Leather and Chrome (Royal Bastards MC: Detroit, MI Book 2)

by Shannon Youngblood

  I pulled out my cell and punched in Silver’s number.

  “Chrome,” Silver answered shortly.

  “Hey Prez. We have a little bit of an issue. There’s another ring locally,” I told him.

  “I’ll be home Sunday. Do nothing until I return.”

  I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked at it like it had offended me. Never in my life had Silver spoken to me like that. He was short, and clearly angry. A cold chill ran through my body.

  What if he knew?

  No. No. It wasn’t possible. There was no way he could have known.

  I blew out a deep breath and looked around the room. Candy, Derp, and Dumpster all looked at me, waiting for our next move.

  “Dumpster, are any of the girls downstairs available?”

  “I believe Trisha didn’t have anyone tonight,” he responded.

  “Okay. As long as Candy is agreeable, take her down there and have Trisha tend to her.”

  I looked over at the beaten girl and she nodded in thanks.

  Okay, that was one problem down. The next would be Marcus. Silver had said not to do anything until he got back, but he didn’t say I couldn’t scope out the area and see what I could see.

  “Derp, get Barnie, and Pappy and have them meet me in the garage in ten minutes. You and TBone, need to finish shutting down the dungeon and get everything cleaned up.”

  Derp nodded at me and took off, leaving me alone with my thoughts; a dangerous place to be.

  Was there another reason Silver had been so short with me? Maybe he was busy, right in the middle of something important and I had interrupted? I sincerely hoped that was the case. If Silver had found out my secret, there was a chance, this would be my last two nights as a Royal Bastard.

  The thought was like an ice bucket dumped over my head and I sat in the recently vacated chair with my head in my hands. No. This was not going to be my fate. There was a reasonable explanation for everything, and Silver would listen to me. He had to. I would make him.

  Jesus Christ. This night had turned into an absolute cluster fuck. One moment I had been wrapped in the arms of Cameron--- Oh my God. Cameron. I had left her alone without a fucking word. I stood up and flew out of the office. Taking a right, I almost knocked over TBone in my pursuit of his sister.

  I took the stairs two at a time and when I got to my room, I threw open the door. My bed was empty. I bolted to the bathroom to find that too was missing a certain leather worker.

  “FUCK,” I shouted at the top of my lungs. I had royally screwed up. I pulled out my phone and dialed Cam’s number. Straight to voicemail. Hitting redial, I tried again. Either her phone was off, or it was dead. Either way, she wasn’t answering.

  I had, once again, royally fucked up everything. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but I couldn’t really deny it any longer. I had some sort of feelings for this woman, and now, who knew what was going to happen. More often than not, I had been labeled a neanderthal because of my size and demeanor, but I was smarter than the average bear.

  Derp had busted into the room, blurted out another woman’s name, and I took off without a word to Cameron. I wouldn’t blame her if she fucking hated me, and while all I wanted to do was hop on my bike and drive to her apartment, I had a duty and an obligation to my club to look into the threat that I had produced.

  This was why I had no intentions of falling for a woman. It was nothing but heartache, pain, and misery. Maybe it was better if Cameron hated me, then at least I wouldn’t have to constantly be thinking about her.

  Getting up from the bed, I made my way down to the garage to join Barnie and Pappy.

  “What’s up, Chrome?” Barnie asked, seeing me approach.

  “There’s been another sex trafficking ring discovered,” I barked at them, walking briskly towards my bike.

  “Ok?” Pappy asked questiongly.

  “Is that intel from the beaten up whore that came downstairs a few minutes ago?” Barnie chimed in.

  “Her name is fucking Candy,” I growled low in my throat.

  Barnie put up his hands in defeat and took a step back.

  “The guy who apparently runs this ring has the address to the club,” I explained. “We're gonna go take a ride and see what we can see.”

  “Silver know about this?” Pappy asked.

  “Yes.” It wasn’t technically a lie. Silver did know about this ring. He just didn’t know what I planned to do tonight.

