Hadley (The Club Girl Diaries Book 3) (18 page)

“This is probably going to sound stupid since we are kinda on the run for my life…” I started, looking at Leo nervously, “…but do you think we’ll have time to visit my mom while we are down here.”

He raised an eyebrow at me curiously. “They live around here?”

“Not really, Panama City. It’s about a two and a half hour drive. But I’m hardly ever this close.”

It would be nice to see my mom again. I hadn’t for so long.

My mom and step dad Keith had only ever met Simon once. They hadn’t even come to our wedding. With all the undercover work going on, I felt it was safer for them to not be involved. If shit hit the fan with Judge’s club, people were going to get hurt.

It had been okay until Keith had told me he didn’t think Simon was the right man. I knew he wasn’t trying to be cruel, but I was in love, I thought that he was my forever. But obviously, Keith had seen something I hadn’t. And maybe if I’d just listened, things wouldn’t have reached this point.

“Guess it wouldn’t hurt to move ourselves around for a day or two, keep things interesting,” Leo answered. “I’ll chat to Kit and Op first, and see if they’re good with that.”

“Thanks,” I said with a smile, reaching over and taking his free hand.

As we pulled up to the club, I realized it was a little different than back in Athens. The Athens chapter had an old style hotel come bed and breakfast set up on the outskirts of town.

The Troy chapter, on the other hand, was established in an industrial area in what reminded me of a massive old warehouse.

Kit and Harmony pulled up, and Harmony jumped off as Kit backed his bike in next to the long row of others. I followed her inside as Leo stopped to chat with a couple club members who had stepped out of a large roller door to greet him.

“The travelers return!” a sweet voice called as we stepped inside. Music was already playing in the background, and the drinks were flowing as the men who’d made the trip up to Athens were welcomed back by their brothers.

A beautiful blonde woman strode over to us with a smile and threw her arms around Harmony. “Welcome back.”

Harmony laughed, pulling back. “Thanks. This is Hadley. She’s going to be staying with us for a bit. Hadley, this is Del.”

I held my hand out, and she took it in hers. “Nice to meet you,” I greeted.

“Likewise, honey. You here alone?” she asked with her head tilted.

“She’s here with Leo,” Harmony shot in with a smirk.

Del raised her brows. “Thought Leo didn’t have an Old Lady.”

“You know these boys…” Harmony started as she pulled on my hand, “…they see something they want, they gotta have it.” She guided me into a bar stool, and I shook my head with a smile.

Del and Harmony sat either side of me. “You get the speech?” Del asked.

“Speech?”

She nodded, clearing her throat and lowering her voice. “You’re mine now, I look after what’s mine, no fucking anyone else, ‘cause you’re mine. And if I forgot to tell you… mine.”

I couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled from my throat. “Something to that extent.”

One of the guys placed three bottles of beer on the bar before quickly disappearing again before I could say thank you.

“Do you think they all practice that speech for when the time comes? I swear it’s a part of the brotherhood bylaws that when claiming a woman you must say ‘mine’ at least six times.” Harmony giggled as she grabbed a beer.

“Pretty sure the bylaws say seven, so these boys are slacking,” Tally answers, appearing behind the bar with a smirk.

“How was Kat when you had to come home?” I asked casually, taking a pull on my beer. The ice cold liquid swished down my throat with ease after a long day.

Harm and Del both tried to hide their laughter when Tally’s smile faltered.

“Ooh Kat? You have a thing?” Harmony asked excitedly.

Tally cleared his throat. “Wouldn’t call it a thing.”

“It’s a thing,” I cut in.

“I think it’s great if you’re a thing,” Harmony said patting his hand.

He whipped it away, his eyes looking around nervously. “I’m pretty sure it’s not a thing.”

“It’s a thing,” I repeated.

“Leo!” he called, his eyes boring into mine with forced agitation. “Come get your woman.”

I heard his deep laughter from behind me before I felt his hand at my waist. “Already causing trouble.”

I snorted, causing everyone to laugh. “He denies him and Kat are a thing.”

Leo looked up at Tally, who I could tell was maybe just starting to click. “There’s definitely a thing, bro.”

Tally opened his mouth to fight back, but he froze. “Fuck.”

Pulling his phone from his pocket, he dialed at high speed before holding it to his ear. We all held our breath as we watched on. His fingers stopped tapping when I assumed she answered.

He licked his lips nervously. “Are we a thing?” When he looked over his shoulder to see us watching him in anticipation, his eyes widened, and he scurried down the bar and out of the room.

“Did he really not know?” I asked, watching the spot where he had disappeared.

“Tally has always been love ‘em and leave ‘em,” Leo explained, taking my beer and throwing it back until the bottle was empty. “He’s probably scared shitless right now.”

“He reminds me so much of Slider,” Harmony chuckled, her laughter fading quickly. She took a moment to think about her words before shaking her head and forcing a smile. “Anyone need another drink?” She ducked behind the bar, making herself busy.

