by E. C. Land
How does he know my name?
“Um, I . . .” I take my gaze from Mr. Hottie’s to look at my neighbor and nod. “Yeah, I’m okay,” I murmur, feeling more than slightly embarrassed by the fact I’m on the floor still. Doing my best without making more of a fool of myself, I clamor to my feet. “I . . . uh . . . I’m sorry about that. I mean crashing into you.” Great, can I sound more like a dork?
Mr. Hottie grunts then storms off out of my coffee shop without so much as a word.
“Don’t take it to heart, Avery, he’s in a foul mood,” my neighbor says, coming to stand in front of me with a scornful look on his face. Meeting his gaze, I nod, unsure of what else I should say. “You sure you’re okay?”
Again, I nod and glance down and find the name of his club says Devil’s Riot, and that it’s got the words Enforcer under what I’m assuming is his name, Gunner. I’d seen the Devil’s Riot emblem on the back of their vest whenever they’ve been in here and know he’s a part of a motorcycle club or gang, whatever they’re called.
“Listen, been meaning to say something to you. If you need your car fixed, bring it by the shop, we’ll take a look at it,” Gunner states. His words whip around in my head, and my gaze snaps right back up and focuses on him.
“Um, I’m good. My car’s fine,” I stammer.
“Didn’t sound that way this morning when the engine took a minute to crank,” he grumbles and crosses his arms over his chest as he stares at me.
Wait, he saw me?
No way. There wasn’t anyone up at that time of the morning. At least I don’t remember seeing anyone that early when it’s still pitch dark out.
“My car’s fine; I’ll get it to a shop when I have time,” I mutter defensively.
“Sure you will.” Gunner grins, mesmerizing me with the curl of his lip. “Look, we’re having a party at my house tomorrow night. You should come by.”
Holy smokes.
What do I say to that? I don’t have time for parties. Tomorrow being Saturday, I still have to be in here Sunday, even if it’s half a day. Plus, I also still have laundry to do and a house to clean.
“Thanks, um, Gunner, but I’ll have to decline,” I mumble and start to turn away.
“That’s alright, just do me a favor then and get some motion lights for your house, so you’re not walking in the dark,” he says out of the blue.
I don’t bother asking him why or anything else. Instead, I head back behind the counter and toward the back of the shop. Thankfully, Willow had come in, so I’m able to go into my office and get some work done for a bit back there.
In my office, I close the door and lean against it. My mind not thinking of Gunner’s words but of the man who I’d bumped into.
He’s a beautiful man but also a dangerous one. It’s written all over him. I definitely need to stay off his radar for sure. Even if he fascinates me.
Shaking my head, I tell myself to get back on task. I have too much to do and not enough time to do it. If I did have the time, I’d use it wisely by catching up on sleep that I’ve seriously been lacking. This must be said, considering the way my body reacted to Gunner’s friend.
Pulling into my driveway, I bite my lip as I look out the rear-view mirror to the group of men standing outside Gunner’s house. With it being dark, I can’t make out who the men are or if I’d seen any of them around. What am I thinking? I don’t need to be wondering if I’d seen any of them before. I humiliated myself enough as it is. After everything that happened yesterday at the coffee shop, I stayed busier than normal, not wanting to think of any of them, least of all Gunner’s friend. The man I crashed into.
I’m just thankful none of them came in today. Though with the crowd we had today, I feel even more exhausted than ever. This probably has to do with the fact I slept like crap the night before due to the dreams of a certain man haunting them with his chiseled jaw and dark eyes.
How can a man I’ve never seen before yesterday consume my thoughts? Let alone my dreams.
Sighing, I turn the car off and open my door without giving the guys across the street so much as a glance; I rush into my house more than ready to fall on my bed. Inside my house, I sigh in relief, but that relief is short-lived when I notice the state of my living room.
Someone’s been in here and ransacked the entire place. I don’t have to go further into the house to see that. From where I’m standing, you can see the destruction that goes through my little house.
