by Jessie Cooke
“Please, baby...fuck me, please.”
With his lips against hers he said, “I am fucking you, baby. You want more?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“You want it harder, baby?”
“Yes.”
“You want me to pound that pretty pussy, baby? You like it hard and fast?”
“Yes!” she cried out. She felt him shift his weight and suddenly her arms were free. She opened her eyes and he was smiling down at her. She reached up and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and he said:
“Hold on tight, baby...this ride isn’t going to last that long, but it’s going to be the wildest ride of your life.” That was her only warning, and Bruf hadn’t been kidding. Sabrina thought she knew what hard and fast was...but she’d had no idea. Bruf pounded into her, relentlessly striking bottom each time and letting their hips collide. It was the most incredible feeling in the world and Sabrina never wanted it to end. Bruf made it last even longer than he probably thought he could, but when he came, it was explosive, and she even felt it all the way to her core. Their bodies were soaked from head to toe when he finished, but neither of them cared. As Bruf rolled his weight off her, Sabrina curled into him and it was only seconds before she was asleep in that safe, warm cocoon that only Bruf could provide.
20
Sabrina was on her way to Florida, and Maggie was breathing down Bruf’s back. He walked into Wolf’s office, sweating, but knowing if he was going to do this, it was now or never. “Took you a while,” Wolf said as soon as he walked in. “Did you make a decision?”
“Can I sit down?”
Wolf nodded. Bruf took a seat and said, “There’s something I have to tell you. You’re not going to like it, but I spent all week trying to come up with a story...and I finally just decided that I don’t want to lie to you.” Wolf cocked an eyebrow, but he didn’t say anything. He waited and Bruf took a deep breath and went on, “That day of the party at the gym, when I’d gone AWOL, I told you I was at my brother’s compound.” He saw Wolf shift in his chair, but the president still didn’t say a word. “That was true, sort of. I’d been up there, the day before and I had taken one of his racing bikes out. He did ask me about joining up with their racing team again...we had a couple of beers...and I left.”
“You left. So, you lied when you said you fell asleep up there?”
“Yeah, I lied.”
“Why?” Bruf knew that lying was a major infraction as far as Wolf was concerned. He despised liars, and telling Wolf he had lied was almost harder for Bruf than he imagined the rest of this was going to be.
“Because I wasn’t sure how to tell you what really happened. On my way down the hill, I got stopped...by the police.”
“For what?”
“Nothing, but there was an FBI agent that wanted to talk to me. Her name is Maggie Leary and we go way back to my time in the army.” Bruf waited, but Wolf didn’t ask any questions, so he went on, “She told me that my brother killed one of her agents two years ago, but they haven’t been able to get any evidence on him and no judge will give them a search warrant up there because they’re afraid of getting sued...”
“She wants you to rat on your brother?” Bruf sighed and nodded. “What did you tell her?”
“Well, originally I said no. Then she brought Sabrina into it...” Suddenly Wolf sat up straight and Bruf was sure the hair on the back of his boss’s neck was probably standing straight up.
“What about Sabrina?”
“She has a lot of information about us and I don’t know where she’s getting it. But she knew about my and Sabrina’s feelings for each other, and that you didn’t want us together...and she knows Sabrina is pregnant.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, but as soon as we’re finished...if it’s okay with you...I was going to sweep the clubhouse and my trailer, see if she has ears in here.”
“Fuck. How could that be, unless someone here is already working with her?” Bruf had thought of that too, which was another reason why he knew he had to be honest with Wolf about all of this. He had come to terms with helping bring Ediger and his crew down, but he wasn’t bringing his club and his brothers down with them.
“I don’t know yet, Boss...but I promise you I’m going to look into it.”
“So, what was she planning on doing with this information she has about Sabrina?”
“She was threatening to tell her ‘family’ back in Florida what really happened out here last summer. She has a theory about what happened at the frat house, but she admits that she can’t prove it. She thinks her theory would be enough to cause those rich people to turn their backs on Sabrina, and the baby.”
“Fuck that! Bitch doesn’t know who she’s talking about messing with...!” Wolf was already standing – to go where, Bruf wasn’t sure. He had been on the fence about telling Wolf what Maggie’s other threat had been, but seeing his reaction to the milder one, he decided to hold off on that. Instead he said:
“I told her she’d get nothing from me unless she left Sabrina and this club out of it.”
Wolf frowned. Still standing he said, “Does that mean you told her you’d work with her?”
“Yes.” Wolf did drop back down into his chair then. He stared at Bruf for a long time, almost in disbelief and finally he said:
“You know I’ve got no love for your brother, or that mess up there in the mountains. But even in our worst of times, we’ve never rolled over on another club...or brother. You know it’s how we maintain this level of trust that we have for each other. People will look at you and think, if he can do that to his own brother, what’s stopping him from doing it to us too? Shit, Bruf, I don’t have to tell you any of this...I just don’t know what the fuck you’re thinking. I think that hard-on you’ve got for Sabrina has made you lose your damned mind.”
