I should have been terrified. Should have recognized this as the threat it was to my carefully maintained equilibrium. But standing there in the compound with my skin still warm where Cora had touched me, I found I couldn’t muster fear. Only anticipation and the certainty that everything had just changed, and there was no going back.
She’d come to me again. And I’d be waiting, this spark she’d ignited already burning brighter than it should, already threatening to consume the careful walls I’d built around what remained of my heart. I knew these feelings weren’t rational and I felt like some kind of stalker fixating on a young woman who’d showed me a kind smile. And maybe that’s all it was on her part.
I needed to take a step back, stay away from her anytime she came around but I knew I wouldn’t. Dangerous and recklessdidn’t begin to describe how that scenario would play out. But inevitable. For the first time in six years, I looked forward to tomorrow. And I’d be Goddamned if I willingly gave up the reason my soul finally showed signs of coming back to life.
Chapter Three
Cora
Week three, and I had made at least four runs a week to the compound since the first run. With the cash tips -- which usually equaled a hundred percent or better -- I made more from them than I did the rest of my runs combined. Turns out, part of the club’s territory included the New Beginnings women’s shelter. I’d known they protected the place but had no idea they’d actually donated the building. The more I learned about this place, the more I realized how very much everyone in the whole of the Goddamned city misjudged these people.
As I pulled through the gates, I waved at the two men manning the gate. Griffin and Diesel each raised a hand as I rolled through. I’d made a few friends and gotten to know several of the men and women inside the compound. Every single person I’d met was either pleasant or grumpy on the outside but marshmallows on the inside. To a man, the guys protected the women, especially at New Beginnings or Haven, as they called the shelter.
The compound looked different today. I realized about a week ago I’d started seeing the place as more of a kind of safe haven. I loved coming here because no one leered, played grab-ass, or made sexual innuendos every single fucking time I stepped foot inside the place. Which was way the fuck more than I could say about some homes I delivered to. The strange part wasn’t that I kept coming back, but how relieved I felt when the delivery app pinged with their address.
I parked in what I now thought of as “my spot” near the kitchen entrance. Two women I hadn’t seen before looked up from a conversation, their eyes tracking my movement as I gotout of the car. One nodded in recognition though we’d never met.
I popped the trunk and it opened with a familiar squeak. I’d started unloading bags when one of the women approached. She was petite with light brown hair tucked behind her ears.
“You must be Cora.” She had a friendly smile, just like the other women I’d met here. “Hannah told me about you. I’m Pippa.” She held out her hand in greeting, and I took it automatically. “You have no idea how much we appreciate you taking our orders. We make regular runs, but I swear the guys around here are bottomless pits, to say nothing of the children at the shelter we feed.”
“You’re one of the few places I don’t deliver beer.” I have no idea why I made the observation but there it was. “I figured with as many men as you had here, I’d be delivering a lot of beer.”
“You’d think, huh?” The other woman grinned as she extended her hand. “I’m Penny.” I took her hand briefly. “It’s not that we don’t have beer, it’s that the guys prefer to get their own. I don’t think a single one of them drinks the same kind. It’s just easier.”
I helped carry the impressive haul to the kitchen. All the while, the two women chatted away, engaging me as easily as if we’d been friends for years.
The warmth inside was cozy and comfortable. Not just in temperature, but atmosphere. Hannah and Pippa each hugged me before going back to the car to bring in more stuff. Four times a week and they filled my trunk to overflowing. I’d actually started using my back seat sometimes, too.
“What’s an old lady?” I’d been meaning to ask them for the last couple of weeks but hadn’t worked up the courage. The last thing I wanted to do was offend these people when they’d been nothing but nice to me.
Instead of offense, I got laughter. “You’ll have to ask the guys why they call us old ladies.” Pippa grinned at me. “But, if you want to know the truth, I’m not a hundred percent sure even they know why the term is ‘old ladies’. We’re their women. Wives or girlfriends. And old lady is a woman in a permanent relationship with one of the men here.”
“Archaic, I know.” Hannah’s laugh was infectious and I found myself smiling. “And to be honest, sometimes I feel like these guys are one step up from cavemen. My dad’s the same way.”
“Is your dad in a motorcycle club, too?” I set the last of the bags on the counter. The other women had started putting things away as they chatted, so I helped. Not exactly something I’d consider doing anywhere else, but this place almost felt like home. I’d only known these people three weeks. I didn’t want to even think about what that said about my life.
“Oh, yeah.” Hannah nodded her head several times. “He owns a paramilitary company. All the guys in Bones MC work at ExFil. Dad was the president until a few years ago. Now he mostly lets my brothers run the place.”
“Mostly?” I raised an eyebrow.
Hannah shrugged. “Yeah. Dad has a bit of a control problem, but Mom says he’s working on it.”
“Yeah?” I raised an eyebrow. “How long has he been working on it?”
“Oh, I think maybe since she first met him.” Everyone laughed.
“Heard that, Sis. I’m tellin’ Dad.” Gunnar, Hannah’s brother, walked up behind her, placed a kiss on her cheek, and snagged a grape from the bunch she’d been going to put in the fridge. He popped it in his mouth with a grin.
“You know that snitches get stitches. Right?” I loved the easy way Hannah and Gunnar were with each other. Everyonewas the same way. It felt like one big family and I found myself living for these moments, even if I wasn’t directly a part of them.
“You love me too much to make me need stitches.” Gunnar grinned before trotting over to Pippa and pulling her into his arms and giving her a hard, welcoming kiss. She squealed, then giggled as he tossed her over his shoulder. “Hate to run and eat so I’m taking her home.”
“That’s eat and run, you ape!”
“Yeah, not doin’ that either. I’m gonna eat, then we’re gonna have dessert.” He swatted her ass as he carried her out of the kitchen. Yet another thing I loved about this place. There was novaguelynaughty anything. They were in your face, raw to the max, while managing to not be offensive or creepy about anything. The men stuck with their women and vice versa. So not my experience with anything related to family or any kind of personal relationship. Soon after, all the women except Penny and Hannah left, each of them giving me a warm hug.
When it was just me, Hannah, and Penny, Penny gestured to the coffeepot on the counter. “Coffee?” A wonderful smelling dark brew had just finished dripping into the glass bowl. “We almost always have a fresh pot on.”
