by Kati Wilde
He looks to me. “I was just about to cook up some breakfast. You heading out to the barn?”
My brewery. I renovated an old barn on the property and that’s what we’ll probably always call it. The barn. “In a few minutes,” I say. “Lily’s going to borrow my ride. So if you see her, don’t chase her down and beat her up or anything.”
His mouth kicks up in amusement. “I’ll try to control myself.” His gaze slides over to Lily again. “I heard about your bike. A damn shame what that little punk did.”
“I took care of him, sir.”
“I heard you did. You have any trouble with this one, give me a holler.”
“I will.”
He nods. “You riding out to the Barracks tomorrow with the rest of us?”
“I am.”
They lost me. “The Barracks?”
That’s an old Titan joint out by the county line. Mostly only the Eighty-Eight frequents the place now.
My dad and Lily both look to me but don’t answer. So it’s club business and none of mine.
“All right, then. I’ll leave you ladies to it,” he says but pauses before leaving. “That kutte fits you well, Lily. The Riders were right to let you in.”
Her expression tightens as if she’s been punched in the gut. Her voice is strained. “Thank you, sir.”
He nods and closes the door. Lily’s still standing there with a white face.
What the hell? “Are you okay?”
She swallows hard. “My dad would never have said that in a million years. Shit.” Suddenly turning away, she drags her hands through her hair. “My mouth just keeps running. I’m going to go sleep it off. Thanks, Jenny.”
“Any time,” I say.
“Fuck. Fuck.” She pivots back around, her gray eyes fierce. “You mean it, don’t you? Any time.”
“I do.” Why wouldn’t I?
“All right, then. You did me a solid, letting me borrow this bike. I’m going to do you one. Normally I wouldn’t ever talk about club business but this is about you, too, so—You heard about the First Lady shit?”
My gut tightens. “Yes. Saxon said it’s nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t know if he’s right about that but he’s right that it’s all bullshit. Anyway, he told them the First Lady clause is in conflict with our rule that we don’t hurt women. And because of your issues, following through would be hurting you. So we’re voting on whether we’re going to make him follow through on it or not.”
So they’re all deciding whether I should fuck him. My cheeks are burning. “Okay.”
“I’m not telling you to embarrass you. I’m just telling you where the talk you might hear is coming from, because I heard some of the brothers’ conversations last night. Now some of them are saying that the rules aren’t in conflict but you are. We’re supposed to approve any woman the prez chooses. So the solution some of them came up with isn’t to let the First Lady clause slide, but to tell Saxon he needs to find another woman. One who isn’t…damaged.”
She looks pained as she says it, so I know it isn’t her word but something she heard. It still punches me in the throat.
“Oh,” I whisper. There’s nothing else to say.
“They’re fucking wrong,” she says, her cheeks sporting flags of angry color. “I will have the back of any brother. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think some of them are assholes.”
Dad says the same thing about some of the Titans. “Okay.”
“I just wanted you to know, so that if you hear this shit being tossed around, it doesn’t catch you by surprise. Saxon never would think it, okay? And I’ve seen that thing you do. You put your chin up and walk on like you don’t care if they’re looking or what they’re saying. Just keep on doing that.”
By her tone, I don’t think she’s only talking to me—or that it’s the first time she’s said those words. “Is that what you do—just keep on going like you don’t give a fuck?”
“Yeah, I do. So you’re all right?”
“I am. And I appreciate the heads-up.” Though my head is still spinning as she straddles the bike. The rumble of the engine settles me for a second. I lift my voice over the noise. “Lily.”
She looks up at me.
“Sunday night, Anna and I usually go out. Kind of a girls’ night with dinner and a few drinks. You want to join us?”
Her gray eyes narrow. “You’re already swaying and now you have to work. Will you even be on your feet tonight?”
I tap my fingernails along the side of my coffee cup. “There’s a lot more caffeine where this came from.”
She smiles a little. “All right. See you tonight, then.”
