Nomads' Fall: Burning Bastards MC (7 page)

He made a pot of coffee, and took a cup to the back porch. The air was still crisp, but the sun would soon heat the world, and chase away the chill. He watched the wildlife, and wondered how long a man like him could stay in a place like this without needing to move on. The peace here was unbelievable, too quiet really. In his experience, when things got too quiet, it was time to move, or be caught in the crosshairs.

He heard noise in the kitchen and knew she was going to be a problem. She’d reminded him of a starving Chihuahua, delicate, but ready to chew your hand off if you got too close. Where she came from might give him a clue to the kind of trouble she was in, but he knew she wouldn’t volunteer any information. He also knew that if she was thinking of using Gladys to feather her nest Georgie wouldn’t hesitate to remove what he considered a threat to his ladylove.

Knight watched her step through the door leading out to the porch where he sat. “Good morning.” It was a few seconds before she answered him with the same greeting. She hadn’t moved and he wasn’t going to play the gentleman and stand up to invite her to sit with him. He waved to the chair next to him, and waited for her to decide if she would sit, or run back into the house. He felt a small amount of satisfaction when she sat in the designated chair. She was cradling a mug of coffee and she wouldn’t look his way.

“It’s so peaceful out here I’d be hard pressed to leave this spot if it was my home.” She didn’t know what made her say that, but it was better than sitting in an uncomfortable silence. “Have you heard anything about Gladys? How’s she doing? She hired me to help with the summer vacationers, but I have no idea what needs to be done to prepare for them.”

He considered her words. Yeah, Gladys probably needed help this summer. “I’ll tell you what, visiting hours are after nine, if you want I can take you to see her and she can clear up any questions you might have. I’m not sure Georgie will let you in, but I’ll pull him into Demon’s room for a bit so you can talk to her if he’s being his normal charming self.” He looked at her face and she nodded her head. “You need to believe that we take care of our own around here. If someone’s fucking with Gladys, they’re fucking with the Bastards, and we don’t forgive or forget.” She didn’t flinch at his words, her head did come up, and she kept her eyes on his face while he spoke.

“You think I’m here to use her?” She nodded at her own question. “I guess I can’t blame you for that. Truth is my car ran out of gas up on the highway late yesterday afternoon. I walked up here and Gladys called a garage to come with gas, so I could make it to town. I’m not exactly sure what was going on, but the man never showed. So we used the gas for the lawnmower to get the car here. It’s in the garage. So you don’t have to ferry me around. Just show me which way town is, and I can find my way. Anyway, we talked, and Gladys offered me a job. Since I need one, I accepted.” She looked directly into his eyes. “I swear I’m not after anything here but a job and the friendship of a wonderful woman. That’s it, nothing more, nothing less.”

He believed her, she might be what she said she was, but he knew there was more to her story. Now wasn’t the time for him to grill her though. He’d be watching her, and if she did anything underhanded, he’d help Georgie run her out of the county the hard way. He was known for his patience, her story would flesh out sooner than later, until then, she was suspect.

“Go get ready, we’ll leave as soon as you’re done doing whatever women do to visit the hospital.” She nodded and went into the house.

She was at the door in less than ten minutes. He saw the clean face, brushed hair and her green eyes emphasized by the darkness of her eyelashes and pale skin. Her hair was almost to her shoulders in spots. He was no expert in women’s fashions, but her hair looked like it needed serious attention from a professional. The simple red t-shirt made her skin appear almost pink. Her jeans were baggy and did nothing to entice a man’s eyes. Why his prick seemed interested was a puzzle. He liked a woman with more flesh than bones. Didn’t matter really, he didn’t have time to seduce her right now anyway. He needed to see his best friend, and get the mystery of… “What’s your name? I can make up one, but you wouldn’t like it, and I keep calling you ‘Woman’ every time I need to say something.”

She didn’t say anything for a long minute while he backed the powerful bike from the porch steps, and waited for her to mount up behind him.

“My name is Jolly, yes, like the giant, and Santa Claus. I’ve already heard the jokes, so feel free to use them if it makes you happy.” She didn’t bother to argue about getting on the bike before hopping on. She’d always wanted to ride on one, but never had the opportunity until now.

