by K. J. Dahlen
“We’re going to have a lot of years together, I promise. But for that, you’ll have to let me keep you safe.” Jax winked at me, bringing his lips to my cheek. “I said I’d protect you both, and I will. When we find Jumper, there will be no mercy.” The monster behind his eyes flashed.
Jax’s green eyes didn’t leave mine. I was safe for now. Even though fear coursed through my body, for some reason I warmed with Jax’s body near me. Comforted and oddly safe.
Jax kissed me again, but his body was too tired to do much. I sighed and leaned back onto the ground, letting my pounding heart settle down. He dusted his hands off and stretched out his legs, putting his hands behind his head. I lay on my side as we talked and kissed each other a while longer with a sense of completion.
We lay alone in the darkness. There was nothing we could do at the moment to help my mother’s or the Devils situation. Nowhere could we go but back to the small, stuffy medical room at the Border Patrol compound. But here, in this secluded place, it was as though our minds had suddenly told our bodies that it was ok to rest. I snuggled closer to him until my body went limp, and my eyes slowly drifted shut. Just for ten minutes, I told myself. And we fell asleep in each other’s arms.
Chapter Seventeen
Jax
Chloe woke at dawn to the sensation of me making love to her. Our gazes met as her eyelids fluttered open. Her hair was tied in a bun on top of her head; loose golden brown strands blew gently in the breeze, glistening in the early morning light. Knowing she would be sore, I used slow, gentle strokes. I’d seen in her eyes last night how I felt in my heart. The both of us terrified we could lose each other.
She smiled. “Didn’t you get enough of me last night?” She giggled.
I pulled her closer in my arms. “I’ll never have enough of you.” I held her and kissed her as I moved in an out of her. I took my time, sweet and slow strokes as I watched her face. Reaching down, I played with her clit, stroking and rubbing her mound as I plunged into her hot pussy. God, she felt so good wrapped around me. I kissed her and my tongue matched the rhythm of my cock strokes.
Panting through her nose, she arched her body as her pussy clenched my cock. She was coming and pushing me over the edge too. We held onto each other as we came together.
The morning light seemed to anoint our sexual breakfast. I loved having her anytime I could get her. We had a lot of missed time to make up for.
But I could see in Chloe’s expressive face that her mind was shifting to other things.
“It makes no sense what Jumper did,” she said, cutting through my thoughts of sexing her and enjoying her body next mine.
Our lighthearted mood suddenly dimmed there, reminded of the foul circumstances we had left behind.
“I know Jumper is angry he didn’t he’d get to me. But there was no reason for him to take my mother like that.” Chloe swallow heavily.
“With me not being around and you in hiding, it caused Jumper to hunt somebody else. He’ll do anything to get at me.”
Chloe didn’t respond. Her eyes looked sad and distant.
I pulled away from her and planned my next move. Dino had been tracking the bastard, this I knew. I needed to finally come out of hiding and do what I was meant to do.
Chloe must’ve seen my hard expression and she changed the subject, “You never told me where this place was.”
“We’re actually back in Coronado.” I paused. “Let’s go back to Border Patrol. We’ll get cleaned up and then eat.”
Slipping on her cardigan, Chloe followed me to my bike.
We rode back to Border Patrol. Back at the medical room, I shaved with a disposable razor. The gash on my cheek which the doctor had sewn up looked almost healed.
Chloe walked back to the chair by my bed, sat down and finished off her breakfast we’d bought on the way home. her phone pinged. She jumped at it like it was a lifeline. Then she stared at the screen as if now she didn’t want to read the text coming in.
I knew it was because it could be news that her mom, Sheila was dead. I wondered just how I could keep her from that pain. I couldn’t. I would go and murder someone though.
Chole took a deep breath and swiped her screen. Her frightened eyes trailed the words. “It’s f-from my dad… ‘Border Patrol have found your mother, but Jumper is nowhere in sight. we’re bringing her here to stay with you. Apparently, she’s shaken up but she’s ok.’ ” Chloe burst into relieved tears as she dropped the phone.
