Renegade Reject (12 page)

“You sure about this?  If you don’t want to dance, I can try to find you something else to do.  Maybe you could help clean or something.”

It’s a tempting offer, but I gotta think about my future.  I can’t keep living with my parents, no matter what Dad wants.  “I’m sure.”

She peeks over to me.  “Come by around noon.  I’ll come in early to help train you.”

We continue to chat, until we reach the clubhouse.  I’m so nervous that my legs feel like noodles when I climb out of the car.  As we walk toward the door, I look over to Ice. 

“Is he gonna be here tonight?” I ask.  When I see the look on her face, I regret ever opening my mouth.

“Yeah, he is.  He was drunk off his ass when I left.  I know you can’t avoid him forever, but take my advice and stay clear of Preach tonight.  He turns into a real nasty motherfucker when he’s had one too many,” she says as she leads me inside. 

As soon as we walk in, all of the old ladies come rushing toward us.  Every one of them proceeds to give me a hug and personally tell me how glad they are to have me back.  It’s almost like the party is more for me than my dad.  It all seems strange to me, considering how little time I spent here before I left. 

Mom walks in just a few minutes after us, and she is mad as hell that I’m here.  As she watches the old ladies welcoming me back, yet ignoring her, she becomes even more furious.  None of them accept her, and their acceptance of me pisses her off.  There’s nothing I can do about it though.  If she wouldn’t spread her legs for half of the club, the old ladies would be more than willing to take her into their fold. 

After fifteen minutes of ‘welcome homes’ and hearing about how beautiful I’ve become, I head to the bathroom.  I’m just stepping into the hallway when I see Preach walk out of his room.  He’s zipping up his pants with Leah sauntering behind him. She’s got one of those ‘cat that just ate the cream’ looks plastered on her face.  The sight gives a visual that I don’t want or need to see.  The pain I have been trying to bury for the last three years becomes as fresh as it was the day I left.  God, I feel like my heart is breaking all over again.

I’m shocked when I realize how much Preach has changed.  The long hair I once loved to touch is now cut short, close on the sides and a little longer on top.  It’s darker than it once was, nearly the color of melted chocolate.  All of the golden highlights are gone.  He has a piercing in his eyebrow and one in his lip.  There’s a new tattoo peeking out of the neck of his shirt, and I see another one traveling down his arm. 

It takes a few minutes before his gaze finally meets mine.  When it does, he freezes, and a look of pure shock covers his features.  He stands there, silently staring at me, until Leah wraps her hand around his arm.  “Look who’s back, baby.”

Oh my God. She calls him baby.  They must be more than a casual hook-up now.  I close my eyes, trying to hide my pain from them. 

Slowly, the look on his face changes into something cruel. “Well, if it isn’t Daisy,” he slurs as he walks closer to me.

“Garrett,” I say, trying to walk past him, and still unable to call him Preach to his face.  The Preach I knew would never have hurt me the way this man did. 

I have to get away before either of them realize how much it still hurts to see them together.  I turn and start to walk back to the common room.  My bathroom break can wait.

“Not so fast, Little Flower. We need to talk,” he says, grabbing my arm. 

I try to pull away, but he’s just too strong.  “Let go of me,” I say as he starts to drag me further down the hall.  Leah never lets go of his arm, so she’s following us. 

I can smell the whiskey on his breath when he replies. “Nuh uh, you left without giving me a chance to fuckin’ explain.  Now, you’re gonna listen even if I have to force you to.”

Finally, my anger gets the best of me, and I start to shout. “Explain what?  How you cheated on me with my so called best friend?”

“I didn’t cheat on you.”

“Oh, you didn’t?  That’s rich, because I’m betting that you’re still screwing around with her now, aren’t you?” I watch guilt flash through his eyes before driving my point home. “Exactly.”

His eyes shoot daggers as he leans his face toward mine. “Wouldn’t be fuckin’ her at all, if you had just stayed.”

I feel the tears coming, but I refuse to let them fall.  I’ve cried enough tears over Preach.  Losing him nearly killed me, and I’ll be damned if I give him that much power over me again. “Even if I had stayed, Garrett, I wouldn’t have stayed with you.  I don’t do sloppy seconds.”

“You don’t know that.  We could have worked things out.  I damn sure wouldn’t have screwed up again.”

