Needing Reyes (Grimm Brothers MC Book 1)

by Roxanne Greening

  “What happened?” I asked her with a little laugh.

  “My brother got a stick up his ass and decided to take my fun away,” she snarled.

  Just mentioning Reyes had my heart skipping over its feet and tumbling in my chest.

  “I had my fingers in his blond hair. Those brown eyes held my reflection and as I leaned in for that much-needed kiss. My brother lifted me away,” she was turning red in her anger.

  “He got all pissy after you left and then came over and told Ryan to keep his fucking hands to himself,” she shouted as she paces across the floor.

  “What did Ryan say?” I asked her.

  Something tingled in my chest as the words ‘he got all pissy after I left’ reached my ears. It tumbled around in my head like clothes in a dryer.

  “He didn’t say a word, the fucking bastard,” she snarled.

  I would have laughed if I didn’t feel pity for Ryan.

  “Here, come sit and have some ice cream with me,” I told her while I patted the spot next to me. I then offered a spoonful of the delicious icy treat.

  With a laugh, Bianca slumped on the couch and started eating ice cream. The cold treat stung my mouth, and she laughed at my little shiver. Not that it stopped me from shoving more into my mouth.

  The Justice League was on, so I turned my attention back to the tv as the hottest Aquaman I’ve ever seen came on.

  My biggest question was why people hated the idea of Aquaman when he was this hot?

  Chapter 5

  Alanna

  Three Months and One Week Ago.

  I felt sick again, but I could honestly ask myself Reyes who? Oh, who the fuck was I kidding. There was no pretending that Reyes wasn’t a constant thought.

  Curling up on the couch, I looked around the old cabin my father loved. The brown couch was still soft even after years of use. The paintings of wolves and other wild animals adorned the walls, and I loved to curl up with the patterned quilt.

  I remember when Nana gave it to my father as a Christmas gift. She used earth tones in light tans and light greens as well as darker greens and browns. They blended well together making it stand out.

  The scent of stale air still lingered even after being aired out for hours during the day. I liked to sit by the river, which was a few feet out the back door and watch as the water flowed freely.

  Sometimes when I was a kid, I would wonder what life would be like if things were different. Today I asked the same question and, like then, I still didn’t have an answer to it.

  Birds chirped happily outside as they flew by the window. More birds have congregated here over the last few days, and they brought more of their music. I enjoyed feeding and listening to them, and it seemed to draw more and more birds.

  The little birdhouse that I built with my father when I was ten housed a small family of blue jays. Even though they were very beautiful, they were very vicious.

  Tucking my toes under the quilt, I thought of my friend and how wonderful she’s been. Bianca was like a rock, always here or on the phone.

  She kept her promise not to share where I was or what I was doing with anyone. Not that Reyes would ask her, and I didn’t have the balls to ask if he had. My head hurt just thinking about it.

  After the hundredth phone call today, I answered the phone without looking to see who the caller was.

  “B I’m sorry. I know I’ve been MIA today, but shit has been crazy. Also, I haven’t felt well,” I told her in a rush.

  I waited for Bianca to tell me she was coming over with soup, but the response I got had my heart in my throat.

  “Where the fuck are you,” the voice was cold, firm, and it belonged to Reyes.

  “None of your damn business. That’s where I’ve been,” I snapped at him.

  Who the fuck did he think he was? After that nauseating display with that redhead, I could only imagine the others that followed. My brain was sure to add some nice details with plenty of other women. Did they find themselves pressed against the counter like I was just a couple weeks ago?

  “Don’t fuck with me, Alanna. Where are you?”

  His voice has taken on this take no prisoners tone.

  “Up the hill around the mountain and over the rainbow,” I replied with a huff.

  “Alanna,” he growled.

  “When you see the unicorn? Then you know you’re getting warmer,” I sing-song.

  I wasn’t going to share my location, no matter what he said.

  “You better be fucking alone,” his voice got darker and rougher.

