by Sophia Gray
“I’m not saying I’m going to back him!” He slammed his hand on the desk. “I’m saying I don’t fucking know!”
“Same shit!” I nearly yelled back at him. Having known him since we were kids it was easy for me to get swept up and forget he was my president.
“Look, I know you fucking love this club. I’m just saying that some of the guys want a second option. They know how far back we go, and me just choosing you right off the bat makes it look like it’s just a friend doing a friend a favor. In the end, the members choose the president. Not me.” He watched me with stern eyes.
“You know, you do whatever you need to do,” I growled at him. “Gray will tear this club to shreds with his fucked up greed and ego. If that’s what you want to watch happen, then you fucking back him.”
“Rafe!” His fist landed on the desk, making the contents rattle. “You and Gray will be up for the presidency. I’ll announce my backing right before we start the meeting. I want you beside me when I do it.”
“So you can fucking announce his fucking name?” I closed in on him, placing my hands on the desk and leaning over toward him. Facing off with Jason never frightened me, he might kick my ass, but he posed no real threat to me.
“So I can announce my fucking decision,” he growled real low, keeping his calm. Between the two of us, I would be considered the hothead. My fists talked better than my mouth, but that wouldn’t work with Jason.
“I can’t believe you’re going to fucking back him.” I pulled away, dropping my hands to my sides.
“I said I’m considering it. Just like I considered kicking your ass for kissing my little sister when we were in high school.”
The memory of that afternoon made me grin. I’d only done it because he told me I couldn’t. He put Cassandra off limits to me, knowing full well that would only make me want her more. “You did try to kick my ass for that,” I reminded him. Cassandra had stepped in, saving my ass from the pummeling I could now admit I deserved.
“But I didn’t,” he pointed out with raised eyebrows. “The guys need to know I’m considering you both. That I’m giving Gray his fair share of consideration.”
I shook my head. “Fine. Do your thing.” I needed to get the fuck out of there. Just hearing him say he was giving Gray a moment of thought for the chair pissed me off. In the end, I didn’t doubt he’d back me, Gray was too much of an asshole, but Jason had surprised me before. Hell, I never thought he’d get married. Have an old lady? Sure. But marry her? Never. Yet, there I stood not four years before next to him as he exchanged vows with his woman. Yeah, he’s surprised me before.
The bar had only gotten more crowded while we had been in the office talking. I pushed my way through, needing to get outside and some fresh air. Gray shoved into me as I moved past him but I ignored him. That was easy. Not throwing my fist into his face when he said, “Prez tell you the good news? Looks like you and me on the auction block.” Had been painful. His disgusting grin showed off how many teeth he’d lost over the years, and the ones that were left had a yellow tint to them.
“Yeah. Looks like.” I motioned for the door and headed out of the bar.
Once outside, I took a deep breath of the clean air. Looking up at the sky, I found the big dipper. Since I was a kid, every night I stared up at the sky and found the big dipper. No matter where I was, I searched for it, knowing that if it was still there, it hadn’t moved, then I was right where I needed to be at that moment.
My thoughts drifted over to Beth. She hadn’t text me yet, and it had been almost an hour. I checked my phone and smiled when I saw nothing waiting for me. That little woman just loved to push the boundaries.
Chapter Three
I tried to get that woman off my mind the entire fucking day. Throwing myself into work, I headed into the garage at the club to work on a few bikes. Every club needed an income—a legit income. We refurbished old bikes and made a small profit on the resales.
It didn’t matter how much I focused on the rebuild, my mind wandered over to Beth’s image every time. The delicious curve of her ass and the round heaviness of her breasts had my cock standing at attention almost all day. I needed to have her again, and again. But I didn’t do second rounds, not once they went home. It didn’t matter. I needed her and I’d have her. She still hadn’t text me, but I decided to give her a little more time before I went and found her. In our small town, it wouldn’t take me any time at all to find her, and when I did, she’d be getting that spanking I promised. Just the idea of bending that woman over my knee bare assed and ready for her punishment made my cock press against my jeans harder, the zipper making it uncomfortable. Fuck, I needed that woman now.
“Hey, Rafe!” JC jogged across the garage toward the corner I was just finishing up in. “Hey! Jason’s on the phone.” He handed me the cordless. My cell hadn’t gone off, why would he call me at the garage and not on my personal phone?
“What’s up?” From the look on JC’s face, I must have barked my greeting. Sexual frustration had my mood all fucked up, and knowing Jason gave even one second of thought to backing that asshat Gray.
“Rafe, I need you get over here. I’m at the warehouse on 25th.” The rush in his voice got the hairs standing up on my neck.
“What’s wrong, why you over there?” The warehouse on 25th had been locked down for months. Too many fucking raids from the cops to keep it a viable option for us, it had been empty ever since.
“Just get your ass over here,” he yelled into the phone.
“Sure. On my way.” Before I could click off the call, he hung up. “I’m taking off. Catch me on my cell if you need me.” I tossed the phone to JC and headed toward my bike. “And have one of those fucking prospects clean my station!” I called back over my shoulder.
