Chapter 20
Big John
I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing anymore. That Daisy had her little hooks into me was evident. I wanted to spend time with her, and not just in the bedroom. That was an unusual feeling for me, but only confirmed that there was something different about the woman, something fucking special. Maybe I needed to fuck her out of my system. I snorted at the thought. I was well on my way, but every time I fucked her I wanted her more, not less.
I wanted to own her ass completely.
I was beginning to think that stupid shit, like having a future with a woman, as some of my brothers did, was within reach. I’d never wanted an old lady or a family. The Phantom Riders was all the family I needed. I trusted them and would die for them. They’d do the same for me. Having an old lady would only complicate shit. I wasn’t sure I wanted someone else to worry about, but telling Daisy that she was it for me had exposed my intentions.
“So, tell me about Daisy Mae Flowers.”
“How far back do you want me to go?”
I liked the teasing quality of her husky tone. Her lightheartedness made me calm inside. “I’ll leave that up to you, babe.” I shot her a grin.
“Well, I’m not very exciting. I was born and raised in Boston, and I lived there all my life until I moved here a year ago.”
“So, you have family there.”
She surprised me by saying, “No. If I did I wouldn’t be here. My grandmother raised me after my parents died in a house fire. I was staying with her the night that it happened.”
“I’m sorry, babe.”
She acknowledged with a slight nod. “She died a few years ago. The only thing I left behind in Boston was a bitter ex.”
I gave her a look. “How long were you married?” The last time I’d asked her that question she’d been vague. This time I wasn’t going to let her get away with it.
She sighed heavily. “Paul and I were married for almost six years. It wasn’t a good marriage, it was a messy divorce. I thank God we didn’t have any children.” I could hear the resentment in her voice. “I wanted a baby, once. But the longer Paul and I were together, the more I came to realize that a child would have only complicated our relationship.” She gave me a small smile. “Paul would have used any child we had as an anchor to keep me there.”
I didn’t like the thoughts her comment put inside my head. It made Paul sound like he’d been a controlling fuck. Had he also been abusive? “He hit you?” I tried to keep my voice level.
I could feel Daisy shut down as soon as the words were out of my mouth, and that told me a lot. “I think it’s time for you to tell me a little bit about you.” Her smile didn’t reach the shimmering green of her eyes, or disguise the sorrow she was trying to hide.
I gave her a hard look. “Did the bastard hit you?” As the silence filled the cab of my truck I thought about pulling over.
Finally, she admitted with reluctance, “Among other things.”
What the fuck? “Explain, baby. What other things?”
She sucked in a deep breath, for courage, I suspected, and released it on a noisy exhale. “Yeah, he liked to hit. But sex was his favorite tool of keeping me in my place. Beating me turned him on, and when I was too weak to fight him anymore, he’d, uh . . .”
“Rape you?” I snarled between my teeth, saying what she couldn’t. I was going to find the fucker and kill him. I gave Daisy a quick look. She was just sitting there, staring out the window, her jaw tight. I clenched my hands around the steering wheel, rage simmering just beneath the surface.
I wanted to fucking hit something.
She’d been hurt. Degraded. But the fact she’d divorced the bastard, had started a new life and was sitting next to me now, showed me that she was strong and independent. She hadn’t let a shit situation beat her down beyond repair. I’d seen a lot of destruction over the years, people who’d let alcohol and drugs ruin them. But there were other kinds of damage the mind and body could be put through that were just as devastating.
I reached over and took her hand in mind, linking our fingers. I couldn’t speak, too enraged by what she’d gone through at the hands of her ex. My blood was boiling. I was going to find the man and end him. “Why didn’t you turn him in?”
She snorted. “Paul owns an upscale restaurant in the heart of downtown Boston, and his best friend is the police chief.” Fuck! She shrugged. “I figured I was just lucky to get out of there at all.”
The fact that her ex and the police chief were best friends didn’t mean fuck to me, but I could understand why Daisy had thought the way that she had. She’d played it smart, and I couldn’t blame her for that. I pulled into the crowded parking lot of Willy’s Diner, parked the truck, and turned it off. Instant silence surrounded us. I pulled Daisy closer to me, then pushed my seat back so I could settle her on my lap. She straddled me without hesitation.
“You’re not going to fuck me here in the parking lot,” she laughed softly, looking around us.
