Ruthless

by Tory Richards

  “Yes, but you don’t have the huge dental debt that I have, and I wanted to pay it off.”

  “Honey, you can’t go in today. You’re too weak, and probably still contagious. Just stay home today.”

  “But with Bike Week over I’m already off tomorrow and the next two days,” she whined.

  I laughed. “Even better, three days to recoup.”

  “You’re just mean.”

  “And you love me.” I stood up. “Can I get you anything before I leave?”

  She shook her head.

  “Are you still throwing up?”

  “No, thank God.”

  I laughed at that. “Okay then, I’ll be back before I go in to work.”

  My stomach growled again as I neared my apartment and the smell of bacon filtered through the door. I opened the door to see that Rebel was just walking to my small table with two plates in his hands. My gaze met his before going back to the plates, which were piled with bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast. Ohmygod! I’d never had a man cook for me before, and there was something so hot and sexy about a man like Rebel standing with his jeans undone, dish towel draped over his wide shoulders, and a plate of steaming food in his hands.

  “Hungry?”

  Was that a trick question? I pulled my gaze away from his abs, trying to feign nonchalance, but the knowing gleam in his all-seeing eyes revealed that I’d been caught ogling his fine body. “Starved!” I admitted, walking toward him. “I never have bacon.”

  “Why not?” We both sat down on my mismatched chairs, the mismatching of my plates bringing it all together. I picked up the cup of coffee that Rebel had placed in front of my plate. “It’s expensive.” I picked up a piece and took a bite, closing my eyes and moaning low. “So good. Why did you decide to fix breakfast?”

  Rebel shrugged, digging into his eggs. “I was hungry for some home cooked food. I’ve been on the road a while.”

  “Hunting me down?”

  There was a brief pause in which he glanced up at me from his plate, his gaze reflective. “Among other things.” He paused a beat, leaning in for emphasis. “Don’t get used to the cooking, angel. You’re the one who owes me.”

  Inside I cringed. He’d just had to ruin the peace that had settled between us by bringing up the money. “You don’t have to remind me,” I was quick to respond. “And I always planned on paying you back. Why do you think I stored away the money I gave you?”

  “So you expected to see me again?” He shoveled a mouthful of eggs into his mouth.

  I shrugged. “I wasn’t sure of anything. The way things ended…” I thought back to that steamy last kiss he’d given me, how it had been filled with passion and desperation. He’d helped me escape Wildman’s clubhouse, putting himself in danger. I knew that if any of the Red Devils had found out what he’d done, they wouldn’t have hesitated to kill him. The fact that they had shown up at his apartment just two days after I’d gotten there had given me reason to suspect that Rebel may have tipped them off to my whereabouts in order to avoid being killed by them.

  Now, staring into the quiet eyes that were watching me carefully, I knew that Rebel wouldn’t have turned me in. There was something about him separate from his outlaw persona, that told me he that wasn’t anything like the Red Devils that I’d known briefly.

  Rebel had stopped chewing and was looking at me expectantly, and I realized that he was waiting for me to continue. I grew warm beneath his gaze, remembering how easily he’d mastered my body with his hands and mouth, and lowered my eyes to my plate.

  “I wasn’t sure if you were still alive.”

  “And there was always the possibility that I wouldn’t find you.”

  I reluctantly raised my gaze to his. “I didn’t run away because I wanted to,” I reminded him. “And I didn’t know how to get a message to you. The men who showed up at your place broke the door in as I was going out the back window.”

  “How did you know they were Red Devils?” He picked up his coffee cup.

  “I saw them through the peep hole. How did they know I was there?”

  He shrugged, setting his cup down after taking a sip. “Not sure they were there for you. They ransacked the place.”

  I gave him a meaningful glare. “Like they were looking for money?”

  He grinned, the sexy smirk looking too damned good on his rugged face. He’d showered the night before, but he hadn’t shaved. I liked the scruffy look on his strong jaw. The minutes ticked by as I waited for him to respond. With a sigh of resignation, I went back to eating. The man was infuriating!

