Dancing with Satan: A Young Adult Romance

by Kayley Shaye

  “We didn’t, obviously, or I would’ve lost my pants a long time ago.” Ryder smirked.

  I glared at him because I was so pissed that I couldn’t do anything else at the moment. Breaking eye contact, I looked down at the floor to find my clothes. I wasn’t even going to ask how they got there because I knew the last thing I was wearing was my bikini, which by the way, wasn’t anywhere to be found.

  “Just . . . turn around and let me change. I’m late for school, and my parents are going to throw a fit.” It was already 9 AM.

  “Fine,” he muttered and did as I told him.

  I put on my underwear and bra first, followed by my jeans, shirt, and jacket. Looks like I would be wearing them to school because I couldn’t go back home to change and still make it to school in time to even try and remotely get anything done. It was my senior year, and I really needed to get my act together.

  “Do you think you could drop me off at school? My bike is still at the beach, I think.”

  “Yeah, sure. Come on.” Ryder threw a white shirt over his head and again, I wasn’t going to ask where it came from. Maybe someone tossed our clothes in there for us . . . great, another reason for embarrassment. That is why, kids, you don’t get drunk at the beach on a school night. Then again, you only live once.

  I shoved my gun into the back of my jeans waistband again and followed beside Ryder until we entered the main room. Of course, it was full and of course, every pair of eyes in the room snapped on us. If that wasn’t bad enough, to my dismay, they started smirking big time.

  “Did you two have fun last night?” Liam asked. The lion tattoo he had on his chest was visible now.

  “We . . . Nothing happened,” I muttered, knowing full well that I was blushing. “The questions are: How did we get there, and why the hell did you guys leave us in the same room together?”

  “We all had to pitch in, ya know, because we were drunk. You were clinging onto Ryder like a koala, so I decided not to try and pull you apart.” Liam chuckled. “We were too drunk to care, and you needed to get laid anyway.”

  I slapped my hand over my eyes, groaning. It was so embarrassing. “Well, that didn’t happen. Thank God.”

  “Don’t let that happen again,” Ryder muttered, glaring at everyone. I was right with him.

  “I hate you all so much.” I let a small smile break through as I headed towards the door.

  “Oh, and Sage?” Damien called. His hair was pulled back nicely into a long ponytail.

  “Yeah?” I asked, turning around.

  “Your parents have been ringing me all morning, so you might want to take care of that.”

  “Dammit!” I totally forgot again. “Thanks for letting me know. Come on, Ryder.”

  “I’ve got a killer headache,” Ryder groaned once we were in the car heading towards my school.

  “Don’t I know it. I forgot to get the Tylenol before we left.” I rubbed my temples as the pain increased. I should’ve known better than to drink on a school night. Now, I had to go through seven hours of hell.

  Ryder nodded and pulled up to the school. I really hated it there.

  “Do you mind calling my parents and letting them know I’m alive?” I asked. “I don’t exactly have time right now.”

  “Yeah, I’ll let them know. Want me to send someone out to get your bike and bring it here for you?” Ryder asked.

  “If you don’t mind. I won’t have any other way home. Anyway, I’ll see you later.” I waved and shut the door to his car.

  “Bye.” I heard him shout after me. I entered the big high school quickly and let out a sigh. It was going to be a long day, and I knew I was about to get yelled at for being late.

  Not to mention I had to face my parents later on for never showing up the night before like I promised. Nothing good was going to come out of that day, and I knew it.

  ***

  “What the hell happened to you?” Devin asked as I stumbled into the clubhouse. I had dried blood running down from my nose to my chin. I looked over at him. His brown hair was spiked as usual, and his hazel eyes were filled with concern.

  I broke eye contact for a moment, looking around and finally realizing that no one else was around, just me and Devin. “I got into a fight at school,” I said slowly.

  “I hope the other person looks worse,” Devin replied. He tried to lighten the mood while sitting at the bar with a beer in hand. Typical.

  I smiled. “I may or may not have broken her nose.”

