Riding Him (Ghost Riders MC #5)(9)

Vanessa: You have a boyfriend?!

Valerie: OMG stop lying already and admit it! This is the third time your status has changed.

Victoria: I’ll clean up after next Sunday dinner if you tell me all the details first! Vanessa always knows everything first.

I groan. This is the third time this has happened.

Victoria: Fine. I’ll just ask Vincent. He knows everything :-P

“Shit,” I mumble as I hear Vincent’s phone go off next to me.

“Boyfriend?”

“No,” I cut him off, not wanting to open that can right now. I still need to get packed. “Somehow my relationship status on Facebook keeps going from Single to In a relationship. I don’t even use the freaking thing. Victoria made me get the f*cking account.”

“Christ,” Vincent mumbles, and I look up at him.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he says, like he knows what’s going on and just doesn’t want to talk about it. That is fine with me because I need to get gone. “I’ll tell Mom you won’t be at dinner tomorrow. I’ll make something up that won’t have her racing over here to check on you.”

“Thanks.” I lean up and give him a kiss on his cheek.

“Make sure Scribe keeps his hands to himself,” he says as the door closes behind him.

Scribe’s going to be lucky if he has hands by the time we get back, I think to myself as my phone dings again, an unknown number popping up.

I’m downstairs. Get your little ass down here, and bring a bag of frozen peas for my nuts. You can hold them in place for me while I drive.





5





Knox





It took me a few minutes to load all my shit up. I didn’t know exactly what I’d need and wanted to be prepared for anything. By the time I’d gotten outside, Cas had told me Violet had headed to her apartment and I could meet her there, but not before giving me a piece of her mind about keeping my eyes on Violet. Like I could take them off her.

Not needing anyone to tell me where she lived, I headed her way. I knew. Maybe even drove past a couple of times. Okay, maybe not just a couple. A few hundred.

I kept telling myself it was because I was supposed to look into her for the Pres, but I’ve done more than look into her for him. Fuck, in some states I could be hit with felony stalking. There isn’t much I can’t tell you about her, even down to every item she bought at the grocery store two days ago. It is freaky what you can find online if you really want, and this seems to be my new obsession lately. Her.

I decided to take my old 4Runner instead of the chopper because we’ll have a lot of shit. Not only will I be bringing my computer and some of my gear, Violet will be bringing her guns and who knows what else. I’ve also got camping gear in the back, just in case. You never know when you might need to go off the map at any moment.

Before I headed her way though, I took the liberty of changing her Facebook status. Her Facebook was one of the first things I stumbled upon when I looked into her. It had been annoying me every time I looked at it, even though I knew she didn’t go on it. She never showed any activity, and after a few key strokes I could see she never logged into the thing either. The only pictures on there were ones her sisters had tagged her in. Maybe she’ll figure out I did it and get fired up again. Before she kneed me in the balls, I was enjoying her temper.

I don’t know what it was, but when she got all worked up and shot it my way, it did something to me. Or maybe it was just having her attention on me. When she wasn’t pissed at me, all I got was indifference and I f*cking hate that shit from her. It eats at me. To everyone else, she was easy laughs and talk, but not to me. I never got that, and it didn’t look like she would be giving it to me anytime soon. My attention just seemed to piss her off. Never even cocked a smile at a joke.

When I get to her place, I send a text right as I see Vincent exit the apartment upstairs, and I know what’s coming. He walks down, straight to my ride, and I roll down the window.

“You got her?” is all he says. A deadly quiet behind the words. It’s how Vincent always is, even when he’s with Cas. He just kind of stands back and watches until he thinks he might need to step in.

I think everyone else thought he might have a problem with his little sister joining the Ghost Riders, but I knew he wouldn’t, even if I wished he had. Fuck, he was with Cas, and she was a member, and he was so f*cking proud of her. He wanted everyone to know she belonged to him. That he was the lucky SOB that landed her ass, and I couldn't be happier for Cas because I’d never seen her like she is with him. They worked. And I couldn’t see a man who loved Cas like that and knew what she did and stood by her not do the same for another woman he loved. It was just who he was, and I knew he’d have his sister’s back on whatever road she wanted to go down.

“I got her.” I nod, and an understanding passes between us. I take care of her, or I pay the consequences. He might be willing to let her walk this road, but if she gets hurt on our watch, who knows what hell he’ll make rain down on us. This isn’t an old man telling a club member what to do. This is a brother looking out for his family. And I respect the hell out of Vincent for that.

He walks away without saying anything else. What else is there to say? He said what he had to say and that was that. No sugar-coating it or making threats. He didn’t need to.