by Khloe Wren
Silk glanced back up at me. “You’re a tattooist, right?”
It didn’t surprise me she knew who I was. Nothing spread like gossip in an MC. “Sure am. I’m guessing you’re Silk, who owns the tattoo shop here in town?”
“Sure am, and I’m down to all part-timers now, so if you ever want a job just let me know. There’s only four stations in the shop, but like I said, all of us are part-timers now so there’s nearly always a spare station.” She grinned. “And aside from maybe Donny, none of my crew will mind sharing their stations. As long as you clean up after yourself, that is. You do piercings too?”
I shook my head. “Never had the need to learn.”
She gave me a firm nod. “We can train you up if you want to learn. But if you ink as well as you draw, you’ll be a great addition to the shop. Just let me know when you want to start.”
With a wink, she headed off, declaring she was getting a drink before Bulldog got sick of chasing Raven around.
“Looks like you just landed a job. So when are you going to switch clubs and make it official?”
I raised an eyebrow at Arrow. “I’m getting an idea where you got your name.”
With a smirk, he shrugged. “Just call it like I see it. Scout’s back in his office if you wanna to go see him.”
I shook my head, adding a few more bits of shading to my piece. “I’ll give it another couple days before I decide that one. It’s a big decision, can’t rush it.”
“It is, indeed. Take all the time you need. We’ll be here when you’re ready.”
With that, he gave my shoulder a squeeze and headed off toward the hallway that led outside, and past the whore room, which, with how much swagger was in the man’s stride, I was guessing was his destination.
With a grin I finished off my drink, packed up my stuff and headed up to my room. I had a lot to think about. Moving myself and Ashlynn halfway across the country wasn’t something I could do on a whim.
Elizabeth
With a groan, I rolled over and slapped my alarm into silence. My head pounded and my eyes stung. Hangovers from crying were nearly as bad as ones from drinking all night, but drinking was a lot more fun than fucking crying.
“Dammit.”
Rubbing my eyes, I blinked them clear to look around my room as I tried to piece together what happened after I fell apart last night. Somehow I got from being fully clothed in front of my window to only wearing my panties in my bed. I glanced at the nightstand and saw a tall glass of water and a couple of Advil.
Ryan.
I closed my eyes and let the memories of him gathering me up against him and sitting in my chair with me in his lap warm me from the inside. Realizing he didn’t care for me set me off, but the way he treated me after my meltdown proved he did. Didn’t it?
With a sigh, I sat up and drank the water and took a couple Advil. Then I headed to the shower to try to wash away some of the funk. It was while I was under the spray that I vaguely recalled Ryan stripping me down and tucking me into bed. He’d kissed me on my temple then whispered something, but no matter how hard I tried to remember his words, I couldn’t.
By the time I washed and conditioned my hair, I was starting to feel a little more human. Once I had my hair wrapped in a towel and my bathrobe on, I headed for my kitchen and my first cup of coffee of the morning. As I sipped my brew, I walked around my small house, looking for any signs of Ryan, but couldn’t find anything. I wasn’t really sure what I expected to find. Him, on the couch, sleeping? I shook my head before taking another mouthful of coffee and heading back to the kitchen. Of course he’d not hung around after settling me in for the night. He’d not taken advantage, even though he’d stripped me down to my underwear. Then he’d run along back to Bridgewater. To that club.
Drinking the last of my coffee, I headed to my bathroom to deal with drying my hair before I got dressed. I loved my long, thick hair, but I couldn’t leave it to air dry. It would soak the back of my clothes in moments and that was uncomfortable as hell. As I took the towel from my hair and pulled out my hairdryer, I started to think back to when Ryan was younger. Even in grade school he hadn’t really fitted in. But he’d never wanted to. Like my folks, his were at the top end of middle class. Not rich enough to be sending us off to snooty private schools, but close enough to it that they wished they could have. Ryan and I’d been glad they couldn’t afford that shit. Neither of us wanted to go be surrounded by all those posh, upper-crust little shits.
