by Bella Rose
“Okay.” She fought to stay calm. She wanted to launch herself at his smug face and beat some respect out of him, but that would be pointless. “So now that we have both acknowledged the fact that I’m persona non grata around the compound, can we move on to you helping me find my brother?”
“I suppose that would be a good start.” He didn’t seem to be in any kind of hurry to get moving. “Why don’t we talk about what it’s worth to you for me to do this little service?”
“Little service?” She ground her teeth. She could feel the gazes of everyone in the bar stabbing her in the back. “Thorn is as much your responsibility as he is mine. Don’t think he’s not. You know what he stands to inherit and you know that if something happens to him, it all reverts to me. So how about we stop screwing around and just go find my brother?”
“Screwing around.” At least he stood up this time. “Such an interesting choice of words.”
“Don’t,” she bit out. “Don’t start with me.” She glanced around, trying not to spread any more of her private business around a bar full of people who hated her. “Yes. We had sex. That doesn’t mean there’s anything more between us now than there was this morning when we both woke up.”
“Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.” He turned his back and sauntered out of the bar, leaving her no choice but to follow or be left behind.
Chapter Six
Leah had not been back to the Hellfire Crew compound since she and her mother had left when she was twelve years old. Coming back now was nerve-racking. As she followed the single red tail light on the back of Griffin’s Harley-Davidson Softail, she felt as though a black cloud hung over her tiny compact car. Then a huge chain link fence topped with razor wire emerged from the prairie, and Leah thought she might actually be sick.
Griffin stopped his bike in front of the gate. A man emerged from what appeared to be a guard shack on the right side of the road. The guard was carrying a rifle. What had happened out here? She didn’t recall fences and guards with guns when she was growing up. This was her mother’s family’s land. Yes, her mother had let her father squat there for years because it was a hell of a lot easier than trying to boot Deacon somewhere he didn’t want to go. Still, what was with all the security? Was the Hellfire Crew expecting Armageddon next week or something?
Leah watched Griffin exchange words with the guard. It seemed as if the guy wasn’t going to let Leah inside the fence. The guard kept gesticulating wildly toward her car and waving his weapon around. Leah suppressed the urge to duck into the passenger seat to avoid any possible stray gunfire. Then Griffin must have pulled rank because the guard stormed off and moments later the gate opened.
Griffin hit the throttle and waved, which she took to mean that she was okay to follow. Leah kept waiting for the guard to lift his weapon and try to take her out on the way through, but the angry man never came back out of his shack.
Leah gazed around her in wonder. Floodlights lit everything up like midday, and a veritable town had popped up. Buildings clustered around her father’s old clapboard farmhouse, and the barn was brightly lit. She could see people scurrying around inside the two-story structure, and she couldn’t help but wonder what they were doing. It was late. It was dark. And it was probably cold outside in the fall night. What reason did these people have for being outside instead of being home in their trailers or tiny A-frame houses?
But for now, she was going to have to let it go. Griffin pulled up in front of her dad’s two-story farmhouse, and she was almost relieved to see that the lights were on in the living room. She could even see the blue haze of the television screen through the curtains on the front windows. Thorn had to be here. And with that thought, the knot in her gut started to relax.
Griffin was willing to overlook Thorn’s lounging in front of the television in Deacon’s house. He could understand that the kid just wanted to be home. This was the only place he’d ever known. Still, it struck Griffin as wrong when the kid looked up and barely acknowledged him or Leah when they walked into the room.
“What’s she doing here?” Thorn grunted. “You, I expected. Figured you would be wanting to squat in the boss’s house for a few years until I’m old enough to throw your ass out.”
Griffin held onto his temper with effort. He walked between the boy and the television screen, choosing a seat on the opposite side of the room facing the front door. Leah didn’t even pretend to relax and sit down. She stood in the center of the room with her hands on her hips. Griffin could have told her that shaming, yelling, or otherwise attempting discipline was pointless. Thorn was too old and too arrogant for that.
