Crossroads (Beautiful Biker MC Romance Series) - DD Prince Page 0,12

Joelle. I’ll pick you up if you fall, too.”

“Hopefully, for a change I won’t.”

“Fingers crossed, babe,” he said, softly.

“I’ll text you with your orders,” I told him. “Bye.”

Brady was the only one who knew about me and Luke before it all came out. He caught us making out and he kept his mouth shut for us until he quietly told Dad after I was rushed to the hospital and Luke sent to the morgue, but thinking back, I don’t think he ever approved. Being Brady, he was solid in his loyalty to me, so he kept mum until that point. He was solid in his loyalty to Luke, too, but I think he cared more about me. He helped us avoid getting caught more than once. And the only thing I ever saw that let me know he felt anything other than 100% support was when I caught him with his finger in Luke’s chest giving him shit one day and I had the distinct feeling it was about us.

Luke gave me the brush-off for three days after that. I wondered if it was about Kailey, the now dead biker bunny. I wondered if it was about my dad and my brothers and how secrets like that will always eventually come out.

I didn’t know; I didn’t ask. I just knew that Brady was absolutely always there for me when I needed him.

He'd get Christian to The Roadhouse for me. And then, I'd make sure “Fork” actually saw me.

Saturday morning:

There was a knock at my bedroom door. Early. Like: 7:30.

I opened it.

“This yours?”

Shock of shocks, Christian Forker stood there with my cat, Marshmallow, held against his chest. He was dressed to hit the road, wearing a long-sleeved white t-shirt and his leather cut. He had dark wash distressed jeans and black motorcycle boots on. His hair, which was almost as long as mine, well past his shoulders, was loose and a bit damp and I could smell his shampoo. It smelled chocolaty and masculine.

“Uh, yeah.”

Marshmallow meowed adorably, looking up at him and then she nuzzled his chin.

He was speaking to me. I wasn’t invisible to him for a change.

“She keeps scratchin’ at my door.” He scratched her little head and her face melted with bliss.

I stared a second as he scratched her head and she cuddled into his broad chest and yawned, stretching out her toes.

Jealous. Of my cat.

“Here.” He passed her to me.

I reached for my little white cat and pulled her close, catching a whiff of his leather. My God. Leather plus motor oil? An aphrodisiac for a girl like me.

She nuzzled under my chin and purred.

“Sorry. She probably thought it was my door.”

(No she didn’t. I’m sure she knows my smell. Fact: my kitty wants in his room. How poetic.)

I rubbed my forehead against hers.

He made a grunt sound and turned on his heel to head toward the kitchen. Okay, so that was it, I guessed.

“Okay, uh...bye!” I exaggeratedly called after him.

He looked over his shoulder at me, eyes sweeping from my head down to my painted red toes with white polka dots on them, and gave me half a smirk. Half a smirk…

Progress? Fucked if I know.

I put down the cat. She meandered over to the corner where I had her food and water set up. She had an enclosed litter box cabinet in here, too. She also had food and water and a litter box in the utility room at the end of the hall because she didn’t like spending all her time cooped up in my room, so I let her have the run of the clubhouse. Spencer’s dog was usually here too, but was spending more and more time with him and Pippa at her brother’s apartment. Most days back home in Sioux Falls, you’d find Marshmallow curled up sleeping against Chakotay’s belly during the day.

Dad joked that she was our resident biker kitty. She was like a club bunny with a quest to sleep with a different biker every night. She often slept with Brady. Sometimes she went into Dad’s room. She was the runt of her litter, three years old but only a little bigger than a kitten, and she was a pure white short-haired kitty with blue eyes the same color as Christian’s. She wore an ultra-cool studded black collar. Marshmallow really was the best cat ever.

She wanted into Fork’s room.

I knew the feeling.

3

Ella, Pippa, Jenna, and I were at a booth in the far corner at Deke’s Roadhouse. This had