While the gym was certainly the biggest business the club had going now, there were others too. We still ran a hardware store downtown, and Sly had already told me they'd more or less franchised the Wolf Den too. As we walked through the town square, I couldn't help but look at every blonde I saw, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ava.
It was stupid of me, I knew. I had every reason to think she was still somewhere in Green Bluff. Charlie would have told me if she'd left. The club would look out for her even though I'd given up my claim on her long ago. I'd spent so much time reliving the first and last time I'd seen her in my mind along with every moment in between.
I couldn't help that my cock stirred a little at the memory of the first time. Sly and I had gotten in a little scuffle in a bar with a couple members of the Devil's Hawks. It was nothing really. I don't even remember anymore what had set us off. We got the best of the Hawks that night but it still left me with a nasty gash above my left eyebrow from the jagged end of a broken beer bottle one of them had used on me before I laid him flat.
God. She'd been young and sexy in that candy striper's uniform as I sat in the waiting room of the E.R. She hadn't seen me yet. She was in the middle of getting chewed out by some battle-axe of a nurse for dropping some rolled bandages on the ground. And when she bent over to pick them up, it just about undid me. I wanted to grip that sweet little ass and never let her go. Then she came to me. She had the face of an angel, with the palest blue eyes I'd ever seen. She was like some Nordic goddess with her white-blonde hair, long legs and curves I wanted to run my hands all over.
And I did. That very night.
I don't know what the hell she saw in me that day. I was rough and dirty, with blood running down the side of my face, but something sparked between us the instant we laid eyes on each other and thank God for it. It was fate when I ran into her later at the bar across the street from the hospital. Well, fate and a little recon. This town was small. I knew where the hospital types hung out. I had Sly pay one of the orderlies a hundred bucks to find out when her shift ended and make sure she'd be at the bar.
She was sweet and shy but had a fierceness in her that I saw right away. Some drunk asshole was getting handsy with her when we walked in. I geared up to get in my second fight of the night but Ava was smooth. To this day I don't know what she said to the creep. She wouldn't tell me. But whatever it was, he slinked off into some corner and left the stool beside her empty. I made my move.
We talked for hours that first night. She was just a kid. Barely twenty-one. She meant to finish college and study to become a pediatric nurse. She loved kids. Her friends probably warned her to stay the hell away from me that night and she would have been smart to listen. Girls like her don't belong with guys like me. She was for some doctor or lawyer. I was all hard edges and street smarts. I was twenty-seven back then and I already had a ten-year-old kid of my own. What right did I have to crash into her world?
Except as I talked to her that night, as I inhaled her sweet smell and saw the flash in her eyes when she looked at me, I didn't have a choice. She drank one-too-many sea breezes (she had more of a head start than I realized) and I took her home on the back of my bike. I kissed her outside her apartment and held her in my arms. It took everything in me to leave it at that. But when I took her for the first time-and I knew then that I would-I wanted her head clear and her eyes wide open. This girl was different and I meant to make her mine.
Two months later, I did. By then, I was lost to her and she didn't even know it yet. She consumed me. I wanted her in my bed, my heart, my life. Forever. Six months after that, I was ready to ask her to marry me. She came with me on a trip to Chicago-club business with another charter. But one night we went out on the town. There was another bar, another creep. She was tough but this asshole was tougher. I came out of the bathroom and found he had her pressed against the wall next to the jukebox. White rage fueled me and I don't even really remember what happened. I just remember my hands around that asshole's pencil neck and Ava screaming at me to ease up.
I broke the asshole's nose and the bar owner called the cops. They arrested me for assault and I ended up framed on federal drug charges instead. When I understood that I was really going to go down for it, I cut Ava loose. The last time I saw her stuck in my mind just as hard. Somebody pulled some strings and they let her come see me one last time while I was in holding, awaiting transport back to jail for what should have been forever.
