Gonzo (Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club Book 7) (16 page)

“Why don’t you think I’m ready?”

I considered the question a few seconds and realized I hadn’t said what I really meant. “Okay then, I’ll show you when
we’re
ready.”

“You don’t want me?”

“Not true at all, but I’m not always as gentle as I was last night. I don’t want to scare you, and I don’t want to hurt you. I’ve been getting you used to my touch and I had no idea things would happen at all, must less this fast.” I hugged her a little tighter and then moved back a little as I put my palm on her cheek to be sure she looked at me as I told her, “I
loved
watching you come apart in my arms last night, but I think we both know we’re treading on dangerous ground. We can’t let the twins know we’re an item until we’re certain, and I’m not sure we should do a whole lot more than we did last night until we’re sure, either.”

She opened her mouth to argue and I put a finger over her mouth to shush her as I said, “Two weeks. Let’s keep to what we’ve been doing for two weeks and then see where we are.”

G
onzo

C
onnie surprised
me Saturday by telling me she wanted me to take the twins for the day for our furniture shopping trip, and to call her when we were ready for dinner so she could meet up with us.

I took them to my house first and showed them their rooms, and explained I’d have a door put in the wall between so they could still see each other at night.

They weren’t thrilled with separate bedrooms, but the door seemed to make it tolerable, though barely.

Declan wanted a full sized bed so he’d have room for a chest of drawers, some shelving units, and a huge desk.

Chloe decided on a king sized bed, two shelving units, and a chest of drawers.

Declan chose a nice wood finish, Chloe chose pink and white.

Both were disappointed the items wouldn’t be delivered for a few weeks, but I arranged for the mattresses to be delivered Monday so they could spend the night the next weekend.

Next, we picked out curtains, lamps, rugs, sheets, and we bought pillows. We got toothbrushes and kid toothpaste, a brush and a comb, and all of the other things they’d need so my house could be their second home. They’d have to pack clothes — at least for now — but everything else would already be at my house, just waiting for them.

We had an incredible day together, but I’ll admit I was mentally exhausted by the time we met Connie for dinner at a pizza place. They talked to her nonstop about their day, and I smiled as I listened to them rattle on in their excitement.

Even though I knew Connie wasn’t thrilled about them having their own rooms at my house, she still smiled and asked questions and showed them she was happy for them. I had the sense she had mixed feelings — happy they had the loving father they’d wanted, but sad it meant she wasn’t their sole caretaker anymore.

I needed to show her this could be a good thing for her. She wasn’t losing them, just gaining a little time to do things for herself.

We hadn’t talked much since I left Thursday morning. I’d gone from her house to the basement of the clubhouse and pounded on the heavy bag until my hands bled because I have
no
idea what comes next and I’m terrified I’m going to fuck up the good thing we have going.

I love my kids and I’ll truly be dead this time if anything happens to them, because they crawled into my heart the instant I saw their picture.

But can I ever have a normal relationship with a woman again? I like and respect Connie, and I enjoyed what little I’ve taught her so far. Showing her sex can be good was fun… but a relationship? I’m not sure I should even try, and if that’s the case then I’ll just fuck up what we have going with the kids if I let us start to go there.

Though, it might already be too late.

I worked the bar Thursday and Friday night. When I made it into the clubhouse after closing early that morning, Dawg had a girl bent over, fucking her from behind, and I made use of her mouth. Later though, when it was time to go to bed I didn’t take anyone with me. I wasn’t interested in any of them.

Connie was in slacks and a tailored blouse, but her hair was down instead of up. She cut her pizza with a knife and ate the pieces with a fork, but she let the kids eat it the right way, thank goodness.

Could I spend the rest of my life with a woman who eats pizza with a fork?

Shit, I hadn’t even had her on my bike — it was possible she’d refuse to ride with me.

We were happily eating at our table when a man strode past us like he was looking for trouble. I leaned out so I could see him as he walked to the back of the restaurant, and then stood when he grabbed a woman from a booth and began dragging her toward the door. I didn’t want him anywhere near the kids or Connie, so I walked to them and told him to let the woman go.

“Mind your own business. This is my woman and I’m taking her home.”

I kept my arms loose at my sides, but I took a step closer and got in his face. “Doesn’t look like she wants to go with you. Let. Her. Go.”

“You gonna make me?”

“I won’t have to. I’ve heard a few of the patrons of this fine establishment call nine-one-one already. I just have to block you until the police arrive.”

