“You bitches about ready to head out?” Lips asks, as her and Nikki walk over. We are so deep in thought over Michael, neither of us noticed them. Both of us jump in reaction. Luckily neither woman seems to notice it—or at least they don’t bring it up.
“Go?” I ask and I know my voice is squeaky and strained.
“Yeah bitch, it’s our last fitting? Those damn pink dresses you’re making us squeeze our asses into?” Nikki complains.
Oh shit, I completely forgot about it.
“Yeah, give me a minute to tell Dragon bye and we’ll head out.” I try to smile reassuringly at Dani and walk down the hall to Dragon’s office.
I don’t knock on the door immediately, I stand outside and try to listen. Is that not messed up? Trying to listen to what my man is saying? I hate the feeling it gives me. I hate Michael all over again. I thought we were done with him. What kind of mad man doesn’t give up after years… hell, almost five fucking years? Oh yeah, a lunatic, that’s who!
I can’t hear a damn thing through the heavy door. My hand goes to the doorknob. What would happen if I open it slightly, just to hear? Would Dragon notice? I start to do it, when the door opens and Dragon is standing in front of me. My heart beats in triple time. Does he know what I’m thinking? Does he know what is happening?
“Nicole? What’s going on, Mama?”
Fear, intense and real, and I haven’t even done anything yet! Still, that’s the feeling that swamps me. I try to swallow it down.
“I…I wanted to say goodbye to you. We’re headed out to the fitting.” Does he notice how I’m not looking him in the eye? I can’t do this. I’m going to talk to Dani. I can’t keep things from Dragon. Besides, Michael is dangerous. Dragon needs to know, to be prepared.
His finger reaches under my chin and pulls my face up so that our eyes meet.
“You okay, Mama? Camera showed you were out here for a while. You’re not sick are you? Do you need me?”
“I…I’m good,” I say swallowing down the guilt as I take in the concern on his face. “I love you, Dragon.”
He smiles, and like always, his smile and the way it makes those deep brown eyes of his light up, warms me. God, this man is beautiful.
“What do you say I make you late for your fitting?” He asks, his fingers gently stroking the side of my face.
“How late?” I whisper, not really caring.
He grabs the cheeks of my ass and pulls me up on his body. Because of my pregnancy it takes some work but I semi-wrap my legs around him and lock my arms around his neck. I bury my face into the side of his neck and just breathe him in. Dragon is home. The only home I’ve ever known or wanted.
“We’ll send your girls on and they can do it without you.”
It’s so tempting and I really want to, but I feel guilty. I should stick close to Dani. Dragon’s kissing along the side of my neck. He bites the lobe of my ear and flicks his tongue over it and I lose focus. We walk back through the front room of the club. The club members instantly start their hollering and ribbing. You would think they would get accustomed to Dragon and me by now. I can’t even count how many times he’s run people out of the room so he could bend me over the bar. Apparently, today, he’d rather take me back to our room. I’m totally okay with that.
“Woman! We’re going to be late!” I hear Lips yell in the background.
“I need you riding my cock, Mama. I can’t wait to feel that greedy pussy of yours sinking down on me.” Dragon whispers in my ear to distract me. I love that my man has such a filthy mouth. Sometimes, I think I can come from his words alone.
“Give me ten minutes!” I holler back in the direction of my girls. Wishing my stomach was just a little smaller because I can’t bend down and torture his nipples like I want. I miss the days when I was more flexible, especially when it comes to our lovemaking.
Dragon’s hands bite into the cheeks of my ass.
“Fuck, Mama, I’m going to need more than ten minutes.”
“Make that thirty minutes,” I call back and somehow I can hear Dragon’s soft laugh over the hard beating of my heart and the yelling by the club members.
“Mama, thirty minutes will barely get us started.”
I smile against his throat and then lean to whisper in his ear.
“I think you can do it if you try really hard.”
“I get much harder and you won’t be able to walk when we’re done.”
“Promises, promises.”
