“I see you still know the rules, Glossy.” Storm chuckles when he sits down on his bike. Lola, his old lady, sits on her bike a few feet away. The tiny Latina girl gives me a huge smile and a big wave. I flip her off with my free hand. They both know why I stepped away from the club four years ago. Luckily, that reason isn’t here right now. These two I can handle.
When Storm lets my wrist go I stride over to Lola’s bike and climb on behind her. I got into a fistfight with her once because I got on the back of Storm’s bike. He likes to watch his old lady fight with other women. It turns his crazy ass on. Lola laughs when I wrap my arms around her waist and peels out.
It’s been four years, three days, twenty-five minutes and eight seconds since I was last on a bike. I feel that time in every bone in my body. There is nothing more freeing than riding on one of these. I tip my head back, close my eyes and let the wind stream my hair behind me. I’d let my arms go but Lola drives like a nutty bitch and would take a sharp turn just to throw me off.
I know what you’re thinking. I basically just let this Storm guy kidnap me. There are a few things you need to know. And I guess now would be a good time to fill you in. Well, on some of it.
Storm is a very important part of my past. He used to be like my brother. He used to stand by my side and I knew I could always trust him to protect my back. When you lose a relationship like that it cuts deep. I feel a loss in my soul, and deep down I know it’ll never be the same. But I can’t blame our separation on myself, or even Storm. I have to blame it on my ex-boyfriend Victor.
I honestly have to blame lots of things on my ex-boyfriend. Seems my life starts and ends with Victor. He’s been involved since the beginning.
Victor was twelve when his parents were killed in a car accident. My mother was his and his little sister, Annabella’s, godmother. So they came to live with us - my mother, my two younger brothers, and me. It was a tight fit but my mom bought a bigger house, one where we could each have our own room. It’s safe to say my mother could afford it but that’s not relevant right now.
Anyway, Victor and I were the oldest, being five years older than my brother Donovan and six years older than my brother Courtney and Victor’s sister Annabella. We stuck together because we had way more in common than either of us had with the other three.
I had always been in love with him. He had always been my friend; he had always been there. It only seemed natural to love him and want to be with him. Only it took him a few years to get with the program. Maybe I just became more interested in boys before he became more interested in girls.
That first kiss was magical. I honestly thought I found my one true love. Though at first I thought it was gross he stuck his tongue in my mouth, I quickly got over it.
The day he turned eighteen Victor bought a house for him and his sister. I, of course, moved in with them. Then Victor decided he needed to join the army with his best friend Talon. The day before he was shipped out to Iraq he proposed. I told him that was a shitty thing to do; asking me the day before he was shipped out. I wasn’t going to be an army wife. Not that there is anything wrong with being one. It just wasn’t for me. I wanted to go to vet school. I wanted to stay in Dallas with my mom and my brothers.
If he had joined for the simple pleasure of protecting our country, then my answer would probably have been different. At least then I would have known it was really what he wanted to do. But no, he joined because he wanted to be with his best friend. I suppose since Talon’s father was the governor of Texas, he thought it would be a cakewalk.
And I guess it was, until his second tour. He got shot along his left side and was honorably discharged. I couldn’t have been happier about the discharge. Not the getting shot. When I got the call from Talon that Victor had been shot, I felt a part of me die. I was literally waiting for that call to come. I couldn’t shake the feeling he was going to get hurt that time.
Then I was left with a different Victor. One with PTSD. His episodes got so bad he scared the shit out of my younger cousin Wesley. She can’t look at him without flinching. He used to call out the names of his dead friends at night. He would shoot straight up with agony outlining every inch of his body. I couldn’t do anything for him. I couldn’t take his demons from him.
I didn’t deserve to anyway. I did something horrible while he was gone to war. Something I’ll never forgive myself for.
I used to hate myself because of what I did to Victor and he didn’t even know about it. Every time he looked at me with love in his eyes and asked me to marry him, I had to turn him down.