“Wish I’d had time to talk to him before we left,” I said to no one in particular. Rose had promised to keep me updated, and Leo was checking in with Optimus regularly, but it still didn’t change the fact that I’d left with tensions high between us.

I cared about Slider. I wanted him to make it through this. I somewhat understood his reasoning in keeping it to himself, but he’d forced my hand and I knew inside that letting his brothers know what was going on with him was the right thing to do.

I didn’t regret it.

I just felt guilty about how it had happened.

“Leo!” a high voice called from across the room. I looked up to see a pretty young girl bouncing through the crowd toward us, an excited smile on her face. Her eyes were focused on the man standing at my side, never leaving him as she came closer. My curiosity piqued, and I looked to Harmony and Del with a raised eyebrow.

They both shook their heads, interesting me even more.

The girl bounced over to the bar. Her hair was bleached blonde and cut in a short pixie style. She was cute, short and slim.

“Hey,” Leo greeted her as she threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly before stepping back.

“Couldn’t keep away, huh?” she jested with a giggle.

“Something like that.”

She seemed sweet enough, reminding me of a cowboy styled Tinkerbelle with her brown boots, short hair, and denim mini.

“Andrea, this is Hadley,” Harmony said, realizing Leo wasn’t going to do the introductions.

I smiled. “Nice to meet you,” I tell her, offering my hand.

She returns the gesture, and we shake. “You too. What brings you to Troy?”

“I’m from the Athens chapter,” I tell her, not giving too much away. “Needed a little help and Kit was kind enough to offer to take us in for a bit.”

“Oh! Are you a club girl, too?”

Leo takes that moment to step in, placing his arm around my waist. “Old Lady,” he corrects.

The moment Andrea clicked to what Leo was saying, I watched the bubbly smile on her face drop. She tried to recover, forcing her lips to turn back up, but I’d already caught the pain in her features.

“Oh,” she said softly, her eyes moving to Leo. “I didn’t realize you had an Old Lady.”

I felt her sadness, the crush she had on him now completely obvious.

Clearing my throat, I answered, “It’s very new.”

I heard someone call out her name, and she grasped the distraction, letting out a relieved breath. “It was nice to meet you,” she murmured, her eyes taking one last glance at Leo before turning swiftly and vanishing through the crowd.

I frowned. “What was that about?” I asked, tilting my head to look up at Leo’s face.

He squeezed my waist and flicked his head toward the exit, indicating he wanted to talk in private. I shot Harmony and Del a soft smile before following him outside. The large undercover decking had bench seats running along either side, and a few picnic tables spread throughout. I followed him to a table, sitting opposite and waiting for him to speak.

“She used to go by Andie, we have some history. Not much, but enough to make it awkward.”

“Okay…”

“Harmony got into some trouble with a dangerous guy. His name was Daniel Ashley. He helped traffic women.”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh, wow.”

He nodded. “She was taken, and when we went looking for her, she wasn’t there. But Andie was. The club took her in, supported her for a while. She’d been through some bad shit with this guy.” His brow creased in anger and frustration. “She was so young, barely eighteen. I wanted to be there for her, help her through the nightmares and scars she had. But she kept seeing it as something more.”

“And you didn’t?”

He shook his head, running a hand over his beard. “She reminded me so much of Meyah. I couldn’t help but want to protect her. I didn’t think she would see it the way she did, and I was clueless. Didn’t even fucking notice how her feelings for me were changing.”

My heart felt for the young girl. I’d been that age once too. When a man shows you attention and you’re hurting, you latch on to them. Sometimes you’re so blind that you start seeing things that aren’t there.

“So one night she came looking for me and found me with one of the club girls. Next morning, she was gone.”

“She was hurt.”

He nodded. “So Harm calls me a month or so ago and is like, guess who just showed up here, new persona, new look, new attitude. It was like she’d wiped her old self away, and the quiet, shy broken girl I’d met was now a sex kitten, wanting to be a club girl.”

I could tell by the roughness of his voice that he hated the idea—he’d cared for her. Not in the way she wanted, but more like family.

“After what happened to her… why would she do that?”

He snorted out a harsh laugh. “Harm thinks she did it, knowing that at some point I’d come here and either fuck her like the other girls or pull her to the side and claim her or some shit, knowing that I’d hate to see her like this.”

“And what happened when you saw her?”

He shrugged. “Neither. Told her that being a club girl wasn’t going to fix her issues. She’d been abused, and she never told me, but I suspected Daniel Ashley had used her body, too.”

“Why would she want this then?” I asked in awe.

She’d been treated like dirt, used and hurt. And yet here she was, letting herself be used all over again. I was confident in my sexuality. I loved sex, I enjoyed it and had no problem sharing my body with consent. But after the pain she seemed to have endured, I couldn’t understand why she’d want to relive that, over and over.