HUNTER (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 11) Page 2

  “I don’t have time to cook dinner,” she said to herself. “This will just have to do.”

  She flipped through her mail, unloaded the dishwasher and put on a load of laundry before she locked the front door and made her way upstairs to start getting ready.

  Her phone beeped as she reached the doorway of her bedroom, and she looked down to see that it was a text from Penny…

  P: You better have burned all of those hideous cardigans! ;) I will seriously kill you if, when I get there, you’re not sexed up to the max!

  I’ll pick you up at 7:30 xx

  Paige couldn’t help but laugh as she read it and she shook her head and placed the phone down on the nightstand. She had no clue what ‘sexed up to the max’ meant, but she was pretty sure that it meant she wouldn’t be able to wear any of her usual day clothes.

  She opened the closet and looked inside. It had been such a long time since she had looked through any of her dresses, she almost found it hard to believe she even had any at all. But there they were, lurking right at the back with the rest of the memories of her misspent youth. She smiled as she flicked her fingers across the various fabrics, separating them and remembering all the times she had worn them and gone out and had fun.

  She looked to the side into the mirror and stared at her reflection. She hadn’t aged but she kept her beauty hidden with bad clothes, un-styled hair, and as little makeup as possible. The glasses had been a new addition, but without them, you could really see the intense blue of Paige’s eyes, and the long, thick eyelashes that had always been some of her best assets. She fluttered them at herself and smiled. And then she reached up and unclipped her hair, hidden away at the back of her head in a tight bun. As it tumbled down in an ice-blonde wave around her shoulders she began to see the girl she used to be. She began to remember what she was capable of, and how she could morph from school teacher into sex kitten.

  She had always felt that her personality aligned more with the school teacher persona, but she had always wanted to explore a little more of a wild side… Why shouldn’t tonight be that night?

  She laughed at herself as she tipped her head upside down and shook her hair so that when she stood back up it was wild and volumized. She pouted in the mirror and quickly ripped open the front of her shirt, exposing the top of her old, faded bra.

  “Jeez, it’s no wonder Penny made a point of telling me how to dress,” she said to herself. “I really do look nerdy.”

  She turned back to the closet and took a deep breath. She was going in. She pulled out as many of her old dresses as she could, along with some crop tops and tight jeans and threw them down on the bed. She stood and picked her way through them, crumpling up her nose whenever she saw one she couldn’t believe was still hanging around after all of that time.

  “This is like a bad dream,” she laughed. “I can’t believe I used to wear some of this stuff.”

  She finally stopped when she reached the back end of the pile. The clothes weren’t as risqué but they certainly weren’t boring. They didn’t scream school teacher, or academic, or nerd. They were just plain and simple clothes. The kind a regular girl looking to have a good time would wear. She held up the simple black t-shirt and the pair of jeans that hadn’t seen the light of day in years.

  “Will I even still fit in them?” she asked as she held them up against her. She wasn’t overly hopeful, but it was all she had. If she put on a pair of high heels and some makeup she would look like a completely different girl, and would certainly be out of the Miss Norton zone and fully into Paige, the twenty-something small town girl with a bright future ahead of her.

  She showered and began to get ready. She almost felt silly preening herself so much when she had spent so much time over the past few years getting ready on a morning as fast as possible, barely taking any notice of how she really looked. She glossed her face with moisturizer, rosed her cheeks with blush, dabbed on foundation and lipstick and lined her eyes heavily will black kohl. The blue of her iris’s popped out against the darkness of the makeup and made them shine even brighter. And when she slipped the t-shirt over her head and the jeans up over her curvy butt, she got a pleasant surprise.

  Sure, she wasn’t as skinny as she had been in high school, but the jeans still fit and they clung to her sexy curves and made her look even more womanly and demure. She almost felt embarrassed looking at her reflection, because the woman looking back at her was pretty much a stranger.

  “Penny is going to freak,” she laughed.

  She grabbed her purse and drank the rest of her bottle of water before she spritzed herself with perfume and turned out the light. As she walked down the stairs, she couldn’t help but feel both nervous and excited. She had no idea what the night ahead was going to bring, but she just hoped wherever they ended up, they had a good time. They both deserved a little bit of a break. Penny from her new role as wife, and Paige from her commitment to her job and nothing else.

  The doorbell rang and she bounced down the last few steps and ran straight to it. As she hurled the door open back on its hinges, she saw Penny’s jaw drop.

  “Wowza,” she gasped. “Now, I was NOT expecting that!”

  She pushed her way in and pulled Paige back under the main light and gave her a proper once over.

  “I knew this girl was hiding in there somewhere,” she grinned. “Look at you! It’s like you’ve finally discovered who you really are!”

  “Oh come on, don’t be silly. I’ve only changed clothes and put a tiny bit of makeup on.”

  “Exactly!” Penny grinned. “Imagine what you could do if you really made the effort and went all out! Speaking of which…” Penny lunged forward and ripped at the collar of the t-shirt, making a long slice in it as it ripped open down the front to the top of her cleavage, exposing the swell of her pert, firm breasts. “That’s much better. If you’ve got it, flaunt it.”

