by Tia Lewis
“And that’s why you’re gonna make a great president one day,” Jack reminded me. “You think about stuff like that. Anybody else? Creed, Buzz, Stretch, Phil? They’d be sniffin’ around after her in no time, giving her all our secrets if she was from the Cobras. They wouldn’t think twice. You know how they act around new pussy.”
“Thanks,” I muttered. I didn’t need him to tell me I was smarter than them. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, anyway. I wanted to hear that it was safe for me to take her for my own. Times were tough for us. In peace time, I would have been all over her. She just begged for me to take her and break her down. She wanted me. I could feel it. But I couldn’t risk the Club, and that had to be my number one priority when the Cobras were breathing down our backs.
“By the way, in case you were wondering, things went okay today.”
I felt like world’s biggest ass. “I’m sorry, Jack. I forgot.” I sat down in front of him, wanting to hear more. “What did the doctor say?”
“He said I’ve got plenty of time. We caught it early enough that with the right treatment, I could have as much as ten years to my name.” He grinned. “Shit, I didn’t think I had that long. Did you?”
I smirked, but his humor was a little dark even for me. “Colon cancer, though. That’s no joke.”
“No, it’s not a joke. I’ve gotta make light of it whenever I can, though. You understand.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“And you understand the rest of the Club can’t find out about this.”
I winced. That was a little much to ask. Jack’s eyes burned like fire. “I mean it, Drake. Don’t say a word to anybody. This gets out? We might as well kiss everything we’ve worked for goodbye. I ain’t ready to do that yet.”
“I get it, man. I do. I just wonder how long you’ll be able to keep it a secret. I mean, treatment for cancer is a rough time, right?”
“Yeah. By the time anybody notices it, though, it’ll be a while. We’re not going through with the radiation for another few weeks, so by that time I hope we’re settled with this Cobra bullshit. And it’ll be a little while after that before any of the symptoms show up on me. So we’re looking at a month before people start asking what’s wrong with me. That’s a month before anybody has to know. You follow me?”
“Yeah. So it’s important to get the Cobras pinned down before that.”
“Exactly. You know how word spreads around here. Even out into the Bronx. They’re gonna find out after the club finds out. You know those guys out here. They’re worse than a bunch of teenagers when it comes to gossip.” He closed his eyes, leaning his head back against his seat. The thing was, and I didn’t want to tell him this because I knew he would hate it, he already looked a little sick. Thinner than he usually did, and tired as hell. I was a bit more observant than the guys were, so Jack had that on his side.
I stood up. “Your secret’s safe with me. I mean that. Just rest up in here for a while, okay?”
“Will do. Thanks, Drake. I know I can always count on you.” I left him sitting there in his office that was really more like a refuge. He didn’t do any work in there, not really. He went there to escape us when things got too crazy. Things had been crazy for a long time, so he’d been spending more time than usual with the door shut. Even without cancer, his doctor diagnosed two weeks before that, we had been at war with the Cobras for months.
I looked at the pictures of Austin, Pete, and Lance on the wall outside Jack’s office. We had lost them over the course of the war. I wouldn’t lose another man, not to the Cobras. They had earned their name. A bunch of snakes, just slithering around in the grass until they could make their move.
There she was, still sitting there at the bar. She didn’t plan on going anywhere, did she? I waved at Darcy, one of the girls sitting with Bree. She hopped off her stool and walked over as fast as the ridiculous shoes she wore would let her. What was with women and those heels? Yeah, they were sexy, but not when they made a woman clomp around like a horse. That wasn’t sexy.
“What’s up?” She twirled a piece of long, black hair between two fingers. Another one I had been flirting with for a while—Violet taught me that fucking inside the Club was a bad idea, though. I made sure Darcy didn’t think I called her over for anything personal.
“You get a good idea of what she’s all about? What did you two talk about?” I nodded in Bree’s direction. She nodded back.
