AJ

by Jessie Cooke

  “Sure,” Madison said. She was afraid if she didn’t talk through what she was feeling, the emotions would eat her alive. She followed Beck into the living room and took a seat while Beck went into the kitchen. A few seconds later she returned with the tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and two spoons. She handed one to Madison and sat down next to her. Beck took a giant scoop out onto her spoon and then offered the tub to Madison. After she scooped hers out Beck said:

  “So, they told you they want you in Boston—is that what’s got you pissed off?”

  “You know everything,” Madison said.

  Beck laughed. “I wish. The old man keeps me as updated as he can, or as he thinks I can handle. But I suspect there are still things he doesn’t tell me. Last night after he talked to Dax, he told me Lion was on his way to get you. I did suggest he tell you before Lion gets here, but he was afraid to spook you too early.”

  “He was afraid I’d take off?”

  “Yeah.” Beck took another scoop of ice cream and then said, “Can I ask why you don’t want to go to Boston? I was under the impression you had a good relationship with your father.”

  “I do,” Madison said, “and I miss him. I’m just pissed that I’m being carted around like I’m someone’s fucking property. Why didn’t my dad call me and talk to me about this? Why didn’t he come get me himself? And why did they let me get settled here and start this job I like so much and then suddenly decide I need to be moved? They won’t answer any of my questions. I just get told, this is what’s going to happen, whether I like it or not. Then to boot, they’re going to have me riding over two and half thousand miles on the back of a bike with that Sasquatch. Who the fuck is he?”

  Beck laughed at her slightly mean description of Lion and said, “I don’t know Lion, but the old man does. He has a lot of respect for the guy, and Jace doesn’t hand out respect easily. I’d say that he’s probably the best Dax had or he wouldn’t have sent him for you. Despite what a lot of people might think about your father, Dax cares about him, which means he cares about you by extension.” She took another huge scoop of ice cream and said, “As far as being told what to do, I can totally feel your pain there. I don’t go for that shit any more than you do. I love my man, but I’m nobody’s property. They should have given you a choice and if you don’t want to go, or if you’re sick and tired of hiding out, that should be up to you.”

  “I am sick of hiding. I want my life back. But...” Madison stopped there. She couldn’t imagine that Rebekah Golden had been afraid of anything in her life and she was ashamed to admit that she was scared to death of the Garibaldis.

  “But you’re scared,” Beck finished for her. “And that’s probably the smartest thing you’ll admit to all night. I don’t know Angelo Garibaldi or his kids, but from everything I’ve heard lately, they’re not to be fucked with. I’d be scared too, if they were after me.”

  Madison smiled. “I imagined there was nothing in the world you were scared of.”

  Beck laughed and blew a stray curl out of her face before saying, “Girl, some days I’m scared of my own shadow, but if you tell anyone I admitted to that, I’ll stab you.”

  Madison laughed but she wasn’t completely sure Beck was kidding. They ate their ice cream in silence for a few minutes and then with a sigh Madison said, “I know they’re all just trying to help me, and I guess I don’t really have a choice...not if I want to stay alive. It’ll be nice to see my dad...” She wasn’t looking directly at Beck, but she saw the face the other woman made from the corner of her eye. She turned to look at her and the look was gone. “Beck, can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure.”

  “Why doesn’t anyone like my old man?”

  Beck chuckled and said, “For that, my dear, we’ll need another bucket of ice cream.”

  17

  Phoenix, Arizona

  Madison was up with the sun the next morning. She was a nervous wreck about the trip to Boston and having to ride on the back of a Harley with a guy she didn’t know for four days. She was happy that Finn, Gaston, and Bubba would at least be there along the way. She didn’t know any of them well, but they were at least familiar to her. She tried to concentrate on what Beck said about this guy being “the best” or Dax wouldn’t have sent him, and take comfort in that. She was a little excited to finally get to see the ranch and meet Dax Marshall and all of the men her father had talked to her about over the years.

  She remembered being a little jealous of Dax when she was younger. Hawk’s dark eyes always softened when he talked about him. He called him a “boy” and Madison could tell that her dad felt protective of him, paternal even. She’d outgrown the jealousy, but she was still curious about Dax. She’d done her own research over the years on the internet and whenever Hawk visited, she would have a whole slew of new questions for him about Dax and the club. As far as she knew, Hawk always answered her questions honestly...if not completely. The ranch sounded like an interesting place and the people there sounded even more interesting. That was what she had to tell herself whenever she thought about how much she hated leaving the garden she’d planted with her own hands, and her new friends she’d made...Tommy, Jessie, Ajei, and Rock. Hopefully someday this hiding bullshit would be over and she’d be free to settle wherever she wanted. She was sure that would be Phoenix now, and she hoped Tommy would still have a place for her there.

  But for now, she was resolved to be brave and do what they told her. She dressed, packed her bag with the few things she’d bought with money Jace had given her since she’d been there, and she was having coffee with Beck and Jace on the front porch when Lion drove in. Jace must have been able to read her face because he said, “I promise you, Madison, you’re in good hands.”

