by Jayne Blue
I turned and fumbled for the lamp on the bedside table. When I found the knob, I shut my eyes tight as I turned it on. I squinted and looked around. Amy’s clothes were still in a heap on the floor right next to mine. My balls clenched again as the vision of her on her knees for me flashed in my brain. God. I wanted her like that all the time. Under me, over me, begging for me. We were just getting started. That is, if I could only find her.
“Amy,” I called out. There was a sliver of light under the bathroom door, and I heard the water running. Perfect. A slow smile crept across my face as I imagined all the things I could do to that woman in the shower.
I kicked out of the tangle of sheets and headed for the bathroom door. Steam filled the room so I could barely see my hands in front of my face.
“Want some company?” I called out.
Her sultry laugh sent a stab of heat straight down to my cock. Fuck me. How the hell was I ever going to be able to leave her? I was supposed to ride with Kellan again today in probably a few hours.
“I’m almost done,” she said.
“Well, if you used up all the hot water, we’ll just have to find another way to keep you warm.”
There was a complimentary toothbrush in a package on the counter, and I used it. It gave me a laugh. The Lincolnshire Arms management was used to guests who traveled without luggage.
“What are you doing the rest of the day?” I asked her as I brushed the fuzz off my tongue.
“Mmm. Laundry. Raking leaves.” She said it in a sexy, Marilyn-Monroe-type voice that made me smile.
“Baby, I think I’d like just to spend my day sitting back and watching you.”
“The water’s getting cold,” she said. “You in or out?”
“Oh, I’m in. I’m all the way in.”
I turned and pulled the purple curtain back. Amy had her back to me. Water sluiced down the slope of her ass. She had her hands up, wiping her face. I came in behind her and pulled her against me. My dick was rock hard. She gave out a little gasp that damn near undid me. She bent at the waist, and I pulled her hips back to give me perfect access to her hot little pussy. She was already swollen and gaping for me. She braced herself with her hands on either side of the tub.
“Fuck. I could look at that view all day.” She laughed, and it made her tits jiggle in the perfect way. I lined myself up and plunged into her. I went slow, enjoying how she moaned as she stretched to accommodate me. God. She was slick and hot and felt so damn good. I was never gonna get enough of this woman. She had me wrapped around her finger like I was some teenage kid getting laid for the first time.
And then, I wanted to see her. All of her. I wanted to hold her eyes in mine as I rooted myself deep. I pulled out of her slowly, enjoying the groan she gave. “Come here,” I said. “I want to see you.”
She straightened and turned. The water sprayed directly in her face, and she put a hand up to shield her eyes. I took a step back, leaning against the tile so I could get a look at her. Goddammit, she was perfect. She was five feet at most. Even though it was late fall, she still had bikini tan lines on her tits, making her perfect pink nipples stand out against her smooth white skin.
She squinted and shook her head to get the water out of her face and then she looked at me. Her pale blue eyes sparkled with lust as she looked directly into mine. Then her gaze traveled downward. She cocked her head.
Then something changed. Like a switch turned off. Amy’s eyes widened, and all the color drained from her face. The lust in her expression gave way to sheer terror. She took a step back and nearly fell sideways out of the bathtub. She clutched at the shower curtain and tore it half off the rod.
“Amy, what’s wrong?”
She didn’t answer. She just shook her head and stumbled out of the tub. I reached out to grab her elbow because I was afraid she was going to fall.
“Don’t,” she hissed. “Don’t touch me.”
She grabbed a towel from the rack and wrapped it around herself. I reached over, turned off the water, and grabbed my own towel. Amy was already out the door and back into the bedroom by the time I got out.
She’d thrown the towel aside and was frantically searching for her clothes. She pulled her skirt up and put her shirt on inside out as she turned to me.
“Did he send you? Fucking asshole.”
“Amy, what the hell are you talking about? Nobody sent me.”
“Don’t you take another step toward me. I’ll scream bloody murder.”
My towel slipped, and I tucked it in around my hips. I put my hands up to signal I wasn’t going to hurt her. But what the ever-loving fuck?
