“Do you… read?”
He paused, sure he hadn’t heard correctly. “Do I what?”
“Read. You know. Books. Novels, especially.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” he asked, pulling away. Did she think he was some kind of idiot or something? Did she think he was illiterate?
“There’s a great quote by John Waters. He said we need to make books cool again. So if you go home with somebody, and they don’t have books, don’t fuck them.”
He barked out a surprised laugh. Of all the ways he thought she might turn him down, this was one he hadn’t expected.
She smiled. “Librarian’s gotta have her standards, even for one-night stands, Drill. Sorry.”
He hadn’t read a book since he was required to, back in high school. And he hadn’t finished high school. He thought about lying, but knew she’d see right through it. “I’ll pick up some books right away,” he drawled. “Read right through ‘em. And then maybe we can revisit the situation.”
She blushed. It was adorable.
“Yeah, well,” she muttered. “Until then… I’m going back to the farm.”
He paid for their food, then accompanied her to the truck. He’d hoped that he could sway Thuy, but now he saw she was immovable. Where his sister went, she went.
He wished, for a second, that they could stay. He wanted to get to know her better. A lot better.
But that was stupid, wishful thinking. And if he kept it up, it might get them all hurt. Or worse.
Chapter Seventeen
The next night, Thuy and Maddy decided to go out for dinner at the town’s famous steak restaurant, The Front Porch. They probably should be more careful with their money, since Maddy had been worrying over ledgers and crunching numbers all day. But she also knew that today was Maddy’s anniversary with David, so Maddy had been by turns melancholy and then hyper, trying to distract herself. Thuy decided that a night out might do them both good.
For her part, she couldn’t stop thinking about what Drill said at Daisy’s Nut House… not about the logistics of running the farm, but his invitation at the end.
You really gonna sit there and tell me you aren’t interested?
The damned thing was, she was interested. Very interested. More interested than was healthy.
And now she was staying put — in the same town he was in.
Worst of all, she couldn’t talk to Maddy about it. It was Maddy’s brother, and that just felt weird. There were enough problems between the siblings. Thuy didn’t want to add more oddity to the mix.
Maddy sighed, cutting into her prime rib. “I have something to admit to you.”
“Yeah?” Thuy tried her steak. It was decent, just as Maddy had promised. The sides of cheesy broccoli and a loaded baked potato were tasty, as well. She tucked in. “What’d you do?” she asked around a mouthful of spuds.
“I, erm, emailed David.”
Thuy’s forked stopped mid-air, halting her next bite. “Oh, come on, Mads.”
“I know, I know,” Maddy groaned, covering her face with one hand. “I didn’t mean to.”
“Did you need something from him?” Thuy asked carefully.
Maddy shook her head.
Thuy sighed. “Did you find something he needed to have?”
“No.”
Thuy paused. “Did you tell him he’s an unmitigated dickhead and that you hope he dies by one of the multitudes of venomous animals Down Under?”
“No!” As she’d hoped, Maddy laughed, shaking her head. “You know it was amicable, mostly. He wasn’t ready, and I wasn’t interested in somebody who couldn’t commit.”
“So why’d you email him?”
Maddy turned red. “I said I… um, missed him.”
“Oh, Maddy.” Thuy shook her head. “He was the one who left. You might’ve told him to go, but he still made the choice.”
“I know, I know!” Maddy peeked through her fingers. “It was a bad idea. But I was feeling nostalgic, with the anniversary and all. And I still love him.”
Thuy didn’t quite get that. She’d been in relationships, but she’d never been so in love that she wouldn’t have kicked the guy’s ass for deciding that going to another frickin’ continent was a viable option when his girlfriend was pregnant.
Hell, she hadn’t been in love enough to overlook a guy who chewed his cereal too loud.
Of course, that probably said more about her than it did about Maddy, she realized with a frown.
“I told him about the farm, at least. That the baby was fine. And how I was going to make it without him,” Maddy said, with a teary little smile.
