I wish I had the will to be like her. Even as I get older, the more I think about dressing up, has me wanting to wear leggings. I could never dress up like that.
“Hey, mom. Is dad home?” I ask her and walk over to her. The birds are starting to chirp their morning songs and in the distance I can hear a lawn mower start up.
More often than not, the person who is mowing, is not the person that lives there. This is the type of area where you pay someone to do those chores for you.
“Yes, he’s in the den. He is talking about going golfing today, though.”
I roll my eyes. “Thanks, mom,” I kiss her cheek and let myself into the house.
I’m instantly hit with the smell of a freshly cleaned house. Something I got used to as a child growing up.
“Dana!” My dad greets me from the den without setting his coffee cup down. “What brings you by?”
I don’t give him the same greeting I gave my mother. He doesn’t deserve it after the stunt he pulled yesterday. “What was that yesterday?”
After Axl and Braydon left, my dad tucked his tail between his legs and left, too.
“Sweetie,” my mom says from behind me. “Your dad is only trying to do what’s best for you. Spending time with those kinds of people is going to hurt your reputation.”
I smile at my mom with frustration oozing out of me. “Mom, I don’t see how dinner with a man and his son is going to hurt my reputation! I’m a teacher!”
My dad sits his coffee cup down and gives me the look that tells me he’s annoyed with my disregard of how they feel. “You don’t know what you are talking about. You don’t know the first thing about these people!”
“Then how about you tell me!” I yell.
“You might as well tell her,” my mom hedges and walks out of the room. She does this when a conversation isn’t going her way.
I sit myself across from my father in one of the love seats in the den. I sit on the edge as I don’t plan on staying here that long. “Tell me, dad.”
“Axl and his buddies are not who you think they are. They do some illegal activities that we have been trying to stop. I didn’t want you to know because I know a lot of their kids attend your school.”
“What kind of things are you talking about?”
He shakes his head. “You know that thing that happened to you?”
I shiver as I hear him refer to that thing we don’t talk about in this house. “Yes.” How could I forget it? How could I forget about that time?
“It was Axl’s father. Axl’s father is Red.”
Red is Axl’s dad? There’s no way in hell! There is no way in fucking hell they are related.
And that’s when I remember why the patch looked so familiar on Axl’s vest. It really is his father. How could I have been stupid? How could I have developed feelings for someone like Axl? Were they even feelings or were they feeling that started and ended in my panties? What is going on here? “Are you serious?”
“And there’s more. There’s way more to the story than you have been told. It all started when Red started to make deals with other clubs.”
“What kind of deals?” I remember the night Red came over to the house to have that argument with my dad. I don’t remember Red being the one who raped me. I don’t remember who it was. All I saw was a patch. That was it.
“Dana, we never wanted to be the ones that told you about this. However, as the years passed, you didn’t put the two together. The last thing we wanted was for you to be hurt about something like this,” he murmurs gently.
“I remember that night Red came over and you had an argument with him. What was that argument about?” I demand. I have to know the whole story. I have to. I’m done fucking around here.
What’s worse? I still want to see Axl. I still want to see the man that makes me giddy. I’m fucked up.
“You weren’t supposed to hear that,” he announces.
“I really don’t care what I was supposed to hear and what I wasn’t supposed to hear.”
“That motorcycle club is in bed with some powerful people and I stepped in the middle of it by accident. I have been trying to put an end to their illegal activity.”
“What type of illegal activity?” I blurt. I’m way too far in the story to not know what he is talking about.
“That is something I can’t tell you. You will have to find out for yourself.”
“Dana, shouldn’t you be getting to school now?” My mom announces from the entrance.
I pull out my phone and wince.
Shit!
I speed to school with my mind wrapped up in everything my dad told me. I wish I could ask Braydon what the hell is going on, but that poor kid.
Brenna’s leaning against my door with a smile on her pretty face. “Care to tell me about the sexy dad?”
I roll my eyes. “Nothing happened.”
“Then how come I heard about the sexy dad and a sexy teacher having dinner together last night?”
“Is this a beauty salon or a school?” I ask snidely.
“Guess who’s not in school today?” She asks as she looks over her shoulder and her classroom and mine.
Braydon’s not here? Even after the meeting yesterday, he’s still not here! A shoot of rage flows through my body. I really thought
“Are you serious?”
“Yep. I called the bus garage and both of them were not picked up.”
Like me, Brenna has a student in that stupid motorcycle club as well.
“Did you have that meeting with his dad yet?”
“No,” she grumbles.
“Shit,” I whisper under my breath. “Want to go find this clubhouse later
