Grey nodded. “You know the rules, Beast. Jamie might’ve been your ol’ lady, but she’s club property now.”
Beast shook his head in anger before walking inside and slamming the door shut behind him. My dad let out a roar of laughter. “Hell, I’m going to be the first in line to sample some of that ass.”
Grey took a swig from his beer can, not saying a word. I was flooded with disappointment. He knew my dad was married, but he didn’t care. None of them did. They just did whatever the crap they wanted to do. It wasn’t right. I’d always imagined Grey as one of the guys on TV—one of the good ones.
He wasn’t. Not at all.
Grey was the type of guy that Brisco and Scandal hunted down. If I wanted to be like those guys, then guys like my dad and Grey were my enemies.
I tried to stand up again, but fell back against the dead grass and desert rock, landing on my butt with a painful thud. I’d spent my entire life looking up to Grey—wasted countless hours wishing he were my father. It had all been for nothing.
I heard voices coming through the open window upstairs.
“Where the fuck did he go?”
“Look, there he is! Stay right there, kid. We’re coming down!”
I dropped my head back against the side of the motel. Great. My dad was going to love this.
The footsteps grew louder as they rounded the side of the building. Grey knelt down next to me and I jerked back in surprise. I’d expected the same guys who’d been upstairs.
“What’s the damage, Mikey? Anything broken?” He felt along my arms and legs, stopping at my ankle when I cried out in pain.
“I’m fine.” I forced my voice to remain calm, but Grey shook his head.
“You aren’t fine. Your ass should’ve been home in bed—not out here getting indoctrinated into club life. You’re eleven, for Christ’s sake!” He raised his voice and I squeezed my eyes shut in preparation for what was to come.
“I’m sorry, sir.”
Grey grabbed my chin, forcing my face toward his. I risked a quick glance to judge where he was going to hit me, but he looked more sad than angry.
“You think I’m mad at you, Mikey? You’re just a kid—this isn’t any place for a kid to be hanging around. You hit eighteen—that’s a different story. I don’t want you making any decisions on club life until you’re done with school. You hear me?”
I nodded before asking the question that was dominating my mind. “You’re the bad guys, aren’t you?”
Grey looked away from me before responding, “Nothing’s ever black or white like that. I think you’ll understand what I mean when you’re older. There’s more to life than just right or wrong.”
I laughed softly. “That totally sounds like something a bad guy would say. For me, there’s right or wrong. You’re either with the good guys or you’re against them. When I grow up, I’m gonna be one of the good guys.”
He lightly squeezed the back of my neck. “I hope you are, kiddo. I hope to hell that you can do it. C’mon, let’s go find your dad and get you home.”
Grey wrapped a muscular arm around my back and lifted me up to my feet, allowing me to use him as a crutch as we made our way back toward the front of the motel.
“You learn anything tonight?” He paused to ask me as we reached the dirt parking lot.
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, don’t go diving out of second-story windows. It’s a long way down.”
He let out a low chuckle. “Well, I’ll be damned, Mikey. You just might be smarter than your old man—it usually takes him three or four times to learn his lesson.”
I smiled, but I really didn’t agree. My dad never seemed to make mistakes, or at least he never admitted to them. He also didn’t have any patience for anyone around him screwing up either.
Wolverine was back on guard duty near the front doors when we walked up.
“Where’s Comedian?” Grey asked.
Wolverine shrugged. “Off fucking Beast’s ol’ lady the last I heard. You need me to take the kid home?”
I clenched my jaw in anger at the thought of my father off with another woman. I wasn’t sure whether to direct all of my frustration at him or my mom—after all, she was constantly messing up things at home, which just made him angrier.
Grey’s lip curled downward slightly. “I’ll take him—just keep an eye on things while I’m gone. And watch the language when the kids are around.”
We passed Grey’s motorcycle on our way to his truck and I had to hide my disappointment. I’d really wanted to ride on the back of his bike—needed to feel the wind blowing in my face while we went flying down the highway. If nothing else, I’d have had a sweet story to tell my buddies at school.
I’d just opened my mouth to ask when a loud scream echoed off the canyon walls. Grey immediately stood up a little straighter and began scanning the dense mesquite trees for the source of the sound. I’d heard of this—a mountain lion could sound like a woman in trouble when it screamed. I’d never seen one up close though—the guys at school would never believe this.
I spotted several large cottonwood trees about a hundred yards away and, forgetting the pain in my ankle, took off for them. The adrenaline coursing through my veins had me feeling invincible—I was going to see a big cat up close. Grey and most of the bikers followed closely behind. “Mikey, get your ass in the truck and stay there!” He made a move to grab me, but I darted away from his grip and scrambled up one of the trees—quick as lightning.
I’d gotten really good at climbing over the last few months. It was nice to get away from the chaos inside my house. I’d climb until I could see the entire neighborhood and I’d imagine what it might be like to grow up in one of those houses.
