by Bella Rose
“What,” he prodded. “You were thinking something. Tell me.”
Griffin knew what she was thinking. He could see it written all over her face, but he wanted her to say it out loud.
“I was just…” She cleared her throat. “I was just wondering if I could borrow a bike to come along on your hunt.”
Griffin felt his eyebrows nearly shoot off his forehead in shock. “You want to ride?”
“Of course. I want to protect my brother. Even if it’s only from himself.”
“That’s not a good idea,” he said flatly. In fact, he felt real fear at the idea of Leah steering around on a motorcycle. “When was the last time you actually rode?”
“I learned before I could ride a real bike, Griffin. I’m fine. It’s been a few years, but it’ll come back. I’m sure of it.”
“No.” He swiped his hand through the air. “Absolutely not.”
He started walking toward the clearing in front of the barn, where everyone would meet. There was no doubt in his mind that the crew already knew who it was they were hunting. What remained were the rules. And of course, there would be the universal refusal of the others to let Leah come along. That would make his point better than anything else.
“What’s going on?” Nevins called out as Griffin approached. “Did the boy run off again?”
“Yes.” Griffin looked around at the twenty or so assembled riders. They were all wearing leather and chains as though spoiling for a fight. “Thorn is gone again. I suspect he’s still meeting secretly with the Demon Lovers. We need to find the kid and get him back before he does something stupid.”
Leah stepped forward. “I want to thank all of you for your help with my brother. I know that you have all been taking care of him far longer than I have. I couldn’t do this now without your help. If it’s all right and if someone has a bike I can borrow, I’d like to ride along.”
There were a lot of surprised expressions, and several members exchanged glances before Rayna Peters stepped forward. Griffin took a breath to speak. He expected Rayna to cut into Leah, but that’s not what happened.
“You can borrow one of my bikes if you want. I’ve got a 350cc street bike you could probably handle. Did you daddy teach you to ride?” Rayna actually looked cheerful about it.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Griffin gaped. “You really want her along?” he asked the assembled crew.
Most of them shrugged, but it was Rayna who answered. “It’s her brother. She’s the one that should be along, Griffin. I’d say if you’ve got a problem with it, it’s a personal issue and not business. So get your head out of your ass and let’s go get that stupid kid.”
Chapter Eighteen
Leah could never have imagined the rush she would get just from riding with the pack. The roar of twenty-five engines, the wind rushing in her face, and the moon shining overhead were all part of a fantasy land. She was glad it was dark. No way could any of the others see the goofy smile on her face.
It was just like riding a bike. The second Leah had settled her butt on the seat, she’d known exactly what to do. The toe of her left boot had wedged beneath the shifter. She’d tested the resistance on the clutch and the brake cables. Then she’d flipped out the kick starter and jumped a bit to get enough leverage to get the bike started.
It was so satisfying to be here in this moment right now. There was nothing else but the pack of riders around her. They moved in perfect harmony together. No one spoke, and yet nobody was ever in anyone else’s way. Griffin rode at the head of the pack with Curtis, Hobbs, and his other close friend Jackson. Leah rode about midway back with Rayna and Bill Nevins. Nevins had been one of her father’s staunchest supporters. It was a bit surreal to have him at her side now. But they were all going to get Thorn, and maybe concern for her brother had broken down the barriers that existed before.
They passed the overlook and crossed into the next county. This was Demon Lover territory now. Leah remembered that from her childhood. Even after her mother had left the Hellfire Crew behind, she had never wanted to be out of their territory. To say that Molly Rawlins hadn’t left her hometown very often was a vast understatement. Even at the last, when doctors had suggested treatments from a big hospital in the city, her mother refused to go.
They turned a corner, and Leah saw a brightly lit building on the right side of the road. The numerous neon beer signs labeled it a bar. The shiny chrome-plated motorcycles lined up out front announced it to be a biker bar. Their crew pulled into the gravel lot and lined up in much the same fashion. Everyone shut off their engines, but nobody got off their bikes. Antsy and eager to find Thorn, Leah wondered what everyone was waiting on. Then she realized that they were all looking at Griffin.
