Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Merrick and I stood in the doorway, watching the prospects haul Merci’s bags and boxes through the door.
“Thanks for helping her while I was gone,” Merrick gruffed.
I shoved my hands in my pockets and shrugged my shoulders. “Wish she’d let me teach him a lesson.”
Merrick huffed a laugh. “I think she’d prefer to take care of that herself. She’s handling the breakup OK though, right?”
I tried to keep my expression neutral.
“What?” Merrick asked, his eyes narrowing.
I chuckled. “Dude, you have no idea how much work it was to keep that woman out of trouble. And the shit her ex has been texting her makes me want to slit his throat.”
“The fuck you mean?”
I grimaced, remembering that Merci didn’t want her brother to know the details.
“Don’t tell her I said anything. But, he’s been texting her some nasty shit.”
Merrick pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “This is why I can’t go on a fucking vacation.”
“I blocked his number. Then I got my ass chewed the next morning when she found out.”
Merrick snickered. “Can you keep an eye on her? I don’t trust that guy. And she’d never call me for help because she knows I’ll kill him.”
I grimaced. “I’m no babysitter.” I needed to put as much distance between Merci and me before a line was crossed.
Merrick leveled a glare at me.
I sighed, lamenting. “Fine. Yeah, I’ll keep an eye on her. You know we all will.”
“Good.”
“Shouldn’t she be back already?” I asked, checking the time on my phone.
“We’ll barely see her with the hours she works.”
Kenna pulled up and parked her Land Rover in front of Merrick’s house. She moved to the back hatch, grabbing an armful of groceries. Merrick jogged down the stairs and pulled the grocery bags from her grip. He kissed her before carrying them into their kitchen.
I averted my eyes. While whatever I’d thought I’d had with Kenna had fizzled before it even had a chance to start, sometimes seeing their love on display left me longing.
“Staying for dinner?” Kenna asked. “I’m making shepherd’s pie.”
I flashed a smile. “I’ll never say no to your cooking.”
“Grab the rest of the bags,” Merrick ordered. “I need to talk to you about some club business.”
Kenna rolled her eyes. “Always with the shady biker shit.”
I snorted as I scooped up the remaining groceries. I loved watching Kenna sass Merrick. His house had become warmer since she’d moved in. Fewer bike parts, more throw pillows. Less cold pizza, more home-cooked meals.
A pang of envy shot through me. Not because I still wanted Kenna. We were better as friends. But a part of me wanted that. Someone whose eyes lit up when I entered the room. Someone to claim. Someone to sleep beside me for more than just a night.
After setting the bags on the counter, Merrick handed me a folder. I opened it to see balance sheets and business plans. “Thane wants to diversify our revenue streams. Go more legit.”
“Why?”
“Because the old ladies think you’re all getting too old for ‘shady biker shit,’” Kenna quipped as she tossed a vegetable to her lanky Dutch Shepherd, Brisket. He snagged the carrot mid-air and then politely sat as he waited for more.
I flipped through the sheets of paper, which might as well have been written in Russian. “What does this have to do with me?”
“I want you to be my business partner. I trust you more than anyone else. And it would be good for you.”
“Dude, I don’t know what the fuck I’m looking at here. Am I supposed to understand accounting?”
“It’s a gym. Place went under a few years ago and never reopened. It’s up for sale,” Merrick explained. “If you’re in, Thane said the club will invest by paying for sixty percent of it. That leaves us to split the remaining forty.”
“You should have Everest look at the numbers,” Kenna suggested as she chopped an onion. “He’s been looking for an excuse to come visit.”
“Everest?”
“My brother. He’s a big-time CFO at an investment firm. Good with these kinds of business decisions.”
I handed the folder back to Merrick. “If Mountain Man thinks it’s good, I’m in.”
Kenna pointed her kitchen knife. “Don’t call him that. I’ll stab you.”
I held up my hands. “I’m terrified of all five feet of you.”
“Keep going,” she warned. “See what happens. I know ten ways to kill a man without getting caught.”
Merrick wrapped an arm around her. “And I know ten ways to hide a body.”
Dinner was full of laughter and conversation. Kenna ribbed me while Merrick kept the cold beers coming. It was the kind of night that reminded you that blood didn’t run in your veins. That the people who mattered most were the ones who had your back, no matter what.
Afterward, Merrick and I walked the trail that led to the clubhouse from his house.
He and Reaper had cut paths through the fifty-some acres owned by the club for Kenna and Eva to walk their dogs.
