by A. J. Downey
“Right.”
“What I can’t believe,” I continued, “was that they actually thought they wouldn’t get caught out. Still, the new crew coming in is going to need some guidance and Skeeter has a real chance at redemption there. I don’t envision Goner’s gonna make it with the new leadership.”
“Not sure what this is gonna look like,” Fen said, the misgivings clear in his dispassionate tone. I told him the truth.
“Me either, brother. We’ll just have to see when the FNG’s show up how we mesh and how they want to handle things.”
Someone just behind us laughed, and I looked back over my shoulder. Reaver, the mother chapter’s enforcer, winked one bright blue eye at me and I just barely managed to keep the frown off my face.
“Don’t let none of the nomads hear you callin’ ‘em Fucking New Guys,” he said. “Definitely not the right way to kick things off with a new chapter.”
“True,” Fen muttered. “Also true that in the Pacific Northwest, they are the FNG’s. We got a system.”
Reaver’s blue eyes went wintery, and I took in a deep slow breath when a growl like some mongrel dog trickled out of Fenris’ chest in answer to the look. He took shit like that as a personal challenge.
I put a hand to my man’s chest to stop him stepping out of turn.
“Reaver’s right,” I said succinctly. “No disrespect meant,” I followed up in Reaver’s direction. “Any of the boys from parts unknown come around, we’ll be more than reasonable and accommodating but Fen is right too, and by that token – shit in our territory runs pretty good the way we have it. So long as it ain’t some young buck lookin’ to change a bunch of shit, everybody should be all good.”
“Duly noted,” Reaver said, but he was eying Fenris with a creepy smile on his face. “Fancy a go in the circle tonight?” he asked my boy. Fenris scowled.
“What’d you have in mind?”
Reaver’s smile was slow to spread into an infectious grin.
“Knife fight, first blood wins.”
Fenris had an answering grin take over the lower half of his face and I just stuffed my hands in my pockets and shook my head.
“See you boys tonight,” I said and didn’t bother to disguise the eye roll in the tone of my voice. “I’m going to go find Marisol.”
I jerked my head at Glass Jaw who gave me a curt nod and continued up the path with me, leaving Fen behind to negotiate with Reaver.
“Not worried those two psychos gonna kill each other?” Glass asked me.
I sniffed. “Nah. Fen’s doing better at keeping himself in check these days.”
“I think that’s less Fen and a whole lotta D.T., don’t you?”
I looked back over my shoulder at Fen and Reaver who had their heads together and were working out the rules of their impending engagement.
“Guess we’ll find out,” I said dryly.
He switched subjects on me and asked, “Who you think Dragon is gonna send our way?”
I shook my head and said truthfully, “Your guess is as good as mine, bro. Your guess is as good as mine.”
We went and grabbed some grub and I kept an eye out for Marisol. She was out on the lake in this giant yellow raft with some of the ol’ ladies from the other chapters. One I recognized from Oregon, the rest were unknowns – wait, except a petite auburn-haired beauty. She was with the mother chapter’s SAA.
I tell you what. I got the chemistry between those two, but I was still sorely lost on the physics involved. That dude was a big bastard. Not as big as Dump Truck, but who the fuck was? Still, he was a big dude and she was a freaking tiny little thing.
I watched my girl for a little bit from behind my black aviators and noted that she was guarded. She was always guarded, that one. Her posture was stiff, leaning back a little too far into the raft. It was hard to read her expression from here, but if I had to guess, it was a mix of her usual resting bitch face – which I found adorable – and her cautious guardedness.
The girl was this concrete maze. Walls high, and just as you turned the corner with a bit of self-satisfaction at thinking you had her figured out and the path would be clear? Nope. Another wall, as if the whole labyrinth had shifted on you when you weren’t looking. I don’t think I’d ever met a woman so closed off, guarded, and standoffish, yet so pliable and eager to please me in my life.
