Burn, page 18
part #1 of Sentinels MC Rebels Series
“How did my life come to this?” she asked herself softly. The room was dark, though the clock said it was almost seven-thirty. At home, Jonas would’ve been up an hour ago, asking about eggs in a frame for breakfast. As it was, he snoozed in the bed beside her, and Dani learned that if she put blackout curtains in his bedroom, he might sleep longer.
She ended up not sending Tyson a message at all. She got up and got dressed, back in the same clothes she’d arrived in yesterday, which meant her swimming suit and cover-up. “Come on, baby,” she said gently to Jonas. “We’re going home.”
He’d slept in his swimming suit too, which she’d rinsed in the bathroom sink while he’d taken a bath last night to get all the sand off his skin. She hadn’t been as diligent as she usually was with the sunscreen, and Jonas had a dull red to his skin that was carefully masked by his dark tan.
At home, she’d have rubbed a mixture of peppermint oil and aloe vera on his back and shoulders. But here, she’d entered with the burly biker who’d given her a lift to the high-rise in downtown Forbidden Lake, her son in his arms while she carried the beach bag. Maverick had spoken to another man who he’d introduced as Anderson Tanner, and his wife, Sami, had brought Dani and Jonas down the hall to this bedroom.
There were eight rooms down this hallway, in an apartment that took up the entire top floor of the tallest building in the city. She’d been the last one to arrive, and she and Jonas had taken the last room.
Jodi and her family were down the hall, and when Dani left her room, that was the first place she stopped. The door was open and the room empty, so she looked to her left and down the hall. The door down at the end of it was closed, and she could hear music coming from one of the bedrooms in between.
“Let’s go find Aunt Jodi,” she said, taking Jonas’s hand and wishing she knew what she was going to find on the other side of the door at the end of the hall. Once through it, the scent of baking bread and bacon filled the air, along with chatter, low laughter, and bright sunshine.
Dani paused and took a deep breath. While she was very private and didn’t want to share a bed with her five-year-old for longer than necessary, this was a peaceful environment she could get used to.
Jodi caught her eye and waved her into the massive kitchen. Dani went that way and hugged her sister. “Sorry about this,” she said.
“This is great,” Jodi said. “The kids are happy, and Jim has taken a day off for once.” She smiled, and she looked genuinely happy. “We’re going home tonight, though, after we do some shopping here and go to the beach.”
“That’s great,” Dani said. “I think I’m going to go home this morning. I need to shower, and I don’t have any clothes.”
“You can stay as long as you want,” Andy said, coming up beside them and taking another pancake. “Honestly.”
“Thank you so much,” Dani said. “For everything.”
“No problem.” He grinned at her. “I’m going to be heading down to my office in about twenty minutes, but Sami’s going to stay up here.” He poured syrup on his pancake. “I have to take over her interviews for a secretary.”
Jodi elbowed Dani, who recoiled from the jab. “Ouch. What was that for?”
“He’s interviewing for a secretary,” she said meaningfully. She focused on Andy. “Dani needs a job. What does the secretary position entail? She’s been a dental office administrator and an office manager in the past.”
Dani gaped at her sister. “Office manager” was putting things very generously for what she’d done for the Hawks. And she’d only had the job for three days.
“It’s for an outer secretary,” Andy said. “We need two of them actually, and they answer phones and file cases, book appointments, that kind of stuff.” He looked at Dani. “You should apply. We’re doing interviews through next week, and there’s the option of on-site living.”
“On-site living?” she asked. “Here?”
“The next floor down is my administrative office,” he said. “Sami and I both have offices there, and that’s where you’d work if you got the job. The three floors below that I’ve converted into apartments in the past year or so.”
“And the floors below that?”
“Law offices,” he said. “The city of Forbidden Lake has actually rented the first two floors of the building while their admin complex is getting remodeled. It’s all offices. I had a major insurance company leave the area, which is when I decided to convert those floors into apartments. I keep one floor for employees at Tanner Global.” He stuck a bite of pancake in his mouth and chewed while Dani’s mind spun.
