ANNA

 

The day went on. Everybody stuffed themselves with more beer and more food. The scene at the clubhouse was as rowdy as it had ever been. Despite the chaos, there was still a friendly vibe throughout the entire bar. It helped that Sheriff Sutton was there to keep everything in order.

Jon introduced me to some of the friends of the club. I stayed by his side the entire time as they told me stories about all the years I’d missed out on. I’d been in town for a few days but I truly felt like I was back home, surrounded by so many people who welcomed me with open arms. Even Michelle wasn’t giving me as hard of a time as he did initially. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

It was later in the evening when Jon and I were enjoying our time outside in front of the bar. I sat in my chair while Jon smoked a cigarette and sipped on his beer.

He was the picture of a man I fell for so easily all those years ago. Tan skin inked with tattoos all over his sleeves. Leather kutte with the Black Reapers logo emblazoned upon it. Even his thick beard and hair were groomed properly. Oh, and then there were the muscles that I knew were hidden underneath his outfit.

Women in Ivory had a weakness for men in MCs. I wasn’t an exception. But when it came to Jon, he stood out more than the other bikers in this town. He was the only biker I’d ever slept with. Looking at him now, I couldn’t imagine any other man changing that fact.

Jon held the smoke in his lungs for a second then exhaled it with a deep sigh. He turned to me with a smirk.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head.

“You look like you’ve got something on your mind.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You’ve got that look on your face.”

“That look?”

“Sure…”

He dumped his cigarette butt on an ashtray then slowly walked toward me.

“…That look on your face.”

He raised his index finger up and pointed it near my face.

“The dimples. The furrowed brow. The blank stare.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about—”

“There it is… It’s more pronounced now that you’re older.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

I crossed my arms as I stared at him. He chuckled softly to himself and shook his head.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” he said.

“Are you telling me I have wrinkles? I’m only 25—”

“I know, I know.”

He put his hands up innocently, still laughing even though I wasn’t amused.

“But you’ve got that look,” he said. “I can see it in your eyes. Something is on your mind.”

I nodded softly and looked away from him.

“I always told you that you were too smart to be in an MC,” I said. “You could’ve gone to school.”

“And then I could’ve gone to the big city. Get some fancy office job. Wear a suit and tie. Broker million dollar deals with big shots and big wigs and whatever big things are up north.”

“Yeah, you could’ve done that. Would that be so bad?”

I turned back to him but he wasn’t looking at me. He was just staring off into the distance like his mind was somewhere else.

“What did you do?” he asked.

“What?”

“When you left Ivory, what were you up to?”

“I finished school. I traveled abroad to see what was out there and expanded my horizons.”

“What did you see?”

“I saw lots of different things. Different people. Different places. New experiences.”

“A lot of different guys to meet…”

His eyes shifted back toward me. He gave me a knowing gaze. I rolled my eyes, trying to fight the grin from coming to my face.

“Is that your way of asking if I slept around?” I said.

“Did you?”

“And I suppose you weren’t hooking up with some of the sluts in this town. You were a total saint despite there being no shortage of whores just begging to get bent over by a club member.”

“This isn’t about me. This is about you.”

He took a step toward me. He looked into my eyes, his stare intense like it always was. My throat bobbed up and down with a hard swallow. I clenched my jaw as I stared back at him.

“I left and finished school,” I said. “And now I’m back here to help.”

“That’s all I wanted to do in Ivory,” he said. “Be a Reaper. Help the people who need it. And be happy. That’s more important than anything else.”

“Are you happy?” I asked. “Are you happy being a Reaper?”

He smirked at me the only way he could.

“I wouldn’t trade the patch for anything in the world.”

He leaned in close to me as I sat in my chair.

“How about you?” he asked. “How have the Reapers been treating you tonight?”

“I had a good time here with you and the others tonight,” I said with a smile. “All of you really made me feel welcome.”

“You’ve always been a part of the club, Anna. Just because you left doesn’t mean we forgot about you.”

“Yeah…”

I looked down at the ground as all of the memories came flooding back to me.

Five years had gone by but it still felt like yesterday. It helped that the man I spent most of my time with was standing right in front of me. The way he looked at me. The way he talked. The way he smelled. Everything about him was so familiar.

We were alone in front of the clubhouse. The sky was dark and the streets were empty. It was like we had the entire town to ourselves.

“Anna.”

I looked up and saw him staring right at me. The intensity of his green eyes were locked on me. I swallowed anxiously as he slowly moved his face toward mine.

I started to close my eyes. But just before they shut, the sound of the front door interrupted us.

I turned to the side and saw Sheriff Sutton walking out. The old man patted his stomach proudly with Ben right behind him.

“That Michelle sure knows what she’s doing,” he said.

“You enjoy the food, Sheriff?” Jon said.

“Maybe a little too much. Might have to call in sick tomorrow and take some time to recover.”