The last two years of her life had certainly been an education. She thought she knew about the seedier side of life from working at the strip club. Since she’d left, she knew about being homeless, how to steal to survive, and if someone had told her she would be forced to kill a man, she would have told them they were nuts. The people she’d met along her journey were from almost every walk of life, and she knew that everything and person had a price. Right now, she had eighty dollars to her name and two pairs of jeans that were barely clinging to her trimmed down ass. She needed this job, and she really needed a friend. She had to keep thinking it would work out for the good. If not, she might as well head back to the club and let Porter and his goon do their worst.

She clung to Knight’s waist as they sped down the country roads. The man had a thing for speed, and she liked it. She held on and leaned with the bike in the wicked curves of the road, almost screaming when he passed a garbage truck even though a semi-truck was clearly visible heading their way in the opposite lane. He laughed when the truck driver laid on his air horns. He got a pinch on his skin where the wind was blowing his shirt up. She wasn’t ready to die just because she was riding on a biker’s hog.

They stopped at a small diner for breakfast. He laughed at her complaint about the semi, “Baby, I’ve been riding since my old man strapped me to his waist when I was old enough to sit up straight. The only way I would have misjudged that pass is if you were riding my cock as we went down the road. That might have caused a problem in my timing. Don’t get any ideas about that either, it ain’t as easy or as comfortable for any one fucking on wheels. You’re better off pulling over and I’d lay you out over the tank. Demon prefers bending a bitch over the seat. I’m a tit man, so yeah, I like my toys lined up where I can reach them.” He laughed out loud at the look of shock on her face.

“Damn, for a woman named Jolly, you don’t seem to have much of a sense of humor, do you? I was fucking with you, I don’t screw whatever shows up for me to use you know, I’m cheap but not as easy as you probably think.” He grinned as she arched a brow at him and shook her head.

“I’ve put my life in the hands of a crazy man. Don’t drive off with strangers they said, and I had to be almost twenty-five years old before I found out they were right. I am a bad girl.” She smiled and walked into the eatery.

He was so ready to tell her that naughty girls got spanked, but he wasn’t sure she’d been flirting with him, or was just trying to be funny. Her smile had a suggestive look, but he wasn’t falling into that trap, at least not until he knew who and what he was dealing with a lot better.

He wanted to reach out and smack her ass when she ordered coffee and toast. “I want the big breakfast special, and add a glass of OJ to that. The lady will have the same.”

The waitress left and Jolly wanted to walk out and let him eat all of that food. It’d been months since she’d eaten half of what he’d ordered for her. She told herself to suck it up and eat what she could, she’d send the rest back, or maybe the bossy giant could toss it down his gullet. She’d run low on money too many times to indulge her appetite enough to have leftover food going to waste. She learned to make a small pizza last two days when she was low on funds, even stealing apples and melons from farmer’s fields many times. Especially during the times she was on the road attempting to avoid James. Why her brain was dragging all of this up now was beyond her. She excused herself for a few minutes to calm her emotions.

By the time she came back, the entire table was piled with plates of food and Knight was doing his best to chew his way through it all. She ate as much as she could without making herself sick. Every time she picked up a slice of toast, he took it from her fingers and replaced it with a slice of bacon or sausage link. It was annoying and it pissed her off. “I think I told you I’m almost twenty-five years old, right? I like toast, and I’m grateful for the meal, but I’ll never eat a soft egg yolk voluntarily. They ooze, and feel slimy on my tongue,” she shook her head no, “I can’t do it.”

“I like bacon, I like sausage and pancakes too, but I can’t eat another bite.” His eyes narrowed at her, but he didn’t argue. He finished his breakfast and sat back in the bench seat.

“This is what I see when I look at you, I see a pretty woman that’s starving herself to death. Your nerves are shot, your skin’s in bad shape, and if you were my old lady, you’d have to add weight, not starve yourself into a size nothing. That’s what I see, what I feel is a different story.

