Shadow Reaper's MC Book 1 Size doesn't matter

Chapter 8

It's while she's in the bathroom later the afternoon putting towels and toilet paper away that Grim suddenly appears behind her. When she turns around he's so near she can smell his deodorant and when she looks up she sees the small brown specks that almost looks gold in the green of his eyes. "I want you to know the truth, I hate dishonesty and I'm not going to start lying to you to make you feel better. It doesn't matter how Counselor thinks about this. You and I need truth between us...always." She doesn't know where this comes from but she has the urge to walk into his body and hold him. Luckily his next words put her back to the reason she is here in this house. "Andrew's Dad got him out with some technicality. I'm not sure if he's coming back here or what he's going to do, but the Mayor already fired him. So he will not work in this town again. I will have two guys with you each day, but they will not sit in your office. Your building will be watched and where ever you travel. I'll give you the phone numbers each day for the two that's on your watch. If anything seems off when you drive in town or you're at home, don't cast it off. Go with your gut and phone me or one of the guys. Promise me Amber... promise me that you will be alert and remember to lock your doors." Amber gulps and nods. "I promise I'll be careful and watchful and I'll call you or one of the guys when I need to. I have a small gun and a Taser but I would rather not be responsible for the son of a bitch's death." Grim's hands move along her arms until he has her hands in his and he squeezes it. "Thank you for working with me and not against me. Counsellor warned me you're going to be difficult to keep safe." Amber laughs softly. "Maybe because I'm usually a bit difficult when I 'm told what to do. I think the past year I learned that it's sometimes better to go with the flow than kick against it. Thanks for being honest about Andrew, I would hate it if you lied to me." He grins and suddenly he kisses her full on the mouth before he leaves the bathroom whispering to her. "It's easy to be honest with you Darlin'." Cecelia enters shortly after he left and her knowing smile says she has seen that kiss. "Amber I need to tell you something about the club. You know we're not the normal bike club. We're truly not criminals but we do have the groupies, the not so undiscriminating women who doesn't care with whom they sleep, that hang around the clubhouse. It's also the girls that dance in the two clubs in town. So when you come to the clubhouse just know that you will see them around. Wolf is a real manwhore and fucks anything in a short little skirt. Gammon is married to Chelsy, Crack is married to Allyssa they have two kids Elmo and Jacky and he is still totally smitten with Allyssa. Hack and Deanna from the bakery is also happily married with three kids, Zee, Joe and Anna. Ink and Zoey from the Tattoo parlor are engaged and she's his old lady since last year but they are still putting away some money to fly her Mom and Sisters down here for the wedding. All of us that are married are happily married, not one of these men fool around with other woman. That is one thing that Grim doesn't tolerate. He has this saying that if you choose to get hitched to one woman then you also better be sleeping only with that one woman. I don't want you to be shocked if you see these girls at the clubhouse. All the singles Rooster, Smokey, Gunner, Crow, Doc, Brick and the two prospects Sneak and Tequila make use of these girls and what they offer on a platter. It's just the married men and Razor they will give a wide birth." Amber looks up from the drawer she was packing. "Why not Razor?" Cecilia looks sad. "Razor or Travis if you like, was in the same seal team as Jacob, Wolf and Grim and engaged to this doll face pretty little socialite Macy. His parents are very important people in New York with his Dad being a Senator and his Mom a real social butterfly, even more so than Grim's Mom. Who by the way actually is a very nice woman if you get to know her. So when Razor lost his leg in Afghanistan this little doll Macy left him for his younger brother Neil, also into politics just like his Dad. When it was time for him to leave the hospital Grim went to New York and brought Travis back. By then Wolf, Jacob, Grim and Jack, that is Doc to you, already said enough is enough and left the force the year before. So Grim already took over the bike club from his granddad and brought Travis or as you know him Razor here. He made sure Razor has friends around and also got him his prosthetic limp. Razor fixed his old bike and he and Grim did a few conversions so he could drive it easily and taught himself how to ride again. Razor never makes use of any of the woman that I know of." Amber wipes away the sudden tears that fell. "You know this is so unfair. You make yourself available and