“Is that her?” he asked, and I nodded, unable to speak.
It took some maneuvering to keep shifting to the right camera angel as she moved around the party, speaking to very few people. After a few minutes, it became obvious she was looking for someone, and when I appeared with Comet, she shifted behind someone as she continued to watch me.
“She’s following you,” he explained and pointed to the monitor. “See? You move, she moves.”
He was right. When I walked out to the bonfire and stood on the far side, looking out at the Sinners party, she stood behind the flames with her eyes locked on me the entire time. When I began to move back around, she countered, and when shestepped in front of me, I saw the smile on her face. And when I reached over to scoop up that furry little fucker, Jack, she used my distraction to slip away.
“Fuck,” I said as she quickly walked through the large group of people and up toward the road.
“She definitely had a purpose to being here, but why did she leave so suddenly?” Raven asked, and I shrugged.
None of this made any sense, but there was a part of my brain screaming to find her. It wasn’t rational and it could bite me in the ass, but if she wasn’t anyone’s property, she was fair game. And I always felt like she and I had unfinished business that Popeye refused to let us complete. I just hope I didn’t end up with a bullet in the head for even speaking with her.
“How are you going to find her?” he asked as I closed the laptop and secured the door to the security system.
“No fucking clue, but if she ran like that, maybe I don’t want to know why she was here,” I returned as I finished the cup of coffee.
Raven scoffed, and I turned to give him my attention. He shook his head and said, “I’ve known you since we were in high school, and the only time I’ve ever heard you talk about a woman was when you got drunk one night and told me about her and how she stuck with you all these years. If she’s here at the Rally, don’t you deserve to know what she wanted with you? Or at the very least, you can finally tell her to fuck off and move past her.”
“I was never stuck on her,” I tried to defend.
“Keep telling yourself that, but I know what you said that night, even if you don’t remember.”
I remembered, and deep down, I knew he was right. Willow had crawled into my soul that night, and as much as I wished she was just a memory, seeing her made the feelings all too real again.
The noise in the bar was starting to filter through the door, and I looked at Raven and nodded toward the bar. He and I left Roughstock’s office and secured the door behind us. Some brothers were awake, but the prospects were here, cleaning the Sin Den before they started on our bikes. During the Rally, it was their job to keep our clubhouse and bikes pristine. A mistake could mean the difference between getting a patch or not, and they all knew what was expected of them.
As Raven and I walked back to the bar, he suggested, “You should see if any of them saw how she got out of here. That may give you a lead.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want a lead. She’s trouble with a capital T and it’s better if she doesn’t come around again.”
Raven gave me a look that said he didn’t believe what I was saying, but he didn’t push the issue any further. The prospects were cleaning the last of the glasses from last night when I heard one of them speaking about some super-fast crotch rocket that was here last night. Something about the conversation drew my attention, so I pushed away from the bar and walked up to them.
“What was the bike?” I asked one of the prospects, and his eyes grew wide as he glanced at another nameless prospect.
“Black and red Kawasaki Ninja H2 that left early. Cute blonde with sick sleeves tore out of here like the devil was chasing her,” the prospect answered.
“Did you catch the plates?” I asked.
“No, sir, but I’m sure the camera Roughstock had installed at the stop sign for the Rally must have,” he returned, and it was then I remembered the long-range cameras we’d installed to make sure no one got the drop on us.
I clapped him on the shoulder. “Good work,” I said, and he smiled.
I walked away, deciding at that moment that I was going to find out what the hell Willow was thinking when she came looking for me.
And when I found her, I was either going to ring her neck or fuck her senseless. I just hadn’t made up my mind yet.
Chapter 5
Willow
Sneaking back into the campgrounds was easier than I expected. There were bikes coming and going, so I slipped my Kawaski into a line with the other Phantom Renegades bikes and walked into our area. The music was loud, shirtless women were everywhere, and when I glanced over to the side, I saw some slut on her knees in front of Ghost. Rolling my eyes, I pulled a necklace from under my shirt and used the key on it to unlock my camper.
Stepping inside, I saw nothing had been disturbed and breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t have anything to steal, but this was my personal space and I didn’t want my brother or anyone else to invade my privacy. And the thought of sleeping on my bed after someone else fucked on it made my skin crawl.
Making sure the door was locked behind me, I turned on the Bluetooth speaker near the bed and started a playlist so I wouldn’t have to hear the party roaring outside the thin-walled camper. After pulling my shirt off and tossing it into the dirty clothes, I slipped my bra off and pulled my sleep cami on. My jean shorts were exchanged for a comfy pair of yoga pants, and the final deconstruction was removing my makeup.
This was my first Rally, and while it was an enormous event, it wasn’t what I was expecting. I didn’t know what I thought it would be like, but so far, I wasn’t impressed. Don’t get me wrong—the event was hella-cool, but the only way I would be able to have any fun was to sneak away, and that would become problematic if I disappeared too many times.
