I slid my cock deep inside her and my hips stopped. I couldn't move. I didn’t want to move. My entire body locked up as her pussy clamped down onto me, pulling my cock deeper. Milking it. Massaging it. Pulling me to the lustful precipice I sought with her. I crashed my lips against hers as the mist encompassed us. I swallowed her moans as growls of my own worked their way up my throat. I found her hands and threaded our fingers together, feeling her body unleash itself against me.
And then, as my cock exploded against her walls, I pinned her wrists above her head.
“I love you, Stone,” she whispered.
“I—love you, too. Hayley,” I choked out.
My orgasm overpowered me in ways I’d never experienced. My knees went weak and I slid to the floor, taking her with me. I knelt there, my forehead falling against her shoulder while my cock stayed sheathed within her warmth. She unthreaded our fingers and ran them through my hair, scratching my neck as I breathed her in.
“I’ve got you. I’ve got you, Stone,” she whispered.
She kissed the side of my ear and it filled me with a renewed sense of vigor. I reached up and turned off the misters, then turned off the shower altogether. I picked her up into my trembling arms, listening as she squealed and giggled. She held on tightly to me as I walked on shaky legs, carrying us out of the bathroom and to my bed.
I collapsed us to the mattress where I pulled my comforter over us.
“Come here,” I said.
She nestled into me and I felt her cheek fall against my chest. I laid there on my back, running my fingers through her hair while her fingertips drew faceless designs on my abs. My world spun. It tilted with the pleasure that still rocked my veins. Hayley slipped her leg over my thigh and I grinned at the wetness that coated my skin.
Then, Hayley sighed.
“Please tell me about the crew,” she said softly.
I nodded before I kissed the top of her head.
“We’re called The Lost Boys. And while we do a lot to help out the community of San Diego, we got ourselves into some dark stuff for a time. Gun running. Money laundering. The files you saw were right about that,” I said.
“I looked you guys up online. And all I see are praises from the community,” she said.
“Well, that doesn’t excuse the darkness we slip into from time to time. I mean, we’re working on getting out of all that bad stuff. Sinking our profits into the bar industry, actually.”
“Biker bars,” she said, giggling.
I pulled her closer to me. “Something like that.”
Silence fell over us and my eyes eased open.
“You wanna tell me why you locked up when I mentioned your father in the parking lot?” I asked.
She tensed against me and I held her even tighter. I wanted her to know that she wasn’t running. I wouldn't let her. I cared for her too much. Loved her too much to let things like this stand between us any longer.
“I…”
“Take your time. I’m right here,” I said.
It took her a while to gather her thoughts. But when she started talking, she couldn't stop.
“I’m having so many doubts about my father. I mean, that night? With the sting? I researched so much about my mother. I mean, when I was in my father’s office looking at stuff about you guys, I also started searching for stuff about my mother. Her obituary. Pictures of her. A death certificate. Anything. My father never talks about her. Never regales me with memories. And I realized that day that we don’t even have pictures of her hanging on the walls. It’s like she didn’t exist,” she said.
“That’s definitely odd,” I said.
“So, I took to the internet that night of the sting. You know, to see what I could find. I couldn't find her obituary and public records doesn’t have a death certificate for her. And I started thinking about my father coming after you guys and why he never talks about my mother. Why the topic always seems to make him angry and frustrated with me. I mean, I just want to know my mother. Right? And he won’t let me know her. I have a right to know these things.”
“You do,” I said.
“There are so many seeds of doubt I have with my father right now. And they’re growing every day. He won’t take my calls. He won’t open the door when I come over. I haven’t seen him all week because he won’t see me. I haven’t talked to him since that morning when I went over for breakfast. The morning that started this whole shitshow in the first place. And part of me thinks he’s figured out that I’m tangled up in you, but part of me thinks…”
I kissed her forehead. “Thinks what, love?”
She giggled against me before she pressed a kiss to my chest.
