Chapter Twelve
Tigger
“Have we met before?” I grip the handle to my door tighter than necessary and squeeze my eyes shut at the sound of her voice. I didn’t even know she was standing behind me in the doorway to her room.
The mere sound of her voice is enough to have my dick standing at attention. In the dark of the night when I throw caution to the wind, her voice seems different, more seductive. Here, in the light of day, she seems sweeter, more like the type of woman I long to have by my side. I don’t know which version of her I like better, but I sure do know that I love them both. Shit, I’m screwed. I swore I was done with women, that this was only going to be a one-time thing with her before I moved on and found another woman to conquer. But the more time I spend around her, the more I want of her. Especially with her being here in the clubhouse. In my territory.
“Tigger?” she whispers hesitantly. “Never mind,” her sigh alerts me that she’s about to shut the door.
I spring into action, turning and grabbing her hand so she can’t get away.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you were standing there, Summer,” I clear my throat and quickly release her hand, running the same hand that just touched her through my hair nervously. Why is she making me so nervous?
“That’s okay, most people don’t notice me anyway. I’ve had people push me over on the sidewalk because they didn’t see me standing there,” I think she might be joking, but when she looks up at me, her eyes hold this sadness in them and I know she’s one hundred percent serious right now.
“How could anyone not notice a beautiful woman like you, sweetness?” my feet involuntarily move me in her direction, and I don’t stop until I’m towering over her. I don’t catch my slip up until her eyes narrow.
“Have we met before, Tigger? You remind me of someone,” my eyes search her baby blue eyes and I know she’s right on the verge of discovering who I am. She’s shorter without her heels on, so when she brings herself even closer to me, she has to tilt her head up in my direction.
I resist the urge to close the remaining distance between us and wrap my arms around her. Barely.
“If we’d met before, beautiful, believe me, you would know,” I enjoy the way her breath catches in her throat when I tuck her hair behind her ears.
“There you are,” I turn to find Natalie and Ryan standing a short distance away.
I clear my throat and take a few steps back from her, hating the distance between us and missing the warmth of her body.
She’s still staring at me wide-eyed like I’m a puzzle she’d like to solve. She won’t be solving this one just yet. At least not until I figure out exactly how I feel about her.
I clear my throat, and she blinks several times, turning to greet her friends. The spell she was under, broken.
“Hey guys,” she clears her throat awkwardly and clasps her hands together in front of her. Nice to know I’m not the only one that’s affected by the other being so close.
“Time to go to work, nurse,” Ryan grabs Summer by the arm and ushers her away. She wasted no time pulling her friend away from me. I guess she’s concerned about her friend being close to me. If only she knew how close I’ve been to her friend.
I watch their retreating figures, hoping she’ll turn to look in our direction one last time before she leaves, but she doesn’t, leaving me more than a little disappointed.
“Ouch,” I glare down at Natalie when she punches me in the arm. She may be a short little thing, but her punches pack quite a punch. No wonder Thunder agrees to whatever she wants. I rub my arm and prepare to give her hell, but the look on her face tells me I should just keep my mouth shut.
“I know,” she crosses her arms over her chest and rests against the wall next to my open door.
“You know, what?” I avoid eye contact with her, choosing instead to go into my room and sit down on the edge of my bed.
“Tigger,” she walks over to me and grabs my hand, and tugs on it. I look up, knowing if I don’t listen to her she won’t leave or worse, she’ll go get her husband, and he’ll give me hell for not listening to her. “I know,” she states. My eyes search hers, and I know exactly what she’s talking about now.
“I don’t know what you’re referring to,” I yank my hand free from hers and stand from the bed, going around her and busying myself at my dresser, looking for a shirt to wear for tonight. As much as I don’t want to, I have to go to The Dragon tonight.
“Yes you do, Tigger. I know you are the mystery man she’s been seeing at Black Lightning.”
I sigh and shut the drawer, throwing the black shirt in my hand down on the bed next to me. “That obvious, huh?”
“Doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. She’s been going on and on about this hot mystery man she’s been seeing at the nightclub, and based on the way you’ve been looking at her over the past two days, I’m ninety-nine percent sure the stranger is you. I’m not going to tell her if that’s what you’re worried about,” my eyes search hers, and I find nothing but the truth there, she’s not going to tell Summer.
“But why? Isn’t this the sort of thing you women like to gossip about? I know you don’t want me around her and for sure when Ryan finds out, she’s going to cut off my balls,” I busy myself with the corner of the blanket of my bed. This conversation growing more uncomfortable by the second for me. I don’t like her friend knowing about us, even if Natalie also happens to be my friend.
