Jessica tried to tame her hair into some semblance of order as she and Bianca exited the car. "What's this place?" she asked, walking around the side of the car."Welcome to Donna's Country Store. It's got gas, convenience items, and the best damn gas station food you'll ever eat in your life. It's a favorite of most guys at the shop," Bianca explained as they walked through the front door.The smell of home-cooked food assaulted Jessica's senses, and she was surprised when she saw a hot case as well as a few tables situated around the store. "So you can just walk up and order?""Yup, they make a few things ahead of time; other things are made to order." "Hey, Bianca," a woman called from behind the counter."Hey Luce," Bianca greeted back. "I have a list of stuff for the guys at the shop. Can I just leave it with you?"With her eyes still hidden behind her sunglasses, Jessica watched the exchange between the two women. Luce looked to be an older woman, but Jessica wasn't
"Do you need me to take your spot on the run tonight?"Layne looked up from where he sat hunched over the hood of the car he was working on. Black Cherry in color, it belonged to a local friend of the club, Cash Montgomery. "I'm sorry, what?""Do you need me to take your spot on the run tonight?" Jagger asked again, wiping off his hands with one of the rags they kept lying around the shop."Why would I need you to do that?"Jagger felt like he was talking to an elementary school kid. "You've got a woman here with you. I figured you might want to hang out with her? After all, she did come here from California." The 'duh' hung in the air, unsaid.Sighing, Layne shook his head. "No, I had that commitment before she came. I'll see it through.""The guys will understand if you need the night off. It's not like any of us haven't done it before, my friend."This was so odd for Layne. He had never had to clear his schedule with someone else since he had been welcomed into the clu
"Can I get ginger ale in a beer mug?" Meredith asked Jasmine, the waitress who had come over to their table and who had previously worked with Bianca.Amused, Bianca and Jessica looked at each other, both snickering."What?" She shrugged. "I want to at least feel like I'm part of the group. Just because I'm trying to get pregnant doesn't mean I can't have a good time.""I hate to break it to you," Bianca reached over and put her hand on Meredith's arm, "but you're ridiculous.""Let her do what she wants," Jasmine chided them. "What can I get for you?" She turned to Jessica."Whatever Bianca's having, I'll have too."Bianca glanced at the other woman, and then looked around the room. Jagger sat over to the side, talking with Steele, who was doing protection at the club for them on this night. "Oh, what the hell! Let's do a Crown and Coke tonight."Jasmine took their orders, promising to be back soon. "So what do you think?" Meredith asked as she glanced over at Jessica.
Layne was finding it hard to breathe with Jessica wrapped around his body. Her grip was strong and sure as her fingers dug into his stomach. "You okay?" he yelled behind him where she sat.She nodded but knew that he wouldn't be able to see it. The fact was she was scared to death. Not so much because she was on the back of this bike, but because of the way she felt pressed up against Layne's hard back."I couldn't hear you.""I'm fine," she answered when they stopped at a red light. Glancing up at the street signs, she saw that they were at the intersection of Louisville Road and Porter Pike and they were turning left. It looked very dark where they were going."I'm not gonna let anything happen to you," he reassured her. Without a shadow of a doubt, she knew that, but this was all so new to her. "I know," she told him, holding on even tighter as the light changed and he leaned into the turn."Relax," he told her. "If you don't, you're going to be sore by the time we g
Her hair wasn't wet anymore, but still Jessica sat on the lip of the bathtub, running her towel through the long tresses. It was easier to hide away than to go outside of her cocoon and confront Layne about things she knew he didn't want to talk about. Curiosity, however, was a part of her nature, and she just wasn't sure she could go on anymore without knowing something. Never in her life had she gone into anything less prepared than she had coming here to him. It didn't matter that she hadn't been left with much of a choice, but at the same time, she needed a bone. Something to let her know that the man she had once known was still there.Glancing at her phone, she realized she had dawdled for over an hour. It was time to face the music so to speak. She blew out a deep breath as she opened the door. What she saw was not what she expected to see. Layne lay on the bed—deeply asleep. The times they'd lain in bed together before were some of her favorite and the spot next to him looked
What the fuck had just happened? Layne couldn't remember. All he knew was that there had been fear in Jessica's eyes and it had been directed towards him. He hated when this happened, when he was stuck in a flashback and then couldn't remember it. Those holes in his memory took away parts of his life, parts that he would never get back. That was the part he hated above all. He'd lost so much while away from home that he really didn't want to lose any more of it.With hands that were more than a little shaky, he reached over to the bedside table where a pack of cigarettes lay. He almost couldn't light the one he grabbed out and put in his mouth. When he blacked out, it spooked him—spooked him much more than he was willing to admit to anyone. "Layne, man, you got to get your shit together," he told himself. It wasn't the first time he'd told himself this; not even the first time this night, but he knew without a doubt that something would have to change. Maybe that meant talking to
A few hours later, Bianca and Jagger left the clubhouse, Layne in tow. Jessica wasn't sure where the three of them were planning to go, but she decided now would be a good time to put her plan into action. Quietly, she opened the door to the room she had been given and observed what was going on. Not too many people were milling around the clubhouse this morning. Perhaps they'd heard about the drama and were giving it a wide berth. Walking into the main room, she glanced around for the person she wanted to see. "Who you looking for?"She jumped as she heard the deep voice in her ear. Tyler was so quiet that it was scary. Placing her hand over her racing heart, she turned around to face him. "Liam.""What are you looking for him for?" Those were not words he had expected to come out of her mouth. What did she want with the pres?How did she explain this without sounding like a crazy person? Should she include Tyler in her request? She felt much more comfortable with him; ma
Layne was nervous as hell. He'd been summoned to meet the pres. He could count on one hand how many times that had happened since he had become a fully patched member of the Heaven Hill MC. Had he done something wrong? Come to think of it, they hadn't asked him to do anything specifically for the club since the break-in with Jagger at Money Bags' house. Then there was the worst thought of all that crossed his mind. Were they going to kick him out over what had gone down the night before? It had killed him when he realized he had hurt Jessica, and if the other guys in the club thought badly about him because of it…what the fuck was he going to do now? He didn't have the military; he didn't have family besides this club anymore. Just what in the fuck was he going to do? "Hey, Liam's ready for you, my man," Tyler told him as he sat on the front porch of the pres' home. That was another thing that had struck him as odd. He hadn't been called to the clubhouse for this meeting. He had bee