“Nicole, you’re always busting my ass,” he says laughing as we cross the threshold to our room and he uses his body and foot to close the door to our room.
He lays me on the bed and, for just this one minute, I forget all about Dani and the problems coming our way and just enjoy being with my man—my soon-to-be-husband.
“Have I told you today how much I love you, Dragon?”
He stands over me, his eyes on mine and I know in that moment there has never been a time when I have loved him more.
“Are you okay, Mama?” He asks.
“When I’m with you, I’m perfect,” I answer truthfully.
“This pregnancy is making my woman emotional,” he says using his thumb to wipe away a tear that falls from my eye.
I can’t help the tears. I should be telling Dragon everything that’s going on, and I really shouldn’t be hiding things from him. I really shouldn’t be spying on him. If he knew, it would hurt him; destroy him. Just the thought brings another tear. I’ll tell Dani this evening. I have to let Dragon know, I can’t keep secrets from him.
“Make love to me, Dragon,” I beg needing his touch to wipe the rest of the world away—at least for now.
Chapter 5
Dragon
I watch as my woman piles into the SUV that Crusher is driving. She’s riding in the back with Dani and Nikki. Lips is riding up front. Something is off and I’m not sure what it is. It’s weighing my woman down heavily and I don’t like it. I couldn’t get her to talk to me about it, but I haven’t given up; I’ll get it out of her eventually. It’s probably just wedding stuff. Lord knows it’s stressing me out, and I don’t even give a fuck about it. Hell, long as my ring ends up on Nicole’s finger, I’m good.
“Yo! Boss, we got that information you asked for,” Torch calls, claiming my attention. With one last glance at my woman, I turn around.
I have this damn feeling in the pit of my stomach. I can’t explain what it is, but it feels like I’m a bundle of nerves and my skin is crawling, like I’m being watched. It’s instinct. A skill honed in blood and death when I served overseas. It’s never let me down, so I know there is shit about to hit the fan. It fucking pisses me off. Ever since Irish’s betrayal it’s been one thing after another—like the motherfucker put a damned curse on the club. It’s made worse, because I miss the fucking traitor. Every-fucking-day, I miss him. What kind of screwed up shit is that? I’ve never admitted that to anyone, not even Nicole. What man leads others and misses a traitor, like he was still a brother? It wars in my brain. There are days I want to shed tears for the fucker. His screams haunt me, and then there are other days I want him back here, so I can fucking kill him again.
I look around at the sour faces in my office and hell, I know my day is only going to get worse. Earlier, the boys had found footage of a stranger prowling around the outside of the fence surrounding the club. The man seemed to be taking pictures. He stayed in the shadows and used a zoom lens, so he never got close enough for us to get a good picture of him. I was hoping when Torch told me he had information for me, we had somehow managed to find out who the fucker was. From the look on the faces around me, I’m thinking that’s not happening.
“Spill it.”
Frog, Freak, Torch, and Hawk are sitting around the table and not a damned one of them looks happy. Again, I feel sadness. None of my brothers I bled and fought with are here. Bull is back from the rehab, but he’s not the same. Hell, he’s not even here at the meeting. No one has seen him today. He leaves e
arly and doesn’t get back until late in the night. When he is here, he talks to no one. I’m going to have to deal with it soon. I can’t allow it to get to the point it did with Dance…
“Well, one of you motherfuckers start talking. I got shit to do,” I growl, more because I can’t seem to shut my brain down these days.
“Yeah, like finding a monkey suit,” Freak returns.
“Screw you, I didn’t hear you telling Nikki no.”
“Woman sucked my dick like a Hoover, didn’t have the brains left to say no,” Freak jokes.
I slap him on the back of the head, not arguing, because that’s pretty much how Nicole gets her way.
“So, what the fuck is going on?”
“Someone was prowling around the Den last night. First we thought it was just a drunk wandering around in the parking lot, but not many drunks in this area that we don’t know.”
“True.”
