Chapter Four
Dinah felt so tired.
She hadn’t been able to sleep a lot the past couple of nights. Thankfully, it hadn’t impacted her work, so by the end of Monday, she was more than ready to call it a week. The only problem was she’d be doing all the prom styles, and she was fully booked.
The mothers of the young women had been warned that if she received any bad attitude or disrespect, she would cease working on their hair, and they would have to find someone else.
There was one young woman last year who had even threatened her with her own scissors. Now, Dinah didn’t know how other women handled it, but she had simply packed her stuff up, took the scissors, and left. Simple as that. She provided a service, and she was damn good at it, and no one, not a little bitch or anyone else, was going to threaten her.
It probably helped that her mother often said she had her father’s temper. Not that he’d ever hurt his wife. No, her father had adored his wife, and her parents had been very much in love. When he encountered an asshole, however, that was when trouble arose.
None of it mattered now. Both of her parents were gone.
She walked over to her car, carrying her bag, and came to a stop, when she saw a biker parked right next to her.
“If you have scratched my car or put a dent in it, I swear, you’re paying for a new one,” Dinah said, and looked up to find Road leaning up against the side of her car.
He wore a pair of sunglasses, and lowered them with a smirk on his lips.
“No dent or scratch.”
She shook her head. “I don’t even know why you sound so damn chipper. There is nothing to be chipper about.”
“Wow, you’re grumpy.”
She opened the trunk of her car and put her bag inside. Dropping the lid down, she put her hands on top of it. “Look, it’s getting late, I’m tired. It’s been a long day, and I just want to go home. I don’t want to stand beside my car with a man who a few days ago attempted to kill me.”
“Yeah, sorry about that, but you see, I’ve come to make amends.”
“Make amends. Just leave me alone, that’s all you need to do.”
“I heard the Italian restaurant is a great place to go,” Road said.
Dinah sighed, looked at him, and shook her head. “No, thank you, and last time I checked, I don’t believe leather is on the acceptable dress list.”
“Come on, you have got to give me a chance here.”
“No, I don’t have to give you anything. First, you attack me for no good reason. Then, you invade my home by breaking and entering, and I can’t even call the cops on you. Trust me, I don’t have to do anything.”
He wouldn’t move away from her door.
“Please, I just want to go home.”
“How about a drive-thru, but let me by you dinner?” he said. “You’re clearly exhausted and if you go home, you’ve got to make your own food. Unless you want me to cook for you.”
Dinah couldn’t believe she was even considering this. Her mother had always been a stickler about how unhealthy drive-thru and fast food was. She avoided it as it was her mother’s wish to never eat it. Her mother was raised on good food, as was her father, and Dinah would be as well. Even to this day, she’d never gone for a drive-thru burger.
She didn’t trust Road, but if he was going to keep coming around and pestering her, she needed to figure out a way to stop him.
“Fine, you can cook me dinner,” she said.
“Wait, what?”
“You heard me. My mom would never allow me to eat at one of those places, as she said it was unhealthy. A good, home-cooked meal was ideal, and she always made sure she had the time to cook. Well, guess what, I’ll take you up on your offer to cook for me.”
She had a feeling he was bluffing. Either he’d leave her alone, or he’d cook for her. Both options were a win for her. If he left, then she would put money on him never returning, and if he cooked her dinner, she got a meal out of it.
Road stepped out of the way, and seeing as he already knew the way to her home, she didn’t even wait or offer to have him follow her. Turning over her ignition, she started up her baby and took off, heading home.
She didn’t check in the rearview mirror to see if he was following her. Dinah didn’t know if she even cared if he did or not. There was no way she was going to think about Road, not in any way other than a man who clearly had a very short fuse.
At least they did have something in commo n— their hatred of Sergey Golubev. She had lost so much of her life hating a man she had never met, but had been living with the consequences of what he did. If she ever did meet him, she had played over and again what she would say or do. It didn’t matter, though, because none of it did.
Sergey had hurt her mother, and Dinah believed it had caused her to lose the will to live. She rubbed at her temple as she pulled into the drive of her mother’s hom e— her family home.
Climbing out of the car, she heard his bike and she watched, expecting him to ride past her, but instead he pulled onto the driveway beside her.
