Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Serena

Ispent the day waiting for Smoke to come back home. Was that brazen? Yes. Did I care? No. I was pretty pissed at Cleo for telling Siege where I was, and even more pissed with Siege for coming here and yelling at me like a crazy man. I’m a grown woman with the ability to make decisions for myself. If my father was alive, he wouldn’t have tolerated my brother’s attempting to control me the way he did today. Nope, he would have put a hard stop to that.

My father taught me to be strong and to stand on my own two feet. There was nobody in my life capable of standing up to my headstrong brother except me. This morning, I had let him know in no uncertain terms, that he was out of order by tracking me down and demanding that I go home. Now, I was in a position where I had to back up those words with actions. If I didn’t, Siege would never believe a word I had to say. That’s one of the reasons I decided to stay here instead of returning to Siege and Cleo’s home.

If I wanted to have any hope of maintaining my independence, I need to start looking for my own place. I grab my cell phone and start looking for an apartment. Maybe on Monday after work I could visit a couple.

Choosing a place to live is a big decision. I don’t want to rush into something, but living with my brother was no longer an option. He was trying to micromanage my life and I couldn’t allow that to happen. Scrolling through the property listings I see several possible options. Three are apartments and one is a small cottage. I bookmark them for follow-up after the weekend.

I might not have appreciated the tongue lashing from my brother earlier today, but I’m glad he brought me clothes. I just wish he’d kept his opinions about my personal life to himself. I don’t think my sister-in-law understood what I wanted in terms of clothing because she packed several outfits so I’d have options. Mostly they were casual clothes, but she did drop one of my suits in as well. That should be enough to get me through the next twenty-four hours.

My hand goes to my stomach when it growls. I decide to have one of the energy bars Smoke has piled in a dish on his kitchen counter. I walk into his spacious modern kitchen and stand there sorting through them.

I don’t know why, but it suddenly occurs to me that I missed the last appointment for my birth control shot. I was scheduled for it right before things went bad with my ex. It wasn’t a priority since I wasn’t planning to have sex ever again in my lifetime. Of course, that had been the trauma talking. That means that all that sex last night might result in a pregnancy, which isn’t what I need right now. That’s another thing to add to my list, as well as an apartment, I need to find an OB-GYN in Las Salinas and make an appointment for the shot.

Though just the thought of being pregnant with Smoke’s baby floods my body with a strange warmth. I imagine him cupping my belly in his hands and talking to our unborn child. I like that idea way too much. Maybe it’s low blood sugar making my mind go to places like that? I grab an extra energy bar just in case.

***

In the mid-afternoon I heard the throaty roar of a motorcycle getting closer. Smoke came stomping through the door a few minutes later, looking all kinds of aggravated. He stopped short when he saw me standing in his living room.

“When I saw your car in the driveway, I assumed someone picked you up. It never occurred to me that you would still be in my house.”

“You sound disappointed. If you want, I can go ahead and take off.”

Taking a step closer he asks, “Why are you here, Serena?”

“Because you said we could spend the day together and that day isn’t over.” After a thoughtful pause, I add, “I’m also not wild about going back to my brother’s house. He really pissed me off this morning.”

“Yeah, he pissed me off this afternoon, so we’re in the same boat.”

I move closer to him and put my hands on his chest. “You seem tense and out of sorts. Do you wanna talk about your day? I’m a good listener.”

“Hell, no,” he responds. “If I did, then you would be tense and out of sorts as well.”

“Would it help if we went for a ride?”

“I just went for a ride. It didn’t help.”

“Tell me what you need in order to feel better.”

Smoke brings his hands up and wraps them around my wrists. I’m disappointed when pulls my hands away from his chest. “I think we need to slow our roll. We had a whole night of intimacy, and it was fantastic. I’m just not sure we’re doing the right thing by having a short-term affair, only to toss aside the good thing we’re creating here. I like having you around, and I don’t want to do anything that would jeopardize our friendship.”

“Are you saying this because my brother freaked out on you?”

“Yes and no. Siege has a right to be worried. You just blew into town and landed right on my cock within a few weeks. You need to take a minute to catch your breath and get settled before setting us up in a friends with benefits situation.”

Since Smoke is standing here with a raging hard on, talking to me about slowing things down, I think he’s just freaked out by Siege doing his protective big brother routine. I decide that slowing things down might be the right call for us, because I want to give him time to fall in love with me and for that to happen, there has to be enough space between us for him to miss being with me. It might sound corny, but I always date to marry, I’ve never been interested in playing the field. Therefore, I need to take a step back and make sure moving in the direction of a real relationship is something I really want. It might be that once I get to know him better, I find he has all kinds of strange, off-putting quirks.

I hate the idea, but I pretend like it’s the best idea he’s ever had. “Okay, let’s friendzone each other and get through the three months I’ve agreed to work for you.”

“That sounds like a good plan,” he responds despondently, and I wonder why he sounds sad about it, seeing as it was his idea in the first place. He then adds, “Now, how about we grab something to eat.”

“What are you thinking?” I ask.

