9. Hollyweird

CHAPTER 9

HOLLYWEIRD

TRINITY

Bishop: Need you to head over to Hollywood’s place and pick something up.

Trinity: What is it? Can one of you bring it to me instead?

Bishop: Headed out of town with my woman. Stop being a pansy and go pick it up.

Trinity: Fine!

It had been three months since I laid my mother to rest on the hill beside the lake. I’d been by once since then to take flowers to her and Trent. I wasn’t sure if I would ever go back, even though my eyes traveled that way whenever I passed by. Knowing they were there, and I was close enough to take a peek as I drove by gave me a small bit of comfort. It made me think I’d made the right call by staying. There was also Bishop. My uncle decided to lessen his travels, and he became a member of the Sierra High Chapter of the Aces High MC. It became official last month, and I was still stunned by the change. I thought he would be a nomad for life. Then again, he fell in love and his woman was done with his roaming around like a single man. Good for her. She deserved to have all of him. My uncle was a good man. I wasn’t naive in thinking that. Even though I knew he did some bad things, he had always been there for me and that was what I judged him on.

I drove over to the house that Hollywood shared with Trouble. I mostly avoided going to Carson’s place because I knew Trouble was there too, but my uncle had left me no choice. On second thought, I might have to reevaluate whether he was truly a good man. He knew that I hadn’t wanted to see Trouble again after I was so vulnerable with him the day my mom died. I saw him when I left the graveside service. He had been there, lurking in the shadows for some reason. I wasn’t sure why he had shown up, or for that matter, why he hadn’t joined us at the service since he had come. He never even said a single word to me before I left with Carson’s mom.

It only took about fifteen minutes to get to the house. When I pulled up, both Hollywood and Trouble’s motorcycles were sitting outside. Normally, they were garaged. I hoped like hell that meant they were about to go somewhere and I wouldn’t have to deal with Trouble, or the looks of pity because I no longer had a parent or sibling in this world to give a shit about me. With any luck, they would rush out the door before I could even get my Jeep in park.

I took a deep breath, then another one as I eased into the driveway. Still no sign of the boys. Dammit.

By the time I put my Jeep in park, I couldn’t take another deep breath without hyperventilating, so I pulled up my big girl pants up, hopped out, and headed to the door. I knocked, but no one answered. I knocked louder because I could hear music coming from out back, but didn’t want to just help myself and walk around. Finally, Hollywood came to answer the door. His eyes widened a bit and then he glanced back over his shoulder, as if he needed to signal for someone to hide. When he didn’t see whatever he thought he would, he opened the door a little wider and took a quick scan of the area.

Weird.

“What are you doing here, Trin?”

“Bishop sent me a text to come here.”

“What the hell for? I thought he went on a trip to Cedar Falls with my mom?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “He said he left something here for me.” I pushed past him and moved into the main living area of the house. When Hollywood looked puzzled, I huffed. “Look, I don’t really want to be here. No offense, but your roommate is not my favorite person, so if you could go look for whatever Bishop might have left me, I’d appreciate it.”

“Yeah, sure.” He spun around the room, and took everything in. His brows scrunched together as he did so, obviously not seeing anything out of place. “Let me go grab my phone, and call him. I have no clue what he could have left here for you, or why he wouldn’t just take it by your place on the way out of town.”

“That makes two of us,” I teased. I walked a few more paces into the house and stared down the little hallway that separated the kitchen from the living area. There was a bathroom on one side and a storage closet of some sort on the other. Their house was honestly one of the weirdest layouts I had seen on a newer built home in a while. Most people wanted the living space and kitchen closer together, but maybe whoever had the house built hated their family. I thought of my own family in that moment and snickered. My mother would have loved the layout.

