Revive (Storm MC #3) (3 page)

Our brother was always late.  “He’ll be here soon,” I answered as I walked towards her.  “What are you cooking?”

“That beef casserole that Mum likes.”

I peered into the pot and then eyed her.  “Seriously?  You need to read the recipe to make that?”

Another dirty look from her.  “You want to make it?”

Leaning my back against the bench, I muttered, “Well I sure as shit wouldn’t need the recipe.  By the looks of it, you need to add the mushrooms now.”

She continued to scowl at me, but did as I suggested before saying, “Mum doesn’t like Carla’s boyfriend either.  You know that, right?”

“I figured.  Not sure why she lets him in the house though.”

“Because Carla still lives here and she respects her enough to let her live her own life.”

It was hurting my ears to listen to this shit.  “Babe, you’ve got ten years on Carla and I’ve got twelve, and we both fuckin’ know that she can do a lot better than that prick.  He shared his dick around the last time they were together; I’m not sure what makes her think this time will be different.”

“She’s young, Nash.  She grew up with no father figure except for you and Jamison, and while you both did an amazing job, she’s suffered because of Dad leaving us.  Her self worth is shot to shit and so she lets guys treat her like Jesse does.”

“Fuck, Erika, why do you always have to be so fuckin’ understanding of stuff?  For once, why can’t you join the rest of us and admit what a prick he is?  And that Carla needs to open her eyes and see what’s right in front of her.”

“I’m not understanding,” she huffed, “I’m just giving you my opinion on why she is the way she is.”

Before I could say anything more, Jamison made his entrance, his arms full with flowers, wine and chocolate.  He lifted his chin at me before filling the kitchen table with his gifts, and asked,  “You in trouble again, shithead?”

“Always,” I grinned at Erika who rolled her eyes at me.  I nodded at the stuff he’d put on the table, “What are you sucking up to Mum for?”

“It’s Mother’s Day, you’re supposed to bring presents.  You were probably too busy screwing some chick to go shopping, weren’t you?”

I smirked at him, “Well, if you’ve got it, use it.  Next time you feel the urge to hit the shops, just send your woman over to me; I’ll take care of her for you.”

“Now see that’s where you’re wrong, little brother.  The way I treat a woman when I take her shopping?  Guarantees me the best fucking orgasm when I get her home.”

Erika butted in, “God, will you two ever grow up?”  She’d finished with the casserole and was now cleaning up.  Pointing at the cupboards, she said, “Nash, you need to set the table; Jamison, you can help me with the food.”

Anyone would have thought that Erika was the oldest from the way she bossed us around.  I saluted her.  “Yes, boss.”

She paused for a moment, and asked,  “Why can’t you always just do what I say?”

“My middle name’s not easy, babe.”

Jamison chuckled.  “You sure about that?  I reckon we could find a football stadium of women who would disagree with that.”

Grinning, I nodded, “Probably right there, asshole.”

Erika just shook her head at me and Jamison continued laughing.  The earlier tension between my sister and I had eased but the heaviness in my chest lingered.  Mother’s Day never failed to fuck with me and today she’d dug her claws in deep.

***

“W
ill I see you again this week?” my mother asked as she hugged me goodbye.

“Probably not, I’ve got a lot going on at the club.”

She let me go and I reached for Carla.  Wrapping my arms around her, I whispered in her ear, “You need to ditch that asshole.”

She tried to pull away from me but I tightened my hold on her. 

“Nash, let me go,” she complained, fighting me.

Doing as she asked, I stepped back and caught her gaze, “You deserve so much better.  I wish you could see that.”

“Yeah, like you do too,” she countered.

“I don’t fuckin’ deserve anything,” I muttered, and turned to Erika.  “You still having problems with your neighbour?”

“Yeah, he’s getting worse, playing his music loud till all hours and yelling abuse at me whenever I try and talk to him about it.  I actually think he’s got a mental health problem, because he’s so up and down.”

I scowled.  “Doesn’t excuse his behaviour.  Call me the next time it happens, okay?”

She sighed.  “Nash, you’ll only make things worse.  I think I’ll just call the police next time.”

“Fuck that, Erika.  They’ll do jack shit.  You let me talk to him once and he won’t give you grief again.”

She raised a brow.  “So you’ll talk to him?  Or will you resort to your favourite way of dealing with stuff?”

