Chapter 6
Chapter Six
I was late for work again.
My research at the library took too much time to complete because all the information just kept sending me down another rabbit hole. Thankfully, I was essentially my own boss, and now we had Archer to help out when I wasn’t available. As soon as I noticed the time, I packed up all my things and went out to my vehicle.
By the time I made my third turn, I knew something didn’t feel right. My brothers had drilled into me the method of driving I currently used. We had to be always aware of our surroundings, even while driving. The same vehicle had made all the turns I had, which in itself wouldn’t raise any red flags. However, the same vehicle had also followed me out of the parking lot at the university.
I knew there was a high probability I was in for some trouble, so I used the hands free to call my brother and warn him.
“Hey,” Kujo answered.
I could hear the music from the clubhouse through the speakers, so I hoped he could hear me.
“I’m being followed.”
“Are you sure?”
“As soon as I thought I was being followed, I started taking the most indirect route I could think of to test them,” I explained. “Then when I was sure they were following me, I mixed it up to lose them.”
“Distance?”
“Four car lengths, never more, never less.”
“Make, model and colour?” he asked.
“Looks like an older Ford Escape, dark blue.”
“How many occupants?”
“Two.”
“Description?”
“Two dudes. Can’t make out any features because it’s so dark out here.”
“I’ll let the guys know.”
“Thanks,” I told him.
“Call me if they come closer. If you’re not back at the clubhouse by ten, I’ll call you back.”
By the time I ended the call, I had lost count of how many turns I had taken. It looked like I had lost them or they had given up on the last turn because they were no longer behind me. I drove around aimlessly a little more, just to be sure. When I finally felt like I had, I went to the clubhouse.
Pulling into the lot, with one glance, I knew it was going to be a busy night.
There wasn’t much room to move around when I walked in, so I headed over to the bar. Meandering through the crowd, I noted where everyone was. My eyes landed on the area beside the bar and noticed Amy standing in the employee area. I made my way over and tapped her on the shoulder.
She turned to me with a sultry smile and then faltered when she realized I didn't have a cock.
“What do you want?” she hissed.
“Move please,” I told her.
“You can wait your turn. I've been here for fifteen minutes,” she told me.
I doubted that. If she had been there for that long, it was because Archer was ignoring her on purpose. Probably because he was the only one who hadn't gone there, and she was desperate.
“I don't have time for this teenaged fuckery, Lolita.”
I knew her name wasn't Lolita, but I just didn't care. She was one of those barely dressed land-barnacles who just wouldn't take a hint. The guys all talked about how she could suck like a hoover, but that wasn’t the reason she annoyed me.
“That’s not my name,” she argued.
“I don't care if your name is Princess Stephanie, I need to get back there,” I told her.
“You can wait until I get my drink,” she scoffed.
“Seriously, it's time for you to move,” I commanded. “This is an employee’s only area.”
The problem was, she believed I was part of the reason she wasn't an old lady yet. What she didn’t realize was she needed to get along with all of the women who spent their time with the guys. Her first mistake was believing the way to the guys was through me. She tried to befriend me, just like a lot of the new girls did. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very long before she showed her true nature.
She didn't like how close I was to my brothers, or how Hunter tolerated my presence without me going to my knees. I tried to give her a chance, but she blew it. She was always putting down the other girls in here, as if she was better than them, and hadn’t been giving a blow job in the corner of the room the night before.
“I'd do what she says,” Archer warned her.
“Whatever,” she responded.
Archer raised an eyebrow at me, so I took two steps to my left and nodded. He placed a glass in front of her and picked up the soda dispenser like he was about to fix her drink. She leaned forward to show off her tits, and he blasted her right in the face with soda water.
She squealed like a stuck pig.
Miraculously, he missed all the other patrons near her. Likely because she was trying to get around the side of the bar so she could attempt to use her womanly wiles for free drinks.
At the very least.
Mostly cause she wanted to jump on his dick. His was the only one I was sure she hadn’t ridden yet. When she finally finished with throwing her tantrum, she glanced around. Realizing I wasn't still standing behind her, she lost her shit again.
Putting one and two together and getting five, she redirected her anger to me.
She walked toward me with one thing on her mind.
Making me pay.
Just as she was about to scratch my eyes out, I formed a fist and swung. With a sickening crunch of her nose, she crumpled to the floor like a sack of rocks. One punch and she was down for the count. People near the incident stopped everything, visibly torn between checking her pulse and remaining steadfast to avoid my wrath. I took a deep breath and dropped the facade for a moment, letting them see the monster behind the mask.
Those who had taken a step forward, halted like they had reached an invisible shield. The rest of our patrons didn’t need a reminder of who they were messing with. Sparing her no further care, I stepped over her body like the trash that she was and headed back to the bar.
I flipped open the swinging gate at the end of the bar and walked to my office door. I pushed open the office door and waited for the motion sensor to turn on the light, then turned my attention to the bartender.
“Archer, I'll be in the office if anyone needs me.”
“Sure thing, boss,” he called out as he handed out another drink.
“One more thing,” I called to him.
“Name it,” he replied.
“When she wakes up, I want her banned for life.”