“You like that?” I asked.
“So much,” she whispered.
I crooked my finger underneath her chin, tilting her gaze to mine.
“What do you think, love?” I asked.
She sighed. “I think my prejudice my father has for motorcycle crews and my mother are related, and not because of her death.”
I pondered her words for a long time before I dipped my lips down to kiss her. She pressed up my body, wanting to be closer to me. I wrapped her up into my arms and pulled her on top of me. I parted my legs, allowing her to slide between my thighs as I gazed into her gorgeous eyes. I smoothed her hair back behind her ear. I saw the weariness and the hurt behind them.
I wanted to make it all go away. I wanted to take all of her pain upon my shoulders so she wouldn't have to bear it.
“What are we going to do, Stone?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. But I love you. And I can promise you we’ll figure this out together. Okay?” I asked.
“I love you, too. So much.”
And as her cheek fell against my chest, I pulled the covers over us. I tucked us both in, blanketing us from the outside world. Literally. Hayley had become a beacon of light in my life. Someone I could rely on. Someone I loved. And if there were answers to questions about her life that she was privy to, I’d help her get them.
I vowed, in that very moment, do to whatever it took to protect Hayley. To guide her. To love her. To get her whatever it was she needed. No matter what it cost me in the process.
Because she was perfection. She made my life worth living. She made treading through all this bullshit worth it. She made getting clean worth it.
She was now my world.
Which meant she had my full devotion, no matter what.
Sneak Peak at Bronx
I took my glasses off and sat at my desk. Stone had me working all sorts of odd hours trying to legitimize these purchases and clean all this money quickly from the guns we sold from Yung and his pack of bandits. I massaged my temples while numbers raced through my head. If the guys ever barged into my office and saw that I needed glasses at twenty-five years old to read all these damn numbers, I’d never hear the end of it. But, the small print alone gave me headaches while squinting in my dimly lit office. And with a church meeting coming up, I had to make sure I had the proper figures to give them.
Especially with Stone making strides to open up a new bar.
We had to lay low for an entire week. A whole week in that sweaty, smelly bunker with the crew and nothing but a rudimentary set up of tech. I mean, I got it. I understood it. But, with our crew having girls and children we needed to protect, I felt like a sitting duck. Some sort of stable target for someone to come bomb. Ella and Keva needed protection. Whoever the hell Stone had as an informant needed protection as well. From the police. From the Chinese.
From fucking Boulder.
“Absolute asshat,” I murmured.
I tossed my glasses down and leaned back into my chair. I sighed and closed my eyes, listening as the door to the lodge burst open every now and again. The guys were gathering. After dispersing from the bunker and going to get a drink at the bar with Notch, I’d been hard at work. For four days, I pushed money through to clean it. For four days, I ran calculations and reran new budgets to keep us in check. For four day
s, I worked alongside Notch, making sure the Chinese couldn’t be traced back to us. Working so this lodge was fortified and safe in case we needed it.
And we really needed it.
“Bronx. You ready?” Stone asked.
He rapped his knuckles against my office door as I sighed.
“Yep. Gimme a sec,” I said, groaning.
I stood up from my desk and gathered up the papers. I knew the guys wouldn't give a shit-all about looking at them. But, I had them in case I needed to remember some things. Usually, I could rattle off numbers and formulas off the top of my head. But, when pressure settled onto our shoulders, it was ride or die. Survived, or be eaten. And during those times, my mind didn’t give a fuck-all about numbers.
All it cared about was protecting myself and the people around me.
I came out of my office and started for the lodge. I clenched the papers in my hand, making my way for the guys. I tucked my glasses away in the breast pocket of my leather jacket so they wouldn't tease the ever-loving hell out of me for them. And when I got there, they were all standing around and waiting.
“So, how bad is it?” Stone asked.
I shrugged. “Not as bad as you think.”
“The money clean?” Notch asked.
