by Jessie Cooke
“Hey, Wolf, how are you feeling?”
“I’m still breathing, kid...for now, that’s the best I can do. How are you feeling? You think you’ll be ready in time to kick some ass in Vegas when the time comes?”
Gunner grinned. It was funny to Wolf how much he looked like Dax when he smiled...and of course there were those blue eyes. It made him think of the girl that had showed up at the clubhouse the night before for some reason. She had brown eyes...but they looked just like another pair of eyes he’d spent a lot of his life looking into...the eyes of his father. A pang of guilt attacked him when he thought about how he’d treated her...and suddenly wondered if she’d had any place to go, or if Bruf had put her out on the street because of him. He’d been in a bad fucking mood...but was that any excuse to kick someone that was more than likely his own blood to the curb? Fuck no. Gunner was talking to him, but right in the middle of whatever the kid was saying, he turned to Bruf and said:
“What happened to the girl?”
Bruf looked surprised...and maybe a little nervous. “Well, boss, that’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about.”
When Bruf didn’t go on Wolf said, “Please tell me the kid had somewhere to go. I was fucked up with the pain and the frustration of all this shit...but that kid couldn’t have been more than what? Seventeen, eighteen years old? Sister or not, I was a dick.”
Bruf smiled. “Well then, maybe what I have to tell you won’t piss you off so badly. She’s at my place.”
Wolf raised an eyebrow. He loved Bruf like a brother, but suddenly the prospect of having a little sister seemed real...and he wasn’t sure he liked the feeling that the thought of Bruf spending the night with her gave him. “What the fuck is she doing at your place?”
“I’m sorry, boss. You know if there’s anyone who follows your orders to the letter it’s me...but as tough as that kid was trying to be, something about her was just so pathetic. I couldn’t put her out on the street. She said she didn’t have anywhere to go and she wouldn’t tell me her story, but I got the feeling she was afraid of something.”
“Where’d she sleep?”
It was Bruf’s turn to raise an eyebrow and his lips curved up in a smile as well. With a chuckle he said, “I didn’t fuck her, Boss.”
Wolf was surprised at the sudden relief he felt. “Well, good, because I’m not sure she’s even legal.”
Still looking like he was trying not to smile Bruf said, “She says she’s nineteen.”
“Barely legal if that’s true,” Wolf said. It wasn’t like he hadn’t fucked a nineteen-year-old or two in his lifetime...but this girl might be his sister and it even surprised him to realize how different that made things.
“I didn’t fuck her, Boss,” Bruf said again. “I just couldn’t put her out on the street. But...I’m sorry I ignored your orders...”
“Technically you didn’t. I told you to get her out of the clubhouse and you did.” Wolf was surprised at himself again. Making excuses for one of his men’s not following orders was as unlike him as trusting the word of some teenybopper who turned up out of nowhere. “What do you plan on doing with her?”
Bruf shook his head. “I don’t know, Boss. You tell me what you want me to do with her, and I’ll do it.”
Wolf’s phone started ringing before he could even think about what to do with the girl. He looked at the screen and saw that it was Dax. “Do me a favor,” he told Bruf; “I got Smoke here and I won’t go nowhere without him. Go look after the girl, see to it that she gets whatever she needs...and that none of the guys touch her. I’ll be back in a few hours. Tell her I want to know her story, the full story, or she’s out on her pretty little butt and I don’t care whose sister she is.” He started to bring the phone to his ear just as Bruf smiled. “What the fuck are you smiling at?”
“Nothing, Boss,” he said, biting down on his bottom lip. Wolf rolled his eyes and answered his phone. Fucking Bruf, hiding that girl in his trailer and acting like Wolf was the one going soft. Fat fucking chance.
6
Sabrina was in the kitchen washing the last of the dishes when she heard Bruf’s bike drive up. She’d been shocked the night before when he’d offered to let her stay with him...shocked and suspicious. She assumed that he’d wanted her there so he could have his way with her, and then she’d been slightly insulted when he didn’t. She wasn’t sure if she had lost it completely or not, but anyone that could see inside of her head might think that she did.
