by Lane Hart
“You feel that?” he asks. “It’s perfect because you were made for me and only me.”
“Yes.” I dig my fingers into his shoulders to pull him closer, even though it’s impossible. “Don’t stop,” I say, meaning more than this moment.
“How could I stop the best thing I’ve ever had?” Maddox asks with a grin before he swoops down and covers my lips with his. Our tongues dance while our bodies join in the same rhythm that doesn’t falter until a wave of euphoria has my thighs tightening around Maddox’s body wedged between them, and my pussy clamps down on his hard length to try and milk him dry, desperate to soak up his seed.
But that doesn’t happen.
While my body is still shuddering, Maddox rears back and then takes himself in his hand, pumping his shaft until his thick release coats my stomach and between my breasts, marking me as his.
“Jesus,” he grumbles before he collapses on top of the mess he just made and places kisses on my jaw. “You are incredible.”
“We’re incredible,” I amend, then ask the question that’s been on my mind ever since I saw him last night. “When are you coming back?”
“I need to get going after we get a shower,” he says, pushing himself up to look at me better. “But I’ll try to come back tonight.”
“Good,” I reply with a smile, liking how he said we would get a shower, meaning together. “I can’t wait.”
“Me either,” he says.
Chapter Eighteen
Maddox
I’m not walking into the salvage yard—I’m practically floating.
And not just because Audrey and I fucked three times before I left her apartment, but because she’s fucking amazing and I can’t wait to see her again. Hopefully tonight, if all goes well with the snitch.
Even the phone call she got from War while I was inside of her the last time this morning couldn’t bring down my good mood. She told him she was doing cardio, which wasn’t exactly a lie.
I’m whistling a happy tune when I walk into the garage where Mike is still tied to the chair, looking like he’s about to die.
“What’s got you in such a jolly mood?” Miles asks, as he stands up from his metal chair and stretches his arms over his head, working out the kinks. “Guess that’s because you weren’t stuck here all night.”
“Nope,” I agree with a smile. I’m hoping my idea works, and no one will have to stay here tonight with the shithead. “I think Mike is finally going to tell us everything we want to know.”
“How’s that?” Miles asks. “We’ve threatened to cut or burn every appendage, and he won’t budge.”
“You haven’t been focusing on the right body part,” I tell him.
“Oh yeah?” he huffs. “What have we missed?”
“His heart,” I reply.
The idea hit me when I woke up this morning with Audrey in my arms and the notion of doing anything for her was cemented inside of me.
“Oh, Mike…” I pull out my phone as I stroll over to stand in front of the abused man. I locate one of the photos from where I followed him, staying out of sight while we were still vetting all the guys, and then show it to him.
“Is this your girl? She’s a pretty one,” I say, causing his hanging head to pop up, eyes bulging in fear. “And look, there’s her license plate number in the shot too. I bet Reece could get an address for her quicker than Miles can snap his fingers.”
“Snap,” Miles says, as he rubs his fingers together.
“Kim doesn’t know shit, I swear!” Mike exclaims, finding energy and enthusiasm he didn’t have just moments ago. “You can’t hurt her!”
Of course the Kings wouldn’t hurt her. But that doesn’t mean I can’t bluff that they will.
“Miles, call Reece and give him the plates,” I instruct like I’m in charge here, because it suddenly feels like I am.
“On it, brother,” Miles replies, as he pulls out his device and then puts it up to his ear.
Whether or not he’s really calling him, I’m not sure, until I hear the ringing and then Reece’s clipped, one-word answer. “What?”
“Mad Dog is back and working over our snitch,” Miles says into the phone. “And we have a license plate for you to run…”
“No! Please,” Mike begs as he fights against the binds and makes the chair legs come off the ground. “I’ll tell you everything, just don’t sic the Kings on her! Please! She’s pregnant, goddammit. Pregnant!”
“You better talk fast,” I tell him, then to Miles, “North Carolina plate, C as in Charlie…”
“The cops pulled me over the day I got my cut!” Mike starts jabbering. “I didn’t do shit, but I had some weed on me. They held me for hours!”