  “Let’s ride!”

  The three of us jumped on our bikes, roaring the engines to life. This club was first and foremost my family, and I wasn’t going to let any harm come to it. After the threat was eradicated, I would figure out what I was going to do about Cameron, along with what I was going to do if Silver had learned my real identity while down in NOLA.

  “One crisis at a time, Chrome,” I whispered under my breath, letting the cool night air whip me in the face as I took off, my brothers right on my heel.

  ***

  Sunday morning had come all too quickly, and the text I had received from Silver stated he was due to be back to the club within the hour. I hadn’t slept a wink the night before.

  Barnie, Pappy, and I had taken a ride to the warehouse that Candy had been kept at. It was secluded, but there was nothing and no one on the outside to give us any clue as to what was happening inside. I wasn’t going to risk the lives of my brothers, or disobey a direct order from my Prez, so I turned around and directed the guys back towards the clubhouse. Once Silver got home, we would do some more in depth digging. Silver had connections all throughout Detroit as well as the country. He would find out what exactly was going on within that building and we would take it down, including everyone inside.

  That thought alone was enough to keep me going. Halfway back to the club, I motioned for Barnie and Pappy to go on without me. I was going to head over to Cameron’s apartment to see if she was there, and beg her to talk to me. I wasn’t the begging sort, but I needed Cam to hear me, and understand what had happened.

  The lights were off when I arrived, but her truck was parked haphazardly in her designated spot. She clearly hadn’t been in her right mind when she had driven home, and I really couldn’t say that I blamed her. Hopefully, after she heard why I had bolted, she would understand, and we could pick back up where we left off.

  I banged on the door.

  “Cameron!” I called out. “Cameron, please open the door.”

  For ten solid minutes, I banged on her door, and checked to see if the light would come on in her window, and for ten minutes, nothing happened. I almost considered breaking down her door to make sure she was alright, but that would probably only piss her off even more.

  I debated staying and waiting until the morning, but I needed to get back and get some rest. I needed to check on the dungeon in the morning to make sure everything was as it should be, and I wanted to check in on Candy to see if she was healing well. I knew my brothers would call me if something happened, but I needed to see her with my own eyes.

  On top of my normal responsibilities as VP, I wanted to get a jump start into learning what I could about Marcus and his operation. The more intel we had, the easier it would be to take down. I didn’t know how much help Candy would be on that front, but she had the most information, having been behind enemy lines.

  I jumped on my bike and headed home, irritation and anger bubbling up to the surface. With everything else that needed to be done before Silver’s arrival, I didn’t need this emotional baggage on my plate. I need my mind to focus on Marcus, the club, and the dungeon, but instead all I could see was Cameron.

  I climbed into bed Friday night, and fell asleep, unpleasant dreams being my only companion. When I awoke on Saturday, my resolve was crystal clear. Cameron needed to stay in the back of my mind for now until my duties were done. Silver was on his way home, and we were well on our way to shutting Marcus down.

  I spent the morning talking to Candy, and learning the little bits of
detail she could give to me. She had been with Marcus for nearly two years, taken away from her family in Ohio. For the first several weeks, she had never even seen Marcus, and spent her time in the basement with the other trafficked girls. She explained in detail that they were not to be touched as they were all virgins.

  To this day, Candy wasn’t even sure how they knew she was a virgin, but at the time of her abduction, she had been. She explained that the day she met Marcus, he had taken a special interest in her. He had marched her upstairs to his room and had raped her repeatedly, claiming her as his own.

  My teeth grinded together in my mouth even though she gave minimal details of her repeated attack. After a while, Marcus got bored of her, and since she was no longer a virgin, her time on the streets began.

  Unfortunately for me, Candy had no knowledge of the business side of things. Marcus was, apparently, very secretive, and too smart for his own good. He kept his business information on one end of his warehouse and the personal on the other, never the two shall meet.

