Kane’s pale face grows paler. His features contort into a mask of fury. “You son of a bitch,” he wheezes.
“Ah! Looks like I hit the nail on the head.” With a snort of disgust, I turn to Beast. “No wonder. He likes ‘em young, looks like.”
“Gotta brainwash ‘em to get ‘em to go down on that cheese dick of his,” Beast replies.
Kane lets out a strangled roar. His bodyguards take a step forward, but before they can do anything, my men have their guns out and trained on them.
“That ain’t how this is gonna go,” I bark. I grab Kane around the throat and shove him against the wall, even though it makes me sick to touch him. “Look, you slimy piece of shit,” I snarl. “You ain’t nothin’ to me but a goddamn piece of filth. You keep your racist bullshit out of Tanner Springs, you get me? And if I see you recruiting for your fuckin’ Hitler Youth there — any goddamn sign of them at all — I swear to God I will end you, but not before I cut your thumb dick off and feed it to you. You got me?”
Kane’s eyes are bulging out of his face with fear and hatred.
“You heard what I did to the Outlaw Sons,” I continue. “You know I mean this. The apartment your little band of Nazi cocksuckers broke into last night? That was my club bartender’s place. They’ve been tryin’ to get her little brother to join up.” I shake my head once. “I ain’t havin’ that. I especially ain’t havin’ a small-time chickenshit like you pollute my corner of the world.” I tighten my grip on his neck and bash his head once, hard, against the wall. “You take your stink outta here, Kane. And don’t let me ever smell you again.”
I remove my hand from his flesh, resisting the urge to wipe it on my cut. “Let’s get outta here,” I mutter at my brothers. “Kane, call off your dogs before we shoot them to death.”
Thorn, Beast, and the other Lords with me keep their guns trained on the five of them until we’re out of the room.
“Rosie,” I call as we head toward the door. “You owe me one on that carpet.”
We head back to Tanner Springs. I’m feeling itchy and antsy. Part of me isn’t sure why I didn’t just take that motherfucker outside and smoke his sorry ass. Out of respect for Rosie, and the Skull’s tradition as neutral territory, I guess.
As we get closer to town, the ghost of an idea starts to form in my head. Something I tuck away for later to talk to the Lords about.
Right now, though, I have Jude to deal with.
23
Jewel
I don’t know what Angel says to Jude when he gets back from meeting with the leader of the Krow Klan.
All I know is that in the days that follow, my brother seems to transform before my eyes. Where he used to be mostly sullen and uncommunicative with me, he’s polite now. He even thanks me without fail every time I let him borrow my car. He’s still working with the Lords at Twisted Pipes, and sometimes he comes to the clubhouse after work with the prospects. A couple of the men joke that he’s becoming a hang-around.
Angel gives me a wide berth for the next week or so. But it’s not that he’s ignoring me, exactly. It feels more like he’s giving me space. On the one hand, I’m grateful, because being around him is hard for me. But I miss his touch, and the ache deep in my gut when I see him doesn’t go away as the days pass. If anything, it gets worse the harder I try to ignore it.
One night, I’m taking my break out back behind the clubhouse when he comes out to join me. It’s the first time we’ve been alone together since the night we spent in my apartment. I feel raw and agitated in his presence, but I do my best not to show it. I pull my fall jacket around me, not knowing if it’s the cold or his presence that makes me feel like shivering.
“What ya doin’ out here?” he asks as he comes to sit next to me on top of the picnic table.
“Just looking at the stars,” I reply, glancing up at the night sky.
“Yeah?” He leans his elbows on his knees and looks up. “You can see a lot of ‘em tonight. Big Dipper, Little Dipper.” He points. “See that bright one there? That’s Venus.”
I listen as Angel points out a few other constellations, most of which I’ve heard of but never seen. With his help, I see Pisces — though it doesn’t look much like a fish to me — and Pegasus, which looks like a horse, though I can’t see the wings. He shows me Taurus, too, which really does look like a charging bull with its horns sticking out.
