Black Sheep (Rawkfist MC Book 1) (2 page)

“He blew you
off,” Poppy reminds me.

“Because he's a
polite man with good manners.”

Poppy rolls her
eyes and focuses on the TV. “Delusional.”

“We’ll see.”

“In news
unrelated to future restraining orders,” Journey interrupts, “Dad is taking us
out to dinner tomorrow.”

Christine’s
lips remain shut. Despite her silence, I feel her anxiety and know she’ll hide
when he arrives. How she plans to hide from him for the rest of her life in
such a Lilliputian town is a question for another day.

I return to
using Journey as my pillow while she lovingly pets me. My mind lingers on
thoughts of Court Mister Sexy Pants and his sexy smile and sexy dark eyes and
sexy everything else. I don’t know how to find him, but like with Christine
avoiding Jared, I suspect the town is too small for me to avoid running into
Court again.

Court

L
ife is a piss in the eye sometimes. I ought
to be used to it by now, but I keep expecting shit just to work itself out.
When I was ten, my mom got a new job where she’d make enough money along with
my dad’s salary for us to move out of the rundown trailer park I called home.
Two weeks later, my dad ran off and stayed gone. Mom’s big dreams died with his
goodbye letter. Like a chump, I still hoped life might get easier.

I’ve never been
great at anything. Not good with my hands. Not athletically inclined. I’m not a
frigging book reading know-it-all. I had no way of standing out in a town so
small that everyone sticks out. I did luck out in high school when my father’s
good looks kicked in, leaving me broad-shouldered, tall, and the interest to
all of the girls.

No way didn’t I
manage to fuck that up too.

Today is
another example of how things just never go my way. I think I’m doing a favor
for my mentor Jared Sheerer by helping out his daughter. Easy enough.

Except she ends
up looking like a damn model. Tall, thin, and sporting a short hairstyle, Justice
isn’t like anyone else in town. I’d be a fool if I didn’t enjoy her fingers on
my arm. I haven’t had a woman touch me that way in too damn long.

I don’t know
how I went so many years without sex. Shit distracted me, and I got out of the
habit of chasing tail. The main reason is likely my son being old enough to
hear about my conquests. While I want to do right by him, I also want to avoid
a repeat of a train wreck like his mother.

Months without
sex turned to years until my dick ended up covered in dust and cobwebs.

Now I’ve met
the best looking woman I’ve ever had the pleasure to see. Too bad she isn’t a woman,
and I’m not a perv chasing teenagers. Even eighteen is dicey, and Justice looks
a few years shy of graduating high school.

Despite her
damned age, she caressed my arm and sent me into heat. I haven’t enjoyed an
erection like this in years. Hell, I can’t even remember what sex with a woman feels
like. Not that I’d announce this information for everyone.

My Rawkfist
Motorcycle Club brothers would have a field day with my dick’s current dry
spell. I don’t like ribbing from the guys. I’m a sensitive cunt, I guess, but I
want their respect and giggling at my unused dick isn’t respectful.

Now after so
long, my body only wakes up for a teenager with a father who’ll kill me for
doing her wrong. I don’t doubt Jared would feel a whole lot of rough regrets
while killing me, but he’d do it nonetheless. That’s how fathers need to be,
and I admire him for it. Even so, I can’t get Justice’s devious smile out of my
mind.

Like a marked
man, I spend all night rubbing my arm where she touched me. I dream of her, but
she’s always too far away. Waking up, I know I’m in a world of trouble. Justice
is off-limits even if she was flirting something fierce. How do I shake off a
feeling I haven’t enjoyed in years? I lack any resistance to this kind of
desire.

Years ago,
Jared brought me into the club, and he’s like a father to me. The day after I
meet Justice, I drop by his shop. My plan is to keep the conversation light and
see if the topic of his daughter casually comes up. I’m interested in how close
she is to legal. I'll wait, even without knowing if she’ll want to flirt so
wildly if the chase ends up with me actually catching her.

“I ran into
your daughters yesterday,” I blurt out when the conversation focuses for too
long on his auto shop.

“That’ll happen
a lot now that they’re living in the Rock,” Jared says, wiping at his dark
mustache.

Getting a
feeling he doesn’t want to talk, I only nod. Jared gives me a quick glance and
smiles.

“What were they
up to?”

“Justice got
her wallet stolen,” I say and then add quickly when Jared’s expression turns
pissed, “I ran down the kid who took it.”

“I’m sure she
was happy.”

I think about
her delicate fingers against my arm. If she were a little older, I’d have
instantly taken up Justice on her flirting.

“How old are
your girls again?” I ask, aiming for casual, but Jared smells my bullshit.

“Why?”

“I thought you
said they were in their twenties, but those girls looked pretty young.”

