Riding Filthy

by Abriella Blake

  She could hear footsteps crunching near and looked up to find Chitto and Bronson staring down at her, their faces screwed in searching concern. They looked down on her, weeping, and grimaced.

  “Is he…?” Chitto’s voice trailed off.

  He knelt in the dust, running a hand along Jesse’s body searching for wounds. He turned Jesse’s face, checking his pupils and pulse. Bronson watched, brow knitted, as Chitto lifted Jesse’s shirt. The men exchanged a look.

  “All right Nitro,” said Chitto, deadpan. “Time to wakey wakey.”

  Celestina’s brain was whirring. She clutched Jesse to her with an even more desperate grip; afraid they’d take him away. Afraid this was the end.

  “No,” she said. “Let me stay with him.”

  “You heard the woman,” Jesse rumbled into Celestina’s breasts, startling her. His head nestled up into the curve of her clavicle, burrowing, and his arm curled lazily around her shoulder. “One more minute. Not yet.”

  A shock of goose bumps washed down Celestina’s body. Her mouth went dry.

  “Jesse – you’re – you were – you–”

  Celestina couldn’t finish the thought. Her sobs turned into hyperventilating. How could this be? She couldn’t catch her breath and raised a shaking hand to brush her hair out of her face, needing to see better. When her eyesight was cleared she reached down to brush Jesse’s hair out of his face. His eyes were closed, wrinkled at the edges with smiling. She ran her hands over his back urgently, looking for blood or a bullet hole or something to confirm her assumption of his demise but Jesse was dry as dust, his body firm and warm as ever. Raising searching eyes, she stared at Chitto for answers.

  “But he’s dead,” she said, stunned. “He was dead.”

  Standing over the prone lovers, Chitto crossed his arms and bit back a smile. Bronson slowly shook his head, closing his eyes sardonically.

  “Dead?” said Chitto. “Nah.” He nudged Jesse’s side playfully with his boot. “One fifteen foot fall into the line of fire can’t take out an ex-marine, eh Jesse?”

  Jesse groaned and batted his hand lazily at Chitto.

  “Go away.” Jesse groaned.

  Celestina felt like a bucket of ice water splashed over her entire body. She stared at Jesse as if seeing him for the first time.

  “But you’re—you're shot!” She stuttered.

  “No.” Jesse’s voice warmed her like glowing charcoal, melting away the panic and hysteria.

  “The bullet –” Celestina couldn’t wrap her head around it.

  “He missed.”

  “I think it grazed Dolce,” Bronson grunted. “Serves him right. Wish it caught him in the dick.”

  Chitto shrugged. “And the Oscar for best performance goes to Jesse Cruz.”

  “You tricked me!” With Celestina’s revelation came a burst of ire. She smacked Jesse’s shoulder with her palm and tried to kick away with her good leg. “You laid there pretending to be dead and let me think –”

  Jesse sprang to life finally, his muscles contracting and wrestling until he had pinned down Celestina’s restless, feisty revolt. With her arms immobile over her head, her breasts crushed against his chest, his pelvis rocked into hers, Celestina had no choice to but to look in his smoldering eyes now framed with laughter lines. His pupils were tiny as pinpricks and his smile was lazy. He bit his lip and grinned impishly at her, his eyes tracing an infuriatingly sensual perusal of her face.

  “Yes,” He said. “I tricked you. But you love me. Admit it. You said so.”

  “Why you –”

  “Admit it!”

  “You son of a –”

  But Celestina couldn’t finish her curse. Laughing, Jesse took her lips with a deep kiss as sudden and lethal as a cobra strike. It was over. He had won. His intoxicating touch and the surging of his tongue caught Celestina and trapped her body and soul in indescribable, intense release.

  He was right, god damn it. She did love him. She felt herself crash and melt into Jesse’s lips, that precious point of contact becoming the portal to communicate her gratitude, relief, and need for him. Her tongue flowed under his, intimately, and something deep stirred in the cradle of her belly. Tears wetted her eyes and she squeezed her fingers around his, convinced she’d never let go. When Jesse finally lifted his head away and looked at her with wondering eyes, she could see the dark and powerful passion stirring in his mind, echoing her own.

