BONES: GODS OF CHAOS MC

by Honey Palomino

  “When do we leave?” I asked.

  “Tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow,” I repeated, dazed. “So soon.”

  “It is soon,” he said. “We’ve streamlined our procedures to work as quickly as possible to get you to safety.”

  “How do you know Luke won’t find me?”

  “Great question,” he said, his eyes lighting up with excitement as he turned to his computer and started pressing the keys. “It’s a tech guy’s dream, actually. There are several layers of protection we place between your old identity and your new one.”

  He rambled on about something about firewalls and operating systems and online identity trackers that I didn’t understand and I was starting to drift off again, when I heard him say something that caught my ear.

  “You’ll be given new birth certificates, new social security cards, and we even create a fake credit history for you. Nobody, outside of me, will know which identity or location you’ve chosen to relocate to. Not Grace or Ryder, none of the Gods. The fewer people who know, the easier it is to guarantee your secured, successful transition to a new life.”

  “Wait. What? Only you?”

  “Yes, and I swear to take your secret to my grave,” he said, holding up two fingers.

  “But,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t understand. I mean, that’s my choice, right?”

  “I’m not sure what you’re asking, Daisy.”

  “It’s up to me who I tell, right?”

  “We highly recommend you don’t tell another soul. Not even Alex later, should he begin asking questions. He’s young enough that he likely won’t remember any of this. It’s best to give him a completely clean slate to work with.”

  “Right. Of course,” I said. “But I can tell Jason, right? So he can visit?”

  “Oh, no, Daisy, I’m afraid not. Jason won’t be aware of your location.”

  “But that can’t be,” I protested. “I mean, we talked about it and he promised we’d see each other after.”

  “I’m sorry, Daisy,” he said, shaking his head, his eyes somber. “Jason knows the rules. He should have explained that to you.”

  “But you have Lacey here, and she was in the program, right?”

  “Yes, but every situation is different, Daisy,” he said. “When everything was said and done, she didn’t have any one looking for her. She didn’t need to relocate.”

  I nodded, reality slowly dawning on me.

  “If Jason visits you, Sullivan could have him tracked. And it’s extremely likely he’d do that. It’s not safe, Daisy, I’m so sorry.”

  “I see,” I said, my heart sinking. Riot stared back at me, his eyes full of kindness and pity. “I need to check on Alex.”

  “Of course,” he said. “We’re pretty much done here. I’ll have everything ready for you as soon as possible.”

  “Thank you,” I said, forcing a smile before I walked out of his office and back into the clubhouse. Cherry and Jason were playing with Alex on the porch and I walked out into the sunshine, my heart pounding in my chest.

  “What’s wrong?” Jason said, as soon as he saw my face.

  “Nothing,” I said, shaking my head.

  He squinted his eyes at me and stood up, walking over to me.

  “Doesn’t look like nothing,” he replied, pulling me into his arms. I tried to hold it together, I really did, but as soon as his arms wrapped around me and I realized it was likely one of the last times I’d ever see him, I lost it completely. I burst into tears, heavy sobs ricocheting through me.

  “Oh, babe,” he whispered, holding me as I cried into his chest.

  “Let’s go get a snack, Alex,” I heard Cherry say. I shot her a grateful glance and leaned into Jason as she carried Alex inside.

  “What happened, babe?”

  I opened my mouth to tell him, looking up at him, my eyes searching his, but instead of words, I sobbed again.

  “Shh,” he said, pulling me close and stroking my hair. “Whatever it is, we’ll work through it together…”

  His words only made everything worse and I cried harder. He stood still, quietly murmuring and holding me until I could breath again.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” he said, when I finally looked up at him again. I nodded and let him lead me off the porch and down the walkway and towards a different trailhead than we’d gone down the day before.