She slid her feet into her shoes and grabbed her purse. She got her phone and keys out.
“Such an asshole.” Tears sprang into her eyes, and it gutted me. Something had her so scared, so hurt. Even though I didn’t understand it, a rage rose within me so powerful it made me shake. I wanted to rip apart whoever or whatever had put that terror inside her.
She took a step forward and shoved me hard with her flat palms against my chest. She did it again, her hands lingering over the ink on my chest. She couldn’t take her eyes off it, and it dawned on me that’s what had her spooked. Last night, we’d been in the dark. She’d been blindfolded. Now, she seemed scared to death of the large howling wolf’s head silhouette I had tattooed on my chest. All of my club brothers had one in one place or another. She knew what it meant. Of course she did. This was Lincolnshire, and she’d lived here all her life.
“Hey, look,” I said. “I swear to God nobody sent me after you, Amy. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Fuck you, Colt,” she spat. “You and every member of that club. You tell him that. You tell him to go to hell.”
The last of her words came out choked through tears. She was damn near hysterical, and I was afraid to move even a muscle. So I didn’t. I stood stock still while Amy got her keys and went out the door.
My shoulders slumped as soon as she was gone. “Mother fuck,” I murmured. I went to the window and peered out. The sun was just starting to come out. I watched as Amy ran across the street. Her car was still parked in the coffee shop lot. She looked around her like she was paranoid someone other than me was watching her. Then she got in her car and tore off, her tires squealing over the pavement.
I slumped against the wall, my heart pounding with dread. Someone had hurt her. Badly enough that even the sight of the Great Wolves tattoo had her terrified. A rising rage filled me unlike any I’d ever known. I had to find out what happened. I had to make sure they could never hurt her like that again. I would make them pay.
No matter what kind of ink they wore.
Chapter Eleven
Amy
I don’t know how I made it home. But I did. My phone buzzed over and over again, and I ignored it. It was Colt. Or it was Roy. Even though I’d blocked his number and changed mine a half a dozen times, of course, he found it again. Of course he did.
This was Lincolnshire. This was the Great Wolves’ town. As long as I lived here, it seemed I’d never find peace again.
When I pulled in my driveway, dread filled my throat. I punched in the security code and went through the back door. The place was eerily quiet. But there were no packages on the front porch this time¸ no white roses. The house was quiet. Safe. I loved it here. I paid cash for my little brick bungalow on a quiet, birch-lined street in the nice part of town. The neighborhood, Old Orchard, was in transition, like most of Lincolnshire. Mostly older couples and young families just starting out lived here. Then there was me, stuck somewhere in the middle. I was supposed to be starting one of those young families. Until Roy blew my world apart.
My phone buzzed again and this time I looked, expecting to see an unknown number. But it was Lindy. I let out a hard breath and answered. Or tried to. Lindy didn’t let me get a word in edgewise.
“You were supposed to text me. How did it go? You didn’t come home last night. I know because I stopped by late.”
My heart lurched. Why, oh why couldn’t I have a normal life? A normal date. A normal anything. Ever since I let Roy into it, I knew my life would never be normal again.
“It didn’t work out,” I said, even though it hurt my heart.
“What happened?” Lindy’s tone went from exuberance to concern in a hot second.
“It just didn’t work out, Lind.”
But she knew me. I was done crying, done with everything. But I couldn’t hide the hurt from my best friend.
“I’m on my way,” she said. “Make some coffee.” She clicked off.
Lindy Shumway was a force of nature, and there was no point trying to put her off. I threw my purse on the kitchen table and put on a pot of coffee. Lindy lived four streets over, and before the pot was a quarter of the way full, she was at my front door in her running shoes.
I stuck a mug under the stream of coffee, then a second, and sat at the table where Lindy waited. I didn’t know where to start. Then I realized the start didn’t matter; it’s where the story ended that meant everything.
“He’s one of them,” I said, blowing my coffee before I sipped it. “He’s a Great Wolf.”
