“I’m all ears.”
“Great. You don’t waste any time, do you?”
“I’ve wasted two years not being aware of any of it, it’s your time to talk now.” He takes a pull from the beer I hand him.
“Well after I killed Rob, Jase and I started to see each other. It wasn’t anything intimate at first, just him coming over to catch up and see how I was doing and coping. It was nice and helped me cope with what I did. I couldn’t bring myself to tell you any of it as I knew you’d drag me back here without giving me a chance but a part of me wishes I had. It would have made things a lot easier.” I sigh.
“I can be a little hot headed sometimes.”
“A little?” I scoff.
“Alright, a lot. Continue.”
“Everything was fine for a while, Jase and I were getting closer and well, we started fucking.”
“Did not need to know that.” He physically shudders and I laugh. I just can’t help it.
“Not even sorry in the slightest. Anyway, things were good. I didn’t want anything serious and he was sweet and nice to me and not just out to get some so don’t get any crazy ideas. After a while, I started to feel like someone was watching me. Everywhere I went, I would feel eyes on me. One day I manage to catch that person and asked them what they wanted. They said they were there that night and knew everything. I didn’t believe them at first, but the guy showed me pictures of me shooting Rob and then pictures with Jase covering up for me. He said I’d always be protected and Jase too if I did what they wanted me to do.”
“What have you done, Nic?”
“Nothing bad. As I was saying, in exchange for our protection, I’d have to do what he said. It was mainly going out with men who needed a date. Dress fancy, smile and shut up. I got some money out of it and was protected. No one dared fuck with me but no one dared get close to me either. The few friends I had made vanished quickly and I was on my own. Good thing I’ve always been a loner.”
“You were a fucking escort?”
“Yell it louder, I think some people in Texas didn’t hear you.” I glare at him.
“Sorry. I can’t believe you’d do that.” He frowns and looks at me with a disapproving look.
“I wasn’t fucking any of them. Just nice dress, smile and that’s it.”
“For real?”
“Yeah! What the fuck is it with you and Jase thinking I’d fuck anyone for money for fuck’s sake!” I yell at him.
“Why did he hear about this before me and how long has he known?” He glares at me.
“Last night, and because he looked into me and somehow found out some things about me.” I shrug.
“Right. How come if you are protected you are getting threatened by the Disciples?”
“Remember, I told you the guy who showed up at my house was my ex’s brother.”
“Right. And he’s in the Disciples. That’s fucked up. It looks like it was a long planned revenge. This can’t be just it. It must go deeper.”
“I guess. They are after the club, Jase and I. That we know, but why?”
“I have no idea. I’ll need to talk to Jase. See if his connection can get us some information about the Disciples, see where they come from. They can’t just be the Kings leftovers.”
“Good idea.” I take a long pull from my beer and look up at the sky.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Mom and Dad. Do you think they would be proud of us?” I look at him.
“Of what we’ve done, no. Of the people we’ve become, yes. Well, despite the illegal shit.” He chuckles.
“Yeah. Do you ever think about how our lives would be if they were still here?”
“I haven’t in a long time, but I’m guessing I’d be married with kids and a house with a white picket fence. You’d be travelling around the world, falling in love with an Aussie boy and moving there, forcing us all to travel a crazy amount of hours to come to the beach wedding you’d have.” He chuckles.
“Do you really think you’d be that way?” I raise my eyebrow.
“Fuck no, that sounds boring just saying it out loud.” He laughs.
“I’d be more inclined to get married in Paris, by the way.” I grin.
“That’d be more like you, that’s true. You’d be able to stuff your face with some of the best croissants.”
“Nah the best in the world are Josie’s, hands down.”
“I think I’d still have ended up a mechanic and probably with these fools.” He chuckles, pointing to a drunk and limping Bennett.
“It’s good to see him back here.”
“It is.” He smiles. “I’m proud of you, Nicole. I might not say it a lot, but I am. Mom and Dad would be proud of you. You are living your life, fighting to be with the man you love and you’re doing good in college apparently. Not sure what you’ll do with an art degree, but I’m glad you are doing what you’ve always wanted to do.” He smiles and I just want to cry, he’s never open about his emotions, at least not with me.
“You’re going to make me fucking cry!” I chuckle through tears.
“Come here.” He holds his hand out. I take it and walk the two steps separating us. He wraps me in a big bear hug, letting me lean on him.
“Custom paints on cars and walls.”
“What?” He looks at me confused.
“That’s what I want to do.” I smile.
“We could use another one at the garage.” He grins.
“What? A painted wall or someone to actually custom paint cars?” I chuckle.
“Both.” He smiles. “It’d be good to keep an eye on you as well.”
“Dickhead. Always having to ruin the moment. I feel for Viv.” I say, deadpan.
