Red Eyes MC: Books 1 - 3

by Grey, Blair

  I grinned. “He studied medicine, actually. It came up once in passing, while we were drunk. Back when I was just talking about getting my master’s.”

  Cameron shook his head. “Fuck, I never would have guessed that,” he said. He thought about it for a minute. He almost looked like he wanted to say something about it, but then he shook his head again. “Anyway, it just seems like you’re the smart, rational one out of all of us. If anyone should be preaching patience and deliberation and fact-finding, it seems like it should be you.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I may have my degree, but remember my role in the club,” I said. “I’m an enforcer. I’ve been trained to think with my fists when it comes to club business.”

  “It’s something more than that,” Cameron said.

  “I have anger issues?” I suggested.

  “Bullshit,” Cameron said. He munched on a fry. “Tell me why it’s so important to you that we go after the Unknowns right now.”

  “Because the longer we wait, the stronger they’re going to get. The more of a foothold they’re going to get here. The bolder they’re going to get.” I paused. “We had the perfect chance to strike when Ray and Willy met with Lex and his thugs out in the desert. Ray and Will kicked their asses, but they didn’t finish the deal. Ray’s stupid idealism, I’m sure. He wanted to give them the chance to turn their backs and run. Instead, they ransacked the fucking clubhouse.”

  “Right,” Cameron said. “And what, you think they’re going to recruit more people the longer we sit and wait?”

  “I don’t know what they’re going to do,” I said frankly. “I’m not arguing with Ray about the fact that our information regarding the Unknowns is a little limited. I might even agree that it’s dangerously limited. I don’t think it’s a smart idea to rush into something that we only partly understand. I just think it’s an even stupider idea to keep waiting, month after month, when it’s clear that the only way we’re going to get more information about them is through how they move in on our territory.”

  “Weren’t you having luck with some of your sources?” Cameron asked. “Willy said you were getting loads of information about who was involved and everything.”

  “I was, at first. It was pretty easy to get names and stuff. They weren’t careful. But it didn’t take me long to find out that those names were fake. They didn’t lead anywhere.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I ran them through the system,” I said. “They don’t exist. Lex Ralston just showed up in the system a couple months before we first heard of the Unknowns. He registered a car in his name, under a license that’s probably a fake. There’s no birth certificate, no school record, none of that.”

  Cameron’s eyebrows were almost in his hairline. “Jesus, what the hell kind of stuff do you do in your free time that you have access to that kind of information?”

  I smirked. It was no secret that no one in the club knew the kinds of things I really was involved in. Oh, it was nothing major, more hobby stuff than anything else. But I definitely knew how to hack into a system, and let’s just say I had a certain level of security clearance due to some of the contracting work I did on the side when I wasn’t busy with Red Eyes business.

  Cameron snorted. “You don’t seem like the evil-mastermind type,” he said.

  I had to laugh at that. “I’m not,” I said. “But come on, you’re not exactly the type to be involved in a motorcycle club, either.”

  “You know why I’m involved,” Cameron said. He paused. “But honestly, why are you involved in Red Eyes? No one’s ever been able to figure it out. And I’m not saying that you don’t make a damned good enforcer when you want to. At least you fit the mold for a biker. Just seems like if you went to all that trouble of getting your master’s, maybe you might have done something else with your life.”

  “I thought about it,” I answered honestly. “But I didn’t exactly choose this for myself. Situations, you know.”

  “What kind of situations?” Cameron asked, frowning. “Like with Willy?”

  “Nah, I had other places to turn. My dad didn’t turn his back on me.” I laughed and shrugged. “Actually, that’s exactly the reason: my dad didn’t turn his back on me.” I could see that Cameron didn’t understand, so I finally told him that crucial tidbit, the one that no one in the club, other than Ray and myself, knew: “My dad and Ray were partners, once upon a time. I was pretty much brought up as a member of the club.”

