Page 20 of The Biker and the Loner
Did Papà see all that was happening and gave him a message to pass on to me? Is he releasing me from the burdensome promise he made me make him?
Scratch merely shrugs. “Nothing.”
“What do you mean nothing?” I half-shout, borderline on anger. “The dead don’t visit you to just saynothing.”
But he’s still staring through me. “Sometimes when we’re deep inside enemy territory, we dig these holes for ourselves in the ground, to sleep. Like the dead. One night, maybe I was sleeping, maybe I wasn’t, but this man came and sat at the edge of my hole in the ground. A black-haired Hispanic with a crescent scar under his right eye, wearing a blue sweater with the wordMañanaon the front. He just sat there and watched me. I asked him who he was and what he wanted but he never replied.”
“Oh my God,” I gasp, feeling both joy and sadness. “I bought him that sweater after he was diagnosed. He wore it to bed every night as a promise to us that he would still be alivemañana.”
He nods. “I remember thinking that he looked a lot like you, that’s why I asked. Thought about itfor a while, but I’m not one to believe in shit like that so I forgot about it.”
“Well, I do,” I tell him. “And thanks for telling me. It could be because you have his necklace. Maybe he was curious.”
I wish Papà had said something, though. I wish he’d told Scratch to tell me I’m free. That I don’t have to keep my promise to him anymore.
Scratch blinks, and he seems to be lookingatme again. “You okay?”
“I should be asking you the same,” I answer. “You got a little dazed just now.”
He shrugs. “That happens sometimes.”
“I’m fine,” I answer his previous question. “I’m just disappointed Papà didn’t say anything to you.”
“And I’m glad hedidn’t. To hell with that shit.”
I laugh, rolling my eyes.
Then, we both sober and just stare at each other.
I’ve never felt uncomfortable with him, or threatened, or used. Only safe. Always safe. Even after overhearing him call me a “crazy bitch”.
Grunt once told me that he’d never met anyone as loyal as Scratch and that there was no one he trusted more than him. And I believed it to be true. Because I could smell Scratch’s lust for me from the moment I set foot into the Den of Heathens compound, but in all the times Grunt left us together—whether for him to babysit me or take me home—he never once tried anything with me.
Even though I used to wish he would. Because I was attracted to him on a scale Inever understood. Grunt, I felt a comfortable kinship with, but Scratch I want to pounce on and lick all over like a randy wildcat.
But he never did. He would just watch me with curiosity and a smirk.
“I can’t believe you’re really back,” I say after a long stretch of silence.
His head cants to the side. “And I can’t believe you’re in the same place.”
Oof.Oh, he went there.
Gnawing one corner of my lip, I avert my gaze. “It is what it is.”
“No, it’s not. It is what you allow it to be.” He reaches out to pinch my chin between his fingers and turn my face to his. “Why’re you still there, Ley? Why’re you working as a damn cashier?”
Nope, we’re not talking about this. We wereneversupposed to talk about this again because he was never supposed to be back. “Leave it alone, Scratch.”
“Told you what would happen if I came back,” he reminds me. “I’m not gonna sit back and watch you screw up your life.”
“That’s rich,” I spit as I hop off the stool, “coming from a criminal biker.”
“Got a thick skin, Ley, so you can sling all the shit you want, but it won’t change the fact that I’m back, you’re mine, and I protect what’s mine.”
“I amnotyours,” I hiss through clenched teeth. “Get that through your thick head.”
One hand shoots out and grabs me, reeling me right between his legs. When I attempt to wriggle free, he uses his muscled thighs to keep me in place between them. “Yams, you became mine the second you gave yourself to me. And knowing I’m the onlyman who’s ever been there...yeah, Ley, you’remine.”
