by Zoey Parker
“Are you sure you don’t just want to explore what I can do to get you off?” I teased. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind, because it seems to be working for me, too,” I added quickly, before he could say anything else.
“Well, if that’s what you want to do, we can definitely do that, too.” He shot me another of his knowing looks. He knew exactly what I was thinking, because he was thinking it, too. We both knew I wanted him. I wanted him right then. If I hadn’t been feeling bashful in front of his staff, I would have opened myself to him right there on the patio so he could take me as part of his lunch.
“There’s so much I want to do that I’ve never done before,” I blurted out in a rare moment of complete and open honesty, sort of like when I told him my real name instead of an alias. A voice in my head started telling me it was time to abort this mission. Surely, Coyote had someone else who could take it.
“Well, I want to ask you to stay tonight at least. Take the night to think about it. I have a meeting with the MC this evening. It’s important business stuff, just the founding members, so you will have the house and my staff to yourself. If you need a charger, I’m sure any member of my house staff can get one for you. I just ask that you stay out of my office,” he said with a wink.
“Got it, and I’m really sorry about that,” I said, laughing.
“No, it’s fine. I don’t mind. But I also ask that you don’t ask the staff for sexual favors, please,” he said with a completely straight face, except I could see that his eyes were smiling.
“Well, if you come back tonight, and I’m in the pool house with one of your boys, just don’t interrupt unless you want to join in,” I said with a wink.
“You’re bad. I’m going to have to teach you some manners,” he teased.
“Please do, but can it wait until after we eat?” I asked in a tempting tone.
“Not if you keep talking like that,” he said, playing along.
“Fair enough. Okay, I’ll stay the night, and I’ll let you know what I’m thinking in the morning,” I agreed, even though I knew that staying tonight meant I would be staying for good, which was exactly why he had asked me to do it.
He was good. He didn’t come across as manipulating, but he didn’t need to. He made me want to go along with his plans so they felt more like my own. All I wanted was to find that diamond, get laid a few more times, and get the hell away from him before he forced me to form a complicated attachment to him by pleasing me beyond my wildest dreams far too many times.
“Excellent,” he said with a wide smile across his face. “Well, by the time we finish eating our lunch, you should have some new clothes to try on, and by tonight, your other clothes should be clean. It’s my understanding your dress had to be dry-cleaned.”
“Yes, of course,” I said.
“Well, you should be good to go by tonight, so if you decide in the morning that you want to leave, you can. I won’t ask any questions,” he told me with a sense of finality in his tone.
“Oh, I don’t think that will be a problem,” I told him suggestively as I returned to my salad to finish it.
Chapter Ten
Gunner
I knew Sierra would continue snooping around after I left the house for the MC meeting, but I wasn’t too worried about it. I was actually curious to see what she would dig up. I was also curious to know who she really was. All I knew so far was the she was the queen of smart asses, and she was an amazing partner in bed. I knew my guys would already be looking into her, and I wondered if anyone had anything yet.
I saw the excitement in her eyes when I asked her to stay, despite how she tried to play it off like she wasn’t sure I would actually want to keep her around. There was no hiding it. Her eyes were too expressive to hide everything from me. I could see as we talked about the sexual aspect of her staying, it turned her on to think about everything we could do over time if she stayed with me.
It had taken every ounce of will power that I had not to take her right there on the table. There were a couple of times when I just imagined throwing off our plates and letting them smash on the stone patio. I wanted to bend her over the little round bistro table and pull the shirt she was wearing up to reveal her exposed flesh. I wanted to touch her and taste her again. I wanted to bury my face in her and then bury myself deep in her.
I didn’t know what the deal was with my beautiful Sierra. I couldn’t stop thinking about taking her again. She was so receptive sexually. She was willing to do whatever I told her, it seemed, and her body was so perfectly in tune with my own.
It wasn’t completely necessary that I left her at the house for the meeting with the rest of the founding Immortal Devils, but I needed some space so I didn’t just jump her bones at random. I needed to clear my head and get her out of my mind for a little while.
After lunch, I walked upstairs to my room and changed while she stayed out by the pool. She left her purse sitting on the bathroom counter, and it would have been easy to try to beat her at her snooping game. I knew her phone was in there, and if it had any power left, I could easily get into it and see what she was trying to do.
I didn’t. I figured I would be better just waiting it out and letting her game expose itself. I walked out of the bathroom and left her purse lying on the counter, undisturbed, her phone still inside.
I grabbed a t-shirt, an old pair of jeans, and my boots. I threw my daily clothes on the bed and changed into my biker clothes. We didn’t normally wear our colors and jeans unless we were just going to be at the clubhouse, and that was where our meeting was going to be. It was private MC business, sensitive information we couldn’t discuss in public places like Eden.