  “I thought I lost you,” he breathed. A single tear escaped down his cheek and he turned his head to the side, gathering himself. “And I was lost.”

  Celestina felt warmth burst in her chest, an aching wholeness that defied the chaos of their time and place.

  “No,” Celestina said. She lifted her head and kissed Jesse’s neck, loving the smell of him, fire and skin and smoke. Loving the sizzling spark of his closeness. “I can’t lose you.”

  He sighed and looked deeply into her eyes. “Promise me something now. We are both alive, somehow, and I love you. You must never leave me, quierida.”

  “Never.”

  Someone above them cleared their throat, startling them out of their kiss. Celestina opened her eyes to see a weather-beaten man with silver cropped hair staring down at them, eyebrows raised and lips pursed. He was dressed in leather from head to toe and his taciturn face promised power, action, and pain to his enemies.

  “Miss Auditore, I presume?” His voice was hard as granite.

  Celestina swallowed, the rest of the world seeping back into her love-dulled brain. The guns, the gangs, her father. It wasn’t over. She took a deep breath.

  “Yes, Axle.” Jesse pushed up to his feet, reaching a hand down to help Celestina up. “This is Celestina. You saw what came of our brilliant kidnapping idea. We should give it up and stick to normal crime in the future.”

  Following Jesse’s arms, Celestina tried to stand. Her breath caught and her weight went out from under her when she tried to stand on her hurt leg, but Jesse caught her. His firm, tattooed arm closed around her waist, making her heart pound. He turned fierce protective eyes on Axle, daring a challenge.

  “I better get her to a hospital, Pres,” Jesse said evenly. “We are pretty much as done here as we can be, no? I say we set her free. She is no use to us for bargaining anymore. Not with Cosmo…”

  His voice trailed off and he glanced at Celestina. Her face was stoic but her lips were trembling.

  “Yeah,” Axle grunted, averting his eyes. “You’re free to go, Miss Auditore. Our apologies for all this; it wasn’t part of the plan.” He shook his head and sighed. “What a mess.”

  They turned together to survey the aftermath of the battle. Dawn was not far away and in the cobalt light of the sky they could see that ten or fifteen of Cosmo’s men lay twisted in the dust, victims of enemy and friendly fire. Once Kang had gone rogue, they didn’t stand a chance.

  “What now?” grunted Bronson.

  The men looked at each other.

  “Now, I guess we put together the pieces,” Jesse said, his face in shadow. “We honor the fallen. We rebuild.”

  He leaned over and kissed Celestina on the cheek, but not even the warmth of his affection could distract her gaze from where it had fallen. Jesse followed the trajectory of her gaze and his jaw clenched. There was nothing he could say.

  Celestina’s eyes overflowed with tears as she looked on the still form of her father. Breaking away from Jesse’s protective hold, she limped a few steps until she fell. Undeterred, she crawled until she could sit close at her fallen father’s side. She pulled his head into her lap, brushing the dust off his skin. She straightened the collar of Cosmo’s shirt with a slow and steady hand and then planted a kiss on his forehead.

  The man who had brought her up, loved her, and protected her had many secrets and many sides. Now Celestina wondered if she had really known him. It was so hard to accept the dark side that Jesse had revealed to her, the crime lord. That person didn’t reconcile with her memories of her father. But she h
ad to accept that he had done evil in his life, and that Celestina herself had unwittingly become a part of his downfall. His death. It was a lot to swallow.

  But he was still her father. She felt the shock of his sudden absence from the world like an empty chasm opening in her brain, a lonely cold space like a mirror with no reflection. Crossing herself, she began the only prayer she could think of as her tears washed away the desert dust.

  “Hail Mary full of Grace,” she whispered, “The Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace…”

  The men of the Ruiners Motorcycle Club, once enemies, watched her repeat the prayer over and over again, respectfully silent for a moment, hands clasped and still.

