by K. J. Dahlen
One of the hitmen was short and lanky, maybe 5’6 with dark features. His hair might have been brown. It was truly hard to tell under the mess I’d made of him. I felt like I might be sick, but I’m numb now, thank god.
We both grabbed him under the arms and my body protested. Gritting my teeth as we dragged his body around to the back of the car, then we dumped him there, and went back for his fat friend. The stocky man was pushing 5’10 and built like a brick house. Jax looked down at him and said we needed a different approach for this fat fuck. At Jax’s motioning, we grabbed his shiny shoed feet and tugged, pulling him across the black top, one excruciating bloody inch at a time.
Tears formed in my eyes as we maneuvered their limp frames inside the back of the truck. I closed the door and took a moment to catch my breath. I looked over at Jax.
He was bent over winded.
After a couple of minutes, we propped his bike up with him resting against it. He looked like a biker with a broken down bike, waiting for assistance. His jeans were mangled, but you couldn’t tell it if you drove by.
Jax pulled out his phone.
For once, I felt glad he had it.
He turned it on and tapped the screen. “Spider? Yeah, get out to Highway 60. Mile marker…” he paused and looked around. “…52. The Cartel just made their move. I need a crew. A truck for my bike and a ride for me and my woman.” He listened. “Yes, go ahead and call him, but get your asses out here quick!” He tapped his screen and winced.
I knelt beside him to examine his leg. “Is it bad Jax?” I asked, anxious.
“I’m alive. Gonna need you to drive the SUV out of sight. I can’t do it just now. Starting to feel lightheaded.”
I was shaking from fear that he might be hurt bad. It brought back memories of when he almost died. I tugged my tee shirt off and wrapped it around his leg then tied it as tight as I could.
“Dammit, Chloe I loved that shirt,” he grumbled.
I rolled my eyes and couldn’t believe he was making jokes. “I’m gonna check on you when I get back. Don’t you fall asleep on me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, babe.”
I’m up again, hobbling over to the SUV. I climbed behind the wheel. I pulled it off the road, hit the lights, and said a silent prayer. I rested my head on the steering wheel and tried to catch my second wind. I slipped out of the SUV, closed the door, and limped over to him. “Wake up, Jax.” I know I couldn’t let him fall asleep. Something about concussions. He might never wake up.
He blinked. “Just resting my eyes.”
“Well, stop that.”
“You’re giving me something interesting to look at,” he rasped with a chuckle.
I glanced down at my bra and saw that my tits are all but spilling out of it. “Anything for the cause of keeping you alert,” I remarked with a shaky tone.
He smirked. “You got such beautiful tits, Chloe.” He was looking pale. His head bobbed a little.
Alarm bells were ringing in my head. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t, nothing in me worked right…maybe it was shock, maybe it was fear. I didn’t care. I just knew I needed this man to even breathe. I couldn’t lose him…ever. “How about you see for yourself?” I grabbed his hands and placed them on my chest.
His eyes went wide.
I laughed and it felt odd to be laughing but maybe this was what insanity was like. It took you whole then turned you inside out, and you laughed like you’d just lost your mind. “I thought that would wake you.”
He squeezed, and I moaned slightly.
“If I wasn’t so fucked right now, you’d be in trouble,” he growled.
Nothing like lust to hold a man’s attention.
I heard the roar of motorcycles in the distance.
With the sound of the bike’s thunder like roaring, the gravity of the situation now slammed into me, and I mentally began to scream that I was a murderer in my head. I hadn’t even really dealt with the fact that I’d killed Anthony. Now I had two more on my hands.
The bikes pulled up and parked in a row, effectively blocking us from the view of the road. An SUV and a truck pulled up behind them. To transport Jax and his bike, I was sure.
“The road burn your shirt off?” Bruno himself was suddenly standing over me.
I peered up at him and shook my head. I didn’t speak, afraid I’d start screaming.