***
By the time I drove out to the warehouse the sun had disappeared. The street lamps didn’t burn all that bright around the place, but I could make out Jason’s bike parked near one of the loading docks. His bike was there, but Jason wasn’t. The whole place still looked locked down, no lights, no open doors. I cut my engine and slid off the bike, leaving my helmet on the seat.
I stepped up to the garage door and banged my fist on it. “Jason!”
“Fuck! Not so loud!” His raspy voice hissed at me from the corner of the building. He stepped out from behind the large bushes, zipping his fly. “I had to piss. Christ, you’re loud.” He straightened his kutte, looking around. “Did you tell anyone you were coming here?”
“No, you didn’t sound like you wanted me to.” I watched him, his eyes darted behind me, then out over the empty parking lot to where the trees outlined the property. “What the fuck’s going on? What are you doing way out here?”
“You remember that job we did a few years back? Hauling those fucking barrels of oil for Javier?”
It took me a second to remember, but then it came back to me. “Yeah, it wasn’t fucking oil in those barrels, but whatever, what about it?” The last job we did for that messed up cartel wannabe gang had seemed simple. Those barrels were full of fucking drugs and ammo, and we’d met a little resistance at the state line. Two of our men had been killed on that fucked up run. “Gray set that thing up,” I recalled.
“Yeah, he did.” Jason nodded.
“What the fuck does that have to do with anything now? That was years ago, we don’t deal with Javier no more.” I looked over my shoulder when Jason made another pass with his eyes at the tree line.
“No, but I think Hell’s Spawn is doing runs for them.”
I stepped in front of him, keeping my body blocking him from looking away. The man was downright jumpy and needed straight answers.
A loud roar of an engine distracted me as a lone rider barreled into the lot, right behind us. Jason started to yell out, but just as I started to turn the crack of the gun being discharged nearly deafened me, it was so close. A sharp pang tore through my shoulder, throwing me to the side. The flash from the barrel blinded
my eyes against the dark night. Jason’s bellow of rage morphed into a groan of pain as he fell to his knees, clutching his stomach.
I dropped to his side, forgetting about the shooter as I cradled Jason in my lap. The blood poured out fast from his stomach, his hands already covered in the sticky substance. I placed my hands over his, pressing down, trying my best to stop the bleeding.
“Fuck!” I yelled into the air. “Who the fuck was that?” I grappled for my phone to call for help, but Jason started to cough and spit blood out onto my lap.
“It…that…fuck…” Jason reached up and grabbed my arm. The burning in my shoulder would have to wait. “Fuck…” Jason groaned again.
“Who was it, did you see him?” I asked, still trying to get my phone out of my pocket, the pain in my shoulder wouldn’t let me close my hand around it.
“I never would have…” He started coughing again, more blood splattered across his chest. Finally, my hand gripped my phone and I managed to get it out; dialing 911 wasn’t as easy with the blood all over my fingers, but I managed it well enough.
I quickly gave the dispatch our location and hung up, not answering most of her fucking questions. Jason was bleeding out in front of me; I didn’t need to hear about not feeding him anything, I needed a fucking ambulance!
“It’s okay. The ambulance is coming. Just hold on.” I put more pressure on his stomach, and he groaned louder.
“Stephanie…” he mumbled
“Don’t worry about her. I’ll take care of her…you just focus now.”
“I’m…gonna…kill…that…fucker…” More coughing and blood. I looked off into the distance, toward the highway. Where the fuck is that ambulance!
“Jason. Who?”
His brown eyes met mine. His face had paled, his lips nearly white. His fingers loosened their grip on my arm until they finally fell away. What little breaths he took were shallow and slow, until finally they stopped all together. I felt his body go limp in my arms. His head rolled to the side, staring off at the spot the shooter had fired his gun.
Sirens came into earshot, lights flashed around me, but they were too late. Jason was already dead.
Chapter Four
BETH
I stared at my phone as though it were a rattle snake ready to strike at me at any moment. It didn’t though. It just kept sitting on the nurse’s station desk as harmless as ever. Well, not entirely harmless. Rafe’s phone number was locked and loaded in there.
When I got home from the bar, I had pulled it out to text him, but decided not to. He wasn’t any boss of mine, even if his kiss had a way of melting my body against his. And that orgasm—I never came so hard in my life, and never twice in one session. But I didn’t need a mess like him in my life. I had bigger priorities, and he was the VP of the Anarchy’s Reign. So, instead, I thanked Mrs. Owens profusely and sent her home, ignoring her knowing smile and satisfied tone when she commented on my somewhat disheveled appearance.
“I ran into Brittany on my way in.” Cassidy winked at me. Setting her coffee cup down, she swiped her tablet to open her charts.
I groaned internally. Brittany couldn’t keep her mouth shut about anything. I hadn’t given her much detail about my time with Rafe, knowing this about her, but she knew enough to have Cassidy grinning ear to ear at me.
