Thunder (Desert Phantoms MC Book 1) Page 9

  She dropped the hand mirror on the chair and hauled Andy up by her arms and started jumping up and down. . .topless.

  “Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod.”

  Andy was extremely confused about what the fuck was going on. Over Lexi’s incantation, she heard Ripley give her client care instructions and unlock and relock the door. Ripley pulled back the curtain and stared at them before assessing the scene in front of her.

  “We are just one pervy cameraman with a rug and a lighting guy with a boner from making girl on girl porn. What the hell is going on in here?”

  “I’m curious myself,” Andy managed to eke out between Lexi’s squeals. Disentangling herself from her crazy, tits out friend, she reached for clear sanitary adhesives. “Be still and let me cover your ink.” Lexi stopped and lifted her boobs so Andy could cover the tattoo that ran under them and down her abdomen.

  “Oh, yeah, it’s got definite porn vibes now,” Ripley observed with a touch of humor. “Nice work. The lines are clean, and those jewels are tight.” Ripley would know, Andy had done a similar one on Ripley. Her boss was a beautiful badass who was the president of the Devil’s Handmaidens, a female MC. Andy had never even heard of such a thing before applying at Horns & Halo.

  “So, Tits, you going to tell me why you were bouncing around my shop with one of my best artists pressed up against your chest? Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad sight, but I think my client was a little uptight about it.” She threw her thumb over her shoulder in the direction her client just left. That was another thing she loved about working at Horns. Everyone was themselves, no pretense, even her boss.

  “Twenty minutes.”

  Andy and Ripley exchanged a look. She shrugged her shoulders when Ripley raised an eyebrow.

  Lexi pinged her head back and forth between them before pulling her top down over her head. “Jesus, did Thunder literally fuck you stupid? That is some dick if so.”

  Andy remained silent, Lexi became impatient.

  “Damn, he did dumb fuck you. Twenty minutes. Your twenty minutes. The minutes you’ve been obsessing over for three fucking years? The reason you’ve been practically celibate, past tense, of course.”

  Andy could hear her blood whooshing through her veins. Luckily her chair hadn’t moved because she ass-planted right back onto it. She hadn’t thought about that time since she was with Ni— Thunder. “Oh, shit, he did dick me dumb.”

  Three fucking years and all it took was getting fucked six ways to Sunday for her to let it go. As in, she didn’t really care anymore. That revelation was mind-boggling. If Lexi hadn’t mentioned it, she wouldn’t even have realized she’d Elsa’d that shit. Now that it was at the fore, she grasped how fucking freeing it was. She could breathe and live, and just be. Then a wave of sadness took over. Thunder had done the impossible, but now he was likely out of reach.

  Even if she could get his attention and convince him she wasn’t the lying slut he thought she was, could she get over the words they exchanged? Could she forgive him for cutting her deep and opening old wounds?

  Then it hit her.

  “Lexi, why are you bringing that up? I’ve been okay. Well, okay where that was concerned anyway.”

  Her best friend gave her a look of pity. One that made her bristle. The last time someone gave her that look, it was her boyfriend’s sister when she marched his skeletons out of the closet in some sick fucked-up parade of her failures.

  “Because chica, I think I know what you did with that twenty minutes.”

  “What?” Her words were breathless and bated with anticipation.

  “Not so much a what, but who. Thunder. Or rather, Killer.”

  Her brain felt like it was mired in peanut butter. She knew there was a point to Lexi’s words, but for the life of her, she couldn’t comprehend it or them.

  “Seriously, dude, it explains everything.” Lexi started ticking points off with her fingers while Ripley leaned against the wall and just listened and nodded. “Why he thinks you’re running a game. Why he thinks you lied, and why he made the slutty comments. You gave it to him good, but you don’t remember. So, of course, being a man, he thinks you’re playing games. No man wants to believe a woman could forget his dick. He has no idea you have a brain injury.”

  “Oh, shit.” This from her boss as she threw her acrylic stiletto tipped nailed hand over her mouth. Ripley was always the picture of composure, but she was looking like a gossipy college girl. Which spoke volumes.

