ZACK: Southside Skulls Motorcycle Club (Southside Skulls MC Romance Book 4)

by Jessie Cooke

  She made a face at him. “Not here. Come on back to my suite.” Zack bit back a laugh. Swinger was too controlling to build his own house and live off the grounds of the clubhouse, and he also loved being able to just walk down the hall any time of the night or day and find a willing woman to suck his dick. He had knocked out walls between three of the rooms to satisfy Mona and from then on she’d called it a “suite,” like they were at the Waldorf Astoria or some shit instead of an MC in Bumfuck, Texas. Mona had already turned on her spiky heel, and was marching out of the kitchen. Zack followed her, stopping to say hello to a few of the ladies and accepting their condolences, as if he believed they were sincere. By the time he got to the suite, Mona was pacing back and forth and tapping her heels into the tile floor. “Finally. I thought you got lost. Close the door.”

  Zack closed it and then said, “What’s this all about, Mona?”

  “Why won’t you call me Mother?”

  Zack laughed. Mona glared at him until he finally got it under control and he said, “That’s what you want to talk to me about?”

  “No. But since I never get to see you anymore, I thought I'd better address everything all at once. When you were a teenager and started calling me by my first name I just thought it was a phase. But you’re a grown-ass man now and you’re still doing it. It’s disrespectful.”

  Zack folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. He didn’t want to get into this discussion with Mona, but since she had brought it up he said, “Was there something you did, Mona, that you thought I should respect you for?”

  She narrowed her blue eyes at him and he could almost see smoke coming out her ears. “You are an ungrateful…” She stopped there. Zack smiled. She’d almost forgotten that she’d lured him here with the idea that she could talk him into accepting the nomination for president that she’d somehow finagled…and if he was voted in, she could still be queen. “Never mind. We have more important things to discuss.”

  “Such as?”

  She reached out for his hand. When he didn’t give it to her, she went over to the couch and sat down. “Come sit down…please.”

  Zack figured the sooner he let her have her say, the sooner he could get out of there, so he sat. She reached for his hand again, this time covering it with her own before he pulled away. Her hands were cold, like her heart, but she was a hell of an actress. Her face and her eyes looked completely sincere as she said, “Zack…I love you, and life around here without you the past three years has been hell. For the first month after you left, I cried myself to sleep every night. Now that your father is gone, I’m lost. I’m all alone. I need my boy.”

  Zack pulled his hand away and chuckled as he sat back against the couch. “How long did you practice that speech, Mona?”

  “Zachary! Why must you be so cynical all the time?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Because that’s the way you raised me…Mother. Let’s cut to the chase here and save us both some time. Your manipulation worked and I came home for this bogus service because even after thirty years of shit, I wanted to believe this was the one time you sincerely needed nothing from me other than my support. But once again you made a fool out of me, didn’t you, Mona?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her blue eyes filled with tears. Zack wasn’t affected by them; she did that on demand.

  “You don’t? Hmm…well, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

  “I don’t know what that little fucker Skeeter told you…”

  “You know exactly what he told me. You have been ‘campaigning’ for me without even asking me if I wanted the position of president of this club. Had you asked me, I would have said no. Now that I’m here, that hasn’t changed.”

  “Zack, I only want what’s best for you. Think of all the advantages that being president would give you. And I have no power here. If you’re nominated and voted in, it will be because these men know that you’ll do a hell of a lot better job than Randall would. You could run it the way you wanted and we…I mean, you, could have whatever you want.”

  He chuckled again and stood up. “You entertain me, Mona…but only for a few seconds at a time. Now that the truth is out and we both know you only wanted me here to try and secure your place in the palace, I think I’ll skip the memorial. I’m not up for a bunch of murderers and druggies telling me how sorry they are that my piece-of-shit father is dead. I’ll stop by and wish Randall luck on my way out.”

