Beautiful Outlaw (15 page)

Pulling out his phone, he clicks on the screen for a second then lies back down.  He hands it to me and says, “That was us at Key West last summer.”

Taking the phone from his hand, I stare at a picture of my brother and a beautiful woman.  She has black hair, and her eyes show that she has Asian blood running through her veins.  He is right; she is gorgeous, but there is something about her that turns me off.  While my brother is smiling down at her and seems happy, she looks cold.  There is a smile on her face, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. 

“Mom didn’t like her.” He says in a quiet voice.  “She never said anything, but I could tell that she wasn’t Dana’s biggest fan.”

“Hmmm.” I mumble, not knowing what to say.

She didn’t like Marcus either.  Even before we were married and he was just Dad’s boss, Mom would talk about how strange he seemed.  At the time, I had no idea who he was.  He was just the man that signed my dad’s check and nothing more.  She has always been a good judge of character, and judging by the things she said to Bowie, she really liked him.

I go quiet, as I lay cocooned in my big brother’s arms.  Silence fills the room, until I hear the sounds of footsteps coming down the hall.  I turn my head, in time to see Bowie walking in the room wearing dry clothes.  The wet jeans he had on earlier held in his hands.  He tosses them on the floor at the end of the bed and looks at me. 

“I’ve got to ride out with Shooter.  I’ll be back later, and we’ll head home.”

He doesn’t give me a chance to ask where he is going, before he is talking to Jeremy.  “You’re gonna stay here with her, right?”

My brother slides from the bed and stands up in front of Bowie.  “I’ll stay here, but we need to have words first.”

Bowie’s face goes hard as he shoots daggers from his eyes.  “I think I’ve had enough of your fuckin’ words.”

“I was wrong to say that shit.” Jeremy states, stepping closer to him.  “But she’s my sister and I don’t want her to be hurt.  Treat her right, and we won’t have any problems.”

The Bowie from the last week is gone, and the asshole I met the first day is back with a vengeance.  “She’s mine, and I’ll treat her any fuckin’ way I want.  If you don’t like it you can suck my damn dick.”

I sit up, ready to tell him to kiss my ass, but he doesn’t give me a chance.  Before I can even open my mouth, he turns and stomps out of the room. 

“Shit!” Jeremy says, sitting down on the bed and blowing out a frustrated breath.  “I fucked up bad.”

“He didn’t mean it.” I say, hoping my words are true.

My brother turns his head to look at me.  “Yeah, he did.  I disrespected him.  Bowie is not a man that is gonna take that shit.”

He reaches out, placing a hand on my cheek.  “Remember that, Sis.  Don’t throw shit his way.  If you do, you’ll regret it.”

A cold chill prickles my skin.  “He would never hurt me.”

He shakes his head.  “I don’t think he would, but I don’t know.  When he considered you my sister, he would’ve never laid a hand on you.  Now that you’re his woman, you’re his property.  He’ll do whatever the fuck he wants.”

Oh my God, Jeremy sounds defeated.  Like he knows there is nothing he can do to stop Bowie.  I’m his and there’s nothing my brother can do to change it.  Even though I fought for the right to be his woman, now I’m worried that I made the wrong decision.

Pussy on the Brain

Bowie

I slide off my bike and look towards the trailer before cutting my eyes to Tin-Man. He and I rode out for Shooter tonight.  What should have been an easy job, turned into a fuckin’ mess.  “Give me a few to get cleaned up and then we’ll hit the road.”

He looks down to my shirt and back up to my eyes.  “It’s gonna take more than a few minutes to clean that shit up. He got you good, you may need to see the doc.”

“Fuck that.” I can feel the sticky blood coating the side of my chest, and my blood starts to boil.  “The bastard got me with my own fuckin’ knife.”

Tin shakes his head.  “Your mind wasn’t where is should have been.  If it was, that shit would’ve never happened.”

He’s right. My head wasn’t in the game. If I had been concentrating on our little side trip for the Hellions, no way this shit would’ve happened.   Since the day my Granddaddy gave me his old bowie knife, it hasn’t left my side.  No one, and I mean no-fuckin’-one was better with a knife than me.  Even in the desert, I took out more rag-heads with my blade than my rifle. 

“If this shit happens when we’re dealing with the Sixes, you’ll be sporting more than a gash.” He adds, reminding me of what lays ahead for our club. 

