Chapter Ten
NITRO
The Next Day
The clubhouse feels too loud and quiet at the same time. Sitting at the bar, staring at my untouched whiskey, I’m running through last night on an endless loop. The way Marley looked at me when I told her about the club.
That flicker of fear before she hid it.
The kiss
Fuck, the kiss I shouldn’t have taken but couldn’t stop myself.
Too much, too fast, you fucking idiot.
I scrub a hand over my face, feeling every one of my forty-three years. Marley has barely broken up with Derek for two weeks, dealing with being homeless, and I dump the ‘by the way, I’m VP of a motorcycle club’ shit on her and then kiss her like I have a right to.
“You look as if someone ran over your bike,” Victoria says, sliding onto the stool next to me.
“I fucked up,” I can’t help but blurt out. She smiles, nodding her head.
“With the redhead?” Millie appears on my other side, munching on a cookie. “Marley, right? The one you’ve been fake dating?”
How the fuck does everyone know all this shit?
Sin.
I told Sin, he told Victoria, and the girls in this place tell each other everything, that’s how.
“Fake dating that’s apparently not seeing each other anymore,” I mutter, lifting the glass. The whiskey burns, but not enough to drown out the memory of Marley’s face when I kissed her.
The way she kissed me back before pulling away.
“What did you do, you big idiot?” Victoria asks.
“Told her about the club. Showed up on my Harley wearing my cut. Then I kissed her. And… she ran.”
“Ran, ran?” Millie asks, crumbs from her cookie falling from her mouth.
“Emotionally ran. I haven’t heard from her since yesterday.”
Ro saunters over, slumping down in the seat next to Victoria. “From what you’ve told Sin, and what he told Vicks, and what she told me, you and Marley seemed to have ‘the vibe.’ ”
I furrow my brow at her. “What the fuck is ‘the vibe?’ ”
“You know, you’re different around her, more yourself, you two have a… vibe. You click… tell me I’m wrong?”
I snort out a huff. “That was before the club.”
Victoria leans forward. “Nitro, I went undercover, thinking you were all criminals. I had every reason to run. But you showed her who you really are. That takes guts. Needing time doesn’t mean she’s gone for good. Just give her a beat.”
“She’s probably confused,” Millie adds. “You kissed her after dropping that bomb. Her ex just dumped her. She’s living with her friend.
Absolutely everything in her life is a living chaos.
You’re just one more thing to figure out when her world has been turned upside down, and you feel like her gravity. It’s confusing.”
“Except I’m not supposed to be something she has to ‘figure out,’ ” I say. “We had a fake-dating arrangement. I made it complicated.”
“Because you have gooey, mopey, sad-boy feelings for her,” Victoria chimes.
I don’t answer, glowering at her.
Ro hops up onto the table. “Look, if she doesn’t text back, she wasn’t the one. But my money’s on her reaching out.”
“Plus, you’re disgustingly hot,” Millie says matter-of-factly.
“Jesus Christ, kid,” I mutter, because not only is she nineteen and the daughter of Jonas McClane, the man supplying the club with the gold that funds this club, but she and our prospect, Will, have this will-they-won’t-they thing going on. But in any case, her words still make me smile.
The door swings open, and Bear, Koa, and Ghost file in with Sin. They take one look at me surrounded by women and veer over like sharks smelling blood.
“Woman problems,” Ro announces cheerfully.
Bear’s massive frame shakes with laughter. “Our VP, finally brought down by a woman.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I reply.
Sin leans against the bar, presidential assessment mode activated. “Marley issues, brother?”
“Yeah… might’ve scared her off.”
“How?” Ghost asks.
“Told her about the club. Kissed her. Not in a good order.”
Koa grins. “Easy fix. You just gotta—”
“Don’t listen to Koa,” Bear interrupts. “Last time he gave relationship advice, Flint got slapped, and it wasn’t with a hand. I’ll tell you that much.”
Sin holds up his arm, palm facing out. “Give her space, but not too much. Women say they want space, but they want to know you’re still there. Don’t be pushy.”
“Most contradictory advice ever,” I say flatly.
“Welcome to women,” Ro chimes in, smiling brightly.
Victoria nods. “He’s not wrong. The key is patience. She’ll reach out when she’s ready.”
“And if she doesn’t?” I hate how fucking vulnerable and pussy-like that makes me sound.
“Then you man up and tell her how you feel,” Bear says, surprisingly gentle. “Lay it out that you’re into her, and the club’s part of who you are, take it or leave it. At least she’ll know where you stand.”
Suddenly, my phone buzzes. I reach into my pocket, yank out my cell, and when I see the name on my screen, my heart slams into my chest.
“That her?” Millie whispers.
Marley: Hey. Can we talk?
