The Biker's Secret Torment: MC Romance: Talon (Rosesson Brothers) (10 page)

Stupid I know. Stupid to run, stupid to try to get away. There was no escape from my own thoughts, my own suspicions, my own horrible failings as a human being and a daughter.

Where was I going to go? Out to the party? I hated club parties, hated how the women were nothing but sex objects and how they seemed to like it.

I heard Talon's heavy tread on the floor behind me and I put on a burst of speed. I couldn't face him.

"Crystal," he called. "Wait!"

The end of the long hallway faced me and I had to make a decision. Run out into the crowd, maybe push out the front door, or stop. Let Talon catch me.

I stopped.

He reached me and put an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his broad chest. He smelled good, strong, like leather and citrus.

"Hey, what happened?"

I shook my head, grasping his shirt, pressing my lips into his chest clandestinely. Only Talon made sense right now. Everything else was a two-tone mystery.

The door into the hallway pushed open, letting in a burst of music and the smell of smoke from the party. I buried my head deeper in Talon's chest. He put an arm around me and maneuvered me against the wall, angling his body to shield the sight of me from whoever was entering. He always took care of me. Always knew what I was thinking or feeling.

I heard a woman's voice and a man's grating laughter. Someone was heading to one of the empty rooms for sex. I envied them. Carefree, at least for a few moments. Confusion, heartache, loss, and pain were all burned away by passion.

When they were gone, Talon tipped my face up to his. "What? Tell me."

I shook my head. "I just want to get out of here."

"Your dad said to stay."

My lips tightened. "I heard that part. It's what he didn't say that's bothering me."

The door opened again and a trio pushed through. I knew the man, Gator, but I'd never seen either of the two women before. The one closest to Talon reached a hand out and ran her finger along Talon's shoulders as she passed. I clenched my teeth together and resisted the urge to coldcock her.

I had to get out of there.

Talon turned to see who the woman was. She twisted her body, her right arm still around Gator's waist and waved at Talon. I rolled my eyes and pulled away from him. I needed some air.

Talon caught my arm. "Hey. Wait. I'll take you somewhere, but you have to stay with me."

I relented. Let him pull me back. I didn't want to be alone.

Talon twined our fingers together and pulled me back to his room. "Let me grab my stuff. We'll figure out where to go."

I waited in the doorway as he pushed all the papers back into the envelope and plucked my phone off the bed.

"Wait a sec," he told me, as he handed me my phone and dialed a number on his own.

He stared at me as he had a short conversation with his brother. I stared back, unable to look away.

He hung up, seemingly happy that Eric and Greg were doing ok. "I don't want to go to my house, and I don't think we should go to yours. The guy who followed us might know it."

"So that leaves ...?"

"I don't know. Maybe Rams' new place."

"Ok."

Talon held my arm protectively as we made our way back down the hallway, or maybe he just didn't want me to run again.

We walked into the large open room and scanned the crowd for Rams. I saw him at the bar, by himself. I nudged Talon and pointed.

When we got there, Rams smiled half-heartedly at us. "Hey."

"Hey, man," Talon said. "Crystal doesn't want to stay here. Can we crash at your place?"

Rams' face brightened immediately. "Yeah. It's kind of a shit-hole, though. Just one bedroom. I crash on the couch when I get Dawn."

"That's cool," I said. "I don't mind sleeping on a couch or a floor as long as it's quiet. I stepped closer to Rams to avoid being stepped on by a chick in six-inch heels who had tripped over her own stupidity. Or maybe her boobs.
And as long as there are no skanks around.

"Cool, let's go," Rams said.

Talon shifted his weight. "We don't want to pull you away from the party."

Rams looked around, his eyes sad. "I don't need to stay. Too much temptation."

Talon nodded and we headed out the door, then split apart. Rams headed for his motorcycle, which was parked out front, and Talon and I headed around the back towards the utility building.

Rams yelled our way. "Follow me. Are we in stealth mode?"

"You know it," Talon called back.

I ran to catch up with Talon. "What's up with Rams?"

"He's trying to get back together with Ginnia so she'll let him see their kid. She says if he even looks at another woman she'll cut him off. You know she has a ton of spies in there."

"Dirty thing to do," I said. Bitches who used their children as leverage really pissed me off. Especially with a guy as nice as Rams. There was nothing he wouldn't do for any girl he dated, and especially for Ginnia, but she walked all over him, always had. She saw his love for Dawn and used it for her own gain and to me, that was the worst.

Talon grunted and got on his bike. I climbed on behind him and we geared up, then took off out the open gate.

"We forgot something," Talon yelled to me.

"What?"

He didn't answer, only gunned it and pulled up next to Rams, then waved him over to the side.

"Me and Crystal gotta go to the police," Talon said when we were stopped. "It might take a few."

Oh yeah, the cops.
I had almost forgotten about the morning. Nothing like a crappy day to make you forget you had been shot at.

Rams nodded. "I'll text you the address. Be waiting for ya."

Talon turned his bike around and sped the other way.

I crushed my hands around his middle, aware for the first time in a lifetime of riding motorcycles just how exposed we were.

Talon

I doubled back one more time, even though I knew it wasn't necessary. We hadn't been followed.

We finally arrived at the address Rams had given me and I pulled my bike around to the back of the fourplex, parking it.

"Rams is in B," I said, nodding at Crystal. It had taken hours to make the police report, and I doubted it would do any good. The cop had immediately assumed it was some rival gang shit and seemed to not give a crap about taking our report. I kept my anger in check though. If the guy showed up again, my plan was to shoot him. A prior police report would only help me stay out of jail. I'd been arrested, even been in juvie, but I'd never been to a county lockup. I figured if that ever happened, it would be a sign my life was turning in one direction for good. Not necessarily the direction I wanted it to go.

