Chapter Eighteen
Shades
“Goddamn,” Joaquin whistles as he takes in the underside of a three-year-old Honda Accord up on a rack, shaking his head with his hands on his hips as he takes in the damage.
“How in the fuck do you drive up on a boulder that’s three feet tall?”
“Very carefully?” Lucky throws his head back and laughs.
The car is a goddamn mess, and I’m glad it’s not my problem. “At least we know where to you find you for the next few days,” I tell him with a smile.
Joaquin flips me off in response and gives Lucky a shove. “Fuck you both.”
“Do a good job,” Coop claps him on the back, “and maybe that cutie will give you a taste. She was a flirty one, wasn’t she?”
Joaquin brushes one shoulder and then the other with a satisfied smile. “I’m hot as fuck and charming as hell, but if I get this trainwreck fixed within a week, she’ll be begging me to fuck her.”
I roll my eyes and snort, then turn back to the bike in front of me. I don’t need to be here today but staying home and thinking about Letty watching the door for me to show up at church was eating me up inside.
I don’t owe her a damn thing, but the fucking guilt won’t go away, so I figure I’ll show up at Ace Motors to distract myself with work, something easy like fuel tank rust I can handle in my sleep.
“What or who did you get up to last night?” Ace finally asks in a teasing tone, one he uses more and more since he and McKenna became a thing.
“None of your business,” I growl out of frustration. Rubbing one out with Letty in mind helped but only in the moment. Ten minutes later, I was hard and aching for her again.
That time, I wanted the real fucking girl.
“Oh, he’s touchy about this one.” Coop’s laughter gets under my skin, and I try to shut out their playful banter. Usually, I’m in the middle of the banter and shit talking but not today.
“What’s the matter, Shades, Church Girl turn you down?”
“Nah, man,” Joaquin begins, smiling at Coop. “She’s probably saving the pussy for Jesus and only offered up the asshole.” He slides a look my way. “Am I right? You don’t have to say. I’ve fucked my fair share of Catholic asses.”
“You’re disgusting,” Ace says, shaking his head and smiling at the newest patched member’s antics.
“Thanks, Prez. I do my best.” His smile is wide, but it fades when he turns back to the shit-show Honda. “Goddamn, this car.”
“So you really aren’t going to tell us about the hot little thing who took your drunk-ass home last night?”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
“You like her,” Ace says, his voice full of surprise.
“Then why isn’t he in bed with her right now when he’s not even on the schedule?” Preacher winks at me.
“Where the fuck did you come from?”
He shrugs, a wide smile on his face. “Over there fixing an alternator on a car older than Joaquin.” He points a thumb behind him to a teal green car straight out of the nineties. The early nineties. “So why are you here, Shades?”
“You too, man?” Preacher is normally one of the quiet brothers, and I don’t realize until this moment just how much I like that about him. “I’m not talking about it. Period.”
“What’s the big deal?”
I don’t expect Joaquin to understand. He’s young, and his balls are so full, he can’t think of anything but emptying them on a daily basis with any woman he can con into his bed. “She’s hot, according to Jordi.”
“She’s gorgeous,” Preacher confirms. “Nice too. Brings cookies and shit for the coworkers and always offers them to us too.”
“Shut up,” I growl at Preacher.