Outlaw MC: The Complete Boxset

by Ethan Egorov

  “My girlfriend’s favorite drink, never fails.” He smiles and it is a dazzling one, his tattoos spread down one arm and I wonder if they all look like this.

  Logan has tattoos too, but I can’t get a good look without turning and facing him. I don’t want to make it obvious that I am checking him out, but I want to. My side glimpse tells me that they are all in faded black, some light and some dark, and they travel down both his arms up until his wrists. Along with veins and dark hair, lightly specked in the perfect amount. I didn’t know body hair could be such a turn on, but it makes him seem more manly, more capable.

  “So, I take it you’re not from around here.” Logan waits until I have had a drink, half of it actually.

  It worked though, at helping me relax.

  “No, I’m not. I didn’t plan on coming here until today actually. Or this morning rather.” I push away the glass and swallow the heavy feeling. I woke up this morning leading a completely different life, it is crazy how things can change that fast.

  “You don’t look like you planned for a road trip anyway.” He chuckles, and the ease of it makes me smile a little bit too.

  “No, I hadn’t. I’ve never even heard of this place before.” I say honestly. When I loaded the bus, the town next to the bigger city didn’t even appear. It was just close enough that I could take a bus, I have been here before, but I knew the name.

  “Yikes, I didn’t know we were so microscopic.” His tone turns playful and I smile quickly.

  “I mean—it’s just a small town, I guess.” I stutter, I didn’t want to insult his home, this is where he lives after all. And he seems to like it here. It might even be growing on me but that’s just because I don’t have much choice.

  “Yeah, we are. You from somewhere south? You’ve got a cute accent you know.” He says. Yet all I register is him telling me I have a cute accent.

  My Texas debutant balls and pageants made it the norm for me, in fact I was told to elongate it even more and I was a runner up for Miss Teen USA, but that was so long ago I barely remember it. The staging and the prodding. Down there though, they always recognized me. Even at college.

  “I’m from Texas originally but my dad moved us to Iowa after—a few years ago.” I lie. Iowa was temporary, but I don’t need to tell this stranger everything. Except he feels less like a stranger at every turn. More like I know him, like I could know him. I take a deep breath and try not to stare at him, but it’s hard.

  He is… damned hot. Not just handsome or even sexy but smoking hot. His jaw line and full pink lips, the square shape of his jaw and light air of his green eyes, contrasting his dark brown hair. That and the tattoos, the firm muscles. He isn’t too beefy, but enough that he works out and does more than rowing or golfing, like he could lift me up and never grow tired.

  “Hm, so your dad, does he know you’re traipsing across town and shouting in banks?” His soft smile makes that easier to stomach. The truth, I mean.

  I clear the sadness from my throat, “Not exactly. Well, he does but he doesn’t care. I don’t really want to talk about it.” I tell him.

  He gives a short understanding nod, his smirk going sideways as he looks at me. I’ve felt his eyes all over my body and I just want the real thing.

  “So, um… I assume you don’t have a place to go, considering your bank account is empty and you don’t have a luggage. I mean, I don’t want to make any assumptions but—” He starts to assume, even though he doesn’t want to. It would be too embarrassing to say I am a spoiled brat who wouldn’t give in to her father’s ultimatums, wouldn’t give in to his demands and ran away instead. Way too embarrassing.

  “Why did you help me?” I turn the questions on him instead. He has shifted closer to me on the seat, his legs are spread but his hands are in his pockets, drawing attention to a prominent part of him, like he knows it too. He isn’t using it against me though, he isn’t being forward with it.

  “What?” He laughs once.

  “Why are you doing this? Taking me here, asking all these questions. I mean what’s in it for you?” I blink innocently at him, but I know what I am doing. I went to business school, but I also grew up with the best businessman of them all. Catch them off guard, give them something to fight against and then they’ll catch themselves in a lie.

  “Um…nothing? I don’t want something in return, if that’s what you think. I can’t just be a nice guy?” His laugh is short lived and isn’t meant to be mocking at all. I actually believe him.

