“I -- I guess you’re right,” I nodded, coaxing her along despite the pain her words caused me. “He said that seeing you tonight made him realize he wanted a real woman, not just a little girl.” I consciously used the exact same words Liana had flung at me in the bar, hoping they would connect with her. They seemed to do the trick, at least temporarily. A tiny flicker of hope appeared in her expression, and I watched her lower the gun, almost imperceptibly, but definitely by an inch or so. Then her jaw clenched, her eyes narrowing again in as she looked at me in suspicion. “Yeah? Well, if Smoke broke up with you, what the fuck are you still doing here in his house, then, bitch?”
In the back of my mind, a tiny, snarky voice wanted to respond that I was not the only woman in Smoke’s house after he had clearly broken up with her, but I wisely suppressed it. As I stood there, trying to think of a response, a flicker of an idea came to me in a flash, and I ran with it. “Smoke got a call from someone in the MC and had to leave for some club business. He told me to be gone when he got back.” I glanced outside in the direction of the driveway. “But I don’t have a car here. I just called a cab to come get me.” I hoped that of she thought someone would be coming soon, she might get scared and leave.
My words had their desired effect. Liana’s gaze faltered. She glanced toward the street, as if expecting to see my fictitious cab pull up at any moment. Looking back at me, her eyes narrowed in hate. “When did you call it?” she said through gritted teeth.
“Just now – right before you showed up,” I lied.
She looked at me expressionlessly. “Cancel it.”
“What?”
“Call and cancel the fucking cab!” she yelled, the gun wavering wildly in her grip. “And no fucking funny stuff!”
There was no way out of this but to pretend to call the cab company and cancel it. My hands trembled as I reached slowly into my back pocket for the phone. “Okay, I’m just reaching for my phone, now.” My voice shook with fear as I spoke, despite my best efforts to keep it sounding natural. I made obvious, deliberate movements, turning my backside toward her so she could see what I was doing. As my hand closed over the smooth metal and plastic case, another idea came to me. Working as hard as I could to remain calm, I flipped quickly to my call history and pressed on Smoke’s name. The phone dialed, and as I listened I prayed silently to myself that he would answer. He did, on the third ring. “What?” he barked gruffly. I didn’t know if his tone was because I had interrupted him, or because he was really done with me.
“Uh, hi, this is Jen Chapman?” My voice faltered as I spoke into the phone. Please, Smoke, please realize I’m in trouble. Please come help me. “I just called your company a couple of minutes ago and ordered a cab, but I need to cancel it. Something’s come up and I can’t use it now.”
“Flame, what the fuck are you talking about?” Smoke’s confused voice asked me.
My eyes were riveted on Liana as I spoke carefully into the phone. “Yes, that’s right. I was going to use the cab, but something’s come up now and I can’t leave.”
“What are you saying?” he began, and then his tone shifted from irritation to one of wariness. “Wait, are you okay? Is there someone at the house? Are you in danger?”
Clearly he had understood; I forced myself not to convey any emotion, relief or otherwise. “Yes, that’s right,” I answered.
“Fuck. Hang on, baby, I’m coming,” Smoke said urgently. “Stay calm.”
“Thank you,” I replied in a neutral tone. And then, even though the very last thing I wanted to do was cut the only lifeline of communication I had with the one person who could help me, I forced myself to press “end” and put the phone back in my pocket. “There,” I nodded at Liana. “No more cab.”
“Okay.” Liana relaxed visibly at my words. She still had the gun trained on me, but I could tell by the way she held it that the weight of it was starting to fatigue her arms. At the sight of this, a sudden flood of exhilarating hope filled me. Since she hadn’t killed me yet, maybe I had a small chance of getting through this alive. My mind continued to work frantically as I strove to keep my face and voice as calm as possible. “Smoke’s not going to be done with his club business for a while,” I said. “If you wanted to let me go, I could leave right now and you could hang out here and wait for him to get back.”
Liana’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah,” she sneered. “Like I’m gonna let you leave and go run to the police, you stupid bitch.” She shifted her stance to relieve the discomfort from the weight of the gun, and trained it on me again with renewed determination.
