Us (24 page)

I had no idea what she was talking about, only guessing people in her smutty books ate watermelon. I moved my shoulder a bit, contemplating not taking another pill so I could enjoy my steak.

Nope. I dug the bag out of my pocket and popped two more.

We walked inside the clubhouse, Link and Dig playing a game of pool in the corner, Son sitting at the bar deep in his laptop, and some guy I didn't know serving drinks to the rest of the guys at the bar. For a minute I felt my eyes get misty. Shit, this day and the pills were fucking with me. I needed to pull it together before anyone saw how the normalcy playing out in front of me was pulling at my emotional strings.

"How ya doin', brother?" I looked over to see Dig standing next to me.

"I think I need to lay down for a minute. Can you help my old lady get set up? She's hooking steaks up."

Dig's eyebrows
practically raised above his bald head.

"Applebee's. Grill cook. Handy with a knife. Remember?"

"Ah, that's right. Your old lady cooks."

"Old lady sure is rolling o
ff ya'lls tongues pretty well, eh?" We both turned to see Elle standing next to us, hands on hips, and a smirk on her face.

"Come on, pretty lady. I'll show you the kitchen and fire up the grill. J, we'll come get you when it's chow time."

I noticed Dig went to grab Elle's arm, but thought better of it and dropped his hand to his side. I kissed my old lady, and climbed the stairs. I fell into bed and had dreams filled with light.

Chapter
38 – Elle

"You got a phone I can use?" I looked at Dig as he got the grill going.

"You brought a dozen steaks and asked everyone how they wanted theirs cooked. You can have whatever you want."

He passed me a phone from his pocket and
I offered my thanks, unsure if we still needed a chat.

"Sorry for
any doubts I had about you. Ya understand?"

So we were going to have that chat.

"It's all good. I trust about as much as you, so I know where you're coming from. I know you got the weight of this club on your shoulders, and I appreciate you adding more coming to get me. That shit in Chesterfield..." I didn't finish my sentence, unsure what to even say about it.
Thanks for saving my life?

"Don't say another word. You've got more balls than most the men here. I've just never met a woman quite like
ya. Took me a minute to figure ya out."

"Huh. So what'd you figure out?"

Dig laughed from deep in his gut. "Not to fuck with ya."

"Thanks. I think. I'm gonna marinate the steaks while I make a call. Good heart to heart." I put my fist out, and he continued laughing as he bumped it.
He was still smiling when he went back to his game of pool with Link.

So this was an MC.

Once the steaks were soaking in some special sauce I'd pulled together, and the corn was wrapped in foil ready to hit the grill, I pulled the phone out of my pocket and dialed the only number I had memorized.

"Hello?" Someone picked up the phone on the other line and I heard music blasting. "Chris? Are you OK?"

"I'm better than OK," she yelled into the phone. "I'm fucked up!"

"Where are you?" I asked with skepticism.

"At the clubhouse in Kansas City." She said it with
duh
filling her voice.

"What are you doing there?"

"I told you, getting fucked up!" Her voice was five decibels higher than normal. I held the phone away from my ear.

"Pull it
together, girl. What are you doing in KC? And why aren't you with your mystery man?"

"Fuck him. He hasn't answered my calls and his car wasn't there when I drove by with Cash. I didn't want to go home yet
and J told Cash it may not be safe, so we came here. Yo, these boys can party."

I rubbed my forehead and let out a deep breath, unsure how I felt about her being with all those guys.

"You cool? Are they taking you home?" I asked. It was a stupid question considering she'd just told me she wasn't going home, but my nerves were shot and her being at the KC clubhouse in party mode didn't set well with me.

"Not tonight." She broke into laughter. "I'll see you tomorrow. I'm gonna ride back to St. Louis. Heard ya'll are gonna keep the party going tomorrow. I think what I need right about now is a few days of forgetting."

"I feel you. Be careful. Listen, can you put Cash on the phone?"

"Fo sho. I love you, chica."

I walked over to Dig and Link at the pool table. "I love you too. Be careful."

"Here." I heard Chris pass the phone to someone and yell for more shots.

"Cash?"

"You got me." Aw fuck. He was well on his way to fucked up, too.

