Chapter 20

If you have to talk out of your ass, at least stand up. I simply cannot tolerate mumbling.

-E-card

Naomi

I was staring at the door, wondering what in the hell I was doing.

The clubhouse was full—of women.

Only two men remained, Fender, a man I hadn’t gotten to know that well yet, but he seemed nice. And then there was Jessie James. Jessie, I really didn’t know, but that was in deference to my man. I didn’t want Sean to think I was trying to make friends with him. Especially not after his previous girlfriend left him for Jessie.

Really, I wanted to be anywhere but here right now, especially with what had been going on behind my closed door for the last thirteen minutes and thirty-three seconds.

I knew the exact time because I’d been lying in bed, staring at the clock, wondering when Sean would call and let me know that he was all right when the party had started.

Well, I called it a party…Ellen and Jessie might call it a ‘fight.’

To-may-toe, to-mah-toe and all that fun shit.

“Seriously, it’s like you don’t even care,” Ellen hissed. “You don’t care what kind of a mess you left me in ten years ago. All you care about is your own fucking self. You don’t even have the balls to pursue me. I left Sean for you. I liked Sean. But the minute you showed up, my whole freakin’ world changed. I couldn’t lie to Sean. I couldn’t continue to live that lie. I’ve loved you since we were freshmen in high school. That’s fifteen years, Jessie!”

Whoa. There was more to this than met the eye.

“You don’t think I know that, Ellie?” Jessie countered. “You don’t think that was the hardest decision of my life? Because, let me just tell you something. It was. I regret that mistake every single second that I fucking breathe. Seeing you that first day I pledged to the club, it broke me. I was holding on by a thread, and there you come, waltzing right back into my life when I was barely breathing to begin with.”

That was deep. Really deep.

And it sucked, because I was beginning to feel sorry for the two of them. Before, I’d hated them on principle, and now I was literally on the edge of the fence, leaning heavily toward sorrow and pity for the two people that had known each other in another life. One before Sean.

Jessie had obviously been in there with his ‘Ellie’ way before even Sean realized.

Poor guy never stood a chance.

Not that I was complaining.

If he had, I wouldn’t be in his bed right now, curled around his pillow and wearing his t-shirt because it smelled like him.

My phone buzzed, and I looked down, grimacing when I saw that it was work.

Again.

Shit.

“Hello?” I answered.

“If either you or Sean don’t come in tonight, you’re both fired.”

That was my boss, Steve. Good ol’ Steve.

“I already told you that we’re both down with food poisoning,” I lied for the second time that night.

Steve was a bastard. There was no fucking way in the world he would’ve just accepted ‘we’re not coming in.’ He would need a good excuse, and if it wasn’t good, then we’d both be docked points. And we were only allowed fifteen points before we were up for review. And if we accrued any more while we were under ‘review’ then there was the option that we may be fired.

It was bullshit, and something that sucked, but it was what it was.

“I’m sorry, Steve,” I started to say, but stopped when he interrupted me.

“Cline and Maran were in an accident. Medic six is totaled. We need someone here, and it doesn’t matter if you’re throwing up. It’s only in the worst-case scenario that we’ll use the medic we’re putting you on. It’s the backup’s backup, and something we don’t want to use unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“Shit,” I whispered under my breath. “Sean can’t come. He’s too sick, but I can be there in about half an hour.”

If I pushed it.

I’d have to borrow one of the girl’s cars, or have them take me.

Either way, I wasn’t going to leave him hanging.

“Are Cline and Maran okay?” I asked worriedly.

“Yes,” he said. “Shaken up. Cline has a few possible broken ribs, and Maran has a seatbelt bruise, but it could’ve been worse.”

Yes, it could have. I’d been in something much worse when at the Kilgore Fire Department that had almost killed me while I was working an accident as a student paramedic.

PD had saved me. If he hadn’t, I’d have been a flattened pancake who never had to worry about anything again.

“You paying attention, woman, or do I need to fire you?”

I gritted my teeth.

“I’ll be there.”

Then I hung up, because I didn’t like talking to Steve. Steve was a douche on a good day. Today, he was a used douche.

One that I couldn’t stand and who Sean couldn’t either.

Sighing, I got up and walked to the small overnight bag that I’d left here two weeks ago and dug inside, unearthing a pair of my work pants, a white wife beater, and a white shirt.

Dressed for work, I opened my door as quietly as I could, thankful that nobody realized what I was doing. Because if they had, they definitely would’ve stopped me.

Ellen’s dejected face was the first thing I saw as she headed for the door, and I stopped her by calling her name quietly.

“Ellen.”

She froze, looking at me with tears in her eyes, and smiled sadly.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think you could take me to work?”

She eyed my clothes, then nodded as one single tear slipped down her cheek.

“Yes, I think I can manage that before I go.”

“Go?” I asked as I came up to her side.

She didn’t reply, she just opened the door and headed outside to her car.

She pulled open the door on her side, then popped the trunk.

“There’s not much room in the back,” she said as she did. “It’s full of clothes and stuff.”

I stowed my stuff in the trunk, but didn’t comment about the boxes I could see packed in the back.

Instead, I walked around to the passenger door and dropped inside before giving her directions to my work.

She started driving, and the silence started to grow.

I let my mind wander, not wanting to care about this woman, but finding it increasingly harder not to do so.

I’d started making grocery lists in my head. When I got to dog food, I froze.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,” I groaned. “Could we please go by Sean’s place? I left Butterfinger all by herself, and she needs to go out or she’ll pee all over the place, and then Sean will have a reason to get rid of her.”

Ellen’s mouth twitched.

“Yeah, I can do that.”

We pulled into the driveway, and Ellen came to a stop next to Sean’s truck.

I grinned.

“I’ll take Sean’s truck,” I said. “Since we’re here now and all. You don’t have to wait.”

Ellen smiled.

“Sean wouldn’t let me drive his truck, you know.”

My brows rose in surprise. I drove his truck whenever the hell I felt like it, and he didn’t give a shit.

“Because he didn’t want you to, or because you didn’t want to?” I questioned.

Her look was unreadable.

“You got in there way deeper than I ever did,” she said softly. “And likely that was because I was already guarding my heart because of Jessie. Whatever the reason, I’m glad he found you. You two seem great together, and he deserves something fantastic.”

With that, she put the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway, leaving me there to contemplate the hatred that was quickly dissipating toward her.

Shaking my head, I jogged up to the house, where I could already hear Butterfinger barking, and tapped in the key code on the garage door, causing it to open.

I’d just placed my hand on the door knob and pushed it open when something hit me from behind. Something hard. Something so hard that I saw stars in the backs of my eyes.

I crumpled to the ground, and Butterfinger came barreling out the door so fast and stealthily that the attacker who was in the process of hitting me again never saw her coming.

The man cursed.