by Jessie Cooke
“You want me to cover up, baby?” Nicole shook her head and then whispered in a sexy voice:
“Don’t stop fucking me.”
Zack pushed up on his arms and let her back hit the bed. He lifted one of her legs and held it up in the air so that he could look down and watch each stroke. The sight of his cock gliding in and out of her sweet, soaked pussy was pure aphrodisiac. He heard her cry out and felt her dig her nails into him as she came. The look on her face of pure ecstasy and lust pushed him to the edge and he began to pound into her relentlessly. She gripped onto him as tightly as she could as he thrust her small body up toward the headboard with each thrust until he felt his balls tighten, and every muscle in his body tensed as he came, hard enough to make himself dizzy, and then he collapsed down on top of her, squishing her down into the mattress. He only lay there for a few seconds, fearing she couldn’t breathe, before rolling off her and gathering her in his arms. She mewed and cuddled into him and he knew at that moment he was done. He was done being a bachelor, he was finished fucking every pussy in sight. This was the only place he wanted to be, forever. Even when the silence of their heavy breaths was broken by the sound of Liam’s cries, he still knew. He was finally home.
20
The next day when Zack walked into the meeting room, Stone wasn’t alone. Skid and Justin were both there and neither of them looked very happy. “Hey,” he said and grinned. “Who died?”
Skid looked at Stone like he expected him to discipline his unruly child. Justin was the first one to speak, however.
“The baby is okay?”
Zack sat down. “Yeah, he’s good.” He looked at Stone and said, “I don’t know what you did, but thank you.”
“You want to know what he did?” Skid asked, in a harsh tone. “He put the future of this club in jeopardy for you and some random pussy.” Zack was on his feet before Skid finished the word. Justin and Stone both stood up.
“You better watch your mouth.”
“Or what? Who the fuck do you think you are?” Skid asked him. “Your place in this club is hanging by a thread. The only reason you’re still here as far as I’m concerned is because you manipulate Stone…”
“Skid, shut the hell up!” Stone barked out. “I am not some senile old man that can be manipulated. I did for Zack the same that I would have done for any other member of this club, and the alliance with the Defenders is as intact as it ever was. You’re the one teetering on the brink here.” Stone rarely raised his voice. That was usually Skid’s place. Skid looked stunned, and Justin and Zack stood frozen to their spots until Stone said, “Everyone sit the hell down. I’m on the verge of kicking all of your asses out of here and starting over with a club full of men that know how to show some fucking respect.” Zack and Justin looked at each other as they took their seats. They hadn’t been as close lately as they used to be, but the look on Justin’s face reminded Zack of their old days together and he felt his lips twitch. “Don’t you dare fucking smile, Zachary!” Stone bellowed at him. Zack bit the inside of his cheek and took his seat.
He made eye contact with Stone then and said, “I’m sorry for the trouble I’ve caused the club, I truly am. But you know me well enough to know that if this was just about pussy,” he glared at Skid when he said that, “I would never have put you in this position. This woman means a lot to me and so does the boy.” He thought he saw Skid roll his eyes out of the corner of his. The older man was begging for an ass-whooping and if he wasn’t wearing that VP patch, Zack would be happy to give it to him.
“Like I said,” Stone went on, “it’s been handled, for now. I got their prez to have that boy take the baby back, but he said he wouldn’t stand in the way of him filing papers with the court. If he gets visiting rights or partial custody or whatever, you’re going to have to learn how to live with that.”
“That’s fine,” Zack said. There was no way any judge in his right mind would grant Spider custody over Nicole. It would be hard on her to have to go through the court hearings, but she could handle that as long as Liam was safe at home with her throughout.
“Okay,” Stone said. “Now, back to club business. Tell us about the meeting with Dax Marshall.” The Invaders were looking for an alliance with a club on the east coast thanks to a lucrative deal falling into their laps. One of the club members had a relative who worked on a cargo ship that docked along Massachusetts Bay. That ship normally carried cheaply made furniture and goods from islands in the Atlantic such as the Madeiras and São Tomé and Principe, but this sailor had stumbled into a partnership with a group involved with shipping valuable artifacts, sought after by collectors all over the world. What the Invaders needed from the South Side Skulls was mostly safe passage, and maybe a little extra security…basically what the Invaders were allied with the Defenders to do, only with guns.
“Dax was interested, although he didn’t seem to impressed with the numbers we were offering, He said that he would meet with his executives this week and get back to us soon.”
