Cruz : A Dark MC Romance (A Dark and Dirty Sinners’ MC Book 5)

by Serena Akeroyd

  Frowning, I asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “David’s been my shadow since the last year of my apprenticeship in New Orleans,” she whispered. “He was obsessed with me. That’s what this is about. He was trying to show me that you couldn’t be trusted.” She swallowed. “Apparently he was right.”

  “No, he wasn’t,” I countered, annoyed as hell that she was questioning me. “For fuck’s sake, Indy, are you going to take a goddamn stalker’s word over mine?”

  “Apparently he’s been listening in to shit that I’m not able to hear… He said the woman in the photo is a Fed. Is that true?”

  “It’s true,” I confirmed, regret hitting me when she released a pain-filled gasp. “But, what he didn’t tell you, is that she’s my mother.”

  Her eyes rounded. “No. No way. The Sinners would never have let you in if you had ties to law enforcement.”

  “Well, I’m a brother, and I’m privy to a lot of their secrets, so I can tell you, categorically, that’s not true.” I gritted my teeth when her hands clenched around the gun. “Indy, put the damn gun down. You’re not going to shoot me.”

  A shaky laugh escaped her. “No? Aren’t I? You’ve seen what I can do—”

  I eyed David’s body, unable to feel sorry for the fucker when he’d been spying on us.

  Only the council had known about my mother, only they’d known where I was going that day. So unless David had just followed me to NYC, and it had been luck or a coincidence, that meant someone had told him where I was going.

  I believed in neither luck nor coincidences, however, which meant there was someone definitely on the inside.

  It wouldn’t be a brother. We knew the risks of turning rat, and a bullet hole between the eyes or a pair of scissors to the gullet wouldn’t be the end. No, those fates would be relatively pleasant in comparison to what happened to men who betrayed the MC.

  That meant it was a woman.

  I discounted the Old Ladies because they knew shit about the place, Lodestar—well, she seemed a likely option considering I’d seen her break Dog’s fucking neck. There were the clubwhores who fit the MO better, though. I highly doubted Lodestar would work with someone like David, whereas clubwhores were like rats abandoning a sinking ship—they always tried to find dry ground before anyone else and didn’t care how or who they screwed to find it—and they not only had more access but knew the place like the backs of their hands because the clubhouse, depressing though it might seem, was the center of their universe.

  Had to be one of them.

  While I needed to inform the council of the threat, more than anything, David’s body was the priority. And Indy’s safety.

  “I need to dispose of the body, Indy. I’m not about to get the police involved in this. I don’t particularly want the Sinners to know he’s dead either—”

  “Why? So you can keep the truth from them? That you are really a fucking narc?”

  “No, because I don’t want them to know we have a leak. At least, not the lower ranks.” I reached up and plucked my bottom lip. “I’m going to get my cell phone. It’s in my left jeans’ pocket.” Then, because I’d be pissed if she did, I groused, “There’s no need to shoot it out of my hand. I’m going to call Nyx.”

  She blinked at me. “What? Why? Nyx? What can he do?”

  “Confirm everything I’ve said, all while keeping this shit under wraps.”

  Her mouth trembled. “You’re really going to call Nyx?”

  I scowled at her, not appreciating her lack of faith when I’d gone out of my way to prove that she could trust me over our time together. “Yeah, I am.”

  A shaky sob escaped her, and within seconds, the gun was on the bench, and she was flinging herself toward me. At first, I wasn’t sure if she was going to hit me or hug me, then she burrowed into me, her arms coming around my waist in a chokehold that spoke of her distress.

  Indy wasn’t affectionate by nature, something that made complete sense to me now, but apparently after killing someone, she was.

  Who knew?

  Unashamedly taking advantage of the rare embrace, I hugged her back and murmured, “The council knows about my mother. I swear to you, Indy. I have no need to lie to you about that.”

  Her sobs echoed in my head, and the fact I’d promised myself to protect her, to keep her safe, only for shit to turn around like this, was an ice pick to the skull I wasn’t sure I’d ever heal from.