Bruf had taken her into the trailer, showed her the tiny kitchen, and told her to help herself to whatever she wanted and then he disappeared down the hall. A few minutes later he called to her to follow him back. This is it, she thought. But no, he just wanted to show her that he’d left a towel and a new toothbrush out for her in the bathroom. He also gave her one of his t-shirts to wear to bed and showed her where the extra bedroom was where she would sleep. There was an air mattress in the room and he told her that while she was in the shower, he’d find a sheet for it. By the time she finished showering, brushed her teeth, and pulled her light brown hair back into a wet ponytail, the air mattress was covered with blankets and Bruf’s bedroom door was closed. She could hear him moving around in there off and on throughout the night and once she smelled the strong aroma of weed wafting underneath her door...but he didn’t try anything and shamefully, she was disappointed. What kind of girl am I all of a sudden? Was it just Bruf...or were her years of being a “good” girl while everyone else was acting out finally adding up?
It was probably five a.m. when she finally fell into a deep sleep, and she woke again around nine to the sound of Bruf’s bike starting up. By the time she made it out to the kitchen, all she found of him was a note telling her to help herself to whatever she needed, not to wander around the clubhouse area, and that he’d be back soon. She had thought about putting on her dirty clothes and leaving while he was gone, but the anxiety about not having anywhere to go...and knowing she had to figure out a way to help her mother...overwhelmed her. So, she made herself a pot of coffee, turned on the stereo in the living room, and started cleaning the cluttered, dingy trailer. When she heard Bruf drive up hours later, she wasn’t even aware of how much time had passed.
The thought of seeing him again both excited her and made her nervous. She had no idea what to say to him. She knew she couldn’t stay with him indefinitely too, especially if her “brother” Wolf found out she was there. She made a face when she thought about him. It made her angry that he wouldn’t even acknowledge the fact that she was Coyote’s kid. Why in God’s name would anyone claim to be the child of the leader of a known 1% motorcycle gang, if they weren’t? Not her, for sure. She’d been crushed when she found out who and what her father was. After years of her mother telling her that her father was just a one-night-stand and she had no idea how to get in touch with him, Coyote showed up on their doorstep when Sabrina was thirteen and crushed the dreams she had of someday finding out her father was some great man who had done amazing things with his life. She’d been really pissed off when she found out that he and her mother had been in contact off and on over the years. He had been trying to help them financially too, according to him, but her mother had refused to take any of his money. Sabrina respected that. She didn’t know exactly what the president of an MC did for money, but she doubted much of it was legal or honest.
That first visit had been awkward to say the least, and Sabrina had been shitty toward him. She was surprised that he ever came back...but he did. He visited several times over the next few years and the more she saw her mother with Coyote, the more she began to believe he had been more than a one-night-stand. She began to let her guard down around him as well, and by the time she was sixteen she started imagining them as a family...a strange one, of course where Dad didn’t live in the house and the MC president had a kid on her way to Harvard...but a family nonetheless.
It was a few months after her sixteenth birthday when she overheard her mother and Coyote
talking about someone named “Colleen.” Coyote was sad, and he was telling her mother how much “Colleen” had suffered with her illness before she died three years earlier. Later that night when she asked her mother who Colleen was, her mother admitted to her that Colleen had been Coyote’s “old lady.” They were legally married and had been for years when Sabrina’s mother and Coyote met. That hadn’t stopped either of them from having an affair and making a baby, but the worst part was when she figured out that Coyote had only shown up when she was thirteen because Colleen was dead.
