“A motorcycle club?” I asked Marco, and my eyes widened. I watched as the realization struck him. I had no idea what my dad really did for a living. All these years I’d imagined that he ran a harmless biker bar.
“Fuck!” Marco cursed and rammed his fist into the wall behind him. I could see his bruised knuckles now, but he hadn’t even flinched. It reminded me of how strong he was, and I gulped.
“Just great. Now I’ve just told you something your dad was probably trying to keep a secret from his baby girl,” Marco growled, and I stepped closer to him.
“It doesn’t matter, I don’t care what my dad does or what you do. Can we just forget about it and move on?” I pleaded. Last night had been great, and I wanted to explore that. I enjoyed sleeping in his arms, and no man had made me feel that way before. I just wanted this day to end!
Marco was glaring at me like I was crazy.
“Move on to what? You are Axel’s kid, I am a new prospect for the club, I’m nothing. He’s going to have me beaten if he finds out that I touched his daughter. It’s the most disrespectful thing I could do to the MC!” he barked, and he pushed past me, brushing my shoulder. Without waiting to listen to what I had to say, he went up to the door and walked out.
I shook my head and pressed my eyes closed. I didn’t expect things to get this complicated. I didn’t consider the position that I was putting Marco in when I kept my identity hidden from him.
I ran after him because I didn’t want to lose him yet either.
Chapter 11
Marco
For the first time since Iraq, I had woken up this morning feeling like a whole human being, and it had all been because of Axel’s daughter. She was the only woman since I lost my leg, who had made me feel less broken. The sex was great, her body was a wonderland, but it was more than that. I had enjoyed sleeping with her in my arms, and nothing would have been more amazing if Quinn was just that—a stranger in a bar. Instead, she was my president’s daughter.
Not only had I fucked her, but I had also told her a secret about her dad that she didn’t know. How many rules of the MC had I broken in the span of twenty-four hours?
I was cursing under my breath. I wanted to put as much distance between Quinn and myself as I could. Why did I still fucking want her? Didn’t I want to be a part of the MC more? This was the kind of opportunity that I had been waiting for my whole life, and now that I had it, why did I want to throw it all away for a woman? I needed to get away from the bar and from Quinn so that I could think.
I had stormed out of the Rusty Pelican and to make matters worse, I could sense that Quinn had followed me out.
“Marco!” she called out my name, and I whipped around to her. My knuckles still hurt from when I punched the wall back there. She looked so hot with her golden blond hair like a curtain around her face, with her perfect bow-shaped red lips and her fiery blue eyes. She was perfect. I had to clench my fists to stop myself grabbing her and pulling her body to mine.
“Quinn, we can’t be seen talking. I don’t want to cause trouble, not with you here,” I growled, and she came up to me. Her expression had changed. She appeared stubborn earlier, but now she looked mellowed. I didn’t even want to imagine what was going through her head now. She had just found out about the MC, and probably was forming ideas about what her father really did, rather than just own a dive bar. She wasn’t stupid, it wasn’t going to take her long to figure out the violence of the lives we led.
“But I don’t want this to just end like this. Last night meant more to me than just a one night stand,” she said, and there was a strain her voice.
“Your dad has to know. I need to tell him. I can’t keep this a secret, I’m not a coward, and I’m not that kind of guy,” I said.
Quinn stepped closer to me and placed a hand on my heaving chest. Even the fact that we were alone together, that we were talking was dangerous enough. If any of the guys from the MC saw me touching her, it could get me shot right on the spot. I knew Axel would lose his shit. I didn’t step away though, it was like having her hand on my chest calmed me somehow.
“If my dad finds out, he’ll kill you. He’ll send me out of Long Beach, you can’t tell him, Marco,” she said, in a soft voice, and there was a tremble on her lips.
“I know that, but I’m not going to be fucking his daughter behind his back,” I said, and the tip of Quinn’s nose turned red. She was shaking her head.
