Ride It Out (3 page)

Chapter Four: Blake

The roll back is quiet, but that's okay, because I’m lost in my thoughts. What am I doing here with Anne? The same question bothered me earlier and I came up with no answers then either. I came here to get away from everything, not hook up with some chick. Yet, something about Anne draws me in. She's not like anyone I've met before and I need to know more about her. Hell, who am I kidding? I need to know every damn thing about her.

Huh, the roll back didn’t take as long as getting there did. Before I know it, we reach her front door. Anne searches for her keys while I watch. She turns to look at me shyly. “Would you like to come in?”

I hesitate for an instant. “Sure.” Coming in for a few minutes doesn't mean anything. Polite. She's just being polite.

Her hands shake and she drops her keys before I can catch them. Picking them up, I unlock the door for her, and move back a little to let her go in first. Damn, she's fast—rather, her chair is.

The living room is arranged to accommodate her, with plenty of open space, and she turns and stops right in the middle, watching me roll in more slowly. She’s nervous, tapping her fingers again, and I can't tell what she's thinking.

I decide to focus on something else. Being there in her personal space provides an opportunity to learn more about her and I’m not above taking advantage. Every available surface hold framed photos to give me a little glimpse of her life. Her brother was always at her side, watchful, protective. I can't find fault with that.

My shoulder aches from the longer than usual roll so I make my way to the couch. She's still watching me with those big eyes, like she's half afraid of me. Only a minute has passed, but I realize I'd better put her at ease quickly and take her mind off that fear or she'll ask me to leave.

"Is it okay if I sit?"

The question seems to flip a switch in her and bright color flushes her cheeks. "Of course. What was I thinking? Have a seat, please."

The intensity of her gaze as she watches me transfer makes me a little uneasy. Since I came back from rehab, everyone looks away. I fumble a little and finally manage to get my wheels out of the way and stashed at the end of the couch.

The big TV across the room catches my attention. “What about watching a movie? Come sit with me.”

“Oh!" She's flustered, hands nervously tucking her hair back. "Yes, okay." She moves toward me a few inches then stops. "You know what? I’m thirsty. You thirsty? I’ll go get us something to drink.” Her voice is high-pitched and she’s talking a mile a minute. She rushes out like the room is on fire, leaving me to sit and wonder if she has coke and rum.

After a few minutes she brings back a tray with two drinks and a bowl of chips and salsa. “Here, fruit punch and a snack.” She sits it down on the coffee table off to the end of the couch.

I reach for a glass. This woman surprises me at every turn. “Fruit punch, huh? Didn’t see that coming. No beer or wine for yourself?” I sit back and take a little sip, instantly reminded of long summer days as a kid at the beach.

She's quiet as she parks her chair and transfers to the couch. Her slight weight barely sinks into the cushion. Too far away, but at least she's beside me. “I don’t drink much. Okay, any. Fruit punch is my favorite anyways.” She takes a sip. Her tongue slides over her bottom lip to catch the single drop left there.

With any other chick I would think she’s doing that shit on purpose, to get my attention, but I know she’s not like them. Regardless, she has my full attention and then some now. I scoot closer, and her hand trembles as she takes one last sip before placing it back down.

As my arm slides behind her, she makes a little dive and grabs the remote. “What would you like to watch? I have
The Notebook
or
The Longest Ride
.” All her attention is riveted to the TV.

An involuntary chuckle escapes me. “Chick-flicks Anne? Anything with action?” While I might rather not watch either of those, I'd watch whatever she wants just to spend the time with her.

“Um, I have
Titanic
. It has some action in it.” She sounds timid, as if the suggestion might offend me, but serious at the same time.

The movies I normally choose would probably scare the daylights out of her. At least that might offer a chance to hold her. I resolve to bring a hard-core action movie next time. “Anne, sweetheart. That’s also a chick-flick. How about you pick? Whichever you want, we’ll watch.”

