by Bella Knight
Later that night, Gregory and Elena both read to Elena about a Russian princess. Elena went to answer the phone ringing in the other room; they were waiting on Elena’s last test results to see whether or not they could do the next surgery.
When her mom was gone, Elena asked, “Are you, my dad?”
Gregory stroked her hair, “I’m working on it!” he said.
“Work faster,” said Elena, “the Russian ladies at the church want to know why you don’t go to church and why you haven’t married Mom yet.”
Katya stood in the doorway.
Elena looked up, “Why haven’t you married Gregory yet?” she asked.
“He hasn’t asked,” said Katya, “I think he thinks I’ll say ‘no.’”
Gregory grew very still, “Would you?” he asked, in a very small voice.
Katya walked over and ruffled his hair, “Is that any way for a hero man who saved my daughter to ask a woman to marry him?”
Gregory pulled a box out of his pocket. Careful not to jostle Elena, he stood up and got down on one knee.
“You are my queen,” he said, “if you tell me to go, I’ll go. If you tell me to come here, I’ll be there. If you want me to get you something, I’ll do everything I can to get it. I will fight for you and die for you. I’ll do anything you want.”
Katya had her hands over her mouth. Tears were streaming out of her eyes, “Why do you give me so much power?”
“Because,” said Gregory, opening the box, “I want to be the opposite in every way from how other men have treated you. I’ll never hurt you, or Elena.”
Both Katya and Elena gasped at the ring. It was an emerald, with two diamond chips on the side.
“Dimitri helped me pick it out. He says it is Russian, and that green is the color of new beginnings. Katya, will you marry me?”
She took the ring, slipped it on, and mutely nodded her head. He stood, and held her. Elena clapped her hands, then slid out of the bed and came around to hug them.
“Took you long enough,” said Elena. They laughed.
That night, after Elena was asleep, Katya took his hand and pulled him towards the bedroom. He waited until they were inside, with the door closed.
“Are you sure?” asked Gregory.
“I know my own mind,” said Katya. She reached out, grabbed his hand, and put it on her right breast, “I want you to make love to me.”
He kissed her eyes, her hair, stroked her shoulders. She took off her shirt; she wore a pink lace camisole underneath. She stepped forward, reached up, and kissed him, stroking his face. She took off his shirt and ran her fingers over his body.
“So very strong,” she said, “I like a strong man.”
He smiled down at her and stroked her face. He kissed her, so gently, like she might break. She dug into him with the kiss, thrusting her tongue into his mouth, grasping his arms and digging her fingers into them. She dropped her skirt, and slid off her silk pantyhose. She wore only tiny, pink, lace, bikini panties. She reached for him, kissing his mouth, his chest, his stomach.
She unbuttoned his jeans and stood impatiently while he slid them off, along with his socks. Now he stood dressed only in boxers. She reached in the flap and grabbed his balls.
“Katya,” he said, with a strangled gasp, “gently.” She smiled and led him by his balls to the bed.
“You will do whatever I want?” she asked.
“Anything,” he said.
“Get a condom out of the drawer and put it on.”
He stepped out of his boxers, and she helped him roll it on. They kissed more, lingering over touches. She gave up, rolled on top of him, and slowly slid herself down the length of him.
He groaned. She rode him, taking all her pent-up worry and angst, and attacking him with her love. She rode him until he grabbed the back of her head and kissed her, hard, groaning out his pleasure in her mouth. He came, and so did she, in a giant rush that felt like a wave that crashed, then settled.
She leaned forward and kissed him. “You will do what I want. And, I want this every night.”
He gasped into her neck, “Every night will kill me!”
She kissed him deeply, “Almost every night!” she amended.
She kissed him tenderly, reached down, and grabbed his balls again.
“We shall do it again. Once is not enough with my big strong man.” He moaned into her mouth. She laughed and slid on top of him again.
“Life is a highway.”
10
Nolo
Pickup
“Just when everything is dandy, another fly flies in.”
The ride through Arizona that June was delicious, the morning air with a hint of coolness, soon to be erased with the heat of July. The entire club rode in the bright sun, even tiny Keisha, now with meat on her bones.
Alicia rode behind Bonnie on her low-rider. They had their shades and helmets on; many of them also wore cloth masks against the desert dust. Some had cooling vests.
The school looked imposing, low, red and yellow, adobe-and-brick buildings rising out of the desert arranged in a semicircle. The lawn was green and there were trees everywhere.
There was a soccer field, a basketball court, and targets on a wall made of hay bales for archery. There was a small lake with a boathouse, fat horses in a paddock, a huge red barn, and riding trails snaking up into the low hills.
“Shit,” said Henry, walking over to Ace when they had all parked their bikes, “would have loved this when I was a boy.”
