Dakota

by Ami Van

  Turning on the shower, she gets in, fully clothed and sits down in the tub. The tears that she’d held on to for the last decade, silently washes down the drain. If only the water can take the pain away too.

  CHAPTER 6

  Dakota

  “We can’t continue to let her carry the weight of our fuck up, Tuck.” Atticus was the first to speak after Minx left the room.

  “He’s had my kid for nine years,” Tucker says as if he were in a trance. “I don’t even know what she looks like.”

  “We’ll get her back, brother.” Tristan tries to sound reassuring.

  “But we can’t go in there guns a blazing either,” he says to the group from his seat.

  This would be a first. For him to be saying this. He’s the MC’s enforcer and normally his answer to any situation would be to go in with guns a blazing and fists swinging.

  Hearing her telling Tucker had wrecked him. It was the last thing he’d think she was going through. He could only imagine what his club Prez was feeling at the moment. But one thing’s for sure. This one had to be done with brains and not brawn. Too many important people could get hurt. Or worse.

  Important people. Shit. Minx had become someone important to him. Overnight? He hadn’t even dipped his dick in her yet.

  You’ve got it bad, Dakota.

  Yeah. Yeah. So, it mighta been love at first sight or whatever they call it. Well, maybe not love. But Minx...she’s pretty amazing. She’s full of surprises and all the club sluts he’d been with plus whoever he’d come across couldn’t hold a candle to her as is. To know that she’s shouldered a burden that wasn’t her own had earned her his respect. It made him want to be the one she can lean on.

  And hell...he hated being that person to ANYONE. He wasn’t the chivalrous type. What you see is what you get with him. He looked like a giant brute because he IS a giant brute. If a club slut had so much as come and asked him for a ride, even if it’s to get beer, he’d zip his jeans up and walk away. No one sits on the back of his back. Not since his ex, Samantha Burkett, had traded in her wild days and him for a banker in Manhattan. That was seven years ago. Well, until about a couple of hours of ago when he’d sat Minx on the back of his Dyna as if she belonged there. At least, it felt like she did, with her arms wrapped around his waist and her fingers slipping under his white tee and feeling up his abs every now and then.

  Point is, he didn’t like doing favors for anyone but his brothers and even they knew when to come to him for said favors. But for Minx...he’d carry any weight she’d want to throw his way.

  Pansy ass, pussy-whipped knucklehead. Minus the actual pussy.

  “We should talk to Maddox and Austin,” Tristan suggests. “They were Reapers. We can find out where Tricia and Bianca are being kept. Hellhounds are gonna be here soon too so you can talk to Lawrence for backup.”

  Tucker nods his head. “I need to go check on her,” his club Prez tells the group. “Kyle, you got some pointers for me to get back on her good side?”

  “No pointers, Tuck. But she carries, so try not to get shot.” Kyle plops down on the couch and gives Tucker a thumbs up.

  “Great,” Tucker says before taking the steps.

  “Come on. We need to get to that clubhouse and let everyone know we’ve got company tonight. For now, let’s keep this shit between the ears here. We don’t say a word until Tucker says it’s okay. This is his fuck up just as much as it is the club’s but we let him decide what to say and when to say it,” Atticus speaks.

  “Atticus. Tristan. What happened?” he asks the two. “Why did the club decommission this charter and leave town like that? Doesn’t seem like Tucker’s style.”

  “It’s not what it looks like,” Atticus speaks. “At least, not the way Minx sees it.”

  “We didn’t just up and leave. Tucker had been wanting to go Nomad for a long while. We were just waiting for the vote from the other charters. Tricia, Tuck’s old lady, knew about this all along except she didn’t expect to get pregnant,” Tristan continues. “She was supposed to stay back and that’s why Minx was left behind.”

  “What about Diaz’s stash and money? Did Tucker really take it?” he asks.

  “Yeah. We all voted on it. We don’t run drugs in Rouche County. It was one of the reasons why the sheriff’s department turned a blind eye with our other activities. But the night we left, we caught Reapers passing through on a run. Shit was pretty ballsy,” Atticus answers. “So, we took ‘em down, destroyed the coke and took the money.”

