Page 28 of Venom's Sting
His expression turns warm. “You really care so much about what happens to me?”
I bring my hand up to cup the side of his face and caress his cheek with my thumb. We can’t seem to stop gazing into each other’s eyes. I tell him softly, “Yeah, I do care about what happens to you, Serp.”
A smile ghosts over his face. Before he can say something sweet, I interject some levity into our situation. “I can’t let anything happen to you because I’ve still got two more questions to ask.”
He laughs, clearly amused by my teasing.
I realize that a happy Ven is twice as handsome as a serious one. Without giving him a chance to object, I lean over and give him another kiss. “That makes three.”
“I’m beginning to think this kissing has nothing to do with wheedling information out of me. You just like throwing a lip lock down on me whenever you fancy.”
“Anything’s possible,” I tell him before hopping up, I dust off the back of my pants and help him load the small drone I wasusing back into the special housing he’s added to his motorcycle to transport them.
When we gear up and get back onto his bike, the sensation of having the wind blowing over me is addictive. I can totally see why these bikers in the Savage Legion love to ride the open road. It feels like a kind of freedom I’ve never realized was possible.
Having my arms around him feels more intimate now that I’ve kissed him. I’m falling for this guy, harder and faster than I ever thought possible. Meeting his lovely mother was just the reprieve I needed from the endless grind of keeping my mom’s case going.
We finally get back to the clubhouse in the late afternoon. The prospects have set up a grill outside, one of the prospects seems to be in charge of the cooking and in addition to the grilled meat he brings out trays of delicious looking canapes. I hadn’t thought I was hungry, but once I started, I made short work of my plateful.
***
When Ven and a handful of the other brothers leave to retrieve his drone and search for the van, I decide to hang out in the bar area to keep from worrying myself sick. I dared not get my hopes up that they would find my mom tonight for fear of getting let down. I hope and pray they do find her, because I need to know she’s safe and not being abused by her asshole father. My grandfather has always been flat-out mean.
The bar is filled with brothers who didn’t go with Ven. There are more club girls than I remember, and all the prospects are hard at work. It seems like business as usual. My reason for heading to the bar is to learn more about what bar tending hereinvolves. I have to learn, because I need the job they offered me. My request for time off was answered with a curt reply from my boss telling me not to bother coming in again. I’d been upset and had wanted to argue since I got injured working there. But in the end, I just let it go, I have more to worry about right now.
I turn my gaze to the young prospect behind the bar, I like Evan—he’s polite, respectful, and enjoys chatting. Quite the opposite of some of the surly teenagers who used to come into the coffee shop.
“Are you here just to hang out?” Evan asks.
“Nope, I’m here to learn how to mix drinks,” I say chipperly.
He glances up at my bruised face and the cut on my lip and responds doubtfully, “If any of the brothers found you behind the bar in your condition, they’d skin me alive. I’m supposed to be protecting the old ladies not exploiting them when they’re still healing up from a beatdown.”
The last thing I want to do is get Evan in trouble with the brothers. Arguing with the young prospect also seems kind of rude, so I slide onto one of the barstools. “Alright. Tonight, I’ll learn by watching.” Remembering what he said the other day about not being old enough to pour drinks, I ask, “Should you be behind the bar?”
“It’s all cool,” he says looking proud as punch. “I’m just helping out, I’m not serving alcohol.”
I nod, though my eyes go to the bottle of beer in his hands.
Before I have a chance to say anything a woman’s voice calls out, “Evan, how many times have I told you, get out from behind the bar. Do you want me to tell your mom?”
Quick as a flash Evan hops over the bar to join me on the other side. I turn to look at who spoke and see two women wearing property cuts coming towards me.
“Don’t tell mom,” Evan says sheepishly. “I wasn’t serving alcohol, honestly. I know you’d get into trouble if I did. I was just gonna hand Warren a bottle of beer.”
The woman, who’s super pretty with short spiky hair raises an eyebrow at him, “I’ve got four kids and taught for years. You think I can’t spot a lie? You know the rules. It’s not just me being a party pooper, the club and your parents could get into serious trouble.”
Even hangs his head, but then the woman ruffles his hair, “I’m not gonna tell Mattie, but seriously, no working the bar. Vapor and Haze are round the back, I think they’re looking for you, something about designing flash for the tattoo parlor.”
With that Evan skedaddles off with a grin on his face, the woman sits beside me and her friend on the other.
She turns to me and puts her hand out for me to shake. “My name’s Cleo and I’m the club president’s old lady.”
I shake her hand and respond, “I was introduced to Siege the other day. He seems like a nice man.”
“Yeah, he is. All the brothers here are good, decent men.” Gesturing to the other woman, she says, “This is Anna, Haze’s old lady. We’re both wives, but as you’ve no doubt realized, not all old ladies are wives.”
Glancing down at my property cut, I nod. “Yeah, I think I fall into that category myself.” I can’t help but wonder if she knows that I’m in a fake relationship with Ven. I hate being deceitfulwith these nice ladies. As if intuiting what I was thinking by the expression on my face, she winks at me. “Yeah, Siege tells me almost everything. Most MC presidents don’t, but we’ve learned to trust each other that way.”