Romeo (Dark Knights MC/Blood Fury MC: Crossover)

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

It was late but the night was absolutely beautiful, as well as peaceful. And peace was badly needed after the week she had.

Maddie sat at a picnic table under one of the parking lot lights and contemplated the fat burger she just unwrapped. Her mouth watered as she got a good grip on it and lifted it to her lips. A second later she shoved it into her mouth and took the biggest bite she could.

She closed her eyes and savored the juicy beef, the salty bacon, and the tangy slice of melted cheese, as well as the crunch of the crisp lettuce and the sweetness of the ripe tomato slice.

Perfection.

She deserved this meal tonight. This past week had been hell at work. She almost quit fifty times in the last five days alone. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration. It was more like forty-seven and a half. But really, who was counting?

Her boss at Smith’s Sports Therapy & Rehab Center was a dick and a cheap ass, so they were always understaffed. That meant her and her co-workers were run ragged.

It only got worse when high school sports were in full swing.

She had a variety of patients. Kids competing in school sports or on travel teams for their sport of choice. Teens hoping to get a college recruiter to notice them. College students hoping to get drafted by a professional sports team.

Marathon runners… Olympic swimmers… Tennis players…

The variety of athletes she worked with was endless.

She loved what she did, she just hated where she did it. She had to tell herself on the daily to stick it out and do her time so she could land the job she really wanted.

Her ultimate goal? Being a sports physical therapist for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And if she couldn’t land a position with the popular NFL team, she’d take a spot with the Pirates baseball team. Or the Penguins NHL team. Any of those professional teams located in her favorite city.

That was the whole reason she had moved down to this area. Plus, there wasn’t an overabundance of need for what she did up in Manning Grove.

The deep, throaty sound of straight exhaust pipes had her head automatically twisting in that direction. It was a familiar sound since, unofficially, she was a part of the Blood Fury MC.

Claimed, more like it. And only because her mother fell head over heels in love with a Fury member.

“Holy shit,” slipped from her lips as she recognized the biker getting off the Harley.

She spun on the picnic bench until her back was to him. She wasn’t sure if he’d recognize her, but she wasn’t taking that risk .

She had no desire to talk to him.

Enough had been said five years ago. And she wasn’t in the mood to rehash that tonight.

Or ever.

All she wanted to do was enjoy her damn burger and fries. The problem was, if he spotted her, she might not be able to do that.

She peeked over her shoulder to see where he went.

To order at the take-out window, of course, you dolt. Why else would he come to the burger joint?

However, she ate here often and never once had she spotted Romeo doing the same.

Had she seen members of the Dirty Angels here? All the time.

The Blue Avengers? Absolutely.

But the Dark Knights? For some reason, never. So, she believed it was safe.

She guessed there was a first time for everything. Except, if she had to run into a Knight, she only wished it wasn’t this one in particular.

She figured she was bound to run into him one day since she worked and lived on the border of the Knights’ territory. Yet, she somehow managed to avoid it in the last year and a half.

Apparently, tonight her luck had run out.

If she didn’t breathe, didn’t say a word, didn’t look in his direction or make eye contact, he might not even notice her. Once he left, she could go back to enjoying her burger along with her much-needed peace and quiet.

She’d rather deal with a cold burger than a hot biker. The problem being, the one ordering take-out was a womanizer. One who acted like women were only good for one thing. Or a couple things, depending on her skill set .

Five years ago, her skills were limited.

She had wanted to expand them. She simply picked the wrong man to do it with. She should’ve waited for someone she cared about. And one who cared about her.

Her mistake.

But making mistakes were a way to learn and grow. And that was how she used that experience.

The biggest lesson she learned was, selfish, misogynistic bikers—cocky enough to think the sun both rose and set in themselves—were not for her.

Over the years, she also grew into her sexuality.

Had Romeo broken the seal for her? Sure.

Did he take advantage of her?

She sighed. Maybe, maybe not. He saw an opportunity, the same as she did, and he jumped on it, as did she.

Truthfully, she really had no one to blame but herself. But that didn’t mean Romeo was a mistake she ever wanted to repeat.

Live and learn.

To avoid him noticing her, she sat perfectly still with her ears open, and her eyes averted.

I’m invisible.

Hopefully, he’ll concentrate on his meal and shoving it down his gullet before it gets cold.

She mourned the fact that her meal was doing just that as she waited for him to leave.

Her spine stiffened and her teeth clenched as she heard the distinct crunch of stone under heavy biker boots heading her way.

The picnic table actually shook slightly when the person she was hiding from in plain sight sat down. Her ears picked up the crinkle of the paper as he unwrapped his burger .

Holy shit. Who would’ve thought that imagining herself invisible didn’t work?

She pulled in a breath, braced, and turned to face him, only to find him staring at her as he chewed.

After swallowing the bite, he made the straw squeak obnoxiously against the flimsy plastic lid by sliding it up and down several times, Unfortunately, the steady rhythm of the annoying sound reminded her of sex.

“Fuck, that shit’s good,” came out on the heels of a satisfied sigh after chasing his bite of hamburger with a long sip of the freshly squeezed lemonade.

She forgot the deep and rich tone of his voice.

She forgot how he smelled. A mix of warm leather, exhaust, and a hint of some sort of cologne. Not overbearing, unlike his personality.

