Trench
“What? I said I was sorry.” Stryker’s words echoed down the hall toward the waitress’ back. I waited until she was inside the restroom before I added my own opinion on the matter. Unfortunately for Stryker, my opinions were usually best expressed physically.
My fist landed hard and heavy against Stryker’s jaw, eliciting the same burn up my arm as every other time I had swung my knuckles into skin and bone. The sensation was euphoric. The best feeling next to sex with a beautiful woman. Did that make me a sadistic bastard? Probably, but I didn’t care.
“The fuck, Pres?” Stryker asked, rubbing a hand over his cut lip and pulling it back to see the streak of blood. “Was that really necessary?”
“Do I do anything that isn’t? You breaking rules now, Strike?” I replied, crossing my arms over my chest.
I took a defensive stance, more out of habit than necessity. Stryker would never return the punch. He had that shit coming and I delivered. I should have taken his ass outside and finished what I started, but I chose to be lenient because we were all coming off a long three-day run cross country and I understood his anxiety to get back to the club and inside a warm body. Exhaustion fucked with judgement sometimes, but I was more than willing to pass out reminders to the brothers. The women who frequented our clubhouse were consenting, they offered themselves freely and enjoyed our specific kind of company. The gorgeous blonde currently hiding out in the women’s bathroom, did not. Pandemonium might not have the cleanest criminal history, but taking advantage of women would never make that list.
“True enough,” Stryker conceded, shrugged, and took back to his seat.
The waitress was new to town. That much I knew. I’d seen her once or twice on the way through to visit Sadie and if I was being honest, the mystery girl had become a large part of the appeal to my visits. The old woman was barely making ends meet these days, so I was well-aware that she could not afford to hire on another waitress, but Sadie told me she had her reasons when I questioned, and left it at that.
That was what was great about the old lady. She was a vault. We had an arrangement. The same arrangement Sadie had with Pops for years. Sadie knew the people of Sparrow Creek. Citizens confided in her because she sat on the Town Council and apparently the diner was seen as a safe place to discuss issues. She shared information with Pandemonium, and in exchange, we dealt with some of the seedier sides of the law that the local officials were not equipped to handle. Sadie praised our motorcycle club to the township and its residents, even heading up fundraisers in which we were involved, to build trust between us and the good people of Sparrow Creek. It worked. The locals stayed out of our business and people looked the other way whenever we rolled through.
I turned around to rejoin the men at my table when a blood curdling scream echoed up the hall. What the hell? On instinct, men stood, quickly abandoning their breakfast utensils for guns, save for the pot-bellied trucker in straining suspenders at the back. He sat there stunned at the scene playing out in front of him and had it not been for the continued screaming I might have laughed at the way he had frozen still with hands raised and a string of bacon dangling from his piece-of-shit beard. I supposed a room full of heavily armed one-percenters was enough to make most men piss their pants.
A couple of the brothers exited the diner and could be seen through the windows making their way around the outside of the building. If someone had been attacked we would catch the person responsible before they had a chance to slip out the back. I reached for my own weapon and raised it toward the sound, moving closer as I scanned the open doorways along the way. An empty office where Sadie worked, a supply closet that looked in desperate need of restock, and a small breakroom for the diner staff.
LoJack, my Road Captain, was already sliding around me to the other side of the bathroom door, the source of the woman’s distressed cries. I nodded in his direction, signaling my intent, and kicked the door with the bottom of my boot before rushing inside. The first thing I saw was the cute waitress sitting on the floor, her knees pressed up against her chest in anguish, both hands covering her ears while she rocked back and forth sobbing. The sound was gut-wrenching, and considering the torture I had not only endured myself, but helped inflict too many times to recount, it spoke volumes of her torment.
I kicked open the stall doors on my way closer to her, my gun trained for any potential threats. There were no windows in the small washroom, which meant she was truly alone. I lowered my gun and shook my head at LoJack, letting him know that we were clear before returning the weapon to my waistband. He relayed the message to the men in the dining area. Seconds later, I heard the shuffle of feet and murmured conversation as they relaxed and stood down.
“Hey there, sweetheart, you okay?”
I crouched down in front of her and started to reach out for her shoulder, before recalling how she reacted to Stryker’s touch earlier. The last thing I wanted to do was frighten her even more. Truthfully, he was never going to hurt her, but I could see it in her eyes. I had witnessed it before and there was nothing like it. Terror. The kind of fear that eats at your soul and leaves you a shell of your former self.
I thought better of getting too close, rested my hand on my thigh instead, and kept enough distance between us to hopefully show that she was in control of the situation. She blinked her eyes open at the sound of my voice and I could see the moment her awareness registered. The blackout had rocked her and she was left with nothing but humiliation and shock. Those damn eyes though. I was taken back by the vibrant color earlier, but up this close I was hypnotized, staring longer than necessary. Never in my life had I seen such a vivid green. Emerald fucking green with tiny flecks of gold.
“Oh, my God. It happened again,” she whispered and scrambled to stand up as though the floor would burn her. I had a second to realize I was still staring and probably frightening her more than she already seemed to be.
“What happened, sweetheart? You were screaming.”
