Sledge Read online

  Once there, she invited him in and proceeded to make a complete fool of herself. She’d thrown herself at him. She’d even started taking off her dress. Steve stopped her, telling her that she needed to sleep it off and he’d call her in the morning. She tried harder; he still refused. She went from horny to embarrassed, to hurt and angry. As he left the room she was throwing things at the door and calling him names. He was leaving because he didn’t want to take advantage of a slobbering drunk girl…but at seventeen she hadn’t been able to see that. To her, it was a personal slight, and in her vivid imagination, Steve told everyone at school about it the next day. The rational side of her tried to prevail, but as soon as her phone rang the next day and she saw it was him, the embarrassment returned, and she got angry all over again because it was easier to feel than the hurt.

  She didn’t speak to him again after that…but worse than that, she actually joined in with the group of tormentors that strove to make his life a living hell. Worst of all, even after she realized he hadn’t told anyone what happened that night…at least not anyone in her circle…she still agreed to be part of a horrible plot to humiliate him on homecoming night in front of the entire school. And when she realized he was too smart to fall for that, she went to the school principal and told horrible lies about him. Years later she still felt sick when she thought about it. It was the biggest regret of her young life, and just hearing her sister bring him up sent a familiar rush of guilt and shame flooding her system. But that wasn’t all she felt when she thought about Steve. Even after a decade, she still felt something tighten deep in her core and parts of her tingled that were no longer virginal…but definitely still interested.

  Liza was still rambling on, “From that night on, you never dated anyone who wasn’t a loser. It’s like you were trying to recreate that night with a different lowlife over and over. Daria, lovely sister of mine, it’s time to stop the games and get serious about your life.”

  “Get serious? I have ten novels on the New York Times Best Sellers list, one which is being made into a Lifetime movie. I own my apartment and have more money than I know what to do with in the bank…and I have not taken a dime from Mom and Dad since I graduated college. I have made a good life for myself…”

  “Hank.” Liza wasn’t going to let this go.

  That name made Daria laugh, but her sister wasn’t smiling. “Oh, come on, it was a little funny.”

  “It was not funny, at all.”

  “Those stuffed shirts that Mom and Dad hang around with needed a little entertainment in their lives…”

  “Not the kind that snorts an eight-ball of cocaine and then gets butt-ass naked and jumps in the koi pond outside the dining room window in the middle of their dinner party. It was a fundraiser dinner, for Christ’s sake!”

  Daria laughed again. “In his defense, the funds they were trying to raise were to help get kids who were addicted to drugs off the streets. Maybe Hank was just trying to show them how bad drugs really are…” Liza rolled her eyes and Daria smiled and said, “Okay, he was a bad choice, but honestly, I had no idea that he was using drugs until that night. I thought he was just a really energetic, outgoing guy…until the cop pulled the vial of coke out of his…” Liza held up her palm.

  “Thank you, I was there. I remember exactly where they found that vial of cocaine. But the fact that you say you had no idea is my point. You’re nearly thirty years old and you’re as naïve as you were when you were a kid.”

  “I was only twenty-five when I dated Hank. Anyway, I have to finish packing so that I don’t miss my flight.”

  “Take the number and call Luke, okay?”

  “I’m going to be working. I won’t have time for…”

  “Dinner? You have to eat. You may as well do it with a handsome, successful man who doesn’t wear leather or a bandanna and has never driven a Harley. He drives a Jaguar as a matter of fact. It’s red and…”

  “And you have known me for twenty-eight years. You know things like that don’t impress me.”

  “Well then, he’s a really nice guy too. How could you not be impressed with that? Please, Daria, just meet him.”

  “If he’s so fabulous, why does he need his best friend to hook him up with a date…with a woman that’s only going to be in town for a few weeks?”

  “He doesn’t ‘need’ anyone to set him up. Dan and I just thought you two might hit it off, and Luke agreed to meet you. He saw your photo on your author page and he thinks you’re really pretty. So, why can’t you just agree to meet him too? What’s it going to hurt? You don’t have to commit to anything more than dinner.”

