Carbon (Blackwings MC Book 4)

by Teagan Brooks

  He shrugged. “I knew no one would be wearing their cuts and she lets me fuck her however I want to. Saved me the trouble of having to go out and find a piece when the festivities were over.”

  “And the fake name?” I asked. His real name was Jacob Marks, not Jay Markus.

  He laughed. “That’s nothing new, brother. I’ve been using that name since I rolled into town. I thought you knew.”

  I shook my head, not believing this shit. I didn’t care for Hilarie, and I had no interest in having to deal with her for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, Shaker was also in the wedding party, which meant he wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon either. Sighing, I clapped his shoulder. “Just try to watch what you say. No one outside of the club knows the truth about my relationship with Harper, including Hilarie, and I would like to keep it that way for the time being.”

  “Is there a reason behind that?” he asked.

  “Yes, but I’m not going to share it with you right now. Just know it wasn’t ordered, but heavily suggested by Badger when he was standing in for Phoenix.”

  “Understood, brother.” He turned and headed toward Hilarie and Harper, who were now standing to the side of the dance floor talking.

  I stood there for a bit longer, just taking her in from afar. She was like a multifaceted jewel, beautiful and captivating from every angle, inside and out. Staring at her from across the dance floor, I decided I was going to ask her to marry me in the very near future.

  Startling me, Duke asked, “Who’s that with my sister and Shaker?”

  “You don’t know who that is?” Surely, he’d met Harper’s best friend.

  “No, should I?”

  “Yes, you should. That’s her best friend, Hilarie. They went to college together, and they work at the counseling center together. Hell, they even worked at The Booby Trap together.”

  I still hadn’t taken my eyes off of Harper, so I missed Duke’s jaw clenching and his fists balling. “The Booby Trap?” he asked.

  “Yeah, the strip club she used to work at. It’s where I met her,” I replied offhandedly.

  A flash of shimmery gold whizzed by me and slammed into Duke’s chest. “Dance with me, handsome,” my sister said and began pulling him to the dance floor.

  She was still facing me as she pulled him with her. She glared at me over his shoulder and mouthed, “You owe me.” Moving my gaze to Duke, I could practically see the fury rolling off of him. Oh shit. He must not have known Harper worked at The Booby Trap. And he didn’t know about Hilarie. What the fuck else had she hidden from him?

  I would have to tell her about my slip up eventually. For the time being, I pushed it to the back of my mind, tried my best to ignore Hilarie’s presence, and spent the rest of the evening with my arms wrapped around my girl.

  ***

  “Chase! Wake up!” I felt Harper’s little hands trying to shake me while she called my name.

  “What is it, baby?”

  She pointed to the nightstand. “Your phone keeps ringing.”

  I snorted. “You could’ve answered it.”

  Picking up the phone, I saw that it was way too damn early for us to be awake after the night we had. I also saw that I had three missed calls. Before I could look to see who called, my phone started ringing in my hand.

  “Carbon,” I answered.

  “It’s Coal. Phoenix wants you at the clubhouse now,” he said and disconnected. Coal’s frantic voice coupled with Phoenix’s early morning order to call the troops in caused an uneasy feeling to wash over me.

  I climbed out of bed and began quickly dressing. “I’ve got to go to the clubhouse. I don’t know what’s going on or how long I’ll be, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  “Be safe, Chase. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, baby.”

  We were supposed to stay at the clubhouse after the wedding because Phoenix didn’t want anyone who’d had even a drop of alcohol driving, but we hitched a ride in the limo when Ember and Dash left. Now, I wished we’d stayed.

  I walked into utter chaos when I arrived at the clubhouse. I didn’t live far from the clubhouse, but somehow, I still managed to beat Phoenix there, and he lived on the same damn property. “Somebody tell me what the fuck is going on!” he bellowed as he plowed through the front doors.

