Marked Skulls MC Series: Books 1-5

by Rylan, Savannah

  “I don’t think any man can tie down that woman to one place. No, we’re not a thing, we’re just…” I said and Oz looked away from me, embarrassed.

  “Yeah, cool, you don’t have to explain it to me,” he said and I laughed at his embarrassment.

  “Honestly man, I don’t know what to do about her. I want this job, I want to be a part of the MC, this is the life I want to lead…but my sister, Alexis, she’s just making everything difficult for me. I don’t want to sound like a pussy right now, not right after you’ve offered me a job, but I don’t want to upset her. I don’t want her to worry about me constantly,” Oz continued.

  I watched him as he spoke about Alexis, and I knew exactly what he was talking about. I didn’t even know her, and already, I felt like it would kill me to see her disappointed in me. It didn’t matter that I was stronger than her, or more powerful. What mattered was the effect she had on me when we were alone together.

  I grabbed the back of Oz’ neck and squeezed.

  “I hear you, and let me see what I can do about it. I’m going to try and make her come around,” I said and he nodded his head.

  “Cool, okay, best of luck,” he said with a laugh and I smiled at him too.

  Then we shook hands, we exchanged phone numbers and I walked in the direction of where I’d parked my bike.

  I was riding back to T-Bone, and thinking about Alexis and how mind-blowing it was to have sex with her. No woman, not Vanity or any of the other sizzling hot women I was used to fucking; had felt as good as Alexis had. It wasn’t even like she was the hottest or the prettiest girl I’d set my eyes on, there was just something else about her—like she lit up a spark in me. I’d felt that from the moment I’d walked into the storeroom at the supermarket.

  I knew immediately that she was someone who was going to leave her mark on me. And now, I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I felt like I was getting obsessed with her and that was bad, that was very bad.

  I didn’t know what a relationship looked like, what sharing a meal with a woman alone felt like, what it meant to talk about the future with someone…I wasn’t experienced in any of those things and I was comfortable. Vanity was comfortable, all the other casual sexual relationships I had with women were comfortable, and now Alexis was making me think about if I wanted something more.

  I cursed under my breath as I rode the bike to the bar. I needed a drink. I needed to get my mind off all these crazy thoughts. What was happening to me? It was like Alexis had left a grenade inside me which was blowing up and shattering me into pieces.

  12

  Abe

  It was midnight the next night, when Rodeo and Girth followed me on their bikes to the old abandoned warehouse. Lewis had given us the nod to get back in touch with the Garcias and they in turn had set up this meeting with one of their men.

  We parked our bikes at the rusty shutters of the warehouse and got off. Girth passed around the cigarettes and we each took one, to help us with the wait. We wanted to get here early so that we weren’t unprepared for any surprises.

  “This still feels like a bloody bad idea to me,” Rodeo said, when he took his first drag. Girth was characteristically quiet as he smoked his cigarette and I stood in the middle of them, watching at the distant dark space beyond for any sound or movement.

  “This feels like a new beginning to me,” I replied, just when we heard the sound of a beaten up truck approaching, rattling along the way. I heard Rodeo and Girth both cock their guns.

  “It’s the kid,” I said, raising a hand to stop them.

  Oz’ car rattled along the dusty path towards us, with one headlight beaming weakly at us.

  “For starters, we need to do something about his mode of transportation,” Rodeo said and I heard Girth chuckle.

  Oz stopped the truck and jumped out.

  “Am I late?” he asked, rushing towards us, his face was lit up and excited.

  “Yeah,” Rodeo said to him and Oz looked apologetic.

  “It’s cool, this is Rodeo and Girth,” I made the introductions and Oz shook their hands respectfully. He looked like a kid in candy-land. Like someone who was meeting legends.

  “What are we doing here?” he asked.

  “We’re meeting some people. Rodeo and I will be doing the talking, and you need to stick with Girth, keep a lookout,” I told him and Oz nodded his head.

