Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended. I am in no way affiliated with the original creator, producer, etc. All original characters are the property of the author.

Chapter 1

The royal blue Chevy truck rumbled down the road as the woman passed the sign that read, Thanks for Visiting Jackson, California. She sang along to the country music playing on the radio station. A loud noise came from under the hood and the truck shook. Kayleigh turned down the music and listened to see if the truck made the sound again.

Almost a mile later the truck shook harder and the awful rumble came from under the hood. She slowed down and let out a loud sigh and a rather nasty expletive as the truck sputtered and then died. A trail of white smoke rose from under the hood as she maneuvered the large vehicle to the side of the road with the last bit of momentum it had before it stopped rolling completely.

She turned the key to the off position, but left it in the ignition as she climbed out of the truck. The sound of what Kayleigh thought were motorcycles could be heard in the distance. Opening the hood of her truck made more smoke billow out.

"Fuck!" Kayleigh cursed loudly, kicking her tire several times before stomping angrily a few feet away and then pacing back.

The group of men on motorcycles approached, slowing down and coming to a stop, some stopping behind the truck and some in front. Kayleigh put her back to her truck as they dismounted from their bikes and walked toward her. There were seven of them, all armed with at least a visible knife, and a few had handguns visible at their side.

"We ain't gonna hurt you, ma'am. We saw your truck on the side of the road and stopped to help. I own an auto repair business," an older man with white-grey hair spoke to her. He wore a patch that named him President.

Kayleigh was still nervous; the men were all wearing forms of leather with the same patches - Sons of Anarchy. They were a Motorcycle Club. They seemed nice, but they outnumbered her seven to one and her own handgun was under the seat of her truck.

She took a deep breath and let it out before speaking. "It made a god awful rumble a couple times and then sputtered to a halt, and here I am," she finished a little sarcastically.

The older man who had addressed her first spoke again, this time barking orders. "Juice call Piney and have him come tow her truck back to the garage. You stay here with her until he comes. We'll go on ahead with the run. Call when you you're done here."

All but one of the men returned to their bikes and pulled back onto the road together. Kayleigh studied the man they called Juice as she leaned against the front of the truck while he pulled a silver phone from his pocket and dialed the tow guy. He was built slightly smaller than the rest, but still muscular in his white t-shirt and leather vest. He wore dark jeans and black sunglasses. His hair was shaved into a short mohawk and dark blue tribal patterned tattoos ran down each side of his head near the mohawk.

What the hell was she going to do now? Kayleigh wondered. There was no going back home, she wouldn't dare face her father ever again. She'd figure something out before she called home for help. There was a damn good reason for her leaving, and she would not return because she could not survive on her own.

"Piney will be here in an hour to tow the truck back," Juice said as he shut the phone and slipped it back into his front pocket. He had called Piney from beside his bike which was parked slightly behind the girl's truck.

He studied her as he walked over to where she was leaned against the truck. She was pretty, with lightly tanned skin and a slim figure and nice sized tits. She wore jeans and a light blue fitted shirt that dipped low enough to show off her cleavage. Her hair was a soft strawberry blonde, spilling over her shoulder and halfway down her back. She wore aviator style sunglasses, but the lenses were a light brown so he could see her eyes. They were blue, he could tell, but he wished he could see what color blue they really were.

"Thanks for staying and for calling a tow. I'm sorry to separate you from your friends. You really don't have to stay. I'm sure you could catch up to them if you left now. I am a big girl and all, I can take care of myself. Besides, y'all are the only people that I've seen on this road in like two hours."

Juice smiled, it was wide and made creases on either side of his face, not quite dimples but not age lines either. His teeth showed, white and straight. He was cute when he smiled, really cute, Kayleigh thought.

Kayleigh wished she could see his eyes. She thought they were brown, but couldn't tell because of the dark lenses of his sunglasses. Shaking her head, she cleared her thoughts of the attractive stranger beside her as he spoke.

