by K. Renee
Sitting at my desk, I start to work on the few work orders that Brantley and Jase filled out when the door to the office opens. The man that walks into the tiny office is handsome, like wow. His dark hair is short at the bottom and longer on the top, styled in a messy way. He’s got tattoos up and down both of his arms and God when he grins I can’t even describe it.
“Hi. I called about bringing my bike in.” I nod my head, trying to find some words, but I’ve got nothing. He just grins at me and comes closer to my desk. “I’m Aaron.”
“Hi,” I finally stutter the word out. “I’m Brynn.” He gives me a bright grin, and I swear I melt right in the chair I am currently occupying.
The door to the shop opens, and I hear someone come in, but I’m too busy staring at the hot man standing in front of me.
“Hey, I’m Brant,” the voice says from behind me.
My mind finally kicks into gear, and I get my shit together. “Brant, this is Aaron. He wanted to get some work done on his bike.” I give Aaron a stupid grin, and a hand goes on my shoulder almost as if in warning.
“Nice to meet you,” Aaron says reaching a hand toward Brant.
“Yeah. Let’s check out your bike, and we can talk about what you want to be done.” Aaron nods his head, giving me one more smile before walking out of the office.
I watch Brantley walk toward the door, but before he walks through it, he pauses. “I know it isn’t really my place to say this, but my brother-in-law is an idiot. I saw the way he watched you. He wants you, whether he wants to admit it or not.” I try to swallow around the lump that is now lodged in my throat, but I can’t even acknowledge him. He turns and walks out without saying another word.
It takes a good twenty minutes before Brantley comes back with Aaron. They both take a seat at the desk across from me and start to fill out some paperwork. I listen in on their conversation even though I have no idea what they are talking about. They start talking about some bike parts, and the words just go over my head.
Checking my Facebook page on my phone, I scroll through a few new notifications and see a picture of my sister all over some guy with tattoos. He’s got his hand on one of her tits, and she’s got that drunken smile on her face. I swear she needs to tone it down before something happens to her.
I continue scrolling until I see a photo that Anslie is tagged in. It’s a picture of a cute pregnant redhead, a guy with his arm around her, and Bentley. I feel my heart drop into the pit of my stomach as I stare at him. He looks good, almost too good, and I wish like hell he was back here instead of wherever this photo was taken.
The caption says We wish you, Brant, and the kids were here too! Xoxo love you Ans!
I vaguely hear my name being called and when Brant tosses the papers on my desk, I finally look up from the photo of Bentley. “Sorry.” My cheeks heat as I look up to see them both staring at me.
“Can you ring Aaron up?” he asks, before turning back to Aaron. “I am finishing up on a project, but can fit you in right after I’m done. Probably start tomorrow afternoon or Thursday morning.”
“That would be great. I can’t wait to see what you come up with,” Aaron says with a grin. I type the paperwork up and give him the total. He hands me a credit card, and I slide it through the machine as they start to talk again.
Before I can hand him back his card, the door to the office opens, and the twins come running in. “Daddy!” they both squeal as they wrap their arms around his legs. He picks them both up and finishes his conversation as I hand him back his card.
“Cute kids,” Aaron says looking between the two of us. My eyebrows pinch together for a second, not sure I get his meaning before Anslie walks in with Braxton. Aaron’s eyes go to her with the baby on her hip and then back to Brantley.
“Hi,” Anslie says cheerily like she normally does. She walks over to Brant and kisses him before sitting in the chair next to me.
“Hi,” Aaron says with a strange look on his face. He probably thinks we are crazy or something. I can see it written all over his face.
Brantley sets the boys down, and they both come over to me and ask for a piece of candy. I look to Anslie, and she nods her head before turning her attention back to Aaron. “So are you getting work done on your bike?” she asks.
One thing Anslie isn’t is shy. She seriously will talk to anyone.
