The Switch, Debra Kayn [best books for 20 year olds .txt] 📗

against his lips. "No, thank you."

Knowing she couldn't put off leaving the car, she smoothed the front of her shirt and made sure all her clothes were on. "Well, it's time to do the stride of pride. Are you ready?"

He chuckled. "Who's cocky now?"

She laughed, opening the door.

Testing her legs, she stood beside the car and stretched. Over the hood, she watched Trip run his hand down the lower part of his face and tilt his head.

"Your kids are on the other side of the clubhouse," he said.

"How do you know that?" She walked around the front of the car.

"I can hear them."

"Sure, you can." She laughed, grabbing his hand and walking with him toward the Avery Falls Motorcycle Club clubhouse.

He led her straight where she found her boys sitting on the ground behind the building. She let go of Trip and checked in with Kenny and Zach, who not only had Trina to keep them company but two other boys and a girl around their ages.

After checking in with them, she returned to Trip's side and studied him.

There was no way he could've heard the kids with most community members attending the get-together and being loud. He was also occupied the last half hour with her in the car. So how had he known where to find them?

Chapter Seventeen

Roy Chemmote, who lived behind the gas station, talked with Bonnie. Trip rubbed his thumb against the palm of his hand, waiting for Bonnie to return to his side. He enjoyed having her with him tonight.

She had no hesitation when it came to sex. Even around her sons, she openly held Trip's hand and informed the kids that if they needed her, she'd be with him.

Bonnie walked backward, getting closer to him, while still talking to Roy. When he concentrated, he could hear their conversation had to do with her grandfather, and he could sense she was at ease around the old man.

She turned and hurried to Trip, handing one of the bottles to him. Then, she held up her beer, and he popped the cap for her.

"Do you know Roy?" She took a drink while he nodded. "He lived here when I was a child."

Obviously happy over the news, she rocked to her toes. He slid his hand underneath her hair and palmed her nape, making contact with the pulse of her blood rushing through her veins.

"He was friends with Grandpa Gene. When I was young, Roy and Gloria, his wife, would come over to the house and play Pinochle." Her eyes widened in happiness. "I can't believe he recognized me. The last time I was here, I was fourteen years old."

"It's the red hair." He fisted his hand in the strands of her hair. "It's impossible to forget."

"Well, look at you." She stretched up on her toes in front of him. "I never thought I'd see you flirting with me."

Flirting? He had no reason to act and lie. When it came to her, he'd tell her exactly how it was between them.

Speeder walked up to him. "Trina?"

If Speeder wasn't experiencing any changes, he would find his daughter on his own. He cocked his brow, letting his MC brother know everything wasn't right with him.

Speeder's mouth tightened. He'd received the news.

Trip hitched his chin. "She's behind the clubhouse."

"Thanks, man." Speeder nodded at Bonnie and walked off.

As soon as he was gone, Johnny joined them. Trip could do with fewer people around. He wanted to be alone with Bonnie with fewer interruptions.

"We're riding out at midnight." Johnny stopped beside him. "Prez wants everyone topped up in time."

He'd already filled his gas tank. "I'll be ready."

Johnny remained in front of him. He waited for him to say more, but his MC brother remained silent.

Bonnie squeezed his arm. "I'm going to check on the boys."

He watched her walk away. Johnny elbowed him.

"Spit it out," he said.

Johnny stepped into his vision. "Anyone who sees you looking at Bonnie that way will know you're fucked up."

"I'm here. She's here. There's nothing to see." There were a hundred other people milling around.

The point of the get-togethers was to socialize. To show them all that despite the town being run by a group of bikers, they were a community.

The façade was to cover merging the participants in the Alpha Bio Project into society.

Johnny slipped his hands into his vest pockets. "For those enhanced and trained, there was something to see, hear, and sense when you were fucking Bonnie in the car."

"All of us have sex whenever we want. That's nothing new. Whether in the clubhouse or privately." He lost sight of Bonnie as she rounded the corner of the clubhouse. "If one of the handlers is snooping around, he'd see that sex is as natural as breathing."

Johnny turned and looked over the crowd. "I don't know what the fuck is happening or who we can trust."

"Trust no one." He drained the rest of his beer. "Just like always."

Johnny frowned. "Do you remember where you came from?"

He shook his head. Questions about his past bothered him.

The others who'd arrived after him, active participants of the program, fought long and hard to be released, even to the safety of themselves. He never asked who they were or about their life before arriving.

But to fight until it killed them, as it often had, showed him that whatever the men remembered, whatever they fought to return to, must mean more than life itself.

For him, the disconnect with his past was still there. He had no interest in knowing more about the men. Unless someone asked him about his past, he never gave it a thought or concern. Once he'd left training, his thoughts centered around the MC.

As the question about his past wormed into his brain, he walked away from Johnny and found Bonnie. He needed to shake the unsettled paranoia growing inside of him.

Kenny talked to his mom. He'd heard part of the conversation when the boy's voice shifted higher in excitement. Whistling, he got one of the