QUIVER, BOOK TWO ( A DARK ROMANCE)

by Laura Avery

  Him being there threatened all that. It reminded me of my real life that was only a short bus ride away. What was he doing here anyway? He never even paid attention in school, as far as I knew he hadn’t even graduated, how could he be in college?

  From what I knew about his family, I doubted they would have been too thrilled about Trigger being there. He had two older brothers who ran a powerful motorcycle club and Trigger was next in line to join the committee. They demanded respect by any means possible. That meant guns, drugs, and intimidating other people by any means necessary is how the Ford brothers rolled. Just like the rest of the Blazing Devils. They weren’t the kind of guys you wanted to mess with.

  They were all pretty secretive about their club, not revealing too much to anyone, but I was pretty sure it had something to do with a lot of drugs and a lot of money. I didn’t know that much about them, not because I didn’t want to, but more because the Ford brothers had a way of finding out if you were asking around about them, and they had a way of making you stop and quick.

  I knew that Trigger was the youngest, then his half-brother Danger, and the oldest was Link. I wasn’t sure but I was pretty sure they all had different moms and the same dad. He had been a huge player back in the day but had settled down with a woman in the last six or so years that he seemed to be pretty in love with and apparently decided that he wanted nothing to do with the club; even if his sons did.

  I only knew because I had been in the same grade with the daughter of the girl that Carl Ford had fallen in love with. As far as I knew Kat still lived in an apartment on the other side of town with Danger, her mom, and his dad. I had no idea if Trigger or Link lived with them or not, but I doubted it. It seemed like they all had their own part of the city and club that they dominated so that no base would be uncovered.

  I snuck a look back at Trigger and jumped a little in my seat when I realized he was looking right back at me. Those eyes had never looked at me before. My heart started racing in my chest. Did he recognize me? No, he couldn’t. There was no way he could have any idea who I was; he had never even spoken to me.

  The teacher walked in then and I forced myself to try and pay attention to what she was saying and not worry about Trigger Ford. But it was hard when I was all too aware of how close he was to me; just like in high school.

  I found myself thinking about Kat. That must have been so weird for her. As far as I knew she was a pretty normal girl. I could barely handle being in the same room with Trigger Ford, I couldn’t imagine being brought into their family with a snap of a finger. I wondered if they really treated her like a sister.

  I was so busy worrying about the Ford Brothers and the Blazing Devils that my first class of college flew by and before I knew it, it was almost time to go. I cursed myself for not paying more attention, but I figured the first class was mostly just paperwork and stuff anyway. No one taught anything important on the first day. Did they?

  Maybe college was different than high school.

  As soon as she dismissed us for the day, I threw my notebooks into my bag at lightning speed and practically ran out of the room. There was no use in attracting any more attention from Trigger than I already had.

  I made it all the way down the sidewalk and toward the city bus stop on the other side of the school with intense speed. It was Friday. I wouldn’t have class again until the next Tuesday. That meant I had the entire weekend plus Monday to figure out what the hell I was going to do about this.

  I didn’t know why Trigger Ford had such an effect on me, but he did. Even in high school I had found myself watching him from afar wondering what was going on in that pretty head of his. It was harmless then, but the way he was looking at me back there, all intense and dangerous, it made me feel weird. It made me feel like I didn’t have control over my own emotions and I hated that. It reminded me too much of the time in my life that was surrounded by drugs and crime. A part of my life I hated thinking about unless I absolutely had to.

  But I had three days to recover, three days to figure out just how to deal with it. Or at least to figure out how to avoid being all hot and bothered at the sight of him. It was only a class, one class. I still couldn’t shake how weird it was that he was there, though.

  Three days was enough time, I told myself, trying to throw some comfort into the pit of my stomach that had suddenly lunged into a bunch of knots. But the comfort was short lived. Because at that moment Trigger decided to pull up next to me at the bus stop and roll his window down.

  It’s weird not seeing him on the bike he would pull into school everyday riding. I was used to hearing the roar of the engine at the sight of him, but today he was in a dark black infinity with tinted windows and a shiny interior. He didn’t t say anything for a second, just watching me with intense eyes.

  My heart started racing. What the hell was he doing here? How had he found me? And what the hell did he want with me? I glanced around nervously. There were only a few other people waiting for the bus. An older woman and a young girl, neither of them seemed to be paying any attention to what was going on.

  Trigger smirks a little; clearly able to tell I was nervous.

  “Get in the car.” His voice was deep and filled with little emotion; like the thought of me not getting in his car isn’t an option. It was clear he wasn’t really asking me. He just assumed I would do whatever he said, probably because everyone else did.

  I looked at the car again; stunned by what was happening.

  He sighed. “It’s not stolen, relax.”

  “I wasn’t thinking that,” I somehow found the words over the huge lump that was in my throat. Part of me actually was thinking that, but whatever. I wasn’t going to let him know that.

  “Get in the car, Jennifer,” he told me again.

  The fact that he knew my name was enough to make me even more scared than I had already been just a few seconds ago. How did he know my name? We had never even spoken before!

