by Ryan Michele
Bosco, Spook, Boner, and I rose from our seats as Xander and Hooch helped an older woman with gray, curly hair; a wrinkled face, and the same blue eyes as Chelsea and her mother into the room. Xander lifted his chin to me, and I did the same.
“Ms. Miller?” Spook asked, moving closer to the two women.
“Yes. Again, where is my daughter?” she repeated, not intimidated by the six-feet man in the least.
“Your daughter is here.” I motioned for my brother to go and get her from her room. Damn, I loved having him prospecting for the club. “I’m Stiff, ma’am.”
Her anger turned to me, one hand on hip, the other clutching a purse on her shoulder, reminding me so much of her daughter.
“Yes, young man, I know who you are. Know who all you boys are. What I don’t know is why my daughter is with you.”
“Oh, hush, Jannie,” the older woman scolded. “You haven’t givin’ them a chance to talk.” She looked at me. “Need a chair, son.”
“Of course.”
Hooch still had ahold of her as I moved to a table, pulling out a chair for her. She moved well but had a slight wobble at times. I grasped her other arm and helped her into the chair, and she set her bag on the table.
“Sit,” she ordered, and I looked at Spook then sat.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Mother,” Jannie called in warning, walking from the door.
“Now you stop that. I’d like to hear what this nice young man has to say.”
Chuckles were heard from the guys because someone describing me as a nice young man had never been done in my life.
“Yeah, you nice young man,” Bosco chided.
“None of that,” the older woman commanded, and the laughter died. The woman was damn tough, especially if Bosco listened and toned it down. He was not an easy man to order. “You can call me Bee. None of that miss or missus stuff. Makes me feel old.”
I chuckled at that. I could see where Chelsea got her determination, drive, and stubbornness, not to mention her humor.
“Bee, Chelsea’ll be out here in a minute. It’s best she—”
“Grams! Mom!” Chelsea yelled from behind me as she ran up and tackled her mother in a hug then gave her grandmother a soft kiss on the cheek. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Now explain to me why that is,” Jannie responded, sounding about ready to lose her shit.
“Sit here.” Chelsea grabbed the chair next to me as her mother took the one on the other side, Bee across from me. My brothers stood around us.
While Jannie looked expectantly at her daughter, Bee took in the men around her, and then her lips pursed.
“Something is very wrong here. These men are in guard dog mode, and I know we pose no threat, so who does?” Bee questioned, looking between Chelsea and me.
Chelsea began to speak, but all that came out was a garbled sound.
I moved my chair over next to hers, put my arm around the back of it, and placed my hand on her shoulder. Her body tensed then relaxed.
Bee’s eyes narrowed, and I smiled.
“Last night, my brothers and I went to Charlie’s.”
Chelsea turned to glare at me, giving me the shut the hell up look. I stopped for a moment, giving her a chance to start. When she didn’t, I did.
“We—”
“Last night, Jenn showed up at the diner.” Then Chelsea let it all out in one giant rush, her back ramrod straight.
Jannie and Bee’s faces turned stoic. I swore a fucking pin dropping could have been heard for the briefest of moments. That was, of course, until Jannie rose from her chair so forcefully it crashed to the ground.
The guys all came to attention quickly as Chelsea stood up, going to her mom. She wrapped Jannie in her arms, who was vibrating with such anger she had a high probability of exploding.
“Mom, calm, please.”
“I will not calm. Do not ask that of me, Chelsea Anne Miller! First, I wanna see Jennifer. Then I will find your father and kill him my damn self!” Jannie raged as Chelsea tried rocking her back and forth to comfort her. It didn’t work. Jannie was too far gone on the rage meter, and I couldn’t blame her a bit.
“Mom, you can’t go in and see Jenn like this. She’s bad, really bad.” At these words, the angry fire left Jannie’s eyes, and motherly concern took its place.
