Concealed Force

Chapter 20

She tried to insist Reid rest all the next day, sure that his body needed time to heal, but just after lunch he was called to help a member whose bike had broken down twenty miles away, and then he'd barely had time to take his boots off before he was being summoned to a club meeting.

She watched him traipse off with the other brothers, all wearing their 'cuts'—Reid had told her she had to stop referring to them as sleeveless jackets—and went to get snacks from the vending machine. She'd learned his favorites were Fritos Hoops (which she'd now got a taste for herself) and Famous Amos's chocolate chip cookies, and thought it would be nice to stock up.

When she got back to the room Alyssa was waiting outside. "Wanna come to a party?"

"Now? Reid's just gone to a meeting."'

"I know. Most of them are there. Which means it's a good time for us girls to have a little fun of our own. Don't look so scared, princess, I'm just talking a few drinks on the roof."

"Oh. Okay, that sounds good. I'll just stick these inside." Laura held up the snack packets.

"You want to be careful you don't ruin your complexion with those."

"They're for Reid. His favorites."

"Huh." She looked between Laura's face and her armful of snacks. "You're into him, aren't you?"

Laura couldn't help her startled glance. "You know how it is," she said, quickly. "Anything to put him in a good mood. Keep him sweet."

She opened the door and threw the packets on the bed before locking up again and following Alyssa to the laundry room. She couldn't tell if she'd made a mistake or not, if it was suspicious or normal to like Reid, or if it even mattered. Alyssa seemed so free with her opinions on the other men in this place, Laura felt she could say she wanted to murder him or marry him and the other woman would just shrug.

It was dark inside the laundry room, though a couple of tumble dryers whirred, drowning out any other noise, and smelling faintly of burning. As they made their way toward the skylight, Laura had a moment's fear that she was being set up, that the club had figured out what was going on between her and Reid, and that the woman she'd thought was a friend was leading her to her death.

But once she climbed on to the roof she relaxed. There were a dozen other women there, including Vicky, lying on the concrete roof, which was still warm from being baked all day by the sun. The sound of cicadas was the only music, as they didn't want to draw attention to themselves up there, and the light was kept low to the ground: just a couple of flashlights lying on their sides. The floodlights of the courtyard bled into the night and lit up the rest of the place enough.

Laura crawled along the roof to find a spot and accepted a cup from a woman she'd seen at the club meet. The liquid inside turned out to be neat vodka and she had to suppress a grimace.

"That's Tara," Alyssa said.

"Oh, nice to meet you, I'm Laura."

"She knows who you are, princess," Alyssa said with a smirk. "You're famous around here."

Laura gave a shaky laugh at that and then gulped down some more vodka.

"Want some cranberry with that?" Tara asked.

"God, yes. Thank you." That earned her a laugh along with the mixer and she sank back against the low wall behind her, realizing she was kind of having fun.

There was some chat about other women she didn't know (who'd been banned from coming back to the compound for various reasons), about some of the bikers (and their weird habits), about the best jobs the girls ever had (Alyssa had been a baker) and the most insulting thing anyone had ever said to them (Tara was once told she had a face that looked like a vagina, whatever that meant). Then there was a conversation about an argument between Switch and someone called Hammer."