Esmerelda (RAZORBACK MC NOVELLA #2)

6

Travis’ Pov:

She slid the helmet on and put one hand between her legs so the skirt wouldn’t rise and she made sure to sit on it so the wind wouldn’t make it float either.

“Ready,” I asked her and she shifted a bit until she was against my back and she nodded before putting her arms around me. I revved the engine, keeping my feet down and pulling out away from Marcus’ bike, and then I putted to the driveway. Looking out I took a breath and hit the pedal so we were taking off down the street. She has told me where to go, but I was still making her go for a ride.

I took the back streets, getting closer to the nice side of town where there were more trees and birds and flowers to look at. I stopped at a red light and felt her relax against me before I had to take off. She didn’t seem too upset about not going home right away so I kept going. I circled a nice size park and saw some kids and pulled over.

“What are we doing here?” She asked as if this was my plan.

“Relaxing. Let’s take a walk.” I took off my helmet and helped her off the bike so her skirt didn’t rise at all.

“This is a nice place.” She whispered and she looked over and saw some kids running on some open grass with a soccer ball.

“So it is.” I reached for her hand and she let me take it, and I led her to the little path. We walked down and around and hit some more trees and a bench looking at the… I guess it was a rose garden.

“They’re so pretty, they must get a lot of water.” She tilted her head and leaned over to smell a white rose.

“How can you tell?”

“My nonna, my grandma, when I was little…” she took a breath and then smiled slowly, “she used to have bunches of bushes like this in her front yard. I spent a lot of time there and she would water them every other day and there were so many flower until winter kind of took them out.” She told me and I nodded seeing a lot of flowers on each bush.

“Did she raise you?” I asked hoping she had a good childhood until she met one of my old club mates.”

“No. Just watched me in the summers and sometimes after school. My mom had the displeasure of raising me. My nonna died when I was 9, maybe 10. It was worse after that.” She told me and then she sighed and shook her head.

I leaned over and pulled my knife out, putting it at the stem of one of the smaller roses I cut it long enough for her to hold with one hand. I took the thorns off and offered it out.

“Thanks.” She lifted it up again, closing her eyes and she smelled it, and I didn’t get why it was a good smell, it smelled like pollen to me, but I’d she liked it, I’d make sure to get her more for our real date.

“What else did you do with your nonna?” I wanted her to be on a happy memory lane.

“Well, she taught me to cook a bit, my ABCs and numbers and she was helping me read and dance.” She laughed as if something funny stuck out in her mind.

“Sounds like a woman of many talents.” I said and she nodded before sighing.

“She told me that if I ever wanted a husband I wouldn’t do all the hip hop moves and try and spin on my head or whatever kids were doing these days…” she laughed again and I smiled seeing her laugh. “She taught me how to waltz and tango and salsa dance… she also… for fun, taught me the cancan girl dance.” She laughed and looked around to see if anyone was there to see. She pulled back and started to kick her leg high and then the other as she counted aloud before laughing really hard. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face at her giggles.

“Was she a dancer?” I asked and she nodded.

“She used to teach couples how to dance for their wedding and stuff like that. She followed my mom to Reno when she had me.” She sighed and I had to wonder where she was from.

“So you’re from Reno?”

“Around it yeah. After 12 my mom and I moved around a bit, circling Reno as she went from one guy to another.” She sighed and shrugged.

“Was your mom not nice?”

“She was… not, not nice at all. After nonna died I heard her talking about me, how no one wanted to be with her if her life sucking kid was around all the time.” I shook my head at the term, kids were a privilege.

“What about you? Were you from Vegas?” She asked and I nodded slowly.

“Marcus and I grew up together, my dad was a traveling biker and Marcus’ dad was big in the Vegas Chapter. I was the same age as his little sister Hope so I kind of stuck to their family. I grew up down the street from them, and when Hope and I got older we got into a relationship of sorts…” I didn’t think I would go down this road on a walk, but too late to back out now.

EZZYs POV:

“So you loved her?” I asked knowing he had paused for a while so it meant either joy or pain and he wasn’t smiling.

“I did. She kind of loved me. Before we dated she used to say I was like another brother to her.” He laughed like it was funny and then he sighed like it was going to turn sad. “She went to a different high school than me. She was definitely so much smarter than me in some ways. She got some meds to help her stay up all night to study from a rich kid who had ADHD… after that it was all downhill. She went to parties, she got high. Marcus tried to help her but she refused. She knew I had a job and I loved her and looking back she used me to her advantage before I knew what she was really using my cash for.” Oh no, I’m sure I know how this is going to end.

