Sully

by Jade Kuzma

  “Can you prove that I was involved?”

  “Your association with Logan is enough.”

  “My association with Logan ended years ago. Tonight was the first time I ever saw him since…”

  “Since when?”

  I clenched my jaw. I wasn’t about to bring back memories I didn’t want to think about. Not for Lieberman. Not for anybody.

  “If you wanna charge me, then charge me,” I said.

  I glared back at her. I dared her to try and pin any charges on me. She knew as well as I did that nothing would stick. I was innocent in all of this.

  “You were there when the Cobras’ warehouse exploded,” she said.

  “So was another Cobra.”

  “It’s no secret the Reapers and the Cobras have beef with each other. Blowing up a rival gang’s warehouse… That sounds like a good possibility.”

  “If I were gonna blow up that warehouse, I think I’d do a better job than being right next to it when it happened.”

  “Or maybe you just wanted to make it look like you’re innocent. You wanna play the victim because it’ll make it less obvious.”

  Her arms still crossed, Lieberman kept staring at me. There was barely enough light in the room to see her face but I could still see her unblinking gaze locked on me.

  I looked at the side of the room and sighed.

  “Logan was my friend,” I said. “But I lost him that day on the battlefield. The Logan I knew was gone.”

  I turned back to her.

  “If you want to put an innocent man behind bars, then do it. I won’t put up a fight. I know how corrupt you motherfuckers can be. But you know damn well that I’ve got no business in this room.”

  She didn’t respond. She just kept looking at me like she was trying to break me.

  “Amy’s Bakery—”

  “Someone I care about works at Amy’s Bakery,” I said. “If I blew up the place she worked at, that would make me a real shitty person.”

  “And tonight—”

  “Tonight, I saved a man I didn’t care for. If you told me Adams was dead, I won’t lie. I wouldn’t give a shit about him. But I wasn’t about to let an innocent man die.”

  Before Lieberman could continue her interrogation, the door opened. Sheriff Sutton stepped into the room.

  He walked up next to the agent and whispered into her ear. I couldn’t tell what he was saying. The look on Lieberman’s face didn’t change.

  After a few seconds, she turned back toward me.

  “…You’re free to go,” she said.

  I jumped out of my seat and kicked my chair back. I didn’t look at her as I walked by her toward the exit but I could feel her eyes still on me.

  “Right this way, Dorian,” Sutton said as he escorted me out of the interrogation room.

  As I made my way down the police station hallway, my thoughts were distracted by the one thing keeping me going.

  “Gina,” I said. “The Grindhouse. The club. Are they—”

  “They’re all right,” Sutton interrupted me. “Bomb squad took care of it after your friend defused it. Logan confessed to all of it.”

  “Logan… Can I talk to him?”

  “It’ll be awhile before he can talk to anybody. He confessed to everything.”

  I stopped in my tracks.

  “He talked about the explosives he put together. He talked about the places he targeted. He talked about abducting that firefighter and making you chase him. It was all a plan to pin it on you. But it failed.”

  “What about Graham?” I asked. “He had to have been involved in all of this.”

  “He was. Just a disgruntled homeless man that Logan hired to work for him. He figured he didn’t have much to lose either. He wanted to watch Ivory burn as much as Logan did. A couple of war vets like them… Angry at the world… I can’t imagine the kind of trauma they’ve been through.”

  “They’ve been through too much… They deserve some kind of leniency.”

  “You know arson won’t go unpunished. Not in this town. And not with someone like Lieberman hanging around. Logan and Graham are gonna get what’s coming to them.”

  I looked down at the ground and sighed again. I didn’t want to think about everything that was about to happen to my friend even though there was no way around it.

  “She knew,” Sutton said.

  “What?”

  “Lieberman knew. Logan confessed but she already had people scouting all over town. They scooped up that Warlock fellow, too, I think his name was…”

  “She… knew? But why would she just interrogate me—”

  “I don’t know, kid. I can’t explain the way she does things. Maybe she was just testing you.”

  Sutton put a hand on my shoulder.

  “Look, I’m not a fan of any of the clubs in this town. If it were up to me, you’d all be banned from wearing those kuttes. But I know you, Dorian. You’re a good kid. You’ve been a town hero ever since you were in high school. Don’t ever forget who you are.”

  He poked a finger into my chest. Seeing the old man smile made me chuckle.

  “There’s someone here to see you,” he said.

  “There is?”

  “They’re out front. You take care now, kid.”

  I gave Sutton a nod goodbye and walked through the police station.

  As soon as I got out, I saw all of the people who mattered most waiting for me.

  Gina stood there with the Reapers behind her. Garnet. Ghost. Needle. Brawn. Petey. They were all there.

  “Dorian!”

  Gina rushed up to me and wrapped her arms around me. Despite all of the blood and sweat and mud I was covered in, she still held me tight.

  I closed my eyes as I squeezed her close to me. I kissed her on the top of the head and sighed before pulling away from her. All of the emotions in her eyes had never made me feel so good.

  “I promised,” I said.

  “Yeah,” she whispered. “You did…”

  “Sully!”

  Garnet’s voice boomed as he walked up to me. I realized that he went through as much shit as I did.

