I’d love to say I had an eventful Sunday, but I hadn’t. I’d spent it in the garage, working on my dirt bikes.

The thing that came with this house was the land it was on. Past the manicured garden were dirt tracks going into the deep forest.

So, whenever I could, I was on one of my dirt bikes.

The boys used to go all the time when they were younger. I would never go with them because when it comes to anything to do with me, my brothers are protective.

So me doing jumps at high speeds always brought out the protectors in them.

So I always went by myself.

And still do.

I was actually finding myself taking more risks lately. Maybe it was my disconnection with the gang.

I frowned for a second, my hand on the door knob to the garage.  Why was the door ajar? I was the only one who went into the garage.

Because all my cars were in there, as well as my dirt bikes.

I pushed it open, and saw something that made my eyes widen.

“What are you doing?” I asked Cole as he got up from kneeling beside my dirt bike.

“Finishing your work,” he said simply, wiping grease on his pants.

I frowned, “And why would you do that?” He had never encouraged me to ride. In fact, he took it upon himself to slash my tires so I couldn’t ride. Now he was here, fixing my bike?

He shrugged his shoulders.

My mouth dropped open, seeing the finished bike, which I had left in pieces. “How long did that take you? That would have taken me all day to put back together!”

He shrugged again.

I swallowed sharply. Just when I wipe my brothers off for good, Cole goes and does this.

“You didn’t have to.” I said. “I am capable of doing it.” Me being incapable was the only reason I could think of him doing it.

“I know you can, and you didn’t have to sew up my shoulder, but you did.”

So this was his way of saying thank you.

“Thanks.” I was actually really thankful because this had saved me a full day. That meant I could hit the tracks today.

“You can wipe that grin off your face; you aren’t getting out of school today.” Cole flattened my hope that everyone had forgotten it was a Monday.

I groaned. “Can you not remind Troy that it is Monday?”

He smirked, like he knew something I didn’t. “He actually sent me to go wake you up an hour ago. You can thank me for the sleep-in.”

I had wondered why no one was banging on my door this morning.

I sighed. “I guess I should get dressed for school then.” I hated school.

“Yeah, you sound thrilled about that.”

“I hate school.” It was no secret.

“Yeah we all did. But…”

“But what?”

“But dad never expected us to take over from him, like he is expecting you to.”

My eyes widened. “Over my dead body will I ever work a nine to five job?”

He grinned. “Dad needs someone to hand the empire he has been building over to.”

“Then you can take it.” I scoffed and walked out of the garage, because I couldn’t go to school in what I was wearing.

“All us boys agreed you are to do it.”

“I’m not smart enough for that.”

His hand wrapped around my upper arm, and he pulled me to a stop. “You’re smart enough to be a calculating shooter.” He gave me a look like I couldn’t argue with him.

“What have you heard?” I narrowed my eyes at him. Why was I suddenly getting the feeling that my brothers had looked into my past?

Cole let go of me. “You aren’t a mystery anymore. Now you better get changed before we both get into trouble.”

I nodded my head. Cole was usually yelling or screaming or telling me off. Never was he nice. So I took this as a one off.

***

Sitting on the bottom stair of the staircase, I finished lacing my black combat boots.

“You’re wearing that to school?” Tyler asked.

I whipped my head up, watching him run his eyes over my black short shorts, army tank top and combat boots. What was wrong with what I was wearing?

“What’s it to ya?” I snipped at him.

Adam rolled his eyes as I followed him out the door. Troy was casually leaning on his big black motorbike, while Cole was already on his and Tyler was straddling his.

It looked like they were all going somewhere. I felt someone shoulder me from behind as they walked past, making me stumble forward.

Jax walked up confidently towards the last black motorbike, which had fine white detailing over the petrol tank. I couldn’t make out the picture from where I was standing; I shot draggers into the back of his head.

He didn’t even acknowledge me; just thought it was acceptable to nearly knock me over!

“You’re coming with us,” Troy informed me, as he straddled his own bike.

“What? Why?” I argued. I was not being baby sat.