  He would have propositioned me by now if that was what he was after.

  “Nice guys don’t really exist in my world.” I murmur. That’s when I notice what all the apprehension was about.

  It would happen in college, guys in class would offer notes and to be a study partner but show up with condoms sticking out of their wallet, try and talk me into dinner. It really isn’t fair, but Logan, maybe because he is older—has more self-control than that.

  “Oh. Well, small town mentality, I guess. And I felt bad for you. But I’m still a man after all, you’re easy on the eyes and you don’t look like you belong here, so it wouldn’t sit well with me if I just left you alone.” He adds. He really is a nice guy, that much becomes aware to me.

  “I guess I should be grateful then. But you don’t have to. I can figure something out.” I say, even though I am not so convinced of that myself.

  “Something that’s free?” He chuckles.

  It makes me smile a bit and I even relax more.

  “I guess not. But you’re still a stranger, I mean I don’t know anything about you. Except your weird nickname and this… place.” I make a show of looking around the inside of this place, it looks like someone changed their mind when they were halfway through building it.

  “Okay. You want to get to know me. Ask me whatever you want, I’m an open book.” He waves his hand toward me, his large hand that I can still feel the heat of on me. I want to feel it again, but I am in no position to ask for it. I don’t want to blur the lines here. I should just accept his help and leave it at that, until I find another place to land. But the way he looks at me, the way I know I am looking at him…

  I do want to know

  “Why do they call you Spin?” It’s the first question that comes to mind, to which he laughs a bit at and looks away.

  He licks his lips and then stares forward to me again.

  “Believe it or not, that’s the hardest question you could ask me. The worst one.” He grins.

  I sigh and cross my arms like I cross my legs.

  “So, it isn’t a surname.” I conclude.

  He shakes his head, “Newman is my last name. Is yours Hilton?” He chuckles.

  “No, why would you think that?” I giggle.

  He makes a small show of surveying me.

  “Come on, I can’t look that…”

  “High maintenance. Prissy. I mean, only before I actually started talking to you. The way you were yelling at that teller in the bank. Did you know you stomped your foot?” He laughs.

  I stare mortified, my face heating.

  “Oh my god… no I didn’t know.” I shrug my shoulders and take a deep breath, I don’t know why I feel like I have to redeem myself to him, but I want to.

  “I woke up this morning ready to have breakfast with my dad, I just got my degree and he hadn’t even come to my graduation. He’s a busy guy, that’s what he would always say. And he is. Busy, powerful, rich. He wanted to control my life; I didn’t want to be left like… everyone else I grew up around. So, I just left.” I exhale and feel a little better, it isn’t even the whole story, but it puts me at ease just a little bit.

  He nods slowly and smiles a bit.

  “Hm. So you ran away from the endless pile of cash. Look princess, I’m not passing judgement at all. But not everyone is as nice as me, you could have ended up in real trouble. Stranded out here, no cash.” He says, and he is completely right. I already knew by the creases around his eyes and lips that
he could be older, but he reminds me of my uncle for a small second, until I remember how attracted to him I am.

  “I didn’t think he would work so fast at cutting me off,” I sigh. “My debit card, even the family trust. I don’t even know what else.”

  “Well what does he not have control over?” He asks.

  “My period,” I say before thinking, and he laughs aloud, throwing his head back. I giggle softly but it sucks because that’s true. Even the cash or card I would use to pay for birth control is in his control. I’m really in for it.

  “But you went to college. You can find a job pretty fast. What’d you study?” He asks.

  “Business. I want to open my own bakery one day, but that’s—my dad was going to help fund the opening, it’s why I stuck around so long I think.” I should have known he only did that to string me along, until he could trap me into the family business. But now I do.

  “Damn. I wish I could say you aren’t out of luck, but you are. Lucky for you, I’m around.” He stretches his hand out and grins.

  I get lost in the gaze of his eyes as I smile, finding it easier to talk to him.

