Riveted: Drawn Series Book 1

by M. A. Stone

  Sitting on the couch, I was eating a Cup o’ Noodles while channel surfing. Chloe was plugged into her laptop next to me and Jack was still at the shop. I jumped and nearly spilled food all over me as there was a knock on the door. Chloe looked at me, smirked and jumped up.

  “Stay there, I will get it. You seem to have more than you can handle going on over there,” she called over her shoulder. Placing the soup on the coffee table, I checked to see if I had spilled anything on the couch. No, but my t shirt was soaked.

  “Someone is here for you.” She called over her shoulder. I looked up as Chloe walked around the corner into the living room with my dad following close behind. She wiggled her eyebrows and mouthed the word hot. I frowned at her antics.Eww he was my Dad. I got up and gave my dad a hug. He squeezed me tight and shot me one of his killer smiles.

  “What’s up Dad?” I asked. He sat down. Chloe went into the kitchen behind us and grabbed some coffee. I think the only reason she did that was so she could ogle my dad.

  “Thought I would go with you tonight, that way I could talk to that guy about the job,” he said. He looked like he had just gotten a shower. He was wearing clean dark wash jeans, black combat boots and a black short sleeved button down shirt.

  “That’s not a problem. Chloe is coming with us too,” I replied, jerking my head in her direction. He looked up and smiled at her. She blushed, at first, and smiled back. Her hand went to her hair and I rolled my eyes. Really?

  “Do you work there too?” he asked her. She nodded, and then took a sip of her coffee.

  “Yep. I don’t work on bikes or ink though. I am strictly a piercer,” she replied.

  “Really? Get much business?” he asked. She beamed. She loved talking about her job.

  “You have no idea. I am overbooked some days. Not a lot of the other shops have a piercer who is there all day. My schedule makes it kind of convenient for them, you know?” she replied. He smiled.

  “Do you have any piercings…Mr. Bleu’s dad?” she asked. He chuckled.

  “My name is Aaron, and yeah,” he said. She smiled mischievously. What in the hell was she doing flirting with my dad?

  “Nice, well if you ever want more, come find me,” she replied, giving him a sassy grin.

  “Easy girl,” I warned. Dad just laughed. Chloe rinsed off her coffee cup that she was using and held out her hand for my fork which she tossed in the sink. Padding into my room, I grabbed my purse. Chloe and my Dad were talking when I walked back in and they stood up and we all walked out.

  “I am telling you, something is up,” I whispered to Jack as he snapped on his gloves and got ready to do work on my tattoo. He shook his head.

  “Woman you are talking crazy. They were talking for like what? Three minutes? Plus, your Dad got out of jail today. I know he is probably hard up, but I don’t think he is going to throw some pipe to your best friend,” he said with a laugh.

  “She told him she wanted to pierce him!” I whispered back. He pushed me back on the table and smiled.

  “What??!!” I whispered.

  “Baby, you are comically loyal to your family. You are worried about your father, a grown man. A man who was in prison for over ten years mind you. What could go wrong Bleu?”

  “What do you mean “comically loyal”?” I responded, wincing as he started to detail my tattoo.

  “You are considering hiring a detective to track down your brother, which I do not have a problem with. You have fiercely stood by your father, even when everyone said he was guilty. You are a good sister and daughter Bleu. And besides, your Dad is allowed to talk to other women,” he said, continuing to work. I scowled. He turned, with a mischievous look in his eyes.

  "Just think about it baby, ten years. Ten years. No pussy," he remarked.

  "I could have gone all my life without that little tidbit, thank you. And who says throwing pipe to someone? Where the hell did you hear that?" I remarked, a tad bit snarky. He chuckled. He was right, but it was weird.

  “Tomorrow I go to talk to that investigator about Axel. I just want to make sure he is okay. I mean even if he tells me to go to Hell, I just want to know he is okay,” I said after a while. He nodded. Because I was turned onto my side, I did not hear my Dad come in.

  “Well I got the job. I start next week,” Dad said. I looked up at him and grinned.

  “Congrats Aaron,” replied Jack. Dad nodded.

