by Sam Crescent
He’d been wearing his uniform, and he honestly believed she trusted that more than his crazy talk of not being a serial killer. For a long time, he didn’t think that she believed him, not that he blamed her.
He never posted the papers and retired within that week.
Accounting was his next love, after Scarlett, that was.
She placed the coffee on a small table. The view of her ass in those tight jeans was enough to make him hard. Glancing over at his friend, he saw Gunner staring at her like he had done many times.
The weird thing was, when Gunner did it, he didn’t want to murder the bastard. Other men, however, he was more than ready to go fucking crazy on their ass. No one stared at his wife for long.
John didn’t say anything.
“I brought you both a couple of cookies. Lasagna will be in half an hour. Will you be staying for dinner?” Scarlett asked.
Guilt filled John as he watched her.
Lasagna was something she always made to cheer him up, to help him.
Fuck!
Forcing a smile to his lips, he turned to Gunner. “There will be plenty for you. You don’t mind, do you, sweetie?” John asked.
“No, I don’t.”
“Then count me in. It has been a long time since I had a home-cooked meal.”
“You mean Cherry never served you?”
“You know my ex. She didn’t serve anyone.”
John had never liked Cherry. She’d been with Gunner purely for the patch, and it had shown. The only thing good to come from her were their two boys.
Another bolt of pain rushed through him.
His best friend could have kids.
Gunner had had them.
Two boys who carried his blood and his name.
Scarlett left them alone, closing the door behind her. Staring at where his wife had stood, he looked at Gunner.
She didn’t know that Gunner wanted her.
John didn’t like the wheels that were turning in his head, but mainly because a plan was forming, one that could end his marriage, but then, it might not either.
He held a secret, one that even his wife didn’t know about.
****
Scarlett marveled at her steady hand as she served the lasagna. This was John’s favorite, and it had taken her five years to get just right to how he liked it. He was a good husband, the love of her entire life. Ten years ago, when she’d just given the last of her change to a homeless man, she’d been worried.
Most people would have kept their last bit of money, but she’d seen him there, starving, looking unkempt. Her apartment had been paid up for another month, so ramen noodles were not a problem. She always wanted to help others. Then of course, John came out of nowhere.
His uniform had been so dashing, and when he’d looked at her, or at least the way he looked at her, she’d been on fire for him, and it hadn’t stopped.
Of course, they’d been married for eight years before she thought about having a baby. They talked about having kids often, but they wanted to enjoy each other. The timing hadn’t been right. Then she’d stopped the pill, and for over a year and a half, nothing.
John arranged the appointments at the hospital, and the news they’d been given had shattered their world. He’d not been the same since, and sex … he’d not wanted anything from her.
The lights were always off, and he got on, rutted about a little, and that was it.
She’d never felt so … lonely before.
He’d stopped by the day care center where he caught her with the kids, and she’d seen that look in his eyes. The one that seemed to always look a little guilty. She’d felt bad.
Yes, she wanted kids, but not like this.
Not at the expense of losing John. She’d rather not have any.
Putting the lasagna on his plate with some salad, she handed it to him, which he took, thanking her.
“Don’t even think of putting that green shit on my plate.”
She turned to Gunner. Even with all of his MC leather on and looking deadly like he could kill a man with his bare hands, she always found him sweet. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” She rolled her eyes and served him up an extra slice. “Enjoy.”
“I will.”
After serving herself a modest piece, she sat down. John had asked Gunner to sit at the head of the table, where John usually sat. She was on one side while John was on the other. She stared across, facing him, and her cheeks heated.
John was staring at her.
She couldn’t decipher the look though.
Glancing from him to Gunner, she smiled. Taking a bite of the lasagna, she couldn’t taste a thing.
The tension in the room seemed to rise, and she was thankful when he’d said that Gunner was coming to visit and they had work to do.
“How is the club?” she asked, trying to find something to distract herself with. She knew the club wasn’t a hundred percent legal. Even John warned her against being at the club without him or Gunner there.
She didn’t like this.
Her love for John was absolute. There was nothing she wanted more than to be with him. Only it seemed kids were a sticking point with him.
Slowly, he’d been pushing her away, and they were in this rut that she couldn’t get out of. She felt at times like she was drowning. Most nights she lay awake, listening to him sleep, wondering if he was waiting for the moment to kick her out.
They’d had arguments over the years, moments where nothing seemed to go their way, but afterward they’d made love and been better for it.
Sex wasn’t going to make this issue go away.
“The club is its usual self.”
“Dirty, stinky, smelly?” John asked.
Gunner threw his head back and laughed. “Close. I did hire a cleaner. He’s been doing a good job.”
“You hired a man?” John looked shocked. “What happened to the woman?”
“She became club property as she couldn’t say no to the men. She was keeping them serviced when the club whores wouldn’t.”
