by London Casey
“Just Endo then,” Tripp whispered.
“Yeah. One night after closing, I went outside and Endo was waiting for me. He had a car. He had money. He had a nice smile. It wasn’t uncommon for any of us to do it, okay? I mean, if the guy was rich and wanted a night, it was easy money. Sometimes we fantasized about someone showing up and saving us from the life. Like in the movies and stuff. But it never happened.”
“You didn’t fall in love and marry Endo?”
“No. Not that Endo was a bad person. He was just busy and violent. But he never raised a hand though, no. He had other people do it. I mean if someone touched me, they were taken out back and beat up. But with the Red Aces, it was all good. They were all friends. They sat together, laughed together, but any conversations were handled elsewhere. To me, I didn’t get involved. Maybe I should have, Tripp. Maybe I should have poked around.”
“No,” Tripp said. “You would have been killed. Easily.”
“I know. Endo warned me of that a few times. That’s part of the reason I… well, I was with him, I guess. I wasn’t supposed to be anywhere else. It got scary, Tripp. It really did.”
“Scary how?”
“Endo would get really drunk and have people hurt and killed. For fun. He would force me to watch one of his guys shoot someone. I’d never seen that stuff before.”
“Christ. You shouldn’t have seen it then.”
“Well, that’s why Rocky seemed so… inviting.”
“You left Endo for Rocky.”
“Something like that.”
“Meaning?” Tripp asked.
This was it. It was brewing inside me. Something I hadn’t talked about in a long time. Something that would open gates inside me that I swore would be shut forever. Part of me would rather die than talk about it.
“Endo and I had to end,” I whispered. “There was a problem. A situation. Rocky was able to swing in and save me. Endo kind of left me for dead at the end of it all. Not that I could blame him, Tripp.”
“I hate that guy,” Tripp said. “He always lived off his father’s presence and cash. He never did anything himself. It was always handed to him. It didn’t surprise me he was shot. I just wanted to find out who and help Aldo.” Tripp shook his head. “Sorry. Keep talking, darling.”
My body tingled. The way his voice said darling turned me on. I needed that feeling, because I was getting cold on the inside. It hurt. I hated this shit.
“Rocky took me away from Endo,” I said. “And he took me away from the life. From everything that happened to me. From the notion that I had to take my clothes off to pay my bills. Plus, when I was with Endo or Rocky, I didn’t have bills. Survival seemed so easy. I wasn’t happy. I was actually really depressed. After everything that had happened.”
“Which was what? You were with Endo at one point. How does it all make sense now?”
I looked at Tripp and instead of talking, I pointed to box of pictures. “There’s a picture on the bottom that will make more sense to you.”
“Do I want to see it?”
“It’s not me naked. It’s the truth. Of what happened. Of what I did.”
Tripp stepped into the room and I shot up from the bed. I couldn’t believe I was trying to block him now. But I was scared. Scared he’d get mad at me and then abandon me.
“You have to know what it was like for me…”
“It’s okay,” Tripp said. “Trust me.”
“I care about you. I like you. I’m…”
I’m falling for you. You’re supposed to protect me. Now you’ll know my darkest secret.
Tripp crouched down and dumped the rest of the pictures out. My plan had been to have him find the picture and figure it out himself. He was going to do that anyway now, but there was more tension behind it.
Tripp grabbed the last picture and flipped it around.
Slowly, he stood up.
I saw the look in his eyes. The shock on his face.
Tripp then looked at me. “Winter…”
I nodded.
“You’re pregnant in this picture.”
19.
(Tripp)
I couldn’t process it.
The picture was of Winter pregnant. Her hand over her shirt, touching her round belly. Her face was bright, radiant, a little pudgy in her cheeks. She looked beautiful. Even thinking something like that jarred me a little.
I dropped the picture.
“What happened?” I whispered.
“Endo.”
“No.”
Winter nodded. “Yeah.”
