by April Lust
“No. I mean, she’s not doing bad now, finally met a guy worth her time, but she wasn’t exactly on her feet for most of my life.” I never blamed my mom for our circumstances growing up. Mom may have settled down with the wrong guys, but it wasn’t because she didn’t care about me. She didn’t think she was worth anything better. She didn’t think that way anymore. Not since meeting Frank.
“She with someone again?” He stopped kissing me and wiped a strand of hair from my face. “We haven’t really talked about her. I mean, I knew her ex was long gone, but I didn’t know what happened after that.”
I wrinkled my brow and pulled back from him. “How’d you know she broke it off with him?”
He sighed, looking at me a long minute as though he was thinking through a big decision. “Do you really think I would leave you all alone while I was in juvie? I had eyes on you almost every minute of the day. School was easy, but it took some doing to get the guys to drive past the house at night. It got a little trickier between school ending and me getting out. Once I was free and clear, it got easier to pop by and make sure your ass was safe. When your ma finally got rid of that asshole and you got into college, I backed off. You moved out, then I lost track of you, and by then I decided to leave you on your own.” His eyes darkened while his fingers trailed down my arm. “Worse decision I ever made. If I hadn’t done that, you wouldn’t have met up with Colton, and you sure as hell wouldn’t have been slinging drugs for that Tanner fuck.”
I let what he said sink in. He’d been keeping tabs on me the whole time? “You stalked me?”
He grunted. “I watched you, over you, made sure you were safe.”
“So…the guy senior year. The one who asked me to prom on a dare…he ended up taking me, and even brought me flowers that night. Begged me to forgive him. Your friends did that?”
His jaw tensed. “That fucker was lucky I didn’t let the guys beat him fucking senseless. Matthew wanted to put his fist through his face when he’d seen the little display in the hallway. He never would have pulled that shit if I’d been there.”
“I could have handled it on my own. I did handle it on my own.”
“Yeah, you ignored it. Like you always did.”
“There wasn’t a point to fighting. Those idiots would have just kept it up. If I showed them how much it hurt, how humiliated I was, it would have only fueled their enjoyment. James only wanted to impress Dianna, that little princess prom queen. Not sure why she hated me so much, but she gunned for me all of senior year.”
“She had a thing for me.” He gave me a grin that spoke to his male ego. “Got pissed when I wasn’t interested in her—’cause I obviously had a thing for you.”
“We were friends.”
He laughed. “Woman, never were you and I just friends—and you know it.”
I did. The bond we held back then only strengthened with time, even with us apart. “Still, you didn’t need to send your boys after James like some thug. I only went to the prom with him after that because he begged, like his life was dependent on it.”
He laughed. “It sort of was…as far as he knew it.”
“Michael!” I hit his shoulder, but it was more of a tap against his strong muscles.
“I hated the idea of you going with someone else, but I wasn’t there to take you, and I knew James would be a fucking gentleman after that.” He leaned back on the pillows, staring up at the ceiling. “You were never alone, Lauren. And you won’t be ever again. I know I gave you the impression I’m gonna bail after this is all over, but I’m not. I’m not going anywhere.”
He meant it. I could see the sincerity in his eyes, in the way his jaw relaxed. Tired from all the talking, and the energy used up from his intense lovemaking, I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said again, gripping me tighter to him, holding onto me as though it would be me slipping out of his grasp.
“I know, Michael. I’m not either.”
***
Walking into the coffee house near school shouldn’t have made my stomach so fluttery. Had it been any other day, it probably wouldn’t have, but Michael and I were meeting Tanner. Michael’s reaction to Tanner hadn’t been as warm as I hoped, but I understood him. Michael saw anything putting me in danger as a failure. The prank James pulled on me senior year had been Michael’s fault, according to him, because he hadn’t been there to stop him. Tanner’s part in my attack over a year ago was a failure on Tanner’s part, but if I knew Michael, he held on to some of that guilt, too.
I wondered if either of them had ever stopped to consider that the responsibility for my life belonged to me, and not to either of them. By the glare on Michael’s face the moment we caught up with Tanner at a corner booth, I would guess not.
“Michael, this is Tan—”
“Right. Sit. I’ll get you a coffee.” He pulled out the chair for me and once I was seated he headed over to the counter to order our drinks.
I couldn’t hold the smile over watching the large, muscular, and tatted Michael standing at the cashier ordering me a latte. The young girl behind the counter took the order with wide eyes. I knew that feeling. Michael’s presence was often overwhelming and usually a bit intimidating.
“Your boyfriend seems a little pissed off, and I haven’t even said hi yet.” Tanner nudged me with his fist.
I looked over at him, he’d given up The Matrix look and went casual. Just a plain t-shirt and jeans, it had to have been the most normal I’d ever seen him dressed. Both arms were riddled with tattooed phrases and words. I probably could spend most of the afternoon reading them and not get halfway done.
