Squatch (Rolling Thunder MC Birmingham Book 4)

by Candace Blevins

  “I didn’t think you would, Sir, but I had to ask. I’m sorry.”

  “No apology necessary. You expected to go back to work last night, but you still needed rest, Kitten. You should go back tomorrow night, but it might be the next.” He’d been sitting up straight, and he leaned against the back of the chair. “You’re safe here, but I can’t keep you locked up, even if it’s to keep you safe. I know that.” He rubbed his thigh, as if his palm itched. “Eyes, Kitten.”

  I met his gaze, and he told me, “Mad Dog has assigned Freckles to you. Anytime you aren’t at home, the clubhouse, or working, he’ll be with you if I can’t be. He doesn’t know club secrets, so you mustn’t talk about going next door at work, or anything else you’ve learned from me. You’re going to hate having a bodyguard, but you’ll live with it. If you don’t like Freckles, particularly, we can assign someone else. He’s good with his fists and good with guns. If he loses you, he faces my fists. No one will take you while he’s guarding you.” He leaned forward again, his forearms on his thighs. “This is an open talk session. I need to hear from you.”

  “I’ll agree to it for a few days, and then we can talk again, Sir. If I need to go somewhere without him for the rest of this week, I’ll let you know. Sir. I won’t sneak off.”

  I knew he wouldn’t like that I wasn’t promising it more than the rest of the week, but I also knew he’d probably take it, for now.

  “During a crisis, you will do as you’re told without arguing or asking why or pointing out you’re capable of fighting, too. I know your capabilities. If we need them, I’ll use them. If we don’t, I’ll send you to safety. The same goes for Mad Dog and Bobcat. Frost and Dementor, too. Any of them gives you an order when the shit is hitting the fan, you follow it. No argument. No discussion. For stuff like a bodyguard, you can come to me and talk to me during downtime. Freckles will go to the range with us, so he can see you in action. He’ll know you have a weapon on you while you shop or hang out with friends. He’ll take that into consideration should you come under attack. You aren’t obligated to obey him, but you should work with him and not against him.”

  “And if I argue with one of your brothers when they tell me I can’t do something they think isn’t safe?”

  “They’ll watch you kneel on rice. They’ll see you punished. You can wear shorts and a shirt in front of them, but when it’s just me, you’ll be nude when you kneel in the corner.”

  “I’m a tiger. I can take care of myself.”

  “A tiger who’s mated to a wolf. Not just a wolf, but a biker.” He breathed out, frustrated. “Kitten, sometimes, being important to me will put you in danger. Most of the time, being my ol’lady makes you one of the safest people on the planet, but there are times it does the opposite, and you have to let me and my brothers see to your safety when that happens. Right now, we worry for your safety because of the ambush. I don’t think they’ll defy His Majesty and come after you, but I don’t know that for a fact. Later, it might be because our enemies are looking for a soft-spot to hit.”

  He rubbed his face. “Off topic, but I forgot to tell you. We’re having lunch with His Majesty and Kirsten in two days. Backroom at the Rolling Thunder Restaurant. Back on topic, there are three important things to note. One, you’ll have a bodyguard when you’re out, either me or Freckles. If you have a problem with this, talk to me about it, but under no circumstances do you ditch your bodyguard and take off on your own. Two, you’ll immediately follow my orders, or those of my brothers, during a crisis situation, or whenever your personal or emotional safety is at stake. Three, punishment for safety-related issues will involve kneeling on rice. I can tell this doesn’t impress you, so you’re about to spend ten minutes doing so, as an object lesson. Punishments will likely start at two or three times that, but this should give you a rough idea of what you’re in for. Remain where you are.”

  He stood, lifted the seat, and swung it forward until it rested on the front of the base. He reached into the storage area, lifted a full zipper-bag of rice, and poured it on the floor in the corner.

  “Stand.”

  I released my hands from behind my back and stood without walking to him.

  “I didn’t tell you to move your hands.”