  “Well, I guess I’ll tell the basketball team to come next week instead,” I replied.

  “Alanna,” I could hear the warning in his tone.

  “Oh, but wait, that’s the football teams time,” I continued on a cheery note.

  “I’m going to paddle your ass,” he tells me calmly.

  I should take the hint and stop there, but I was on a roll, and so over his bullshit.

  “I got a thank you card yesterday from the soccer team. It seems like getting around really can be fun,” I tell Reyes coldly.

  I was reminding him that I remembered the redhead, and I wasn’t going to let this go.

  “I mean you know about getting around, right? Well Reyes, thanks for a good time and all, but I have others waiting,” I tell him sweetly.

  I didn’t wait to hear if he had anything to say. I just pulled the phone from my ear and disconnected the line. Reaching around I patted myself on the back for a job well done.

  Not only did I get the last word, but I also gave him a few things to think about all the while making it very clear. This thing was over, and I wasn’t a weak pushover.

  Chapter 6

  Reyes

  Three Months and One Week Ago

  “Did you get it?” I snarled at Ryan.

  Something inside of me curled in on its self. As I waited for Ryan to reply, desperation had a sour taste, and it was something I haven’t notice before.

  “Sorry man, she hung up,” Ryan replied quietly.

  Had I known she was going to answer, I would have had him tracking her from the beginning. After two weeks of fucking call her, I didn’t think she would pick up.

  I found the number in Bianca’s phone and knew it belonged to Alanna. I fucking hated burner phones.

  “Fuck!” I growled and fought the urge to throw my phone.

  That desperation bled into anger and frustration, which heated my blood. What the fuck was Alanna thinking to leave like that?

  “Look, I don’t fucking know what’s going on between the two of you, but you should have kept your dick in check if it’s what I think it was,” Ryan tells me.

  “Did I fucking ask you?” I snarled at him.

  Holding up his hands in surrender he replied. “No man. I was just trying to help out my brother. If I had a girl like that, I would keep my shit on lockdown.”

  “You’re not fucking my sister, any part of you that touches her, I will chop it the fuck off,” I tell him with a calm I don’t feel.

  Ryan’s brown eyes darken in anger, but he wisely keeps his mouth shut.

  “Have you found anything yet?” I ask him.

  We were looking at another chapter. I was pretty sure those bastards were doing shit they weren’t supposed to.

  “Yeah, skin trade.” Ryan’s voice held a tone of disgust and anger.

  “Free pussy?” I ask him.

  I need to know if it’s free or if it wasn’t. If it wasn’t, I needed to clean house.

  “Yeah, from what I can tell it’s free, but they’re still fucking hiding something,” Ryan tells me.

  “Send Gunner,” I tell him.

  “Sure, that’s a good idea?” Ryan asks.

  Gunner was the Hail Mary, the man you sent in when you sknew it was going to be a bloodbath.

  “Yeah, fucking send him over there. If they have anything to hide, he’ll sniff it out,” I tell Ryan.

  Without another word, he walked from the r
oom. I then snatched the bottle of whiskey, and took deep gulps of the dark amber liquid, loving the feel of the burn that it left behind as I drank.

  I needed to find Alanna before the shit went downhill. Who the fuck knew having an old lady would be such a fucking headache?

  Chapter 7

  Alanna

  Three Months Ago

  A shiver skirted up my spine as I looked at the thing in my hand. I was clutching a little stick with two pink lines, another little stick with the words ‘pregnant’ on the little screen and a dozen more scattered around me. My ass started going numb from sitting still for so long on the cold tan tile floor.

  How the fuck did this happen? It was one fucking night?

  My eyes darted around the familiar room. There were moose, pine trees, and pine cones on the shower curtain in browns, marron, and greens. The marron and green rug had embroidered moose on it as well as the tan towels that hung from the towel rack.

  The walls were a stark white, which helped to keep the darker colors from darkening the room too much.

