Chapter 27
Ricochet
It’d been another few weeks since Jordan had agreed to be my old lady and somehow everything had clicked into place. I couldn’t remember a time when I was so damn happy. When I felt more myself.
We walked down the sidewalk, holding hands, and I grinned over at her as she devoured her ice cream cone.
She was this interesting mix of cute and sexy.
She made me laugh more than I had in the past four years, but I also wanted to toss her down on the nearest flat surface and pound into her body until she was screaming in ecstasy.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, licking between her fingers where some of the ice cream had dripped.
My cock hardened in an instant as I thought about her licking the sweet substance from it. “Just enjoying the view.”
She shook her head and knocked her shoulder into mine. She’d dropped her guard, letting me in fully over the past few weeks and it was giving both of us an idea of what our life together would look like.
I had to admit it was everything I wanted. She was all I needed. Wrapping an arm around her, I tucked her up close to my body while we strolled. We were just killing time before a movie. It was all so damn normal.
After a few more delays we’d finally gotten word that construction on the school should be good to start up by next week.
I was beginning to connect more with my MC brothers.
Even though I was still living out with Gwen and the kids, I was at the clubhouse each day for a few hours.
It was like I was slowly emerging from the depression I’d been living in for the last few years.
It wasn’t completely gone. I wasn’t an idiot.
I’d still have to deal with my PTSD, probably for the rest of my life.
But somehow Jordan made it all a little easier.
I’d said something like that the other day when I was sitting around, having a beer with some of the guys. It was my olive branch. Admitting that I knew I had an issue, but that I was working on it.
Butcher had looked over and shocked the shit out of all of us. “She gives you something to look forward to. Knowledge that life can and will move on. And that you can look forward to tomorrow.”
It’d been so damn insightful we’d all just stared at him in silence. At least until Toxic had asked him when he’d become Dr. Phil and made everyone laugh.
I was caught up in my own thoughts as we walked, so much so that we almost ran into the man standing in our path. My groan was only loud enough for Jordan to hear as I recognized him. This was the last fucking thing I needed tonight.
Before I could say anything, Trent stepped closer toward me and shoved a finger into my chest. My eyes narrowed on the smaller man. “You’re going to lose that fucking finger if you don’t get away from us.”
Jordan’s hand squeezed mine, silently asking for me to behave.
That was easier said than done, especially with my sister’s piece of shit ex in my face.
Knowing what he’d done with the permitting, but not being able to confront him on it was a burning ache in my gut.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to relax. This shit stain isn’t worth losing my temper over.
That thought right there was a sign that I was evolving.
The rage that lived inside of me for so long was finally dying down.
Trent had other plans.
“I heard you were trying to get the permits for your little school re-issued,” he told me with a smarmy smile. “I’m just going to keep getting them pulled,” he taunted. His eyes were wide and blood shot. He was just a little too excited for this conversation.
“Why do you care about a random charter school?” It was the one thing none of us had been able to figure out.
“Because you care about it,” he replied.
Of course that would be it. Being associated with me would come at a price for all of my brothers.
“Why are you being such a dick?” Jordan asked, making me snort out a laugh.
His eyes drifted over her and the smile he gave her made my free hand clench up into a fist.
“You’re hot. Way hotter than Gwen. Better than this piece of shit deserves. Why don’t you come with me and I’ll show you a good time?” He flashed straight white teeth at her in a smile that he thought was charming.
Jordan just had a look of disgust on her face. “Gross. Not happening.”
The pounding she was giving Trent’s ego was stroking my own and making it a little easier to keep my temper in check. But as usual, Trent couldn’t shut the fuck up.
“You’d look way better with me than this loser,” he said, shooting me a look.
“My sister was always too good for you.”
“So it was you who told her to stop letting me come around.” He looked pissed. That was when it clicked. He blamed me for Gwen cutting him out of her and the kids’ lives again.
If that’s what he thought, I’d let him. Better he was pissed and retaliating against me, than my sister. I shrugged my shoulders and pasted a bored look on my face. “You’re not worth her time. She has better things to be doing. Better people to be seeing.”
“Like your criminal friends?” he shrieked.
Jordan’s eyes widened and she looked around. There were a few people out on the street as the daylight faded away, but most just hurried past, giving us uneasy glances.
“Absolutely. She’s going to find a biker to fall in love with and forget all about your pathetic ass.” Anger bubbled up inside of me. It was getting harder to ignore what he was saying.
Jordan tugged at my hand again. “We should go.”
I started to turn, willing to walk away from this fight. That was until Trent uttered the next sentence.
“I’m going to wait until you’re out one night…”
Glancing over my shoulder, I scowled at him.
“Then I’m going to let myself into your girlfriend’s house. I’m going to fuck her so hard she won’t even remember your name.”
Turning, I ignored Jordan’s request to stop. I moved back toward Trent, leaving Jordan a safe distance away. We were practically nose to nose by the time I stopped. “Who said she’d want a limp dick asshole like you anyway?” I growled.
“Who said I’d take no for an answer?” Triumph flashed in his eyes when he saw that remark had pushed me over the edge.
