Hunter (Black Angels MC Book 1)

by A. E. Fisher

  “Then we’ve got our brothers’ backs, and that’s what keeps us alive,” I finished. “Yeah, I got it, Prez.”

  Wolf scowled. “Good.” He slammed his hand hard onto my shoulder, nearly dislocating it. “Next time”—he grinned—“don’t interrupt me, kid.” With that, he returned to his phone and disappeared down the hallway.

  “Kid?” I scoffed, shaking my head.

  I headed back into the room where Mallory continued to hum, facing the window. A burnt orange sunset streamed through the window and across her delicate face. She sat cross-legged, her shoulders slumped but chin raised. Her brown eyes were glowing like a candle in an absent draft, still and bare. Adair was asleep on her lap.

  I lowered myself onto the bed beside her, and she stopped humming, letting her head fall onto my shoulder.

  “What were you humming?” I asked, keeping my voice soft as not to wake Adair.

  “‘Amazing Grace’.” Her gaze flickered up to look at what must have been a surprised expression because she quickly added, “Don’t get me wrong; I’m not all that religious. I’d be kind of screwed if I was.”

  “Yeah, I’d hate to think you didn’t believe in sex before marriage.”

  “Yeah, right,” Mallory scoffed. “That’s more like you at the minute, mister.”

  I knew what she was hinting at and quickly directed the conversation away. We weren’t having that conversation. Not yet.

  “So,” I said, nudging her softly. “The song?”

  Mallory smiled, looking back out the window. “My dad used to sing it to me when I was little.”

  “That’s right,” I recalled. “You were the preacher’s daughter.”

  “He died when I was twenty.” Mallory’s smile fell. “I ended up drunk in the streets until your brother came across me. He took me to this place that overlooked the city to sober up before he dragged my ass home.”

  “You seemed to cross paths with him often.”

  “Don’t think of it as coincidence. That was all purely stalker skills. I went to the bar he hung out at regularly on purpose in hopes of jumping him.”

  “Jesus, I’m surprised I never heard of you.”

  “Well, I was one of many.”

  I couldn’t deny it. Women had fallen heels over tits for Noble, which included plenty of stalkers. I had scared off any women who had gotten too close. All except this one, apparently.

  “It’s a shame. Despite the whole stalker thing, you’re a pretty amazing woman. There’re not many out there who would highjack a man’s car.”

  “First, you locked me in it,” Mallory argued. “Second, I’m a Columbia drop-out, you know.”

  “No shit?”

  “I wanted to get a teaching degree in computers,” she said wistfully before her tone turned teasing. “What? Did that not come up during my background check?”

  “No, it didn’t.” I shook my head. “You’re full of surprises, you know.”

  “I know.”

  I scoffed at that and felt Mallory smile against my skin. She had buried her head into the crook of my neck and seemed content to remain there.

  Silence passed for a while between us, and I was beginning to wonder if she had fallen asleep when she spoke.

  “Tell me about you and Noble.”

  I hesitated. I hadn’t spoken to anyone about me and Noble since his death. Nobody had ever asked, and the club all knew enough not to. I didn’t want to talk about it.

  However, Mallory had told me everything. She had borne her soul to me, and it was unfair of me not to do the same. Not if I wanted her to trust me. Therefore, I took a deep breath and started from the beginning.

  “Noble was the spitting image of our father. The blond hair and green eyes were all his. He also seemed to inherit the whole useless womanizer personality. He had all the girls fighting over him to take them to prom.” I laughed, remembering the fiasco when the girls started their own competition to win Noble. “The only thing I got from my pa was the eyes. Everything else is my momma’s.”

  “She must be a beautiful woman,” Mallory whispered.

  “She was. She was kind and gentle, too good to be married to my pa. He always cheated on her. That’s why Noble never committed, never slept with a girl twice, and never made a promise he couldn’t keep. He didn’t want to end up like our pa. Didn’t want to see another girl end up like Ma. When she got sick, it made Pa worse. He was never around. It was always me and Noble to look after her.”

