by Jayne Blue
It was a woman, screwing with my life.
I decided unpacking supplies for the repair shop was better than wallowing in the soap opera of Emlyn and me.
I don’t know how much time passed, and that was a good thing. I had supplies stacked neatly on shelves. I tested the lift system and worked out a kink or two there.
I also added to the list of shit we needed to really make this a great place to bring your whip for a repair.
“Hey,” and there she was, making my entire evening better with the sound of her voice. Shit. What the hell was wrong with me?
I turned around and took her in. It had been what, a couple hours, tops, and it felt like I hadn’t seen her in days. Apparently, a fight with Em alters time and space. Well, at least in my universe, it does.
“Hey.”
“I’ve never been out here. Heard a lot about it from BP, but you’ve kept it pretty quiet.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“It’s impressive.” Em walked around the huge space. I tried not to watch her. I tried to keep up my strong silent type act.
“Thanks, should be open in a few weeks. Tell your friends,” I said and looked down at the grease all over my hands. I grabbed the rag out of my back pocket and got to work on being less disgusting.
As I did, Em got closer, too close actually.
“Not much for talking to me right now?” she said and grazed her body against me. This woman was waging war on me, no question.
“Not much I could say before that didn’t piss you off.”
“True. I’m better now.”
“Ah, lucky me.” I had to admit, making up was sounding sexy as hell.
“I’m sorry Kase, I was being a bitch. I just had a day.”
“Got it. I’m just giving you space. Might be the smartest thing for both of us.”
“Might be.” And she leaned up and kissed my dirty, scruffy, beard. I stayed statue still. I wasn’t going to play her game. Nope. I was not going to be lured in by this filmy dress she wore the day I caught her on the stairs. Or by the sweet fresh smell of her hair.
“One thing though, it’s pretty warm in here.” Em unbuttoned the top button, and then the second button, of this dress that was deceptively sexy. It looked innocent, and yet, it clung to her in all the right ways. My eyes lingered on the delicious-looking swell of her breasts, peaking through the top of the gauzy fabric.
“Fuck this,” I said and lunged like a damn jungle cat or something. I grabbed her close to me with one arm and dove into that soft spot under her collar bone with my face.
I pulled her breasts free up and over the cup of her bra and felt her leg hitch around mine.
I drove us both forward toward the hood of lone vehicle we had in the shop, a fucking VW Bug. The hood of the car stopped my forward motion and she slammed against it. I used my greasy fingers to shove her skirt up and underneath found that she didn’t have on panties, there was nothing to block my way.
My eyes widened at that discovery.
“I told you, I was hot,” she said innocently as I freed myself enough to get where I wanted to be.
“Understatement,” I said and drove inside of her. This time her eyes were the ones flung wide.
“OH!” she gasped and the most savage parts of me were unleashed. I had no doubt I was an animal with her. I had no control, no brakes, no ability to slow myself down. All I had was a need to take her hard.
She held on to my neck as I dove into her heat. I was out of my mind with fucking need, with the feeling that I had to have all of her. I heard her gasp, and she called my name.
“Kase, oh, Kase!” Her voice was as sexy, her little striptease. My hips pounded relentlessly, over and over, and her body answered. As small as she was, as much as I had on her in size, she made up for it by matching me, giving me everything I needed, and more.
I felt myself let go, lose it, hit the peak in a way that was like a fucking atom bomb. I don’t know if it was the fight before or all the emotional bullshit, but the release I needed was more intense than I’d ever felt. She was driving me fucking crazy and then healing me in the next breath.
We slowed, but I didn’t pull out. I didn’t want to. I wanted to stay inside her energy as long as I could.
“Hey! Anyone in here? Kase?”
“Brogan,” she whispered to me and ran for cover in the supply closet. I did all I could to look like I hadn’t just fucked someone on the hood of the car as Brogan walked around the corner.
“Hey, brother!” I said and turned around. I glanced down, my shit was all zipped up, but my fucking heart was still racing.
“Man, I missed you out there.” Brogan and I clasped hands. Fuck, did I smell like Emlyn?
“I want to be out there, but I get it, man, keeping the old ladies safe, that’s my new gig.”
“You look, you just ran a fucking marathon.”
“Yeah, hauling shit around in here, hoisted that shelf.” I pointed to the shelf and diverted Brogan’s attention away from the closet where Em had dove to hide.
“Yeah, out of shape doing all this babysitting. We need you out there.”
Brogan turned back to me. It had given Emlyn just enough time to alter her trajectory, I hoped.
“Hey, you two!” She waved to both of us and a broad smile was on her face. She looked fresh, unfucked. I scanned her up and down.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” Brogan asked, his tone harsh. There really wasn’t a reason in hell she’d be coming out here.
“Well, I was bored. And we’re thinking of getting a van for the Friendly Forest, but Wanda’s brother has a line on one that I think looks like crap, so I thought I’d ask Kase to check it out.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Brogan was pissed and smart enough to see something was going on.
I looked at Emlyn and back to Brogan. Shit, lying to him, did suck. And it was getting harder and harder. Especially since I was failing at keeping my hands off her. If only Brogan would stop insisting that I was the person to watch over her. It was like putting the fox in the hen house.