“I told him everything, Tanner. He can be a little intense.” I gave him a soft smile.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Everything? Well, why aren’t you standing, then? I thought he would have busted your ass from the rumors I heard about this guy, and from what you told me.”
“Shut up.” The heat in my cheeks caught me off guard, and I looked over my shoulder to get a gauge on how long Michael would be. “Wait. What’d you hear about him?”
Tanner laughed. He had a different sort of laugh. Not quite a snort, but not an all-out chuckle either. Sort of like a mixture of the two. “I did a little recon on this guy, took a look at his business and shit. While I was scoping out his garage, I met a hot little number who looked really disappointed he wasn’t in the office. You know me, I can’t let a woman walk away so upset.”
I didn’t even try to hide my eye roll. Tanner kept his hands to himself when it came to me, but other women were all free game, and he played daily. “So naturally you picked her up.” I waved a hand in the air to get the story rolling again.
He cleared his throat. “Yeah, so I offered my services. Asked if she was okay, blah, blah, blah, then she mentioned your little boy over there. Turns out she’s been fucking him off and on for a few years now.”
The news shouldn’t have surprised me, and it sure as hell shouldn’t have made my stomach twist into so man knots, but it did. “So?” I was never good at hiding my thoughts from Tanner any more than Michael.
He laughed again. “Don’t worry, your man there has made it plenty clear to her that they were just fucking. But anyway, I started asking her about him, casual like, just wanting to make sure he was as much of a standup guy you told me he was.”
I looked over my shoulder. Michael smiled at some little kid walking past him but still hadn’t gotten my drink. “And?”
He took a long breath. “And, he seems to be. I don’t know, she had more to say about the crazy shit he did in bed than anything else. Told me her mouth pissed him off a few times, and he told her if she didn’t start watching what she said, he’d spank her so she wouldn’t sit for a week.” He shook his head a little and laughed. “She didn’t believe him, so she got right up in his face and flipped him off, using a few colorful words at the same time. Let’s just say your man is as good as his word. But if he ever l
ays a fucking hand on you, I’ll cut it off.”
It was my turn to laugh. “Tanner, his hands don’t do anything I don’t want them to do. I promise.”
He eyed med quietly. “The bitch was telling me the truth, wasn’t she?”
I sensed Michael behind me. “Yes.”
“Here.” Michael slid my latte over to me and yanked out the chair beside me, throwing himself into it and crossing his arms over his chest.
“Thanks. Didn’t you want one?” I asked sweetly. These two men at on one table would be enough to drive any laid-back person to an anxiety attack. Luckily for me, after the year I’d been having, it didn’t faze me in the least.
“Coffee and sugar. No thanks. You still like the sweet shit.” He started to smile, but quickly hid it when Tanner cleared his throat. “Hey.” He nodded toward him.
Men could be complete apes. I rolled my eyes again.
“Lauren tells me you know this guy who attacked her last year when she was doing drops for you.” Michael went straight to the matter. No bushes to beat around.
“Yeah. A client.” Tanner leaned back in his seat.
“Client? That’s what you call the guy who almost raped her?” Michael’s voice rose, as well as the throbbing vein in his neck.
“I stopped him before it got that far.” Tanner leaned over the table. “Don’t start getting all fucking high and mighty with me. If she hadn’t been looking for your sorry ass, she wouldn’t have found me at all.”
“Okay.” I put my hands out in front of each of them. “Before this little chat continues, let’s get one thing straight. Lauren does what Lauren wants to do, and if Lauren gets herself into trouble, it’s no one’s fault but Lauren’s. Got it?”
Both men turned their hot gazes on me. Michael looked a little more irritated than Tanner, but neither said a word of contradiction. Michael leaned back in his chair, pulling his hands back to rest in his lap. At first. When I thought they had both cooled themselves down, his hand crept into my lap and his fingers wrapped around my thigh, digging into my skin. It was a quick pinch, over in a second, but it was full of meaning. Watch your tone.
“She wasn’t so mouthy before.” Michael muttered across the table.
Tanner leaned back and nodded while chuckling. “No, she wasn’t.”
I rolled my eyes at them both and took another sip of my coffee.
“About this…client. Do you know his name? His real name?” Michael’s phone started buzzing in his pocket but he ignored it.
“Yeah. Leonard. Daniel Leonard. Owns some garage franchise or some shit. He’s been off my clientele list after that incident, shoved him off to my competitor. Lower quality, higher price.”
Tanner hadn’t told me that before, just said I wouldn’t ever have to deal with him again.
Michael took the information Tanner gave him and folded his hands back over his chest. “Daniel? You’re sure?”
“Yeah, middle aged guy, got a kid—some asshole of a kid. Daniel bitched all the time about him not wanting to go into his business. Wanted to build skyscrapers or some shit.”
“Pierre?” I asked. I knew Pierre’s last name was Leonard, but I never heard anything about his father or family. Most of our conversations were laced with veiled threats. “Pierre’s last name is Leonard,” I said to Michael.
