“To the man about to get married,” Rock said. “May you fuck her until all of Redding can hear her scream!”
“Yeah!” the guys exclaimed.
I shook my head and tossed back another beer as I leaned against the bar. The music struck up and everyone lit up their cigarettes. The bar grew smoky and earthy as the other patrons began to grind and flood the bathrooms for their quickies. I made sure we paid the bartenders well for nights like these. Because cleaning up come-stained bathroom floors deserved a livable wage as far as I was concerned. I felt good. Free. Lighter than I’d felt in a very long time.
I threw back five shots with five beers before I slowed myself down a bit.
The music roared and the cigarette smoke grew thick. It smelled like home, is what it smelled like. The guys were rowdy and shooting the shit. Arm wrestling and playing all sorts of idiotic games. We knew how to man up, but we also knew how to party down. And after killing one of our own in a shootout in the middle of the fucking woods, my men deserved a moment to unleash.
“Care for another one, handsome?”
I looked up at the bartender only known as ‘Candy’ before I grinned.
“I’m the engaged one, but sure. I’d like another,” I said.
“Well, congratulations. Who’s the lucky gal?” she asked.
She made me up another flaming shot before sliding it to me. I blew out the flame and tossed it back, growling at the burn as it seeped down my throat. My head spun. The room tilted. Fuck. I needed to stop myself before I got so drunk I ended up doing something stupid.
“Really?”
The sound of her voice ripped me from my trance. I looked over to my side and saw Brynn standing there, her arms crossed over her chest. Her engagement ring glistened in the lighting of the backlit bar, and I had to squint in order to keep my focus on her face.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
Not the right question to ask any woman. I knew that the moment the words left my lips.
Brynn scoffed and shook her head before she turned around to leave. And even though I went to reach for her, my reflexes were way too slow. She stormed by the guys as they held their hands up, their eyes full of mischievous delight as she pushed by all of them.
“Brynn!?”
I slid from the stool and stumbled on my feet. Damn it. Why the hell had I let the guys get me so damn drunk? And what the hell was Brynn doing here anyway? Had she come all this way to see me?
Why would she do that?”
“Brynn!”
But the second I heard the bar door slam, I knew it was her that had walked out. And I leaned onto every chair and stumbled into every table to try and go after her.
I would always go after her.
No matter how many times she walked away from me.
Chapter 10
Brynn
The whole next day, I thought of Diesel and our deal. Of how I felt about it. My father had gotten a call from him the next morning and the Black Hornets called an emergency meeting to vote. They all piled into my father’s house as I sat in the kitchen, my engagement ring on display for all of them to see. Family. Diesel was officially family, so they all voted a unanimous decision to protect the Dead Souls and get them out of all the shit they had dug themselves into.
Though I still didn’t know all that had happened.
I heard Dean and Diesel talking on the phone, and I caught enough to know my father was informing them of the club’s decision. And all day, my mind had been preoccupied with what was happening around me. What type of trouble was Diesel in? What all had transpired while I was gone? I couldn’t get any answers out of my father, so I figured Diesel would talk with me.
Going into Redding for the day would get me away from my father, who was already spouting off about the wedding to make things official.
I needed to know what was going on. I needed to know what I had gotten myself into.
Despite my father’s insistence, I drove into Redding alone. I told him I was going to find Diesel, so I’d be fine for the twenty minute drive. He didn’t believe me, so I told him I would text him once I found Diesel. Then, I sent him a fake message. Told him I’d found him in the middle of town in a grocery store. That got my father off my back, and it gave me time to think.
And trust me, I did a lot of thinking.
I didn’t know where to start looking for Diesel, but it didn’t stop me from trying. I drove around town and ducked into some places that would’ve seemed like him. The local leather and lace shop. A few of the mechanic garages. Some of the dive bars and eateries in town. I even did stop into the grocery store and aimlessly walked around to see if he would come in.
But the second the sun set and I saw the sign for Skull and Bones, I knew he would be there.
Especially with all the bikes sitting out front.
I recognized his instantly. A completely blacked-out bike to match his brooding stare. The only color on it besides the chrome of the brake handles was the logo of his crew painted onto both sides of his bike. I parked my car and saw the cigarette smoke already pouring out the door.
And I heard the rowdy drunkenness ensuing inside.
Diesel had never been that kind of guy. He wasn’t a partier. Never had been. And sure, people changed. But part of me hoped he hadn’t changed in that regard. Drunkenness was something I couldn’t stand. The sloppiness of it all and the slurred words. The actions done in the heat of the moment that someone usually regretted later. Getting drunk and doing anything was never a good idea. I walked up to the entrance of the bar and pushed through, hoping and praying Diesel was off in some corner watching everyone else drink and have a good time.
Yet there he was, right in the thick of it, throwing back a shot and trying to keep himself upright.
I stood there and watched. The guys slapped him on the back and I took every one of them in. I didn’t recognize any of them. But I could tell they were all close. I watched as a very large, very tall, very loud man ordered the entire bar another round of shots and I waved mine away. So, the extra shot was placed in front of Diesel
“To the man about to get married,” the brute one said. “May you fuck her until all of Redding can hear her scream!”