“You’ve been running from something or someone for a while, I doubt you’re willingly starving yourself, but instead of standing on a corner or stripping in a club, you’d rather go hungry. You know how to use a gun, and you’re desperate for human contact. Even if it’s a widow that needs help with a campground. It probably suits you just fine, because you can hide out there and save some money, before your boogey man finds you again.”

He drained the tall glass of juice and stood reaching for his wallet. He saw her hand go to her back pocket to get her money out, and he gave her the meanest look she’d seen from him yet. She held out her hands and walked toward the door.

Pick your battles, Jolly, it’s just breakfast
. She didn’t want to think of how close Knight’s observations had been. He was almost dead on. Thankfully he didn’t know who was chasing her, or he’d probably try to turn her over for a reward or something. Wasn’t that part of what bike gangs did? When they saw the guy on the floor they said they’d been hunting him for a while.

Whatever she did, it’d probably be a good idea to avoid the members of this gang, just in case they weren’t as friendly as Knight was trying to be. He was already suspicious, keeping a low profile was her best course of action.

She rode to the hospital in silence. He seemed to prefer she keep quiet, and she, well, she was going to have to wait and see what Gladys had to say, providing the woman was awake.

Georgie was sitting in a chair next to the bed Gladys was lying in. He was sleeping, and she was smiling at his snores. Jolly went to the opposite side of the bed and leaned close so the two women could talk without waking up sleeping grouchy. Jolly held a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing aloud when Gladys called him that.

“The shoulder’s just bruised and so are the muscles in my calf. Actually my shoulder was dislocated, and they popped it back in, but there will be soreness and bruising. I fell out of the damned tree when my foot landed on a dead branch, it gave away, and I landed hard. I’ll be fine in a couple of days, and they’re letting me go around noon, so I’ll be back home sometime today. We can make plans when I get there.”

Jolly told her what happened last night with the biker and she whispered as low as possible when she talked about Knight. “He’s an arrogant ass that thinks his threats will intimidate me.”

Gladys gave her a grin. “Yeah, he’s arrogant, but his looks make up for some of those bad traits. I have to tell you, I’d trust him at my back any day.”

“I don’t care how good looking he is, I don’t trust him, I can’t let myself get involved with a man like him, or anyone else. You understand right?” She glanced at the snoring Georgie, and back to Gladys. “What’s an outsider’s life worth to them? Can you swear to me that if the price was right, they wouldn’t sell me out?” She looked out the window so she wouldn’t start crying. Why was she such an emotional wreck right now, everything was making her cry and she wasn’t happy about it. “Everyone has a price, Gladys, the reward can be anything from money to power or even love. They’re a gang, the only loyalty they have is for their own. If you’re not one of them, you are fodder, and I’m not willing to be their paycheck.”

She exchanged a long look with Gladys, they both knew she was right. Gladys knew she had a certain clout with the Bastards, but what if old enemies happened to show up and recognize her from the past. If the price was high enough, would they sell her out? She looked at Georgie, would he? The thought that he might be willing to turn her over to someone with an old grudge against her was breaking her heart. She wanted to believe he’d fight for her, but if his brothers in the club gave the order, she knew she was as good as dead. She nodded to show Jolly she understood. The words refused to leave her lips, but the reality was hard to accept.

Jolly used her normal voice to talk with her friend for the next few minutes. Georgie snorted and began to stretch. He was a big beast, and she remembered the way he threatened her last night, sending her fleeing into that closet. She told Gladys she would see her at the campground later today, and left the room. She didn’t want to be looked at like she was dogshit under his feet again, so she went back to the parking lot and sat on the cement curb under a shade tree about fifty feet from Knight’s bike.

After checking the expensive diamond and gold watch on her wrist for the third time, she got up and stretched. There was a small strip mall across the road from the hospital parking lot, so she dodged traffic and began exploring the shops. There was a pawnshop in the lineup of stores, and she looked at the watch again. The door handle was in her hand and before she could change her mind she went inside. The man behind the counter tried to talk the price down and told her the diamonds were fake. She told him he was full of shit, and the grey-haired older man stared at her for a minute before grinning, and nodding his head.