Chapter Six
Pike
How the fuck did Chloe master that broken waif look that made everyone within a ten-mile fucking radius just want to protect her?
She looked so broken while she tried to look brave, thinking that we were kicking her to the curb.
She held back tears with clenched jaws as she assured us she’d clear out by the end of day.
It was goddamn infuriating, the way she summoned all of her strength and all anyone wanted to do was protect her.
It had to be some fucking cosmic joke, the universe was punishing me with this shit, making the one woman in the world I wanted fuck all to do with look like that.
It wasn’t that she was pretty even though she was a fucking knockout, it was that vulnerability that she refused to use as a weapon.
Diesel stepped in front of me, and dropped his hands to my shoulders. “I know you’re hurting brother. This shit fucking sucks up one way and down the other, I know. But we have a job to do.”
I nodded because I knew he was right. MC business didn’t stop because we were sick or injured or grieving. Protecting the club and our interests was a twenty-four-seven job.
“This isn’t a punishment,” he promised, his voice low and gentle. “It’s a chance for you to deal with your grief and your anger. It’ll be quiet up there so you can get your head back on straight. You’ve been a mess these past four months. For your own good you need to take a break.”
I nodded again. “Yeah, I got it, Diesel. Seriously, I do.”
“Good. I’m counting on you, Pike.”
And I would die before I let Diesel and the MC down. I wasn’t totally sure that I could do it, but I would damn well try. “I got this,” I said with more confidence than I felt. “I should, uh, talk to her.” Before anyone—including myself—could talk me out of it, I went after Chloe and Faith.
They weren’t in the bar area, and the front door was closed.
I turned right to go down the hall that led to the back door, but their voices stopped me halfway there.
I stopped and turned with a simple plan, tell Chloe about the plan.
She and Gemma would listen to me, they would do what I said, and they would live.
But before I could knock, their voices grew louder.
“He hates me, Faith. He rightfully blames me for Ash’s death, and I just can’t. I won’t,” Chloe said.
At least she was aware of the situation. More conversation was muffled behind the door before Chloe’s shouted words echoed loud and clear.
“It’s cruel to force him to look at my face every day, a constant reminder that his only remaining family is gone. I can’t do that to him. I won’t!”
Shit. Motherfucking shit. Her words were like a gut punch. And a chest punch. And a karate kick straight to the dick. This shit was why I didn’t want to do this, why I couldn’t spend time with her. I’d been nothing but a next-level asshole to her and she was thinking about my feelings.
“Don’t do this to him, please. Talk to the others and make them see how wrong this is, Faith. Please!”
I’d heard enough, hell I heard too fucking much, and I didn’t feel like staying for more. My fist, raised and ready to knock, fell back to my side and I was getting ready to walk away when the door opened.
Faith stood between us, her back to me giving me an unobstructed view of Chloe’s tear-stained face. Her sad green eyes.
That was when I finally walked away.
***
Tonight was my last night of peace and quiet for the foreseeable future, and I planned to take advantage of it with a few beers, maybe some takeout and Metallica.
That plan was shot to shit when I pulled up at my apartment and found Falcon and T-Bone waiting for me.
“I don’t remember sending out any invitations. ”
T-Bone grinned and shook his head as he pushed off his bike. “Figured you could use some company tonight. Shit’s been crazy but tonight it’s just us.”
I walked past them both. “Figured you’d be with your woman,” I grumbled at my best friend. “And figured you’d be with a woman.”
Falcon was impossible to offend and he only shrugged, letting out a low laugh. “There will always be a willing woman waiting. Tonight my brother needs me.” He clapped me on the back and raised a case of beer. “I brought supplies.”
“Pizza and wings are on the way,” T-Bone added when I unlocked the door.
“I guess now I can’t turn you fuckers away.”
Falcon snickered. “Like you want to be alone tonight.”
Dammit he was right about that. When I was alone thoughts of Ash invaded and I tried to drown them out with booze, but that shit didn’t work, no matter how much I drank. I ended up drunk and miserable with even more thoughts of my baby sister invading my mind. “I’m fine.”
“You don’t have to be.” T-Bone’s voice was filled with concern that both grated and relieved me. “You gonna be able to do this?”
I shrugged but I gave his question serious thought, accepting a cold beer from Falcon. I didn’t know how I would do it, but I knew I had to. “Yeah. I mean even if she’s not my favorite person, I hate the Ghost Riders more. That kind of makes us allies.” That was the lie I was telling myself anyway.
Falcon finished putting some beers in the fridge and laughed. “That’s some impressive twisting you’re doing. Maybe you ought to be a gymnast.”
I flipped him off and took another long pull of beer. I smiled, one of the first genuine smiles in months.
T-Bone didn’t smile back. “You didn’t see her when we found her in the cabin, Pike. I know this is complicated as fuck for you, but she’s been through hell twice and whatever you feel about Ash, she feels it times ten. She blames herself and she won’t stop beating herself up over it.”
I snorted. “On that we agree.”
He stared at me as if he didn’t know me. “She wants me and Faith to take Gemma, to keep her safe while the Ghost Riders hunt her.”
“Whoa,” Falcon added, draining his beer. “That’s intense.”
He nodded. “She doesn’t want you to have to protect her and she doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt.”
“I’m doing this, man, I don’t know what the fuck else you want from me. I’ll keep her and the girl safe. I give you my word.” She wasn’t the only person who’d been through shit in her life and hers was no worse than anybody else’s. “She’s safe.”
T-Bone sighed, nodding slowly. “I know you wouldn’t physically hurt her, Pike, fuck man, I know that.”
I snorted. “Gee, thanks.”
“You don’t know fuck.” He shook his head. “He beat the fuck out of her for years. Broken bones, miscarriages, torture, and humiliation. He broke her and she scares easily so if you could just… take it easy on her. For me.”
“Fine,” I growled and stood to get another beer. “I’ll be nice. I’ll treat the girl who got my sister killed like the spun glass she is.”
T-Bone stared at me for so long I was sure he was debating beating my ass or just putting a bullet in my thigh. Then he spoke, just two words that stopped my shitty behavior. “Lyle Hernandez.”
My jaw clenched tight at the name of the man who almost assaulted my sister, would have if not for T-Bone. “Fine. Fucker.”
We drank and laughed while rock music played, doing its best to make some of this aching fucking pain go away. It was almost enough to make me forget everything. Almost but not quite. I’d never forget that a piece of me was gone and would never return.
And just like that the pain was back, pulsing through me with the force of a hurricane. I drank two more beers, enough to knock me out without a hangover in the morning and then I hit the sack.
Where I sure as fuck didn’t dream about a woman with haunting green eyes and a perpetual sadness that made me feel shit I didn’t want to feel.