Inflamed: A Shadow Riders MC

by Kiki Leach

  He slammed the door and shuffled in behind me as I moved toward the club. "Prez is probably gonna wanna talk to you about some shit when you get in there," he said.

  "I figured as much," I mumbled. "Any advice on how to handle him?"

  "Be you, and be honest. All you can ask for when it comes to Prez, really."

  "Okay." I gulped, because being 'me' was exactly what I didn't want to be in that particular moment. Hell, I wasn't even looking forward to being the person I was pretending to be!

  When his phone started dinging inside his back pocket, he snatched it out and flipped it open. He pushed a few buttons up, a few buttons down and furrowed his brows. "Shit. VP's saying he wants to talk to you about some shit too, I guess," he blurted.

  I glanced down at his palm. "Yeah, well, your 'VP' is the one I won't have a problem saying a single word to--" He placed a hand on my arm and stepped in front of me before we went any further. He slid his phone back into his pocket and as the other prospects gathered around us, I stared up at him and frowned. "What are you doing?" I questioned.

  Styx eyed the other prospects and nodded in a way that made me think they were speaking in some kind of coded language, right before refocusing on me. "You might wanna give her over to me before heading in there." He pointed at Avery.

  I clutched her even tighter and took a step back from him, only to bump into Eightball. He slithered around me like a snake in the grass and smirked while grabbing a cigarette from his pocket and quickly lighting up.

  I turned back to Styx and anxiously shook my head. "I'm sorry, but I'm not handing her over to you--"

  "Darlin'." He pointed behind him at the club. "There's some shit going down in there right about now that you more than likely won't be wanting her to see."

  "I can only imagine." I blinked once and inhaled slowly, then exhaled between my lips. "Where exactly would you be taking her?" I asked.

  "There's a way of getting her into that back room you two are gonna be sharing without going through the actual club." He raised his hands up and gestured toward mine. "We get her through there, she won't see a goddamn thing."

  I peered at every man standing around me as each one kept their eyes completely focused on me. I was starting to feel like the main attraction at the Ringling Brothers Circus.

  "I know that you and Trucker picked her up from school and that she's esthetically fine. But, I still don't exactly feel all that comfortable about handing her over to you or anyone else here," I said. "At least not yet."

  "I understand. Um..." He wrapped a hand around his chin, thinking. "Look, why don't we do this, alright? Since she's still sleep, we'll all walk into the club with her as a group. Then once the boys spread out and distract the others, I'll ease you both to the back and you can place her on the bed yourself. Verna's here and she's never too fond of any of this shit like she used to be, so she can watch her while you talk with the Prez and VP. That a deal?"

  "Well, I don't really know her all that well either. I mean, she seemed nice enough this morning, but--"

  "She's good people, babe. Your girl will be in good hands. A hell of a lot better than any one of those assholes inside."

  I looked around at all the others once again as they nodded in unison.

  Feeling outnumbered on top of being completely out of my element, I anxiously bobbed my head right along with them and said, "Yeah. Yeah, okay. Let's just get this over with."

  "Alright." Styx nodded toward the others and with the exception of Eightball, who decided to stick around outside and finish up his cigarette instead, they all hurried inside. "Come on." He placed a hand at the center of my back to keep me steady and once we were inside, it was as if every nightmare I had ever had about being in a place like this was slowly starting to come true. And despite how hard I pinched myself, I couldn't wake up from it and pretend that it was never real to me in the first place. More like surreal. And in the worst way imaginable.

  "Oh my God."

  Between the blaring rock music and smell of booze, joints, cigarettes and open sex that some seemed to be having in various corners throughout the whole place, I wasn't exactly sure which one had managed to actually hit my nose first. Though the combination of it all was sure as hell begging for me to reach the nearest trashcan and toss my own head inside.

  "Oh my God," I mumbled again as I scanned the room; though this time it was more in fury rather than absolute terror or dread. "Oh my God."

