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“Don’t call her a bitch.”
“Fuck me. Don’t tell me you’re into her?”
“She’s all right.” I downplay it.
“The last thing we need is her hanging around to dig up more information on us to share on her little show.”
“But what if I was? Would be good news for you, wouldn’t it? If she’s into me, she will stop talking shit.”
“What the fuck are you on about? This chick would love to see us go down. Who the fuck knows what she’ll try? I thought you were smarter than this.”
“You can’t stand to see me happy. I don’t know what your fucking deal is. We both know that if I’d gotten to her first, Ember would be with me.”
“You better watch yourself. I tolerate your bullshit out of the respect I had for your old man, but you’re crossing a line.”
“How about you worry about your pussy, and I’ll worry about mine.”
“The fuck did you just say to me?” He starts toward me. “I’m not above laying your ass out here in the parking lot.”
“You can try.”
Right when I’m sure he’s about to throw the first punch, we both turn our attention to the commotion at the other end of the lot, where Ember and Stella are going at it in a fight of their own.
“Christ on a fucking cracker,” Smoke mutters as we take off toward them, forgetting our own issues. For now, but this conversation is far from over.
What’s he going to do? Kill Stella too?
Not on my watch.
Sandman breaks the two of them apart, and Smoke and I both lay into our women.
Stella says Ember said some mean shit about her sister.
Here I was hoping that maybe they’d get along and bond but fuck if I didn’t get this wrong. Now Stella will be even more determined to hate us. I’ve gotta find a way to make this right. For all of us.
My temples pulse with the start of a migraine. “Do you want to go for a drink?” It’s the only thing I can think of to break this tension and to work up the fucking courage to be a real man and tell her the truth about Shiloh.
“A drink sounds perfect right about now.”
Stella climbs on my bike, wrapping her arms around me like a perfect fucking fit. Like she was meant to ride with me.
Taking her to my place is a terrible idea. I have shit strewn everywhere to get ready for my move. There’s no way in hell I can take her to the clubhouse. Not after the catfight with Ember and Smoke, ready to lay into me. I can’t afford to get on Prez’s bad side. I lost sight of what’s important for a minute. Let my ego get in my way with Smoke.
I’ve gotta let that shit go. I can’t keep chasing after another man’s woman.
We hit up a carryout for a bottle of my ol’ buddy Jack and some Cokes.
“When you asked if I wanted to go for a drink, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.” Stella gestures around us at my family’s cemetery.
“My old man’s buried here. I come here when I feel lost.” I spread out the blanket I had rolled up in one of my satchels. I pop a squat not far from my father’s grave. Figured he’d get a kick out of me bringing a smoking hot chick here.
“Are you lost now?”
“I’m finding my way back.”
“Good.” She snatches the bottle of liquor and rips the protective wrap off the cap to take a hearty swig before passing it to me. “Back there. I’m sorry. That’s not like me. I don’t know what it was about her, but she brought out this jealousy and anger in me. Like everything bubbled up, and I took it out on your friend.”
I suck down some Coke and hand the liquor back to her. “I mean, you don’t owe me an apology. I get it. People have said shit about my dad in the past that fucking sucked. But most of it was true. He was a gambler, and he loved women and the club more than anything. None of that changed that he was my father and that I loved him and wanted him to be proud of me. Good people can do bad things.”
