by Jayne Blue
“I did. Part of what I’d grown up on was a fairy tale.”
“Nothing wrong with a little fairy tale now and then. In fact, I’ve got a line on a Big Bad Wolf, I think you might like to hear about.” Bear and I sat at the bar, both of us staring straight ahead.
“I’m listening.”
“Ricardo Pilar.”
“Yeah?”
“Ever hear of him?”
“No.”
“Well, he’s the bigger fish.”
I thought back. The deal I’d busted in on was for New Jack Swing. I realized now how very green, very eager, and very stupid, I was. Both my boss and Benz said the MC was trying to get a bigger fish on the hook with that setup. I’d ruined it. I’d let the bigger fish swim away.
“How do you know?”
Bear slid an envelope to me.
“Put it in your bag, take it to the office. If there’s something else you should know, I’ll tell you. Oh, and goes without saying, you didn’t get this from The Saints.”
Bear left his bar stool, and I sat there a moment. Is this how it started with Deputy Chief Janning? I wondered how far the Deputy Police Chief and the Prez of the MC went back.
I’d learned a lot from Janning about how The Saints and the PAPD co-existed. And about how the citizens of Port Az may not want to sit next to The Saints at the local diner but they appreciated having them handle the dark corners of the world we all lived in.
The devil you know.
I put the envelope in my bag and felt Benz’s arms around me. He lay his head on my shoulder.
“Let’s go. I’m sick of sharing you.”
One year after the night Bear first tipped me off I was at the loading area at the back of the Port Azrael Grand Hotel with a gun on a South American drug trafficker.
The hotel wasn’t grand in the slightest. It was run down and had seen its good days decades ago. Ricardo Pilar was there, making a show of renovating it if anyone asked.
But really, he was using the loading dock as a distribution point for heroin. I’d watched for a year, I’d tracked, and I’d orchestrated a reason for him to be there in person to receive his biggest shipment yet. It was in a truck that appeared to be hauling hotel banquet tables.
Along the way, I had help, eyes where I needed them, and information that could only be gained on the street. These days even Janning didn’t question it.
“Don’t try it, Pilar.” I saw him think about trying for the gun at his belt. I looked over to my partner, Peter Peck.
“On it.” Peck covered me while I bent over, relieved Ricardo Pilar of his weapon, and slapped the cuffs on him.
I pulled him up to his feet and recited his rights. I’d done everything I could to make this bust. I wasn’t going leave a single detail available for a defense attorney to poke a hole in.
Pilar looked at me as I finished. He had a smirk on his face. I didn’t like the look of it.
I walked him out to our vehicle as the evidence team took photos. This was my collar, and Janning was letting me handle it top to bottom.
I shielded Ricardo Pilar’s head, and he got in the back of the vehicle. I got in, and it was just Pilar and me.
“You think you’re the winner eh? You think this is some big bust for you.”
“I’m not the one in cuffs now am I?”
“You’re fucking a Saint? Don’t get used to that taste.” It was an empty threat snarled from a man headed to jail. Still, it scared me that Ricardo Pilar knew anything about my life. I was the one watching him, not the other way around. I didn’t like that he knew who I was and whose bed I slept in.
Some would say it was dangerous, being in love with a Dark Saint. I knew it was the opposite. Benz and his club were the dark guardian angels this town needed. I accepted it. Beyond that, I was grateful for it.
“Let’s go. There’s a night of paper work ahead.” Peck said as he got in the passenger seat.
He was right. Ricardo Pilar was off the streets. And so was the heroin he wanted to bring to town. It was a win. A win with an assist from The Dark Saints.
The engine turned over, and I stole a glance in the rearview mirror at Pilar.
He smiled.
Booking and paperwork took most of the rest of my shift. Assistant Chief Janning walked out when I did as the sun was coming up over Port Az.
“Good work Guffy.”
“Thank you.”
“Keep that up, and I’ll be looking at you for a promotion, maybe even recommend you to The Rangers.”