I wasn’t sure why he was picking a fight with me, but that was all it took. My fist was breaking his nose before I was even aware that I was throwing the punch. I wasn’t about to stop there, though.
Next thing I knew, we were down on the ground and I was whaling on him. Every once in a while, he’d throw a feeble punch of his own, or try to block my hits, but even though Trent had a big mouth, he didn’t have the skill to back it up.
Despite his inability to throw a punch, he took them surprisingly well.
I kept laying them on him and he just kept coming in for more.
I’d been in dozens of scraps, hardly anyone could take this many hits.
At least when they were sober. I had no clue what he was on, but it made him all the more dangerous.
There was yelling and grabbing hands, but none of it penetrated the fog of my fury. This scum of the Earth had just threatened to rape my old lady. He was going to die and I was going to enjoy sending him to hell.
Someone grabbed me around both arms, hauling me backward and off Trent. I lurched against their hold, trying to get back at him, but it was two men holding me back. Slowly reality began to intrude upon my fury. The red at the edge of my vision was clearing up.
A third man helped Trent to his feet. He bent over, spitting blood out onto the sidewalk. He was grinning like a fucking maniac.
My brows drew together. He shouldn’t be standing upright, not after the beating he just took, yet here he was swaying, but standing. “What the fuck are you on?”
“Nothing,” he spat, spraying blood. “Just implementing the next part of my plan.” He backed away slowly, watching me. “You’re going to regret this.”
He was probably right. For all I knew he had someone filming this and he’d take it to the mayor to try to get the next steps for construction of the school shut down. Worst case scenario though, the guys could just take me off the crew. His ‘plan’ made no sense.
The men holding me back didn’t let go until Trent had stumbled off down the block.
They were muttering something about ‘let him go’, ‘just drop it, dude’, but I wasn’t really paying attention to them.
Once Trent was gone I wasn’t going to waste any more time on him.
I was already pissed that he’d egged me into a fight, but no one was going to threaten my old lady and get away with it free and clear.
I turned and my gut dropped down onto the sidewalk.
Jordan’s face was pale and she was looking at me like I was the monster. She hadn’t heard what Trent had said, she’d been too far away. It was better that way anyway. I didn’t want her terrified to be home because that asshole had threatened her.
She swallowed hard as I walked up to her. She was fighting for control and I could see both fear and anger in her eyes.
“Sunshine-”
“Don’t-” she barked the word out, looked around, then lowered her voice, “Don’t call me that.”
I sighed. “Look, he had that coming.”
“You know how I feel about starting fights, Ricochet,” she said, choking a little on the words.
“I’m sorry I scared you,” I told her, reaching out to her. I had to bite back a curse when she stepped away from me.
“I can’t. Don’t touch me.”
“You can’t what, Baby?”
“I thought I could do this,” she whispered.
Fear crept into my heart hearing her speak like that. “Give me a chance to explain, Jordan,” I demanded.
She shook her head, her black hair shining under the streetlights that were just starting to come on. “I can’t do this.”
“Can’t do-” My jaw dropped as she spun and hurried down the street. “Jordan!”
She didn’t look backward, just kept going. As much as I wanted to chase after her, I knew that would just make things worse. I followed her and kept my distance, just watching over her, until a car pulled up and she got inside. It hadn’t taken long for whoever she’d called to pick her up.
“That better be a fucking family member,” I muttered, pissed off that she’d called someone else to come get her instead of letting me explain and going home with me.
I stepped into the shadows of a building as the car passed by, then kicked an empty bottle that was left on the street. It clattered across the sidewalk. “This is fucking horse shit!”
It didn’t matter to her the reason that I’d just lost my temper and beat the shit out of Trent. I’d scared her. Reminded her of her shitty ex and now she was running away from me.
My fists balled up and I tipped my head back, heaving a sigh. I’d come so fucking far and for Trent to fuck this up for me… It was beyond pissing me off. I wanted to track him down and finish what I’d started. But that was what had scared Jordan off in the first place.
Breathing heavy, trying to rein in my rage, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and hit a number. The phone rang a few times before Smoke answered.
“Bro, how’s it going?” he asked, laughter in his voice. The sounds of the bar filtered through the phone. He was back working there temporarily while we waited for everything with the school to be cleared up.
“I need your help.”
“What happened?” He was all seriousness now, hearing the fury in my words.
I quickly explained what happened with Trent. “It was a fucking set up. I just have no clue what he wanted. But the things he threatened…” I swallowed down the emotions storming through me. “Could you go out to Jordan and Gwen’s and watch over them?”
“Consider it done. I’ll hang out until you get there, or have Hell replace me halfway through the night if you need to have a drink with the boys to calm down. Don’t worry about a thing, Ricochet.”
The line cut out as he hung up. He knew me too damn well.
Booze always called my name after a fight.
Not getting blind drunk. I just needed to take the edge off, rant to my brothers, and figure out how to unfuck this.
I wanted to go straight to Jordan and fix it, but even if she would see me again tonight, I wasn’t in any condition to talk with her.
I needed to numb the anger churning in my gut.
Scraping a hand through my hair, I walked back to where my bike was parked. Why did relationships have to be so fucking difficult?