As much as I’d wanted to escape Rocky Gully as a teen, I couldn’t say it hadn’t been a great place to grow up. Everyone looking out for each other, wide open spaces to ride our bikes and run around. It helped I had Ryan to watch my back. In hindsight, I could see I took that for granted. I ran free and did whatever I wanted, secure in the knowledge that Ryan would make sure I was safe. Guess I’d been so busy running wild, I didn’t fully realize how restless he was getting. We spoke to each other about a lot, and he’d told me how he liked working with engines. How his accountant father had shut him down when he’d told him he wanted to be a mechanic. I’d stupidly told him he should follow his dreams. In my defense, that’s what teenagers were supposed to say. I’d still been all about dreams and rainbows because the real world hadn’t had time to fuck too badly with me yet.
He gotten even more withdrawn when he moved up to high school. With eighteen months between us, he was two years above me, so I’d had no clue as to how bad he was struggling at school until he dropped out half way through freshman year. He’d landed a job working part time for Rusty, who spent more time drinking than working. Then he’d been kicked out of his house and I didn’t see him much. I think he went to live with Rusty. He’d started riding and hanging around a club before I left for college. It had been through the grapevine that I heard about his crash and eventual move across the country.
Tucking away the dryer, I moved to my room to get dressed as I continued to ponder Ryan. From the way he was acting both at the funeral last month and now, life must had fucked him over as much as it had me. He hadn’t said much about his daughter’s mother, even when I’d asked him about her. Just that she’d taken off after Ashlynn had been born. I’d overheard Barbara tell my mom years ago that he had full custody, which made sense if her mom had run off. That had me frowning. Where was she now? I hadn’t asked, but he hadn’t mentioned anything, either. I rubbed my finger over the scar on my belly before tucking in my shirt. If I’d been allowed to have my baby, I would have never let him out of my sight.
Shaking that thought free before I got caught in another damn tailspin, I finished getting dressed and went to grab breakfast. I needed to get to the office, where I could distract myself with work and stop thinking about all this shit that didn’t make a lick of difference. No matter what damage Ryan had, no matter how sweet he could be, he wasn’t for me. I needed to stay on my own. It was all I deserved for being so fucking stupid and costing my son his life.
Chapter 6
Needles
Friday morning Keys called me into Scout’s office. It was once again damn crowded with Nitro and Mac joining Scout, Keys and me in here.
“Can’t use tech in church so we gotta put up with being jammed in here. Sorry, folks.”
Keys’ words were distracted as he continued to tap at his laptop and Scout glared at him for a moment before Arrow cut in.
“Needles, you done thinking yet?”
I turned my attention to him. This man was a pain in the fucking ass with his direct-to-the-point bullshit.
“Just can’t leave shit alone, can you?”
He grinned at me. “You’ve made your choice. Best just get used to me since you’re gonna be hanging around.”
Scout sighed. “Arrow, brother, what in the fuck are you talking about now?”
Arrow nodded my way. “Looks like we’ll be taking a vote tomorrow morning at church.”
The room went silent and everyone looked at me. “Seriously, Arrow? Couldn’t let me get
a fucking word in, could you? Now Scout’s gonna think I’m a disrespectful little shit for not coming to him about it first, when that’s what I was planning to do. You know, after we work out how the fuck we’re gonna keep my mother above ground.”
Arrow just smirked and stroked his beard, so I rolled my eyes and turned to face Scout, unsure what his reaction was gonna be. He was frowning but didn’t look mad.
“You thinking of switching teams, Needles?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, been thinking about moving back down this way. Clearly, Ma can’t be left alone. Ashlynn thinks Ariel hung the moon and wants to stay.”
“And Bess is here.”
I rolled my eyes again at Keys’ words. “Yeah, Bess is also here. But it’s a big decision, I was going to let it sit until we get this Godfrey shit sorted out. You know—priorities.”
Scout moved to stand in front of me, close enough I could see the darker ring of blue around his irises.
