“I figured if she could get some information on Martinez’s movements, something we could leak to the IRS...”
“He’d be sent down.”
“Hell, it worked with Al Capone.”
“Why would she help us though? Surely, the fire itself is proof positive that she wants vengeance...”
“Juanita isn’t like that, not really. When I saw what she’d done, I knew it was because I’d hurt her so badly that she had to hit back. She must have thought I’d been using her, and what’s at a rider’s heart if not his clubhouse? She was trying to hurt me like I’d hurt her. I’m not excusing her, just explaining.”
“I guess,” was all she said, and doubtfully at that.
“When I went to see her today, I explained that I’d found my mate. That I’d found her after we’d split up, so technically, there was no overlay. I think the fact I wasn’t cheating on her made it a bit better.”
“Well, yeah, duh.”
He grimaced. “On top of that, I’ve always known she hates running for the cartel. They bullied her into it, threatened her, told her they’d recruit her baby brother if she didn’t get involved. Only trouble was, her dick of a brother jumped in feet first when he was old enough anyway.” He sighed. “I knew she’d help if she could. And then I found out Martinez rapes her... and I offered her a way out.”
She stiffened. “He rapes her?”
“Well, it’s non-consensual if she doesn’t want to but has no choice, isn’t it? It’s part of being a female foot soldier apparently.” He grimaced, hating himself for not having realized that was part and parcel of being a soldier for the cartel if you were a woman.
“You didn’t know she had to fuck him all the time you were with her?”
Her astuteness had him wincing. “No, I didn’t.”
“Did she think you knew?”
“I reckon so.” He sighed. “But why would I?”
“Probably because she thought that’s what happened in the MC.” She shrugged. “Club whores have a reputation. We’re only given shelter and food if we fuck. It’s not out of the kindness of the MC’s hearts, so she must have likened what she had to do with what club whores did.”
Her matter-of-fact tone had him cringing inwardly. “I hate that you’re right.”
A laugh escaped her. It was neither bitter or amused, just a bark of a sound. “Life sucks sometimes. That doesn’t make it shit.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My dream...” She hesitated. “Are you sure you want to know?”
“Of course. If it affects you, it affects me.”
Another of those horrible laughs escaped her. “You say that now.”
“I say it, and I mean it. Whatever you need to tell me, I’m here. And I’ll accept it.”
“I grew up in an MC.”
Whatever he’d been expecting to hear, it hadn’t been that. “Are you being serious?”
“Does this seem like the perfect time for joking around?”
“No, but what the hell? Which MC?”
“Over in Dallas. Satan’s Snakes.”
A hiss whooshed between his teeth. “Jesus. They’re nasty motherfuckers.”
“Tell me about it. Mom was an old lady. She had two kids with my dad before he got bored and started fucking around. When they split, my brother and I went with her. I spent the next two years trying to fend off the various sick bastards she brought into the house—either that or avoiding church. For all her sins, she’s Catholic. Devout.“
“How old were you?”
“You really don’t want to know.” She let out a sigh. “I swear, we lived in some hovels. I think I hated that more than anything. That was the only time I ever really went to school, and of course, it was when we had the least money. I ran track for a while, loved it and was good at it, but I couldn’t afford anything. The kids laughed at us, and I hated it. In the end, it was my saving grace. The school contacted my dad, and he took me and my brother away from my mother. We went back to the clubhouse.”
“Was that better?”
“Yeah. It was better. And worse. You remember Annette called club whores indentured servants? Jesus, she’s no idea what it’s like being a daughter in an MC. Now, that’s servitude. They treated me like shit, but at least they didn’t try to fuck me too.”
“That’s why you’re okay with the MC side of things. I’ve noticed. When Mundo and I were discussing MC business yesterday, you made a point of making a noise to let us know you were coming out of the bathroom.”
She shrugged. “It’s part and parcel of my life. At least here, I was treated with some decency though.”
“But you were right. You only received what you did because you...”
“Put out?” She snorted. “I wasn’t sure if you’d ever want to discuss that. I’d decided to just let things drop. Figured it was easier.”
“But? What changed?”
“You asking about the dream.”
“What happened in it?”
“It starts off with one of my mother’s more ardent boyfriends. He almost raped me, but she walked in and started squawking when she saw me trying to fend him off. She blamed me of course, but she threw him out. Thank Christ, I never saw him again.”
He let out a pained grunt, and his Bear flared to life, dragging every muscle to a rigidity that bordered on painful.
“Do you remember his name?”
She snorted. “Of course I do, but I’m not going to tell you. I’ve only just found you, jackass. I’m not losing you to prison just when we’ve finally found one another.”
He growled. “You need avenging.”
“Nothing happened. There’s nothing to avenge.”
“Bullshit. Nothing happened, so much so, you’re having nightmares about it.”
“Of course I am. Like I said, it almost happened, but it didn’t. I wouldn’t lie to you. There’s no need.” She jerked a shoulder and the movement made her breasts jiggle against his chin.
He tried not to notice. He really did.
She sighed. “Anyway. It starts off with that, then morphs into one time when Moses got pretty rough with me. Troy saved me from him though.”
