Sierra woke up as Colt slipped out from under her. She had a blinding headache and her mouth tasted like something had died in there…something furry. She groaned in pain and frustration as he left her in the bed.
“I fucking hate you,” she snarled. “Why did you let me drink so much?”
Her heard her, but said nothing. The hollow feeling was more intense than normal this morning and he was in no mood for idle chit-chat.
“Come back to bed?” she called from the bedroom.
“No. Get up. I have things to do.”
She frowned as she sat up, her head throbbing. She wanted to have another go with Colt, maybe feel him inside of her this time, but her fucking head was killing her. “I think I’ll just die right here if that’s okay with you. Save you having to take me to Reno.”
Despite himself, he chuckled. “Only six shots and you’re going to die?”
“I don’t drink much.”
“Obviously. Get up and get a shower. Lunch will be ready soon.”
“Ugh…food. You’ll take me to Reno after lunch?”
“No.”
She felt a chill pass over her. “You said you would. My twenty-four hours will be up about lunch time.”
“They will, but I have something else to do today. I’ll take you tomorrow.”
She heard the water start in the shower and she debated making a break for it, concerned that he wouldn’t live up to his bargain, but then changed her mind. The desert hadn’t gotten any smaller since yesterday. “Do I have to…uh…still do what you say?”
“Can’t hear you!”
She stumbled out of the bed, holding the wall to make the room stop spinning, before stepping into the small bath. “I said, will I still have to do what you say?” she asked as she sat down on the toilet and had a long, relaxing, pee.
“Not if you don’t want to. Didn’t you enjoy yourself last night?”
“I did. And I wouldn’t mind doing it again. But it will be so much better if I don’t feel like I have to.”
“You won’t have to…”
She grimaced as she flushed, the sound as loud as cannon fire. “Do I hear a but?”
“But if you don’t stay with me, you will have to go into the barracks with everyone else.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just what it sounds like,” he said from the shower. “The President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Sergeant at Arms have trailers. We have two more for guests. Everyone else sleeps in the barracks.”
“I’m not a guest?”
“Hardly. More like my property.”
“Asshole,” she muttered.
He turned the water off and grabbed his towel. “I gave you a choice, and told you what was expected. This is what you chose, so don’t bitch at me about it.”
She pursed her lips in annoyance. He was right, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. “You also said I could leave after twenty-four hours and that you would take me to Reno.”
“Fine. After lunch, leave. No one will stop you,” he said as he stepped out of the shower.
She watched the muscles rippling under his skin, the naked woman astride the Harley on his chest moving in a strangely erotic way as he dried his hair. Despite the dead thing in her mouth and the evil gnome driving a spike into her skull, she could feel a heaviness forming between her legs. He was so fucking sexy! “And Reno?”
“I said I would take you. I didn’t say I would take you today.”
She thought back to what he’d said and, though it was implied, he hadn’t said he would take her as soon as her time was up. “You lied to me!” she tried.
He shrugged and tossed the towel aside. “I didn’t. I said I would let you go at the end of twenty-four hours. And I will. But I’ll only take you as far as outside of Lida, or Lead Top. If you want a ride all the way to Reno, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow. Your choice.”
She fumed, her pounding head making it difficult to think. “Fine, goddamnit. Tomorrow. You promise this time, right?”
He smiled and slapped her on the ass as he stepped by, stopping in the door. “Promise? No. But unless something else comes up, we’ll leave tomorrow. There might be a fee involved once we get there though, depending on how I feel.”
“A fee?”
“Yeah. Gas or ass.” He smiled lasciviously at her then stepped out of the room. “Shower then get dressed. I have work to do.”
She couldn’t find her shirt, then remembered taking it off in the common room. “I don’t have a shirt,” she said as she pulled on her pants.
“Good,” Colt replied from the front of the trailer.
She was feeling better after a lot of water, two Ibuprofen, and a shower. She didn’t want to ask him for anything, but she couldn’t go around with just her bra on. “Can I borrow one of yours? Just until I find mine?”
“Right side of the bed, left most drawer.”
She didn’t know what that meant, but discovered drawers under the bed. She opened the indicated drawer and found a collection of shirts. She pulled out a white one with buttons, and put it on. It was big enough to be a dress on her, so she tucked in the excess. Even with only one button open, the shirt was so big that the opening revealed an abundance of cleavage. She adjusted it to tighten it up around her chest to show off her breasts to best effect. She didn’t want to look dowdy around all the pretty people of the club. As she stepped out of the bedroom, she pulled her shoulders back slightly.
“Nice shirt,” he said with barely a glance.
He had to tear his eyes away from Sierra as she appeared. He liked how she was strutting a little, but he didn’t want to give her any ideas, so he kept his comments to himself. He hoped she would wear that shirt the rest of the day, and return with him to his trailer tonight so he could rip it off her.
“Let’s go,” he said, flipping the air-conditioner off before opening the door and stepping out.
The heat hit her like an oven as she stepped to the door. “You don’t leave the A/C on?”
“No. I won’t be back all day and it takes the load off the generator.”
She didn’t know what that meant, but it didn’t matter. Giving it no more thought, she stepped out into the heat with him.
She found her shirt, wadded up and kicked under a chair, but decided the shirt she had on was not only cleaner, but cooler, as well. She was sitting next to Colt at one of the several long tables in the room where everyone ate. It was simple food, cold sandwiches, chips and beer, but tasty and filling.
She could see there was a tiered system to the club. Some of the women members had prepared and served the food before sitting down to eat themselves. She sat at the table with what she finally decided was the alpha group. The four men that composed Colt’s team, and their old ladies, plus a few others, probably the officers of the club, since Paul, the President, was there. At another table sat what she assumed were the middle pack members, and the last table held the lowest members. At least she assumed that was the case since all the women that served the food sat down at the last table.
