Outlaw MC Bear

by Bella Love-Wins

  “No, Dad. If you can believe it, Silas has been about as overprotective as you during this whole mix-up. It’s a big misunderstanding.”

  “So you were there voluntarily?”

  “Not exactly. It was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He thought I was in trouble at the condo. I got darted by Lorenzo’s thugs, or someone else’s thugs… the point is Silas rescued me. It was all well intentioned. Since then, his MC has kept me safe. They’re decent people, Dad. All of them are loyal, caring in their own way. They defend their own. I know you can appreciate that.” Sabrina swallowed past the tightness in her throat and crossed her arms, blinking back tears as she held herself together by a thread. “And Lorenzo is not the upstanding person you think he is.”

  “You’re confused… traumatized,” Giovanni shouted and sputtered, his face turning twelve different shades of purple. “That must be it, because you’d never dare to disrespect me that way in front of these heathens. They’re street rats, not worthy to kiss your boots, and yet you praise them? You’re mine. You will respect me. I am the only man that deserves your affection, do you understand me?”

  Silas bit back his inner beast as the asshole strode forward and grabbed Sabrina by the hand. His animal wanted to swat Giovanni’s face off, then throw Sabrina over its shoulder and bolt out of there. Resisting the instinct took everything out of him. Sabrina gave him a slight head nod and moved beside Giovanni.

  “Corrigan, you don’t think I’d let Lorenzo lay a hand on my daughter, do you?” the padrino drawled out the question, then clicked his tongue.

  “That’s a tough question to answer when we spent the last four days protecting her and my clubhouse from attacks he ordered.”

  Sabrina shouted out, “Lorenzo has been holding Addison prisoner to make sure I follow through and marry him, Dad. And he had his men shoot Silas’s mother last night.”

  “That’s disappointing, but I’m much more discouraged to know you think so little of me. I’ve been busy, but not too busy to find out the highlights.” He turned to Giovanni. “Son, your father and I were inseparable friends and allies for more than half a century before he died. He was made of honor through and through, which is why I gave you countless opportunities to rise to the occasion and be like him. I see now that’s not in the cards for you. Had I known of your ulterior motives where my daughter was concerned, we would have had our own private discussion long ago.”

  “You can’t do this, Mr. Rizzo.”

  The padrino ignored him, looking over at Silas now. “Thank you for protecting my daughter. You’ve also inadvertently saved my organization from an immeasurable amount of blowback by returning Governor Riley’s boy. I can’t tell you the number of times I reiterated—wrongly now, I realize—that my organization had no involvement in his son’s abduction. I put too much faith in Lorenzo, expecting him to live up to our way of life. Yes, we’re waist deep in crime, but we have a code. I can see you understand that, just like your old man did, Corrigan. We’re cut from the same cloth…” The padrino looked over at Sabrina, then back at Silas. “It’s sweet that you care for her as I do.”

  “I want her to be safe.”

  There. That was as close as he’d come to telling the old man he wanted more with his daughter. It had to count for something, because what he really wanted to say would damn this meeting all to hell. It took everything inside him to bite his tongue. If Rizzo cared so much about his daughter, why would he sell her off like cattle to a man who had no respect for her? She deserved to be worshipped and adored. But then again, had all of this never happened, Silas would have been wifed up in a similar business transaction with the Texas charter. It was day and night compared to what Sabrina faced, but he really had no right to judge.

  All of a sudden, Giovanni lost it. “I’ve had enough of this,” he shouted out. “Get in position, men.” His dozen or so bodyguards moved up in front of him and Sabrina, and held their weapons at Silas, Cole and Rizzo. “Sabrina is mine, old man. Once we get married, she’ll have no choice but to do as I say, and you can fade into the background when I take over. Or you could have an unfortunate accident right now. If you think Silas Corrigan can replace me, you’re wrong. He will not get his hands on what’s mine. Not Sabrina, and not the empire my father spent his life building up with you.”