  Behind the bar, someone who looked even bigger than Trucker had placed a girl on top of it, yanked down her tube top and bra, and started licking and sucking and pinching her breasts with his dirty, greasy looking fingers. It was just right there and out in the open for all to see as if they were filming a random scene for a straight to DVD porno flick. The girl swung her stringy brown hair over her tanned shoulder and started giggling like a wild hyena on crack, and when the big burly guy shoved his hand between her legs, she wrapped her hands around his neck and screamed so loudly that the noise nearly shattered my eardrums, and a few mirrors.

  I immediately averted my eyes, hoping someone was nearby with a bottle of bleach for me to wash them out with, only to land on another man, who apparently thought absolutely nothing about receiving a blow job in front of the pool table from a girl who looked even younger than me, while he could've easily given Santa Claus a run for his money in both the age and weight department.

  Yuck.

  When I turned again, my focus landed directly on River, who was sitting in a chair off to the side and enjoying not only a beer, but the pale, bare asses of two women in his face, while another was playing with her own breasts and preparing to stick her hand down the front of his pants.

  “Oh. My. God.” I spun back around to Styx and rattled my head. "Please get me the hell out of here." My voice started shaking as my heart raced. "There is no way in hell that I can stay inside a place like this – even IF that crazy SOB is after me. I can't subject my child to something like this, I can’t--!"

  "Mama," Avery muttered, her voice groggy and weak. She gently lifted her head and started rubbing her eyes.

  "NO!" I threw my hand over her face and forced her head back down on my shoulder.

  "This is why I didn't want either one of you coming in this way, babe. Especially the 'lil bit in your arms," he said, staring down at Avery. "All this shit she'd have to see--"

  "This isn't just about sneaking her in through another entrance of this place as if something like this could actually be avoided. Any later and we'd probably find a few of these people strung out or screwing on the lawn," I said.

  "Mama," Avery called out again.

  I wrapped my hand over her ear and leaned into Styx, whispering. "I am not staying inside this pussy eating playground filled with nothing but cock stroking idiots like your VP back there. I’m out." I dashed around him, but he reached out for my arm and pulled me back.

  Holding tight as I tried to yank away from him, he moved in close and glared. "I can't let you leave tonight, darlin'. On VP's orders, I can't."

  "I--"

  "Mia," a strong, deep voice hollered out to me over the music. Crisp and rugged, I knew exactly who it had belonged to. "Mia," he called again.

  I peeked over Styx's shoulder and saw River staring directly at me, his steel blue eyes piercing right through me as if I were nothing more than a thin sheet of glass. He drank back the rest of his beer and shoved the girls aside as if they were just disposable chess pieces on a table. I was suddenly his only focus which felt just as bad as being completely invisible.

  "Oh, great." I ripped my arm out of Styx's hand, headed back outside to the parking lot and went straight for the tow truck.

  "Mia!" River called out to me again, his voice lowering as it rumbled in anger.

  I didn't say anything in response. What the hell could I say to him that didn't include the phrase 'drop dead, you sick freak'?

  "MIA!" he hollered again.

  "Mama?"

  "It's ok
ay, baby," I said to Avery, yanking back the door to the truck. I placed her inside as she continued rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

  "MIA!" River's fury intensified just as quickly as his harsh sounding footsteps. His feet hit the ground so hard, I’d have sworn I felt it moving beneath me. "MIA! Goddamnit!"

  I pushed Avery's legs inside the truck and slammed the door. "Mama--" she started.

  "It's okay," I told her again. "Lay your head back down in the seat and go back to sleep."

  "Mama, there's a big man standing behind you. And his face is bright red."

  I sighed. I knew he was there before she even said anything. The weight of his body hovered over me like a rain cloud.

  "I'll be right back, baby, okay?" I told her. I turned on my heels and looked up into River's eyes. My God, this man was intoxicating -- sweaty and smelly and insanely beautiful, even as he had royally pissed me off in more ways than one. I still couldn’t deny how much and how hard I wanted him to make me scream. "Can I talk to you for a second over here?" I asked, pointing toward the other side of the lot as I tried my damnedest to keep my cool.