“Tonight,” I reply, but it’s lost in the roar of her engine. I watch her leave, tires kicking up a long cloud of dust down the drive. I go upstairs and change, then e-mail Anna—asking her to keep her ears peeled about this First Lady thing.
Because I don’t think it’s nothing anymore.
6
Saxon
I meet up with Jenny on Sunday night after her dinner with Anna and Zoomie, but she’s running on empty. I follow her out to the ranch to make sure she doesn’t fall asleep at the wheel and kiss her goodnight at the door. Tonight the Titans and Riders are running out to the Barracks, so I probably won’t see her until tomorrow—and that’s only if other shit doesn’t come up.
She only spent a week in my bed. Two days without her and I’m ready to drag her back into it.
I don’t hear from her until I’m in the clubhouse’s parking lot, waiting for the stragglers to get their shit together so we can ride. There’s always someone who forgets to gas up. Today there were three.
It takes me a second to recognize the picture that comes through on my phone. It’s just a photo of a storefront counter—the one in her brewery.
Because that’s the counter I bent her over last week. That’s where I tasted her cunt for the first time.
My dick is hard as fuck as I straddle my bike. Because of a counter. Jesus H. Christ. I text her back.
Tits or pussy next time.
I want a dick pic first.
I turn my phone’s camera toward Stone. The Riders’ enforcer frowns at me until I say, “Jenny wants a picture of a dick.”
He grins and points two thumbs toward his chest.
I click and send.
OMG. Hahaha! Okay, pussy shot coming.
Where are you? Not at home or the brewery. Cell reception is shit at the ranch. I don’t get many texts while she’s working.
At the end of my driveway, deciding which way to go. You going to be back in town later?
Real late.
Then I’ll probably head up to Bend and catch a movie.
You need an escort? I worry about the Eighty-Eight every damn time she’s on the road alone.
I’ll be okay. You going to be around tomorrow?
I think so.
She responds by sending a photo of an ugly-ass striped cat with ragged ears. It must be a picture she already had on her phone. Taken at night, the flash of the camera gives his eyes an evil red shine. This is Henry. He hangs around the ranch house and sleeps on the pillow next to me.
That’s going to be my pillow. Henry the Devil Pussy needs to find a new spot.
Aw, he’s a good pussy. The best kind. He licks himself.
I grin like a fool and realize the others are waiting on me. Shit. Heading out. Be safe.
I push the phone into my pocket. It vibrates, signaling her reply. I roll out, but only make it to the first stop sign before I look at it.
You, too. See you tomorrow.
One more day. Feels like forever. Jesus. Everything with Jenny feels like forever. I’ve loved her forever. Admired her. She’s smart as hell and so fucking sweet, yet has a core of steel, especially when she’s standing up for someone. I’ve known for years there was no other woman for me. I knew I wanted her by my side. I knew we clicked. She knows my world and the sex is blazing hot. I always knew it wou
ld be.
But I’ve never been as close to her as I have in the past week. I love her but I had no idea I’d be so crazy about her.
A tiny woman completely owns me. That’s not a new development. I told her the truth about being sent home from Kosovo and how I hit a bad patch afterward. I didn’t tell her how rough it got.
I fucked up all through high school and didn’t care. Not messing around—just not being in classes half the time. After she injured her back, my mom couldn’t get out of bed and her meds were expensive. I worked two jobs and my classwork suffered. The military was a light at the end of the tunnel. With my size, I could have played sports, maybe done well and eventually made some money, but that would involve a hell of a lot of luck. The corps was a guaranteed way to send money home. Then I got sent home. The money was still coming in but I wasn’t worth anything anymore. But I could ride, so I threw myself in with the toughest motherfuckers I could find, hoping to feel like a man again.
Instead I just got into all kinds of shit. The day I saved Jenny from being raped at the rally I was coked up out of my fucking head. I didn’t care when the cops showed up afterward, didn’t care that they found evidence on my boot. I was so fucked up that even though my being arrested hurt my mom, I figured it would be better for her if I was gone.
