No Mercy

by Tory Richards

  Because he could.

  Because I’d made it too easy for him.

  Because, like some men, he thought with his cock.

  I finished my wine, staring out at the woods. I’d done this. How could I undo it? Throw myself at him? Maybe it was for the best after all, especially if there was someone else. Suddenly I had to know, and just managed to stop from making a fool of myself by asking. I hated the tears that were filling my eyes. Hopefully he wouldn’t notice them.

  I took a deep breath. “Okay.” What else was there to say?

  “I’ll begin looking tomorrow after we get Sam settled in school.”

  “You don’t have to go.”

  “I want to go. Just so we’re clear, I intend on being part of his life. Once you’re in your own place we’ll set up how it’s going to be. And I’m not just talking about visitation, babe. He’ll spend part of the week with me.”

  “But−”

  “No fucking buts, Allie. That’s how it’s going to be. I have a lot of time to make up with Sam. We can work it out when the time comes.”

  I nodded, deciding that he was right. At least he wanted Sam enough to fight for him. “Okay.”

  Rock snorted. “You don’t sound too happy.”

  “I’m ecstatic,” I lied, and then, because I wanted to hurt him the way that he was hurting me I said, “That will give Tom and me a chance to see where our relationship is going. He called tonight, and−” I knew as soon as the words left my mouth that it was a mistake.

  Rock jumped to his feet, and the next thing I knew his hands were on the arms of my chair and he was leaning down over me. I scooted as low as I could go in my chair, staring up at his fierce expression and glittering eyes.

  “Not going to happen, babe.”

  What? Was he insane? No, he was a selfish prick, that’s what he was. It was okay for him to fuck as many club girls as he wanted, but I couldn’t have a meaningful relationship with a nice man? I didn’t really want one with Tom, but Rock didn’t need to know that, and it was not his decision to make. “You’re crazy, Rock,” I whispered up at him.

  He laughed gruffly. “Maybe, but you’re not bringing another man into the picture.”

  “Oh, so if you can’t have me no one can?” I threw at him.

  “That’s right, babe.”

  “Then the same applies to you, Rock. If I can’t fuck anyone else, neither can you.” There, let him justify that. I’d hit him right where it counted.

  A slow smirk spread across his face, the kind that declared that I was going to lose this battle. “You can think that, but you’re the one who took sex off the table, not the other way around. Now, if you want to fuck we can end the debate right now.”

  “And then I can fuck whoever I want?” I hissed at him. Even to my ears that comment sounded ridiculous.

  He moved closer and growled, “Fuck no. You let me inside that tight little pussy again and I’ll be the only man who gets that privilege.”

  I frowned, trying to make some sense out of what he’d just said. It sounded to me that in Rock’s opinion, it was him or no one, while he could go his merry way with whoever he wanted, whether we fucked or not? Seriously wrong! He needed a wakeup call, but I was too tired now to give it to him, much less think about how I was going to do it.

  He came closer and I pulled back. “What are you afraid of, babe?”

  I looked at his mouth. “I don’t know where those lips have been.” He laughed, and I wanted to slap him. “I don’t want to catch anything.”

  “Don’t worry. I don’t go down on the girls at the club. Never know who’s been in their pussies before me.”

  “You’re disgusting!” I hissed. “You’ve changed, Rock. You weren’t like this seven years ago.”

  He finally pulled back and straightened. “People change. Seven years ago I had a girl I would have done anything for. I thought she loved me.”

  “Did you love her?” I asked, knowing that he was talking about me.

  He seemed to take a long time to answer. “I did.”

  He did. It was clear that he didn’t now. I wanted to cry, but I would do that later, in the safety of my room. The ugly fight we’d had, the decisions we’d made back then, had ruined everything. I deserved what I was getting now, we both did. But at least Rock’s angst wasn’t directed at Sam.

  Suddenly he was walking away from me and toward the screen door. “Where are you going?”

  “Back to the fucking club.”

  Back to the women who gave him what he needed.

