Chapter 1 #2
Grover and Blue were the first to show. They thought of her as Silas’s old lady.
The divorce. The fact he went to prison.
Neither made a difference. No man in a hundred miles would dare ask her out.
She belonged to the Ghosts and Silas. Her testimony helped put him in prison, and she prayed he stayed there a very long time.
“You’ll need a helmet for the course,” she told Blue. Bald beneath the blue and red Yankees bandana, the large, muscled man grunted at her.
“No helmet, no ride on my course,” she said.
“His head is hard as granite,” Grover vouched for him.
“You know I don’t wear a helmet,” Blue said.
Caitlyn shrugged. Blue carried too many points on his driver’s license to risk walking away from the class. “Not my rules. If you want to take the course, you wear a helmet. I can look in the shed and see if I have a spare.”
“And I’ll crack it in half before my head ever splits,” said Blue.
“That’s the point,” Caitlyn said.
Blue’s face turned from all-knowing to confusion. “You are telling me I can’t take part in this sissy parade without a helmet?” Blue clenched his hands into a fist. The left one had BLUE written across his knuckles.
“Grover does,” Caitlyn pointed out as Daniel returned from his walk.
Although nice, he exuded a simmering intensity.
Unlike her prior partner, Daniel approached the motorcycle course with a seriousness that bordered on brooding.
Not quite a scowl, but a permanent furrow etched between his brows while dealing with the riders.
His presence crackled with tension, which intrigued and unsettled her, leaving her wanting to see what laid hidden beneath that serious exterior.
“Grover has Jello for brains,” Blue said.
“Then it’s a good thing he wears a helmet,” she said.
“Where is Davis? He’ll put an end to this,” Blue said.
“He’s not here. I need to sign in more people for us to start on time.” She pointed a pen at him. “Helmet.”
“No way,” Blue growled.
Caitlyn’s heart hammered a frantic rhythm against her ribs.
Blue towered over her, his sneer deepening.
Out of nowhere, a figure materialized beside her.
Caitlyn flinched, whirling around to find Daniel’s broad shoulder, blocking some of Blue’s imposing presence.
He wasn’t Blue’s size, but he held himself with a quiet confidence that sparked a flicker of hope in Caitlyn’s chest.
“If the lady says you need a helmet, then you wear a helmet.” Daniel stepped alongside her behind the table.
“Who are you?” Blue scoffed, his gaze flickering between them.
Caitlyn’s mind scrambled. What was Daniel doing? Did he know the trouble he was wading into?
“New guy,” Caitlyn said as a hesitant warmth that might have been gratitude seeped inside her.
“Is that right?” Blue sneered.
“The others are on their way.” Grover lifted his chin.
Instead of taking it as a threat, Daniel said, “Good. Looking forward to meeting them.”
Begrudgingly, Blue took the helmet she offered him. He leaned in close to her. “Wouldn’t want to do anything that might get somebody hurt now, would we?”
Caitlyn glanced at Daniel from the side.
She refused to look at Blue. Holding her breath from his sour stench, she focused on Daniel’s blonde scruff, where he missed a spot shaving. It was several shades lighter than his hair.
Daniel’s jaw twitched, but he kept his gaze held on Blue. Caitlyn looked away, heat climbing her neck from the growing humidity. Definitely not from the fact that Daniel might have caught her checking him out.
“You good?” Daniel raised his brows.
“We Ghosts look out for our own.” Grover gave Blue a nudge to step away from the next person waiting in line to sign in
“Caitlyn?” Daniel said when Grover answered him instead of her.
She forced a tight smile, the effort a strain on her already taut face. Her gaze flickered to Blue. “I’m good,” she rasped, the word catching in her dry throat. Her mind raced with the terrible possibilities of the Ghosts’ wrath. “I got this.”
A glance at Blue made her fingers tremble. She almost dropped the pen she picked up for the next rider to sign the waivers to participate in the class.
The rider coach program ran through the state Department of Transportation. Those who wanted to get their license or refresh their skills after meeting citations took the courses. Of course, Blue and Grover would be amongst them, but half the class wore Ghost Rider patches today.
Butch and his old lady, Zelda, showed up.
Zelda’s hair was flaming green, and she’d gotten a new piercing in her nose.
She rode on the back of his touring bike.
Zelda settled near the shed, laying out her jacket and going to business on filing down her nails—she wouldn’t be taking the class, but she brought everything she needed for both a manicure and a pedicure while she watched the others.
Butch and Zelda have been inseparable, especially since last year when Zelda got diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Most of the Ghost Rider men were over-protective of their women.
The rest of the Ghost Riders arrived with Butch to take the class. No women had signed up for the course this afternoon. Usually, she and Davis had an agreement. She did the demonstration, and he stayed out of her way. Mainly because the guy was lazy and looking for easy pay.
“Your turn. Do you think you can handle showing these boys the ropes this time around?”
“I can do that. Which exercise are we starting with?”
She pulled out the cards and showed them to him. She pointed to a simple pattern of weaving through cones.
“I can do that.” He headed toward his bike.
“Use one of the student bikes. Less wear and tear on yours.”
He looked between his bike and one of the student’s bikes.
Students had a choice of riding their own or one provided for them.
Most liked to ride their own—they were more comfortable handling it.
She preferred her own motorcycle, but Daniel didn’t remark on it. He headed for one of the student bikes.
Daniel weaved through the cones with surprising smoothness, considering it was his first try. The moment his feet hit the pavement as the motorcycle came to a halt, Blue blurted, “Whoa there, slowpoke!”
Grover chimed in, “Pretty sure a sloth could move faster than that!”
“Yeah, seriously.” Blue chuckled, holding his motorcycle up, waiting to take his turn. “You make it look harder than it is, newbie. You ride like my old lady. Maybe you should take the back seat and let Cat show us how it’s done.”
Caitlyn bit the inside of her cheek. Blue and Grover narrowed their eyes at Daniel. As she was about to intervene, she took a breath when Butch rode up behind Blue. “Knock it off or go back to the clubhouse.”
Blue scowled and mumbled something under his breath.
Daniel smirked, a hint of amusement dancing in his eyes. “Maybe next time you can be the coach and teach me a few tricks.”
“Now you’re talking, Newbie,” Blue said.
“Don’t encourage them,” Caitlyn hissed at Daniel. “Our goal is to teach safety, not promote competition.”
Daniel made a big act of sighing. “You heard the lady. No stunts. Guess we’ll have to do it the slowpoke way. Who’s up first?”