“Yeah!”
Diesel was all smiles as he threw his shot back. Everyone in the bar banged on their tables as I stood there in disgust. Really? A fucking Bachelor party? For a fake engagement? If he thought he was fucking me until anything happened, he was sorely mistaken. If he thought some fake-ass engagement would get him anywhere near my naked body drunk the way he was, then he was sorely mistaken.
I almost turned to leave.
Until the bartender approached Diesel.
I didn’t know who she was, but I didn’t like the way she was looking at Diesel. Those heart eyes with that bleach blonde hair and her tits pushed up to her chin. She practically hung them over the bar so Diesel could have a look. I had no idea if he was looking, but he sure as hell was drunk enough to. He could hardly keep himself upright in the pathetic excuse for a bar stool. I slowly walked towards him, watching the bartender smile and smooth her hand over his arm.
What the fuck did that woman think she was doing?
“I’m the engaged one, but sure. I’d like another,” Diesel said.
Oh, great. He was okay with being engaged but also okay with being a completely drunken asshole. Wonderful. I stood there with my arms folded, waiting for him to turn his head away from the bartender. Waiting to disengage his eyes from hers so he could pay attention to what was happening around him.
But he never once looked away from her.
“Well, congratulations. Who’s the lucky gal?” she asked.
I stood right beside Diesel and watched him blow out the shot before he tossed it back. He grimaced, and for a split second I thought the man was going to vomit. Then he placed his shot glass upside down onto the bar before he suppressed what would’ve been a very loud, very disgusting belch.
Diesel’s gaze panned over to mine and I watched the shock roll over his features. Yeah. It was me. I was there. Holy shit. My arms were crossed over my chest as he turned to face me, his body swaying on top of the stool he sat on.
“What are you doing here?” Diesel asked.
I didn’t really know anymore. It was a damn good question. And suddenly, I didn’t want to be there any longer. He squinted at me to keep me in focus. That was how drunk he was. And it made me sick. I guess some things changed, after all. I scoffed and shook my head before I turned on my toes and left, making my way as quickly as I could for the door.
“Brynn!?”
I ignored his voice and kept walking through the crowd, shoving every single one of his ‘crew members’ out of my way. It was as if they were trying to stop me, but they were all too drunk to do anything about it. I could’ve blown in their fucking direction and knocked them off balance.
There were the assholes who were supposed to be protecting me?
No wonder these fuckers were in trouble.
“Brynn!”
I slammed through the front door of the bar and dumped out into the parking lot. I was ready to go home. I didn’t give a damn about having any answers to any of my questions. All I wanted to do was to tell my father this engagement was done for, and let them flounder on their own. I didn’t owe Diesel shit. Especially when he wanted to lock eyes with big-breasted bartenders. Sure, the engagement was fake. But we had to make this look real so my father wouldn’t shit a brick.
Was that how Diesel treated actual engagements? By getting piss-ass drunk and letting other women touch him?
The fuck kind of man had he turned into?
Whoever he was, I didn’t want any part of it. I didn’t give a shit about his club. If they allowed him to get that kind of drunk--or worse, facilitated the actions in some way--then they weren’t family. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to treat them as such. Maybe my father was right. Maybe I shouldn’t have come back. Maybe I should’ve stayed in Los Angeles and continued working as a sous chef and taken over the restaurant once my boss retired.
Maybe coming home to see Diesel had been a mistake.
Chapter 11
Diesel
“Brynn, damn it. Stop walking!”
She was strides ahead of me getting into her car. The more the cool summer are of Redding hit me, the more I sobered up. I became more alert. More present. More in tune with what was happening around me. After all, it didn’t look as if Brynn had come with any sort of protection or back up. Which meant she was exposed and vulnerable so long as she wasn’t with me.
Which wasn’t ideal.
“Damn it, stop!”
I ran up to her and gripped her wrist, pulling her up from her seat. She glared at me with hot eyes. Fiery eyes. Angry eyes. She wrenched her wrist away from me and turned back to her car, but I reached out and pushed on her door, slamming it shut before she could get into it.
“What the fuck, Diesel?”
“What are you doing here without someone escorting you?” I asked.
“Didn’t realize I needed to have my father breathing down my neck just to come see you.”
“That’s the agreement, Brynn. What, you think you can joyride around like it’s nothing? If you’re not with us, then you have to be with someone from your father’s club. You have to stay safe.”
“I told him not to come with me because I was coming to find you!”
“Why?” I asked. “What’s wrong? What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“No! I’m not okay! I just saw my fiancé throwing back shots like it was nothing and allowing some big-tittied bartender to rub up on him!”
Diesel’s eyes narrowed before a grin slid across his face.
“You’re jealous,” he said.
“Yes, I’m jealous.”
“Well, I didn’t expect you to admit it, but…”
“I’m not just jealous, Diesel. I’m upset. Hurt. We’re supposed to be conducting ourselves as if we’re actually engaged. Is that how you’re going to act one day when you’re engaged to someone you want to be engaged to?”
I wanted to be engaged now, but I settled for clenching my jaw on that particular response.
