AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh no, all the patched members who hold a position are required to attend a meeting like this,” she tells me as if we’re discussing how lovely the taste of cotton candy is.
I have no idea what ‘patched members who hold positions’ are and I’m afraid to find out.
“Can I get you guys a coffee, tea, water, hard liquor?” She laughs, giving me a wink.
At least she seems to have a sense of humor, that’s strangely comforting.
“Are we going to need hard liquor?” I reply, dead pan.
She laughs again like I’m hilarious but doesn’t answer; instead, we stop at some heavy-set closed wooden doors and she proceeds to knock. She waits for a few moments then pushes one of the doors open.
“Hutch, your guests have arrived,” she announces.
Guests?It sounds like she’s just let the pack of wolves know their dinners ready.
I hide my apprehension as I hear a booming male voice say something and Liliana turns back to us.
“Please go ahead.” She gestures, motioning inside.
“Thanks,” I reply, hoping that the beat in my chest can’t be heard because that’s all I can hear and it’s loud.
“Good luck,” she adds with a wink as we proceed to enter the room, seemingly at our peril, into the depths of hell as the door closes behind us with a thud.
* * *
There’s a large wooden table in the center of the room and around it sits six men, each one clad in leather vests and jackets. The one at the head facing me, I can only assume by his authority, is the club President, Richie Hutchinson, he looks kind of important.
There are three men to his left and two to his right, and they are all staring at us.
I’m completely blindsided and I momentarily consider turning back around and running out, back to the safety of the car and you know, daylight.
I’m so glad I haven’t come here alone, that would be just a little bit too much right now. I swallow hard and steel myself to speak.
“Mr. Hutchinson?” I start, realizing my trusty counterparts are standing safely behind me and are completely still and mute, fat lot of good these two have been.
He’s an older guy, maybe mid-fifties, with broad shoulders, he’s not bad looking in a rough and tumble kind of way. He has a handsome, unshaven face with greying stubble and is wearing a black bandana wrapped around his forehead in your usual bad-ass biker way.
He also has a sleeveless leather jacket on with the word “President” stitched to the left breast pocket. The patch is worn and tattered like he’s been wearing it a long time.
He nods from his chair and gestures us to the table before him.
“Miss Morgan,” he says in a deep rumbling voice. I can tell immediately he’s a man of presence just by those few words alone, some people just have that knack and it’s slightly terrifying. “We’ve been expecting you. Please have a seat.”
Polite enough, but why is it so dark in here? There are only a couple of small windows around the top of the far wall that hardly let any light in. This room definitely needs a woman’s touch, and it smells like smoke.
I avoid the other pairs of eyes on us and take a seat at the end of the table where three chairs have been set out. How they knew there would be three of us I don’t want to think about, they’ve probably all been watching us sit in the car for fifteen minutes arguing about who was going to get out first. I’m probably right about the surveillance cameras.
“Thank you,” I reply. “Please, call me Sienna. This is my attorney, Laney and her assistant…..”Shit, umm…..Jesus H Christ…..“Jarrod,” I finally spit out.
I glance momentarily around the table and see a mixed variation of men. It’s hard to take it all in at first, a lot like when you stare at the sun for too long and start seeing spots.
Tattoos. Bandanas. Chunky jewelry. The smell of leather. The taste of cigarettes.
There’s enough testosterone in this room to fill an entire village, it’s almost palpable.
Weren’t bikers meant to be old, cruddy, beer-bellied fat guys? These dudes are pretty damn hot and the only old one is Mr. Hutchinson, though he’s not exactly ancient himself.
The others in my posse follow suit and any minute now Laney’s going to launch into lawyer mode and bowl us all over with her smart and witty well thought out plan of attack...any minute now…
