We were here. The fire station of misfit veterans. Considering my situation, I should feel right at home, but I didn’t. Even though I’d met several of the bikers at Naomi’s party, the idea of marching in there and claiming my borrowed room had my stomach all twisted in knots. Usually great in crowds, all I wanted now was to be alone. In fact, if I could magically teleport to my room and cast amnesia on everyone who knew me, I would.
“About how many people would you say are in there right now?” I asked. It was a big building and I remembered lots of big, burly bikers at Naomi’s party.
Following my gaze, Stocks shrugged. “Hard tellin’. Could be five, could be fifty. You lookin’ to avoid them?”
It was like he could read my mind. “Is that possible?”
“Sure. We can sneak in through the back. We might run into someone on the stairs, but at least we can avoid the common area where everyone hangs out. I’ll take you up and get you settled and then come back down for your luggage.”
“Where’s Naomi?” I asked.
He pointed to her car on the side of the building. “She’s probably been here for a while. That woman’s got a lead foot.”
And she was a horrible driver. There was no way I could have slept with her behind the wheel. “Thank you. For everything.”
Stocks smiled. “I told you, whatever you need, I got you.”
He led me around the side of the building to a back entrance. Punching in a code on the keypad, he opened the door and held it for me to enter. “Morse will provide you with a code for the doors. Everyone has their own so the system logs who’s in here and who’s not for safety purposes. It’s a feature they just put in last month, and it’s a hell of a lot more convenient than carrying around more keys.”
I followed him up the stairs to the second floor, and thankfully we didn’t run into a soul. We turned down a hall, and he gestured to two doors. “Communal bathrooms. Men on the left, ladies on the right. They’re locker room style with private toilets and showers.”
I froze in my tracks. “I won’t have my own bathroom?”
Stocks shook his head. “No ma’am. We all share. You’ll have plenty of privacy though, since not many women stay here.”
God, it was like I was back in basic. Suddenly missing the hell out of my cute little house in Clovis, I sighed and followed Stocks into my room. Bare bones was the first term that came to mind as I took in the small space: double bed, dresser, sofa, coffee table, the necessities, and nothing more. The basic closet beside the bed could fit maybe a third of my hanging clothes, and the contents of my smallest suitcasemightfit in the dresser.
“No kitchen either,” I muttered, collapsing on the bed to stare at the ceiling.
“We have a huge kitchen downstairs. It has every pot, pan, and appliance you can imagine. Someone even brought in one of those air fryers. Prospects do the shopping, so the fridges are always stocked. One of the club whores likes to cook, and she comes in and whips up a meal from time to time, and we usually eat dinner together. Other than that, everyone’s welcome to do their own thing.”
Raising up on my good elbow, I stared at him, hoping I’d misheard. “A club whore?”
“Don’t look at me like that, I didn’t give them the title.”
“There’s more than one?”
He took a step back. “I don’t think you’re ready for that conversation, but you should talk to them before you make any judgments.”
I wasn’t ready for any of this. “Moving here was a horrible idea. Back home, I had a perfectly good room with enough space for all my clothes and no whores. Sure, I had to share the bathroom with my senile grandmother who sometimes forgot why she was in there and had to be rescued… usually while naked…” I shuddered at the memory. “But this…. I don’t think I can do this. Maybe I should go find an apartment nearby.”
“You could, but being forced to interact with like-minded roommates on a daily basis keeps you from hiding in your own head for too long.”
I eyed him. Stocks seemed like such a normal, well-adjusted guy. It was difficult to imagine him going through my current struggle. Losing his leg couldn’t have been easy, yet he’d survived. Maybe I should get some pointers from him. “Is this what helped you get through everything?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t have this when I was where you are. I was trying to do it all on my own and pretending like nothing had changed. I had changed, though, and it took me getting thrown in jail to realize how much.”
“Youdid time in the slammer?” I vaguely remembered him mentioning that the night we met, but he looked like a pretty boy with a nice body and a dangerous edge. Not exactly prison material. “Please tell me you weren’t someone’s bitch.”
He quirked a smile at me. “No ma’am. I made friends with the biggest guy in the joint… Havoc. He was in there for putting a rapist in the hospital, and he made sure nobody fucked with me. I was damn lucky to have him as a cell mate. This place might be a glorified frat house, but your roommates are good people. They’ll go to hell and back to help a vet. Link wanted to bail Havoc out of jail, but the big guy refused to leave until he convinced me to join. That’s the caliber of men you’re dealing with here. They’re far from perfect, but they’re genuine, honorable guys.”
Hearing Stocks sing the praises of the Dead Presidents put me at ease a little. I didn’t know what my role with the club would be, but at least I wouldn’t be surrounded by shady assholes.
“Get settled, and I’ll be back up with the rest of your luggage.” Stocks left, closing the door behind him.
Looking around the tiny room that lacked a private bathroom, kitchen, and enough space for my clothes, I collapsed back on the bed wondering what the hell I’d gotten myself into. My new roommates might be saints, but it was already clear I didn’t belong in their dated, all-boys club.
Monica
