Envy (9 page)

Today it’s time to talk business with Franky. I’ve dressed appropriately, even though I don’t need to impress him, I just want to look professional. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not dressing in business attire. I’ve decided on my black skinny jeans, a white blouse and black heeled boots.

“How do I look?” I ask Lauren as I spot her in the living room.

“Perfect.” She smiles.

“I don’t want to look like I’m trying too hard, but I don’t want to seem like I don’t care.” I stress as I look down at what I’m wearing.

“Tasha, you look great. Stop stressing.” Lauren assures me. I take a deep breath and go to collect my phone and car keys.

“I’ll call you as soon as I can.” I let her know before I open the front door.

“No need.” Lauren answers from behind me. “I’m coming.”

“What?” I ask. Lauren gives me a smile, shaking her head whilst getting her handbag.

“Laura wanted some of us over for a catch up and she decided today would be perfect seeing as you and Drew would be talking with Franky.” She reveals.

“How did I not know this?” I ask.

“You did.” Lauren laughs as we make our way to the car. “She said about it yesterday, right in front of you.”

“Oh.” I think back to yesterday but I can’t remember anything she had said.

Yesterday I was stressing over this meeting with Franky and thinking over what had happened with Devlin, so it’s no wonder I didn’t hear anything she said. I decide to let Lauren drive because I’m starting to feel sick. I don’t know why I’m feeling so nervous, it’s only Franky but I guess it’s because this is so important to me. Locked up in that dungeon, I didn’t think I would ever be set free, never mind get to do something I had only dreamed of. Now, thanks to my amazing new found family everything I never thought was possible is becoming a reality. I reach down and pinch my arm so hard that I wince.

“What are you doing?” Lauren asks.

“Just making sure I’m not dreaming.” I reply, looking forward out of the window.

“Dork.” Lauren laughs. When we park outside Franky and Laura’s home and make our way inside. Drew is already waiting for me, and I notice she looks a little quiet. I guess I’m not the only nervous one. Laura and June welcome us in and let us know that they will all be in the back room when we have done. Then I notice Laura giving Drew a harsh look, before leading June and Lauren through the house.

“What was that about?” I ask Drew when we’re alone.

“I told her about my tattoos last night.” Drew admits.

“And she’s still pissed?” I ask.

“Yeah, I feel bad for dad though.” Drew admits. “He’s in the dog house too because he told my mum that he already knew and stood up for me.”

“At least you weren’t alone.” I assure her.

“Yeah I guess, but I just feel bad for him.” She frowns to herself, probably running through what was said last night.

“Well, you have us here today with you.” I let her know.

“Thanks.” She smiles. “Shall we go and meet my dad then?”

I nod my head, starting to become nervous all over again and Drew wraps her arm around her.

“Relax.” Drew reassures me as we make our way through the house. When we get to Franky’s office door, we find it already open and Drew knocks on.

“Come on in girls.” I hear Franky’s gruff voice and my belly fills with comfort. Franky is a big man who would look terrifying if you didn’t know him. When I first met him I was so scared but when I got to know him I just saw him for what he is. A giant teddy bear. He’s a gorgeous man and it’s no surprise that his children are just as good looking, but I don’t think of him that way. To me he’s become the father figure I always wanted.

“Hello girls.” He walks over, giving us warm hugs and guiding us over to the large corner sofa.

Wow, this room is huge. I have a quick look around and see that it looks a lot like the one in the clubhouse, just more friendly and cosy looking. I guess that’s down to Laura.

“So dad, what shall we talk about?” Drew asks.

“Eager beaver.” Franky laughs and looks to me. “Did you look at the building Tasha?”

“Yes.” I smile. “It’s perfect.”

“I told you she would like it.” Drew smiles excitedly.

“Well, that’s settled then. It’s yours.” Franky reveals with his arms spread wide.

“What!” Both Drew and I shriek.

“I already bought it.” Franky laughs. “If you didn’t like it I was going to use it as something else.”

“Don’t you dare!” Drew shouts. “That’s our building.”

“The only thing to do now is go down there and plan how you want things set up.” Franky thinks over.

“Thank you Franky.” I smile. “So much.” I feel tears build up and Franky grins. “Come here girl.”

He spreads his arms wide and I fall into him embrace. A few tears fall and I hear Drew follow.

“Come on Drew.” Franks laughs and holds out his free arm.

Drew launches herself beside me as we cry in happiness. It’s not long until we look at each other and laugh. Franky lets us go, rolling her eyes. “Women.”

“Really Franky.” I say again. “I can’t believe you’re doing this.”

“It’s no problem.” He shakes his head. “I look after my family, and you’re family Tasha. Don’t you forget it.”

