Phoenix’s Plight by Tiffany Casper
‘Don’t call me a bitch. He will eat you.’
- June’s secret thoughts
Chapter 7
June
When June pulled up to the address that Heathen had texted her, she frowned. There was a chain-link fence at what appeared to be at least eight feet tall and a long, large gate.
When she rolled down her window, a man came from a little shack off to her left.
She took in the brick building that made her house look like a small shed.
“You lost?” a man asked her. He had on the same leather kutte that Heathen wore, where Heathen’s had said his name, this man’s read ‘Knot’.
He had old, greasy, inky hair and a long beard that needed to be trimmed. And he had a pot belly that hung out and over his jeans. Eww.
What made her hands begin to shake was how he had looked at her and glared.
“Umm . . . I may be in the wrong place.” She checked the address that Heathen had sent her again.
She rattled off the address to the man who had a scowl on his face.
“Yeah, correct address.” The man appeared to not even be caring at all.
“Okay. I’m here to see Johnny.” Shit. She realized she should have said Heathen. When she went to say his name, he started, and she had to curl her fingers in her fist to tame her temper. It wasn’t what he had called her. No, it was what he had called Heathen. Her Johnny.
“Girl, you’re fucking funny. Ain’t nobody here named Johnny. Not to mention no bitches come here looking for anyone, least of all that mean son of a bitch.” He was still laughing at her as he turned from her and went to his shack, shaking his head the whole way.
She scrolled to his name in her contacts and pressed his name.
As she put the phone to her ear, she saw men and women alike walking around the building. The women were scantily clad, dressed in short miniskirts and halter tops with four-inch heels. She looked down at her own cut-off jean shorts and fitted red t-shirt with the words ‘All Star’ across her breasts in faded, crinkled white lettering.
It was early, but to dress like that this early, damn.
Before Heathen picked up, that man came from the shed and started yelling at her. “Bitch, thought that was enough for you to get gone! You fucking deaf or something? Move your god damn car back onto the road and get gone!” He had snarled at her.
While she had been listening to the man yell at her, she hadn’t heard Heathen answer his phone. She hadn’t heard anything that he had said, not until she heard a loud slam and looked up.
At the same time, the man looked in that direction, and she heard, “Oh, shit. Oh, fuck.”
Someone had thrown open a door and it had slammed against the building. And that someone was Heathen.
He came near them with angry strides. She could feel the fury coming off him in waves, even from inside her car.
There were people pouring out of the clubhouse and the others who were in the courtyard had scurried out of his way like their lives were depending on it.
Oh shit, she thought, this was about to get ugly.
She got out of her car just as he had grabbed the gate and flung it sideways. Yeah, he was definitely pissed off.
Then his hand was wrapped around the man’s throat.
And in a dangerous, low tone he asked, “You asked her if she was deaf?”
He picked the man up by his throat with one hand. With. One. Hand.
She knew he was strong but not that strong. And in the wrong moment, like always, her lady bits began to tingle. Yeah, that turned her on. She was fucked in the head, but she didn’t care.
Those feelings fled her as she saw the man’s face was beginning to turn purple. She tried to get to him, only she was blocked by a crowd that was now surrounded around Heathen and the man apparently named Knot.
“Heathen, man, let him down, brother.” She wasn’t sure who that was that had spoken to Heathen, but she definitely heard the authoritative tone in his voice.
“You called her a bitch?” There was Heathen, and the dark words he had snarled had even rattled her.
And apparently, like it was taboo for Heathen to care whether someone was called a bitch or not, all eyes turned to her.
It was then that she started to make her way to Heathen. She said “excuse me” to everyone, anyone who had a leather kutte on their backs, and even a few women who surrounded them all.
Heathen, honey, what have I gotten myself into? She shook her head, knowing what she had gotten herself into. Heathen. Plain and simple.
She watched as some woman went to touch Heathen, but then she saw that someone else had halted the woman’s movements.
When June went to touch him, a man from the crowd had grabbed her hand and halted her.
“Look, lady, I don’t know how you know Heathen, but he doesn’t like to be touched. Period.” June glanced at the man for a split second and then she put her eyes back on Heathen.
“I’ve had the pleasure of touching this man everywhere I choose for the past two years. So, if you wouldn’t mind, take your hands off me so I can save one of your men.” She hadn’t heard the inhale of breath from everyone around them.
But she didn’t feel the other man’s hand on her wrist anymore.
So, she put her hand on his shoulder and felt the heat that was radiating under her touch, and then it was like that area went from rock hard to soft in an instant.
“Johnny, honey, I’m okay. Can you let him go, please?” June said in a low whisper, not wanting the others to hear her.