“Everybody knows you’d never do a thing like that.”

“Yeah,” the old cop said with a chuckle. “You’re right about that. You tell Michelle to do this again real soon. Come on, Ben. Let’s get outta here.”

The two officers got into their patrol car and sped off into the distance. The silence between Jon and I returned quickly.

“Now,” he said. “Where was I?”

Before Jon could move any closer, I put a hand on his chest.

“Wait,” I said.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s something I should tell you.”

“What is it? You got a boyfriend you haven’t told me about?”

“No,” I said with a laugh. “It’s nothing like that. It’s just…”

I sighed as I thought about what I was going to say.

“…I like you, Jon. We’re friends.”

“Of course.”

“I just don’t want something like this to complicate things. I just got back and it feels like I’m rushing into things all over again.”

“I get it.”

“You do?”

He chuckled softly. Jon was always smarter than he looked, so it shouldn’t have surprised me that he already knew what I was thinking.

“There was an us,” he said. “Was an us. Now it’s different. I’d be stupid not to realize that now.”

“Yeah…”

“But that doesn’t mean we can’t be adults about it. This could just be… a thing. It doesn’t have to be serious. It can just be… casual.”

“Casual.”

Right.

I wasn’t much for casually hooking up with someone. If there was anybody I would do it with though, it would be Jon. On the other hand, we both knew that anything between us would be more than casual. Not with all of the things we’d been through before.

But despite all of the sound reasoning in my head, I didn’t care. Jon was the only man who could make me think with my body instead of my mind.

“All right,” I said, unable to fight the smile from forming on my face. “Casual.”

“I knew you’d see things my way.”

Jon leaned forward. I close my eyes, waiting for his lips to meet mine.

I felt his lips for just a second when he suddenly pulled away. I widened my eyes in surprise.

“Jon, what’s wrong—”

He turned around and looked out in the parking lot.

The sound of engines filled my ears. I looked and saw a couple of pickup trucks.

“Who is that?” I said.

The trucks had seemingly come out of nowhere.

A man exited one of the trucks and started walking toward us. Jon stood his ground right in front of me.

“You,” the man said, pointing his finger at Jon. “Reaper.”

The man was wearing a white undershirt and what looked like a pair of army fatigues tucked into his boots. His skin was tan and his muscles were bulging with so many veins running along them it couldn’t have been natural. His head was shaved clean, so I could even see the veins on the side of his head.

I looked at the other man exiting the truck and they were dressed the same as the man who was confronting Jon.

The stranger walked right up to Jon and looked him in the eye.

“Jon—”

Jon put his hand up and cut me off before I could say anything more. Even though there were a dozen men with obviously ill intentions standing in front of him, Jon remained defiant.

“Can I help you, friend?” Jon said.

“You sure can. You can go fuck yourself.”

“Sorry. Can’t do that. But if you head over to The Bone Pit, I’m sure some Cobras would be willing to help you out with that.”

“Fuck you!”

The tension between the two was growing. I sat there helplessly. I wanted to do something but there was no way I could step between them.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, the door to the clubhouse opened. Declan stepped out. He was flanked by the rest of the club.

“Is there a problem, gentlemen?” Declan said.

“You’re damn right there’s a problem,” the man said. “You fucked up our deal with the Triads.”

“We didn’t fuck up anything. We always had a deal with them.”

“We had a deal first!” the man barked. “Now you’re undercutting us, taking their lower offer. You got no respect.”

Declan put his hands up as he walked forward. He was trying his best to ease the tension but nobody was relaxing.

“You’re a businessman,” Declan said. “We can discuss this like professionals.”

Jon continued staring at the man in front of him. The man finally turned his attention to the president of the Reapers.

“You fucked with our money,” the man said. “You keep this up and we’ll fuck with you.”

“Is that a threat?” Jon said.

“It’s whatever you want it to be, Reaper. You got one chance to back out of the deal with the Triads. One chance.”

The man slowly started to back away. The man who confronted Jon glared at me. His eyes were so menacing they would be hard to forget.

They kept staring at all of us as they got into their trucks. Then they drove off down the street.

As soon as the silence of the night returned, I exhaled a breath through my nose, only now realizing I’d been holding my breath the entire time.

“What was that all about?” Jon said.

Declan glanced at me for a second then responded.

“Club business,” he said. “We’ll talk about it in the chapel later. Don’t let that asshole ruin the celebration. Let’s go, boys.”

Declan snapped his fingers and everybody headed back inside. I sighed another deep breath as soon as I was back alone with Jon. I rubbed my forehead, trying to get over everything that just happened.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure everything out.”

“Don’t try to figure anything out. It’s just like Garnet said. Club business.”

“Right…”

The grin forming on Jon’s face was enough to make me forget about everything that just happened.

“It’s been a long night,” he said. “Why don’t you let me take you home.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”

“Let’s go for a ride.”