Scratching his
chin, Jared frowns. “Justice might have been with her little sister. That one
ain’t mine.”

Without
reacting to his comment, I replay Justice touching my arm. With her short hair
and fresh face, I could have sworn she was in high school. Now that I know she’s
legal, well, the dilemma turns into a green-lighted opportunity.

“Let’s be
square,” I say, ready to track down Justice and see what she’s like when in a
less thankful mood. “Are you cool with me asking out your kid?”

“If you mean Justice,
then why the fuck not?” Jared says, unable to disguise the edge in his voice
despite his otherwise friendly demeanor. “She’s a fun girl who could use a
little entertainment. Now if you mean my older girl, Journey, no fucking way.
She’ll kill you by the second date, and I’ll have to hide your body. I don’t
need that awkward shit in my life.”

“I’ll be good
to Justice. Scout’s honor.”

Jared smiles,
knowing he’s the only reason my mom had the money to pay for Boy Scouts. He’d
been keeping an eye on me since his Harley knocked me off my shitty bike. I
went sprawling, and he took pity on a clumsy, fatherless kid.

“Wouldn’t be
smart to make trouble with Justice,” he warns. “While she can’t fight for shit,
she’s perfectly capable of siccing her sister on you.”

“Is Journey
that scary?”

Jared shrugs.
“Maybe not but a father likes to brag.”

My fingers
return to the spot on my arm, and I feel like a dog in heat.

“Would it be
too much to ask for pointers on how to get into her good graces?”

“Yes, it’d be
way too much. Besides, I don’t have an answer anyway. Those girls make as much
sense to me as their mother does. Hell, tonight I’m taking them out for dinner,
and I admit I’m nervous. I never know what they’ll do or say.”

“They’re still
your girls,” I say, unable to imagine going without seeing my son every few
days.

“They’re women
now,” Jared says, running a hand through his thick graying hair. “I can’t get
involved in this thing with you and Justice. Whether you date or not, I don’t
want to give advice or help you to hook up. I don’t mean to seem as if I don’t
respect you. You’re a good guy, but I can’t get involved in gossip and taking
sides. No matter how well you behave, things will end up being town
information. I can’t be in the middle of that when I got enough people bugging me
about Christine being back.”

“Have you seen
her?”

“No, and she
seems to be working very hard to ensure I don’t. I surprised them with a visit
the first night they moved in. I kid you not when I say that woman jumped out
of a damn window and took off running, just to avoid talking to me.”

I don’t say how
weird Christine seems because I know Jared’s still got a soft spot for his ex.
Everyone in town talks about the couple as if they only broke up a few months
ago rather than several decades earlier.

Jared isn’t
wrong about the town knowing everyone’s business. They don’t even whisper about
it either, feeling the right to yell gossip from across the street. I have no
interest being in the middle of the gossips’ crosshairs. Ever since I firmly
gave Becca the boot, I’ve stayed off the radar of people in town.

I’m no one to
no one. Sure, people might mention me in passing, but I remain invisible in the
big scheme of things. As a member of the Rawkfist MC, I don’t want to be
watched.

So maybe
chasing Justice is a mistake when the entire town has their gazes on the
Earlham/Sheerer family. I know logically I ought to wait, but I also know I
won’t. My fucking arm still tingles where that intoxicating girl touched it.
She’s already dug her way under my skin, and I need to know if I can do the
same to her.

Justice

T
all, rugged, and sporting one of the finest
mustaches in all of mankind, my father is a good looking man. Jared fills out
his faded jeans, simple white T-shirt, and black leather vest. I sometimes
forget how handsome he is because I’m his daughter, and I don’t spend a lot of
time thinking about my dad’s hotness. However, seeing him in the bright Sunday
sun, I am struck by his good looks.

Despite coming
from solid sexy stock, I don’t look anything like Jared. I have Christine’s
blue eyes and blonde hair. I have the boob-less body of my grandmother.
One
more reason to hate the old crone.

As we walk into
Cracker Barrel, I spot a lot of similarities between Jared and Journey. She
looks more like him than I ever noticed before. Hell, with her masculine
appearance, I bet she could even pull off a mustache. I decide I ought to share
this information with her later tonight. I’m sure she’ll appreciate the
compliment.

“Are these the
girls?” a woman asks Jared.

Her name tag
reads “Wanda”, and she’s working a ballsy-broad vibe. Black hair wrapped in a
bun, she smiles widely at Jared, and I wonder if she’s gonna hump his leg next.

Jared returns
her smile and introduces the three of us. I catch Journey’s expression and know
she’s struggling with the image of him and Wanda naked together.

“Can’t believe
Christine is finally back in Tumbling Rock,” Wanda says.

“Do you feel
her presence will be a positive or negative thing?” I ask, starting trouble
because my sugar level is dangerously low. I’m also a bitch, so that makes
these moments unbearably tempting.

