Rough Draft Excerpt for PACO
Please note that this is a very rough draft of part of Chapter One of my upcoming book, PACO: Night Rebels MC. I offer it as a glimpse inside the novel.
Chapter One
Streaks of white hot lightning broke the blackness, ripping the night sky like paper. Seconds later the rumbling thunder came. Another few miles down the highway, the lightning forked close to Paco’s Harley. More booms reverberated overhead and then the rain fell. Slow and spattering at first, and then lashing down, torrential, relentless.
Paco slowed down, cursing the semi-trucks as they barreled past him, burying him in a blinding wave of water as their tires hit the puddles. He squeezed the water out of his foam grips and debated about pulling over and taking out his rain gear.
A second series of jagged lightning bolts zig-zagged across the sky. I gotta get out of this fucking storm. Riding wet on a bike with lightning too close for comfort was just asking for trouble. The rain came down in sheets, obstructing his vision, pelleting his skin like bullets. The brake lights on several of the large trucks in front of him glowed eerily in the mist, and he decided to follow them, hoping they were headed to the nearest truck stop in the area.
Sure enough, the semis took the next exit and turned right with Paco following behind them. Bright lights filtered through the thin mist and a yellow neon sign read “Eagle Truck Stop” and underneath it, in blue lettering, the word “Diner” flashed. Three of the large trucks turned in and drove to the fuel pumps. After following them in, he veered to the right and parked in front of the eatery. The rain had soaked him, and he opened his saddle bag, took out a plastic bag, and rushed into the diner. Drops of water rolled down his face and neck and his feet squished with every step he took.
“It sure is coming down,” a woman behind the lunch counter said as her eyes traveled up and down his muscled body. “You need somewhere to dry off?”
“Yeah. Do you have showers here?” he replied.
She pointed to the right. “You gotta go next door for that. They got showers, a trucker lounge with TV and video games. No laundry, though. The shower will cost you twelve bucks but that includes a towel, washcloth, soap, and a floor mat. Where did you come from?”
The redhead gave him a smile that said she was available. He’d seen that smile more times than he could count. “Thanks for the info.” A gust of wind blew past him when he opened the door, and with head bent, he walked next door.
Thirty minutes later Paco was back at the diner in a booth by the window watching the trucks as they moved from the pumps to the parking spaces that lined the large lot. The rain was steady now and he saw several women move between the lanes of parked semis.
“My name’s Holly,” the redhead said as she handed him a menu. “I see you got yourself all dried off. Nice pair of jeans by the way. When you came back in, I noticed you wear them real good.” She licked her pink stained lips.
“Get me a cup of black coffee,” he said, looking at the menu.
“You got a name?”
“Yeah. Get me that coffee.”
Holly snorted then walked away. Several men came in yelling out greetings to her. Paco watched as she laughed and flirted with them, bending over the counter and playfully smacking a couple of them on their arms when they commented on her tits. Shaking his head, he pulled out his phone and shifted his focus to the parking lot. The door to a truck opened and an arm reached out to help hoist a woman with long dark hair inside.
“Hey, dude,” he said to Steel.
“Where the hell are you?” the president answered.
“I got caught in a fucking storm. I pulled into a truck stop. I’m gonna wait it out. If it doesn’t get better, I’ll have to spend the night drinking coffee in the diner. How’s the weather in Alina?”
“Clear. Are you still in Utah?”
“Yeah. I’m close to the Colorado border though.”
“How’s your sister?”
“Great. She had another boy.”
“Here’s your coffee,” Holly said as she put the cup in front of him.
“I gotta go. I may not be back until tomorrow. Later.”
“There’s a motel behind the truck stop in case you stay the night. The beds are real comfy too.” She undid the top two buttons on her uniform.
“Thanks. I may need a room.”
“Holly, bring your sweet ass over here. My buddy Rich wants to ask you a question.”
The waitress turned sideways and laughed. “You just hang on. I got a customer here.” She looked at Paco and winked. “I’m popular with the men around here.”
“I’ll have a burger—medium, fries, and a cup of green chili.”
Her brows knitted. “You’re not very friendly, are you?”
“No. I’m not.” He picked up his cup and took a sip. The coffee tasted stale and harsh like it’d been sitting out all day. “Give me a fresh cup of coffee and bring me some cream.”
“Don’t you ever say ‘please’ when you want something?”
“No.” He scrolled through his texts as she walked away. The majority of his texts were from women he’d hooked up with in the past six months asking when they could get together. Shaking his head, he put his phone down on the table. The truth was he didn’t want to see any of them again. He’d had fun for a while, but no one had interested him enough to pursue anything for more than a few weeks. It wasn’t that he was against relationships it was just that the one woman who’d captured his heart had also shattered it, and he wasn’t looking to have that happen again.
“Here you go,” Holly said, placing a steaming cup of coffee in front of him. “And I just opened a new carton of creamer just for you.”
“Thanks.” He stirred a splash of cream in the coffee. The earthy scent filled his nostrils as he brought the cup to his lips and took a sip. Bitter sweetness snapped at the back of his throat as the hot liquid warmed him.
Glancing outside, he saw three women in short shorts huddled under the eaves of the diner as the rain poured down. A cold rush of wind swirled around him as the front door opened and a woman with too much makeup and too little clothing entered. With bent head, she walked over to the booth next to his and slid. Drops of water trickled down her face and neck, and she grabbed a napkin and wiped them away before running it through her long wet hair.
Then she looked up and locked gazes with him. Her eyes were dark like an endless stretch of midnight sky. A bundle of sorrow, pain, and loneliness swam in their inky depths along with threads of fierceness and pride. They drew him in. Something down deep, very deep, inside him stirred faintly. He sucked in a deep breath. Damn.