The Last Riders - First Four Votes (38 page)

“Pretty girl, you’re killing me,” he groaned.

Withdrawing, Viper lifted her into his arms. Carrying her to the shower, he started the warm water before stepping inside. They washed each other, exploring their bodies, gradually building their desire before Viper sat down in Winter’s bath chair and pulled her onto his lap. They were both wrinkled when they managed to get out of the shower.

“Are you hungry? I could go downstairs and fix you a plate,” Winter offered.

“We ate before we came home. Rider called us and warned us about your cooking,” he teased.

Winter laughed. “That jerk ate two plates.”

Viper gently shoved her down on the bed and Winter looked up at him in surprise.

He gave her a mocking smile as he took an ankle in each of his hands, pulling her towards him. “What did I tell you about adrenaline?”

T
he next morning
, Winter glanced at the worksheet before going next door to the factory. She was going to get her punishment over with so that no one could say she was shirking it because of Viper.

When she entered the factory, she was stunned at the size of the operation as the members were all busily at work. Jewell and Bliss seemed to be filling orders while the other women were in an assembly line packaging the orders and the men were all doing various jobs with the machines. Seeing Train standing with a clipboard in his hand, she asked him where she could find the seeds that needed to be organized.

Nodding his head, he walked through the factory with Winter on his heels, curiously studying the items being packaged. She couldn’t help questioning one of the items.

“Customers order bottled water?”

Train paused to show her the water. “It’s not just any water. It has vitamins and nutrients. Our customers are in disaster areas or they are disaster preppers who can survive on the water when food is in limited supply,” he explained.

Winter looked around. It was amazing to her how they had built a company based on items that, when a disaster struck, became more valuable than gold.

Train showed her several of the gadgets that they made while he walked her to a door in the back of the factory. As they entered the room, he flipped on the lights. The room contained three refrigerators and two deep freezers that had inventory lists posted on the front.

“There they are.” He nodded toward the refrigerators.

“Where?” Winter asked confused.

Train walked forward, opening one of the refrigerators. Inside were hundreds of plastic baggies with little seeds inside.

Winter’s mouth dropped open. “When we fill the orders, they can often fall out of place. They are filed based on numerical order.”

“What order? It’s a mess.” Winter was amazed they could find anything the way the hundreds of small baggies were haphazardly placed inside.

“That’s why they need to be straightened out. By the way, they need to stay cool, so don’t leave the door open long, the fridges are set at a certain temperature. Take a few out at a time to get them organized.” With a goading smile, he left her alone in the room.

Winter opened the door and studied the mess inside. Closing it, she went to the other two refrigerators to find more of the same. She couldn’t understand how anyone could find anything inside; they were long since out of numerical order. Rolling her sleeves up, she began work on the first refrigerator. Twenty minutes later, she was leaving the factory with a determined expression. Rider was outside working on his bike when she asked him to get her keys and purse from the house.

Returning with her things, he handed them to her.

“Escaping your punishment?” he joked.

Winter merely gave him an annoyed stare that cut off his laughter. Getting into her car, she was proud of her herself for not hitting him with her purse.

The Dollar Bin was her first stop. Taking a cart as she entered the store, it didn’t take long to find the items she needed. The store was relatively slow for the morning and she was going through the door after paying for her purchases when she passed Carmen with her parents.

“Good morning, Ms. Simmons,” Carmen’s parents greeted her. Carmen refused to say anything, not meeting her eyes and giving her the cold shoulder treatment.

“Good morning. I didn’t know you were back in town,” Winter remarked to Carmen’s parents.

“Not for long. We came to town to sell the lot our house was on,” Mrs. Jones replied sadly. “I’m sorry we didn’t come by the hospital to see you. We are so sorry that our daughter’s misjudgment caused Jake to take his anger out on you.”

“Don’t—” Winter started to say when Carmen interrupted her.

“Jake didn’t do anything to her. I keep telling you, but no one will listen,” Carmen angrily glared at Winter. “I don’t know who attacked you, but it wasn’t Jake.”

Confused, Winter questioned Carmen, “But he’s already been sentenced. I read it in the newspaper that he confessed.” Winter had been dreading being called as a witness, so she had been relieved to know she wouldn’t have to testify.

