Chapter 5
Heavy, ain’t it? kept replaying in my head. Even though I knew Kairo was talking about the card, my mind went elsewhere. There was something about him that made me even more curious. He barely spoke, but when he did, I listened. He had this mysterious demeanor and didn’t appear to be friendly, but I knew there was more to him, and I was intrigued. We made our way out of the restaurant and Kairo made it his business to hold the door for me again.
Kairo finally made it in the driver seat before turning on the engine. A part of me wasn’t ready for our time to end. I knew once we made it back to my house, I would go upstairs, and he would go to his new assigned room.
“Hey, can we make one more stop?”
He didn’t huff or puff. He didn’t even roll his eyes. “What’s the address?” he asked.
I fired off the address and he put it in his GPS. Once the voice gave him directions, he turned on the music, and we rode to the destination. He gripped the steering wheel with one hand while nodding his head to the music. I would be lying if I said his actions didn’t make my sweet spot quiver.
I did my very best to stay away from anybody that was affiliated with anything that involved a motorcycle club. All of them were the same. They only cared about the club and the club only. With Kairo, though, I felt like there was more to him than just the club. With my horrible traits of wanting to know anything about any and everybody, I couldn’t help but wonder what made him different.
Forty-five minutes had passed, and we arrived at the destination. Kairo parked the car and shut off the engine. He placed his hand on his gun and looked over at me.
“Where are we?”
My eyes moved from his gun to his eyes. “Calm down, killer. This is my family’s property.”
I understood why he had his hand on his gun and why he was on guard. We were in the middle of nowhere. It was a long stretched, two lane highway. There were no other houses in sight. The only thing in front of him was a big, long warehouse. The only car on the property was ours.
“Why we out here?” His eyes bounced from me to the property then back to me.
“I wanted to show you something.”
“Who else out here?”
“Kairo, please relax. It’s just us. Damn. I’m not no dirty person. Why would I set you up? You ain’t did shit to me!” He looked at me for a while. I knew he was trying to read me to determine if I was telling the truth. He slowly removed his hand from his gun. “Now if you’re done being paranoid, come on.”
I jumped out of the car, not waiting for him to reply. He moved at a slow pace while I anxiously waited.
“What we doing here?” he asked, annoyed.
He still had his guard up. His eyes continued to bounce back and forth. He turned his head from side to side with each step.
I sucked my teeth as we made our way to the front of the warehouse. “I told you I had to show you something.”
“Junie, I’m telling you now if this is on some weird shit, I don’t give a fuck who it is, they dying.”
I shook my head. “You are a fucking crash out. I told you, I’m not here to set you up. You think I would make the shit that obvious?”
He mumbled something under his breath, but I ignored him. I typed in the code to the door and waited for the latches to unlock. Excitement shot through my body when I heard the last latch unlock. I reached for the door, and with a hard push, the cool air hit me straight in the face. Before turning on the lights, I glanced at the door and saw Kairo still standing at the door.
“Kairo, come on. Why are you still standing outside?”
“Turn the lights on first.”
“My damn, it’s never that deep.”
I flipped the switch, and the lights cut on one at a time. Each light illuminated the many bikes that we had collected over the years. I looked at Kairo with a smirk on my face. He slowly made his way into the warehouse. I noticed he had his gun by his side. I couldn’t help but shake my head.
“Like what you see?”
He looked at me with those deep, dark, mysterious eyes. To someone who was never around people that were dark, they would have seen an empty soul. I saw someone who was like a kid in a candy store, though.
He nodded. “Yeah, this shit kind of fire.”
I sucked my teeth. “Kind of is an understatement,” I said, walking toward him. “You know this shit is sick as fuck.”
He chuckled. My honeypot leaked. Kairo’s laugh was rare. It wasn’t over the top, but it was enough to bring a smile to my face.
“All these your pops?” he asked.
“Stop insulting me, Kairo.”
He looked at me. “One of these belong to you?”
“One?”
I grabbed his hand, not missing the electric shock that shot through my body. I played it off by dragging him in the direction of my bikes. When we made it to the very back of the warehouse, we stood in front of a row of eight beautiful custom-made bikes that ranged from cruisers and touring to sport. They were either white, pink, black, or blue. Every bike had Junebug painted on it.