Griffin spotted Thorn’s bike almost immediately. He had done the modifications to the vehicle himself as a favor to Deacon before the old man died. Now the customized softail seemed to be mocking him.
He had no doubt that Thorn was inside. The Demon Lovers were in there too. Their bikes surrounded Thorn’s. The kid was playing with fire, and he was too young, stupid, and arrogant to realize it. Once Joe Turnbull and his crew realized that Thorn had no power to give them what they wanted, they would turn on him in a second and rip him apart.
“Let’s go inside,” Griffin told his crew. “I want Rayna and Bill to stay out here and retrieve Thorn’s bike. We’re going to need to get out of here in a hurry, and the damn thing is buried in that mess of cheap chopper trash.”
“Where do they get their bikes?” Bill muttered, getting into the spirit of things. “The mall?”
“Looks that way,” someone else agreed.
Griffin knew his crew was psyching themselves up for the coming confrontation. There was no other group he’d rather have at his back in a fight, but he hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Leah was with them, and even though she’d handled the little roadster beautifully, Griffin wasn’t ready to ask her to throw down and fight her way out of a rival biker bar just yet.
“Stay together and watch your fucking backs,” Griffin growled. “You know how these bastards operate. Watch for a knife coming out of the shadows. And don’t tear up the bar unless absolutely necessary. Got it?”
Curtis snorted. “You’ve only started worrying about that since you bought the bar, you know.”
“Shut up,” Griffin told his friend. “It’s a courtesy. That’s all.”
They all advanced as a unit. It felt good to have his crew at his back. He knew what they carried beneath their jackets—they had all come loaded for bear. Griffin led the way, but he was acutely aware of Leah just behind him. He vowed to keep her safe no matter whose head he had to crack to do it.
The double doors of the bar opened easily. Griffin pushed his way through and only went far enough inside to allow his whole crew in behind him. The room was long and low. There was a jukebox in one corner along with a few video games. The bar was on the opposite end of the room with half a dozen tables between it and the door. Members of the Demon Lovers were scattered about the entire room. It was obvious from their blank stares that they hadn’t expected to be bothered so deep in their own territory. Griffin didn’t particularly care what they wanted. He was there for Thorn and nothing more.
Leah’s gaze swept the room until she spotted Thorn with two gray-bearded men at a corner table. As soon as her brother saw who’d just walked in, he began casting about for an escape. His gaze flitted about the room, but the only real exit was right behind Griffin and Leah and the Hellfire Crew.
The two men flanking Thorn stood up. One of them strode forward, and Leah was stunned to realize that she recognized him. Her tongue suddenly felt too big for her mouth. She was all too aware of the precarious position she held within the Hellfire Crew. This next revelation was not going to help matters any.
“Hello, Leah.”
“Hello, Uncle Joe.” She could feel the crew turn to stare at her. Their eyes were boring holes in her soul. “I don’t think I’
ve seen you since Mama died. You stopped coming around. I assume that’s because there was no more point trying to get her to give you the land, right?”
Thorn shoved his way past the other Demon Lovers who were now rising from their seats. Uncle Joe—or Joe Turnbull she now realized—scrutinized Leah from head to toe. Then Thorn squeezed in next to Joe. He looked from Leah to Joe and then back to Leah. He appeared belligerent and just a little petulant.
“You know my sister?” Thorn demanded. “You should have told me that.”
Joe ignored him, addressing Leah’s comment instead. “Your mother told me that she settled the estate on the kid.”
“Did she?” Leah wondered at this. What game had her mother been playing? Or had she simply been trying to protect her children with this bizarre bait and switch game? If that was the case, things had somehow managed to go wrong.
Joe looked at the Hellfire Crew then turned back to Leah. “You run with a rougher crowd than your mama would have approved of.”
