Page 31 of Towles

“Chill the fuck out, brother,” Watcher said. “She’s been with me. We were at the fucking cafe.”

“Church. Now,” Beast said, and all the officers went inside. The old ladies went inside as well. April stayed outside and sat on one of the picnic tables. She pulled a beer from an ice bucket and handed it to me. She grabbed one of her own.

“Well, we know who the most hated woman in the club is,” April said.

“There’s still time.” I opened the beer and sat next to her. “Brainiac is a good catch. Towles, I mean. How does he feel about your age difference? He’s pretty used to younger pussy that he can train and lead around on a leash.”

“Doesn’t seem to care,” she said, but there was doubt in her voice.

“Do you? Think of all that young pussy walking around the club. Every woman in this place wants a shot at Ethan.” I drank half the beer and placed the bottle on the table. “Don’t forget about the whore house they own. Lots of pussy there as well.”

“I don’t mind the age difference as long as he treats me well.” She gave me a side-eye. “I see what you’re trying to do with all the pussy talk. That doesn’t bother me, either."

“It might in ten years,” I said.

“We’ll see. I plan on being here to find out.”

I needed friends in the club. I needed to repair the shit I had broken if I ever expected to be welcomed in. Watcher’s word would only go so far. I thought Kristine would be proud of me for giving up the FBI and finally living my life as I wanted. I’d spent so much time worrying about what others thought about me that I didn’t take the time to understand what I thought about myself.

“I can have some friends at the bureau dig up stuff on Paul if you’d like.”

April stopped drinking her beer. “I may just take you up on that. I’m sure he’ll have me blacklisted in the city. Even if I open my own business, I won’t get a single patient.” She finished the beer and grabbed another. “It has been one of those days.”

“You have ink?” I asked. I showed her a picture of Kristine on my shoulder.

“Paul would never allow it. He said our bodies weren’t meant to be destroyed in that way. I told him it would be in a place only he could see. Still wasn’t interested.”

“Paul sounds like a real dick.” I grabbed another beer and removed the top. I took out my phone and sent a message to Gulley Sanders, the club’s official tattoo artist. He appeared from one of the garages.

The most fucked up thing about Gulley is that he didn’t have a single tattoo. He claimed he had a skin disease preventing him from being inked, but he didn’t mind inking others.

“Nice skin, baby,” he said to April. He held her arm and turned it over. “Man and woman making out. Heads can be real, the rest of their bodies skeleton.”

“Sick,” I said with enthusiasm. I took off my shirt and showed her a picture of a Luna butterfly on my other shoulder. “I love the ink, but the pain is fantastic. Fucking relaxing. It puts me in another place.”

April pulled her shirt off and sat there in her bra. “You’re being a bad influence.” She looked at Gulley. “Let’s do it.”

Gulley left to get his equipment, a giddy in his step.

“Am I making a mistake?” April asked.

“You mean with Towles? You’d be making a mistake if you didn’t try.” I put my shirt back on. “These men aren’t your everyday weekend warriors who take their bikes for a spin and then head back to a nine-to-five on Monday. They’re serious. They’re die-hards. Fuck them over, and they’ll bend you across a table and run a train on you.”

I spent the next hour watching Gulley work and April trying not to flinch. I thought maybe I’d finally made a friend in the club. That’s if the club accepted her.

When Gulley finished, April had a huge smile on her face. She lost the smile when Manning pulled into the parking lot. My boss, Tom Washington, was with him. Neither man waited for Beast or the other members to come out.

“Get in the car, Trixie,” Tom said. “Don’t make me ask twice.”

“You’re lucky this is out of my jurisdiction,” Manning said. “You better hope they don’t push it back to me.”

“Let Watcher know, will you?” I asked April. She went inside, and I climbed into Tom’s car, thinking I’d never see the club again.

11

April

Ethan was too pissed off to notice me sitting on the table with my sleeve rolled up, which meant he didn’t see the ink on my arm. I let him rage, knowing that interfering too soon would not only delay his recovery but would also cause an issue between us.

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