“Yeah, she seems sweet. Nice girl. A little too nice, maybe. I don’t know.”
“You think so?”
“Well, I don’t think she’s spent a lot of time around people like us. I think she maybe did live with her aunt for a long time like she said but in a nicer neighborhood. Or maybe she’s just one of those really smart people who always seems sort of—off. You know, the kind of kid who gets bullied in school because they’re so much smarter than everybody else.”
I nodded. I knew enough of those kids in school. “But you think she’s legit?”
“Oh, yeah. She’s legit. She doesn't know anything about the Cobras or anything. I think she’s actually cool.”
“Okay, thanks.” I watched her laugh about something with the other girls. Violet was there. “Is Violet talking shit about me?” I asked.
“Why? Did you fuck her over again?” I smirked at her, and she shrugged. “She told me about it before we started talking with Bree. Why are you such an asshole? You can’t just sleep with girls and toss them aside like they’re garbage.”
“Why not?” I smirked.
“Really, Drake?”
“Oh, you just reminded me. Do you think you could do a load of laundry for me? Please?” I flashed her a quick grin, getting a little closer to her. “Come on. I don’t even have a clean pair of underwear.”
“Going commando?” Her eyes drifted south while she licked her lips. I shrugged.
“Maybe.”
“Why are you such a fucking flirt?”
“I’m not.” I chuckled. “So, you think you can help me with that?”
She shook her head. “Ugh!”
“What did I do?” I shrugged, displaying a mischievous grin.
“I can’t stand you! Do me a favor and get the shit together yourself. Last time I went to your room, I found a lot of stuff I didn’t wanna see. Like your magazine collection. God, you’re fucking disgusting.”
“Whatever. You know you want this dick.” I bit my bottom lip and went to my room to get the laundry together for her. It was the least I could do since she asked nicely. And I didn’t feel like having her go through my magazines or anything else. Part of the problem of living at the Clubhouse was having no real privacy of my own.
And not having a home. That sucked, too. Still, it meant I was always close to my club. I was always there if anybody needed anything or there was any action going on. I was there for whatever came along. They could depend on me, especially since I didn’t have any personal shit going on that would get in the way. I wasn’t tied down to an old lady or kids. I only had myself, so when shit went down, I would be there to take care of it.
It was important for a club to trust their leader and believe in him. They didn’t know we might not have Jack for much longer—even if he had ten years, the way the doctors said, he wouldn’t be able to lead us for all that time. I had a feeling he was making up that number, too. It seemed a little random. Either he was going to keep living, or he wasn’t. It was weird to put a number on his life like that when he was only in his fifties.
I got my dirty clothes together and carried the laundry basket out to Darcy. She took it, rolling her eyes. But she did take it. She just liked to put on a big show.
“I thought you were the vice president.” I turned around and saw Bree grinning. She stood not far away from me, arms crossed. I told myself not to look at her tits. If I did, she would know how turned on she made me.
“Yeah? So?”
“So the vice president leads the Club, but he can’t do his own laundry?” Sh
e shook her head, snickering. “What? Are you a momma’s boy or something?”
“That’s it. Come here!” I grabbed her by the arm, pulling her to my room. We had to get a few things straight if she was gonna hang out with the Club. Starting with the way she talked to me.
6
Nicole
Maybe I took it too far. Maybe I let the contempt I already felt for Drake Collins and the rest of the Blood Riders cloud my judgment. Maybe I was a born smart ass who forgot herself a little too easily. Whatever it was, Drake didn’t seem to like it. My heart almost pounded straight out of my chest when he pulled me into his room. What was he planning to do to me? I almost couldn’t walk, I was so terrified. If I screamed, somebody would come to my rescue, right?
“Get in here.” He almost shoved me into the room, slamming the door. “Let’s get this straight. This is my fucking club. You don’t come in here and talk to me with that attitude and expect to get away with it. Nobody gets away with it. Understood?”
“Do you always talk to people this way?” I asked. “That’s not how a real leader speaks to people.”
