Romance: Motorcycle Club Romance: Outlaw Biker's Baby (Contemporary Alpha Male MC Biker Romance) (Bad Boy MC Biker Pregnancy Romance) (80 page)

“Don’t worry about it, sweetie.  It’s
on
the house,” she said.

I dug into the pie as though I hadn’t eaten in days.  I was
truly
exhausted.  Then my phone started ringing.  My heart skipped when I saw the caller ID showed the
name,
Jimmy.  I picked it up and answered.

“Hey there girlie,” said the familiar voice of Mr. Novak, “you got something of
mine,
and I’m going to get it back.”

A look of horror
was plastered
on my face; I think the waitress noticed.

“Tell you
what; you
bring me back my
money,
and I’ll let you go.  Besides, that money belongs to the cops whose car you stole.  I’m sure they’ll want it back more than me.”

I clicked off the phone.  I didn’t want to hear
anymore
.  Thankfully the phone didn’t start ringing again.  I needed to run.

Then I heard rumbling, distant at first but getting closer.  Then the sounds made the café
shake,
and I saw a group I hadn’t seen in years drive by the front of the diner and come to a halt.

I heard heavy footsteps clomp along the ground.  Then the door to the diner tore open to reveal Rex, the mountain of a man I had once dated. 

“What the hell took you so long,” he said.

3.

“Hi Rex,” I said with an embarrassed smile.

He walked in and nodded at the waitress, barely acknowledging my existence.  He took a seat at the diner bar, next to where I was sitting and waited
for the waitress
to pour him a drink. 

“What the hell have you got yourself into this time,” he asked.

I joined him, returning to my chair and my slice of pie.

“It’s bad, Rex,” I said.

He reached over and started chomping on my food. 

“How bad,” he said with his mouth full.

“I saw two cops murder one of my friends,” I
said quietly
.

He paused and looked over at me,
be wildered
. 

“What the hell, Celia,” he said.

“I know, I know, but you’re the only person
I
trust right now,” I replied.

He returned to the pie and
I
to my coffee.  He had some new tattoo’s I didn’t recognize.  His arms
were completely covered
almost to the
knuckle,
and his chest
was covered
more or less.  He wore a simple black leather vest with his crew slogan on the back, ‘Ride or Die’.  Words that I knew he
lived by
. 

He looked bigger than I remembered; perhaps he had more muscle on his hulking body.  He was still a sight to behold, standing over six and a half feet without boots on.  I looked tiny by comparison.

I wasn’t the smallest person in the world, and
in fact,
I was pretty tall for a girl at almost six feet of height.  I never had a problem defending myself, or keeping guys away. 
And, few men were able to make me feel so small.
  I was also a bit gangly for some, but I still had some
nice
curves that drove men wild.  Still, there was only one
man
that I liked driving wild, and he was sitting right next to me. 

“Alright, I’ll do it,” he said.

“Do what,” I asked.

“I’ll protect you,” he replied.

I let out a sigh as though a huge burden had left my shoulders.

“After you marry me,” he said.

I spat out the coffee that I had just sipped.

“What?” I asked.

He returned the plate to the bar.

“I’m tired of
waitin’
for you to come back.  That whole college thing is a mess
anyway
and it’s not
goin’
to get you nowhere.

“You marry me, and do what I
say,
and I’ll make sure nothing bad happens to you.”

He took another swig of the coffee in front of him.

I was surprised that he was bringing all this
up
because I wouldn’t have hesitated to marry him before I even went to college.  It was his fault I decided to move on in the first place.  Now, he wants me because I’m in trouble.

“What the hell, Rex?” I said.

“What, Celia?  I just told you what to do if you want me to protect you,” he replied.

“Are you serious,” I laughed, “four years ago you dumped me because I was too clingy.  You moved on and slept with half the state.  You ruined everything that we were, and still I kept coming back to you.  Then, you finally cut me loose.  It took me months before I was able to get a hold of myself and move on. 

“Now, you want me to marry you?”

“Yes,” he said.

I screamed in frustration.  I still cared about the guy, sure, but not enough to marry him on first sight in four years.  I don’t want to be owned by him. 

“I can’t,” I said.

“Then we’re done here,” he replied, standing up and throwing a
couple of
crumpled bills on the counter.  I watched him walk away, again.

There’s always something about men that makes you want to stab them and kiss them at the same time.  Right now, I just wanted to
stab
him.

Would it
really
be
that bad
? I thought to myself.  He
really
was the only man that knew how to satisfy.  I missed the open road, and the feelings I had when we rode together.  I
really
did miss wrapping my arms around him at campfires and staring at the open night sky.  I wasn’t doing incredibly well at college
anyway
, and it isn’t as though I could go back, with things as they were.

“Fine,” I said.

“Like you
really
had a choice,” he replied.

I couldn’t stay my rage anymore, so I grabbed the fork from the
diner
table and charged at him.  He grabbed my wrist with his meaty fist and stopped me.

