DORIAN

 

“Let’s go already…”

I ignored Needle’s attempt to spur me on.

“Hold on just a second,” I sighed.

“What’s there to think about? You see the cards on the table. You see your cards.”

“Don’t be mad just because I got all your chips.”

“You don’t have all my chips.”

“Not yet…”

I looked up from my cards and gave Needle a quick glance. He gave me a half-smirk and rolled his eyes at me.

I knew guys like Needle. A real smart ass. Always confusing confidence with arrogance. He was the guy in class who always had to have everybody’s attention. A real fucking clown.

I enjoyed watching him sit and wait while I decided what to do with my hand.

“Enough already,” Ghost said. “You keep thinking any longer, we’re all gonna be as old as Sutton over here.”

The sheriff raised an eyebrow at Ghost, who immediately realized what he’d said and chuckled nervously.

“Of course, we all want to look as good as Sutton when we’re his age,” Ghost said to correct himself.

Ghost was the vice president of the Black Reapers. If anybody knew how to sweet talk someone, even a sheriff, it would be him.

Everybody at the table had their eyes on me. I looked down at the cards on the table then at the old man across from me. Sutton stared right back at me. It didn’t matter that he was the sheriff. I could play poker with the best of them. And when I looked into his eyes, I could see that I had him beat.

Fortunately for him, I didn’t take any pride in beating an old man.

“I fold,” I said as I threw my cards down on the table.

“Ha!”

Sutton celebrated as he raked all of the chips in the center of the table toward himself. I laughed softly at his celebration.

The rest of the table wasn’t as enthusiastic. The other club members just glared at me, knowing I gave up a better hand.

“Thanks, boys,” Sutton said. “It looks like the Black Reapers are in a giving mood tonight.”

“They sure are,” Needle said, his eyes locked on me.

“Giving indeed,” Ghost added.

I shrugged at the both of them. It was a small price to pay to see the town sheriff in a good mood.

“I think I’ve had enough,” I sighed as I got up from my seat. “It looks like it’s just not my night.”

Needle rolled his eyes at me again. Ghost sighed as he leaned back in his seat.

“All right, boys,” Sutton said as he took the deck of cards. “Ante up.”

I watched as Sutton dealt the cards out to the rest of the table.

Anybody looking on from the outside would have thought it was a strange sight. An old man in uniform playing cards with one of the most infamous biker clubs in town. That was how I knew tonight was different from all the rest.

The Grindhouse was more crowded than it usually was. Everybody was out to celebrate. The alcohol was flowing. The music was blasting. The conversations were lively. I made my way through the crowd and leaned up against the bar.

“What’s wrong?”

I heard a voice next to me. I turned and saw Michelle preparing a few drinks.

“I’ve had enough poker for tonight,” I said. “Sutton is getting enough action from the rest of the club.”

“Sheriff Sutton breaking bread with the Black Reapers,” she said as she looked over at the card table. “I never thought I would see the day… And we have you to thank for it.”

“Me?”

“Yes, sweetie. You’re a hero. The way you saved that family in that fire. It’s nice to have someone in the club who does something good for a change.”

Seeing Michelle’s sarcastic smile made me laugh.

Michelle had been around the club longer than I even knew it existed. She was the president’s old lady, so she had as much clout as any female involved with the group. And she was a gorgeous woman, too. Dark hair, nice figure. It was easy to understand why someone had decided to make her an old lady.

“I’m not much for celebration,” I said as I looked out into the crowd. “I was just doing my job.”

“Well, whatever reason you’re doing it for, keep it up. A little good publicity never hurt the Reapers.”

“I think I’m gonna have to save a lot more people from burning buildings for people to think differently about the Reapers.”

“Why don’t you at least have a drink to celebrate?”

“You know I don’t drink. I just… I just wanna relax.”

“Suit yourself.”

Michelle grabbed the drinks she’d prepared and made her way back through the bar.

I spent most of my free time in The Grindhouse. From the moment I got patched into the Black Reapers, it became like a second home to me. The wild scene before me was something I was used to seeing but the circumstances were a little different.

A front-page spread in the local paper put a spotlight on me. Garnet, the president of the club, decided to take the opportunity to use it for some good publicity. I couldn’t object.

But as I leaned up against the bar and watched the scene all around me, I realized that the celebration wasn’t going to change anybody’s minds. The people in this town already felt one way or another about the Reapers. What I did wasn’t going to make a difference.

It was late in the evening but the night was just getting started for some people. You would have thought they were trying to kill themselves with how much they were drinking. Sheriff Sutton continued playing poker with the rest of the club. Everybody else was crowded on the dance floor.

Men eyeballed all of the ladies moving around like they were pieces of meat. The women all danced seductively, trying to catch the eye of some lucky biker for the night. I couldn’t blame anybody for doing what they did. I was just as distracted as the rest of the guys in the club.

And nobody caught my eye more than a girl in the center of the floor.

That girl…

She moved her hips like she’d done it before. And they were nice hips. The rest of her wasn’t bad either. Her shorts were barely enough to cover her ass and her white top was bursting at the seams trying to hold her tits back.

Her skin was pale and the red lipstick she wore made her hair that much more striking. Her black hair was put up in a bun behind her head.