“But what about paying you back?” I ask.

“You’re not going to.” He simply answers.

“What?” I ask, shocked by his answer.

“Think of it as a club investment.” Franky explains. “The club will take 20% from the earnings and what’s left it split between the two of you.”

“Thank you.” I say again feeling a little overwhelmed.

“There’s no need to thank me. You don’t have to be blood to be family.” He kisses me softly on my forehead and I have a strong sense of belonging.

“So I guess you two are going to cost me a lot fitting this whole building out.” Franky jokes.

“You bet!” Drew laughs.

“Better get your card out!” I add and Franky lets his head drop in fake pain. This man really does love taking care of his family and I’m truly honoured to be included in that. It’s a good job Franky and the men before him have looked ahead and made sure the club has money. Between investments, bars, clubs and now a salon, they make more than enough to support everyone and much more. Drew and I get up from our seats after letting Franky know what kind of style we want and what we need to get us started.

“You going to see your mother?” Franky asks.

“Yes.” Drew frowns. “Even though she’s being a bitch.”

“Watch your mouth!” Franky scolds. “Don’t talk about your mother like that.”

“Sorry.” Drew replies. “It’s just she’s still giving me the cold shoulder.”

“Give her time.” Franky advises. “She’s stubborn, but that woman loves you like no other.” Franky gives us one last kiss before letting us go.

“You not coming?” I ask him.

“Are you crazy?” He laughs. “That woman is evil when she’s pissed at me.” Laughing at him, Drew and I leave to join the others. I feel so relieved now that’s over and I feel so stupid for even stressing over it.

“I can’t believe this is happening.” I say as I jump in the air like a child.

“I know right!” Drew squeals. “My dad is the shit.”

“That he is.” I agree.

When we find Lauren again she’s sat with Elise who is listening to Laura and June chatter on about the hardships of the biker life.

“The older you get, the harder it becomes.” June adds.

“Oh yes!” Laura agrees. “It’s such a stressful life and you girls need to realise that before you have babies.”

Lauren chokes on her drink and Elise pats her back, covering her smile. “How did it go?” Lauren asks us as we sit down. I know that she is honestly interested, but I also know that she’s taking the topic from where Laura and June were taking it to.

“Amazingly.” I reply.

“Then we need to celebrate.” Elise adds.

I look over at Laura and June and see that June looks happy enough, but Laura is frowning over at Drew. I take it she’s still not happy with her daughter.

“Hello Natasha.” Laura comes over to give me a welcoming hug.

“Hey Laura.” I reply.

“Devlin told me that he bumped into you at the gym yesterday.” Laura starts.

“Oh.” I stutter, slightly shocked that he would have told his mother that.

“We have a gym room here, so if you ever need to work out again you’re welcome to come here.” Laura offers. “I don’t like the thought of you in that dirty club gym.”

“Thank you.” I’m happy; I didn’t want to go back to the gym at the clubhouse.

“Have you girls thought about taking self-defence lessons?” June asks.

“Mum!” Elise moans.

“No she’s right!” Laura nods. “You need to know how to take care of yourselves. You should ask one of the boys, they all know how to protect themselves.”

“Oh god.” Drew whispers beside me.

“No, she’s right.” I add. “After what happened, I would love to know how to defend myself.” Lauren gives me a small smile, nodding in agreement to what I just said.

“I agree.” Elise speaks quietly. “I don’t want to go through that again and if I could learn how to try and prevent that, I would definitely take the chance.”

“I’ll tell them to get right on it.” Laura insists.

“I can do this weekend.” Drew offers and all the girls agree.

“Erm.” I clear my throat. “I can’t do this weekend.”

Lauren looks puzzled, and as I look around, so does everyone else. Why does it confuse everyone that I would have plans?

“What’s happening this weekend?” Lauren asks.

“I have a date.” I reveal and immediately everyone leans into me wanting to know who it is and where we are going.

“Who is it?” Laura asks, looking very excited. My throat becomes very dry and I’m nervous to reveal who I’ll be out with. I look to Lauren and see she looks very smug. She knows and my face burns making Lauren quietly laugh.

“Devlin.” I announce.

Elisa claps. “I knew it!”

Drew just laughs and wraps her arm around me. “Don’t tell me too many details.”

Laura and June look very happy. Laura even gets up and squeezes me tight.

“Oh I’m so happy!” She exclaims.

“Mum, it’s a date not a wedding proposal.” Drew rolls her eyes.

“Men in this life don’t just go on dates all the time Drew, you should know that.” June tells her, looking just as happy as Laura.

“Why?” I dare to ask.

