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Beside me, Felicity offered me a freshly opened bottle of Jameson. With her own bottle in hand, she sat back and we looked up at the star filled sky. “Happy birthday, Rave.”
“Thanks. It doesn’t even feel like my birthday.” Other than giving me the car I was sitting on, my brothers had barely spoken to me all day. They normally told me happy birthday a million times, and there had always been a cake. Even a dinner.
Not that I was complaining. I was more than happy that they had left me alone all day.
I was just as happy that Bash hadn’t texted me to say “happy birthday.” Not even his usual devil horned smiley face that normally greeted me first thing every morning. I took a deep swallow of the Jameson and gritted my teeth, letting the burn of the whiskey wash away the hurt I was feeling. Yup, I was happy. Happy, dammit.
I was miserable. Not one fucking text?
“Let’s run away.”
My head snapped around to look at my best friend. “What?”
Felicity sighed, her blue gaze glued to the sky above us. “I want to run away. Let’s get out of this fucking town. Away from these dumbass bikers. They don’t need us anyway. You have a shitload of money saved up, and I have some too. We can just pack up and leave tonight.”
The idea had some appeal, really it did. But the very thought of leaving Creswell Springs, of saying goodbye to my brothers, uncles, Bash … That made my heart ache, and I shook my head. “I can’t. They might not need me, but I … I need them, Flick.”
She took a swallow of her own bottle of whiskey and remained quiet for a long while. Finally, when she spoke it was to agree with me. “I know. I need them too.”
After that we were both quiet. That was one of the things I loved so much about Felicity. We didn’t have to talk or even look at each other to enjoy being together. Just having her sitting there beside me, getting shitfaced off of the whiskey that I’d taken from the stock room at Hannigan’s was enough proof that she loved me just as much as I loved her.
Around nine my phone started buzzing with incoming texts and phone calls, one after the other. I knew it wasn’t any of my brothers because I vaguely told them what I had planned with Felicity without saying that I was going to stay out all night getting drunk. They didn’t seem to mind and didn’t question me about it other than to ask the first time.
After the fifth time it went to voice mail and when my text message tone sounded for the tenth time, I was ready to turn it off. Where the FUCK are you?!? The text on my screen was from a number I had never seen before.
Frowning, I went back through the other messages, unsure if I was reading them correctly or if I was drunk.
I
wanted to wish you happy birthday. But I couldn’t do it from my phone. Was the first message from the unknown number.
I have a present for you. Are you working tonight? Obviously this person knew me, but I still couldn’t figure out who he was—if he was actually a he. As for a present … Well just as the club members weren’t allowed to touch me, I was pretty sure they weren’t allowed to give me gifts either. No one ever had before.
I’ve been on a run since yesterday. Where are you? My eyes widened. Yes, it had to be someone from the club. A few guys had gone on a run yesterday morning to LA, or so I heard.
Abandoning the texts for the moment, I lifted the phone to my ear to listen to the voicemail messages. As soon as I heard the voice, I nearly dropped my phone. Swallowing hard, I tightened my hold on it and closed my eyes. “This is a burner phone, Raven. I have one for you too. Delete this message as soon as you listen to it. Then meet me at your house.” As soon as the message ended another one began. “Why aren’t you home? I drove by Jack’s but he was already gone for the night. Are you working at the bar? If you are, I’m coming in.”
“Rave?” Felicity noticed how still I had become, my breathing labored. “You okay? You aren’t that drunk yet are you?”
“Shh!” I held up my hand as another message began to play.
“Raven! You aren’t at the bar either. What the fuck?” My eyes narrowed. “I want to fucking see you!” The revving of his hog greeted me before the message ended and another one began just as quickly. “Saturday is our night. I even rushed through a fucking run to get back here in time. I had six of my men staring at me like I had grown a second head when I told them they couldn’t stay for LA pussy. Now I’m here and you’re off playing hide-and-seek? Do you think I want to play games?”
The last one had just come in and I was already shaking. A mixture of shock, anger, and biggest of all—need. “If you don’t call me in the next five minutes I’m going back to the bar and fucking the first bitch I see. You’re choice, Raven. Five. Minutes.”
Anger won out against the shock and need, and I jumped off the hood of my car and swiped my finger over the number Bash had used to call me. It rang once and then his heavy breathing filled my ear. “Finally!”
“You want to fuck someone else, then do it!” I screamed at him and hung up. Turning my phone off, I tossed it into the open window of the Challenger.
“What the hell was that about?” Felicity demanded, sliding off the hood and putting the lid back on her half-full bottle of Jameson.
Angry tears burned my eyes, and I kept my back to her so she wouldn’t see them. “Nothing. It was no one important.” But the night was ruined for me now, and I just wanted to go home and crawl into bed. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”
“Okay. It’s your birthday. I’m cool with whatever you want to do.”
I took her home before going home myself. What buzz I had earlier was long gone, replaced by a mixture of hurt and rage that left me shaking. When I pulled up in front of my house I wasn’t surprised to see the driveway completely empty. All of my brothers were at the bar either working or getting some ass.
The house was dark and I didn’t bother to turn on lights as I went up to my room and slammed the door shut. I stumbled over a pair of boots on my way to the bed and fell face first across the mattress. Stupid bikers. Stupid fucking bikers!
