The Devil's Curve: a Back Down Devil MC romance novel

by Jaxson Kidman

  “So will greasy bacon,” Levi said.

  “Don’t you say anything bad about my cooking.”

  “Never would, Auntie,” Levi said. He leaned down and kissed her cheek.

  Reese touched her arm and smiled. “Thank you for the food.”

  “You should get some rest. And clear your mind.”

  “You got it,” Reese said.

  “The rest of you,” Aunt Athena said, “Clean up or I’ll shoot you in the ass.”

  They all laughed, but Reese was pretty sure she wasn’t joking.

  Now that breakfast was over, it was time to talk about what was really going on.

  “You know they were just fucking with us, right?” Levi asked.

  “Of course,” Reese said. “But as I was leaving, Josie gave me her bag.”

  “Josie, huh?” Levi asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Don’t give me shit for that right now, Levi.”

  “I’m not saying a word.”

  “Listen to me. She gave me her bag because one of the girls had some shit. And Josie took it. She freaked out and thought she was going to get busted.”

  “Drugs.”

  Reese nodded.

  “Fuck,” Levi growled. “I know that shit sometimes floats around there.”

  “This wasn’t floating stuff, Levi. This wasn’t for a little fun at the end of a long shift. This was a lot.”

  “What do you mean a lot?” Levi asked.

  “A lot.”

  “Someone moving it then?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Goddammit,” Levi said. “Someone pushing garbage through one of the girls? Who was it?”

  “I want to find out more and having a meeting, Levi. I’m telling you this now, so you know what’s up. I don’t want anyone busting into the club down there and stirring up shit.”

  “Get your spoon ready, Reese,” Levi said. “I’m stirring.”

  “I know.”

  “This isn’t good. We can’t have the badges break our balls all the way. Colt has a hard on for the MC. And with the other charters getting heat, he thinks we’re weak. Something like this though, could hurt us bad. Even though we’re not involved directly, we’re tied to Jefferson and he’s tied to the girls.”

  “You’re preaching to the choir, Prez,” Reese said.

  “You want me to take a back seat because you want to get into her pants, don’t you?”

  “No,” Reese said. “It’s more than that.”

  “What? Because you two have a history?”

  “Because I also found a positive pregnancy test.”

  “Shit,” Levi said. “Baby yours?”

  “Not unless my seed was sitting for years waiting to attack,” Reese said.

  “Shit,” Levi said again. “She’s knocked up and you’re going to pry into it.”

  “You know what? Don’t do this to me right now.”

  “Reese, be real here, brother.” Levi put a hand to Reese’s face. “You two were wild together. But that was a lifetime ago. I’m sorry what happened to her father. To Lasz. Okay? If she’s moved on and she’s pregnant, it’s not your job to take care of her.”

  “I didn’t say I was,” Reese said. “I just want to make sure she’s okay. And I want the full story on the garbage, okay? If we bust into the club, it’ll rattle everyone, and they’ll close up. If I get the entire story from Josie, we can approach it better.”

  Reese finished his smoke and reached for the door to go back inside.

  “Hey, VP.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You know what this means, right?”

  Reese nodded. “Yeah. I know what it means.”

  Things were going to get bloody… and soon.

  Hawk had a smoke between his lips as he lined up a shot, calling the eight ball into the corner pocket. He sank it with ease and stood up, tossing the pool stick to the table.

  “Pay up, motherfucker,” he said to Reese.

  Reese folded his arms. “What’s the magic word?”

  “I said motherfucker,” Hawk said with a grin.

  “Funny.”

  “VP… pay up.”

  Reese stuck his hand into his right front pocket and took out a twenty.

  Hawk snatched it out of his hand and nodded. “Some more pussy money.”

  “See, that’s the problem with you,” Reese said as he leaned against the pool table. “You pay for it. I don’t.”

  “Nah, that’s not for pussy,” Ellis said, carrying a beer in one hand and a folder in the other. “That’s for the antibiotics he has to give women in advance.”

