Jameson's Debt

by Victoria Gale

“Okay,” Charlie said and jumped up from the seat before reaching ahold of Thea’s hand and moving to drag her from the room.

  Cane gave Thea a quick peck on the cheek and took the seat Charlie had just vacated. From the corner of my eye, I couldn’t help but note the love that shone in Caleb’s eyes as they all left.

  Lucky passed them as they were on their way out. The last of our group to arrive. He patted Charlie’s head in passing and cooed at the baby before perching on the edge of the side-unit. I sat on the windowsill and stared outside. The sun stood high in the sky and a warm breeze blasted in my face through the open window.

  Lucky cracked a joke about the clubhouse turning into a nursery. Everyone laughed when Cane responded with a quip implying Lucky was the biggest kid of them all. I smiled. It was weird how close I’d become to each of these men. How much I’d invested in their lives and happiness. I would die for any one of them, and I never doubted they would do the same for me.

  Cane and Caleb were blood brothers, but we were all brothers of Forever Midnight MC. Our motorcycle club, our family. I never thought I’d find another after saying goodbye to mine, after turning my back on the family business all those years ago.

  Caleb had called the five of us together. The one brother missing, who was usually in attendance at meetings, was Bono, but he was taking a much-needed break to reconnect with his fiancé, Hope.

  The laughter died down and Cane asked, “What’s up?” kick-starting the meeting.

  “The dispensary up in Fort Collins has been seeing a lot of trouble of late. Nothing major. Vandalism, broken windows, graffiti. That sort of fucking thing. It started a month or so back, and Bono was going to take a trip up there and find out what was going on. But we all know that trip got derailed.”

  “You want me to head up there?” Cane asked.

  Caleb shook his head. “I’ve more sense than trying to drag you away from Thea and the baby. The trip could take anything from a day to more than a couple of weeks. I need you three to go,” he said, addressing the last part to me, Lucky, and Rex.

  “Not a problem,” Rex said. “When do you want us to leave?”

  “Yesterday,” Caleb said and smiled.

  Lucky nodded and stood to leave, Rex followed suit. I shifted on the windowsill.

  “What do you expect we’ll find?” I asked, curious as to what we weren't being told. We often made trips to check on the brother’s various business interests, but these were normally scheduled in advance. Small things like vandalism would be left to the local chapter to deal with.

  Caleb leaned back in his chair and huffed out a breath. “Fuck if I know,” he said. “It could be some petty beef or it could be the first move by a rival group to take over the town. But it seems to be escalating. I’m hoping you’ll be able to figure out what the fuck is going on when you get there.”

  I was about to answer when my phone rang. I pulled it from my jacket pocket. “I gotta take this,” I said, recognizing the number as belonging to Jordan.

  Caleb nodded, knowing I wouldn’t interrupt the meeting unless it was something serious, and I left the room.

  Jordan was my blood-brother, though none of my new brothers knew that. I wasn’t someone who liked to talk about myself or my past. It was something better left buried. My club-brothers had a running joke about the time I turned up at the bar, Midnight Anchor in a slick suit, looking close to breaking point. Although, the truth was, I was beyond breaking point. The brothers took me in and made me a better person than I ever was before. They gave me a simpler life where things were often black or white and not fifty different shades of grey. They gave me a family I could respect.

  I’d avoided anything to do with my birth family for over six years, but need had driven me to contact them, and my brother hadn’t hesitated in helping out when we needed to protect Amber and Hope. Although, that help came with a price tag, a debt owed.

  I closed the door behind me, huffed out a deep sigh, and answered the phone. No doubt, Jordan was calling to collect on that debt.

  “What do you want me to do?” I said, deciding to dispense with any formalities.

  “It’s good to hear your voice, too,” Jordan said, unable to keep the bitter tone from his own voice.

  “I didn’t take this for a social call.”

  He fell silent for a few seconds and a vice clamped around my chest. “You remember Xander Caruso?” he asked, and the vice started squeezing ever tighter.

  “How could I forget?”

