Chapter 24
Jordan
“Around of margaritas for us,” I said, setting the pitcher on the coffee table, “and a virgin Shirley Temple for the mama.” This was my first time meeting Sloane, but I was so excited to get to know another old lady.
Seek grinned as she took the drink. “Thanks.”
“So Gwen,” Tori said as she poured a large glass from the frosty pitcher. “Ricochet is your brother?”
“Her twin,” Kit replied instead.
“Your kids are so adorable,” Jenny said, struggling with the pitcher now that Tori was filling her glass to the brim. “That’s too much, Tori,” she laughed.
“There’s plenty more where that came from,” I told them. “Drink up.”
“Thank you,” Gwen said, drinking from her glass. She made a face, then looked over at me. “Jeez, did you put anything other than tequila in here?”
“Hey, it’s our day off tomorrow and we’re going to have fun tonight. No more sticks in the mud,” I declared.
“Sticks?” Daisha asked.
“Mud?” Suzie followed up.
Sloane eyes lit up with a smile. “You don’t seem like sticks in the mud to me.” She and Riptide had gotten home a while ago from their wedding. That was why I hadn’t met her before now, they hadn’t been at the barbecue.
“We’ve been single and holed up out here for a few years now,” I told them. “We decided we were better off without men.”
“Just working and living,” Gwen said with a sigh. “No dates, no girls’ nights, nothing.”
“That’s depressing,” Kit replied, horror on her face. “Why no girls’ nights? At the very least you deserve that.”
“Girls’ nights,” I told her, pointing my straw at her, “lead to handsome men hitting on you. We have terrible taste in men.”
“Hey!” Gwen tossed her straw my way. She wasn’t offended on Trent’s behalf; she just didn’t like hearing her brother was terrible. She was right. He wasn’t.
“Well, I might have found a good one,” I admitted with a sheepish look.
“Are you two finally dating?” Jenny asked. “Are you admitting that you’re a couple now?”
“They’re getting to knooow each other,” Gwen sang out.
The women all laughed. Even Sloane seemed to be settling in.
She was a quiet woman, but absolutely gorgeous.
She let the others do most of the talking, but I could see she was absorbing everything.
I looked forward to a time where she’d be comfortable enough to talk with me openly.
The others had just explained that she’d been through a lot lately and was slow to trust. I understood that completely.
We all know what ‘getting to knooow’ a biker means,” Jenny laughed, then snorted. She immediately brought her hands up to cover her nose. “Ooops.”
The sound was so cute we all let out peals of laughter. There was just something about someone who snorted when they laughed that made you just laugh more.
“Sexually?” Seek asked. “Please tell me you’re getting freaky in the sheets?”
I groaned and covered my face with one hand.
“They are!” Kit crowed.
“Not really,” I confessed. “And I can’t talk about this in front of his sister.”
“Oh you can,” Gwen responded, tucking her feet up underneath her so she was sitting on my recliner legs akimbo. “I’m not Gage’s sister tonight, just a friend.”
“We…did a few things,” I admitted, face heating up.
“What about the rest?” Daisha asked in disappointment.
“I don’t really trust myself anymore.” I stared down into the alcohol in my glass. “I thought I was a good judge of character, but then someone completely took me for a ride.” I hadn’t really told them much before at the bar, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to get into it all tonight.
They were all wearing sad expressions now. “I hate when that happens,” Kit commiserated. “I swear we all know at least one guy like that.”
Everyone nodded.
“So now I’m making Ricochet wait. It’s not really fair. He hasn’t done anything wrong. In fact, he’s almost too perfect. For me, I mean.” My sigh came out as a happy little sound.
“Aw, she’s in love!” Seek said, her eyes filling with tears. “Sorry, damn hormones,” she sniffed.
Sloane handed her a tissue box she’d dug out of her purse.
I blinked in surprise. “Do you always have whole boxes of tissues on hand?”
Sloane flushed, but gave me a shy smile. “I’m pregnant, too, and I cry at the drop of a hat, so I like to be prepared.”