Then Jenny came in to testify for me. She didn’t have to. But she sat in that witness chair and laid out everything that bastard did to her in front of a jury, then looked at me like I was a fucking hero.
She looked at me like I was a man.
I spent the next five years in prison cleaning myself up and becoming one. I read more books than I ever did in school, worked on making myself strong again—so that she would never know how wrong she’d been.
When I got out, I kept at it. I worked my ass off and bought the Den, fixed it up. Everything I did was for Jenny—and I didn’t even have her then. Didn’t have much hope of having her, either. I just needed to know that Jenny Erickson thought I was worth something. And every time she looked at me with those big green eyes and offered her sweet smile, I knew she did.
There isn’t anyone who’d say I’m worthless now—except for me, if she was gone. Everything I’ve done was to live up to that look in her eyes. If she ever goes, everything I did means nothing.
And she almost went. When the Eighty-Eighty threatened her, she came so close to going without my knowing. It would have destroyed me if she had. Because I need her, need to know she’s all right, even if I can’t call her mine. But, Jenny—she’s the most terrifying kind of woman. She’s someone who doesn’t need anything or anyone, not really. She would have taken off and she’d have been just fine.
She loves me. That makes me feel like a fucking king, but in the end, it’s nothing. I’ve seen plenty of people who love each other, yet they stay apart for some reason or another. Hell, I loved Jenny and she loved me, yet we were apart for years.
Need, though? That pulls people together. I could have gotten down on my knees when Red showed up at my door and told me she needed my protection. Need dropped her right into my lap.
That need is growing—not her need for protection but her need for me. I could get on my knees for that, too, because when we get rid of the Eighty-Eight, she won’t need my protection anymore. But if she needs my mouth and my cock, that’s good enough. If she needs me at her side, I’ll be there.
I’ll always be there. Needing her twice as much.
I arranged to meet up with the Titans in a neutral spot—a rest stop a few miles out of Pine Valley. We aren’t waiting there but a few minutes before Red rolls in at the head of his pack. All fifteen Titans are with him. A good sign. This has got to be rough for them. They’re going to feel like we’re moving in, taking over, and that they’re losing everything. But that’s the point of this ride—to show that together, we’re all gaining something. We’re all stronger.
I get off my bike and go to greet Red. The Hellfire Riders are the stronger club and he should be coming to me, but this is more important than the size of my dick. I’ll show respect for what he’s bringing to me. Egos don’t belong here now if we’re going to be brothers.
That was always where Lucifer went wrong. His ego was always in play.
The rest of it goes smoother than I thought it would, and it’s not my doing. Old Timer and the Dubs used to ride with Red and Thorne before they broke away from the Riders and formed the Steel Titans, but there’s still friendship there and the younger brothers take their cue from the elders. I like seeing Red make a point of talking to Zoomie—she’s going to be a sore spot for some, but he helps smooth it over. The brothers who left the Riders when she joined look tense and uneasy, but I make a point of going to them, too.
Next time, they’ll have to come to me. I’m willing to put that shit behind us. Whether they can do the same is up to them.
After the meet and greet is over, we ride.
The Barracks is a dive over on the county line. It used to be Titans’ territory but they let it go. No one claims it officially now, but drive by on any night and most of the bikes outside belong to the Eighty-Eight.
It’s not yet busy when we roll in. A stripper is working a pole up on the stage. Watching her are a few nomads and a pair of Blue Coyotes. Stone goes to talk to them. That club’s all right but next time they’ll need to secure permission from the Titans or the Riders before coming in. Red and I head into the back. The place is a shithole but Red tells me it wasn’t always. The owner just got tired of fixing all the shit the Eighty-Eight broke.
That owner is Pete Schmidt, an old grizzled bastard who’s built like a bear and who keeps a shotgun and baseball bat behind his bar. We find him cleaning a grill in the kitchen. He shakes a gloved fist at Red as we come in. “If you fucking walk in here, Red Erickson, you better be fucking staying.”
