Page 15 of Serendipity

I shook my head at Solomon. “He was perfectly polite, if scary as hell.”

Solomon was still wheezing, and Cain punched him in the kidney. “It wasn’t that funny dickhead.”

He looked back at me, his eyes soft. “Do you have everything you need?”

Solomon finally straightened. “I’m taking Dippy to breakfast and then to buy some clothes so she doesn’t have to keep taking her life in her hands by borrowing G’s. If you would like to come and chaperone, you're more than welcome.”

Cain threw down his wrench and picked up his cut, slipping it over his inked arms. “I could eat.

Let’s go.”

We stopped outside the workshop in front of a couple of bikes. Not going to lie, it took me an embarrassingly long time to work out that we were going to ride to the diner. On a bike. Because they were bikers.

“Uh, I thought you said it was just down the road. Maybe we should walk? You know, exercise is

good for pregnant women.” Yeah, I was playing the pregnancy card right now.

“Aww Dippy. Don’t you trust us?” Normally, I would have taken the challenge head on. I mean, I couldn’t really die from a little bike accident. I was like one of those everlasting lightbulbs. I’d just glow and glow for all time, unless someone got a baseball bat and smashed me to pieces.

But the baby? I didn’t know, and I found myself not wanting to take the risk.

Cain looked over at me, and he must have seen the worry, the indecision on my face.

“It’s a couple of miles down the road, we can drive if you want. But I promise, you’ll be as safe on the back of my bike as you would be in a car. I won’t let anything happen to you or the baby.”

His words sounded like so much more than a promise not to ride like a lunatic and kill us both.

No, his words sounded like a vow, and they poked tiny holes in the armor around my mummified heart. I swallowed hard, blinked back emotional tears that threatened to gather in the corners of my eyes and make us all uncomfortable, and nodded.

Solomon gave me a reassuring smile and handed me a helmet. I placed it on my head, and Solomon’s deft fingers tightened the chin strap. He looked me in the eyes, like he was mining them for my secrets as his fingers brushed the sensitive skin of my neck. I swallowed hard, and he must have felt it because the corner of his mouth twitched. His thumb came up and brushed lightly along my jaw.

It was the whisper of a caress, and then he was turning away, throwing a leg over his own bike and I wondered if it had even happened.

One look at the way Cain narrowed his eyes on the other man told me that it had. He hopped on his own bike, huge booted feet resting on either side, holding it steady.

I walked over and glared at the bike. “Are you sure there’s going to be enough room on there for all of me?” I waved a hand at my belly. He nodded, turning around to slap his hand on a little square of leather that I assume was supposed to be a seat for anyone crazy enough to hop on.

Apparently, I was that anyone. I slid onto the back of the bike, and wrapped my arms around Cain’s waist. It wasn’t my first time on a bike, I’d lived a heck of a long time, but it was definitely different.

The bike roared to life, and I involuntarily squeezed Cain harder as the rumble of the engine vibrated through my body. Solomon looked over at me and grinned, his eyes covered with sunglasses and he pulled up a face mask with a smiling skull to cover most of his face. Cain looked over his shoulder. “We’re going just down the road, so you should be fine, but don’t talk or bugs will fly in your mouth,” he yelled over the bike and then he revved the engine and pulled out of the lot beside Solomon.

We rode for a couple of miles, and the wind picked up my hair and streamed it behind me. I held my face to the wind and enjoyed the way it bit my cheeks, even if it was making them a little pink from the cold. I was never going to take fresh air and the sun on my face for granted ever again.

Too soon, we were pulling into a diner, the parking lot full of potholes, cracked pavement and breeder buses. It was a small, box-like beige building, the kind of diners that popped up in the seventies and still had all the original ripped vinyl booths.

When we walked through the squeaky front door, all conversation muffled and every eye swung in our direction. The weight of judgement fell heavily onto my shoulders, though not from the waitress of the little diner. She smiled at Cain and Solomon like they were there to raise the sun in the sky.

She waved them to a spare booth at the back near the kitchen doors, with a clear view of all entries and exits. A criminal's table. There were hushed whispers as we walked over, Cain leading the way, tattooed and menacing with a swagger that promised violence, and Solomon too close to my back, his hand hovering over my spine.

I could feel the silent judgement, some of the looks people were casting in our direction bordered on disgust, but more than one woman looked at both Solomon and Cain with raw lust.

The waitress fell into the latter category, as she placed two cups of coffee in front of them and smiled from beneath her lashes.

“Hi Cain. Hi Sol. The usual?” Her eyes passed right over me like I didn’t exist, like she couldn't see me right there beside Solomon.

Cain nodded. “Thanks Becky. And a menu for Sera here. Want milk or juice or something?” he asked, completely oblivious to the sharp looks Becky was throwing my way. I wondered if Becky would spit in it.

“Uh, just bottled water please.” I smiled at the girl pleasantly. Given the way she was smiling at Cain, it was obvious she had a huge crush on the man, something Solomon confirmed when he leaned close to my ear.

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