  This one was a little more narrow, with dense, lush vegetation growing right up to the sides of the trail as we slowly walked down. The trees were hanging low, creating a canopy that blocked out the sunlight, leaving the forest damp and dim around us. After a few minutes the trail opened up to a small clearing next to the same rushing creek we’d visited before, with a few large boulders scattered next to it. We sat down on the biggest boulder, our thighs touching, watching the creek flow by, its current swift and strong, it’s rushing song filling our ears.

  “So, do you want to tell me what happened?” he asked, reaching over and grabbing my hand. I took a deep breath, pondering his question.

  “You told me we’d still see each other after I left.”

  “Yes.”

  “Riot said that’s impossible. That you wouldn’t even know where we’d relocated to.”

  “That may be one of the rules, but it’s a rule I intend on breaking.”

  “He said if you visited me, it would put the whole thing at risk. That Luke could find us if he tracked you.”

  “I see.”

  “He said you knew all of this. And yet you said…”

  “I know what I said, Daisy,” he replied, his eyes serious and warm. “And I meant every word. I still do. Maybe some time will pass before it’s safe, but if you think I’m giving you up so quickly after finding you, then you’re wrong.”

  I nodded, thinking about his words.

  Time changes everything, I’d learned that. And, after whatever time was necessary before we could see each other again had passed, maybe things would have changed by then.

  I looked over at him, wondering how time would change us.

  Suddenly, I was filled with gratitude that we’d been able to share last night. When I’d walked into his room naked and vulnerable, I’d taken a huge risk. But now, I’m so glad I’d done it.

  “Daisy, I know what you’re thinking,” he said.

  “You do? What?”

  “That after a while, things won’t be the same. That we won’t feel the same once we can see each other again. Perhaps that I’ll forget you…”

  “So, you’re a mind reader now, in addition to a sexy biker-doctor?”

  “You think I’m sexy?” he asked, with a sly grin and a raised eyebrow.

  “I do,” I nodded, laughing. It felt good to laugh, to let the weight lift a little.

  He pulled me close, brushing his warm lips against mine.

  “I couldn’t forget you if I tried, Daisy. You’ve ignited a fire in me that I’ve not felt in a long time, if ever, and every time I look at you, touch you, and think about you, you stoke that fire inside of me. It’s grown to a massive wildfire that’s so out of control at this point, I can’t contain it. I don’t want to. I want it to burn every inch of me to the ground so I can regrow everything anew with you. I won’t forget you, Daisy. I’ll never give up. I don’t care how long I have to wait.”

  “How can you be so sure? What if you meet someone else?”

  He laughed, shook his head and scoffed.

  “As if anyone could enchant me more than you.”

  His kisses were tender and sweet and when he laid me back on the rock, they grew urgent and demanding. Our hands ran over each other, pulling and pressing, searching for the connection we’d felt last night. His lips broke away from mine, trailing kisses down my jaw towards my neck and sliding down to my collarbone. I shuddered with desire, wrapping my legs around him and pressing into him.

  “Please, can we…” my words trailed off as I felt him push my shirt away in answer, the brisk cold air hitting my bare
nipples. “Yes,” I whispered. “Please don’t stop.”

  And he didn’t.

  With gentle, skillful hands, he had us both naked in moments. Wasting not a second, his tongue slid between my lips at the same moment his hardness slipped inside of me. I arched my back, pressing my breasts to his bare chest, his mouth searching mine as our bodies rocked together, waves of pleasure washing over us, the strength of our passion matching that of the rushing creek beside us.

  Jason peered down at me, his stormy gaze piercing my heart. Full of love and wrenching emotion, our souls melted together in a way our bodies couldn’t. We didn’t need words. We didn’t need to struggle to find words that didn’t exist to describe the force that bound us together.

  It just was.

  It was meant to be.

  It didn’t need a name, or even a mission.

  It was pure.

  I wrapped around him — my arms, my thighs, my lips searching his again, melting into him as he sank himself deeper inside of me, moving against me with skillful precision, pulling every ounce of pleasure from my writhing limbs. With quickened, passionate strokes, he crashed over the edge, crashing into me, his throbbing hardness sending me exploding over the edge with him.