Fear courses through my veins, and I have to swallow past the lump forming in my throat.
What if they’re still here?
Grasping the doorknob, I twist and throw the door open and back out as quickly as I can. Turning on my heel, I run out of the house, straight to my car, climb in, and lock the door behind me. My heart racing in my chest, I can feel the blood pulsing in my veins at the horrifying sight of my house being destroyed.
A knock on my window causes me to jump and let out a small scream of terror.
With wide eyes, I stare at the man who’d consumed my dreams from the night before. The one who looks like a Viking and is now glowering at me through the window separating the two of us.
Chapter Four
Hammer
Anger courses through my veins as I sit on the porch of Gunner’s house. Out of all of us, he’s the only one who’d had a house big enough for all of us to fit in. Normally this shit wouldn’t leave church, but with not knowing who the rat is at the clubhouse, we came here.
I’d just finished up our meeting where I brought my brothers up to date on what Gunner and Cy informed me of yesterday. We need to find out who this person is and what their agenda is. Our charter hasn’t had any major drama that didn’t include us carrying our asses to another charter to help out in a while. This doesn’t sit well with me, and I don’t like the unknown. I’m a ruthless asshole, and this shit happening in my own fuckin’ club is pissing me the fuck off.
I want to know who the hell this gang is that’s trying to pull shit in our territory. When I find out, I’ll be sure to fuckin’ make them feel the error of their ways.
Holding the beer in my hand, my gaze is drawn by the headlights coming down the road. I follow the lights until they turn into the driveway across the street from Gunner’s. I’d forgotten he’d gotten a new neighbor a while back.
“That’s Avery’s house,” Gunner grunts drawing my attention back to the conversation. They’d been discussing something about Simone and how she’s been at the clubhouse coping with her new surroundings. Other than a prospect, she’s the only person at the clubhouse. Axe left her there under the watchful eye of Knuckles. He’d been with our club the longest, and after a talk with him, I figured Knuckles could be trusted for what we needed him to do and babysit a distraught woman.
The past two nights, the damn woman has screamed in her sleep, keeping all of us awake, which irritates the fuck out of me. A man needs his sleep, and then to top it off, the woman who crashed into me keeps popping into my head for some goddamn reason.
Tilting my head in Gunner’s direction, I raise a brow in question, wondering if my brother has got a thing for his neighbor. Yeah, he knows who lives around him, but that’s because he’s not stupid to think you can trust everyone.
“She owns the coffee shop we met at,” Cy states, his gaze focused across the street.
“Told her ass she needed motion lights and to bring her car to the garage,” Gunner grumbles with a shake of his head.
“I still don’t see why the fuck you’d tell her that shit,” Malice grunts. I’d stormed out of there after hearing Avery’s voice. The lightness in her tone went straight to my cock, and that’s something that never fuckin’ happens. I’d gone to the clubhouse, got Cheeks and Bunny, and took them to my room, had them go at it with each other. Took a minute for my cock to get with the program, but it did, and when I’d been about to come into the condom, Avery’s face staring up at me popped into my head.
This pissed me off even mo
re.
“I told her to get some lights because the woman leaves her house when it’s pitch dark out and doesn’t come home until this time of night. And as for her car, I’m tired of hearing that shit trying to crank when she needs to just junk it and get a damn new one,” Gunner says, and I wonder if he’s got a thing for his neighbor.
“So fuck it, she’s not one of ours. No reason to worry about a bitch who wants to work her life away,” Malice sneers.
“VP, no disrespect, brother, but that woman, if you knew, you’d change your tone. She works her ass off, makes damn fuckin’ good coffee, and lives for her shop because she’s hiding,” Cy rasps.
“What do you mean she’s hiding?” I demand. My attention is now caught.
“Don’t know all the information, but from what I’ve found along with Gunner when he searched her place after she moved in, she’s a hermit keeping low to the ground, so she’s not found. The woman’s a runner and doesn’t want her family to find her,” Cy mutters, clearing his throat.
