by Jamie Begley
A drizzling, freezing rain slid down the nape of her neck, increasing the sense of foreboding she had felt on the porch. She wouldn’t get much sleep tonight. The roads would become treacherous as the temperature dropped during the middle of the night.
Jo gave a last look at the shadowed exterior of the cabin in her headlights. She was about to pull out when her lights hit Rider’s motorcycle. If he left now, he would make it home safely.
Braking, she reached for her phone. She typed out a text message, then pushed Send. Finished, she pocketed her phone, driving away.
The dismal darkness swallowed the large truck into its misty depths as she left the cabin’s lights behind.
7
“Your ma never teach you it’s impolite to eavesdrop, big ears?” Mag snapped.
Rider unapologetically walked out onto the porch. “If you knew I was listening, why didn’t you say something to Jo?” Rider moved to the front of Mag’s wheelchair to stare down at the cunning woman.
The sound Mag made was a cross between a snort and grunt as she shifted herself into a more comfortable position in her wheelchair. “You couldn’t have been listening too closely if you missed how I was trying to set you up with her.”
“I didn’t miss it. I just wanted to see if you would admit it.”
“The only advantage to getting old is being able to say whatever the hell I want.”
“Something tells me you never had that problem.”
“Life’s too short to give a fuck about what anyone says.”
“Mag …” Rachel hissed, coming out from inside the house.
Rider couldn’t help grinning when Mag’s shoulders drooped at getting caught once again for her choice of words.
“Girl, I came out here for peace and quiet.”
Rachel lovingly wrapped a thick blanket around Mag’s shoulders. “It’s too cold to stay out here.”
“If you came out here to bug me, you can take your ass back inside.”
“Actually, I came out to tell Rider that Jo texted me, saying the roads are getting bad and you should head home or stay the night.”
Rider leaned against the porch post, hiding his surprise at Jo’s concern. She hadn’t liked that he had caught a glimpse of her breasts, and she had become even madder that he hadn’t hidden his appreciation of the sight.
“I was just leaving.” Rider zipped up his jacket and turned the collar up. He grimaced at the cold wind as he burrowed his hands into his jacket pockets. He had left his gloves in his saddlebags.
He wondered if Jo had a jacket and gloves in her truck. The top she had been wearing was too thin to offer much protection.
“Five more minutes, Mag, or I’ll push you inside myself,” Rachel said, giving Rider a wave as she went back inside.
“You sure you don’t want me to push you inside?” he asked, straightening from the post and already walking to the edge of the porch, knowing she wouldn’t.
“I know you don’t want any advice, but I’m going to give it anyway.” Mag grabbed the wheel of her wheelchair, turning it toward him.
Hesitating, he turned back. “I’ve been known to take advice, if it’s good.”
Her narrowed gaze sharpened. “You remind me of my husband. Cash ever tell you he was a carny worker?”
“No.” Rider kept the amused indulgence pasted on his features, sensing she was staring through him.
“Well, you do. He had the same good ol’ boy charm that had most of the town wasting their money to win a fifty-cent Teddy bear. Don’t try to fool me, little boy. I see exactly who you are.” Mag wheeled her chair closer. “You’re out for yourself, and you don’t give a damn about anyone else.”
He grimly let his amicable pose drop as he moved closer to her, letting his intimidating shadow fall over her. “That’s not a nice thing to say about a person.” He had dropped his voice to the menacing level he had used with seasoned soldiers he had served with when they had underestimated him.
“You think you can scare me?” Mag gave a cackle of harsh laughter. “I’ve taken on men who would scare you shitless.”
“I don’t get scared.”
“You’re scared of Jo.”
This time, it was him laughing. “I’m not afraid of Jo.”
“She’s not a dumb whore. You can’t pull the wool over her eyes. Jo will never give you the time of day until you show her the real you. She can take the ugly you’re hiding. That girl loved her pa like he hung the moon, despite him being a drunk. Her mother dragged her away from Treepoint because she’d had enough when those boys raped Jo. Her good-for-nothing pa wouldn’t even let her report what they had done to her.” Mag ferociously condemned Jo’s father for being such a coward. “The only reason he lasted as long as he did was because of her. She’s hocked everything she has to hold on to that scrap of land he left her. There aren’t many women who could love like that, but Jo is one of them. For what it’s worth, you need to get your ass in gear and not let her get away before some other man steals her.”
His gaze flickered, moving away. “You can’t steal what doesn’t belong to you.”
“You a Last Rider?”
“Yes.”
“The Last Riders have been taking what they want since they moved here.”
“If they want it.” He shrugged. “I don’t want Jo.”
“I’ve said my piece. It’s cold out here, and I’m done talking to a man who will run all over town for a good meal, but isn’t smart enough to latch on to one who will cook for him every night.”
Rider knew she wasn’t really talking about food.
“Jo doesn’t cook.” Unwisely giving the flip comment, he moved to open the door for her so she could swing her wheel around to go inside.
“She can learn how to cook. She just needs someone to light her fire. I guess that little matchstick you’re carrying around isn’t up to the task. Ignore my advice; I take it back. You haven’t got the good sense God gave you to lick a postage stamp.”
