Spec (Defenders M.C, Book 6)

by Anderson, Amanda

  SIX

  Candy sat at the counter in the front of the tattoo parlor she worked in with Ink. She tried to draw the ideas that had scattered in her mind, but they kept coming out all wrong. Choo-Choo shook his head and leaned in to squint at her paper.

  “Losin’ your touch darlin’?”

  “I’m just on edge is all.”

  He nodded and studied her with his mismatched eyes. “He’ll be alright you know. Seems like a stand-up guy, more than some of the others.”

  Candy smiled. “He is. Most of them are pretty good. They giving you shit?”

  Choo-Choo looked at the counter and shook his head.

  “I’m serious Choo-Choo. I know the whole prospect thing is a hassle, but they shouldn’t be riding you too hard.”

  “I ain’t cryin to you over nothin’ so stop pryin’.” He softened his words with a grin. “I have to pay my dues the same as everybody else.”

  Candy didn’t know his back ground, but she wondered. She also wondered who was giving him shit. She knew the prospects were put through the ringer, but Choo-Choo was a good guy and he had talent.

  “If it gets too bad you should have a talk with Ink. It could help.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t need that shit. I’m no pussy.”

  Candy could see that he wouldn’t listen so she went back to her drawing. She hadn’t heard from Spec in eight days which would have made her feel like shit if it didn’t appear that no one knew where he was. At least he wasn’t just hiding from her. Shadow and Lawless had returned three days ago and everyone expected Spec to be with them, he wasn’t and all they had said was that they split ways down South. That was really helpful, thanks guys.

  She started to ask Choo-Choo if he had heard anything when the bell dinged over the door and she plastered on a grin in greeting, but it fell when she saw there was no need for it. Angel bounced through the door and sent Candy a wink as she raised her voice and pitched it higher than normal.

  “Hi there. I was wanting to get a tattoo on my hoo-hah and I heard that your man Ink likes to do those. I heard he does a real good job making the pain go away too.”

  Something clattered in the back and Candy looked back to see Ink shaking his head. Choo-Choo almost choked on his soda and stepped around the back wall to catch his breath. The way the walls were set up Angel couldn’t see Ink from where she stood. Candy sent him a wink.

  “Yes ma’am. Ink has a real talent with that sort of thing. I’ve heard that it’s a real pleasure to have him working between your thighs.”

  “Candy! I need a word with you back here please.” Ink said in a low voice that told Candy he wanted to skin her alive.

  Both women burst out laughing and Ink stuck his dark head around the short wall and frowned even as his eyes lit up when they landed on Angel.

  He turned and said something to the customer he’d been working on and sauntered over to Angel. He pulled her in for a kiss that would have made Candy blush if she did that sort of thing and pulled Angel’s hips flush with his own.

  Angel let out a little purring moan and wrapped her arms around her man.

  “Just for that little trick, you can wait until I get home tonight.” He released Angel and slapped her ass hard.

  “What? That’s not right Ink. I think I could claim spousal abuse here.” Angel demanded.

  “Good luck trying that sweet cheeks.” He sent his wife a smoldering glance that even had Candy’s heart fluttering and went back to his customer.

  Angel plopped down in a chair beside Candy and pouted.

  “When is the last time you guys had sex? You act like it’s been years.”

  Angel shrugged. “This morning before he left.”

  “Angel! It’s only ten-thirty! It’s been two hours and you are already trying to maul him at work.”

  “Mmmhmmm. What is your point exactly?”

  Candy let out a laugh. “Nothing. I guess I’m jealous.”

  “Most women are.” Angel gave Candy a look that said she was kidding, but Candy thought the woman was right. Ink was a man that women drooled over.

  “Isn’t it hard sometimes though?”

  “If I do it right it’s hard.” Angel winked and laughed when she caught Choo-Choo’s blush as he walked by. “Is what hard honey?”

  Candy shrugged. “There are a lot of women who would love to take him away from you. They flock in here and get him to ink them just so he will touch their boobs. I’m not sure how you stand it.”

  “Ewwwww don’t tell me that shit Candy!” She took a deep breath. “It is hard sometimes, especially when I was pregnant and right after. I was so afraid he wouldn’t want to wait six weeks you know? But Ink isn’t like the others. He really loves me and when he says he doesn’t want anyone else I believe him. He has never given me a reason not to.”

  “Well, I’ve never seen or heard him be anything but professional with the women who come in here or at Tease or the clubhouse. Just so you know.”

  “Would you tell me if you had Candy?” Angel’s voice softened.

  Candy thought for a minute. She wanted to be honest. Angel was her best friend, but Ink was her boss.

  “Yeah Angel I would. If he was doing something like that I would tell you because it would prove that the man I thought I knew wasn’t real at all and I know you are my friend.”

  Angel hugged her tight. “Thank you Candy. That means the world to me, but Ink is solid. If he were going to pick another woman it would probably be you anyway so I think we’re clear.”

  Candy laughed. There was no way she would ever think of Ink that way. He was the closest thing she had to family.

  Angel seemed to think for a minute and Candy knew exactly what she was about to say before she opened her mouth, but she didn’t get the chance. The bell above the door jingled and Candy almost stopped breathing.

