Chapter 5
Overdrive
Camila looked over at me and pushed pause on the remote. The TV froze. “You’re bored out of your mind.”
I’d been hanging out with her for five days.
We’d finally broke down and hired a couple employees to run our store since we’d been so busy.
This was a time where I was glad for that decision.
It’d only been days, yet I couldn’t get Rue out of my damn mind.
I wanted to go scour the city looking for her.
I wanted to go to war against whoever’d given her that black eye.
She was so damn closed off though, there was no way she’d tell me what happened.
It was driving me nuts not knowing. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know anything about the woman.
In fact, that was part of the problem. I wanted to.
Bored wasn’t my problem. Far from it. My mind was racing with a thousand things to do, and my woman wasn’t helping with any of them.
I was also ignoring the fact that I’d started thinking of Rue as my woman.
“Why don’t you go out?” Camila suggested. “I’m fine here.”
“The last time I left you alone you ended up in the hospital,” I reminded her, absently stuffing some popcorn into my mouth.
“That’s not going to happen again,” Camila chided. “Is that why you’ve been sticking so close?”
I sent her an amused look. Of course it was. I already couldn’t hand her back over to Kilo in pristine condition. He was going to be pissed. I didn’t need her accidentally hurting herself again and having to explain that, too.
“Kilo will be home tomorrow…”
“And tonight we’re going to finish watching,” I winced as I said it, “Gone with the Wind.”
Camila laughed at the look on my face. “I’m sure you’ve just been dying to watch this.”
“Pretty sure I could’ve gone my whole life without seeing it,” I muttered around another mouthful of popcorn.
“You-” She broke off with a gasp as the front door opened and Kilo stepped inside. “Kilo!” She was off the couch like a shot and in his arms before either of us could say anything.
He frowned at me. “Why does she have a cast on her arm?”
“I broke my wrist. I thought you weren’t getting home until tomorrow?” she asked, one arm still wrapped around him.
“We decided to leave a bit early,” he told her, then looked over her head at me. “Why didn’t I know she broke her wrist?”
“I’ll tell you all about it,” Camila said, then turned and gave me a meaningful look. She was trying to keep me out of trouble. It wasn’t going to work, but I could deal with that tomorrow.
Giving Kilo a taunting grin, I stood and strode out the door before he could ask any more of the questions I knew he was dying to. It was better that I saw him after he’d cooled down a bit. Not that he was going to stay mad for long since his old lady and kid were fine. Mostly fine.
He probably wouldn’t trust me to watch over her again, but that just meant no more girly movies. It also meant no more home cooked meals. Damn. Camila was a hell of a cook and I had a big appetite.
I trotted out to my motorcycle before Kilo could chase me down, and decided to go for a drive. I wasn’t looking for Rue, or so I told myself. That would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. But her pretty green eyes kept flashing through my mind.
Without thinking, I made the turn that would take me to the hospital.
Didn’t hurt to check on her. Not like I was randomly scanning for ambulances.
She was clearly involved in something. Tripping wouldn’t account for that bruise on her face.
For the black eye. I wasn’t sure how to get such a guarded woman to trust me.
I didn’t usually have to work to get women to talk to me.
Flash them a smile, flirt a bit, and they were usually like putty in my hands. Not this one. Something told me she was going to be stubborn. I enjoyed a challenge.
I waited there for about forty minutes, watching people come and go from the ER before I finally took off.
“Fucking idiot,” I muttered to myself as I drove toward the clubhouse.
I didn’t feel like going home and I knew the majority of my brothers would be there, hanging out together now that they were back from the Colorado run.
Waiting around at the hospital on the off chance I’d see Rue again was stupid, but it was all I had. I didn’t have her number—I’d given her mine but hadn’t taken hers—or know where she lived. What else was a guy supposed to do?
Parking my bike, I walked into our clubhouse and grinned as the guys called out to me. Drifter handed me a beer.
“Seventy-eight,” Flir mumbled, marking down the number in the little notebook he always carried with him.
My brows shot up and I looked over at Relay. “You guys have had seventy-eight beers? They just got back like two hours ago.”
Relay shrugged his shoulders and took the beer that Drifter brought over to him. We all ignored Flir as he scribbled away. “They’ve been gone. We all deserve to cut loose.”
I chuckled and sat down across from Strike and Code. “I know; I’m just disappointed at how slow it’s going so far. You guys must be getting old.”
“Psft. That’s how much I drink just to be able to sleep,” Relay corrected. “This is a celebration.”
“Right,” Drifter said, eyeing him. “You know it’s a problem if you have to have alcohol to fall asleep, right?”
Relay snorted. “I don’t have a fucking problem.”
“You are a problem,” Mercenary told him with a grin. They tapped bottles together.
I wasn’t sure what the gesture was supposed to mean, but Merc wasn’t wrong. Relay was usually our current problem. Well, him or Code, but for very different reasons. “How was the trip back?” I asked Hype.
“Good. Easy,” Hype said. “Ruck back yet?”
“No. Couple more days.”
“Didn’t even get to pound any heads,” Bolo said in a mournful tone. “Everything went smoothly.”
“Probably a good thing,” I said with a laugh. “Last thing we need is to have to bail you assholes out of jail.”
“Wish I coulda gone,” Strike said with a sigh. “Heard the Colorado crew has some fucking hot bunnies hanging around.”