  She nodded. “Thank you...both of you, for what you’ve done for me these past weeks. I’m sorry, for all the trouble I gave you at first.”

  Beck laughed and Jace smiled as she said, “Baby, he’s been with me for a couple of years now; crazy females don’t scare him anymore.”

  Madison was laughing at that when Finn came over and told her they were ready. She stood up and picked up her bag, said goodbye to Jace and Beck once more, and followed him over. The man they called Lion was already on his bike. He had on a helmet and sunglasses, and all that hair she’d seen the day before in Jace’s office was nowhere to be seen. Madison hadn’t pictured him as the man bun type. She actually smiled at the image. He nodded at her and put his feet on the ground. Holding onto the handlebars he stood up to make room for her to get on the bike. Finn took her bag and with another nervous sigh she swung her leg over and settled in behind him. She was thankful that the bike had a sissy bar she could lean back into; at least she wouldn’t have to depend on his body to hold herself on the bike.

  She put her feet up on the pegs and when Lion seemed satisfied she was settled, he sat down and started the bike. “Hold onto me,” Lion said, in a deep, gravelly voice. She realized that was the first time she’d heard him talk. He hadn’t said anything to her the day before. He’d let Jace and the other guys do the talking and her face went hot now as she remembered the fit she’d thrown. Reluctantly she put her arms around him and linked her fingers together in front. Without another word, he reached down and grabbed her arms and pulled her in so tightly that there was no space at all between them. She was uncomfortable, being so close to a man she didn’t know. She decided to be thankful for small favors...whatever cologne he was wearing smelled damned good.

  She saw Finn look back and Lion nodded at him before he took off, slowly. Lion released the brake and turned the throttle gently and the bike began to move. Madison had been on a bike a lot lately, but before these guys had kidnapped her from the bar, it had been years. When she was a little girl, her favorite part of her father’s visits had been the Harley rides. Strangely, it was just at that moment that she remembered why they’d stopped. She was about fifteen years old and Hawk had come to see her. They were on their way out to dinner
and they’d only gotten a few miles from the house when they stopped for a red light. Another Harley pulled up alongside them, and then another on the other side. Madison heard another behind them and she felt her father’s muscles go rigid just before he popped the clutch on the bike and hit the throttle. They took off, through the red light and with the front wheel in the air. The next fifteen minutes were the most terrifying of her life...until she ran into the Garibaldis, of course. The other bikers were chasing them and thankfully, her father outran them. When the chase was finally over and he’d made sure she was okay she asked him what that was about, but he never told her. He never took her out on the Harley again either. From then on when he came to visit, he didn’t wear his vest and he drove a rental car.

  Madison’s thoughts returned to the present when she felt Lion pull the bike out onto the main road and accelerate. She could feel the Harley come to life underneath her, like a living thing. She could also feel the muscles in his legs contract against her thigh when he changed gears, and the force of the wind against him caused their bodies to meld even closer together. Madison felt a chill run through her even though the wind was warm. Maybe it was because she hadn’t been this close to a man in a long time, not that Lion was her usual type. Madison had always gone for the clean-cut types. She liked intelligent guys and she also liked men who had a sense of style. The last boyfriend she had before all the shit with the Garibaldis went down had been an English professor. Things with him hadn’t worked out the way she’d wanted them to, but he had been the kind of man she imagined herself ending up with one day. Lion was far from that image...but sometimes the libido didn’t discriminate.

  Lion could feel how tense the girl was when she climbed on his bike. She seemed to loosen up some by the time they were out on the road. He was glad he’d taken the time to throw on the sissy bar before leaving Boston. She didn’t seem overly used to being on a bike and he’d hate to have her go flying off the back when he hit a curve.

  He’d been surprised when he saw her. Lion met Hawk ten years earlier when he was only sixteen years old. The first thought he had was how appropriate the road name was. The old man had beady little dark eyes that sat too close to his long, pointed nose. He looked like a predator and always seemed to be scanning his surroundings, looking for something to attack. The girl, on the other hand, looked like she might be pretty hot without the disguise they had her in. He saw the blue contacts slip the day before when she’d yelled at Jace and tears had filled her eyes. The eyes underneath them were a light brown, like milk chocolate. Lion always had a thing for women with brown eyes, and he liked brunettes, which thanks to the brassy color of Madison’s blonde hair, he thought she probably was. She wasn’t very tall, but her body was curvy. She had a small waist and a nice set of boobs, which were currently pushed into his back. He could feel her thighs against his and he felt the muscles in them every time she leaned into a turn with him. He was going to have to think of his grandmother in her underwear for the next four days to keep his cock from reacting to the woman on the back of his bike. Even if she wasn’t Grant “Hawk” Benning’s daughter, he’d never make a move on a woman that Dax had sent him to protect. Madison was his responsibility for the next two and a half thousand miles and protecting her would be his only priority.