Night had fallen while we'd been wrestling with the law. The street was quiet, no traffic at all. Somewhere nearby I could hear a dog barking and kids yelling, but the place seemed safe.

Crystal knocked on Rams' door and he yelled that it was open. We pushed inside to find Rams on the couch, beer in hand, watching Firefly on Netflix.

"How many times you seen that?" I asked, laughing.

Rams paused the show to look at us. "This is my 18th time."

I shook my head. I didn't get how he could watch the same show over and over again. I looked around. The place was neat, but tiny like he'd said. It smelled good, like vanilla. I imagined Rams lighting a candle or something. He always did that kind of shit if there was a woman involved. It didn't matter if he liked her or not. He just cared that they were comfortable and treated them like china dolls. That's why they tended to walk all over him.

"I'll put on something else," Rams said, switching back to regular TV.

I walked inside and Crystal followed me, her head swiveling to take in everything. There was nothing on the walls. No pictures or decorations. The kitchen was to our right, a short hallway to our left. The living room held a beaten-up, brown couch, a green lazy-boy chair, and a flat-screen TV, and that was it. Rams kept his beer between his legs since there wasn't even a coffee table.

"Beer's in the fridge, if you want one," Rams said.

"Thanks." I sat down in the chair and Crystal sat next to Rams on the couch.

I settled in and tried to relax. The last few seconds of some show played and then the TV flipped to a commercial. Two crows sat on a branch talking to each other.

"Jesus!" Rams cried, and stood up. His beer spilled onto the floor but he ignored it and took off down the hallway.

"Dude," I called but Rams ignored me. I heard a door slam.

Crystal was up already, heading for the kitchen. She came back with a wad of paper towels and cleaned up the spilled beer.

I picked up the beer bottle and chucked it in the trash in the entryway. "That's a freaky phobia," I said. "Imagine spending your whole life afraid of birds. I don't know how he manages to function, much less ride."

Crystal threw away her towels and walked over to me, looking at me strangely. "Didn't you ever hear the story of how my dad first got him?"

I shook my head. Crystal pursed her lips. "Rams was the only baby Dad ever took in. He preferred teenage boys, like you. He said if he put a bunch of bike parts in front of even the worst-behaving boy and put a wrench in his hand, with a promise to the boy that he could keep anything he fixed, he always stayed out of trouble for at least a few years. The foster care placement team thought he was a miracle worker."

I nodded. Whip had saved me in exactly that way. Said if I got in one more fight he would take away the motorcycle I was working on. I had wanted to finish that baby more than anything in the world. The self-control that had always eluded me before suddenly came easy to me.

"Rams was different. He'd been abandoned by his mother as a baby. They found him in a dumpster and everyone who took him in gave him back quickly because he was such a colicky child."

I sucked in a breath. No, I'd never heard this before.

"My dad wasn't set up to take babies. Jaze was two and my mom was pregnant with me, but he had some older boys and some members of the club who felt sorry for Rams and promised they'd help take care of him. He'd been in all the newspapers and there had been appeals to find both the people who abandoned him and a new family for him. Everyone knew who he was. I can show you the old newspapers the next time you are at my house."

"My dad took him in and everyone in the club who was able to did six hour shifts so someone could hold Rams twenty-four hours a day, even at night." Crystal smiled and her beauty floored me. "We've got pictures of everyone, Whitey, Big Jon, even Rush when he was only fourteen years old, holding Rams in a baby carrier on their bellies."

I smiled. I would love to see the pictures of those hard men taking care of a baby like that.

"My dad had him for five years, and then his grandma showed up from New York and took him for a few years. Moved across the river. She wasn't a very nice lady and once he was old enough he ran away constantly to my dad's. Eventually the cops stopped making him go home."

I shook my head. "So how does that explain the bird phobia?"

Crystal looked down the hallway then back at me. She dropped her voice and came up close to me. "When they found him in the dumpster he was already four months old. He was malnourished and sick. But the guy who found him had to chase away a flock of birds out of the dumpster to get to him." She bit her lip then went on. "They were crows. His poor little face and neck was all bloody and he was too weak to even raise his arms. They were feeding off him, Talon, and if they'd gone an inch higher they would have pecked his eyes out."

My head swam as my stomach lurched. No fucking wonder he was scared of birds. I looked down the hall and started that way. I wanted to talk to him.

Crystal grabbed my hand. "No, let him be. He just needs a few minutes. He's figured out how to get past it. I've seen him do it dozens of times. You have too."

I had. We'd lived together at Whip's off and on, before I joined the army. I'd never heard the story before but I'd known he had the phobia and I'd seen him freak out when birds came too close. He always got past it.

I didn't know how though.

Talon

Ten quiet minutes later Rams came out into the living room like nothing had happened. "I changed the sheets on the bed. Crystal, you can sleep in there."

"No, Rams, I couldn't, I can't. I'll sleep here on the couch."

Rams dropped onto the couch. "No way, missus. This couch and me get along perfectly."

Crystal turned to me. "Then you sleep with me, Talon. We can share the bed like we did the other night."

I saw Rams look at me from the corner of my eye. I'd never discussed my ... hell, I had to face it, my crushing desire for Crystal with anyone, but I'd always wondered if Rams had it figured out. He'd never said anything, but that wasn't his way. If you didn't want to spill a secret, he wouldn't press.