Page 111 of Dirty Like Jude
Maybe I just hadn’t figured out how to drag my heart totally out of the pastyet.
* * *
Ieasedmy Harley into my brother’s garage with an anvil in mychest.
The garage sat behind the house where Piper lived with a couple of other Kings. He’d wanted me to move in when I finished high school and moved out of Mom’s, instead of moving in with Jesse and thoseguys.
Ididn’t.
The house was decent, nothing special, but the garage was huge. Though it was a disappointment to my brother, I didn’t share his love of restoring motorcycles. I was more like our dad that way; preferred to ride and let someone else do the mechanical work. But I didn’t mind tinkering, helping him out and tuning up my own bikes. Mostly because it meant spending time with mybrother.
Not thatday.
That day, I wasn’t there for brotime.
I was pretty damn sure Piper wouldn’t give a flying fuck that I’d hooked up with Roni last night,but. After I’d driven her home in the middle of the night, kissed her good night and basically grinned to myself all the way home, I’d run into Jesse. The guys were back from Dylan’s party; Brody was in bed, Zane was in the bathroom, and Jesse was in the kitchen when I walked in. He’d taken one look at me and asked, with a shit-eating grin, “Where’d you disappearto?”
All I said was, “Took Roni for a ride,” and for sure, the fucker could read it all overme.
He raised an eyebrow. Then he said something that kinda stopped my heart. “Pipe okay withthat?”
Of course Piper was okay with it. He had no interest inRoni.
But then it stayed on my mind all night, and what started as an uncomfortable, tight feeling in my chest grew into a motherfucking anvil by the time morningcame.
So I got my ass on my bike and went to see my brother. If there was gonna be any kind of problem, the sooner I got this over with—and hopefully diffused the bomb—thebetter.
I just had to make sure Piper saw Roni Webber the same way I saw her, in onerespect.
Available.
Tome.
Because if there was one thing I’d learned about my brothers in the MC—including Piper—it was that they were territorial as fuck about women. If they wanted tobe.
No matter if they had a right to be ornot.
Which meant that even if he wasn’t involved with Roni, Piper might somehow still see her as histerritory.
Fucked up, but that’s just how itwas.
I’d never thought of Roni as Piper’s territory, even when she was chasing after him—but then I’d never fucked her before,either.
It wasn’t like I was gonna let my brother tell me I couldn’t have her. But if there was any territorial line to be drawn, I needed to draw it. Rightnow.
I shut off my bike, and that Bob Marley remix with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry was playing over the stereo system. And you know when a great song gets fucking ruined foryou?
Thatsong.
Thatday.
We made small talk for about five seconds, while I pretended to be interested in the ’57 BMW R26 he was restoring, the one our dad had given him. Then I came right out withit.
“You know RoniWebber?”
“Who?”
I stared at him.Seriously?
