The good part had happened, then happened again, and continued to happen, but this wasn’t normal. We weren’t normal.
He and I, we were made from the same fabric. It was that life, where I wasn’t the cheerleader or the book nerd. He wasn’t the jock or the frat preppy. He’d been born into a world outside the norm, and all my life, that’s where I kept finding myself migrating toward.
Thrust.
Harder.
I wanted more.
Deeper.
Please.
Oh, please.
I didn’t realize I was panting until he skimmed a hand up my throat, and his mouth leaned to capture mine once more.
God.
Yes. This was so out of the ordinary, but one night of this? It was better than no nights of nothing.
He groaned, pushing into me and holding there. “Come, baby. Come.”
I didn’t want to. I started to shake my head, trying to hold on, but then his hand dipped, and he found me right there. Oh-OH! I surged right over the edge, and I just kept right on going. My body was trembling, more waves were hitting me, and as he slid out and back in once more, I was clutching onto him, holding him to me.
One. More. Push.
He tensed, then I felt him jerking.
His body trembled just as mine had. He rested on me, a lazy kiss to my shoulder. “Fuck, woman.” He grinned against my skin, moving to lay on his side.
I smiled, that same lazy feeling starting to course through me.
That was good. That was really good.
I said as much, trailing a hand up his arm and chest.
He lifted his head, dropping another kiss to my throat before finding my gaze. “Hell yeah, it was.” His words were raspy. His eyes were molten. They were on my mouth again, and his hand moved down between my legs. “Jesus. I could go again.”
“What?” I started to laugh, then was groaning as his mouth dipped down.
And he found me right where his fingers had been.
Oh, dear--oooooh.
I raked my hands through his hair and held on. I had a feeling the night had just started.
EIGHT
Christopher
“ARE YOU KIDDING me?”
The buzzing had woken me, and when I saw who was calling, I wanted to roll right back and pull Kess into my arms. We’d gone at it all night long. It’d been amazing, and now this?
I grabbed my phone and headed outside.
My uncle said, “I need you back.”
I bit back a growl. “In the morning.”
“Now. We’re headed to Texas. I need you with me.”
“In the morning.”
“Now!”
He was our MC president, but he was my uncle.
Silence. Then, “What am I missing? You asked for a night to hang with friends—”
“Her. I wanted a night…”
“With Heckler’s niece?”
He didn’t sound happy about that. I gripped the phone tighter. “Yeah.”
“Are you kidding me? Tell me this is a joke. Tell me I don’t have to hang up, and when her uncle asks me what’s going on, I don’t have to choose to either lie to him or tell him the truth, that my nephew just banged his niece? Tell me I don’t have to do any of that.”
“She’s not a one-night thing.”
“What?”
I felt raw saying this, but to hell with it. “I held off all year. All year. I couldn’t leave without—I protected her for nine months, Uncle Max. She’s not a one-night thing.”
There was more silence.
Another beat of it.
Then a gruff, “Well, that changes things.”
I sighed, exhaling a little easier. “Does it change things enough?”
“Maybe. Let me make a few calls.”
“Thank you, Uncle Max.” I was about to hang up when he called my name again. “Yeah?”
“You did good this year. I’m proud of you.”
My chest swelled up.
My uncle was the smartest and most dangerous man I knew. He could hire the killings of hundreds if he wanted. He had the men. He had the power. He had the connections, and he got there by being ruthless and brilliant at the same time. Words like that were not normal from him.
Yeah. My chest swelled up.
“Thank you.”
“I’ll be in touch. Go hold your girl again.”
I hung up, turning to go back into the house, then stopped.
Kess was there, a bed sheet wrapped around her.
The moonlight was lit over her, casting half her body in shadows. I couldn’t see her face or her eyes. I needed to see her eyes.
I began to move toward her, but she tightened her grip on the sheet in front of her and stepped forward. I saw her eyes.
I wished I almost hadn’t.
Those eyes were fierce.
“You protected me for nine months?!”
Yeah. She really wasn’t happy.
NINE
Kess
NINE MONTHS!
I’d been under threat for nine months, and from the little Chris said, I knew there was a whole ton more he wasn’t saying.
There was a threat. He was young, so he’d been assigned to me. He watched me, and that was the gist of it. That was all he could tell me.
I wanted to rip him a new one, but I didn’t want to harm him. Fillet him with my words, maybe, but not real filleting.
Nine months and I had no idea.
Its why Heckler came in the first place, and he’d been so vague when I asked why he was here.
“Just tell me who it was from?”
We were sitting in his living room. He was standing, leaning against the wall. I was on the edge of the couch, my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands.
“I can’t. The rumors were higher up so we couldn’t risk it. That’s seriously all I can say.”
I knew he couldn’t, but it was driving me crazy.
In danger. Nine months. My mind couldn’t wrap around that.
“That’s why you moved next door.”
