What was he gaining from getting closer to me? Was he trying to find out whom I really was for him or for someone else?
The Cosmo I gulped didn’t warm the ice pit in my stomach. The idea of just packing my little, lonely, pathetic life and go start over somewhere else sounded more than tempting. I had nothing here to risk being found for…except a false hope my ratchet heart still clung to.
“Jo! C’mon, girl! Tell us what you think!” Perla yelled over the music.
I frowned. I hadn’t been listening to a word she, Laura, the Physics teacher, and Christine, the History teacher were saying. “About what?”
She feigned shock, putting a hand on her chest, eyes bulging. Then she, not so subtly, pointed at the bar where a man in a white T-shirt and a leather vest—a cut?—with full sleeves of tattoos on his bulging arms sat, downing shots. “If you don’t go, I will!”
“Go where?”
“Talk to him. See if he’s interested.” She giggled.
“Oh! No.” I shook my head rapidly. “You, by all means, have at it.”
“You shittin’ me? Have you looked at him? And the emblem on his cut?”
I narrowed my eyes to take a closer look. Our table was at the back, distant from lurking eyes, and I’d chosen the least visible seat to the bar. I couldn’t make the emblem from here.
“Take off the ugly shades, girl, to get a better look,” Christine said.
I pushed them up my nose, as if they were going to fall off, holding on to them more. “I’m photophobic. My eyes are very sensitive. The strobe lights will kill me.”
“That’s the emblem of the Night Skulls MC.” Perla saved me. “Ever heard of them?”
More than I should have. I just nodded.
“I think they used to own this place. They threw the wildest of parties at their compound.” She spoke about them as if they were gods. She didn’t know they were lying thugs that used and hurt people. “Back in college, I met one of them here. He took me to one of their parties at Rosewood and we…” She uttered strange sounds that were supposed to refer to sex. “His name is Dusty, and he is, hands down, the best I’ve ever had.”
“Oh my God.” Laura put down her drink. “Isn’t that their young hot president that took over when his father died?”
Perla nodded emphatically, sipping her cocktail.
“Fuck, I envy you, you dirty, dirty slut.”
“Isn’t he dead?” I blurted out.
They stared at me, their laughter deceased. Well, if it weren’t me to be the party pooper and kill the mood…
“I mean, they said the fire killed them all, but what do I know?” I pointed at the bulky man at the bar in an attempt to lighten up the conversation. “Which chapter?”
“Huh?” Perla hummed.
“The Night Skulls have chapters, like groups, all over the world. They’re global. Which chapter does he belong to?”
Christine grinned. “All knowledgeable about chapters and bikers and shit? Wait a second. Do you have bikers in your class in prison? OMG, you totally do, don’t you? That’s why you’re not interested in that guy. You have another at your disposal, don’t you, Miss Meneceo?” She made the last sentence sound dirty.
My eyebrows shot high. “I…um…as a matter of fact, some of the students are affiliated, yes.”
Perla gasped. “Do tell.”
“There’s nothing to tell. They are not as hot as you think they are.” I scratched my neck at the blatant lie. “What makes you think I’ll be interested in a biker anyway?”
“Maybe you’re not, but your vagina is.”
“She told you that over the phone?”
She laughed at my snarky joke, most likely because she was tipsy. Nobody laughed at my jokes. “She doesn’t need to. Every vagina is interested in a biker.”
