by Ryan Michele
He pulls me in close after I reach over and turn off the light. His warmth surrounds me, filling up those holes I have been feeling lately.
“Gotta leave early in the mornin’ and won’t be back for a few days. Can’t fuck you now, but I’m wakin’ you up early, so be ready.”
A thrill hits then immediately fizzes out. He’ll be gone. Gone. Like, not even here.
I want to ask where he’s going and what he’s doing, but I refrain, knowing I won’t get anything from him. It’s for the best.
“Just be safe,” I tell him, snuggling my ass into his hips and falling fast asleep, wrapped up in my man.
Surprisingly, I wake up pretty energized for as much sleep as I have gotten over the past few days. Crazy and insane are not words strong enough to explain what we are going to do tomorrow. On the bright side, this shit should be over in the next few days. Finally.
Bella sleeps soundly on my shoulder, her chest thumping against mine with each rise and fall. I reach down and kiss the top of her head, thinking about the next couple of days.
Two days ago, we gathered the equipment to take out the four buildings here in Sumner. Some of the guys from the Clayton chapter will set everything up and blow the buildings while we’re in Tennessee.
The Vipers checked out the two spots up there and reported back that they seemed to be living carefree, moving in and out of the places, and going to the store without another thought. Also, they gave us confirmation on Ransom and the two other assholes. Their carefree style is going to be their biggest mistake.
The Vipers are set up, so we need to get up there to lay out the land for ourselves. I need to locate any traps around the places and extinguish them silently. Pops has made it clear that we do not blow Ransom’s place, which the Vipers tell us is on the north side of Dyersburg. We, or more like he, will take him out personally. Pops wants to know for a fact that the man is dead. I can’t blame him for that.
The thing that tugs at me is the woman lying next to me. I never cared before if I lived or died. Life is life. Death is death. Now, with Bella in my life, I can’t imagine being gone and not getting to share a life with her.
There are so many things that could go wrong with this shit. With one wrong move, we could all be lying next to Diamond in the ground.
I squeeze my woman and pull her sleepy body up against mine so her face is available for me. I touch my lips to hers and start off slow and sweet. She doesn’t reciprocate right away, but when she does, her eyes slowly open. She brushes the sleep away from her quickly, reaching into my hair and kissing me back with everything she has.
She rolls on top of me and spreads her legs so my cock is nestled right between her already wet folds.
“You wet for me?” I ask, and she nods as she kisses me again.
Her kiss is desperate, and it hammers at my heart. It’s like she knows what I’m about to do could get me hurt, that there is a chance I won’t be coming home to her. I don’t like that shit at all. I can’t change it, though. It is what it is.
She rocks her hips against my dick, up and down, as I cup her ass, squeezing hard. While I usually fucking need control in the bedroom, this time, I need her to control it.
“Want you to ride me,” I order.
She lifts her hips, and I slide inside of her. She wraps around me so damn tight. It feels so damn good I could stay here forever.
She breaks away from my lips, laces my fingers with hers, and I bend my elbows, giving her a way to steady herself. She rides me hard, fast, and wild.
Her hair is so fucking sexy, not only from just waking up, but the way she tosses it around, and I can feel it brush my legs.
“Buzz, I’m gonna …” Bella screams as I thrust hard inside of her, letting go of her hands before wrapping my arms around her body.
I piston my hips with everything I have, fucking her so hard my cock hits far inside of her.
I rub her clit hard, needing her to come one more time before I let go. As she does, I push up far and explode into my woman.
Our breaths labored, my cock still twitching, I hold her to me like she’s the most precious thing in the world to me because she is.
I lift up and look her in her eyes. “Love you, Bella.”
Her eyes tear up as she wraps her arms around my neck. “Love you, too, Buzz, with everything I have in me.”
I make love slowly to Shaina. Love. That’s what this is. It’s fast, but it started the first time I laid eyes on her: that connection, that bond. I never thought I had a future. Always living life as it came, I never once thought I would have what Shaina has given me. Why her, I have no clue, but we were meant to cross paths. I hope I’ve done for her what she’s done for me.
As we slowly come down, I wrap Shaina tight in my arms. The thought of not coming back to her eats at my gut, but I push it away. Never cared one way or the other before. Now I care.
“Won’t be back for a while. You gonna be okay?”
“Yeah,” she says softly, yet I hear the tremor in her voice.
“You’re gonna be just fine here. The Clayton boys’ll be here with Derek. And you’ve got Princess and Ma; they won’t let a damn thing happen to any of y’all.”
She stays quiet. I know she’s unsure. It feels fucking fantastic that she trusts me, but since she’s going to be a part of this life, she needs to depend on all of us.
“Babe,” I say, and she looks up at me, tears glistening in her eyes. “It’ll be just fine.”
I hope those words ring true as I kiss her before I have to go.
“Come back to me,” Ma whispers in my ear as I hold her tight.
Not a moment has gone by in my life that I haven’t loved this woman with my heart and soul. She branded me at first sight, and I wouldn’t change a damn thing. My love for her grows more as each day passes. Not only a beautiful woman, but the best fucking mother to my kids. Hell, to this whole club.