  “And you often pick up strays? Do you… get off on that or something?” That makes him laugh like I had told a joke again.

  “No, Chantal.” He leans forward. “I’m not getting off on this. Me, thinking you’re as beautiful and bright as the sun, has nothing to do with trying to help you out. Like I said princess, I’m just a decent guy.” He leans in closer until I feel the heat of his breath and am close enough to reach out and kiss him if I wanted to.

  “So, if I leave right now you won’t follow me?”

  “Yes, I will, because you have no idea where you are going.” He answers quickly.

  I blink rapidly, “Oh. Right.” I think over him calling me princess, and beautiful, but push it away before I get stuck on it too long. Men don’t say that to me, not in that way. They’ll say I’m hot or sexy but it’s not the same. Beautiful makes me feel like… I don’t even know.

  “I just need to find a place to lay low for a while, start over in this town.” I say. It has grown on me, just a little bit, and it isn’t Logan that makes me want to stay.

  “Okay. What do you need first? Phone, cash?”

  “I can’t take your money.” I dig in my purse for my phone instead.

  “How nice of you, people before you haven’t been so kind.” He trails off and I am uncertain why. But I don’t ask.

  I take out my phone and the screen is black, I press the home and lock button over and over, but nothing happens. The logo comes up as it turns on, then it shuts off again.

  “Shit—” I mutter. My eyes prick with those useless tears again, because I am frustrated and quickly learning how little my dad cares about me.

  “Yikes, he’s got your phone too.” Logan leans in again, looking over me.

  “Yeah.” I set it on the counter and sigh, but luckily, I remember the extension for my uncle’s office number.

  He is my only shot now.

  “You can stay with me for a while, princess. I know I’m a complete stranger, but I’ve got a nice place, you may never even see me.” He suggests.

  I shake my head. “No, I can’t do that. And not because—” I can’t stop thinking about you naked. “I just can’t impose on you like that. My uncle might be able to help me.”

  “Hopefully he’s a maternal uncle.”

  I giggle, “Yeah, he’s my mom’s brother. Can I borrow your phone?”

  “Sure,” he stands and digs in his pocket. “I gotta go take a leak.” He strides off toward the back of the bar and I watch the tight mound of his ass in those jeans when he does.

  “Oh my god,” I breathe to myself.

  Even without him sitting next to me, I don’t feel unsafe in here. Maybe the other guys have already deduced that we are together.

  I dial Uncle Ethan’s number and wait. He is a doctor, so he may not even answer the phone. Both my parents came from families with old money, that’s why there is so much of it to go around. But even after Mom passed, Dad still controls the trust she left me, so I can’t win either way.

  The brief call with Uncle Ethan is full of his shock and anger, and I beg him not to make a big deal of it. He always hated my dad. But he never knew about the line of connection I have with my Uncle. It isn’t always money, that could matter the least, but right now, it is my only way out of this mess.

  “Good to go?” Logan creeps up on me and I jolt in shock. He chuckles and lays a hand on my shoulder, laughing at me.

  “Sorry… yeah um, I just need to find a place for tonight. Tomorrow I’m going to look for a permanent place, and a job too.” I say, smiling a bit, I feel better even though it isn’t much.

  But it is just because I don’t feel alone anymore.

  “Sounds good to me. The motels around here will probably give you cancer. But we’ve got a room in the back, it’s actually a little apartment you could use.”

  My eyes widen, “Thank you. That’s so nice of you.”

  He shrugs, leaning against the bar top. “A little bit. I can get you a change of clothes, Jeannine wouldn’t mind. Then I’ll swing back around and take you out to dinner.” He says, so surely like I already agreed.

  “You don’t have to take me on a date. I mean I won’t go on a date with you just because you did all this.” I lick my lips and swallow.

  He grins and softens his eyes, leaning closer. “I told you princess; I don’t want anything like that. It’s not a date. It’s me wanting to spend some time with you.” He says.

  And while all this is happening so fast, my emotions are so messed up only one thing is clear. I want to spend time with him too.