We hadn’t thrown a real party in about four months, so we didn’t have as many women hanging around the clubhouse these days.
Just Camila, though she always came with food so that was fine by me.
We were too busy working on our apartments and helping out allies to party right now.
Plus, I was starting to think most of the guys were tired of it.
Wasn’t sure how it was possible, but I was there with them.
Bolo groaned. “Smoking hot, but fucking trouble.” He shook his head. “Wasn’t fucking worth it.”
Code’s brows shot up. “Since when do you turn down free pussy?”
“Since it comes attached to crazy,” Bolo replied. “Getting too fucking old for that shit.”
“You’re thirty-five, not eighty,” Relay said with a shake of his head. “The hell is wrong with you?”
Bolo shrugged and took a drink from his bottle. “Just tired, Brother.”
“Of women?” Hype asked in surprise. “Is that even possible?”
“And if it is, how do we make sure it doesn’t happen to us?” Merc added.
“Find yourself a good one like Kilo did,” Bolo suggested. “That’ll straighten you out.” He shoved to his feet. “I’m heading home.”
“Ah.”
Everyone looked over at Flir. He was watching Bolo. “You had sixteen…” he looked down at his notebook, “and a quarter, beers.”
“That’s because I’m responsible,” Bolo told him. “If I was irresponsible I’d have finished that beer.” He stood proudly, as if his logic was sound.
“I’m driving,” I told him, standing and leaving my nearly untouched drink on the table.
I was going to end up driving most of these assholes home.
We were currently in the process of building those new apartments on the club property.
That way we could all stay here if we wanted, or needed to, but they weren’t ready yet.
And these fuckers could pass out on the floor if they had to, but most of them were going to want to get home and sleep in their own beds tonight.
Couldn’t blame them. We were all getting a bit too old for hard wood floors.
Well, except Code. The fucker was only twenty-five.
But the rest of us had done our time sleeping on the ground during the military.
“I can drive myself,” Bolo muttered, scowling at Flir for outing him.
“I’m ready to go, too, if you don’t mind swinging by my place?” Merc asked.
“Twenty-one even,” Flir said, holding Merc’s gaze.
The man was a machine. Hadn’t met anyone yet he couldn’t out drink. Twenty-one beers was light work for him. But he still wouldn’t drive. And him being willing to take a ride home would help force Bolo to accept my help as well.
Merc, Hype, and Code weren’t officers in our club, but they’d been members, and friends, for long enough to know the rest of us as well as we knew them.
I gave Merc a grateful nod. Until Ruck got home I was in charge of this group.
I frowned. Who’d thought that was a good fucking idea?
I wasn’t exactly the most responsible fucker alive, even though I was the VP.
Ruck was the one who kept everything running smoothly.
He had this way of sorting everyone out, and in a way that didn’t ruffle feathers.
I didn’t have that talent. “You’re getting in the fucking cage, Bolo,” I told the huge fucker.
The last damn thing I wanted tonight was a fight. Especially with his ass, but I’d do whatever it took. Riding drunk was a recipe for disaster.
Bolo looked like he was going to argue, then he just sighed. “Fine. But I’ll flip you for the radio.”
“Wait, what?” Merc asked as I eyed Bolo warily.
“Heads, I get the radio, tails you pick the music.” Before I could say anything the fucker had his shoulder thrown into my waist and he threw me over his back. I launched into the air and landed on my face.
“Dammit! Tails. Fine, you get to pick,” he muttered to Merc.
Climbing off the ground, I glared at Bolo.
Using me as the fucking coin was his way of punishing me for forcing him to accept a ride home when he wanted to be alone.
“Anyone else ready to go for now?” I asked the group, brushing myself off.
Still wasn’t worth starting a fight with the asshole.
I didn’t feel like letting him use me to release his anger—mostly because he looked like he was ready to pound something into the ground.
I really didn’t want that to be me. I had too pretty of a damn face to fuck it up.
They all shook their heads.
“No one leaves until I get back,” I said, directing that order at Flir. He’d keep them under control until then. After all, he controls access to the booze.
Ignoring the insults they hurled my way as I walked out of the clubhouse, I grinned.
They sure could be assholes, but fuck if I didn’t love them for it.
Playing taxi cab driver would keep me busy for the night, so I didn’t do anything else stupid.
Like going back to sit at the hospital for hours.
Although I did think about breaking a few heads and calling random ambulances to see if she’d show up. I’d keep that as a last resort.
Looking over at Bolo as I started up the SUV, I studied him. “You good, Brother?”
He was staring out the window. “I’m fine.”
He wasn’t a big sharer on the best of days, but something was bothering him.
Didn’t mean I was stupid enough to push the matter.
Most of these guys opened up in their own time.
You tried to force it and you’d take a fist to the face.
Though, sometimes a good brawl got shit moving.
This wasn’t the time. Maybe tomorrow. When he wasn’t drunk and I wasn’t operating a damn vehicle.
Bolo wouldn’t give a shit if I was driving seventy miles an hour or parked, he’d still belt me if I pissed him off.
Well, maybe my title of vice president would save me a hit. Though only for so long if I kept pushing. Tomorrow. That was better. I dropped the guys off and used the drive back to the clubhouse to come up with a plan for the pretty paramedic.