Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“Do you regret it? Since you’re not a people person, I mean.”
“No. Actually, it’s been surprisingly nice to have people. I, mean, yeah, I had my mom in some ways. But most of my life I never had anyone else I could count on or turn to. That’s different now. It’s nicer than I could have anticipated. Do you miss the club life?”
To that, she sat at a stop sign, leaning against the rest and exhaling hard. “I miss things, I guess. But it seems like you have a lot more loyal and caring club. I never really knew one like that.”
“Isn’t loyalty one of the most important aspects of a club?”
To that, she shot me a defeated look. “For the men, sure.”
With that, she focused back on the road. And I felt like I was watching as her walls built back up around her.
“Wanna go check my place out before we head back up to talk to Slash and the other guys?” I asked after we toured all of Shady Valley a solid four times.
“Sure,” she said, still shut down behind her walls, and I had the strangest urge to do whatever the hell it might take to pull her back out.
What the hell was that about?
CHAPTER SIX
Tessa
I parked the car outside of the martial arts studio. As we were climbing out—both of us armed with some items of mine to scatter around Rook’s apartment—a woman was making her way out of the front door.
She was black-haired and tattooed, with one of those perfectly curvaceous bodies. She looked like a damn goth pin-up.
“Is this her?” she asked, sparing Rook a glance but zeroing in on me.
Used to complicated female politics, I immediately felt less-than in my borrowed tee and jeans that I’d worn one too many days—making them saggy in the thigh and butt—and my un-made-up face.
At least my hair was clean and relatively tame.
I barely resisted the urge to reach up and self-consciously fix it. I was still getting used to the length and color, having chopped off nearly waist-length blonde hair and dyed it the turquoise color it currently was, trying on a new look. Part of it was because it felt like cutting off the old me and all of her choices and trauma. But it was mostly because brightly colored hair kind of stole people’s focus, making it less likely that they would remember my face if someone came around with pictures of me, asking if anyone had seen me.
“This is her. Tessa, this is Nyx. Nyx, Tessa.”
“Nyx. You’re Slash’s old lady, right?” I asked, wanting to keep everyone straight so they were more likely to accept me into their fold. The more everyone liked me, the more likely they were to protect me if it ever came to that.
“I’d beat his ass if he ever called me that, but yeah,” Nyx said with a little smirk.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I thought it was a sign of respect.”
“Tessa has been around clubs since she was a kid. But they sound a little more old school than ours.”
“What, like Property of So-and-So on their backs?”
“Yes, actually. So all the bikers know she’s off limits and clubwhores know to toe the line.”
“Whores,” Nyx repeated, wincing a bit.
“That’s what they’re called,” I said, confused.
“I think a lot of clubs have updated the language a bit,” Rook said. “We call them club girls. But I think there is also… patch bunnies or sweet butts.”
“What biker have you ever met who would use the term ‘sweet butt?’” I asked, more bothered by that name than ‘clubwhores’ or ‘pass-arounds,’ like I’d always heard them called.
“Fair,” Rook agreed, shaking his head. “Anyway, yeah, this is Nyx. Slash’s wife. And also… your boss.”
“Oh, right, yeah. I guess we will go over all of that later,” Nyx said. “You want to show her around? I have to meet Dell and Morgaine.”
“Yeah. I’ll lock up,” Rook agreed as Nyx tossed keys at him.
“Nice to meet you, Tessa. I’ll see you back at the clubhouse.”
“She was… nice,” I said, turning to watch her leave.
“Were you expecting her to be nasty?” Rook asked, head tipped to the side.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I’ve never known a president’s old lady to be nice to a new girl, is all.”
His eyes looked soft for a moment. Like, I don’t know, he felt bad for the me that had to deal with those complicated relationships.
He had no idea.
“You’re gonna find a lot is different here. The girls are all nice and welcoming. Some will be more friendly than others. Dell and Everleigh, for example. They’re just the sweeter types. Murphy is a little more standoffish. Morgaine and Vienna are both a little on the quieter side, but really nice when you get to know them.”
“What about the clubwh—girls?”
“We honestly don’t have a lot of girls you would call club girls in the strictly traditional sense. There are girls in town who like to come and party. And no one cares who sleeps with who. But they aren’t always hanging around and causing drama or anything like that, if that’s what you’re worried about.”