“I know.” Two words, and he didn’t even look at me.
How did he know? I never told him, and he didn’t seem at all surprised to find out Daniel Leonard was his father.
“That fucker is probably the one bank rolling this whole mess. Do you still have contact with him?”
Tanner shook his head. “Hell no. Once I cut off a customer, they stay cut off, or they get cut out.” He grinned over what he probably saw as his witty humor. Tanner really needed to be taken in small doses at first.
“Did he know Lauren’s name? Where she lived? Anything like that?”
“I wasn’t even living there at the time, Michael. I was still living on my own in that studio apartment. Even if he knew where I lived, he wouldn’t know now.”
“He knows.” Michael nodded. “I’d bet my bike on it.” He grabbed his phone from his back pocket when it started buzzing again and sighed. “Fuck. I gotta swing by the clubhouse. You’re off today,” he said to me as though it were his decision to make. For a split second, I wished I had at least one shift at the cleaning service to throw in his face, but I didn’t.
“You think this Leonard ass is the one gunning for our girl?” Tanner stood as Michael did, shoving his hands in his pocket.
“Not our girl. My girl.” He pulled my chair back out and held my arm as I stood.
I opened my mouth to once again inform them of my independence, but clamped it shut when he squeezed my arm. I went with yet another eye roll instead.
“Possessive son of a bitch, huh?” Tanner asked me with a grin.
“He’s a little skeptical of most people, Tanner. Don’t take it personally.”
“Are you now having a conversation about me while I’m right fucking here?” I could feel his glare on me, so there was no need to look at him.
“I guess he doesn’t like that any more than I do.” Tanner’s laugh made my grin even wider as Michael pulled me to his side.
“That’s enough of that shit. I get your point.” He swiped my latte up and held it out to me. “Finish this if you want it; you can’t take it on my bike.” Turning his attention to Tanner, he held out his hand. “Thanks for the information. If we need your help, we can count on you?”
Tanner grabbed his hand and the two men who had at one point or another saved my ass shook hands. “Don’t even have to ask. You tell me where she needs me and I’m there.”
“Thanks.” Michael linked his fingers through mine and pulled me from the coffee house before I could do little more than wave my goodbye. Tanner shook his head at me, but I could see his shoulders shaking from his chuckles as we passed by the window.
“Why are we going to the biker club?” I asked, dropping my empty coffee cup into the trash can near the parking lot.
“Need to talk my old president again. Turns out he may have somewhat of a connection to that James asshole.” He handed me my helmet as I took my place behind him on his Harley. “Just want to get a few verifications. I’d drop you off at home, but I don’t think you’d stay, and I don’t feel like chasing you down today.”
The engine roared to life before I could throw out my objection. He was right, though. I wouldn’t have just sat idly by at his house while he continued to hunt down the asshole trying to hurt me.
Chapter Twenty-One
Michael
Bikes lined up, filling the courtyard of the Predators’ clubhouse. Saturdays were busy with the members who worked off club grounds coming in to relax and shoot the shit. Women paraded around the lot by their old men who wanted to show off their goods before heading into the bar. Inside we’d find more of the same, but the women would be trolling the lounge for unattached bikers.
Lauren slid off my bike and removed her helmet, looking nonplussed about where we were. I remembered it wasn’t her first time in a club hangout, but fuck, it should have been.
“Think they’ll have bottled water in there?” she asked with a grin, jerking a thumb to the club entrance.
“Don’t drink anything I didn’t hand you personally. Got it?” I gave her ass a smack before I headed toward the clubhouse. I heard her little yelp, but didn’t give a fuck. That ass was mine, and I’d slap it, spank it, or fucking lick it whenever I wanted to. Better she get used to that now. I wasn’t fucking around when I said I’d never leave her again. That woman was all mine, and I meant it for the long haul.
A few members called out greetings to me as I stepped up onto the patio encircling the club. I pulled Lauren closer to me and made the rounds with my hellos and introducing her. I could see the steam building in her as I explained she was mine to anyone who walked up to us, but she didn’t understand the fucking longing i
n most of those assholes’ eyes. They were my brothers, even without my kutte, and I’d fucking kill anyone who tried to get at them, but I’d also chop off the dick of any single one of them who touched my girl.
“Why don’t you just tattoo it on my forehead,” she muttered as I held the door open for her.
I wanted to slap her ass again, just to let her know I heard, but instead let it go. A few of the women inside were going to notice my return, and I didn’t need to make my mark on Lauren just yet. I needed a few minutes alone with Mickey, and I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on that if I had to worry about a cat fight starting out in the bar area.
“Mike! What brings you in?” Johnny, the VP and oldest member of the club, slapped my back hard with a toothy grin. The tats from his youth displaying up and down his arms, as well as across his back and chest, were faded, but not less notable.