The parking lot was full of vehicles, but all of them were empty. “Never been fucked in public?” I growled, kissing the tip of her nose. “You don’t know what you’re missing.” I gave her soft lips a peck, burying my hands in her silky hair.
A shiver went through her when I moved my mouth to the pulse in her throat. “I thought we came here to eat,” she breathed, offering me her neck.
My gut told me that I could go as far as I wanted with Daisy, that her mild protest was just that. It was her way of trying to be the sensible one. I grinned, running my mouth along her fragrant skin, sucking and nibbling my way to madness. I hadn’t meant for anything sexual to happen. I’d just wanted to make her feel good, to wash away the bad memories and replace them with better ones. But the feel of her hot core against my loins had caused my dick to turn hard as fucking steel. I groaned deep, finally claiming her soft lips for a long, needy kiss. She instantly opened her mouth for my probing tongue.
It didn’t take long for the windows to fog. A door slammed somewhere close, and we broke apart. Daisy’s belly grumbled with hunger again, as if to remind us why we were there. “Come on, babe, let’s go eat.”
I opened the door and stepped out, pulling her with me and setting her on her feet. Once inside, we found a booth close to a window. We’d barely sat down when one of the waitresses rushed over with two menus.
“Hi, Big John.” Her smile of welcome went from ear to ear, and there was a sparkle of eagerness in her eyes that I’d seen before. The girl was obvious in her attempt to snag a brother, any brother, and therefore came on to any one of us who stopped in for a meal. She was young and cute, and her tight uniform showcased her large tits and small waist. The trouble was, she was jailbait, and we all avoided her like the plague.
“Coffee?” She set the menus down.
“Two,” I said, holding up my fingers. She gave me a wink and spun around to go back in the direction of the kitchen. Daisy opened her menu and I put my hand over hers to get her attention. “You like omelets?” She nodded. “Willy makes a good spinach and mushroom omelet.”
“That sounds good.” She closed her menu. “You come here often?”
“Once in a while, I like their breakfast. So, what’s your ex’s name?” I asked casually, settling my arm over the back of the booth.
Her expression revealed that I hadn’t fooled her. “Oh, no, Big John. I’m done talking about me. It’s your turn.” She crossed her arms.
I shrugged. “What do you want to know?”
“Have you ever been married?”
“Fuck no! I’m not the marrying kind, baby. No girlfriends, sweethearts, no kids. I like my life just the way it is.” Who was I trying to convince?
She frowned at that. “So what am I to you?” she asked point blank. “I know what we’re doing, but what are we? Friends with benefits? Kissing cousins? Casual fuck buddies?”
I leaned over the table and said in a low voice, “We’ll never be friends, babe. And I wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole if we were related. Casual fuck buddies? We fuck, but there’s nothing casual about it.” I could tell that my words were affecting her when her cheeks colored and the green of her eyes turned smoky, but when her pretty mouth parted and she ran her tongue over her lips, I was the one undone.
I sat back as the waitress had returned with our coffees, but I didn’t take my eyes off Daisy. “We’ll each have the spinach and mushroom omelet,” I ordered without looking at her. My lips quirked when I heard her huff as she turned away.
Daisy must have heard her indignant huff at being ignored, too. “Isn’t she a little young for you?”
“She’s jailbait, and I haven’t touched her.”
Her gaze followed the waitress. “She doesn’t look like jailbait.” She began to fix her coffee. “What about your family, do you have anyone?”
I set my cup down after taking a cautious sip. “I did, once. A drunk driver took them away from me.”
“Oh, Big John, I’m so sorry.” There was genuine sadness in her eyes.
I shrugged. “It was a long time ago. I got over it.” I knew that I sounded like a hard, uncaring prick, but I didn’t want Daisy’s sympathy. I couldn’t stand for her to look at me with sorrow and pity in her eyes. The fact is that I had got over it. It didn’t mean that I didn’t miss my parents and younger brother every fucking day of my life, though.
“So you’ve been all alone since?”
“Nope. I have my club, my brothers. Their families are my family.”
“That doesn’t keep your bed warm at night,” she said mistakenly, catching her blunder as soon as the words came out of her mouth.
I gave her a crooked grin. “I’ve never had to worry about a cold bed, baby. There’s always a willing female around who wants to get laid by a bad ass biker.”
“I bet.”
The waitress returned, setting a plate down in front of each of us. “Can I get you anything else?” Her question was meant for both of us, but I was the one she was staring at.
