Mia

Chapter Sixteen

Mia

The ride to the funeral wasn't bad. Rose gave me some much needed information about the man whose funeral we are attending. I'm appreciative of her information, it is better than Thomas's. He just told me the man was a family friend.

According to Rose, his name was Herschel Lansbury. He was a coroner and has a daughter around my age who is a little morbid, but fun. She is his only daughter, his wife died a couple of years ago.

I feel bad for his daughter, I couldn't imagine losing my parents even though I haven't been back home to see them in six years. My father is a hard ass. All I've ever wanted to do was make him happy, but nothing I did no matter how high my grades or how many friends I dropped to please him I remained a failure in his eyes. After years of counseling and moving around the country deep down I still feel obligated to make that man proud. Just can't get my mind to wrap around the fact that nothing I do will ever be good enough for him.

Me and my mom still talk though.

The funeral is held at the cemetery. Rose and I weave through to make sure we don't step onto any headstones by accident. You can't really tell where they are because they are so old and grass covers some of them. We get under the canopy tent where everyone else is. The setup is beautiful. Roses decorate the closed casket, a big tall tent blocks the sun for the guests sitting under it, it's nice and bright outside, the smell of dew and freshly cut grass surrounds us.

A familiar roar of thunder sounds off in the distance. I don't even bother looking back. Five long rows of chairs feel the tent. The back two rows are filled with women, some of them look familiar, others I have never seen before. Rose sits next to her mother on the front row. I wanted to sit in one of the seats in the back that was still empty, but Rose dragged me to sit next to her in the seat at the edge of her row.

In the middle of our row sits a beautiful dark skinned woman dressed in all black. Her hair is to her knee in knots braids that are curled at the end. She has more facial piercings than me and is covered in more tattoos than Rose. Her eyes are slightly slanted and her lips are small, but plump. She must be the deceased's daughter Rose was telling me about. The woman doesn't seem sad as a matter of fact she doesn't seem to have any emotion displayed on her face at all. She has that blank look that I've seen others have. How they are able to mask all emotion is beyond me. If I feel something it automatically shows onto my face. Maybe that's why Rose said she was morbid.

The roar of several wide open throttles is louder now. There has to be around forty bikes, maybe even more. I watch as Mia looks back then quickly turns her head to look forward. "Is it Thomas?" I go to look, but Mia stops me.

"That isn't Thomas. It's Dollar and his chapter." She assures me while looking down at the program we were handed when we first entered the tent.

"What is he doing here?" I whisper back to her.

She gives me a small smile giving me a look that says she will tell me later. After spending time with Rose I've come to know her as a sweet person, but she's also messy. When we are together we talk a lot of shit because we both enjoy it. I guess I'm messy too.

Right on que another low quake of thunder sounds off in the distance. That better be Thomas.

After spending so much time with him I have this weird urge to want to see him right now, which is weird because when I'm with him, all I wanna do is get away. Now all I want is to smell his scent of tobacco mixed with fresh mint, hear his deep intimidating voice and the barely noticeable jingle of his dog tags hitting against his Jesus piece.

It's weird for me to feel this way. The man did kidnap me and threaten to kill my great uncle.

When the next hoard of bikers pull up I take initiative to look back. It's Thomas, Tim and some other bikers I'm familiar with seeing around the club. I've spent so much time in the club house it's become easy for me to recognize most of the faces in his group, especially the annoying ass prospects.

I watch for a little as Thomas dismounts his bike. He is riding his Indian today. He has three bikes, the Indian he's riding today, the Harley that he usually rides and some other bike he told me the name of, but I can't remember what it was. He spends a lot of time with his bikes outside the cabin while I sit in the house watching tv or making us food. That's typically my alone time without him breathing down my neck.

Nobody seems sad at this funeral. Not one person dropped a tear as we sat and listened to the sad gospel music and waited for all the attendees to show up. More clubs of bikers show up with different cuts. All the bikers are lined up behind the tent. The funeral service starts eventually.

The funeral service is short and sweet; the reverend says very few words. After everyone says their final goodbyes and Herschel is lowered into the ground the sad music stops and everyone leaves their seats.

I'm tugged into the familiar embrace of Demi who has been sitting a seat down from me the entire time. She hugs me like she hasn't seen me in days when I had just seen her last night. Getting to know her I've realized that Demi has a very bright personality, I'm guessing that's where Rose gets it from. Don't get me wrong she not to be fucked with, I seen her put bikers ten times her size in their place.

She breaks the hug to take in my attire while still holding me close to her. I can smell her sweet floral perfume. "Sweet girl you're glowing." She smiles. There hasn't been a time that I've seen Demi and she hasn't given me a complement.

"Thank you." I say returning her a smile.

She takes my hands into hers. "I'll see you back at the club tonight in a minute." She says quickly before giving me one more hug. I watch her as she whisks away greeting other people.

Alone I look to my side for Rose. When I don't find her next to me I look around to see she's away from the group talking with Trever. The conversation seems mildly intense. With a slight shrug I chop it up to her telling me about it later.

"Mia," Thomas says just mere inches away from my ear, I jump slightly. My name rings in my head and my heart beats faster. Turning I'm met with his stormy gray eyes.

I inhale his scent. "Thomas." I say back looking up at him with a slight smile.

He doesn't say anything back, taking my jaw into his hand, large rings are on almost every finger. His calloused hand feels good across my soft cheeks. Leaning down he places a peck on my lips. Yet again getting my lipgloss on his lips.

I pull away from him slightly. I've never been one for public displays of affection.

His hand drops from my jaw. "I've missed you." He smirks while placing a string of my hair behind my ear.

"We were just together an hour ago." I roll my eyes.

He Grins down at me, giving me direct eye contact. "An hour away from you feels too long." he wraps his arm around my waist guiding me through the cemetery. I take notice that people are starting to leave.

"Are you taking me back?" I ask him, seeing that he's leading me to his bike. There is no way I'm letting him put me into that death trap. "I'm not getting onto that." I put my foot down

He looks down at me with his signature smirk and his cold gray eyes. "You're crazy if you think I'd let anything happen to you." His southern accent makes everything sound more easy. "Do you trust me, sweet cheeks?"

"About as far as I can throw you." I mock one of the sayings I've heard Demi say around the club house.

Thomas chuckles, "Come on you're braver than this. Be happy I'm giving you a heads up I could just throw you on then take off and you'll have no option but to hold on." He slaps my butt softly.

I look up at him with wide eyes. "Fine" I say, allowing him to lift me onto the bike. He puts a helmet on me, snapping it under my cheek before hopping on himself.

When the bike starts the vibration catches me off guard. Holding my breath I lean forward and clutch onto his waist. Before I have time to beg him to let me off the death trap we're already down the road. I squeeze his waist tightly, digging my nails into his cut.

I'm too scared to look up so I keep my face pressed into his shirt. The ride itself is smooth, I can feel the wind picking up my hair. His bike is loud, but it's really the sound of air rushing past my ears that scare me.

Easing up some I pull my face from inside of his shit. All I see is the blurry mix of colors whisking past. I can't believe I really let this man put me on this thing.