  Mallory wrapped her hand around my balled fists. I hadn’t even realized I had gotten so tense until she pried my fingers open and slid her fingers between mine. I squeezed it for strength and carried on.

  “It was why I was so surprised that day.”

  “That day?”

  “The day Noble died,” I whispered, feeling Mallory go still beside me. I knew my next words would change everything for her. “I had no idea what he was talking about when he came barging into my room. God, he was like a tornado.”

  I looked around the room, my mind melting into the past. It was this very room three and a half years ago.

  The door to my club room burst open, making me fly up from the bed.

  “Shit, Nobel,” I growled, watching my brother storm across the room and drop himself down on the edge of my bed. “I could have been doing all sorts of nasty shit in here.”

  “Sorry, bro.” Nobel jumped up from the bed, rubbing his hand up and down his jaw with such a force it was beginning to turn red.

  His jaw was tight, his eyes bore into the floor so hard he could make a groove in it, and his shoulders were rigid and tucked inward. He ran his other hand back and forth through his blond hair. Something wasn’t right.

  “What the hell is up with you?”

  “She’s gotta be lying,” Nobel said, turning at one end of my room to cross to the other side.

  “Who’s lying?”

  “But she’s not that kind of girl,” he continued.

  “This is beginning to sound more like a monologue,” I commented, easing back down onto the bed and propping my feet up as I eyed my brother. There was no reason not to admit to the amusement I felt at witnessing my usually calm brother freak out.

  “There’s no way she’d lie without a reason. It doesn’t add up.”

  I leaned over toward the mini fridge and pulled out a beer. “You come in here to talk about girl troubles?” I groaned. “I’m sure Kay’s got some tampons for you.”

  “No,” Nobel said, shaking his head, a wave of calm seeming to take over him. He again dropped down onto the side of my bed, a small smile taking over his face. “No troubles.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  “’Cause I was stupid, and I need to go make it right.”

  “Then get going.”

  “I am. I’m gonna make it work. No matter what I must do, I’ll make us happy. All of us.”

  The smile that sat on my brother’s face seemed to light up the room as happiness radiated off him in waves. The excitement had Nobel shooting off the bed and running toward the door.

  “Nobel!” I called out, stopping my brother as he reached for the door handle. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I knew there was no stopping him. “Good luck.”

  Nobel grinned. “Thanks, brother.”

  “That was the last time I saw him alive.” I looked down at mine and Mallory’s hands and breathed out. I had never told anyone of that moment, but somehow, it felt that bit easier to breathe now that I had. “Mallory, I …” I turned. “Mallory?”

  Mallory choked on a pained sob. Her body was shaking, tears slipping through the fingers pressed against her face so tightly her cheeks turned white.

  “Mallory, breathe,” I snapped, shaking her by the shoulders.

  Adair roused from his sleep, his eyes widening as he looked up at his mother.

  “Momma,” Adair whimpered, reaching to touch her face.

  Mallory broke. She grabbed Adair and dragged him against her chest, pai
ned sobs racking her body. She cried harder than before, each part of her existence radiating pain.

  “Papa loved you, baby,” she whispered into Adair’s curls. “He loved you.”

  That was the moment I truly saw the depths of Mallory’s pain.

  The last time Mallory had seen Noble, he had rejected her and her child. She had convinced herself he would have loved them, but she hadn’t been completely sure. She still had doubts. But now … Now she knew.

  She knew that when he got on that bike, he wasn’t running away from them.

  He was running toward them.

  I pulled both Mallory and Adair against my chest as she cried and held on tight. Then I tilted Mallory’s chin to look up at me, her brown eyes glistening with tears, and pressed my forehead to hers.

  “You made his last day on earth the happiest he’d ever had,” I whispered. “And for that, I am forever grateful.”

  She cried harder.

