by Ami Van
“I don’t like any of this shit. And I don’t like keeping this from Tucker and Atticus.”
“It’s worked for the past six years, Ky. It is what it is.”
“And what the fuck is Dakota’s cut doing in your room, Minx?”
“He...uh...fell asleep in here,” she says. It was probably the truth anyway.
“Fell asleep? Dakota...fell asleep in here?” Kyle asks in disbelief.
“Yeah. Nothing happened! Christ,” she says, yanking on the doorknob to open the door. She grabs her light jean jacket off the hook and heads down the hallway, shoving Kyle along.
She can hear the commotion coming from her kitchen before she even sets foot on the last step.
“There goes the neighborhood,” she says.
Kyle laughs at her before swinging an arm around her shoulder and yanking on her earlobe like he used to when they were kids.
She gives him her usual elbow to the side except this time her elbow connects with hard muscle.
“Ow!” she says, rubbing it.
“Abs of steel, Minxie,” the asshole taunts her. “I like that gym you guys set up in the clubhouse too.”
“The clubhouse wasn’t really my idea. Maddox put that together for the lost souls wandering around or some shit,” she tells Kyle as they walk into the kitchen where her eyes settle on the red-headed brute leaning on her kitchen counter with her favorite coffee mug in his hand.
“Morning,” Dakota says over the brim of the mug before he sets it on the counter. The hint of humor in his eyes was impossible to miss. And damn if she weren’t actually blushing from his stare. She was turning left before she takes a step back and heads right and then stands still, unsure where she should be going.
The kitchen was full and it didn’t seem like anyone was paying attention to her. Thank God. He walks over to her and she craned her neck to look up at him.
“That’s my mug,” she tells him.
“Of course it would be just like this is your house,” he answers.
With a kitchen full of his brothers, he takes her by the hand and leads her out of the room. She can hear the silence that falls and feel the sets of eyes on them. Great. They stop in the hallway right next to one of the guest rooms. He looms over her, making her back up into the wall, where he leans over casually, his arm resting on the wall above her.
“Sleep well?” he asks with a smirk.
“Did you?” she asks right back.
He grins. “Best sleep I’ve had in a long while.”
“We didn’t...do anything,” she says to him.
“I didn’t say we did, but that was one hell of a first date,” he says, leaning closer, making her lose her words.
“First date?” she asks with a laugh. He can’t be serious.
“Isn’t that what they’d call it? I’m a bit rusty. But we met. We had dinner. We had drinks. And you ended up with me in bed the whole night. Sounds like a date,” he says with a smug shrug.
Her brows furrow in question and his thumb brushes over one side. Is he being serious?
“Going somewhere?” he asks.
“I have some things to take care of,” she answers, taking his opening. “I won’t be back for a while but you’re free to use my bathroom if you need.”
She starts to slide away from him and almost instantly, his hand was on her hip, sliding her right back in front of him.
“Minx,” he says, pulling her closer to his body with only his one hand.
Without saying another word, his lips were on hers.
DAMN! His kiss just about detonates something in her. His soft beard tickling her chin. His hand was cradling her head, turning it however he wanted so her lips can part for his tongue to dive in.
And dive in, he did.
Her hands were sliding under his wife beater and over the extremely warm skin of his very tight abs because she’s lost her mind. She can feel his lips curving into a smile against her own. A few seconds later, he leaves her and she’s gasping for oxygen to fill her lungs again.
“Fuck, short stack,” he hisses. “You know what it’s taking for me to stop myself from carrying you over my shoulder and taking you back upstairs right now?”
She was speechless. Didn’t know how to answer. She just kept staring at him as if she were daft. He smiles down at her and traces his thumb over her bottom lip.
“I have to go,” she finally manages to say.
He leans down and gives her another quick peck. “Don’t make me miss you too much,” he tells her.
Her mouth opens and then closes and then opens back up again but no thought came into mind to form a coherent sentence. Instead, she turns and heads for the front door as quick as her booted feet could carry her to the garage where her bike was.
