So Hot MC Boxset

by Blair Grey

  “I believe you.” She took a deep breath as if building up her strength to tell me her secret. “I was there the night your mother was brought to Horney’s.”

  “Who took my mother there?” I felt bile rising in my throat.

  “Some man who wore a plain black t-shirt and a ball cap. Only I saw his tat peeking out from underneath the sleeve. He belonged to the Iron Cobras.”

  “Do you know his name, or would you recognize him if you saw him?” My head spun with that she’d said.

  She shook her head. “He took the ballcap off once to reposition it. It looked like he’d shaved his head, or he was bald already, I was a little drunk, I’m not gonna lie. I have no idea what his name was, no one called him by it. I really don’t know if I would recognize him now or not.”

  “Damn.” Her news wasn’t good at all. Here I was with some hard evidence that my father’s MC was involved with my mother’s death, but nothing to really hand my father so he could handle things.

  “The guy and your mother took a table, then he went to the bar,” Eve went on. “I saw him putting some white powder into one of the beer bottles. When he took the drinks back, your mother shook her head, refusing the beer. So, he went back to the bar and got a bottle of water. He didn’t put any powder in it, he did pull out a syringe and pushed something clear out of it into the cap of the unopened water bottle.”

  “Someone from my father’s MC poisoned my mother?” My stomach knotted as I felt like I would throw up. It was bad enough that one of the men my parents trusted had taken Mom to a place like that one. But to have poisoned her too?

  “Worse.” Eve took my hand to help steady me. “He handed her over to the Irish Reapers. He handed her over to Cane.”

  I felt like I might blackout and sat down hard on my bed. “And what did Cane do to her?” I wasn’t sure I could handle knowing the truth.

  Eve patted my hand to comfort me. “He didn’t do what you’re thinking. But he did shoot her up with heroin and then he and a couple of other guys in his MC took her out the back. She wasn’t conscious at that time. When they came back, she wasn’t with them.”

  “Someone from the Iron Cobras took her to the Irish Reapers so her blood would be on their hands instead of his.” I buried my face in my hands as my entire body began to tremble.

  “I’m sorry, Sarah.” Eve got on her knees in front of me. “I really am sorry.”

  “Sorry for what?” I heard a man say.

  Pulling my head up, I saw Axel through blurry eyes. “Axel? What are you doing here?”

  “Sorry for what?” He grabbed Eve by the arm, yanking her up. “Tell me now.”

  “I can’t.” She looked at me for help.

  I didn’t know what to do. But I knew the scales had been tipped. “Wait downstairs, Eve. I’ll make sure you’re all kept safe. Don’t leave. For your honesty, you and anyone you fear will become victims will be under the protection of the Iron Cobras for as long as necessary.”

  Nodding, she left Axel and me alone in my bedroom. I got up, wrapping my arms around him. I just needed to feel his strength. “What the hell is going on, Sarah?”

  “I need your help. We all need your help, Axel. I know who killed my mother.” The floodgates opened and I lost myself in the most horrible grief I’d ever experienced.

  This will mean war.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Axel

  I had to talk to Eve as Sarah was inconsolable. Leaving Sarah alone as she’d turned away from me to fall on her bed and bury her face in a pillow, I knew she had to cry it out at least a little. The news of knowing who’d killed her mother had to have been overwhelming.

  Going downstairs, I overheard the girls talking and stopped before they saw me. What I’d thought I heard couldn’t have been.

  “Okay, Eve, so what’s she going to do then? Is Sarah still going to help us keep our jobs by giving herself to Cane or what?” Sandy asked.

  “I don’t think she’ll be handing herself over to Cane anymore. Not after what I’ve told her about him,” Eve replied, leaving me wondering what the fuck she was talking about.

  Bounding down the stairs, I looked Eve right in the eyes. “What was Sarah going to do, Eve? And I want to know every bit of it.”

  “It doesn’t matter now. She’s found out some things to make her change her mind.” She took a seat on the sofa, picking up a tiny sandwich. “She hasn’t told you anything?”