  Silas was about to ignore the potential gunfire and pound Giovanni into the goddamn ground, but Sabrina jerked away from Giovanni. “That was a bad idea, Lorenzo. I’ve had conversations like this my whole life. I’m really sick of it, so I’m only going to say this once. You just buried yourself for thinking you can talk to me like this, and for being insane enough to believe you can defy my father.”

  Giovanni reared his hand back and swung a brazen slap across Sabrina’s face that echoed throughout the warehouse. Sabrina staggered backward from the force of the blow. Time stopped and sped up all at once. Cole launched himself toward the padrino and threw him to the ground, covering his head and chest from the gunfire he expected would originate from Giovanni’s bodyguards. Silas moved through the bodyguards like a bowling ball through ten pins, grabbing Sabrina and pulling her down to the floor behind him.

  “What the fu—” Giovanni shouted, but it was too late.

  One solitary gunshot snapped through the thick tension. Silas’s gaze flicked across his body to look over at Cole and the padrino behind him. None of them had been hit. His brow furrowed, muscles jumped, and his nails bit hard into the flesh of his palms from his tight fist. He looked at the padrino. The man had a stone cold, satisfied expression on his face, gun still in his hand. Silas blinked and looked at Giovanni. Shit. He was rolling around on the floor, bleeding from a wound in his upper right chest.

  “That was your third strike, Lorenzo. No one touches my daughter like that. Consider this an early retirement due to injury. If you defy me again, I’ll accelerate your retirement…to a funeral.” The padrino snapped his fingers and a small army of thick-necked Italians came rushing in. “Boys, take out the garbage. Make sure I never run into Lorenzo Giovanni anywhere west of Chicago again.”

  Three of the padrino’s men snatched up the whimpering Giovanni from the floor, dragging him out of the warehouse.

  “Now, let’s talk about my original reason for this meeting. I could go on at length about demand and economics, but the bottom line is my business needs have skyrocketed in New York and overseas in Europe. What this means is I need your goods supplied there. Obviously, that directly impacts our business as much as getting Giovanni off the table, so I’d like your thoughts.”

  Silas was still trying to control his beast when he got to his feet and helped Sabrina. She nodded that she was fine, and Cole took her to have a seat in a small enclosed office near the side of the open warehouse space.

  “Removing Giovanni sounds a lot less complicated, but shipping to New York will require a heck of a lot more logistics. It also bumps up our risk, crossing so many state lines with weapons…”

  “Name your price.”

  Silas couldn’t even pretend. This development complicated matters a thousand fold. Sure, eventually, he would have liked to get out of the business and into something that was more lucrative while being legal, such as some of the ideas Sabrina had brought to him and Axe. The problem was they weren’t at that stage yet. Nowhere near—and his boys still got a huge say in everything.

  “My first thought is that we’d like to continue doing business with you. I’ll just need some time to get a better sense of how it can work for us both. I’m sure you understand I’m fair, and a man of my word.”

  “Understood and I can relate. Take the next few weeks, and let me know at least two weeks before our scheduled monthly arrangement.”

  “Thanks for the time.”

  “Of course. But, Silas? I don’t feel confident you’re able to assess your options with my daughter in the mix. She’s an unneeded distraction, so she’s off the table if you choose to continue our business relationship
. Our partnership can flourish into bigger and better opportunities as soon as you cut off all contact with Sabrina and never see or speak with her again.”

  31

  Sabrina

  Sabrina was in the small office with the door open when she heard what her father said to Silas. She scoffed in protest and charged back to the open warehouse area.

  “Dad, you can’t do that again.”

  “Leave it alone, princess.”

  “Dad, please.”

  “I’ll deal with this, honey.”

  “No, Dad. You won’t. You can’t make everything about business… I mean, how dare you propose that to him? It’s not right. Whether I want to see him again or not is not in any way relevant to him working with you.” She stepped up beside Silas and squeezed his hand. It was so typical of her father to go from eliminating one asshole and then morphing into the controlling asshole that he’d just shot. This had to stop.

