Bullet: An Alpha Male MC Biker Romance (Steel Knights Motorcycle Club Romance Book 2)

by Ivy Black

  “Sure,” I replied, and with yet another quick kiss, Harry finally let me go and made his way back to the pool table.

  Originally, I set a course directly for the bar, but decided against it. I was already struggling to keep my inhibitions in check around Harry without the aid of liquor. Instead, I scanned the bar for a free table, and though the place was packed, there was one small table in the furthest back corner away from all the action, that everyone seemed to have abandoned in the interest of being closer to something entertaining. I walked over and took a seat at one of the chairs and was glad for the clear shot it gave me of Harry and the others playing pool; that was, of course, until a body blocked my view. I looked up and Avery was standing above me with a pair of water bottles in his hand.

  He held one out with a smile. “I saw you do a complete one-eighty from the bar, so I’m guessing you don’t wanna drink tonight.”

  I took the other bottle, though tentatively. “Yeah. Thanks.”

  “Can I join ya?” he asked.

  The only other seat at the table was intended for Harry, but I supposed once he got there he could just tell Avery to move. “Sure.” Avery sat down in the other chair and grinned over at me. He was borderline dopey despite his good looks and I needed not wonder why none of the bar’s increased female population seemed to have their sights set on him. He was kind of intimidating by just how cheerful he seemed. “Avery, right?” I asked.

  “Or Bullseye, whatever you prefer,” he said. “Harry’s an introvert at his core, so he probably doesn’t consider me his best friend. I am though.”

  It was almost sad sounding. “He does,” I assured him right away. “He actually talked about you quite a bit on our first date. Said you brought him to the club and all that.”

  That seemed to improve Avery’s mood even more and I was becoming increasingly more nervous he was going to start shining like a light bulb. “Aw man, that’s awesome. Yeah, he’s like family to me, so I thought it was time you and I had a chat.”

  “So that’s what this is?” I asked. “You’re sussing out the girl dividing your friend’s attention?”

  He was mid-drink, and he choked a bit on the water. He coughed to clear his throat and then started laughing. “Damn, Harry was right, you aim straight. I like it.”

  “I find beating around the bush doesn’t get you many places.”.

  Avery let out a hum of approval. “No truer words. Well then, I’ll aim straight.” He looked over at me and his bright expression darkened significantly. He was still smiling, but it was as if he’d stepped out of the light and into a shadow. “Harry doesn’t really trust women a whole lot. Actually, he doesn’t really trust people in general. He’s more himself now than ever, and I can tell if you were to try and ghost him again, it’d crush him, so give it to me straight, since that’s what you’re good at. Is this just a game for you? If it is, end it now.”

  My heart started to slam in my chest. I hadn’t said more than a handful of words to the man, but it was like he could see straight through me. “This isn’t a game.” It wasn’t. My motives may have not been clear, but nothing about what existed between Harry and I was a game, it was serious, if even for a different reason. “I know that Harry and I got off on the wrong foot, but we’re doing good. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Is that right?” Just like that, his expression went light again. Either the guy was crazy, or there was a dark side to him that he was trying incredibly hard to keep at bay. “Good then. I just had to make sure, you know, ’cause Harry’s my guy.”

  As subtly as I could, I slid my chair a few centimeters further from Avery. “Of course. Hey, since we’re bonding, can you tell me what Harry’s hangup is on women? Did he get burned in a bad relationship or something?”

  “Harry’s never been with anyone the way he’s been with you,” he said, and it cut through me. Who was playing it straight now? “I’ve never known the details though. Something from when he was a kid, but he doesn’t like to talk about it.”

  Harry had mentioned that he was homeless for a while because he didn’t want to be at home, but I also knew he lost his birth father at some point and had lived with his foster father for many years.

  Was it his mother?

  I wanted to ask a few more questions. Get any information out of Avery that I could, even if it were details he didn’t think were important, but I could use to piece his story together, but before I could ask, Harry shook hands with Nick and then started making his way over to the table.

  Avery stood up as soon as Harry reached the table, tapped his shoulder, and walked off without saying a word. Harry settled in where Avery had been and looked over at me. “You were talking to Avery?”

  “Yeah. He was doing the whole protective best friend thing,” I replied. “It was cute.”

  “He’s kind of a dork that way. He was always dragging me around through campus and stuff. Making sure I ate, making sure I socialized. He’s kind of a mom.”

  I chuckled. “Pretty good mom.”

  He nodded. “He got the job done, that’s for sure.”

  “Well, I think I passed,” I said. “He said he was happy for us.”

  “Oh, did he?” He leaned over to me. “Congrats on getting past my mom.”

  Our lips melted together like they belonged that way and Harry’s hand found my leg under the table. A heat boiled up in the pit of my stomach that sizzled its way up to my ears and had them burning inside of ten seconds. “Let’s get out of here,” I huffed.