“I always liked
your mama.”

“Of course, you
did.”

“Zip it,” Jared
warns me. “Wanda and Christine were friends in high school.”

I narrow my
eyes, but Jared only walks to the table where Wanda sets out our menus.

“Did he tell me
to shut up?” I ask Journey.

“Yes, and it
worked. I need to ask him what his secret is.”

“You have a
booger hanging from your nose. I thought to say something, but I didn’t want to
be too chatty.”

Journey
only smiles at me over her shoulder. Poppy
watches us, pouting because her daddy is a meathead without amazing mustache
growing abilities.

We sit down and
order from Wanda, who is so super-duper fucking happy to have us sitting and
ordering from her. I keep a grumpy eye on her until Jared wads up his napkin
and throws it at me.

“Knock it off.”

“No.”

“She’s a nice
woman.”

“In the sack,
right? Or on her knees.”

“Don’t make me
come over there.”

“And what?”

“I’m not above
turning you over my knee.”

Journey snorts.
“I’d pay money to see that.”

“How much
money?” I ask, wondering if I can make some easy cash.

“Twenty.”

Poppy’s eyes
widen. “I’ll pitch in another twenty.”

Jared shakes
his head and sighs. “Raising girls is some tricky shit.”

“Didn’t you
kinda miss the hardest part there, big guy?” Poppy asks.

Jared studies
my younger sister. He’s thinking about ignoring her but finally winds up the
courage to face her hormonal hellfire.

“Don’t get mad,
but why in the hell do people call you ‘Poopy’?”

Journey and I
laugh at our little sister who only shrugs. “I had a lot of toilet issues
growing up and the name just stuck.”

Shaking his
head, Jared looks at the menu. “Doesn’t seem like a proper name for a young
woman.”

“Especially not
a young woman as classy as Poopy here,” Journey says, nearly pissing herself.
“Dinner is going well so far.”

“It really is,”
I add and nudge my dad under the table. “Are you and Wanda knocking boots?”

“What if I say
yes?”

“I’ll start a
riot and burn this place to the ground,” I reply and then shrug, “Or give you a
quick speech about safe sex.”

Jared smirks at
my threats, though I bet the second option scares him the most.

“Wanda is
married to my club brother. No way am I touching her if I don’t want my fingers
sliced off and turned into a necklace.”

“I wouldn’t
mind one of them fancy, finger necklaces. Seems like a good way to show my man
cares.”

“As if you
could get a man,” Poppy mutters. “They all shoot you down.”

“That’s not
true. Only the best ones shoot me down.”

Poppy sets down
the menu and mutters, “I don’t like comfort food.”

“What do you
like then?” Jared asks like a fool.

“Food that
makes me awkward, even startled.”

“Like the meal
from
Temple of Doom
,” I offer.

“Well, Poopy, I
don’t have any monkey brains for you, so you’ll need to find something on this
menu. That or you can starve until your mama hunts down something to your
liking.”

“You’re a tough
daddy,” she says, batting her eyes. “Too bad you weren’t around to raise these
two,” she adds before gesturing toward us. “They might have turned out less,
you know, odd.”

Wanda
interrupts our festive time by bringing rolls. “If you girls need anything, let
me know. I have the inside info on everyone in town. I’ll make sure you don’t
mingle with any losers.”

I like Wanda a
lot more since learning Jared isn’t porking her. She’s even prettier now too.

“I met someone
the other day, but I didn’t get a chance to thank him for solving a problem for
me. Do you think you could help me find him so I can send a thank you card?”

Journey spits
soda back into her drink and gives me a side-eye.

Shrugging, I
answer her unasked question, “I send thank you notes.”

“Since when?”

“Since Poopy’s
dad bought me the correspondence gift set for my birthday.”

Frowning, Wanda
places her hands on her hips. “I thought Christine said your name was Poppy
like the flower.”

My younger
sister shrugs. “Either one works.”

Jared loudly
sighs just like he did during our visits when we were kids. Whenever we’d
splash fight in the hotel pool, he’d laugh. Then we’d try to drown each other,
and he’d start the sighing shit. It’s his only real dad move. That and the
spanking threats he refuses to go through with. I’ve tested him many times, and
my bubble butt remains unharmed.

“Who’s the man,
hun?” Wanda asks me.

“His name was
Court, I believe.”

Poppy laughs
suddenly and keeps laughing for maybe twenty minutes. The rest of us ignore
her.

“Oh, I know
Court. So does your daddy.”

I glance at
Jared, who shows no reaction. When I realize he isn’t going to help, I smile up
at Wanda.

“Does he work
somewhere I could send the thank you note? I’d just hate to bother him at home,
just in case his girlfriend got the wrong idea.”

“Court ain’t
seeing anyone.”