  Chapter 16

  Rock

  I slammed my glass down on the bar and made eye contact with Marnie, who was eyeing me hungrily. “Another one.”

  She smiled and poured me another shot, making sure to lean over and give me a view of her cleavage. I looked, I’m a man, and she’d been my main fuck for years, but that was as far as it had gone. I’d singled her out because I didn’t like fake tits and hers, though not as big as I liked, were all real. She stood there eyeing me, trying to use her allure to get me back on board, or, to put it more crudely, back between her legs. I hadn’t touched her in weeks, not since I’d located Allie. In my world that was a long dry spell.

  Yeah, it was fucked up that I was lying to Allie, letting her believe that I’d come here to fuck club whores.

  “Trying to get drunk, honey?”

  I gave Marnie a glare. She knew better than to question me, but that’s what happened when a brother picked one girl more over the others. She started to think that she was special, that maybe more was going on between us than just her providing relief. Sometimes they had to be reminded what they were there for. Hawk had run into the same problem with Sid when Audra had first appeared at the club.

  I guess my silent glare got the message across, because her smile disappeared and she moved on down the bar to another customer. Maybe I should just disappear in the back, where the club was, but I hadn’t wanted to answer any fucking questions. Sometimes my brothers were worse than gossiping old ladies.

  I didn’t want to think about why I was there and not home fucking the hell out of Allie.

  Christ, how fucking stupid could I get, giving her an easy out like that? Doing the opposite of what I wanted? I shook my head with disgust and released a low breath. I should never have touched her back in Cedar Key, because now that was all I thought about, her hot, fleshy curves beneath me as I pounded my dick into her tight, wet cunt.

  “What are you doing back here, brother?”

  I didn’t have to look up into the mirror in front of me to know that it was Hawk. “Fucking women,” was all I said.

  He laughed heartedly. “You need to give it some time,” he advised.

  I turned to look his way. “That what you did?” I wondered if he’d be honest. Audra had put him through hell because he’d been determined not to let her get to him.

  “Fuck no, I put my foot down.” He made a show of looking around. “Don’t tell Audra I said that,” he joked.

  We both laughed, and I downed my drink. Hawk was full of shit. Oh, he’d laid down the law with Audra, but he wasn’t afraid of her. Now that they were a family he let her get away with a lot of shit, but I had no doubt that he wore the pants.

  “Bring me a beer,” he shouted out because Marnie and the bartender, Snake, were at the other end of the bar talking.

  Marnie rushed down to serve him. “You want another whisky, Rock?” she asked while filling a frosty mug with the beer on tap.

  I just gave her a nod.

  “She’s giving you the eye, brother,” Hawk grinned.

  “Yeah, I know. Haven’t tapped her ass in a while.”

  Hawk laughed, taking a long drink. “What’s stopping you?” His tone told me that he thought he already knew the answer to that.

  I didn’t answer him because I knew it would make me look like a pussy. He above anyone else should know how I felt right then. Once Audra had come on the scene he hadn’t touched another woman
. But then, he’d taken what he wanted from Audra, and she hadn’t seemed to mind, either. Maybe I was handling Allie all wrong, giving her too much say when I should just tell her how shit was going to be.

  It had worked in Cedar Key when I’d told her how it was going to be with Sam. She hadn’t fought me too hard on that. Maybe coming with me was what she’d wanted all along. Christ, I thought back to seven years before, when she’d been so fucking innocent. She’d liked me taking charge. We’d fought a lot, but hell, the make-up sex had more than made up for it. Allie was a firecracker in the sack when we fucked in anger.

  I reached down to adjust my dick, which had turned hard as fucking stone from thoughts of fucking Allie into a purring, satisfied kitten.

  “Need help with that, baby?” Shit, Marnie had seen me rearranging my dick. I could sense Hawk’s amusement next to me. If he weren’t the prez I’d have told him to fuck off. “We could go to the back.” She ran her tongue over her lips. I could tell she was turned-on. Her nipples were poking through her shirt.

  Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. But then, I thought, why the hell not? She was willing and I needed relief. It wouldn’t take me long to get off in that talented mouth of hers. I stared at her through an alcohol-induced blur. I threw back my whisky, slammed the glass down, and swung around on the stool. “Why the fuck not? Come on.”

  “Don’t do anything you’ll regret, brother,” Hawk called after me.

  I waved him off and met Marnie at the end of the bar. Her smile went from ear to ear and I could already see the glaze of lust filling her eyes. She led the way to the back, opening a door that led to the liquor storage room.

  “I’ve missed you, baby. Missed your big, fat cock.”

  “No talking,” I snarled, leaning against a rack of Jim Beam. Her hand went immediately to my dick, giving it a rough rub through my jeans. I closed my eyes. Fuck, that felt good. I thrust my hips out, bowing my dick even more. As I felt her fingers begin to tug my zipper down I made the mistake of opening my eyes and glancing down. Marnie was smiling up at me, not Allie, and it hit me like a shit ton of bricks that Allie’s mouth and hands were the only ones I wanted touching me. Not some club girl who gave it up to any brother who wanted her.

  Fuck!

  “Get your hands off me!” I snarled, pulling away from her and doing up my pants.

  Marnie jumped to her feet, a look of shock and disbelief on her pretty face. “But−what did I do wrong?” I got the feeling that she wasn’t just asking about now. “It’s been so long, Rock. You used to touch me all the time. Fuck me all the time. I miss that, I miss you.”

  I frowned, realizing that she was hurt. Fuck, were those tears filling her eyes? No, fuck, no! Club girls knew better than to let their feelings go beyond the physical needs they provided to the brothers. Marnie had been around a long time, and I wasn’t the only brother who’d fucked her. She went to reach for me and I grabbed her around the wrist to stop her from touching me.

  “You know better,” I said roughly, pulling her gaze to mine. “Pull yourself together and go back to the bar.” I turned and left the room, a slow rage building inside me.

  Hawk was still sitting at the bar. Our gazes met as I made my way back to my stool. I could see the question in his eyes, and shook my head as I moved around him and planted my ass down. I motioned for Snake to fill my glass.

  “Been there, brother.” There was humor in Hawk’s voice. “You’ll survive.” A snort of laughter escaped me, because I had my doubts. “You still love her?”

  I knew that I did, but I wasn’t going to confirm anything. I still had too much shit to work through, too many years between then and now. “I want her,” I finally said. “And whatever the fuck that means. But right now I’m going to get good and drunk, and then sleep it off upstairs.” I pulled out my phone to text Allie.

  What time do we leave for school in the morning?

  A few minutes later I got a text back. Seven.

  Lock the house up tight. I won’t be home until then.

  I never received a response. She probably thought I’d be spending my night in bed with a club whore, and for good reason. I’d led her to believe that. It was probably better that I stayed away from her. The way I was feeling, the distance would do us both some good. Hell, if the club voted to take on Covacks’ job we may have even more distance, and for longer than I wanted.

  But at least she and Sam would be safe.

  That was all that fucking mattered.

  Chapter 17

  Allie

  With Sam in school I could now focus on finding a job and getting us our own place. I’d been a little surprised that Rock had shown up on the morning we’d registered Sam, but I hadn’t seen him much since then. “Club business” was all he’d say on his way out the door, and if he stayed the night it could be days before I saw him again.

  Living in a small town, I knew that finding a job wouldn’t be easy. Usually there were plenty of places looking for waitresses, but other than a couple of bars I wasn’t having much luck. I’d worked at bars before, but they weren’t my first choice, or even my second. And while bars with names like Dirty Harry’s and Naughty Nights pretty much guaranteed me a job, I was fairly certain that they weren’t places I wanted to be employed. Not unless I got desperate.

  And I didn’t mind showing a lot of skin.

  So there I was, sitting out on the porch, enjoying a cup of coffee and going through the want ads again when I heard voices. I thought that someone was on their way to the front door, and began to get to my feet, when three women rounded the corner of the house heading toward the porch. They were talking, laughing, and two of them were obviously pregnant.