  “What about that Asian guy?” Bronson whispered to Axle after a minute, quiet enough not to disturb Celestina’s prayers. “Kang, wasn’t it? I recognized him. Troublesome bastard. I got the sinking feeling we’ll be hearing from him again, boss.”

  “Seems like the Auditore family has a new king pin,” Axle rumbled pessimistically. “We finally get rid of Cosmo and now we have to deal with King Kang, whoever the fuck he is. Everything’s moving so fast these days, so much chaos. We’ve got our work cut out for us. We got to find out about Kang, get ourselves prepared. It’s a new city now, without Cosmo. Maybe this can serve us; maybe it will fuck us over. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, is my guess.”

  Jesse nodded grimly, but he had other more important things on his hazy mind. The heroin still pumping through his veins felt good. He’d missed it. It filled a piece of him, but he knew as he watched Celestina pray in the dust he knew that he couldn’t let himself relapse, fall into darkness. Not again, not now. He could be clean for her. He had to be.

  She deserved that.

  Stepping into the wide blue dawn, with angel clouds streaking over his new sky, Jesse left Axle and Bronson behind him to finish the council of war. He walked through the mayhem and blood and knelt on the highway, taking his new place at Celestina’s side.

  Jesse only needed one drug, one anchor to moor himself, one shield from the blistering heat of his lonesome mind: Celestina. He could get high and fall asleep on her, with her, in her. She loved him. That was all he had needed to know to flip the switch inside, lights on. When had anybody loved him before? When had he ever loved anybody? Before it had only been him, fire, desert, and war. Never love. Heroin, yes. That had been the closest thing to love.

  But love was available now.

  Celestina could be his addiction. Jesse could give himself to that. He would. He must. Whatever happened or didn’t happen, it wasn’t just him alone in the world anymore. She was his family now, too. Watching her incredible face bowed in devotion, Jesse promised himself he would be strong. He would be awake. He would build, and not destroy. He folded his hands, and his lips moved with Celestina’s in prayer.

  “Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our deaths. Amen.”

  Recovery. Resurrection. Rebirth. It would be a long, dark road.

  And Jesse was taking her with him.

  Epilogue

  Six weeks later, Celestina found herself leaning against the door of her red Porsche in the circular drive-way of Resurrection Detox Center, heart hammering. The manicured succulent garden curved around the sides of the driveway like an encroaching oasis, the salmon-colored stucco building rising like a mission from the desert sands. She checked her watch. It was time.

  She hadn’t seen Jesse in six weeks. It had been the longest six weeks of her life. Somehow, Celestina had made it through her father’s funeral, her brother’s vows for vengeance, her emergency meetings calling for the restructuring of the Strip Kings LLC Empire. Convincing the board to end their business relationship with Charles Kang was difficult, since she couldn’t say anything about his role in her father’s murder without implicating herself or Jesse in the bomb or kidnapping or shootout.

  She still wasn’t sure she’d succeed, but at least she’d kept everything a secret. Secret from the company, secret from her family. Every day she’d woken up and stared long and hard at herself in the mirror, not fully understanding her own calm and conviction in the midst of this crisis. Her father was gone, her company struggling, her world upside down. And she was in love with a gangster. She no longer fought her feelings or questioned them. It was the new shape of things, and she might as well get used to it.

  She needed Jesse.

  The bells of the rehab chapel began to clang and chime the hour, and as if on cue the wide glass front doors swung open. There he was, looking a little cagey but determined. He shook hands with the attendant at his side and stepped confidently off the curb, each stride making Celestina’s smile widen.

  “Hey handsome,” she said. “So you’re all clean now, eh?”

  The hint of a swarthy grin flashed over his face. “Don’t worry quierida,” he husked. “A little part of me is always ready to get dirty with you.” He slipped his arms around her waist and crushed her body into his as tightly as possible, his lips brushing her neck ardently. “Mi amor,” he breathed. “You are a new life for me. This is just the beginning. Just wait and see.”