She was right, though, put up or shut up. I was tired of lying. I wanted him to know. I braced for the epic fight that was about to happen. But at least it would be out in the open and one of the two Tierneys would take me off their shit list.
“Look, we haven’t been honest with you,” I started the confessional and then Em swept in front of me.
“Kase is trying to help me, I’m about to be out of a job. I was here, seeing if there was some way to work for the body shop.” Em looked at me and I tried not to keep the WTF expression off my face. This was a lie, a bad lie, and she’d wanted us to come clean?
“You JUST got your degree. That’s totally stupid,” Brogan said, and I didn’t know what he thought was stupid, this ridiculous cover up, or her working here. I tried to play along, but she was talking a mile a minute now.
“I don’t know, it’s just that Wanda can’t keep Friendly Forest going and all the other local places are closing. I mean, I tried to think I could open my own, but who am I kidding. Anyway, I can type, answer phones, schedule appointments, I could even help with advertising. I can’t fix anything—well, I did fix the ceiling fan that you installed that one time. You know, just gave it a good start. That was so funny how it just needed a push. Did I tell you about that Kase?”
As she rambled on, Brogan had a look of skepticism that made it pretty clear that this story she’d just unfurled had nothing to do with the truth.
“You’re giving me a headache Em,” Brogan said and looked to me. I shrugged, as innocently as I could. I backed Em’s story up or acted like I bought it. I was ready to do what she wanted, take it on the chin with Brogan, and yet here she was, keeping the lie alive.
“SOO, sorry big brother, fine.” She quieted down and he rubbed the top of his nose between his fingers.
“Can you shh, for a second. Thanks.”
“Kase, come on, we’re headed out.
”
“I thought I was banished to babysitting your kid sister.” I acted like that was the worst fucking thing in the world.
“Yeah, banishment over. We’re heading out to do some shit. Shit, I don’t want to do this unless you’ve got my back.”
“Ridge gave the okay on this?”
“He did. MitchRob and Kylo are taking over for you on keeping this lockdown going.”
“Good. Let me get my jacket.”
I walked by Em and gave her a shake of the head. I really didn’t know why she’d changed her mind. Why she’d gone from hating my guts after work to luring me into the best sex of my life a few minutes ago? And why was it okay to keep lying when the fight we’d had ended with me being gutless for NOT telling Brogan?
She mouthed the words, “Sorry.”
Women.
I didn’t want to leave her there, with all the questions I had, but I was unleashed.
I was recruited to ride again for The Wolves, and nothing was going to stop me from enjoying that shit.
Brogan and I took off.
It was clear that Em and I were back to hiding from Brogan.
That was the best. It had to be.
There was club shit to deal with, and finally, I was going to be on the front lines again. Where I belonged.
“The cops have the evidence to arrest at least a dozen members of Bane, but they don’t have the jurisdiction to go outside of the Chicago to do it.”
Thorn got us up to speed.
“So, you turned in the photos?” I asked.
“Yeah, the pictures were clear. We have the photos; we had a trap set. Our little fake drug deal worked. The cops can see Bane is into some bad shit in the neighborhood. But the fucking rats ran. And the local P.D. doesn’t have the jurisdiction or the manpower to do anything about it. They saw it all go down, but they couldn’t seal the deal.”
“So, what’s the play?”
“We’re going to drive them back in town,” Brogan told me.
“This isn’t finesse, or subtle negotiation, this is us, fucking rounding them up. You get it?” Ridge asked all of us.
We did get it.
This was a middle of the night operation. We were using muscle, not brains. It was an old school brawl about to go down, and I couldn’t be more fucking happy about it.
“We need to drive the snakes to the cops. After all the other shit, this will be the easy part. But also, the most dangerous,” Thorn said.
A dozen Great Wolves strong was hard to fucking argue with.
“Let’s do it.” We all headed to our bikes and Ridge stopped me.
“You understand why you had to be punished for what you did with Gooch?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. Just don’t fucking lie to the club again or go off without us. It’s how you or one of us gets killed.” Ridge put his hand out, I took it, and he pulled me in for a shoulder bump.
I felt a weight off. I was still fucking lying to Brogan, but at least Ridge and I were cool. That meant more than I realized. I was right with the club, so I was right with the world.
It was good to be back in the saddle with my brothers. There was only one area where I was still going rogue, but that one was going to have to be on the back burner while we did this job.
I was looking forward to riding with my brothers and kicking the shit out of a few members of Bane.
They were holed up in the Highland Motor Court over the state line. The plan was to hit them fast and hard.
We drove the half-hour to get there, and then cut our engines well before we got to the parking lot.
Titus crept ahead of us, to be sure they didn’t have a lookout.
“No, if our intel is right, they’re all up in the rooms. No one’s looking out here to the North parking lot.”
The second floor was our target.
“A.C. here with the truck yet?” Brogan asked Ridge and he lifted his phone.
“Yeah, he just texted me. We’re going to drive all of them to the courtyard, but first, we need to get that manager. Thorn?”
“On it.”