Damn, she's tense. Brushing her hair off her shoulder, I rub slow circles there to try to help her relax a bit. Her shoulders tighten even more for just a second before they start to loosen.

“Ok. Let’s watch
The Longest Ride
. I haven’t watched it in a little while. It’s one of my favorites. Have you seen it? Are you hungry? Maybe I should go make us some popcorn.” There she goes again. Speaking so fast, not even letting me answer her. Almost like she’s having a conversation by herself.

“Anne. No popcorn. Just stay here with me. Relax, it’s just a movie. I won’t let anything happen to you. Well, nothing that you don’t want.” I wink and give her my trademark smirk—the one guaranteed to get me laid.

Laughing, she relaxes. “Sorry, I don’t know why I’m so nervous. You’re right. Just a movie.” Pressing start, she leans back a little, getting closer to me.

The lights somehow dim right when the movie starts. After a second of being startled, I realize the feature must be on the remote. I need to look into getting that for my place. Make things a hell of a lot easier.

As we watch whatever's happening on the screen, the impulse to kiss her takes over. Images of those lips earlier pop into my head, testing my self-control. Other images of things I'd like to do with her push my limits even further.

Now she's sitting there, within inches, looking all innocent and kissable. That sweetness drives me to possess even while logic warns me to be careful. Any other woman I'd have already pushed back on the couch and staked my claim. But no other woman woke those needs. Only Anne.

Silky strands of her hair tangle in my fingers as I let my fingers stroke along her jaw. She's finally stopped shaking and seems more at ease, though she's focused on the TV. Enough of that. I tip her chin up to me. Her green eyes sparkle from the light off the television.

I start to lean closer, giving her plenty of time to say no. The pink tip of her tongue sweeps across her bottom lip, just as before. My restraint snaps.

All my plans for a tender seduction fly out the window and with more force than I intend, I claim her lips. Somehow the faint cherry taste lingers, reminding me of the dream. Her soft pliant mouth clings to mine, no resistance, offering me the world and beyond. I need to explore that submissiveness, test it, push her boundaries.

AC/DC's
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
interrupts.
“Shit.” Breathing heavily, I give her one more light kiss. “Hold that thought.”

Anne:

Wow. He really knows how to kiss. I keep trying to catch my breath. He probably thinks I’ve never been kissed before with the way I’ve reacted..I have though, but never like that. In all those books I read, they always talk about the fireworks, head over heels type of kiss. Until now, I’ve lacked in that experience. Didn't even really believe it existed. Now I know.

I wonder what phone call would be so important to a guy like him to interrupt that moment.

“Jelly. What's up? Busy here.” Blake answers fast, with a bit of a harsh tone. Hmm. So, whatever it is, he isn’t happy having to talk to them.

“Damn it, yeah, okay. Gimme a few. Let me call you back.” Tense and something else I can’t quite identify, he turns towards me. Uh oh. Here it is. That was the buddy call to get him out of here so he doesn’t have to stay. Really. Should have seen this coming. A wheelchair never takes the jackass out of a guy.

Crap, not jackass, jackbutt..

It's stupid to think he actually likes me for me. I miss Adam. I wonder if he'll come up here tomorrow, keep me company so I don’t have to see Blake again alone.

“It’s okay, Blake. I get it. No worries.” There, a clean break. He can go without any drama from me. Bet he’s used to that.

"Anne, no. I don’t know what you’re thinking but whatever it is, it’s the furthest from the truth. But I can’t stay to explain. I gotta go.” He leans in, grabs me, and kisses me hard and fast. “See you soon Anne.”

Before I can catch my breath and respond he’s out the door. I hear him call out. “Lock the damn door too, babe.”

Go flipping figure. I sit there a minute longer, look at the door. Not sure what for, it’s not like he’s going to come back right away. Taking my time, I work my way to the door. Make sure it’s locked. Check. Okay, meds, and time to face the music with Adam.