  I had Candy draw out a crude sketch of the layout of the warehouse and where the entrances and exits were. After a few hours, Trisha shooed me away to let Candy get some rest. Her voice sounded better, but the bruises all over her body were starting to take shape and color, and she looked horrific.

  TBone volunteered to stay outside of the girl’s room, and I was okay with that. I was surprised TBone hadn’t tried jumping me yet. Cameron must not have spoken to him about what had happened.

  The rest of my day yesterday had been spent checking the dungeon for cleanliness, going through the receipts from the night before, and making sure everything was in tip top shape. This was the first time Silver had gone away and left me in charge, and I had no interest in angering Silver. There was a small chance he was already going to be furious with me when he got back.

  With fifteen minutes to spare until Silver was meant to walk through the doors of our clubhouse, I picked up my rag and polished the exhaust of my bike. It was already clean enough to eat off of, but with the amount of nervous energy coursing through me, threatening to overflow, I needed something for my hands to do.

  The door opened, and in walked Silver and Lacey. Silver's eyes trained on me within a second, and it didn’t take a genius to understand the ire in his gaze. Silver knew.

  “Chrome. Office. Now”

  My time was up.

  “Sit,” Silver commanded, and although I never responded well to demands, I did as I was told. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention.

  “Status report,” he barked out, catching me off guard.

  “Everything went off without a hitch. We made just shy of four grand on Friday night.” I responded. It had been a good night, and under normal circumstances, Silver would have been thrilled with that. Today didn’t seem to be the case.

  Silver nodded, his fingers laced together, both of his index fingers on his chin. He was contemplative. I had seen this look countless times before. There was something weighing heavy on his mind. Something he didn’t know how to say. He wasn’t the meanest of men out there, but he certainly wasn’t the nicest. When there was damn near smoke pouring out of his ears, and the tension in the room had reached a boiling point, I decided to take a risk.

  “How did the summit go?” I asked, trying to jump start the conversation. I needed to see what exactly he knew.

  Silver shrugged. “Rancid is dead.”

  “Well that’s good. He was a fucking prick.” Silver and I were dancing around the conversation.

  Again, Silver nodded. His wordless responses were starting to irritate me. Either he knew something and was waiting to spill it, or there was something else wrong.

  “Is there something wrong, Prez?” I snapped, ready to just rip off the bandaid.

  “You tell me,” Silver whispered, his nonchalance pushing every single one of my buttons.

  There was little to no doubt in my mind that Silver knew, at least in part. The question was, how much did he know?

  “We aren’t five, Silver. Just spit it out,” I bellowed, irritation coursing through my body. He was acting like a pissed off bitch, trying to manipulate the conversation instead of just facing it head on like a man.

  Silver took a few deep breaths, obviously containing his own rage. I had no desire to divulge my secrets. I would rather die first.

  “I met Azrael,” he whispered, his tone holding a hint of a threat and an overabundance of betrayal and anger.

  “And?” I challenged, my arms crossing over each other. I had no intentions of saying anything.

  Silver stood up abruptly, his face a deep shade of red, and a few strands of his silver hair falling in front of his face. His chair flew out from behind him, smacking into the wall.

  “AND?” He screamed. “AND? You’re my best fucking friend, Chrome. You’re the fucking Vice President of this club.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” I snarled back, standing up to meet him at his level.

  “How could you fucking betray me like this. How could you betray the club?” Silver growled.

  I raised my fist in the air out of instinct and took a step back when I realized what I had done. “I would never fucking betray you, Silver. This club is my home. You’re my fucking brother.” Silver really had no idea. He had made assumptions. Wrong assumptions. Assumptions I couldn’t and wouldn’t correct.

  “Don't. Lie. To. Me. Chrome.” Silver seethed. “Why the fuck do you have an identical twin brother in another chapter of this club?”

  “I have never lied to you. Not once, Silver,” I hissed back, skirting the question.

  “Then fucking tell me what you’re hiding.”