“What’s that saying? Once a cheater, always a cheater?  You don’t have an honest bone in your body.  Don’t fool yourself.” I know that I’ve struck a chord deep inside of him as the words easily roll off my tongue.  For once, he doesn’t have anything to come back at me with, and that alone gives me a little bit of an ego boost.  I want him to know just how over his bullshit I am.  He doesn’t deserve my tears anymore, and he damn sure doesn’t deserve my forgiveness.

Noticing that her man is frozen in place, Leah finally lets go of his arm and takes a step in front of him.  “I don’t know what the hell the big deal is.  It isn’t like you two were fucking.  You had to know somewhere in that pretty little head of yours that a man like Preach would be getting it somewhere else if you weren’t putting it out on the regular.”

I jerk my eyes to her, letting her see just how much hate I feel for her deep in my bones.  “This is none of your business, bitch.  My advice to you would be to shut the hell up and go find your next trick of the night.  Your opinion means shit to me.” Damn straight, I’m on a roll. Ice must be rubbing off on me a bit.

Leah’s jaw drops to her chest before she narrows her eyes at me and starts to say something else. Before another sound can come out of her mouth, Preach shuts her up with a jerk of his chin as he steps out from behind her and faces me again.  Obviously, he doesn’t want an audience.  She huffs, but listens and quickly turns around and walks away. 

“You should follow her.  If not, you might lose her to one of your brothers,” I say, trying to rein in some of my newfound courage. 

He ignores my harsh words, and instead of taking them to heart he steps all up in my personal space.  His body is barely touching mine when he leans down to whisper in my ear.  “She means nothing to me.  Never has, never will.  You are the only woman I’ve ever loved.  Seeing you now and watching that sweet little mouth of yours pop off like it just did, I know now more than ever that my love for you will never change. You’re it for me, Little Flower.  Why can’t you see that?”

His words cut me to the core, while his whiskey scented breath at my ear sends a cool shiver down my spine.  I want to believe him, to finally forget all the pain, but the smell of her perfume on his skin is enough for me to keep my senses intact.  “No, Garrett.  You don’t love me.  If you did, you would’ve never cheated on me in the first place.  What you’re feeling isn’t love.  It’s lust.  You don’t hurt people that you love, not the way you hurt me.”

He pulls back from me, barely leaving an inch between our bodies.  “That’s not true.  I just made a mistake, Daisy; one that I can promise you I will never make again.”

I shake my head, not believing a single thing that he says.  “You’re right.  You won’t, because I won’t give you the chance.  You cheated on me once, and that was your fault.  If you did it again, it would be my fault for being stupid enough to take you back.  I’m not that dumb, Garrett, and I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t assume that I am.”

I can see anger flash in his eyes as his hands grasp around my arms and start to squeeze. His whole demeanor has drastically changed right before my eyes.  “You know what?  You’re right.  I don’t know why the hell I ever wasted my time with you.  You’re nothing but a stupid bitch,” he says before letting me go with a sharp jerk.

He turns to storm off, but before he can take a full step, he sways and stumbles back toward me.  I don’t have time to react as his body crashes into mine, causing me to lose my footing.  I fall back and slam into the wall before tumbling straight to the floor and hitting the hard concrete.  The initial impact causes me to bite straight through my lip and rattles my brain. Pain ricochets through my body as I struggle to clear my senses and right myself.

My blurry eyes can barely make out Preach’s retreating figure as he mumbles to himself and staggers down the hall.  “Glad I didn’t waste my time waiting for the bitch.  She was never fuckin’ worth it.  What the fuck was I thinking?  Love her?  Fuck no.”

The metallic taste of blood filling my mouth causes me to gag, while thick tears stream down my face. This time, he didn’t just break me; he made me bleed.  He’s so drunk that I doubt he even remembers what he did, but I will.  I’ll never forget.

I crumble back down to the floor, sobbing. “I hate you, Preach,” I whisper.

Chapter Nine

PREACH

“A shot of Jack with a beer chaser,” I tell the waitress as I sit down by the stage. 

I look around and notice every seat in the place is full.  Hell, even a few of the guys are standing near the back.  Looks like every member of the Renegade Sons is here for the show. “Why’s it so packed in here tonight?”

Kidd looks at me with a smirk on his face.  “You didn’t hear about the new talent?”

