“I didn’t let you,” he growled.
“Right,” I drawled. “I don’t believe a badass biker is shit at playing pool. Pose on your bike and play pool is what you and your friends do, right?” I batted my eyes clasped my hands in front of me. “Your job.”
Lynn hooted with laughter and shook her finger at Sledge and me. “I’m telling you. I see a lot of people in and out of this office, and you two are perfect for each other. The ones who are too similar are the ones I worry about. You both keep each other on your toes.”
“See,” Sledge drawled, “not fast at all.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed my purse off the floor. “Please don’t encourage him, Lynn. He’s already got a big enough ego the way it is.” I held out my hand to him. “Now, take me to the bar and let me beat you at pool again.”
“Whatever you want, sugar.” Sledge stood and nodded to Lynn.
“You should stop by the bar once you’re done with work. We’ll probably be there for a bit,” I suggested.
Lynn laughed. “If I see you in there, I’ll stop for a drink. I haven’t spilled my guts to Robyn in a while.”
“See, even shrinks need someone to talk to,” Sledge pointed out. “At least you can get drunk while you spill your guts.”
“Very true,” Lynn laughed.
Sledge and I headed out.
I stopped at the bottom of the steps of the clinic and looked up at the sign.
“What are you doing, sugar?” Sledge followed my line of vision.
“Trying to feel what Duchess did when she saw this sign.” I looked at Sledge and smiled. “I think she felt hope because that’s exactly what I feel right now.”
A weight had lifted off me when I stepped out the doors of the clinic. I understood a little bit more about why things happened the way they did. It wasn’t my fault I couldn’t save Duchess. I had done everything I could, and it just wasn’t how it was supposed to end.
Sledge threaded his fingers through mine and lifted my hand to his lips. “Come on, sugar. I’ll buy you a drink and kick your ass in a game of pool.”
A laugh bubbled from my lips. “I’d like to see you try.”
*
Chapter Sixteen
Book Club…
Sledge
“Sugar.”
“Hmm?”
I nodded over her shoulder to the door of the bar. “You wanna tell my why Fancy, Kimber, and Petra just walked through the door?”
Queenie whipped around on her stool and raised her hands in the air. “Book Club!”
Oh, Jesus.
“It’s about time you bitches got here! I called you over half an hour ago!” Queenie shouted.
That was why it had taken her so long in the bathroom before. She was rounding up her posse.
The girls grabbed the stools on the other side of Queenie, and the quiet bar went from no noise to loud.
“We would have been here sooner, but the guys were insistent on parking close. They finally dropped us at the door and headed to a parking garage a couple of blocks over.” Kimber leaned back and gave me a little wave. “Hey, Sledgehammer.”
So Quinn, Dyno, and Rhino were here, too. There went my plans of having one more drink and then heading back to Queenie’s apartment.
Quinn walked in ten minutes later with Dyno and Rhino following right behind him.
“How the fuck did you get a parking spot out front?” Dyno asked. He sat down next to me and Quinn and Rhino next to him.
“We got here four hours ago.”
“Damn, man. You started early,” Dyno laughed.
“We had something else to do down here and came over for a drink. Now I guess it’s a Book Club.”
Quinn grunted. “Kimber told me we have church so she can have Book Club.”
“Uh, does she know we don’t drink and act like jackasses during church?” Dyno asked.
Quinn leveled his glare in Dyno.
“Okay, okay,” he laughed. “So we don’t drink during church.”
Robyn brought beers over for the guys and then moved over to the girls to figure out what fruity shit they wanted.
“You hear from Kaye?” I asked quietly. I had called when Queenie headed to the bathroom but only got Kaye’s answering machine.
Quinn shook his head. “I called her this morning and right before we left. She didn’t answer. This was the reason I didn’t want to involve the police. We have no fucking clue what it going on, and we can’t help.”
He was right, but I still felt it was the right thing to do.
“Who the hell invited him?” Dyno growled.
Core walked into the bar and headed over to us.
“I did,” Quinn said.
Dyno’s eyes bugged out, and he looked like he ate something sour. “Are you fucking crazy? Has the power gone to your head?”
Quinn shook his head. “No. I’m trying to run a fucking club. You guys need to pull the sticks out of your ass and give Core a chance.”
Core sat down next to Quinn. “Uh, hey guys.” He wasn’t wearing his cut yet, so the outrage from Dyno and Rhino was a minimum.
“You drive by a couple of times to get the nerve to walk through the door?” Dyno asked.
So, maybe Dyno was still a little pissed.
Core laughed. “I drove around the block a couple of times, but only because I couldn’t find a place to park.”
“Which is odd because there is not a fucking person in this place besides us,” Rhino pointed out.
Robyn brought a beer over for Core and wandered back over to the girls. It looked like they were trying to bring her into the fold.
Dyno leaned forward and pointed his finger at Core. “So, Quinn says I need to pull the stick out of my ass, and I really can’t do that until I ask you what the fuck you think you’re doing here?”
“Uh, well, Quinn invited me?” Core replied.
