WRAITH (Iron Kings MC, #1)

by Franca Storm

  But that would be then.

  I breathed a heavy sigh, then sank back into the armchair and continued sketching in my design notebook, hoping to lose myself in my work.

  19

  ~Wraith~

  I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT.

  Apparently, once in a while, something could still come along that had the ability to shock me and catch me off guard.

  Leaning back at an angle in a booth at the farthest end of Legacies, the local watering hole, I tracked Scott’s riveted gaze.

  Shortly after we’d walked in he’d had his eye on a little blonde who I’d pegged as mid-thirties.

  The opposite of his usual type.

  Scott usually went for homely, submissive, shy women. It worked for him with his whole overpowering, alpha-male demeanor. It wasn’t something that meshed well with feisty women. And the blonde in question was certainly that. Just a few moments of interaction with her when she’d served us our drinks had made it abundantly clear that she was all hard edge and attitude.

  His gaze snapped back to mine and I cocked an eyebrow.

  “What?”

  I smiled. “You know very well.”

  He blew out a breath and slumped back against the booth. “Just can’t turn it off, can you?”

  “What’s that?”

  “Reading people, seeing them down real deep inside.”

  “You know, just as well as I do, that it’s an occupational hazard. Our training becomes instinct quickly.” He was right on. I couldn’t shut it off any more than he could. Truth be told, he was actually better at it than me. He hadn’t earned the nickname, Spartan, for nothing.

  He was a true warrior, like those of old. He had the focus, the discipline, and the determination. And he could strategize with the best of them. He was a hell of a revered leader too. And, like me, he had the skills to determine a great deal about someone from just a couple of key observations, able to analyze strangers and their intentions extremely quickly and accurately.

  Back in the SF, knowing your surroundings and the people around you in an incredibly invasive amount of detail was key to survival. Although that was a long time past, the both of us still led lives that warranted it. And, maybe, it was also the scars of that life that had kept us that way as well.

  He gave a nod. “Yeah, well.”

  “What’s her name? She didn’t exactly introduce herself when she served us.”

  “Daniella. A lot of people in this town come to escape something or someone. They’re on guard. They ain’t gonna blurt out details about themselves to strangers.” He grinned at me. “You know the type, yeah?”

  “She trusts you then?” He didn’t just know her name, their brief interaction had made it damned clear they had a whole rapport going on.

  “Ain’t given her no reason not to.”

  “You’ve got your eye on her.”

  A smirk ghosted his lips. He snatched up his beer bottle and took a swig to cover it up.

  Heels clacked towards us and I looked up to see the woman in question approaching our booth.

  “Third one already, huh?” she said, eyeing Scott’s beer.

  He finished it off and handed the empty to her. “Thanks, Dani.”

  She cocked her hip and told him, “Day drinking’s never a good sign.”

  “Ain’t it? First I’m hearing of it.”

  She tutted at his words. “You know, there are other, healthier ways to deal with whatever’s causing this sad display.”

  He leaned forward, his gaze burning deep into hers. The sexual tension was off the goddamn charts. “Yeah? You got something in mind there, love?”

  Her eyes flashed and for a moment I really thought she was going to rise to the bait. But, a couple of seconds later, the challenge that’d lit her eyes diminished. Her attitude and feistiness retreated and she brought out an obviously fake smile. “Yeah,” she finally answered, holding up the fingers of her free hand and counting off on them as she spoke, “A hearty meal. A run. A soul-bearing talk with a good friend. Any sort of fun, basically.” She came to a stop and then counted off on her thumb. “A ride on that Harley of yours. Isn’t that the ultimate therapy for you hardcore bikers?”

  “Riding’s a hell of a lot more than that.”

  An intense look passed between them. There was a definite eagerness in her eyes, a hope of something from him.

  I saw him notice it.

  And then he dropped his gaze. “Gotta get back to this,” he told her, gesturing at me. “Wraith’s our newest recruit.”

