Built for Sin: Rebel Souls MC #3

0.03 Bender

It was just a few days before Christmas. I'd met Carrie a little less than a month ago. Every time I saw her, I tried to talk to her. She blocked me at every turn. Repeatedly, I'd shamelessly begged for five minutes of her time. Every time I saw her basically.

We'd interacted. She'd been here with Charlie and I'd shown up with Hawk. She was polite but short. What she didn't know was that with every glimpse I got of her, I wanted her more and more. Hawk had been a huge help. When I'd asked what she did for a living, I'd already known she was a nurse. And that was the only answer I got from her. Hawk had said, "tell me about your job," and the words had poured from her.

She was so passionate about her work. Her eyes lit up as she told stories about helping her patients. She was also taking classes to become nutrition certified and certified in hormone disorders. When I'd asked why she'd chosen to pursue that followup education, she ignored me. And she ignored Hawk when he asked too.

It meant something to her.

When I'd asked about what she liked to do for fun, she'd said she didn't have any free time.

But when she and Charlie got going I'd learned she loved to read, have dance parties, that she liked to help her dad work on his 1967 camero, and that she was an excellent cook and baker. She'd even wanted to own her own restaurant before she'd decided on nursing.

When ever I'd asked to speak to her for five minutes alone she'd brushed me off. But when Rachel had come in, wanting to run a few pregnancy questions by her, she had all the time in the world. It hadn't been that she didn't have the time as she said. It was that she hadn't had the time for me.

Hawk and Nathan kept telling me to give up, that she wasn't the one. And then the fuckers swore up and down that's not the way they meant it when I threatened to tell the their old ladies what they'd said.

I'd followed up by asking them if they would have given up on Charlie or Rachel.

They wouldn't have.

Hell, Nathan had to chase Rachel three separate times when she ran. Now she was carrying his kid and they were married.

I knew Carrie didn't believe me. But I wouldn't give up on her.

But I was man enough to know when I needed help. Which was how I ended up standing outside Hawk's bedroom door, knocking softly when I knew Hawk was away and Charlie was alone.

"Hey, Bender. Hawk isn't here."

"I know. I came to ask for your help." She raised her eyebrow at me. "With Carrie."

She pulled the door all the open, allowing me to step inside and sit on Hawk's desk chair.

"What's up?"

"I know there's probably some questions I have that you won't or can't answer, but she's so skittish. I can't get her to speak to me. She runs every time she sees me. And if she doesn't there's always a buffer of at least two other people around us."

"Before I help you, you need to tell me something."

"Anything," I agreed readily. Whatever she needed to hear I'd tell her.

"What went through your mind the first time you saw Carrie?"

"You mean when I saw her through your bedroom window? That first time? Or when I saw her at the mall the day you all showed up at the club and just knew that she was the girl from the window. Or what I thought the moment she stepped foot into the club?"

"All three," she said seriously.

I laughed before indulging her. "The last time Hawk and I were at your dad's. We heard one of you on the steps. When we left I saw Carrie in the window. She was speaking to you and although I couldn't hear her, I knew she was feeling some type of strong emotion. Anger, fear, joy. She was talking with her hands. Now that I know your relationship, how skittish she is around the club, I'm assuming she was yelling at you."