Page 3 of Break Away (Riot MC Next Generation #2)

Chapter three

Not with Us

Alexandra

I tossed a bag of pistachios onto the dash, hauled myself up into Rafferty’s truck, and buckled in while he did the same (minus the pistachios). After a moment, I realized he hadn’t put the key in the ignition, let alone started the vehicle.

He leaned into his forearm on the center console. “I’m not driving and I won’t drive until you tell me what Porter’s deal is.”

I stared into his dark brown eyes. “Porter doesn’t have a deal.”

His brows arched. “Bullshit. You said we couldn’t discuss it while I drove. Truck’s parked. Now spill.”

He certainly was learning how to be an overbearing alpha while prospecting with the Riot MC.

I sighed. “Porter and I are over, Tee. Have been for over two months.”

He cocked a brow at my use of a nickname I hadn’t uttered in over five years. “Why would you cause a scene?”

I grabbed the pistachios. “It doesn’t matter.”

He snatched them from me.

“Hey!”

He stayed focused. “If it doesn’t matter, then why aren’t you talking about it? Plus, why would it make me angry?”

“I never said it would make you angry.”

He chuckled, and it rumbled from his chest like the roll of thunder from a summer storm. “You didn’t have to. Anything you can’t say while I’m driving equals shit that’s gonna distract me or piss me off.”

I couldn’t argue that, and it annoyed me. “Can we just go?”

“How did he hurt you?”

“You’re making assumptions.”

“No. You said you made a scene and that y’all were late because of it. You never do that shit, so Porter either pissed you off or he hurt you.”

How I forgot certain things, I’d never know, but somehow I always forgot how well Rafferty knew me. It was equal parts annoying and endearing. Mainly annoying because I never knew what to do with that from him.

I took a deep breath. “It’s over and done, Rafferty. I appreciate your friendly concern, but no joke - Porter is not worth your time or mine.”

He pressed his lips together and stared past my shoulder, out the window. After a lengthy moment, his eyes met mine. “Did you tell your parents how he hurt you?”

Acid filled and churned in my stomach like a washing machine full of my secrets. I straightened. “They know I’m an adult, and haven’t pried.”

His left eye narrowed at me. “Hard to say what’s worse: the fact you’re a pain in my ass or how much I like feeling that pain.”

My mouth fell open. “Oh my God. Did you really just say that?”

He closed his eyes and his lips slowly tipped up before he opened them again. “Tell me. Please,” he whispered.

Something in his whisper made me crack. “You can’t get mad and you can’t tell Dad.”

He lowered his chin as his eyes turned shrewd.

“I’m not agreeing to that. One, because I’m already mad that he hurt you.

Two, because whatever you’re about to share…

if it were Jasmine, Simone, Gabby, or any brothers’ daughter - the brothers would pummel the shit outta me for keeping it from them. And I’d deserve that.”

He was right, and that was the biggest reason I didn’t want to tell him. Even though I knew it all came from a place of love, the overbearing, overprotective thing got old. I tossed my hands up. “Nobody can protect all of us all the time.”

He reverted back to his gentle whisper. “I need you to tell me, so I can stop imagining shit. What spin did he put on assholes making assumptions about bikers?”

I didn’t want to give Rafferty all of this, but I had to get it out there and be done with it. “He got physical with me in the car and wouldn’t immediately stop when I told him to.”

Rafferty’s eyes danced side to side for a couple beats. “Did he rape you?”

I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath. “No. It didn’t go that far, but it was the reason I insisted we stop off just before the accident.”

Abruptly, Rafferty sat back in his seat, leaned his head against the headrest, and stared forward at the public bathrooms. “He didn’t violate you in any way?”

“He didn't listen when I told him to stop,” I murmured.

He turned his head toward me. “What does this have to do with Cal?”

I gave him a questioning look.

“You said he didn’t know Cal was a real biker. What’s that got to do with this?”

My stomach twisted. “People outside our world make assumptions about bikers, and those assumptions extend to the kids of bikers.”

“I’m still lost, Lex. You two had broken things off. Why would he try something in a car with two other people?”

It seemed I’d have to tell Rafferty the last thing I wanted him to know about me.

Inadvertently, I’d saved my virginity.

Though I wouldn’t call it saving, so much as an inability to give it up due to poor circumstances. It wasn’t that I was religious or highly principled about it. Crazy as it sounded, I never intended for this to happen.

Yet, happen it did.

And after a certain amount of time, that led to all of my prior boyfriends tossing me aside.

