I smiled, as an old yearning filled me. I'd always wanted to get a dragonfly tattoo, in memory of my Aunt Becky. She’d believed in the spirit world, and shortly after my uncle had passed away she'd said that three dragonflies had shown up in her garden in less than a week. She had been convinced that it had been my uncle trying to get a message to her. It had been a comforting thought to her. She'd been devastated when he had passed away unexpectedly, and ever since those dragonflies had visited her she had collected them. Her house had been full of them when she’d passed.
Seth hadn't liked the idea of my getting a tattoo, so I hadn't. He thought tattoos were low class and had associated them with bikers and rockers and, in his words, freaks--people who you knew were trouble just by looking at them. I'd always thought of them as art and a way of expressing yourself.
I sighed, coming to a decision. There was no reason that I couldn't get one now.
Chapter 13
Jace
It was early. I was outside Moody's house smoking a cigarette and watching the sun rise over the mountains. He had a good set-up there, no one for fucking miles around, Boulder the closest town. His house was an old adobe structure that reminded me of a fortress, the kind I remembered seeing in the old westerns I'd watch as a kid. The outside was all desert, dry, desolate, mountains in the distance, and the only sign of life an occasional tumbleweed rolling by.
I finished my smoke and tossed the butt, disgusted with myself for smoking it in the first place.
I thought I'd quit the habit for good.
Thanks to one fucking, curvy little woman I was considering a lot of shit that I’d thought I’d wanted no part of. Why the fuck couldn't I get Luna out of my fucking head? One night--granted, it had been a mind-blowing one--but that's all we'd had, and now she was ingrained in my thoughts. She didn't matter, I told myself over and over. It had been nothing more than a sexual attraction that I'd hoped to work out by fucking her all night long.
I wasn't proud of myself for how I'd left her standing there with that hurt look on her face. I'd let CC's lies get to me and had used it as a defense toward Luna for walking in and catching the club whore sucking me off. Christ, the whole thing was fucked up.
I hadn't been back since then. I'd gone to New Mexico for a job that had put another ten grand in my pocket, cheap for a hit. It had taken a week to set up, mainly because the Dirt Devils wanted to make sure they were in a public place and seen by a lot of people when the hit went down. What better place than the charity event that was going on in the center of town on Main Street? Hell, what better alibi than the fucking mayor? If there were any question that the Dirt Devils' had been involved, the authorities would have to come up with some solid proof.
They wouldn't find any.
I ran my hands through my hair, considering asking Moody for another smoke. I knew he was up, I could hear him moving around in the kitchen through the open window behind me. "Make coffee," I called out.
"Already done, brother," came his grumpy reply.
I turned and went back inside, choosing caffeine over nicotine. He was already sitting at the table, sipping at a cup while he checked his text messages on his phone. He didn't look up when I entered the kitchen. I went straight to the coffee pot and filled the mug he'd left for me. I took a drink before taking a seat at the table.
"Jesus," I winced at the taste of the black, bitter brew that he called coffee.
He did look up then, but his expression didn't change. That was Moody. He only had one look, and that was mean and angry. His eyes were the fucking scariest, so dark they appeared black, and rarely changed with his emotions. The man didn't laugh or smile, either. He had secrets that were slowly eating him up alive. A good man to have with you on a job, because he was focused and lethal.
"Don't drink it if you don't like it." He went back to reading his phone.
I snorted. He sucked as a host. "You're hosting abilities suck, brother. You need a woman." My mind drifted back to Luna.
He looked up from his phone again, focusing on something from his past that I couldn't see. "Had a woman once. Had a son."
Christ that was news to me. I'd been in his home for a while now and hadn't seen anything to indicate a woman's touch, much less a kid’s. I was curious, but I knew Moody well enough not to question him, so I took another drink and waited.
"In another lifetime." He went back to scrolling through his phone.
Another lifetime. Shit. I wondered what had happened to them, and if it was the reason he was the cold-hearted bastard that he was today. Something told me that whatever had happened to them had been bad, compelling me to say, "I'm sorry, man."
