Naturally Yours (Vicious Snakes MC Book 3)

by Mallory Funk

  My head snaps up from where I’m sitting at the clubhouse. I’m having a beer with some brothers while Sophie is in a meeting with the crew that’s going to help her renovate her bakery. She didn’t know if she should continue with the bakery right away with the club in grief, but I told her it might be easier for her to have something to focus on.

  “Fuck off! You don’t know what it’s like! I fucking miss her every day! I’ll never get to see her smile, hear her laugh, watch her annoy my brothers, or even yell at me again! I can’t get any of that back!” I hear Torch roar. His voice gets louder with every word, pain clear on his face.

  His dad takes a step back. Pain comes over his face. You can tell that it’s hurting him to see his child in so much pain.

  “Son, let us be here for you. Let ME be here for you,” he says. I don’t think that I have ever seen the President more vulnerable than he is right now. In the home of his club, in the privacy of his brothers and their Old Ladies, he tries to get through to his son.

  But when I look at Torch, I can see the wall go up around him. The light has been out of his eyes for weeks. I don’t know how we will ever get him back. I’m not sure we ever will.

  He looks at his parents as clear as day. “I need to get away. Everything reminds me of her.”

  I can tell that no matter what anyone says he’s going to leave, and who knows if he will ever come back.

  I look at every brother in the room and I know that they all fear the same thing.

  Prez nods his head in defeat. “Okay, but we need to take care of that fucker before you go. You need to be the one to do it,” he says, his voice firm. When he looks at me for confirmation, I nod my head.

  We agreed that Torch should be the one to end Vince. We have been working out a perfect plan for why he disappears since he’s rich and well known in his community. We didn’t want to take any chances that Sophie’s mother would rat us out, but she still has Lily’s revenge a head of her.

  We have to play this smart so that there isn’t any fall back on the club.

  We need to have it so that although people might suspect us, no one will be able to prove it.

  We don’t let anyone get away with hurting one of our own.

  Torch nods his head when the door bursts open and one of Stitch’s brothers comes in wheeling a huge fucking suitcase.

  He nods at his brother and looks at Prez. “Found this one mouthing off about the Vicious Snakes last night. Good thing she was so drunk that no one believed her. Once I got her name, I knew who she was and what she meant to this club. Nicolas was a good man. He didn’t deserve to die and not see his little girl grow up,” he says unzipping the suitcase to reveal Sophie’s mother.

  I feel Sophie shaking. I look at her with concern when she moves her hand off her mouth, puts both hands on her knees, and lets out the most unattractive snort I have ever heard from her. I can’t help but look at her in horror at the sounds she’s making.

  “Babe?” I ask getting a little worried about the level of crazy she’s showing right now.

  She points at her mom. “She’s in a suitcase! I mean who thinks of that?” she says as she resumes laughing. Everyone lets out a chuckle as their shoulders relax. I’m pretty sure that everyone is just glad that Sophie isn’t pissed; however, once she heard that her mother killed her father, she had no problems in seeing her being taught a lesson. She lost time with her father and never had a loving parent for so many years.

  After everyone settles down, Stitch’s brother speaks up. “Well, I needed to get her here undetected. On the plus side, no one will be looking for her. I made it look like her and Vince ran off together and emptied their bank accounts. The money is sent to an account for the club. Think of something to bring that woman justice. Her name should be remembered. Don’t let them take that from you. As far as everyone knows, Sophie ran off with a broken heart having caught her mom and fiancé in the bedroom.”

  I see Sophie’s jaw drop. “Wow, I don’t know what to say to that. Why would you do that?” she asks quietly.

  He gives her a sad look. “I lost someone important to me once. That woman didn’t deserve the kind of hate they were throwing around. I have my own brand of justice, and I know that you guys will make sure she is taken care of,” he says with a nod before he leaves.

