Second Chance: A Dark Bad Boy Romance

by Kathryn Thomas

  “Are you even gonna tell us what Ricco is like, Sunny? You’re being all spacey and shit.” Mary taps me on the shoulder, bringing me back to my place on the blanket. I shuffle uncomfortably. “You know what they are saying about you, right? They say you act too good for them. That’s why the younger guys aren’t going for you.”

  “I don’t want the younger guys,” I snap back. “If I’m going to be some guy’s property, he best be able to provide for me.”

  The girls around me who aren’t even trying to hide that they’re eavesdropping nod their heads knowingly at me. None of us want to mess with the riders who just have earned their spot as a Filthy Bastard. Those guys come and go. A true MC rider is a lifer and a rare find. The ones who hold on to some power, are put in control, or elected to serve a leadership role, get paid the big bucks.

  Even then, getting security from being an official old lady meant that your man had to claim you as his property, offer to take care of you, and stop seeing the rest of the girls in our club. Fat chance that it happens just like that when us ladies are out there on a platter to be picked and passed around. But for the girls like me, the only way to guarantee it is to have a guy’s baby. Then, club laws force him and the MC to provide for you and your kid no matter what.

  “Well then, what about Ricco? Wasn’t he good enough for you?” Mary asks again. She’s not going to let up until I give her an answer. Dammit.

  I think over my words before I say anything. Not only do I have an audience, but my audience also has ears and mouths. Those ears hear one thing, and the mouth says another—often to guys who can put me in danger with the club. If the boys were already saying that I am snobbish, dogging on Ricco could be a nail in my coffin.

  Instead of letting them have the truth, I put it as nicely as possible. “Ricco was friendly. We didn’t get very far. I don’t know if I’ll meet up with him again.” I pause for dramatic effect before adding, “Why, Mary? You want him?” She smiles as she sits up a bit straighter. Her long neck cranes towards the guys gathering around a fire pit in search of him. He’s not hard to spot. Ricco’s the only one wearing a leather jacket and navy blue bandana on an eighty-degree evening.

  “Can you guys shut the hell up?” an unmistakable voice behind us interrupts, “The fight is about to begin, and Cobra actually let me put some money on this.” Kitka appears next to me, flashing her long, silky, tanned legs. She slips off her heels and scoots next to me on the blanket, forcing me to move over for her. I can smell the cheap perfume rolling off of her skin as she leans over and steals the bottle of Jack the girls have been passing around. With her head tilted back and her red lips covering the rim, she chugs it back like a pro.

  “C’mon, Kitty Kat! Save some for the rest of us. Sunny over here hasn’t had more than a sip yet, and it sounds like she didn’t get it good enough tonight. Let the poor girl take a turn.”

  Thanks, Mary. The last person I want to tell my story to or even complain around is Cobra’s main girl, Kitka.

  Ever since I joined the club four years ago, she made it clear that I would never be her ally. Other girls joined the inner circle when she felt like it, but not me. As I take a long, hard pound of the warm alcohol, I glance over her way. Leann, when she was around, told me that Kitka was jealous of me. I am the youngest one here, and that by default made me hot shit to the guys. Unlike her, I haven’t been passed around or claimed. Kitka, on the other hand, has been claimed by Cobra for a good long while now. All of us know, however, that Kitka’s eyes were on Killer. She has got some mad ambition like that.

  But looking at her, I still don’t understand it. Why, besides the fact that I’m younger than her, would she be envious of a girl like me? Motorcycle club guys die and go to Heaven when they land a girl like Kitka. Dark skin, tattoos, jet black long hair, and always decked out in something leather—she was a dream. I, by contrast, look like I just stepped off a school bus. I’m tall, but I’m awkward about it. You can’t catch me out wearing those sky-high heels she wears on a daily basis, and my pale skin would look like patchwork with tattoos as colorful as hers. Add in the blonde hair, blue eyes, princess look and I rarely turn heads unless the guy is into that kind of thing. Nine times out of ten, they are eyeing a girl like her down.

  Even now, with the boys down by the drawn-up ring placing their bets on the two fighters representing the Filthy Bastards and Wilderkind clubs, some of the guys look up and over at us. No doubt, to get a glance at Kitka and her latest outfit. Sure enough, a guy lifts his chin to her as she smiles slightly and looks away and back at our group. I take another long drink from the bottle. I need to pace myself. I’ve probably had at least half of this between my long swigs.

  “Cobra says this is gonna be a good one,” Kitka explains. “The guy fighting for the Wilderkind is like a semi-pro or something. He fought when he wasn’t in the club for some boxing ring. But that rarely transfers to bare knuckle. The guy’s going down in two rounds, for sure.”

  “Two rounds?” Mary shouts, “No way! Look at that guy—he’s a freaking beast! That’s why they call him Bear.” She points out the man leading a crowd of Wilderkind members towards the center of the drawn-up ring. He stands about three to six inches taller than the rest and is covered in black tattoos that I can make out from here. His thick, curly brown hair bounces as he moves stealthily through the crowd of men patting his back and giving him high-fives.

