Tess was walking through the compound when she heard noise coming from the garage. Curious, she wandered over to see what Turbo was up to. Several bikes were lined up against the one wall of the garage and there were platforms where bikes were set on for display and to be built.
Turbo was busy behind a bike on one of these platforms, tinkering away. Tess couldn’t really see what he was doing, but he was deep in concentration and hardly noticed her arrival until she cleared her throat, making him look up from the bike. “Oh, hey! You’re just in time.”
“I am?” Tess blinked, walking over to the bike. It was absolutely beautiful, and she loved the red paint job he’d done on it. “In time for what?”
“To get your new bike. What do you think?” It had the Paradise MC logo on the back fender, and he stood to wipe off the bike one more time.
“My… for me?” Tess asked in shock. “You made me a bike?”
“Well yeah,” Turbo said like it was no big deal. “You’ve been here what… four months now? It’s time you had a bike from our club. Not to mention… Nitro said that we should go out for a ride and talk. He said you got an interesting phone call last night?”
Tess cringed, thinking about the call she’d received. She really didn’t want to think about it, but she’d known she couldn’t keep it from Nitro or any of the others. They’d seen her nervousness the second she walked into the clubhouse for Church. “Yeah, I guess we should talk about that… I just… can’t believe you would do this for me. I’m blown away, bro.”
Turbo grinned wide and stepped around the platform towards her, reaching out to give her a hug. She stepped into the embrace and leaned into him, grateful to have him in her life. She missed her real brother deeply, but she was grateful for her new brothers at the MC who took care of her in ways she never thought could happen again. She really did feel like she was part of the family.
They took the bike off the platform together, and then Turbo nudged her to get on it and try it. She swung her leg over the bike and looked over at him with a smile. It was comfortable and he’d done a great job on making the seat height at the perfect level, as well as the handle bars. When they were ready, Tess rode out to the parking lot and Turbo went out to get on his bike.
“Let’s ride out to the park and we can sit and talk, okay?”
“Sure,” she relied somewhat nervously and then rode out with him.
The streets of New York were busy and they rode through Manhattan toward Central Park. They parked at a quiet spot by the fountain and took a seat on the bench. Tess was nervous, but tried not to show it. The phone call had rattled her more than she wanted to admit, and she didn’t like the idea of having a bodyguard around to protect her from what could happen, but Nitro trusted Turbo with his life, as the sergeant at arms, so she did too.
“Sis, talk to me… you’ve been quiet the whole ride. That’s not like you.” Turbo was looking at her with concern.
Tess took a deep breath and looked over at him, not sure even where to start. “I know… I’m just rattled.”
“You can trust me, Tess. Whatever this is… we will keep you safe. It’s what we’re here for.”
“Okay. Well, about a year ago I was in this relationship with a guy back home. He was really timid and shy… or at least I thought he was… but we hit it off and for some reason we got into this serious relationship.”
“For some reason?” Turbo raised an eyebrow.
“We had this chemistry between us that I couldn’t deny. It was really intense and he treated me well… until I realized that I didn’t see a future with him.”
“Uh oh…”
“Yeah. He started to get really clingy and wouldn’t leave me alone. He started to stalk me, kept calling, leaving notes in the mail, yada yada… One night…” Tess hesitated and looked over at Turbo, squirming on the bench.
“You can tell me,” he insisted, reaching over to put a hand on hers.
“One night he came to my house. Knocked on the door and Andrew was there… Let’s just say they both ended up with black eyes and bruises and scrapes from the fight… and we were all carted off to the police station to give statements about what happened.”
“Please tell me your brother wasn’t arrested.”
“No, he wasn’t, but Will definitely was. I guess he just got out though ‘cause he called last night and… said he found me. I shouldn’t be scared because he was so weak and timid and shy when we were together, but after I broke up with him he became a different person.”
“Hey.” Turbo squeezed her hand and looked in her eyes. “You are going to be fine. We’ve got your back, alright?”
Tess nodded and leaned into the hug he offered, knowing that she could trust that, no matter what happened, she would be safe because she had her family around her.
