Shut Your Mouth

Rolling into the T & M yard on the back of Tig’s bike about 20 minutes later, her wary eyes scanned the area for any of the usual faces. Filip was sitting atop one of the picnic tables, nursing a freshly bruised eye and she couldn’t help but chuckle at how much his expression looked like that of a boy who’d gotten I trouble with his parents. There weren’t as many bikes around yet, it was only the early afternoon but she expected the yard to be crowded again later tonight.

As Tig moved his bike back into line with the others, she carefully slid off from behind him and passed back the spare helmet to him.

“My door’s always open if you need a chat hun.”

She nodded with a thankful smile on her lips, hoisting her backpack higher up on her shoulders and squeaking as he slapped her ass once she had turned to walk back towards the clubhouse.

“Watch it old man!”

She hissed in mock anger, narrowing her eyes and walking towards Chibs. Slipping off her backpack and placing it carefully next to her feet, Violet put her head on an angle and looked at Chibs’ black eye.

“What happened there Chibs, ran into a wall?”

He huffed and shoved his sunglasses over his eyes, his lips pulling into a thin line.

“Yeah, something like that. Hap’s inside in case you’re looking for him. Nice getaway earlier…how the hell did you manage to just disappear into thin air with me standing right outside that shop?”

She pursed her lips and lifted her bag up again, slinging it over just one shoulder. Waving both hands at him she whispered:

“Magic!”

With a hint of amusement before squeezing his shoulder and moving inside the clubhouse. She could hear Tig laugh as Chibs groaned loudly before the door shut again behind her.
Marching through the main room, she didn’t dare to look at anyone sitting around, but quickly marched down the hallway to Happy’s room. Stopping in front of the closed door, she wasn’t sure if she should just enter or knock, but the decision was taken off her hands, as it was pulled opened from inside and the handsome man all but walked right into her.

Coming to an abrupt stop once he realized that someone stood in his way, his dark eyes lifted to her vibrant green ones with surprise, a shy smile forming on her lips.

“So… I heard there was some sort of a search party out for me earlier, thought it’d be best to come and see you right away?”

Chewing on her bottom lip, her eyes quickly diverted to her feet. He had sounded frantic over the phone earlier, she wasn’t sure what kind of mood he was in.

“Vi, fuck. Come here.”

He engulfed her in a tight yet one-armed hug and pulled her inside the room, closing the door behind them again.
Once they were standing in the middle of the room, he placed both hands on the sides of her face and looked at her face inquisitively before letting his eyes roam over her body, making sure she was unharmed.

“Where were you, I was looking for you everywhere. Are you ok?”

She let her bag slip off her shoulder and embraced him gently in her arms, inhaling his warmth and musky smell. Gods she could get used to his smell!

“I was chilling on a rooftop somewhere for a good few hours, just smoking and having a couple of beers that I bought in the shop. I somehow knew that Chibs wasn’t really meant to take me into town, so I gave him the slip. I’m sorry if I worried you, that wasn’t my intention. Tig saw me walking around not that long ago and gave me the lowdown.”

She all but whispered, wrapping her arms tighter around his lean mid section. She knew she was lying, but she knew that the only other person knowing the truth wouldn’t tell on her.

“Fucking Chibs, I totally flipped on him. Don’t you ever just run like that again, you had me worried sick woman! Give me your phone.”

Not breaking her embrace, his hands began roaming the back pockets of her jeans, coming up empty. Chuckling, she stepped back and bent down next to her backpack, grabbing her phone out of the small front pocket and handing it to him without question. Unknown to him, she had heard him earlier admitting that he didn’t have her phone number and simply didn’t question his motives. Leaning over to tap in her passcode, she fell back onto the bed and fished one of the beer bottles out of her bag, opening the twist cap swiftly to take a drink of the still cold beverage.
She could hear a phone ring and looked around, but realizing that he had probably called his own number from her phone so that he would her own number as well.

“Anything on here that I should know about?”

She raised her eyes to his, not sure what he was referring to.

“Not that I’m aware of, but you’re more than welcome to check.”

She shrugged her shoulders and took another drink, not caring if he went through her phone: she wasn’t dumb; there was nothing on that phone that would give her away. Judging by the raising of his brows, he hadn’t expected her to just give him free reign of her phone, most women guarded their little devices fiercely. After holding on to it for a few more seconds, he passed it back to her.

