When he turned, Lexi surprised him by shoving him from behind. “You fucking douchewagon… she wasn’t fucking lying. Not on pur…” She took a deep breath and her voice was suddenly calm. That kind of calm that scared a man. It meant she was well and truly done. “Nope, you know what, no. You’re not worth it. Run along. Get back to the clubhouse to get your dick wet. Oh, and Trip. I quit. Consider this my two weeks’ notice. And by quit, I mean, I quit everything Phantoms. You all can launch the males yourself, deal with any of my girls who choose to stay without me, every bit of it. I’m going to go get dressed.” She turned on her heels and shouted back their way without even looking. “Oh, and good luck with keeping your liquor license. You should probably make some calls about it first thing in the morning, the paperwork may take a while.”
“Fuck,” they said in unison as she disappeared.
“Granite swore it was my dick that was going to fuck shit up. Turns out it’s yours.”
Thunder had a sinking feeling. “What does she have to do with our license?”
“Loopholes. Loopholes big enough to hang the whole club. Buzz couldn’t qualify and since we put as much separation between the Phantoms and the money as we can, Lexi did us some solids.”
They mounted their bikes, having sobered up real quick. “You couldn’t have fucked any other chick. You had to bone the one that’s best friends with someone who can bone us back.”
14
Andrea
“You did what?” Andy dropped her half-eaten taco back onto the paper.
“I quit. They can all get bent,” Lexi said as she sauntered by, snatched the half taco and proceeded to eat it.
“That’s unforgivable,” Andy mumbled.
“Why? They treated you like shit and I will not stand for it.”
“I meant the taco. Seasoned meat tucked into a warm tortilla is sacred, bitch.”
Lexi rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue with remnants of the taco still clinging to it. “What are you, twelve?” Lexi hugged her from behind and waited for her roommate to quit cracking jokes.
Andy swiped at her cheeks. She hated to cry, but no one in her life had ever had her back as hard as Lexi did. The woman would go to jail for her if it came to that, and Andy felt the same.
That was the only thing worth her tears. That kind of loyalty. It meant something to Andy. Something she couldn’t describe. Even the man who was on the verge of making a commitment to her once didn’t give her what Lexi offered freely and with no strings attached.
“Okay, stop pawing at me and sit down. Tell me what happened.”
Lexi sat. “Only if you give me another taco. Information isn’t cheap, hooker.”
Andy handed it over and waited. “Did you really quit?”
Lexi nodded.
“But you love that job. You love the girls, you love the business you’re building, you love the club like it was your own. And regardless of how Thunder acted, you love him and all the Phantoms. So, please don’t throw that away because of my bruised ego. I’ll bounce back and it’ll all work out.”
“Yes, I did.” She took a bite. “I do. I do. I really do. I really, really do. And that’s debatable.” Another pause for a bite. “I didn’t, it’s more than that, and you better fucking believe it.”
Lexi popped the last bite in her mouth and smiled. It took Andy’s brain a few seconds to catch up with what she’d asked, in what order, and how Lexi answered.
“Wait. What do you mean you didn’t throw all that away?”
Lexi raised a single perfectly shaped eyebrow and Andy gasped.
“Are you poaching all the girls and started over somewhere else? Oh, Lex, that’s not—”
“No. I’m thinking, your dumb hasn’t worn off yet from that major dicking. I mean, I didn’t throw anything away because I’ll be back on stage by the weekend.”
“Okay, I’m not tracking, so spell the shit out for me.”
“Granite has always said brothers above all and yada, yada, yada. He also said he wouldn’t allow a brother to dick the club because of his dick, or something like that. It boils down to, Granite will not let the club suffer because Thunder is being the conductor of the Douche Express.” She pumped her fist twice. “Toot, toot.”
“So, you’re playing a game with your job?”