  “She’s crying her eyes out. All she managed to get out was that she knows who killed her mother.” I wasn’t going to let up on Eve about what she’d just said. “What I need to know right now is what the fuck you were saying about Sarah giving herself to Cane.”

  With a deep sigh, Eve finally understood that I wasn’t going to give up. “Look, Sarah’s a stand-up kind of woman. And she knew that she had to have our backs. She’d made us promises that she planned on keeping.”

  “And you would let her hand herself over to a man like Cane Brumley just so you could keep your jobs?” I shook my head, not believing how selfish these girls were. “She’s not like you are. She’s an educated woman with integrity. What do you think would happen to her mind if she gave herself to an animal like Cane?”

  Eve rolled her eyes. “Axel, don’t be so dramatic. We take our clothes off for money and none of us even take drugs or drink excessively to do it. It’s just a body to us. I think Sarah is forward-thinking enough to know that what she would give Cane would only be her body. He couldn’t have her heart, her soul. And that man is just like you are. Give him a piece of ass and he’s had all of that woman he cares to have.”

  “You don’t know me, Eve.” I looked at the rest of the girls. Some of whom I’d had sex with and some not. But I didn’t want any of them. I only wanted Sarah. I’d only wanted Sarah since we’d started working together. And I’d had her, but I still wanted her. “People change. And if you think Sarah is the same type of person that you girls are, you’re wrong. What you would have her do is unthinkable. The fact she even thought about doing it tells me she’s got so much guilt going on inside of her over what she has to do to you than I even understood.”

  Eve stood, putting her hand on her hip as she eyed me. “Axel, what do you care if Sarah lets Cane fuck her?”

  It felt like I’d been punched directly in the gut. The thought of Sarah with that man or any other man literally made me sick. “Don’t.” I shook my head. “Don’t talk about her like that. She’s not you, Eve. She’s kind, caring, and what she’s agreed to tells me she’s the type of person who would give anyone the shirt off her back. But some people would know better than to ask her to do that for them. You seven should know not to have asked her to do something completely against her moral code. There are other jobs out there. And there are other cities too. If you have to strip, just move. It’s not like we won’t give you some kind of pay to get you out of town if that’s what you need. We’re not heartless. But I can’t say the same for you.” They’d made me sick and I turned to leave them.

  But then I remembered the real reason I’d come to talk to Eve in the first place. Stopping my hasty retreat, I tried to take a few deep breaths to calm down.

  “You’re right, Axel,” Lacy said quietly. “We weren’t thinking about the kind of woman Sarah really is. We were putting her in our shoes, and she doesn’t belong in them at all.”

  Mumbles told me that most of the others agreed with Lacy. So, I turned around to look at them again. “I’m glad you understand her better now.” I looked at Eve - as what I had to ask she had the answer to. “Eve, tell me what you told Sarah about who killed her mother.”

  Eve looked at the others around her. “I don’t want to let them hear what I have to say. It’s for their own protection.”

  Understanding, I held out my arm to gesture to the dining area off the back of the kitchen. “This way, then.”

  She followed me to a more private area. Wringing her hands, she looked a little worried. “I know that Sarah said you
r MC would protect us all, but I would like to hear that from you, Axel.”

  “Tell me what you’ve got, and I’ll tell you if that’s the case or not.” I wasn’t going to hand the woman a thing. Especially since she’d been so eager to see Sarah hand herself over to Cane.

  “I saw Sarah’s mother in Horney’s Babes a couple of years ago. She came in with a man. He was big, you know – muscular. His head was shaved, or he was bald, not sure which. A ballcap made it impossible to see his face clearly. He didn’t wear anything with the Iron Cobras’ patch on it. But I saw a tat peeking out from under his shirt sleeve. It was one like yours.”

