by Sophia Gray
“No one’s accusing you,” I reminded him, and folded my hands on the table. The image of Tristan’s body lying in that thick puddle of his own blood entered my mind, and I clenched my fists. Who the fuck else would want one of us dead? “Business okay?”
“Why you asking? Of course it’s fine.” Damien leaned a bit toward me. “I hear Gray got the votes. That must have been a kick in the gut for you.”
I cleared my throat, every muscle in my body wanted to jump across the table and shove my fist through his teeth, but it would have to wait. This fucker knew something about Jason’s murder, and probably Tristan’s.
“Nah. He got the votes, I’m still VP. I’ll get my time. Or I won’t.” I shrugged. “You talk to Jason recently? I mean before he was killed?”
“Why would I?”
“Maybe you were working out a deal with that Javier asshole and wanted Jason to help set it up since we’ve worked with him before? Not sure, but one of your prospects was poking around the club that afternoon.” As a probe it was pretty thick.
He flattened his hands on the table and stood up. “I’m not talking club business with you. If your president wants a sit down, you can tell Gray to give me a call.”
The tight smile I’d managed to hold onto since walking in dropped. The chair scrapped along the peanut shelled floor as I pushed away from the table. “Not official conversation here, just having a chat.” I put my hands up in front of me. “I didn’t come in here looking for you, I was looking for Tristan. He was supposed to meet me. You seen him?” I watched his expression closely, looking for a flinch, a change of posture, something to tell me Tristan’s name threw him off balance. Nothing.
“No. We’ve been here all night. Fucking gas leak at the club house kicked us out for a night.”
I nodded, looking around at the guys starting to circle behind him. “Yeah. Okay.” I nodded and stepped away from the table.
If Damien knew anything about Tristan, he didn’t’ show it, and if he had anything to do with Jason’s murder, he was holding it real close to himself, too. I needed more information, more of a reason for them wanting Jason dead.
Damien and Jason hated each other, but they respected each other. But respect didn’t mean shit if Damien was looking to get into a trade Jason didn’t want to see happening around our town.
“Gonna swing by the club, maybe he went there.” I waved my goodbye and headed to the door. I almost made it through when I heard one assclown mutter something under his breath. “What was that?” I turned around, stepping up to the half-drunk asshole.
He craned his neck and stuck his face right up to mine. “I said. If you hadn’t been such a pussy, you’d have taken that president’s gavel from Grays’ fucking hand. You had more right.”
“A vote is a vote, you asshole. You should fucking know that.”
“Fuck that. You were crying too hard to do what you should have done. And now you’re sniffing around here about Jason getting gunned down. You were there, weren’t you? Right there when he took a bullet to his gut? Bet that sucked to see your best friend die right in front of you, and then you fucking turned his club over to Gray.” He shook his head and tsked his tongue.
Enough of that bullshit. My fist landed on his left jaw. Blood spewed out of his mouth before I heard him grunt. He stumbled off his stool and lunged at me. Too drunk to put all his weight behind it, it only knocked the wind out of me. I tossed him to the ground, ready for him to spring up.
Another fucker, larger and soberer than the first, stepped between him and me, grabbing my kutte. “Get the fuck out before you get your ass handed to you.”
“Fuck you.” I pushed away from him and got in two solid punches to his gut before I felt large hands on my shoulders yanking me back. I could hear Damien yelling something in the background but between the sharp pain heating up like a fucking furnace in my bad shoulder, and the big guy’s fist contacting with my face, I couldn’t make it out.
Getting free of the hands holding me, I kicked my foot out and booted the clown behind me. I managed to get a few more licks on the guy putting his fist closer to my face than I’d like. My hands wrapped around the neck of the bigger guy, squeezing as hard as I could I watched his eyes widen, his hands flailing against mine trying to get a breath of air. I held him until he back down on to his knees and I stared into his eyes.
“Okay! Okay!” Damien launched through the crowd watching us. “Enough!” He put his hand on my shoulder. “You made your fucking point. Back off.”
I broke my stare with my prisoner and looked up at Damien. “Your guys so much as look at me funny again, and you’ll feel Anarchy’s Reign all over your asses. Got me?”
“I got you. Get the fuck off my VP.”
I relaxed my fingers, letting the asshole gulp in a few breaths before I gave one more squeeze and let go. “If I find out you had anything to do with Jason’s murder…"
“We had nothing to do with it.” Damien helped his VP off his knees. “Get the fuck out before I let them loose.” He nodded toward the members behind him looking hungry for a fight. Three on one, I could handle, but not all of those fuckers.
“Yeah. Fine.” I backed out of the bar, slamming the door as I left. It was tempting to play dominos with their fucking bikes, but common sense managed to make its way through to my brain. Hoping on my bike I peeled out of the bar, and took off to home. Where Beth was waiting for me.