  “Whatcha got going on here?” asked Dad. He pointed to my hip.

  “Something he drew up Dad,” I replied. Dad studied the wingspan that Jack was working on. His cellphone buzzed and he frowned as he read the display. I bit my lip to stop myself from asking him who it was.

  “Nice detail. Hey I am going to go smoke a cigarette, I’ll be back in a few,” Dad said. Jack nodded.

  “See you Dad,” I replied.

  "Man of few words,” remarked Jack.

  “He is up to something,” I replied. Jack snorted and went back to work.

  “I was waiting for you to ask him who it was on the phone,” he said. I groaned.

  “You caught that?” I asked.

  “Yeah baby, I did,” he replied.

  “You have no idea how much self control that took,” I replied. He laughed loud at that one.

  A few hours later, Jack finished up what he was working on and wiped down the excess blood and ink. He smeared me up with some goo and patted me on my butt. Slowly sitting up, I leaned in for a kiss.

  “Let me clean up and we can go alright?” he said. Nodding, I slid my feet into my flip flops. Shuffling out of Jack’s station, I wandered over to Chloe’s door and saw her sign was on the door knob saying she was busy with a client. Walking away, I took a seat on the back room couch and closed my eyes. Bed sounded really good right now. Mmm, bed with Jack.

  Chapter Ten

  Lying in bed with Jack that night did not work out so well. I lay there, staring up at the ceiling as he slept next to me. I could not get my stupid brother out of my head. There HAD to be some clue as to what the ass hat had been doing. I crept out of the bedroom, snatching up my flip flops from the floor by the door. Tip toeing, I snatched up my car keys and walked out of the apartment.

  Axel’s house was dark and quiet. I did not know what I was expecting. I walked over to the front porch and prayed silently that my brother had a Hide a Key somewhere hanging around. I spied a beat up looking flowerpot filled to the brim with cigarette butts. I tipped it over a bit, careful not to knock all the cigarette butts out, and voila, there was the key. I did a little happy dance and snatched up the key. Looking over my shoulder, I slid the key into the door lock and pushed open the door.

  The house was quiet with the exception of the hum of the fridge in the kitchen. I padded over to the dining room table and looked through a bunch of receipts. Nothing.

  “What are you doing?” said a deep voice. The receipts that were in my hand went flying into the air and I threw my keys in the direction of the voice.

  “Fuck. Ouch,” said Jack, stepping closer to me, rubbing his forehead. He frowned and shook his head.

  “I am so sorry. I did not know it was you. It’s a good thing it is you, seeing as how I just threw my only weapon at you,” I stammered.

  “Your only weapon was your car keys?”

  “Well yeah. I heard someone say that you could use them as a weapon if you are ever attacked. You can gouge someone’s eye with them or stab them in the jugular,” I replied.

  “But you threw them at me,” he said. I looked down at my sneakers.

  “I got nothing,” I replied. He grinned. I gave him a hug.

  “Again, what are you doing here?” he asked.

  “Looking for evidence,” I replied. He smirked.

  “Evidence of what? I should have known when you DVR a shit ton of CSI, that you were up to something,” he remarked.

  “No. I just really like that show,” I said with all the innocence that I could muster up.

  “Uh huh. Evidence? You w
ere saying something about evidence?” he said.

  “Oh yeah, that. I am thinking there has GOT to be something in this house that can point us to a clue of where he is,” I replied. He rubbed his hand over his head.

  “Lead the way Scooby Doo,” he muttered.

  After looking through all of the downstairs, I found nothing. Not a single scrap of paper or a phone number, nothing. So I dragged my happy ass upstairs, Jack smacking it the whole way up. I went straight to Axel’s room. His king sized, four poster bed was neatly made. His deep mahogany dresser was clean and organized, well the top was. I went to open a drawer.

  “Bleu,” he muttered, shaking his head. I raised an eyebrow.

  “What?” I hissed.

  “What if you find something in there?” he asked.

  “That is what I am planning on,” I replied.

  “I mean…something,” he responded.

  “Like what pray tell?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest, leaning up against the dresser.

  “I don’t know. Something weird,” he muttered.

