Chapter 3
HUSH
Three Days Later
“ T hings are good then?” Tex asks, a thick-skinned brawler in our merry band of misfits, holds constant eye contact with Jerry Haines.
“No noise in a long time.” Jerry smiles, slipping a hand under the counter and returning it with a package wrapped in brown paper.
As one of the few twenty-four-hour establishments in Boulder, he gets special attention on nighttime patrols, always eager to give us something for keeping an eye on him.
“You know we can’t accept that, Jer.” Tex scoffs, holding a flat palm to stop Jerry from delivering whatever’s inside. “Boulder’s as much our town as yours, and it’s in our best interest to keep the streets clean.”
Buzzing in my pocket distracts me. It’s my phone, ringing again at an inopportune time, but seeing Tara’s name splashed across the screen, I can’t stop myself from answering it.
I pat Tex on the shoulder and point to the door, saying I’ll wait outside while he finishes up with Jerry. He nods to give me the go-ahead. I miss the first call, making my way over to our motorcycles, but answer the second before it gets to the second ring.
“Busy?” I don’t even have a chance to greet her, and her voice runs down my ears like honey dripping on a hot biscuit.
I’ve noticed the steady uptick over the last few weeks, going from a few a month to three times a week. I do my best to stay free whenever I can, on the off-chance she needs my help, but sometimes duty calls and business and pleasure have to mix.
It’s one of those nights, though Tara’s timing could have something to do with it. She’s calling five hours earlier than usual. She’d usually be starting her night out now, not finishing it. And just like that, a pang of heartache emanates from my chest and radiates through my body.
As badly as I want to go through with this, how can I?
We’re opposites. Maybe it’s my age talking, not that I’m some curmudgeon old man, but she’s younger, has stars in her eyes, and a full life ahead of her.
Could be the barrier pulling us apart. My constant reminder that time’s ticking stops for no one, and while Tara’s everything I want in a woman, sometimes you can’t always get what you want.
“Sorta.” Short answers when handling Knight Rider work are the go-to. Can’t have Tex walk out on me gushing like a fool. It’s bad enough that Knight and Talon saw it.
“Well, when you finish, I could use your services.” Tara doesn’t sound upset or threatened. She’s calm, and that scares me more than a direct ask for help.
“Everything okay?”
“Peachy.” What does it say about me that the first thing my mind jumps to is her ass in a pair of yoga pants? “I’m at the Old Fifty-Five. Can you come by when you’re done?”
“I’ll be there,” I say, just in time to see Tex stepping out of the twenty-four-hour convenience store.
“Thanks, Hush. See you soon.” She kills the call.
“Everything good?” Tex straddles his motorcycle, and I do the same.
“Better than.” We strap our helmets on. “How many left?”
Tex grabs a handbook from a satchel hanging off the ass end of his bike. He shuffles to the last page with writing on it, and after scratching Jerry off the list, says. “Three left for the night. Two along this road and one on Lucielle Avenue.”
“Mind taking Lucielle Avenue on your own?” As much as I want to, I can’t drop him on all three stops. With a new shiny badge on my jacket, there’s a certain standard I’ve gotta uphold. And at least with Jerry’s confirmation that things are quiet, there shouldn’t be any trouble along this road.
“Yeah, no prob.” Tex lights a cigarette and reaches for his key in the ignition. “Need to handle that call?”
“Uh-huh.” I pull my riding gloves on and start my bike. Tex is quick to follow, and we ride side by side to the next destination.
Our first stop goes down without a hitch, quick in and out with a smile and a thank you.
The second, a fuel station run by two older folks with their daughter running the register at night, is much the same.
No trouble, other than the grievances they’ve had in their personal lives that I’ve become an expert at blocking out.
It’s on the way back to our bikes after finishing our check-in that Tex speaks about my arrangement again.
“Think it’s trouble?” he asks while we mount our motorcycles. “I’m sure the boss won’t mind if we deal with it before heading over to the corner store on Lucielle.”
“Don’t think it’s trouble, no. Someone needs my help.” Money and power aside, it’s helping folks that drew me to the Knight Riders. Sure, we do some bad things to get ahead, but helping this community thrive is the good deed that makes it right.
Before Tara, I almost lost sight of the importance of our operation. Getting bogged down in the day-to-day, it’s easy to forget the finer details. Saying it out loud, getting the warm fuzzies inside, that’s how I know I’m doing the right thing by helping her whenever she needs it.
“All right then.” Tex lights another cigarette, scanning the street up and down twice. How his lungs handle a cigarette every twenty minutes is beyond me. “I’m gonna be riding around a while after I finish, so you give me a call if you need backup.”
