Leather and Lace

~ Looking Back ~

The song is Thunderstruck by ACDC.... Enjoy! West's sunglasses up top.

"Where's your sunglasses? You're never without those things." I turned around at the sound of Bullet's voice in my ear. Self consciously I reached for them where they were usually hooked to the collar of my shirt. Then I remembered what happened this afternoon at the strip mall. An ordinary day grabbing some essentials for the compound turned out to be not so ordinary. I was heading towards the hardware store with Roadie when female coming out of that new pet shop had been knocked over by some punk kid who needed a lesson in manners. What drew my attention was she'd crawled on her hands and knees patting the ground around her. I thought it kind of odd that she did that until I noticed a red and white walking cane beside her. It'd really pissed me off that someone would knock down a blind woman with such disregard. When I approached her she seemed surprised, and a little embarrassed.

When she'd looked up at with those pale blue eyes it felt as though I'd been struck by lightening. It sounded cheesy even to me, but that's exactly what I felt like happened. It didn't help when I felt an electric shock reenforcing the lightening struck feeling when I'd touched her. I swallowed hard tamping down the urge to turn tail and haul ass out of there as fast as I could. But the man my grandmother raised me to be reared his head. I silently watched her waiting for a response when I asked her if she was okay. She seemed flustered and a little embarrassed by the situation. I couldn't help the smile when she blushed when she told me that she'd tripped. I hated liars but I could understand why she'd done it.

To have a total stranger approach you at a vulnerable moment like that would have embarrassed me too in her shoes. So I let it slide and helped her to her feet checking her over for injuries. She'd skinned her palms up pretty good during the fall but had been unharmed otherwise. She hadn't said anything for a long while her head turning this way or that. Then she'd awkwardly asked if I saw her phone. Now there was a lot of names I've called women but adorable hadn't been one of them. But that's exactly how she looked right that second. Her face had been bright red as she asked for help. I quickly found her phone and collected the rest of her belongings. The lense of her sunglasses came out so they'd been useless. My aunt Josie was born blind so I knew how important sunglasses were to people. Some had severe light sensitivity and needed sunglasses during the day. Without thinking I'd taken mine from my shirt and given them to her. Those sunglasses had been the only thing I had to remind me of my aunt.

She was quite eccentric but I loved that woman. She refused to wear women's sunglasses because they were ugly despite the fact she couldn't see them to tell. So when I was sixteen I got a job working menial tasks and bought her a brand new pair of men's Ray Bans sunglasses. When she died of a heart attack it was the only thing I took to remember her by. At the time I hadn't thought anything by offering the woman them to wear. It'd been instinct. Thinking back on it now I gave them to a woman that I'd probably never see again. Or the fact that I didn't even ask what her name was. You're a damned fool when it comes to women in distress. I always had been and thus would forever be my curse. What shocks me is that I didn't care. I'd done a good deed and helped her and couldn't bring myself to regret my impulsive actions.

"You okay, man? You got a stupid ass smile on your face." I blinked bringing myself out of thought and out of my head and looked at Bullet. There was no mistaking the concern in his eyes. I nodded and took another slug of my beer. "Yes, you old mother hen. I'm fine now go piss someone else off for a change." He laughed good naturedly and shook his head at me. My diversion worked and the subject had changed. Or so I thought until he said. "I know that look, that feeling. It's happened a time or two for me too." I wanted to ask what the hell was he talking about until I caught who he was talking about across the room. Adria Cortez, or rather Adria Morgan now. She was the youngest child and only daughter of of José Cortez. The Alpha, aka President, of the Rogue Wolves MC. Every man who joined the Pack, as we affectionately called our group, had one rule about his daughter.