He hesitated but nodded. “I installed a security system in your house. I could monitor you if something happened.”
“And school?”
“Your crew wasn’t in your first and seventh periods.” He shrugged. “So I was.”
He was right. They were in all my others. They were with me every other moment of the day, too. Lunch. After school. Except when I was home, and he was ‘monitoring’ me.
“How?”
He flinched at my tone. It was dull, grating.
He smoothed his hand through his hair. “I’d rather not tell you.”
“Christopher!”
He flinched a second time.
Wait. I narrowed my eyes. “What’s your club name?”
His jaw clenched. “Wraith.”
Wraith.
I screwed a Wraith.
I didn’t even want to know why he got that name.
“Oh my God!” I shoved to my feet, starting to pace. I slept with him, and I wanted to do it again. Who was I? I didn’t even recognize myself with him. One meeting, our food unfinished, and we’d gone at it four times. Four. Times.
I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.
This was…this was ridiculous!
Heckler. My own uncle. I growled, “I’m going to murder my uncle.”
Christopher or Wraith jumped in front of me, his hands up. “You can’t. They can’t know I told you. I don’t—I might’ve gotten more time. I don’t know, but if you call him, then that’s all done for and I don’t know what they’ll want me to do next.”
“Are you kidding me? You want more time?” I hissed.
“Well.” He dropped his hands, frowning. “Yeah.”
“Agh!” I screamed and shoved past him, going to his room and starting to dress.
“Babe.”
“Don’t!” I whipped back to him, one hand in the air and the other holding the sheet in front of me. “You are not my man
or my boyfriend. You don’t get to ‘babe’ me.”
I dropped the sheet.
He groaned, raking his hand over his hair. “Fuck.”
I grabbed my clothes, shoving my arms into my top and my legs into my jeans.
I didn’t even remember where any of my stuff went
My phone.
My purse.
I stomped back to the front door,;there were my sandals. I didn’t remember toeing them off, but I must’ve.
“Come on, Kess. Please.”
I was so not listening to him.
Even if he was gorgeous…
And had protected me all year long…
Not happening.
Hell to the no.
But, oh man. How he felt in bed.
How he kissed me.
Slid inside of me.
He’d made me shatter in his arms, and not once or twice. Four times.
That was so not the norm.
I wrenched open the door—
His phone rang, peeling through the air.
I hesitated.
I hated that I hesitated.
He glanced down, then hit accept. “Max.”
I froze.
On the other end of the phone was someone seriously powerful. It shouldn’t have the power to impress me, but I couldn’t help it. I was impressed, and I found myself waiting. I didn’t know why. So yeah, I should go.
I was going.
Now.
Right now.
I was so going.
Damn. I was still here.
And I heard Chris saying, “I might have a situation here.” A pause. “Okay. I’ll take her.”
He hung up, and now I really needed to go.
This time, I was going to do it. Go. Move forward.
Then he said, “Your friend Johnny…”
I frowned. “Yeah?”
He finished, “He’s in trouble.”
TEN
Wraith
WE WENT ON my bike, heading out of Roussou toward Calypso.
I didn’t really know these guys well. They were a local chapter, and there’d been a new setup put in charge. Things got messy a bit ago, so some restructuring was needed. That was before my uncle began to move south. When we rode in, I didn’t stop and plan for Kess. Or for her reaction.
She was off the bike and across the lot, heading toward Johnny in a flash. “You’re an asshole!”
One of the guys caught her, an arm wrapped around her waist. She had enough momentum so she was lifted in the air as her feet kept pedaling. She didn’t care. She was seeing red.
Sauce came over, his jaw hard. “Couldn’t leave your girl behind?”
“She’s Heckler’s niece.”
He turned back. His eyes were now hard. “And you brought her here?”
Yeah. I knew.
I sighed, nodding at her ex-crew member. “So, he knew the old group?”
“Looks like. He approached us, said he had money and a party he could unload everything at four times the normal rate. Some rich kid in Fallen Crest.”
“Is this relationship new?”
“With us, yes. We’ve never worked with him before. I’m assuming his usual supplier was pinched or dried up.”
He was a potential problem. I didn’t like potential problems.
Sauce went back to watching the show.
Johnny was trying to hide in the back of a cage, and Kess kept trying to get free from Rampant, her holder. Her nails were going into his arm, and I barked, “Kess! Hands off my guy.”
Rampant shot me a grin as Kess lifted her hands away, but she went back to screaming at Johnny.
“And why’d you bring her again?”
I was asking myself the same thing. “What’s the plan with him?”
“We were waiting for orders from your uncle. We’re too new. Things are too delicate right now. We don’t want to off someone, have it blow back on another charter, and we knew you were in town.”
He was right. It could get back to me.
I was his age, in his school and the authorities already knew I was here.
Well. Damn.
Sauce read my expression and grunted. “Pretty much.”
“What’d my uncle say?”
