Fear the Beard (The Dixie Warden Rejects MC Book 2)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  He grimaced.

  “That’s the extortion I was talking about,” he murmured. “The videos that Aaron was able to locate showed a near knock-down, drag-out fight between Martin and Hadley in the lobby after hours. She threw something at him, photos of some sort that the camera angle couldn’t pick up, and Martin immediately acquiesced to her demands.”

  “And what were those demands?”

  I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know, but I was hoping that my ex-best friend wasn’t all bad.

  I was wrong, though, which I found out in the next moment.

  “She wanted him to expel you for having a relationship with me,” he continued. “There was more to it than that, but you don’t need to know the details.”

  I studied his face, wary at what he would say, and nodded my head once. “Okay.”

  If he said I didn’t need to know, then I would trust him on that.

  And it felt good, having someone to trust. It was an amazing feeling, one that I didn’t think I’d ever had in Russell.

  Speaking of Russell.

  “I got a call today from my ex,” I murmured, lifting my arm to absently pet his chest.

  He instantly stiffened at the mention of my ex, who he clearly had a dislike of.

  “And?” he said shortly.

  “He was backing off. His wife was under the assumption that I was going to force the child support issue, which I assured him I was not, and she said as long as I stay on ‘my side of the tracks’ that he wouldn’t pursue any extra time with Tallulah.”

  Tommy growled.

  “I don’t understand that,” he admitted. “The man has a perfect daughter, and he wants nothing to do with her,” he sighed. “I’ve known her for a short portion of her life, and she’s always in my thoughts. I see something at the damn store, when I’m there to shop for myself, and I leave with all kinds of shit for her and nothing that I even went there to get.”

  I grinned.

  “That sounds like something a parent would do,” I admitted to him, a laugh filtering out of my voice.

  He gave me a strange look.

  “If you offered that up to me, I’d take it in a heartbeat,” he told me softly, lifting his hand up and wrapping it around my head.

  He pulled me into his chest, and I went willingly, his masculine scent surrounding me as I breathed it in.

  Someone knocked on the door. I moved out of his arms to allow him to go answer it, and was unsurprised when he opened it and found his club members on the other side.

  With beer in hand.

  “Knew she would be here,” Big Papa murmured as he pushed his way through. “Brought you a couple of virgins.”

  I waved two fingers at him.

  “I’m twenty-one, now,” I told him. “No virgins for this girl.”

  Tommy turned to me, his mouth gaping.

  “When did you turn twenty-one?”

  I scrunched up my nose. “Yesterday.”

  When he was in jail went unsaid.

  “Shit,” he growled. “I’ll make it up to you.”

  I smiled.

  I knew he would.

  ***

  And he did, four hours later, as he slid deep inside of me.

  I was already limp noodles by that point, though.

  Four orgasms would do that to a woman.

  “I can’t,” I shook my head as he pushed into me roughly. “I’m freakin’ dead.”

  “One more,” he growled, squeezing the meat of my ass with both hands. “Pull your knees to your chest.”

  I did, surprised that I was even able to control any of my extremities enough to make that happen.

  The moment my knees touched my chest, he pulled his hard, thick cock all the way out, and then thrust back inside.

  “Fuck you feel so good.”

  “Yes,” I breathed, eyes closing. “You feel good, too.”

  He growled and grabbed my feet in both hands, pushing my knees further into the bed and tilting my pelvis in the process. “And your pussy looks so good taking my cock.”

  My eyes slowly opened, and I looked down to where we were joined.

  “It does,” I confirmed, looking at where we were connected.

  It looked almost painful, how wide I was stretched for him.

  His cock looked angry as it invaded me with hard, brutal thrusts.

  And when he pulled back completely to allow the head of his cock to rest at the brink of my entrance, I gasped.

  He was glistening with my juices, and my pussy fluttered open and closed as it begged silently for him to slide back inside.

  “Tommy,” I gasped. “Please.”

  I couldn’t make myself look away from the sight.

  Not when he placed himself back inside me.

  Not when he pulled back out. Again and again. Over and over until I thought I’d go crazy.

  And not even two minutes later, when he pulled out one final time to come.

  I bit my lip as I watched his hard cock twitch, hot splashes of come landing on the lips of my pussy and pubic hair.

  “Jesus Christ, watching you watch me is one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen,” he rumbled low in his throat.

  I agreed. Watching him was one of the sexiest things I’d ever seen, too.

  Chapter 24

  Some things are better left unsaid, which I generally realize after I’ve said them.

  -Fact of Life

  Tommy

  “Sir,” I held out my hand.

  Judge Slater took me in, studied every single detail about me, and returned the handshake.

  “I don’t like you, you know,” he murmured darkly, dropping my hand.

  Tallulah, who’d been in his other arm, lunged for me, and I instinctively caught her.

  “I know,” I confirmed his dislike.

  He watched me bring Tallulah up against my chest, and narrowed his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, for what it’s worth.”

  He sighed and gestured to the seat that I still hadn’t taken.

