It seemed like she was in her pajamas. She’d thrown a jacket over the top and her red hair was loose now, falling around her shoulders gracefully.
I wanted to kiss her. That was my first instinct. I wanted to pull this girl into my arms and cover her with kisses—confess everything to her. How I’d wanted her since I could remember. How I would do anything to make her mine. But I knew I had to behave myself, so that was exactly what I forced myself to do.
“Where do you want to go?” I asked her in a whisper.
“We could just hang around here,” she suggested and then out, of nowhere, she’d grabbed my hand and she was pulling me down behind one of those thick hedges. “I don’t want to go too far in case my parents wake up and go looking for me in my room.”
Anywhere was fine by me. Just as long as I got to be close to her—the girl of my dreams.
We sat down huddled together behind the hedge. Our bodies were closely aligned. I could smell the shampoo in her hair, her breath smelled of toothpaste.
Samantha sat with her legs crossed and facing me. Even in the dark, I could see her green eyes shining.
“Tell me something about yourself, Patch,” she began, tilting her head to one side.
“What do you want to know?”
“Well, for starters; why have you been following me all these months? Close to a year now. Don’t you have something to say?”
I hadn’t come prepared for an interrogation like this. I was usually fearless. I never hesitated when we were holding up a gas station or robbing some poor fucker on the street—yet somehow, Samantha made me speechless.
“I just want to make sure you get to school safely.”
“You want to make sure no creep ends up following me and making me uneasy?” she asked, with a grin on her face.
“Do you want me to stop?” I asked her and I could see her cheeks flushing now. She bit down on her delicious, plump lower lip and looked down at her lap.
“No, I don’t know what I want you to do,” she said in a whisper.
“I never planned on doing anything, Samantha. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t walking to school by yourself.”
She leaned towards me and smiled.
“Well, now is your chance. What are you going to do?”
I wasn’t expecting this from her. Samantha Denton. One of the hottest, most popular girls in that school. The bright child, star student, destined to be Prom Queen and steal everybody’s heart—wanted me to make a move on her? I hesitated because I was sure I’d gotten this all wrong somehow.
And then a bright light came on in a room somewhere downstairs in the house.
“Samantha?” A voice thundered. The light had turned on in the kitchen and Samantha gasped as the back kitchen door was flung open. Mr. Denton was in his pajamas and he was stepping out now, blinking behind his glasses as he tried to adjust his eyes to the dark.
“Samantha! Come out here right now!” he barked. Could he see us? I saw the fear in his daughter’s eyes. I was about to grab her hand and force her to stay down but she stood up.
Her father’s face dropped.
“Who is that boy with you?” he hissed, and I stood up too. I wasn’t about to weasel my way out of this. I was going to face up to whatever consequences lay in store for us now.
And Mr. Denton looked shocked. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing in front of him.
“You!” he growled in disgust.
“Daddy…please…” Samantha tried to beg but he pointed straight to the house behind him.
“You go back inside. Go to your room and stay there!” he growled, spittle flying from his mouth in every direction. She did as she was told, quickly hurrying away without giving me another look. Something sank in me that night, watching her scampering away like that.
“And you!” Mr. Denton continued, taking a few steps towards me threateningly. I hung my head down because I knew my actions were wrong, but I wasn’t going to back away from him. That would be out of character. That would be completely unnecessary.
“You go back to your scum house where you came from and keep your paws off my daughter! You fuckin’ hear?” He was shouting those words right to my face. I couldn’t stop myself from looking up at him then, looking straight in his eyes as he glared at me.
“You are not welcome here. You are never going to be welcome here or be good enough for my daughter. Go back to your looting and your thieving. Go back to your drunk dad. And stay away from my family!”
While Mr. Denton shouted at my face, I glared back at him; fantasizing about all the things I could potentially to do him. Pity I’d left my gun back in the house because I didn’t want to accidentally scare Samantha if she happened to see it.
But of course, I wouldn’t do any of those things to him. I wouldn’t touch a hair on Mr. Denton’s head because he was Samantha’s dad. He only wanted what was best for her.
From that day, he walked Samantha to school every day and she never looked at me again.
1
Patch
Ten Years Later
Cash and Vivian were about to have their baby, which meant that the Sons of Satan were going to find out about it and launch an attack at our weakest.
Grimm had already made me in-charge of the next mission; now that Cash was occupied with the birth of his first child.
Our club was under threat, the Sons of Satan were not about to let up. If there was one thing I knew right now, it was that they were going to keep coming at us till they got what they wanted—which was our Mexican contacts and to take over our business and our territories.
They wanted to expand, and they wanted us out of the way as they did so. And because we were a smaller club, because we were technically the underdogs, they thought it was going to be easily achievable. But I wasn’t about to let that happen.
Cash and Vivian were going to be sitting ducks; stationary targets in the hospital. The Sons of Satan had their eye on Vivian for close to a year now because they knew getting to her was a sure shot way of getting to Cash and neutralizing him. He was Grimm’s Vice President. Our second-in-command.
