Bad Apple (The Uncertain Saints MC #4) (2 page)

He was a sexy man.

He was tall with unusual blonde hair that I couldn’t decide whether or not had a hint of red running through it.

He had a blonde beard that was trimmed close to his face, and wasn’t over the top like some of the others in the MC.

He had light blue eyes that were rimmed with a hint of green and a very muscular body.

Not Hulk muscular, but a nicely toned body that looked to be from working rather than working out.

Not that I didn’t think he did one over the other. He just didn’t look like he was the type of guy to go to the gym all the time.

“So what do you do?” I asked curiously.

“I’m a game warden…and a lumberjack,” he muttered, slurping up another forkful of chicken spaghetti.

“A lumberjack?” I asked. “Is that even a real occupation anymore?”

He turned to look at me.

“Yes.”

One word was all I received, and I knew better than to continue with that line of questioning.

“I’m in school to become a paralegal,” I told him, sensing a change of subject was needed.

“Yeah,” he murmured. “I heard.”

“You did?” I asked in confusion.
Had I already told him that?

No.

He nodded. “Your brother, Ridley, told me.”

I blinked.

Ridley didn’t often talk about me to other people.

I was a very private person, but then again, having what I had, and experiencing what I did, there was a good reason for it.

“Oh,” was the only thing I could think to say.

“He said you hate doing it,” he commented.

I snorted.

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“Then why do you do it?”

He was a persistent bastard.

“Because I need the job…and the money,” I said, raising my brows at him.

And it was hard to find a job that would work around my ailment.

“What’s so bad about it?” He pushed his plate away from him.

It was completely empty and looked almost as if he’d licked the damn thing.

“You really wanna know?” I wondered.

He nodded.

“Well, my day started off a little like this: I walked into the building to hear a man say, ‘You’re always looking for a man to sweep you off your feet. Well, let me tell you something, woman!’” I imitated the way the man had sounded. “’Sweeping is your job!’”

And that had been the turning point…the fork in the road, as one would say.

“I knew, as soon as I heard the man say that, that it wasn’t going to be a good case. Then he’d gone and proved me right by continuing to verbally beat down his wife over and over again, forcing her to agree to his edicts, all because he controlled the money and she didn’t,” I sighed, dropping my head into my hands. “I hate it. But I like it all at the same time. I like helping my clients win. I like my part in helping the kids get what they deserve.”

Apple nodded.

“I’m not a full time lumberjack,” he said finally, going back to our earlier topic. “But my dad’s business is his livelihood, and if I’m not there to do it, he can’t pay his bills.”

That made more sense, and I now had a reason for him and his reluctance to speak more on the subject.

He got up and grabbed himself a beer from the cooler, along with another drink for me.

He handed them both to me as a commotion at the front of the room had me smiling as another member’s wife, Tasha, was giving her husband, Casten, the verbal smack down.

She was a fireball, that was for sure.

“Thank you,” I muttered, reaching for the bottle to twist the lid off.

He took it back out of my hands and twisted the top of effortlessly before handing it back without another word.

I thanked him again before taking another sip.

I was going to regret drinking in the morning, without a doubt. But I couldn’t get my thoughts sorted out, and to do that, I needed to let go a little bit.

“Are they fighting about goats?” He asked.

I nodded. “She wants some, and he doesn’t.”

“I can tell that,” he sipped his beer. “But don’t they live in the city.”

I nodded. “She saw a video last week about a goat as a house pet. The owners even took them on walks and everything.”

“Interesting,” he murmured. “I have goats.”

“You do?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, but they’re not pets.”

I smiled, unable to help myself.

Hearing that this big badass in his tight red t-shirt, faded blue jeans that had holes in both the knees, as well as where I guessed his keys were held in his pockets, with his tight leather vest had goats really made me want to laugh.

He was the exact opposite of what I expected him to be when I walked into the clubhouse today.

Fun, came to mind.

I drank my lemonade, smiling from time to time when the man would have something funny to say.

