Rusty Nail

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Raven pulled the cookie jar closer and peered inside.

  “Are those little blue pills what I think they are?” Raven asked carefully.

  Alison grinned.

  I, however, did not.

  I’d been on the receiving end of the ‘little blue pill joke.’ And I hadn’t liked it. Not one bit.

  My cock hadn’t liked it either.

  I’d stayed hard for nearly eight hours, and that was the most painful eight hours of my whole existence.

  Even when I was shot in the head, it wasn’t that bad.

  Any other pain, I’d found, was something I could ignore if I had a need to.

  A raging erection with no way, nor time, to alleviate it was a major pain in the ass. Especially when you were in court the whole fucking day.

  “What happened?” Raven asked, reading my face.

  I looked over at Alison whose shoulders were shaking as she filled up her mug, and I glared at her, not bothering to answer.

  Mig, the shithead, did.

  “Wolf had gotten into a skirmish the night before,” Mig said, his eyes lit up in mirth.

  I had to laugh at Mig’s words. The fight hadn’t been a ‘skirmish.’ It’d been a knockdown, drag-out fight that had nearly ended with me losing half my hand.

  Lucky for me, the man I was bringing down had been too drunk to see which end of the ax he’d swung at me.

  To protect my face, I’d thrown up my hand in hopes to halt its forward progression toward my face, and found myself with a throbbing hand to show for it.

  After subduing the guy, I’d taken him to the sheriff’s office, gone to the clubhouse for a quick shower and a few hours of shut eye. The next morning, I had hurriedly grabbed a couple of pills before heading to the courthouse two towns over to testify in a case I’d been a part of.

  I’d hurriedly tossed back two pain pills, but what I hadn’t realized was that as a joke, one of the members had put a bottle of Viagra—an erection inducing pill that helped you stay hard for hours—into the cookie jar.

  I’d swallowed a pill along with my pain pill, not realizing what I’d taken until later that morning.

  “And while he was in court the whole day, he had a raging erection that wouldn’t go down for nothin’,” Mig continued with the story.

  My grimace didn’t even stop him from telling it all, all the way down to the very nitty gritty.

  “So he’s sitting on the stand, sweating fucking buckets, and he’s dying of blue balls,” Mig persists. “We all wondered what the hell was going on, but never figured it out until later that night when he comes in, hot as a hornet, and walks straight to the cookie jar and finds those in it.”

  Raven burst out laughing, her eyes filled with happiness as she turned to me.

  “That’s…funny,” she grins. “I’m sorry.”

  “It was funny. But he’s never let us forget what happened to him,” Mig supplies. “Fucking hilarious, but he’s gotten us all back a time or two now.”

  “How?” Raven asks, her eyes wide.

  Mig grimaces.

  “There are a lot of pills that look like that white one in your hand,” Mig gestures to the pill that Raven had yet to take.

  Raven’s eyes went wide, and she looked at the pill like it was some mutant that was about to kill her.

  “It’s the right one,” I told her. “The pill has those markings right there.”

  I indicated the letters in the pill, and her whole body sagged with relief.

  “Good,” she whispered, searching the room for something.

  “Drink?” I questioned.

  She nodded, and I walked to the fridge.

  Pulling out a Coke and a water, I held them both up to her.

  “Which one?” I asked.

  She pointed to the water, and I put the Coke back before handing the water over.

  She took the pill and downed half the water.

  I looked at her in surprise.

  “That’s impressive,” I said.

  “Would be more impressive if she could do that with a beer and not water,” Mig offered as he left the room.

  Raven giggled, and I took another step away from her.

  Giggling wasn’t normally something that did it for me, but those cute sounds coming out of that mouth made my deflating dick start to harden once again.

  She frowned at my sudden departure, but I turned my back on her and walked out of the kitchen, straight to the living room window that overlooked the lake.

  The clubhouse was an open concept house. The kitchen flowed into the living room and dining room. It appeared to be one large room, and each side of the large area had doors that led to hallways. The hallways led to the bedrooms that flanked each side of the house. Four on one side, and three on the other.

  One of those rooms we used as our meeting room, or ‘church’ as some of us liked to call it.

  My eyes took in the river that swelled over its usual banks, coming to just a few feet from the balcony instead of where it typically stopped, about fifteen feet from the balcony.

  Caddo Lake was beautiful anytime, but in early spring when the trees had the fresh green leaves of new life was my favorite.

  The water being up so high didn’t take away from the natural beauty of the lake, but instead enhanced it.

  My eyes went to a boat that I’d seen passing by when we’d arrived earlier, and I narrowed my eyes on them.

  It was a flat bottom boat similar to the ones we were using to carry us from the end of the driveway to the clubhouse, but this one had a shiny little motor on the back that was way too big for such a small vessel.

  My anger grew as I saw the kids doing donuts in the boat, circling it around so fast that the wake started to wash up onto the back deck, coming perilously close to the back door.

  Gritting my teeth, I walked outside, ignoring the way the water rushed up against my feet, and walked to the balcony.

