Jessica rolled over and slapped at her alarm. Goddamnit! Let Kat open this morning! Finally the chirr of her phone penetrated her sleep-fogged mind and she realized where she was. She pulled her phone to her, the charging cord dragging a pen and paper onto the floor before snapping tight. She brusquely unplugged the phone and dropped the cord.

 

“’lo?” she mumbled.

 

“Jess? It’s Momma! Are you okay?”

 

“What?”

 

“I just talked to Val! He said you had run off with one of those Atlanta boys! Are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, Mom. I’m okay. Why are you calling?”

 

“Why am I calling?” Kat squeaked from the phone. “You run off in the middle of the night with someone you hardly know, and you want to know why I’m calling? Where are you?”

 

Jessica rubbed at her face, trying to collect her thoughts and come awake. “What time is it?”

 

“It’s almost eight. Where are you? You need to come home, baby.”

 

“I’m in a motel, with Scott.”

 

“Jess, listen to me. You need to come home, okay?”

 

“Why? So Uncle Val can kill him?” Scott snuffled and moved in his sleep, but didn’t wake, and she snuggled in a little closer, smiling as his arm surrounded her again.

 

“Jess, listen to me. This is bad, okay? You shouldn’t have run off like you did. Come home now and we can work this out.”

 

“And Uncle Val?”

 

“I’ll handle Val. Just tell me you’re okay.”

 

“I’m fine, Mom. I’m not kidnapped or anything. I left with Scott because I wanted to. In fact, when I heard Uncle Val was coming, I had to convince him to take me away. He wanted to stay.”

 

“Why did you do that? Why didn’t you stay?”

 

“I heard you and Val talking. I heard how you wanted me out of the club life. You were going to keep me locked in the café for the rest of my life. Well fuck that, Mom. I’m a grown woman.”

 

Kat was quiet for a long time, but Jess waited her out. “We just want what’s best for you.”

 

“Scott is what’s best for me! I’ve been lying to you, Mom. The dreams, I’ve been having them every night. They’ve never stopped. But with Scott…I don’t have them so much anymore. For the first time since…that night…I didn’t have the dream, Mom. I need this. I need him.”

 

“Okay, okay. I understand. But Jess, you hardly know him! You can’t…”

 

“Can’t what, Mom? Can’t fuck him? Can’t want to be with him? Where have you been the last couple of days? You get to have a life but I don’t? Is that what you’re telling me?”

 

“No! You know better than that!” Kat responded. “But…Jess, I’m glad the dreams have stopped, even for one night. I am! But to throw your life away like this!”

 

“Throw away my life, how? What life?” Scott moved again as she got louder, her mother’s attitude really pissing her off. He opened his eyes and looked at her in confusion. “I was a fucking short order cook! Is that the life you want for me?” she continued, no longer trying to be quiet since he was awake.

 

“Jess! Just come home! We can work this out!”

 

“No! Not until Val calls off the dogs!”

 

“He will! I promise! Just come home!”

 

“Not until I hear it from him.” She punched the cancel button savagely then dropped the phone on the bed.

 

“Who was that?” Scott asked softly.

 

“My mother.”

 

“We should go back.”

 

“We can’t go back! Not until I know Val isn’t going to do something to you.” She was seething inside that her own mother was trying to drag her back to the place she so desperately wanted to leave.

 

“I told you, a lot of people have tried. None have succeeded.”

 

She rolled over to face him and placed her head on his chest, the warmth of his body a perfect contrast to the coolness of the room. She caressed his chest and shoulder a moment as he slowly stroked her back, his touch calming her. “But against the whole club?”

 

Scott snickered. “Okay. Not good odds. But what’s with all this shit. I don’t understand why they want you out of the club. How does what you did, or what happened to you, have anything to do with the Angels?”

 

“It doesn’t, not really. But, well, Uncle Val kind of looked after Mom and me after my dad died.”

 

“What happened?”

 

“He and Val were best friends. They joined the Grim Angels at the same time and they rose through the ranks together. Then, about twenty years ago, they went out to clean up a problem. One of their dealers was skimming.”

 

“I hate the fucking drugs,” Scott spat. “More trouble than they’re worth in my opinion. We should stick to the guns or, better yet, get out of the underground all together.”

 

“Yeah. Dad thought so, too, or so I hear from some of the old-timers. Anyway, they rode up to his house, and as they were getting off their bikes, the guy drove right through the garage door. Missed Val, but ran over my dad. He got hung under the truck and was dragged a long ways. He never had a chance.”

 

“Holy shit!”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“I’m really sorry, Jess.”

 

“It’s okay. It was a long time ago and I don’t really remember him, but after that Mom had to go to work. The Angels helped her out, made sure she had what she needed, and the café sort of became their unofficial headquarters. After her divorce from Ron, my step-dad, she bought the place and renovated it.”

 

“Jesus. All that, then this Luke business, too.” He looked at her solemnly a moment before gently tugging her lips to his. “No wonder you have bad dreams. Was your step-dad good to you?”

 

“The best. He still comes around sometimes. He’s a programmer for some company in Canada. Makes good money, but not really into the life, you know? Mom should have never married him and he deserved better than the way she treated him. Sometimes I wonder how it would have been if I had stayed with him when they divorced. Then…it wouldn’t have happened,” she said, not wanting to speak of it. “But I love the life. I love the bikes, and the parties.” She paused and smiled at him again before kissing him softly. “Bikers…I really love those.”

 

“Yes you did, especially last night. I thought you were going to kill me. But fuck, what a way to go.”

