Chapter Three
It felt like forever had passed since I saw her that one time in the street, but I think it was just days.
When all your days feel the fucking same, time tends to blur into a dull routine, monotony to the max.
You’d think I’d like that, I mean, as an accountant, surely I like a boring life.
Yeah, right. That’s why I joined an MC. For boredom.
“There she is,” I hissed to myself, watching her head into the large superstore with a trolley, ready to do her shopping.
It wasn’t wrong of me to follow her if I was just watching out for her, right?
I’d strapped my helmet to my ride, and shoved my phone in my pocket.
That left my hands free to protect her if she needed it.
Don’t ask me why her safety had become the most important thing in my life, especially as we’d never spoken to each other.
My heart thudded in my chest, a bitter taste in my mouth, as I realised we never would speak to each other.
I needed to learn how to sign, because at least then I’d have a chance of conversing with her, and understanding her responses.
Fucking idiot. I’d tried learning some on my phone, and that’s what Henley walked in on.
Me trying to learn to say I’m sorry. If I could at least say that to her, I’d feel like I’d redeemed myself a little.
“YOU!” Someone hissed from behind me, as they shoved me hard from behind, both hands firm against my back. I spun on my heel, using the momentum to keep me upright, and there she was. The toxic asshole sister.
“Jesus fuck,” I grumbled, straightening my cut.
“You’re following her now?”
I grinned at her, despite my frustration at being kept from my duty to keep my woman safe.
My woman? Why did I keep thinking of her that way?
We’d never even met properly. I didn’t even know her fucking name.
I just kept seeing those wide green eyes, and those pouty lips open in a gasp, and I wanted to know her.
“Looks to me like you’re the one following her… either that, or you’re following me.”
She tried to slap me, but I caught her wrist in a fairly tight grip. I mean, the bitch was trying to attack me, so I wasn’t about to hold back.
“Let go of me!”
“You alright, love?” Some older guy asked and I shoved her away from me to turn and eye him. Thought he was brave, but he was asking for trouble. Not from me. From this crazy bitch.
“She’s the one attacking me, mate. She’s fucking nuts.”
“He’s a stalker! Call the police!”
What the actual fuck? The way I saw it, there were two people who could be called stalkers in this moment, but guess which one of us everyone looked at with suspicion.
As luck would have it, two coppers were doing their fucking lunch shopping, so were on the scene within about two minutes.
I recognised one as that fucker who used to partner with Grease’s old lady, but he looked anything but friendly in this moment.
The guy he was partnered with looked young enough to be his fucking son, so he wasn’t a threat.
“You’re harassing this lady?”
I glared at him. “Of course you’ll take her side. The twisted bitch attacked me!”
She turned on the tears, wrapping her arms around herself as she played the vulnerable female, and I ended up with the fucking irons on my wrists.
“You fucking whore! I’m gonna make you fucking pay for this!”
“See?!”
The cop, Evers, leaned close to my ear. “I wouldn’t add fuel to the fire if I were you. This already looks pretty bad. Biker guy versus vulnerable tearful woman. Your president won’t be too happy about this.”
“Fuck you, cop. You can’t hold me for this. I was just shopping.”
He marched me to their car, while I heard that bitch saying all sorts behind my back as we left.
Calling me a stalker. Saying I’d harassed them in a club.
That she had witnesses. That her sister was a vulnerable disabled woman.
Fucking hell. She was only deaf. She was perfectly capable of living her life.
Which begged the question of why I was trying to keep her safe from a distance.
“Let’s just get you to the station and we’ll put in a call to your people,” Evers said, and I take back everything I ever said about the fucker. He was on my side, at least as much as he could be, while doing his job.
Two hours later, I was being released to Harley, but I had a fucking stalking charge on my record, and the threat of a court date if they could prove it.
Motherfucker.
“She’s a bitch, I’ll fucking find her and make her-”
“Brother, maybe wait until we’re out of the police station before you start making threats that could get you banged up again.”
I shoved past Harley and stomped over to the van he’d arrived in. Fuck. My ride was still at the supermarket.
“Get me to my ride before they lock the car park.”
“You’re not in a position to give me orders, fuckhead. Get in the damn van.”
I had no choice but to obey, but I wasn’t happy about it, which I proceeded to show him in every way possible.
I slammed the door, jammed the seatbelt into the lock with a crunch, and punched the dashboard. FYI, all that does is break the skin on your knuckles without the satisfaction of putting some fucker’s lights out.
“You done?”
He wasn’t moving yet, just sitting staring at me.
“What?”
“I’m waiting. I know you’re a dick, but this isn’t like you. Stalking? I mean, I guess it’s possible, but I’m not buying it.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but his words shut my trap in the next instant. I thought thinking the worst of me was just everyone’s go-to.
“Wait, you’re not?”
Harley shrugged. “Tell me what happened, brother, then we’ll go get your ride.”
I checked the time on the dash, praying it was accurate. “Car park gets locked in less than an hour.”
“So talk fast.”
Fucker. I unclenched my fists and pressed them against my thighs.
“I just wanted to keep her safe,” I said finally, and he groaned.
“So you were following her?”
I turned and glared out of the window at the side of the police station building. Those fuckers all had me wrong, but how could I prove otherwise? Nobody ever gave me a chance to find out I’m not such a dick.