“Leaving a bit late?” Maddox says to her from his seat in front of a bike he’s been working on. Several other Knights had their own rides inside the garage now too and she sees Austin helping a couple of them. This was probably Austin’s dream come true.
“I’ll make it,” she answers Maddox.
“Be careful and stay alert. Fucking hate that they make you go alone,” Maddox says.
“I know the drill, Mad.”
She turns the key and the roar of the gixxer comes to life through the aftermarket exhaust. She was pulling out of the garage and a minute later, she was on the dark asphalt zooming past the house and down the road.
◆◆◆
“Your hair is really getting long,” Tricia says from behind her. Tricia always loved doing hair.
“Hey Bee, here’s a couple of bucks. Why don’t you go hit the Skee-Ball machine?” she tells her niece.
“Hell yeah!” Bianca says.
“BIANCA!” Tricia scolds her for the language before the little girl jogs away.
“Tricia, Tucker’s back in town,” she blurts out once her niece was out of earshot. “Knights are here too.”
She feels the shake in Tricia’s hands and turns around.
“He can get us out,” she pushes on.
“Out and go where?” Tricia says. “He’s not going to stay. You know that.”
“Maybe he doesn’t have to,” she tells Tricia.
Tricia is 32 years old. Five years younger than Tucker and she’d been the only positive role model in her life after her brother left them. “Maybe Tucker can get rid of the Reapers once and for all and we can stay put.”
“Reapers have grown over the past decade, Minx. You know this,” Tricia says.
“He can at least help me get you and Bee out. I have money. We can go to California.”
Tricia doesn’t say anything but the creases on her forehead expresses how concerned she is about this. Who could blame her? While she’d put up with two years of pure hell and torture before Maddox and Austin saved her, Tricia was still living he nightmare AND been the buffer between Diaz and Bianca for the past seven years.
“We have to do something! Bianca’s getting older by the day, Tricia. We can’t wait until she’s old enough and then worry about it. Tucker owes us! We have to use what we have and this is our best chance.”
“I’m afraid if things don’t work out that it will get worse. I’m afraid for Bianca, Minx. The fear keeps me frozen in place,” Tricia says with an exhale.
“Hang in there, Tricia. Once the word gets out that there are Knights in the county, things are going to get rough. Diaz might take it out on you. I’m sorry. Just...hang in there.”
“You have to be extra careful too,” Tricia warns her. “Once Diaz finds out your brother’s here, he’s going to take it out on you too.”
CHAPTER 5
Minx
So much for the element of surprise.
It didn’t take long at all for Reapers to find out that her brother and his band of bad boys were back in the county. She should have known something was going to go down by the end of her visit with Tricia and Bianca. The sneer on Travis’s face should have given her a clue.
Halfway ba
ck, she was stopped by two Reapers and two of their prospects that were sent to show Diaz’s displeasure at her withholding news of the return of the prodigal Knight. Each of the four had given her a pretty decent couple of hits, none to the face of course. She can only pray that Tricia didn’t get what these assholes had held back from her.
Fuck but it hurt. Fuckers even tipped her bike over for no reason other than that they could. Dusting herself off and sucking it up like usual, she’d hobbled over and got on the bike which had taken her ten more miles before lights started flashing and she can see oil unloading.
SHIT!
Pulling in to Hellhounds MC’s bar was going to be her only choice. With some luck, Old Charlie would be in the back office and open the door for her. The last thing she needed was to walk through the bar looking the way she did and scaring away half the patrons.
“Charlie! Hey, Charlie!” she yells out, pounding on the backdoor half an hour later.
Charlie was secretary for the Hellhounds. He was a sweet old guy too. He’d known her parents and had considered them friends. Hellhounds and Knights had always had a camaraderie. She could trust Charlie, she always had. He was one of the few that knew about her situation which makes him one of the few that couldn’t or didn’t do anything to help.