“No, Marco, you can’t tell him. If you do, he’s going to punish you. This is my fault. You would have kept your distance if you knew who I was,” she said, and I yanked her to myself.
My arms were around her waist, she had landed on my chest with a thud. She was looking up at me now with her large blue eyes.
“I wouldn’t be able to keep my distance from you no matter who you are,” I said, and she parted her lips. That was all I needed to see. Nothing mattered anymore. Not the fact that I was a prospect, and not the fact that she was Axel’s daughter.
Her perfect red lips parted invitingly for me. I leaned forward and kissed her, thrusting my tongue into her mouth the way I’d done with my cock the night before.
My tongue was exploring her mouth, while my hands traveled down to her ass and I squeezed. She was pressed up against me, and my cock moved in my pants. She was sinking into me as we kissed. I knew she could feel my cock throbbing in my pants.
I didn’t fucking care where we were or who saw us. This was probably the most dangerous thing I had done in my life. Iraq and the war seemed like child’s play compared to this. I was standing outside the Rusty Pelican, kissing the president’s daughter and my hands were on her ass. There was no easier target for a shot than I was and I had no protective gear covering me.
I kissed Quinn back hard. I wanted to strip her clothes right there, feel her breasts in my hands but a noise distracted me. I could hear bikes in the background.
Quinn moaned as she kissed me back and I couldn’t pull myself away from her yet. The noise of the bike engines was louder now, and I tried to think who it could be. All members of The Bad Disciples were inside the Rusty Pelican, and the noise seemed to be a group of bikes. It had to be some other group.
I smacked my lips away from Quinn and looked up. I could see a group of bikers riding towards us. They were in jackets with a distinct patch on them and even from the distance I recognized them. They were the Four Skulls, and they were coming straight for us.
Chapter 12
Quinn
I was just about sinking into Marco’s kiss when he pulled himself away. I opened my mouth to ask him what was wrong but then I saw the look of terror in his eyes, which soon turned to rage. His body was stiff as he held me, and instantly, I knew something was wrong.
“Marco?” I said, just as he gripped me by my shoulders and shoved.
I screeched as I fell back, directly on the ground behind some of the bikes parked outside the Rusty Pelican. A gunshot rang out immediately after and I looked through the gaps between the bikes to see four men, armed with guns on big muscular bikes. They were shooting at Marco.
He was crouched in front of the bikes, dodging between them, trying to avoid getting shot.
“Marco!” I screeched his name, as another round of fire rang out. I could sense that Marco wasn’t armed because he would have taken his gun out by now.
I could feel my heart pounding against my chest, my voice was caught in my throat. The men were firing, and somehow Marco was still alive.
In all my years alive, I had never suspected my dad being involved in a situation like this. All I had known about him, was that he was owned his dive bar and rode a motorcycle with his friends. I felt foolish, as I sat behind the bikes, crouched and worried that one of the bullets was eventually going to get Marco. I didn’t even know how he had managed to escape being shot still. It had to be his military training, I figured.
He was constantly on the move, jumping from between bikes while the shots were fired. I continued to screec
h, continued to call his name.
“Stay down, Quinn!” he called back to me.
“Marco, you’re going to get shot!” I screamed back at him.
“Quinn, just stay the fuck down!” he shouted.
Just then, the doors of the Rusty Pelican banged open. I looked over my shoulders to see a group of the men from the bar, all wearing the same patched leather jacket that Marco had on now. They were carrying guns in their hands, and they came charging out of the bar with their weapons waving in the air.
One of them fired a round of bullets at the gunned bikers. They were clearly going to outnumber the men who had been firing at Marco.
At the back of the group was my dad. He had a gun in his hand too, but he didn’t have to take a shot yet. His friends…or rather, as I knew now, his men…were doing the shooting for him.
I remained crouched behind the bikes, but in front of me, everything seemed to be happening in a blur. Fires were exchanged, but most of the bullets came from my dad’s side. The four men on bikes were outnumbered, and one of them appeared to be wounded and bleeding now.
