Page 45 of Sweet Revenge for the Bikers

“Go on.” Emily makes shooing motions with her hands. “One of us will call if anything happens. Or just open a window and scream.”

“Behave,” Rebel tells me, kissing the top of my head before heading to the hangar where it looks like the guys work on their motorcycles.

Emily rolls her eyes dramatically, then laughs. “For a bunch of bikers, they can turn into real mother hens when they decide we need watching. Most of the time it’s great, but sometimes it’s like having a cat that’s always right behind you. When something is going on in the club, I can barely turn around in this house without tripping over one of them.”

“Sounds miserable,” I observe in a deadpan.

“Stop. You’re sounding like them. Come on in.” She steps back and gestures for me to enter. “I think you’re the last one, since Harper is at the hospital with Outlaw, keeping an eye on Lightning.”

“Thank you for inviting me. I wish I could’ve brought something, but…”

“I know. You’re stuck in the barracks. I’d say you’re probably bored out of your mind and starving for attention, but we’d both know I’m lying. I bet they’re bending you over whatever they can find.” She bursts into laughter, probably because my face is beaming red like a beacon. “Sorry. I couldn’t help it. Trust me, if there’s any group that can sympathize with what you’re going through, it’s us. Let me introduce you to the Harem Brunch Club.”

“The what?”

Emily drags me into her living room where almost a dozen women are scattered across the couches and chairs. This has to be just about every woman in the compound, and then some.

“Uh, hi.” I wave, a little taken aback. When Emily asked me over for a little gathering to take my mind off things, I didn’t expect this many people. “I’m Melody.”

When everyone turns my way, I nearly run right out the door to go find Rebel. Maybe I’d be better off getting interrogated by Shadow and the boys. At least until they smile and start eagerly introducing themselves on top of each other so I only catch a handful of the names.

There’s Alessa who lives next door. Shelby who has a house nearby. Faith who’s Eagle-eye’s daughter and runs a bookshop. Mila who’s a reporter. Summer and Kaylee and… gah. I guess I’ll learn the rest when I can. I’m definitely the youngest, but there are at least a few others who are probably only a couple years older than me.

“Hi, I’m Sandra.” The most alternative of the bunch waves. Her hair is dyed inky black with a streak of purple, there’s an eyebrow piercing with a matching purple ball on it, smoky eyes and ruby lipstick. Her black T-shirt is cut short and has the logo of some band I’ve never heard of on it. She grins widely. “I’m the new girl, so I’m kinda hoping you stick around so I have someone to band together with against all these old ladies. Buddy system, and all that.”

“Who are you calling old?” snaps a blonde woman who, once I look away from all of Sandra’s accessories, looks an awful lot like her.

Sandra’s grin widens. “That’s Natalie, my older sister.”

“Listen here, you little shit!”

Their laughs are almost identical, making it even more obvious they’re related.

“So wait…” I’m finally putting the Harem part of the Harem Brunch Club in context. “Everyone here has… um, has the same thing going on that Emily does? Like…” It feels too crude to ask out loud, so I count off three on my fingers. Alessa looks briefly around, then her eyes twinkle as she holds up a hand with four fingers up.

Right, Harper is together with four too.

But everyone else nods. “Yep. Harem Brunch Club,” Emily says. “It was me and Alessa to start, but when we realized there were getting to be a few of us, and we were surrounded by all this overprotective testosterone, we decided we needed a space where we could be ourselves. It’s not a life most people outside the club can relate to, so here we are, meeting regularly. I thought it would be good for you to see what you might be getting yourself into.”

I blink. “Thank you, but… I mean, I’ve only been here a few days, and while I really, really like Mad Dog, Rebel and Riptide, I barely know them, and once all this is over, I’m sure I’ll be going back home and⁠—”

I’m cut off by the whole room cracking up in laughter. I’m not sure what the joke is though.

One of the women—Shelby?—leans forward toward me. “That’s how it started for everyone here. We’ve developed a bit of a sixth sense about who might stick around. Bikers have a reputation for moving fast. They’ll happily screw their way across the city and back, but when they find what they want, they lock it in. Good luck resisting. Their arguments are quite persuasive.”

Summer and Sandra nod.

If they weren’t so friendly and nice to me, I’d worry I’d stumbled into some kind of cult. Then again, isn’t that one of the things that cults do? But also then again, if the cult is getting romanced by three to four sexy bikers long term… maybe that’s a cult worth considering?

Natalie pats an open spot next to her on a love seat. “Now come here, grab yourself something to drink and help yourself to the cookies I baked this morning. We want to hear everything. The good and the bad.” Her smile gets a little softer. “I know we’re a lot, but we’ve been through a lot together. This is the one place we can have cookies, play with babies, and talk about what it’s like to recover from being kidnapped, sold or both.”

I laugh like she’s joking, but I’m pretty sure she’s being serious.

We move on to other topics, and if you ignore the circumstances, it’s incredibly… normal? We talk about plans and kids and the weather and eat absolutely delicious cookies and drink tea. On second thought, maybe it isn’t very normal, because I think something like this is actually pretty special. I know I don’t have anything like it, and Mom didn’t either.

Okay, so one of the things we bond about is the joys of biker polyamory, but still.

It’s nice.