Blood Revealed (Brimstone Lords MC Book 6)

by Sarah Zolton Arthur

  Nelly Grace’s eyes get huge. “But you’re—you’re Crystalline. You’re a legend in the business.”

  I sip from my soda, smiling at that. “I’m also a married woman now with a husband who isn’t real big on my shaking the goods for other men. But if you’re willing to learn, I think you’ve got raw talent. We can have you bathing in bills every night.”

  “I’m willing,” she says right away. Eager little thing. Pretty. We’ll need to work on the sultry. “I have a little girl; she’s only a year old. If I could get us a better life, I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”

  Oh yeah, she’ll fit right in. Elise gives her a checklist of things she’ll need. Thongs, bras, pasties. The club will cover her “starter pack.” All she has to do is submit the receipts to get reimbursed right away. Her hair will need highlights and she’ll need a makeup tutorial. But we’ll have her covered on those, too.

  “Right. We’ll have you fill out the paperwork today and tomorrow when you come in, Hannah’ll get you going with dance training,” Elise says, picking up her papers. “Now I’m gonna catch Misty and let her know she’s in.” Then a big smile breaks over Elise’s face. “And I get to tell Sable we’ve decided to pass. We getting dinner, Han?”

  “You need to get Gun first?”

  “Nope. Frankie’s taking him home. She likes how he is with the girls.”

  “Oh lordy, he’s going to be smooth with the ladies, just like his daddy,” I tease.

  She sighs out a long, suffering breath. “Don’t I know it. We’re meeting Maryanne at Lady’s. She’s feeling fat and needs her girls to reassure her that she’s still hot.”

  “Tommy doesn’t?” I ask.

  “Oh no, he does. He thinks she’s the most beautiful woman in the freaking world, but she’s hormonal with a huge baby belly, so she doesn’t believe him.”

  “Right. Then I’ll meet you there.”

  I finish up my business at the club before I head over to Lady Sings the Blues, the bar that Boss owns. It has the best fried catfish in Kentucky. I don’t often eat fried foods, but when I do, it’s at Lady’s. This little bit of normal is something we all can use. I know Elise doesn’t blame me for getting her kidnapped, but it’s a sticking point for me that I can’t seem to let go. So, going out. Eating dinner. No Escalante man in sight is exactly the thing to help me try.

  We have a great night of laughter and getting Maryanne to feel better. The look on her husband’s face when he shows to pick her up… How could she feel any less than the most beautiful woman in the world? That’s a man in love without a doubt.

  The next day, after my training with Nelly Grace, Brinley decides to give us sister time. She wants us to shop for the household items Raif and I will need when we move into our new place. But I offer a different suggestion first.

  “Brin, you’re going to think I’m crazy but I’m worried about Vlad. I have no idea what happened to him after Escalante nabbed me. He’s Horde. I doubt the brothers have been sending anyone to check on him, and I doubt his Horde brothers give a shit. Do you mind terribly if we go check on him? I want to see if he needs anything.”

  “Levi will shit a brick,” she says as I prepare to convince her, but she surprises me. “What Levi doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

  “Right, baby sister. I know Raif will hate it, but I feel responsible for him. Those Horde are nasty. He needs someone to take care of him.”

  “He needs a woman,” she says as she reaches over to mess with the radio dial.

  “The Horde don’t have old ladies, do they?” I ask.

  “Probably not,” she says.

  “Oh, call Frankie. See if we can catch her before Caitlin comes to pick up Diesel.” The rest of the men are on their way home from their ride. Usually, Duke picks the kids up from school and daycare, but seeing as he’s been gone, Caitlin has had to do shorter hours in order to get the kids. “I think Frankie will want to come with.”

  She’s been friends, I guess, with Vlad since he tried to help her during her kidnapping. I really don’t know how a man like that ended up in the Horde. He should’ve prospected with the Lords.

  It takes a bit of phone tag, but we manage to get Caitlin to take Frankie’s girls home. Frankie meets us at the Walmart on top of the hill, where the three of us buy all kinds of food and dressing changes for Vlad. We even buy cleaning products.