  Everyone is quiet for a moment. Sophie’s mom lets out a moan from the floor. Lily walks right up to her, grabs her by the hair, and starts walking to where we have held Vince for the past month. Lily’s face is a mask of determination.

  We made sure that Vince had enough in him so that he wouldn’t die on us, and I also spent some time down there getting my own punches in. I know that Torch isn’t going to go easy on him, but the guy has it coming to him.

  I’d love to be the one to finish him off, but Torch needs this more than I do. That asshole Vince cost him the love of his life.

  Prez, Lily, Damien, Stitch, Torch, Steal, and Bear all head downstairs with me following behind them.

  Sophie’s mom is screaming at Lily to let her go and trying to grab the hand Lily has on her hair but, with the grip that Lily has on it, is just making it worse.

  I just shake my head. We make it to the room where we “take care” of problems to the club.

  Vince is sitting in a chair tied up. He looks up and has the nerve to fucking smirk. The fucker probably thinks that we are never going to kill him. Little does he know this is his last few minutes of life. We only waited it out until we knew what to do. The fucker made it easy to hide him because he told everyone that he was going to be with Sophie.

  Prez leans against the wall looking proud of his woman. He doesn’t bother to help but watches in amusement at her. It’s not often that we get to see her badass side. I can’t believe that I’m going to witness it.

  Lily drags Sophie’s mom to the other side of the room that Vince is on. She slams her head against the wall and has her arm at her throat. I swallow hard as I watch her grab the chain against the wall with the other hand and drag it across her body. When Sophie’s mom tries to fight back, Bear comes up and holds her down so that Lily can secure her to the wall.

  Lily’s smirk never leaves her face. She can finally have her revenge.

  “You remember Nicolas’ club name, right?” she asks but doesn’t bother waiting for her to speak. She just nods her head like she got a response. “Yeah you do. They didn’t call him ‘Switch’ for nothing. He was pretty handy with a knife,” she says, letting out a humourless chuckle. Holy fuck, this woman is scary.

  “Growing up as his best friend, guess he decided to teach me a few things; don’t worry, I’ll show you,” she says backing away once she has her secure enough to grab a knife off the wall.

  Prez lets out a chuckle and I shake my head. Wow, Lily is all kinds of scary right now. I look at Vince and he seems to have lost the colour from his face.

  Torch walks up to him with an evil grin taking over his face. “Don’t worry, Vincey-boy, she won’t be hurting you,” he says as he grabs a torch from the wall and makes his way to Vince. “You get to find out why they call me Torch,” he says with the grin never leaving his face.

  I shake my head and lean against the wall as I watch two people get revenge for their fallen loved ones.

  I’m hoping that this gives them what they need so that they can find a way to move on.

  Chapter Twenty One

  Sophie

  I feel like I should probably feel bad for what I know isn’t going to be a happy ending for my mother, but I can’t find it in me. Maybe if she ever showed me an ounce of love in my life I would, but I can’t. She took away my chance for a family when she took my dad’s life and then moved me away from the club.

  Not only did she treat me like shit, but she let me be treated like shit. I wonder if she thought that I would have never left, and that I would have never grown a backbone.

  I turn back to my friends and try not to think about it.

  Those two people put a
lot of hurt in this club. They brought this upon themselves.

  I decide to get started on the bakery. Trigger insisted that I keep on with my plans since Stacey would kick my ass if I tried to stop because of her.

  I still need to decide on a name, but I let the contractor know that it’s okay to go ahead and start.

  I told him how I visualized the place and he seemed excited to start a place pretty much from scratch as he was going to be completely gutting the place. It also helped that I made some of my muffins for him during the meetings. I let him take the rest home when I kept seeing his eyes move to the plate.

  It’s funny how I never thought of myself as an amazing or excellent baker but then I come here, and everyone acts like this is the best they have ever eaten.

  I decide to make the menu when I spend too much time thinking about the name. I’ll come back to it when I need to get the sign made. I still have time.