  Once I sat, he followed suit, and he studied me for a few long moments.

  “Your parents and I worked closely to find you something that would benefit you. Not just get you out of my hair.”

  I snorted.

  “I hated everyone and everything for a few short years, and I took that out on the wrong person,” I admitted. “I should’ve never gotten that out of control, I could’ve hurt someone,” I cleared my throat.

  We paused in our discussion to allow the waitress to take our order, and didn’t pick back up again until she’d delivered our drinks.

  “I dropped the restraining order a while ago,” he told me.

  “I know that,” I told him. “Though, I half expected you to call the cops on me the moment I stepped foot inside.”

  Judge Slater started to chuckle.

  “It was seeing you with Tallulah that changed my mind. That day in the driveway,” he blew out a breath. “Never seen her like that, not even with her father. She only likes my wife, me, and Tally. Seeing you holding her…I knew.”

  “You knew what?” I asked.

  “That you were going to take her from me.”

  I blinked.

  “I won’t…” I started to say, but he held up a hand.

  “She’ll no longer be mine. She’ll be yours and mine, and I’m okay with that.”

  I looked down at the baby in my arms, Tallulah’s fat, chubby thighs the focus of my attention for a few long seconds while I composed myself.

  “I know I’m not good enough for your daughter.”

  He waited until I returned my attention to him before he said what he had to say next.

  And it was a damn good thing I was in the middle of a crowded restaurant, or I damn well might’ve broken down and sobbed like a fifteen-year-old girl.

  “One day, when Tallulah finds a boy, I hope that you feel the same way I’m feeling right no
w.”

  I look at him sharply.

  “And when that day comes, I want you to come back to me and bring me a beer, because you will finally know how it feels to let a piece of your heart walk away with some man that doesn’t deserve her.”

  I laughed, bringing the attention of many of the restaurant's patrons our way.

  “So, is that a yes?” I asked, knowing he knew what I was getting at.

  “That’s a yes,” he confirmed. “But if you break her heart, I’ll find every way possible to ruin you, even if I have to ruin my career to do it.”

  Like father like daughter.

  ***

  Life was good.

  I had my job. And now, so did Tally.

  I waited on my bike as she came out of the store where she worked, a big smile on her beautiful face.

  “I did it!” she squealed jumping up and down like Tigger on her way to me.

  I knew.

  I’d found out at the same time she did thanks to her applying at the hospital, as well as my clinic. The moment she passed the exam, I was informed, hence the reason I was on my bike in front of her father’s house.

  Two weeks ago, I’d watched her walk across the stage, pride swelled deep in my chest.

  Today, she was in my arms, officially a registered nurse with a bachelor’s degree.

  “Now what?” she asked breathlessly the moment she jumped into my arms.

  “Now we get married,” I declared, pushing her back from me so I could get off my bike.

  Her eyes widened.

  “What?” she gasped, her hands going to her mouth.

  I pulled out the ring as I dropped down to a knee in front of her.

  “I asked your dad’s permission, and he said yes,” I smiled.

  She held out her shaking hand, her fingertips barely grazing the top of the ring before she pulled back.

  When she looked up at me next, her eyes were brimming with tears.

  “It’s beautiful.”

  “Woo!”

  I turned to find the men of my club at my back. Everyone was there but Aaron, who was busy working to protect our sleepy little town.

  A sleepy, nosy town…some of which were out on their front porches watching the spectacle.

  “Are you going to say yes?”

  That was said over a bullhorn, and I started to laugh.

  Ok, so Aaron hadn’t missed it after all.

  He was just in his police cruiser at the end of the street…blocking traffic.

  “Jesus Christ,” I laughed, turning my face back to her. “Put these boys out of their misery…answer yes or no already.”

  She opened her mouth to answer, but a deafening crash had everyone looking toward the top of the road where Aaron’s cruiser had been sitting only moments before.

  Now it was tossed carelessly to the side, scrunched in where the other car had hit it when it barreled straight through him without stopping after they’d hit a police officer.

  The car that’d hit Aaron was barreling straight toward a tree, which it hit not a second later with a loud boom.

  The car hit the tree with such force that the tree shook.

  It was one of those humongous pines that grew to be a couple hundred feet tall, and the impact had rocked it.

  Luckily, it didn’t fall.

  “What the fuck?” Sean growled, taking off down the road at a run. “Call 911.”

  My heart started to hammer as I reached for my phone before remembered I didn’t have it.

  I didn’t need it. I could already see half the neighbors on their phones.

  I dropped Tally’s hand and got to my feet, tucking the velvet box into her grasp before I ordered her to go back into the store and lock the doors.

  “Go inside,” I ordered. “Don’t come out until me or one of the boys come for you.”

  Something was wrong.

  There wasn’t that much traffic on this road.

  Someone wouldn’t need to hit a police officer to get in here. If they’d actually wanted in, Aaron would’ve moved. A police vehicle with its lights on, clearly blocking the road—even if it had been for something like a proposal—was so obvious that there was no way the driver could have missed it, so this couldn’t have been an accident.

