Chapter 9 Callie #3
Wes caught my eye, holding my gaze as I trailed my fingers over the leather seat positioned behind where he’d be sitting.
“You remember how to ride bitch, right?” His tone came out mocking as he handed me a bucket helmet.
I was practically born on the back of a bike, and he knew it.
I rolled my eyes and snatched the helmet from him, buckling it under my chin without his help.
What I hadn’t ever done was ride with him.
He’d never owned a bike while we dated, and even up till the end, after he’d become a member, he wasn’t riding.
Or if he was, I wasn’t aware of it. Seeing him straddling the bike now was an odd sensation.
My stomach tilted in excitement, but nerves threatened to burrow deep enough to make me sick.
Inhaling a sharp breath, I placed my boot on the buddy peg and then my hand tentatively on his shoulder while swinging my leg over the bike, until I was resting my ass on the leather.
It was warm under my legs as I adjusted.
His large, calloused hand skimmed down each of my calves as if to ensure they were set properly on the pegs.
I resisted the urge to lean into his back.
In fact, I was sitting as far away from him as I possibly could.
I could hold onto the sissy bars attached to the small chair at my back and be perfectly fine to stay on the bike. I didn’t need to touch him to be safe.
The engine roared to life as Wes tugged under my knees, moving me until my thighs were cradling his hips. His silent way of telling me I would be holding on to him, and not the bars at my back.
I yelled in his ear a reminder and a way to distract from what he’d just done. “Don’t lose Laura. She’s not from here, and she’ll have no idea where to go.”
He gave me a slight nod as his wrists rotated on the throttle and clutch, and right as we were about to pull forward, I slipped my arms around him, linking my fingers together over his stomach.
It felt so strange to be touching him again, much less riding with him.
I couldn’t deny it felt good, like it fit him in a way that nothing else ever had.
We sped down the road, as the wind whipped my hair behind me.
I decided to ignore the tiny thrill in my chest as we made our way, and I aptly ignored the butterflies that had taken flight as excitement unfurled like a waking flower in my chest. I’d never admit how badly I missed riding, nor would I admit that being this close to Wes while the wind whipped against us felt akin to flying.
Wes led us down the highway, until he turned off on a familiar road. It was the back way to his old place, which confused me. I assumed he didn’t live at his old house, merely because of how much he detested the house after he’d moved out, but maybe I was wrong.
We passed the switchback that would lead to my old house, and he continued down the dirt path until we were skirting an overgrown field that was once his front yard.
Weeds as tall as a kindergartner bordered his old house.
The three-story home was empty and weathered.
It was as if not a soul on earth remembered it was here.
Wes slowed his bike, skirting the house, going around back where his tree house sat, and the property line that once divided our lands.
My eyes flicked upward to the fort, just to be sure it hadn’t been torn down. The pine boards still held, as if time had forgotten them altogether. I refocused in front of me, curious where we were headed if Wes wasn’t taking us to his house to stay.
Grass and sand shifted under our tires as we continued toward the thin road that separated our properties.
There was never anything here that blocked either of us from moving from place to place.
It was how I ran so easily to his treehouse when I was only nine years old.
Now, however, there was a shiny metal fence that divided our two lands.
Wes slowed as he approached a small patch of fence that began to slide open as he pressed a button on the small key fob on his key ring.
This entire setup was so advanced compared to anything my dad ever had while growing up.
We had enemies, but Dad chose to protect the property closer to the house.
Ten acres was too much to monitor…at least that was what I had overheard him say when the subject had come up.
I was loosely hanging onto Wes now that our speed had decreased enough.
I sat up tall, watching as we finally cleared the fence, and small hill, until my dad’s old cabin came into view.
So many emotions rushed me as we ventured toward it.
I had initially assumed Wes wanted us to stay with him, and now I realized we would be alone in the cabin.
I wasn’t sure which one I was more reluctant to accept.
I missed the cabin, and would have loved a chance to see it, but staying in it? Never again.
Wesley parked and straddled the bike while taking out his cell, acting as though I wasn’t on the back of his bike at all.
It needled my nerves, but I pushed it away and dismounted, using his shoulders and the foot peg to keep my balance.
Laura pulled in next to us and put the car in park.
I stared at the front door, feeling my stomach twist into a knot.
“What is this place?” Laura asked, sounding gentle as she exited with Max and came to stand next to me.
Looking over the humble one-story cabin, a smile tilted my lips in an effort to find the joy in this scenario.
“This was my dad’s cabin. We used to come out here when I was a kid and camp.”
I wouldn’t mention the significance the cabin had to Wes and me. No one needed to know about that, and I certainly wasn’t going to dredge up old memories.
Max began to bark at a rodent hanging out near a tree and suddenly took off in a gallop toward it. Laura went after him, leaving me all alone with Wes. He had cleared his bike and strode toward the front door.
Dad’s old cabin was made from logs my grandfather had cut down with his bare hands.
It had an old red tin roof and a chipped green front door.
All of it was in disrepair, including the half porch that used to be fully enclosed and was now mostly only framed, the screens ripped and tattered.
The rocking chairs that once sat side by side under the covered porch were rotted and covered in mildew.
“It’s not in the best shape, but at least you’ll be safe,” Wes muttered while unlocking the door and pushing inside.
I followed him, coughing into my shirt as I cleared the threshold.
There was a thick blanket of dust on everything, along with a generous scattering of cobwebs.
The place had been overlooked and forgotten, and while there was a small piece of me that wanted to cater to it and bring it back to life, the memories were too much.
