“Do you come here a lot?”
She nods, genuinely looking happy. “All the time. It’s my quiet place where I can avoid the club drama or hide from Meli.”
I grin. “You hide from your own twin? Don’t you have the thing that connects you so she can sense where you are?”
She laughs again. “Sometimes. Since all the stuff with Ripper, I doubt the connection. If we had that, I would have known.”
The mood shifts, and I sigh. “How could you? I think we’ve both punished ourselves
enough over that. When Mav and I came back, he told me to watch her, and I didn’t see it. I mean, I sensed she didn’t like him, but it’s Meli, she doesn’t like many people.”
“I guess it’s in the past. Mama said we shouldn’t keep going over it. Speaking of which, have you told Mav about your mum?”
I nod before changing the subject. The dream earlier fucked my head up and I don’t feel like talking about her now. “It feels weird being out the club with you like this. I don’t think we’ve ever done it.”
She chews on her lip, then says, “When we were younger, we used to sit under the tree.” I frown cos I don’t remember. She smiles, shrugging it off. “It was a long time ago.”
“When we were kids, you annoyed me,” I confess, remembering how she’d watch me all the time. Her little nose would poke out over the top of the damn books she always had her head in. The brothers used to give me grief for it, and I’d take it out on her, purposely being mean. “I was a prick back then.”
She shrugs. “Again, it was a long time ago. We’ve both grown up.”
“Hadley, why haven’t you settled down or at least dated?” I never see her slipping out dressed up for a date, unlike her sister.
The coffees arrive and she stares down at hers for a moment. “I just haven’t met the one who makes me stop and notice.”
I watch her take a careful sip of the hot liquid. “Why are you waiting? Meli’s always on dates, trying to find the one, and you’re just holding back . . . but for what? A guy ain’t gonna fall from the sky and land at your feet.”
“You wouldn’t understand,” she mutters.
“Try me. I’m not being a dick—I really do want to know.”
Hadley sighs. “I want to wait until I find someone special. Meli doesn’t care about anyone. She likes sex and it doesn’t matter who with.” That answer hurts, but I hide my reaction by drinking some coffee. “I’m not a prude or anything, I just want a nice guy.”
“But how will you meet him if you’re always at the club or working?”
She looks around. “In places like this. The type of guy I want isn’t going to be in a nightclub. I won’t make the same mistake as Mum.” And suddenly, it makes sense. She’s avoiding men like Eagle.
HADLEY
I shift uncomfortably under his intense stare. “Do you think you’ll meet a man in the MC?” he asks.
I want to tell him so badly how I feel, but he doesn’t feel the same, and I won’t embarrass myself by confessing all just because we’re sharing one small, brief moment. “I don’t know. Maybe if someone new comes to the club.”
“What about Meli?” he asks, and that’s the real answer he wants to know because I’ve sat back and observed him watching her for years. Not that Meli cares. She’s not interested in Grim, and she’d rather chop off her own head than be with him, but it still hurts me, knowing how badly he wants her and not me.
“Who knows? Meli changes her mind like the weather. She’s got an eye on the Taylor men right now.”
Grim screws up his face in disgust. “Mafia?”
“This week. Next week, it could be a cop for all I know. Like I said, she’s too indecisive.”
We finish our coffees, and I marvel at the fact I got Grim into my happy space at least once. I pay the bill, much to his annoyance, and we head back out to his bike. My favourite part of the whole night has been holding onto him like he belongs to me. “I’ll drop you home,” he says, throwing his leg over the bike.
“Aren’t you staying?”
“I’m gonna find a place I like. My sort of place.”
“Take me,” I say a little too eagerly, and he grins. “Please? I’d like to see where you hang out. It’s only fair seeing as I dragged you here.”
He ponders the thought, then nods. “Fine. But you’ll hate it.”
He’s right . . . I hate it. It’s a small bar and it’s dark inside—dark wood, dark carpets, and dirty windows. The lights are dim, and I think it’s probably from dirt. There are a few older men scattered around, each with a half-drunk pint in front of them.
Grim shakes hands with the barman in greeting, so he must come here regularly. “Two pints, please,” he orders, and I gasp.
“Pints!”
“I had coffee, now you have to try what I like.”
“Can’t we at least have a whiskey?”
He smirks and changes the order, then we take our drinks and sit down. “What do you think?” he asks.
I look around, trying to find positives, but there’s nothing, so I grimace. “It’s different.”
He laughs. “You hate it.”
“I don’t hate it. I don’t love it either.”
“Nobody talks. I think it’s where some of these guys come to die,” he whispers, and I laugh. “Occasionally, Alf over there, his wife marches in and drags him home. That’s the most excitement this place sees.”
“So, why do you like it so much?”
Grim shrugs. “Nobody cares. It doesn’t matter who I am because they don’t even look up. I can sit here in silence and no one bothers me. I don’t know them, and they don’t know me.”
“You like the anonymity?”
A woman comes in carrying an armful of roses. She makes a beeline for us, and Grim shakes his head as she mutters about buying a rose for his love. “You buy the pretty lady flower?” she says in broken English, and I giggle.
“She’s not my lady.”
“But you like her to be, no?”
He glares at me for help, but I just smile back, enjoying his discomfort. “Jesus,” he mutters, reaching into his pocket. The woman smiles at me like she’s won. “I’ll take one if it means you’ll go.” He slams a note on the table, and the woman inspects it before offering me a rose and I take it.
“She a good woman. You have two babies. You marry her.”
“I don’t think so,” he scoffs.
The woman places her hand on mine and closes her eyes. “Yes,” she eventually says. “You marry. Two babies.” She opens her eyes suddenly and stares hard at me. “But be careful, it’s a bumpy road,” she whispers before leaving. I stare after her, bewildered by her strange comment.
“What did she say?” he asks.
“That I should be careful.”
We both laugh uncomfortably, then his smile fades. “She’s right, though.”