“I will,” I vow, knowing in the back of my head that there is always that chance for something to go wrong. The chance that I won’t come home to my wife’s bright smile, and she will live out her days without me. That is my life, the one that was paved for me years ago.
I love this club, love this life, love my woman.
She knows the risks, but she’s strong, and she’ll hold herself straight while I leave, even putting that smile in place. She will show every single one of the ol’ ladies here what it means to be one. She is their model. She is their backbone. She is my everything.
“The Clayton boys, Derek, and Dagger will be here.”
“I know.”
I kiss her lips, feeling the slight tremor in hers. This is nothing new for us. As many rides as I have made and the troubles we’ve faced, she doesn’t waver.
A moment later, she kisses me with everything she has, letting me know that she feels this, too. That she loves me just as much as I do her. That I’m her man, her everything.
“Love you,” she says, pulling away then resting her forehead against mine. “Be safe. Keep the boys safe.”
“I will.”
“And I’ll keep everything steady here.” To this, I smile.
“I know you will, babe. Only a couple of days.”
“But this is different,” she says, pulling back just enough to look into my eyes. “He wants to kill you. You’re going into this knowing that the red target is on your back.” She blows out a breath, and for the first time in a very long time, a lone tear falls from the corner of her eye.
My strong woman is breaking, and I don’t like that shit one bit.
I wipe it from her face with my thumb. “Baby.”
“Malcolm, I can’t help thinking this is all my fault.” She sucks in a breath.
“Charlotte, no. That fucker set out to do this. All of this is on him. I just wish I would’ve killed his ass back then. Then our children and family wouldn’t have suffered. But as God as my witness, he will pay for what he’s done.”
She nods. “Come back t
o me.”
“I will.”
When the guys leave, a pang hits my gut. Something’s wrong. Something’s not right. I wish I knew what it is.
We have been vigilant, keeping an eye on our surroundings and even taking watch on a set of computers that Buzz set up in Pops’ office. Each of those screens shows a different section of the clubhouse, inside and out.
The Clayton guys rotate here and really leave us alone for the most part. Derek mans the gate, and Dagger is everywhere but still nowhere near a hundred percent. Hell, maybe not even forty percent better, but we’re making do.
Me, I’m trying to keep some of the ol’ ladies and children entertained.
Princess is driving me nuts. I swear that woman sends me over a wall, but she always has, ever since she came out of me. The thing is, she won’t change for anyone, and I admire that.
I love that I taught my girl how to stand on her own two feet. I love that my girl can take care of herself. I love that she is such an excellent mother to Coop. Not much scares her, but dealing with Coop daily, that is a trip. Of course, I didn’t let her know that, because I’m not that kind of mom. But inside, I want to laugh and tell her, “Payback is a bitch.”
She’s strong. She can hack this life. And she’ll teach Coop and whoever else comes along to do the same.
Her pacing the floors back and forth, though, has got to stop.
“Princess!” I bark, and she turns toward me sharply, giving me a look that most would quiver from. She’s my child; that shit doesn’t work on me. “Get over here,” I order, and her brows knit together. I can see her heave in a breath, but she brings her ass over to me.
“What?” she barks a little harder than normal for me, and I give her the look. “I know, alright?” She crosses her arms over her chest. “I don’t like this shit. It feels different than the other times. I don’t know what it is.”
I grab her and wrap my arms around her so I can lean into her ear. “I get that. I feel that, too, but all the women here are looking to you for guidance. What do you think is going to happen if you fall apart? What are they going to think or feel? Because, baby, I’m telling you, the air in this place is thick, and everyone is hanging on by a thread. We need to get everyone to relax and get back to the normal that is Ravage.”
“What, like shooting at everything that walks?” she jokes, and I give her a squeeze.
“I’ll give you that smartass comment because I don’t have time for it. But we need to treat this as any other run. We don’t know the shit they do when they’re out there every other time. This time, we know they have a lead on Ransom, and that’s what makes it harder. See why sometimes it’s best that we don’t know this shit?”
Princess rests her chin on my shoulder and puts her arms around me. “Yeah, I get it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“Amen to that, sister.”
“So, back to normal, huh? What do you propose we do, oh wise one?” Princess jokes, pulling back from me. It takes everything in me not to strangle her. God love her and her smart mouth.
“We eat, of course.”
Princess smiles. “Of course.”
“And make enough chocolate desserts to get the crowd so bloated from it that they pass out and sleep.”
Princess full-out laughs. “I love the way you think, Ma.”
“Love you, too, baby girl.”
“How are you feeling?” I ask Shaina as we sit with our half-eaten chocolate pie.
I swear Ma is trying to put us all in a food coma with this line up—chocolate everything: pie, cake, cookies, brownies, some pudding thing with Oreos that was so good. I’m pretty sure I sampled one too many of them from the roll in my stomach.
“Good.” She smiles back at me, but it’s not fully committed. There is hesitation, yet I can’t tell if it’s from the tenseness in the room that Ma and Princess are trying their damnedest to cover and doing an okay job at or if it’s something more.