"It's not a problem. My name's Juice."

He stuck out his hand and Kayleigh let out a small giggle.

"Kayleigh," she replied, placing her hand in his and giving it a quick shake.

The pair stood in silence for a while, each trying to avoid staring at the other and instead looking at the surrounding landscape. Juice moved to the tailgate of the truck "Do you mind?" he moved to open the tailgate, Kayleigh nodded and he lowered it.

He motioned to the bed. "Have a seat, it will be a while," Juice said before sitting down on the bed himself.

Kayleigh thought about it for a moment, he was wearing a knife, a rather large knife on his side, but he had made no move to hurt her. She had also heard him call for a tow, unless that was a strategic call for backup, which she doubted was true, Juice had no intentions of hurting her. Kayleigh pushed off the truck and walked back to the bed, hopping up next to him.

She noticed that his feet could reach the dirt on the side of the road, but hers swung a few inches from the ground. Kayleigh couldn't help but smile softly as she looked down.

Curiosity bubbled up inside of her. Kayleigh wondered how tall he was. She thought he was close to 5'10". Not as tall as some of the other men that had been riding with him, but taller than her 5'6". He was good looking, lean and muscular without a trace of fat. He had a really nice smile, too.

"So, where are you headed?" he asked, cutting off her train of thought.

"Oh, um, nowhere really, I just needed a change." Kayleigh started to swing her feet back and forth and notice Juice smirk out of the corner of her eye.

"Just got in your truck and started driving?" he asked.

"Pretty much," Kayleigh replied with a chuckle.

"Where you coming from?"

"Texas." Kayleigh turned her head to look at him. "What about you? You don't exactly sound like you're from Cali."

"Queens."

"Ah, New York. Yankee," she said playfully with a smirk.

"Does that make you a southern belle?"

Kayleigh 's tinkling peals of laughter rang through the open, dry fields of California. When she could finally catch her breath, she replied, "Definitely not. Maybe a little, lord knows my grandmamma tried, but no, southern yes, but I would stand out like a sore thumb in Gone with the Wind."

Juice chuckled. "Oh well, I'm not exactly a prince charming either."

"You and your friends did kind of save the day though, at least you saved me from being stranded alone on the side of the road."

"We jump at every chance to save the damsel in distress."

Kayleigh laughed again and Juice smiled.

They were silent again for a while before Juice jerked his thumb back over his shoulder toward the array of plastic and cardboard boxes and a few suitcases in the bed of her truck. "Got a place to put all that?"

"Not yet, planned on finding a semi-nice hotel and staying there until I can find somewhere more permanent. So, wanna tell me how a Yankee like you managed to get all the way to the west coast?" Kayleigh asked with a playful smile.

"Running from my past. You? Texas isn't as far away as New York, but it's a pretty good distance."

"Same, running. I don't like to think of it as running, but that's what I'm doing… running, because I couldn't stay any longer."

"Crazy ex?"

Kayleigh chuckled. Juice thought it sounded resentful or almost sorrowful.

"No, thankfully. More along the lines of crazy family. Any crazy exes in your past?"

Juice snorted. "Nope, crazy scary people, yeah, but no crazy bitches."

"That's always a plus, although it might get canceled out by the fact that you said you have other crazy, scary people."

They both laughed and then fell into silence again. The silence was not completely awkward, either.

Kayleigh laid back and folded her arms behind her head, staring up at the massive clear blue sky above her. She wasn't a one-night stand kind of girl, especially with a man she had known all of ten minutes, but she couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to have one night with Juice.

She had never, ever, done something so bold as a one-night stand. Honestly, Kayleigh had only ever slept with one man in her entire life. She had known him for years before they had taken that step and it seemed that flirting came easy between the two of them.

Was it easy to flirt with Juice? Yes. But suggesting they fuck was an entirely different conversation she wasn't sure she could handle.

"You ever ridden a bike?" Juice asked, breaking her from her thoughts and bringing her back to the present.

