by A. J. Downey
About halfway through the night Dragon had us pull in to a rest stop.
“What up Pres?” I asked and he looked at the three of us judiciously.
“This shit is slowing us down.” He said.
“What are you sayin’?” Dray asked.
“I’m sayin’ we either, get rid of it now or split up and go two by two.” He said.
“Get rid of it now.” We all three chorused in unison. We had too many enemies and were too far out of our territory to make going just two by two an option. Solo runs were different, you could pack your cut into your saddlebag and make yourself look like just a dude on a bike if you had to.
“Or I can go it alone.” I said.
“No good. We go in four and then we’re suddenly three, anybody spots that and you’re a sitting duck.” Dragon put out there.
We made use of the men’s room and started flushing, pouring the poison slowly. Who gave a fuck if anybody thought we were circle jerking it in here. It was late enough. Only thing we had to worry about were cops. Staties came up into rest stops all the time checking for illegal activity.
We got lucky, and got the hell out of there fast but not before I placed a call to Doc.
“Yeah?” his voice sounded irritated.
“How is she?” I asked.
“Had to sedate her. When we got here she just kept screaming this god awful sound, never heard anything like it before. Your boy Squick couldn’t get her to calm down. She came out of it about an hour ago but just lays there staring at the wall.” He said.
“Can you put her on the phone?” I asked.
“Naw man I think its best you just get here. I’ve never seen anything quite like this and I’ve seen some shit before. I don’t think a phone call is gonna cut it.” someone said something and Doc’s voice was muffled he came back on the line, I could hear that wounded animal sound in the background.
“Is that Ashton?”
“Yeah man I gotta go.” The line went dead and I traded looks with Reaver who had been close enough to hear.
“I’m going to kill that mother fucker.” I said savagely, stuffing the phone back in my pocket.
“Slowly with my knives. Your way is too neat, too clean and too quick for this.” He intoned.
We rode out and for once I fuckin’ agreed with Reaver. My way was too quick and painless for the likes of Chadwick Granger.
We rode all night and broke what speed limits we could and arrived back by mid-morning Wednesday morning. I took the stairs two at a time. A very tired looking Squick pulled open my door.
“Where is she?” I demanded by way of greeting.
“Your room.” He answered and I thrust my helmet and glasses into his hands, never breaking stride.
I stopped in the door way. Ashton was curled in a ball on her side facing away from me. She looked so tiny and frail.
“Ashton.” I called but she didn’t stir. I went around to the foot of the bed. She looked wrung out. Almost worse than when I’d first met her. Her eyes were closed and she clutched my pillow to her chest. Her nose buried in it, a wrinkle set between her eyes. I got up on the bed from the other side and slid my arm in the grove between her neck and shoulder gently lifting her. I leaned back against the headboard in a sitting position and laid her head atop my denim clad thigh and just petted her silky hair.
“What the hell did you put her on?” I asked Doc when he appeared in the doorway.
“When the horse tranquilizers wore off and she started up with that noise again I switched to elephant tranqs.” He said, his special brand of black humor coating his words like molasses.
“When will she come out of it?” I asked. He sighed and shrugged.
“Hard to say man, everybody reacts differently.” He sucked his teeth and went back out. Reaver came in and sat down on the floor against the wall between the dresser and the closet, stretching his legs out in front of him.
“She looks like hell.” He commented.
“Yeah.” I agreed.
“What are we going to do about her douche bag ex?” He asked.
“What can we do?” I asked bitterly.
“Something highly illegal.” Dragon suggested from the door way. Dray frowned at his father and then frowned harder at Ashton’s back.
“He’s got money.” I said.
“Money ain’t everything.” Reaver said judiciously.
“We’ll talk about it later.” Dragon said sharply as Ashton stirred. I stared down at her and willed her to open her eyes.
“Reaver?” she asked softly and her voice sounded like it’d been through a cheese grater. I winced to hear it.
“Yeah doll, in the flesh.” He grinned at her.
“You’re okay?” she asked.
