DAMON: A Bad Boy MC Romance Novel (4 page)

T
he sigh Tricia
released as the storage unit door rolled up could have sent a dandelion’s seeds scattering. Her eyes travelled over the stacked boxes, the familiar furniture, the pictures that had once lined her walls. So much stuff. So much damn stuff.

“Don’t worry,” Ricky said, sensing Tricia’s falling mood. “I’ll help you with everything. And you don’t have to deal with it anytime soon. Mi casa is su casa for as long as you need.”

“Thanks,” Tricia said, turning to her friend with a wan smile. “I appreciate it, really. But I’m going to have to get my life back together eventually…”

“No rush, though,” Kim said from Tricia’s other side. “I mean, the library will definitely take you back, but no one expects you to jump right back into things.”

Tricia nodded, only half-listening to her friends’ comforting words. She’d arrived back in Kingdom the previous afternoon, after spending a few nights at her parents’ house in Dover. She’d gone straight to Ricky’s, where she’d be crashing while she looked for a new place to live and got back on her feet.

She had enough in her savings, including a generous amount that she’d won in her civil suit against the Steel Dragons, that getting back to work wasn’t a huge priority. She’d only gotten the job in Massachusetts because it gave her day structure and routine, and a good chunk of time where she could focus on something other than herself. She expected the same benefits from getting her job back at the Kingdom Public Library.

But the thought of walking back into that little building, where everyone already knew everything, was daunting. She’d known her coworkers there for years, and she didn’t imagine they’d be any better at making her feel normal than her coworkers in Massachusetts had been. She never liked most of those women in the first place, and they’d had plenty of time to twist and turn her story while she was gone. She expected plenty of faux-sympathetic smiles and careful questions. She wasn’t looking forward to it.

Seeing all her things in storage, gathering dust, only made her more aware of how long she’d been gone, how different things were now. Even things that were exactly the same were different. Everything seemed bathed in a new light. All the old streets and stores – they were intimately familiar and yet wholly alien. The only thing that still felt real were her friends, Ricky and Kim, and even they seemed to be handling her with care.

She’d cried when she saw them again at last, the three women colliding in a big, sloppy embrace. She’d cried looking through the photo album from Kim’s wedding, which Tricia had missed. It looked to have been a beautiful day. She’d already seen most of the pictures on Facebook and in e-mails that Kim sent her, but looking at them in person drove an aching desire to turn back time through her heart. She should have been there, standing beside Ricky and Mina at Kim’s side.

Among the pictures of the bride and groom were a few pictures of Ricky and Cristov. When Tricia had left, Ricky and Cristov had been broken up, but they’d gotten back together at the wedding, and the pictures left no question as to why. Both her friends were in love. Real, pure, perfect love. And she felt like she’d missed the chance to see it happen. Even all the phone conversations didn’t make up for actually being there.

And, of course, there were other changes. Ricky had quit drinking. Kim, as mayor, had completely overhauled the town’s Main Street, making it cleaner, prettier, and more welcoming. There were new stores cropping up, businesses revitalized by the influx of tax revenue and tourist money. Tricia’s hometown wasn’t a crumbling phantom anymore. It was a quaint, picturesque hamlet in the hills. It was lovely. Tricia had never felt less comfortable, less at home.

“Are you sure you’re up for dinner?” Ricky asked, pulling Tricia from her thoughts. Kim and Ricky had planned a dinner at Sid’s, the little old diner that was still Kingdom’s best kept secret. Tricia had asked them to invite Kennick and Cristov; it seemed wrong that she had spent so little time with the men who had captured her best friend’s hearts.

She knew that she would always have a place in the sisters’ lives; by extension, that meant she should try and figure out her place in the Volanis brothers’ lives. Besides, she owed them her life. After they’d burst into the barn to rescue her, she’d only seen them fleetingly, in police stations and courthouses. She hoped that seeing them again, under normal circumstances, would bring her one step closer to feeling like it was all truly over.

“Of course,” Tricia said, nodding enthusiastically. “It was my idea that they come, remember?”

“Right,” Kim said, stepping forward to pull down the storage unit door once more. “Well, then we should get going. Here’s the key, by the way.”