“This you?” he asked, pointing at the bikes with his thumb.
I nodded like a proud mama. “All me.”
I proudly smiled at my bikes. I had ridden all of them multiple times. The mood I was in determined which bike I rode. I looked at him to see if he was impressed, but he still had a straight look on his face.
“Not impressed?” I asked, slightly offended.
“Nah, I am.”
I folded my arms across my chest and rolled my eyes. “I can’t tell.”
For the first time since showing him my bikes, he looked at me. “What you want me to do? Jump and down? Cut a cartwheel?”
The feeling of being offended made it’s way throughout my body. My bikes were my babies, and each one meant something to me. For Kairo to be standing here unimpressed bothered me. It wasn’t my thing to show people my bikes, which were my outlet from this crazy evil world.
“Fuck it. Let’s go.”
I felt embarrassed that I thought this could be a great way to break the ice between us. I spun on my heels, heading for the door, but I felt Kairo’s hand in mine. Chills ran from my head down to my toes. His rough and comforting touch made me shudder. Kairo’s hands were warm and strong. The grip he had on my hand was just enough for me to swoon. I didn’t bother to turn around because he would’ve seen just what his touch did to me.
“Which one is your favorite?” he asked.
In any other situation, I would’ve left him where he stood, but there was something about him that I still hadn’t figured out that made me spin around to face him. As soon as I faced him, he made sure his eyes were locked with mine. The coldness in his eyes had softened and it looked as if he was interested.
“Um… this one.”
I pointed at the pearl white 2011 Harley Road King. It was a custom color, and when it made its way into the sun, there were smalls specs of glitter on it. The bars were chrome and the rims were also. There was a big wheel at the front with crystals around the center of the tire.
“A street glider?” Kairo asked. “I thought you would’ve picked one of the sport ones.”
I laughed. “Don’t get me wrong. I love to go fast, but this one was my mother’s. She hated fast bikes. She wanted something that stood out but was safe enough for her to ride. It was baby blue, but after she died, I got it painted white.”
“White was her favorite color?”
I shook my head. “Nah, baby blue was. I painted it white because it symbolized everything I saw in my mother. She was pure, peaceful, honest, and perfect. Any time I feel stressed or worked up, I come ride. It feels like my mother is with me.”
I felt myself getting choked up, which was why I stopped speaking. The goal of showing Kairo the bikes was to prove my point, not to make the moment sentimental.
“Take me on a ride.”
My head shot up at him. “Huh?”
“You heard me. Let me see what you can do.”
It wasn’t as if I didn’t know how to ride, but the idea of driving him made me nervous. I’d been operating motorcycles half my life, so it didn’t make sense why my mind drew a blank on how to operate a motorcycle.
“I only got one helmet.”
He shrugged. “That’s cool.” I hesitated. He must have noticed. “Nah, I’m good without. If you’re as good as you say you are, I trust you to keep me safe.”
“Um…”
“Go get the keys, Junie.”
The way my name rolled off his tongue straightened my spine. My legs had a mind of their own as I made my way to the key box. I grabbed the one with the angel wings on it before I reached for the black helmet that was on the shelf. Slowly making my way back to the bike, I noticed Kairo studying it. Hopefully he couldn’t tell how nervous I was from my walk. My knees knocked and my heart raced. If he had stethoscope, he would hear my heart beating out of my chest.
“Ready?” I asked, trying to contain the chatter of my teeth.
He nodded. “I’ll walk it out for you.”
He climbed on the bike and walked it out the door. I was thankful for his gesture. Once we finally made it outside, the sun was still shining brightly. I knew eventually it would start to hide.
Kairo got off the bike and made his way to me. He reached for the helmet and prepared to put it on me.
“I don’t need help putting on a helmet, Kairo.” He ignored what I said and slid the helmet on my head. “Ugh! You don’t listen.”
“Junie, get on the bike and stop stalling.” Kairo climbed on the back. “Ready?” he asked once he got comfortable.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” I asked.
“Been ready.”
“Where would you like to go?”
“Just ride, Junie.”
I switched on the ignition, then I revved the bike and checked the mirrors. Seconds later, I was on the road, lost in the ride.