Inciting a Riot

by Karen Renee

  Cal and Vamp both said the same word at the same time, a drawled out, “Well.”

  I heard Mallory gasp, but Vamp was suddenly holding a bundle wrapped in brown paper.

  Vamp’s voice was thick and husky when he spoke, “Newer brothers and prospects will think I’m moving too fast, but I live by my ink. I live hard and run fast. I’ve lived hard for a long time now, and I know there’s no other woman to live hard and run fast alongside me than you, Rainey. You’re my old lady, and I damn sure want everyone to know it. I’ll make an honest woman of you, but it was recently brought to my attention that you plan to make my father walk you down the aisle during a quote ‘big-ass wedding’ end quote. In the meantime, you said I should make you my old lady before we tried marriage, so, I had this made for you.”

  He pulled a small leather cut out of the bag and unfolded it. There were two patches on the front, one on the upper left corner which read, ‘Frankie’. On the opposite side was a black patch with two lines of text in white letters. The text read, If you don’t ride in the rain You don’t ride. Vamp twisted the cut, exposing the back, where the Riot MC patch was surrounded by two curved rockers at the top and a single rocker at the bottom. At the top, large letters in an Old English font said ‘Property of’ on the first rocker, with the name ‘Vamp’ on the second rocker, The bottom rocker read ‘Riot MC’.

  He turned the cut back around and held it wide-open for me. “Time to show everyone who you belong to, baby.”

  I was starting to get choked up because of the two patches at the front. I knew the one about riding in the rain was a way to signal those who really knew me that they could call me ‘Rainey’, and the possible double entendre was a great bonus. Plus, the beige name patch with ‘Frankie’ on it meant that the brothers were cool calling me either ‘Frankie’ or ‘Rainey’. Now the only person I’d have to take flack from about it would be Warren, and I could certainly deal with that. I stepped forward, turned my back and slid my arms into the cut. The pungent aroma of new leather filled my nose and made me think of all the times I had ridden behind Vamp, especially the early times when he had a brand-new Prospect cut.

  Vamp whirled me around to face him, pulled me to him and whispered, “You like it?”

  “I love it, and I love you,” I whispered back.

  I saw his face light up with a wide smile for a moment before he kissed me with a force heretofore unfamiliar to me. His hand slid into my hair on one side, and his other hand wrapped around me. He pushed into me and bent me over his arm while one of his legs forced my legs into a wider stance. With his tongue plundering my mouth and my back arched, I did not expect him to take his hand from my hair and hike my leg up to his hips. Then in front of his father and new step-mom, no joke, his hips jerked into mine three times in a very visible and suggestive manner. Considering I was dressed in a lipstick-pink (not Pepto Bismol pink, no matter what Vamp said to the contrary) bikini and was therefore practically naked already, we were quite a show. I heard multiple high-pitched wolf-whistles and people clapping.

  Finally, Vamp let go of my leg and used both arms to haul me up straight as he broke the kiss. I glared at him even though my mind was a whirl.

  Thankfully the whirl lifted quickly and I whisper-snapped, “Seriously? In front of your dad and your younger brothers? The audacity!”

  His shit-eating grin appeared and he whispered, “What I want, when I want, however I want it. Better get used to it now, Rainey, 'cause you’re property of this biker, and it’s how I live.”

  *** ***

  An hour later, I was finally done with all of the hugs and back-slaps from the Riot brothers. While I had been lounging, the entire club, sans the two prospects who were watching the compound, had come inside Volt and Jackie’s house, though not out to the pool. Every one of them had to take the time to welcome me as an old lady with the club. I might have imagined it, but when Roll approached me, his face looked guilty. The reason he hadn't brought Trixie was resting on my torso. While I saw how Roll could think it was an act of mercy to not make her watch another woman get an old lady cut, I felt like it was anything but mercy. Trixie was going to know that I had been made an old lady officially, and if she used that occasion to hassle Roll, then that was between them. To leave her out of the event completely though? To me, that was a smack in the face. He congratulated me, and we chatted for a bit and we both moved to mingle with other people. Cary’s father was one of the first people to congratulate me, and he told me he would be ready and waiting at the back of the aisle to walk me to his son whenever we were ready. Being welcomed by all the brothers, even two I hadn’t met before named Yak and Turk, made my heart swell with warmth.