“Those numbers were higher than any offer he’d get from anyone else,” Skid said. “The risk here is all on us to get those crates moved over a thousand miles, and then there’s the fencing and laundering – none of that will be cheap, or easy. If Dax Marshall wants a bigger cut, then maybe we need to look around at other clubs in the area.”
Zack had a retort on his lips, but he remembered what Stone had just said about respect. He looked to him and the older man nodded. “Dax Marshall and the Skulls are the only club with any kind of clout on the east coast unless you go looking in New York. If you do that, you’re pulling from clubs that are made up of men who grew up in street gangs or are deeply connected to the mob. The Skulls are already close to Boston and in my opinion, trustworthy. If we have to throw them a few more bucks, then I’d say that’s what we should do.”
“And since when do you make decisions for this club?” Skid asked. Justin had stayed silent so far, but he spoke up then.
“I don’t hear Zack making decisions, I hear him making suggestions. Isn’t that what we send our nomads out to do? The bylaws say they are to represent the club in creating relationships and alliances and gathering information. I’m sorry, Skid, but that’s what I’m hearing. The final vote is always still up to the executives.”
“I agree,” Stone said. “Let’s wait for Dax to call with his numbers and we’ll take it to the board at that time. I don’t see the point in jumping the gun and getting ourselves involved in a mess that we don’t want to be in the middle of.”
Skid didn’t say anything to that, but Zack could see that it pissed him off. He had to bite the inside of his cheek again to keep from smiling. He hadn’t realized until lately just how much he disliked his V.P. Thankfully, he spent most of his time on the road and he didn’t have to deal with him that often. Of course, that thought made him think about Nicole and Liam. He was scheduled to take off soon…and he had no idea how he was going to leave them.
Dax had just finished explaining to his executives and a handful of his most trusted brothers what Zack Leoni had driven up to Massachusetts to talk to him about. He’d done a lot of thinking about it and in his opinion, the club could use the extra income, if Stone was willing to go just a little higher.
“Artifacts?” Jimmy, the road captain, and Cody’s on again, off again best friend, asked. “Like Egyptian shit?”
Dax smiled. “I couldn’t really tell you whose shit it is, but yeah, like that, I guess. These are collector’s items that somehow ‘fell off’ of the boat they were supposed to be on, and that’s as much information about it as we need to know. Basically, we’re giving them the okay to pass through our territory, and providing any extra muscle they might need.”
“And they’re paying us well?” Handsome, Dax’s V.P. asked.
“Well, I wasn’t completely impressed with their offer,” Dax said, “but Zack thought Stone might be willing to go a few K’s higher. If that’s the case, my vote would be yea for su
re.”
“So what’s the number?” Hawk asked. Hawk was an odd part of the Skulls. He had started the club with Dax’s father in the old days and then after a split between the two, he started his own club. Things didn’t go well for them, and the only reason Hawk was still alive was because of a conversation he and Dax had that opened Dax’s eyes to the fact that his father wasn’t the perfect legend he had always wanted to believe he was. The old man still rubbed him and most of the other guys in the club the wrong way, however. He was rude and crass and pushy…some days Dax wasn’t sure why he let him stay around.
“They’re offering five K for each run – five guys, three days there and back.”
Hawk scoffed, but he wasn’t the only one. “Bullshit,” Handsome said. “What offer are you throwing back at them?” he asked Dax.
“I was thinking seven.”
“Eight,” Hawk said. Dax gave him a look that he hoped the old man interpreted as shut the hell up, right before Handsome said, “I agree with Hawk. Eight is still low if they’re moving these artifacts to the right people.”
Before Dax could speak, Cody said, “Who would you send on these runs?”
“We’ll have to take that to church once the deal is made. I’d ask for volunteers first.” Dax could tell by the look on Cody’s face what the younger man was thinking. He hated to be away from Harley, and Dax suspected that the idea of her working with Kyle and seeing him every day probably made it worse. They still had another week before the DNA results came back, so he was sure that was eating away at him as well. He sighed and reminded himself that Cody was a grown man and he’d have to start letting him handle his own shit. He had something else he needed to bring up, and it was important. “If we can put that away for now, I’ll let you all know when I hear back from Stone. I have something else I need to talk about. I’m going to have Gunner come in here in a few, but I wanted to put it out there to you all first.” He paused and waited for the chatter about the Invaders’ offer to settle down and then he said, “The Head Hunters have a new president, Randall Covey.”
“Gunner’s old lady’s father?” Jimmy asked.
“Yeah.”
“He seemed alright,” Cody said. “I trusted him a lot more than I did their last president, Leoni’s father.”