“You’re going to do this?” she asked.
“Yeah, I don’t see a reason not to.”
She pursed her lips and then shrugged. “Fair enough.” She walked around to the trunk of her car and popped it open, but Road was there to grab her bag. She didn’t argue with him and waited.
“Thanks,” she said.
She attempted to take it from him, but he wouldn’t let her.
“I’ve got it.”
Dinah wasn’t used to having anyone help her, so it was next to impossible for her to accept it. She didn’t know how she was able to, but she gritted her teeth and then went to her door, sliding her key into the lock. Stepping over her threshold, she moved out of the way, allowing Road to enter.
“You know, it has just come to my attention that you and I have not been formally introduced,” he said.
“True.”
“I’m Road.”
“Dinah.”
He held out his hand and she put hers in his.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dinah.”
“I am not going to say likewise.” She offered him a smile. “I’ll show you the way to the kitchen.”
“You’re really going to make me do this?” he asked.
“I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do. This is all up to you.” She went to the fridge and grabbed herself a bottle of water. “You offered, I accepted, now tell me, Road of the Evil Fallen Bratva MC, are you going to keep your word?” she asked, taking a seat.
For several seconds he stared at her, and she truly thought he was going to back out, but then he clapped his hands, removed his leather cut, placed it on a chair, and headed to the fridge.
“By all means, help yourself to whatever you like,” she said.
He turned to her and she offered him a smile.
She watched as he looked in her fridge, which was fully stocked, as she had already taken care of that. Angela Evans had taught her a great deal. To have great hair care and skin, to always be polite, offer a smile, and never run out of food in the fridge. You could have a bad day, but it would get a lot worse if you can’t even make a decent meal at the end of the day. She missed her mother so much.
It was moments like these when her absence stung the most. When she was prepared to think of her mother, they were easier because she had opened that door and allowed the memories to swarm inside her head. Any other time, she struggled to get her shit together.
Road did surprise her by grabbing a chicken breast, along with a sweet potato. There was onion and garlic, and she smiled as he rummaged through her cupboards.
“Please tell me you have coconut milk?”
“I do.”
She was curious.
He looked at her and she pointed to where he needed to go.
With a snap of his fingers, he had the coconut milk, broth, and he went back to the fridge, to find her open jar of Thai red curry paste.
She was impressed.
Maybe, just maybe, Road had it in him to surprise her.
****
Before the scars, Road knew there were many ways to impress a woman. One of those ways was by cooking for her. He learned the culinary art long before he learned seduction, and he loved to do both.
With Faith at the clubhouse and takeout joints willing to deliver, he didn’t need to cook. He hadn’t cooked for a woman in a very long time. Since before he got the scars. For Dinah, he was breaking that fast, and it felt … odd.
This was not a big elaborate meal, but she looked so exhausted, and he didn’t like that, so a nice Thai chicken and sweet-potato soup was just what Road ordered. It also didn’t take too long to cook.
“So, with what you told me, I take it you followed in your mother’s footsteps to become a hairdresser,” he said, trying to make conversation as he chopped up cilantro and prepared the lime.
“I did,” she said, taking a sip of her water.
“Was it something you always wanted to do?” he asked.
“I … no, don’t get me wrong, I love hairdressing and I still love it now, I really do, but, uh, I actually wanted to become a makeup artist,” Dinah said.
“You did? I thought that was the path your mother was taking.”
“Oh, she was. Her passion was hairdressing, but she knew what I liked, and my mom was so supportive. She wanted to help me understand, so she had started her training when it all happened,” Dinah said.
“And then she stopped.”
“Someone told her that no one would want to see someone like her. It felt like a different time back then, but her clients stopped going to her, and before long, she had no one who wanted her to work on them. I saw how desolate she had become.”
Road watched her. “What about income?”
“Dad had already prepared for the event of bad news.” Dinah smiled. “That is what my dad always did. He always prepared for the worst, and in most instances, it didn’t happen, but he wanted us to be safe. He got his wish. I know Mom was … she was dying inside. Hairdressing was her life, even as a kid. My grandparents would often say if it had any kind of hair, even fake, my mother would style it.” Dinah laughed. “They had pictures of dolls and teddies, anything that had hair. My mom would do some elaborate style, and she loved it.”