  I had always loved the familial vibe of Riot, but officially being a member of the family quenched an aching and unknown thirst in my soul. Being part of a large family had been a dream of mine since I was a little girl, and being with Riot showed me that a large family can come in the most unexpected shapes and forms. I may have gone through an extremely rough patch the last six weeks, but with a reward as satisfying as the people standing in a beautiful gourmet kitchen with me right now, it was worth it.

  “Where is your mother?” Warren asked, in a low voice like silk.

  If I were a college football coach, that question would be tantamount to the humongous-cooler-slash-ice-water dispenser being poured right on my head. My warm heart and satisfied soul took a step back into reality.

  With a deep breath and a direct gaze into Warren’s gleaming blue eyes, I said, “You know we’re not close. That hasn’t changed.”

  “Why on earth not?” Marnie asked, from my other side.

  Part and parcel of being folded into Riot MC were lots of toasts and drinking. I wasn’t falling-down drunk, but my verbal filter had dissolved twenty minutes ago. I blurted, “Wow, going for the double-team sneak attack! That’s a good angle. I’d like it if I weren’t on the receiving end of it. To answer your question, Miss Marnie, I don’t know why we’re not close. Might need a family therapist or Freud himself to figure it out, but my top three guesses are as follows: I am the sole reason my father bolted from her life when she pushed me out, though that is up for serious debate as we cannot know that for certain without his input. Second, I am nothing like her, no matter how much she’s tried to mold me into being her. Third, she just doesn’t have it in her to give a shit about anyone but herself. I know that sounds harsh, which is why it’s in the third position instead of the first position. God knows, I really think answer number three is the winner.”

  Warren slung an arm around my shoulders. “Forget we asked, dear. I’m just pleased as punch that my son has staked a claim to you, and that because you want it, he’s going to marry you in a big-ass wedding.”

  The words ‘With a big-ass, cake too’ were on the tip of my tongue when an unholy uproar came from the front living room, where some of the brothers were watching Fight Club. Volt, Cal, Vamp, and Rage were in the kitchen with us and their eyes were aimed in the direction of the living room.

  Blood trudged into the room, and he trudged because he was pushing a stocky, pale white man in front of him. The man had a receding hairline (he should have just embraced it and gone bald) and he was wearing a pale-grey three-piece suit with a white dress shirt. Sweat was oozing from every visible pore of his body, and even some I couldn’t see, if the state of his shirt was anything to go by. The hair framing the side of his head was light brown, but his eyes were dark like black coffee. None of this added up to a nice-looking man, but to make it worse, his eyes were crazed and jumpy. He looked at each of us for half-a-second and then on to the next person. He saw me and his gaze held mine for a moment, and then it bounced around and around until it landed on Vamp, where it held for two seconds.

  “Found this cocksucker pokin’ around your bike, brother. Won’t tell me dick about why he was doin’ it. I’d just turn him over to Cal, but it’s your bike, so I think you get a few shots on principle.”

  Vamp�
��s eyes were boring into the sleazy-looking guy, but then he looked at Blood and said, “Let Cal take him. Not my call, but I’d love it if you, Cal, and Volt took him. Didn’t realize how ruthless my president was until yesterday, I like it. Meantime, I’m gonna check my bike. Rage, do not take your eyes off Frankie for any reason.”

  “No probs, brother,” Rage said with far too much satisfaction for my tastes.

  CHAPTER 27

  Vamp

  Vamp prowled back into the kitchen carrying a smudged grease rag in his hands. He stopped at the island across from Jackie, “Where’d they take him?”

  She jerked her head to the left, “Out back. Go to the pool, then out the screen door, you’ll hear them before you’ll see them I’m sure.”

  He gave Jackie a chin-lift. He looked to Rainey, and for the first time that evening he had to ignore the fact she was wearing his cut over her extremely skimpy bikini, because if he didn’t, he’d have a raging cockstand in his pants. Keeping his focus on her shimmering green eyes he said, “I’ll be back. A prospect will be here in half-an-hour with my truck, and we’re goin’ home.”