“He was scared after he burned down our house. He was angry and made a mistake, but he didn’t touch you. The prosecutor offered him a plea deal and he knew no one in this town was going to believe him, so he took it. But I believe him,” she said angrily. “He wasn’t the one who hurt you.”

Winter could tell she was still just as infatuated with him as she had been during the summer.

“I don’t remember anything from that night, but I will ask the sheriff if there is any possibility there could have been a mistake.” Winter saw the hope in the girl’s face and sought to caution her. “Carmen, he was on school property earlier that week, and I know he was pretty angry with me for telling your parents that he was mistreating you.”

“He didn’t do it,” Carmen repeated stubbornly.

As Winter and Carmen’s parents said goodbye, Winter hoped they would be able to find a new start away from Treepoint.

T
he members
all stared at her as she walked back into the factory, carrying her bags. Returning to the back room, Winter organized the refrigerators for the rest of the day. She didn’t even stop for lunch, wanting to get the job done. She was so occupied in sorting the seeds that she didn’t notice the door opening.

Warm arms circled her waist, tugging her back into a warm body.

“Having fun?”

Winter shook her head. “Your system sucked, but it’s finished.”

Viper released her to open the refrigerator to find several baskets with seeds. Instead of hundreds of baggies. She had organized them into larger bags and by numerical order. Viper whistled in admiration as he closed the door and opened the other one, which was also organized. Looking at her with a raised brow, he opened the last one to find it, too, organized.

Winter gave him a gloating smile.

“I’m impressed.” Viper meant the compliment.

“You should be,” she continued to gloat.

Viper smiled at her exuberance. “You do know it won’t last?”

Winter lost her smile. “Why not?”

Viper shrugged. “You’ll see.”

“It’s a good system.”

“I agree, but it still won’t last. That’s why it’s one of the punishments. It’s a constant job that needs to be kept in check.”

Winter could understand that. “At least it won’t be my job.” She wound her arms around his neck. “I don’t plan on needing any more punishment. I learned my lesson.”

“I hope not.” His hand rubbed her ass. “I have several more interesting punishments in mind for you than organizing a refrigerator.”

Pulling out of his arms, she went to the door and held it open. “Not today you don’t, I’m starving.”

They went to the house and ate dinner, relaxing on the couch in his bedroom, watching television and talking. Viper laughed at her complaints about the different varieties of green beans and ignored her suggestions of taking it down to one variety. That way, if she earned that particular punishment again, the less to organize, the better.

Tired, Winter stretched out beside him. Noticing her movements, Viper took her hand and pulled her to her feet. “Bedtime for you.”

Winter leaned against him, unable to prevent herself from wincing. Viper leaned down and lifted her into his arms then carried her to the bathroom where he turned the shower on until the room filled with steam. Helping her remove her clothes, they silently took a shower. After drying off, Viper helped her to bed and reached for the ibuprofen on the nightstand. Handing her the bottle, he went to the small refrigerator to retrieve a bottle of water. Taking the pills, she laid back down and then was pulled to his chest.

“Take it easy tomorrow; you did too much today,” Viper advised.

Winter nodded her head in his shoulder. “I’ll be fine.”

“Yes, you will, pretty girl,” Viper promised.

T
he next day
, Winter took Viper’s advice. Taking it easy, she caught up on his reports and then decided to read a book until she became hungry. When she went downstairs, she found Rider and Train cooking lunch. It didn’t involve much cooking other than placing the frozen pizza in the oven. Deciding to forgo the pizza, she made herself a sandwich. Taking a bottle of water, she started to leave the room.

“If you lay the pizza directly on the wire rack, it will cook the crust better with it being frozen.” The men thanked her for her suggestion.

Winter hummed as she went back upstairs to finish her book. Viper brought dinner up to her later that night. Afterwards, they had a quiet night together before going to bed.

Viper was still sleeping when Winter got out of bed early the next morning. Dressing in her workout clothes, she went down to the weight room to do her exercises. She missed having Donna there when she worked out, but they had agreed she no longer needed her every day; instead, she now only came by once a week.

When she finished, she went upstairs and took a seat at the kitchen table. As she slowly drinking a cup of coffee as she heard a few sounds upstairs, aware that the others would be getting up to get ready for work.