  Tears rolled down her face as she stood up too. Those were probably real, but they were for no one but herself. “You’re really going to pass up this opportunity…for what? You like being a nobody at that club in Tennessee? Your name means something here, Zachary!”

  “To answer your questions, in order…yes, I’m turning it down. Yes, I love being a ‘nobody’ in that club in Tennessee. So, Mona, I’ll be going now.”

  “And what happens to me? You know that Randall has never liked me. He won’t hesitate to put me on the street and what will I do then?”

  “Frankly, Mona, I don’t give a damn.” Zack turned and walked out of the room. He had to stop and take a deep breath after he closed the door. He heard something hit it from the inside. Mona was having a fit. When she was finished, she’d fix her hair and make-up and she’d put whatever backup plan she had into motion. Zack knew she had one. As he walked through the great room and out to his bike for what he was sure would be his last time, he wished that he was as unaffected by it all as he pretended he was. He didn’t even stop to see Randall. He didn’t give a shit about this club, or who ran it. But, unfortunately, even at thirty years old, he wished that he had a mother and a father who really loved him. But wishing didn’t make it so…so he did what he’d been doing his entire life, he sucked it up and moved on.

  Mona was fuming when Zack left. She hadn’t honestly expected him to agree to her plan for her, but she’d hoped he’d stay for church and that then the encouragement of all the men he’d known his entire life might do it. Now she was fucked…unless her backup plan worked. She shuddered at the thought of it…but at this point, it was her only choice. She was eighteen years old when the twenty-five-year-old president of the club, Swinger, had noticed her. She’d been high at the time, and dancing on the bar in the club. By that time, she’d fucked nearly every man in the room…except for him. He was the one she’d been waiting for. The rest of them were just stepping stones and backup plans. Mona always had a backup plan. She had come from nothing. Her mother was a junkie and her father was in and out of jail her whole life for one offense after the other. When he was home, he was a mean, abusive S.O.B., and she’d grown up hating both of her parents and plotting her escape. She left when she was sixteen, and she and a friend started hanging out with the bikers. Her friend eventually went back home, but Mona realized she’d found where she belonged. She loved the club life and she saw opportunity there…especially that first night when she saw the way Swinger was looking at her. She knew that she’d hit the lottery. Their relationship went from almost constant, hot, passionate sex, to something of a partnership over the years. Swinger told her everything, and there was nothing that shocked or disturbed her any longer. The violence was part of the gig and her husband had been man enough to know that. The only thing that bothered her about him was the way he satisfied his overactive libido with any little slut he could find. She wouldn’t have even cared about that, if he’d been discreet about it. But Swinger liked everyone to know that he had the power to stick his dick wherever he wanted to. Mona had swallowed a huge amount of pride over his sex-capades, telling herself that the rest of life as the old lady of the president was worth that sacrifice. She at least didn’t have to fuck him three times a day any longer at that point, but whenever she was in the mood, he still gave it to her.

  Mona finally pulled herself out of her memories and went into the bathroom. As she brushed her long, dark hair, she reminded herself that she still had more assets than most women her age. Her hair was soft an
d shiny and hung down to her waist, and her fifty-year-old body was hot…if she did say so herself. She had very fine lines around her blue eyes, but that was it; otherwise her skin was smooth and unblemished and she could pass for a much younger woman.

  She stepped back from the mirror so that she could see more of her body and unzipped the leather vest, just low enough to let the swell of her cleavage show through. She applied dark red lipstick to her full lips and again thought about her dead husband. Swinger loved her lips. He said they were what attracted him to her in the first place. His favorite thing was to have them wrapped around his dick last thing at night and first thing in the morning, at least before the novelty wore off and he’d gone back to fucking the other little bitches that hung around the club. She always knew he would come back to her and when he did, Mona went out of her way to make life miserable for the little hoes that he had fucked. She knew none of the women liked her, but she didn’t care. She didn’t want “girlfriends.” Women were vile, nasty bitches and Mona had yet to meet the one who wasn’t jealous of how hot and sexy she was. The men in the club liked her for the most part. She knew they all liked to look at her and fantasize about fucking her. Mona hadn’t been with another man after she got together with Swinger, but she knew she hadn’t forgotten how to please a man. She was sure she could do what she’d done all those years ago to snag the presidency of the MC again…she had just hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