  Stalking out to Volt’s back yard, the anger coursing through Vamp’s veins caused his fists to clench. The slimy asshole, who wouldn’t speak to Blood, had not just been ‘poking around’ Vamp’s bike. He had cut the line to the brakes. While Vamp was pleased he hadn't found that out the hard way by eating asphalt, it didn’t negate the fact that taking Rainey home on the back of his bike for the first time as his old lady wouldn’t happen tonight. The motherfucker had fucked up Vamp’s plans for the night in a big way, and he was going to fucking pay.

  Blood stood behind the prick, holding the asshole’s arms in a chicken-wing hold. Cal threw a right jab to the man’s eye, which was already swollen, and the man yelped in pain like a fuckin’ dog. As though he sensed Vamp’s presence, Cal turned around to face him.

  “Mr. Fowler won’t tell us who he works for,” Cal huffed out.

  Vamp grabbed a tuft of the brown hair above the guy’s ear, and said, “Stillman pay you enough money to off me and my old lady? Huh?”

  Vamp’s brothers went rigid at his words and his president asked, “Are you sure?”

  Vamp let go of the dickhead’s hair. Stepping back from him, Vamp looked to Volt, “I almost didn’t catch it, but I remembered Cal’s bike had a brake recall three years ago. I went to test the brake, but noticed the hose assembly seemed whacked. That’s how I found the cut.”

  Volt pulled a Glock with a silencer from the small of his back and aimed it at the man’s foot. He looked at the bastard’s face and said, “You tried to off one of my brothers; that’s a death wish. I like to take my time when I have to handle my own wet work. Gonna start by shooting your fucking toes off one-by-one, if I’m not satisfied with what you tell us. Who the fuck hired you?”

  The cocksucker squirmed in Blood’s hold and Volt fired a muffled shot to the side of the asshole’s foot. The cheap-looking three-piece suit was covered in all manner of bodily fluid from blood to sweat to saliva. The gunshot made the asshole piss his self and a dark-stain spread on the crotch of his pants.

  “That’s your only warning shot. Who the fuck you work for?” Volt growled at the man.

  “Fuck off,” Fowler mumbled.

  Cal slid tarnished brass knuckles onto his right hand while he grumbled, “You fucked up my brother’s big-day takin’ an old lady. And you fucked up his ride. Does not stand.”

  Cal’s punch was loaded with extreme power as his muscular bulk twisted from his hips, landing a blow to Fowler’s ribs. Fowler gasped repeatedly and the gasps became coughs. His head hung low as he tried to get wind back into his lungs.

  “Starla pay you or she just suck your small cock so you’d do her dirty work?” Vamp asked.

  “Fuck you,” Fowler gasped.

  “None of us swing that way. Every one of us has a fine piece of ass to tap when we’re done here and need to work off the excess adrenaline that comes from beating scumbag ass. Too bad you can’t find Starla to lick the piss off your cock,” Blood said.

  “'Cause you assholes have her,” Fowler said, in a raspy voice.

  “You’re bein’ led around by your dick. Not even smart enough to get paid,” Volt surmised.

  Proof of Fowler’s extreme stupidity surfaced when he hocked a bloody loogie at Volt’s legs. Volt immediately shot the side of Fowler’s right shoe. Fowler screamed like a girl at the pain of having his pinky toe shot at close range.

  Cal placed his brass-knuckled fist into his left palm, flexed his arm muscles and asked Fowler, “Did Starla put you up to this shit?”

  Fowler said nothing, and Blood jerked his chicken-wing hold on Fowler to give him a vicious jolt. Fowler’s eyes were glazed over with shock. Cal shook his head and shot a frustrated look at Vamp and Volt.

  Vamp smiled, “I got an idea. Fuck this asswipe. Let’s reverse this shit.”

  Volt raised a dark eyebrow at Vamp. “What do you mean?”

  “If he’s bein’ led around by his dick, maybe that crazy cunt is usin’ his balding ass to replace me. We get the Leathernecks to let me talk to her, we might find out shit a lot quicker.”

  Volt jerked his chin at Cal. “Call ‘em.”

  When Cal executed the call to Razor, he handed his cell off to Vamp, saying, “You talk to him about this shit, brother.”

  Vamp left the backyard, entered the screened-in pool area and put the phone to his ear in time to hear Razor say, “Talk to me, Callous.”