Rider gaped at the woman as she wheeled off. Was she using another metaphor to insult his skills as a lover, comparing a postage stamp to a pussy?
Cash’s feisty grandmother, whose bones were gnarled with age and arthritis, rolled away, unconcerned that Rider could snap her neck and make it look she had fallen off the porch.
Taking a step back into the house, he saw Cash sitting at the table, eating another bowl of dessert.
“Don’t even think about it,” Cash cautioned. “What’d she do?” He nodded toward where Mag had disappeared.
“She insinuated I didn’t have enough brains to lick a postage stamp.”
“She must be down in the dumps. Mag doesn’t insinuate shit. She’s not afraid to speak her mind.”
“That old bitch isn’t down in the dumps. She’s mean as fuck.”
“Careful. Rachel will hear you.”
Rider decided to do what he should have done before talking to Mag—leave. It wasn’t often someone could spark his temper, but the woman had needled him with her barbs that had slipped under his thick skin.
Shutting the door on Cash’s smirking face, he strode across the porch, his fury distracting him from the sleet. When his boot heel hit the step off the porch, his foot slid from under him, leaving his upper body half on and half off the porch and his legs tangled on the ground.
“Dammit!” Rider swore, trying to get up. It took three times before he managed to stand. The ground was a frozen sheet of ice.
Aggravated, he carefully limped back up the steps, going back to Cash’s door and knocking.
A second later, Cash opened the door.
“It’s too slick to ride home.”
Cash opened the door to let him inside. “You should have left when Rachel warned you instead of shooting the shit with Mag.”
Rider clenched his fists, still mad at Mag, and now irritated at falling. Plus, his hand had been cut by one of the porch boards. The last thing he needed was having Cash laughing at his predicament.
He shouldn’t have left the clubhouse. If he had stayed, he would be cuddled up in bed with one of the women from Ohio who wanted to become a member. At the time, it had been a brilliant move. With so many brothers visiting, it meant a long line at dinner. He hadn’t expected to be gone so long. Now he was stuck at Cash’s for the night on his fucking couch alone.
Taking his jacket off, he hung it on the wall, then went to the couch to take his boots off as Cash went to find him a blanket.
He turned on the television and lowered the volume so as not to wake Rachel and Ema. He didn’t give a fuck if he disturbed Mag.
“Here you go.” Cash handed him a blanket and a pillow. “You need anything else?”
“No.” He grumpily tossed the pillow to the end of the couch. “Go to bed. At least one of us can work off that meal. Make damn sure I don’t hear any sounds coming from your room, or I’ll be dragging your ass out of bed to drive me home.”
“It won’t kill you to go without sex.”
That was easy for Cash to say. He was going to bed with a hot redhead.
“I can go a night without sex, but why would I want to? I’m living every man’s dream—a different woman every day, a job I love, and a great place to rest my head at night, especially if I have a couple of women keeping me company.”
Cash moved around the couch to take one of the chairs, propping his legs on the coffee table. “It isn’t my dream, nor do I think it’s any of the brothers’.”
Rider opened his mouth to disagree with him, but Cash’s serious expression stopped him.
“I’m on the opposite side of the fence than you are. I think most men hope to find the woman who will help them change their ways and make them a better person, to make coming home worth it, despite an argument from the night before. A woman who makes you feel as special as you think are.” Cash’s lips curled into a confident grin.
“I don’t need a woman to make me feel like that. I already know I am.”
Cash shook his head. “I don’t think you do.” He pinned his gaze on him, unwavering as Rider flipped through the channels on the television. “Rider … how long are you going to hang on to the past? Delara and Quinn are ancient history.”
“Go to bed, Cash. If I wanted someone to preach to me, I’d call Lucky.”
Rising, Cash frowned down at him in irritation. “I’m no preacher, but I am a friend who can see you’re on a one-way track going nowhere.”
“Maybe so, but it’s my track to ride, and you had no problem riding on it before you married Rachel.”
“No, I didn’t. I’m going to bed. I can see I’m wasting my breath. Try not to eat the rest of the cobbler. I want some for breakfast.” Cash left him alone in the living room.
As soon as he heard Cash’s bedroom door close, he went into the kitchen and made himself a bowl of cobbler before sinking down on the couch to enjoy an old movie he had found. When Cash woke in the morning, he wasn’t going to be happy that Rider had unashamedly finished off his cobbler. He would wait until he got to work before telling him that he had seen Rachel had made two and the other was hidden in the back of the fridge.
He finished the movie and was halfway through the second one before he was able to fall into a light doze. The habit had become ingrained when he was in the service, when it had been a matter of life or death to be aware of his surroundings.
At the camps where he had been stationed, night was when many attacks had occurred. The enemy used the opportunities to sneak past their guard under cover of darkness. Sleep deprivation became a way of life for many, especially the few who had been sent out on special missions like Shade, Gavin, and he had been assigned.
Shade had been a sniper, eliminating enemies with a single bullet. Gavin had been the primary diver navigator; the water had been his battlefield, setting explosives or dismantling those that had been set. He could lead a team through dangerous waters, rising from the depths to take out a target, then slip back before the enemies even knew he had been there.