“What the fuck? Moses…? Troy?”
“Yeah. Moses and Troy. Troy’s always watched out for me. That’s why I had to help him the other night. I couldn’t let him suffer when he always went out of his way to save me from Moses. The SOB seemed to get a kick out of frightening me.”
This time, the growl that escaped him sent shockwaves pounding through the room. “I never knew.” Fuck, did he walk around with blinders on or something?
How was it Juanita had been raped consistently while they were together, and Pip had been sexually assaulted, all without him knowing?
What the fuck kind of a man did that make him?
“You weren’t to know,” she excused. “I fell way under your radar at the time.”
He clenched his eyes shut as self-loathing filled him. “How are you ever going to forgive me?” he asked, his voice hoarse with horror. “I’ll never be able to forgive myself.”
“It isn’t a case of needing forgiveness. There’s nothing to forgive. I understand the mate bond now, and I also understand why you clung to the idea of what Juanita was. Why would you avoid binding yourself to me if you were so alone? It makes no sense.”
He latched onto that with desperation. “If I’d known you were mine, I’d never have let you go, Pip.”
“I realize that now. Things happened, Major. We deal with the blows, let them heal, and move on. That’s why I like the idea of being able to heal, of being useful. For so long, I’ve just been a maid—either that or a punching bag or someone’s fuck buddy. This healing... It’s something that belongs to me. It makes me transcend everything I was before. In a way, being able to heal other people is healing me.”
“I’m glad, baby.” He tightened his arms around her waist. “Do you hate me for caring for Juanita?”
“No. Ho
w can I?”
“That doesn’t mean you won’t.”
She snorted. “I’m not that mean. Look, I don’t have to like it to understand it and accept it. But...” She blew out a breath. “Don’t sneak around behind my back. I understand that you’ve involved her in MC business, which means you’ll be seeing more of her. Just don’t lie about it. There’s no need to.”
“Understood.”
“We’ve both got pasts, Major. The only way we can move on from them is to bring it up whenever it affects our present.”
Her wisdom, once again, astonished him. He blew out a breath and whispered, “Thank you for being my mate.”
A snicker escaped her as she carried on stroking his hair. “Thank you for being mine.”
He looked up at her, a thousand blessings filling him at the sight of her.
“Are you tired?” he asked softly. At her nod, he rearranged them with a sigh, not stopping until she was lying flat against him, her arm over his waist, her leg hooked over his thighs.
“You’re mine, Pip. That’s all you’ve ever been and all you’ll ever be. Just like I’m yours. You understand that, right? You know what I’m saying?”
His words were low, soft in the pre-dawn light.
“I know what you’re saying.” She kissed his pec, not to entice, just to convey her understanding and acceptance. “You’ll always be mine,” she told him, and he heard the drowsiness in her voice.
“I know,” he replied, and lay there in silence as she rested, and thanked his lucky stars for her easy acceptance of what could have been a hard truth to bear.
Chapter 10
Lying flat out on the sofa, Pip stared at the common room in amazement.
Six days since the fire, and in those days, the common room had been transformed thanks to the hordes of brothers who had been working on it around the clock.
She’d never seen as many of them on site, and the clubhouse held up to a hundred men at a time. Where the brothers had come from, she hadn’t known until Mars had looked at her like she was nuts.
“They have homes in the town. We don’t all live on site, Pip.”
Only respect for her had stopped him from rolling his eyes, she knew that, but still. Riders lived in a clubhouse. That was the law. Well, the unspoken one. It had been at her father’s MC, at any rate. Not that she’d told Mars that.
It was her secret. One she’d shared with her mate, and one she’d share with no one else.
When her father had died, she’d escaped the MC’s clutches with help from her brother when one of the council had taken a fancy to her. Schmidt had been renowned amongst the club whores for his cruelty, and her brother, knowing that, had helped her run. Especially after the last time Schmidt had got his dirty paws on her… Her mind shuddered away from that particular memory though. It was the last thing she needed to be thinking about.
Eventually, she’d fallen into the clutches of The Nomads, more by luck than management.
Being in an MC was all she knew, and when it had come down to it, for all she’d dreamed of a life outside an MC, it was easier said than done.
When she’d asked Major to explain what Mars had meant, he’d said, “They’re not all riders. They’re part of the Clan.”
“So, the Clan and the MC aren’t one and the same?”
He’d scrunched his face up. “Well, yes and no. Most of them are riders. You don’t have to ride for the MC to be a part of the Clan though. The Clan existed before motorbikes did, so we have hundreds of Clan brothers in the local area. But we don’t get together often.” He’d shrugged at her questioning glance. “We’re bears. We like being left alone.”
And that had been all he’d had to say on the matter.
Like that explained anything.
She huffed, crossed her legs at the ankle, and stared at the new pool table across the room.
One thing her son-of-a-bitch father had taught her was how to play a good game of pool. She’d been hustling for cash since she’d realized what her ass in a pair of short shorts could do to a guy’s attention span, and she’d been taking advantage ever since.
This one was brand-spanking new, as was everything in the common room.