“Congratulations!” I told her. “That explains why you haven’t touched your drink. I’ll make you a virgin, just like Seek’s.”
“Thank you,” she replied. “I’d like that.”
“Back to-”
“Enough,” I said, waving my hand in the air, interrupting Kit before she could get the conversation back onto me. “Someone else’s turn.” I hurried into the kitchen, listening in while I made Sloane’s drink.
“Gwen,” Susie declared. “Tell us about you.”
“Oh.” Her gaze shot over to me, nerves easy to see. “Well, I’m a mom…” She gave us a weak smile. “That’s about all I got.”
“What do you do for work?” Kit asked.
Sitting back down, I passed the glass to Sloane and took the one she’d been holding.
“I’m a vet tech,” she replied. “I love being able to help people and their pets.”
“That’s cool,” Seek said. “Which office do you work at? I’ve been looking for a new place to bring my dogs.”
“Pets and Friends, off Oracle.”
“Next to the Fry’s?” Seek asked.
“That’s it!”
“I was looking into that place already. You guys have a lot of great reviews.”
“Yeah, the vets are fantastic and everyone is really great. We’re all really happy to be working there,” Gwen said. “And it’s close to Grace’s pre-school.”
“Long drive into work from all the way out here,” Tori said. “About an hour?”
“Yeah, sometimes an hour and twenty with morning traffic, but it’s worth it to live out here where my kids can play outside without me having to worry about them.”
“I get that,” Susie said. “That’s why we like living in Marana. It doesn’t have the same city feel.”
“That’s not going to last long the way they keep building everything up,” Kit muttered.
I stood up, noticing that the pitcher was already empty and went to the fridge to grab the second. There were four in there and judging by the slight waver to my vision we weren’t going to make it through them all.
Listening to the women in the next room laughing together, I made up second drinks for Seek and Sloane. By the time I came back, the room had taken on a more serious note.
“Have you told Ricochet?” Seek asked.
“Told Ricochet what?” I asked, setting the drinks down on the coffee table again then settling onto my spot on the couch.
“Gwen thinks someone’s been hanging around the house.”
My eyes flashed over to her, concern for her and the children’s safety settling in my chest. “What?”
“No, I said there was a car that was parked at the end of the road,” Gwen corrected.
“No one ever comes out here,” I told the others. To Gwen I said, “Did you see who was driving it?”
“That’s the thing. No one was inside.”
“Weird,” I mumbled. “Maybe it was just somebody who was tired or drunk and decided to pull over.”
“That’s what I thought,” Gwen offered, “but I saw it again yesterday near dusk. You were already home from work. Did you see it driving in? It’s a gray Corolla.”
“I didn’t.”
The others' heads were turning back and forth as they followed our conversation.
“Definitely tell Ricochet,” Kit told us.
“Agreed,” the others parroted.
“I don’t want to worry him,” Gwen replied, sounding hesitant.
“He’ll be pissed if he finds out you didn’t tell him,” Seek argued. “These guys are all super protective. If you saw something out of the ordinary they’d want to know about it.”
“I know,” Gwen said in an amused tone. “That’s what I’m worried about.
I don’t want your men out here guarding us anytime Ricochet can’t be here.
That’s not fair to any of them. Not for a car that’s been parked here twice.
For all we know it’s a pair of teenagers sneaking off into a wash to smoke a joint. ”
Everyone wore matching frowns. They weren’t convinced. Gwen laughed and shook her head, holding her hands up in defeat. “Okay, I’ll tell him.”
There were sighs of relief. “You never know,” Susie told us. “The club has enemies. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
“Enemies?” I asked. Even though the girls had told me a bit about club life, there was still so much I needed to learn. Ricochet hadn’t brought anything up and I hadn’t wanted to force him into it. But I was so curious to know about this part of his life.
They all gave each other looks. Even Gwen seemed to know what Susie meant.
“Has Ricochet told you yet about some of the things the club does?” Kit asked.
I shook my head in answer.
“He’s taking too long. She needs to know this stuff,” Kit sighed.