When she saw his muscles soften but he hadn’t yet let the other man go, she continued, “I don’t like the fact that I’ll be waiting for you to get out of prison before I can cuddle in those arms again.” And as she said that particular statement, she could feel eyes, all of them, staring at her.
Then, before she knew it, Heathen lowered the man to the ground.
“You ever disrespect her again, and I’ll not back off. Even she won’t be able to save your punk ass, boy.” He snarled at the man who was now hunched over, coughing, and trying to get air back in his lungs.
She saw Heathen’s eyes, they were dark, and then when he turned his head and looked down at her, the fury eased away and in its place were the deep green eyes she had come to adore staring right back at her.
He wrapped his hand around her neck, his other at her hip, and he pulled her into him.
She could feel his body trembling while it was pressed close to her.
“Heathen, man, you okay?” Someone had asked him. June didn’t know whomever that was, but she also knew that he wasn’t going to answer anyone. Not when he was like this.
So, she pulled away and then felt his arms tighten around her. June turned her head to where she heard the question being asked. “He’ll be okay. Is there a way someone can drive my car into the lot, please?” she asked a graying dark-haired man. And then she looked at his kutte and saw the word ‘President’. Well, shit. Damn all her luck.
“Yeah, doll.” He turned and told another man to do as she had asked.
“Heathen, honey, my stomach is about to eat itself. Think you can feed me?” And it was the random quirkiness that always did the trick. Just like it did now.
He pulled away from her, still staring in her eyes.
“Yeah, babe, that I can do.” He switched her to his side with his arm wrapped around her shoulders, and she wrapped her other arm around his middle as they walked side by side into the building that looked like a freaking lodge with the brick pavers in the front.
“Heathen, man, you good?” Another man had asked him with a rasp to his voice, so low she almost hadn’t heard it.
And just like the first man, Heathen didn’t bother to answer him.
“He will be,” June responded and smiled. This man had long blonde hair and a scar from the end of his eyebrow. Since she worked in a call center, she hadn’t interacted with too many people face to face, so that scar should have shocked her, but it hadn’t. She had learned long ago that scars were badges of honor, and she didn’t pay his scar any mind as she continued walking beside Heathen.
When they entered the clubhouse, she didn’t miss all of the shocked stares that assaulted them, some from the men, but a lot of them from the women.
And one woman, in particular, was shooting death glares in her direction only. No clue what that was about. June didn’t really have any hold on Heathen. Though she wanted to, she knew that would probably never happen.
But it was then, as she took in the women and how scantily dressed they were, it made her rethink everything with Heathen. Heck, did she give it to him too easily? Was she not making him work for it?
And as she was silently questioning every single thing that had gone down over the past two years, she knew that she was enough.
Because as soon they had entered together, he didn’t have eyes for anyone. Even as they had to bypass all the women, they may well have been dressed in potato sacks with black bags on their faces.
He took them straight into a kitchen, pulled her out a stool, picked her up, and sat her down on it. Then he went to an industrial-sized fridge and began pulling out things to make her a sandwich.
He made her a turkey and swiss cold cut with mayonnaise and mustard. Then what he did baffled her—he cut the crust off for her.
June always made him food whenever he came to her house if he didn’t bring takeout with him. It shocked the hell out of her that he even knew how she liked her sandwiches.
The man was a mystery to her still. June had touched every inch of his skin. She had been to new heights with him. She had even gone to bat for him when a friend of hers got upset that she’d had chosen Heathen over a night of partying.
It had been when Heathen pulled up on his Harley in her drive and had been shaking. It was a wonder that he even made it to her house from wherever he had come.
If her man—yes, she considered him her man, even if he didn’t consider her his woman—was shaking and was in a dark mood, there was no way that she was leaving him. Not to go and waste money on drinks and have guys she didn’t like groping at her on the dance floor.
She was only twenty-four years old and, yes, she should be out partying and enjoying her youth. But she had a man who, whenever she was in his arms, she knew nothing would ever touch her. She also knew that actions spoke louder than words.
Because after they had made love that night, four times to be exact, and she had fallen asleep atop him, on his pillow was the note, and with the note was a beautiful dark blue and yellow dreamcatcher to hang in her rear-view mirror.
A few weeks prior, when he had been to her house, she had told him that she was looking for one and that she may just end up ordering one online. It was funny in a sense that she told him something so random, but that was the way it was with them.
She could talk about the color of her nail polish and he would smile. She could talk about switching detergents with her clothes and loving how soft the fabric now felt on her skin.
He never asked her to explain anything. He sat there beside her, rubbing her feet, watching the television, and smiling at her whenever she spoke.