  “Oh my God what happened?” She rushed to Spec and helped him sit in a chair behind the counter. Angel ran to get a first aid kit.

  “Nothin’ you need to worry over Sweets.” He said even if it hurt like hell to move his swollen, split lip.

  “Who did this?” Came Ink’s steady voice from where he stood near the counter.

  “Nobody that will cause any trouble for the club. This was personal.”

  “I’m not asking for the club.”

  Spec looked up and read anger and concern on Inks face. He wanted to smile. Ink was pissed and it was personal to him.

  “My past needed an ass kicking.”

  “Did you get it settled?”

  “Not as well as I’d have liked. Never good enough.” Spec let his eyes fall shut as Angel came back and began cleaning his wounds. There was nothing major. He had come here to see Candy, but he knew it would make Angel feel better if she could tend to him. She was like that, like her mother.

  Candy didn’t even touch him and he cracked his eyes to look over at her.

  “How’ve you been Cookie?”

  “The name’s Candy.”

  “That’s right. Knew it was something real sweet. I just couldn’t seem to remember what.” He winked and she smiled as some of her tension drained from her face.

  “I was worried about you.” She breathed as his nearness made her breathless.

  “Never have to worry about me Sweets. I’ll always come back to you.” He missed her look of rapt joy when Angel applied something that stung worse than acid on one of his cuts. “Damn it woman that hurts.”

  “Oh hush you big baby.” She said, but she leaned in and blew on the sting so he knew she really did care.

  “Your sister has a better bedside manner.” Spec gritted out.

  “You’d know I guess.” Angel said flippantly.

  “Preach was wondering where you went. Said there’s something you’re supposed to take care of.” Ink put in drily

  Spec’s eyes landed on Candy. “I need some time to make that work, but I am working on it. I’ll head over there once I’m patched up. Had to stop in and see my
girl first.” He winked at Candy.

  Ink nodded and went back to work while Candy tried to force her heart to stay in her chest.

  Seven

  Spec could see that Candy wanted to ask him where he had been, but she didn’t. He wondered how long it would take. Every other woman he knew would have demanded answers after an absence like he had just returned from, but not Candy. Maybe she just didn’t give a shit.

  “You want a beer while dinner is cooking?” She asked from the kitchen and looked at him over her shoulder from the stove.

  Spec loved watching her move around the kitchen, or anywhere. She was graceful.

  “Yeah.” He started to get up and she shook her head at him. He had been to talk to Preach and got a few things settled about the Weeds. Apparently they didn’t want to get in too deep with the Devils and were more than happy to talk over a few business issues with Spec. There was a window of opportunity that Preach needed to think on.

  Spec had come back to Cady’s after she got off work and had been sitting on her sofa trying to find the words to tell her what the hell he needed to tell her.

  “I’ll get it. You stay put.” She said and grinned at him.

  Spec wasn’t a man that particularly liked being waited on. He’d had his fill of that in his youth. He didn’t trust anyone enough anymore if he were honest about it, but when Candy handed him a beer already opened, he didn’t think twice about pressing it to his lips and taking a long swig.

  He looked up when she continued to stand there. He raised a brow feeling like he owed her answers and it made his tongue sharp.

  “Waiting on a tip or what?”

  A look of hurt flashed across her face before she mask it. Then her face just looked disappointed.

  “Never mind.”

  She turned away from him and Spec closed his eyes.

  “I can’t tell you Candy. I can’t tell anybody. I never have. This shit is personal. Shit from my past.”

  She gave him a grim smile and nodded. “I understand.”

  But she didn’t. She couldn’t understand this because he couldn’t share it. He didn’t know how to share this part of him. This weak part that had almost killed him. He had been such a fool. He knew that the fragile relationship he had been building with Candy had taken a blow, but he couldn’t bring himself to fix it right now. Right now everything was still too raw.

  “We need to talk Candy.”

  She looked up and he saw her drawing away from him. “What about?”

  “I had a meeting before I left. Preach wants me to patch you.”

  “What?”

  “Pick is causing trouble. Preach wants me to make sure it stays on me. I’m not the only brother who would love to get his hands on you. I thought you should have the choice though.” He shrugged as if it didn’t matter.

  Candy watched as his eyes shuttered and she knew it mattered. For some reason this hurt him even as her answer mattered to him.

  “That’s why…”

  “No. It has nothing to do with your schooling or me taking you. That is different. This is to keep you safe. Preach thinks highly of you Candy and doesn’t want to see you hurt. He doesn’t want Pick causing shit with every man that touches you either.” He took a deep breath and went on. He hated what was about to leave his mouth, but he knew he had to offer her and out.

  “It doesn’t have to be forever. If you want out then you just have to talk to me. This isn’t marriage. You just wear my patch until things get settled with Pick and then we can see how it goes after that.”

  She looked hurt, but he had to give her the option.

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “We need to talk to Preach and he wants to bring Pick in to get it all out in the open.”

  “You think he’ll try something don’t you?”

  “He’d be a fool not to fight for you Candy.” Shit where had that come from?

