Elvira being there meant she’d have it from up close.
“Hey,” I called as I closed the door behind me.
“Hey honey,” Ty-Ty called back.
“Get this,” Elvira announced in greeting. “After the big to-do with Tabby, now we’ve learned Hop’s got some bitch he’s nailin’ on the sly and the boys won’t say who she is.”
I stopped dead and blinked.
Oh God!
“What I want to know is, why it’s a secret,” Tyra said to Elvira. “I mean, I understand why Tab and Shy kept their secret, but why Hop? He isn’t a secretive guy.” She grinned. “I’m guessing she’s a librarian.”
Elvira threw her head back and laughed at the very idea of Hopper Kincaid and a librarian.
“Maybe a female cop,” Ty-Ty went on, her voice trembling with amusement. “The boys would freak if he was doing the nasty with a cop.”
Elvira, clearly finding this the height of amusement, which I did not, kept laughing.
“What we know is,” Tyra carried on, “she isn’t a stripper at Smithie’s, a cocktail waitress, again at Smithie’s, or one of those women who wears their tank tops cut off so it shows the bottom of their boobs while they stand on a podium with a new bike at shows and does the old, ‘you buy this bike, you might be able to lay a biker babe like me,’ gig.” Tyra’s dancing eyes came to me. “Hop’s usual biker babe of choice.”
My breath caught in my throat.
Elvira kept right on laughing.
“Though that’s good,” Ty-Ty unfortunately continued blabbing. “Biker babes like that get it when it comes to bikers like Hop.”
My stomach clenched.
What did that mean?
“Bikers like Hop?” Elvira, always one for juicy gossip, immediately quit laughing in order to hone in on this snippet and do what she always did. Draw it out.
“Yeah,” Tyra said. “He’s a good guy, I like him. Seriously, and I know it’s going to sound crazy because, well, I somehow feel like I shouldn’t but I just do. Maybe it’s because Tack likes him and respects him. Maybe it’s because I know he’s down with the brotherhood in a big way and he’d do anything for Tack, me, my boys. Maybe it’s just because he’s mellow and good to be around. Still, unlike the other guys, with Hop it’s a struggle.”
“That all sounds good,” Elvira noted. “Why is it a struggle?”
“Chaos stuff, biker stuff, stuff you have to get used to,” Ty-Ty lifted her hands and did air quotations, “in the life.”
“Like what?” Elvira pressed.
“Like stuff I’m not going to share with you because you have a big mouth,” Tyra replied and Elvira leaned back in affront.
“I do not!” she snapped, and that was a total lie but since I was freaking out, I didn’t make the scoffing noise I would normally make.
Tyra, however, wasn’t freaking out so she called her on it. “Girl, you totally do.”
Elvira leaned in. “Yeah, okay, I do but I keep it all in the family. I don’t run my mouth to people I shouldn’t run my mouth to and you know it, Tyra Allen. So, give.”
“Elvira—” Tyra started.
“Give, girl. You know, one, you’re gonna do it because you got a big mouth too and don’t you deny it and two, I’m not gonna let it go until you do and you know that too, so… give.”
Tyra studied her and it seemed neither of them noticed I was not moving and had not even come fully into the room.
“You have to promise to keep this tight,” Tyra warned, giving in as I knew she’d do because she did kind of have a big mouth.
“I work for a commando. I know how to keep shit tight,” Elvira shot back.
There it was. Confirmed. I knew it. Hawk was an actual commando.
I didn’t really register that because Tyra clearly took the “commando tight” declaration as indication she could share and spoke again.
And what she said tore me apart.
“Hop and I had a rocky beginning seeing as, when he was with Mitzi, I saw him in his bed in the Compound with a biker groupie bitch extraordinaire by the name of BeeBee.”
My vision went blurry.
“Holy crap,” Elvira breathed. “I always liked him. He’s a cool guy. And, never thought I would say this in my whole life, but that badass biker ’tache of his does things to my girl parts. I can’t believe this. He’s a cheater?”
Tyra nodded and the room started swaying.
“Tack says it’s none of his business or mine. Boys do what they do. Some of them are true to their old ladies, some of them are, well…” she shrugged, “not. It’s uncool but it’s part of the life. Actually, part of life since cheating isn’t limited to bikers, and Tack’s right, it really isn’t my business.”
I had the weird sensation of feeling I was going to pass out at the same time I was hyper-alert and concentrating on every word Ty-Ty said.
“Honestly,” she continued, “no offense to the sisterhood, but after all that went down and things got super ugly with Mitzi, Tack didn’t share any specifics but she came around and was totally a bitch, like, a Naomi bitch, so I have to admit, it was the one time in my life I kinda got it. Though he should have cut her loose before he nailed a biker groupie, especially one like BeeBee.”
“This is what I don’t get,” Elvira grumbled. “They wanna go lookin’, they want fresh meat, why don’t they cut us loose first? Why they gotta keep us on a string? I mean, haven’t these dudes seen Fatal Attraction? Hope Floats? That shit destroys a woman, both women involved, for God’s sake, and it isn’t like men don’t know it.”
“Is Tabby okay?” I blurted and both their heads swung my way.
“Pardon?” Tyra asked.
“I, well, sorry girls, but I don’t have a lot of time. I need to meet a client. Last minute meeting. But I wanted to stop by, Ty-Ty,” I looked at her and held all I was feeling in by the skin of my teeth. “See if Tab was okay with her Grandma and, you know, everything.”
“She’s good. They’re heading down for the funeral this weekend. The rest, well, the Club has drama then the Club smoothes out drama, and they tend not to screw around so that’s all good,” Tyra answered. Her eyes narrowed on me and I nodded. “Are you good?” she asked.
“Yeah, just, I have this client on my mind and, you know, blowout on Chaos, the whole thing with Tabby,” I lied. “But it’s good things are good.”
“Girl, you sure you’re good?” Elvira asked and I looked at her to see her eyes were also narrowed on me.
“I just, just…”
God, I had to get out of there.
I looked back to Tyra.
“You know Tack visited me?”
I saw my best friend’s body go still before she replied, “I know.”
“I, well, I’ve been thinking about that and I thought I was ready to, um… discuss things with you. So I kinda came here to do that, as well as, of course, checking on Tab. But, being here, I think I need a little more time. Just, I don’t know, a week or, uh… two.”
Her face changed, went soft, sweet, and last, immensely relieved.
She loved me.
She was worried about me.
She was happy I was there to talk things out.
So Ty-Ty.
At least that was a relief, a massive one I unfortunately couldn’t fully feel seeing as my heart was bleeding.
“You take all the time you need, honey. I’m always here,” she replied.
She always was. Why hadn’t I remembered that?
I nodded.
“Always,” she repeated and I nodded again.
“Me too, girl,” Elvira put in.
I looked at her. Her face was soft, sweet, and concerned.
She’d been worried about me too.
So Elvira.
I nodded at her too.
“I have to go,” I said hurriedly.