“Tell me straight, right now. Do you want to join the Charon MC? You’ll need to prospect in, but like Blade, you won’t be on the same level as the other prospects. You two are older and have skills better used than on shit like sweeping floors. Might even be able to speed up the process to being fully patched in if things pan out well. I heard Silk offered you a job, but her shop ain’t technically a club business. You’ll need to pull your weight at one of our places. You do anything other than ink?”
“Used to be a bike mechanic.”
He nodded. “Excellent. You can do a shift or two over the shop to earn your keep. So, you in?”
I frowned. “Thought Arrow said it needed to be taken to a vote tomorrow?”
He lifted a finger and waved it in a circle. “We got every club officer in this fucking room right now. We can make decisions here and now if we need to. Mac, Arrow and I all saw what you’re capable of when the Knights helped us clean up the Riders. You’re loyal, not afraid to get your hands dirty when it’s needed, and now I learn you can fix bikes to boot. I got no problem offering you a place here with the Charons. And to be honest, when we roll in and take this Godfrey fucker down, I’d feel better if you were wearing our colors.”
I was stunned mute for a minute. It blew me away a little that he actually thought I’d make a good addition to the club. Half the reason I was putting off chatting with Scout was because I didn’t want the man to say no and it screw up their willingness to help me deal with this fucker. I cleared my throat.
“I’d be honored. This is a solid club and I like what I’ve seen so far. Can’t say I’m looking forward to being a prospect again, but I’ll do my best to make that part go as fast as possible.”
Scout nodded to Nitro. “Open that door behind you and grab the man a cut.” He turned back to me. “We can order you in a new nametag or you can use the one off your Knights cut. Up to you.”
“Order a new one. Doesn’t feel right to take this one apart for any reason.”
He nodded as Nitro handed me my new colors. “Once we get done here, give Wolf a call. Let him know what’s going on. Once we get this shit sorted with your Ma, we’ll sort out getting your shit down here.”
“You need a house, too. Can’t raise a kid here in the clubhouse. I’ll check what’s around at the moment.”
Scout had a look in his eye that had me thinking he already had somewhere in mind, but I couldn’t focus on that yet. As I slipped off my Knights cut and slipped on the Charon one, something in me settled. The decision was made and I was staying.
“Ashlynn’s gonna lose her mind. She loves it here. Even if Ariel doesn’t have a horse.”
Scout scoffed a noise that was a mix of a laugh and a groan. “Your girl has mine asking for one, though. Damn, our girls are gonna be so much trouble. You watch, they’ll team up and Joey will never stand a chance as he grows up.”
“He’ll have Raven in his corner, don’t you worry. Well, worry about any poor kid dumb enough to pick on him. His sister is already protective as hell. Team her up with Ashlynn and there’s gonna be hell to pay.”
Keys cleared his throat, cutting Nitro’s rant short. “We need to move onto why we’re here. With the information Bess got us, I could really dig up some dirt. This fucker’s been at this for a while. I still haven’t dug deep enough to get his real name, unless he’s using it. Seems unlikely a man using religion to hide his evil shit behind was born with a name like Godfrey. But that’s neither here nor there.”
Nitro cut in. “What did Bess find out?”
“Bess got sick of waiting on us. Girl’s impatient. She spoke with the woman who was the first in town to transfer her house to him. She mentioned in their conversation about how she hadn’t seen Bess since her dad had handled her parents’ estate. That jogged Bess’ memory and she did some more digging into the files at work. She and her folks were in a bad car wreck. Neither of her folks made it, but she was in the back seat and got out without much damage. Turns out, her folks had just drawn up a new Will, giving everything to Godfrey’s company, Drake Industries, should their daughter not survive. The Will was drawn up by a lawyer up in Riverton, and it was the road between Rocky Gully and there on which they crashed.”
Arrow muttered. “That’s a lot of fucking coincidences.”
“None of it was a fucking coincidence. With that town link, I’ve started following him back. This is his MO. He goes into a town, all charm and godly goodness. Gets people to ‘tithe’ their worldly possessions to the cause, because after they’re gone, what use are they to them anyway, right? He does seem to try to get properties close together. Once he gets a tract of land big enough, Drake Industries starts working on changing zoning and setting up strip malls on the land. The other thing that seems to happen a lot around his followers are untimely accidents. A lotta folks meeting early ends. He needs to be stopped, and soon.”
