Free Burnt by Natasha Thomas Page A

big house yelling it at the top of her lungs. Needless to say, the guys thought it was hilarious. My mom was mortified. Dec just shook his head trying to cover his laugh, and I? Well, I made sure Monty paid the price getting none of his favourite watermelon for a week. He can’t say I didn’t warn him.

    So, after that exhausting beginning to my day, six hand cramps, a back ache, and three and a half hours of continuous tattooing later I’m well and truly ready for a break, and to pick up Princess Lexi. Not only that, but God save me from badass bikers.

    Victor or as we all call him, Vic, is patch wearing member of Devil’s Spawn MC. He’s currently sitting with his back to me barely holding his shit together. I swear if I even dared to breathe on his back right now he’ll cry. Why get tattooed if you can’t handle the pain? That’s my question too. Funnily enough it’s some of the biggest guys that whimper for their moms’ though. Vic’s in his mid-forties, he’s working on a beer gut to rival Santa Claus, and is hairy as all get out. I really don’t know how Aunt Sheila gets her freak on with him. I honestly don’t want to think about it either.

    He’s exactly what most people think of when they conjure the image of a leather clad biker. Well unless you read that smutty romance crap people pedal. Their ideas of what MC men look like are SO far removed from the norm it isn’t funny. Sure there are some drool worthy, yummy, panty wetting men that make up the ranks of Devil’s Spawn MC, but they certainly aren’t the majority. A lucky few women get those ones. Take Louisa for example. She’s still my best friend after all these years, and one of the luckiest bitches I know.

    After a rocky friendship in High School, mainly because Lou was jealous of all the hooker types hanging off Billy, and Billy was secretly wanting to bone only my friend. A non-existent courtship. Meaning one day a friend of the club, but not a member, was getting what Billy considered to be too friendly with his NOT girlfriend, so he decided to claim Lou then and there. They had a lightning speed engagement. Two months to be precise, and a beautiful wedding out back of the club house that included a patch ceremony making her officially Billy’s old lady in marriage and in leather. Those two are undoubtedly madly in love with each other fitting together like two pieces of a puzzle. They are demonstrative. Sickeningly so sometimes. Always glued at the hip, and are expecting their first baby in about three months. The little one will be my goddaughter because I told Lou as soon as she found out she was pregnant that’s the way it will go. As I said, Lou’s a lucky Bitch.

    After everything happened with Declan five years ago, Lou became my rock. Billy too, to some extent. As much as he could be while remaining friends with Declan, and without stepping on any toes. I know it sounds cliché, but I forgave Declan immediately following that night. As soon as the next morning in fact. That was before I knew about Lexi, or his engagement. That knowledge only added an extra layer of understanding to my forgiveness. It might make me sound weak, but there was no point holding on to anger when it wasn’t going to change anything.

    To say Sunday dinners, the mandatory ones that consisted of my parents, me, uncle Pipe, Dec, and now Isabella, were awkward would be an understatement. Being trapped around a table with no escape route, or fire alarm to pull in case of emergency with that whorebag was definitely NOT a picnic. I muddled through learning early on during these dinners that it was best to agree with, or ignore Isabella’s digs at me. Most of the time the snide, catty shit she threw at me was along the lines of, ‘Have you gained weight’? ‘Are you sure I can’t set you up because I haven’t seen you with anyone’? ‘Are you sure you need that bread roll, us girls have to watch our carbs’? Honestly I could let it all roll off