  Ella comes up to me, gives me a side hug, and then proceeds to take the stack of recipes out of my hand. I know almost everything off by heart but decided to make a book just in case.

  I can’t help but chuckle at her.

  “Ohhh you should make this one,” she says pointing to a double chocolate fudge brownie.

  “Are you sure that one doesn’t have too much chocolate?” I ask, glancing at her.

  She looks at me in horror. “How could you ask such a thing? Too much chocolate? Is there ever such a thing?” she says in the most serious voice I have ever heard from her.

  I can’t help but laugh at her.

  I give her a shrug, but that seems to make her more upset. “Olivia! Is there such a thing as too much chocolate?” Ella yells across the clubhouse where Olivia is playing with the kids.

  I watch as her jaw drops, and her eyes go wide. “Why is that even a question?”

  Ella makes a face and nudges her head towards me like I’m not sitting right beside her or looking at her. She doesn’t know what subtle means, obviously.

  I can’t help but rolls my eyes as I snatch the paper out of her hands. “Fine! Let’s put it in the yes pile!” I snap.

  Ella claps her hands excitedly. Then she gets a sad look across her face in the next instant. “You know, Stacey loved eating brownies with whatever chocolate we had on hand. Sometimes it turned out weird, but other times it was good,” she says with a sigh.

  I wrap my arm around her. “I’m so sorry about Stacey. She was a great person.”

  “Thanks. I miss her so much. I just wish she would walk through that door and tell everyone it was all a joke,” she says with a sniffle.

  “I know, darling, me too. How about I go make you some brownies with whatever chocolate we have on hand,” I say as I make a move to stand up.

  She reaches in her bag and pulls out a huge bag of M&Ms. She gives me a small smile. “How about this?”

  I can’t help but chuckle as I grab the bag and make my way to the kitchen.

  Ella follows behind me and some of the other club women do too.

  The next couple hours are filled with stories of Stacey and good times. Ella has no problem telling us all the stuff that they did before they became part of the club.

  When everyone comes back upstairs, they find us in the kitchen binging on enough chocolate to possibly rot our teeth.

  Lily looks at me warily. I give her a reassuring smile and a nod. I grab a brownie and hold it over to her, and she seems to relax and walk towards me.

  She places an arm around me. “No one fucks with my family,” she whispers in my ear.

  “We are Vicious Snakes for life,” I whisper back.

  She winks at me. “Yes we are. Are you ready to get your tattoo yet?”

  I smile at her with the most confidence I have, which isn’t much. I’m scared that it will hurt and that I’ll cry and embarrass myself. Everyone has reassured me that I’ll be fine. I do want to get it done, however, for my man and me.

  Colton comes into the room and puts his arms around me. I can’t help but lean against him.

  He kisses me on the cheek and then whispers in my ear. “You ready to go home, baby?”

  I nod my head and can feel him smile against my cheek.

  I worried that he would get sick of me, but every night he isn’t afraid to show me how much he wants me. Sometimes I’m exhausted and wouldn’t want to do anything but sleep or hang out, but he still looked at me the same. There was no anger in his face when he would find out that he wouldn’t be getting lucky.

  We say “bye” to everyone, and they give us knowing smirks. We pass Torch on our way out. His hair is all wet so I’m guessing that he took a quick shower.

  I still don’t know how to act around him. I feel terrible that me coming here caused the death of the love of his life.

  When he looks up and sees me, I stop in my tracks.

  He nods at Colton and I feel Colton back up. When I’m about to turn around and ask what he’s doing, I feel Torch’s arm come around me.

  I waste no time hugging him back.

  He releases a shuddering breath. I hear a sniffle and then he clears his throat.

  “It’s not your fault. You have to stop blaming yourself. Even though you have never said it out loud, I can see it in your eyes. You were a good friend to her from the start. She wouldn’t want you to blame yourself and you can’t take credit for the actions of others. Vince got what he deserves for taking my woman from me. You need to heal too,” he says and places a kiss on my head before turning around and walking toward his room at the club.