The slightest movement of his head was his only acknowledgement. "There's an interesting story in the news about a killing in Mesilla, New Mexico. Some cop was found murdered, execution style. Isn't that the Dirt Devils' territory?"
He knew it was. I'd told him that I’d had a job to do in the area, but hadn't gone into the details. I couldn't keep the smirk off my face. "Interesting," I said. "Probably a dirty cop. Any mention of who they think did it?"
"There's mention of the MC, but apparently their whole club was seen at some public event when the hit went down." He snorted. "Like that's not fucking obvious." I grinned. "There's an investigation."
"They won't find anything." I was one hundred percent sure about that. My cell buzzed and I dug it out of my pocket. Hmm, Reaper was texting me.
U there?
Yeah.
Busy?
No.
Could use ur help back here.
I raised my brow. Trouble?
Yeah. Bring Moody.
He needed numbers. Must be bad. What's goin on?
War. Fuckin Destroyers. They want their man back. Ambushed Tiger and Raze on a run, put Tiger in the hospital.
Shit! He didn't need to say anymore. On our way. I looked across the table at Moody. "You up for a long ride?"
"When?"
"Now."
He nodded and rose to his feet. That was enough explanation for him. Moody was good at reading between the lines. He knew there was trouble somewhere, and he was in.
War. It wasn't fun, but a lot of hard-core bikers thrived on it.
The Destroyers had declared that they were eager for war, first by attacking the Wreckers on their home ground, and now by ambushing a run. As far as MCs went, they had the numbers to cause other MCs to take them seriously when they got on their bad side. Their president was called Sawtooth because the fucker had had his teeth filed into shark-like points. He was ruthless, and not afraid to take risks. He wasn't afraid to send his brothers onto missions that meant certain death.
Why did he want his brother back so bad? Was he an officer of the club? I wasn't sure what Reaper had done with the prisoner, and hadn't seen him since the day of the shooting when Moses and Puck had hauled his ass away. The standard procedure would have been to grill him for information and then kill him. I recalled that the man had been wounded.
I finished my coffee and got up to go pack. I was sure that Moody was doing the same. He wasn’t one to waste time or words when something needed to get done.
If the Wreckers were at war with the Destroyers, that meant they'd be leaving their camp location. There were too many civilians around that could get hurt or witness something that they shouldn't. The Wreckers had a compound located on a quiet stretch of road that was better protected from their enemies, and gave them a better view of anyone that might approach them. The place was surrounded by a twelve-foot chain link fence with rolled barbed wire at the top. Any time the club went on lockdown that was where they went.
Reaper hadn't said so, but I was certain they were on lockdown. He'd want to protect the families of club members. Reaper would expect nothing less than his brothers to be at the top of their game, and not having to worry about the safety of their families was a good start. Not all of them lived at camp, and the compound was big enough to accommodate them all. The last I
'd heard, the Wreckers had over fifty members, some who even lived outside of the county. They'd be called in, too, because when you went to war, you needed everyone. You needed the experience of fighters who weren't afraid to kill.
Hell, I liked a good fight once in a while, too.
It was a good reason to go back to Lake George.
I tried not to think about a certain cute little blonde with curves that fit my hands perfectly. I wasn't going back for Luna, though my dick thought otherwise. I'd had more than one wet dream where she was concerned, so hot and explicit that I'd woken up with my hand on my dick and cum shooting from it. I'd rubbed off more than one with her on my mind in the shower. It had satisfied me for about five fucking seconds, but there was only one thing that was going to make me happy.
I wanted her under me again.
Naked.
Hungry.
And screaming my name.
Chapter 14
Luna
I glanced at my tattoo one last time in the mirror before pulling my bathing suit wrap around my waist and turning toward the door. I'd ended up having it put on the back of my shoulder. The colors of blue, purple and black were vibrant against my pale skin, and were a compliment to the deep midnight blue of my bikini. I slipped my feet into the thongs that I kept right outside the door and walked down the steps. It was a hot afternoon, and a dip in the lake would feel good.
