6 Ivy
Ivy
It felt like a lifetime later when Viking finally emerged from the bathroom. I tracked his shadow, afraid to make eye contact, though I felt a pull inside to search out his gaze.
He didn’t even turn my way as he headed for the exit. Desperate to escape me, he all but ripped the door off its hinges to get free.
Only once it slammed shut did I let the tears fall from my eyes.
I couldn’t tell you why I was crying. Probably because I never really thought about this part of it. I never gave much consideration to how this would all feel. It wasn’t great, in case you were wondering. I felt a little cheap. A whole lot confused. And very unsure of what was coming next.
Get dressed, I told myself.
I needed clothes as an extra layer of protection. I guessed it didn’t really matter much since most of the club had seen the goods anyway. But it was more for me than about hiding.
I rolled over and sat up.
A gasp seized my lungs as I looked down.
I shouldn’t have been surprised to find blood. I knew it would probably happen, but I hadn’t imagined it smeared all down my thighs and on the sheets as well. The distinct impression of a dick slap was stamped almost artfully in the middle of the bed from where I assumed Grip had slipped out of me.
I hated myself a little, but I was also nearly ready to laugh at the whole scene in front of me.
But there wasn’t time to think about which way I’d go because the door suddenly banged open, and there stood Ice and Bones.
My hand flew out, snagging whatever part of the sheet I could get to the fastest. I attempted to hide my naked body, but since I was currently in the middle of the bed, I was sitting on the exact thing I was trying to use as a shield.
With a sigh, I gave up.
Besides, it wasn’t like these men hadn’t seen boobs before. I mean, this was a clubhouse for bikers, and women ran around this place naked most of the time.
Ice was the first one to step inside, his arms folded over his chest as he stood at the foot of the bed.
Oddly, he didn’t try to look at anything below my face.
I got the feeling he simply didn’t care, rather than he was trying to be respectful.
Yeah, like there were such things as gentlemen bikers. I nearly snorted at the thought.
The Ice thing was definitely something to file away for a later time.
Maybe he was a good president and took the shit that went on in his club seriously.
Which reminded me why he was here.
It was time for me to talk because he was looking for answers.
This was where I had to tread lightly.
I had to give him some piece of truth, just enough so that he believed me. Otherwise, he’d kill me, and I had no doubts about it.
“How’d ya know Muffy?” Ice asked, a slight smile on his face as if he knew Muff well enough to get the joke about how my best friend hated when people did that to his name.
I never knew how close Muff was to the other chapters. He wasn’t allowed to talk about the club and was loyal until the end.
“You his ol’ lady?” Ice asked, eyes narrowed like he was waiting for me to trip up.
I opened my mouth to tell him it wasn’t like that, but then I remembered that I was supposed to be an outsider.
“His woman. You and him together?” Good thing he read my expression as confused.
“No,” I said, shaking my hand. Muff would have never settled down.
“We didn’t have a romantic kind of relationship.
Clearly.” I shrugged because there was no hiding the fact that I was a virgin before today.
And well, he knew Muff, so there was no playing off the fact that he liked to be buried in a woman any chance he got.
Muff wouldn’t have left me so chaste had we been anything other than friends, that was for sure.
The thought of sleeping with Muff made me shudder. It wasn’t that I didn’t love him, because I did. I felt his loss immensely. But it was more of a brotherly love than anything else.
I was about to spew a story. I closed my eyes and hoped it was believable. It wasn’t far off, so there was that.
“He used to come to the diner I work at,” I started.
I’d worked out the details in my head. By now, they were so vivid I’d almost convinced myself they were real.
It probably helped that I did actually have a job there, which made it feel more real in my mind.
“Well, I guess I don’t really work there anymore since I left town without notice.
But that’s not the point. He caught me crying one day out back of the place.
He asked me what was wrong, and it wasn’t like I could hide the truth from him. ”
Ice looked at me with a raised brow, and I knew I had at least piqued his curiosity.
“My dad isn’t a nice man. I’ve tried to get out from under his thumb, but I can’t.
I’m afraid to leave my mama alone with him.
” I left it hanging there, hoping he would get what I was trying to say.
When he didn’t react, I said it point-blank to him.
“He’s a gambler and a drunk. Tends to lose all his money.