I shake my head.  “Nope, ain’t heard shit.”  Not sure if I care either.  If it has a set of tits and knows how to flash some pussy, I honestly don’t give a fuck.

“Daisy’s taking the stage for the first time,” Kidd quips back at me, knowing damn well that shit will get under my skin.

“What?” I damn near shout.  No fucking way!  Daisy wouldn’t do that, not my Little Flower.

“Maybe if you’d put the booze down once in a while, you would’ve known.  It’s the only thing any of the brothers can talk about.  They all want to see what’s under her clothes,” Reese adds from his spot on the other side of Kidd.  My blood pressure soars.

The brothers talking about Daisy is the main reason that I’ve stayed drunk the last two weeks.  Ever since Maker’s party, all everyone wants to do is talk about her.  Even Kidd mentioned how he wouldn’t mind having a piece of her.  I had to force myself not to throat punch his ass on the spot. 

Daisy made a hell of an impression on the guys at the party, and the worst part is, I can’t even remember any of it.  I don’t even know if I saw her or not.  I’m sure if I did, it wasn’t pretty.  I can be a prick normally, but I’m a fuckin’ bastard when I’m drunk.  I was more than drunk that night. Actually, I was trashed.  Since none of my brothers have jumped my ass, I assume I didn’t see her, at least I hope I didn’t. 

The waitress is just handing me my drink when Leah walks over and straddles my lap.  For the last two weeks, this bitch has been all over me.  I can only guess that I must have fucked her again while I was drunk.  It wouldn’t be the first time, but it is the first time she’s turned into a leech.  “Get the fuck off me.”

“Come on, baby.  I just want a kiss,” she whispers in my ear as her hips start to grind against my flaccid dick. 

I grab her hips, giving them a warning squeeze.  “I’m not drunk enough to want your ass, yet.  Try again later when I’m shit-faced, and one pussy is as good as the next.”

“One little kiss, and I’ll go. Promise.”

Not wanting to deal with her shit, I slam my mouth onto hers.  Once her lips are open, I bite down on the bottom one, not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to teach the skank a lesson. 

She jerks back, placing a hand on her lip.  “I told you to get the fuck off me.  It wasn’t open to negotiations.”

She jumps off of my lap and starts to back away, her eyes never leaving mine.  She hesitates for a second before asking, “Can I still come to you later?”

Fucking pitiful.  “Like I said, if I’m drunk enough, your pussy suits me just fine.”

As Leah walks away, I catch sight of Daisy heading toward the dressing rooms in the back.  Seeing her for the first time in years causes my heart to nearly jump out of my chest.  My God, what the hell happened to her?

My brothers talking about how hot she turned out has really been pissing me off, but it also confused the hell out me.  As far as I was concerned, she was the prettiest girl I had ever laid eyes on.  She wasn’t sexy in a typical way, but more of a girl next-door kind of thing.  She was hot, but had a sweet kind of look to her that made my blood go wild.  Judging from the glimpse that I just got of her, there is nothing sweet about her now. 

The girl next door has been replaced by a sexy as hell woman.  Those curves she had before are now more pronounced.  She’s all tits and ass; every man’s fantasy.  Her hair is still a million shades of blonde, but it no longer hangs to her ass.  It’s cut short, not even reaching her chin, definitely not a look I’d normally be attracted to, but its fits her to perfection. 

My brothers had one thing right though.  She’s amazing.

I’m just about to follow her when I see Ice heading in her direction.  There’s no way she’ll let me anywhere near Daisy right now.  She might not know everything that happened between us, but Ice is far from stupid.  I’m sure she’s figured out enough to want to keep me away from her permanently. 

Giving up on the idea of talking to her, I turn toward Kidd and Reese. 

“Did you ever find out what in the hell happened to her face?” Kidd asks Reese.

“What are you talking about?”

Kidd turns to me.  “Daisy disappeared during Maker’s party, and the next day, she had a busted lip with a bruise on her cheek.  She said she fell, but I wanna make sure none of the brothers got rough with her.  She’s not a club whore, but even if she was, you know how I feel about that shit.”

Fuck!  “If I find out that one of the boys laid a hand on her, I’ll kill him.”

“Shit. Don’t you think it’s about time you manned the hell up?” mumbles Reese. 

“What the fuck do you mean by that?”

His eyes narrow as he looks at me.  “Sober the fuck up and be a man.  Claim her ass.  We all know you want to.”