The Lost Boys MC Series: Books 1-4

by Savannah Rylan

  Then, my father spoke through the door.

  “I just wanted to thank you for coming over,” he said.

  I cleared my throat. “Kinda in the middle of something, Dad.”

  “Yeah, sorry. Just… you coming over means a lot, princess. Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome, Daddy.”

  I heard him grunt before he walked away. His shadow moved and I released the breath I was holding, listening as he made his way down the hallway. A few minutes later, I flushed the toilet. Just as I heard the shower turn on. I made my getaway back to my car in that moment, trying to slip out of my father’s house and get back to my own apartment.

  I had a work shift I had to get ready for, plus I had a phone call to make.

  I raced back to my apartment and ran up the steps to the third floor. I panted as I burst through my apartment door, kicking the small boxes I had yet to unpack out of my way. Fucking hell, I really needed to get the last of my place unloaded. But that was the furthest thing from my mind. I sat down on my couch and pulled up the pictures I’d taken of those documents, reading through them as best as I could.

  And when I came across the piece to the puzzle I was missing, my jaw dropped open.

  “I have to call Stone,” I murmured.

  I flipped over to my contacts and pulled up his number. The number I’d pulled from my caller I.D. at work when he called me at my office that night. I dialed it as my eyes fell onto my clock. It was a little past noon, and for some reason the damn man wasn’t picking up his phone.

  “This is Stone. Leave a message. Or don’t,” his voice message said.

  I snickered as the phone beeped, and I began rattling along.

  “Stone, it’s me. Hayley. Look, this is urgent. An absolute emergency. I need you to call me back as soon as you get this. Okay? Please. I’m begging you,” I said.

  Then, I hung up the phone and leaned back into the cushions.

  It was going to be a long ass work day.

  21

  Stone

  My first alarm went off at five and I groaned. I felt like shit, but at least I’d slept. I threw the covers off me and laid there until my second alarm went off. And one by one, I heard other alarms going off in the lodge. I cleared my throat and laid there until my third alarm went off. Then, I finally managed to pull myself from bed. The fourth one went off before I was on my feet, and the fifth one finally prompted me to get my ass out of bed.

  “Coffee,” I murmured.

  I grabbed my phone without even looking at it. I shoved it into my pocket, running my fingers through my hair. I needed coffee. We all would. Coffee and a decent dinner that got our brains into gear. I heard someone padding down the hallway. Probably Texas, heading to fix us all something. He was the cooker of the gang. I didn't know how to microwave myself fuckin’ macaroni and cheese, much less throw together a damn meal. I pulled myself from my room and shuffled down the hallway, finding Texas shirtless and standing at the stove.

  “That how you cook for Ella and my niece?” I grumbled.

  “You really want the answer to that?” he asked, chuckling.

  I rolled my eyes as I made my way over to the coffee pot. The only good thing I made was coffee. And cinnamon rolls. Because of my mother, I could make some damn good cinnamon rolls from scratch. I mindlessly went through the motions of making coffee while Texas fried up some bacon, and one by one the other two guys trickled into the kitchen.

  “Steak and eggs or hashbrowns and eggs?” Texas asked.

  “Steak,” we all murmured.

  “I don’t even know why I asked,” Texas said.

  “Me neither,” Notch said as he flopped down at the kitchen table.

  We all ate and stuffed ourselves with coffee, slowly coming back to life. The sun started to sink heavily over the treetops, and six o’clock quickly rolled around. I looked at Bronx and Notch before they nodded and got up, taking their dishes to the sink. I was always the one to clean things down. But tonight, that shit would have to wait.

  We had two hours to piece ourselves together and get this shit organized before we headed out.

  I went back into my room and shoved into the little bathroom attached to the damn thing. It barely held the shower I never used. But it was what it was. I splashed water in my face and brushed my teeth, slowly feeling the caffeine doing what it needed to do. I ran some water through my hair to make myself not look so mangy. Then, I slipped my boots and my jacket on before going and making one last pot of coffee.

  “One for the road, gentleman,” I said.

  We all raised our mugs of coffee and clinked them in the air. We were all ready to go, awake, and alert. I chugged it back black, shaking the last of the cobwebs from my mind. I focused myself on the task at hand, then ran down the plan one last time for the guys. I had them repeat their part back to me, making sure they understood what we needed to be doing where, and what time we needed to be doing it.

  Then, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

  “The fuck is calling you?” Texas asked.

  I ignored the call, but the vibration quickly started up again.

  “What if it’s Cheng?” Notch asked.

  “That asshat wouldn’t risk calling me so—”

  The vibrating happened again, and this time it pissed me off.

  “Hold on,” I grumbled.

  I ripped my phone out of my pocket only to see that Hayley was calling. And she hadn’t just called two times. She had called multiple times. Dozens of times since lunchtime today. My eyebrows hiked up as I held up my finger to the guys. Then, I turned my back and walked into the corner.

  She ringed in with yet another phone call and I picked it up in a hurry.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Don’t go tonight,” Hayley said.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

  “I can’t really talk right now. What is it you need?” I asked.

