STONE KINGS MOTORCYCLE CLUB: The Complete Collection

by Daphne Loveling

  I felt awkward as shit, but I couldn’t stop myself from at least trying to get her to tell me what was eating her. “Andi,” I said softly. My voice almost didn’t even sound like mine. “What’s wrong?” Without even deciding to, I reached forward and took hold of her arm. “You look…” I searched for the word. “Stricken.”

  “What?” she said dully. “No, I’m okay. Really.” She pulled back from me, gently detaching her arm from my grasp. “Do, uh… Do you know when Seton and Grey will be back?”

  I grabbed my phone from the lawn chair where it sat next to my T-shirt and glanced at the time. “I don’t know. Maybe not for a little while yet. I can’t remember what time See said her appointment was.”

  She nodded, and looked away almost like she was in a trance. “Okay,” she murmured. “I guess I’d better go. Tell them I stopped by.”

  “Uh. Okay. Sure,” I said doubtfully. I didn’t want her to go, but I didn’t want to keep her there, either, if she didn’t want to stay. And judging from the expression on her face, she really didn’t want to stay.

  Andi turned to go as I watched helplessly, trying to figure out anything I could say to get her to talk to me, but I couldn’t think of a damn thing. “Andi,” I called after her.

  “What?” Her eyes rose to meet mine, beautiful and sad. There were a million things running through my head, but nothing that wouldn’t sound like I was being anything other than the insincere, flirty asshole she knew me to be from long years of experience.

  Shit. “Take care.”

  She answered me with a small nod. “Thanks.”

  Then she turned away and was gone.

  4

  Andi

  ANDI

  I stumbled back to my car, so discombobulated I barely knew what I was doing. So many emotions were running through my head right now that the adrenaline rush felt like it was going to kill me. I barely made it out of the driveway and out of sight of Seton and Grey’s house before I had to pull over and throw my car into park to wait for my hands to stop shaking.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” I muttered to myself as I stared fixedly at the steering wheel. It felt like I was losing it. I had gone over to Seton’s on the off chance that Grey would be there, to ask him a favor. But running into Cal, shirtless and sweaty, had sent me into a tailspin of almost irrepressible lust that had left me trembling and dizzy, on top of the fear and worry I was already fighting since I’d found the ticket stub in my apartment two nights ago.

  For some reason, I hadn’t bothered to call or text Seton to check if she was home before deciding to show up at her doorstep on my way home from the hardware store. Maybe it was because I just wanted to see a friendly face so badly — to not feel alone for a few minutes. Maybe I had wanted to confess to someone I trusted what I had found upon coming home Saturday night. But, whatever the reason, as I drove past their neighborhood, the idea suddenly occurred to me that maybe Grey would be willing to help me install the new lock I’d bought for my door, and I found myself turning onto their street before I could change my mind.

  What I’d found instead was sexy, cocky Cal Greenlee. Of course he didn’t have a shirt on. Of course he’d scared the life out of me, and made me immediately lose all pretense of cool that I usually tried to project around him. He was the worst possible person for me to see, at the worst possible time, and it had been all I could do to turn around and flee before I made an even bigger fool of myself.

  And even more mortifying, he had clearly seen there was something upsetting me, and actually tried to get me to tell him what was wrong.

  And for a moment, I’d even considered it.

  But the last thing I needed right now — the thing that would make me feel even more crazy and unhinged — was to make the mistake of baring my soul to a guy that made me want to do nasty, sweaty, mind-bending things with him in a darkened room.

  It wasn’t that was afraid he wouldn’t listen if I told him. I knew he probably would, and he’d probably be more or less sympathetic. And it wasn’t that I was afraid he’d turn me down if I suggested a stress-relieving romp in the sack. Hell, I had a hard time believing that Cal would ever turn down a chance to get naked with a woman.

  And that was exactly the problem.