  We finished our breakfast in silence, and when I was done I got up to take my plate to the sink. I washed it off and put it in the drain rack before reaching for the dirty pan on the stove. All the while, I could not stop thinking about the sum of money that Rebel said I owed him, and wondering how exactly I was going to pay it back. It would take me years. Fuck, it had taken me years just to save up what I had. I thought that maybe I should take Della up on the suggestion she’d had that we rent an apartment together. I could save more money each month that way.

  “What are you thinking?”

  I started when Rebel came up behind me, turning slightly to see that he was too close. Instant heat surged through my body, the hair at the back of my neck rising from the heat of his breath. I took the plate that he was holding out to me and started to wash it.

  “I’m wondering how I’m going to pay you back.” I tried to calm my racing heart by breathing in slowly and ignoring the man behind me. That turned out to be impossible, because every time he exhaled it sent a shiver down my body.

  “I’m sure I can think of a way.”

  Was his nose in my hair? I held my breath, swallowing hard. The warmth of his body created an inferno inside me. I didn’t want to remember the way he’d been able to make me feel things deep inside with just a touch, but it was difficult not to. It had been so long since I’d given in to my sexual urges. There’d been plenty of men who’d tried to get me there, but none of them had been him.

  I rinsed his plate and set it in the drainer. I knew that he was still there, and yet I turned around anyway. Suddenly his arms were on either side of me, fencing me in against the sink. I caught my breath and raised my gaze to his, seeing the smoldering flame in his eyes. The stamp of raw desire on his face caught me unaware. Just a moment ago we’d been conversing like two normal people.

  Like friends, almost.

  “I’m not going to use my body to pay you back,” I said weakly. I wasn’t a whore.

  He laughed softly. “Baby, your cunt would have to be gold to be worth that kind of money.”

  The prick! I reached up to slap him, but he was ready for me, catching my wrist in mid air. The next thing I knew he’d pinned both of my arms behind my back and we were flush. I gasped, feeling his enormous erection against my lower belly, remembering just how satisfying his long, thick cock had felt inside of me. My pussy clenched with need. No! I refused to give in to my baser needs before I was ready. Four years ago I hadn’t had a say, but I did now, and I wasn’t about to let myself be used.

  “Let me‒”

  My words were cut off by the hard, firm pressure of Rebel’s lips. His kiss claimed my mouth with ease and expertise, and I hated him for it. I hated him because my will, already weakened, to give in to him was close behind. I struggled against his brutally hard body, closing my mind to all of the pleasures I knew he could give. Struggling against him was my undoing, because the only thing my brain registered was the hard cock that was digging into me. Liquid heat pooled between my legs, dragging a moan from me.

  My lips parted beneath his, allowing his tongue entry into my mouth. Our tongues embarked on a battle of give and take, tasting, exploring, and claiming one another. His groan vibrated against me. I knew that I was in trouble when he began to grind his hard-on against me, and the hands that were holding my wrists imprisoned at the small of my back tightened. He transferred both wrists into one of his
large hands and clamped the other one at my waist. I was weak with arousal by the time his hand glided up beneath my crop top to cup my breast.

  I pressed my flesh out instinctively, trembling wildly when he plucked and tweaked my nipple. Suddenly I was thrust back to four years earlier, when nothing had mattered except for the mind-numbing pleasure that had coursed through my body, allowing me to forget, if just for a moment, the impossible situation that I’d been thrown into. I’d willingly offered my body to Rebel back then, as I was doing now.

  I was so weak!

  I vaguely heard a phone ring, my whimpers all but drowning out the sound. Rebel groaned, pulling away. I was certain that my expression mirrored the raw lust that I saw on his face, with burning eyes and flaring nostrils. We were both out of breath. But by the time Rebel answered his phone, one would never have guessed that we’d been in the middle of consuming each other with a kiss. He sounded in control.

  “Yeah?” he growled, pulling away from me.