  “Are there any rules I should know about? Any signals?” he asked and I looked at Rodeo who smiled at me.

  “Just follow what Girth is doing,” I said and Oz’ gaze travelled to the gun in Girth’s hand, which he hadn’t stuffed into his belt yet.

  “Okay, but I’m not exactly armed. I have a knife, but that’s about it,” he said, building up his excitement again.

  “Take it easy, kid, you don’t need a gun just yet,” Girth said and Oz nodded his head vigorously. I thought his head was going to fall off.

  We heard the sound of another engine down the road, and the four of us spread out in a semi-circle.

  “Who are these people?” Oz whispered in the dark, as we saw the silver limousine approaching us, flanked by two bikes on either side.

  “This boy asks too many questions,” Rodeo snarled beside me.

  The car came to a stop in front of us, along with the bikes, throwing up a cloud of dust in our faces.

  I could sense Rodeo and Girth being as alert as I was, and Oz seemed jumpy. He was ready for some action. I just hoped that it wasn’t a mistake to invite him here.

  A man stepped out of the car. Brown skin, thick mustache, dark slicked back hair and in a smart gray suit. There were four men with him, two of whom had ridden on their bikes.

  “What a strange place to call a meeting,” the man said, walking straight towards us. His bodyguards were fast on his heels and they looked like professionals.

  “We needed it to be neutral ground,” I said, keeping my hands tucked deep in the pockets of my jacket. My gun was in my right hand already, of course.

  “Why are you suspicious of us? When we are the ones who want to do business with you, Mister…” the man said.

  “Abe,” I told him and he nodded his head.

  “Mister Abe,” he finished the sentence.

  “Because we don’t have a deal yet, and we can’t rule out the possibility that you’re working with some other MC who’ve laid out a trap for us,” I replied and the man looked over at one of his bodyguards and smiled.

  “Thinking of everything, I like that. Exactly the kind of attention to detail we need for this contract,” he said and took a step forward, stretching his hand out to me.

  “I’m Paz Garcia,” he said and I shook his hand, before he offered it to Rodeo next.

  “Good to meet you Mr. Garcia,” Rodeo said and he extended his hand to Girth, who stared at him, like he’d been offered poison.

  “He doesn’t shake hands,” Rodeo said with a smirk and Mr. Garcia cleared his throat and stepped back.

  Oz had remained in place beside Girth, kept his mouth shut…so far, he was doing well.

  “Can we get straight to the point here, Mr. Garcia? We are curious about the message our contact gave us about doing business with you,” I said and Paz nodded his head.

  “Yes, sure, let’s just get down to business then. My brothers and I have been looking for men here, who we could make responsible for receiving shipments of certain items and their distribution,” he began.

  “By items you mean weapons?” I asked and Paz laughed menacingly before he clamped his mouth shut again.

  “Your words, not mine,” he said and I watched him closely. I needed to figure out just the kind of men we were going to do business with, before I signed off on something this big for the MC. Ultimately, this was my idea. I was the one responsible for the consequences.

  “Anyway, the question here, Mister Abe, is if you boys are up to the task,” he continued and I heard Rodeo chuckle. He didn’t like his capabilities being questioned.

  “May
be we are,” I said and Paz smiled widely, his mustache stretched tightly over his lips.

  “How do I know you are? By the looks of it, you are a group of four biker boys with ambition,” Paz said and I could sense Rodeo itching to strike his face with the barrel of his gun. I cleared my throat, hoping Rodeo would get the hint to stand down. Shit talking each other was a part of this game, and he would just have to get used to it.

  * * *

  “We are a part of a team,” I told the man and he nodded his head.

  “Yes, I’ve heard about the Marked Skulls. We were impressed with how you handled the kidnapping of the girl and the revenge for the death of one of your comrades,” Paz said and the atmosphere seemed to relax a little.

  “Why have you picked us to make contact with? When there are bigger and stronger MCs you can do business with here,” Rodeo asked and Paz looked at him and smiled.

