by Sophia Gray
“That’s fine. I’ll wait.” Rafe waved off the two men. “Go. Make sure Stephanie’s okay. Make sure her mom’s with her, and I want two men at the house. I don’t want to take any chances this asshole is going to go after Jason’s family. His little sister, too—get someone with her.”
“You got it.” Spike nodded. “We’ll leave you in Nightingale’s hands.” He gave me a smug grin as he walked past me, as did shorty.
“I’m sorry about your friend,” I said softly once we were alone. His face tightened at the mention of his friend’s death.
“Yeah. Me, too.” He looked away, out the window, and ran his hand through his hair. “I’ll find who did it.” He vowed in a strong voice. “And they are going to fucking pay.” He was hurting, even with the tension in his jaw and the straight laced way he held himself, I could see the pain in his body. And it had nothing to do with his flesh wound.
Stepping back over to him, I rested my hand on his good shoulder, sitting down beside him. “You can’t just go all vigilante, you know. You could get yourself killed.”
He flashed a grin at me. “Don’t worry about me, sweet cheeks. I’ll take care of myself.” The arrogance laced his tone again and I shook my head.
“Well, you can’t just sit here all day after you’re discharged. You should have asked your buddies to take you home.”
“We have some unfinished business you and me.” He turned on the bed, facing me. His face was too close to me, his lips too tempting. I swallowed hard and tried to look away, but he captured my chin in his hand and tilted it until I looked back at him. “You never sent me that text.” His harsh whisper caught me off guard. “What did I say would happen if you didn’t text me?”
The fluttering in my stomach didn’t help matters. “You were kidding.” I tried to pull away but his grip was too tight.
“I never joke about a good ass spanking.” His eyes bore into mine. My skin tingled beneath his touch, and damned if my pussy didn’t react to being so damn close him again.
“I’m not your girlfriend,” I blurted out.
He let out a short laugh. “Like that matters. I promised a spanking and you earned one. You’ll be getting it when I’m ready to give it to you.” He let go of my chin. “And for the record, you may not be my girlfriend, but you sure as hell belong to me.”
“What the hell does that mean?” I jumped up from the bed. The last thing I needed was more drama. I had enough of that just by being a single mom of a five-year-old.
“It means you’re mine. Now go get back to work before that doctor comes in here and makes me tear my stitches from punching him in the face.” He leaned back against his pillows and slid his bare feet onto the bed.
I glared down at him for a minute, trying to think of something to say to him to make him change his mind about waiting for me to get off my shift, but the look he gave me back suggested I leave it alone. “I’m sending in your real nurse to do your discharge. You can wait in the ER waiting room if you want a ride.” Not my best work, but it was enough to get me out the door.
The man was as arrogant and cocky as the day was long. I had to stop giving into him.
Chapter Five
RAFE
Beth almost looked surprised to see me sitting in the waiting room when she walked out at seven o’clock. Almost. The rest of her looked relieved, as though she worried I wouldn’t be there. That damn discharge nurse took so long to get everything straightened out, and then the fucking cops came back for a few more rounds of questions I didn’t have answers to. At least none that I was willing to give them. By the time that circus ended I only had to wait half an hour for my girl to finish her shift.
My girl. I took to thinking about her in that way. I’d never wanted to see a girl the following day after I got a good fuck out of her, but Beth wasn’t my usual conquest. She had a fire inside of her that matched mine. She had said earlier she wasn’t my girlfriend, but she didn’t understand the way my world worked. I claimed her. She belonged to me, and she wanted it, too. Something held her back though.
When we got to her shit car I couldn’t help but laugh. She’d given me a sullen look and gotten into the beat up shitwagon. The damn thing sputtered so much at the red lights I wondered if it would even get us to the club. I wanted to tell her to wait for me, to hang out in one of the bedrooms in the back of the building, but she looked worn out from her shift. Besides, I didn’t know how long this meeting would take. We had to make plans, figure out who exactly was behind Jason’s murder and elect a new president.
When she pulled up outside the club gates, I leaned over and pulled her toward me for a kiss. I meant it to be a soft kiss, something gentle, but once I had her lips beneath mine all bets were off. My hand slid into her hair, holding her firmly against me as I pushed my tongue past her lips. She didn’t try to pull away, instead she leaned into me, her hand resting against my good shoulder. When I broke it off, her eyes were dark, ad her breath hit my face in short bursts. Fuck, I wanted her bad, right there in the car.
“Text me when you get home. And I promise you, if you disobey me a second time, it will be more than a spanking you get.” Her shocked gasp made me grin, and my cock get even harder in my pants. I needed to get inside her again, and fucking soon.
“You’re going to be late for your cub scout meeting.” She pulled back from me, a grin playing on her lips. She thought she was clever.
