Huh.
Maybe Navesink Bank would have to add that to their slogan.
Bikers, and Loansharks, and the Mafia, and Rockstars, oh my!
As it turned out, the girls did catch wind of Valen being back in town. And, like he wished—and like Dezi did more than a little self-serving nudging—they all planned a ton of food and a party.
A party that would be cut short.
Because we got a call that had my stomach plummeting.
Someone took Billie.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Billie
I was planning on teaching my class, then rushing home to throw together some roasted veggies for Valen’s welcome home party.
Well, Valen and some guy named Voss that Layna had texted me to call him “all the way fuckable.”
I’d even gone out to grab the pretty carrots: orange, yellow, red, and purple.
Sure, most of the guys in the club weren’t exactly big veggie eaters, but most of them would snag a carrot or potato or asparagus spear just so I didn’t get my feelings hurt that they preferred the meat-heavy meals. And I considered it a win whenever I could get anything that grew from the ground in the stomachs of those bikers.
“I get the feeling you don’t like me,” I said to the taciturn Brooks sitting in the passenger seat of my van.
“I never said that.”
“See, that’s just it. You haven’t said anything to me. You never do. Is it my titty earrings?” I asked, waving at my round earrings with their brown, half-hardened nipples.
“Your… oh,” he said, noticing them for the first time. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “Wear all the tit or cock or pussy earrings you want. Doesn’t bother me.”
“Then what is it? Why don’t you want to talk to me?”
“I don’t talk to anyone.”
“Yeah, well, that’s weird, don’t you think?” I asked, looking over at him as I stopped at a light. “The whole point of the MC is to form bonds.”
“It’s a job.”
“It is, but it is more than that. Well, if you let it be more than that. I can’t figure out why you wouldn’t take advantage of that. Unless you don’t like us.”
“I like you all,” he said, shrugging.
“Is it because you feel like an outsider? I know it is a lot of family, but now with Dezi and Cary and this Voss guy, you’re not the only non-legacy guy around anymore.”
“It has always been part of it.”
“Is that why you work so hard too?” I asked.
“Guess so.”
“So… who was it in your life who first made you believe your worth was determined by how much you could do for them?” I asked, watching as his head whipped over, looked stricken.
“Shit,” he said, shaking his head.
“I know, right?” I said, nodding. “Usually, when we have issues like that, it stems back to one person.”
“Kind of like how you’ve been avoiding your family and the club because of Rowe?” he asked, and it was my turn for my head to whip over at him. “Yeah, I know,” he said, nodding.
“What? How?”
“Think the people in the club family get caught up in their own shit. I am watching it unfold from the outside. So I see more. Like the way whenever you weren’t eye-fucking Rowe, he was watching you with sad eyes. Then glancing over at your old man, or Reign, the men in your life who he probably thinks wouldn’t approve. And then one day, you could barely stand to look at him. And you stop coming by. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out he said something, you took it to heart, and didn’t want to see him again.”
“You know, Brooks, with observation skills like that, you could be this generations Renny.”
“Hey, I’m not that bad,” he said, shaking his head.
“Oh, don’t be so hard on Uncle Renny. He’s a misunderstood soul. And he raised Hope who is one of my favorite people ever. So you know he has to have a lot of good in him. Even if he does like pressing sore spots to watch people squirm. Speaking of squirming… this might not be comfortable for you,” I told him as we pulled up to the learning center.
It sounded crazy, but it seemed almost a little eerie as we parked. That thought made a strange chill move up my spine and through my body until an actual shiver coursed through my body.
What was that about?
“A yoga class?” Brooks asked, brows furrowing. “Oh, are they going to be naked?”
“Oh my God. Why does everyone assume that if it involves me, there is going to be nudity?”
“History?” Brooks suggested, smirking at me.
“Careful, Brooks, that was dangerously close to being a joke. We can’t let the world know you are a human underneath all that robot armor you wear. No, this is a couples’ tantric sex workshop, and—“
“Say no more,” Brooks cut me off, holding a hand up. “I will hang outside the door,” he said.