Bud (Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club Book 10)

by Candace Blevins

  He stood, rounded the table, and leaned down to kiss the top of her head. “I should go before I fuck you against the wall. I’d like to give you at least twenty-four hours without any friction on all your raw bits.”

  Nickie watched him leave with what she was certain was a goofy smile, but she couldn’t help it. She’d fallen for the rough, tough, biker.

  And while she’d been spanked, belted, fucked, and thoroughly used during their time together, the man hadn’t done anything to risk actual injury. He’d awakened her a few times by cramming his cock up her ass, but he’d wrapped and lubed it well before he entered her. He’d also explained that when he pointed to a piece of furniture and unbuckled his belt, it didn’t matter if he was going to use the belt or his cock — the important thing was that she bend over and wait for whatever he chose to do. Her breasts had been spanked, the fronts of her thighs, her bottom, the backs of her legs, and even her clit, pussy, and asshole hadn’t been spared the harsh leather of his belt. He hadn’t ordered her to wear a plug while working, but she’d had one in most times he fucked her pussy, and she’d slept with it holding her open two full nights.

  She once again marveled at how he’d kept from interrupting her muse when she was in the groove. He’d come for lunch one day when she was writing, and had waited ten minutes in the kitchen until she came to him. He’d won major brownie points that day by letting her finish the fight scene with the same energy she started it. Going back to finish a scene later is a pain in the ass, and the interrupted scene is never as good as it would’ve been if it’d been completed in one sitting.

  With breakfast finished, she rode back to her condo with her guards, and settled into her office with her laptop. She checked email first, and immediately opened the one from her investigative accountant. Nickie frowned as she read through the twists and turns he’d followed before finding property the club owned through another corporation. The Google street view showed it as an aging old hotel behind hedges and a wall, so you could only see it from a small section of the street, but the corporate paperwork said it was a bed and breakfast.

  Was Shadow keeping an eye on her search history, she wondered? The accountant had sent images so she hadn’t searched for the address, and she was hesitant to do so when Shadow had created the pathway through the proxy.

  It’d been a long time since she’d felt the need to ditch her security — since she’d fired the last company and hired Drake Security, actually. Tyler worked with her to keep her safe, and helped in her investigation rather than hindered her. Previous agencies had only been concerned with her safety, while the men of Drake understood they needed to keep her safe without impeding her ability to do her job.

  However, the sticking point now was Mac and Ranger’s friendship with Bud. Would they tell him if she drove by this place and paid special attention to it? Would they even know about it?

  With a sigh, she realized she needed to focus on the North Carolina trip right now, and she’d have to look into this place when she got back. Hopefully at that point she’d no longer need round-the-clock security and could access the internet without going through a proxy. Meanwhile, she replied to her investigative accountant and asked him to pull the forensic accountant into his investigation, and gave them a larger budget to work with.

  Bud stared at his phone a good five minutes before he texted his daughter to call him when she had some time to talk.

  His phone rang a few moments later.

  “I always have time for you, Dad. What’s up?”

  “You once asked if I’d ever get serious with someone else, and I wasn’t sure I would.”

  “Have you met someone?” When he didn’t answer, she said, “You don’t need my approval, but you have it. I want you to be happy.”

  “I’ve lost my fucking mind, Angel. She’s an investigative journalist, and the only reason I got her to sign a non-disclosure on the MC is because I’d learned all her pen names and she wanted me to sign a non-disclosure about them. Even at that, she’s made it clear she’ll report anything illegal to the police.”

  “Well, fuck.”

  “She’s pissed off a human trafficking ring.” He had to be careful how he worded things over an unencrypted connection. “It’s a big enough deal Aaron Drake has asked The Abbott to step in and help.”

  “Tell me you aren’t trying to play the hero?”

  He chuckled. “She’s capable of taking care of herself under most conditions, but yeah, I’ve been sticking close. She has the resources to hire the best protection money can buy, and I trust Aaron, but she’s putting herself out there for bait and I’ll be by her side when she does.”

