Hard Ride: A Motorcycle Club Romance (The Fallen Thorns MC) (Whiskey Bad Boys Book 2)

by Kathryn Thomas

  "How am I going to do that?"

  I shook my head. "I don't know. If this next one gets delivered, see if you can track who did it and who they're doing it for. It will no doubt be an innocent but any kind of lead at this point will be great."

  Saul nodded again. "I'll do what I can."

  "I want someone at the club at all times. And not alone. Not even you - make sure that when someone's here there are two or three people here with them."

  Saul nodded. They all had jobs but I was sure they could organize something. Some of them worked nighttime and had days off. We would be fine.

  I had no idea how something like could have happened. I wasn't sure why someone would want to threaten us at all. This was out of the blue and with nothing behind it. We hadn't done anything worth threatening for years.

  God, and now I was thinking of bringing Selena into a life like this. She was right not wanting to get involved with me, even if her reasons were different than mine. My life wasn't safe, even when I wanted it to be.

  I was going to see her again tonight but I was going to make sure nothing happened to her. She wasn't going to get involved with this, no matter how involved she was with me.

  I hoped she would be more involved than she was now, but I would keep her safe. I already had almost fifty lives in my care. Another one would just be part of the job.

  I looked at the men from where I was standing. They were all good people. They had bad pasts, yes, but they were good people who made an honest living now. Some of them had families now, too. A wife, children, girlfriends. They had people who cared about them, people they cared about. I couldn't let anything happen to them. I wouldn't.

  I pulled out my phone and looked at the screen. Nothing from Selena. I'd half-hoped there would be. A thank you for lunch? Of course, I was seeing her tonight so there was no reason for her to contact me now. She'd already given me her address before leaving so I knew where to pick her up.

  Really, there was no reason for her to send me any kind of message. Still, I couldn't get her off my mind and I wasn't sure I wanted to. It was nice thinking about her. It had been nice seeing her. I was looking forward to seeing her again.

  I turned and walked to the office. We'd been using the club for so long we'd moved everything here so it was all in one place. The office really more belonged to Saul than to me but as long as I was in the building I had first dibs. It was a perk of being the leader, but, to be honest, the office really belonged to Saul more than anyone else. He knew every single piece of paper on the desk and the shelf to the side no matter the chaos. If I was the leader he was like the manager - someone with every single member's number on his call list, someone with all the extra numbers we needed, like next of kin.

  I pushed the door open and nearly had a heart attack. May was draped over the desk - on top of all the papers - like it was the start of a porn shoot. She wore a dress that was tight enough to push all her assets together until it was obscene and so short it really left nothing to the imagination.

  I closed the door. Heaven forbid one of the others would see May here. I'd already done us a bad reputation because of this crazy bitch. I didn't need them to doubt me now, not at a time like this.

  "What the fuck are you doing here?"

  She sat up, arching her back, pushing her breasts out. She wasn't wearing a bra if her nipple stand was anything to go by. Maybe once upon a time that would have turned me on but I was honestly not impressed.

  "Is that way to greet a long lost lover?"

  I snorted. "Lost is the only word we want to focus on here. That, and get. As in Get Lost."

  She frowned. "Your jokes haven't gotten any funnier."

  "And I'm not any happier to see you than the last time I told you to get the fuck out of my life."

  She hopped off the table and walked toward me on heels that were so high it was impossible to balance on them. How she did it was beyond me. It made her hips swing when she walked toward me and her whole body was on display. It was the way she liked it. Once upon a time it was the way I liked it, too. Thank God I'd done up some standards in the meantime. Someone like Selena was so much classier than this bitch.

  "I'm going to ask you again. What are you doing here?"

  She circled me like a vulture, dragging a hand over my chest, around my shoulders and up to my neck as she came all the way around to the front again. "Come on, Logan. You can't tell me you're not at least a little happy to see me."

  She leaned in really close so I could smell the mixture of smoke and peppermint on her breath. It made me want to light one up, but it was because seeing her was stressful, not because the smell of smoke had a chain reaction.

  "I missed you, baby," she said when I didn't respond to her. Her seduction meant nothing and her words fell on deaf ears. It was irritating her but she was trying to lay it on thick. Her words were syrupy sweet - nauseatingly so.

  "I don't have time for this right now," I said. I stepped away from her so her sexiness and attempted seduction looked stupid in the middle of the room.

  Her face changed. "What happened to the good old days?"

  I looked at her with the hardest face I knew how to pull. "You fucked it up."

  Her face changed again - anger crept in, replacing the sweet innocence she'd been throwing at me. This was more like the May I knew. As unstable as she was, I trusted this face more because I knew it wouldn't end well. When she was all sweet and nice and looked vulnerable it was harder because I hated it when women cried and I didn't know what her intentions were. At least when she was being a bitch I knew whatever followed would be unpleasant.

