Nash: Great Wolves MC

by Jayne Blue

  Nash

  Great Wolves MC

  Jayne Blue

  Nokay Press, LLC

  Contents

  Nash

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  A Message from Jayne Blue

  Books by Jayne Blue

  Bonus Excerpt from Vice by Jayne Blue

  Untitled

  Untitled

  Nash

  Great Wolves M.C. - Book Nine

  By

  Jayne Blue

  Copyright © 2016 by Robin Dec

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  * * *

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  Chapter One

  Harper

  * * *

  What made me think stepping through that door would make any difference? I thought I had something to prove. Now I couldn’t even remember what that was. I was older? Tougher? Over it? It seemed so silly now as the hostess stood there smiling at me. I think she asked the question more than once.

  “Just one tonight, ma’am?”

  Ma’am. Did I look like a ma’am? Already? I was twenty-five years old, goddammit.

  “What? Oh. No. I’m meeting someone.” That was my first lie of the night. I’d have to remember to put a quarter in the jar when I got home. No fibs. No cussing. Hell, I probably just should have put a twenty in the damn thing before I left the house and called it even.

  “Follow me,” she said. She wore tight denim shorts that barely covered her ass. Her black tank top had a howling wolf logo on it in studded sequins. She wore nylons under those shorts and shiny black boots. God, she had to be sweating in those things. Back in my waitress days, I used to hate them. “Is this okay?”

  Yes. Actually it was perfect. She’d picked out a corner table. I had a full view of the bar on the other side of the room and the stage. On Tuesday night, there was no live band. Still, the place was packed and it was already after nine o’clock. She set a small black tablet in front of me and told me my waitress would be right there to take my drink order. I nodded and picked up the tablet.

  Fancy. No paper menus. No smoking. No bar fights. This wasn’t The Wolf Den I’d last stepped foot in six years ago. The land it sat on was the same but that was about it. It was a legitimate business, not some seedy biker bar like it had been back then. Oh, the bikers were still here all right, and the waitresses, just like my hostess, were barely dressed. I more than anyone knew that meant big tips and a part of me missed that feeling of stacks of singles in my pocket at the end of a night. But legit business or not, you could still feel the undercurrent of what this place used to be. Rough characters at the bar, couples in the dark groping when they didn’t think anyone was watching. Hell, some didn’t seem to care if they were. I longed for the old place, a little. I would have known how to act then. The way it was now? This seemed like a place for grownups. I’d spent all this time convincing myself that I was the one who’d changed and outgrown all of this.

  My waitress came to the table. She wore the same skin-tight shorts and tank top as the hostess had. When she asked me what I wanted to drink, I had no answer. Hell, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had alcohol of any kind. I never get the chance anymore.

  “Just give me whatever you have on draft,” I said. I don’t know why. I don’t even like beer. She smiled and winked, then disappeared into the crowd.

  My heart raced and tiny beads of sweat popped out on my forehead. I hoped no one else would notice in the dim light. No one even looked my way. I scanned the crowd. There were so many people and none that I recognized at first. I avoided turning toward the bar. Of course that’s where he’d be … that’s where they’d all be if they still cared about running the place. If there was trouble tonight, that’s where it would start after all.

  I pushed my chair further against the wall and into the shadows. If I did have a friend I could have asked, I would have brought them with me tonight. But I didn’t know a single soul in Emerald Point anymore. Well, except for one.

  The bartender stood with his back to me behind the bar. Just the sight of that howling wolf emblazoned across the back of his leather jacket made my heart stop. It wasn’t him, of course, but seeing that was almost enough to make me get up and leave. What was I thinking? Coming here was a terrible mistake. I couldn’t turn back the clock. Maybe I didn’t want to. I wouldn’t give up what I had, but for just a few minutes, I could pretend everything was as simple as it had been all those years ago.

  The bartender turned and I saw him in profile. A name and a memory popped into my head. Prince? No. King. It was his road name. All the guys had them. From this distance, I couldn’t make out the letters on the patch King wore on his vest above his right breast. But the other club members sitting at the bar seemed to defer to him as he barked out orders.

  Oh God. I’d been afraid of what might happen if I found the man I was looking for tonight. For the first time, I started to worry more about how I’d feel if I never saw him again.

  “Nash!” My heart went straight down to my knees. My waitress put a full, frosted mug in front of me and I gripped it with shaky fingers, afraid to turn my head to the voice that might call out in answer.

  Nash. God.

  “You’re all set.” Just those three words. That’s all he said and not even to me. But that deep, smoky voice turned my insides to jelly. I waved the waitress away, squeezed my eyes shut and took another long drink from my beer. I should have ordered straight bourbon. The beer would take too long to soften my rough edges.

