16. Strings and Tassels

CHAPTER 16

STRINGS AND TASSELS

TROUBLE

It had been almost two months since I chased after my woman with my heart in my throat on the mountain that day. Two fucking months and the last time we’d touched had been that brief moment when our pinkies linked before she was pulled away by her friend to go find a shower. At first, club business kept me from going to claim her, and then I realized she was finding all sorts of ways to avoid me.

“Maybe you should give up on her,” Hollywood announced as we drove to Paramour in his truck. The rain had been coming down in buckets all day, and with the chill in the air, that meant the bikes were parked in a garage out of the elements. I glanced over at Hollywood who grinned at me like he was ready for the fight I was about to sling at him.

“This is my last attempt,” I admitted.

“Are you serious?” Hollywood asked and I had to point toward the road to get his eyes back where they belonged and off of me. The angry glare was warranted, since I’d promised that what I felt for Trinity wasn’t just a fleeting thing. “I thought you were going to work for her?”

“There is a difference between working to earn her love and trust and stalking a woman who wants nothing to do with you. She’s been avoiding me. I think it’s pretty clear that she wants nothing to do with me and what I thought was between us was probably just pent up emotions from being shot at and shit.”

“You’re an idiot,” Hollywood stated. We were both quiet for a few minutes afterward and then he shocked me when he spoke again. “She’s an idiot too, though. I love her. Swear to fuck she’s the sister I never wanted but ended up with anyway.” He glanced up toward the sky and shook his head. “Thanks a lot for that, Trent.” I chuckled because it was funny to hear him talk about Trinity that way, especially when he invoked the spirit of our dead friend in the mix. “She’s had a thing for you pretty much since she was old enough to know she liked boys.”

“Can we just focus on the time after she was legal?” I asked. I never wanted to revisit the memories of what I said to her when she was a vulnerable young girl. Looking back, I wanted to kick myself in the balls for not only what I’d said to her so callously, but for saying it in front of a cafeteria full of dumbasses who would use it against her for the next four years.

“Sure. We can do that. If it wasn’t for Natalie, you two probably would have hooked up back when she graduated school. She would have stuck it out in Sierra High until her mom threw her out of the house. Maybe you two would have had a few kids and been headed for divorce by now,” Hollywood surmised.

“What the fuck, man?”

He laughed. “I’m saying, the timing has been off. Your communication has been too. I don’t think Trinity thinks you like her in that way. She’s always seen you as that guy that shot her down so thoroughly when we were all still in school. I know you’ve harbored feelings for her for years, but there was also resentment and hatred in the mix since you believed Natalie’s lies about Trin. It has to be a confusing mixed bag of crap for her. So, what I’m saying is: maybe you’ve been going about everything all wrong.”

“You think I should burst into her job, throw her over my shoulder, and tie her up in a private room until she comes to terms with what I really want?”

“No, you crazy fucker. That shit will get your ass locked up and she’ll run back to South Dakota for sure.”

“Well, what the fuck am I supposed to do then?”

“Have you tried to ask her out on a date?” That shocked me stupid. I stared at my brother and he threw his head back and laughed at my dumb ass. “Holy fuck. You God damn idiot. I’m not sure you’re the one for my sister-cousin.”

“Don’t ever call her that again.” I shook my head in disgust. “Damn, man. We live in the mountains, people will take you seriously if they hear you say that.” The asshole shrugged his shoulders and laughed even harder. “Do you think she’d say yes?” I asked him when he finally pulled himself back together.

“All you can do is ask, dipshit. At least then you’ll know what you’re really working with instead of pretending that Trinity can read your mind and knows that you’re interested in her.”

My plan to ask Trinity out on a date, so I could lay everything out for her once and for all, fell by the wayside the minute we stepped into Paramour.

“Oh! My eyes! My fucking eyes!” Hollywood shouted as he covered his face with his hands. I thought maybe the girls had fallen down on the job and hired some ugly chick to dance the early shift, but that wasn’t the case. I moved around Hollywood and immediately understood why he was being so fucking dramatic. My woman was on the stage, dancing to an old song by The Divinyls.

“No, no, no! She cannot dance to a song about masturbation while I’m standing right here. She’s almost naked for God’s sake.”

I wanted to laugh at my buddy’s predicament, but I couldn’t because my eyes were glued to the stage and then to the men who tried to shove dollars down the string running through her ass crack as she bent over and smiled in their faces.