“You love it and she does too.” He shrugs and finishes his beer, and mine.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being the best brother anyone could ask for. You raised me how Mom and Dad would have wanted. You always made sure we had food in the fridge and a roof over our heads. You always made sure I was happy no matter what was going on and I’ll forever be thankful that you brought us into this amazing dysfunctional family. I’m so happy we have them, they are always there for us and you’re always there for me. I know we don’t always see eye to eye, but you’re an awesome big brother and an amazing man. Viv is extremely lucky to have you as her man and I’m so glad you finally realized the feelings you had for her. Things might not always be peaceful and quiet, but that makes life all the more interesting.”
“Fuck me, Nic, you’re the one who’s going to make me cry.” He chuckles and then kisses my head.
“Thank you for being good when you were growing up, you were a little brat at times but you made it so easy for me to adjust and you were always a doll. I’m glad you think I’m a good man despite everything.”
“Of course you are. You all are. You’re not innocent or saints, but deep down you are good and you're just protecting what’s yours.” I smile.
“Amen to that.” He smiles back and we walk back to the compound to join the others.
Life might not be a long quiet road for us, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. It makes us feel alive and keeps life entertaining. Might as well live our lives to the fullest so we don’t have any regrets when our time comes.
CHAPTER 18
Jason
It’s two in the morning and I’ve spent the past couple of hours driving around the city, in search of what I don’t know, but I couldn’t go home to Nicole.
Home.
Something I never had and yet whenever I’m with her that’s how it feels, but tonight I’m struggling to go to her. I need to tell her what I did but I can’t bring myself to do it.
Without realizing it, I park in front of her house. I debate getting out of the car and going in for a while, but she makes the decision for me when she opens the front door and waits for me. I take a deep breath and get out of the car. I lock it before walking over to her.
Her eyes widening as she takes in the blood that covers my clothes.
“Dare I ask?”
“You deserve to know the type of man I am.”
“Here we go again.” She mutters and lets me pass by her into the house.
“I heard that.”
“Good. Saves me repeating myself. Whiskey?”
“You know me too well.”
“That I do.” She smiles bitterly and pours me one, looks like it won’t take much to push her away. “What happened?” she asks handing me the glass.
I down the whiskey before talking. “Someone tipped off the Disciples again. It came from inside, one of the officers was working with them. They threatened him and his family or something and so he was telling them when and where we were going to wait for them so they could escape. Said cop pulled me over when I was on my way to the bar and knew I wasn’t an actual cop, thanks to the Disciples. We fought and I shot him. Another cop was still in the car and probably saw and overheard everything.
“Lewis helped me escape and on my way to go hide at Sergei’s, I stumbled across the prospect who came to deliver a message the other day. I knocked him over and took him with me, to the room I told you about. I needed answers and he wouldn’t give them to me so I pulled his teeth out one by one until there were none left. He didn’t say much, well nothing I didn’t know already. I then slit his throat and watched the blood and life rush out of him. I enjoyed every second of it.” My voice is void of any emotion. I look at her and, besides looking grossed out, she doesn’t seem phased by what I just told her.
“Well, thanks for not sparing me the details, I’m glad I hadn’t just eaten or it’d have come back up.” She frowns.
“I told you I wasn’t a good man. Now you know what I’m capable of, in detail.”
“Right. So you are expecting me to push you away so it’d be easier for you to just get on with your life?” She raises her eyebrow at me.
I sigh. “I don’t know how to do this, Kitten.”
“Do what?”
“You mean the fucking world to me and people threatening you is fucking with my head. I want you but I want to keep you safe and the further away from me you are, the safest you’ll be.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake, not you too.” She groans and starts pacing the room.
“What do you mean?”
“Aleck and Gabe did that. They pushed Line and Viv away and look where it got them. If they had had the guts to stay with their women they would’ve been able to protect them like the men they claim they are.”
“Do they know you think of them that way?” I chuckle.
“More or less.” She shrugs.
“I don’t know how to be happy or how to live a normal life. I’ve never had that, not even with Jenny. In appearances we were happy but we weren’t a happy couple. Once she realized I wasn’t going to be home every single night, she changed, there was no affection, no love, no sex. We barely talked and when we did it would only be to fight.”
“Who said I wanted a normal life? Normal is boring. Our lives might be fucked up and with too much drama, but it makes it exciting. You know, living on the edge or something. I don’t see myself living in a nice house with 2.5 kids, a dog and all that shit. That’s not something I’ve ever wanted. I was raised around bikers; do you really think they were babying me? They were constantly fighting, drinking and doing drugs around me. Did that ever make me think any less of them? No. Did it impact my life in any way? Sure, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. I love my life the way it is. Slightly less of the whole bad guys trying to kill us thing would be nice but that’s just details. So stop being stubborn and grow some balls.”
“What would I do without you?” I sigh as I get up, wrapping her in my arms.
“You’re going to have to toughen up if you are going to be a part of the Last Hangman.” She chuckles, teasing me.
“Fuck off. Gabe and Aleck are worse than me.”
“That’s true. I almost made Gabe cry earlier.” She grins, proud of herself.
“What happened?” I chuckle.
“Told him I loved him and how thankful and happy I was that he’s my big brother.” She beams.
