Page 43 of Rebellious

“I know.” She nodded to the spot next to him. “May I sit a moment?”

Kaia squeezed the bridge of his nose and sighed. “I don’t want to hurt you, Fia. I like you so fucking much. I think you’re an amazing chick. Funny. Pretty. A party girl.”

“No one’s ever called me pretty before,” she said with a surprising amount of vulnerability. “Tommi’s the beauty.”

Her little sister. “You sell yourself short, babe.”

Though he hadn’t given her permission, she sat down anyway. “I’m sorry Rebel found out about us.”

“Me, too,” he said, and then winced. “That’s an asshole thing for me to say.”

Her smile amplified her sadness. “You were just giving me a Dear Jane speech. I know how you feel. Another first. I’m only pussy, mouth, and ass to most of the guys. No one considers me enough to let me down easy.” She swallowed and bowed her head. “Especially…”

“Diesel,” he spat, sharper than intended. He couldn’t escape that motherfucker. “Right?”

She nodded.

“It’s always that motherfucker.”

“It isn’t only him, but he’s a Caldwell boy,” she said, “and a mean fuckhead. We want to be the one with the bragging rights that we tamed him.”

“There’s only one person with that power,” Kaia said with distaste.

Fia shrugged. “I don’t think Jana is strong-willed enough to gentle him down.”

She wasn’t. “Not Jana. Rebel.”

“No shit?” Fia shifted in her seat. “We always thought it was just a schoolgirl crush on her part that he didn’t entertain.”

As much as Kaia wanted to reveal the truth about that pervert, he liked living. Fia’s allegiance was to the club. If she spread rumors that Kaia started and Diesel asked her about them, she’d point Kaia out, then he’d die.

“He might not entertain her crush but gets him to engage in a way only Outlaw can do. Or Axel,” he added, smiling, unable not to like the kid, despite the state of his hair because of how Axel felt about him.

“I always wanted to be an old lady,” Fia started. Kaia was happy she didn’t say she’d always wanted to be Diesel’s old lady. “My mother was one at a club in Tulsa. She began as a club girl, though. When we moved west, we settled in Portland. She became a stripper for the Burning Hounds, but then she was killed. Derby made a few calls and Diesel got a trailer for my sisters and me. I was the contact so I was the one he fucked.”

“I thought you started coming around because of Nyx.” At least that’s what she said during their pillow talk.

“Nyx lived in the trailer park, too. And, yeah, she brought me to the club first. I quickly gravitated to Nyx and drank her poisonous Kool-Aid. She hated Meggie and despised Rebel. She didn’t like any of the old ladies or Mattie. Ophelia and Winnie didn’t count because they are mousy. Bailey and Harley didn’t count because they are Black.”

Recoiling, Kaia gave her an incredulous look.

“I’m just telling you what Nyx, Heidi and some of them were saying. Tennysee is biracial.”

No shit? She just looked like a girl who’d spent too much time in the sun.

“We think that’s why Narci doesn’t want her. I don’t care. My stepfather, the biker in Tulsa, was Black.”

“Uh—”

“Don’t tell anyone, though. I don’t want them to look at me differently.”

Discomfort settled into Kaia’s gut and he narrowed his eyes. “Why are you telling me this? I’m not joining the club. I barely have a spot in the household anymore.”

“Diesel has money, looks, arrogance, and a big cock. He has charm—”

“Diesel?”

Fia giggled. “Yes, believe it or not.”