Page 18 of Biker's Property

I don’t haveto cook breakfast.

“A smile,”he says. “That’s nice.”

My smile falls away. Not because of his compliment, but because he has a point about my smile being inappropriate.

“Sorry.”

“Nothing to apologize for. Hungry?”

“Thirsty.”

“Seraphine’s making breakfast for you downstairs. She’ll bring it up once it’s all then. Until then… grapefruit juice? Coffee?”

I keep looking at him like he’s an alien. It shouldn’t surprise me that he’s acting so… nice… I guess I’m surprised he’s acting like anything at all considering how much he drank on the way here.

“I don’t drink coffee,” I say. “But juice sounds nice. Thank you.”

He hands me a giant bottle of juice and urges me to drink it. “You can have the whole thing.”

I start drinking it anddamnthis tastes good. I act like Steel did with that beer yesterday and polish off the entire thing. My body feels alive after the infusion of sugar. I hand Steel the empty bottle and catch a whiff of whiskey coming from his coffee mug.

This man… I give him a disapproving look as he finishes off the coffee and sets the mug down.

“Drinking already?”

“Just getting my hangover down,” he says. “Now… I’ll give you a chance to shower, but we have to talk about last night.”

I nod and get out of bed. I don’t think I would have been able to stand up without that juice, honestly. I feel weak, but capable. Steel hands me a stack of towels.

“I don’t have any clean clothes.”

“Seraphine has two teenage sons. I got you a pair of St. Louis Blues sweatpants and a giant Korn t-shirt. They’ll fit.”

I give him a suspicious look, but I’m just happy he doesn’t offer to join me in the shower or something equally terrifying. I’m lucky he didn’t put his hands on me all night. It made sharing a bed with him… nice. I got to be with someone and I didn’t have to have that…terror.

Before I turnthe water on, I hear him start a phone call, but the water drowns it out. I strip down and examine my body for marks from the desert. The sunburn is the worst thing that happened to me out there. But what I saw was…

Too much.

Without Steel’spresence to distract me from my thoughts, I go right back to the desert again as I step into the shower and the confined space reminds me of the intense vulnerability I felt running through the desert with all the supplies I could carry on my back, desperately trying to use the sun to guide me all while running out of water.

I knew when I smelled cigarette smoke, it wasn’t a good thing. SLITLICKER. The patch on the Nazi’s cut was right at my eye level. I didn’t see him behind the rocks. I was too focused on figuring out which way was North until he was right in front of me. I tried to run but…he caught me.

The water runsthrough my hair and the entire shower smells like cloying sweat. I can’t believe Steel shared a bed with me all night smelling like this and he didn’t throw me onto the floor or something. I wash myself clean and finish up with the conditioner, getting the knots out of my curls. In the shower, I braid my hair into two separate braids that might look very strange once they dry out and my curls shrink, but for now, it helps to get my hair clean and out of my face.

With the water off, I hear some of Steel’s conversation outside. I stop moving so I can hear better.

He’s talking about me.

“I don’t wantanyone knowing about her,” he growls. “Tell themIsaw it with my own eyes.”

He’s quiet and I slip into the Korn t-shirt, which is a men’s 2XL that fits me more like a dress. The sweatpants must belong to a younger son, because they’re a much more reasonable size and once I pull the strings tight and fold the waist over, I can fit into them. St. Louis Blues… Is that a baseball team or something?

“She’s fucking traumatized, Wyatt. I can’t yell at her and I’m not gonna tie her up like a damn turkey, either. I’m not a fucking Blackwood.”

I don’t know if I should be happy that he doesn’t want to tie me up or worried that whoever he’s talking to suggested it. I glance at my hair and face in the mirror. Damn, my skin gotwaydarker. I don’t mind, honestly. I just wish I had something I could put on the red patches to soothe them. I take the cup near the motel sink and fill it with water.

“Once I’m sure she’s safe, I’ll come back to deal with club business,” Steel says, his voice sounding more tense than before. “Until then, get someone else to do it. I spent five years in prison for the club. I’m handling my shit now.”

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