Gyro greeted her when she arrived, and other club members knew her name. As Ryder had promised, she enjoyed some status from the protection of being ‘with’ Ryder, officially at least. She was treated with respect by the men and mostly by the women as well.
Jess felt as though she was getting along with everyone, except for Mary Ann. They instinctively avoided each other like Kryptonite. Jess saw Mary Ann in brief little intimate huddles with a lot of the regular bikers, but especially with Bear and with Ryder. When she saw Mary Ann whisper to Ryder, or flash her eyes across the room at him, it always made Jess’ blood pump hard.
There was no outward sign of anything more going on, but the way she leaned close, spoke softly and body blocked every man she spoke to, it always looked as though she had some special something with every one of them.
Everyone knew, or at least probably knew, that Jess wasn’t Ryder’s ol’ lady in the usual sense, but when Ryder said, ‘she’s with me,’ that was enough. At least it was for a time.
Her unofficial status, not quite one thing or the other, was enough for Jess feel to feel comfortable and safe. That was how she’d lived most of her life, practically.
The men of this club with their rigid codes and rules made a space for her, an exception that was for her alone, that made Jess feel as though she really belonged in a way she hadn’t felt before.
They had chosen to let her in and, to a degree, had let her in on her terms. This was the first place Jess had ever felt that she was accepted.
She began to feel that this was a place where she was truly be at home. It was a place that wouldn’t up and move, people that she wouldn’t have to lose, people she could risk having real attachments with.
Bear continued to bait her, but she felt a protective warmth beneath his jibes. Gyro always treated her like a lady, as all of the MC members did. The sense of community and of honor ran deep and was firm and dependable.
When a prospect was arrested, when a member had money trouble, the whole club was there for them. The club felt more like family to Jess than anything she had known before. These were the people she wanted to be with.
Ryder, the nomad, was a whole other story. Talking to Gyro, to Bear, even overhearing John Reader one night, Jess got a sense of affection and regard for Ryder, like he was an adopted member of the clan.
Chapter 14
Ryder watched from the bar as a biker no-one knew crossed the clubhouse floor to the bar. He looked just like a regular biker. Kit, he said his name was. No patch, but not everybody’s affiliated, it didn’t mean anything. He didn’t have the civilian too-clean look. He was authentic enough in that way.
His thick beard was well-trimmed and his face scrubbed. There was wear on the edges of his shirt cuffs and the sides of his regularly polished boots. A cop in fancy dress always looked scruffy and unkempt. Cops were clean, tidy men trying to look disheveled. Ryder figured this guy was a man trying to look his best when his circumstances wore him at the edges. In his late thirties, his ponytail and beard were clean and reddish. His biker jacket was scuffed, but he’d cleaned it up. His Harley outside was matte black and perfect.
He came up to the bar and stood between Ryder and Jess. Before the guy even crossed the floor, Ryder saw Jess put out her bottom lip, corners of her mouth down. Kit seemed okay to Ryder, and to Bear too. Jess looked hard into Ryder’s eyes and made a single, tiny shake of her head.
After a couple of beers, Kit got the talk around to a couple pounds of fresh Californian outdoor grown weed, primo quality. Bear looked over at Ryder. Something had sounded a little off in the way that Kit had brought it up.
Bear and Ryder were noncommittal and changed the subject. Soon Kit stepped out to the porch for a smoke. After a moment, Ryder followed him out.
“You’ve done dope deals before, right?”
“Sure, plenty.”
“But none like this one.”
The guy looked in Ryder’s eye and drew a long breath.
Ryder laid a hand on the guy’s shoulder and looked hard into his brown eyes. He saw conflict and discomfort. Kit was about to speak when Ryder gestured with his finger to his lip, then he pointed to his ear, traced a line like a wire down to his breast pocket.
Kit’s head shook slowly as his face fell and aged. He looked in Ryder’s eye and drew a long breath. Then he shook his head and said, “No, no wire. That was meant to happen next time. This visit was to set it up.”
Ryder leaned his elbows on the rail and looked down the road toward the far horizon. “I heard about a girl,” he said. “Regular girl, worked nine to five in an insurance office. Got caught up on some bullshit drugs rap. She was entrapped into buying a tiny little personal quantity of pot.”
He watched Kit as he went on. “Next thing she knew, she’s in a hard room and she’s looking across a metal table at the FBI.” Kit’s eyes shone. “The dark suits tell her, ‘Wear a wire, help us nail this scumbag drug dealing biker gang. We’ll make the charge go away. We’ll tell you what to do, and we’ll be watching you every step of the way.’”
Ryder looked back at Kit and offered him a toke of the spliff. Kit took a long draw and said, “I got a kid. My little daughter is seven years old. She’s a beautiful child. Her momma passed last fall. Now little Audrey’s got nobody but me.”
Ryder thought for a moment. “So if you go down, what, she goes into care?”
