by Simone Elise
“You didn’t do it did you?”
“I’m wearing them now aren’t I?” She arches her eyebrows at me, as if her wearing them was the answer.
Well she was wearing them, but if I had it my way, she’ll be out of them soon. I took my top off, and noticed her eyes run over my chest.
“Is there a part of you that isn’t tattooed?” She asks with wonder.
I smirked, and point to the centre of my chest. “Still missing her.”
“Who?”
“My woman’s name.” I say, seeing her slowly understand.
“I thought the woman gets the biker name. I didn’t know the biker also got her name in return.”
“Usually they don’t. But I’ll do it for the woman that I call mine.”
“I see it’s still blank and you were with Olivia for how many years?” She dips her toes in the pool.
“Yeah well I told you about Olivia. I wasn’t good enough for her. Was always waiting for her to walk out.”
She nods her head and cocks me a smile. “Do you have any pool toys?”
“What are you? Two?” I scoffed. “No I don’t own one pool toy.”
“Bugger. I feel like floating in a donut.”
“Like I said. Two.”
She giggles and I walked towards her, placing my hands on her hips. “How hot are you Ivory?”
She inhales sharply, her eyes dropping to my hands on her. She then looks me back in the eyes. “Hot enough to be swimming in my underwear.”
I lean in my lips going on her, and she takes a step back, like she always does, when I approach her. But instead of being backed against a wall like normal. She steps back, falling into the pool. Her hands going out but I don’t catch her. Instead she falls with a splash.
I laugh as she surfaces. “Uncool Striking.” She shakes her head.
“Well if you weren’t so determined to get away from me. It wouldn’t have happened.”
“You make me nervous.” And she splashes water at me. She then stands up, the water just below her breasts and I notice that light pink bra had gone see through. “Are you coming in, or just standing there?” she pouts.
I push my jeans down, and go to the edge as she goes to swims away from the edge.
I slip into the water, just in time to extend and arm around her waist, stopping her from swimming away from me. I pull her to my chest, and she floats back to me. Her back going against my chest.
“Now what are you going to do?” I whisper into her ear, locking one arm around her body.
I was expecting her to push my arm away, break my grip on her. But she doesn’t instead she turns in my arm, and faces me.
And she is the one to kiss me. It’s soft and gentle just like her and as she pulls back, my grip on her disappears. And I’m stunned. Till she splashes me with water, and smirks.
“Oh. It’s on.” I say, watching her swim away from me giggling.
12
Kace
“Want to explain the pink underwear?” Prince said, standing by me next to the indoor pool. “Thought you never used the pool?” he adds and I through the cleaning mixture in and turn to face him.
Ivory had stripped of her underwear and went home in her clothes. Knowing she was wearing no underwear nearly killed me however her stripping in front of me was up there.
“Keeping your private life, private. I get it.” Prince smirked. “So why am I here?”
“You’ve finally got your wish.”
He arches his eyebrows. I had his attention now. “I appointed a new crew chief.”
“What?” Prince looked at me with a blank expression. “Who?”
“Ivory.”
And he rolled his eyes. “Should have seen this coming since you shared my spare room with her. Fuck knows the marks on my wall from the bed posts tell a story.”
I didn’t comment. Just like I hadn’t when he was fishing for a story the morning after that night. Ivory left and Prince wanted answers, on how she was. I kept my mouth shut then and that wasn’t changing now.
“You know you and her will clash right?” he said.
“I know, but she brings the edge I needed.”
He whacks me on the back. “I’m not even offended. Fuck I’d pick Ivory Henderson over me too.”
I nodded my head and then Prince noted the time and we had a table meeting in an hour. So that meant I was heading for the clubhouse, as well as every other King Deceiver table member. After all we weren’t normal one percent. We had lower motorcycle gangs that did the grunt work. Pushed the drugs, did the runs, we were the ones that collected the profit. We only stepped in when things went sour, and a higher decision needed to be made.
After all we had our years as the grunt workers.
IVORY
Okay. I was the first to admit, when it came to food I ate like a little pig. It didn’t matter what I ate. I was lucky to keep the same body weight. Elle had the same thing. They call it good genes. I think I was lucky to not be the size of a couch.
Gabe used to make fun of how much I ate. Now we didn’t speak and it hurt.
I even called him after I agreed to working with Kace. I knew he wouldn’t take it well. But I hoped we were considered even for him eloping.
However he didn’t answer and I couldn’t help but think it had something to do with her. Gabe and I never fought. So right now I was eating my emotions in pizza.
A knock on my apartment door caught my attention and my heart raced the only person to come here would be Gabe. I got up in a flash, answering the door, forgetting I’m not wearing pants.
I opened the door expecting to see Gabe. But it’s not him.
It’s Lincoln. Who is looking me up and down with a frown. “Where are your pants?”
I scattered back into the apartment and grabbed a skirt putting it on. “It’s hot.” I say in my defence.
He rolled his eyes. “You know you wouldn’t have this problem in one of my apartments?”