The overprotective bastards didn’t like to let their old ladies leave their sight, especially since both had survived violent encounters at the hands of other men.
By the time we strolled up to the clubhouse, a bonfire was burning high, and the unexpectedly cool June night had the entire club outside. Over the raucous laughter, the chorus of wildlife swelled—cicadas, katydids, and crickets singing along with the occasional howl of a coyote.
Thane stood, lifting his whiskey to get everyone’s attention. The chatter died down in an instant.
“Mavericks,” Thane started, his gravelly voice thick with the authority that made him a strong president. “Coast hasn’t been a prospect long, but he’s proven loyalty, strength, and grit. He’s earned his patch.”
Cheers erupted. Coast looked both proud and uncomfortable with the attention. Thane slapped the patch against his chest before clasping his neck in a rough hug.
“And, it’s also time to patch in Bayou.”
Hoots and hollers sounded from the men. Bayou had hung around the club longer than most. He had insisted he wait to prospect once his life settled after gaining full custody of his daughter and working through the courts to ensure his ex never saw the light of day after what she’d let happen to their little girl.
“We’ll need more prospects now,” Reaper joked. “Somebody’s got to clean up this shit in the morning.”
“Yeah,” I laughed. “I’m sure as fuck not doing it.” I stood, ready to grab another beer.
“Get the Woodford,” Thane barked to no one in particular.
Coast started to head in, but I pressed him back. “I’ll get it. Enjoy your moment.”
Reaper shouted after me. “Leah’s going to skin you alive for stealing whiskey from her bar.”
“Can’t argue with Prez’s orders,” I countered.
I strode into the empty clubhouse, and from the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of raven hair. Merci sat alone in the corner, nursing a drink.
“Thought you were moving in with Merrick,” I said as I approached.
She wiped her face hurriedly. “Just needed a drink before I headed over there,” she said, her voice cracking.
I paused, taking in her swollen eyes and mascara-streaked cheeks. “Hey, what’s going on?”
She tried to force a smile. “I’m fine. Shitty day at work.”
I rubbed her shoulder, not sure what to say or how to stop whatever pain had wound her so tight. She tensed as I sat beside her.
“Go back to the party. I just need a few.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Want to talk about it?”
She shook her head.
“You know what always helps clear my head?”
“If you say a blowjob, I will break this glass over your skull and then stitch you up with a crochet hook.”
My lips tugged into a smile. “I was going to suggest a ride on my bike.”
She seemed to consider it for a moment. “I would love that,” she breathed. “Until last night, I hadn’t been on a bike since my dad died.”
The quiet pain in her tone made my gut wrench. I remembered Merci occasionally riding along with Maxwell when I was a prospect. Before the lung cancer took over when she was only fourteen.
I grabbed a spare helmet stashed behind the bar and handed it to her. She followed me to the parking lot and smiled as I put on my own. Thane would find someone else to deliver the whiskey when I disappeared.
“Glad to see you’re wearing one of these.”
“Yeah, there was this annoying doctor who kept nagging me about safety and shit.”
“She sounds smart,” she quipped.
“Maybe,” I hummed.
“I bet she was hot, too.”
I knocked down my visor before she could catch my expression. “Get on the bike.”
I tried to ignore how it felt to have Merci’s chest pressed against my back, her legs squeezing around my hips at every turn.
The cooling night air did nothing to slow the heat building between us.
I slowed around a corner, taking a turn onto a dusty dirt road.
My bike rumbled down the path before I stopped.
I toed the kickstand down, and Merci swung her leg over and unclipped her helmet. Her eyes already shone brighter.
I hung our helmets on the handlebars. “Follow me,” I ordered, walking toward a path without waiting for her.
When we reached the opening at the end, the moonlight bounced off the water, casting an ethereal glow around the small pond.
Fireflies sparked in the low grass, and the stars shone in her eyes as she stared at the sight before us.
“Used to come here a lot as a teen,” I murmured. “When I needed to think. When I needed quiet.” When I wondered what I had done to deserve what I had. Or didn’t.
Merci looked at me with questions but didn’t voice them. I slipped off my boots and socks and rolled up my jeans, stepping to the edge of a large boulder that let me dangle my feet in the water. She hesitated for a moment before doing the same.
We sat in comfortable silence as the minutes ticked by. She released a shaky breath, and I wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
“I lost a patient today …” Merci trailed off. “She wasn’t just a patient. We grew up together. We were friends in high school. One second, they were just one happy family. The next, she was gone. Now, her husband is raising two kids on his own.”
“At least they have their dad,” I suggested.