At this he threw the woman to the ground and took a swing at me.

I tend to beat the shit out of men who take a swing at me, but in a room full of witnesses I have to be more circumspect, so I caught his fist and pushed him backwards with it. He took four steps back before he stopped and caught his balance, and I said, “You’ve swung at me once and I didn’t retaliate. Don’t force me to defend myself, because you won’t like it.”

The idiot came at me again with a fist headed toward my face, but this time I blocked the blow with my left arm and hit him solidly on the chin with my right fist. His eyes rolled back in his head as he went down, and I stepped to the woman.

“Are you okay, ma’am?”

“I hurt my knee when he threw me down.”

She was close to tears and I looked around until I found an employee. “She needs ice. If you have a bag to put it in then great, but if not just bring two glasses full of ice so we can put them on either side of her knee.”

We moved her to a booth so she could straighten her leg in front of her, and we had a bag of ice resting on her knee when the police finally arrived.

The officer called for an ambulance for the man on the floor and then asked what happened. Everyone tried to talk at once and the officer finally said he wanted to talk to the person responsible for putting the man on the floor.

I raised my arm. “That’s me, but I know some patrons took video and it might be simplest to begin with you watching to see what happened, officer.” I wasn’t wearing my colors so there was a chance he wouldn’t know who I was affiliated with. Even if he knew, though, I should be okay once he saw the video.

He watched the video twice before telling me, “I know you’re RTMC and I’m surprised you let him get away with taking the first swing. Still, this is clear cut self-defense because you let him swing twice before you defended yourself.” He looked to the woman. “Are you okay, ma’am?”

She nodded and I told the officer her knee was hurt but she’d said she didn’t need an ambulance.

“We can have the paramedic take a look when he comes to take care of your assailant.”

He started asking her questions about how she knew the assailant, and I asked if it’d be okay if I returned to sit with my family until he needed to ask me questions.

He nodded, and I walked back to the table.

Connie looked less than pleased, but the twins were so excited they couldn’t contain themselves.

“Wow Daddy! You hit him and knocked him out with ONE PUNCH! Can you teach me to do that?” I was certain the entire restaurant heard her, but I ignored their looks and smiles.

“Remember what I said about hitting people? If there’s a teacher or police officer close so you can yell and get their attention, it isn’t okay to hit someone. You have to let the teacher or police officer take care of the problem. The only time you can hit someone is if there’s no one else around to help, and you have to save either yourself or someone else.”

“Did you kill him?” Declan asked, his voice quiet.

I shook my head. “No. He’ll be okay but he’s going to have a really bad headache when he wakes up.” I pulled him into my lap and told him, “I just needed to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone while we were waiting for the police.” I nodded to the man, who was now sitting up on the floor, obviously dazed. “The paramedics will check him out and decide if he needs to go to the hospital. He hit his head on the floor when he fell, so it’s possible a doctor will need to make sure he stays still and doesn’t get hit again, and he won’t be able to do that in jail so they might take him away in the ambulance. He’ll be handcuffed to his hospital bed if he goes though, because he’s under arrest. He’ll go to jail to be fingerprinted when he gets out of the hospital, and he might have to stay a little while if he doesn’t have money to bail himself out.”

When the ambulance finally arrived the officer came to our table. “You have a nice family, Mr. Wells. I assume you’re okay, but I need to ask so I can note it in my report.”

“I’m fine. I understand the victim had a restraining order and the assailant broke it? Is she doing okay?”

“She is, and I don’t approve of vigilantism but it’s good you interceded.” He’d asked for my driver’s license earlier, and he handed it back to me now. “I don’t have any further questions for you at this time, but it’s likely you’ll be called if this goes to trial.”

I set Declan in my chair as I stood and offered my hand. “Thanks, Officer Stark. I appreciate your professionalism. If you need me to press charges against him to keep him away from her longer I will, but I have a feeling you have enough without my doing so.”

He shook my hand and told me to enjoy the rest of my evening with my family, and left.

I lifted Declan and set him back on my leg as I took my seat again. “Always show respect to police officers. They’re the good guys and they have a hard job.”

“Are you a good guy, Daddy?” Chloe asked. “You saved that woman, right?”

“I think I was a good guy today, because I let a certain little girl change her mind a
million
times about which bed she wanted,” I said with a huge grin.

Chloe giggled and grinned back, and Connie changed the subject. “If we’re all through eating perhaps we can go home?”

