Rumblin' Knights Boxed Set

by Bella Jewel

  “You do? Not a male, is it? I’ll have to come over more often if it is.”

  I laugh. “No, not a male. A lady, her name is Suzie. She’s nice, full on, but nice. It’s nice to have new friends.”

  “That’s good,” he murmurs, turning his face into my hair.

  “How’s work?” I ask him. “And Tommy?”

  “Work’s good, busy, and Tommy is Tommy. Love that kid no matter what he does.”

  I smile. “I can’t wait to spend more time with him.”

  “Speaking of” —Nicolai rolls toward me, face close to mine— “I’m going to talk to Shania about bringing you in slowly. I want him to know you as being with me, not just as his aunty. It might not go down well, but I’ll at least give her the respect of asking her first.”

  My chest swells with excited anticipation. I can’t wait to be involved with Tommy, but I also don’t want to step on Shania’s toes, and this may very well raise problems again. I mean, if Nicolai and I stayed together, I’d be seen as somewhat of a step-mother as well as an aunty, and would that make Shania feel uncomfortable? What if she doesn’t like how I help raise him?

  God.

  Okay.

  Maybe this is going to be more complicated than I first realized.

  “You’re frowning. What’s wrong?” Nicolai asks.

  “It’s just, well, you know if you and I stay together, I’ll become more of a step-mother to Tommy. What if that bothers her? She may not like the idea of me being that kind of role when she’s missed out for so long.”

  “But would it honestly matter who it was? I could be with any woman, and that same thing could happen. It’ll never matter who the person I’m with is, Shania may or may not have a problem with that person being a step parent to Tommy, but she also has to understand, that’s what Lincoln will become and I don’t get a say in that.”

  I exhale. “I know what you’re saying, I really do, but I feel like because she’s my sister, it’ll be different, like it’ll bother her more because it’s me, and it’s closer.”

  Nicolai nods. “I understand where you’re coming from, but I think with time, it’ll be okay. Let her be his mom, I think so long as you’re doing that, everything will be okay. As long as she feels like she’s first in place, it’ll work out how it’s supposed to.”

  I smile, reaching over and grabbing his face in my hands. “You’re always the voice of reason, aren’t you?”

  He grins. “I try to be.”

  I roll onto my back and stare up at the ceiling, wondering how Damon is doing. I haven’t spoken to him since I helped clean him up after he and Finn had a fight, and I’m worried about him. I know this is all bothering him and he’s feeling helpless. I wonder if I should call him, or maybe he just needs space?

  “What’s going through your mind?” Nicolai asks, propping up on his elbow and stroking his fingers across my bare stomach, trailing up and over my breasts occasionally before moving back down again.

  “Damon.”

  Nicolai’s fingers pause. “I’m not a jealous man, but I do notice you two are close. Is there something that happened before you and I got together?”

  I snort, so loudly it echoes through the room, then I break out into a fit of giggles. It takes me a few moments to compose myself. Nicolai waits patiently. I finally get it together and say, “You’re not the first person to ask that question, and I guess it’s understandable, considering he’s a male and I’m a female, but honestly, no, there is nothing there. Damon and I are really good friends. That’s it.”

  Nicolai nods. “I believe you,” he murmurs. “Why are you concerned for him?”

  I exhale and slowly tell him everything that’s going on with Damon, and Finn, and Brody with the death matches. He listens quietly, and when I’m done, he says in a husky tone, “Holy fuck, that’s some serious shit they’re dealing with.”

  I nod. “Yep, it is, and Damon is such a nice guy, he wants no part in it, but he loves Finn and so he’s torn, I suppose.”

  “If they’re smart, they’ll all stay away from it. I’ve seen that shit go horribly wrong and cause a lot of fuckin’ pain in families. You’re either the type of person for that world or you’re not. If Finn is just in it to help someone else, he’s putting himself at risk.”

  I purse my lips. “Sounds like you know.”