  “No,” I told him, taking a few steps further back on the curb to prove my point. He sighed, throwing the car into park and opening the door to get out. He left the engine running in the middle of the street.

  I gasped. “You can’t leave the car in the middle of the street like that!”

  A few cars had already been waiting for him while he tried to get me in the car and now the line behind his running sports car was starting to grow more and more. Someone honked out in the distance.

  “It’s going to stay there until you get in,” he said, unfazed by the line of growing cars forming on the street.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you!” I hissed.

  Someone honked again and the older woman sitting on the bench sighed at the loudness. “Can you two take your domestic dispute somewhere else? Some of us are trying to read,” she said, burying her head back into the book in her lap.

  “Yes, we can,” Trigger said.

  “It’s not a domestic dispute!” I tell her.

  Trigger snickered and glanced over his shoulder. “You’re really starting to hold up traffic now.”

  “I’ll call the police,” I whispered desperately.

  Trigger laughed. “Go ahead. What are you going to tell them? A nice guy offered to give you a ride home from school?”

  The guy in the car behind Trigger is honking his horn at full force now, and after a second, he got our of the car and started hollering at us. “Hey! Move your fucking car, man! What’s the holdup?”

  Trigger raised his eyebrows at me, not bothering to turn around.

  “Some of us have places to be! You’re taking up the whole road!”

  “Get back in your car,” Trigger called to the guy over his shoulder, still not breaking his intense gaze from mine. He was so fucking sexy.

  “Get your bitch in the car and get the fuck on your way!” The guy called out, getting more pissed by the moment. I could see the vein in his neck starting to pop out as he looked at the back of Trigger’s head.

  What he nuts?
Didn’t he know no one talked to Trigger Ford like that?

  “Excuse me,” Trigger said to me calmly. He pulled a small gun out of the waist of his pants and turned around, pointing it at the guy. “What the fuck did you just say to me?” He moved further away from me, pointing the gun steadily at the man’s pale face.

  A look of fear came over the guy’s face as he turned a shade of white. “I… I… I’m sorry… I’m sorry”

  “What the fuck did you say?”

  “Nothing. I said nothing,” the guy stammered, his eyes still on Trigger’s gun.

  “That’s what I thought. Get back in your fucking car and shut the fuck up.”

  The guy did as he was told and Trigger turned back toward me putting the gun back where he had just gotten it a few seconds earlier. I could feel the noise of the street spinning in and out around me. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. Had he really just done that?

  “Can we go?” Trigger asked, suddenly calm. “Before I kill someone in the middle of the fucking street, Jennifer.” He motioned to the line of cars behind him, a dangerous look in his eyes.

  “Jesus, lady,” the younger girl said to me. “Just go with him.”

  “Yeah, Jennifer,” Trigger said. “Just go with me.”

  I looked back at the long line of traffic forming behind Trigger’s car and the look on the face of the guy who had just gotten a gun pointed at him. The color was still missing from it.

  Then I nodded and walked silently toward the car.

  Trigger was acting totally normal; like he didn’t just point a gun at someone in the middle of the street next to our school. In fact, he was being almost pleasant, like there was nothing to be scared of at all. He asked where I lived and I told him a few streets over from where I really lived. I wasn’t trying to let this crazy MC member know where I really lived.

  He started driving toward my neighborhood.

  I snuck a peek at him out of the corner of my eye.

  He caught me staring at him and snickered. “Like what you see?”

  “No,” I snapped. “I’m just wondering what the hell you want from me. And how did you know my name?” I asked without waiting for him to answer the first question.

  “We went to school together,” he said in the same dark and sexy tone.

  “How would you know? We never spoke.”

  “Did that hurt your feelings?” he asked me, a smile creeping into his eyes.

  He was joking with me. Trigger Ford was trying to be funny with me.

  What was this life right now?

  “What do you want from me?”

  “Can’t I just want to make a new friend?”

  “No,” I snapped at him again.

  “Okay, well, I don’t want anything from you. I just need to know how big of a mouth you have?”

  I practically choked and he busted out laughing.

  “Not like that, Jennifer”

  His laugh is louder than I thought it would be, more full of life. It took me off guard a little. I guess, I thought someone so serious must not laugh very much but it sounded real and genuine, not fake or calculated like I would have thought it would.

  “What I mean is that no one from our class knows that I’m taking any classes and I need to keep it that way.” He tightened his knuckles over the steering wheel of the car and glanced over at me, letting the definition of his arms show more.

  I took in the soft trail of his tattoos as realization washed over me. He wasn’t going to hurt me and he didn’t want to be my friend. He was just worried about me keeping his secret. He was worried about his street rep. People from his club didn’t go to college. That’s not how they earned money. They earned money in other ways. Illegal ways. If word got out that Trigger was taking classes the amount of hate he would get would be unreal.

  “Oh, I don’t even talk to anyone around here that much. I would never tell anyone.” I crossed one leg over the author and tried to sound like I was telling the truth. And I was. Trust me, no one would believe this shit anyway.