“We’re staying. Me and the Wolf.” Red gestures to me and uses my road name. “We’re thinking of doing a little cleaning over the next few weeks. Exterminating some vermin.”
Schmidt near bursts into tears. He rips off his gloves and his big hand shakes mine, then he pulls Red in for a rough hug. “Only this morning I was standing over there with a match and thinking of burning this place down. But it turns out that today is my lucky fucking day. You go out and sit. I’ll send some girls out.”
I don’t have any interest in the girls but it’s going to be my lucky fucking day, too. I left Blowback watching the door and as Red and I return to the main room, my veep finds me.
His flat stare meets mine. “Reichmann and about a dozen of the Henchmen just rolled up.”
Reichmann. Anger is cold and sharp. He’ll see our bikes outside but if he runs now, he’s ruined. His club will mark him as a coward and they’ll turn on him like the rabid dogs they all are.
I stay at the bar with Red as Reichmann comes limping in. I grin. My brothers worked him over good last week. He must have come in a cage because his arm’s in a sling and a cast surrounds his left foot. His sunken lips tell me his front teeth are gone. His face is still a swollen mess. Flanked by two of his Henchmen, he heads over to a booth. I nod to the brothers sitting there, who look at me as if wondering whether they should stake their claim now. They move out.
The music is loud but there’s not a word being spoken. The other Henchmen are looking at the tables, each one taken by a Rider or a Titan. The Henchmen want to assert their ownership over the place, ordering my brothers out of their seats, and I can see them weighing the chances of getting their asses kicked against the size of their dicks. Not all of them are stupid. They head to the bar.
I nod to Red and we head toward Reichmann’s table. I point to the two bikers sitting with him. “Get the fuck out. We’re having a regional presidents meeting.”
Reichmann’s trapped and he knows it. He gestures for them to go, but his face is pale, his skin tight over his shaved skull. Bruises still ring his throat where I had him in a choke hold.
I slide in next to Reichmann and
Red takes the opposite bench. I get my first look at Red’s face since Reichmann came in and suddenly I’m surprised the Henchman is still living. But maybe Jenny asked her dad not to spend his last months in prison. That’s all I can imagine holding Red back from killing him now.
Red wouldn’t go to jail if it went down here. Not one fucking member of the Eighty-Eight would make it out and there’d be no one to talk about it. But if we’re going to shed blood, I want to do it all together as Riders. Not while we’re still separate.
“A presidents meeting, huh?” Reichmann’s gaze zeroes in on Red. “Some of us won’t be a president for much longer. I hear they’re measuring your coffin.”
“Better than the hole in the ground you’ll get. As long as I live long enough to see you in it, I die a satisfied man.”
“If I get your daughter on her back, so will—”
My hand shoots out and grips the back of Reichmann’s head. I slam his face into the table. The impact is as loud as a gunshot. Everything around us goes quiet as I hold him there. “Shut your mouth. Now.”
Blood’s streaming from his nose when I let him up. Red tosses him a napkin.
“Now this is simple,” I tell him. “You’re done here. A Henchman crosses the county line, he’s going to find himself in a hole. You deal your shit across the county line? We’ll come out and burn your kitchen down.”
The stupid fucker laughs. “You think it’ll be that easy? There’s giants out there who have a vested interest in our supply. They’ll squish you like an ant.”
“And you’re gonna call for help? Have them bring in muscle from other chapters?” I grin. “Go ahead. First thing they’ll do is see that your house is weak as shit. They’ll cut your throat and throw you to the fucking pigs.”
“It ain’t my house that’s weak. It ain’t me that’s needing to bring in a dying club.” He laughs again and spits blood onto the table. “And it ain’t me who can’t fuck my woman how and where I want. I sure as hell don’t need a fucking clause to make her take it from my brothers.”