FORCE: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (44 page)

Emmy

"You live here?" 

She was younger than me, but looked harder and tougher than I could ever hope to be.  Her lean, smooth body had nothing extra to it.  She was like a compact tornado, and I could tell Crash couldn't wait to get her back to his bunk and see just what kind of energy tiny Lupe packed under the sheets.

She must have decided to take out the competition first.  And though I would have never believed us to be playing in the same level, she obviously did.  Her stance was confrontational and her words were disbelieving as I slowly nodded my head. 

"Yeah, I guess I do," I replied warily.

She broke out into a wide grin, her whole face opening like a flower.  "That's so fucking cool," she squealed.  "Who're you with, that black guy?  Damn girl, get some!"

My mouth fell open in shock and then I laughed with her.  She raised her Solo cup and knocked it against mine in a toast.  "Cheers!" she giggled, and threw back her drink. 

I followed suit, letting the whiskey pour down my open throat.  I always felt guilty about drinking around Robert.  But I was in good company tonight.

Crash hovered near Lupe, leaning against the stack of boxes she was perched atop like a tiny little bird.  Her friends Hannah and Allison were both hanging on the arms of a wildly grinning, red-faced Case, who sat back in one of the camp chairs like a king holding court.  J. was sitting on another camp chair, leaning forward, watching the room warily.  I made to say goodbye to Lupe, but her attention was taken up by Crash's tongue down her throat.

We hadn't talked yet.  Once the party started around me, I made my decision. I wasn't going to push him.  I took a long swallow from my cup, hoping the alcohol would warm the chill that wrapped around me.

"This was a good idea." I sidled over to J., feeling hesitant. He leaned back and opened his arms.  Sighing deeply, I sank into his lap and rested my head on his shoulder.

"It was," he agreed, nuzzling my hair.  "Shit's been too serious."

"No shit," I laughed falling into his pattern of eloquent profanity quite easily.

"Emmy," he murmured, sighing as if in pain.

I startled, ready to hear him finally talk.  "Is everything okay?"

He inhaled, about to say something, then sighed again.  "Let's just enjoy this."
My heart sank, but I didn't push.  I didn't want to be serious anymore.  I wanted to be a normal girl my age.  Happy and carefree with my gorgeous boyfriend and his group of crazy friends.   Never mind that they were actually a biker gang.  If I pushed everything else away, I could almost pretend we were hanging out in a dorm room, shooting the shit like college students.

Something I was missing out on.  I felt a twinge in my heart, an eagerness that I couldn't identify.  Maybe these girls would know someone I did.  "Where do you guys go to school?" I called to Hannah and Allison.

Case shot me a look when they two girls turned to answer me, but I only smiled innocently. "CCP," Hannah answered, shrugging her bare, pale shoulders.  Her sky-blue tube top set off the freshness of her freckled pink cheeks, but the heavy eyeliner around her green eyes let me know she thought herself a badass.  "I'm gettin' my associate's first before I spend all that money on a bachelor's."

"Heh, good idea," I agreed.  "I went to the University of the Arts for a bit and I think I'll be paying the loans for the rest of my life."

"See, that's why I didn't deal with that bullshit," Case announced, trying to draw Hannah's attention back to him.  "College is a rip-off."

"You never went?" Allison asked worshipfully, petting his upper arm.  "What did you do instead?"

"Worked," Case puffed importantly.  "Hustled.  They're more ways to make money than sitting in a shitty office."

Allison looked impressed, but Hannah was skeptical.  "What did your parents think of that?" she pressed.

J. sucked in his teeth.  I looked at him and he shook his head ever so slightly, indicating that I shouldn't ask. 

Case regarded Hannah steadily, the ardor in his gaze gone out like a light.  "Guess you'll have to ask them, Miss Priss.  If you can find them."

Hannah was confused.  "You don't know where your parents are?"

"My guess would be dead in a ditch," he spat.  He shook himself free of Allison's clinging.  She batted her heavily mascaraed lashes and pouted as Hannah registered slow shock and understanding.