“I think we’re good for now.”
“I’ll check back later,” she responded, her tone still a little bitchy.
I ignored her and watched Daisy take a first bite.
“Oh, my goodness, this is really good!”
“I’m glad you like it. Willy makes it with smoked gouda.” I shoveled in a mouthful, looking around us as I chewed. When my gaze landed on two bikers who were sitting in a booth across the room from us, it hit me that I’d been too wrapped up in Daisy to notice them before. I was fucking sure that they hadn’t been sitting there when we’d entered the diner. I didn’t know who they were, but I knew their club.
The Sentinels were good guys. I’d heard of them, they were a neighborhood watch kind of club that patrolled the streets and neighborhoods of their town after dark. Chapters were springing up all over the country. They worked on the side of the law, most of the time. They were a long way away from home. One of them glanced over and gave me a chin lift. I returned it and went back to eating. I had no problem with them being in Solon.
“Are those dudes part of Phantom Riders?”
She must have seen the exchange. I couldn’t help smirking as I took a drink of coffee. It amused me to hear her refer to them as ‘dudes.’ I shook my head. “No, they’re Sentinels. Just passing through.”
She stared over at them. The smile that came over her pretty face made me turn my gaze in their direction. Both bikers were smiling back at her.
“Babe?”
“What?” she pulled her gaze from them and returned it to mine.
“Not a good idea, flirting with them. I’d hate to have to pound their asses into the ground for looking at my woman.”
Her smile disappeared, and I realized that it wasn’t the first time I’d said she was my woman. I’d stepped over the line again and could have kicked myself for doing so. I waited for Daisy to say something about my slip, but she went back to eating her omelet. I’d finished mine and was on my second cup of coffee, watching as the place gradually emptied out from the breakfast crowd. Willy was behind the counter, saw me and gave a wave with his spatula. I gave him a chin lift and a grin. He eyed Daisy, and I could imagine what he was thinking. I’d never brought a woman in with me before. He motioned me over.
I scooted out of the booth, shifting my gaze back and forth from Daisy to the two Sentinels. It was a purely alpha move when I curled my hand around the back of her neck, bent, and closed my mouth over hers. I wanted to make sure that anyone that was looking knew that she was mine. When she returned my kiss with all the enthusiasm I’d come to expect from her, my dick jerked.
When I pulled back I smiled at the dazed confusion in her pretty eyes. “Be right back, babe.” I didn’t give her a chance to comment.
“Willy,” I acknowledged when I reached the counter. He was an ancient, grizzled, old coot that had owned and run Willy’s Diner for the last forty years. He looked like a pirate with his long, gray hair and beard, and the eye he’d lost in the war that was covered with a black patch. He wore the same fucking thing every day, clothes that were stained and yellowish, beneath an apron that looked even worse.
“Hey, Big John.” He motioned toward Daisy. “Never thought I’d see the day when you brought in a woman. She your gal?”
I leaned against the counter. “You could say that.” His waitresses were rushing to clear off the tables, bringing tall stacks of dishes and depositing them on the counter. “We’re still deciding that.”
He snorted. “She’s purty. Nice−”
“Watch it old man.”
“I was gonna say hair.” He sounded offended.
Daisy slid from the booth and walked our way. I let my gaze drop down her body, liking the way her sweater conformed to her big tits and smaller waist. Some of her jet-black hair fell over one tit, almost to her waist. She was fucking gorgeous with her rosy cheeks and sparkling emerald eyes.
“Where you going?”
“To the ladies’ room.” She pointed to the sign. As she walked by me I followed her sexy ass with my eyes.
“You hit the jackpot with that one.”
I couldn’t agree more with Willy. I was on my way back to the table when the door to the diner flew open, and two men rushed inside, guns drawn and yelling “Hands up in the air,” and “No one move!” I slowly complied, scrutinizing them for any weaknesses. They were twitching, and I could tell the instant that I looked into their red-rimmed eyes that they were both high on something. That made them unpredictable and dangerous.
One man pointed his gun directly at me, his hand shaking badly. “Back up!” he screamed. His partner was rounding up Willy and the waitresses who were frozen in place behind the counter and making them come to the front with the rest of us. I backed up slowly toward the booth where the Sentinels were sitting, hoping that it gave them enough cover to reach for their own weapons and end this shit.
And then I thought about Daisy in the bathroom. Fuck! This wasn’t going to end well.