  I scoot myself over a bit to watch him a minute more. The rest of the girls turn their attention to our fighter, a guy Cobra picked out himself to rough the guy up and bring home a victory for the Filthy Bastards. But I’m transfixed on the Wilderkind guy. I’ve seen my fair share of riders and MC members, but none like him. In my hazy, rapidly turning mind, I imagine him lifting me on his shoulders and riding off with me to some forbidden lair out in the middle of the wilderness. Standing on my knees, I take another long drink of the burning liquid. My tongue traces over the rivets of the bottle top as I try to think of what a man like that even tastes like…

  And just when I think I see him turn his head toward me and smile, I get pulled back down to the group by Kitka’s claws. “What the fuck, Sunny? Are you really giving that guy your attention? You know who the hell you’re representing, right?”

  I hand her back the bottle, my arm swooshing heavily and without much control towards her. “I know. I know. I was just… looking. No harm in looking at the competition.”

  “That’s not the kind of looking you should be doing to a guy like that, and you know it,” Larissa adds. She always has to be a freaking square about this shit.

  “Girls, girls, please. Let the lady have some fun. That guy is fine as hell, and we all know it. There is no shame in looking every now and then. And it’s not like Sunny’s got a guy claiming her. She’s a free agent,” Mary says.

  All our eyes turn back to the fighter called Bear. This time, he’s clearly looking up at me. My face turns beet red, the kind of red you can’t conceal when you’ve got skin the color of milk.

  “If she knows what’s good for her, she’ll close her legs and her eyes and pay attention to what’s going on,” Kitka says, with a sneer.

  My haunches raise. I don’t need to be told what to do. I’m a fucking Filthy Bastards’ girl. I took my oath and my pledge to serve the club. I pay my dues and work my shifts. And just because I had a momentary eye-fling with some guy from another club, it doesn’t give her any right to badger me about my loyalty!

  But, of course, Kitka’s gotta play Queen Bee and add another nail to the coffin. “Plus, there’s no way in hell that Sunny would ever land a guy like him.”

  “Excuse me!” I say as I turn my head towards her. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Are you saying that I’m not hot enough to bed him?”

  She smiles one of those toothy grins that makes me want to punch her in the mouth and then sighs with fake concern. “No, no, Sunny. That’s not what I mean at all… I am simply saying that no guy from the Wilderkind could
ever want a girl with a brand from the Filthy Bastards.”

  Sure, Kitka. Sure. Every single girl knows what she meant. The Wicked Stepmother of the club clearly dissed my look and my ability to land a guy. I don’t know if it’s the drink running in me or the fact that down in that circle, a guy named Bear is still checking me out. I give him once last glance, this time fully putting on the flirty stops. My head turns towards my shoulder, my long, blonde hair flies backward, and my mouth curves. And to my surprise, the guy winks at me. He actually winks! It’s barely noticeable from where we’re sitting, but I know exactly what he just did, and it practically makes my insides squeal.

  I grab the bottle of Jack back from Kitka and use a big drink of it to clear my throat. When the liquid courage is fully flowing through me, I’m ready to lay it on this arrogant little bitch.

  “You want to make this interesting, Kitka? You want to actually challenge me on this?”

  She laughs as she asks, “On what, Sunny?”

  “On if I can get that guy to sleep with me,” I reply. Kitka pauses and looks me over. Her face transforms from that plastic fakeness to something more cold and terrifying. This was the real Kitka I knew.

  “Okay, Sunny. You go ahead. Try to sleep with him. I’ll even be nice and give you twenty-four hours to lock it down. But I’m not going to take your word for it or any of these hoes. You better come back with something.”

  “Like a prize!” Mary shouts as she claps her hands in excitement.

  Both Kitka and I turn our heads towards her, beckoning her to shut the hell up and mind her own business.

  I bite my lip and glare at Kitka again. “Oh, I’ll come back with something alright, and it won’t be just some hokey token to prove I bedded him. I’ll come home with something that’s really precious to him.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” she throws back, clearly not banking on me bringing back a personal possession of Bear’s.

  I take another drink, letting it wash over me. What’s done is done. And I just took on the bet of a lifetime.

  “You heard me, Kitka. I’ll bring back something very precious to the guy, and then you can suck on it.”

  “We’ll see,” she mutters.

  “Yeah, we will. Then we’ll see who has more respect around here.” I keep glaring at her until she is forced to look away—towards where Cobra is prepping our fighter.

  We all sit in stunned silence, but this time, I look on at Bear with a new, resounding determination. Kitka has pushed my buttons one too many times, and I am going to prove to her that I am worth my membership, even if it means sleeping with the enemy.

  Chapter Two

  Bear

  Dammit! Where the fuck is that guy with my drink?

  I’ve been out here for an hour now, waiting for the match to begin, and the least that little asshole could do is get my shot of whiskey like I asked him to. He’s taking too long. Everyone’s taking too long. I have no idea what the fucking holdup is, but things better get rolling soon, or I’m gonna get real damn antsy.

  I do a quick scan of the crowd. It’s definitely gotten bigger while I’ve been here. These matches are always a draw, even if you aren’t a member of the clubs dueling it out. It reminds me a little of that Gladiator movie where all the outsiders come and watch men get slaughtered by lions or one another. They get their kicks from watching men better than them rip one another apart until they’re dead or unrecognizable.

