by J. L. Leslie
Lucien drops his gun to his side, and the hand on my throat loosens and frees me. I take off in a sprint, running right to Lucien. He captures me in his arms, and I close mine around his neck.
“What happened? What’s happening?” I question him as he holds me.
Suggs slowly approaches, seemingly wary. “You think we need to get the bodies from the water?” he starts. “Or let the sharks take care of them?”
“The sharks can have them. Where’s Ian?” Lucien asks.
“He went to help out your men, like you ordered him to.”
Lucien places his arm around my waist and leads me down the pier, away from dead bodies floating below us. “He was supposed to report to me first, but I haven’t heard from him.”
I watch him pull his phone from his pocket and turn it on. The moment it catches signal texts start coming in. That cannot be good. He shoves it into his pocket and releases me.
“Take her home and stay with her,” he orders Suggs.
“Fuck no!” I argue. “I’m going with you!”
“The hell you are!”
I stand my ground, arms crossed over my chest. “I am not going with Suggs, so you can just forget it! Either take me with you, or I’ll follow you! We ride together!”
I see a slight smile play at the corner of his mouth before he consents. He tells Suggs that he can stay or go, he won’t fault him for not coming with us. Surprisingly, he decides to go with us. I have no doubt he wants to be a Sinner regardless of what he says.
Lucien’s bike is parked a good distance away from the pier, but we hurry over to it. Before he climbs on, he checks the bag he strapped to his bike and takes out an AR-15. He loads it and puts the strap over his shoulder, then he grabs two Berettas from the bag and shoves them into the back of his jeans. He leaves the bag on the ground, not bothering to strap it back on the bike.
“If shit starts happening, you grab one of these and start firing at anyone who isn’t wearing a Sinners’ cut. It’s a semi-automatic, so each time you shoot it’ll load another bullet into the chamber for you. You understand?”
“Yes.” I nod, climbing on the bike behind him and strapping on my helmet. “And Lucien? It would’ve been easier to use me as bait.”
“Fuck,” he grumbles, shaking his head and laughing as he pulls off.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Lucien
I stop my bike just outside the entrance to the gate. I take the AR-15 and place it in my lap. It’s pure carnage and war, bullets flying and men fighting. It doesn’t appear that we’ve even penetrated the building yet. I’m surprised the cops haven’t shown up, but then again, no one would dare to interfere with something going down at this place.
From what I gathered from the texts I received, two of the locations went off without a hitch. The money and product was sieged, and Jiminez’s men were killed. Warren was calling in clean-up crews to take care of the mess that was left behind.
But this place is like a fortress. We weren’t prepared for what we would find here, and these men aren’t standing down. I’m all for fighting to the death but damn it, I’m losing my men and these men that are fighting don’t even know their boss is already dead.
I pull my phone out of my pocket and call Warren so I can get a better idea of what’s happening. When he answers, I can hear the chaos in the background.
“Not a good time, boss,” he huffs.
“Where’s our men?” I ask him. “Anyone make it inside yet?”
“Nope,” he replies. “We’ve got a few injured and one down that I know of. When Reid took out the first guard, an alarm went off signaling we were there. Not sure what the fuck happened. We’re holed up together where Reid was posted, doing our fucking best to take these guys out so we can get in.”
“I’m on my way.”
I disconnect and check my magazine before glancing back to look at Harper.
“Get off the bike, Harper. Wait here for me,” I instruct and feel her arms tighten around me. “I can’t take you in there with me.”
She loosens her grip, and I feel her reach into the back of my jeans, withdrawing one of the Berettas. I hear her pull back on the hammer.
“I’m not waiting here, Lucien,” she says, firmly. “You need all the help you can get.”
I turn just slightly and place a chaste kiss on her lips, not lingering. I tell myself that if I don’t linger, I will want a deeper one later. I will have something to fight for. To live for.
I hold the AR-15 and ride my bike into the carnage with my woman at my back. I spray bullets in all directions, not caring where I hit them just as long as I do. Harper grabs the second Beretta from my pants, and I can see that she has both arms extended, firing away.
Damn, I love this woman.
I feel a jolt and my arm stings, but I keep riding. I’m certain it was only a graze from a stray bullet. No serious damage. I’ll worry about it later.
Once we pass through, I skid my bike to a stop, assessing the damage we’ve done before climbing off. I discard the empty magazine on the ground and reload. Several men are on the ground, some moving and some lying in a puddle of blood. The Sinners are on them quickly, finishing off anyone who’s still breathing. It seems the guards from inside came out after Reid took the first guard down, almost as if they were tipped off as to what was happening.
Harper walks up behind me, guns still in hand. She’s panting just slightly, and I know it’s the adrenaline. She’ll either crash pretty soon or she’ll be devastated, trying to figure out if she was responsible for any of these bodies lying here.
“Oh no,” she whispers, rushing past me. “No, no, no!”
I go to her and try to ease her away from the man she’s hunched over. She’s attempting to do CPR, but I know it’s too late. He’s gone.
“I need to help him!” she yells. “He’s…he’s going to be a father! Leann…she’s…she’s pregnant!”