  “Oh, shit what? Seriously, ladies, I am about to scream. I am more confused than I’ve been in a long fucking time and that is saying something.”

  “Ugh, I swear, If I didn’t love you like crazy, I’d dump your ass and upgrade friends. You told me before you left that night that you were going to, and I quote, risk it for the biscuit. I assumed it was like all the other nights you said you planned on talking to the fighter known as Killer, and you’d chicken shit out. But what if you didn’t? What if you and him got down and dirty? I mean, it makes sense.”

  “You’re reaching, Lexi. I know those guys are your friends and you want us to ride off into the sunset like we are in some MC romance novel, but that’s just wishful thinking.” She finally took a breath, but when she did, something scratched at the back of her mind.

  “Holy, fuck! How did I not see it before? You fit the description to a T. You’re the girl he railed in the locker room and hasn’t shut up about since. Fuck, wait’ll I tell the rest of the crew. Seriously, though, you got the golden snatch to hear him tell it.”

  Lexi beamed at Ripley’s words, but Andy was too busy trying to fit all the jigsaw pieces together, to actually see the picture yet.

  “I fucked Killer?”

  “Not only fucked him. Let’s just say, if he dicked you dumb last weekend, you snatched his ass stupid three years ago,” Ripley deadpanned.

  “This is glorious news, right Andy?” Lexi was so hopeful. It gutted Andy to disappoint her.

  “I’m not sure if that’s what happened.” She was now thoroughly fucked. Either she did him and couldn’t remember or she didn’t. That was its own fucked-up problem, but now she was back to obsessing over that twenty minutes again. More therapy, yay me.

  Andy cringed before the words even left her mouth, but she needed details. “God, I can’t believe I’m asking this, but, can you tell me what you know?” Having her boss be privy to her sex life was one thing, her being the only one in the room privy, well, that was just beyond fucked-up.

  It was a double-edged sword. If she didn’t have details—if in fact it actually happened—it wouldn’t help her remember. If she had details, that meant the man ran his mouth about a private matter.

  “According to Pound, you walked right up to him when he left the octagon and stuck your hands down his shorts. Every time Thunder would mention going to the fights to find you or ask around about you, Pound’s version would grow. As of last month, you gave him a full handy until he nutted right there.”

  Andy was horrified.

  “Calm down, like I said, it grew, so I would only put stock in the initial retelling, which was you grabbed his dick and then you two disappeared in back. You bolted in an unknown direction and Thunder wanted to find you on the spot. Totally pussy whipped from the get. But Granite called church, and they had to jet.”

  Andy’s hand worried at the scar on her temple.

  “Thunder went back every night there were fights until Granite ordered him to get his head out of his ass.”

  “It wasn’t a handy, I just wanted to know what I would be working with.”

  The two other women in the room damn near vacuumed the place with their sharp intakes.

  Why? “Oh, fuck, I remember.”

  13

  Thunder

  Thank fuck he’d been busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest, so his time spent obsessing over Andrea was kept to a minimum.

  Sin City Shooterz Guns & Range was beyond packed from the second he opened the door
s in the morning and locked them in the evening. It was always like that when cowboys were in town for various events.

  It was the hours between the closing up shop and opening again in the morning that were the problem. That time was the Andrea show running on a loop. It was worse than the first time. At least back then, he only wanted to fuck her again. Now he waffled between that and finding out what her game was, stopping it, and seeing her again. Yes, and fucking her.

  Thunder wanted to believe there was a logical explanation for everything but wasn’t that naïve. Shit didn’t work out like that in real life. Movies made people believe that it could all be wrapped up in a couple of hours with everyone happy with the way it played out.

  Life was messier than that and took a hell of a lot longer to clean up. There was rarely a resolution that made everyone happy. Someone was always fucked, and not in the pleasurable way.

  The waitress brought them another round. Thunder mindlessly drank. Not tasting, not watching the stage or tits. His body was there, but his mind wasn’t numb enough to stay with him.

