Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Luke adjusted his grip on the steering wheel and reached for the open bag of cheese puffs. As usual, he drove one-handed, focused, and with an attitude that Caleb used to call a stubborn disregard for common sense.
Meanwhile, Holly sat next to him, eating pretzels and holding her cranberry juice like it was a lifeline.
He changed the radio station until Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name” blasted through the truck’s speakers. He drummed the beat on the steering wheel, and the truck rumbled steady beneath them.
Virginia’s green rolling hills stretched wide in either direction, with the rising Shenandoah Mountains coming closer with every mile.
He’d forgotten how beautiful his home state was during the summer.
But when the sign for Gilbert’s Corner blurred past, the weight of everything waiting for him in Kingsmill pressed harder on his chest. He took a few deep breaths to regulate his breathing.
Holly was quiet beside him, curled into the passenger seat with her snacks like she belonged there.
A situation he wasn’t sure about. She’d put on sunglasses and had twisted her ponytail into a messy bun.
She could’ve been asleep if it weren’t for the subtle way she tracked everything out the window.
Watching. Listening. Making him more aware of his own silence.
He liked how she gave him space and didn’t press him for answers. From the way she’d watched him at the convenience store, and noticed the bikers near the gas pumps, she had to have a million questions.
The buzz of his phone sitting in a holder on the dash broke the quiet. His twin brother Abe.
Luke flicked his thumb across the screen and answered. “You’re on speaker, bro, and Holly is next to me. Tell me you’re halfway to Virginia.”
“Delayed again,” Abe grumbled. “Maine is a mess from these storms.”
Luke exhaled. This was not good news. He really didn’t want to return home without his twin beside him. “Tell me you’re still coming.”
“I’d never leave you alone in this, but it’s gonna be tight. Once I land, I’ll grab Holly’s phone. I already talked to some kid named Edmund, and he put the phone in the safe until I get there.”
“Thanks.” Luke glanced sideways. Holly had taken off her glasses and was now smiling.
“I also spoke with Clara. She said if I don’t make it to the tux fitting this afternoon that you can just grab a duplicate of whatever fits you. If it works for you, it’ll work for me.”
“Whatever.” He hated sounding like a contrary teen, but he’d been counting on Abe being with him for the entire weekend, from the tux fitting, all the wedding events, straight through to the Memorial Day picnic on Monday. “Maybe you can drive.”
Abe’s laugh sounded like a snort. “It’s at least seven hundred miles, brother.” There was a pause. Then Abe’s voice dropped a notch. “You sure about us going back for this wedding?”
Did Abe not know how speakers on phones worked?
Luke stole a look at Holly again, and now she was staring directly at the phone, as if she wanted to say something to Abe. Except she didn’t.
Well, this was awkward. “Hawk is our cousin. We’ve already missed most of our brothers’ weddings, as well as Uncle Gage’s wedding. We have to go back. Besides, if we don’t Jacob will probably come after us with Caleb’s arsenal.”
Abe snorted. “Probably. And this thing with Eve and Damian—”
“I don’t want to talk about this now. Just let me know when you land.” Luke ended the conversation, already hating that he’d hung up on his twin. Luckily, out of all of his five brothers, Abe was the most understanding.
“Who is Jacob? And Clara?” Holly had put her sunglasses on again and watched the rolling land give way to the beginnings of Virginia’s mountain country.
The hills were green and shaggy, streaked with late-summer wildflowers, but clouds had begun to gather in the distance—dark and ominous, slipping down over the tops like a dark veil.
The road narrowed to one lane each direction, and he checked his speed. “My eldest brother, Jacob. And Clara is his wife.”
“And you’re really the youngest of six?”
“I think so.” He shrugged. “Abe and I are identical twins, and I’ve often wondered if they got confused as to who was actually born first.”
She chuckled. “I have to give your mother credit for having six sons.”
“Not too much credit. My mother left us on my second birthday.”
He heard her intake of breath and he appreciated that she didn’t ask any more questions. He was surprised he’d even told her. She was, in fact, the first woman he’d ever admitted that to.
“I’m sorry, Luke.” Her soft voice flowed over him and he relaxed his grip on the wheel.
Neither one of them spoke as he drove along the winding highway, even slower now that he was driving through the micro town of Aldie.
Holly glanced at the dashboard clock. “Is it really almost two?”
“Yep. I’m starving—what the hell?” A roar of engines, loud and layered, swelled behind them. He glanced in his rearview mirror and saw chrome bikes glinting in the sunlight.