I put him on speaker phone like always and keep moving around the kitchen.

“Anne.” Hmm, those few hours haven’t seemed to help if his tone is anything to go by.

“Adam, look I’m sorry for hanging up although I technically didn’t. I said love you.” Wonder if he’ll buy that?

He sighs and I know his hand just ran through his hair. He's upset. “Anne, you know it's important to me that we both say it back. You didn’t give me a chance. What if that was the last time I spoke to you? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Don’t do that. Whatever happens, always let me say it back. Please.”

For a tough guy, no one would ever know how emotional he could get. Our secret. We have many of them. Not wanting to upset him further, I agree, and promise no matter what I’ll always wait for him.

“Now, let's have a little chat, baby sis. Who the hell, I mean heck, is Blake?” At least he doesn't sound so mad now.

It all came out at once, my words running into each other. “Adam! Blake is so handsome. I think you’ll really like him. He has a condo up the beach. We had a great lunch date. Well. I’m not sure if it was a date, but he paid for it….well was going to until he tripped the waiter.”

Adam laughed a little. “Slow down would you. You really like him, don’t you? You sound bubbly, more so than normal. So, he tripped the waiter? Why the fuck? I mean freak. Anne, you’re killing me with the no cussing rule. Anyways, why’d he do that?”

“The guy made a disabled comment. But I think he’ll know better if he ever thinks about saying something like that again.”

“Hmm, he protected my baby sis, did he? I may like this guy after all.”

“I hope so, Adam. I think I really like him. I know it's early, and we’ve just met, but I just have that feeling, you know?” I hold my breath, worried about his answer. Protective Adam has a habit of scaring guys off.

He sighs again, and I can't tell for sure if he's just humoring me. “Yeah, I know sis. Just like in all those romance books you’ve been reading all your life. I only want the best for you. Don't ever forget that, okay? I’ll come up in a few days and meet him. Give me some peace of mind. By the way, have you taken your medicine yet?”

“Sure, I miss you. I hate to admit it but it gets too quiet here late at night. Plus, can’t wait for you to meet him. Maybe bring something to grill?”

“Sure, baby sis, whatever you want. It’s late, you better start rolling to bed before those meds of yours kick in.”

As much as I hate to admit it, he has a point. I don't want to get groggy half way to bed. “Yep, you’re right. Talk to you tomorrow. Love you.”

“Love you, Anne.”

Well, that went a whole lot better than I thought it would. Laughing a little, I imagine his face when he sees Blake’s wheels. “This weekend’s gonna be fun.”

Chapter Five: Blake

Hate leaving like that. God knows what she must think. And hell if she talks to her brother, who knows what he'll tell her. What I just did there is exactly what he expects from me, even without knowing me. Hell, it's what I'd expect and I don't even have a sister, let alone one as beautiful as Anne. I’ll have to make it up to her later.

Wheelchair or not, the club still comes first. No way around that. Any of the Hell Raiders Tennessee would give their life for me, and I would do the same for them in a heartbeat. Yet when they needed something, here I'd been, thinking more with my dick than my brain. Meant to get the info back to Jelly sooner. Late could mean Hell Raider blood spilled, and then where would I be?

Anne and her brother can’t sidetrack me right now. I push them to the back of my mind and force myself to use a little self-discipline. The Raiders are counting on me now and for some reason they still have me sticking around so I need to keep their respect.

Ready to dive headfirst into digging up whatever I can find about the men that visited the club yesterday, I get in a rush, going way faster than I'm used to in the chair. A rough patch in the sidewalk just ahead reminds me of the risk and I grip the wheels a little harder to cut the speed. The friction quickly becomes painfully hot and my hands slip.

In a split second, I lose control, going down the hill fast. “Shit!” My wheels spin too fast to even attempt to steer, forcing me to rely on a sense of balance I no longer possess. If I'm lucky, I can crash onto grass instead of the side of a car, or maybe worse, the pavement.