“Are you trying to get Dani to apply?” Sami asked, joining them. “Because I just got off the phone with Maverick, and he said there’s a cabin out at Sunshine Shores if she needs it.” Sami looked at Dani, and she found kindness in her dark eyes. She was professional and well-put together, and while Dani didn’t know her personally, she wanted to. She thought the two of them could be good friends.
“And by cabin, I mean luxury house in the woods,” Sami added with a smile. “My family owns Sunshine Shores, and we all had houses out there. Mia’s not using hers, and mine is empty too.”
“Thank you, but I have a house in Grand Central,” Dani said.
“Oh.” Sami exchanged a surprised look with her husband. “I thought you were relocating here.”
“She is,” Jodi said.
“I am not,” Dani argued back, glaring at her sister.
“You should.” Jodi handed a plate of already-cut up pancakes to Jonas, and Dani was glad someone was thinking rationally about the basics. Her mind had seemed to be misfiring more than usual lately.
“Our application is online,” Andy said, turning to put his plate in the sink. “Our apartments are two or three bedrooms, and I think it’s a decent rate if you work for us.” He kissed Sami on the cheek, growling as he did. “I have to go. I’m sure the first interviewee is already waiting for me.”
“Okay,” Sami said. “Let me know how it goes.”
With that, Andy left, and Dani busied herself with taking a couple of pancakes and a couple of slices of bacon. She and Jonas left a half an hour later with Jodi, who drove her up to the beach to get her car.
“I’m serious,” Jodi said. “You should consider moving here to Forbidden Lake. There are so many more opportunities for you here. Heck, half of Jim’s jobs are in Forbidden Lake now. We’re thinking of relocating too.”
“You are?” Dani swung her attention to her sister. Her swimming suit itched, and she couldn’t wait to get out of it.
“Sure,” Jodi said. “This town is booming. Growing. Grand Central has always been a decade behind Forbidden Lake.”
Her sister wasn’t wrong, and Dani looked out the windshield again.
“Mama, are we going to the beach?” Jonas asked.
“Not right now,” Dani said. “We have to go home first, but we can come back later this afternoon.”
“Aw,” he whined. “I’m already in my swimming suit.”
“I know, bud.” Dani didn’t want to come back that afternoon either, but she had paid for the cabana for the whole week. And she needed to do something to keep Jonas entertained.
“Thanks, Jodi,” Dani said after her sister had parked behind her sedan. “Again, I didn’t mean to scare you guys.”
“It worked out,” Jodi said. “Jim had cops watching the office and our house. He said nothing’s happened. No one’s come by.”
“Tyson said he worked out the problem,” Dani said. “I’m so tired.” She didn’t want to show more emotion than that, so she opened her car door and added, “Come on, bud. Let’s go home for a bit.”
Jodi got out with Dani, lifting the bag from the trunk while Dani helped Jonas out of the back seat. “Listen,” she said as Jonas climbed into Dani’s car. Jodi rested the bag on the closed trunk and looked torn. “Maybe I spoke too harshly about Tyson. It’s your life, and you’ve always made good decisions.”
Dani looked at her sister. “That is so not true. You’re the one who has everything put together. I’m the screw-up.”
“How can you say that?” Jodi shook her head. “You are not a screw-up. You’re doing hard things, and doing them well.” She drew Dani into a hug. “Maybe Tyson wasn’t all bad for you, especially now that he’s not in the motorcycle club anymore. That’s all I’m saying.” She held Dani at arm’s length and nodded.
She walked back to her car and drove away, all while Dani tried to figure out what to do about Tyson. But that was a problem she couldn’t solve with only a few minutes’ thought in a parking lot. So she got behind the wheel and started her drive home.
A sigh of contentment filled her when she finally pulled into her own garage. “I’m going to shower and take a short nap,” she told Jonas. “You can put on a movie and heat up pizza from the other night, okay? We’ll go to the beach later.”
“All right.” Jonas skipped up the steps, seemingly unaffected by all the different beds they’d slept in over the past several days.