Lindy let out a hard breath and sat back hard in her chair. “Are you kidding? He’s with the club?”
I nodded and gave Lindy the highlights of what happened. I told her we ended up at the Lincolnshire Arms. That alone was enough detail to give her the gist of how everything went down. I left out the tawdry parts. The parts that still made me quiver with remembered pleasure. And that’s what seemed to haunt me most of all. The feel of Colt’s lips against my neck. The way he feathered his tongue against me and coaxed me toward ecstasy.
I shook my head, trying to clear it of the lust that still churned my insides. But Lindy saw that too. She set her mug down and reached across the table to put her hand on my arm.
“Amy, what did he say when you confronted him? Did you ask him if Roy sent him?”
“Lindy, of course Roy sent him. He’s in the same damn M.C.”
“But he’s not part of the Lincolnshire crew. He’s new in town. Is there a possibility it’s just a coincidence?”
“I wish there were.” I took a deep breath. I knew what was going to happen the second I told Lindy the rest of the story. “But Roy’s been watching me again. I don’t know. Maybe he never stopped. The other day, when I went out to my car, he left me another calling card. I got a single white rose under the windshield.”
“Did you call the police?”
I shrugged. “They’re going to tell me the same thing they always do. Call them if I see him. There’s no proof of a direct violation of the protection order. At most, they’d offer to go out and talk to him man to man. That’s useless. The last time I tried, they pretty much told me to deal with it or leave town.”
“Well, shit, Amy. You can’t live like this.” Lindy pressed her thumb against her eye and stared out the sliding door off the kitchen. The wind picked up, bringing a cascade of orange leaves falling against the window.
“I just didn’t get a bad vibe from Colt. You know?” she said. “But tell me again, what did he say after you called him out?”
“I didn’t stick around to get a rebuttal, Lindy. I got the hell out of that room and came back here.”
“But are you sure ...”
“Yes! Dammit. Yes! This is what Roy does. He leaves me alone for a while. Let’s me think maybe he’s moved on. I hear he’s found a new girlfriend. Time passes. Then there are these little things. The white roses. I come home and my lawn’s cut. Birthday cards with no signature. Nothing I can take to the cops to prove a direct violation of the restraining order. Just enough to keep me on edge and watching my back all the time.”
“I know. I know. I get that. But, Amy, you had sex with this guy right? Like, actual sex.”
Just the mention of it heated my blood. I didn’t just have sex with him. I sank back into my chair. “God help me, but yes. Pretty much the most mind-blowing sex of my life.”
“See, that’s the part that doesn’t make sense, Amy. Roy is controlling, possessive, jealous as hell. His whole deal is not wanting any other guy to so much as look at you. You think he’d go from that to setting up some other guy to . . . you know . . . actually screw you? Yeah. I mean, Roy’s the master of the mindfuck. But to send someone out to . . . you know.”
I put my face in my hands. I didn’t know what to think anymore. I was so turned around by all of it. And that was what Roy was best at. But Lindy had a point. Trouble started between Roy and me when he got paranoid some other guy was looking at me.
“I don’t know. I just really don’t. But Colt is a Great Wolf. That part isn’t in dispute. So, regardless of whether Roy put him up to that or it was just some wild coincidence, it doesn’t matter. I can’t have anything to do with him ever again. I can’t bring that back into my life.”
“Oh, I’m with you on that. Of course not. The Wolves are bad news, and you’re better than that. So just . . . I don’t know . . . keep doing what you’re doing and watch your back. You sure you don’t want to talk to the cops at least about the white rose thing? There’s some good ones out there, you know. Maybe they can send an extra patrol car through the neighborhood for a few weeks.”
I flapped my hand and rested it on the table. “Yeah. Maybe.”
Lindy kept on talking and though her endless chatter was a comfort, I stopped listening to her actual words. All I could think about was Colt. Colt’s dark eyes. His sculpted chest. The way he held me in the dark and made my body respond to his. I wanted to believe it was all some giant coincidence and that maybe he didn’t know about Roy. But that was a fairytale. I lived in the real world.