As he gets ready to say something else, movement across the street catches my eye, and all of us stare as Avery rushes from her porch and back to her car.
What the fuck?
Without realizing it, I storm off the porch and jog across the street. My brothers’ feet hitting the pavement let me know they’re right behind me.
In her driveway, I slow down and edge up next to her car door. I might not want a bitch of my own or want to deal with drama, but I also do not like seeing one rush out of her house like the devil’s on her heels.
At the driver’s window, I knock on the glass as I take in how her chest is rising rapidly. Almost as if she was having a panic attack.
She screams and jumps, her head jerking to the side. Avery’s gaze meets mine, and I take note of the fear in her gaze along with the tears.
“Open the door, Avery,” I command, something in my gut twists inside me. I don’t know what the fuck it is, but I don’t like seeing her this way. Didn’t like it at the coffee shop when she’d stared up at me in fear, and I don’t like it now.
Avery shakes her head while closing her eyes.
“You don’t open it. I’ll open it for you, and you won’t like how I do it,” I warn her.
She continues to shake her head in denial.
Fuck.
Women just can’t seem to listen and do as they’re fuckin’ told.
“Prez,” Axe says with caution.
“I got this. Y’all go see what the fuck had her run out of her house,” I order. I pull my bandanna out of my back pocket and wrap it around my fist. I look into the driver’s side window to take note of Avery still sitting there in the midst of a panic attack.
Pulling my fist back, I slam through the glass in the back driver’s side window. I carefully reach through and unlock her door. Once I pull the little lever piece up, I wrench the door open and grab hold of Avery’s arm. I drag the woman out of the car and hold her to me. Ignoring the feeling of how good she feels in my arms, I hold her tight to keep her from escaping my grip when she starts to fight.
“Enough,” I bark at her to stop thrashing around in my arms.
“Let me go,” she cries. “Please let me go.” Tears well down her cheeks, and I can’t help myself. I slide one of my hands up to cup the back of her head and pull her into my chest.
“Calm down, baby, you’re okay,” I murmur soothingly.
Shit, I don’t know what is up with me being gentle with this woman when I’ve never done it with anyone else besides my brother’s wife and my niece. One of those is dead, and the other she’ll always receive tenderness from me because she’s my blood and has been through hell for the majority of her life.
“You have to let me go. I need to go. I need . . . I . . . please just let go so I can leave,” she prattles, her tears soaking into my chest.
“Not happenin’, Sunshine,” I mutter, taking in just how small she is compared to me. Avery’s dainty and barely comes up to my chest. And my cock likes it. “You’re staying right here with me until we know what the hell is going on with you.
“Yo, Prez, you gotta see this shit,” Malice snarls from the front porch, getting my attention.
Nodding, I keep Avery pressed close to me while I escort her up to the porch.
“I’ll keep her out here, Prez,” Malice says through clenched teeth.
Fuck, it must be bad if he’s saying he’ll watch over Avery. Neither of us wants anything to do with women, and for him to offer this, it’s not something she should see. Or at least not see again.
Slowly, I release her into his hold, he cradles her to him the way I’d held her, and something about it pisses me off. I meet Malice’s gaze and find them filled with a fiery rage. One that tells me he’s ready for blood.
Fuck.
Turning away, I step into the house. Soon as I close the door behind me, I’m met with the debris.
“Motherfucker,” I growl.
“Prez, back here,” Gunner yells out from the back of the house, the tone in his voice harsh.
Stepping over broken glass and destroyed furniture, I make my way toward my brothers and find them all standing in what I’m assuming is Avery’s bedroom. Scanning the room, fury grows inside me for this woman I don’t even know. Clothes ripped out of the drawers. Some even torn apart. The mattress is flipped on its side, completely slashed up with the inside material hanging out of it. The mirror on her dresser is shattered, and on the wall are the words ‘filthy whore’ written in what looks to be blood. This is confirmed when I get around my brothers and find a mutilated animal lying on the floor of her room.