  “But why didn’t anyone check on them?” Kyle asks.

  “You’ll have to ask Tucker for his reasons. But for me? I didn’t think I had to. You know how life on the road is. It’s one adventure after another and before I knew it, a decade’s gone by,” Atticus answers his little brother. “As close as you were to Minx, how many times did you try to reach out to her once you got back stateside?”

  Kyle seems to get the point and doesn’t say anything. Instead, he gets up and heads toward the door, stepping outside. He can hear the sound of a lighter flicking before the door was closed.

  He looks back towards the stairs as he gets up out of his seat, ready to head down to the clubhouse.

  “What’s going on with you and Minx?” Atticus asks, stopping him.

  “Nothing,” he answers.

  “Nothing,” Tristan says to him. “Them damn floating hearts in your eyeballs doesn’t look like nothing. You put her on the back of your bike. That ain’t nothing,” his cousin points out.

  “She ain’t the type to be a side piece like the sluts that love you and you ain’t the type to stay planted in one bed long enough to keep it warm,” Atticus warns him.

  “I said it’s nothing,” he says to the group before leaving the house.

  As soon as he set foot in the clubhouse, Kendall was on him like a bitch in heat. He hated this clingy shit. Sure, every slut that comes around knows their place. Sure, every single one of them probably have hopes of moving up to old lady status. But damn! Don’t women have some kind of radar telling them which ones aren’t interested? He hadn’t so much as let Kendall give him a hand job in over two weeks and she’s still trying.

  “Need help relaxing, big guy?” she purrs at him. Her fingers trying their best to weave into his like they were a couple.

  “I’m good. Check with my brothers,” he says bluntly.

  “I’m checking with you, baby. You seem tense,” she pushes.

  “Said I’m good,” he says, pulling his hand away from hers. “Hellhounds will be here soon. Maybe you’ll find some new dick to suck tonight. Keep you entertained.”

  “You sound jealous,” she says.

  He turns his head and stares at her with his best are-you-kidding-me look. “You should have thought that through before you spoke it, Kendall. Fact is, you can be spit-roasted in front of me and I wouldn’t give a shit. I don’t even wanna touch you with a ten-foot pole right now.”

  “Why?” Kendall asks, loudly. She even adds a foot stomp like a fucking child. “Because there’s fresh meat? You got a few nights with that slut at most and you know it!”

  It took him two seconds to close the gap between them. His hand in her hair, pulling her head back by it so that she was craning up to look at him.

  “Listen slut. You don’t own me and you don’t get to ask questions. So, don’t go fucking stomping your feet at me and demanding shit. You were already told she’s not fresh meat and she sure as hell isn’t a slut like you! You got that?” he growls at her, before letting go of her hair.

  He stomps off towards the garage and to his bike. A few other of his brothers were there, one of which, Otis, was getting his knob slobbered over in the corner. Penny, another club slut, actually gives him a wave while doing it. Penny was cool though. After a couple of nights together a few years back, he hadn’t touched her again. She’d never pushed and she was probably as close as he was going to get to having an actual female friend.

  He sees Austin at
a bike with one of his brothers. He notices some scattered parts laying around as he approaches the two.

  “What’s going on, Snake?” he asks.

  “Might be time to give my ol’ girl here a rest,” Snake answers petting the seat of his old cruiser. “I don’t know if she can handle any more than the daily trips to the market.”

  “If you want, we can see if you like any of the couple of spares that we have sitting around here. Depending on how long y'all are staying, we might have enough time to put one together and let you hit the road with her,” Austin says, tossing down a wrench in defeat.

  “No shit, man?” Snake asks Austin.

  “Sure. We have five in the corner over there that you can check out. We have the titles too. Toss some cash in the communal bucket and buy your own spare parts. I’ll help you put it together. No charge,” Austin says.

  “That’s fucking great, man! I’ll have to talk to Tristan about it first though.” Snake shakes Austin’s hand and gives the kid a good pat on the back.

  “Why do you have bikes just sitting around?” he asks out of curiosity. “Starting your own MC?”

