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The cool air instantly blasts my face as we step out into the parking lot, a stark contrast from the sweat pit inside. I take a few deep breaths, fixing my cut on my shoulders as we prowl toward our bikes.
Neither of us speaks until we’re sitting on our bikes, boots pressed into the gravel beneath our feet. “Where to next?”
“Unless we’re in the market for running from club to club asking outright for information, then I guess we need to call it.” His jaw tics, irritation at tonight's outcome written all over his face.
“I could eat if you want to stop at the diner on the way home,” I offer, and he smirks.
“You’re always in the mood to eat.”
Facts.
I shrug. “What can I say, I’m a growing boy,” I say with a snicker, and he shakes his head at me.
“Let’s go then. I’m in the mood for steak and eggs.”
Starting up my Harley, I kick up the stand, and roll to the end of the gravel, a few feet or so behind Ryker, before we set off on the quiet roads. I’m never a law abiding citizen on the best of days, but with the tension rippling through my body, the empty roads ahead of us, and my need for food, I floor my Harley.
The wind picks up, whipping around my face and clinging my clothes to me. I can still see the light coming from Ryker’s bike until he overtakes me and I find myself in his rearview mirror. We dip and weave past each other again and again until the lights of the town come into view. We stop outside the diner and unclip our helmets.
He’s grinning despite the shit circumstances of the evening, but I can feel the smirk on my face too. Speed will do that to you. I crave it, almost as much as I crave my fucking woman.
I internally groan at the thought of her. She’s heaven on a bike directing me to hell, and I’m a sucker who will follow her straight into the depths. She went to college today, her first form of public education, and when she sauntered in this evening with Emily, she looked like a breath of fresh air. There was something different about her. I can’t quite put my finger on it. She was almost lighter, brighter, and serene. A true glimpse at a normal life for her.
I’ve been addicted to her piercing eyes, soft skin, and perfect curves since day one, before I even knew her damn name. But now, I find myself drawn to the deeper parts of her, the parts she doesn’t let anyone else see. I want to feel her joy, her hope, her happiness, and shoulder the weight of her pain.
“Are you coming, asshole, or are you going to sit there all day?” Ryker hollers, pulling me from my thoughts. I stick my middle finger up at him as I stand, ruffling my hair as I follow him toward the diner. “Where’s your head at?” he asks, forever the leader he was born to be.
“Stuck on a hot raven-haired beauty with the softest skin and snarkiest lips I’ve ever met.” The grunt he offers in response tells me my words hit exactly where I wanted them to.
“Fucker,” he mutters under his breath as he holds the door open to the diner and we step inside.
The smell of leather and tobacco is thick in the air, drawing my attention to the far right of the room where I see Paisley and a few members of his crew, the Iron Scorpions, sitting around a booth. I blink a few times, glancing out of the window behind me until I spot their bikes parked across the parking lot from ours.
I was clearly too lost in my head to even pay attention, and I instantly berate myself. I need to be alert and aware, now more than ever. There’s no space for fuckups.
Ryker doesn’t miss a beat, offering Paisley a nod before heading in the other direction to our usual booth.
The second we’re seated, a server appears at our side. “Hey, boys, what can I get you this morning?”
“I feel like it’s too early to say that yet,” I reply with a smirk, glancing up at the redhead I’ve seen a time or two before. She doesn’t have a name tag on, but I’m sure my mom said she was called Fiona or something like that.
“Doll, anything after five is classed as morning.” She winks at me, bright blue eyeshadow covering her lids as she taps her pen on her pad.
“Can I please have a coffee and a plate of steak and eggs, Fiona,” Ryker says, confirming I got her name right, and I point at him.
“Make that two.”
She nods and disappears just as swiftly as she arrived. I think that’s what I like most about this place. They get on with their job and ignore us. She’s getting extra tips tonight… this morning, whatever the fuck it is.
“Am I missing something so obvious that it’s glaring me in the face?” Ryker asks, dragging a hand through his hair.
“What makes you say that?”
“With Banner in charge, we were in the Brutes’ pockets, but even as his VP, I never knew anything about it.”
“I mean this in the nicest way possible, Brother, but I think that was all a ruse to make him look like he was honoring your father.” I grimace at the words on my tongue, but he nods in agreement.
“Same. I get the feeling Billy was the one in on all of the top secret shit. I just got fed bullshit.”