Truth be told, it bothered me; not knowing what she was hiding. It bothered me a lot, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. My focus had to be elsewhere. I could and would start digging when we got back home, though. I had only a short amount of time to do it in. A scant week, maybe a week and a half, depending on how far out I could push the run to buy myself some time with her.
Of course, I could tell she didn’t want to go back. Her light quips about being indispensable to me, about how much I would miss her when she was gone, weren’t lost on me at all.
She was right. I would miss her, for a variety of reasons.
She’d been a steady hand, having meals ready, anticipating what I’d need before I even knew I needed it quite often – food, a drink, hell even a joint. She always happened to come up with it when I needed it. A quiet support, a shadow – I was sure one that had probably heard too much by now but if she had, the girl was world-class at keeping it to herself. She knew just when to keep her mouth shut and just when I wanted that same lush mouth wrapped around my cock.
Fuck, I was getting hard just looking at her, leaned back, sipping from her red Solo cup. Long toned legs stretched out in front of her, flat stomach glistening along her honey-golden skin with whatever sunscreen or baby oil she’d slathered on herself. She looked damn inviting. Laying out like some offering on that raft under the sun in her little black bikini.
I think I exhausted her last night, but I was set to do it all over again tonight.
“Mav, come have a beer with me.” I roused myself out of my self-indulgent musings and looked over at who had spoken.
“Sure thing, absolutely,” I said. The mother chapter’s VP practically never smiled unless it was at his lady or his kids. Even now, his mouth set in a grim line, wraparound sunglasses holding his long hair up, he simply gave me a nod and turned to the coolers lined up against the lodge walls.
“Something you need outta me?” I asked him, taking the bottle he passed me.
“Just trying to get a feel about how you really feel about what’s going on in your region,” he answered and took a pull off his beer. I echoed the motion and searched his face. He was good at giving nothing away by his expression. It was a talent I’d cultivated as well.
This was going to be an interesting chat.
“I’m good with it, brother,” I said, and I meant it.
“Yeah? What about the rest of your crew?” he asked, and I figured Reaver must have caught up to him and spilled about Fen’s misgivings.
“My crew trusts me implicitly, man. They’ll be on board.”
Dray nodded and said, “Come take a walk with me, my pops wants me to introduce you to a couple of guys.”
I gave a nod and we strolled down toward the water’s edge.
“You know many of the nomad fellas?” he asked me as we came to a stop with a view of the dock and the blob across the lake. It looked like Cipher was on it and a guy from another chapter was about to launch his ass into the ether.
I grinned at the sight and said, “A few. Lone Wolf comes through on the regular.”
“Wolf, huh? He’s a good dude.”
“Very. He’s helped us out in the past. If he would be willing to settle down, I’d love to have him on the other side of the Cascades. He’d be amazing.”
Dray turned down the corners of his mouth and nodded. I think it was supposed to be noncommittal on his part but to me it just looked like he was trying to suppress a smile. I hid mine with a pull off my beer. Lone Wolf was at the top of my shortlist to be my chapter’s neighbor and it looked like he was on Dragon’s radar for the job, too.
G
ood fuckin’ deal.
“Lemme ask you something; no bullshit.”
“No bullshit,” Dray agreed. “Shoot.”
“Who you thinkin’?” I asked.
He nodded slowly and sighed. “You’re a smart dude Maverick so I’ll cut the shit so long as you can keep it on the down low.”
I nodded. “You know I can, and I will, brother. I want this shit to work and I get it, the optics could be bad, you lettin’ me have a hand in the deciding.”
“That’s why I’m standing here and not my pops. Not that the optics are much better,” he muttered.
“Straight up, brother, I would avoid bringing in anyone from the east coast,” I said. “They’re good dudes out that way, but the P.N.W. isn’t their speed. We’re mellower out my way. East coast dudes tend to be wound tighter than a goddamn Timex and are liable to spring when shit doesn’t go their way. You feel me?”
“I do know what you mean,” Dray said nodding. “We weren’t even considering him if it makes you feel better.”