“That’s good. You are. We are,” Thuy corrected.
Maddy’s expression fell a little. “I am a little concerned, though.”
Thuy gripped her fork tighter. “What’s up?”
“Looking over the numbers… Drill was right about one thing,” she said. “Well, he was probably right about several things. It’s going to be hard. And even owning the farm outright, we’re going to have a lot of expenses. The electricity for the greenhouses is astronomical. And I hadn’t taken into account health insurance, especially with the baby coming and all.”
Thuy felt anxiety twist in her chest. “We need to stay positive,” she said, keeping her expression schooled so Maddy didn’t feel more concerned than she currently was. “Drill said that a lot of family farmers had a day job in addition to running the farm, right?”
“Yeah.” Maddy nodded, looking glum. “But that’s another place where he’s right. I can’t hold down a job, care for a baby, and run a farm.”
“So I’ll get the day job,” Thuy said.
Maddy reddened. “Thuy, I can’t ask you…”
“You’re not asking me. I’m volunteering,” Thuy said decisively. “You can take care of the baby. I’ll handle the day job, and then we’ll figure out how to take care of the farm stuff. I’ll feed the animals or whatever, and you can tackle the plants in the greenhouses, and we’ll… I don’t know. We’ll hire out for getting stuff seeded…”
“Sown.” Maddy looked amused.
“Okay, sown, in the spring. If we have, um, a bigger crop in mind for some of those fields.”
“It looks like my dad grew hay,” Maddy said. “I can still see us growing some, even if I want to expand our vegetables and such for market.”
“Right.” Thuy nodded. “See? It’ll work out.”
Maddy looked hesitant. “I really am never going to be able to thank you enough.”
“Remember all the times I slept on your floor? The times you hid me from the R.A.?” Thuy shook her head. “That time when my parents came looking for me, and you lied to their faces when I was hiding in your closet?”
Maddy paled, even though she chuckled weakly. “Yeah. That was scary as shit.”
“You still don’t even know the half of what they’d done, or what they’re capable of,” Thuy remarked. “Trust me. You don’t owe me a damned thing.”
“Well, we’ve come a long way from eating ramen in the dorms,” Maddy said quietly.
Thuy raised her glass of water, and Maddy did the same. “To being farmers,” she said.
“To new beginnings,” Maddy added. They clinked glasses.
After they finished their meal and paid, Maddy spoke with the hostess —they’d gone to school together, back in the day. Thuy wandered outside, taking in the cold November air. It’d be Thanksgiving that Thursday, she realized. She wondered if she and Maddy ought to get a little turkey to celebrate. She also wondered if they should invite Drill.
Because you want to see him again.
She frowned at herself. At least once they showed they weren’t going anywhere, he’d probably steer clear of them, per his motorcycle club’s orders. She knew what it was like. The criminal family was your family: you owed them supreme loyalty. And they enforced that “loyalty” if you did something they disliked.
Sex with a biker like Drill was the last thin
g she needed to get mixed up in.
She thought about that wicked smile of his, as he looked at her over the rim of his mug of coffee. The heat of his gaze, as he surveyed her like she was something on the menu that he’d like to eat — slowly, and with great enjoyment.
Her body stirred. It had been a long time since she’d had sex, at least nine months, and even then, it hadn’t been anything to write home about.
She got the feeling riding a biker like Drill would be plenty noteworthy.
She waved a hand in front of her face. Apparently, the cold November night had nothing on thoughts of Drill. Stop it, you ninny, she chastised herself. Whatever it was about him, she needed to let it go, right now.
Maddy waddled out, and they headed for the Continental. She helped Maddy climb carefully into the passenger seat, then she clambered into the driver’s side.
“I will be glad when I’m not so damned large,” Maddy complained, as she carefully buckled herself in. “It’s like being one of those hippo ballerinas from Disney’s Fantasia.”
“At least you’re graceful,” Thuy joked, causing Maddy to laugh.