Thorn was headed to the night manager, to make sure he understood that what was about to go down in his motel was in his best interests. And that it was also in his best interests to keep his mouth shut and his fingers away from calling any of his shitty tenants to warn them.
We had brothers positioned at every corner. We had spread out to handle both the top and bottom row of the two-floor motor court. The place was easy to deal with: no hidden hallways and only two rows, stacked on top of each other, meant we could handle any surprises.
We’d heard the entire place was Bane. The risk of innocent bystanders getting hurt was minimal. Especially since Thorn was dealing with the night manager.
When Thorn flashed the office light on and off, that was our cue.
I looked toward the office window and stayed still, alert, ready to pounce as soon as the light went off.
A beat later, it did, and I bounded up the steps to the middle unit. I kicked in the flimsy door and there was this asshole who called himself Nails.
“What the fuck are you—” Nails didn’t have time to finish. I charged in swinging. There was a scream from the bed. There were other screams, and banging noises, bursting through the silence of the night like I’d burst through the door.
I connected with Nail’s face and he staggered back.
“Stay put,” I said to the woman on the bed. If she ran outside, who knew what would happen. Here, I could contain it.
I bent down and grabbed Nails by the collar of his stained t-shirt.
“You son of a bitch, don’t you put your fucking hands on me.” I slammed him against the wall. The force of it felt like it was going to shake the place down.
“Let’s go.” Nails scrambled on the floor and started to try to crawl to the door to get away. I wanted him to head to the door, so that was fine. I kicked his ass with my boot for good measure.
“Cut it out! Stop it, you son of a bitch.” I followed closely behind him.
“Don’t come out until we say. Or you’re gonna be in the crossfire.” The woman on the bed had gathered the sheets around her. She had stopped screaming and nodded that she planned to stay put. Good.
I heard yelling in enough other places to know that not everyone was as smart as she was. I pushed Nails into the outdoor hallway; he half crawled and walked.
“Head to the steps.” But my view was cut off, significantly, when I felt a sharp blow to the side of my head.
“Fuck you, Kase!” It was Lenny Bones. Sometimes I couldn’t believe I ever ran with these assholes.
It was a solid hit, and I hadn’t braced myself for it. I went reeling to the ground and it gave enough time for Nails and Lenny Bones to close in on me. It was two against one.
I braced myself against the metal banister and they both took steps forward. I let them: the closer, the better.
I took another shitty punch but used Lenny Bones’ momentum to grab him and slam his face into the metal. Blood went flying from the cut immediately and then Nails decided it was his turn.
He swung widely at me; it was almost a joke. I dodged each attempt and dropped low. I charged in at the knees and knocked Nails off his feet. We both fell to the ground, but I had the advantage. I leaned up and punched the shit out of him. My fury landed square on his jaw.
“Fine, fucking fine, stop it!” He was begging for mercy, it was adorable.
I grabbed him and pulled him to his feet, along with Lenny Bones. I pulled out my piece and covered both of them.
“We’re going downstairs.”
My brothers were various stages of similar mayhem. I would get these two secure and then go in wherever I was most needed.
“Hurry the fuck up,” I said as I pushed them both to the steps. They half fell, half walked down to the first floor. A television came crashing down from an upper unit. I dodged it.
I go
t to the truck, and there was A.C.
“Cuff ‘em.”
There were hooks, and cuffs attached to the side of the empty U-Haul style vehicle.
“This is lovely,” I said.
“Yeah, well, Uber don’t come out this way,” A.C. cracked.
“Hook yourself up, assholes.”
“I got it, go on back. They need more muscle.” I watched as A.C. secured my quarry. I looked back at the motel grounds and assessed where my talents might best be used.
I spied Brogan, getting clocked on the back of the head with a drawer. Fucking assholes. I took the steps two at a time and jumped on the back of the dude who’d just hit Brogan.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed.
“Oh, thanks, sleeper hold, good idea,” Brogan said and turned to do some damage to another Bane member who thought sneaking out was an option.
“Got him?” I called out after hearing the sound of breaking glass.
“Yep, yep. Let’s load these two gentlemen.”
Brogan and I gathered our two new friends and made our way to the truck.
“Two more for the rideshare,” I called out to A.C.
“You fuckers better be good tippers,” A.C. said as he helped me lock up our newest passengers.
The fight continued on until we counted twelve members of Bane, nice and cozy, in the back of the truck.
“Where’s Crank??” Ridge asked one of the now defeated members of Bane.
“Fuck you, you have all our officers, what else do you want, asshole?”
Ridge clenched his fist. I swear if it were me, I would have fucking hit him.
“I want Crank!” Ridge said and turned away. I watched him pull his temper from the brink. He stepped out of the truck and down to the Great Wolves gathered in the parking lot. He paced back and forth a few times. He was pissed, but he was getting it under control.
“I paid the motel guy. It’ll be more than enough to cover damages,” Thorn said. It wasn’t our job to fix shit, but we didn’t leave messes. And we wanted the night manager to think twice about letting any members of Bane into his place.
Though now, most of the members of Bane were about to be arrested. We’d gutted their leadership, just like Ridge wanted.