  “You have no idea how badly I want to,” Harry said back, “but I have to hang around just a bit longer. We have a prospect test today, and I’m one of the benchmarks.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Prospective members get tested on a variety of things over the course of six months to a year to make sure they’re up to the task of joining the Steel Knights. It’s a bunch of different stuff, but tonight, Nicky wants to make sure the prospects have the skills to handle their bikes. Bucky and I are two ends of the spectrum. When I open up, my handling gets better, when Bucky opens up, his gets more erratic, so we’re the benchmarks Nicky is gonna gauge the prospects against in a bike race.”

  “Your handling gets better?” I asked in disbelief, forgetting for a moment that Harry wasn’t aware that I knew about his accident from a few years ago.

  “Yeah?” he said. “My life and my bike are about the only things I protect with everything I’ve got, so when I’m really putting the pedal to the metal, I home in to make sure neither are at risk.”

  That didn’t make sense to me. Darrien had told me multiple times about the accident, and he always said it was Harry’s erratic handling that caused it. “I’ll be interested to see it,” I said.

  “Lucky for you, the race is starting in about five minutes.” He stood up from the table and stuck out his hand. “Come on. I’ll need my good luck charm there if I’m gonna win.”

  My heart stuttered, looking up at Harry’s gorgeous face backlit by the bar lights, but I ignored it as I reached out and took his hand and let him lead me from the bar and out into the night air. Word of the race must have spread because the bar’s patrons were spilling outside in throngs as the prospects were already pulling out their bikes and lining up on the street. Harry yanked me toward him with a strength that burned me up, kissed me, and then left my side to go and get his bike. He and the other member, Bucky, joined the line of bikes on the road, and Nick walked over to see them off.

  “All right kids, let’s be safe out there.” He pointed down the road to where the gas station about a mile down could just barely be seen. “You’re going down, circling the BP, and coming back. First one back wins, obviously, but it’s not all about winning, it’s about showing me you know how to handle your bike. Harry and Bucky are gonna be watching as well, so show us what ya got.” He pulled a gun out of the back of his waistband and stuck it in the air. “On your marks...” All the bikes rumbled up. “Get set...” A few of the
m throttled to showboat, and then Nick fired the gun and the roar the collective bikes let out was almost too much for my eardrums.

  They fired up, kicking up dust as they did, and blasted down the road. Whether he did it on purpose or not, I wasn’t sure, but Harry immediately dropped behind. He wasn’t behind for long though, as he ducked down and picked up the pace. He started to close in on one of the prospects and cut in front of him with expert precision. He slid his bike in and out of the other racers like he was threading a needle and my jaw dropped.

  He was right, his handling was astounding.

  For as long as I could, I kept a watch on Harry until he was over the hill and out of sight. Everyone standing around started to murmur about who they thought was going to win. The rumble of the racing bikes could be heard for the duration of the race, but they couldn’t be seen for a few minutes. Eventually, however, the roar started to get louder again as the bikes came thundering back down the street. It was the only female prospect who was leading the back, and right behind her was Harry. He was like a bullet. He didn’t veer or waver at all. Despite the fact that he was probably going ninety or more miles per hour, he was driving perfectly straight and he was gaining on the other driver fast.

  It wasn’t enough though, as she went blazing back past Nick at lightning speed, with Harry a few seconds behind her. They both went flying further up the road, as they worked to slow themselves down safely, and I watched as Harry decelerated at a much higher rate of speed than the other driver, and flip his bike around as if he’d been doing it since he was a child.

  My whole body shook with fear and rage and every other negative emotion I could muster.

  How could someone with handling skills of that caliber cause an accident that had made a car flip nine times? He had to just be driving recklessly for no reason. So it wasn’t even that it was an accident or a matter of road rage, when it came to that day and that car, Harry must have made an intentional decision to drive in a way that was dangerous for Darrien’s car. He didn’t seem like such a reckless and careless person, but as much as I wanted to confront him right then and there, I was shaking too much to do it. I got in my car and used the crowd gathering around the returned bikers as a distraction to make my escape.

  I didn’t want to play around with Harry anymore. If I never saw him again it would be too soon.

  Chapter Twelve

  Bullet

  The very first thing I did in the morning was check my phone, despite how angry that made me. I’d texted and called Celia a handful of times before finally falling asleep last night, and I didn’t get the best sleep in the world because I was so worried. People around the bar remembered seeing her get in her car and leave, but no one knew why she left. Before the race started, she was chomping at the bit to get out of there and go somewhere private with me, so what the hell happened between when we last spoke and when the race was over to send her off?

  There were no responses from Celia, so I threw down my phone and flopped back on my bed. I glanced over at the empty space and let out a frustrated grunt. Looking forward to coming back with her got me through the night; I just wished I knew why the sudden distance.

  Was she ghosting me again?

  I could draw a normal conclusion that it wasn’t me who upset her. She was fine when I started the race, and she was gone when I got done. Did she just panic? She’d mentioned being wary of commitments, and the last time her feelings got the better of her, she ran off.

  Maybe it was best to just leave her alone.

  No part of me was constructed to be a complicated guy. Everything growing up was complex and unknown for me. In truth, I hadn’t really spent all that much time thinking about a relationship in my life, but even I could determine that I wasn’t a guy who could deal well with a flighty woman. Not knowing what was going on in her head, not having any clue what was going to set her off next and have her ignoring me—I just wasn’t built for that. My time with Celia was nice, but even as wonderful as she was, it wasn’t worth the stress. Trust issues with women or not, I was not about to be taken advantage of.

