Clearwater's Hope: Wrath MC (Mountain of Clearwater Book 2) Read online

  “Oh, that’s okay, I had something come up, so I can’t go now.” A few of the other girls murmured the same but in various ways.

  “Oh, that’s too bad. I like helping people who don’t have anything or anyone.” And then she kept her head held high as she walked out of the locker room.

  I hadn’t waited to see what the other girls were talking about. I had hauled my ass and tried to find that girl. Only she disappeared.

  So that night I gathered up a few things that I couldn’t fit into anymore and I took them Saturday morning before work to the shelter and wouldn’t you know, there she stood.

  That moment that for the first time since I had known Marley, I had heard her laugh. It wasn’t fake, and it wasn’t forced. It was natural. And it was then and there that I had decided some way, somehow, I was going to be her friend. Well just being her friend wasn’t the only thing that I had in mind.

  Was I a pussy for admitting that? Yes. But did I really give one flying fuck? Negative.

  And if I were being honest, she never seemed to ever pay me any attention. Talk about a blow to my ego. Especially seeing that I had all of the attention that man could get or ever even want. But none of it from the one person that he desperately wanted it from.

  She was the tiniest thing that I had ever seen, she barely even came up to my shoulder blades. But there was one thing that drew me in, and that was her eyes. We had locked one day across the quad, yes that is cliché yet again, but you just can’t look away when you get hooked, lined, and caught. And caught I had been by majestic green eyes, there was the color green, and then there was the color of green just like an emerald. So rich, and deep in color.

  It wasn’t that she was the most beautiful thing in this world, however, she was the most amazing thing that I had ever seen. The look in her eyes told me more about her then I even knew about myself. The overwhelming look of sadness in her eyes, the look of foreboding, and the most compelling of all yet hard to look away was the look of help. Help that she was in desperate need of.

  So, one day, I said to hell with it and approached one of the wealthiest, but saddened girls in the whole school. Heck probably in the whole county

  Those green eyes should never look away and appear to be distant.

  “Hey.” Okay, that was lame but whatever.

  “Umm Hey... is this some sort of prank?” She looked around at all of the other students in the hallway. Like she was getting punked or something.

  “No. Why would you think that?” I looked right into her eyes, so she would see how honest I was.

  “Well…” She stammered out. “Your you, and I’m m… me.” She gestured to herself, like she wasn’t anything comparable to me. And she fucking stuttered, fucking adorable.

  “Hey, don’t downplay yourself. I think your very pretty.” Okay, that was definitely corny, and it wasn’t exactly all the truth. Not since she could walk circles around all of these girls if she wanted.

  She squinted her eyes and made her nose wrinkle up in a cute way that even had me cracking a smile.

  A wary expression consumed her features and then I had her, or so I thought. “Okay, I’ll bite, what gives?” And as if she didn’t realize she had done it, she gave me sass. She placed her hand on her hip and cocked it to the side.

  Spicy. Sweet. Sassy. Fuck me.

  “Well we are having this thing for the team. A morale meeting at the pizza parlor. I was wondering if you wanted to go with me.”

  “Yeah, okay. And I’m Cinderella and I ride to school every day in a chariot.” At first, I thought that she was being sarcastic, but it then morphed into nothing but a joke. A joke on her as I watched her laugh as she turned away from me.

  Rejection? Did that really just happen to me? But all that I could really process in that moment was damn look at that ass she had on her.

  When I began to lose sight of her in the hallway, I became unglued.

  “Hey Marley, hold up!” I called out and received quite a few heads turn in my peripheral.

  “What York?” She even threw her hand onto her hip again for that added serene picture to throw attitude my way. Fucking sass.

  “So, you do know my name?” I asked her with an all-knowing grin on my face.

  With an exasperated eye roll she looked up to the ceiling, “York, you’re one of the most popular guys in the school and you’re on the football team. Everyone knows your name.”

  “And, your one of the most wealthiest girls in the whole school doesn’t mean you pay attention to simple minded folks like myself.” I thought I had her with that statement. Only the look in her eyes went from saddened to defeat in a matter of seconds.

  How the hell was that even possible I thought to myself because I wouldn’t be a fool and say that aloud. Women.

  “Yeah, and it’s those simple-minded folks that think just because my parents have money that it means I’m a shallow person.” And she turned and stormed away from me before I could even say anything to deflect that statement.

  It was after school, after Marley had ignored me the rest of the day and believe me, I had made it a point to try and get in her space, but as if she were a robot, nothing that I did seemed to work. Even when I bumped into her after lunch, mind you we also shared that period together as well. Then on top all of that off I had run after her and as soon as I called her name, she did the most un-lady like thing in the world. She gave me the middle finger.

  For the third time I hit my knuckles on the starter that I had been trying to wedge out of a 2005 Chevrolet Suburban. I had been kicking my own ass all afternoon. And then to top it all off Cotton my friend and my boss hounded me until I gave in and told him everything.

  See I worked at my grandfather’s three days a week and I worked at my buddy Cotton’s for four days a week as long as we didn’t have a game that day.