“Hey,” Griffin snapped. “Look at me you little punk.”
The tone of voice alone was enough to gain Thorn’s attention. “Excuse me? Who’s the punk, punk?”
“That would be the sixteen-year-old kid who is—right now—a runaway. That means you don’t get shit. And we’re sure as hell not dealing with your arrogant little ass on this compound.”
“It belongs to me,” Thorn announced. “Dad told me so.”
Leah snorted. She purposefully put herself between Thorn and the TV. “Did he?”
“Yeah.”
“And are you aware of how old you are? Or does that number mean nothing to you?” Leah pointed at Thorn.
“I’m sixteen.” Thorn shot her a dirty look and lounged back onto the couch, stretching out with his feet on the cushions. “I would think you know that already.”
“And you’re aware that you won’t actually own it until you’re of legal age, right?” She waved her hand in a little circle as though she were trying to get Thorn to start really thinking.
Griffin could see the kid’s brain working it through. In a minute he was probably going to throw a tantrum. It never ceased to amaze Griffin how differently Deacon had treated his children. Thorn had run wild, and Leah had barely made it to thirteen alive.
“This place is mine!” Now Thorn jumped to his feet. He got right in Leah’s face. “You can’t take it from me!”
“I don’t have to take it,” she shot back. “It’s already mine and has been ever since Mom died. Do you not get it? Dad never owned this place. It’s been in Mom’s family for more than a hundred years. She used to speculate that it was the only reason Deacon ever married her!”
Leah abruptly shut her mouth and turned her back on her little brother. She walked away, crossing the room and trying to put some distance between them before she did something stupid like hit him. Why couldn’t he see that she only wanted what was best for him?
“Thorn,” Griffin said quietly. “You need to apologize to your sister. She’s right, you know. Your dad never owned this place. The land belonged to your mom.”
“Why?” Thorn’s voice grew shaky. “I don’t understand why Dad would tell me that the place was mine if it belongs to Leah. Dad never said anything about having to live with her. Griffin, it isn’t fair.”
Leah’s heart went out to him. He was right. It wasn’t fair. So perhaps the biggest question was how to make it fair. She couldn’t live here on the property with Thorn by herself. There was absolutely no way that was going to happen. She needed someone to take charge of Thorn. He needed a father figure.
Leah couldn’t help it. She pivoted and her gaze slid to Griffin.
He held up his hands in response. “Don’t look at me.”
“I am looking at you.” Now she pointed right at him. “You owe me.”
“You’re dreaming.”
“No.” She raised her eyebrows. “You know why. You know what’s at stake. Don’t be stupid.”
Thorn looked back and forth between the two of them. “What is she talking about Griffin?”
“She’s talking about something that’s never going to happen,” he growled. “I’m not looking for a ready-made family.”
Thorn’s stormy expression cleared. “But if you marry my sister, I can stay here!”
“Wait.” Now it was Leah’s turn to
wonder where the conversation had taken a turn. She’d been talking about Griffin taking on co-guardianship. It would involve a few nights, some mentoring, that sort of thing. Now they’d made the leap to marriage?
Griffin stood up, looking very uncomfortable. “I think your sister and I need to have a little chat in private. Go upstairs to your room and go to bed. You have school in the morning.”
“School?” Thorn whined. “I shouldn’t have to go. My dad died. I just went to his funeral. I should get at least six months off school.”
“Dream on,” Leah snapped. “Get your ass to bed. Now.”
Thorn left the room, grumbling beneath his breath about bitches and assholes and something about school being useless to someone who was going to live life by the code of the crew. The entire tirade made Leah want to cringe in horror. She had a long way to go with her brother, but she wasn’t sure that Griffin was the answer.
“So?” Griffin prompted as soon as Thorn was out of earshot. “What is it you think I owe you?”
“This place is mine,” she reminded him. “There’s no way you really want to take a chance that I’ll call the authorities and have your entire crew evicted from my property.”
