by J. M. Walker
“Are you staying?” I asked, a moment of trepidation coursing through me.
“Do you want me to?”
“You know I do.” I patted him on the chest. “You promised me a night of pleasure,” I reminded him, the remnants of the delicious sex we just had tingling on my skin.
He chuckled. “I sure did.” He kissed the top of my head. “And I will keep my promise, baby. You just let me know when you’re ready to leave.”
Now. But I knew it couldn’t happen.
Angel wrapped his arm around my shoulder, leading me into my club. My home. But right then, I felt out of place. Whatever was going on with me, I didn’t like it. I wasn’t used to it. Was it Angel? Was it the fact that all of those girls were disappearing and it brought up memories of my sister? I had no idea but I knew I needed a change.
“Jay,” Max called out, rushing to my side once we entered the building.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her, searching her face.
Her gaze moved back and forth between Angel and me, a hint of curiosity flashing in her light-blue eyes. She shook her head and gripped my shoulders. “The Kings are here.”
Fuck my life with a rusty chainsaw.
“I’ll be at the table with the guys,” Angel whispered in my ear. “Come get me whenever you are ready.” He kissed my cheek and walked toward the large table at the front of the club. The men had already claimed their spot, sitting in the same booth every time they made an appearance. The guys waved. I smiled, nodding in their direction.
“I am so sorry to take you away from him,” Max said, stepping in front of me.
“What’s going on?” I frowned, ignoring her questioning gaze.
“Dante’s Kings need to talk,” she explained.
“No. I mean besides that. You usually make some sort of smartass comment,” I pointed out. “What gives?”
She shrugged. “I need you happy. If he makes you happy, that’s all I care about.”
I didn’t get a chance to respond when the other girls approached us and I got bombarded by questions.
“Something’s going on. What are we going to do?”
“What’s happening?”
“I can’t stand these fuckers.” That was Max.
I sighed. “Let’s get this done and over with.” So I could spend the night with someone who would take all of my frustration away even just for a little bit.
I headed into the meeting room. A room I had called my own since the beginning. But at that very moment, I felt like a stranger.
Loud chatter sounded behind me, following me into the room. I braced myself for the unknown. Dealing with my father would be one thing. I loved the rest of his crew like they were family, but Tyler put a darkness on that group. I should have known from the first time he hit me. Oh God. What would Angel think? I wasn’t broken because of it. I was stronger. But would he see that? Would he feel sorry for me and want to fix me?
“Nugget.”
I turned to the sound of my father’s voice. “Are you talking to me or is he?” I asked, nodding toward Tyler.
“We both are,” Tyler answered for him.
“He is the president,” I snapped. “Why don’t you let him fucking speak for once?”
Tyler smirked, rubbing his jaw.
“Come, Jay. Let’s sit down.” Max gently grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me to my chair at the head of the table.
I had the urge to tell her to mind her own business but she was right. I needed to calm down for fear of losing it completely. “Fine. Talk. Tell me what’s so important that you have to ruin our Friday night—”
“Do you ever get sick of listening to the sound of your own voice?” Tyler glared at me.
“Listen, asshole. You don’t get to talk to me that way anymore. You got me? I don’t care who you are or who you know.” My blood vibrated, my heart pounding hard against the walls of my ribcage.
“You talked to my daughter that way?” My dad smacked Tyler across the head. “You’re lucky I don’t take your fucking cut.” Because taking his cut would be way worse than hurting him. Sometimes I didn’t understand the MC lifestyle.
“Fuck you.” Tyler pushed him, causing the guys to circle around them.
Shit. I didn’t need this. Not now. “All right.” I stepped between them, forcing myself to wedge them apart. “Stop this now or I’ll kick all of you out.”
“Jay.” Fetch, the youngest and newest member of Dante’s Kings stepped forward. “We received this in the mail.” He handed me a manila envelope. He was the calm one of the group, not being in it long enough to allow the lifestyle to take over and blacken his soul.