  I look back at Colton and he just nods his head and walks up to me to wipe my eyes. “He’s right. I know it’s killing you inside. Everyone will say the same thing. It’s not your fault. Tell me what you need,” he asks, his voice almost pleading.

  I look at him in the eyes. “I need to do something. Like Stitch’s brother said. Let’s take that money and make something great for her.”

  He nods his head. “I’m sure that whatever you think of will be amazing. Think of something she loved to do or something she was passionate about,” he says, and I nod my head and start to think.

  The whole way home I think about what I could do for Stacey. When the idea comes to me, I can’t help but smile.

  I know just what to do.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Trigger ‘Colton’

  It has been a rough couple of days. Torch had taken off the day after we took care of business. I didn’t know how to reach my brother and everyone else looked as helpless as I did. I could only hope that there was some way for him to find a way out of the darkness that was trying to swallow him whole.

  I just finished work and I’m bull shittin’ with Crash when Pyro comes in.

  He looks straight at Prez, and I can tell that what he is about to say is something serious.

  Prez stands up and gives him all of his attention. “What’s going on, brother?” he asks.

  Pyro looks him in the eye so that we can all see that he’s not fooling around.

  “I know Torch just left, and we are already down a brother, but I need to go. I have to claim my woman. Life’s too fucking short and the shit with Stacey proves that. Even if I only have a month with her, I need to go to her.” Pyro looks determined like he’s going to go no matter what Prez thinks.

  Prez looks at him for a moment before slowly nodding his head. “I understand. I went to great lengths to claim Lily and you need to do what you can to claim your woman. I’ll let the Wicked Dragons know that you will be coming on their territory right away,” he says, and then claps Pyro on the back and leaves to his office.

  I look back at Crash and raise an eyebrow. Looks like things are about to get interesting.

  Sophie comes bursting through the door practically running to me. I would be concerned if it wasn’t for the huge smile on her face. She’s got papers in her hand and I’m kind of scared that she’s going to drop them.

  “I did it!” she screams as she jumps into my arms. I give h
er a kiss before I ask what she did.

  “You mean, you finally put red velvet cupcakes on your menu?!” Crash asks, his tone pretty damn hopeful.

  Sophie puts her feet on the ground and turns to him rolling her eyes. “I told you that if you keep asking me, I’m not doing it.”

  Crash looks like he’s close to begging. “B-but…”

  She raises her hand to cut him off. “Not everything is about my baking, buddy,” she asserts throwing her hands on her hips so that everyone knows how serious she is. I can see everyone’s jaws dropping.

  “Your baking is everything!” Ella shouts running down the hall. I look down the hall. She was running from Damien’s room here at the club. How the hell did she hear that?

  I can’t help but laugh, and apparently Sophie can’t either because she doubles over in laughter at the look on Ella’s face.

  She throws her hands up in the air. “Okay, okay, guys, I have done something. It has nothing to do with my cooking, but I want everyone to hear me out,” she says looking around.

  Prez comes walking out and raises an eyebrow at what’s going on. I can tell that he has questions. There are a lot of brothers and women here, and everyone is looking at Sophie.

  “What’s going on?” he says as he walks up to us.

  Sophie smiles nervously and raises the papers that she has in her hand in the air.

  “Well I had an idea. Remember when Stitch’s brother had said that we should figure something out for Stacey, in honour of her?” she asks, and everyone slowly nods their head.

  “Yeah, what about it?” he asks hesitantly.

  “Well I got to thinking. It had to be something that was Stacey, something she liked or loved. I thought about the salon. Then, I thought about all the young women around, and how some of them don’t have the money to afford to go to prom because, I mean, it does cost a lot for a dress, shoes, jewelry, make up- you know, everything,” she says and rolls her eyes when Ella makes a “keep going motion” with her hand.