Within just a few minutes of my dad and his group bursting out from the bar, the other four guys were rushing away.
“Marco!” I screeched his name as I staggered and stood up. I couldn’t see him yet. I didn’t know if he’d been shot or if he was alive.
“Quinn! What the fuck are you doing out here?” I heard dad’s voice behind me. He had grabbed my shoulders and was now beginning to drag me back towards the bar.
“Marco!” I screamed again.
“Quinn! What are you doing? You need to be inside!” dad was hollering at me, while I continued to scream Marco’s name and struggle in his grip. But dad was stronger than me and heard had managed to pull me back into the bar. The doors banged shut behind me, and now I didn’t know where Marco was.
My breasts were heaving, I still couldn’t breathe properly, when dad brought me into the bar. The men who were there, surrounded us quickly, while dad pulled me in for a hug.
“Are you okay, honey?” he asked and stroked my hair. I pulled away from him and glared into his eyes.
“What’s going on dad? Why were there four men on bikes with guns taking a shot at us?” I barked at him. Dad could see the look of horror in my eyes, and he looked around at his friends before his eyes settled on me again.
“Honey, there is something you should know about me. It’s time now that you did. You’re mature enough to understand,” dad said.
“You’re the president of a motorcycle club, the kind that deals in certain kinds of businesses. Motorcycles aren’t just your hobby are they?” I blurted.
Dad appeared to be dumbfounded, while the men around us were silent too. Nobody knew what to say to that, because I knew, just as well as they did; that this was all true.
“Quinn, honey, I’m sorry that your mom and I couldn’t tell you sooner. We didn’t want to alarm you, and we wanted you to have as normal a childhood as possible,” dad said, in a small embarrassed voice.
I threw my arms around him, clinging to him as tightly as I could. I didn’t want him to be embarrassed about admitting the truth. I didn’t want him to ever doubt his life choices because that was what had made me who I was.
“It doesn’t matter to me, dad. I’ll always be proud of you, no matter what you do,” I said, and I felt his grip around me tighten. Deep down, I knew it was the truth. Him being involved with a motorcycle club didn’t bother me. I guessed it was because I always knew that something else was going on. I just wanted him to be safe.
“I’m glad you’re safe, honey,” he said.
Marco! He’d reminded me of Marco. I slithered away from his arms. I needed to go outside and see what had happened to him.
“Quinn, where are you going? You can’t go back out there just yet!” dad snapped as I began to walk away.
The doors of the Rusty Pelican opened, and Marco appeared, surrounded by the men who were his friends and brothers in arms. Apart from a few scratches on his face from rolling on the ground to avoid the gunfire, he looked completely unharmed.
My hand flew up to my mouth with relief, and a cry escaped my lips. But I couldn’t run to him yet because dad didn’t know how attached to Marco I had become.
Chapter 13
Marco
“What the fuck happened back there?” Axel asked before Quinn could say anything to me.
I had entered the Rusty Pelican and found her standing in front of Axel, surrounded by other men from The Bad Disciples. I had seen the look in her eyes, the look that told me that she wasn’t sure if I was alive or dead. A look of relief had washed over her face when her eyes settled on me. She looked unscathed, and I was glad that I had pushed her behind the bikes in time.
I walked towards Axel and the group, while Gunner, Hunter, and Glock followed me close on my tracks. They were the guys who had saved my life because another minute of being under fire would have been the end of me.
“The Four Skulls appeared out of nowhere. I heard their bikes before I saw them and I pushed your daughter aside,” I replied to Axel as I came to a stop in front of him.
Even though Quinn had moved to the side, I could sense her eyes on me. She was watching me intently like she was trying to make sure that I wasn’t hurt. I could feel a desperate urge in my bones, to pull her into my arms and hold her. She had been close to getting hurt, and I couldn’t stand the thought of that.