Rider stared blankly at the television. It was the information he had fed to his superiors that had given both men their targets to eliminate. He was a SEAL-in-training when he had been called into the commander’s office.
Standing stiffly in front of his commander’s desk, Rider had watched as he had flipped the file he had been reading toward him.
“I’ve been reading over your background. Many of your superiors think you’re going to wash out of SEAL training. Why is that?”
Rider didn’t need to pick up his file to read the comments of those who had devoted their lives to the service. They believed he didn’t have the ambition to succeed where others who were smarter and had trained years to become a SEAL had failed.
“Is that why you wanted to see me, sir?” Dread at hearing that he had failed to make it through the class burned through his gut.
“All your superiors might not think you can make it through, but one thing they all had in common was that they all liked you. I talked to each of them. They said they don’t know if you had the commitment to be a SEAL, but each of them said they would share a beer with you when you got back.
“Your superiors all like you, and so do the men. You talked several of them out of DOR.”
“It’s good to know I’m so well liked, sir.” Rider didn’t take it as a compliment, and he didn’t think Commander Nellis did either. At that, he was wrong.
“You were ranked in the top five in the physical portion of your exams, and the top three in intelligence. I’ve seen your physical performance since you have arrived at BUD/S, but when I’ve seen you with the men, I haven’t seen the intelligence you are capable of. Why is that?”
“Sir, if you had to go down a blind alley in the middle of the night, would you rather have Wizard or Maze beside you?” Rider asked. Wizard was the smartest one in their class. Maze was the strongest.
His commander astutely stared across the desk at him. “I would pick you. That way, I have the best of both.” Nellis closed the file, placing it in his top drawer. “Which is why I sent for you. I’m going to recommend you to be the sensitive site exploitation explorer. Your natural friendliness could be honed into a skill that my team could use.”
An assignment with Nellis’s team was everyone’s goal. That it was offered to him was unexpected. The commander only picked elite SEALs to fill his team’s ranks.
“I would be honored to be a part of your team, sir.”
“You don’t have to blow smoke up my ass. I just need you to do the jobs I assign you. I think you’ll be a natural at finding out intel for the sites we’re going to be striking and facilitating the other members’ safety.”
“I won’t let you down, sir.”
“I don’t think you will, or I wouldn’t have chosen you. Dismissed.”
Rider had left the meeting on top of the world. The military had been the only family he had left. Every step he had made since leaving home had become fueled with the desire to become a SEAL. To become a member of a team that most of his friends had aimed for gave him a sense of accomplishment that he had never had or had been able to achieve working for his family’s business.
Looking back now, Rider grimaced. Now, he could see what his younger self hadn’t been able to see. In layman’s terms, he had been a stool pigeon, seeking out and making friends who would make his team’s attacks successful. At the time, he hadn’t been aware the cost he would have to pay. Now he knew.
If he had to do it over, he would have told Nellis no. But he hadn’t, and now he had to live with the consequences of it every fucking day.
Unable to sleep, he prowled around the living room, feeling caged. He couldn’t escape the memories, so he turned off the television and let himself out of the cabin. He would crash and burn before he stayed cooped up any longer.
Being more careful going down the steps this time, he was able to make it to his bike without ending up on his ass. Then he slowly rode home, expecting to feel his wheels
skid on every curve. He gave a sigh of relief when he made it back to the clubhouse.
He walked up the back walkway instead of taking the steps, even though he was sure one of the brothers would have salted them, just as they had the walkway.
No one was in the kitchen, but the living room was filled. The Ohio members had spread out to sleep on the floor. Others were still sitting around, talking or playing pool.
“Rider, you’re back!” A feminine squeal from one of the couches had him changing his mind about getting a beer.
“Mercury, I see Moon is keeping you busy.” Rider watched the sensual woman’s mouth play over Moon’s cock before swallowing more than half of his length into her mouth. That she had accomplished the feat had his dick burning behind the zipper of his jeans.
She was naked from the waist down. Rider assumed that Moon or one of the other brothers had fucked her upstairs, then brought her downstairs to share.
“Where’s Jewell?” he asked Moon, who managed to gather his scattered wits to answer.
“Upstairs with F.A.M.E.”
He hadn’t had a threesome with the new brother yet, but it didn’t change his plans.
Going to the bar, he left Moon to finish as he grabbed a beer and talked to Diablo and Trip. He had served with Diablo and had convinced him to join The Last Riders when he had gotten out of the service. Trip had served with Diablo after Rider had left, so he had met him in Ohio when Trip had tagged along. Diablo had decided to stay and become a member, but Trip had left for a couple of years before deciding to come back and make Ohio his home. He had just become a full-fledged member last year. Rider still winced at the memory of being selected to battle the brother for the right to belong.
“How are the roads?” Diablo asked.
“Bad enough none of you will be able to go back in the morning.” Rider opened his beer, wishing Moon would finish. Any other time, he would have joined him on the couch, then taken Mercury upstairs, but he had seen F.A.M.E fuck before. It was going to take a lot of stamina to out-fuck that brother, and he had no intention of coming in at second best.