By now, it had become far more of a problem. Almost any guy who met Dad got scared.

Understandable. Dad could be scary.

One ex-boyfriend said I was a tease. I wasn’t, but after the way Rafferty shoved me aside, I’d shattered.

I had a very difficult time trusting men, and an even harder time deciding if the timing was right.

I’d dated a guy for two months, thought I was ready to take the next step with him, but he ended it because I hadn’t put out yet.

Yeah. That left a bitter taste in my mouth.

I didn’t want perfection. The first time had a reputation for hurting - and sucking, but not the good kind.

Then I moved to Gainesville, and I was too busy for much more than school, work, and sleep. Between semesters, if I went to Riot MC parties, every man there knew Dad… which made me as untouchable as Simone, the president’s daughter.

It wasn’t easy being the daughter of the Sergeant-at-Arms. Mom always said Dad had the friendliest eyes she’d ever seen, but to teenagers, Dad’s eyes were deceptive because with his size and gruff, rumbly voice, he was straight-up scary.

Ines encouraged me to make time for the occasional party, which was how Porter and I met.

He was only the fourth guy to meet Dad. Porter had sensed something was different about me, but after seeing Dad in his cut, on his maroon Harley…

a confused look had crossed Porter’s face.

Rather than talk to me about his confusion, he kept quiet.

I would learn a few hours later, he’d made assumptions. The wrong assumptions.

I swallowed as much of my pride as I could and looked out the passenger window.

“We hadn’t gone there, Tee. I had wanted to, but we both had roommates, and I’m a little…

” I shook my head not wanting to overshare or admit to my inexperience.

“Anyway, he made the assumption that a biker’s daughter had to be easy and I’d been holding out on him for nothing. ”

Slowly, I turned my head to sneak a glance at him. Rafferty looked about as uncomfortable as I felt. The truck filled with the sound of his sharp inhale. “Why in the hell were you planning to move in with him?”

I shook my head. “That was all his plan. It so happened that my lease was expiring around the same time as his. He swung by to take me out one afternoon, and pulled a bait-and-switch. Rather than go bowling, we went apartment hunting. Nobody would have known if your sister hadn’t called me and interrupted a leasing agent telling us about a one-bedroom luxury unit. ”

That earned me his side-eye. “A luxury apartment? Really, Lex?”

I held up a finger. “His idea, not mine. That was one of the first signs that he and I might not be totally compatible. He wasn’t realistic about money. Then he judged me for being a biker’s daughter, and we went our separate ways.”

He stayed quiet.

I grabbed the bag of pistachios, opened it, poured a couple in my hand, and held them up to him.

“No, thanks. You never told Cal about this?”

I aimed a serious look at him. “He doesn’t need to know.” I tucked the bag of nuts into my purse. “It’s over.”

Nope. Now I had Rafferty’s side-eye. “ He oughta be ‘over’.”

My eyes went wide as I stared at him. “You don’t mean that.”

He arched both brows. “How many times did you tell him to stop when you were in the car today?”

“I didn’t keep track.”

“Once is all it takes, and you know it's true because we were both there when my mom gave us that hella awkward sex talk.”

My lips trembled as I held back my laughter.

“Shit’s not funny, Alexandra.”

A strangled half-chuckle escaped when I spoke. “It actually is, if you remember half of what Aunt Trixie said to us and how she said it.”

Rafferty shook his head.

Suddenly, he stared at me. Reading me like he always did. “Did he touch you?”

I really didn’t want to share that with him. “My head hurts. Can we go now?”

It was like I didn’t speak.

“He touched you. You told him to stop, and he didn’t.”

I kept quiet.

“Is that right?”

“Yes. Have you considered law school? I’m thinking you’d excel at cross examination, and you can fall back on that when you’re too old for construction work.”

“Stop being cute,” he muttered, then refocused on me like something struck him.

“What?” I asked.

“Ines lives with you, so she had to know how Porter judged you, and she damn sure knew you two were over. Why in the hell would she have him in her car with you… also in that car?”

I twisted my hands up. “That was what the drama was about. I didn’t know Porter was even going to the music festival until we went to pick up Brantley from his place early this morning.

Porter was inside Brantley’s apartment. Brantley opened the door to us, and Porter wandered out with him, which means those two had arranged it so he’d be there and they could spring it on us that Porter was coming along. ”

Rafferty stared at me. “Ines knew nothing about that shit?”

“No.”

“But obviously, she still let him in the car.”