I could hear one of the bikers struggling to get up the trunk of the tree after me, so I climbed faster. It split off into three smaller branches and I made the last-second decision to stick with the middle one. The scream sounded again and I briefly lost my grip on the branch, sliding down a few feet before correcting it. As long as I remained still, the mountain lion would never know I was here.
I made it to the top and straddled the branch like a chair as I scanned the horizon. The adrenaline slowly faded away and my ankle gave me a painful reminder that I should’ve stayed on the ground. I was definitely going to need help getting out of this tree.
I’d just decided that it was too dark to see anything when I saw a small ball of light moving erratically in the distance. My first thought was that it was aliens invading—the product of watching Fire in the Sky at Riley’s house a few weeks ago, no doubt. I shuddered involuntarily before reassuring myself that there were no aliens down here in the canyon. It was just a cat.
A gunshot rang out, confirming that whoever held that light was indeed human. My brain tried to catch up with what was happening. Surely the person with the light knew that there was a mountain lion on the prowl down there.
Right?
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” the voice taunted and another shudder worked its way through my body. It was my father’s voice.
I strained my eyes, desperate to see the animal, when the scream sounded again. I jumped involuntarily and he let out a chuckle that was magnified by the canyon walls and took off in the same direction as the mountain lion.
“Mikey, get down!” Grey hissed up through the branches.
I lowered my head, searching for him. “Grey—it’s my dad. The gun—you gotta warn him!” My words came out in a breathless jumble. If that mountain lion got a hold of him, there’d be no way of stopping it. A bubble of guilt worked its way up in my chest at the relief I felt, thinking my father might die. It was wrong.
The scream sounded again and I knew then that, while mountain lions could sound like a woman screaming, they were not known for yelling the word ‘help.’ Several of the bikers tore across the desert ground after my father.
“Call it off, Comedian,” Grey’s voice carried throughout the entire canyon, raising the hairs on
my arms.
My father chuckled again, but this time I couldn’t find him. The light was gone and the mesquite trees resembled shadow monsters. I hunkered down on the branch with my heart pounding painfully in my chest. My father was going to put the gun away and listen to Grey. Maybe he thought it was a big cat, but he had to know by now that it was another person.
The scream sounded again as the woman broke through the mesquite trees. There was just enough moonlight to see that she was naked and crying. She bolted from her hiding spot and ran toward Grey and the other bikers.
“Help! Please help!” She sobbed.
The light reappeared from behind her just as there was a loud pop. Her mouth fell open in surprise and a burst of red sprayed from her chest before she fell down into the dirt. I covered my eyes, but I couldn’t get her face out of my mind.
My father whistled to himself as he moved closer to the bikers, his light bouncing erratically again. The reason became obvious as soon as he reached the clearing. The light was attached to a body that he was dragging behind him.
He dropped the body near Grey’s feet and stood toe to toe with him. “You’re welcome,” he snarled.
One of the other bikers picked up the small lantern and held it near the body—it was Beast. Well, what used to be Beast.
My father turned and went back to where the woman lay, taking his time dragging her body over to Beast’s. The light illuminated her face; it was Beast’s ol’ lady, Jamie. The look of fear and horror was frozen permanently on her face and I knew that I would see that in my nightmares for years to come.
Grey cleared his throat, sounding almost nonchalant. “You wanna explain this to me, Comedian? Cause I gotta be honest with ya, I’m not seeing the humor here.”
My father shrugged. “I took care of a problem. According to Jamie, Beast was cozying up the cops, giving them all sorts of shit to use against us. She said it was only a matter of time before the cops raided the place and rescued her. She was so damn certain that she and Beast were gonna be reunited—all but planning to live out the American Dream, while our asses rotted in prison.
“Then she slipped up and said Beast was gonna be waiting for her. So, off we went, ready to find her knight in shiny black leather—well, after I tried her out. Told her the club was kicking her to the curb and the bitch led me right to him. So again, you’re welcome.”
Wolverine knelt down and pulled a wallet from Beast’s pocket, rifling through it until he found what he was looking for. “Bingo—looks like Comedian’s on top of it. One business card belonging to a fuckin’ fed. Anybody else need more proof?”
I shook my head from my perch high above them. They seemed to have forgotten about me for the moment and I was grateful to be invisible once again.
I didn’t know what to think—I’d only understood a little of what they were talking about. If what the bikers did was against the law, then it made sense that they wouldn’t want the cops to know about it.
Grey stared down at the bodies in disgust. “Get rid of them and any evidence that they were ever here.” He turned and walked back to the motel without another word, while my father stood with his chest puffed out in pride.
“You heard the Pres—you boys are in charge of clean up and I made one hell of a mess!” He kicked the woman’s body with the toe of his boot, forcing more blood out of the gaping hole in her chest.
It hit me then. I’d just watched my father murder two people in cold blood. He didn’t even seem bothered by it…like he’d done it before—I leaned over the side of the branch and threw up onto the ground below me.
“Mikey?” Grey’s voice was quiet; I think he was well aware of what my father would do to me if he found me up in a tree.
I moaned in response, feeling completely delirious. The tree vibrated as Grey’s boots connected with the trunk. He let out little bursts of air as he worked his way up to me.
