by Khloe Wren
Still laughing it up, Taz headed out. I turned to see Zara zipping up the suitcase with a smile on her face. I grabbed the bag that sat on the floor as she lifted the one off the bed and we headed out.
Zara
With my hands on my hips, I turned in a circle. The men had unloaded all the boxes into one of the unused bedrooms upstairs after we got back last night. There were so many. At least I didn’t have to go through all of them. Mac had decided to bring all the boxes back, since he was certain I’d be moving everything up here soon anyway. And as Arrow pointed out, my father may have kept something in the bedroom that related to whatever he did. It was easier to bring it all up now, than to find the time to go down there again to collect it later.
The question was, where the fuck did I start?
At tap on the door sounded before Silk came in. She wasn’t working this afternoon, so was going to help me out. Mac was down with the other men in church so we had a chance to get started without male interruptions.
“I grabbed a roll of garbage bags, just in case.”
“Good idea. Might as well cull this stuff while we’re at it.”
I pulled Mac’s Leatherman from my pocket and flicked open the knife. “Right. Pick a box, any box!”
I pulled the closest one over and sliced the tape holding it closed.
“I can’t believe Mac gave you his knife. He’s never without that thing.”
I grinned at her. “He told me he still has his k-bar knife on him, so he’ll survive without this one for a few hours.”
Silk laughed as she kneeled down on the opposite side of the box I was opening. “Men.”
“Thanks for helping me with this.”
She smiled gently over at me. “I know how it feels to find shit out about your father you never had any clue about. Hopefully you find better news than I did.”
I tilted my head at her as I opened the top of the box. “What did you find out?”
“That my dad was basically an information broker, and a thief. Well, he wasn’t really a broker. As far as we can tell, he collected a fuck-load of information on several organizations, but it appears that he didn’t do anything with it. My parents died in the 9/11 attacks. They were on the plane that crashed into the south tower. That’s how I came to live with Uncle Clint—Bulldog.”
Holy shit, that was a hell of a secret to find out. I hoped like hell I wasn’t going to find something similar.
“Wow. When did you find out about him?”
“Only a month or so ago. I think I’m still in shock about it all.”
I started pulling out photo frames, trying really hard to not look at the images they contained. “I bet you are. I’ve got no idea what I’m gonna find in all this shit, but my hopes of it being good aren’t high. Not with the way things have been going lately.”
Silk gave my arm a squeeze. “We’ll deal with it, whatever you find. Hopefully, we’ll discover something we can use to either figure out where he’s hiding or to flush him out into the open.”
Hope bubbled up inside me. “I hope so. I know the club wants to be the ones to deal with him, but I really don’t give a fuck if it’s the club or the cops that pick him up. Just so long as he’s not out there roaming around waiting to grab me.”
“I hear you. Although, in your shoes, I’d want the club to get him first. It’ll be a more permanent solution. You’ll learn MCs prefer to deal with this kinda shit themselves.”
I chose to not continue that line of thinking. I didn’t want to think about how they’d make it permanent. I wasn’t ready to even think about that side of biker life at the moment.
We settled into a quiet routine as we went through each box. It was about an hour later when we finally found something. This sixth box was half-filled with folders from a filing cabinet. Silk and I were both skim reading each file, looking for anything that might clue us in.
“Fucking hell, Zara. This is massive.”
I put down the useless file I was looking over and moved to sit next to Silk. “What is it?”
“It looks like your dad was part of a team. These are just notes on the when and where, but Zara, this proves your dad wasn’t helping the Iron Hammers. It actually looks like he was sabotaging them.”
Excitement had me reaching for the file that was underneath the one Silk was currently reading. Opening it up, I found a notebook and started looking over its pages, hardly able to believe what I was reading.
After about ten minutes, Silk interrupted me. “Did you find more information?”
“You could say that. Holy shit, Silk.”
Of course that was the moment the door opened and Mac, Eagle and Scout all walked in.
“What did you find, babe?”