  The problem is Vlad lives the next county over on the Horde compound. I’m scared to enter the Horde compound and not exactly sure they’ll let us on the property, but we have to try. The drive takes us about a half hour through the rocky Kentucky back country, and when their compound comes into view, it makes me unbelievably happy that Raif, Boss, and Chaos were the ones to find me all those years ago.

  What if it’d been a Horde instead? The state of this place—uh, no.

  Our entrance is blocked by the guard at the gate, which I expected. “Frankie, call Vlad.”

  She pulls out her phone. “Tell the guard at the gate to let us in,” she says instead of hello, which leads me to believe he’s got her programmed into his phone.

  Even Brin and I hear the “What?” screamed in her ear. “The fuck you talkin’ about?” he asks, still yelling.

  “You can yell all you like, but Hannah, Brinley, and I are here to check up on you,” she says calmly. We’re all used to dealing with irate bikers. Vlad might be Horde, but he’s not that different.

  She hands the phone to the guard. “Vlad wants to speak with you.”

  The guard looks confused but takes the phone, putting it up to his ear. After tossing it back to Frankie, he kind of blows my mind by opening the gate. Most of the Kentucky Horde chapter are currently in lockup after the meth lab debacle. That doesn’t mean it’s safe here, though.

  “Go in through the second door, down there.” The guard points us in the right direction. “Don’t go nosing around if you know what’s good for you. Never seen you here before,” the guy says. “Leave it to Vlad to have three hot bitches comin’ to take care of him. Lucky son of a bitch.” The asshole looks at my sister like she’s the juiciest steak in the county and he’s been on a month-long hunger strike. “You done with him,” he says, “come on back out here to me. I don’t mind sloppy seconds.”

  My sister blushes the brightest shade of pink. I step on the gas to get us through the gate. “If things don’t work out with Hero,” I say, almost unable to get the words out, laughing too hard. Frankie bites her lips for a second before descending into a fit of giggles.

  The Horde compound is missing all of the homes that make the Lords compound a warm place to live. Though seven years ago, I never thought I’d utter the words warm place to live in regards to the Lords. They were a party club, not a bunch of family men. How things have changed. The building is made of white block. It’s utilitarian. There are maybe two windows in the place. I’m not sure what it started its life as.

  I park close to the door we were directed to enter. If I thought the Lords clubhouse needed updating… Here, I think Frankie, Brin, and I should’ve brought hazmat suits. “Brin.” I grab my sister’s arm. “You’re pregnant. You might not want to go in there. I’m afraid you’ll end up with hepatitis or something.”

  She shoves my arm playfully. There are a few men inside when we enter. They obviously look up at us. One stands. That’s when I get the courage to speak up. “Vlad?” I ask.

  The bloated, greasy biker on his way to us stops. “Fucker’s injured and still gets three at once. Man’s got a legendary dick.” He points us in the right direction. The bar is in the front room. It’s set up differently from home. Though I wouldn’t sit on that furniture to save my life.

  The man starts to follow us. “What’re you doing?” Frankie asks.

  “Why does he get three bitches at once?” he asks. “One dick, one mouth. That leaves one of ya with nothing to do and I feel like fuckin’.”

  I put my hand up to stop him. “He likes a show while he’s fucking, but he likes a sin
gle show if you get my meaning.”

  He looks confused.

  “Vlad doesn’t want to see your ugly ass while he’s fucking. Girl on hand action, bud,” I say knowing I’m taking my life in my hands.

  The guy grunts.

  “And with a dick like his, you give him what he wants,” I finish.

  He grunts again and grumbles, “Fuckin’ fine.” Then he stomps back over to the bar and I grab my sister’s arm, scurrying down the hall to Vlad’s room with Frankie following close behind.

  I rap once on Vlad’s door and can’t help but to laugh when his response comes immediately through the door. “Christ. I don’t gotta explain to you or any-fucking-body who did it or what happened. Go the fuck away.”

  “Sorry, can’t do that,” I say, busting through the door with the women filing in behind me. His eyes narrow on us showing he’s pissed.

  “The fuck is wrong with you?” he bellows, but softly. Like a bellowed whisper. I never knew that was even possible. “You walk your ass into a Horde compound? Are you daft? All of you’re fucking out of your minds.”

