Page 66 of Hard Ride

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Ollie hung around backstage as Kason, Kyra, and the rest of the band got ready for their show.It was the last one before the holidays and only a few hundred miles from Middletown, so some of their Hot Rods and Hot Rides friends had come to support the band.That included Walker and Dane, who’d take any excuse to ride their motorcycles, even in the freezing weather.

They were hanging out with him in the lounge area while roadies zoomed this way and that, hauling equipment, shouting, and generally getting shit done.Kyra was sitting next to him, waiting for the crew to finish rigging some new lighting so she could do her sound check.

Van, who used to guard Kason primarily, had reassigned himself.Especially in light of the Number One incidents, the security team had agreed it was best that Kyra have a dedicated bodyguard.Besides, Jordan clearly was sticking by Kason’s side from now on, so they’d shuffled roles and everyone seemed good with that.

As much as Ollie had come to enjoy Walker and Dane’s company since they’d joined the shop, he sort of wished he was alone with Kyra and Van so they could talk openly about what had happened earlier that morning and where it left them.For his part, there wasn’t even a shred of doubt.

In fact… He opened his mouth before he considered how embarrassing it would be if Kyra and Van didn’t like his idea.

“You know, there are two sides to this pendant my mami made me.”He withdrew it from beneath his shirt, smiling as the impact of his treasure hit him all over again.“Maybe I could take a picture of you to put in there.Would you mind?”

“Oh, Ollie, that’s so sweet.I’d be honored.”Kyra stood and attempted to finger-comb her hair into some semblance of order.“Where do you want to take it?”

On the other hand, Van stepped aside.

“Where are you going?”Ollie wondered.

“Me?”Van seemed surprised.“You want me in the picture, too?”

Ollie’s face fell.Had he misunderstood what had gone down earlier?Had it only been physical to Van?“I mean, not if you don’t want to be.I’m not going to force you or anything.I sort of thought after…you know…that we were in this together.All the way.Was I wrong?”

Kyra whipped a glare to Van.Ollie wished she hadn’t.Similar to how Van hadn’t pressured him, he didn’t want to force the other guy to give more than he was ready to offer freely.

“No.”Van held his hands up, palms out.“I didn’t mean it like it seemed.I just… Yeah, I want to be in the picture.”

Ollie wasn’t sure anymore that it was a good idea.But selfishly, he still had the urge to memorialize what had been a special occasion to him.“Okay, scoot together then.This thing isn’t very big.I’ll have to crop the image pretty tight.”

He held up his cell, then groaned.“Ah, shit.I forgot the camera on my phone is busted.”

“Use mine.”Kyra took her phone from her back pocket, unlocked it, then tossed it to him.He caught it with one hand.When he looked down, he said, “Oops, I hit something.I’m in your texts, I think.”

His brows drew together as he spotted something that looked suspicious and tapped it.“Kyra…what the fuck?”

“Oh shit.Wait!Don’t—” Kyra lunged for her phone in a maneuver worthy of a mother who walks into the kitchen when their child is about to touch a hot stove.

“Why?”Ollie grimaced as he saw what was in her messages.

“What is it?”Van snatched the device from him, his own frown emerging.“Who the hell’s dick is this?It’s not mine.And it isn’t Ollie’s—”

“You know what Ollie’s dick looks like?”Dane asked, earning himself a glare from everyone in the room and a whack from the back of Walker’s hand in his gut.“Oof.”

Van refused to be deterred.For that matter, so did Ollie.

“I don’t care that you have a dick pic on your phone,” he told Kyra.“That’s an Iowa number and a profession of undying love.I’m more worried about the fact that it seems like Number One could have been sending you messages and you never mentioned it.The date on that is from weeks ago.Why the fuck didn’t you tell us about it?”

“What?”Van’s face went straight past red to full on purple.If he had been a cartoon, steam would have poured out his ears.

“Uh oh,” Dane said right before he and Walker wandered off, shooing everyone else from a hundred foot radius to give them some relative privacy.

“So you really don’t trust us, do you?”Ollie blinked at her, trying to ignore the one-two punch she and Van had landed on his heart.He’d been wrong to make himself vulnerable again.Because all it did was lead to getting hurt.

“That’s not why I didn’t say anything.I got the message that day, right before we slept together the first time, and I didn’t want to ruin the mood.Then I tried to tell you but Kason interrupted, calling us home so I thought it was bad timing.He never contacted me again, so I thought it wasn’t worth mentioning.We already increased security and I’ve been with you and Van every minute since then.”Kyra tried to explain, but it was hard to imagine any excuse would be adequate.

She obviously didn’t understand what it would do to him if something bad happened to her.It was too risky.He’d been dumb to fall for someone that selfish.

And starting to do the same with Van, someone who openly admitted he’d never been attracted to a man before, well…that had been twice as moronic.

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