  “Eat shit, Ellis.”

  “You know how some guys will wine and dine?” Ellis asked. “Hawk does med and bed…”

  Reese started to laugh.

  Hawk turned to face Ellis and Ellis opened his arms. “What, bro? What are you going to do?”

  “Gentlemen,” Reese said, pushing from the pool table. He got between them. “Hawk, nice win. Take your cash and go find something to do. I’m sure there’s a reliever hanging around that has an empty stomach for you.”

  “Fucking right,” Hawk said.

  “Ellis, what’s the folder for?”

  “Lawyer’s bill,” he said. “And a copy of the bullshit reports from the police.”

  “Anything we need to worry about?” Reese asked.

  “No. As long as the check clears for Larry, we’re good.”

  “Is the check going to clear?”

  “That’s my problem to worry about,” Ellis said.

  “Hey, Reese, check this out,” Zac called out as he walked from the meeting room with a phone in his hand.

  “What do you have?” Reese asked.

  “I hooked up the outside security to my phone,” Zac said. “So, we can monitor all activity. I have cameras everywhere. Nobody does a thing without us knowing.”

  “That in our budget?” Reese asked and eyed Ellis.

  “No budget needed,” Zac said. “I have a friend of a friend…”

  “Meaning what?” Reese asked.

  “Meaning an order might have disappeared with my help…”

  “Oh, Jesus,” Ellis said. “Knocking off online orders? That’s what we’ve become?”

  “That’s prospect shit right there, bro,” Reese said.

  “Are you going to ride my ass, or do you want to know that Josie is here?”

  “What?” Reese asked. He grabbed the phone out of Zac’s hand and looked at the screen.

  “Josie is here,” Zac said.

  Sure enough, there was Josie, parking her car on the opposite side of the lot from where the guys all parked their motorcycles. She climbed out of the car and looked around.

  “Can I zoom in?” Reese asked.

  “Why? Just go talk to her.”

  Reese gritted his teeth and tossed the phone back to Zac.

  It was a little risky to have Josie here right now. Reese wanted to trust that Levi wouldn’t say anything to the other guys about the drugs. But Levi was the club’s President and the highest acting President, considering all the takedowns going on. Which meant his priority was always the MC over anything else.

  Reese just didn’t want everyone to go after Josie. She was pregnant and stress like that could hurt the baby.

  Why the fuck do I care? It’s not my kid. She got herself pregnant… and having a pregnancy test in a bag like that? That’s not something planned. That’s a scared to death thing. Trying to think back to a month ago and figure out who she fucked.

  By the time Reese got outside, he was seething. Josie was maybe twenty feet away and she stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes looked up to the building and back down to Reese.

  “I forgot you have cameras,” she said.

  “Security purposes, sweetheart,” Reese said. “Did you come back for your bag?”

  “Actually, I did,” Josie said.

  They both started to approach each other slowly.

  “I have your bag,” Reese sa
id. “Some stuff obviously missing.”

  He watched her swallow hard. “Did you talk to the guys about it?”

  “Not yet. Mentioned it to Levi though.”

  “Everything okay here?”

  “We’re solid,” Reese said. “Everyone is out of jail.”

  “That’s good. I talked to Harvey for a few minutes. He said it’s all bullshit. Which I figured. Trying to get someone to flip and turn on you guys and Jefferson.”

  Reese grinned. “You still talk like you’re around this place.”

  “Cop’s daughter,” Josie said.

  “More like an outlaw tongue.”

  “Whatever, Reese. Tell me what you need from me. I don’t want Starla to end up in trouble. Or any of the other girls…”

  “First off, sweetheart, I don’t give a shit about Starla and her precious, silicone feelings. Okay? Or anyone else in that place. This MC is tied to that club. We keep it alive. We have rules that have to be followed. We’re not the fucking badge where you’re going to get warnings and trials and prison. We deal differently.”

