by Nikki Wild
When that was done, I dried my tears.
And I rose.
I dressed myself for war, storming out of the room and into the club. Half the Dragons were out running errands to put things back in order, but I tracked down Hunter’s beloved right-hand man, one of my closest and dearest friends.
“Grizz,” I touched him on the shoulder.
Grizz Hawkins was always hard to describe. As he turned his burly, bearded form, I watched how his pale blue eyes locked onto mine. Some of the others joked that his eyes were otherworldly. Whether or not that was true, it always seemed like he could look right through you, straight into your soul. It didn’t hurt his mystique that he was a quiet, stoic man, always thinking and watching.
Before falling into place alongside the Devil’s Dragons, Grizz was a combat veteran of some sort. I knew that he was in the Marines, but that was about all that I could ever get out of him.
He didn’t like to talk about it.
Briefly, I wondered if Kate knew more.
“Sarah,” he acknowledged me in that gruff yet compassionate voice of his. How he fit into this complicated biker world so obviously wrong for him, I didn’t think I’d ever know. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Where did Hunter go?”
He paused.
“Out,” he replied.
I put my hand on my hips. “Don’t be like that, Grizz. Where did that asshole father of my child wander off to this time?”
He merely blinked.
“Hunter didn’t say, honest. Although, if I had to hazard a guess…”
The heavyset biker glanced at the door.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s riding around the city. He came out deeply annoyed. My best guess is that he’s blowing off steam.”
“Typical,” I muttered.
He hesitated: “What happened?”
“Doesn’t matter. Bunch of bullshit anyway.” I looked over his shoulder, seeing a notebook on the bar counter and a pen in his hand. It was filled with all sorts of numbers and scrawled notes. “I need one hell of a distraction. Got anything I can help with, big guy?”
Grizz smiled.
“I appreciate the offer, but you are a deeply pregnant woman. Get your rest, Sarah. I’ll notify you if he wanders back home and doesn’t make a beeline for your room.”
“I’m stir-crazy in here,” I muttered. “Besides, I’m awake now. Give me something to do, or I’m going to find something…”
His cheery expression faltered.
“Oh. Uh, let me see here…”
Grizz flipped a few pages back, looking over a few notes. “I’m afraid that the others have nearly everything covered, but perhaps I could ask you for a personal favor.”
“Like what?”
He glanced up sadly.
“Kate isn’t feeling too well. If you’re up to it, could I ask you to keep her company for a little while?” He looked guilty. “I try to be diligent, but I’m so tied up with all these responsibilities right now, and the time keeps slipping away from me.”
“I’d be happy to help, Grizz. She’s a wonderful woman. Where did you find her again?”
“Lafayette, over in Louisiana. There was some trouble down there with an old flame of hers, but we sorted it all out in the end. In a way, the man drove her back into my arms.”
“Funny how that happens sometimes…”
Grizz nodded in reflection.
“Quite… I would have never guessed that I’d ever see Kate again, let alone have her back in my life for good. She was the woman I loved above all others, and I am grateful to God for putting her back in my path.”
He kissed the cross around his neck.
“My long-lost love, reunited at last…” the biker offered me a small smile. “The parallels in our lives are not lost to me. Hunter and you came back together, and out of those ripples I found myself pushed right back into Kate’s arms. Had you two never found each other again, I would never have seen her again.”
I hadn’t thought of that.
The sentiment was deeply touching.
“Speaking of Kate, let me go take a peek in there. Are you sure it’s okay? To bother her, I mean.”
Grizz nodded politely.
“Kate likes you. You’ll be fine.”
Convinced, I gave him a soft squeeze on the shoulder. “You’re a good man, Grizz. I couldn’t be happier that you two found your way back to one another, especially after everything we’ve all been through together these last several months…”
“Chaos follows us,” he smiled. “It’s a fact of life in this club. But the sentiment is mutual. It’s clear to me that you and Hunter are both quite… strong-willed. When you two are on the same page, you're unstoppable.”
“It seems hard to keep on the same page.”
“Your troubles will come and go,” he nodded. “But I have full confidence in you two. Trust one another. See things from each other’s eyes.
“And go,” he added, waving me off with a friendly grin. “You distract me from my work, and I have a sick lover who needs tending.”
I bunched my face in mock indignation.
“I’m going, I’m going…”
Feeling much more relaxed – Grizz certainly had that effect on you – I wandered down the hall and towards their room. With my ear to the door, I could only faintly hear activity from within.
I knocked on the door. “Hello?”
“C-come in!”
I quietly let myself inside, closing it behind me. Sitting up in bed with a fatigued look in her eyes, Kate smiled at my approach.
“Hi, Sarah! What brings you in?”
I rolled my eyes. “The men are busy.”
She pouted. “That Grizz… it always seems like he’s so wrapped up in club activities that he rarely has the time for me.” Her gaze fell to her lap, the blanket wrapped up over it. “He said he’d be in to check on me sometime…”
I sat on the edge of the bed near her.