“That’s nice. Bet he’s not used to it.” I smile.
“We don’t really say how we feel, we show it. Usually a hug means as much as telling each other how much we love the other. We know we do, but saying it once in a while is always nice.” She shrugs.
“So true. How did it go at the bar by the way?” I ask as I move us to the couch and lay down with her on top of me.
“Not good. They trashed the place overnight. Everything is ruined. No one was injured so that’s good but Viv and Gabe are fucking fuming.”
“Understandable. We’ll stop them. I don’t know how, but we’ll put an end to this.”
“I hope you’re right.” She sighs, tracing random patterns over my chest.
“The cops are going to arrest me sooner or later for what I did.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I killed one of them and have been impersonating one for years.” I stroke her hair.
“Yes, but they know you have Russian mafia and MC protection. They won’t dare touch a hair on your head.” She chuckles. “This is fucking brilliant. No matter what, they can’t touch you or there’ll be retaliation, there’s no way the cops can compete with the mafia and three MCs combined.” She smirks.
“And I thought I was evil.” I can’t help but chuckle.
“I might not be active in the MC lifestyle, but I spent a lot of years of listening to them plotting various attacks.”
“How would you go about getting the Disciples then?” I don’t know why I ask her this, but maybe her outside perspective will shed new light on the topic.
“Well, they want the two of us and the territory for whatever reason. The best plan would be to do what you did for the Kings and blow up their place but since they keep moving around that’s not possible. If they take either of us, like with Viv, we keep our phones on so the guys can track us and send rescue, but that’s wishful thinking. I’m guessing they are going to mainly target either you or me and use us to get whatever it is they want, besides us dead, You should warn Sergei about all of this, get him involved in any way possible. There’s not that many places the Disciples can hide anyway. If I were the one taken, I’d stall them and make them wait to get what they want whilst buying myself some time. They are going to want precious information that apparently only we know. If all this is just for revenge they are fucking weird for doing it this way. I’d just blow up the whole place and be done with it, claim it as my own.”
“You have one twisted mind.” I chuckle.
“You love it.”
“That I do.” I smile and kiss her deeply, hoping none of the things she said will come true.
The Next Day
I wake up with a weight on my chest. I open my eyes and look around. We’re still in her living room and she’s still sprawled on top of me. Well, that explains the weight. I smile as I watch her cuddle into my chest as she slowly wakes up. I caress her back softly, making sure I grab her ass every time my hand wanders that way.
“Seriously?” She groans, making me chuckle.
“Couldn’t resist, Kitten.”
“I noticed.” She smiles and kisses me softly. “How do you feel?”
“Better than last night, you?”
“I’m alright. Happy to see another day and start it with waking up in your arms.”
“Best way to wake up.” I kiss her deeply and roll us over.
“Do we have time?” She bites her lip sensually, making my dick jump straight to attention.
“We’ll make time.” I smile and help her out of her shirt. I rise onto my knees between her legs, admiring her beautiful body. Her skin looks so smooth and pale compared to my battered and tanned skin. Her perfect, unmarked body. Her sweet curves. It’s all mine. My hands run down her sides and I hook my thumbs in the band
of her boy shorts before moving them down her legs. I spread them wide and I look up at her smirking as she squirms underneath my gaze.
I lean down and lick slowly along her slit, tasting her for the first time in months. It’s been way too fucking long. We both groan when we hear a knock on the door and the front door opening.
“Gabe!” she whispers loudly and tries to wrap herself in a blanket.
“Don’t come in here!” I shout, trying not to laugh.
“It’s not funny!” she still whispers loudly.
“Oh come on you two.” Gabe groans waiting just outside of the living room. “You’re got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Well you shouldn’t walk into my house like that!” she screeches.
“Still my house and I still got a key, didn’t expect to walk in on you two fucking on my couch.”
“We weren’t fucking.” I chuckle.
“Good to know. We've got to go, Brother. Got some new intel that they are going to hit the compound today. We've gotta get ready,” Gabe says from the hall.
“I’ll be right there.” I kiss Nicole and help her up. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, Kitten. We’ll continue this later.”
“We better!” She whines. She’s adorable. I kiss her softly and pull on my shoes and grab my gun.
“Is someone staying with her?” I ask Gabe.
“Yes, Bennett is waiting outside.”
“Good. I can feed him cake!” She giggles.
“Don’t feed him anymore cake! He’s going to fucking explode.” Gabe laughs and pokes his head into the room. “Hey, Sis.”
“Get out you fucking perv!” She chuckles as she storms into the kitchen.
“Last thing I want to see is you naked.” Gabe chuckles.
“Be careful you two.” She says, popping her head around the doorframe, looking at us with a sad expression on her face.
“We’ll be okay, Kitten. I promise.” I walk over to her and kiss her deeply.
“I hope you’re right.”
“You know I am.” I smile and kiss her forehead before heading out the door with Gabe.
“Remind me never to use my key again.” He cringes as he gets on his bike.
Trusting Nicole Page 15