“And?” Miles prompts, still holding the phone to his ear.
“My girl Kim was with me. We just found out we’re going to have a baby. But Kim, she’s not here legally. They were going to deport her, her and my baby, right then and there. Lock me up and ship my girl off. Then this woman came in, said she was with the ATF and could give me a clean record, make this all go away if I gave them information.”
“What was her name and what did you tell her?” I ask.
“P-Peyton. Peyton Bradley. And all I told her were names of members, who hung around, and what they looked like. That’s it, okay! I didn’t give them shit! I didn’t give them shit, and you can’t hurt her, you fucking hear me!” Mike screeches.
“You would have, though,” Miles says. “Eventually.”
Now tears have sprung up in his eyes and are starting to overflow down his cheeks. “No, I swear! None of this was supposed to happen!”
“You hear that, brother?” Miles asks into the phone then gives me a side-eye. “Yeah, Mad Dog came through. Okay. Later,” he says, before closing the burner phone and slipping it back into his pocket. “Now, it’s time for the good stuff.”
“What’s the good stuff?” I ask in concern.
“Cut him loose,” Miles instructs on the way to the door. “Make sure he cuts ties with the ATF, and then is out of the state within an hour. Then, you need to get your ass to the clubhouse.”
“You don’t want me to kill him, do you?” I ask.
“Would you?” he questions.
“If Torin told me to,” I reply.
“Good answer, but no. Cut him loose. The little shit gave us what we need, and he gave us his reasons. Now, he better run for his life.”
“Okay,” I reply with an exhale. I didn’t want to have to kill a man, but I think I could if I had to.
…
An hour later, I’m walking into the Savage Asylum after Mike put me on speaker so I could hear him call it quits with the feds and tell them he’s moving to California with his girlfriend who he promised would be applying for her Visa. I think he meant it too because he blanched after he said it, like he didn’t want me to know where they were headed. Then, I followed them to the airport with the promise that they wouldn’t leave the terminal, unless it was on a plane across the country.
“The Kings are looking for you,” Cedric says with a cringe when I walk past the bar.
“Which one?” I ask, concerned, since I was doing what Miles told me to do.
“All of them,” Cedric whispers. “They’re downstairs in the chapel. You better hurry because they looked pissed!”
“Shit,” I mutter before I punch in the code and then hightail it through the basement to the open chapel door, tossing my phone into the box on the floor outside as I go.
“Sorry,” I tell the guys, when I walk in the room and they’re all seated in their chairs. “Mike called the agent and ended things. Now he’s at the airport, catching a plane as we speak.”
“Shut the door,” Torin barks, completely ignoring my news, his face grimmer than I’ve seen it in months. Fuck, whatever is going on, it’s not good. Are they pissed I threatened to hurt Mike’s girl? Because I wouldn’t.
“You got the name of the ATF agent?” War spins around in his chair to
ask.
Swallowing past the knot in my throat, having to look him in the eye after sleeping with his sister again, I say, “Yes, Peyton Bradley. I heard her say so when she answered the phone.”
Instead of responding, War nods silently, then gets to his feet and stands behind the chair. Tipping his chin up at the seat, he says, “Sit.”
“Sit?” I ask as I glance around the table at the faces of the other members, who look equally pissed and closed off.
“Don’t make me repeat myself,” War threatens, so I walk over and lower myself into his chair, bracing my forearms on the table for whatever comes next.
“Take your cut off,” Torin instructs from his seat at the head of the table. Before I can panic that I’m being kicked out, he lifts up another black leather cut from his lap and lays it flat on the table. “Replace it with this one.”
“Holy shit,” I mutter when I see the words “Savage Kings” on the patches above the bearded skull king with “North Carolina” underneath. “That’s mine?”
“That’s yours, brother,” Torin says before his face finally breaks into a grin.
