by Kiki Leach
"It's part of what I am, just like you've always been to me."
A smile arched my lips as my eyes lit up like a tree on Christmas morning. He bobbed his head. "Is that your way of telling me how you feel?"
"I don't know... shit, it might be." He snickered. "You know I'm not good at saying this kinda shit out loud--"
"Try."
His hand tightened around my neck, forcing my head to lightly dip back. I groaned as he bent his face toward mine and grinned. "This shit between us, whatever the fuck it is, has always been something. I can give you that much."
"I want more than what you can give to me with just your words."
I lowered my head and draped my arms around his neck, pulling him even closer to me. His deep voice weakened as he pulled back and rounded the bar. I spun around to face him as he stood directly in front of me, then pressed my back against the bar as he moved in and shoved himself against my stomach.
While staring up into his face, I could see the man I had always known and more of him, the one who made my chest tight and my stomach full of butterflies with just a single look in his eye or touch of his hand against my skin; the one who made me question going away in the first place; the one who made me contemplate coming back long before I ever thought I would.
"Cheyenne." He said my name though a grunt this time while lowering his hands to my backside and lifting me from the floor. I squealed while clutching onto his thick shoulders, then let out a deep, restless sigh as soon as he lowered me on top of that glossy wooden bar. He rested his hands on top of my knees and pushed them apart, then moved between them and slid his tongue between my lips, fluttering the tip against my own. My skin became hot as a flood of heat reached my sex. "Your old man is gonna lose it on me, Chey."
"No, he won't. And even if he did...?" I pulled back to brush my thumb across the softest part of his mouth and grinned while staring straight into his eyes; something behind them read how much he wanted me; something deeper of how much he cared.
"Prez just might kick my ass for it." He reached around for the back of my throat again and lowered my face to his. "But the shit might be worth it; only with you."
I leaned into him with that same grin plastered across my face but was forced to pull back again when the door reopened and another member of the club finally moved inside.
He cleared his throat and sneered. "Baby girl." The rough-n-tumble sound of Nix's normally husky voice, the Renegades' longtime Sergeant-At-Arms, forced Taz to look over his shoulder. I turned my attention to him as soon as he fixed his belt around his waist and stepped forward. "You know Prez was just behind my ass out there, younggin'. He had to stop and take a call about some shit, but..." He looked to Taz and arched his left, grey filled brow. "You might wanna back away from his surrogate up there" -- he lifted a hand to me and pointed -- "before he comes all up in here and starts tossing your ass around this place like a goddamn ragdoll."
"I'm the same surrogate he's forcing to hand over money that doesn't exist and probably never will, right?" I said. "And all in the name of my actual father."
"Baby girl." Nix looked to me and grimaced. "It's the ways of the club. Always has been, always fuckin' will be and you know that shit."
"I know that being born and bred 'biker brat' still makes me no exception to club bullshit. Exhibit A through Z of why I'm back in the city."
Taz stared between us for a few seconds, then backed away from me and crossed the room. "We were talking about some shit, brother," he replied. "Spit balling -- Nothing more than that."
"About?" Taz went silent as Nix peeked over at him and smirked. "You think I don't know the kinda stance you were making over there just now, younggin'?" Taz opened his hands before folding his arms over his chest and dropping back against the wall. "I invented that shit long before your mama ever thought to spit your ass outta her conch." He threw a hand over his chest and nodded. "Me."
"Yet I'm still VP."
"Yeahhhh, and it was still a goddamn mistake on his end -- regardless of what the fuck she begged him for." Nix made his way over to me while showing his hand. "Hop down before Prez rolls up in here to see you like that and starts asking questions I know damn well you ain't gonna wanna answer." I stared into his dark grey eyes and sighed, then dropped my hand inside of his, giving him all my weight as I grazed the tiny callouses of his unnaturally warm palm. "There ya go."
After helping me back to the floor, I stepped aside to adjust my shirt and jeans and glowered. "Where have you been?"