Four words that feel like a lifeline or a death trap.
“Well?” Ro demands, vibrating with anticipation.
I ignore all the staring eyes on me as I type back.
Me: Where and when?
Marley: Sunset Park near Sage’s? Half an hour?
Me: I’ll be there.
Noticing all the sets of eyes on me waiting with anticipation, I huff. “Yeah, it was her,” I simply state, and grab my keys as I stand.
“Use protection,” Ro calls after me, everyone chuckling as I flip her off without turning around.
“Nitro?” Sin calls out as I reach the front door.
I spin back, looking at him. “Yeah, Pres?”
“Go get your damn girl.”
I simply nod, the rest of the clubhouse cheering like dickheads as I spin for my bike. I hop on, hoping that this ‘talk’ is a good one and not an ‘I never want to see you again’ kind of talk.
The ride is quick, and as I park my bike, I note that Sunset Park isn’t crowded.
There are a few joggers, a mom with a stroller, and Marley sits on a bench near the playground.
She’s wearing those quirky glasses, a mid-length shirt meeting cute leggings that are showing off her curves, nervously pulling at her purse strap.
My heart feels too big for my chest, but I approach slowly. She looks up when she hears my boots, and our eyes meet.
“Hey,” I say, sitting next to her with ample space between us.
“Hey.” She lets out a breath she’s been holding. “So… I freaked out.”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
She winces, getting straight to it. “I’m sorry. You were honest, and I… I don’t even know why I freaked out.” She turns to face me. “Part of it is guilt. Derek and I only broke up two weeks ago, and even though I don’t like the asshole, it feels weird kissing someone else so soon.”
“I shouldn’t have kissed you. Too much, too fast.”
“No, that’s the thing…” She looks at me seriously. “I wanted you to kiss me. That’s what freaked me out. I wanted it, and it felt really good. But there’s this gala, and we’re fake dating, and I’m worried about mixing signals.”
I choose my words carefully. “Okay, how about this, no more kissing unless we have to at the gala, for show. We stick to the plan. Be a couple in front of Derek, but otherwise, just… us. Friends. Absolutely zero pressure.”
She searches my face. “You’d… you’d be okay with that?”
“If it means I don’t lose you completely? Yeah. I never want you to be uncomfortable with me, Marley.”
Something shifts in her expression. Then, so quietly I almost miss it, she murmurs, “I wasn’t uncomfortable.”
I lean forward. “What?”
She meets my eyes, a hint of a smile playing on her lips. “When you kissed me. I wasn’t uncomfortable. Just so we’re clear.”
And there it is—that spark that’s been building since the night I picked her up crying—still here, maybe even stronger now.
I smile, slow and genuine. “Noted.”
Her smile widens, and the tension breaks. The witty banter, the easy rhythm, it all floods back.
“So,” she says, settling back. “Tell me about this motorcycle club. The non-scary parts, of course.”
I chuckle. “We do charity work for sick kids every year. Millie, a club hangaround, bakes for us because we have a great kitchen.”
“A biker with a sweet tooth.”
“I’m full of surprises.”
“Clearly…” She pauses.
“We have three club girls, Ro, Jessa, and Gia. Ro is the crazy one, we love her, but she’s…” I trail off with that thought. “If you ever meet her… when you meet her, just be prepared, Ro is a wild ride.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Do I want to know what a club girl does?”
I grimace. “Probably not, but it’s not as bad as everyone thinks. I’ll explain that another day.”
She smiles, but it’s genuine. “And the other guys at the club, do they have girlfriends?”
“So, girlfriends at the club are unique. When a brother is committed to a woman, we give them a property patch, and you become our Old Lady. It means that, in archaic terms, you belong to us, but it’s just another form of saying that no one else can touch you, but again, it’s deeper than that.
It’s not ownership, it’s a partnership. It means we trust you enough to be a part of something.
To be a part of the brotherhood. When a biker takes on an Old Lady, it means something. ”
Marley bites her bottom lip and smiles. “That doesn’t sound archaic at all. It sounds… I dunno… kinda nice. Like you’re showing the world that this woman you have chosen is the only woman for you. I have respect for that.”
Warmth floods my chest as an image of Marley wearing my property patch floods my vision, and I quickly blink it away.
“Anyway, back to your original question, Sin has an Old Lady, her name is Victoria, and she’s great, but she and I didn’t get off to the best start.
Victoria actually infiltrated the club as an undercover cop, trying to bring us down.
It’s a whole thing, but she realized we were the good guys in the scenario, and she and Sin fell in love, so she left the force and is now a part of the club. ”
Marley widens her eyes as if she is in disbelief, letting out a small huff. “Wow! That is some juicy gossip right there.”