I’ve forgotten everything, including my duty to my brothers.  The problem is that my brain is wrapped up in a piece of pussy instead of concentrating on what’s important.  No matter how hard I tried to focus tonight, Shay’s face kept popping up.  I knew her brother would take care of her, but I hated leaving her alone with the whack-job so fuckin’ close.  I don’t know how the hell she did it, but she has me twisted in knots.  I have to find a way to untangle myself before I get killed.

Placing my hand over the wound in my side, I nod.  “That shit’s gonna change right now.”

“Don’t do it, brother.” He cautions.  “This isn’t Shay’s fault; it was yours.”

“I know that.” I growl out, pissed that he’s getting into my shit.  “I just have to remember what I am.”

“What are you?” He asks, studying my face. 

“I’m an Outlaw.” I say firmly as I walk to the door of the trailer. 

Before I can grab the knob, Lock swings the door open.  He looks down at the blood still seeping from my side and says, “What the fuck happened to you?”

Not answering, I walk past him.  Heading straight to the bathroom, my path is blocked by Shay.  “Get out of my fuckin’ way.”

Her eyes search my face, before going down to the stain on my shirt.  Instead of saying anything, she turns around and walks into the bathroom.  By the time I make it there, she has the sink running and is rummaging through the medicine cabinet. 

Cutting her eyes to me then quickly looking back to the medicine cabinet, she orders, “Take off your shirt and sit down.”

I do as she says, sitting on the edge of the tub.  “I don’t need you to take care of me.”

She grabs a washcloth from the shelf beside the sink and puts it under the water.  Leaving it there just long enough to get it wet, she turns off the water and wrings out the cloth.  Then, she turns to me with anger flashing in her eyes.  “I don’t care what you need.”

Not waiting for permission, she bends down and starts to clean the dried blood from my side.  Going from my side then to the sink and back again, she finally washes away most of the blood.  Her small fingers work the wound, rubbing some gel over it and finally placing a bandage over the long gash.

“How did this happen?” She asks as she leans back to toss the blood covered wrap into the clothes hamper. 

“That’s none of your fuckin’ business,” There’s no way that I’m gonna tell her that I got careless and let a member of the Desert Ghosts get hold of my knife.

“Fine,” She says as she stands up. 

She heads straight to the sink and starts to wash her hands.  I can see the unshed tears in her eyes in the mirror above the sink.  I’m not sure if it’s my injury or my words that caused them, but right now I don’t care. 

She finally turns to look at me and says, “It’s not deep, but it’s a large cut.  You need to keep it covered for a day or two.”

Not wanting to give her an in, not wanting to let her in my head again, I say.  “How the fuck would you know?”

Her body goes taut as she answers, “After having every part of my body cut on, I know a thing or two about wounds.”

Not caring about the pain in my side, I reach out and pull her to me.  All thoughts of not letting her get to me are gone as I pull up her shirt.  I attempt to search her body for scars, scars that I didn’t notice last night, as she tries to pull my hands away.

“What are you doing?” She asks as she jerks away from me. 

The sudden movement causes a pain to shoot up my side, but I ignore it.  “What the fuck are you talking about?  Who the hell cut you?”

She takes a few steps back and leans against the bathroom wall.  “Marcus made me have surgeries.  He wanted me to look like his dead wife.”

Nina told me that Shay had lived her life in the shadow of the bastard’s ex-wife.  She even said the dick-head called her by the others woman’s name, but she didn’t say shit about surgeries.  “You’ve gotta be shitting me.”

Her hand goes to her face to run over her nose, something I’ve seen her do more than once.  “My nose was done right after we got married, my chin after that, and my eyes were pulled back to give them a tilt.”  She smiles, but it looks sad.  “It didn’t work.  The doctor didn’t pull the skin tight enough to give them the tilt Marcus wanted, so they’re still mine.”

“Fuck…” I mumble.

She goes quiet for a minute, staring at me but I can tell that she isn’t seeing anything.  Right now, she is lost in her memories.  She looks away, moving her hand to her ears.  “My ears were pinned back, and my breasts were reduced.  I had my tummy tucked when I turned thirty.”

“Damn it, baby.” I say, as I push myself up.  Doing my best to mask my pain, I walk to her and pull her into my arms.  “We’ll get it all fixed.”