“Not necessary, I trust you. I think I should apologize about this morning.”

She opened her mouth to interject, but he held up his hand and effectively cut her off. She smiled and offered her bottle to him, which he gladly accepted. Rubbing his free hand over his shaved head, he took a long drink and handed it back to her before squatting down in front of her and meeting her eyes with his again.

“I have no idea what the fuck happened this morning Violet. There is no point in saying I wish I could take it back because obviously: I can’t. But I fucking regret it so much. I shouldn’t have done that and this is not who I am or what I do.”

Violet nodded at his words. His eyes seemed sincere and she had no reason to not believe him. He placed his palms on her thighs and gentle gripped them to steady himself in his current position.

“It’s been a while that I’ve had a woman in my life that wasn’t just there to warm my bed for a night or two. I know pretty much nothing about you apart from your sister and some fragments of your past and you know even less about me. I cannot sit here and tell you that we’ll hit it off straight away and with my position in this club, I can all but guarantee that it won’t be a smooth ride, especially not at the start. You’re new to this and I can foresee that we’ll have issues when it comes to me not involving you in this part of my life. Do you accept that?”

She was almost surprised that he was opening up to her like this. He was genuine enough not wanting to blind her to the fact that this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. Her emotions started to swirl inside her: this was just a job, she wasn’t actually into him, she just saw him as means to help her own agenda. But she couldn’t deny, that she was touched by his admissions, his apology.

“I guess I’ll have to. I won’t promise that I will not get pissed off at you when shit goes down and you leave me in the dark. But as you said: I am new to this crowd and I have no idea what kind of deals or responsibilities you have. If we actually want to do this though, I need you to be honest with me when it comes to us. I’m a one-man kinda woman, I’d expect the same from you. I know there are plenty of girls hanging around here that would fuck you in a heartbeat. If you do, I’m gone and I will not look back.”

He smirked and nodded to that clear comment. She wasn’t like any of the other girls around here: she knew what she wanted; she wasn’t having some silly crush on him and hoped to become his old lady. Hell, she probably didn’t even know what an old lady was in these circles. She was all woman, inside and out. Happy didn’t doubt that she would stake her claim should any crow eater try and get friendly with him, But he wouldn’t let it come to that.

“Understood. As handsome and charming as I am, I will try and make it clear to the women around here that I am very much off limits from now on.”

She laughed at that comment and he responded with a brilliant, teeth-showing smile that hit her like a punch in the gut: he was gorgeous!

“Maybe we can get a day alone and just…get to know each other once we’re back in Stockton. I would really like that.”

He nodded at that and sat up, pressing a kiss to her lips.

“Are you and Chibs ok? I admired his shiner…apparently he walked into a wall earlier.”

She tried very hard to stop herself from laughing at his stern expression.

“Fucker has to learn to stay away from you. I think he has a fucking crush on you or something. Which brings me to another thing….-“

He got cut off when they heard a knock on the door. Both their heads shot towards the door as it opened and Juice stood in the threshold.

“Alvarez is here. Chibs is calling church in 5.”

The name rang a bell and Violet remembered the stocky Mexican who had tried to pry Happy off of her the previous night.

“I’ll be out in a few minutes, thanks kid.”

Juice nodded his head and left them behind, leaving the door open.

“What were you gonna say?”

Happy stood up and walked over to the chair, pulling his kutte back over his shoulders and grabbing some of his things from the little table.

“We won’t have the time now, I’ll get to talk to you later. In the meantime: freshen up if you want or join some of the others outside. This shouldn’t take longer than a half hour and after that we’ll all continue last night’s party. Don’t fucking get up to that pool table and dance, you hear me?”

The last part was almost growled, dominance and jealousy clear in his words. She nodded and stood up from the bed. Her raised right hand caressing his stubbled jaw. Pushing the remnants of her beer into his hand, she quickly kissed him and winked at him as she stripped out of her shirt.

“Guess I’ll see you later Happy.”

He growled as she continued unbuttoning her pants and pushing them down her legs as she made her way towards the small bathroom. Fuck this woman would be the death of him!