Page 9 of Deception (Deranged Drifters MC #22)

Chapter Nine

Griffin’s Beach Lex

“ W hat are you doing here?” Autumn asks.

She crosses her arms over her chest in the doorway of the house she’s shared with Rocco since they graduated high school. Immediately defensive. That’s Autumn, alright.

“Can I come inside?” Lex asks.

Sighing, she moves to allow entrance. “Fine.”

Jesus, there’s a lot of sass here. “How are you doing? Anything new going on?”

“That’s what you came here to talk about?” she says and sits at the kitchen table.

Her leg crosses over the other, and she leans back with what Lex can only assume is a disgusted look on her face. She won’t quite meet Lex’s eyes, and it’s difficult not to reach out and slap her right now.

How did we even get here?

“I’m having the old ladies meet at the hotel restaurant tonight at eight while the men are in Church. I’d like you to come and join us.”

“Why?”

“Because Lane’s birthday is coming up, and I think it would be good to do something. Margaret needs to know we’ll honor our promise about keeping her mom’s memory alive. She’s been struggling lately.”

This softens Autumn, and Lex gets a glimpse of the woman she used to know. The girl who ran around with Lex and Felicity as they talked boys and school and everything under the sun.

They were always such good friends. Sure, they had their share of fights like anyone does, but they always found their way back to each other. Lex can’t figure out why they haven’t followed the same pattern this time.

Am I that out of touch with everyone and everything in my own life because of what I’m going through? Do I have huge blinders on?

“And you’re getting together for what?”

“I want to come up with ideas that will make Margaret feel like Lane’s there with us. You were good friends with Lane—”

“And you think I should’ve known she was sick, right? Because we were so close?”

Leaning back, Lex frowns. “That’s not—”

“No one knew, Lex. No one. Except you. And you didn’t tell us.”

“I promised not to say anything,” she says and shakes her head. “And I don’t think anyone should have known anything. Lane was one of the best when it came to keeping secrets.”

“Unlike me, right?”

Blinking, Lex tries to follow where this is going. “Uh… What?”

“What are you really doing here?”

“I’m asking you to come and join us at the hotel tonight to plan something for Margaret.”

She laughs and shakes her head. “No, it’s not.”

“If that’s not what I’m here for, care to enlighten me?”

“You’re fishing.”

“Pardon?”

Rolling her eyes, Autumn sighs with more dramatic flair than Lex has ever seen before. “You want information.”

“Yeah, I want ideas. I’m not really sure what’s going on right now.”

“You don’t play dumb well, Lex. You forget I know you.”

“Trust me, in this moment, I’m not playing. I really don’t know what we’re talking about.”

She stares hard, studying. It feels as though Lex is being scrutinized from her hair down to her shoes, and it makes Lex shift uncomfortably. How the hell did they get to this place?

“Why do you need my help?”

Am I speaking another language here? What the fuck?

“Because you were close with Lane. We have time, but I wanted to get a head start in case there’s anything that may take a while to set up or book. This gives us time.”

“For Margaret?”

“I’m really confused right now, Autumn.”

“I’m trying to figure out what your ulterior motive is.”

Tilting her head, Lex sighs. “I just want to do something nice for my niece. She’s been through a lot. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping this could move us in the direction of repairing our friendship because we’ve been friends for too long to let a small fight break it apart.”

Jumping up, she walks to the fridge and yanks the door harder than necessary to grab a beer. “Small fight? That’s what you think it was?”

“Autumn—”

“You think you’re better than the rest of us, but you’re not.”

“I never—”

“You may be the one fucking the President now, but you’re not better than the rest of us.”

Lex studies the redhead as she tries to piece together where this all went so wrong. “I never said I was better than anyone. Except maybe the club bunnies, but I just really hate them. Well, not the ones in Summerville. I liked them.”

“What?”

“You haven’t heard? Summerville’s bunnies are the greatest. They don’t move in on taken men, and they’re only with them when the men make the move. Plus, I didn’t feel like I lost brain cells talking to them. Then I come back and… Kandi. I think that says enough.”

The annoying club bunny who came into the clubhouse thinking she could run things has always rubbed Lex the wrong way. Pick me woman thinking she can make it to old lady status.

“I hate her,” Autumn agrees.