  He moved in behind me, so close that his erection, which seemed to die down once he had moved outside, was suddenly rising within seconds and bumping against the side of my ass.

  Oh God.

  Once we stopped, I moved as far away from him as I could, forcing a car length distance between us when I felt him moving too close into my personal space. I needed to think clearly and this son of a bitch was the worst kind of distraction to have.

  “Mia.” He grunted, and swallowed so hard while staring down at me that his Adam's apple bobbed. "What the hell were you thinkin' runnin' outta there like that?" he asked, his voice low and unbelievably intense. “Lookin’ like you’d lost your goddamn mind.”

  I glowered. "What?" Was he serious?

  "You ran outta there like your goddamn skirt was on fire--"

  "What the hell were you actually expecting me to do?" I snapped. "Stick around and have my daughter continue to see what it's like for women of all ages with no ambition in life to actually land on their knees and trade sex for a pound of crack? Or is it just the attention and affection they're seeking from the lonely bikers of the world?"

  "You're reachin', babe," he growled and slipped his fingers inside the loops of his jeans to adjust them. I looked down and saw his cock pressing even harder against the fabric and gulped.

  This man may not have wanted to admit to much when it came to what that actually meant, but it seemed my being pissed at him was more of what kept him going than anything, just as it had earlier in the morning.

  I dragged my eyes back up to his face and exhaled sharply, hoping like hell that he hadn’t noticed me staring. "I don’t think I’m reaching for much of anything,” I said. "The fact is that you knew I was showing up with my kid tonight and this is what you had us both walk into. All that crap you said earlier about shielding her from stuff like this was just that, crap."

  "I didn't have a fuckin' choice, doll," he spat between clinched teeth. He leaned down even further toward my face and I dipped my head back. The smell of whiskey and beer on his breath practically inflamed every part of my body. "It was hard as fuck tryin' to get those other motherfuckers on board with this shit. I had to promise 'em somethin' to show that shit wasn't gonna change too much with you and your kid bein' here."

  "It has to change, at least somewhat!" I hissed. "At the very least, you could've given me a heads up."

  "I told Styx about the party," he replied.

  "When? Five seconds before we walked inside?"

  River turned back toward the club and glared at Styx, who hovered in the doorway. After a few seconds, he pulled his beer up to his mouth, wrapped his lips around the neck of it and turned away.

  River's eyes returned to me. They roamed up and down my body and he tilted his head. "That the same shit you had on earlier today?"

  I looked down at myself and lifted my shoulders. "I didn't wake up early enough to change clothes, OR, apparently to get my own child from school. Thanks for that by the way, no really THANK YOU for that. Because of you and your crew, I more than likely won't be able to take her back to that school again once all this shit is over. What the hell were you thinking sending two of your 'boys' to get her from her class like that? I get it, threats work for you, but when it comes to school authority, that shit doesn't exactly 'fly right'. You should've woken me up so that I could've at least called my parent's--"

  "Did you get 'em on the phone tonight?" he interjected.

  Taken aback and a little rattled by his tone and how calm he had suddenly become, I waited a moment before answering. "Yeah," I said. "I got them on the phone just before showing up here."

  "And what'd you say?"

  I shoved my brows together and wrinkled my nose. "I told them that Avery and I were going to Disneyworld with some money I had saved up and that we'd be down in Orlando for the next few weeks."

  "It's gonna take more than a few goddamn weeks for this shit with Ricky to--"

  "I know that," I shot back. "I'll think of something else when the time comes, but you really didn't give me much notice or time to prepare something a little more genuine or long-term." I lowered my head and dug my heels into the ground. "But speaking of Disneyworld, they told me that you had them get a bunch of toys and things so that Avery wouldn't feel so out of place in being here."

  "Yeah." He shrugged. "No big deal, just some shit I thought she might wanna have around her to make her comfortable. Didn't look like she ever had too much to begin with."