I held up my hands in a conciliatory gesture. “I would never go to the police. I wouldn’t tell anyone about this,” I said soothingly. “Why would I want to? All I want is to get out of here, now that I know Smoke doesn’t want me anymore. I’ll go back to my life, and you two can work things out together.”
“How the fuck are you gonna leave, since your car ain’t here?”
“I’ll walk,” I said, shrugging. “I don’t mind.” Would she really let me go? I knew it was a long shot. But at least she was talking about it. And with any luck, Smoke would be here soon. As I silently wished for him to come as soon as possible, I realized in sudden horror that if Liana heard Smoke’s motorcycle drive up while I was still here, she was likely to do something impulsive. I hoped fervently that he had the sense not to signal his arrival.
Liana shook her head at my suggestion. “No fuckin’ way,” she said. “I ain’t letting you leave this house.” She perched herself on the armrest of an easy chair and set her jaw, the gun still leveled at my chest. Although I was still unnerved by the loaded weapon, and even more so by the crazy bitch pointing it at me, I was beginning to see that Liana didn’t seem to have a real plan. She must have told herself that she was going to kill me as soon as she saw me, but that moment had passed. Now she was just winging it. Since I knew I couldn’t count on Smoke to rescue me in time, I needed to capitalize on her indecision and try to convince her of what to do.
Adopting my most reasonable tone, I continued: “But if I left now, who would believe me if I told them you pointed a gun at me? If I called the police, they would come here and see you and Smoke together. They’d just assume I was a crazy ex-girlfriend, making up stories.” I winced a little as I said this, hoping she wouldn’t take the last remark as a reference to herself. Luckily, she seemed deluded enough not to notice. She cocked her head a little, thinking, and I could tell she was actually considering my words, so I decided to push a little harder. “That’s what Smoke would think, too. There’s no way Smoke is going to defend me against you, especially to the cops. He just wants me gone,” I said matter-of-factly.
This seemed to have an effect on her. “He knows we were meant to be together,” Liana murmured, almost to herself. “He’s mad because I cheated on him once or twice, but he knows that didn’t mean anything. I’m his old lady.”
“That’s right,” I coaxed. “You’re the one he wants.” My voice caught in my throat as I said it. Even if what I was saying was a lie, it still didn’t change the fact that he didn’t want me, either.
I could see that Liana was starting to waver. “Look,” I said. “You don’t want me to be here when Smoke gets back. You want it to be just the two of you, alone, right? So why don’t you just let me leave, so you can wait for him to come back to you? That way there’s no obstacles to your getting back together. If I’m here, he’s just going to want to know what happened. Why waste all that time trying to explain?” As I watched, Liana slowly lowered the gun. She seemed to have lost interest in threatening me. Finally, she waved it vaguely at the front door and said, “Okay, get out. Now.”
I sighed in relief and smiled reassuringly at her. I wasn’t about to wait and ask her if she was serious. “Thanks,” I said, keeping my voice calm. “I’ll go grab my things and be on my way.” Holding my breath so that I wouldn’t burst into terrified tears, I forced myself to walk slowly into Smoke’s bedroom to grab my ba
g. As my shaking hands reached inside it to make sure I had everything, I heard the front door slam open, a chorus of male voices suddenly shattering the silence. Spider’s angry voice boomed through the house: “God DAMN it, Liana, freeze right there, or I swear to God I will blow your fucking head off!” A moment later, his panicked shout came towards me: “Flame! Flame, where are you!”
“I’m in here!” I cried. “I’m fine!”
Smoke came crashing through the bedroom door. As soon as he saw me, he crossed the room in a bound and folded me into his arms. “Thank Christ,” he exhaled into my hair. His grip was so tight that for a moment I had trouble breathing. After a few seconds, he pulled back and reached up to my face. Gently, he tilted my face toward his and stared deeply into my eyes. “I thought you were dead…” he whispered.