 

She smiled but didn’t say anything as she placed her head back on his chest, listening to the strong, slow, thudding of his heart. They had gone twice last night, the second time a slow and easy marathon that lasted for hours as they made love in every position they could imagine. She had come three times more before he had grunted out his third orgasm of the night. After they collapsed in a heap, sweaty and exhausted, she had fallen into a deep and dreamless sleep. That’s the key to a good night’s sleep. Get fucked senseless by Scott first!

 

“What do you do?” she asked after a moment of silence.

 

“For the club?”

 

“For the club and in real life.”

 

“I’m an enforcer for the club.”

 

“I figured that when you pulled your gun on that guy the other night. How many?”

 

“More than I want to admit. Three with Rick, the other guy that came up from Atlanta with me, the one who warned us Val was coming. Four more on my own.”

 

“Did they deserve it?” she asked, calling back his words to her.

 

“Not all of them, no. Those are the ones that make me wonder about what I’m doing with my life.”

 

“It’s part of the life.”

 

“Maybe, but it doesn’t have to be. Sometimes you just have to explain things in a way someone can understand.”

 

She smiled. No wonder Scott looked like a predator. He was. “You do that, too?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“How many of those?”

 

Scott woofed out a soft laugh. “More than I can easily count. Remember what I said about drugs being more trouble than they’re worth?”

 

“Ever get hurt?”

 

“A few times, but If I don’t like the odds, I get backup first. Being stupid is a quick way to get dead.”

 

“What about real life?”

 

“It’s boring.”

 

“I can use boring.”

 

He smiled. “I work for PPG as a rep. I travel around Atlanta, helping body shops that are having problems. Well, I did.”

 

She looked up at him. “Body shops? You mean like where they fix wrecked cars?”

 

“Yep. If they want to file a claim against PPG for a paint failure, I investigate to make sure the surface was properly prepped, that sort of thing. I teach them how to use our new products and make suggestion on which products might work better for them. Stuff like that. I told you it was boring. But it keeps me out of an office and gives me a lot of freedom for…other stuff.”

 

They were quiet a moment, enjoying each other’s company. “What are we going to do?” he finally asked. “We can’t run forever.”

 

“I know.”

 

“We should go back. I’m not afraid of Val, and I have a score to settle with Jason, the little prick.”

 

“I know. But you don’t know Val. He doesn’t—”

 

“No, but I know his type,” Scott interrupted. “I can handle him.”

 

“But the rest of the club?”

 

“Look, Jess, we have to get this shit sorted. If we can’t, then we can decide what to do. Do they have parley up here?”

 

“A what?”

 

“Parley. It means to talk without one side or the other trying something stupid. Kind of like a temporary truce. That’s how we deal with shit like this back home. If you can’t sort it out in a parley, then it gets real. But most of the time, shit can get settled and I don’t have to pay another visit in a more official capacity.”

 

“Oh,” she grunted. “You’re pretty damn smart for a biker.”

 

Scott smiled. “Believe it or not, I only need ten more credits to complete my Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering.”

 

She sat up so fast her hair fell across her face. “You’re shitting me! Why did you quit?”

 

He shrugged and grinned. “Just lost interest. I was in the Angels and, at the time, that seemed more important.”

 

“How old are you?”

 

“Twenty-eight. How old are you?”

 

“Jesus, you’re an old fart!”

 

Scott snickered. “Does that mean I’m robbing the cradle?”

 

“Twenty-five. But I like older men.”

 

“That’s good. I hope I can keep up.”

 

“You did okay yesterday. And this morning.” She was moving to take his lips to see if he was ready to prove is mettle again when her phone began to ring. “Val,” she said after looking at the screen. She pushed the button to put it on speaker. “Hello?”

 

“Jessica, goddamnit! Where the fuck are you? You get your ass home right—”

 

She pushed the button ending the call and grinned at Scott as she held the phone in her hand.

 

“You’re just pissing him off,” Scott deadpanned.

 

“Probably.” When her phone rang again her grin widened and she pushed the speaker button again. “Hello?”

 

“Goddamnit, Jessic—” Val roared from the phone before she could push the button. It took longer this time, and when the phone rang, she didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”

 

“Jessica!” Val’s voice came over the phone. “Don’t hang up!” Her thumb hovered over the button, but didn’t press it.

 

“Then don’t talk to me like that.”

 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was just worried, that’s all. Where are you?”

 

“Whose phone are you calling from?”

 

“Jason’s. Mine broke.”

 

“You mean you threw it?”

 

“Are you safe? Where are you?” Val asked, ignoring the question.

 

“I’m safe. I’m with Scott.”

 

“Did he…?”

 

“No he didn’t. I left with him because I wanted to.”

 

“I want you to come home.”

 

“Okay. What about Scott?”

 

“I’ll deal with him.”

 

“For what? What did he do that was so bad? Ask me out? Protect me from some thug at your party? What?”

 

“You shouldn’t have been at that party.”

 

“Yeah, I know. I should be at the café, stuck in the kitchen.”

 

Val was quiet for a moment. “Okay, maybe I overreacted. But I don’t know this Scott Murphy from Audie Murphy. You should have come to me first and not just run off.”

 

“You didn’t give me much of a chance, now did you?” Jessica snapped, her frustration growing again. Everyone wants to run my life for me, I’m sick of it, and I’m not going to take it anymore! “Hell, I had only met him twice. But no, here you come, riding up with a bunch of Angels threatening to kill him. Yeah, you really gave me a chance.”

 

Val paused a moment. “How did you know about that?”

 

“Doesn’t matter. I’m not going to rat out an Angel like Jason did.”

 

Val was quiet for a moment. “Okay. You’re right. But that’s behind us now. Just come in. We’ll figure something out.”

 

“Parley?”

 

“What? What the fuck is a parley?”

 

Jessica grinned at Scott. “I guess not,” she said to him before returning her attention to the phone. “Ask Jason. He knows.”