“Got it.” Starting my engine and rolling forward just a little, I give him a pat on the shoulder. I see it all the time, must be something to the gesture I don’t understand. “Stay safe out there, chief.”
Tex gives me a thumbs up as I ride into the night.
Arriving at the bar, it looks nothing like Tara’s usual hangout spots. It’s not dingy, per se, but it doesn’t have the same chic elegance I’m used to seeing her in. Definitely more my kind of place, a dive bar through and through, with a few familiar faces from the clubhouse hanging around outside.
We greet as I pass them, but while they smile, drink, and remain jolly, my nerves about why she called amplify. What trouble could she have gotten into that it would take this many of the Knight Riders to sort out?
Stepping inside, I’m met by jolly sounds of laughter, loud voices calling from across the room, and overall pleasantries across the room. Not a single whiff of trouble anywhere in the room.
“Can I get you a table?” a waitress asks, but before I have the chance to reply, I see Tara sitting alone in the distance, and she knocks all sense out of my mind.
She’s running her tongue up the length of a straw sticking out of a pink cocktail, with her powder blue eyes glued to mine. Mischievousness twinkles inside them, enhanced by the wicked grin tugging at the corner of her lips.
Collecting my jaw off the floor and reminding myself that the young lady at my side is better off serving whoever enters next, I answer, “I’m meeting someone and I just found her.”
“Got it.” The waitress crooks a brow at me, as though I’ve gone completely insane, and shuffles off. I make my way to Tara, whose devious little grin stretches wider and wider with each step I take.
“This isn’t what I was expecting.” Not that I had many expectations at all.
“Like it?” Tara jumps out of her chair and rushes around the table to pull out my chair.
“Love it.” I drop into it with a chuckle, watching her saunter back to her own seat.
I’d be an idiot not to steal a glance of her body wrapped up in a short plaid skirt that barely covers her ass.
Her black top is tucked into the skirt, or maybe it’s one of those one-piece things that have a button nestled against her crotch.
The image flashing across my mind instantly makes my cock throb.
Silky smooth legs that bend and curve inward to her holy V.
Toned muscles pressing against the tight shirt, raising to the voluptuous mounds of her breasts.
Nipples, like daggers jutting against the shirt, expressing her arousal without Tara needing to say a damn thing.
“Thought you might.” She snaps me back to reality from the picture I was admiring inside my mind. She’s back in her chair, leaning halfway over it, deep black mascara enhancing her sultry gaze. “Wanted to make this as comfortable for you as possible.”
“Looks like you’ve succeeded. Hell, that doesn’t even cover how well you’ve done.
” A waitress stops at our table, and thank fuck it’s not the same one who met me at the door, and I order a soda.
It takes her less than a minute to deliver my drink, with a bounce and a smile.
“It does beg the question of what we’re doing here.
I’m used to getting you home safe, not joining you for drinks. ”
“You got me thinking the other night.” She pauses to sip her drink, and I do the same. “Said you didn’t want to take advantage of me in a drunken state.”
My cheeks warm to uncomfortable levels. “The remedy is getting me drunk, too?”
“That was the plan before you ordered soda.” She winks, still using her tongue to play with her straw. “See, subtlety is an art form. One I guess I’m not very good at. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Bring you out, say things straight, and we take it from there.”
With the picture of her half-naked body still rooted deep in my head, and the feeling of being ambushed creeping in, I’m stunned and locked in place. It’s in my best interest not to say or do something stupid, let Tara take the reins and lead me wherever she wants.
“Then by all means, go on,” I say.
“Why do you think I call you every time I go out?” She slides her hand across the table until her fingertips brush against my hairy wrist.
My breathing quickens, and I gulp hastily, searching for an answer I’ll never find. “You want someone to protect you.”
She shakes her head. “Yes, I usually need a ride, but I don’t want it to be just anyone. I want it to be you, silly. We’ve been doing this song and dance for months. Think I’d still be going out every other night if you just asked me on a date?”
“A … date?” My eyes widen to the point of hurting. It all makes sense now. The teasing and taunting attempts to get me upstairs. Each tactic, another way for Tara to get closer until I found the nerve to pop the question. “Fucking idiot,” I say under my breath, and she giggles ferociously.
“I wouldn’t go that far.” She rolls her eyes.
“Then let me right the wrongs.” My spirits pick up immediately, almost to the verge of giddiness. Twisting my wrist, my hand snaps over hers, and I close it in a loose fist to make my decree. “You, me, right here. A date. And if you still want anything to do with me after?—”
“None of that.” Tara waggles a finger on her free hand. “No putting yourself down. But I accept. You, me, right here. A date.”
I’m so excited, I swear I’m about to have a heart attack.