Vindication: A Motorcycle Club Romance by Sienna Valentine Read Free Book Online

shake of his head, he climbed
off his bike and began to walk toward the school. The closer he got, the less
sure he was that he would be able to just walk inside and find her. Every car
he passed in the parking lot was a luxury model; rich people did not tend to
fuck around when rough-looking hooligans invaded their space.
     
    Instead, Ghost beelined toward the
chain-link fence. A motley throng of kids were running around the recess yard.
They all wore matching uniforms, traditional Catholic school garb that didn’t
seem to inhibit the insanity of childhood released into the wild. Kids climbed
all over bright-colored gym equipment and played games that, from a distance,
looked like complete nonsense. Ghost shielded his eyes and tried to see if he
could spot Bridget out there with them.
     
    “You’re not supposed to hang around
schools, you know. You look creepy.”
     
    The voice piped up from beneath him
very suddenly. Ghost looked down to find a skinny little kid squinting up at
him, using the cape of his Batman action figure to shield half his face from
the sun. He was pale and weak-looking, uniform clean of dirt, his hair so soft
and freshly cut that he looked like he should be in some catalog playing with a
room full of expensive toys no reasonable parent would ever buy. He looked up
at Ghost curiously.
     
    “Oh, really, smart guy?” said Ghost.
“Well, you’re not supposed to talk to strangers, so I guess we’re both idiots.”
     
    The kid laughed; it was a tight,
closed-lipped thing that told Ghost it was probably something he didn’t do very
often. Ghost bent down to his eye-level through the chain-link fence.
     
    “How come you’re not playing soccer?”
Ghost gestured to the loud match at the other end of the school yard.
     
    The boy shrugged. “I don’t really
like sports.”
     
    “Eh, me either. Too many rules.
What’s your name?”
     
    “Toby.”
     
    “Hi, Toby. I’m Ghost.” He wiggled his
fingers awkwardly through the holes in the fence, and Toby took them with a
giggle and shook them.
     
    “Your name’s Ghost?” said Toby.
     
    “Yeah, my parents were really into
Scooby-Doo.”
     
    Toby didn’t seem like he got that
one. Instead he pointed and said, “Is that your motorcycle?”
     
    “Hell yeah, it is. Her name’s
Barbara.”
     
    “Do you get to ride it every day?”
     
    “Sure do. Even some days I probably
shouldn’t, because of the weather and whatnot, but like I always say, YOLO.”
     
    “What does that mean?”
     
    “I don’t know, some cool-looking kids
were saying it. I figured you could tell me what it meant.”
     
    Toby laughed. “Well, it sounds
stupid.”
     
    “You might be onto something there,
bud. Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know a teacher named Bridget Dawson, would
you?”
     
    Toby’s eyes lit up and he took a big
breath. “That’s my teacher! Miss Dawson!”
     
    Ghost smiled. “Toby, I sure am glad
it was you who decided to risk his precious little life by coming up to the
fence to talk to a leather-clad stranger. You’re obviously my lucky charm.”
     
    Toby seemed like he enjoyed hearing
that. “Do you know Miss Dawson?”
     
    “I’m friends with her grandpa.”
     
    “Oh, she told us he fought in the
war!”
     
    “He sure did. I’ll have to tell you
some of his stories sometime. They’re pretty brutal.”
     
    “I get in trouble if I play war
games. My dad broke my Call of Duty disc.” This last part came out pained.
     
    Ghost didn’t like hearing that, and
not just because he firmly believed every kid should grow up hearing war
stories and playing war games. He pointed at the Batman doll. “Hey, I have a
duty you and the Dark Knight can call for me.”
     
    “What?” Toby laughed.
     
    “One sec,” said Ghost. He stood up
and pulled his tiny notebook and pen from the inside pocket of his cut and,
leaning precariously on the chain-link fence, he penned a note for Bridget
asking her to meet him outside by the