by Jessie Cooke
“Remember how much I love this club and how loyal I am and how I’d never do anything that might hurt it…”
“What do you want, Cody?”
“I need to know what’s going on in West Virginia. It has something to do with the home invasion, right? And the Irish Mayhem are somehow in the middle of it.”
“Why don’t you ask Dax if you ‘need’ to know?”
“Because he won’t tell me and you know it.”
“Which is why I’m not going to tell you either. Man, Dax trusts me and he just patched me in. I’m not going to jeopardize that for the sake of…what? Gossip?”
“I’m not asking you to gossip. I’m just asking you to treat me like I’m part of this club too and tell me what’s going on.”
“Why do you need to know, Cody? You’re a prospect. You need to know your place in this club. Unless Dax asks you to ride along with us, I don’t think you need to know anything.”
“Wow. Getting patched in kind of went to your head.”
“Fuck you. How about you show some respect? I bet you wouldn’t talk to Nolan or Handsome or any of the other guys the way you talk to me.”
“I’m supposed to show you respect? I sat in a fucking prison for eight years, doing whatever I was told whenever I was told to do it. I had to show respect to the guys from the club doing life in there. I had to show respect to the COs. I had to show respect to the shot callers. And meanwhile I didn’t hear one fucking word from you because you were out here disrespecting me. You owe me.”
Jimmy snorted. “I owe you? I worked for my position in the club, and Macy and I both explained to you how we ended up together. No one told you to go fucking beat some guy to death. You made that stupid decision all on your own.”
Cody forgot that his arm hurt as he took a swing at Jimmy. He was slow, and Jimmy caught the punch and used the momentum of it to push him back, sending a lightning bolt of pain shooting through his shoulder. They both ended up on the floor and just as they started grappling, Cody heard Macy’s voice.
“Stop it! Both of you stop this right now! You’re like wild animals!” Both men froze. It wasn’t her order that affected them. Cody knew Jimmy had a girl down the hall by the way he was dressed and how he was acting…but it hadn’t crossed his mind that it was Macy. Jimmy had obviously told her to lie low. Cody pushed Jimmy off him and got to his feet. Jimmy jumped to his as well. They were both still in fighting stance and staring each other down. Neither man had looked in Macy’s direction. “Both of you listen to me, because I’m not saying this again. I was in love with you, Cody. I was head over heels in love with you. Losing you and then making the decision I made about our baby nearly destroyed me. I was never a strong person, but I was completely broken. Jimmy, you came along and helped me heal, and no, Cody…he was not being an opportunist. Believe this or not, I made the first moves on him and he tried to tell me it wasn’t right. But we fell in love, Cody, and we had a good life here. When you came back we both forgot that for a minute. But it didn’t go away. I love him, Cody. I love Jimmy. I will always have a special place for you in my heart. You were my best friend and my first love. I’ll never forget that…but I made a life with Jimmy that I want back. No amount of you two rolling around on the floor is going to change that. So knock that shit off now! I’m sick of it!”
Cody hated to admit it, even to himself, but he had been arrogant enough to believe, since the day he walked out of prison, that Macy would never want anyone but him. Even while he’d been fooling around with Harley and developing feelings for her, in the back of his mind he thought it would be Macy he ended up with someday. It hurt to hear her say she loved Jimmy, but surprisingly, not as much as he’d thought it would. He was proud of her for standing up for herself. It was something she rarely did. He finally took his eyes off Jimmy and looked at her. It dawned on him that she looked miserable. She’d looked miserable since the first time he laid eyes on her after he came home. He’d let himself believe that was because she wanted him, while all the while it was Jimmy that she wanted…she’d just felt guilty and confused. He was the one making her miserable. He’d never wanted that. He looked from her to Jimmy and finally relaxed his posture and took a step back.