  “So, you think a man from my MC took Sarah’s mother into that club. But that doesn’t mean he killed her.” I didn’t want to start thinking one of my brothers could do something like that. “Her mother hung out a lot with various members of the MC after Sarah left town to go to college.”

  She nodded. “I don’t think he killed her. I saw him put something in a beer he gave to her. She refused that drink. When he went to get her a bottle of water, I saw him inject something into it through the plastic lid. It’s not that uncommon for someone to put something in a woman’s drink in that place. So, I didn’t pay much attention.”

  “Well, what did you pay attention to?” I still wasn’t sure that I trusted her. It seemed she was trying to pin a murder on one of my brothers.

  “I saw that man go get Cane after Sarah’s mother got real loopy. Cane and a couple of other guys came to the table and took the woman with them. The guy who had brought her had left – I guess out the back way. I didn’t see him again. But I did see the woman in the back with Cane and the other men from the Irish Reapers. Cane shot her up with heroin, then they left out the back way and a couple of hours later they came in without the woman. I heard rumors later about the wife of the president of the Iron Cobras being found in a roadside park. They’d said she’d either accidentally overdosed on drugs or had committed suicide.”

  “So, Cane killed Sarah’s mother.” I felt light-headed as anger flushed through me. Then I hurried back up to Sarah, finding her whimpering as she lay on her bed. Lying beside her, I held her in my arms. “It’s going to be okay, baby. We’re going to make them pay for what they took from you.”

  Turning in my arms to face me, she ran her arms around me, hugging me. “I think my mother would want us to leave those men up to God to punish. I don’t think she’d want my father to get hurt.”

  “He won’t. We’re not afraid of anyone, Sarah. We’re not the kind of men who sit back and hope God or someone else will take the revenge we’re meant to take. It’s up to us to punish the men who hurt our president – our brother. I know you don’t understand. But you have to respect our ways and the vows we’ve made to one another.”

  She pulled her face back to look at me through tear-swollen eyes that were still the most beautiful eyes I’d ever had the pleasure of looking into. “I don’t want to lose you or my father, Axel.”

  Kissing her on the forehead, I felt something stir in my heart. “Baby, you won’t lose either of us. We won’t go in like a bunch of idiots.” I felt she needed to know that her idea of giving herself to anyone wasn’t a thing I would allow. “Eve told me what you were going to do about getting them to be able to keep their jobs at our club. And while I think that was a heroic idea, you can’t ever do anything like that. I won’t let you.”

  “It’s not like I wanted to do that, Axel. I just didn’t think there was anything else that would have them being able to keep their jobs. And I didn’t come up with the idea.” She sighed, then rested her head against my chest. “But once it had been told to me, I did feel like it would work.”

  “You don’t put yourself on the line for anyone like that, Sarah. You’re not like them. You’re a respectable woman.” I wanted to tell her that she was my woman but knew now was not the time to say anything like that. “Plus, your father would kill you and the whole MC of the Irish Reapers if you would’ve gone through with that.”

  “So Eve told you about my mom’s murder?” She looked at me again.

  “She did.” I wasn’t sure about saying anything about a man from our MC being the one who took her into that place though. “I think it’s better if I tell your father her story without including the part where Eve thinks one of our brothers took your mother to be killed. I’m not sure what he would do if he thought one of his own had done such a horrible thing.”

  “But we need to know who it was, Axel.” She searched my eyes, hers moving rapidly. “My father’s life might be in danger from one of his own. He needs to know that.”

  “I think that when everyone in our MC learns that we’re going after the men who murdered the president’s wife if the culprit lies among us, he will surely begin to stand out. It’s best he thinks we’re unaware of his part in the heinous act.” I knew anyone would mess up, given enough rope to hang themselves with. “Trust me, baby. You go along with what I say, okay?”

  “If you think that’s best, then I will go along with that story. But you need to help me hide those women downstairs. And I may as well hide too.” She leaned her head back against my chest. “At least until you guys take care of Cane. Once he’s out of the picture, me and those girls are free.”

