Page 63 of StoryTeller's Tale

“And you grew up with that hanging over you?” His eyes fill with disgust.

Moving my head negatively, I explain, “No. I didn’t know until I was nursing her through cancer. It was only then she told me, and everything made sense.” I think I’d rather not have known. “Then when she died, Dad, who’d left home two years before when she got sick, came home with a new wife and her daughter. My stepsister made a point of taking my boyfriends, and then, because I didn’t get on with my stepmom and it was awkward, my dad asked me to leave the house.”

“Sheri, babe.” He moves closer, putting his arm around me, using his strength to hug me close, and pressing my cheek against his chest.

I feel his heart beating, but that doesn’t stop the wail coming from me, “No one’s ever wanted me, so why should that change now?”

“That’s simple,” he tells me, squeezing me tight. “Because you’ve never had anyone like me in your corner before.”

I feel like I’ve been through an emotional wringer with my confession. I’m worn out, tired, scared of the future and wary of the man who’s currently cuddling me.Can I trust him?

All my life I’ve been let down by people who I should have been able to trust.

StoryTeller’s, no,Jake’shand is slowly stroking up and down my arm, his warmth surrounding me. It would be so easy to relax and pass my happiness over into his hands. It would be all too easy to give in.

My thoughts are invaded by the ringing of a phone. It’s his, not mine. I feel cold when he moves his body away, leaning back to give himself room to rifle through his jeans.

“StoryTeller… Prez. Yeah… No, I’m at a restaurant… He is, yeah?” There’s a longer pause while he listens to the indistinct voice I hear on the other end of the call. “Yeah, I didn’t think… No, no disrespect…” Throwing me an apologetic look and holding up his hand as if telling me to wait, he gets up and walks to the door of the restaurant. Turning, I see him outside. He’s listening to someone avidly, his face going through a myriad of expressions until finally he sighs, kicks at a stone and ends the call.

He enters again, immediately putting his phone back in his pocket, then he sits back beside me. As he half turns to face me, he gently moves my head to face him.

“You asked me before why I came to find you.” I did. I swallow as it looks like I’m going to get my answers now. His slight wince is off-putting. “First, Sheri, I haven’t been able to forget you. But you walked away, and I was being stubborn about that.” He chuckles softly. “You ask any of the brothers at home and they’ll tell you what an asshole I’ve been. So, when I had an excuse to come find you, I didn’t think twice. Then, when I saw you again…” His cheeks puff and he blows out air. “Well, that’s when I knew I wasn’t going to let you go a second time. And I meant it, I’m going to be here to support you. Whatever you want to do.”

“So what was the excuse?” I ask him.

Pulling my head into his chest, he kisses my hair, then tightens his arms around me. His shuddering breath prepares me to hear something bad. “Knuckles has been spotted in Austin.”

I feel the blood drain from my face. “Knuckles?” Due to my mom’s illness, I didn’t finish my education, but I’ve never been accused of being slow. That Jake is here means there’s a connection between the Dominator and me. “You think he wants me?”

Jake shakes his head. “Possibly. But I think it’s more likely he wants to use you to get to me. He only knows me as a nomad and not the chapter I’m from.”

“So you’ve done exactly what he wanted you to do. Came to me.” I flick my eyes toward the window of the restaurant as if he might be waiting out there. “Jake. If he was watching me, waiting for you, you could have walked into a trap.”

“There you go.” He rolls his eyes. “Thinking of someone else.” My lips purse, but then he explains, slowly as if to a child, “Knuckles wouldn’t be waiting for me to come to you. He’s more likely to force the situation and take you. He’d predict I’d come to your rescue, like I did before.”

“But he can’t still think I’m your old lady.” I scoff. “I mean, we’re not living together.”

“Nomad.” He points to his chest. “Or that’s what Knuckles still thinks I am, and that I’m on the road all the time. It’s unlikely I’d take an ol’ lady with me.” He sees me frown as I wonder whether he’d be able to commit to staying in one place now, and he reaches for my hand. “Sheri, I’ve been in a relationship before. She fuckin’ betrayed me, went with one of the members when I was still a prospect.” I stare at him, feeling uneasy at the animosity which accompanies his words, and the faraway look in his eye as briefly he seems stuck in the past. With a shake of his head, he comes back to me. “I went nomad from the day I was patched. Couldn’t stand to be in the club which I felt had disrespected me.”

“Because of the member who betrayed you with her was still there.”

His eyebrow rises, and there’s a quirk to his lips, when he explains, “No. He kind of left the club.”

Do I want to know how? I decide that I don’t. Or maybe it’s safest I refrain from pushing for details.

“Chaz, my prez,” he continues. “Well, he made the most of me. Turns out I made a good travelling enforcer. I was happy on the road.” Again, he seems lost in thought. “Until that business with Knuckles got me grounded. Lost my cut, as you probably remember, and when I got a new one, it had the Arizona patch on it.” He gives me a quick grin. “Fuckin’ killed me knowing my freedom was gone.”

And there’s my worry. That Jake won’t be happy staying in one place. He’s been travelling too long.

“But now I know fate works in ways we don’t understand.” His shoulders rise and drop. “If I didn’t have my place in my home chapter, I’d have nothing to offer you.”

I state my fear. “And that’s why this would be a mistake. You’ll blame me for tying you down.”

“No,” he exclaims, both of his hands cupping my cheeks. “When I was a prospect, I was, as I said, in a relationship. I wanted it all—my patch, but along with that, my own family, my own picket fence.” He grins as if knowing how crazy that sounds for a biker. “When Fi betrayed me, I lost all those dreams, thought all that was beyond me. But then I met you…” He leans forward and kisses me. It’s as though there’s a wealth of emotion in that caress, as if he’s using his lips to tell me things his mouth isn’t ready to articulate yet.

Can I believe him? “You want that dream with me?” I ask when he lets me take in air.

His grin widens. “Seems like I do.” Leaning forward, he gives me another of those kisses that make me go weak. My toes once again curl, and I lose all sense of where we are. All I’m conscious of is the man that I’m with.

---