“Nope, just using all the avenues available to me. Plus, I have some inside knowledge. And while I can’t share it with you, you can benefit from me knowing it. Oooooo, I can be like your Fairy Godstripper. Set you up to bag the badass biker prince.” Lexi was clapping like a fiend and even jumped up, dancing around. Suddenly, she stopped and looked at Andy. “Wait. I need to tell you something and don’t get mad at me. I can’t stress that part enough, okay? Remember how awesome I am.”
She did not like the tone of Lexi’s voice, but her eyes weren’t in sync with it.
“Are you over Thunder? I mean really done. No passing go or collecting the money. If he were to grovel, would you give him a shot?”
That was the million-dollar question. “I can’t say one hundred percent, but I don’t think I can simply forgive and forget. So, yeah, I guess I am over him on that level.”
“Okay, so he asked for a lap dance last night and since you’re over him, it won’t bother you that he may or may not have popped wood.”
Andy felt the blood drain from her face and tears sprang forth uncontrollably. She was most certainly not over him. Lexi dropped to her knees beside Andy’s chair and took her hands in her own.
“Shush now, I can explain everything, well, almost everything. But I needed you to answer me with your heart and not your head before I decided if I was going to dress you for the prince or just to have a ball.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
Lexi stood and took her seat again.
“Try to keep up, will you? I’m the Fairy Godstripper and now that I know you and Prince Not-So-Charming belong together. I’m going to bibbidy boppidy boo that shit and make it happen.”
Andy crossed her arms, slightly amused with her friend. Lexi had that effect on people. “And what if I don’t give a shit about a chubby lap dance?”
“First, queen, you do, and second, it wasn’t like that. But, hypothetically, if you truly didn’t give a shit, I would’ve taken you out and gotten you laid by two of the hottest fuckers I know in the best male revue on the Strip.”
Lexi shuddered. “Now that I don’t need them for you, I think I’ll give them a call for myself. Damn it, will be—”
“Focus. Tell me about the dance.” Andy sounded defeated, hell she felt a little defeated.
“Okay, so your man popped a half chub. Well, more of a quarter one. Which was fucking impressive, by the way. You go, girl.” Lexi gave her double finger guns.
“Anyway, that happened when I started, because, well, I am that good even when I’m pissed. And I was fucking pissed. Pissed that he was going through with it out of some sense of… anyway, he had his eyes closed. The second he looked in mine, waah, waah, waah.” She made a deflating motion with her index finger. “All gone. I’ve dealt with enough men to get what was happening, even if I hadn’t overheard him and Trip talking.”
“What were they saying?” Suddenly the lap dance was forgotten. She trusted Lexi implicitly and blindly believed her.
“Well, that’s the part I can’t say. The reason I have my name attached to their businesses in various ways and shit is because they trust me. They know I won’t discuss their shit with anyone, even you. I may be pissed at some of them, but I would never betray them. Even if it is personal.”
Andy was deflated by her friend’s words. “I can, however, use that information to nudge two people to dance a dance, drop a shoe, and get busy.”
Andy groaned. “Can we move on from the fairy godstripper thing? It’s getting old.”
“Hell to the no. I’m going to even get an outfit, and a wand. But my wand with be a lady wand. And my outfit will be assless.”
&
nbsp; “Jesus, lady. You squirrel more than anyone I know, even me, and that’s saying something for sure. So tell me, oh great one, how are you going to get me back in his bed and his words out of my heart?”
“Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy. I’m going to get him to voluntarily, if unwittingly, activate caveman mode. Once he flips that switch, he’ll fuck you, apologize, and explain why he did what he did and said what he said. Not necessarily in that order, but still.”
She took a drink of water as if they were simply discussing the weather. “Once that happens, you’ll be able to understand and process what went down. Erasing that shit or at least fading it. Then, you can go back to being the badass, take no prisoners bitch that you are, with a good man, well, a whole club of them at your back. You’ll fall madly in love and ride off into the sunset on his dick and the back of his bike.”
Andy allowed herself to indulge in Lexi’s fantasy. She needed to. It made her feel, just feel something other than misery and self-doubt.