  “Okay,” she murmured, walking backwards toward the store. “Hurry.”

  I did, not stopping to see if she made it inside, which was almost my undoing.

  ***

  Four minutes later, I was waving the ambulance in.

  “You’re going to the hospital,” I ordered. “Even if it’s just to get checked. Don’t argue.”

  Aaron lifted his lip into a silent snarl. “Fuck you, and fuck off.”

  Grinning, I jogged back to the convenience store, stopping to pick my phone up from my bike’s cup holder before I headed to the store’s side door, which happened to be closer to my bike.

  What saved me was that I knew the code to get in.

  Seeing Tally use it once had seared it into my brain.

  Had I knocked, I would’ve announced my arrival, and I wouldn’t have gotten there in time.

  As it was, I pushed the door open just in time to see Hadley’s finger tightening on the trigger of a shotgun. A shotgun that was aimed straight at Tally’s beautiful face.

  I didn’t think. Didn’t do anything but react.

  I tackled her like a linebacker, taking her down to the ground and immediately turning and straddling her back.

  The gun clunked loudly to the floor, and Tally gasped, lurching forward to grab it from where it’d fallen, backing away until she was behind the counter where she could reach the phone.

  “Are you fucking crazy?” I bellowed at Hadley, pushing the woman harder into the ground.

  Being a doctor had given me plenty of experience restraining combative patients.

  I’d never, not once, wanted to beat the hell out of a woman…but, apparently, there was a first for everything.

  “Stay still.” I snapped, pushing harder to control her frantic movements.

  She had to be on drugs or something. Her pupils were dilated, and pairing that with the strength of combativeness, there was no way she wasn’t.

  “She’s the one who caused the wreck up there,” Tally said just as the front door opened and Sean, Aaron—who obviously wasn’t in the ambulance on his way to the hospital to get checked out like I told him to do—Big Papa, Ghost, and Truth walked through the door. “Saw her running but she disappeared into the woods. I recognized the clothes and that hair, though.”

  They all stopped just inside the door, looking at the crazy lady that I was struggling to keep on the ground, to the gun in Tally’s hand, and back again.

  “Could one of you get your thumb out of your ass and come help me,” I gritted through clenched teeth.

  Big Papa came, pulling a set of handcuffs out of his pocket as he did.

  The moment he was within reaching distance, Hadley lunged at him, nearly dislodging me from her back.

  “You ruined my life!” Hadley shrieked. “I was so close!”

  I grunted and dropped the top of my body against hers, too.

  She turned her head and tried to bite me, but Big Papa placed one huge hand on her face and pushed her down to the ground so she couldn’t.

  “Fuckin’ nuts,” someone commented. “Is she foaming at the mouth?”

  I growled and grunted as I continued to hold her down, and was thankful to see the paramedics arrive—with a fucking syringe of what I hoped was Narcan—a medication that stop the effects of the drugs that were so obviously in her system, erasing her high and making her human again all in one fell swoop.

  Luck was on my side.

  And score one for me, I wasn’t bitten!

  “Did anyone ever hear a yes or a no?” Truth asked as he pushed away from the wall where he was slumped. “Tally, did you say yes?”

  I got up off my knees, lettin
g the paramedics have her.

  “Don’t let her get those cuffs off,” I ordered. “Leave your gurney at the hospital if you have to and make sure that she has a police escort at all times.”

  Anson, a seasoned medic who knew what he was doing, gave me a salute. “10-4, Doc.”

  I grimaced and walked to the counter, leaning on it with both elbows, and stared at Tally.

  “You need new friends,” I moaned.

  She snickered, “Well I guess it’s a good thing that I have a fiancé now, and he comes with great friends.”

  I looked over at the boys at my back, and nodded my head. “Yeah, you do, and he sure does.”

  ***

  “Don’t get close to her. Don’t feel sorry for her. Don’t fall for her bullshit,” I ordered Tally, hitching Tallulah up onto my arm. “She’s not going to get out of here, and she tried to kill a police officer and you today. She’s not going anywhere, even if you do feel like you should drop all the charges against her.”

  “You don’t know me that well,” she challenged.

  I opened the door to the interrogation room, where I’d asked Big Papa nicely to put her so Tally could get the answers to her questions.

  He’d complied, but only reluctantly.

  Apparently, she was still in a very nasty mood. However, Tally didn’t care. She wanted to know why her friend did the things she did.

  What had happened.

  “Ohh,” Tally breathed.

  “Remember what I said,” I ordered her lowly.

  Not low enough, though, because Hadley heard us and lifted her head from where she’d been staring at the metal table in front of her. Her eyes were wild, and the moment they narrowed on the three of us, her face darkened.

  “I’ll be right out here. She’s chained to the table at hands and feet, but still, don’t get close to her,” I repeated again.

  She rolled her eyes and walked inside, closing the door behind her as she went.

  I walked down the hallway, my heart in my throat, and went inside the viewing room that held the monitoring equipment that would allow me to listen to their conversation along with the two-way mirror that would allow me to watch them.