  I relaxed against the sink, gulping in deep breaths, my heart all but pounding out of my chest. How could I have let him get to me so fast? I watched, because I was too weak to move, as Rebel walked away from me. He was totally engrossed in his conversation, while I was left breathless and trembling with arousal. How could he turn it off so quickly?

  When he turned back toward me I could see that he was still sporting a strong erection. Our gazes met, and my clit throbbed.

  I had to get out of there!

  I ran to my bedroom and locked myself in to get dressed for work.

  Chapter 9

  Rebel

  Past

  “Everyone shut the fuck up!” Wildman shouted from his place at the head of the table. One of the club whores was sitting on his lap, naked and obviously high.

  It didn’t take long for everyone to quiet down and focus their attention on the bastard that was enveloped in a thick cloud of cigar smoke. The table was too small for all of us to sit at, so the men who hadn’t been able to get a seat found a place to lean against. It was obvious that the room had once been used as some kind of break room, the table not much more than an oblong, cafeteria-style table that you would see in a school. There was an old fridge against the wall, next to a small sink and a cupboard area. One large window, the kind that didn’t open up, gave off the only light and a view of an overgrown field beyond. The whole fucking clubhouse was a joke, just like Wildman.

  No serious MC that I knew of would hold church in a room that was so easily assessable. Hell, the one at Dark Menace was sound proof, windowless, and under tight security. Women weren’t allowed in. Personal files of all the members and clients were kept there, along with information on pending jobs and shit that involved other clubs. It was also where we kept the safes.

  It was the first time that I’d been in this room. Glancing around, I didn’t see anything that would be useful to my club, so I hoped the information that Wildman was about to divulge would make up for that. My president, Stone, and Lynch, the president of Wild Marauders, was getting impatient, especially after a move on Lynch’s woman, Kat, had been made. I hadn’t liked it, but I’d been involved in that mess. Thank fuck I’d managed to get a message to Stone about Kat’s whereabouts in time for her to be rescued before too much damage had been done. Fuck, she’d done her own damage by taking out Killer, the president of the club, who Wildman had wanted to patch over.

  Kat had done Wild Marauders, Dark Menace, and Phantom Riders a solid by taking him out.

  “Fucking Dark Menace has something that belongs to me,” Wildman grunted out, while playing with the whore’s tits. She seemed oblivious to what he was doing. “And we’re going to get her back.”

  Fuck, who was “she?”

  “Who?” Rocky asked, sucking on a joint.

  “My step-daughter.” Shocked murmurs traveled around the room at his comment.“Been looking for her and her fucking mother for years since they ran out on me. The bitch is dead, but I just found out Rachel is being held with Stone as collateral until a debt is paid by her brother-in-law.”

  “How’d you find that out?” Bud, his road captain, snarled.

  The grin that came over Wildman’s craggy face was anything but humorous. “Her brother-in-law is Ronald Manson. The stupid fuck shared some information with one of our boys when he stopped in at Ronald’s shop to get a tattoo. He was whining Dark Menace tacked on a large chunk of interest on some money he owed them,” he snorted. “Fuckers cut off his fucking fingers.”

  “How the hell he still doing tats?”

  “Cut them off his right hand, Ronald’s a lefty.”

  “Convenient,” someone murmured in a cynical tone.

  Wildman nodded, his tongue coming out to play with the piercing in his lip. “Yeah, I thought it could be a fucking set-up too. That’s why I sent a few of our brothers over to pick up Ronald and his bitch wife. She’s Rachel’s half-sister. I figured we’d use her to get to Rachel.”

  “Never knew you had a wife and step-daughter, brother. You don’t exactly come across as a family man.” My comment drew chuckles from the men, including Wildman.

  “That shit happened a long time ago. Kept the mother around because the girl was fucking hot. Got hotter as she got older. The mother watched over her like a fucking hawk, so I knew I’d have to bide my time until the girl was old enough to fuck.” I laughed along with him to show him that I was on board. I thought about Ginger and what I’d had to do to her to keep her alive. I wasn’t any better than this sick fuck, and it left a bitter taste in my mouth. “Then one day they just up and fucking disappeared.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t just kill the mother and fucking take the girl,” someone said, which was exactly what I’d been thinking.

