Denise Above

Fleur POV

After hours of riding around with Tank, we made our way to Saints & Sinners per Max's request. To say I didn't want it to end would be an understatement. The security I felt wrapped around him on his bike was weird to process. Being someone who always searches for the safe route in life, being on a bike is the opposite direction, but it felt like the safest place in the world with him. It was like he could sense my limits and tried to reach them without pushing me way beyond my comfort zone. Maybe he was testing my boundaries, but I was grateful for him not going too far outside of them.

The heat between my legs never left the entire time we rode and I was thankful that we both wore denim. I'd probably die if he knew some of the thoughts that were circling my mind when he'd take a turn and I'd squeeze my thighs around him.

I wish I were one of those people that didn't feel awkward or slightly ashamed for feeling anything sexual. I blame my parents for wanting me to remain a child for as long as possible. Although, my weird self would probably still be the same regardless.

As soon as Tank parked his bike and I was able to slide off from behind, I felt the warmth and comfort leave me. I also decided it would be a good time to check up on Justin, perhaps see if he'd like to come to the club so we can go back to the hotel together when we're done.

I'm still in between feeling guilty about not focusing on Justin completely and giddy about being around someone like Tank. I guess it's not fair to string Justin along if I am busy thinking of another guy half the time. The thought of even having that conversation is stressing me out. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings and I don't want one of my closest friends to be upset.

He quickly responds to my text saying he's tired and would like to stay at the hotel for the evening and to text him I'd like for him to pick me up. It leaves me feeling uneasy about where Justin and I stand. I feel the anxiety making its way through my body and Tank seems to notice the discomfort.

I really need to learn to mask my feelings better.

"Is everything good?" he asks, seemingly knowing my conversation with Justin didn't go how I'd liked. I give a small nod in reply, knowing my words will fail me if I attempt to speak. Not staring directly into his eyes, knowing they'd hypnotize me...I still notice an eyebrow raise in scepticism. I lower my gaze to the ground as we make our way inside in an attempt to hide more of my emotions to him or anyone looking my way.

We make our way in, side by side and I make the mistake of looking around as soon as we step in. I can't help but want to shrink with the looks some of the guys out front are giving as well the glares from the few girls that are with them. Did I do something? Maybe it's because I'm trespassing into a place where the majority are regulars. I'm just a child and an outsider. I suppose I'd look at myself the same way. I try to hide that I notice them and keep my eyes low to the ground.

Guarding the front, is the same oversized man that I first met a couple evenings ago and he is still just as terrifying.

Okay, pretty much anyone who looks like they can snap me in half with one hand terrifies me.

"Evenin' Everest," Tank says while shaking hands with him and a few other men next to him. It takes me a few seconds to comprehend the name Tank called him.

"Everest!?" I question and then giggle like an idiot. I must have said it much louder than I anticipated because their heads shoot back to me, causing my throat to close and cheeks to light on fire.

A small smirk rises on Tank's face before he steps back towards me, probably aware of my inner despair and chuckles lowly. I peek at the man I now know as Everest and see he's not angry or upset about my bewildered reaction to his name. That lessens the panic, but the embarrassment is still quite present.

"Your dad gave him that name. Clever, isn't it?" says Tank, who still has a playful smirk on his face. I can't help but chuckle lowly and nod in agreement and take another look up at Everest who is now watching with a jolly grin, making him appear 10 times less scary.

"Ghost decided to call me that when I was first starting out here. One evening a little but feisty man was making too much noise and bothering some of the staff so I had to try to get him out. Instead, the baby of a man decided to fight me and while we were going at it, he tried climbing up my back to get me in a headlock. Ghost only saw that part of the fight and laughed till he nearly pissed himself at how funny the guy looked compared to me. He said the man was climbing me like a mountain...then the name Everest came to be." The gleam in his eyes as he reminisces is infectious and I can't help but hold a grin as well. It seems a lot of these men look to Max as some sort of leader and it makes me feel even happier for him. He has a big family.