  I knew — my body knew — that I could end my fourteen-month dry spell with Cal in a heartbeat if I just said the word. And most of the time, I could just about resist him with a big dose of bravado and superficial flirtatiousness. But I wasn’t that strong today. And I was definitely in need of comfort. That was a dangerous combination for me where Cal Greenlee was concerned.

  I didn’t “do” relationships. In some ways, I could hardly judge Cal for being a manwhore, given my own sexual history of casual hookups and one-night stands. But there was a difference. I didn’t get involved with men out of a strong sense of self-protection that was learned from bitter experience. Andi Wagner didn’t open her heart up to anyone; it was too risky. So, I chose men to sleep with that were hot as hell but who didn’t interest me in the slightest, and stayed away from the male persuasion entirely whenever I could feel any sort of emotional funk coming on. It was a strategy that had served me well over the years.

  It wasn’t that Cal was an asshole. Actually, even though he was clearly full of himself and knew exactly the kind of effect he had on women, he was still basically a nice guy. But Cal was a world-class player. In a lot of ways, he would have been a perfect fuck buddy: he was sexy as hell, and had a body that made you almost itch with the desire to run your hands over his hard, muscular form. And judging from the effect he had on the women who flocked around him when he entered a room, he seemed to know what he was doing in bed.

  But the exact qualifications that would make him a perfect hookup were exactly why I needed to stay away from him. He was almost too hot to resist, and my defenses were lower than usual.

  Not to mention he was my best friend’s brother.

  Plus, even if I had wanted more than just a quick stress-relieving screw, Cal wasn’t someone I could feel safe trusting with the parts of me that were tender or vulnerable. And right now, I was feeling more vulnerable than I had felt in a long time. I sure as hell didn’t want to put myself in the position of actually breaking down and confiding in him. Far from making me feel better, I knew, telling him why I had been so upset would only make me feel more vulnerable, even though part of me had wanted to. I had gotten away from Cal Greenlee in the nick of time.

  By now, I had started to calm down a little bit, and my hands were shaking less. I took in a deep breath, then let it out as slowly as I could. Then I did it again. I glanced over at the passenger seat, where two plastic bags filled with my day’s purchases sat. The first order of business when I got home was in the larger bag, which sported the logo of our local hardware store.

  Okay, Andi, I lectured myself crossly. Don’t be such a girl. You can do this yourself.

  And with that, I turned the key in the ignition, and drove home to figure out how to change the lock on my door by myself.

  A couple of hours and YouTube videos later, I dug a screwdriver out of my junk drawer and set out to tackle the project. Changing out a lock turned out not to be as hard as I thought it would be, which was gratifying and even a little empowering. As I worked, I murmured all sorts of girl-power-y things to myself, about how I was a badass and could handle anything life handed to me.

  I didn’t really believe it, but it made me feel a little better, anyway.

  By the time I was finished and satisfied that everything was working as it should, my stomach was rumbling and I realized it was dinner time. I made myself a comfort food meal of a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup, which I forced myself to eat at the kitchen table like a civilized person. After dinner, I cracked a bottle of white wine and started to pour myself a glass, then thought better of it and put it in the fridge for later. Right now, it was time to deal with what was in the second plastic bag.

  Putting my dishes in the sink to be wash
ed later, I walked out into the main room, where the little bag was sitting on my small couch. I grabbed it and took it over to my bed, where I sat down and opened up my small night stand near the window. Reaching into the drawer, I pulled out the Browning Buck Mark Camper handgun I kept there, and checked that the safety was on. I set the gun on the bed, then picked up the plastic bag and opened up the box of cartridges I’d bought that afternoon at one of the local gun shops. I picked up the gun again, and slid down the magazine button with my thumb, then inserted the cartridges with my other hand.

  Sliding the loaded magazine back into the pistol, I turned the safety off, then pulled the slide back and released it. I heard a click as the gun fed the first cartridge into the chamber.