“They must have been trying to avenge what we did to the Dragon Knights,” it was Hunter who’d spoken up now, and some of the men nodded. I had heard from Hunter how the guys had ended things with the Dragon Knights. Glock had killed Brick, their president when they had taken his girl, Sage.
“We can go take care of them,” Glock added and Axel shook his head.
“Not now, we can deal with them later. We need to first figure out a method of surveillance for the bar. They know we’re sitting ducks when we’re having church meetings. They know they’ve got all of us in one place at the same time. This attack could have been a lot worse than just four guys on bikes,” Axel continued, and a buzz of agreement and discussion rang out in the bar.
I wasn’t certain of what to add to that, even though I had some suggestions. I was the newest member of the MC, just recently patched as a prospect. I wasn’t sure what the importance of my suggestion was at a meeting like this at this point.
But Axel was looking at me curiously again.
“Before anything else, Marco, I’d like to thank you. You saved my daughter’s life with your quick action,” he said, and I felt an ounce of relief. I was glad that he didn’t suspect anything yet.
He had stepped up to me and was now holding his hand out to me. I shook his hand, and Axel grinned at me.
“Now I know for sure that patching you into our MC was a good idea,” he said, and we shook hands firmly. I was surprised that he was having this kind of conversation in front of Quinn, but now I realized that they had probably already spoken about the MC. Which was also a relief, because it meant that I wouldn’t have to explain why I had spilled Axel’s secrets to his daughter.
While we shook hands, I sensed Quinn walking up behind me. When my hand dropped from Axel’s grip, I felt Quinn’s hand on mine. She was holding my hand, lightly at first before her grip became stronger.
Axel’s gaze dropped to our hands. I couldn’t pull my hand away from her, not in front of everybody, but everybody was watching us now. Fuck.
My eyes met Axel’s, and now I could tell that he knew. It wasn’t a difficult situation to figure out. His eyes grew wide, and I could see his face turning red.
“Daddy,” I heard Quinn say, her voice was pleading. She had made the decision to reveal the truth to her father because she was afraid that I would do it behind her back and get slaughtered as a result of it.
Axel didn’t look pleased. I was sure that he was going to lose it. I could see his fists clenching and his lips trembling with rage. There was pi
n-drop silence in the bar, and I could sense everyone’s eyes on us.
“Daddy,” Quinn continued. “I know this is probably not what you want, but this is my decision.” Axel looked as though he was about to punch me, but his eyes shot to Quinn’s. Quinn gripped my hand tighter, and I saw the rage in Axel’s eyes slowly start to fade.
“Take care of her,” Axel said. Even though he had spoken in a low, quiet voice, the place was silent enough for everyone to have heard him. Except, I didn’t think I’d heard him right.
“I don’t like it, but I know my daughter. If my daughter has chosen to be with you, I will not have any say it. But I will say this. You’re going to make sure that you look after her,” Axel said.
I clenched my jaw. I was relieved and surprised, and Quinn’s grip on my hand tightened even more. I slipped my hand out of hers then and stretched it towards Axel. He waited a moment, just a heartbeat before he shook my hand again.
“If something happens to Quinn…” he began to say, but I was already nodding my head.
“I will have you and the entire MC to be answerable to,” I completed the sentence for him.
Axel was nodding his head, and then he was smiling.
“Thank you, dad!” Quinn squealed with joy, and she lunged at her father, and I watched as the two of them hugged each other tightly.
We were all relieved that nobody was hurt, and Quinn and I were happy that her father wasn’t going to have me shot.
When they were done hugging, Quinn returned to my arms, and I held her. I was amazed that we could even do this in front of her father, but Axel didn’t bat an eyelid. It was obvious that he trusted me.
Chapter 14
Quinn
Dad hadn’t reacted as badly as I predicted, in fact, he had barely reacted at all. It was obvious that he was impressed with Marco’s abilities at keeping me safe. Besides, he knew how stubborn I was. I took too much after mom.
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