by Jayne Blue
“Right.”
The house was different now Brogan had started to pay to have it fixed up. When we didn’t have two nickels to rub together and Momma was at her worst, it was all I could do to keep it clean. Forget about fresh paint or new floors.
But in the last two years, one project at a time, the oversized brick bungalow house was shaping up. It was on a corner double lot. We had a new roof, new paint, and restored wood floors. I was eyeing new cabinets and countertops, but that I’d do after I started at the preschool.
It was looking so cute lately, and safe. That was no small part, thanks to the Great Wolves. The same Great Wolves that started showing up at six p.m. for my graduation party.
“Congratulations!” Ridge was the boss, and he was the only one who rivaled my brother when it came to sheer intimidation factor, except when he was with his wife, Frankie.
“Where’s the kitchen? I need to supervise.” Frankie’s food was legendary, and I didn’t want to think about how much this could have cost.
“Uh, that way—you shouldn’t have, I mean, wow!” Franke and Ridge looked at me like I was their little sister too.
“Nonsense. Brogan has invited a lot of the crew, no one should be asked to feed them unless you’re used to feeding a herd of wild animals.”
“Hey, we use napkins and utensils, you know?” Ridge said to her. I noticed her looking at him with love and something else. She was protective of him. It was a funny turnabout, considering Ridge was so damn intimidating. Frankie softened him in a way that was so sweet to see. I wondered if my brother would ever find that.
I doubted it.
“Yeah? Please prove the manners while we’re at Emlyn’s lovely house,” Frankie said and waved her arms to a dozen or so Great Wolves who started filing in with trays of Frankie’s delicious catering.
“Thank you, I appreciate it.”
“Your brother is proud of you. So are we,” Ridge said and handed me a card.
“You shouldn’t have,” I said.
Ridge leaned down, looked to be sure Frankie was out of earshot in my kitchen, and whispered, “Look, if anyone screws up your house or yard, you’ll have enough to cover the damage. Sometimes we actually don’t use forks and napkins.”
I laughed and Ridge moved forward into the increasingly crowded space. I was glad it was warm enough to take the party out back! We’d never fit all these Great Wolves inside.
The tunes were cranking, and I watched as my early education classmates mingled in with the Great Wolves. I expected a National Geographic narrator to try to make sense of the scene.
The timid giraffes step carefully onto the savannah, wary of the pride of lions ripping a deer carcass to shreds…
My friend Sylvie was noticing the same.
“These friends of your brothers, are they escaped from a muscle prison?”
“Yeah, but they’re harmless, I think?” We laughed and we tipped red solo cups and enjoyed the spiked punch.
“Oh, I forgot, you’re going to need a card table. Your brother said something about not being able to find it,” Sylvie told me as she eyed a group of gorgeous bikers tearing into the slow cooker full of buffalo cheese dip.
“Thanks, I’m going to go grab it. It’s in the basement.” I put down my drink and headed to the basement. Brogan couldn’t find anything, ever. It was almost an illness, I swear.
I quickly started down the steps. They were narrow, covered in worn linoleum, and not at all safe for a girl who wasn’t used to wearing strappy sandals.
I was about halfway down in my normal two steps at a time pace when I completely lost it! I squealed as I tumbled forward. No part of my body was touching the steps!
I had a fleeting thought about how embarrassing it would be to be found dead at the bottom of the stairs with my skirt over my head at my own party.
I didn’t have time to brace myself for the cement floor, sure to crack a few bones upon impact.
A dark shadow flashed in front of me, and boom, I wasn’t falling.
“I got you.” This man caught me in mid-tumble. I landed on something hard, but it was more like hard muscle and leather, not cement and old linoleum.
“I, uh.” I tried to catch my breath.
A pair of strong arms solidly had me aloft. I followed the muscle, sinew, and tattoos up and was staring into a pair of eyes that were sexy as they were concerned. The man had a beard, and I didn’t recognize him at first.
Until I did.