  Holding my breath, I put the safety back on and slid the gun back inside the drawer, closing it softly.

  Then, after a moment, I opened the drawer again, took out the gun, crossed the room, and slid it into my purse instead.

  5

  Cal

  CAL

  The next day, I was still kind of worried about Andi, even though I kept telling myself that whatever had been bothering her was none of my business.

  After Andi had left See and Grey’s house the day before, I had finished the coat of stain on the deck and they still weren’t home. So, I left a note on their kitchen counter before I left, saying I’d come back later to do the second coat and that Andi had stopped by to talk. I didn’t say anything more about her visit because, hell, I didn’t know anything anyway, and I didn’t want to intrude on Andi’s privacy.

  But that didn’t mean I stopped thinking about her. The image of Andi’s pale, drawn face stuck in my mind throughout the rest of the day and came right back to me the next morning. A dozen times I thought about trying to track her down and make her talk to me, but I was not the kind of guy people usually came to for advice. Hell, most people would probably look at the way I lived my life as an example of exactly what not to do with theirs. And Andi, as long as I had known her, only thought of me as Seton’s wild, irresponsible brother. I was hardly the person she was going to open up to about her problems.

  About the only thing I could think to do was to text Seton and ask her if she’d managed to speak with Andi since she’d stopped by that afternoon. See texted me back and said they’d talked for a few minutes on the phone that night, and that Andi had said she’d just come over to get advice from Grey about changing out a lock on a door.

  Normally, a piece of information like that would have just passed right on over my head without me giving it a second thought. But given how agitated Andi had been when I’d seen her last, I found myself wondering whether her wanting to change out a lock had anything to do with the reason she’d seemed so upset. The thought kept turning around and around in my mind, and I couldn’t put it aside. Pretty soon I found myself trying to figure out some excuse to go check up on Andi, just to make sure she was okay.

  I figured out a possible way to do just that the following day, in the form of paying a visit to Angus North, the owner of Hammie’s. Since he’d gotten used to me coming to the bar periodically to check up on things as part of the Stone Kings’ protection, it seemed sort of natural for me to go talk to him about the recent drug spike and potential drug problem coming to Lupine that Grey had asked us to keep an eye on. It was a perfect way to see whether Andi happened to be there tending bar.

  I rode over to Hammie’s in the early afternoon, during the lull between the lunch rush and happy hour. I found Angus hanging out at the bar nursing a club soda, watching a ball game and chatting with a tall, skinny bartender named Pete.

  “Hey, Cal,” he greeted me with a wave. “Good to see you. You by yourself today?” Often when I was doing business for the club, I stopped by with Frank or Trig.

  “Yeah, just me today,” I replied. I pulled out a bar stool next to him and took a seat. “How’s it been goin’?”

  “Not bad, not bad,” he shrugged. “You want a drink?”

  “Sure, I’d take a beer.”

  Angus nodded at Pete, who pulled me a draft.

  “You here on business?” Angus asked.

  Pete set the glass before me and I took a swig. “Yeah, more or less. Just wanted to check in and let you know about a potential issue for you to keep your eye out for.”

  I filled him in on what the club knew about the news coming out of Las Cruces, and that he might see a resulting uptick in drug problems among his typical clientele at the bar. “If you notice anything unusual, the club would appreciate it if you’d let us know what you see.”

  “I’ll do that. Shit, that sucks.” He blew out a sigh. “World’s fucked up, man.”

  “You got that right.”

  The two of us sat for a moment, contemplating the fucked-upedness of a world where people sold drugs to kids.

  Casually, I changed the subject. “Hey, great show Saturday. You really packed it in with the bands you booked,” I remarked.

  “Yeah, Andi’s band killed it. ‘Course, they always do.”

  “Andi said they’re going up to Denver on Saturdays starting next month,” I commented. “Are they still going to book gigs here?”