I blinked up at Mac, too shocked to speak. He came over and sat behind me on the floor before he pulled me into his lap.
Silk snorted a laugh. “I think Zara’s in shock. To be honest, I’m a little awe struck too. Looks like Zara’s father was part of a team that was sabotaging runs the Iron Hammers were making. I haven’t found what the runs were for though. Or know whether this makes him a good or bad guy.”
I’d found that information. Shaking my head I licked my lips, then cleared my throat. “I know.” I held up the notebook. “I guess my dad figured the club might catch him, so he wrote this. I’m not sure what to call it. It’s addressed to me like a letter, but after this first page, it reads more like a diary. Do any of you guys know when Sledge became the president of the Iron Hammers?”
Scout spoke from where he was leaning against the door frame. “I don’t know the date off the top of my head, but it was about ten years ago. Why’s that?”
I flicked back to the first page to see the date. “Okay, so I haven’t read all his notes, only the first few pages. But from what Dad wrote, I’ve found the link between him and the Iron Hammers. It was 2002 that my Mom was diagnosed with cancer and he took the second job as a taxi driver. He wrote this first page in 2007, six months after he started working with the others to save girls.”
“Save girls?”
At the sound of Bulldog’s voice, I looked up to see he and Nitro had joined Scout near the door.
“Yeah. He says here that late one night in August 2006, he found a girl struggling to run down the road. She’d obviously been physically beaten, and he later found out she’d been raped multiple times too. He took her to the hospital, and on the way, she admitted she’d gone out to a party at the Iron Hammer’s clubhouse. He made his statement to the police at the hospital after he dropped her off, and figuring she was safe there, he left her.” My eyes began to burn. “She was found dead in her hospital bed a few hours later. She’d been smothered with a pillow.”
Mac held me tighter and pressed a kiss against the top of my head as Scout spoke up.
“Their inside man with the cops would have stepped in to clean up the mess. I bet your dad’s statement went missing, too.”
I nodded. “Makes the most sense. Anyway, Dad goes on to explain how he ended up forming a team with a couple of the cops that weren’t on Iron Hammer’s payroll, a doctor and a few nurses, along with another taxi driver. Between them, they gathered information and would snatch girls when they could.” I paused to look around at everyone in the room. “The Iron Hammers were selling girls across the border.”
My gut rolled and bile rose up my throat. With a cough I swallowed it down as the men all let out curses. Silk burst into tears, causing me to jerk against Mac in shock. Eagle had her up in his arms within moments. I frowned at her for a minute. She’d gone real pale and seemed to be shaking. It could be morning sickness again, but something told me that wasn’t the case.
“Take her out of here, Eagle.”
With a nod, the man followed Scout’s gruffly issued order. Once they left, Bulldog let out a groan before he spoke.
“Silk found out last month that her mother had been one of Iron Hammer’s captive women. That her father got her out when she was pregnan
t with her.”
That had me frowning. Again. “But that doesn’t add up. From what I’ve just read, this all only started about ten years ago.”
Nitro spoke up from the doorway. “At a guess? They’ve been snatching women for a good, long time, but only a few. Just enough for themselves. Sledge obviously saw a way to profit from the process, so upped the snatch rate. We’ve been hearing stories of women escaping from their clubhouse for decades. Although, this is the first time I’ve heard of anyone trying to go against the club to stop them. Your dad must have really been something. You should be proud, Zara.”
I was. But the pride was mixed with grief and pain. I thought about Marie and what she’d said about her and her friend. At a guess that had happened before Sledge became president, proving Nitro’s point.
Scout cleared his throat. “Sledge could have been selling girls before he became president. Most likely it was only a few here and there. He’s selfish enough to have wanted the profits all to himself.” He paused and adjusted his bandana. “Fucking hell, how many girls is he responsible for selling into hell?”
The room went silent after that.
Wrapping my arms around Mac’s neck, I buried my face against his throat. I didn’t want to do the math on that score.
CHAPTER 19
Mac
After what Zara discovered yesterday, I figured she could use a break from it all today. And I had a surprise for her.
