Page 14

14. PROTECTING MY ASS

SAMMY

My eyes were so tired by the time Bigfoot showed up, I would have agreed to just about anything to get away from the case study I’d been assigned. There was a point where numbers and information started to blend together, and I had reached it about twenty minutes into the supply chain issues that were presented to me. I wanted to get my MBA because I thought it would help me do something more for the family business, especially in the future when it would one day fall on my shoulders to preserve it for future generations.

The more education I got, the less it seemed geared toward my small family business. That was most likely my frustration talking, though. Someone cleared their throat and I was startled to see that Bigfoot stood close enough that he could have reached out and touched me before I even knew he was there. I gasped and jumped back a little.

“Now, I know I’m tired,” I whispered.

“You were pretty lost in whatever this is that you’re doing.” He hoisted me up from my chair and wrapped his arms around me and it never occurred to me to fight his hold, even though I still wasn’t sure it was the wisest move on my part to get involved with a man whose kid’s mother was so close to him that she felt entitled to run other women off. It just didn’t seem like a situation I wanted to be involved in, even if part of me did regret that decision.

“This is Kingston,” Bigfoot announced. The young guy who had been following me around for a good chunk of the morning stood there with his face tinged slightly pink in embarrassment.

“Don’t worry, I’m especially observant, except for when I’m knee deep in a case study.”

“Taking my girl for a break, stay here and watch over her stuff. Do not leave unless the building is on fire.”

“You got it, Prez,” the kid announced. The way he did it made me believe that Bigfoot was not only important to him, but someone the kid respected. The fact that his boss hadn’t reamed him out in front of me for failing to go unnoticed in his babysitting duties went a long way to gaining my respect, as well. I had spent a good amount of time wondering what it must be like to run a motorcycle club and what kind of management style a person running one might have.

“Where are we headed?” I finally asked him when we made our way out of the library.

“I thought maybe Jennika’s Diner, you know, since we have so many choices here.”

I giggled at that because he wasn’t wrong. We had two restaurants in our little town, that didn’t include the two bars that were owned by the club. One of those restaurants was Smiley’s restaurant, which was only open for dinner. Then there was Jennika’s Diner, which opened for breakfast and lunch most days and brunch on Sundays. It suited the people of Violence, New Mexico just fine. If we wanted a change of pace, we would drive to a larger town and get our fill of too many bad choices before we headed back to our little space and the just-right options that made us all happy.

It was something I had missed dearly while I was gone in the Army. The other thing that had been missed was the ability to walk from one end of our little town to the other without breaking a sweat. Our climate in Violence was fairly mild year-round and didn’t lend itself to the extreme back and forth you got in the desert thanks, in part, to our elevation.

“You do realize that stalking is a crime and we’re about to pass the jail, right?” I teased Bigfoot.

“It’s not stalking.” I could almost hear laughter in his voice as he explained that to me, like it was a familiar conversation. “It’s protection.”

“Did you rehearse that in the mirror back home?”

Bigfoot swatted my ass. “Quit being a brat.” After a minute he shook his head and then chuckled before he put his good arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. “As a matter of fact, I might have had a similar conversation with my VP and Sgt. at Arms earlier.”

“Oh! So, I’m not the only person who thinks you’re a stalking stalker who stalks me?”

“Okay, brat. You know why I need to keep you safe.”

“I know, and while I can joke about it, I appreciate you making sure I don’t have to up my body count.” His eyes flicked to mine and there was a smolder to them that made me uncomfortable in places I didn’t want to mention as we passed Smiley’s.

“We’re going to up your body count, Sammy. Not the one you were referencing, but I promise you any others before me won’t even compare.”

“Well, someone’s full of themselves.” Suddenly, the temperature outside didn’t seem mild at all. I might have had my reservations about dating the local MC’s president, but that didn’t mean I was immune to how he affected me.

As we walked into Jennika’s Diner, I decided to deflect back to the original topic of conversation. “I’m not saying I don’t appreciate a person looking out for me, but you have to admit it’s a little pervy of you to always be lurking outside my bedroom window at night. You might as well be wearing a trench coat with your hands stuffed in the pockets ready to flash me all the goods the minute I look outside.”

I hadn’t realized that the hostess-slash-waitress had been standing close enough to overhear me until she burst out laughing. “Oh my God! I am so going to tell Lis about that!” She was nearly doubled over from laughing so hard, so I grabbed us a couple menus. “Sorry,” the woman managed to get out. “I don’t think I’ll ever get that flasher image out of my head now.” She made sure her attention was on me before she added, “Good luck with this one, especially if he’s so fascinated that he’s stalking you. You’ll never get clear of him now, even if that’s what you really wanted.”