  “Why did you kill him?” I whispered, my arms tightening about her when she froze in my arms.

  “He backed me into a corner.” She pulled back to stare at me with tear-sore eyes, her eyelashes bunching together in tiny triangles that glistened with droplets. “No man will ever back me into a corner again.”

  The vow came from an adult, but I only heard the whisper of a little girl who’d been betrayed by someone close to her, who swore she’d never let herself be vulnerable again.

  I wasn’t the most emotional of men. I preferred cold logic, reason, and hard science to feelings. But for that little girl, I almost started crying too.

  Palming the back of her head, I shoved her face into my throat, turned mine into her hair and just held her.

  “Cruz, what do I do?” she whispered rawly. “I-I wasn’t thinking, not really. I grabbed the scissors before he pulled the gun on me, but when he cocked it, I just reacted. I wasn’t thinking,” she repeated. “But then, he was threatening us all. I knew he’d put the MC in danger—I couldn’t let him—”

  I hushed her. “It’s okay. I’ll sort it out.”

  She shook her head, making the silk of her hair brush against the prickly stubble on my cheek. “That isn’t fair to you.”

  “Fair? Indy, this is what I do. This is my job.” Not just getting rid of corpses, but protecting her. Tangling my fingers in her hair, I stroked them along the short length of black silk, comforting us both as I murmured, “You forgot that, didn’t you? When he was spouting shit in your ear?”

  “I never knew for certain that was what you did, though,” she reasoned dully. “No one ever said it out loud.”

  “And I’m not now. But you know what I’m saying, don’t you?” In her ear, just in case David’s spying involved listening devices, I whispered, “I’ve cleaned up messier scenes for punier reasons.” I kissed the crown of her head. “Everything will be okay. I want you to go upstairs, get a shower, clean off—”

  “He didn’t touch me,” she argued.

  “No?” Something settled inside me. I mean, I wasn’t fucking happy about any of this, but at least the fucker hadn’t tried something on.

  “No.”

  “Well, good. Then take a bath. Just relax, okay? I’m going to sort this out. Nyx will as well.”

  She peered up at me with terrified eyes, but her words weren’t scared, they were strong. God, this woman, my woman, was such a fucking fighter. “Look, you don’t have to get involved in this. I’ll go to the cops.”

  “And be vilified like Giulia was?” I shook my head. “That’s not going to happen. I won’t allow it or anyone else to hurt you, do you hear me?”

  “I-I hear you,” she whispered, a welter of emotion in her eyes that I wasn’t used to seeing.

  Christ, I felt it too. Like a mirror image.

  I patted her ass, not hard enough to hurt but a sharp tap that would stir her into moving.

  It worked. Like I’d known it would.

  We’d never had the usual negotiations where it came to a Dom/sub relationship, didn’t even have a safe word. For anyone else, that’d be a red warning sign that flashed, but I’d kill myself before I pushed Indy too far. She hadn’t cared enough about herself to think about a safe word, but now, with the trust between us, I knew it wasn’t necessary.

  And getting rid of a body was only one way in which I could prove how much she meant to me…

  With regret, she pulled back, the way she lingered telling me she didn’t want to be anywhere but my arms, then she bit her lip as
she looked down at David. Seeing the play of emotions in her expression, knowing the sight of him had frozen her in place, I grabbed her shoulder and steered her out of the room, pushing her toward the door.

  Only when I heard her Converse trudging up the stairs did I pull out my phone and call her brother: “Nyx? I need your help. Maybe Maverick’s too.”

  Keira

  “Honey? Do you want some popcorn?”

  Silence.

  Deadly. Silence.

  I sighed, reached up and rubbed at my tired eyes before I twisted around and returned to the kitchen.

  All those years ago, when I’d shacked up with Storm, I’d never have imagined that I’d be living on the compound of the MC I loathed, with an eleven-year-old daughter who hated my guts, or that I’d be bunking with a woman I was pretty sure was a criminal who’d kidnapped her foster daughter.

  Shit, there was so much wrong with that sentence that I didn’t even know where to start.

