Bikers, Chains and Bad Boys

Chapter 16

"Great job." He stood from his chair, followed by the other two men and I turned, making my way out of the office in front of them. I made my way to my bottle of water on a bench a few feet away as they started a conversation. I tried to ignore them for a while, to avoid being nosey, but eventually I ran out of random things to think about and I tuned into their conversation.

"Paul seems a bit quieter than usual today." Warren commented. Andy snorted.

"Didn't start out that way." Warren threw him a questioning glance and he shook his head. "He was throwing shit and cursing up a storm most of the morning."

"What changed?"

Andy huffed a laugh and nodded to me. "Got a tongue lashing from that one. Funny as hell." He shook his head again as he turned to take care of a customer standing by the front desk. Warren looked at me, amusement lighting his eyes, and Jack let out a sharp laugh, shaking his head as he walked away. I gave a half shrug, turning to hide the heat in my cheeks. I sighed as I pulled myself up onto a workbench to sit, glad no one could see the grimace on my face as the movement jostled my ribs.

The road rash had lost its scabbing, leaving behind only faint, shiny pink skin – a sign that it was almost completely healed. The gash on my head was just the same, though that one was going to leave a decent scar – not that you would see it with my hair covering it. My shoulder was pain free now, so the only thing I had left was my ribs, and they were healing quite well if you asked me. They hardly hurt anymore unless I put a lot of pressure on them. I'd always been a fast healer.

"What did you say to him?"

I sighed as he made his way over to lean against the bench a few feet away from me. I sipped my water; maybe out of thirst, maybe out of need to get passed the full-on cringe fighting its way to the surface. I grimaced as the words slipped past my lips.

"Something along the lines of calling him a child and to stop bitching and complaining about everything." Sipping the water, I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and grimaced again. "And I may have told him he needed to go change his pad."

I jerked, startled as he let out a sudden, deep laugh. I wasn't the only one surprised. Almost everyone in the room looked surprised or startled, staring at Warren and then me as if we'd suddenly sprouted extra limbs. It took a few seconds, and a scowl from Warren, before everyone returned to what they were doing.

"The boy needs a kick in the ass sometimes to bring his sense back." He huffed another small laugh as he shook his head slightly, a small tilt to his lip. "Literally or figuratively."

We'd sat in comfortable silence for a while. I watched enviously as the guys worked. I hated not being able to work and get my hands dirty. Eventually, he'd caught my attention and we spoke about me going stir-crazy not being allowed to do anything. Then, about the possibilities of custom work that he could have done. I was so excited to finally get to do some custom work for someone that I'd forgotten all about being put on secretary duty the past week.

When they'd made a move to leave later, Warren turned back at the door and called to me. "Harley, there's a party at the clubhouse tonight. I'll be disappointed if I don't see you there." With that, he turned and left. I turned, looking at Andy with an eyebrow raised. He just shrugged at me and told me I'd better be there then.

As the day pressed on, I'd begun to feel guilty about yelling at Paul earlier. I know I didn't need to and that he probably deserved it, but for some reason I felt like I should apologize. I couldn't work up the courage to approach him, though. I felt stupid, but I just went back to my mindless fiddling with random things until closing time and sighed in happiness when I clocked out, a tiny bit of built-up tension leaked from my shoulders.