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“There. Now, fuck off,” Lucy growls.
Wyatt grabs the beers and nods his head at Linc. “Good luck, brother,” he says under his breath. Lucy stares at him as though she could set him on fire with the power of her mind while he walks to the table where his friends are sitting. Wow, she really does not like bikers.
“Can I have a moment with Charlie?” Linc asks Lucy in a soft tone.
She lets out an incredulous laugh. “Not on your life, biker boy,” she replies, looking him dead in the eye.
A long sigh escapes an obviously exhausted Linc. I don’t know if it’s the tense situation or whatever reason they’re in Texas, but Linc looks ready to drop.
“Charlie,” he starts but gives a slight shake of his head as if he doesn’t know what to say. “Listen, don’t mind Jude. It’s been a long few days, and he can get a bit… prickly after not getting enough sleep.”
Lucy scoffs, still standing sentry by my side.
“I’m just a little surprised to see you in Texas is all.” Or a lot surprised. “And I didn’t know you were in an MC.”
“We didn’t get much of a chance to talk that night.”
No, we certainly did not. I don’t know when we would have between him picking me up on the side of the road, then beating the shit out of my ex and getting arrested.
“I like the hair,” he tells me, pointing at my dark brown locks. Last time I saw Linc, I was a blonde.
“Yeah, I needed a change.” And I needed to change my appearance as quickly as possible. A bottle of hair dye seemed to do the trick; at least, I thought it did. I’ve gained a few pounds in the last few years, too. It helps that I wasn’t constantly anxious about what I was going to find when I got home or what imagined slight I had committed against Jace. I even started wearing makeup. That was something Jace never let me do. He would ask me who I was getting dressed up for if I left the house with it on. The only makeup allowed was concealer to cover up what he did to me when he was in a mood.
Lucy stands next to me at the bar, washing glasses that are already clean in the little sink. She’s not at all stealthy in the way she’s looking between Linc and me as she listens to the stilted-as-hell conversation we’re having.
“So, what are you boys doing in Texas,” Lucy asks, taking pity on me and my complete lack of ability to carry a conversation at the moment.
“Club business,” Linc replies, glancing at Lucy, then back to me.
“That’s pretty vague,” I say, wondering if he’s going to elaborate.
He doesn’t.
“Charlie—“
“Linc—“
We both start at the same time. A nervous chuckle escapes me, and I wave my hand at him.
“Go ahead.”
“Have you had any trouble with Jace since you left?”
I shake my head. “You’re the only person I’ve spoken to from my ‘old life,’” I reply using air quotes. “Did you get my letter?”
“I did, and it meant a lot to me. Just so you know.” He looks behind him at Jude. “I don’t hold anything against you. Even if you would have testified, there was no way I was going to get out of it. The judge had a hard-on for nailing me as soon as the D.A. brought up me being in an MC.”
Sounds about right. A small-town judge wanting to throw the book at someone isn’t surprising.
There is one question that is still in the back of my mind, though. “This club business, does it have anything to do with me?”
“No.” Linc looks at me with confusion. “Why would you think that?” Linc’s phone buzzes on the bar before I can answer. He looks down, and I see the name “Ozzy” light up the screen. “Hold on one sec,” Linc says as he picks up the phone and walks toward the exit.
“Girl, you two are all kinds of awkward,” Lucy says.
My shoulders slump as I look at my best friend. “God, I know. This is so weird. I never expected to run into anyone from my past, especially considering we’re in the middle of nowhere, let alone the man who saved me. This is so random.” A little too random, if I think about it.
Linc is still on the phone with whoever this Ozzy person is. The patch on his back is tickling a memory somewhere in the back of my mind, but I can’t quite grasp it. There’s no reason I should know anything about some MC in Massachusetts, but this stubborn feeling won’t go away.