“Babe, my favourite way of doing stuff
is
with my mouth.”  I winked at her.  She was far too uptight.

She rolled her eyes.  “You know what I mean.”

“I’ll only punch the motherfucker if he needs it.  He listens to what I have to say, and promises not to annoy you anymore, then we’ll all be happy and no-one will end up with broken bones.”

She slung her bag over her shoulder and murmured, “Something tells me he won’t listen to you so I still think it’s best if I just call the police.  I don’t want you to end up back in prison.”

Fuck, why did my sister have to be so headstrong?  “I’m not going to end up in prison again.  Just promise me you’ll call me.”

She’d already started walking towards the front door and yelled out over her shoulder, “Promise.”

I followed her out, with Mum, Jamison and Carla on my heels.  Even though I didn’t believe her promise, I kept my mouth shut.  There was no way she was going to agree to what I wanted so I simply decided to follow it up at some point during the week and sort the asshole out myself. 

As she said her goodbyes to everyone, I received a text message.

Gabriella: Happy Mother’s Day, asshole.

Fuck.

The red rage blinded me again.  It reached into my chest and threatened to squeeze the life out of me.  At the same time, the pain engulfed me.  Ten fucking years and the pain never left.  It tore through me, lacerating my heart; the cold, patched together heart I still had even though I’d done my best to rip it out and throw it the fuck away.

“Nash!”  My attention was drawn back to my family around me. 

“What?” I snapped, looking wildly at them; my mind unable to focus clearly on what they were saying as it tried to process jumbled thoughts and the relentless anguish that wouldn’t let me out of its grip.  The anguish that on most days I dealt with, but on this fucking day, I struggled with.  No fucking thanks to Gabriella.

My mother looked at my phone and then back at my face.  “Gabriella?” she whispered.

My voice was caught somewhere in my chest so I simply nodded. 

“You need to change your phone number,” she suggested, her kind eyes watchful over me.  Hesitation was clear in her eyes too; she knew from experience that I wasn’t good at taking advice.

I fought the urge to ignore them all, jump on the back of my bike and get the hell out of here.  That would be a lot easier than dealing with this shit.  Again.  I blew out a long breath.  “No.”  I was emphatic.  I’d never do that.  As hard as it was to negotiate this pain, I needed to remember what we’d done; what I’d done. 

Annoyance flared on my mother’s face.  “It’s been ten years since Aaron -”

“No!” I roared, anger pumping furiously through my body.  That was it; I was done.  I pushed past them all and stalked to my bike.  Voices floated through the air but I had no idea what was being said; the only thing that mattered to me in that instant was getting the fuck out of here.  Getting the fuck away from the memories and the pain, and finding a reprieve from the living hell I was in. 

Hard To Love ~ Lee Brice

V
elvet

“See how that colour brings your eyes out?” I asked.

Harlow leaned forward and assessed herself in the mirror as I packed up the eyeshadows and makeup I’d used on her.  She smiled and I knew I’d achieved my goal.  “You’re right!” she exclaimed, and eyed me with excitement.  “I’m not sure why I’ve never experimented with that colour before.”

“It’s easy to get stuck in a rut with your makeup; we all do it.”

“Thank you so much for forcing me to let you play with my makeup.”

“You make me sound like a bossy bitch.”

A voice boomed from behind us.  “If the shoe fits.”

I turned and glared at Scott.

He shrugged.  “What?  You are a bossy bitch, Velvet.”

“I have to be where you and the guys are concerned, but I’m not usually bossy with Harlow.” 

Harlow backed me up.  “Yeah, she doesn’t boss me around but I’m glad she did on this because I love what she’s done with my makeup.”

Scott walked to where Harlow was and grabbed her around the waist.  He kissed her and then murmured, “I’m heading out but I’ll be back at the end of your shift to pick you up.  You all good?”

I tuned them out; watching lovestruck couples together was not something I enjoyed doing.  Instead, I packed away my makeup and finished getting ready for work.  It was a longer shift than usual tonight because one of the other strippers was sick, and Cody had asked me to cover for her.  Fortunately for Cody, I liked him, so I’d said yes.  Hell, in the four years I’d worked at Indigo, Cody was the best manager they’d ever employed so I was doing everything I could to make sure he stayed.

Scott’s voice pulled me back into their conversation.  “Nash is out front, Velvet.  Something’s pissed him off.  You got five minutes to check on him?”