A car sat in Beth’s driveway, behind hers, when I pulled up to the house. It was already past eight, Maddie would be asleep. Who the fuck was in the house?
I grabbed my gun, glad I hadn’t lost it in my idiotic raid on the Hell’s Spawn, and ran to the house. As I came up to the front door, I heard giggling. Then I heard Beth’s laugh. Light and genuine.
I turned the handle of the door expecting to find it locked. It turned with ease and I shoved the door open. There sitting in the kitchen around the table was Beth and those twins from the bar. They stopped laughing and looked over at me. Beth’s eyes moving to the gun in my hand and then to my shoulder.
“What the hell did you do?” She leapt up from the table and was on me in an instant, pulling my shirt sleeve up to see the damaged. “You ripped your stitches.” The accusation in her voice wasn’t lost on me, but I had some accusing to do of my own.
“I told you not to open the door for anyone.” I snapped at her then nodded to the twins. The one with the purple streaks laughed.
“We aren’t anyone, dipshit, we’re family.” She took a sip of her wine, keeping her eyes locked on me as she tipped the glass.
“Didn’t I say to stay inside, and not let anyone in?”
Beth put my sleeve back down and glared up at me. Those wide green eyes of hers didn’t look the least bit scared or put out, if anything she looked more annoyed than I probably did. “I have to clean this back up. You might need your stitches put back in”
“Just take them out.” I shook my head and shoved my Glock back into my pants. “Maddie sleeping?” I looked over at the closed bedroom door.
“Over an hour now.” Beth nodded. “Let’s get you cleaned up. We need to talk anyway.” I let her walk ahead of me and followed her to her bedroom, but not before pointing at the twins and jerking my thumb to the door. Highlights laughed, the other one just shrugged. I would never get used to people not doing what I fucking told them to do.
“I didn’t see JC out front, when’s the last time he rose past?” I shut the bedroom door.
“I don’t know, half hour. I stopped listening for him when the girls got here.”
“Yeah, the girls. They aren’t supposed to be here.”
“You don’t own me, Rafe.” She stopped digging through the first aid kit to give me a glare. “I know you think you do, but you don’t. I wanted them to hang out, I’ve been stuck inside all damn day. And then you come waltzing in with your shoulder all banged up, a split lip and a bruise on your jaw.”
She pointed to the bed for me to sit whi
le she finished laying out what she needed to take care of my shoulder.
“You could have called me if you needed something” I pointed out.
She snorted. “Right. Call you and ask you if I could have friends over? What? I’m eight all of a sudden?”
“It’s not safe right now, Beth.” She needed to get it through her fucking head that if I was telling her to lay low, she needed to lay low.
“Why? Because I happened to be at the mall when some bikers decided to practice shooting? It had nothing to do with me and nothing to do with Maddie.” Her sigh blew through my hair. “Take your shirt off so I can clean the wound. I don’t have anything to stitch I back up with, so I’ll take the sutures out and use some butterfly band aids to help keep it closed up. It’s partially healed already.”
“Because it’s not safe.” I yanked off my shirt after laying my kutte on the bed.
“Because your president was gunned down? Or because your club runs illegal guns? Maybe it’s because of the drug dealers and other illegal shit you're into?” The burn of the cleanser she poured over my shoulder had my gritting my teeth.
“Someone’s been doing homework.” I glared up at her. “We don’t’ run drugs anymore.”
“But you do cart illegal guns all over the fucking place. Do you know how many kids get brought into the ER every week because they were playing with that garbage? Kids joining gangs at twelve years old! Last week we had an eleven-year-old die on the table from a gunshot to his chest. He was hanging out with some friends on his front porch when a car drove by, one stupid kid jumped out, ran up to him and shot him right in the chest then hopped back in the car and took off. Initiation the cops told us.”
I’d heard about those types of activities before, but we had nothing to do with those. All of our runs were done out of state. “I know it sounds bad…"
“Sounds bad?” She finished plucking out the last of the stitches. “I let you in my house! What the hell was I thinking? My daughter is here. I don’t need complications. I don’t need the drama you bring. Look at us already, Rafe. We aren’t even together, not really, and already I’m locked in my house because it’s not safe for me to go outside?”
I let her finish her job of placing the Band-Aids on my arm. No sense in arguing with her, she seemed pretty riled up and until I could get my hands on her properly, there wouldn’t be any getting to her. She had a point, she was in danger simply because she was my girl. Whoever killed Jason wouldn’t be wanting to leave any loose ends behind, and I was a loose end. Tristan being killed only made things messier, and until I saw the reaction of the club over his death I couldn’t be sure my own club didn’t’ have something to do with it. Tristan wasn’t a huge fan of Gray’s, he’d been pretty vocal about it, too. Having Gray as the president would make things difficult for Tristan, but he never would have betrayed the club or walked out. He would have dealt. So until I knew where the shit was coming from, I had to assume it was headed my way, too.