“Do you understand?” he asked, ignoring my question.
“Yes, I get it. But I didn’t like that little show you put on out there, either. Putting me on the spot in front of all those strangers. It doesn’t feel good, does it? When somebody puts you on the spot?”
“Oh, cry me a fucking river.” He stormed past me, and I flinched. Did I really think he was going to hit me? If I did, maybe it wasn’t the best idea to toy with him the way I had. Instead of striking me, he went through his dresser, yanking the drawers nearly out of their tracks, he started slamming them shut. Over and over. “I know I have a pack of smokes in here somewhere. Where the fuck are they!”
I watched him, watched the way his body moved. He had a sort of natural grace, an elegance disguised by toughness. I could see why people looked up to him, listened to him. He had that kind of power ... that force behind everything he did. He was no wimp or pushover. He would get what he wanted.
His room was a real dump, however. “Is this where you sleep?” I looked around at the gray walls, the ugly furniture. There were a few posters of female swimsuit models on the walls, a few pieces of clothing strewn around the floor.
“Yeah,” he said, not turning to me. “Why? You have something to say about that?”
“Only that it’s a little empty,” I admitted. “I guess this is just your room when you stay here, so that makes sense.”
“Why do you have to look so closely at everything I do?” he asked. “For your information, even though it’s none of your business, I live here.” He pulled out a pack of cigarettes, half-crumpled, looking triumphant. I was too busy focusing on his words to care.
“You live here?” I asked.
“Oh, what, you have something to say about that, too? I can’t wait to hear it.” He lit a cigarette, breathing deeply as he inhaled. “My first one in months,” he admitted. “I fucking need it, thanks to your bullshit.”
“You’re the one who started the bullshit, remember? I only came in with Richie.”
“Yeah. Convenient. What the hell is a girl like you doing with him? That’s what I don’t understand.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at me, a cloud of smoke blurring his features. Instead of making him look less attractive, it only added to his sex appeal.
“I’m not with him! Why can’t you let it go? He told you why I came here with him. He invited me. No big deal. Why can’t you get it through your head?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because it doesn’t make much sense. A girl like you, following a guy like him here.”
“A girl like me? What’s a girl like me supposed to do? You’re such an expert.” It was getting harder and harder to keep control of myself the longer our game of verbal chess lasted. I was smarter than him—book smart, at least. He had a shrewdness to him that couldn’t be underestimated, however. He kept outthinking me. He’d picked up on me being a phony almost as soon as I’d walked in, like a living burglar alarm. He just couldn’t figure out how I was phony, or why. I needed to backtrack and change my strategy if my plan was going to get me anywhere. I had to fall below his radar, because if he kept a close eye on me, he would figure me out sooner or later.
He snickered, leaning on his dresser. His thick muscular arms supported his weight as he looked at me in the mirror. God, he was sexy as hell. I couldn’t help myself, couldn’t stop the thought from coming up even though the fact that I’d thought it left a sour taste in my mouth. He was garbage, scum, lower than low.
“You’ve got class. Who raised you? You said it was your aunt, right?”
“A combination of her and my mom,” I said, thinking fast again.
“But mom’s a mess, right? So, what, your aunt raised you to be a lady, but your mom made it so you couldn’t be? You’ve got to walk around all day, hoping some idiot in a leather vest buys you a sandwich?”
Asshole. I didn’t like the way he talked about Richie. The kid reminded me of a bird with a broken wing, and only a bully would hurt that kind of animal. “Yeah, you’ve got me all summed up.” Be careful. Don’t use big words, don’t try to prove you’re smarter even though you want to. Even if you wouldn’t have to work very hard. He’s on to you.
“Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me there’s not something a little weird about the attention.”
I sighed like he had just broken me down. I didn’t want to make the admission, but I needed to. I had to get him on my side, and fast. I sat on the edge of his rumpled squeaky bed.
“I just fucked a chick before you got here.”
