“Sounds good,” Sex Piston responded, taking Oz by the hand.
Her crew followed with their respective pickups.
Going out the door, Sex Piston felt Stud’s anger as he realized Oz was leaving with her.
“He looks pissed,” Crazy Bitch warned her friend.
“Good,” Sex Piston said, unconcerned, as Oz’s arm slid across her shoulders. Restraining herself from shrugging it away, she waited until the door closed behind them before doing just that.
Climbing into the passenger seat of the car, she was aware of the four bikers preparing to follow them back to Killyama’s house. She leaned her head back against the headrest and then turned her head to look outside the car window, realizing for the first time she was getting tired of the partying, wanting to go home and go to bed instead. A sigh escaped her.
“What the fuck’s wrong with you?” Killyama asked.
“Bored with these shitheads.” She shrugged.
Crazy Bitch leaned up from the back seat. “Got something that will put your panties in a twist.”
“What’s that?” Sex Piston asked over her shoulder.
“I got us tickets to the races next month,” Crazy Bitch bragged.
“Hell yeah.” The women laughed in excitement.
The bike races only came once a year to the huge coliseum in Louisville. Each of them had their favorite riders and they would place bets with each other that their biker would win.
Life was suddenly lightened again as they began coming up with their bets. Laughter floated through the night as the green car drove toward Killyama’s house.
Chapter Five
Sex Piston parked her bike as her ma pulled into the driveway behind her. Stud wasn’t working until later today, so her ma had taken advantage of being kid free to run errands before they arrived.
“How was work today?” she asked as Sex Piston helped her grab groceries from the back seat.
“All right. Business is slow after the holidays until people get a couple of paydays to get caught up. It should start picking up again next month.”
They packed the groceries into the kitchen and then started to put the groceries up until they heard voices coming from the back porch. Curious, they went to the sliding glass door and opened it, listening to Pops and Diamond talk.
Sex Piston had been furious with Diamond ever since she had found her and Knox together in Diamond’s office. She hadn’t been able to keep her mouth shut and had told Diamond everything Beth had told her about the MC Knox belonged to.
In her own way, she had been trying to protect her sister, but she could tell from her sister’s face when she had informed her of how new women were initiated into The Last Riders that it had deeply hurt her. It had been the truth, but Sex Piston wished now that she hadn’t been so harsh. There were easier ways to break that kind of information besides slapping her sister in the face with it.
“What’s wrong?” Her father sat down beside Diamond on the swing.
“I love Knox. I love him so much.” Diamond buried her face in her hands. “I don’t even know why I love the big jerk.” Her father put his arm around her shoulder. Diamond turned to him, crying on his shoulder.
“How does he feel?” Her father looked over his shoulder, seeing them standing silently behind the swing. He started to get up and let Ma handle the situation, but she shook her head.
“He doesn’t love me back.” Diamond cried harder.
“Are you sure?” Pops pulled her closer.
“Yes, now he won’t even talk to me.”
“Then make him,” he said matter-of-factly.
“What?” Diamond looked up from his shoulder.
“Make him talk to you. It’s what your mother did.”
“When?”
Sex Piston knew. She had heard their voices arguing and had sat outside their bedroom door, listening, sick that they would break up like all her friends’ parents had and she would never see him.
Pops took a deep breath. “When you girls were little, we broke up for a while. We argued over custody so we decided to live together until you girls were older. It was the worst six months of my life. I loved your mom, but she was sick of me putting the Destructors first. She didn’t want me to leave the club, she just wanted equal time. I was stupid and put the club first and you guys second. When I missed Sex Piston’s birthday party, she’d had it. Living with your mom and yet not being with her was terrible. I’m ashamed to say I did stupid shit that I regret, that I will always regret, Diamond.”
Sex Piston remembered that time. She had tried to make everyone’s life easier. That’s when she had started cooking their meals, making sure to keep her mother occupied when she became bored or overwhelmed, and she never asked for another birthday party.