Page 42 of Falcon

I watched as she walked off and found her friend. They joined some bunnies at one of the picnic tables as I headed inside. I needed to have a chat with her. She had to understand I didn’t want to leave her, but club business couldn’t wait. Later, we’d talk. It would be a test of my willpower to see if we talked before or after.

Chapter 27

Daisy

What a day. The party stayed active well into the next morning, but it was fun. I finally met Penny and we spoke for a long time. She was a smart girl attending college. She said she didn’t mingle with the club, but I swore I caught her checking out one of the guys. I thought his name was Red. There were so many it was hard to keep track. Especially when they didn’t really talk to me. Most of them barely looked at me, except some of the older guys. But they seemed to take me in, then congratulate Falcon on his trophy or something. They didn’t ogle after that.

Some more women had shown up, but everyone was friendly and gave me and Lacy ideas about work if Mama Hen’s club didn’t pan out. She shut that down pretty quickly, though. I wasn’t sure if it was for her sake or Falcon’s. I still had to talk to him about that. I appreciated everything he was doing, but I also needed to have a sense of self preservation. I needed my own money. Hell, I needed a phone.

I also still needed to figure out how to get my driver’s license replaced. Maybe I could just go online? But I hadn’t seen a computer around, although I heard them talking about Keys. He seemed like the computer whiz around here. But if he was what they made him out to be, he probably had some fancy setup that I couldn’t touch. And I’d be shocked if I was allowed in his space.

Falcon usually kept me in direct sight except when they all went off down that hallway. I had walked back there earlier when I was supposed to be in the kitchen. I wanted to see what kind of shit they did in there.

The room mostly looked like a conference room. But there were photos, some older, of guys in the Destiny’s Enforcers cuts and a huge picture of their patch hanging at the head of the table and banner on the opposite wall with names embroidered into it. I wondered what they were for–new members, special members, or what. I didn’t recognize the names and I couldn’t ask about it since I wasn’t supposed to be there. It was weird because it wasn’t centered, but from what I gathered women weren’t allowed in that room. Leave it to a bunch of men to decorate and something was bound to be off-center. Other than that, the room seemed pretty dull. I still had questions but nothing pressing, and I didn’t need to stay too long and get caught. I finally snuck out and found Mama Hen in the kitchen and I did what I could to help with the party.

She seemed to know I was up to something but only grinned before she shoved foil pans at me to help carry to the tables setup for the barbeque. Then she, Lacy, and I helped load up meat from the various grills around the compound and kept everything covered. She was pushy and bossy, but in a good way–something I never got growing up.

“Mama Hen, what about all the desserts?” I asked after Lacy and I wandered back to the kitchen.

“Leave ‘em in here for now, hon. Otherwise Falcon might annihilate them before we eat dinner.”

I smirked. “He has a sweet tooth, huh?”

She let out one of her belly laughs as Lacy snuck a cookie off a tray. “It’s bad. But that boy has a high metabolism.”

Jeannie flung the door open and hustled over, pitching in. “Who we talking about?”

“Falcon and his sweet tooth.”

Jeannie nodded. “Oh yeah. They all have a thing, though,” she said as she handed me a Jello shot from the fridge and gave one to Mama Hen, Lacy, and one of the other bunnies. I didn’t remember her name. Just like with the guys, there were so many and some of the women who hung around weren’t mainstays; I only saw some at the parties.

We all did a little toast then sucked down the red shots. I winced and let out a howl. “Whoa, those are strong. Who made these?”

“Penny,” Mama Hen said. “She don’t drink much so she gets a heavy hand. She doesn’t know how strong they are. Works out for us!”

We all had one more and I asked, “Are we taking the rest outside?”

Jeannie and Mama Hen grinned like Chesire cats then Jeannie said, “Shhh, these are just for us. Girls just wanna have fun.”

Mama Hen grabbed my arm and Lacy snuck one more Jello shot as all of us filed out of the kitchen and headed back outside.

The rest of the party had been fun and full of laughs. If I hadn’t been told it was a memorial, I would never have known. And while Sugar was around, she stayed away from me and Falcon, all day. But I did catch her looking at me with a sneer a few times. As long as she stayed away from us, she could give me all the side-eye she wanted.

There was lots of music, eating, drinking, and games like horseshoes outside and darts inside. Falcon tried to help me shoot them, but between the pregame Jello shots and beers I lost count of, I was shocked I didn’t hit someone in the head. After Hawk made his speech, I was feeling some kind of way again. Maybe I should dissect why stressful situations did that to me. But for now, I’d just enjoy it. But I had to hold off until he was done since he was called away to the secret room I wasn’t supposed to know existed.

It hadn’t been any time at all, but this place felt like home. These people felt like home. At least what I imagined a real home would be like. And while I’d made some dumb choices before, it was different with Falcon.

It wasn’t superficial. Whatever we started as probably was mostly physical, for both of us. But deep down I wondered if it was more than that for him. I wanted to believe I could trust that he’d care for me and protect me, not just use me for his own ego, then go crazy. And he certainly wouldn’t be forcing me into doing anything with another man. He made it abundantly clear that I was for him only, even before today.

I was so damaged and untrusting that instead of just talking to him, I waited to have a nervous breakdown before my feelings came out. But once we laid everything out, it clicked. It was right. We were right. And looking around, this was right. Having Falcon at my side was amazing, but for the first time I felt like I really belonged somewhere.

I found Lacy and Jeannie with some other girls at one of the picnic tables and Mama Hen came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my neck in an embrace. Swallowing hard, I fought back tears. My own mother hadn’t hugged me since I was young, before I started my cycle and started filling out. After that, she always accused me of trying to flirt with her flavor of the month. When I was in middle school that had been incomprehensible. It confused me what she even meant. When I got into high school and understood boys flirting with me, her accusations clicked. But they were never warranted. In fact, it was the complete opposite.

After a few of her boyfriends started hitting on me, I began sneaking out with the idiot boys from school. I didn’t want to be trapped in my room if her men stumbled into my space after she passed out. Eventually, older men found me at the different spots we finagled our way into, so I ditched the guys my age and that’s how I ended up deciding to leave home as soon as I could. One of them took me to a club for fun, and I loved it. Not watching the women, although they were beautiful, but I was envious of them. They were so in control and men were tossing money at them without even touching them.

Even when they did table dances, I noticed they could rub all over the men, but the men didn’t touch them. The idea of it was exhilarating. I asked that guy to take me back a few more times and buddied up with a few of the dancers. Once I graduated high school, I was able to crash with them until I worked a few shifts and could make a deposit on my own place.

“You good, girl?” Lacy asked.

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