And when he asked me to help him start picking up the trash, I didn’t even hesitate. I just helped him.

My brother gave me a weird look, but ultimately ignored me for the conversation he was having with a few men from the police department.

People started to leave, and the only ones left, by the time I thought it sufficiently clean enough, were my brother, Peek, the president, and his wife, Casten and his wife, Mig and his wife, Apple and me.

“Thanks for the help,” Apple thanked me genuinely.

I shrugged and picked up a new bottle of lemonade from the cooler, then sat on the only open seat, which happened to be the fireplace ledge.

Apple started to lean against the mantle, but I moved over slightly, giving him room to sit next to me.

Although it was a tight fit, he didn’t complain.

“Thanks,” he grunted.

I nodded, too busy smelling him to say ‘you’re welcome.’

“I think we should go on a fun run two weeks from now,” Peek boomed, bringing everyone’s attention to him. “We haven’t gone on one in a couple of months, and now that everyone’s finally free of babies and shit, I want to go. To Arizona.”

“What’s in Arizona?” I found myself asking.

It’s not like I was invited to go.

In fact, I hadn’t ever been on the back of a motorcycle.

My brother was too scared of the possible consequences of me falling off during one of my ‘fits’, as he liked to call them, that I never bothered asking him anymore.

I peeled the label off my bottle, completely forgetting that I’d even asked a question until the room got silent around me, finally making me pull my head up in confusion.

They were all staring at me.

Even the newbie.

“What?” I mumbled.

My brother was the one to answer.

“Mr. Prospect here just asked you if you wanted to ride with him to Arizona,” Ridley teased, making it sound like he knew I would turn him down. “And to answer your question, nothing’s in Arizona. We just like to go to different places and see the sights.”

My brother’s face looked so superior, so sure of himself, that I wanted to knock him down a notch.

He was always doing that, acting like he knew what was best for me, and it was suffocating.

So I put my foot into it.

“I’d love to,” I turned my head to see Apple staring at me expectantly.

His eyes showed surprise, and then satisfaction…and then worry.

He looked over at my brother, then back to me.

“Am I missing something?” He asked.

I grinned.

“No,” I smiled. “Not anything important.”

“You’re not like a psycho or anything, right?” He asked for confirmation.

I shook my head.

“Not the last time I checked,” I baited.

“You’ve checked to see if you’re psycho?” He tilted his head slightly.

I shrugged.

“I’ve taken a few of those quizzes on Facebook that make you pick a bunch of pictures and answer random questions. According to them, I am not a psycho,” I returned.

Chuckles rose around the room as Apple and I sparred back and forth, but then I made a faux pas of sorts.

I asked about his name.

“So, tell me about your name,” I broke in. “Is it a family name?”

I hadn’t meant it as anything but what it was. A fucking question.

Did Apple take it like that?
No.

He took immediate offense to the fact that I would question where he got his name, automatically assuming that I was being rude.

“My name came from my mother, thank you very much,” he muttered, standing up. “If y’all don’t need anything else, my Pop’s all by himself tonight.”

Peek automatically nodded, and I was left wondering what in the hell just happened.

“Ummm,” I floundered. “Do y’all think I’m still invited this weekend?”

Annie, Mig’s wife, giggled.

“No,” she snickered. “I don’t think you will be.”

I snapped my fingers.

“Damn,” I moaned. “The first time I get an invitation by someone that has all his teeth and it’s rescinded within the hour.”

Laughter followed that comment, but I wasn’t feeling very ‘laughy’ at the moment.

I was actually hurt.

I always went out of my way to be nice to people and to have someone think I was purposefully being mean didn’t sit well with me.

But when I got up to follow Apple outside, he was gone, and all that was left was the smell of burnt rubber and a wallet.

“Thanks,” I said to the cabbie. “I’ll catch a ride with my friend.”

Carl, the cab driver of the only cab company in town, didn’t hesitate and pressed his foot to the gas pedal.

