“I know.” I finally look at him. The smirk on his face is replaced with something scarier coming from Rider. Seriousness. “What makes her different?” Rider asks quietly.
“Huh?”
“Joy. What makes her different from every other beaten woman who walked into the ER before her? What about Joy made you want to go out of your way to protect her? To save her? Fuck brother, you kidnapped her from her shitty husband.”
I ball my fists to stop my hands shaking. “I didn’t kidnap her. I helped her. She was planning on leaving.”
“Was she?”
I glare at him, at his stupid face and his assessing blue gaze. He may act like a dipshit, but he sees more than he lets on.
“Look, I get it man. You met a woman who blew your skirt up. Makes you act all out of sorts and shit. How did you know you wanted to keep her?”
I think about his words. “I don’t know what made Joy different from the others. She justis.”
He shrugs off the seriousness, instead giving me a shit eating grin. “And that’s why you're in here missing her.”
“I’m not missing her,” I scoff. “I’m doing what you all told me to do! Stay away from her, let her grow.”
Rider’s mouth twitches. “You helped her choose a house, dude.”
“She wanted a second opinion.”
“You helped her move.”
“I was available and you were there too, asshole.”
“You see her every day.”
“That’s work.”
Rider hits me with a look. “Just admit it man, that woman has you fucked up.” I glare at him. “It’s not the worst thing to be. I’ve seen the way she looks at you. What some of us wouldn’t giveto have a woman look at us like we were the last slice of pizza in a room full of fat kids,” he says wistfully and I frown at the brother.
I know he’s been heading out every day at the same time, acting odd. Pops and Mad Dog think he’s hiding a woman, but now I’m not so sure.
We sit there until Marx’s heavy boots break us out of our thoughts. “Brothers,” Marx says, stomping into the room and taking a seat. He looks up, his gaze flicking between me and Rider before his brows pull low. “What’s wrong with you two?”
“Nothing. Just the big man can’t handle a little shit talk,” Rider says, playing his jokester self, but his smirk doesn't quite reach his eyes.
Marx gives him a weird look but is then distracted by the rest of the DRMC trickling into Church.
“Settle down, fuckers; we have shit to discuss. Namely what the fuck we’re going to do about Matthew Thompson and his business partner. Wire? Bring us up to speed.”
Joy
“Chewy, are you sure about this?” I ask, picking at my cuticles as I watch Niko get into some sort of protective wear.
“Joy, do you trust me?” Chewy asks, her little belly making her tank top ride up.
“Um-”
“That’s a no!” Blanche cackles, pointing at me.
“No, it’s ah, it’s not a no, per se.”
“Joy, it’ll be alright. Niko is trained and Chewy won’t be running the class. I will be.” Remy says in her nice, soothing tone.
“Thank god Chewy isn’t running it,” Vi mumbles under her breath.