  Jordan scoffed, and I knew he was biting back a comment on how I’d forgotten my own family. “Gabriel Rizzo called from London. His sister’s in trouble. Caruso wants her big time,” he said instead. The vice became too tight, so I sat on the floor, and leaned my head against the wall. “She and a friend are due to arrive at J.F.K in eleven hours. Being as you’re in the market of protecting women, I need you to keep them safe. Gabriel’s sister especially.”

  I remembered Gabriel’s sister from her father’s funeral, and her mother’s before that. Carina, I think her name was. She was a skinny little kid, drowning in loss and the sea of corruption that surrounded both our families. But she’d stood tall and shook my hand when I’d offered it in condolence for her loss. It rankled me that Caruso had set his sights on her, especially considering his father had been instrumental in her mother’s death.

  “Send me the details and a recent photo and I’ll be there,” I said before adding that I’d text back to confirm if I was able to make my own flight arrangements from Denver, and hung up.

  I glanced at the door to Caleb’s office and shook my head before dragging myself to my feet and going back inside. “My contact in New York is calling in my debt,” I said as soon as I entered. All eyes flashed to me. “There’s a couple of girls due to arrive in New York. I need to get a flight from Denver within the next few hours.”

  Caleb stood. “I’ll get Amber on it,” he said, as she worked at the airport and was often able to book us on a flight at short notice. “Rex is going with you,” he added. I was about to object when he raised his hand to still my voice. “This is our fucking debt, not just yours, he’s going.”

  My phone buzzed with a text from Jordan confirming the flight details.

  “We need to move fast,” I said.

  Caleb edged around his desk and moved to leave; we all followed suit. “Lucky,” he paused for a moment at the door, “you okay to grab a couple of brothers and head on up to Fort Collins?” he asked, remembering the original reason for our meeting.

  “Not a problem,” he said, echoing Rex’s earlier words.

  Chapter Two

  Carina

  I was exhausted by the time we arrived in New York. Rahat had been all abuzz for the first hour or so of our flight, and then promptly fell asleep for the remainder of the journey. She had woken refreshed with just enough time to head to the toilet and replenish her makeup before the pilot announced our imminent arrival. I hadn’t managed a minute’s sleep, and not for want of trying. My mind kept drifting back to Xander Caruso and what he would do if he found me. Hell, I didn’t even know the man. I wished I’d asked Gabriel more questions. Hell, any questions. I kept imagining that the name Caruso was somehow familiar, but that wouldn’t be a surprise. I tried to keep out of the day-to-day logistics of the family business, but I knew most of the key players, and other names were often bandied about. No doubt, Caruso was one of them.

  It was a little after 5 a.m when we collected our bags and headed outside. My nerves were rising, and I was beginning to worry who Gabriel would have sent to meet us. There were a few mafia families he worked with in New York. He had contacts everywhere, families allied to our own. I could think of at least two of them who my brother might turn to for help in the city.

  I scanned the thin cluster of people waiting to greet the arrivals and take them onto their next destination. A man a few years older than me, at maybe twenty-eight, pushed between me and Rahat, shouting a belated, ‘Excuse me,’ a
fter he did so. I mentally forgave him as soon as he ran up to a brunette who was holding a sleepy child and encompassed them both in his arms.

  “I don’t think anyone’s here for us,” Rahat said. “Maybe we should get a taxi and check into a hotel in Times Square. We could call your brother from there. And who knows, maybe we could get in a little shopping after all?”

  I sighed, not sure what to do. Rahat’s plan was as good as any of our other options. Which mostly consisted of standing around and looking confused.

  I was about to agree when a firm voice sounded behind me. “Carina Rizzo.”

  I froze for a second, before taking a deep breath and turning. Fuck me!

  To say I was surprised to find the sexiest man alive standing before me would be an understatement. He was all muscle and power and screamed sex. My panties flooded just looking at him. He was accompanied by another man, and they were both dressed in jeans and leather biker jackets. I shifted under his gaze. He didn’t seem like the type of person my brother would know.