  Trigger chuckled and opened his lips wide, letting out a sound of disbelief. “Yeah right, all girls tell at least one person everything. That’s what girls do best; gossip.”

  “Well, this girl doesn’t,” I told him sternly.

  He looked at me, amused. “You kind of have an attitude problem. Did you know that?” Every time he said my name I felt myself getting hot all over. Something about being near him was sexy and dangerous at the same time. He was clearly crazy as hell, but something about him was appealing to me. No matter how many times I kept pushing those thoughts out of my mind.

  Before I had to answer, a loud horn started honking behind us. I swung around expecting to see the cops. I was actually surprised it took so long. I would have thought someone from the bus stop would have called right away.

  But it didn’t look like a cop car. It looked like another sports car. This one was bright red and riding so close to the back of us that I felt like it was going to smash into us at any second. I looked at Trigger with fear but he just rolled his eyes, hitting his blinker and pulling over on the side of an off street.

  “Who is that?” I asked with wide eyes wide.

  The door of the red sports car swung open and slammed shut fast, much harder than necessary. “Trigger,” came a loud and clearly pissed off voice. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  Trigger looked at me like the whole thing was no big deal. “It’s just my brother.”

  My mind started getting fuzzy for about the 10th time in the last few hours.

  Danger appeared at the side of Trigger’s window within seconds. I recognized him from school. He had been a senior when I had been a freshman. But even if I hadn’t been I had seen him around enough times to know who he was.

  His face was stone cold with anger and he lifted his hand up and knocked the side mirror off the driver’s side of Trigger’s car in one swift motion. I jumped in my seat a little, but if Trigger was surprised by his brother’s actions he didn’t show it. In fact, he looked bored if anything.

  “What the hell is this I hear about you pulling a gun on some guy on the other side of town at a fucking stop light? Have you lost your mind, Trigger? No, really did you fall down and forget who the fuck you are? Anyone could have seen you, ANYONE.”

  “But they didn’t, Danger.”

  “But they could have! You can’t be so fucking reckless. You aren’t in high school anymore; you need to start acting like it. These little boy impulse games are getting old real quick.”

  Trigger looked down at the floor of the car, refusing to meet his brother’s eyes. It was clear even to me that he hated the fact he had let Danger down. Danger was his big brother and he wanted to make a good impression.

  Danger sighed, his voice calming down a little bit. “I’m about to send Silk over to your mom’s house to get-“

  “Trigger?” A female voice called out. “Are you okay?”

  I turned around in my seat to see Kat standing by the passenger side of Danger’s car. The door was open and she was looking around the street, worry on her face.

  Danger snapped his head back to look at her. “Get back in the car, Kat.”

  “What’s going on? Why are you flipping out?”

  Danger looked annoyed. “It’s none of your business! Get back in the car!”

  “Tell me what’s going on, Danger!”

  “Kat, shut the door, now.”

  “Trigger?” Kat called again. “Are you okay?”

  “He’s fine!” Danger snapped.

  “Then why can’t he tell me that himself?”

  Danger sighed loudly and looked down at his brother.

  Trigger met his eyes then tilted his head out the window a little. “I’m fine, Kat. Everything is fine, get back in the car.” Kat paused for a second and then jumped back in, shutting the door behind her.

  “She makes everything so difficult. I swear with how nosy she is one day she’s gong to figure o
ut-“

  Trigger cleared his throat really loud, motioning to the passenger seat for the first time since his brother had come over to the car. Danger peered down and locked eyes with me.

  “Oh,” he said, sounding surprised. “Hi there.”

  I waved, suddenly unable to speak.

  “I’m Danger,” he said, leaning over through the window and sticking his hand out to me. He looked weary like he didn’t trust anything about me for a second and was just being polite because he had to be.

  “Jennifer.” I somehow managed to speak and put my hand out to him at the same time. It was amazing how much he looked like Trigger up close. You could definitely tell they were brothers.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” he paused for a second, looking back and forth between the two of us. He was probably trying to figure out what his little brother was doing with someone who looked like me. Wonderful.

  “Well,” he continued. “I guess I’ll see you later then, bro.”

  He looked back and forth between us once more, looking confused. Then he turned around and walked back to his car, springing the engine to life and zooming off past us and down the street.

  Trigger waited a few seconds and then started the car slowly, shifting gears.

  “Shouldn’t we? I mean shouldn’t we get your mirror off the sidewalk?”

  He shook his head. “Na, I have a place I take it. He’s done it before.”

  I swallowed, unsure of how to react to that. His whole presentation of himself had definitely changed now. He seemed stiff and angry after the run-in with his brother. I couldn’t help but play the whole encounter over and over again in my head. It was clear that something dangerous was going on with the Ford brothers, something I wanted no part of. It was weird seeing Kat with them, she had always been so shy and sweet in school.

  I couldn’t help thinking the way that Danger talked to her was in more than a sisterly manner. In the short exchange I had seen they had seemed almost more like boyfriend and girlfriend than brother and sister.

  “Danger and Kat? They aren’t… I mean… are they like together?”