“Nah, just a couple of hours, I think or until I get bored.”
She chuckled. “Did Ryan get home okay?”
“Yeah. It’s sad news.”
“I’m not going to pry if it’s private.” She wasn’t interested in gossip, especially if it was all lies. It was the one downside to living in a small town. There was so much gossip that was complete lies.
“Not really private. Long story short, Ryan’s the kid of one of the patched in members, Dane. You ever met him?”
Cora took a long swig of her drink, thinking. “Twice, I met him. Once he had to come in and settle some kind of trip money that had gotten lost. The next time was at a parent-teacher night. I don’t recall him recently though.”
“Well, about a year ago, he went off to the supermarket, and he’s not been back since. There’s no sign of him anywhere.” James sat back, removing his jacket as he did. She licked her lips, imagining him completely naked. “The brothers have searched for him. Admittedly, we’ve not broken our backs trying to find him. We’re from a certain way of life. If we want to go, we go. There was not even a sign that he was going to leave.”
“Certain way of life?”
“None of us had any family before the club. We’re all from foster homes or ran away from home. Kitty Cat, the woman you saw getting the spanking of her life, and her ass fucked, she was one of the women we grew up with.”
His words were only making her hot around the edges. She remembered that scene, and it had been damn hot.
“Dane hasn’t come back?”
“No. He’s gone, and I don’t know if he’s coming back. He didn’t take his leather cut, so I’ve got a feeling he’s looking for something he’ll never find.”
“What’s that?”
“To wipe away the past.” James shrugged. “We’ve all got a past we’re not proud of.”
“Is that because of your scar?” Cora asked, pointing her own nose.
“No. That just pissed me off when I got it. I had a damned good face until that fucker.”
She chuckled. “You’ve got a handsome face now.” Rounding the counter, she pressed her palm to his cheek, tracing the scar. “It’s an old scar.”
“It was an old life, not one I’m doing again anytime soon.”
Cora licked her dry lips as his hand rested on her hip. The clothing she wore was light, and she felt his touch like a brand through her skin.
“What about you? Are you trying to run away from a past?” he asked.
“No. I’m happy with my past.”
“Tell me about it.”
Taking a sip of her drink, she closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of his fingers touching her skin. She liked having her body stroked, caressed. What woman didn’t?
“I went away to college to study business and the law.”
“You’re a graduate?”
“No. Not even close. One day I was running to class, scared out of my mind about missing the lecture, and I was about to cross the road when I watched a car run over a woman.” Cora hadn’t thought about that incident in so long. “I had stopped at the traffic lights because I saw them go green for the cars to go. It was so surreal as it happened. This car came around the corner, going at the normal speed, and this woman, this businesswoman, was so busy, so preoccupied on the phone that she didn’t even look up to see what was happening. She stepped out into the middle of the road, talking with a client, and in the next moment, she was underneath the car.” Cora stopped for a second, biting her lip. “It went all a bit crazy. I ran over the road, kneeling down, and I tried to talk to her. The guy in the car climbed out. We couldn’t move the car. She was under it, and we waited for the emergency services to arrive. I held her hand the entire time. I couldn’t do anything but hold her hand. She was crying, and there was blood.” Tears filled Cora’s eyes as she recalled the horrid scene. “She kept saying that she only needed one more client to make partnership. That call she was on would have finalized her partnership deal at a law firm. She died at the scene.”
“What happened then?” James asked.
She turned her gaze back toward him. “I promised myself that it didn’t matter who it was, or what I had to do, I’d never risk my life in order to gain something. There was a hell of a lot more to life than studying, rushing to class, losing sleep, losing life itself. I didn’t become some drug-taking whore, or anything. I just decided that I was going to college, studying law and business to make my father proud.” She smiled. “He was proud of me just for graduating high school. I’m pleased I never went back to college. I’ve never regretted what I did. I stayed away from Greater Falls, but my dad came and visited me often, a hell of a lot more than if I’d been in college. We grew close and stayed close, and he thought it was good that I was living my life the way I wanted to live it.” Cora let out a sigh. “Wow, I never thought I’d tell anyone else that story.”