by Levine, Nina
She processed that and then said, “Do you want to stay with me?”
I tried not to smile. “So you can keep me safe?”
Her smile matched mine. “Smartass. I could, you know. You might be Lara Croft reincarnated, but I’ve got skills.”
Letting go of her hand, I said, “I know. I’ve seen you take guys on. You’ve injured many balls in your life.”
“They all deserved it.” She sighed. “I’m sick of men, Tatum. Why can’t we find the good ones? They have to exist somewhere out there.”
“What’s your definition of good, though? Maybe you’re expecting something that just isn’t realistic.” I was glad to change the course of the conversation from Storm to her issues with men. Talking about bikers was the last thing I wanted to be doing. And Monroe and I were so close that I knew she’d changed the subject on purpose.
“At this point, I’d settle for a few things—honesty being at the top of the list.”
“A-fucking-men. What else?”
“God, I just want someone who knows when to take charge and when to back the fuck off and give me some space. I’m sick and tired of men who want to try to control me, or at the other end of the spectrum, men who don’t have any balls to go with their dick. And a guy who picks up after himself would be fucking awesome. Oh, and a piercing or two. Before I die, I need to be fucked with a pierced dick.”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “Good luck on finding a man who picks up after himself. I’m sure the rest should be manageable. And if push comes to shove, surely you could just sleep with a guy who gets his dick pierced here.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ve told you, I don’t sleep with customers.”
I shrugged. “You could make an exception for that. It’s not like you’d have to see him again.”
“Babe, I’m not you. I actually want a relationship and hate one-night stands.”
“I don’t love one-night stands.”
“True, but you also don’t want a guy to get too close.” She paused for a moment. “Not every guy is Randall.”
I sucked in a breath at the mention of him again. “Can we not say his name again today? It’s been a bad enough day as it is.”
She flicked her long red hair and frowned. “Whose name? I have no idea who you are talking about.”
“Yeah, me either.” I pushed a stray hair out of my eyes. “I need to ask you a favour.”
She smiled. “Anything, you know that.”
“One of my girls needs a place to stay while I help her leave the guy she’s living with. He’s an ass and I’m concerned what he might do once she leaves, so I want to find her a place he would never find her.”
“Of course. And if he does come around, remember, I’ve got skills. I could take him on,” she said with a grin.
I laughed. “You could. Thank you, I owe you one.”
My phone sounded with a text.
Duvall: All sorted.
Me: My demons thank you.
He didn’t reply, so I looked back up at Monroe when she asked, “Who’s that?”
“Duvall. I think he’s done with me.”
“No, he’s not. That man has it bad for you.”
“Not anymore, but that’s a good thing. I don’t want to drag him into my shit.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Did you ever consider dating him when you two got close?”
Memories of Duvall being there for me after my marriage exploded filled my mind. I allowed myself a moment to dwell in them, because while that was one of the hardest times of my life, he’d made me feel hope. But hope wasn’t always productive. How could it be when the dark had already consumed you? When you couldn’t remember what light looked like anymore.
My shoulders sagged as I answered her honestly. “I thought about being with him. I thought about how different he’d be to what I’d always known in a partner, and I wanted that. But I don’t know the first thing about giving that kind of love back, Monroe. I’d ruin Duvall if I gave myself to him, because dark will always kill light.”
“Or maybe light would mix some new shinier colours,” she said softly.
I loved her for being a dreamer. As much as I’d given up on in life, I still held onto some of my tattered dreams. Monroe was the one person who helped me remember to breathe life into those dreams occasionally.
As I left Monroe’s, a text buzzed through.
Duvall: You’re wrong. I could never run from your demons.
Nitro
“The Red” by Chevelle
After Church, I headed over to my sister’s house, not sure if I’d find her there or at the bank where she worked. She lived a block from me, having moved out of my place a few years ago.
I found her sleeping on her couch, a bottle of cheap wine still in her hands. Swiping it out of her grip, I crouched next to her. “Lynny, wake up.” Finding her in this state was becoming a common occurrence. Marilyn had never been a drinker, but lately she’d started, and I hated watching her sink further into a depressed state.
She stirred as I nudged her.
“You took the day off work?” I asked.
Nodding, she sat up slowly. “Yeah.” She grimaced in pain and placed her hand against her forehead. “God, why did you wake me?”
“You feel like hell?”
“Don’t give me grief, Nitro. I needed to take the edge off.”
I stood. “I get it, but fuck, you’re not even trying.”
Anger filled her features and she stood, too. “I have been trying.”
“No,” I snapped. “You were trying. Now, you’ve given up, and I’ll be fucked if I’m gonna let you fucking give up. Not after everything we’ve been through already.”
I watched as the anger seeped out of her, hating every second of that, because I didn’t want her to lose that feeling. You could run on anger, and I needed Lynny to fucking run. “I’m tired of trying. That man….” Her voice drifted off and tears streamed down her face. “He wrecked me, Nitro.” Staring at me through those tears, she uttered the words I’d feared for years, “I don’t want to try anymore. I’m done.”