War’s hands come down hard on my shoulders when he says, “Welcome to the table, brother,” and then peels the prospect cut off my shoulders. “You’ve earned your spot through loyalty and devotion. Now you’re a Savage King until you die or can no longer ride.”
“Wow, thank you,” I say, as I pick up the new cut and hold it in front of me, speechless because it’s finally happening. Vaguely, I accept more congratulations, backslapping hugs, and fist bumps from the rest of the Kings.
My brothers.
War leaves and then comes back with another chair he pulls up to the table in the space to my left. Glancing over at me, he says, “Get comfortable because it’s time for your first meeting.”
“About the shit with the feds?” I ask.
“Yep,” he replies.
“Now that we’ve got the name of the ATF agent investigating us, what are we gonna do?” I ask the table.
“We can’t kill her or hurt her,” Miles says. “If she goes missing, that’ll just draw more attention to the club.”
“And hurting women is not what we do,” War mutters while glaring at Miles.
“War’s right,” Torin agrees. “So, how the hell are we going to handle this? Are we just gonna sit back and wait for Agent Bradley and the feds to bust in here to arrest us all, for who the hell knows what?”
“We need to find what she has on us,” Chase speaks up and says. “If there’s any evidence, we’ll at least be able to hire attorneys to get in front of it.”
“Reece, any chance you can work your magic on the computer to find out the details?” Torin asks.
He shakes his head. “Nope. Already tried. I can’t get past any big government firewalls unless I’m on one of their internal devices. But what I have found out is that this ATF bitch has been pulling public arrest records off the databases, specifically Chase, Abe, Miles, and Ian’s. There was also a hit on Sax’s marina records and boat license files.”
“Dammit,” Sax grumbles. “If they bust me for the shit I do for the MC out in the Atlantic, I could get slapped with a life sentence.”
“No doubt. Keep your boat in the docks except for recreational purposes until we know more,” Torin orders.
“What about a laptop?” Dalton asks. “Could you hack into their system with a government-issued one?”
“Possibly,” Reece agrees.
“If Agent Bradley has one that she brings home, I can lift it,” Dalton confidently assures the guys at the table.
“You?” Chase asks with a humph of disbelief.
“Yeah, me,” Dalton replies. “If she’s looking into the Kings, she’s seen the mugshots of half our guys and probably has all the military records too. Maddox was the main contact for her CI we busted, so he’s out. Sax needs to lay low, which means that I’m the only one without a criminal history or dog tags.”
“How is it possible that your dumbass has never been arrested?” Abe asks him.
“Do I look like a fucking outlaw?” Dalton responds with his arms spread out by his sides.
“Fuck no, blondie,” Abe mutters. “Without any visible tats, you look like a California pretty boy who wears leather like it’s a fashion statement.”
“Exactly!” Dalton says, not looking the least bit insulted. Gesturing to his face, he says, “This is my ‘get out of jail free’ card. I can use my ridiculously good looks to grab this chick’s laptop, no problem.”
Torin snorts before turning to Reece and asking, “Do you think Zoolander here can really pull this off?”
“If I were a male model, I would be more like Hansel or Meekus,” Dalton points out with a grin.
Reece rolls his eyes but eventually says, “Maybe, if he doesn’t get caught.”
“I won’t get caught,” Dalton assures the guys.
“All right,” Torin says. “Then Reece, if you can get an address on this agent, I want you to go with Dalton to Raleigh tonight to start doing some surveillance. See if his sticky fingers plan is feasible without getting the club in any deeper shit.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Reece agrees, then grumbles under his breath, “Lord help me.”
“I refuse to lose this MC because some woman with a power trip and a badge put a target on us. All in favor of the club committing a federal theft to try and save the Savage Kings?” Torin asks.
“Yea!” the table agrees, myself included, voicing my very first vote as a member.
After Torin slams down the gavel, ending my first official meeting, War says, “There’s one more piece of business to take care of. Come on.”
All the brothers get up from the table to follow him, so I do the same.
Our herd of men in black leather go up through the bar. For the first time, I actually feel like I’m a part of the group, not just the fringe on the outside. It’s an amazing fucking feeling.