I gathered her up in my arms and held her while she wept. I felt relief too, but rage boiled beneath the surface. An urge to hurt someone for making my Chloe suffer like this.
A roar I of motorcycles broke into our haze of relief and happiness. We both moved to the window.
Dagger’s motorcycle along with four others pulled into the parking lot.
Excitement flashed in Chloe’s hazel eyes. She moved through the room like lighting and disappeared out the door.
I looked out the window and smiled as she ran outside then embraced her mother. Sheila sank into Chloe’s arms in a flood of tears.
I paced toward the door and pulled it open.
Dagger smiled at Chloe. “What did I tell you? I told you I’d bring her back, didn’t I?”
I smiled, impressed. Daggers word was gold.
Sheila could barely breathe, drowned in fear she stood trembling.
Chloe flung her arms around her again. “Stay here with me, mom. Everything is going to be ok,” she said, trying to reassure her.
Dagger approached me and I stepped back into the room. He closed the door, conscious of being overheard. He motioned his head at me to step away from Chloe and Sheila.
“Where’d you find her?” I asked in a low voice while watching mother and daughter reunite. Both chattering things I didn’t really hear.
“One of the Blood’s hideouts,” Dagger answered in the same low tone. “I’m familiar with them all. I knew it would only be a matter of time before we found her. It was my blood he wanted. I’m not sure if you’d hear but the Devils took care of the Jumper and the Bloods. So getting Sheila back was easy. I helped Bruno clean up the mess. There were a lot of bodies to clear up after the Bloods were taken out. The important thing is, the bodies won’t be found. All of the bodies were accounted for except for their VP, Stoner.”
I felt full on relief hearing this news. Jumper finally dead? I felt so many things. Bruno took him out himself, I’ll bet. As was his way. I shook my head. “That doesn’t surprise me. Stoner always was a crafty prick.”
Dagger nodded in agreement. “There’s a contract on his life. He won’t be alive for long. The important thing is, the Bloods weren’t disposed of in Coronado and the bodies will never be found. That’s all you need to know. ”
Well, let’s wait and see… I would know the facts despite his blowing it all off. “Thank you, Dagger.” I shook his hand, “I could use more men like you in the Devils.” I told him, with a genuine admiration in my voice.
“Bruno heard about Sheila’s debts. He’s arranged a sit down with the loan sharks. He’s offered to pay off the debts.”
I slowly nodded my head, barely registering the women’s voices in the room. Yes, these loan sharks were small potatoes compared to Bruno De Luca. Any of them messed him around, and there would be hell to pay. I did pause though at this news. Why would Bruno step forward to do that? Apprehension suddenly tightened in my gut. The man always knew everything. Always two steps ahead of everyone…as we’d all learned in the past. But just how much did he know about me and Chloe?
Chapter Eighteen
Dino
You can’t make mistakes in this life. You disobey Bruno and you don’t get away with it. That’s the way it was. Most men in this life aren’t decent people. They’re thugs. There’s nothing honorable about that. We were men of honour. Men among men.
I showed up at Juanita’s and saw a bunch of the guys: Spider, Reaper, Jimmy Johnny, Bruno, all sat in a horse shoe configuration fa
cing the door. The bar was partially lit with the soft glow of two lamps that hung above the bar. No one could ever doubt that Bruno would personally handle anyone who crossed him or caused him trouble but this caused me pause. A little shiver went down my spine. I didn’t show it. The mood in the room was solemn, filled with a harsh silence. I was in trouble, all right. Serious trouble.
This must be it. I’m going to die. Whatever Bruno was going to do to me, it would be in front of witnesses.
I ran stiff fingers through my hair, and moved toward the head of the semi-circle of men on chairs where Bruno was standing. Sweat beaded across my brows, and I wiped it away quickly with the back of my hand.
Bruno looked me in the eyes and grabbed my left hand. He took out a knife and cut my finger. It cut deep but I didn’t flinch. He squeezed in and some blood dropped on the floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a few of the guys rub their chins and the back of their necks – like they knew something was going to happen that I wouldn’t like. I was right…
I looked up at Bruno’s expressionless face.