  “With you, Aaron, and Abbott, I’m sure it’ll be fine. When do I get to meet her?”

  “How about next weekend? We’re going out of town this weekend for the whole bait-and-capture thing.”

  “Do ya’ll want to come here, or shall Bash and I come down? Assuming Bash can get away, but I don’t see anything big on the calendar so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “It’s harder for him to get away on weekends though, I get it. I’ll make reservations at one of the hotels across from the Aquarium and we’ll plan on coming up, but let’s loosely keep it open for the two of you to come down if it works out better.”

  “Tell me about her. What’s her name?”

  “Nicole, though I’ve been calling her Nickie and she hasn’t stopped me. She carries a little Kahr nine mil, a knife she’s obviously practiced with, and if she’s somewhere she can’t have the gun she replaces it with pepper spray.” He chuckled. “She writes werewolf romance under one of her secret pen names, but she doesn’t believe in werewolves.”

  “Dad! You’re playing with all kinds of fire.”

  It wasn’t a rebuke, just a comment. No judgement. That was his Angel.

  “My wolf’s claimed her.”

  “Then I’m sure I’ll like her.”

  “She’s nothing like your mom, and yet… she’s a lot like her.”

  Now there was a pause before his Angel said, “You can’t compare them, Dad. Mom supported you in anything you did, but she also didn’t take any shit off you, and she was more than capable of taking care of herself when you weren’t around to do it. Maybe Nickie isn’t going to be supportive for everything you do, but I’m guessing you respect her for holding to her morals.”

  “That’s it, exactly. She went above and beyond to not just report on this damned human trafficking ring, but to try her damnedest to shut them down. She’s haunted by what she’s seen, but she’ll follow any story as far as it takes her next time, too, and then deal with any emotional fallout later.”

  “You need to be honest with her about the club’s girls. She needs to understand it isn’t like the human trafficking ring up front. If she finds them and you don’t get a chance to explain before she goes to law enforcement, it could be bad.”

  Bud sighed. “I’d like to think she won’t find them, but you’re probably right. We need to get beyond the next week, first.” His daughter didn’t know the club traded in illegal weapons, so she couldn’t warn him about that. She shouldn’t know the club ran a stable of whores, but as the wife of the Chattanooga RTMC’s enforcer, she’d learned a whole lot about the club she probably didn’t need to know.

  Hell, she’d learned a helluva lot more than she should’ve as his daughter, growing up around the club.

  An hour later, Bud was reading through phone transcripts Shadow had captured of the FBI agents assigned to the human trafficking investigation. Getting them was illegal as fuck, but Bud needed to get a feel for these two. Also, he didn’t want any surprises.

  His phone buzzed — Shadow letting him know Nicole had arrived at the clubhouse with two men. Bud smelled lion as soon as he stepped out of his office, and he soothed his wolf while he walked to Shadow’s office, and the lion took his Nickie downstairs to the club’s boxing ring.

  Today’s sparring session was supposed to do three things — br
ush Nicole up on her self-defense skills, give the men a better idea of her hand-to-hand fighting skills, and get her and Nathan used to touching each other so it looked natural once they hit North Carolina. Bud’s wolf wasn’t going to like that last part, but he was going to have to deal with it.

  Shadow had put two cameras in the workout room the day before, so Bud went to the MC’s control room now and waited for Shadow to buzz him in.

  “What do you hope to gain by spying on her?”

  “I have no idea. Ranger’s with Bethany and Nathan isn’t going to poach. He could if he wanted, but he’s a stand-up guy and he won’t. Even if I thought he would, and even though Nicole hasn’t made any promises about monogamy, I don’t think she’d start something with Nathan behind my back.”

  “So why are we watching them spar?”

  “I need to see. The wolf needs to see. They don’t need me in the room the entire two hours, but the wolf isn’t happy knowing she’s in the building with two men and we aren’t with them.”

  Bud was familiar with Nickie’s style from sparring with his Angel, and he immediately realized the woman didn’t need to brush up on her skills. Her moves were of someone who regularly trains, and he was willing to bet Ranger was already more than familiar with her skills.