  He locks eyes with me, and my heart does that silly little flutter it likes to do when he’s around. “I’m not a stranger to that side of things. I’ve been down some pretty dark roads before to get things I want, and I’ll say it’s not the nicest path to go down. Death matches, though, that’s a whole other world. It’s a dangerous world, fuckin’ deadly, really.”

  “Yeah,” I agree. “You’re right. I wish Finn would step away. He doesn’t owe Brody anything, but he seems to be unable to pull himself away from him.”

  “Sounds to me like Brody is messed up, if he’s playing with that kind of thing.”

  “Really messed up,” I agree.

  “Feel sorry for the poor fuckers in his way, because they’ll get hurt, one way or another. Emotionally, mentally, physically, it will attack all areas.”

  I think about the girl they all talk about, the one who he apparently left to come on this mission. I wonder what she’s thinking right now? Is she over it? Has she moved on? Or is she utterly heartbroken, lying there, wondering where he’s gone and if he’s coming back? Does she even know why he left? Did he give her a reason? There are so many unanswered questions.

  “He has a lady, well, he had a lady he left behind,” I tell Nicolai.

  “Poor girl, can only imagine how life is going for her right about now.”

  Yeah.

  I don’t imagine it would be good.

  No, not at all.

  17

  NOW – NICOLAI

  “Don’t like that routine, Rain, do it differently. It’s getting old,” I mutter to the dancer standing in front of me, she just showed me her routine, and it’s the same old shit I see day in, day out. She’s not even fucking trying. She’s just working with what she’s got and not stretching the limits.

  I need limits stretched.

  To keep this club running, I need them fucking stretched.

  “I don’t know what you want me to do differently,” she pouts, crossing her arms over her sparkly fucking top that’s basically non-existent.

  “I want you to have passion, to have drive. Think outside the box. Watch stripping on the internet, try different things. Men, they’ll get bored with the same old shit. I need you to step away from the same old shit.”

  Exhaling, she mutters a “fine” and then walks out the door. Frustrated, I spin around in my chair and run my hands through my hair, thinking about the only thing that crosses my mind while I’m in here. Lucy. Fucking beautiful Lucy. The girl who has captured me in a way I’ve not felt before, not even with my wife. She has something about her, she brings to life things I thought had long died.

  She’s everything.

  She’s distracting.

  She’s perfect.

  “Boss.”

  I spin to my office door and see my second-in-charge Odin standing at the door, suit crisp, face blank. He’s good at this job, because he literally has no fucking emotion. He does his job, he does it efficiently, and he goes home. No shit. No drama. Just plain and simple. He keeps this club running on the nights I’m not here. I wouldn’t be here without him.

  “What’s up?” I ask him, pulling out a cigar and lighting it, puffing the smoke out in small rings, and relishing in the smell that fills my large office.

  “There’s a woman here to see you, says it’s important.”

  “Who?” I ask. “Lucy?”

  “No, we’re all familiar with Lucy. I haven’t seen her before. Says her name is Chastity.”

  For a minute, a cold hard minute, I don’t move.

  I heard that wrong, I had to have fucking heard that wrong. No way he just said Chastity. The woman I married. Th
e woman who ruined my fucking life. The woman who nearly took my sister’s life. The woman who I’ve changed my name and disappeared from, because she’s so fucking unstable.

  My eyes go to the picture of Tommy on my desk, and my blood runs cold.

  How the fuck did she find me?

  What the fuck does she want?

  I take a deep breath and stand, keeping it together.

  “Thank you,” I say, my voice gruff and low, and then I walk out of the office and down to the main club.

  The moment my eyes scan over the bar area, I see her, and I know it’s her. She looks exactly the same as she did when I left her. Back then, I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She was my wife and I loved her, but she quickly showed me that the ugliest things can be covered by beauty.

  Her eyes lock onto mine.

  I want to fucking claw them out.

  How the fuck did she find me? And what the fuck is she going to want?

  I walk toward her and watch as the smirk rises on her face, a victory smirk, a smirk that says she knows she’s thrown me off, and she’s loving every second of it. My mind goes over my tracks and how well I covered them. Unless she spent all this time looking for me, she couldn’t have found me. Did she spend all this time looking for me?