I sighed, taking it from him, and slouched onto the couch not caring in the least that everyone was watching me. Opening up the envelope, I bit back a gasp when my gaze landed on a picture of Angel and the guys. Photo after photo of Vice-One stared back at me. “What is this?”
“That’s the man you’re spending time with,” my dad pointed out.
Max crouched beside me, grabbing a picture of Dale out of my hands. “What are you trying to tell us? And stop beating around the fucking bush,” she demanded.
My father, Tyler, and Fetch stood around the four of us. We outnumbered them, but we still felt small. At that moment, I decided we needed another girl. A new prospect who had a good head on her shoulders and would bring any of those men to their knees. And not in the sexual way.
“Your man knows more about the missing girls than he lets on,” Tyler stated, implying I found myself another asshole. But no one could be like him. I had the scars to prove it.
“He’s doing his job,” I corrected him. “It’s none of my business what Vice-One does on their missions. Don’t you watch movies? All of that shit is classified.”
“Not when it comes to the fact that it isn’t their job to find these girls. They’re Navy SEALs, Jay. They deal with terrorists and people trying to threaten our country. Not human trafficking.” My dad placed his hand on mine, giving it a light squeeze. “I know we haven’t seen eye-to-eye for a while, but trust me when I tell you something bigger is going on. Be careful.”
“I don’t get why you’re making a big deal out of this,” Max said. “Vice-One is doing their job and more. Why does it matter if they’re going out of their way to find these girls?”
“It matters when they use girls as bait,” Tyler pointed out.
“Excuse me?” My head whipped around. “How the hell do you know that?”
“I have my connections.” He shrugged, a slight smirk spreading on his face.
I stared at him. To other women, he would be considered gorgeous. Model material. He was blond, blue-eyed, built like a tank. But his personality ruined it for me. And so did his fists.
“If Vice-One is going in this using girls as bait to bring this organization down, I can’t argue with that.” I personally wouldn’t have used them as bait, but I didn’t even know how true that was. Could I bring it up to the guys? I would have to. But not when Dante’s Kings were around. I didn’t trust them. I grew up with them but the members had come and gone over the years. When my grandfather recruited my dad, he was my role model. But once my grandpa had passed and with the disappearance of my sister, I lost that connection.
“Nugget,” my dad said gently.
“What, Daddy?” I snapped. “You can’t come into my club, threaten to take what I’ve worked so hard at building, and accuse my new friends of shitty activity.” I pointed at him. “You of all people shouldn’t judge.” Drugs, weapons—whatever Dante’s Kings could get their hands on, they would move it. They would do anything to make money and get their name out there.
“We’re not judging,” Tyler said, crossing his arms under his chest.
“No? So what, you feeling a little righteous because Vice-One will do anything to protect these girls? Do you feel threatened? I’m surprised you even care, Tyler.”
“Of course I care.” His brows narrowed. “Don’t accuse me of different
, woman.”
“Fuck you!” I took a step toward him.
“Leave us,” he demanded, his voice booming around the small room.
My sisters objected, but I reassured them I would be fine. Tyler wouldn’t hurt me again. I was no longer scared of him, especially after I got up the courage to take a knife to his balls. I smiled to myself at the memory.
“I’ll be in the hall,” Max whispered in my ear. “One scream, and I’ll get Angel in here.”
I nodded. But it wouldn’t happen. Tyler and I had done the same song and dance for years. After the first time he hit me, I became a different person. When Violet disappeared, I changed. Tyler and I had a toxic relationship. In another life, I had loved him. But I realized after I got away from him that it wasn’t love. I just didn’t want to be alone.
“You have become sassier, Jenny,” Tyler said once we were alone. He sat on the couch, watching me.
My stomach twisted at the use of his nickname for me. No one else called me Jenny, and he made sure of it. It was a part of me he would own forever. “You did that to me, T.”
He grunted with satisfaction.
Dick. “What do you want?”
“I have a proposition for you.”
