Frisco

22. Kali

22

KALI

W atching the entire line of motorcycles leave was another reminder that this was an entirely different world, different culture. But I was still me, and I needed food. Or more importantly, I needed coffee.

So here I went.

I dressed, keeping it simple with the same clothes I’d had on yesterday. I put my hair up in a thick braid, and I was guessing I’d need some adaptability moving forward. No matter. I could do that. Been doing that all my life.

The barn was mostly empty. There were a few guys on the main floor. All watched me, but none moved to come toward me. I could see a couple women in the back, by the kitchen.

I guess that’d be where I go for food? Or the main house?

As I approached, the oldest woman glanced back as she washed a pot. “You Kali?”

I nodded. “You Shelly?”

She grinned wide and put the pot down. After drying her hands, she extended one to me. “I’m Rash’s sister, not his old lady, in case you heard different.”

We shook hands. Hers was a firm grip.

She was skinny, but I could see she was wiry with muscle. She had a gaunt face—not pretty, but not homely. Striking. High cheekbones. A bird-like chin and tiny lips. Straight, dark-blond hair, hers in a loose braid. Several strands had fallen free, but she just brushed them back, tucking them behind her ear. I took in her clothes too, now feeling somewhat overdressed. The other woman was dressed the same way.

Both had black biker tank tops that dipped low, showing a lot of cleavage, and skin-tight jeans with sturdy, functional boots—and not the hooker kind.

I’d guess she was in her forties. Maybe. She looked aged, and that wasn’t meant in a disrespectful way. She had old eyes.

“I was told to look out for you,” she said. “You guys got in late last night. This your first time venturing out and about?”

I almost laughed. “Is it that obvious?”

“Mom.” The younger version of her held out another pot, a towel thrown over her shoulder. “That’s the last of them.”

“Okay.” Shelly took the pot and motioned with her head to her daughter. “This one’s mine, Katie.” She gave me a nod. “Katie, this one’s with the national VP. Show some respect.”

Katie’s eyes widened, and she shot upright, nervously. Smoothing her hands down her jeans, she came over, giving me a quick dip of her head. “Hi. Sorry. I didn’t know. There’s a lot of—”

“There’s a lot of women around here, especially around times like this.” Shelly took over, speaking for her daughter. She gave her a smile and nodded to send her along. “I got it from here. Where are you off to now?”

“Uh…” Katie looked between us before turning to her mom. “There’s a house party at Jared’s tonight. Don’t suppose I could go?”

“You know the deal. We stay put until we know everything’s done and handled.”

Katie glanced my way again. “Okay. I’m going to my room. You need help with supper?”

“Nah. We’ve got more than enough help around here. If you think of leaving, I’m going to send your cousin after you.”

Katie’s eyebrows pinched together. “Mom!”

“Just saying.” Shelly shrugged. “You know the deal.”

Katie snorted before taking off.

“You drink coffee? Tea?”

“Coffee, please.”

She nodded to the pot, and I saw there was a whole set up, like this was a hotel. “Help yourself. We try to keep it stocked for anyone staying, and the guys love their coffee around here.”

“This is your place?” I asked as I went over and began filling a mug.

“Yeah.” She grabbed a few items and waited as I added some cream to my coffee. Then she indicated that we should go the same direction her daughter had.

We walked out of the barn and turned for the main house.

“This is my project,” she added. “Crow acts like it’s his, but it ain’t. It’s mine.”

“Are you and Crow…?”

“No! God, no.” She laughed. “Rash is my brother, like I said, and he and Crow grew up together. Crow’s my cousin. My husband used to be Red, but he died ten years ago. I got some inheritance and used that to buy this place, renovate it. It’s my business. Katie and I keep an apartment in a town not far from here. It’s where she goes to school, and we rent this place out. It does well too. Lots of companies use it for events, whatnot. Then Crow gave me a call yesterday and said the club needs it. So here we go.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Thanks.” She sent me a warm smile, before a wondering look replaced it. “I gotta say, it’s a really big deal that Ghost and his club are here. Did you travel with them?”

“Uh.” Oh, man . She was asking questions, and I didn’t know how Shane wanted them to be answered. “No. I know Sha—Ghost from where I grew up. My sister followed the club out here and well…” It sounded ridiculous, now that I was saying it to a total stranger. “I came to get my sister.”

“Is she young?” Shelly lowered her voice, pausing halfway to the house. “If she’s eighteen, they’re not going to like you sticking your nose in their business. Eighteen and up is fair game to these guys. Since you’re with Ghost, maybe rules are different, but—”

“No.” I started laughing because at this point, how could I not? “I’m sorry.” Still laughing. This whole situation was messed up. I waved a hand, feeling some tears building.

Shelly looked at me like I’d lost my head, but that made it all the funnier.

She was warning me about the guys wanting my sister here. It was so the other way around.

“It’s not like that. At all. At. All. My sister is–” Wheeze . Now I was laughing at myself laughing.

Shelly cracked, starting to laugh with me.