“You want to be that man who’s out getting drunk with his boys and toeing the lines of cheating for the sake of some stupid Bachelor party?” Brynn asked.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
She scoffed and shook her head before she leaned against her car.
“I came for answers.”
“What kind of answers?”
“The kind of answers my father won’t give me. I want to know what’s actually going on. I want to know what’s happened to cause everyone to be so fucking on edge,” she said.
“Your father isn’t talking about it because I told him not to,” I said.
“Why, Diesel? If this concerns me, why is no one telling me about any of it?”
“The only thing you need to know is that you do pose a threat. Not a threat with regard to what’s going on now, but you’re a moving target. Rex is unstable, and he’s angry, and he’s out for blood. He won’t hesitate to dredge up any past he needs to in order to get what he wants.”
“And what is it you think he wants?” she asked.
“Death,” I said plainly.
“No,” she said. “I don’t believe that. You tell me the truth right now, Diesel Or this engagement is off.”
“It’s fake to begin with. There’s nothing to call off. But I know you won’t do that.”
“Oh, I won’t? Watch me.”
Brynn pulled out her cell phone from her pocket, but I reached out for it before she could call her father. I stuffed it into my back pocket while she tried to grab it, but my hand placed itself onto her chest and pressed her back against her car. She was being unreasonable, and I understood it. She’d been tossed into a world she didn’t expect to come home to, but she also wasn’t heeding the warnings being given to her.
“Get off me, Diesel!”
“Not until you listen,” I said. “Because you’re still that strong-willed little girl from high school. But this isn’t high school anymore. I’ve buried people over this issue. People that actually died. People I watched die.”
She settled her struggling as my eyes connected with hers.
“What’s going on is serious, Brynn. And the more you run around causing a ruckus and busting into bars and joyriding around town by yourself, the more trouble you put yourself at risk for. Stop making my job harder than it already is.”
“Oh, so that’s all I am to you? A job?” she asked.
“Don’t do that,” I said. “Don’t shove words down my throat.”
“It’s what you just said! You said stop making my job harder than it already is. And you were talking about me. So how the hell am I supposed to draw any other conclusions other than that?”
“Did you come here with the explicit purpose of fighting? Because I’m getting the feeling you did.”
“I came here to get answers. Until I walked into the bar and saw you piss drunk with a bunch of raging assholes while a bartender felt up the newly-engaged guy.”
“Then pick something to be mad at so we can properly fight about it,” I said.
She wrapped her hand around my wrist and tossed it away from her body. She took a step towards me, her neck craning up to keep my eyes in view. She was spicy when angry. On fire with a flame that tugged at my groin. I wanted her to argue with me. I wanted her to lay into me. I wanted her to spew what was on her mind and going on in her heart. Because the second she was done, I had every intention of making up with her like a fiancé did with the woman he was about to marry.
“You’re a bullshit fiancé,” Brynn said.
“I think I’m a damn good one, actually.”
“Men are supposed to step up in their relationships,” she said. “Be romantic. Be present. Be there for his woman. A
nd instead, you’re chugging back drinks I didn’t even know you enjoyed and smiling at pretty women behind the bar. What makes me think you won’t do any of that shit once we get married?”
“I didn’t realize we were getting married,” I said.
“Will you just let me be angry at you, Diesel!?”
“No,” I said. “Because you deserve better than that.”
I reached out and fisted the fabric of her shirt and pulled her into me. I crashed my lips down onto hers, bleeding through every effort I had to apologize to her. She was right. I’d allowed another woman to touch on me and flirt with me without any regard to how it might make her feel. Regardless of our status, we were supposed to be acting like an engaged couple. We were supposed to be acting as if we were in love, and I’d crossed a line the second that bartender touched me and gave me that kind little smile of hers.
I heard some people whistling from the front door of the bar and I growled. I sure as hell didn’t want anyone seeing what was about to take place. I reached down and fisted Brynn’s ass, pulling her to me before I bent down and picked her up. Her tongue raked along the top of my mouth as her arms wrapped around my neck, then I urged her to wrap those decadent thighs around me. I strode us through the parking lot. Headed straight for the alleyway that would shroud us in the dark we both needed.
I felt her lips swell against mine as the pressure between us mounted.
I pressed Brynn’s body into the brick wall and began tugging at her clothes. I set her down and ripped her shorts from her body, casting them onto the dusty ground. She reached for my pants and pulled out my cock, holding it in her hand for the first time in years.
I grunted against her warmth, feeling her fingers work me in ways I’d only dreamt about for years.
“You fucked up, Diesel,” Brynn said breathlessly.
“Which is why I have every intention of making it up to you, Brynn.”
I gathered her in my arms and pressed her back into the wall. Her sounds were desperate. Muffled by her biting down onto her lower lip. I palmed her clothed breasts and kissed my way down her cheek. I nibbled on her neck as her hands raked through my hair. I felt her heat. I felt the wet cotton cloth of her panties pressing into my throbbing cock. I bit down into her shoulder, listening as my name fell from her lips.
Diesel (Dead Souls MC Book 5) Page 7