She chuckled and pressed her thighs together. Scarlett would love to get serviced at least once by her husband. It had felt like forever since they had sex or fucked really good that made them all sweaty and felt amazing.
“Don’t you think, honey?” John asked.
“What? Sorry?” She hadn’t heard anyone say anything.
“I was just saying that maybe if he stopped them fucking on every single surface, he wouldn’t need to worry.”
“Yes. I agree.” Her cheeks were on fire. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t been paying attention to what was being said, just thinking about being fucked really good by her husband.
The rest of the meal went by without a problem. Gunner and John shared some really good memories, and she listened to them, enjoying them talk about the good old days. Once dinner was finished, she grabbed the dishes and made her way into the kitchen.
Gunner followed her.
“He’s just getting me some paperwork,” Gunner said when she looked behind him.
“Oh, okay. Would you like some of this to take away?” she asked, taking the lasagna from him.
“I’d love some.”
She grabbed a bag and started to pack him a large slice.
Scarlett paused as he seemed to step right up behind her. “You’re not afraid of John, are you?”
“What? No.”
When she made to turn, Gunner stopped her, his hand at the back of her neck. The smallest touch of his fingers and she gasped, her nipples going hard. Gunner was much larger than she was, and now she realized how deadly he was.
All it would take was a single gunshot and John was gone, and she’d be completely at his mercy.
She quickly shoved those thoughts out of her mind. Gunner would never harm his friend. He loved John.
“Then what is going on?” Gunner asked.
“We’re just having some trouble, is all. We’re good though, and I’m not afraid of John,
not at all. I promise.”
“If you ever feel afraid of him, you’d call me?”
“Seriously, Gunner, we’re just having some troubles with the test results. There’s nothing going on.”
She forced herself to turn. He released her for a second, but his hand went to her throat, and they stared at each other.
“John would never hurt me, and I love him, more than anything.” She wasn’t afraid of John. He’d never been physically violent to her. A few spanks in the bedroom, and the way he used to hold her down, but she’d loved that.
No, what she was afraid of most was John leaving her.
That was what she couldn’t stand.
“Am I interrupting something?”
She froze, staring up at Gunner.
“Nothing. Just trying to figure out what’s going on with you two.” Gunner stepped back.
“He seems to think you’re hurting me. I’m just letting him know that we’re fine.”
John chuckled.
They left the kitchen without another word. She finished the dishes and went straight up to their bedroom.
She took a quick shower, changing into a pair of pajamas. Anything sexy was off the menu right now. She was combing her hair when John entered. “Gunner’s gone home.”
“Okay.”
He moved up behind her, taking the brush from her hands. “There are times I think he’s really lonely.”
“Maybe we should find him a woman or a wife?”
“It’s not a wife he wants. It’s … someone else.”
She stared at her husband, waiting for him to say something else.
“I’m sorry about the way I was tonight and for the way I’ve been.”
“It’s fine. We’ve had a shock.”
“You don’t think I’d hurt you, do you?”
“No.” She chuckled. “I can’t even believe that Gunner would think that either. I guess he’s on edge with club business. That’s why he was here, right?” He finished brushing her hair, and he nodded. She turned around, cupped his face, and kissed him. “I know you’d never hurt me, John. You’re the best man that I know.”
He held her wrists and pressed a kiss to each of her palms. “You’re way too good for me, and if you ever did feel afraid of me, I want you to go straight to Gunner.”
She rolled her eyes and chuckled. “No, John, I’m just right for you, and stop already. You’re not the big bad wolf here.”
Scarlett didn’t want to push him, so she waited, being as patient as possible with him.
“I’m going to take a shower. I’ll join you in a second.”
And the moment was gone. She nodded, pulling away. Climbing into bed, she waited and listened as he took a long shower.
Not for the first time she wondered when they were going to get back on track. She missed her husband and didn’t want to spend the rest of her life living like this.
Tears filled her eyes, but she pushed them away, refusing to let them fall or to give up hope. One way or another, she’d make this work.
Chapter Two
For an entire week Gunner stopped by John’s house, where he went through the accounts. They had started two ledgers. One was for each of the businesses where they took an end of day reading, and then the next morning, they took a morning reading of the money that was taken.
He noticed that there were only three places that were showing losses of up to three thousand dollars. The strip club, the sex shop, and the florist shop, which he didn’t get. The club had their hands in a lot of pies. Each of his men got an equal share of the profits. He invested his own money in property and shares while the boys tended to waste it. These legitimate businesses were also a good way of cleaning their own money as well. Their businesses were successful and helped them to invest right back into their pockets, even in the stock markets but only in small quantities. He didn’t like drawing attention to the club, especially that on the right side of the law.
Each night that he went to John’s the tension in the house was getting out of control. Last night Scarlett didn’t even share dinner with them, and he didn’t like it. One of the reasons he loved to visit his friend was to see her smiling face. Only now, she wasn’t smiling all the time.