I grabbed my vest and looked at myself in the mirror. I felt like a different man. I looked like a different man when I dressed down. In my MC uniform, it was easier to imagine myself taking things too far and maintaining the MC’s reputation of being depraved.
The man standing before me in the mirror had seen and done things the billionaire me wanted to forget, but I couldn’t forget what it had taken to get where I was. I couldn’t forget the ruthlessness. I couldn’t forget what it took to earn the name Immortal. I adjusted my vest and chuckled at my reflection.
It was time to ride.
I stepped into the hallway overlooking the living room and the large windows looking out to the back patio. Sierra lay on one of the folding pool chairs in the sun. While I stood there watching her, I took out my phone and texted Dario, the member of my staff who had gone to get her clothes.
Please pick up a bathing suit for her as well. Thanks.
I put the phone back in my pocket and headed downstairs. I had already told her bye and instructed my people to watch out for her while I was gone. They had orders to do what she asked and to treat her as an honored guest, though if I was really honest, she was more of a prisoner at that point. I wanted her to stay so I could make use of her body whenever I wanted it, but I also wanted to keep an eye on her and find out who sent her to snoop around my home.
I pulled out my vintage Harley Davidson cruiser and fired up the engine. It was loud enough to disturb my neighbors, who weren’t even anywhere near me. But it sure as hell let them know who lived next door.
I rode down the drive and through the gate, gunning the engine once I hit the road.
The Immortal Devils clubhouse was in a small garage on the edge of town. We kept it up, but we didn’t do anything fancy with it. It was really just a place for us to get together, have a few drinks, shoot some pool, and maybe coordinate our actions against rival organizations. We didn’t deal with street gangs anymore like smaller MCs did. We did have a few of those under our influence, so we weren’t completely innocent when things went sour for some of the guys pushing hard drugs or weapons on our streets, but nothing could really be traced back to us.
No, our interest was in handling real business. We worked with bankers, CEOs, and corrupt politicians. We made sure that money got where it needed to go to preser
ve the order of things. We occasionally found ourselves involved in major crimes that got swept under the rug or settled out of court for a fraction of what we made off the jobs.
Then, the Sun Stone appeared, and we knew we had found something that could potentially change our lives and the future of the MC.
I pulled up to the garage, and the guys already had the bay doors open. We all parked inside, and I brought the door down behind me to go into the back office to meet with the other four.
“Alright, Gunner made it!” Duncan cheered as I walked into the room.
Luther handed me a cold bottle of beer, and I took my seat at the head of the table.
“You know, when we sell this diamond,” I told the guys, “I’m going to buy us a new headquarters. We need something nicer than this dump.”
“Yeah, I guess it’s time,” Bryce said, looking around with a nostalgic look in his eyes.
“Guys, we haven’t been this small in years, so there’s really no point to keep this place, you know?” I said, taking a swig of my beer. It was nice to pretend we were still the same old hell raisers from time to time, but that was getting harder and harder to do.
“So, I heard your new old lady was keeping you late at the house,” Venom joked.
“She’s hardly that, but I can’t keep my hands off her long enough to do anything. Did you see her at Eden?” I laughed.
“Yeah, we saw her,” Duncan said. “She’s dangerous, man. Watch out.”
“She’s up to something is what he means to say,” Venom snapped. “Watch your ass, Gunner. I mean, she just has that look. She’s a professional of some kind. Either a call girl trying to work your ass over or a thief who’s going to take you for every penny your worth, probably while you’re here tonight.”
“Guys, I appreciate your concern, and I know she’s probably up to something, but she’s not going to find anything. Not unless I practically hand it all over to her. Anyway, she’s at the house under lock and key and under the watchful eyes and guns of my security team, so I’m not worried. You shouldn’t be either.” I took another drink from my bottle.
“Alright, if you think you’re safe, boss,” Bryce said.
“Just don’t get mad when the shit hits the fan,” added Venom.
“So, I called this meeting to see what we have on our radar as far as buyers for the diamond. Anything?” I asked.
“We’ve got a guy who wants to buy, but we’re still trying to negotiate a price,” Duncan said.
“I will take no less than a billion for it,” I told him. “It’s listed as priceless, so we can name pretty much any amount we want. I’m not going less than a billion, though, because that puts it at just under twice the value of the next most valuable golden diamond. I want to hurry and get rid of it before it becomes a curse, but I don’t want to have a damn fire sale on it.”
“Got it. I told him five billion,” Duncan said.
“Great, that gives us some room,” I agreed. “Anything else?”
“That’s really it,” Bryce said. “Duncan is talking to the potential buyer, and the rest of us are just waiting to see what happens.”
“Everyone else is being quiet,” Venom added.