Kim slipped the little fob into Tricia’s hand while Ricky linked her arm into Tricia’s. While the three women moved through the maze of hallways towards the exit, a question lingered on Tricia’s mind, unasked for reasons she couldn’t quite pinpoint – or didn’t want to pinpoint. Would Damon come?

She hadn’t specifically asked Ricky and Kim to invite him, but a part of her hoped they would do so. And, the Volanis brothers were close – if Kennick and Cristov weren’t with their women, they were with Damon. So it would make sense for him to come along. But she hadn’t asked. She didn’t know. Maybe…

“So, Sid’s wife, you know, Alise, she and Ana, who runs the market, they’ve been thick as thieves ever since they met, and Alise had Sid add all this weird stuff to the menu. I mean, not, like, weird, but like…weird. Not diner food, anyway. Spaghetti in squid ink. Borscht. Beef tartare.”

“No shit,” Tricia mused, sitting in the passenger seat while Kim drove and Ricky leaned forward from the backseat, speaking a mile a minute. It was Ricky’s car, but everyone felt safer with Kim at the wheel. Ricky may have quit drinking, but she was still an impulsive – and angry – driver.

“Some of it’s okay,” Kim offered. “I like the borscht.”

“That tartare thing though…” Ricky’s nose scrunched.

“It’s raw beef,” Kim said in a low tone, as though sharing a secret.

“Raw beef? Isn’t that illegal?” Tricia asked, mimicking Ricky’s expression.

“Raw fish is legal,” Kim said, turning into Sid’s parking lot. “They have that thing on the menu now about how pregnant women can’t eat it.”

“They still have that oyster po’boy on the menu though, right?” Tricia asked, licking her lips in anticipation. Ricky grinned.

“Yup. And the best French fries this side of the Delaware River,” Ricky said, leaning back to unfasten her seatbelt.

“The boys are already here,” Kim said, pointing to a Ford pick-up parked a few spaces away. “That’s Kennick’s truck.”

The boys
, Tricia thought, then felt her heart tightening slightly. She looked at the truck. There was a backseat, but it was small. She didn’t think that three big men like the Volanis brothers would feel comfortable sitting in it together. Her heart loosened, falling at the same time. She told herself to stop having feelings she had no right to have. If she wanted Damon there, she should have asked them to invite him. If he wasn’t there, she couldn’t be disappointed.

He probably doesn’t even want to see me
, she thought suddenly. All she could do was remind him that a man had died at his hand. Maybe he didn’t care about that, about what he’d done. But she remembered the look on his face, when they’d finally got to safety. It was the look of a man who wouldn’t sleep well that night. Who wouldn’t sleep well for some time to come.

That was at least one thing they had in common.

Inside the diner, the gentle and happy clatter of conversation and silverware against ceramic covered the final confirmation of Tricia’s disappointment. Cristov and Kennick sat waiting for them at a corner booth. Cristov turned when Kennick nodded in the girls’ direction. Tricia put a smile on.

Kennick greeted his wife with a kiss, Cristov doing the same for Ricky. There was room at the end of both seats for Tricia, and she chose to sit beside Kennick and Kim – mostly because she was more interested in watching Cristov and Ricky. Marriage had settled things for the husband and wife. A boyfriend and girlfriend would provide more entertaining body language.

“It’s good to see you, Tricia,” Cristov said, his eyes warm. She felt closer to Cristov than she did to Kennick; Cristov had been the one to save her from Paul, had brought her to his trailer to keep her safe afterwards. “You look good.”

“Thanks, it’s good to see you too” she said back, the smile no longer quite as forced. She turned to Kennick. “Both of you.”

She took a moment to look around the diner, breathe in the familiar smells. A lot of familiar faces, too. She caught a few of them looking back, their eyes widening slightly in recognition. She felt like shrinking back into her seat, and fought it. As much as it no longer felt like her hometown, this was her hometown. The stares were something she would need to get used to.

“How are you doing?” Kennick asked. The question was so casual, so normal, yet there was nothing cavalier about the asking.

“I’m good,” Tricia said after a brief pause. “I’m…getting used to being back.”

Kennick nodded. Tricia was struck by the green of his eyes. All the Volanis siblings had those green eyes, but there were subtle differences in each shade. Kennick’s were like a level sea. Cristov’s were lighter, like clover. And Damon’s, she could still remember, were the darkest. Forest green, almost shadowy.

