“You ladies come sit over here.” Redirecting her was probably my best bet at a fight not breaking out right away. I patted the barstools at the opposite end of the bar and told Cherry, our bar maiden, to get the girls whatever they’d like. Studying Princess and Raven, I couldn’t tell what either of them were thinking but it was evident that they wanted to tear one another’s throats out. Before I went to talk to our veep, Zipper, I had a beer with the girls to make sure everything was cool prior to leaving them alone. Only half way through my beer, the girls were busy pointing, whispering and laughing.
“I’ll leave you girls alone. Don’t start no shit, babe.”
Her eyes darted at me. “We’ll see.”
§
Seeing all the members to the House of Lords, I made sure Raven and her friend were close. I’d given her strict instructions to stay in the main room after church was over, where we’d all be partying afterward.
“Welcome to the House of Lords,” Duke pounded the gavel as church started. “I’m sure you all know why we’ve gathered here tonight. Our coalitions need to come together to find out who has been killing your men, and why our symbol has been branded on the bodies.”
Listening to the prez go on about the recent crimes, I scanned the room, looking for anyone who looked guilty or acted funny. Most of the men studied Duke’s every word. While the meeting continued, I couldn’t help but think about Raven in that hot dress she was wearing. My dick was taking on a mind of its own, pushing against the thick denim my zipper was holding together. Get your shit together. You can hold out a bit longer.
“Chaos!” Duke broke my train of thought. My head shot up, staring at him trying to figure out what he’d been saying. Fuck, I should’ve listened. “Do you have anything to add?”
Clearing my throat, I leaned forward clasping my hands together as I looked around the table. “Yeah, prez, I do. I know that we’ve all had some beef at one point or another, but that shit’s in the past. Everyone’s got their own patch to worry about—us included. But I promise, as enforcer to this MC, I will do my best to figure out who’s dragging our name through the mud. We all need to work together on this and not be too quick to point the finger at each other. Whoever is behind this, that’s what they want. As brothers—even of different patches—we have to unite.”
Cheering and clapping filled the room. Duke pounded the gavel a few times, calling order to the room. “Well said, Chaos. I think he’s got a solid point. The best thing we can all do is keep our ears and eyes open.”
By the time church was over, my cock was throbbing. Duke held me back after everyone headed to the House of Lords to start partying. “Chaos, I know we might not always see eye to eye, but I think we have everyone on board. That speech you gave tonight, it was right in line with what this club—every club—needed. I’m proud of you, son.”
He pulled me in and patted my back. “Thanks, prez. I appreciate it.”
“You better get out there and watch your little crypt keeper, make sure she keeps her nose clean. Understand?”
“That’s something I wanted to talk to you about, prez. I invited her here tonight to help me bait some of the other guys. You know I don’t trust like you do.”
After explaining my plans for Raven, the prez was still leery of her, but he knew what I was doing. When I got out to the House, the party was in full swing. Drinks lined the bar as the guys took turns doing shots, the music was thumping and a white cloud of smoke filled the room. Joints were passing from one brother to the next. Maybe I’m wrong and these guys aren’t guilty, but I don’t trust ‘em as far as I can throw ‘em. With my size and strength, I could throw most of ‘em but there were a few who were hauling around their own keg. Scanning the room for Raven, I couldn’t find her. The little brunette was sitting on some guys lap, having the time of her life. Where the fuck is Raven? It only took a minute before I saw her standing with a group of guys, laughing at everything they said as she nervously scoped them out. I took a seat at the bar and hammered down a few shots with the other guys, keeping a close eye on Raven. Princess walked up to me and trailed her finger down my chest.
“Hey, big boy. Wanna have some fun?” she shook her tits right in front of my face.
“Get the fuck away from me. I’m busy.”
Shocked, her face frowned and she backed away. Yeah, the last fucking thing I need is Raven to see that slut’s hands on me. I continued watching her and her friend while I sat back, hangin’ with the guys. It looked like she was talking to one guy in particular. He was a newer member of the Warriors, though I didn’t know his name. Studying his cut, it looked like he was still trying to earn his top rocker.
“C’mon man,” Zipper grabbed my arm. “Let’s get in on that card game over there.”
Looking over, I saw there was a nice game of poker going on, most of the guys were stupid drunk and losing a ton of money. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go brother.”
Trying to play cards and watch Raven at the same time was damn near impossible. We had a solid game of Hold ‘Em going on and I was chasing the river, hoping to catch a break to win some of my money back from these drunks. It paid off when I hit a full house on the turn. Glancing over where she’d been standing, I didn’t see her, but I couldn’t get up until the blinds came back around to me. When my time was up, I left the table and searched the crowd looking for Raven. She was no where in sight, and neither was the friend she’d brought with her. Asking around, none of the guys knew where they’d gone. I grabbed Drew and had him start helping me look for the girls. Princess was standing at the bar letting some of the guys do body shots from her naval.
“Hey, you know where Raven and her friend went?”
