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Outside, Genny tossed Sole a pair of keys. “Take that blue one in the front.” She pointed out the bike while she swung a leg over hers. “Bestie, ride with Sunny. Feisty, you’re with me.”
“Why?” I asked.
She grinned. “’Cause you seem real protective of the little one. Figured you wouldn’t want her on the back of my bike with the way I drive.”
“You figure correctly, but now there’s the issue of me not wanting to get on the back of your bike either.”
“Tough shit.” She tossed me a helmet. “Hang on, don’t scream, don’t break my ribs.”
I found all three of those things impossible to do. Genny drove like a maniac with a death wish. She whipped in and out of traffic, two times into oncoming traffic because everyone was driving too slow. I clung on for dear life, screaming into her neck while the wind carried her cackling back to me. See? Maniac.
My ride into hell carried us out of Harlow and onto a lone paved road. We were heading into Elmshire Woods. I don’t know how long it was till Genny slowed down and parked beside the 101-mile marker. I slipped out of screaming terror and into petrified silence at some point, face buried in her back and praying for it to be over.
“Time to let go.” She poked my arms. “I’m not a cuddler, Feisty. I don’t make exceptions for my fuck buddies, or for you.”
“Tell me,” I rasped.
“What?”
“Tell me the sins I committed. Tell me why the devil sent you to torture me.” I was shaking untangling myself from her, and fishing my heart from where it shot into my stomach. “I swear I’ll find the nearest church and repent.”
Genny cracked up. “You’re hilarious. I’m starting to see why my brother hasn’t shaken you loose yet.” She leveled a look on me. “He does this, you know. Pick up strays. If you’ve been to his place, you’ve met some of his collection. He’s got one he rescued from an abusive ex. One that was left holding the bag—literally—when a friend robbed a dangerous man and then asked if she could keep something at her place for a few days. And of course, the one who devoted so much of her life taking care of my family, she never got around to making one of her own.” Genny laid a hand on her heart. “Love and appreciate Fuller, though I do. And don’t get me started on the guys in his crew. Misfit toys the lot of them.”
I climbed off, fixing my hair and straightening my clothes as the sound of an approaching motorcycle reached my ear. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I don’t know who the hell you are, what you’re doing here, or how exactly you got involved—from the CliffsNotes, you saved my brother’s life, right?”
I nodded.
“So, here’s my way of saying thank you, by giving you advice girl to girl.” She propped her arm on the handles, looking so much like a model prepping for her shoot, I fussed with my rat’s nest head some more. “Sunny’s great— He’s amazing when you need him. Stops at nothing to put the world back on tilt for you. But when that happens and he can’t play the hero anymore, his interest wanes fast. I’ve met a lot of new best friends and women basking in his moon eyes.”
My chest tightened.
“But the only ones who stick around are those who haven’t figured out how to live without him, because once they do, he damn sure can live without them.”
Closing the distance, I locked on to her icy lake-blue eyes. “That’s one way of looking at it.”
“And the other would be...?”
“He can’t stand to see people in pain if he can help— No, if it’s his job to help. A friend asks him to help a woman pressured into prostitution by her boyfriend, he won’t stand by doing nothing. But after she’s free of a roach like Luca. After all the people he’s helped have found their way, Sunny lets them go without guilt or obligation—expecting them to hang around because he wants them there, instead of letting them start over with their lives.”
I leaned on her handles, likely not looking half as sexy as Genevieve. “You strike me as the kind of woman who fought, clawed, and crushed to get where you are. You took no shit and gave it back twice as hard. I can understand why you wouldn’t have much respect for people, much less women, who don’t do the same. But don’t take it out on Sunny. Helping people when they need it should never be seen as a character flaw, especially by a woman who gave a family to a young girl who lost her mother, brother, and uncle to drugs.”
Something flashed in her eyes at the mention of Frenchie. I thought I went too far until she said, “Yeah. I can see why he keeps you around.”