  Silas spoke up just then. “Mr. Rizzo, sir. I appreciate and respect the offer, but your daughter is her own woman. She’s free to do whatever she wants, and if she associates with me and my club, it’s her choice. Everything else on the table has to do with me and my choice. I’ll take those items back and will get you an answer soon, if that works for you?”

  “Mmm, so diplomatic.” Sabrina’s father stroked his beard with an unreadable smile on his face. “How do you feel about that answer, princess?”

  Sabrina grimaced at the pet name and threaded her fingers more securely through Silas’s.

  “If you’d give me a moment alone with him, Dad?”

  “I don’t know how alone you can get, given the venue, darling. But you’re welcome to give it a shot.”

  She pasted on a smile and dragged a clueless Silas to the small office. The questions flitting across his face only solidified her choice. “The timing is not ideal for a conversation like this…”

  Silas nodded, but his eyebrows were still stuck in a permanent state of confusion. “Sabrina, talk to me. What’s wrong?”

  Sabrina ran a hand through her hair and looked up at the ceiling. “It’s inconvenient that I have to be this forward right now, but… I want to be with you. I can’t say it’s one of those ‘let’s be together forever’ things, because I don’t know that I can see that far ahead, since well, we’re volatile, and you have a bit of a reputation. But I want to try, if you’ll let us.”

  Silas turned and rubbed his jaw as he started to light up a cigarette. Sabrina felt for him. There was no way he could see this coming, yet here she was, dumping a massive piece of news on him. She just wished he’d say something. Anything.

  “Are you just going to stare at the wall?”

  He turned back to face her, licked his lips, and took a long drag on his cigarette, still silent.

  Sabrina folded her arms. “I’m going to take your reaction as a sign you’re thinking it over, okay? That way I don’t bash your teeth in with my fist.” That got a smile out of him. Except she wasn’t kidding about that. “While you’re so reticent, I’ve got another proposal. While I have your full attention, now’s a good time to bring it up.”

  Sabrina powered through despite his mixed messages. Silas remained oddly silent, but attentive, to the point where she wondered if he remembered where they were having this conversation. He appeared to register nothing but her face. Which was sweet, but the timing was a bit off.

  “Would you consider offering protective services to my law firm’s divorce clients for a fee? Kind of like your own security company. It’s completely legal and a good way to generate revenue while you’re sorting things out with my father. Think about it. It’s a backup plan, and it’s legal. A win-win for everyone. You get some extra options for your MC, and I have the benefit of being out from under his thumb. If it works out, he won’t be able to dish out any ultimatums because you won’t be working for him anymore. No one will have any leverage over us, and our businesses will both benefit.”

  “That’s…a thought…” Silas grumbled, hardening his jaw.

  “Praise the lord, he speaks!”

  He shook his head. “It’s the same thing you suggested to Axe, isn’t it?”

  “Well yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s smart, and keen to get out of illicit gunrunning.”

  That earned her a spiteful look that only made her grin up at him. He surprised her by moving in closer, and kissed her forehead with a tenderness that took her breath away. She got no time to savor the moment because he was off and headed over to her father.

  “I’ll consider everything and get back to you within a week.”

  “Fair enough.” Her father took his phone out of his pocket. “Sabrina, I assume you’re going with him, if that little chat went anything like I guessed?”

  “Yes.”

  “Very well… I’ll accept it for now.”

  After all that fighting, did he really succumb so easily to her wishes? How did that make sense? Unwilling to look a very strange gift horse in the mouth, she kissed her father on the cheek, giving him a grateful nod. She grabbed Silas’s hand and all but dragged them out of the warehouse with Cole behind them. Maybe Dad was thinking she’d come back on her own after Silas broke her heart. Time would tell.

  “Take me back to the MC.”

  “I never expected those words to come out of your lips, doll.”

  “Neither did I.”