  "I'd like to say that I didn't want her growing up to be as materialistic as our society has become, but the truth is that I'm just not that deep. And reality is that I couldn't afford much for her aside from food, clothes and shelter; sometimes the first two were scarce despite help from my parents. So in all sincerity, thanks, for that. But I'm still not happy about what you did with the school. Even if they were too busy pissing themselves to call and tell me about it."

  "Once all this shit blows over, you want her back in that school, I can make it happen for her."

  "It's okay," I said. "Maybe I should just homeschool her instead, I don't know. But then again, look at me. It's not as if I'm exactly all that equipped to teach her much of anything about life, let alone the workings of math and science."

  "You're not some kinda shit mother," he said.

  I peeked up at him and winced. "Thanks. I think.”

  "What I'm sayin' is that my daughter had a shit mother. Bitch left her on my goddamn doorstep when she was just two months old with a note attached to her forehead tellin' me she was mine and that I was needin' to take care of her 'cause she couldn't anymore." He rested his hands on either side of his waist. "I didn't even know the bitch was fuckin' pregnant."

  "What happened to her?"

  "I don't fuckin' know. She dipped out for good not long after, and I ain’t seen or heard from her since. She was what they call a 'travelin' club whore' long before she hooked up with me, so it's possible she got caught up in some bad shit someplace else."

  "Hm."

  I peeked around him at the truck and saw Avery sticking her head out of the window, staring at the both of us. A sad smile crossed her face, but I couldn't tell if it was because she was afraid to leave, or like me, afraid to stay.

  "I can't take her back in there," I told River. He arched a brow, then turned on his heel to face her. And when she waved at him, he actually lifted his arm and waved back.

  "She looks just like you," he said.

  "Thank God," I blurted. "I mean..." I covered my face in embarrassment. "I mean that she doesn't really favor Ricky too much. Not that I would love her any less or something crazy like that if she did, but--"

  "I feel you, darlin'. My girl doesn't look anything like her mother either, 'cept for the muddy brown eyes. Just like her smarts, she didn't get that shit from me. And if it's worth any goddamn thing to ya, I didn't mean for you
r girl to see all the shit that was goin' on inside."

  "It's not your fault. So much." I wrapped my arms even tighter around myself and stared up into his eyes as they completely drank me in. "This is a double edged sword kind of situation," I said, "because I need your help but I can't expose her to the kind of life you live. Not without, I don't know, corrupting her or something."

  He eyed me up and down again, his expression covered in words I had no idea of comprehending. Then he turned back to Avery again and tapped his foot on the ground. "You won't have to, babe." He backed away from me and moved toward the truck. "You won't."

  I stood frozen in both fear and shock as he yanked the door back on the tow truck and reached inside for Avery. Without even an ounce of hesitation, she jumped straight into his arms, giggling as he carried her back over to me and sat her down to the ground at my side.

  "Styx!" he hollered back toward the club. "YO, STYX!"

  As if he had been standing there the entire time, Styx raced out and over to us. "Yeah?"

  River bent his mouth to his ear and lowered his voice. "Round the bitches and prospects up in the back," he said. "Then get the brothers together out front so I can let 'em know about Mia and her kid. You and Trucker stick around too.”

  He stared at him for a long time, his eyes dancing between River’s face and his fists, before finally bobbing his head. "Yeah." He pat him on the back and headed back inside the club.

  River turned back to me, then dropped his eyes down to Avery and nodded. "She like her toys?" he asked.

  I tried to hide a smile as Avery reached up for my hand and started swinging it back and forth. "She can actually talk, you know," I told him. "It's okay if you want to just ask her."

  He glanced at me, then focused his eyes on the ground and dropped to a squat in front of her. He rested his arms on his legs, and as the muscles in them twitched, he leaned in. "The dolls and the toys," he started, his voice cracking as what sounded like nerves began to kick him right in the center of his throat. It was both endearing and somewhat surprising, considering both his size and normal attitude. "Did the boys do good in picking that stuff out for you?"