom. Gonzo had left me the keys to his truck, and I walked across the yards to his new house.
It occurred to me Hailey wouldn’t expect me to be in a different vehicle, so I texted her the color and make of Gonzo’s truck, and told her we’d get her things from her place when I picked her up.
She’d ended up wearing the size three jeans, though I’d thought the size fives were a better fit. My cock, however, thought the size threes were just right as I watched her walk down the steps to the truck, but I ignored it and looked up to her face. She looked tired and stressed. Anxious.
“Everything okay?” I asked as she climbed into the passenger side.
“Yeah, I just have a lot of homework. Are you sure you want me living with you? Can’t we just forget all this and let me do my job and keep my own place?”
“You’ve only been working for us a few weeks.”
“I’ve been working other places a year and a half.”
My heart fell at the thoughts of her selling herself to so many people, but I looked forward so she wouldn’t see it in my eyes. I shouldn’t have called her a whore that morning. I’d have to do better if I wanted her to feel welcome at my house.
“The RTMC bar doesn’t need any waitresses, but I have a friend who manages The Village House Restaurant, so I’ll see if they have any openings.”
“I suck at waitressing. If I had any marketable skills, I’d have done that instead of hooking.”
“Okay, we’ll figure something out. Let’s get your stuff and get you settled. I have a spare bedroom — there’s a doorway between the bedroom and my office, but we can keep it closed.”
“I don’t have that much stuff.”
“What happened to it? I assume you had a full apartment when things were going good, before you hurt your hand?”
“I sold it to pay bills, and because I’m in a room now and not an apartment. I’m down to the bare basics.”
I’d waited outside that morning while she’d gone in to get her book bag. The old house had likely been a showplace when it was built, but now it was old and tired, and I could smell the rotting wood from the front porch. My wolf hated it inside, but I pushed him down and followed her up the rickety, creaky stairs.
Her room wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. She had a bed, nightstand, loveseat, and tiny end table arranged to fill the room comfortably. A full-sized refrigerator was in the corner, and a folding table with a hot plate and a few dishes were beside it. It wasn’t much, but it was clean and inviting.
“Okay, let’s get started boxing your clothes and personal items. I’ll go down and get the boxes, and I’ll have a prospect come in about two hours to help me get the big, unwieldy stuff into the truck. I could do it by myself, but it’d make people ask too many questions.”
She nodde
d, and I went down to the truck.
By the time I pulled into my driveway with all of her things in my truck, she was exhausted. “You can sleep in my bed tonight, and I’ll take the sofa after I’ve brought everything in.”
She shook her head. “I’ll carry the lightweight boxes while you get the heavy stuff. We don’t have to put my bed together tonight, just put the mattress in my room and I can sleep on it.”
“Shortstuff, just let me take care of it, okay? You have school tomorrow. I know you got most of your homework done while I carried the heavy stuff down and packed the truck, but I’m also betting if you go to sleep now, you’ll need to wake up early to finish it in the morning.”
I smelled resignation, and I pulled her to me. She didn’t fight the hug this time, and I told her, “I don’t mind carrying everything up. I didn’t get a chance to work out today, so this’ll kill two birds with one stone.
Chapter 5
Hailey
The next evening, we were cooking steaks and huge mushrooms on the grill when two large men and one small one came out of the woods and into the backyard. I tensed, but Dare smiled and waved so I tried to relax and smile as well.
“Shouldn’t you be home with the new baby?” Dare asked one of the men.
“Her mother and sisters are filling my house, and her brother is actually talking baby talk to Max.”
Dare looked to me. “Hailey, this is Duke and two of his brother-in-laws — Isaac and Cam.” He paused and asked, “Did I get that right? The life-partners of your wife’s brother are your… ah, hell.” He looked at me with a grin. “They’re family.”
The huge black man chuckled. “Family, brother-in-law, it’s all good. Duke tells us this little lady is your family.” He looked to me. “I’m Isaac, this is Cam. The three of us needed to get out of the house to save our sanity. I hope we aren’t intruding?”
“No, we just put steaks and mushrooms on the grill. I can go inside and get more steaks.”
“Hailey’s right,” Dare said, “but I’ll get them.”
He went in before I could argue, and I wasn’t sure what to say as the men came up on the deck and took some seats.
“Ghost told you the entire neighborhood is the MC, right?” Duke asked.
I nodded and he smiled. “Some of the women might not treat you right at first, but you’ll get no judgment from me. Ghost says you’re his, that’s all I need to know.” He nodded toward the smaller man. “Cam’s a dancer and has contacts in the local music scene, and he takes part in a lot of live productions.”
“Cassie usually goes with me when I spend time with my dancer, actor, and musician friends,” Cam told me, “but we can pick you up if you’d like to come with us. If you’ve written something you’d like someone to play, you can go with us to open mic night, so you can get an idea of what someone can do before you make the offer.”
Dare came outside and settled more steaks on the grill as he told Duke, “You and Brain have talked.”
“Yeah, and since Cam was here and the three of us needed to get away from Gen’s family to catch our breath, walking over to talk to Hailey seemed a no-brainer.”
“So, everyone knows about my hand?” I asked.
“Sorry, Shortstuff. The MC rumor mill spreads like wildfire.”
There’d be time later to figure out how I felt about being the subject of a rumor mill. For now, I told Cam, “Thanks for the offer — I think I’d like to take you up on it. I’m not sure I’m ready to put myself out there yet, but it can’t hurt to meet people in the local scene.”
