by Ami Van
He finishes off his beer and slides it into the trash can. Tucker does the same thing.
“As for Minx, I thought Tricia would’ve taken care of her until at least she turned 18. There was money in the bank for her. The farm that our parents left for us was left for her too. I didn’t even fucking think that Diaz would pull some shit like this. I have a kid that’s never met me and he’s got his name on her birth certificate. And what he fucking did to my sister, man. It fucking burns, Dakota. It burns deep.”
“The boy I was 10 years ago would have gone toe to toe with them. Fuck everything and everyone. Vengeance would have driven me to it. But the man that I am today, it’s not just vengeance that weighs me down. But it's remorse and guilt,” Tucker continues. “It's bricks and pounds of it.”
“We’ll get them back, man,” he tries to reassure his friend.
Jenks, a brother from their Missouri charter, walks up to them at the bar. He’s got a bright smile on his face with huge, round blue-eyes and dirty blonde hair. The club sluts went crazy at his arrival two nights ago.
“So, uh...Dakota, brother,” Jenks starts speaking, bouncing from one foot to the other.
“What’s up, man?” he asks the guy.
“Minx...she ain’t your old lady, right?”
Fuck. He should have known this would be coming with over 50 horny ass bikers in one place and less than 10 club sluts in the house. He hadn’t laid claim to her. She wasn’t his old lady which means she’s fair game to any of these bastards.
“No. She’s not,” he mumbles. He can see Tucker leaning on the bar counter, watching this exchange.
“Tucker, with respect, you wouldn’t mind if I took the little lady out on a proper date, then right?” Jenks asks.
Christ. Their names even match. Jenks and Minx. He hadn’t even realized his teeth were gritted and grinding.
“That’s her choice to make, Jenks.”
Dammit! He’d thought Tucker would put up more of a protest on account that she is his sister and all.
Jenks walks away with a huge grin and whistling merrily into the garage.
“Sorry,” Tucker says. “You know how it is. Besides, he’s gotta get her to go out with him first, doesn’t he?”
That’s true. And she wouldn’t, would she? Sure, they hadn’t discussed labels and all that shit. But this thing they’ve been doing, this thing they have. It works doesn’t it? It’s a thing, a connection, right? Well, it is...at least on his part. He hadn’t touched any other girl since he’d been here. Hadn’t wanted to and there was never any lack of offers.
“Remember, he’s still your patch brother.”
Tucker’s warning must be at the sight of his hands in fists.
“Noted,” he says.
CHAPTER 12
Minx
“Minx, can I talk to you for a second?”
She looks up and sees Dakota from her seat next to Snake and Austin who’d been helping her put back together her Suzuki. She hands the wrench in her hand over to Snake before she stands up and walks over to the sink to wash her hands.
“Everything okay?” she asks once she wipes her hands and reaches his side, craning her neck to look up at him. He wasn’t wearing his cut but he was in a black t-shirt and she plants her hands on his hips. Something she’s done too many times to count in the past few weeks.
He removes her hand and takes it in his as he leads her out of the garage and into the full clubhouse. His foot was kicking open doors as they walk past each until he finds an empty room and pulls her inside, closing the door behind her.
“What’s going on?” she turns around and asks him.
“If Jenks or anyone else asks you out, you’re to say ‘no’. You got that?” he growls at her. She didn’t even understand why he was pissed.
“Come again?” she asks, not really comprehending what he’s saying.
He was on her in two seconds, looming over her, his hands holding both of her arms tightly.
“You’re mine, Mercy. Your body, your pussy. Everything that’s you is mine. That means no one else gets to touch you. That means you don’t allow anyone else to touch you,” he growls at her. She can smell the liquor from his breath. She can even smell it on his beard which is usually soft and peachy.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asks. “What’s gotten into you?”
Unable to pry his fingers off, she feels him lifting her up and putting her down on one of the beds. She looks around and wasn’t even sure whose room they were in or whose belongings were scattered around.
His lips were on her in an instant. Devouring her. Ravaging her as his hands work at undressing her. Even though her mind had no clue what was going on, her body was already responding without any instructions to his familiar touches. He didn’t even bother taking his pants off, simply shoving them down far enough to free himself before thrusting into her without warning.
She hisses through the pain as he gives her body a moment to accept his size. He was huge in girth and long in length and though they’d been having sex nonstop the past two weeks, being taken like this still gave her pain before the pleasure. He’s kept her sore every day since his arrival.
“Fuck, Mercy. You’re driving me out of my mind. THIS...is mine.” He says the words as he screws himself into her.
“Of course,” she breathes out to him.
He growls and begin moving his hips again. He was pumping, working and sweating on her like he had something to prove and it didn’t make sense why.
“Did something happen? Tell me,” she says to him, her hands around his neck, taking what he was giving to her. Wanting to know why he was upset. Needing to do what she could to make him feel better.
“You. You happened,” he says.
His answer made no sense at all. She simply lifts her lips to his, kissing him softly until she can feel him slowing down his thrusts. She wraps her legs around him as best as she could, trying to hold him as close to her as she could. And when he finishes moments later, huffing and grunting, he made sure to grind down on her clit till she was coming and covering him too.
