“A few days, but I’ll be back over the holidays. If I don’t see ya this visit I’ll catch you then.”
I watch him walk off, then turn my attention back to Annika. She’s watching Cruz as he jumps on a chair and calls for everyone’s attention. He starts his speech to thank everyone for coming. Annika whispers something to her dad and then walks over to the exit. It takes me all of five seconds to decide I’m going to follow her. The rolled joint behind my ear’s calling my name, anyway.
Scanning through the stragglers outside having their own sort of party, laughing and drinking, I kick the gravel along the ground, disappointed. Reaching into my pocket for a lighter, I park my ass on a tree stump and pull out my half-smoked joint, rolling it between my fingers. With a flick of the flame, the joint blazes to life. I take a long drag, inhaling deeply, and try to focus on the conversations going on around me to drown out the sound of Cruz’s voice inside.
I’m probably the only guy in the whole club who has no respect for Cruz, but I don’t give a shit. I go out of my way to piss him off because I can, because I know his dad won’t let him touch me. Shit, even if he tried, I’d lay his ass out.
When the cops showed up at the clubhouse the night Pops died, the whole club went into shock. He had just been there drinking with us a few hours earlier and ended up leaving with one of the club rats. We all had a few days or so to try to put the pieces together, and the only thing that made sense was it had to have been the Sinners, a rival MC. Every brother was called in from every charter. The plan of attack was clear, all of us having a job, well, except for me. Cruz wanted me to hang back, worried I was so hopped up with anger and grief that I wouldn’t be able to handle myself in action. I couldn’t argue with him; it was the truth. I would have shot the first damn person I saw.
A few of the girls stayed at the clubhouse that night with me—a few wives, some rats, and even a few kids. I drank myself stupid that evening, waking up in a pile of my own vomit. Carla, one of the wives, helped clean me up before the guys got back. But when everyone pulled into the lot, I was most shocked to find out that the problem wasn’t taken care of—Cruz let those fuckers walk away. It didn’t make sense. I tried to fight for my dad’s honor, but with Cruz taking the gavel until an official vote was done, there wasn’t anything I could do.
Then shit got real fishy. Cruz started acting funny, calling orders like he had a plan for the club long before Pops ate gravel. Two and two started adding up, and I knew, just fucking knew, that Cruz had something to do with his death. I looked for a while, trying to find out anything I could, but every end was a dead one. So, my logic, until I could prove that Cruz didn’t kill my old man, he was prime suspect number one until I wrote him off. Respect went out the window. He might be my president, but that fucker isn’t my brother.
“You going to share that with me?” a sweet voice purrs behind me.
I glance over my shoulder and see Annika standing with her hands in her back pockets and a coy smile on her lips. Fuck, she’s cute. I can’t get over how much she’s changed. She’d have to be in her mid-twenties by now, a good few years younger than me, but fuck, that body…she’s all curves. I hand her the joint. She lifts it to her mouth and wraps those blood-red lips around it, inhaling, her eyes not leaving mine. Holy shit. My cock twitches and I have to reposition myself. Her gaze falls on my crotch and she laughs before forcing me over a bit so she can sit on the stump next to me.
“It’s been a while, Annika. You’re all grown up.”
“I am,” she agrees. “I guess aging nearly ten years will do that to a person.”
“Shit, that long?” I rub my head. Where the fuck has time gone? “So tell me what’s going on. What have you been up to?”
“Nothing much, really. Finished school a couple years ago, was teaching at an elementary school up in Bowling Green. When Mom passed, I stayed behind, but Daddy needed me. With Nik on the road and dealing with club shit, Marky working so far away, someone needs to be here.”
“How long you stayin’?”
“Not really sure. Probably a while. Not really a whole lot there for me, you know?” Annika hands me back the joint and I slowly take another toke, holding her gaze while I inhale.
We pass the diminishing joint back and forth a few more times until the effect kicks in. “You better get back on inside before the cavalry comes lookin’ for ya.”
“Nah, I’m good. I told Daddy I was headed home, so they probably don’t even know I’m still here.”
“Look at you, deceptive little Annie.”
Nudging her shoulder into mine, she shakes her head. “It’s been a long time since someone’s called me Annie. How have you been doing, Ry?”
It’s probably been ten years since anyone who isn’t wearing a badge or a robe used my legal name. I almost bitch at her for calling me someone else’s name, that’s just how long it’s been. It feels right, though. Other than my dad on occasion when I was a kid, Annika was the only one to keep using my name after the guys gave me Ace.
“Same shit, different day. Trying to get through life. Nothing too exciting.”
“I find that hard to believe,” she mutters, pulling a cigarette pack from her purse and lighting one. She takes a few drags, and my eyes are glued to the end, which is glowing the same color as her lips. She offers me a hit of the cigarette and I accept.
“I’m gonna take off. I’ll see ya around, Annie.” As the tobacco-wrapped paper disappears, leaving only the tan filter behind, I flick the cigarette to the far side of the lot, climb off the tree stump, and walk to my bike.
Surprisingly, Annika’s right behind me, her presence putting me on edge. Swinging a leg over my bike, I sit on the leather seat and dig the key from my vest pocket, then put it in the ignition. As the bike roars to life, the vibrations taking away all of the tension I felt earlier in the night with everyone being here, two small hands grab on to my shoulders and apply pressure. Annika’s body presses firmly to mine, her hands coming around my waist, palming the gas tank.
“What are you doing, Annika?”
“You,” she whispers in my ear. I’m more than apprehensive. If she were any other rat, I’d just fuck her right here in the parking lot, then go about my business. But she’s far from the typical girls that hang around here, not to mention she’s a member’s daughter and the president’s little sister.
“Hang on, it’s gonna be a fast ride,” I yell over the rumble of the motor. Slowly pulling out of the lot, it dawns on me. I can’t prove Cruz had anything to do with my pop’s death, but I can sure piss him off until I can get to the bottom of it. Dom’ll be pretty pissed about me touching his little girl, and it’s going to eat Cruz alive.
“That’s what I was hoping for.” Her grip on me tightens to the point that her body’s flush against mine. My dick jumps. Fucking with Cruz by getting to fuck Annika? Yeah, I might have just hit the mother lode without even having to try.
Love stories you’ll never forget
By authors you’ll always remember
eOriginal Romance from Random House
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Breaking Noah Page 23