Bad For You - Sherilee Gray Page 0,32
followed the track down to the lake and stopped the bike.
Lila climbed off behind me.
“Well?” I said as I did the same.
She pulled the helmet off and beamed at me. “I loved it. No wonder you ride everywhere.”
It was ridiculous how pleased that made me. I wanted her to love riding. Living by my own rules, riding, the Ramblers, was my life and I wanted Lila to be a part of that.
“Come here, Bambi.”
She flushed and came toward me. Christ, I was constantly hard when I was near her. I only had to think about her and my body reacted.
“I’m glad you loved it.” I tugged her closer and cupped the back of her head.
She pressed her hands to my chest. “When did you first get a bike?”
“Been riding as long as I can remember. The old man started me young.”
“Does he ride as well?”
My gut gripped tight. “He’s a Rambler as well, different chapter, but yeah.” I didn’t want to talk about that asshole.
“You must be close?”
“Nah, we don’t talk if I can help it. Parted ways a long time ago.” A nice way of saying I hated the old fucker’s guts.
“Oh.”
I tucked her hair behind her ear. “How long have you ridden horses?” When we’d first met, she’d told me she loved to ride.
She stared up at me in that way of hers, like she was seeing way too much, but she didn’t ask anymore and I was grateful for it. “Same as you, from when I was a kid.”
Her hands slid up under my shirt, and I shivered. Lila was a mix of shy innocence and dangerous curiosity. There was some serious sass in there as well. She’d given me shit when I came back. Now she was touching me like I was hers, with no hesitation, and I fucking loved it.
“Why do they call you Grifter?” she asked softly.
I didn’t like talking about my past, but Lila was my woman and if I wanted to keep her, I needed to share some of this stuff with her. “We were with the club a lot growing up, family parties, gatherings, rallies, shit like that. The old man took me with him more often than not.” I grinned. “I learned quickly that when the guys were drunk, I could cheat them out of money. I’d come up with new angles to empty their wallets.” I chuckled. “One night I made five hundred bucks doing some lame-ass card trick. The drunk pricks couldn’t work out how I kept picking their card.”
I didn’t share that the old man would disappear for weeks on club business, leaving us with nothing. My mom was too scared to show him up by asking the club for help, so I’d find ways to help. We’d needed money for rent—so we could eat.
“How did you trick them?”
“Found a big box of playing cards behind a warehouse. Stole it. I took all the five of clubs out and made a new deck. They never worked it out, not until I told them years later. I did a lot of shit like that. Someone came up with the name and it stuck.”
She laughed. “You were an evil genius.”
Christ, she was pretty when she laughed. “Yep. You hungry?”
“You brought food?”
I’d stopped by Lake’s End Café before I picked her up. “We can thank Addie for our lunch.”
“Are we having a picnic?”
Could she be any cuter? “Yeah, why not.”
My phone rang and I wanted to ignore it, but I checked in case it was Stones. Ignoring the president was never a good call.
It wasn’t Stones, though, it was the nursing home my mom was at. Shit. “Yeah?”
“Hey, Jesse, it’s Corinne.”
“She okay?”
“She’s not doing too great. She’s been non-communicative for a couple of days. She didn’t eat at all yesterday. We just can’t get through to her.”
My grip tightened on the phone. “I’ll be right there.”
I loved my mom, but why now? Why did it have to be now? “We gotta leave, Bambi. I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
“What’s going on?” Worry etched her pretty face.
“It’s my mom. I’ll explain later when we get there. Promise.”
I climbed on the bike and she quickly slid on behind me. The care home was in Spring Haven, where Lila had grown up. She’d know the place as soon as we rolled up, and I didn’t have time to take her home first.
Fuck.
Chapter Eleven
Lila
I was cold and sore when we finally stopped. It was late afternoon and the warmth the sun had