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Maisie gave him a slap on the hand. “I like to high five.” She bounced on the seat.
“Well, I like to high five myself. Maybe you can have your mom bring you over to our clubhouse and you can play with all the children we have around? But they may be too young for you, what are you? Twelve? Twenty five?”
“Eight.” Maisie beamed. “Just had a birthday. Could I sit on a motorcycle?”
“No,” Amber admonished a bit too quickly.
“Ugh.” Maisie flopped in the seat. “I just said sit, not ride.”
“You work on your mom for that one,” Mountain said.
“Mom, that would be so fun.” Maisie whined as she smiled up at Mountain.
Amber was a bit shocked that her kids weren’t afraid of the giant of a man. Even with her van being up a bit higher, he towered over the thing.
“We’ll see.”
“That means no,” Maisie grumbled and crawled back into the backseat.
Amber’s phone rang in her hand. She glanced down and saw that it was her ex-husband. “I need to grab this.”
Mountain nodded and headed back to his group.
“Hello,” Amber answered the call as dread stole any warmth she’d found in the last few minutes from the conversation about to start. A little late he could handle, a lot late and he’d be pissed off.
“Where the hell are you?” Kevin spat to her. His attitude sucked and when he believed he was being slighted in some way. One of the main reasons they divorced.
“I’m sorry there was an accident. It blocked the interstate.”
“I don’t give a fuck. I’ve been waiting here for over an hour.”
Amber didn’t want to argue with him. “I’m on my way. I had to turn around and go back to Berrington.”
“Are you kidding me? Amber, I’m not waiting all day, it’s bad enough you make me meet up with you. You better hurry or I’m heading home and you’ll have to drop them off there.”
Her heart fluttered faster. She hated going to his house, their house really, the one where at one time she dreamed of growing old. So many memories were on that street and now she had to take backroads to get around the clean up on the interstate and get to the outskirts of Billings.
“I’m leaving now.” She disconnected the call.
Across the parking lot, she saw Mountain get on his bike and a beautiful woman slipped behind him. She laughed at something he said. The man was just being nice because she helped his friends and her dumb ass actually remembered she was a single woman who could go out with a sexy, hot badass biker. Sliding into her van and buckling up, one glance in the rearview mirror reminded her she had no business thinking like that anyways. Her babies came first in everything and those two kept her on task every moment of every day. There would be no time for her and wouldn’t be for at least twelve more years.
* * *
Mountain drovehis motorcycle back toward Turnabout. The excitement of the ride had gone the way of worry now that several of the members had to go to the hospital. He’d been told to go back to the clubhouse and let the few they left behind know what had happened.
The food prepared would no longer be for a party. Instead, it would be grief eating with low music and those who made it out unscathed, holding onto each other a bit tighter. Maggie would be worrying since Red and Roadkill were going to Billings to make sure the care was top notch.
Cass had rode in the ambulance with Lil’ Bit. The instinct natural, he couldn’t imagine seeing Linnea in that state. Then again, his sister wasn’t exactly the straddle a bike kinda girl. She was more of the take my hand as I exit the car that costs more than most make in a year. Not really a snob, just more sheltered in the ways of the world outside of their bubble. There was no reason to pop it and she tended to thrive. Taking on causes for as long as a photo-op required before boring of the whole mess and wondering why the caterer chose Ukrainian caviar over Russian.
His mind drifted to the woman, Amber, a smile crossed his lips from the fact her information was safely saved in his phone. It was wrong of him to think about the curves being hugged, yet hidden a bit in the mom clothes she’d been wearing. Now was not the time, but he doubted she’d randomly wander into a bar or approach him at the gas station, so he was taking what the lord gave him. An opportunity to meet a woman who’d had no second thought when it came to jumping into the fire. She could have pulled over on the side of the road and sat, waiting for the road to clear. Stayed safe in her car, but she chose to step up, because she could help. The gesture had been more endearing to him than even her smile. Today he had fought the urge to get to know her further no matter how hard it was. Right now, he had Cinnamon on the back of his bike and he couldn’t get back to Turnabout and the clubhouse fast enough to get rid of her.
Finding a random female to fuck when he got the urge wasn’t exactly foreign to him. Forgetting them and moving on to what needed to be done was as common place as the Pat’s getting into the playoffs. Driving away, should have made Amber drift from his thoughts with the passing of each mile marker on his way home. Instead, his mind stuck on a single woman. Something was definitely wrong with him. It had to be the trauma of the day. Lord knows he’d never be able to erase the vision of Baldy, bloody and unconscious on the roadway. All he could do was move a bike then stand there with his thumb up his ass while people helped. Really helped. Like the Nightingale that fluttered from one injured brother to another.
Shaking his head, he pulled next to the clubhouse, a makeshift parking lot in a way, more worn down grass than actual concrete or pavement. With a flip of his key, the vibration and noise fell away and he snapped at Cinnamon. “Get off.”
“What’s the matter Mountain?” she asked slipping from behind him. “Aren’t you coming with me inside?”
He glared at her, her face not the one he wanted to see at the moment. “Sorry. I’ll be coming right behind you,” he said, not wanting his irritation to be seen as anything more than concern for those left behind. The fact Cinnamon didn’t seem to fazed by more than the shift in plans and coming back to the compound early? wasn’t sitting right with him. “I just wanted to talk to Hack real quick.”