"Like the peddle kind or the vroom vroom kind?"

Juice laughed. "The vroom vroom kind."

"Yeah," she replied with a wide smile. "My dad had me on his Harley as soon as I was old enough to hold on. Earlier than that probably, but I can't remember. Why, you gonna take me for a ride?"

"Sure, not today, but if you stick around I'd take you for a ride."

I'd love to take you for a ride Kayleigh thought and then mentally kicked herself for going back to that train of thought.

"And where exactly do I have to stick around?"

"The shop's in Charming, we're just out on a run today, headed to Nevada for a day or two, hang with another charter, but we'll be back in Charming later this week."

"Charming? Really?"

"Yeah. Charming, California. Small town, close to Lodi and Stockton. It's about an hour east of Oakland. Not a bad little town, close enough to the big cities to not get bored, but far away enough to feel quiet and peaceful."

"Except for the motorcycle club that resides there. Ya'll must make a lot of noise."

Juice grinned. Kayleigh didn't know how right she was, figuratively and literally. "Sometimes."

Kayleigh turned her head to watch Juice when he moved. He reached into his kutte and pulled out a small white stick. "You smoke?"

"I've been known to partake every once in a while," Kayleigh said, sitting up as Juice lit the joint.

He took a hit and then passed it to her, trying not to let it show how much he was affected by the brush of her fingers against his.

They spent the rest of the time waiting for the tow truck making small talk. Both trying to learn more about the other while staying away from personal and family history.

By the time the tow truck was pulling up Kayleigh knew Juice liked the color blue, sci-fi movies, rock and roll music, and was a closet nerd, a lover of all things most MC members would consider geeky or weird. He was also an excellent hacker and a computer genius. He had shown his skills by hacking into Kayleigh 's phone and resetting all her ringtones to awful, annoying 90's songs.

Juice jumped off the tailgate as the tow truck pulled up and an older man, with an oxygen tank hanging from a small bag on his shoulder, stepped out of the cab.

"Hey, Piney," Juice greeted. "Kayleigh 's truck broke down and we came up on her, Clay told me to stay 'til you got here."

Kayleigh smiled at the easy way Juice said her name, and slid off the tailgate of her truck. After closing it she walked the few feet over to the two men.

"Kayleigh Hanners, thanks for coming all this way to tow my truck."

The older man gave her a grin. "Anytime for a pretty thing like you, young lady, Piney Winston at your service."

Juice looked at Piney like he had grown three heads while Kayleigh chuckled softly.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Winston."

Kayleigh grabbed her purse from the cab of the truck and then stood off to the side as Juice helped Piney hook her truck up to the tow. Piney got into the cab of the truck as Juice walked back over to his bike, where Kayleigh was standing. He thought it was kind of nice to see her standing next to his bike.

"Piney will give you a ride to Charming. He said he'd take you to the Charming Bed and Breakfast if you'd like, too. I think the old man's got the hots for you."

Kayleigh frowned, looking over Juice's shoulder at the white-grey haired man. "Flattering, but no thanks, not exactly my type. Headed to Nevada to meet up with your friends?"

"Yeah. Maybe I'll see you when we get back," Juice hinted with a cocky smirk.

The corner of Kayleigh 's mouth twitched, she looked down at her feet before raising her head to meet his gaze through their sunglasses. "You did say you worked at Teller-Morrow Auto Service." Kayleigh gave him a sly smile. "I think I'll see you around, I will have to pick up my truck one day."

Juice held out his arm toward the tow truck and followed behind Kayleigh, watching the way her hips swayed as she walked, and opened the cab door for her. She climbed in and gave him a sexy smile that made him want to kiss her. "See ya around, Juice."

She reached for the door and closed it, giving him another grin before Piney started the truck. As they pulled out onto the road, Juice walked over to his bike and headed to catch up to the guys. His mind, however, was on Kayleigh as he drove. He wanted to see her again. Juice hoped she'd stick around Charming for a while.