  “Day-yum,” Trip swore. “Sexy Lexi is looking even better with the new ink. Shit, your girl is talented.”

  “Not my girl, man. I’ve told you that repeatedly. Seems each and every one of you have got a hearing problem.”

  “Could be if you wanted her to be.”

  Thunder slammed his mug down on the scarred wood surface, sloshing foam and beer all over. “Never gonna happen, brother. Can’t fuck around with pussy I can’t trust.”

  Trip imitated Thunder. Slamming down his beer and scowling. “First, brother. Save your mister tough guy bullshit where it applies to Andy. I was with you one too many times while you were trying to find her with nothing to go on. Second, stop with this pussy shit. You don’t even refer to the club girls or strippers the way you seem dead set on degrading a chick who, from my perspective, is the sort who could handle this life. That’s rare.” Finally, he stopped to take a breath.

  “And, whatever number I was on, just swallow your fucking pride and ask Lexi for her number. Call her and ask her to go grab a bite or go for a fucking ride, or hell, even to give you a blow job. Something, because this broody emo shit is getting fucking old.”

  Trip snatched his beer and angrily drank. Thunder didn’t really want to get into his feelings and shit at all. But certainly not while Andrea’s best friend was shaking her tits less than twenty feet in front of them. It was either that or his brothers were going to kill him.

  “She lied. Not for any discernable reason, either. Which the more I think about it, the more it means trouble for us. I don’t know her angle, but she has to have one.”

  Trip remained silent, just looking at him. You’d think the safety of the club would matter most, but apparently not.

  Fuck. None of his brothers knew about Melissa or the fucking number she did on his head. But if he had any hope of getting his brothers off his back, it was time.

  “Melissa and I had been together for a couple of years when I returned from overseas the final time. That was… well, that was when we lost Heisman. I was all kinds of fucked-up. But she was there. Everything I needed, or so it seemed.”

  Thunder raised his hand in the air and gave a loud whistle that could be heard over the music. It only took the waitress seconds to deliver a bottle of bourbon and fresh beers. One of the perks of being a Phantom in a Phantom club.

  Two shots down and he continued. “Long story short, she was taking care of me but would lie about the most ridiculous shit. She was gaslighting me. She’d been sleeping with my commander since before my second deployment. He was feeding her all the info she needed to push me over the edge. It was supposed to be me who died instead of Heisman. He was trying to off me over there as if there weren’t already enough fuckers wanting to take me out.”

  Thunder didn’t intend this level of pain sharing his shit. One minute he was uncomfortable talking about it but mostly numb to it, the next, his eyes stung and his soul bled. Someone he trusted implicitly, two someones, and they wanted him to eat his fucking pistol.

  “Fuck!” he ground out. Trip stood, snapped his fingers, and whistled at Buzz. He gave the wind it up and shut it down signal. In no time, customers and employees filed out while grumbling. One trusted waitress, one trusted dancer, and security outside was who was left. They knew the drill and complied.

  Trip sat back down and didn’t say a word. Just sat and drank with Thunder. Exactly what a brother should do. Once Thunder had his shit together, he thanked him.

  “No need, brother,” was all he responded with.

  “So, while I’d love nothing more than to have Andrea back in bed, I can’t do that until I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that she means no harm. I can’t know that until I know why she is acting like we never fucked.”

  “I’m sure you’ve already thought about it, but could she be embarrassed? Pound said she grabbed your dick right there in front of God and queen.”

  “That’s just the thing, man, she doesn’t get embarrassed. She walked out into the bar with her tits out and everything. She knows what she wants and takes it. Besides, it’s not that she was lying to her girlfriends about it, she looked me in the eye and acted like it never happened. It’s what we fought about before she bolted. There has to be a reason, but for the life of me I can’t figure it out. Even if she was running game to get inside the club, that wouldn’t be the way.”

  Trip took a drink and seemed as baffled as Thunder was.

