Just like that, the power in the room shifted from Bridget to me, because she’d flunked out and everyone knew it. She hadn’t done much else, either, other than getting knocked up twice by two different guys. Not that she was raising the kids—nope, she’d dropped them at her mom’s place and kept right on partying.
Carlie wrapped an arm around my shoulder and laughed. “I’ve missed you, Becca.”
The statement was so ridiculous that I found myself laughing, too. Outmanuevered, Bridget stomped down the hall. I actually liked Carlie, I decided. What a surprise. I polished off my beer with a gulp, thinking maybe things might work out after all.
“Becca, do you have a minute?” Darcy asked.
“Sure,” I said, wondering if she would call us on our little game. Ruh roh. Following her out the door, I found myself in a large, fenced area. There was a bonfire inside a stone ring and big speakers blasted music.
“Over here,” she said, grabbing one side of a trash can next to a table full of food. There was a good-sized crowd out here, although not huge. Maybe thirty people? “Can you help me carry this out?”
I grabbed a handle and we hauled it toward a gate on one side of the fence. A man wearing a Silver Bastards cut opened it for us, frowning.
“You want help with that, Darce?”
“We got it,” she said cheerfully. Then we were out of the fence and walking down the side of the building, cutting down on the noise considerably. “Appreciate the help. I wanted to talk to you, and figured we might as well take care of this at the same time. Only way to get any privacy around this place, you know?”
“Yeah, I can see that,” I replied, hoping I wasn’t about to get in trouble. “What’s up?”
“Just wanted to check on you,” she said. “You and Puck have known each other a long time, but this still happened pretty fast. These guys don’t fuck around when they decide they want a girl. You okay with everything?”
I stumbled on a rock in the darkness and nearly dropped my side of the big plastic bin. We stopped for a minute, catching our breath.
“I think I’m okay,” I said finally. “You know how I wound up in Callup?”
“I know everything Boonie knows, at least when it comes to you,” she admitted. “And I heard what you said the other night at the bar, of course.”
Oops. I’d forgotten about my public confession.
“I’ll bet Carlie’s curious as hell about that one.”
“Carlie’s a good girl,” Darcy replied. “She had a thing for Puck, you know how that goes in a club. He’s not into her and when he realized there was an emotional tie, he cut her loose. Best he could do. You saved her in there. Some of those bitches can’t wait to cut a girl if she falls.”
“Women will do that,” I said slowly. Darcy frowned.
“Not all women,” she replied, her voice hard. “These girls drag in here, fuck one of the guys, and think they’re one of us. I don’t care how many of the brothers you screw—you fuck over the sisters, it’s not gonna end well. We have to stick together. Carlie’s not an old lady yet, but she’s still a sister in my book.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure. Can’t promise I’ll answer, but I will if I can.”
“The Longnecks—they’re the MC my stepdad hung around with—they kept a lot of club whores around. Do the Silver Bastards do that, too?”
“Yup,” she replied. “It’s a free country and the brothers bring guests here all the time. Some of them stick around, some of them don’t. Some find they aren’t as welcome as they thought.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Boonie’s dick is the only one that matters to me,” she replied, her voice matter-of-fact. “As for the women, I care less about who they’re sleeping with than how they act the rest of the time. Like I said, fuck with the sisters and you won’t last. Bridget won’t be back if she keeps this shit up.”
“Old ladies didn’t get to make those decisions in the Longnecks.”
Darcy smiled sweetly. “We don’t get to make those decisions in the Silver Bastards, either. Yet the right decisions still magically happen. Nobody knows how, really. Guess it’s just all our good karma coming back to us.”
My mouth dropped. Darcy winked.
“You think those men don’t need us?” she asked. “Boonie likes sleeping next to me. Gets cold and lonely when all the old ladies take a girls’ weekend in Seattle. Would be even colder and lonelier if we didn’t come back, and one time we forgot to for nearly a week. Fortunately things worked out and we found our way home again. Now things tend to work out faster.”
My eyes went wide.
“You serious?”
“Do I look like a woman who will eat shit?”
Point taken.
“Let’s get this trash out. I’m sure Puck will be looking for you soon, and I want to make sure all the girls meet you first. That boy’s crazy about you—it’s cute. Like a pit bull crushing on a kitten.”
Laughing, I grabbed my side of the can and we hauled it around to the front. One of the prospects came running, pulling out the bag and tying it off. Then he tossed it into the back of an old pickup at the end of the parking lot. We started back.
“So how’s school going?” Darcy asked. “Morgan’s pregnant, and she said she wants to take some time off when the baby comes. I could sure use your help at the shop.”