Chapter Three
“Love it,” Maeve said.
Charlotte couldn’t help but smile as Maeve cupped her chin and slowly turned her face left, then right. She had arrived at Kristin’s shop to start her usual shift, but she’d been taking all the practice from her time with Savage, and created a smokey eye.
Kristin let out a whistle. “You’ve done good.”
She couldn’t keep the smile off her face. Even her mother looked happy for her. Nancy had agreed she wanted to leave Rivermont Ridge, and so far still hadn’t left. Eden was also in the shop as she had come to see Maeve.
“Wow, I am impressed,” Eden said, and then took a seat at one of the stations. “I think it’s only fair we let Charlotte do that exact look on me.”
Panic suddenly gripped her, and Maeve smiled. “You know what, sis, you are right. This is exactly what she needs.”
“I don’t think I can”
“Take a deep breath. My sister is not going to bite you, and trust me, once you start getting into the flow, it will all come naturally to you.” Maeve winked at her.
The only person she had practiced on was Savage, and that man, even when she got a little too close with the eyeliner, seemed to have the ability to sit still through anything. It was kind of scary how still that man became.
There was no point in having nerves. She had passed her initial safety tests at beauty school. Everything was clean and sanitized, however, to give herself a little more time, she opened her makeup case and re-sanitized everything. There was no harm in doing that.
Eden suddenly reached out and grabbed her hand. “Don’t worry. You’ve got this.”
Charlotte nodded, but this was quite a different feeling all of a sudden. She didn’t feel like she had this. Far from it. It felt like this was in control of her, and she didn’t have a single clue what to do.
She kept breathing heavily. Conversations seemed to get louder around her, and after she finished sanitizing her makeup, her brushes were already clean, as she took care of them every night.
Maeve came to her and put her hands on her shoulders.
“Stop thinking. If this is what you love, look at my sister like a blank canvas. You’ve got to stop being nervous, and even if it doesn’t go to plan, don’t panic.
I’m here. We’re all here to help you, and trust me, there would be no judgement. We all had to start somewhere.”
Charlotte couldn’t help but nod at Maeve’s encouraging smile. One glance in the mirror, and she saw her mother had her thumbs up.
Ever since Maeve and Doc’s relationship had come out in the open, it seemed her mother had lost that harsh edge.
She knew her mother was not jealous of their relationship.
Not once throughout their marriage was her mother ever faithful.
She, unfortunately, had to learn that the hard way, which fucking sucked big time.
It was the last thing a daughter wanted to hear about her mother.
It was also gross, and explained the few men she had seen sneaking out of the house early in the morning.
Again, gross, but she never told her mother that.
Never even questioned her as to what the hell she was doing cheating on dad.
She ignored it. If she ignored it, there were no arguments.
Not exactly the best foundation to have, but the best she was going to get.
After a few moments, she picked up the eye primer, and even though there were no set rules when applying makeup, there were certain tweaks that needed to be made to the order of makeup looks.
For a smokey eye, she preferred to do all makeup first, followed by the foundation.
Any cleanup was a lot easier with fallout.
Just as she was about to put the brush to the eye to blend out the eye primer, the door to the shop opened. The sound of a gunshot rang out, then she and Eden were on the floor where Maeve had shoved them. There were screams, chaos, panic, and fear.
Another gunshot rang out.
“Will you stop?” Kristin yelled, and Charlotte heard the fear in her voice.
“Shut the fuck up. All of you, shut the fuck up. This is between me and the whores of the Chaos Monsters MC.”
Charlotte looked up at Meave.
“That’s right, ladies, stand up,” Hilary said.
Charlotte recognized her as the woman that originally caused trouble between Mac and Eden.
She was sleeping with Mac behind Eden’s back.
Then Eden ended things with Mac, and Razor appeared on the scene.
Eden had never been in love with Mac. Razor, however, was a completely different story.
It always sounded a little fake, but going from one man to another didn’t happen within a few weeks, but over the course of a year, possibly a year and a half.
Charlotte didn’t know all the particulars, as she was dealing with school bullies and a very vibrant mother who was trying to get her to leave town.
Fear raced down her spine. Charlotte didn’t know what to do, but then she realized her cell phone was in her pocket, and even though she didn’t have a lot of friends, she did in fact have one very important friend.
He might not see her as a friend, and possibly even just a pain in the ass, but she was willing to risk it.
They were not going to die here.
None of them were going to die.
And so, without being seen, Charlotte texted the man she knew would be able to raise the alarm. Savage. It was the only person she could think of, while her father would question why she sent the text.
****
Several Hours Later
The moment Savage got the message, he didn’t wait around, he got to business. He alerted Sheriff Hayes to get him to the beauty parlor. Grim and Nitro were with him, so they were at the scene before Doc finally got there, along with Razor and Mac.
The town was watching avidly to see what was going down. It was kind of sick and twisted, and not at all appealing.
Hilary was in there with guns, and anything could have been happening. The club took care of the problem with Hilary, as Savage let himself into the apartment. He knew immediately that Charlotte was in there.
Doc had looked at him questioningly today when he’d gotten there before he had. It was easy to cover up the fact Charlotte had texted him, but everything else was a fucking blur.