It was Kase, my brother’s closest friend in the Great Wolves. But there was something different about him, was it the beard? I hadn’t seen him in years. I realized that my tumble had hiked my dress up and that my matching peach panties were hanging out into the breeze.
“Kase, it’s you. I nearly fell on my ass or head.”
“You nearly did. Em? Whoa.”
I didn’t know what the whoa meant, other than maybe he was shocked at how I’d nearly fallen to my death in my own house.
Was he always this sexy? Scratch that. I had to get it together. Brogan had one rule, and it was a decent one: no dating Great Wolves. Dating? Did that include jumping the bones of a Great Wolf?
I shook my head, sure that my cheeks top and bottom were flushed red.
“You can put me down.”
Kase was staring at me.
“Do I have spinach in my teeth? I mean, along with my innate klutziness, it would be quite a package.”
“Oh, no, you sure you can stand? It’s complicated.” That’s what I now remembered about Kase; he was funny!
He slowly lowered me down and my legs found solid ground. He moved his arm and I felt it brush against my skin. A jolt of something forbidden rocketed through my body. This was insane. This was Kase! I needed to get it together.
“I’m good, thanks for the catch. I likely would’ve gone splat. Not a good look for my own graduation party.”
“You look fucking amazing.” He was still staring at me. His gorgeous blue eyes didn’t help calm the heat that I was shocked to find myself in.
“Stop. I realize that the Great Wolves were forced into this party. Brogan’s got it in his head that this graduation thing is a big deal. Not exactly a wild Saturday night at the club. But you don’t have to compliment me too.”
“The whole package is fine by me,” he said, and I swear, if we’d have stood there any longer, I would have jumped back into his arms. What the heck was wrong with me? Brogan would lose his mind if I even considered dating someone from the M.C.
He was right. I knew what these guys were like. I was having a purely hormonal reaction to Kase. A guy I’d known for years, though at arm’s length, no question.
“What are you doing in my basement?”
“Oh, a table or something.” Whatever spell we’d momentarily been under was broken, thank goodness.
“Yes, me too! Card table acquisition. I’m down here to grab it.” I turned on my heel and my damn dress flounced up in back. I sucked at dress wearing, had I just flashed him? I soldiered forward like I didn’t feel his eyes on me. But I did feel his eyes on me. And I liked it.
I found the table leaning on the wall, next to the furnace filters.
“Here it is!” I pulled it out and Kase stepped forward to lift it, easily.
“I can do it, go enjoy the party.”
“You can barely stand on your own two pretty legs, I’ll do it.” He had the card table in one hand, that was it, one big hand. He had to hunch down, like Brogan did, to even stand in this basement. He put his hand out to have me go up the steps.
“Thank you, Kase. I appreciate your help in my time of crisis.” I smiled, and he did too.
I walked past him and up the stairs, careful to land my stupid heels safely on each one.
And I tried to ignore that Kase, strong, hot, and more gorgeous than I had ever imagined, was right behind me.
My skin still burned from where his hands touched it.
Where was that punch? I was going to need i
t to cool down and get rid of this ridiculous impulse to kiss Kase.
Three
Kase
Shit. Damn. Fuck.
Damn right, I watched her walk up those stairs. Her ass was so fucking sexy, her legs, her skin. I had no right to think of my brother’s kid sister like that.
I’d heard her squeal; I’d been in the right place to be sure she didn’t land on that sweet ass. Had annoying little Emlyn always had those caramel-colored eyes? Had she always had a cute spray of freckles across her turned-up nose?
Worse, did she always smell so good? Maybe I’d never gotten close enough to notice? She was his kid sister. That was the extent of it. I’d paid zero attention to Emlyn over the years. I mean, I’d teased her, and noticed she was cute, maybe, but this was different.
I was fucking knocked out by her. The thoughts going through my head when I had her in my arms would have Brogan wanting to tear my arms off my body and feed ‘em to me.
Yeah, running my hands back up those legs on Emlyn was a very bad fucking idea. And I’d need to stop that shit, immediately.