  “Penny!” Paige gasped as she tried to cover herself, but she could tell that it would be no use.

  “You look normal, trust me,” Penny said. “Now come on, let’s get out of here. I need a goddam drink.”

  The girls walked arm in arm down Main Street and Paige felt slightly embarrassed by the amount of attention they were attracting. She could see the trucks slowing down as they drove through town, the men behind the wheels tipping their sunglasses down to the ends of their noses so they could get a good look. Wolf whistles followed sometimes, and Penny lapped it up, while Paige felt her nerves returning. She hated the idea of being on show.

  “Where are we going, anyway?” she asked Penny to try and take her mind off the men of Slate Springs’ wandering eyes.

  “There are a couple of places along here, I guess,” she replied. “Nowhere totally exciting but at least we can get a big bottle of wine and sit and talk.”

  They slowed their pace as they approached what Paige could only assume to be a new place in town.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before,” she said as they both looked up and down the building.

  Paige cast her mind back and she was sure she could remember it being a café of some kind, but she didn’t think she had ever been inside. It was one of those places that existed right under your nose but you never truly noticed. Like a lot of businesses in Slate Springs, it was run by the old timers for the old timers, and the youth barely even noticed it. But lucky for them, it appeared it had been taken over, and it certainly wasn’t a café or coffee shop anymore.

  “Is it a bar?” Penny asked as they walked up to the windows and squinted as they looked inside.

  A jukebox was playing in the corner and low jazz music blared out, rumbling out toward the street, making Paige want to swivel her hips. There was barely any lighting, but there were huge candles dripping wax dotted all around the room. The bar area was small but it glowed in the corner, and different colored bottles of liquor were backlit and made the place look like Christmas.

  “It’s really dark in there,” Penny said. “
But it looks pretty cool.”

  “Yeah, it looks different,” Paige agreed.

  “I mean, it’s either here or the crappy diner, or that god awful strip club on the way into town…” Penny laughed as she approached the door and reached for the handle. “Shall we give it a try?”

  Paige nodded and followed behind her. This would be the first time in her life she had set foot in what looked to be a dingy jazz bar, but she reasoned with herself that there was always a first time for everything.

  3.

  “Hello there girls,” a chipper voice came from behind the counter and in the darkness as they stepped over the threshold into their new watering hole.

  “Hi,” Penny squinted as she tried to see ahead and lead the way.

  “Come on in,” the voice said.

  Paige bit her lip and looked around nervously. The bar was completely deserted apart from the two of them and whoever their mysterious host was. She was standing in the dark corner, smoking a cigarette and polishing glasses, and as they took another step closer Paige’s eyes began to adjust to the low light. She was tall and slender, but the angles of her face were soft and gentle, the light from the candles illuminating them ever so subtly. Paige couldn’t figure out whether she recognized her or not, but there was something about her that was familiar.

  “What is this place?” Penny asked as they reached the bar and looked around properly.

  The woman turned and the girls got their first proper glimpse of her. She was older than she had seemed from their vantage point by the doorway way back, and Paige was pretty sure she had seen her around town. The woman was blonde and tanned, her face attractive but covered in wrinkles. Her skin well worn by the desert sun.

  “This is my new venture,” the woman said as she set down the glasses and held out her free hand. “I’m Faith and this is my speakeasy.”

  Paige looked around and couldn’t help but smile. It was encouraging and liberating to see a woman doing something different in this town. She was so used to seeing it being overrun by men and everything being geared toward them.

  “I love it,” Paige said as she sat down on one of the high bar stools and grinned. “It’s really cool. Different to anywhere I’ve ever been.”

  “Different to anything in Slate Springs, that’s for sure,” Faith laughed as she took another drag on her cigarette and crossed her arms over her chest. She was leaning back against the counter and she looked at the two girls fondly.

  “You’re my first customers of the day,” she said. “What can I get you? On the house.”

  Paige and Penny looked at each other and both instinctively said, “Oh no, there’s no need.”

  But Faith held up her hand as if she wouldn’t be hearing any of it.

  “First customers of the night, and the first women I’ve had through those doors believe it or not,” Faith half laughed.

  “Wow, really?” Paige asked as she set her purse down and looked around the room again. She found that hard to believe, the place was a total hidden gem. It was completely unlike anywhere else in town and she could see it appealing to everyone.

  “I just don’t think many people know I’m here yet,” Faith said as she reached up to the bar and brought down a bottle of vodka. She shook it between them and the girls both giggled and nodded.

  Paige was already panicking about what it would make her feel like. She hadn’t been tipsy or drunk in years, but she was also excited and curious.

  “When did you open?” Penny asked as they both watched Faith set out three glasses and begin to fill them up over ice.

  “Only last week,” she said. “I haven’t advertised it or anything, I just wanted to let the grapevine do its work, you know?”

  Penny nodded enthusiastically and Paige couldn’t take her eye off the big bottle of vodka that was being half emptied across the three glasses.

  Oh boy… she thought.

  “I’ll keep it low key, maybe that way it’ll intrigue people more,” Faith passed them both a glass and held her own out over the bar top to meet them.