  “You got all your shit straightened out?”

  “I’m sorry,” I said as I shook my head. “All of the shit I put the club through—”

  “Don’t fucking apologize now,” he said. “You’re wearing that patch. You’re one of us. I don’t ever wanna hear you say you’re sorry for getting into some shit. When you’re a Reaper, it’s bound to happen.”

  I couldn’t say much. Garnet didn’t seem upset that I’d put him and the rest of the club through all of that.

  “It’s over,” he said.

  All of the other club members greeted me with smiles and hugs.

  “You finally getting some jail time?” he said.

  “No,” I replied. “My record is still spotless.”

  “Give it some time. The Reapers will have you getting your hands dirty eventually.”

  “I don’t think we should be discussing shit like that in front of a police station surrounded by pigs,” Needle said.

  “Good point,” Garnet said. “Let’s go fucking celebrate at the clubhouse, boys!”

  “It’s still in one piece?” I asked.

  “Even if it were burned down to the foundation, you know the Reapers would still ride, brother. Let’s go!”

  The Reapers all cheered as we left the police station. I put an arm around Gina while she hugged me.

  The sky was dark. The rain was still pouring. I didn’t know what time it was. But it didn’t matter. Ivory was my town. There wasn’t a more beautiful place in the world.

  Chapter 25

  GINA

  Two days later…

  Dorian wasn’t like most bikers you would ever meet. He was a few years younger for one thing. His face was clean-shaven. His hair was a little messy. He wasn’t a pretty boy like Needle but he wasn’t rough-looking like some of the others. He didn’t have nearly as many tattoos as you would usuall
y see. Just enough on his arms to accentuate his muscles and one on his side to highlight that delicious six-pack of his.

  No, Dorian was the only biker I would ever describe as handsome. It was strange to think that the hottest guy in high school would join a motorcycle club but that’s what he was.

  At the moment though, he wasn’t just handsome. Bruises near his eyes. A cut above his eyebrow. A slightly swollen lip. He looked like he’d just been hit by a truck. No, he was a rugged kind of handsome right now.

  And as he looked down at me, I couldn’t think about just how hot he was at the moment.

  “Harder…”

  I sighed a deep breath as he started driving himself into me even deeper. I wrapped my legs around the small of his back to pull him closer. My arms reached out and my hands grasped the sheets to try and brace myself.

  The loud sound of his hilt slapping against me echoed through my bedroom.

  I peeked my eyes open and tilted my head down to enjoy the wonderful sight. Dorian’s thick shaft slid in and out of me. He rifled his cock into me like a piston.

  I trailed my eyes up from his cock toward his abs and to his broad shoulders before reaching his bruised face. Seeing the intensity in his eyes made me forget about everything he’d been through. Now it was just about us.

  “Harder…”

  I yelped and giggled as he started complying.

  “Like that?”

  “Yeah, just like that…”

  I reached my hands up and wrapped them around his neck. I held onto him as he pounded me.

  My back arched as he put his hands on the small of my back. He raised me up from the bed and sat me down on his cock, impaling me completely.

  “Oh, fuck… Harder…”

  He grabbed one of my breasts and squeezed as I started to bounce on top of him. We grinded against each other, slamming our bodies in a lustful rhythm. Dorian’s hard body colliding against me would have been enough to drive any woman over the edge.

  There wasn’t a man in Ivory as handsome as Dorian. Not back then when we were in high school. Not now. I knew I was the envy of every woman in town. The thought of it made it hard for me to stop squealing with pleasure.

  I wrapped my legs around his back and held onto his broad shoulders as I bounced on top of him.

  Dorian started driving his cock up and into me. I felt every inch of him splitting my insides.

  I was leaking onto his hilt. The wet sound of our bodies slapping grew louder.

  “Oh, fuck… I’m gonna come… Come with me… Come inside of me…”

  I begged for him to reach the end that was so close.

  Breaths deep. Hearts pounding. Bodies sweating. Toes curling.

  I dug my nails into his massive shoulders to brace myself from the pleasure that was on the verge of racking my body.

  “Dorian…”

  “Gina…”

  He groaned my name just as he started to come.

  The thick pulses of his cock throbbing inside of my wetness made my entire body shiver. Dorian tightened his grip on my breast, his other hand holding my waist as he filled me up. The feeling of a man like Dorian coming inside of me was like nothing else.

  I clenched my jaw and tightened every muscle in my body as I started to come with him. The pleasure spread through me. I shook uncontrollably but Dorian kept me on top of him.

  “Fuck!”

  I shouted it out as loud as I could. I didn’t care if the neighbors could hear me. I wanted the entire town to know how good I fucking felt.

  I collapsed against his hard body when my orgasm subsided. Dorian kissed me on the cheek and laid me down before pulling out of me. He rolled to the side and sank his head into the pillow next to me.

  I breathed deep breaths to try and regain my composure. My body was covered in sweat. I was exhausted and beaten. Dorian had broken me down again like he’d done so many times before.

  I waited a few seconds before working up the strength to roll over near him. I rested my chin on his chest as I stared at the ink on his arm. My fingers trailed over his tattoos and my mind started to wander.