“Oh, fuck no!” I yelled. She must have somehow heard me above the music because the minute I stormed forward, she swirled around and our eyes met above the crowd of horny assholes who had seen far too much of my woman for my liking. “Get off that stage!”I yelled. She had the nerve to smile and shake her head. All the while, she never missed a step in her routine. I heard some of the girls working the floor giggling as I damn near ran to the stage.

Just as I got to the stage, I heard some asshole shout, “Milk Duds, over here!” I turned, clocked the bastard with my eyes and then in three steps I clocked him with my fist.

“I ever hear another fucker call her that, I will end you!” I yelled and despite the loud sound system, the song was at a quiet moment, so they all heard me. Then, I jumped up on stage, threw my woman over my shoulder and walked through the back of the stage where a curtained area led to a sort of waiting area before you could get to the dressing room. I was pissed off all over again that no one even tried to stop me from manhandling Trinity the way I had. “Where the fuck is your security?”

“I’m sorry!” Her giggle as she said that led me to believe she was not, in fact, sorry. “Did you want them to intervene, so you could punch someone else?”

That stopped me in my tracks and I gently put Trinity back down on the ground. Her body slid all the way down mine and lit me on fire from the inside out. “What the hell were you doing up there?”

“Filling in because several girls quit and moved on while the club was shut down in the wake of everything that happened.”

“So, you had to get up there and get naked?” My voice was half anger and half heat as I stared down into eyes that weren’t angry with me. She was fucking amused. Her smirk only grew into a full-blown smile as she stood there.

“I’m not naked, asshole.” She threw her hands down in front of her body from chest to waist to indicate the little bit of fabric that adorned her nipples and crotch. One wrong move and her pussy lips would be talking to the crowd.

“This is too close to naked for my comfort. Not to mention Hollywood’s scarred for life now. He’s probably downed all the liquor in the bar to get over you dancing damn near nude to I Touch Myself . Jesus, woman!”

She laughed at me. “Hopefully, he paid for all those drinks, which will make it worthwhile on the bottom line for the night. Hollywood being traumatized by seeing me, I understand, but why are you upset?”

“I came here to ask you out on a date.”

The smile slipped from her face so abruptly it almost made me sick to my stomach with what she might say next. “I get it. We went through something and it made you feel protective or whatever, but-”

“Nuh-uh!” I shook my head, backed her up to the wall, and caged her in with my arms as I leaned in close. “Nope. We’re not fucking doing that. Did our time on that mountain bring us into some new, weird space of understanding? Sure. I was coming for you that day! Do you understand? Dropping those bastards was a happy accident while I was there to get to you! Hollywood could have gone after you while I led the cops away, but that’s not what I wanted. It wasn’t what I needed,” I corrected. “I needed to know you were safe and that had everything to do with the fact that I have wanted you in my life since you were 18 years old and started parading in and out of the clubhouse looking all beautiful while you looked for Bishop or Hollywood. I wanted you there looking for me.” She rolled her big, beautiful eyes at me and smiled a fake, placating smile of someone who thought I was lying to myself. “Not lying, sweetness. You can talk to Bishop about how long I’ve been pining away for you.”

“You’re the one who-”

Once again, I cut her off there. “We both know I fell for Natalie’s shit in the heat of the moment, fresh off my visit with Sweet where he told me if I stepped a toe over the line again, my patch would be history. He refused to tell me anything other than that my accuser was a female who was closely linked to the club.”

“So that meant it was me?”

“It did when someone else told me that they overheard you talking about it.”

“What a bitch!” Trinity hissed. I had to agree.

“She fucked things up for me then. I fucked them up for us later. I stupidly listened to Bishop and Hollywood and gave you space after your mom died and all that shit came out about Natalie.”

“You looked at me like I was your worst enemy every time I was in your presence, for years after that!” She shouted at me.

“I looked at you like that because I was angry that I couldn’t make you mine, especially when you dated that dickwad who skipped town.” Her eyes narrowed down to thin slits as she puffed up her still barely covered chest.

“Did you run him out of town?”

“I let him drive out of town, the fucking bastard.”

“You had no right!” She shouted angrily.

“He was picking up some girl down by the college, and you weren’t in love with the cocksucker anyway. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to drive away.” I yelled back. Before I even realized what was happening, her arms were around my neck and our mouths fused together. I picked her up and carried her out of the room, down the hall, and straight into her office.

“Looks like we’re not needed here,” I heard my club brother, Steel, say as someone shuffled past us.

“Clean up when you’re done,” his wife called out as I slammed the door shut behind them with my booted foot. I pushed Trinity’s body up against the door and flicked the lock, but made damn sure not to pull away from that kiss.