He lifted his head and looked down at her and that was when he realized she had her hand shoved down between her legs and her fingers were going crazy pleasuring that sweet, sopping-wet pussy. He loved it. He loved to watch a woman fuck herself, not to mention the sight of her big, firm breasts swaying gently with the motion of it all. He groaned loudly, lost in an ocean of carnal lust, feeling that orgasm race from his toes up to settle in his core and ready itself for the explosion brewing inside of him. He yelled out, knotted her hair in his fist, thrust his hips up hard enough to shove his cock halfway down her throat, and then he let the orgasm go. He could feel her throat muscles moving as she swallowed, hear the gurgling sounds she was making, see those big, dark eyes looking up at him, and he could even taste the adrenaline in his veins.
He loosened his hold on her hair and let her slowly work him through wave after wave of ecstasy. At last, when she’d taken every drop, she rose up and slithered up his body like a snake. Pressing her lips to his and allowing him to taste himself there she whispered:
“You need to go now before my dad gets home from work.”
A shiver of fear ran through him. He was no expert on meeting parents for sure, but what he was sure of was that naked and well spent in the man’s daughter’s bed was no way to do it. He got out of there quickly and made it back to the small garage where they were running their business in time to see Jace leaving on his bike and Beck coming out of the house with a bald, bearded man about his age following behind and looking like he might piss his pants. Finn smiled. He had no idea who the guy was, but at least he himself wasn’t the only one that Beck terrified.
* * *
Rock was sitting on a stool behind the counter when Jace walked into the store first thing the next morning. As soon as he saw Jace, he got to his feet, and Jace could see by his face that he already knew something, at least, about what happened the night before.
“Good morning, Rock.”
“Jace.”
“Is Tommy here?”
Rock sighed. “No. Detective Tyler picked him up last night and took him into the station for questioning. Ajei followed them down there and didn’t get home until late. I made her stay home and try to get some rest this morning. I have the greatest love and respect for my wife, but sometimes she forgets our son is a grown man and she worries way too much about things she can’t control.”
“I’m sorry,” Jace said. He was truly sorry for what Ajei and Rock were going through. But he still hadn’t decided if that empathy extended to their son or not. “Did the detective say why he was taking Tommy in?”
“His clothes...” Rock sighed again and said, “Tyler thinks it was his clothes on your porch last night, and they were stained with blood.” Jace had been sure that what looked like motor oil was old blood, but he had still hoped otherwise. But if this were Tommy, and he had killed those girls, why was he setting himself up to get caught? That part didn’t make any sense. “Please have a seat, Jace. Can I get you some coffee, or anything?”
Jace sat on the stool across the counter from Rock. “No, thank you. Rock, does Tommy have any enemies?”
Rock shook his head, sadly. “I wish I could tell you no...or even yes...without wondering if I knew what I was talking about. The sad truth is, I don’t feel like I know much of anything about my son any longer. Tommy and I used to be close, or at least I liked to believe we were. However, it seems the older he gets the more resentment he has for his mother and me for the decisions we made when he was a child.” He swallowed hard and sat back down and said, “I’m sorry. You have too many of your own problems to deal with to be burdened with mine.”
“I’m asking,” Jace said. “I’m honestly interested in knowing the kind of person Tommy is. I’ll be honest with you, I suspected your son had a hand in the rabbit, and the painting on the house. But it doesn’t make sense to me that he’d go through all of that trouble to be anonymous and then leave a pile of bloody clothes on our porch and ring the bell.”
Rock nodded and said, “My son is not stupid, that much I can assure you. And I’ll be honest with you. I believed he was responsible for terrorizing you too. Not because he’s a bad person, but because he spent so many years taking to heart what his great-grandmother told him, and he’s passionate about the land as well. Still, Jace, I might not know what’s in my son’s head the way that I wished I did these days, but I do know his heart. Tommy is misguided, but he’s not a killer.”
“So, what we have to figure out is who might want to frame him, and why.”
Rock sighed like he was holding something heavy on his shoulders. “I know Tommy isn’t a favorite of the people on the city council and some of the politicians involved in the department of land management...but he’s no threat to any of them either. He makes a lot of noise and he’s always the one that ends up being hauled off to jail in the end. Other than that, I just don’t know.”
“What about Ajei’s relatives, the ones he lived with growing up? Do you think they might know something?”
“I doubt it. He lived with his Aunt Lena, the same aunt whom Ajei lived with after her mother died. She’s in her eighties now, still sharp...but I would doubt Tommy has bothered her with any of this.”
“Did I understand correctly that there were other family members involved in his upbringing? Is his aunt the only one left?”
“Ajei has two brothers, both much older than her. They and their wives were around when Tommy was young and pitched in to help but I think Tommy was barely thirteen when they moved to New Mexico. They opened a restaurant there. The older brother has two children and the younger one has one daughter, Tommy’s cousins. They were all grown by the time Tommy was born, and in and out while they went to college and got on with their own lives. Lena has two children as well. Her daughter Misty lives in California now. She wasn’t around much when Tommy was growing up. Jonathan, Lena’s son, was, about ten years ago. Ajei’s mother passed when she was fifteen so Tommy never knew her and Ajei’s father wasn’t around. Lena’s husband was long dead too, before Tommy was born.” Jace saw something flash in Rock’s dark eyes for just a second, and then it was gone. “My uncle, the one who owned this store, and his wife also helped out with Tommy. They are traveling now, though, so if you want to speak with them, it would have to be by phone. I can give you Lena’s and Jonathan’s address if you’d like.”