He gets angry when he runs out of money, and he isn’t afraid to smack people around when he’s unhappy. ”
Still no reaction.
“That day Blane found me, I had a black eye and a bruise on my cheek,” I told Ice, holding his gaze.
My dad had only hit me once in my lifetime, and I felt a little sick using it like this, but what else could I do?
If it didn’t seem like I really needed protection, then they might not find it serious enough to hide me.
Muff had been the one to find me that one time, and though he’d been barely twenty, he wasn’t afraid to go after my dad for it.
And though I never actually knew what went down that day, I know it had to have been something. My dad never hit me again.
“After that, he kept coming around. Just to check on me, I think, but he never made it seem that way. One day, he handed me the necklace. He said he didn’t know how much longer he’d be around and wanted me to have it.
He told me to go to any one of the Brutal Sinners clubs and hand over the necklace.
He told me to ask for protection if I ever needed it. ”
“Ever the white knight,” Ice said almost under his breath, like he wasn’t surprised.
He was right.
Muff was, and he was too damn good for the club he belonged to.
“So why the change? Why’d you leave?” Ice asked, looking me over as if he were searching for injuries.
Even if I’d had any when I left, it had taken me over a week to get here because my crappy car had a tendency to overheat, and I kept having to cut my driving days short.
If I’d had any bruises, they probably would have been long gone.
I hoped that would be something left hanging in the air, because I really didn’t want to have to push that whole thing and lie more about it.
“I found out my pops was going to marry me off to the sheriff. They’re good friends, which is why I could never get help.
Didn’t matter what he did, he’d never pay for any of it.
” I sighed. “I can’t marry that man. I won’t.
” I looked away. Some of the anger and fear that was coming out was real.
“I didn’t know what to do. If I stayed and said no, I was afraid he’d kill me or my mama.
As it is, I think he’s going to hurt her, but she told me to run, so I did. ”
“Why here?” Ice asked, eyes barely narrowing down at me, but I saw it.
“What?” I asked with what I hoped came off as a confused shake of my head.
“Why the fuck did you travel all the way here when you musta known Muffy’s chapter happens to be a hellova lot closer?”
“He told me not to go there. He didn’t say why. I got the feeling he didn’t trust some of the people there or something.” I blinked up at him.
“Hmm,” he hummed. I could tell by the pinch in his brow that he was taking my words in and letting them roll around in his head. “What do you want right now?”
“I don’t know,” I told him, and that was pretty much the truth. My mind was still spinning. My life had been turned upside down. It had been shaken and I didn’t know how to feel safe again. “I think for now, I’d just like to hide and know that he can’t get to me.”
Which was everything in a nutshell.
“I don’t trust you,” Ice said flatly. “But I got no choice. Might be assholes, but we live by a code. Lucky for you, girly, we gotta honor this.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“Don’t thank me. This,” his finger went up and drew a little circle in the air, “is just the beginning. You come in here asking for things, you’re gonna get them the way we see fit. You get me?”
I shrugged.
I got it, I so did. I probably knew their laws and codes just as good as they did. Hell, maybe even better than some of them.
“Look at me,” he coolly barked. I snapped my gaze up, and he seemed to spear through me with the look in his eyes. “This ain’t no fuckin’ game. I find out you’re lying, my obligation goes out the window and I will leave you to my boys. Make no mistake, little girl, they will tear you apart.”
I nodded, the shakiness a little real.
Yeah, I was lying, and maybe he couldn’t see through it now, but the truth would come out in the end. It would have to. I prayed it wouldn’t until I’d gained a little trust or at least a leg up, whichever came first.
“I understand,” I told him.
“Good. I’ll give you a few days, then we need to figure out what your long-term plan is and what you want us to do.
For now, as long as you follow the rules, you can stay here.
” He pinned me with a hard look. “The moment you refuse, you’re out.
I’ll still help you, set you up with a place in town and give you protection.
But I can’t let you stay here for free.”
I said nothing, but he seemed to read something in my eyes that said I got it. He gave me a slight nod.
“Grip and Viking will figure out what to do with you,” he said with a smirk.
Then he turned and walked out of the room, Bones hot on his tail.
The door slammed shut, and I let out a long breath.