  “Yeah, you just kill people,” Josie said and swallowed hard again.

  “I’m trying to do you a favor here, Josie. So, we can figure out where that shit came from. You and I both know that that stuff wasn’t just for fun. And if Starla is moving garbage through this town for another club or a gang…”

  “I know,” Josie said in a whisper. She reached out and touched Reese’s arm. “I know. But I care about those girls.”

  “Enough to take the fall?”

  “That’s why I’m here.”

  “Right. Because you needed me to do something for you. Which I did. Now the club needs to do their part. Maybe you should go somewhere else for a little while. Your boyfriend’s place or something.”

  Reese knew the game he was playing. Toying with Josie, wanting to see how she reacted.

  “I don’t have a boyfriend, Reese. I work and go home. That’s my life.”

  “No boyfriend,” he said, suddenly feeling angry. “So, you fucked things up and have no boyfriend.”

  “What? I fucked things up? What did I fuck up?”

  “Yourself,” Reese said. He pulled away from Josie. “I saw the damn pregnancy test, Josie. You handed me a bag with drugs in it and a positive pregnancy test. Now, I’m not a fan of your old man, never was. But I can see him spinning in his grave right now at that.”

  “Reese…”

  “No. I have to give this to my club. I’m the goddamn VP. It’s part of my job here. And we’re going to go after Starla and the rest of the girls. And you need to tell us everything you know. I’ll do my best to keep Levi back if you want to talk to the girls first. But you’re pregnant. You shouldn’t be in the middle of this shit.”

  “Reese. Stop.”

  “What? I don’t give a shit, Josie. What you do between your legs is your business. Same with me. But you fu-”

  Josie jumped forward and slapped Reese across the face.

  That shut him up pretty quickly.

  He touched his cheek and felt his nostrils flare.

  Josie touched his face again. “Sorry. I had to do that.”

  “Right.”

  Reese gritted his teeth. He was flustered. The thought of some guy touching Josie… his Josie… getting her pregnant…

  “You look really angry,” Josie said.

  “I am.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m always angry, sweetheart,” he said. “I’ll get you your bag. You should talk to Levi though.”

  Reese backed away. She grabbed his leather cut and tugged.

  That brought back a flood of memories Reese thought he’d left burning a long time ago.

  “Josie…”

  “I have to tell you something,” she said.

  “Lay it on me then.”

  “It’s about the pregnancy test.”

  “Of course it is.”

  Just twist the fucking knife a little more in my heart, sweetheart.

  Josie bit her lip and hesitated.

  “I don’t have all day here,” Reese said.

  “Fine. Here’s the truth, Reese.” Josie inched closer, still holding onto his leather cut. “That pregnancy test isn’t mine.”

  Chapter Eight

  Reese slipped his hand into Josie’s and motioned to the clubhouse. It was a giant step back in time for Josie as she walked through the door and heard the familiar sound of beer bottles clanking, hard rock music in the background, the smack of pool balls together, and the thick laughter of the bikers that hung around.

  Nothing much had changed about the place, but these weren’t the type of guys that worried about redecorating and rearranging their furniture every six months. The clubhouse was sacred to them, including all of its flaws.

  Brett and Jason were playing pool and they quickly stopped when they saw Josie. The two stood there like giant animals, lips curled, ready for a meal as they stared at her as though she were some kind of enemy.

  Reese stopped at the bar and knocked on it. “Prospect. Two cold. Now.”

  “Yes, sir,” a young guy said. He threw a dirty white towel to the bar and hurried to get two beers.

  Josie casually looked around, remembering everything. The good times. The bad times. The first time her father busted through the clubhouse door and caught her there. Sipping warm whiskey, laughing her ass off at the dumb stuff Hawk was doing, Levi in the corner, surveying the club as President, making decisions in his mind that would change everyone’s lives.

  “Here you go, sir,” the prospect said.

  “Get back to work,” Reese said. “Don’t fuck around.”