  “For the time being. Probably only once a month or so, but she said as long as she’s still tending bar here, she’s gonna make sure they got room for us in their schedule. It’s gonna suck when they get too big to play gigs here, though.” Angus drained his club soda and started chewing on the ice. “Their shows are solid money-makers.”

  “She working today?” I asked nonchalantly.

  “Uh, yeah, she’s comin’ in… I can’t remember when. Hey, Pete, when’s Andi come in today?” he called.

  “Four to close,” Pete called back from down the bar.

  “Four,” Angus repeated to me.

  I laughed. “I got that. I may stop by later. I have something I want to ask her.”

  “Oh yeah?” Angus threw me a look but didn’t say more.

  “Yeah, it’s no big deal. Don’t bother telling her I stopped by, in case I don’t make it back.” I drained my glass and set it down. “Well, I better get going,” I said, standing up. I didn’t bother to ask Angus how much I owed him. Stone Kings always drank for free at Hammie’s.

  There wasn’t much going on at the clubhouse when I got back, so I decided to ride around and check on a couple of the other businesses in town that we gave protection to, and ask them to keep their eyes out for drug activity from local kids or outsiders. A little before five o’clock, I headed back to Hammie’s, noting as I pulled into the parking lot that Andi’s beater Kia was parked out back. I parked my bike next to her car and wandered in through the side door.

  Andi was busy mixing some drinks when I walked in, so she didn’t notice me at first. She had on a black Ramones tank top and a pair of faded, worn jeans that cupped her ass and looked almost as soft as I imagined her skin would be. In spite of myself, my dick strained in my pants as I imagined running my hands over her hips, pulling her tight against me. I wondered what she’d sound like, the noises she’d make, when I pressed against her hot core and made her squirm.

  Fuck. Okay, Cal, focus.

  I slid onto the same bar stool I’d occupied earlier, quickly adjusting myself in my jeans, and waited for her to notice me. She was finishing up two drinks that looked like gin and tonics, adding a spritz of something and a lime wedge into each one. Moving down to the other end of the bar, she put out two napkins in front of a pair of customers, then set the drinks on top of them. With a brief smile and nod at the two of them, she lifted her head and scanned down the bar for new arrivals, her eyes finally coming to a rest on me.

  With a barely-perceptible start, Andi blinked once, her lips parting slightly in surprise. Then, almost instantly, her face transformed into a mask of cool nonchalance.

  “Hey, Romeo,” she greeted me, her throaty voice causing a familiar twitch in my already half-hard cock. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

  “Just came in for a
beer,” I said easily. “Long day.”

  “This makes twice in one week you’ve been in here,” she remarked. “One more time and you’ll be a regular.”

  “I like the scenery,” I grinned, sliding my eyes lazily down her body.

  It was the sort of meaningless banter Andi and I had engaged in countless times in the past. But somehow, given the strange encounters we’d had in the last few days, something felt different about it. Andi reddened slightly, her eyes flickering. Then the mask was back.

  “What are you having?” she asked coolly.

  “Whiskey and a beer chaser.” I watched in silence as she set out the shot glass, poured the shot, and then pulled a draft and set it down next to the whiskey.

  “Thanks, Doll,” I said, and threw back the shot.

  “Another?” she smirked, cocking her head.

  “Nah, I’m good.”

  “Well, then, don’t forget to tip the scenery.” Her lips quirked.

  I knew I had to keep her talking or she’d move off down the bar to other customers. “Hey, the deck’s finally done at See and Grey’s place. Looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.”

  “Nice. I’m sure they appreciate it.” She smiled vaguely, her eyes flicking down the bar.

  “I let Seton know you stopped by that day.” My tone was casual. “She mentioned you were wanting help from Grey installing a new lock.”

  “Yeah.” She shrugged. “But no worries. I managed to do it myself, thanks to YouTube.” She gave me another smirk and flexed her arm in a Rosie the Riveter pose. “I should have just done that right off the bat, instead of expecting a guy to do it for me.”