“You had a baby with Endo. That’s what you’ve been hiding from me?”
“Not hiding,” Winter said. “I’m telling you now. You have no idea how bad it hurts me.”
“Why?”
Winter’s eyes filled with tears. “Does it look like I have a kid with me now?”
I swallowed hard. “Endo…”
“No.”
“Oh, shit,” I said. “You…”
“No,” Winter said again. “I gave her up.”
“You gave her up?” I asked.
“Yes. Endo told me he couldn’t have a baby like that. With someone like me. I wasn’t part of his family and I wasn’t the right blood.”
“Christ,” I said. “They have beliefs about marriage, family, keeping their bloodline pure.”
“Yeah. I’m not pure. I don’t even know where the hell my ancestors came from. Never thought it would matter so much.”
“So you let him tell you what to do?”
“What fucking choice did I have?” Winter yelled. “Look at my life. I couldn’t fucking have a baby and take care of it. And Endo gave me no choice. Either I did it or he had me killed.”
“No way.”
“Yes. And if he killed me, he would have taken the baby anyway.”
I touched my forehead, ran a hand through my hair. It was getting worse by the second. More confusing. It was too much to take in at once. I thought I was coming here to keep some woman alive. Yeah, maybe I’d get into a fight or two. Maybe take a bullet or something.
But all this?
“Tripp,” Winter said. “Please don’t leave me.”
I moved at Winter. My hands touched her waist. I felt her hips. Those beautiful and natural curves of her hips. My thumbs pressed against her stomach, over her shirt. Whatever she had done after having a baby had worked wonders. I had no idea that she had ever been pregnant.
“I was terrified,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. To give up my baby like that. I was able to pick who got her and I even picked her name.”
“Your daughter.”
“Autumn.”
“That’s what you named her?”
“Yes. I had her on the first day of fall. I went into labor in the middle of the night. But it wasn’t anything pleasant. I didn’t go to a hospital. I was taken in a car to a place. Like a building. It was all set up by Endo. It all had to be secret. The doctor there was paid a lot of money to keep it all silent.”
“Jesus Christ,” I said. “You gave birth in a building?”
“Yeah. I was fine. The baby was healthy. The woman who took her was there. She was a cleaned up woman. She had a real job, a real life. Endo worked with her to set it all up and make it legit. Whatever power he had, it was meant to work. I held Autumn for a minute and then she was gone. Just… like… that…”
Winter put her head to my chest and started to cry.
Yeah, I had about million more questions for her, but I couldn’t pressure her right now. What a thing to carry in life. To have a child and have it taken away. Especially by someone like Endo. Endo and Aldo were connected to the Red Aces MC. Endo slept with Winter, got her pregnant, and then stole all that from her. Because she wasn’t the right bloodline. I had heard stories before of people having children outside the bloodline and it wasn’t pretty. People were killed. People disappeared.
It was a life I didn’t unde
rstand. It was about a family that I never knew and would never know. My family was of Irish descent anyway. I couldn’t track them down and didn’t really give a shit to do so. For all I knew, my family were a bunch of drunk Irishmen fighting anyone who wanted to throw a punch. That was fine by me.
I held Winter tight as she wept. Her hands slid up to my neck, her nails digging hard into my skin.
“I never meant it,” she said. “I screwed up with my pills and it happened. Endo hated me for it. Hated me. He thought I did everything on purpose, to trick him into getting me pregnant. That’s what he said to me over and over. He drank a lot. He got more violent. I think that’s when and why Rocky stepped in. He became a friend to Endo.”
“And now Rocky’s dead,” I said. “And Endo was supposed to die. He’s in a hospital bed in a coma.”
Winter looked up at me. I hated to think it but her eyes looked even prettier when she cried. The wetness of her tears made the blue color brighter.
I was falling for her, and hard.
I kissed her forehead. “Thank you for telling me this.”
