Page 11 of Brooks (Dirty Misfits MC 1)
“Or you can fill me in on everything that has changed since I’m still the Sergeant at Arms.”
Chops blinked. “Well…”
I shrugged his hand off. “I wasn’t informed that my position was being taken away from me, so as far as I’m concerned, I’m still the Enforcer around here. And if you don’t like it? We can take a vote right now on it.”
Porter chuckled as he patted me on the back. “What he means to say is—”
Chops held up his hand, silencing Porter. “I know what he’s saying.” I stared the man down as he cocked his head. “And Brooks is right.”
I blinked. “Damned right, I’m right.”
Chops smiled, and I knew it was forced because it sure as hell didn’t reach his eyes. “Let’s welcome our Enforcer back, shall we!?”
He started clapping and the rest of the guys started clapping around me, like some kind of weird-ass cult from another dimension. I felt like I had stepped into the Twilight Zone, and I didn’t like it one bit.
So, I backtracked toward the door.
“Hey! Where the hell you goin’!?” Cole called out.
“For a ride to clear my head!” I yelled back.
I leapt off the porch and made quick work of getting back onto my bike. I didn’t even bother with my helmet as I kicked the stand up and cranked up my engine. The guys gathered on the porch to watch me leave, and I saw the confusion in their faces.
Except for Chops.
He didn’t look confused one bit.
I let the wind guide me wherever the hell it wanted me, and when I found myself pulling into Raven’s townhome compound, I swallowed hard. I hadn’t been to this place in well over five years. I used to come visit her and Gage all the time back when they were still together… and Gage was still alive. The place hadn’t changed one bit, and I found that refreshing. Still the same old massive palm trees growing alongside dilapidated oak trees that couldn’t survive in this kind of humid, salty weather.
I parked my bike in the shadows and watched her front door as sweat dribbled down my back.
Just go knock. What can it hurt?
She might not want to see you. It might hurt her more to see you.
She misses you. You know deep down she always wanted you.
But she was with Gage. That makes her off limits.
The man’s dead!
The man still needs to be respected!
My own mind fought with itself, the devil and the angel at odds. I listened as they bickered in the back of my mind, quickly becoming overwhelmed with it all. I shook my head to silence them before a sound caught my ear. I looked around for the source of the creaking wood I heard off in the distance, but then it hit me.
A door was opening somewhere.
As my eyes gravitated back to Raven’s door, I watched her step out onto her front porch. Clad in a beautiful light blue summer’s dress with pale yellow flats on, she watered a bunch of rainbow-colored tulips she had growing in a small garden just outside of her porch railing. Her dirty blonde hair blew effortlessly in the soft summer breeze and even from a distance I saw the sun twinkling in her emerald green eyes. Her porcelain skin looked a bit burnt from the hot summer sun, and I wanted nothing more than to rub aloe lotion across her irritated skin and tell her that she hadn’t changed one bit.
She was still just as beautiful as the first day I laid eyes on her.
Why didn’t I make the first move?
She moved with a grace uncommon for this world. I heard her giggling softly at something and the sound alone was enough to seize my heart. She had me—body, mind, and soul—but the guilt that slowly ate away at my conscience was what forced me to look away.
By the time I had enough sense to look back up, she was heading back inside. Her long legs carried her across the threshold before she fluffed her wavy hair over her shoulders, then disappeared into the light of her home. A home she once shared with my late best friend. Bile crept up the back of my throat and I swallowed it down. I felt the walls caving in around me again and I knew I had to get the hell out of there.
One day, I’d seen Raven face to face again.
But now wasn’t the right time for any sort of reunion like that.
Six
Raven
As I watered my tulips and fresh herbs that I grew in a small plot just beyond my porch, I felt like I was being watched. A shiver crept down my spine as the cool summer wind kicked up, and I figured I was getting sick. Possibly a cold, or maybe chilled by the breeze. But when I stood up from my watering and turned into the wind to enjoy its caressing of my face, I saw him.