“Sure aren’t any drunks around here who wear expensive suits,” Freak adds, punching some buttons on his keyboard and the screen zooms in on an older man, maybe in his late forties, with a suit and hat on. His steps are sure, not drunk at all and everything about him screams that he is on alert. He keeps glancing over his back to see if he is being followed. His head is tucked close and aimed at an angle that’s next to impossible to get a good view of his face. Shit.
“Can you get a look at his face at all?” I ask watching as he walks toward Nicole’s old Mercedes that Dani drives now.
I made Nicole switch to one of the club’s Tahoes. The safety rating is better and it has more room for the baby; plus, it’s four wheel drive. She bitched and moaned, but gave in eventually.
“There’s a sketchy picture of his face, as he walks back to the club. This camera is on the outside light overlooking employee parking,” Freak answers.
“What’s he doing?”
“He’s putting a note on the windshield of Dani’s car, you can’t really see it,” Freak says.
“Maybe he’s just trying to pick her up? Lot of those men get attached to the dancers,” Frog joins in.
“Possible, though Dani’s not mentioned anything happening that was unusual.”
“Bitch wouldn’t,” Torch says, and Freak throws an elbow into him.
I don’t understand it, but Dani and Freak seem to have formed this weird platonic friendship. Or at least I think it is. Hell, as jealous as Nikki is, if it isn’t, we’ll find Dani dead in a ditch somewhere. That bitch is not one to mess with.
“I would have gone with the stalker fan theory, but watch what the son of a bitch does here.”
As soon as Freak gets the sentence out, we watch as the man squats down and monkeys under the car.
“Lo-jack?”
Freak motions to Hawk and Hawk hands me a small black box. A tracker, and a pretty expensive one. We’ve used them from time to time in the club. So much for hoping the club had dealt with enough drama for a while. Fuck.
“It could still be a crazy stalker,” Hawk says.
“To afford that kind of technology?” Freak questions and he knows exactly how expensive the little toy I’m holding costs. Our club has spent a crap-load on them in the past.
“So, he’s a crazy-rich-off-his-ass Stalker,” Hawk responds, but you can tell he’s not convinced. I’m not either.
I keep watching the screen, holding the tracker in my hand. The guy makes it through the parking lot almost to the front of the Den and raises his head briefly. Freak freezes the image on the screen. It’s piss-poor quality but you can see him even through the shaded, grainy picture. Trouble is, I don’t recognize him at all.
“Is he the same guy that was sneaking around the outside gates before?”
“The build is def’ the same. I’d say it is Drag, but there’s no way to be sure,” Torch responds.
“Beef up security. Have the prospects watching like their lives depend on it. Fuck, if we have some more shit hitting the club, their lives will depend on it.” I growl and stomp out of the room.
I’m pissed. I think Nicole knows what’s going on. I just don’t understand why she hasn’t talked to me about it. I’m going to have to have some words with her about it all. It pisses me off even more that once again it is her girl causing drama. I hope I’m wrong. I really fucking hope that I am, and Dani is not about to cause another fucking shit-storm to hit the club.
That dread I’ve been feeling clawing at my gut? The one where it feels like there are shoes hanging over my head about to drop? That feeling tells me I’m not wrong.
Chapter 6
Nicole
The thing about dreams? They never seem to work out like you want them to. I’m in the middle of Mountain Bridal, with my best girls around me (save Carrie, who will be back this weekend) and I’m miserable. I’m miserable because Dani has retreated back into the woman who begged me for help all those years ago. I’m miserable because I tried to spy on my future-husband. I’m miserable because in a round-about way I lied to him. Most of all, I’m completely miserable, because there is this wall between Dragon and I now. A wall I put there. A wall I need to break down and smash into a hundred thousand different pieces.
I can’t, not until I can draw Dani out of this place she’s withdrawn to. I can’t even touch it right now though, there are too many around us. Trying will only bring disaster, because Nikki and Lips will hear. If I tell anyone what is going on, it will be Dragon. I just wish I had already done it.
