Thirty-One
S he tensed in my arms, and it took me a moment to catch up in my brain, and realise what had affected her like that. It wasn’t the fact that a woman had died, even though that was fucking awful, especially since one of our trusted brothers was her killer. No. It was the fact that there was such a thing as a ‘club girl’. I mean, generally there wasn’t, not really.
UK clubs don’t run quite like the ones in the US, and other countries, where there are girls dripping all over bikers. If a club wanted a party with sex, generally, they hired women in to service the men. The old club had been one that actually had ‘club girls’, but they were all so abused, and demeaned, that hardly any women would come near here, even with the club having been demolished and rebuilt.
Chrissy, and one or two others, had started willingly visiting, but only to spend time with guys they actually liked. Chrissy had been fond of Ryder and Has-Been, I mean one looks like a Hollywood star, and the other technically could have been.
I’d never been with her, but I had been with other girls here at times. Hell, I’d fucked a lot of women before Grace.
“Babe, take a breath, okay? It’s not that kind of place.” Grace made a huffy sound, shrugging her shoulders at me, but I knew she wasn’t convinced.
“Seriously, when they say club girls, all they mean is there are a few girls who like some bikers here and they visit. It’s not like a free for all.”
She stiffened then, and turned to glare at me, the hot feisty doc firmly in the house right now, and fuck me, I shouldn’t be turned on by that.
“Are you one of the ‘bikers she liked’?”
“Uh oh,” Has muttered, grinning at Ryder, like they were enjoying the dire situation I’d just been dropped in, by them, no less.
“Thanks, assholes.”
“I’m waiting,” Grace declared, her posture getting more tense by the second, when I thought it was already right fucking there.
“Babe, no, I’ve never been with Chrissy. She liked those two dickheads, okay? It’s not that kind of club, although clearly some people thought it should be.”
“Brother, there was no way of knowing, he had us all fooled.”
“What’s actually going to happen to Micro?” Grace asked, changing the subject on all of us, and we fell silent, because I don’t think any of us really had a damn clue.
Ryder shrugged at us, and Has-Been tugged his beanie further down, slumping in his chair, and I held on to my tense woman.
“I don’t think anyone knows right now, Grace. When we found Tommy, he was pretty badly beaten up, but otherwise okay. He was royally pissed, but was forcibly taken to hospital to be checked out.”
“I thought I was going to help with him. Why didn’t you wake me? Stitch said your doc guy could use my help.”
Ryder snorted. “Doc’s words were ‘I don’t need any fucking help’, and then he promptly sent him to get checked out, because he said someone had been in the infirmary, and he wasn’t sure what had been tampered with, so he didn’t want to risk using anything on him. Micro has used all sorts of tricks, even some kind of chemical that caused mild burns when it came in contact with bare skin.”
“Yeah, and he did that to himself, one of many fucking things he did to make it look like he wasn’t the bad guy,” Has muttered, but Grace suddenly waved her arms at us.
“Quiet! Oh god. He thought someone tampered with the kit in the infirmary?”
Ryder nodded, holding up a hand like he thought she was worried about safety or something.
“It’s okay, it’s probably just some basic stuff we need to toss and replace.”
“No! Don’t do that. I mean, it was me. I was in there. I went through his setup, to make sure it was suitable for whatever might be coming when we found this Tommy guy, and-”
“You were in there?”
She glared at Ryder next. “Stitch told me to check out the infirmary to make sure we’re prepared, and to see the doc. Doc wasn’t there, so I did the other thing he asked me to do. For the record, I think some upgrades are needed, but if I moved something out of place, I’m sorry. Nothing was tampered with that I saw.”
I fucking loved her so feisty and strong, and I kinda wanted to provoke that side of her out more often, because I wanted to fuck her when she was glaring at me like that. It shouldn’t be so fucking hot, but it is.
“If you’re planning on playing doctor, let us get out of here first,” Ryder said, rolling his eyes at us, but Grace slapped my arm, like I was the one suggesting it. Mind you, she could probably feel my boner poking her, so maybe I did deserve it after all.
“I need to meet with this Doc person, don’t I? I mean, two heads are better than one, and if I’m going to be around here more, I can help with medical care for the club.”
