Katy's Choice (A Ravens MC Novel Book 3)

by J. L. Leslie

  Dax nods his head towards the upstairs loft. I leave him with the owner and make my way to where our product is being held. The stores in Verdana are all typically two-story store fronts. We offer protection to the owners and we hide our product in plain sight in their stores. No one has ever been the wiser.

  The Rykers and Drycos stored their product in warehouses, and although the warehouses weren’t in their names, they were raided, effectively shutting down their clubs. Well, that, and the fact that several of their members were taken down. A club can’t survive without profit or manpower. I know they’re regrouping, but it’s taking them time. They’re still weak.

  Our profit comes from illegal arms dealings. It hasn’t suffered since Dax agreed not to sell in Verdana. We rarely sold here anyway. Dax believes in that whole saying about not shitting where you eat.

  I step over the ruined books, annoyed that someone would be so careless with First Editions, and move the shelves that cover our hidden room. I only move them enough to peer inside and see that our product is still secure. M16A1s, M1911s, AK-47s. AR-15s. Everything is there. Whatever it was that they came for, it wasn’t for our shit.

  The Sinners are definitely a dangerous adversary. We know they’re here. We know they plan to avenge their late president at some point. Right now though, they’re in the shadows. Their moves are quiet and calculated. They’re like snakes slithering through the grass, and we can’t find them. Maybe we’ve been flying too high for too long. I fear we’re going to be taken down. Down, but not fucking out.

  ~Griffin~

  “Nothing was taken?” I ask Lincoln, and he confirms.

  “Dax is pretty pissed. The store owner lost some valuable books and is upset by the whole thing. No idea what they were looking for.”

  I gave Katy the message from the redhead, but she didn’t seem to know what the woman was speaking about. Had no idea what she suggested Katy burn. I tell Lincoln this.

  “She said the same thing to us. If she doesn’t have anything, why the fuck do they think she does?”

  “How the hell should I know? You fucking bikers love holding grudges and shit. That whole loyalty business and all,” I tell him and hear him snort in the phone.

  “Whatever it is, I doubt they’re stopping at the bookstore to find it.”

  A knock at my door cuts our phone call short. Beverly opens it, letting me know there’s a delivery for me and the courier states that I personally have to sign for it. I’m glad to see that she’s gotten back to normal since the whole Ollie ordeal and visit from Ford Taylor. She’s clearly not amused with the persistence from the pushy courier.

  I close the file I had been working on prior to Lincoln calling me, saddened that the juvenile I worked a plea deal for last year is back in trouble again, and tell her to allow the courier into my office.

  I recognize the woman the moment she closes the door behind her. Instead of leather, she’s dressed in a mail courier uniform. I stand from my desk, refusing to allow her to have me in a seated position should she try to pull something over on me.

  “Relax,” she says. “I have a package for you.”

  “Is that so?” I ask her. “You had a message for me last time. Now, you have a package. Exactly who are you?”

  “A friend of Katy’s and that’s all you need to know,” she replies, holding the brown package out to me.

  I take the package, but grab her wrist and jerk her to me. “Who the hell are you?”

  “I don’t think so,” she hisses, and I feel something tap against the crotch of my pants.

  I look down, and she has a switchblade aimed at my nuts. Shit. I release her, and she eases away from my desk. I open the envelope and find the property deed to Lancaster Farm. There are additional notes that have been made to certain areas of it.

  “Why did you bring me this?”

  She puts her hand on my doorknob, but looks over her shoulder. “I have my reasons.”

  “Wait,” I stop her just as she’s opening the door. “How much time do we have?”

  The woman bites her bottom lip and shakes her head just slightly. “Please tell Katy she’s out of time.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  ~Katy~

  I grab the stack of DVDs and toss them into the $5 bin. Some of my all-time favorites are in there. I’m tempted to buy a few and see if Kane will be willing to have a movie night with me. He doesn’t seem like the type to watch Dirty Dancing or How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, but I have a feeling I can persuade him to if I make those pancakes I promised him.