“Well because they’re never interested in one woman until a certain one walks into their life.” She smiles massively and I have a feeling that I should have just kept this to myself.

I’ve been on my punishment post all fucking day. Nothing has really happened and the only good thing I have to report back is that Strike is at the house BO gave us the address to. I’ve seen him and his two pathetic loyal followers, Switch and Venom, along with a load of naked women it looks like they’re having a good old party in there.

“Chilli and Ryder will be here with a prospect to take the next watch.” Spliff lets me know as he quietly crawls over to me.

“Thank fuck.” I can’t wait to get away from here. Watching the place where I know Strike is, is driving me fucking crazy. I would like nothing more than to go in there all guns blazing and put a bullet in that mother fuckers skull. No, that would be too easy. I want to torture him and let myself free and do what I want. Fire comes to mind and I can’t help but smile as I think over what I would like to do.

“Devlin.” Duke shakes me from my day dream and indicates to Ryder from the other side of the street. We make our way over unnoticed and I nod towards Ryder and Chilli.

“The fucker in there?” Ryder asks.

“You fucking bet.” I boil inside. “Switch and Venom are there as well, having some pussy party so keep an eye out for more members turning up.”

“Gotcha.” Chilli fist bumps me and I get walking down the street to where I hid my bike. I didn’t want to ride it too close to the hideaway house because it might alert Strike and we can’t afford that.

Before I get on my bike, I call my dad.

“Dev.” He answers right away. “What you got for me?”

“Positive sighting on Strike.” I let him know. “Venom and Switch are there too.”

“No others?” He asks.

“No, but there’s a house full of pussy so I wouldn’t be surprised if more turn up.” I answer. “Ryder and Chilli just showed up with the prospect, they will let you know if that happens.”

“Good job son.”

I hang up and get straight on my bike, feeling the vibration under me and the image of Natasha comes to mind. I have to see her.

“You two are good to go do what you want to.” I let Spliff and Duke know and they give me a nod. I don’t stop until I come to Grim’s house. I see his bike and car parked up so I know he’s home. The sound of my bike alerts him and he meets me at the gate.

“What’s up bro?” He asks.

“Nothing, just wanted to see my big brother after a day of staring at a house.” I answer, looking behind me to see if I can see Natasha.

“Bullshit.” He laughs. “Lauren told me all about the date.”

That doesn’t surprise me. Those girls seem to tell each other everything.

“Yeah, and so does mum.” Grim laughs again.

“The fuck?” I panic. My mum knowing that I’m taking Natasha out will fuck everything up. I want to take my time with Natasha because of everything she’s fucking been through but my mother is on a whole different level. Knowing her, she’s already looking at baby clothes.

“Why did she tell her?” I ask him.

“Apparently she was put on the spot because they wanted to organise self-defence lessons.” He says with a serious face this time.

I couldn’t agree more, that’s a good fucking idea.

“Smart girls.” I don’t know why we didn’t think of it ourselves.

Grim leads me inside and I eagerly follow behind. I see Natasha and Lauren sat in the living room watching TV, as soon as they spot me they make their way over.

“Is something wrong?” Lauren asks, looking between myself and Grim.

“No.” I quickly answer. “I came to see Natasha.”

“Me?” Natasha looks shocked.

I take her hand and lead her into the kitchen. Grim gets the point and takes Lauren back into the living room. Luckily for me, Grims’ house is large and spacious. There’s a wide hallway and entry room in between the kitchen and living room so we can have the privacy I want. Natasha is quiet as she waits for me to speak. As soon as I got on my bike I wanted to see her. She’s fucking gorgeous.

“I had to see you.” I tell her.

“You did?” Natasha actually looks shocked.

“I’m taking you out.” I suddenly decide.

“What?” She laugh.

“Let’s go on a date.” I announce, even this sounds fucking crazy to me. “Right now.”

“We’re going on a date on Saturday.” The look on her face is adorable. It’s a mixture of excitement and confusion.

“Yeah I know, but I want to take you out now.” I plead.

“Ok.” She finally gives in. “Let me go change.”

I stop Natasha from running away. “You look gorgeous.”

She looks down at herself laughing. “You’re lying.”

I take a step toward her backing her up against the kitchen units. I take her beautiful face into my hands, trying to be gentle when I want to do is crush myself on her.

“I would never lie about how beautiful you are or lie to you full stop.” I gently kiss her. “You look perfect, now let’s get out of here.”

Natasha laughs as we run out the house, behaving like naughty school kids.

“Where are you two running off to?” Lauren shouts as we run out the front door.

We carry on running down the path until we get to my bike.

“Hey!” Lauren shouts again.