I watched as a couple of the guys near the door, who often doubled as our bouncers, headed our direction to collect her. They would have someone wait with her in a back room and when she woke up, they would carry my instructions out.
“No problem.”
He was fitting in better than planned. With an uncle like Rooster, I didn't know why I was so surprised. For someone who hadn't grown up in the life, he fit in just like he belonged there. If I was going to make a case to the club, I would need to give him an assignment.
Either that, or see him in action, somehow.
“Maybe I'll have him shoot her for trespassing,” I said aloud as I shut the door behind me.
* * *
A couple hours later, I found myself back at the bar. Archer was taking a break in the back when we got slammed. We didn’t have waitresses working here, so everyone had to come up to the bar to get their own drinks.
“Need a hand?” Hunter asked as he flipped up the end of the bar and joined me.
“Sure,” I told him.
He went straight to the counter and started taking drink orders. All of the guys had experience behind the bar because even though the bar was my responsibility, they all chipped in when I needed it.
We worked in silence. Even without our usual banter, it was hard to ignore his presence. I tried to push through and ignore the way he made me feel. When he moved behind me, his hands lightly touched my back. It was completely innocent because I knew what he was doing.
Yet for some reason, tonight, it felt different.
Like a school girl with a crush, I had started to yearn for his touch.
Thirty minutes later, I was bent over, grabbing a beer out of the fridge for one of the customers. With my ass up in the air, I knew I was in the way, but the last thing I expected was for Hunter’s hands to grasp my hips as he moved past me. His hands were warm, and almost made me forget the reason I had my head in the fridge.
After I stood back up, I passed the bottle to the man across from me. Before taking the next order, I glanced behind me just in time to watch Hunter adjust himself. Like a kid caught with my hand in a cookie jar, I searched the bar for my brothers. I didn’t have the energy to deal with a brawl of that magnitude.
Archer returned a few minutes later, and Hunter left.
A couple of times throughout the night, I found myself looking for him. After about the third time, he glanced up from his bottle and our eyes met. That was when I knew it was time to go into the office. This weird night of interactions was just enough to make me further confused.
I spent the rest of the night in there until close.
After I locked the front door and said my goodbyes to the ones who weren’t passed out in their corners, I went upstairs. I had just shut the door when my phone buzzed in my pocket.
Glancing over at the clock, I immediately saw it was already past three in the morning. Unless they were at risk of dying, no one called me that late or early, depending on how a person saw it.
Dirk: Hey babe.
Dirk: How’s it going?
I had finally just closed the bar down and was almost in bed, so the last thing I needed was to hear from this douche canoe.
Dirk: Where were you tonight?
It took everything in me not to respond. For the last week, I had considered blocking his calls, but the curious part of me just kept wanting to know what he was going to say next. As the texts kept coming through, it looked like I wouldn’t have to wonder tonight.
Dirk: I stayed up late waiting for your call.
Dirk: I thought by now you’d come around.
Dirk: You know we could be so good together if you would.
Dirk: I’m gonna be so tired at work tomorrow.
Dirk: Why aren’t you answering?
After the last text, I finally shut my phone off.
As much as I wanted to, I wouldn’t kill Dirk for stalking me. For obvious reasons, I couldn’t even get a restraining order. There wasn’t an issue of me being afraid of him because I knew I could squash him like a bug. I knew exactly how to get into his apartment undetected. No matter how cold the weather was outside, he always had the back window of his apartment cracked open.
He was on the second floor of the building and there was always a ladder available that could easily reach his window. I could be in and out in a matter of seconds. It didn’t escape me how cavalier I was overtaking his life. It didn’t matter that I used to suck his dick. He was a harmless little dweeb with a savior complex.
After all the incessant calls and texts, it was impossible not to consider a million different ways to get rid of him.
There was a certain disconnect with me feeling remorse. Most people would assume there was a part of me broken inside. Hell, maybe there was. I didn’t lose an ounce of sleep at night for any of the people I removed from this planet. Whether I had a hand in their deaths, or they were people who I killed with my bare hands, it was all the same. Unless we caught them in the crossfire.
Why would I lose any sleep over the monsters I helped deliver straight back to hell?
There was only one thing that my role in people's deaths affected, and that was my social life. I wanted nothing to do with those men who believed I was a biker slut because they were only after one thing. Even if I knew having sex was fun, I didn’t want to be used and abused to participate. Respect was the most important thing to me when it came to intimacy. Now, that didn’t mean being a little rough or having certain kinks was disrespectful.
Nope.
What I meant was those assholes who thought it was okay to record you having sex with them and then share the video with their friends. Or worse, using said video to blackmail you into not breaking up with them, or extorting more sexual favours. If I ever dated anyone, another method of disrespect would include cheating.
If there was anything my mother’s tawdry affairs taught me, it was a relationship or even a fling without respect wasn’t worth my time.
Should I ever meet anyone worth my time, I doubted I could be completely honest. Healthy relationships were completely useless without trust. Trust couldn’t be had without honesty. There was no way I could ever tell anyone the truth about what I did in my spare time. After all, what normal man would want anything to do with a seasoned killer?
Any of the men I knew, who I didn’t think would have an issue, were already off limits by order of my overprotective brothers.