“My mother is dead,” Leah said flatly. “And I’m sure she wouldn’t have approved of your buddies any more than mine so I don’t see how it matters anyway.”
Joe’s jaw tightened. She realized that she was making him angry because she wasn’t reacting the way he wanted.
Leah grew bolder. “You need to leave my brother alone, Joe. He can’t give you what you want. He’s underage.”
“He’ll grow,” Joe grunted. “Then he’ll give me what I want.”
“Is that what he told you?” Behind her, she could sense Griffin’s protest at what she was about to do. Still, there was no other way to make sure that the Demon Lovers would leave her brother alone. “Thorn can’t give you what you want, Uncle Joe,” she said softly. “Only I could do that—if I wanted to. But I can safely say I’ll donate that land to charity before I give it over to you.”
Griffin was as proud of Leah as he was pissed at her for making herself the ultimate target. He couldn’t help but admire her grace under pressure, though. The woman was magnificent. With her spine straight and her chin thrust forward, she faced off with Joe Turnbull as though she was dealing with a recalcitrant middle school kid.
“Thorn,” Leah said calmly. “Get your ass outside and don’t come back in here. Rayna and Bill are out there. Stay with them.”
“Fuck off!” Thorn snarled. “You’re not the boss of me.”
To Griffin’s surprise, it was the Demon Lovers that started laughing. They were chuckling and pointing at the kid as if he were a circus freak. Thorn’s green eyes got big and round. It was apparent that he hadn’t expected ridicule from the one place he thought he’d earned respect.
“Thorn,” Leah began again. “We’re getting out of here. These assholes have been losers since before your dad and Joe started their little war. The Demon Lovers don’t even come close to the Hellfire Crew. Go outside and wait with your family please.”
Thorn looked like he might be about to argue, but it was Joe Turnbull that decided it. He nudged the kid in the butt with the toe of his boot. “Go on, git! You ain’t got nothing that we want. You were lying through your damn teeth and thought we were too stupid to figure it out. You better stay out of our territory, boy.”
Griffin clenched his fists as he saw the boy’s eyes fill with tears. It was tempting to go and offer comfort, but it wouldn’t have helped the situation. Bill and Rayna were the best people for that at the moment. They had the advantage of privacy and a long association with Deacon.
The crew waited until Thorn was clear of the building before closing ranks around Leah. Griffin stood right behind her and waited for her to decide her next move. She’d already thrown herself under the bus. The least he could do was have her back when the shit hit the fan.
“So,” Joe said conversationally. “Your mama was as much of a liar as her son. Apparently, I should have stuck with the daughter.”
“Apparently,” Leah said sarcastically. “But you didn’t. And now that I know exactly who and what you are, I’m even more glad my mother never gave in to what was obviously a long-term plan to get under her skirt and steal from her.”
“You don’t know shit, girl,” Joe blustered. “I loved your mama.”
“You know…” Leah gave her chin an exaggerated tap with her index finger as though she were thinking it over. “I’ve come to believe that neither you nor my asshole of a father actually loved her. It’s sad, really. She was a really sweet person, and yet you guys were just concerned with what you could get out of her.”
“Oh,” Joe snorted. “Pretty much just like your husband there? Like mother, like daughter, eh?”
Griffin burned at the implication. The man was right in a way, and it made Griffin ashamed to admit it.
Leah only shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. It doesn’t matter. At least I’m not stupid enough to believe otherwise. Griffin and I are both in this relationship for our own reasons. But we’re not going to lie about it, so I hardly think it’s the same thing.”
Without another word, she turned and walked out through the herd of Hellfires standing in the doorway.
Chapter Nineteen
Leah wondered if every single one of the Hellfire Crew could see her knees knocking as she walked out of that dirty, dingy bar and into the cool, fresh night air. She walked straight to her bike and threw her leg over the seat. She could hear her brother’s almost frantic whispers mingled with Bill Nevins’s lower tones as he tried to calm the boy. There was no more doubt in her mind. Thorn was an idiot. What was wrong with him that he thought he could lie his way into the Demon Lovers? Didn’t he realize that the truth always comes out?