vulnerable to someone and then they come and trample on your heart and just go on with their lives as if you never existed." Her Mom that has stood in the door comes into the room and sits down next to her pulling her into her arms. "O my baby I wish I could have spared you all this heartache. It's never good to love someone and then get shuffled to the side." Amber shakes her head. "I think I never really loved him, I got swept of my feet and thought it was love. In the end when he would just beat me and then took me violently and raped me, I knew I could never have really loved this monster." Her Mom looks at Cecelia and then pushes her away a bit to look into her daughter's tear stained eyes. "What did you said? He raped you after he have beaten you?" Amber nods and sniffs. "I felt so dirty each time that I got into the shower and would scrub myself until the bloody skin was even more bloody. I think we maybe had normal sex twice after our wedding then he started to get extremely rough. He would slap me around and then drape me over anything he could find to rape me in any possible way you can think off. I don't even think I would ever be able to have any sexual relationship with a man again." She cries for another while before her Mom sends her to wash her face and repair the damage to her face while she and Cecilia go and see that there's food for everyone after the long day of moving everything. When Amber comes out the back door there's a lot of people on the back porch and her Dad, Grim and Jacob are busy with the gas barbeque getting it going. Grim looks up and he knows that she's been crying he also knows why. He was looking for her to tell her about the impromptu barbeque the clubwoman decided on and he heard every hoarse word that came out of her mouth. He hopes Andrew shows his face here somewhere because he wants to kill the bastard. Cecilia and Allyssa gets a hold of Amber and take her with them to the table where the women are busy. "I do hope you don't mind but Allyssa and I thought you could use a house warming and the hard working men could use a few beers and a good ole' barbeque. This here are all the ole' ladies of the club, Hack's Deana, Ink's Zoey, you know Gammon's Chelsy, me and Allyssa already, o yeah and Allyssa is Crack's ole' lady if you have forgotten." She greets all the woman and asks what she can help with when they start to laugh and shake their heads. Allyssa waves her to a chair. "You sit there with Chelsy and butter the buns and look pretty while we fix the salads." She sees her Mom going around handing out beers to the men and cuddling with her Dad. Then she realizes that all the women are in jeans and white t-shirts with their cuts on just like the men. She herself has a black t-shirt on and a jean and it's when she really looks at the club's men that she realizes Grim is the only one with a black t-shirt like hers and for a moment she wishes she was his so that she could walk to him and put her arm around his waist like Cecilia is doing right now with Jacob. She looks down on her hands because the stupid tears are here again. She doesn't know what's going on with her now suddenly. Chelsy lay her hand on Amber's arm. "It's the shock of it all that's hitting you now. Hang in there, we're here for you. If you ever want to talk, I'm only a phone call away or come see me at the club. I'm the club Momma. I see that the men that lives at the club gets food and their washing are done. I also watch Deanna's three rascals sometimes. I think we should have a spa day at the salon with all the other woman too. Then we can gossip about the men without them hearing any of it." That makes Amber laugh and Jacob sees how fast Grim's head turns towards the sound of Amber's laugh. "Do I need to whack my Pres in the solar plexus for ogling my baby sister?" Grim looks at Jacob and smiles smugly. "You can try brother, I do understand a man has got to do what he has to do, so there will be no retaliation from my side as your President. I just do hope you will wait until she's not around, I don't think she can handle another burst of violence so soon. She looks tuff and okay, but your sister is anything but tuff. She's brittle at the moment, maybe in six months' time she will be okay enough to witness me handing her bro's ass to him." Jacob laughs and clunk his beer to Grim's. "We'll see Pres; we'll see who hands whose ass to him but I promise I'll do it when she's not there to watch your humiliation." Grim only laughs and moves away from the barbeque after he pushed the tongs into Jacobs hand. A booming voice sounds from the side of the house. "What is going on here, don't tell me there's a barbeque without me. You bloody bastards." A laughing Grim walks up to the tall almost frail looking old man with his Mom and Dad in tow. "Reaper, you old Nomad, are you back in town. Did the girls not treat you good in Dallas?" Reaper laughs. "I will show you what is a Nomad