  Devin smirked, patting the bar stool next to him. I walked over, pulling my jacket tighter to me and took a seat by him. “What happened?” he asked.

  “This girl started talking trash. It was so ridiculous. I don’t even know the bitch. Anyway, I finally had enough and slammed her face into the locker. Needless to say, she took a swing at me, and before I could do anything else, the teachers pulled us apart,” I explained.

  “Obviously, they sent us home,” I finished.

  “Well, maybe that’ll teach her a lesson. If not, she’ll have us to go through.” Devin chuckled.

  “It isn’t exactly any of your business. What are you going to do if she messes with me again, kill her?” I muttered sarcastically.

  “Anyone that messes with you is our business. And yeah, I would. So would Ryder, Liam, and Damien.”

  “Okay, okay, I get it, but I’ll take care of it. I know how to look after myself,” I told him.

  “Sure.” Devin rolled his eyes.

  “Don’t even start. I didn’t have a gun on me. I couldn’t have prevented Jesse from sneaking up on me like that. I know better than to forget my gun now.” I stood up and started wiping my face. The blood was really starting to irritate me.

  Devin just nodded and eyed me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing, just figured you should go clean up,” he said.

  “I’m going to, but first, where is everyone else?” I asked.

  “Does it matter?” Devin cocked an eyebrow.

  “Devin, where the hell are they?” Something was up.

  “Drug run,” he answered, then sighed. “You weren’t supposed to find out though.”

  “Are you kidding me?” I slammed my hand down on the table. “So what, you all thought you could hide it from me and I wouldn’t find out? How ignorant can you possibly be?” I spat.

  “Hey now, calm down. They’ll be back soon. You can take it up with Ryder. He was the one who told us to keep our mouths shut, so we did. Don’t take your anger out on me. I’m not in the mood,” Devin spat back.

  I was fuming by this time. I told Ryder to quit hiding things from me, but nope, you can’t get through that thick skull of his. “You better come get me as soon as they get back if I’m not around.” I stormed down the hall towards a bedroom. I couldn’t believe what they were doing. Well, actually, I could. It was totally something Ryder would do.

  ***

  I was sitting at the bar with a shot of vodka in my hand when the big doors of the clubhouse were pushed open so hard that they hit the walls with a thud. I stood up abruptly when I saw Ashton’s arm slung over Damien’s shoulders, obviously the only thing holding him up. My eyes trailed down lower and noticed that his hand was covering up a part of his side. Half of his shirt was soaked in blood.

  “Don’t you pass out on me,” Damien told Ashton as he dragged a chair out from the table and sat him down on it.

  Before I got a chance to ask anything, Ryder and Liam burst through the doors with the other guys.

  “Dude, you need to get me to the hospital. I’ve lost too much blood,” Ashton whispered.

  Ryder stepped into his line of view, shaking his head. “No, we can’t do that. The police will get involved, and we can’t have that. Look, we’ll get the bullet out and you’ll be fine.”

  I sighed in frustration as they all stood around staring at one another. “Well, are you going to help him or watch him bleed to death?” I asked in a deadly tone. The look on everyone’s face s
howed that I’d surprised them.

  Ryder muttered something that I didn’t catch and walked off, returning moments later with some gloves and tweezers. “Here.” He tossed them to Damien. I guess he was too good to help his own guy right now.

  I scoffed, earning a few glares in my direction. However, I didn’t care. I was pissed at them. All of them. “Ryder, can I have a word?” I asked.

  He turned towards me and headed off in the direction of the hall. I took that as a yes. Following after him, I stopped and looked over my shoulder. “Don’t let him die.”

  “Remember who you’re talking to,” Damien warned me. It had been a long time since he’d used that tone with me.

  “You took the words right out of my mouth,” I spat right back before turning on my heel. I found Ryder in the room that I had basically claimed as my own.

  “Why are you back from school?” he asked.

  “That doesn’t matter right now, so don’t even try to stall and get yourself out of this one,” I said.

