Wounded (Dogs of War MC Book One)

by Rossi, Monica

  Over time though, he’d come to realize what he actually did was fund those in the community that couldn’t take care of themselves. His work had paid for braces and casts and college tuition, these things were just as important as fighting anyone who threatened them, if not more.

  He looked in on Sidney. She was still sleeping, mouth ajar, snoring away lightly. He smiled at how peaceful she looked. He hoped that peace remained with her when she woke up. It couldn’t have been an easy day for her, learning so many things she hadn’t known. Realizing she’d accidentally moved into a town where most of the residents were shifters, a creature most of the world didn’t even think existed. Being kidnapped, tied up, and slapped around before having to fight with a wolf. He shook his head, any normal woman would have lost it, but she had held her shit together remarkably well.

  His mood darkened, thinking about how the situation could have turned out differently. The Hellhounds. They were going to have to take care of that steaming pile of crap a soon as possible. A little prostitution was one thing, bringing in meth and crack for the kids to get hooked on and smuggling stolen runaway teens through the street, that was a whole different ball of bullshit. They might work outside the law but at least they had standards.

  “So have you heard the body count for last night?” Squint asked him as he walked toward the parking lot, trying to find Big Dog.

  “Haven’t talked to anyone this morning about it, but I don’t think we lost any of ours.”

  “Nope, we didn’t but we killed sixteen of them bitches,” Squirt preened with excitement.

  Red cocked an eyebrow at him, “Oh we did?”

  “Well you know I would have gone if y’all woulda let me. I ain’t no pussy.”

  “I know Squint,” he smacked him on the back, the boy probably hadn’t even turned nineteen yet. He remembered being eager to jump into the fights when he was that age too, “I got something for you to do ok?”

  “Yeah sure Red, anything you want.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to keep this between just me and you, you understand? You can’t even tell Big Dog if he asks, you cool with that?”

  Squint looked suspicious now, regretting his quick offer to help, “Is it going to get me in trouble?”

  “No man no, listen, I just need you to collect a little information. That’s all. I don’t want Big Dog to know until I can show it all to him myself, nothing shady going on here.”

  “Alright,” Squinted nodded but he still looked doubtful. Red didn’t blame him, shit could get ugly fast if you got on the wrong side of Big Dog.

  Sidney woke up in Red’s bed. She’d slept like a log, though she didn’t know how. She’d gotten into the single bed and pulled up the old faded quilt, sure it’d take forever for her to finally find sleep. But she’d obviously been more tired than she thought, because within minutes she was asleep.

  She was warm and cozy and didn’t actually want to move any at all, much less get out of bed and have to deal with hard reality.

  Instead she surveyed the room. It wasn’t what she would have expected. Lots of pictures of almost naked women on motorcycles covered the walls and that was about all the decoration that existed. But it was neat and spartan, with one dresser, one chair and a bookshelf. Sidney liked it despite the posters, there was an appeal to minimalism. No blinds or curtains adorned the single window, so the bright midmorning sun shone down on the bed, giving everything a happy glow. Sidney watched the dust motes float by and let her mind drift towards whatever it would.

  It landed on Red and she gently shook her head, unsuccessfully trying to shake him free of her thoughts. It was no use, she couldn’t shake the feel of his lips on hers. She could even smell him on the sheets and that wasn’t helping matters any. Her mind reached back for the night she’d been so drunk she’d thought he was a figment of her imagination, the night she’d been ready to give herself to him without reservation, because she’d thought he wasn’t real.

  But he was real alright. Real, and a… shifter, and a gang member, and …beautiful. She’d never met a man who had the same effect on her, every time she looked at him she was punched in the gut with wanting. That auburn hair and those eyes were entrancing, but that body. She wanted to trace her tongue down all the edges of that taunt torso, run her fingers over his tattoos, especially the one low on the planes of his flat abdomen, and she wanted to let her hand keep going dipping down below the waist line of his jeans.