“See… We have things in common still. I don’t really mind Bambi, but she’s always up Kandi’s ass.”

“Summerville’s bunnies are really that much better?”

Laughing, Lex nods. “You need to go out there and see for yourself. I asked them to teach a course to ours, but they opted against it. Snake’s old lady, Everlee, is Goldie’s cousin, and she’s shared a few things.

They said they didn’t want to risk catching something that can’t be cured. Same concern we all have, really.”

“Yeah, they’ve given a few of the guys a trip to the free clinic. Rocco included.”

Gaping, she juts her chin forward. “What now?”

“Yeah. This club just ruins everyone.”

“I knew he had an issue with the strip club because of some comment made about stripper glitter, which… no idea, but I didn’t know he spent time with bunnies. Gross.”

“What should I expect, I guess? I don’t have a say in what he does. Or who.”

This surprises Lex, especially when Autumn just takes a swig from the beer bottle she pulled from the fridge. “Uh, yeah, you do. Lay your foot down, and tell him it’s not acceptable. If he doesn’t stop, you’re out.”

“Because that’s worked out for me so far?”

“Is this why you hate the club?”

Licking her lips, she refuses to meet Lex’s eyes. “I don’t hate the club. I hate certain people in it.”

She stands and gives Autumn a small smile. “I hope you decide to join us tonight. If not, I understand.”

W ho are we waiting on?” Felicity asks.

Looking around the large table, Lex sighs. “No one, I guess.”

“Autumn’s not coming then?” Lily asks.

Lex only shared her plan with a few of the women because she knew she’d need backup if Autumn showed.

People to not give her the cold shoulder and help integrate her back into the fold of things.

They don’t really understand Lex’s motivations, but they’re willing to help. That’s all she can really ask for.

“I guess not.”

It hurts that her friend of over twenty years continues to push against them rather than suck it up and show up for Lane’s daughter. For Lane.

“Why are we even trying to include her?” Heidi asks. “Doesn’t she basically hate every one of us?”

“I thought she’d want to be part of this.”

“Maybe we can plan something with a smaller group, first,” Lily says. “She might feel pretty pushed away with things lately, and starting smaller might be easier for her.”

“That’s kind of my fault,” Felicity says. “I outed her as someone who wanted to leave the men.”

Melanie holds a hand up. “I have you beat. I threatened to kill her.”

“I backed you up because I was sick of her victim mentality with the kidnapping,” Lex says with a sigh.

“We all were,” Tess Molloy says with a reassuring smile. The former President’s wife has been helpful when it comes to navigating her new responsibilities with Colt’s promotion. “That girl acted like she went through what you did, Lex.”

Shocked. That’s all Autumn got. It was terrible, but it was nothing compared to the scars the others wear.

Melanie with burn marks, Heidi with a scar on her neck from being choked repeatedly with a belt, and Lex with her internal trauma.

The torture she endured likely caused her to miscarry a baby she didn’t know she carried.

Autumn’s shocks, which all four of them received to varying degrees, were nothing in the grand scheme.

“She needed a reality check,” Heidi says. “It was really annoying for those of us who were given more than a couple of tickling shocks.”

There’s no real defending what Autumn did and said, but it’s still hard to hear. “She’s still one of us. She’s been with the club longer than many here, even with the small stint when she left.”

“She treats you like shit,” Melanie says.

Nodding, she sighs. “She’s still one of us. And Lane’s death showed us how important that is. I’d rather try to mend the fence than write her off and have regrets one day.”

“You’re too good of a person,” Goldie says. “I’d have throat punched her. But I’m technically a former old lady.”

“Never,” Lex says with a smile as she gazes at Trunk’s widow. “Goldie, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

How do I ask this delicately?

“Are you seeing someone?”

Her eyes widen. “Why would you ask that?”

Pointing over her head, Lex tries to find the best way to explain. “Um, your hair is different. It has been for some time. It’s a little…. smaller? Not quite as puffy.”

Biting her lip, she lowers her voice. “Okay, yes, I’m seeing someone, but it’s not super serious. Just… scratching an itch I can’t quite reach myself anymore.”

Everyone wants details, and Lex hates the sadness in her eyes. She lost the only man she’ll ever truly love, and now she’s forced to settle for something to get her by because she was the one left behind.

And this is why I hope I’m the first to go. But we can both live to ninety before that happens.