And now, with a baby due to arrive any day, they had two weak liabilities at their disposal. They assumed it was going to be an easy mission to execute.
But we were going to be prepared.
That was the plan I was organizing our boys for. Grimm had given me full control of the remaining club and our prospects, and I knew exactly how I was going to utilize them tomorrow.
We were going to lie in wait at the hospital and ambush the Sons of Satan. The best I could predict was that Lynch would be sending at least five of his best men to the hospital to take out Cash and Vivian and probably the baby too. If their plan was to crush us, they would need reinforcements to keep an eye on the hospital, take down all our security, and then eliminate their target.
My plan was to make sure we had our entire club there for the ambush, outnumbering their five or six by at least triple so that they didn’t stand a chance.
Shit was going down tomorrow night. Lynch was going to lose all his best men and he would be rendered powerless. And hopefully, finally, this war between the two clubs would come to an end and we’d emerge victorious.
But I didn’t want Cash to find out. Him and Vivian needed to enjoy this moment of the birth of their child in peace.
And that was how things went down.
From the moment that Cash texted to say that he was taking Vivian to the hospital because she’d gone into labor—the clock was ticking. We got there before Cash and our men took up their stations. We were keeping an eye on every exit and entry point. There were guys from our club constantly monitoring every room and window that Cash and Vivian were close to.
Cash hadn’t seen us. He and Vivian had no idea any of us were even there. Vivian obviously didn’t want us around while she was going through labor and I ordered everyone to keep it hush-hush in order to not make her feel uncomfortable. But we all had our ey
es on them. Nothing was getting past us tonight. A baby was going to be born, we were responsible for its life.
The Sons of Satan arrived an hour after the kid was born, just like I expected them to. Whatever sick plan they had for Cash and his little family; I wasn’t about to let it unfold.
Our guys quickly took them down, in under fifteen minutes. There were six of them and fifteen of us. Those fuckers didn’t stand a chance against us this time and neither were they expecting us to be prepared for them.
We got them at the door, silently taking them away from the scene before any alarms were raised.
Three of them were shot dead on the spot and the others were allowed to go back to Lynch and give him the news. The three that we killed out there at the back of the hospital were top tier. We knew that the Sons of Satan were now facing major losses. They were about to kill Cash and Vivian; they were under orders to kill a newborn child. No way was I about to let them get away from here without killing a few of them first.
No mercy.
Just like they had no intention of showing any mercy to our people.
At the end of it I texted Grimm to let him know we were successful. I knew he wanted, just as much as all of us, for this war to be over. He wanted peace. He was getting old. He had his own family now, and even though he would never forego his duties as the President of our club, I could sense he was more interested in non-violent methods to solve our problems than spilling any more blood on either side.
But tonight, I did what I knew I needed to do to keep Cash and his family safe. Killing the top three guys of the Sons of Satan meant that we had significantly weakened their powers too.
We finally had the upper hand and now, with the birth of Cash’s new baby, it was our chance to celebrate.
Once the bodies had been dragged away and we were done for the night, it was time for me to go see Cash and congratulate him for the newborn.
Cash and I had been close friends for several years, ever since I was a prospect with the club and Grimm decided to take me under his wing and train me. It was strange for me to see him as a father now.
He was huddled around Vivian’s bed, proudly holding the baby up for me to see. I couldn’t remember ever being this close to a newborn baby before. It looked small, so delicate. Her hands seemed to be as big as my thumb.
“We’ve named her Lily,” Vivian spoke up. She must have noticed the lost look in my eyes. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with this child.
“Do you want to hold her?” she offered, and I took a step away from the bed in fear of dropping her or breaking her. Vivian looked at Cash and they both smiled.
“Don’t worry, this was exactly how scared he was too, till he finally saw her beautiful face.”
The kid was peacefully asleep in her father’s arms. Cash was cradling her, rocking her gently. It felt surreal to be this close to such a small human creature.
“Maybe someday you’ll have one of your own and you won’t feel this strange about holding a baby in your arms,” Vivian continued, which made me laugh. Cash was laughing too. Neither of us could imagine me with a baby.
“I don’t know what you’re laughing about, Mister! It’s not like you struck me as an obvious choice as a father to my child when we first met!” Vivian mocked Cash and he leaned over and kissed her forehead.
I couldn’t even picture myself in the role he had with Vivian. Sharing a life with a woman. Waking up every morning to the same woman’s face. Every time I even thought of dating a chick, someone I had a one-night stand with or a quickie at the back of a bar it made me feel sick to think about shutting myself off to every other fuck I could potentially enjoy.
But Cash seemed happy and who was I to judge him?
In fact, I’d never seen him as happy as I saw him now while he held that baby in his arms.
“Lily is a nice name,” I declared, and the parents looked up at me appreciatively.
My phone beeped and I checked for Grimm’s text.
Good job. Now we can call for a truce. Set up a meeting with Lynch.