“It’s the darkest secret I’ve got. All I can hope for is that Autumn is okay. Living a good life. A happy life somewhere.”
“You don’t know where she is?”
“No idea,” Winter said. “That was how it was meant to go. After it all happened, Endo disappeared. He was done with me. Rocky kind of picked up the pieces. He took me in and took me away from that life. He brought me here and let me stay. I worked at the cafe when I wanted and slowly came back to life. I don’t know, Tripp. It was hard to do. I ran. I exercised. I did anything to try and erase it all. It’s impossible to do that. Because Rocky didn’t wait long to show his true colors. The whole picture thing… it was his way of being jealous. He was always angry that other men had seen my boobs. So he wanted pictures like it would erase my past. I don’t know.”
“Did he ever hurt you?” I asked.
Why would you ask that, Tripp? What good can come of the answer?
“Of course he did,” Winter said. “But all I knew was that when I came to the Red Aces MC, I felt protected. Safe. Up until the last few months. Everyone seemed on edge. Rocky and Stoney argued a lot. They got into a couple fist fights even. I think Rocky wanted to push at Skull X for some reason. Stoney tried to stop him. And, well, look how it turned out.”
I couldn’t stop putting the pieces together. I knew nothing of this shit. Trying to figure out murder, betrayal, all that stuff. I was a fighter. When I wasn’t fighting, I was fucking. When I wasn’t fighting or fucking, I was having a few drinks and waiting to fall asleep.
But Aldo had sent me here for a reason and it wasn’t protection.
“Is there anything else?” I asked.
“That’s everything,” Winter said. “I had no idea who your boss was. Or that it was all connected.”
“I know, darling. I know. There’s something going on. There’s…”
And then it hit me. Oh, man, it fucking hit me.
I stepped back, putting Winter at arms length. Her blue eyes tore through the last few shreds of my heart. There was no turning away. There was no turning back either.
“Tripp, what is it?”
“I know what this is now,” I said. “I know what’s happening.”
“What?” Winter asked.
“This has nothing to do with you,” I said. “I wasn’t sent here to protect you. It’s about her… shit, darling, they want your kid.”
~
It made sense now. Rocky was dead because of what he knew or what he wouldn’t share that he knew. Someone tried to take out Endo. They were the ones who were directly involved with Winter. And if they wanted Winter dead, she’d be dead. I had nothing to do with protecting her. This was all about what she had done. What she had been forced to do.
Winter was shaking as we stared at each other.
“Tripp,” she whispered. “We’re in danger, aren’t we?”
“Yeah,” I said. “We’re in this deep, darling.”
“What do we do?”
There was a handful of things we could have done right then. None of them should have been what I decided to do.
I pulled Winter close to me and kissed her.
Our lips collided in a dark and beautiful way. My hands pulled at her shirt, wanting to touch her bare skin again. My right hand touched against her belly. My intrigue was through the roof with her. The intense feelings racing through my body were almost foreign to me.
When our tongues touched, she moaned into my mouth. Her nails dug harder at my neck, scratching at me, tearing at my skin.
I walked forward, pushing her to the bed.
I lifted her shirt up and over her head. My hands cupped her face, pulling her back to me for another kiss. Her mouth was delicious, she was the best kiss I ever had in my life.
Reaching around, I unsnapped her bra and she let it fall to the floor.
My hands cupped her breasts, keeping a small distance between us. Our kiss broke, our foreheads touching, and I looked down at my hands touching her. I cupped her hard, gritting my teeth, my cock pulsing in my jeans. I slid my hands down and cupped under her breasts, admiring their beautiful shape and size. I then inched down and kissed her chest, slowly working down to her left breast first. My tongue demanded another taste of her nipple, swirling around, flicking, my teething gently grazing, just enough to make Winter shiver.
I moved to her other breast and did the same.
I slipped my hands around to her back, leaving her breasts dangling in my face. I looked up at her. Her head was down, hair in her face, and a little smile crept across her face. My heart pounded fucking hard. Harder than any fight I’d ever been involved with. That meant Winter was more addicting than a fight, which seemed impossible.
