Down & Dirty_Slade

by Jeanne St. James

  Slade smirked and lifted his hands in surrender. When she turned back around Rocky was grinning, too.

  “Know what you gotta do,” he ordered Slade, then gave Di an innocent, wide-eyed look.

  She let out a long, looong, loud sigh.

  Rocky lifted a hand. “Okay, sorry, I’ll be good. Know you’re not missin’ your pops, so whataya here for?”

  “I need answers.”

  He cocked a dark, thick brow. “’Bout what?”

  “About why you’re in here.”

  Rocky studied her for a minute. “Know why I’m in here.”

  “I know the general reason but not the details.”

  “Don’t need to know the details.”

  “Yes, we do, Dad. It’s important.”

  Rocky’s gaze flicked from her up to Slade and back to Di. “We?”

  “Yeah, I have to tell you something...” She felt Slade move closer, so close that his heat seared her back.

  “Killed a biker named Buzz,” Slade grumbled.

  Rocky’s jaw got tight as he glanced up at Slade. “Yeah. Warrior. No good piece of shit.”

  Di could feel the tension rolling off Slade’s body, which made her sit on the edge of her seat.

  “Why’s that?” Slade asked.

  “Why was he a piece of shit? Or why’d I kill ‘im?”

  “Probably one an’ the same,” Slade muttered.

  Rocky’s eye narrowed on Slade. “Why you care?”

  “Just answer, Dad.”

  “It’s history.”

  “No. It isn’t. That’s the problem,” she said.

  “What the fuck’s goin’ on?”

  “Dad, please...”

  Rocky sat back in his hard, plastic chair and crossed his arms over his chest, studying the two of them, his mouth a thin, flat line.

  “The fucker killed your grandfather,” he finally said.

  Slade made such a sharp movement behind her that it jolted her, as well.

  Di knew Bear had been killed by Warriors. She also knew her father had killed Warriors in return. But this was news... And it made their situation even more of a tangled mess. But what her father said next made her stomach drop even further.

  “Two others.”

  She was almost afraid to ask who else, but Slade beat her to it.

  “Who were the others?”

  “You don’t know ‘em, boy.”

  “We need to know the whole story,” Di insisted.

  Rocky regarded them silently for a moment then leaned forward. “Killed another Angel, raped an’ killed that brother’s ol’ lady. Left their kid an orphan.”

  Di sucked in a ragged breath and her chest tightened to the point where she almost couldn’t breathe. This whole mess between the DAMC and the Warriors left at least two children, that she now knew of, orphaned. Slade and...

  “Who was that?” Her question came out so quietly, she wondered if her father even heard her through the barrier. But he did.

  “Brother named Coyote. You wouldn’t remember him. Was killed before you were born. Had a pretty, little Indian woman as his ol’ lady. Buzz an’ another Warrior named Hammer ambushed Coyote, gutted ‘im, then raped his woman an’ slit her throat. Kid was right there, saw it all. Luckily, he was just a tot, prolly don’t remember it.”

  Holy shit.

  Di grabbed her stomach when it decided to do a couple somersaults. “Dad, when you say Indian woman, do you mean a Native American?”

  He frowned at her use of the PC term. “Same shit.”

  Di dropped her head in her hands and a feeling of dread washed over her. Her question was muffled when she asked it. “What was that kid’s name?”

  Oh, Jesus fucking Christ. She already knew the answer.

  Oh, please, please, please. She didn’t really want to hear the answer. She didn’t want to hear that Slade’s father murdered and raped...

  “Crow.”

  ...Crow’s mother.

  Diamond tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but it did no good. She was afraid to look behind her, to see how Slade was handling this new information. He hadn’t said a word, but she could still feel him standing close behind her.

  The worst part was Crow was there when it happened. He had to be a baby, but still...

  “After we buried his momma an’ pop, some of ‘er family came an’ got ‘im. Didn’t want us raisin’ ‘im in the club. Thought that takin’ ‘im back to his family’s reservation in South Dakota was a better option. Not sure if it was, but we let ‘im go. Was proud of ‘im when I heard he came back to prospect. Man’s got DAMC blood runnin’ through his veins.”