  If so, I’m fucked.

  She was crazy back then, I can only imagine her level of crazy now.

  “Well,” she purrs when I reach her, “Nicolai, is it? It suits you. You haven’t changed a bit.”

  I grab her by the arm and drag her out of the club and to the halls that lead through the back of it, where it’s quiet, where nobody can see her or hear what we’re saying.

  “How the hell did you find me?” I growl, fists clenched.

  “Now now, Pierre. I see your temper is no better.”

  “Do not fuckin’ call me that,” I hiss.

  “Why?” she asks innocently. “It’s your name.”

  “My name is Nicolai, I changed it to get away from fuckin’ scum like you. I’ll do it again, if I have to.”

  She laughs, shaking her head. I used to love the way she laughed and shook her head, now it makes me violent. I hate her with the kind of passion I reserve for no one. She gets it all and more. I despise the very ground she walks on.

  “You won’t go anywhere,” she tells me in a chipper sing-song voice, “Not with your son around.”

  My blood runs horribly fucking cold.

  She knows about Tommy.

  I step toward her, rage fueling my body. I want to grab her, shake her, fucking hurt her, do anything I can to keep her away from my son, my life, my boy.

  “Ah ah,” she says, stepping back, “if you hurt me, it’ll look really bad on your behalf when we go for this divorce. I’m at least giving you a chance here, you know, to maybe get something out of this.”

  “What do you want?” I growl. “Money? I’ll give you fuckin’ money. Just get out of my life.”

  She shakes her head, those eyes flashing cold. How did I need see the monster that lived in her? How did I not know she was capable of so much? She’s the coldest human being I’ve met, and that’s saying something. Does money truly rule her life so much? That she’s willing to go to extreme lengths to make sure she gets it?

  “I don’t want money, I want half of what’s mine. I’m your wife. I want half of this club.”

  Fucking no way. Over my dead body.

  “It’ll never happen.”

  “Oh, but it will. I’m entitled to it, and you know it or you wouldn’t have ran and covered your tracks so very well. You didn’t honestly think I would just let it go, did you, Pierre? That I’d just move on and never try to come after what I’m owed?”

  “Of course I didn’t, but I wasn’t going to make it easy. I won’t now. You won’t have my club, or anything of mine, for that matter.”

  She laughs again, shrugging her shoulders. “Oh, we’ll see about that, won’t we? I mean, after all, I have ways of getting what I want out of you.”

  I step toward her again, fists clenched. “You go near my son, I’ll rip your fuckin’ spine from your nose, do you fuckin’ understand me?”

  I’m shaking with rage.

  White-hot rage.

  I want her gone. Dead. I don’t fucking care so long as she stays away from my family, from my baby.

  “Pierre, your temper will have you losing before we even start. I’m not going to hurt a child, what sort of person do you think I am?”

  She’s smiling as she says it, which makes it so much worse.

  Like she knows something I don’t know. She’s confident, cocky, everything is going exactly how she wants it to, I can see it in her face.

  I take a deep breath and step back. “Leave my club. Contact me only through a lawyer. You want to fight? We’ll fuckin’ fight. I still have every charge laid out against you, every horrible thing you’ve done. I have security on this building, in every damned inch of it, so I’ll have this recorded, too. Try me, Chastity. See how far you get.”

  For a moment, just a moment, she falters.

  It makes me fill with victory, not because I’ve won, but because she just showed me she’s not as confident as she’s making out.

  She composes herself so quickly you’d miss it if you didn’t know her well enough to pick it up, and says, “I’ll be back, Nicolai. I’ll get what’s mine. One way or another.”

  With that, she turns and walks out.

  Leaving me trembling with anger.

  Rage unlike anything I’ve ever known.

  ~*~*~*~

  I don’t want to tell her.

  I don’t want to ruin what’s going so incredibly well.