“Great,” Bigfoot grumbled as the woman showed us to our table. “Bring us a couple waters, would ya?” His question was obviously meant to dismiss the woman who was laughing at him, but I had to admire the fact that he did it respectfully. The minute she walked away, I moved to sit down on the side of the table that put my back to the wall and the door in my line of sight.

“Sweetheart, I’m going to need you to trade me places,” Bigfoot stated evenly as he stared down at me with a puzzled look on his face.

“Why?”

“It’s my job to keep you safe. Part of doing that requires me to be able to see all the entrances, exits, and everyone in the room.”

I shook my head as my eyes tracked each window, door, and the people at each table. There was a hallway that led back to another dining area where there were more doors. It was something I would have to keep my eye on.

“I need you to trust me with your safety, Sam.”

I turned my gaze up to his. “In order to earn that trust, you need to know what will make me feel comfortable in certain situations. Then, you’ll do your best to see that I am afforded that comfort because it is what I need to feel safe. The fact is that I don’t trust you yet because you haven’t earned it. Forcing me to put my back to the crowd and the doors will keep me on edge the whole time we’re here. I won’t trust that you have my best interest at heart, and you will not see my best side because I will be too concerned with who might approach on my six.”

Bigfoot blew out a breath and then gave one quick nod of his head. Then, he took a seat on the chair beside mine and shimmied the table around just enough that we sat catty-corner facing out toward the rest of the room together. We were both able to see the entire restaurant and have our backs to the wall. “Better?”

I grinned at him. “You earned points for the compromise.”

“Never had a woman who didn’t want to turn over the burden of her security to me.”

“Those women are lucky that they’ve never had their security shattered so badly that they have to fear doing that.” My words came out slightly mumbled, because it hurt to admit that I was flawed in that way.

Bigfoot’s hand came down on top of mine, and I jumped slightly at the touch. “Sorry,” He hurried to apologize. “I want you to enjoy a meal with me, and it fucking kills me that part of your jumpiness is due in part to my own shit. Never wanted to add to your burden, sweetheart.”

“You didn’t.” He gave me a look that said he knew better. “Obviously what happened with you that night had an impact but so has my other unwanted visitor and the person who sent him to my place.”

“I’m fuckin’ thankful that you made it through both of those situations. It’s also why I’m so fucking protective of you. All of this shit started with me. I don’t want you to feel unsafe wherever you go simply because you stopped to help me on the side of the road. It’s not even just me feeling responsible for your safety after putting you in danger, though. You have to know that I need to protect you from a different level too.”

It was my turn to give him a nod as our waitress approached and clocked the change we made to the table. I could see the minute she decided it wasn’t her business. I wasn’t prepared for why she decided that, though.

“Travis, do I even want to know why you decided to rearrange our furniture?”

My pseudo-date turned and glanced up at the new blonde waitress. I didn’t see the woman who had seated us anywhere, which was strange. This one had incredibly perky boobs and more cleavage on display than should be allowed during the lunchtime, family-friendly rush. She leaned in and took advantage of his position to plant a red lipsticked kiss on his cheek. If I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn she had gone in for a full lip lock, but he turned away just enough before she got there that her mark was left on his cheek near the corner of his mouth instead.

“Mindy, what the fuck are you doing?” he asked as he leaned back, which put him closer to me. I silently handed him my white cloth napkin. He took it, noticed where my eyes tracked to, and then proceeded to wipe away the lipstick Mindy left behind.

“What? I can’t greet an old lover?” she asked as her eyes drifted my way to get my reaction. The woman wouldn’t get one. I didn’t play desperate bitch games.

“I’ll take a water with lemon and no ice, though we already ordered our drinks from our waitress who seated us.”

Mindy’s eyes narrowed on me momentarily before she turned her attention back to my date. “What about you, sugar?”

“I’ll take the water I ordered from Jessica after she’s sent back to our table.”

“What?” Mindy gasped. “Why?” Her eyes darted around, as if she were looking to make sure no one heard that last bit.

Bigfoot leaned in closer. “You damn well know that you don’t ever attempt to put a claim on a club member, especially in public and when he’s obviously on a date, unless he gave you his property patch.”

She huffed and waved his words off. “Come on, we both know she’s not your date.” The woman looked me over again and was obviously unimpressed by what she saw. The roll of her eyes told me as much before she turned her full attention back to Bigfoot. “We both know she isn’t even close to being your type.”