  I put them back, but he shook his head and reached into the storage area again. My heart stuttered when I saw the zip-ties.

  “Turn around.”

  I did, and he put one around my wrist and forearm, near the opposite elbow, and he tightened it until my wrist bent inward.

  He talked while he secured the other wrist in the same manner. “Yes, it’s tighter than it should be, but it’s only for ten minutes. You’ll survive, and maybe next time you’ll follow instructions better.”

  He grasped my upper arm, walked me the five steps to the corner, and pushed down. I went to my knees and moved to sit my butt on my feet, but he held me up.

  I was facing the wall instead of the corner, and I understood why when he took a quarter from his pocket and held it to the wall. “Put your forehead on it.”

  He moved it down a little as I leaned forward, so it was in the right place. I had to lean forward to hold it in place, and the rice started digging into my knees like a million tiny little knives. Fuck. The pain was bearable, but I wasn’t sure I’d last ten minutes.

  “Lift your feet off the floor. I’ll add five minutes every damned time they touch the floor. If the quarter drops, your time starts from zero.” He stepped back and I could feel him pulling himself together.

  “I’m sorry. Anger has no place in this corner. Ever. My anger isn’t at you, but at the people who might want to take you from me.” He walked across the room and sat in a chair directly behind me.

  “If you don’t agree to this punishment, you’ll be bound into it, and you’ll be there longer. Just so you know, a butt plug coated in pepper oil can add to your misery, as can clamps on your nipples and tongue. Or needles. Like this, the sexual component is removed, and that feels important for safety-related consequences.”

  Tears pushed into my eyes and I swallowed them down. No way was I going to cry because I was having to kneel and face a fucking wall.

  But the rice dug into my knees. Dug into the very bones. Nerves I didn’t know existed screamed at me. I tried to arch my back, but I almost lost the quarter so I quickly moved back into the position he’d put me in. There would be no adjustments to try to deal with this pain.

  When he finally lifted me from the corner, tears streamed down my face. I’d held it together while in position, but the relief of being lifted off the rice was too much, and I couldn’t hold it in. He brushed the rice from my knees and I gave several staccato screams. Fuck, that hurt.

  “If this had been an actual punishment, you’d put every grain of rice back into the bag, along with the quarter, and then you’d put the bag back into storage for the next time you need it. This was just a demonstration, though, so I’ll vacuum the pieces up and put fresh rice in a bag for next time.”

  I looked at my knees — deep red with dozens and dozens of little rice-shaped impressions on each. Deep fucking impressions. No wonder my nerves had screamed so loud. I could already feel the skin growing tight. Swelling.

  He touched my chin. A single finger. I turned and lifted my face towards him, and met his gaze — his eyes were the color of deep, warm chocolate, but that didn’t fool me. He was dead serious about this.

  “Your safety is my number one priority. Tell me you’ll follow instructions designed to keep you safe, so we don’t have to spend time with you on your knees on rice in the corner, Kitten.”

  Part of me wanted to agree to anything he asked, but a bigger part of me couldn’t. I wasn’t going to let the ambush force me to be an almost-prisoner again.

  “I haven’t agreed to anything more than checking in with you before I go against orders for the rest of the week. I’m not agreeing to a permanent babysitter, Squatch. I didn’t fight for my freedom just to let you put me in a safe b
ox again. I won’t be stupid. I don’t want to be captured, I don’t want to do anything to risk being able to live my life with you, but I can’t agree to your demands past the end of the week, and if I don’t agree to them, you can’t punish me for not following them.”

  His jaw muscles jerked and tensed, and his glare would’ve terrified anyone with a lick of sense, but it just made me clench my own teeth and stare back.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Squatch

  I’d told her once that if I wanted a doormat, I wouldn’t have fallen for a tiger. I took a breath and reminded myself that her fiery disposition and hard-headedness was what brought her to me, and part of the reason I loved her.

  “Okay, Kitten, but that means we have this discussion again at the end of the week. Meanwhile, we both have the evening free, so what would you like to do? I’m hungry, so food should factor in somewhere, but we can do whatever you want. Well, within reason.”