  Pressing the back of my head against the wall, I finally got brave enough to turn toward the sound of his voice. He leaned against the bar, resting his weight on one muscled forearm. He wore a white t-shirt that fit taut over his broad chest and bulging biceps. He had rough hands with strong fingers and he rapped his knuckles against the top of the bar. I saw a flash of gold from the jeweled ring he wore. No wedding ring. But those hands. I drew in a sharp breath as a memory flashed of what they felt like when he ran them over the flat plane of my stomach as he held me in the dark.

  Nash smiled and threw his head back to laugh. His eyes twinkled. Even from here, I could see them shine. They were pale green and catlike, almost matching the crystalline waters of the beaches this place was named after. The Emerald Coast. When I left here six years ago, he made me swear never to come back to this stretch of Florida again. I’d sworn a lot of things.

  Nash pushed himself off the bar and ran a hand over his head. He wore that different now too. He shaved it on the sides leaving a thick patch of blond pulled back in a short club at the crown of his head. God, it made him look fierce like some Viking. He kept
his beard cropped close and I remembered the rough tickle it gave me the last time he kissed me. My knees went weak just thinking about it. I’d felt torn in two when I left him that last morning and watched him ride away through the tears in my eyes.

  He shared a joke with King behind the bar. Then he reached over and grabbed a glass and the beverage gun. He jerked his chin at King and they exchanged a hand signal between them. It had been like that when I knew him all those years ago. Nash and his club brothers hardly needed words to communicate with each other.

  One of the bar patrons walked by and stumbled right in front of him. Nash shot out a hand and kept the guy from falling flat on his face. He gave him a good-natured slap on the chest and pointed him to the nearest empty table. Then Nash gestured toward King again. Whoever he was, they’d keep an eye on him.

  I sat back and smiled. This is all I really wanted, wasn’t it? Just to see him again so I’d know he was all right? I hadn’t believed it when I got back into town and casually asked around. More than one person had told me The Wolf Den wasn’t like it used to be. They said the Great Wolves MC weren’t like they used to be. They’d gone legit, after all. To tell the truth, I hadn’t wanted to believe it. It was easier to justify my leaving. Nash was supposed to be in jail by now, or dead.

  He took a step toward me, standing directly beneath a light hanging overhead. I couldn’t breathe. That face. Those eyes. When he smiled again, I saw the deep dimple in his right cheek. He hadn’t changed, not really; at least, nowhere near as much as I had.

  I put a twenty-dollar bill on the table and planned on getting up to leave. It probably would have been better if I’d just done it. But something made me pause. Nash leaned back against the bar and crossed one booted foot over the other.

  Then she came up to him.

  She was cute but trashy, with bleach-blonde hair and tits popping out of her blouse. She wore tight black jeans and stilettos. She slid next to Nash and rested her hands on his shoulder; looking up at him, she giggled and batted her eyelashes. Nash reached back and grabbed the drink he’d poured for himself. Then he slid his hand down her back and patted her on the ass.

  Bile rose in my throat. My vision wavered in front of me and I couldn’t focus. Nash rapped his knuckles on the bar again and gestured toward King. King nodded. Then Nash slid his arm around the girl and guided her into the hallway just behind the bar. If I crouched down in my seat, I could still see them. Nash leaned against the wall and the girl went up on her tiptoes, sliding her hands up his chest. She clung to him like a damn python; wrapping her leg around his she pulled his head down to kiss him.

  My blood started to boil as Nash kissed her back. He seemed a little stiff, not really leaning into the kiss. But he didn’t pull away either. She staggered sideways and Nash kept her from falling. The bitch was drunk off her ass and her eyes glossed over. Easy pickings. She giggled again and slapped at his chest. Smiling, Nash looked toward the bar then back to her. He whispered something in her ear that made her laugh high and sharp, sending spikes of fury down my spine. I should leave. This had nothing to do with me anymore. Nash was the past. I was an idiot for coming back here. This wasn’t my world. It never was. It was just a lost weekend that changed my life forever. Everyone else here stayed the same no matter how much the MC spent remodeling the bar.

  I waved my twenty at the waitress when she walked by and told her to keep the change. I’d seen enough. Rising, I stole a glance back toward that darkened hallway. Nash had turned. He stood with his back to the girl. She still had her hands wrapped around him but he wasn’t focused on her. Instead, he looked out across the bar and tried to pull her tentacles off him. He was gentle, but firm. It was too far away. There were too many people around us and the noise was so loud I couldn’t think. But Nash’s emerald eyes seemed to cut across the distance and focus straight on me.

  Stumbling over my chair, I thanked the waitress and headed for the front door. A blast of humid air nearly choked me as I stepped out of the air conditioning and into the parking lot. Fumbling for my keys, I practically ran to my car.