  She sprayed herself lightly with the expensive perfume she favored, the one that had driven Swinger wild with passion, and left her suite. She made her way down the hall and up to the third floor of the clubhouse, where Randall stayed. She didn’t doubt that she could use her hard body and golden pussy to convince him that he couldn’t live without her. She and Randall had hooked up once, back when she was just a club girl, and she’d driven him wild with her talented mouth. She’d be willing to bet that he hadn’t had it that good since, especially when he was with that uptight bitch from the city that he had married.

  She took a deep breath and thought about growing old alone until her big blue eyes filled with tears, and then she knocked on the door. Randall looked confused when he opened it and found her there. She blinked hard until the tears began to roll down her cheeks and then she said, “I’m sorry, Randall. I just need someone to talk to. Can I come in?”

  Randall’s eyes were on her chest as he stepped back to let her in. He closed the door behind her and she smiled. He was about to get really, really lucky and afterwards, she’d have everything she wanted – she was sure of it.

  9

  Nicole wasn’t disappointed that Zack was gone when she woke up. The night before had been amazing, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to face him in the light of day. Just the thought of looking into those sexy blue eyes sent her hormones back into overdrive and when that happened, she couldn’t think clearly. She had to make some decisions about her life and she had to do what was best for herself and Liam, regardless of what Zack thought, or how attracted she was to him.

  She spent the morning alone with Liam, enjoying the first day in a long time that she didn’t have to worry about Spider busting in the front door. But, she knew she couldn’t live in hiding forever and neither could her son. Spider wouldn’t ever give up looking for her and she’d have to live life looking over her shoulder. Being here in Texas was a temporary solution, a nice vacation to clear her head. But she knew that Armand and Stacey were right about what she was going to have to do. She had to go home and she had to get a restraining order against him and she had to start reporting to the police when he violated it. She also needed to see an attorney, or legal aid at the very least, and file legal papers for full custody of Liam. She had a job and a safe place for the baby to live. Spider lived at the clubhouse where there was drinking and drugs and sex out in the open. The televisions were tuned to either sports or sex, rarely anything in between. The people all carried guns and knives and inserted the word “fuck” for any other in their vocabulary. A judge on the up and up couldn’t deny that she was the better choice of a parent to raise her son and that sending him even to visit Spider unsupervised would be a mistake. The problem, and what had kept her from doing it so far, was that she knew Spider and his club had judges, cops, and politicians on the payroll. He also had an ace up his sleeve that she wasn’t sure he’d use…but the fact that it was a possibility scared her to death. Spider had a lot more going for him then the backing of an MC, but she couldn’t let that frighten her so much that she lost her son, or took him on the run. Liam deserved a stable life and no matter how Spider presented himself, she knew he’d never get that on the run, or with his father. She had to fight for her son. He deserved that much from her.

  After Liam had his breakfast and his bath, she decided to take him out for a walk. The weather was beautiful and not too humid, for Texas. She strapped the papoose pack on her chest and slipped the baby into it. “Mama’s not going to be able to carry you like this much longer if you don’t stop growing so fast,” she told him. At his last doctor’s appointment, he’d weighed in at 18 pounds. He was a long baby too, 22 inches at birth, and now he was already 28 inches. It wasn’t a surprise that he would be a big boy. Spider was well over six feet tall and at least 250 pounds. Nicole looked down at her baby boy. He had light, almost white downy hair like she had as a child, but his dark eyes and facial features were all Spider’s. Nicole prayed that the good looks were all he ever inherited from his dad. “You ready to go exploring?” Liam smiled and babbled. Nicole took that as a yes. She grabbed the little bag she’d packed for them and before she took off, she left Zack a note so that he wouldn’t worry.