  She stared at her father. “Why didn’t I ever hear of this?”

  “Not sure how much Crow knows. Could be he just knew his father was an Angel. He visits every so often, sits here an’ hardly says a word.”

  “Have you told him what you just told us?”

  “Hasn’t asked.”

  Di bugged her eyes out at her father. “Don’t you think he’d want to know?”

  Rocky shrugged. “Wants to know, he’ll ask.”

  Was he serious? She shook her head to clear it. “Have to ask you something, Dad...”

  “Askin’ a lot of questions today, Diamond.”

  “I need to know... Was it worth it?”

  Rocky’s nostrils flared, and his eyes got hard once more. “Baby doll, I’d do it again in a fuckin’ second.”

  The hair on the back of Diamond’s neck stood up when he used the same nickname Crow called her.

  “The only regrets I got are bein’ separated from your mother an’ not bein’ there to raise you kids. Knew the brotherhood would step in an’ help raise you all. They did an’ I’m proud you three turned out good.” He sat back again, staring at Slade behind her. “Lift up that sleeve, boy.”

  Slade must have complied because her father nodded and said, “Marine, huh? Oorah. If somebody’s gonna be stickin’ it in my baby girl, can’t complain that’s he’s a vet. Need more of ‘em in the DAMC.”

  She asked Slade over her shoulder, “You heard enough?” Because she sure had.

  “Yeah,” was his low, tight answer.

  She lowered her voice enough she hoped her father couldn’t hear her. “Want to tell him?”

  “Not sure that’s a good idea, princess.”

  She agreed. It may not be the best idea. At least not now.

  The door buzzed behind her father. Their time must be up.

  As he got to his feet, Rocky said, “Tell your sister to come visit her old man. Tell ‘er to bring that ball an’ chain of ‘ers, too.”

  Di had hoped the visit today would clear things up. Unfortunately, it just made things a whole lot messier.

  Slade eyeballed Diamond as she sat in the passenger seat of her small sports car. His cut was draped over her lap and her fingers incessantly ran over the patches on the back. He doubted she was even aware that she was doing it.

  She had cleaned his cut up as best as she could after the Warriors stomped all over it. She’d make someone a good ol’ lady, just for the fact alone that she knew the life and how important his colors were to him and the club.

  He looked beyond her through the passenger side window at the prison as he shoved her 370Z into first gear and released the clutch.

  She’d hardly said a word to him after her little shit fit this morning and she was saying even less now that they were leaving SCI Greene.

  As he drove out of the visitors parking lot, she finally whispered, “He called me baby doll.”

  “Yeah?”

  “That’s what Crow calls me.”

  He really wanted to tell her that Crow needed to stop calling her that, but he was already in the dog house with their conversation earlier about Crow touching her. Maybe he’d pull the brother aside and have a little conversation with him about boundaries. “So?”

  “You don’t think that means anything?”

  “Said Crow visits ‘im, maybe when your
pop asks ‘bout you Crow calls you baby doll.”

  His eyes slid to her. She stared straight out of the windshield, chewing on her bottom lip.

  He bit back a sigh. Whenever she bit her bottom lip he now knew she was thinking way too hard. “Princess, your pop callin’ you baby doll is the least of our problems right now.”

  She turned wide eyes to him. “No shit. What a fucking mess.”

  That it was. “Ain’t gonna say nothin’ to no one, got me?”

  Her blue eyes got even wider. “What?”

  “Gonna let it go.”

  “You mean not tell Crow what we know?”

  “No. Might already know, anyhow.” He pulled out onto the highway and pointed the car towards Shadow Valley.

  “Think D knows what your father did? Not only killing Bear, but Coyote and Crow’s mother? And not just killing her, raping her first.”

  He understood the bitterness in her voice, he was feeling it himself. “Guessin’ he don’t know everythin’. Otherwise, might be filetin’ the colors off my back.”