  She let her hand trace the same path across her own body that she wanted to touch on his, and when her fingers ventured under her panties, she found herself already wet and ready. Her fantasy continued as her fingers delved deeper into herself, her hips thrusting in need. A groan escaped her as she imagined it was Red plunging into her again and again –

  “Hey Sidney are you awake?,” a light knock at the door followed the question.

  Sidney pulled her hand out of her panties as if she were a schoolgirl about to get caught by the principal doing naughty things in the bathroom. The object of her fantasy was at the door, she wondered if he’d heard her moaning and that’s why he thought she might be awake, she shrank down under the covers a little more. Maybe she could pretend she was still sleeping.

  “Sidney,” more knocking, then the door opened and Red entered. Sidney shut her eyes fast, maybe he’d go away if she was lucky.

  Red sat down on the side of the bed and gently shook her, “Sidney, wake up.”

  “Huh, what?”

  “Good morning,” he smiled down at her, looking glorious and fresh in his white tee shirt and jeans.

  “Morning,” she pretended to speak groggily.

  “I’ve had one of the guys take mom over to your house to get you some clothes. They’re right over there.” He pointed to an old ladder back chair with a pile of neatly folded clothes stacked on it.

  This was wonderful news, as grateful as she was for the clothes he’d brought her last night, squeezing into those pants again wasn’t high on her list of things to look forward to. “Thank you.”

  Accepting her gratitude with a nod he went on. “I’ve got to go do some work, stick with Donny-O and Moose today, they’ll take good care of you.”

  “I don’t know Donny-O or Moose, where will I find them,” she asked.

  “They’ll find you. Donny-O is about six foot four and he looks like a lumberjack. Moose is around the same height but twice as wide, you can’t miss him.”

  Ok, she thought, I’ll just look for some giants and ask them to keep me company all day. Sounds like a plan. “Ok,” she echoed out loud.

  “Well,” he got up and walked towards the door, “I’ll let you get some rest, but I’ll be back tonight. Go back to sleep. Sleep is the best medicine.”

  “I thought your mom said food was?”

  “What does Ma know? Besides, I thought I heard you having a nightmare before I came in, you probably didn’t get good sleep last night. So taking a nap might not be a bad idea.”

  She cringed and was sure her face had turned a fiery red so she scooted back down in the bed and threw the cover over her head. “Good idea.”

  The click of the door closing let her know she was alone once again, but she didn’t think she was going to be able to go back to sleep.

  The day with Moose and Donny-O had been better than expected. Red had described them perfectly. Donny-O did indeed look like a lumberjack, wearing a blue jean vest instead of the standard leather with a green flannel shirt that had seen better days under it and an orange knit toboggan to top it off. She wondered how he wasn’t sweating to death in such an outfit, while the fall air had taken on a definite chill, it was warm and toasty in the clubhouse with a fire lit in the large fireplace that took up one wall of the commons. Moose also came as described, he seemed to be almost as wide as he was tall, and his long scraggly hair made him almost look more like a grizzly bear than a wolf.

  The guys were solicitous to her all day, making her re-evaluate her previous assumptions a
bout bikers… and werewolves. She and Donny-O had played some kind of video game for hours, where you jumped out of planes and shot people, and Moose had made them all lunch, chili and homemade cornbread.

  Despite the situation not being ideal, Sidney found herself actually enjoying herself, it was better than sitting at home watching Netflix.

  “… and then Squint comes out of the bathroom and says, ‘Guys I don’t think that was a raccoon!’” Moose finished up the story and everyone burst out laughing, even though she could tell he’d told the story many times before.

  “That’s nothing, did I tell y’all about Squirt falling into the big pile of cow shit over at Baker Farms the other day? So we went over to see about helping Mr. Baker fix that broken fence when…” Donny-O told the story, everyone caught up in it waiting for the punch line, Squint and Squirt both standing off to the side laughing with them. For a moment Sidney was jealous, more jealous than she could ever remember feeling before.