  5

  Logan

  “Okay. Dinner sounds nice.”

  I have to check and make sure I heard her correctly, because at first, I didn’t expect her to agree. Chantal is being very apprehensive, which I understand, this kind of thing has probably never happened to her before and I wouldn’t be too keen on relying on a complete stranger either. Then again, I’m a guy, and I don’t get myself in compromising positions very often.

  “Great. You ready to go?” I ask her.

  She blinks away a look I couldn’t place, as she stands from the bar stool.

  “Uh yeah, let me just freshen up first.” She shrugs my jacket off her shoulders and hands it back to me. My hand closes around the thick leather as my gaze falls to her bare shoulders and perfect—

  “I’ll be here.” I keep myself from going too far down a road I won’t be able to get out of. She walks off in the direction of the bathroom and I wait for her, putting my jacket back on. One of the other guys here, a long-time member, had waited until I was alone to greet me, which I suspected.

  Darius is probably still outside, and I have no idea where Kit is. If I remember correctly, Rafe is probably out with Paige somewhere. In the few months they’ve been together, he spends less time at the club, which is good, he needed to get a life outside of here sooner or later. I don’t think I can again, not after Chelsea. The problem was that I didn’t have one outside of the club even with her, maybe she got bored of being alone. Either way, she could have broken up with me before getting under someone else. It took every ounce of self control I had not to go after him when I found out who it was, just a coworker of hers. Now I don’t know what she does with her life anymore, if she even still lives here, and it’s better that way. Every time Chantal asks me why I want to help her, I draw a blank because the only logical explanation is that she reminds me of my ex, which is a shitty one, but it isn’t in all the same ways. It’s in a better way, one that I haven’t quite figured out yet.

  “Logan?” Her soft voice comes from around me and I look up from the old dirty ground, not realizing I had zoned out a bit.

  “Sorry. Let’s get out of here.” I walk us forward, my jacket brushing the ends of her arms. She seems to have taken some of her makeup off, redone her lip gloss. She looks
better this way, more natural, but I only realize that she has more natural beauty than I’ve ever seen on a woman before. It’s tantalizing; her smile is big and bright, her eyes soft around the edges and lips soft, full with no filler at all. I don’t know why I can tell that; I shouldn’t be able to, but on her, I only start to see what can be real in people.

  I drive faster to where we are going because I am eager to sit down with her and just talk. The parking lot is half full, since its just past an acceptable dinner time, so I park in front of the entrance and immediately miss the feeling of her against me. I haven’t had a woman on my bike in a long time, I don’t let just anyone on it; it’s an indescribable feeling.

  “Hope you like pizza.” I smile down at Chantal. She wobbles off my bike and clips the helmet off. I take it and stow it away.

  “I actually haven’t had it in a long time.” She murmurs.

  I chuckle, “Why?” I step forward on the brick pavement to the inside of the place, when we walk in, I’m hit with the dough and tomato sauce smell. The place is a traditional Italian pizza restaurant, with red checkered table cloths and a juke box. Since I grew up here, I came around a lot as a kid and through high school, even when I went to state school.

  “Because pizza isn’t all that healthy.” She answers me, and while that would sound vapid on anyone else, she says it like she doesn’t believe it but was led to.

  “I have it at least once a week, sometimes twice.” I laugh, it’s open seating so I pick us a booth and sit there.

  She slides in and sits straight up, leaned against the red back of the booth. Her eyes survey me before focusing on my face. As I’m taking off my jacket, I give her a funny look.

  “How do you look like that then?” She giggles once.

  I lick my lips and shrug, “Fast metabolism. How’s pepperoni sound?” I stand up so I can go order.

  “That’s perfect.” She nods with a smile.

  I grin at her and stride off to the counter. I’ve seen the girl that works here before, she is definitely younger than me but never ceases to try her hand at flirting. And I’m not saying I enjoy it or anything, but I try and attribute it to the bike and leather jacket thing, otherwise, I’m not all that interesting. An MC is the last place I should be, but it works for some reason.