One man who didn’t have the biker look came through the group and knelt down next to Jaxson. “You took quite a spill, looks like.”
“It fucking felt like it too.” Jaxson glared at him.
“This is one of my docs,” Bruno announced as he stared at Jaxson with concern. “Take care of him, Mason.” Then Bruno looked around. “Where are the motherfuckers?”
I pointed over to the ditch.
Bruno glanced at the SUV’s bumper then gave me a penetrating look. “Why can’t you speak, girl?”
I wanted to yell, scream and tell this oaf off, I knew this ambush was somehow his fault. He should be glad I couldn’t talk right now.
“I think the shock is kicking in,” Jax said in a gasping voice.
“Thank God it happened after the fact. So did you take the bastards out, Jaxson?”
Jaxson shook his head and winced as the Doc touched the injury on his leg.
“They’re alive?” Bruno asked with dismay on his face.
“N-no…” I interjected.
Again, those dark eyes swung to me.
“She took them both out, Bruno,” Jaxon announced quietly his gaze full of regret.
“Well god damn, Missy. You are some woman.” Bruno grinned.
I wanted to get up and smack that grin off his dammed face! Like he was proud that I had to kill…I couldn’t even finish the thought as I clenched my hands into fists.
“Chloe…” Jaxson warned, as he must have noted my thunderous expression.
Bruno either didn’t give a shit or he missed my rage entirely as he turned and gave orders to several men.
They all went around to the SUV down in the ditch.
“Jax?” I asked.
“Will be fine,” Bruno interjected. “Doc will fix him up and we’ll get you both back to the clubhouse. The doc can check you out there too. Thank you for what you did. We won’t forget it,” Bruno said as he motioned to one of the bikers to come over.
Thank you? This is my man. I did what I had to do. My body started to shake. I couldn’t melt down now. Tears blurred my vision, and I let a middle-aged biker with a kind smile lead me to the SUV.
He opened the passenger door. “Climb in and I’ll get you something to wear. As fantastic as your tits are, I don’t think you want all of us ogling them.” He closed the door.
I rested my head against the cool pane of glass, drifting away inside my mind.
CHAPTER TEN
Dino
We rode back to the hotel and Rose acted distant again. I knew my announcement did this, but shit. This was too deep and too serious for me to handle on my own. Before I knew who she was, I was all in. Then I remembered how family orientated Bruno had always been, and if this were his niece, he would step in to help her. I would have to inform him of who I’d sent to hell though. This, he wasn’t gonna like at all.
We got up to the suite.
Rose or as I thought of her, Bella, looked furious.
Somehow, this turned me on like nothing else. Call me kinky but this woman just brought out the worst and best in me. Sometimes, those lines were blurred though. I wanted to break her and take her.
She stopped at the dresser and turned to me. Leaning against it, she glared at me.
Well, here it comes. Get ready Thunder.
“You can’t take me to Bruno.”
I raised a brow at her. “And why not?’
She shrugged. “He doesn’t even know I exist and it’s not like he will even care.”
“Now, that is where you are wrong.”
She looked startled at this.
“I mean the caring
part. Bruno is big on family.”
Rose rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right.”
“No, he is. He recently found out he had a son and he was more than happy about it. Then his other son, Anthony…” My voice faded away. I couldn’t tell her all about that but I could relay some of it. “He got a girl knocked up. Now he’s gone and Bruno has taken over the care of her and the unborn entirely as that is his grandchild.”
She cocked her head to the side.
“Look. Charlie was some kind of bastard, even Bruno didn’t realize it fully till…well, after the man died. But Bruno while being a mean son of a bitch…family means everything to him.” I didn’t tell her he’d shot two of his own sons. That didn’t count. They’d earned it for going after Jaxson.
“Don’t you see what will happen Dino? My family hates Bruno De Luca with a pure white hot hate. It all stemmed somehow from how Charlie treated my biological mother, Angela Bianchi. I don’t know all the details but Al hates Bruno. Now, one of his top men has offed one of their top men? Then I end up over with Bruno?”