  “Shit, how didn’t I know that?” Cameron asked, looking surprised. When I didn’t answer, he narrowed his eyes. “So what did you really want to do with your life, then?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” I said. “I’m in the business now. And even though Ray and I don’t always see eye to eye, the guy is practically family to me. I could never turn my back on the club.”

  It wasn’t as though I had never considered doing something different with my life. I had other interests. And I was almost jealous of Will, able to put the club to one side so easily. He had decided he wanted to go back to school, and he had. He was pulling back from the club more and more. I could tell, with each conversation that we had, that he was less interested in the club issues like the Unknowns or the local businesses. Sure, he still did what his father-in-law, Ray, asked him to do. But it wasn’t the same.

  Yet as much as I envied him for that, I also just plain didn’t understand it. I had managed to find a balance between what I wanted to do with my life and what I owed to the club. I knew Will could probably do the same if he just tried. But, to each their own.

  Just then, there was a commotion at one of the other tables. It was a pair of bigger dudes. Thugs, maybe, if they had been part of Red Eyes. Tattooed and muscular, but young and stupid. The owner, Pete, had just brought over their check, and they were laughing and jeering. One of the men crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it in Pete’s face.

  Pete, for his part, wrung his hands, looking like he didn’t know what to do. He was a small, wiry man. No match for these two. He glanced back over his shoulder at our table, and that was all the invitation I needed to get involved.

  I stood up swiftly and went over to their table, leaning casually against it. “Is there a problem here, boys?”

  “Nope,” one of the thugs said brightly, giving me a toothy grin. “We were just explaining to Peter here that—”

  “That you’re going to pay your bill, plus add a thirty-percent tip to make up for your behavior?” I interrupted.

  “Hell no, man!” the guy on the left said, laughing and looking at his friend like, can you believe this?

  They clearly didn’t know who I was, and they clearly didn’t have any idea what they were getting themselves into. Didn’t stop me from slamming the one guy’s head down onto the table. There was a sickening crunch, his nose breaking maybe. I raised an eyebrow at the other guy, who scowled at me.

  “So you weren’t explaining that you were going to pay your bill, plus add a forty-percent tip?”

  The guy stared at me for a moment, and I actually thought he might be stupid enough to continue to fight over it. But then, he rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure, whatever,” he snapped. “We’ll pay our bill.”

  “Good,” I said, releasing his buddy’s head and going back over to Cameron. “You done?” I asked, throwing a wad of my own cash down on the table even though we didn’t have the bill yet.

  “Yep, sure,” Cameron said, wiping his mouth with his napkin. I could tell that he was fighting a grin.

  My eyes trailed the two thugs as they walked to the counter to pay. The one had a napkin shoved up to his nose, stemming the flow of blood there. I felt no small amount of satisfaction over that. It wasn’t even exactly what I’d been going for, but hey, hopefully it meant the lesson would stick. You didn’t fuck around on Red Eyes territory, and especially not with the business that paid for protection from us.

  Kids these days…

  The guy paying the tab narrowed his eyes at me as
he waited for Pete to make change. “You’ve just made an enemy,” he informed me.

  I had to laugh at the movie-style dialogue. “Seriously?” I asked. I spread my arms wide. “You want to have a go at me, let’s take this outside. What I did to your buddy, though? I can do ten times worse to you.”

  “It’s not just me,” the guy spat. He jerked his thumb at his bloodied companion. “This kid’s the nephew of the leader of the Unknowns. You must have heard of them; they’re the most powerful biker gang around Las Cruces.”

  My blood boiled at that, but I kept from leaping at the guy. He wasn’t the guy I really wanted, even if he was going around spouting off about how the Unknowns were the most powerful MC around. I wanted to say something about how they didn’t seem very powerful at the moment if the two of them couldn’t even take me on without being forced to pay their bill.

  I wanted to say something even more snarky, about the fact that Lex and his goons had been no match for Ray and Will during that stupid meeting of theirs.

