Chapter 8
Eight
Josie
Maybe I’ve had it all wrong all along. This situationship might be perfect!
Two days and nothing more.
Brett has been quiet.
I should be happy. I should be relieved.
To some extent I am taking this moment of silence for the peace I haven’t had in a very long time, but I can’t fully embrace it.
I want to feel free. I want to breathe without the tension inside.
I want the anxiety that he’s lurking somewhere to go away.
I want to stop wondering when he’s going to pop back up.
Because deep inside me I know he’s not done with me.
I want to have a life without this fear.
Only I’m not relieved. No, I’m all twisted inside because the biker next door is well, an anomaly. How can he kiss me senseless one day and then nothing more? Truthfully, it’s not exactly nothing. It’s all complicated.
He slept on my couch that night. Before I even remotely woke up, he was gone with nothing, but a fresh cup of coffee made with the creamer I love, and a note informing me to be aware of the “motorcycle at my back” to and from work.
Look twice, save a life, but mostly so I don’t panic, that is what he put in the note.
Nothing else. Just a cup of coffee and a note informing me I’ll have a Hellion around.
Not a call, not a text, not another sound from him since.
To be honest, the whole thing freaks me out. More than Brett and the threat he poses, I’m mixed up with Dean in something I don’t understand. The last thing I need is any kind of additional distractions. My life is a mess, I need not add to it.
As if nothing changed, I went to work, came home, rinse and repeat the next day. Still not a call, text, or a drop in. What I’m expecting or waiting for, I don’t actually know.
I should be happy.
I shouldn’t care what Dean does. He has his life I have mine. The last thing I need is any kind of entanglement. It’s ridiculous the way I feel. Why do I miss him? I don’t even know the man.
Lost in thought, I jump when Sara comes in my office.
“Girl, what is wrong with you?” She asks sitting down in the chair across from my desk after placing a coffee in front of me.
“Country Boy is all about me working from this office for a bit. Since I came in late due to a conference call and Raff is parked out front literally sitting on the curb in front of his bike, I need some details. Country Boy doesn’t get involved in my job.
He knows I travel across the state and enjoy it.
He’s asked me to stick close to home and specifically to work here.
That isn’t common of my man, especially without an explanation. ”
“Um,” I reply unsure what to even tell her. How can I even get into this when I don’t really know what is going on. More than anything, though, I’m thrown off knowing he’s here in the parking lot but hasn’t said a word to me. “Dean is here?”
Sara smiles this shit eating grin she gets whenever she gets excited that something is going her way.
“Raff won’t tell me why he’s here. Country Boy won’t tell me why I need to work from this office even after I gave him the best blow job of his life,” she shrugs her shoulders, “his words not mine.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. When I got hired, my first supervisor was an idiot.
How they were hired, I have no idea. Sara came in for a training, realized the entire division was a shit show and she stepped up.
Without extra pay, she came in and taught us all from the beginning in the correct way to document and report.
In the early days, business was the focus, and I thought she couldn’t relax if her life depended on it.
Then I learned the real Sara. She’s sarcastic, funny, loyal, kind, giving, and the total package.
We have been close friends for three years or more now, which is the only reason she would dare say something like that at work.
“I might be the problem,” I tell her honestly.
She draws her brows together, “sounds like you got some ‘splainin’ to do.”
I nod, “I’ll give you one guess.”
“Brett,” she rolls her eyes. “Babe, why didn’t you call me? You know I’ll help you hide the body, be the alibi, whatever is necessary.”
This is Sara, she is a girl’s girl. She isn’t a backstabbing woman with some competition complex that can happen in female friendships.
She’s been my rock at work and at home since coming clean about things with Brett even before I left him.
Every move, she’s helped me pack. Every night I’ve been afraid, she’s answered the phone to talk me down.
The cars I’ve had to buy, the phones, she is always looking out to help me get the next one on a decent deal.
“Brett is always the problem. How is Raff involved?”
I sip the coffee in front of me first. “Well, I don’t actually know how he knew to come when he did.
