“Go all the way up the stairs,” she said. “Turn right and it’s the very last door on the left.”
“Thank you,” I said.
I turned towards the other ladies in the room.
“It was nice meeting you all,” I said. “Thank you so much for your help.”
They all nodded and smiled and went back to their laughter and drinking, like it was nothing. I knew some motorcycle clubs did bad, bad things. Very bad things. They had bad people. They were not open to the public. This club was not like those clubs. This club had heart.
I climbed the wooden staircase and found my room. It was a plain room with plaster walls that had been painted yellow. There was an old oak dresser against one wall and a queen bed with a matching headboard against the other. The comforter was a little tattered and looked like something you’d find at a garage sale, but it was a billion times better than being tied up in some motel bed with Blaze.
I made sure the curtains were drawn, and I changed into my pajamas. They hung off me, and admittedly Gina was a couple sizes larger than me, but I was grateful not to have to sleep in genes that night.
I crawled under the covers and quickly realized I’d forgotten to turn the lights out. I debated sleeping with them on all night, but I knew I wouldn’t get any shut eye that way. I sighed, annoyed at myself, and stepped back out of the bed.
I padded across the cool, wood floors and went over to the doorway. As I reached for the light switch, there was a knock on the door. It was probably Gina or Candy, wanting to tell me something.
I opened the door within seconds, only to be greeted with R.J.’s tall, dark, and handsome figure in the doorway.
“Oh,” I said, taken off guard. “Hello.”
“I hope I didn’t wake you or anything,” he said. He stood with his hips square and his shoulders pulled back. That man oozed confidence, power, and sex appeal. He was the total package. If only he wasn’t in a motorcycle gang.
“No, it’s fine,” I said. “I was just about to turn out the lights.”
“I just wanted to make sure you were nice and settled,” he said as he glanced behind me and into the empty-ish room.
“Yeah,” I said. “The women set me up with pajamas and a room. I think I’m all good.”
“I’ll wake you up about five,” he said. “We need to leave here by six to make it to the bus station. I want you out of town before Blaze realizes what hit him.”
“Sounds good,” I said. Our eyes were locked, and it seemed to happen every single time I was in his presence.
He lingered for a bit before muttering “goodnight” and walking back down the hall.
I shut the door, flipped off the lights, and headed back to the bed. I climbed under the tattered comforter and rested easy knowing that of R.J. was really a bad person and really wanted to pimp me out or do something horrific to me, he had his chance.
I shut my eyes and within seconds, fell into the best sleep I’d had all week.
CHAPTER 21
Five in the morning came much too quickly, but then it also couldn’t have come soon enough. I felt like I had blinked and woken up, but yet I was dying to get the hell out of Tulsa. I refused to ever set foot in that city ever again.
I heard a light rapping on the door and then it opened slowly.
“Molly?” I heard R.J. whisper. “Time to get up. Bathroom’s right next door.”
“Thanks,” I whispered back.
He shut the door just as quietly as he’d opened it, and he was gone.
I padded softly to the bathroom with yesterday’s clothes under my arms and jumped in the shower. I helped myself to the large array of shampoos, conditioners, and body washes. The bathroom was definitely something you’d see in a sorority house as it must have been the one the women all shared.
Butterflies rippled through my stomach, and I could hardly keep myself from smiling. To say I was giddy was nothing short of the truth. I knew in a matter of hours, I’d be sitting on a bus heading back home to St. Louis.
I thought about how angry Blaze would be when he woke up that morning and realized I wasn’t coming back. I thought about how he might try to find me again and follow through with one of his many, awful threats.
That day was a good day though, and I wasn’t going to let crazy Blaze take that away from me.
I stepped out of the shower, fresh as a daisy, hair dripping wet, and changed into my clothes. I debated blow drying my hair, but I didn’t want to wake anyone. I found a cabinet full of drugstore hair products and scrunched a bit of mousse into my hair. I had a bit of natural wave, so I decided letting it air dry was going to be my best bet that day.