Her hands played with my hair.
I kissed below her breasts.
Then I moved down a little more and did it again.
And again.
I kissed above her belly button and quickly moved under it.
Her stomach fluttered with my kisses.
She was beautiful, her skin soft and sweet.
But I wanted something sweeter.
I opened her pants and tugged at the sides. Her hips tick-tocked left to right as I took them off her. She kicked her pants off.
Finally.
I ran my hands up her legs and wasted no time gripping the top of her black panties and pulling at them. I watched her bare mound appear before my eyes, her tender folds there, her pussy for the taking.
When she stepped out of her panties, I gritted my teeth.
I came forward and pressed my lips to her mound, tasting her smooth skin. Inching down, I slipped my tongue between her legs, demanding to taste her. The tip of my tongue cut along her wet folds, bringing me her sweet flavor. One taste was not enough for me. No fucking way in hell.
My hands slapped at her hips and I pushed her back on the bed. Winter cried out as she fell to her ass on the bed. My hands touched her knees and opened her legs. No more time could pass by now.
I kissed her inner thigh and then raced up her leg. Her smell flooded my senses. I placed my right hand on her mound, my thumb rubbing the gentle nub of her clit. She cried out and thrust at me. My thumb slid down between her folds.
I had to devour her right then.
I brought my mouth to her slick center and tasted her. My tongue moved up and down, pressing against her pussy, feeling her throb against my touch. I put my hands to her inner thighs and kept her open. I was fast, aggressive, needing her so badly.
At her clit I suckled, rolling her between my lips. Each time she jumped, groaned, pressing her hips at me, wanting more.
One of her hands grabbed at my neck and then my shirt. She scratched, pulled, cried out, wanting my shirt off.
I tasted her again, top to bottom, then bottom to top. I pulled away, savoring her sweet taste.
I stood up and hurried to rip my own shirt off.
&nb
sp; There before me on the bed, Winter was fully nude. Her succulent body was all mine now. Her hands on the bed, holding the covers. Her left leg a little bent, her legs still open, her tender pussy folded up for me. The curve of her hips, her breasts just hanging there, hard and rose pink nipples. But it was her face that got me the most. Her natural beauty shined through.
Goddammit, I think I loved her right then.
Love?
I shoved my jeans down and kicked them off.
My cock was almost painfully hard.
I grabbed her legs and pulled at her, bringing her to me.
She cried out and I lowered my body down to hers. Her burning warmth instantly welcomed me. I thrust and opened her, sliding just a little into her. She throbbed against me, her pussy teasing me to fucking come already.
I pulled back and thrust again, easing myself into her.
Once I was deep, I lowered my body to hers. Her hands instantly went around my back, holding me. My right hand pressed at her waist, holding her steady. My left hand slid up her body, over her breast, and up to her face.
I held her just like that as I started to fuck her with slow and long thrusts of my cock. Pulling all the way out to the tip of my dick and then rushing right back inside her. Each thrust she moaned, her mouth open, a sexy desperation in her eyes.
She then started to thrust her hips at me. She rocked left to right, lifting, wanting it. Her head slowly fell back and her body shook as she reached her first climax. Her nails cut into my back muscles like she wanted to tear me apart.
I fucking loved it.
I held tight inside her as she came. I kissed her neck as she cried out with each push of my cock and each throb of her insides.
Winter looked at me again, panting. I didn’t give her a chance to catch her breath. I simply kissed her. My tongue explored her mouth, wondering if she could taste her own sweetness on my tongue.
That turned me on even more.
I pushed and pulled, thrusting and fucking her. I kept our bodies tight, tighter than I had ever been with someone before. Maybe this was beyond a good and sweaty fuck. Maybe this was me making love to her tender body. Showing her how beautiful she was, no matter what happened to her.