For some strange reason, I'm relieved he has so many people here for him. The thought of him being alone doesn't sit well within me.

My mind has been so immersed on boys again that I feel a small pang of guilt for not thinking much about Max today. I hope he's free sometime soon. I'll spend as much time as possible focusing on him. Maybe alone, so I can actually focus.

Tank and the guys up front talk in hushed tones amongst themselves for a moment before he grabs my hand and leads me through the club. I'm more than happy for him to be slightly ahead of me so I can gaze at our hands that are connected and not worry about him seeing me staring. The heat and tingles I'm feeling from this alone is pulsing through to the bottom of my stomach. I try taking some deep breaths to calm down, knowing that won't do much at all, but at least I can say I tried.

I notice him leading me to the back where the room Max led me to the first evening we met. I'm guessing that's his favorite place to be rather than in the main area where all the hustle and bustle is. That brings some slight relief to me, as I don't really care to be surrounded by many people.

We enter the room and this time it is filled with a handful of people, but I can still recognize the back of Max's head before he turns around and straightens his posture. Next to him is the backside of a woman and as soon as he turns around she follows suit and that's when I recognize the woman to be his wife, Denise. She has her eyes trained on me with a blank sort of look that makes me feel queasy before she slowly moves her eyes to Tank and she plasters a smile on.

"This must be her.." I hear her say. Her voice sounds sickly sweet, almost trained. The closer she gets the clearer I can see her appearance. I can only describe her with two words; high maintenance. She appears to be someone who enjoys flaunting their net worth around. I don't have a problem with people wanting to show off their money, but it seems she doesn't like that someone so plain, aka me, can be of blood relation to her husband. No matter how big she tries to smile, I can tell she sees me as gum beneath her boot.

I hear Max clear his throat and make his way to the side of her before he speaks up. "Yeah, this is Fleur. Fleur, I'd like you to meet my wife, Denise."

"Hello ma'am," I say in a low, but polite tone. Even though I'm not getting much of a positive vibe from her, she's still Max's wife and I don't have the marbles to think of being rude anyway. I, of course, also end the greeting with a signature awkward wave.

"It's lovely to meet you, sweetheart," she says, with that same tone. She then turns towards Max and says, "she looks just like her." The tone shifted considerably with the last word and left the place feeling 10 degrees colder. Something tells me she knows of Crystal and also that she isn't her biggest fan. I wish I had the confidence to ask, but remain quiet and fidget with my hands behind my back, staring at the floor which is giving off a much better vibe than this lady.

"She's perfect." All eyes snap to Max once the words leave him. My eyes snap up to him and I'm surprised they don't pop out of my head with his words.

The amount of blood that rushes to my face must have me looking like a tomato. I'm not one who receives many compliments, other than from friends and family so to hear him say that has my soul buzzing. To my biological dad, I'm perfect. I know perfection is subjective and in his eyes, I must be a solid combination of him and Crystal, but just hearing someone thinks that of me is flattering and heartwarming. Something tells me the feeling is extra heartwarming because it came from the man that helped make me.

"If you say so..." mumbles Denise before she turns to head back to the bar and away from everyone around us.

Seemingly not wanting things to be tense in the room, Max makes his way even closer to me before he puts a hand on my shoulder and gives it a small squeeze. Good to know I'm not the only one who is awkward at giving physical affection most of the time.

"Sorry for that, she means well. She just doesn't do well with big news and changes," Max says low, trying to convince me and perhaps himself as well.

"It's alright. I don't do well with change either," I say, only because I don't want to continue with this subject.

"Katie tells me you took Fleur on your bike..." Max says while looking at Tank with a stern look on his face. I appreciate him changing the subject, but this may have not been the best topic to switch to.

"Yes, sir. Figured she could handle since she has half your genes." With that, Max takes a deep breath, but you can see he's still tense. Maybe he was worried about me being on a bike...natural dad reactions and all that jazz.