J. raised his hand, attempting to smooth over the sudden chill in the room.  "You didn't know, babe.  She didn't know, Case," he called.  But Case only sat back in his chair and drained his beer moodily.

"You're a fucking serious motherfucker," Crash admonished him. 

"I would be happy too if I couldn't remember past fifteen minutes ago," Case growled. 

"Chill the fuck out man, that was a low blow," J. stood up from his chair and went over to Case.  "Unnecessary."

"Sorry," Case mumbled into his beer.

"He's right though," Crash announced to the breathless girls.  "Memory's fucked." He turned to Lupe with a tragic air.  "Ever since my accident."

"You were in an accident?" she cooed, smoothing her hand over his face and clucking over him.

"When I was eighteen," he nodded. He grinned and licked his lips, then suddenly went pale.  "Hey, you're eighteen, right?

"Nineteen," she said proudly.

"Then don't worry mami, all the important parts still work."  His lopsided grin had the desired effect.  Her tongue disappeared down his throat again.

Allison eyed them jealously, and then turned to J., poking her lower lip out prettily.  "I thought he said we'd be partying.  This is sad and boring."

"Then go the fuck home," J. said gruffly, not even looking in her direction.  "Case man, what the fuck?"

Case shook his head and avoided J.'s penetrating gaze.  My feeling of unease was too familiar.  Once again I retreated into helpfulness. "Hey Allison, let's go grab some more drinks," I called.

Hannah was staring at her nails, pointedly ignoring the rest of us.  Allison's head swiveled between the unappetizing choices of going with me and hovering unwanted near Case.  She sighed dramatically and flipped her hair with a tiny, muttered "Whatever," and shuffled morosely over to me.

"Not what you expected, huh?" I tried to commiserate as we picked our way through the clutter to the kitchen.

"Pfft," she rolled her eyes.  "Some bikers."

I felt like I needed to defend them.  "There's a lot of stuff going on right now.  It's weighing on them."

Her eyes glittered as she looked at me eagerly.  I instantly regretted my words, but there was no taking them back.  "Really, like what?  Bad shit?  Like," she lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.  "Drugs?"

I opened my mouth to scoff at the notion, and then paused.  I realized I didn't actually know anything for sure about this club.  About these men.  Even about my man.

Their secrets were bubbling just under the surface, ready to boil over in an instant.  As I looked back over my shoulder, to the man I loved and depended on, I saw him in close conversation with his friend.  Hearing those secrets.  With his back to me.

J.

"Case man, what the fuck?"  J. reached out his hand and clasped his best friend by the forearm, lifting him from the camp chair.  "Let's take a walk."

"Yeah this party sucks anyway," Case muttered.  The girl named Hannah flicked her gaze up from her nails and rolled her eyes.

"Why're you being an ass?" It felt good to poke at someone else's anger.  It seemed to help diminish his own.

Case turned away from J., the muscle at his temple twitching and jumping.  He pressed his lips together, seemingly holding back a flood of words, and walked out into the evening light.  The skyscrapers glittered overhead, the only time J. didn't mind being in their shadow. J. followed, crossing his arms and waiting, knowing that his friend needed time to figure out what he wanted to say.  Seriousness did not come easily to Case.  Off color jokes and pointed insults were his main form of communication.

"So. Are you finally gonna stick around for a minute?" Case asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You've been flitting in and out of here without a care in the fucking world."

"Hey, you know I had to deal with my sister."

Case barked a short laugh.  "Sure.  You had to deal with her
right now
.  You've been ignoring her calls for weeks but suddenly today it's urgent you go over there?"

"What is your problem?"

"My problem is your lack of fucking focus here, Jeremiah."  Hearing his full name on Case's lips made J. stand up straighter.  "You're distracted.  Waltzing in and out of here like you're a tenant instead of a fucking brother."