“Cause you can’t be trusted to go to school on your own,” Adam spoke up.

“You will bail, and we will be forced to spend the afternoon looking for you,” Troy added.

“Love the faith in me guys,” I grumbled, not moving.

“You will be going to school with Jax, after we take care of a few things,” Tyler explained starting up his motor bike.

That means I’m missing morning classes!

YES! I screamed inside my mind.

I wandered over to the back of Troy’s bike and was about to straddle it when a hand came to rest on my shoulder, stopping me. Jax quickly pulled his hand back, and his other one shot out, offering me his helmet.

I eyed it for a second in disbelief, not reaching for it; he rolled his eyes, and reached over and placed the helmet on my head. His fingers grazed my neck as he buckled it up; I took a sharp breath inwards at his touch.

He quickly turned around and walked back to his own bike, firing it up on the first kick.

I watched as he slowly took off, not giving me a second look.

I felt my side being nudged, and I snapped out of it to see Troy nodding his head sideways, gesturing for me to get on. Throwing my legs over and straddling his bike.

I couldn’t wrap my arms right around, given that he was so large and muscular, so I just settled with leaving my hands on either side of his sides.

As he took off, the wind whipped around my body. Troy passed the others and quickly took off, head of the pack.

Jax was half a bike length back to our right, Cole was the same to our left, and then Adam was behind Cole and Tyler behind Jax.

I felt my grip loosening at Troy’s side; I couldn’t help but notice how cars avoided us, either turning off or pulling over. As for the cars that didn’t get out of our way, we passed them with ease.

I didn’t bother glancing at the speedometer; I knew we weren’t respecting the speed limit.

I relaxed as the wind continued to whip around my face.

I loved this feeling.

I had missed it.

***

We slowed as we reached large iron gates, which had barbed wire across the top. Troy brought us to a stop as the gates were being opened from the inside.

Slowly, we took off into a large open space; motorbikes were lined to the side, cars parked on the other, and, in the middle to the side, was a large garage.

I let my gaze fall as I noticed other men standing around giving me questioning looks.

As Troy pulled up to the front, he slowly backed his bike back at an angle and then killed the engine. I watched as all of the other guys did the same; Jax backing his bike back next to ours.

I let my eyes gaze to the side where I noticed two garage doors open and two cars up in the air. Guys were under them, working on them. I noticed ‘Satan’s Sons’ painted into the back of the iron fence that we had just rode through.

When all the engines of the bikes died, my ears were met with a deafening silence, before slowly picking up on low conversation.

“You getting off Amber?” Troy asked, cocking his head to the side to look at me.

Before I could answer, arms shot around my waist, pulling me off the bike.

Jax’s arms stayed around my waist for a few short moments, as he brought my feet to the ground. This was the second time this morning he had made contact with me.

I couldn’t help but feel my heart race a little at his closeness, and I couldn’t pull my eyes up to his, so I  shot my gaze over his shoulders were I noticed a few skinny girls shooting me disgusting glares.

“Don’t mind the pornstars,” Jax spoke before letting his arms drop and walking passed me towards where the others were headed. I nodded my head, although there was no point because he had already left.

Troy casually flung his arm over my shoulder, and began to guide us to where the others had headed, behind a closed door, which had Satan’s Sons printed on it in red lettering.

As Troy pushed the door open, we headed down a short hallway before walking into what looked like a bar.

Tables, chairs and a few pool tables were evenly placed in the room, and a large black bar ran across the length of the wall to our right.

The smell of alcohol and cigarettes filled the air; I noticed four men sitting on stools with their backs turned to us, facing the bar.

Jax, Cole, Tyler and Adam were all leaning next to the bar talking to each other.

Troy began to walk us closer towards the others, when the guy on the end stool slowly turned around.

My mouth dropped when I took in the man; he sent me his trademark smirk before fully turning his body around on the stool to face me, a beer in his left hand.

“Miss me Amber?” Blake asked, with an eyebrow raised.

I let the words soak in for a minute, before I shrugged Troy’s arm off my shoulders and launched myself into Blake’s lap.