  They halted at the bottom of the steps. “Hi, Allie, right?” I nodded. “I’m Audra, Hawk’s wife. He’s the president of Phantom Riders.” She was absolutely glowing in her pregnancy.

  I knew who Hawk was. I’d met him in the beginning of my relationship with Rock, though I hadn’t seen him since my return. I remembered him being a hulk of a man. The fact that Audra, who was tiny in comparison, was his wife, amused me.

  “I’m Carol, a friend of Audra’s.”

  “And I’m Trish, Fox’s old lady. The club computer nerd,” she laughed.

  “Do you mind if we come inside?” Audra asked, already walking up the steps. “We thought it was time we came to welcome you.”

  “Come on in,” I smiled. “I’m glad for the company. I’ve been cooped up with a six-year-old and a grumpy VP.”

  Audra was the first one inside. “So you understand club lingo?” she asked, sitting in the lounger next to me.

  “Some. Rock and I were, ah, kind of together a few years ago.”

  “Kind of?” Audra chuckled, leaning back and resting her hand on her belly. “How do you get pregnant if you’re ‘kind of’ together?”

  I had to laugh at that. She was right. “Wrong choice of words,” I said, correcting myself. “Are you three the only old ladies in the club?”

  “I’m not connected to the club in any way,” Carol was quick to say. “Audra and I were friends long before she met Hawk.”

  Trish added, “Snake and Jumper have old ladies, too, but they couldn’t make it today. You’ll get to meet them later.”

  “Later?”

  All three nodded vigorously, but it was Audra who explained. “We’re planning a girl’s night out this Thursday, and we want you to come.”

  “Yeah, we all meet up at Robin’s house around seven and go from there to Ruby’s Nightclub for drinks and dancing. It’s the one day a month we get out and let loose!” Trish laughed.

  “Then once a month we do a girls’ day out,” Carol continued. “We all get together for breakfast and then spend the day at the spa.”

  They both sounded like fun. “I can swing the spa day if it’s on a weekend, but I’m not sure about a girls’ night out.” I had Sam to consider, and I wasn’t going to assume that Rock would be around to stay with him.

 
; “We all have kids, too. Snake and Robin have four, and they have a fantastic babysitter. On girls’ night out she takes care of all the kids without any problems. She has a wonderful way with them, and they all love her.”

  As I listened to Audra’s praise of the babysitter I realized that I wasn’t sure about leaving Sam with a stranger. “How many kids are we talking about?”

  “Well, if you go with us she’ll have eight, but her license is for ten.”

  That caught my interest. Maybe it would be okay. “She has a license?”

  “Yeah, she’s majoring in child psychology and just loves children. She’s CPR certified, too,” Carol added.

  I grinned at that, and then realized that I hadn’t offered any refreshments. “Would anyone like some wine? Or maybe some coffee? I brewed a fresh pot.” I started to get up.

  “No, we’re good.” Audra spoke for everyone, and I made eye contact with Trish and Carol to make sure that they agreed with her. They indicated that they were good. “We just came by to introduce ourselves and invite you out Thursday night. You’ll come, won’t you?”

  The thought of a night out was tempting. I was so close to accepting until I remembered that it was a week night. “It’s a school night.” How could I have a late night out if Sam had school Friday morning? What kind of mother would that make me, to put my needs above his? Although, having my own friends doesn’t make me selfish.

  “We forgot to tell you that the kids usually sleep over. Robin and Snake have a big house and plenty of room.”

  “And this Friday is a teacher’s work day, kids are out of school,” Trish reminded me.

  I had forgotten! It grew silent as the women waited for my response. Part of me wanted to go, to just spend some time with other women and have a couple of drinks, and maybe do a little dancing. I hadn’t done that in ages, I’d been too focused on work and Sam. Sam would make new friends in school, but I thought that maybe if I left him with the other kids there would be at least one his age.

  Their eager expressions finally won me over, and I smiled. “I guess it’s girls’ night Thursday.”