Chasing Claire (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club)

by Marinaro, Paula

  Raine and I leaned forward with our mouths hanging open.

  Glory was spilling.

  And I was right, it was worth the wait. Every single minute of it.

  She looked at the two of us. Then she smiled like the cat who had just bagged the canary.

  She leaned in, “And you two have been just dying to know where all that money went, and why I showed my bits for good old Benjamin Franklins in the first place.”

  Raine and I both nodded, transfixed.

  Glory sighed softly.

  “I’m afraid after all this time, the story isn’t going to live up to your expectations. Actually, it’s so common, it’s clichéd. Living in Vegas like we did, lots of kids grew up chasing it. Bright lights, fast money, tons of action. You know the deal. All the little boys hanging around the back doors of the casinos, wanting to grow up to be the big man, the one with the juice. Maybe one in a million make it, the rest of them either wind up dead, in jail, or owing very big to some very bad men who they can’t pay. My brother fell into that last category. Which, by the way, is how I met that bastard Gino. Between what my brother sent Gino’s cousin, Vincenzo, what I made, and the little we got for inheritance, it still took a couple of years to pay off the debt that Hal owed him.”

  Glory took another sip of her wine then looked at Raine.

  “During my time in Vegas I got to know that smooth-talking snake better. Gino was back and forth from here to the casino a lot. He made me all kinds of promises. I think now that he must have been making lots of those promises to me and you at the same time.”

  Glory looked at Raine. “Does that make sense?”

  Raine nodded. “Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.”

  Gino and Raine had never made sense to me, but then again, neither had Gino and Glory. Those bad Gino memories were something that my sister and my best friend had in common. They had both made the colossal mistake of being in a relationship with that psychopath. I had a few bad Gino memories myself, but those mainly consisted of seeing his brain matter splattered against my sister’s T-shirt.

  I shuddered just thinking about it.

  “Anyway,” Glory continued. “Long story short, I ended up striking a deal to dance at the club to pay off my brother’s debt. See? The whole thing is a stupid cliché.”

  Glory shrugged her shoulders, but her eyes got damp when she did. That could not have been an easy time for our friend. No wonder it had taken her this long to share.

  Raine’s eyes met mine.

  “There’s nothing clichéd about what you did, Glory. I think it was an unselfish act that took a lot of love and courage. Your brother’s a lucky guy to have you.” Raine squeezed her hand.

  I nodded in agreement.

  “Anyway, it took me a long time, but I paid them up. And here I am.” Glory smiled a little then.

  “Where’s your brother now?” I asked.

  “He’s in the military. The Marines. I made a deal with him. I would pay up if he joined up. It was the only way I could think to keep him out of trouble. Maybe not the safest solution, but better than the alternative. He’s doing great! He’s already gotten a couple of promotions and now he is with some special operations division, I think. But, he puts half the money he earns in an account that he set up just for me, so he’s trying to make it right. I didn’t ask him to do that, but he’s doing it and honestly it helps.” Glory shrugged.

  “So that’s that. The mystery of Glory Thomas solved.” She smiled at us.

  “Somehow I doubt that,” I answered ruefully, grinning at her. “Somehow, I think the prince of Luxembourg and the gambling Marine are just teasers. They are just the tip of the iceberg of the mystery that is you.”

  Glory laughed then. The effects of being kidnapped, tied up for several days, and beaten savagely by Gino had wrought havoc on Glory’s vocal chords.

  Screaming in fear and pain for a very long time can do that.

  Most of the damage from that nightmare had been mended by time, love, and sisterhood. But the harm to Glory’s vocal chords had remained. The result had left Glory with a low, throaty rasp to her voice. It made her sound like she was always just getting out of bed. Diego had once told Raine that the sound of Glory’s voice gave all the brothers instant hard-ons. I had to admit, despite the horrible circumstances that led to the damage, Glory’s voice was as sexy as hell.

  But her laughter was a gift.