MC’s were weird like that. Mess with one of their own and it’s immediate retaliation and war. But she wasn't one of their own. She wasn’t a Knight either. She was just...alone, like her brothers Maddox and Austin. It was just the three of them. They weren’t under anyone’s protection except for their own.
“Minx!” Charlies says, swinging the door open angrily before taking a look at her. “Fuck! What happened?” he asks once he sees her.
“Guess I look as bad as I feel,” she mumbles and she was definitely feeling it now. Nothing’s broken but the aches were starting to set in.
“Bobby! Give me a hand,” he calls one of his guys over.
“Shit, Minx!” Bobby says, helping her over to the couch in Charlie’s office and taking her helmet from her hand. “It’s them again, isn’t it?” Bobby asks her. “Fucking Reapers.”
She sees Bobby’s fists but knew he wasn’t going to do anything about it either. He couldn’t. He wasn’t even part of an MC. He was just an employee here. One that’s seen and tended to enough of her beat downs through the years. Sometimes, she’d even hide away from Maddox here not wanting him to see how bad it was.
She winces when Bobby pulls up the bottom of her tank top. “Christ, Minx!” he says.
A commotion was heard coming down the hallway right before Charlie returns with a bucket of ice. She looks up just in time to see Atticus, Tristan and Dakota walking in. Kyle trailing the trio.
“Shit. Should have told me they were here,” she says, sitting back up, gritting her teeth through the pain.
“What happened?” Atticus asks, coming to stand in front of her.
“Laid my bike down,” she answers.
She sees Charlie and Bobby’s head snapping in her direction and she couldn’t look at them. Kyle stalks past Tristan and Dakota, right over to her. Kneeling down in front of her, he yanks her tank top up and sees what must be a really shitty sight because his anger went from zero to 60 in a nanosecond.
“Laid down your bike?” he yells at her. “It was them wasn’t it? Fucking Reapers did this to you, didn’t they!”
She stands up as tall as she could through the pain and faces Kyle. “Well what the fuck did you think was going to happen once they found out you Knights are back?” she screams back at him.
“Minx! Tell me what the fuck is going on,” Atticus demands. “Why the fuck are you running for them? Just to get back at Tucker?”
“For ONCE...not everything is about Tucker!” she screams back.
“Calm down, kid. You know we can help,” Tristan says.
Dakota, who hadn’t said a word since walking in, walks over to her and helps her sit back down. He sits right next to her on the couch.
“What’s going on?” he asks her.
His eyes were piercing into her, demanding an answer yet there was patience there. He swipes a loose part of her hair back behind her ear and the gesture almost brings tears to her eyes. Tears that she fights back. For once, she wanted to take the easy way out and let someone else handle her problem for her. Dakota...he’d do that, wouldn’t he?
His eyes were telling her...yes. He would.
The tender moment had both Atticus and Tristan clearing their throats a few times.
“You can’t carry this anymore, Minx,” Charlie speaks from behind his desk. “You can be pissed off at Tucker all you want but you can’t keep carrying his shit anymore. It’s not your burden. Give it back to who it belongs to,” the old man advises.
“Fuck this. If you’re not going to talk, I will,” Kyle says.
“Fine,” she mumbles. “We’ll talk back at the house.”
Almost an hour later, as the sun was setting, they were back in Dumane County. Dakota had ignored the glare from Atticus who had assumed that she’d be riding on the back of his Road King. But Dakota didn’t ask and didn’t seem to care about anyone else before he easily lifts and sets her on the back of his bike.
The ride back with him was...amazing. The comfort of leaning on him, careful not to touch her face to his Knights patch, and being able to close her eyes to enjoy the ride without having the fear of assholes riding up on her made her feel...light. Protected. Comforted even. With her arms wrapped around Dakota’s huge, hard torso, things seemed...easy. Every now and then, he’d reach down and lightly rub her hand, holding it in place, as if they did this every day.
They’d just met not even 24 hours ago.