  Everyone returned to the clubhouse after the meeting. Silas had been mute the whole time they rode. She’d come to discover it wasn’t that unusual. Bikers all had reverent expressions on the open road. They hardly spoke once they were on their rides.

  The second they got to the front steps, Silas he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. Sabrina squealed, kicking out in protest as cheers and whistles came from the club members. No amount of begging got him to put her down, not until he took her upstairs into his room and deposited her on his bed.

  “What was that for?” She squeaked, half-laughing and still slightly dizzy.

  “You need to know that if you stay with me, any life you thought you were gonna live is gone. There’s no white picket fence with me. You’ll be my property, and that means I’m responsible for you. The level of violence you witnessed and experienced with your daddy is nothing compared to what can come your way once people find out your mine. They’ll try to use you to get to me, and you’re human so that raises the stakes.”

  She watched Silas pace across the room, eating up the floor in large strides that made her stomach twist into knots. “I’ve been there…and I’m pretty used to my fragile humanity.”

  “You need to know there’ll be a target on your back and it’ll never go away. Can you accept that? I can’t ask you to take that on without feeling like the most wretched bastard on earth.”

  “Silas…”

  “No, Sabrina.” He growled out a frustrated groan and threw up his hands. “If you’re linked to me, you’re not safe. Ever. Not even if we change business ventures and try out your security patrol rent-a-biker idea.”

  “That’s not exactly correct.”

  He took a quick seat on the edge of the bed next to her as if the actual weight of the idea made it so he couldn’t stand anymore.

  Sabrina ran her hand through his soft, silky hair. “As long as I’ve been with you, you’ve kept me safe. You’ve always been there to protect me, even if I can protect myself.” Sabrina smiled and closed her eyes. “I’ve always had a target on my back as my father’s daughter. I’m sick of running from who I am. I don’t want normal, Silas. I want you… I love you.”

  “You…”

  The poor man looked dumbstruck and couldn’t even say the word. Laughing, she grabbed his collar and kissed him, then she pulled back to look into his eyes.

  “I do, so you’re going to shut up, and I’m going to leave all the uncertainties for another day. Right now, I want you to make love to me. Think you can do that?”

  All she got in res
ponse was a big heavy badass biker’s hands pushing her back on the bed as his body covered hers. His lips caressed down her neck, and every inch of his body screamed the words he hadn’t yet said out loud. He’d probably never say it, but that didn’t matter one bit.

  32

  Silas

  Silas woke up with a start, glancing over at the woman he was holding in his arms as moonlight fell across her pale cheek. Jesus, how had he gotten so damn lucky? He pulled Sabrina back against his chest, and she muttered something in her sleep when he grazed his beard against her cheek.

  Fuck it. Whatever else happened, he’d let it happen. Everything inside him settled down to a deep hum when she was with him—even his beast. If there was ever someone to make him settle down, she was it. Even if she’d already turned him into a pussy-whipped president in the process. Next thing he knew he’d be forced to hand over his patch and gun. Wouldn’t Sabrina love that idea? Yeah, she was worth a little more chaos in his life.

  The next morning, he called a meeting for the core group of brothers about the security team idea. Now it was time to toss around the idea, remind them of how their regular gigs were changing, and see how many of them were on board. Axe was already in his corner. That was a given.

  “This is your one chance to have your say.” Silas opened the floor to the others and leaned back in his leather office chair with his feet propped up on the desk.

  “What happens if she wakes up one day and dumps your sorry ass?” Tate asked, glancing up from the table with one eyebrow raised.

  “The agreements aren’t with her. They’re with the individual clients.”

  Axe nodded. “You should be asking how we can do something similar for our other charters, Tate. You’re the one with the relevant skills.”

  “Oh, like a franchise? I’d be all over that. I’m not saying a firm yes, but I can be persuaded.”

  Cole added, “I like the sound of no more time behind bars. Forget about prison food, I’m too old for prison ass. I’m in.”