“So did I,” Dax said. “Normally, with them in Texas, I wouldn’t care. Their shit wouldn’t affect us. But it seems that Randall has taken the appointment of president with his major promise to his club being that he plans to avenge Swinger’s death.”
“He’d take out his daughter’s old man?” Jimmy asked.
“I’m not sure he would, if left to his own devices,” Dax said. “But Zack says that his new old lady is pushing for it and so is a big portion of the club.”
“So, you think they’ll come here?” Handsome said, “or do we go there and handle it before they bring war down on the ranch?”
“That’s the question,” Dax said.
Cody chuckled and said, “We could always give them Gunner.” Jimmy and old Hawk laughed too, but Dax’s hard stare had Cody holding up his palms and saying, “Kidding, it was a joke.” Dax rolled his eyes and said:
“I want to give you all some time to think on it. We’ll bring it back up at church in a couple of days and get the vote of all the brothers, but if you have any input, that would be the time to voice it.” He gave Cody another look that didn’t need any interpretation. His head was pounding again by the time they called the meeting, and he still had to talk to Gunner. Sometimes he wished that he was just another one of the brothers, home, making love to his hot old lady…and maybe making a baby or two as well.
21
Nicole stepped out of the door of the bakery after five hours of work with a smile on her face. It had been four days since Spider brought Liam back and she hadn’t seen any sign of him. It was the first time since she found the nerve to leave him that she was beginning to believe things were going to turn out okay. Zack had spent the night with her the night before. Stacey was there too, so they’d locked themselves in the bathroom after Liam went to sleep and had a quickie up against the tile counter. Nicole smiled at the memory. Seeing his face in the mirror as he drove into her from behind had been perfect. He was so gorgeous; she was beginning to wonder how she’d get through the months that he’d be gone on the road, without seeing that sexy smile. Zack hadn’t mentioned leaving, lately, but she knew he was a nomad and she knew he had a job to do. She wasn’t ignorant to the ways of an MC. For 99% of the men in the club, it was for life. It was a lifestyle she had been happy to get away from when she left Spider, and one she’d promised herself that she’d never be a part of again. But Zack was a force unlike any other in her life. Besides Liam, she’d never been so attached to another human being. She knew she had some hard decisions to make, but for the time being she was just finally enjoying her life.
“Nicole Stafford?” She looked to her right. A young man in a blue button-down shirt and khaki pants stood there with a manila envelope in his hand.
“Yes…?”
He handed her the envelope. She took it before she even considered what it might be. “You’ve been served,” he said. “Have a nice day.”
“Wait…what?” She looked down at the envelope in her hands. She knew what it was. It was what Spider promised her – he was suing for custody of Liam. She’d thought that he was bluffing. Spider and the rest of his club usually only dealt with the law in any capacity when they were forced to. The fact that he would sue her for custody was a big step for him. It meant that he’d have to reach out to his family and, at least temporarily, clean up his life. It made her regret once again that she’d never involved the cops in his abuse of her. At least there would be documentation if she’d done that when she had the chance. Shit. She opened the envelope and pulled out the legal papers and looked at them. He was asking for full custody, which would be the worst-case scenario. He also included a petition for visitation. Nicole’s good day darkened that quickly. She tried to tell herself that there was no way he could win, but she knew deep down that there was a good chance that he could. As she drove home she thought about all the things he’d done since they’d been together and all the times he’d escaped the consequences that a “normal” person would have to face. She had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that she was screwed.
Zack had just driven up in front of Nicole’s apartment when his phone rang. He was surprised when he looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Tammy. “Hey, girl, what’s up?”
“Your mother, that’s what. What the fuck, Zack? Is she crazy?”
He didn’t let Tammy hear him laugh; that would just piss her off more. “Well, yes, Tammy, she is.”
“She must really have a magic pussy.”
“Ew, do you mind? This is my mother we’re talking about.”
“And my father. What kind of slut moves in on the V.P. as soon as her man is dead?”
“I’m not denying anything you want to say about her, but please leave her reproductive organs out of it.”
“We have to go to Texas.”
“Um…we?”
“Yes. I need to talk to Dad in person and while I’m there, I can see Tommy. You need to go and try to talk some sense into that she-devil that gave birth to you.”
“Tams, you know I love you, but no. Not just no, but no way. I’ve already spent enough time with my mother in the past month for a lifetime of regret. She’s not going to listen to anything I have to say. She’s pissed at me and she’s in control mode where Randall is concerned. He wouldn’t even see me before I left, so good luck trying to talk any sense into him.”
“He’s not sending his goons after Gunner – I’ll kill him myself.”