We’re neighbors, you know. For a couple of weeks this car I didn’t recognize kept parking at the house beside Dean’s.
I’ve never met the people there, so I didn’t think much of it.
Apparently, Dean knows them, and they are out of town.
” I sigh and swallow my pride. It’s hard to admit things are out of control with Brett.
“The calls have started here at work from Brett. I really don’t know how much Dean knows about my ex, but I have a feeling he knows more than I’ve shared.
Which alarms me, but I haven’t had an opportunity to discuss it with him.
” I watch Sara study me. She’s worried. I don’t want my friends to worry about me.
“They aren’t regular, the calls that is.
But I got a call Justice was sick. I picked him up from school and took him home.
Thank goodness he was asleep and slept through the whole interaction.
I wasn’t even home thirty minutes when my doorbell rang, Brett was there.
I stepped outside; things were far from comfortable.
Before I could get him to leave, Dean pulls up on his Harley. Into my driveway, not his own.”
Sara nods enthusiastically. “I bet he did.” Then she lets out a little laugh.
“Sara, this isn’t funny.”
“Josie, yeah, it is. He’s for sure going to put Brett in his place.”
I feel the heat on my cheeks. “Sara, he kissed me. He marched right up and kissed me.” Dropping my face in my hands I hope I can hide my embarrassment.
“And?”
I peek up at her. “And what? I’m an idiot and kissed him back. Next thing I know, he’s sending me in my house so he can talk to Brett after telling my ex-husband I’m with him. He told me to take a bath, and he would join me, in front of Brett!”
Sara leans forward in the chair. “Wait, did Raff say you’re with him? Or you’re his?”
“What’s the difference?”
Sara shakes her head. “A lot in their world.”
“You wanna share that handbook with me then, because I’m in over my head.”
She falls back into the chair laughing, “I can’t do that because I’m still learning about this ol’ lady stuff. But did Raff claim you?”
I bite my bottom lip. “He did say that. It was after he kissed me stupid. He said, everyone has baggage. He then said he was making his play, but he was patient. After assuring me this would be at my pace, he said he needed me to know he claimed me and meant it. He didn’t explain what it meant other than I would have a Hellion ‘on me’ to keep Brett at bay.
Then he made sure to tell me, Brett was going to learn what it means too.
All this me being some possession makes me uncomfortable.
Except I haven’t heard from him since so I don’t think any of it much matters. ”
Sara’s eyes are wide. “I have a meeting in twenty minutes, otherwise I would be dragging you to lunch because it’s a lot to process.
Bottom line, Josie, Raff isn’t a man to play games, none of the Hellions I’ve met so far are anything but gentlemen to the women they care about.
Being claimed, you’re his ol’ lady. If he takes you somewhere you are a representation of him.
However, he’s not going to try to control you.
He is going to protect you and so will the entire club.
Now, it makes sense why Country Boy gave me my orders.
That’s why they’re on this rotation and why Country Boy wants me close.
Until they can assess the threat Brett is.
Which, he’s only a threat to you and Justice.
But my man likes any reason to keep me close, and the Hellions don’t actually know the only one in danger is you, hence this new rotation among them.
I love you to pieces so I’m happy to be here.
This couldn’t work out better,” she tells me exuberantly.
“Raff is gonna keep you safe and you’re about to be on the ride of your life. ”
“Sara, this is the worst. I don’t have time for a relationship. Especially one I didn’t agree to be in. Plus, how does a man say that kind of stuff and then not call.”
She stands, “Josie, this is going to sound absurd. Hear me out, he’s not gonna call. He told you it’s at your pace. Babe, he’s waiting on you to make your move.”
“And if I don’t,” I challenge, “make a move?”
“Girl, you’re missing out.” She winks. “If I knew then what I know now, I would still hands down go through every bit of it and more to be with Country Boy. Raff is no different. They are cut from the same cloth. And the way he kisses you stupid is only the beginning.”
I gasp. “Sara, this isn’t about some spicy book we’re reading, this is my life.”