  As they walked, Nicole pointed things out to Liam and explained them to him. Spider told her she was stupid, for talking to him like he could understand. But Nicole believed that he absorbed a lot more than even she gave him credit for, and she wanted him to have every advantage as he grew up. Nicole loved the countryside. Growing up in Clarksville and living with just her parents on twenty acres, she’d had lots of experience with it. Her mom and dad weren’t social people and they’d never encouraged Nicole to be either. As she got older, she realized it was because they feared losing her someday and what they hadn’t realized was that they had been driving her away the whole time, making it impossible for her to breathe. She had left that situation and she’d gotten herself into an even worse one. Even when she was happy with Spider, she’d never been comfortable in the city. Her soul felt restless in a crowd, but in the countryside, surrounded by birds and trees and the sounds of the breeze blowing through and other small woodland animals chirping and chattering, her soul felt right at home.

  She followed a path that led from behind Zack’s house toward an open glen with verdant grass and patches of wildflowers scattered throughout. They had almost reached it when she caught the sight of movement out of the corner of her eye. Her heart began to pound and for a second she thought she might jump out of her skin. But when the moving object crossed the path a few feet in front of them, she saw that it was just a large pheasant and she pointed it out to Liam, who seemed particularly excited over it. Once the big bird had gone, they continued with more evidence that jumping at every noise or movement, waiting for something to grab you, was no way to live. She had just stepped onto the patch of soft grass when she heard the distant growl of a Harley. She turned and shaded her eyes with one hand while she searched for it. It was hard to tell from this instant, but she was almost certain that it was Zack. Letting herself relax once more, she took a small blanket out of the bag she’d brought and spread it out on the ground, and then she deposited Liam down on it. She sat a few toys a little way out in front of him and watched as he lay on his belly and tried to crawl toward them. He could scoot on his belly, but he hadn’t mastered the art of crawling on his hands and knees just yet. Even still, that didn’t keep him from trying. She wanted to do everything for him, but she forced herself to watch him struggle for several minutes before he h
ad moved about half an inch. With a smile, she reached down and handed him his teething ring. “Good job, Buddy! Before long you’ll be crawling all over the place.”

  “And then running.” The sound of Zack’s voice startled Nicole and she jumped. “I’m sorry, I thought you heard me walk up.”

  She had her hand over her heart. “No, I guess we were preoccupied with Liam’s new skills. I didn’t expect you back so early.”

  He sighed and dropped down to the grass, crossing his long legs and sitting Indian style next to her. “It was…a joke.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He smiled at her. Her insides immediately turned to Jell-O. “Don’t be. I wasn’t expecting anything less. I hope I’m not crashing your and Liam’s party.”

  Nicole looked down at the baby. He was smiling up at Zack and with the teething ring forgotten, he was reaching for the hand Zack was holding out toward him. Zack wiggled his fingers at Liam and Liam used his little arms to scoot forward on his belly before dropping down again and reaching out for one of Zack’s big fingers with his little fat hand. He wrapped his own fingers around Zack’s, and Nicole’s heart warmed at the smile Zack gave him. “Liam’s glad you came,” she said and smiled. “He likes you.”

  “Kid has good taste,” Zack told her with a wink. “What about Mom?”

  She felt her face go hot. This was the conversation she’d been hoping to avoid. “What about Mom, what?”

  He chuckled. “Does Mom like me too?” She looked down and picked at the grass for a second before she felt the fingers of Zack’s free hand on her chin. He tipped her face up to his and he locked his blue eyes into hers. “You don’t have to answer that. I was just kidding around.”

  “I like you, Zack.” Her stomach was filled with butterflies again, from just the simple touch of his fingers on her chin.