Page 17 of Nomad
“I will,” I lied, using the pad of my thumb to wipe away her tears like I’d done so many times before. Leaving was the only way to break the hold she had over me, no matter how much it hurt me or her. “Please let Junior know I’ll miss him.”
“I’ll make sure I tell him.”
She stood on her toes and kissed my cheek. Her lips lingered a little longer than normal, and I closed my eyes, relishing them touching my skin. So many conflicting emotions ran through me, and none of them mattered.
She cupped my cheek, and I opened my eyes. “You make sure you take care of yourself, William McGhee. You will never know how much you mean to me. Please don’t be a stranger. We’ll miss you. I’ll miss you.”
“Me too, Angel.”
I touched the granite headstone, my last goodbye to my brother, then made my way to my motorcycle. There were no more words to say to her. I wouldn’t look back because the sorrowful look on her beautiful face would make me stay. This was best for everyone involved. No matter how much it hurt right now, I made the right decision to walk away from them. It would be painful for everyone for a little while, then we’d move on with our lives apart from one another.
I tossed my leg over my bike and started the engine. I took a deep breath, pushing the sadness away, at least for the time being, before driving off into the unknown. To wherever the road led me.
Leaving my heart with Jade.
Chapter Five
SANDMAN
“NC chapter!” Someone banged on the bedroom door. My eyes popped open. “Church in ten! We got shit to discuss. Don’t be late!”
They walked down the hall banging on every door they passed, repeating that Church started in ten.
“What the fuck?” I shifted the lithe body splayed across my chest onto the other side of the bed so I could sit up.
I raked my tangled hair out of my face and rubbed my forehead. The relentless pounding against my skull was almost unbearable. This was going to be one hell of a hangover.
I put pressure against my temples. “Aspirin might not help this one.”
I surveyed the carnage of the room I’d crashed in last night at the North Carolina chapter’s clubhouse after having too many shots of Wild Turkey and a lot of dirty sex. Clothes were strewn across the dark hardwood floor. A lamp from one nightstand had toppled over during the drunken festivities. A broken vase’s pale blue pottery laid next to the ripped lampshade beside the bed on the floor. A generic landscape watercolor painting hung above the wooden headboard, clinging to the nail secured to the sheetrock.
It took a moment, but the memories came flooding back like a tidal wave. The person who was always on my mind and starred in all my fantasies had been front and center last night as I’d fucked another woman.
“Jade,” I sighed. “My angel.”
I expected to see her at the event. I longed to because I missed seeing her beautiful face every day. Her bright smile always made me beam even when I didn’t want to, but I hadn’t planned on her seeing me.
With the enormous crowd, I’d hoped I was far enough away from the stage to hide my six-foot-three frame amongst the dense mass of people standing under the Carolina sun. But I was wrong. When we locked eyes, it had taken everything in me not to rush the stage and pull her and Junior into my arms. To beg for their forgiveness. Seeing them, I couldn’t deny how much I’d missed them, but I pushed that shit down.
I wiped all emotion from my face because I’d had no other choice. While I would have loved to do all those things, nothing had changed since the last time I saw them. Jade was still Aaron’s wife. Junior was still his kid, and I’d made a promise to my brother all those years ago I’d take care of them, not make them mine. Now that the charity ride had ended, I’d do what I came to Charlotte to do then get the hell out of town before I went to Jade and forgot the promise I made to my brother.
I glimpsed the redhead over my shoulder, whose name I couldn’t quite remember—Cherry, Candy, something like that—and wished I could go back in time. The same guilt hit me I felt with Angie, but with this chick, it was much worse. Maybe it was because Jade saw me with her.
J.D. had introduced the redhead as a club whore, a title she accepted with pride. I’d known what she wanted from me the minute she sauntered up to us at the honor ride in her too-tight shirt, showing off her pert nipples and a mini skirt that didn’t cover all her goods.
Women who hung around one-percenter clubs were known by many names—club whores, club snatch, bunnies, sweet butts, to name a few. But their goals, no matter what we called them, were the same—get an old ladies’ property patch and brand. The redhead wasn’t any different. They didn’t care if the brothers passed them around, using them for nothing other than a blow job or a quick fuck. As long as they moved up the ranks among the women around the club, or a brother called them his. I thought fucking her would get Jade out of my mind. Of course, the redhead wasn’t a good substitution for the real thing from what I remembered.
I rose from the bed, not caring I was naked. Dodging the pieces of the broken lamp on the floor, I dragged myself to the bathroom. After pissing, I braced myself against the bathroom vanity and stared at the man in the mirror. After all these years, and the time I’d spent with Angie, I hadn’t learned my lesson. No matter who it was, no matter how much alcohol or sex I drowned myself in, Jade always stayed with me. She haunted me. Constantly wanting someone I couldn’t have was my penance for all the shit I’d done in my life, most likely.
I pushed up the handle of the faucet, washed my hands with the generic bar soap sitting on the soap dish, then doused my face with cold water as I tried ridding myself of some of the fogginess from the massive hangover doing a number on me. Work needed to be done, and a hangover this bad would only slow me down. It had been years since I’d partied with any of the brothers. I’d seen a lot of old faces last night and met some new ones. It felt good being around the men I considered family. So, I drank more than I normally would. Something I’d pay for today.
“You ready for another round, baby?” Cindy, or whatever her name was, purred from the bedroom.
I dropped my head. The pounding increased.
“We can make it an all-day thing.”
It would have been an asshole move, but I’d wanted to slip out of the room before she woke up. I wasn’t one for hanging around for pillow talk after I got my release, especially with a club whore.