Fear for my mother’s life had my hand shaking as I ran my palm over my head. “Bess said Ma’s signing those documents on Monday. She can’t stall them any longer.”
Keys nodded. “We move this weekend, then. He runs two services on Sunday mornings. I say we go grab him late afternoon. He should be at his place by then.”
Scout chimed in. “Do we know where he’s fucking living yet?”
“The first house he took ownership of. Seems the young woman, Maribelle, who Bess spoke with, still lives there. She seems happy enough. My cameras don’t have sound, but she appears to come and go as she pleases from the home.” He shrugged. “I don’t believe she’s at risk at this stage. It’s your mother, and possibly Bess, who I’m worried about.”
I frowned at Keys. “Why Bess?”
He smirked at me like that was a dumb question. “Because your woman ain’t leaving this shit alone. She keeps poking this bear, it’s gonna come at her. Godfrey’s been doing this for a good, long while, he’s not gonna lose any sleep over handling a nosy legal secretary. He may attempt to convert her first. After all, having a lawyer under his thumb would be useful to him. But I’m still worried for her.” He glared at his laptop for minute. “Especially when she keeps pulling stunts on us. Fuck. Needles, man, you really need to control that woman. I thought you spoke with her last night? Made it clear she needs to let us handle this.”
Instantly I was up and around the desk, fully on alert.
“What’s she’s doing now?”
“She just walked into the bakery in the middle of town, about a minute before Mirabelle. Did you know about this?”
Fury heated my blood, along with fear. Did the woman have a death wish? “I didn’t know. She said they spoke on the phone. She didn’t mention they’d set up a fucking lunch date.”
“Might need to pull her out of town tonight, keep her here for the weekend while we deal with Godfrey.”
I nodded at Scout’s suggestion. “Yeah, I’ll head over there later tonight.”
After how last night went, I wasn’t sure how she was gonna react when she saw me again.
“If you want, Ashlynn can
have a sleepover tonight with Ariel? Give you some one-on-one time with your woman?”
“Yeah, but I need to tell her about us moving down here first. I want to be the one to tell her.”
“Sure, man. Why don’t you come over for dinner? Then, after, you can head over to grab your woman.”
I nodded as meeting ended and the others started to walk out. “Come with me and we’ll head over to the bike shop, I’ll show you around and introduce you over there. Then we’ll head over to the gun range. Got a feeling we’re gonna need the practice real soon.”
“Just let me put this up in my room. Be with you in five.”
“Good deal.”
I jogged up the stairs and made fast work of unlocking my door. I paused as I set the worn leather of my Satan’s Knights cut down on the bed. End of a fucking era. Parrish’s words to me about my trip down here sprung to mind about this being my rite of passage. Crazy bastard had been right, after all.
All the same, I’d never thought I’d see the day I willingly took my Knight’s colors off, yet here I was. Not only had I taken them off, I’d put on a new set, declaring me a Charon MC prospect. A fucking prospect. At least Scout made it sound like it would be for a limited time and I wouldn’t be getting the truly shit jobs. I was way too old to be sweeping fucking floors and putting up with shit like I had to when I’d first joined the Knights.
Elizabeth
Nerves had my hands shaking a little as I pushed the door to the bakery open and headed inside. A quick glance showed me I’d beaten Mirabelle here and instantly I worried she wouldn’t show. What if Godfrey found out we were meeting and did something to her? I was standing at the counter waiting to order when the bell above the door chimed and Mirabelle bounced her way in. She had to be thirty years old, yet she carried herself as though she were so much younger. She’d always had a sweetness to her, even as a child. Maybe that’s why we never formed any sort of friendship—aside from our age gap, I didn’t think I was ever as innocent as Maribelle. She gave me a wave and joined the line. With a relieved breath, I put my order in then sat at a table toward the rear of the room.