  “If I know one thing about you, you don’t judge people. So, what the fuck was that?” Cotton had asked.

  Suffice it to say that was probably one of the stupidest damn things that I had ever done in my whole entire life.

  Open mouth and insert foot.

  “Well, do we need to make a plan and get Marley to allow you into her good gracious or is this a brush off moment and move on?” Cooper asked.

  You could call some people friends and then you could call some people friends. Cooper had been the latter for me. There was no one on this planet that I had trusted more than him to have my back in all things.

  We had been best friends since we were three years old. Causing terror for our parents and wreaking havoc, the fun shit.

  “Man don’t y’all make fun of me for saying this shit. Fuck I can’t believe I’m about to say this shit aloud. But she ain’t a woman that you can just brush off. Something about her man.”

  Yes, I expected them to laugh in my face and tell me that I had to hand over my balls. But that wasn’t what happened. Best fucking friends ever.

  “Okay man. Then is this low profile take your time? Or is this a Maverick move?” Yeah, he fucking got me with the Maverick comment. Cooper knew me all too well.

  “This is a maverick move. She’s the one.”

  And as I dropped that bomb on the two men that had been standing there one minute with their hands in engines and in grease, were both standing stock still with shocked expressions.

  How did I know that she was the one? Because the moment that I had looked into her eyes. I saw a future flash in front of me. A son with my hair color and her eyes. A daughter just as feisty and sassy as her momma and the spitting image of Marley.

  Don’t ask me how I knew that Marley was the one that I was meant to spend the rest of my life with. I just knew. Like I knew that Marianne had the hots for Cooper, but she would never come out and say anything. Like I knew that Cooper had the hots for a girl that was four grades below us, but he would never go there. Not until she gets older, and when Cooper did go there, we’ll all I have to say is that she should hold on for the rest of her life.


  “Well If I had to guess which one of us would have fallen first, it wouldn’t have been you York.” Cotton was the oldest between us. He had also started an MC and I had plans that once I was out of the military that I was prospecting for the club. Even though Cotton had told me that while I would be away that Cooper would be the interim Vice President for him.

  Cooper said that he wanted to be in the MC, but he didn’t want that kind of responsibility so the position that he would get after was all but perfect for him.

  “Yeah, tell me about it. I know I’m eighteen and about to turn nineteen but like Grandma Fran, once you know, you know.” My Grandma Fran was a fountain of knowledge all through my younger years. It was sad that my grandfather had walked away from her.

  It was also sad that she had passed away from a bad case of pneumonia when I had been twelve. After that, my grandfather had really become a ladies man.

  Don’t get me wrong, my grandfather was a decent man, but he liked the ladies, even at his age. And he liked making money even more than that. Only there is a rumor circulating around town that one of the women that he over charged was married to a man who knows a little bit more about cars then she did.

  So, because of that rumor we had all been keeping an eye out and an ear to the ground, trying to stop something before it even got started.

  However, we had been too late. When we had walked into the shop early on a Wednesday morning during the summer break, the garage had been trashed.

  Toolboxes were emptied out and tools scattered the ground. Tires had been slashed and oil, and antifreeze had been poured onto the computer on the desk.

  Needless to say, my grandfather was spitting mad. Did he call the cops. No. Because legally they could get him for far more than the damages done to his shop would ever amount too.

  So, in the end my grandfather had learned a valuable lesson that day. Don’t screw over women that were married, however the single ladies, well they were still fair game.

  If I knew one thing about the man that I wanted to grow up to be it was that I wanted one woman, and that one woman is what I intend for Marley to be. Now all I had to do was to get her to talk to me. And I knew one sure fire way to do that.

  It was time for me to call in a favor from her one and only best friend, Saylor owed me a few favors I had occurred, even when I had helped her ace her science exam.

  So, I wiped the grease from my hands with a red rag, grabbed my phone and called her girl Saylor.

  How did I know that Saylor was her best friend when I haven’t before spoken a word to Marley except for today?

  Because that day when I had left the locker room, I had seen Saylor storming into the locker room, and I had heard a fair amount of yelling.

  Not to mention I had also seen her with Marley on more than one occasion. Saylor was probably the only true friend that Marley had at school. And something just didn’t feel right about that. A woman like Marley deserved to have all of the true friends in the world. The next one was going to be me.

  “If this is Roger hang up the phone right now, before I really lose my temper.” The voice said through the speaker.

  “Not Roger but York.” It took a few minutes for Saylor to respond.

  “York, I just left my best friend’s house because apparently you were trying to pull a fast one over on her. Is that right? My best friend that sat in my car and told me what you had said before she went inside to her horrible parents? Am I getting this right? What is it some kind of game all of y’all are playing at in destroying her?”

  I didn’t even respond to the horrible parents part. I would deal with Marley on that. But right now, I had to undo something that would prevent me from achieving my goals.

  “Yeah, but you’re not getting and what she’s not getting is why I approached her today. I really want to get to know her. I’m not trying to do anything but get to know her. Something about her Saylor, I’m calling in that favor you owe me.”