  Although this certainly wasn’t improving my trust in women.

  I threw back the covers of my bed, trying not to let Celia get to me in that way. She’d wasted enough of my time, and after the breakthroughs I’d had after looking through Tess’ notes, or even talking with Seneca, I wanted to try and stay on a path to redemption.

  Not all women are like that.

  Maybe just the ones I invest any real emotions into?

  Whatever.

  The cats were scratching at the door, so my time to mull it over was gone, just like Celia. I climbed out of bed and went through my morning routine, feeding the boys, taking a shower, eating breakfast and eventually leaving for the club.

  To my surprise, when I got there, Seth was already there waiting. It was rare that anyone arrived earlier than me on any given day, but I was growing to like Seth quite a bit, so it didn’t bother me much to see him.

  “You’re up early,” I said as I approached the front door, fishing out my keys to let us in.

  “Nicky said you were always here at the crack of dawn, so I figured I’d better start getting used to it,” he replied.

  “Used to it?” I questioned, then it dawned on me. “Oh, right, you’re taking over the bookkeeping.” Between everything with Celia, it completely slipped my mind that everything was different starting today. I was officially the Vice President now, and Seth was taking over bookkeeping. “You have experience in it, right?”

  “Yeah. I never went to college formally or anything. Honestly, school has just never been my thing, but I’ve always been good with numbers. My mom was an accountant and I’d help her out, and I actually tutored kids in high school. Then my job up until I was offered this position was an office manager at this construction place. On paper, I wasn’t the accountant, but I was the only one there doing any accounting, so you tell me.”

  I let us into the Taphouse and led Seth back to the warehouse, grabbing a couple of bottles of water on the way. If only I hadn’t gotten so caught up, I may have actually formulated some sort of training plan. Winging it wasn’t my strong suit.

  “What did you have to do that was related to accounting?” I asked.

  Seth pulled out a chair at the big meeting table and sat down. “Well, every month I reconciled all the credit cards. I had to manage inventory. I ran all of the month-end reports and zeroed them out against our income and expenditures.”

  “Wow. You did all that without any formal training?”

  “Yeah. When I got there, some other lady was doing it, but she wouldn’t even show up to work half the time. It was causing trouble for everyone, so I sort of just taught myself how to do it. I’d ask questions of her here and there to try and learn more, but I think she thought she was indispensable and that was why she acted like that, so she didn’t want to share any trade secrets if you know what I mean.”

  “Didn’t work out well for her, did it?” I said.

  He let out a snicker. “No, it did not.”

  “Well, good. If you’ve done all of that then this stuff should come pretty easy to you, but don’t fret if it takes a little bit. Also, do you drink coffee?”

  “Uh, no,” Seth replied. “I mean I have before, I’m just not a coffee guy.”

  “You may want to become one. Nick’s on this whole kick of expanding things around here, and so I expect the bookkeeping part of this job is about to get a little more complicated. I’ll be here to help out whenever I can, just don’t be shocked. He’s energetic about it, so if he comes rambling to you at eight in the morning, you’ll want some caffeinated backup.”

  Seth nodded. “Got it. What kind of plans?”

  “Well, I don’t wanna get too into it without Nicky’s approval, but the main thing is that we’re going to be looking into building our own clubhouse. A place where the club can really hunker down and grow and thrive. A lot will be involved, as you know.”<
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  Seth held out his arms as if he had it all figured out. “I do know. I managed a construction office.”

  All my senses went dull for a second and then I let out a loud laugh. “Holy shit! You did just tell me that. I didn’t even put two and two together! You’re gonna be the fucking M.V.P.”

  He gave a slightly arrogant, proud smile. “Anything I can do to help, Vice Pres. I left on really good terms with my old company, too, so I bet I can get us the friends-and-family discount if we go with them.”

  “Can you set up a lunch or something and you, me, Nicky, can then talk it out and get a quote?”

  Seth nodded excitedly. “I’m all over it.”

  How lucky did we get? There was no way Nick knew the specifics of Seth’s accounting background, otherwise, he would have been twice as excited. Something in me shook a little with anticipation at dropping the good news. Part of Tess’ frustration with Nick, at least according to him, was that he always talked a big game, but never pulled the trigger. With Seth in such a good spot with a construction company, I could get the gears moving before Nick could throw a wrench in it and save him from himself. We could be breaking ground on the new clubhouse before the year was over.

  Seth started to snicker, and then clapped a hand over his mouth to prevent me from seeing. “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing, I just don’t think I’ve ever seen you excited like this before,” he said. “I mean, I know we haven’t known each other that long, but it doesn’t seem like this is something you do a whole lot.”

  He wasn’t wrong. In no time at all, I was already having fun in my new position, which was a little frightening. It helped that it couldn’t just stop returning my calls like some people I knew, but it made me realize how much investing in something new freaked me out.

  “Yeah, it’s new for me,” I admitted to Seth. “It’s good though. I’m excited.”