Ravens Ruin MC: The Complete Series

by Marie James

  “You want to die, motherfucker?”

  “I want to pack my shit for Florida,” I say dryly.

  His eyes narrow. “I think a little distance between you and Massachusetts is a good thing.”

  “I’ve been telling you that for weeks, Brother.”

  I turn and walk away, surprised when he doesn’t follow me or wrap his belt around my neck. When I look back down the hallway before pushing open the door to room three, he’s gone. I don’t know what tomorrow will look like after my friend has had all night to stew on what he witnessed, but right now I have something else to take care of.

  “Hey, baby.” The idiot man doesn’t even wait to see who’s intruding on his private moment before he speaks.

  Rookie fucking mistake, dude.

  “Where’s that chick?” he asks as he scrambles to cover his less than spectacular dick. I close the door. “I’m not into guys.”

  Piper will kill me if I gut this guy in here.

  “Do you know how hard it is to get blood out of this type of carpet? I wish you guys would keep that shit in the rooms with hardwood.”

  I’ve heard it all before.

  But, the more he talks, the more my hands itch to end him here and now. It was bad enough watching him stare at her tits for thirty minutes, but waiting in here with his cock out, like that’s how Molly deserves to be treated, is unbearable.

  “You were told to stay away from her,” I remind him.

  All of the new guys are told at the gate who’s off-limits. Pete remembers every single face that comes past him. I’ve never seen him before, so that means he was warned tonight to stay away from both Molly and Zoe.

  “She put her tits in my face, man.” The guy scrambles off the bed and starts pulling his clothes back on.

  This ignorant bastard was a pawn to her, part of her plan to get me alone, and man did it fucking work. I followed her like the lost fucking puppy that I am. I played right into her hand.

  Jesus, the warmth of her tongue on mine.

  Clearing my throat, I take a step closer. “I don’t care if she walked up to you naked and tried to pull your cock out, you were told not to touch her.”

  His eyes flash from my clenched fists to the Vice President patch on my cut.

  “Are you going to kill me?” I narrow my eyes at him. “My girlfriend is pregnant, man. I’m going to be a dad.”

  People want to turn their noses up at us, but I’d never be caught in a room stroking my cock while my pregnant woman was back home wondering where I was. People think bikers don’t have morals, but it’s the general population of fucking society that has no real code of ethics.

  “We don’t kill people,” I lie easily. “But if I ever see your face again, I can’t promise that we won’t start.”

  “I’ll never come back,” he vows as he tries to slide past me.

  “I said I wasn’t going to kill you,” I hiss as I grab him by the collar of his t-shirt and punch him in the nose. “I didn’t say you were getting out unscathed.”

  He doesn’t fight back, doesn’t raise his arms to retaliate, and I realize the guy is smarter than he acted tonight. The bloody nose works two-fold, a warning for what can happen, and a sign for Pete that the asshole has been eighty-sixed.

  He scampers away the second I release his shirt, throwing the door open so hard the doorknob bangs against the plaster.

  I’m antsy, itching to fight or kill or—

  “Fuck,” I hiss when my own nose explodes in pain.

  My arms reach out, gripping the man by his shoulders, shocked that the piss-ant guy has the balls to sucker punch me, but the familiar texture of a leather cut under my fingers doesn’t belong to that asshole. My hands are gripping my president.

  “Why the hell did you hit me?” I hiss, releasing him immediately after realizing who he is.

  “For reminding me that my little sister is growing up,” he snaps before taking a step back. “Keep your filthy fucking biker hands off of her, or a busted nose will be the least of your worries. The next time she tries to jump into your arms, you better just let her fall to the ground.”

  See the conundrum?

  The club is what we both live for. It’s what I know we will both eventually die for but being the vice president and his best friend still doesn’t make me good enough for his baby sister.