Shit. He didn’t say anything. I know she didn’t want him to go on this job, but she never wants him to go. Now, I have to tell her that her old man is dead. That she’ll be a single mother, raising their kid alone.
“Harper,” I tell her, drawing her away from Soco. “He’s gone, baby. He’s gone.”
The Sinners that are still alive stand around us, injured and tired. They’re quiet as they take in the damage that has been done here. The loss we have incurred.
Ian lies face down, his blood seeping from what appears to be a chest wound. He hadn’t even earned his cut yet.
Two men. I lost two men tonight. It could have been much worse. It could have been the devastation that Jiminez took. He lost everything and everyone, including his own life.
“Tell us you got him,” Reid says.
“I got him,” I assure him. “We have to get this shit cleaned up.”
They nod, knowing it has to be done. It’s the worst part of every job. We can’t always hire a clean-up crew, and even when we do, we have to make sure they do their fucking job. I’ll have Wiggie check on the other two sites to ensure the crews we hired will take care of those, but this one, we’ll take care of it ourselves.
“Report back to the clubhouse when it’s done, and we’ll see what all we seized. I’m going to go talk to Leann.”
Harper tucks the guns into the back of her jeans, just the way I did, and takes my hand. She starts to walk toward my bike, but I stop her and pull her to me, desperate to kiss her.
I crash my mouth to hers, unable to wait another second. After all, I lived for this. And with my battered and bruised men around us, with the dead bodies on the ground around us, I tell her. I don’t stand in my own way any longer.
“I love you, Harper.”
She smiles against my mouth and murmurs those words back. Regardless of what she did, who she was for her club, she showed me tonight that she could be a Sinner.
Harper
I send Mackenzie a quick text when we arrive at Leann and Soco’s place. I don’t want her worrying
since I haven’t made it home. She and Layla were already asleep, but at least she knows I’ll be with Lucien tonight and that I’m safe.
I tell myself that I am truly safe, no matter what could have happened. It may have been stupid and dangerous, but I chose to ride with Lucien. I chose that path, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I know he’ll always protect me, but sometimes I can be the one to protect him too.
After Gavin died, I said I would not get involved with any biker shit. Hell, before he died, I said that. I hated what he did and what he stood for, but I guess it’s ingrained in me as well. He was part of this life for so long and it’s hard not to have it become part of you.
“Lucien, how do we tell her this?” I ask him, my eyes watering up with tears.
“I honestly don’t know,” he replies and knocks on her door.
It takes Leann a few minutes to answer, but when she does, it’s like she knows before he says anything. She collapses against Lucien, sobbing on his shoulder. When her knees give out beneath her, he scoops her up and carries her inside. I follow behind them, unsure of what to do.
Lucien places her on the sofa, and I grab a blanket from the recliner and use it to cover her up. I lower myself to my knees and soothe her, hugging her and just letting her cry.
Lucien gets up and walks outside, leaving us alone. I stay with Leann until she cries herself to sleep. I make sure she’s sleeping soundly before I go outside. I find Lucien standing on her porch, his arms crossed. I come up behind him and place my arms around his waist, resting my head on his shoulder.
“I have often wondered how Spencer reacted when she was told I was dead,” he says, quietly. “Was she devastated like that? Did she cry and wonder how she was going to live without me? When I spoke to her, she said she mourned me for a long time, and she desperately tried to find out the truth behind my death. I could’ve told her I was alive, but I didn’t.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Lucien turns to face me. “I don’t know. I was hospitalized for a while only to wake up and find out she had moved on. She was with someone very close to me. Someone I thought was a friend. So, I convinced myself it was best to leave things as they were. To let her go. That she needed me to let her go.”
“You got in your own way,” I tell him. “I won’t let you do that anymore.”
“It won’t stop me from trying,” he admits. “This thing…this sinner within me, he’s a fucking beast that I can’t always control.”
“I’m not afraid of him,” I whisper.
“Let’s get out of here,” he says, taking my hand.
I’m reluctant to leave Leann alone, but I’ll come back tomorrow to be with her. Right now, I need to be with Lucien. Their place isn’t far from the clubhouse, so our ride is short.
When we make it there, the place is empty. The Sinners are still working on the clean-up, and I have no idea how long something like that takes. I follow Lucien inside and straight to his room.
We crash onto his bed the second he closes his door. The guns I shoved into my jeans are tossed on his pillows. My clothes are stripped from my body. His are shrugged off in a hurry. Maybe one day we’ll take our time. Do this slowly.
But for now, I’ll take him fast and hard. I’ll take him any way I can get him, so long as I have him.
“I love you,” I tell him as he drives inside me.
“Fuck,” he groans. “I love you, too, Harper.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Lucien
I cup Harper’s ass, pistoning my hips upward as she rides me. I know she’s close to coming because her back is arched and she’s biting her bottom lip. I rise up into a sitting position and capture one of her pert nipples into my mouth, rolling it between my teeth, and she cries out my name.
I let her ride her orgasm out before I flip her over onto her back, drawing her knees up to her chest and letting her feet rest on mine. She smiles up at me, breathless, and I fuck her slow and deep before chasing my own release in fast, hard strokes.
