Taking a Dare - A Hellion MC Novel (22 page)

That did it! Dare slammed his glass on the bar before
spinning back to face the old man. "Outside, motherfucker," he said
from between his clenched teeth. "You wanna piece of me? Then let's
fuckin' rock!"

Dare stormed out the door followed by everyone in the
clubhouse and picked a spot furthest from where the two lines of
bikes were parked in the forecourt as he shrugged out of his cut.
Shoving it towards Bishop, he turned back with his fists raised to
see Gus's knuckles coming for his face. Ducking to the side, Dare
shuffled around looking for an opening to get his own licks in.

This has been coming for fuckin' years!
Dare
crowed to himself, feeling the adrenaline sing in his blood. He
couldn't wait to take the pig-headed, douche-bag out if for no
other reason than the 'illiterate' remark.

But as he continued to dance and duck the punches
thrown by the shorter and much heavier man, Dare couldn't do it.
Gus was Ryley's father, for Christ's sake. A man didn't take out
his girl's dad no matter how much of an fuckin' asshole and control
freak the older guy was.

As suspected, it didn't take much for Gus to become
winded and tired, starting to trip over his feet as he tried to
make at least one of his punches count. Even the shouted
encouragements of the Spokane brothers were no longer adding any
energy. Dare glanced at Bishop and saw his friend make a cutting
motion across his throat.

Yeah. Time to shut this shit down.

One punch, that was more like a push than a jab, to
the oversized belly was all it took to have Gus hitting the
pavement on his ass. Dare waited to see if the old man was gonna
get up. When he didn't, Dare pointed his own finger and said, "I'll
give you props because she's your daughter. But fuckin' get this: I
don't like you, and probably worse, I don't respect you anymore
than you do me, dig? And you,
you
motherfucker, don't get to
tell me whether I'm good enough to be a Hellion. I already fuckin'
am, man, and I'm staying one. So get
the fuck
over it!"

Turning to snatch his cut from Bishop, he heard his
name called but ignored it. Dare was feeling bad that he'd even let
it get as far as it had. Christ! He should've just blown the old
guy off, let ol' Gus call Dare anything he wanted, demand anything
and everything. But, no. He'd opened his mouth without thinking and
let shit fly. A-fucking-again.

"Dare!" The voice was closer and he finally glanced
over his shoulder to see Leif striding towards him with a scowl on
his face. Not that he had any beef with Ryley's brother, but if the
boy wanted to fuckin' throw down, Dare could be talked into it
since he still needed to work off his fucked up day.

He stopped and waited.

"We need to talk, bro'," Leif announced with a
clenched jaw and narrowed eyes.

"About?"

"My sister," was all the bearded man said. He turned
and looked back at his old man who was being helped up by March
before twisting back to Dare.

"I'm listening."

"That last time…" Leif started then stopped. He
rubbed a hand over his face and glanced at Dare before continuing.
"After that time you guys spent together when we were all kids,
Ryley didn't do very well. When we got home…it was like something
in her fucking died. Folks finally ended up getting her a
shrink."

Dare didn't know what to say or even to feel. "They
ever figure out what was wrong?"

Leif looked away again. "
You
. She lost
you
is what the counselor told my dad. That she was
grieving." Dare saw a muscle jumping in the other man's cheek as he
looked back again where his father was being assisted into the
clubhouse. "Only fifteen years old and was cut up over a boy she'd
only known a fuckin' week, man. It was too much for my dad and
since then, he's kind of been her guard dog. Not to mention, put
your name on his permanent shit-list."

What. The. Fuck?

"How long?" Dare asked, barely able to choke the
words out from around the lump in his throat. He was mentally
counting off the length of time it had taken him to get back into
real life after watching her ride away from his seventeen year old
self.

"What?"

"How fuckin' long until she snapped out of it?"
Dare's voice was a low, dark growl.

Frowning, Leif shrugged his wide shoulders before
replying. "About a year, I guess."

Fuck! His own hell had lasted ten months which was
close to the amount of time she'd suffered with the same shit. The
same
fuckin' shit!