  I could confess my feelings right now. I could tell him even though I’m confused most days, Molly is the only girl I can ever imagine spending the rest of my life with. She’s the only light in my dark world, the only one who pushes the demons back into the shadows. But he doesn’t want to hear all of that. How do you tell someone that their little sister is the only girl you can imagine slipping your cock inside of after being celibate for the last damn decade?

  It’s simple, you can’t. Any of those things alone is enough for him to make sure I never lay a finger on his sister. The combination of all of them? Well, that’s enough for him to curse every member of my family for generations to come.

  “Something you want to say?” he pushes.

  “She’s like a little s—” I snap my jaw shut. There’s no way I can get that lie out. Little sister. There’s not one cell in my body that feels anything close to sisterly where Molly Jenkins is concerned. There hasn’t been since she came home last summer transformed from an awkward girl to the stunning woman that had her claws in my scalp earlier. “I know she’s off-limits, Prez.”

  I can’t read his face entirely, but if I’m not mistaken, there’s a hint of disappointment in his eyes.

  He leaves me standing in the hallway without another word.

  Chapter 3

  Molly

  The throbbing headache is anticipated when I open my eyes to the sunlight streaming in. What’s shocking is the sight of Briar standing in my open doorway. Hands tucked in his jeans pockets and shoulder leaning against the jamb, he’s the sexiest man I’ve ever laid eyes on.

  I don’t know whether I should be embarrassed by what I did last night, or excited that he’s here. I cried myself to sleep after I let Zoe drag me from the back hallway, afraid he’d head to Florida without telling me goodbye. Something is off about this trip, but none of the guys are talking. I don’t know everything about the inner workings of the club, but there are whispers of the tension between Ravens Ruin and the cartels in Florida, and knowing that my brothers and Briar are heading down there leaves my skin itchy and hypersensitive.

  “You’re brave being here.” I sit up on the bed.

  His eyes dart to my mouth and down the column of my neck before briefly pausing on my chest. My favorite sleep tank is thin, threadbare from being worn and washed so frequently. I know he can see the outline of my dark nipples. Any other day I’d lift my blanket to my chin. My shyness would be the winning emotion, but today I just can’t seem to be bothered with it. Not after that decadent brush of his tongue against mine. Whether he wants to admit it or not, things changed between us last night.

  “Can you,” he pauses, clearing his throat, “cover yourself?”

  “Why are you here, Briar? Lynch will lose his shit if he finds you hovering in my doorway while I’m so indecent.” I lean back against my headboard, chest jutting out another desperate inch or so. My nipples furl tighter, straining against the thin cotton.

  “If the noises coming from his room are any indication, he’ll be busy for a little while.”

  “Come here,” I plead, patting the bed beside me.

  “Not gonna happen, Mols.” His head is shaking violently, but it’s his refusal to look at me that cuts like a knife.

  In a bid to get him to look back at me, I grasp the edge of my comforter and tuck it under my chin.

  “I’m sorry I kissed you last night,” I whisper.

  He huffs a humorless laugh. “No, you’re not.”

  “I went looking for someone like you,” I confess, finally drawing his eyes back to me. “That night. My last night at school.”

  His hands clench, tur
ning white at his knuckles from the effort.

  “You thought you’d find someone like me in a shitty, rundown frat-house filled with popped-collar douchebags? We didn’t send you to Andover Academy for you to go slumming with low-life pieces of shit.” There’s bitterness in his voice, and I can’t tell if he’s angry at me, or if he’s pissed at the guys who almost took advantage of me.

  “He rode a bike,” I say with a shrug.

  We haven’t talked about that night, but I know Lynch told him. Briar and TJ took off a while back, and when Briar got home, the look in his eyes had changed. I know what happened. Three guys don’t get chopped up in a frat-house while a party rages downstairs without it making the evening news. The fourth guy claims he was knocked unconscious, and he later confessed to the arson of the first frat-house. That was a way to cover Zoe’s ass. She lit that place up like the 4th of July when she found me on that bed and realized what they were about to do to me.

  “If you want a man on a bike—” His jaw clenches shut.