Fuck.
I wrapped my hands around her biceps and held on tight. “That man is dead. He can’t hurt you anymore. And you are not fucking done.”
“You don’t get it. I don’t want to go on.”
I let her go and she dropped back down to the couch. Raking my fingers through my hair, I paced the small room, my mind turning over possibilities for dealing with this situation. Eventually, I pulled out my phone and called her doctor.
She sat motionless and watched as I made an appointment for her. After I ended the call, I yanked her up and said, “Get dressed, your appointment is in forty minutes.”
“He can’t help me.”
Red blurred my vision and my muscles tensed. Anger punched through me, and while I knew I wasn’t so much enraged by her, but by the asshole who did this, I couldn’t contain it while around her. One look at my sister and all I could think about was him. And I couldn’t stop myself from spewing words laced with the anger that consumed me. “Yes, he can, and he will. And you will let him. I’m not taking no for an answer, Marilyn. You got that?”
She shrunk away from me as I bellowed my order. When I’d finished, she slapped my face. “Fuck you! You’re supposed to be on my side. You’re not supposed to treat me like shit.”
I forced out a harsh breath and scrubbed my face. This was not going down how it should have. And yet, I kept going, fuelled by a desperate need to save my sister. Yanking her to her bedroom, I ripped open her closet. “Choose something to wear, put it on and meet me in the lounge room within five minutes.” I turned to leave the room without waiting for her reply. As I left, I barked, “This is me being on your side, Lynny. Fucking deal with it.”
* * *
“Thank you.”
Eyeing Renee, I nodded. “She fought us all the way, but in the end she agreed to go voluntarily.”
I’d just return
ed from the hospital where Marilyn had been admitted. Her doctor held the same concerns I did, so he’d pushed for her to agree to treatment.
“Should I pack a bag for her and take it to the hospital?”
“Yeah.” I checked my watch. “I’ll come back in about two hours to take you. I’ve just got some club stuff to do.”
“Okay.”
“And you’ll stay with me while she’s there.” At her frown, I added, “Don’t argue with me, Renee. I’ve got some serious shit going on with the club at the moment and I don’t need to be worrying about you out there on your own.”
Her frown morphed into a scowl. “I swear, you’d think you were my father with the way you carry on.”
A text from Hyde distracted me.
Hyde: Where are you? Got a problem with Sutherland.
Me: At Marilyn’s.
Hyde: Get ready to leave. We’ll swing by.
“I’ve gotta go,” I said to Renee. “A problem’s just come up, so I may be longer than two hours. I’ll text you to let you know.”
“I’ll be a good girl and move into your place while you’re gone.”
“Fucking amazing,” I muttered. “A female who listens to me.”
“Don’t go getting too excited. It won’t happen too often.”
I shoved my phone in my pocket. “I’m under no illusions.”
She grinned. “That’s what I love about you.”
“What?”
“You might be unpredictable out there in the world, but here with us, you’re predictable in all the right ways. You’re always here for me and Mum.”
I held her gaze. “Always, kiddo.”
She didn’t know the half of it.
Thank fuck.
* * *
I stared up at the building in front of me before turning to face Hyde. “What’s going on? Why the fuck am I standing in front of Billy Jones’s strip club?”
“Sutherland has cut us off,” Hyde said.
King stepped up onto the footpath. “Dragon got to him.”
Jesus.
Sutherland was our gun supplier. We’d discussed the possibility of this happening if we pursued Silver Hell, but I hadn’t thought it likely.
“We need ammo, and we need a fuckload of it,” Hyde said.
“We stocked up, Hyde. We have time to sort this out,” I said. Billy would supply us if need be, but he was the last person I wanted to call on.
“I don’t want to take that risk,” King said. “I want a plan brought into play today, and Billy is our best option.”
“He’s also our most expensive option,” I pointed out. “I can make some calls, King, work out something else that won’t bleed us like Billy will.”
“We can do that, too, but I’m not ending this day without knowing this is sorted for now,” King said before striding into the club.
Hyde agreed. “I’m with King on this one, Nitro.”
Against my better judgement, I followed them. Billy and I didn’t have the best history, so fuck knew what would take place when we were in the same room.
A brunette with not much on besides a black dress that barely covered her tits and ass greeted us. Glancing between the three of us, she pasted a hesitant smile on her face. “I’m sorry, but we don’t open for another couple of hours.”
“We’re not here for the show, we’re here for Billy,” King said.
Smile still in place, she said, “He’s not here at the moment, sorry.”
King’s nostrils flared and he stepped closer to her. “That might be what you tell everyone else, but it’s not what you tell me. Let him know that King’s here to see him.”
She blinked as she faltered on her words. “Honestly, he’s not here at the moment.”
King’s voice darkened with menace. “I don’t believe you. Take me to his office.” He paused for a moment before barking, “Now!”
Fear chased her smile away and she jumped in fright. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
“Gentlemen,” a commanding female voice sounded from behind us. A voice I knew. “I don’t appreciate you intimidating my girls.”