“Sass will only make your punishment worse,” I promised, but I couldn’t stop my lips from betraying my threat. I gave her one more hard kiss then threw open the door to her rust bucket and hopped out. “You have thirty minutes to get your ass home and send me a message,” I warned her, and shut the door.
“We’ll see.” She waved a hand out the window and tried to peel out, but her car sputtered again and she ended up rolling away barely hitting the speed limit. I shook my head and put my focus on the club. I’d worry about her car later, and plan out that spanking she had coming.
***
Most of the members were already in the main room sitting at the table. The president seat was left open and I took my chair to the left of it, as I always did. The mood in the room was somber as we all took in the enormity of the evening. Our leader, our friend, our brother, was dead, killed by some coward on a bike.
Across from me sat Gray, his narrowed eyes fixed on me as I began the meeting. “We’ve lost our president, but more than that, we lost our brother,” I began, looking around the room at the faces. Some looked back at me, others looked down at the table. Jason had been close to every member. No one sitting among us that night didn’t feel the impact of the loss. “Hell’s Spawn will pay for what they’ve done tenfold. I will make it my mission to find the shooter, but the whole fucking club will pay for what they did.”
“Why jump to that conclusion?” Gray stopped me as I continued to speak.
“Are you shitting me? The fucking Hell’s Spawn have been up our ass for years, wanting more of our territory. And Jason told me he thought they were starting to get back in bed with Javier.” I slammed my hand down on the table.
“I think we have bigger fish to fucking fry than the Hell’s Spawn.” Gray shoved away from the table and stood up, walking to stand behind Jason’s chair. The hand carved wooden throne-like chair represented the power and respect the club handed over to our president. Gray standing behind it, with his hands on the back, made me want to throw him out the window.
It was no secret that we didn’t get along. He’d had a bee in his ass since his woman left him a few years back and he found her walking out of my bedroom the next morning. I had no interest in her, fuck, I barely even remembered fucking her, but he never got over it. She was a free woman as far as the club was concerned. She’d broken it off with him, she was unclaimed.
“You think someone outside the Hell’s Spawn wanted Jason or any of us dead?” I demanded.
“No. I’m saying right now the club needs leadership. We can’t be running off like
a bunch of halfcocked assholes. Jason was stepping down; we all know this.” He started walking around the table, making eye contact with each member who would look at him. “He was going to announce tonight that he was backing me in the vote for his replacement.”
I burst out of my chair at that moment and pointed a finger at him. “You fucking lie! Jason would never back you!”
“He was talking about the possibility,” Jared piped in as Gray slapped him on the back.
“He told me himself he was backing me. Said the club needed a fresh look and you would only be an extension of him.” Gray continued walking around the room until he reached Jason’s chair again. “That’s why he called you out to the warehouse, to tell you in person.”
My blood ran hot through my veins. No way was that what he was talking about, no way. I looked at the faces of the members at the table. The vote could go either way, and I didn’t need to fuck things up by forcing my hand. But I never had the chance.
“Jason was backing me, and now he’s dead.” He looked square at me. “He wasn’t backing you, but you were with him when he got shot.”
“Hey! No way!” a few members called out from the back of the room.
Gray held up his hands. “I don’t’ want to believe it either. I don’t believe it, but we have to take things as they come. Fact of the matter is Jason was going to back me. We have an empty chair and a crisis. I’m moving to take the presidency immediately.” He picked up the gavel that lay before the president’s seat and banged it on the table. “Rafe, what say you?”
The fucker just launched the vote. Before I even had a chance to say anything to stop him. Once a member started the vote, no more discussion could take place. “Fuck no.” I growled my answer.
Gray gave a little snicker. “No surprise there.” He motioned for JC to lay down his say. It took all of five minutes to get everyone’s vote. Gray pulled the chair back from the table and took his seat. “Right. Good.”
I pushed away from the table. It wasn’t a landslide; the asshole got it by two votes. I wasn’t going to sit around and listen to any more bullshit. I needed to find the shooter, and that wasn’t going to happen sitting around the fucking table having a pissing contest with Gray. “I’m going to check on Stephanie, see if she needs anything.” I started to head to the door.
“Good idea, but tell Jackson and Perry to head back. She doesn’t need any protection, and I’m sure she wants to be left alone.” He turned back to the meeting, dismissing me.
I clenched my fists, but didn’t bother responding to him. Stephanie would have protection. Fuck him. Fuck all of them.
Just as I burst out of the club into the warm summer night my phone buzzed in my pocket. I waited until I was on my bike before I checked it.
I’m home, safe and sound. Hope you earned a new patch tonight.
Chapter Six
BETH
I hadn’t heard from Rafe in several days. Maybe he finally lost interest, realized I wasn’t the exciting girl who would go chasing a biker down for some attention. I was no MC whore, and he probably figured I wasn’t worth the effort.
I didn’t mind. It was better that way. I had Madison to think about and care for; I couldn’t be starting a relationship with anyone, least of all a biker. A biker who had been shot. But the more I told myself these things, the more I realized I missed him.