  I flip through the next stack, and I’m leaning over to put them into the bin when the lights go out. I hear some customers shrieking, but I know it will only take a few minutes for the backup generator to kick on. I stand still, waiting, but then Moses, the Raven with me today, comes to my side.

  “I need to get you out of here,” he says, quietly, his hand at my back.

  We take three steps, and I feel his hand slipping. I hear him grunt. Fear chokes me, but I turn to see him wrestling with a man. My eyes widen as I see Gabe, one of the enforcers for the Sinners. I barely recognize him in the electrician uniform he’s wearing. Another Sinner, Harco is with him, also wearing an electrician uniform, and he sets his eyes on me.

  “Run!” Moses manages, and I do as he says.

  The flats I’m wearing slide on the floor as I run as fast as I can. I don’t look back. I can’t. Moses is a Raven so I have faith that he can handle himself against Gabe. He has to. I need him to. He can’t die because of me.

  Shots ring out behind me, and I stifle the scream bubbling in my throat. I turn the corner into sporting goods and I’m surrounded by camouflage. I don’t know how well that helps me seeing as how I’m wearing a bright pink shirt and khakis.

  I quickly take off my blue Wal-Mart employee vest and shed my pink shirt as well. I grab one of the camouflage t-shirts and pull it on. It’s not pitch black in here, but maybe Harco and Gabe will be looking for me in a pink shirt and vest, not camouflage.

  “Katy? Katy, what’s going on?” The whisper comes from behind the checkout counter. Seth, the clerk, is crouched down, just as terrified as I am. “Was that gunshots? Holy shit.”

  I stay down low and crawl over to him. “Can you open this?” I ask, indicating the cabinet displaying all the knives and hand-held guns.

  “Yes, but I’m not playing a damn hero today,” he responds.

  “Please, just open it,” I urge him, and with shaking hands, he manages to get the cabinet open. I reach inside and grab a gun, but don’t see any bullets. “Where are the bullets, Seth?”

  “Oh my God, they’re in the other cabinet.”

  Seth is sweating profusely, and his hands shake so badly I worry that he won’t be able to open it. I take a knife from the cabinet and shove it into my back pocket while he fiddles with the keys to the other cabinet.

  “Hurry, Seth,” I whisper, and my mouth goes dry when I hear my name being called.

  Seth sobs and drops the keys to the floor, making a loud clink. I close my eyes, knowing that the voice calling my name will find us if he doesn’t quiet down. Seth is my age, barely twenty-five. He’s married with a baby on the way. The Sinners won’t think twice about killing him to get to me.

  I stand up and touch Seth’s shoulder as I walk away from him. He whispers my name, calling me back, but I ignore him. I’m okay with dying knowing that he’s okay. That his family won’t get the call that mine got. That I was just gone.

  Harco sees me, and I feel sick. I don’t see Gabe, and I fear he’s with Moses. I want to run, but I’m also ready to fight. I have a life to fight for and they can’t just take it from me this time. They took it once already. Kept me from my family. Shut me off from the world. Made me afraid of everything and everyone. Not anymore.

  “It’s been a long time, Katy,” Harco says, trailing his hand over my cheek.

  I expect the hit, but it still knocks me to my knees. My jaw explodes with pain, blood filling
my mouth.

  “You have something that belongs to us and I’ve been sent to collect.”

  I double over, clutching my cheek and using the opportunity to get the knife from my pocket. I hold it tight, just like I would a gun, and when I raise up, I aim it straight at his balls. He howls in pain, his screams echoing through the building.

  I jab upward, shoving the blade in deeper and allowing the blood to run over my fingers and down his jeans. He collapses to his knees and I let go, scrambling backwards.

  “Tell Ford I have what he wants, and I’ll bring it to him when I’m good and damn ready to.”

  ~Kane~

  I scan the clubhouse, but don’t see any sign of Katy. The mood in the clubhouse is somber, which is typical with the shit we have going on. A business under our protection has been vandalized, and I just found out one of our men is down.

  Moses and I were patched in around the same time, so the thought of him being taken out doesn’t set well with me. According to Raiden though, it’ll be touch and go for a few days, but he should pull through.

