Claimed by the Biker Giant (Maxine and Tank) novel Chapter 349

Chapter 349

Sprocket POV

Nugget was a child, but a strong–willed one, cute as a button.

When Skittle asked him if he remembered what she said, she gained the attention of the whole

table:

None of us expected Nugget to climb off Skittle’s lap and onto Nightingale’s. Now, only

Nightingale can stuff this up, or do the work that Skittle had done to get him to sit on her lap to work out. It was obvious that both were unsure what to do, and in Nugget’s fashion, he turned his attention away from the elephant in the room, onto his toy, easily distracted as a child should be.

“Behave, and you know where to find me if you need me,” Skittles said softly to Nugget, who looked up at her and waved goodbye, a smile on his face.

“What would you like to do?” I asked as we headed to the car park.

“Move my bike out of the way, now there’s room to do so. The truck should be here soon, with our things. I want to put away what I can and stow the rest. Get things ready for Monday. A bit nervous about moving to a new job, the other morgue was the only place I had ever worked before.” I could hear her nervousness in her voice just talking about it, but on the outside, she walked and talked confidently; unless you got to know her even a little bit, like I feel I do now, you wouldn’t know she

was that worried.

We moved her bike next to mine, in a back shed I built while we were refurbishing the place, more or less my personal shed. The things that Skittles wants to store can be stored there, too.

“With these keys,” I gave her the keys to this shed and to my, our, room. “I am asking you to be mine, exclusively, while we navigate our friendship, and you settle in here at the club, and your new job. I want to give you the chance to be you, without all the guys hitting you and putting pressure of a different kind. I will provide you with my protection and guidance when you need them. If you want space, I will give you that too. I ask you to be open and honest with me, and not hide behind your fears. I can’t promise you it will be easy. Talking about things that have hurt you is hard, I know, but I will keep an open mind. If you need to vent, do it; if you need someone to spar with, to let off steam, I can be that, too. I like a good workout. Both kinds. I have never had a girlfriend before, so I expect to make mistakes, but I want to try. You’re the first woman who has held my interest enough to ask this. Unless you want to call a childhood crush who tried to exert power over me and hurt me because of my crush on her, she tried to be the boss, and that didn’t end well for her; ! only let her get away with it twice. The first I forgave, the second was enough for me to turn my back on her. I know it’s soon, but we have known each other since childhood, and although we have been apart, I want to see if I can find that girl. I remember the one who put her pigtails in the paint pot and made her hair purple, who laughed at my corny jokes, and who was carefree and

lovely. I know she is still there somewhere. Will you give me the chance to find her again?” I am

going with my gut here. Right from the moment she arrived, Skittles did something to me, as no

girl had before. I was stirring inside, which I thought was dead.

I waited as she walked beside me. The truck arrived as we headed back, so we changed direction

and went to greet the driver. Stinger arrived at the same time.

“Hi, buddy, how’s it going?” I asked as we reached the car park, where the truck stopped at the

“You and your brother are close, I can see that.” I turned to look at Skittles as she made a small coffee for us both in the mini kitchen. Well, it’s a bench with a sink, a small bar fridge, the makings for tea or coffee, and a toaster–a lot like the small area you see in motels.

St. Chytes 100

+35 Fort

“We are very close. He organised all this: me being part of the club, the transfer of my job here, the packing of our things, while our mother was away on a road trip. I am so grateful that he did this for me, for us. She’s the controlling son of a clusterfuk; her minions of men do her bidding. Stinger said she must have a golden snatch, because she’d lost her youth and beauty, and that’s all she had left going for her, more like a club tart than a mother, and we don’t even know which man to call stepdad anymore.” I could see Skittles getting upset, so I changed the subject.

“How did you get your name?”

Skittles brought the coffee over to where I was leaning against the wall, watching her move, the gentle sway of her hips, the warm smile on her lips. Her long brown hair flowed over her shoulder, her brown eyes looked at me with a sparkle of mirth.

“When I was younger, my brother was attacked by some bees. He was jumping about, crying about being stung, so he became a Stinger after killing one of the bees in the hive. His hand blew up like a balloon, having so many stings, but at least he wasn’t allergic. Anyway, I shared my Skittles with him, he ate the whole packet, and I had to go to my hidden stash and bring out more until he stopped whimpering about his hand. It took over a week for that hand to go down enough for him to use it, anyway. After that, he would ask me for my stash of Skittles, and my name was born.” She had this sad smile on her face, one that didn’t seem to relate to what we were talking about; it must have brought back a memory of something else.

“Hey.” I stroked her arm, getting her to look at me, her eyes misty.