Page 27 of Break Away (Riot MC Next Generation #2)

I put my hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes. “Between Cal and my own sister, I knew you’d had four guys over to meet your parents, but you’d dated at least twice that many. I hated hearing that shit. Seemed like there wasn’t anywhere I could go to avoid it.”

Her eyes shifted side to side like she was trying to read me. “But you’re the one who shoved me aside. All because I stuck up for you to those high school jocks.”

I tipped my head back and let her go. Righting my head, I drove my hands in my hair.

“It was high school. No guy wants to be known as the one who had to have someone else stick up for him.” I dropped my hands to my hips.

“And you know me, you know my dad. I definitely don’t want to rely on someone else taking care of shit for me. ”

“But there were five of them.”

“Four.”

“Five. Colton was coming out of the woods.”

I didn’t know if that was true or not, but Alexandra had a memory like a steel trap. “Fine, there were five. It was years ago, and I was immature, but I knew I didn’t want you to get in trouble and those assholes would make sure we both got blamed for shit.”

She stared down at her feet for a beat. “You’re right.”

I closed the distance between us and grabbed her hands. “I won’t abandon you, Lex. We’re older now, and if shit goes bad, we’ll talk it out and deal with it. Like adults.”

She lifted her hands and put them on my chest. “All right. I’m sorry I got a little weird.”

I smiled. “Don’t be. We gotta be open with each other. Right?”

“Right.” Her eyes skated to the side. “Wait, is that….” She looked up at me with a disgusted expression. “Is that the couch from your parents’ house?”

I nodded.

Her eyes widened. “The same one we…”

I grinned. “Where we had our first kiss. Yeah.”

“Wow,” she said with a grimace.

“It’s a great couch, Lex.”

She sat down like the couch might bite her. “You aren’t exactly close to the clubhouse here.”

I sat next to her. “No, but I’m not that far. Besides, it's more central to wherever the club might send me. Lisa’s shop, Platinum’s, your dad’s business. The only time it’s a problem is when I have to go to Hock’s Pawn shop. But even then, I’m going against the flow of traffic.”

“What do you want to do in the club?”

“Haven’t decided. Figured I’d have to do whatever the Memphis brothers wanted. Now, it looks like I might be able to start my own general contracting business after all. Not sure I want the club investing in it, but their terms could be better than a bank. I’ll have to take it one day at a time.”

She yawned and her eyes watered. I caught sight of the microwave and saw it was quarter to eleven. “Let’s go to bed, Lex. It’s been a long-ass week.”

She shot me a grin. “And it’s only Thursday.”

I parked my bike outside the clubhouse at six-thirty Friday morning. Prospects were expected to keep the common room clean at all times, but we had to do a deep clean before the start of the weekend.

I went inside through the back door, and grabbed the mop bucket from the utility closet near the back door.

I’d gone ten feet when Volt, Blood, and Razor stalked my way.

“He actually looks scared,” Razor said.

Blood kept his eyes fixed on me. “I don’t think so. He’s definitely not scared enough.”

At this stage, it was hard for me to know if this was all bluster to provoke me and then force me into more bullshit chores, or if they actually meant to be intimidating because Alexandra and I were involved.

“Take it easy on him, Beast says he took care of two threats to Alexandra,” Volt said.

Blood shot him a dose of side-eye. “I only heard about one.”

Razor stepped forward. “He should do that for any brother’s daughter.” He leaned toward me. “You hurt her, you’re dead.”

I fought off a heavy sigh.

“What? You’re not going to tell him that if you hurt her, you’d deserve it? I thought those words were hollow.”

I glowered at Blood. “No. They weren’t hollow words. I’m not going to hurt her. Hell, if anything, she might hurt me.”

Razor pointed at me. “Watch what you say about her, prospect.”

Volt stepped forward. “All right, now that they’ve had their fun, where is Alexandra?”

“She’s at my place.”

Volt nodded. “Good. We’re having church at ten. Our lawyer will be here for it. Anything else you need to know will come from me or Blood.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do I detect attitude?” Blood asked.

“No.”

“Beast said you plan to go back with her next week,” Volt said.

I nodded. “Unless that’s a problem.”

Volt shook his head. “No, that’s a good plan because Beast took a closer look at those rolls of bills. Someone definitely wanted to set her up…or maybe you, since you were around most of the week, but all the rubber bands around the cash had Riot MC written on them.”

My body froze. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. Watch your back,” Volt said, sauntering to his room.

Razor wandered down the hall to his room.

Blood shot me a look. “That floor better fuckin’ sparkle.”

Full of Murphy’s Oil and hot water, I rolled the mop-bucket out from behind the bar when Killian and Ryan came in through the front door.

“It’s about fuckin’ time,” Killian said.

“You can say that again, Kill. I thought he’d been sent back to Memphis, but no…he’s finally pulled his head out of his ass,” Ryan, Killian’s triplet, said.

“Shut the fuck up, assholes,” I muttered.

They both went behind the bar and got bottles of disinfectant and rags.

Killian raised the blinds over the windows behind the pool tables. “Did some asshole really try to get in the shower with you?”

I shoved the lever down to wring out the mop. “He thought I was Alexandra.”

“That makes it worse, you know,” Ryan said, wiping down the bar.

“Yeah, which is why I gave him a bloody nose.”

“Naked. I knew you liked it rough,” Killian said.

“Fuck off with that bullshit. If I’d been Alexandra, then what? He’d have finished what he tried with her the day before.”

“He was there the day before?” Ryan asked.

I nodded and slung the mop back and forth faster than I should have. “Yeah, I interrupted him just as Lex hit him with a rolling pin.”

Killian choked on laughter. “That’s fucked up.”

“Yeah, so I didn’t care if I had to beat his ass while naked and wet.”

Ryan moved to the high-top tables. “Yeah, that asshole deserves a lesson.”

I kept moving across the common room, making sure the floor had a high shine. “How did the bar’s soft opening go last night?”

“Not so soft,” Ryan muttered.

“What’s that mean?”

Ryan glanced at Killian, then at me. “Let’s just say I almost became a twin instead of a triplet.”

The air went tense.

“They were talkin’ about Mick. You’d have done the same damn thing,” Killian bit out.

Ryan took a deep breath. “Brother, you know how gorgeous our sister is. They aren’t the first assholes to talk like that and won’t be the last.”

Killian stared at him for a long moment. “Well, she isn’t dressing like that again. That’s for damn sure. On a Lark isn’t Coyote Ugly or some shit.”

I looked between the two of them, then locked eyes with Killian. “Did you tell Mickayla that? And did she agree?”

Killian sneered at me. “Mop the damn floor, Raff.”

I chuckled. “Right. Lex and I are gonna be there tomorrow night.”

Ryan glowered at me. “Oh fuck no. If you’re there, you’re workin’.”

Blood strolled into the common room. “Did I hear a prospect give another prospect an order?”

“Sounded that way to me,” Beast said.

Blood scuffed his boot on the floor where I had already mopped. “You missed a spot, prospect.”

One thing about being a prospect… it put me in close touch with my temper and forced me to control it.

“Over here, too,” Beast said after he stomped his boot in an area I hadn’t gotten to yet. He left behind a pile of dirt that looked like chocolate cake crumbs. “Did you even sweep first?”

Blood grinned, then pointed his finger at me. “Fuckin’ sparkle.”

“How many more months of this do we have?” Ryan asked in a low voice.

“Don’t ask. They’ll stretch it out,” I said.