Fire Inside:A Chaos Novel(94)

“Maybe a female cop,” Ty-Ty went on, her voice trembling with amusement. “The boys would freak if he was doing the nasty with a cop.”

Elvira, clearly finding this the height of amusement, which I did not, kept laughing.

“What we know is,” Tyra carried on, “she isn’t a stripper at Smithie’s, a cocktail waitress, again at Smithie’s, or one of those women who wears their tank tops cut off so it shows the bottom of their boobs while they stand on a podium with a new bike at shows and does the old, ‘you buy this bike, you might be able to lay a biker babe like me,’ gig.” Tyra’s dancing eyes came to me. “Hop’s usual biker babe of choice.”

My breath caught in my throat.

Elvira kept right on laughing.

“Though that’s good,” Ty-Ty unfortunately continued blabbing. “Biker babes like that get it when it comes to bikers like Hop.”

My stomach clenched.

What did that mean?

“Bikers like Hop?” Elvira, always one for juicy gossip, immediately quit laughing in order to hone in on this snippet and do what she always did. Draw it out.

“Yeah,” Tyra said. “He’s a good guy, I like him. Seriously, and I know it’s going to sound crazy because, well, I somehow feel like I shouldn’t but I just do. Maybe it’s because Tack likes him and respects him. Maybe it’s because I know he’s down with the brotherhood in a big way and he’d do anything for Tack, me, my boys. Maybe it’s just because he’s mellow and good to be around. Still, unlike the other guys, with Hop it’s a struggle.”

“That all sounds good,” Elvira noted. “Why is it a struggle?”

“Chaos stuff, biker stuff, stuff you have to get used to,” Ty-Ty lifted her hands and did air quotations, “in the life.”

“Like what?” Elvira pressed.

“Like stuff I’m not going to share with you because you have a big mouth,” Tyra replied and Elvira leaned back in affront.

“I do not!” she snapped, and that was a total lie but since I was freaking out, I didn’t make the scoffing noise I would normally make.

Tyra, however, wasn’t freaking out so she called her on it. “Girl, you totally do.”

Elvira leaned in. “Yeah, okay, I do but I keep it all in the family. I don’t run my mouth to people I shouldn’t run my mouth to and you know it, Tyra Allen. So, give.”

“Elvira—” Tyra started.

“Give, girl. You know, one, you’re gonna do it because you got a big mouth too and don’t you deny it and two, I’m not gonna let it go until you do and you know that too, so… give.”

Tyra studied her and it seemed neither of them noticed I was not moving and had not even come fully into the room.

“You have to promise to keep this tight,” Tyra warned, giving in as I knew she’d do because she did kind of have a big mouth.

“I work for a commando. I know how to keep shit tight,” Elvira shot back.

There it was. Confirmed. I knew it. Hawk was an actual commando.

I didn’t really register that because Tyra clearly took the “commando tight” declaration as indication she could share and spoke again.

And what she said tore me apart.

“Hop and I had a rocky beginning seeing as, when he was with Mitzi, I saw him in his bed in the Compound with a biker groupie bitch extraordinaire by the name of BeeBee.”

My vision went blurry.

“Holy crap,” Elvira breathed. “I always liked him. He’s a cool guy. And, never thought I would say this in my whole life, but that badass biker ’tache of his does things to my girl parts. I can’t believe this. He’s a cheater?”

Tyra nodded and the room started swaying.

“Tack says it’s none of his business or mine. Boys do what they do. Some of them are true to their old ladies, some of them are, well…” she shrugged, “not. It’s uncool but it’s part of the life. Actually, part of life since cheating isn’t limited to bikers, and Tack’s right, it really isn’t my business.”

I had the weird sensation of feeling I was going to pass out at the same time I was hyper-alert and concentrating on every word Ty-Ty said.

“Honestly,” she continued, “no offense to the sisterhood, but after all that went down and things got super ugly with Mitzi, Tack didn’t share any specifics but she came around and was totally a bitch, like, a Naomi bitch, so I have to admit, it was the one time in my life I kinda got it. Though he should have cut her loose before he nailed a biker groupie, especially one like BeeBee.”

“This is what I don’t get,” Elvira grumbled. “They wanna go lookin’, they want fresh meat, why don’t they cut us loose first? Why they gotta keep us on a string? I mean, haven’t these dudes seen Fatal Attraction? Hope Floats? That shit destroys a woman, both women involved, for God’s sake, and it isn’t like men don’t know it.”