  But instead, I narrowed my eyes at them. “Yeah, you think Lex is going to be pissed at me?” I asked nonchalantly, as though I couldn’t care one way or the other. I smirked at his surprised look. “You didn’t think I’d know who you were talking about, did you?” I asked. “Because Lex really hasn’t made that much of a name for himself.”

  The kid sputtered. Cameron put a hand on my shoulder, a warning. It would be so easy to jump these two, right here and now. But they weren’t the ones I really wanted. They were just stupid, entitled brats.

  I took a step closer to the thugs, but I didn’t raise my fists for a fight. “Next time you see Lex, you tell him that I’m coming for him,” I said. Then, I turned and stalked out, Cameron following behind me.

  4

  Leila

  Thursday

  I held up the tiniest pair of shoes I’d ever seen, my internal clock practically squeeing with how cute they were. Rachel laughed beside me. “He’s not that little anymore,” she said, gesturing at Gavin, who had run off down the aisle in search of some light-up shoes, or maybe some superhero shoes, or maybe… He wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted and watching him get excited over pair after pair was just as squeeworthy.

  I grinned at Rachel. “I wasn’t thinking for Gavin.”

  Rachel raised an eyebrow at me. “Is there something you’re not telling me?” she asked teasingly.

  I laughed. “No, I’m not pregnant,” I told her, rolling my eyes. “Trust me; you’d know it if I was. But aren’t these the cutest things you’ve ever seen?”

  “They are pretty cute,” she agreed. Her eyes twinkled. “Why don’t you get them and put them away for when you have your little one?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Not happening,” I said, even though I was filled with a slight regret as I put the shoes back down on the shelf. “Even if I only bought one thing every time I came shopping with you and Gavin, I’d have closets full of stuff for my unborn child by now. I just can’t help it; it’s all so adorable.”

  “You gotta get yourself a man so you can get your family started,” Rachel said, kneeling down to help Gavin try on a pair of shoes.

  “Where’s Victor anyway?” I asked while I watched mother and son.

  Rachel glanced over her shoulder at me, a small frown on her lips. “Away on business. As usual.”

  “I knew that,” I said. “But where in the world?”

  “London. I think.” Rachel frowned. “Yeah, I think it’s London. And then Belgium later this week.” She sighed. “This one’s a long one.”

  “Seems like they’re all long ones.”

  “Yeah,” Rachel said. “And I love having a hubby who’s good at what he does, don’t get me wrong. I’m so proud of him. I never thought his start-up would take off like this. But I just wish we got more time with him.”

  “See, this is exactly why I don’t want a man,” I joked, hoping to lighten the mood. “They’re always gone away. I’d rather have no one than have someone that I was always missing.”

  Rachel snorted. “You just don’t know what you’re missing out on,” she told me.

  “How are those superhero kicks feeling, Gavin?” I asked, watching in amusement as he jumped up and down at the far end of the aisle to make them light up. Of course he had found what must be the one pair of shoes that had everything he wanted: cool colors, lights, and superheroes. Kid was living the dream.

  “They’re awesome!” Gavin cheered.

  I raised an eyebrow at Rachel, who laughed. “I guess we have a winner,” she said. “Come back over here, bud, so I can make sure they fit right. We want to get them a little big, right, so that your toes have room to grow in them.”

  She fussed around with the shoes for a couple of minutes while I browsed over in the women’s section. God, they had some killer shoes here. Not that I would ever have a reason to wear half of these things. I was lucky to make it out of my sneakers most days. With the amount that I worked, I pretty much only existed in comfortable footwear. The nicest shoes I had was probably a pair of tan, strappy sandals, but I couldn’t remember the last time I had worn them. I wasn’t sure I even owned a pair of heels anymore.

  “You should buy those,” Rachel said, appearing just over my shoulder while I was admiring a pair of heeled black booties.

  I rolled my eyes. “When would I ever wear them?” I asked. “I don’t even know if I remember how to wear heels anymore.”