She listened, saying nothing as the men and women laughed and talked, but generally ignored her. She was a stranger, a nobody, and they made sure to make her feel that way.
“Bobbi, you and McKenzie ready to rumble?” Colt asked as the meal began to wind down.
“Oh yeah,” Bobbi said. “McKenzie and I have a few new moves to try out.”
McKenzie grinned. “Don’t worry. We’ll have their attention.”
“No doubt,” Harrison said with a grin as he bent over and kissed Bobbi on the lips. “It’s hard for Nic and me to do what we need to do for watching you two.”
“You want me to take your place?” Fletcher asked.
“Hell no. You and Colt go do your thing. Harrison and I got this,” Nic grinned.
“Tell me again why I’m always stuck on lookout?” Gunner complained with a comical sneer. “I never get to have any of the fun.”
“Because we don’t want that pretty face of yours to get messed up,” Perri said, giving him a soft pat on the cheek as she smirked.
“That’s right,” Colt added. “If their ugly mugs get messed up, nobody will care.”
“I can see that. Not a lot more you can do to make them any uglier,” Gunner agreed.
The table chuckled as Harrison and Nic gave Gunner the finger. Sierra was dying to ask what they were talking about, but held her tongue.
"How’re you doing?" Perri asked later as she sat down beside Sierra.
“Okay, I guess. Perri isn’t it? You’re Fletcher’s old lady?”
“That right. Everyone treating you okay?”
“I guess. Ignoring me is more like it. But I get it. I’m not part of the club.”
“That’s right. It’s okay. Your twenty-four hours should be up soon and you can leave.”
“Actually, they were up a couple of hours ago, but Colt is busy and can’t take me to Reno.”
“He offered to take you to Reno?” Perri asked, her surprise clear in her voice.
“Let’s say I talked him into it.”
“Really?”
“You act surprised.”
“I am.”
“Why?”
“Colt isn’t exactly known for being touchy-feely. You must have fucked him senseless last night for him to agree to that.”
Sierra smiled, remembering the previous night. “No, it was the other way around. But he agreed to that when he took me. He was going to leave me in the desert but offered me the choice. I guess you guys do that a lot.”
“Not a lot, but it happens. You’re the first in quite a while. First time Colt has done it.”
“What do you think of him?” Sierra asked.
“Colt? I like him. He’s a good guy. He’s been good for the club and had brought in a shit-load of money.”
“How?”
“He’s a planner. He plans out these hits, and they almost always go off without a hitch. Yours was the first one to go south in over a year. But where anyone else would have shot the place up, Colt got the guys out without a shot being fired. Killing somebody would bring down a lot of heat, but because we never hurt anyone, and because we move around, nobody can figure us out and the law hasn’t a clue. Like I said, he’s been good for the club.”
“Can I trust him?”
“What do you mean?”
“Can I trust him to do what he says?”
“I think so. Why?”
“I’m just nervous, that’s all.”
“About what?”
“Well…I don’t know the rules. And I saw those two women fighting when we came in. And…”
“We’re not all like that, Sierra. Those two are bitches are crazy as shit house rats. They live for that shit.”
“Colt said Gunner’s old lady left because of it.”
Perri smiled sadly. “Yeah. But she wasn’t really cut out for it. She thought she wanted to be an old lady, but I think she mostly did it to piss off her father. She was weak, and some of the woman took advantage of that. But you don’t have to worry about it. You’re not a member of the club so the rules don’t apply to you.”
“So the only person I have to worry about is Colt?”
Perri laughed. “Yeah. He may fuck you to death but otherwise I don’t think he’ll hurt you.”
Sierra smiled, liking the sound of that. “Have you slept with him? He said he’d slept with every woman in club.”
Perri looked around. “Once, right after he joined the club. Just before I officially became Fletcher’s old lady. Why?”
“How was he?”
Perri looked at Sierra suspiciously. “Don’t you know?”
Sierra blushed. “I don’t have a lot to compare him to.”
Perri giggled. “Oh, okay. Well, I do and he’s…fantastic.”
“Let’s mount up,” Colt said, looking around the room. His crew gathered around him. It was nearly nine and the sun was almost down. “You ready to do this?”
“Fucking A! Let’s go start some shit!” Gunner cheered.
“Says the only man who won’t get arrested if it goes to hell,” Harrison deadpanned.
“I told you, I’ll trade places with you,” Gunner offered.
“We have our assignments,” Colt said firmly. “To late to change them now. Let’s roll.”
Sierra watched the five men and two women march out into the desert heat, Perri standing and watching as they left without her. Sierra could tell she wanted to go and rose from her chair to go to her. “Why didn’t you go?”
Perri looked at her and smiled. “Not needed for this trip. Bobbi and McKenzie have a routine down. I have a different set of skills.”
“What routine and what skills?” Sierra asked. She was beginning to feel comfortable around Colt, his crew and their old ladies. They didn’t seem to mind talking to her, unlike the rest of the club.
Perri grinned and took Sierra’s arm to steer her back to a chair. “Let’s just say I have nimble fingers.” She smiled and then held up Sierra’s watch.
Sierra gasped and slapped at her wrist, shocked to find her watch missing. “How the fuck did you do that?”
“Like I said, nimble fingers. If Colt needs something lifted or a lock picked, he calls on me. ”
“And McKenzie and Bobbi?”
“They are the distraction. Harrison and Nic are as well tonight.”
“Distraction?”
Perri giggled. “Yeah. What they’re going to do is…”