And in my world, Roy could make it so I might never find happiness again.
Chapter Twelve
Colt
Amy was everywhere. When I lay down at night to sleep. When I woke up in the morning. And every moment in between. That little gasp she made when I ran my hands down her hips. The way she opened herself to me, for just that brief window of time.
I wanted her more than I’d ever wanted another woman, and she consumed me more than any woman ever had. But I’d only known her for a couple of weeks and now she wanted nothing to do with me. I called her three times since we left the motel. Three times my calls went straight to voicemail. I considered that a small ray of hope. At least she hadn’t blocked my number.
Some way, somehow, I had to find out what had happened to her. I had to find a way to get her to let me back in.
For now, though, I rode beside Kellan on our way through town. It was rent collection day again and with each stop, I felt my temper rising. Tommy wasn’t here today. It was just the two of us, and I couldn’t hide my anger. With Kellan, I never felt I had to.
He came out of McCory’s Body Shop, stuffing a fat brown envelope into the pocket of his leather jacket. “He’s light,” Kellan said. “Catman’s going to be pissed. I told him that. Goddammit, this is the third time this year.”
“And then what?”
Kellan gave me a “don’t start” look and mounted his bike. He started it up and veered off in the direction of the clubhouse. Everything in me started to boil over. Catman’s shakedown bullshit. Amy. Just, everything. I sped off after Kellan and cut in front of him. I pointed to the turnoff just ahead of us. We were near the docks, and I knew a place. I didn’t even have to look behind me to know that Kellan would follow.
I pulled up in front of an old warehouse that used to house Victory Sparkplugs. It had once been one of the largest employers in Lincolnshire and a main supplier to one of the Big Three automotive companies. Now it was abandoned and shelled out by vagrants and other looters. I parked my bike and walked up to the boardwalk railing jutting out over the Maumee River.
Kellan pulled up behind me and cut his engine. He came to stand beside me, leaning his elbows on the rusted-out railing.
“What the fuck are we doing?” I said after several minutes of sile
nce. We looked out at the churning gold waters below. Kellan didn’t answer. I turned to him.
“I mean it, Kel. What the fuck are we doing? Look around you?”
He clenched his jaw and finally turned toward me. “You’ve been gone a long time, Colt. A long time. This is Lincolnshire, not Green Bluff. Don’t stand there and pretend you’re better than me.”
Of all of the things he could have said, that churned my blood the most. “I have never acted like I was better than you. We came up together, Kellan. I haven’t forgotten that. In just about every way that counted back then, you were closer to me than my own twin, for God’s sake. And I know this isn’t you. Where Catman’s taken this club, this town. This isn’t you.”
His green eyes flashed hot as he stared me down. “You think I don’t know that? You think that doesn’t eat at me every fucking day? Goddammit. I left here because of it. Went over to Iraq to fight a different war for somebody else. Then I came back, blown all to pieces. And for what?”
I was an ass, and I knew it. I couldn’t lay Catman’s shit on Kellan’s back. We had a code. A way of doing things and the members voted Catman in as president. It was years ago and maybe they couldn’t see where he’d take the club or the town, but the vote had to be unanimous.
“I’m telling you there’s another way,” I said, trying hard to take the anger out of my voice. “Lincolnshire isn’t different than Green Bluff. Shit, they are more the same than you realize. And believe me, Sly had resistance when he decided to try and get us out of all the illegal shit we were into. It took time. But think of it, Kel. This warehouse right here. Victory. It’s perfect. We could convert it. Bring trainers and fighters in. Build a Wolf Den around it. Real money. Legit money. We could bring pride back to Lincolnshire and put people back to work the right way.”
Kellan turned and looked at the looming, hollowed-out shell of the Victory plant, its tallest smokestack one of the iconic features of the Lincolnshire skyline. I saw his eyes narrow then widen, and I knew he was seeing what I wanted him to. We could do it. There was still hope for Lincolnshire, and there was still hope for the Great Wolves. Then the hope in Kellan’s eyes faded as he turned back to me.