I turned my head away from him as he settled on the branch next to mine.
“Look at me, Mikey,” he commanded. I reluctantly moved my head back until I was facing him. “What you saw—”
I grimaced as her face popped into my mind, afraid I was going to hurl again. “Yes, sir. It’s part of being a man, right? If I want to be a man, I have to be okay with stuff like that.”
It was Grey’s turn to make a sour face. “You think that’s part of being a man? Hunting people down like animals? Jesus Christ, kid. That’s not even close.”
“But he did it to protect your club—or whatever this is. Doesn’t that make you proud?” I wanted him to say no; to deny that he was like Michael Sullivan, Sr. I needed to know that there was still some good in the man I considered my hero.
Grey shifted his foot against another branch, pushing himself closer to me. “I ain’t gonna sit here and lie to you—not after what you’ve seen tonight. I’ve taken lives to keep the club intact as has most every man that rides with me. What we do here has to come before everything else—but what we do here provides for everything else. You get me?”
I shook my head, so he continued. “This club is my job; just like your old man runs the auto shop over on Broadway, I run this. It’s on my shoulders to provide for all those guys. If I let my guard down, it could be over in a second. Guys hauled off to prison and families ripped apart. Your mama doesn’t have to work because of what we do,” He grabbed onto his leather vest, “This kutte? These patches? They were earned and they come with a hell of a lot of responsibility.”
His voice trailed off and we sat in silence for a few minutes as I considered his words. He hadn’t outright admitted that he was a bad guy, but he hadn’t exactly denied it either.
My father had often told me I could patch into the club when I got older, but I didn’t think I’d ever be capable of killing another person. I sort of thought I’d round up the bad guys and haul them off to the county jail.
“I don’t want this life.” I didn’t realize I’d spoken the words aloud until Grey’s eyes met mine.
He nodded. “I don’t want this life for you either, kid. I know your old man wants you to prospect when you get a little older, but I think you should go after what you want.”
I thought about it and realized that no matter what Grey said, my father would never let me go off on my own. He’d expect me to be a mechanic or a biker just like him.
Grey eventually helped me and we climbed back down the tree before heading for his truck. I risked one last look toward the clearing where the bikers were moving the bodies.
I could still hear her screaming inside my head.
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PREVIEW OF OPERATION FIT-ISH
About Operation Fit-ish
What’s a comic book nerd to do when she’s dumped by her not-quite-a-superhero fiancé just weeks before the wedding? Tempting as it is to drown her sorrows in ice-cream, Dakota decides that maybe she’ll keep that appointment with the personal trainer who was going to help her squeeze into her dress after all.
She soon realizes that while she’s not quite ready to ditch her Avengers T-shirt for a Spandex crop top just yet, being at the gym does have some perks. Like semi-stalking Zane, the cute blond guy who looks a lot like Thor…
But while Zane may not be a Norse god, he does have a secret. One that brings him closer to Dakota, and brings Dakota closer to danger.
Is Zane the superhero she’s been waiting for her whole life? Will he swoop in and save the day? Or is he the villain whose superpower is the ability to break her heart?
Operation Fit-ish is a full-length STANDALONE with no cliffhanger. To purchase, simply tap the title.
* * *
I lay on my couch with an ice pack to my forehead. I’m coming down with the flu, I just know it. I probably picked up something from my morning orientation at the gym.
I started feeling lightheaded halfway through. That should’ve been my first clue. Then, I vomited…twice. Doucheface said he’d never had anyon
e get sick during orientation and I really had to resist the urge to vomit on his Nikes. I wanted to quit so many times and take my poor body home to bed, but Thor was working out a mere ten feet away.
Thor!
He didn’t look over even once, but I felt like we’d made a connection. This had to be a sign from the universe—I spend my whole life obsessing over superheroes and within days of being dumped, he appears in my life.
I hear you, universe! And I’m on board!
The sound of my cell phone ringing interrupts my daydreams.
“Hello?”
“Dakota—it’s Christy. Listen, Viv didn’t show up for her shift this morning and the corporate office for the mall is threatening to fine the company if someone doesn’t get that store opened ASAP.”
Christy is the district manager for Bella Beauty, the store I manage. We cater to every beauty need a person could ever have. Need a fun dress for date night? My store carries it. Unsightly blemishes? We’ve got a product for that.
I wasn’t supposed to go in until one. It’s my night to close…not open and close.
I stifle a groan. “Let me just grab a shower and I’ll be up there as soon as possible.”
“Thanks, Dakota. See if you can get one of the other girls to come in and close with you tonight.”
Yeah, right.
The odds of one of my girls being willing to give up their Friday night plans to close the store were slim to none.
“Thanks for letting me know. I’ll take care of it.”
It’s not what I wanted to do. What I wanted to do was lie around on the couch for the next three hours and focus on my imminent death brought on by working out.
Well, that, and maybe more thoughts of the man who looks like the god of thunder.
Protector: Silent Phoenix MC Series: Book Four Page 33