Turning, I found Tatum standing with her arms crossed over her chest, a hard glare in place. Black jeans painted her long legs and a leather biker jacket covered her tits. Stilettos gave her height, and her eyes met mine with little effort. “Vegas,” I murmured, taken aback. This woman standing in front of me was not at all like the woman I rescued the previous night. Sure, her eye was swollen and her face and neck were bruised from the beating she suffered, but she stood tall and fucking fierce. And as she shifted her gaze between the three of us, she didn’t back down.
King moved towards her, snarling. “Tatum Lee, we meet again.”
She squared her shoulders. “So it would seem, King.”
“Where’s Billy?”
“He’s stepped out for a couple of hours to deal with a family matter. Can I help you with something?”
King stared at her like she’d lost her mind. “I highly fucking doubt that. I didn’t come here for a lap dance.”
She uncrossed her arms. “And you wouldn’t get one off me even if you did.”
He gripped her arm and I caught the wince of pain that escaped her lips. Pulling her to him, he said, “I’m not a fan of your smart mouth, Tatum. Now call your fucking boss and set me up a meeting.”
She didn’t fight him, didn’t even attempt to wiggle out of his hold. Instead, she simply stood there and said, “The last time I saw you, I told you never to touch me again, so take your fucking hands off me and then I’ll see what I can do for you.”
He continued to hold her for another few moments before eventually shoving her out of his grasp.
With eyes that roared her hatred of him, she held his gaze while pulling out her phone. When Billy answered her call, she turned and walked away from us to talk with him.
I tracked her ass as she moved away. Tatum had an ass made for sin and legs that begged a man to spread them. I imagined cutting those clothes off her and sinking my dick deep inside her. That cunt of hers would—
“Nitro!”
Fuck.
I snapped out of my thoughts to find King staring at me. “What?”
“Bronze texted. The raids on Silver Hell clubs will go down tonight.” Bronze had been on our payroll for years and never let us down. If the New South Wales police force knew they had a dirty cop as high in their ranks as he was, they’d probably kill him before they’d admit it to the public. Just over a year ago the state flushed out what they thought to be all their dirty cops, along with the handful of dirty lawyers they had in the DPP. Since then they had heavily promoted their clean force. For Bronze to have survived that, I knew there had to be more amongst their ranks.
“So we need to sort our supply issue out today,” Hyde added.
“Yeah, I’m getting that, Hyde,” I muttered, my eyes still on Tatum.
She ended her call and came back to us. Eyeing King, she said, “Billy will be back in two hours. He’ll see you then.”
With one last glare at her, he turned and stalked out of the club to his bike. She watched him for a beat and then looked at me. “Your president is an ass.”
Hyde scowled at her and left, but I closed the distance between us and said, “You’d do well to keep your thoughts to yourself, Vegas.” Unable to stop myself, I dropped my gaze to her chest. The little I could see of her tits was hardly enough, but I took what I could and then looked back up at her.
She lifted a brow. “If you knew me, Nitro, you’d know I never keep my thoughts to myself. And right now, I’m thinking you’d do well to keep your eyes off my tits.”
“I only take orders from one person in this world and I’m not looking at him.”
“So maybe you should turn your ass around and leave so that you are looking at him.”
I reached out to touch her, wanting to run my finger over those lips that were giving me attitude, but she wrapped her hand around my
wrist faster than I saw coming, halting my progress.
“You’d also do well never to touch me without my permission,” she said calmly before dropping my arm and turning to leave.
Fuck, she was feisty. I wasn’t a fan of attitude off a woman, but I couldn’t deny my dick was hard as hell. I wondered what kind of man Tatum Lee usually fucked, because it sure as hell wouldn’t be a man like me. I’d have to fuck that feisty out of her and I doubted she’d surrender easily, if at all.
* * *
I sat on my bike in the clubhouse car park later that night, watching as Brittany left. Thunder cracked overhead as another storm threatened. It’d been a long fucking day and my mind ticked over with thoughts of stopping by a club I frequented to find a woman to lose myself in for the night.
“Nitro.”
Turning, I found Kick approaching, a look of concern etched on his face.
“What’s up?”
“Silver Hell got to that casino surveillance before we did. They’re looking for the blonde who was with you.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah, I figured that wasn’t good news since she’s tied up with Billy.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face. It definitely wasn’t good news. Not after we’d managed to get Billy to agree to supply us with guns and ammo. If Silver Hell found Tatum, they’d kill her, and Billy would blame us as much as them.
“I’ll take care of it,” I said.
He nodded. “One other thing, I found someone to replace Brittany. Recommended by Nash, so I’m hoping that means she’s not gonna cause any problems.” Nash was a member of the Brisbane Storm chapter so I figured he wouldn’t recommend someone he didn’t trust.
Lightning streaked through the sky as I sped out of the car park. So much for finding some pussy for the night. Instead, I’d be finding Tatum Lee.
Tatum
“I See Fire” by Ed Sheeran