I will never tire of coming inside this woman. Of feeling my seed fill her warm pussy. I look down at my glistening dick as I withdraw from her, seeing my cum run down her slit. I fucking love that.
“We need to get washed up, or you’re going to be late,” she says, watching me look at her.
I finally move off the bed and reach my hand out to help her off of the bed. We shower together and then get dressed so we can head out. I know she’s anxious to get home to check on Layla. She’s also anxious about how things will go with me and her president. I’m meeting with her this morning, and if all goes well, I’ll have my trucks back today.
Fuck, a lot has happened in the last couple of days. Hell’s Fury, the club Harper is in stole my supply trucks. We attacked the Jiminez cartel and won, losing two of our men in the process, one of them being my VP. I have yet to replace him, but Wiggie has shown interest in the position, and he’ll do good at the job. Now, I’m getting ready to meet with Hell’s Fury’s president to try to make amends.
Regardless of how the meeting goes, the Sinners are back on top whether or not we get our trucks back. We have product and we have money. Plenty of both. Harco was able to crack Jiminez’s laptop from his office and made contact with his supplier.
When he was informed of his untimely death and that we took over his organization, the supplier was willing to work with us. Fuck, he was almost happy about it. Turns out, Jiminez had taken the man’s niece as one of his “subjects” and he wasn’t too crazy about it. Jiminez should’ve known better than that to shit where he ate. I’ll have an official face-to-face with him soon, but for now, we’re good.
“So, what happens if she doesn’t turn over the trucks?” Harper asks me when I pull up in front of her house.
“I think you should let me worry about that,” I reply. “Give Layla a hug for me.”
“Haven’t you learned that avoiding my questions doesn’t really work that great for you,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest. “Just be honest with me.”
“You don’t want to know the answer.”
She glares at me. “Yes, I do. I’m in this with you. I could’ve told them that you were attacking Jiminez, but I chose not to. I’m in Hell’s Fury, but I’m at your side as well. Don’t keep me in the dark, Lucien.”
“Fine,” I concede. “If they don’t give me the trucks back, with the product intact, we’ll kill them.”
I hear her suck in a breath, but I know that she knew my answer before I said it out loud. She knows I can’t allow them to disrespect my club the way they have. That allowing them to keep my trucks or my product isn’t going to happen.
“Well, I hope Donia makes the right decision then,” she tells me and then leans over to kiss me. “I love you.”
I kiss her and tell her that I love her too before riding off to meet with her president. I hope she makes the right decision too because I know if I have to kill her or any of the members of Hell’s Fury, my old lady will be pissed.
Harper
I step inside my house to find Mackenzie and Layla in the kitchen with Pop Tarts. Layla grins at me, still in her pajamas and very happy that she’s skipping school today.
“Mackenzie said you wouldn’t care if I didn’t go to school today,” she informs me. “She said it’s a freebie day!”
I smile at her, going to sit beside her at the table. “Yes, it’s a freebie day. Did you know you had those?”
“There’s other kids at school that have them, but they call them sick days.”
I laugh at this, taking a piece of Pop Tart and eating it. I swear, this kid and Pop Tarts or Chinese food. I can guarantee she would eat either for every meal.
“Layla, you can take this into the living room and watch cartoons if you want,” I tell her, and she snatches up the pastry.
Once she’s out of earshot, I turn to Mackenzie. “Lucien is headed to meet with Donia about the trucks.”
“I know,” she replies. “D
onia told me last night she hadn’t made a decision on what she was going to do. She doesn’t want to turn them over.”
“Mackenzie, you know if she doesn’t then there’s going to be consequences. The Sinners will treat us just like any other club.”
She comes to sit with me at the table. “Us? I think you really need to decide whose side you’re on. I told you that you were getting confused about your feelings for him. I get it, you care for him. That’s pretty damn obvious. But you didn’t tell us they were attacking Jiminez.”
I look down at my hands, rubbing my thumbs together. “I wanted to, but I didn’t know how to.”
“Um, well, you know you come to your president, and you say the Sinners are planning an attack on our supplier. It was simple really, Harper. Instead, we had to find out from another source, and we were barely able to warn Jiminez.”
“You warned him?” I question her.
“Of course we did! He’s our supplier, Harper! Without him, we have nothing!” she reminds me. “You already know that it didn’t do any good. He was able to get a message to the main location, but the other two were already hit. At least the Sinners took a loss as well, but now we’re scrambling to find a new supplier thanks to your boyfriend and the fact that you weren’t loyal to your club.”
I can hear the bitterness in her tone, and it’s clear she thinks I betrayed her and Hell’s Fury. In all honesty, I did. I had the intel about the attack, and I didn’t warn them. I chose to keep my mouth shut to ensure the Sinners’ safety instead.
“Everything isn’t always so cut and dry, Mackenzie,” I let her know. “One of those men that died, well, his wife was pregnant. He didn’t even know he was going to be a dad. And the other one? He was working his ass off to earn his cut. I mean, we are fighting this war against the Sinners and look who we’ve all become in the process!”