Just before I get to the bottom, the grade of the hill eases out and my chair slows just enough for me to get my wheels back under control. I need to look into getting a pair of those racing gloves they tried to talk me into at rehab. At the time, I said I wouldn’t need them, never expecting to leave the nice level floor of my apartment. But with the different paths I roll on now, they could definitely come in handy. The rubber padding on the palms helps to grip the metal on the wheels and controls the speed. I could definitely have used that a minute ago. Seriously, this being disabled thing was too much shit to deal with sometimes.

Unlocking the front door, I go straight for the fridge, needing a beer after that near miss collision with the pavement. The points on the cap set my hand on fire but I ignore the pain and twist the cap off and take a long pull. The chill of the beer instantly cools me down. Even with the breeze from the ocean, it’s still extremely hot for early June and my big adventure sure didn't help.

The bottle lands in the sink with a clatter. I’ll put it away later. Need to get down to finding what those strangers really want with the club. I have my suspicions, but I need evidence to prove it.

It takes a couple minutes to get situated, but once I'm on the couch, I perch the laptop on my knees and flip it open. Since it takes a minute to boot up, I set my MP3 player up on the side table and scroll through the selection, and finally settle on
Kryptonite
by Three Doors Down.

Maxing the volume, I listen to the lyrics for a second, and finally am able to chill. Okay, ready to get to work..

Remembering the names from earlier. I type them in to do a general search on Google. As I expected, nothing comes up with either name. Now to do what the club keeps me around for. Hacking. Knowing my way around every government database and just about any other organization's system comes in handy. Uncle Sam gets a silent thanks for giving me the start to those skills.

Law enforcement agencies know nothing about the visitors, which isn't that unusual. Plenty of criminals operate just barely inside the law, at least on paper. No employment records either. Again, not all that odd. Still, every
No Results for those Search Terms
page made my hackles raise a bit more. As far as I could find, they didn't even have utilities or movie rental accounts.

A few more dead ends later, I still had nothing more than a bunch of wadded up paper and wasted time to show for it. My head pounds from banging against the proverbial wall..What use can the club have for a has-been biker now in a wheelchair? This just proves yet again, there is no good use for one..

I take a deep breath and force my mind off that path. Therapy sessions had been a mandatory part of rehab after the accident. The very idea pissed me off, but they gave me no choice, and looking back, I'm glad. I learned a lot about myself in those meetings, as well as ways to cope with my new circumstances. One key thing was when you start to get down on yourself, you stop for a while.

So, screw this..Time to crash for the night and come back at it with a fresh approach in the morning. Too tired to move to the bed, I just shove everything off the couch onto the floor. It will still be there in the morning. Ok, so therapy didn’t say anything about pushing shit, but it works.

I send a text off to Jelly. “Came up empty so far. Will start fresh in the am.” That should hold him off a few more hours.

Closing my eyes, I remember the taste of Anne's lips and the sweet sounds she made when I kissed her. I drift off, half-hard and dream of being buried deep inside Anne.

Bright sunlight hits my face. Turning over to avoid it, I land hard on the floor. “Damn it! This is getting ridiculous.”

Pissed off, I push myself back up onto the couch. Taking it easy for a bit before I start the day, I flip on the television to see what’s going on in the local news. The weather is up, hmm. Unmuting it, I turn it up more to listen closer.

“Out in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Alexis, has just been upgraded to a level three tropical storm by the National Weather Service. This storm looks ready to become the first hurricane of the 2015 season. At this time, the computer models look like it will skirt South of Cuba and through the Caribbean, and then go up through the Gulf and make landfall somewhere in Louisiana or Texas. There's no foreseeable threat to us here on the east coast. But please continue to stay tuned as we get further information as this storm develops.”

