by K. J. Dahlen
Thankfully, I couldn’t smell her on him.
“Then why did she send one of her girls to fetch Top for you?” Remy whispered.
My heart smashed into the back of my throat. Nausea bubbled inside of me. The memory of that horrible pressure of Top’s hand greasily sliding down my clit crept back into my muscles. It was a third degree burn in my mind. Panic shot through me with such urgency that I started shaking.
Please no. Not him, not again.
“Relax,” Remy said. “I took care of it.”
“Oh, my God.” First, it was frenzied horror, then the betrayal. Mercy... that raging cunt! “Muse, how could she? She fed me, clothed me... She gave me this job!”
“Simple economics. Top is Muse’s best customer.” Remy drifted away then he swung his head to lock eyes with me again. He released one of my arms to hold up that hundred he’d tried to give Gloria. Bill in hand, he dragged his fingers between my tits. One of the two things I didn’t get from Muse was a bra. “The customer always gets what he wants.”
Through the strained fabric of the work shirt, I could feel the meandering path his calloused fingertips took in explicit detail. His cracked, uneven nails took over when he hit the waistband of my khakis. I lost myself in that descending sting. Remy abandoned the folded money in the tighter part of my waistband, but ever lower did his nails venture.
Panties were the other thing I didn’t get from Muse. Not that it would’ve mattered. Through my prickles, I felt him slide between my lips to gently flick the tip of my clit.
“Last night, I had the strangest dream, and this morning, when I woke up in my room, I began to wonder. Was that girl with the glasses really a dream?” He turned his hand around and I bit my lip, forcing my eyes closed. “And what did it sound like when she moaned for me?”
His weathered fingertips, rapidly getting wetter, explored the outside of my pussy, tracing every ridge, every curve. I wouldn’t give him what he was after. I’d die before I moaned for him. Unfortunately, I felt an unstoppable deathly urge swelling inside me. I bit harder.
“What I wouldn’t give to hear that sound.” He toyed with me.
I couldn’t—no. I wouldn’t open my eyes. I knew he was watching me. Reading me. I could see his cruel eyes burning through my eyelids. I wanted to feel him inside of me, even just his fingers. I wanted it more than the food this morning. More than dry clothes. More than every fucking indie graphic novel. More than the goddamn Merrimack River.
More than my entire, boring, fucking NORMAL life.
Sirens? Like a distant bobbing raft in my sea of lust, I noticed the sound. Definitely sirens. I heard it before Remy did, so when my eyes flicked open I witnessed the drastic change in his features.
His eyelids shot wide, every hint of a dull hangover vanished. That sensual gaze burned away leaving only a glare of abject anger in its charred remains.
Seeing that look in his eyes… I had never been more terrified in my entire life.
“Please tell me you’re not stupid enough to have called the fucking cops?” he asked. His voice was a calm lake hiding an active volcano.
“I—I—” All my strength was gone.
His hand rocketed out of my pants, wrapped around my throat and slammed me into the wall with brutal force. “Tell me!” He erupted.
I could smell myself on him. My God, Remy was going to kill me. I’m going to die smelling my own pussy.
But as quick as it happened, his hand was gone. He broke off and checked the window. Red and blue lights from two cruisers pulled into the main lot, then circled around back to the biker’s lot. “You are making it so goddamn difficult to keep you alive!” He picked up my steak knife and roughly slapped it into my hand. “Hold onto this. You will need it.”
And with that, Remy ran out of the room.
4
Remy
I tore through the hall with the callousness of a charging rhino. I threw a shoulder into the hotel guests that didn’t get the fuck out of my way fast enough.
With every footfall, my brain told me to stop. To let it play out as it should. I didn’t owe Star anything. She was nothing to me, just another disposable piece of ass that littered the breakdown lane of my road to hell.
Except… I knew her name.
Star.