  Daria rolled her eyes and sighed. “If I agree, will you go away and let me finish packing? The car service will be here any minute.”

  “If you agree and let me call Luke now while you’re here and accept his invitation to have dinner while you’re in town…I’ll go away.”

  Again, Daria rolled her eyes. She supposed it wouldn’t kill her to have dinner with the guy. “Fine, but quickly.”

  With a smile, Liza took her phone out and pressed in a number. While she did that, Daria folded the clothes she had lying on the bed and put them into her open suitcase. She was going to California for three weeks to visit the set of a movie that was being made out of one of her books. It was called “Where Love Grows,” and it was a story about a big-city girl hooking up with a hot, shy young farmer and all the drama that entailed. All of her books featured strong heroines and hot but humble and hard-working men. She wasn’t impressed with the guys who lived off their trust funds, or even the uber-rich ones that made their own fortunes on Wall Street. She wrote her books about men she’d love to meet herself. They all had that bad boy edge…but like Steve, the boy from high school, they had a heart…and deep, sexy voices.

  “Yes! She’s right here, Luke,” Daria turned toward her sister, shaking her head “No.” “She’d love to say hello. Here you go.” Daria made a fist at her sister, but that only garnered her one of Liza’s million-dollar smiles as she handed her the phone.

  “Hello, Luke,” she said, putting the phone to her ear.

  “Daria, it’s nice to finally talk to you. I’ve heard so much about you.”

  “Well, hopefully they only told you the good stuff,” she said. “It’s nice talking to you too.”

  “I’m so glad you’ll be able to find some time to get together with me this week. How exciting, consulting on a movie that you wrote yourself.”

  “Yeah, it is exciting. As a matter of fact, I have to catch my plane…soon.”

  “I won’t keep you then, but how does Friday evening sound for dinner? Liza tells me you’ll be in Clovis?”

  “Yes. They’re shooting some location scenes on a farm out there. Friday sounds fine.”

  “Good. I’ll get your number from Liza and touch base with the details later. I can’t wait to meet you.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Luke. Bye now…” She handed the phone to Liza, who shook her head and put it to her ear.

  “I’m sorry, Luke, she had to run.” She walked away, thank goodness, and Daria was able to finish packing in peace. By the time she boarded her flight she’d almost forgotten that in two days she’d have to do something she absolutely despised…go on a blind date with a man. A rich man with a soft voice to boot. She hadn’t looked his photo up on Facebook and she didn’t intend to. She’d have dinner with him, and that was going to be it. Even if he looked like Brad Pitt…she already knew he wasn’t her type. She reclined her seat and closed her eyes and while the plane flew smoothly west, visions of a handsome boy with sad, brown eyes danced in her head.

  2

  “Nope. No way.” Sledge had his big arms folded across his chest. Ransom was trying to bribe him into taking his shift as bodyguard for one of the MMA fighters on Friday night, but Sledge was having none of it. The fighter had a date, and he was taking her out to some upscale restaurant in Clovis called the Chateau Moran. Even sitting on his bike in the parking lot would r
equire that Sledge wear a tie and jacket…something he tried to avoid at all costs.

  “Man, please…this race is really important to me…”

  “Then talk to Wolf and get him to assign someone to cover you.” Ransom was into racing crotch rockets, which Wolf didn’t really approve of in the first place. But their president did his best not to interfere with their personal lives…as long as it didn’t interfere with club business.

  “Well, that’s kind of the problem, I’ve asked him to do that the last two times and he’s not going to go for it again. But I’ll make it up to you, Sledge, I swear. I’ll give you the next three Saturdays off; no matter what work you’re doing, I’ll do it…”

  “You just stood here and told me you flaked on your last two Friday night shifts and you want to flake on this one too. What makes me believe you’ll show up for my next three shifts and not get my ass in trouble?”

  “Well, for one thing, we both know you can kick my ass.”

  “Wolf can kick your ass too, and he’s gonna if you flake on Friday’s assignment. This kid is Jacob Wright’s newest fighter, and the gym is gonna make a shit-ton of money off this fight he’s agreed to do on Saturday night…which, by the way, is where I’ll be working this weekend.”

