“Will there be an ol’ lady waiting for you when we get back to your clubhouse?”
“You worried about getting beat up?” he asked with a grin, and she couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. That wasn’t it at all. She was afraid of getting hurt, but not in the way he was talking about.
“You didn’t answer the question.”
“No, Jess, there’s no ol’ lady waitin’ on me.”
“Don’t let him fool you, darlin’. They’ll be women waitin’ on him, just no ol’ ladies,” Shades teased her with a grin, and then held a bottle of Jack Daniels out to her.
“Shut up,” Ghost told him as she took it and drank.
She imagined what Shades said was true. Ghost was a very good-looking man. Of course there’d be women, probably a whole line of them. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but she didn’t have time to consider it.
Another one of the members of Ghost’s chapter walked up, saying, “I think I’m in love.”
“Well, I’ve got just the cure for that, Hammer,” Ghost said, shoving a bottle of Tequila at him, probably glad for the timely interruption.
Hammer took it, grinning. “I just got a blow job from that cute redhead over there, and now she’s off getting me a burger and a beer.” He took a bow. “And that, my brothers, is how it’s done.”
Jessie stared at him with her mouth open.
He looked back at her with a shy grin and lifted his arms, his shoulders shrugging. “Hey, when you got it, you got it.”
Griz pulled a cigarette from his mouth and teased, “Yeah? Well five bucks says she’ll change her mind about you by morning.”
“Fuck off,” Hammer snapped back.
“Yeah, you can always tell how a woman really feels about you by the way she cuts your brake lines,” Heavy put in.
The others all turned to look at him.
“Maybe that’s just me,” he murmured.
Ghost turned to Shades and said, “Bet I stopped listening before you did.”
Shades burst out laughing, and Jessie giggled.
Ghost took the bottle out of her hand and handed it back to Shades. “Stop givin’ her booze, she’s a lightweight.”
“I am not,” she insisted, staring up at him, then ruined it by hiccupping.
Shades grinned down at her, then reached up and ruffled her hair. “You tell him, girl.”
“I think you’ve had enough partying, brat,” Ghost insisted.
Jessie looked up at Ghost. “Are we staying here tonight?”
“Naw. It’s crowded as fuck with all the chapters passing through, even with the Omaha boys crashing at their own cribs, there’s not much room here. Besides, I figured you’d be more comfortable in a motel.” His eyes connected with hers. “Am I right?”
She nodded and yawned.
Ghost smiled as he watched her.
“Aren’t you tired?” she asked.
“Yeah, a little. You obviously are.”
She hiccupped again, and both Shades and Ghost chuckled.