  “Where is she?” I question Lincoln.

  He’s standing at the bar with Luka, a glass of whiskey in his hand. He’s shaken up too, that’s clear. Luka sits on a barstool, but he doesn’t have a drink. Luka is the steady one, the serious one, while Lincoln is the wild card.

  “Your room,” he answers. “Sully’s with her.”

  It’s times like this that I wish I had a place of my own. I would leave the clubhouse for the night, take Katy with me. I’ve never really felt the need for privacy though. I have Brandy and Trevor’s place when I need an escape, so I’ve never gotten a place of my own. I’ll have to change that now.

  I open the door to my room and hear laughter. I suppose that’s better than sobbing. The bathroom door is cracked open. I can see Katy and Sully through the slit as I make my way to them.

  “Yes, I do!” Katy argues, but I have no idea what she’s arguing with Sully about.

  Sully bursts out laughing, and says, “No, Katy, trust me, you don’t! You don’t even want to see it! It’s so gross!”

  I push the door open slowly and lean against the doorframe, shaking my head at the sight of the two sisters sitting in my bathtub. They glance at each other and begin giggling uncontrollably, tears gathering in their eyes.

  Sully uses the ledge of the tub to push to her feet, stumbling a little as she steps out. This makes Katy laugh even more.

  “Take care of her,” Sully whispers as she walks past me.

  Katy pats the small, empty space beside her and I arch an eyebrow at her. Despite the size of the tub, I manage to fold myself in beside her, having her halfway sitting on my lap.

  “Tell Sully I need to learn how to do a double-dick-suck.”

  “Fucking shit!” I cough out. “Why in the hell do you think you need to know how to do that?”

  She’s laughing at my reaction, but I can see the sadness on her face. “Ashley said you like them. She said she would show me how to do it,” she answers. “How do the men stand so that I can get both dicks in my mouth at the same time? Do I alternate between the two dicks?”

  Jesus. She stabbed a man in the balls a couple of hours ago, and she’s asking me how to perform a double-dick-suck.

  “Katy, I don’t give a shit about that and I sure as shit don’t like the idea of you sucking another man’s dick.”

  She laughs again, and I may not be the most intelligent fucking man on the planet, but I have a feeling that laughter is going to turn into tears or some shit any fucking second.

  “Oh, Kane, we both know you’re not the permanent type, and that’s okay,” she giggles, echoing my very own words. She climbs out of the tub, barely missing my nuts with her knee, and sits on my bathroom counter. “Did you know Harco came to my job today? Well, him and Gabe both did.”

  “I heard.”

  “They were electricians. Told you they could blend in. They shut the electricity off. I mean, just like that,” she says, snapping her fingers. “I am not afraid of the dark anymore though. Hell, Mack used to keep me in the basement for days. Maybe it was weeks. I would lose track of time.”

  She shrugs as though being locked up, kept prisoner, was a normal thing for her. That it was okay for him to do this. It pisses me off thinking he was capable of treating her that way.

  “Katy–”

  “I stabbed Harco,” she says, suddenly, her eyes wide. “Holy shit, I stabbed him and…and Moses? How’s Moses?”

  I climb to my feet and step over to her. “He’s with Raiden at Mercy Memorial Hospital. He’s alive.”

  “He’s…he’s…” her voice trails. Her blue eyes fill with tears, and she bites her bottom lip.

  “He’s strong, and he’s in good hands. You were a survivor today. I’m proud of you.”

  And I am. She fought against her attacker. She didn’t run or hide, although I wouldn’t have blamed her. She would’ve been safer doing that.

  I cup her face, rubbing my thumb over her bottom lip until she releases it. I stare at her mouth, unable to stomach the idea of her using it on someone else. I can pretend all I want, say whatever I want, but this woman has me. The thought of fucking someone else hasn’t even entered into my mind.

  “You’re proud of me?” she whispers. “For stabbing a man in the balls?”

