A Very Venom Christmas - Kristine Allen Page 0,43
the fact. Judge felt bad for me because I was only eighteen, had previously been a good kid, was obviously manipulated, and he had mercy on me.” Jesus, it was hard telling my story. I hadn’t had to do it in years.
“I ended up going to state prison in Gatesville, Texas, for seven years. Mandatory drug rehab program while I was serving my time. After two years, I got out early for good behavior and all that shit. Five years parole, then I hightailed it to Iowa for a fresh start. Only I quickly found out that my past would always follow me.”
“How’s that?” Spoken softly, the words should’ve thrown me for a loop. I’d expected more judgement, so I was surprised when he seemed supportive.
“A few of the cops back in Grantsville. They found out. It was little things. Harassing me, pulling me over for no reason, making innuendos, threats, offering veiled requests for bribes.”
At the grinding sound, I looked down at him to see his jaw clenching. Sorry that he was getting pulled into my mess, I reached out and softly stroked his cheek and over his beard. “Say something,” I whispered.
“Besides me now wanting to murder your stupid fucking ex and the dirty goddamn cops back there, I really don’t know what to do or say,” he finally growled out.
“Nothing for you to say, I guess. I just thought you might want to consider the ramifications of my past on your club. Which I didn’t realize you were part of, by the way,” I said in apology. He appeared to consider it, then he absently pulled on his lip piercings with his teeth before he spoke.
“I’m not worried about your past. Not the way you think I am. Jesus fucking Christ, you were a kid. How old was that guy?”
“He was twenty-seven,” I mumbled.
“You really do have a thing for older guys, don’t you?” he said, and I opened my mouth to argue, but he placed a finger over my mouth. “Easy, babe. I was teasing you. Look, we can keep you safe here. There are things that are club business that I can’t get into with you, but trust me when I say your past is of no concern to me.” He reached up and gripped the back of my neck, pulling me down.
“Why didn’t you just ask me about my past? Instead of running a background check?” I asked when our lips were a hairsbreadth apart.
“Oh, I planned to ask. But Snow had that background check from when you worked at the Shamrock. I’d only briefly scanned it before I headed to your house. Now, you gonna keep running your mouth? Or are you going to kiss me and make your man happy?”
“My man?” I asked incredulously, but his lips met mine and anything further I had to say was swallowed by his kiss. It was a good hour before we made it out of bed.
The past several days had been pretty uneventful, but enlightening. I’d found out that most of what I believed about the world was wrong.
I’d thought that everyone was, well, human. Turns out, some are human but with a little something extra. Decker’s club is full of those kinds of people. Sort of like anti-superheroes, if you will.
From what I’d pieced together, they did what some people would term bad things, but for good reasons.
I’d gotten duplicates of my driver’s license and credit card from Hacker when they delivered my truck to us the day before. I wasn’t sure how they got it all so fast, but I wasn’t going to question it.
“Hey, Decker?” I asked as I peeked in the door of his office. He looked up from some papers he was going over with a questioning gaze.
“Yeah, babe? What’s up?” The term of endearment seemed to flow seamlessly from his lips, but it threw me for a loop every time.
“Umm, I was wondering if it would be okay for me to go shopping with the girls,” I asked, though it grated on me to ask permission to go somewhere.
There were two other women around my age who’d come to the clubhouse to meet me, and we’d hit it off great. Kira was one of the local veterinarians, and her man was Voodoo. The other was Korrie, and her guy was Angel. Lynda was older and of course with one of the older guys. She was nice, but I really only saw her once that first day when Korrie brought