  When we had been at a party a few years back, some guy had gotten way too handsy with her. Something that I didn’t like seeing. So, I ripped that guy away from her and also had a favor owed to me by Saylor, her words not mine.

  “I’m telling you right now York Michaelson, if you screw over my best friend, I’ll hunt you down and they will never find the body. You don’t even know.”

  “Saylor I would expect nothing less.”

  And with that statement a plan had been hatched and put into place.

  I didn’t forget about the whole Roger incident. Saylor was Marley’s best friend so therefore Saylor was going to be important to me as well.

  “Now, anything I need to do to Roger?”

  A few beats of silence, “York, if I didn’t think you would be perfect for Marley, I’d take you out for a slice of pizza. But if you want to trash his car or toilet paper his house, I would be forever in your debt again.”

  Laughing I answered, “Consider it done.”

  So that night, myself and Cotton, and Garret, and Cooper, we went to Roger Cummings house and toilet papered his house, slathered mustard on some bologna and stuck that shit to his precious little Honda Civic.

  We thought about penning a note so the little fucker would know who did this and whom the retribution was for, however we shouldn’t have even worried about it.

  That next day the whole class of two hundred and fifteen students, with one hundred and twenty-five of those being females gave us high fives all day long.

  It was epic.

  Although I hadn’t thought it even possible however when I got home that day a pizza was delivered to my house with a simple note of thanks. Marley was lucky to have Saylor.

  Now all I had to do was try to be the lucky son of a bitch that got to even be near Marley.

  Little did Marley know, is that girls are not the only ones that have fairy tales and dreams of happily ever after’s.

  Chapter 2

  Marley

  After that day in the hallway I had thought that everything would go back to normal.

  How wrong was I?

  The moment that I had gotten to school I had seen Saylor. She followed me to the bathroom while I changed into fitted jeans, a vampire diaries t-shirt, and my converses.

  It was when we were headed to class that things started to get weird.

  First of all, no one said hey to me. And I mean no one.

  The moment Cooper and Garret, two of the guys on the football team came near us they both said, “Hey Marley”, as they walked by. And I stood there frozen in wonder. Did hell just freeze over?

  “What is up with that?” I asked Saylor hoping she knew.

  And then I had gotten my answer. She didn’t come out and say anything at first but her facial expression showed it all.

  “First of all, you are my best friend and you know I love you. You also know that I would kick someone’s ass if they tried to hurt you.”

  As we were nearing our classroom, she pulled me aside.

  “Second of all I have known York all my life, I told you about that party and what he did for me. Plus, York isn’t a player. I know a lot of girls have said that they have been with him, but they haven’t. I even talked to some of his friends last night. Sweetie, York really wants to get to know you.”

  So that also meant that I had not concentrated in any of my classes and then came lunch.

  As soon as I sat my tray down beside Saylor’s three more trays were sat down at our table.

  One belonging to Cooper, one belonging to Garret, and the last one belonging to York.

  Then he smiled at me.

  “York.”

  “Marley.”

  I just stared at him. More shocked then amazed.

  “York, mind if we sit with you?” Cindy, the captain of the cheerleading team said over my shoulder.

  And gone was the small smile that was on York’s face were a dimple was present. Now a scowl took that place. Also, scowls were on the other guys faces.

&nb
sp; “Yeah, I mind.” He said in a no tone attitude.

  “Oh, come on. Don’t be like that.” It was then that Cindy threw her hair over her shoulder, dipped her head and smiled at him.

  It was a useless thought. “Cindy, walk away. I’m trying to enjoy my lunch with my girl and my friends. I don’t feel like taking a shower in a minute because you seem to be obsessed with touching me in some form or manner. Now go.”

  You could have heard a pen drop in the lunchroom because all eyes were on us.

  Then when Cindy opened her mouth to say more it was Garret that started to stand and looked at her the way that Garret does when he is about to lose his patience.

  I didn’t pay any attention to anything else however as what York had said really penetrated my mind. He had called me his girl. His. Girl.

  “Your girl?” I whispered out.

  “Yeah. Well that’s what I want. I already see you as mine. All’s I have to do is to get you to see me as your man.” With that he dove right into his slice of pizza.

  After that moment I literally felt like Cinderella. At first, I had my guard up at all times. Once I saw the man behind the image that he portrayed I was done for.

  After that day we were together constantly. I hung out with him at the garages and we went to the diner In town. He walked me to my calluses and carried my bags. I still hadn’t agreed to be his girl and he my man. I was hoping and praying that the man that I had come to know and started to love was the man that he portrayed himself to be.

  It was right after their championship game where I had finally given York his answer. Six weeks later to be exact.

  He had been coming off the field when I saw him taking off his helmet as he started looking over the crowd in the stands that was pouring out onto the football field.

  At this point all of the cheerleaders had backed away. Even they had gotten the hint.

  And when his eyes had landed on mine, his sexy as all sin grin morphed over his face. When I saw him stand stock still and brace himself. I knew what he was waiting on. I hauled my butt from my seat on the bleachers and ran to my man.