“Yeah, Brant here said he could fit it in this week.” She nods her head before beaming up at him.
“That’s awesome. This shop is the best in the area, and my fiancé and brothers are amazing at fixing up bikes.” She winks at Brant, and he just shakes his head at her.
“What are you doing here, doll?” he asks as he wipes his hands on a towel he pulled from his pocket.
“I came to talk to you, ol’ fiancée of mine.” She grins at him, and he gives her a questioning look.
Aaron looks between the three of us before he says that he’ll wait for Brant’s call when he’s done and walks out of the office before Anslie can tell Brantley what she is really here for.
“Why am I just now finding out that my brother got shot?!” she all but demands once the office door shuts. The twins look at her before their daddy. He winces, and I know whatever this is about, has to do with Bentley. As much as I want to know what happened to him too, I’m afraid of the truth.
“As soon as he showed up at Gunner’s someone opened fire on Gun’s place. Bent and Casey were the only ones there.” Her face pales, and she stands back up.
“Casey, is she okay?” He nods his head but doesn’t say anything. “Brant, what happened?” Her voice is lower, and she sounds worried now.
“Yeah, Case is fine. Bentley took a bullet, but he’s fine. He lost some blood, and he rested up. Gun and Johnny are dealing with what happened.”
“He saved Case and the baby?” she asks.
“Yeah, doll, everyone is good.” He leans towards her almost like it’s second nature and presses his lips to her forehead. “Don’t worry. They got shit handled.”
She nods before looking over at the boys who are currently messing up the paperwork on my desk. Grabbing both of their hands, she gives me an apologetic look before telling them not to mess up the papers. After a few minutes of somewhat silence, Cason Davoli comes into the small office.
As soon as the twins see their grandpa, they both go darting towards him. Anslie told me a little about what happened between her and Brantley. She told me about how pissed her dad was when he found out that she had Brantley’s kids without telling a soul, but that it didn’t take long for her father to be wrapped around their little fingers.
“Brant, I need you to head to Seattle.” His voice booms through the room as he picks the twins up and looks over at Brantley.
Brant nods his head, not arguing with his president. I’m still learning all the lingo and stuff, but I do understand that when Cason gives you an order, you do it without questioning it. Same goes for Nick Insico, Brantley’s father.
After a few minutes of them talking about Seattle, they all leave the office, and Anslie says something about heading home to call Casey.
Instead of being nosy and hoping that she mentions Bentley again, I just go back to entering the receipts and hours for the job that I was working on.
By the time lunch rolls around, I am starving and in need of some caffeine. I swear the sounds that come from the bike shop can give me such a dang headache when I don’t have any sugar or caffeine. Grabbing my bag, I find my keys and walk out of the office. As I’m locking the door, a voice comes from behind me.
“Hey.” His voice is soft but deep.
I turn and come face to face with Aaron. I put my hand over my heart as I jump and fall back against the door. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” His voice is like freaking heaven, and as I stare at him, I can’t help but melt a little.
He is way too hot for his own good. “It’s fine. Did you need something? I was just heading out for my lunch break.” My eyes scan him over
again, and I don’t think it’s possible that his jeans look tighter than twenty minutes ago.
“I forgot to leave Brantley this.” He hands me the key to his bike, and I just continue to stare at him.
Taking his key from him, I nod my head slowly, not saying a word. It’s almost like I’ve turned mute or something. I don’t know what it is about him that makes me forget how to speak, but it is clearly happening right this moment.
His grin slowly makes me stupider, and the slamming of a door behind me breaks my lust filled gaze. “Okay, I‘ll be sure to give it to him,” I finally choke out.
“Thank you.” His voice drops an octave and holy fuck it’s a beautiful sound.
“No problem.” My own voice gets a little breathy, and I can’t help it. He seriously makes my mind mush in the weirdest way.
“You said you were heading to lunch.” I nod, not trusting myself to say anything else. “Can I take you to lunch instead?”
