Page 4 of Talon (Road Rebels MC 2)
Everyone else got to touch her except me, and it made my ears burn with anger.
I started stacking the beers in the coolers that were still waiting for the ice Hawk was garnering. My assumption was he’d gotten sidetracked with Syd, and the thought made me smile.
I wish I could get sidetracked like that with Gemma, because I’d do it over, and over, and over again.
I stood up from stacking the beers just as Hawk appeared at my side. He was all smiles as Syd threw her arms around me, and I enveloped her into a hug. The look in her eye told me exactly what she was thinking, then I saw her nod towards Gemma as my eyes turned to her direction.
And that’s when it happened.
Gemma’s eyes connected with mine for the first time in almost four years.
“Why don’t you go talk to her?” Syd asked. “You’ve had some practice with talking over the years.”
“Ha, ha, ha,” I said as I glared at her.
“Hey. It took a lot of work bringing you out of your shell. You’re a good man. Snake can’t get pissed at you for talking with her,” she said.
“Then you don’t know Snake,” I said.
“I’ll keep him entertained. Go talk to her,” she said.
Syd rubbed my back as I turned my eyes back to Gemma. She was smiling brightly at me, her hand rising up to wave. I nodded at her as my entire body flooded with a heat I’d never experienced with any woman, but soon I felt Snake’s eyes on me as well. I could see him out of the corner of my eye, glaring at me while I smiled at Gemma.
There was a slight shock behind her eye that fluttered about, and I wondered why she looked so surprised at my reaction to her.
“She’s surprised because you never talked to her when you guys were younger,” Syd said, giggling.
“How the fuck do you do that?” I asked as I turned to her.
“Talon, you might not talk, but you’re the easiest of the group to read,” she said. “You didn’t even give Gemma the time of day back then. All you did was sit there while she did all the talking.”
“I was an idiot back then,” I said.
“Then don’t be an idiot now,” Syd said. “Snake will get over it.”
“Uh huh. Sure,” I said.
“Talon quit being a pussy and go for it,” Hawk said. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
“Snake could climb in through my window and stab me in my dick,” I said.
“We’ll take care of Snake as long as you make us a promise,” Hawk said.
“What?” I asked.
“Talk to her this time,” he said, grinning.
“All of you are dicks,” I said.
“And you’re gonna get yours wet tonight,” Fox said as he approached us.
“Seriously, Fox?” Syd asked. “You gotta put it like that?”
“How else did you want me to put it?” Fox asked.
But I was already lost in Gemma’s eyes again as I looked back across the room and saw her. Snake was at her side now, his eyes attached to me while mine fluttered up and down the body of his sister.
I was determined to talk with her this evening, especially if other people were on my side in all this.
Tonight, Gemma was finally going to be mine.
Chapter 4
Gemma
I held tightly onto Jace’s waist while we rode down the street. The wind was in my hair, and my body was careening down the street at seventy miles an hour. There was a sense of peace to it I couldn’t explain. A wanderlust for the open road that I knew had drawn Jace to The Road Rebels. I hated them back when I was a teenager, but I adored them all now. They had accepted Jace into a fold where he was accepted and loved and taken care of.
It was a very different dynamic from what we were used to growing up.
We listened to the sound of the wind whipping against our helmets while the dirt kicked up behind us. The stale Nevada air smelled of a dry heat and dead animals littering the sides of the road. It was a smell we’d come to call homely, like apple cinnamon desserts at Thanksgiving for candy canes at Christmas. Every time we stepped out of the house and took in the smell of rotting road kill and that dusty, dry heat, it meant we weren’t inside listening to our parent's fight.
The outdoors were comforting to both Jace and me, and I was ecstatic that he allowed me to ride with him.
We didn’t go straight to the clubhouse. For a while, we simply rode around. I clung tightly to his leather cut while the wheels roared underneath our bodies, and I took in how the nighttime sky lit up with the setting sun. We stopped at my favorite coffee shop in town, and he bought me coffee, complete with a cinnamon roll to celebrate my graduation.
His eyes were sparkling with pride while he talked.
“So, what you gonna do now?” he asked.
“About what?” I asked.
“Your career. You always talked about music and singing and shit, but you never really talked about what you wanted to do or where you wanted to go.”
“Well, to do most of what I wanna do, it requires a Master’s degree. But working on a Master’s degree and trying to get one is hard. I’m excited, but I’m also really tired.”
“I can only imagine. You’re welcome at that house so long as you wanna be there,” he said.
“Thanks. I got a music education degree so I could teach if I wanted to. Save the money until I had enough to get my Master’s. Is that piano still in the house?” I asked.
“It is. Hadn’t been tuned in fuck knows how long, but it’s there.”
“I could tune the piano and give private lessons for money on the side until I get my head on straight. But the general idea is to save up for half my Master’s degree, apply for scholarships for the other half, then get it done.”
“What you want your Master’s in? Education?” he asked.
“Fuck no,” I said, giggling.
“If you’re cussing’, you’re serious.”
“I want it in conducting. That’s what I really wanna do. Take over an opera house one day or conduct my own symphony. I want to rehearse and control the music with my fingertips.”
“Ah, still the control freak,” he said.
“Always,” I said, winking.
We split the cinnamon roll and finished our coffee before we got back onto the road. We stopped by the grocery store and stocked up on a few things, like coffee and filters for the clubhouse. I was wondering why in the world Jace had to do this kind of stuff, and that’s when he finally told me.
Jace had become Secretary of The Road Rebels.
“They’re trusting you with their money?” I asked.
“I can’t fuckin’ believe it either, but they voted on it, and they keep electing me back in. So, I’m in charge of planning the monetary end of things for trips before Talon plans ‘em, and I’m in charge of all the little monetary things that affect the group. Like keeping’ the damn clubhouse stocked with shit like coffee and beer.”
“Talon…” I said.
The look Jace shot me was stern, and I knew not to open my mouth about it again.
But oh, how my body tingled at the presence of his name.
I knew about the shootout between The Road Rebels and the Devil Saints. Jace was still a simple prospect when it happened, but I could still remember him being gone for days. It happened my senior year of high school, right in the middle of midterm exams. There was a thunderous sound of motorcycles passing our house, and it wasn’t anything I thought of. They came through here all the time, both sides looking for trouble. But when Jace came home with his clothes covered in blood and a far-off look in his eye, I knew something had gone desperately wrong.
I’d sat him down and tried to get him to talk, but it was to no avail. Mom was working a double-shift that day, and Dad was passed out upstairs, drunk and high off his ass. I wiped the blood and dirt that was caked onto his features, then I helped him out of his shirt and caught sight of the stitches he had at his side.
He had been grazed b
y a bullet just enough to open a wound that needed medical attention.
To this day, I still wasn’t quite sure what happened. All I knew was that the Devil Saints came around, fired off rounds that echoed for miles, then left. All I knew was Jace attended funeral after funeral while I was at school, then he would come home and want me to sit with him. It was the only time I saw my older brother as vulnerable as he was in those moments, and I’d never seen that vulnerability again.
Not once.
“Ready to get to the clubhouse?” he asked as he handed me my helmet.
His voice pulled me from my thoughts as I slid my helmet over my head.
“I’m ready to see everyone again, yeah,” I said.
We rode in silence towards the clubhouse, and I couldn’t help but get excited. I’d see Hawk and Mac. I’d see Fox and whatever woman he had on his arm lately. If I were lucky, I’d see Talon.
Hopefully not with a woman on his arm.