“I get that you’re pissed about being locked up inside today, and you’re right we haven’t been together long enough for me to really stake my claim on you.” I pulled her hands away from cleaning up the first aid gear and tugged on her until she stood in front of me, between my legs. “But that doesn’t change that you are mine.”
She sighed, but let me settle her on my lap. “You’re impossible.”
“Of course I am.” I grinned, tilting her head up by her chin on my finger tip. “But I’m yours, too Beth. Your claim on me is as strong as mine on you.”
“I’ve known you such a short time.” She shook her head. “You’re dangerous.” When her eyes caught mine I got the sense that she wasn’t referring to the mess with the club, or the fact that I was the VP of a biker club, no, there was something else she meant.
“I’ve never laid claim to a woman before.” I let my thumb run over her bottom lip, enjoying the way she parted her lips for me when I did it. Even when her mind wanted to push me away her body welcomed my touch.
“What’s that supposed to mean? You’ve never had a girlfriend before?”
A knock on the door interrupted us before I could answer her. The door swung open and the purple haired twin poked her head in. Giving me a look of irritation she spoke to Beth. “We’re heading out, Beth. Call me in the morning, before you head over.”
“I’ll walk you out.” Beth slid off my lap and followed Brittany.
Chapter Eleven
BETH
Brittany slung her purse over her shoulder and gave me a serious look. “He’s just going to pull you in further, Beth. You have to get him gone.”
I rolled my eyes. “First you tell me to get a guy and now you tell me to get him gone?”
“Beth, he’s the Anarchy’s Reign VP, there’s shit with that club you don’t need to get in the middle of. Don’t forget, I dated one of those guys for a while. If you don’t get killed by association, you’ll get sucked into being one of their old ladies, and then you’ll be treated like a glorified whore. He’ll fuck you when he wants, as well as any other chick he wants. Is that what you want? To be treated like property, but not even first priority property?” Brittany gestured to Chrissy to speak up.
“Listen to her, Beth. You don’t want his kind of drama. You have Madison to think about.”
“Thanks for reminding me, I had forgotten all about the five-year-old sleeping in the other room.” I put my hands on my hips. They were talking from love, I got that, but the last thing I needed was parenting advice from two bar hoppers. “He’s gonna come out here and I really don’t have the energy for the fight right now, with you or him.”
“I’m not gonna fight with them. They’re allowed to think what they want.” His deep voice crawled up my back and tickled the hairs on the back of my neck.
“He’s not wearing a shirt.” Chrissy whispered to me with wide eyes. I could imagine the sight he made.
“Are his arms folded over his chest, and his face looks bored?” I asked Brittany, who couldn’t seem to stop gawking at him.
“Oh. Yeah.” She smiled.
“Okay, you guys need to go. I’ll shoot you a text when I’m on my way.” I pushed the twins toward the door.
“Just remember what I told you.”
“Oh, I’m sure she will. Good night, girls,” he called from behind me.
I still didn’t look behind me, but I had a pretty good idea what he looked like just by the flat tone of his voice. The twins gave me one more look before they walked out the door and shut it behind them. I locked the door and took a deep breath before turning around to face him. When I did, the sight before me almost made me lose my nerve to glare him down.
Leaning against the wall in just his jeans, his hair tossed about carelessly, and his tatted arms folded over his chest showing off every muscle in his abs and arms, he looked hotter than he had the right to look at that moment. “Rafe. You can’t scare my friends off like that.” I crossed my own arms across my chest.
He crooked his finger at me. I shook my head, but found myself stepping toward him anyway. When I stopped a few feet from him, he leaned forward until his eyes were at my level. “We weren’t done talking.”
“Rafe. I had a really long day. We can talk tomorrow. After I get off of work.” I tried to walk around him, but before I could get past him, he bent over and scooped me up, tossing me over his shoulder.
My stomach hit his shoulder and I slapped his back. “For hell’s sake, put me down.”
“Nope.” His hand landed hard on my ass and I grunted from the slap.
Once back in my room, he kicked the door shut and tossed me onto the bed. Standing over me with his hands on his hips, he looked at me as though he were deciding whether to strip me naked or lecture me some more.
“Why are you picking up the twins in the morning?” He decided on the lecture.
“Brittany has an appointment, I’m driving her in, and Chrissy is picking her up afterwards.”
“Appointme
nt for what?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.” At least I hoped it was nothing. Brittany always downplayed when things weren’t going right. Having missed a period and several negative pregnancy tests, she needed to find out for sure what was going on before she could make up her mind.
“Why doesn’t Chrissy just take her in, then?”
“Chrissy has a morning shift at the diner she waitresses at. Don’t worry about her.” I leaned back on my elbows, taking a good look at him staring down at me.
His eyes narrowed and his arms crossed over his chest again as he studied me. “I’m not sure I believe you.”