“Hunter’s saddled the poor man with a lot of responsibility,” I replied sympathetically. “But I’m sure that he’ll be in soon. Until then, I’m happy to keep you company. Can I get you anything?”
Kate raised her eyes coyly.
“You got anything for morning sickness?”
My eyes went wide.
“Holy shit! Kate!” I couldn’t resist throwing my arms around her. “Are you pregnant too?!”
She nodded emphatically.
“I haven’t told him yet. This is all so new that I don’t know… I’m afraid of how Grizz will react. Even as much as I understand him, there’s just no telling what really goes on in that thick head of his sometimes…”
“I’m confident that the old lug can handle the news,” I reassured her, stroking her upper back with my palm. “It seems like everyone’s getting pregnant around here. Is there something in the goddamn water?”
“We’re the only women,” she reminded me.
“That’s true, but still,” I grinned. “But this just means that the two of us need to stick together.”
Kate cheerily grinned.
“I’m good with that.”
“I wish I had some tablets, but I haven’t really needed anything for morning sickness. It’s pretty rare that I get symptoms, and I didn’t think I’d need to keep any around…”
“Oh, that’s okay,” Kate shrugged offhandedly. “I’m actually already feeling a little better for the company, although…”
“Although what?”
Kate hesitated. “It’s probably not my place.”
“Go on,” I insisted.
“Well… it’s just… I overheard the two of you fighting a little earlier. You and Hunter, I mean. Now, you don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to, but can I help with that? Might help me keep my head distracted from my nausea.”
I thought for a moment.
“Give me one second.”
“Sure thing.”
I left the room, gr
abbing a bottle of Pepcid from the nearest bathroom. When I returned, I handed her a capsule with a glass of water, and she gratefully took both.
As she downed the nausea medication, I was lost deep in thought. I trusted her, and I knew that the trust went both ways.
“I don’t mind telling you,” I admitted.
Kate paused. “I mean, I don’t mean to pry. But it’s just that, well… as kind as you’ve been to me since I’ve gotten here, maybe I can offer some sort of second opinion?”
“On what?”
“Whatever made him shout like that, I guess.”
A second opinion did sound great…
“Well, you see…” I began telling her the story. I was fully unaware of the emotional rollercoaster that I was setting in motion with every last word. “There’s kind of this little spat between Hunter and my father…”
Three
Hunter
One Hour Earlier
It had been a long goddamn time since I’d had to hit the road to clear my head.
But that’s exactly what I needed right now.
The Devil’s Dragons were too tied up in their new assignments to notice how I bristled with anger as I stormed across the bar. Quick, stray glances were tossed my way to see if I was coming to rip someone a new one, but they all returned to their work as quickly as they’d paused.
Only one dared to stop me.
“Hunter.”
I grit my teeth and fought back a thousand curses under my breath. The strong, gloved hand of Grizz Hawkins held me firmly by the shoulder. My face turned, and his inquisitive, pale eyes took me in at a glance.
“Where are you going?” He asked calmly.
Grizz knew better than to challenge me, but my burly, quiet second-in-command knew me almost better than even I did.
“Out,” I barked.
“You seem angry.”
“No shit,” I snapped. “Release your grip.”
Grizz’s eyes trailed back the way I’d come, tracing my steps towards the back of the bar. “Sarah and you–”
“I gave you an order, Grizz.”
The gristled, hardened biker looked at me wearily but calmly. After a few more seconds, he finally let go.
“When will you be back?” He asked.
I grunted. “Sundown.”
Grizz looked conflicted, but I couldn’t really give a rat’s ass. He knew how to run things while I was away, and he’d done it countless times before I’d leaned on him to do so.
Hell, he’d been gone almost two months.
It was about time I took a brief break…
None of the others seemed to notice as I pushed my way out the front door and walked over to the parked bikes.
There she was, shining under the Texan sun.
She was my chromed pride and joy.
I mounted my prized motorcycle and keyed the ignition. Within the minute, I was roaring down the long stretch towards El Paso, trying to push away the guilt of leaving Sarah behind.
Kate was still there, at least.
She seemed to know how to help out with pregnancy issues. I suspected that there had been a miscarriage or something like that, but it wasn’t any of my business, and it sure as shit wasn’t my place to ask.
Sarah would be in good hands with her.
As for me…
The horizon was steeped with gray. Telltale signs of coming rain were laid out in front of me, matching the storm that I felt rising inside.
I revved the throttle, the roar of the engine cutting right through me. Still, it wasn’t enough to drown out the image of one man’s face.
It had been a long fucking time since I’d thought about goddamn Jack Buchanan.
None of my thoughts had ever been pleasant. The man was as small-town sheriff as they came, but he still got away with that in Phoenix. He was the man responsible for keeping up the law in our district, and a real asshole from the get-go.
The man had always been against us. Even before I ever wore leathers or owned a bike, he had me pinned for the kind of thug he didn’t want around his daughter.
