Bones by the Wood Read Online Free Page A

had come a week when the only night she was free was the Friday and he hadn’t wanted to miss the regular party, so he’d relented and brought her along, albeit with strict instructions to stick to him like glue for the night.
     
    Thea wasn’t shy, but once she got inside and sensed the vibe of the place, she was more than happy to comply.  Some of the guys, like Sloth, Rabbit and Cross, she’d really gotten along with.  Others, like Giles and Garfield, had given her the fucking creeps.  She’d quickly deduced Elvis’ place in the pecking order of the club as well.  It was obvious from the way the guys made fun of him.  She’d barely made it all the way through the door before the remarks about him punching above his weight had started.  When she’d shed her jacket and they’d seen the roses that covered her left arm from her shoulder to her elbow, and the bits and pieces showing around her the straps of her simple camisole top of the detailed black and grey piece that swept across her back, their ribbing had increased tenfold.
     
    She’d known she was cradle-robbing a little, he was a couple of years younger than her twenty-nine years, but it had been a shock to find that he was one of the youngest members.  That had made her feel a lot older than her age, even though the rest weren’t much older than she.  Everyone had assumed that she was young and innocent.  To some extent, she was.  She had never come across a biker club before, and apart from what Elvis had told her, her only terms of reference were from TV shows which were very much a glossy version of what she encountered.  There was a degree of chivalry that she hadn’t been expecting.  Rabbit had recognized her discomfort and had sort of taken her under his wing.  Every time Elvis dropped the ball and one of his brothers made moves that were a little too close to the line, Rabbit was the one to defend her honor and diffuse the situation.  She had no standing of her own in the clubhouse, which bugged the shit out of her.  She’d been taking care of herself for a long time, and she wasn’t used to playing the damsel in distress card.  She apparently wasn’t allowed to slap some fucker who thought it was okay to grab her ass, but with Rabbit, and later Annelle, in her corner, she’d learned to negotiate her way around the club.
     
    Thea pulled into the parking lot of the convenience store where she worked and cut the engine carefully, so as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of the vehicle.  She waited for the automatic doors to whoosh open, the left one always stuck a little, and made her way straight to the employees’ lounge which doubled as a manager’s office, waving a greeting to her colleague behind the counter on her way.  She dumped her bag and changed into the logo’d green polo shirt that was the extent of her uniform. 
     
    Ready to start her shift, she rounded the shelves and headed straight for the counter. 
     
    “Hey, Val.  How’s it been?”  Her co-worker, Val Rooker, was ten years older than Thea and had worked at the store since she had been legally able to. Val was rail thin and always, whatever the weather, had her brassy, blonde curls piled on top of her head in the same style every day.  She firmly believed that no outfit was complete without inches of sunburnt cleavage on view and had a cigarette clamped between her lips every minute that she wasn’t at work.
     
    “Hey, Thea.  Quiet today.  It’s not the same without the boys around.  No eye candy at all.”
     
    Thea had no clue what to say, knowing what she did now about the demise of the MC.  She aimed for neutrality.
     
    “Yeah.  Guess we’re back to ogling drunks and stoners.”  Val slipped out from behind the counter and Thea took her place.
     
    Val lingered a moment at the end of the counter.  “What about your guy?  He was one of ‘em wasn’t he?” 
     
    Thea tapped a few keys on the cash register to check the