Yes, actions did speak louder than words.
While she waited for him to finish her sandwich, she told him some of the drama that had taken place at the call center. The damn place was like a freaking soap opera.
“Heathen, I got to tell you. Linda keyed Mitch’s car. It had been all over the town. He even came to the hospital to confront her.”
“She found out he was cheating on her?” he asked her while he had been putting the final touches on her sandwich.
“Yep. Just like you said that night that you met him. I still can’t get over that. I mean, Linda has a heart of gold. I didn’t see him looking at the waitresses like you did. Had I seen him, I would’ve kicked him in the balls,” she stated as a matter of fact.
“On top of that, she asked him about a lot of girls, and it was like ten girls’ names, and are you ready for this?” She waited until he looked up at her.
“One of the women was standing there listening to them. How messed up is that?”
“Pretty fucked, babe.” He grabbed her a soda and him a water.
“Pres, you going to need me for the rest of the day?” he had asked a man who had been standing there the whole time, watching their encounter. It had also been the same man who had grabbed her wrist to halt her from touching him.
She saw that his name patch had read ‘Powers’.
“Nah, we should be good,” Powers answered Heathen. The man hadn’t paid her any mind, and that was okay with her.
“We’ll be in my room,” he stated as he grabbed her hand and her sandwich along with the drinks and a bag of chips.
“Thank you for having someone move my car,” she said to him as they were passing.
“Figure you need this,” he said as he held her overnight bag. Her face felt like it lit a flame.
Heathen shoved one of the drinks in his arm and grabbed her bag.
“Thanks, Pres,” he said as they began making their way down the hallway to places unknown.
“You know, I have two hands that are attached to arms that can hold something.” The look she received at that had not only herself but the man behind them chuckling.
After he had led her to his room, she was shocked. He had a king-sized bed with a white duvet cover. Yes, you heard that right—a white duvet cover. It was identical to the one at her own home.
The room was painted a light gray and it was badass. However, all it held was a picture of a Harley in black and white, a tall dresser, and a bed. Oh, and one bedside table.
After she demolished her sandwich, Heathen grabbed her hand and pulled her with him to the main room of the clubhouse. Along the walls were nothing but pictures. And when Heathen had left her side to go take care of some club shit, she heard two women muttering nearby, and the little hairs on the back of her neck stood up.
“I don’t get it. He won’t allow anyone else to touch him, and yet he allows her to be all over him. What the hell does she have that I don’t?” June didn’t like her at all.
“Heathen. She has Heathen.” Well, she decided that she liked that one.
As she sat at a table, she was introduced to Lilliana, Powers’ ole’ lady, and another ole’ lady named Rachel.
June decided that Lil, as she had been told to call her, was good people. And she was introduced to one of the club girls they called Laura, and she was of the same mindset as Lil. Not too bad.
The moment Heathen had returned, he held out his hand to her and said, “Dance with me?” And that request that had just come out of his mouth floored her.
Stunned, she did nothing but stare at his outstretched hand.
Feeling like the luckiest bitch on the planet, she placed her hand in his rough, calloused one and allowed him to pull her out onto the makeshift dance floor.
He kept them at a slow dance, and she couldn’t keep the smile off her face the entire time.
After he had fucked the hell out of her, they both crashed after he endured watching a movie with her. However, he had slept through half of it.
Heathen wasn’t a fan of The Notebook.
“I love you, Johnny,” she had murmured to him in her sleep. Unknowing to her, those three words had cemented herself in his life forever.
Blinking one eye open, and then the next one, she looked at the alarm clock that Heathen had in his room at the clubhouse and saw that it was just after nine a.m. She loved having her days off so that she could sleep in.
Hopefully, her craft business would take off and she would be able to make a decent living just doing that, because the call center job was becoming way too tedious and she was just about done with it.
Throwing the covers off, she hadn’t needed to look for Heathen. He had woken her with a kiss to her lips before he left the bed to handle ‘club shit’.
Smiling down at herself, she couldn’t help but laugh. One of his shirts was nothing less than a dress on her. She had to forgo sweatpants because she couldn’t roll them up enough to even be able to wear them.
He would just have to deal with it.
His black button-up shirt fell to the tops of her knees, and she had to roll up the sleeves five times.
Most days, she loved his height, like right now. But other times, especially when she had to crane her neck to look up into his eyes, that played havoc on her neck. Seeing the chiropractor made it all better.
After she brushed her teeth and washed her face, she padded out of his room in her booties and made her way down the stairs to the kitchen, where she hoped Lil would be so she could stuff some food in her growling stomach.
