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I laughed off my cousin’s theatrics, even if she wasn’t that far off base. My parents had been on me to ditch my boyfriend ever since they found out he was affiliated with the Savage Vipers Motorcycle Club. The only reason I was still allowed to date him was because I explained that he wouldn’t be there long and that he was just getting a taste of being a bad boy since he liked motorcycles. They had liked him just fine before they found out.
“I’ll talk them around, like I always do.”
“You’re too spoiled. That’s your problem. You haven’t done anything to be humbled lately. They aren’t going to go easy on you if they find out you showed up at the MC’s clubhouse. Tentatively allowing you to continue seeing the boy you’ve dated for three years, despite his stupidity at prospecting for a motorcycle club, is different than you showing up to their clubhouse. They’ve heard the rumors about what goes down there just like everyone else in this town.”
“What about you? You’re along for the ride.”
“I just want to see if there are any cute boys around.” My cousin truly didn’t care what her parents thought. Her dad, my father’s brother, had been cheating on her mom for years. He had a ‘secret’ second wife stashed away in Charleston, South Carolina. Considering it was the worst kept secret ever, I was pretty sure Anna’s mom new and just didn’t care for whatever reason. So, Anna rebelled whenever she felt like it and used the emotional damage her parent’s weird marriage caused her as an excuse to make them back off.
“It’s a motorcycle club, idiot. There aren’t any cute boys. They’re all men,” I explained as Anna rolled her eyes at me.
“Whatever, you know what I meant. Maybe if I bring home a dirty biker, Daddy will keep his ass at home more often.”
“Or it might be the thing that sends him packing back to Charleston for good.”
My beautiful cousin pouted from her place in the passenger seat. She was going to come to Europe with my family and me, despite her protests. I knew why she didn’t want to leave. She was afraid everything would be different when she got back.
I had a feeling that Anna was right, since I’d overheard my parents talking about taking her so that Uncle Mark could finally make a decision and stick to it. My cousin didn’t seem to think her parents would ever split up, but I thought Uncle Mark was just waiting for her to turn eighteen and graduate high school before he left. Then, it wouldn’t look like he was abandoning one family for the other. Since I’d overheard my parents, that started to sound like exactly what was going to happen.
I shivered at the thought, not understanding how my aunt could tolerate knowing that he not only loved someone else but had a whole other family out there with another woman. That was why I was happy to have found my soulmate so young. Tripp Martin had knocked me off my feet when we first met. He’d become my everything in the three years since.
Our only problem, our only real fight we’d ever had, was about the stupid Savage Vipers. He knew my father would never accept him if he was a biker. Daddy owned a bank and couldn’t be seen associating with the criminal element like that, even if it was his own daughter’s only love.
There was also the European summer vacation issue that we fought over. My parents offered to take Tripp with us. Mostly, I think they did it to help show him there was more to life than that stupid club, but he’d turned them down flat without even giving it a second thought. I’d never been more disappointed in my life, and nearly broke up with him over his decision to stay behind for the summer. I think that might have been my family’s plan all along, but when I saw the gleam in their eyes at his flat-out refusal, I couldn’t let him go.
“Oh, hell-o!” Anna purred as we neared the gate and she saw who was working. Mack was a year older than Tripp and had become one of my boyfriend’s best friends in the time that they’d been prospecting together. I supposed he was cute enough, and I might have even been interested if Tripp wasn’t in the picture. There was no way I’d let Anna hook up with him. If they got serious, it would be that much harder to convince Tripp to get away from the club.
“Ladies, what can I do for you?” Mack asked with a smile before he realized I was the one driving. We had the top down on my convertible, and he’d been too enamored with Anna’s cleavage to notice me at first. “June, you know he can’t have visitors while he's here working,” Mack admonished.
“Too bad. I’m leaving tomorrow for Europe and will be gone all summer. This club is the reason he isn’t going with me. The least they can do is give us a few minutes to say goodbye,” I huffed at him. Mack didn’t like me for some reason, and he didn’t bother hiding his feelings.
“The club didn’t stop him from doin’ shit. Tripp chose not to go because he’ll earn his patch by the end of the summer if he stays. That was his choice.”
I rolled my eyes at the asshole. My boyfriend had already told me the same things, and it still didn’t matter. One way or another, I’d get my way and he would have to give up the club. He should have done it by now, so he could go with us, rather than later when I gave him the choice – marry me or stay in the club.
Anna had come up with a plan for me to make it happen, but I had to get through my senior year first. Then, I’d get pregnant, and there was no way that Tripp would choose his club over our baby. Unfortunately, that plan had to wait because I wasn’t about to go through my senior year fat. The thought of having a cliché prom baby sent a shiver up my spine.
Before I could yell at Mack to open the gate, Tripp came out the front door of the clubhouse and grinned over at us. “Stop screwing around and let them in,” he called over to his friend. I laughed at the idiot who thought he was going to stop me from seeing my boyfriend. “I told you Prez okayed it, man.”
That made me angry. I didn’t care if his stupid president okayed it or not. Tripp should have wanted to see me even if it broke the idiotic rules the MC had for their prospects. And Mack was a jerk, since he already knew that we were allowed to be there.
“Wonder what he would have done if their president hadn’t okayed it?” Anna pondered out loud and I wanted to smack her in the mouth. I already know what would have happened, and it wasn’t something that we needed to dwell on.
“Hey babe, pull in over there on the fence side.”
“Why not next to the building?” I asked.
“That’s reserved for everyone’s bikes. They’re mostly off on a run right now, but just in case they get back sooner than anticipated, can’t have you in their space.”
A sick feeling settled in my belly. I didn’t think they’d want to beat me up for parking in their spot or anything, but it was the same doubt I’d been having for months. What if they thought I was in the way of Tripp being their little biker protégé? Would he leave me for them, if given the ultimatum? Would I be the ‘thing’ they saw as ‘in their space’?
That was why Anna had suggested adding a baby into the mix, even though I thought we were too young. She was sure that my boyfriend would never choose me over the club unless blood kin was involved to make him decide otherwise. With every passing day that he’d been prospecting, my heart sank with the realization that it was probably true. I couldn’t lose him. Tripp was my everything.
Once I parked where Tripp directed me, Anna and I got out of the car and waited for my boyfriend to show us around, only he didn’t move. “You gonna come ‘ere and gimme a kiss?” He asked.
I moved to do just that even as I cringed on the inside over his word choices. When he was around my family, he always made sure to speak properly, but when he was around his ‘biker family’ as he called them, Tripp spoke like a hick. It was one more thing that I hated because I knew he was better than that. Better than them.
“You know I love you more than anything, right?” I asked before moving closer.
