Total pages in book: 212
Estimated words: 207966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1040(@200wpm)___ 832(@250wpm)___ 693(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 207966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1040(@200wpm)___ 832(@250wpm)___ 693(@300wpm)
“She came over here thinkin’ Skip was fuckin’ around with you. My move let everyone know he isn’t,” I muttered.
“Yeah, figured that out. Now people just think you’re the one currently tappin’ the bunny with the hair.” She took a bite of her oatmeal and then slowly licked the back of the plastic spoon. I would’ve thought that was flirting, but how she was acting, and the fact that her eyes were wrong, it wasn’t.
“Didn’t help the ruse you puttin’ your mouth on Brady,” I muttered sourly.
She stared at me a beat with confusion, then her shoulders sagged. “Oh.”
“Oh,” I mocked.
As I pulled out, Skip surfaced behind his wife as Marlena slipped back inside.
***
“The bunny with the hair?” I asked not far up the road.
“Heard it a couple times. The one with the hair. Or the one with the JLo ass. And I’ve been called worse.”
“JLo ass? Doesn’t sound like a dis to me.”
She gave me a weak smile. “Depends on who you ask, I guess. Where are we heading?”
“Today, Bismarck.”
“What’s in Bismarck?”
“Easter dinner, like I said.”
“You were serious about your mother’s for dinner?”
“Yup.” Before announcing that in the lounge I’d only told her we needed to hit the road, I’d explain later, and to pack up all her gear. She asked if we had time for breakfast first, which is how the oatmeal came about since Brady overheard.
“Easter! I didn’t even think about that. I’m a sugar fiend.” She ate more oatmeal and again sucked the spoon for too long. Yeah, so long I realized my eyes needed to be on the fuckin’ road, not her mouth.
“You’ll get your fix,” I put in. “Ma’s the same. Pulls out the chocolate fountain whenever she finds an excuse. Easter is a good excuse. Dips whatever she can think of in it.”
“Ooh, goodie. Lotta people gonna be there?”
“Usually a houseful.”
It was the same back when it was her and I in a tiny one-bedroom apartment. Her on the couch, giving me the bedroom. Come holidays, we always had a big meal and there were always strays who’d come for it because once my ma found out they had no family, she’d make sure they weren’t alone for any holiday.
“Cousins, aunts, uncles, and stuff? What’ll they think about me comin’?”
“Don’t got much of that sort of family. Got the family you pick instead,” I said. “No one’ll blink at a new face being there. They’ll make you feel welcome. Unlike that bullshit back at the clubhouse.”
She looked at me with surprise.
I kept talking, “Ma manages a titty bar. Some of her girls have no family. She quasi-adopts them.”
She continued to stare at me, eyes working over my face.
I continued. “Tomorrow we’ll head to a cabin and stay there a couple days while we wait things out and see what comes next.”
“Where’s that?”
“Can’t tell you that.”
“Secret location?”
“Yeah. Gonna have to blindfold you bringing you in, in fact.”
“Seriously?” Her eyes widened.
“Seriously. One of the club safehouses.”
“But I might lose it again. Blindfolding me is probably as bad as handcuffing me."
"We'll figure it out tomorrow,” I said and lit a cigarette.
She rolled her window halfway down, then grabbed the dial and turned the radio on.
“Driver controls the radio,” I advised. “My bed, my rules. My truck? Also my rules.”
“Seriously?”
“Stop askin’ me if I’m serious every time I talk to you. Every goddamn thing out of this mouth is serious.”
“Okay, sheesh. Salty. But this is a cool song, right? You’ve got questionable taste in music if you change it.”
I turned it up to better hear what it was. Mustang Sally.
“I’ll give you this one,” I agreed.
She smiled brightly; I rolled my eyes.
Prez agreed not only to get Gianna out of the clubhouse because of pissy women, saying that was par for the course and he wouldn’t normally kick a bunny out just because one of the old ladies wasn’t happy about bunnies being near their man.
Deke also reasoned the clubhouse might not be a good place for Gianna right now, as our surveillance cams caught a blue cargo van believed to belong to Ipswich Jackals hang-arounds cruising our road last night three times, cruising slow.
He first suggested I take her to a motel until tomorrow when Ride and Jenna would’ve cleared out of his cabin, then we could head there. But I told him I could take her to Bismarck and hang at my ma and Archer’s until tomorrow instead. Ma liked me there on holidays and I didn’t think it was in the cards this Easter, so I knew she’d be tickled.
I did ask Deke how long bunny-sitting duty would last and he suggested we’d talk more in another week or so; seeing if they did pull any bullshit.
At least a week on bunny duty. I tried not to let it show that this was a thorn in my cock. He seemed to pick up on it anyway and assured me I’d get my regular garage paycheck. I told him this wasn’t hard, that I’d even be happy to take an unpaid week, but he insisted business was good and he wouldn’t have me take that hit while watching her.