As a kid, I’d made every attempt to appease him. I had naively thought I could maybe build a truce with him and walk the line – that our love for his daughter could bring the two of us together somehow, even if we didn’t necessarily see eye to eye.
That obviously never happened.
It wasn’t like I was a smug brat about it. I was madly in love with his kid, but that didn’t mean I had to stomp on his toes or try and talk her into rebelling against her father.
I knew my place; I sensed a natural order to things, and I was patient.
Patient, Jack was not.
When I didn’t back off, he increasingly put me beneath the heat. He and his cronies started by interfering with my schooling, forcing a ban from us having the same classes, the same lunch schedule…
That wasn’t enough, so he started knocking on doors. With his leverage and the support of his loyal officers, I was labeled a local menace. If I was seen around his daughter, he was tipped off. Hell, he did such a good job that if I was seen around any girls my age, their parents found out.
I dropped out of school not long after. The whole system was turning against me, and there wasn’t any point to it anymore.
But the harder he pushed…
The angrier I got.
Soon, it became the other way around. Until I got my hands on my runaway father’s motorcycle and learned to maintain it, I had made an enemy of the law. But now that I had wheels and nothing else to lose, the law had made an enemy of ME.
I became a thorn in Jack Buchanan’s side. The worst part was that he blamed every last, little unsolved robbery or act of mindless vandalism on me, just because I dared to love his daughter.
Because he thought I wasn’t good enough.
Thanks to her asshole cop father, the night we lost our virginity together was an evening I spent paranoid, no matter how well I hid it. There was no room in my mind that good old Jack would pop up at any moment with a shotgun in hand, dogs snapping against their leads, and officers fanning out…
Sarah and I found ways of meeting. I earned some favors among the local riff-raff and got a small place, nothing special. But it was nearby, off the grid, and it was a place we could have alone.
We continued our relationship in secret, right under the eye of her overprotective father. She and I had to meet like that for months, sometimes not seeing each other for a week at a time, always desperate for one another.
For our love was young and unstoppable. The burning blaze of our bond fueled our waking lives, and our dreams were built upon its embers.
All the while, Jack knew. He couldn’t catch us, but he knew – and Sarah had inherited his fierce stubbornness and grit. How she managed to keep him from breaking her down, I have no idea.
He wouldn’t take no for an answer.
But neither would I.
And then, one fateful day, our wills crashed…
The piercing red-blues in my rearview pulled me from my bitter dance down memory lane.
Growling, I slowly pulled over.
I had no idea how fast I’d been going. Fast enough to kick up a smoking dirt trail behind me, by the looks of it. The last thing the club needed right now was interest from the fuzz…
Swallowing my disgust, I killed my engine.
Surprisingly, the cruiser soared past. I spat at the dust that hit my face as my boot pulled my kickstand back up, and I twisted the key in the ignition.
The engine roared back to life.
And I drove.
I rode my engine hard into the waning day, keeping El Paso in the rearview. The city grew ever smaller until it was a speck in the distance, the smallest part of my world.
But, of course, my entire world was there.
As I rode hard, I lost myself deep down into the rumbling machine between my thighs. This bike had been my one true constant since my bitter teenage years… left to me from a deadbeat dad
who vanished off without her. She had been left to rust in the garage, buried under shit until I pulled her free. I’d taught myself how to restore her to beauty.
And she was so beautiful to me.
I’d never renamed her. The word Scarlett was still chiseled into the chrome on a piece I’d never replaced. Dad had never told me why he’d named her that, seeing as there wasn’t any red on her.
But I’d seen plenty of red.
My hands were drenched with it.
All the assholes I’d had to put down in the dirt to save others. Every bastard with a death wish who had dared to defy me, left to rot in the sun.
But the one asshole I couldn’t put down was Jack Buchanan, the one who had started me on this path in the very beginning…
I glanced up at the setting sun.
I let out a bitter sigh.
Already, it was looking like upwards of an hour before I could get back to the bar…
I spat into the desert dust.
Too bad, Jack.
In the end, I won after all.
But the following weeks were determined to prove me wrong…
Four
Hunter
When I returned, Sarah was in a room with Kate. One of the guys told me that Grizz’s gal had been under the weather; it seemed to me that Sarah had decided to distract herself by tending to her.
I hoped Kate might talk some sense into her, if she decided to confide in the woman.
When Sarah finally left the room an hour after I’d gotten back, that had apparently not been the case. My pregnant lover didn’t apologize for her earlier ridiculousness, and her attitude had become one of distant civility.
Even if Kate had hardened Sarah’s resolve and made things that much worse, I didn’t hold it against the girl. Sure, she didn’t have all the facts. Her advice was based off of Sarah’s account, and Sarah would never have presented my reasoning in a favorable light. But it seemed natural to me that Kate didn’t want to risk alienating the only other woman in these parts, and if she saw some easy way to endear herself…
It was basic human psychology.
But whatever happened in that room lingered beyond the day. Her attitude hadn’t budged an inch by the following morning, nor the next…