Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
“Poppa’s bikes?”
Hush shrugged. “Just said there’d be bikes.”
Sia’s shoulders stiffened. “My poppa had a couple of bikes. Ky stores them here.” She pointed to the garage at the side of the house. “Ky keeps them running. Comes up most weeks and keeps them up to scratch.” Sia brushed past us to head to the garage. She took a ring of keys from her belt and opened the door. Hush fell into step beside me, and we waited to see the famous Big Poppa Willis’s pride and joys. Sia flung the door open. She pulled dust sheets off two bikes that sat in the center. Two Harleys were revealed. One fairly new Fat Boy, and a—
“1960s Duo Glide.” Hush crouched down beside the vintage motorcycle in awe. Brother had always got a boner for the older models. I preferred a good ole Chopper. Never got the Harley obsession.
Hush ran his hand over the leather seat. “It’s beautiful.”
I didn’t realize how tense Sia was beside me until, radiating pure fucking hate, she hissed, “They should have been buried along with the man that rode them.” Hush slowly got to his feet and looked dead in Sia’s eyes.
“I’ll get the key for you,” Sia said and left to go into the house. I moved beside Hush.
“Daddy issues?” I asked. Hush shrugged.
Sia came back and threw the keys in Hush’s direction. “Gas canisters are along the back wall if you need them. There should be enough for about a week before we’ll have to go to the station down the road to get more.” Sia spared a glance at the bikes again. “My brother idolizes anything of my poppa. These bikes are no exception.” She looked to me, then Hush. “You all do though, huh? See anything to do with that club as sacred and untouchable?”
I’d just opened my mouth to agree when Hush said, “Club saved most of us. We owe it everything.”
Sia, all ballsy and shit, walked up to Hush. My brother stood his ground. His nostrils flared as the bitch I knew he had a huge fucking hard-on for stood toe to toe with him. Hush stood tall over Sia, but that didn’t stop the firecracker from saying, “Yeah, but more often than not it takes more than it gives.” She put her hands on her hips. “You meet my poppa, Hush?” Hush shook his head. “He was a total bastard.”
“Damn, cher.” I whistled low. “He died for the club.”
Her head whipped to me. “So did my momma. Only she didn’t ask for any part of it. The club was his life. Because of your precious club, I never got to know my mother. My aunt told me as much as she could. That Momma was always fucking torn up over the fact that my poppa stuck his cock in any slut pussy he could find, so much so that she left him when she was pregnant with me. She tried to take Ky too, but Big Poppa Willis would never let her have his son. His Hangmen heir. My father kept Momma caged by her love for him. Kept her pathetically hanging on to any scrap of love he threw her way, only for her to die because he couldn’t even open a fucking gate without making her beg for that too—” She stopped herself from continuing, her face bright red with rage.
Thrusting the bike’s key at Hush, she turned on her heel and headed out of the garage. She only stopped at the door to speak over her shoulder. “I ain’t got much love for the club, that’s obvious. But from the minute I met you two, you seemed different to most of the assholes at that place . . . I’m praying I was right. It’s why I asked for you two to come here, with me.”
I fucking stopped breathing until she walked into the bright daylight and away from us. I turned back to Hush, who was watching her go, his blue eyes fucking lit.
“We’re different, huh?”
“You know we are,” he said, and then got on the bike. The engine roared to life. He tore out of the garage, leaving me watching him go.
I ran my hand down my face and stared up at the garage’s dusty rafters. I breathed in deeply, and then took off after Sia. I saw her sexy ass walking across to the barn. I kicked into a jog and caught up with her just as she entered the barn doors. She went straight to her horses, stroking each one down the nose. I went along each stall, seeing them all for myself. A strange kind of tightness pulled in my stomach as I did. This was my fucking world once. Horses, rodeos, and no Hush.
A whole lot of ignorance about those around me too.