“Not here, as in here, but why the hell you are part of this club if you’re too much of a pussy to man up and just fucking be here. The reason I don’t fucking trust you is because you’re not all in. You’re on the fucking outside waiting. Waiting for this club to work or for something better to come along.” Rhino sat back. “That is why I don’t like your ass. We’re all in, and you’re fucking not.”
Quinn nodded but didn’t say anything.
“He’s got a point, Core.” I didn’t have as big of a problem with Core as Dyno did, but I agreed with everything Dyno said. It always felt like Core was just there and not doing anything. “I don’t know why you’re not jumping in with both feet. We all started in the same place with this club. It’s not like it was already formed and set in stone. We’re building it from the ground up.”
Rhino raised his finger. “I agree with everything they said.”
Quinn shook his head. “You’re up, Core. This is your chance.”
Core sipped his beer.
This really was his shot. Sure, Zephyr and Point weren’t here, but they felt the same as we did.
“I’m not waiting for something better. This is what I want. I just…I guess I felt the same way about the Rolling Devil’s and well, we know how that ended. I’m not waiting for something better, I guess I’m just being cautious.”
“You being cautious makes you look like a slimy bastard ready to flip on any of us.” Dyno chugged his beer and slammed it on the counter. “Man the fuck up. The Rolling Devils were a bunch of fucking assholes who only cared about their own personal gain.” Dyno pulled out his wallet and slapped five hundred-dollar bills on the bar. “I don’t have five hundred dollars right now. I have one hundred and each of you have one hundred. You think anyone from the Rolling Devils would have been like that? Would they have put their own personal fucking money to build a clubhouse. We’re all doing things to better this brotherhood, and you’re just standing by waiting for it to crumble.”
Rhino reached for one of the hundred dollar bills.
Dyno smacked his hand. “I wasn’t being literal, a
sshole.” He shoved the money back in his wallet and shook his head. “But you know I got it for you if you need it.”
Rhino shrugged. “Fair enough.”
“You guys said straight out that you didn’t trust me because I was a part of the Rolling Devils,” Core pointed out.
“Well, sure,” Dyno drawled, “but so was Quinn. At the end of the fucking day, Quinn is in this club. Fuck, Quinn is this club. He is the backbone of the club, but we all need to be in the club. You can’t expect to sit back and watch us work to make this club great and then expect to just step in after we’ve done all of the fucking work.”
“Is my Patty being all wise?” Fancy called.
The girls had all stopped talking and were listening to Dyno.
Dyno pointed down the bar to the girls. “Those chicks are more in this club than you are, Core. Sure, they drive us fucking crazy sometimes, but ask any of them and this is where they want to be. They’re not waiting for something better to come along.”
“Like a breakfast burrito,” Queenie slurred. “Oh, shit, I said that out loud.”
Kimber patted her on the back. “I have no idea what you are talking about girl, but I agree.”
Queenie pointed at Robyn. “I need some water.” She blinked. “And a breakfast burrito.”
Uh, yeah. Queenie was definitely cut off. She needed to sober up a bit if she wanted to ride home on the back of my bike.
“I hear you. I get it. I really do.” Core peeled the label on his beer.
“Then fucking do it,” Dyno shouted. “I don’t wanna sit here and hold my dick like some pussy while we talk about our feelings. Put the fucking work in.”
“Wait, what? Who’s holding their dick?” Kimber shouted.
“Oh, Dyno. You were doing so good, babe,” Fancy laughed.
Queenie grabbed the glass of water Robyn set in front of her. “Straw me.”
Robyn grabbed a neon pink straw and handed it to Queenie.
Queenie tried twice to stab the straw into her water before she finally managed it. “I may have saw the sunset a few times a too many,” she slurred. She took a long drink of her water, laid her head on my shoulder, and sighed. “Did you guys solve your,” she waved her hand in the air, “man problem?”
“Oh, sugar.” I pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “Drink all that water, and I’ll see about getting some food for you.”
She hummed and patted me on the head. “Such a good Sledge. I think I’ll keep you.”
Kimber leaned forward. “She’s drunk.”
I gave her a thumbs up. “Yup.”
“Don’t worry. We’re not leaving for a while so she can sober up.” Kimber pulled out her phone. “And, I’m gonna order some pizza.” She looked at Robyn. “You good with that, girl?”
Robyn laughed. “As long as I can have a slice.”
“Score. You are going to fit in perfectly with the Book Club.”
The girls were recruiting members for the Book Club left and right, and we were struggling with keeping the members we had. Core said he was all in, but only time would tell if that was actually true.
God knows if he wasn’t, Dyno would tell him where to go.
Hopefully, he did it without his dick in his hand.
*
Chapter Seventeen
Midnight wreckage…
Queenie
I was drunk.
Then I sobered up.
Lynn showed up, and then, I had to have a drink with her. Or two.
Now, I was tipsy. Tittering on the edge of being drunk again.
It was half past eleven, and my ass was ready to go home. Sledge and I had been at the bar for almost ten hours. Yeah, pretty sure it was never going to happen again when Gunner was back home with me.
I was A-Okay with that.
“You good, sugar?” Sledge slid up behind me and wrapped his arm around my waist.