I hadn’t finished, but I could box it up and eat it later. I took care of the bill and got a box, and we all piled back into my car, as we’d picked Connie up at home instead of her meeting us at the restaurant.

“Did it hurt your hand when you hit him, Daddy?” Declan asked from the back seat.

“Yes, because you have to hit someone really hard if you want to knock them out, and I didn’t want him to get up and try to hit me again until the police arrived. I’m sure his face hurts a whole lot more than my hand, though.”

I felt more of Connie’s distress with every question, so I once again reminded them it isn’t okay to hit someone at school or daycare, because you only have to tell a teacher when there’s a problem so the teacher can take care of it.

We started the bedtime routine shortly after arriving back at Connie’s, and I read six books before carrying Declan to his bed and making sure they were both tucked in with plenty of hugs and kisses.

Connie and I sat in silence on the top step, and when I heard them both drop off into sleep I went to the den and she followed.

“You’re pissed at me. Why?”

She crossed her arms. “I’m upset with the situation. The kids didn’t need to see that kind of violence, and while I wish you hadn’t gotten involved, I realize I’m selfish for wanting you to have stayed out of it because it’s clearly a good thing you stepped in.” She dropped her arms, sighed, and crossed them again. “I once told you I saw you as a guardian under the rough biker exterior. I knew who you were when I came to you with that picture. I have no right to be pissed you got involved, and yet… I kind of am.”

“Did I do okay explaining it to the twins?”

She nodded. “Yes. The last thing I need is to get a call from the principal because Chloe decks a boy who picks on her friend.”

I chuckled because I could easily see Chloe doing just that, and then claiming it was okay because I hit the guy in the restaurant who wasn’t being nice to the woman. I pulled Connie into my arms and held her a few seconds before saying, “Thanks for letting me have the day with the twins. I’ll go before I wear out my welcome.”

“No, you can stay. I invited you to stay until we leave for church in the morning, and the offer still stands.”

She needed to work through her feelings, but if she wanted me around then perhaps I could help sway her towards me, instead of away from me.

“Okay, how about we watch some TV? More Sons of Anarchy, or would you prefer something less violent this evening?”

“I don’t… yeah, sure.”

“Was there something else you wanted to do?”

She opened her mouth, closed it, looked at the floor, the ceiling, the television, and finally met my gaze. “I want to talk. I want to know where we are. I want to kiss some more and maybe… but I’m scared to find out where we are because I don’t think you’re as interested in me as I am in you.”

I’m used to shutting women down when they start wanting
anything
from me beyond a random fuck. If I’m honest, I’d have shut Connie down before she got the second sentence out if I didn’t need to keep a good relationship with her because of the twins. She’s important to them and I wasn’t going to fuck this up.

“I gave you your first orgasm, Connie. That’s all this is. You’re high society and I’m a biker. It can never work out between us.”

“That isn’t true. Once I got to know you and saw beneath your rough exterior, I’ve liked you from that day forward.”

“You think I’m crude.”

“At times, but I also appreciate your blunt honesty, even if you’re sometimes more vulgar about it than I’d prefer.”

I sat on the sofa and stretched my legs out in front of me. “The truth is, I’ve shown you my good side. If there hadn’t been witnesses tonight I’d have beat the bloody hell out of the human long before he had a chance to throw a punch, and then I’d have asked the woman if I could take her to a friend’s house.”

“So, all of that talk about respecting the police because they’re the good guys? That was a lie?”

“No, most of them
are
the good guys, and I respect the ones who are. Even when they’re arresting me I try to show respect to the ones who deserve it.”

She finally sat, but did so in one of the chairs instead of beside me on the sofa.

“I thought you didn’t have a record?”

“I’ve never been found guilty in court but I’ve been arrested a few times. Most of the time charges are dropped before we ever make it to court, but it’s gone that far a few times. We keep the best local lawyers money can buy on retainer.”

“Have you been guilty any of the times you were arrested?”

Well I walked right into that. Instead of answering, I asked a question. “Why do you have so much security? You have the most expensive home security money can buy — I’m pretty sure there’s a saferoom between your room and the twins’ bedroom, you have a panic button on your keychain I’d be willing to bet dings the control room of Drake Security, and I just heard something when you took your shoes off. I’ve heard it before and assumed it was the home alarm system, but now I’m thinking there’s a tracker in your shoes that checks in every time it gains or loses your body heat, and perhaps sporadically while you have them on, as well. If there’s one in every pair of shoes you own, that’s some serious money.”