“I’m sorry. Shit. You’re right. You’re both right. Nobody told me to do what I did. Nobody was obligated to put their life on hold while I was paying for it. Macy, I want you to be happy. I love you. I will always love you.” He could see Jimmy’s posture tightening again out of the corner of his eye and he looked back at him. “I’m sorry, Jimmy. You’re right. You deserve my respect. I need to remember my place in this club. I hope one day we can be friends again the way we were before, but in the meantime, I promise to give you the respect that patch deserves…and to leave your old lady alone.”
Macy and Jimmy both stood where they were as Cody went toward the door. He was almost there when Macy said, “Thank you, Cody. I want you to be happy too.” He smiled at her and nodded and then reached for the door handle, and Jimmy started talking,
“Liam is pissed about Stitch. Instead of fencing some coins that Dax had, he staged the home invasion and they stole them. The ride to West Virginia is to get them back.” Cody turned and looked at Jimmy.
“This is because of me, then. Why isn’t Dax asking me to go too?”
“Because you’re too hotheaded and unpredictable, Cody.”
“He’s afraid I’ll get someone hurt.”
“He’s afraid you’ll get yourself hurt. Dax thinks of you more like his kid than just another one of the brothers, or just a prospect. He’s going to protect you at all costs, even if it means keeping things from you so that you don’t go and do something that will get yourself killed.”
Cody felt like a bigger fool about that than he did about thinking Macy wanted him. Dax was working overtime and everyone was risking their lives because he couldn’t get his shit together. “Be safe,” he told Jimmy. Jimmy nodded. With one last look at Macy, he left the house and got on his bike. He had a lot of soul-searching to do.
34
Cody drove the bike up to his spot on top of the mountain and sat watching the sun as it finished setting down in the valley below him. His entire life he’d made promises to himself that he’d never turn out to be like his old man. Yet, here he was, using his fists to solve every one of his problems. He might not be beating on people that he was supposed to care for, but who’s to say that’s not how the old man started out? When Doc was alive he used to make comments sometimes about how Cody’s father had “settled down” in his old age. What Doc hadn’t known and later, Dax, was that the old man hadn’t “settled down,” he’d just found a way to release all of that anger at home. He beat his wife to the point of her leaving…or worse. When Cody was really angry with him, he used to imagine that she’d come and take them away. One day Keller told him that would never happen. When Cody asked him how he knew that, Keller just told his little brother to trust him, their mother was never coming back. For a while Cody was angry at her for leaving them behind, but as he got older he began to suspect that she hadn’t left of her own free will. Cody began to suspect that the old man had killed her, probably accidentally, and he’d gotten rid of the body and just told everyone she’d run off. He’d met her through the club’s porn business. She didn’t have any family, and before she was under the heavy thumb of Cody’s father she liked to party. So since no one knew the old man abused her, no one other than Keller and Cody suspected that she was dead.
What if Cody was just like him? What if someday he took that anger too far and hurt someone he was supposed to love? He couldn’t imagine ever hurting a woman, or a child…but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do it someday…did it?
He pulled off his skullcap and ran his hand through his short hair. He’d gone through life angry and feeling sorry for himself. But all along what he’d also been doing was ignoring the fact that he was lucky enough to have people in his life that wanted to make it better. He’d avoided so many beatings over
the years because Keller stepped in and took them for him. He’d avoided going to foster homes because Doc and then Dax had stepped in and prevented it. Macy might not have turned out to be the one he spent the rest of his life with, but she had saved him too in her own way. She’d taught him that he was loveable, in spite of the fact that his old man used to love to tell him that no one would ever love or want him. Jimmy had taught him that no matter what friends did to each other, you never stop loving them, or wanting them in your life. People out in the community might look at the club as outlaws and thugs, but everything Cody knew about love, respect, came from these people…his people…and inside the law or outside of it, the one thing that remained consistent was that they took care of each other.
“Hey!” Cody jumped and turned at the sound of Harley’s voice.
“What are you doing here?”