Instead of their usual after-sex kissing and cuddling, he was pulling out of her and putting himself away, zipping up his fly while handing her clothes back to her. He didn’t say a word to her as he slips his shirt over his head. After what they’d just did, he should have been more relaxed right? Yet, he seems more tense and more stuck in his head.
“Are you okay?” she asks, once she slips her shorts and then her shoes back on.
“Yeah,” he says. Softer. He finally turns and looks at her. “I’m sorry,” he says. “Some of the brothers aren’t the most subtle with their interests in you. I know what we have doesn’t have a label, Minx. And I just want to kill any motherfucker who has so much as eyed you sideways.”
“But since you can’t do that, you’re putting it on me to turn them down,” she says. She had to admit; it was kind of sweet. Funny even. In an obnoxious kind of way. “Dakota, I think you’ve been hanging around the club sluts too long,” she teases him. “You’re in my bed every night and I’m not making breakfast for anyone else in the morn....err....afternoon, when I wake up every day.”
He reaches for her hand and actually holds it in his while looking at her as if he wanted to say something.
“I just...I..uh, umm. Dakota. It has to go both ways though,” she finally manages to say. “The moment that you want to go back to any of the girls, what we have...whatever this is, it’s done. I know that’s not how things work for you but that’s how it has to work for me. Is that okay?”
He stares at her as if he still had something to say.
“We’re adults. We’re capable of ending things amicably when it doesn’t work for us anymore. I would just prefer that I’d not walk-in on something shitty. That’s all I’m asking.”
“Okay, Minx. Agreed.”
“Great,” she says with a loud sigh, standing up and looking at the mess on the bed. “Now we have to do
this walk of shame,” she says.
He grins before he bursts into a loud bout of laughter. His booming sound echoing from every wall of the room.
◆◆◆
Like clockwork, the call from Travis comes in the next morning. She’d been worried and stressed about it since her brother’s arrival into town. This would be the first run she was going to have to do and Diaz already knew that the Knights of Havoc were here in numbers. She didn’t have a choice. Tricia and Bee were counting on her and she needed to know they were okay. And from the sound of things, Diaz was already changing things up.
Dakota was already downstairs. She can hear his low voice speaking with the others that stayed at the main house. Tucker included. She finds everyone downstairs after she finishes getting dressed.
“What’s going on?” Maddox asks her first. He sees the holster and the Beretta she’s got harnessed around her shoulders.
“Tucker,” she says, looking at Maddox and turning to look at her brother. “I have to do a run. Today. I have thirty minutes left to show up.”
“Where are you meeting them?” Tucker asks her. Dakota was standing out of his chair.
“He’s changing things because he knows you’re here. I have to go alone, Tuck. I don’t know where he wants me to go, only that he wants me on the road in half an hour. Which means Travis will probably pick me up while I'm riding.”
“We can tail you,” Dakota says. “We can take one of the cars and keep a good distance.”
“If he’s being this careful, it’s not going to be easy. He’s not stupid. I don’t even know what kind of run this is going to be and I don’t know how many Reapers I’m going to have to ride with. You’ve been back weeks. I have to know Tricia and Bee are okay. And if I don’t do this or play by his rules, I’m not gonna get to see them for the rest of the month.”
“I don’t like this,” Dakota says to the room.
“I have to go,” she says to everyone. They all get up and follow her outside even as she was rushing to the garage to her bike.
She can feel Dakota’s eyes on her back as she speeds off. She can see the turmoil winding in her brother’s and Maddox’s eyes as well. She had a gut feeling this was going to be bad but what choice did she have at the moment?
CHAPTER 13
Dakota
“Tristan, get on the phone and call the brothers that are staying in town. Tell them to get eyes on her and see which way she’s heading,” Tucker orders out. “Atticus, go grab Kyle and tell him to bring his laptop or whatever else he needs. He’s got an app on her phone to trace her so let’s do that as far as we can.”
Everyone was following their President back inside the clubhouse in a rush.
“Dakota, get whatever shit you need. We need four of the girls and two cars, tinted windows. The girls are gonna drive in two separate cars. You and Atticus in the backseat of one. Kyle and I will take the other. Make sure the rides are comfortable and can hide us,” Tucker barks out the order.
Everyone splits into different directions as quickly as possible. They were on the road in twenty minutes tops. Penny and Nikki were driving he and Atticus while Jessa and Taylor were driving Tucker and Kyle. Tucker’s car was leading the way.
◆◆◆
“Looks like we might be spending the night,” Atticus says from the backseat of the minivan.
This run was a lot longer than he’d thought. Minx had ridden alongside Reapers the whole way. Damn, she was hot and sexy but fuck the reason for her having to be out here.
Travis had taken her phone and left it and her bike at the spot where they’d picked her up. The motherfucker had given her a fist-clenching pat down before she got in a van that took her to a building where she came out on a different bike riding alongside four other Reapers and a cargo van.