  She gave a deep throaty laugh, disentangling herself from his embrace.

  “Get in the car,” she said. “I have a surprise for you and we are in a hurry.”

  His eyes flickered over the Porsche, then around the parking lot.

  “Where the fuck is my Harley?”

  Celestina raised an eyebrow. “Don’t worry, I had it taken care of.”

  “Taken care of?”

  “Just get in.”

  “Where’s my bike? I love that bike.”

  “I sent it ahead of us, where we’re going.”

  “Ahh…” reluctantly, Jesse eased himself into the passenger seat and gave Celestina a rueful stare. “Can I drive?”

  “No.”

  “This is humiliating.”

  “Relax.”

  “Where are you taking me?”

  Celestina turned the key, igniting the engine to its silken purr. She plugged in her iPhone, typing in the destination: Miami.

  “I’m kidnapping you this time,” she said with a wink. “I’m whisking you off into the sunset. Well, technically the sunrise I guess, but you get the idea.”

  Celestina beamed at Jesse, catching the twinkle in his eye. She kicked the Porsche into gear, roaring away.

  She couldn’t wait to ditch the real world for a short while, to escape and be alone with Jesse for really the first time. There was a yacht in a private dock, waiting for them…a turquoise sea…a floating palace…

  And a lot and a lot of sex to be had.

  THE END

  Thank you for reading!

  About the Author

  Abriella Blake, 25 years old, got her start writing Twilight fan-fic while finishing up her undergrad at USC. She has an unhealthy obsession with chocolate, Cinnabons, and Sushi. Writing interesting, intriguing, complex characters is her passion and she’s excited to share her first published novels with readers! Abriella is the latest edition to the Hearts Collective team.

  Connect with Abriella and other Hearts Collective authors online at

  http://www.Hearts-Collective.com, Facebook, Twitter.

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  OTHER BOOKS BY ABRIELLA BLAKE:

  Riding Dirty (Ruiners Motorcycle Club) by Abriella Blake

  If you enjoyed Abriella Blake’s Riding Filthy (Ruiners Motorcycle Club)

  Then you'll also enjoy reading Impossibly (A Dante’s Nine MC Novel) by Colleen Masters.

  Read below for an excerpt!!

  Prologue

  My surroundings come into focus at last. I realize that I am floating—but not through space. Warm water, scented with lavender and sage, suspends my naked body, com
forting me. It laps against my skin, caressing every curve and limb of me. At first, I think I must be treading water in some hot spring, or sunbaked ocean—the body of water is that vast. But as the rest of the scene comes into focus, I find that I’m not in a sea at all. I’m in a marble and golden bathtub, sunken into the floor of some elegant, unknown room. I gaze up and see that the ceiling is made of curved glass, and the moon shines down from above. The moon, and some other very vibrant lights...perhaps of the neon variety?

  “What are you doing all the way over there?” asks a rich, rasping voice.

  I look around sharply, sending little splashes of water everywhere as I try to cover my naked breasts. Warm, amused laughter rings out from the far side of the enormous tub. I peer through the steamy air and see that I’m not alone in this place. There, across the way, glow two piercing blue eyes. Heart battering against my ribs, I inch closer. Up out of the mist rises a broad, cut torso, covered in inky lines. Two thick, muscled arms drape over the edge of the tub. A face unlike any other, itself like something carved out of marble, watches me approach. And a full, irresistible smile bursts open there as I approach.

  “There’s my girl,” Declan Tiberi growls, holding out his strong hand to me.

  I place my hand in his, marveling at the sudden spread of heat that rushes through me at his slightest touch. Declan pulls me toward him, guiding me through the steamy water. His brown curls are wet, slicked back from his gorgeous face. Slowly, tentatively, I come to standing before him, letting my eyes trail all along every defined muscle of his chest, his web of intricate tattoos. I spot a scar or two on his chest, rising up from the bulky, firm panes of his pecs.