  Rachel giggled. “It’s like riding a bike,” she said. She frowned. “I don’t remember the last time I wore heels either, though. I think it must have been to one of Victor’s work shindigs.”

  “At least you have those,” I sighed.

  “We should go out together soon,” Rachel said, sounding excited. “I’ll get a babysitter for the night, and we can get all dolled up like we don’t normally get to do.”

  “Sure,” I said, even though I doubted it would actually happen. Rachel liked to suggest things like that every now and then, but usually on the rare nights when we both actually had a little free time, between her motherly duties and my work duties, we were both so pooped that we opted to just stay in, watch a chick flick, and eat junk food.

  And I liked that about our relationship. It was relaxing and comfortable.

  I led the way out of the store before Rachel could talk me into buying some entirely impractical footwear, steering us toward the food court. Gavin had changed into his new shoes, so he’d run ahead of us for a couple of paces and then run back to us, watching as his shoes lit up. Unfortunately, he was so caught up in the way his shoes looked that he didn’t notice the woman just coming out of the bathroom, and he slammed right into her legs, bouncing off and falling over. He immediately started wailing.

  Rachel and I exchanged a glance, and both hurried over. While she apologized to the woman, I knelt down next to Gavin. “Hey, buddy, did you get a boo-boo?” I asked, using my best soothing tone. “Do you think you can be a big boy and tell me where?”

  Gavin was accident-prone, like most boys his age, and this wasn’t the first time we’d gone through this. He knew exactly what to do by now, taking a big breath, his tears slowing. He nodded, his lower lip wobbling, and held out his hand, which he had probably slammed down onto the tiles when he fell back. It was a little red, but I could tell there was no lasting damage.

  I bent down and blew a raspberry on his hand, grinning as the boy giggled. “How about this?” I suggested. “Rachel and I will monkey-swing you between us all the way to the food court. But every time you land, you’ve got to give a really big stomp so that your shoes stay lit up until your next stomp. Do you think you can do that?”

  “Yeah!” Gavin said enthusiastically, already forgetting that he had fallen over. He jumped to his feet and held his hands up expectantly, waiting for me to take one and Rachel to take the other. Together, the three of us made our way to the food court.

  “You’re so good with him,” Rachel said, once we were seated with our fo
od. “Like really good with him. You’re going to make a great mother.”

  “One day, maybe,” I sighed, trying not to feel too down about it. Just because things hadn’t happened yet, it wasn’t the end of the world. Plenty of people waited until their thirties before they even started considering having kids.

  But there was a part of me, the part that had studied medicine, that insisted on reminding me about how much my chances dropped with each passing year. Especially because, statistically speaking, any guy that I got serious about was probably going to be older than me, at least by a year or two, and that meant that his success rate for insemination would be dropping as well.

  “Well, if you would just find yourself a man,” Rachel said, but she gave me a fond look.

  “It’s not as easy for most of us as it was for you,” I retorted. “We don’t all have the luck of falling for our neighbor in college.”

  “No, your neighbor was pretty terrible,” Rachel said, grinning. “But I don’t know, do you ever think maybe your standards are just a little too high? What’s your idea of the perfect man for you, anyway?”

  I shrugged. “Wants to have kids, obviously.”

  “Obviously,” Rachel said, rolling her eyes. “And the s-e-x is good too, that goes without saying.”

  “Exactly,” I agreed, giggling. But after that, I drew a blank. I shrugged again. “I don’t have time to dream. I don’t really know what I’m looking for.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Rachel declared. “Everyone’s got a type. You have to at least know what kind of guy you’ve been attracted to in the past.”

  “I don’t know if there was a type,” I said. “They were just… attractive guys.”

  “That narrows it down,” Rachel said sarcastically. She clapped her hands together. “That settles it. You and I have to go out on a girl night. Tomorrow. I’ll find a sitter, and we’ll get dressed up. I want to see you looking smoking hot, and don’t tell me you don’t think you can do that because you have an amazing bod. I’d kill to have curves like you. Or hair like you.”