“The agent they killed was twenty-three years old. They tortured him and then beat him to death. His girlfriend was pregnant and now has a son who will grow up without a father, and someday be able to go online and look it up and see how horribly he died. I don’t want to rat on anyone, Wolf...you know it’s not me. But for a long time, everyone down here was able to ignore them up there and go about our business like they didn’t exist. The thing is, though, the population up there has doubled, if not tripled, in the ten years since I left. They treat Ediger like he’s the fucking Messiah and he eats it up. His need for power is only going to keep growing along with their numbers, and one day they’re going to realize that there’s enough of them and they’ve stockpiled enough weapons that they can just march down here and take whatever they want. He has to be stopped and since I feel partially responsible for who he is because he’s my brother, I feel obligated to help them stop him.”
“You know, Bruf, even if I can come to terms with you working with the FBI, I’m not sure anyone else around here could. Everyone would be suspicious of you all the time. It would affect your relationships with your brothers and even your ability to do your job, because no one will trust you the way they do now, ever again.”
“I know,” Bruf said. “And that’s why I’m hoping that everything I just told you stays in this room, between us.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? You want me to condone you working for the FBI and also lie to my club about it?”
“You know, Sabrina’s not planning on marrying that guy, Devin, but she is still planning on being a part of that baby’s life. She’s also planning on coming back out to California to live, did you know that?”
“She talked to me about it, yes. What does one thing have to do with the other?”
“Has Sabrina ever shown you a photo of her family in Florida?”
“No. I asked Hunter, from the Southside Skulls in Boston, to check into the family for me. He came back with a glowing report. The fiancé is a surgeon, the family is wealthy because of some piece of medical equipment Granddaddy invented a century ago, and the sister is a nurse who is married to a surgeon. None of them
have any criminal records and according to Hunter they’re one of the most respected families in the south.”
“I know all of that,” Bruf said, “but did she ever show you a picture of them?”
Wolf sighed, almost like a growl, and said, “No, Bruf, but why the hell...?” Bruf laid his phone in front of Wolf. The photo of Melanie was up on the screen. As Wolf stared at it, Bruf swiped to the photo of Devin and then the one of Scott.
“If Ediger goes after someone, he hits them where it hurts long before he kills them. Blair and Sabrina would be where he would hit you, Wolf. Do you know what they would do to her up there, if they found out about this?”
Wolf was still looking at the photos. Finally, he looked at Bruf and said, “She never told me.”
Bruf sighed and in a sad voice he said, “It probably never even crossed her mind that it would matter to anyone.”
“It doesn’t to me...”
“Me neither,” Bruf said, “but we both know who it will matter to. Sabrina won’t stop coming back here, Wolf, even if she and I aren’t together. California is her home and she misses it. If Ediger ever gets wind of this...” he said, holding the phone back up. But he didn’t have to finish his thought; Wolf was already ahead of him.
“Get this place swept, find those bugs. I won’t put the welfare of this club in jeopardy, and Bruf...I want to meet this woman, face to face...and once I do, if I think we can trust her, you and I are taking this to the executive board.” Bruf had been hoping that Wolf would be willing to keep this between the two of them, but he should have known better. Wolf didn’t get where he was by keeping secrets from his club...that’s why they trusted and respected him. Bruf was going to miss the trust and respect they had in him, but he’d already decided he was doing this and there was no going back now. “You know,” Wolf said, as if reading his mind again, “If I stand up next to you on this, they’re going to be a hell of a lot more likely to accept it.” Bruf smiled at Wolf and stood up. He put out his hand and said:
“I’ve given you a lot of reasons lately to not trust me. Thank you for not giving up on me.” Wolf brushed Bruf’s hand away and gave him a quick but hearty hug.
“You’ve given me more reasons, over the past ten years, to trust you. Sometimes it’s more about history than it is the current situation. Set up that meeting with me and this FBI woman and then get busy debugging my fucking clubhouse. When you’re done here, check around all the trailers and inside both of ours, and the shop. Get the prospects to help you if you need them.”
“You got it, Boss.” Wolf already had his back to him and was pressing numbers into his phone. He was without a doubt moving on to another fire that needed to be either stoked or put out. Bruf smiled as he left the office to go get the equipment that Hunter had given them a while back on one of the Southside Skulls’ visits to California from Boston. Hunter had given them all a lesson on the many different types of surveillance devices that the police and Feds used, and he’d given them some pretty expensive detecting devices and taught them how to use them. One of them was a radio frequency detector that was like using a metal detector to find change on the beach. It beeped a hell of a lot, but only one out of every dozen or so beeps was an actual bug. He also gave them one called a nonlinear junction detector. The latter could detect higher-tech, more expensive listening devices typically attached to electronics like computers or smart phones, Hunter told them. Bruf was glad to have them both now. He hated the idea of anyone listening in on their private conversations.