  I took another step back towards the door. Rage coursed through my body, my beast wanting to come out and rip someone to shreds, but even more prominent than the rage present in my body, there was hurt.

  How could Silver even possibly think I would betray him? Yes. I had omitted the truth, and for good reason. But I had never lied to him or the club, and I had certainly not deceived him.

  “Chrome. Don’t you dare walk out that door. That’s an order.”

  “Or what?” I snarled, letting the rage inside of me fester and bubble over. Instead of calmly asking me what was going on, my best friend and Prez had decided to accuse and yell at me. I didn’t fucking need that. I let my anger overpower my hurt.

  “Chrome. Sit your fucking ass back down,” Silver yelled as I reached for the door handle.

  “Go to fucking hell, Silver,” I whispered, taking off my cut, throwing it to the ground and storming out.

  As soon as the door shut behind me, I ran. I didn’t have time to get any of my stuff, but thankfully I kept my bike keys on me at all times. The garage felt like a million miles away as my legs pumped to get to my bike. I had to get out of there before I tore my entire life apart.

  It was bad enough I had thrown my cut to the ground. A Royal Bastards brother had a code, and I had just shot it to smithereens by disrespecting my colors. But now I had just walked out on the only family I had ever known.

  I released my kickstand and fired my bike to life. As I took off out of the garage, I turned back in time to see Silver holding my cut standing next to Dumpster, Lacey, Pappy, Flapjack, and TBone. Everyone looked confused. Everyone except Silver that was.

  ***

  For several hours, I drove around metro Detroit. I had absolutely nowhere to go. All of my friends and family were back at the clubhouse. Everyone except Cameron. I knew I couldn’t go there though. It would be the first place Silver would look.

  When dusk fell, I stopped at a nearby park to give my bike a rest and to stretch out my legs. I needed to figure out what my next move would be. I had a couple of options. But truthfully, none of them sounded appealing.

  I could go back to the club, explain my side of the story and let the chips fall where they may. It was probably the best option out of the ones I had, and the one I wanted to
do the least. There was a reason I had never told anyone I had an identical twin brother, and that reason didn’t change just because someone in my life found out. On top of that, the amount of hurt I felt over Silver’s accusation was far greater than I had imagined it would be.

  My other option was to head west to Nevada. This was probably the dumbest thing I could do, as that was where Azrael’s chapter was located. Again, there was a reason not even Rael knew about my existence, and I intended to try and keep it that way, although I had no clue what Silver had said to him while he was in New Orleans.

  I could drive south. Pick a place on the map and just drive to somewhere no one knew me. It was a viable option, just not one I was ready to make. I may have given the impression that I didn’t give a fuck by throwing my cut on the ground, but it was the hardest thing I had ever done in my life.

  With my resolve in check, I jumped back onto my bike and headed for my favorite bar. There was a cheap motel next door that I would stay at for a few days and try to sort out my life. A week ago I had been second in command, chasing a sexy leather worker around, accomplishment and pride running through me. Today I was a nobody wrapped in anger, fueled by hatred, and surrounded by a web of lies. Only time would tell who I would be tomorrow.

  I woke up Sunday morning feeling refreshed. After Chrome had stopped banging on my door Friday night, I had cried myself to sleep. I had wanted to go down to him, desperately wanted to talk to him and find out what the hell had happened, but my pride wouldn’t allow it. Chrome had shown me pleasure I didn’t know was even possible, and at the first mention of another woman, he had vanished.

  I was an idiot, and there was no way in hell I was ready to talk to him. His bike took off ten minutes after he had arrived and I thanked my lucky stars he hadn’t been more persistent. I fell asleep dreaming of the way he had pleasured me.

  When I woke up on Saturday, my head hurt beyond compare, and I was freezing. I hopped into a hot shower and lathered my ridiculously long hair, spending extra time shaving my legs, pits and bikini area. I needed a little day of pampering, and today was the perfect day to do it.