  “This is important and I need you to listen. It’s almost six thirty, so you have to listen to me. We don’t have much time. Don’t go tonight,” she said.

  “I can’t do this right now. I have some things to do, then—”

  “Don’t go, Stone. Please,” she begged.

  “Whatever this is, it’s going to have to wait. I’m at work and—”

  “No, this has to happen now. Stone, you need to listen to me.”

  “No, you need to listen to me. We’ll talk about this later,” I said.

  “No, now.”

  “No, later.

  “My last name is Woolf!” she yelled.

  I paused. “What did you say?”

  “I don’t use my last name on my card because it hurts too much. Around here, when I tell them my last name, everyone says I look just like my mother. And it hurts. So, I use my middle name on all my stuff. My name is Hayley Woolf, and I’m Detective Woolf’s daughter. You know, Boulder.”

  There were so many things that ran through my head in that moment. Confusion. Frustration. Idiocy. Guilt. I felt the rug slip out from underneath me and the burn of my ego crashing to the ground was too much to bear. My skills really were slipping. My ability to read people really was swirling down the fuckin’ drain. But the one thing that overpowered all of that was my anger.

  It consumed me, from my nose to my toes.

  “How the fuck do you know any of this?” I growled.

  “We have to talk. I’m serious,” she said.

  “Where? And I’m not asking when, because you’re going to make it as soon as possible. Got it?”

  “Not a problem. I’m off work today. Meet me at my place. As quickly as you can get there. And please, leave the illegal guns wherever you are. I’d like to know you won’t shoot me on the spot before I can prove I’m still on your side.”

  “Illegal—”

  “My place, as soon as you can get here. The door will be unlocked,” she said.

  Then, she hung up the phone.

  I clenched my new p
hone in my hands, ready to throw it into the wall. It was a bad habit I needed to quit, but if there was ever a moment to break something, this was it. I shoved the damn thing back into my pocket and roared out into the room. I let all the pain and the misery and the anguish and the fear and the doubt roll up my throat in one massive, wall-shaking roar. Veins in my neck bulged. My vision dimmed in and out. I grew dizzy with the effort before I drew in a deep breath.

  And when I turned around to face the guys, all of them looked afraid.

  Of me.

  “You good?” Texas asked, quirking an eyebrow.

  “I have to go take care of something,” I said.

  “What? Now?” Notch asked.

  “I’ll be back soon. Within the hour, if possible,” I said.

  “Wait a second, you’re actually leaving when we’ve only got two hours to prepare ourselves? Not even?” Bronx asked.

  “I’ll be right back!” I exclaimed.

  I eyed each of them hotly before I reached for the door. I ripped it open and stormed out onto the porch, leaving them behind without even closing the damn thing behind me. I jumped off the porch and into the dirt, feeling it kick up around me in a cloud. And as I strode for my bike, only one thing rattled at the forefront of my mind.

  You’re the biggest fuckin’ idiot around.

  22

  Hayley

  I paced back and forth across the living room of my apartment. I’d gotten off the phone with Stone twenty minutes ago, and he still hadn’t showed up. Granted, I didn’t know where the hell in the city he was. For all I knew, it’d take him an hour to get to my place. I wrung my hands and raked my fingers through my hair. I downed water like it was my life’s purpose. I always got so dehydrated whenever I got nervous. And I was very nervous to confront Stone about all this. I knew it was for his own good. For the club’s good. But I heard the anger in his voice. I knew what would be going through his mind the second he got to my place.

  A heavy knock on my door pulled me from my trance, and I jumped.

  “Open this door, Hayley.”

  His voice growled. But not the pleasant kind of growl I had become addicted to. The hairs on the back of my neck stood as I paused in my living room. Was it smart to open the door? I mean, he sounded angry. I knew he’d be packing heat. Especially if my father’s file was correct in all the things his club did. It took me a second to move. To get to the door and rip it open.

  But when I did, Stone charged into my place.

  “What the—”

  “Was it a set up?” he asked.

  He whipped around, eyeing me heavily as I closed the door. My eyes danced along his body. I found his hands balled into fists at his side and his nostrils flaring. Anger permeated his face, wrinkling his brow and furrowing his eyebrows. He ground his teeth together. His temples pulsed. I stared into the eyes of heated lava. A man who had been devoured by whatever his mind had convinced him of along the way.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You heard me, Hayley. Cough it up. Was it a set up? Did your father make you sleep with me or something to get close to the club?” he asked.

  Out of all the things I expected, that wasn’t one of them.

  “Wow, you really don’t know me at all, do you?” I asked.

  “No, I obviously don’t. You’re the daughter of the man who infiltrated our ranks. Who’s hunting us down like animals! Now, answer my question.”

  “Not until you lower your voice in my apartment.”

  “I’ll speak to you however I damn well please.”

  I rushed in front of him, standing on my tiptoes and looking him square in the face.

  “Lower. Your fucking. Voice,” I said curtly.

  He puffed air through his nose as I settled back down onto my feet. I took a few steps away from him, trying to put some distance between us. I turned my back to him to give myself some time to gather my thoughts so I could answer his questions appropriately.

  “I don’t have a lot of time,” Stone said.