boy when I kick you out of your own club. And no the girls were okay it was that blasted windy weather that blew me back home. Never a better place than home, except if you're not invited to a real Texan barbeque, then home actually sucks." Everybody laughs and the other bikers greet the old man with great respect while Grim greets his parents. "Hallo Mom, Dad, I didn't know you were bringing Grams back today already." His Mom laughs. "With all the things going on here he was so eager to come home to hear about everything that he almost rented a car and drove back on his own. I had to put my foot down so he would wait for me and Dad to pick him up from Dallas." He takes his Mom's arm and when she sees Bianca Price she forgets about her eldest son. "O my goodness, hello Bianca I wanted to visit you yesterday but then Dad made such a fuss to be brought back that I didn't had a chance." Bianca laughs and Sarah greets all the club's old ladies and even hugs Amber to Grim's astonishment. "Hello Amber, I'm so sorry about all this mess, but I do hope from here on you will be okay. If I look at your friends, I believe I have nothing to worry about. These people are one tight bunch and if they decided to adopt you, you have no chance of getting away. "Grim fears his Mom is going to frighten Amber away from the club. "Really Mom, you make it sound if we're worse than the Spanish plague." She only waves him away. "I didn't mean it that way West, you should know I love you all like my own children. Even the small ones are like my own grandkids, because it doesn't look like you're planning on gifting me with grandkids." He rolls his eyes and to Amber's surprise he actually blushes. "O come on Mom, not that old story again. Reaper let me introduce you to Amber, I think you met her years ago when she was still in primary school." Amber stands next to the table when the old man with the twinkling green eyes puts his arms around her and hugs her. "Yes I do remember little Amber with the beautiful smile and extraordinary amber eyes. But no one told me she became such a stunner. Amber sweetheart if you need anything you talk to old Reaper, even if it's only to slap some sense into anyone on your behalf." Amber smiles and hugs him back. "Thank you Reaper, I'll tell you when I need you to slap someone for me. Come sit here with me, can we get you a beer or soda?" He grins at Grim and winks. "You see, there are still girls who know my worth boy. Go away and oversee the barbeque while I woe the ladies." Amber can only laugh about Grim's open mouth shocked look. His granddad must have been a real ladies man when he was younger. All the McDougal men have these vivid green eyes and they are all very tall and broad shouldered. Reaper must be deep in his 80's but he's still up and about. She knows that he handed the presidency down to Grim when he was in his seventies already. "You want to know a secret Amber?" She turns to Reaper and nods when he sits nearer to her and chuckles. "Grim doesn't like it that I sit so near to you. Stupid boy...you know how he got his biker name?" She doesn't say anything about his first statement but shakes her head about his question. "No, well let me tell you. He always skulked around the club and when I send him home because we're busy with club business or the girls come around and I don't want him to see the men misbehave a little, then he would walk back home looking like the Grim Reaper head turned down with his hoody over his head. Then later when he was in the military Jacob told the other guys about what I called West, then he kept the name because he was the sniper of the team. So when he came back home and become a prospect that is the road name we gave him . He's a very good man Amber, if he's supposed to keep you safe, he will protect you at all cost. Just don't try to defy him or lie to him." Amber looks Reaper right in the eyes. "I know he's a good man Reaper, he got me out of my shitty situation without sweating it and thus far he kept me safe. I won't even try to defy him in this protection business because I know he's not in this business from yesterday. I hate dishonesty myself so I will not even go there with Grim. I had enough of lies in the past year and a half for a whole life time. Thanks for telling me about West's name and being so welcoming to me. I've met so many good people, people that I know from seeing in town but never spoke to because Andrew was so pretentious and just certain people were good enough to associate with. At least now I can make my own friends again and pick up the pieces. Hopefully he will not try to contact me and he will sign the divorce papers so I can be rid of him." Reaper nods thoughtfully while looking over the mulling people and their laughter and jokes. He also notices Grim's looks towards Amber every now and again. He smiles to himself and think about how his old suit will need a good dry cleaning one of these days.