The biker looked at Ryder with an age of hopelessness in his eyes.
Ryder told him, “Girl that I was telling you about? Didn’t have a clue what she was into. FBI set up a meet. Lord knows how. They sent her into it with a wire, and found her the next morning in a dumpster.” The guy took a long look down the road.
Ryder said, “Thing is, bro, those entrapment raps, they’re no different from any other kind of blackmail. Just like any other blackmailers, they’ll always say, ‘This is a one-time deal,’ but it never is. You do it once and they’ve got you. They own you from then on, and they won’t ever let you go.”
Kit looked at the ground and started fishing for his keys. He was turning to go when he stopped and looked back up at Ryder.
“Listen, thanks, man. There’s other ways you could have handled this, and I’m grateful for it.”
As the man was shuffling down the steps Ryder said, “Wait up,” and looked into the biker’s lost eyes. “An MC we have some associations with bring people in from Mexico. If you’d be willing to help them out on the other side, they could get you and Audrey across the border, no charge. Can’t say anything’s risk-free in this life, but they’ve been doing this run for some time, with zero problems to date.”
Some light returned to the biker’s eyes. Ryder said, “Think about it. See Bear inside. Maybe we can arrange to collect Audrey from school tomorrow for you.”
They gripped hands. Ryder gave the guy a hug and called him ‘bro’ again, and left him outside to think it over, not envying him one bit.
The thing was, Jesska knew. She spotted something was off before the guy got three steps into the bar. How did she do that?
Chapter 15
Jesska remained wary of Mary Ann. She watched from the far side of the bar as Mary Ann put her hand on Bear’s chest to speak to him. Then she leaned towards him and tilted her head a little to murmur softly into his ear. Bear’s eyes shone as he bent his head to hear her. His smile drifted as she talked, like he was getting secret knowledge.
When Ryder slipped out to the lobby at the back of the clubhouse and Mary Ann soon trotted quickly after him, Jesska’s hackles rose.
Leaning up by the doorway, Jesska watched as Mary Ann cornered Ryder. She held on to his upper arm, her hands around his strong bicep. Jess could barely hear Mary Ann as she looked up at him and said, “Bear asked me to do something, you know?”
“Mm-hm.”
She moved closer and pressed her breasts either side of his arm. “I wondered if you had any instructions for me. Anything more… detailed? Something a little more explicit, ma
ybe?”
Ryder caught sight of Jesska as she darted away.
Pushing through the crowd, she almost knocked over a table full of beers.
Playfully a burly biker said, “Hey, watch where you’re shakin’ your ass, baby,” but when he saw her reddening face, he stood. “Hey, Jess. What’s up?” The other bikers at the table raised their hands to discourage him and he sat back down. Her eyes prickled as she heard one of them say Ryder’s name and she shoved on out to the back door.
Jesska stepped out, her hands trembling as she fished in her pockets for a smoke. Could she really have got him so wrong? Had she misunderstood Ryder’s intentions? Had she completely misjudged him? Was there a huge part of the picture that she just wasn’t seeing?
She knew that if it wasn’t Mary Ann, she would have felt a whole lot differently. If one of the dancers or any other girl had been talking to Ryder like that, Jess didn’t believe that she would have reacted that way. But it had to be her.
She watched the moon and the stars, wondering if she was kidding herself. She had allowed her feelings for Ryder to grow into something, but maybe it really was just one-sided.
Was Ryder looking to take her for a ride? Did he see her as just another bitch to bend over his saddle when he felt like it? Her eyes stung. She kicked the dust and leaves around and she smoked one cigarette after another.
There was some movement, a furtive rustling and some wordless sounds of voices slipping out of the doorway. Jesska moved back into the shadows. She could have slid back into the club, but instinct told her to stay hidden.
Two figures moved into the bushes. A girl with a blonde cascade knelt in front of a stocky biker. They murmured in the bushes, with occasional sparkles of giggle and some grunts.
She jiggled her tits against his jeans and opened her shirt to let them out. He unbuttoned his jeans and pulled out his cock, and she rubbed it between her tits. She heard her say, “I can see what’s coming up in the big news of this evening, lover. Tell me how it’s all going to go down later tonight.” Jess was sure that she recognized the accent.
She couldn’t make out the man’s response, but she knew that she made him tell something as a price for his pleasure. His hips rocked and she rode her tits up and down on him until he started to groan. The two figures made Jess doubly frustrated, and hot as hell.
Jess still couldn’t make out what he said, but he got an “Oo-oo,” and a giggle for it. Then she shoved his cock in her mouth and her head gobbled along the length of it.
The biker’s hands gripped the girl’s head as his pelvis rocked back and forth, drawing his thick cock all the way into her mouth and back out again.
