Chapter 51
fifty-one
GREER
Jude’s touch on my lower back is tender and reassuring.
As angry as I am with him, there’s something about it that steadies my ever rising heartbeat.
I want to yank myself away from him, or curl right into the security of his arms. I haven’t decided yet.
My heart stutters hard enough to hurt. Jude’s jaw is clenched tight while pulling in even breaths from his nose.
He and his brother share a glare that could melt the polar ice caps.
The tension between the pair vibrates in the air like a live wire.
Allie and I reach for one another at the same time, drawing each other into a much needed hug.
“I’ve missed you,” I murmur, the words cracking under the heavy weight of her absence.
My eyes start to well with tears as the rush of all the emotions of the last weeks…
worry, fear, anxiety for her, for the change in our dynamic.
In her touch, I know it’s okay, we’re still us.
It’s pure impulse, but I reach into my pocket and palm the burner phone Darcy gave me, and slip it to Allie.
Her body tenses for a second trying to figure out what I’m doing, but slides the phone into her clothing. She winks in understanding.
“How long have you been here?” I ask, moving away to study her face.
“I never made it to my dorm room.”
“That long?” It’s impossible not to know what happened.
Flinch happened. What that means yet, I don’t know.
One thing Jude has taught me is how a biker touches and their deeper meaning.
Which is how I know the dominant hand on Allie’s back is an act of affection and reassurance.
When I do a gut check, I don’t believe the club as a whole would ever permit a woman to be beaten. He didn’t do this to her.
But why is she here, beaten to a pulp?
The minute the screen door slams against the jamb, I take in signs of my cousin everywhere in the cabin.
Orange blossoms and ginger fill the room from the candle we bought together last month.
Allie’s signature scent. Her favorite blanket is strewn on a futon.
The manicure kit I gave her for her birthday is on its accompanying table, the polish closed but half haphazardly on its side. She’s at home here.
I can make out more bruising now, on her arms and her cheek. My shoulders slump, “How did this happen? I saw you before you left. Did you get into an accident or something?”
With comfortable movements, Allie circles the coffee table and plops down on the futon. I sit on a chair next to her, wanting to be close. “It happened when I completely cut things off with P.J.” There’s a finality in the statement, but it takes me a minute to process the message.
The most dangerous time for a woman is when she’s leaving a relationship, and Allie did it without any of our family knowing. We would have circled the wagons around her.
My heart sinks. Was this a one time thing? P.J. hasn’t been himself at all since he started fighting. Whether it’s the gym supplements or the two concussions he’s suffered, I can’t be sure. It doesn’t matter if it’s ongoing or not. It happened, and she had to get out.
I never once dreamed it would come to this.
As much as I hope that it was an isolated incident, I don’t think it was.
No wonder she’s been secretive. My heart squeezes at the thought of what Allie’s gone through alone.
“Why didn’t you tell me? You could have come to anyone in our family. Uncle Cooper would have…”
“Ended up in jail for shooting the man who laid hands on his daughter,” she finishes.
“P.J. and I have been together since tenth grade. He was all I knew. I kept thinking I could fix this on my own. That I could convince him to stop injecting himself with all of that shit. I wanted my guy back the way things used to be. ”
“But you kept taking breaks from one another? Why not just end things?”
“That was his way of keeping me in line. To him, it meant he was free to do whatever he wanted, and I was supposed to stay home and think about my actions. For a while, it broke me, but then I found out he was sleeping with other people, even though that wasn’t what we agreed to.”
“I’m going to hurt P.J. when we find him.”
“Stand in line,” Flinch says coolly from his spot by the door. He’s standing next to Jude, both watching every move.
Allie cringes, but continues her story, “Right before you moved here, I started to make a plan to get away from P.J. I was going to go back to school and end things for good over text. I’d spoken to someone in school housing, and they helped me get into a more secure building where P.J couldn’t find me. ”
I can’t bite back the tears welling up in my eyes as everything makes sense all of a sudden. “I would have helped you,” I reiterate.
“I know, but I was in survival mode and terrified. I was hoping it would all be over with because he wanted to focus on fighting.”
“So what happened?”
Her voice turns soft, “P.J. was spending more time at the gym and the women who hang around it. I started feeling braver and thinking about moving on. I went to a bar with a friend last spring and met Flinch. I ignored him at first because I was so shut down, but he wouldn’t let me.
Demanded my attention. We ended up spending the night at a hotel.
Best mistake of my life, by the way. I left without leaving my number, but once I was back for the summer, Flinch started popping up everywhere.
Around the time you moved back, I was in a walking boot and not going out much.
He would still find me when I was in the bakery alone. ”
“I’m familiar with that particular move,” I snort.
“Right? Smooth.” She turns a happy smile to Flinch, her face glowing.
“So what went wrong?”
A dullness crosses into Allie’s eyes. “Everything came to a head that night at the casino. When Flinch saw me there, he naturally assumed I was back with P.J. After the fight in the crowd started, Flinch found me. Said it was reckless of P.J to let me come, I could have been seriously hurt, and that he didn’t care if I was with someone else, he was claiming me. ”
My cousin smiles at her man, all gooey eyed. Allie is wild, a dreamer, and a die-hard romantic. I got caught up in the whole machismo, “You’re mine whether you like it or not” thing, so I can’t even blame her for that. Is it the romance of being swept off her feet, though, or Flinch himself?