When the convoy had pulled into a shady ass bar attached to an even shadier looking motel three counties over, Tucker had made the call for them to cut back to the nearest city and pick up new rental cars.
“I don’t like her being alone in there with them,” he says. “I can’t even see her from where we’re at.” He throws the binoculars on the floor out of frustration.
“Keep your cool,” Tucker warns him through the phone. Atticus had him on speaker so they can communicate between cars. Tucker and Kyle were on a diagonal vantage point from where he was sitting for the past hour.
“Bar patrons are starting to clear out. It might mean whoever they’re waiting to meet is about to show up,” Tucker was heard saying through the phone.
“Eyes and ears, folks.” Atticus says to the group.
Another hour passes before the bar must have been cleared.
“I see her,” he says. She’s walking out of the bar. “Shit. Tucker are you seeing this?” he asks.
“What?” Atticus asks.
“I see it. Fuck,” Tucker answers.
“They’re wearing our colors,” he says into the car. “Motherfuckers.”
“Any way to recognize who they’re meeting? Might be why they’re using Minx and our colors,” Atticus says.
“Guns,” Tucker says. “Crates of it. Wait...wait. I know this crew. Out of Detroit.”
“Is it Devereaux and his boys?” Atticus asks. “They’re not an MC but they run for some syndicate up in Detroit.”
“I can’t be 100% sure but yeah, I think that’s Polo Devereaux's cousin standing across from Minx,” Tucker says.
He turns his binoculars and focuses on her and who was standing in front of her.
“They’re using our connections,” Atticus growls from his seat. “Most likely using your name too, Tuck. No one’s going to question anything with Mercy DeMarcus leading the run herself. Fuck!”
“So why isn’t Minx outing them?” Nikki asks from the driver seat. He’d almost forgotten she was there.
“Minx wouldn’t know of the connection. She was too young and she never met anyone outside of the MC,” Atticus answers.
“Atticus,” Tucker calls out. “I want you guys to head back now. Find a good spot where her bike is and lay low in case someone shows up. Call ahead and get some help and set up there. If Diaz shows, don’t engage. If he brings Tricia and Bianca with him then it might be our chance to snatch them. We hide them until the attorneys can do their job.”
“Got it,” Atticus answers.
“Fuck,” he whispers. He didn’t want to leave her.
CHAPTER 14
Dakota
“I heard you did a good job.”
The voice of Dom Diaz can be heard loud and clear from uphill where he and Atticus were planted incognito. They were two of ten out here in the dark where they’d gotten here and waited for over two hours before Reapers rolled in, Diaz leading the line. Minx and the convoy of imposters rolled in fifteen minutes after. He wasn’t sure where Tucker was at this point.
“When do I see them?” he hears Minx asking.
“So impatient, Minxie,” Diaz says. “They’re alive. That’s what’s important right?”
He can see Diaz walking up to her. Diaz takes out a stack of bills and pulls half off from the band and shoves it into her shirt. At Minx’s movement, one of his boys was behind her, holding her arms back.
He feels Atticus gripping his arm.
“Cool it,” Atticus whispers to him.
“You’ve got a glow about you, Minx. Does your brother have someone fucking you good or some shit?” Diaz says. “Can’t be better than me though right? They say girls always have a soft spot for their first. What do you say me and you take a walk down memory lane?”
His hand was shaking on his Desert Eagle. He was ready to put a bullet in this motherfucker.
“I already did the job. All this other shit is unnecessary,” Minx says. He can see she was trying to free herself from the asshole’s grip.
“Does your brother know about this run?” Diaz asks.
“We’re not on the best of terms,” she answers.
“You’re a shitty liar,” Di
az says. He watches helplessly as Diaz grabs her by the hair and turns her head so that she was facing him. “You really want me to believe you wouldn’t have spilled everything to your bitch ass brother, begging him for help?”
“Believe what you want,” she says.
Diaz let’s go of her hair.
“You smell like another man’s marked you. You getting slapped in the face with dick? More than one? You’re a bit older now, you might actually know how to suck dick. I wouldn’t mind giving you another few pumps but Tricia's waiting for me. I just hope your Knights know that Reapers have been here.”
He was ready to make his move when sees Diaz grabbing her through her jeans. She struggles to get out of Diaz’s hand and away from the guy holding her. Atticus was immediately on him, holding him down using the full weight of his body. The man went as far as putting him in a headlock.
“Let’s roll, boys,” Diaz says.
It looks like they were all getting ready to leave. Minx was left standing by her bike.
“Shit,” Diaz says from on top of his bike. “Oscar, why don’t you, Louie and Joe send our buddy, Tucker, a welcome home gift fit for his bitch ass MC.”
The sounds of bikes starting up fills the night, covering the sound of the first punch she takes to her stomach by one of the three. Before she falls to the ground, one of them was behind her, holding her up as another one lands a few more blows into her.
“Don’t!” Atticus was holding him down. Fat Bo, another of his brothers, lays his gun down in front of him and was helping Atticus hold him down now too.
“Dakota!” Atticus says to him. “We can’t! Think about the kid!”