Not having a baby, John’s inability to give her children, was causing a rift between the two. He loved both of them and didn’t want either of them to be hurt. Their marriage had always been strong.
Staring across at Cherry, he glared at his ex-wife, who was demanding he take his sons full-time.
“I’m sick of their shit. They don’t listen to me. I tell them not to party, and they do it for longer and more often. No girls in the house, and they’ve got the place looking like a porn studio.”
Kent had seen her, and now he wanted to shoot his VP. It was moments like this that he wished he’d not organized the vote. The previous Prez was pretty gun-happy and would shoot anyone who got in his way. No one was safe. Gunner’s way meant all club members were safe until proven guilty.
“What do you want, Cherry? You’ve raised the boys to take what they want. It’s exactly what you do.”
“Fuck you, Gunner.”
“I’d be careful how you speak to me, Cherry. You may have been my old lady, worn my patch, but that doesn’t give you any fucking right to mouth off at me. Don’t for a second do that shit again.” His voice was hard as he spoke to her. He’d already had enough of her while married to her. Now divorced, he still had to take that shit? Not happening.
Bennie and Carlos were his two sons. He didn’t have the chance to name them himself. Cherry had done it out of spite because he’d not been there on time for the births, not that he needed to. She spent most of the two pregnancies complaining about being fat and how awful it was having brats inside her.
“You don’t want to deal with our boys anymore, I can take care of them.”
Cherry looked relieved. She stood up to leave.
“The money stops,” Gunner said. He’d been paying her two thousand a week plus extra so that his boys had a good life.
“What? Gunner, you can’t.”
“I don’t have to pay you shit. You cheated on me, remember.”
“You had skanks riding your dick all the way across the fucking state lines.” She gritted her teeth.
“Yeah, well, you’re the one that decided to go public after screwing the wrong woman’s husband, Cherry. I don’t have to pay you anything. That money is for Bennie and Carlos. Send them in.”
“Let’s talk about this.”
He’d been wanting to get rid of her for some time but hadn’t found a good enough reason to get her out of town and out of his life. He should have known the boys would wear her down eventually.
They were so getting a raise, and he’d pay for whatever their hearts desired. They had done in a couple of years what he’d been trying to do for two decades.
“Leave and send them right in.”
Cherry’s face had gone pale, and he sat back with a huge smile on his face.
Ben was eighteen, Carlos sixteen. Both were large men, bulky, and spoiled brats. They were hard-working though. He’d seen them in the club, and when someone needed help, they were there.
“Sit down.”
They sat.
“Your mother said you’ve been causing trouble.”
Neither of them said anything.
He looked between them, expecting to get lip.
He got nothing.
“You’ll be moving into my home tonight. You will be attending school every single fucking day, and I better not get a single call from the principal. We go way back, and if I have to hear that bastard gloat, I will personally shove each of your heads up the other’s ass, understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. No parties at my place. No bitches, no whores. You disobey my instructions, we’ll start with privileges. I will make your lives a misery. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.” H
e stood up, moved around the table, shook both of their hands, and then pulled them each in for a hug. He slapped them on the back. “Go on, get out of here. Get your shit moved in.”
He handed Ben the keys to his car and the house. “If there’s a scratch I’ll make you earn me a new ride.”
“I won’t damage it.”
“Go on then, take care of your brother.” He watched his two boys leave. Both of them were excited, and he smirked.
That had been easy.
He wished everything in his life was that easy, but of course, it wasn’t. Nope, he still had the issue of theft within the club. Standing by his office door, he looked out, seeing Kent with another woman. He rarely had the same one every single night, not that he could blame him. Kent was the kind of man that had a pretty face and knew what to say to have the women fawning all over him.
“You okay, Prez?” Billy asked.
Billy was a tough cookie, weird as fuck as he liked to watch multiple men fuck his wife. It was all consenting, of course. He himself had actually caught them doing it in the club, and Billy’s wife had been begging for more.
They were a fucked-up crew, but within the club they all had a place.
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
“People are talking a lot about you spending so much time with John and his wife?”
“They do?”
“They’re wondering if John’s going to try for Prospect?”
Gunner burst out laughing. “Nah, John’s not going to do that. I’m just spending time, catching up.” He didn’t mention what he had John looking into or that he liked staring at Scarlett. That was his own business.
“You noticed anything going on around the club? Any new faces? Anything out of place?”
“Nope. Other than the free pussy that comes in and the regulars from town, nothing new. It’s all just running smooth. To be honest, the boys are getting restless. They want a ride so bad, they can taste it.”
Closing his office door, Gunner flicked the lock. He’d always been doing this for as long as he became Prez.
“I’m heading out. Call if you need anything.”
“Will do.”
He left the guys in the club, heading out to his bike. Once outside he looked up at the building. Nothing seemed out of place, but he had this feeling someone was taking not just from him but from the club. The only problem he had was proving who it was.