It shined too brightly in my mind. Something loomed behind those defiant, hazel eyes that, as much as I pushed away, always pushed back. She was an infuriating pain in my ass, a persistent ache that was always on my mind. An itch in the back of my brain that I just couldn’t scratch.
And yeah, I couldn’t kid myself, she looked a hell of a lot like Maria. Personality-wise they were radically different. I buried that pain a long time ago.
Ride, Fight. Fuck. There was a beauty in that simplicity.
I was a bad man, I could accept that. These are the decisions I’ve made. The stones I’ve cast. No one had any expectations as to the kind of man I was—just a long dick and a smoking gun, and I was damn good at it.
No one better.
There’d always been a curtain of darkness draped over my soul, but with Star... I could feel pin pricks form in that black fabric. Star’s innocence and fiery defiance threatened to unravel me as I raced through those halls.
I had to get out there before Top or Star was completely fucked.
Before I knew it, the bar room door loomed ahead of me. I started to slow down. Running full-tilt, if I threw my shoulder into it, the damn door was likely to smash right off the hinges.
Fuck it. I sped up instead.
That door would be just one more thing I’d have to square up with Muse later. My lip curled at the thought of her selling Star out so fast. Muse and I had a lot to talk about.
I came in like a battering ram.
Cries of surprise rang out between everyone who was awake, and the thunderous clap of the door woke everyone who wasn’t. Guns snapped up at me from nearly every direction, but were quickly lowered when they realized I wasn’t a swat team storming the place. In all honesty, it’d been a pretty stupid decision to make, especially with tensions running so high. I was lucky no one shot me by accident.
I couldn’t help but smile at that.
I fucking loved to make an entrance.
The barroom had turned into a fucking armory. Our stash of reserve weapons were dumped unceremoniously across the bar. Shotguns, pistols, riffles, bats, knives. More tools of death were littered atop that shattered glass and booze-strewn mahogany slab than was locked up at the local police department.
Good.
If the uneasy tolerance between us and the pigs goes ass over teakettle, we were going to need every last piece of this hardware.
“Where’s Top?” Breathing heavily from the run I scanned the room, but didn’t see the big bald bastard anywhere. Was he still passed out?
“Entertaining our new friends.” Crutch cocked his head outside. He was the only one who didn’t look like old shit warmed over.
Fuck! I should’ve gotten here faster. I massaged a painful side-stitch out of my ribs from the abrupt jog and immediately made my way for the biker’s door. I needed to cut back on the cigarettes.
I had to get out there before the cops let slip that it was Star who called them. If Top had any reason to suspect her, he would walk back inside and break her in half. I’d come too far to let that happen.
“Top told us to wait inside!” Crutch called out after me, quickly loading his shotgun.
“He just doesn’t want guns outside.” I slowed enough to whistle to Tee, then tossed him my handgun.
Tee shot me an annoyed glare, because my piece was already sailing toward him when he looked up.
The cops would be looking for any reason to open up on us, so I had to make damn sure I wasn’t going out strapped. Part of me always fantasized about going out in hail of gunfire with the police.
But not today.
“—many of these bikes belong to the Steel Veins?” I caught the cops mid conversation wit
h Top. It didn’t sound like they got to why they were here yet, which was good. I wouldn’t have to back peddle.
“Stop!” Another cop cried out, anxious at my sudden arrival. “Stay where you are!”
“Easy, easy. Just grabbing some aspirin outta my bike. That’s still legal, right?” I slowly walked up beside Top with my arms spread wide and shirt pulled up, so they could see I wasn’t carrying anything. It took a herculean effort to suppress the shit-eating grin at how nervous I made these boys in blue.
Four cops eyed me as I came to a stop next to my brother. Two of them were out of arm’s reach from us and the other two were further back, using their car doors as shields, just in case things got hairy. The two in the back had their guns drawn, but lowered. These boys might’ve been rookies, but they knew who we were and knew it was best not to fuck around.
Infamy made it even harder not to smile.
“I told everyone to stay inside,” Top said to me in a low voice.