“I think he was waiting on the go ahead from Lockout,” Seek replied.
“No. Smokehouse told me Lock approves. He’s just trying not to scare Jordan off,” Kit told her.
“Well, now you have to tell me,” I commented, a feeling of dread curling in my stomach.
“We can’t tell you everything,” Daisha answered. “That’s for Ricochet to do, but the guys are…” She looked around for help.
“A lot of people would consider them criminals,” Gwen spoke up. “But they help people. Sometimes in a…borderline criminal way.”
“You knew about this?” I asked.
She nodded. “When Gage first joined he asked Lockout if he could let me in on things. Not everything, I’m sure,” she said with a wry smile, “but just enough that I took it seriously if there was ever any kind of threat made against them. He said it was the only way to keep me and the kids safe.”
That made sense. I looked around at them all. “What kinds of things do they do?”
“They step in and help out when the cops’ hands are tied,” Seek replied. “Of course, the cops don’t know about it.”
“They take care of bad people,” Tori said.
“Permanently,” Daisha piped in.
My jaw dropped. “They kill people?”
“If necessary,” Kit said. “But they don’t hurt innocents. They only go after someone if it’s brought to their attention. If they’re hurting people, or doing other bad things.”
“They help people,” Sloane said, her voice soft. She was looking directly at me, almost as though she were pleading with me to understand.
“I’m glad to hear that,” I told her, meaning it.
“I know it’s a lot to take in. It took me a while to come to grips with it. To understand that they put themselves in harm’s way so that others are safe,” Gwen said.
Nodding, I took a drink of my margarita to ease the sudden dryness in my mouth. “I’m not judging them,” I told the room. Tensions eased after I said that. “It’s just… I’m not used to anything like this. Stick in the mud, remember?”
That made them all laugh.
“Ricochet will explain more to you,” Kit assured me. “He’ll be able to answer any questions you have. I’ll have Smoke talk to him about having that chat with you sooner rather than later.”
I nodded and thankfully Daisha changed the subject by asking Seek and Sloane about the double baby shower they were all planning.
My thoughts drifted as I remembered what Ricochet had told me about his time on deployment.
The thought of him being in dangerous situations here at home, with his club, made my belly clench with fear.
I didn’t want him to get hurt. And even though it made me feel guilty, I didn’t want my family to get hurt because of my association with him.
The picture of my dad lying on a hospital gurney flashed through my mind.
Never again did I want the choices I made to affect those I loved.
The last thing I wanted was to make the women around me feel badly about telling me what they had, so I kept my mouth shut. I wanted to hear all this from Ricochet anyway, before I made any kind of decision about us being in each other’s lives permanently.
I needed to hear it from him. I wasn’t sure how to take it that he was some kind of Punisher-like vigilante. Or how to process the fact that I wasn’t alarmed and running away. That I was almost accepting of this. What did it say about me?
The hours passed quickly and we were all—except Seek and Sloane—buzzed, well, drunk, and enjoying ourselves by the time their men started arriving to pick them up.
I walked each of them out and hugged them goodnight.
“Thanks so much for coming,” I told Kit.
I waved at Smokehouse, who was waiting in his car.
He grinned and gave me a nod in acknowledgment.
All of the men had shown up in cars. It made sense.
The idea of a drunk woman hanging on to the back of a motorcycle was downright terrifying to think about.
“You’ll both come to the baby shower, right?” she asked.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” I promised.
Watching as they left, I waited until the tail lights went around the corner at the end of the street. I walked around to my backyard, peeking in on Haze to make sure she was settled for the night before going inside.
Smiling down at my best friend, who was passed out on the couch, I covered her with a blanket, then kicked back on the recliner with my own blanket that my grandma had knitted for me.
I’d just had a wonderful time tonight with these women and was starting to see the way my life would unfold with Ricochet.
The things they’d told me worried me, but not nearly as much as I would have expected.
I wasn’t going to jump to any conclusions until I got to speak to him directly.
Closing my eyes, I pictured him in my mind and fell asleep with a smile on my lips.