  But I have to tell her. I have to warn her. I have to make sure she knows. They all know. Because Chastity, I don’t trust her, not one single bit. Tommy is a huge concern for me, but Lucy needs to know, too. Shania, also. I want them to be aware. I want them to understand what’s happening and to avoid interaction with that horrible fucking creature.

  So, I’m here, sitting with both of them, Tommy running around the sofa playing with his new fire engine. Looking at him, makes my stomach twist. If she tried anything, anything at all, to hurt my son, I’d do things that utterly terrify me. That boy is my life, and I’d go to any length to protect him.

  Any.

  Lucy is having Tommy tonight, because I’m working and Shania is going away with Lincoln. It’s the first time she’s had him alone, but we’re all happy for her to do so. I trust her, Shania trusts her, and it’s a good step in the right direction. But I also need to know he’s safe, that she’s safe, that everyone is going to give Chastity a wide fucking berth.

  “Got somethin’ to tell both of you, which is why I wanted you both here.”

  Lucy looks concerned and glances over at Shania, who is watching me. Side by side, you can tell they’re sisters, but there is something about Lucy, something that makes her stand out, a light, almost. She vibrates with fucking goodness. She’s so damned attractive it makes it very hard for me to sit here and concentrate when she’s looking the way she looks right now.

  “What’s the matter?” Lucy asks.

  “Chastity is back.”

  A gasp from Lucy, a confused expression from Shania.

  “Chastity is my wife,” I fill her in.

  Shania’s face changes as she realizes what I’m talking about. “Oh, ohh … Isn’t she bad news?”

  “She’s very fuckin’ bad news. She came to the club last night and she threatened to talk half of it. That wasn’t what bothered me, it was the any means possible part that bothered me. I don’t trust her. I don’t think she’s going to play nice. She’s hurt people I love before …”

  “Do you think Tommy is in danger?” Lucy asks, her face a little pale.

  “I don’t think she’d hurt a child, no, but I’m not going to bet on that, either. She’s got something wrong in her head, she’s driven by money, and has gone to rather extreme lengths to get what she
wants. I don’t think she’d take a life, but she would hurt someone to send a message to me, to get me to give her exactly what she wants. I have no doubt she has papers drawn up somewhere, just waiting for me to sign them. I need you both to be careful.”

  Lucy nods, looking to Shania, who nods, too. “Does she know about us?” Shania asks.

  “I don’t know, but I’m assuming yes. She knows about Tommy which means I’d guess she’s linked that. I’m not a hundred percent sure if she knows about Lucy, but she does know about you, Shania, I’m sure of it.”

  Shania shakes her head. “I’ll let Lincoln know, get extra eyes around. And I’ll keep a watch out, keep Tommy only with people we know until she’s dealt with.”

  “How exactly are you going to deal with her?” Lucy asks. “It sounds like she’s not going away anytime soon.”

  She’s fucking right about that, I can’t see Chastity going away until she gets what she wants. I don’t want to do anything illegal, I just want her out of my fucking life, one way or another.

  “I haven’t thought that through yet,” I tell her, “but I’m thinking maybe it’s worth just fighting it out in court and being done with it.”

  “You could lose everything you’ve worked for, Nicolai!” Lucy cries, shaking her head. “No, that little gold digger isn’t going to just roll in here and take …”

  “I might not have another choice,” I grind out, frustrated. Not at Lucy, but at the whole fucking situation I’m in right now.

  “There has to be a way,” Shania says. “Let me talk to Lincoln.”

  “I’ve been trying to avoid the illegal side of things,” I mutter coldly.

  “Yes,” she snaps, “I’m aware of that. I never said illegal. But they deal with these kinds of people, perhaps there is something we can dig up on her, that you can use, something to make a stronger case. Something to keep her away for good.”

  She’s right about that part, we might be able to find something.

  I exhale. “Sorry. I’d appreciate that.”

  She nods, giving me a sympathetic expression. “I don’t want to see you go down for something, regardless of our past.”

  I don’t want to go down for fucking anything.