  When I learned that our one and only prisoner had escaped from the makeshift jail we had hidden away in our basement, I knew I wouldn’t be getting back to Harper anytime soon. Sighing, I pulled my phone out and sent her a text letting her know that I would be gone for the better part of the day. I felt torn. I wanted to spend the day with Harper, especially since our time together was limited, but I also wanted to be there for my brothers.

  Harper replied back and let me know that she was going to meet Hilarie for lunch and some shopping. I turned to Shaker who was seated to my right. “You left that girl in your apartment alone?”

  “I didn’t have much of a choice. Besides, I keep anything of importance here.”

  “What excuse did you give her for running out the door this morning?”

  He smirked. “Told her I had to go and I would be back when I got back. She wasn’t happy with me this morning, but some of that was probably left over from last night.”

  “Do I even want to know?” I hesitantly asked.

  “You tell me. She was pissed because I would only fuck her ass.”

  “For the record, I didn’t want to know.”

  “Noted.”

  Color me surprised when we ended up back at the clubhouse before 4:00 pm. Once again, I turned to Shaker. “Your girl has been hanging with my girl all day. You want to do a brother a solid and occupy her time for the rest of the evening?”

  “Not really, but I guess I can take one for the team. Send the bitch back to my place.” With that, he stood and left the room. I sat there for several minutes, shocked by his comment. His whole attitude toward Hilarie was out of character for him. Just like the rest of us, he had his fair share of one-night stands or sex only arrangements, but I had never known him to be openly disrespectful about it.

  Badger’s voice broke into my musings, “I’ve got my eye on him. I’ll bring it to attention if need be. Go home and see your girl.”

  “Thanks, Veep.”

  I entered my condo to find Harper, Hilarie, Reese, and James in my living room. Like the big badass I was, I bypassed the ladies and went straight for James. “Hey, Little Man. Have you been good for your momma today?” He squealed and giggled when I blew raspberries on his onesie covered belly.

  “When did you guys get back?” Reese asked.

  “Just now, Reesie Piecie. Duke was talking to Phoenix when I walked out so he should be calling you any second now.” I turned to Hilarie. “Shaker wants you to meet him at his place.”

  I helped my sister get James in the car and sent her on her way, followed by tactfully shoving Hilarie out the door. Back inside, I didn’t see Harper in the living room where I had left her. I found her upstairs in my bedroom, and the anger in her eyes shocked me.

  “What’s wrong, baby?”

  “Gee, Chase, I don’t know. Maybe the fact that I had to explain to your sister, as well as Hilarie, how I got the bruises behind my ears and down my neck when she showed up here unannounced to question me about my previous job as a stripper!” she yelled.

  “Bruises? What fucking bruises? Who hurt you?” I demanded. I could feel myself getting worked up and I wasn’t in a place where I could get a handle on it myself.

  She yanked her hair into a ponytail and turned to the side, pointing toward her ear. “These are from you, you big beast!”

  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My fingers were bruised into her skin from where I had held her in place while I was fucking her. “Harper,” I croaked. “Baby, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know I was hurting you. I would have stopped if I knew. I-I-Fuck!” I turned away from her, shame consuming me. I loved our rough fun together, but I never meant to hurt her.<
br />
  Her little arms snaked around my waist from behind and squeezed. I could feel her cheek against my back. “You didn’t hurt me, big guy. I didn’t even know they were there until the hairstylist found them yesterday. After my moment of mortification in front of Keegan, I forgot about them, until Reese showed up here and my hair was in a ponytail. But, that’s not what this is about. This is about me having to explain to your little sister about working at The Booby Trap. Apparently, someone, as in you, blabbed to my brother last night.”

  Fuck. “I was going to mention that, but we were having such a great night, I didn’t want to ruin it. I planned on telling you today, but I got called to the clubhouse before I had a chance to. Honestly, Harper, I had no idea that Duke didn’t know you were a stripper. He also didn’t know about Hilarie. Is there anything else you’ve kept from him that I should know about?”