Emlyn guided me to the backyard where Brogan needed said card table.
I put the thing up and turned around to find Emlyn gone. Brogan was talking to me; I heard his voice. But my eyes were scanning the backyard. Where had she gone?
With relief, I clocked her again. She was talking to a group that was clearly on the invite lists. They were conservatively dressed, tattoo-free, classmates of hers, ready to go out and teach small children. I watched her tuck a lock of her chestnut hair behind her ear.
Shit. Torching my relationship with Brogan because I thought his sister was hot was at the top of the list stupid things I could do, and I had done some stupid things in the past.
“We clear?” Brogan was saying to me. And then I felt a hard punch on my shoulder.
“Hey, wake up.” It was Ridge, who had clearly keyed into the fact that I was not listening to a damn word Brogan had said.
“Oh, yeah, what?” I pulled my focus back to Ridge and Brogan.
“We’re trying to get the scoop on what’s what with today’s shit at the stores,” Brogan said, and Ridge nodded.
“Yeah, so, Bane?” We’d made it possible for the cops to put a lot of the Bane members in prison.
“Here’s what I found out.” Ridge looked at me and I focused in on what he was saying.
“Gooch and Crank are out. Danny too.”
“What in the actual fuck?” They’d been thrown in prison for shooting at a cop and trying to kidnap Frankie. There was no reason in hell they should be out again.
“No one’s seen them yet, but my source says Crank was making deals from the inside. Gooch and Crank pinned a bunch of shit on their old buddy Turk.”
Turk had been the actual trigger man when Officer Hayden Parker was shot.
“They figured no way Turk was ever getting out, so why not throw the cops a few bones and solve shit using a Turk as a fall guy?”
“Fuck, so is Crank back in the neighborhood? Is he the one fucking up shit for our dry cleaner and barber last night?” I asked.
“No idea, but that’s your job when you leave here. Eyes peeled for Bane, old and new,” Ridge said.
“A.C. and Tracks will be there through midnight, I’ll head over and do the shit shift. That’s when it happened before,” I said.
“Good, we’re in for it. We pushed the damn Bratva out, but now we have local assholes again. Let’s make sure it doesn’t get any worse,” Ridge said. He’d taken a bullet when the Russians had tried to take over Stickney Forest. It looked like there would be no rest for him, or any of us when it came to cleaning up our neighborhood.
“Eat up, relax. Crash for a few hours here, then head out.” Brogan patted my arm with his heavy hand.
“Yeah, I need my top guys with eyes on things until we get a handle on this shit,” Ridge said and then Frankie popped in the center of our tight circle.
“Break it up, we’re celebrating Brogan’s baby sister here, you three look like a death squad.” Frankie handed me a meatball on a stick.
“Thanks.”
“You animals are scaring the sweet little teachers into the corners, Jesus, Mary and Joseph.” Ridge put an arm around her, and we all tried to relax a little.
“Congrats Brogan, you should be proud of Emlyn. She’s grown up great,” Ridge said.
“Yeah, I am. Thanks.”
“Brogan, you better check out the parking situation in the front yard. I think your neighbor was getting hot about a bike blocking a fire hydrant,” Frankie said.
“Shit, that’s Mr. Stobinski, he’s the fire hydrant monitor for the South Side, I swear.” Brogan left to handle the burgeoning neighbor dispute.
“You heard him, enjoy, eat up, rest, you boys work too much,” Frankie said, and she pulled Ridge by the arm. “You eat a single vegetable today?”
“Jesus, woman, you’re ruining my image.” And I watched Ridge do exactly what Frankie told him. Pussy whipped; I swear. I chuckled and made my way to the buffet.
The party continued on, and I had my share of Frankie’s food. I mingled. I laughed. I tried not to keep tracking Emlyn, though that was fucking hard. Why was it I needed to know where she was all of a sudden when I didn’t give a shit where she was the last few years?