  This was what family was supposed to be. Sharing stories, helping each other, being so devoted to one another that you’d die for each other. She’d never had that in her life. Her family seemed more like an arrangement of convenience than it did a group of people who loved each other.

  Her mother and father were a solid core but that was only because without one the other wouldn’t be quite so formidable. Her father, the small time business owner who made it big by selling out and investing, just wouldn’t have the same clout in the community if it weren’t for his wife, the upper class lady from old money who organized charity galas and raised money to feed the orphans in Haiti. And her mother. Her mother, who had been left out of her parent’s will, would be nothing without her father’s money to back her up. They were dependent on each other, yes, but did they love each other? Did they love their children? Sidney, the straight A student who’d got nice awards to hang on their wall and tell their friends about, the one who was marrying another veterinarian and starting her own practice. The one who didn’t fit in the dresses her mother tried to shove her in, the one who was given a salad at dinner while everyone else ate rare beef drenched in sauce, the one who always saw disappointment in her mother’s eyes when she dressed up for an event. Or Jessica, the pretty one, the one who looked like a model in all their family photos, who took shopping trips with their mother to stores that didn’t even carry Sidney’s size, the one who laughed at all the right jokes and knew how to flirt with benefactors at the charity ball. The rebel who gave them something to complain about, who was used as an example whenever one of their friends mentioned willful children. She could hear her mother now, “Oh dear what you should do is make Isabel work for what she gets. We never made Jessica work for anything and you see how she turned out.” Even though Sidney wasn’t Jessica’s biggest fan, she always hated hearing her mother talk about her like that. Sidney had been given everything too, yet she’d also worked hard, though not from any kind of need to please her parents, more for her own satisfaction. If she’d been looking to please her parents, she could have skipped college and married the first rich man with a good family name that came along. If it were up to her mother, she would have ignored David’s little ‘incident’ and married him anyway, because after all, that’s what men do.

  It was still amazing to her that there were women in this day and age that were willing to overlook whatever behaviors a man might display just so she could say she had a husband, or so she could have a rich husband. Sidney might never get rich living off a veterinarian’s wage and working for someone else but at least she wouldn’t be shackled to a man who was going to make her feel like shit about herself.

  And that’s what she’d felt like. Like shit. She’d wondered what it was about her that had sent him into another woman’s arms, why hadn’t she been good enough for him. Deep down she knew that men like him would always find a reason to cheat, but her insecurities were deep and couldn’t be banished with common sense.

  She looked around the room again. Yes they dressed in old clothes and they spoke with an abandon that would never have been acceptable where she was from, yes they seemed trashy and low class from the outside looking in, but they had something far more valuable than she’d ever owned. Love. Loyalty. Family.

  “Why so quiet Doc? Don’t you have some funny stories to tell?” Moose nudged her with his elbow.

  She smiled up at his shaggy face, “Nothing as good as you all do.”

  “Come on. Tell us about giving Red a bath. Were there bubbles?” Squint prodded and everyone else laughed.

  “Oh there were huge bubbles, a tub full of bubbles, and the water was rose scented, it’s my favorite.”

  “What? That’s a lie and you know it,” Red said from the door, letting a gust of wind and scattered leaves in with him.

  “He’s just being bashful, doesn’t want all of you to get jealous and ask for your own bubble bath.”

  “Oh hell, I’ll take a bubble bath if you’re the one giving it,” Rock said. There was a general mumble of agreement from the rest of the men.

  “I don’t care if it’s rose scented, with floating petals, and tinted pink, I’m down for a bath anytime you feel like giving me one,” Stubbs added.

  “Alright alright, she got your point. Settle down.” Red eased down on the couch beside Sidney, “You feeling hungry, can I take you out for a bite to eat?”

  “Yeah, I could go for something.”

  “How about us, we going out for a bite too?” Squirt asked and Donny-O smacked him across the back of his head.

