“Always worked for me,” Farrah replied smugly. “Flush.”
“There’s no way in hell,” Callie argued, her head snapping down to look at the cards Farrah had laid on the table. “How the hell are you cheating?”
I walked away as they bickered, laughing as I searched for a cooler. The day wasn’t sweltering, but it was still too warm to be sitting out in the sun without a drink. I debated whether or not to grab a beer or stick to water when my gaze caught Curtis standing outside the clubhouse door.
I couldn’t see his face as he spoke to Dragon, but there was something about the set of his shoulders that immediately made alarm bells ring in my head. Switching directions, I walked toward him, my heart thundering. Something was off.
When I was twenty feet away, he turned to look for me, and when our eyes met, it felt like the bottom had dropped out of my stomach.
“What?” I whispered as I jogged toward him.
Just as I began to pick up speed, Casper came running out of the clubhouse.
“On me,” he bellowed. “Prospects and Hawthorne boys, stay here.”
Bikers all around me rose to their feet and hustled toward their bikes.
“What’s going on?” I asked, panic rising in my throat. It felt like I was running through wet sand, like I was in one of those nightmares where you keep running and running, and you aren’t getting anywhere. It all happened so fast.
I reached Curtis in time to hear the tail end of Casper’s sentence.
“Ambulance at your house.”
In an instant, my entire world imploded.
Chapter 14
Curtis
“Roxanne,” Draco sangunder his breath as we walked toward the clubhouse.
“Fuck’s sake.” I shook my head and shoved him away from me. “I think you missed that car more than I did.”
“I just wish I would’ve known one of the oldies had it,” he said. “I would’ve hot-wired it and taken it for a joyride.”
“I’ll take you out soon,” I promised for the tenth time. I kept putting it off, and the Chevelle had been sitting in the garage since I got it back. I still had no idea who’d had it. No one would cop to it, and Gray wasn’t talking.
“You keep sayin’ it,” Draco replied. “But I still haven’t had my ass in the passenger seat like old times.”
I understood his annoyance, but I didn’t have any excuse for him. The truth was, I wanted Teddy with me during the first real drive, and we just hadn’t had the opportunity yet. In a perfect world, I’d take her to an old, deserted lookout and fuck her on the hood like I’d promised. The reality would probably be a lot less exciting.
Draco’s whining was put on pause when we ran into Uncle Leo, who wanted to talk about a project Draco had been working on at the garage. I listened with half an ear as I watched Teddy across the yard. She and Kara were sitting at a picnic table with my grandma and aunts, and they were all laughing and talking over each other. I fucking loved it. I loved that she fit in with them. That she felt comfortable around them now. That she leftme to my own devices when we came to the club because now there were peopleshewanted to see.
Teddy laughed, her smile wide and open, and I felt it in my chest.
“Your aunt likes her,” Uncle Leo said, jerking his head toward Teddy.
“Aunt Lily likes everyone.”
“She’s nice to everyone,” Uncle Leo corrected, smiling. “Doesn’t mean she likes ’em.”
“She just goes home and talks shit to you,” Draco said with a bark of laughter.
“Sometimes,” he replied. “She likes Teddy, though. Thinks she’s good for you.”
“She is.”
“You gonna put a ring on her finger?”