  Two years ago, I had vowed to find the girl who had made Nobel happy. Now, I made a different vow. For that last moment of pure joy they had given my brother, I would make sure they got every moment of happiness they deserved.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Mallory

  Two days had passed since the confessions. I was on the mend, both physically and emotionally, and the rest of the club men seemed to have accepted me into their circle. I had no idea how much Hunter had told them, but I was grateful to them for not bringing it up.

  I wasn’t sure how much emotional collapse I could take since Hunter had told me about Noble’s last day. My heart was still sore, and a part of me was annoyed that Hunter hadn’t told me that sooner. At the same time, I understood how much that memory meant to him, and how much it had taken for him to tell me. How much he had trusted me with it. My own confession showed me how much I trusted Hunter. But that wasn’t the only thing I discovered.

  I was in love with Hunter.

  It was different than with Noble. I had loved him, but now I realized that was built mostly on gratitude and respect. This, with Hunter, was a rabbit hole I was falling hard and fast into. One I wouldn’t escape from in one piece.

  I wanted to tell him, but although Hunter trusted me, I couldn’t be completely sure he would accept me. He had said he was in it for the long haul, but that didn’t mean he was ready for love yet. I wasn’t saying never, but I knew I didn’t have the courage to confess, not when I wasn’t sure he felt the same way. I couldn’t throw myself into that kind of heartache so soon.

  My feelings had encouraged me to act, and there was one act I was still waiting to do. We had fooled around long enough, and I was brought full circle to my issue from the house. Hunter still wouldn’t have sex with me.

  He slept naked next to me every night, and last night I had done the same, hoping to tempt him while Adair had a sleepover with one of the other boys from the club, courtesy of Kay. Instead, Hunter had slept as close to the opposite edge of the bed as he could.

  And now, I found myself staring at some half-naked girl in the hallway. I wasn’t sure what she was doing there, lying on the floor, naked from the waist down, mumbling about her sore ass. I could see faint red lines across the cheek presented to me, and I wondered if the kinky rumors I had heard about the nightlife here were all that exaggerated.

  I stared at her for a good few minutes before I heard footsteps, and then a disheveled, shirtless Jax came stumbling up the stairs. I had a few nice seconds to admire the beautifully carved and tanned abs on his body and the abstract swirls of ink covering him before he face-planted on the floor. It was a shame, since he was only one step from the top.

  He looked up, saw me and saw the girl, and smiled. “There ya are!” His accent was no longer hidden, but as clear as a bell. He picked himself up and moved over to lift the limp girl from the floor before throwing her over his shoulder. He nearly stumbled, and I almost had a heart attack as he moved closer to the stairs. Then he found his balance, and I got a nice view of the girl’s ass and the pretty red marks. I guessed I knew whose room she had come from.

  Jax caught me looking and, for good measure, smacked the girl’s ass. She let out a loud groan.

  “Dirty bastard.” I chuckled.

  Jax winked then staggered down the hallway and around the corner to where I assumed his room was. I wondered if it looked anything like the one from the Fifty Shades of Grey movie adaption. I admitted to being curious.

  I went to the edge of the stairs and peeked around the corner enough to see where the bar started.

  Girls. Girls were everywhere. All in some state of undress as if it was a condition to get through the doors. A few of them were dancing on the bar, fully naked. Some men were even putting money between their butt cheeks. I wasn’t judging them, though it was one hell of a way to make a living.

  I was about to look away when I saw Anna climb up onto the bar and move over to one of the girls. This one had a bra pushing up her cleavage to cup a small shot glass, with a lime in her mouth.

  My mouth dropped open as Anna crouched down to the girl’s waist and began to lick her way up to her breasts, where she pressed her face between them, took the tequila shot between her teeth, and threw back her head to down it. To top it off, she took the lime out of the girl’s mouth and kissed her hot and dirty.

