The sun was hot and beating down on me, and I was working with my jacket and shirt off; my palms were covered with grease and I wiped beads of sweat off my forehead.
Sophie was checking me out. I could feel her eyes working on me.
I looked up at her and shook my head with a grin.
“You don’t want to go there, my head is a mess right now,” I said. She grinned too and took a big gulp of her beer.
“Don’t worry, handsome, I’m not going to jump you today. Although I have thought about it in the past. I know you’re still thinking about her.”
I sat down on my haunches in front of the bike, focusing my attention on it again because I didn’t want to meet Sophie’s eyes.
“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” she said.
“Good, because I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Mary-Beth is upset that you didn’t ask her to stay. We could have really used someone like her around here,” Sophie continued anyway.
I had to look at her, just to give her a deathly stare.
“The option has always been open to her. She knows we need her here. She’s looking for a job. She doesn’t want to strip anymore. She had every opportunity to accept the offer but she didn’t. I was not going to fuckin’ beg her, alright?”
Sophie must have heard the anger and frustration in my voice because she nodded and drank some more of her beer.
“Yeah, I’m not trying to blame you, Ghost, I’m just saying that maybe she needed a little push. Maybe she didn’t realize how you felt about her.”
“And what do you know about how I feel for her?” I growled. This was shit. We shouldn’t have been talking about Mercy.
“Why is it so hard for you guys to admit you have feelings for a chick?”
“She doesn’t want to work here. She doesn’t want this life!”
“Did you just make that decision for her?”
“Leave me the fuck alone,” I raged. Sophie was beginning to get on my nerves again. I needed to stop talking about Mercy but she was forcing me to.
“Yeah, fine, you’re really good at that. I forgot. Just shut yourself up and talk to nobody. You’d make an excellent vault.”
I kept my head down and continued working on the bike. I was just going to ignore Sophie. She would eventually go away, right?
“Hi guys.”
Mercy’s voice pierced through the air and I looked up with a jerk, thinking this had to be some kind of joke.
But no, it wasn’t. She was standing there in front of me, in all her blonde-blue-eyed-glory, looking even sexier than ever in her denim skirt and knee-high boots.
“Oh! Hi, Mercy! Good to see you back here. We’ve all missed you,” Sophie exclaimed excitedly and I had to watch while the two of them hugged.
* * *
It seemed like they were hugging for much longer than they needed to. Then when they stopped, they both turned to look at me staring at them. I couldn’t look away. I knew I should have just left because my veins were filling with adrenaline and confusion, anger, and relief, a cocktail of emotions I didn’t know how to handle. Worst-case scenario, I would lash out and yell at her. Best-case scenario: I’d listen to what she had to say and then I’d go back into the clubhouse and carry on with my day.
But one look at Mercy and I knew there was no chance I was walking away from this thing unscathed.
Sophie scurried away quickly and I was grateful to her for that. Seeing Mercy again, even though it had just been a week—made it seem like the ground was shaking underneath my feet.
Her golden hair was shining in the sun like a halo around her face. It tumbled down around her shoulders and back. The t-shirt she was wearing had wide sleeveless arms. Her bright pink bra was on display and made my cock stir.
I straightened up, wiping my greasy palms on the old rag on the seat of my bike.
“Ghost, how are you?”
“What are you doing here?” I asked her. Maybe there was a tone of challenge in my voice, but I was surprised to see her.
She licked her lips nervously and looked around, like she was checking to see if there were other people. There weren’t. The clubhouse was practically empty too. Everybody else had gone on a ride. I was the only who didn’t join them because I had a lot on my mind and didn’t want the others asking questions.
“I just wanted to come over and talk to you, is that okay? Or are you busy?”
“I’m busy, but go ahead. Tell me what you want to say.” I knew I was being a dick but couldn’t help it. The last week had been torture without her. I wished I’d never met her. No other woman had made me feel the way Mercy did and now I blamed her for the physical pain I was feeling.
She gulped, meeting my eyes.
“I…I…guess I just wanted to check in on you and Crash.”
“It’s not your job, remember? You didn’t have to come all the way here to do that.”
“Well, I guess I was just a little concerned.”
“Concerned for what?”
“About you. The MC. The other girls…I don’t know. Ghost, why are you making this difficult for me?”
“I don’t get why you need to be here when you can be anywhere else you want. You’re free, remember?”
Mercy’s lips quivered and her nostrils flared. I couldn’t stop the bitterness I was spewing. I didn’t hate her. I felt the opposite of hate for her, but just didn’t know how to express it.
“I’m sorry. I guess I shouldn’t have come over. I don’t know what I was thinking,” she said. She held my gaze for another moment, just like that night when she’d walked away from here, like