“See that cluster packed together in Taurus? Like a four-leaf clover, with the three smaller ones underneath? That’s Pleiades. It’s a cluster, not a constellation. There’s over a thousand stars in there. You just can’t tell it from here.”
I stop looking up at the sky to glance over at Angel. “How do you know about this stuff?”
“I used to be really into that shit when I was a little kid.” He chuckles low in his throat.
I wish I had someone to teach me the rest of them. I’d like to be someone who knows about the stars.
I remember thinking that the last time I was out here.
That was the night Angel came out and led me upstairs to his apartment.
I shiver.
“The cool thing about Pleiades is that they’re not just there by chance,” Angel continues. “They’re related. They’re all moving in the same direction across the sky, at the same speed.” Angel murmurs. “Like a bunch of stars that decided to be a family.”
I consider his words. “Reminds me of the Lords.”
“Yeah. Me, too.” Angel stops looking upward and turns back to me. “You still planning on quitting’?” he asks.
I don’t know what to say to this. The truth is, I haven’t started looking for another job. I don’t know why. Stalling, I guess. Stupid of me.
“Yes,” I finally breathe. “I just… think it’s best.”
“You plannin’ on leavin’ town, too?”
“Probably.” I wave my hand around. “I mean, there’s not really that much for me here in terms of job opportunities.”
He pauses for a beat. “Does it matter that I don’t want you to go?”
My God. How do I answer that? I push down the butterflies trying to escape from my stomach and force myself not to read too much into his words. “You’re just used to having me around,” I say, more to remind myself of this than anything.
“Yeah. I am,” he agrees. “But that’s not why.”
“I’m tired of being a bit player in other people’s lives, Angel,” I exhale. “I want my own life. I want to feel like I matter. Not just that I’m… convenient.”
“Is that what you think you are?” he chuckles.
“What else would I be?”
“You aren’t to me,” he says slowly. Then he outright laughs, low and gravelly. “You’re damn inconvenient, in fact.”
“What?” I stammer.
“I’ve been tryin’ like hell to stay away from you, you know that?” Angel says huskily, reaching over to draw me closer. “Your presence is a pain in my ass. Before you, I never had to worry about women bein’ a distraction. You’re a distraction, Jewel.”
Even though his actions are making my heart practically leap out of my chest, his words cut deep. A surge of anger rises up in me as I push against him. “Is that right?” I retort. “Well, don’t worry. Soon I won’t be ‘distracting’ you any more!”
“Jewel!” his tone is harsh, but goes gentle almost instantly. “Will you calm down? It’s true, you’re a distraction. Of the worst and the best kind.” I was starting to stand up from the table, but he pulls me back down. “I don’t want you to leave, Jewel.” He waits until my eyes meet his before going on. “God help me, I want to see where this goes.” He brushes his lips against mine. “How about you?”
I can feel myself tumbling. My stomach is in knots. I want to wrench myself away, say no. Tell him I’m not strong enough to fall in love with him and then have him break my heart.
Angel doesn’t wait for an answer. “Come on,” he says, standing.
“Where?” I resist his pull, b
ut even I know it’s only temporary.
“Come with me for a while. Let’s not think. Let’s get away from here. Somewhere where the club ain’t between us.”
“Where?”
“My place.”
So I do. Because really, was there every any question that I could resist anything where Angel is concerned?
We walk through the clubhouse together. Angel keeps his hand in mine as he leads me toward the front door. “Jewel’s shift is over,” he yells out over the din. “Get your own fuckin’ drinks.” One by one, the men turn our way. A couple of them cock their heads in surprise. A few of them hoot and pump their fists. By the door, two of the club girls stare at us wide-eyed, then give me matching jealous sneers. I know from the heat in my face and the sound of blood rushing in my ears that I’m flushing deep red. But I try to keep my eyes ahead of me and not think about the fact that Angel has just basically told everyone here that there’s something going on between us. I know that as soon as we leave, they’ll all be talking about what it means.