“Hey man, the grill is all fired up and should be perfect for the meat in…” I turned to see Trouble standing there. He was wearing sweatpants, no shirt, and his hat was on his head backward. I had somehow walked into my teenage self’s wildest dream. Of course, back then they were innocent and he would have realized how in love with me he was as he walked to me and then laid a very closed-mouth kiss on my probably dry and cracked lips. That was absolutely not where my grown adult mind went as my eyes inadvertently tracked down his chest from the hard points of his nipples to the line of dark hair that started just below his belly button and trailed down into those low-slung sweats. Dear sweet lord in heaven, the man must not have been wearing underwear either because I could see the full print of his cock as he came to an abrupt stop at noticing me.

Someone cleared their throat and still I couldn’t take my eyes off that place. I should have been ashamed, but I was too busy ogling his business to worry about anything like my own personal embarrassment.

TROUBLE

It had been weeks since I’d laid eyes on Trinity, and not for lack of wanting to. After everything her father laid at my feet that day, Bishop demanded I keep some space from her, allow her time to grieve, and to give me time to process how to keep a secret from her that I thought she deserved to know. He knew how I felt. I was ready to put the past behind us and claim her. I was fairly certain that Hollywood knew that too, though he didn’t seem as keen on the idea as Bishop was.The nomad turned chapter brother had a long talk with me about his niece, and told me I would know when the time was right, and only then could I act on it.

Lo and behold, the woman of my dreams had come to me, to my home, and she was staring at my dick like it was a fucking filet mignon and she was starved. There was no way to help the instant chub I got while she eyed me up.

“I couldn’t find anything and Bishop isn’t answering.” Hollywood announced as he made his way back into the hallway. He stood between Trinity and me and I wanted nothing more than to push him out of the way. The moment his body moved into her line of sight, her eyes instantly came up to meet mine and then she blushed so hard even her neck turned red.

“Sorry, what?” Trinity asked Hollywood.

“Couldn’t find anything. Look, we’re expecting guests, and I’d like for you to stay, but…” Hollywood started to spout off.

“We’re cooking out on the grill,” I corrected him, and it was just the two of us, to my knowledge, so I wasn’t sure why my brother suddenly started acting skittish, as if Trinity had never seen his pigsty of a room before.

“No.” Hollywood said just as someone knocked on the door. “Shit!” He hissed under his breath and then looked back over his shoulder at Trinity as the front door opened. “Sorry, Trin.”

What the fuck was he apologizing for?

I found out about two seconds after the thought hit.

“Hey lover, are you ready to party until we fall into bed exhausted and sweaty like always?” Natalie fucking Anderson ran across the room, damn near knocked Trinity over on her way to me, and then threw herself at me like it was a common, every day occurrence. This could not be fucking happening. What the fuck had she just said? Oh yeah! Fuck no! She was not about to lay claim to me in front of the woman I wanted to be mine.

“What the fuck, Nat? I haven’t been with you in almost two years.” Trinity turned and took a step away from the hallway, and I moved Nat aside so I could go stop her from leaving. If anyone was going to be leaving, it would be Natalie.

“So, you’re running after that bitch who fucking betrayed you now?” Natalie shouted at me. It stopped me in my tracks, but it also stopped Trinity from the progress she had made toward the front door. Her head snapped around and she narrowed her eyes on me before she moved them to Natalie. Why couldn’t she keep her fucking mouth shut?

“Excuse me? When did I ever betray Trouble?” Her gaze came back to meet mine, and I’m not sure what she saw there - probably the question that hung in the air between us. Whatever it was, she frowned and then snapped at me. “You’re the one who was the asshole to me,” She stated. “The way you brutally responded to Hollywood talking about me having a crush on you the first day of my Freshman year in high school, I had to deal with all the boys in school calling me “Dud”. Don’t worry, though, it was only for the first year. Then, when I came back after summer break after a hormonal growth spurt and my tits came in, I was known as “Milk Dud” for the remainder of high school.”

Natalie and the girl she came with started laughing. The other girl, whose name I didn’t know, laughed and said, “It wasn’t only the boys who called you that.”