Once they arrive at the house, he’d practically carried her inside. Tucker was sitting alone in the living room, beer in one hand, TV remote in the other.
“What the fuck happened?” he immediately asks while Dakota puts her down in the chair.
“Reapers,” Dakota answers.
Tucker was immediately on his feet and in front of her, pulling up her tank top in half a second.
“Why did they do this?” he asks her.
“Conversation or confrontation?” she asks sarcastically. “Isn’t the answer obvious,” she answers, eye to eye with her brother.
“Minx, I can only do so much if you’re not gonna tell me what’s going on.” Her brother returns to his seat and she knew he needed to have his back to her to collect himself.
“Tell him, Minx.” Kyle pushes her after she noticed him checking the house to make sure no one was here.
She faces her brother, once her hero, once the love of her life.
Charlie was right. She might be caught up in this but this burden wasn’t hers to carry alone. He’d walked away. He needed to take responsibility and she was ready to lay it at his feet in heaps.
“Two hours after you...after all of you left that night, Reapers came looking for you and their shit, Tucker. You wanna know what they took when they figured out you bounced?” she asks her brother. She sees the movement in his throat, the throbbing of the vein in his neck.
“Me, Tucker. They took me and they took your pregnant old lady, Tricia.”
“Jesus Christ,” Atticus says.
“They cut off Atti-hound’s head and threw his carcass in the oven to rot before they shot up the house until it barely stood. Do you wanna know what they did to me and Tricia?” she asks, laying it on as heavy as she’s had to carry it for all these years.
“Two years, Tucker.” She continues. “I was 16 and for two years I waited for my big brother to come rescue me every fucking night in the dark basement of their strip club. You don’t even wanna know the details of what they did to me. You never came.” The tears were flowing but for some reason, she didn’t care. “On my 18th birthday, they put me on stage at Reaper’s Asylum. Maddox bought me and got me out. He and Austin patched out and got excommunicated to save me. We came out here and bought this place after selling the
farm that you left behind.”
Tucker’s eyes never left her face but she can see every emotion running behind his greys. The same greys that matched her own set.
“Ask me what happened to Tricia and the baby, Tucker. Ask me,” she pushes her brother.
“What happened to them?” His question came out barely audible.
“Diaz still has them. You have an amazing daughter, Tucker. She’s almost nine years old and her names Bianca. I do his shit work for him. Run his guns, his drugs and in return, he gives me the tiniest of bread and he lets me see them eight hours a month. If I don’t do what he wants, he beats the shit out of me or worse, he takes it out on Tricia. And if Tricia doesn’t suck his dick the way he likes, who do you think is next in line for him to take it out on, Tucker?”
“Minx,” Tristan says, his hand on her shoulder. “You’ve been carrying all this shit. Why didn’t you come to us?”
“Come to you? The Knights? The same ones who left us behind. When would I have been able to do that while I was locked in a strip club basement, given one meal a day, beaten and made to sleep in a dog kennel for two years, Tris? How am I supposed to earn my time to see them and make sure they’re okay if I’m chasing you guys all over the country?”
“Shit, Minx. I’m sorry,” Tucker says. “I-I’m sorry, kid.”
She stands out of her seat and he gets up out of his. She hobbles over to the stairs.
Fuck. She wasn’t sure which hurt more. The physical pain or the emotional onslaught of telling him even though she knew it was what she should have done the moment she saw him in that bar. But something deep inside her was hurting more now. Hurting because she knew that Tucker was going to suffer too.
“I used to imagine what it’d feel like to hear you telling me that. Doesn’t feel any better. Not at all,” she says, stopping at the foot of the stairs. “I got to see Tricia and Bianca today. Tricia knows you’re here. She’s scared of what’ll happen to her and Bianca. The four he sent to teach me this lesson for not telling him you were here is only a prelude to how much worse she’s going to get it,” she tells her brother before she takes the stairs up to the confine of her room, where she heads right for the shower.