  “What, you think I’m an animal?” Wildman laughed at his own joke. “I ain’t always been a sick fuck.” More laughter rippled throughout the room. I could believe that, and I wondered what had happened in his life to turn him into the monster that he was now. If I’d had to guess I would have said that it had a lot to do with all of the booze and drugs he consumed, but he didn’t seem in any hurry to share it with us.

  I remained quiet after that, deciding to gather as much information about Wildman’s plans as I could. I’d need to get a message to Stone about what was going on. I’d gotten wind that he had a woman, my gut telling me that it was the same one that Wildman wanted to get his hands on. His step-daughter? I could see it in his crazed eyes, he didn’t want a familial relationship with her. He was going to use her and defile her as he’d done to countless other innocent girls.

  “By the time church is over Dark Menace will have received a loud and clear message that I’m not fucking around.” He laughed gruffly. “And my step-daughter will know that I’m determined to get her back. She’ll come to me willingly if she wants to see her sister alive again.”

  Fuck. That was plain enough, but I was more concerned with the delivery of his message than the words themselves. It sounded as if I wouldn’t have time to tip Stone off that something was about to happen. Wildman didn’t do shit the way that other club presidents did. His holding church was more him telling his brothers what he’d already done than it was about bringing shit to the table for a vote. He was a fucking dictator, and his little army of soldiers was too stupid to know that this wasn’t how you ran a MC.

  “As soon as Ronald delivers my message to Stone I expect to hear from the bastard.” Wildman’s laugh was pure evil. “Stone, that is, not Ronald—he won’t be able to talk. I wish I could be there when Rachel sees what we’re going to do to her brother-in-law. That will be enough to convince her she’d better do as I say if she doesn’t want her sister to end up the same way.”

  I could only imagine what Wildman had in store for Ronald. I had just reached the conclusion that Wildman’s version of church was a fucking waste of time when things suddenly got interesting.

  “Now let’s get to the real business,” Wildman said seriously. “We’r
e here to discuss ending the three MCs that tried to end us at the Predator’s clubhouse. I want those fuckers underground.”

  “Gonna be hard to do, considering they practically wiped out the Predators and half of our brothers,” a man who had managed to get a seat at the table spoke up. Wildman glared at him, and the man shrugged. “It’s the truth, Prez. And Lynch’s bitch killed their president,” he reminded him.

  I hid my smile. The Predators hadn’t been a threat to us. They’d been a newer club that had been looking to ramp up their reputation by affiliating themselves with the Red Devils. That had backfired on them when Wildman, seeing the opportunity to bring his numbers up, had coerced Killer into patching over his entire club by threatening harm to their women and families.

  All that had gone to shit when Lynch and Stone had gone to the Predators’ clubhouse in Coös County to rescue Kat. They’d done some serious damage by the time it was over.

  “We gonna go after them at the same time?” a brother leaning against the fridge asked.

  Snorting loudly, Wildman snapped, “No dumb ass.” He took a deep puff of his cigar, releasing a thick plume of blue smoke right into the face of the chick that was half-sleeping on his lap. “We’ll start with Dark Menace, since we’ll be dealing with them soon. We’ll draw them away from their clubhouse and when they’re too far away to do anything about it we’ll go in, shoot anything that moves, and burn them down.”

  Several grunts and murmurs went around the room, followed by head nods that indicated that the group was on board with Wildman’s plan.

  “We should take their bitches, though,” a brother by the name of Horace said. “We can always use new pussy ‘round here.”

  “So how we gonna draw them away from their clubhouse?” Rocky asked, his eyes glued to the tits on display.

  Wildman rubbed the lower half of his face before tugging thoughtfully on his beard. “I’m thinking that when I get my hands on my step-daughter, Stone will want her back. We’ll have control, and the say on where the rendezvous will take place.”