Bones was a motorcycle club she and the two boys who’d protected her during a dark time in her life had stumbled onto and basically moved in with. The man who had adopted her, Joe Gill, aka Cain, was the club’s president. Cain and Angel had adopted all three of them. How, Suzie had no idea, but no one had come looking for them, Social Services had only visited once, and the next thing they all knew, they were Cliff, Daniel, and Suzie Gill.
Suzie wasn’t naive enough to think Cliff and Daniel had actually stumbled onto the only club across God only knew how many states who would take responsibility for three teenagers, but she didn’t look too closely at it. Most likely Daniel had found them by snooping in places he shouldn’t. Being sneaky was his talent. Cliff and Daniel were both three or four years older than she was, but they’d done their best to protect her even though it meant things were always harder on them. For that, she’d never be able to repay them. As she’d gotten older and ventured from her safe haven of the clubhouse, she’d realized what they must have gone through.
Suzie tried not to think about any of that if she could help it. Unfortunately, Igg and Ook downstairs made her go back to those dark days after she’d been taken. She sighed as she stepped off the elevator to her floor. No way she could avoid the nightmares tonight.
Currently, her most pressing problem was the coming fall break. She desperately wanted to go back home to Kentucky. The only problem was she didn’t drive, and she refused to ask Cain or anyone else at Bones for more money or to take time out of their schedule to look after her even more than they already had. They’d gone out on a limb to pay her tuition for her until she could get a job and pay them back. MIT didn’t give scholarships on merit. They gave financial aid based on income. Because she was unwilling to draw attention to herself even now over her family status, she’d had to do some creative accounting to fudge tax documents and, in the end, had made it sound impossible for her to get aid for college.
She’d actually hoped that would be the end of the MIT journey, but Cain had insisted she was going if she got in, and had paid the full tuition price. Owning one of the top security companies in the world, he’d said it was no problem. She didn’t believe that, and, even if it were true, she didn’t deserve to take his money. She only went because he insisted and Suzie owed him and Angel. Big time.
The prospect of staying at school during fall break stressed her out and made her sad for more than one reason. Sure, she missed her family, and, really, every single member of Bones -- patched member or prospect -- was her family, but more than anything she missed Stunner.
From the first day she’d come to live with Cain, Stunner had been there watching over her. Her own personal very large, very strong, very protective security blanket. He was more than a protector and best friend though. No matter what she tried to tell herself, or what she wanted other people to believe, she was in love with the brooding man. Had been since he’d forced his way into her life and refused to be separated from her for a very long time afterward. Well, until Angel had talked her into going to MIT. Suzie hadn’t even been serious about it. She’d just applied on a whim after completing a mathematics BS online. It had seemed ludicrous at the time. Why in the world would MIT take a student who’d graduated from an online program, no matter that it had been Purdue through their Global University program. Right?
But they had. Then Angel found out, and Suzie absolutely would not disappoint her mother. Not ever. Surprisingly, Stunner hadn’t protested. He’d been restless the week leading up to her departure, but he hadn’t gone with them to take her to MIT, and she only saw him when she went home. This was her first year there, and she hadn’t been home in weeks. Which meant she missed Stunner like she might miss her right hand.
She’d texted him a few times, but he always responded with one-word answers or an emoji or something. Calling was even worse because he wasn’t much for conversations. And she couldn’t bring herself to admit she loved him.
But after this latest run-in with Rebecca, she needed him.
Once inside her apartment, she clicked the lock and turned the deadbolt. The chain was next. Safely locked inside, she went to her bedroom and grabbed the blanket Stunner had always wrapped her in when she was younger and needed him to hold her when the nightmares got too bad, and crawled into the closet. She sat back in the far corner behind some boxes. It was a little nest in a cubby hole she’d made the first night she’d arrived. There were pillows and blankets in case she felt the need to stay in there for longer than a few minutes. Leaning out of her hiding place, she pulled the door closed, then huddled under her blanket and cried until she fell asleep.
* * *
“FIGHT!”
Stunner bared his teeth at Pig. The fucking bastard had opened his fucking mouth for the last fucking time. The alarm had been sounded the second Pig had uttered the words “girl’s a fuckin’