  “I… uh… yeah. Of course. I remember you saying you’d brought in new blood,” she stumbled. She smiled at me. “Nice to meet you. You’ll like it here in Ridgefield. It’s a great place.”

  I lifted my chin, then she broke from us and hurried away hastily.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “For the best,” he grunted.

  “What?”

  He kept his eyes down, fiddling with the many rings decorating his fingers as he told me, “Women who get pulled into my orbit end up dead.”

  “Andrea was… unprecedented. A tragic aberration. The likelihood that it would happen again, especially after we annihilate the current threat, is—”

  “Stop!” he roared, slamming his fist down on the tabletop. Dani and the few bar flies who were present in the bar at midday swung their heads our way at the disturbance.

  I held up my hand, signaling that everything was fine.

  Scott mumbled an apology, then muttered, “You saw what we got going on here when I gave you that tour earlier. We got this town wired. The Sheriff leaves us alone, he’s practically in our pocket, cuz of all the good we do, protecting people, just our presence here keeping the crime rate way down, the charity we do and all the coin we bring in with the shit we’re running. We got the restaurant down by the river, the garage, the gym, Tonic and the whole chain of dive bars its spawned. The club’s doing real good. Hell, we got it made. And a load of people, other clubs, enemies from times past, are gonna be real fucking envious of that. Even when we manage to bury the Rogues, between all us club members we got enough enemies and dangers in our past that we’ve been running from, to last a fucking eternity.” He leaned forward and whispered, “There ain’t no such thing as safe.”

  “So, you’re gonna keep living your life in fear just in case the worst you’ve lived through before somehow plays out again?”

  “It ain’t fear,” he ground out. “It’s goddamn commonsense.”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “We’re done talking ‘bout this.”

  “Scott—”

  “Look, we got a load more mentoring shit to get through yet, all right? So no more of this bull. Clear?”

  “Crystal.” I leaned forward, lowering my voice, as I told him, “Just know there is peace for men like us, the things we’ve done, the horrors we’ve seen. I doubted it too, but Ashley’s my living proof that it’s possible.”

  He stared at me for a long while, my words clearly affecting him and striking deep into the heart of him.

  “I hear you,” he finally spoke. His eyes strayed to Dani who was absorbed in her work, serving an old timer who’d just walked in. “Maybe,” he murmured. “We’ll see.”

  I smiled.

  That was a start.

  We finished up our drinks, then headed on out of the bar, making our way around the corner to the small parking lot.

  As we approached the truck we’d driven downtown in, I held out my hand to Scott. “Keys. I’ve had one drink. You’ve had three.”

  He nodded and pulled the keys out of his jeans pocket, then tossed them to me.

  The second I caught them, my hand started trembling violently, making me lose my grip.

  “Come on!” I muttered, as they clattered onto the concrete.

  As I went to reach for them, my hand locked up, pain shooting through it.

  “Son of a bitch!”

  “Finn, it’s all right,” Spartan said
, scooping up the keys for me.

  But it wasn’t all right. I didn’t want him picking them up for me. I didn’t want to need that from him, or anyone. I was supposed to be the invincible, unstoppable machine. It was why I’d been called in here, why the club was so happy to have me as a part of their brotherhood, why they’d accepted me so eagerly.

  A war was coming, for fuck’s sakes. I couldn’t be like this. I had to be at my best. I wanted to be at my best. I wanted to be like I had been before the injuries, before all the hell I’d gone through.

  I didn’t want this version of me to be a reality.

  The brutal truth of it, the weight of everything… it all had me snapping. Agitation escalated to white-hot rage in a matter of seconds.

  Before I could get a handle on it, I was spinning around and smashing my fist into the rear wall of the bar, my knuckles scraping across rough brick.

  “Fuck!” I roared, rearing back and smashing my fist into the brick again, punishing my screwed-up right hand. “Piece of shit! Work! Just fucking work!”

