Page 92 of Property of Rattler

She rolls her eyes. “Maybe because Rat reminded him I was a whore?”

I jiggle my shoulders.Why should I care?“It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

Sighing heavily, she shakes her head. “You’ve no fucking idea how much damage you’ve done, do you?”

I purse my lips, and feel crease lines on my brow. “He didn’t know?”

Snorting, she tells me, “Oh, he knows all right. It was why it took him five fucking years to admit he had feelings for me. If it hadn’t been for Ace, reminding him men who fucked whores aren’t exactly perfect, he’d have never pulled his head out of his ass.”

I give a little shake of my head. “Who’s Ace?”

“Ace is Freak’s,ourson. I adopted him.”

Oh. I give another shrug, that means nothing to me. “So nothing’s changed,” I point out. “He knew, yet he still married you.”

Again she draws in a deep breath, as if I’m testing her patience. “Perhaps he didn’t want it thrown in his face. And, especially not by your man.”

“Rattler’s not mine,” I growl. “We’re getting an annulment.”

Her eyes open wide. “For fuck’s sake, why? Hell, girl, even I could see you’ve fallen head over heels for him.” She shakes her head. “I might not understand why, but you obviously saw something that we’d all missed.” She pauses a moment to think, then huffs a mirthless laugh. “You really tell him you were leaving him?” At the small nod of my head, she carries on, “So that’s why he came down all guns blazing. Christ, this is all fucked up,” she moans, drawing her hands down her cheeks.

“You all told me what he was like,” I cry out. “How could I stay with him knowing he’d treat me like that?”

She looks up and narrows her eyes. “Let’s set the record straight. I said nothing. As far as I recall, it was Star who implicated me. I’d never have told you anything like that. And the girls had no right to open their mouths.”

I push myself off the wall that I’d been leaning against. “I deserved to know.” My hands fist at my sides.

“Girl, you make me feel old.” Trixie leans back in her chair, steeples her hands and looks over the top of them.

“Don’t patronise me,” I snap.

She raises her eyes to the ceiling, then looks back down. “You want me to try to explain shit to you, or do you just want to wallow in your own misery?”

Do I want to listen to anything she has to say? I’m undecided.

She chuckles softly, and waves at the door. “Look, I’ll just talk, yeah? We’re not exactly going anywhere. Whether or notyou pay attention to me, is up to you.” She stands, goes to the wardrobe, and reaches up to the top shelf. When she brings her hand down, she’s got a bottle of vodka in it. Opening the liquor, she takes a swig, grimaces, then holds it out. “It’s not a margarita, but it works.”

Moving over to her side of the room, I take the bottle, attempt a small swallow, then splutter. “That’s strong.”

“It should be.” She takes the drink back from me, and gestures to the chair beside hers. “It’s ninety-five percent proof.” After sampling the contents again, she places the bottle on the table between us. “Help yourself.” Then she crosses one leg over the other, and settles in. “A lot of MCs have club whores like ours. They’re considered a necessary evil. The one-percenter life is dangerous.” As she catches the look in my eyes, she explains, “Take riding on two wheels instead of four for a start. There’s no steel cage between you and the road, and a good reason why medics call them donor cycles. But the ride is exhilarating, it’s pure freedom. You see the world in different ways when there’s pavement beneath your wheels.” Her eyes glaze for a moment as if she’s reliving the pleasure. “Bikers ride free, and live free. They don’t give a shit about citizen rules and have their own code that they live by. Law enforcement hates us, even if we don’t step out of line. And many others envy the life we have and try to bring us down. Death by the road, being jailed for no reasons other than LEOs are jealous of their lives, or being shot by their enemies is the risk bikers take every day.”

I butt in. “I think you’re just convincing me that this life isn’t for me.”

“No?” She casually asks. “Where would you be if the club hadn’t stepped in and offered you protection? Would you still be alive if they hadn’t done everything they could to protect you?” Sitting forward, she asks, “Why didn’t you go to the police when you knew Malachi was threatening you?”

“They wouldn’t have believed me. He’d have said I was making it up.”

She nods, and grimaces. “Who believed you, Ames? Who went out of their way to make sure you were safe?”

I don’t even need to answer. It’s simple. It was this club. I shift awkwardly and to cover my silence, take another sip of the vodka that’s growing on me.

“So,” she settles back again and continues, “being a biker has its own thrills. Each man who patches in vows he’d give his life for the club and his brothers. They know they might end up doing time, and sometimes just for a fucked-up reason. They live life on the edge, but it’s always on their terms. And to deal with the pressure, they kick back when they relax. They drink, party, and fuck.”

She’s drawing me in with the picture she’s painting, even though I’m not sure how it relates to me. Automatically I again pick up the vodka, this time it’s definitely smoother as it goes down.

“Clubs know that sex is the release the brothers need, but there’s a risk if they spread themselves all over town. Oh, they fuck strange often enough, but it’s safer keeping it close to home. There’s less danger of anything slipping during pillow talk.” Her face twists in a half grimace, half grin. “Which is why I know Star, Heaven and Sweetie are in deep shit right now. They told you something that they should have kept to themselves.”

Not able to summon any sympathy for the women who destroyed my relationship with Rattler, or perhaps, looking at it another way, stopped me from making a mistake, I focus on something else. I can kind of see the point of the club wanting to have sex on tap in-house. But surely it’s just of benefit to the bikers, and not for the girls themselves. “Why would any girl want to live like that? Knowing they’re just there to provide sex on demand?”