  Five minutes in, when Nathan suggested they see if Nickie could throw him, Ranger’s cocky grin told Bud he was right.

  “Mac told me a story of her tossing someone twice her size into a river.” He looked at Nickie. “Some kind of loading dock in the warehouse district?”

  “Yeah. It’s where we rescued most of the kids.” She turned to Nathan. “You’ll be prepared for it, but that’s okay. Come at me.”

  “First time, I won’t defend myself so we can see what you have.”

  She nodded, he ran at her and tried to grab her, and she easily stepped towards him, threw her hip into his body, and used his own momentum to toss him over her as she leaned forward. He slammed to the matt on his back and she went down with him, angled so she was sitting on him and her elbow in position to come down hard on his face but she averted it at the last minute.

  “Impressive.” Nathan told her as he effortlessly moved her off him and stood. “Okay, let’s try it again with me countering you this time.”

  She initially looked as if she were going to do the exact same move again, but instead of tossing him over her, she bent lower, reached between her legs to grab his ankle, and lifted it off the ground as she stood and used her own leg as a pivot to hold his down. Nathan grabbed her upper body and pulled her down on top of him, rolled her over, and quickly had control — but he’s the strongest lion on the planet and no one beats him. Ever. The mere fact she put him on the ground when he meant to counter her was fucking phenomenal.

  “Damn,” said Shadow. “Remind me not to piss her off.”

  “Don’t take that out of your repertoire just because Nathan knew how to beat it,” Ranger told her. “It’s a damned fine move and will work on just about anyone.”

  “He’s right,” Nathan told her. “No one takes me down, and you just did. Impressive. If you’d been doing it the right way — as you will in a real fight — you’d have messed my knee up, so if you pull that one off in a fight, do your best to break their leg at the knee. No mercy — it’ll be a fight for your life.”

  Bud watched them for forty minutes, and noticed Nathan touching her more and more. Finally, Ranger said, “You need to touch him back some, Nickie. Get used to him. In fact, let’s take a few minutes for the two of you to walk while you hold hands, and for Nathan to pull you into a hug so it looks like you’ve done it a hundred times before.”

  She turned her back on Nathan and looked to Ranger. “I’m used to pretending with Tyler. We have it down to a science. I don’t know Nathan like I do him.”

  “We need Nathan in the cabin with you and Bud.”

  She sighed and looked at Nathan. “Bud isn’t hard to read when he hasn’t purposefully shut down, and he wasn’t at all happy about the prospects of you in the cabin with us. Is there a history I should know about?”

  Nathan looked to Ranger and back to Nickie. “Not that I can think of.”

  “It’s that Mac and I are in love with Bethany, and Nathan’s very publicly not monogamous with anyone,” Ranger told her.

  Nickie thought it over a few seconds before saying, “Okay then. I just wanted to be sure there wasn’t a specific history. If it’s just that you aren’t in a relationship right now, he’ll have to deal with it.”

  She held her hand out to Nathan, but instead of taking it he lifted her and set her down in front of him. “Quick kiss. If we can pull that off, everything else will be a piece of cake.”

  Bud’s wolf wanted to rise up and run through the building to take down Nathan, but the man knew better. Nathan could kill him with a single swipe of his paw. An eight-hundred-pound lion against a two-hundred-plus-pound wolf wasn’t a contest. Even in human form, the Amakhosi could pull on the energy of every cat on the planet, and Bud couldn’t even pull on the energy of his brothers.

  Bud could easily beat most of the people he came up against, but he was about to be in way over his head with Master Vampires and Alpha creatures with more power than Bud would ever amass. He needed Nathan to help keep Nickie safe.

  He watched Nathan kiss her without saying a word, his emotions locked down. Ranger made them do it a few times, until Nickie relaxed and it looked normal.

  At last, Nathan stepped away from her and told her, “You’re used to having the element of surprise when you have to defend yourself. No one expects you to know how to fight. Men underestimate you, and you take advantage of it. As you should.”