“You have no idea,” I said dryly.
We were talking about a guy out of Boston, Southie. Dude was seriously rough, and he’d caused a bit of a dustup down in California a while back. I didn’t want him anywhere near our operation.
“Any other hard ‘nos’?” he asked. I listed off a couple more names and he nodded. “Now tell Santa what you want for Christmas,” he said, and I chuckled.
“You get Lone Wolf to agree and you’ve already given me all I want for Christmas, my man.”
“One man does not make a chapter,” he said, and I nodded.
“No, he does not, but there’s only one head that wears the crown and Lone Wolf is the right kind of man if you know what I’m sayin’.”
“I do, and Dragon’ll get him, don’t you worry about that.”
“Ryder would make a good second,” I said.
“Ryder? Really?” Dray looked surprised by that and then thoughtful. He nodded along slowly the more he thought about it and shot off a text with his burner.
“Where Ryder goes, Dane follows,” I said.
“I know, that’s right,” Dray mumbled, dark dragon-glass eyes skirting over the screen as something came back. “What about Riot?” he asked and looked up and over at me.
I grunted. “Never heard of him.”
Dray grinned and we carried on negotiating and talking over who might be a good fit for the territory. I was keenly aware that even though Idaho and Eastern Oregon had reps from their respective clubs, including higher leadership – I was the only one he spoke to. Either that, or the others were being spoken to on their own, outside my presence. Why I couldn’t fathom but Dragon had his methods, same as I had mine.
It took longer than I would have liked. My little zaychik had come out of the water at one point, had stalked toward me with that sexy sway of her hips she was wholly unaware of and I swear, it killed a part of me to subtly put up a hand and wave her off with the look that meant club business. She lifted her chin half defiantly, half in acknowledgement before changing her trajectory up the path through the garden beds back here leading up to the lodge’s back side and the coolers under the deck.
“Zaychik!” I called after her and she looked back over her shoulder, her long dark hair swept over the opposite giving me a perfect view of her sexy back. I had the sudden urge to pull that bikini top off her with my teeth. Instead, I held up my beer with one hand and two fingers on my opposite hand to indicate what I wanted.
She nodded once, and it took some real effort to tear my eyes away from her. Dray chuckled beside me.
“I thought you were too white to like it spicy,” he said.
“She’s not what she seems,” I said and sighed.
“By the looks of her, she’s a little Habanero.” He finished off his beer.
“She’s sweeter than that,” I said. “More like my little cinnamon girl.”
“Canela girl, nice. What did you call her just now?”
“Zaychik.”
“What the fuck is that?”
“Loosely translated to English it means little rabbit or bunny.”
“Nah.” Dray grinned and shook his head. “Canela for sure.”
“To be fair, you don’t know her like I do.” I polished off the last dregs of my beer and Dray nodded.
“This is true, this is true. Where’d you pick her up?”
“Yakima. Fruit grower’s family.”
“Yeah?” He arched an eyebrow.
“Not sure what’s up, but she wanted out of there so bad. I worked out a deal with them, and her, but I couldn’t tell you what’s going on there. It’s been a little low on my list of priorities.”
Dray grunted as we watched her come toward us with three glass bottles. Two beers and a Coke.
“Time to get that off the back burner, my friend. She’s a little hottie.”
“She’s a keeper, alright,” I agreed just before she got back into earshot. The only problem I was having was the ‘how’ of it. Keeping her, I mean.
“Hey,” she said softly as she came up to us. She held out the beers to us. Dray and I each took one.
He took my empty from me and said, “Just a sec,” before walking up through one of the flower beds to one of the big recycling cans set out around the property to collect the dead soldiers.
“You doin’ alright?” I asked Marisol.
She nodded, but didn’t speak, choosing instead to take a draw off her Mexican Coke. She looked like she belonged in one of their damn commercials. She was beautiful enough. The only thing that wasn’t commercial worthy about her was how tired she looked.
