Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 100628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
“Hi, Brenna,” I said, walking toward her. “Nice to see you.”
“You, too, kid!” She grinned at me. “I hear you’re starting school in the fall.”
“Aesthetician school,” I confirmed.
“Ooh.” She rubbed her hands together. “I’m going to start coming to you for my facials.”
“Perfect,” I replied, grinning at her obvious excitement as I sat down across from her. “I’ll be able to do your eyelashes and eyebrows, too.”
“Are you saying there’s something wrong with my eyelashes?”
I started to sputter a denial but stopped when she laughed.
“I’m just fucking with you.”
“Oh.” I laughed nervously. “Whew.”
“You’re too easy.”
“I mean, I could’ve told you that I’d give you a deal on Botox injections,” I replied, shrugging.
“Oh!” She reached out and gently smacked my shoulder. “Then I would’ve really kicked your ass!”
“I figured,” I replied wryly.
“How have things been at home?” she asked, leaning back in her seat.
The question was innocuous but there was something in her eyes that made me clasp my hands tightly in my lap.
“Oh, it’s good,” I replied uncomfortably. “You know.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m probably getting a little old to still be living at home.”
“Psh.” She waved me off. “You’re what? Nineteen? You’ve got plenty of time to move out.”
“That’s what my nana says.”
“Ash is a smart woman.”
“I think so.”
“She seemed pretty pissed when she left the other night.”
I almost acted like I didn’t know what she was talking about. She wouldn’t have believed me, but I think she would’ve let me get away with it. But something in her calm expression put me at ease.
“Yeah, she was pretty pissed when she got home, too.”
“Can’t really blame her,” Brenna said with a sigh. “Riding drunk has killed more MC members than I’d care to remember. I was surprised that Samson even attempted it.”
“Me too,” I murmured.
“Pretty out of character,” she said sympathetically.
“Yeah.”
“If one of the boys would’ve seen it, they wouldn’t have let him leave,” she told me, watching me closely. “Especially with Ash on the back of his bike.”
I just shrugged. I wasn’t sure what she was getting at.
“Dragon was in the bathroom when they left,” she continued. “And a few others were out back but almost everyone had gone home.”
I nodded. “They got back pretty late.”
“I didn’t feel like it was my place to say something,” she said with a sigh. “But I did tell Dragon, later.”
I nodded again, and she leaned forward a little, her eyes on me.
“It’s not my place to say something, but it is his place,” she said softly. “You understand?”
“I think so.”
“So when I see something, anything, I tell him.”
“Makes sense.”
“So, in the future,” she murmured, tapping her fingers softly on the table. “If there’s something you think he should know…”
“Tell you,” I replied softly.
“You could.” She nodded. “I’d make sure the right ears heard it.”
“Okay.”
“Is there anything you think he should know?”
A million thoughts ran through my head. Pop shoving me into the wall, his screaming outbursts, raising his arm to hit me, him screaming at Nana while he towered over her, the way he’d thrown his keys at the wall, the fire in his eyes when he was pissed, tears falling down Bird’s cheeks as he stood helpless in my room.
“I can’t think of anything,” I said finally, barely meeting her eyes.
“Alright, baby,” she said, nodding. “Well, I’m here if you do.”
“Okay.”
“Nova, you in here?” Will called from the doorway between the garage and the clubhouse.
“Right here,” I called back, standing up.
“Door’s fixed,” he said, walking toward me with something pinched between his thumb and forefinger.
“Already?”
He stopped in front of me and dropped a small piece of wood in my hand.
“That was jammed in between the latch and the door.”
I looked at the piece of wood that was chewed up and mangled but might’ve been a piece of a branch at some point.
“Any idea how it got there?”
I looked at him in confusion. “No clue.”
“Well, that’s all it was. Door’s latching just fine now.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously,” he said with a chuckle. “Now don’t you wish you would’ve come in sooner, before you almost fell out of your damn car on the road?”
“Kinda, yeah,” I muttered. I reached for my wallet in my hoodie pocket. “How much do I—”
Brenna laughed, and Will scowled.
“Put that shit away,” he said in disgust. “You don’t pay.”
“But—”
“What, are you new here?”
“I could tip you?” I asked hopefully, making him laugh.
“Get the fuck out of here, kid,” he said, shoving me playfully. I stumbled to the side.
“Geez, Moose,” I muttered.
“Stupidest fuckin’ nickname,” Will muttered, shaking his head. He reached out and ruffled my hair. “Stop drivin’ in the woods or whatever the fuck you did to get that branch in your door.”
He walked away while I looked at the stick in my hand.
“Wouldn’t my door have to be open for this to get in there?” I called out.
“I honestly don’t know how the fuck you did it,” he called back as he disappeared through the door.