“Just so you aren’t confused,” Cam said with an easy smile, “I’m gay, Isaac and Frisco are bisexual, and we all adore Cassie. If the four of us could marry, we would. We live together and we’re a family unit.”
Isaac reached for Cam’s hand as the smaller man talked, and I could see the caring in Isaac’s eyes. I smiled at both of them. “Love is love. I’m happy for you.”
* * *
Dare stayed home for two days, but on the third day told me he was needed back in the gun store. Bash had fixed my heater, and Dare told me not to worry about how much it cost, but it bothered me. I like paying my own way and I hate owing people.
My job with the RTMC was gone, though, and when I’d called to try to get my old job back, I learned the RTMC had put the word out I belonged to them, and no one was to hire me.
So, it looked like my working-girl days were over in Chattanooga. I could move to another city over the summer and register at a different college next year… but I was stuck here for this school year.
When we were teens, Dare had gone to the regular school while I’d gone to the one on the rez. He’s nearly three years older than me, but he was only two grades ahead of me, so we’d ended up at some of the same parties.
And, of course, he always kept his nose in my business about who I was dating and how far I’d gone with them. I’d never quite understood why. His dad had told me once it was a wolf thing, and Dare saw me as his sister so the wolf needed to protect me. I wasn’t sure I bought it, though.
This semester’s tuition and books were paid for. I’d been prepared to pay the next week’s rent and buy groceries, and had part of what I needed to fix my car, so I had nearly six hundred dollars when Dare took me in. He refused to accept my money, and told me to hang onto it for gas money. He even bought stuff at the grocery store so I could take my lunch to school — completely ignoring the fact I don’t eat lunch, of course.
I could last a few months without working if all I needed to buy was gas, but I’d have to pay my car insurance in a few weeks. Plus, if I went to a bar with Cam, I could easily go through several weeks’ gas money in one night.
I get quarterly royalty checks from some songs I’ve sold, but they’re rarely more than a few thousand dollars these days. I’d been using those to go towards tuition and books, but unfortunately, I wouldn’t get enough to pay for tuition in the fall between now and then.
To say I was stressing over money would be a gross understatement.
I cleaned up around the house — did the laundry, cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen, changed the sheets on the beds, dusted, vacuumed. Dare told me Gonzo had paid someone a hundred twenty a week to do it for him, but Dare’d been doing it himself. Still, knowing the value of what I was doing helped me feel like I wasn’t mooching off him so much.
When he was home, we hung out together in the evening. However, I went to my room at night, and Dare went to his. He spent a lot of time at the MC’s clubhouse, so sometimes I was alone at night. If we were both home and hanging out, he’d often change so we could cuddle, but his wolf didn’t sleep with me anymore.
He went with me the first time Cam invited me to an open mic night, which surprised me. He seemed to get into it, though, and he made friends with a lot of the people Cam introduced us to. He wouldn’t let me pay for my drinks, and in my head it was just one more thing I owed him for.
I’d turned down anyone who asked me out while I was hooking — no one wants to date a whore. I didn’t see myself as lower than them, but as someone who did what had to be done to get her education. I knew others wouldn’t see it so practically though, so I’d kept to myself and hadn’t made any friends. Now, I kept to myself because I couldn’t afford to do the things friends do — lunches, and drinks after studying, or even the gas to drive somewhere to study together.
As we approached midterms in late February, I spent more and more time studying, and Dare took note. I’m not sure what I expected from him, but I was surprised when he came into my room the morning grades were due and asked if I’d checked them.
“Not yet.”
He nodded to my laptop. “Pull them up, let’s see how you did.”
Dare looked and sounded so much like his dad, my stomach did a somersault and heat went to my groin. Darnell had spanked me for bad grades, and Dare had the same body posture.
I knew I’d made an A in all my management classes, and was pretty sure
I had a B in English Lit, but I was skating the line of a C or D in Algebra II.
“Stop acting like your dad, it isn’t like you’re going to spank me for bad grades.”
The look on his face told me that was exactly what he planned to do, and I shook my head as I opened my laptop. “I’m a grown woman who’s paying for her own schooling. I have no idea how I’ll pay for next semester yet, but I paid for this one and I can make whatever grades I damned well please.”
“You have one job right now, and that’s school. I remember the way my dad gave you incentive to get your grades up, and how much higher they were when he was home. I’ve left you alone and haven’t asked about homework and studying too much, and if your GPA is above a three-point-five then we’ll keep that up. If not, then I’ll be in your business every week about tests and homework, and I’ll have access to your grades, and there’ll be a reckoning for every missed step along the way.”
I sighed as my grades appeared on the screen and Algebra II was one point below a C. Damn. Fucking shit.
“On the one hand, I’m insanely proud of you for every A, and even the B in English. We’re going to have to address the Algebra grade, though.”
“Honestly, Dare — I was trying for a C and missed it by one point. I won’t need Algebra in a management position. It’s a bullshit class.”
“And yet, it’s required, and it’ll pull your GPA down.”
I pulled up my GPA, hoping it would be above his three point five requirement, and it was a three point two. “It only needs to be a two point five for me to keep my scholarships active,” I argued.
“We’re going to do this the same every time, so I need you to bare your bottom and bend over my lap.”
I shook my head, still not really believing there wasn’t a way around this. When we were teens, he’d almost always given me an option of whether to choose a spanking or something else. “I like being your friend, your sister, or whatever the fuck we’ve turned into. I don’t want to… shit, Dare. Please don’t do this.”
Ghost: The Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, Book 8 Page 3