I tried my hardest to break free from
him,
but he was just too strong.  With his free
hand,
he pulled off his sunglasses and leaned down to
me,
so we were face to face.

“Are you going to play nice?” he said.

I clenched the fork tighter and clenched my teeth.  But, I knew it was pointless.  I dropped my weapon and gave up.

He continued his walk towards his
motorcycle,
and I followed.  However, it was at right that moment that my exhaustion took over; the color left the
world,
and everything went black.

4.

Things came in patchy at best.  I can remember someone hovering over me and checking my vitals; then I can remember Rex throwing me on the back of his bike and taking me for a ride.  I wasn’t exactly sure how much time passed before I woke up.

I was on a bed.  Looking around at the single bedroom and the crappy TV sitting on a table in the corner, I figured I was in a motel. 

“So you’re finally up,” I heard Rex say.

“How long was I out,” I asked, rubbing my head.

“About a day,” he replied, “don’t worry; nobody has come looking for you yet.  And, I got the boys
keepin’
watch.”

“Got anything to eat,” I smiled. 

Rex tossed a sack full of convenience store food at me.

“Didn’t think you had time for steak,” he said.

He wasn’t wrong.  I chomped down on whatever I could get my
hands on
.  It might not be the best food for you, but when you just wake up from exhaustion, anything is a gourmet meal. 

“
Thanks,
Rex,” I said.

He grunted.

“Don’t thank me yet,” he said, “we gotta hit the courthouse and get hitched, then we’ll be on our way out of this Podunk town and back to the road.  I think we’re going to head out to-”

“You still want to do the marriage thing?” I interrupted.

“What part of our deal didn’t you get?” he replied.

“Yeah, well don’t you wanna have a little ceremony where we get all our friends together to have it?” I asked.

He bellowed out a laugh.

“Celia, you and I both know that the only friends we have are either dead or out there riding a motorcycle right now,” he said, “besides, this makes things easier.”

I sighed.  I needed to know
something,
and I was hoping that he’d answer me truthfully this time.

“Why didn’t you ask me four years ago?” I asked.

He stopped laughing.  His face went back to the
cold,
angry stare I
was used
to seeing.  He reached over and drew the tiny curtain shut before plopping into the only other chair in the motel.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Well tell me something, Rex,” I said.

He slammed his fist on the table.

“It's freedom,” he started, “you weren’t giving me that.  You wanted to take it away and settle down with some stupid white picket fence fantasy.  You wanted me to get
a stupid
job where I walk around like some penguin and take phone calls. 

“That’s not me, Celia.  You wanted that back then, and you pushed me
really
hard for it.  It drove me nuts.  Well, now you’re back on my terms.  We do things my
way,
or you can kiss your ride goodbye.”

The truth always hurts.  I didn’t
really
know what to say.  My memories were much different from his.  I only remembered the drunken fist-fights and the nights we would pass out after some of the wildest sex imaginable under the starry skies. 

“Why didn’t you tell me then?” I asked, timidly.

“Do you think you would’ve listened?” he said.

I sighed and shrunk a little.  I was young and
dumb,
and I didn’t listen to anyone.  I still feel that way sometimes.  Rex knew me better than I did. 

“Alright, let’s go,” I said.

Rex stomped out of the
motel,
and I weakly stood up.  The food was helping a lot, but this would still take time.  I put on my things and went out to join Rex on his chopper. 

We flew down the road toward my inevitable fate.

5.

I wasn’t excited to
be married
in the slightest, but I didn’t mind the man I’d be marrying.  Old feelings had been stirring up inside me
lately,
and I couldn’t help myself anymore.  While we rode
on his motorcycle,
I gripped his waist just a little tighter.

If he was excited, he didn’t show it.  Then again, he didn’t show much of anything except maybe anger at anything in his way.  Then again, he did laugh louder than just about every other guy in the club. 

The courthouse wasn’t much to look at, just a small box with a door.  I didn’t expect much in this
small
town
anyway
.  Behind the courthouse was the small local police station.  I did my best to act
nonchalant,
but I was still nervous. 

The inside of the government building wasn’t much to look at either.  Notices were strewn out over the walls, and a row of
chest high
desks
were
setup
just inside the door. 

“Can I help you,” said an old woman who appeared to have been sitting behind that desk since the dawn of time.

“We’re here for a marriage license,” Rex said.

She fiddled with a stack of papers and laid a scrap of paper on the desk.

“Sign here and here and I’ll need both of your ID’s for verification,” she said.

I nervously dug out my identification and Rex slapped
his
on the counter.  He was already signing his name on the paper, which he immediately thrust at me when he
was finished
.

I held it and scanned the document. 
This was
it; I was saying goodbye to my old life.  I signed my name to the paper and handed over my ID. 

She took both of them and scanned them
in
the computer, and I couldn’t
tell,
but it sounded like she gasped.

“Take a seat over there for a minute,” she said, taking our ID’s and waddling off toward the back of the office building.