“Yeah babe so is Dragon and Dray they’re behind you.” She pushed herself up and I could tell she was groggy from the drugs. She looked down at my denim clad leg in confusion then up at me.
“Am I dead too?” she asked, golden eyes full of surprise.
I laughed and said, “No Baby,” and pulled her against me kissing the top of her head. A high keening noise escaped her throat and Doc appeared behind Dragon and Dray.
“Shhhh it’s okay.” I used the sooth-the-frightened-animal tone.
“It’s not okay!” she cried and broke down into huge wracking sobs. She was right it wasn’t but it was the best I could come up with. I rocked her gently the leather of my jacket and cut creaking.
“Shhhhh, shhhhh, shhhhh.” I soothed repeatedly.
I held her like that for a long time. Her arms around my neck, she crawled into my lap and stayed there clinging to me like she’d never let me go.
“Promise me you’re really here.” She said against the side of my neck, her tears slipping down into my collar, soaking my shirt.
“I’m really here Ashton I promise.” I said and she sniffed but didn’t let go. Dray wandered off somewhere and Dragon leaned against the door frame, bearing witness along with Reaver.
“Call the cops.” I whispered and Reaver pulled out his phone. Ashton wouldn’t let me go. It took an hour for the police to get there. Ashton answered all their questions and gave the police officers the names the fake detectives had given her and descriptions of what the men looked like. The description matched the one Andy gave of the two men he’d passed on the stairs.
“Who are you?” one of the cops asked Doc when she and Andy reached that part of the story.
“I’m her primary care physician.” Doc said and he had the credentials to back it up. Reason we call him Doc is that he is a licensed practicing doctor. The cops were surprised. So much for their stereotypes of the bad ass bikers.
“I thought I’d never see you again.” She whispered and it sounded so thick with grief, so broken that it tore my heart out.
“Baby I’d walk through Hell in gasoline boots to get back to you.” I murmured and meant every word.
The cops were pissed and one of them knelt down to look at Ashton.
“Mrs. Granger…”
“Fletcher.” She stopped him cold.
“I’m sorry?” he said.
“Ms. Fletcher, it’s my maiden name. I don’t want any part of him anywhere near me.” I was so damned proud of her in that moment.
“Ms. Fletcher,” the cop amended, “You need to know that a detective’s badge is gold, not silver, but it sounds like whoever was in that suit may be a real officer and that doesn’t sit well with me. Is there someplace you can go? Family out of state or…” Dragon stopped the man right there.
“We’re her family now. She’ll be fine. We’ll keep an eye on her.” The cop looked at Ashton dubiously but she was staring up at me, her face was so open, raw and vulnerable that I would give anything to fix it. I bent my head and kissed her gently. She kissed me back carefully.
“Not leaving you again Baby Girl. Not until this is settled.” I whispered against her mouth.
I pulled back and fixed a steely gaze on the cop. “Anything else
?” I asked him.
“No I think we’ve got it.” he and his partner left our bedroom and apartment.
Doc racked his neck from side to side.
“I’m goin’ home.” He stated. Squick looked ready to drop.
“Andy go stay in my room, get some sleep.” Ashton murmured.
“I’m leavin’.” Dray snorted.
“Thank you for coming, for bringing him back to me.” Ashton murmured at him though she wouldn’t meet his gaze. He nodded curtly and he and Dragon left. Reaver got slowly to his feet.
“Takin’ the couch.” He said and trudged into the living room. Squick shut the door to Ashton’s room and we were alone.
“I’m okay.” I intoned and pressed my forehead to hers.
“I really thought you were gone.” Her voice broke and more tears spilled.
I was hot and so I shrugged out of my jacket and cut, then I figured to hell with it and sliding Ashton to the bed, I pried her arms from around my neck, stripped her, stripped me and got into bed with her after shutting the bedroom door, not caring who heard what.