“Now that we have it, no one wants to buy it.” Luther laughed. His laugh was like thunder. We sometimes called him The Boulder because his last name was Stone, and his fists were massive. He was a big guy. He was our muscle, no doubt.
“Tell us more about your girl,” Duncan joked.
“You saw her, right?” I started. “I mean, do I need to say more? She’s fine as hell.”
“How is she in bed?” Of course Venom wanted to go straight for the gold with the question that was on everyone’s mind.
“Man, she is electric. Her body is tight and toned, and she’ll take anything you give her,” I said, thinking about that sweet little body lying naked in front of me. I took another drink from my bottle. It was going to be a long night with the guys. I still couldn’t get her off my mind.
Chapter Eleven
Sierra
After I heard Gunner’s motorcycle pull off, my first order of business was to disobey him. I went straight to his office despite that he had told me to stay out. I wasn’t looking for information on where I could find the Sun Stone, though. I was looking for information on Gunner Kaye. I wanted to know more about the man I was staying with. Unless I found something heinous, I was going to agree to stay as long as he would keep me. Or as long as it took to find the Sun Stone and swipe it before disappearing.
Unfortunately, I knew that Sierra Farrow was going to have to disappear for good after this job. I was going to have to adopt a permanent alias since I was stupid enough to give him my real name. It wasn’t like I hadn’t already been a hundred different people at different times in my life. I was just going to have to add one more to the list. No big deal.
I walked the bookshelves in his office, looking at the pictures he had framed on his walls. There were all sorts of pictures of him with different people. There were a lot of pictures of him with different politicians, creating an indisputable record of their dealings, probably both for showing off and just in case someone wanted to throw him under the bus after a deal gone bad. It was a brilliant CYA tool, and it seemed so innocent to the casual eye.
I wasn’t interested so much in his business dealings. I wanted something personal. I wanted to understand his inner workings. I found a picture of him when he was younger with four other guys.
“This is more like it, Gunner. You’ll have to tell me who these guys are one day,” I said to his young face as I picked the frame up from its spot on the shelf.
He was so much younger then! He had been thinner, too. It was obviously before he had started working out. I recognized the guys standing around him, too. They had all been at the Eden when I walked in, but I hadn’t noticed that they were actually with him. They had all sort of stayed apart. They had been doing their own thing, I supposed.
But there they were, five young men standing behind their motorcycles with their MC vests on. They were in front of an old run-down garage. That must have been where their clubhouse was.
“There’s no way it’s still, is it, Gunner?” I asked the younger Gunner in the picture, but he wasn’t saying anything. I realized that I held in my hand a piece of his history and a clue as to the whereabouts of the diamond. There was no way he was hiding the diamond in that dump, though, I told myself.
I put the picture back and continued to look around the room. I didn’t find any truly personal photos. The photos of the guys in the MC were about as personal as it got, and there were only a couple of those that didn’t feature everyone in formal tuxes or suits handling MC business.
“You’ve got to have a personal life, Gunner,” I said to the empty room, but then I caught myself.
I sat down in his chair with another picture of the five MC members in my hands. It was a more recent picture but they still all had the same looks on their faces. Their smiles were genuine. It wasn’t a photo-op. It was five brothers hanging out and having a good time together, no matter where they were or what kind of business they were up to.
“You should probably take your own advice,” I told myself, realizing that I had more in common with Gunner than I had originally realized.
If I’d had any pictures to go through, he would have found the same thing that I was finding in his office. I didn’t have a life outside of work, and my line of work even prevented me from having pictures of it. The only pictures that existed of my job were pictures of empty jewelry boxes and the upset faces of their owners that appeared in news articles.
I certainly didn’t have any pictures of Coyote! The last thing I wanted was something identifying my boss if I ever got caught. No, that would never do.
“Miss Sierra,” a member of his house staff said cautiously as he opened the door.
“Yeah?” I looked up from the picture. This time I wasn’t guilty of snooping, not really, so I didn’t
feel the need to hide what I was doing.
“Mr. Gunner said you weren’t supposed to be in here.” The young man entered the room and spoke politely, but I got the point.
“Sorry, I know. I was just looking at some of his pictures. He doesn’t have to know, right?” I said as I put the picture in my hand on his desk, leaving a little sign that I had been in here.
“I guess not. Your clothes are upstairs if you would like to change,” he told me.
“Thank you, but I think I’ll be calling it a night,” I told him as I walked past.
“Excellent. He said feel free to use his bed,” the staffer told me.
“Thanks,” I told him as I walked away. I would have used his bed anyway.
I went upstairs and pulled his shirt off. I took my clothes, still on the hangers from the store, and put them in Gunner’s closet. I pushed his t-shirts aside to make a temporary space for my new clothes. I knew he would probably freak when he saw them, but that was part of the point.