  “Like what? A cock ring?” I asked. His eyes widened.

  “How in the hell do you know what a cock ring is?” he asked. I laughed.

  “CSI is not the only thing that I DVR-ed.”

  “Oh really now?” he asked, coming to me and putting his hands on my hips. I shook my head.

  “As smoking hot as you are, I don’t really want to get down with you in my brother’s bedroom. Especially because you are so concerned about what we are going to find in his drawers,” I remarked. He kissed me and stood back. I turned to the dresser and opened the drawers. Nothing but clothes, socks, the usual stuff. Third drawer had lube in it, no biggie. He was a man whore after all, and one bottle of lube did not mean anything. The fifth drawer however.

  “Holy mother of Troy,” I muttered. Jack came over to where I was and looked over my shoulder.

  “What the fuck???” he muttered. The drawer was FULL of sex toys. Dildos, a strap on or two and a handful of rainbow vibrators of various sizes. It was like an adult film star had taken over the drawer.

  “Why does your brother have that?”He pointed to the drawer.

  “Well I don’t know. But you were worried about a cock ring,” I responded.

  “This by far surpasses a cock ring,” he replied. I mean really, I may have been a virgin before Jack, but it does not mean that I was not double clicking my mouse to online porn and I was WELL acquainted with different adult toy stores. This did not surprise me.

  “Sadly, I am not surprised by this. I mean with all the ass he gets, he needs to have a back up arsenal,” I said bitterly.

  “Shut the drawer Bleu or for all that is holy I will never ever be able to look your brother in the eye!’ he growled. I slammed the drawer and hesitantly opened the last drawer. And that was full of videos and a silver framed picture. The videos were all labeled with the name Anna or Ann. Hmm. Toward the back was a picture. I flipped it over. Jack looked over my shoulder.

  “Who’s the girl?” he asked. I looked down at the picture. It was of my brother, and nestled in his lap, in his arms, was a very pretty redhead with pale skin and the biggest, most beautiful green eyes I had ever seen. She smiled shyly and he just looked at her, I mean really looked at her.

  “He loves her,” I muttered. Jack put his hand on my shoulder. He took the picture from my hand and placed it back in the drawer. I walked over to the bed, and sat down. I felt deflated.

  “You alright?” he asked. I shook my head and the tears just came. I buried my face in his chest and cried so hard, my heart hurt. He did not ask me to explain why I was crying, he just knew. I just wanted my brother back. I just wanted to know what had happened to make him leave, and not tell me why he was gone. I wanted my family back. All of them.

  Chapter Eleven

  Jack took me home after I had dried up. Axel, wherever he had gone, took his laptop with him. That was what I was really looking for. I was going to have to talk to the private investigator. He was almost two hours away, so I was going to have to rent out a room just to meet up with this guy. I was at the point where I would do whatever it took to find my brother.

  I do not know how I made it to the shop the next morning. I was supposed to open up; Jack had a doctor appointment or something. I pulled into a vacant parking space, locked up my car and walked to the shop. I stopped cold on the sidewalk. The huge plate glass windows were completely smashed and the front door had graffiti sprayed on it. A lanky teenage boy stood on the sidewalk in front of the shop.

  “Please by all means, don’t call the cops or anything right dude?” I muttered to him sarcastically. He snapped out of his trance and shook his head.

  “Dude. That is way messed up,” he muttered. He reached into his pocket for his phone. I was already on mine. After hanging up with the local police, I pressed Jack’s number.

  “On my way baby. What’s up?” he answered in a happy tone. I sighed.

  “Shop got messed up. Cops are on their way; in fact they are here now. Wanted to let you now,” I said, like a robotic zombie. I did wait for him to answer, I just ended the call. A tall female police officer with bleached blond hair walked over to me. She gave me a grim but polite smile.

  “Ma’am, are you the person who called about this?” she asked, gesturing to the mess next to us. I nodded.

  “Are you the owner?” she asked. I shook my head. She put her hand on my shoulder and gave me a reassuring smile. I looked up and her and gave her a smile.

  “No. One of the owners is on his way,” I replied. She nodded and then went over to her partner, who was still sitting in the police cruiser.