  “Did you die in there?” Bianca called through the solid wood door which separated us.

  Also, separating her from my little white stick party.

  “I’m fine,” I lied.

  “You don’t sound fine,” her voice was filled with concern.

  I took a couple of deep breaths and soon felt like I might be hyperventilating. My chest would swell and collapse with each deep inhale and exhale.

  “I’m coming in,” Bianca informed me with her take no prisoner’s voice.

  “No, don’t!” I shouted.

  Fear at being caught had my eyes looking around for a place to hide or even escape what was going to come.

  The doorknob turned, and why didn’t I lock the door? I watched in horror as it started to swing open. Reaching down I started scooping the little sticks like I was trying to scoop water out of a sinking life raft. All the while watching the sharks circle, just waiting for that moment when your safety is nonexistent.

  I then felt like that dying person who was watching their death approach.

  “What the fuck?” Bianca said in shock.

  I froze in place, and the little sticks started to clink back to the tile floor. The sounds of them falling bounced off the walls, which made the noise sound louder, even to my own ears.

  Bianca squat down in front of me with her long brown hair pulled back into a messy bun. She examined them like one would a foreign species.

  “You’re pregnant?” she whispered in shock.

  I could only nod, my head moved like a little bobblehead as if I was on a bumpy ride. It didn’t stop even when I told it to.

  “Who’s the father?” Bianca asked, her blue-green eyes focused on me.

  What do I say? Oh well, guess what? You’re going to be an auntie? Yeah, that wouldn’t go over well. I bit my tongue and felt it swell as the words bubbled just below the surface. Like a black witches’ caldron begging to boil over.

  “Reyes’.” I said his name and the caldron had officially bubbled over, allowing his name to come out.

  It was like a bomb had gone off in the room. The silence that followed was deafening.

  “My brother?” she asked, her voice was quiet and devoid of any emotion.

  I swallowed and stared at the sticks like they held the answers to world peace.

  My heart was breaking, and I was a wimp. I couldn’t bring myself to look at my friend and tell her how sorry I was for letting this happen. That I was in love with him and had been for years. I knew I needed to say something, but I couldn’t.

  “Yes,” I whispered finally.

  Her eyes were still on the little sticks.

  “I’m going to be an auntie?” She asked, her voice was devoid of anything.

  “Yes,” I whispered again.

  “How did this happen?” She asks me.

  For some reason, I felt like being a sarcastic asshole.

  “Well, the man sticks his dick in a woman’s pussy, and they move back and forth...” I start, but she cuts me off.

  “No, don’t say any more. I don’t want images of my brother,” she says with a shudder.

  I slump back down, and the air literally was taken out of my sails. This was it, I was finally going to be alone. Dad passed away two years ago, and mom chose her boyfriend over me. So, I’ve been alone for the last two years. My only family was Bianca, and now I wouldn’t even have that.

  “Do you love him?” She asked me in a soft voice.

  “I have for years,” I tell her, honestly.

  And no matter how things went from here, it felt fucking amazing to finally tell her the truth. Like the weight of the world had been lifted or more like the lies. Reyes heavy ass had finally been removed.

  “He’s the reason you’re hiding?” she asked me.

  Her eyes meet mine, and I could see she already knew the answer to that question, but I replied anyway, “Yes.”

  “He hasn’t been faithful,” she said again in her soft voice, devoid of any emotion.

  And for some reason, even I already knew he wasn’t. It still hurt, and it hurt like a fire heated knife to the chest cauterizing the wound as it sunk deep into me. It burned like fire ants stinging the skin over and over.

  Breathing through it was difficult and add to it the thought of losing her, everything shook like a broken merry-go-round. It just kept spinning, and I wanted off.

  “That’s why you left, isn’t it?” she asked me.

  “Yes,” I tell her.

  “That fucking bastard!” she shouts.

  For some reason, I didn’t want her to hate her brother. Color me stupid, but this felt imperative, like the next breath of air.