Dani wasn’t, and she was so distracted with thoughts that she was pretty sure she washed her hair twice before even realizing it.
The week passed with Dani in the shade of cabana forty-seven. She napped in that shade. Sipped strawberry-orange-banana smoothies. Or peach and vanilla smoothies—those were her favorite. She read three books in four days as she sipped smoothies and kept her eye on her son. She didn’t forget to put on the proper amount of sunscreen, and when the next day arrived, she got up to do it all over again.
And sometimes, when she was tired of reading or snacking or sunscreening, she looked up the jobs at Tanner Global. They were hiring two secretaries, and applications wouldn’t be taken past Saturday night. All interviews would happen by Wednesday, and Andy had put in bold letters that everyone would get a personal phone call by Thursday at five p.m.
She needed a job, and she’d have to start looking in earnest on Monday. “Might as well apply,” she muttered to herself. Then she needed to get Jonas out of the water, get her trash picked up, and head home.
She thought of Tyson and what he might have been doing this week. She’d never answered him, despite thinking about him the moment she woke up and until she fell asleep.
With the application submitted, she called, “Jonas, time to go.” Her son ignored her, which annoyed Dani to no end. She’d brought him to the beach for five days in a row. He should be able to come when she called him.
She packed up the beach bag, and by the time she’d pulled her keys from the pocket, Jonas arrived. “Mom, can we get a hamburger on the way home like we did last night?”
“Sure, baby,” she said. He liked the dollar-menu cheeseburgers, and honestly, Dani did too. She could afford five bucks for dinner on the way home. On the way to her car, she and Jonas passed four motorcycles, and Dani paused and looked at them, her heart beating irregularly in her chest.
She knew Tyson’s bike, though, and one of them wasn’t his. She wasn’t sure where he was, or what he was riding right now. He’d said he was staying in Forbidden Lake, but without a club, what would he do?
Dani’s phone rang, and she looked at it, almost expecting it to be Tyson, summoned by her thoughts. The number wasn’t stored in her phone, but it had a local area code, so she answered the call.
“Danielle?” a woman said. “This is Felicia Stone at Tanner Global Communications. I just saw your application come through, and I’m setting up interviews for Mister Tanner. I have one available on Tuesday morning at nine-thirty. Would that work for you?”
“Oh,” Dani said. “I just applied ten minutes ago.”
“Yes,” Felicia said.
It took Dani several seconds to realize the woman was waiting for her to say something. “Uh, Tuesday is fine.”
“Perfect,” she said. “You know where we’re located?”
“Yes,” Dani said. If there was one thing she knew, it was that.
“Great,” Felicia said. “Please bring a paper copy of your résumé, and anything else you want Mister Tanner to review.”
“Okay.” She had no idea what that might be. Wouldn’t she just be answering phones and filing cases? She hung up and continued to her car. Excitement bubbled inside her, and the very first thing she wanted to do was call Tyson and tell him about the interview.
Her face fell as she realized she couldn’t do that. Not only that, but she didn’t have anyone to call and tell about the interview.
“Not true,” she told herself as she backed out of the parking space. She awakened her phone and tapped to dial Jodi. She had her sister, but deep down, she knew while Jodi was important, she wasn’t the same as having someone she could celebrate every little win with. She wasn’t the same as a partner in life.
“Maybe you should just text him back,” she said at the same time Jodi answered the call.
“What?” her sister asked.
“Nothing,” Dani said loudly so her voice would go through the speakers in the car. “Guess who just got an interview at Tanner Global Communications?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Tyson wiped his hands on a blue rag, the feeling of having greasy, grimy hands more satisfying that he remembered. Without his club, he basically had nothing. No money. No job. Nowhere to live.
But Maverick had said he could stay at Ruby’s for as long as he needed, but Tyson wanted to get out of Mav’s hair as quickly as possible. Maverick had not built Ruby’s to be a permanent clubhouse. It was where he lived with his wife and family.
He had given Tyson a job in the back of the motorcycle shop, and Tyson had gladly taken that. And Canine had been saving money for a while now, and he’d found an apartment with two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a nice little deck off the back.
