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I watched him walk away, the cocky swagger making him that much more appealing. I was in so far over my head with this man and yet I couldn’t bring myself to regret kissing him, or agreeing to see him again. For the first time in…years, I was genuinely excited about a man.
CHAPTER4
Trip
Drew looked up as I walked into the clubhouse. Cade—our Austin club president—had called Vesper a few days ago, asking if we could crash here. It was typical for Nomads to travel from club to club, but there were rules. We’d follow them. The last thing we wanted to do was piss off our brothers in any chapter. We may not know many of the San Francisco Chapter members well yet, but they were still family. We were all Vikings and that’s all we needed to know. It helped that we both knew their president, Vesper. He’d help us settle in here while we took care of Eric, or he fled to a new city yet again.
I sat down next to my friend and accepted a beer that one of the sweet butts brought over. I’d been in a long term relationship up until a year ago. Shit had hit the fan with our club and my girl—and Drew’s—had decided things were a little too dangerous for them. I couldn’t necessarily blame her, though it had been a blow to my pride to let her go. I’d thought I was in love. Turned out I was just comfortable with her. We’d been together since high school and it was easy to be with her. It was also easy to be without her. Too easy. Made me realize that there wasn’t really anything there.
Despite being a single man for the first time since I was seventeen the sweet butt smiling at me suggestively didn’t tempt me. Probably because she had shoulder length black hair and deep brown eyes, not long blonde waves down to her delectable ass and amber eyes.
“You alright?” Drew asked, then took a drink from his bottle.
“I’m good. Pissed off about Lucy.” The loss of my bike was going to sting for quite some time.
“I bet. You’ve had that bike since we started the MC together.”
“I know,” I said mournfully. “It’s not going to be the same without her.”
“Something else on your mind?” he asked. We’d known each other since we were in diapers. I didn’t miss the accusation in his tone.
“No.”
“You sure? Something with a nice juicy ass and firm-”
I slammed my beer down on the table, making the sweet butts behind the bar jump. “Knock it off, asshole.”
Drew hid his grin behind the rim of the bottle as he finished the beer off. “We’re twenty-eight, Bro. Single for the first time in years. We should be fucking our way across these states while we track down Eric.”
The thought had crossed my mind, but this wasn’t a road trip. This was business. Vengeful business. Eric needed to die. The shit he pulled back in Austin, one of my brothers getting shot, a dozen others arrested, not to mention everything else he and his brother had done, had earned him a one-way ticket to hell. Granted, we had unfucked the situation, but Eric had nearly destroyed the whole chapter. Before I could really think about a girl I had to take this fucker down.
“Are you interested in this one?” Drew asked, snapping me back to the here and now.
“Of course. Did you see her?” We both grinned at that.
“Well, that’s something anyway. You,” he said, pointing his empty beer bottle at me, “are not allowed to fall in love with her. This is simply about getting your dick wet before it rusts and falls off.”
“What else would it be about?” I asked, tapping my bottle against his. Marina's eyes flashed through my mind. I knew what it was really about. I wasn’t about to tell Drew a fucking thing, though.
“Need me to take you over to get a new bike?”
“Fuck.” I hung my head, saying a proper goodbye to my best girl. “Yeah. Goddamn it.”
* * *
My new motorcycleidled between my thighs and it felt like I was home. That was all it took for my world to be set right. Ellie may not be Lucy, but she was a beauty. I’d just spent far more than I cared to on my new ride, clothes, and new cell phone since everything had been lost to the ocean. I didn’t give a shit about money. Its only purpose was gas for the bike and beer for me. Pesky shit had a way of piling up.
Drew was the only one who knew I was a rich kid. Not so much a kid anymore, as my father liked to point out every time I talked to him. He thought a pep talk consisted of dragging me down. He loved telling me I was never going to amount to anything if I didn’t apply myself. He’d wanted me to become a lawyer like him, like Grandpa had been.
Fuck that. I might be a killer, but I’m not evil.
Luckily, I didn’t need my father’s approval. My grandfather had left me the majority of his inheritance. As his only grandchild he’d set me up for life. That didn’t mean I didn’t work when I was settled down in one place. I got into far too much trouble if I wasn’t busy, so I made sure to stay that way. Plus, it was the best way to network, especially as a Nomad. Get your hands dirty in a new chapter and you instantly had the respect and trust of your new brothers.
Having a grease monkey for a son had pissed my father off to no end, but I loved working on bikes. I left that as my hobby whenever possible, though. When I was in Austin I’d bartended for our club’s bar. Out here on the road though, a good mechanic was always needed. I pulled into an apartment complex and shut off the engine.
I was in my usual jeans, t-shirt, cut, and boots and I was fully aware of the fact that I didn’t belong as people watched me walk past. There were families walking their dogs in the little sectioned off play area. A huge expanse of grass surrounded the apartments. It was a nice place and exactly where I’d picture someone as sweet as Marina living.
The rap of my knuckles on her door had a neighbor poking her head over the balcony and staring at me suspiciously. The door opened, drawing my attention away from the nosey neighbor.