  An idea began to build inside my mind. “Since you were up for handing yourself over to Cane, would you be willing to be bait?”

  “Bait?” She looked at me with a confused expression. “Like Dad will allow that, Axel.”

  “He might.” I smiled as I thought that going to Carl with a plan would be better than going to him with the truth and no plan of how to get justice. “As long as he knew you were safe, he would go along with it, I bet.” I could make sure she was safe.

  “I trust you, Axel. If you say we’ll be safe, then I believe you. And I’m sorry for not coming to you and telling you about what they wanted me to do. I knew what you would say and guess I didn’t want to argue with you.”

  “There’s nothing to argue about. I would never let you do anything like that. But I will help you be a different kind of hero if that’s your thing.” I kissed her on the lips, lightly. “And when this is all over, I want to change some things.”

  “What kinds of things would you like to change?” She wore a frown. “Like me, and the club, and not working there anymore?”

  “No.” I wasn’t going to let her in on the changes I wanted to make. She would have to be patient. “You just let me do what I need to do. This will all be over before you know it. And then we can get to living our lives without the fear of anything looming over our heads.”

  “That sounds nice. Almost too good to be true, but nice.” With a heavy sigh, she snuggled into me. “Can we just lay here like this for a little while longer?

  “Sure.” I kissed her on top of the head and held her the way she wanted me to.

  There had never been a time that I’d held a woman, simply because she needed me to. I’d been a selfish lover, a selfish man, and a selfish brother at times. I’d hidden things from my president that I never thought I would.

  It’s time to change the man I’ve been and begin to turn into the man I want to be.

  Chapter Twenty

  Sarah

  Axel called my father to come to my place to tell him the news. Somehow, it didn’t feel right not to let him know that the man who’d taken Mom to that disgusting strip joint was quite possibly one of his MC brothers. I had to stand with Axel on what he thought was the best thing to do though. “Do you have any idea who the man could be that Mom would feel comfortable enough to go to a place like that?”

  The redness still hadn’t left my father’s face. His angry reaction to what Axel had told him was still prevalent in his expression. “I knew those fuckers did it. I knew it! The fucking cops wouldn’t listen though. And our MC didn’t have any evidence for us to take retaliation on the Irish Reapers. I’d always had the gut feeling that they’d killed her. But now I know that Cane son-of-a-bit
ch had a hand in it. I want the names of the other men who left the club with him when they took my wife out of there.”

  I was sure Eve would give us the names. We’d told my father that one of the girls who’d worked there had told us about Mom. We hadn’t told him who it was. I thought it best to protect Eve. “I’ll get their names. There’s no reason for you to hurt someone who wasn’t involved in this.”

  His ice-blue eyes came to mine. “Bring the canary to me, Sarah. Let me ask her some questions.”

  Shaking my head, I didn’t want him to intimidate her. “Dad, I think it’s best if she tells me what she has to say.” I didn’t want him getting the knowledge that someone in his club had taken my mother to the last place she’d seen – alive. “She’s already pretty shaken up. You’d just make it worse. You’re kinda scary.”

  Nodding, he knew he could be intimidating. “I need the other men’s names. And I need a clear description of the man who took Lisa into that hell hole. Being bald isn’t going to cut it. I’m sure she can recall more than just that about the man if she tries hard enough.”

  “Dad, I’m sure we can begin to narrow it down when you come up with a list of men who Mom felt comfortable enough to hang out with.” I knew that had to be the key. My mother didn’t hang out with just anybody.

  “Your mother was a social butterfly.” My father’s response kind of floored me.

  “What are you talking about?” The mother I knew wasn’t a social butterfly at all.

  “After you left to go live with your nana and go to college, your mother really spread her social wings. She hung out with me a lot at the MC’s bar. She and some of the other girls would have girls’ nights out. I didn’t ask where they went, and your mother didn’t offer me any ideas about it either. She was living wild and free for the first time in her life.” He smiled and even seemed to glow a bit. “I loved seeing her that way.”