I struggled not to wince as he threw my words right back at me. They sounded so damn cold when on the receiving end.
“Fine, but if he’s a creep, I’m never going to let you forget it.”
“Of course you won’t,” he agreed, and I spotted a hint of a smile on his face.
I followed him out the door of his apartment and down the stairs to the parking lot. “You know, Outlaw Souls owns an apartment complex. I’ll probably be moving into it once my lease is up here.”
“When is that?” I asked.
“Six months.”
At least I had time to figure out a different place to meet up with him. Obviously, I wouldn’t go to the new apartment, and I didn’t want him at my home. It made it too personal for me, especially now that I was redecorating the place and making it my own. Even more than that, I didn’t want Blade in my bed again because that was where we had sex for the first time before everything between us went to shit.
It occurred to me that I was thinking way too long-term here. If this was really just a casual sex situation, then it probably wouldn’t still be happening in six months.
Something within me somersaulted at that thought, but I ignored it.
Hopping onto the back of Blade’s bike, I wrapped my arms around him, trying not to think too much about how comfortable I was here. He rode along the back roads, which he had told me were more fun to ride than straightaways. I wasn’t sure where we were going until we pulled up in front of Ortega Auto. I’d never been here before, of course, but I knew it to be the property of Outlaw Souls.
“Damn it, Blade. Why did you have to bring me here?” I asked, whipping the helmet off of my head. I slapped his back with the palm of my hand, but it was like hitting a wall.
“This is where the bike is,” he said, exasperated.
I hopped off the back of the bike, looking around. I didn’t spot anyone else nearby, but I couldn’t shake my discomfort. This was not somewhere that I should be.
Yet, I didn’t feel like I was actually in danger. Maybe that was foolish. I’d seen how my dad and others put the motorcycle club above everyone else, but I was sure that Blade would never allow me to come to harm.
“Come on,” he said, walking toward a side door.
I fell into step behind him. I didn’t like that he’d brought me here, but I supposed that I owed him a chance.This bike better be great.
There was nothing special about the interior of the garage. It could have been any other auto shop in the country with its stained concrete floors, big red toolboxes all over the place, and the smell of oil in the air. I knew where we were going without being told. There were a few cars in the bays, but only one bike in sight. I recognized it as a Harley Street 750. It was small, one of the smallest options in that brand, which would be good for me since I was a little on the short side. I needed something small enough to allow my feet to touch the ground while straddling it.
Blade and I approached the bike side-by-side, and I ran my eyes over it. It was pretty with its burnt orange paint color on the tank and black leather saddlebags. But, I’d have to see how it rode before getting too excited.
A large man came out of the office near the back of the shop, wiping his hands on a dirty red rag. With a full beard and long hair, he had a distinctive look, and I could imagine that some people would find him intimidating, but I didn’t. I’d had some big men in my chair and knew that things like size and facial hair didn’t really have anything to do with being tough. Sometimes, the scariest looking men cried while I used my tattoo gun on them.
Blade stepped forward and clasped hands with the man, and they patted each other’s backs. It was such a cutebrogreeting that I couldn’t help but smile.
“Kat, this is Trainer,” Blade said as they came over to me. “He’s a whiz with these bikes, and I’ve asked him to give you a good deal.”
I shook Trainer’s hand and listened to his rundown of the bike. He really knew his stuff, covering everything from the type of engine to the power, to fuel return and cooling system. It was a lot of technical stuff that I didn’t necessarily care about, but it did instill confidence in me that he knew what he was talking about.
Trainer opened one of the bay doors and let me take it out into the parking lot for a test drive, and I loved how nimble it was. The bike itself wasn’t too heavy for my small frame to handle, and I loved the little windshield he’d installed. My last bike didn’t have one.
I had brought along my savings, pulled straight from the shoebox and tucked into my boot for safe-keeping. I had managed to add to it in the last couple of weeks enough to reach five thousand dollars. I knew that wasn’t a lot of money and Trainer could probably get more out of this bike, so I was a bundle of nerves when I parked it back inside the garage and hopped off the talk about purchasing the motorcycle.
Trainer admitted that he got the bike for a steal and had only put a couple thousand dollars into it. He was planning to ask six thousand for it, but to my shock, he easily accepted the five that I had on me. I couldn’t believe my luck and decided that Trainer wasn’t so bad, for an Outlaw Soul.
“I told you I could help you,” Blade said smugly after I had exchanged the cash for the keys and Trainer had gone back into the office, probably to put that cash in a safe.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said dismissively, but I grinned like an idiot as I mounted my new bike. I really loved it. “I can’t wait to take this thing out of the parking lot. It’s been too long since I went on a ride.”
“I’ll come with you,” Blade said.
I wanted to say no. We were already spending too much time together, breaking myno strings attachedrule. But he was the reason that I had this new bike. I felt like I owed him, and all he wanted was to ride in formation together.
“Fine,” I said, “but I’m leading. Non-negotiable.”