She was about a foot shorter than everybody else, so she stood out more than she would have with just the way she moved.

But there was something else about her.

I narrowed my eyes as I stared at her.

Why does she look so familiar?

She caught me staring. A quick glance from her before she coyly looked away. Just long enough to let me know that she saw me.

I wasn’t much for playing hard to get. The women in this town drove me crazy trying to figure them out. At the same time, there was a part of me that just wanted to go out there and say something.

It’s my night. Why not?

Emboldened by a feeling I couldn’t explain, I slowly stepped forward to the middle of the floor. Everybody else continued to dance all around me. I ignored all of them as I approached the girl who caught my attention.

Her head was down, so she didn’t notice me when I stood right in front of her.

“Hey.”

With the music and conversations so loud all around us, she didn’t hear me.

“Hey!”

She jerked her head up and stopped moving. Our eyes locked on one another. She stared at me with those brown eyes of hers for a second before a sly smile formed on her lips.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

She giggled to herself, her smile growing even bigger.

“Is something funny?” I said, slightly confused.

“Gina,” she said. “Gina Newman.”

“Gina. It’s nice to meet you, I’m—”

“Dorian. Dorian Sullivan. I know who you are.”

“You must have read the papers.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head softly. “I don’t read the papers. But I still know who you are.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. I couldn’t shake the feeling of how familiar she looked.

“All right, Gina,” I said. “How are you doing tonight?”

“Do you usually interrupt a girl when she’s dancing in the middle of the floor?”

“Usually? No. I thought I’d make an exception for you though.”

I couldn’t help a smile from coming to my face. Gina didn’t seem to mind. If anything, she welcomed it. Seeing her red cheeks blush was even more apparent against her pale skin.

“You want a drink?” I asked.

“A drink…”

She narrowed her gaze at me before nodding.

“Okay,” she said. “A drink sounds like fun.”

I took her hand. She didn’t protest as I led her off the dance floor and toward the bar. I ordered a drink for her, my eyes locked on her the entire time. I shook my head and finally gave up.

“Why do you look so familiar?” I asked.

“Ivory High,” she said.

“What?”

“Ivory High. We went to school together.”

“We did?”

“Yeah, we did. I sat next to you in history class your senior year.”

I searched my memories, trying to remember my history class. If a girl like this sat next to me, I would have fucking remembered it.

“No,” I said as I shook my head. “No, you didn’t.”

“Yes,” she said with a nod, her eyes wide. “Yes, I did.”

“I gotta be honest with you. I don’t remember much about senior year.”

“How could you? Captain of the football team. Captain of the wrestling squad. All of those obligations. All of those friends. Big Man on Campus…”

“Yeah, that’s right…”

She gave me smirk as she sipped on her drink.

Who is this girl?

“Your story checks out,” I said. “You’ve got all the details right. You sure you’re not spying on me?”

She leaned in close to me and motioned for me to come closer with her index finger. Her breath against my cheek, she whispered into my ear.

“And what if I was spying on you? What would you do?”

I pulled away from her, our eyes locked on one another.

Damn.

The boys in the club warned me about the kind of women who came to the clubhouse. They would do anything to try and seduce a man. There was something a woman couldn’t resist when they saw a man in leather.

As I looked into Gina’s eyes, I could understand why they warned me. And there was another part of me that didn’t give a shit.

“Okay,” I said. “We went to high school together. That was a long time ago.”

“It was. Almost six years.”

“Dorian!”

A sudden shrieking voice interrupted my conversation with Gina. I turned and saw a pair of blonds standing there.

Now these were the kind of women that the boys warned me about.

Fake tits. Fake tans. Enough makeup you had to use a knife to cut through it. Bleach blond hair that was done up. Scantily-clad tops that barely covered anything.

The two women bounced up and down as they looked at me.

“It’s him!”

“Oh, my God! Dorian, can we get a picture with you?”

“Um… Sure,” I muttered.

I stood there and smiled as the two women held their cell phones up to take photos. They took multiple selfies, each one capturing a different pose as I just stood there.

“Thank you! We just read the article about you in the paper! We just loved it!”

“The way you saved that old lady! It was amazing!”

“Actually, it was a man…”

“It doesn’t matter,” one of the blonds cut me off. “All that matters is that you are a hero.”

“Say, Dorian. You got anything planned for tonight?”

The other blond teased me by trailing her hand along the zipper of my kutte.

“Actually…”

I turned and saw that Gina had disappeared. Her half-empty drink sat on the counter. I looked around the bar in confusion before spotting her walking toward the exit.

“Actually, I’m a little busy,” I said.

I pushed myself away from between the two blonds and paced toward Gina as quickly as I could. I caught up to her just as she got to the door.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

She slowly turned around, a noticeable bit of disappointment on her face.

“I… I just needed to get out of my apartment for a bit. I really shouldn’t be out this late.”

“Oh,” I said with a nod. “Okay… I was thinking that maybe we could talk for a bit.”

“Talk?”

“We went to high school together. It’s been a long time. We have a lot to catch up on.”

If this girl walked out on me, I wouldn’t know what to think. But I wasn’t about to beg her. Not out loud, anyway.

“Okay,” she said with a shrug. “We can talk and catch up.”

“I know just the place. Nobody will bother us.”