Sweet Perdition (12 page)

Just like that, he turned off the friendly vibe. “Why are you being such a bitch?” He scowled.

Moments like this? She had trouble remembering why she had found him so attractive in the first place. “You thought wrong.”

“You are still hurt, aren’t you? That I married her and not you? I know that you’re jealous.” He smiled. “That’s a good thing. It means you still want me, deep down, even though you won’t admit it.”

“Oh, please!” She rolled her eyes.

“And I’m jealous of that biker you’ve been running around town with.”

She froze. The
Hellacious
grapevine rears its ugly head. Again.

“Don’t act all shocked, babe. This is a small town and everyone talks. Your car’s been spotted at their bar. Overnight.” His voice lowered an octave. “Never knew you could be so wicked,” he murmured. “I might not have broken up with you if I’d known you were such a dirty girl. Screwing bikers and staying out all night.”

Her mouth fell open.
Oh, ick.
Definitely time to end this toxic relationship. For good. She pushed past him, all pretense of politeness gone. “Our conversation has come to an end. Goodbye, Carl. Don’t call, don’t text. Don’t show up here again. In fact, forget I’m on the planet.” She stomped to the end of the aisle.

“Come on, babe, don’t be like that,” he said, trying to turn on the charm. “You know you don’t really want me to go.” He got in her space again and she shot back against the shelf, knocking a few books off. “Give me a little of that dirty girl side you kept hidden,” he murmured, bending down to kiss her.

Last. Freaking. Straw.

She reached out to slap him, but he grasped her arm. Holding it still. “Don’t do that. You’ll be very sorry, if you do.”

His eyes were cold, something reptilian in their depths and it made her shiver. She’d never seen this side of him before. His fingers dug into her arm, hurting her.

“Let me go,” she hissed.

“I will when you stop being such a bitch.”

“Let. Go,” she gritted out between clenched teeth.

After a tense moment, he finally did and she backed away from him. “The only thing I’m sorry about? Is wasting my time with you. Stay away from me, Carl!” With that, she turned on her heel, told the student assistant, he would have to close up by himself, and marched out the door.

Chapter Ten

Twenty minutes later, Elizabeth sped down the road. Her car automatically headed to Perdition like it had a mind of its own. She couldn’t explain it, but she needed to see Ryker’s face, talk to him. Homecoming party be damned.

When she got to the bar, she found the parking lot empty, except for a one long row of motorcycles. She cut the engine and as she approached the entrance, she could hear muted rock music coming from inside.
Highway to Hell
by ACDC.

She’d thought a biker party would be a bit more crowded? Maybe it was only for club members? A closed for business sign hung on the door, but she knocked on anyway, hoping one of the guys would recognize her and let her in.

With any luck, he would be close to the door. She could have a quick word with him and be on her way. She didn’t want to come off as the insecure clingy girl who couldn’t spend the night away from her boyfriend.

Woah.
Not
her boyfriend.

They’d made that clear. He was… what? Her lover? Nope, that didn’t sound right either. Friend? No. She shrugged it off.
Find him now. Analyze later.

But
instead of a brother letting her in, his mother opened the door. The older woman stood there, a hand on her hip. “Well, hello, honey. I thought I librarian could read a bit better. The sign says we’re closed.”

She rolled her eyes. “You are closed to patrons, but I came to see Ryker. Is he here?”

“He is,” she confirmed. However, she didn’t elaborate, nor did she issue an invitation to come in.

Peering around Miss Edna, she could see the front portion of the bar was empty but she heard some raucous laughter echoing down the long hallway in the back. Distinctly male laughter, the dirty kind.

Hmm.
Ryker had been a bit vague about what a homecoming party entailed. Since she didn’t see any girls hanging around in the front, she could only assume they had gone in the back to party with the brothers. Damn. Now, she had something else to freak out about. The thought of him partying with those leather-clad skanky girls pissed her off, especially because he’d blown off a night spend with her to go.

“Anything else I can help you with?” Ryker’s mother drawled.

She could read the challenge in her eyes. Fine, she wouldn’t back down. “I need to see him.”

Miss Edna raised a wicked brow. “You sure about that, honey?”

“Very.”

“Well, then come on in. Go down the hall. You’ll see a set of double doors at the end. We call it the pinball room.” She moved aside so Elizabeth could walk past her and then locked the door. Then, Miss Edna went back behind the bar and started wiping down the counter.

She had a really bad feeling about this. With a clenched stomach, she walked down the hallway. The opening strains of AC DC’s
Shook me all Night Long
came from the room
.

She hesitated halfway down the hall. Maybe this was a bad idea? What if she saw something she regretted? He hadn’t made plans with her because he wanted a night with his brothers. Maybe she should walk right out of here.

No.

She had to know what was going on. She finally reached the door and with a trembling hand, pushed it open… to find a porn fantasy in progress.

A group of nearly naked men were draped over large easy chairs, pinball machines, end tables, and pretty much everywhere else. Naked hellions crouched in front of them or bent over them handing out blowjobs like Halloween candy. Except for a couple, who were getting screwed over the arms of couches or sitting down on bikers’ laps, riding them.

Ugh.

Worst of all, Ryker danced on a small raised platform at the end of the room, two naked hellions on either side of him. They ground against one another in a sort of vertical threesome. Both slutty girls had bleached blond hair, big asses, and even larger bare breasts. He held a bottle of Jack Daniels in one hand and he’d taken off his shirt. Both his face and chest were smeared red with lipstick kisses.

“Holy shit!” The words left her mouth, before she could draw them back. She clamped her hands over lips, still staring at him.