I let out a sigh. “Well, as I see it you don’t have a choice. Ain’t nothing going to change the fact that I killed him. It’s fucking water under the bridge now. We might as well get under some protection.”
She swung her gaze up at me. “You’re scared?”
I felt a bit angry, her calling me yellow after I saved her ass. I stalked over to her and grabbed her up. “I’m not stupid. I know what’s coming as much as you. Did you see fear in me when I rescued your sweet ass?” Yeah, she had insulted me.
Her eyes rounded. “I-I didn’t mean it like—”
I smothered her words with my greedy mouth. She’d pushed all my buttons it seemed without even trying. I forced my tongue in and held her tight to my body. Dammit, I wanted inside her. But something held me back. I think it was the fact I wanted her to want it. Call it ego but I wanted her to beg me for it. I intended to seduce her over the next few days—if I lived that long. I abruptly broke our kiss.
She looked dazed and she was breathless
I stared at her just kissed lips and reveled in the way they looked puffy from my mouth being on them. “Listen, Bella. This is gonna be a shitstorm. I started it when I ended Vicindi. I have to let my boss and president know. I cannot just let them go around, not knowing I may have set a fucking war on them.”
She opened her mouth to speak.
I pressed my fingers to her lips. “When I said protection, I meant for you.”
Her eyes grew misty. “No one ever cared about me before.”
My anger melted away. I could see she meant that. “Well, now someone does. You need to trust me, Bella.”
Her eyes softened. “I-I’ve never trusted anyone.”
I pulled her tight to my body again. I already knew this by her attempts to keep a space of distrust between us since the day I first met her “It’s time to start.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck and lowered her lips to suck on my skin.
I grew so hard and I gasped a little at the feel of her sweet warm mouth on my neck. Then I remembered why we were here and my vow to have her truly want me. I didn’t want a grateful fuck. I wanted all of her and freely given, not because she owed me. I unwrapped her arms from my neck and took a step back.
Her eyes widened, as she never thought I would pass this up.
“I don’t want you to…Thank me. Not like that.”
She now looked utterly perplexed.
Good. She thinks all us bikers want just one thing. That we’re all the same. I hope this teaches her. Yes, I messed around with her before this, as my lust had been simmering for months, but I vowed from here on, she would have to beg me for it. I kind of liked the thought. Challenging a woman. Seducing one. Never had to before. I did want her pussy for my own, but not for a one nighter or any other reason but because she wanted me and only me. “So, let’s get some rest.” I looked over at the huge bed. “We’ll both sleep well in that monstrosity.”
Rose followed my gaze and for the first time since she’d been with me, she laughed.
It was a piece of work, shaped like a heart with a huge red velvet spread and heart pillows in the same velvet.
She even let out a girl like giggle. “It’s like cupid got loaded, had a nightmare and it became a bed.”
I halted for a second at the clever joke and joined her laughter. But it wasn’t funny really as I would be in it with the woman that had managed to set me on fire 5 months ago and with a vow that I wouldn’t have her. I paused. But I could touch her, right? I battled within myself. Could I, and not take it all the way?
Challenged much, Thunder? My devil’s voice quipped at me.
Her gaze now met mine and there was a look in them. One I couldn’t figure out. Like she still doubted me.
Yeah, I’m as much of a bastard when it came to getting a piece of ass, as the next swinging dick on the block but this time, more was at stake. Then there was the stone cold fact that this was Bruno’s niece. I needed to go slower with her and make sure she felt the same about me. If I went into this, it would be all the way in. The thought unsettled me. Settle down with one chick?
I locked gazes with her and shrugged as I headed to the shower. “I’m gonna get the road grime off then you can have a turn in the shower.” I went in without even looking back at her.
Shutting the door, I sighed. I can do this. Keep my hands off her. I rolled my eyes. Yeah, right.
