Talon (Uncompromising #1)

by Sybil Bartel

  “Talon!” she screamed, flying into a sitting position. Her hands fisted in my hair, her heels dug into my shoulders and she thrust into me. A tidal wave of Siren reared up and hit me full force.

  Her head fell back, her legs locked, she pressed into my face and her cry of release echoed off the walls. She came so hard, she fucking wrecked me.

  Pushing her to her back, grabbing her hips, I shoved all the way home with one thrust. Rough, no control, her taste and scent all over me, I pounded into her. Desperate for every inch of her I could reach, my mouth slammed over hers and a growl ripped from my chest.

  I fucking exploded.

  Covered in sweat, my muscles spent, I rode the high from my orgasm and softened my frantic kiss to a caress. My arms braced on either side of her head as my hands threaded through her hair. I pulled back just far enough to look in her eyes.

  Jesus.

  “Nicole,” I rasped.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  EVERY EMOTION I’D WANTED TO see on her face was there. Desire, affection, satisfaction—just like the ocean, her eyes changed a thousand different colors with her mood and it was beautiful. I was so damn sunk, anything I said would’ve given me away. Buried deep inside her, I never wanted to leave. I wanted to fuck her until I forgot everything that came before this moment. Fuck. Fuck.

  I dropped my forehead to hers. “You okay?” I asked, my voice raw.

  Her muscles clenched around my dick. “Yeah.”

  “Christ,” I moaned. “You do that again, I’m never gonna pull out.”

  Her nostrils flared on a sharp inhale. “Condom.”

  “On it.” Holding the rubber, I kissed her, soft and sweet, then slowly pulled out.

  She sucked in a sexy little breath. She was so tight, the friction made me ready to go again. I nipped her bottom lip and pushed off the bed.

  “Gimme a sec.” I tossed the condom in the bathroom and came back to find her already out of bed. My hands went to my hips. “Goin’ somewhere?”

  “Downstairs.” She bent over and picked her dress from last night off the floor.

  What the fuck? “Because?”

  “I’m going to shower.” She casually slipped into the dress and turned her back to me, holding her hair up. “Can you zip me up?”

  I didn’t touch her. “Now you’re worried ’bout bein’ dressed?”

  When she glanced over her shoulder, her face was completely locked down. “What do you mean?”

  I’d done this. I’d said it was a one-shot deal. What the fuck did I expect she’d do afterward? Goddamn it. “What are you gonna do when you get downstairs? Come back up and have me unzip it?” I tried and failed to keep my tone in check.

  She let go of her hair and turned to me. “You should talk with your friend. He obviously came here for something important.”

  “You’re not important?” Now she was pissing me off.

  She glanced at her feet, sighed, then picked her head back up. “What do you want, Talon?”

  I wanted to lock the rest of the world out. I wanted to fuck her until she screamed my name. I wanted to wake up next to her tomorrow morning, so the thought of her walking out that door? It was making me feel beyond territorial. I threw it out there. “I think we both know that was somethin’ way past casual.”

  “I don’t know that.”

  A punch in the gut wouldn’t have hurt half as much. Staring intently at her, hoping she’d give me more, I waited.

  She didn’t.

  I Inhaled and aimed. “Then I’ll tell you. Change in plans, Siren. I’m not gonna be satisfied with one shot. I want more, a lot more,” I warned, stepping closer to her. “You’re gonna be in my bed.” The backs of my fingers brushed down her cheek. “Tonight and tomorrow and—”

  André pounded on the bedroom door. “Open up, it’s important!”

  I grabbed Siren and kissed her quick. “You’re not goin’ anywhere. Give me a minute.” I threw on jeans, opened the door and my phone started vibrating. “André, I don’t have time—”

  André held his phone out to me. “It’s the lawyer, Barrett. Said he couldn’t reach Blaze or you. It’s urgent.”

  André gave me a knowing look as I snatched my own phone off the nightstand and glanced at the display. Blocked. Shit. I held my finger up and answered my phone because I knew who it’d be. “Yeah?”

  “You got a problem,” Candle said wearily.