“You okay?”
She had sensed Griffin’s approach before he spoke, but she couldn’t fall apart right now no matter how much she might have wanted to. She nodded her head and took a deep breath. “Let’s just get out of here before they come storming out. So far, nobody’s thrown a punch, but that could change.”
“Agreed.” Griffin lifted his hand over his head and made a gesture.
The entire crew mounted their bikes and started the engines. In the half light of the moon Leah could even see Thorn mounted up. The kid was still positioned beside Bill Nevins, and Leah thought it was a good idea that he stayed there for now. She was still having trouble wrapping her mind around the fact that the man she had known as Uncle Joe most of her life was actually Joe Turnbull, leader of the Demon Lovers. Joe had always been around when her mother needed things fixed or had a problem she couldn’t quite handle on her own. Joe had made comments about damsels in distress and single mothers. He had been kind to Leah. But apparently, he’d had an ulterior motive all along.
The entire crew took off in unison from the dirt and gravel lot in front of the Demon Lovers’ bar. They hit the road and headed back toward the overlook. Leah couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when they crossed back into their own county and their own territory. It was funny how all that stuff was so deeply ingrained. Griffin led the way as they pulled off at the overlook and she was glad for the respite.
It didn’t take long for her brother to seek her out once the engines had shut off and everyone got of their bikes to stretch their legs. Thorn came stomping up to Leah with his face a mask of hatred. But in the moonlight, she could see something else there too. It was envy.
“How come it’s always you?” Thorn demanded. “You’re always the one people want. You have everything. You know everything. And apparently you know everybody too.”
“Thorn, it isn’t like that,” Leah said quietly. “Joe was around a lot when I was a kid. I think he was just trying to get to our mother. It’s all about the land. Can’t you see that?”
Griffin had a feeling that Thorn couldn’t see any of it right now. The kid was too pissed off. Maybe eventually he would realize what it cost his sister to confront a man from her past like that and to realize that her mother had only ever been an object that men wanted to use for their own ends. But for now, Thorn could onl
y see his own pain and rejection.
“They would have let me in if you hadn’t showed up and ruined everything!” Thorn burst out.
“And that’s what you want?” she asked incredulously. “To be part of a group that only wants you because of what you have and not who you are?”
Griffin stepped closer, wanting to intervene. Thorn pointed at Leah, his face arranged in an ugly expression. “I hate you. I don’t know why they made me live with you. Nobody wants you here. Can’t you see that? We’re all disgusted with you and your snooty mom.”
“My mother is dead and has been for a long time,” Leah said softly. “Before that I spent my whole life trying to atone for what our father made her feel. She never wanted me to be myself. She only wanted me to be not like Deacon.”
“And me,” Thorn said, his voice breaking. “She wanted to forget about me!”
“No!” Leah argued.
Griffin stepped closer. “Your mother didn’t want to leave you behind, Thorn,” Griffin said softly. “Your father threatened to kill Leah if Molly tried to take you with her. She loved you. She knew that Deacon was a little unhinged. He had already beaten the shit out of Leah. She was in the hospital when Molly left Deacon. That’s the only reason they got out. The hospital called social services. Your mother was sure that they would take you away too, but they never did. Worse, your father loved you so much that he would have never allowed it. Think about it, kid,” Griffin urged. “Your father loved you more than anything else in the world. You were the son he had wanted all his life. He wasn’t going to lose that.”
Leah gave a bitter laugh. “But he sure as hell didn’t care about a wife and daughter that meant nothing to him. I can promise you that. He never wanted our mother, and I was only ever a disappointment.”
Leah hated hearing those words, even when she was the one saying them. She threw her leg back over her bike. “Are we done here? I’m tired, and I’m sure everyone else would like to get home too.”