“What?”
“You see that damp spot?” He pointed to the bed.
“Gross!” I jumped right back up.
“I told you.”
“Thanks for the warning,” I replied in disgust. Then I cleared my throat. “Listen, you wanna know the real reason I’m here?”
“I’m listening.”
“It’s pretty simple, but I didn’t wanna tell any of the others. I didn’t think it sounded very cool, and I wanted them to like me.”
Drake stubbed out his cigarette, his eyes still fixed on mine in the mirror. “Go on.”
“See … you guys, you’re like legends in this neighborhood. How do you think I knew that story about Jack’s jeans? I know a lot of stuff about you guys. I always listened to hear what you guys did. I wanted to feel like I was part of something, and everybody I knew heard how I wanted to be one of the girls in the club when I got old enough. I wanted to be like Darcy and Violet and Tamara. I wanted to get with one of you guys—you know, hook up with you so that you would protect me.”
“Protect you?” He smirked.
“Yeah.”
“Protect you from what?”
“My asshole stepfather, for one. The other guys in the neighborhood, too. And…” I trailed off, biting my lip.
“And what?”
“I can’t be the first woman to tell you this.”
“So say it.”
“It’s a little embarrassing.”
“Say it, Bree. I don’t have time for this shit.”
“Fine.” I paused, sighing heavily. “There’s something very sexy about what you guys do, and it turns me on. Riding around on those motorcycles, so badass, you know? When I was a kid, of course, I sorta fell for all of you. But my mom didn’t like it. She didn’t want me in that kind of life. So she sent me to live with my aunt most of the time.”
“Oh, so that’s why?” He turned, leaning his butt on the dresser with his arms crossed. It was a shame but the sight of him bent over the dresser was a nice one. He had a magnificent backside.
“Yeah. And my aunt is a wonderful lady—not like Mom at all. They’re total opposites. So that’s why she sent me to live with her, and she made me talk proper and stay in school and stuff like that.” I shrugged. “But when my cousin came home, I had to leave.”
“So your aunt’s a wonderful lady, but her kid went
to prison? Right.” Damn it. He caught me. I should’ve said she was sick or something. That would have been easier.
“Come on. Good parents raise bad seeds all the time. Don’t they?”
He smirked. “No comment.” I blushed, thinking about his parents. Yes, I had heard about his mother. She was the kind of mother people would ask themselves about all the time. Why did a lovely woman like her shack up with an abusive man? And how did she ever raise a bad kid like Drake? I knew that line would get through to him, and it did. He softened right in front of my eyes.
“So that’s your story? Your real story. It wasn’t an accident that you ran into Richie after all, huh?”
I giggled. “I was in the store to cool off—it’s brutal out there—but I admit that I stood a little closer to him than I needed to.” I thought he would get annoyed with me for tricking one of his men. Instead, he chuckled.
“Nice,” he said, shaking his head.
“I didn’t mean anything by it—I mean, I didn’t want to lead him on or anything. I’m sure he’s a nice kid.”
“Oh, yeah. He’s alright. A little slow in the head sometimes. He lets women come onto him and trick him into letting them into his Clubhouse.”
“I didn’t come on to him,” I said, feeling like I should defend myself. “I only made sure he would bump into me, is all. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Okay, okay, I’m not gonna argue with you on that.” He looked me up and down, taking his time. Again, I felt naked under his eyes. He grinned slowly, and I fought the instinct to turn away. I didn’t like him looking at me that way like I was his or something. Did I?
“So is it okay?” I asked, finally cutting to the chase. I’d given him enough backstory.
“Is what okay?”
Don’t sigh. Don’t get annoyed. “Me, hanging out with you guys. Is that okay? I mean, I think I could fit in pretty well with the other girls. We all seem to get along so there wouldn’t be any drama or issues.”
“Ha! There’s always drama,” he smirked. “And just because you appear to get along right now doesn’t mean you’re going to. Women are women.”