I took my jacket off and checked my shoulder. It looked okay, but I needed some peroxide or something as it looked a little red and might be infected. I opened the bathroom door and strode out.
Pausing, I looked around.
No Bella.
“Fuck!” She must have taken off. I went into the bathroom and grabbed my jacket. My key to my bike was still in my jeans. I opened the door and went down the hall. Why the fuck did she leave? She couldn’t have gotten far. To think if I hadn’t come out early, she would’ve gotten away.
Could it be that she lied about who she was? Or was it her fear of Bruno? I stopped at the elevator. Would she have taken the stairs? Before I could decide which, the doors opened.
There she was with a six pack of beer in her hand.
I looked down at the beer then up to her face.
She looked confused. “You showered already?”
I shook my head. “I came out and you were gone.”
She rolled her eyes. “And you thought I left, didn’t you?”
I shrugged and took her hand leading her back to the suite. “I woulda caught you if you had.”
She tugged on my hand in defiance. “Not true.”
I stopped at the door. I didn’t have the key as I searched my vest.
“Here.” She shoved it at me.
I unlocked the door and motioned for her to go in.
“I have skipped out on a killer drug dealer, two MCs and the mob, Thunder.” She barreled past me into the room. “I could lose you in a half second.” She sashayed over to the counter and set the beer down.
Again, she was pissing me the hell off. I stormed over to where she stood with that smug look on her face and I grabbed her up. “You gotta mouth on you and I know better things to use it for than you insulting me.”
Instead of fear, she almost smirked.
Oh, fuck. She’s playing me. She figured out that when she makes me angry, all I wanna do is fuck her into submission. The Alpha biker. I grabbed her and shoved her up against the wall then leaned in close to her mouth. “Don’t fuck with me, Bella,” I breathed the words to her lips. “Or you will find your ass up against a wall as I fuck you from behind.”
Her green eyes darkened. “Maybe that’s what I want.”
Dammit. I wanted a challenge didn’t I? I kept leaning against her. “When you find out that you need me to fuck you, then let me know.” I let go of her and grabbed two beers from the six pack. “Come on, you are gonna shower first.”
Her startled expression told
me she hadn’t expected anything I’d just done. “You’re going to watch me?” she asked while looking incredulous.
I nodded. “And I will enjoy it while kicking back a beer or two.” I gave her a wink and motioned to the bathroom.
Wow, she looked angry now.
Dammit, and it made me hard again. Then now I’d put myself into a corner as well. I would have to watch her bare all that creamy skin and not touch her.
Oh yeah, game on.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Jaxson
Fuck it hurt. My head had cleared and I was fucking mad as hell. “Where’s Chloe?” I yelled at one of the brothers who came into the room I was in.
He looked at me and shrugged as he handed me a clean T-shirt and jeans. “Bruno didn’t say. He sent you this.”
I looked the kid over. He was about two years younger than me. A prospect. He’d served 6 months or something. I couldn’t remember. “What’s your name?” Thunder had told me but I was fuzzy in the head just now.
“Demon.”
I took a closer look. Demon? I laughed.
The kid pulled his head back like I’d slapped him. His eyes were like lasers now. “Real name is Nikky.”
I shook my head. “Why Demon?”
He shrugged and bared his arm.
There was a flaming demon with horns there. Good ink work.
“I see, but why?”
He looked away. “Sometimes I feel like one.”
I pulled my head back. Good answer. “We all got them kid. But I’m not sure it fits you.”
He shook his head.
“You being the prez. You can rename him Jax.”
I looked up and Bruno stood in the doorway. “Nah. If that’s the name he wants.”
Bruno gave the kid a nod. “Getting patched in soon?”
Nikky nodded.
“K. Go out and see if Spider has anything for you to do.”
Nikky looked at him…Right into his eyes.
I paused at this. No one ever did that. Look right into Bruno’s eyes like challenging him or something. Hell, I didn’t do it for the first 5 years I’d been with Bruno. This kid was either rash or just plain stupid.