“Jonathan still lives with his mother?”
“He was married for a while. They had a son, Geo. Geo was about ten, I think, when they split up. He would be about sixteen now, I guess. His mother moved with him to California, a place called Jamestown, after the split. Jonathan has been back home with Lena since. I think he still keeps the house but doesn’t live in it. He travels to California to see his son a few times a year, but otherwise he sticks close to Lena; he’s her caretaker now.”
“Can you tell me about your son, Rock? You say that you can’t believe he’s a killer and I respect that. But is there anything you can think of other than the politics he’s interjected himself into that could earn him an enemy or two?”
Rock made a face and then said, “Tommy was always a ‘different’ kind of kid. He spent most of his time, when he wasn’t at school, with his great-grandmother. Where most kids his age would have brushed off the old stories she told, Tommy took them to heart. He grew up feeling like our people were being persecuted and the land was being raped and someone had to stand up for all of that. The problem is that the stories she told him were nine parts legend mixed up with one part of reality that might have taken place dozens, or even hundreds, of years ago. As Tommy got older he took it upon himself to try to stop the development of land he felt ‘rightfully’ belonged to the Navajo people based on what she had told him. No amount of reality...showing him land deeds or proving to him how long the land has been out of Navajo hands...convinced him to back off.
“The saving grace at that time was that he was ready to leave for college. Ajei and I hoped that college wo
uld somehow ‘cure’ him of his obsession. We hoped he’d meet some new people and maybe even a girl...develop some new interests and come home ready to be a man. Instead it worked the opposite. He came home looking for a fight. So, as far as enemies, there are a handful of people in this town that might want to silence him. But to set him up as a serial killer...that just seems too extreme. The thing is that what my son believes about your land has no validity. So, he shows up at the city council meetings routinely with complaints about things like contaminated water or poaching...anything to try to get the government to turn the land back over to the Navajo Nation.” Rock sighed again. “His mother and I have tried to teach him that it’s okay to have his ideals, but without proof it’s not okay to make the kinds of accusations he’s been making. There could be any number of people unhappy with him. I can make you a list of the ones I know for sure he’s gone toe to toe with, if that might help.”
“It might,” Jace said. “Was Tommy’s name on the jacket, the one on my porch?”
Rock nodded. “Yeah. It was a gift from one of his uncles a few years ago. It’s one of his favorites.”
“Did Tommy say anything before Detective Tyler took him?”
Rock made a face like he had a headache and said, “No. He was completely silent, which to me spoke volumes. I hate to say this, but neither my son nor my wife seemed surprised by what the detective had to say. Ajei is not one to ever keep things from me. But when it comes to Tommy...sometimes she doesn’t always think so clearly.” Jace had never had a mother, so he was by far no expert on the bond, but he had lived enough and read enough to at least have an outsider’s understanding of it. “She has a lot of guilt, for all the years we left Tommy behind while we were on the road.”
“Can I ask you a personal question, Rock?”
“Of course.”
“This is on a different subject. Beck and I want a child and we don’t plan on letting the miscarriage stop us from trying again. Ajei mentioned to me that Tommy had some problems because of the way he was raised. I can’t help but have concerns about raising a child within an MC. So, I was wondering...and if this is too personal, please feel free to say so...but if you had it to do all over again, would you have kept him with you?”
Rock looked like he was thinking it over and then he said, “Hindsight is a funny thing. I can see now the repercussions and how they’ve affected both Tommy and his mother. I would go back if I could and make adjustments, yes...if I could. I’m not sure there is a person alive who wouldn’t seize that opportunity. But we can’t go back, Jace. All we can do is the best we can at any given moment of our lives. I believe a successful life is being able to look back and know that you overcame the obstacles put in front of you, and you did all you could do with the tools at your disposal.”
Jace nodded. He’d never admitted it to Beck, but sometimes he worried about what kind of father a man with his father’s DNA running through his veins could really be. Of course, Beck had told him more than once that as far as she was concerned, DNA was a minute part of who a person becomes. She believed that everyone makes choices that bring them to wherever they were in life and their childhood or DNA had nothing to do with it. She used herself as a case in point. She claimed if her mother’s or grandmother’s DNA had anything to say about it, she would have been a “typical 50s housewife.”
“Thanks,” Jace said. “If Tommy comes back any time soon, maybe you could give me a call. I just want to talk to him...”
“You don’t have to explain that to me. I want to talk to him myself. I will call you.”
“Thank you. In the meantime, I’m going to do some meeting of my neighbors. I’ll try and be delicate about asking questions that might embarrass your family.”
Rock smiled. “You’re a good man, Jace Bell. You do what you have to do for your family. I can promise you, I’ll do the same for mine.”
