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I gave her a soft smile. “Okay, I need to get going. Deacon sounded like he was about to blow a valve.”
I relished in her smile, even though I knew it was forced. I dressed quickly and slipped my feet into my running shoes. Running to work felt awesome. By the time I got there, my body was stretched and limber and my head was clear. I strapped my phone to my arm and plugged in my headphones, starting an up-tempo song to get myself pumped.
“Bye,”I called as I pulled the front door open and jogged down the stairs.
I looked around outside, expecting to see one of the boys in the area. Some of them were better at being stealthy than others. When I didn’t see anyone this morning on the way to class, and now with the streets still empty, I wondered if Optimus had called off his protection detail.
Did that mean the threat was gone?Or was he just sick of wasting his men’s time on watching over me.
I tried to shrug it off, even though I knew it would sit in the back of my brain, burning a hole until I got answers. My feet pumped against the pavement in time to the beat of the music. That was how I liked to run. I had a playlist specifically for this, songs that pushed me and made my body keep up. Just as I came to about the half way mark, I spotted some of the girls from X-Rated exiting a convenience store on the corner. I checked the time on my watch and decided I had a few minutes to run over and catch up with them. I didn’t have many girlfriends at the club. Apart from Harmony, the other club girls were nice, but we just never gelled well. I did, however, get on well with a handful of the strippers from X-Rated. They were different, more approachable and friendly. For most of them stripping was a way to support family or like me, put themselves through college. They weren’t just there to pick up men.
Lucy looked up when she heard my steps approaching and her face instantly lit up, “Chelsea!” She took a couple of steps forward and met me with a tight hug.
“Hey! How are you?” I asked, stepping back and returning the broad smile.
“Hey, Chel.” Kat stepped around the car and I noticed the small girl clutching her hand and hiding just behind her leg. I was confused for a second. Kat had a little boy at home, not a little girl.
“Am I missing something?” I joked, smiling down at the girl with dark hair. I felt the change in the air and Kat and Lucy both looked at each other with sad eyes. “What’s going on?”
“Let’s get you in the car, Jay.” She gave me a soft smile before leading the girl back around the car.
I looked to Lucy and she sighed. “We lost one of the girls.”
I inhaled sharply. “Who?”
“Hayley. She was pretty new, I’m not sure if you’d met her.”
I racked my brain, trying to put a face to the name. “She was young, sweet. I think I met her when she first started.” I vaguely remembered meeting the young girl in the bathrooms one night at the club a couple of months ago. She was nervous about going on stage, not as confident as the other girls. I started to connect the dots.
“The girl was hers?” I pointed to the car.
Lucy’s head bobbed. “That’s Jayla. She’s staying with me until Op can sort some shit out.”
“Why is Op involved?” I asked, confused.
I watched as Lucy’s eyes filled with tears and I pulled her in, wrapping my arms around her and holding her tightly. All the girls at X-Rated were close, a lot like sisters. Losing someone you consider family is hard, even if they were reasonably new.
I leaned back but held my hands on her shoulders, her eyes met mine. “Someone killed her, right outside the back door at X-Rated.” She sniffed. “I found her, just lying there next to the dumpster.”
My heart raced and in the moment I knew the threat hadn’t been eliminated. It was exactly the opposite. The threat of violence was gone. Someone had been killed and there was no doubt in my mind that it was related, and that was why Op was taking control of Jayla’s future. I felt sick and suddenly a little paranoid.
“Jayla doesn’t have family?”
Lucy wiped at her tears as she shook her head from side to side. “No one that wants her anyway. Hayley was thrown out of home when her parents found out she was pregnant. And as far as I know she never told anyone who the father was.”
My heart sunk. “They’ll put her into foster care.”
Lucy reached out and squeezed my arm. “Op and Connor said they won’t let that happen.”
Just hearing that made me feel a little better. I believed in Optimus and the amount of caring and love that’s inside of him. People looked at him and saw a scary biker, but this was because he wore a hard shell. He didn’t feel the need to impress people, he was who he was and fuck it if you didn’t like it.
I felt my phone vibrating against my arm and pulled it around to see that Deacon was trying to call me. I gave Lucy another quick hug and ducked my head through the window to say goodbye to Kat who was entertaining a giggling Jayla. Jayla would be okay. She had so many people that cared about her, and the club at her back. She would make it. I knew it.
My phone began to ring again as I took off down the road. I didn’t bother answering. I would be at the gym in less than five minutes if I picked up my pace and kept it there. I could do it. I was born for this.
I flew through the doors of the gym, breathing heavily. I bent over, gripping my knees and trying to slow my breathing. My lungs burned in protest.
“Oh, you’re here. I’ll just ring and cancel that search party.”
I didn’t look up, raising my hand and flipping Deacon off with my middle finger. I heard him chuckle and he grabbed a hold of my arm and began to pull me to the back of the gym where there were ten or so women sitting on spin bikes. I was still attempting to catch my breath as I realized what was happening. There was a spin bike class here waiting for an instructor. Deacon grinned and I groaned, folding my body over again.
“Ladies, Chelsea here will be taking your class today. Enjoy.” He patted me on the back but before he could walk off, I grabbed his elbow.
“I’m going to kill you for this,” I whispered out the side of my mouth before shoving him away. All I heard was his laughter echoing in the wide open space of the gym, even above the grunting and groaning of people as they worked out.
I glared at the spin bike.
Maybe running to work wasn’t such a good idea.
