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“Maybe, maybe not,” I hedge. “I don’t want anything to do with him, and it’s not like he’s going to just show up on campus one day.”
“Don’t be so sure about that,” Erika murmurs. “He did that to me. Not your father. Mine. He tried to come after me, after the guys in order to get to me. As much as I tried to ignore him, he wouldn’t let me, and I probably should’ve tried to keep tabs on him, like he did with me.”
“We’ve been away from him for how long now?” I ask. “If he was going to make a move, he would’ve already. He’s probably drowning his sorrows at various bars, racking up huge tabs. The Thunder Crows are no more, right?”
“As far as I know, but not everyone from Sinking Springs, Texas came to California to join the Savage Reapers,” she says. Her eyes narrow. “You never did tell me who my father left in charge back in Texas, did you?”
I withdraw away from her a little.
“It was your father, wasn’t it?” she asks pointedly. “I wondered and worried and was afraid that was the case. I guess I didn’t press you because I didn’t want to know the truth, but deep down, I knew. If he’s still trying to keep a branch of the Thunder Crows alive—”
“You don’t need to worry about him,” I insist. “He’s not your problem. You’re happy. The Savage Reapers are legit now with no ties to the mafia. The happiness you’ve found with your guys is all you need to worry about.”
“Seriously, girl, do you know me?” Erika asks. “Of course I’m going to worry about you! Maybe I can send a few of the guys back down to Sinking Springs and—”
“If you do that, you’re almost guaranteed to make sure that my father is going to start looking for me.”
She grits her teeth. “How can you be so sure that he’ll put two and two together—”
“The Thunder Crows in Texas know about what went down in California, don’t they?”
“Yes,” she says slowly.
“So they know about you and about Brett. He’s the one who runs the motorcycle club with you, right?”
“Well, they all help out, but yes, Brett and I are technically the ones in charge.”
“And I’m right about this,” I insist. “If you have guys sniff around on your behalf, it’ll get back to my father, and then everything will blow up in my face. As it is…”
I rummage through my purse and locate my old phone. It takes me a bit to put in the battery, but then I show her the stream of text messages and voicemails that flood in since the last time I checked.
“They’re all about wanting to know where Mom is,” I say. “He doesn’t care about me. All he wants is intel.”
“If he’s worried about your mom, then maybe he wants to change,” Erika says.
I shake my head. “I’ll never believe that.”
“There’s always a reason to think the best of people,” Erika says.
I snort as I dismantle my old phone again. “How can you say that?” I ask. “What with your father and what he did to your mom?”
“Let me tell you about Brett and the others and how they used to bully me and how everything changed for us. Look at us now. If I hadn’t been willing to give them a chance—”
“I’m so happy that worked out for you, but my father doesn’t care about me, and he isn’t getting to my mom. Our situations are completely different.”
“So you say,” Erika murmurs, “but keep an open mind. Maybe not with your father, but with the guys at least. Maybe they just need to grow up.”
“They’re older than I am,” I point out.
Erika bursts out laughing. “I was the one who wanted older guys, yet they’re all the same age as me, and your tormentors—”
“Yes! Tormentors! They are not my lovers!”
“Not yet,” Erika says smugly.
“How can you be so sure that they’ll evolve into that?” I ask.
“Maybe not all of them, but Rob at least…”