  She sighed and took a step back. “After my ordeal, Duke was beyond overprotective of me, even years later. It’s part of the reason I moved to Sugar Falls. I couldn’t do anything without him hovering over me and scaring away anyone who got too close for his comfort. He had the best of intentions, but he inadvertently kept me from moving forward. I didn’t tell him about working at The Booby Trap because I knew he would find a way to make me quit or get me fired. And I didn’t tell him about Hilarie, because I met her at The Booby Trap and I didn’t want him to scare her away. She was the first friend I made who knew nothing about my past. The only other thing I kept from him was how you and I met, but now he knows that, too.”

  Everything she said made sense, but there was one thing I had to ask—as much as I didn’t want to—before we could put this behind us. I took her hands in mine and gently asked, “Are you afraid of me?” Watching her closely, I studied her eyes and looked for changes in her breathing pattern. I even discretely felt her pulse while I held her hands.

  Her eyes never left mine, her breathing didn’t change, and her heart rate remained the same. “Of course not. Why would you even think that?”

  “I didn’t really think that, but I had to ask. I know I can be a bit much in the bedroom, but I don’t want you to ever feel pressured to do something you don’t want to, and I never want to hurt you. Promise me you’ll tell me if we ever get to one of those points.” I could feel the tears starting to well in my eyes. If that made me a pussy, so be it, but I couldn’t bear the thought of causing her harm.

  “I promise I’ll say something. We’ve never talked about this before, but would it make you feel better about things if I chose a safeword?”

  “Yes, it would.”

  “Okay, it’s artichoke,” she said, completely serious.

  “Artichoke?”

  “Yes, I hate them, and it’s not something I would accidentally say. Artichoke.”

  I scooped her into my arms and covered her mouth with mine. “I love you, baby.”

  “Love you, too, big guy.”

  She pulled back and wiggled, letting me know she wanted me to put her down. Reluctantly, I released her. “Do we have to go back to keeping our distance after this weekend?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t want to, that’s for damn sure. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Phoenix or Badger about it. Nothing else has happened, so maybe it was just a random coincidence. I say we go back to spending our weekends together and see how things go. If shit starts happening again, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

  She grinned. “That was the right answer. I was prepared to withhold my pussy if you didn’t answer correctly.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Harper

  The next few weeks went by smoothly. During the week, I worked my regular schedule and alternated eating lunch and dinner with Hilarie. On the weekends, I was with Chase from the minute I got off work on Friday until I left to return to work on Monday. I still loved my job, but I hated saying goodbye to Chase on Monday mornings. I was certain he hated it as much as I did.

  As per our usual, Hilarie and I went out to eat for dinner on Monday. We opted to try a new restaurant with a Tiki hut theme. The relaxed and upbeat atmosphere of the place inspired an idea.

  “Are you still seeing Shaker?” I asked. She hadn’t mentioned anything about him in at least two weeks, but she hadn’t tried to invade my weekend time with Chase either.

  “I wouldn’t call it ‘seeing him,’ but yeah, we still meet up and fuck on the weekends,” she replied.

  “Oh,” I said, deflated. “I guess I kind of thought it was more than just casual sex.”

  “Is there a reason you sound disappointed?” she asked.

  “Yes. The summer is almost over, and we have a four-day weekend coming up. I was thinking the four of us could get one of those cabins and spend the long weekend at the lake.”

  “I’m game if Shaker is. Just let me know,” she replied, not one ounce of excitement in her tone.

  “It doesn’t sound like it.”

  She huffed. “I’m not going to get excited about something that probably won’t happen. I doubt Shaker will go, and I’m certainly not going to sit in a mountain cabin and listen to that behemoth screw your brains out all weekend.”

  I called Chase when I got home and told him about my idea. He said he would talk to Shaker and let me know, but either way, he and I could still go. When he called me back an hour later to tell me that Shaker agreed, I had a hard time containing my excitement.

  The next day, I made our reservations and started mentally planning our activities. To my surprise, Chase called me while I was at work to ask if Ember and Dash, as well as Duke and Reese, could join us. One quick phone call to change the reservations and we were set.