  Candy smiled as if his words had settled something, but he couldn’t lead her on. He wasn’t made for long term. The last few days had told him that.

  “Alright, but if this is to be believable we are going to have to play the part.”

  Spec raised a brow. He wasn’t certain, not entirely, but he thought Miss Candy might just be playing him.

  “What exactly do you have in mind?”

  If he had doubted her a moment earlier her smile was enough to convince him now. This woman had something planned and for some inexplicable reason, Spec didn’t want to ruin it. He wanted her to get exactly what she wanted.

  She walked back to the kitchen and finished making dinner as she hummed a little song and swayed her hips, driving Spec crazy in the process.

  “What are you trying to do to me woman?”

  She smiled and pointed to the chair at her tiny table. “I’m being a good old lady.”

  And there it was. Those words felt right, but terrifying at the same time. It had been different with all the other women in his past, even Lizzie. For some reason wanting this to be real was much scarier than wanting to avoid being tangled in a womanly web. Somehow this one had caught him with almost no effort. The simplicity was baffling.

  “I doubt you will have any trouble with that.”

  She winked. Winked! Shouldn’t she have said something flirty or even catty? Candy just winked and sat his plate on the table. How could he fight against this? This simplicity was more baffling than all of the silly games women played.

  Candy was just that though. She was simply a woman and it had been a very long time since he had been exposed to something so incredibly potent.

  She rode back to the clubhouse with him and accepted her cut with a smile that split her beautiful face. She kissed him right there in the middle of the club with all the brothers looking on, letting out a yell of approval. She had just staked her claim as effectively as if she had branded him her property along with him claiming her. He loved it. He loved the way she met the eyes of some of the whores in the room. Most didn’t want anything to do with Spec, but she made it clear that he was officially off the market. Some of the brothers wouldn’t like it, but Spec ate it up. He liked a woman who would stand up for what she wanted.

  Candy sauntered off to the bar to talk to Choo-Choo and Spec made his way to the couch and plopped down in his usual spot.

  “Looks pretty cozy.” Lawless nodded toward Candy.

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  “Preach put you up to that shit?” Law was not a man to let much slip past his gasp.

  “He had a hand in it, but I wasn’t forced.”

  Law grinned like the Cheshire cat. “I can see that. You look like a damned kid when you look at that girl. Better watch your ass on that shit.”

  Spec nodded. He knew he didn’t hide his feelings for Candy well.

  “Pick’s a tough son of a bitch. My advice is to watch him. He feels like his toes have been stepped on.”

  “Yeah I get that. What the fuck though? Was I supposed to ask his permission or something? He was just fucking with her.”

  Law nodded. “He’ll want blood.”

  “Yeah. Preach wants it to be mine and not hers, I’m good with that.”

  Law was quiet for a long few minutes. “A little blood loss won’t kill ya, just not too much. We all bleed for the club when we have to.”

  Law nodded and made his way out the door. Spec leaned back and watched the brothers. He wondered if they thought he owed them blood for being with Candy. He saw a few dark looks, but nothing that made him worry. He knew a few of them felt he had betrayed his brother by patching Candy. He didn’t give a shit. He would fight them if he needed to, but he wouldn’t give Candy up.

  Eight

  Spec sat in the hospital room and watched the still form in the bed. There was never a change and the doctors assured him there never would be. He rubbed his eyes and looked back at the book in his hand. It had always been her favorite. The tattered cover had faded, but he could still see the faded picture of the tiny girl who f
ound her tiny prince. The girl in that bed had been tiny too. She had always been tiny. Too fragile for the life they had been forced to live and too precious.

  He took a long drink from the water he had sitting close by and continued reading, until he came to the pages that were splattered with her blood. He could never get past those. He wanted to. He tried so often, but they still ripped him apart inside. Those droplets pulled at him until he was back in time, back in that room. He felt so small and weak. He had never been a burly child and that characteristic had followed him into his teen years. He had been brilliant, but brains didn’t do much to solve some things. Sometimes you needed muscles and that night that weak boy found strength in his rage.

  Muscles had come much later. Much too late to do the girl in the bed any good, but he wasn’t sure they would really have mattered, they hadn’t saved Candy. Thank God Pick hadn’t been wielding a knife or she would be dead or at the very least terribly injured. Because she had thought to save him. Why didn’t anyone ever think he could fight his own battles? Why did these women who loved him always want to protect him when it was his place to protect them? He had done a shitty job of protecting Marty and she had been taken and God knows what she suffered, but that was different, his father had needed him. His mother had killed herself with an overdose of sleeping pills.

  Spec still didn’t feel the sorrow he knew he should feel, but the woman had meant little to him. His mother had lived in a small house three streets from the house he lived in with his parents.

  He heard the door open, but he didn’t look up. He knew who came to stand beside him. There was only one person who came here.

  “Adam. What in the world are you doing back here?”

  It had only been two weeks, but he was drawn back. He felt like he had to finish this. Something held him to this girl and all the memories and he couldn’t get past any of them. He’d left Candy at the apartment she was staying in with Ink’s cousin and he had driven over here.

  “You should let go of that book. Torturing yourself doesn’t change anything Adam.”