Happy Lowman is the quintessential biker badass. He loves the biker lifestyle: drinking, carousing, and taking care of business. What happens when fate literally puts him in the path of a woman that has always lived a simpler life? Will he be able t...
Due to the interest shown in this story and my own curiosity to see what the characters have to say, I'm lengthening my one-shot Ride Or Die, into a full fan-fiction. The first two chapters will be the first and second part of the one-shot. Enjoy and happy reading!
Josie turned the radio up and tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she sang along to the song playing. As she turned onto her road, her headlights cut through the fog left over from the storms that had swept through the area earlier in the evening. She was later than she usually was, but the bar had been busy and she hadn't felt right leaving Levi by himself at the end of her shift.
Her old truck splashed through the puddles left in her driveway as she turned off of the main road. She'd barely started down the lane when her headlights hit something laying right in her path. She hit the brakes, cursing to herself as the truck stopped within feet of what looked like a man lying face down in the mud.
She leaned over and grabbed the flashlight out of the glove compartment, her fingers hesitating over the handgun that she carried for protection. She'd heard of women being raped by men pretending to be hurt or out of commission, but she didn't think that was the case here, or at least she hoped it wasn't.
As she got out of the truck and quickly made her way to the prone figure, she prayed that the person was at least alive. It would ruin her night to have to deal with the county coroner, not to mention that it wouldn't do the stranger any good either. She knelt next to the body, reaching out to turn the person over and shine her light on their face. As the beam panned over what she could now see was a man, she cursed at the sheer amount of blood that she saw splashed over his clothes and what skin was visible.
"Jesus Christ, that's a lot of blood."
She heard a cough, then a deep, raspy voice met her ears over the rumble of her truck's engine. "Not all mine, little girl."
She jumped, giving out a little squeak of surprise as she brought the flashlight up to illuminate his face, seeing him staring at her through slitted lids. "Fuck, you scared me to death! Glad to see that you're alive though. That's a mark in your favor, although I'm not sure I want to know where all the blood came from if it isn't yours." She shook her head as lightning lit up the night, followed by the menacing rumble of thunder. "Think you can stand up, sweet pea? We're about to get wet."
He gave a short nod before trying to sit up. Josie shook her head and grabbed his arm, helping him to sit then stand on wobbly legs. She had to crane her neck to look up at him, he was so much taller than she was. She'd guess he was at least six feet tall, if not a little more. She wrapped his arm around her shoulders and helped him get into the truck before slamming the door and running around to the driver's side. She drove as fast as she could hazard down the lane until she pulled up beside a white two-story farmhouse.
She got him inside the house just as the rain started, hitting the tin roof of the porch outside in a loud symphony. She looked at him as he leaned against the wall, breathing heavily from the exertion of walking inside. "You think you can make it upstairs to the bedroom?"
He nodded, pushing himself off of the wall and taking unsteady steps toward the staircase. She chuckled as she wrapped an arm around his waist for support. He glared down at her from pain-filled eyes. "I need a phone, little girl."
Josie rolled her eyes as they took the stairs one at a time until they made it to the upstairs landing. "No, what you need right now is to do what I tell you to." She managed to guide him into the guest bedroom down the hall from hers and helped him sit down on the bed. She made a mental note that she would have to get her grandma's quilt dry-cleaned, quirking her lips when she thought that Earl at the dry-cleaners was going to have a stroke. "Now, help me get your clothes off so that I can see exactly where you're hurt, sweet pea."
Without a word, he slowly peeled off the leather vest he was wearing and handed it to her. She laid it across the armchair beside the bed and turned back, suddenly unable to do anything but stare as he pulled his shirt off. The man was covered in tattoos from his neck to the waistband of his jeans. Now, in the light of the bedroom, she could see that under the mud, he even had a tattoo of a snake on top of his head.
He reached behind his back and brought his hand back around, silently handing her the gun he had pulled from his jeans. She just nodded and took it, making sure the safety was on before laying it on the bedside table. When he just stared at her, she lifted a brow. "Pants too, buttercup. You can leave your underwear on."
For the first time, she saw the ghost of a smile grace his lips even though it didn't reach his eyes. "You're assuming that I'm wearing any, little girl."
She rolled her eyes, before kneeling down in front of him to remove his boots. "Yeah, whatever sweet pea."
She looked up in time to see him shake his head. "Happy."
Josie tilted her head in question. "Huh?"
"My name. It's Happy Lowman."
She quirked her lip. "Oh. Mine's Josie Harper. Short for Josephine." She pointed at him. "Pants, Happy."
He sighed and stood up to remove his jeans, cringing when he moved his arm the wrong way. Once he was down to a pair of boxers and his socks, She walked around him in a circle, taking inventory of his injuries. He had a good-sized goose egg and gash on his forehead, what looked like a bullet wound in his shoulder, and a graze on his thigh. She sighed and turned the covers back on the bed before motioning for him to lay down.
She went to the bathroom down the hall and quickly returned with a basin of water, some towels, and the first aid kit. She worked on his head first, quickly sewing up the cut and covering it. Next, she looked at his shoulder, satisfied when she saw that the bullet had passed through the fleshy part right under his shoulder blade. She sewed that up then treated the bullet graze on his thigh.
By the time she was finished, Happy looked done in. She smiled at him as she pulled the covers up over his body. She saw him take a deep breath then it seemed like his whole body relaxed into the bed. She leaned down to kiss him on the forehead, whispering against his skin.