  “Nah, man. I’m done with the MC thing. Not my thing after seeing what happened...” He was referring to Minx. He’d bet his money on it. “But those bikes were either tossed and Maddox or Minx picked them up or they were abandoned by travelers who didn’t know how to fix ‘em up. Maddox usually gets them running and then donates them to a local veteran on Memorial Day each year.”

  “Not all MCs are like that. You were prospecting for the Reapers. Maddox sponsor you?” he asks.

  “No. I was just a lost kid looking for a family. Mad’s buddy was my sponsor. He got sent off to prison six months in though so Maddox took me under his wing. When he made the decision to leave, I stood with him. What they were doing wasn’t right anyway. It’s been me, Mad, and Minx ever since. Best family I could’ve ever wished for. Except Mad treats us like disobedient children that he’d been stuck with sometimes.” Austin laughs.

  CHAPTER 7

  Dakota

  “So, we’re in agreement then?” Tucker asks the table. They were sitting in a room having an actual meeting with just the club officers. “Everything is on a need to know basis for now. As far as the rest of the club is concerned, we’re here on a stop and are having a run in with Reapers. They don’t need to know about Tricia and...and Bianca yet.”

  “Agreed,” everyone around the table says.

  “I’ll get to calling the other charters to see if they can send anyone they can spare. Things are most likely going to get ugly,” Atticus says.

  “Let’s keep laying low for now though,” Tristan adds in. “We don’t know how big they’ve grown since we’ve been gone and we need to find out where we stand with the local sheriff’s department here in Dumane. Lawrence suggested we speak to the sheriff ourselves. I’m guessing the sheriff in Rouche County is probably under Reapers’ belt already.”

  “I’ll meet with the local sheriff,” Tucker says. “In the meantime, Atticus, get Kyle and Snails to work their magic techy fingers and find out every single property and business Reapers own in the area. Minx says that they only tell her where to meet Tricia an hour before the time. And it’s never on Reaper grounds. Always a public place and never unsupervised. Travis, Reapers' enforcer, is the one that usually brings them.”

  “The bastard’s fucking smart,” he says to the group.

  “There’s something else,” Tucker says. “Minx says we can’t just snatch up Bianca. Diaz. The motherfucker has his name on my kid’s birth certificate. He listed himself as the father so the law is on his side. Even if we snatch her up, he can go after us for kidnapping and if she gets returned to him, I don’t want to think about the amount of shit Diaz is going to put my family through.”

  “Fuck! This motherfucker covered his bases, didn’t he?” Atticus growls.

  “So just in case we can’t bury Diaz, we need to find an attorney with the balls to go up against him and contest the paternity,” Tristan says. “I have a few calls I can make for that.”

  “Thanks, brother.” Tucker nods over at Tristan.

  “What about Minx?” he asks, drawing the attention of all eyes in the room. “We gonna let her keep running for him?”

  Tucker runs his hand through his hair with a frustrated loud sigh. “There’s no way around it. She has to so she can keep seeing them and make sure Tricia’s okay.”

  He stands up out of his chair and looks around the table. It was clear the others agreed. “But they know we’re here!” he says to everyone. “We’re just gonna stand down each time she meets with them and hope that Diaz is having a good day?”

  “Fucking floating hearts,” Tristan mumbles. He scowls at his cousin.

  “Sit down, Dakota,” Atticus orders him. “You said it yourself. We can’t go in guns a blazing on this one. And for now, Minx is gonna have to continue doing what she’s doing.”

  “It’s not right,” Tucker says. “But we don’t have much of a choice and she knows that. So, for the time being, unless she’s going to one of their meets, I don’t want her riding anywhere alone. Her boys, Maddox and Austin, normally tag along anyway but I want at least one of ours on her.”

  ◆◆◆

  “I’m guessing you’re gonna be volunteering to be on her,” Kyle says to him.

  The two of them were sitting at the bar, watching his other rowdy brothers co-mingle with the Hellhounds and their club regulars.

  “Is that gonna be a problem with you? You two seem chummy,” he says to Kyle.

