“For a while.I suspect he was getting tired of it and about to have Hawkeye or Pike track me down when he stumbled upon his wife.That whole thing stirred up a lot of trouble for the Angels.I think he got distracted by the trouble he had going on there and temporarily forgot about me.”
Wrench was quiet for a few moments.“You may have a point with that.But I’m surprised he let it go that long without hunting you down.”
“Frankly, so was I.But I was getting what I wanted, what I needed.Time away from the lifestyle, time away from the danger, that was what I needed.”
“And are you still mad at the world?”he asked.
“Not so much anymore.It’s taken some time, a lot of introspection, and more than a little loneliness to realize that death comes to everyone, whether we’re living or merely surviving.”She took a deep breath and stared out the window at the passing cars and the buildings that seemed to fly by.“I spent most of the last two years doing the latter.Almost as soon as I decide I’m ready to live again, I manage to snag myself a stalker.I’m doing one hell of a bang-up job of living on my own, aren’t I?”
“Aww, sweetheart, it will be all right.We all make mistakes.What’s important is you didn’t try to tough it out or take care of that stalker on your own.You knew when you were in over your head and who to go to.The Sons will take care of him and then you’ll be safe again.And while I’m not as sharp as I once was, I think you may be through running.”
“What do you mean?”Winter asked with a frown.
He glanced at her then back at the road.“You ever been around when a biker finds his old lady?”
“I don’t think so, why?”She wondered where he was going with this.She felt like it should be obvious, but for some reason she couldn’t see what he was talking about.
Wrench smirked as he shook his head.“We tend to fall fast.We know, often almost immediately when we’ve found the one.Once we do, it’s almost impossible to shake us loose.”He shot her a glance.She thought maybe to see if he was scaring her, he wasn’t.“I’m not talking not taking no for an answer like that fucker stalking you.I’m talking, do what it takes to convince you we’re serious and we’ll do whatever it takes to keep you, willingly.But someone else screwing with you will put the attention of the entire club on them, because you know we protect our own.And once a brother has set his mind on a woman, she’s typically considered one of us.”
“Typically?”she couldn’t help but ask.
He looked over at her again, and this time his gaze lingered long enough she turned her attention to the road.She figured one of them should be watching it, at least.She didn’t know what he was looking for, only that she didn’t like him watching her so closely while driving.
“It’s rare, but the club has rejected someone’s request to patch an old lady.”
Winter frowned.“The Sons have to approve?”
He tilted his head from side to side, as if that wasn’t exactly it.“Not really.But we’ve had a few brothers who got involved with women we couldn’t have around the club.”
“I’m not sure I’m following.”
“Have you met Wally yet?”He turned his attention back to the road, calming Winter’s anxiety about him watching where they were going.
“I don’t think so.”
“You’d know if you met him.He wears his moustache like Wally Walrus.”
She scowled not sure who he was talking about.
“You ever watch oldWoody Woodpeckercartoons?”
“Yeah, Dad loved those when I was a kid.”
“Remember the old walrus with the droopy moustache?”
Winter couldn’t help but smile as she remembered sitting on her dad’s lap in his recliner watching the old cartoon, all the different characters, and how he would laugh.An ache started in her chest as she remembered him but it was no longer the sharp, debilitating pain it had been when she first moved to Arizona, but a dull ache knowing she’d never see him again, never hear him laugh like that.“Yeah, I remember.”
“That’s what Wally looks like.”
Now she wanted to meet the man.She wondered if he’d ever met her father and maybe he was the reason her father had liked the walrus in those old cartoons so much.
“Anyway, Wally had a thing going with a woman a few years back.We didn’t think much about it, but when Hammer did his thing, and we do that thing on everyone, club girls, prospects, old ladies, everyone.Anyway, he found out she was a cop.”Wrench shook his head again.
Winter blinked.“A cop?Did Wally know or was she hiding it?”
Wrench lifted one shoulder, glanced at her, then back to the road.“Hard to say.He didn’t seem surprised but he said he didn’t know.Maybe she hid it, maybe it just hadn’t come up.Either way, he wasn’t allowed to give her a property patch.Pretty sure he dropped her after it all came out but I’m not sure.I don’t pay much attention to where my brothers are dipping their wick, if you get me.”
“I get you.”She turned her attention to the road, alternately staring in front of them and out the window beside her as she thought about everything he’d said.
