Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Chapter Seven
Annie
The next month was what I would categorize as the absolute best time of my fucking life! And yes. I was allowed to swear if I wanted! Which should have been far less exciting than it was. They were just words, after all. What was even better? I could walk around the compound on my own. Sure, there were certain places I wasn’t allowed to go, but that went for anyone living in the compound who wasn’t actually what they called a patched member. All in all, I don’t think I’d ever smiled so much in the whole of my life as I did now. Especially the last couple of weeks as I grew comfortable here.
Living at the compound was a whole new world -- one where I could breathe, think, and just be without the oppressive weight of fear pushing down on my shoulders. I hadn’t even realized how anxious and fearful I’d been. Mainly because I hadn’t really known to feel any differently. Personal interaction outside of church never ended well. Here, people greeted me by name, asked how I was doing, and actually listened to my responses. It was surreal, like I’d stumbled into some sort of utopian bubble in a world that had shown me little kindness before.
Byte, one of the club’s intelligence and information officers, introduced me to computers. And, more importantly, video games and television. Mostly video games. Oh, my goodness, movies! There was so much I hadn’t known about, or had heard but had no frame of reference. Sure, I’d seen an actual television before Dom brought me to Grim Road, but I hadn’t sat down and watched a show. I was too busy just trying to survive. It was on the computer Byte had given me that I’d found I could learn any language I wanted to with a program that teaches those languages. It was the most fascinating thing I’d ever experienced. Which is when I found there were things like that about anything I could imagine. If I wanted to learn how to do something, I just “Googled” it. I loved Google, by the way. The Divine One might not know everything, but I was pretty sure Google did.
Dom was often busy, but he always seemed to have time to check on me. Sometimes he brought me books from the town library, knowing how much I loved to read but was too shy to ask for them myself. Other times, it was a cup of coffee with the perfect amount of cream and sugar. I’d made such a fuss about how wonderful it tasted the first time he’d brought me one that he’d made sure we had a coffee maker in the kitchen and everything I needed to make the perfect cup of coffee. Which, I’d discovered, was a fine art. All coffee was not created equal.
One afternoon, while taking a walk and enjoying the sunshine filtering down through the trees, I wandered down to the small, secluded garden. It was tucked away behind one of the less frequented grounds. There, on his hands and knees, Dom tended to a bed of colorful marigolds and sunflowers. All around him were various vegetables or flowers. His large, tattooed hands moved with surprising gentleness as he cared for the plants. I’d come here with him several times and had helped him. While I could grow fruits and vegetables, I found I loved growing flowers.
“You know, when we first met, I would have never guessed you were a gardener,” I said, leaning on the fence slightly amused by the sight.
Dom looked up, his face breaking into a wide grin. “Helps settle my mind. Call it therapy. Lemon does.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
He stopped what he was doing and turned his full attention on me. Other than when I’d done something wrong, no one had ever given me their full attention like Dom did every single day. “You can ask me anything, honey.” He wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. Dirt streaked his shirt and his face in places, but he had the most beautiful smile on a man I’d ever seen.
“You talk about Lemon a lot. Everyone here does.”
He raised his hands, almost like he thought I was going to attack or something. “Look, Lemon gives as good as she gets. It’s kind of a game with some of the guys. See who can get one over on her. No one has yet. And she regularly busts their balls.”
“Theirs,” I jumped on quickly. “Not you.”
“Nope. Because I never give her a reason to. At least, I try really hard not to give her a reason.”
“It sounds like you’re actually afraid of her.”
To my surprise, Dom answered immediately and emphatically. “Absolutely I’m afraid of her. That woman is vicious on a whole other level.” He came toward me and leaned on the fence across from me, a smile still tugging at his lips. “Do you know she actually had Falcon’s bike painted pink?” Now, the look of horror on his face as he thought about what he obviously saw as some sort of desecration was so comical I couldn’t help but giggle. It was embarrassing. “It’s not funny.” His eyes got wide and he shook his head. “A man’s bike is sacred.”