“Thank you, Rock. I have one more favor to ask. Would it be possible for me to talk to Ajei’s relatives, the ones who helped raise Tommy? That is if they’re still living and around here.”
“They’re still in the same place they’ve always been,” Rock said. “The ones who are still living. Ajei’s Aunt Lena, the one who Tommy lived with, is in her eighties, as I said. Her son Jonathan was divorced a few years back and he lives with her too now. The daughter, Misty, left home years ago and as far as I know, she hasn’t been back. I don’t know how much they can tell you, though. Tommy and his Aunt Lena were close, but he and Jonathan never were. I don’t think Tommy’s gone over there much since Jonathan moved home.”
“Sometimes people know things they don’t even think they know,” Jace said.
“You’re right,” Rock said. He gave Jace Lena’s address on the reservation and then the two men shook hands and Jace got on the road. It might not net him anything, but it was a starting point and he felt like he had to do something. Once he was finished there, the Highway Club would be open and he planned on stopping in there as well. That was the bar where Finn and Tommy fought that night and Finn told him it was mostly full of locals...which was probably one reason why Tommy was so pissed to see Finn there. Finn did mention a girl, a bartender that he was talking to, which seemed to piss Tommy off as well. Maybe she knew something. Jace would at least try to talk to whoever might be there so early in the day. He could go back later if he needed to. Dax and Wolf had entrusted him with this club and he wasn’t going to let them down. He was determined to move heaven and earth to find out who was doing all of this. He had big plans for this club, but he couldn’t take it anywhere until he knew who was threatening his family and put a stop to it.
14
Jace pulled up in front of an average-looking three-bedroom ranch-style house. A couple of dogs, mixed-breed types, ran out to greet him. They were barking and snarling, but as soon as he got off the bike and held out his hand, they sniffed it and calmed down. When he looked back toward the house a middle-aged man with dark skin and dark hair had stepped out onto the front porch. Jace walked toward him and said, “Hi there, my name is Jace Bell. I was looking for Tommy Tsosie’s relatives.”
The man regarded him suspiciously but said, “You found them. I’m his cousin, Jonathan Claw.” Jace held out his hand and the man took it. They shook and then Jonathan said, “What’s this about? Is Tommy in trouble?”
“I’m going to be honest with you, sir. I’m not sure. I haven’t had much time to think about it yet, but I’m afraid that maybe someone is trying hard to cause trouble for Tommy. Can we sit down and talk?”
Still looking at Jace like he wasn’t sure, the man said, “We can go around back and sit in the yard.” As Jace followed Jonathan around to the back fence he said:
“Tommy’s father, Rock, gave me your address, and if it would make you feel better about talking to me, I can wait while you call him. I know talking to a complete stranger about your family isn’t anyone’s ideal situation.”
Jonathan led them through a fence, shooing away two more dogs as he did. He gestured at a couple of lawn chairs and told Jace, “Have a seat. I’ll go call Rock.” Jace nodded at him and sat down. He didn’t smoke often, but lately he’d needed something to take the edge off things. He took a cigarette and lighter out of his pocket and lit the cigarette. While Jonathan was inside on the phone, Jace smoked his cigarette and looked around the yard and thought about what he wanted to say, and find out.
The yard was set up with what looked like a handmade play set, with an attached playhouse. It was weathered and looked like it had been there for a long time. There was a plank on one side with the initials of about five children...Jace assumed it was children...carved into it. He could see the top initials clearly, a crude, childlike “T.T.” He tried to picture the Tommy he knew now as the boy he was then and strangely, he felt a pang in his chest. Jace had known loneliness. He’d known despair. He’d known the feeling of abandonment and he wondered if those were all things that Tommy had felt deeply as a little boy, living there wi
th his mother’s family, knowing that his parents had chosen a life that they didn’t believe a child could fit into. Even after talking to Rock, Jace couldn’t help wonder if he and Ajei had made the right decision.
The sound of the screen door opening behind him got his attention and Jace turned to see Jonathan coming out the door with an elderly woman with dark skin and snow-white hair. Jace started to stand and Jonathan gestured at him to stay put. He stood anyway. “This is my mother, Lena. She’s Ajei’s aunt.”
“It’s a pleasure,” Jace said, holding out his hand. Lena shook it gently with her own frail hand and then sat in the other empty chair. Jonathan pulled up a third chair and took a seat and Jace sat back down in his.
“Rock said he sent you here and we should tell you whatever we can. We had no idea about the trouble Tommy was in, or what’s been going on out there. Tommy’s only come to see us once since he came home from college,” Jonathan said.
“Well, I will tell you what I know as of right now,” Jace said. He began talking, beginning with the night Rock and Ajei came to dinner and they found the rabbit and ending with Tommy’s clothes being found in a bloody lump on his porch. They both sat silently, but Tommy’s Aunt Lena cringed several times and her eyes even filled with tears when he told them about the two dead girls they dug up. When he stopped talking, Jonathan took his mother’s hand in his and she looked at Jace with watery, faded brown eyes and said:
Rise of the Phoenix: Phoenix Skulls Motorcycle Club: (Phoenix Skulls MC Romance Book 1) Page 10