“You know how I get if I haven’t had my coffee yet.” I shrugged. “Besides as your VP, I couldn’t let you have all the fun.”
“The fuck happened to your chest?” The cop closest to us asked. Fresh from training, he was so green I could swear grass was about to sprout from him any second.
“Cut myself shaving,” I stated matter-of-factly. I’d completely forgotten about that ragged little love scratch from Star. It was a long, but shallow gash that wouldn’t need stitches. If she hated me so much, she could’ve really carved me up with that knife, but she didn’t.
Why was that?
That lusty memory of her up against the wall caused an avalanche of others, like the way her skin felt as I dragged my fingers down her stomach, and the heat from her pussy scorching the back of my hand when I—
Not now. I cleared the whole, hot mess that was the Star from my mind. As much as I loved making cops squirm, I didn’t feel like explaining a raging erection.
“You shave your chest?” The suspicion was blatantly apparent.
“The ladies love it.” I buttoned up the shirt, and smirked.
“Why are you here?” Top interjected, quickly growing irritated.
“We received a distress call about an hour ago,” the cop answered. “I’ll tell you right now, once back up gets here, we will be walking through that bar. Are we going to have trouble with you or your thugs, or are you going to let us do our job?” The cop asked in as stern a voice as he could muster when talking to the unarmed giant.
It was a joy to watch the rookie’s by-the-numbers police work. Body shifted to the side, front hand out in a calming gesture while his back hand reached for his pistol. This kid was a delight.
“Not at all, officer.” Top put up his hands in disingenuous submission. I bet he didn’t even realize he was doing it. A lifetime of solving problems internally and generally being on the wrong side of the law made it inescapable for Top to obediently respond to cops without a passive sarcasm. The cops always sure as hell saw this too. They would be very, very careful when dealing with this outlaw. “Who was it that called?” Top repeated the question.
“Fuck you, that’s who called.” The cop’s confidence was immediately bolstered by the familiar wailing of more incoming sirens. “On the ground, both of you.”
“The fuck is Muse? Why isn’t she out here?” I asked Top, completely ignoring the cop’s order. He had a better chance of getting us to dance the Macarena.
“You know she doesn’t like to get her feet wet with these assholes.” Top was equally unfazed. If anything, he was a little exasperated by everything.
“You told her you’d handle it, didn’t you?” I shook my head.
Top was such a prideful sonofabitch.
“I said get on the fucking ground, shit-for-brains! Now!” The closest cop had his gun out and pointed at us. Like dominoes, the others followed suit.
“For Christ’s sake, Top…” I groaned, flashing my brother a look and crossing my arms. “Muse would’ve had them eating her out by now.”
Muse also would’ve had them give up more details on exactly who called them so I guess it was a good thing she’s wasn’t here.
Granted the likeliness of us getting our asses shot just skyrocketed.
Captain Jeffries’ souped-up police pickup screeched in. “Stand down, Tavares,” Captain Jeffries huffed. The fat mustached fuck swaggered out in his cowboy hat and boots like he was Wyatt Earp. “Got a call from Muse. False alarm.”
“But, Captain, its protocol to search—”
“What part of stand down did you not understand?”
“Yes, sir.” Tavares and the rest reluctantly lowered their guns.
“Now, I want all you boys to get on back outta here.” Jeffries made an exaggerated, baseball umpire’s thumb out to the side you’re-out-of-here gesture.
The painstakingly concealed shit-eating grin finally broke through my impassive façade when I saw the impotent frustration on their faces as they got back into their patrol cars.
Top waved with a wide grin, wiggling his fingers at them.
There was nothing quite like seeing cops walk off all tail between their legs.
Fuck them, we won.
“Top. Remy.” The formality drained away when the patrol cars were gone. Jeffries shook each of our hands.
“What happened, John?” Top cut right to the heart of it. “Who put in the call?”
