I’ve always wanted to open my own store on this street, what it would be and what I would sell, I have no idea. Maybe I’d open a bookstore, or a cat cafe, or better yet, a cafe where you can read a book and pet a cat at the same time? It’s a pipe dream, or at least I thought it was. That was when my father had a leash wrapped around my future career, but now I’ve dropped out of college, that leash has loosened, the hold my father once had on me has gone and there’s not a damn thinghe can do about it.
A guy on a motorcycle rumbles past me and my mind returns to the arrogant bandana-wearing biker who’s taken up more of my thoughts than I’d like to admit since last night.
Who was he?
Draped casually over the huge motorcycle, was a guy who knew how attractive he was. His confidence radiated off him in waves. One huge black boot rested on the stirrup, the other flat on the ground to stabilize the bike, his head tipped to the side as he eyed me curiously.
Head to toe in black. A leather jacket with a cut-off vest thrown over the top, black jeans pulled tight over his thick muscular thighs. Though, what drew my attention was the black bandana covering the lower half of his face, in its place the face of a skull that was both captivating and a little unnerving. I have no doubt that beneath it, he’d be the most gorgeous man I’d ever lay eyes on. I itched to rip off the bandana and get a look at his face, but the mystery of not knowing what he looked like intrigued me.
I’ve never had such a visceral reaction to anyone before, least of all a stranger.
His confidence could’ve passed for cocky, straddling the line between arrogant and alluring, but it was magnetic all the same. It drew me in. Some invisible force pulling me closer. The way his eyes swept over me, my skin tingling under his heated gaze set my heart pounding.
And that deep heavy chug of his bike’s engine as they vibrated through my body thrilled me. I wanted nothing more than for him to toss me on the back of his bike and steal me away.
Despite knowing nothing about him, the emblem stitchedonto his jacket gave me a pretty good idea.
A grinning skull wearing dark sunglasses, its bony fingers wrapped around a pair of motorcycle handlebars.
Lawless.
He’s part of the MC.They’re infamous here in Stillwater Falls. A motorcycle club that’s been around long before I was even born and then some. They’re a perpetual thorn in my father’s side that’s not about to let up anytime soon. There’s always been rumours circulating around their‘agreement’with the local PD—something that angers my father more than me dropping out of college ever could, and I can only hope they keep him busy enough to keep him off my back.
My father has warned me about them for as long as I can remember, and as much as finding out the identity of my mystery biker tempts me, my name’s already chiselled into a headstone ready for my funeral with the bombshell I dropped the other day, and being associated with a man like him would surely be the final nail in my own coffin.
The bell chimes above my head as I step inside the diner, my stomach growling as the smell of food and coffee wafts into my nose, reminding me that I skipped breakfast this morning.
My eyes scan the diner as I seek out my best friend. I can’t use her hair as an indicator, Sofia changes her hair colour more times than some people change their underwear so it’s anyone’s guess what colour she’s sporting now. Her long, naturally ashy blonde waves have been dyed every colour under the sun, and if memory serves, she even had rainbow hair for a short time during summer when we were fourteen.
I don’t have to search for very long as the sound of heruniquely infectious laugh carries through the small diner. She’s facing away from me she chats with one of her customers sat in one of the booths by the bank of floor-to-ceiling window that looks out onto the street. Today, her long hair is dyed a pale shade of grey, the coloured waves slowly blending into a soft lilac at the tips.
She finishes up with her customer and turns in my direction, her head bent down as she scribbles something on her notepad.
“Any chance of a little service around here?” I ask with a smirk.
Her eyes dart up to mine and a wide smile stretches across her face. “Oh my God!” she screeches.
She races towards me, throwing herself into my arms, knocking me back a step as her own wind around my neck.
“What are you doing here?” she asks, squeezing me so hard I’m struggling to breathe.
“How long have you got?”
She pulls back. “My lunch break’s in thirty if you wanna hang around for me?”
“Sure.”
“Caramel latte and a BLT?”
I smile. “You know me so well.”
After I’ve eaten and fuelled up on caffeine, her lunch break is soon upon us and as we stroll through Beacon park, I fill her in on everything that’s happened over the last few days. It feels nice to be able to talk about it.
“If it was making you as miserable as you say it was, I don’t blame you for quitting and your dad shouldn’t either.”
“You didn’t see the look on his face, Fi.”
“Screw him. It’s your life, babe, you’ve gotta live it for you,not for anyone else. Who cares what anyone else thinks? You have to do what feels right foryou.”