  “What do you want?” Ryder asked.

  “I want to know why you thought it was a good idea to hide this from me! Hell, you even thought I wouldn’t find out about it,” I said. “How could you go behind my back again right after I told you to stop doing that?”

  “It wasn’t any of your business! You’re acting like you run this club. That isn’t how this works. This is my call, remember? You seem to be forgetting that lately,” Ryder said back.

  “That isn’t how it works, huh? Then, why the hell am I even here if all you are going to do is hide stuff from me? This is a club, right? That means every member should know about what’s going on around here. You seem to be forgetting that.” I threw right back into his face.

  Ryder looked slightly stunned that I was yelling at him. We hadn’t had a big fight like we had then in a long time, probably not since I was first sworn in at sixteen and that was only because I was stupid and naive.

  “Look, Sage, I just didn’t want you to get hurt. That’s all there is to it and that’s why I told everyone to keep their mouth shut,” he admitted, clenching his jaw.

  “You can’t do that anymore.” I lowered my voice, sucking back my emotions. “I knew what I was getting into when I first stepped foot into this place. Even at sixteen, I knew there was a chance that I could get hurt or worse, but did that stop me? Obviously not,” I said, holding my hand up so he knew I wasn’t finished yet.

  “I appreciate you trying to look after me, but I can handle myself,” I said.

  “I know that, but what if the Rebels come around again, Sage? We can’t lose you again. Who else is going to keep us in line?”

  “I’m not going anywhere, okay? Just please, let me know what goes on around here. I want to start going on runs with you guys like I used to, before you all fell head over heels in love with me and decided you weren’t going to let me out of your sight.” I chuckled and poked him in the chest.

  “Okay, fine.” Ryder caved in.

  I smiled and gave him a small hug before I stepped back towards the door. “And Ryder, I never would’ve gotten kidnapped if you would’ve informed me about that raid and the Rebels insisting that you owed them money.” I paused. “If I would’ve known, I’d have kept close to you guys and none of this would’ve ever happened.”

  Ryder chuckled, but it wasn’t sincere. “Yeah, I’m pretty stupid, aren’t I?”

  “Just a little.”

  ***

  “Were you selling or buying drugs?” I asked Liam as we sat in one of the bedrooms. I also kept an eye over Ashton who was in a stable condition then.

  Ashton was one of the guys who had no problems doing the dirty work. He was sworn in a year before me, and he was very important to the club. Ashton did anything that we asked him to do, no matter what it was. The Warriors had been his life for the last three years. He didn’t have any family; we were his family. We had been keeping an eye on him for about an hour, and no one wanted to leave him alone in case he took a turn for the worst. I was fine with watching him myself and then Liam showed up to my surprise. Someone probably put him up to it because it took a lot to drag him away from his women. I think he used them to fill a void in his heart.

  “Selling, obviously. We didn’t have any money to spend considering the fact that we just got swiped of 20k,” he muttered.

  “Wasn’t my fault.” I smacked him lightly.

  “Yeah, yeah. Anyway, they didn’t think the cocaine was legit and thus, shit hit the fan quick,” Liam explained.

  “Was it?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “Of course it was legit. What type of people do you take us as, assholes who rip people off?” Liam asked.

  “Well, we have done that . . .” I chuckled. “So you didn’t get the money?”

  Liam turned in his chair and looked at me like I had three heads. “You don’t seem to have much faith in us.”

  I sighed. “So, you did get it?”

  “Duh, right after we shot those assholes and searched through the back of their van,” Liam replied in a cocky tone.

  “What a surprise. You fools are lucky you didn’t get caught. Should’ve been more careful,” I told him.

  “We were careful. It’s not our fault those bastards couldn’t tell the difference between legit coke and fake stuff.” He downed the rest of his beer and tossed it out.

  “I guess you’re right.” I nodded. I glanced down at Ashton’s sleeping body.

  “I’m always right.”

  Chapter Eight

  It had been about two weeks since Ashton got shot. Needless to say, he was fine and was back on his feet about a week later. He’s one tough bastard, I’ll give him that.