I stayed out of the way as my girl helped Marie close up the cafe. Then, Zara came over to me as she’d done each day this week. When she got to me, instead of taking her hand and heading out, like we normally do, I handed her the backpack I’d brought in with me this morning.
“Could you get changed before we go? I wanna take you someplace that’s a bit of a ride away, and you’ll be more comfortable in jeans than your work pants.”
“Okaaaay.”
She drew the word out as she frowned up at me, which made me smile. “Don’t over think it, babe. Just go get changed so we can go for a ride.”
“What about safety? I thought I wasn’t supposed to go anywhere but here, the gym or the clubhouse?”
I glared at her. “What the fuck, Zara? You think I can’t keep you safe?”
A moment later, she was wrapped around me, pressing a kiss to the corner of my mouth. “I didn’t mean it like that. Of course I trust you to keep me safe. I was just checking if we had Scout’s permission. Isn’t that how the club works? You need Scout’s okay to do stuff?”
I scoffed as I wrapped my arm around her waist. “On some things. When it comes to taking my old lady out, he gets no fucking say at all. Now, go on, hurry up and get changed.”
What I didn’t tell her was that I had told Scout exactly where we going, and he’d agreed with me that it was far enough away that it was unlikely Sledge would be anywhere near us. And if the bastard did show up? Well, I am a fucking Marine, after all. No way will that fucker get anywhere near Zara so long as I’m breathing.
While Zara was in the back, Marie got busy moving around behind the counter. I wasn’t sure what the woman was doing since the place was now all closed up for the day. When Zara came out, as she passed Marie, the older woman grabbed her. I grinned as she gave my woman a hug then handed her another pack. Marie was a real gem. She’d obviously made some food for our little adventure.
With a smile, Zara came over to me and I took the bags from her hands as I called out over her shoulder. “Thanks Marie!”
“No worries, sugar. Take care of our girl and I’ll see you both tomorrow.”
I followed Zara out and we headed around to the parking lot. I handed Zara her helmet and while she was occupied putting the thing on, I stowed the bags, being careful to not let her see the surprise that was waiting for her in my saddle bag.
“You going to tell me where we’re going?”
I pulled her to me, kissing her until she relaxed against me with a sigh. “You’ll see soon enough.”
Slipping my leg over my bike, I sat, then helped her on behind me. The way she instantly wrapped her arms around my middle, sneaking her fingers up under my shirt had me chuckling even though the action had my cock punching against my zipper. Riding was gonna hurt like a mother until that bastard went down.
I took it slow until I was out of the parking lot, then gunned it down the street as I headed out of town. I saw a few of my brothers on the way, giving them a nod as I passed. They were all on the lookout for anyone trying to follow us. Once on the open road, with still no sign of anyone trying to tail us, I relaxed and focused on enjoying the feel of having the wind in my face, my ride beneath me and my girl behind me.
Life was good.
About an hour and a half, and two stops, later, I pulled off the road. Carefully, I parked my bike on a patch of grass, making sure it was well clear of the softer sand not far away. Last thing I wanted was to drop my Harley, especially on fucking sand. I’d driven up the coast of Texas until I found a road that ran close to the edge of the beach. That way, my ride was close by if we needed to leave in a hurry, but we were basically on the beach, so we’d get a great view of the sunset over the water a bit later.
“Off you get, bunny.”
I followed suit and once I was standing, I stretched out my back and shoulders as I took a deep breath of the salty, sea air. With a wide grin, Zara snuggled against me, running her hands under my cut and down over my ribs.
“It’s beautiful here.”
“Wait until the sun sets. Nothing’s quite like a Texas sunset over the water.”
I turned away from her, back to my bike and opening up the saddlebag. I took the pack from Marie out, and quickly snatched up my surprise for Zara, keeping it hidden. Probably should have wrapped it up in something, but I hadn’t thought of that earlier.
“Come sit with me, we’ll see what Marie made us.”