  I whipped back around, facing him. “My father didn’t dictate me to sleep with you. No one dictates what I do or don’t do with my body. Let’s get that straight right now.”

  His eyes connected with mine before he nodded.

  “And another thing, you don’t get to barge into my place because you’re pissed. Had I put this all together sooner, I would have come to you sooner. Because I don’t agree with the witch hunt my father has been conducting. I just didn’t know who he was hunting until this morning. And I gave you the courtesy of calling. Understand that.”

  He gritted his teeth. “Yeah.”

  “Yeah. More like ‘thank you,’ would be appropriate. But I’m not looking for perfection. No, Stone. My father didn’t order me, like some whore, to sleep with you.”

  “That wasn’t what I—”

  “Shut up!” I exclaimed.

  He sighed, his shoulders finally relaxing and his fists unballing.

  “I had no idea about what my father was working on. He never talks about his work. But I know he’s been consumed by something lately. After going on an undercover operation for almost seven fucking months, I hadn’t seen or heard much from him. At all. He’s mentioned enough along the way for me to put together that whatever he encountered on that op he ran was fueling his work currently. And since you wouldn't give me any information about what you do or who you do it with, I decided to ask my father if he knew anything about The Lost Boys.”

  “You what?” he asked.

  “His response to me is what prompted me to start digging. To take a look in his office. I asked him who you guys were, if he knew anything about you. And all he told me to do was stay away before he placed a call to someone on his team. He slipped out onto the porch, I slipped into his office, and the damn file folder on all of you was just sitting on his desk.”

  “Did you look in it?” he asked.

  I nodded. “That’s when I knew I needed to call you.”

  I watched him disarm himself for a second before his eyes grew hard. His fists balled up again and all those walls went flying back up.

  “How the hell am I supposed to believe you?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “Sounds like a personal problem. But if you need proof, I took pictures on my phone of the papers in the file folder my father has on you and your crew.”

  “Let me see it.”

  “No.”

  “Then, maybe you don’t really have them,” he said.

  “The man is still my father, and I still respect his work. I took it for personal purposes. To figure out what the fuck was going on. Not so I could hand over information. But here’s what I know. I know you and your guys run guns and launder money. I know you do it through a bar you guys own on the outskirts of the city. I know you work with guys by the name of Texas, Notch, and Bronx. And I know what they look like.”

  I watched the man’s face redden with anger.

  “I know there are two girls connected to you. Ella and Keva,” I said.

  “What?” he asked hotly.

  “There’s a great deal of information on you guys in that folder. My father’s been thorough. There are mentionings of some guy named Jett. Killed, apparently, or something like that.”

  “You don’t understand a damn thing you’re talking about right now,” he growled.

  “No, I don’t. But I figured reading the pages in that file were the closest I’d ever get. And maybe I’m weird to assume that after a couple of pity fucks, you’d actually tell me about yourself. So, I suppose you’ve become a weakness to me.”

  “Wait, did you say ‘pity fuck?’” he asked.

  “Don’t change the subject. You’re going to want the rest of my story.”

  “No, you’re not changin’ anything. Did you just accuse me of pity fucking you?”

  He grew closer to me. Slowly. Deftly. He moved with grace and loomed over me with a strength that made my heart stop in my chest. I backed all the way into the wall. I pres
sed my hands into it. I felt his body heat coming for me as he grew closer, his eyes holding my gaze. I watched them darken. I watched an angry, frustrated fire ignite behind his eyes. He stood toe to toe with me as I swallowed hard, looking up into his face.

  “Let’s get one fuckin’ thing straight,” he said.

  “And—and what’s that?” I asked.

  “Out of all the things we’ve done together, never once have I pity fucked you. You’re better than that, and so am I. I fucked you because I wanted to. Because your body calls to me. Because you’ve got curves I want to memorize and because my taste for you is insatiable. I fucked you because I wanted to. Because I needed to. And I came back for seconds and sure as hell will come back for thirds. And fourths. And fifths, until you kick me out of your fuckin’ bed. Is that understood?”

  His words pierced through me like lightning. Carved through me like softened butter. It was the most wondrous thing anyone had ever said to me, and I wanted to kiss him. Wrap myself around him. Take him, over and over, and forget this bullshit fight.

  “Do you, Hayley Woolf, understand?” Stone asked curtly.

  “Yes,” I said breathlessly.

  His hand fisted my hair and brought my lips to his. I collapsed against him, my hands running all over his leather jacket. I wrapped my arms around him and clung to him, feeling his tongue push between my lips. He stumbled me back into the wall, pinning me against his strength as our teeth clattered and our lips swelled against one another’s.

  And when our foreheads fell together, I gasped for air.

  “Tonight is a set up,” I whispered.

  His nose nuzzled against mine. “How do you know that?”

  “My father’s conversation. After I uh…”

  His lips fell to my cheek and my knees weakened.

  “After I got done in his office, I heard him talking about a plan. How my father would have ‘them’ right where his team wanted ‘them.’ He told someone on the other end of the line to get set up for tonight. Whatever you’re doing tonight, it’s a set up. You can’t go.”