Page 16 of Trouble

“Excuse me? When did I ever betray Trouble?” Her gaze came back to meet mine, and I’m not sure what she saw there - probably the question that hung in the air between us. Whatever it was, she frowned and then snapped at me. “You’re the one who was the asshole to me,” She stated. “The way you brutally responded to Hollywood talking about me having a crush on you the first day of my Freshman year in high school, I had to deal with all the boys in school calling me “Dud”. Don’t worry, though, it was only for the first year. Then, when I came back after summer break after a hormonal growth spurt and my tits came in, I was known as “Milk Dud” for the remainder of high school.”

Natalie and the girl she came with started laughing. The other girl, whose name I didn’t know, laughed and said, “It wasn’t only the boys who called you that.”

As if to prove her point, Trinity cocked her head to the side as she stared me down with angry eyes. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

Something bothered me, and it kept me from being able to shut my fucking mouth. If I had thought about it, just for a fucking minute, I would have known before I put my foot in my mouth that it had been Natalie who fucked my shit up and continued to lie all these years later. “I’m the asshole who ruined your life?” I questioned. “So what! You had some people call you a name and comment on your spectacular tits. You almost had me kicked out of my club.”

Natalie let go of my arm and took a couple steps back. I quickly glanced her way and saw that the color had drained from her face, but still my anger at myself for putting Trinity throughthat bullshit - no matter what I said- was riding me pretty hard and I couldn’t stop myself from directing it at the wrong person. “Sweet almost kicked me out because you told Bishop, and Sweet by proxy, that I tried to hook up with a bunch of high school girls. I was twenty-fucking-two at the time. You told him the girls were underage. I almost lost my fucking patch because of your fucking jealousy and your stupid fucking crush!”

“I never did that!” Trinity yelled at me at the same time Hollywood moved in and shook his head. “She never did that, brother.”

I turned to Natalie who had scooted further back and was in the kitchen instead of the hallway at that point. “You said that it was her.”

“Did I?” Natalie asked as if it was new to her and then she shrugged her shoulders as if she couldn’t care either way. “Maybe it was some other girl.”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I wasn’t jealous of you or any girls you might have been screwing back then. I hated you for the Milk Dud thing. Do you know I didn’t even date until I moved to South Dakota for college? I had never been kissed by the time I was 18, and that was all your fault. Everyone thought there was something wrong with me because of the bullshit you spewed to a 14-year-old girl on her first day of high school. I was almost 19 when I had my first kiss. If you think I was pining after you, you have another thing coming to you. Besides, I grew up with an uncle in the club. I’ve been around Sweet and all the guys since I was 13, you idiot. If you think I don’t know the rules, you’re an even bigger idiot than you appear to be right now. I would never lie to my uncle, Sweet, or the club. Bishop was there for me and Trent after our dad took off and Momma checked out from her parenting duties. When the club started in Sierra High, I suddenly had more uncles to help me through and a cousin too. Hollywood was Trent’s bestfriend in high school, but he became family to me when I needed someone, especially after Trent never got to come back home. If you think I would jeopardize those relationships over some petty jealous snit, you are as stupid as she is!” Trinity pointed at Natalie then and everything clicked into place. Too fucking late to keep me from spouting off my bullshit and making me look just as stupid as Trinity just said I was.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” I asked Natalie, who had all my attention then.

“It was all in fun, and besides, you made it a point that you didn’t want that bitch fawning all over you all the time. I saw the way you looked at one another when she came to the clubhouse. She was 18 then and she would have been available to you the minute she graduated.” Natalie shored up her attitude and squared her shoulders as she stared up at me. “We were supposed to go the distance. What did you expect me to do?” She scoffed out what sounded like an infuriated, frustrated laugh. “Was I supposed to stand back and watch as you threw me aside for Milk Dud over there?”

I turned to see how the name affected Trinity, but she was already gone and Hollywood stood there at the door staring daggers at both Natalie and me. They were much deserved daggers. Every ounce of shit and attitude I had slung Trinity’s way since she turned 18 came back to haunt me. The way she had run off to South Dakota to go to college punched me in the gut too. She had to leave to get away from the damage I’d caused her, but she had never given any of that pain back to me. All those years that we could have been together, if she would have accepted my apology for the bullshit I didn’t realize I’d caused her, and they were all taken away. My position in the club had been threatened, but not by the girl I thought. It had been threatened by the woman I continued to sleep with on and off for several more years.

“Get the fuck out of this house and if you know what’s good for you, you will never come back here or to the clubhouse.”