  "Why are you being a dick to me?"

  I sighed. "Because we broke up, May, and it wasn't a nice breakup. We can't be friends. We can't even be acquaintances. We agreed we wouldn't see each other again."

  She nodded. "I said that before I knew how hard it would be without you." That pleading innocence was back. She had mood swings like day and night.

  "You need to get out of here."

  She shook her head and her pissed off side was back. "Don't be like this, Logan. It's not like I'm asking you to have sex with me." She smiled. "Although, I can guarantee it would be great if we did. But I just want to spend some time with you, catch up. You know?"

  I shook my head. "I'm really not interested."

  "That's not what you said just before we broke up."

  I rolled my eyes. I'd gone through the whole break-up sex routine, the one where we did it for old times' sake. I'd thought back then it would be funny, a last 'fuck you.' Literally. Boy, had that blown up in my face. "I'm not the same man I was then."

  I'd been involved in a lot of bad things when I'd been with May.

  "Yeah, I can tell." The comment went with a look up and down my body like I was found wanting. It irritated me and I wanted to get back at her.

  "I have a date tonight that I need to get ready for and I really don't want to rock up there in a bad mood just because I saw you."

  She narrowed her eyes at me. "You don't date."

  I shrugged. "How do you know?"

  "Because you never dated before me, and after you went back to one night stands. Those never mean anything but a date?"

  I looked at her, pinning her with an I-don't-give-a-shit look. "I'm going on a date tonight and I really would love it if you left the club. I don't want you here and I can tell you now none of the others want you here either."

  "Don't break my heart, Logan."

  "I can't if you don't have one."

  I folded my arms over my chest and glared at her. Leaving the room would have been perfect now but I had no idea what she would do if I were gone. Either she would make a scene, running after me and embarrassing me in front of my men. Or she would stay here and torch the place, potentially burning everything to the ground. Or something else ridiculously unpredictable. I didn't want to leave her alone.

  She looked like she was going to cry. Please don't, I willed. I would only f
eel bad and, honestly, May didn't deserve a shred of sympathy. Her expression changed from crying to something hard and expressionless, a look I knew very well. She was at a place now where she could do anything if she stayed there. It was scary as hell but I didn't show fear. People like May could smell fear. Her face changed again and this time, it was pure rage. Better than the blank expression but just as unpredictable. The biggest threat was over, though.

  "I'm going to make sure you'll never forget me," she said. She picked up a paperweight from the desk and threw it through the window. The glass broke, the sound skipping around us. She stormed out of the office and down the corridor that led down the back door. She wasn't planning on letting the rest of the men see her, not now that she'd lost this little battle. Thank God for that, too.

  Saul appeared in the doorway.

  "Was that who I think it was?"

  I nodded and looked at the window.

  "Well," he said, coming to stand next to me. "Minimal damage, then, considering."

  I nodded.

  Chapter 7

  Selena

  "Can you finish early?" I asked Joanne when I phoned her just after lunch. "I need to go shopping and I really need your advice."

  "What do you need to go shopping for?"

  I hesitated for just a second but, of course, I wasn't going to keep a secret from my best friend. "I'm going on a date with biker guy tonight and I have nothing to wear."

  "Oh, my God."

  I nodded even though she couldn't see me. "I worked overtime last night so I can take off earlier. Come with me? You know I haven't done this in so long."

  She was silent for a while and I imagined her checking her watch or her schedule or something.

  "I'll pick you up at four."

  She hung up. I put the library phone down and took a deep breath. I couldn't believe I'd agreed to go on a date with Logan when we'd had lunch. Actually, I could believe it, but I didn't usually do things like this. I'd had my fair share of boyfriends, of course. There was always someone interested. It just never lasted long. They never seemed to understand me. I could never relate to them, and, in the end, it often turned into something toxic or something detrimental to either or both parties. It just didn't work.

  This...this was different. Logan was the type of guy I'd never looked at before. He was a badass, a drop-dead gorgeous one at that, and he didn't look like he took any shit. In fact, he looked like he caused it. But besides that, he liked reading books. He liked reading my book. That was worth something. I was a writer, and maybe he would understand at least a bit of me.

  I wasn't expecting someone to understand me completely; I was reasonable, at least.

  I always felt awkward in relationships because I knew I was always trying too hard to be someone I wasn't. I always tried to be like the other girls, the ones who had jobs that were worth mentioning and bodies worth looking at and jokes worth telling. I didn't have any of that.

  I didn't care that Logan knew that, either. I'd shown him my snappy side, my irritated side, my wordy side, and he'd still wanted to see me again. Or at least, he'd wanted to get me to quiz him about his life. Which was fine by me. I didn't mind getting to know more about him. In fact, I wanted it.