“I don’t feel graceful. I feel like a lump.”
Thuy was still getting used to the town, so she relied on the GPS. It led them through the main street of town. She stopped at a stoplight, taking the moment to look at the quaint shops around them. It really was a pretty town.
Suddenly, there was a loud snarl of engines. She looked in the rearview mirror to see lights — not of a car, but from a number of motorcycles. A large number.
“Thuy…” Maddy said, with a note of uneasiness. A biker had pulled up along either side of the large car.
Thuy watched as one pulled in front of the car. Even though the light had now turned green, he turned the bike lengthwise. There was no way to go around; there was no way to pull forward. They were surrounded.
What fresh hell is this? Thuy thought frantically. She considered gunning the engine, signaling that she’d run the guy in front over, but she didn’t want to make matters worse. Odds were good they were armed. She needed to think this through.
There was a tap on her window. She looked down at the man who flanked the door.
“You two are the new girls, huh?” He was a vaguely handsome man, with an ugly sneer. He stared at her, then gestured for her to exit the vehicle. “Huh. Well, be friendly. Come out and say hello.”
Chapter Eighteen
Drill knew there was no question: Timothy King was an asshole. Right now, though, he was an asshole that was up to something.
Ordinarily, Drill didn’t give a shit what Tim did, as long as he kept his side of the street clean and didn’t cause too many problems for the Wraiths. He didn’t like how Tim was with women, probably because Tim didn’t have a sister or a mother himself. The guy was grabby, and Drill had to push him to stay in line, especially when they were in town. He also didn’t like how Tim thought he was bigger and tougher than he actually was. He had delusions of grandeur, which had led him to campaign heavily to become the next leader of the Wraiths. When Catfish had beaten him — both figuratively and literally — he’d nursed a grudge.
It was the grudge thing that had Drill keeping an eye on Tim. He still had some followers, people who had backed his play when he’d attempted to become captain. They were idiots, too, honestly, but right now the Wraiths couldn’t afford to be choosy. So, when the pack of them decided to leave the bar on a Tuesday night, after Tim got a phone call, Drill knew that he’d better follow and make sure the idiot and his posse didn’t do something stupid.
He’d been hanging back, and they hadn’t even noticed him — another mark of how clueless they were — when they arrived in town, gunning their engines and generally making a scene. They used to do this all the time, until Catfish told them to knock it off. They were never going to be taken seriously as a motorcycle club if they kept showing off like dumbasses.
As he drove up, he noticed that they were blocking the intersection, and had a car surrounded. His eyes narrowed. It was a black Lincoln Continental — his dad’s car.
He clenched his jaw so tight, it was a wonder his molars didn’t disintegrate.
He pulled up as Tim knocked on the window. He could make out Thuy in the driver’s seat, looking supremely bored.
“I just wanna talk to you. Get to know you. Show you around town,” Tim said. “Both of y’all. Surely two pretty women don’t want to spend the night all by their lonesome, do they?”
One of the other bikers, a bearded lunk named Grizz, laughed like a braying donkey. He was on the passenger side. “C’mon, sweetie,” he crooned.
That’s when Drill noticed his sister was on the other side, in the passenger seat.
He watched as Maddy rolled down the window a little. “Got no interest in a needle-dick like yourself,” she said sharply.
Grizz grinned. “It’s a lot bigger than a needle,” he said, reaching for his crotch. “Wanna see?”
Jesus wept. Drill shut off his bike and got off, storming towards them.
“If you don’t move,” he heard Thuy say from the cracked window, “I am going to run your goddamned bike over. Got it?”
“Now, that’s not very friendly,” Tim said, his eyes bright with malice. He tried the door, which was thankfully locked. “Come on out. Or do I have to—”
“Leave them alone,” Drill ground out, grabbing Tim by the scruff of his neck and whirling him away from the truck. Tim staggered, then righted himself, his eyes narrowing.
“Dammit, Drill. You never let me have any fun,” he said. “I was just greeting your sister and her little friend here, welcoming them to town.”