Grace
T orch groaned and tightened his hold on me.
“I’ve got something that needs some medical attention right now, babe.”
“Perv.”
“Planning on sticking around, huh?” Has-Been asked me with a kind smile, looking over my shoulder at Torch. Oh god. Should I not have said anything? Was I making assumptions I had no right to make?
“Fucking right she is. Gonna be my old lady, aren’t ya, doc? Gonna be my fucking woman forever. Can’t wait to see you wearing my ink.”
“Ink?” What the hell? It involved tattoos? I’m no wimp, but I had a serious concern about health and safety, and hygiene in tattoo places. The same with piercings. Some of those places were appalling. I’d treated plenty of infected attempts at image modification over the years.
“Don’t worry, doc, I’ll be gentle,” Has-Been said, winking at me. Wait, what? Has-Been was the one who did the tattooing for the club? Here? Or was there a nice sanitised clinic somewhere? Did tattoos happen in clinics?
Torch was arguing with Has-Been, something about whether he wanted his fucking hands on his old lady, while I was thinking back to every case I’d treated, and realising that a tattoo wasn’t something I’d relish the thought of.
“No!” I finally said out loud, wincing as the room fell uncomfortably silent, and Torch tensed, even as he still held me in his lap.
“No?”
The other two got up, and glanced around them awkwardly.
“We should probably let you two talk, and we should all get some sleep. It’s uh… it’s late,” Ryder said as he nodded at us and headed for the door, with Has-Been sending a worried frown in our direction, before he left with him.
When we were alone, I wriggled out of Torch’s lap, and he let me, his arms dropping away immediately, when I started to move. The look on his face wasn’t one I’d seen before. He looked guarded, defensive, almost intimidatingly so.
“Torch-”
“I’m not about forcing anything. You don’t want me, you know where the door is, doc.”
I reached for him, and he backed up, getting up onto his bed, and out of reach.
“Seriously, don’t worry about me. You do you. You wanna leave, you fucking leave, because that’s what people do, right? They let you care for them, and then they fucking destroy you. Like this fucking shitty life isn’t hard enough already, why the fuck would I expect anyone to stick around for me?”
I felt like I’d been kicked, because that wasn’t what I’d meant at all, but suddenly he was pushing me away, like he’d expected me to go this whole time.
“You’ve had your fun with your bit of rough, doc. Go back to your posh life, and your posh house, and that posh fucking car of yours. Not like you need to stick around now, right? The threat to your safety is fucking gone. So now you need to be too.”
“Torch, I was-”
“I said leave, so get the fuck out of here.” He got off the bed and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door and locking it. I waited for him. I waited ten minutes. Then twenty. Why the hell wasn’t he coming out of there?
It was some dumb assumption he’d made, and I needed to set it right, but after half an hour of him avoiding me, I couldn’t take it anymore. Rejection burned like fire. It really fucking hurt. He thought I’d rejected him, so now he was rejecting me.
I dressed quickly, and grabbed my things, letting myself out of his room, and heading down the stairs. The clubhouse was quiet, almost eerily so, because fewer people were staying in it now that the threat was gone. It wasn’t the only thing gone, was it? Where was the love I thought I’d found? The home. The future .
“Doc, are you leaving?” Reacher was sitting in the bar with a coffee, looking as worn out as I felt right now.
“Yeah,” I said wearily, heading past him before he could try and talk to me more. I had about enough composure to get me through the gates, and then I was going to lose it. How could I have just been dumped, when I thought we were starting a life together.
A sob tried to escape, but I choked it back, starting to run for the door, even though I knew I wouldn’t make it out now with any semblance of dignity.
A gentle arm wrapped around me, and tugged me away from the front doors, and into a small room. An office.
“Seems like you need to talk to someone, doc, and I’m not letting you leave here in this state, you hear me?” When the Club President spoke, who the hell was I to argue? I fell heavily into the seat he guided me to, and buried my face in my hands.
“Let me see if I can figure this out. Torch just shoved you away, because he’s a fucking idiot who can’t see the best thing that’s ever happened to him, even though you’re right there in front of him. How am I doing so far?”