She gasped when I pulled her close and I kissed her. I needed her to know I was alive, that I loved her and to reinforce that I wasn’t going anywhere and this was the best way I knew how. I pressed her back into our bed and licked, kissed and nipped my way from her mouth to her mound. Her skin was silky soft and sweet she smelled like orange blossoms but below that, purely of Ashton. An intoxicating mixture of summer and sunlight that gently tickled my nose. I slid a finger into her folds and found her wet and ready but I wanted to make sure.
I nudged her thighs apart with my elbows and gazed up the alabaster length of her body. I let how beautiful she looked to me settle into my eyes and licked her slowly and deliberately and holy fucking hell the woman tasted amazing. I pressed my middle finger deep into her sweet wet heat and closed my eyes, stroking her clit with my tongue searching for that sweet spot just… there. Her hips arched off the bed and she cried out, fisting her hands in my hair she pulled my mouth tighter against her body and I loved it.
I made my Baby come three times until with a cry she tried to scoot away from me. I grinned and settled myself between her thighs and it was as if my cock knew where to go, finding her opening of its own accord. I sank into her sleek wet heat until my balls met flush against her body.
She dragged my face down to hers and kissed me deeply with the taste of herself still on my mouth and I swear to god I stiffened just that much more inside her. She felt like sin made flesh with no barriers between us. I knew I was clean and at this point I didn’t give a fuck. I didn’t have to worry about pregnancy, and fucked if I was going to let that slide when it came to her ex either, but for now, right now, none of that bull shit mattered. Not one fucking tiny iota because right now it was just me and my girl and I wanted her to feel good.
I set a fast but gentle rhythm, thrusting without slamming into her. I hooked one of her legs high over my hip and held it there, keeping my weight off of her by bracing my other arm on the bed. She stared me in the eyes, lips parted, gasping for breath, expression filled with love and lust and I grinned savagely. God she was perfect! The sun to my moon, fire to my ice, she was just fucking everything to me and I poured that into my body, into moving over her and inside her into loving the ever living shit out of her.
“One more time Baby, come for me one more time.” I moaned into her ear and she cried out, her walls clenching around me, milking my cock. I groaned and went over the edge with her, feeling my cock jerk in counterpoint to her body’s grip.
She was, just… so… perfect.
We came back to earth slowly, holding each other. She stared at me with her ethereal eyes and I stared back.
“What are we going to do?” she asked softly.
“You don’t worry ‘bout that.” I kissed her forehead and her eyes drifted shut.
“I can’t go through that again.” She whispered brokenly and it wrenched at my heart.
“I know babe, I know.” I held her tighter against me and thought hard on what could be done. I sighed and cuddled her close.
“I’m here Ashton.” I whispered into the dimming room and was met with a sigh that was one part contentment and one part relief.
Chapter 18
Ashton…
“Lake run next week right?” Reaver asked I turned from my place at the sink and looked at them both with apprehension. The last run was only two weeks ago and my husband sent those people pretending to be detectives. The phone had rung in the shop the next day and I had answered it. Chadwick’s cultured voice had crackled over the line, he’d said,
“You see how easy it would be? He can’t protect you forever Ashton. You belong to me and I keep what’s mine…”
I’d slammed the phone down and Zander had taken one look at my face and yelled for Ethan. I’d told them what had happened and Ethan had snorted, going as still and cold as Death himself and said he’d like to see Chadwick try.
Now, a bubble of panic was rising in my chest but Ethan knew and was already undoing the effects of Reaver’s innocuous question.
“A lake run is different baby, you go too. Happens twice a year, once in the late spring, early summer, and one at the end of summer before the kids go back to school. We make the day’s ride out to the cabin and lodge out at Lake Eversong. It’s one of the club’s legit business ventures. We take over the lake, party, live music and barbeque, some fun in the sun and swimming. It’s a blast.” His silver eyes smiled at me from the table where he and Reaver sat while I fixed breakfast.
“Sounds like I need a swimsuit.” I murmured and both of them smiled bigger.
“Yeah you do! A two piece. Preferably something really slutty.” Reaver gave a sidelong look at Ethan who was glaring at him, “You know, because Trigger would like that.” Reaver finished. I laughed.