“Why would they do this to her? I get it’s your father, but why her? She’s never done a damn thing wrong ever in her life. Hell, she doesn’t even have a speeding ticket. Why her?” A lone tear fell from Jannie’s face, which she batted away instantly, wrapping her arms around Chelsea and hugging her back.
“Because he’s a dick, Mom. Always has been. There’s no rhyme or reason why assholes are the way they are.”
“We need a plan,” Jannie determined.
“Ma’am,” I offered, stepping in. “We’re gonna keep you all protected. For now, we need Chelsea and Jenn to stay here at the clubhouse since they were the ones threatened. You and Bee can go back to your home, but we’ll have two guys on you at all times, one for each of you.”
Chelsea’s face turned red as her mother pulled away from her. “I told you we weren’t staying here,” she ground out.
“And I told you it’s the best way to keep you and your sister safe. Needles can help Jenn here, not—”
“Needles? Who is that?” Bee asked.
“He’s the doctor who took care of Jenn when we brought her here. It’ll be best for all of us this way, ma’am.”
Bee nodded. “I’m fine with that. But whoever comes to my home better have manners and not gripe about my stories.”
I chuckled. Damn, I liked this woman. “No problem, ma’am.”
“Grams, I—”
Bee held her hand up. “You’ve taken care of everyone in this family for years. Yes, Millers don’t give up. We stand on our own two feet and rise to the top. But, my dear, this is a situation where I don’t think we have the resources to fight. Therefore, we accept their help with a huge thank you and move on. If they find your father, I’m sure they’ll let you talk to him.” Bee eyed me, and I got the meaning behind her words.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Done,” Bee proclaimed. “Now, I’d like to see my granddaughter.”
I went to help her, but Boner got there first, extending his arm. “Hello, Bee. I’m Boner.”
Bee’s face reddened. “You’re kidding me.”
“Not one bit.”
She shook her head as she took Boner’s hand. “Back in my day, we didn’t have such sexual names.” She turned toward me. “Don’t think I don’t know why they call you Stiff.”
I burst out laughing.
THAT ARROGANT, NO-GOOD—
“Chelsea, stop your stewing,” Grams ordered, walking slowly down the hall with me behind her. How she knew what I was thinking, I didn’t know. Grandmother radar maybe. “Look at the bigger picture here. Whoever is after your worthless father is bigger than we can handle. Getting help is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength to accept it when you need it.”
The damn woman and her wise words.
Sighing, I conceded my fate. I would be staying here with a group of badass bikers. What could possibly go wrong?
As we entered Jenn’s room, the shit hit the ever-loving fan literally when a lamp smashed into a pedestal fan at the side of the room, clattering and clanging hard to the floor.
Jenn jumped, and I went after Mom. “What are you doing? Stop it!” I tried for quiet and stern, but I knew I fell short on the mark because of my anger over her not letting Jenn recover in peace.
“I can’t believe those assholes did this to her!” Mom screeched as the door opened and boot steps flooded in. Great.
I ignored it, giving my full attention to my temperamental mother as I took in a cleansing breath.
“Mom, you have to knock it off and calm down. Yes, I’m pissed, too. Yes, I wanna cut off their balls and shove them up their asses. Yes, Jenn didn’t deserve t
his. But, Mom, you can’t be going off all halfcocked in attack mode.”
Mom shook her head. “The hell I can’t be in whatever mode I want. I’m her mother, and they hurt my baby!”
“Jannie, that’s enough,” Grams said, moving over to sit on the edge of the bed with Jenn. Tears spilled down my sister’s face. “Hush there, young’un. You’re gonna be just fine.”
Jenn’s tears fell harder, and again, I wanted to take that pain away from her.
I turned toward Mom. “Calm your shit,” I demanded, low and stern. “She’s been through enough and doesn’t need you making this worse.”
The starch began to seep out of my mother’s spine as her face softened. I knew she was about to cry. We Millers were strong, but when one of us hurt, we all hurt. We all wanted to fix it, take it away. That was who we were, who my grandmother raised my mother to be, and who my mother raised us girls to be.