  “Because we know how greedy and corrupt those motherfuckers are. We need a team we can rely on, who won’t skim from the top. You will be heavily compensated of course,” Paz replied and I looked at Rodeo who gulped.

  “We’re interested in taking this on,” I said, before Rodeo could say anything else and he snapped his head around to look at me.

  Paz grinned and nodded his head.

  “Of course you are, but we need a trial run first before we can make a deal,” he said.

  “Fine. Tell us when you’re planning your first shipment,” I countered and Paz looked at his men and indicated to talk privately. Two of them stepped up to him and they started talking in Spanish and in whispers to each other.

  “What the fuck are you doing man?” Rodeo hissed at me.

  “Trying to make a deal,” I said.

  “We don’t even know the scale of this thing. How are we going to handle it with the handful of MC members we have right now?” he asked, glaring at me with widened eyes.

  “We have one extra prospect now, at least a test prospect to help with the trial run,” I said and tipped my head back towards Oz. Rodeo looked over my shoulder at the kid and grunted.

  “We have no idea if he is good enough. All he’s done here tonight is stand around with Girth and watch the show. We don’t even know if he can be trusted,” Rodeo hissed.

  “He can be trusted,” I said.

  “Based on what?”

  “Just trust me!” I growled and Rodeo shook his head.

  “We need to talk to Lewis about this. You’re getting mad fucking ideas, and I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with this kid,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “One week. We’ll schedule the trial run for one week from now,” Paz turned to us after he’d consulted with his men.

  “Fine, we’ll be ready,” I replied and he looked over at Girth and Oz and grinned again.

  “I can assure you that you will need more men than this,” he said.

  “We’re working on it,” I told him and he nodded.

  “If things go smoothly…the storage of the shipment and the distribution; you boys have got yourselves a deal. Fifteen percent of the sales is yours,” he said and stepped forward to shake my hand again.

  Fifteen percent of the sales, on the scale of weapons that the Garcia brothers wanted to distribute meant a serious amount of money. Enough to make us all richer than we had ever been before.

  We shook hands, and then he shook hands with Rodeo too before he snapped his fingers at his men and they escorted him back to his car.

  We watched them leave, before the others drifted towards me.

  “Fuck. We’re going to be screwed. The other MCs are going to pounce on us!” Rodeo kept cursing and mumbling to himself.

  Girth thumped my back and he had a pleased look on his face.

  “Now we’re talking,” he said and we smiled at each other.

  Oz looked excited too. It was clearly his first meeting of this kind and he was pumped up on adrenaline.

  “Whoa! I was so prepared man. I was so prepared to jump on one of those guys in the suits,” he kept saying and ramming his fist into his open palm repeatedly.

  “Just calm down, Oz, you did good tonight. No surprises, you kept your cool,” I said to him and he nodded his head, happy with the praise he was receiving.

  “Now what?” he asked, as we started walking towards our bikes.

  “Now we go and celebrate!” I said, as I swung my legs over the bike.

  “Can I go with you?” he asked.

  “No, you can’t. You’re not a part of our MC yet!” Rodeo snapped at him and Oz’ face grew pinched. I glared at Rodeo who was avoiding my eyes.

  “We need to talk about a plan before we can start officially including you in serious stuff. It means you can’t hang out with us yet, because we discuss business when we’re drinking. I’ll keep in touch,” I told Oz and he nodded his head.

  “Okay, yeah, I understand. It’s just that if I got a chance, if anything went wrong back there; you would have seen me in action. I’m good with my fists,” he continued passionately and I smiled.

  “Yeah, I know,” I said and Girth thumped his back too before he hesitantly walked back to his beat up truck.

  We waited for him to leave before we revved up our bikes.

  “The two of you are going to cause a lot of trouble for our MC,” Rodeo muttered, shaking his head at Girth and me.

  “We need to move up, if we don’t grow we’re just sitting ducks for the other MCs to take shots at us whenever they want. Like they did with Fred. They thought they could get away with it,” I said and Rodeo rode away first.