"Out," he said. "What are you doing here so goddamn early in the day as it is?"
"This is the only time I know to come when there won't be a trail of unnecessary eyes, ears and open vaginas all around the place. At least I was hoping for the latter until Taz told me about Marleena still waiting in the back for Rattlesnake."
"Ahh, shit." He bellowed and threw a hand over his stomach as it jumped. "Ol' Snow White Pussy still back there keeping hope alive?"
Taz looked to him and made a face. "She was never going anywhere 'til she saw him again," he said.
"She can see him again in a bit, but he ain't gonna wanna keep her ass around out here." He shuffled around the bar and shook his head. "Bitch has always been too goddamn old for his taste, but that's what happens when your ass gets so piss drunk in front of familiar looking pussy that you can't even find your own dick without the help of a warm hand showing it to you first."
"That's a very nice image you've just presented in my mind -- thank you very much," I muttered.
"My bad, baby girl, didn't mean to go all out with you still being here." He turned from me and dragged his thick, round fingers along the edge of his closely shaven beard, then chuckled to himself and peeked at Taz from the corner of his eye. "Why don't you head your ass on back there and see about her again? Make sure she's not tryna snatch up anything that ain't been nailed down inside that room. You remember the five months she spent locked up for being a klepto."
"I checked in on her for the second time just before Chey showed up."
"Then you know just what the fuck to look for when you go back in there and see about her ass for the third one," he snapped in a low, gravelly voice. "VP."
They eyed one another for the entire length of a minute until Taz glanced over at me and nodded. "Guess she could stand to have me look in on her one more time."
"Sure the fuck could -- head on." Nix pointed behind himself and watched as Taz pushed away from the wall, strolled around the bar and disappeared around another corner. "Jesus Fuckin' Christ with this one over here." He turned back to me and glared. "Shoulda never been made into the goddamn VP of this club."
"You still think you deserved it more than he did? Even after all these years?"
He bent forward, allowing his stomach to land against the edge of the bar and nodded. "That kid don't know shit about this club like he should."
"I think he knows enough. He's been around it since before he was born, just like me."
"You don't need to be our muthafuckin' VP either, Cheyenne."
"Funny. But he's watched you and Snake and Eyes since then, along with the others."
"That don't mean shit, baby girl; not anymore." He rattled his head and sighed. "What the fuck were you doing with his ass out here in the open like this as it was?"
"I--"
"You wanting his dick chopped off while you're being forced to watch it happen?"
"I don't want anything to happen to either one of us -- or between us," I told him. "And it won't because we were just talking out here, like he said."
"Baby girl, you're a muthafuckin' lie if there ever was one on this planet."
"How so?"
"'Cause I've got eyes that work," he said, "and I saw with both of 'em that you were about two goddamn seconds away from letting him feel you up with his tongue being shoved down the back of your goddamn throat next."
I frowned and shifted my attention from his face. "I didn't come out here with the intent
ion of just seeing him--"
"Had Prez walked in here on this shit--!" He whistled while straightening his back and wrapped his hands around the lapels of his cut. He stared into my face and chortled. "It wasn't just the physical kinda shit either." Gradually, I brought my eyes back to his and arched a brow. He soured. "I'm just tryna look out for you in the best way I know how. 'Cause you've always been my favorite of the brats that often ran around here from birth." He stopped and lowered his hands. "This ain't something you need to find yourself getting all caught up in, especially now."
"I'm not actually caught up in anything, but..." My shoulders shrank as I deeply exhaled. "Anything to do with Taz is the least of my problems right now."
"'Cause of your old man."
"Because of Rattlesnake." I paused to shake my head. "Because I'm not his child."
"You're one he likes to try and claim out in the open, Chey."
"And we both know the reason behind that, but when he's forcing me to pay back a debt that I never owed him or this club in the first place? I get pissy and start talking much more than I should -- he doesn't want that." His eyes lowered as I crossed my arms and glowered. "There's no way in hell I'll be able to come up with that much money in time, Nix -- if ever. No way in hell."