  “And you, my friend, sound jealous.” Kyle grins at him. “Chill, brother. Me and Minx grew up together. Our dads are buddies too. They patched in together. She’s family. Never once even thought about getting it in with her.”

  As if on cue, every biker’s wet dream walks in through the door. Her long black hair left down and billowing along with the breeze. Dark green tank top over a pair of black shorts completed by a pair of Chuck’s. One night in bed with her, without having sex, had him feeling like she’s already under his skin. He didn’t even know how that was possible. Fucking little minx.

  “Jealous,” he repeats Kyle’s word and snorts. “Not my style.”

  “You’re 37, right? Your internal male clock...aka your dick...might be ready for THE one,” Kyle says. “It might be ready to start making babies and wanting to leave legacies and shit.”

  “Fuck that,” he says.

  He sees two of his brothers and a hang-around approach her by one of the rooms and sees them ushering her inside. He growls and was immediately out of his seat and stalking over to her. He can hear Kyle laughing behind him even as he plows through the group of men partying in the middle of the floor.

  He fills the doorway and sees her sitting on one of the double beds with Preston, Trevor, and Kris crouched around her.

  “Hey Dakota,” Trevor greets him with a smirk.

  “Boys up to something?” he asks, eyes bouncing from face to face until they settle on Minx.

  “Oh yeah...we’re corrupting Minx. She’s gonna get her first ink tonight!” Kris exclaims excitedly. “What’s it gonna be, Minx? Butterfly tramp stamp?”

  “NO,” she answers the same time he does before laughing.

  “Unicorns and rainbows,” she says.

  “I am NOT tatting unicorns and rainbows on you or anyone else,” Preston says. “Fuck no!”

  Minx throws her had back in a fucking beautiful bout of laughter. Her dimples kicking his ass all over the place again. He walks to her in two strides, shoving Kris out of the way and pulling her off of the bed.

  “Come on, short stack. If you really want some ink, take some time to think about it first. These boys can put together an idea or two for you,” he tells her. He was holding her hand...like they were a couple, and leading her through the clubhouse, out into the garage, closing the door behind them.

  He finds her Fat Boy in the dimly lit corner and sits her on it, throwi
ng his leg over to sit and face her. A quick scan says their alone...at least for now.

  “Still hurting?” he asks her.

  “Maddox gave me a pain killer. Well, half of one,” she answers, watching him.

  “Uh, Dakota...what are we doing?” she asks.

  “What do you mean?” he asks, innocently.

  “Me...and...you? I mean...do you just pick someone in whatever town you stop in and put the charm on?”

  “So, you think I’m charming?” he teases, knowing full well what she was really asking. Except he didn’t know how he was supposed to answer because truth be told, he didn’t know what the hell he was really doing.

  CHAPTER 8

  Minx

  Oh, he’s laying it on thick, she thinks to herself. He knows he’s charming. And sexy. He oozed of sexy, man muscle, bearded, tattooed and all.

  “Do you need to have it labeled right this minute?” he asks, breaking the silence.

  “I don’t need a label. I just...I just...”

  Before she could find the words to finish, his large hand was behind her head, pulling her into the kiss of all kisses. Even hotter than the one from this afternoon.

  Oh fuck!

  None of her Kindle books ever described anything like this. Nothing. Nothing she’d ever experience with her couple of one night stands even came close to this. Or prepared her.

  The moment he takes her bottom lip between his, her lips were parting and moaning as his tongue takes a deep dive into her mouth. He tasted...amazing. Beer and Dakota. Her hands were traveling under his shirt, feeling the peaks and valleys of his washboard abs. His skin was hot yet cool at the same time.

  “Fuck, Minx.” He growls into her mouth before he pulls away.

  He pulls her legs down, placing her over to straddle him, right there on the bike. She can feel his erection through his jeans. Huge. Hard. And grinding on her as he leans forward, crushing her body with his before taking her lips and owning them again. Oh, that fucking growling thing that he was doing was a panty wetter in itself. There was no way he could NOT feel what he was doing to her with the way he was grinding against her.