"Hold on one second." I put the phone against my chest and went up to Link.

"Hey, man.
I thought you were leaving?"

Link stood up from the shot he was about to make
. "I sent Cash in my place. I needed to handle some things here and the boys are pretty much set. Son hooked up some Skype shit this morning so I could check in with them."

That was more information than I needed, but whatever. "
Do me a favor?"

"Course."

"It appears your boy's got my girl back at the KC clubhouse. Talk to him and make sure nothing happens to her?" Link tilted his head to the side and looked at me, unsure of my meaning. "Make sure no one fucks her." I said it straight up, no sugar coating, and no mincing of words.

Chris may be down to fuck someone tonight, but I wasn't about to have her up in those boys' beds. Not tonight. Not after what we'd just been through. This club was about to become my life, St. Louis and Kansas City. I wasn't ready for Chris to be making the rounds with J's brothers. Once shit smoothed over, she could make her decision, and tonight wasn't smooth enough yet.

Link grabbed the phone from my hand and stepped out the back door. I saw him hold the phone away from his ear as he yelled something into it. I went back to the kitchen to check on the green bean casserole I had in the oven. I was sprinkling the dried onions on it when Link walked in, his shoulder tense and his face pulled taut.

"Here." He passed me the phone. "Your girl is good to go. No one's gonna be messing with her tonight. Not if they want to keep their patch."

Hmmm. I eyed Link, trying to size up if he was just being a decent man and getting that after what we'd been through Chris didn't need to end up in someone's bed, or if he had a thing for my BFF.

"Thanks. The phone is Dig's." He nodded and stalked out of the kitchen.

I'd dug through the drawers and cabinets, surprised and a bit giddy at the tools at my disposal. Someone had hooked up the kitchen restaurant style. They even had the good tongs and spatula. I took the pan of marinating steaks and my tools of the trade outside to the grill. The minute I picked up the tongs and started laying steaks on the giant grill, my mind relaxed into a familiar place, and fuck if I wasn't about to cry again—over some steaks.

I pulled myself together and made a grip of steaks, corn on the cob, and pulled the green bean
casserole out of the oven when the dried onions on top were crisped to perfection. I set up a buffet line and served the guys their steaks, five years of grilling making me unable to forget how each liked theirs cooked. In fact, the way each member took their steak was seared into my brain. I'd never forget, just like I'd never forget how each cook took his coffee.

Once everyone was served and J and my food was all that was left, I made two plates and headed upstairs. I never served at Applebee's, but I'd carried my fair share of plates. I deftly managed to carry silverware, two beers, and two full plates of food into J's room. How I got the handle open, I'll never know, but it was a feat in dexterity I assure you.

"You awake, dear?" A grumble from the bed was my answer.

I set the plates on the night stand, rearranging empty beer cans, ashtrays, and candy wrappers to make room. By rearrange, I meant I nudged a trashcan over to the nightstand with my food and in one swoop knocked everything in the trash. I crawled into bed, making sure to stay on J's good side, and threw my leg over his, pulling him closer to me. He lay on his back, his elbow propped up on a pillow and his
injured arm resting on his chest. I leaned into him, smelling the familiar scent of leather and J, and placed a trail of kisses from his ear down his neck.

"Can you wake me up like that all the time? From now until—"

"Forever." I finished his sentence for him.

"You doin' OK, baby?"

"Yeah. If your boys didn't like me before, they love me now."

He looked at me sideways, unsure what I could've done to make the boys love me, and I asked him if he could sit up.
He rearranged himself with his back to the headboard, while I got off the bed and realized he'd need help cutting up his steak, a detail I forgot when I went to the store. It was going to be a little difficult for him to eat one handed.

I edged the nightstand closer to the bed and pushed his plate to the end of it. Finding a folding chair in the corner, I opened it and sat down across from J, using the sam
e nightstand as my own table. He took one bite of the steak I cut up for him and let out a moan that was orgasm worthy.

"Holy shit, woman. You can cook."

"Shhhh. Don't tell anyone." I winked at him as I put a spoonful of green bean casserole into my mouth.