  Stupid. So stupid. What in the hell had I been trying to prove by coming back here? Now, as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I couldn’t find my damn car. I tapped the lock button twice until I heard the car beep then headed to the left. A blast of cold air hit my back and I couldn’t force myself to turn toward it for anything.

  “Hang on a minute!” Nash’s voice cut through and stabbed into me like a thousand knives. He still had that sexy, southern drawl that went down like the smooth heat of Kentucky bourbon from the town where he was born and raised.

  I quickened my step; my heart pounded so loud in my ears I felt sure he could hear it too. I tapped the lock on my key fob again, opening the doors and wishing the ground would swallow me whole. It wasn’t me. He wasn’t coming after me. He couldn’t be.

  “Stop!” he said again. I froze two feet from my car. I would have dove inside and tried to drive away but I was scared to death he’d reach for me. If his skin touched mine, I’d be done for. I’d never be able to hide the turmoil inside of me. Taking a deep, steeling breath, I turned to face him.

  Nash stood ten feet away from me with one hand in the back pocket of his jeans. His lips curled into a sultry half-smirk as he approached me.

  “I thought I saw you,” he said. “You’re …”

  “Leaving,” I said. “I shouldn’t have come.”

  Nash kept walking. He took slow, careful steps as if he were approaching a wild animal. That’s exactly what I felt like. Skittish. More than anything, I just wanted to drop my keys and slide into his arms just like the whore he’d just left. God, that wasn’t fair. I didn’t know her. Hell, I didn’t know him anymore either. I had no right. I had no claim. Then why the hell was I here?

  “Do you need help with something, darlin’? Were you looking for me?” he said.

  Time froze. My pounding heartbeat seemed to drive out all rational thought. This wasn’t me. I wasn’t that girl anymore. She was back there in the bar, waiting to throw herself at Nash if he ever went back down that hallway. He should go to her. It was the smart play here.

  “S-someone told me I should check the place out. That’s all. Everybody said The Wolf Den wasn’t the same place it used to be.”

  Nash’s smile gutted me. “Yeah? Don’t believe everything you hear. Why don’t you come back inside and I’ll show you around … Harper.” One word. My name. But coming from his lips, it went through me like an electric current.

  Chapter Two

  Nash

  * * *

  She thought I didn’t recognize her. For half a second, I’ll be honest, I didn’t. God, how long had it been? Four years? Five? She’d changed. Nothing obvious. She still had that jet-black hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. I remembered the first time I saw her how badly I wanted to get her on to the back of my Harley and let the wind whip through it. She’d filled out in ways I liked. I remember telling her that first night that she was a little too skinny for my tastes. Hell, that had been a lie but it made her smile and that was all it took to knock me on my ass where she was concerned.

  She was scared of something. Her dark brows cut a slash above her big brown eyes. She stumbled backward and I resisted the urge to go to her. What the hell had her so spooked? I looked around the parking lot, my fingers playing at my hip where I kept my piece holstered. The last fucking thing I needed was trouble at the bar tonight. Too many people in this town were just waiting for drama out here.

  “I’m surprised you remember me?” she said, forcing a smile. I smiled back and took a step toward her. Fuck. She was fine. But she wasn’t dressed for this place. She had on a tight black skirt and a white silk blouse with the top three buttons undone. She looked like she belonged at a business meeting, not a biker bar. Hell, that was the thing that stuck out for me the first time I met her too. She was too good for Emerald Point, Florida. That was for damn sure. Too good for me, most of all.


  I remember warning her to run for the hills that first night. She’d been summer help at The Pirate’s Cove, a touristy bar out on the pier. That place wasn’t even there anymore. They put one of those hideous mini-golf places there instead. I had a flash of what she looked like the first time I saw her and my jeans got tight in places she might notice. The Cove used to make their girls dress up in tight little pirate’s wench costumes with shiny striped skirts, fishnets, and ruffled, off-the-shoulder tops.

  “No, you’re not,” I said, taking another step toward her. She had one hand on the handle of her car door and looked about ready to bolt. I didn’t want to spook her, but she came here looking for me. Girls like Harper Mays didn’t come to The Wolf Den for our appetizers.

  “Well, like I said. I was just curious. A friend of mine told me Emerald Point had changed a lot since I was down here last. She said that was mostly because of you … er … I mean … because of the Great Wolves MC.”

  I smiled and ran a hand along my jaw. I gave her a shrug. “Well, you saw for yourself. What do you think so far?”

  Harper took a breath. Dammit if my eyes didn’t go to the swell of her breasts. One more minute of this I’d pop my damn zipper.

  “Isn’t there an expression … something about lipstick on a pig?”

  She froze up for a second after she said it. I threw my head back and laughed. She’d said something smartass like that the first time I met her. It had been one of the reasons I’d been so eager to kiss her.

  “Well, darlin’, I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you come on back in and let me buy you another drink? Give me a few minutes to convince you otherwise.”