  They stopped in Tucson for breakfast. Madison didn’t eat much and only spoke when one of the guys spoke to her. Lion didn’t fault her for that since he did the same. He liked the young guys that Jace had sent along on the trip just fine, but besides the fact that he just wasn’t much of a talker, he didn’t feel like he had anything in common with any of them. He was barely twenty-six years old, but in his mind he felt much older. Lion had been raised by his grandmother, an “odd” woman, to say the least. But he’d loved her and he’d spent his life fighting for her. Once she died, he took up with the MC because in his mind they had been the only ones around who hadn’t poked fun at the “crazy old voodoo woman.” And he knew from growing up south of Boston that as a Skull, no one would dare disrespect him, at least to his face. Ironically, his choice to become a biker had been because he’d believed that once he put on that vest, he’d have more peace in his life...and so far, he’d been right.

  He finished his breakfast and coffee quickly and while the rest of them ate theirs, and in his opinion talked and laughed way too much, he went outside and smoked until they were finished and finally ready to get back on the road. This time when Madison climbed on the bike behind him she wrapped her arms around him without his having to tell her. The fact that he liked that so much worried him...just a little.

  18

  Las Vegas, Nevada

  It was about an hour before sundown when the men rolled into Las Vegas. The five of them followed Jace until he pulled his bike into the parking lot of a hotel and casino on Fremont Street. AJ breathed a sigh of relief as he parked the bike and pulled off his helmet. He wasn’t used to these long rides like the other guys were.

  “We’ve got four rooms. Vic and Toad, you can room up. Boots and Streak, you two are together. AJ, you’ve got your own. Boots, go ahead and check us in and we’ll meet up in the buffet downstairs in two hours. That’ll give you all time to shower and change because you all stink.”

  The guys chuckled and they all grabbed the small bags they’d packed and followed Jace inside. The casino was full and filled with smoke and the sounds of slot machines jangling in the background. As they walked through toward the hotel side AJ couldn’t help but notice that they hardly drew any attention. Even in Phoenix when they went out in their colors, people stared at them...and waited, AJ thought. He wasn’t sure what they were waiting for, maybe to see if the men were there to stir up trouble. But that was what it seemed like to him, like they were all waiting, for something, holding their breath, even. But not in Vegas. It occurred to AJ that if a person wanted to become invisible, Vegas just might be the place to go.

  Once he had his room key he made his way upstairs and took a few minutes to lie down on the bed and take stock of what he was doing. He should be in Tempe, meeting with Simone and an interested buyer she had for the business. He hadn’t told his sister yet, but he planned on putting a chunk of the money into a trust fund for the niece he had yet to meet and then he was going to split the rest of the profits with Yanaha and Sam. From the looks of the restaurant, they weren’t hurting for cash, but that didn’t matter; neither was he. That money was what their father worked for his entire life and AJ already had an idea of what he wanted to use his half for. What Yanaha and Sam chose to use theirs for was up to them.

  But...instead of being in Tempe, he was in Las Vegas and he still didn’t really know what he was doing there. Jace had vaguely told him they might need to know where to find the safe room in the mansion AJ had consulted on. What they needed to find it for he didn’t know; how they were going to get into the house to find it, he didn’t know either. He was smart enough to know that the possibility of any of its being legal were slim. But strangely enough, although AJ had walked on the right side of the law his entire life, he still trusted Jace. Maybe it was naiveté, but despite the fact that he was the president of a 1% MC Jace seemed like a really good man. While AJ was staying with the club, he’d found out that Jace had an autistic sister who lived about four hours away in a home in New Mexico. Jace took at least one day a week to go and visit her, and the guys said he had his sister home with him and Beck for all the holidays and her birthday. AJ also respected the way Jace treated his wife. Beck could be difficult, to say the least. But, in two months, AJ hadn’t heard the man breathe a word about her that wasn’t positive. They’d gone to the bar many times without her since she was pregnant and not drinking...and never once had he seen Jace show any interest in any other women. Jace Bell was intelligent, polite, respectful and loyal, and those were qualities that AJ respected.

  On the other hand, he’d spent some time the night before doing what he maybe should have done a year before. He went online and did som
e research about the Garibaldis. There were a ton of news articles and interviews about them, and what he discovered made him shudder at the thought of sharing meals with the family and taking his fiancée around them. Angelo and his “associates” were tied to or suspected of being tied to a parcel of major crimes. There was extortion, money laundering, kidnapping, and even murder. They had also been suspected of human trafficking and had ties to two major brothels in Vegas, one of which had been shut down for hiring underage girls and serving alcohol to minors.

  Angelo had never been convicted of anything and neither had his sons, but that wasn’t to say that none of them had ever been arrested. They all had been, and many times. He found out that the reason Anthony wasn’t around when he and Pam had visited Vegas the year before was that at that time he was being held for murder. He also found out that the family had been accused of witness tampering many times and just before those murder charges against Anthony were dropped, there was an explosion in a safe house where one civilian and three law officers died. So, while he might be naive where Jace and the MC were concerned, he thought he’d be even more remiss by not helping them bring this family down, if that’s what this was all about.