  “Finish your fucking sentence,” I demand.

  “I can’t.” He looks resigned, his eyes searching mine for understanding, but I won’t let him off the hook so easily.

  “You won’t,” I correct.

  “I fucking can’t!”

  My eyes dart to my open bedroom door, afraid that Lynch will hear him. He paces at the end of my bed, his hands tugging at his gorgeous dark hair.

  “You can stand up to him,” I urge.

  “He’ll kill me.”

  “Am I not worth dying for?” It’s a low fucking blow, but he’s ripping my heart out right now.

  He freezes in the middle of my room and doesn’t pull his eyes from mine. The stare is soul deep.

  “Who will love you if I’m gone?”

  Tears sting my eyes. He’s making this seem so impossible. He’s not even willing to consider the options. Surely, there’s more that can be done than choosing between nothing and death.

  “You love me?” It takes me a long moment for my brain to register what he’s said.

  “You know what I mean,” he murmurs as his feet begin to move, carrying him across my room near the foot of my king-sized bed. “We’re like family.”

  Ouch.

  “If you tell me you think of me like a little sister, I’ll never freaking speak to you again.”

  “You’re eleven years younger than me, Molly. Even if dating was an option, I’m too damn old for you.”

  “What are you trying to say? Spell it out, Briar. Wouldn’t want me to get confused seeing as how I’m so young and immature and all.”

  He continues traveling across my room and back again, over and over so many times he’s making me dizzy. His hands work through his hair and then slide into the front pockets of his jeans. He repeats the pattern over and over so many times, I almost lie back down and take a nap.

  “Are you saying we can never be together?” I prompt. “If that’s how you feel, you need to be able to say the actual words.”

  “You know better than to even ask that question, Molly. The two of us together will never be an option.”

  “So, you’re going to be alone forever?” I lick at my dry lips. I’ve never seen him with another woman. I’ve always assumed he was waiting for me to grow up.

  “I don’t know,” he mumbles.

  “You’ve been celibate waiting for me—”

  “What?” He spins around to face me.

  “You’ve been waiting for me.” I know it as sure I know the sun will set tonight and give way to the moon.

  “I haven’t,” he argues.

  He must see the confusion on my face because he places his hands on the end of my bed and leans closer. He’s still too far away to touch, but his undivided attention is what I’ve needed since he walked in here, and I didn’t have it until right now.

  “I’ve been celibate for ten years, Molly. That would’ve made you eight. I’m not a fucking pedophile.” He shakes his head as if he’s disgusted by the mere thought. “I was celibate before I joined the club.”

  It makes sense now, but I didn’t know he’d gone without sex for that long. I just know I was fourteen when I realized he was the most handsome man I’d ever seen in my life, and I’d never seen him with a woman before or after. His eyes didn’t follow me then the way they do now. As much as I wanted him to notice me, he’d always been polite, but it’s like I didn’t even activate his radar back then.

  “Why are you celibate then?” I mean if we’re talking about it, I might as well know all the details.

  “That’s not your business.”

  “You were hard against me last night,” I remind him.

  A haunting laugh erupts from his throat. “I don’t know why everyone thinks that celibacy and asexuality go hand in hand. Any girl grinding on my cock would make it hard.”

  Any?

  And I thought my heart was broken before. Maybe I am too young to fully understand what’s going on. Maybe that kiss meant nothing to him. His body only responded to external stimuli last night. It had nothing to do with the fact that it was me.

  “Why are you here?” If he’s not in my room to pick up where we left off after getting interrupted last night, he needs to get to the point. My nose burns with the effort to not begin sobbing right now, and I’d like to do that in private.

  “Fuck.” His hands work back over the top of his dark hair again, and his legs move him back and forth across my room, picking up the pattern right where he left off. “Can you not do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Acting distant, treating me like I’m just some biker.”

  “But aren’t you?” I challenge. “You’re my brother’s best friend, his VP. I’m just his little sister. We’re nothing more than that.”