My delirium wasn’t just about Claudia. It was about me. Foley. The divorce. Me working at a grocery store. The road trip. Everything—and being told if my sister was eighteen, I should leave it alone.

Finally, after I calmed down and could get some air, I shook my head. “You clearly haven’t met my sister yet.”

Shelly’s eyebrows pitched high in her forehead, and she laughed harder. “Oh. It’s like that?”

I nodded, wiping a few tears away. “Sorry. Just— so not the situation, and yeah.”

“You’re such a bitch.”

I gasped, whirling around.

Claudia stood not far from the main house’s porch. She walked my way, her arms crossed over her chest, and she looked annoyed. She also looked dressed the same way Shelly and her daughter were.

Was that the uniform for women in this world? Claudia had chosen shorts that barely covered her ass.

I looked down. I wasn’t too far off. I had the jeans, but I wore a white, v-neck shirt. It was simple, but stylish. Or I’d thought so. Now I was tempted to tie it in a knot behind me, just so I didn’t feel too old.

“Good Lord.” Claudia rolled her eyes. She turned to Shelly. “Look at her. She’s worried she’s not going to fit in because her clothes aren’t skin tight, and totally not realizing how fucking more gorgeous she is than the rest of us.”

Shelly’s eyes widened as she looked between the two of us. “Guessing you’re the sister?”

I narrowed my eyes. “What are you doing here?” This was sober Claudia. Not fun drunk Claudia.

I ignored the way my question confused Shelly, considering our whole laughing fit, and the fact that Claudia and I looked nothing alike.

“Didn’t you come to get me?” she asked. “Where else would I be?”

“Shane said you were gone—like, away.”

“Right.” Claudia’s eyes narrowed, turning speculative. “Let’s talk about you and Mr. VP.” She came forward, linking our elbows and nudged me away from Shelly. “Excuse us for a minute,” she called back over her shoulder. “We sisters need to have a little heart to heart right about now.”

Shelly tracked us as we went back to the barn we’d just left, and when we got inside, the two bikers sitting there took one look at Claudia and left.

She grunted as they went, closing the door behind them. “Nice to see I’ve got a reputation around these parts.”

I unlinked our elbows and moved aside. “Don’t get pissy that they got smart.”

She huffed, rolling her eyes. “More like your man told everyone I was off-limits.”

I wasn’t going to argue with that. That sounded like something Shane would do. But he had not told me she was here. “Shane talked to you?”

She was looking in the rooms, making sure the ones with closed doors were empty inside. When she got to the kitchen, she turned back, doing the same on the other side of the hall. “Talk to me about what? Why don’t you tell me what Ghost would’ve talked to me about?” There was a bite to her voice.

“About me being here? That Mom asked me to come bring you back?”

She huffed. “Mom does not want me to come back. I guarantee that.”

“She was in tears—”

Claudia laughed, coming to stand in front of me and crossing her arms over her chest again. “She was not. Mom hustled you. We both saw how Ghost reacted to you at the bar that night, and trust me, we already knew. Ghost sent someone to ask questions about you all over town—like that would happen and neither of us would hear about it? You’re supposed to be the smart one. Mom didn’t send you after me. She sent you after Ghost. I was just the excuse.”

I opened my mouth.

Claudia fixed me with a look. “I can’t figure out why you came. Because of Ghost or because you didn’t want to stay in Friendly any longer? My guess? The latter, but now I’m hearing how you came here on the back of Ghost’s motorcycle and whose bed you were in last night, so maybe I’m the foolish one. You and Ghost, huh? He’s not a rebound type of guy. Not for you, not from Foley.”

Aw, snap.

Right there, with that last statement, I realized a few things.

One, Shane had pushed away some of the pain I’d been ignoring from Foley.

Two, my sister didn’t care one iota about why I was here.

And three, Claudia was still a bitch.

My walls had been lowered. Shane had done that, but they slammed back up now, and my sister saw the change come over me. She took a step back, her eyes speculative. Or maybe they were calculating.

“What crawled up your ass and got you twisted?” I asked. “You brought Foley up last time I saw you too, and you actually seemed to regret it. This time you brought him up on purpose. To hurt me?”

“Oh.” She laughed, mocking me, and started to walk in a circle.

I moved with her. I couldn’t help myself.

“You’re lying to yourself, Kali, if you think you actually came for me.”

“Who cares? I would’ve found you and tried to talk you into going back to Mom. She did ask me to come and get you.”

She shook her head. “You’re just running, like you always have. Tell me something, sister. Why the fuck did you stay with Foley? You knew before you married him that he was a cheater, and you stayed with him.”

“Like I was supposed to believe everything you told me?” I laughed right back at her, mirroring her mocking tone perfectly. “All you’ve done is take my stuff. My things. My cars. My friends.” We hadn’t gotten to that yet. “My boyfriends. My jobs—”

“You’re lying on that one. I only took one of your—”

“Two. You took two of my jobs.”

She frowned. “Which ones? I remember the school concession stand job, but—”

“Mrs. Bierreto’s ice cream shop.”

She stopped frowning. “Oh. Yeah. I told her you were lazy and had an eating disorder and would binge on all the ice cream.”