J. pressed his lips together angrily, biting back the fighting words.  "Fine.  I'm distracted.  I'm here now though.  So tell me what's so fucking important."

Case regarded him coolly.  He searched his eyes as if looking for something, and then sighed when he didn't see it. "Okay, fine." He inhaled and J. leaned forward a little. "Let me say this first.  I like her. She's a good girl, hot as fuck too.  I'm happy for you."

"Thanks," J. answered warily.  "But?"

"Shit's gonna go down." Case leaned heavily against the side of the garage and winced.  He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a battered pack of cigarettes.  He mutely handed one to J. who looked down at it in surprise.

"Since when you smoke?"

"Since shit started going down," he snapped.  "A fact you've managed to avoid noticing. In the past week we've had two major security breaches.  Your thing with that fucking racist piece of shit," Case spat on the ground and J nodded at the gesture, "and then we had the cops sniffing around here looking for your girl.  Things are hot, hotter than they've been in years.  And I don't like having a spotlight shone on me.  You know how I feel about it."

J. nodded.  A child of the system, Case was acutely wary of the danger of letting people into your business.  To J. it meant prison time.  To Case, exposure meant getting ripped from your family and everyone you knew and loved and thrown into a turmoil that still haunted him to this day.  "Teach is working on it," J. reminded him.  "He'll get things with the Storm Riders worked out."

Case's jaw worked.  He threw his cigarette to the pavement and ground it viciously under his heel. "When CPS took us the first time, I promised my brothers I would never let us be separated again," he suddenly said.  J. was startled to hear him talk about his dark, desperate childhood.  "And the only way I could make sure we stayed together was if we stayed with my mother.  So I had to lie to the social worker.  I swore she didn't hit us.  I swore that she was a good mom and had never locked us outside over night.  That she just worked long hours and that's way she was never home, not that she disappeared for weeks on end, leaving the three of us in an unheated house over the wintertime." He let out a ragged breath.  "I had to cause myself pain, actual physical pain, in order to serve the greater good."  His eyes gleamed, but the tears stayed unshed.  "I lost them anyway," he choked.  "I weakened and I told the truth to a girl.  And then social services came and took my brothers, because I was weak."  He lit another cigarette and touched it to his lips.  "When I joined this club, it wasn't just a fucking lark for me.  I swore to protect it, swore that I was a brother now."  His voice caught.  "Again.  That I was a brother, again."  He looked at J. "I have to serve the greater good, even if it causes me physical pain." 

J. lit Case's cigarette with shaking fingers and inhaled deeply.  He wasn't a smoker, and that first breath made him cough.  The lightheaded buzz hit him quickly and he sat down heavily on the pavement outside the garage.  The sun was nearly set now.  It felt like a lifetime ago that he had woken in the country.  With Emmy in his arms. 

  The two men silently smoked, inhaling so quickly their cigarettes crackled. J. nearly jumped out of his skin when Teach appeared at his elbow. 

"You sober?" his mentor asked, keeping his voice low.

"Yeah Teach," J. straightened up and looked down at the smaller man.  The purple wound on his cheek shone shiny and wet looking and J. felt his stomach convulse at the sight.  He tried to wrench his gaze away and look Teach in the eyes, but when he finally found the strength, Teach had already looked away from him.

"Club meeting. Five minutes." he barked to group, his dreads swinging across his chest as he shot significant looks at each of the Sons.  "Crash, get rid of 'em."

Crash pulled himself away from Lupe with a wet smacking sound and cupped her ass firmly in his hand.  "Keep it warm for me, baby," he leered.

"You're leaving?" she pouted prettily.

"No sweet thing," Crash grinned.  "You are."

Hannah looked up from picking her nails.  Her bored expression had changed to one of relief.  "Let's get out of here, Lupe," she sneered.  "I thought you said these guys were fun."

"We could have some fun, " Crash smiled and grabbed his crotch.  "Three times the fun."