“Oh geeze. Of course you do,” I rolled my eyes. “Don’t you think you’ve gotten enough from me over the years?”
“No. If I did, you would still be mine,” he said, his voice rough.
I swallowed hard. I wasn’t scared of him, even when we were together but sometimes a darkness washed over him. His club knew to back away when that happened.
“I want you to back off. We will find these women. You don’t need to mess up your hair and dirty your fingernails over this shit.”
“You chauvinistic bastard. Don’t you dare—”
“Listen to me, Jay,” he snapped, his voice eerily calm. “You keep searching out these girls, I promise you it will make things worse.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Take it as you will.” He shrugged.
“My sister disappeared because of these sick fucks. There is no way I’m dropping this search.” Not like I had any leads anyway, but he didn’t need to know that.
“It’s been years. She probably ran off with a man.”
“No. Don’t you dare sit there and say that to me. You were there when she left. You should have been there for me,” I cried, gripping my shirt. “But you weren’t. You were too caught up in becoming my dad’s bitch.”
“Watch your mouth.” Tyler rose to his feet and strode toward me, forcing me to take a step back. “I gave you everything. I helped you start this club. If it weren’t for me convincing your father, King’s Harlots wouldn’t even be alive today. He’s the one who said women shouldn’t have motorcycle clubs. He’s the one who said his daughter was too much of a princess.”
His words hurt, but I knew they were true. My dad had told me time and time again that I was too much of a girly girl to have my own MC. Violet was the risk taker and when she disappeared, I took over that role, surprising everyone.
“It’s as if Violet never left,” my father had told me once. It made me sick to my stomach that she would be a part of me no matter what when I wanted her physically around. I knew it broke his heart that both of his daughters had left him. One involuntarily. One by sheer will. I would never be the same until Violet came back into our lives. And even then, I would never get the old me back. Genevieve was no longer alive.
“You did nothing for me, Tyler. You broke me and laughed in my face after,” I reminded him. He destroyed a piece of me beyond repair, the piece that would never truly love again.
Tyler shoved his hands in his pockets, standing a foot away from me. “You loved me.”
“I don’t know anymore.” I let out a deep sigh. “If you weren’t the vice president of Dante’s Kings, I would have nothing to do with you.”
“But you have no choice.” A slight smirk spread on his lips. “And you hate me for it.”
“I’ve hated you for less,” I mumbled, turning and headed toward the door.
“Jenny.” He grabbed my arm. “You need to stop searching. If you know what’s good for you, you will quit while you’re ahead.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” When he didn’t say anything, I continued. “I’m sick of your shit. Because of your influence over my father, he has been keeping secrets from me. I am an equal in this world. I have just as much of a right to be in it as you.”
“Ha,” Tyler scoffed. “You’re a woman. You have no rights.”
“You fucking chauvinistic pig,” I screamed, my fist landing against his face. Before I knew what was happening, I lunged for him, beating my small fists against him.
He only laughed, and that made me hit him harder.
“I hate you. I hate what you’ve done to me. I hate how you control my father. I hate you,” I shouted over and over.
Tyler pushed me off of him, flipped me onto my back, and wrapped a hand around my throat. “Little girl, I am the darkness in your fucking nightmares. I made it so you will never forget me. When you’re with Angel, all you will feel is me.” He crashed his lips to mine, shoving his tongue into my mouth.
Bile rose to my throat. Biting down hard, I tore into his lip until a metallic taste wafted through my senses.
He yelped, breaking the contact. “I almost forgot how dirty you liked to play.”
“Fuck you,” I said roughly.
“Aww. You see, Jenny, we’ve done that. Many painful and delicious times, I might add.”
“What the fuck is going on in here?”
I jumped at the deep voice coming from the doorway.
“I’m teaching your woman a lesson,” Tyler sneered, releasing me.
I pushed to my feet. “Go to hell, Tyler.”
“Did he hurt you?” Angel searched my face. “There’s blood on your lip. What the actual fuck?”