I headed in the direction of the Wreckers' clubhouse. Casey was already there, and I could hear laughter and squealing long before I reached their beach. I turned the corner of the clubhouse right in time to see Reaper throw Marie off the pier into the water. She came up sputtering and red-faced, giving him the finger as he stood laughing at her.
It appeared that everyone was there. Even some of the club women--I couldn't bring myself to call them whores--were there, clinging to the unattached men. Toya, who wasn't wearing a top, was all over Dober, who I'd dubbed the blond God in my head because he was the handsomest man I'd ever met. She was giving his face a massage with her breasts. Raze and Rosa was off by themselves, her arms around his neck as they appeared to be deep in conversation. Roy, with his bushy red hair and beard, reminded me of Ariel's father in The Little Mermaid. He was standing in waist-deep water. Either his trunks had slipped, or he was naked, so I quickly averted my eyes.
The one thing that I'd learned since I’d met the Wreckers was that they had no aversion to nudity, or to having sex in public. When I'd first started going to their weekend parties, I'd felt like a voyeur and hadn't known where to look, but as the weeks had gone on, I'd grown more comfortable, accepting that it was normal for them and all a part of biker culture. Though much more subtle in their movements, the public sex thing also applied to the men with old ladies. I was fairly certain Wolfman had fingered Bess into an orgasm the Friday before, right there at the table that we'd been sitting at.
"Hey, she's here!" Fury yelled out with a big smile on his handsome face. I returned his enthusiasm with a smile and waved in his direction. He began walking toward the shore. "Come on, let us see it!"
I knew that he was talking about the tattoo that I'd gotten a few days before. "I don't know . . ." I glanced over at Casey and Jim. "Did Casey show you hers?"
"No one see hers but me!" Jim hollered. That should have told Casey how into her he was if he didn't want anyone else to see her tat.
"You got a tattoo, too?" Fury asked Casey. "Where?"
"Where the sun don't shine," Casey answered him, smiling shyly.
Fury frowned. "I didn't see anything on your ass."
Casey's swimsuit consisted of nothing but a red thong, which would explain his ass comment, and a tiny bikini top. "It's not on my ass."
Laughter followed her comment, and several male gazes swung her way. It was clear from their concentration that they were trying to see through her top, but they were all still wrong. Her tattoo of a ladybug was at the very top of her mound, and was barely covered by the thong.
"So where's yours, honey?" Puck asked, standing next to Fury now. Their gazes were so intense that it felt as if they could see through my semi-transparent wrap.
I turned and presented my shoulder to them. Their sounds of disappointed made me chuckle. "Sorry to disappoint you boys." I spun back to face them again, seeing their crestfallen expressions. I knew they were joking.
"It's beautiful," Rosa said, coming up to me to examine it closer.
"Thanks."
"You had this done in the little tattoo shop in the village?" I nodded. "They do good work."
"Come on in," Fury coaxed. "And we'll forgive you for disappointing us."
Laughing, I unwound my wrap and hung it over the back of a nearby chair. I waded slowly into the lake until I met up with Fury and Puck.
"Rosa's right, it's beautiful." Puck had moved slightly behind me to look at it. "You going to get more?"
"I don't think so."
"Too painful?" he asked.
"No, it wasn't bad. But I got this in memory of my aunt. She loved dragonflies."
"Nice," Fury said. "What are you going to get to remember me?"
I laughed. Why couldn't I be attracted to Fury? He was fun and laid-back and so sweet. I liked spending time with him, but as a friend. I needed friends. I hadn't had many when I'd been with Seth, other than my work friends and most of them had been married with children so they weren't available to just hang with. Sometimes I wondered what it would be like if I gave into his teasing and gave him a chance, but my heart wasn't in it. I wasn't going to mislead him.