Holy shit.
No other thoughts come to mind as I continue to stare at him in the most awkward way.
“Uh, yeah sure,” I finally say after a few moments of silence. My brain seriously needs to catch up if I am going to make it through lunch with him.
He motions toward a newer gray truck with a tow behind trailer that he must have had his bike on before he dropped it off here. I follow him and question my sanity. I mean, just a few weeks ago, I had Bentley coming inside of me before leaving like the hounds of hell were chasing him and now? Now, I am contemplating how soon is too soon to jump this man that just asked me to lunch.
Chapter Seven
Bentley
When I see Brant come to a stop in the parking lot, I am almost relieved. As much as I trust Gunner and Johnny with my life, I don’t trust the rest of their merry band of idiots. Gunner is family and Johnny was part of the Saints in Vegas before he and Dax decided to start the charter out here.
Dax turned on his own brothers and helped Gunner’s old man kidnap him and torture him. Now, I don’t trust any of these fuckers as far as I can throw them.
Now that Johnny is president and Gunner is VP, I don’t feel as antsy being here. If Dax was still in charge here and that shit didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have come down here to hide out. I would have just sucked it up and fucked other women while trying to forget all my damn problems in Vegas.
I’m sure I would have slipped more than once with Brynn, but I still wouldn’t want to ruin her. Her pureness is something that I crave about her, but she needs the white picket fence. She needs the happily ever after that I can’t give to her.
“Hey, fucker,” I say clapping him on the back when he reaches me.
“Hey, dick,” he says hitting me right on the side I took that fucking bullet. I grunt out in pain which causes him to laugh.
“Sucks, doesn’t it?” He grins as we start to make our way toward the clubhouse.
“Fuck does it ever,” I grunt. I’ve taken my fair share of punches and have even been knocked out cold from that bastard who hit me with the butt of his gun when he kidnapped Anslie, but nothing compares to taking a bullet to the side.
“Your girl met someone,” he states casually just as he goes to pull the door open. I stop him before he can enter and level him wth a look. “I fucking knew it. When you showed up at my house on Valentine’s Day, you were all torn up over a girl, but you wouldn’t say shit because your sister came out.”
Instead of responding to him, I reach for the door and try to open it, but this time he stops me.
“If you like her, then why the fuck did you leave? Don’t make the same fucking mistakes I made.” I take a step back and cross my arms over my chest and stare at the ground by his feet.
“She doesn’t need someone like me to fuck with her already simple life. We bring this shit home with us. I see the way my sister reacts when she finds out one of us got shot at. I watched the pain and shit written all over your face when Ans was taken. I can’t do it. I can’t bring her into this life and the life I lead outside of the club and be okay with it.”
He raises an eyebrow at me, and I curse myself for even bringing that shit up. My brothers don’t know a whole lot about the shit I like in bed. They don’t know I go to the BDSM club to fuck women.
“I don’t do shit all vanilla like you and the others.” This, of course, peaks his damn interest.
“You mean you like that Fifty Shades of Grey shit,” he grins. “Don’t get your panties all in a bunch, your sister reads that shit and so much worse.” I can’t help but grin at that. Of course, she does, she and every other female have read that fucking book.
“More like the shit that Robbie’s buddy Hudson is into.” He gets a shit-eating grin on his face, and I just want to get the fuck away from him.
“Maybe I can get your sister into that.” He rubs his hands together, and I just shake my head.
“I don’t need to know what you and my sister do behind closed doors.” The thought of it makes me want to murder him, but I won’t tell him that just yet.
“So why not just explain it to her instead of breaking her heart like you did?” He gets all serious, and I really don’t want to talk about this shit right now.
“Because she’s pure. She’s the girl you want to take home to mom, well if I had one still.” He frowns for a second before he gets ready to ask something else but I stop him by continuing. “Plus, if I broke her heart, she wouldn’t be moving on so quickly.” I raise an eyebrow at him, and he frowns again.