"You think Prez should've just taken your old man out instead?"
"You were in favor of it happening, yes?"
"That shit was no reflection on you."
"It doesn't matter. And taking him out wouldn't have snatched away the obligation of that money being paid back."
"You see him out there today?"
"I did. Along with a few other things I wish I hadn't."
"Like what?"
"Yo." I turned as Rattlesnake, looking much bigger in person than I remembered, dipped his head around the door and pointed a tattoo riddled finger in my direction. "I just got word from a motherfucker that you saw your old man out there at Rikers today?" His voice was low and scratchy as he spoke. I bobbed my head in response and inhaled a shaky breath. "You see the shit that went down in the yard while sitting inside that family room too?"
"Yes."
"You know why the fuck it all went down?"
"What?" Nix frowned while staring between us. "What the fuck went down on the yard out there, brother?"
Rattlesnake's piercing green eyes remained on my face, that intensely vivid, opaque color being the reason for his name, while his light brown skin flushed bright red. "Do you know why the fuck that shit went down out there, Cheyenne?"
"I don't know." I pinched my mouth and chewed the inside of my cheek. "At least not exactly."
"What the fuck does that shit mean?" asked Nix. When I didn't respond, he grumbled. "Cheyenne."
I glanced at him over my shoulder, scowling as he peered. "It means that the information I was given about why it might have happened was second-hand."
"From your old man?" I turned back to Rattlesnake without answering. He grimaced. "Chey, what the fuck did Rox tell you about the shit that went down with Nikko and that other one he was with? That Dog motherfucker?" He paused. "Did he say it was in response to some retaliation against him 'cause of his old man's beef with somebody else?"
"Wait." Nix showed his hand, then made his way back around to the front of the bar and traipsed to the center of the room, stopping between us and staring. "What the fuck retaliation are we talking about here, Prez? Some kinda shit against Chino?"
Rattlesnake glanced at him and lifted his chin. "Some old business partner bullshit gone wrong."
"Which motherfucker are we talking about here?"
"Old asshole with the slashed right eye, Elias."
"Jesus. What the fuck went down out there?"
Rattlesnake stepped further inside the club while easing what looked to be a burner phone into his back pocket. "Chino hit me up on the prepay to tell me about his kid going rogue after barely two weeks of being inside; Rox was put in charge of watching him to make sure he remained straight long enough to get right back out 'cause he couldn't trust anybody else to do the shit for him."
"That's rich as fuck considering why his ass is in there to begin with." Nix looked to me before dragging his eyes back to Rattlesnake. "Chino planning on fucking up her old man for this shit?"
He leaned aside as his 'jolly green giant' like frame took up nearly half that side of the room, and sighed. "He knows about the debt Rox owes to the club, knows the amount, all that shit, 'cause the motherfucker spilled in the hope that Chino would hand over the dough to pay us off as a 'thank you' for keeping Nikko in check."
"Well shit," muttered Nix. "What the fuck did Chino say about all that?"
"He was planning to give him the cash 'til all this went down. Now he says he won't touch him on his own unless we okay it--"
"You can't do that," I said. Rattlesnake turned to me and made a face. "He's a permanent fuck up that has managed to screw up my life more times than I'd like to count; he's not an ideal man or father, but he's still the only thing I have left."
"You've got the rest of us," said Nix. "Your old man did this shit to himself -- forced his own ass outta here by fucking with the club in a way he knew couldn't be forgiven with just a cooling off period. But the Renegades have always been your family, baby girl. That shit'll never change."
"Family..." I stopped to glare at Rattlesnake and shoved my brows together. "What family doesn't do is what he's doing to me right now because of my father."
"Rox owes us for what the fuck he stole, Cheyenne," replied Snake. "That shit can't just go to the left as it sets a bad precedent for the club as a whole with new members coming in if we let him off the goddamn hook for it."