  My guy Cal told me not to take on the fight. There were guys way more experienced than me willing to duke it out. But shit if I was going to miss out on an opportunity to show my worth to the club. After ten years as a junior member of the Wilderkind, I have earned the right to wear colors and make some income off of my rides. Still, that’s not enough for me. I’ve got my eyes on the throne, and the only way I’m going to move up the ranks is to take on something huge like a fist-to-fist combat bout with an asshole Filthy Bastards member.

  The other guys call me a beast—partially because my name is Bear, but also because I take the savage path to everything. I’d rather rip a guy a new one than talk it out. And I don’t back down from something that will get my hands dirty or wet and red.

  It’s what got me in the club in the first place. I had been out of my house for a year or so. I lived on the streets doing odd jobs under the table for a few guys that owned a shady delivery service that was more focused on picking up than dropping off. I was given a job robbing this guy named Vance. Like usual, the owners gave me no info, just an address and what I was looking for—drugs, booze, and some jewelry. Nothing too special.

  Getting into Vance’s place was relatively easy for a guy like me. Back then, I was about a hundred and fifty pounds when wet. But I was quick and agile. All my lightweight boxing training had taught me how to use my lanky but tall body to get what I want. With Vance’s place, that meant just slipping in through one of those square pane windows most old school factories have. The place was dark enough that I could just jump down to the ground without alerting security, if he had any.

  However, I made the stupid fucking mistake of picking the lock of Vance’s office without checking first. See, Vance knew a thing or two about break-ins. The guy is a freaking master at them. And while he didn’t have security guards roaming the place, he did have the highest tech security system I had ever seen. Just me entering the main entryway of his business tripped a million damn alarms that silently signaled to him. Knowing I was there, he turned off the lights, grabbed a shotgun, and waited for me in his office next to his safe.

  He should have shot my damn head off. But, just my dumb luck, he didn’t. While he watched me rob his joint from his office, he saw something in me. At the time, he called it potential. I called it desperation. So, instead of killing me right then and there, he offered me a job with his club. It wasn’t much, but it got me some new clothes, a place to sleep, food and beer on the table, hot women to fuck, boxing lessons to beef me up, and a few bucks to call my own. In exchange, I worked odd jobs cleaning the bikes for the riders, learned the ropes on the whole dealer management, and even rode along to see how he did deals with the business owners in our neighborhood.

  And now, I’m here. I’m still not running the club, but Vance asked me to fight tonight, and I wasn’t going to disappoint him. All those years of him watching my matches were probably done to prepare me for fights like this where it was crucial we win. Each one we took home meant another piece of territory we fought back from the Filthy Bastards MC without having to spill some blood… well, other people’s blood, mine not included.

  I heard some guy on the radio say that adrenaline tastes metallic to the taste buds. It’s gotta be true because my entire mouth tastes like a motorcycle revving up to go. My hands contract and relax against the tight tape around my knuckles and wrists to the beat of the loud, rock music playing over someone’s speaker set. The rest of the crowd shouts over it as they make their bets.

  This would fuck with any other guy’s head, but not with me. I’ve mastered the way to tune it all out and focus on the task in front of me. I single out something away from the action and put all my efforts into it. For whatever reason, it helps me shut off my mind and drift away just long enough that I can think clearer.

  Tonight, I’m eyeing off one of the Filthy Bastard chicks sitting on the gravel hill of the overpass. There are about five or six of them that I can see. Some of them lay flat on a blanket, staring at the sky. The others talk amongst the others while passing around a bottle of something hard. But in the center of them is this girl—this girl with hair like a halo and eyes that strike me even from here. She stands out not only because she’s looking straight at me, but also because she’s like a pristine piece among dirt and grime.

  One of the other girls hands her the bottle, and she drinks. No, that’s not accurate—she chugs that thing. My mouth waters seeing her lips around that bottle top. Fucking hell, was she doing this on purpose? She hasn’t broken her glare in minutes now. Those eye
s are, unabashedly, stuck on me. Part of me wants to go over there, pick her up, and toss her over the side of the hill, so she stops with the whole Ice Queen thing. But the other side of me wants to see how far she’ll take this.

  I give her a wink. Hell, I give her two winks just to be sure she sees it. Her fuchsia pink lips twitch slightly and then shoot up into a full-on smile. Her face turns the same color of the label on the bottle. A few moments later, something happens because the girls around her, they go fucking nuts. Each one of their heads turns towards her, and the one sitting next to her shifts uncomfortably in her spot. But her eyes never leave my side, even as I begin to walk towards the match ring.

  “Hey, Bear!” a high-spirited voice greets me. “I brought you your shot. Aaron told me you wanted some whiskey. I made sure you had one.”

  I grab the drink out of the girl’s hand. I’ve never seen this lady in my life, but she obviously knows who I am. All the Wilderkind chicks know who I am. I haven’t just built up a reputation with the men, but I’m also killing it with the girls. They all seem to want to fawn over me like I’m hot shit. But I ain’t buying it tonight.