When she had first found out the severity of the damage that had been done to her body, she didn’t see an end to her misery. Winter feared she would never fully recover, not only from the attack but also from her love for Loker. Now she could see that she was almost there. To do the rest she had to accomplish two things. First, keep strengthening her body with the therapy and workouts, and two, put an end to Viper’s games. With that in mind, she used the phone to call the one person she knew would enable her to walk away from the man she was determined to cut from her life for good.
Carefully going down the stairs, Winter focused intensely on making it on her own. Everyone was outside, leaving the house strangely quiet, but every creak made Winter’s hear skip a beat. After finally making it to the bottom, she let out a huge sigh of relief and headed towards the back yard.
Their Friday night was in full swing. She made her way to the picnic table that Evie, Bliss, Dawn, Rider, Viper and Shade where sitting and eating at.
Finding an empty seat at the end of the table next to Dawn, with Bliss across the table, she gave everyone a fake smile as they greeted her.
“Let me get you a plate.” Viper offered as he started to get up.
“No thanks, but I will take one of those beers. She pointed to the cooler at the end of the table. Shade reached in and pulled one out, passing it down the table until it reached her. Opening it, she took a long drink as the conservation returned to normal. She sat and listened as they talked, watching as several members from the other table got up and began dancing and sitting around on the patio furniture. The music was a nice touch and for a second Winter regretted not being there for the spring and summer, imagining the yard was very nice during the warmer months.
“Bliss, I like your top, the color suits you,” Winter complemented the woman during a lull in conservation.
“Thank you, I got it with the gift certificate you gave me for Christmas.”
“I’m glad you were able to find something you liked,” Winter said sincerely.
“I was wondering something, I noticed all the women members have tattoos with different numbers on them.” Evie and Dawn tops were barely there, and had tats that were easily seen on the curve of their breasts.
“Yes, we can pick which tattoo we want and put the date on it.” Evie explained. “Some, like me, just have the date tatted.”
“I see.” Beth took another sip of her beer, aware of the conversation at the table.
“Does everyone have the same date?” Winter wanted to know why Bliss was hiding her tattoo from her and she was determined to find out before she left.
“No.” Evie spoke cautiously now beginning to suspect the trap that was waiting.
Viper stiffened in surprise at the turn of the conservation. He turned to look at Winter and saw the intention in her expression.
“What determines the date that goes on the tattoo?”
“It’s the date we become a member of The Last Riders.” Evie explained slowly.
“I see. How do the women become members?” Winter asked knowing instinctively that the information was going to hurt.
Evie looked around the table, willing someone to jump in and take over the conservation. Thankfully Viper did, with a grim look.
“Ask what you want to know, Winter.”
“I just did. What’s the big secret?”
“No secret, it’s just club business. Only the members or potential members need to know, but I will tell you. The women become members by fucking or causing six of the eight members to have an orgasm.”
Winter’s hands tightened on the beer bottle, disgusted that she could ever care about the man staring coldly back at her.
“Well, doesn’t that make it nice for the male members. How do they become members? By fucking a certain number of women? What is it, a hundred?” She said snidely.
“No, the recruit that wants to become a member and join us must pick four of the original members.”
“Male members to fuck?” Winter asked in surprise. The angry glares from the men around the table answered her question.
“No, they pick four of the eight members to beat the hell out of them, then if they fight well and aren’t hurt too bad, they become members.”
Winter didn’t know which was worse. The ones she was pretty sure were the original members, she wouldn’t want to take on, one on one, much less four of them.
“You guy’s have a thing for numbers, don’t you?” Winter said sarcastically.
“We have to know that a man we are making our brother can handle himself and have our back. Going on beer runs and dumb shit like that won’t be of any help to us when another club wants our cut.”