  “Cheers,” she said.

  “Cheers,” Paige found herself saying. “Here’s to new beginnings.”

  “Indeed,” Faith smiled wryly as they all chinked glasses and took a sip.

  Paige’s mouth felt stripped raw. It was both a shock and a delight to her system to be experiencing pure alcohol after all this time. It took her right back to high school, to sneaking around on an evening with her friends and drinking in secret. To throwing up in the park and trying to act sober when they got home. It reminded her of being younger and carefree, but it also reminded her of the other side of life that she was missing out on. She had spent such a lot of time trying to be perfect, when sometimes, all she really wanted was to go a bit wild and let her hair down.

  She took another sip and felt the warmth ooze right down through her body to the tips of her toes. She was loosening up and finally allowing herself to relax. She was starting to forget she was Miss Norton, highly responsible elementary school teacher, and slipping into the guise of just another girl in her twenties, out with her friends having fun. And it felt good. Damn good.

  She slugged the vodka back and gasped as she finished it. Penny looked at her with wide eyes and smiled from ear to ear, clapping her hands and whooping.

  “Go, Paige!” she cheered and she playfully slapped her friend on the back. “Honestly, I don’t know who you are tonight, you’re like a completely different person!”

  Faith smiled and grabbed the girls some more drinks. This time, it was sparkling wine and Paige shrugged and started to drink it slowly.

  “I guess I was just in need of a break,” she sighed. “I work too damn hard.”

  “Amen sister,” Penny said, and Faith smiled and nodded with them.

  It was a strange place to be, but right there, in the middle of Main Street, three women had come together and were bonding over their love of hard work. And it made Paige feel all the more empowered.

  “Come on then,” Penny said as she jumped to her feet. “What can we get playing on this jukebox, we may as well let the people of Slate Springs know this place is here! It’s Friday night, after all!”

  Faith threw her head back and laughed and clapped her hands.

  “I’m so glad you two walked in!” she grinned. “If every customer could be as fun as you girls, I’d die a happy woman.”

  As the drinks flowed, the music got louder and one by one, more people started to filter into Faith’s bar. The vintage underground vibe seemed to seduce people immediately, and Paige and Penny were center stage, knocking back drinks, laughing and singing, completely forgetting they were two school teachers, for one night only. Paige held up her arms and shimmied her waist as she danced to the music, flicking her hair around and pouting her lips. She had no idea what she looked like, but she didn’t care. For the first time, in a long time, she felt alive.

  Faith slid them two more glasses of wine and leaned over the bar.

  “This is great, thanks so much girls,” she beamed. “You’re really adding to the atmosphere of the place tonight. Hell, if I had the money, I’d hire you to sit here every week!”

  Penny laughed and Paige couldn’t help but think she would absolutely love to spend more time there at the bar, if only she didn’t have so much work to do herself.

  “What was this place before again?” Penny slurred, changing the subject. “We were trying to remember before we came in, but my mind was blank.”

  “It was a coffee house,” Faith said as she fake yawned. “I mean, boring, right? Like we don’t have enough of those around here.”

  “Jeez,” Penny said rolling her eyes. “Tell me about it. This town seems to be getting smaller and smaller by the second. There is literally nowhere to go.”

  “Apart from the strip club, apparently,” Paige interjected and laughed.

  “Oh yeah, the trucker perv spot on the outskirts of town,” Penny laughed too and rolled her eyes.
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br />   “Hey, don’t be so quick to judge,” Faith said sternly but with still a friendly warmth to her voice. “That place is one of the reasons this town is still afloat, believe it or not.”

  “What do you mean?” Paige asked. She hadn’t ever heard much about that part of town, but she was interested to hear more.

  Faith rolled up her sleeves and reached into her pocket for a packet of smokes. She lit a cigarette slowly and clamped it between her teeth, sucking in on it with relish.

  “Well, you know about The Forsaken Riders, right?” she asked with a wry smile.

  Penny and Paige looked at each other, completely unaware of what she meant.

  “The what?” Paige asked with a furrowed brow.

  “The Forsaken Riders,” Faith grinned as she leaned forward. “I mean, come on, how can you not have heard of them?”

  Paige and Penny looked at each other again and Paige found herself biting her bottom lip.

  “Okay girls, I’m going to have to fill you in on this one because two girls like you, hell, you need to know about these guys,” Faith said as she took another drag on her cigarette and leaned down so she was eye to eye with them both.

  “The Forsaken are the men who pretty much run this town.” She smiled. “You may not have heard of them yet, but you will. They’ve been doing things behind the scenes for decades, for lifetimes, and they own so much of the property around here, both residential and commercial that it would make your head spin.”

  Paige had to pinch her arm to make sure she was actually hearing all of this correct. The way Faith was talking, it was as if she were letting them in on some deep, dark secret. About an underground society that, until now, neither her nor Penny had a clue existed.

  “They’re bikers, girls,” Faith said. “Totally badass, plain and simple.” She paused and looked from one of the girls to the other. “You must have seen them around town, riding along on Main Street some days, their huge, roaring Harley’s glinting in the sunlight?”