“You know I refuse to live in one.” I walked back to him and he hadn’t stepped inside. As if he would catch something if he did. “What are you doing here?” I finally ask the question.
“It’s about Gabe.”
“What about him?”
“Olivia cleared out his accounts and left.”
My mouth dropped. “You’re joking?”
Lincoln shakes his head and I curse.
“How bad is he?”
“Bad enough that he doesn’t want you to know.”
“Yeah cause I’ll kill the bitch.” I wasn’t even joking. If I had it in me I would kill her. But instead I was going to do something just as bad and kill her social status. After all I had seen her Instagram posts. She was living the high life at country resorts. “Where is he?” I asked, and Lincolns reveals to me he is living with Mom and Dad.
Which made things worse.
“Another thing Ivory.” Links paused, looking hesitate. “She took the NASCAR as well in the settlement. Honestly Gabe let her rip him of everything. Properties, cash, investments. She did a real number on him.”
I nodded my head. But my mind was already calculating payback.
“Oh and,” he again pauses “Turns out your new boss was in on it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Kace Striking. She went right back to him, and from what I see. He got Gabe’s money, and got Gabe off of the track. The two really did a number on us.”
I was speechless. No Links had to have it wrong. But then when I thought about it. It made perfect sense. And that fucking hurt me to think that. I went from furious to raging within a second and stormed past Links, heading for my sports bike. If Kace thought he could rip my brother off, my family, he was wrong.
13
Ivory
Arriving at Kace’s house. I didn’t want to believe it. But then I saw one of Gabe’s sports cars parked in the driveway. I still didn’t want to believe it.
I knocked on the door, and she answered.
Kace was quick to pull her away from the door, stepping in between us.
“Ivory leave.” Kace says, looking me in the eyes.
I scoffed. “You’re defending her! HER!” I yelled. “She did the same thing to Gabe, that she did to you! And now what you take her back with welcome arms?”
“At least I can fulfil his sex needs.” She piped up and my glare went from Kace to her, back to Kace.
“You told her about us.” I gritted out. Was he serious? He couldn’t have seriously done that!
“Ivory. Stop.” Kace says another two words.
“Why should I? You were clearly in on her robbing my brother!” and I shoved him in the chest. “You two deserve each other.”
And I turn and leave not listening to Kace screaming my name to stop. I reach my sports bike, and see her standing out the front door, with a smirk on her face.
“You think you are safe because you hang out with the bikers?” I say to her, and she hears every word, and does a slight shrug of her shoulders. “You just ripped off the wrong family.” I looked at Kace, who is standing near me. “And so did you.” I then climb back on my bike and leave. Moving the bike around Kace, as he goes to stand in my way.
They thought they were untouchable. They were wrong.
“The question is what we do in response.” Links mutters and runs a hand through his blonde hair. “We need to answer this. This feud between Kace and Gabe has hit a point that we can’t ignore.”
“Always thought their feud was just between them.” Asher added. “But involving Olivia to deceive Gabe, that’s a dirty act.”
I was sitting there quietly. Listening to my brothers as they plan our reply to Olivia hurting one of us.
“First off these bikers.” Dad said. “Earn in our cities. The King Deceivers are higher up the food chain than a normal one percent. After all the other one percenters sort of answer to them.” He leans forward. “But that doesn’t make them untouchable. First we attack their properties, get the council to pull permits. As for their clubhouse. I know for a fact it’s on crown land.” And just like that, dad was thinking like a criminal—only a clever one.
Elle was sitting beside me and she grabbed my hand under the table, turning to me. “I’m sorry.” She whispers. Being twins but opposites in everything else was hard.
“About?” I asked.
“This. The NASCAR,” She pauses, making sure the boys were still in deep discussion. They were, when she turned to me fully. “I know you liked Kace.”
“Ace,” I used his road name. “is nothing but a biker.”
“One you liked.”
I shrugged. “Turns out he liked flirting with me, but loves her.” And that hurt to admit. “He took her back Elle. He was part of it.”
“You sure, he was apart of it?”
“Don’t defend him. He stood by her when I went to his house.”
“I’m just saying Ivy, that the man you described, doesn’t sound like he would want to hurt you.” She squeezes my hand under the table. “Perhaps you should let him explain.”
“Or,” And I looked at the boys. “I can help destroy everything he holds dear.” For some reason that was appealing to me more.
She rolled her eyes, and then turns to face the boys. I pull my hand from hers, and walk out of the room. I had let Gabe lick his wounds for long enough. Time he faced me. After all, it had been two days. He was hurting I got that. But now we needed to come together as a family.
So I headed for Gabe.
14
Ivory
Walking into the garage of Mom and Dad’s house. I see Gabe working on his ‘project’. I was guessing the only reason this car wasn’t taken was because Olivia didn’t know about it. He had been working on since he was sixteen. Every time he got close to finishing it, he’d pull it apart again.
“You still working on this bomb?” I say to him, and his eyes go off the motor and on to me. I see the shame in them. He had been tricked by a good con artist.