Holly sat up, alert.
The pack swept past on his left, like a storm.
A dozen bikes, black and steel, patched with the skull of the Devil’s Renegades.
Ravensburg Chapter. They rode tight, like a flock of black birds.
One of them—huge, wearing a leather vest and sunglasses—veered over the center line and gunned his engine, barreling past the truck on the left, even as the road curved sharply right.
“Luke!” Holly gasped.
Another followed, then two more. The last bike passed with inches to spare between them and a battered van coming the other way. That biker threw up a hand in salute as they passed.
Luke didn’t return it.
Holly clutched the arm rests. “They almost killed us.”
“They do that.”
He didn’t explain that once, those were his people.
That he and Abe had, for a brief moment, been prospects.
That some of his older brothers had been fully patched members.
That his blood ran in that chapter—and that it hadn’t been enough.
Not when Caleb turned on him. Not when the club looked the other way.
Not when he and Abe had left town together without even saying goodbye to their older brothers.
“Are those bikers headed to your cousin’s wedding?” she asked.
“Possibly. That was Eagle in the lead. Sergeant-at-Arms of the Ravensburg, Virginia chapter. If he’s riding point, they’re either going to Kingsmill for the wedding or heading to the club’s summer camp hideout.”
He hoped it was the latter. He had no interest in dealing with any of those men. Hopefully Abe would arrive before he saw his real brothers. He wasn’t a coward, but he didn’t want to face the family alone. Not after being gone for so many years.
Holly didn’t ask a ton of probing questions, but he felt the heat of her stare. “Holly, in light of my family’s drama, are you sure you want to get barbecue with me?”
Her stomach growled loudly, and they both began to laugh.
“I’m an only child, Luke,” she said, gazing out the window again. “I spent my life wishing for family drama. So, yes, I still want to go to lunch with you.”
He didn’t know what to say to that. Holly, with her mysterious background and quiet eyes, had slipped under his skin too fast. He wasn’t sure what scared him more. That he wanted to know her better, or that she might see right through him if he let her in.
The road curved toward Middleburg, and the bikes ahead vanished over the rise. Home was still hours away, along with all the ghosts that came with it.
When he turned off onto a dirt road, he turned the radio’s volume up to hear Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” through the speakers, and his mood lightened.
“You really like ‘80s hair bands?” she asked, her voice a little breathless.
He grinned. “You saying you don’t?”
“I’m saying it’s a very specific choice for a man who surfs for a living.”
“You’d be surprised how many waves I’ve nailed because of Whitesnake.”
She laughed, and when he glanced at her, their gazes caught for just a moment too long, before his attention went back to the road.
Now the silence between them felt different. Charged, like the truck had been zapped by a lightning bolt. That’s when he noticed how close they were sitting. How warm the cab was. How her lily-of-the-valley scent filled his lungs, making his vision blur and his skin hot.
He shifted in his seat, adjusted the AC, and took another drink of his warm soda. “You’re going to love this BBQ place. Kev, Abe’s army buddy, owns it.”
“I can’t wait.” She looked away, but her cheeks appeared flushed.
Just as he pulled into a dirt parking lot, between a huge outdoor smoker and lines of picnic tables tucked beneath white tents, thunder rolled across the mountains. That’s when the rain began to fall.
* * *
Holly sat at a picnic table, on a bench, beneath a tent, and sipped her sweet tea. She hid her grimace until she realized that Luke wasn’t paying attention to her. He sat across from her, completely absorbed in his plate of ribs, cornbread, and coleslaw.
The rain had come and gone quickly, and Luke had told her that was what mountain storms did. They swept in fast, got loud, and were soon forgotten.
Water dripped rhythmically from the canvas tent above them, but the air smelled rich, soaked with the scent of wet leaves and hickory smoke from the outdoor cookers a few yards away.
She wiped barbecue sauce from her fingers with a napkin, watching Luke demolish a pile of brisket like he hadn’t eaten in days. His sharp jawline, brown stubble, and tattooed forearms tanned and muscular were all focused on one thing—his slab of ribs.
He hadn’t spoken much since they'd sat down with their food, just grunted in contentment and occasionally moaned in appreciation. It was, in a weird way, kind of hot.
His phone buzzed on the table. It took him a moment to wipe his hands and drink some of his iced tea before he answered. “Hey, Abe. You still in Maine?”