  “I’ve never been on a boat.”

  “I’m going to step outside and make a phone call. See what I can do about fixin’ that.”

  Magnum owns a house on Logan Martin Lake. He has a pontoon boat and some waverunners, but it was the boat I was interested in.

  “Yeah, sure. I can take ya’ll out. I need another hour to finish what I’m working on. Why don’t ya’ll go to the Island Bar and Grill, just down from my house, and I’ll pick ya’ll up there. Order me three burgers. I’ll bring beer. Should I bring someone so I’m not a third wheel?”

  “Can’t hurt. You seein’ someone?”

  “No, but Muppet’s hanging around and looks bored.”

  Muppet was a new sweetbutt, meaning I’d never fucked her. “Up to you. I’d never give a sweetbutt that much attention.” They get ideas that they’re special, when they aren’t.

  He sighed. “Yeah I guess you’re right.”

  “Find Freckles and grab him. He’s gonna be stuck to my Kitten like glue when she’s out without me, so we’ll use this opportunity to introduce them.”

  I walked back inside and grinned at Kitty. “Go put a bathing suit on, and riding clothes over it.”

  I gathered together some towels and sunscreen, went to my closet, stripped down, put swim trunks on, and then pulled my jeans back over the top of them. I’d bought special riding shirts for us to wear in summer – mesh on the front of your arms, hi-tech armored fabric over the elbows and shoulders and spine. Even the mesh is super-strong and protective, but it breathes, so you aren’t completely miserable in long sleeves. Kitty’s is white and charcoal, mine is light charcoal and dark grey. They cost hundreds of dollars, but they’ll be worth every penny if we end up on the pavement.

  Kitty came out in faded jeans and her riding shirt, and I looked to her feet. Riding boots, which was good on the bike, but she’d need something else once we arrived. “Grab some sandals or flip flops, something with a good sole that can get wet. We’ll change shoes once we get there.”

  It was only a thirty-minute drive to the lake, but it’d been too long since I’d had my girl on the back of my bike. Nothing compares to the feel of the road and engine under me with her hugged up behind me, leaning together, in and out of the curves.

  Freckles was there when we arrived, and we sat at the table with him to change our shoes. Kitty took her shirt off and just had her bikini top on under it. Others were in bathing suit tops as well, but I wished she’d brought a shirt. Pisses me off when men stare at her tits when she isn’t working.

  I blew out a breath and pulled my own shirt off, replacing it with a short-sleeved tee. I stood, pulled my jeans off, and glared at my Kitten. “Unless you have shorts to go over your bathing suit, you’re stuck in your jeans for now.”

  She shrugged and grinned, but didn’t stand up to shuck her jeans off. I put our shirts, shoes, and my jeans into a duffel, and set it at my feet as a waitress came to take our order.

  Kitty

  My first impression of Freckles was that he was too young and innocent to be around Squatch and the other bikers, but then I realized I’d just been seeing the red hair and freckles. The dude’s eyes told a different story. He might look twenty from a distance, but up close, if you were paying attention, he’d lived a hard life.

  We were at a table for eight, but I didn’t ask who else was coming. Some things, I figure Squatch will tell me if he wants me to know. He gets annoyed sometimes when I ask questions around his brothers, and I didn’t really need to know.

  Ten minutes after we arrived, Kahn and a woman I’d never seen before sat with us. I tried to surreptitiously take a deep breath, and scented Khan’s wolf alongside a hawk.

  “This is Lee. She drove up from Mobile for a few days. She’s on speech restriction. If you need to speak with her, do so through me, please.”

  I looked at my plate. I’d learned about power exchange and BDSM from Brooke and her people. She’d thought it important I understand the lifestyle, in the event I ran into someone who expected I’d understand. She hadn’t been wrong. I’d been so naïve when I’d first started stripping, even after everything Brooke had taught me. I’d caught up fast, though.

