Page 6

LOU

Every day, I looked out the diner window when I heard the sound of motorcycle pipes, hoping it was Ajax pulling into the parking lot. But it was never him.

After a week and two days, I gave up hope, finally deciding to forget the dangerous, mysterious man.

Then he rode into my life again.

I looked out the diner window and saw a woman sitting on the passenger seat of Ajax's bike, about to lose it. But when she climbed off, I looked closer and realized she was just a teenager.

What the–?

Ajax climbed off his bike, and the girl followed him as they entered the diner.

I stood behind the diner bar, my stomach fluttering at the sight of how devilishly handsome he was and greeted him with a smile.

Ajax appeared uncomfortable with the teenage girl standing close behind him. “Go sit over there,” he said turning around and pointing to the same booth he sat in that stormy night.

The girl nodded, then smiled at me before she turned to walk toward the empty booth.

"Who is she?" I asked in a hushed voice so none of the customers could hear.

Ajax raked a hand through his dark, windblown hair, looking uneasy and confused.

"Can you take a quick break and talk outside?" he asked.

"Sure."

When we stepped outside and stood by my car, I folded my arms, prepared for anything. "What the hell is going on? Please don't tell me that girl is some new clubwhore you want me to feed."

"She's not a goddamned clubwhore. Her name is Mick, and she's only sixteen. She just stepped off a bus from Baltimore and came to the clubhouse to tell me I'm her father."

Ajax? A father?

"Say that again?" I said, thinking I didn't hear him correctly.

"You heard me damit!" Ajax growled, clenching his hands with a look of anger and confusion in his dark eyes.

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, then exhaled. "Didn't mean to bark at you. I came here to ask you a favor."

"What's that?"

"Can Mick stay with you until I figure things out? My shitty motel only has one bed, and she can't stay at the clubhouse."

"But what about Mick's mother? She must be worried about her."

“Her mother is dead. ODed on heroine.”

Oh…

I ran away from home like so many teenagers, riding a bus to leave everything I knew, hoping to escape the abuse I had endured for as long as I could remember.

Suddenly, everything blurred as tears flooded my eyes.

Ajax placed his warm hand on my cheek, then pulled me into his arms. "Why the tears, babe?"

Babe?

I smiled and inhaled his manly scent. "I ran away from home too – It brought back bad memories."

I looked up into his dark, brooding eyes.

He kissed me softly at first, but then it was pure heat as our tongues danced. I moaned when his hands moved down my back and gripped my ass as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, wanting more.

Needing more.

It wasn't until Ajax broke the kiss and pulled back that I realized we were making out in broad daylight in the diner's parking lot.

I looked down, straightening my apron, and bit my lower lip. I was embarrassed and felt my face flush.

Ajax smirked. "I like it when you blush. It's sexy."

I started giggling like some love-crazed teenager, then cleared my throat. "Okay, I have an extra bedroom for Mick."

"Thanks, Lou. Only for a few days, until I figure something out."

Ajax climbed back on his bike and left before I went back inside the diner to learn more about Mick, whom he apparently knew nothing about until today.

I approached the booth where Mick sat with a pair of Walkman headphones over her ears. She stared out the window, watching Ajax ride away. When I sat across from her, she pressed the stop button on her Walkman.

I smiled and reached out my hand. "We haven't been introduced. My name is Lou."

She took my hand and shook it. "Hi, Lou, I'm Mick."

"Would you like something to drink?"

"Do you have beer on draft?"

"I know damn well you're not old enough to drink alcohol, Mick," I said, trying to keep a straight face. "How about a root beer float instead?"

"Sure," she said with disappointment.

I shook my head, trying to hide the smirk as I walked away.

"Who is she?" Chelsea whispered when I walked behind the diner.

"Her name is Mick, and she claims she's Ajax's daughter."

"That's so gnarly!"

I shushed Chelsea up, then walked back to the booth with the root beer float and placed it in front of Mick. She smiled slightly and drank from the straw.

"So Ajax said you're his daughter, and that you came all the way here from Baltimore?"

"Yeah. How long have you known my dad? Are you his girlfriend?"

I was caught off guard by the question. It was so direct, as if she had no time to be polite.

"I wouldn't say I'm his girlfriend. We only met a few weeks ago."

"So you're just boinking him?"

My face flushed with embarrassment, thankful she didn't say the F word. "Uh. Yeah."

Mick looked down and swirled the straw in her root beer float. "This was a bad idea."

"What do you mean?"

Mick's eyes began to well, and she wiped the tears away before they spilled down her cheeks. “I know I’ve done some bad things, but I had to, or I’d be dead by now. I came to Richmond to find Ajax, hoping he would help me. But he doesn’t want me here. That's why he just dumped me with you. I'll need some money and steal it if I have to so I can buy another bus ticket out of Richmond. No way in hell I'm going back to Baltimore."

Flashbacks of my life as a teen brought on the nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach. I saw myself in the girl, and I wanted to help.

And once the shock that he was Mick's father wore off, I knew Ajax would protect her.

I reached over and touched her hand. "Look, we just met, and you don't know anything about me. But Ajax didn't dump you. He wants you to stay with me at my place, where you'll be safe while he figures out the next steps."