  He heard Diamond suck in a sharp breath next to him.

  “Princess, that shit happened decades ago. Not sure who all knows the details at this point. If anyone, Grizz. Maybe Ace. Possibly Pierce. An’ they might not be puttin’ two an’ two together. Everyone knows a Warrior killed your grandpop. Everyone knows Rocky killed a Warrior for payback. An’ if you never heard about Coyote an’ his ol’ lady, then most likely it’s never talked about.”

  “Maybe no one talks about it to shield Crow from living that horror all over again.”

  “Could be. But there’s plenty of times Crow ain’t around an’ no one’s talked about the past.”

  “Everyone’s trying to move forward, that’s why. Fucking Warriors are the ones...”

  As her words faded off, his jaw got tight. Rocky was right. Buzz was a piece of fucking shit. A no-good piece of dog shit. It was bad enough that Slade was DAMC and had Warrior blood in his veins, but a Warrior of the lowest kind. A bottom feeder.

  “Glad he did it.”

  From the corner of his eye, he saw Diamond’s head spin toward him. “Glad who did what?”

  Slade hadn’t even realized he’d said it out loud. “Glad your pop killed mine.”

  “Slade,” she breathed, reached over and laid a warm hand on his thigh.

  Releasing the shifter, he curled his fingers around hers. “No, princess. Man was a monster. Not glad you had to live without your pop your whole life. Not glad I was left on my own. Not glad Crow was left the same way. But glad Buzz ain’t walkin’ this earth. Glad I never knew ‘im.”

  “You forget my father’s a murderer, too.”

  “Know it. But did this world a favor, that’s how I see it.”

  He had no idea what his sperm donor looked like except for that old, ratty photo he still had in his wallet. Even so, he couldn’t wipe the vision of Buzz raping a woman, a young mother, and then extinguishing her life her right in front of her kid.

  From what Slade knew, this whole beef started when the Shadow Warriors wanted Shadow Valley, the DAMC’s territory. All that killing and violence over a town when there were plenty of others available, not only in Pennsylvania, but around the country. The nomads could’ve moved on and gone anywhere. They didn’t. They decided they wanted what DAMC had and they weren’t taking no for an answer.

  So now in this car sat two people thirty-something years later affected because of a bullshit beef. One with SWMC blood, and one with DAMC blood.

  Slade jerked the wheel sharply and pulled over into the lot of an abandoned business. He slammed his palms on the steering wheel, then covered his face and bellowed into his hands as his chest heaved.

  He couldn’t look at Diamond. He couldn’t. Not until he got his shit together. He took deep breaths in an attempt to calm his racing thoughts.

  It didn’t help much because all that kept running through his mind was how he was tainted. “That poison runs through my veins.”

  “What?” she asked in a whisper, her hand squeezing his thigh.

  “His toxic blood. It runs through my fuckin’ veins.”

  “You’re nothing like him, Slade. Don’t even think like that.”

  “How do you know?”

  He dropped his hands and she immediately grabbed one to pressed it over her heart. “Baby, I know it here.”

  He shook his head. She could be wrong. Maybe he’d turn out to be a monster just like his father.

  He thought about why he had enjoyed boxing so much. He found nothing more satisfying than to pound the shit out of someone. To be the victor. Maybe that violent tendency was hereditary. Could it get worse?

  He would never want to hurt the woman sitting in the car next to him. And he was afraid, now that he knew what he knew about his father, that it could very well happen. He could possibly snap.

  “If you have toxic poison in your veins, then so do I. My father was no better.”

  “No, Diamond, your father evened the score for murders the Warriors did. The Warriors killed first. Doc an’ Rocky an’ whoever else only went after the Warriors after they tore the DAMC apart. Or tried to.” He reached out and gripped her jaw, pulling her closer. Even though the car was small, and the shifter prevented them from getting too close, he leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers before saying, “Princess, if anyone did you wrong like that, you better believe I’d be sittin’ in a cell right next to those two men. Don’t ever doubt that.”