I see Natasha laughing and look up to see that Grim has lifted her into a fireman’s lift before he shuts the door. I’m guessing my brother is liking the privacy too.

“Have you been on a bike?” I ask her.

“No.” Natasha admits.

I help her get on and give her a quick rundown and what she should do to make this a better experience. I sit in front of her and get ready to start my precious Harley.

“Hold on tight.”

Natasha wraps her arms around me but I help her snuggle closer so there’s no space between my back and her front. I can feel her chest moving as she breathes and the slight shake of her body. I bring my beauty to life and she purrs beneath us. Natasha’s arms tighten around me and I grin as I speed away, loving having Natasha so close.

I love being on my bike, the fresh air hitting me in the face and having a hot engine roar to my commands. As a biker the road calls to me and I know how cheesy that sounds, but it’s true. Every man who owns a bike will know what I’m talking about. If I haven’t been on my bike all day, I’m itching to. I don’t feel right and I have to get my fix.

I fucking love being on the road! Before I got to know Natasha and started spending time with her, this was my favourite thing in the world. Now that’s changed. Having Natasha holding on behind me, the way I get to feel her body on mine and the hear in between her thighs as she spreads them wide to wrap around me, squeezing me, feels fucking awesome.

This is my new favourite thing to do now and I don’t know what I’ll do if she doesn’t want to do this again.

I didn’t know riding on the back of a bike would be so freeing and sexual at the same time. My hair blows in the wind, whipping behind me and I hold on tight to Devlin. I love that I don’t have to have an excuse to hold him like this, I don’t have a choice so I’m going to enjoy this while I can. It’s not long until we reach a small house. It’s cute, and I look to Devlin in question as he helps me from his bike.

“Come on, I’ll introduce you.” He takes my hand and leads me to the front door. I want to ask him where we are or who the hell he wants to introduce me to, but it’s so silent that I’m afraid to talk.

Devlin knocks just the once and then helps himself inside. We walk right into the bright yellow kitchen and I see a middle aged woman standing doing the dishes. She turns and immediately smiles at Devlin.

“Devlin.” She greets, looking very happy to see him.

“Aunt Carol.” He hugs her and I relax. Of course, she’s family and I really like that she is.

“Be quiet, I just got the kids to sleep.” She instructs him and then turns to me. “Devlin likes to be loud and wake the babies up.”

I smile, Aunt Carol seems really nice and I notice quickly that she’s obviously from Laura’s side of the family. There are too many similarities to ignore between the two of them.

“Aunt Carol, this is Natasha.” Devlin introduces and Carol leans in for a hug.

“Pleased to meet you.” She smiles. “You’re a pretty one.”

Her words embarrass me. Why do I feel like a teenage girl on her first date? “Lovely to meet you.” I reply, feeling Devlin’s eyes on me.

“Would you two like a drink?” She asks, probably wondering why we’re here. That makes two of us.

“No, thanks Aunt Carol.” Devlin declines. “I just wanted to drop in and say hello before I took Natasha on a walk.”

Aunt Carol’s eyebrows rise. “Oh you’re going on a walk?”

Devlin weirdly looks a little shy and I’m shocked. We all say our goodbyes and Devlin takes my hand as he leads me onto the garden surrounding Aunt Carols house. Considering the size of the house it’s surprising how large the grounds are.

“She was nice.” I say as I look around.

“Yeah, she’s cool.”

“She’s you mother’s sister?” I ask.

“That obvious?” Devlin laughs.

“Where are we going?” I finally ask.

“Hold on, we’re nearly there.” Devlin answers, tugging on my hand.

We continue to hold hands until we reach a large tree.

“Wow.” I say, looking up and noticing a decent tree house. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tree house, never mind go in one.

“Come on, let me show you around.” Devlin climb a few steps up the ladder and looks back down to me, grinning like an excited child.

“You brought me to a tree house.” I laugh, following him up and really enjoying the view of his ass.

“Not just any tree house.” He helps me up the final step. “This was mine.” He holds me tight against him as I look around.

“Cool.” And I mean it. As a kid, this private den would have been awesome! There’s even some beanbags in the corner. A bookshelf in another with books, colouring books and more stacking up.

“Well, not just mine. I had to share it.” He points to his name engraved in the wood and surround his are the names, Drew, Kai and Brandon. That’s so cute.

“I would have loved one of these as a kid.” I admire.

“My grandad built it for is us because we loved visiting him. When he died five years ago, Aunt Carol inherited the house.” He lets me go and looks around the place, reminding himself of his childhood memories. Being here, I feel like I know him a little more. It’s nothing huge, but it’s more than I’ve ever had with any other man.