Hannah looked momentarily interested, but Case took that moment to stub out his cigarette and assume his responsibilities.  "No women at club meetings, ladies," he barked as he rounded back into the garage.  "You gotta get the hell out."

"I'll call you later," Crash winked.  "Both of you."

Hannah looked pleased, but Lupe pouted.  "Call me first," she simpered and shrieked giddily when Crash smacked her ass as she walked away.

Allison emerged from the kitchen, carefully balancing a handful of drinks.  "Hey, what the fuck?" she called when she saw her friends leaving.

"Party's over ladies," Case barked, clapping his hands like a schoolteacher.  "Out, out out."

J. grinned at the shocked and scandalized reactions of the girls when Emmy emerged from the kitchen.  She was carrying two drinks.  One for her and one for him, he suddenly realized. 

"Fuck," he sighed.

"Yeah," Case agreed.  "Want me to be the heavy?"

J. was momentarily tempted.  It would certainly be easier to just hang back and let Case throw her out.  "Naw man, I gotta tell her.  Not sure where she's gonna go though."

"She can sit in the office, long as she keeps the door closed," Teach piped up and J. felt a rush of gratitude.

Emmy sidled up to him and slipped the drink into his hand.  "Is the party over already?" she asked, taking a sip of her cup.  There was a note to her voice that he couldn't quite place as happy or sad.

"Em, is there anywhere you can go?" he blurted, then cursed himself.  He knew very well that she didn't.  Why the fuck did he have to poke that wound?

She looked at him sharply over the rim of her cup, but deliberately finished the sip of her drink.  "Actually no, J." she hissed sarcastically when she was through.  "I pretty much don't.  Thanks for asking."

He deserved that sarcasm.  He knew he did.  But he didn't have time to hash out all the reasons why.  The meeting was going to start very soon.  He could see the rest of the Sons gathering in the corner of the garage.  Doctor D. was dragging a folding chair across the cement floor, its metal shrieks echoing off the high ceiling.  J. could feel their impatience.  He should be over there already.

"I'm sorry," he replied hastily.  "I shouldn't have said that."  She huffed her acknowledgment and he pressed on.  "You need to get out of here though.  Club meeting.  Teach says you can wait in the office."

"You're kicking me out?"  It wasn't so much a question as a bland statement of fact.  And she didn't seem upset so much as disappointed. 

And that made him angry.  "I'm not kicking you out, I just told you, you can go sit in the office.  Just close the door."

"And do what, wait for you to be done?"

J. heard the tapping of a booted foot on the ground. Impatiently he spat back at Emmy.  "Yeah.  Wait.  What's the problem, did you have some other plans I didn't know about?"

The minute he said it, he regretted it.  Her blue eyes widened in shock at the low blow, but J. couldn't help her now.  "Emmy, just fucking go wait for me already.  You're lucky Teach is even letting you be in the building right now."

"That's just it, right?  You're
letting
me stay here.  Fuck," she laughed bitterly.  "Nothing has fucking changed."

"You stop that shit," J. growled.  "Don't you fucking lump me in with that asshole."

"And why not?" Emmy's voice was shaking.  Two spots of color flamed in her pale cheeks.  J. recognized the air of trapped desperation.  He hadn't seen it since he'd taught her to fight.  He looked down at her tiny hands and grimaced when he saw they were balled tightly at her sides.  He wondered briefly if she was about to hit him, but instead she just laughed hysterically.  "I took back control of my life from one guy only to hand it over to another." She shook her head, her platinum hair falling loose and unnoticed into her face.  "What a fucking joke I am.  How pathetic can I get?"

"You
stop
that shit," J. hissed again and shot a look over to where his brothers sat.  Case raised an impatient eyebrow and J. felt his fury rise.  All he wanted to do was have her leave the fucking room, how hard was that? "Just go.  Find someplace else to be for the time being."

She sniffed back her tears and straightened her shoulders.  J. waited for her to fight him again.  Instead she stalked stiffly to the bunkhouse. 

She emerged seconds later with her pack on her back.