“For good reason.” Faith nervously laughs, grabs her purse, and walks over to the bar.
“Guess she’s closing out her tab. We’d better do the same,” Nikki comments and I follow her, pulling my crossbody purse to the front of my body, I pull back the zipper and grab some cash. After a few minutes the three of us have paid our tabs and now we’re walking on the sidewalk, ready to go home. The first thing I plan on doing is face planting into my bed. Goodness, after all the liquor and the dancing we’ve been doing, the only thing I want to see is the back of my eyelids.
“You two heard when Ricochet’s coming back to town?” Faith asks Nikki and me.
Nikki looks over to me, knowing she doesn’t get a lot of information about what’s going on whenever a couple of us leave town. Ricochet was sent down to Virginia on club business to help Vex. She’s one of our full patch members, but she’s working undercover with the Devil’s Riot MC since they’ve seen some cultist activity down there. Vex is making it appear like she’s just a normal college kid and considering that’s the type of people the cult searches for, I’m sure she’ll be able to get a bite really soon. She’ll be too good of a follower for them to pass up, especially with the way she seems so innocent.
“Venom, do you know something?” Nikki asks while moving her long dreadlocks behind her back. She always keeps her hair natural, but recently she’s really been going for the braids or dreads. Iris keeps saying she’s talking about cutting it all off and shaving her head, saying how the trend on TikTok is making her curious to what it would be like.
“Yeah, but it’s club business. You know I can’t say more than that,” I tell her and then look over to Faith.
“I’m betting it’s something to do with Twister’s charter, I mean, isn’t he super close with Emerson?” Faith asks, but her tone insinuates something more, and it’s something I’m not a fan of.
“He’s like her adoptive older brother. Don’t go putting shit together that you don’t have any idea about. Do you even know who her ol’ man is?”
Faith shakes her head.
I scoff, figuring as much. “Let’s just say if Hades ever thought there was the slightest chance for something like that between them, he would’ve already hung Ricochet up by his balls and slit his throat.”
“God, he sounds . . . morbid.”
“You have no idea,” Nikki pipes up, causing me to look right back at her.
“How would you know anything about Hades?” Nikki’s never once met the man. Hell, she hasn’t even been to Virginia to even be in the same general vicinity as him.
Nikki fights back a smirk and gnaws on the corner of her lip. “Saber was up a couple days ago, you know, updating Boss on some business dealings she must have with the Devil’s Riot MC. He likes to talk just as much as he likes doing other things, if you catch my drift.”
“I think we do. We know what you do for the club,” Faith grumbles and rushes off about fifteen feet away from us.
“What the fuck?” I mutter, staring off at Faith, who I can only see from the illumination of the streetlights.
“Just leave it. Not worth the fight. I think something’s going on with her. She’s been a bit snappy the last couple days,” Nikki tells me and her dark eyes seem empathetic, like she doesn’t give a damn about how Faith just snapped at her. She’s more concerned about her friend and that’s admirable. I don’t know if I could be that selfless. Hell, I probably would’ve given her a piece of my mind.
“Alright,” I reply, not wanting to poke the bear. “Want to talk about something . . . else?”
“Mhm, like when you’re finally gonna fess up to Ricochet that you’re in love with him,” Nikki says out of nowhere, almost causing my eyes to fly out of their sockets.
While I do have a thing for Ricochet, I’ve never once said anything to him about it because I don’t want it to ruin our friendship. We all know that feelings can either make a relationship or break it, and I, for one, don’t want to lose him in my life. He’s one of the only people who made me start seeing the good again, even after I was stuck in the dark for far too long.
“I’m not,” I lie through my teeth, hoping I sound convincing enough but alcohol always fucks with me.
“We’re drunk enough that I won’t remember anyway, probably.” Nikki busts out laughing, and I can’t help but smile.
“I like him, alright? Just don’t say anything,” I tell Nikki.
“It won’t matter. Anyone who’s got half a brain can tell you have something for him,” Faith’s southern voice comes out of nowhere and she looks back at me
God, I hope that isn’t true. I don’t want Ricochet to know how I feel. Not now . . . not when I have so much left to do. Hell, when all of this is over, he might not even want anything to do with me. I wouldn’t even be able to blame him, not after all the secrets I’ve kept from him.
Chapter One
Ricochet
“There’s some shit goin’ on, Prez. I can smell it,” Chuckles speaks up, demanding attention from every brother and sister in the room.
“I second what Chuckles is saying. Things have been too quiet, Prez. I don’t like this . . . it means somethin’ is goin’ down and we need to figure out what, sooner rather than later,” Muffler, our club’s road captain, speaks up. He’s never typically a vocal man when it comes to
