Ride Or Die (Hell's Tribe MC Series) [Book 5]

Chapter 1: Reality Check

~Carter~

One month later...

I'd just gotten home—or back to Cash's place, only ten minutes before I heard my phone ringing compulsively. I had just hopped in the shower, hoping to scrub away the scent of beer and weed before my brother got home. I'd gone to some frat party over at U of U, but it had been so lame that I decided to come home early and not give Cash a heart attack by staying out all night. I thought I would spend the rest of the night enjoying having the house to myself with a nice hot shower, but my ringing phone was enough to have me hop out and answer it, even with shampoo still in my hair. I groaned when I saw all three missed calls were from my mother. I swear she didn't call me this much when she was in town, but now that she and dad had taken an extended trip to Florida, she took up permanent residence up my ass. She worried being away from me, and so did dad— both of them fearing the worst of me. I knew they both assumed that if left to my own devices, I would somehow find a way to get into a lot more than my usual trouble—and they weren't exactly wrong. Living with Cash, although not my ideal situation, actually seemed to be working out better than living with my parents had. While I was pissed off beyond belief when they first insisted I move in with my brother while they went off to take care of Grandma Lynn, it hadn't been all that bad. Sure, Cash often questioned where I was going, when I'd be home, and if I thought my outfit was appropriate, but after a few times of learning I was never gonna give him the answers he wanted to hear, he sort of gave up. Maybe he realized that he wasn't my parent and he didn't have to try and act like one, or maybe someone in this family had finally come to their senses and realized that at eighteen, I should probably be off at college and living on my own anyway.

Normal families accepted that kind of thing as a part of growing up, but not mine.

No.

I didn't get to move to New York and get to grow up like a normal girl. My dreams of an exciting career in fashion died at about the same moment my dad had learned of my plans. As a result, I was forced to turn down my offer of admissions to NYU and take a gap year while I waited to re-apply to more local schools in the fall. As a result, I was wasting away in Tooele, working at a shitty coffee shop, while all of my best friends and classmates were beginning new chapters all over the country.

Lucky me.

Mom was lucky I was even talking to her after she'd refused to fight against dad's wishes. I knew she was more open to the idea of me moving across the country, but when he had put his foot down for good, she just went with it. Apparently, neither one of my parents trusted me enough to make it on my own, using the fact that I was too reckless to keep it together without someone watching over me, or there to bail me out at a moment's notice. Granted, I hadn't instilled a lot of confidence in them over the last few years, but I was a child then. I was eighteen now—officially an adult. I could join the army if I wanted to, but I couldn't go off to college in New York without my parent's blowing a gasket. While I very well could have gone off to New York anyway, I would be completely on my own if I did that. My grades weren't that good, and I had gotten into NYU by the skin of my teeth because I'd gotten a killer score on my SAT's. I was good enough to get in, but not enough to get any kind of scholarships or bursaries for housing. Not to mention, being alone in New York without a Tribe charter nearby had been daunting, and not having the support of my family would just make that worse.

In the end, I had made the final decision to turn down the offer, but only because I didn't have the support of my family to push me to make the move. Mom was all bent out of shape over the fact that I was being cold with her, but dad seemed even more hurt that I'd barely talked to him since they left for Florida a few weeks ago.

Begrudgingly, I answered my phone when it rang again, hanging out of the shower curtain as I dripped soapy water onto the tiled floor.

"Hello?" I asked into the receiver, careful not to hold my phone directly against my wet skin.