  Lifting my fingers to my lips, I whistled sharply, causing the boys to look up and stop what they were doing.

  Knowing what would work best, I reached into my back pocket where I’d stashed my badge, and held it up high for them to see.

  The boys froze, and each looked at the other before waving in understanding.

  Hooking the badge to my belt, I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at them until they understood.

  They rode off, but this time they were mindful of the ‘no wake zone’ that the entire fucking river had been designated.

  Thinking they needed a little more scare in their blood, I withdrew my phone from my pocket and quickly tapped out Core’s number.

  Core was our newest member, and also a game warden that patrolled our area.

  Knowing he’d be close, I hit send and waited for him to answer.

  “Yeah?” Core answered.

  “Where are you?” I asked without a greeting.

  “About two minutes up the lake at the only boat ramp left. Why?” he asked, sounding distracted.

  Perfect.

  “There’s about to be a fourteen-foot flat bottom making its way to you. They’re not heeding the no wake zone,” I informed him.

  “Dammit. Nobody is. I’m going to have to get out there and inform them of their blatant disregard for the rules and probably ticket them for it,” Core growled.

  Core, not one to be moody even at the worst of times, sounded downright pissed off.

  I wondered if his day had been as bad as mine but chose not to question him right now.

  During my phone call, Raven had made her way out to the porch and was now leaning on the railing beside me, her eyes taking in the lake before us.

  “Well, you can start with those two,” I told him.

  “Got it. Later,” Core hung up and I stuffed my phone back into my pocket.

  “Your skin is kind of tanned for it being only April,” Raven observed from my side.

  I turned my head d
own to look at her, then shrugged.

  “Mow without a shirt on,” I informed her. “And my mother is half-Hispanic.”

  She lifted her head in understanding.

  “Got it,” she said. “Dante and Travis are here. A big, older man told me to tell you.”

  I nodded my head and turned back for the door, opening it and holding it open for Raven to pass through.

  “Take a seat on the couch. You look like you’re about to fall over,” I ordered.

  She gave me a weak smile. “Pain meds knock me out. If y’all don’t hurry, I’ll be snoring away on the couch while y’all are talking.”

  I lifted my head in understanding, then looked up to find Alison.

  “Can you get her some coffee?” I asked. “I need her coherent for what I’m telling them.”

  Alison nodded from her perch against the kitchen counter and turned to get a coffee cup down from the cabinet above her head.

  “How do you take it, sweetie?” Alison asked.

  I took that as my cue to head to my room at the very back of the left hallway.

  I headed straight for the dresser where I kept clean shirts and pants, as well as a few valuables that I might need.

  My place was about forty-five minutes away from this one, and pretty inconvenient to hit up when I was in need of something.

  Hence, why I was usually here on the days that Nathan stayed with his grandma.

  Which was what he was doing tonight, thank God.

  My head was not in the right place, and after the day I’d just had, I needed to be careful.

  Once I was fully dressed, I walked back out into the kitchen to find Raven sandwiched in between Travis and Dante, who looked none too happy about being here.

  “Well, now that you’ve finally decided to grace us with your presence, how about you get started so we can leave. This place is making it hard to breathe,” Travis growled.

  I looked at him, studied the tightness around his mouth, and nodded.

  “I came to you to ask if you could find whomever is trying to steal my identity; but I can now see that it’s not going to work,” I replied. “I have other contacts.”

  Dante’s mouth tightened, and Travis’ eyebrows shot up.

  “You came to ask me for a favor?” he blurted.

  Travis was a good man. He never told someone in need no…unless it was me. Then he had absolutely no problem saying no.

  “Yes,” I replied. “But I’ve already called in other favors, so I’ll no longer be needing your help. Raven, however, does need your help. If what I suspect is true, whomever is doing this is targeting everyone that was involved in my sister’s kidnapping, including Raven.”

  Travis sighed, opened his mouth, but Raven beat him to it.

  “You think someone’s trying to steal my identity?” she asked.

  I shrugged.

  “At this point, I’m not real sure of anything, I just have some suspicions,” I responded. “Four days ago I tried using my bank card and got denied. An hour after that, I called and heard that my accounts had been frozen due to fraudulent activity.” I walked to the coffee pot and poured myself a drink, nodding at Alison’s sympathetic gaze before turning back to Dante and Travis who were now turned around in their seats and facing me. “Lucky for me, I still had my account under Abby’s name, and they didn’t find all of my information. That changed a day later, but I’d already moved all of my money to a different account under a different name.”

  Travis kept staring, so I continued.

  “My car insurance was canceled along with my driver’s license, health insurance, and my fucking storage facility. Everything credit-wise that I had in my name was compromised,” I explained.

  “What about your house…your bike?” Travis asked, his attention caught.

  “Paid for. No bank loans,” I answered.

  “What makes you think Raven’s in the same boat?” Travis asked. “It could be isolated to just you.”

  I shook my head.

  “Her insurance was declined today,” I informed them.

  “That shouldn’t be. We pay her insurance,” Dante murmured, adding his input now.

  I nodded my head. “I know.”

  “What else do you have?” Dante countered.