It wasn’t the text I was expecting from Grimm. He was quick to point out that we needed to call for peace. I didn’t trust Lynch with wanting the same thing. I didn’t trust anyone from the Sons of Satan. Sure, we were on the path to running them to the ground, but there was still more work to do before we could declare victory over them.
This was not the time to call for a peace-meeting. It was too soon. Yes, we had the upper hand now, but we wouldn’t for very long if the Sons of Satan decided to retaliate again.
“Who is that?” Cash asked when he saw me slipping my phone back in my jeans.
“It’s nothing, it’s nobody,” I said. He deserved to have this moment with his kid tonight without worrying about the fucking Sons of Satan.
The next day when I got to the Clubhouse, it became apparent to me that Grimm meant business about setting up the meeting with Lynch.
“We don’t even know if he wants to meet us. They took a big blow last night at the hospital. They lost their top three guys; they’re probably frothing at the mouth for revenge!” I told Grimm as Bender handed us our beers over the bar counter.
“Which is exactly why now is the time to hit them with this offer,” Grimm replied, tipping his head back with the can of beer pressed to his lips. He looked happy, he looked satisfied. In his head he thought this was all going well.
“I’m sorry to keep pushing this at you, but I don’t think this is the right time for a truce. We still have a lot to do before they’re completely destroyed. Totally run into the ground. Which is how we want them to be before we offer up any compromises. We need them to be at their lowest,” I said.
Grimm looked at me and sighed.
“I want this thing over with as soon as possible. It’s been going on for a long time. Forget about me, they kidnapped my kid! They kidnapped Cash’s future wife. They were about to hurt his newborn child. We need to put an end to this,” Cash said, straightening himself up, facing me squarely.
“Exactly!” I exclaimed, banging my can down on the counter, in a voice that was loud enough to make the others in the bar turn to look.
I knew I was bordering on being disrespectful towards the President of our club, but didn’t he see I was trying to keep us all safe? I was trying to tie up all the loose ends here before things got out of control.
Grimm clenched his jaw tightly and breathed in.
“Just set up the meeting. Fix it up. If Lynch doesn’t want to meet with us or talk of a truce, we can take it from there. But if he agrees, we have nothing to lose. I don’t want to lose any more of our men if we can avoid it.” Grimm patted my arm before he walked away, leaving me hanging there by the bar alone.
Bones walked up to me, shaking his head.
“That’s what a woman does to ya,” he said. For a second I didn’t know what he was talking about, and then I realized he was making a reference to Grimm’s old lady. His ex, whom he had recently gotten back with ever since their daughter’s kidnapping and rescue.
Bones was still shaking his head as I emptied the remaining beer down my throat. I didn’t want to say it, but I did agree with him. He was right. Just like Grimm, my friend Cash was a changed man now too, and a woman had done that to him.
I wasn’t sure whether to be surprised or not that Lynch had agreed to a meeting with us. This could go one of two ways—it could end in a good deal for us or could end in us being attacked. Either way, I knew we were going to have to be on constant high alert in order to get through this safely.
Lynch had agreed to meet with Grimm, under strict instructions that he was to bring no more than two men with him. Lynch promised that he was going to do the same. We were going to be on equal territory, on neutral ground.
A rundown old underground casino was picked as the spot for the meeting between the two parties. The casino didn’t belong to either club and we were going to do a sweep of the place beforehand, just like they were.
Reinforcements were going to be close at hand. I instructed the boys to expect anything and keep an eye out for any suspicious activity. Our men were going to be watching the venue the whole night from a distance. Which was obviously something that Lynch’s men were going to do as well.
Bones and I were going to accompany Grimm for this meeting, and I planned on being heavily armed.
That night I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror as I prepared for the meeting with Lynch. Even though everything seemed to be in order, I didn’t have a good feeling about this. I was expecting something to go wrong. Since the beginning, the Sons of Satan had been on a maddened path of destruction. They wanted us gone. They wanted to take over our business. It was hard to believe that now, suddenly, after one attack on their top men, after the death of a few of their members—Lynch was already willing to give up.
But Grimm didn’t want to see it that way. He was so hung up on peace and making his surroundings ‘safe’ for his family—that he was willing to walk himself into any trap!
While I was planning on approaching this night with caution, Grimm was going to be walking in with both arms open and, for the first time, I was starting to doubt his abilities in leading our club. He’d trained me. He’d recruited me. He’d instilled the biker code in me when I was nothing more than a street rat.
But now, maybe he was too old. Maybe he was going soft because he was a family man. Maybe it was Cash who should lead, or someone else?
I looked away from the mirror, reminding myself I had a duty to accomplish first. The Sons of Satan needed to be obliterated before any other agenda was brought up.
I was on high alert that night, as I knew Bones was too. We flanked Grimm on either side as he got out of the muscle car we’d driven to the site in. Lynch and his two men were waiting at the door to greet us and lead us into the casino.
Patch (The Black Cobras MC Book 3) Page 2