The funny thing is, I’m just as clueless as they are. I wish I knew, I say to them in my head.
True to his word, Angel puts me on the back of his bike. We don’t go straight to his house, though. Instead, he takes me on a winding ride out of town, where I look at the stars in the night sky — the same stars he just showed me — as the highway hums underneath our wheels. I search for Pleiades, and finally think I find it, just where Angel showed me in the Taurus constellation.
It’s a cool night, and the wind in our faces makes me chilly. The heat from the motorcycle’s engine warms my legs a bit, but I’m forced to snuggle against Angel for warmth. At first, my emotions are a riot in my head, but after a while, the meditative sounds of the road and the dark beauty of the night calm me.
I can feel Angel’s body relaxing, too, and together we seem to fall into a rhythm: our breathing matching one another, our hearts beating in time.
I have no idea how long we’ve been riding when Angel turns the bike back toward town and takes me to his place. I’ve never been there before, of course — never even knew where he lived, or on what side of town. We spend the night making love in the dark. He’s by turns tender, rough, demanding, and giving. I realize that night how well he already knows my body, but even more than that — he seems to know my soul. It’s an absurd thought, but one I can’t shake. Angel knows me. He’s gotten inside a part of me no man ever has.
When we finally drop into bed, exhausted, it’s almost sunrise. I’m laid open, bare to Angel in every way I can think of. And worst or best of all, I know I’ve fallen for him completely. I know there’s no turning back for me.
As I lie there in his arms, drifting off to sleep, I wonder how much I’ll regret this in the future. Whether I’ll look back at this night one day, and remember it as the night that everything came tumbling down for me. Because Angel holds my heart in his hands now. And if he chooses to throw it away, I don’t know how I’ll ever recover.
Angel and I ride back to the clubhouse the next morning, but before we do, he stops off at my apartment so I can get a fresh change of clothes. When we walk inside the club, There are a few hoots and catcalls again, but Angel ignores it, so I do, too.
“We got a run to do later on today,” he murmurs against my hair as we walk toward the bar. “I probably won’t be back until late, otherwise I’d ask you to spend the night here at the apartment. You got anything going on tomorrow after your shift?”
“Um… no,” I murmur, dizzy at the low intimacy of his voice.
“Good.” He lets me go and lifts my chin with a finger. I bite my lip, and he growls and leans down to bite it for me. “And Jewel? Hold off on lookin’ for another job. Just for another week or so.”
He doesn’t wait for an answer, just saunters off down the hallway toward his office. I follow him with my gaze, eyes slipping down to appreciate the strong muscles of his ass. Which reminds me of how they felt last night, flexing as he drove into me… Oh, goodness. Heat pools between my legs, and I have to resist the urge to fan myself.
I have to endure a fair amount of good-natured ribbing throughout the day, not to mention more than a couple of very pointed questions about last night. Even Jenna shows up in the early afternoon, pretending she’s looking for Ghost. When I tell her he’s not around, she acts unsurprised and plops down on one of the bar stools to ask me, What’s new? I do my best to fend them all off, feeling as shy a school girl who just had her first kiss. Eventually, people seem to get bored with asking me questions, and by the end of the day, things have gone more or less back to normal — except that the club girls are still giving me the stink eye.
That night, I’m back in my apartment, doing a load of laundry and getting ready for bed. My body is missing Angel, and now that I’m alone, the distraction of household chores isn’t enough to keep my mind off of him. I wonder where he is tonight, and what the Lords’ run is about.
As I walk by the living room with a load of dry clothes in my arms, my phone buzzes on the coffee table. I set the basket on the couch and look down at it: Jude.
“Hello?” I say into the receiver. On the other end, there’s nothing but dead air. “Hello?” I call again. When he doesn’t answer, I end the call and try to phone him back. It goes straight to voice mail. I decide maybe he’s butt-dialed me, but I send him a text anyway, telling him to call me back.