  “So, now you understand my headspace. It brings up too much shit because it’s the exact kind of shit Melissa did to make me question everything I heard or saw. I cannot go back there. I just can’t.”

  Another shot. “I won’t make it this time.” The last confession he hadn’t meant for Trip’s ears.

  “Well, then, that settles it. She’s out. Brothers first. Now, you need insurance. If you remove the possibility, you can get your head on straight and move on. We need you top-notch to handle the Rainbow and Petty problem. With everything in motion, Andy can’t be living up here, man.” Trip tapped his own forehead before whistling and waving Lexi to them.

  She sauntered off the stage and prowled their way. Watching her move, it was clear why she was one of their top money makers. Lexi straddled Trip’s lap and fingered his hair. Grinding on him like she was dry humping her prom date. “I’ll dance for you as much as you want, handsome, but me and you? Still, never going to happen.”

  Trip held her hip, groaned, and thrust up against her. “Damn it, woman. Fine.” He removed his hands. “Message fucking received. However, if you change your mind…”

  “I won’t.”

  “Good.” He helped her stand and slapped her on the ass. “Because my boy needs some quality time.”

  Lexi’s eyes went wide and she tripped over her platform thigh-high boots.

  They reminded him of the ones Andrea had worn. Fuck. Trip called it, he needed to get Andy out of his head. Trip was also right about how to keep her out.

  “Fuck yeah, get your ass over here.”

  Lexi hesitated. Probably out of loyalty to her friend.

  “If you’re not up for it, sugar, just say the word and I’ll head back to the clubhouse and find some company there. Makes no difference to me.”

  If looks could kill, fuck if he wouldn’t be six foot under, but she got her ass in gear. Again, probably out of a sense of loyalty.

  She straddled his lap as she had Trip’s, but instead of a playful flirting look, her eyes held something that was a cross between nausea and fury. Lexi was a professional while on the clock, so she put her ass in gear. He groaned when her heat rubbed his dick through his jeans. He wasn’t the least bit interested in Lexi, but friction was friction. His body was reacting to a woman on his lap.

  As soon as he looked her in the eyes again and they weren’t a warmed brandy brown, he started to lose what little reaction he’d had.

  His anger and sadness surged. If he couldn’t
trust her enough to be with her but his dick couldn’t react to another woman, he was fucked. Or, not fucked.

  “So, Thunder,” Lexi purred but with an edge. “I haven’t seen you around lately. Who you been up to?” She was fishing. Thunder wanted to believe that Andrea had put her up to it, but it was probably all her being nosy. He also didn’t miss the who that should’ve been a what.

  “Don’t waste time beating around the bush. Say what you wanna say then get to fucking moving or get off my dick.”

  Shit, he’d never seen Lexi so pissed before. It wasn’t what he really wanted to say, but Trip was right. He had to do it. He had to end it, and rubbing her best friend’s barely covered snatch on his dick would do it.

  It was all he could do not to just shove Lexi off and ask how Andrea was doing. But one look from Trip and he steeled his spine.

  “Fine. You’re a dick. You treated my girl like a whore after I vouched for you guys. I even defended you after the fact. If you had questions, why not fucking ask them instead of going all alpha douche. Even after, why not call, and I don’t know, using your words to gather information before accusing. You might’ve learned a thing or two that could’ve explained everything. Instead, you come here with Mister-I-Can’t-Keep-It-In-My-Pants over there and pop a half chub with her best friend sitting on your lap.”

  She was practically shouting at him by the end. A lot of shots and memories had slowed his brain to a crawl, but he realized she’d said something very leading and then clammed up. What the fuck did she know? He shoved her off his lap.

  “What does that mean, Lexi?”

  She looked like a deer caught in headlights. It felt like she was on the verge of telling him something.

  “What possible excuse could she have for lying to my fucking face?”

  Crickets.

  “I should’ve known, easy civilian pussy comes with a side of fucking psycho. No fucking thanks.” His words made him sick, but he turned to Trip. “Let’s roll. I can get what I need at home. Fuck this.”