He said to me, “You took an oath when you joined the Black Devils Motorcycle Club. You violate that oath and you burn in hell,” he said bluntly, looking around at my club brothers to make sure everyone was hearing his message.
“Yeah,” I said, in agreement.
“Part of that oath says that you’ll follow club rules. You have fallen into disfavor, Thunder. You are charged with being insubordinate and disrespectful to your boss. Whenever my men are called for by his superiors, he must oblige without reservation. Brothers that don’t follow orders become a liability, does everybody understand that?” he gazed into my eyes, his dark ones blazing with rage. “How do you plead?”
“Guilty,” I admitted loudly and I would suffer the consequences that would inevitably follow.
Bruno fixed his eyes on mine, severe and unblinking. “Seeing as you’re my VP now, I’ll give you no special treatment but I will give you a choice. It’s banishment, or your finger,” he said.
I felt my insides burn; but I had to accept it. None of this was personal. Bruno had a point to prove. He wasn’t going to kill me, but he would give me just enough of a taste of vengeance to justify disobeying him. I’d known I would be in trouble with Bruno, and I’d take whatever he gave me.
I nodded and held out one hand. This was a test of loyalty and honor. All my club brothers would know that I would never be disloyal to them and that they could trust me to have their backs as well.
Bruno pulled a chair and put it in front of me. “Put it on the table.”
I placed my palm flat on the table and looked into Bruno’s impassive eyes the whole time. I stayed still, and didn’t make a sound as he neatly and swiftly severed my finger. My body held tight, the pain lancing up along my arm. I bit into my cheek until I tasted blood. Breathing slowly, I felt every millimetre of my tissue separate from my body, forever. No word of a lie, it was painful as hell and pissed me off to no end. But it was an accepted price you pay for mistakes in this life. It could have been much worse.
Afterward, when everybody stood up to leave, Bruno hugged me and patted me on the back. He whispered into my ear, “I’m proud to have men like you guarding my back.”
Bruno and my club brothers disappeared out the door.
I knew Bruno understood why I disobeyed. My brother Jax. The need for justice and revenge had fueled my thinking, my actions. Payback was a bitch. Jumper had gotten it Bruno style and now so had I.
With a sudden gratitude for life, I made a call to a number I’d gotten from Dagger. After what just happened, I needed a good woman to save my sanity. She’d been at the back of my mind ever since I saw her in that window at the Border Patrol compound. It was now or never. A bad feeling was growing in my gut that there was possibly worse coming for me.
I went and got myself patched up. I had a meet with the redhead set up at the bar for drinks. Damn it. I didn’t even know her name either. Well, it wasn’t her name I wanted… in any case.
The bar she’d asked me to meet at was far from romantic. It was your typical dive bar. Cigarette smoke clouded the air like a mild poisonous gas. The smell of stale cigarettes and beer infused the air. It had scratched hardwood floors. It wasn’t perfect, but it was intimate enough. A radio was playing The Stones ‘she’s a rainbow’ softly in the background. I waited for her at the bar.
Streaks of desire ran down my spine when she stepped through the door. I could barely take my eyes off her as she approached me. She dressed a little too skimpily for my taste but she had a banging body.
By her smile, I knew she remembered who I was.
“You look gorgeous,” I commented. I watched her cheeks flush and she turned her head down into the light. Her auburn hair glistening under the low lights.
With my good hand on the small of her back, I guided her to our table.
“So, Dagger says you’re the one they call, Thunder?” she asked.
“That’s right.” I smiled. “And you are?”
“Georgia,” she whispered.
Georgia. I almost laughed as I thought of the old song. ‘Georgia On My Mind.’ It called this situation perfectly. I grinned with the humorous thought. Up close, I got a good look at her face. She’d gone heavy on the foundation with dark eyed makeup and I notice a tattoo of a palm tree stitched on her upper right arm. But Christ, beyond all that crap, I could see she was fucking beautiful. And I appreciated her effort.