  Joanne stopped in front of the library at four on the dot and I was ready to go. I'd begged off from Alicia and made sure Will was in there to take my place so she had no reason to argue with me. Will was the type of guy who looked like he was always high and he was fine with anything as long as he didn't have to think about it.

  "What do you have in mind?" she asked the moment I was in the car. "Where is he taking you?"

  I shook my head and put on my seatbelt. "I have no idea. That's why I need your help."

  She drove us to the closest mall and we parked and got out.

  "Your best bet is a dress, I think. You can dress it up with heels and a shimmering shawl or dress it down with flats and a jacket. Hair up or down. Makeup light or dark."

  I nodded. "That sounds like it could work."

  We walked into the first store and Joanne picked out dresses for me to wear. I went into the changing rooms and came out, modeling them for her one by one. She was unhappy with most of them.

  "Come on," I said after the fifth one. "Surely I can't look bad in all of them?"

  Joanne shook her head. "You look great. I'm trying to decide which one will make him wonder what you look like when you're out of it."

  "Joanne! This isn't what it's about."

  She shrugged. "It never hurts to be prepared."

  I shook my head and laughed. I knew I'd decided on the right person to help me with this. We finally settled on a very slinky little black dress that was made of a thin fabric that clung to my body. It set of my blonde hair and blue eyes and when I wore it I felt like a supermodel.

  "What are you going to do with hair and makeup?" Joanne asked in the car.

  "I was thinking something smoky? And I don't know...I'll leave my hair down because I wear it up all the time at work. That's all he's seen."

  Joanne stopped in front of my apartment so I could go up and get ready. I'd told her how it had come about that we were going on a date.

  "You know, there are other ways to create a character for a book. You don't have to sleep with them to write about them."

  I blushed and nudged her. "I'm not planning on sleeping with him. Remember? This is about just getting to know him."

  "Right. The DVDs. You just keep telling yourself that."

  I rolled my eyes at her, smiled and leaned over to hug her. I got the bag with my new dress and matching shoes out of the foot well and closed the car door behind me. I waved at Joanne as she pulled off and went inside to get ready.

  I showered and shaved. Everything. I knew I'd told Joanne I wasn't planning on having sex with him, but if it came down to it I wasn't so sure I would say no, and I wanted to know that I felt up to it - beautiful and well groomed - if it did come down to it. It never hurt to be prepared.

  I blow dried my hair and ran a brush through it until it gleamed like silk. Some hair spray and gel wax on the tips and it looked a little messy and wild, just the way I liked it. It looked like I'd been up to no good and hadn't bothered to fix my hair afterward. It looked sexy, even if I had to say so myself.

  I decided against stockings because my legs were so smooth I loved touching it myself, even, and I pulled on the dress. When I looked in the mirror it looked even better than it had in the shop. What was up with dressing room mirrors? If they tinted the mirrors a little and changed the lighting so it didn't show every blemish and flaw, I would be a lot more inclined to buy more clothes. I would feel better about my body when I walked out there and I wouldn't feel like it was a waste of my time and money.

  When I was in my dress, I put on makeup. A smoky eye and a very red lip. I looked in the mirror. I was nervous the red lips would make me look like a hooker but it didn't. In fact, it looked really nice.

  I was really excited to see Logan. I wanted to tell myself to calm down, to let it go and take the evening as it came. I didn't want to blow it up too much and then by the time I got there I was disappointed. The fact was, though, I was more excited about just spending time with Logan than I'd been about sleeping with any of the guys in my past. That was saying something. He was already so far in.

  "Just take it slow, though," I told myself in the mirror. I barely knew the guy. It didn't have to go very fast. It didn't have to go fast at all. It would be better for me to take the time to get to know him.

  But that was what this evening was all about, right? To find out about the DVDs. Why would a biker like him - someone who looked like he would be more comfortable in a fist fight than in a nursery - take out five children's DVDs and keep them that long? Did he have children?

  God, I hoped not. Of course, I didn't doubt he'd been with a lot of women. With his charm and Alicia's eagerness to please him as a small taste of what this man was all about, I was pretty sure he'd slept with
hundreds of women. There was a very real possibility that he'd misplaced a child or two.

  Still, that would be disappointing, something that detracted from how sexy he was. I loved children, but I didn't want to get involved with someone who had a couple of them. I was only twenty-four. I didn't need that kind of drama.

  What else could it be? Maybe he was a bleeding heart, the type who volunteered at children's homes and kept them busy with DVDs. Or maybe he was part of the Big Brothers of America where people fostered a kid for a day a week or something like that.

  I shook my head at myself, finishing up. I glanced at the clock. He would arrive in a couple of minutes. I was looking for all sorts of answers, the clue to all sorts of mysteries, but the best idea would be to ask him straight up and have him answer me. If, of course, he wasn't going to use the information against me again and ask for another date. Which, of course, I wouldn't be able to refuse, because it was him.