“Now, can we get this shit over with so I can send you back home to my sister? If you’re gone too long she might have to come down here herself and I rather she stay out of harm's way.” He grunts out a response, but I ignore it and pull the doors open and make my way inside with him right on my heels.
As soon as we make it inside, the booming voices of the brothers arguing about how to retaliate are in full swing. Half of the guys want to kill every single member of the rival club, while Gunner and Johnny are just listening. Neither of them says a word as the guys continue to argue until they see us walk in.
“Shut the fuck up!” Johnny finally yells after a slight period of time.
The room goes completely silent, and I walk over to the bar and take a seat on the first empty bar stool. One thing about this club is that they don’t have a church like we do. They conduct their shit differently than we do back home, and pretty much anyone can hear our shit if they find a way to hide out of sight.
It’s one of the reasons they are having this problem. Someone could have heard club business and decided to attack when they knew Gunner would be here at the clubhouse instead of at home with his pregnant wife.
It was pure luck that I happened to show up when I did. Casey and Gunner didn’t even know that I was headed here and since I don’t know too many others, that was my first stop.
“We aren’t going into this shit guns blazing. We need a fucking plan, and it needs to be a fucking good one. I want to retaliate just as much as the rest of you, and I know Gun here feels the same damn way. It was his ol’ lady and unborn child that they went after.” He looks over to Gunner and Gunner just nods his head. He doesn’t say a word, but he doesn’t need to. Brant and I can both read him like a damn book. I guess it was the years of us growing up together or just the fact that we all would do the same shit.
Going in blind will do nothing but get us killed, and we’ve already had enough death in our family to last us a lifetime. I’ve lost a blood brother already this year, and I don’t think I can handle losing a club brother too.
I look around the room and see the anger written all over their faces. They don’t like being told to wait, but it’s the right thing to do. Gunner’s eyes meet Brant’s, and it’s almost like they have this way of communicating without even saying a word after all the time they spent together while Brant was sent to Oregon. I heard he was making trips up here to Seattle, but I didn’t know how close they had gotten.
“As much as I
want to kill the fucker who shot up my house, I know that retaliation takes time. We need a plan, and I won’t go in half-assed. If we do, we are good as dead, and I won’t make my ol’ lady a widow and a single mother because of my anger. We brought Brant in to help us get a plan together. We will strike when the time is right and not a second sooner. Until then, the clubhouse is on lockdown. No one in or out unless they are escorted by at least two Saints members. Get your families here tonight.” With that, he nods his head to Johnny and walks out of the room.
“Fuck,” I mutter as I take in the expressions left on everyone’s faces. They aren’t going to wait. They will try to take care of this shit without a plan and men are going to die as a result.
“We need to make these assholes see that going after them without a plan is going to get them killed,” I whisper to Brant. He nods his head and makes his way over to Johnny who is still watching his men. They talk quietly to each other for a second before Johnny whistles and tells everyone to shut up again.
As the room goes deathly silent, Johnny looks over to me. I freeze, knowing what he wants me to tell them. He wants me to talk about Raef. He wants me to tell them that if they do what my brother did, people are going to die.
As all their eyes hit me, I feel the dread pool in my stomach. Just thinking about that shit makes me sick. Having to watch my brother die in my father’s arms reminds me just how short our lives can be.
“I know you guys are dead set on going after the fuckers who lit up Gun’s house. Trust me; I’m pissed too. He’s family and I would do anything for him and Casey, but what is running through your heads right now isn’t the answer. Going in guns blazing without some sort of plan will only get you fucking killed and then what?” I look around the room before continuing. “Then you end up like my brother Raef? You die because you wanted to get retribution so badly that nothing else mattered? Your family and your brothers have to live with your actions. I hate Raef for making that fucking decision every damn day. He thought that taking out one fucker was better than waiting to get his revenge.”