Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
The feeling of her riding with me is incredible, but I don’t think her being seen out is the best thing, considering we just absconded from the hospital. The four-mile trip takes almost twenty minutes due to the terrible condition of the roads. I sigh both in relief and in disappointment as we pull up to the clubhouse. I hit the kickstand with my boot and wait for her to climb off before I dismount.
I watch her intently as she pulls the borrowed helmet off her head. She relaxes her face when she catches me watching her. She loved it. The tiny smile on her face is also reflected in her eyes, if only briefly. I file that away for later.
I watch her look around the parking lot timidly. There are only a handful of bikes here. Most of the guys are at work or off doing stuff for the club. She steps in closer to my side when a pickup truck drives down the road in front of the club. She’s skittish, but the response says she trusts me on some level at least.
“Come on,” I say stepping away from her slightly. “I’ll show you to your room.”
She nods and falls into step with me.
We almost make it to the hallway where the bedrooms are without running into anyone. Almost.
“Who is this young lady?” Rose asks from the doorway of the kitchen.
“Rose, this is Khloe. Khloe, Rose,” I say in quick introduction. “Rose is sort of the house mother around here. If you ever need help or have a question, she’s the lady with all the answers.”
Khloe raises her hand up and gives Rose a small wave.
“Nice to meet you,” she says timidly.
“I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything, honey. You just come look for me.” Rose turns and walks back through the door.
I turn hearing the front door open and close.
“Fuck,” I mutter looking over my shoulder and seeing Shadow walking up to us.
“You trying to sneak her in?” Shadow says walking closer but keeping a little distance when he sees Khloe tense up beside me.
“We just got here. Khloe, this is Shadow. He’s our VP. Second in command.”
“Nice to meet you, darlin’,” he says holding out his hand to her.
She takes it quickly, but she pulls hers away after only a second. This girl doesn’t trust anyone. Up until this point, I’m certain it’s saved her from trouble on more than one occasion. She’ll loosen up eventually around the clubhouse.
“I didn’t figure they’d discharge her this early in the day,” Shadow says. “They usually drag their feet until after lunch time up there.”
“About that,” I begin but cut my eyes to Khloe. “We’ll talk about it later.”
He narrows his eyes at me but is distracted by his ringing phone. He pulls it from his pocket and frowns down at the screen. “You bet we will. I don’t know that the girls have had a chance to make the bed. You’ll probably need to grab linens on your way to her room.”
The look he gives me before placing the phone to his ear makes me want to run for the hills.
I watch him walk away and feel temporary relief at the sight of his retreating back.
“Scary guy,” Khloe says softly.
“Don’t let his looks fool you. He’s just a big teddy bear,” I assure her. At least he will be toward you. I may be buried on the back side of the property come morning.
We stop by the small hall closet before going to her room. I pull out a set of sheets. They're all bundled together and inside of a matching pillowcase. This is all Emmalyn’s doing, something she saw on some DIY page on the internet. Putting sheet sets inside one of the matching pillowcases? Genius. So much better than the cluster fuck it used to be. Rose does a lot of stuff to help us out around the clubhouse, but she draws a hard line at washing our dirty laundry, that includes the bed sheets.
“It isn’t much,” I tell her as I open the door.
I flip on the light, and I step inside; she follows close behind me. The room isn’t anything to write home about. Bed, dresser, TV. This is one of the rooms that has an en-suite bathroom. Shadow insisted on it. Said the last thing the guys need is sharing a bathroom with a teenage girl.
“This is mine?” she asks almost reverently. I watch as she looks around the room, and I feel it in my gut when a tear rolls down her cheek.
“My room is a little bit bigger,” I tell her. “You’re more than welcome to it if this isn’t big enough.”
She laughs sardonically.
“This is more than I’ve ever had,” she confesses.
It’s then that I realize the tear rolling down her cheek is one of gratitude, happiness even. It breaks my heart even further to think this girl cries over having a bedroom.