I begin to
speak until Poppy’s giggling distracts me. She’s just on a roll at my expense.

“He works at
Lipmann Storage Units. Don’t know his schedule, though.”

“Doesn’t
matter. They can give him the note whenever they get it in the mail. Thank you
so much for your help.”

Wanda smiles
sweetly for me, and I appreciate her pretending to believe my bullshit. Jared
isn’t nearly as helpful.

“Men around
here aren’t to be teased, Justice.”

“Whatever do
you mean, father?”

We all smile
except for Poppy, who is still laughing about my failed flirting attempt with
Court. She keeps stopping long enough to point at me.

In her defense,
I’d do the same damn thing if the roles were reversed. No doubt the day will
come when she crashes and burns with a guy, and I’ll need a pair of diapers to
deal with the amount of laughing I'd do.

After Wanda
delivers our meals and Poppy laughs herself out, Jared asks Journey, “When do
you start work?”

“I started
Friday,” she answers while poking at the food before us. “I forgot I don’t like
mashed potatoes.”

“You girls are
pains in the ass,” Jared mutters.

“Did you whine
this much when we were kids?” I ask, chewing on my pork chop. “I remember you
being masculine and nearly mute.”

Jared grins. “I
guess I’m getting old.”

“Wait until you
have grandkids,” Poppy says and then begins laughing at the thought of men ever
having sex with Journey or me.

“I love my job,
Daddy,” I say and then moan at how good the food is. “Thanks for bringing us
here. We’re ever so grateful.”

“Better.”

“He doesn’t do
sarcasm,” Journey reminds me.

Jared taps his
fingers on the table. “I believe in sarcasm as much as I do in aliens.”

“You’re going
to feel pretty foolish the day ET shows up to kill us with cutting derision.”

Jared starts to
speak but stops once Poppy makes a weird noise. “I swallowed a fry before it was
fully chewed.”

“Should I call
an ambulance?” Journey asks.

Poppy sips her
soda and mumbles, “Maybe. Give me a minute.”

“Are you always
like this at dinner or did you girls eat a whole lot of sugar before I picked
you up?”

“Yes on both
counts,” I say, gnawing at the bone. Jared frowns at me, and I shrug. “Mom says
not to waste food.”

“Good girl.”

I give Journey
a wink. “I’m his favorite.”

“For now. Let’s
wait to see how much he loves you once you start stalking men around Tumbling
Rock.”

Jared
immediately frowns. “Don’t stalk men here, Justice.”

“I don’t stalk.
I lovingly follow them around without their permission and often knowledge.”

“Court’s not a
guy you should stalk.”

“Are you
forbidding me from sending him a thank you card?”

Jared lifts a
brow. “I’m not falling for that trick. If I forbid you, you’ll take it as a
challenge and then claim I forced you to do it. Nope. If you want to chase a
man around town, have at it.”

“I don’t chase
them, Dad. I follow them at a leisurely pace. If they run, I still take my time
and eventually catch up like Jason Voorhees stalking his prey. While it definitely
helps if the men trip over their feet and fall a lot, it’s not necessary.”

Journey pats
Jared’s hand. “Don’t worry. What sounds like psycho stuff is pretty tame once
you see it played out. I mean, look at her with those puny arms and legs. Do
you really think this Court fellow should worry about his safety?”

Sizing me up,
Jared shrugs. “I can see it going both ways.”

“Don’t warn
him,” I say, grabbing his hand in panic. “It’s not fair if he has a head start.”

“No, I guess it
wouldn’t be.”

“Is this Court
fellow dangerous?” Poppy asks, pretending to be worried for me.

“He’s a good
man.”

“Is he a good
man in your good man club?”

Jared eyes my
sister who doesn’t know enough to flinch. “Yes.”

“Well, then he
should know not to do anything harmful to our precious Justice, right?”

“No one is
hurting Justice.”

“Journey is
fair game, though, right?” I say, grinning at my big sister.

“Bring it on,”
she says, standing up. “I need to walk off this food.”

Jared watches
her go and then looks at me. “I’m glad you guys are back.”

“Me too,” I
say, patting his hand. “I don’t care so much about the town, but I like the
idea of seeing you all the time.”

Jared and I
share a nice little father-daughter moment ruined only by Poppy’s staring.

“She misses her
dad.”

Jared frowns at
Poppy, who shakes her head. “My father smells like disappointment and pit
stains.”

“Well this has
been a learning experience,” he says, standing up. “If you two are finished,
I’ll pay the bill.”

“I’m almost
done gnawing the bone.”

Jared leaves
Poppy and me to goof around at the table. When Wanda comes by, I convince her
to visit our house for dinner. I know Christine needs friends and Wanda is a
cool chick especially since she helped me zero in on my stalking target’s
location.