Phoenix Bar: A Steel Demons MC Novel (8 page)

Chapter 10

Brice

              I was in the kitchen talking to Titan when I heard Ember greet Abby. When she made the comment about being sore in a good way, I almost put a fist in the wall. My wall at home already had a hole from where I hit it when I called her hotel room and a man answered the phone. I didn’t say anything, I just hung up. Titan ended up trying to calm me down. It didn’t work, but I didn’t charge after her and throw her over my shoulder to take her to the nearest bed and erase any memory of the man she spent last night with.

              I knew when I was leaving with that waitress that I was making a huge mistake, but I truly underestimated the gut wrenching anger I would feel at the image of her in another man’s bed. My guess is the feelings I’m having about her with that suit are the same feelings she had about me with the bimbo from yesterday. I had nobody to blame for my current suffering but myself and I had no idea how to make it right or if I even could.

After I came back, I went to Ink and told him what I wanted done to the wall in the bar. I wanted it to be special, kind of a way of apologizing to her. Dammit I fucked up what could have been a good thing, a great thing.

              When Gavel came back to town, without Abby, I just figured she was upset and decided to stay in Amarillo another night. I called her thinking to apologize, but a man answered her phone. I didn’t expect her to sit around and wait for me, but I didn’t expect her to jump into another man’s bed that fast either. Not that she was ever really in my bed to begin with.

              “You going to tell me what happened?” Titan said after the girls went upstairs.

              “I fucked up.”

              “That much is obvious if she spent the night in another man’s bed when she has been stuck on you from the start. I’m asking what happened.”

              I told him about our hot phone sex and explained how it freaked me out, so I felt the best way to distance myself was by pushing her away. When I explained about the waitress, Titan sucker punched me in the gut. It’s what I deserved, hell I was kicking my own ass for doing it.

              They came down into the bar and I heard her reaction to the phoenix. I was pleased she liked it though she didn’t know it came from me. Then I heard her and Ember talk about making a trip to see Ink. Titan walked out of the kitchen to join their conversation and gave me a minute more to calm down. I walked out the restaurant side of the building and in the front door of the bar.

              She looked good. I studied her as she talked knowing she didn’t see me and I wondered what she would do when she did. I couldn’t get out of my mind the fact that a man had been in her bed last night. Some man touched her, kissed her, made love to her, and it wasn’t me. She turned around, my anger barely banked, then she called me “Grit”. It was a slap in the face. She had always called me Brice. When she talked to the other guys she used their road names, but she had always called me Brice. Now she was using Grit. She was letting me know in no uncertain terms where I stood with her.
Fuck.

<<<<<>>>>>

The next two weeks passed by really fast, probably because we were so damn busy. I didn’t see Abby too much, but I finally caught her alone upstairs one day.

              “Abby,” I said her name. She turned to look at me. Her face had a pleasant expression though forced. She was still pissed as hell and I didn’t blame her because I was too, at myself and at whatever man had answered her phone.

              “Grit.” I clenched my teeth at the use of my road name. “What can I help you with?”

              “First of all, I came up here to apologize. I’m sorry. I have a past and after what happened over the phone, I guess I viewed you as a threat to my world.”

              She gave me a blank look. Fire didn’t burn in her eyes anymore, it was actually worse. If there was fire, it meant she still cared, but there was nothing, no emotion, and that worried me more than anger and hurt.

              “It’s fine, Grit. Don’t worry about it.”

              “Second of all, stop calling me Grit”

              “No, you are Grit from now on. If I call you by your first name, it feels intimate, and I have no wish to be on intimate terms with you.”

              I would rather have a pummeling from Titan than to hear her speak those words. I knew she was hurt, because Gavel had come to see me. I had never seen him so angry.

             
My front door slammed shut. “What the fuck were you thinking?” I lifted my head off the couch where I had crashed after a long night with a bottle of Jack.

              “Dad?”

              “Get the fuck up right now and tell me what the hell happened. Last night, you disappeared into the bathroom with the phone for a while. I can take a guess as to what you were doing. This morning, you fuck a waitress basically right in front of her. Shit, son,that was low. She did not deserve that. I told you to make sure before you messed with her. My God, I don’t know how much more she can take. People have shit on her, her whole life. I’ve never in my life been disappointed in you, not once, not until today. Why did you do it?”

              “Monica.”

              “It’s been eight years, plus the seven years you were together. You have given that bitch fifteen years of your life that she did not deserve. Are you going to continue to give her your life by not living?”

              His words kept playing in my head. Even now, a week and a half later, I was still thinking of what he said. The grand opening of Phoenix Bar and Phoenix Grill was two days away and everybody was going. Whether Abby and Ember realized it or not, they were unofficially part of the club. They were protected by me, Titan, Jed, and the crew that had been working on their business. Hell, even Ink was taken with Phoenix and Ember. The only ones that didn’t feel protective of the two women were the few that had not yet met them.

              I decided to confront her and try to fix my major fuckup. “Abby, I fucked up. I know I did, but I want you.”

              She laughed. I did not expect laughter; anger, bewilderment maybe, but laugher was not what I was expecting. “Grit,” she cleared her throat, “if you wanted me, you could have had me. I was almost ready to tell you everything. Thank God I didn’t. If you could call me and instigate phone sex, turn around hours later and have sex with a waitress you just met, then you used me to get you off and nothing more. It’s okay, it’s not the first time I have been used and I’m certain it’s probably not the last.” She took a deep breath. “Look, like I said, it’s ok. I will get over it, but in the meantime, give me space. Maybe one day I can get over it enough for us to be friends.”