  After dealing with the police officers, Jack made a few phone calls to try and get the shop all taken care of. Shortly around two, a big contractor van pulled up, along with three burly looking men on motorcycles, one of them being my father. He parked his bike and walked over to where I was standing. Hugging me hard, he kissed the top of my head and then patted Jack on the arm.

  “How you doing’ boy?” he asked him.

  “Better than I thought I would be. I am not going to be some whiny girl, but this shit is insane. We do not need this shit now.”

  “Jack do you want me to go inside and call up the appointments we have scheduled for the day and reschedule?” I asked. He nodded.

  “That’s why we are here. The local MC is going to let you guys use their clubhouse until this place gets fixed up. They owe me a favor,” said my Dad. I looked at him.

  “The Diablo Demons are going to let us use their clubhouse?!” I asked incredulously. He nodded. I looked past his shoulder as a burly, tall man with a beard down to his stomach walked over. His head and neck were tattooed and he had both ears pierced with small gold hoop. He was wearing a faded black leather cut with a diamond shaped 1% patch on one side and “President” on the other. His eyes were the same blue as my Uncle Tangler’s and he smiled and I immediately knew who he was.

  “Uncle Sid???” I screeched. He grinned wider and pulled me into his arms, squishing the air out of me.

  “Hey love,” he said in his deep, English accented voice. He kissed the top of my head. He was my Uncle Tangler’s younger brother. He was my honorary Uncle.

  “How are you? I did not know that you were the President of the MC now?” I commented. He nodded.

  “This thing that happened, here at your shop is unacceptable. It does not fly with the MC. You guys do a lot of work for my mates and brothers. Plus your father, I owed him one. SO our clubhouse is yours. I know that some of your clients might not want to come get their ink done there, but you have my word that we will be on our best behavior.”

  “What about church?” asked Jack. I raised an eyebrow and he shook his head at me.

  “We will just do it at my place,” replied Uncle Sid. Jack nodded. He shook Uncle Sid’s hand.

  “Thanks for this. It means a lot to me, to all of us,” he told Uncle Sid. Uncle Sid nodded and patted
Jack on the shoulder before walking away. I hopped up and down happily. Jack just shook his head.

  “Well Princess, it looks like you have some phone calls to make,” said my Dad. I nodded and went inside to grab the client list.

  By dinner time, we were set up in the Diablo Demon’s clubhouse. They affectionately called it the Lion’s Den. I was going to ask what that meant, but Matt shook his head and grinned. It was a huge building, two stories high. On the top floor, apparently, were rooms, like studio apartments. For members who were too drunk to drive or whose old ladies had kicked them out. The bottom floor was a kitchen, a huge bathroom and then a huge great room with pool tables, a polished, mahogany bar and tables here and there. I followed Jack and Matt in with equipment, Chloe not too far behind me. She was looking around with a goofy grin on her face, like she had just been transported into her favorite biker show. Two men stood off to the side. One was a short Hispanic man covered in tattoos with a small, thin mustache and long black hair pulled into a pony tail. His partner was tall, skinny with a blonde Mohawk and he had one hell of a shiner around his left eye. He smiled at Chloe and me. They both wore Diablo Demon cuts.

  “Where can we put our stuff?” Matt asked them. The two bikers pushed tables to the side and I placed a laptop on one of them. Uncle Sid came in with partitions like you would see in the nurse’s office.

  “Where did you get those?” I asked. He grinned, his gold capped incisor showing.

  “Better you don’t know love, better you don’t know,” he said, ruffling my hair. He looked at the two bikers.

  “Chainsaw, Seattle, you two help these good people out. Whatever they need, you get it. Stick to them like glue yeah?” he ordered. They nodded.

  “Which one is which?” I asked, looking at the two men.

  “I’m Seattle,” said the short Hispanic guy with a smile that was quite sexy. Down girl.

  “That makes me Chainsaw,” said the tall guy with the blonde Mohawk.

  “Nice to meet you,” I remarked. They nodded and smiled. Seattle followed Matt out to help him unload, while I booted up the laptop and got ready to work.