She smiled and came over to sit down in the dirt next to him. “Looking for you.”
“How did you know where I was?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t. You weren’t at the clubhouse and your bike wasn’t around so I thought I’d give it a shot. What are you doing up here all alone?”
He smiled. “Soul-searching.”
“Uh-oh, did I interrupt some heavy shit?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, you did, kind of.”
“Want me to leave?”
Cody slid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close. “Not even a little bit.” He brushed his lips along the top of her head. He loved the way her hair smelled, and the way she felt in his arms. But he also knew that eventually, he was going to have to add fucking and maybe falling in love with a cop’s girlfriend to the list of things he’d done to screw up his life. They sat there like that for a long time and then, as if reading his mind or sensing his, Harley said, “I broke up with Kyle.”
“You did?”
She nodded into him. “He asked me to marry him.”
“Oh…”
“I couldn’t marry him. I don’t love him. I tried just telling him it was too soon for us to talk about things like that, but he said that he loved me and he knew what he wanted. That made me feel bad. I had to tell him the truth, that I didn’t think I’d ever want to marry him.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not in love with him, and honestly, I was only dating him because it made my father so happy. I mean, at first I went out with him because he’s hot and I’ve always wanted to fuck him…”
Cody snorted, “Don’t hold back, Harley, tell me what’s on your mind.”
“You jealous, big guy?”
“Not even.”
She laughed. “Yes, you are. That’s good. Kyle’s a good guy, he really is.”
“Are we still talking about him?”
“Yes, hush and let me finish. He’s smart and he’s hot and he knows what to do in the bedroom…”
“Really? Now I have to hear how good he fucks?”
“Will you please just let me finish?”
“Fine, but if you start describing his junk to me, I’m out of here.”
She giggled. “Okay, I’ll leave that part out. Now, where was I?”
“You were telling me how sweet and smart and hot Kyle Brady is.” He rolled his eyes.
She giggled again and said, “He is, really. He’s going to make some lucky girl really happy someday. But that girl is not me and he deserved to know that, right?”
“Sure. You could have just said that and left out all of that other crap about how amazing he is…”
She ignored Cody’s sarcasm and went on, “He deserves someone that thinks about him all the time, the way I think about you.”
“You think about me, all the time?”
“Have you not been paying attention?”
“I thought I was, but I’m confused now. I still thought we were talking about Kyle the Great.”
She laughed. “You are jealous.”
“Sure, if that makes you happy, I’m jealous.”
She giggled again. “You are, but I won’t make you admit it. The fact is, Cody Miller, I have wanted you since I was a little girl.”
“Yeah, but back then it was just to piss off your old man.”
“You don’t know anything at all, do you?”
“What? You weren’t trying to piss him off?”
“I was, yes, in a lot of ways. I hated the way he wanted to keep me imprisoned in that house. But you were always the one thing that wasn’t about pissing him off. Why do you think I went out of my way for so long to keep the two of you from meeting face to face? I could deal with him saying bad things about the club in general, or alcohol, drugs, stealing, sex…whatever. But I couldn’t stand the thought of him saying bad things about you. After I got drunk that night and he caught you bringing me home, he had someone look into your family. He said horrible things about you and your parents. It made my heart hurt and I told him I hated him, and we had these horrible screaming matches. Even after we moved, things were bad for a long time. But he loved the Bradys, and after a while I started thinking life would be easier if maybe I just tried to please him. Kyle asked me out a lot before I finally said yes. Then Angel and I started law school at the same time and I started spending a lot of time with her too. By that time she was living here with Dax, and one day we were talking and she told me Dax was going out to pick up some ‘young kid’ from prison. She didn’t know a lot about you, but what she did know was enough to convince me it was you. From that second on, I knew that Kyle wasn’t the man I wanted. It was you, Cody. It’s always been you. But, if you still want that Macy girl, I understand. She was born here and she doesn’t have a father that hates you and…” Cody shut her up by covering her mouth with his. He gave her a soft, sweet kiss. Hearing her say that she hated it when her father said bad things about him and his family touched him more deeply than anything else she’d said. She knew what a mess his family was, even back then. But she’d still defended him, and them.