He growled and groaned quietly as his movement lengthened and accelerated. He pulled the girl’s head deeper into his crotch. As he pressed his cock all the way into the girl’s mouth and tipped his head back, Jesska recognized Mace’s pointed beard.
His hands gripped tight in the blonde curls as he shoved his hips at her face, stretching her red lips wide along his long, hard rail of flesh. He jerked her head into him hard as he rammed his pelvis into her. Gurgling wet gagging squeaks squeaked out of the girl’s throat. Jess wanted to tear herself away, but a mass of sensation at the tops of her thighs kept her rooted to the spot.
Mace threw his head back and his knees bent and parted wider. He jammed his cock all the way into the girl’s mouth all the way, until her nose was squashed in the wiry bush of his pubes. His rasping grunt rolled as he gripped her hair and pummeled her face.
Jesska caught her breath, her feet shifted and two heads turned to peer through the darkness towards her. With cum dripping from her mouth, Mary Ann looked directly into Jesska’s eyes.
Jesska melted swiftly back into the clubhouse.
Looking around for Bear, Jesska reached the middle of the packed bar when Mary Ann’s hand fell onto her shoulder and spun her around. The smoky stench of salty cum was on Mary Ann’s breath as she said, “You sneaking around now? Looking to spy on me?” Her eyes were red and wild. Her breath was thick and her fingers clenched.
“Look, I’m…” Before Jesska could get a sentence out, Mary Ann lashed at her face with her nails. Jess instinctively rocked back and Mary Ann’s other hand grabbed at her hair. Jesska had no skills or experience in brawling or in hand-to-hand combat.
Tiffany had tried many times to get her to go along to the judo and karate classes she took, but it didn’t appeal to Jess, and she had doubted whether all that formal training would be any use in a real fight where there were no rules. As Mary Ann yanked on Jess’ hair, she yelled, “you bitch, you going to get what’s coming to you now.”
Jess remembered the idea of using the opponent’s weight and strength against them. With the best timing she could manage, she waited until Mary Ann pulled hard, then Jesska lunged towards her. Mary Ann shrieked as she went backwards and down to the floor. She landed on her back with a crack, and Jess was on top and astride her.
Mary Ann yanked at Jess’ hair and her other hand flailed for something to use as a weapon. Her arm with the Queen of Hearts tattoo reached in a wild arc. Her knees came up at Jess’ back, but Jess had her hips pinned. Jess grabbed Mary Ann’s hair and slammed her head against the floor. She noticed a bourbon bottle, lowered from somewhere into Mary Ann’s free hand.
She didn’t have time to look up, but she was sure those were Bear’s boots stood by Mary Ann’s arm. As Mary Ann tried to swing the bottle, Jess reached for the girl’s wrist. They rolled and Jess was on her back. She forced the momentum to roll them over again.
She jammed her knee between Mary Ann’s thighs and pulled the two of them back up to crouch in front of one another, Mary Ann’s hot, damp breath in Jesska’s face.
Ryder was nearby. Jesska had an impression of a look of concern in his eyes. Was it for her or for Mary Ann? He moved to intervene but Bear put an arm in front of him. Others nodded approval and the word ‘Catfight’ hissed around the room.
Breathing hard and with her eyes aflame, Mary Ann’s grip tightened in Jess’ hair, pulling her head up. The arm with the bottle drew back and Jess hit her on the nose with her closed fist. As the blonde head went back and Mary Ann’s chin came up, Jess got all the weight she could behind the heel of her hand and drove it at Mary Anne’s jaw.
The girl’s head snapped back and she hit it on the wood floor as she fell. She let go of the bottle and it bounced to land by Jesska’s foot. Jess jumped down and straddled her again.
Now what? Winning the fight in the MC clubhouse could be worse than losing. What would they expect her to do? The heavy bottle was in easy reach, but she didn’t want to kill or maim the stupid bitch.
Mary Ann’s left hand shot at Jess’ face. Jess caught her wrist with her hand and stopped the long nails less than an inch from her cheek. By reflex, she hefted the neck of the bottle.
Bear reached towards her but Ryder put a hand out in front of him.
Ryder’s voice was deep and warm in Jess’ ear. “That’s probably enough now, little wildcat.”
His hand on her shoulder reassured her and she got up, slowly. Mary Ann took longer to rise and Ryder watched as she stood close to Bear, leaning against the big barrel of his chest.
Without taking her eyes off the blonde, Jess asked, “You know what this is really about, Ryder?”
She heard the smirk in his voice as he said, “Ain’t it just a regular catfight? I figured you was scrapping over me.”
“Ask her whose hose she was outside drinking from,” Jess hissed.
Bear should have stopped Mary Ann. When she lunged at Jess, Ryder put a hand up, right in her face. “Don’t make me have to stop you, Mary Ann.”
Hard Core: Biker MC Motorcycle Club Menage Steamy 3 Story Bundle Set (Hot Tales From a Hard Road Book 1) Page 12