Griffin winced and hated how right Leah was. The local authorities would love nothing more than to kick the Hellfire Crew off the land where their homes and business were located. The automatic assumption around the county was that the crew was into illegal activities. That wasn’t correct, but Griffin knew it wouldn’t matter what he said. Nobody would believe the Hellfire Crew. Their credibility was done after Deacon’s dealings with the cops and other local entities. He’d made such an ass out of himself over the years that the entire county would cheer if the Hellfire Crew had to pack up and leave.
“So marry me,” he told Leah.
Even when the words left his lips he couldn’t believe he was suggesting this course of action. She looked positively dumbfounded. He probably should have been offended by that, but any offense she’d given him had happened hours earlier after they’d had casual sex in his apartment.
“Are you insane?” she squeaked.
He shrugged. “Thorn is the one who suggested it. He’s right. It would protect his inheritance. It would secure the land for my crew, and you’d have someone to help you raise that kid.”
“I’d also be shackling myself to a man that hates me,” she said incredulously. “Why would I ever do that?”
Griffin pursed his lips. “I don’t hate you. What gave you that idea?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said sarcastically. “Maybe all of the rude things you say to me every other second. I think I’d like a husband that can actually stand to be in the same room with me.”
“I don’t hate you, Leah. I never have.” Griffin cleared his throat, feeling uncomfortable. He strode toward the fireplace. Resting his elbow on the mantle, he searched for the words he wanted to say. “I’ll admit that I poke at you. A lot.”
“You think?”
“Hey, just let me finish.”
“Fine. Finish.” She crossed her arms over her chest and looked belligerent.
“I’ve never hated you. I’ve always cared about you. I know you don’t believe that. But remember that I lived in a trailer right next door when we were kids.”
She sucked in a quick breath, and he realized that he had said the exact wrong thing. She started marching toward the front door. Griffin grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her body. She struggled for a moment and then suddenly broke down. He was confused, wondering what had happened so suddenly to set her off.
“I hate this house,” she whispered. “I hate it. Do you have any idea what sort of memories are here for me?”
Griffin suddenly realized that they were standing in the room where her father had last beaten her. He gently stroked her hair and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Then don’t think about that. Think about your mother’s ancestors who lived in this house for generations. Think about honoring that memory and moving back here to live with me and with Thorn.”
Yes. It was official. He had completely lost his mind.
Chapter Seven
“Boy, you done lost your damn mind!” Bill Nevins took the toothpick out of his mouth in order to throw the accusation at Griffin.
The hurried meeting of the Hellfire Crew that Griffin had called to inform everyone about his upcoming marriage to Leah wasn’t going very well. Not that Griffin had expected to get everyone’s immediate blessing. There was too much bad blood between Leah and the crew for that to happen. But he had thought that the members of the crew he numbered as his friends would have at least stood behind him. He had been utterly wrong. At the moment, Jackson, Hobbs, and Curtis were all standing against the far wall looking pensive. They had yet to speak out on Griffin’s behalf.
“Please, just calm down!” Griffin raised his hands for silence, but everyone was too far gone down the road to pissed off to pay attention to that.
The big barn where the crew did their custom chopper work was packed with members. Nearly everyone had turned out for the new leader’s first official meeting. Griffin had figured this marriage nonsense would take a few minutes and then after that they could discuss a few items of business.
“Now Bill,” Griffin began, trying his best to sound reasonable. “I don’t need anyone’s permission to get married. It’s just a marriage for shit’s sake.”
“You think that cause you ain’t married,” Bill retorted. The older man crossed his arms and gave Griffin a dour look. “A woman makes your life miserable to begin with. It ain’t no fair that you want to bring that Leah Rawlins onto our property and let her make our lives miserable too.”
Well here was a very interesting opportunity to make his point. “That’s just the thing,” Griffin began. He raised his voice so he could be heard in every corner of the barn. “This isn’t our land. It isn’t yours.” He gestured to Bill. “It isn’t mine. And it doesn’t belong to any one of you.”
