Page 24 of Trouble

“You’re a partner now, you do not need to work the stage.”

I smiled at JoJo. “I’m a partner and part of keeping a business running is filling in where I need to. It will be temporary and I’m not going full nude. I’ll dance between the other girls’ performances to keep the crowd lively. A good tease is worth more than a dead stage at any rate.”

JoJo left not too long after that and I stood there and took in the house I’d grown up in. I had changed just about everything about it over the past four years. The furniture was all new. The paint was as well. The carpets were ripped out and wood floors were put in. I had stayed with Shaina for a bit while that was done. It was worth it to have the filthy old carpets gone, but living with Shaina had been a task that no one was really ready for. I turned and took in the wall across from the television. While not much else about the house felt like the one I’d grown up in, that wall tied the old and new together. There were framedpictures covering almost the entirety of the space. Pictures of Trent and me growing up, some of our parents were mixed in, but mostly it was the sad story of a family that seemed happy when we were younger in the photos to one that started missing its people as time ravaged the fabric of who we were. In the end, there was a picture of Bishop and me the day we laid my mom to rest. He was the last of my original family.

The rest of the walls in my house held hints of my new family. There was Reesa and her children, Charlie and her family from South Dakota were on the wall too. She was like a surrogate daughter to Bishop as well. For a man who never had any children of his own, he certainly had a lot of daughters he looked for. It was something I’d thought about a lot. He may have been my uncle, but in reality, I thought of him as more of a father figure. He stepped in when my dad stepped out, and I would be forever grateful for that fact.

The last picture to catch my eye was just outside of my bedroom. I refused to bring it into my personal domain because it seemed a step too far. It was of Hollywood, Trouble, and me. One of the old ladies had taken it the day we all showed up after the ordeal on the mountain with the mafia. Instead of standing next to Hollywood, as I normally did, I stood there beside Trouble with him sandwiched between me and Hollywood. Our hands touched and the camera caught the way our pinky fingers twined around one another. Every time I stared at that picture, my eyes were always drawn to that connection.

Trouble seemed determined to start where we left off in that cabin before Hollywood interrupted us. I chose to hide from him every chance I got. Yes, I had feelings for him that were unexplainable. Keys warned me about trauma bonding when I tried to talk to her about it. I was sure that was part of the reason my heart had softened toward the man who had made my life so difficult over the years. My old crush was anotherpart of the confused emotions. The lessons I’d learned in life are what made me keep my distance though. Keys warned me about trauma bonding, but I had to wonder if that wasn’t why Trouble suddenly had a newfound interest in me. We were shot at, chased up and down a mountain and he killed people in front of me. He spared me the need to do the same. That kind of experience left a mark, and I had to be the one to recognize that and keep him at arm’s length until he got over it. Otherwise, I’d fall headfirst into a young girl’s daydreams about her crush and he’d wake up one day and question why he was with me. My heart couldn’t handle that kind of break, especially since it would have bigger ramifications where the club was concerned. I didn’t want my access denied when he decided that the bonding was over.

I didn’t have time to think about possibilities with an impossible man. I had a dance routine to perfect, which meant I needed to video chat with Charlie and get something set before the club opened to the public again.

CHAPTER 16

STRINGS AND TASSELS

TROUBLE

It had been almosttwo months since I chased after my woman with my heart in my throat on the mountain that day. Two fucking months and the last time we’d touched had been that brief moment when our pinkies linked before she was pulled away by her friend to go find a shower. At first, club business kept me from going to claim her, and then I realized she was finding all sorts of ways to avoid me.

“Maybe you should give up on her,” Hollywood announced as we drove to Paramour in his truck. The rain had been coming down in buckets all day, and with the chill in the air, that meant the bikes were parked in a garage out of the elements. I glanced over at Hollywood who grinned at me like he was ready for the fight I was about to sling at him.

“This is my last attempt,” I admitted.

“Are you serious?” Hollywood asked and I had to point toward the road to get his eyes back where they belonged and off of me. The angry glare was warranted, since I’d promised that what I felt for Trinity wasn’t just a fleeting thing. “I thought you were going to work for her?”

“There is a difference between working to earn her love and trust and stalking a woman who wants nothing to do with you. She’s been avoiding me. I think it’s pretty clear that she wants nothing to do with me and what I thought was between us was probably just pent up emotions from being shot at and shit.”

“You’re an idiot,” Hollywood stated. We were both quiet for a few minutes afterward and then he shocked me when he spoke again. “She’s an idiot too, though. I love her. Swear to fuck she’s the sister I never wanted but ended up with anyway.” He glanced up toward the sky and shook his head. “Thanks a lot for that, Trent.” I chuckled because it was funny to hear him talk about Trinity that way, especially when he invoked the spirit of our dead friend in the mix. “She’s had a thing for you pretty much since she was old enough to know she liked boys.”

“Can we just focus on the time after she was legal?” I asked. I never wanted to revisit the memories of what I said to her when she was a vulnerable young girl. Looking back, I wanted to kick myself in the balls for not only what I’d said to her so callously, but for saying it in front of a cafeteria full of dumbasses who would use it against her for the next four years.

“Sure. We can do that. If it wasn’t for Natalie, you two probably would have hooked up back when she graduated school. She would have stuck it out in Sierra High until her mom threw her out of the house. Maybe you two would have had a few kids and been headed for divorce by now,” Hollywood surmised.

“What the fuck, man?”

He laughed. “I’m saying, the timing has been off. Your communication has been too. I don’t think Trinity thinks you like her in that way. She’s always seen you as that guy that shot her down so thoroughly when we were all still in school. I know you’ve harbored feelings for her for years, but there was also resentment and hatred in the mix since you believed Natalie’s lies about Trin. It has to be a confusing mixed bag of crap forher. So, what I’m saying is: maybe you’ve been going about everything all wrong.”

“You think I should burst into her job, throw her over my shoulder, and tie her up in a private room until she comes to terms with what I really want?”

“No, you crazy fucker. That shit will get your ass locked up and she’ll run back to South Dakota for sure.”

“Well, what the fuck am I supposed to do then?”

“Have you tried to ask her out on a date?” That shocked me stupid. I stared at my brother and he threw his head back and laughed at my dumb ass. “Holy fuck. You God damn idiot. I’m not sure you’re the one for my sister-cousin.”

“Don’t ever call her that again.” I shook my head in disgust. “Damn, man. We live in the mountains, people will take you seriously if they hear you say that.” The asshole shrugged his shoulders and laughed even harder. “Do you think she’d say yes?” I asked him when he finally pulled himself back together.

“All you can do is ask, dipshit. At least then you’ll know what you’re really working with instead of pretending that Trinity can read your mind and knows that you’re interested in her.”

My plan to ask Trinity out on a date, so I could lay everything out for her once and for all, fell by the wayside the minute we stepped into Paramour.

“Oh! My eyes! My fucking eyes!” Hollywood shouted as he covered his face with his hands. I thought maybe the girls had fallen down on the job and hired some ugly chick to dance the early shift, but that wasn’t the case. I moved around Hollywood and immediately understood why he was being so fuckingdramatic. My woman was on the stage, dancing to an old song by The Divinyls.

“No, no, no! She cannot dance to a song about masturbation while I’m standing right here. She’s almost naked for God’s sake.”

I wanted to laugh at my buddy’s predicament, but I couldn’t because my eyes were glued to the stage and then to the men who tried to shove dollars down the string running through her ass crack as she bent over and smiled in their faces.

---