Page 63 of Torch
Torch groaned, wrapping his hands around his mug, resting it precariously on his own knee, while his arms were looped around me.
“It’s fine, I’m fine. I just lost it for a minute, but it’s… I’m fine.”
I sighed, reaching up to stroke his cheek.
“You know, when women say we’re fine, we don’t mean it either. It’s okay to have feelings about what’s happened, Torch, and to let them out before they crush you.”
Has-Been cleared his throat, and we both turned our attention to him.
“If anyone knows about bottling shit up, and using other methods to fight that emotion, it’s me. Trust me, letting it out now, instead of letting it eat you up for fucking months, is the best damn way. You think we haven’t all had our moments over this? And over what that bastard did to our old ladies, and us? I know you’re closer to him than many of us, but we’re all hurting, man.”
Torch groaned, pressing his face in my hair.
“Can you make them go away, babe, I’m not into talking about my feelings with them.”
Ryder laughed humourlessly.
“Brother, we’ve all done it to you, and you know it. This is fucking insane, what’s happening now, and I know we’re all rethinking every fucking moment with him. How did none of us see it? How is it that I hung with that fucker, and shot the shit with him, and I never saw a hint of this animosity, or hatred? How is it that all the while I thought he was a friend, someone I could rely on, he was attacking people I care about, killing them even.”
“Chrissy,” Has-Been said quietly, shaking his head. “She was too fucking sweet to die like that.” Chrissy? Who the hell was that? Another old lady?
Ryder sighed heavily, looking as sad as his brother. She must have been really important to them all.
“Who was she? Someone’s old lady?” They all stared at me for a moment, maybe realising that I had no idea who they were talking about, or maybe even having forgotten I was here, while they were all baring their souls.
“I don’t want to call her a club girl, because she was more than that, at least with the two of us,” Has-Been said quietly, but I caught two words there that I didn’t really like the sound of.Club girl.
Thirty-One
Shetensedinmyarms, and it took me a moment to catch up in my brain, and realise what had affected her like that. It wasn’t the fact that a woman had died, even though that was fucking awful, especially since one of our trusted brothers was her killer. No. It was the fact that there was such a thing as a ‘club girl’. I mean, generally there wasn’t, not really.
UK clubs don’t run quite like the ones in the US, and other countries, where there are girls dripping all over bikers. If a club wanted a party with sex, generally, they hired women in to service the men. The old club had been one that actually had ‘club girls’, but they were all so abused, and demeaned, that hardly any women would come near here, even with the club having been demolished and rebuilt.
Chrissy, and one or two others, had started willingly visiting, but only to spend time with guys they actually liked. Chrissy had been fond of Ryder and Has-Been, I mean one looks like a Hollywood star, and the other technically could have been.
I’d never been with her, but I had been with other girls here at times. Hell, I’d fucked a lot of women before Grace.
“Babe, take a breath, okay? It’s not that kind of place.” Grace made a huffy sound, shrugging her shoulders at me, but I knew she wasn’t convinced.
“Seriously, when they say club girls, all they mean is there are a few girls who like some bikers here and they visit. It’s not like a free for all.”
She stiffened then, and turned to glare at me, the hot feisty doc firmly in the house right now, and fuck me, I shouldn’t be turned on by that.
“Are you one of the ‘bikers she liked’?”
“Uh oh,” Has muttered, grinning at Ryder, like they were enjoying the dire situation I’d just been dropped in, by them, no less.
“Thanks, assholes.”
“I’m waiting,” Grace declared, her posture getting more tense by the second, when I thought it was already right fucking there.
“Babe, no, I’ve never been with Chrissy. She liked those two dickheads, okay? It’s not that kind of club, although clearly some people thought it should be.”
“Brother, there was no way of knowing, he had us all fooled.”
“What’s actually going to happen to Micro?” Grace asked, changing the subject on all of us, and we fell silent, because I don’t think any of us really had a damn clue.
Ryder shrugged at us, and Has-Been tugged his beanie further down, slumping in his chair, and I held on to my tense woman.