Drill felt anger like lava in his stomach, churning and bubbling, ready to explode.
“But wait — she’s not your sister, is she? Once you’re in the Wraiths, you don’t have family. So what difference does it make to you, if I get friendly with some women here in town?” His shit-eating grin was wide and smug.
So that had been the phone call. Someone had sighted Maddy and Thuy, and told Tim about it. Which meant Tim was looking to stir up trouble… and probably to get a little payback on Drill by bugging his sister, knowing that he couldn’t acknowledge her. Not without Catfish going batshit.
But then again, Tim had never been that bright.
“You’re fucking terrorizing women in the middle of the street, you idiot,” Drill said. “Now move your bike, and let them through, before the cops get here.”
“I’m just saying hello,” Tim said.
“At a stoplight? With your bike stopped in front of them?”
“Stalled.” Tim’s smirk was arrogant. “Maybe they’ll give me a ride, help me out.”
“The only way a woman would give you a ride is if she took pity on you!” Drill heard Maddy call from the truck cab.
Please, stop helping. His sister, once she got going, had a mouth on her.
Tim turned an ugly shade of red, and started heading back towards the truck. Drill grabbed him again.
“Grab your bike, get it out of the way, and let the girls go,” Drill said, lowering his voice. “Christ, Tim. Catfish is not gonna be happy when I tell him that you’re stirring up trouble here in town.”
“Fucking tattle tale.” Tim spat on the ground. “And what do I care, whether Catfish is happy or unhappy? We’re gonna be patched over anyway. Get taken over by one of the bigger clubs. One of the serious clubs. I hear some of ‘em have links to bigger outfits, like the Bandidos or Hell’s Angels, or even the mob.” Tim sounded excited by the prospect.
“Like they’re going to be excited to take you,” Drill said with exasperation. He looked over at the other bikers. “Move the damned bike.”
They looked at each other, hesitant, unsure of who to listen to.
“Unless you want me to fucking pound every single one of you,” Drill said, in a serious tone, “I’d get moving. Now.”
Quickly, one of them hopped off his own bike and moved Tim’s ride
out of the way.
Drill’s gaze met Thuy’s in the side mirror. He nodded to her. “Go on home,” he called.
Thuy hit the accelerator, and the car sped away into the night.
Drill was about to deal with Tim, who looked ready to fight, when the whoop-whoop of a police siren interrupted them. It was Jackson James, sheriff’s deputy and general pain in the ass.
Just what I needed. Why hadn’t the guy been here five minutes ago?
“I got a call that there was a disturbance,” Jackson said sternly, surveying the group. Drill noticed that his hand didn’t stray far from his gun. “Something about a bunch of bikers circling a car with two women in it. Anything I should know about?”
“No car here now,” Grizz said, his smile revealing a lost eyetooth.
“So why are y’all here, blocking up the intersection?” Jackson pressed.
“Um… Tim’s bike, uh, stalled,” the guy who moved it answered, giving Tim a nervous glance.
Tim looked like he’d eaten worms. “Yeah,” he finally said. “My bike stalled.”
“Well, move it to the side of the road then,” Jackson said, with the dumbass silent but heavily implied. He looked over at Drill. “You corroborate his story?”
He could say that Tim had been scaring Thuy and Maddy, but it wouldn’t do anything but make him a narc in his own club, and that was something he wouldn’t do. He’d been too loyal for too long.
“His bike stalled before I got here,” Drill said. “Guys, do as the sheriff says and move the thing, will you?”
Going along with it, they rolled it off to the curb. Tim looked irritated.
“Figured that’s how you’d play it,” Jackson said, shaking his head. He stepped closer to Drill, lowering his voice. “I got the call from Maddy, you know.”
Drill froze, struggling to keep his face completely expressionless.
“She said that the guys were catcalling them. That they’d stopped the car and were trying to get in.”
Drill shrugged, even though it felt like shit to do so.
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