“That’s why you did it?”
“I watched my mother become a shell of her former self. The day she came down, and her hair was pulled back into a single ponytail, I knew she was giving up. I couldn’t allow that to happen, so yeah, I grabbed her bag of tools and the heads she kept out in the garage, and I told her to teach me. That if no one wanted my mother’s gift, that was on them, but I was not going to allow her gift and talent to be wasted.”
He saw the tears in her eyes.
“Excuse me.”
Road knew he should have let her go, but he couldn’t. Before she had even left the kitchen, he grabbed her arm and pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her.
“Stop it,” she said.
“Just let it go.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I know, I know, but I’ve got you.”
She sobbed.
He couldn’t help but wonder who had been there for Dinah. Certainly not her friend Raine. The moment Raine had given him the address to get to Dinah, he knew she was useless as a friend, and probably only used Dinah. Now he knew for certain.
At first, her arms were by her sides, she wouldn’t hold onto him, but then it was like she knew he wasn’t going to let her go. She wrapped her arms around him, and he held her tightly. Road had never held anyone like this. No one had ever relied on him.
Over the years, women had grasped him in moments of passion and begged for him to never let them go, but they were women after their own needs. They didn’t care about him. No one had cared about him.
Dinah wasn’t chasing anything from him. In the few days he’d known her, she had tried to push him away.
He wasn’t going to let her go.
She sniffled. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t,” he said. “You don’t need to apologize for feeling grief. You loved your mom.”
“I did.”
“Still, I, ugh, I don’t know where that came from.” She swiped under her eyes, and lifted her face. “I must look a mess. Excuse me.”
“I’ll finish dinner.”
Some of her mascara had run, but Road had looked down into her eyes, and all he’d seen was beauty. Dinah was a fighter. She cared. She loved. And he wasn’t used to knowing a woman like her.
Dinah didn’t want this path, and yet, to save her mother, she had changed her dreams. That, to him, was selfless.
Running a hand down his face, he couldn’t ever allow her to know what he did. How he didn’t even question Sergey when he was given the order.
He had fucked up big time.
Going back to the stove, he tested the sliced sweet potatoes and found they were cooked, and the chicken was as well. He gave it a final taste, and satisfied with it, he sprinkled some cilantro and gave it a stir, before ladling bowlfuls out for both of them. He gave a final sprinkle of cilantro, squeezed the lime, and carried them through to her dining room.
Road stared at the seats on either side of the table and imagined her parents sitting with a small Dinah in between. He shook his head at the images building in his mind. He hadn’t known, and there was no way to go back to the past. Taking a seat on one side of the table, he placed Dinah’s on the opposite. Neither of them would be sitting in her parents’ seats. He didn’t even know why this mattered to him, but in that moment, it did.
Minutes later, Dinah appeared. Her hair had been pulled back into a bun at the base of her neck, and she’d wiped the makeup off her face. She hadn’t been wearing a lot of makeup to begin with. Her face was a little pink, he imagined from washing it.
“Hey,” she said. “You know, you really didn’t have to do this.”
“Ah, but I did. You gave me an ultimatum, and I followed through with it.”
She chuckled. “Okay, let me rephrase, I didn’t expect you to follow through with it. It smells so good.”
He winked at her.
Road didn’t take a bite, waiting for her to try. The moment she did, he saw her eyes close as she nodded her head.
“I am surprised.”
He chuckled. “I am a man full of surprises.”
“That you are. You like skulking in the shadows, allowing a girl to see her friend having sex with three different men, and you end the night with attempted strangulation. You are full of surprises.”
“Okay, so with you I don’t have the best track record. Can we agree to start over? I thought you were connected to … Golubev, and clearly you are, but you’re not at the same time.”
“I hate him,” Dinah said. “What he did to my mother … one day … I want to … I hope he gets what’s coming to him.”
“He will,” Road said.
“So, what is your story?” Dinah asked.
“That is for another time,” Road said.
“A man of surprises.”
“Yeah, and for now, I’d like to keep it that way.”
She shrugged. “Fair enough.”