He was sure that Wolf intended to take whatever they found to the meeting he insisted on having with Maggie, and making sure she understood that if they turned up again, any help she thought she might get from any Westside Skull was null and void. Maggie had to understand that Bruf’s helping her bring Ediger down, didn’t mean the Westside Skulls wanted any kind of “alliance” with the FBI. As soon as this was over, the FBI would be expected to go on their merry way...and leave the Skulls to theirs. Bruf worried about that just a little, because knowing Maggie, if she saw anything she could shake the Skulls down on, even while they helped her out, they’d be hard pressed to get rid of her.
21
Two Months Later
Sabrina sat across the table from Melinda and Scott with her fork suspended in the air and her mouth wide open. This was their regular Friday night dinner together that they’d had seven times since she came back from California. The other dinners had been cozy, fun little events. Melinda’s opening line had completely changed the tone of this one.
Regaining some composure, Sabrina closed her mouth, sat her fork down and said, “Could you say that again?”
“Scott got offered a job in Dubai, honey...he’s going to take it.”
“That’s what I thought you said. But I don’t understand...what about the baby?”
“He doesn’t have to be there until the first of the year. It won’t be long after that when the baby is born and we can follow.”
“We? As in you and the baby?”
Melinda looked nervously at her husband. Scott had yet to say anything. “Yes, honey, me and the baby. We’ll fly back and forth between now and then to get the house ready and get things ready for the baby...”
“Wait...I still don’t understand. Part of our agreement was that I could be a part of this child’s life. How am I supposed to do that, if the baby is in Dubai?”
“You can come and see her anytime...”
“Are you kidding? I’m not marrying Devin, remember? I still have to finish college before I’m qualified for a job that pays above minimum wage. I work as a nanny and a housekeeper right now and mostly live off my mother. Once I start school, it will be even harder. Do you know what it costs to fly to Dubai?”
Melinda looked at Scott and then back at Sabrina and said, “A lot, I know. But honey, you can’t surely expect us to design our life around you...”
Sabrina threw her napkin down and jumped up from the table. “Are you kidding? Design your life around me? What about me? Look at my belly, Melinda! See that big bulge? That’s your child that I’ve had to design my life around for the past three months and still have another six to go. I’ve put off school, I’ve stayed in Florida when California is where I’ve wanted to be. My mother is here because she doesn’t want to leave me. I’ve rearranged my entire life, but heavens no, I shouldn’t expect you to inconvenience yourself on my behalf.”
“Sabrina, we’re not doing this to hurt you,” Scott said, finally speaking. “It was a tough decision for us to make. My family is here, Melinda’s family is here. We’ll have to figure all of that out too.”
“Both of your families can afford to get on a plane any time that they want and fly to Dubai to see you. I can’t. That’s the difference.”
“Maybe we could put something in the contract, about helping her...” Melinda started.
“No!” Scott cut her off. “I’m sorry, but we’re paying for everything right now. We pay her monthly bills, we pay her hospital bills, we pay for her maternity clothes, her vitamins, her healthy food...”
“I don’t recall asking for any of that. It was in my contract. Excuse me for expecting you to follow through with that. Would you like to return to the bargaining table?”
“Sabrina, that’s not what he’s saying.”
“Really, Melinda? Because it sounds like that’s exactly what he’s saying.”
“I’m not paying for her to fly to Dubai whenever she feels like it to see our child.”
“Your child?” Sabrina said, flatly. She didn’t want him to pay for her flight. She wanted him to realize that now wasn’t the time for them to decide to just pick up and move across the world. “I think you’re forgetting that this child is half mine.” Melinda got to her feet then.
“Both of you, stop this!”
“Oh, please save the tears, Melinda, I can’t take another sob-fest. I swear you’re the pregnant one, seeing how much your moods change.”
“Wow, Sa
brina, that was just mean!” A tear was already rolling down her cheek. Sabrina knew it was mean, but she was feeling mean, thanks to them both.
“Maybe you should go,” Scott told her.
“No,” Melinda said. “Not until we work this out.”
“No, Scott’s right. I’m going to go now and maybe we can meet at the attorney’s office this week and hash this out.”
“Sabrina!” Turning on her heel and storming out, she let Melinda call after her. She slammed the door as she left, too – it felt good. She had just gotten into her car when the phone rang. She pulled it out angrily, thinking it was going to be Melinda already, but felt her body relax almost instantly when she saw Bruf’s name. God, she missed him. He called her at least twice a week, but it wasn’t the same. Sometimes they did FaceTime or Skype, but as much as she loved seeing his face, it almost made her miss him more. She picked up the phone and wondered if he had sensed she needed him. He knew about her Friday night dinners and never called her until much later on in the evening.
“Hi, babe! I’m so glad you called...”