  A smile spreads across her beautiful face, and I nod. “Yes, baby, I’m proud of you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  ~Katy~

  The only man to ever tell me he was proud of me is my dad. Hearing Kane tell me this, knowing he’s one hundred percent sincere, gives me butterflies in my stomach. Everything about this man gives me butterflies. He can be brusque, but gentle. Quiet, but loud.

  “I don’t want to fall for you,” I admit, and I close my eyes when a tear rolls down my cheek.

  “I can’t guarantee that I’ll catch you,” he confesses, his hand grazing just beneath my shirt.

  He’s honest. He doesn’t profess to be someone he isn’t. Mack put on a show for me. Made me believe he was this wonderful man that would never hurt me. He did more than just hurt me physically. He made me lose who I was. I don’t want to be lost anymore.

  I pull Kane to me, convincing myself that I don’t need him to catch me. That I can take what he has to offer without falling. That if I fall, the impact won’t hurt so bad. I let him know this in my kiss. That I don’t expect anything, except this.

  He grips the hem of my shirt and breaks our kiss long enough to pull it over my head. I do the same for him, trailing my hands over the hard muscles of his chest. His hands immediately seek out my tits, seemingly glad to find them uncovered. He uses his thumb and forefinger to pinch and tease my nipples until I wrap my legs around his waist, hinting that I need more.

  Kane lifts me off the counter and carries me out of the bathroom and to his bed, gently laying me down. My fingers skate over his head as he lowers his body over mine, divesting me of my jeans and panties.

  He settles between my thighs, nibbling the sensitive flesh of my hips. He pushes my knees open wider, displaying my glistening pussy to his heated stare. He trails his finger over my seam and then delves his tongue against my clit. He eats my pussy like a man starved, grazing his teeth against my skin and lapping his tongue over my flesh.

  I grip the sheets, arching my back. My heels dig into the mattress, and my toes curl. He pushes two fingers inside me, pumping quickly, while his tongue swirls over my sensitive bud. My orgasm sweeps over me so quickly I barely have time to catch my breath. I suck in air as my pussy convulses, eyes closed in pleasure.

  I hear Kane shrugging out of his jeans and feel the bed shift with his movement. My legs are like jelly as he grips his hands beneath my knees and positions his cock at my entrance. It registers to me that he’s not wearing a condom, but he thrust into me before I have time to say a word and I don’t want to stop him as I watch his bare cock disappearing inside me.

  His eyes are watching
our bodies joining as well, but then he fixates his dark eyes on mine, and I’m breathless. His eyes hold so much intensity, so much need. And it’s for me.

  Kane’s lips part and he drives harder, slamming into me with such force that my body moves inches over the bed with each powerful thrust. I’m close, so close, and I want him to release inside me. I want to feel that.

  “Please,” I whisper, and it’s all I manage to say before ecstasy seizes me. Kane groans and warmth spreads over my entire body as he comes deep inside me.

  He collapses forward, rolling to his side and pulling me to him. His breathing is labored, his arms cradling my body against his.

  I’m too tired to put my walls up. I can continue lying to myself, but I know he feels what I feel. Something is happening between us, and neither of us are prepared for it.

  ~Griffin~

  I walk through the Ravens’ clubhouse, ignoring the stares I get from some of the members. It’s late, and I don’t have time to play nice with any of these assholes. I don’t give a shit what they think of me. I’m not the former DA, Steve Willis. I don’t operate the way he did. I’m turning a blind eye to their illegal arms dealings because they aren’t doing it in Verdana. As long as they hold up their end of the bargain, I will. Sometimes you have to pick your fucking battles.

  “What do you have?” Dax asks the moment I walk into his office.

  I toss the package the redhead delivered to me earlier over onto his desk. “Apparently, one of the Sinners’ old ladies has a soft spot for Katy. She dropped this off to me this morning.”

  He scans over the property deed and looks up at me. “You just now getting this to me? What the fuck, Griff?”

  “Fuck you! I’m not your bitch, Dax! I’m the damn District Attorney, and I had court today, plus meetings with the damn judge!” I inform him. “Besides, I sent you a message to warn Katy. How is she by the way?”