Chapter Thirty-Two
THERE ARE MOMENTS IN life that literally couldn’t be any better, or would always stick in your mind as being the best moments. Unfortunately, sometimes they were followed by moments where it suddenly became the exact opposite.
There’d been a low rumbling sound in the background of my mind, but now that we were no longer deep in the moment, I recognised it for what it was. My brothers returning. Fuck. That was the rumbling of their rides I was hearing, and ignoring, because I’m so used to hearing it.
Caroline must have felt me tense up, because she sat up, nearly cracking her skull against mine, as I moved fast, frantically gripping the condom as I pulled out of her.
“What’s wrong? Oh god. What’s that noise?” Yeah, she was hearing it now.
I dumped the condom in the small waste bin, and grabbed the bottle of sanitiser from beside my bed, because you know what?
When you don’t have a bathroom nearby, you need options.
Anyway, I used it to clean my hands, and started dressing as fast as I could.
Maybe if we could get out there quickly, we could leave before they all started partying, and penned in my ride so I couldn’t get back out.
“Fuck.”
“Harley?”
Caroline was a fucking vision as she gazed at me, even though she was tucking those beautiful breasts back in her bra.
“They’re back,” I said succinctly, because I didn’t need to say more than that. She gasped, and started dressing rapidly with hands that trembled, and made the job ten times harder.
“Here, let me,” I said, nudging her hands aside to fasten her jeans again for her.
“They’re out there,” she gasped, looking around us in a panic, “and they’ll know what we were doing in here!”
Was it adorable that her mind went there, or was it just frustrating that she wasn’t seeing the bigger picture.
Nobody cared who I was with in my room, because it was my business and nobody else’s, but her feeling trapped here with a group of rowdy bikers?
That’d be the end of us. And they’d be rowdy, because they were riding the high of doing something amazing for others, and no matter how much of a hard man you are, that feels fucking good.
It fills your soul. They’d be jazzed up, and that wasn’t the way I wanted her to see them, or meet them.
“What do we do?” Caroline asked helplessly, glancing fearfully at the door, like she expected them to come crashing through it, to fill this room and trap her with them. Fuck me, even I was feeling edgy about that now.
“Uh… I guess we have two choices here, babe. Either we hide all night, and trust me, you’ll need to get out of here at some point, be it for the bathroom or whatever… or we brave the outside, skirt around the noisy bunch of bastards, and get you the hell out of here and home.”
I stepped up close to her and tilted her worried face up. “Do you think you can handle passing them by, and leaving? If we move fast, and I get them to stay the fuck away?”
She sucked her trembling bottom lip and sighed. “I don’t know.”
Right, plan B, always have a plan B. I dug my phone out of the inside pocket of my cut, and dialled a number.
“Yo.”
“Pres, it’s me. We have a bit of a problem, I’m afraid.”
I could practically feel him tensing up, as he moved away from the noise a little.
“Fuck. What? I thought we’d just done a fucking good job.”
“Yeah, it’s not that. Uh… Caroline is still here with me.”
He paused for a moment, and then cursed.
“Fuck, when I saw your ride, I figured you’d dropped her home already, but Jesus, we haven’t been gone that long, have we?
Okay…” I waited him out as he thought, because he’d have a plan, “Right, here’s what we’ll do…
” I listened, and nodded slowly. Okay, it was a plan. Now I just had to convince Caroline.
I tucked the phone back in my pocket, and lifted her chin again.
“Here’s what’s gonna happen, baby. I’m gonna tuck you under my arm, and walk you out of here, and Micro’s working to clear a path for us around the office building, and out the gates, okay?
He’s sending Grease to make sure my ride isn’t penned in, but we’ll be fine, okay?
You and me? Nothing hurts you, or gets near you, when you’re with me. ”
She sucked in a sharp breath, and I could see that she wasn’t even fully in the room with me. She was already out there in her head, already seeing and hearing the noise, and the large bodies, and the overwhelming atmosphere they created.
Someone tapped on the door a moment later, and I reluctantly released her, heading over to turn the lock, and pull it open a few inches. On the other side of the door were welcome faces, so I pulled it open further, and let Caroline see who was awaiting her.
“Sophie, Jamie, thanks so much. You’re going to be our escort out, right?” Caroline’s eyes widened, and she relaxed a little, but she was still beating up on herself in her head, and I hated that.
