15. Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Fifteen
Evie
“ I don’t need to go to rehab. I’m doing just fine.”
My mom glared up at me from the couch and I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose as I tried to keep from shouting at her. I understood that addiction wasn’t some cut-and-dry thing that people could stop whenever they wanted, but I wished she would at least want to be sober.
“The trash can full of bottles and cans would suggest otherwise,” Tucker said from where he leaned against the wall, watching the exchange.
“You talk big for a high school dropout, biker trash.”
“That’s enough,” I snapped. “The Bradshaws are doing what they’ve always done—helping us. I know Sue and Levi have been coming by to check on you.”
“Always sticking their noses in my business.” Mom crossed her arms, looking more like a little kid in time-out than a mother.
“You can’t stay here right now.” I tried another tactic. “It’s not safe.”
“And why is that?” Mom tilted her head, eyes glittering with something I didn’t want to put a name to. “What did you do?”
“She didn’t do anything,” Tucker cut into the conversation again. “Some people are just assholes.”
“Look,” I said. “Think of it like a vacation, okay? This is a high-end facility. Celebrities go there to dry out.”
“A vacation where I can’t drink and everyone tells me I’m a fuckup doesn’t sound like much of a vacation to me.”
Time to treat her like the kid she was behaving like. “If you go to rehab, follow all the rules, and finish the program, I’ll buy you that Gucci purse you want.”
She looked at me, considering, and then said, “Shoes too.”
“Fine. Shoes too,” I agreed. “But you have to complete the program and not break any of their rules.”
“Whatever.”
She wasn’t happy, but I didn’t care about that. She would be safe. And maybe she’d actually stay sober this time. Not forever, because I’d learned a long time ago not to hope for that, but maybe long enough for us to have a couple good days together.
“Car’s here,” Tucker said a few minutes later.
After letting the driver know that she’d get a tip at the rehab center and that my mom couldn’t offer her more money, I put Mom in the car and watched it drive away.
“Thank you,” I said quietly, not looking over at Tucker.
“For what?”
“For not thinking I’m a horrible daughter for not taking her there myself.”
He made an amused sound. “Evie, you’re a hundred times the daughter that woman deserves. Most people would’ve just cut her out of their lives for good, but you bought her a house and paid all the bills…hired a housekeeper.”
“I’m sorry she made that crack about you dropping out of school.” I turned toward him. “You’re still the smartest person I know.”
He grinned at me. “Don’t worry about it. I like handling the tech stuff for the club.” Shoving his hands in his pockets, he added, “Speaking of the club, we should probably head back there. It’s still the safest place for you—Levi wasn’t happy about you wanting to stay here last night.” He winked. “But I’ll bet he’s glad he caved on it.”
I rolled my eyes like I didn’t care, even though I knew I was blushing. I’d been conflicted enough about liking both Tucker and Mason. Now, if Tucker was right and Levi hadn’t been just wanting to get off last night but actually liked me, I had one more guy to throw into the mix. Except Tucker insisted I didn’t need to choose because they wanted to share me.
Share me.
And now that Mom was taken care of and I was going back to the clubhouse, I couldn’t put off thinking about it any longer.
On the back of Tucker’s bike, with my arms wrapped around his middle and the scent of his leather cut filling my nose, it was easy to think we could make this work, but I didn’t want to make my decision based on that. Even though there were times when Mason and Tucker had been decent to me, there were more memories of times they’d joined in with Levi to torment me. And I would be lying if I said they’d never made me cry.
But we were all grown now, and I felt a lot more comfortable standing up for myself. And if they already wanted to be with me enough that they were talking about ways to make it happen, I had to think that they’d listen to me if I called them out about being jerks. Plus, Jenna’s response to me telling her about what happened between her brothers and me made me believe that it wouldn’t hurt our friendship or her relationship with them.
As we pulled up to the gate of the clubhouse, Tucker stiffened. I peeked around him to see what was wrong. Everything I’d been running through in my head vanished, and I stared at the chaos around the main house. My grip on Tucker tightened as he raced through the now-open gate and up to where men were standing by their bikes, gesturing wildly and shouting.
“Judge!” Tucker yelled as he turned off his bike. “What the hell is going on here?!”
“Fucking Cobras,” Judge spat out. “Cowards hit a bunch of our guys when they were helping Junkyard’s old lady clear out her parents’ house.”
“Who’s hurt?”
The tension in Tucker’s voice was my first clue that someone I cared about could be on that list.
“Junkyard dislocated his shoulder,” Judge said. “The one he fucked up in that wreck a few years back. Mason took a bullet—”
I was running toward the clubhouse before Judge finished his sentence. Tucker called my name, but I ignored him. If Levi was hurt too, I’d find out soon enough. Right now, I knew Mason was injured and I needed to see him. Heads turned my way as I ran past other bikers, but no one tried to stop me.
The door to Mason’s room was closed, but I didn’t care. I opened it, my heart in my throat as I braced myself for what I might see. The first thing I registered was that Mason was sitting up in his bed, shirtless, with patches of blood drying on one side of his body. Then I saw the woman sitting on the chair next to the bed. She looked to be in her late thirties, with dark red hair and a serious expression on her face.
“Hey, Evie.” Mason smiled at me, but I could see the pain in his eyes. It twisted something in me that wouldn’t have been touched if I was only lusting after him.
The woman spoke up. “He’s going to be fine.” She stood and pulled off the latex glove she was wearing before holding out her hand. “I’m Lara, Chief’s old lady.”
The jealousy that had spiked when I first saw her faded. I knew enough about biker culture to understand that I didn’t have any reason to be jealous. Not that I would’ve had one anyway, since I hadn’t staked any sort of claim on Mason or any of the Bradshaw brothers.
“I’m also a nurse,” Lara added with a smile that made me think she knew exactly what’d been going through my head. “I patch up the guys whenever things aren’t bad enough for them to need a hospital.”
“Judge said you’d been shot.” Tucker’s voice came from behind me.
“Grazed,” Mason said.
“A little more than that,” Lara corrected. “He’s got a groove about three inches long across his ribs.”
“Went right through my damn cut,” Mason said.
“If he hadn’t been wearing it, he’d have needed more than a cleaning and stitches,” Lara said.
“I’m gonna have a wicked scar.” Mason looked down at his side where I could now see a white bandage.
“I’ll leave you to handle cleaning up,” Lara said. She nodded at me. “Nice to officially meet you, Evie.”
“You good, Mason?” Tucker asked as Lara left the room.
Mason’s eyes locked with mine as he nodded. “Levi’s gonna want to see you. He should be in his office.”
Before the door closed behind me, I was at Mason’s side. I didn’t think, didn’t talk. I just did what I needed to do to reassure myself that he was okay.
I kissed him.