The fear he felt at the message, Hilary guns parlor, would stay with him for a long time. Of course, it was not all spelled correctly, but he’d been able to ascertain what Charlotte meant. The truth was, Hilary’s name had filled in all the blanks.
Charlotte appeared from around the corner, dressed in a pair of doggy pajamas.
Savage knew he needed to keep some fucking restraint but he pulled her into his arms and held her tightly.
Today, Charlotte could have died. He might have never seen her again, and that very thought was enough to freak him out.
He didn’t want to live in a world without her.
All he wanted to do was kiss her, but there was a boundary. Charlotte was Doc’s daughter, and he was not going to play with that kind of fire.
“I knew you were going to come for me.”
He pulled back long enough to look down into her smiling face. She was so happy with herself.
“Thank you for responding to my text.”
“I didn’t text back,” he said.
Charlotte laughed. “No, but you understood enough to come for us. Thank you. Now, I did make us some spaghetti with tomato sauce. Do you want some? I’m starving, and I want to eat. I could have died today.”
“I wasn’t going to let that happen.”
“Thank you, Savage, you are a good friend.”
And that was the truth. He was a friend. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a friend.
“I’ve got your back, Charlotte, always.”
Charlotte sighed, then turned on her heel and made her way into the kitchen. He followed, immediately went to the fridge, and grabbed himself a beer. He was not going to think about the temptation of her ass, or how it looked as it swayed from side to side.
“Do you know what sucks?” Charlotte asked.
“No, what?”
“Today, I was going to get to do a smokey eye on Eden. I don’t know if she was going to pay for it, or anything like that. Maeve loved what I did with my look, and it was my one chance to actually show her I was learning.”
“Your time will come.”
Charlotte shrugged. “Sure, first they need to actually fix the window and repair all the damage to Kristin’s shop. She was not happy.”
“What is there to be happy about? Her entire life is in that shop, and we had no choice. You understand that.”
“Yeah, as does Kristin. We all understand it. What was Hilary’s deal today? She was ranting about you guys and some Bratva, and drugs.”
“I wouldn’t believe a word Hilary said. She was high on something.”
Charlotte blew out a breath. “I can’t believe Mac cheated on Eden with her. Weren’t they supposed to be friends?”
“Yep,” Savage said.
“Did you ever sleep with Hilary?”
Savage looked toward Charlotte and he shook his head. “Nope.”
Charlotte smiled at him. “Was that because you didn’t want to or because she didn’t offer?”
“She offered. Plenty of times. Women like Hilary were chasing the dick high.”
He watched as Charlotte’s face went a deep shade of red. “Dick high?”
“Some of the women like to play games at the club and keep a tally of all the men they sleep with.”
Her face scrunched up. “That’s gross.”
He shrugged. “Hilary was one of those women who was trying to work her way around the club. When it came to Mac, I think she slowed down a little, but not for love. For ease.”
Charlotte wrinkled her nose. “That’s gross. Wasn’t she supposed to be Eden’s friend?”
“This is what you want to talk about right now? Club drama?”
“What else do I have to talk about?” Charlotte asked.
Savage took another swig of his beer, put the bottle down on the counter, and closed the distance between them.
“The fact you have put one of the thickest layers of cheese known to man on that spaghetti. You’re dressed in doggy pajamas and it’s only eight o’clock.
No makeup is set up. You don’t have on any music.
Your eyes are red, which tells me you’ve been crying.
And you’re doing your best to hide it, but nothing can stop me seeing the fact you’re shaking like crazy. ”
“You can’t see that,” she said, and let out a laugh, then proceeded to put her hands against her face. “Ignore me.”
“I can’t ignore you, babe. I can see you.”
He took hold of her hands, and she wouldn’t pull them away from her face, so he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her. She was shaking.
“I’m an idiot,” she said.
“No, you’re not.”
“Nothing happened and I can’t—”
“You were held at gunpoint.”
“It wasn’t like she had me in some kind of chokehold. There were a lot of women in that salon today who went through the exact same thing. I’m just being a pussy.”
“I imagine Eden’s being comforted by Razor. Maeve has Doc. Your mother has ... whoever she needs. So does Kristin and the others.”
“My mom doesn’t have anyone.”
“Last I heard, she was at the club, surrounded by them, and trust me, we all know how to deal with the aftereffects of nearly dying. Nothing will happen to your mom. She is in good hands.”
There was a sob. And he felt her body crumble.
Savage wrapped his arms around her. He reached out to the cooker, turned it off, then picked Charlotte up in his arms and carried her to the sitting room, where he sat with her on his lap. He didn’t say anything, just let her sob against his chest.
Time ticked by, but he wasn’t upset about how long this was taking.
He just let her get all the fear, pain, and panic right out of her system.
She didn’t need to be thinking about any of it.
All she had to do was relax and realize it was over and she was safe.
He would do anything to protect her, and he would keep doing it for the rest of their lives.
“I’ve got you.”
“I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I’m acting this way.”
“It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not. I bet no one else is acting this way. “I’m a loser.”
He stroked her hair and let her rest against his chest.
“Am I a loser?” Charlotte asked.
“Not at all.”