As if to prove her point, Trinity cocked her head to the side as she stared me down with angry eyes. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

Something bothered me, and it kept me from being able to shut my fucking mouth. If I had thought about it, just for a fucking minute, I would have known before I put my foot in my mouth that it had been Natalie who fucked my shit up and continued to lie all these years later. “I’m the asshole who ruined your life?” I questioned. “So what! You had some people call you a name and comment on your spectacular tits. You almost had me kicked out of my club.”

Natalie let go of my arm and took a couple steps back. I quickly glanced her way and saw that the color had drained from her face, but still my anger at myself for putting Trinity through that bullshit - no matter what I said- was riding me pretty hard and I couldn’t stop myself from directing it at the wrong person. “Sweet almost kicked me out because you told Bishop, and Sweet by proxy, that I tried to hook up with a bunch of high school girls. I was twenty-fucking-two at the time. You told him the girls were underage. I almost lost my fucking patch because of your fucking jealousy and your stupid fucking crush!”

“I never did that!” Trinity yelled at me at the same time Hollywood moved in and shook his head. “She never did that, brother.”

I turned to Natalie who had scooted further back and was in the kitchen instead of the hallway at that point. “You said that it was her.”

“Did I?” Natalie asked as if it was new to her and then she shrugged her shoulders as if she couldn’t care either way. “Maybe it was some other girl.”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I wasn’t jealous of you or any girls you might have been screwing back then. I hated you for the Milk Dud thing. Do you know I didn’t even date until I moved to South Dakota for college? I had never been kissed by the time I was 18, and that was all your fault. Everyone thought there was something wrong with me because of the bullshit you spewed to a 14-year-old girl on her first day of high school. I was almost 19 when I had my first kiss. If you think I was pining after you, you have another thing coming to you. Besides, I grew up with an uncle in the club. I’ve been around Sweet and all the guys since I was 13, you idiot. If you think I don’t know the rules, you’re an even bigger idiot than you appear to be right now. I would never lie to my uncle, Sweet, or the club. Bishop was there for me and Trent after our dad took off and Momma checked out from her parenting duties. When the club started in Sierra High, I suddenly had more uncles to help me through and a cousin too. Hollywood was Trent’s best friend in high school, but he became family to me when I needed someone, especially after Trent never got to come back home. If you think I would jeopardize those relationships over some petty jealous snit, you are as stupid as she is!” Trinity pointed at Natalie then and everything clicked into place. Too fucking late to keep me from spouting off my bullshit and making me look just as stupid as Trinity just said I was.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” I asked Natalie, who had all my attention then.

“It was all in fun, and besides, you made it a point that you didn’t want that bitch fawning all over you all the time. I saw the way you looked at one another when she came to the clubhouse. She was 18 then and she would have been available to you the minute she graduated.” Natalie shored up her attitude and squared her shoulders as she stared up at me. “We were supposed to go the distance. What did you expect me to do?” She scoffed out what sounded like an infuriated, frustrated laugh. “Was I supposed to stand back and watch as you threw me aside for Milk Dud over there?”

I turned to see how the name affected Trinity, but she was already gone and Hollywood stood there at the door staring daggers at both Natalie and me. They were much deserved daggers. Every ounce of shit and attitude I had slung Trinity’s way since she turned 18 came back to haunt me. The way she had run off to South Dakota to go to college punched me in the gut too. She had to leave to get away from the damage I’d caused her, but she had never given any of that pain back to me. All those years that we could have been together, if she would have accepted my apology for the bullshit I didn’t realize I’d caused her, and they were all taken away. My position in the club had been threatened, but not by the girl I thought. It had been threatened by the woman I continued to sleep with on and off for several more years.

“Get the fuck out of this house and if you know what’s good for you, you will never come back here or to the clubhouse.”

“My family is club.”

“Your distant family, but you are not club, and I will have a chat with them about what you did. As far as I’m concerned, you’re banned because if I see you there, all hell is going to break loose and I might just forget the vow I took to never do violence to a woman.”

Natalie scurried out of the house and Hollywood had to take her friend home because she was left behind. I went by Trinity’s house, but she never showed up that night.