“Here’s the thing you don’t understand about Summer, Tigger,” she helps herself to the empty space next to me on the bed and places her hand on my knee. “Summer’s been through a lot, and when I say a lot, I mean a lot. Things that no woman should ever have to go through. For the past four years, Summer’s been going through just the motions of living her life, just going to work and home and back again day after day. Since she met you, this is the first time I’ve seen her with some color on her face. A small semblance of the woman she used to be when she smiles, and I see the way you’ve changed as well. You two are good for one another whether either of you realizes it. Let me just warn you, Tigger. Summer’s been hurt before, and another heartbreak might be the last straw for her, so tread softly. Or you know, I might have your balls,” she squeezes my upper thigh painfully before she stands.
She smiles down at me sweetly, but I can tell she’s one hundred percent serious.
“Understood,” I clear my throat and stand from the bed, ready for her to leave me to myself. She’s giving me some information to chew on for a while.
I start to shut my door behind her, but she turns at the last second and pushes the door back open. “Give her the chance to get to know you, Tigger. She’s your chance at the future you’ve been looking for. Give her the opportunity to repair the damage Kara did to you. Repair the damage done to her. You’ve both been hurt, Tigger. But in order to move on you have to allow her to get close to you, and visiting her late at night and not telling her who you are isn’t going to get either of you anywhere,” she surprises me when she pulls me in for a hug.
I rub my hand through my hair and look away from her, the situation growing uncomfortable for me. I’m used to having Natalie around, but being this close to her is dangerous, Thunder might think I’m trying to steal his lady, I definitely don’t need that right now.
“See ya around, buddy,” she winks and slams my door shut for me when I don’t make a move to do it on my own. My feet robotically move over to my bed so I can change my shirt to head down to work. I set my cut down on the bed before me and sigh, looking down at the patches there on the front. I never thought I would have made it here to become a member of the Dragon Skulls. I love my brothers like family, and I’d die to protect them all, but I still have so many secrets from them that even after five years I worry what will happen when they find out the truth about me.
I have my shirt over my head when my phone notifies me of an incoming text.
Dean: come down to the surveillance room, there’s something you need to see
I pull my cut back on and look longingly over at the picture of my mother and my little sister from when we were kids and punch my fist into the wall before I exit my room and lock the door behind me. I hope someday my life becomes a little less complicated. I yearn for the day that life cuts me a break.
Heading down to the surveillance room, I make sure I’m alone in the hallway before knocking five times on the door and waiting for Dean’s signal to open the door.
“Enter,” his gruff voice is very audible behind the soundproof barrier.
I look around me one last time before I produce the keychain from the belt and use my key to open the room and step inside quickly, making sure the lock is turned back into place before I turn and look over at Dean who is seated in the center of the room.
Jealousy hits me the moment I take him in sitting there in the center of the room like he owns the joint. Okay, well, technically as Sergeant at Arms he has more rights to be in here than I do. But I’m not just envious of his position in this club, but also for the life he has. The family he has with Kara. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want kids, but Kara gave a piece of herself to Dean that any man would kill to have. She gave him not only his son but a piece of her heart and soul as well.
“Quit looking at me like that fucker and get over here,” one of these days the fucker’s going to punch me in the face or shoot me for looking at him like that. But he always laughs, and we hug it out after he says things like that. Surprisingly, I don’t feel as green with envy around him as I usually do. Maybe I am ready to move on just like Natalie said I am?
“What did you call me down her for fucker? To show me a porn video, or what?” I ask, taking the seat next to him and watching him pull up the screen closest to me with a video on it.
“I wish that’s what I had to show you. Are you sure you want to see this? It’s about Summer. I decided you should be the one to see this and not Drag or the others. They can have her file, but I figured you’d like to see the video I found on her before you decide to show them or now,” his sigh lets me know this isn’t going to end well.
“Play it, we might as well get this over with, I have to get down to work, not all of us get by on sitting around all day looking pretty like you,” I push him, and he almost falls over, glaring at me. He rights himself, silently cursing me with his eyes and hitting play on the video on the screen.
“The Amy Akers Show, seriously, Dean, you’ve got to be shitting me right now. I don’t have time for this stupid as fucking shit,” I start to stand, but his hand on my arm stops me.
“Sit, fucker, humor me for ten minutes, you’ll see why I’m showing you this. Quit being a stubborn ass pig,” I reluctantly sit back down.
“Welcome back, everyone,” my attention is riveted to the screen when I catch a glimpse of the teenage girl sitting in the middle of the stage behind Amy. That looks a lot like Summer.
My suspicions are confirmed when Amy turns to greet her next guest.
“Our next guest is Summer.”