“Stiff and the guys got the two men who hurt Jenn,” I whispered in her ear. “They took care of them. I don’t know how, but I did notice cuts on Stiff’s hands along with Boner’s. Xander told me that Stiff would take care of it, and I have no reason not to trust that he didn’t.”
If I could, I would have knocked myself on the damn head. I was defending that man to my mother now. The sad part was that it was all true, and I couldn’t knock that. As much as I hated it, score one for Stiff.
“I know. I’ll calm.” Mom let out a deep breath. “I just can’t believe this is happening.”
Heat hit my back, my body instantly coming alive. It could only be one man.
I inhaled deep recognizing Stiff’s scent, and pulled slightly back from my mom.
“Ma’am, after you and Chelsea get done seeing Jenn, we’d like to ask you a couple of questions about her father.”
Mom rolled her eyes. “Don’t know much, but I’ll answer what I can.”
“Thank you, ma’am. We’ll give you a bit then come get you,” Stiff said.
Not once did I look back at him, but the loss of his heat … I hated that.
WE SAT IN A VERY organized office with wood-paneled walls and some type of deep brown carpet that looked to be twenty years old. Spook sat behind a monstrous desk while Mom and I took the chairs in front of him. Stiff leaned against the wall, his arms crossed.
The aura of the room presented dominance, but fear was kept at bay. If anything, I felt calm. Mom, on the other hand, had pulled herself together enough to be with my sister, but as soon as we’d set foot in this room, her body began vibrating with anger once again.
Gary Reese, my father, hadn’t been good to my mother, and I felt bad for her because I knew she still loved him. I didn’t know how or why, but she did. I’d caught her looking through old pictures longingly a couple of times. However, if I were a gambler, which I was not since I worked too damn hard for my money, I would bet it was the life they used to have that she missed the most.
When I was five or six, I remember game nights and even pizza nights where we would all be together as a family. Jenn had been little and would always screw up the game. Then I would get mad, and both Mom and Dad would have to soothe us. A few years after was when the change happened.
I looked back now and remembered my father passed out on the couch. I remembered shaking him and shaking him, but he would never wake up. Mom would tell me he was in a deep sleep. I knew now that he had been hopped-up on drugs.
The drugs tore us apart. Either that or his inability or care to ditch them.
My mother and father never married. They’d been together in all the ways possible, and I knew my mother loved him. They’d just never taken the leap, including my sister and me having my mom’s last name instead of my father’s. It was different, but it was something my mother had wanted, and it was what had been done.
“Have you spoken to Gary recently?” Spook asked, looking at my mother.
“No. Haven’t heard from him since a couple of years after he stole from Chelsea.”
“Stole?” Spook asked, and for some strange reason, I felt compelled to look over at Stiff, who nodded at me. I turned back to Spook.
“Credit card theft when I was a kid. He took out cards in my name and racked up the balances.”
“Asshole bought expensive stuff, pawned it, and took the cash to buy drugs,” Mom growled.
“True. Cops found items from the card statements at pawn shops across the state.” My gut twisted at reliving my father’s betrayal, but I powered on. “He went to jail for a short time, got out, and we haven’t heard from him since.”
“How long ago was that?” Stiff asked.
“When I was about twenty, so about ten years ago.” Wow, that number hit me in the chest like a sharp knife. I hadn’t heard from him for almost ten years. That shouldn’t hurt, and I should be grateful, but he was still my dad. Even if he was messed up, part of me always wanted him to be there for me. It was a pipe dream, though.
“It’s been about eight for me. He came around after he got out, apologizing.”
My mother’s words surprised me. She patted my hand, obviously feeling my growing tension.
“His family wanted nothin’ to do with him, and I didn’t need him around, messing up my kids’ lives any more than he already had. I kicked him out and haven’t heard from him again.”
“Either of you know where he may be?” Spook asked.
I shook my head, but Mom spoke.