  Goddamn it. “Hold on.” I took the phone from André. “I’m in the middle of somethin’, Barrett.”

  “No kidding,” Mathew Barrett quipped in his superior fucking voice. “Maldonado’s dead. Got shanked before he had breakfast.”

  Siren started to walk away. I held the phone in my shoulder and grabbed her around the waist. “And I give a fuck, why?”

  “Gee, I don’t know—maybe because he put a hit on your girlfriend.”

  “What girlfriend?” I spun Siren and zipped up her dress.

  “Sorry,” he said dryly. “Correction, Sergeant Blaze Johnson’s wife.”

  “What?” I faked proper outrage. Siren pulled away but I slipped an arm around her.

  “Don’t bullshit me, Mr. Talerco.”

  “I’m handing you back to André. Give him all the details. I’ll contact Blaze.”

  “I already tried calling them. Neither he nor Layna are answering their phones.”

  “Did you expect ’em to? Nothin’ says ruin-a-honeymoon like a call from your lawyer.” I handed the phone to André and looked down at Siren. “We’re not done talkin’. Wait here for me.” I kissed her temple then released her. Holding my phone back up to my ear, I went out on my balcony. “I’m back, what’s up?”

  “You make me wait again, I’m done doing you favors.”

  “Extenuatin’ circumstances. What’s up?” I wasn’t about to let on that I already knew Maldonado was dead.

  “You picked the wrong fight, my friend.”

  I watched the sun begin its rise out of the ocean. “I didn’t pick any fight.”

  “Tell that to Carter.”

  Having just been inside Siren, her scent all over me, the mention of Randy’s name made me snarl. “I can handle Carter.”

  “If it were only him, I’d agree.”

  “What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” Just then, the distinctive sound of pipes, lots of pipes, came roaring down my driveway.

  Candle let out a sigh of resignation. “That’s what I’m talking about. Don’t say I never warned you.”

  “Candle,” I snapped. “What the fuck?”

  “Give Carter what he wants and your debt to me will be paid.” He hung up.

  I rushed into the house. “André!”

  Siren stood up from the where she was sitting on the bed. “I hear them.”

  André came into the bedroom as I flew to my office and started flipping on the monitors. “Go arm the system,” I barked at André.

  Using the keypad in my bedroom, André armed my alarm system but it was too late to close the gate at the end of the driveway. The three us watched my security camera feeds on the monitors as seventeen armed bikers pulled up to my house.

  Wearing a fucking cut I’d never seen him in, Randy was lead.

  “Motherfucker. Randy’s a Lone Coaster?” Jesus fucking Christ. I was so intent on beating the shit out of him last night, I didn’t pay attention when he’d fucking called Candle his Sergeant-at-Arms.

  “He’s the son of a Lone Coaster,” Siren said quietly.

  André gaped at me. “What’d you do?”

  “It’s not him.” Resignation cut through Siren’s voice. “They want me.”

  Motherfucking fuck, fuck, fuck. I turned and took her face in my hands. “They are not gettin’ you. I promise.” I looked at André. “What do we got?”

  “Is she LCMC property?” he asked, almost reverently.

  I said “No” at the same time Siren said “Yes.”

  I rubbed my hand over my face. This was what Kendall had
been trying to tell me. Goddamn it, I’d been so fucking stupid. LCMC was three-hundred strong, at least, with connections in so much shit, I didn’t even want to know. It was why I’d gone to Candle with the Maldonado problem. I knew he was LCMC. I knew he’d have resources I couldn’t tap.

  André glanced at Siren then turned to me. “You got a death wish?”

  I glared at him. “What’re you packin’?”

  “Nothing that will stop an entire biker gang. Call in local reinforcement.”

  “I’m not callin’ the cops.” Not for this. If I started shooting, I still had a chance of self-defense because they were all trespassing. I opened my gun safe and pulled out two H&K USP9 SDs with double-action triggers. I tucked them both into the back waistband of my jeans.

  “You’re going out there?” André asked.

  “Yep.” What fucking choice did I have?

  “Please, Talon,” Siren pleaded. “Don’t.”

  I turned and my gut constricted. Eyes wide, face white, cradling her wrist, she looked fucking terrified.