“Wes, I can’t stay here…just let me stay in town at the motel.” I’d risk it at this point, if he didn’t want to be responsible for us, which it seemed as though he didn’t.
His eyes scanned the space, as if he was trying to see what he could fix. He dipped low and grabbed the back of a chair, righting it until it sat on all four legs, then he dusted it off with a rag from his back pocket.
“It’s fine. Just a little dusting and you’ll be good.”
He was ignoring the real issue, which I knew I hadn’t stated, but like hell would he force it out of me.
I turned toward him and gripped his elbow, so he’d look at me.
“Why do you care if I’m safe? You want me out of your life, remember? Wouldn’t it move faster if the Death Raiders found me? You’d get your clubhouse then.”
His gaze dropped to where our skin made contact. I’d assume he wasn’t affected at all if it wasn’t for the way his eyes widened or the way his lips parted when he focused on my hand.
“How could you even ask that?” His voice came like a whisper, caressing my heart in a way it had no business touching.
Shaking his head, he shifted out of my hold and took a step away.
“You hurt me, Callie. Broke my fucking heart seven years ago, and sure, it took a while to get over you, but rest assured, I did get over you. But I also promised your dad if you were to ever come back, I’d ensure you were safe.
I don’t owe you a place in town, or anything else, but I will always be sure you’re protected. ”
It was on the tip of my tongue to argue that he’d broken my heart by joining the club.
He knew we’d never recover if he did. It was the one request I had made of him when he started getting close to Killian and my dad.
He promised me, even after I tried to make it work.
I knew deep down we never would. Not when the road would always lead back to where I came from and how I grew up. This fucking place.
“Please, Wes. Just lift the ban and let me stay in town. Anything but here.”
Suddenly he turned around, pinning me with a hard gaze.
Then, within a single breath, Wes was pushing me back toward the wall until he was towering over me, pinning my hands above my head. My shirt rose with the movement, and the brash way he handled my body was somehow so familiar it made me dizzy.
“Are you that much of a pretentious princess that you can’t stay in a dusty cabin?” His nose skimmed my cheek, his knee moving in between my legs until his entire body was flush with mine. “Or is it that you’re remembering our time here together…maybe that night I first fucked you?”
My arms being suspended didn’t hurt, neither did the way my body was being pinned to the wall.
But going back to that night, and all the nights after, was akin to dragging a knife down my chest and tugging my heart out.
Of course I didn’t want to think of any of our nights together.
But he was wrong—I wasn’t thinking of our first time here; I was still thinking of our last.
I pulled at his hold to try to end his line of questioning, but he held firm, his other hand moving to my hip.
“Do you remember what you would say to me when my head would disappear between your legs?”
Why was he doing this? I didn’t want to think about it. It burned me to remember, to go back, when all I had been doing was trying to move forward. He was also acting as though all we did was hook up here. He was completely ignoring that we’d made this place a home. Our home.
I shook my head defiantly.
“You don’t want to remember how you begged me to fuck you?” His knee pressed harder in between my thighs, taunting me to tilt my hips and engage with the friction he was providing.
His hot breath fanned my face as he whispered, “I remember how you’d tug my hair and scream for me to go deeper with my tongue, to suck your clit. Remember that time I flipped you on your stomach and spread your cheeks, until I was circling your—”
“Callie! There’s an archery range out back and a target for ax throwing. This place is wild, but I’m here for it!” Laura yelled from outside, making her way in.
Wes released me and stepped back, all while keeping his gaze on me.
Once Laura was on the porch, he scoffed, derision creeping into his focus.
“I hope you think of it all night, Callie. All of it. I hope you remember why you should have just stayed away, and then I hope you wake up in this shithole and realize how irrelevant you’ve become.
You left, and you should have stayed gone.
Now you’re just creating work for me, so do me a favor and stay here like a good little princess, unless you’re ready to give up and go back home. ”
With that, he walked away, the scuff of his boots rumbling against the hardwood and a million dust motes gleaming in the slice of sunlight from the open door.
Laura stood in the doorway watching, her face blanching. Obviously she’d heard the tail end of what he said. Then Max ran inside with a loud bark, and I couldn’t hold myself up any longer.
I slid to the floor and watched as my dog moved in to support mode, placing his head into my lap. My best friend curled in on the other side of me, and we stared at the tattered cabin in front of us, unsure what to do.
Laura spoke first.
“So to be clear, we’ll get in trouble if we go back to Sasha’s?”
I sighed, “yep.”
She made a sound of understanding.
“And we’re still blacklisted from town?”
“Correct.” I slid my fingers through Max’s silky coat, trying to calm my nerves.
“Okay, well, that’s bullshit. We are so getting that asshole back. We still have a good chunk of the day left, let’s go talk to a few realtors.”
As if any would work with us.
Laura could likely feel my mood, because she slipped her arm under mine and helped me up.
“There is no way Wes has every single one under his thumb. He’s not that crafty. Let’s talk to one out of DC, or at least a few cities over.”
I hated this, because I knew how delicate this situation was, and it wasn’t as simple as just going a few cities over to find a realtor. If that one person had any ties to a rival club, then there would be a war. They couldn’t know that the club was for sale, but what option was Wes leaving me?
I had to figure out some way to get the upper hand.
Sasha wanted me to sell so badly…surely she would know of someone I could talk to.
Decision made. I’d reach out, but be discreet about it. Wes didn’t control everything; it was high time someone stepped up and showed him that.