She probably wasn’t wrong there. His son’s mother was a platinum blonde. Mindy was not far off. They were both surgically enhanced in places where I was lucky to fit into a C-cup during the time in my cycle when my bra size inflated just a little bit. The only makeup I had on was mascara and the little bit of tinted lip balm. That was more to keep my lips from drying out than about looking good. Mindy, on the other hand, had clearly gone heavy with the contouring to make her nose appear smaller and jawline stand out more.

Bigfoot stood then and glared down at the woman before he looked up and yelled, “Where is the fucking manager? Is Jennika here?”

“Please,” Mindy cried out as she grabbed my date’s arm and pleaded with him. I would worry about the fact that I acknowledged him as my date later - when he didn’t have another woman throwing herself at him. “Don’t do this. I will get Jessica to come back over and cover your table.”

He snatched her hand off his arm and offered her a menacing grin that should have made her quake in her insensible shoes. “You had your chance to do that, and you chose to come out here and pull your shit, then to stick around and piss me off some more.”

“We have a history,” she whispered, though her desperate attempt to connect with him in a way that might create a sympathetic response ended up making it more of a whiny plea. It also made things worse for her.

“We fucked a few times, years ago, and I haven’t touched you since then. All we have is a history that wasn’t worth remembering in the first place. I don’t know why you thought I would react any other way to you disrespecting my date. That’s something I never did for you, by the way, take you on a date. But just in case you missed the fucking memo, you were never important to me, and I will never put up with someone disrespecting my woman.”

“I’m sorry,” She repeated as she backed away. The manager finally made his way over to us and glanced worriedly between Bigfoot and Mindy before he sighed.

“Mindy, get your things, clock out, and head home.”

“No. Johnny, I need the money.”

“You should have thought about that before you made our guests angry.”

“I’m not angry,” I told him. “I am thirsty though.”

“Apologies,” the man insisted. “I’ll have Jessica bring your drinks right away.” He turned and grabbed Mindy’s arm, since she still hadn’t moved. As he rushed our second waitress away, I heard him ask her where Jessica was and what the fuck she was thinking by pulling that shit with the one man who had the power to run them all out of town.

“Sammy, I’m so sorry about that. I swear, there is nothing going on with her.”

I rolled my eyes and returned my attention to the menu. “Obviously. She was testing the waters for some reason, but that isn’t my problem. Beyond making sure it doesn’t happen again; it isn’t yours either.”

He chuckled such a deep, rich sound that it sent a little tingle of awareness up my spine. I glanced back up and saw the sparkle of humor in his eyes. “You are not like any woman I have ever known.”

My attention flitted to where Mindy and the manager had disappeared into the kitchen. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“As you should.” He chuckled again as he offered up his agreement. “Seriously, she doesn’t mean shit to me. I’ve barely spoken more than a few words to her in the past couple years. There was a brief time when…”

I cut him off before he started to spill details I didn’t want. “Look, we all have a past. I get it. You’re a bit older than me, so you have more of a past than I do. I’m not asking for details, a list of women who you’ve fucked, had relationships with, or anything else. You have already assured me that you are not married, in a relationship, or fucking around with anyone else right now. Unless any of those things have changed, you have nothing to disclose.”

“Okay,” he said as he took a minute to look over the menu as well. “Nothing has changed unless you count the fact that I want to be in a relationship with you.”

I smirked before my eyes lifted to meet his. “That wasn’t subtle at all.”

“Wasn’t trying to be.”

“I’ll let you know,” I teased.

“Christ! I should have known you were going to be a fuck of a lot of work.”

“You know where the door is, since we both have a decent view of it.”

He squeezed my hand and I noticed in my peripheral that he also shook his head. “Not a chance, Sammy. You’re going to be all mine. You just haven’t caught up with the program yet.”

A minute later, our waters made their way to the table and our original waitress was back with apologies and looking a little worse for the wear. “I’m so sorry. That whore locked me in the damn bathroom. Can you believe it?”

“After what she just pulled, I have little doubt,” I said to her. “No need to apologize.”

“I can’t believe she did that. Mindy has never been subtle, but that was over the top, even for her.”

“It won’t happen again,” Bigfoot announced.

“No, it won’t because she was fired, and I don’t think there is a place in town who will hire her after word gets around.”

“She could always go work for Marisol’s Manor in the back rooms,” I suggested.

“I think fucking not,” Bigfoot said as he glared down at me. Maybe it was my suggestion that earned the glare. Either way, I shrugged it off. “That’s a club-owned business, and she won’t find work with us.”

I slid my menu over to Jessica. “I’ll take the Tomato Bisque and grilled cheese, please.” Our waitress nodded and turned her attention to Bigfoot.

“J’s burger, fries, and I want the chili on it.”