After that, no matter how hard Coyote tried she wouldn’t have anything to do with him. She eventually forgave her mother, convincing herself that her mom was a victim too. The last time she’d seen him had been about a year earlier at her high school graduation. She had been surprised and a little angry with her mother for inviting him. He had handed her an envelope with money in it and told her it was for school. Sabrina had a scholarship for CSUF that would pay for her books and tuition, and she planned on living at home with her mother and working while she went to school. She didn’t want his “dirty” money, and she told him so. He’d left that night after telling her where she could find him if she ever needed him...and now he’d gone and abandoned her again. And then there was Wolf...no one had told her about him. He would have been a teenager himself when she was born, and she wondered if he knew about her and her mother, and if the betrayal of his own mother was what made him instantly angry with Sabrina.
The sound of the front door opening brought her out of her thoughts. It was quickly followed by the sound of Bruf’s deep voice asking, “What’s that smell?”
She stepped out of the kitchen and looked at him. God, he was beautiful. Her skin flushed, and her blood went hot again, and she had to remind herself to breathe. “Smell?” she asked, sniffing the room. She didn’t smell anything...but clean.
“Yeah,” he said, stepping the rest of the way inside. “Smells like...bleach, or something.”
Smiling, she said, “It is bleach.” When he didn’t smile back she said, “Sorry, it was the only cleaner I could find...”
“You cleaned?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Why?”
She laughed, nervously. “I was bored, I guess...and I wanted to find a way to thank you for letting me stay here last night. I didn’t go in your room and I didn’t touch anything that looked personal. I’m sorry...”
“No, it’s okay. It’s just been a while since it’s been clean, I guess.”
“I thought you guys had club girls to do things for you like cleaning and such.”
Bruf smiled but didn’t say anything about that. Instead, he slipped a canvas bag he was carrying off his arm and held it out to her and said, “I borrowed some clothes for you from the boss’s old lady.” Wolf had mentioned his old lady the night before. Sabrina wondered if Wolf cheated on her the way Coyote had cheated on Wolf’s mom. She also wondered how Bruf explained to Wolf’s old lady about needing a set of woman’s clothing.
“Thanks.” She took the bag and looked into it. There were a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt and a pair of socks and underwear and even a bra. The underwear looked like it still had the tags on it. Wolf’s old lady had given him her brand new underwear, and it looked like nice stuff too.
“The underwear is new. Amara...Boss’s old lady...she likes to shop...fucking closet is like Bloomingdale’s or some shit.”
Sabrina smiled at that. “Well, thank you,” she said again. “I’ll get dressed and get out of your way.”
“Out of my way?”
“Well, yeah. I know I can’t keep staying here.”
“Well, no...not indefinitely. But Wolf wants to talk to you when he gets back from town. Maybe he’ll have some other ideas for you.”
She felt a tickle of fear in her belly. “You told him I was here?” That explained why Bruf hadn’t minded asking Wolf’s old lady for the clothes.
Bruf didn’t answer her right away. Instead he moved past her toward the kitchen. He passed so closely that she could smell his masculine, spicy scent and she got actual goosebumps on her arms. She watched him open the fridge and take out a beer and her mind began to wander again...it shamelessly wondered what he looked like naked, and she wondered how it would feel to kiss him or what it would feel like to make love to a man like Bruf. She would probably never know, but the fodder for her fantasies alone was hot enough to set her core on fire and possibly provide competition for every man she did touch from here on out. Bruf twisted off the cap to his beer and said, “Yeah, I told him. I had to. I don’t lie to Wolf.”
“Was he mad?”
Bruf shrugged. “He wasn’t happy that I didn’t follow his orders, I’m sure. But he appreciated me telling him the truth and he didn’t tell me to kick you out, so that’s good news, for you. He says he wants to hear your story. I suggest when you talk to him, you tell him everything, because the one thing Wolf won’t stand for is being lied to.” She hadn’t told any of them her story. The shock of finding out Coyote was dead had thrown her for a loop, not to mention finding out she had a brother. Then there were the crazy feelings she had for Bruf. All added up, her brain wasn’t working as well as it should be. She didn’t really want to talk to Wolf again, but if there was any chance he could help her mother, she had to.
“Do you think he believes I’m his sister?”
