Page 62 of Tank
We dried off then spent the rest of the night naked and tangled in each other in the tiny bed. After an hour of talking about nothing, we drifted off, the exhaustion of the last few days finally taking us under.
The next morning, I woke to see her sitting up and looking down at her phone. Even though I could only see the side of her face, I could tell that there was something off.
“What is it, baby?” I asked, slowly sitting up and pulling her into me. She tucked her phone away under the blanket and shook her head as if to say ‘nothing,’ but she wouldn’t meet my eyes. Whatever she was trying to shake off was big and she was clearly struggling with it. After a long minute, she took a deep breath and turned to me.
“We have to take a drive.” The detached look on her face gave nothing away. I knew better than to ask questions when she was like that.
“Okay, let me see if they need me here.” I moved to get out of the bed and threw some pants on. My side was killing me with each movement but I did my best to hide it. “You wanna tell me how long we might be gone, at least?”
“A day…” She nibbled on her lip and the look in her eyes was one like her world had just shattered. It fucking gutted me. If she needed me for whatever reason to be there with her for whatever she needed to do, then I would. I knew she wouldn’t put me in danger on purpose, so I wasn’t worried at all. But convincing my brothers of that would be a different story. “Maybe longer.”
I’d never seen her nervous before and it had me freaking out a little.
“Yeah,” I said, my brows pinched together as I looked into her eyes. “Stay put. I’ll be back.”
A knock came on the door right as I made it there. I pulled the door open with a force that was more than necessary.
“Need to talk, brother,” Loch said making sure to keep his eyes on me. Good fucking thing, too, because Dya was still naked as the day she was born right behind me.
“Me too,” I said making my way out into the hall. Out of respect, I let him go first.
“Got a call from Ethel,” he started.
Ethel was Reagan’s grandmother. She was close with Loch and even before Reagan came back to town and into Loch’s life, she would call him if she would ‘get a whiff of a bad vagina.’ Her words, not mine. She was one crazy old lady, but we all loved her for it. So, him coming to tell me that she’d called could only mean one thing—trouble.
“Ethel got a call about her rental,” he went on and I looked at him like ‘what the fuck’ because it didn’t seem like something that weird. The place had been vacant for almost a year and we occasionally got new faces moving into town. It didn’t happen that often, but still. To me, it wasn’t a call for alarm. “Said the girl wanted to meet her right then and when Ethel got there to show her the place, the girl just took it without even lookin’ at it. Ethel said the girl gave her three months rent in cash.”
I nodded, my mind catching on a little. It did seem weird. I wouldn’t be against the club keeping an eye on that shit. Nowadays, we couldn’t be too careful.
“Ethel got a weird vibe from the whole thing, but she still rented her place thinkin’ it was best to keep the girl close. She wasn’t sure if maybe she might be an abuse victim. Maybe she’s on the run from whoever. Or she could just be scared and mousy by nature. Point is, we’re ridin’ back now. I called Cal and he wants to set Axe up on her place, find out what’s goin’ on.”
“Got it,” I said. “Keep me in the loop.”
“You got it. You gonna be okay here?”
“Yeah, got to ask you something,” I said crossing my arms over my chest out of discomfort. “Dya needs to go somewhere. Said might be a day trip, maybe a bit longer. I’m gonna go with her.”
He narrowed his eyes at me taking in my mood.
“You sure?”
“Not a doubt in my mind. She needs me, I’m there. I’ll handle club shit when I need to. I’ll be back here for the meeting thenwewill head back home.” I said it like there was no room to argue with me. Same as I was gonna say to her when I told her we were going home. She would be going with me, even if she went kicking and screaming. She could try to reject her feelings all she wanted to but at the end of the day, she wanted to be with me.
“Alright,” he resigned. “I’ll fill Brass in. If you’re not stayin’ here when you’re done, just let him know when you get back into town.”
“Got it.”
“Be safe, brother. Glad to have you back.”
“Thanks, VP,” I said and we did the back-clap, man hug thing.
I ducked back into the room to find Dya dressed and ready to go. I let out a sad sigh, missing the sight of her naked curves, but I knew we had shit to do. Whatever the hell it was.
She looked down at her outfit with disgust, her scrunched up nose was the cutest fucking thing. I didn’t disagree with her though, clubwhore clothes were definitely not her look. But I could appreciate the way the tight cutoff shorts hugged her thick thighs and showed off her long legs. And the shirt, shit, I had to adjust myself at the sight of her breasts doing their best to push their way out of the low cut top.
She cleared her throat and my gaze snapped away from her magnificent cleavage to look her in the eyes. A half-smirk played on her lips and I gave her a sheepish look.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to stare,” I said, half meaning it. She shot me a look like she didn’t believe me. “My colors look good on you, though.” I pointed to the Steel Paragons insignia plastered on the middle of her shirt. And that moment, all I wanted to do was see my property patch on her, but I doubted she was the type of woman who’d let herself be marked. I think that may have been a big part of why I fell for her. She was different, that was for sure.