  To be fair, everyone on the compound was into something illegal. Except me, of course. I was too boring by half to be anything other than the goodie two shoes I was. Just call me goddamn Pollyanna.

  As for Lodestar and Katina, if I had to bunk with anyone, they were really nice. Friendly. Gave us space, and we gave them room too. Although it was a little different for us.

  Lodestar spent most of her time in the main clubhouse, tucked away with Maverick in his attic. Katina seemed to float around between this bunkhouse, the clubhouse kitchen, and the bunkhouse where her sister was living with two others—women, or girls really, who’d experienced things no woman wanted their daughter to ever go through.

  Unlike Katina, Cyan, my little girl, rarely budged from the bunkhouse unless I took her to gymnastics or to her babysitter’s place, because even though her daddy was now the Prez of a Sinners’ chapter, we’d never really been brought around the clubhouse all that much so the brothers didn’t know her. They didn’t know me, either.

  To them, I wasn’t Keira. I was just Storm’s Old Lady. Because even though I was his ex, to them, I’d still be his Old Lady until he got another one. Which I doubted would be happening any time soon. Maybe never. Storm wanted me back, after all. Plus, he had no need to be saddled down with another bitch. He was more than happy with the clubwhores who sucked him off without expecting him to do chores on the rare occasions he was home.

  Unlike Giulia, Tiffany, and Lily, I wasn’t a part of the Sinners. I was just an add-on. Cyan was too. Yet even though I’d always been disparaging about them, they’d opened the gates for us, and put a roof over our head and food in our bellies. I wasn’t sure whether to be surprised or simply grateful.

  “She’ll come around.”

  I jolted in surprise, twisting so I could see Lodestar standing in the doorway. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

  Her smile was unnerving. “That was my intention.”

  My nose crinkled. “Do you try to be creepy?”

  The smile blossomed into a wry grin. “Nope, but I usually manage it without trying.” She winked at me. “I’ll have some popcorn.”

  Taken aback because, thus far, Lodestar hadn’t really taken much notice of me, I murmured, “Oh! Well, I was going to watch something on TV. Do you want to join me?”

  “Gladly.”

  Pleased that this wouldn’t be another lonely night in front of the TV with no one but myself for company, I dumped the bag of cheesy popcorn into the microwave, then grunted when my cellphone rang. The ringtone was ‘West End Girls’ by the Pet Shop Boys. Why? Because I was a West End girl and Storm was an East End boy.

  Not literally, of course, but life didn’t have to be literal all the damn time, did it?

  Cyan, recognizing the song, practically skidded as she rushed out of her room and into the hall, her hands outstretched for my cell. I gave it to her, wondering what had happened these past couple of months to make her so broody and moody. I knew Storm leaving had upset her, but this change had been a gradual thing. His departure had been the opposite of that. One second, he’d been pleading with me to uproot Cyan and myself once more, the next he’d already been in goddamn Coshocton.

  “Daddy!” she squealed, making my heart melt and harden at the same time which made it a frickin’ miracle I didn’t flop around on the floor with a coronary.

  She was so excited to hear from him, and after her endless moods, it was a relief to behold. Then I felt guilty. But no one ever told you that you could love your kids, but you didn’t always have to like them. I’d go to frickin’ war for Cyan, but I’d pay a million dollars, I didn’t have, just for this dearth of grumpiness to dissipate.

  With one step toward the bedroom we shared now, she muttered, “Huh?” then twisted back around to face me, a glare marring the beauty of the smile she’d just bestowed on a father who…

  Ugh.

  I couldn't say he didn’t deserve her love. He did. He was a good dad, just a shitty husband.

  “Daddy wants to talk to you.”

  The word Daddy came out like she was talking about Justin Bieber, and the ‘you’ was more like she was talking to a pile of dog turds.

  Out of nowhere, her shoulders straightened though, and her eyes widened as she bit her lip. “Sorry, Daddy.” She blinked a few times, then, after swallowing, peered at me and whispered, “Sorry, Mom.” The phone was shoved at me, and she took off like a rabid dog was nipping at her heels.