  Sadly, tonight, it also heralded the end of the spilling.

  Raine and I both knew it would do no good to ask questions; we both had tried and failed that route before.

  “Night, all.” She waved at us. Then she winked at our open-mouthed stares.

  Just like that. Glory stopped sharing just as quickly as she had started and left us hungry for more. Apparently the show-stopping side of our friend had not been left in that flashy casino.

  Raine and I looked at each other and smiled.

  Because we knew that there would be more to come. The mystery of our very own Vegas showgirl, our Glory, would absolutely be solved.

  And it would all be worth the wait.

  I didn’t know about Raine, but speaking strictly for myself, I went to bed that night dreaming of swinging tassels, million-dollar payoffs and handsome princes smiling behind dark sunglasses.

  CHAPTER 18

  Reno told himself he was moving on.

  Oh. Yes. He. Was.

  He hadn’t seen Claire since the night he came back from the West Coast, and he didn’t give a shit if he ever saw that woman again.

  Or at least, that’s what he kept telling himself. And it was easy to tell himself that because she was not there. At least not anywhere he was. Or was going to be, or had been in the recent past.

  And that was just fine with him. Yep. He was golden with it. Just fine.

  Reno knew that Claire was about to start school soon. He knew that she was going to be taking courses at some fancy college down in the valley.

  Not that he had asked.

  Nope. Nobody could say he had asked one damn thing about her.

  But he couldn’t help it if he had somehow managed to overhear every single drop of information coming out of Pinky or Prosper or Raine’s mouth regarding Claire.

  It wasn’t as if he was eavesdropping. Not at all. It wasn’t as if he stored every single bit of information regarding Claire. It wasn’t as if he had to physically stop himself from showing up at the lake house, throwing her over his shoulder, taking her to his bed, and slamming some sense into her. Nah. It wasn’t like that at all.

  Reno pulled on the last of the smoke before he stomped his cigarette out and went back to working on his bike. Sure it is. He thought to himself. It is exactly fucking like that.

  He was miserable.

  The future stretched out in front of him like a long, dark tunnel. Thousands of nights without Claire.

  Yeah, he could spend his time with lots of women, but none of them would be her.

  And where would that leave Claire?

  She would end up with someone that wasn’t him. She could end up with some asshole who wouldn’t get how shy she was with new people, or how she took forever to get to the point of what she was trying to say, or how she was always dropping things when she got nervous. She could end up with someone who didn’t understand that she had absolutely no sense of direction.

  She might end up with a guy who wouldn’t know how easily she could get lost.

  Yeah. She could wind up with somebody that was way worse than he was.

  And she didn’t deserve that guy.

  No. Claire deserved better than that. She deserved the guy who loved her more than life itself.

  Claire deserved the kind of love that only he could give her. She was his. And he was hers. That’s just the way it was.

  He could beat himself bloody, he could race across the country, he could sleep with a thousand other women, but the fact was and always would be that she belonged to him.

  Now he just had to f
igure out how to get her to see it that way.

  His whole body ached, but that was nothing, he realized, compared to his heart.

  He gripped the tire and tried to get back to work. His hand was killing him. He was having trouble holding the wrench. Wincing in pain, he wiped the grease off his hands, and then he went into the kitchen house to grab a little somethin’.

  The smell of cooked bacon hit him the minute he cleared the door and Reno felt his stomach roll over. He sat down at the counter and nodded to Jules, who was mopping up the bar.

  “Eggs?” Jules looked up at Reno.

  “Whiskey.” Reno shot back.

  Jules motioned toward the clock. “Little early to be drinking.”

  Reno looked at his knuckles and stretched them out painfully. He knew the pain showed on his face.

  “Fuck you, Jules,” Reno grimaced.

  Jules poured Reno a cup of coffee and put a shot of Jack right next to it.

  “With all the fighting, whoring, and drinking you’ve been doing lately, I’m surprised that you have any fuck-yous left, Brother.”