I wasn't going to use him to scratch the itch Jace had left me with.
Damn him.
"Excuse me." Puck's gaze had moved on to something happening behind me. "I have something that needs immediate attention."
I looked behind me.
Puck swam off to where CC was involved with one of the men that I wasn't very familiar with. It was obvious what they were doing below the surface of the water. Puck took up position behind CC, sandwiching her between them. I knew he was into threesomes. I'd seen him with a different club girl and the same man he was with now in a dark corner of the clubhouse one night, going at it like there was no tomorrow. She'd been sucking him off while the other man had been fucking her from behind.
"Hmm, I wonder what it is that needs his attention," I smiled, turning back to Fury.
"CC's the club's biggest slut, and the brothers love her."
"Love fucking her," I corrected, sounding more bitter than I'd meant to.
Fury nodded. "Yeah." His gaze turned serious. "Luna, you understand why we have club whores, right? You know what their job is?"
"I have an idea," I admitted. "They screw anything on two legs."
A bark of laughter escaped him. "True. But there's a specific reason that they're here. They provide relief. You don't know the danger we face and the shit our club does to stay alive and live the way we want--fighting, war with other clubs. We need a way of getting rid of the stress and tension we bring home, and for most of us that means drinking and fucking it out."
I listened to Fury, trying to make sense of what he was saying. "What about the men who are married or have girlfriends?"
The tiniest flicker of his eyes indicated his unease. "I'm not going to lie, the girls are here for them, too, if they want them. Most of us who have women don't stray, but there are some who give in to temptation. The girls know which brothers to approach."
My mind flashed to the morning that CC had shown up in Jace's bed, and then to the night before that, when I’d seen them getting each other off at the party. So it was an MC expectation on both parties. I wasn't sure who to blame for that morning, and it didn't matter. It had hurt nonetheless, and I hadn't seen Jace push CC away when I'd walked into the room. Had he wanted me to see? Had that been his way of proving how casual he was about sex?
"You thinking about Jace, honey?"
I'd told Fury what had happened. "I don't want to, believe me."
He pus
hed my hair back behind my ear. "But you're attracted to him." His sorrowful tone made me feel guilty because I was there with him, allowing him to get too close, allowing him to touch me.
"He's an asshole," I said. "But, yes, and I don't understand why. After I left Seth I swore off men." I laughed dryly. "I was going to get a cat."
Now Fury was the one laughing. "We can't help who we're attracted to."
I swallowed hard. "I'm sorry I‒"
"Don't say it."
A moan drew our attention to the threesome that was taking place a few feet away from us. It was obvious by the movements of both men that they were fucking CC, and she was loving it. How were they fucking her without condoms were my immediate thought, my face twisting with disgust. Did they think that they were protected because they were in water? Puck glanced my way and had the nerve to give me a wink. I quickly turned away.
"What's wrong? You should be used to public fucking by now."
I met Fury's eyes. "It's not the sex that's bothering me, but the lack of, ah, protection."
His laughter drew the eyes of those around us. "Honey, you can bet they're using condoms. No one fucks a club whore without one, trust me."
"But…how?"
"Look." I lowered my gaze to where he flipped the waistband of his swim trunks over, showing me a small pocket. Inside that pocket were two foiled packets. "A smart brother is always prepared," he grinned.
I rolled my eyes. He laughed some more. A squeal and a splash drew my gaze to the pier in time to see two people disappear beneath the surface of the water. It wasn't a big beach area, the crescent moon-shaped shore barely wide enough to set up a few chairs to relax on. The short pier into the water had probably been used to dock small boats at one time. The clubhouse was on the other side of a barrier of trees, and only the rooftop was visible. Cabins were sporadically placed amongst the trees. Some looked like they were occupied by the club. More than one had a bike parked next to it.
"How many cabins do you have here?" I was curious.
"Twelve. Some of the brothers and their old ladies live in them."
Dangerous (Nomad Outlaws Trilogy Book 2) Page 10