Page 18 of Brother In Arms

Chapter 6

Bailey

Oh my god, I just totally let him fuck me without protection, what was I thinking?I marched straight into the house and went to the kitchen, pouring a good measure of bourbon into a glass. I took a sip just as the first knock landed at my screen door. I turned around and went slowly back to it, hoping and praying it wasn’t him, but no dice. He was on the other side of the screen, phone pressed to his ear saying “Yes ma’am, here she is. Alright now.”

He handed me my phone and said jovially, “You left this in the barn, ma’am. I figured you’d want to take the call. It’s your mamma. Sorry I answered it for you but I didn’t want it to go to voicemail.”

“Thanks…” I said and took the phone. None of what was coming out of his mouth was matching the grave intensity that was coming from his eyes. He had me pinned in place with that look just as surely as he’d had me pinned beneath those tree trunks he called arms only moments before.

“Hello?” I said into the phone, and silently he plucked my glass from my hand and downed the remainder of the bourbon inside before he handed it back and walked away.

Oh. My. God.

He was an ass, but he made it smokin’ hot.

“Bailey Lynn Berling, are you listening to me!?” my mother snapped in my ear and I jumped.

“Mom, yeah, sorry you were breaking up,” I lied. “Can you repeat what you said?”

“I said I just heard about Renaldo, is he alright?”

“I don’t know, I just finished up with the police. I need to go to the hospital now.”

“Are you alright?”

More than alright. Not okay at all… Jesus what was wrong with me!? Fucking biker boy out there while Renaldo was headed to the hospital? God!

“I’m fine,” I told her, glad she couldn’t see my lying liar face.

“I just knew something like this would happen…” she said and I tuned her out while she went on one of her drama fueled monologues, just fretting away. I was watching him through the screen on my door. He was loading the farm’s truck with mended tack to take it to the stables. His shirt was off, as it’d been in the barn, skin kissed golden by the sun, glistening with sweat, and when he turned around I had to shudder.

Inked into his back, larger than life, was the same patches that rode on the back of his vest. The Sacred Hearts with that damn, vile heart wrapped in barbed wire. Except underneath, where it should have said ‘Kentucky,’ like his vest did now, the lettering read ‘Arizona.’

He turned back around and inked into the front of his body, low on the ribs was a diamond with a 1% inside it. I didn’t know what any of it meant, but I remember Dray telling me once upon a time, when we were still teens, that it all had some sort of meaning to it.

All I could see was the look on the man’s face who’d been about to hit Rush over the back with what looked like an axe handle. His eyes had gone wide and he’d cried out about Rush being one of them, a Sacred Heart, and the rest of the men who weren’t on the ground had run… clearly terrified, not even bothering to try and pick up their friends off the ground that they’d come with. It’d been chilling, making me wonder just what my cousin Dray was into.

“Bailey, are you sure you’re alright?” My mother’s worried voice pierced the veil of my thoughts and I shook myself as if waking from a dream… a bad one.

“Yeah, Mom… I just… I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“Like what?” she asked, and the silence following her words was weighted with a held breath.

“He took a bat to those men, the ones hurting Renaldo. He really hurt some of them, like it was nothing.”

“It’s what they do, my darling girl. It’s what they do,” she said tiredly and I found myself shaking my head, realized she couldn’t see it, and so I sighed.

“I’m going to grab a quick shower and head out to see Renaldo. By the time I get cleaned up and get to the hospital, they might have some answers as to the extent of his injuries. I’ll call you later.”

“Okay, be careful.”

“I promise,” I said and ended the call, shoving my phone back into my back pocket where it should have been to begin with. There was no telling if the hospital would even tell me anything, privacy laws being what they were and me not technically being family, but guilt was swamping me now… that Renaldo has so easily slipped from my mind, however briefly, to complete a hot hookup in my barn. God, you really are turning into the product of your upbringing… I chided myself, and closed my eyes, bowing my head and giving it a little shake to banish the admonishing voice.

When I looked up, he was staring at me, the door to the truck open, one of his large hands on the edge of the truck bed. I had my arms crossed over my chest and was playing with my necklace chain. Something I did when I was uneasy or thinking. I dropped the necklace and tipped my head back, walking away, picking up the empty rocks glass in my hand off the dining room table which was just inside the front door with the way the small, but expensive, house was laid out.

I didn’t bother with pouring myself any more. Instead, I went straight for the shower off my bedroom and got myself cleaned up. I needed to get an STD test and even though I was already on birth control, I needed a Plan B pill. I still couldn’t believe I’d done that. I still didn’t know what made me do it…

That’s a lie, Bailey. You wanted another one of the amazing orgasms only he’s ever been able to give you. You know, just like the one you haven’t been able to forget. You wanted him to touch you because watching him beat the shit out of those guys was hot.

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