“No.” Tack denied my request.
Argh!
“You need to leave,” I ordered. “I need to go ape-shit on my old man and I’m not wearing any underwear.”
Tack burst out laughing.
Ugh!
Bikers!
“Right, we’ll call you back,” Hop said to my sister. “Yeah, nice to meet you, too.”
Seriously?
I flopped back on the bed.
“We need to call a meet, brother. Lanie’s mom’s a banker’s wife. According to the sister, she’s flippin’ out and Lis’s old man isn’t hip on puttin’ up collateral for what he calls, ‘that nutcase’ so he refuses to do it. We gotta get her ass outta jail,” Hop shared.
“I’ll make the calls,” Tack agreed.
“Obliged,” Hop replied.
“Lanie,” Tack called.
“What?” I snapped to the ceiling.
“Look at me, babe.”
I got up on my elbows and glared at Tack.
“You’re right. Your head isn’t messed up,” Tack stated, then his face got soft when he finished, “Glad to have you back, darlin’.”
Damn.
I was going to cry.
“Stop being nice when I’m ticked,” I demanded but my words were shaky.
Tack just grinned.
I deep breathed.
Hop moved to him, they did a fingers-wrapped-around-wrists biker, badass handshake and I heard Tack mutter, “She’s good. You did good, brother.”
To which Hop muttered back, “In more ways than one.”
They smiled at each other while I fought off tears.
Tack left.
I decided to focus on being angry in order not to let loose the tears, so I glared at Hop as he moved to the end of the bed.
“I’m ticked at you,” I declared.
He hit the bed with his hands then his knees and crawled up it toward me and he looked so hot doing that, suddenly I wasn’t ticked anymore.
He also ignored my declaration and asked, “You wanna go to Connecticut?”
“Heck no,” I answered as he made it up my body and lowered his weight on me.
“Babe, your mom’s in jail, your dad’s in the hospital.”
“Their tangled web,” I replied. “I have campaigns going live. I’ve got meetings with my counselor I’d rather not put off because they’re working. I’ve got a cop I need to explain some things to. And I’ve got to have a key cut so my man can come to my place whenever he wants. I don’t have time to fly to Connecticut to sort out the lives of two adults who should have sorted themselves out three decades ago.”
“Fair enough but you missed somethin’ in listing all your obligations,” Hop said.
“And what’s that?” I asked.
“Wrappin’ that mouth of yours around your man’s cock.”
I did a top-to-toe shiver.
Hop felt it and grinned.
Then he dropped his lips to mine and kissed me. It lasted awhile and I was holding on, fairly hot and very bothered when he lifted his head.
“You’re seein’ a counselor and it’s workin’?” he asked quietly.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“Proud of you, lady.”
I smiled.
Hop’s eyes dropped to my mouth and he kissed me again.
About five minutes later, I got down to seeing to one of my obligations.
I worked hard at it, enjoying every second and, pleased to report, my endeavors were a success.
* * *
“You’re such a pain!”
This was shouted by Cutter one second after Rider shoved him in the shoulder. Half a second after he shouted, Cut took a step back then lunged forward and tackled Ride whereupon they both hit my rug and started wrestling.
Tack, who was enjoying a beer in my living room with Hop, and Tyra, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner with me, totally ignored them.
This was often their tactic.
“As long as they aren’t close to somethin’ that can hurt them or somethin’ breakable, we let ’em duke it out,” Tack had told me.
I wasn’t certain this was an optimal parental choice but I’d never seen bikers raised from womb to badass. It was probably good they knew their way around a slug fest from a young age.
Needless to say, Tack had told Tyra about Hop and me, and Tyra had wasted no time phoning me. We had a conversation that was uncomfortable for both of us, since she’d shared the BeeBee information and I hadn’t shared anything at all. I’d had to explain, without giving away too much of Hop’s business he didn’t want spread around, that she’d been mistaken. He didn’t cheat, he’d been on a break. Then I’d used Hop’s words to tell her what he and I had was “real”; figuring she’d lived in the biker world longer than me, she would understand.