I slip the phone into my back pocket and it buzzes again, but the same thing happens. Frowning, I’m trying to figure out what’s going on when there’s a sharp, impatient knock at my door.
He must have forgotten his key, I think in relief as I go to open it for him.
As soon as I turn the knob, the door flies open, wrenching my wrist before I can let go. It crashes against the wall and two large men bolt inside. One clamps a hand around my mouth and yanks my arm back with the other, hard. A slice of razor-sharp pain courses through my body like lightning, and I scream, but the sound is muffled so hardly any noise escapes.
Something hard and cold is jammed up against my ribcage.
“Not one fuckin’ sound, bitch,” the second man hisses, his hot breath against my ear. “You struggle, and we’ll fuckin’ kill you the second we get you outside. You understand?”
He doesn’t wait for an answer. The first man tugs upward on my arm again and shoves me. I cry out into his hand before I can stop myself, but choke it back as I lurch forward, the man pushing me so fast I can barely keep my feet under me.
Out in the hallway, I see there are three of them. The other two are wearing masks, and their guns are drawn as they watch for anyone coming out of their apartments. I instantly think of Olga, hoping she heard, but then terror overtakes hope as I realize she’ll be killed if she pokes her head out to see what made the noise.
I’m dragged down the stairwell, then out the back entrance of the building. Fear trickles down my spine, and as they pull me toward a vehicle I don’t recognize, I start to struggle and fight. I kick back with my legs, trying to connect hard enough that the man gripping me will loosen his hold. I manage to land one blow on his shin, but he doesn’t loosen his grasp. The roar of pain makes one of the masked men turn around. With a swing of his hand, he connects hard with my jaw. Tears prick my eyes as the jolt rattles my brain.
The man holding me lets go of my mouth and grabs a hank of my hair, yanking so hard that for a second I’m afraid he’ll break my neck.
“You stupid bitch,” he seethes. “You don’t fuckin’ listen to directions, do you?”
I open my mouth to cry out, but the cold steel is back, this time jammed right under my chin.
“You’ll pay for that,” the second man says. “You’re gonna regret every fuckin’ second of that decision.”
We’ve arrived at a dark-colored SUV now. The hatch opens, and before I know what’s happening, there’s a flash of light and then a dull thud that seems like it’s coming from inside my skull.
As blackness overtakes me,
the last thought I have is how much the flash looked like a constellation.
24
Angel
The morning after our run, we’re in church when the news comes.
We’re debating an idea I’ve been tossing around in my head for days. An idea that might be a possible solution to a lot of things. For the club. For me. And for Jewel.
“We’ve been talkin’ about diversifying for a while,” I’m saying. “This is a good opportunity for us. An established business. With a clientele we know damn well. And Rosie’d give us a decent deal on it. She’d want the place to go to a club she respects.”
“I ain’t opposed,” Hawk frowns. “But we got a lot on our plates right now already, with gettin’ Twisted Pipes back up and running.”
“The Smiling Skull wouldn’t be that much more, though,” Thorn argues. “Hell, we could negotiate it with Rosie to turn shit over to us gradually. She’s already got the place staffed. At least some of those people are gonna want to keep working.”
“Except Rosie,” I tell him. “She wants to finish up and move on as soon as possible. Wants to go live with her sister down in Arizona.”
“Who’re you thinkin’ about havin’ take over managing the place?” Beast asks.
“I was thinkin’ Jewel,” I say.
Around the table, I watch as the Lords consider my words. “You tryin’ to get her out of your hair, boss?” Hale frowns. I know my brothers have seen me coming and going from the clubhouse with Jewel the last few days, so I suppose that ain’t a surprising reaction.
“No. I’m trying to keep her here,” I say honestly. A couple of the men give me knowing smirks, but I ignore them. “Jewel’s been making noise about looking for another job. I can’t think of anyone better to manage the Skull. And maybe a raise and a new challenge will convince her to stick around.”
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