Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
MOJAVE
“Thank you,” Rachel murmured, drawing my attention to her.
The walk to the ice cream shop had been mostly Frankie talking to Rachel, telling her about the tattoo shop and the legal office she’d gone to, and how Prez was bad at art like she was, but his wife was better and could draw cute little animals.
For a kid who hadn’t talked much when we first met, she was being chatty today, still holding my hand like she had since the first time I offered.
Rachel hadn’t gotten a moment to speak until Frankie was finally distracted with her ice cream.
“For what?” I asked. I’d gotten a small shake, figuring I could give it to Frankie on the walk home to finish without it melting everywhere.
I wasn’t a huge fan of ice cream or sugary treats in general, but I drank a little of it just to make Frankie happy.
She hadn’t liked the idea of me skipping out entirely.
Rachel had gotten a small cup of some kind of multicolored ice cream, promising to let Frankie try it when she’d curiously peeked more than once.
She kept her voice low enough not to draw Frankie’s attention, her eyes on the little girl like she wanted to be sure.
Frankie was more interested in her ice cream than us though, so we had a second to talk.
“For not getting physical with Scott. It would’ve only made things worse, and he’s already tried causing trouble for your crew before.
I didn’t want him to have any leverage.”
A part of me had wanted to step in. I saw the way Rachel flinched before I spoke up to distract him and I didn't like her ex manhandling her. But we’d just come from Prez’s office and he told me about more incidents with the other crew and how he was concerned we’d need to shut the club down to protect everyone.
Getting into a fight with a cop, even a cop currently on the outs with his station, wouldn’t help.
It’d make things worse. And I couldn’t look out for Frankie if I was in jail.
“Does he show up like that often? Do you need me to walk you to your car?”
Rachel’s worried expression finally broke into a sweet smile, her blue eyes warm. “No,” she laughed. “Thankfully, that’s not a common occurrence. I appreciate it though.”
She was a grown ass woman, I trusted her to make her own decisions, but maybe I could suggest some cameras outside her building. Wraith was good with tech. He’d be able to set some up. Prez did it with the clubhouse, and I did the same with my trailer when I moved back home.
“What’re we doin’ tomorrow?” Frankie asked curiously, drawing our attention back to her. I’d mention the cameras later when she wasn’t around.
“Dunno. What do kids do when they aren’t in school?”
“Why don’t you take her to meet more of your crew,” Rachel suggested.
“You said you took her to a tattoo shop and a legal office today. It sounds like there’s a wide range of professions in the crew.
She could learn a lot by seeing different jobs, and how those jobs use the things she’s learning in school.
” She tipped her head at Frankie. “Does that sound fun?”
Frankie didn’t leap to agree like I’d seen some of the club kids do. She thought about it and asked questions first. “What kinda jobs?”
“Well, I only know two or three myself.” Rachel glanced at me. “I know Wraith is in tech and Zero is an electrician. What else is there?”
Thinking about it, I ticked them off on my fingers. “A few mechanics, a plumber, Chains drives the local tow truck, Axel owns a bar and his little brother is the bartender.” I frowned. None of those sounded all that interesting for a little kid.
“What about the women? There are a few women connected to the crew, right?” Rachel asked.
“Right,” I agreed, frowning until I remembered the one old lady who’d been with the crew from the start. “They’ve mostly got desk jobs, but Mel is a nurse. She loves having kids visit her at work.”
“Ooh,” Rachel said, turning her attention to Frankie. “That’d be a fun job to visit. And it’s science too. I bet you’d learn a lot.”
Frankie shrugged, amiable enough to the idea. “Okay. Can I give someone a shot?”
That made Rachel chuckle. “Not likely. You need training for that. But I’m sure there’s plenty of fun things to do in a hospital. I wish I could go. I have to go meet Zero tomorrow.”
My head jerked to look at her, my brows furrowed in confusion. “Why?”
She waved me off with a smile. “Not for a bad reason. He’s still getting his feet under him and I promised I’d check in. Becoming a parent so fast would be disarming for anyone. I just want to support him as much as I can. Those kids need him.”
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
I’d heard about Zero’s situation, taking in his cousin’s kids after an accident, but I hadn’t heard much about how it was going.
If Rachel promised to check in, though, then I couldn’t complain.
It was good that she was keeping her promise. It’s what I would’ve done too.
The drive to my trailer was dark. They didn’t make streetlights this far out, and no one came this way except for the few people who lived in the general area, but most of them were home already.
I hadn’t had to stay late in town like I did the night before, apparently Frankie’s mom wasn’t pulling a double tonight and was home when we brought Frankie back, so I was returning home earlier than usual.
I felt like I needed it. Between constantly being around people all day and the noise of the ice cream shop and Frankie after she’d had too much sugar, it felt like my ears were ringing.