"What about letting me off the hook for it?! I didn't steal from your club -- I didn't attempt to use any pile of money to get my jollies off in the middle of the Red-Light District at 2am with a hooker that has now gone MIA."
"That shit is the way it is for a goddamn reason--"
"And those 'reasons' should be amended for the children of your permanent fuck ups. Yes, he owes you your money -- I've never been against you getting back what you deserve, but I can't be the one to get it to you -- I can't. Just like I told Nix and Taz before him, there's no way in hell I'll be able to pay back what you want -- when you want me to, if ever."
"And in the meantime, we should do what?" He dipped his head from left to right, allowing the loose strands of his recently straightened hair to brush across the center of his thickly muscled shoulders, and shrugged. "Keep your old man on ice?"
"Why are you steadily acting as if my father is someone you just dragged in off the street two days ago and honored with a cut out of the goodness of your heart when you've known him longer than I've even been alive to know him for myself, Jaxon?" His entire body jerked at hearing his real name; it was something most often forbidden to be spoken within the walls of the club by anyone else, but I had reached my limit of civility and respect the minute I was back in the city. "You owe me more than what I've been given," I continued, "and you know this isn't right despite the rules your own father put into place when he established the club. So much has changed since then and I wish that you'd finally learn exactly how the hell to change right along with it."
"No rats, no goddamn thieves," he said, bending forward. "That shit won't change. It's at the top of the fuckin' pamphlet and you should be lucky as hell that my VP is the reason your old man didn't eat it the minute we found out he was the reason behind that money being gone in the first goddamn place. And be even luckier that we had connections to get him thrown into Rikers instead of on another island that would've had him dead before you decided to finally bring your ass back here to save his."
"Again?!"
"Yeah, again." He bypassed me with a snarl and crossed the room. "I didn't ask for any of this shit."
"And you think I did?! You think I ask for any of this any time it happens?!" When I whirled around to him, I noticed Taz now standing in the archway of the door leading to t
he hallway behind him. With his arms folded, biceps flexing and eyes switching between me and Rattlesnake, I feared the words that would be coming out of his mouth next as I was certain they wouldn't be in his favor.
Rattlesnake stared into his face and arched his brows. "Where the fuck has your ass been, VP?!"
Taz pointed toward the hallway and grumbled. "Marleena's still back there looking for another 'pick me up'," he said. "I settled her in the best way I could, but you should still try seeing about her."
"Shit." He swiped a hand across his face and grunted. "I'm not finished out here yet. Tell her the shit can wait if she's still willing to stick around for it."
"You're being for real out here, Prez?" Nix glanced over at him with wide eyes and a smirk. "Snow White Pussy like Marleena's has never been your kinda thing, brother, even when we were young bucks first patching in. Now suddenly, after all the rejections you've put her pale ass through, she's got your dick spinning the fuck outta control?"
"My dick isn't the only thing I'm looking to have worked on by this chick; not this go-round."
"Then what?" Nix dipped his chin. "Why the fuck are you bothering to keep her ass around out here?"
"'Cause I got some shit that needs to be dealt with that doesn't include being sucked off. Not everybody is looking to have their balls dried out before the goddamn afternoon."
"That shit can be solid as fuck sometimes though."
Rattlesnake shut his eyes for a few seconds and exhaled before looking back to me and pointing toward the door. "I need to talk to your ass out here right now."
"Why?" I said, the sound of my voice rising to a light panic as I spoke. "What for?"
"Now, Cheyenne -- goddamn."
I slightly jumped back at the hard tone of his voice, then planted my feet against the floor and sneered, hoping that his success at frightening me had gone unnoticed. "Where are we going?" He pointed to the door again and headed straight to his bike without another word. "Wha--?" I turned to Nix and Taz for reassurance and opened my hands. "What the hell is this about?"
"No goddamn clue." Taz moved across the room in a calm, casual manner and plopped down on the edge of a black leather couch that had been shoved in a corner near the jukebox. He pressed his hands together and stared up at Nix, who wagged his head and cleared his throat.