“Yep. Money’s all been run through the bar, traded out for twenties and fifties, stuck back into the bar, and has been used for the past three days. Far as I’m concerned, the money we unloaded has been equally traded through the bar, with little to no loss incurred,” I said.
“English?” Texas asked.
I quirked an eyebrow. “That wasn’t English enough for you?”
Stone chuckled. “A simple ‘yes’ would have done.”
I rolled my eyes. Sometimes, even the guys underestimated my knowledge because of what I looked like. Deep brown eyes. Black hair. Just under six feet tall with two hundred and thirty pounds of muscle on me. Sure, I had tattoos everywhere. Down my arms. Along my thighs. A damn mural on my back. Dates and names and shit on my chest. But, that didn’t mean I was a fucking idiot.
However, sometimes I felt like I was surrounded by them.
That was what drew me into the man I won’t name. The asshat detective that betrayed all of us. He was smart. Too smart. And I should have noticed it. Thank hell, I listened to my gut. Thank fuck, I didn’t put him in charge of counting money and shit at the bar. That man could have done some fucking damage had I really let him in like I should have with any other prospect.
My gut was the only thing I trusted nowadays. Especially with all this shit kicking up.
“How good are we on funds?” Notch asked.
“You mean how much are we all gonna get paid?” I asked.
“That, too. But, if you’d tuck in the attitude long enough, I’d also like to know how we are lookin’ in terms of settin’ up another bar,” Stone said.
I rolled my eyes. “Each of us will easily take home two hundred and fifty thousand from the sales we’ve made. Even with the discounts we gave clients, those two shipments were hefty as fuck. I’ll divvy it out equally like we always do, every two weeks. So, nothing will change through the end of the year.”
“Perfect. That’s what I was goin’ for. And the bar?” Stone asked.
“Already talked about it, remember? Got a reserve account in a fake name up and ready to go whenever we wanna start,” I said.
“That hasn’t been compromised?” Texas asked.
I shook my head. “Nope. And I make sure it isn’t. Because if all else fails with this shit, that’s money we can live off of sparingly until we get our shit together.”
“Damn, you’re good,” Notch said, grinning.
At least someone thought so.
“Okay. Since our money situation is under control, that begs another question. The fuck are we doing about the Chinese and that damn detective now?” Texas asked.
“Well, we do have something working in our favor with the detective,” Stone said.
“Oh?” I asked.
He nodded. “You guys remember that informant? The one who tipped us off to the fact that last week was a scam?”
“Yeah?” Texas asked.
Stone grinned. “My informant is the detective’s daughter. Hayley Woolf.”
Notch’s jaw dropped open and Texas started to laugh.
“Holy shit,” I said.
“You’re bangin’ the detective’s daughter!?” Texas exclaimed.
“Don’t you dare talk about her like that,” Stone growled.
Notch’s brow furrowed. “You’re in love with the detective’s daughter.”
Stone sighed. “Her name’s Hayley, and she’s going to need our protection.”
“Done, and done,” I said.
When it came to women needing protection, I was all over it. After watching my mother get pushed around by my father, I didn’t tolerate people intimidating women. Or children, for that matter. And when my father finally ran off with some slut down the road, Mom fell into drugs. Hard. She coped by snorting her feelings and shooting up to navigate her tears. And when drugs landed her in jail, I swore to myself that any woman in my circle would be happy. Be healthy. Be safe and protected. That no hard would ever come to them, so long as I had anything to do about it.
I’d gone to great lengths behind the scenes to protect Ella and Keva. And if this Hayley girl had been brought into the mix, then so be it.
“How did Hayley come across this information?” Notch asked.
“Oh, that’s a hell of a story. But, the gist is her father has an in-home office he doesn’t lock. And when she asked him about us, he got all dodgy and it made her worried. She went snoopin’ around, found what she did, and called me about it,” Stone said.
“Man, you had her dickmatized,” Texas said, grinning.