  We clung to each other, the music of the forest singing out overhead, the rushing water slowly reminding us that we were back here on Earth, not floating above it in our blissful bubble.

  I began to untangle myself from his warmth but he stopped me, his large hands cradling my cheeks as he peered into my eyes.

  “Nothing’s going to keep me away from you and Alex, baby. I don’t care how long I have to wait. I don’t want you to worry. I’ll come to you as soon as I can. Don’t think for a second I’m not thinking of you.”

  I melted under his gaze, his words breaking my heart into a million pieces and putting it all back together again. Oh, how I wanted to believe him…

  I smiled, fighting back tears as I nodded. Reaching up, I put my hands over his and leaned forward, kissing his lips firmly.

  “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  “You do that, babe,” he whispered. “I’m good for it. You’ll see.”

  I kissed him again, a little harder this time, a little firmer.

  A promise, sealed with a kiss.

  It was as good as I was going to get.

  But it was the best I’d ever had…

  Bones

  Fuck the rules, I thought to myself as I shrugged my jeans back over my hips. Rules were made to be broken, as far as this situation was concerned. I understood the need for them, I knew that Solid Ground had put much thought and planning into their procedures and I respected that.

  I even knew how dangerous a man like Sullivan could be.

  But, well, there wasn’t anything I could see that I would allow to get in the way of me and Daisy getting together.

  I’d thought long and hard about it.

  I had some choices to make.

  I don’t know where she’s headed yet, but I’d bet a dollar to a donut that whatever city she sets up house in, there’s gotta be a hospital nearby. I wasn’t hell bent on staying in Oregon. I was flexible about my future.

  Especially if it meant I got to be with Daisy after a while.

  Or whatever her new name would be…

  As of now, everything was still unknown.

  Where she’d live, who’d she be, what her future would look like.

  I just knew I was going to be in the picture, for as long as she’d let me. Her sweet goodness had soaked into me, her beauty took my breath away each time I laid my eyes on her. My heart pounded like the hooves of a herd of wild horses stampeding across the dessert when I made love to her.

  I’d been terrified the first time. I went slow, letting her lead the way, knowing instinctively that she needed to be the one calling the shots. And she had. Together, we’d found some kind of magic last night and once you felt something like that, you’d be a fool to let it go.

  No matter what the obstacles were…

  I strolled back to the clubhouse with Daisy’s hand firmly clasped in mine, with not an ounce of fear in my heart. We were meant to be together, and a little time apart wouldn’t change that.

  “Cherry’s been so helpful, I feel like I’ve been taking advantage of her kindness.”

  “Are you kidding?” I said, smiling down at her. She was glowing, her eyes bright and shining up at me. “Cherry lives for this kind of thing. The loving attention of a doting child is her life-blood.”

  She laughed and my heart swelled at the sound. Twinkling, lilting, delightfully musical.

  “Do you smell that?” She sniffed, wrinkling her nose.

  I sniffed the air and my blood went cold.

  “Fire,” I said, grabbing her hand and pulling her faster down the trail. “Come on.”

  “Oh, no,” she said, panic rising in her voice. “Alex…”

  “He’s fine,” I said. “It’s probably just a campfire or something. Don’t worry.”

  My voice betrayed my words and she flashed me a look that told me she’d heard it. The smell hung heavy in the air, drifting through the trees on the breeze. She began jogging down the trail, and I felt the tension rolling off of her. Finally, we broke through the trees and made our way to the clubhouse.

  Ryder, Grace and Cherry, Alex in hand, were standing on the porch, sniffing the air.

  “What’s going on?” I called as we approached.

  “Not sure,” Ryder grunted, walking out onto the gravel driveway and looking up into the sky surrounding the cabin on all sides. The sun had begun setting half an hour ago, draping the sky in an orange glow. “I can smell it but I can’t see it.”