He gets out from under the bonnet. Wiping his hands on his jeans. Finally he reaches for his beer, taking a sip of it and not saying a word. My brother is a proud man. So right now would be hard for him.
“So, what are we going to do?” I say and close the door behind me.
“You were right Ivory.” He looks me dead in the eye. “I was wrong. Is that what you came to hear?”
“No.” I frowned. “I’m your sister Gabe. I care about you. I’m not here to rub it in your face.” I wasn’t that type of person.
“She took everything.” He scoffed. “But she did leave the engagement ring.” He muttered and brought the beer back to his lips, “Fucking whore.”
“Now that we can agree on.” I said jumping up on the bench. “So what are you going to do about it?”
“Ain’t shit I can. Not going after her for shit. She took the NASCAR too.” He looked at me for a reaction when he said that sentence.
I shrugged. “Nothing we can’t replace.”
“Come off it. That was a one of a kind machine.”
“Like I said nothing we can’t replace.” I looked him in the eyes. “Money is no object for us Henderson’s. You have four billionaires up there in the lounge room, ready to pay for a new NASCAR.”
He shook his head.
“Hear me out Gabe. We race, we beat them. You start to build your money back up.”
“You really think you can rebuild a car, within five days?” he looks at me with disbelief. “Come on Ivory, ya good but not that good.”
“I’m not going to lie. It will be close to stock. But you can race stock, and you’d win with a stock car. You always have been more talented.” I then look at him with reassurance. “You can do this Gabe if you want to, everyone is in your corner.”
He tilts his head. “What about you and Kace? Is that over?”
“It never started.” I was honest. Because if Kace and I were a thing, he would never do this to me. To my family. There is a reason he is an outlaw. “Can I ask you something?” I hesitated. “It’s about Olivia.” I give him a heads up and he nods his head, looking me in the eyes. “When did she change?”
“After you agreed to be Kace’s crew chief. She was jealous. I just didn’t connect the dots.” He frowned and looked at me disappointed and embarrassed. “I’m an idiot Ivory. I let her control me.”
I shrugged. “We all make mistakes.” And I forced a smile. Because I was right. We all did make mistakes. But it was how we came back from them, that defined us.
KACE
No fucking sleep was a problem. But it didn’t even make the list on my current list of problems. I waited parked in a sedan outside the Clove street apartments. This was the third night in a row I had been waiting for her. Each night she hadn’t come home. I knew which apartment was hers, because I asked the junkie neighbors. They gave her up in a heartbeat.
Which just confirmed the fact she wasn’t safe here. I yawned, wondering how much more I could ask of my body before I passed out from no sleep.
Hearing the zippy engine approach I didn’t even put two and two together, till the slim black sports bike, pulled in and I knew it was her.
She had blocked my number.
She hadn’t been to the tracks.
This was my only chance at reaching her. And here I had been for the last three days with no sleep. Because I didn’t want to miss her. I swear if I had another energy drink, I’d be killing my liver for good.
Getting out of the sedan, I head towards her. As she climbs off her bike. I noticed how her clothes are covered in grease. But I don’t connect it to anything I’m more focused on the fact she is here.
“Ivory.” I growl her name, as she gets off the bike.
Her eyes were wide when she pulled the helmet off.
“You think you can just lock me out and I won’t do anything?” I yelled and a dog started barking.
Her eyes sharpened on me. “Leave Kace. You aren’t welcome here.”
“Fuck off
. The club owns these apartments. Who do you think collects your rent.” I stand over her. “Now you going to let me explain myself, or you just going to storm off again?”
She tilts her head back to look up at me. “There is nothing you can say that will undo what you’ve done.”
“I haven’t done a fucking thing.” I hissed at her. “I hate Gabe.”
“I know!” She scoffed. “Clearly!”
“I mean I hate him. But I don’t hate him that much, to destroy his life.” I try to explain. “Look Olivia came to me a week before she left him, telling me shit and I didn’t believe her till she did it.”
She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, you are playing the I didn’t know card. Fucking just own it Kace.”
“I’m not owning shit. That I didn’t do. Olivia called me, out of the blue. Told me not to trust you. Told me that she was planning on coming back to me. I called bullshit.”
She pinched her lips shut. Crossing her arms.
“I had nothing to do with what she did to your brother.” My voice lowers a little, from yelling to having a harsh conversation.
“Then why was she at your house?” She said, and the hurt in her tone, told me I had hurt her.
Fuck. If I could rewind time. I would have kicked Olivia out. Instead…. “Olivia owns half the place. I couldn’t not let her stay at a house she half owns.”
Ivory shook her head. “What is with you males, letting her trick you!” Ivory said that out loud like it was a mystery to her.
“Look I got her to release the stock car. I know it was basically your car anyway. She gave it up. It’s at the shed.”
“You couldn’t have told me that two days ago!” her fists clenched at her side. “When I went on a mission to build one from the ground up!”
“So that’s where you’ve been.” It clicked into place. “I’ve been waiting here for you. You blocked my number.”