  Strong hands grasped my shoulders and forced me away from the wall, the power behind it making me stumble a little.

  I rounded on Spartan, demanding, “Why? Why did you call me in here? Look at me! I told you that I wasn’t the man you remembered! Your faith in me, Ashley’s faith in me, had me believing I damn well was. But I’m not! You just saw it! You saw!”

  “Everyone has their limitations in some way or another, brother,” Scott returned calmly. “It’s how you work around them that shows the measure of a man.”

  I scrubbed my hand over my face. “No.”

  “It happened during your battle with the Rogues at the safehouse and you worked around it.”

  That pulled me up short. “Ashley told you?”

  “Yeah. I asked what went down. She told me how impressed she was. She’d never seen nothing like it.” He gave a wry smile. “Not even from me.”

  I took his words in.

  The facts were the facts.

  Cold, hard logic couldn’t be denied.

  I knew he was right.

  Despite what had stood in my way, I’d still come out on top.

  I’d been working around the injury for a while now.

  I’d thought I’d made peace with it too.

  So, where was this rage at it coming from?

  “Okay,” I murmured, looking around at a loss. “Yeah, I don’t know why--”

  “Why you lost it outta nowhere?” Scott cut in. “I got a damn good idea.”

  The grave look that came over his face had me tensing. “What are you getting at?”

  “Ash ain’t the only one I asked about your takedown of the Rogues.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “You’ve been checking up on me?”

  “You’re one of my club brothers now. I gotta keep an eye on everybody. Now you’re a part of all that. Needed to know where your head was at when it came to Ash. I wanted to make sure being with her weren’t compromising your judgment.”

  “It’s not.”

  “Yeah, I know. She ain’t. But something else is.” He folded his arms across his chest. “I talked to Jesse. He told me exactly what he walked into when he did both those cleanups. You let the monster out. You crossed that line.”

  “If I hadn’t, both me and Ashley would be dead.”

  “Finn,” he pressed.

  That wasn’t something I was willing to get into, or to deal with.

  Not right now.

  It had to remain compartmentalized.

  “We’re at war.”

  My attempted deflection didn’t fool him for a second. He knew me too well. “Don’t bullshit me, Finn. You think you can bury that, compartmentalize it, we both know it’s the one thing you can’t.”

  “What do you want me to say, Scott? You know it’s an issue, yet you still called me in here. You still wanted that from me.”

  He shook his head. “Nah. I called you in for your skills, your security know-how, the trust I got in you. That other part of you can’t be in on none of this. Taking out them enforcers who went after Ash at her work was enough of a strain on your ability to keep that part of you checked. But the fight at your place was a step way too far. It reopened that door, let it breathe. I can see the signs, see you’re struggling to keep it leashed, to ignore its craving for blood and pain. I ain’t gonna let you lose it like that. You don’t hold it back now and you ain’t gonna get a solid handle back on it. And then that thing’s gonna rage and destroy you again.”

  “Fuck,” I muttered, the reality he’d put out there hitting me hard.

  “You hearing me, Finn?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I hear you.”

  “Good, cuz I’m gonna be watching you, making sure you’re holding it together. Don’t withdraw. Stay around the boys and Ash, what makes you feel human and all that. It’ll help. All right?”

  “Yeah,” I said, nodding.

  He laid his hand on my shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze. “You’re our brother. We got you. You ain’t gotta go it alone no more.”

  20

  ~Ashley~

  “RIVERVIEW IS NEXT!”

  I listened as Finn called down the hall to one of his new club brothers.

  He stopped and turned, adding, “I’m heading out in ten minutes!”

  It was likely either Wrecker or Anarchy that he was talking to. Both of them being enforcers, they’d need to be in the know about any security work Finn was doing.

  The second he rounded the corner, I fisted my hand in his sexy muscle tee and shoved him against the wall.

  With him being so caught off guard, I was able to manage it easily.

