A Dream of Summer (Bleeding Angels MC Book 3) Read Online Free

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    I force myself to think about something else. Anything else. The few short hours ago when the Angels came to the body shop and I agreed to go with them. I think about everything that Suzie had told me, that Aimee had gone to Ryan and that she’d… I can’t even bring myself to think the words.
     
    “They fucked,” Suzie had said, one hand on her hip and her head tilted to the side.
     
    It’s only now, when I think back, that I see how dark the circles were under her eyes and the sadness that hung over her. At the time, I was just concentrating on staying upright while she told me things that I didn’t want to hear. Things that I had never thought I would hear about Aimee.
     
    “She wouldn’t do that.” My head was reeling, but I had been sure about that much. “Now if that’s all you have to tell me, you’ve said your piece, so you can all get the hell out of my shop.” I’d turned my back on Suzie and her little entourage. Of the three bikers she was with, Elvis was the only one whose name I knew. The faces of the others were familiar—Painted Rock was too small a town for me not to have seen them around.
     
    “You know you’re on borrowed time, Slick.” Elvis’s voice grated on me like squeaky chalk on a board. “Your girl doesn’t want you. Your month’s grace is almost up. What’ve you got to hang around for?”
     
    I’d kept my back turned, not wanting Elvis and the other Angels to have the satisfaction of seeing the emotions play across my face. I heard an exchange of low voices, though I couldn’t quite make out what was being said. But, slowly, there was a sound of heavy boots making their way to the door and then crunching on the gravel outside. Still, I kept my focus on the engine of the Chevy in front of me. Cars—cars I can fix. The other stuff I wasn’t so sure about anymore.
     
    I felt a gentle touch on my arm and I recognized the thin hand with its dirty fingernails as Suzie’s. “Jake, talk to me,” she’d said, and her voice was so much like how it used to be.
     
    Automatically I looked down at her, and I saw the girl that had been my friend; the girl that I had grown up with. She and Aimee and me, we’d been the three musketeers—inseparable. Seeing her then, in the state she was in, made me realize how much had changed since we were kids.
     
    “Suze, you know I can’t.” I shook my head, taking a step away from her. “Not after everything that‘s happened. You can’t really expect me to just believe everything you say. What’s that saying… ‘Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me?’”
     
    The silence stretched out between us until I realized that Suzie had started to cry. They were quiet, big, fat tears that rolled down her cheeks.
     
    “Come on, Suze,” I’d said, putting an arm around her just like old times. “You always said you were an ugly crier, but jeez you really weren’t kidding,” I’d joked, and she’d smiled through her tears and pushed me away playfully.
     
    “Thanks, Summers. I could always count on you to make me feel better.” She wiped her face with the back of her sleeve, leaving a thin trail of grime on her cheek. She took a deep breath, like she was gathering herself together. “Look, I know you have no reason to trust me, but I’m still asking you to,” she had said, looking for all the world like she meant every word she was saying.
     
    I didn’t reply, but I know that my silence spoke volumes.
     
    “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to help,” she said, stroking a stray greasy blonde curl out of her eyes.
     
    “Help? Suze, the last time you tried to help, Aimee’s house got burned down. Maybe our interpretations of the word are different.” Shaking my head, I turned my attention back to the Chevy.
     
    “Jake, I’m trying to get clean.” The words came out of her like they were wrung out by force.
     
    The tone in her voice made my head snap up to take a look at her. “If