"Don't let me hear about it happening again, you hear?" Max says with finality in his voice. I'm very happy everyone else in the room was already doing their own thing and didn't have to deal with even more discomfort. I want to ease the tension, but being an antisocial person is my kryptonite right now.

Before my mind gets to wander too far, the door slams open and two men rush in while shouting out "Prez". The shock of it has me quickly move against the wall while the two men shouting for this Prez person go straight to Max. Wait...Max is Prez as well? As in president?

Maybe he's president of some sort of business leaders club, I don't know.

"Bunny's cousin was dragged into a car on her way home from work. She's freaking out, man. Those Renegades have people spreading far and wide, Prez." one of the men says in a panic.

Bunny, Prez, Renegades... I'm not even sure if we're talking about actual people or pets right now. As confused as I am, I'm also worried ajs afraid. Everyone in the room has a stone cold face on. If I didn't know Tank or Max I'd probably be in a full blown panic attack with how suffocating the room is.

"Get Bunny and her other cousins here to the club. They can stay upstairs in one of the rooms. We need to question them and any of the witnesses who saw her being dragged away," Max says in a tone that I've only heard from him the first night I met him and he was questioning who sent me. It sends chills down my spine and I would hate to be the person who crosses him right now. I peer back to the bar where his wife was and see she has a pensive look about her, like she's in her own world, thinking about her own problems. I don't even know who this 'Bunny' is, but even I'm concerned.

"Prez, what do we do about all our ladies? If they have people in town, I don't think anyone is safe," the other guy who rushed in says.

"Start getting all your old ladies, and every woman you know home along with yourselves. Leave no lady alone for now. We're going on lock down for the next 48 hours unless told otherwise." Max then turns to another older gentleman, whose name I don't quite remember if it was mentioned. To be honest, there are too many nicknames rolling around it's hard to keep up with. "Let sheriff Holgate know that we're on it, I'm sure they can use some help wutb patrolling. We'll send some newer members and prospects cut down on regular duties to help patrol."

Members? Lockdown? And why are they helping the police? I'm sure they can handle this. I'm getting more and more confused and worried and I feel myself getting light headed from everything going on around me as well as the tension in the room. I don't like not knowing what is happening around me, thus leading to a boring lifestyle, so whatever is going on right now is much more than I'm used to.

I can hear them talking and planning while keeping the same serious expressions, but my mind is everywhere. I take a deep breath to try to calm myself, but it was much deeper than anticipated. Once I open my eyes I realize I went from being completely invisible against the wall to all their eyes on me in confusion and a few in shock. Max is one of the ones in shock and Tank has an even more rigid and cold expression to him, as if me being in here was offensive. Not going to lie, that makes me feel very little, but there are too many other emotions overtaking that one right now.

"Shit!" Max says while walking towards me and reaching his arms out to grab onto mine. "Fleur, I... I'm sorry you had to hear all this." He turns his head to mutter a "fuck" under his breath and takes a deep breath before facing me again. "There's a lot going on right now and I don't have time to go over it all, but we're going through something right now." He takes another deep breath before looking slightly behind him towards Tank before turning to me once again. "Just please...go with everything I tell you to. I promise I'll tell you everything, but I need you to get out of here before it gets bad." The pain in his voice at the end makes me heart drop to my stomach and I don't have it in me to use words so I nod quickly at him. He squeezes his hands that hold my arms before turning back to face Tank, ignoring everyone else that has their eyes trained on us.

"Tank, get Fleur back to her hotel room. You are not to leave her sight till I tell you, got that?" Max says, back to a firm tone.

Tank does nothing, but not at him with his arms crossed before he walks past him and to me.

My brain must have chronic delay because it takes a second for me to comprehend what Max said.

He has Tank guarding me?!

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Hey all. Super sorry for taking 100 years. Life gets in the way sometimes and writer's block is real!

I hope you're enjoying my story! If you didn't notice, the pace is definitely going to be switching into high gear.

Thank you for 10k reads. I honestly appreciate every single one and question my abilities to capture people's attention all the time. So, thank you again!!

Happy reading 😊