  Lifting the cell to my ear, I murmured, “Thank you for that.”

  “There’s no need,” he said gruffly, and just the sound of his damn voice had me closing my eyes as I turned around to face the small kitchenette so Lodestar, who was watching on with interest, couldn't see my expression.

  I didn’t need her to know the truth—that I was still head over heels in love with my jerk, manwhore of an ex.

  It was a truth I wished I didn’t know, so sharing it with someone else was just too shameful for words.

  “She shouldn’t be talking to you like that.”

  I cleared my throat. “She’s just going through a phase.”

  “Doesn’t mean she gets to be rude to you.” He released a sigh. “It’s good to hear your voice, Keira.”

  My brow puckered at that, because he sounded genuine. As genuine as a liar like Storm ever could be. I’d say that he could sell bullshit to a rancher, but I was used to hearing those lies. Used to sensing the half-truths he couched in every word he uttered, except, here and now, I didn’t hear anything amiss.

  And as far as I was aware, there was no reason to have my guard up. What could he do to me while he was all the way over in Ohio?

  Aside from rupture the vows we’d made to each other time and time again, of course.

  “Are you okay?” was all I asked in response to his comment. I couldn’t tell him the truth, that it was good to hear from him too, but I could make sure the father of my baby was doing well. “How’s the transition going?”

  “It’s a clusterfuck,” he admitted gruffly. “It’s always difficult making shit right, but this is harder than I thought.”

  “Means it’s worth fighting for,” I murmured, my eyes on the microwave plate that was spinning around and around as popcorn kernels started to pop. “You know how bored you were here.”

  “Yeah, I do,” he agreed. “I’m pretty sure boredom was the reason I always got into so much goddamn trouble.”

  I narrowed my eyes at that. “Everything you did here—” It went unspoken that I was talking about his inability to keep his cock in his pants. “—you’d have done whether you were VP or Prez, Storm. You’re kidding yourself if you think otherwise.”

  He grunted. “Maybe.”

  “No maybe about it.”

  Silence fell, then he rumbled, “I miss you.”

  “Did you miss me when I was a twenty-minute drive away?”

  “You know I did.”

  “So why didn’t you come for me?” I retorted, brows pinching as I already knew the answer.

  “I tr
ied.”

  “You tried to worm your way back into my bed, sure. You never tried to stop doing the stuff that broke us up in the first place.” I jerked my chin up. “Look, I have plans tonight. I don’t want to rehash old stuff. Is there a reason you wanted to talk to me? I know Cyan must be bursting at the seams to speak with you.”

  “I miss her as much as she misses me.” Half expecting him to ask me to let her visit him, I was about to argue when he murmured, “I miss you as much as you miss me, Keira. Why do you fight this shit?”

  My eyes widened at his words, words he’d never uttered when we were together, never mind now we were apart.

  For a few seconds, I’d admit to being speechless, simply because I’d never anticipated him telling me anything like that. Storm had never been one to use words to woo me. He’d just used my body against me, a body that responded to him like gas did to the flame from a lighter.

  When you had that on your side, soft words, wooing… neither were exactly necessary.

  I gritted my teeth though, unable to fathom that he truly missed me because he’d never missed me before, and as stupid as it sounded, as much as I hated that Lodestar could hear this conversation, I whispered what had been my initial reaction to his remark: “You never missed me before.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. I always missed you. I was just too much of a dumb fuck to accept that what I felt for you wasn’t a weakness.”

  Anger surged inside me. “I’m sure that’s exactly what you were feeling when you were fucking clubwhores when I was pregnant,” I snarled, the rage spilling out of me in a way that it never had before.

  Even when I’d left him, packing up mine and Cyan’s things and slipping out of the house in broad daylight because I knew he wouldn’t be there to stop me, not when he hadn’t come back home in days already, I hadn’t been angry. I’d been resigned.

  My mother and father’s dire promises that he was bad news, that he was scum, that he was a Sinner, and in more than just the club he rode for… all the trash they’d spoken about him over the years had echoed in my head.