Page 13 of Ember
“I have no idea,” he said. “Why don’t you try to call or text her?”
“We have,” Brandi said, “and she’s not returning any of our calls or texts. We’re worried about her.” He was, too, but letting on about that wasn’t going to happen.
“I’m sure that she’s fine,” he lied. He had no idea how she was because, like the women standing in front of him, Ember had ghosted him, too.
“Have you heard from her? Do you know if she’s fine?” Brandi asked, putting her hands on her hips as though willing to wait him out for an answer.
“Ladies,” Hurricane said from behind the bar.
“You and I are married, and you know I’m not a lady,” Brandi countered. Her big husband just smiled at her and bobbed his eyebrows, as though dismissing everyone else around them.
“Okay, this is going nowhere,” Tina said. “Do you have any news about her or not?” Tina was always a cut-to-the-chase kind of woman. Jack liked that about her.
“No, I have not heard from her. Yes, I’ve been calling and texting, and yes, she is ghosting me too,” Jack said.
“And you’re just sitting here, waiting for any word from her?” Wren asked. “Why don’t you put out a few feelers—you know, do some cop thing to find out if she’s okay?” He had, and so far, nothing had come out of it. He really didn’t have any contacts in Sarasota, Florida, so he was flying blind.
“She will come back when she’s good and ready,” Hurricane cut in. “Now, leave Spark alone. He’ll let you know when he hears something.” He could always count on his Prez to have his back. The women grumbled things under their breath and started for the ladies’ room. That was usually where they had their pow-wows about the guys. It was a man-free zone, as they liked to call it. Ember had filled him in on all the details—even the ones that he really didn’t want to know.
Hurricane stopped wiping down the bar and stood in front of him. “Tell me that I didn’t just lie to my wife, man,” he begged.
“I’m not following,” Jack lied. Hurricane was looking for answers, too. Jack just didn’t have anything to give him.
“Don’t play dumb with me, Spark. Have you heard from Ember? I thought that she’d at least get back to me about whether she was going to come back to be the Harlot’s Prez. I want to get our sister chapter up and running. I’ve promised a few of the other Harlots around the country that I’d lend a hand, but I don’t have time for this shit. Either she wants the job or not,” he said. The women all want her as their Prez.” He didn’t need to spell that out for Jack. He could tell just from being cornered how the women felt about Ember.
“I haven’t heard from her,” Jack insisted. “I was telling the women the truth—Ember hasn’t contacted me at all since she took off for Florida.” Jack took a giant swig of his beer, avoiding eye contact with Hurricane. He knew what he’d find there—disappointment, and he already felt enough of that himself.
“Why haven’t you gone after her?” Hurricane asked. Hell, it sounded more like an accusation than a question.
“Because that’s not how things work between Ember and me. She offered me one night—not a lifetime. I don’t own her, and when she wanted to go back to Florida, how was I supposed to stop her?”
“Did you try the whole feelings thing? Women love it when you toss those into a conversation,” Hurricane teased.
“Who says that I have feelings for her?” Jack asked. He was bluffing, and from the smile on Hurricane’s face, he knew it.
“You’ve been sulking at the bar the entire time that she’s been gone. If you don’t have feelings for her, then what are we calling this?” he said, nodding at Jack.
“This is a biker trying to have a beer at his club, but I guess that was too much for me to ask. He stood and tossed down a twenty. I’ll let you know when or if I hear from her, but you’re putting your eggs into a basket with holes in it. Ember isn’t the kind of woman to settle down and become anyone’s Prez. Why not ask one of the other Ol’ladies to be Prez?” he asked. The Harlots were none of his business, but Ember had seemed pretty excited about starting a chapter for them up in Yonkers. When Hurricane told her all about the groups of women bikers around the country and even the world now, she couldn’t contain her excitement. Jack had to admit—it was contagious. He found himself interested in the small group of women who were stepping forward to be a part of the Harlots—he just didn’t think that Ember was the right leader for them. Hell, she wasn’t even in town, so how could she lead them anywhere?
“Do you think that she’ll come back?” Hurricane asked. That was the million-dollar question. He had no idea if Ember would ever come back to Yonkers, but God, he hoped like hell that she did. Because lying to Hurricane about not having feelings for herwas easy, but it was getting harder by the day to deny those same feelings to himself.
“No clue, man,” Jack breathed. “And honestly, I don’t give a fuck.”
Hurricane chuckled, “Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, man,” he said. “At some point, I’m sure you’ll believe it.”
Ember
It had been a long, two-day trip home, and all she wanted to do was curl up in a warm corner and sleep for days. Instead, she decided to face her problems back in New York head-on—then, she’d sleep. Ember walked into Hurricane’s House knowing full well that he was going to give her shit for going MIA. She had already gotten an earful from Jack via text, and from the way he seemed to still be pissed off at her, he wasn’t going to forgive her any time soon. She had no choice, though. She had to go to Saratoga to check in on Marco’s mother, Jean. That was the least that she owed the woman for trying to help her out of her shitty relationship with her son. Seeing Jean’s smiling face was worth the danger that she had put herself in, not that she’d tell Jack or Hurricane that fact.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Hurricane shouted from across the bar as she walked in through the double-door front entry.
“Well, Dad,” she sassed, putting her hands on her hips to really drive home her current smart-ass attitude. “I was out with friends and forgot to call. Why don’t you just ground me?”Hurricane looked her over, and she could tell that he wasn’t as amused about this whole scene as she was.
“You had us all worried sick, Ember,” he continued. For that, she did feel some remorse. “And call me ‘Dad’ again, and I will fucking ground you. I’ll have a few of the Bastards tie you to a chair so that you don’t go off and do anything stupid again.” She wanted to tell him that better men than he had tried to subdue her, with no luck, but thought better of it.
“I’m sorry about worrying everyone,” she said. “It wasn’t my plan to worry everyone.”
“Right, but you need to remember that you’re not a solo act anymore, Ember. You have a growing club full of women who need you to teach them how to be Harlots.” She almost wanted to laugh at that last point. The last thing she was supposed to do was teach other young women anything. She was usually a mess, and sooner or later, they’d realize that and leave her alone.
