Chapter Forty-Five
Leather and Tats
Lake walked into the diner behind her grandparents’ house. She had left Kansas City the week before, coming to the only place she had family left—Treepoint, Kentucky.
If she was honest, the thought of living in Kentucky had made her skin crawl at first. She hadn’t been sure what it was going to be like, but she had known without a doubt that she wasn’t going to be in Kansas City anymore. Lake was born a city girl; therefore, stepping into a very rural small town was a bit of an adjustment. I think that’s an understatement.
Lake had called her father when she got home, but he had pushed it straight to voicemail. She cried hard at having to tell her father she was leaving through a voicemail. That was the hardest thing she had ever done. She didn’t tell him where she was going, afraid Dante might use it against him. The less he knew, the better.
Her father had kept an old piece of paper with a number hidden in a box with old stuff. She remembered him revealing to her the contents of the box once when she was a little girl. He had showed her the pictures of him when he was younger, where he had lived before his family had moved out to Kansas City, and he had even kept pictures of her grandparents. She wouldn’t have known whose number it was if he hadn’t written, ‘crazy fucking mother,’ above it.
Thankfully, her grandmother had answered, and then Lake had packed a bag and hopped on a bus straight there. Granted, she did have to beg them to come out. She could say they had been slightly paranoid about the mafia and life in general. Lake had simply told them she was trying to find a better life away from the mob, and she had assured them no one was looking for her. Basically, I just lied my ass off.
She had sat in the back of the bus, silent tears rolling down her face with Kansas City in the distance. It wasn’t leaving the city she was born and raised in behind that had destroyed her; it was leaving Vincent.
As bad as she wanted to hate him, she couldn’t. She cared about him, whether she wanted to or not. What’s more, she had shared with him something very special that she could only experience once. It didn’t matter how much time would pass, no one could never forget about their first. It was an impossible thing to do.
Thankfully, the waitress came and took their order, relieving her of her thoughts of Vincent.
“No, no, no, no!” her grandmother cried, looking at the door.
Lake turned her head to see a huge gang of bikers walk into the diner. From what she had gathered from her grandmother’s ranting, they called themselves ‘The Last Riders’ and owned some kind of survivalist company. Only in fucking Kentucky could you hear something as ridiculous as that.
When they pushed a bunch of tables and chairs together, her grandmother stood up. “We’re getting the hell out of here.”
Lake’s eyes grew big with how loud she had said it. Getting up, she watched her grandparents scurry out of the place so fast only the ding of the bell had her realizing they had already left.
Walking toward the door, she couldn’t help looking at the table full of bikers and their women, who had clearly heard and watched the whole thing. There was a sweet blonde with twins at the end of the table who had particularly looked upset.
She found her feet had stopped moving, feeling terrible for her grandmother’s actions.
“I-I’m sorry. My grandmother is, well…”—her eyes drifted slightly away from the blonde and onto some of the rough, tough-looking men in leather before she snapped them back to the pretty blonde—“um, old.”
“I completely understand.” She smiled softly, shooting the men around the table annoyed glances at their laughter. “I’m Beth.”
“Hi, I’m Lake.” She smiled back; the woman’s was contagious.
“I haven’t seen you around before. Are you new to town?”
“I’m just visiting my grandparents for the summer.” She watched the waitress come up and ask if they were ready to take their orders. “Well, I will get out of your way so you can eat.”
“You’re welcome to stay and join us,” Beth said. “If you had already ordered, she can bring it out with ours.”
Lake bit her lip, contemplating if she should stay. She did feel bad that the waitress had probably already put their order in, and at least her food wouldn’t go to waste. Even though the bikers looked scary, they couldn’t possibly be too bad if they had children at the table.
“That would be nice.” Thank you, God. I can get some peace away from my grandparents.
A man beside Beth rose from the table, hastily pulling a chair away from another while glaring at the occupants when they would have said something. He placed the chair next to him, between him and Beth.
“You can sit here next to me.”
“Down boy.” Beth rolled her eyes. “That’s Rider. He always likes to get to know anyone new who comes to town.”
Rider? I have made a huge mistake.
Going to the other side of the table she squeezed between them, although Rider wasn’t making it easy for her. Lake would have told them something had come up, but she didn’t want to hurt Beth’s feelings again.
Beth waited until she settled in before she introduced her. She started with the twin closest to her and went around the table. “These are my little boys, Chance and Noah; Razer, my husband; Lily, my sister; her husband, Shade; John, their son; Cash; Rachel; Train; and you already met Rider.”
Lake smiled at each one she was introduced to. She thought Rider was bad, but hearing Razer followed by my husband had her wondering if she had made a wrong turn somewhere.
Each man was covered in leather and tats. The one called Shade was definitely the one nobody fucked with in their group since it looked like he had the most tattoos, which seemed like they went down from his neck to his feet. Cash, however, drew her attention the most; something about him had her staring at him for a few seconds.
“It’s nice to meet you all.” She hoped she didn’t sound a little frightened when it came out.
“It’s nice to meet you, too,” Rider cut off Beth when she opened her mouth to reply. “Where are you from? From your accent, it doesn’t sound like it’s Kentucky.”
Lake licked her lips, wondering what she should tell them. She didn’t think she should tell them the truth, considering Dante could come after her.
“Arizona.” She went with the first thing that popped in her head. It was where her dad had grown up.
“Really? Do you know any cowboys?” Lily asked. “I’ve always wanted to meet a real cowboy.”
The one covered in tattoos threw her a dark look. “I thought you said I’m your cowboy?”
Lily brushed his cheek with a brief kiss. “You are. I was just going to ask her if it’s true if they drink a lot or if they like women with short hair.”
I have no freaking idea.
She looked at Lily’s long, beautiful, black hair. “They like lots of orange juice, and they definitely prefer long hair. The longer, the better.” Lake was quite shocked to find that the two were married, and with a cute little baby boy at that. Lily was arguably the most beautiful and timid girl she had ever seen, while Shade… well, he could probably take out half of the Caruso Mafia by himself.
Lily turned to her husband, giving him a suspicious look. “We could always go to the Grand Canyon on vacation,” she suggested.
“Not going to happen,” Shade said, slipping an arm over her shoulders before whispering something in her ear, which had her face flaming.
“If you’re going to be in town for a while, stop by our clubhouse for a drink sometime,” Rider suggested.
“She’s not old enough to drink,” Beth snapped.
“I didn’t mean liquor,” Rider said to Beth before turning back to Lake, giving her a wink. “Unless she wants one. One beer isn’t going to make her drunk, is it?”
Hell to the no.
She took a long drink of water before she could answer, contemplating on the right thing to say, not wanting to piss off a biker. “I’ll think about it.”
The food came just in time, breaking the awkward conversation. Lake’s eyes drifted to Cash again, unable to help glancing at him from time to time. He was tall, blonde, dangerous, and outrageously handsome with just the right amount of tattoos. When he caught her eyes and smiled at her, it finally dawned on her why she was attracted to him. Cash was a perfect blonde god, exactly like Vincent.
Finally realizing the root of her attraction, it still didn’t mean she didn’t like staring at him, despite him not being Vincent. He was clearly very happy and very much in love with the pretty redhead beside him. Still, it was hard not to look at him from time to time, and she hadn’t seen Vincent’s perfection in a week.
Blondes are clearly my kryptonite.