“You get what you want babe, I love you any way you look.” Ethan said and I felt a surge of love myself for the man. He looked absolutely delicious sitting there, jeans riding low on his hips, shirtless, hair in a wild blonde mane around his face making his light eyes seem even lighter.
I finished making the coffee. It was a work out day and so breakfast would come later. The boys measured out their protein shakes or whatever while I went and changed. Over the last two weeks Ethan and I had grown closer. He had gone cell phone shopping with me the day after he’d come home from the run and I was still trying to figure everything out on the fancy smart phone.
We hadn’t been parted for more than eight hours in all that time, and the time he had spent away from me was spent dealing with club politics. He was trying to work out a deal with other chapters of the MC, over what I didn’t know and the fact that he wouldn’t talk to me about it and seemed even more stressed out than usual was very telling to me that it was not going well.
I came back out of my bedroom where I still kept all my clothes and found Reaver and Ethan waiting. I took up my yoga mat which was propped by the door and went out with them. The sun was shining and the birds were singing and the trees were a riot of green. Spring may have come in like a lamb but it was going to go out like a lion. I scanned the parking lot as I went down the stairs looking for anything out of place.
We had come to the conclusion that my husband had sent people to watch us. How else would he have known Ethan was gone, to send those two men? The police were sure that one of them was an officer or related to one somehow but they had yet to catch anyone. Reports had been filed and a lawyer contacted. God knew how I was going to be able to afford one if Dragon and the club hadn’t stepped in to help. I wanted a divorce but they didn’t come cheap or easy.
“We gotta get you a car Sunshine.” Ethan groaned when the old truck he borrowed from Dragon didn’t turn over right away. It finally fired up, backfired which made me jump and we pulled out of the lot to head to the ‘Y’.
Hayden met me at the door and was nearly jumping out of her skin. She and I had made fast friends afte
r my second time to yoga, and Ethan had even taken me to meet her for a lunch date. Staying out in the parking lot smoking his e-cigarette, talking or playing games on his phone, patiently waiting for me. Hayden had thought it was weird and I agreed that it was but then I had explained about when he’d gone on his run and her compassion for my situation took over.
“He finally asked me!” she squealed at me excitedly and thrust her left hand in my face. I squealed in delight with her and looked at the ring, a simple band of white gold with a diamond solitaire set in it. Reaver and Ethan exchanged looks and rolled their eyes, but they were smiling, well Ethan was, Reaver’s face was shuttered and his eyes distant and cool.
Hayden and her boyfriend had been together for three years and she had confessed she was growing unhappy, that she really wanted him to propose so she could take that next step with him into forever. I’d sighed, she was twenty-four. I had been married two years by that age. It took me until I was thirty to escape and find my prince charming, the man I felt I was really supposed to be with. I smiled at Ethan and he smiled back.
I shared in my new friend’s joy despite my own misgivings, which, truth be told, were likely just a byproduct of my own story. My own insecurities and damage… I turned and waved at Reaver and Ethan. Ethan’s smile got wider and my whole world suffused with warmth, the dark clouds of my past scudding quickly overhead and off into the distance again.
I love you, he mouthed at me as Hayden hauled me around the corner and into the yoga class room so we could set up. She was already asking about colors and flowers and gushing about venues she’d been thinking about. I wasn’t even sure that she’d set a date with him yet! I listened patiently, smiling and nodding until the instructor for today’s class took her place at the front of the room.
We were set up near the pool and so the class was accompanied by the sounds of water and the ethereal piped in music. I rolled out my mat and took off my shoes and breathed deep the warm humid air that brought with it the chemical tang of chlorine. The class began and my focus honed inward. I breathed, deeply and evenly, following the cadence of the instructors soothing voice as she took us fluidly from one pose to the next. My world narrowed to the beat of my heart, ebb and flow of air in my lungs and the rush of blood through my veins. Peace descended on me, a warm blanket insulating me from all of the chaos swirling outside these moments.