“Better now.” Lordy, I was lame. I would just blame it on the Malibu Sunsets. It was safer that way than admitting I was a lame romantic.
“You good with heading out, or did you want to stay?”
I turned around in his arms and tipped my head back to look at him. “Were you just reading my mind?”
“Uh, no? I saw you staring at that painting of the dogs playing poker and thought I would come over to make sure you were good.”
I glanced over my shoulder. Yeah, I was totally staring at the picture, but I wasn’t really seeing it. “You guys should get one of those for the clubhouse. And a pool table.”
Sledge laughed. “I’ll mention it to Quinn.”
I turned back to him. “And I’d like to go home. I need my bed.”
Sledge wrinkled his nose. “Uh, I was thinking we could go back to the clubhouse.”
“Why?” I had a perfectly good apartment I paid a hefty rent on.
“Uh, have you ever slept on your couch, sugar?”
Oh. OH. “You’re sleeping in my bed. Problem solved.”
“Queenie. You have a twin bed.”
Duh. I knew. I was the one who bought it. “It’ll be cozy. Take me home, Sledge. I is tired.” And teetering on drunk for the second time today.
“Fine, but we’re going to figure out something for your bed tomorrow.”
I rolled my eyes. Whatever. He was going to find out there wasn’t anything to figure out because that twin bed was the only thing that fit in there. We could try a full, but there wouldn’t be room for, well, anything else. “You got it, captain. Tomorrow.”
I waved to the girls who were playing pool and Robyn and Lynn who were eating the last of the pizza at the bar.
“This was a fun night.” We stepped out on the sidewalk and over to his bike.
“Yeah, sugar. It was good.”
I grabbed the helmet and set it on my head. Sledge buckled it, and I tipped my head back. “But we won’t be able to do this again until Gunner is like eighteen and off to college.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right with that one.” He swung his leg onto the bike, and I clambered on behind him.
“Can we take a long way back to my place?”
Sledge cranked up the bike and glanced back at me. “Whatever you want.”
I sighed and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Take me for a ride, badass biker.”
*
Sledge
You know the moments where everything just feels right and a calm just settles over you?
That was Queenie on the back of my bike with her body plastered against me and the wind in my face.
This was the moment I wanted forever.
“Go faster!” Queenie shouted over the roar of the engine.
I shook my head but punched the throttle.
“Woo!” she shouted.
I think this was a pretty good moment for Queenie, too.
We were basically the only ones on the road. We passed a few cars, but we were the only ones really out just driving around at midnight.
This was probably another thing Queenie and I weren’t going to be able to do for a long while. Diapers and sleepless nights were going to be back soon.
That should have scared me.
Queenie and Gunner would have sent some guys running for the hills.
Taking care of a kid who wasn’t yours wasn’t something most people signed on for without some fear and doubt.
Not me.
It sounded good to me.
Being there for Queenie and shaping the man that Gunner would be one day sounded like the perfect path.
“Sledge,” Queenie called, “is that a car?”
Up ahead, there was a car with its flashers on pulled off to the side. “Yeah.”
“Are we going to stop?”
I shook my head. It was either a couple of kids pulled off to the side to make out before curfew or the car was empty. “I’m sure they already have help coming.”
We got close to the car, and it didn’t look like anyone was inside from the back. I let off the throttle and drifte
d into the other lane to give the car some room.
“Sledge!” Queenie screamed.
There was someone in the car. Twenty feet before we got to the car, a head popped up. They slammed on the accelerator and swerved into the road.
Queenie’s arm squeezed around me.
I slammed on the brakes, but I was going too fast.
The car slammed into the bike, and everything went black.
*
Chapter Eighteen
Ready to fight…
Queenie
“You’re here again?”
I lifted my head and opened my eyes. “Duchess?”
I was seated at a white table in a white room. Duchess was sitting opposite me, filing her nails. “Girl, what are you doing with your life?”
“I don’t know what is going on. Why am I here? You’re dead.”
Duchess dropped the nail file and sighed. “That hunky biker you managed to snag crashed. I’m dead and you’re not.”
“But…” I looked around frantically. “Where? Where is he?”
Everything started to shake. The floor vibrated beneath me.
Duchess leaned forward. “It’s time to wake the fuck up again, Queenie. Get ready to fight and take care of Gunner.”
My eyes fluttered open. “Sledge,” I gasped.
“Shh, sugar.” He pressed a finger to my lips. “Are you okay?”
I looked around and tried to take stock of my body. “Uh, well. I think so.”
“We were in an accident, sugar. I don’t want you to move.”
What? Why? “I’m fine, Sledge.”
Worry was etched all over his face. “Just don’t move, Queenie.”
“Just help me sit up.” Long grass and sticks were poking into my ass and back. My back. “Oh, my God. We were in an accident,” I gasped. The doctors words of warning flashed through my mind. Any abrupt shock to my body could move the bullet and paralyze me forever. “Sledge, my back.”
“Shh, Queenie. You’re gonna be okay.”
“But I don’t feel anything.”
Midnight Wreckage (Kings of Vengeance MC Book 4) Page 11