  Hilarie rode with Titan and me to Croftridge Thursday after work. I was almost to the clubhouse when Hilarie said, “This doesn’t seem right. Did you miss a turn or something?”

  “Sorry, I think you’re right. I was thinking about our vacation, and I must have zoned out.” Shit. She still didn’t know about the club. How in the hell were we going to keep that from her for the next four days?

  When we pulled up to Chase’s place a few minutes later, both him and Shaker were standing on the porch waiting for us. Chase came down to help me with my bags while Shaker went back inside. I glanced at Chase and started to say something, but he subtly shook his head. I bit my tongue, but I would be asking him about it later. Chase smoothly reached over and grabbed Hilarie’s bags in addition to mine and carried them to his car.

  After a quick bathroom break for Titan, Chase unlocked his car and instructed us to climb in. I looked at the car, then back at him. “Uh, Chase, dear, this isn’t going to work. Where is Titan going to sit?”

  “Fuck!” he cursed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll call Dash and see if they have room for him.”

  “They would need to come here to pick him up,” I said, widening my eyes slightly in an attempt to make him understand what I wasn’t saying. We couldn’t take Titan to Dash because he was probably at the clubhouse with Duke and Reese to drop James off with Phoenix and Annabelle for the weekend.

  “Fuck this,” Shaker said in annoyance. Jabbing a finger in Hilarie’s direction, he went on, “I’m not going to keep hiding who I am just because she is around, and it was fucking wrong of you to ask me to.”

  “I didn’t ask you to do anything you weren’t already doing. You didn’t tell her because you didn’t want a ‘cut slut.’ I only asked you to keep your mouth shut for a few more weeks, but go ahead, brother, be who you are,” Chase spat, making a grand hand gesture toward Shaker.

  Titan had been silently standing in front of me while they shouted over the car, but he started a low growl when Shaker grabbed something from his bike and stomped back toward us.

  Glaring at Titan, he roughly slid his arms into his cut and proudly displayed himself in front of Hilarie. “I’m a fucking Blackwing.”

  Hilarie smirked. “I can see that. What’s your point?”

  He eyed her suspiciously. “You d
on’t seem surprised to find out you’ve been hanging out with a bunch of bikers. Oh, and fucking one of them.”

  “Shaker,” I admonished, but it fell on deaf ears.

  Hilarie let out a humorless laugh. “Seriously?” She pointed over her shoulder at Chase. “He is the very essence of a biker. You both ride motorcycles. Hell, over half the parking lot was filled with bikes at that wedding that took place at a very compound-like place. Several times you received a phone call and had to run out the door, saying you were called into work. So, the only thing I find surprising is that you thought I didn’t know.”

  Shaker growled at her, “You won’t get my cut.”

  She scoffed. “I don’t fucking want it.”

  “Enough!” Chase bellowed. “You two will not ruin my girl’s weekend. You have two minutes to decide if you’re coming or staying. We’ll wait in the car.” He opened the car door for Titan and me to get in before he walked around the car and climbed into the driver’s seat.

  “Sorry, baby,” he said, reaching for me.

  “Shh! I want to hear what they’re saying,” I whisper-yelled, shooing him away with my hands.

  Shaker grunted and stalked toward his bike. “Get on.”

  Hilarie glanced over her shoulder at me, rolled her eyes, and followed Shaker to his bike.

  “That was strange,” I commented as Chase pulled onto the road.

  “It was, but let’s forget about it and enjoy our weekend.”

  A little over two hours later, we were the first to arrive at the lake house I had booked for the next four days. “Are you sure this is the right place?” Chase asked.

  “Yes, why?”

  “It’s huge, Harper. We didn’t need a place this big for four couples.”

  I cleared my throat. “I have no desire to hear my brother giving it to your sister nor do I want them to hear us. I assumed you felt the same.”

  He grinned mischievously. “Indeed, I do. I’ll reward your foresight later tonight.”