  Reno muttered something that, lucky for him, Jules chose to ignore.

  Then, pouring the whiskey into the cup, the outlaw winced as he put his big paw around the mug and carefully brought it to his lips.

  “There’s a reason they banned bare-knuckle boxing, man.” Jules nodded at Reno’s swollen hand.

  “Yeah, and what would that be?” Reno took another sip of the coffee and pushed it away.

  “Coffee bad? Jesus, I just made it fresh.” Jules turned around to look at the full pot.

  “Naw, whiskey tastes like shit in it. Give me a fresh cup, Brother?” Reno asked.

  Jules let out a sigh. “Glad to do it, man.”

  He poured Reno another cup of coffee, and put the bottle back under the counter. Then he reached over and shoved a plate of scrambled eggs at him.

  “Eat up.”

  Reno grabbed a fork and stabbed at the eggs. Then he washed them down with gulps of hot, untainted coffee.

  “Better?” Jules watched Reno down the hot brew. “Eggs good?”

  Reno looked at Jules. “Eggs are eggs.”

  Jules arched an eyebrow and glared back at Reno.

  “You’re fucking welcome.”

  Reno took another hit of the coffee and looked at Jules over the rim of the cup.

  “Everything tastes like shit to me lately.”

  “Really? I didn’t notice,” Jules snarled at him. Then he placed his arms on the bar and looked Reno in the eye. “When you gonna snap the fuck out of it? This pissed off at the world shit is getting old and I am getting sick of running interference for you. You know it’s just a matter of time before Prosper calls you on it. You know that you don’t want that coming down on you with whatever else you got on your plate.”

  Reno nodded. “Yeah, well, I got things on my mind. And right now, I am in some serious pain, so do me a favor and just shut the fuck up. And I don’t remember asking you to run any kind of interference with me and the boss.”

  “Someone has to have your back, because you sure as shit ain’t looking out for yourself. Like to think if the situation were reversed, you’d do the same.” Jules’s gaze left Reno’s and he started to mop up the bar.

  “You know I would, Brother,” Reno said in contrition. Then he added, “Eggs are great, man.”

  Jules nodded to the swollen fist on the bar. “You want me to see to that hand?”

  Jules’s training as a medic in the Marine Corps had earned him the role of go-to guy for all the club’s medical emergencies. That training, coupled with the fact that he had a surprisingly and suspiciously well-equipped clinic set up in the compound, made Jules a very handy guy to have around. So much so, that Reno had often wondered just who, in another life, Jules had actually been.

  “You got a hard-on to play doctor, man? Sure, I’ll bite.”

  Jules looked closer at Reno, who could feel his face drip with sweat from the pain.

  “Okay, Brother, I got some stuff I need to be doing in the clinic anyway. Let’s go.”

  Jules poured himself another cup of coffee and headed toward the door. For years now, he had been treating the boys for everything from gunshot wounds to the clap. Some of them were already half-dead by the time they got to him, and he hadn’t lost one of the ungrateful motherfuckers yet. But, whether they came to him with a bullet lodged in their chest, or a splinter under their fingernail, they were all the same. They all acted like they were doing Jules a big, huge favor by allowing him to save their sorry asses. And then just like clockwork, every one of them would start screaming and moaning the minute that Jules had to take the needle and nylon to them.

  Little bitch-ass mama’s boys, every last one of them.

  They entered the clinic waiting area.

  “Grab a seat, Brother, the boys are just finishing up the addition. I’ll take care of you here. Be right back. I’m going to go grab an ice pack and some pain pills.” Jules disappeared into the next room. He came back with a vial of prescription drugs and two ice packs.

  He dipped his head toward Reno’s outstretched hand and began to slowly examine it. At least one finger was broken, and all the knuckles were swollen.

  “Ouch!” Reno pulled his hand back as Jules applied pressure to the inflamed hand to check further for breaks. “Show a little tenderness will ya? That’s my hand you’re squeezing, not a goddamn tit.”