  I didn’t have a single extra second but I took her in my arms anyway. “Nothin’ bad’s gonna happen. Don’t worry. I’m just gonna see what he wants.”

  “You know what he wants.”

  I hated the defeat in her voice. “He’s just comin’ to intimidate. I can handle this.” I pulled back and caught her chin. “But you gotta do me a favor.”

  Looking weary as shit, she raised her eyebrows.

  “Stay here with André. Do what he says. I’ll be back before you know it.” I pressed my lips to hers then I let her go. I glanced at André and inclined my head. “You know what to do.”

  “I’m calling in local if I see anything start to go south,” he warned.

  “Fair enough.” If bullets started flying, I’d be dead anyway. I typed a few keystrokes on my computer and turned on the audio feed to the security cameras. As the last of the motorcycles turned off their engines, it went eerily quiet.

  I winked at Siren. “Showtime.”

  Adrenaline pumping, no time to think about what I was walking into, I grabbed a T-shirt and stepped into my boots. My military training kicked in and I was mission focused. Carter wasn’t getting Siren. Period. I’d fucking unload both clips at all those assholes if it came to that.

  I closed and locked the steel-reinforced door at the bottom of my stairs and pounded on it once so André would know to arm the perimeter. Then I opened my front door.

  Randy stood three paces out with sixteen men behind him I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Scrappers, the worst kind, all of them. When you grew up hard and lived harder, you fought dirty. I knew because I was one of them but I’d never worn a cut. I’d chosen a different uniform.

  “Little early to be sellin’ Girl Scout cookies, Carter.” I leaned on the doorframe and crossed my arms.

  “Fuck you. Get her out here.”

  “Who?” I asked casually.

  “Bring me Nicole and we won’t have a problem,” he growled.

  I pushed off the frame. “Here’s the thing. I’ve let a lot of shit behavior from you slide but stabbing a woman and breakin’ her arm? Now I’m pissed.” I took two steps toward him and lowered my voice to a deadly threat. “So that bullshit about you and I not havin’ a problem? You’re dead wrong. We got a big fuckin’ problem.”

  “Get. Nicole. Now.”

  “Go ahead,” I seethed. “Try and get past me.”

  A smile, pure evil, spread across his face and the hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention. “I don’t have to,” he said smugly.

  I waited, knowing I wasn’t going to like what came next.

  He palmed the gun in his holster. “Give me Nicole or go down for Maldonado’s murder.”

  My blood ran cold.

  “Didn’t hear me?” he taunted. “I’ll spell it out. Your pussy Marine friend Johnson and his cunt wife will go down for conspiracy to commit murder. You’ll get the death penalty, they’ll rot behind bars for being accomplices and I’ll still get the bitch in the end. So make a decision. Hand her over now or go to hell. Your choice. You got thirty seconds.”

  My mind was racing, trying for every angle. How did he get Blaze’s name? Was the sniper who went after Layna a Lone Coaster? What evidence could actually implicate me? Had Candle recorded the call?

  “Tick-tock.”

  That was when I saw it. This wasn’t about Nic. This was about something he had to prove. He wanted me to go down. He was itching for me and I wanted to know why.

  “Why don’t I save you the time, Carter? How ’bout we both pull our dicks out and then you’ll know once and for all.” I smiled, knowing I’d enjoy beating the fuck out of him. “Mine’s bigger.”

  “Never had any complaints from Nicole. Why don’t you ask her how big my dick is?”

  I didn’t allow a single twitch of anger to show but I wasn’t going to let him win. “Apparently not big enough, ’cause you haven’t been tappin’ that for over a year.”

  Randy lunged and grabbed the front of my shirt. “Get. Nicole.”

  Siren suddenly appeared at my side and Randy made the mistake of taking his attention off me.

  I caught Randy’s arm, spun him and twisted his hand behind his back. I stopped just short of snapping his wrist.

  “Let him go,” Siren said quietly.

  Enraged, I spared her a glance. “Go back inside.”

  Her face blank, her eyes dead and emotionless, she looked right through me. “I’m sorry.” She walked to Randy’s bike and threw her leg over without a flinch.