“He said to do what you decided.”
I frowned. Why would he do that?
I nodded, taking my phone out. “I gotta make a call.”
• • •
That call didn’t help.
“You clean it up how you want. Nothing can come back on us.” That’d been his response, and I didn’t like thinking I needed to be judge, executioner, and cleanup so early into my MC career. I thought I’d have a bit more time, but I was Maxwell Raith’s nephew.
I was named Wraith for a reason too.
Shit.
Shit!
I was eyeing Kess, who had quieted. Rampant wasn’t holding her anymore, but he and another were standing between her and Johnny.
This was my problem.
Johnny was her crew. That meant he’d had her back since they formed, and there was love there. Friendship love. Loyalty love. Family love. Love that was ride or die. But seeing him now, I knew he didn’t feel the same. He was a weasel, and he was on the product. My guess was that he’d been doing it for a while, and so the love that Kess felt for him, not only did he not return it, but he didn’t deserve it.
But he didn’t have anything on us.
I walked over to him. “Who’d you work with before?”
He sneered at me. “Some pig.”
Okay then. That helped with the decision.
I glanced back at Sauce. “Rough him up. Put him in the hospital for an extended stay, and you,” I leaned down and got in his face, “if I get word you’re dealing in Roussou, Fallen Crest, Frisco, or Calypso, they will end you. Got it? I don’t like you. You’re a piece of shit.”
His face was getting redder and redder. He opened his mouth—I shut it, with a fist.
He toppled out of the truck, and for good measure, he got a boot to the ribs. Then a second.
He lay there, moaning, but my message wasn’t done.
“You don’t seem to know what you are.” I squatted down, my arms resting over my knee. “You’re a future snitch.”
He paled, his eyes then darting to the others.
“And what’s worse, you’re a junkie future snitch. Those types only die, so if you want to stay in town, you clean up. If you don’t, these guys will relocate you, six feet under. Got it?”
His eyes went to Kess.
I growled, shifting to block his view. “And you really want to stay away from her. You go near her, you get me to deal with. You don’t want to deal with me.”
He didn’t like it but he had no choice.
The guys hauled him out, given orders to drop him off in front of a hospital.
Kess went to wait by my bike, and I had another word with Sauce.
Then it was time to go back. I still had a few hours and I needed to make them memorable.
ELEVEN
Kess
I WAS ANGRY at Johnny, but I was more hurt.
It wasn’t just him. I was hurt by our entire crew, because we weren’t a crew. We’d just been pretending to be. And I was angry at myself for not figuring that out earlier than now. They all left, and they had gone quickly. I was hugging the back of Chris, and we were going back to his place. I didn’t know when or even if I’d see him again. And yet, all of that aside, I felt like he was more crew than Johnny ever had been.
I pressed my forehead to Chris’ back, tightening my arms.
He reached down, his hand running over my leg and then stayed there.
It felt nice. Right.
I would be sadder about when we’d have to say goodbye than my crew. That told me everything.
I was such a fool.
When we pulled back into his house, he led me by the hand, and we went back to his room.
We didn’t sleep the rest of the night.
It was early. The clock said it was six in the morning when we’d collapsed after our last round.
I was resting half on his chest, drawing a circle over his stomach.
Both of us were sweaty and had no desire to move, not another inch. My body had no bones. I was a melting mess, and it was wonderful.
But still. The clenching in the stomach. It was there because his uncle was supposed to call. He’d shared that part when I asked when he needed to go, though I’d been dreading even speaking the words.
“Those guys are going to kill Johnny.”
His body stiffened.
I lifted my head up. I wanted him to see that I knew. “I heard what you said to him, about doing drugs. You’re right.” Another thing I was kicking myself for not seeing. “I actually think I flushed his drugs today.”
He moved his arm from behind his head and took my hand in his. Sliding his fingers through mine, he cocked his head to the side. “Good.”
That note. I grinned, remembering it.
“What?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. There was a stupid note on the door. It was kinda funny.” But thinking on it, “Johnny couldn’t stash drugs in the girls’ bathroom. Someone else must’ve done that.”
Chris didn’t respond, not that my statement even warranted a reply. It was done.
I sighed, laying my cheek back down on his chest. His free hand went through my hair, smoothing it down my back and up again. It was soothing and caressing at the same time.
“So, your uncle is going to call you to join their group?”
He tensed again.
I learned he did that anytime the Red Demons were brought up.
His voice was low. “Yeah. More than likely.”
That meant I needed to deal with it, start getting over him.
Was it sad that I needed to get over a guy with whom I only had one night? Or maybe that was a beautiful thing?
I didn’t know. Beautiful things didn’t survive in my world.
I looked up.
That made sense too, because Chris was beautiful.
He looked down, his hand coming to cup the side of my face. “What’s in your head?” His thumb ran over my cheek, so soft and tender. It matched his tone.
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