He reached up as he kissed her and let his fingers run through her soft hair while they kissed. The arm he had around her began sliding down her back. He slid it down to her waist and rubbed slow circles against her lower back. She moaned into his mouth and pressed her body into his harder. His hand went lower and he slipped it underneath her and cupped her ass. He pulled her up with that one hand gripping her cheeks and the kiss went from sweet, soft and sexy, to hot, passionate and intense. He loved how intense she was. She was like a fire burning out of control…hot, dangerous, but so freaking beautiful that there was no way to resist the pull.
He found the bottom of her blouse and slid his hand up inside. Her soft skin was warm against his palm. It was like touching silk as he slid his hand up to the center of her back and unhooked her bra. Then he changed his position so that his legs were out in front of him and he pulled her up into his lap, facing away from him. He slid his hands underneath the loosened bra and ran them over her breasts, pressing his palms into her hard nipples. She moaned and arched her back, pressing her breasts out further and giving him better access. He kept one hand pinching and pulling at her nipples and used the other one to slide her shirt up her body. He had to stop touching her long enough for her to get the shirt and her bra off, and then he returned to what he was doing. For a long time they just sat there with her back against his chest and his hands massaging and caressing her body. She’d wiggle around a little every once in a while and press down against his full, hard cock. He wanted to take it out and slide it up into her, but he also wanted to take his time and drag this out.
Harley was never much for delayed gratification. She sat up and wiggled around so that she was facing him, took his face in her hands, and pulled his head down to her neck. He smiled into her flesh before kissing her long neck and then down across her chest to her nipples. He gave each one a soft kiss and then let his tongue come out and play. He loved the way her nipples got harder against his tongue as he pressed into them and rolled them around. He sucked one into his mouth
and reached up to hold onto a handful of her hair while he sucked. Harley was moaning and bouncing up and down in his lap. His cock was throbbing with desire and need, and he wasn’t going to be able to wait much longer to feel her tight, wet pussy wrapped around his shaft.
Cody held onto Harley’s waist and pushed her back slightly so he could stand up and pull her up with him. She swayed slightly, like she was dizzy, and he pulled her in closer. She put her hands on the front of his shirt and let them slide down, feeling the hard muscles of his chest under his t-shirt. She let them slide all the way down to the front of his jeans and ran them across the bulge there that was threatening to rip them wide open. He groaned as she ran her hands up and down the outline of his throbbing cock, and then she grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pushed it up. Cody helped her take it off and he tossed it down in the dirt. She put her arms around him and buried her face in his chest, kissing the outlines of his muscles and letting her tongue play with his nipples. Cody shuddered into her and his hands shook as he reached down to unbutton and unzip her jeans. She had to push them down with her hands and wiggle out of them and while she did that, he took off his own.
She was so beautiful that every time he saw her naked his breath caught in his throat. He dropped to his knees right there in the dirt and put his arms around her waist. He kissed her stomach and down to the top of her mound before kissing the tops of her thighs and making her quiver. She put her hands on his face and tried to pull him back up, but he wasn’t finished yet. He kissed the wet lips of her pussy, and she stepped sideways so that her thighs were open to him. He put his tongue at the top of her slit, skimming her swollen clit and making her groan. Then he licked her from top to bottom, tasting her sweetness and making her moan. She used her hold on his face to press him in deeper, and Cody obliged by sucking her clit in between his teeth and flicking it with his tongue while he held onto it. Harley was getting more excited, panting and gasping and making sexy noises as Cody pleasured her with his tongue and lips and teeth. Each time he bit down on her lips or her clit she’d scream out, cuss him, and push his face back into her, begging for more.