  My heart fucking stopped. “Nicole.”

  André’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Stand down.”

  Unable to breathe, rage flowing through my veins, I shoved Randy face-first into my gravel driveway. “This isn’t over.”

  Randy pushed himself up. “Oh, it’s fucking over, Talerco.” He spit at my feet. “You lost.” He walked to his bike, grabbed Siren by her ponytail, forced her head back and landed his mouth on hers.

  Blind hatred coursed through my muscles and I surged forward, intent on beating Randy within an inch of his life but André caught my arms. Rapid-fire Spanish came out of his mouth, but I didn’t register a single fucking word.

  Randy eyed me as he straddled his bike and sixteen silent sentries fired up their engines.

  No. No. “Siren.”

  Her head down, chest heaving, Siren’s hands fisted on her thighs.

  Randy swung his Harley around and took off down the driveway.

  I COULDN’T FUCKING BREATHE. MY chest was caving in and rage was burning in my veins. I spun on André. “Gimme your keys.”

  “Brother,” André warned.

  “Keys!” I wasn’t letting Siren go. Not like Leigh. No fucking way. This wasn’t happening.

  “Take a breath, hermano.”

  “I’m not your fuckin’ brother.”

  André raised his eyebrows and his hands went to his hips. “What are you gonna do? Go after all those bikers with two sidearms?”

  I ranked my hands through my hair. “I’m not losing her,” I threw the words out like I had a fucking choice.

  André nodded at one of my security cameras. “Let’s take this inside.” He strode into the house.

  I kicked at the gravel then followed him.

  He armed the alarm and closed the front gate. “Who’d you use to get rid of Maldonado?”

  I didn’t answer, I was pacing.

  “Dios mios,” he muttered. “Please tell me you didn’t.”

  I turned and glared at him.

  André cursed. “What the fuck were you thinking, getting in bed with those Lone Coaster assholes?”

  I threw my hands up. “What fuckin’ choice did I have?”

  “Mierda.” André pulled his phone out. “I’m calling Blaze.”

  “No.” I’d fucked this up. “I’ll handle it.” I didn’t need him losing his shit all over me right now because of the position I’d put them in.
<
br />   “What are you gonna do?” André snapped. “I’m not letting you pull any vigilante shit on me.”

  “I said I’ll handle it, I’ll fuckin’ handle it!”

  “Yeah? How? You take him out, sixteen witnesses give the cops every motive under the sun if they don’t kill you first.”

  Shit. I couldn’t think past the dead look on Siren’s face when she’d gotten on his bike. “I need a few of your guys.” I was getting her out. Today.

  “I only got twenty men. Over half of them are spread out in three counties on assignment and another four are knee-deep in the shit that went down with Blaze and his woman. I’m spread thin but even if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t involve any of them with the Lone Coasters. We need Blaze and Neil.”

  Goddamn it. “No. Two fucking men, that’s all I’m askin’. I want surveillance on Carter’s place before I go in and I can’t do it. He’ll spot me.”

  André sighed. “I’ve only got two with me and they’re watching our back.”

  “Send one after Carter, leave the other here.” I wasn’t taking no for an answer.

  André stared at the floor a minute then looked up at me. “You realize what you’re asking?”

  I knew full well what I was asking. If the LCs found one of André’s men alone doing surveillance, he was dead. We’d never find the body. “What’s the background on the two you have here?”

  “Both single but that’s not the point.”

  “It’s my favor, I’ll ask them.”

  “Fuck, man, come on. You know what they’ll say. They’re both fresh outta deployments. They’re itching for adrenaline.”

  “So let ’em have it.”

  “Damn it, this goes south, it’s on you.” André dialed his phone.

  I didn’t wait to hear the outcome. I grabbed my own phone and called Candle.

  He picked up on the first ring. “That didn’t take long,” he said tiredly.

  “You motherfucker,” I spat. “This wasn’t part of the deal.”

  Candle sighed. “I told you, you’d owe us.”

  “I thought you had more respect for innocent victims, women especially.” It was everything I could do to keep from yelling.