“One more word and you’ll have no teeth,” Stone grumbled.
I masked my chuckles with my papers, looking down into them. I’d never see our President like this before. I mean, he brought women into the bars all the time. Nasty, trashy women, with smudged lipstick from blowing his cock and messy hair from him forcing them down into his lap. The man ran through women like rolls of toilet paper, but love looked good on him.
I’d never say that shit out loud, but it did.
“Well, we’ve pissed off Yung and Cheng. I know Notch hasn’t gotten any emailed responses from them, but I’m sure they aren’t happy,” I said.
“Nope. Got nothing from them,” Notch confirmed.
“You think they’ll let us off the hook?” Texas asked.
Stone snickered. “In your damn dreams. The only thing we can hope for is that Yung didn’t know his name, Cheng, had copped a deal with pigs. At best, that would put Yung back on our side. At worst, he’ll come after all of us for somehow being involved in the conspiracy.”
“Hayley somewhere safe?” Notch asked.
“Ella and Keva are. I’ve single-handedly footed a very nice vacation for them on the California coast. Complete with cashing in a favor from a crew up there I know, The Rat Bastards,” Texas said.
“How the hell are those asshats doing?” Stone asked.
Texas grinned. “As crass as you can figure. But, they’ve agreed to keep watch over Ella and Keva in exchange for a favor in the future. I assume they’ll call either you or me to collect eventually.”
“Good. Good move, Texas,” Stone said.
“What about Hayley?” I asked.
“You leave that to me. I’ll figure out something. In the meantime, Notch?” Stone asked.
“Already ahead of you. Set up a schedule and I’ll be around when you’re not,” he said.
“Anything you need me to do?” I asked.
“Keep up with the money and the numbers. That’s all I need you to do,” Stone said.
Yeah, yeah.
“You know, maybe we should take some sort of stand against them. You know, if the Chinese come after us,” Notch said.
“We could put down a few of th
em. Show them we mean business,” Texas said.
“They screwed us over big time. Sold us out to that damn detective. They need to answer for that,” I said.
“Well, you guys know as well as I do that I’m up for a little blood-spilling. But, a full-out war with the Chinese isn’t the best idea. On a bad day, they outnumber us six-to-one. Which aren’t very good odds, even if we do keep ourselves fortified. Thank you for that, by the way, Bronx,” Stone said.
“No problem,” I said.
“And while we’re strong, we’re also a smaller motorcycle club. There’s maybe thirty people we can call on to help us fight. I’m not about to slaughter my crew to make a stand against some assholes across the ocean,” Stone said.
“We have a lot more contacts we could call. Including The Rat Bastards,” Texas said.
“Yeah, but not nearly as many contacts as the Chinese. If they were to ever call in reinforcements, we’d be done. Us, and everyone involved with us,” Stone said.
I heard Notch grumbling to himself as Texas sighed.
“So, what the hell are we supposed to do, then?” I asked.
And that was when the group fell silent.
That was the big issue. No one knew what the fuck we were supposed to be doing. Opening a bar during this kind of heat wasn’t a good idea. But, come the end of the year, we wouldn't have another source of income other than the bar we already had. And if anyone suggested partnering up with one of the local gangs to run drugs, I’d be out. I’d turn my back on this crew faster than Stone could shove a knife into a man’s gut. I wouldn’t touch the stuff. Not one bit.
Not after what it did to my mother.
“Are we safe to go home? Or should we be bunking here?” I asked.
“I’m headed back to Hayley. I don’t want to leave her alone at my place for long amounts of time,” Stone said.
“And I want to get home and make sure things appear as normal as possible. I mean, Ella’s car is still there to make it look like they’re home. I’ve got timers on the lights and everything,” Texas said.
“Well, I don’t have shit like that to deal with. So, whatever you guys need from me, let me know,” Notch said.
Stone: The Lost Boys MC #2 Page 16