Nothing was scratched or scarred as it had once been thanks to decades of use. It was all shiny and sparkly and weird as fuck.
“It’s going to take some getting used to,” Annette commented as she took in the room then waited for Pip to budge her feet so she could sit at the other end of the sofa.
“You read my mind.”
Annette grimaced. “Not too hard. All I’ve heard is complaints about the new common room, but it’s not like we could buy old shit, is it? The stuff in here was irreplaceable, and I say that even though I thought this room was fucking vile.”
Pip snorted out a laugh. “It grew on you.”
“Like mold.” Annette shuddered. “I should prefer this but it’s so...”
“Clinical?” Pip provided.
“Yeah. Clinical.” She wrinkled her nose. “I wonder when they’ll start filling it up.”
“Soon. It took a long time to collect all that shit.”
“I’ll have you know, that shit was irreplaceable. Budge,” Major’s words appeared from nowhere, and she immediately sat up at his words, the need to obey the tone in his voice too engrained in her to quench.
He blinked at her rapid reaction but took a seat and patted his lap. “Rest your head on my thighs.”
She bit her lip but obeyed, only relaxing when he started stroking her hair.
“That kind of sports memorabilia will be hard to replace,” he carried on as though that odd little moment hadn’t just happened, something she’d be eternally grateful for considering Annette was there. She’d been in the Satan’s Snake mindset, where if a command wasn’t met with instant obedience, there’d be hell to pay. “We didn’t buy it because it was a piece of memorabilia. We got most of it at the event itself. It’s not like we can put that down on the insurance slip, is it?”
“Like you guys pay insurance for anything,” Annette retorted.
“On our bikes, we do.” Major grinned. “It’s the law.”
She snorted at that. “Outlaws in name but not nature.”
Pip chuckled. “They’re good boys at heart.”
“Don’t say that too loud. You’ll ruin our rep.”
Annette let out a hoot. “That will take some doing. Jesus Christ, your rep couldn’t get much worse. Most of the locals can’t make out whether you’re heathens or heroes.”
“That’s just how we like it.”
“The heathens, I get, it’s the heroes that makes no sense,” Annette carried on as though Major hadn’t said a word.
“We do stuff for the community from time to time.”
Pip frowned up at him. “Like what? I’ve been here a long time. I’ve never known the MC help out in the town.”
He tapped her nose. “That’s because you’re not privy to all the details.”
“And what, ‘cause we have ovaries, we don’t need to know?” Annette grunted. “Don’t piss me off, Major. I’m a woman on the edge—I haven’t eaten breakfast yet.”
Major, hiding his grin, just said, “We take care of any little problems they might be having.”
“Like what?”
He shrugged. “Child abusers, wife beaters, rapists... They all disappear if the law doesn’t handle the situation the way it should.”
“Holy shit,” Pip bit off, sitting up like Dracula come evening. “That’s what happened to Robert Merisco.”
“Who’s Robert Merisco?” Annette asked, scowling at her.
“This guy from town. He disappeared like two weeks ago. Everyone was talking about it, but the sheriff’s department just said they had no reason to look into his disappearance.”
Major just cocked a brow at her, remaining silent in the face of her astonishment.
“The MC dealt with him,” she breathed out, still stunned by the notion.
&n
bsp; “What had he done?” Annette demanded.
“They said he’d been hurting his nephew.” She grimaced. “No one ever said how, just that when the boy’s mother told the sheriff, there was nothing they could do.”
“There’s always something that can be done,” Major said grimly, but there was a certain satisfaction to his words that had her cringing.
“Jesus.”
Annette’s blasphemy said it all.
For a second, both women went quiet, then almost like they’d realized there wasn’t jack they could do about how the MC worked, they both looked at each other and shrugged.
The moment of camaraderie had both of them smiling at each other, and then, just as Pip was about to say something that would hopefully change the subject from their vigilante mates and onto something far more pleasant, a screech sounded from outside.
The noise came from wheels scraping against the sand as a car or truck turned around on the narrow road. Pip had shot up at the noise, and Major was off and running before either woman could even do much as ask, “What the fuck?”
She got to her feet and ran toward the door, but there was a blockade of men gathered there. Some had tunneled out into the yard. Others were there watching what was going on.
Another squeal, another metallic groan, and the sound of an engine being blasted, brakes shrieking, clutch screaming, rolled around the area.
By the time she managed to work her way through the crowd of men, she realized exactly why the hallway had been blocked.
The yard was full. In fact, she’d never seen it so jam packed. The only space was at the end of the drive where the gate was open. She’d seen that from the higher vantage point of the front step, but with all the men around her, all of them over six feet plus, she didn’t have a cat in hell’s chance of seeing shit.
Still, she headed forward, pushing through the crowd with a determination she’d never felt before.
In the past, she’d stayed in the shadows, content to let MC business fall whichever way the cookie crumbled—just as she’d done moments ago upon learning the MC acted as the local towns’ vigilantes. To her mind, there was fuck all she could do to change the brothers, so there was no point in bashing her head against a brick wall. But today, at this exact moment, she couldn’t, and she knew it was to do with her talent.
MAJOR (MC Bear Mates Book 5) Page 13