  “Credit card bills being opened in my name. Checks being written all over town. My water company called and asked if I was sure I wanted to cancel service,” I persisted. “Everything that has my name attached to it is being affected.”

  “You’ve looked into it?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “My sister’s having much of the same problem. Her husband is a firefighter, who’s not being affected. Yet. Luckily, most of the things in my sister’s name are already paid for.”

  “Do you have any leads?” Dante asked.

  “Not at first, no.” I relied. “Last week, though, my sister said she was having some trouble with her credit card. So I started to get suspicious.” I took a sip of my coffee, then set it down by my left elbow. “Not everybody in the entire MC was starting to have the similar problems with their credit so I started trying to figure out why just certain brothers were involved. The only ones who helped me in the case of my sister’s kidnapping, who were mentioned in the police report, were Griffin, Mig and Casten. Pairing that with my sister and her husband, and now hearing that Raven’s insurance isn’t working starts to confirm my suspicions. That was how my sister’s started.”

  Travis’ eyes went narrow as I spoke.

  “I can run a few searches when I get home,” Travis muttered.

  Raven’s eyes went from me to Travis, her eyes wide and surprised. “You told me you don’t like computers.”

  “That’s ‘cause Trav likes to break into places he’s not allowed to. If he can’t do what he wants, he doesn’t do it at all,” Dante said absently. “Anything besides the identities?”

  “Not yet,” I muttered, picking my coffee back up.

  And I did mean that. It hadn’t happened…yet. But it would. This was only the beginning.

  The beginning that hopefully was caught before it could get too out of control.

  Chapter 4

  Forgive and forget. Fuck that and fuck you, fucking fucker.

  -Raven’s secret thoughts

  Raven

  “I’ll take care of your accounts as soon as I get home,” Travis climbed up the steps ahead of me.

  “Thank you,” I replied to his back, snorting when he kept walking without looking back.

  I should’ve known that would be how he reacted.

  The man loved a challenge, and that’d been something I’d witnessed a lot over the last few months since I’d been working with him.

  I was still amused to know that he actually liked computers. I thought that he disliked them due to his inability to use one with those fat fingers of his. To my surprise, he was not only comfortable working with the computer, but he was actually good at it.

  Opening my door with the wrong hand proved to be a challenge, but it worked out well enough.

  “No!” I yelled. “Don’t jump!”

  My dog, a white German Shepherd that I’d somehow become the proud new owner of the week before I’d left, jumped anyway, but not on my body.

  He jumped in front of the door to ensure that I couldn’t open it.

  The door threw open with a slam, and I sighed.

  “That was almost my fingers, you big beast,” I growled, walking past him to the couch that was directly in line with the front door.

  The TV, which I know for a fact I didn’t leave on, was blaring, and I turned another glare on Marky Mark.

  Marky Mark looked at me with those big brown eyes of his, jaw hanging open wide, and tongue lolling.

  Marky Mark wasn’t his real name. When I came home and found him in my yard, no one was laying claim to him. It was the week before I was to leave Kilgore, so with no other recourse, I decided to keep
him, and I renamed him. He didn’t respond to it at first, but eventually he came around.

  Marky Mark hadn’t been the original name that I’d used, but then I’d gotten home the first time, after deciding to keep him, and found the TV blaring with Marky Mark playing on an old show on MTV.

  After teasing him about being a Marky Mark fan, I’d decided to use that as his name.

  He seemed accepting enough, and that had been that.

  He didn’t like it quiet while he was home alone, and it took a smart dog to turn the TV on by himself, but he managed it.

  I no longer worried about how it’d gotten on.

  After it happened in the middle of the night a few weeks ago, I’d gotten up and turned it off, only for it to turn on again not two minutes later.

  After turning it off a second time, I’d caught Marky Mark pressing his wet nose to the button on the front of the TV, and realized that it was my dog doing it—not some psycho who liked to see me scared out of my mind.

  “Seriously, though.” I shook the TV changer at him. “All you have to do is turn it on. You don’t have to turn it up so high that the neighbors hear it!”

  When he didn’t respond or even blink and act like he acknowledged me, I tossed the TV changer onto the couch and walked to the kitchen.

  Immediately upon arriving, I opened the puke green fridge that I’d found at a garage sale and reached inside for an adult beverage.

  AKA a Mountain Dew. My weakness.

  A weakness that I hadn’t had before being kidnapped.

  During our captivity, we’d only been served tea. And not even good tea at that.

  The moment I’d gotten saved—by Wolf—I’d asked for something to drink.

  The only thing Wolf had was a Mountain Dew. It’d been so good—so fucking perfect—that I drank them just to remind myself that I was alive.

  This time I drank it with a pain killer I’d stolen from the communal cookie jar at the Uncertain Saints’ clubhouse just before I’d left.

  Tomorrow, I’d go fill my prescriptions, but until then this would work just fine.

  I’d just swallowed my first pill when I decided that maybe I should’ve eaten like my doctor, as well as Wolf, had instructed me to.

  The moment I looked into the fridge, though, I realized how futile that endeavor was.