              “You really think that you and I can ever be just friends?” I said as I moved close to her. I swept my thumb over her cheek and despite her anger and hurt, I felt her respond with a shiver. Desire sparked in her blue eyes, but I saw the battle wage within the blue depths.

              “No, Grit, you’re probably right. We could probably never be just friends. Which is all the more reason you need to back off and leave me alone. I cannot trust you again.”  She would have stepped back, but I put my hand on her waist to hold her to me.

              “I’m so unbelievably sorry.” I pressed my forehead to hers. “I’ve been hurt, Abby, and after our experience on the phone, I realized that you could hurt me far more than she ever did. I promised myself after her that I would never feel that strongly about another woman again. Since her, I rotated the women I’ve been with.”

              “So, you pushed me away and hurt me to keep yourself from getting too close.”

              “Yes.”

              “How do I know you won’t do the same thing again? How can I trust you to not hurt me again?”

              “I don’t know, sweetheart, that’s something you will have to decide, but I’m going to do everything I can to convince you that you can trust me.” Her eyes were closed as she listened to me. I lifted my head and kissed her forehead where mine had been resting. “I’ll wait, because I want you that much. We could be great together and I think you know it, too.” 

              “I don’t know if I can.”

              “Give it time, honey, you can, and eventually you will. I messed up and I know that I will have to make it up to you.” I kissed her on the forehead one more time, then drew back. “I know you have a lot to do and I have things to do as well, so I’ll see you later. And, Abby, I didn’t sleep with her.” I turned and left so she could think on what I said. 

<<<<<>>>>>

              I went to my dad’s office. He had called me that morning and told me to come in this afternoon. There was something going on and he wanted to discuss it. “Hello, Ms. Janet,” I greeted his secretary. When we started the Belle chapter, dad’s old secretary decided to go into retirement rather than move with him here. Janet was her replacement and she was just as efficient but a lot sweeter.

              “Grit, it’s good to see you,” she said with a smile. Her grey streaked brown hair that was cut short but looked good on her. “Your father is waiting for you.”

              “Thanks, have you given any more thought to running away with me?”

              She laughed. “I thought about it, but my husband wouldn’t be too happy with me and I think you have another person you are thinking about running away with if the rumor mill is accurate,” she not so subtly questioned.

              I just smiled and shook my head. You’ve got to love small town gossip. “Gavel,” I said, walking into his office. He was on his computer looking up something, I couldn’t quite see it, but he quickly exited whatever page he was on.

              “Son, have a seat.” The look on his face implied that I was not going to like whatever he was about to tell me. “As you know, I’ve been watching things from Abby’s past and with the business completed from Amarillo, I’ve seen movement. There hasn’t been a lot going on, but enough to cause some concern. However, with the opening of Phoenix, I don’t want to add anything more to her plate. Keep an eye on her, Grit, everything is almost complete as far as her past goes and it’s going to make her have two very pissed enemies in the process.”

”What the hell aren’t you telling me? How can I protect her if I don’t know what the hell I’m protecting her from?”

              “I can only tell you that when her grandmother passed away, her life changed. She was in potential danger from that moment on and I have done the only things that I could do in order to make certain that she is as safe as possible. Son, this did not start a few weeks ago. This nightmare started when she was a teenager and it has taken this long for everything to come to a head. As long as her grandmother was alive, she and Ember were safe. When her grandmother got sick, she came to me and told me everything. She told me all the key players and everything I would need to know to look out for her granddaughter and her friend. I’ve done what I can in order to keep them safe, and I will continue to do so, which is why I’m asking you to keep an eye out for her.”

              I laughed at the irony of him coming to me to look after the woman he wanted me to stay away from, but the laugh was humorless. “I’m surprised you came to me to look after her then. I thought you wanted me to stay away from her.”

              “I did, but you haven’t touched a woman at the club since you came back from Amarillo and this being a small town, I know you haven’t been with any of the women around her. You fucked up, we all know it, but I believe that you realize how badly you messed up and I trust you not to do it again. Plus, I have high hopes that she will be the one to help you finally move on.”

              “Like you moved on after mom.”

              “No, you’re right. I never moved on. I did the same thing you did after Monica, the only difference is I had you to keep me grounded, whereas, you have not had that. I’ve spent my life alone. I don’t want the same for you. I realized way too late that not every woman is like your mother was or like Monica ended up being.”

              Gavel never talked about my mother. Honestly, she is just an egg donor as far as I’m concerned. She took off when I was two, so I have no recollection of her. Dad said she got introduced to drugs from one of his brothers and ended up hooked. Eventually she took off. That was back before the club went legal and were involved in drug and gun running. After what went on with my mother, Gavel separated himself from the club. He was still a member, but the only events that he participated in were family events. He didn’t go on rides or runs. More or less, he was just the lawyer for the club but stayed out of everything else. 

              When the club decided to go clean and do things within the parameters of the law, Gavel went back, but kept my involvement to the minimum. I think him leaving jarred something in Stone. After Gavel walked away, Stone cleaned up the club. It took years to get everything separated out and to organize a steady income for the club where all the members would be taken care of legally. The crazy thing is, the club was better off going legit than from running shit. Everybody was more relaxed, but still worked hard. There was more a sense of pride among the brothers and the old ladies and we kept growing.