“She’s deaf. She won’t hear predators coming at her, so I watch over her.”
Harley was silent, so silent that I finally turned to look at him, and what I saw on his face was surprise. Would it have killed him to look a little less shocked at me doing a good deed? Was I that much of a dick that it seemed so implausible?
“She? I need more details, brother.”
I sighed, looking down to find my fists clenched on my thighs. Jesus. I was wired so fucking tight that my heartbeat was buzzing in my head.
“She’s… she needs protecting. I don’t bother her. I don’t even go near her. I just keep others away.”
“She says you attacked her.”
My fingers felt like they were going to snap, they were clenched so tightly.
“She’s such a fucking cunt.”
“Brother.”
“She is. I didn’t touch her. She shoved me.”
“It doesn’t sound like she wants your help, Stag. You can’t follow her if she’s told you to stay away. I mean, you shouldn’t anyway, but I see what you’re-”
I shook my head, cutting him off midflow. “She’s the sister of the girl I’m watching over. Mouthy bitch. I wouldn’t protect her if she was on fucking fire.”
He blinked, a shocked laugh filling the silence.
“I mean, if she’s the sister of your girl, she might want you to save her if she’s on fire.”
“You get what I mean. I’m watching over her, but this bitch is playing it like I’m some monster. Like I’m following her to be a creep. Like I’m the predator! She’s the one stalking her own fucking sister. Hiding in the shadows, watching her everywhere. It’s twisted.”
Harley shook his head at me. “Brother, listen to yourself. That’s no different to what you say you’re doing.
No. Listen for a moment. I get it. You like this lady and you want to watch out for her, but you can’t do that without her consent.
She’s not yours because you just blithely decided it from a distance.
You get to know her. You let her know you want to protect her, and see what she says.
Deaf or not, she gets to choose who’s in her space, right? ”
I banged the back of my head against the seat back.
“You’re really annoying when you make sense, VP. Can you just be irrational for a bit?”
“Like you are?”
“Fuck. She’s never gonna want me, is she? It’s not like that bitch will even let me get close.”
“Maybe stop referring to her as a bitch, brother. You gotta start mending fences somewhere.”
Fuck her. I’d find a way to get her out of the picture, so my way to my sweet lady was clear for me. There had to be a way to get rid of her.
Claudia
My sister was in a pissy mood when I got home from teaching a late afternoon class, so I stupidly asked her what was bothering her, and immediately wished I hadn’t.
She was trying to sign as she spoke, and I gave up trying to follow her flying fingers, because they were moving so erratically it was as bad as slurring your words, and tried to follow her lips instead.
Finally I grabbed her hands, and held them steady. She was breathing hard, panting almost, I mean, she’d be breathing literal fire if she was capable of it. What the hell had her so pissed off?
“Speak slowly,” I said, my voice feeling so alien to me, since I spoke so rarely. Mostly only to her. We shared a flat, and were together probably way too much, but she was so certain I needed her help that she’d insisted. I mean, I only can’t hear. I can literally do everything else she can.
Probably not this. Not hissing and spitting like a pissed off cat.
“Please.”
She sagged in my grip and dragged me to the sofa, dropping heavily onto the seat with me.
“Come on!” I snapped at her, still hating that I was speaking with my mouth when I was far more comfortable using my hands.
“He was following you,” she finally said, lowering her head before she remembered that I needed to see her lips, “I caught him.”
Him? Him who? I opened my mouth to ask, and sighed, using my hands instead to ask who.
“That fucking guy from the club. The one who yelled at you.” Ah yes, the one who yelled at me for not hearing him, like I could forget him. I could still see the hurt and rejection on his face. I’d have apologised if she hadn’t leapt into the situation and taken over.
*Why* I signed, because I needed to know this. Why would he follow me? How would he even know where to find me. It was a chilling thought, something that had my eyes darting to the door. I knew I’d locked it, but my hands and feet still practically twitched with the need to go and check.
“He’s obsessed with you,” Marissa said as she caught my attention again, waiting until my eyes were on her before she spoke. Obsessed? With me?
*Really?*
I was glad my hands couldn’t reflect tone here, because something about me was weirdly touched and excited by that idea. I’d dated, sure, but nobody had stuck in my mind like this guy.
She glared, practically chewing her bottom lip as she raged in her mind. I could see her eyes moving as she thought so furiously. Why was she so outraged by this particular man? She’d always looked out for me, but this time she was practically feral.
*Are you obsessed with him?*
Her jaw dropped, and I saw I’d finally silenced her mind for a moment.
“What?” She shook her head frantically. “God no! Did you see him? What a prick. He’s so rude, and unpleasant. God no, no way.”
I was tempted to suggest she protested too much, but in reality I was too relieved to push her any further.
I didn’t want her interested in him. It didn’t mean I wanted him as such, but I’d barely met him, and I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
That suggested that maybe I was at least curious, and if he’d been following me, as she suggested, then maybe he was interested in me in that way.
*What did you say to him?*
She rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding? I had him arrested for stalking!”
“What?” I gasped, forgetting to sign, because oh my god, she had him arrested?
*How can you be sure he was following me?*
“Claud, trust me, I know. He followed you before, but this time I was able to get to him first.”
Oh.