“Tired?” I asked and she nodded and sighed as Dray dropped back down beside us.
“I think I just need to eat something,” she said, and I smiled, touching her shoulder lightly, her smooth, soft skin tantalizing. When she didn’t flinch or shy away, I stepped in and curved my whole arm around her shoulders. She swayed slightly on her feet and leaned into me and I liked that. That she was comfortable with me today.
“Marisol, this is Dray. Dray, this is Marisol.” I made the introductions.
“Hi,” she murmured.
“Hey, Marisol.” Dray winked at her and graced her with one of his rare smiles. Her timid one grew slightly in return.
“Anybody give you any flak?” I asked.
“No,” she said, and for a second, I had to ask myself if it was a little too emphatic or if I was just reading into something that wasn’t there.
“Did I hear something about food?” Dray asked. “You hungry?”
Marisol warmed to him a little bit more and nodded.
“Dinner’s about to be up. Come on, let’s go grab some grub.” He jerked his head in the direction of the back deck and she smiled and nodded, and we turned that direction.
Dray gave me a meaningful look and I gave a nod. To be continued on that other thing we’d been talking about.
“Are you done for the day?” Marisol asked softly when she was sure Dray wouldn’t hear as he greeted a couple of men up by the stairs leading up to the back deck.
“I think I can be if you need me to be,” I said and arched a brow. I both was and wasn’t surprised at how much I wanted to hear her say it… that she needed me to be.
I only half got what I wished for. She nodded silently, her look pensive and I couldn’t resist. I leaned forward and lowered my lips to hers. She tipped her face toward mine and kissed me back, her lips soft against mine. The smell of coconut and rose petals drifted to my nose, a mix of her lotion and whatever sunscreen she’d used.
It was crazy how she took over every one of my senses. Soft, heady, sweet, and so fucking easy on the eyes, her soft little sigh of surrender as she yielded to my deepening the kiss was music to my ears. I loved it when she gave in like this. When it felt like she didn’t hold anything in reserve.
Too soon, she caught herself and backed off.
“You good?” I asked her, voice pitched low and only for h
er ears.
“Yeah,” she whispered gently, but pride swelled in my chest at her breathy, slightly stunned tone. Yeah. I took her breath away. I knew exactly the kind of effect I had on her and it was honestly all I ever wanted. To affect someone so deeply and honestly have them have the same effect on me.
I pulled her lithe body into the shelter of my own and held her for a minute, resting my chin on the top of her silky hair and breathing her in.
“It’s gonna get cold out here when the sun goes down, you got a cover up or something?” I asked.
“No, but if it’s okay, I would honestly just like to take a hot shower and crawl into bed after dinner. I’m tired.”
I chuckled and asked, “You sure you don’t want to watch the fights tonight? Reaver’s going up against Fen.”
She looked up at me with those wide, honey-brandy-soaked brown eyes of hers and blinked once, slowly as she tried to decide if she’d heard me right.
“Let me go get dressed.”
“I’ll fix you a plate while you do, how’s that?” I asked and she blushed prettily.
“Aren’t I supposed to be doing that?”
I stepped in and smacked her on the ass with a grin. “Go on, git. See you in a few.”
She smiled at me and bit her bottom lip alluringly, casting a long look over her shoulder as she complied and went to get dressed. I got in line to fix her a plate; eyes fixed on her gorgeous ass as she walked away.
Chapter Twelve
Marisol…
When I returned in a pair of shorts and my favorite peasant blouse over my bikini, Maverick was halfway down the long buffet set up, loaded with barbecue favorites. I went to him and touched his back and he turned, licking coleslaw dressing off his thumb as he gave me a sexy wink.
I smiled to myself, took the plate he handed me, and continued down the table with him, a little self-conscious and worried that someone was going to call me out or get pissed I was cutting in line. Nobody said anything, though.
We sat with some of the men from the Oregon and Idaho chapters at one of the picnic tables. I knew some of them from home.