As she continued to sit, relaxing, the kitchen door opened and Shade walked in, looking tired and irritable. She watched as he poured himself a cup of coffee. He still didn’t speak to her, but she wasn’t upset by it. Winter had learned he wasn’t much of a talker. After he took a few sips of his coffee, he moved towards the stove. Opening the oven door, he stared at it several minutes before closing it.

Shade went to the kitchen closet. She noticed he was gathering cleaning supplies and then filling a bucket with soapy water. He then went to the refrigerator, opened the door, and within seconds, he was slamming it shut. Turning green, he hastily moved away to lean on the counter.

Winter took another sip of her coffee. “The punishments are a bitch, aren’t they? I thought mine was bad, but at least I don’t have to clean that oven or the fridge,” she remarked conversationally.

Shade looked back and forth between the offending appliances. Winter knew he was trying to figure out which one to start with.

“I would start with the oven. Give your stomach time to settle, it’s a little early to clean something that smells so bad.” Winter stood up to freshen her coffee and watched as he stood, debating in front of the oven.

“Of course, I could help you with your problem.” He turned to face her, his eyes narrowing in on her innocent expression.

“I could clean the oven, fridge and pantry for you.” His eyes went to the pantry door, but he made no move to see what condition it was in. Everyone knew it was a close second to the seeds in punishments.

“What do you want?” he asked grimly.

“It’s going to take me at least a couple of hours to scrub that oven down. In case you didn’t know, that’s cheese on the bottom. The fridge is even worse, it smells like Armageddon, and the pantry has an ant infestation,” she said, taking another sip of coffee.

“What’s your price?” he repeated through clenched teeth.

Winter faced him squarely, looking him straight in the eyes as she told him exactly what she wanted. “I want your vote. Look at it this way, it’s going to take several hours of work to clean this mess up. If we had sex, it would take ten minutes. You’re getting a better deal. Besides, we both know that you’re not going to vote me in with sex anyway.”

Shade stared at her before shrugging. “It’s all yours.”

Winter frowned that he had given in too easily, but she wasn’t going to question her luck. She started to go into the pantry to begin as Shade reached into the cabinet.

“I’ll have to tell Viper that he must be getting old if you think sex lasts ten minutes.”

Her poor choice of words was going to piss off Viper and the bastard knew it from his smug grin.

He poured himself a cup of coffee as he started to sit at the table. Winter went to the refrigerator and opened the door. He was out the door before she had finished the movement.

Reaching inside, she took out the leftover sauerkraut, placing it in the trash bag before carrying it outside the backdoor to the trashcan. When she came in, she lit a candle and opened a box of baking soda. She was busy cleaning the fridge when the members started coming in for breakfast.

She was almost finished when Viper trailed in. He watched closely as she closed the door to the refrigerator. “Why are you doing Shade’s punishment?”

“I decided to give him a helping hand.” Viper fixed himself a bowl of cereal.

Winter noticed him glancing at her in speculation a couple of times, but she ignored it and kept cleaning.

That night in bed she was almost asleep when Viper brought up Shade.

“He told me he gave you his vote.”

“Yes.” She curled closer to his side.

“I didn’t know we had an ant infestation.”

“We don’t,” Winter confessed.

“You’re a dangerous woman, Winter Simmons.”

W
inter knocked
on Ton’s door, which opened several minutes later to a bleary eyed Ton with a sour expression on his face.

“I brought your groceries.” Winter gave him a bright smile.

“Beth never comes until after ten,” Ton grouched.

“I’m an early riser.”

“I bet Viper loves that,” Ton said snidely. Winter blushed at his remark. Viper was not an early riser. He worked hard, but he did like sleeping in the mornings. Unless he had a meeting, he never got out of bed before nine.

“The groceries are in the car,” Winter told Ton. Beth had warned her he would take it as an insult if she packed the groceries inside herself.

She hastily moved out of the way of the screen door before Ton stomped to her car, lifting out the box of groceries. She followed him inside uncertainly while Ton put the groceries on his table. She wondered why Viper hadn’t just brought them himself.

“Do you need anything else while I’m here?” Winter offered.

“No. Since I’m up, do you want a cup of coffee?”