I watched the cab until I could no longer see the tail lights, and then I turned to stare in wonder at the house in front of me.

I saw the goats almost immediately.

They were in a pen set up to the left of the house, which was also where the dogs were laying down.

The moment I caught sight of them, they bolted up and started barreling towards me.

I braced myself, waiting for the inevitable impact of the huge polar bear-like dogs, but it never happened.

When I finally opened my eyes that I hadn’t realized I’d closed, I saw both dogs, sitting on their rumps, staring at me.

Their tails were swishing in the dirt as they waited for some signal that I wasn’t privy to.

Then I heard the whistle.

Following the sound, I saw the man I’d come there to see.

“You dropped your wallet,” I informed him. “It was on the ground next to where your bike was parked.”

“How nice of you to bring it to me,” Apple drawled, sarcasm thick in his voice.

My eyebrows rose.

“I’m sorry if I offended you,” I apologized. “It was never my intention.”

He blinked, surprised that I’d willingly offered up an apology.

But then I said something stupid.

“It’s not like I knew you were so sensitive about your name, or I would’ve never brought it up,” I continued.

I could never just stop while I was ahead.

It didn’t matter what I was doing.

Gambling and up a hundred and fifty bucks? I’d bet it fucking all and then promptly lose it.

Every single time without fail.

I was running ahead of schedule? I’d stop at the donut store before work. Then I’d get distracted by all the pretties and end up being ten minutes late.

That was how my life ran, though.

I was that person that never knew when to shut up. Add on top of that, I’d been drinking the entire night, and it ended up being
no
bueno
for me.

“So, if you sent your cab away, how do you expect to get home?” He crossed his arms over his chest.

I looked at my watch.

“Actually…my brother and I only live about a five minutes’ walk down the road from here,” I pointed in the direction. “Didn’t you know that?”

He shook his head.

“No,” he grumbled, obviously upset at that news. “I didn’t know that.”

“Apple!” An older man’s voice called from inside the house. “Where’s the coffee you bought?”

I raised a brow at him.

“Yeah, Apple. Where’s the coffee you bought?” I teased.

Apple’s eyes narrowed.

“Go home.”

I’d call you a cunt, but you don’t have the depth or the warmth.

-Apple’s secret thoughts

Apple

She got all the way to the end of the driveway before I came to my senses.

Sighing, I looked at the dogs.

“Guard,” I ordered, pointing at the chicken coop and goat pen.

The dogs left almost immediately, just like they were trained to do.

I, on the other hand, didn’t want to do what I was trained to do.

I wanted to go to bed.

I’d had a long ass day and an even longer night thanks to some hunters that thought it’d be funny to destroy a bald eagle’s nest.

Which meant I’d gotten to the club party late and then had to do shit duty.

I’d been hungrier than hell having missed breakfast and lunch, and the guys thought it’d be funny to make me eat last for my inability to show up on time.

I’d arrived about two minutes before the curly black haired woman, belonging to none other than my biggest non-supporter in the entire fucking club, Ridley fucking Walker.

Turns out, my first erection in months came from his sister.

Fucking perfect.

“Well, you gonna let her walk home by herself or what?” My father barked from the doorway.

I flipped the old man off and started walking down the one lane dirt road that doubled as our driveway.

I turned the corner of my driveway, heading in the direction that I’d seen her turn, and stopped when I saw she wasn’t anywhere in sight.

“Hey!” I called out loudly. “Where’d you go?”

Nothing happened for a long moment, and I used the time to walk even further.

Then a muffled curse, followed by the sound of leaves and sticks crunching had me looking to the side to see the woman coming out of the woods, buttoning her pants as she came.

“Sorry,” she apologized. “I had to pee.”

“I can see that,” I replied dryly. “Come on. I’m tired and ready to go home.”

She came into step beside me, her hands buried deep down into the pockets of her jeans, making the thin material covering her pretty ass seem even tighter.

“Full moon,” she broke the silence after a couple hundred yards. “I’m lucky.”