The principal came out, an Amarind woman with long, blue-black hair and dark eyes, wearing jeans and a flowing top. Henry said something to her in Paiute, and she answered, smiling.
“Principal Wovoka,” said Ace, shaking her hand, “how’s Keiran doing?”
“I hear Henry has been tutoring him. It is very good to meet you,” she said, turning to him, “all his grades went up this semester. He has A’s and B’s as of yesterday, when the final grades were entered. You must be very proud of your brother.”
“I am!” said Ace.
“Thank you for bringing Pavel with you. I told his parents that he would be writing a report based on the trip. We have summer camp activities, and summer classes starting in three weeks, but it is good for him to see America. He is very excited.”
“We’ll take good care of him,” said a stocky man with sandy brown hair and piercing blue eyes, standing on the other side of Lily, “my name is Dimitri, and I am from Russia, too. My family moved here when I was twelve. These kind people allowed me to join their riding club last year. It will be nice to speak Russian again.”
Keiran walked out from the dorm with a tall, rangy boy with pitch-dark hair. Both boys had packs on their back. They jogged over at an easy pace, laughing.
“I told you they were here, Pavel!” said Keiran.
“You cannot miss the noise of bikes,” said Pavel, laughing.
Ace ranged forward, and grabbed Keiran in a bear hug, “Nice to see you,” he said.
He turned to Pavel, “I’m Ace. Nice to meet you, Pavel.” He held out a hand.
Pavel shook it, “Nice to meet you too, Sir,” he said.
Lily walked over. “Ace,” said Keiran, “you sure do know how to pick the ladies.”
Ace and Lily laughed, “That I do. Pavel, this is Dimitri. He…”
The two Russians embraced like old friends, and they began speaking in their mother tongue.
“Friendly, aren’t they?” said Henry.
Ace looked over at his ex-teacher friend, “Did you get Dimitri to tutor Pavel?”
Henry shrugged, “He is a math teacher.” Ace smiled.
“Thank you for the rescued horses,” said Principal Wovoka.
“I know people,” said Ace.
“He knows me,” said Inola, “I hear the students love working with them.”
“Absolutely.”
The two women beamed at each other.
“Hey!” said Bonnie, “the lovefest is nice and everyth
ing, but let’s get to New Orleans! I want me some shrimp, and some music, and some dancing!”
“Yeah, Ace!” said Gregory, his lady-love Katya behind him.
Elena, Katya’s daughter, was at a summer camp for kids recovering from dire medical circumstances, her latest surgery for her burn scars a complete success, and Katya and Gregory were planning to marry when they got back from the New Orleans rally.
“Let’s move it!”
Ace and Dimitri dealt with the boy’s bags, stowing them in saddlebags. The boys put on shades, helmets, cooling vests, and leathers, then everyone loaded up, Keiran behind Ace, and Pavel behind Dimitri. They rode out the U-shaped driveway and turned onto the highway, on their way to rejoin Route 66. Bonnie put on Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Running Down a Dream, and they all headed out into the desert sun.
Kidnapping
The ride from Tucson to El Paso was fun, the scenery beautiful. They saw cows, sheep, horses, and the occasional coyote. They went up to the scenic overlook to watch the sun set over the city. They ate at a barbecue joint, covering their tables with ribs, chicken, beans, slaw, potato salad, biscuits, barbecue sauce, and honey. They stayed in an inn with a red roof, buying nearly all their rooms.
San Antonio had fantastic music, and excellent Mexican food. They started at the Alamo, then went down to the river and walked, while Ivy, Bella, Inola, Bonnie, and Katya took the boys on a boat on the river while the others meandered.
They found a bar and grill and danced and ate tacos with beans and rice. Then chips with salsa and guacamole, empanadas, and fajitas until they could hardly walk. They rode just outside the city and took over two hotels. They watched the sun rise over the desert, and mounted up for another day to ride.
The ride to New Orleans was incredible. They got around Houston, then stopped at a suburban mall to please everyone’s demands for food.
The mall rats took their leather and skull emblems and dusty sunglasses in stride, when they saw it was obvious they wanted to order pizza, barbecue, and Chinese food at the same time. They made it to Beaumont before stopping for the night.
They crossed the Texas-Louisiana border in the morning. The air was hot, still, and muggy. They could hear cicadas and frogs when they stopped in Lake Charles to eat a late breakfast and look at the gorgeous water views. They ate lunch in Baton Rouge; coconut shrimp, crab cakes, hush puppies, and fries loaded with cheese and bacon. They stopped off several times to take pictures of the gorgeous scenery. They made it to New Orleans by dusk.
They were scattered amongst five hotels, one bed-and-breakfast, and two apartment rentals. Dimitri, Pavel, Keiran, Ace, and Lily were in a hotel in the Old Quarter. They ate shrimp etouffee and po-boy sandwiches.
