JAX: MC Biker Romance (New Adult Contemporary Bad Boy Romance) (42 page)

“Yeah, well now he’s dead. Two bullets to the back of the head,” the officer said casually. “So, I guess he’s not your problem anymore.”

“Are you kidding me?” Cooper frowned. “Know how much paperwork this is gonna create?” he smirked and stepped under the tape with Brooke in tow.

The officer resumed calming down the neighbors while the detectives ventured inside. They both gagged upon entering and flung their coat sleeves over their mouths.

“Jesus!” Cooper reeled back. “This place is disgusting.”

“That would be an understatement.”

With the forensics team still on their way, the detectives had the scene undisturbed. The place was a black light’s paradise with mysterious stains and substances covering every surface. The smell worsened, as they made their way upstairs to the bedroom over piles of garbage.

“Hold your breath buddy, it gets worse.” Cooper was leading the way with his mouth still covered.

Meanwhile, Brooke was kicking dirty needles out of his path, as he climbed, the look of disgust on his face unwavering. But soon enough, they were standing outside the bedroom. Through the crack in the door, they could see an officer guarding the scene with his back turned to the body, his face illumined by the flashing lights through the window. He spun round when he heard the detectives enter.

“You scared the heck outta me,” the rookie stared wide eyed at them. “I was gettin’ real freaked out up here on my own with this,” he gestured toward the body.

“Your first corpse?” Brooke asked.

“Yuh… How did you know?”

The detectives both chuckled and looked down to the victim. Then, they felt the nausea rise once again.

“How long has he been here?” Brooke couldn’t hide his disgust.

“Well,” the rookie looked out the window at the crowd of rowdy neighbors. “The guy next door only called the cops because the smell was getting too bad.”

“Oh,” the detectives exhaled in unison.

“Yeah, just awful.”

The loud banging of car doors interrupted the conversation. They all glanced outside to see the forensics team arrive. Cooper watched them for a moment, as they climbed into their paper suits, then he sighed.

“Right, let’s get to work.”

*****

After a fourteen hour shift, Samantha was exhausted and she tumbled through her front door before collapsing on the sofa. She loved being a nurse, adored it even, but she had to admit that it really took the wind out of her. The long days and meagre pay often left her deflated, but she wouldn’t do any other job no matter what the money was.

There was something so thrilling about saving lives, yet so gentle and simplistic as caring for someone. It didn’t matter who her patients were, she tried her best to love each one of them equally and always gave them her undivided attention.

However, now that she’d returned home, she was desperate for a break and a long snooze, but first, she needed a glass of wine. With all her strength, she dragged herself from the sofa and staggered into the kitchen with her sore feet padding on the thick carpet.

“Urgh….”

She leaned against the fridge door and yawned before reaching into the cupboard for a glass and a bottle of her favorite red. With some considerable effort, she ripped out the cork and let the aroma of the fruity wine drift around the kitchen. It instantly made her relax and she took in a deep breath, her nostrils twitching at the tangy scent.

Samantha didn’t have many vices. She ate healthily, partied rather moderately, and didn’t smoke. She occasionally savored the occasional nibble of chocolate and loved the feeling of frosty air against her cheeks during a three mile run. Nevertheless, if she had to have a vice, it would be a toss-up between a full-bodied red wine and a hard-bodied man.

She couldn’t help it, she adored men and she especially had a penchant for the muscly bad boy who liked to always get their way. Walking through to the bedroom, she kicked off her shoes, pulled off her scrubs, and relaxed into bed. Looking to the clock, she saw it was almost midnight. She took a large gulp of her wine, set the glass down on the table, and picked up her favorite book.

Of course, she’d read it almost fifty times already, but it was one of her favorites and she always returned to it when she needed to relax and escape. It was a short, but sweet tale of a princess who ran away from her castle in order to sample the ordinary life of the peasants in the nearby town. The princess; however, never imagined she would fall in love with a young, brawny farm hand, but she couldn’t resist him. Soon, there was a baby on the way and the young royal could never return home.

Samantha always felt giddy when she reached the part where the princess met her love for the first time. There was something so animalistic about attraction and she imagined herself right in the princess’ shoes with her heart skipping a beat when the two lovers kissed.

As she read, she felt a tingling sensation in her gut like she always did. There was something so romantic about running away with someone and escaping to a completely different life. No matter how much Samantha loved her job, she always dreamed that someone strong and loving could whisk her away to paradise.

Taking another sip of her wine, she settled a little further under the covers wishing she had someone with her to share the warmth. She let out a long sigh, then drained the glass before letting the book slide from her sleepy fingers.

She was on the brink of falling asleep when something startled her. Her phone was ringing from somewhere in the apartment, but she didn’t’ care to get up to find it, not until it rang for the third time.

Ambling her way to the hall, she found her discarded bag and coat and rifled through her things until she found her phone, still ringing with the jarring sound grating against her tired mind.

It was her best friend, Julie, and she answered it with her usual upbeat voice.

“How’s it goin’?”

“Have I got some gossip for you?” Julie got straight to the point.

“Gossip? I thought there was something wrong. I mean nobody would phone over and over again for nothing, now would they?” Samantha couldn’t hide her sarcasm.

“Hey…. Don’t be a grouch. Listen, you know Sandra who works in cardiology? The skinny brunette with the bushy eyebrows?”

Samantha yawned and nodded her head.

“Yeah I know her. We used to use the same gym.”

“Well I caught her and Adam together on the weekend! You know Adam? The porter who usually works on the basement level?”

“Yeah….”