“Be back shortly,” Jessica said before she scurried away as quickly as possible.

“Did you not know we owned both bars in town?”

“I knew. I just figured it wouldn’t matter if she was working there.”

“Why would you think I’d allow a woman who disrespected both of us to work at any establishment owned by my club?”

I glanced around the diner and then back to Bigfoot. “Honestly, there aren’t a whole lot of women around here that might earn you guys some money in your establishment. I figured you might make an exception to keep the place staffed for paying customers.”

“Jesus, woman. You are something else. Don’t worry about the talent, the guys will go find women and bring them here to work if we run out of options.”

“And that scouting mission will be totally above board and their choice?” I questioned, because as much as I knew about the club, there were also the rumors that ran rampant around town. Some of those rumors involved the club running women against their will. I wasn’t certain I believed that, but it was better to get the question out of the way before it became a little thread of worry that I picked at later.

“Always their choice, baby. We may not be legit in all the ways, but we don’t traffic people. That’s a hard line. If they’re not willing, they don’t work for us. If they change their mind at any point, we send them on their way with enough cash to start fresh somewhere else.”

“Good to know.”

“Anything else you need to know about my club?”

“Nope.” I stared into his eyes to let him know that I meant that. It was the only thing that worried me about the club. Anything else was just extra stuff. I didn’t care about the guns or drugs, or whatever else people claimed they did. It was obvious that the men of the club and the people of Violence didn’t have a drug problem. That told me more about how they kept their business away from home than words and promises ever could.

“Okay then, let’s backtrack a minute.”

“To when?” I asked.

“Earlier, the way Jess wished you luck with me.”

That was a weird thought to pick back up on, so I waited for him to provide the clarity that he obviously needed to share. “Jess is Melissa’s best friend.” I must have given him my best blank stare, because he felt the need to add. “Melissa is Hawk’s mom.”

“Right.” I felt like a moron for not putting that together. I had heard both of them call her Lis up to that point.

“Anyway, do you really think she would have said that to you if I was with Melissa?”

“Listen, I already told you that I believed you two weren’t an item.”

“Then what’s the problem with us making an official go of this thing between us?”

“The problem is that she felt comfortable enough to try to chase me away to begin with. There’s also the fact that she used your son as an excuse to do it. I don’t want to cause problems with your son. I also know what it’s like to hate a stepparent with all my heart. I wasn’t around when my dad started to date his wife, but I would never want a kid to feel for me the way I feel about Colleen. It caused a major rift between my father and me, and that was before I knew she truly didn’t care if I lived or died.”

“It wouldn’t be like that,” Bigfoot tried to assure me.

“Wouldn’t it? If your ex really didn’t want me around, don’t you think that would cause notable issues with your son? She’s his mom, whether she’s in the right or not, Hawk will take her feelings into consideration, and it will have an impact on the way he sees me. I don’t want to be the enemy coming between you and your son or the cordial dynamic you’ve had with his mom up until now.”

When Bigfoot remained quiet and contemplative as our food was delivered, I knew I had to break the ice again. I didn’t like the fact that he was stuck in his head. “Besides, how am I supposed to know if you’re not really a fuck buddy with your boy’s mom? I mean, if you think about it, this could be some weird game you guys play. You pick up an extra woman here and there to spice up your bedroom life. For your information, I am not down for a threesome with your ex.”

Our waitress chose that moment to return to the table to check on us and nearly spilled a jug of water as she guffawed at my last statement. “Oh lord, I don’t know if I’ll make it through this shift if I keep overhearing bits and pieces of your conversation.”

“Keep it to yourself,” Bigfoot ordered her. “Sammy’s being a bit of a brat today.”

“Looks like you enjoy her bratty side.”

“Jessica!” Her name was a warning, albeit a playful one.

Our waitress threw her hands up in the air and chuckled as she moved away from us. “I’m going and my lips are sealed.”

Once she was gone, Bigfoot grabbed my hand and pulled it onto this thigh as he held tight. “I told you before that I don’t share and I sure as fuck won’t be shared either. That means not with another man, woman, or anyone who finds themselves anywhere between the two.”

“What about the guy who has two dicks? I’ve always wondered about that one. Does it make him a double man or…”

“Sammy.” The exasperated way Bigfoot said my name made me laugh.

“Kidding,” I managed to get out before I whispered, “kind of.” I mean, who hasn’t wondered about that?

“You keep right on playing hard to get with me, baby, but there’s no need. I’m already hard and definitely out to get you. Only you.”

“Oh!” Well, that left me speechless and a little tingly in places that weren’t appropriate to speak of during the lunch rush at Jennika’s family-friendly diner.