  For the last two weeks, he’d been singularly focused on his new role as Sergeant-at-Arms, on shoring up all of the club’s defenses at the clubhouse itself and in the town. I’d barely seen him for more than a few moments at a time. I’d let it slide, encouraged it, even, because I knew it had to be done. And it made him happy. It gave him back his purpose that had been stripped from him too long ago when he’d been forced to go into hiding and retreat from the world.

  But it’d gone on unchecked long enough now.

  I needed him and he needed to take a break.

  Even if it was just for a little while.

  “You’re gonna be twenty minutes,” I told him, as I ran my hands all over his chest. “At least,” I added with a sly smirk as I grasped the hem of his tee and started pulling it up, bearing his spectacularly ripped torso.

  He grasped my wrists, stopping me. “Not here.”

  I giggled at his attempt to play hard to get and pulled my hands from his hold. I snatched the waistband of his tactical pants, my fingers just about to slip inside… until he slapped his hand over his fly.

  “Finn, why are you—?”

  “Anyone could walk by. In your father’s club. You know, the place teeming with hardcore guys who’ll do anything under the sun to protect you? I’m pretty sure that includes your virtue.”

  “Virtue?” I said, highly amused.

  “Yes.”

  “Well that’s over and done with.” I grinned. “Thanks to you.”

  “They don’t need visual proof of that.”

  “Come on,” I said, reaching up and cupping his cheek. “We both know you could wipe the floor with all of them. Maybe even all at once.”

  He stroked my fingers on his face. “Let me do what I need to do with Riverview Eatery’s security overhaul and we can pick this up right after I’m done.”

  Wow, they were really going for it with the security revamp. Even the little club-owned restaurant down by the river was on their agenda now.

  “Nice try.”

  He frowned. “What?”

  “Afterwards, you’ll just end up going out with Anarchy and Wrecker and one drink will turn into an all-nighter. Uh uh. I’ve let it go for two weeks straight. We’re doing this right here and now.”

  I stretched onto my tiptoes and brushed my lips over his.
/>
  I ramped up the kiss quickly, plunging my tongue into his mouth as I slid my hand down his pants, palming his cock. He groaned in pleasure, already hard and wanting. He loved the illicitness of fooling around out in the open where we could get caught, just as much as I did. He got off on the sense of danger. I’d figured that much out about him. He had to possess that urge to have joined the military and the likes of that black ops group way back when.

  I felt his hand delving into my hair. In the next second, he fisted it hard, jerking my head back and making me hiss with the bite of pain.

  “Fuck,” he ground out. “When you turn it on, you really fucking turn it on.”

  I grinned at him as I pulled down my black flared-sleeve top, exposing my breasts.

  His eyes flicked down to them, flashing with heat, before darting back up to my face.

  Intensity flared.

  Desire flamed.

  And then he flipped our positions, his palms slamming down either side of my head on the wall. “Fuck, I want you. I want to be all over you.”

  His words had me trembling with excitement. “Yes. Yes, Finn.”

  I reached up for his hands by my head. The second our skin made contact, it was like something snapped in him. His mouth was crashing down on mine in the next second, taking me in a hard, demanding kiss and his hands were running wildly all over my body.

  The explosion of passion took me over and I grabbed at the back of his head, digging my nails into his scalp and urging him closer still. My hips rolled against him on instinct and the delicious animalistic grunts he released into my mouth were the most satisfying sounds I’d ever heard in my life.

  And all I wanted was to hear more of them.

  He wrenched my hands up above my head and held them there with one hand. His tongue darted out and licked my neck. He licked lower, along my shoulder blades, along the tops of my boobs, leaving a trail of warm, wet heat in its wake and making me whimper against him and roll my hips in a frantic desperation for more.

  So much more.

  I got my wish as he flicked open my jeans, tugged them down, along with my panties, and cupped my dripping wet pussy.

  “Mmm. You need this so badly.”