“You know, I think I’m good right where I am for a while.”
“Yeah? Port Az grows on you.”
“Well, that and Peck still can’t remember his computer password. I can’t leave him high and dry.”
“There’s that.”
“See you tomorrow.”
I drove the short distance to my place.
Our place.
Before I could even turn the key Benz was at the door opening it for me and sweeping me up in his strong arms. My feet left the ground.
He kicked the door shut and his lips met mine. The kiss was part greeting and part promise. I missed him after working twenty-hours to put this case over the top.
Benz put me down.
“I got eggs going Detective, let’s get you fed.” I looked at his face and noticed a fresh cut on the brow over his left eye. I looked closer at it and inspected the rest of his face.
“Did you clean that?”
“Yeah, Mama Bear insists on that shit.” I figured if she cleaned it she also was okay with Benz no stitches. I didn’t ask how the cut got there. It was what worked for us. If I needed to know what happened, he’d tell me. I trusted him. That’s what it came down to.
I had no doubt if I knew every detail I’d worry over every minute.
This was better. This was the life we’d figured out together, night by night, moment by moment.
“I heard you got Pilar dead to rights. Nice work, year in the making.”
“You always hear this shit before the ink even dries on the fingerprints. I swear.”
“Come on.” Benz took my hand and led me to our kitchen. I loved our place. It was the same apartment, a whole floor, that Benz had brought me to the first night. He was better at making house than I was and for sure better at making eggs.
“Mama taught you how to make a killer omelet, another thing I owe her for.”
I walked up to the counter that separated the open seating area with the kitchen area and just inhaled. I was planning on inhaling that omelet when Benz’s wrapped his arms around me again. I leaned against back against his chest.
If there was anything sexier than Benz in a t-shirt and low-slung jeans, I didn’t know what it was, except Benz out of a t-shirt.
He trailed kisses from my earlobe to my neck while his fingers worked the buttons of my sensibly tailored white dress shirt. I had worn my serious as a heart attack black suit. I thought it made me look like the FBI instead of the PAPD.
“That skirt is so fucking pornographic on you,” Benz said, and I didn’t have a clue why he thought that. I also didn’t have the focus to ask what he meant because his hand had found my nipple and pinched hard. The other hand slid my skirt up to a dangerous height. His fingers brushed aside my panties, and a sigh escaped my lips.
Benz had me half undressed, and I couldn’t keep up with his lips or his hands. I felt him press against me and I leaned back into him.
“You’re going to want to hold on to something Guffy.” I put my hands out, and they found the edge of the counter. Benz bent me slightly over at the waist with his hand on my back and the other made quick work of getting rid of my panties.
I was spilling out of my bra cups, and my skirt was hiked up now over my backside.
“Oh, fuck yeah baby,” Benz said, and I felt him find me. He was rock hard, and my body responded to his need with my own. It always did, but it was never the same. He awakened new sensations every time he looked at me.
> “Benz!” He rocked me hard, and I held on to the counter to be sure not to pitch forward. I was a match for him. That’s what I always wanted him to know.
His thrusts lifted me off the ground and then back down again as we both came fast and hard. We’d been apart a day and a half, too long, it felt like months.
“God Jen, I needed that.” He smoothed my hair and kissed the back of my neck again. My panties were on the floor, and my tailored blouse was hanging off me.
Benz turned me around, and we kissed again.
“I needed it too Benz.” Benz picked me up and headed for our bedroom.
“More,” he said as he put me down on the bed and began getting rid of every shred of clothing still clinging to me.
“But the omelet looked so good.” Benz climbed in bed next to me and trapped my nipple in his teeth.
I squirmed, and he looked up at me, “Did you want me to stop and make you another one?”
“Later,” his lips found me again and again. And I prayed they always would.
Benz
Jen was fast asleep. I watched her. She always slept better than I could. I got a few hours a day, and I was fine. I preferred to be sure she was peaceful.