For several days after I texted him, he would send random messages. Some were cute and just curious about my day, while others were dirty and made me blush. Those usually came at night. I didn’t know what was going on with his club, but I had heard that the guy who had been killed was their president. Rafe didn’t mention it, but I had seen the club drive past me on Main Street during the funeral. The sound of the engines nearly deafened me. Madison had put her little hands over her ears and jumped up and down screaming with glee. Seeing all the bikes lined up, she had thought it was a parade. Rafe had been at the front of the line, but I didn’t think he saw me; his eyes shielded by his sunglasses, he never turned his head, just kept starting ahead of him at the hearse.
No text in three days, but that was fine. Friday was my day off, so I decided to take Madison to the mall. She needed some new shoes, and I could use a pair myself. The soles on my work shoes had more super glue holding them together than the original manufacturing material.
The cool air of the mall was a perfect sanctuary from the summer heat outside. I would have lingered inside a bit longer after our purchases, but Madison needed a nap and I was getting hungry.
“Mama, can’t we get some ice cream?” she asked me as we passed the ice cream shop conveniently located right by the exit doors. I longed to give in and grab a quick cone, but I only had enough cash on me to put some gas in the car on the way home.
“Sorry, baby girl. But I think we have some popsicles at home, you can have one of those right after your nap.” I gave her little hand a squeeze. She looked at me with her large green eyes and her lips pulled together in a pout.
“I don’t wanna nap.”
“Well, you’re taking one anyway,” I announced, pushing through the glass doors into the bright sun and hot air. She probably could get away without naps now, but after spending the entire morning walking around the mall, she needed the rest. So did I.
A car passed by us and we began to cross into the parking lot when I heard a loud rumbling coming from my left side. I looked over and saw a group of bikers ride into the lot. There was screaming and one of them had his hand up in the air waving a gun. I grabbed Madison, picking her up and holding her to my chest as I ran to my car. I couldn’t dig out my keys, and shots were being fired. People in the lot were screaming, glass shattered somewhere nearby. I crouched down, pinning Maddie between me and the car, praying we’d be okay. Maddie screamed and cried against my chest, but I didn’t let go for her, I held her to me and tucked her head beneath my chin.
“It’s okay, baby, it’s okay…it’ll be over soon.” I made a promise I had no way of knowing I could keep it or not.
The gunfire stopped, but the roar of the engines remained. Keeping Maddie pressed against me, I slid my phone out of my back pocket and hit Rafe’s number.
“Hey, babe,” he answered.
“Rafe—” Another round of gun fire went off behind me. Maddie screamed into phone.
“Where are you!” he demanded.
“Mall parking lot,” I managed to get out between shots. I didn’t understand what he said before the call dropped.
When the next silent moment came, I clung to Maddie, willing her to stop crying. The engines faded away, they were leaving. I gulped in a large breath and rolled to my side, keeping Maddie in my arms. My biceps hurt from holding her so tight, and my body ached from the tension. In the distance I could hear groans and crying. Then I heard another bike roll up. I turned us back around and shielded Madison.
The bike parked behind my car, and I started to shake. “Hey, hey.” Rafe’s voice finally broke through my terror. Large hands landed on my shoulders pulling me toward him and turning me. Once I saw his face, I felt safe, the trembling in my chest slowed. “It’s me. It’s okay, they’re gone.”
Maddie peaked around me to see him, still sniffling. “You look mean,” she announced, and buried her face back into my chest.
He let out a soft laugh, then took my hands and helped me stand. Madison slid to the ground on her feet, and she clutched to my thigh with her arms. “I’m not mean, sweet pea.” He kept his stare on me when he said the words.
“My daughter,” I whispered, resting my hand on her shoulder. I hadn’t told him about Madison yet. I didn’t think I would ever have to; he was just a passing fancy anyway.
“Mmmhmm. Let’s get you two home.” He gently opened my purse and dug inside for my keys. “Keep these in your pocket from now on—you’ll be able to get to them faster than when they are buried in that suitcase you call a purse.” He dangled the keys in front of my nose.
“I can drive.” I tried
to swipe the keys from him, but he shook his head and tapped my nose with his finger.
“I don’t think now is a good time to argue with me, babe.” He gave a pointed look at Maddie, who was staring up at us with large eyes and a half smile. Her tears had dried on her face, and her eyes were fixated on the large man standing in front of us.
“Fine. Whatever.” I stepped aside and let him unlock the car doors. Once I had Maddie strapped into her booster in the back seat I climbed into the front. I watched him struggle with getting behind the wheel and even Maddie laughed as he maneuvered the seat backward to make room for his long legs.
“You need a new car,” he grumbled as he stuffed the key into the ignition.
I looked out the window. “I need a lot of things,” I muttered, rolling down the window. The air conditioning didn’t work very well and it was too hot to leave the windows up.