“I still think you should let the boys wear leather. It could be cool. Kind of a ‘Grease’ wedding with them in their leather and us wearing pink.” I look at Lips for like the twelfth time.
“My wedding is not going to be an Olivia-Newton-John musical. Not to mention, Dragon is a million times fucking cooler than John Travolta.”
“True dat,” Nikki chimes in. “Besides, it took me way too fucking long to convince Freak to wear a suit.”
“How did you convince him?” Dani asks. She’s sitting alone, holding herself away from us. It’s a bad sign. One that means I have a very limited time frame in which to talk with her. All the girls except Nikki, who is on a round like pedestal at the moment, have been fitted. There’s a lady going around putting pins in Nikki’s dress, while we watch. I’m so ready for this fitting to be over. I would never admit it to Dragon, but I’m starting to regret demanding a big wedding. I don’t even know why I did. I just wanted something big to mark my marriage to him. It might be a fucked up fairytale, but it was my fairytale and I wanted it to be celebrated. I was stupid. I should have dragged Dragon’s ass to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, found a chapel, married him and been done with it. Every day that we get closer to our wedding my panic increases. I have this fear that I never will get my happily ever after.
“I threatened to tell the world what his real name was,” Nikki says bringing my head back around to the conversation.
“I figured it was blow jobs, that’s how I did it with Dragon.”
The woman pinning Nikki’s dress looks up and blushes, then buries her face in the pink satin. I look over at Dani, she half-way smiles. It’s something.
“Oh, that probably didn’t hurt.” Nikki agrees. “Well that, and the private party we had with Crush.”
“Fuck me! You little hooker!” Lips responds.
Nikki flips her off. “Like you haven’t taken a ride on the Crush train.”
“Not in a long time. Six is not a sharer.”
“Sucks for you.” Nikki pipes up.
“Not so much. Six knows how to work it. Can’t deny it though, Crush did some magic shit.”
“Girl, you don’t lie.”
I’m looking over at Dani and notice the conversation has grabbed her attention. It surprises me to see the distaste on her face. I know for a fact that since Dani has broken away from Michael, she has no problem having threesomes, or what-the-heck-ever else. I don’t understand it exactly; it doesn’t jive with the young Dani I met. Still, it’s further proof that the Dani that survived M
ichael is not the Dani that I once knew. He took everything from her, most notably her innocence.
I notice the girl that is pinning Nikki’s dress is blushing like crazy. The boys of the Savage MC would eat her alive, it would probably be the best thing that could happen to her. Maybe I should introduce her to Frog? That boy needs a new name. I don’t understand most of the names the boys have. Dragon, of course, but the others leave me shaking my head. He told me once that Dancer got his name because he used to be a big street boxer. I shudder to think how Frog got his.
“I need a drink,” Dani speaks up, rising off of the chair, in the corner, she’s been brooding in.
“Sounds good girl, but if I don’t get back, Six will send out a search party.”
“Freak too,” Nikki adds, “we’re supposed to go to Tennessee today to pick up some shit that the boys ordered.”
“I’m out of here,” Dani says already heading to the door.
“I think I’ll join Dani. Lips, can you have Crusher come back and pick us up?”
“Yeah, where’d he go?” She asks.
“He said something about all the dresses and pink was making his cock fall off,” Nikki says.
“Can’t have that.”
“Girl, you ain’t lying,” I hear Nikki agree before I run to catch up with Dani, who just went out the door.
“Hold up, Dani!” I grumble.
She stops on the sidewalk and turns to look at me.
“Dragon will flip if you don’t show up with the other women.”
“We need to talk.”
“I’m getting a drink.”
“Then we’ll talk over drinks.”
Dani gives me the what-the-fuck-are-you-talking-about look and motions at my stomach.
I roll my eyes.
“I’ll have chocolate milk.”
Dani looks up at the sky. “This is what my life has come to. We’ll go to Weavers, I doubt the Den or Pussy’s even has chocolate milk.”
Trusting Bull: Savage Brothers MC Page 42