  “Look at you.” Frankie throws her hand out to him. “You’ve been injured and none of the fuck-faces around here are gonna help you. Since you don’t have a woman, you now have sisters who’re here to make sure you don’t die of sepsis or some shit.”

  “Really,” I say. “Look at this place? If you don’t have Hep A-E now, mark my words, next blood test, the doctor’s going to have some bad news for you.”

  His face softens as a snicker escapes his actually very handsome lips. “How’d you get in here without getting fucked up against a wall?”

  My sister speaks up. “You have a legendary dick.” And that’s it. We descend into hysterics.

  “They call him ‘Vlad’ because he impales her,” Frankie finishes, and I stop being able to catch my breath, wheezing instead of laughing.

  “Don’t you got men to hassle?” he asks.

  “Not till I’m done with you,” Frankie says chirpily. From there, we help him from the bed and strip him down to his boxer briefs so we can clean his wounds. The bandages stick and it’s painful to watch him wince. This is why he needs us. He’s cleaned them as well as he can, but he’s lucky we care enough to show up today.

  Once we’ve got him good on the medical front, we gather his laundry up, setting the basket by the door. We’ll take it with us and he’ll have to meet us at the laundromat because there’s no way we’re doing laundry here. Then the girls and I get down to scrubbing the walls, tackling his bathroom, and vacuuming.

  We even make sure he’s got good food as we brought stuff with us for him to keep here in his room. I mean, my guess is that he doesn’t spend as much time with his brothers as the Lords spend with theirs because he has a mini fridge, microwave, and even a cabinet right there in his room. Even if I didn’t know the Horde were the scum of the universe, that would pretty much tell me what I need to know about them.

  After finishing the cleaning and setting him up with a meal, we gather up the basket of clothing.

  “How are you getting to the laundromat?” I ask.

  “I’ll send someone. A woman. We got pussy who hang around here.”

  “Nice,” Frankie says.

  He shrugs. “What? The Horde aren’t the Lords, babe. That’s what they are. That’s their purpose for hangin’ around.”

  “Right. Well, have her meet us at the Suds-town. I’ll call when we’re just about done.” Frankie grabs the doorknob. “Take care of yourself until we can get back here.”

  “You’re not comin’ back here,” he grumbles as we walk out, Brinley closing the door behind her. Now we need to hopefully get back out without being seen by too many men.

  Disgusting men. Well, not all of them. Vlad certainly isn’t disgusting. There are a few more members hanging in the common when we walk through. The Horde aren’t typically known for their eye candy, but um… damn. One pool table in particular has bad decisions gathered around.

  One of them, longish blond hair, piercing blue eyes and full beard, glances up from taking his shot, catching my eyes. He tilts his head, narrowing his eyes, considering me, and a scowl forms over that beautiful mouth of his.

  “Oh—shit,” I whisper to my girls. “I think we’ve been made. Step it up.” Not looking back, we pick up our pace, then once we’ve all cleared the door, we run for my Jeep, shoving the laundry in the back next to Frankie. Brin and I climb into the front seat, I start the engine, and peel out.

  The guard opens the door for me, winking as we leave. That almost didn’t end well. I hope we didn’t put Vlad in a compromising position, but I feel responsible for him. On the main drag, across from the Piggly-Wiggly, we pull into Suds-town, each of us carrying a basket of dirty laundry. There we set off separating whites from colors, taking up five washers at once. The faster we get this done, the better. At the end of the wash cycle, we load the clothes in several dryers, feeding the bills into the money slots to pay and setting the timers when Frankie’s phone rings.

  “He says to leave his shit—we were definitely made. He’ll send pussy down. We need to get out now,” Frankie relays his message.

  “Tell him we have the back five dryers going.”

  I hear him yell, “I don’t give a fuck! Get out.” Okay. We hightail it out of the Suds-town back to my Jeep and get the hell out of Bentley, the Kentucky Horde’s base of operation. It takes us another half hour to make it home to Thornbriar, dropping Frankie off back at her truck. The three of us head up the mountain in a small precession. The new guy, we call him Noob, opens the gate for us.