“No, I’m okay,” I murmured. “That ex of yours is definitely one psycho bitch, though,” I laughed shakily.
Smoke’s mouth covered mine, his tongue probing insistently. I eagerly returned his kiss, all of my relief pouring out towards him as our bodies pressed against one another. When we finally broke apart, I was shaking and a bit dizzy. I lost my balance for a moment, and Smoke steadied me. “Shhh, you’re okay now,” he soothed.
I looked up at him and smiled reassuringly. I didn’t want him to worry about me now that I was safe. “Yeah, I’m okay. But… What about…” I asked as I nodded in the direction of the living room. Male voices, angry ones, were ordering Liana to shut up.
“Jimmy and Snake are with me,” he said quickly. “Jimmy’s got a gun on her. Don’t worry, you’re safe.”
“She had agreed to let me go,” I told him, my voice still shaking a little. “It was over, I think.”
“I don’t fucking care,” he said fiercely. “That bitch is going to pay for this. Jimmy!” he called. A male voice came from the other room. “Yeah!”
“Flame’s fine. Get that bitch out of my sight and take her to the clubhouse. I’ll deal with her later.”
“Yup!” came the reply. I heard Liana protesting as she was muscled out of the house. When I heard the screen door slam behind them, something in me snapped, and I began to tremble uncontrollably. “She…” I stammered, “she was going to kill me… She said she’d make me pay for taking you away. I told her we’d broken up… that you wanted her back… I’m sorry…”
“Sshhhh…” Smoke soothed. “You did the right thing. Thank fuck you did the right thing. That bitch is nuts. No telling what she’s capable of when she’s mad.” We were sitting on Smoke’s bed now, with his arms around me as he slowly rocked me back and forth to soothe me. A few hysterical sobs escaped me, and I began to take deep breaths to control them.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt your business with the club,” I gulped out. “I just didn’t know what else to do…”
“Baby, stop apologizing,” Smoke murmured, his voice thick. “I’m glad you called me. Club business or no club business.”
“But, we’re not together. I shouldn’t have assumed…”
“Who says we’re not together?” he replied softly, raising my face to his. He stroked my hair softly, running his fingers through my red tresses as he pressed his lips against mine again. His tongue probed softly, more gentle than he had ever been with me, and I opened to him, answering his question with my response. The hand that had been twined in my hair cupped the back of my head, bringing me closer as the kiss deepened. His other hand encircled me, drawing my body against his. Our chests came together, hard against soft, and my nipples tautened as they brushed against his shirt.
My body, already so attuned to him, opened like a flower as I grew wet and hot between my legs. I gripped his shirt, pulling him closer, wanting all of him at once. He pushed me back on the bed and lowered himself onto me, as I opened my thighs to welcome his hardness. As our bodies connected, I moaned against his mouth and squirmed to feel his length press against my swollen folds. My hands went around his back to his firm, muscled ass, squeezing it as I writhed against him. The pleasure of being next to his gorgeous hardness was delicious and infuriating at the same time. I had to have more of him, now.
“Smoke,” I whispered. “Take me.”
He rose from me and peeled off his T-shirt, and I lifted my arms so that he could do the same to mine. With a shift of his weight, he was off the bed, pulling off his jeans as he watched me squirm out of mine as quickly as I could manage it. Then he was back on the bed, spreading my legs open with his knees and kneeling between them. “These have to go,” he growled, ripping the fabric of my panties apart with his hands and tossing the now-worthless swatch of material onto the floor. Then he pulled me forward until my wet, waiting sex was brushing against his hardness. He reached down to cup my breasts, thumbing the nipples as I writhed and arched my back toward him. I felt the tension build inside me as I frantically moved against his cock, desperate for the release that only he could give me. He bent his head downward, replacing his thumbs with his mouth, and began to softly bite and tongue each nipple. I moaned loudly, reaching down to grab his hips and try to maneuver his massive cock inside me. He moved to give me what I needed, pressing the head of his shaft against my dripping sex. I gasped in pleasure as I felt the first inches of him enter me. I lifted my legs and wrapped them around him, pulling him in closer and attempting to get all of him inside me at once. In response, his mouth moved up to my lips, which opened wide to his waiting tongue.