  “Carina Rizzo,” Mr sex-on-two-legs said again. I looked him up and down. He was handsome and intense. His deep midnight eyes burned into me. “Rahat Jones,” he added while glancing in her direction before turning his gaze back to me. She eyed him cautiously. Neither of us confirmed our identity. “Our flight leaves in forty minutes,” he said. “We should go.”

  My insides clenched and I tried to imagine what he looked like without his clothes on. In the movies, men like this were covered in tattoos. I licked my lips and resisted reaching out to run my hand over a chest that seemed made for ink.

  His eyes flickered with something for a moment before he turned to leave, while his companion reached out and offered to push the trolley holding our bags.

  Unconsciously, I moved to step in line behind him. Rahat grabbed my arm and gave me a pointed look, making me come to my senses.

  “We’re not going anywhere with you,” I said. What the bloody hell was I thinking? I didn’t know who this guy was from Adam, but if he had the slightest idea that I was going anywhere with someone who looked like they just stepped out of the TV series, Sons of Anarchy, he had another thing coming. Even if he had a body that oozed sensuality and power, and intense eyes that made me wet just thinking of them roving over my naked form.

  I glanced down and tried to push aside the reactions my body had to his presence, but this only served in highlighting them more when I spotted my nipples poking through my T-shirt, demanding to be squeezed.

  I suddenly felt very conscious that Rahat looked like she’d just stepped from the cover of a magazine while I looked like... well, I looked like a sex-starved nymphomaniac who hadn’t slept in more than twenty-four hours and was being plagued by the hangover from hell after imbibing far more Prosecco than was good for me.

  I cleared my throat, drew my eyes away from the black T-shirt that did nothing but highlight the firm muscle of his chest, and stared into those magnificent eyes. Doing my best to ignore the trickle of wetness between my legs and my aching core, I stood as tall as humanly possible for someone only five foot, four inches in height, and said, “Who the hell are you and who bloody sent you?” I kept my face blank but inside I felt a little satisfaction that my voice hadn’t wavered.

  A slight smile flickered at the edge of his lips. I could almost believe I imagined it with how quickly it disappeared.

  “This is Rex.” The other man tipped his head and gave us a warm smile. “You probably don’t remember me. My name is Jameson. We last met at your father’s funeral.”

  It was then I realized that I did recognize this man, from the funerals of both my parents. Most of the men in attendance never so much as looked at me, let alone spoke to me, even though I stood next to my brother both times. All their words of comfort had been for Gabriel, but this man had offered me his condolences and shook my hand. He looked different then, younger, most certainly, and his mode of dress had also been remarkably more refined. And as a grieving child, I’d certainly never reacted to him the way my body did now.

  “I remember,” I said. “Did my brother ask you to come?”

  “He spoke with my brother, Jordan Swash. Jordan asked me to come,” he said, and I couldn’t help but notice the slight shift in his eyes to his companion when he said this. The Swash family were one of the two I thought my brother would turn to, so instead of asking more questions, I nodded and consented to leave with them.

  “You said we were getting on another flight,” Rahat said. “Where are we headed if we're not staying in New York?”

  Rex looked at her with a big beaming smile on his face. “None other than the great Centennial State,” he said.

  “Where?” Rahat’s confusion matched my own.

  “Colorado.”

  “Colorado!” Rahat and I both said at the same time.

  Rahat froze in her tracks and folded her arms across her chest. “I’m not being funny,” she said. “But are there many people like me in Colorado? You know, of Indian heritage? Like my grandparents came from India heritage.”

  Rex laughed. “It’s not the back of beyond.”

  “It’s not as if you’ll be leaving the house when we get there,” Jameson added, dampening Rahat’s spirits further.

  My stomach roiled as I followed Jameson. Rahat and Rex were chatting like they were old friends. Rahat liked to play dumb but as soon as someone mentioned a computer, she would turn into a complete tech-nerd. From the slivers I caught of their conversation, she might have found a soul mate in Rex.