I feel her body jerk in my arms.  “What?”

“Soon as this shit is over, we’ll get it all fixed.  You can have Opie Taylor ears for all I fuckin’ care.  I love your tits, but if you wanna go to double Ds, I’m not gonna complain.  Soon as I plant my baby in you, the tummy tuck will be all for shit anyway.”

“Baby?” she asks, her voice hoarse. 

I pull back and look into her eyes.  A few minutes ago, I wanted her to live in the background.  Now, I want her front and center for every-fuckin’-thing.  “If this shit works out, you’ll be giving me a baby.”

She relaxes the slightest bit, leaning into my hold.  “He wanted me to have my tubes tied, that’s why I left.  I wanted to have a baby with someone I loved.  I let all my other dreams go; I couldn’t lose that one too.”

Her words cause my stomach to burn.  “Like I said, you’ll be giving me a baby.”

Devil Incarnate

Shay

I’m shoving the few things I brought into my backpack, when Jeremy walks into the bedroom.  His eyes are soft, when he lays a hand on my shoulder.  “You call me if you need me, okay.”

“I thought you said I couldn’t call,” He had, over and over again.  He made sure I knew that phone calls could be traced, even when you are talking on cells.

My brother looks down the hall and back to me.  “I did, but shit’s changed.  If you need anything, you call.”

“If she needs anything, she’ll come to me,” Bowie states as he walks in the room and places his hand on my back. 

“She’s still my sister, man,” Jeremy says looking at Bowie.  “You’re still my brother, too.”

He’s quiet for a long minute, before he responds.  “We are, as long as you don’t try to cause shit between me and my woman.”

“I won’t, as long as you take good care of her,” My brother repeats the words he used earlier. 

I can feel Bowie tense beside me and I expect him to blow up, instead, he nods.  “I will, but you need to stay out of our shit.  What goes on between me and Shay is our business.  You’ll always be my brother, but if you cause shit between me and my woman, you’ll be my enemy, too.”

Jeremy lifts his chin, acknowledging Bowie’s words, then looks back to me.  “I love you, Sis.”

A sense of foreboding oozes down my spine. Jeremy is worried and it’s hard to ignore. I feel tears prick my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall.  “I love you, too.”

Without letting me give my brother a proper goodbye, Bowie grabs my arm and practically drags me down the hallway. I wrench my arm away and turn back to Jeremy, desperate to have another minute with him.

“Bowie, stop it! I just want to…”

“It’s time to go,” He growls out, anger in his voice. 

He reaches out for me again me, but Jeremy is on us in a second, wrapping his strong arms around me. “It’ll be okay, Sis, just remember, one call.”

As soon as he releases me, Bowie’s arm is around me and we are down the hall and out the door where Tin-Man is sitting on his bike.  As soon as he sees me, he smiles.  “About damn time, now we can head home.”

“What the fuck ever,” Bowie mumbles under his breath as we walk toward his bike. 

He climbs on and motions for me to do the same.  As soon as my arms are wrapped around him, the engine of his bike comes to life.  Without warning, he starts backing out of the driveway.  Just as we hit the road, I see my brother step into the door.  He doesn’t lift a hand, just watches us ride away.

*****

I climb off the bike, stretching my muscles.  After all the hours on the road, my body aches from head to toe.  I know Bowie has to be hurting.  He started to move around on his bike, not long after we crossed the Kentucky border.  I tried to keep my arms from touching his wound, but with every bump of the road, I would brush against it.  Each time, I could feel Bowie tense. 

When he finally slides from the bike, he lays a hand on the small of my back.  “Come on, baby.  Let’s get some rest.”

I look toward the clubhouse and back to him.  “Why did you bring me here?  You could’ve dropped me off at Nina’s, or even let me ride with Tin.  That’s where he was headed, right?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” He asks, as he pushes me forwards and starts walking us to the door. 

“I just meant, this seems like a lot of trouble.  We drove right past Nina’s.  You could have dropped me off then, and you wouldn’t have to take me over there later.”

He shakes his head, not missing a step.  “You’re not going back there.  You sleep by my side from now on.”

Before I get a chance to argue with him, a large man with silver hair steps out of the clubhouse door.  Bowie’s body goes on alert, and he pushes me behind him. 

“Wondered when you’d get your ass home?” The man says his voice anything but welcoming.