  The cry of sirens sounded faintly in the distance.

  “Shit,” I muttered. “Let’s do a quick walk around. You guys stay here,” I said to Daisy. She was holding Alex in her arms, a look of worry on her face.

  Ryder and I wandered around to the back of the compound, peering into the quickly darkening forest for any signs of a fire. When we didn’t see anything, we wandered down towards Ryder’s cabin, past the one Daisy was staying in. At first, everything looked perfectly normal, their charming yard surrounding their cabin, everything calm and peaceful.

  “I’ll look down this trail,” I said.

  “I’m going around back,” he replied. I ventured down the trail that Daisy and I had wandered down yesterday, a small smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. I didn’t see any flames, but the smoke was growing thicker around me. I turned around and met a frantic-eyed Ryder coming around from the back of his house.

  “The fire’s back there, it’s moving fast!”

  “Shit!” I shouted. “How big is it? Can we push it back with the hoses?”

  “We can try,” he said, shaking his head. “But I don’t know, man, it’s eating up a large chunk of the forest back there.”

  I ran back to look for myself, hoping it wasn’t anything a giant flooding from a powerful water hose couldn’t extinguish.

  The wall of flames I encountered told me right away how wrong I was.

  I ran back around the house, shouting for Ryder.

  “It’s too big, we need to evacuate now!”

  “I just called 911 to report it.” Sirens approached, growing louder by the second. “They already knew about it.”

  “Good,” I said. “I’m sure they’ll get a handle on it before it reaches your place, man, don’t worry.”

  “I’m not worried, I just want to get everyone out.”

  We ran back to the clubhouse together, the smoke billowing thickly out of the trees behind us.

  “We gotta go,” Ryder said to the small crowd forming on the porch.

  “It’s close?” Grace asked. “How close?”

  “Too close,” Ryder barked.

  “Slade, Riot, and Wreck,” I said, my lips moving as fast as I could assess the situation. My training kicked in quickly and I knew the most important thing was getting everyone
out to safety. We were essentially surrounded by a timber box and it could explode at any time. “Take Lacey, Frankie and Cherry and get on your bikes and get out of here. Grace and Ryder will be right behind you.” I turned to Daisy, peering into her eyes. “Put Alex in the carseat and get in my truck.”

  “I need to grab his things from the house,” she protested. “Diapers and formula and clothes…”

  “You’ve got thirty seconds,” I said, taking Alex from her arms. “Run!”

  She took off and the rest of them stood staring at me.

  “What are y’all waiting for? Move!” I said. “Get to the highway and wait for us. We’ll figure it out from there. If you see the firefighters, tell them the flames are east of Ryder’s cabin.”

  They snapped into action, no doubt a little confused.

  I ran to my truck and buckled Alex into his carseat. He smiled and grabbed my beard.

  “Hey buddy,” I said. “We’re going to go for a little ride, okay?”

  He clapped his hands together and yelped with joy. I ignored the pounding in my chest and quickly kissed him on the forehead before closing the door. Daisy came running up, her arms full of clothes and Alex’s diaper bag bulging and flung over her arm.

  “Get in,” I said. I waited for her to slide in and then slid behind the wheel just as the four Gods, women sitting on the back of their bikes, rumbled down the dirt road, their thick tires kicking up dust that mixed with the heavy smoke in the air.

  We followed close behind.

  “The fire was that bad?” Daisy asked, her voice shaking.

  “You see all this smoke?” I said.

  “Is it going to burn down the cabins?”

  “I hope to hell not,” I said, flashing her a quick look. She was disheveled, her wild red curls bouncing around her face in a tangled, frizzy mess, her forehead lined with worry, but she’d never been more beautiful to me.

  “I can’t believe this,” she said. “What do you think started it?”

  “Could be anything this time of year,” I replied. “Everything’s so dry and people are so careless.”

  “Yeah,” she muttered, looking out the window. “That sucks. It’s so beautiful here.”