  That stings like a bitch to admit out loud, but it’s also cathartic, healing in a way.

  “Right.” His pacing doesn’t stop, and he doesn’t seem inclined to leave anytime soon either. “That’s why I came up.”

  I wait silently for him to get the words out. His mouth opens and closes several times like he’s unsure of how to word his thoughts, or like he’s pained with the task.

  “You need to find another guy, Mols. I’m not the one for you.”

  I wasn’t expecting that.

  “Someone else?” He nods but won’t look in my direction.

  He’s a fucking coward, and one hundred percent correct. I deserve better than someone who won’t stand up for what he wants. I tip my nose in the air and stiffen my back. I refuse to let the thread of doubt, the one that is always telling me he really doesn’t have feelings for me other than familial, tie up my heart.

  “I may just do that.”

  He nods again before walking out of my room without so much as a goodbye.

  Chapter 4

  Briar

  “Don’t take long,” Lynch advises as we split at the front of the airport.

  TJ and Ronan accompany me to the waiting SUV at the curb while Lynch and the other guys pile into two others. Divide and conquer. That’s the plan. Watching the SUVs pull away, taking a left just before our vehicle turns right, I wonder, not for the first time, if we’re making the right choice or if we’re sending our president into a trap.

  The heated conversation from the drive to Boston Logan International still rings in my head. He’s cautious, taking Chains, Professor, and Hornet with him, but four guys against an entire cartel is still bad odds. I told him as much, giving a voice to the twisting feeling of dread in my stomach. I shut up after he reminded me that all seven of us together wouldn’t survive a cartel ambush.

  “You going to tell me about last night in the hallway?” TJ prods as we settle in for the drive to the Dead-End Demons’ clubhouse.

  They don’t know we’re coming. We didn’t want to give them time to prepare in case they aren’t willing to be absorbed into the Ravens Ruin MC. Not that they really have a choice in the first place.

  “What abou
t the swelling around your nose?”

  Ronan chuckles from his place in the passenger seat, but he’s smart enough not to give his opinion.

  “I honestly don’t think Lynch would kill you,” TJ continues, undeterred by the fact that I haven’t so much as grunted a response in his direction. “Maim maybe, but not kill.”

  “Unless he’s in a bad mood,” Ronan cuts in.

  “He’d have to be in a seriously bad mood to kill Briar,” TJ clarifies.

  “Or just out of coffee creamer,” Ronan adds.

  “Or that,” TJ concedes.

  I can feel TJ’s stare on the side of my face, but I refuse to give any credit to the conversation. It was bad enough climbing into the SUV to head to the airport after realizing that I walked away from Molly without even telling her goodbye. Maybe the sickness turning my gut has more to do with her than this trip.

  “Briar,” TJ singsongs, bordering on sounding like a whiny kid who isn’t getting his way. “Tell us what happened.”

  It’s in this moment TJ seems his actual age. It’s easy some days to forget he’s only twenty years old when he’s ripping people apart like he’s been doing it for decades.

  My eyes dart to the hired driver. It’s not like I have any plans of divulging any scintillating details about what happened in the hallway, but I wouldn’t speak openly in front of a stranger no matter how well recommended they come.

  Besides, TJ isn’t interested in me or what I do with Molly. He’s urged me more than once to pursue her. I think it has more to do with my celibacy than his desire for my happiness. All of the guys at the clubhouse are bewildered with my lack of a sex life, but not one single person, not even Lynch, knows why I took that vow. How could they when I’ve never mentioned or alluded to my reasoning. It wasn’t their business ten years ago, and it remains the same today.

  Finally, I turn my gaze to meet his. “Wanna talk about where you’ve been sneaking off to the last couple of weeks?”

  TJ’s jaw snaps shut.

  The sound is so loud Ronan chuckles again from the front.

  “TJ,” I taunt, drawing out each letter. “Tell us what happened.”

  His eyes narrow, focusing on mine, but he doesn’t say a word.