  “Yes, sir,” the prospect said.

  Reese took Josie’s hand again and they started to walk.

  “Why are you so mean to that guy?” Josie whispered.

  “Fucking prospects,” Reese said with a growl. “They need to learn.”

  “Learn what?”

  “Sweetheart, everyone thinks they want this life. They think we just skip showers, eat pussy, and ride for hours at a time. They think it’s easy and free. They think you just break the rules, break the laws, and get away with it. If you can’t handle the pressure of me getting pissed at you for the way you wipe down the bar, then what are you going to do when someone pulls a gun and shoots?”

  That was the part of it that Josie hated the most. The violence. The fights. The wars, as the MC called them. But they really were wars. She remembered so many times her father and his closest guys sitting at the kitchen table, half asleep, trying to go through papers and make sense of what was happening in town. Josie remembered making them coffee at three in the morning, just to help out a little. All because her father’s greatest ambition was to make Back Down Devil MC leave town.

  And here was Josie, walking down a familiar hallway with a wall full of pictures of all the members. Past and present. Current guys patched. Guys who had died. Guys who had been killed while wearing the cut. And then pictures that were flipped around with a black X across the back. Josie once asked Reese what that meant, and he simply said it was a reminder that not all traps with cheese catch rats.

  Reese took her to his room in the clubhouse. This was different though. Before, Reese had a room that was basically a glorified closet. He didn’t even have a bed. Just a futon that he would pull out for them to relax on together. The ceiling was slanted with a giant banner of the MC.

  This new room was pretty big.

  “This is nice,” Josie said as Reese held the door open.

  “VP,” Reese said with a wink and nodded to his leather cut.

  Josie swallowed hard.

  Do I congratulate him for that? For being ruthless enough to climb up the chain in the MC?

  She knew how it all worked though. Reese was one step away from running the entire club. That’s what he’d always wanted. To finish the job his father started years ago and to shape the club into an existence that was honest, but still moved along t
he outlaw road.

  There were two dressers in the room, along with a large bed, two nightstands, and a desk in the corner. Josie spotted what looked like a big walk-in closet, and another door that was open, where she saw a sink, meaning a bathroom. Reese even had himself a little corner set up with a mini fridge and coffeepot on top of that.

  “Like a mini apartment for you,” Josie said.

  “Easier than having to go home,” Reese said.

  “Home…”

  “The old house,” he said. “I still have it. Can’t break myself down enough to sell it.”

  “I don’t blame you,” Josie said.

  She glanced over her shoulder and spotted the dresser with a mirror attached to it. There were pictures stuck to the mirror, most of them the guys in the MC. There were two older pictures though. One of Reese and his father. His father sitting on a motorcycle with a very young Reese sitting in front of him. Reese was so young he couldn’t reach the handlebars. The other picture was of Reese and Laszlo. They were maybe ten years old, standing together, shirtless, scrawny young kids.

  “What’s the money for?” she asked and pointed to a five-dollar bill that looked like it had been through hell and back.

  Reese put the two beers on one of the nightstands and slowly sat down on the bed. “That was my first shakedown. When I was earning my cut. I had to collect payment on something. This guy got mouthy with me and I lost my shit. I took him and another guy down while Levi watched. I won the fight and I started searching their pockets. Levi got a kick out of it. Normally, we’d just give another warning or put a bullet in their leg. But not me.”

  “You fought them and won,” she said. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

  “Well, all I got was that five bucks. They owed thousands to the MC. I got five bucks. A warning would have been better. Levi let me keep the five bucks as a reminder to not lose my cool so easily.”

  “Something tells me it did nothing,” she said.

  “Nope,” Reese said. He pointed to the beer bottles. “Drink?”

  “Sure.”

  “I guess you can have one,” he said. He twisted the cap off a bottle and held it out. “You know, since you’re not pregnant.”

  Josie took the beer bottle from Reese and he opened the second bottle for himself.