I stood up in front of her and noticed the sheer difference in our heights. At six-foot-three, I was used to towering over most people, but she seemed positively fragile beneath me. At least a foot shorter with delicate curves. Delicious curves I still felt, the way her round bottom fit so perfectly against my lap not even an hour ago. I struggled to maintain my self-control, but if I concentrated too much on the way her ass felt nestled against the inner seams of my denim I would walk out of here with an obvious hard-on. Hell, just getting a glimpse of those eyes again had me halfway there already.
“I was? No, no, no. I can’t start going through this shit again. I’ll lose my job.”
She started rambling in a panic that left me unsure what to do or say to provide comfort. I looked to LoJack for help and the fucker just shrugged. We didn’t deal well with emotional shit.
“Blackouts, huh?” I asked, trying to coax her into talking about what had happened rather than freaking the fuck out. I wasn’t entirely sure I could stand here and watch her cry.
I had my men experience blackouts a time or two. I was pretty sure I had experienced a few of my own during my life. One thing I knew about them. It took one hell of a traumatic event to elicit blackouts to this degree. Nightmares had the ability to creep in whenever you closed your eyes, for any number of bullshit reasons, but blackouts stole your ability to stay in control of your thoughts and actions when you were awake too.
“Yeah,” she hesitated before dropping her arms to her side and relaxing her guard a bit. She probably felt cornered in here, but something begged me to learn more. “Been a while since the last one.”
“How long?” I failed to stop the words before they were out.
Why did I care? I told myself it was only a distraction to calm her nerves, but I did not miss the confusion on LoJack’s face as he leaned casually against the doorframe and raised a brow in question. He was wondering the same thing. Why do you care? She watched me cautiously, apprehension clear in her body language, the way she withdrew further away as though hoping the wall behind her could open to grant an escape. I didn’t blame her. To my surprise, she answered.
“Four months.”
“Well, Tori,” my eyes hovered over the simple nametag on the upper right pocket of her uniform. “I’m sorry Stryker broke your streak. He acts like a jackass, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly if he thought it had a vagina.”
I scratched the back of my neck, mentally chastising my crass choice of words. What the hell kind of response was that? It was true though. Stryker was a bit of a prick most days, but he was a lady’s man. He loved them all, young or older, surly and sweet. Tori just so happened to be in his direct line of sight this morning, which made her the perfect target for his attention.
Tori tipped her head back and laughed, a beautiful sound that echoed off the tile walls, and left me groaning. I watched as her tear-stained cheeks warmed and took on a soft glow under the fluorescent lights. When she calmed down enough to look at me again I had to swallow hard against the urge to reach out and touch her full pink lips or the soft blush that colored her cheeks. I wasn’t a pervert. I just wanted to see if she was as soft as she appeared. Fuck if that didn’t make me as bad as Stryker.
LoJack’s throat cleared loudly behind me and garnered my attention away from Tori, effectively saving my ass from making an even bigger fool of myself. This was getting ridiculous. The whole tired biker who needed a good lay meets damsel in distress needed to stop. She couldn’t possibly look more innocent, which meant she needed to stay the hell away from men like me.
“Don’t lose your smile, sweetheart. I’ll take the check whenever you’re ready,” I stole one last glance at her beautiful face and moved towards the door.
Her lazy grin faded and was replaced with a slight chin nod as I walked out the door and rallied the guys to leave. No way could I look back. If I saw those green eyes one more time, I wouldn’t be able to leave. I’d come up with some lame ass excuse to stay a while longer so I could enjoy the view. I handed LoJack a few one-hundred-dollar bills to pay for everyone, dropping another underneath the salt shaker for Tori’s trouble. We had just made a killing off this run and I wasn’t about to stiff Sadie or her staff.
Once outside, I walked straight for my bike, straddled the tricked-out beauty who needed a good wash, turned over the engine and let the powerful rumble flow through my veins. I pulled my face shield up and over my mouth and straightened the skull emblem before slipping on my helmet and strapping it underneath my chin. It wasn’t long before the sound of a dozen more steel beasts roared to life. This was my life. It was nothing like the fairytale an innocent girl like Tori probably dreamt of and deserved, and I would never knowingly bring in an outsider to suffer the nightmare with me. Not even for a quick fuck that would ruin her for every other man. Not even if her doe eyes would haunt me tonight with regrets of not taking her over the edge just once. The last hour had been torture, watching her work. Those delicious hips moving across my line of vision one too many times, that beautiful laughter she had given men in my club that had me seeing red, all had me envisioning at least a dozen ways I could make her scream my name and beg for more. Too bad that was never going to happen, but fuck if I wasn’t a glutton for punishment.
Against my own better judgment, I granted myself one last glance in the side view mirror and caught a glimpse of Tori leaned over the table. The site of her bent over and shaking at the waist as she wiped the table was beautiful. I guess I couldn’t blame Stryker’s good taste, but since I couldn’t lead my club by my dick it was time to put some distance between us and Sadie’s Diner. She turned around with the one hundred-dollar bill in hand and I saw the shock in her delicate features. Right before she glared out the window in my direction.
It didn’t seem possible, but the woman was even more gorgeous when she was pissed. Tori started towards the front door and I smirked underneath my mask, spinning up dirt with the rear wheel as I lead my club to the highway.
Not today sunshine, not today.