At least we don’t have that to worry about. Hitting mute again, I close my eyes for a few more minutes. Thoughts of Anne arrive immediately to torture me, making further sleep impossible. My dick refuses to let go of the idea of being inside her. I'm glad the damn thing is awake again, but how the hell did I live with the constant distraction before? It only takes a few good strokes and the memory of Anne in my arms to take care of the problem for the moment.

Definitely wide awake, I head for the bathroom and a quick shower. Feeling slightly human once more, the kitchen and coffee is my next stop. The damn coffeemaker takes forever, so I use the time to stick a frozen breakfast in the microwave. It's no substitute for real food but at least I won't starve. I eat quickly and pour a second cup of coffee, then bring my laptop and other stuff to the table to work some more.

The next several hours pass with my eyes glued to the screen as I find ways through firewalls and backdoors and into sites and databases where I shouldn't go. Anyone caught snooping there would be in federal prison for life, or hell, with my luck they’d probably make me work for them. Good thing, I have no intentions of ever being caught.

Even with all the hacking, I still find nothing. Not good. The Raiders definitely need to stay clear of these two. I reach for my phone to call Jelly. He greets me with a good cussing.

“Hey, yeah I know what time it is. If you went to bed at a decent hour like the rest of us you wouldn’t be complaining right now."

"Fuck you, Hound. Tell me what you got on them sketchy bastards."

I almost hesitate to tell him. "I didn’t find anything."

"The fuck, man, that's not possible."

"Hold up. Yeah, it is. What I didn’t find is enough to know we need to stay clear. Sammy doesn't know them and his little cousins don't either."

Silence greeted that announcement. Everyone in the country was known to at least one branch of government. Not these guys. "I'll be in touch."

"Yeah, okay. Later.”

Jelly seriously can be a pain in the ass. Bastard could have just let me say what I needed to and he’d have been back to sleep. He never has been a morning person, even when we were young, but the mother hen shit he has going on right now towards me seems to make it worse. Makes me glad I’m not his ol' lady.

Ol' lady. Can’t believe he actually has one. I might have off and on considered settling down in the past, but no woman I ever found could come close to Jelly's ol' lady. Smart, pretty, good mom to his kids, even cooks pretty well, she sets a high standard most women can't hope to reach.

I’ve thought about just settling for a woman, and in the past there were a couple that might have come close enough. But now, after the accident, I’m not sure anymore. A woman who’ll put up with club life and still be here is rare to find in the first place, now add wheels too.

Just then my thoughts drift to Anne. She’s definitely someone I could see myself with. Can she cook? Can she handle the club life? Would she even want to? Too many questions, all with no answers. Enough thinking about Anne for now.

I head to brush my teeth, shave and get dressed. Everything was set up just right for me. I really owe the boys. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to return the favor, but I will.

In the kitchen, wanting something light to eat, I make a couple of pieces of toast, top it with butter and grape jelly. I finish it with a half of bottle of water. That will hold me until later. Putting everything away, I notice I should head to town to pick up a few things.

Lights off, I shut the door and lock it behind me. At the truck, I pull the door open, jump in and put my wheels in the back.

Finding a spot to park is always tricky, but I found one within a few minutes at the store. The locals must not see too many wheelchair users, considering the way they stare at my every move. I don’t know how people that are always in a chair live like this. I’m ready to snap. With some deep breaths, I manage to hold my temper back.
Just get what you need and get out
.

Down the dairy aisle, I grab a carton of milk. A colorful label in the next cooler catches my eye. Fruit Punch. Damn, back to thinking about Anne again. She did say it was her favorite though. Maybe I can bring it over soon as a peace offering for leaving like a jackass. Not sure of which brand, I choose a couple..

I pick up a few more items, then head to the register to pay. A few seconds of small talk, I thank the older lady, then I’m out the door and loading everything in the back of the truck..

For the rest of the day I just work a little on things around the condo and relax. And try really hard not to think about what Anne is doing. Needing more time to think about everything that I’m really wanting from her, I choose not to go see her.