Page 15 of Alice & Meg: Summer Vacation (Fallen Lords MC & Devil’s Knights MC Crossover)
The sun was high, the air smelled like sunscreen and freshly cut grass, and we were all standing at the start of the wackiest mini golf course. Windmills, waterfalls, and plastic palm trees decorated every corner of the place. Bright pink flamingos stuck out of bushes like guards, and a huge grinning gator statue loomed behind hole twelve. Classic Falls City weird.
Everyone was crowded around the ball rack and club stand, sorting through colors like it was life or death.
“I need the purple ball,”
I announced, scanning for my signature color.
Alice plucked a dark violet ball out of the bin and tossed it to me.
“I’ll take the lilac one. It matches my soul.”
“Are we going to play together or split up?”
Adley asked.
“Because it’s going to take us forever to play eighteen holes with fifteen people.”
“You got somewhere else to be?”
Slayer asked, arching a brow.
Adley rolled her eyes.
“No, but I don’t really feel like hitting my ball once every hour while waiting for y’all to debate whose turn it is.”
Alice tilted her head.
“Why does that sound oddly inappropriate?”
“Because everything is oddly inappropriate when we’re all together,”
Greta said. She picked up a neon green ball and grinned like she was about to take down the PGA.
“Why don’t we do girls versus boys?”
Cyn suggested and held up her pink club like a sword.
“The girls can be the Flamingos, and the guys can be the Eagles,”
Reva chimed in.
Rigid scowled.
“Why do we have to have a name?”
“So we can say the Flamingos kicked the Eagles’ asses,”
Raven smirked.
“Yeah!”
Alice cheered.
The girls decided to go first, much to the guys’ groaning.
We weren’t even three holes in and the competition was fierce. I wasn’t bad, but Adley had a killer short game. Reva was keeping score for us Flamingos. Hero was doing the same for the guys, which Rigid loudly protested.
“Hero failed geometry,”
Rigid reminded us.
“This isn’t geometry. It’s basic counting,”
Hero argued.
“Exactly,”
Rigid said dryly.
By the seventh hole, we’d caught up to a group ahead of us. A girl and three guys wearing shirts with some riding club name I’d never heard of. Their patches looked cheap, and their vibe was off. The girl looked... uncomfortable.
Alice met my eyes. I met hers. We both saw it.
We stood back and watched as the guys hit their balls, loud and cocky. The girl quietly stepped up and tapped hers. It ricocheted off a rock and smacked one of the guys’ ankles.
He exploded.
“What the fuck, April?! Are you blind?!”
She cowered, hands raised slightly.
“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to,”
“You didn’t mean to be a goddamn moron? You’re useless, just like your mouth.”
He stepped toward her, and that’s when my temper snapped. “Hey!”
I shouted, stepping forward.
“I wouldn’t take one more step toward her.”
He turned and sneered at me.
“And what the fuck are you gonna do about it, bitch?”
Before I could answer, Lo and the guys were suddenly behind me.
“She’s gonna get her husband to beat the fuck out of you,”
Lo growled, eyes locked on the idiot.
The three punks looked around and started to shrink a little, but still didn’t back down.
“This doesn’t concern you. It’s private,”
the one who had screamed at April retorted.
“Private?”
Cyn snorted.
“You might want to look up the definition, asshat.”
“She’s my woman. I’ll talk to her however the hell I want,”
he barked.
Greta stepped forward.
“You good with this dipshit claiming you?”
she asked the girl gently.
The girl shook her head.
“We’re just on a date.”
Greta scoffed.
“Looks like you’re still in the test phase, Bob.”
“My name isn’t fucking Bob, bitch,”
he spat at Greta.
Wrong move.
Bear straightened.
Greta whispered, “Oh boy. That was stupid. This is gonna hurt,”
she added.
Hero and Clash flanked the guys from behind. Bear, Lo, and Wrecker moved in from the front. The three dipshits turned to run and smacked right into Hero and Clash.
“We don’t want trouble!”
one shouted.
“This is all the girl’s fault!”
Lo cracked his neck.
“Let’s take a walk to the parking lot and have a chat.”
They tried to scramble, but the guys guided them up the path.
Alice, Adley, and I rushed over to the girl.
“Hey,”
I said softly.
“You okay?”
She nodded, but her face was red and her hands were shaking.
“I’m fine. I didn’t mean to hit the ball so hard.”
“Babe, you barely tapped it,”
I said.
“Don’t apologize. Alice smoked one two holes back that hit Clash in the back of the head.”
Alice raised a hand.
“True story. Don’t know how I did it. He was a hole behind us.”
The girl blinked away tears.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Nope. Stop that,”
I said.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. He’s not your boyfriend, is he?”
She shook her head.
“Second date. Thought it was just going to be him, then his buddies showed up. We drove all the way here from Dodge. I thought we were getting dinner back home.”
Adley’s jaw dropped.
“Two hours? Without asking you?”
“Yeah,”
she sighed.
I dug in my purse for tissues, and of course, a damn turtle fell out.
“I’m being haunted,”
I muttered, while handing her the tissue and stuffing the turtle back in.
Alice stepped forward.
“I’m Alice.”
“April,”
she whispered.
“The idiot who got in a car with strangers.”
“Oh, no!”
Alice hugged her.
“You didn’t know they were jackasses.”
Cyn smiled.
“I almost married an asshat, honey. You at least figured it out on the second date.”
“Thank you,”
April said.
“I’m really sorry to mess up your golf game.”
She shuffled back a step.
“I guess I need to call my sister. She’ll come and get me. I don’t want to hold you guys up anymore.”
April was not at all holding us up. We just wanted to make sure she was okay.
“You can stay with us until she gets here,”
I offered.
April blinked.
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
I shrugged.
“Because we can. You were in trouble, and we helped. You’d do the same.”
“Totally would,”
she said.
“Didn’t think it would happen to me.”
Cyn smiled softly.
“Many moons ago, my ex beat me. was there. We look out for each other. Now you’re one of us. Come back to the motel, let make something crazy, and Alice will finally get to use her blender.”
April blinked.
“I don’t know what any of that means, but sure.”
“It means you’re safe now,”
I told her.
And for the first time since we saw her, April smiled.