I worried more than I let on about her on the PAPD but Janning and Peck knew they’d be the first two I tore apart if something happened to her.
I trusted that, to a point. But I also kept my eyes on her, on her cases, on her collars, and on Port Az.
Thanks to Jen, Ricardo Pilar was behind bars. He’d probably stay there. I was proud of her, she’d come a long way from the rookie librarian.
She was everything to me. Making Jen happy was the new code I lived by.
But I hadn’t gotten rid of the old code.
The Dark Saints were my brothers, I didn’t know how to live without them, and I couldn’t live without Jen.
Jen and Bear had reached a truce, it was uneasy, for sure, but they could talk to each other and eat Mama Bear’s goulash at the same table. That was a win.
My phone buzzed, and I grabbed it and made my way out of bed. I didn’t want to wake Jen, she was a pit bull with this case, and she deserved to rest.
It was Kade.
“Hey.”
“Yeah, Bear says we’ve got Church tonight. There’s some trouble kicking up with DiSalvos.”
“Alright.” I hung up and walked back into our bedroom. Jen hadn’t moved.
I crawled in next to her, and she snuggled back into me. The Disalvos were a constant issue in this town. And I knew that Ricardo Pilar was a part of a much larger organization. He had friends that had a taste for Port Az, and they’d soon know that Jen put Ricardo away.
I didn’t sleep. I watched Jen sleep. And I drew her body closer to mine. I would stay there until it was time to ride.
The End
Keep reading for a sneak peek of the next book in the Dark Saints MC series!
Dark Honor
By
Dark Honor
He’s one of the roughest members of the Dark Saints MC.
She’s a spoiled brat mafia princess.
Zig
The job should have been a piece cake. All I had to do was fetch the sorority chick daughter of one of my club’s most dangerous allies and bring her ass home. There’s a price on her old man’s head and the family wants her on lockdown. But, jobs for the Disalvo crime family have a tendency to go sideways. When I finally got my hands on Gina DiSalvo, her sassy mouth and killer curves set my blood humming. I want her. Bad. Except there’s a million reasons why I should keep it professional. She’s way too young for me and probably way more trouble than she’s worth. One kiss, one touch and all that goes out the window. I’m a man used to taking what I want and Gina’s no exception.
Gina
He barged into my life all swirling ink and rippling muscles. This outlaw bad boy is the kind of guy I’m supposed to stay away from. I figured what harm could one ride on the back of his Harley do? I’ve had my life mapped out for me since the day I was born. I can’t help it sometimes I want to cut loose and have a little fun. But one smoldering look, one touch from Zig Wallace and he became my world. He thinks he’s protecting me from something, but only I know it’s the other way around. The truth will either set us both free or burn everything to the ground.
Excerpt of Dark Honor
It was the kind of place where men like me don’t belong. I grew up in a trailer park on the outskirts of Port Azrael, Texas. I had to help put food on the table for my mother and two little sisters from the time I was ten years old on. Sometimes I could do it by earning an honest buck, most times, there was nothing honest about the way I survived. This place? All I could see was money and privilege. No. These kids had no idea what kind of world existed down the street from Mommy and Daddy’s country club.
The Salt Cedar along the lake bed had already turned amber. The tiny little campus overlooked Lake Meredith, just outside of Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle. It was quiet, clean, voices raised in laughter as a clock tower on the hill rang out four chimes.
I stayed in the shadows, leaning against one of those tall cedars. I took a long drag of my cigarette then snuffed it out in the heel of my boot. Signs on every building warned this was a smoke-free campus. They also didn’t allow anything with an engine down the narrow, cobblestone streets of the campus proper. The only thing missing was a life-sized picture of me with a damn line through it. I wasn’t wanted here.
As soon as the clock stopped chiming, the doors of the nearest building opened and fresh-faced college kids streamed out. Some of them talked to each other, but most of them had their faces glued to their phone screens or earbuds in. Shit. A bunch of over-educated rich kids here on their trust fund dime. They couldn’t even bother to have real conversations.