  “It’s Vamp. I need to talk to Starla.”

  “Thought Mallory’s fuller-figured doppelganger was your new old lady? You want your old piece of ass back, I’ll be happy to show Frankie how a real MC brother treats a lady.”

  Vamp took in a sharp breath before saying, “Fuck you, man. We got a dickwad named Fowler here who cut the line to my bike’s brakes. Won’t say who’s payin’ him, even though we’ve beaten the shit out of him and shot off his pinky toe. Starla’s apparently leadin’ him around by his dick, so I want to talk to her ass and turn the tables.”

  Razor sighed. “Don’t sound like a promising scenario, but I’ll get her on the line for you.”

  Vamp sauntered to the far end of the pool and perched his ass on the outer edge of the hot tub portion of the pool while he waited.

  “What?” Starla’s brittle voice snapped at him.

  Not for the first time since Bike Week, Vamp wondered what the hell he ever saw in this cunt. He couldn’t dwell on that shit right now though.

  “Your boy Fowler seems to want me dead,” Vamp announced nonchalantly.

  “Vamp?” Starla asked, hopefully.

  “Yeah, baby, it’s me. Why would you tell this guy to kill me?”

  “I didn’t tell him to kill you.”

  Flirting with her grated on Vamp’s nerves, but he stuck to it, and asked, “Are you involved with him, Starla?”

  “I’d rather not be, but you won’t take me back.”

  It seemed to be working, so he kept with the flirty banter. “Are you trying to replace me with this schmuck, sweetheart?”

  “Can’t ever replace you, Vamp.”

  “Then why did he try to kill me?”

  “I don’t know. Come get me out of this hellhole.”

  “Did you want him to kill Frankie?” he asked gently.

  There was silence from Starla and Vamp knew he had pushed her too far. Shit. Quickly, he decided to try a different tactic.

  “Would your father want me dead for some reason?” he asked.

  “What? Daddy? No, why would you think that?”

  “Fowler reports to him. He cut the brake line to my bike. I don’t wear a helmet, a high-speed collision would kill me.”

  “Wasn’t Daddy,” Starla said, so softly Vamp almost missed it. Then he heard a thud in the background and Razor’s voice telling her to speak up when someone asked her a question.

  “Well, that’s good baby, but how do you know it wasn’t your fathe
r?”

  There was no response on the line and Vamp held the phone away from his face to see the call had ended. Then the phone rang in his hand.

  “Razor?” he asked.

  “Sorry, man. The cunt hung up on you. I can put you on speaker and force her to talk if you want.”

  “No. I think I got all I need. Thanks for your time.”

  Vamp turned to go back to where Blood was holding Fowler, but Cal came into the patio area.

  Handing him back his phone, Vamp asked Cal, “Your boat gassed up, man?”

  “Yeah. We need to go trawling tonight?”

  Vamp gave his brother a marginal chin-lift, “Need to check with Volt first and possibly make one more phone call. After that, I think some late-night trawling is just what the doctor ordered.”

  *** ***

  *** *** Volt came back to the patio from behind closed doors in his home office. Vamp could not get a read on Volt’s face to save his life. It was a rare thing for Vamp to not be able to read someone, but Volt consistently managed to elude him. Likely, that was one of the many things that made Volt a strong MC president. Cal was slouched on a chaise lounge, and had implored Vamp to do the same, but Vamp could not contain his angry energy. He wanted to force the life out of this Fowler bastard, but he didn’t need to spend ten to twenty years in Raeford prison just after getting Frankie back for good.

  Standing so that he could see both Vamp and Cal, Volt said, “Leventon thought we had his daughter, but he didn’t send that asshat around to fuck with us. –”

  “Or so he says,” Cal interrupted, in a rare display of insubordination to the president.

  Volt’s head tipped to the side a centimeter. “Kept that in mind, believe me. You’re not the only one who has to keep it in check with this asshole. This stunt could have cost me a brother and the closest thing I’ll have to my little sister, but we all got to keep our shit tight. Leventon doesn’t want trouble with us, says he has enough trouble with the Leathernecks. Told him an attempt on one of my brothers would not stand, and, while he didn’t say it outright, if this Fowler guy goes missing, it’s no skin off his nose.”