I know the answer with Jude and myself. It’s as clear as day. I love him. Is Allie going to wake up and realize her white knight is just another frog posing as a prince?
I’d dump this new version of P.J. for a man that loves me like that any day, even if he wasn’t mistreating me.
Hell, I’d happily let Jude ruin my whole life and thank him.
But I don’t know Flinch well enough to assume the best. “If you’re claimed by a brother, you’re protected, though. How did this happen?”
“P.J. realized I hadn’t watched his fight.
Then he found out I left with one of the brothers, and he got scary angry.
I tried to explain we were bringing Kira to the hospital, but he was in a blind rage.
Flinch got suspicious of my phone blowing up like that and decided to look for himself.
After skimming the messages, he called someone to tell them to not let P.J.
leave after he was done fighting for the night.
Then Flinch drove me home and told me to stay there. ”
“With three guards,” Flinch interjects.
I turn an accusing eye to him. If they have men on me when Jude is out of town, why weren’t they with Allie? “She gave them the slip,” Flinch explains smoothly. “I agreed to keep them further away so her parents didn’t see them, and the little witch took full advantage.”
“You told me I was safe!”
There’s not a hint of irritation on his face when he retorts, “Because you were being guarded by three men. This is why you had to stay here. It’s the only way I can keep you safe from yourself.”
“Do you know how scared I was of P.J. at that point? I was running on pure fear,” she defends.
I scrub my hands down my face, “I can’t believe you did that.”
“Believe me when I say that’s the least of her mischief. I’m up for a lifetime of headaches.” He’s wearing a proud grin, loving every part of the menace that is my cousin.
Turning my glare to Allie, I accuse, “So all of this would have been avoided if someone had just listened?”
“I thought I was doing the right thing. Running on instinct.”
“We couldn’t get to you if something happened, and P.J. was in the wind,” Flinch interrupts. “There’s nothing wrong with finishing online.”
“All I could think about was running. I had to get my dorm stuff from the storage unit, but P.J. found me there. When he was finished, P.J. left me there like trash. Somehow, Flinch found me. Took me to some clinic for X-rays, then straight here.”
“So why not tell anyone?”
Allie shocks me when she defends, “He was trying to keep me safe.”
“Then why the secrecy?” I challenge.
“So..I didn’t stay here willingly. I had no interest in being in anything resembling a relationship, and I wanted to run away from everything. My college is right in the middle of an enemy club’s turf. Flinch wasn’t having it, and since I’m claimed, Odin backed him up.”
The sunflowers. Solomon’s old lady. Is it the same people? I turn to Jude and Flinch. “Nobody knew she was in any way affiliated with the club. She could have gone back to school.”
“Not risking it, especially while we were still looking for P.J,” Jude asserts.
Flinch paces closer, his movements smooth, finally growing lax. “Even if the other club never found out she was mine, we couldn’t go to her if we were needed. She’d already made several unsafe decisions. We thought it best that she stay in the local area under guard.”
Allie’s confident voice is far from assuring, “It’s okay now, I understand, and we’ve worked it out.”
Protecting Allie from herself.
A cold chill runs down my spine, “Ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome?” I point out.
Flinch scoffs in amusement, then shakes his head. “Do you really think Allie wouldn’t have left long ago if she really set her mind to it?”
My cousin is hard-headed. Spirited. If she wants out, she’ll find a way.
As for me, I’d have helped her if she didn’t want to be here.
As if reading my mind, Flinch throws out, “And this is why I didn’t want you to know.
She’s difficult enough to handle on her own.
How the fuck am I supposed to keep her safe when I have to worry about you two conspiring? ”
“You signed up for this. Greer and I are a package deal,” Allie goads.
As are Flinch and Jude. Allie and I may be the “third set of twins,” but they’re found brothers. They have us to deal with, but Allie and I have to contend with a pair of bossy bikers.
I’m not happy with this situation at all. I’m not so sure the same could be said for Allie. Being rescued by a man who looks like a young Luke Perry and holds you like..
Well, like Jude holds me. It’s too pure to be anything but real, too tender to have anything but the best intentions. I just hope Allie isn’t rushing into a dream, only to crash into reality.
Allie reaches over to clasp my hands. “I’ve missed you. It killed me knowing you were at that party the other night.”
I take a seat next to Allie, and we share a sideways hug, resting our temples against one another. “It was Jude’s patching in.”
“And you got a patch of your own, I see! Someone’s an old lady officially as well.”
Looking down at my property patch, I acknowledge, “Same night.”
We slip into conversation as easily as ever, as if nothing’s changed, because we’re both still Allie and Greer. I’m angry with her for making dumb choices, and angrier at Jude for not reading me in.
I know Allie well enough to know that sometimes, you have to hold on for dear life and ride things out.
If the dick dazzled grin she’s shooting at Flinch fades and Allie decides she doesn’t want to be with him, I’m going to be right here to support her.
Given the fuck me eyes they’re sharing right now, I somehow have a feeling that Allie’s as much of a goner as I am.
What red blooded woman doesn’t want a biker to rescue her? Maybe, even if it’s just for right now, Allie’s living a dream while she heals. I couldn’t pull her out if I tried. I’ll be waiting if things go bad, if she wants out.