I sit up straighter in my seat, getting my first good look at the innocent girl Summer once was. She looks so much different than she does now. Young, innocent, no tattoos, happy. That’s something missing now, that vibrancy visible as she sits there in the middle of the stage.
“Hi Amy,” god even when she speaks she sounds different. That edge she has in her voice now isn’t there in the video like this is a glimpse at the woman she was before she came here. One that isn’t cautious about who she lets get near her, this is the woman Natalie was referring to, the unbroken Summer.
“I hear today is your birthday, is that correct?” I look at the date in the corner of the video, making a mental note of the fact that Summer’s birthday is next Saturday.
“How old are you today, Summer?”
“Eighteen.”
Jesus, she’s so young in the video. Just old enough that very day to be on this show.
I watch silently while Amy asks Summer if she knows a woman named Blaire and this woman takes the stage. A poised rich woman who looks down her prim nose at the beautiful woman I’ve come to know over the past few weeks. How could anyone look at her like that?
“What the fuck is this, Dean?” I ask looking over at him for guidance when Blaire takes the stage. I don’t understand what any of this has to do with Summer.
“Just keep watching, you’ll understand soon enough,” he points to the screen, never taking his eyes off the video before us.
I sigh and turn my attention back to the video just in time to have my head start to spin, “I don’t want my freedom from Michael. Why would I want my freedom when Michael and I are going to have a baby.”
Summer has a kid? I search my brain, trying to recall her or one of her friends mentioning she had a kid, I come up blank. My face heats when Michael takes the stage and goes to stand next to Blaire. Jesus, the fucker is at least twenty years older than her.
I watch as the color drains from Summer’s face almost like that’s the moment she realizes this is going to end badly for her.
“Who is she?” she asks the man, but he doesn’t respond. This seems to aggravate her. “Who the hell is she” she shouts in his face when he doesn’t give her an answer.
“My wife,” he finally responds.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I hold the sides of my head with my hands not believing what is happening right now.
I see the moment Michael notices the pregnancy test in her hand, the moment he realizes he’s just lost not only his wife but the baby he’s going to be having with Summer. I don’t hear the rest of the video, the ringing in my ears drowning out the volume of the video. My singular focus turning to Summer who crumples into the corner of the stage and rocks back and forth. Dean ends the video right after Ryan takes the stage and chases Michael around slapping the shit out of him. Good, that’s what the fucker deserves.
“You okay,” Dean asks me after I’m silent for several minutes. I can’t seem to get the image of Summer sitting in the corner of that stage falling apart out of my head. No wonder Natalie said she’s been hurt before.
“No, I’m not,” I shake my head, finally tearing my eyes away from the computer screen. “Where’s her file?” I ask, holding my hand out for it. I know he’s printed it, I have to see it.
He hands it to me, and I ignore him while he goes into a spiel about Ryan kicking Michael’s ass. “Who knew that little firecracker had it in her, I hope one of our brothers doesn’t ever cross her, she’ll eat them for dinner,” he laughs and moves to the other end of the room, tidying up the paperwork there, leaving me alone with her file.
The file doesn’t say anything about the baby she told Michael about, but there is plenty in there about Michael. I was right, he is twenty years older than her, went to prison for sexual assault on a minor. Michael starting sleeping with Summer a few months after she turned seventeen. He was a school counselor from another high school in Port Angeles. That explains how Natalie knows Ryan and Summer, they grew up in the same town.
Other than Michael’s arrest record, her high school and college transcripts, and some information about her family, there’s nothing. Her father left them, and her mother killed herself. She was alone and vulnerable, and that’s how that fucker Michael managed to get to her. God that fucker better hope he doesn’t come here looking for her, I’ll kill him.
I already know I’d kill anyone who dared to try and hurt Summer. I’ve never felt that way about a woman before, and while that scares the shit out of me, that’s the truth of my situation.
I close the file, unable to read it anymore around the lump forming in my throat. I slam it down on the counter, gaining Dean’s attention.
“Fucked up, isn’t it?”
“It is, I have to go to work, show Drag the file so she can be cleared, we’ll talk about this tomorrow during Church. Don’t you dare show anyone that video, Thunder included,” I point my finger in his face, making sure he understands I’m serious. Thunder is his best friend, and that fucker will then turn around and tell Natalie I’ve seen the video and that has trouble written all over it. I want Summer to tell me on her own about all of this when she’s ready, I don’t want her to find out I’ve seen this video before she was ready for us to find out.
I don’t wait for his reply before I slam the door shut behind me and take off towards The Dragon on my Harley. I barely make it there in one piece, anger coursing through my entire body during the drive.