  Holy shit, I knew the girl was wild, but …

  As Anna pulled back, she looked over the crowd and crooked an eyebrow at the huge grey-haired man leaning back in one of the seats, a girl between his legs. That girl was sucking for her life, but the president’s eyes didn’t stray from the blonde for a second.

  Anna moved her gaze away and, as I thought she was about to climb down, her gaze found mine. She wore a look of surprise before her expression turned devilish. Then she smiled and winked.

  If I ever slept with a girl …

  It looked like Wolf had noticed what Anna was looking at, and before I knew it, he had signaled something, and then Hunter was rushing through the crowd.

  I squeaked at the frown on his face and tried oh so hard to make it back to the room before he caught me. I was an unlucky person by nature.

  “I thought I explicitly told you to stay up in the room.”

  “I swear you said recommend.”

  “Why do you never listen to me?” Hunter groaned, dropping his head until his forehead rested against mine. I realized he did that a lot, and not just with me, but Adair as well. I had no idea what meaning it held for him, but it seemed affectionate, and that was okay by me.

  “I was curious. Besides, there was a naked girl lying on the hallway floor. I had to check if she was okay.”

  “And …?” Hunter arched his brows.

  “And what?”

  “And where’s the naked girl you so considerately disobeyed me to come check on?”

  “Oh, about that, Jax whisked her away to his kinky sex lair.”

  Hunter choked on a laugh, his shoulders shaking silently as he shook his head. “Jesus, woman, the mouth on you.” Then he looked at me with a simple smile, his beautiful, green eyes shining back at me. The expression said he was content with saying nothing more.

  When the silence continued, my mouth fought to rectify that problem.

  “You smell like tequila,” I blurted.

  Hunter smirked. “Probably because I was drinking it.”

  “From one of the girls?”

  Hunter’s eyebrows rose, the smile thinning into a flat line, and I realized what had come out. I hadn’t considered him out there with all the girls throwing themselves at him and drinking, and then one thing leading to another, and …

  Okay, I had been thinking about it for a little while after he had gone downstairs to drink with his brothers and I had gone to bed like a good little housewife, but that wasn’t the reason I was upset.

  “You asking me if I’ve been cheating?”

  “No, I just …”

  “Just what?” I could see Hunter getting annoyed, and I didn’t like it. �
��You don’t trust me?”

  “It’s not that,” I snapped.

  “Then what is it, Mallory?” Hunter snapped back. “Because I sure as hell don’t like you accusing me of shit like that. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t want a relationship.”

  “Look, I trust you, Hunter. I don’t know why I said it like that. I guess I don’t like the idea of a girl with her hands all over my man. And—Why are you smiling?”

  “Your man?”

  Oh, shit, that’s right. It wasn’t like we were official or anything yet. Shit, he was pissed because I was acting like a jealous girlfriend when we weren’t even like that.

  My thoughts ended as Hunter pressed his mouth to mine, the bitter taste of tequila mixing on our tongues. It was hot and delicious, and I was panting by the time he pulled back.

  “Don’t think that,” he growled, pulling my body flush against his. “All that time down there, all those girls, and this”—he took my hand and pressed it against the rock-hard bulge in his jeans—“didn’t even twitch. But one kiss from you, Mallory, is all I need to be as hard as steel.”

  “Ah …” I whispered, still holding his jeans even after he had long since let go of my hand.

  “Mallory,” Hunter growled, his voice low and guttural. “You better let go of me now.”

  I palmed the denim. “What if I don’t want to?”

  “Mallory.” This time it was a warning.

  I didn’t want to listen. Instead, I moved my hands up to his waistband, ready to flick the button undone on his jeans.

  Two hands came around my wrists and stopped them.

  “No,” Hunter said.

  “Oh, gosh …” I took a step back, ready to pull my hands out. The rejection was like a slap to the face. I felt like such an idio—

  “Wait, stop! Stop thinking.” Hunter quickly stepped forward, tightening his hold on my hands and pulling me toward him, despite how much I struggled. “It’s not like that.”