  “I won’t have that this time. I know.”

  “Right, and even the easily fatal moves you’ve been taught may not have the impact you’ll expect. It’s damned hard to crush the windpipe of a man with a really strong neck, for instance.”

  “Today has been about getting you in the right mindset,” said Ranger. “But in reality, we want to set you up in a defensible position with a fully automatic belt-fed rifle, so you don’t have to fight anyone. Nathan has a license to have and use one under special circumstances, and we can shift those circumstances so it becomes legal for you to step in and use it during a battle.”

  “And now it’s time for me to meet them on the way to the basement,” Bud told Shadow. “Thanks for setting that up for me. You didn’t record it, right?”

  “Nope. Did he really bring a fully automatic to shoot?”

  Bud just grinned, and exited the room as he said, “Make sure you pull those cameras down the first chance you get. No watching our people!”

  Bud’s top people knew he’d asked Shadow to put the cams in, and why, but the rest of the club wasn’t aware and he’d just as soon not have to explain.

  19

  Nathan and Nickie were in a rented Jeep Renegade, and Bud would be waiting for them at the cabin. Both men were in disguise, and Nathan looked nothing like himself. He had a scruffy beard and he sported a manbun. He wore khaki pants with sport sandals, and a flowing white shirt that hid his muscles. The Nathan she’d first met looked like a general despite his black cargo pants and tight black t-shirt. This Nathan looked kinda like a modern-day hippie.

  Bud had shaved his head, and he’d be in spray-painted designer jeans and a loose t-shirt when they arrived. Both Bud and Nathan wore prescription-type glasses with normal lenses.

  Bud’s bike looked like a crotch rocket but was actually a modified dirt bike – street legal, but they could use it to escape through the woods if things went to shit. Aaron had procured it and assured them the license tags wouldn’t lead the bad guys to Bud, Nickie, or anyone else she cared about.

  “If you know they put cameras up inside and outside the house, can’t you just follow the signal to them and find them?”

  “Our hacker found the signal, so we know for sure where all the cameras are, but they’re routing it into a place i
t should be going through. It never comes out, which is a problem. Basically, it means they have access to a main onramp in Turkey — the kind you only get if you work there. Billions of data streams move through it every second. If we wanted to find them and weren’t worried about them seeing us looking, our guy could do it, but there’s no way he can be sure he won’t be spotted. We checked with another hacker, one of the best in the world, and she agreed that if they have someone on the inside, it’ll be impossible to dig down without being seen.”

  “Okay, so we have to keep up the charade inside and outside the house.”

  “We’ll have to sleep together. You’ll start feeling bad in the hot tub and we’ll put you to bed to go to sleep, so it won’t look odd that we don’t have sex. I’ll sleep in boxer briefs. You’ll be hot at first but then cold, and Bud will put one of his shirts on you. Bud will sleep naked.”

  They’d already gone over this with her, but she wanted to go over it again to work through the scenario better in her mind.

  “Logically,” she told him, “you and I have been together on the ride up, so it’ll make sense for me to greet Bud with a deep kiss and not give you one right off the bat. I’ll need to kiss you and be familiar with you, but once I do the single big greeting with Bud we can stay casual until we start drinking wine and get into the hot tub.”

  “Right, and the wine’s been replaced with white grape juice so we can stay sharp.”

  “Thanks for making this as easy on me as possible. I like you. I mean, I’m with Bud and he’s been clear he doesn’t share, but you’re a nice guy and I’d be attracted if I wasn’t seeing where things might go with Bud. That’s making this harder, because my libido is happy with all your touches and little kisses. I’m good with sharing and playing, but Bud isn’t and I never cheat.”

  “I’ve had fun playing around, but you’re Bud’s and I don’t poach. Ranger was right about me not doing relationships. I fuck a lot of women but I live alone and don’t see that changing.” He sighed. “I once didn’t even allow friends to get close to me, and now I have three close friends. I’m still a long way from taking the jump to a girlfriend, though.”