Fuck me. What else is going to happen that we’ll have to handle? Because I know in my gut, I’m not about to leave this woman hangin’. Someone is after her, and until I know what this is that I’m feeling for her, she’s mine, and no one fucks with what’s mine.
Clenching my fists at my sides, I turn and head back to Malice to claim what I’m taking for myself. Avery’s mine, and until I know what’s happenin’, that’s how it’s gonna stay.
Chapter Five
Avery
I didn’t mean to; I really didn’t. I thought I’d embarrassed myself enough the other day in front of this man and to break down and cry in his arms is definitely the icing on the cake.
Why would someone come in and trash my house?
I know it has to be bad because as soon as all the men came out of my house, they all had grim looks on their faces. The one who I’ve thought to look like a Viking is actually the President of whatever they are. I’m so confused by it all. Doesn’t help that I’m running on barely any sleep and need to find a way to catch up as well as also get work done that I need to do.
My Viking man, as I’m claiming him to be, comes straight to me and pulls me out of the other man’s grasp. He pulls me with enough strength that I literally fall into him due to the bit of distance between the two men.
“Shit. Sorry, Sunshine,” he mutters. Pulling back, I look up at his dark gaze and then trail my eyes down and finally catch sight of his vest thingy. I don’t know what you’d call it. On the one side where it says President, it also has the name, Hammer. I’m guessing that’s his name.
“Hammer?” I utter in question wanting to confirm.
“Yeah, baby, that’s who I am,” Hammer says, confirming this for me.
I nod and lean back into him, soaking up his warmth, and he allows me to do so.
“Prez, what do you wanna do?” Gunner asks. I remember his voice from the other day at the coffee shop.
“We’re gonna go to the clubhouse,” he declares firmly.
“You sure that’s a good idea?” another man asks.
“Yeah, I’m sure. She can’t stay here,” Hammer announces.
I had no intention of staying here. My plan is to get in my little car, go to my coffee shop, and sleep in my office until I know what to do next. Lifting my head off Hammer’s chest, I tilt my chin up so that I’m able to meet his g
aze and inform him of just that. In return, he glowers at me and shakes his head.
“Not happenin’, Sunshine, you’re goin’ to the clubhouse. I’m guessing you didn’t make it further than your living room, so you do get this, but until we know what the hell’s going on, your ass is on lockdown,” he declares.
I stiffen at this announcement, and I’m more than irritated by it all. He can’t be serious. “You can’t put me on lockdown. I don’t even know you, big brute. Let me go, and I’ll go stay at a motel or hotel or something. I’m not going to the clubhouse with you or anywhere else,” I snap. I don’t like decisions to be made for me. I prefer to be in on them, considering it involves me.
Otherwise, it makes me feel like I was at home where my brothers and sisters made the decisions and left me out, only using me for what they needed. Or for gaining what they wanted like . . . I don’t even want to think about it. How they could do something so vile is horrible, and it makes me wish I weren’t born into the family I’d been born into. Granted, I feel that way a lot of times due to them.
Hammer’s gaze narrows to little slits, and his jaw tightens as he stares down at me. He releases his grasp on my arm, steps back, and reaches down to take hold of my wrist. I nearly trip over my feet as he drags me into my house, through the disaster of my living room, down the hall, and straight to my bedroom. Releasing me once again, he points at the room. My eyes widen. I stare in horror at the damage done until my gaze lands on the words written on my wall. Bile rises in my throat, and I have to swallow it back down.
“Is—that blood?” I utter inaudibly.
“Yeah, Sunshine, so now are you gonna bitch to me about coming to the clubhouse, or do you know who would do this shit?” Hammer snarls.
My first thought is to think of my siblings, but one they don’t know where I am, I haven’t spoken to them in over a year. The second, even if they hated me so much, they wouldn’t be this cruel. Right?