  “Yeah, but Friday’s your night off…wouldn’t you rather have Saturday? You could be a spectator at the fight instead of bouncing meatheads at the door.”

  Sledge would like that. The exhibition matches that Wolf and Jacob Wright had been putting on a couple of times a month seemed to attract the hottest chicks in the state for some reason…and Sledge wouldn’t mind being free to hook up with one…or two…of them on Saturday night. But fuck if he wanted to wear a suit and sit outside a fancy fucking restaurant either.

  “Tell you what…I’ll even throw in a hundred bucks so you can have dinner while this guy wines and dines his girl.”

  “Two hundred,” Sledge said. “I’ll need a bottle of wine too.”

  “A bottle of…” Ransom realized he was about to talk Sledge out of agreeing again. “Fine, two hundred.”

  “And you show your ass up the next three Saturdays at the gym.”

  “Still three…even with the two hundred?”

  “Are you fucking kidding?”

  Ransom laughed, nervously. “Yeah, just kidding, man, of course I’ll be there. I appreciate the hell outta this…” Sledge was holding out his big hand. Ransom looked at it. “You want the money now? It’s only Wednesday.”

  “I might need to buy a new shirt.”

  Ransom sighed and pulled out his wallet. Flipping through the cash inside with his fingers he said, “I only have about $150.”

  “I’ll expect the rest before Friday.” Sledge stuck the money in his pocket and went back to working on the engine of the Hyundai he’d been under the hood of before Ransom came in whining and interrupted him. He didn’t mind doing the bouncer thing when he wasn’t missing out on the fresh pussy…but this right here was what he loved the most. His Wednesday and Thursdays were spent working in the Skulls shop and he loved the solitude of it. Even when there were five guys working, and heavy metal in the background…everyone was doing their own thing and Sledge was left to his own thoughts. He didn’t mind a decent conversation from time to time, but he sure as hell wasn’t one of those guys that wanted to talk to people all day or all night long…especially the rich assholes that showed up for the fights Wolf put on at the gym, or the rude drunks they turned into before the night was over. They reminded him too much of a group of people he used to know. Some of the biggest assholes on the planet had gone to his high school and dedicated a good portion of their privileged lives to making sure his was a living hell.

  Sledge was raised by a single mother. She did her absolute best, working two jobs to support him and his two older brothers. The problem was never that she was mean, abusive, or neglectful. Even with two jobs she managed to make it home in time every night to get dinner on the table. She read them stories at bedtime when they were little and took them on outings to the zoo or the movies. She was probably the sweetest woman that Sledge had ever known in his life. She didn’t have a mean bone in her body and wouldn’t have abused a fly, much less her own kids. Ironically, that turned out to be her parenting fail. Sledge’s oldest brother was in prison by the time he was sixteen. While their mother was working overtime to feed them, he hooked up with a neighborhood gang. He took part in an armed robbery and the store owner was shot…not by him, but since he was there, and the man died, his brother was charged with murder too…as an adult. Sledge was only five years old at the time, so his memories of his oldest brother were still a little fuzzy.

  His other brother hooked up with a girl in high school when Sledge was ten and his brother was seventeen. He got her pregnant, which didn’t sit well with the girl’s father and brother. While their mother was at work…again…the two angry men showed up on their doorstep and beat the boy within an inch of his life. His brother was in a coma for months and before he woke up, the girl had an abortion. It was just as well, since his brother was never right in the head after that. Ultimately, he ended up on the streets; Sledge hadn’t seen him since he was about thirteen, and that was only because he and his mother ran into him on the streets. That was almost his mother’s undoing. She felt guilty and she cried for days afterwards. Sledge was the only thing that seemed to keep her going…so he did his best to not let her down.