She’d replayed what had happened a million times. She admitted to herself that from his perspective, she appeared to be running a game. Of course, the only thing about her stronger than her hands was her stubborn streak. Andy was at a loss as how to approach Thunder. Yeah, she thought of him as Thunder now. Mostly because Nick was the one who hurt her and Killer was the one she only recently remembered fucking.
“What do I do, Lexi? I’ve never really emotionally approached a guy after all that. With Justin, after he did what he did, I got the hell out, in the nick of time at that. With everyone else, we had an understanding going in, so there were no hurt feelings or attachments. With Thunder… I mean. Shit, I really like him. I mean, I know it seems stupid since we really don’t even know each other at all, but I have this gut feeling about him and I’m a little, make that a lot, freaked out.”
Andy hated that she’d allowed Thunder to be important to her on any level. After Justin, she swore off relationships. She had sex. Scratched an itch and moved on. There was no need to give that kind of power over to another human. Not when they could use it against you. To tear you down little by little. Chip away at everything that made you, you. Nope, no need. But with Thunder, she wanted a relationship. She wasn’t ready to get married and sign mortgage papers, but she could see herself in a relationship for the first time in years.
“How did this happen?” she mused to herself, but of course, Lexi responded.
“Because bikers. That’s why. They wreck you for other men. They’re a breed unlike any others.”
“I don’t know what to do. I have literally never tried to enter a relationship on purpose. I don’t have a clue where to start.”
“Well, find an expert. If you’re sick, you go to a doctor. Car won’t start, a mechanic. And if you need to bag a biker, you ask youuuuurrrrr…”
Lexi held the sound for way too long. Andy could barely keep a straight face. “Ugh, please, Fairy Godstripper. Help me call down the Thunder.”
“High five, hooker. You just circled back to my wild west analogy with a Tombstone reference and wove it in with the fairy tale one seamlessly. Nice.”
“We should discuss you sticking to one at a time. This mixing shit up is confusing. Cowboys, fairy tales, cavemen. Speaking of which, how are we going to flip this caveman switch bikers supposedly have?”
Andy had her doubts about if this plan of Lexi’s would work, but she literally had nothing to lose, and possibly everything to gain.
“Easy.” Lexi grinned as she stood to walk out of the kitchen. She didn’t speak until she was out of the door. “You’re going to join me tonight at Tails for amateur hour.”
Shocked didn’t begin to cover it. “What?” she asked an empty room, but Lexi’s laughter carried all through their house.
The sound of her phone ringing had her scrambling, looking for it. It was by the door. She turned to Fern. “Can you believe that tramp?” Shaking her head, she grabbed her phone. “Bitches be crazy.”
“Hello?” she answered after hitting the green button. It wasn’t a number she recognized, but she answered it, anyway. Deep down, a piece of her hoped it might be Thunder.
“Andy?”
“Yeah, who’s this?”
“Oh thank god, it’s Tracey.”
The bottom fell out of Andy’s stomach. Why, why now? Was this a cruel joke the universe was playing on her? It took her years to get over the mind fuck Justin did on her. Then in one night, Thunder brought all that to the surface with cruel words he had no way of knowing would trigger a cascade of emotional trauma. Now, just as she was packing that baggage up again because Lexi had just given her hope, cue Justin’s fucking sister.
The only reason she didn’t end the call and change her number was she owed Tracey. She was the one there to comfort her when Justin’s words beat her down. It was Tracey who showed her proof of Justin’s cheating. It was Tracey who convinced her to go. But she’d felt she’d more than repaid her.
“Why are you calling me now? What do you want?”
“I just wanted to let you know, Justin is gone. He died in an accident about ten months ago. I tried looking for you then, but you changed your number. Made it hella difficult to find you.”
“People usually change their numbers because they don’t want to be found. What do you want?”
“I just want to grab a cup of coffee, catch up. See that you’re doing okay.”