We ate in silence, J enjoying the food, and me enjoying that J seemed more at ease than he'd been since I met him. It could've been the pills, but I liked to think it was my skillful cooking. Either way, he was calm, and Gramps was getting a much needed rest from being kneaded into bread. When we'd both finished, I gathered ou
r plates and handed J a beer.

"Think you can manage this?"

"The pills have worn off for now, and a cold beer sounds like heaven after a meal like that. Why have I been cooking pasta all this time?"

I shrugged. "I may know how to cook, but it doesn't mean I like to cook. It pays the bills, keeps a roof over my head, and covers most of my classes. What can I say?"

"You don't need to worry about those things anymore. You know I can take care of you."

I appreciated his sentiments, but I didn't know how to let someone take care of me. I'd barely managed to let J into my private emotional world. My financial one was another story. I'd been making my own money and paying my own way since I was sixteen. The thought of being "taken care of" made my heart start to race.

"Um, let's table that talk for later. We have plenty to discuss, and it's been a long day so how 'bout if we chose one topic for now and leave it at that."

"You had a topic in mind?"

Shit, I had fifty topics in mind, but there was only one I needed to know about right now.

"Are you going to be VP? It doesn't take a mind reader to guess that Dig is going to end up President here in St. Louis. Are you going to be his left?"

J was silent, contemplative in his response.

"Not right now. They'll vote someone else in. Scratch if I had to take a guess."

"Scratch from Kansas City?" I assumed it would be someone from St. Louis.

"Yeah. Pole and P will be voted in tomorrow and won't be able to hold a post for a year. Son can't VP for his dad, and he pretty much already has a post as the techie of the club. He'll have his hands full sorting out the damage Burns did and finding all the money he lost."

"And you?" He had yet to mention where he fit into all of this. Would he live in St. Louis and give up Gramps' house? I couldn't imagine that happening, but I also didn't see him "commuting" to work over two hours each day.

"I told Dig I needed time to heal. I can't even drive right now, let alone ride. And honestly, I don't know what I want. No, I do know. I want you. I want to fall asleep and wake up next to you each day. I want to watch the sunset and maybe even the sunrise with you. I want us to adopt a sixteen year old girl so she can marry a boy we smuggled across the border and have their happily ever after. I want MY happily ever after. I want you."

"Are you trying to make me cry?" I laughed while wiping my eyes on the bed sheet. "I'm not supposed to be a crier anymore, remember? Elle doesn't cry."

"She talks in third person, though?"

We both laughed. "It appears she does."

I finished my beer and tossed it
in the trash, suddenly aware of how exhausted I was.

"Are you going down there?" I nodded to the door, which was more of a nod to the hall downstairs.

"Nah, I'm gonna take another pill and go back to sleep. Tomorrow is a big day."

"Church?" I asked.

"You now there's a party after that. The KC boys will be back. You ready for that?"

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Why? Should I be afraid? You think I can'
t party? Remember New Year's? I think I held my own pretty well."

"Are we talking about before the shower when I had to hold you up a few times, or after the shower when you attacked me?"

I started gathering our plates to take back downstairs. "I think it was you who attacked me in the shower. I wasn't that drunk. I'd need to be way more fucked up to forget that." I smiled at him.

"Leave the plates. Come lay next to me?" His voice had deepened an octave, and I saw dirty thoughts light up his eyes.

"And how do you plan on playing this, Mr. Arm In A Sling?" I set the plates down and sauntered over to the side of the bed.

"I guess you'll have
to start and finish it. You know, I'm a 'lil helpless here. You're gonna have to be on top."

And then he winked. He fucking winked. And I melted. Well, I melted as soon as I took his sneakers and pants off to find his cock solid and ready for me. I stepped away from the bed, slowly taking each article of clothing off one by one. His arm situation was turning me into a stripper in front of him. Maybe I needed to change my name to Candy or Peaches.

Once I was naked, I crawled up the bed, stalking my prey, for once being in full control. I liked the give and take between us, but as I sunk down on top of J, feeling him fill every inch of me, I found myself setting the rhythm and taking charge. I was cautious to avoid his bad shoulder as I leaned over him, placing my hands on either side of his head. He brought his free hand to my face, cupping it, and closed his eyes.

"You're perfect, you know?"