  Because that was the fucking truth. If anyone tried to hurt a hair on her head, he would make sure that person was no longer breathing. And he would do it himself. His hands, his justice. No way would one of D’s Shadows to do it for him.

  No fucking way.

  Nobody was touching his ol’ lady and getting away with it.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Slade leaned back against the bathroom counter and twisted to look over his shoulder into the mirror. He studied the large tattoo Crow had inked onto his back a few months ago.

  The black and grey DAMC rockers and logo on his skin had meaning.

  A purpose.

  Wearing those colors on his back and on his cut created a bond with his DAMC brothers. A bond he didn’t want to break. Now that he knew the truth about his father, there was no reason to keep moving, no reason to hop on his sled and move on.

  None at all.

  Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t leave right now anyway. His Harley hadn’t been found. He had no idea what the Warriors did with it, but he suspected it was either trashed or dismantled for parts.

  He tried not to think about it because it made him want to go out there and join D’s crew on the hunt for any remaining Warriors. That sled had been his pride and joy, his baby. It had been in his life longer than anything else or even anyone else. Even though it was metal, leather, and rubber, it meant something to him.

  Whether he stayed or moved on, he needed to get another sled. He’d have to talk to Jag to see what the man could come up with. Diamond’s brother had a skill customizing bikes like no other Slade had ever seen. If he had to take more shifts at The Iron Horse to pay for it, so be it. Whatever he needed to do. He couldn’t be a biker... Hell, he couldn’t be a part of an MC without a sled.

  He took a last glance at the tattoo. His colors didn’t just represent that bond or and his membership in the DAMC, it also represented...

  Home.

  Family.

  Even after finding out his father was a Warrior who had killed some of DAMC’s own, they still came and saved his ass from the rival outlaw club.

  Knowing what she knew now, Diamond didn’t look at him any differently, either.

  It had been a week since they visited Rocky, and she hadn’t asked him to move back to church, even though he was back to work and getting around just fine. There was no reason he needed to stay in Diamond’s cabin anymore. Okay, there was one...

  Diamond.

  This past week he’d been doing a lot
of thinking. About what this club meant to him. About what Diamond meant to him. And one thing became clear...

  He was here to stay.

  He was now DAMC. He was now home in Shadow Valley.

  He also wanted to remain in Diamond’s bed.

  Shutting off the light, he stepped out into the bedroom to watch her sleep. Her hair surrounded her relaxed face like a dark cloud, and she looked peaceful as her breath went softly in and out of her parted lips.

  He was glad that she could sleep, because, for fuck’s sake, he sure couldn’t. He had too much shit on his mind.

  Last week before they had gone to visit Rocky, she’d asked if he was going to claim her. He hadn’t answered.

  Mostly because he didn’t have an answer at the time. However, during his drive back to her cabin tonight, after an exhausting shift at The Iron Horse, he realized he finally had one.

  He knew what he wanted.

  He knew who he wanted. In his bed. On the back of his bike. As a permanent part of his life. She knew his secrets now. She accepted them. She accepted him.

  She was one badass biker bitch. Knock her down, she got right back up swinging. He loved that about her. Her tenacity, her strength.

  Life had dealt them both a shitty hand. And crazy enough, instead of pulling the two of them apart, the past couple of weeks had brought them closer together.

  It surprised him that he was actually thinking about claiming her at the table. Hell, making it official. Did it make his heart thump a little faster and a bead of sweat pop out on his forehead? Fuck yeah, it did.

  And that wasn’t the only thing he was going to ask the Executive Committee for. He didn’t want to tend bar or bounce drunks for the rest of his life. If he was going to put down roots in this town, in this club, then he wanted to do it right.

  He’d not only been thinking about his future with Diamond, but how he could help the club out. And it hit him how to do just that. It would not only benefit the club, but him and Diamond.

  Diamond shifted, sat up, blinking at him, then ran a hand over her eyes. “What are you doing?”

  “Nothin’.” He moved closer to the bed.

  She covered her yawn. “When did you get in?”