“Hey,” I returned to her, lifting her chin again, “no shame in finding that lot intimidating, okay? They are. They’re not bad people, but they’re loud and obnoxious at times. Even I need breaks from them.”
“I found them pretty scary when I first came here,” Jamie offered, stepping into the room, then grimacing and backing out again, “should have considered it’d smell like sex in here.”
Caroline gasped, and hid her face against my chest.
“Thanks, Jamie. That was really helpful.”
“What? I’m just saying… oh, you can’t crack a window. Ugh, these places are like prison cells.”
“You’d know,” Sophie added, pushing past her by using her large pregnant stomach as a weapon.
“Jesus, Sophie. You’re going to bowl me over with that thing.”
Caroline started giggling, and that’s when I realised this could work. These two might be doing their best double act right now, but it was relaxing my woman. My old lady.
“Let’s do this. They’ll be in front of us, and nobody will risk bumping into big, swollen, pregnant Sophie, right?”
“Did anyone tell you pregnant women get cranky really easily, Harley?”
I laughed, and grabbed Caroline’s jacket, easing her into it, checking her phone was in her pocket, and that I had my keys.
“Ready, baby? Okay, let’s do this. Attack formation delta!”
The women all giggled appropriately, and we stepped out into the dark night, and the sounds of bikers having a great time.
I briefly wished we could just join them, but there would be other chances, when my old lady felt safer around them.
For now, my priority was to liberate her from the hell she saw when she looked at them.
“Heyyyy, Harley! Check it out, VP. I got me a ‘good boy’ badge,” Stag yelled from across the firepit, and I rolled my eyes. The last person who should have a badge like that was that dickhead.
“Don’t make me take it off you then,” I called out as we approached the large group, and Caroline ducked closer to me, practically hiding under my arm, flinching now and then as people yelled out to each other.
“Can you lot shut the fuck up!” Micro suddenly yelled, and Caroline squeaked with panic. I would have kicked his ass for it, but it obviously wasn’t the first time he’d tried to quiet them.
A comfortable quiet hovered over the area, as he stood up on a bench and held his hands up.
“This right here, this thing we did tonight, that was just the beginning, guys. We’re going to live up to our Phoenix colours. We’re gonna do our club proud. We’re gonna do our colours proud! No more assing around, and being dicks-”
“You first, Pres!”
“Eat me, Grease!”
I leaned closer to Caroline as we passed the firepit, tuning them out, and she lifted her head as I whispered to her in the new, quieter night.
“They’re crass, and inappropriate, but they’re family. You’ll see.”
She nodded and buried herself tight against me again as we carried on walking. Rocket caught my eye and gave me a nod, but he stayed quiet, and moved aside, but that turned out to be a bad move. A really bad one.
“Fucker! You did that on purpose!”
I turned to see Grease launching himself at Rocket, and the two of them crashed to the ground, throwing punches, and calling each other things I never wanted my woman to have to hear from them.
Caroline gasped, and tried to run from them, from me, from all of us, and that’s when she became surrounded by old ladies.
I saw them leaning close to talk to her, and then they all started moving toward the office building, and Jamie turned to flash me a thumbs up as they disappeared inside. Fuck. She ran from me too. Me.
I turned to help break up the fight, and then I was the one punching Grease.
“What the fuck! He spilled my fucking beer, dammit. He deserved it!”
I shoved him back again. “Maybe he did, but did my old lady? Because right now she’s cloistered in the fucking office with the other women, while they try to calm her down. You know how she struggles, man, you fucking know!”
He paled, dragging a hand down his face. “Jesus. I mean, it’s mostly Rocket’s fault, but I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare her.”
“I’m going to break your fucking smug face, you jumped up piece of shit!
” Rocket came at him next, and I just backed up.
Let them fucking kill each other. Let them beat each other to hell, because what was the fucking point anyway?
Their behaviour could be what loses me the woman I love.
And worse than my anger at them, was the sense of betrayal.
Because they, out of everyone here, understood that this was exactly what she was afraid of.
This thuggery was exactly what would drive her away.
I thought they had my back, but maybe this club would always be full of men too fucking dumb to care about women.
“Fuckers!” I backed up, ready to head for the office, and Reacher caught up with me, slowing me down.
“Just breathe, brother. She’s okay. The old ladies have her, and she needs a minute. So take a deep breath, drink this, and wait with me.” He offered me a beer, and I cursed.