  I looked at Girth and he nodded his head at me.

  “I’m with you on this, brother,” he said.

  13

  Alexis

  Oz and I hadn’t talked much since he came home the previous morning to find me and Abe together. It was obvious that he wasn’t mad at Abe anymore, but still had a beef with me. I was still feeling guilty about sleeping with Abe, about Oz knowing that I was attracted to the very man I wanted him to stay away from.

  After I had been waiting past midnight for him to return, waiting to talk to him so that we could clear the air; I started getting worried. I had a feeling that he was with Abe.

  I decided to go look for my brother, I was panicking that he had already gotten himself involved in some shit with the Marked Skulls. But where was I supposed to even begin looking? I could have gone back to that bar where Abe’s MC hung out but I was too embarrassed to go back there. The last time I was there, I had made a scene and Abe had lifted me up, kicking and screaming and locked himself with me in the storeroom.

  As I drove around the neighborhood slowly, hoping that I might catch sight of Oz or Abe somewhere, I remembered that stripper who was sitting on Abe’s lap. Maybe he was at the strip club? Maybe he’d taken Oz there with him?

  Fuming and panicking at the same time, I parked my car in the parking lot of the strip club and immediately saw a few bikes there. I knew he or at least some of his friends were in there.

  I marched in, feeling instantly out of place. I had never actually been inside a strip club before and the first thing I saw were boobs. I gasped lightly as I stood stationary at the doors after the bouncer let me in. What else was I expecting from a strip club? I wasn’t prepared.

  There were boobs everywhere. Nearly naked beautiful girls were carrying trays of drinks, just walking around, giving men lap dances and some were up on the stage, gyrating against the poles. I couldn’t look away from their beautiful perfect bodies. I couldn’t help wondering why Abe had even bothered to sleep with me, when he had undoubtedly slept with a lot of these super hot women.

  I tried to control the wave of jealousy and feeling of self consciousness that washed over me. I looked around, just hoping that Oz was here somewhere so that I could drag him out and get out of this place.

  Instead, my gaze landed on Abe. He was sitting at a booth, close to one of the mini-stages, surrounded by a group of other men who looked familiar. They were all
laughing and talking loudly, while there were girls on their laps, rolling their hips and twining their arms around the mens’ necks.

  Abe had the same girl, Vanity, on his lap. She had stripped already and her big perfect breasts jiggled as she rubbed her back against him, her beautiful golden hair was spread out over his chest. Abe was deep in conversation with the man beside him and I stared. I couldn’t tear my gaze away from him. I was angry and jealous and I couldn’t remember what I was doing here.

  He looked over at me abruptly and I started backing away to the door again. I watched as he pushed the girl off his lap and jumped up from his seat. I turned around and ran. I didn’t want to look at him, I didn’t want him to see how jealous I was.

  I burst out into the night air again, fumbling in the pocket of my jeans for my car keys as I rushed towards the parking lot. I heard the sound of the doors bursting open behind me again.

  “Alexis!” I heard him shout but I ran towards my car.

  “What are you doing?” he growled, flinging himself at me so I thudded against the car door. He’d pressed his body to me, I could feel his hot breath in my hair. They keys were in my hand but they fell to the ground now.

  “Where are you going?” he asked, and his hands were on my waist. He flipped me around to look at him, staring deep into my eyes, searching my face.

  “I…I came looking for Oz…he’s not home yet…I got worried for him,” I was fumbling with my words while he looked at me with his narrowed blue eyes. His strong rough hands were on my hips, holding me in place and making sure that I didn’t make a run for it again.

  “Why did you come here? I’ve never seen Oz in this place before,” he said, bringing his face close enough to me so that I could smell the whisky and cigarettes on his breath.

  I couldn’t move, I didn’t want to move. I felt frozen in his grip.

  “You came looking for me didn’t you?” he asked and I shook my head.