There was an awkward silence, as Samantha waited to get off the phone. She was too exhausted to gossip and, as much as she loved Julie, in the moment, her rainbow colored personality and bubbly enthusiasm was too much.

“You ok?” Julie asked. “You don’t sound like your usual self. What’s up?”

“Ah, nothing. Just tired,” it was almost the truth.

“Just tired? That’s all?”

“Yuh…. Just tired.”

Another long silence.

“Sammy, how long have we known each other?” Julie’s voice was now stern and Samantha imagined her on the other end of the line in one of her power stances.

“Forever Jules, since before time,” and she had to at least raise a smile to that. “Why?”

“Because I know everything about you and I can tell you’re lying.”

“I’m not really lying. I mean I
am
just tired,” she exhaled.

“Hmmmmm….”

“Well…. I guess there is something else,” Samantha confessed.

“I knew it!”

“Alright Jules, calm down.”

“I knew something was wrong.”

“You’re as intuitive as ever.”

Samantha expected her best friend to start rambling once again, but she was surprised to hear her keep quiet. On the other end of the line, she could hear the sound of a candy wrapper being twisted and pulled apart and she guessed Julie was in it for the long haul. So, knowing she was in for a lengthy conversation, she wandered back to bed while grabbing a pack of cookies on the way.

The two had known each other for so long that they often joked they were telepathic, but it was times like these when it didn’t seem like such an outlandish idea. Julie waited for the sound of the familiar squeaky bedsprings to signal Samantha was cozied into bed.

“When you’re ready gorgeous,” she soothed.

“Right ready.” Samantha wriggled to get a little comfier. “It’s just that I’ve been feeling really down recently. And I don’t mean just, you know, feeling blue, I mean…. Just so lonely,” and as the words left her mouth, the tears began to fall.

Julie could sense her sobbing and wished she could hug the phone.

“I know it must have been so difficult for you.”

“It was,” and she pulled the covers up over her head.

The split up was still raw in Samantha’s mind, and no amount of working overtime or wine could distract her from the pain. But, no matter how much she cried, she always felt at the back of her mind that she was partly to blame. She always picked the wrong guys, always went for the ones her friends warned her about. Gradually, each and every one of them broke her heart and left her, but she thought Steve was different. Well, at least, he pretended to be.

As she cried down the phone to Julie, she remembered the first time she met him. She’d been walking to work to catch some early morning rays of sunshine and he’d been speeding past on his motorcycle. She saw him pass twice before he eventually coming round a third time and braked just ahead of her.

She didn’t have to see his face to know he was attractive. With his muscular back bulging out from his leathers and his tattooed hands on the handlebars, she knew he was just her type.

“Hey there Miss,” he pulled off his goggles to show her his piercing blue eyes.

“Hello,” she giggled coyly.

“Now, what would a pretty girl like you be doing walking around at this ungodly hour?”

Then, he’d looked her up and down and noticed the scrubs and the satchel she clutched under her arm.

“Going to work?” she wanted to move her eyes all over his body, but she nervously looked to the ground instead.

It was love at first sight, for her anyway. He rode that way every morning, and so Samantha made sure she was always walking to work at the same time, a habit she still kept to this day.

He was everything she’d dreamed of, a strong bad boy with a heart of gold. Even now, she often fell asleep dreaming of his tattooed skin pressing up against hers. She loved the feeling of his bulky arms, as they cocooned her, and the way his scars felt ragged against her soft fingertips. She would do just about anything to have him back, but she knew that wasn’t possible. Her friends and family would never allow it, but more than anything, her dignity wouldn’t either. It had been two months since he’d been incarcerated for attempted murder, but that was after he cheated on her.

“You sure can pick ‘em,” Julie lamented with a mouth full of chocolate.

“Oh God, I’m just awful, aren’t I? I just love them rough, I really do.”

“Yeah, bad boys run in your family too,” Julie joked.

“It seems so,” she thought about her father and brother who both boasted lengthy criminal records.

“But, I still don’t understand why you’re so heartbroken over Steve. He was a brute Sammy,” Julie continued.

“But… his eyes…. and the way he spoke to me, as if I was the only girl in the world. He had a real soft side to him, Jules, you gotta believe me. He could be so sweet and lovely when it was just the two of us, and when we had those long afternoons stretched out ahead of us,” she bit her lip, as she remembered. “We’d have just the best time of our lives!”

“That’s all very well, but he wasn’t so soft and sweet when he beat that guy around the head with a pool cue.”

“I guess not,” Samantha admitted. “I know I’m better off without him, but I just have to keep reminding myself that.”

“I understand.” Julie sighed, as she reached her hand into the empty candy box. “Men…. They’ll tear our hearts inside out and we’ll let them, just to hear them say they love us.”

“It’s crazy.” Samantha yawned. Finally feeling better that she’d had a girly chat. “But, I better get some sleep. I have to be up in six hours.”

“Ooh brutal. I’ll swing by tomorrow and give you a big hug.”

“That would be awesome.”

“Kisses!” Julie signed off with her signature goodbye and hung up.

Samantha, meanwhile, was back in bed with only the silence to keep her company. She reached out for one last cookie, and then she felt her eyes grow heavy, as she snuggled under the covers. Images flashed in her mind; strange abstract visions of faraway places that showed she was reaching a deep dream state.

For a moment, she was certain she heard the phone ring again, but that couldn’t be because Julie had called already. But, as her eyes were forced open and her mind became adjusted to being awake once again, she realized her phone was ringing by her head. Assuming it was Julie again, she rolled over and tried to let sleep take hold, but the ringing wouldn’t stop, and so she had no choice but to answer it.