  Jules leaned back. “Really? You could have fooled me, because you sure the hell are screaming like a girl.”

  “Shut up,” Reno growled. “Just fix the damn thing. It is killing me, Brother.”

  “Here, take these.” Jules moved the pills toward him. “Eat three of those bad boys and you won’t be feeling anything ’til tomorrow.”

  “Hate swallowing pills,” Reno muttered.

  “You’re lucky you’re not swallowing your own teeth. When are you going to cut this shit out? You ain’t hurting anybody but yourself.”

  Reno gave him a shaky grin. “Yeah? Well you ain’t seen the other guy.”

  Jules snorted.

  “One of your fingers is broken. I have to splint it. I’ll be right back.”

  Just then a shadow moved past the window and Jules grabbed the ice pack off Reno’s swollen knuckles. Reno opened his mouth to begin a stream of profane protests.

  “You can thank me later, Brother.” Jules nodded to the doorway.

  Reno twisted around to look in that direction.

  “Claire.” Jules called to her. “Can you help me out and make sure this ice stays on his hand?”

  Then without waiting for a reply, he tossed the ice pack to her. Claire caught it in one hand, her eyes wide with surprise.

  “Thanks, doll. I have to go grab a splint. Be right back.” Jules held his grin until he turned away from the door.

  “Hey, Claire.” Reno fought hard for the casual tone.

  “Hey, Reno.” Claire fought too.

  Silence followed as Claire moved toward Reno. She placed the ice pack gently on his swollen hand.

  “Right here?” She did not meet his eyes.

  “Yeah, baby. Right there is perfect. Thanks.” He watched as the blush swept over her face.

  She looked at him with clear blue eyes. “You’re welcome.”

  Jules walked back in and let out a low appreciative whistle. “Wow, looking good, babe. What brings you by?”

  Claire smiled prettily at him. Reno let out a low, feral growl that Claire and Jules both pretended not to hear.

  Then Claire winced and raised her knee to show Jules a big, dirty, bleeding scrape.

  “Ouch, darlin’, how did you do that?” Jules moved closer to Claire and wrapped his arm around her knee. Then he pulled that knee slowly toward him.

  Reno tensed beside him—he knew Jules was getting off on it just a little bit. When he ran his hand up and down Claire’s smooth tanned leg and pretended to check it for damage, Reno almost lifted himself off
the chair.

  “I’m on my way out to help Glory with her catering gig. I stopped by the kitchen house to grab a couple of trays. I tried to carry too much at once, I guess. I tripped and fell on the gravel in the driveway. Took a chance you’d be out here. But if you’re busy, Jules, I can just grab the first aid kit,” she said.

  “You came to the right place, honey. It’s about time I got to treat something that doesn’t have a year’s worth of road dirt on it. Just do me a favor and keep that cold pack on my boy’s hand. That knee of yours needs to be cleaned out.” Jules disappeared again into the back room.

  Claire pierced Reno with a questioning look.

  Reno’s chest puffed out just a little bit. “Been bare-fisted fighting.”

  “Sounds painful.” Claire’s eyes widened and she adjusted the ice pack.

  “Yeah, some fucking things just hurt more than others,” Reno countered.

  Claire let out a soft sigh. “That’s one thing that you and I can absolutely agree on, Reno.” Then she turned her big beautiful blue eyes right on him.

  Reno heated all over. He didn’t move a muscle. Even though it fucking killed him not to reach out to her, he didn’t do it. The next time they touched, it was going to have to come from her.

  Claire busied herself with adjusting the ice pack across Reno’s knuckles. She was close enough for him to smell her fresh, clean scent. When a lock of her long hair escaped and brushed softly against his arm, Reno couldn’t help himself. He moved his free hand and tucked it back behind her ear.

  Claire blushed a deep rose and let out a jagged sigh.

  And on Reno’s part, he got wood. Just like that.

  “How have you been?” he asked.