She was trying to be strong. She wore a blue suit that showed off her legs and ass and it tore my guts out to do what I had to. I didn't want her around me. I couldn't bear to see her on the other side of the glass on visiting day with every low life on the planet. She said she didn't care. She said she'd wait. But I saw the writing on the wall and knew I was never getting out. She cried and pleaded with me. I was cruel. I had to hurt her to save her. She should have slapped me after the things I said but that wasn't her style. I set her free. Not long after that, she came to Marion to try and see me. I had them send her away and hated myself for it even though I knew it was the best thing for her. She never came back.
And now here I was, thinking about crashing into whatever world she'd built for herself again. Could I really be that selfish?
"Dex!" Billy leaned over and slugged me in the arm.
I shook the cobwebs out of my head. We sat parked near the water fountain in the town square. I gave him a sheepish smile and shrugged. "Sorry, man. Still having a tough time processing the idea of fresh air and freedom."
Billy smiled wide. "You don't have to explain it. You ready to head back to the Den? Mo's got a plan to fatten you up by the end of the month. I think tonight's fried chicken and sweet potato pie."
"Shit. She's gonna succeed. I'm still full from breakfast."
Billy snapped his helmet strap, revved his engine and turned his bike around. I looked back at the town square, scanning the crowd. She was here. Somewhere. I could almost feel it. I let out the throttle and roared after Billy, leaving the town square and my memories behind me.
The Wolf Den parking lot was full again, but this time with more cars than bikes. The restaurant catered to the working class of Green Bluff. Sly had the place shut down yesterday in honor of my homecoming but club bills had to be paid. It was an odd thing to see as I walked in. I could see right away the type of clientele drew. It wasn't a family joint, thank God, but this was a pick-up joint now, to be sure. We'd envisioned this too, Sly and me. We knew the key to a good bar was one where women felt comfortable. In this place, no way were any of the guys going to get out of line. Not with half a dozen of my brothers as bouncers.
I gave a nod to Charlie at the bar. Billy had stepped behind the bar and was busy filling two frosted mugs with whatever we had on tap. He slid one over to me and I took a swig. God. It was cold and clean going down and the place was just starting to feel like home.
"Sly back yet?" I said to Charlie. He didn't hear me. He was busy checking out a young brunette at the other end of the bar. I shook my head and smiled. "Never mind." I patted him on the shoulder as I walked past him and headed for the back room. Charlie grumbled something but I kept on going.
I gave the office door one solid thump then pushed it open and walked through. What I saw made me freeze. My blood turned cold and felt like it drained out of me leaving me breathless and filled with rage.
Ava.
Sly and Ava.
They stood in profile before me. The whole thing maybe took two seconds but in that time I took in every inch of her. The curve of her ass, under tight jeans. The bare patch of tanned skin that showed on the small of her back from the way her gray t-shirt hiked up as she reached up and looped her arms around Sly's neck. He held her close with one hand at the center of her back and looked down at her with a smile on his face. A split second later, his smile dropped as he turned and saw me.
God. She had her head tilted up toward his, like she was ready for him to kiss her. He had her pulled so close to him. They were easy together. Familiar. Intimate. It was like a knife twisted in my gut. I felt sick.
And then she startled and turned toward me too. Her eyes widened, her mouth opened like she was going to say something. Sly's hands were still around her and I couldn't stand to look at it another second. I turned on my heel and walked out.
Chapter Five
Ava
I got to the Wolf Den late, just after six. Whatever Sly wanted to see me about, I hoped it wouldn't take too long. I had about a half hour for him before I needed to get to the hospital. I was happy to see a strong dinner crowd already forming when I walked in.
"Hey Ava!" Brian Sullivan worked the door tonight. Everyone called him Tiny. He was a giant, burly guy with great looping tattoos from his neck to his calves. He looked dangerous with his shaved head, great muscled forearms, and an old jagged scar running from the corner of his left eye across his cheek.
"Hi, Tiny." I smiled. Tiny was scary as hell to anyone who didn't really know him. I did really know him though. He was sweet, charming, watched daytime soap operas and was scared to death of needles. A big baby about them really. It took three guys to hold him down every year when he came to see me for flu shots.