The Horsemen turned to her, just now noticing her presence, and no wonder since even Hugh Hefner would find the place distracting. They hooted and hollered at him. Mocking him.

“Uh oh, your woman is pissed!” Shepherd teased as he brushed past a hellion trying make a grab for his crotch.

She blinked. She wanted to run from the room, slam the door, but somehow her legs wouldn’t work.

“So what? She ain’t my old lady,” Ryker growled. He made no move to get away from the hellions. He stood there between them, glaring at her.

The guys cheered him on, toasting him with drinks. “Fuck yeah, show her whose boss, Ryker!” one of them called.

He vaulted off the platform and stalked towards her. “I told you I was fucking busy tonight. What are you doing here?”

She shook her head, disgusted with him and even more with herself. She’d had enough misogynistic crap for one day. She narrowed her eyes. “Apparently, I’m wasting my time.” With that, she rushed out the door. Stupid hot tears spilled down her face and she brushed them away.

When she reached the bar, her bravado crumbled. She glanced back, but the door at the end of the hall stayed firmly shut.

He didn’t care enough to even chase after her.

What an asshole. Scratch that. A slutty asshole.
Yep, this was officially the day from hell.
She really couldn’t take any more. Ryker dirty dancing with skanks and Carl trying to get in her pants. And she was an idiot with a steel sex toy lodged up her behind. She glanced up to see Miss Edna putting away some beer glasses and she decided to take it out on her.

“You could have warned me,” she cried. She slumped down in a chair by the bar, halting her retreat for the moment.

The woman shrugged. “Yeah, I could have, but I thought you needed to learn a lesson.”

She stared at Miss Edna like she’d gone insane. “Like what? What to do when your boyfriend likes sluts?”

Edna whistled. “Ooh. There’s some spirit! I didn’t think you had it in you. My son needs a woman with some grit.” Then, a bright smile lit up her face. “Honey, do you realize you just called him your boyfriend?”

“That’s a figure of speech,” she growled.

“Some people would call it a Freudian slip. Here, you look like you could use something to drink.” She retrieved a couple of beers from the fridge. “And don’t kid yourself, honey, all men like sluts.”

Elizabeth sighed. “Yeah, tell me about it.”

“How do you feel about my son?

“Right now?” she raised a brow. “I feel like slapping him”

The older woman grinned. “You know, the opposite of love is indifference. Not hate.”

She didn’t even want to think about that right now. She took the beer Miss Edna offered but didn’t open it. “I can’t stay, I have to—”

“Storm out? All hurt and offended?”

Well, now that she mentioned it, it did sound a bit stupid. “Um, well, yeah.”
Wasn’t that protocol for this sort of situation?

She raised her eyes skyward as though asking for help. “Dear Lord, both of you need some lessons on love. Don’t ever do that, honey, it’s too predictable. You let a man know that he has control over you. We never cry and we sure as hell never run away.”

Her eyes rounded. What is this ‘we’ nonsense? She had no plans to become an old lad. “We don’t?” she asked tiredly, opening the beer and gulping some of it down. It didn’t help. Ryker was an asshole and she hoped he got a case of crotch crickets from the skank twins.

“Nope, we get even. Men aren’t like us. They think with their dicks, so you gotta make them use their brains. You aren’t running. Instead, you are going to sit here with me and tell me what happened and we’ll figure out what to do.”

She hesitated, glancing over her shoulder.

Miss Edna seemed to read her mind. “He isn’t coming after you, not for a bit anyway, so we have some time. Come on then, give me the gory details.”

“Um, I don’t know. They were having sex, in front of everyone,” Elizabeth whispered, with a shudder. Sure, a little hedonism could be fun, but this was like some sort of creepy Roman orgy. God, she had thought watching Carl and Lisa swap spit at the wedding had been bad.

“And Ryker?” she prompted.

Elizabeth bit her lip.
Damn. A fresh stab of pain.
“He was, uh, dancing with two naked women.” She had been an idiot. Shepherd had tried to warn her about Ryker, but had she listened? No.

His mother didn’t seem surprised. “Yes, that’s the Horsemen for you. They like liquor, fighting, and easy women. Usually in that order.”

She made a face. “I take it this happens often?”

Miss Edna shrugged. “Not as much as you’d think. Duke got paroled and they wanted to welcome him home in style.” She sighed. “Personally, I would bake a cake, but they prefer to express their love with lots of skanky vag.”

She gaped at her, tripped up by a couple of things. Girls as party favors and the parole part.
Who were these people?!
“You know, this isn’t a very good pep talk,” she grouched.

“Who said it was a pep talk? I’m giving you some truth, honey.” She paused a moment. “I haven’t seen my son date a girl since his high school prom so I am hoping you will think about it.
About him
. This could be more than a cheap fling.” She rounded the bar and hopped on the stool beside Elizabeth.

“I wouldn’t send out the wedding invitations just yet. Your son sent me two D cup memos reminding me this is a fling.”

She shook her head. “No. He had to save face in front of the brothers. He’s a complicated man. Actually, both my sons are. Axel and Ryker had it rough growing up because my husband went to prison after a drug sting and then he died in jail after a throw down with another inmate. Ryker’s seen some shit and that makes him cautious about letting people in.”

She winced in involuntary sympathy. He’d led a hard life and so had his mother. “I’m sorry. That must have been tough.” She couldn’t imagine growing up without both of her parents.

Miss Edna shrugged it off. “That’s all in the past and it worked out. Me and the rest of the old ladies, we kept it all together and the hard work’s done now.”

She sighed. “I don’t belong here. I like him, but this isn’t my world.” Elizabeth didn’t even know if she wanted it to be her world.