I found a spot in the yard, a nice lounge chair actually, and kicked up my boots for a few minutes. Brogan and Ridge were right. I needed to get a little rest before I hit the streets again. I let the sounds of the party lull me, and I closed my eyes. The image of Em’s legs in those strappy shoes floated in and out of my brain.
I didn’t know how long I’d dozed. I felt a soft hand on my arm.
“Kase,” came the pretty voice with it.
That fragrance too moved from my little party dream to the real world. I opened my eyes and there she was. Emlyn. She was leaning over me and damned if I had to force myself to not look at the gap in the neckline of her dress. Her breasts were right fucking there.
Eyes up, dammit.
“Where is everyone? Shit.”
“You were sleeping, I didn’t want to bug you. They’re mostly cleared out.” I sat up a bit and tried to reorient myself.
Emlyn found a spot on the lounge next to me.
What the fuck man, this was almost exactly what I’d dreamed. Being close to this woman was dangerous as hell for me.
“You look cute when you sleep.” Her hip was up against mine on the narrow chair.
I wanted to drape my arm across her and pull her down to capture that mouth in mine. She was smiling at me, and I felt like it was an invitation. She was feeling something too, a lot of something.
She reached out and put a hand on my chest. I put my hand over it.
“I gotta go. Congratulations.” I got up faster than I thought I could from that awkward spot on the chair with her.
I didn’t look back. I could not have her thinking this was a good idea. Or even a possible idea. I had fucked up by flirting with her in the basement.
I had locked eyes with her too many times tonight for it to be a coincidence. I had been an asshole. Straight up.
She was my best friends’ sister. She was innocent. She was on a path that biker mechanics did not travel.
She was hot as hell, beautiful really, and so damn sweet-smelling.
But I had to ignore that shit. All of it.
If I didn’t want to fuck up the best relationship in my life.
I shouldn’t have looked back, but I couldn’t help it.
She had stood up after my abrupt exit.
And she was looking at me, she was also flipping me the middle finger.
Shit. I’d pissed her off.
Except, she was also flashing me the sexiest smile I’d ever seen.
It was time for me to go. This little sister was trouble for me, and I was not good at avoiding trouble.
It was two in the morning. And Stickney Forest was quiet.
Maybe too qui
et?
I knew A.C. and Tracks were supposed to be watching the businesses, but I didn’t see them. Something about the feel of the air had the hair on my arms up.
I parked my bike and walked up the block.
I approached the alley between the businesses, and my heart stopped.
A.C. and Tracks’ bikes were on their sides, crashed into the curb. But there was no sign of A.C. or Tracks.
I walked into the alley, still nothing.
I called their names.
Finally, an answer. The dumpster!
I ran over to the same dumpster I’d checked before.
Inside, piled onto each other like so much garbage, was a bloodied A.C. and Tracks. I would have thought they were dead if it wasn’t for A.C.’s call.
“What the fuck, man?” I said and climbed down to try to make sense of what I was seeing.
“They ambushed us,” A.C. said. I was able to pull him out and get him to the pavement. He was in and out, blood on his head, and God knew where else.
Tracks was another story. He wasn’t conscious. And his skin, in the night light, looked fucking scary.
Shit, should I move him? Was it safe? In the end, the dumpster was the last place I’d want to be in any condition, so I hauled his ass out too. My mind raced with how to be sure they both didn’t die on me.
I called Thorn.
“On the way. Also, 911, brother.” I did as instructed.
I kneeled down in between A.C. and Tracks and told 911 where to show up. As I did, Thorn, and his woman, Rose, a doctor herself, got there. I knew they were a lot closer than any EMT. They lived in a townhouse on the outskirts of the Zablocki Corners, near the “L.”
Rose did her thing. She’d brought her bag, and she was dealing with the significantly worse off Tracks.
I watched her try to stop blood coming from his gut. His jacket had hidden it from me, and how I felt bad, I hadn’t tried something to stop the bleeding.
“Shit,” I said, and knew the wound had to be from a knife, not a bullet. It was like they were making an example of him, showing us that they could gut us.