“You weren’t too good a while back,” I remind her, not really knowing how to bring this up. It’s not like we are close or anything, but we are stuck together, and she is out of Breaker’s room, so that’s a plus.
“No, I wasn’t, and you saw it.” She pauses, chewing on her bottom lip.
I give her that time and wait.
“I’ve had some stuff happen to me. I’m sure you’ve heard some of it.” Her voice goes distant at the end, but she powers on, and a surge of pride hits me that she does. “I’m doing better now. Every day is different. Breaker helps.”
“You two serious?” I feel a protective flash come over me for Breaker. Yes, he’s my man’s brother, but Breaker and I have a friendship that I cherish. I want what’s best for him, and I want him to be happy.
A blush creeps into her cheeks as she looks up at the ceiling. “I don’t know for sure. I think so. I care about him a lot. He helped me through some hard times, and it’s only him who can do it.”
“And he feels the same from you, I’m sure.”
She jerks her head up to look at me. “Do you know what happened to him?”
I shake my head. “I don’t. I do know that whatever it was messed him up. And whatever you and he have helps him. That’s all I care about.”
“You love his brother?”
“Yes, I do very much.” I touch my lips, remembering the powerful kiss he gave me before he got on his bike and left. Sad, but I already miss him.
“I wonder sometimes what my dad would have thought of Breaker and me together.” She shakes her head. “I hated this club. Hated that my father wasn’t around and just let my mother take me with her. I hated that he had this—a family—because that’s all I ever wanted. I wanted us to be a family. I went about it all wrong, but I just wonder if he’d like that I like a guy from his club.”
I pop my lip out. “Well, I’ll be straight with ya. What you did when you came here for the funeral, he wouldn’t have been proud of.”
I see her shoulders slump, and her face gets tight. She feels that, too.
“But you’ve come far. Breaker is a good man. Sure, he doesn’t have much to say most of the time, but he’d do anything in the world for you, this club, and his family.”
“Yeah, he would.”
“Be gentle with him. He’s a badass like the rest of them around here, but he has a wounded heart and possibly soul. Hold it close, keep it safe, and treasure those times with him.”
“Who’s up for poker!” Blaze yells, and hoots and hollers are heard all around.
“Guess it’s poker time.” I turn to Blaze. “Let’s do this!”
The next morning, I wake with a crick in my neck and the bad feeling from yesterday weighs heavy on my shoulders. Today is the day. I feel it everywhere. It prickles my skin, running over it like a thousand spiders walking on me. I brush my skin, trying to get the buggers off, but it doesn’t help, because they aren’t really there.
I jump from the bed, dress, and move to the main part of the clubhouse. All is quiet.
As Angel and I make eye contact, I can see in her gaze that she feels it, too: the doom, the uncertainty, the fear, the unpredictability.
Wherever the guys went, they should be there by now, or at least, I think so. If they are, are they okay?
As I look at the others already in the room, everyone has their phone in their hands, and they’re checking the screens. Even Ma and Dagger. Waiting.
This isn’t good. Not good at all.
We case the area, and I pick up nothing in terms of explosives in the ground or on the trees. No guns, nothing. What I do get with my magnifying camera are pictures of guys at the front door and at the back, all with guns and all ready to strike.
I tapped into the hard lines and disabled them only moments ago.
I’ve gotten nothing from the inside since all the curtains are drawn. Rhys clocked one car pulling in. A man I didn’t recognize got out and went in. That was three hours ago.
“Nothing I can see. Hardwire cut and waiti
ng for your call on the wireless,” I tell Pops.
I feel for the man. He has more wrinkles now on his face than when I first prospected for the club. I can’t imagine the weight on his shoulders. I’m sure he wants to get this done and over with. Hell, I want this over and done with. I want to get back to what Ravage was when I first started prospecting: family, living free, riding free. Lately, it’s been one thing after another, and I’m ready for it to calm. I’m ready to start my life with Bella.
“Split up. Keep your eyes out.”
Breaker, Cruz, and I flank one way while the others split and move around the property. It’s big, not gonna lie, and I have to say not detecting any triggers or explosives is surprising. I would think the place would be loaded.
I stash my computer in my backpack and put it around my shoulders. I hate having it on, but I need it to check, considering our eyes only show us so much.
Guns steady, we take the path to the right of the house, through the woods as I investigate, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. Our boots lightly hit the ground, and I’m thankful it’s damp and covered with grass, muffling our movements.
We stop before the clearing behind some foliage, able to see through it to the open space. The house stays the same as we sit and wait for Pops’ text. He made it clear that everything has to go off at the same time. Even five minutes off could alert Ransom and all his guys, blowing everything to shit. Clayton charter and Vipers Creed are all set to go. So we wait …
And wait …
The guys outside walk around the house, guns in hand, searching the area. They are shitty at their job since they don’t see us waiting.
My blood pumps fast as the adrenaline flows. I’m ready for action, ready for this to be all over and done with. Just ready to be done.
My phone vibrates, and I pull it out.
Go time.
I suck in deep and nod to Cruz then my brother.