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Hearing Razor’s comment, Hemlock gave a sarcastic response, “Of course you would.”

Razor ignored him. In need of a distraction from Hemlock’s questioning, he walked over to speak with the EMTs. What were the chances Razor would run into one of his brothers while keeping an eye on Lottie? He needed to get over the female before she became a problem for him.

Once the cops and the ambulance had left, and Hemlock felt his lips weren’t about to burst and his face felt less on fire, he walked to Charlie and did his best to tell her it was nice meeting her. It was just too damn awkward. Handing her his club card was the best he could do. “If you ever need anything, call me. I owe you for getting me help.”

“You wouldn’t have needed help if I wouldn’t have kissed you,” she said softly. “I’m throwing away all my lip gloss and I’m never kissing anyone again. Not ever,” she exclaimed dramatically.

“That would be a damn shame. You’re one hell of a kisser.” Giving her a smile, Hemlock heard Razor chuckling from behind him. “See ya around.” Leaving her standing in the parking lot,Hemlock followed Razor across the parking lot towards where the bikes were parked.

He still wasn’t convinced Razor wasn’t there to see Lottie. If the brother wanted to keep his love life private, Hemlock wouldn’t pry. Not unless Razor gave him a reason to. Then it’d be on like a game of Donkey Kong.

“You think you can ride?”

“Fuck yeah. Even if I couldn’t, I would, so I didn’t have to come back here again.” Hearing Razor laugh, Hemlock chuckled along with him.Fucking hell, could he not catch a break when it came to women?

Half an hour later, Hemlock waved off Razor as the brother headed out of his driveway. “What a fucking night.”

His phone buzzed at that moment. Pulling it out, he saw he had a message from an unknown caller. Opening it, an image of a small trashcan filled with lip-gloss containers popped up.

Charlie:

Keeping my promise. Sorry about ruining the evening.

Hemlock didn’t know why, but he texted Charlie back:

Hemlock: I’m fine. But I agree it was a hell of a way to get out of sleeping with me.

Charlie: Maybe we could meet up for a coffee down the road.

Hemlock: You never know. Night Charlie.

There was no way he’d be taking another run at the girl. She knew how to kill him. That was practically a suicide mission.

Charlie: Night Hemlock.

Sighing, Charlie shut down her phone, disappointed that her one chance of hooking up with a good- looking guy had been fraught by her lip-gloss. “That’s just the way my life’s going.”

Hemlock almost deleted her number, then second guessed himself and created a new contact in his phone for her. After staring at the contact info for a second, he shoved his phone away before heading inside. All he could think about was how he enjoyed kissing that damn girl until he glimpsed his face in the mirror.

His lips were still puffy. Not Kardashian puffy, but they looked like they’d been stuck in a vacuum hose for an hour. “Looking good there, son,” he spoke to his reflection.

Tossing his keys in the wooden bowl on the entryway table, he headed for the kitchen. The last time he saw the damn pen it was on the kitchen island. Running his fingers over his lips, they felt waxy. A side effect from being swollen to their maximum capacity.

Opening the kitchen junk drawer, he moved a few things around until he found the EpiPen that should have been on his person. A lot it could have done tonight if he had had it, he thought as he carried it with him to the bedroom—alone.

Unbuckling his cut, he slipped the leather vest off and laid it on his dresser. Wanting a shower, he stripped off his shirt and carried it with him into the bathroom where he finishedundressing. When he tossed his phone on the counter, he heard it ping again and smiled.

“Damn girl can’t get enough of my puffy face.”

Opening the text, he saw it was a chat with all the brothers. And right at the top was a picture of him that Razor had taken. “Son of a bitch!” He would kill Razor as soon as he got to work. There had to be something at the clinic he could use to make him sorry for this crap.

The comments kept rolling in until Hemlock turned off his phone. He wouldn’t hear the end of this crap. At least the Montreal Chapter wasn’t as bad as the Provo brothers with the social media antics.

Reaching into the shower, he turned on the water and waited for it to heat up.

Standing naked and annoyed, Hemlock remembered the shocked look on Charlie’s face when she’d come into the bathroom. Laughing, Hemlock wished things would have gone differently. Which would have been a change for him. Something always happened when he got mixed up with a woman.

Still, he never gave up hope he’d one day find the right one, and not another crazy one. Unlike Vicious, who used to like the crazy ones, Hemlock did not. He did, however, agree with his VP about one thing… crazy bitches were great in the sack. At least from what he remembered.