“Pub?”

“Absolutely. That sounds like a great idea.” I try to keep my tone light but I’m kind of pissed that he took away my new favorite toy. I have to force myself to be patient. My goal is seeing if a relationship works out, not just bouncing on his cock nonstop. But God, bouncing on his cock is so good.

“Give me a minute to grab a shower and change clothes,” he says as he heads off in the direction of the ensuite bath.

I wander into the bedroom and fuss over the limited options in my bag. I change my casual shirt for a nice silk blouse and slip on the pumps I wore last night to dress up my neat, clean-cut jeans. When I pull my hair up into a messy bun it’s just enough to pull off a classy, casual look. Last night I might have been trying to seduce him with my risqué outfit choice, but if we are going to keep things strictly platonic—at least until I know where this is going—then I’ll tone it down.

I walk out into the living room to give Smoke some privacy to get dressed. My phone jingles and I assume it’s Siege wanting to rant in my ear about why I didn’t come home like he told me to.

However, when I pull the phone out expecting a message from my brother, it’s just Mr. Crazy Pants. This time he’s sent a picture of a voodoo doll with a needle piercing its heart. I wish I knew who had this number before me. I’d love to give her a heads up about this guy. That reminds me, it’s yet another thing to add to my growing ‘to do’ list.

When I got introduced to the newer club brothers, there was one guy who was an IT specialist. Maybe he can find a way to see who’s sending this stuff? I’ll ask Smoke about it later.

I close the message and pull up Gina’s contact information. I frown down at my phone. My friend still hasn’t responded to my last few text messages. That’s not like her as she usually replies straight away. I call her, thinking maybe she simply overlooked my messages or has gotten swamped with work. Unfortunately, the phone just rings out before it switches to voicemail. Maybe she’s out doing last minute shopping or on a date. Sighing, I leave her a short, positive message and tell her to call me when she gets a chance.

Just as I’m sliding my phone back into my pocket Smoke comes into the living room looking refreshed and revitalized and almost takes my breath away. He’s wearing dark jeans, a button up cotton shirt and his black leather cut. He looks absolutely amazing.

“Wow, you clean up good,” I tease him. It’s weird but I consider our business suits to be kind like a uniform. They don’t impress me much. Casual clothing is where Smoke shines.

He sits on the sofa to put his boots on and grins up at me. “I could say the same thing about you, but you always look well put together.”

“Aww, you’re sweet as always.”

Within a few moments of getting on Smoke’s motorcycle, we’re at the pub. I like this particular place, because the food is good, and the background music is rock’n’roll rather than elevator music. We end up at a cozy table in the back and start the evening off sharing a bottle of white wine.

“You looked like hell when you came home today. I’m curious to know what happened.”

“I like your blunt approach,” Smoke responds. “Some local outlaws broke into one of our properties and began destroying it. Naturally, we had to go out and stop them. Things got ugly. A couple of my brothers got shot at but thank goodness no one was seriously hurt. It was more aggravating and inconvenient than anything.”

I swirl my wine around in the glass as I listen to his words. “Why didn’t you just call the cops?”

He snorts a laugh, “Princess, you know the score about cops and bikers. We’ve tried alerting them of a breaking and entering before. They told us to hire security like normal folks and leave them alone.”

“Oh wow, I wouldn’t have guessed law enforcement would be quite so lazy.”

“Welcome to Las Salinas. Criminals proliferates, and law enforcement obliviates.”

I smile at his twisted words. “Should I assume the Legion got it all sorted out?”

“Yes ma’am,” he responds firmly. “The prospects are in the process of cleaning up the mess they made as we speak.”

“I’ve noticed the Savage Legion prospects are like energizer bunnies. They just keep going and going and going.”

Smoke shoots me a smug grin. “Every man in the Legion is that way, not just the prospects.”

“Yet, you somehow got the evening off,” I remark pointedly.

“About that,” he says grimly. “It seems that your brother doesn’t want to see my face right now.”

“Holy shit, was that because of me?” I panic a little on the inside, worried that my brother has been berating Smoke, the way he did me this morning.

“He is definitely not my biggest fan right now. I think he’ll eventually come around to our way of thinking on this subject, so I’m trying not to get too bent out of shape about it.”

“You know, I’m getting tired of talking about my idiotic brother. Right now, he’s acting like a prize asshole, and I’m not returning to his house until he can get his emotions under control.”

Smoke lifts his glass into the air and says, “I’ll drink to that.”

I gently clink my glass against his and we both swallow a sip of wine. I have to admit it feels good to have someone who understands what I’m going through.

“So, what’s the plan? Are you going to look for your own place?”

I nod. “Yeah, I’ve bookmarked a couple of places on my phone, that I’d like to arrange a viewing for on Monday afternoon when I get off work.”

“How about you come in for the morning, sign off on all your paperwork and take the rest of the day off?”

“That’s a generous offer.”

“Not really. Remember, you’re a partner now. That means you set your own schedule.”

“That’s going to be a problem for me. I’m a terrible workaholic.”