“I’m fine. I bit him.”
Angel’s eyes brightened, a grunt leaving his lips.
“Piece of advice. She likes it rough.” Tyler leaned his head from side to side, a loud crack sounding in the room.
“You fucking bastard.” Angel charged his way and before Tyler knew it, he was thrown up against the wall.
He grinned.
“Angel,” I cried, attempting to pry him off Tyler.
“You touch my girl again, I’ll feed you to my fucking dog.”
“He’s not worth it,” I wedged myself between them, putting my hands against Angel’s chest to stop him from what I could only imagine would be painful for Tyler. As much as I wanted to see him writhing in pain, it wasn’t worth it. “Angel is more of a man than you will ever be. He’s not a selfish asshole like you.”
“Remember what I said,” Tyler smirked, crossing his arms under his chest.
“You do not get to tell me what to do anymore. Until I find my sister, no matter the outcome, I will not stop. You and my dad will just have to get used to that.” I grabbed Angel’s hand and stomped out of the room. My body vibrated. My heart pounded hard, the blood pumping through my veins.
Loud voices and music pierced my ears, screaming for me to enjoy the party, but I couldn’t. I needed out. I needed away. My feet led us to the table surrounded by Angel’s brothers. The men of Vice-One looked up at us.
“Angel,” I said once I reached their table. The burn of his gaze seared through me. He could make me forget. He could help me get my mind off of everything even if it was just for a moment.
He squeezed my hand. “I’m calling it a night,” he told his brothers, not leaving my side.
They grunted in response, not asking any questions.
Angel wrapped his arm around my shoulders, guiding us outside.
“Jay,” Max called out.
“I’ll call you in the morning,” I told her.
She nodded, giving me a quick hug. “Be safe. We need to talk about Tyler.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Okay.” She hugged me again. “Love you.”
“Love you too,” I said, hugging her back.
Angel and I headed outside, the cool air whipping around us. He didn’t say anything as I led us to my bike. He reached a hand out, waiting.
Not even hesitating, I dropped my keys into his open palm. As much as I enjoyed feeling the wind in my hair, that night I wasn’t in the mood. Giving up control, I allowed Angel the freedom to take me wherever he saw fit.
He slid onto the bike, turned it on, and looked back at me, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t look at me with pity. He didn’t ask where I wanted to go or why I wanted to leave. He just waited.
Taking a breath, I stepped onto the peg and swung my leg over the other side.
“Hold on to me, baby. I won’t let you fall.” His deep voice traveled through me.
Knowing his words meant more than what he said, I pushed my hands up under his hoodie and t-shirt until I touched bare skin. Letting my fingers travel to his hard stomach, I leaned my head against his back. I could feel his length grow where my elbow rested in his lap but he didn’t comment. No dirty talk. No demands. No telling me what to do or what he wanted. It would come. I knew that. And I was ready. Always. But for right then, I reveled in the warmth of his skin burning beneath my touch.
Angel pulled the bike out of the parking lot, driving at the speed limit until we reached the outskirts of town. Once we hit the open road, he sped up, forcing me to hold onto him tighter. I smiled, knowing it was intentional.
My hands moved to his chest, grazing over the bumpy ridges of old scars. The times we had been together, I never paid attention to them. But they told a story. A memory of what happened.
I held onto him like he was only thing that mattered. The one thing that existed in my world. It was just him and me in our journey. Those thoughts surprised me. We had gone into it for the sex. It was amazing and delicious. I had tried to disperse my feelings but I wasn’t stupid. Even I was woman enough to admit that I was attracted to the guy. Who wouldn’t be? He was all Spanish, hard male. A sex god who could make me weak in the knees from just his words. I never believed in that instalove shit; it wasn’t realistic. Of course there was such a thing as instant attraction. We were human. It happened. But it would be a long while before I allowed myself to fall in love again. And even then, I would never say those words unless I was absolutely sure that was it.