  “Logan…” I whispered.

  “Sutton said he’s going away for a long time. What he and Graham did was serious. It can’t go unpunished.”

  I looked up at Dorian. His eyes were closed as he rested peacefully.

  “Are you all right?” I asked.

  He didn’t respond immediately. He just remained there peacefully with his chest rising and falling slowly.

  “There was nothing you could have done,” I said. “You did what you had to do.”

  “Yeah,” he sighed. “I understand that now.”

  He slowly sat up and leaned against the headboard. I sat in front of him, continuing to trail my fingers along the ink on his stomach.

  “When I left Logan behind that day, I never forgave myself. I told myself I would never follow orders if it meant someone had to die because of it.”

  He turned to me and smiled softly.

  “Now I know that orders don’t matter one way or another. It’s always about doing what’s right. It was always that way. Leaving Logan behind… I was angry because I had to follow orders. But the truth is, it was the right thing to do. Staying there and dying or getting captured with him… It wouldn’t have done either of us any good.”

  Dorian didn’t seem as conflicted as before. He resigned himself to the fact that Logan couldn’t be saved. I moved my hand up to his face and caressed his cheek as I smiled at him.

  “I thought I might die,” he said. “I thought I might die with him.”

  “You left him though. You did what you had to do.”

  “Not out there. The other night. When I had to save Adams.”

  “I… I thought you might have died, too. I was worried about you the whole night.”

  “I could have just kept my promise. I could have let Adams and Logan go up in flames and come back to you.”

  “You couldn’t.”

  He shook his head.

  “I went back to save Logan,” I said. “That’s what makes it so hard. Sometimes the right thing to do isn’t so easy. But you make it easy, Gina.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He took one of my hands and kissed it softly.

  “People always looked up to me,” he said. “Ever since I was in high school, I’ve been in the papers. Everybody painted me as some kind of hero. I never wanted to be a hero. I just wanted to do what was right. All that other shit that came with it… I never asked for it.”

  “You deserve all of the praise you get.”

  “I don’t know what I deserve. I just know that I know what’s right and wrong now. Because of you.”

  I swallowed anxiously. The way he looked into my eyes was something I’d never seen from him before.

  “You’re what’s right, Gina. You’re the only order I’ll ever want to follow from now on.”

  “Dorian—”

  “Listen. I… I know it’s hard for you. Working at the fire station. Spending all the time with the Black Reapers. Being by my side won’t be easy. I know that can be more drama than a woman can handle. But if you want to be with me, I want you to know that you’ll be more important than anything else.”

  I looked away from him. I could feel the emotions building up inside of me. I closed my eyes to stop everything from spilling out.

  But the asshole put a hand on my chin and forced me to turn back to him.

  “Gina… I love you.”

  I bit my lip when he said it. A whole wave of emotions all hit me at once.

  “I didn’t realize it until now,” he said. “But I love you. I love you more than I’ve ever loved any woman before. And I’ll do anything for you. Even if that means leaving you alone so you won’t have to put up with someone like me—”

  I cut him off by kissing him. My lips pressed to his, I let them linger. I wanted him to know how I felt and this was the best way possible.

  I slowly pulle
d away from him, my eyes closed as I held my breath.

  “I had dreams of you… I had dreams that I was the girl you cared about more than all of the others at school…”

  I opened my eyes and smiled as I saw his face.

  “…But now I understand why I had those dreams. Not because you were so hot. Not because you were so popular. It was because of who you are.”

  I reached a hand forward and put it on his chest.

  “You’re amazing,” I said. “You’re an incredible person. Being with you was never gonna be simple. And that’s okay. I… I wouldn’t have it any other way. I…”

  I stuttered as the words got caught my throat. I coughed to clear my throat and finally said it.

  “…I love you.”

  He pursed his lips and nodded. He tried to remain stone-faced but I could see in his eyes how much it meant to him.

  “I promise you,” he whispered. “I’ll never give you anything to worry about. Never again.”

  Everything was so perfect. It was like being in a dream. My mind started to wander.

  “You know… There were times when I worked at the bakery and I got a little down.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s fun. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy it. But there were times when I wondered if that’s all I was meant to do. Just be the chick at the bakery.”

  I looked at him and smiled.

  “Now I know why I’m here in Ivory. It’s because of you. All of this happened for a reason. For us. I… I wouldn’t change the way things are. I’ve… I’ve never been this kind of happy before.”

  He tangled his fingers in mine.

  “I’ll do everything I can to make you happy, Gina. Whatever it takes.”

  I leaned forward and kissed him again before resting my head against his chest.

  Firefighter. Club member. High school football hero. Ex-Marine.

  Dorian was all of those things and more. But it didn’t matter what label I put on him. The only thing that mattered was that he was here with me, now. And I would be here with him, too.

  Chapter 26

  DORIAN

  Two weeks later…

  Burton sat at his desk. The grumpy look on his face wasn’t different from the way it usually was. All of the wrinkles on his forehead and cheeks. Bags underneath his squinting eyes. Being in charge of the fire station wasn’t easy, so I didn’t hold it against him.