Though I’d put out my cigarette, the smell of it lingered long enough to earn me a few wrinkled-nosed stares from kids heading across the lush green, manicured lawn. August in Texas and we were in the middle of a drought. My stomach turned thinking what a damn waste of water it was just so these spoiled brats could walk on green grass.
I tucked myself further into the shadows, not wanting to draw even more attention than I’d already garnered. This was a recon mission, after all. It wouldn’t do me a damn bit of good if my mark saw me right out of the gate.
I’d left my cut behind. For now, I was just some out of place thug hanging around where he shouldn’t. I doubted that any of these dipshits would appreciate the gravity of my Dark Saints patch. The closest thing any of them would probably have to someone like me was what they saw on some fucking t.v. show. Bunch of idiots. They filed out wearing designer jeans and carrying leather bags that probably held thousand dollar laptops Daddy had paid for too. I wondered if any of them knew what it was like to work with their hands or get dirty.
Dirty looks. That’s what I got. That was fine with me. I wasn’t here for them. I was here for her.
She was in the last group of students pouring out of Houston Hall. I lifted my phone and tapped the screen. Her profile picture from her Facebook page popped up. In it, she was looking away from the camera, laughing with her eyes cast down and her fingers laced through her long, dark hair.
She was laughing now too as one of the girls next to her whispered something in her ear. At least the girl was having a normal conversation, not glued to a screen. My jeans got a little tighter as she walked my way. She still didn’t see me. With any luck, she wouldn’t.
Fuck. She was something else. Her profile picture didn’t do her justice.
Gina DiSalvo had the sweetest, roundest ass I’d ever seen. She wore black spandex shorts and a hot pink tank top like she was about to go for a run. Her tits bounced and her hair swung wide as she turned to talk to a boy coming out of the building behind her. Her toned arms hugged her books to her side and her ample tits threatened to spill out the sides of the black sports bra she had on under the tank top.
The boy quickened his step to catch up
with her. He had blond hair and one of those hipster haircuts with his beard too long and a silver hoop earring dangling from one ear. He reached for Gina, running his hand along her arm to get her to stop. Her body language rang as loud and clear as the clock chimes. She didn’t want him touching her. The d-bag took the hint and shot her a smile. He was lucky. If he’d gone for her, I couldn’t say for sure whether I would have stayed hidden.
My ringtone damn near made my heart jump straight out of my chest. I clicked it off and held the phone up to my ear. I already knew it was E.Z., our club V.P. calling in to check up on me.
“You got eyes on Gino’s little brat yet?” he asked.
Gina stopped about ten yards in front of me. She still hadn’t seen me. She set her books down on a stone bench and lifted her leg to tie her running shoes. It put her ass in full view of the d-bag and made the blood rush to my head. Gina bent just enough that I got a clear view of her cleavage.
“Yeah. I’ve got eyes on her all right.” My pulse thrummed. Gina put her foot down hard. Her hair swung over her shoulder and she rounded on the d-bag. He leaned in and said something in her ear that made her wrinkle her nose and roll her eyes at him.
“Good,” E.Z. said. “Stay close, but don’t stay too close. Bear just got off the phone with her Mama. Shit’s starting to hit the fan.”
Gina turned, putting her back to the d-bag. His eyes traveled straight to her ass and the little fucker licked his lips and put a hand out, grabbing the air, making like he wanted to get a fistful of her. Then he actually pumped his hips a couple of times. His frat boy friend came to his side and patted him on the back, egging him on.
“Gina!” he called out. “What about tonight?”
She looked over her shoulder. “Call me later,” she said. When she turned back, the d-bag’s friend gave him a high five. My blood boiled at the idea of either one of them putting their hands on her. Fuck. I was no better. The minute that chick walked into view, I was probably thinking along the same lines. I knew better though. Gina DiSalvo was strictly off limits. Never mind her family connections, the girl was way too young for me and not my type.
