“Jesus, fuckin’ shit, Toots, you know this. I told you this the first goddamn night we met. I do clean!” he yelled.

“What?” I yelled back.

He bent, and I got off my toes or his angry face would have hit mine.

“I fuck clean. I only fuck clean. In any way I can get that clean. Nails is so dirty, the bitch is polluted. I do not fuck dirty.”

At that, I whispered, “What?”

“Yeah,” he clipped. “You are clean.”

I stood still and stunned.

I pulled myself out of it and told him, “I saw you kissing her.”

“The fuck you did.”

“I did!” I snapped, my temper flaring again. “It was the day I went shopping with the girls that first time. I saw you sitting on a picnic table, kissing her.”

“Fuckin’ hell,” he muttered, and then his eyes narrowed before he continued, “No, babe, you saw me sittin’ on a picnic table coverin’ for Gash. An old lady hits Ace at the same time a boy’s hittin’ a piece who’s not his old lady, we cover.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I hissed.

Even though I knew it wasn’t. I’d seen Cruise jump into action to do that very same thing.

“And I wasn’t kissin’ her. Fuck, her mouth’s been everywhere. I don’t share that shit with my brothers. They do. I don’t. Which is exactly my point.”

“I saw it,” I asserted.

“And I’m tellin’ you, you did not,” he shot back.

“I did!”

“Clara, Nails,” he shook his head, “not too smart. You know the use of one kinda woman, the kind like you. You know the use of what you call groupies, women that like to have a good time, no hang-ups, they just wanna party. Then there are women like Nails. Nails, she thinks she can lead a man around by his dick. And she is not wrong. I’ve seen her do it. It doesn’t last, but she gets off on it while it does. And she does it gettin’ him addicted to her snatch. She opens it, wide and free, doin’ that makin’ it so she’ll never really hook a man. And that isn’t about her getting around. It’s that she’s stupid and she’s ambitious. She aims high and her aim is me. So she fucks who she wants with an eye to me. And men will take what she offers, but they won’t do it for long when she makes it obvious she’s with one man and she’s gagging for another one.”

Well then.

That did sound stupid.

And ambitious.

Buck wasn’t done.

“So she’ll take what she can get, a boy lets her in, but she’s been comin’ after me. When you rolled in with the girls, Gash got the heads-up, he rolled Nails out, and I kept her occupied so Gash could get her washed off him and get to Minnie before Nails did something stupid if she got to Minnie. She had my attention, and Clara, that was the first time she had my attention, but she didn’t see it for what it was. She was stupid enough to think she had a shot. She took it. She got in my space, and I let her. But she didn’t kiss me. I didn’t kiss her. No fuckin’ way.”

“You had your hand on her,” I informed him.

“Yeah, so? It wasn’t down her fuckin’ pants. It was to keep the bitch from getting any closer to me.”

This was true.

It wasn’t down her pants.

“The girls told me she was yours.”

“The girls would think that seein’ as their boys told them that to save their own shit. She hangs around and she does it a lot. She’s got a use, or she did, now she’s out. But she had a use, they used it. Gash and Cruise aren’t gonna say she’s around so they can get a fuckin’ blowjob anytime they’re lookin’ to get off.”

Oh dear.

That made sense.

They wouldn’t say that.

In fact, the rules were, they couldn’t.

“Ink?” I asked quietly.

“Ink nailed her before Lorie. Ink finds a woman, he’s like me.”

“And, um…” I hesitated then went on, “what are you like?”

He scowled at me but didn’t deign to answer.

Oh dear.

“But, uh…you’re like that, but when we saw Gash, you were angry at him just for being what you called stupid.”

“Yeah,” he clipped.

“Stupid, Buck? Stupid enough to get caught?”

“Tell me, even though Minnie’s a tough broad, she’s good to the bone. Tell me what’s more stupid than riskin’ losin’ her by hittin’ a rank piece like Nails? Or any piece at all?”

Nothing.

Nothing was more stupid.

It was dawning on me I’d made a big mistake.

Though, since we were clearing the air…

“Who’s Nonna?” I asked.

“Nonna’s clean. I’ve hit Nonna. I’ve hit her more than once. She’s here and she knows you are, and she knows who you are and what you are to me, so Nonna’s smart enough to stay the fuck away from you and from me.”

“I think…” I hesitated again then carried on, “I may have made an error in judgment.”

His brows shot up. “You think?”

“Buck—”

“Now that your fuckin’ head’s straight, what I wanna know, you stood there tellin’ me you love me at the same time you stood there tellin’ me to do what I had to do, and I get it that you meant put my dick where I wanted to put it, and you didn’t give a fuck that where I put it wasn’t in you.”

Uh-oh.

I had a feeling biker babe orientation and training had gone off the tracks somewhere along the line.

At least where Buck was concerned.

“Buck—”

“I gotta say, babe, I do not share. I don’t know what fucked-up shit this is, but if you think you can let me be free so you can spread your legs for whoever you wanna take, I am not down with that.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“I hope fuckin’ not, because you think that, we got serious problems.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” I repeated.

“Good, then now we gotta talk about why you wouldn’t, but you got no problem lettin’ me.”

“Um…” I mumbled.

“You had no issue a minute ago spewin’ shit, Clara, so speak the fuck up.”

Okay, I was sensing he was mad. Madder than he’d ever been at me.

So I explained hurriedly, “Minnie, Lorie, and Pinky were Professor Higginsing me.”

His head jerked again, then he asked, “What?”

“I told you weeks ago. They were Professor Higginsing my Eliza Biker Babe. Minnie was with me when I saw you with Nails. They gave me the lowdown about how I had to put up with certain, uh…things…if I wanted to keep you.”

He stared at me hard a second, then he lifted a hand and ran his fingers through his hair, leaving his hand clenched around the back of his neck as he looked to the ceiling, muttering, “Fuckin’ shit.”

“They were trying to help,” I told him quietly.

He dropped his hand and his head to look down on me.

“Yeah, they’re good women. They tried to do right. It was you who fucked up.”

“Sorry?”