  “It’s just who he is, B,” I tell her, honestly.

  Reyes would never change. I wasn’t the right woman to make him want more, and that hurt the most. I wasn’t the one to help him become a better man, a faithful man.

  “Alanna,” she whispered.

  “No B, I know this, and I have to accept it,” I tell her quietly.

  One day, I will accept it and move on. There would be a day where Reyes didn’t rip me apart. A day where his name didn’t punch holes in my chest when his voice wouldn’t gut me and his eyes couldn’t destroy me.

  I knew somewhere out there was his one and she would be perfect, and everything that he needed to tame the great Reyes. I just wished she was me. No matter how many wishes I uttered, how many nights I cried myself to sleep, hoping he would tell me that he wanted me and only me. It was all just a fairy tale, a dark, twisted fairy tale.

  “It’s time I figured this shit out B. He will never want me more then he wants them,” as the words leave my lips it felt like the final nail in my coffin.

  Cold finger sunk into me, the icy calm of truth settled over me. Reyes will never be mine.

  Chapter 8

  Alanna

  One Month and One Week Ago.

  I looked at the little bags scattered all around the room. They were filled with neutral colored baby shit. Bianca has really taken it to the next level.

  “B, we’ve talked about this,” I tell her with a smile that I was trying to fight back.

  “It’s hard to wait,” she replied with an unapologetic shrug.

  “I wanted to wait until I knew what I was having,” I tell her with a stern voice even I could tell was fake.

  “Yeah and that’s a few weeks away,” she tells me with another shrug.

  “It’s not that far away,” I tell her with a smile.

  Bianca has really taken this auntie roll to heart.

  “Its only five more weeks,” I tell her.

  “It’s five weeks too long,” she replied.

  I needed to tell her to stop, that this was insanity. I wasn’t even showing yet.

  “My pants are barely getting tight,” I tell her.

  She smiled and shook the last bag.

  “Tell me you didn’t,” I replied.

  I knew
what was in that bag, and I wasn’t ready for it.

  “I can’t because I did,” she says with an unapologetic smile.

  “B, I don’t need that yet,” I tell her in frustration.

  I loved her, but this was getting too out of hand, and I needed to put my foot down. Buying maternity clothes was taking it one step too far.

  “I’m not even in my own house,” I tell her.

  “Yes, you are,” she pointed out.

  “Yes, but not really. This is like a hideaway,” I replied.

  This was my dad’s fishing cabin, someplace I haven’t been to since before he passed. It’s a place that I know for sure Reyes doesn’t know about.

  “When are you going to tell him, Alanna?” Bianca asked in a hesitant voice.

  “Not yet,” I tell her, biting my lip.

  “Honey, I love you, but you need to tell him. The sooner, the better,” she says with a slight firm tone.

  “I’ll tell him,” I say.

  “It’s like ripping off a Band-Aid. It’s better to get it over with,” she tells me.

  I will tell him, I just wasn’t sure when. Maybe after the baby was born.

  “He’s going to be pissed,” she says with a light laugh that I know she wasn’t really feeling.

  “I can’t face him right now, B,” I tell her quietly.

  “How bad is it?” I couldn’t help but ask.

  “I haven’t been to the clubhouse since the night you left,” she replied with a shrug.

  I was thankful, but only slightly. I wanted to know, but then again, I didn’t want to know.

  Climbing to my feet, I stretched and pushed one of the many bags away from me.

  “I’m going stir crazy,” I tell her.

  “I bet. You’ve been here for almost two months,” Bianca said easily.

  Has it really been that long? The pain still felt so fresh. It still hurt to breath, to close my eyes, and remember.

  “Come on, I brought dinner,” Bianca informed me with a smile.

  Just then, my stomach made its appearance with a loud, obnoxious growl.

  “Come on, let’s get some pizza into you,” Bianca said with a laugh.

  I couldn’t fight the smile as it spread over my face.