“The only place I can think of is his friend Patrick Samuelsson’s. Last I knew, Pat lived out in Lake of the Woods in Petersburg, Kentucky, but with all of this so close, something tells me he’s much closer to us.”
“Agreed.” Spook’s eyes penetrated, looking between my mother and me. “Gary has gotten in bed with a powerful man in the drug business. We know he owes him money, but my guess is he’s selling for him, too, because that’s usually what happens in this situation. Either way, he’s hiding in the shadows from this man, and he’ll sniff him out sooner or later and take his hide, even if that means coming after the four of you. That’s why we made these arrangements.”
“Shouldn’t Mom and Grams stay here, too?” I asked.
“Thought of that, but the guys on them will keep them safe. And something tells me Bee wouldn’t be too kind about leaving her place.”
Mom chuckled. “True. She’d do it for the girls, but she loves her house. Been there for fifty plus years.”
“We’re on the lookout for Gary and also the guy behind all of this. Needles will take care of Jenn, and Stiff here”—Spook nodded to the big man— “will take care of Chelsea.”
My eyes narrowed, and Spook chuckled, not saying a word.
“I—”
My mother squeezed my hand so hard it caught my attention, and I turned to her.
“Let it go,” she said, and I closed my eyes, finding the calm within.
“Fine.”
“Fine,” Spook returned. “Once your visit is done, Jannie, my guys will follow you back to the house.”
“Thanks.”
“IS THIS WHERE we’re gonna stay? Because I need to run by my place and get a few things.” As I gestured around the wood-paneled room, the question was aimed at Stiff who’d followed me back after saying good-bye to my mom and Grams.
Jenn still lay there, sound asleep, no doubt the visit from them wearing her out. Hell, I felt a bit wrung out, but I powered through.
“No. You’ll be stayin’ in my house.”
The room momentarily spun, and when I looked at Stiff, I swore he’d grown horns and was laughing at me like some cartoon devil.
“I agreed to staying here, not staying with you.”
Stiff shook his head. “Damn, woman, you’re stubborn.”
He stepped toward me, and I stepped back. Each movement he made, I countered it, but inside, my pulse began to pick up. I felt like I was a lamb, and Stiff was the big panther, stalking his prey. While I knew I shouldn’t want to be the prey since I had no time for it, my body had other thoughts,
tingling in places that should stay dormant.
When I sidestepped him, he was too fast and caught me around the waist, pulling my back flush to his front. I inhaled, which was a mistake. It did nothing to calm my libido that decided to go into hyperdrive. The air seemed to have compressed, exerting every bit of its force on Stiff and me.
I struggled, but he held me fast, his other arm coming around my chest and holding me to his rock hard one.
“What are you doing?” I tried for annoyed, but it came out breathy and wanton—hell, even needy. How long had it been since I’d had an orgasm that wasn’t self-induced? So damn long I couldn’t remember it.
His lips touched my ear, and I jerked. Not from pain, but from the pleasure his hot breath elicited. My thighs tingled in a way that sent sparks to my core.
“Showin’ you why you’re stayin’ with me.” He darted his tongue out and licked the shell of my ear, and my body almost liquefied from the touch. My knees felt a bit wobbly, but I held strong.
“How are you gonna do that?” I whispered, waiting for my brain to kick in at any given moment.
He nibbled on the lobe of my ear then moved to the spot right behind it. Pleasure shot up my spine as sparks cascaded over my skin. As he suckled that spot, my knees really did give, but he held me securely to him, not letting me fall.
He used his tongue to trace my neck to my collarbone, sucking and nipping the entire time.
“Because, with you close, I can watch you. Protect you.”
My brain had a small spark. “Why? It’s not your responsibility.”
His grip tightened, and his lips came back to my ear. “I’m makin’ it my responsibility. I’m makin’ it my problem to solve.”
My head lulled back against his shoulder. “Why?”
“Woman, you’re fuckin’ lucky I find this sassy, stubborn mouth of yours sexy.” He moved to my cheek, giving me a slight kiss there, and my brain engaged.