  I had to sit down and talk with my parents after I never came home the night of the party, and they simply put one rule into place, which was that I call to let them know where I was and when I was going to be home. I didn’t have a problem with that. At least, it hadn’t tried to stop me from going to the clubhouse altogether. So, all in all, we were on good terms.

  “When’s the next run?” I asked. The whole club had gathered together one night to discuss some things. I was back on the couch with a beer and a cigarette.

  “Tomorrow,” Damien replied gently. Being Ryder’s right-hand man, Damien was typically a very calm and collected individual. He was not high strung like Liam was, and that was something I admired. I could compare him to that of a father figure.

  “And am I allowed to go, or do I get to sit around here playing house?” I asked.

  “You can go.” Ryder rolled his eyes.

  A smug look crossed my face, and I let out a sigh. I must have definitely put him in his place with our talk two weeks back.

  “Listen up, guys.” Ryder stood up and stopped speaking for a moment to get everyone’s attention. “This run is going to be big and probably dangerous. I need you all to understand that,” he started. He had my attention with that. “Damien and I have set up an agreement with another club. They want to buy some guns from us.”

  “Let me guess, they aren’t going to be getting any guns, are they?” Liam asked as he chugged an energy drink.

  “Nope. We’ll go in there with guns blazing, get the money, and get the hell out. We’re in a tight spot right now financially, and we can’t afford to sell off those guns,” Ryder explained.

  Oh great, he just keeps reminding me that we’re broke because of the 20k he had to pull together to get me out.

  “And what if the tables turn on us?” Devin asked.

  “That’s a risk we’re going to have to take. We need this money if this club is going to survive. All of you need to be on top of your game,” Ryder continued. “Every member is coming.”

  “What?” I yelled. “You know how stupid that is? They could wipe out the whole club if they had the mind to do it!”

  “That’s a risk we have to take,” Ryder answered, repeating his words. “You wanted to come and now, I’m giving you a chance. Don’t screw it up.�
��

  “You better hope this doesn’t backfire on us, Ryder.” My wheels were turning.

  “Let me worry about that. You all need to prepare. This isn’t a joke by any means.”

  “Which club are we meeting up with?” Ashton asked.

  “That doesn’t matter right now. You’ll find out soon enough, and trust me, you’d probably sleep better at night not knowing.”

  “Great,” I muttered. Don’t get me wrong. I was happy to be going on another run, but I figured he’d at least let me go on a safer one first before throwing me literally into the gunfire. I guess it was a good thing we were very skilled when it came to guns though.

  A couple of the guys had even been in the military before the club, such as Damien, so we had that advantage as well.

  “Is that all?” Liam asked. He was getting hyped up.

  “Yeah, that’s it. Just get ready and get a good night’s sleep. We’ll leave by sunrise, and we have a half-hour drive over to the warehouse. We’ll discuss this more in the morning.”

  “Sounds good, Pres,” A few people replied before heading off into their rooms for the night. Almost all of the guys lived in the clubhouse because it was simply easier. That’s why I was considering moving there too, but first, I had to take it up with my parents so they wouldn’t have heart attacks.

  “I guess I’m going to try and get some sleep,” I told Ryder. I stood up from the couch and headed in the direction of my room.

  “Don’t forget to call your parents. I don’t want them showing up here in the morning,” Ryder said, then he spread out across the couch.

  “I already told them I was staying here tonight. It’s all good. See you in the morning,” I told him.

  “Night.” I heard him call back.

  Now for sleep, I thought, if only I could calm my nerves of what tomorrow would bring.

  ***

  “Everyone has at least two guns and a knife?” Ryder asked as we all stood outside the clubhouse by our bikes.

  “Yeah, we’re locked and loaded,” I said, stuffing a pistol into my holster. I had a knife in my boot, a gun strapped around my waist, and another pistol strapped around my thigh. We looked like the damn SWAT team minus the vests and helmets.