“So you loved her… and she-“

“She got clean and still wanted to be with me a couple times but something always went wrong and sent her back. Her parents gave up on her after a second relapse and they just… they let her do whatever she wanted as long as she wasn’t stealing from them to get a fix.” He shook his head and moved to sit on a bench and I followed. I remember what it was like, to think that anything could be sold for just a little taste of something. I remember looking around the rehab and thinking how I would get the TV that was bolted in, off and sell it and get kicked out and be able to get high. It was a deep need. Some people didn’t know it until they were there themselves. “Marcus used to be put on jobs, so he would be gone and when she tried to sober up the last time I had enough. I told her that she would do it at home and to wait for Marcus. She called me a cheap lowlife, and she left my apartment for home.”

“Is she still clean?” I asked and he worked his jaw and cleared his throat.

“When Marcus got back she was still using. He said something to her about it, she and him had a fight I think I never asked too much. She overdosed that night, and he found her.”

“Oh shit.” I whispered and looked away, that was worse that I thought it was going to be. “I’m sorry.” I whispered and he had a smile twitch and he looked over at me.

“She’s the reason I got so many girls out and helped make sure they got clean.” He told me and I guess that meant I owed my life to her. “She and I were on and off while she struggled and I wish she was still around but after years without her and even more years in prison… I know I have to move on from her and try with someone else.”

“Which is why you’re dating.” I offered out and he laughed and shook his head.

“Not really, I asked you out but that’s it. I haven’t even gotten a yes or a date set with you.” He gave me a look like I was supposed to be honest with him now.

“I really do have to check both schedules. I wasn’t lying.” I told him and he nodded. “Besides what is this if not a sort of date?” I asked and he looked around and then back at me.

“I’m not buying you food or anything right now, that’s a date.”

“But you did get me a flower.” I raised the rose so he could see it and he tilted his head like he would concede that point and I smiled. “And, we’re talking about stuff like it’s a date.”

“You wanna consider this a date? Really? Walking around in a park?”

“I would. I haven’t been taken out on a lot of dates but this is fun for me. I don’t like big crowds when it’s too loud. I like laid back.” I shrugged knowing most women expected to be wined and dined and paid for, but this, just talking and getting to know a person was always more important.

“So what you’re saying is, you date as much as I do.” He and I laughed after I nodded and I looked down at the rose.

“It was hard to trust men for a long time. I was worried over all the bikers that came into the shop but these guys here aren’t like Vegas at all. Marcus… he helped me too. He found me in the club house and took me to a hospital and I didn’t press charges or want to talk about it. As soon as I was discharged… the guys saw me at the bus stop, took me back, I don’t know if he ever knew I was taken back.” I worked my lips with my teeth, nibbling them, feeling the chapped skin until I got a small raise and I pulled and I could feel the sting of the skin ripping.

“He knows… I assume he does.”

“Did you tell him what you did? How you saved the groups of girls?” I knew he wasn’t just a one time thing, I heard it the other day.

“He kind of does.” He shrugged and I knew this must be a sore or maybe even a embarrassing subject, bragging about how you helped people.

“I don’t know much about his sister, but he celebrates her birthday. A couple weeks ago, maybe it was more than a month. He has the cooks at the diner make him chocolate chip pancakes and he spelled Hope with the whipped cream. I left him alone when he started to whisper stuff, I didn’t know it was his sister.” I told him slowly wondering if he did the same thing.

“He… he doesn’t talk to his parents anymore, not after they kind of let it go on without forcing her to get help. Last time I saw them… his mom was on something and I didn’t get to see much of his dad.” I nodded slowly and felt his hand raise mine and he linked our fingers. “I get caught up in the past sometimes.” He told me and I had to realize that might be because he said he was in jail.

“Why were you incarcerated?” I didn’t mean to pry, but I kind of needed to know.

“Marcus… he flipped on the Vegas chapter, he was a whistle blower. He wasn’t allowed to tell me so the day everything went down I had been strapped with cash to make a deposit so I went down for cooperating in illegal activities. I got an extra 8 months for fighting.”

“He made sure those guys went to prison?” I asked him and he nodded and ran his thumb over my hand. “ You’re ok with what he did?”

“It was a way out for him, us… now that I’m out it will be fine. He did what he had to do.” That was real loyalty… he was still a good man.

“Travis?” I called making him look over at me. “Can we go on that real date now instead of relaxing?”