“Christ, Scott, Nash is always pissed off about something lately.  I doubt there’s anything I could say that would help him.”

Scott’s eyes narrowed on me.  “What happened between you two?  You’ve been good mates for years and now you’re hardly talking.”

“Nothing, unless you count the fact I told him a little while ago to clean his shit up, and stop fucking every chick he sets eyes on.”

Harlow sucked in a breath.  “Really?  You said that to him?”

I scowled at the memory.  “Yes.  Someone had to, because seriously, I’m concerned his dick will need resuscitation soon.  Surely that thing has had enough pussy to last it two lifetimes.”

Scott snorted. “Make that three lifetimes and you’re getting close.”

“My point exactly.  So yeah, he didn’t take that conversation very well and he’s been avoiding me ever since.”

Scott pulled Harlow close for another kiss and then gave me his attention.  “Talk to him; he might surprise the fuck outta you.”

He left me and Harlow alone and I stood staring after him, shaking my head.  I didn’t want to talk to Nash for a couple of reasons.  Number one was that our friendship really did seem to be dead after I’d said that to him.  And the second reason was that he’d actually hurt me by cutting me off.  We’d been friends for as long as I’d been working at Indigo; not close, close friends, but when we hung out together at the club we got on really well.  There was an easiness to it that I liked, and he was one of the only guys who hadn’t hit on me.  Well, he flirted a lot but he’d never put the hard word on me and I loved that about him.  I’d felt like our friendship had gotten to the point where we could be open and honest so that’s why I’d said that to him.  Nash screwed any woman that would have him and I felt like he deserved better.  I knew there was something inside him that made him treat himself the way he did; looking at him some days was like looking in a mirror.  I’d been where he was.  The only difference was that I now respected myself enough not to do that shit anymore and that’s what I wanted for Nash.

“You gonna talk to him?” Harlow asked.

I sighed.  Of course I was; I couldn’t let a friend down.  “Yeah.”

She smiled.  “Nash is lucky to have you as a friend.”

“He fucking is, but we’ll soon see if he realises that.”

***

I
found him ten minutes later, sitting alone in the club watching the stripper who was currently working the stage.  It was still early in the night; only a handful of men were here so far.  However, the ones that were here recognised me as I walked towards Nash, and whistles and suggestive comments followed me. 

One guy yelled out, “I’d like to lick your pussy and then come all over your face before sticking - ”

This shit wasn’t new to me but this guy was a complete dick.  I’d seen the way he treated the other strippers and I didn’t like it.  I turned and challenged him, “Really?  Is that how you sweet talk all your women?  Cause I’ve gotta say, it doesn’t turn me on and there’s no way I’d let your tiny dick anywhere near my face.”

His friends laughed and cheered me on, and I watched in satisfaction as his face turned a lovely shade of red.  I shook my head in disgust at him and continued on my way to Nash.  As I approached him, I realised he was watching me with an intense stare; it kind of unnerved me.

“Remind me never to piss you and your acid tongue off,” he said as I sat next to him.

“Well, you already have.”

His brow arched.  “How?  I just arrived.”

I leaned in close to him.  “You pissed me off awhile ago, Nash, but I decided to let you off from my acid tongue.”

“How the fuck did I piss you off?”  His body tensed with anger and frustration which only served to irritate me; I hadn’t said or done anything to warrant the amount of hostility he was projecting.

Sitting back away from him, I replied, “When I was trying to be a friend to you by suggesting you stop screwing around, you cut me off.”

He glowered at me.  “Friends don’t tell you how to live your life, Velvet.”

“Then they’re not your real friends,” I threw back at him with no hesitation.

He stood up abruptly.  “Fuck, I don’t need this shit from you, too,” he muttered, raking his hand through his hair.

I sat calmly; I wouldn’t allow him to rile me up on the outside, even though my insides were seething with annoyance.  “Maybe you do, Nash.  If you don’t have any other friends who will be honest with you, then I’d say you do need this shit from me.”

He turned so he was staring directly down at me.  Leaning forward, he rested his hands on either side of my chair and shoved his face into mine.  His green eyes were blazing with wrath, and he spat his words out.  “Today is not the fuckin’ day to mess with me.  I’ve had all I can take from my family and I sure as shit don’t need to come here and cop more from you.  So keep your fuckin’ mouth shut and leave me the hell alone.”  With that, he pushed himself away from me and strode out of the club.