“Had dispatch send me the recording on my way over. Nah, it was nothing. Just some whispers. Some girl probably got scared around all the big, bad bikers.” Jeffries took his hat off, wiped the sweat from his brow, and fanned himself before putting it back on. “I was on my way over to see Muse, anyhow.”
“The caller. Sound like a girl in her early twenties?” Top kept fishing.
Jeffries waved it off, looking customarily unconcerned with the whole ordeal. He’d mastered a can’t-be-bothered attitude that deflected a lot of sensitive questions. It obviously served him well in the department because we’d never heard a peep of Internal Affairs being brought in to investigate his unorthodox friendship with a vicious biker gang.
Clubs like ours thrived in small towns and desolate counties.
“Probably my fault,” I cut in before he could speak next just in case Top made him get more loose-lipped than usual. There was a mangled box of cigarettes in my pocket that I fished out. I patted my other pockets but couldn’t find my lighter. It must’ve fallen out during my run. “I grabbed some bitch’s ass this morning. Her boyfriend got in my face so I put him into the wall. Not a big deal, I let him go, but she did run back into the room. Maybe she called you.” I wanted to change the subject, but I couldn’t keep laying it on or it’d look like I was covering for something.
“That how you got that cut?” Top gave me his zippo. I offered him a cig, but he just shook his head.
“You’d be dragging a body outta here, that was the case.” I snorted a laugh, then lit up. Between puffs I added, “Just a little foreplay with one of Muse’s employees. Ah, fucking finally.” I exhaled a plume straight up, feeling better now that I had a little nicotine in me. I turned to the police captain and let my expression bleed the last of the mirth; it was replaced with a severity that he’d best avoid being on the wrong side of for long. “The real question is what the fuck do we pay you for, Jeffries? You gotta reign in your boys better. You almost had a fucking blood bath on your hands.”
“Hey, hey! Them boys are fresh out of the academy. It takes time to acclimate them to the sensitive nature of things out here.” Jeffries was clearly nervous, going so far as to saunter a step away from us during his explanation. “They’re just on edge after that gas station thing that went down outside of Kingfisher. Now I’m not sayin’ that was you, just…some folks have been hearing rumors and—”
“They killed Bren.” Top growled in a dangerous cocktail of grief and hangover that could make any hardened badass shudder. The rawness of the memory had Top. “Let’s call it self defense.”
“Where’s this going, John?” I asked, swallowing some smoke only to blow it into the fat captain’s face as we waited for the other shoe to drop.
“I swear, each batch of new boys comes out of the academy these days wants to be heroes like they see on the TV. So uh, things are a little tense right now and, well… I’m gonna need more money to keep the boys quiet. That’s all.”
And there it was.
The greedy fucking pig. Paying off the cops was the cost of doing business. Hell, we’d even integrated into the Steel Veins’ member dues. It’s just the way it was, but this greedy prick always came up with excuses for tax hikes, and we were getting real goddamn tired of it.
From the expression on Top’s face, it was easy to see he was in no mood for that shit today. “How’s Lily, John?” Top’s tone held the playfulness of a rattlesnake.
“Uh, my granddaughter?” Jeffries sudden confusion at the subject change started fall away. “She’s arright, I guess. I don’t—”
“Still goes to Prairie Elementary, right? She’s a real cutie, John.”
“Alright, Top.” The captain got the point. Inklings of fear started to shine behind his dull blue eyes.
“Lives with her mom on North Pracht Ave,” Top continued. “Fourth house down on the left.”
“I get it. There’s no need for—”
“Second floor. The room with the pink wallpaper and the Disney snowman nightlight.” Top could be a surgeon when he wanted to be. It was masterful to watch. Jeffries’ eyes opened so wide that given a strong breeze they might just roll from his skull. “You’ll get half what you’re used to from now on. You got a problem with that?”
“That—that’s f-fine,” Jeffries stammered, lowering his head. Given what just happened at the gas station, the captain had no idea if that threat was a bluff or not.