"Thought you deserved an explanation for the old
man's…shit hemorrhage. On why he's got it in for you. It's not
about you so much as he doesn't want her to…"

Dare lifted a hand to stop Leif from saying anymore
words because the ones he'd already used were about to bring Dare
to his motherfuckin' knees. "I get it."

"And just wanted to say thanks, too. For, you know,
not takin' Pops out." Dare glanced at Leif to check for sincerity
and found it underneath the man's scowl.

"It's all good," Dare mumbled, shoving his hands in
his pockets again not knowing how to end an uncomfortable
conversation. "I…ah…I appreciate the info about Ryley."

"Just stay away from her, brother. That'd be the best
thing for everyone all the way around. Stay away from Ryley," and
at that, Leif turned towards the clubhouse.

Dare watched the other man move away and felt a hand
grip his shoulder from behind. He hadn't even realized Bish and big
Si had stayed with him and had, more than likely, overheard what
Leif had said.

"So what cha gonna do with this new info, bro'?" Bish
asked after a time.

Dare shrugged in answer.

"Maybe it's time you fuckin' shit or get off the pot,
dig?" Dare couldn't disagree with Bishop's advice.

"Fuck! All this drama over pussy," Silo rumbled,
shaking his head.

And at the bald man's words, Dare had his second
honest laugh of the day.

*.*.*.*.*

At first, all I could do was stare around me at the
pink (pink!) appliances and at the fuzzy purple couch that was
visible from the other room.
'Who the fuck decorated like
this?',
my brain wondered. But as I disengaged the system,
entering the code that would stop its infernal bleeps, I realized
Lulu's place was just like her. Weird, strange but on the cutting
edge of cool.

She'd been right about the fridge and before getting
comfy, I made a run to the grocery store. After eating and sucking
back a much needed beer, I made my way to the bathroom intent on a
shower. But, the plethora of bath salts, bubble bath and feminine
additives convinced me to pour a glass of wine from the bottle I'd
picked up, light a couple of candles and just do the
girlie-chillaxed thing.

But as I laid back on the blow up pillow Lulu had
suction-cupped to the back rim and placed the washcloth over my
eyes, the memories came flooding back.

Lock had given me a note, pressed into my palm, after
dinner whispering, "it's from Dare." It had asked me to meet him
behind the equipment building at 7.00 p.m.

When I'd gotten there, he'd pulled me around the
back, giving me some lame excuse on whatever it was that had
happened that day before asking for a hug. So I'd complied, very
conscious of how he was an orphan and probably didn't get much in
the way of things that other families took for granted.

Only my hug with Dare was different from any other
cuddle I'd ever received before. It wasn't just a quick grab, pat
and release but a slow sliding of bodies and arms. It was having my
face in his neck and his in mine as we both pressed against one
another and just…breathed. A clench and press of our young flesh as
our arms had simply held one another.

I even remembered what he'd whispered, his breath hot
against the skin of my neck. "You feel so good, Ryley and smell so
fucking amazing." He'd always called me by my full name when
everyone else shortened it to a simple, 'Rye'.

I don't remember if I answered but I do know I was
shaking like a damn leaf and could feel my heart booming inside my
chest when he'd pulled away. All from just a hug. A grownup hug
that my fifteen year old self had found very exciting.

And which probably showed on my face if the way my
dad kept me close to him for the rest of that evening meant
anything when I'd rejoined the group.

The next night almost all the under twenties in the
club actually went inside the equipment building, setting up a
sound system after snagging a couple of bottles of the cheap booze
the clubhouse had on hand though we knew we weren't supposed to be
stealing from the club. It didn't take but a couple of drinks and
almost all of us were dancing in one of the aisles in the middle
with only the lights along the perimeters off the shed illuminating
the edges.

Just enough dark to do things but enough light to
keep the adults off our butts.

Dare had snagged me by the loops of my low-riding
jeans at the opening bars of Nickelback's 'How You Remind Me' and
didn't let me go for the following four songs.

I'd been ecstatic!

