To be honest, I kinda did, but I wasn’t going to admit that to Moves. Beneath his battle-hardened exterior, he was a total romantic. He believed in soulmates and all that bullshit.
I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him that true love didn’t exist.
Because it didn’t. I had known that since I was five years old and my dad walked out, leaving my mom weeping on the floor of our shitty little kitchen.
I hadn’t seen my dad since. Hadn’t wanted to. Even when Ryder and Moves suggested I try tracking him down, for closure, I wasn’t having it. Some stones are better left unturned.
Not to mention that while I didn’t have many memories of him, I had enough to know he wasn’t worth knowing. I remember waking up to his drunken ranting late at night, and I remember him constantly losing a job but blaming someone else for his unemployment. It was never his fault. His boss was always a prick, or his friend threw him under the bus, or my mother was such a nag and drove him crazy.
My mother loved him, she really did. But that never did her any good, just made her hurt all the more when he betrayed her. Unfortunately, my mom fell in love easily. She fell in love with the next guy, and the next, and the next. And she always ended up crying with her broken heart in her hands.
The truth was, people weren’t good enough for each other. One way or another, someone always cheated or walked out or lied. So I was happy to flirt and engage in the occasional fuck, but why bother with anything else?
I wanted my life to be like the numbers on my accounting books. Even, balanced. No lies. No evasions. No room for slip-ups.
Moves shrugged at my silence. He was used to it. I had never been much of a talker.
“Still waters run deep,” Moves mumbled.
I pushed my sunglasses on as we mounted our bikes.
“What about Kimmy?” Moves blurted out. “She’s cute, right?”
I snorted. Moves had never been subtle. Also, I was pretty sure he was the one with a thing for Kim, he just didn’t know it yet.
“Definitely not my type,” I said. “Besides, she’s seeing someone.”
“She is?” Moves asked.
“Yeah, I heard her telling Carlos about it the other day,” I said. “Older guy, I think. Big corporate job, sounds like.”
“Fuck,” Moves said. “I guess someone is willing to risk getting close to that bitch on wheels.”
I rolled my eyes at Moves’ ever-changing opinions. The guy had more mood swings than a teenage girl. “You just said she was cute.”
“Yeah, well,” Moves said. “I say a lotta things.”
I pushed my dark hair back from my face and rammed my boot down on the pedal. I was getting sick of chit-chat, even if Moves mostly meant well.
Moves started revving his own engine and our bikes roared to life.
As we hit the open road, I couldn’t hold back my grin. We merged onto the highway and headed south. If we were to go straight west, we would hit the ocean. That was one of my favorite rides, but we didn’t have time.
I leaned forward and urged my bike even faster. The feeling of the wind pulsing over my face as my bike picked up speed was what I had fallen in love with first. The club and the brotherhood had just been added bonuses.
I figured between my bike and my brothers, who needed anything else?
Two
Claire
I tossed the envelope onto Veronica’s desk with a dramatic sigh. “Men are idiots.”
“Tell me about it,” Veronica said, not even looking up as I flopped into my desk chair.
“This guy was legit emailing his mistress naked pics from his personal phone that is part of his family plan, which his wife is on,” I said. “She gave me all the passwords so logging on was a breeze. She could have done it herself.”
“Claire, baby, theyneverwant to do it themselves,” Veronica said. “It’s easier if we swoop in and find the dirty stuff for them.”
