Chapter Three
Roadkill stood in the parking lot and watched the battered Focus pull out of the parking lot. The girl looked exhausted, especially after he’d shown her how to use a couple of machines and she’d spent half an hour working out before showering and trying to leave.
He looked forward to the next time she came in. Jenna had been friendly and interested in what he was showing her. She’d seemed determined to learn and hadn’t been overly flirty or handsy as some of the girls who’d come in before had been.
It was as though they thought he would be thrilled to take them in the back and screw their brains out.
When he’d made it clear that this was his business and he had no intention of touching them in any way but purely professional, and that this wasn’t a bar or wherever they normally went for a hook up, and that he wouldn’t put up with them targeting his male customers either, they’d never returned.
Good riddance.
He didn’t need their kind of trouble in his place.
But Jenna wasn’t like that. She had a goal and it wasn’t a roll in the hay.
Or at least not picking one up here. From the few things she’d said while he’d shown her the place, he didn’t think whatever had pushed her to start a workout routine was to pick up men. But he’d been wrong before.
Once the little car had pulled out of sight, he turned and went inside.
“That’s one hot piece of ass,” Phantom said as Roadkill stepped in the door. “Mind if I hang around again tomorrow so I can ask her out. Think she’d go to lunch with me?”
Roadkill clenched his teeth. His brother was fucking with him. Phantom’s type leaned more to the barbie look. All boobs and no brains. He was only asking if he could pick up Jenna because he knew there was something about her that called to Roadkill.
Why did all of his brothers have to be assholes?
“No, you can’t.”
Phantom opened his eyes, looked at Roadkill, and tilted his head to one side.
“How you plan to stop me?”
Roadkill glared at his brother but didn’t respond. As if he would warn the man about it? That would only give him time to come up with some way to counter it.
No. Roadkill would talk to Hex about finding some urgent job for Phantom to do to keep him away from Savage Iron for a couple of days. Long enough for Jenna to come back in and for Roadkill to get to talk to her a little more.
He got the feeling she was under a lot of pressure, and he didn’t want to be the reason she had to deal with more, not even because one of his brothers was making unwelcome advances.
He was intrigued, yes, but he wanted to get to know her a little, let her get more comfortable with him before he invited her to do something away from here.
What though, he had no clue. Maybe after spending more time with her, he’d have a few ideas. He wondered briefly how she’d feel about his bike and if he could talk her into taking a ride with him.
As he thought about it, he wondered if maybe she would find some of the peace he thought she needed on the highway, like he did.
At the end of the day, he finished at the gym, went and got on his bike. Instead of turning toward the Savage Warriors compound, and home, he headed west. He had a craving and the only place that would satisfy it was in Mississippi, even if it was only twenty minutes away.
By the time he’d had his shrimp tacos and the best fried green tomatoes he’d ever found, he got back on the road and enjoyed every minute of his ride back to the clubhouse.
By the time he got home, he’d gotten past the worst of his being pissed at Phantom.
In the clubhouse, he found Hex sitting at a table with Elizabeth.
“Hey, mind if I join you for a few?” Roadkill asked when he stopped beside the table.
“Not all, have a seat,” Elizabeth motioned to the other side of the table.
“Got something on your mind?” Hex asked.
“A bit. I had a woman come in today.” He paused as he tried to find the right words to express what he needed to, without saying too much.
“We heard your tongue about hit the floor when some woman came in,” Hex said.
Roadkill let his head fall forward. Phantom had already been here and flapping his lips.
He didn’t know if that would make this easier, or harder.
One thing he was sure of was that if he was able to convince Jenna to spend more time with him, then his brothers would never let him hear the end of it.
They wouldn’t harass her, though, and that was the only saving grace. While his brothers were rowdy assholes who didn’t know how to act at the best of times, they did know better than to harass a woman, in any way.
If one of them did, and the rest of the club found out, well, let’s just say the rest of the brothers would give them a good thumpin’ and teach them a lesson about how ladies were supposed to be treated.
And if it happened a second time? Well, then they likely would have their patch stripped. But Roadkill couldn’t be entirely sure, because in his five years with the Savage Warriors, it had never happened.
“Phantom is an asshole.” Roadkill didn’t bother to deny the accusation, because he knew the more he denied it, the bigger deal he made about it, the longer they’d ride him about it.