“I think he’s had a shitty week and he doesn’t know what to believe right now.” Sabrina decided that Bruf was like a public relations person, protecting his client. He worded everything so carefully, and he wasn’t about to say anything bad about his boss. She remembered how quickly he had her against the wall the night before when she’d put her hands on Wolf. She didn’t believe Bruf had wanted to hurt her, but she did believe he would have if he’d had to...either because Wolf told him to, or because she tried to hurt the man that Bruf seemed to look at as more than a boss. Coyote had talked to her some about the “brotherhood” and how tight the guys were. She could see that with Bruf and Wolf. Before she could ask any more questions, Bruf’s phone beeped. She watched as he pulled it out, read the text, and stuffed it back into his pocket. Changing the subject then he said, “Did you eat something?”
“I’m still stuffed from all that food I ate last night,” she said. “Do you want me to make you something?” She might never get to know what it felt like to be naked with him, but somehow doing domestic chores for him appealed to her on almost the same level.
He smiled slightly. “No thanks. I’ve got my breakfast of champions.” He held up the beer, pulled a joint out of his pocket, and winked at her. Sabrina had a déjà vu kind of moment just then. Her mother didn’t drink and the only time they ever had beer in the house when she was growing up was when Coyote visited. More than once during those visits, she had gotten out of bed in the morning to find him in the kitchen smoking a joint and drinking a beer. It used to annoy the hell out of her, but strangely enough, Bruf doing the exact same thing gave her an odd sense of calm, or normalcy. “Wolf has business to tend to in the city and he won’t be back for a few hours. You want to go for a ride?”
“On your motorcycle?”
He grinned. “Was there another kind of ride you were hoping for?” Sabrina shivered, and she knew Bruf had to see it. He smiled slightly, almost arrogantly, and she considered calling his bluff. Or was it a bluff? Did he really want her the way she wanted him? She wished she were bold enough to find out, but she wasn’t. She cleared her throat instead and said:
“Sure, a motorcycle ride sounds like fun. I’ll get dressed.” She could feel his eyes on her all the way to the bathroom door...or maybe she was imagining they were on her. Maybe he had no interest in her at all beyond being a good Samaritan and taking in a homeless teen. She thought she might be better off if she never found out.
She closed the door behind her and for the first time since he’d gotten home, she felt like she could breathe. Quickly emptying the clothes out of the bag he’d
given her, she pulled the t-shirt off over her head and slipped into them. They fitted pretty well, although the woman they belonged to had much bigger hips and breasts than she did. It beat the hell out of putting on dirty clothes, however, so she was grateful. She took the elastic band out of her light brown hair and flipped her head over. She ran her fingers through her hair from roots to tips and then she tossed it back again and fluffed it out. Before she left the room, she changed her mind again and pulled her hair back into the ponytail. She looked at herself in the mirror once more before shaking her head and rolling her eyes. She was acting like she was going on a date...with a guy that less than twenty-four hours ago had been holding a gun to her head. She really was losing it.
7
Wolf was looking at the photo that David Brady just handed him. The man in the picture was so average that if you passed him on the street a dozen times a day, you probably still wouldn’t notice him. His hair was a mousy brown color, his eyes the exact same shade. He was Caucasian, and his skin was so white that Wolf had to wonder if he was clear underneath the dark suit he was wearing. He was probably five eight or nine, maybe one forty or fifty soaking wet. He definitely didn’t look like any assassin Wolf had ever known...but of course he’d only ever met one face to face, and that was Garrett from the Southside Skulls. Garrett looked like the Incredible Hulk, so this guy in comparison was nothing but a piss-ant as far as Wolf was concerned.
“I have a hard time looking at this picture and imagining the guy had the balls to kick in my door and shoot at me.”
David and Dax both chuckled. “Maybe we should have the ME check. Maybe he’s all balls,” David said. “He look familiar to you at all?”
“Nah, I doubt I’d remember him if I saw him though anyways. He’s just...so fucking average. Did he have any tats or scars or anything?”