I smiled calmly, my body relaxing even as I fought the urge to reach through the chain links and choke the fucker. “I don’t think she’s your concern,” I drawled, ticking my head toward the line of bikes parked along the curb. “What I’d be concerned about is how I was going to pay all of those tickets.”
Bryce swung his head in time to see the sheriff posting parking tickets on all the bikes and smiling a cheesy grin.
“What the fuck man?” he screeched, but the sheriff gave no indication that he heard, whistling as he walked toward his cruiser parked across the street.
“Looks like you were in the wrong place at the right time,” I quipped, laughing at Bryce’s sudden anger. “I’d leave the area if I were you.”
Bryce grabbed the fence and shook the chain links, rattling the metal against the solid poles, “This conversation isn’t over Edge.”
Edge.
Fucking Rafe and his nicknames.
I waited until I knew Bryce and his brothers were gone before rushing to find Rae. I reached her right as the bell rang, hoping she didn’t ask too many questions, “Sorry honey looks like we’re late to class.”
She frowned, biting her lower lip which was her only indication she was irritated, “What took you so long?”
I leaned in and placed a kiss on her forehead, “Nothing baby, I had to talk to Jake about something.”
“Why don’t I believe you?” her hands planted on her hips in a little show of attitude as I laughed lightly.
“Baby I love it when you act possessive.”
She rolled her eyes and sighed, “Come on, I can’t miss Chem.”
Later I dropped Rae off at home and drove away since she insisted she needed to study for finals and couldn’t get that done if I was there. Probably true since I’d spend every minute kissing her as much as I could while we had the privacy. All afternoon I tried not to be too clingy but seeing Bryce rose the threat level and I was concerned that shit could go down.
I drove slowly through the upper-middle-class neighborhood and smirked. Some of the neighbors watched as I passed, but only a few nodded their heads or waved. Same old shit. My dad bought our house when I was a little baby, not long after I was born. Mack wanted his son brought up right in decent schools and around good people – citizens who obeyed the law and worked real jobs for a living.
Not that it mattered.
I had never been accepted by these people. I was tainted by my father and his association with the RRMC. They’d never shake my hand or invite me over to dinner. Hell, they didn’t even come to make sure I was still alive when I nearly burned down the house a few years ago and had to call the fire department. Rae thought it was funny that I couldn’t cook and I tried to prove her wrong by making a nice chicken dinner. Yeah . . . fucking disaster.
A light laugh bubbled out of my chest at the memory.
Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to be free of the MC and my father’s past, from the death of Rae’s father Ron, and the disaster that threatened her existence every single day. What would it be like not to have the influence of the RRMC over every aspect of my life? Maybe I wouldn’t be so damn stressed out, for one. MC life was gonna be the death of me.
I parked my Nova in the driveway at home, paced for about fifteen minutes, and decided to walk the ten minutes to Rae’s house. An uneasy feeling in my gut wouldn’t go away and seemed to only worsen and intensify the longer I was away from her.
When I arrived, I saw Charles’ car in the driveway. He was home early. Too early.
In a sudden panic, I ran to the backyard and listened for any indication that Rae was in trouble. Inside the house, I heard a bottle drop and the sound of broken glass. I was almost ready to throw open the sliding glass doors of the patio and barge in when I heard Rae singing up in the treehouse.
Ten seconds later I was climbing up the side, fear clutching at my heart.
She was in danger.
Chapter 7
Peter surprised me when his head popped up through the trap door of the treehouse that afternoon, “Come here, fast!”
I didn’t even know he was there, “What’s wrong?”
He grabbed me around the waist and jumped down, half carrying me across the yard, refusing to say a word. We turned the corner around the side of the house when I heard the sliding glass door slam shut.
“Rae!”
A few mumbled curses flowed from Step-Vader’s mouth, “Rae, get your ass over here!”