“It’s ours!” someone shouted. “We’re sitting on it.”
“And if the owner wanted to start the eviction process, it could happen without warning, and everything we’ve built here would be gone!” Griffin needed these proud and somewhat belligerent people to understand what was at stake. “Anyone know who actually owns this land?”
Rayna Peters tugged her long curly hair. “Well, it was Deacon’s, wasn’t it? So I reckon it all belongs to that whelp of his.”
It bothered Griffin that some of the crew held it against Thorn that his father had favored him so much. Nonetheless, he needed them to get it.
“It’s not Thorn’s,” Griffin informed them. He raised his hands to quiet the mutters and curses that popped up around the room. “Thorn is only sixteen. He won’t come of age for two years. Until then, this place belongs to Leah Rawlins.”
The discontented roar made Griffin’s ears crackle. “Don’t you guys get it?”
A few old timers with grizzled beards waved their beers at him. “Then make her sign it over!” one of them shouted.
“That’s illegal,” he reminded them. “So it wouldn’t stand up in court if someone were to try and shove us off.”
“And is Leah going to try?” Hobbs called out.
Griffin shrugged. “I don’t know.”
A heavy silence blanketed the assembled company in the garage. Finally, his friend Curtis exhaled a long low sigh. “I think we need to be cutting this man some slack.”
Someone else guffawed. “Why is that?”
“Because he’s the one that’s going to have to wake up next to Leah Rawlins every morning.”
Griffin didn’t appreciate the rudeness, but he understood that they were making jokes at Leah’s expense because they were angry with her. He sighed. Sometimes his crew acted like a bunch of grade-school kids.
“I don’t know if all of you are aware that this community we’ve built is on land that has belonged to Leah’s mother’s family for eight generatio
ns.” He let that sink in. “Deacon always seemed to conveniently forget that we don’t hold title to this place.”
There was silence. Griffin saw them start to whisper amongst themselves. Finally, Bill Nevins stood up. He looked around at his fellow crewmates as though he were speaking for the whole lot. “If you’ve got a way to get title to this land, then do it.”
“My intention is to marry Leah and make that a stipulation. The land will become mine, and then I’ll deed it to the corporation.”
“Then how do we know some other asshole won’t take over the corporation and kick us off our land?” Maeve Biggins glanced around, shooting suspicious looks at everyone who would make eye contact.
Griffin struggled not to roll his eyes. The problem with a group like the Hellfire Crew was that some of the members were grandfathered in for all kinds of reasons. Maeve was a third-generation member. As far as the group’s charter was concerned, she was a hereditary member. Not all motorcycle gangs operated that way, but that had been something Deacon had been rather good at. He had organized them into something that was more than just a bunch of guys running around on motorcycles beating the shit out of each other or anyone else when they took the notion. There was a purpose, a goal, capital, assets, resources, and people to bring it all together. They were really a community and not just a gang. But with over thirty members and their family ties, things sometimes got a little complicated.
“Maeve,” Griffin said with forced patience. “We’ve got a group charter that protects you from that, remember?”
“Oh. Right.” She abruptly started to grin and the macabre sight made Griffin wonder if he had won or lost.
***
“I’m sorry, Ms. Rawlins.” The lawyer gazed at Leah with the closest thing to shock she had ever seen on his bland face. “I cannot have heard you right. You wish me to draw up a prenuptial agreement for you and Griffin Prentiss?”
“That’s right.” Leah knew the little man was a bit of a pompous ass, but Stark had been her mother’s attorney before she hired him to continue managing her affairs. “Griffin and I are getting married to protect my younger brother’s assets.” She ground her teeth together. This next bit just galled her to no end, but that didn’t change the truth of it. “Plus I need his help raising Thorn. Thorn wants to live in the house he grew up in, but I can’t live out there with him and the entire Hellfire crew breathing down my neck.”