by Naomi West
“Yeah,” I said, willing my heartbeat to return to normal.
“Nightmare?” There was a hint of a smile at the corners of her lips. “I can't even imagine the big, bad biker dude having nightmares.”
I shrugged a little. “It happens,” I admitted. “I've seen enough shit happen.” I paused, not really wanting to tell her about all of that. As much as she had already been inducted into my life and lifestyle, I didn't really want her to know about all the horrible things that had happened before Frank had taken me under his care. She was kind of my second chance at a new beginning. I didn't want to tarnish this relationship with everything from my past, although it didn't seem like I had much of a choice when it came to things relating to the Devil's Route and the Holy Flames.
She hummed softly in response, not asking about the unspoken words. I guess she already kind of sensed all of that, burbling below the surface.
That was the thing about Halley and me. We came from two completely different worlds, but somehow, we managed to understand one another better than any two humans really ought to, given what little time we'd had together. That was definitely a large part of what drew me to the woman, but it wasn't all of it, by far.
“What time is it?” I asked, still a bit groggy.
“Late afternoon,” Halley said. “Almost four.” She shifted a little.
“I guess you probably have to be heading home to your family,” I told her, even as I burrowed closer to her.
“Probably,” Halley admitted, but she allowed herself to be pulled into my arms. She turned her face up towards mine, searching it for a minute — for what, I had no clue — and then she kissed me softly, just the barest brushing of lips before she ducked her face down into the crook of my neck.
“Halley, I meant what I was saying before,” I told her. “I really have fallen for you. God, I'd start a new life with you if I could. I just can't turn my back on the Devil's Route, not when they need me right now. I can't let the Holy Flames come under fire because of me.”
“What if you could have both?” Halley asked.
I snorted. “If you're referencing that 'plan' that you said I should come up with when we were at the cemetery, I'm no closer to figuring out what I'm supposed to do by now then I was then.”
“I have an idea,” Halley said. “I mean, it's not brilliant, and I don't know if it would work. Hell, I don't even know the first thing about implementing the plan, I just...” She fell quiet.
“Tell me,” I urged. “Halley, if you think you might have anything that could help us, please tell me.”
She nodded a little, as though to herself. “Well, I just … I don't know much about motorcycle clubs, but I was just thinking. Don't there have to be more branches of the Devil's Route MC scattered about the country? You told me at one point that Frank was the regional president, which implies that somewhere out there, there's a national president, right?”
“There are other branches of the club, yeah,” I admitted. “But how does that help us?”
“Well, just think about it,” Halley said. “You could call on them for help to defeat Emilio and the Holy Flames. You're regional president right now, right? So, they'd support you. Or even if they didn't, they'd help you avenge Frank's death. Even if Frank's death was ultimately ordered by Max, they don't have to know that. They just have to know that someone from the Flames shot a respected leader from their organization. Right?”
“What's to stop the Flames from summoning up all their auxiliary forces as well, though?” I argued. “It's a good idea, don't get me wrong, I just don't see—”
“There's two ideas there,” Halley interrupted me. “Either you'd have to act fast — but I think it would be difficult to get that many bikers to swarm into town without Emilio getting suspicious and figuring things out. Or else you'd have to gather them here under some other guise. Something that Emilio couldn't be suspicious of. Like a memorial ride for Frank.”
I blinked at her, surprised. What she was suggesting was…
“You wouldn't want to start it here,” Halley continued, looking a bit nervous, as though she thought I might reject the plan immediately. “That would make Emilio ... well, not suspicious, but maybe worried about his territory. He'd want to protect his area, just in case. And he'd call in backup forces from the Flames to do that. But if you were to start it somewhere else and amass this huge group of bikers and then you could just swarm in and attack.”
“That might work,” I said, awe in my voice. I shook my head, amazed that she had seen the solution when no one else had been able to. “That really might work,” I repeated.
Halley grinned, looking pleased with herself. “Well, I had a little time to think about it while you were napping,” she said bashfully. She then fixed me with a serious look. “But Jake, I swear to god, if you want to be around Cole in the future, you're going to have to clean up your act.”
“I'm not going to quit being part of the Devil's Route just because I have a family,” I told her, shaking my head. It made me a little sad to come to that realization, but I just couldn't turn my back on Bryce and everyone else just because...
“That's not what I'm saying,” Halley told me. “I'm not saying that you have to quit being a biker to be with me. But I am saying that this shit had better not affect me again like this in the future or I'm going to leave—and I'm going to take Cole with me. And if I even hear a rumor of Cole getting mixed up in anything like drugs or illegal trafficking or weapons or anything else, I will take him away, and you will never see us again. Do you understand me?”
It was funny, almost, to hear how stern her voice was, except that I could tell that she was 100% serious about it. If I fucked up again, she was going to let me have it.
And I loved that about her.
With a growl, I rolled us over so that she was on her back, pinned beneath me, and even that simple action had her pupils blown wide with lust. “You think you can tell me what to do?” I asked her, a teasing note in my voice.
She grinned cockily at me, clearly picking up on my mood. “Am I not supposed to do that?” she asked innocently.
I growled again and bent down to kiss her heatedly, nipping at her lower lip and then sucking on the bite. I forced my tongue inside of her mouth, kissing her until she was absolutely breathless and practically whimpering with desire.
“Do that again,” she told me, though, a playful grin on her face.
I complied, kissing her even more thoroughly this time, practically pillaging her mouth with my tongue. Meanwhile, I slipped my hands down and pulled up her shirt, fondling her breasts until the nipples stood sharply against the thin, lacy fabric of her flimsy bra.
She reached around behind herself to unhook it, and when I leaned back a little, she wiggled out of both her tee-shirt and the bra. Then, she gave me a challenging look, and I realized I was in for a long ride this time. I accepted the challenge, though.