We all file out of the bar’s back door…where a big, beautiful, new black Harley sits, the glossy paint and chrome pipes twinkling in the sunlight.
Some of the guys whistle as they walk around the Street Glide and inspect her.
“A King wouldn’t be caught dead on that piece of shit bike you pulled into town on,” War says, when he comes over to where I’m still standing in the background. Holding out his fist, he says, “Now you’re gonna ride in style.”
“Me?” I ask in disbelief. “This is mine?”
“Yep.”
What the fuck?
“War, man, you bought me a new Harley?”
With a smile and a nod, I swear the big guy’s golden eyes even get a little glassy when he says, “Not only have you been loyal to the Kings, but you’ve been loyal to me, helping me and my family out when we were in a tight spot during the storm. This is the least I could do. You’ve earned it, brother.”
Earned it? He thinks I deserve for him to buy me an expensive fucking bike, after how I’ve stabbed him in the back?
Fuck me.
“I-I can’t take this, War,” I tell him, slipping my hands into my jeans pockets to keep from snatching the keys from him against my will.
“You can, and you will,” War declares. “Take the damn thing.”
“No.”
“Man, what’s wrong with you?” Sax asks, throwing an arm around my shoulders. Gesturing with a wave of his hand to the bike as if I haven’t seen it, he says, “The man is offering you a sweet ride. Why would you turn that down?”
“Because I’ve been sleeping with his sister.”
At first, I’m not sure if I just thought the truthful words or spoke them. But then the silence and gaping jaws of the men surrounding us make it clear the words really did fall out of my mouth.
“Whoa, kid. Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Torin asks when he jumps between me and War, who still hasn’t moved an inch. I don’t think he’s even blinked.
“What the fuck did you just say?” War eventuall
y asks through gritted teeth.
“Shit,” I mutter before raking my fingers through my hair. “Look, you think I’m loyal, but I’ve been lying to you for weeks. And I can’t do it anymore, not when you’re offering me this beautiful bike. It wouldn’t be right for me to take it without you finally knowing the truth.” Taking a breath, I finally spit it all out, glad to get it off my chest. “Audrey and I didn’t go to Raleigh during the storm. We stayed at her place and we, well, we slept together. A lot. And then the other day, and last night…”
“You slept with my sister!” War roars before his arms start flailing at Torin, trying to get to me, uncaring that hitting his president could get him excommunicated from the MC. He doesn’t reach me, thanks to no less than four brothers jumping in to help Torin hold him back. Barely. “I’m gonna kill you!” he threatens.
“Mad Dog, get the hell out of here before he makes good on his threat,” Chase suggests, as he uses both of his hands to try and hold down War’s right fist.
“I want his cut! He’s done!” War shouts. “Get him out of here before I pound him into the pavement!”
Slipping off my cut that I haven’t worn long enough for it to even soak up any of my body heat, I fold it and go lay it on the seat of the beautiful new Harley.
“What the fuck are you doing, kid?” Reece asks as he comes up and grabs the cut, then shoves it against my chest. “You put this back on and give him some time to cool down…”
“No!” War shouts. “I want him gone!”
“You don’t get to make that decision just because you’re pissed off, brother,” Reece calls out to War, who’s still being held back by half the members. “We’ve already voted him in.”
“I don’t give a shit!” War yells back, his face red with rage. “Get him out of here!”
“War, man, I get that you’re angry, but you don’t know what you’re saying,” Reece says. “And if you knew who he was—”
“Reece, don’t!” I say, shoving the cut back at his chest to stop him before he outs me like this. I don’t want to deal with the fallout of another lie I’ve been keeping, not right here and now. “It’s fine. I’ll go.” I let the cut go, to hold up both of my palms up in surrender when I turn back to War. “But I love Audrey, maybe even more than this club,” I tell him. “So, I don’t give a shit what you say. You can kick me out of the MC, my apartment in the basement, and whatever else, but you can’t make me stop seeing her.”