He’d asked Tyson if he’d like to live there with him, so they could split rent and utilities while they both tried to piece back together some semblance of a normal life. Maverick had offered Tyson a guest house at the back of a friend’s property. It was clean, small, and private. Tyson was trying to figure out what he wanted his life to be.
Clean, small, and private?
Or a little louder, a little messier, but filled with people he knew and cared about?
“Tyson,” someone called behind him, and he looked over his shoulder to find Rooster there. A smile filled his soul, and he walked toward him.
“Hey.” He gave Rooster their traditional handshake and bumped shoulders with him. “What are you up to? Headed out?”
“Yeah, Irene has family over in Cleavland,” he said. “We’re headed that way.”
Tyson cut a look at Irene, and for once, the woman smiled at him first. “I’m glad.”
“Someone should be,” Rooster said, and Tyson looked at him.
“You’re not?”
“It’s a different life than what I’m used to.”
Guilt cut through Tyson. “I know. I’m sorry about what happened with the Hawks. You could join up with the Sentinels.” He looked at another man working in the shop. Tyson couldn’t remember his name. Something like Dexter or Darius. Tyson should know, as he’d been working with the guy for several days now, and he didn’t want to ask.
“We want out,” Irene said, and Tyson knew enough about how women communicated to understand that “we” in this case meant “she” wanted out. And she should want out. Living in a one-room unit with twenty-six other men wasn’t exactly the life Tyson wanted for his wife.
Dani’s beautiful face floated through his mind. She’d never answered his text, and his heart constricted painfully and then shot out an extra beat.
“I’ll miss you up here,” Tyson said.
“What are you doing?” Rooster asked. “Gonna stay here? Move in with Canine? I know he wants you to real bad.”
“He’s pledging tonight,” Tyson said thoughtfully. He could pledge tonight too. The Sentinels lived normal lives outside the motorcycle club, but he’d be part of the brotherhood again. Part of something good this time.
And yet…he didn’t want to be tied to the club if Dani would let him be tied to her.
“Classic Bulldog. You didn’t answer the question.” Rooster chuckled and added, “I just came to say good-bye. It’s been a good ride, brother.” He clapped Tyson on the shoulder and turned toward the exit.
“See you,” Tyson said, watching his friends leave the shop. He turned back to the oil change job he’d just finished. The mechanic themselves took care of a bike from customer to completion, so he stepped over to the phone to call the guy back about his bike.
Finished for the day, he washed his hands and went out into the front of the shop, where Electron was working in the small kitchen area. “Something smells good,” Tyson said.
“Cherry chocolate,” Electron said. “Are you pledging tonight?”
“Nope,” Tyson said, deciding on the spot. “So you’ll have to save me some of that for when I come in tomorrow.”
“Deal.”
Tyson liked the biker behind a lot of the concoctions here at Ruby’s. If it wasn’t Electron, it was Maverick himself, and he liked to experiment with ice cream flavors over toppings. He headed for the back steps that led up to Maverick’s apartment, and he met the man on the way down, his dog leashed at his side.
“There you are. I was thinking you’d be done about now.” Maverick looked over Tyson’s head, as if he was expecting someone else to be there.
“Just finished,” Tyson said. “Want me to take King? You’re late getting started on your ice cream, aren’t you?”
“A little,” he said. “Navy had a hard time settling down for a nap.”
The idea of the big, burly, inked-up biker rocking a two-year-old to sleep made Tyson smile. It was exactly the life he wished he had. “I’ll take the dog. I want to get outside for a few minutes anyway.”
King barked, a clear warning that he didn’t care who took him as long it happened quickly.
“Don’t let him boss you,” Maverick said, handing Tyson the leash.
“Don’t worry, hog.” Tyson led King outside, but as soon as they hit the pavement, he unclipped the leash anyway. He’d been with Maverick and Karly for five nights now, and he’d taken King out plenty of times. He and the dog had an understanding, and he always came back when Tyson whistled.