“My family is club.”

“Your distant family, but you are not club, and I will have a chat with them about what you did. As far as I’m concerned, you’re banned because if I see you there, all hell is going to break loose and I might just forget the vow I took to never do violence to a woman.”

Natalie scurried out of the house and Hollywood had to take her friend home because she was left behind. I went by Trinity’s house, but she never showed up that night.

CHAPTER 10

THE GIFT

TRINITY- 4 YEARS LATER

“Areyou sure you want to go there?” I asked Reesa as she got ready to head outside. We had seen the man hanging around Paramour’s parking lot on the security feed as we closed up for the night.

“I’m positive.”

“I’m sure he just came to ask your fine ass out on a date, but I can hang around until he does, if you’re not comfortable being out there with him alone.” I’d been around all the boys from the clubhouse in Sierra High off and on since I was 13, so it wasn’t like I didn’t trust them. Still, I knew about Walker’s shady past with his ex-wife and the stories that maybe he stalked her for a while after they divorced and he realized what he lost. Unlike everyone else, I also saw the aftermath and understood that he had gone from drinking and whoring himself out to every available woman to being the quiet guy in the corner who sipped on water and watched everyone else live their lives from the fringes. I didn’t think he was dangerous, but Reesa was my friend and it wasn’t something I was willing to take chances on.

I checked one more time as we walked out of Paramour and locked up, but Reesa swore up and down that she didn’t need meto stick around, so I headed to my trusty old Jeep and climbed inside. As my friend made her way to Walker, I took off. I made sure to text Hollywood first though.

Trinity: Walker is with Reesa at Paramour. If she doesn’t make it home safe and sound, I will hunt him down.

Hollywood: Noted. Pretty sure he has the best intentions, but check on her tomorrow.

That was a weird thing for him to say, but I heeded his advice. It made me wonder if Walker had pulled her aside to tell her he wasn’t interested after all. If that was the case, then I’d feel bad because I convinced her that he wanted to go out on a date with her. I should have known better than to meddle in other people’s love lives, considering I’d never had a successful one of my own.

I thought back to the day everything finally came to a head between Trouble and me. Bishop later told me that he sent me there to see if any sparks flew between his club brother and myself. He never admitted to why he wanted to play matchmaker so badly, but when I told him how everything went down, and how I was thinking about selling the house and moving on, he promised to keep Trouble away from me if I stayed. Considering he was the last of my family, I agreed, but held him to that promise. The rare few times I had to stop by the clubhouse for Hollywood or Shaina when she was up to no good, were the only times I was there. Trouble always kept his distance, and I always kept my attitude firmly in place. I knew why he kept his distance. His patch might not have been on the line, but they threatened to transfer him to another chapter if he harassed me in any way.

I wasn’t even certain why, after four years, I still managed to hold a grudge. The man was gorgeous as ever. The years had only been kinder to him. I couldn’t say the same for myself. I wasn’t ugly, but most days I had dark circles ringing my eyes when I left work. I’d been given more responsibility at Paramour, especially after I decided to stay and told them about my degree and the work I had done at Renegade Rosy’s in South Dakota. After Tash called Spinner to verify, she bumped me to management. Something was going on within the girls’ club, because there had been a renewed sense of tension anytime they had to come into the club to check on things. Still, it was a decent place to work. We had phenomenal security, the men never tried to follow us home, and the money was excellent. I still filled in on the stage some days when we were short on dancers, and let the assholes I went to school with eat their hearts out when they saw me, but knew they could never have me.

It was the ultimate karma. I was now their fantasy girl and they were stuck with their high school sweethearts turned teen moms and later their frumpy, frazzled wives. The fact that they were at Paramour, spending their family’s money rather than at home helping their wives, so they could get a break and catch their breath, should have made me feel better about being rejected so often in high school. I could have been one of those girls who spit out three kids before I was 25 and wondered why my husband was cheating on me. Instead, I skipped all that bullshit and stayed single, for the most part. There had been a bartender who came to town a couple years ago. We gave it a go for a while and lasted just about a year before he skipped back out of town the same way he had come into it.

Sadly, the man who still rocked my world in my dreams was nothing but trouble. I chuckled to myself as I drove down the lonely mountain road and thought about him. If only he hadn’t fucked up at every turn. Then again, I don’t think he was everinterested in me in any way, so I guess he didn’t really care that he messed up. Judging from the angry scowl he wore whenever we were in the vicinity, I wasn’t that far off the mark.

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