While he wasn't fancy on his feet, a fact I'd been
grateful for at the time, the guy definitely had rhythm and knew,
geez more than knew, how to use his hips. He'd step towards me
shifting his shoulders in a counter-rhythm and just as our bodies
would touch, he'd step away, keeping hold of my belt loops. God.
Even remembering how he'd looked back then as he'd danced with a
small, sexy grin that I knew had been just for me, caused a deep
throb inside.

He'd led me to one of the darker corners and wrapped
his arms around me before he leaned down and provided me with my
first kiss, which was a precursor to the french one he initiated a
few moments later. But our make-out session abruptly ended when
Leif came looking for me. Dare's face had shown the same yearning
and disappointment I'd felt inside when we were interrupted.

It was about an hour before we left the next day,
when everyone was still hanging out by the picnic tables and the
club bar-b-que was winding down that Lock pulled me aside. "Here's
another note from Dare. Says I'm supposed to walk with you so your
dad don't find out."

Since I'd already covered her ass a couple of times
so her brother, Pagan, didn't catch on to her slipping away with
Blaze, I wasn't surprised by her offer. "What did he say?" I shot
back quickly on still lips, keeping both my brother, my mom and my
dad in view. Dare had been avoiding me all day though I could
sometimes feel his eyes on me. But every single time I looked his
way, he was talking with somebody else as if they were the most
interesting person in the world.

She just laughed and bumped my shoulder as we
meandered through the dwindling crowd of bikers, Honeys and kids.
"Nothing more than I told you, silly. But you'll probably want to
re-gloss before we get there."

And it was behind the equipment shed where Lock had
walked clear to the other side of the building and around the
corner, that I got my first 'I love you'. Offered by the only other
person I'd ever given it to. Taking me in his arms as if I was made
of the thinnest glass in the world, Dare had whispered how much he
loved me and how I was the only girl he wanted or would ever
want.

Everything a fifteen year old girl wants to hear from
her first love.

And then he'd kissed me again. Kissed me with such
sweetness and torturous hunger that I never wanted to let our
tongues untangle or lips part. No one could've pried my arms from
around his broad but thin shoulders.

It was the kind of kiss every girl should get in her
lifetime.

And one that became the benchmark of every kiss I'd
received since.

That there had been only two that had even come close
to hitting Dare's high standard spoke volumes about the tie we'd
built in those few days.

There was no denying things were happening between us
again and even though I was trying to keep a distance, not become
too emotionally invested in him, I couldn't help myself.

And I knew that path was dangerous for me.

Unsafe.

Perilous, even.

So bad, it had caused problems with my family when
I'd more than lost it after leaving Dare so long ago. My acting
out, my constant crying and then eventual silence had my poor
parents shuffling me from doctor to doctor.

Having me tested for drugs.

Being informed of the warning signs for teen-aged
suicide.

I remembered the huge fight my folks'd had when my
mom insisted on getting me professional help of the head-shrink
variety.

"She's fuckin' wasting away, Gus! They can't find a
damn thing wrong with her physically but we're losing our baby
girl. Rye needs help! With or without your approval, I'm getting
her some." My mom very rarely stood up to my pops but on that issue
she held steadfast. And while dad never said okay, he didn't put up
any more protests.

That is, until Dr. Dawson had brought them into one
of our sessions and had, in her own kind of psych-speak way,
spelled it out for them. Had told them that I was exhibiting all
the signs of grief in losing Dare but that I was working through it
with her help.

My pops had gone ballistic, absolutely non-linear, at
the news. "This is over a fuckin' boy? A little do-nothing,
pencil-necked, orphaned piece of shit that she met on a fuckin'
run?" he'd yelled. "Oh hell, no! No fuckin' way!"

I remembered glancing at Dr. Dawson and saw her nod
at me, giving me the go ahead to speak. "I can't help who I love,
Pops. And for me, its Dare. Just Dare."

"It's a good fuckin' thing you're grieving then
because you ain't ever gonna see his ass again, that's for damn
sure. Not if you act like the world's fuckin' comin' to an end
after knowing him for only one goddamn week!" God, how his shouts
had filled Dawson's tiny office, echoing off the walls with all her
fancy art prints and framed degrees. "She's only fuckin' fifteen
for Christ's sake! She's too young to be talking about love! This
is bullshit!"