Page 5 of Trouble

Shit.

I bounced my shoulders in an indifferent shrug, then leaned across the bar and snagged a bottle of whiskey, a glass, and scooped some ice before I sat my ass on a barstool. “Lost in my own head, I guess.”

“That much was obvious.” Walker snickered and then sipped on his water as he continued to watch me. I wasn’t close to him. He wasn’t close to many people in the club, and Hollywood and I often wondered why that was. We were still prospecting for the club back when everything blew up in Walker’s life. He imploded his own marriage by constantly fucking around on his wife, and then when he realized how badly he fucked up, he’d been knocked back to prospecting for basically stalking the woman. If anyone knew about the dangers of getting involved with the wrong woman, it was Walker. Not that his ex-wife had been the wrong woman, but his actions because of her had landed him in a world of shit. I almost suffered a worse fate, thanks to Trinity. Sweet hadn’t given me the option of being busted back to prospect. He’d told me if he heard that shit again, I was out. He didn’t even ask for proof. I know he didn’t because there was none to be had.

“What’s got you ready to explode?” Walker’s eyes tracked movement just behind my left shoulder and when I glanced up into the mirror that lined that bar, I saw why. She was headedour way.Why the fuck was she headed our way?“Ah, so it’s woman troubles?”

“No.” My quick denial only made him laugh.

“Considering what I’m known for, if you ever need to talk before you get yourself in a world of hurt, let me know.” Walker got up and left the common area after he dropped that bomb and I was alone at the bar when Trinity came up beside me.

“Hi,” She offered.

“Said that already,” I muttered back to her.

“Yeah, I guess I did. Sorry, everything has been a little overwhelming.”

“Why’s that?”

She made some sort of noncommittal noise in the back of her throat and then ordered a beer from the prospect. “I’ve been gone for six years. It’s strange coming back. In some ways, it feels like everything was put on pause while I was gone. In others, it feels like time kept marching on.” There was a sadness in her tone that I couldn’t place, but then again, she was the bitch who tried to ruin me, so it wasn’t something I cared about.

“Well, sweetheart, you aren’t that important. Time didn’t stop for you and everyone else kept living their lives without even noticing you were gone.”

“What the fuck, Trouble?” I turned to see Hollywood staring daggers at my back as Trinity flinched and took several steps to the side. “What’s your problem?”

“No problem, just not in the mood for entitled little snots.”

“Entitled?” Hollywood’s head swiveled between Trinity and me. “What the absolute fuck are you talking about?”

“I doubt he even knows,” Trinity quipped. “Leave it be, H. I’m ready to get out of here anyway.” She took a singular sip of the beer she had ordered, set it on the bar, and then leaned in to give my best friend a hug.

“You don’t have to leave because Trouble is an asshole.”

“I have to get back anyway. Can’t leave her alone too long.” We both watched as Trinity left the clubhouse and then Hollywood smacked me on the back of the head.

“What the fuck, man? She just got back. Why are you treating her like jailbait with a crush again?”

I shrugged and took a sip of the whiskey in my hand. The burn down my throat felt more like molten fire because something in the back of mind told me that I’d just beat up on a woman who was already down and out. “Who does she have to get back to?”

“Her mom. She’s dying. Cancer or some shit.”

“Damn,” I whispered into my glass.

“Yeah, so maybe next time she comes to get a break from watching her mom die, you can have a little fucking sympathy and keep your damn mouth shut.”

I gave a quick nod as Hollywood walked away and then I downed the rest of my glass and refilled that bitch. I didn’t want to feel bad, considering she almost got me kicked out of the club, but it was fucked that her dad bailed on them, her brother died, and now her mom wasn’t far behind. Who did that leave her with?

Not my fucking business.

I’d keep telling myself until it sunk in. Fuck the feelings that started to grow for her back when she was 18. Fuck the fact that I had been waiting until she graduated to make a move. I chuckled into my glass at the irony of that very thing. I planned to make a move on her, but wanted to wait until she was out of high school, because I knew it wouldn’t look good. She was the one who made up lies that I was fucking around with high school girls at the same time I had been making plans to make her mine. Remembering why it stung so much that she had been the one to fuck me over made me realize, once again, that she didn’t deserve a damn bit of sympathy from me. Fuck her.

CHAPTER 4

THE BITTER PILL

TRINITY

I leftthe clubhouse after my interaction with Trouble. It was strange that after all these years he still seemed to hold a grudge against me for some reason. I chuckled to myself as I climbed into my Jeep. Seriously, what in the hell had I ever done to cause him to be upset with me? A memory from six years ago hit me that might have explained it - sort of.

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