“We just went to the storage unit,” Ricky said, steering the conversation towards something lighter. “I forgot how much stuff was in there.”

“I haven’t,” Cristov said with a grin. “Neither have my muscles.”

“Oh, yeah,” Tricia said. “I meant to thank you guys for helping clear it out. I was…well, you know.”

She swallowed. Maybe this dinner was a bad idea, after all. What could they talk about that wouldn’t wind back to the event that linked them all together? Tricia had left so suddenly, afraid of the bikers coming after her, that she’d left everything behind. It had been the Volanis family that cleared out the house and brought everything into storage. She owed them her life and the return of her security deposit.

“Of course,” Kennick said. “It was nothing. We were happy to do it.”

“They were suitably rewarded for their good deed,” Ricky said with a wink. “No thanks necessary, trust me.”

Tricia had to laugh at that, joined in by Cristov, while Kim blushed and Kennick shook his head, a smile on his face. Cristov slid his arm across Ricky’s shoulders. Tricia felt a bittersweet happiness, seeing the adoration in Cristov’s eyes as he looked down at her friend. She’d always liked Cristov. She was glad Ricky had finally come around to seeing how good he really was.

A waitress came by and took their orders; there was no need to look at a menu, as everyone had their own personal favorites. Conversation turned to town gossip, much to Tricia’s relief. By the time the food arrived, Tricia had almost managed to forget what had kept her away from Kingdom from so long.

But every time she looked at the empty space across from her in the booth, she remembered something else.

The person she wished was sitting there. The one person she wanted to see.

That strange and unavoidable longing seemed to get stronger by the minute, and even overcame her hunger as she picked at her sandwich. She’d been looking forward to it, an old slice of heaven that had never ceased to make her happy. It smelled just like she remembered it. But the few bites she took didn’t taste right. Or, at least, it didn’t taste the same. It didn’t really taste like anything. The conversation around her slowly receded into background noise. Her shoulders slumped. She played with a fry, twirling it in her ketchup. She told herself, again and again, to cheer up. Enjoy herself. Stop thinking about him.

“Trish?” Ricky asked, softly, reaching across the table to take Tricia’s hand. Tricia looked up, blinking, coming back to the present moment. “You okay?”

“Not really,” Tricia said, surprising herself with the truth. “I…I kind of want to go.”

“Okay,” Ricky said. “Let’s get the bill and…”

“No,” Tricia said, hurriedly. She looked around; no one was even half finished with their meal. “You all go ahead and eat. I’m just tired. And I kind of want to be alone.”

“Don’t be silly,” Ricky said, waving her hand dismissively. “We’ll all go, I’ll….”

“No, really,” Tricia said, her voice firm. “Please, stay. I really just want to take a walk and get some air and have some time to myself. I’ve been with you guys since I got here.”

Ricky opened her mouth to protest, but Cristov squeezed her shoulder. Ricky looked at him sharply, clearly ready to argue her point. But she surrendered when he nodded, and Tricia felt a surge of gratitude towards him. Kim reached over, rubbed Tricia on the back with her palm, smiling gently.

“Just be careful walking back, okay?” Kim said.

“It’s like five minutes,” Tricia smiled. “I’ll be fine. I’m sorry to leave, I really wanted this to be a nice night for everyone but…I think it was just a little soon.”

“Sure,” Kennick said. “We’ll do it again some other time. Whenever you feel like it.”

“Thanks,” Tricia said, rising from her seat, immediately feeling a rush of relief. She reached for her wallet.

“Okay, now that is
not
okay,” Ricky said. “We got you on this one, Trish. You barely touched that sandwich. Do you want me to bring it home for you?”

“A cold oyster po’boy? No thanks,” Tricia shook her head.

“Awesome,” Cristov muttered, reaching over the table and pulling the plate towards him. He still had half a burger on his plate, but his eyes were lighting up like an arcade game at the prospect of more food.

“You’re disgusting,” Ricky said, clearly fighting a smile. “We’re breaking up.”

Cristov took a huge bite of the sandwich and turned to Ricky, chewing loudly, swallowing even louder.

“That’s fine,” he said. “I was planning on having an affair with this po’boy, anyway, and I really didn’t want to be a cheater.”

“I guess a full stomach can keep you warm at night,” Kim said, her eyes laughing.