“No.” She turned her attention away from me. “Who’s ready to do one from here?” she put the shot glass between her tits.
“I’m not fuckin’ around! Where’d they go?”
A couple of the guys from the other MCs spoke up. “Are you lookin’ those seat bunnies? I think they left with a couple of guys.” His friend spoke up. “Yeah, that’s right. I think I saw ‘em leave out that side door over there.”
Shit! Adrenaline started pumping through my veins like a poison, my heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest and every muscle in my body tensed up. Scurrying out the side door, Drew raced to keep up with me. I’ll be damned if this shit happens again! My fist pounded the door, flinging it open into the cool night air. Scanning the parking lot, I heard the girls yelling, but didn’t see anyone. Listening closer, it sounded like it was coming from my left. Glancing in that direction, I saw a van with the side doors open and the dome light on. There were three guys standing outside the van; one of them had their pants pulled down to their knees.
“Oh, shit.” Drew must’ve seen it coming.
Racing over to the van, I grabbed the fucker with his pants down and knocked him to the ground, my fists pummeling his face. Drew knocked the other two guys to the ground and held them there.
“Don’t. You. Ever. Fuck. With. My. Old. Lady!” My fists punched his face with each word that came out of my mouth.
“Chaos!” Raven shrieked as she stood up out of the van, her friend following close behind her.
Ignoring her, I snatched the asshole off the ground and hurled him against the van. Drew let go of the guy’s friends, in an attempt to pull me off the motherfucker that was assaulting my girl. His friends jumped to his defense, one of them sucker punched me in the jaw but I didn’t feel a fucking thing. Pure poison was coursing through me now, there was no stopping me. Everything turned to a blur as blood covered my hands and splattered against the van door.
Chapter 9: Raven
Freaking the fuck out, I didn’t know what to think or do. His old lady? As much as I wanted to run inside for help, I couldn’t stop thinking about those words as he beat the poor bastard to a pulp. Amber ran inside and grabbed some of the guys from the MC to break up the fight. Chaos’s burly hands were a swollen mass, covered in blood.
I’d tried to stop the fight before it even happened, but he wouldn’t let me get two words in before he snatched the dude up. Amber was scared to death, and I have to admit, I was terrified. The night that the creep tried to rape me, everything was a haze. But tonight? I saw it clear as day. He had the temper, size and strength of a fucking giant. While the guys broke up the fight, I held Amber as she shook like a leaf.
“What the fuck’s going on here?” the presidents from the clubs came out.
“This fucking asshole,” he pointed to the guy who was bleeding profusely, “was trying to rape the girls. He had his pants down around his knees while these fucktards cheered him on.”
Duke looked over at Amber and me. “Is that true?”
Too scared to talk, Amber kept her mouth shut. I nudged her to talk, but she wouldn’t. Looking over at Chaos, I sighed. Shit, he’s going to be in so much trouble! And so was I. For a minute, I wanted to lie and say it was true, but I couldn’t. Lying wasn’t in my nature. Taking a deep breath, my head hung low, I started slowly telling the truth about what happened.
“No, I was sitting in the van smoking a joint with these guys and my friend here,” I looked over at her. Her face flushed with embarrassment. She knew exactly what I was going to say. “She was going to give this one,” I pointed to the bludgeoned guy, “a blow job, but he came out before she could even start.” Chaos was too pissed to listen. He was more interested in tearing back into the guy he’d been beating up. I don’t think he even realized he was spitting out blood. Before he kicked the guy’s ass that my friend was gonna blow, he’d gotten a few good swings in, and it didn’t help that his friend sucker punched him.
“Uh-huh,” Duke turned to Chaos. “Get your fuckin’ ass in the House, son.” I’d never seen him pissed before, but it was almost as scary as seeing Chaos pissed. “And you!” he turned to my friend and me. “You get your little crypt keeper ass out of here and take your damned friend with you! I don’t ever wanna see your faces around here again!”
I looked over at Chaos who was still eyeballing the guy he’d been fighting. He didn’t bat an eye when Duke told me and Amber to leave. Did he hear him? Was his silence in agreement with Duke? Slowly, I grabbed Amber and went inside to get my car keys so we could leave. Taking the walk of shame through the parking lot, hot tears stung the corners of my eyes. A sharp jab panged my heart as I asked the bar maiden for my keys and started to drive off the lot. Amber stayed silent the whole ride back to her house where I dropped her off. I wasn’t very talkative myself either. I knew we should’ve never went outside with those guys. It was my own fault. After seeing what Chaos did to the creep who put his hands on me, I should have known better but I was trying to let Amber have a little fun.
At work the next day, Amber was still shaken and speechless. I didn’t have much to offer to make her feel better. The two of us worked in silence, reflecting on the previous night’s events until Matty showed up. Great, that’s just what we fucking need today. I wasn’t in the mood to put up with his dumb shit and by the looks of Amber, neither was she. I was still coming to grips with the fact that Chaos hadn’t texted or called me since I’d left the clubhouse. As usual, Matty poured himself a cup of coffee and observed us for a few minutes.