“Don’t believe everything she says. My life isn’t that exciting, I’m sure she glammed up a few details.” I checked my watch. Another half an hour and my shift would be over. I needed my bed more than most nights. Between the bar the night before and Madison wanting cereal and morning snuggles at six in the morning, I’d managed to get a whopping four hours of sleep. A reminder as to why I stopped doing the bar scene.
“Uh-huh. You gonna tell me who the guy was? She wouldn’t tell me, just said it was some hot biker guy. Complete with tattoos and everything.” I could almost see the drool accumulating in her mouth at the mental image she conjured. If she had seen the real thing, she probably would have pounced on him. Rafe was more than hot, and it wasn’t just his looks that had my breath catching in my throat. The way he moved, like he owned every inch of the world, gave me the sense that he wasn’t a man to be pushed. And yet, I had pushed. Right up until the moment he fucked me in that back office.
Just the memory of his fingers on me, his words, and his mouth made my cheeks burn with a brand new blush. “It was nothing,” I murmured, and turned away, hoping she didn’t see my face.
Of course, no such luck. “Oh, it was something all right.” She whooped with laughter. “It’s good, Beth! It’s good to see you out there in the world. You know that asshole ex of yours may have taken off, but your life didn’t go with him.”
I’d heard that speech so many times before I had become numb to it. They just didn’t get it. Madison was the most important thing in my world. I couldn’t jeopardize her for a guy. Guys were trouble. And I had enough of that trying to make next month’s rent and pay Madison’s daycare bill.
“There’s been a shooting. Cass, Beth, let’s go.” Gerri, the shift manager, waved us over to the ambulance bay.
Leaving everything behind we ran over to the bay and started gloving up and getting ready for the doors to open up. When the doors swung wide, we stepped aside for the paramedics to jump out. “This one’s DOA, the next one is your patient.” Jeffrey Hobbs rolled the cart with the body out of the way quickly to allow the second set of hands to hand down the patient.
The medic began to run down vitals and information to the doctors, who quickly assessed the patient and had us wheel him straight into a trauma room. I held onto the rails at the foot of the bed and pushed down the hall. I heard the patient struggling with his mask, but didn’t look back at him. Gerri would keep it on him. His foot started to kick out at me, but I just kept going.
Once wheeled into the room I went about getting the trays ready and grabbing supplies for a gunshot wound. I heard the doctor yelling at the guy to lie back down and calm down. When I turned back around they had the patient on his back and with the injection of sedative the doctor had called for.
“Call the OR, we’ll be there in ten minutes. Start getting him prepped.” Dr. Wilkins pulled off his bloodied gloves. “Cassidy, you scrub in on this one with me.” No shocker there, Dr. Wilkins has been trying to get down her scrub bottoms for over a month.
“Hey, I got this. This one could take another hour, and you need to get home to that baby girl of yours.” Cassidy gave me a weak smile. I didn’t mind not heading into OR. That late at night some of the scrub nurses were still around, but they were a territorial bunch. They hated when us lowly ER nurses headed into their turf.
“Okay, yeah.” My feet nearly sighed in relief at knowing in under an hour my feet would be propped up on the coffee table at home. “Thanks.” I stepped back as the curtain was yanked open and another team stood out in the hallway ready to get going.
As they wheeled him past me I happened to glance down at the patient. My heart jumped up into my throat. Rafe. The gunshot victim was Rafe.
Picking up the pace, I walked behind the team, trying to get a better look, to be sure. I could recognize that stubborn jaw anywhere and the large tattoo covering the left side of his chest made identifying him easy.
“Beth?” Cassidy looked over at me with concern as we approached the OR doors. She stepped aside to let everyone pass through and stopped me from following. “What’s wrong? What is it?”
I swallowed hard. Losing sight of him as the doors swung shut I refocused on her concerned face. “That’s him.” I took a deep breath. “That’s the guy from last night. His name is Rafe.” I didn’t know what to do, but my body had more energy than a two-year-old on a sugar high.
“Shit. Really?” She peeked through the window. “I gotta get in there. Go home, take care of Maddie. I’ll call you as soon as we’re done.”
“Yeah.” I stepped away from the doors. “You’re right. I’m gonna head home.” I nodded, my head completely agreed with the p
lan. However, it was the rest of me that sat at the reception desk waiting for them wheel him back out.
There was no good reason for me to wait for him. He was a one-night thing. A fleeting thought. And he was dangerous. The man was brought in with a gunshot wound; if that didn’t warn me enough to stay far away from him, I wasn’t sure what else would have. After I called Mrs. Owens to be sure Maddie had gone to sleep all right, I sat drumming my fingers on the desk.
Finally, the doors swung open and out came the whole team and Rafe. Of course he was unconscious. I didn’t expect him to be sitting up and smiling, but I wanted to see the color of his face, the expression of the doctors as they walked out of the OR. He was a bit pale still, but otherwise looked good and the doctors were talking about some dinner they were going to next weekend. I sat back down and shook my head. What was I doing?