“Where do you live?” I asked her.
“Not far from here.”
Her voice alone was enough to send me hard as a rock. It was sensual. Nothing fake about it. She allowed her hands of fleet through her hair, brushing it all to one side.
I waved a hand to the bartender behind her, as her gaze dropped at the sight of my bandaged hand.
“You want a beer or something?”
She sighed casually and glanced at her watch.
Yes, she dressed like she was easy, but she wasn’t. I liked that.
“I suppose.” She turned to the bartender, and gave him her order. Then she turned back at me. “What happened to your hand.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it.” I wanted to smoke but I didn’t. Then, she took out a pack, lit one up and took the sexiest fucking draw I’d ever seen. Tilting her head back, she blew out a long, snaking stream of smoke into the air.
Inwardly smiling, I lit up too. Here was a woman I could work with. I took a long drag from my cigarette.
“So what kind of MC do you belong to? Good…or Bad?” She grinned, toying at her bottom lip with her index finger and thumb.
“We’re good guys, mostly.” Changing the subject, I asked her the question that had been circling my mind since I’d first seen the girl through the window at Border Patrol, “I’ve seen you around Border Patrol. You an old lady or is it more of a friends with benefits kind of thing. Because you know you’re better than that.”
“Nah, I’m not tied down to any man,” she said, before admitting, “I’ve done some things I’m not proud of in my past. I still do some things I’m not proud of now, but… I got a home there. I’ve got a legit job at Border Patrol. And the guys are good to me. I wouldn’t trade that for nothin.”
I nodded. “How’d you start there anyway?”
“Well, me and my girl Kelsey, we started working for this guy in Tijuana…” she paused and her hand shook slightly, “…not a nice guy in the end.”
“Kelsey?” I asked. I got a strange hunch in my gut that this was the same Kelsey who worked at the Devils now. Antonio’s ex-girlfriend. But I never did catch her second name to confirm it was her.
“Yeah,” she said, looking puzzled. “Anyway, when Dagger became President at Border Patrol he got us work. But every time Kelsey would blow it off and go right back to the pole. Dagger even picked up the tab for her rehab and she went back on the drugs the day she got out. Dagger was mad as hell. It was the money she couldn’t let go of. It was the money that bought
her the kicks she craved…heroine.” She shook her head.
“You think she’ll ever shake her addiction?” I asked.
“Doubt it. But I haven’t spoken to her in a long while. Not since she started dating Antonio. Guy was a controlling nutcase if you ask me.”
I gave the slightest of nods before Georgia told me more…
“Yeah it was bad, but she wouldn’t listen to me. What I had to say about the guy, the drugs. So, this one time, a couple of months into their relationship, Kelsey calls me crying. I ask her why. She’s always dreamed of kids. He’d knocked her up that’s what. When she said he wouldn’t get an abortion he punched her in the stomach and beat her black and blue to try to kill it. It didn’t work. I convinced her to get rid of it and him. She needed that man out of her life and if she had the baby she never would be umm…. free… then she goes back to him.”
Trying to sound non-judgemental, I started to ask the question I was thinking, “Did you ever…”
“No, I smoke but I stay away from the hard stuff,” she cut me off. “Too many friends have died that way for me to make the same mistake.”
Heavy footsteps approached our table just as I raised my hand to ask the bartender for another round of drinks. A man in a black overcoat stood in front of me. My gut twisted with the sickening feeling one of Bruno’s mob guys was about to shoot me down.
“Dino Damicio?”
I’d heard of this before about Bruno’s mob guys. They asked your name and then they killed you.
I didn’t want to answer that but I wouldn’t lie. I pushed back my chair and stood up to meet his dark eyes. “Yeah.”
“Special Agent Christopher Allen,” he said, flashing a Detective’s badge.
“What’s going on here?” Georgia sat back in her chair, cocking an eyebrow at me.
He buried his hand into his deep coat pockets. “You’re under arrest for the murder of Roy Harris.” Then he clicked the handcuffs around my wrists.