I needed some quiet time before I had to head back in the morning.
Motion lights flicked on when I pulled in front of my trailer, illuminating the single wide trailer.
It was smaller than Frankie’s place, raised on cement blocks, and I’d spent more on the security system than I had on anything inside of it, but it was home.
I parked my bike, kicking a leg over it and heading for the front door.
There were three locks to unlock it, and a security alarm inside I had to disarm.
It wasn’t paranoia that had me setting it up.
I didn’t think people were coming for me, as much as some on the crew liked to assume.
It just made me feel better. I slept better after the security system was put in.
Not perfect, nightmares were still a thing, but I could at least sleep a few hours uninterrupted.
It was an improvement, small as it was. Worth it in my eyes.
I shut and locked the door behind me, flicking on the lights and sweeping the trailer like I always did.
Aside from a scorpion in the sink, which wasn’t uncommon this far out in the desert, there was nothing to worry about.
I tossed the critter out the door, locked up again, and sat on the couch, rubbing my hands over my face.
When I sat back, I pulled the piece of paper Frankie made me keep out of my pocket.
She seemed to like drawing, she had a blast with Killian when we took a break from homework and he did some art with her.
He gave her pointers on how to draw people, laughing with her when she pulled out Rachel’s picture from her pocket to show him.
She’d asked me to carry some of the art for her when we left since her pockets were stuffed with the drawings she’d done with Killian.
I hadn’t thought she’d made something for me until she handed it to me when I dropped her off at home for the night.
She’d obviously worked on it with Killian, the bike was too realistic to be done by a little kid, but next to it was her and me, holding hands and smiling.
The eyes were a little off and my hair was basically down to my waist, but…
it meant something that she’d thought of me. More than I thought it would.
My thumb drifted over the paper, the sound loud in the quiet of my trailer.
Too loud. I usually liked the quiet, but after days with Frankie, it felt like too much.
I set the paper aside, feeling a familiar tightness in my chest that made me jittery and uncomfortable.
Standing didn’t help, and neither did pacing the length of my trailer.
I had to step outside, heading around the back and out of the range of the motion lights, a buzzing in my ears that almost sounded louder than the ice cream shop had been.
The motion lights clicked off again, plunging me into darkness.
I drew in a deep breath, gripping my hair roughly, and just listened.
It wasn’t as quiet out here. Crickets, cicadas, the sound of the wind rushing through the few desert trees nearby.
Sometimes, I could hear some kind of animal howling in the distance, maybe a wolf or a coyote, or an owl if it was hunting in the area. It wasn’t silent out here. It helped.
Letting out a breath, I looked up at the stars. Our town wasn’t big, but it was big enough that you couldn’t see the stars as well at the clubhouse as you could see out here. There weren’t lights for miles. It felt like it went on forever.
An uneasy feeling tried to take over, reminding me of another desert I’d been in, looking up at the stars and wondering if I’d make it home, but before it could latch on, my phone rang, breaking the silence and the spiral that threatened to drown me.
“Yeah?” I answered as I brought it to my ear, ignoring the croak of my voice that always showed up when I was too stressed out.
“Hey. Thought you’d be at the bar tonight. You usually are on Thursdays,” Killian commented, the din of the bar in the background. “Doin’ alright?”
Another breath. My shoulders relaxed a little. Somehow he always knew when I was having a rough time.
“‘m alright,” I murmured. “Needed a break.”
He hummed, no judgment in his voice when he asked, “A quiet break, or did you want to talk?”
Was neither an option? I didn’t want more quiet. It wasn’t relaxing me like it usually did. But I didn't want to talk either.
“Mojave?”
“Yeah. I don’t… I don’t know.”
He went quiet for a minute, but I heard him moving around, the noise of the bar getting even quieter as he likely headed away from the door and toward the road.
We all did it if we got phone calls at the bar.
The bar itself was pretty muffled. Axel soundproofed it as best he could to keep the pigs off his back.
The sidewalk was usually far enough away to give us enough space to hear better.
“Okay, want me to talk?” he finally offered.
Swallowing hard, I nodded. “Yeah.”
He talked about nothing, family stuff and shit the crew had gotten up to recently that likely would’ve gotten at least a few of them arrested if they’d done it anywhere but at the clubhouse.
Eventually, I went back inside, locking the door behind me and kicking off my boots.
I noticed the picture still on the couch and picked it up, studying it again with Killian’s familiar voice in my ear.
Without thinking about it, I took the picture to the fridge, using a couple magnets to keep the thicker paper from falling.
I wasn’t sure why the picture set me off, but it didn’t feel right throwing it away.
Frankie made it for me. I promised I’d be there.
The picture was proof I was keeping that promise. That was all that mattered.