  “Boy, you’re dumber than shit, get in there and make a goddamned sandwich.” Donny-O pushed him towards the kitchen.

  “Well come on, before any of these assholes decide they want to come too.”

  Sidney grabbed his hand and followed him outside, where they stopped directly in front of his bike. She didn’t know what she’d expected him to drive but she hadn’t expected to have to ride on the back of a motorcycle.

  “Whatcha waiting on Sugar?”

  “Isn’t there a car around here we can take?”

  He gave her his trademark look, “Do you see any cars hanging out around here?”

  Sidney looked around, there were indeed no cars in the parking lot.

  “You’ve never ridden on one before have you?”

  She shook her head. It wasn’t that she was opposed to motorcycles per se but she’d never before even thought about them, no one she knew went around town on one.

  He grinned at her, “Well you’re in for a treat, hop on.”

  She did, trying to carefully throw her leg over the back without kicking him in the side. She probably looked as graceful as a giraffe roller skating.

  She was on, but she didn’t know where to put her feet or hands, so she just kind of sat there, feet on the ground and hands crossed over her chest.

  Red glanced back at her, laughter in his eyes, “Put your feet there,” he pointed to some bars on the side of the bike, “And throw your arms around me.”

  She placed her feet where he indicated and reluctantly put her hands lightly on his sides. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to put her hands all over him, it was that she wanted it too much. Throwing her arms around him and rubbing her chest against his back seemed like a wanton thing to do. He looked down at her hands, and back at her again, still grinning, and cranked the bike. The roar was loud. Much louder than she’d been expecting and it startled her. The vibration between her legs and the fear of the unknown sent her hands creeping a little further around him. He laughed, the sound tickling Sidney’s ears even over the loud rumble of the bike and they lurched forward and out of the parking lot.

  The wind blew through her hair and the lights of passing cars sped past her. Fast, they were going too fast and there was nothing holding her in place, no seat belt snug around her and no seat cradling her back. Nothing between her and thousands of pounds of metal hurling through space at sixty miles an hour. Her fears of seeming wanton abandoned Sidney clenched her e
yes closed and squeezed him tight, she could feel his chest moving. He was still laughing at her, but she didn’t care. The chill from the air passing around her quickly penetrated the thin shirt she was wearing, but Red emanated heat, keeping her warm in all the places she touched him. She scooted closer, letting her thighs touch the back of his, letting the feel of him replace the fear, and all the longing she’d felt that morning returned full force.

  She opened her palm, releasing the fist she’d been clenching, and laid it flat against his chest. Warm and hard, she wanted to feel run her hands over that chest without the fabric between them. She wanted to peel that leather jacket and crisp white tee shirt off of his body and look at him, touch him, revel in him. This time without fear clouding the experience, without wondering if she were hallucinating, just experiencing him as he was.

  Lost in her fantasy, their sudden stop came as a surprise.

  They had arrived at Mario’s Famous Pizza and Fine Italian Cuisine. Aubrey shrugged, it was better than sandwiches.

  “Ryder! Welcome Ryder! We have not seen your pretty face in too long!” a dark skinned woman came from around the counter and hugged Red tightly.

  “Hey Masika, how has it been going?”

  “It has been going so good. Ryder, let me show you pictures of my daughter at college, she is finished her Bachelor’s Degree and has started medical school! Neurobiology!”

  The woman led Red and Sidney around the back of the counter and into the office where she showed them several pictures of a beautiful dark skinned black haired girl in different places, studying in her room, at a concert, at graduation.

  Finally they were led to a table where they were immediately brought a pitcher of beer.

  “So I guess they’re friends of yours?”

  “They’re family.”

  “Oh, I see.” More werewo – shifters. “But they’re not Italian are they?”

  Red laughed, “No, they’re actually Egyptian, why they decided to open an Italian restaurant …,” he shrugged. Sidney laughed and shrugged too, pointing out that on the menu they also offered chicken fried rice and gyros. “What can I say, they’re jacks of all foods.”