I ground to a halt, my mouth on the floor. “You told her that?”

She laughed. “She offered me the job instead, right on the spot. She had no clue I was telling her about myself. I binged on all the ice cream.”

“You’re confessing now that you have an eating disorder?”

“God, no. That’s a lie. I just really like dick, cigarettes, and booze. Right?” She shot me a dark look, starting our circling again. “Isn’t that all you think about me? You don’t think I actually care about you.”

“Because you don’t.”

“As if. I only care about you.”

“You only hurt me.”

“Not true. I just see the shitty situations you put yourself into and try to circumvent you, by putting myself there first. And look, it worked in so many ways. You didn’t work at the ice cream place. You would’ve hated working there.”

“I would’ve loved working there. I would’ve been working with my best friend. Aly worked there.”

“Oh. Right.” She frowned. “Aly and Harper. Those two never liked me.”

I cackled. “That cemented them as my two best friends. Because they hated you.”

Claudia rolled her eyes. “What are you doing here, Kali? For real. You’re not here for me, but if you are, I’m here, and I’m not leaving. So what now, my golden and saint-like sister?”

I stopped in my tracks, because she was right.

She did not sound like she wanted to leave. I could hear the finality in her tone, and I knew my sister. There was no talking her into anything. If Aly and Harper were here, I’d ask their input, but I could guarantee it would’ve been along the lines of getting her unconscious and kidnapping her, then hoping she wouldn’t wake until we were back in Indiana.

Maybe it was a good thing they weren’t here.

“Why are you so set on staying?” I asked. “For that Roadie guy?”

Claudia seemed to wither in front of me, and that was something I’d never seen.

Well, one time, when she’d come home from a date with a popular senior. She’d never talked about what happened with him, and I never saw her with him again.

“Claude?” My voice dropped low. I didn’t know how to handle her like this.

She shook her head, as if to clear it. “I’m not staying for him. He’s like all the others. I’m staying for Machete.”

“Machete?” I didn’t want to know why he had that name.

“He’s a good one. You’d approve of him.”

I frowned. “You’re his old lady?”

“Maybe. I think so.” She shrugged. “I hope so. It means something here.” She eyed me. “I hear you’re Shane’s old lady?”

Now my claws were out. “I’m not, but that’s none of your business.”

She laughed. “You keep doing what you do best, my sister. You keep lying to yourself.” She went to the door. “Thanks for this chat. I’ve gotten what I needed out of it.” She stopped and studied me for a moment. “Do yourself a favor this time? Shane’s a Red. They’ve got girls who let them do trains on them. And they all join in—or most of them. If you couldn’t handle Foley, you really can’t handle Shane. Ghost. He’s the biggest head honcho here, and they like their power structure. The fact you’re still here means he’s snuck in and started to dig deep in you. Don’t let him in anymore, not even an inch. Foley made you like this, but Ghost will finish the job. You can’t handle this life. Get out while you can. They ain’t here. This is your best shot at running, but I’m not going. I’ve got the one guy that’s not a piece of shit. Give Mom and Connor my best. I ain’t ever going back.”

Then my sister, the lovely peach she was, left, and I stood there, going over her words.

“Get out while you can. They ain’t here. This is your best shot at running…”

I rolled my eyes.

I knew my sister.

If Claudia was telling me to go, I sure as hell wasn’t going to.

Me: Updating! I’m still with Shane. Found Claudia. She’s not going anywhere.

Aly: Good Lord, she’ll never change. On the upside, Harper and I have had a divine Saturday. We golfed this morning. (And sucked.) Had a delicious brunch at the country club here. This afternoon was spent at the spa and tonight, Harper has no clue but Justin is flying in. I am planning on spending the evening at Manny’s. Bring on some more Brandon and that regular guy. I didn’t catch his name last night, but I did meet Roy. He seems like a great kid… if he’s a kid. Who knows at this point.

Aly: Are you seriously okay, though? Please tell us if you aren’t.

Me: I am. Promise. Right now I’m pissed at Claudia, so all is normal.

Aly: Call us if you need backup. Harper will probably bring a pitchfork intended for me (cause I’m the one getting Justin here), but he might take his aggression out on your sister. You know how we both feel about her. Good old Claudia.

Me: Yeah. Good old Claudia. Start stretching to evade and dodge the pitchfork. Harper is fast.

Harper: You both suck! THIS IS A GROUP CHAT, DID YOU BOTH FORGET?

Harper: Stay safe, K. Share your location with us plz. Aly, start stretching. Start. Stretching.

Me: Dad. I owe you a phone call. Here’s my initial apology before the real groveling happens. Give me a few days. I’m on Claudia duty right now.

Dad: I have news too! We have five hundred subscribers on the Old Gents’ YouTube channel.

Dad: Also, I will be waiting.

Me: Oh, boy.

Dad: Was that intended to be a text message to me?

Me: No! Sorry. Again. Or ahead of time. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Love you, Dad!

Dad: I sure do love you back. Tick tock on that phone call, Daughter. Tick tock.