  He worked so hard that, when he was in sixth grade, the school he went to decided he was “gifted” and nominated him for a scholarship. Based on his grades and an essay he’d written, he “won.” Of course, later in life he wouldn’t be so sure it was really a “win,” since he was suddenly immersed in a culture he didn’t fit into and didn’t understand. It made his mother proud, however, for him to go to such an exclusive, private school. She felt like she was finally winning when it came to parenting one of her boys, though, so he sucked up the bullying as best he could and as far as his mother knew, most of his life he was a happy, well-adjusted kid on the fast track to success. He might not have made it even then though, without Ash and Mack. Asher Bennett IV was rich, good-looking, and popular. Mackenzie Foster was gorgeous, rich, and popular. For reasons that even fifteen years into the future Sledge would never understand, they chose him as a friend…and so many times in the years that followed, Sledge might have given up…even thought about taking his own life…if not for Ash and Mack and their unwavering friendship and loyalty.

  Sledge managed to graduate from private school with honors. He got offered a math scholarship to UC Fresno, and the fall after he graduated, he moved to the West Coast and started college. In the meantime, his mother met a nice man, got married, and for the first time in thirty years, she didn’t have to work her fingers to the bone…and she was happy. That was the main reason that Sledge never told her he’d quit school. College turned out to be less repulsive than high school, but he still never really felt like he fit in. He’d never learned how to make friends or really integrate into “normal” society. He was smart, but he didn’t fit in with the nerds. He was big and strong, but he’d never really been into sports. He was poor as dirt, so he didn’t fit in with the trust-fund kids, but he’d grown up surrounded by a level of sophistication that made him seem “weird” to the other scholarship kids. Thankfully, he met Wolf and Smoke at a bar one night in downtown Fresno and from that night forward he was on a path to finding a place where he wasn’t an outcast or a misfit.

  By the time four years went by, he knew enough about skirting the edges of the law that buying a fake diploma with his name on it was a snap. He told his mother he’d decided not to participate in the graduation ceremony, which didn’t surprise her, and he sent her the diploma to make her happy. Last time he visited, she had it framed and hanging on her wall in the den of the new house her new husband had bought her. Sledge loved that she was happy, and he didn’t believe what he thought of as “white lies” hurt her or anyone else. As far as
she knew, he was using the degree he got in mathematics from the university to work as an engineer for the city planning commission.

  “Hey!” The sharp yell brought his head up and he slammed it into the hood of the car.

  “Fuck!”

  “Damn—sorry, man.” Sledge would have been more pissed off if it were anyone but Ash, but for him, he’d let a little bump on the head slide.

  “Yeah, I’ll bet you are,” he said with a chuckle. “What’s up?”

  “Mack and Charlie are going to some play tonight. You feel like going out?”

  “Eh, I don’t know…”

  “Come on, man, you haven’t been out in months. Just because your arm is healed doesn’t mean you have to stay in every night and use it to…”

  “Don’t say it,” Sledge said with a grin. “And I’ve got plenty of pussy when I want it, not that it’s your business.”

  Ash chuckled. “Okay, so I need a night out of here—go with me.”

  “What did you have in mind?”

  “City Bar?”

  Sledge laughed. “Seriously? Mack won’t freak out?”

  “Nah, she doesn’t have a jealous bone in her body.”

  “It’s because she knows she’s hotter than any of those skanks out there.”

  Ash laughed. “It’s because she trusts me. We can go somewhere else if you want.” City Bar was a strip club, and the locals referred to it as “Tittie Bar.” The strippers weren’t the only ones bare. The waitresses wore only pasties on top and skirts that barely covered their asses on the bottom.

  “Nope, Tittie Bar will work.” Sledge wouldn’t tell Ash, but he hadn’t gotten laid all week. It wasn’t like there weren’t plenty of club girls hanging around willing to give a guy a handjob or a blowjob…or more if he wanted it. But he’d gone through a weird few months between getting shot, losing one of his best friends, and Mackenzie’s being back in their lives. His emotions were all over the place, and he didn’t like it. He was actually afraid to trust himself…he was scared those emotions might lead him to get attached to one of the girls and he’d be stuck with an old lady he didn’t want. He had decided a long time ago that he wasn’t old man material. He was a loner…if you didn’t count Ash, Mackenzie, and the club. Other than his mother, family had never been a big deal to him and he wasn’t at all sure he knew the first thing about loving one woman, and heaven forbid, making babies.