In the morning, they had beignets and little pots of chocolate. Dimitri rested while Ace and Lily took the boys to a swamp tour on a flatboat, after dousing themselves in insect repellent. They got to see snakes, birds, and actual alligators. They ate Cajun food for lunch and danced to zydeco music. They went back to the Quarter, picked up Dimitri, then went down to the Mississippi River. They ate fish and chips and fried shrimp at a little fish shack there, because they couldn’t seem to keep the boys from getting ravenously hungry every five minutes.
They took a dusk walking night tour, learning about the history and stories of the place. They listened to jazz and ate oysters and shrimp. They all went for ice cream, laughing as the boys tried to lick the ice cream from their cones before the ice cream melted, a losing proposition in the heat. Ace and Lily shared a hot fudge sundae at a bistro table, and Dimitri ate a sorbet with the boys at another. Dimitri took the boys back to the hotel two blocks away so they could wash off the ice cream.
Ivy and Ace had just finished their hot fudge sundae when Keiran came running around the corner, his face a mask of blood from a scalp wound.
“Ace!” screamed Keiran. Lily had never seen Ace move so fast. He was at his side before Lily was halfway there.
She saw a cop, and waved her arms, “Hey! Over here!” she screamed. The cop rode his bike over to them.
Dimitri fought with them, “They took Pavel! Dimitri is hurt!”
Lily ran towards the hotel room, the cop right behind her. Dimitri was on the stairs, stumbling down, holding his side. The right side of his face was covered with blood.
“They took boy,” he said, “three men, ski masks, dark skin. Not black, just dark. Like espresso. One is still in room. I think dead. I punch him several times. He not say, where they take boy.”
The cop ran past them to the open door of the room, yelling into his shoulder mic about an Amber Alert. Two cops and an EMT converged on them. Lily helped Dimitri down the stairs and to a low wall, where he could sit. One of the cops ran upstairs.
He called back down, “Stay with that guy,” he said to the EMT.
“I know parents. I talk with them on phone about boy. They are in Ukraine on business,” he hissed when the EMT pulled up his shirt, “they not forgive me for losing boy.”
“He isn’t lost,” said Lily, “someone kidnapped him. There are a lot of us and police people too. We’ll find him.”
“How? We are in strange city. Not know area, not know people.”
Lily pulled out her phone, looked at the text, “Ace and Keiran are at an urgent care center around the corner. We’ll meet them there.”
“No, you won’t,” said the EMT, “This man has two, possibly three broken ribs. He’s going on a gurney to a real hospital before he punctures a lung.”
Lily watched the EMT.
She looked at his head wound next. She turned to her partner, who had a gurney, “Head lacerations too,” she said.
“Who do we know?” said Dimitri, “this is strange city, full of many people.”
“We know bikers,” said Lily.
Dimitri hissed again as the EMT bandaged his head, “Yes, we do. And I know Russians. Even in this strange city, there will be Russians.” He punched buttons on his phone.
“Unless they’re the ones that did it!” said Lily.
“Unless that,” agreed Dimitri, “we do not have much time. Boy will be scared. Must find him.”
“Yes,” said Lily. Her phone vibrated.
She took it out, and saw that Dimitri had sent her pictures of the man upstairs —of the ski mask, his dark skin and shocking blue eyes, open onto nothing. With his black jeans and shirt and tennis shoes, the black tats of spider web with a black widow spider in the middle, and tats of black tears and of crossed swords.
She turned as Henry and Inola came running up, “We must go. Now!” “Just when everything is dandy, another fly flies in.”
Finders Keepers book 3
When the members of the Nighthawks Motorcycle Club go for a ride to New Orleans, they've got Ace’s brother Kieran and friend Pavel in tow. It's time they went together for a long-awaited, and much-needed vacation. But their world is suddenly rocked by violence and a kidnapping that goes horribly wrong. All in a strange city, the Nighthawks don’t really know at all.
So, can Ivy, Ace, and the gang find allies to help their cause? It's important that they discover the truth, and detrimental that they find a terrible traitor within their ranks as well. They'll also need to focus so that they can help their beautiful Ivy to find love again long the way...
The love of a gang is concrete and loyal, but the love of a man is mind-blowing and insatiably surreal. It'll take a lot to set Ivy's heart on fire, this time. But it's her time now; time to light up her desire.
Finders Keepers - The Nighthawks Motorcycle Club
About the Author
Bella Knight writes what she loves--romance, Bad Boy Bikers to Hot Rockstars to sexy Sports Romances. She feels the love from her Las Vegas home from her rescue animals and her various love interests. She is constantly reading and writing, and she also leaves the animals with friends from time to time and hops on planes. She enjoys life to the fullest.
I adore my readers and love connecting with them s
ocially.
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
My Blog
Instagram
Youtube
