Mine Now (The Phantom Vipers MC)

9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Hunter

The air is thick with a suffocating humidity as I set out on the ride home. I can feel the moisture on my skin. I contemplated walking when I realized I had to ride Viper’s bike again today. It would be better on my back if I did, at least. Especially, after my nap I quickly took earlier this morning.

But then it would take me forever to get back to my house, and I really need to see where they are at with getting my Harley back to the clubhouse so I can start working on it.

I would have never been in this predicament if I hadn’t done the drug run this week. I don’t normally do them, considering they are beneath me. But I had plans to ride to my safe house upstate to ride out the storm on my daughter’s death anniversary anyway, so I offered. I wasn’t anticipating hitting a vehicle on my way through.

I better not hit another one, or I will be fucking pissed. I’m getting too old for this shit. My wrists hurt from all the riding I do. Not to mention, my knee gives me a fit when I take really long rides.

But once a rider, always a rider. I’m almost sure I will die on my bike. I hope I do.

There is nothing like feeling the wind against your face and the low rumble between your legs. Even the birds flying high in the sky or the grass blades bending from the wind as you pass add to the exhilaration. There is just something so freeing when I get on a Harley—like a part of my soul was meant to fly, and this is the only way I am capable.

I close my eyes and breathe in the afternoon air around me, listening to the rumble of the engine echo off the trees surrounding me.

The dull ache begins in my knee, and my back still hurts from riding the bike down here in the first place, so I pull off to the side of the road for a cigarette. Might as well stretch my legs out.

I turn the engine off and push out the kickstand. I walk a few paces back and forth to stretch my body and then gently rest against the bike.

As I light my cigarette, a crow squawks above me from a tree. “Yeah, yeah. I know they are bad for you, but It’s too late now, my friend.” I grumble. “I’m talking to a fucking bird.”

I spot a speeding car coming down the road. Doesn’t this idiot know cops like to sit in the curves on this road waiting for speeders?

The vehicle keeps getting closer and closer. And at the last moment, I realize that it's coming right fucking for me. I yell to grab the driver's attention, and she turns around only to quickly swerve away from me at the last second and then slam on the brakes.

Anger wells inside me as I stomp toward the car, ready to give the driver a piece of my mind. Her window rolls down, and I yell, “Are you fucking dumb or just blind?” I smack the top of her car and lean down toward the window.

“I am so sorry,” the woman pants. She then pushes her dark hair behind her ear and looks up at me with a wide-eyed gaze.

To my utter shock, I am met with a pair of blue eyes and rosy cheeks that I just saw last night. “You have got to be fucking kidding me. This can’t be real right now.”

I turn on my heels and stomp toward my bike. “The universe is fucking with me. It has to be.” I throw my hands in the air and straddle my bike.

“Wait!” Her voice comes through the rage, and I look over my shoulder at her. She is climbing out of the car after me.

“What the hell am I waiting for? This is the second time you have attempted to fucking kill me in one week. I think it’s safe to say that we need to stay the hell away from each other.”

She shakes her head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t try to hit you. I was just—”

I raise my brow. “What? You were just what? Texting on your stupid phone?”

She gasps. “No! I would never do that with my child in the car. I was looking behind me to make sure I wasn’t being followed.”

Now, it’s my turn to scoff. “Who the hell are you running from? Do you make a habit of attempting to hit bikers with your car?”

Her head hangs low as she looks at the ground and bites her lip, and that is when I see it. The hint of a black eye and the redness around her throat. Someone fucking hit her.

I dismount from my bike and close the distance between us, forcing her to look up by her chin. “Who did this to you?”

Tears trail down her face, and I swipe them away with my thumb.

“It’s no one.” She looks over her shoulder at the car. “I need to get as far away as possible. I just wanted to tell you I was sorry.”

When she turns to leave, I grab her by the wrist and swivel her back to me. “Tell me who did this.” My voice is gravely with rage. I can’t stand a fucking woman beater, and this girl looks like she has been through a lot of shit.

“Craig,” she whispers.

“And who is this fucking Craig?” What kind of stupid name is Craig?

“My husband.” I drop my hand like she is scalding hot and take a step back.

“Your husband hit you?”

She nods subtly.

“Where?”

She takes a step toward her car.

I get in front of her. “I said, where?”

“Where what? Why the hell do you care?”

“Where is he right now?”

She mumbles something under her breath, but I don’t quite hear what she says.

I lift her chin. “What is your name, again?”

She stares at me for a moment before squeezing her eyes shut. “Blake.”

“Well, Blake. Tell me where your husband is, so I can teach him a lesson he so clearly needs to learn.”

Her soft gasp comes shortly after. “No. You can’t do that.”

“Why the fuck not?” I most certainly can, and I will. I just need to know where she lives.

“Because… he’s… umm… he’s Charlie’s father. Just let it go and let me leave, please.”

She doesn’t even look like she wants to leave right now, let alone as though she knows where she is going. I take a step back and motion toward her car with my left hand. “By all means.”

When she opens her driver’s side door, I say, “Do you even have somewhere to go?”

“It doesn’t matter. I just need to get away from here.”

Once she is settled in her seat, I spot her daughter in the backseat waving at me. The sight pulls at my heart. She is just about to pull back onto the road when I close the distance to the car. “Wait!” I huff. “Seriously, if you don’t have a place to stay for the night, you guys can come to my house.”

She looks at me incredulously. “I don’t even know you. And the last time I dealt with you was because you hit my vehicle and then kidnapped me to take me to a random road in the middle of nowhere.”

I shrug. “Oh good, then you should remember how to get there because that is where we are going.”