I'm Only Here for the Beard (The Dixie Wardens Rejects MC #4)(73)

He waved the dust away from his face.

"Naomi … "

I shook my head. "No. Just no. You either let me ride on the back of your bike, or I'm going to stay with my mom for a few days."

"You will not be going there alone."

I was done. So fucking done.

"And, in case you forgot, Walton Whitley is in a medical facility with brain damage. He literally can do nothing to me. If I want to drive six hours to my mother's house, I'll damn well drive six hours to my mother's house."

"We'll go to your mother's house this weekend just like we planned," he growled. "And this has nothing to do with Whitley."

Yeah, right.

I'd learned over the last four months what, exactly, Sean had done to the man that was my attacker. He'd punched him in the face for what he had done to me.

Since he'd been what they deemed as 'stable' when he was in the hospital, he wasn't wearing as many of the monitors as he had been. So, sometime after Sean had gone in there and punched him in the nose, the man had started to vomit. He'd suffered irreparable brain damage when he choked on his own vomit. Nobody really knew what had happened for sure since he'd been alone.



       
         
       
        

I doubted that Sean had noticed that he was in any trouble when he'd left.

Not that I would blame Sean for not helping the man, even if he had known.

I wouldn't have.

Needless to say, the man was in a permanent care facility for inmates, and would be for the rest of his life due to his brain damage suffered from lack of oxygen.

That, I knew, because I'd gone for a visit that Sean still had no clue about and had seen for myself that this man would never be a threat to me again.

A man whose reasons for what he did to me I still didn't know, and I probably never would.





Chapter 25


Life has never given me lemons. It's given me anger issues, a love for alcohol, high blood pressure, and an extreme dislike of stupid people.

-Sean's secret thoughts

Sean

I was on my motorcycle, Naomi plastered to my back as happy as she could be, trying not to speed. I was hyperaware. I was freaked way the fuck out, and I didn't want to be riding on my bike with her.

Not because I didn't want her to be there, but because I did.

I liked the way she felt with her body plastered to mine. I liked the way her hair flowed all around us, filling my nostrils with the smell of her.

And honestly, the way her hips were sucked up against my ass made me want to flip her around and fuck her.

God, I was going to hell. I was seriously going to hell.

She wasn't ready. Not yet. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if she never would be.

But when she dropped her hands to my lap, I nearly drove us off the road.

I'd never, ever been so happy to see my father pull up beside me as I was then.

He didn't say anything to Naomi, but she moved her hands away and looked at my dad.

I was sure her face was flaming.

And as we pulled up in front of the clubhouse, two minutes later, I was trying hard not to laugh when I saw the pink tinging Naomi's cheeks.

It made me feel good that she knew what she'd done and that she still wanted to do it.

Maybe not as badly as I wanted to do it, but it was progress nonetheless.

"Boy," Dad said. "You're late."

I was.

I'd had a fight with Naomi for fifteen minutes, then had to shower and change, before we headed over here.

And that made us over forty-five minutes late.

Luckily, we'd done a lot of the preparations last night, meaning today all we had to do was set the food out and get to cooking the briskets for the annual Dixie Wardens party that we hosted. 

Each year, all the chapters got together and had a reunion   of sorts. Really it was just a reason to get drunk, eat food, and spend time with extended family. This year there we expected a bigger turnout than in previous years as more people had joined the club and some had married and would be bringing with them their extended families.

So, there'd be plenty of new faces whose acquaintance I hadn't yet made, and a lot of them were already here, mingling with the other members who were also here early.

And though I knew they were all friendly, because they wouldn't be invited by the rest of the club if they weren't, it still made me nervous to let my woman go off in the midst of all of these unknowns.

"Bye, baby," Naomi said as she kissed my bearded cheek. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me."

Then she was gone, and my father was laughing at me.

"How about you go fuck yourself," I growled.

My father's lips thinned as he tried to stop himself from laughing, but I knew he was doing it on the inside despite the fake façade on the outside.