  Because I understood the lifestyle, I assumed Lee had driven up to see Kahn with an understanding of the rules before she arrived. She clearly already knew him. But, I thought he and Nuli were close, and I wondered what his deal with the two women was, but knew Squatch wouldn’t want me asking if they knew about each other. I also understood bringing Nuli up would be in bad form. I wouldn’t have understood those nuances when I’d first entered society.

  “Magnum’s meeting us here on his bike, instead of picking us up from here in the boat,” Kahn told us, “and we can all ride to his house to get on the boat. Our bikes will be safer there.”

  “I’ve been meaning to talk to him about buying some waverunners, or comparable, this fall when everyone’s trying to ditch them,” Squatch said. “We can store them in the clubhouse over the winter, but if he has a place for them in the summer, it’ll be fun if we can get a bunch of us riding together next year.”

  Magnum walked across the room, stopping to put his arm around a waitress and squeeze her ass before he made his way to our table.

  “I’m good with keeping them at my house. We’ll need to work out insurance in case they’re stolen. Theft on the water happens more than anyone realizes.”

  Squatch grinned. “Maybe we put the RTMC logo on them, then. No one in their right mind jacks our shit.”

  “Point.” Magnum looked to me. “Squatch says you’ve never been on a boat?”

  I shook my head.

  “Mine’s just a pontoon boat. Party boat. Nothing fancy. Have ya’ll ordered? Their burgers are out of this world.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Squatch

  Kitty wasn’t comfortable with Lee. At all. To her credit, she didn’t say anything, but she also wouldn’t look in her general direction.

  Kahn ordered Lee a water, and he fed her bites of his burger. She didn’t drink her water unless he lifted the glass and put the straw to her mouth. Way too much energy to put into power exchange, if you ask me, but Khan’s hard core. He runs the BDSM portion of our spa, meaning he oversees the pro-submissives, and watches over the scene while the paying Doms work them over. He knows his shit, which is why we’d asked for him to come up. Technically, he’s still on loan from the Mobile chapter, but we all hope he decides to stay.

  He’d shown up at club functions with a lovely little submissive deer shifter named Nuli a few times, so the club gossip was going strong, but I’d known he wasn’t ready to settle down. I was pretty sure this little hawk shifter was just a plaything as well.

  No, not just playthings. He cared about them and likely had a good deal of time invested in training them, but I didn’t see him settling down with either of them.

  We parked our bikes in Magnum’s huge garage and walked down to the water without going through his house. He’d had a nice job before going to jail for nearly beating someone
to death, but had lost it when he was convicted. Not many companies want to trust an ex-convict with their money, so he’d joined us when he got out, and now he handles our computers and helps Frost with the contract stuff at the construction company. He’ll eventually help Frost handle the club’s money, but not yet. We’re getting there.

  Magnum’s pontoon boat can easily handle a dozen people. I reached my hand out to help Kitty from the dock to the boat, but she didn’t even notice my hand. Silly me, helping a cat keep balance. What was I thinking?

  Kahn had put a leash on Lee when we got to the garage, and a piece of black stretchy cloth around her wrists, holding them at her back. He held her upper arm as she stepped from the dock to the seat to the floor of the boat, and then pointed to his feet and she gracefully dropped to her knees.

  Magnum stood and looked at her a few seconds, a stack of towels in his left hand, a cooler of beer in his right.

  “She can’t be restrained on the boat. It isn’t safe.”

  Kahn lifted an eyebrow at him and then looked to the girl at his feet. “Show him, pet.”

  Lee brought her hands to her front and offered the black stretchy piece of fabric to Magnum, who shook his head and looked back to Kahn. “Sorry, brother. I should’ve known you wouldn’t put her at risk, but why bother at all?”

  “I want her arms behind her back. Out of the way. I could require her to hold them there, but it requires a lot of expended energy. Offering a binding is a kindness. She can get out of it, but she won’t unless I instruct her to. She’s almost always a good girl.” He looked down and grinned. “But when she’s bad, she’s very, very bad.”