The sun was low in the sky, the first splashes of the color from the coming sunset slashing across the clouds. I sat a little in front of my bike, keeping the gift behind my back as I did. As Zara started to lower herself down, I tugged on her arm, pulling her over me so she was straddling my thighs, facing me. I ran my hands up her arms, then neck, before I delved my fingers into her hair as I drew her mouth to mine for a quick kiss. I loved how she smelled: Jasmine and sunshine, and mine.
“Got something for you, bunny.”
She pushed her palms against my chest so she sat up straighter. “Yeah?”
“Close your eyes for a sec.”
She stilled and raised an eyebrow, but did as instructed. I pulled out the cut Scout had given me last night. He’d apparently known I was going to claim Zara so had ordered it for me already by the time I asked him about it. Making sure her eyes were still closed, I gently set the leather over her shoulders. With a gasp her eyes flew open, and she looked down. The squeal she let out left me wincing, even as I grinned. She shrugged it off and held it between us, running her fingers softly over the embroidery.
“It feels wrong that I’m this excited to have you putting a property patch on me. It’s not very new-age thinking.
I chuckled as I picked it up again and helped her to put it on properly.
“It’s not wrong. It’s so fucking right. Damn, you look good with my name on you, bunny.”
It wasn’t a lie. My dick was throbbing against my jeans as I focused on how good she looked with Property of Mac written on her. I needed her. Right now. I glanced up and down the beach, making sure we were still alone out here. Winter in Texas didn’t involve snow and ice, thank fuck, and today had actually been fairly warm. But because it was winter, not too many people came down to the beach. If someone did happen to drive past us, all they’d see was my bike as it sat between us and the road. I’d just have to pull her flush against me, and no one would see any of her sexy skin.
When Zara had gotten changed back at Marie’s, she’d only changed her pants so she still wore her buttoned up work shirt. With a growl, I attacked the bu
ttons until I could push it apart. Her bra had a front clasp and I flicked it open in less than a heartbeat, shoving all the material under the leather. Her nipples pebbled in the cool evening air and a shiver passed over her, making the leather shift to cover them.
“Now that is sexy as fuck.”
Her chest heaved with each breath she took. Unable to resist, I leaned in and, starting just below her ear, kissed and nipped my way down her neck, over her collarbone then down to suckle her hard little nipples.
“Mac!”
Her fingers slid over my head as she started grinding her pelvis against me. With a groan I released her nipple. Letting my hands take over tormenting her tits, I whispered against her lips.
“See now, bunny. If you were wearing a cute little skirt, I could flip it up and fuck you right now.”
Her eyes slid shut as she moaned. “Seriously, babe?”
Interesting. I’d expected her to laugh off my comment, but instead her cheeks pinkened and the pulse at the base of her neck sped up. She liked the idea, did she?
Before she knew what I was going to do, I had her flipped around on my lap so she was facing out with her back against my chest. I had my legs straight in front of me, and her sexy thighs were spread so she straddled me. I lowered my mouth to her neck as my hands went back to her tits.
“Watch the sunset, bunny. I’ll keep you warm.”
With her head on my shoulder, she wrapped her arm up around my neck as she arched her back, pushing her tits harder against my palms.
“I’m sure you will.”
As the sky turned orange in front of us, I slid one hand down her body until I got to her jeans. After flicking open her button fly, I slipped my hand inside, under her panties, to palm her pussy. I grinned like a motherfucker when damp heat greeted me.
“Hmm, so you like the idea of me fucking you out here in the open, do you?”
I didn’t really give her a chance to respond as I took that moment to thrust two fingers deep inside her. My cock was throbbing painfully against the zipper of my own jeans. I was starting to worry I’d end up with a permanent zipper indentation if I didn’t unzip soon. But Zara’s little whimpers, along with the way she was tilting her hips, fucking my fingers, was too good to stop. When I looked over her shoulder, down her body, the sight nearly had me coming in my pants. My patch sat right next to her exposed rock-hard little nipple. Mine. She was all mine, and now I had her marked and claimed.