Thrusting and changing his angle slightly, he pushed further inside me, and then our hips began to move together in an exquisite dance of need and desire. My whimpers turned to cries as he moved inside me, growing inside my channel with each thrust. My arms went around his neck for leverage, my feet locking behind his back. He fucked me slowly, thoroughly, our voices mingling in incoherent outbursts of pleasure. I angled my hips back slightly, loving the feel of his sliding shaft against my wet pussy, and he took me higher and higher on a wave of lust, until I felt my inner walls clench against him, and suddenly I was exploding around him, calling his name as I came in wave after wave. From far away, I heard him groan loudly and then felt his release as he came inside me. As I began to float back to earth, I heard him whispering my name and felt him stroking my hair. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around him to keep him inside me as I drifted off to sleep.
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
“Baby… Baby, wake up… Shhhhhh..... it’s okay…”
Smoke’s voice came to me as I jolted awake from a nightmare. It had been almost a week since the Liana episode, and I had been plagued by bad dreams almost every night since. My eyes were wide as I scanned for imaginary intruders in Smoke’s bedroom, which was bathed in the soft, surreal light of early morning. This time, I had been having a dream about being held at gunpoint. Or was that real? My brain struggled to emerge from the blackness. No, I remembered, it wasn’t real. In the dream, I had been tied up and gagged, held hostage in a huge, empty warehouse. The gun pointed at me was not Liana’s but a huge semiautomatic, pointed at me by a large man in the cut of a rival MC.
I gasped and fought back tears of relief as I slumped against Smoke’s warm body. He stroked my hair and continued to murmur soothing words. “What happened, darlin’?” he asked.
“Bad dream,” I choked. “Someone from the Iron Alliance had me… he was going to kill me… or worse…” My voice broke as I turned my face into his chest.
“The thing with Liana really got to you, didn’t it, baby girl? Don’t worry, honey, no one’s gonna come around to bother you again. I’m here. I’ll keep you safe.”
“It’s not just Liana. It’s…” I struggled with how to finish my sentence, but the words wouldn’t come. “Besides, how can you promise I’ll be safe?” I asked pointedly. “You can’t be with me twenty-four seven.”
“That’s true. But I will always come for you. Believe that.” Smoke’s expression was intense as he looked into my eyes. “Do you?”
“Yes,” I breathed. And I did. But would he alw
ays come for me in time?
He kissed me on the forehead. “Listen, I want to show you something. Have you ever shot a gun?” he asked.
I frowned. “Yeah, a few times. My dad took me to the gun range a few times when I was younger. Said it was a good idea for anyone to have a basic knowledge.”
“Good. Your dad was right,” Smoke said. “You and I are going to go out and do some target shooting one of these days real soon. But in the meantime,” he continued, leaning over to open a drawer of his nightstand, “I want you to know where this is.” He pulled out a handgun and hefted it in his hand, then handed it to me. “Careful. It’s loaded. This is a Glock 19. It’s a little heavy for you, but it will blow the head off of any son of a bitch who comes at you.”
I held the weight of the cold, black steel in my hands for a moment, then handed the gun back to him with distaste. Revulsion filled me; I couldn’t imagine ever having to use this against someone. “Okay, now I feel even more in danger than I did before. So, you’re basically telling me I need to be able to defend myself, which basically means there will be people to defend myself against. Don’t you think I at least ought to know who is going to be coming after me?”
“Don’t worry, darlin’, you’re not in any danger,” Smoke said, his tone soothing.
“How am I supposed to believe that?” I retorted, my frustration evident in my tone. “You say everything is fine, but you keep me in the dark so I can’t judge for myself. You don’t tell me what’s up with club business, and I have to assume that’s because there are things happening in the club that put me at risk. How am I not to think I’m in danger when you break up with me if I dare to ask what’s going on?”
Los Perdidos: The Novel (Sons of Glory Motorcycle Club Romance) Page 8