“You ladies are awfully quiet today. What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?”
“Beat it, Matty.” It wasn’t like me to be so blunt or direct with him, but I wasn’t ready to listen to his sarcastic remarks.
“Wow! A real fireball since you started hangin’ with the bad boys, huh? And don’t tell me. You got her going right along with you, don’t ya?”
How the fuck would he know that? There was no way he would know that, unless he’d been watching us. “You seem to think you know everything, don’t you, Sergeant Donnelly? I can tell you right now that you don’t know shit.”
He laughed, holding his stomach as if he’d heard the most hilarious joke of all time. “Sugar, don’t flatter yourself. I know everything that goes on in my town. And if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were working with that little boyfriend of yours on these murders. Of course, you do know that doing so would be crossing the lines and you could have your medical examiner license suspended, or maybe even revoked. Now let me ask you. Is he worth risking that much over?”
“Unless you’re here to drop off a body or deliver a report, we have work to do. And if you’ll excuse us,” I got in his face, “we’d like to go to lunch now.”
“Just remember what I told you, sweetheart. Don’t try to play the hero. You two have a good day.”
“Good-bye,” I hissed at him.
While at lunch, I replayed our conversation over and over in my mind. He’d said something that intrigued me: that I might be helping Chaos. I found myself wondering if it wasn’t Princess who was behind these murders? I could see her being vengeful that nobody had taken her on as their old lady and killing these guys, marking them with the Lords of Sin symbol and dumping the bodies in the open to be discovered by innocent passer-byes. After contemplating for a few minutes, I realized that the idea was as dumb as she is. There’s no way I can give her credit for being that genius. She was lucky enough as it was to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. Then who is behind these murders? We hadn’t had a body in a few weeks, which was a good thing. The MCs working together seemed to be paying off, at least for the moment. With Matty having his suspicions and jealousy about me and Troy, there was no way he’d be willing to keep me in the know about what was going on in the investigations now.
After work, I headed straight home. There was a bottle of vodka in the liquor cabinet calling my name. All this mess and confusion had my mind branching off in a million different directions. Every time I thought about Troy and last night, my heart ached thinking of how much trouble he had probably gotten into with his president for beating the shit of the poor bastard who was trying to get head from my friend. The fact that he hadn’t called or texted me is what really bothered me. Drowning my worries in a tall screwdriver that I’d made myself, I damn near leapt off the kitchen chair when I heard banging on my front door. My heart jumped into my throat and felt like it was going to pitter-patter right out of my chest as I raced to the door. Using the peephole, I saw Troy standing there. I opened the door and looked around outside, making sure Matty was nowhere in sight before I let him in.
“What the hell? I gotta have a fuckin’ invitation or what?”
“No, sorry. Come in,” I stepped out of his way. “How come I haven’t heard from you? Did you get in a bunch of trouble last night?”
A raw, throaty laugh boomed through the room. “Babe, I don’t get in trouble. This ain’t kindergarten, but I did get my ass chewed out pretty good by the prez.”
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have let them talk us into going outside to smoke a joint with them, but Amber was so stoked about hanging out with the MC that she trotted right along behind them. I figured the best thing I could do was follow her and keep an eye on things, ya know?”
“Uh-huh. We can’t have anymore stunts like that. The prez was already giving me fuzz about you being there, he didn’t like it one bit.”
“Why? I’ve never done anything wrong before.”
“I know, but that shit with Princess and now this. He’s not exactly looking at the bright side of things. You heard anymore from our good ole Sergeant, Matty?”
“How cute. Don’t be a jackass. And yes, I have—a little too much actually.”
“What’s goin’ on?”
“I think he’s watching me or something, Chaos. He came to the lab today giving me this high and mighty speech about trying to be the hero and told me that he knows everything that goes on in his town. He…kinda freaked me out.”
“That fucker!” his jaw tightened, exposing all the veins in his thick neck. “If he knows so fucking much, then why hasn’t he solved these murders?”
“Exactly.” I poured myself another screwdriver. “Want one?”
“I�
��ll take it neat. I don’t need that sugary orange juice shit watering down my drinks.”
We sat around talking about the different possibilities of who might be behind all of this. Even though some of the MC members weren’t fully on board with the coalition, it was apparent that they weren’t involved in the murders since all three groups seemed dedicated to the cause in finding out who was responsible. Listening to him go on about the church meeting, I couldn’t stop thinking about how he’d called me his old lady when he was bashing that guy’s face in. The room suddenly felt hot, my palms were sweaty, and my heart skipped a beat as I mustered the courage to talk to him about it. Don’t do it, Raven. He may have only said that out of rage and anger when he thought that guy was assaulting you. Butterflies stirred in my stomach as I thought about him owning me. I’d never considered becoming his property before, but hearing him say it aloud made my skin prickle. Snapping his fingers, he brought me out of my trance.
CHAOS (A Lords of Sin MC Novel) (Motorcycle Club Bad Boy Romance) Page 9