AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I smiled, peering at the screen as an image popped up on my phone of Callie serving ice cream at work. She’d grabbed a part-time shift down at the Shake Shack, which was the only thing in town open past nine p.m. Her shift would be over in roughly an hour, which left me a little time to clean up before I saw her. I punched out a quick reply to her text.
Me: cute, but is it just me or Travis staring awfully hard at your ass?
In the picture, she wore her long hair in two braids down her back that somehow framed her face like a goddamn dream, with little wisps and curls from the heat. Her thick lashes were dark, her hazel eyes lined in black, and her lips glossy with that pink shit she used that tasted like marshmallows. Her denim cutoffs were marginally longer than others she liked to wear in the summer and her tank top was loose, showing just the straps of her sports bra. I understood why guys looked. I just didn’t fucking like it. She wasn’t just beautiful; she grew up to be stunning in a way that made men stop walking to stare, even if they were on dates. In a way that drew unwanted attention and eyes on her, all the goddamned time.
Callie: yeah, that talk you had with him did nothing. Think you might need to drive down here and give it another go, maybe this time with your fist.
She had no idea how difficult it was for me not to do exactly that.
She was bullied a lot growing up, guys making her feel unworthy because of her home life and circumstances, but it made her hard as nails. She took zero shit from anyone, including me. When we argued, it always ended with my mouth on her, or my dick sliding inside her, but never with her cowering or backing down.
My seventeenth birthday was celebrated by getting to discover Callie’s body. Every inch, curve, and dip…and I made this discovery mostly with my tongue. We were in her dad’s cabin when those kisses turned frantic, and before either of us knew what was happening, she was begging me for something I had been dying to give her. We took from each other, marking a first for us both. She gave me her virginity, and I gave her mine.
So as desperate as I was to drive down there and handle that motherfucker for staring at my girlfriend’s ass, she was perfectly capable of handling it on her own. Besides, I wanted to shower before I saw her and hopefully talk to my mom about what she was planning to do. My brothers had moved out but kept asking me to talk to her. My parents were clearly not together, and for whatever reason, not divorcing. It made us all worry about what the future looked like for them both.
Me: I love you, baby. I’ll see you the second you get off work, but I gotta run home real quick.
Her text came in within seconds again.
Callie: Fine, I’ll handle him. Love you too, see you soon. And I’m picking the show tonight, no more of that sci-fi stuff.
Pocketing my phone, I made quick work of driving home. The small kitchen light was on and visible through the green and white curtains Mom kept over the sink, which meant my mom was home. Things between her and my dad had gotten to an all-time low, with him coming home less and less and her starting to hang out with my Aunt Stacy more often.
My siblings were all old enough that we didn’t rely on her as much anymore. I was the last boy in the house, and my sisters were doing their own things, spending time at their friends’ houses more than home. Honestly, it was shitty. I missed my family. It felt as though we’d slowly broken apart like an old building. Over time, piece by piece.
Sometimes I wondered if it would have been better if it had all just ended at once, like a bomb going off. Blowing everything we knew up, but then allowed us the chance to start over.
I walked through the front door, setting my stuff down, and tugged off my oil-stained shirt, leaving me in my tank top. “Mom?”
Rounding the corner to the kitchen revealed a shadowed figure sitting at my kitchen table, but it wasn’t my mother.
“Simon?” My brows furrowed, my hand paused in the air, gripping my stained shirt.
The leader of the Stone Riders Motorcycle Club was sitting in my house, reclining at my kitchen table, drinking sweet tea, of all things. His hair was pulled back into a messy knot at the base of his skull, revealing his strong jaw and those eyes that looked so similar to Callie’s.
The chair across from him slid backward as his boot nudged it. “Take a seat, Balboa.”
Balboa was the shitty nickname I’d been given when I was fifteen and he’d helped me learn how to hit a heavy bag. It was supposed to be after Rocky Balboa. Those lessons didn’t stop that day. I had gone back several days a week to meet with Killian and Simon, and eventually Hamish, and Brooks all joined in on teaching me. Callie didn’t know, and I didn’t like keeping it from her, but my dad had started showing up less and less in my life, and I discovered that I liked her old man, I liked his friends, and I enjoyed the lessons they taught me. Over the years, he’d become a mentor to me.
“What’s goin’ on?” I asked, warily taking a seat.
I would ask about my mom or sisters, but if Simon was sitting here like this that meant no one was home.Typical.
Simon let out a heavy sigh and toyed with the condensation on his cup before leaning in.
“I have never wanted you wrapped up in any of our club business. You know we’ve never talked about it in front of you. We’ve never done anything to mess with your relationship with Callie. I know she hates this life. Every now and then she hates me simply because of it.”
I began shaking my head, because I knew Callie hated the club, but she didn’t hate her dad.
Simon stopped me with a wave of his hand. “It’s okay. I know where I stand with her. As long as she’s safe, I don’t really care, and honestly, I can’t wait for her to leave this shitty town behind and start a life free of the club entirely.”
That thought soured as I considered living a life without Killian’s friendship, or hearing the stories Brooks made up, or seeing Simon every day. If I had my choice, my life would start and finish here with this family I was gifted.
I had to push those thoughts aside and focus on what Simon was saying. Something had changed. Simon was right—he’d never once risked bringing me into their business. Even as other guys asked if I was a new prospect, or if I was going to learn how to ride a motorcycle, Simon always shut it down. If he wasn’t there, then Killian would. They both worked to ensure I was never brought into church or allowed around anyone who would spill secrets from their time in the meetings. My stomach twisted as I waited for him to explain what had changed.
“There’s a war brewing, and Callie is old enough now that she could become collateral damage.”
I blinked, my mind processing what he was saying. I wasn’t stupid enough to assume the daughter of the president would be untouchable. I just assumed there would never be a war that would actually involve anyone getting hurt. I had seen this shit on television shows, but it didn’t feel like there was a possibility that it could ever be real.