  Bikes fill the forecourt, which means the men are home. Brinley is so happy about seeing her man that she hops out, jogging for her place. Only, Hero steps out the front door before she reaches it and clomps down the steps. He’s followed by Scotch and Raif.

  The three men stare us down, their arms folded over their massive chests, looking more than a little disgruntled. I stop short.

  “Woman,” Raif barks. “Get your ass over here now.”

  Uh-oh. “I’m good here,” I reply, digging my heels in.

  Hero stares my sister down, speaking only to her. “What’s your name?” he asks.

  She cocks her head. “Brinley,” she says.

  “Brinley what?”

  “Hendrix,” she answers.

  “Right. Brinley Hendrix, because whose cock are you takin’?”

  My sister takes her life in her hands by rolling her eyes. “Yours.”

  “Okay. Got my name, takin’ my cock. My kid you’re carrying?”

  “You know it is, Levi.” Now my sister folds her arms over her ample bosom, less scared than irritated. My baby sister has really come into her own as a biker’s old lady.

  “You got my name, takin’ my cock and carrying my kid, so you wanna tell me why you strutted that fine ass, the one that clearly means something to me, into the fucking Horde clubhouse?” That last he ends on a shout.

  “I—” she starts to defend herself.

  “Don’t.” Hero holds up his hand. “I don’t fuckin’ want to hear it.”

  Scotch turns on Frankie with his eyes narrowed. “Woman, get home. Now. We’ve got some talking to do.” He punctuates his point by grinding his teeth and I’m pretty sure he’s going to need to see a dentist to take care of the damage he’s caused himself.

  There are times when you don’t mind an audience and times when you do. This isn’t one of those times. “Sorry, girls,” Frankie whispers as she turns to head toward her and Scotch’s place.

  Brinley moves slowly toward her trailer. I stay to make sure she’s okay. Hero places a hand to both her cheeks, giving her a onceover, then he kisses her, even if he still looks pissed as hell. I should’ve known Hero would never hurt my sister. She walks on freaking water in his eyes.

  That leaves me and Raif in an epic stare down. We don’t have a place of our own in which to hash this out without an audience. We really need a place of our own
.

  “We had to,” I say, deciding to cut to the chase. “He doesn’t have anyone to look after him.”

  “You know what those men would’ve done to you if they found out that you’re Lords? Old ladies mean nothing to the Horde. Not a fucking bit.”

  “How’d you find out?” I ask.

  “Vlad had the good sense to call Scotch.”

  “Then we mean something to some of the Horde, don’t we?”

  “Goddammit, Hannah. I can’t believe you’d be so fucking stupid,” he yells.

  “Don’t call me names. I wasn’t being stupid.” I put a hand to my hip, more than ready to defend our actions. “I did what needed to be done. He’s a friend. He needed help. Sometimes you have to forgo what’s safe to do what’s right. We did what was right.”

  “Fucking hell, what am I gonna do with you, woman?” he asks an obvious rhetorical question.

  I choose to answer anyway. “Love me, Raif. If I weren’t the kind of woman who would put herself out there for a friend in need, would you even want me? In case you’ve forgotten, Lords old ladies aren’t typical women. We’re strong because we have to be. We’re strong because that’s the only type of woman who can make it for the long haul standing next to you and your brothers.”

  “Fuck,” he grumbles. It’s not over. I’m not naïve enough to think it is, but as he sighs and walks over to me, wrapping those strong arms around me, I know he at least gets me.

  “Wait till you see the punishment I got planned for you,” he whispers in my ear.

  Oh boy.

  12.

  Raif

  We have trucks lining up halfway down the mountain waiting to get onto the compound. It’s a goddamn revolving door of trucks dropping off food and alcohol into the clubhouse. There’s a tent set up for the overflow of men we’re expecting. The porta-johns just arrived. We’re expecting the large space heaters to heat the tents. They must be caught up somewhere in that mess.

  Club allies and other chapters jumped in to help us without hesitation or asking questions. We needed them, they showed. We suffered a great deal of loss. This is our way of paying back. Thornbriar’s used to bikes rumbling through town, but the people won’t know what’s about to hit them.