“A woman did come in, she sighed up for a membership, asked for help. Normal shit. But she’s looking to possibly bring in her little sister, as in middle school little, and she seems a little skittish.
I’m afraid Phantom and his usual shit will scare her off if she had to deal with him too soon. ”
“You want me to tell him to stay away? For how long?” Hex asked, one brow lifted.
“No. I can do that. Not that I think he’ll listen unless I can make him see reason.
He upsets her just once and he’ll find out why I’ve got my position.
What I’d like is for you to give him something to do, I don’t really care what, as long as it keeps him out of Savage Iron for a week or so.
I’m hoping after she’s more used to us, more comfortable around the place, he won’t run her off with is usual assholery. ”
“Assholery?” Elizabeth said. “Is that even a word?”
“You knew what I meant, didn’t you?”
Elizabeth shook her head but didn’t say anything more. Instead, she picked up a fry off Hex’s plate and ate it.
“You want me to come up with some job for him, just to keep him away from the gym?”
“Yep. Don’t you still have prospects going with her every time she leaves the compound?”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything as she continued to help herself to Hex’s plate.
The club president glanced down at her, gave her a small smile, but didn’t stop her or say anything about it.
In his place, Roadkill wouldn’t have either.
Elizabeth was carrying his president’s baby.
All of the Warriors scrambled to get her anything she wanted and help her with anything she might want done.
“Yeah. Harry the Hammer said she was clear, but you know me. I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
“So put him on her for a few days. Put him on the gate. I really don’t give a fuck, but if he comes to the gym and says something that runs her off, I’ll be forced to teach him a lesson.”
Hex didn’t say anything, not right away.
Instead, he watched Roadkill intensely, as if trying to see what his enforcer was hiding.
The enforcer ignored the scrutiny. He looked down at the floor, considering if there was anything else he could say to convince the man in charge.
Something that would let Hex know this was important to him, without letting him know exactly how important.
He didn’t want to put too much pressure on something that was really nothing. Not yet at least.
“Also, so you know, she had some car trouble. I gave her a card to the shop and told her to tell them I sent her. I’ll go talk to Papa Smurf, but I told her we could work out a payment plan for whatever work needs to be done to get her old beater running smooth and reliable again.”
“You want him to do the work and wait for payment?” Hex didn’t sound happy.
“No. I want him to tell her that’s what we’re going to do. I’ll cover the repairs.”
Hex scowled. Elizabeth watched him with renewed interest. Roadkill ignored both. He turned and scanned the room, making sure nothing needed his attention, then looked back to the club president and his old lady.
Hex blinked, then nodded. “All right. I’ll find something to keep Phantom busy. You’ve got a week. I’m not going to play this game forever, but I see your point. Phantom takes getting used to.”
“What Phantom needs,” Elizabeth spoke up, “is to find a woman who won’t give him the time of day. He needs to find someone he can’t stop thinking about, that he can’t talk into whatever he has in mind. A woman who won’t give him the time of day.”
“Damn, Elle, you’re mean.”
“Nah. I think if he finds the right one, the one who will make him work to be who he could be, then he’ll mellow some.”
“Like you mellowed me, sugar?”
“I’m not sure mellowed is the right word for what I do to you.”
The smile she gave him suggested, at least to Roadkill, that they might not be in the clubhouse all that much longer.
Hex trusted the Warriors, Roadkill knew, but that didn’t mean he wanted them all knowing what he was doing with the woman who carried his kid.
That she also happened to be the woman he loved, that only made him more protective of her, not less.
“Give me a minute here, sugar, then we’ll go.”
“Take your time. I have all night.” The smile Elizabeth shot Hex was so full of mischief that Roadkill knew he needed to keep this short or his president’s temper would get short as the little woman in his arms teased and tormented him until she got what she was after.
“I’m good. You two can do your thing. I’m going to go talk to Papa Smurf, then see if Cyclone has anything for me. Thanks for your time. And thank you, Elizabeth for putting up with me interrupting your dinner.”
“You didn’t interrupt anything,” she said with a smile. “If anything, you made it more interesting.”
“Have a good night, both of you.” Roadkill didn’t’ wait for a response but headed out to the shop where Papa Smurf could usually be found tinkering with one engine or another.