“Not me. I appreciate having my free time to myself. I discovered early on in life that I can waste years working for greenbacks, and then lose them all in one turn of the stock market. Now, I strive for a better balance between work and my personal life.”

“That actually sounds like smart thinking to me.”

“If you’re serious about not going back to your brother’s house, you’re welcome to stay with me until you find your own place.”

“Since we’re just friends now, that shouldn’t pose a problem.” I’m secretly thrilled that Smoke invited me to live with him temporarily. This solves a lot of problems for me. It’s nice to find a genuinely nice person to be friends with.

When my cell phone jingles, I’m convinced it must be Gina at long last. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to check my text messages. I’ve been trying to get a hold of my friend for days. I don’t want to miss out if she’s trying to contact me.”

“By all means. Don’t let me stand in the way of talking to your friend.”

I quickly pull out my phone. I’m thrilled to find a message from Gina. When I open the text it only says Be. That’s it, just the word be. I keep staring at the screen, waiting for the rest of her message to appear. Seconds tick by, and then minutes, but nothing else appears on my screen. I have to admit everything about this is strange.

Smoke leans forward in his seat. “You look worried. What’s going on?”

Without hesitation, I tell him all about it, “I’ve been trying to call and text Gina for the past week. We communicated regularly since I left San Francisco, but last week she stopped answering my messages. Until just now I haven’t gotten any response from her. Now I get this message and it just says ‘be’. I’m starting to get worried for her.”

“Do you mind if I see your message stream?”

“No, of course not,” I say as I hand my phone over to him.

Smoke takes the phone and begins scrolling through the messages. He freezes in place for a moment before his head comes up and I see his stunned expression. “What in the holy fuck is going on here, Serena?”

“I just told you. My friend hasn’t been responding and I’m worried for her.”

“Yeah, I agree, that part is weird. But what’s weirder is that you seem to have a fucking full-blown stalker and haven’t said a damn word about it.”

“I don’t know who the hell that is. I changed my phone number right before I left San Francisco, this is a new number and phone. I think whoever the stalker is, he’s stalking the woman who had the number before me. I don’t recognize anything about the dude. I couldn’t figure out how to block the messages as I need to be able to receive calls from withheld numbers for work—so instead, I just ignore them.”

Snoke growls, “Are you being for real right now?”

I nod, wondering why he’s getting so worked up about it. “Granted it’s all text messages, but I don’t recognize anything in his manner of speaking, and he never mentions a name. I wish there were some way to figure out who owned the phone before me so I can get word to her that’s someone from her past is hell bent on killing her.”

Smoke’s hand closes tightly around my phone. “Maybe Zen can take a look at the phone, he might be able to find out who it is, the guy is a genius when it comes to tech.” He pauses and his eyes meet mine. “You mentioned something about all the guys from San Francisco being assholes. You wanna tell me more about that?”

My mind literally shuts down, because telling Smoke all about my abusive ex is the last thing in the world I want to do. He’ll think less of me for falling in that trap and for not getting out sooner. If I’m totally honest, I think less of myself for falling for Stan’s bullshit and not leaving him the first time he was abusive. Being victimized is humiliating.

When I don’t answer, Smoke frowns at me. He opens his mouth to speak, but the server interrupts the conversation in order to drop our plates off.

Smoke pushes my phone across the table, and I slide it silently into my pocket. “My friend might be out of calling range. I might call her family when I get back to your place, and just double check to make sure she’s okay.”

“That would probably be a good idea,” Smoke responds and fixes me with a look. “We’re not finished with this conversation. Not by a long shot, and you need to know that.”

I roll my eyes, all too aware how overly protective the Savage Legion brotherhood can be. We tuck into our food with gusto and the conversation dies down a bit as we eat.

After rolling this situation around in my head, I still can’t imagine why Gina’s not returning my calls. We were friends for almost two years, and after I left Stan, she welcomed me into her place with open arms. I can’t get the image of her standing in the doorway in her pajamas out of my mind. The more I think of her, the more worried I become.

“Do you mind if I ask what your friend’s name is?”

“No, of course not. Her name is Regina Samson. Everyone calls her Gina.”

“I can have Zen, our IT guy, run a check on her. He should be able to tell us if she moved out of area or got a new cell phone.”

“That sounds like a violation of privacy.”

“It’s all public information,” he responds. “If it sets your mind at ease, I don’t see the harm in it.”

“I would prefer to give her family a call. If that doesn’t pan out, I would be grateful to have your friend look into the situation with her.”

Smoke relaxes back into his seat. “We’ll wait until we get back to my house to talk about the stalker.”

I give him a careless shrug, because to my mind it falls in the category of random things that aren’t my problem. Smoke keeps the conversation light for the rest of the evening. We relax into polite conversation as we eat our dinner and share a dessert. Everything with this man it’s just so easy going. To my mind he’s a real gem.

I know some women don’t care for relationships with older men, but Smoke is not that much older than me, and I’ve known him for the better part of my life. I toy with the idea of what it would be like to have him in my life long-term. I like the way that looks in my mind.