“That’s bullshit, Tracey. Tell me what you want so I can say no and we can go another five years without contact.”
“Fine, I noticed your roommate is friends with the Maidens and the Phantoms. I want an introduction. That’s all.”
Andy was suddenly speechless.
“Come on, Andrea, we are practically family. If it weren’t for me, we would be. And you’d be raising all Justin’s little bastards while you sat around like the meek, perfect wife he molded you to be. I freed you from that. I freed myself from that, we were in the same boat. After all we went through, I’m just asking for a simple meet and greet with Ripley or Granite, or better yet, both.”
Her voice was still AWOL, so Tracey filled in the blanks. “Don’t answer now. Take your time and think about it. Toodles, sister.”
When Tracey ended the call, Andy slid down the wall. And with just a few words, her newfound hope was shattered into a million tiny pieces.
She sat there wishing Fern could crawl into her lap or that Lexi would come down the hall with a hug and a plan, but those things didn’t happen. Instead, she sat there with her tears.
When they were dry, she did what she always did. She built a wall and shoved everything she wasn’t emotionally prepared to deal behind it and got ready to go strip for a bunch of bikers.
15
Thunder
The ride over to Tails was failing to clear Thunder’s mind.
He would kill and die for his brothers if need be, but that didn’t mean extracting information from some low life dealer sat well with him.
Causing pain was never a palatable experience. Necessary, but not enjoyed. He’d told his brothers from the day he accepted the patch and responsibility, naming him the Desert Phantoms’ Enforcer to put him down if he ever didn’t hate the job.
The Phantoms’ tendency wasn’t automatic violence. It was reserved as retaliation, retribution, protection, or a fucking last resort.
Earlier it was protection. They needed information to protect their turf and the people in it. Granite cared about this little slice of Vegas they’d carved out. Hell, they all did. A great deal of their charity work stayed local, and they protected what they felt was theirs. That meant keeping poison away from kids. As long as Rainbow Bob stayed on the Strip, the Phantoms left him alone. Now with this new chick pulling his strings, his ass moved in and was targeting kids. The ones who got hooked were great customers, but even better dealers. Not to mention, if the connection to the Sidewinders was confirmed, they’d have to answer for trespassing into Phantoms territory.
Sell
ing to kids was the business model under the watchful eye of this Tracey Fordham, aka, Petty, and that wouldn’t fly. Thunder had gotten that much out of Bob after breaking a few bones.
Pound voted to take him straight down to Hotel California, but Granite opted for The Rage Cage. The cage meant he lived and got turned back out on the street. Hotel California was called that because, like the song says, you can never leave.
Her legal name was enough to put Trip and Whiskey on it. She had a record of small-time shit, but nothing big ever stuck. There was suspicion she killed her brother, but no proof. They knew where she was staying and who she was running with locally, but they hadn’t confirmed where she got her product from. That was the information they needed, the info that got Bob back out on the streets. Spying for them.
As soon as they found out if it was the Sidewinders, they could plan accordingly.
As a full MC’s worth of sleds pulled into their reserved parking at Tails, the reverberation of the rumble off the block building was therapeutic to Thunder’s troubled soul.
Now that Bob was dealt with and they were in a holding pattern, that meant his mind was back to obsessing about other things. He shook his hair out as he removed his custom painted Warthog helmet.
Tonight he was going to blank his mind and enjoy their monthly ritual of amateur hour at Soft Tails. It was his favorite night of the month. And not because of tits and ass, although the scenery helped. It was the comradery that did it for him. All the brothers let go of their problems and came together on a more equal footing. Although Granite was always in charge, on amateur night no one was called Prez, Veep, or any title other than brother. Road names only.
Thunder was convinced it was one of the many reasons their club was different. It also gave Granite a chance to lay down the burden of running shit and just be a brother, if only for a few hours. There was no disrespect, but there was honesty, sometimes harsh, but that was needed to keep them bonded.
Thunder (Desert Phantoms MC Book 1) Page 10