  As we boarded the plane to Denver. I tried to stop thinking about Jameson crawling between my legs and nipping my clit with those perfect teeth, and strove instead to think of what I knew about our destination. I’d been to New York hundreds of times, L.A, and Los Vegas too, but Colorado was a new one for me.

  I’d heard it was filled with canyons and high desert plateaus, as well as forested mountains. I remembered, years ago, a friend from university mentioned they were headed there on a skiing trip. But that was the extent of my knowledge.

  Jameson’s clothes had me thinking too. Not that I minded in the slightest the way his jeans hugged his tight ass. Fuck, everything about him was so tight and perfect. It’s just... his clothes were a long way away from the Armani business suits Gabriel’s associates normally wore, and the one Jameson used to wear if memory served. Although, maybe he always dressed like this and put on his Sunday best for the funerals. The leather jacket was a little weird with a skull sprouting wings and a full moon behind. The words, ‘Forever Midnight’ were written underneath. Rex had the same emblem on his jacket.

  I shook my head trying to dislodge the notion that they might be involved in a weird cult or something. That shifted my thoughts to hoping it was a sex cult where Jameson would tie me up and tease me 24-7. What the hell is wrong with me? More likely the clothing was part of a planned disguise to keep us safe. I looked down at my Dior jeans and T-shirt and decided that Rahat and I might be overdressed.

  I racked my brain trying to remember all I knew about the Swash family. I’d seen Jordan a time or ten when he’d visited my brother over the last ten years, but Jameson never accompanied him, which made him something of a mystery, especially as I believed Jameson was the older of the two brothers. He had the same strong and angular jawline as his brother, and they were both tall, but physically that was where the similarity between them ended. Jameson was the larger of the two, bulked with muscles instead of the sleek lines his brother possessed. Although his waist looked just about perfect for wrapping my legs around.

  I let my gaze travel his body and decided I needed to know everything there was to know about him, and to see every inch.

  “Rahat,” I said as soon as we boarded the plane to Denver. “Will you be okay next to Rex for a while? I need to talk to Jameson.”

  Rahat glanced at Rex, who once again beamed at her. She laughed and confirmed she’d be just fine.

  I took a deep breath and glanced around the
cabin. The flight was only half full and our group was not seated close to any others.

  “I’ll take the aisle,” Jameson ushered me to take the window seat. “You have questions,” he said as soon as we were comfortable. It at least gave the outward appearance of being that way.

  My mouth suddenly became very dry and I licked my lips. Jameson shifted his gaze as though refusing to look at me, and stared at the monitor on the back of the chair in front of him. I swallowed quickly, feeling for some reason like I’d been caught doing something wrong.

  Jameson no doubt thought me a fool, all but demanding to sit with him, and then being lost for words. I huffed out a breath and shook my head again.

  What the fuck was I doing and why the hell should I care what he thinks of me? No matter that his slightest glance sent bolts of need straight to my core. Maybe it was for the best he stared straight ahead. I’d be wise to do the same.

  “I want to know what you know about Xander Caruso,” I said, more of a statement than a question. “And why my brother needed to send me away.” They might not be my intended words, but the questions were ones I needed answers to.

  Jameson didn’t respond at first and I wasn’t sure if I should rephrase my statements as questions or if he was simply mulling over his response. After a moment, he said, “Have you ever met Xander Caruso?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you have your answer.”

  I stared at him dumbfounded for a minute. What the hell was that supposed to mean? “No, I don’t,” I said, a note of incredulity in my voice.

  Jameson leaned his head back against the chair and gusted a deep breath out of his nostrils. “When you met Caruso, did you get the impression he was a nice man?”

  “You sure like to answer a question with another question, don’t you?” I asked. Jameson looked at me and I saw that quick flash of a smile at the corner of his lips again. He brushed his hand under his chin, and I imagined it brushing under mine, lifting my head higher for him to kiss me. I turned my gaze away again, and said, “No. He was most definitely not a nice man. But I could have handled him,” I added, even though I knew that wasn’t true.