She certainly forgot how intense the man sitting across from her could get.

“And you are?” she asked smartly.

He snorted, shook his head, and took another massive bite out of his burger. Maddie watched his tongue jut out to capture the juices running down his fingers.

She quickly grabbed a napkin from her small pile and tossed it in his direction, even though it was too late. Instead of the temperature dropping as the night got later, watching what he did with his tongue suddenly made it heat up.

It became uncomfortably warm.

It had to be her hormones, even though she was way too young to be having a hot flash. “What are you doing here, Romeo?”

His burger was temporarily forgotten in his fingers when he said, “Funny, was gonna ask you the same thing.”

“I’m here having dinner.”

He lifted his burger. “Same. ”

“I was looking for peace and quiet.”

He shrugged and repeated, “Same.”

“I never saw you here before.”

A grin flirted with his full lips. “Same.”

“I’m surprised you remember me.” She glared at him while warning, “Don’t you dare say ‘same.’”

“Hard to forget someone who gave up?—”

She raised her hand to stop him. “Don’t.”

He put his burger down, took another long sip of his sweet drink, popped four fries into his mouth and chewed as he asked, “What’re you doin’ here, Maddie?”

She swept a hand over her own half-eaten burger and barely touched fries. “Eating my dinner. I thought that was obvious.”

“Know what I meant. What are you doin’ here ?”

“I live here. Well, not here ,” she pointed at the ground, “but near here.”

His head twitched. “Since when?”

“Since I packed up my car and drove down here.”

His nostrils flared and his lips pressed together. “Ain’t an answer.”

“It was but you just didn’t like it.”

“No one told me you were livin’ down here.”

“I didn’t know you had signed up for the email notifications. Did you check your spam folder?”

When he continued, she couldn’t tell whether her comment went over his head or if he chose to ignore it. “Last I fuckin’ checked, you’re part of a club the Knights got an alliance with. A heads up woulda been nice so we could keep an eye on you.”

“Well, see, that might be the issue… I don’t need anyone to keep an eye on me. ”

He didn’t appear convinced. “The DAMC don’t know you’re livin’ down here?”

“They do, but not because they were given a heads up. It’s only because I run into them on a regular basis.” If they had been given a heads up, no one mentioned it to her.

His brow furrowed so deeply, it reminded her of the Grand Canyon. “You hangin’ with them?”

She easily read into that question. He wasn’t asking if she spent time with the Angels, he was asking if she was hooking up with any of them.

Truthfully, whether she was or wasn’t, wasn’t any of his business. However, she had learned over the years how damn stubborn these bikers could be. If she didn’t give him a decent answer, he wouldn’t quit prodding until he got one that he considered satisfactory.

Maybe if she gave him that, he’d move along sooner than later. “I occasionally grab a drink at the Iron Horse. But I don’t hang with them. I have no desire to be an ol’ lady or… whatever.”

That “whatever” covered everything a woman could be within an MC. Everything but a member. Because, shudder , equal rights were scary to big, badass bikers.

Well, except for the Blue Avengers. As far as she knew, they now had at least two female members, but the BAMC was more of a riding club than a whole damn lifestyle.

She studied the man across the picnic table from her. Being a biker defined him. It was who and what he was and always would be.

Like the Mafia, getting in or getting out of an MC wasn’t so easy. But unlike the Mafia, you didn’t need to die to get free.

Usually.

Despite not wanting that life for herself, she loved everyone in the Blood Fury MC. They were truly family and had fully embraced Maddie, her mother, and her younger sister. The members, their ol’ ladies and possibly even some of the sweet butts, would do anything for her. She also wouldn’t hesitate to do the same for them.

Truthfully, they were the most loyal people she knew.

When Shade and her mother found each other…

She closed her eyes.

One day she hoped to find a love like they had. A partner totally dedicated to her. As she would be to him.

Yes, that was what she wished for, not someone who stuck his dick into any welcoming hole.

Romeo lived life as if he had to hit a certain number of notches on his bedpost before time ran out. Like it was a race to the grave.

He’d been handy to get the job done. But once that task was over, she walked away.

Or more like it, she did the walk of shame.

Luckily, no one saw her stumble out of Romeo’s RV with her clothes wrinkled and her hair a tangled mess. And if they did, they kept it quiet.

If any of the Fury members had known she was in Romeo’s RV that weekend losing her virginity, most likely a war would’ve broken out between at least two of the clubs, if not all three.

She had no doubt that Romeo would’ve been dragged right out of his rented Winnebago and made an example. Whether by the Fury president Trip or by Shade. Then she would’ve been the cause of that chaos, along with possibly destroying the club alliance.

All because she had been selfish and wanted to take care of a problem that she now knew was never a problem in the first place. At the time, she’d been foolish enough to think she’d been “missing” out. That she should be embarrassed being a college graduate who never went “all the way.”

Even so, causing chaos was the last thing she wanted during the celebration of Easy and Tess’s wedding, so, afterward, she walked away from that RV and avoided Romeo for the rest of the weekend.

Despite him trying to catch her attention on numerous occasions.

She didn’t want anyone getting suspicious and asking questions.

Digging deeper on why she hadn’t slept in her own bed all night.

Wanting to know why she snuck into the house before sunrise not quite looking the same as she left it the day before despite wearing the same outfit.

Or asking the biggest question of all…

Why Romeo?