I bent down to kiss her naked mounds when she reached up and caught my face. “Wait,” she said, biting her lip a little. “I want you to...” She trailed off, looking embarrassed, and I couldn't help smiling a little at that.
“What?” I asked her. “What do you want?”
She took a deep breath, as though she had to summon every ounce of her courage just to admit it to me. “I want to taste you,” she told me. “I want you to...” She broke off again, but I knew what she was saying. I raised an eyebrow at her but then moved off her so that I could strip down.
Still… “Are you sure?” I asked her, because the last thing I wanted was for her to feel like she had to do something because it was what I wanted.
“Get over here,” she said in response.
I knelt back over her, moving up on her body until my half-hard prick was right in front of her face. And keeping her eyes on me, looking up at me through those thick, brown eyelashes of hers, she guided my penis towards her mouth. At first, she only laved kisses along the outside of it, covering the full len
gth of it with light, easy touches of her soft, smooth lips. She traced her tongue up the thick vein on the underside of my member and then slipped her mouth around just the head, sucking lightly at it.
I moaned, already hardening at her ministrations, and I was rewarded with a small smile from her as she continued to work my head between her lips, her tongue dancing around it, fluttering against the sensitive skin and then pressing at my slit, drawing a bead of precum out of me that she swirled around her mouth.
She drew more of my length into her warm cavern, alternating her movements so that every single time she pulled back, the feeling was something somehow new. And with the hand that she wasn't using to guide my prick, she began to play with my balls, rolling them between her delicate fingers and stroking at the skin there.
I'm not sure how long she continued this for. It felt like ages, but it was probably only minutes. I already felt as though I was on the verge of exploding, but I wanted to make this last, wanted to make this good for her as well. Just when I reluctantly made to pull back, though, she used her hands to grab my hips, urging me to move, to actually use her, as though she were only a warm vessel for me to put my dick inside of.
I groaned and began to snap my hips back and forth, using her for release. I was only human, after all, and with a woman this gorgeous trying to make me come like this ... well, there wasn't any way I could argue with that.
Still, I felt my orgasm building closer and closer, and I tried to pull away. “Halley, I'm going to—”
But she wouldn't let me go. Instead, she began to bob her head in the same rhythm that I was using, and when I suddenly spilled my thick seed, she was there still to swallow it down, except for the little bit that trickled out the corner of her mouth.
I kept my eyes closed for a long moment, unable to even consider opening them. When I finally managed to regain some sense, Halley was still there, in the same position, smiling up at me as she wiped at the corner of her mouth. The sight was enough to make my dick twitch again already — in an almost painfully overstimulated way.
I groaned and collapsed down to the side, and Halley looked worried. “Did you hurt yourself?” she asked, her hands finding my bandages and already checking to see if I'd reopened the gun wound.
I batted her hands away. “No,” I told her breathlessly. “But Jesus, woman. You're going to be the death of me.”
Halley laughed a little and then lay so that her head was pillowed on my chest. “Maybe,” she agreed, trailing her fingertips over my skin, sending little zings of pleasure through me. “Especially because now you owe me one.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Halley leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss me, her hands trailing over my leather jacket. The kiss wasn't chaste by any means, but it was guarded. I smiled a little because I knew what she was trying to disguise was her anxiety, but I already knew just how worried she was about this. “I'm going to be fine,” I told her for the umpteenth time as we broke apart.
“I know,” she said, and I could hear an honest conviction in her voice. “I just don't like seeing you go off on a raid like this,” she said. “I know what happened in the last one, remember?”
“This one is better planned, thanks to you,” I reminded her. “And anyway, if this is successful, this could be the last raid that I ever have to go on. And if it is, then I'll have plenty of time to take care of you and Cole the way that you deserve.”
Halley sighed. “I know,” she said again. She leaned up to kiss me again, this time just barely brushing her lips over mine. “Be safe, Jake,” she told me, giving me a serious look. “I swear to god, if you die out there, I'm going to figure out some way to bring you back from the grave so that I can kill you myself.”
I laughed. “You know, I don't doubt that for a second,” I told her. “You really are quite the headstrong woman, despite your parents' conservatism. It's no wonder that I was drawn to you all those years ago.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Halley said, but she was blushing a little, clearly pleased to hear that. “Go on, I want you to be back here and free of this whole mess by the end of the week when Cole and my parents get back.”
“I still can't believe you didn't go with them,” I said, shaking my head. Even though we'd already had this out multiple times and I really didn't want to start an argument just then. I understood where she was coming from, of course, understood that she would be too worried if she was too far removed from the action and didn't know what was going on. I knew that things were probably better this way, that her parents would be less suspicious if she wasn't around to make things seem suspicious.
But still. I didn't like still having her there in the city, even if she was under 24-hour guard at the Devil's Route clubhouse.
I swung my leg over my bike and flipped my visor down. There was no time to dwell on any of that for any longer; I had meetings all across Oregon and Nevada over the next few days to assemble riders from the other branches of the Devil's Route.
Without another word, I pushed my bike forwards and gunned it down the road.
Despite thinking that Halley's plan was a good one, I didn't really know what sort of a turnout we would have for this “memorial ride” that was really a front for a raid on the local branch of the Holy Flames MC. Of course, I had to tell them all about Halley so that they would understand Emilio's leverage against me, and I was afraid that they'd all think I was thinking with my dick rather than my head or even my heart.
I was lucky that anyone had even granted me a meeting.
As I strode into the Oregon branch's clubhouse, Victor, the regional president, met me in the hallway. “Hey man,” he said, pulling me into a quick, brotherly hug, thumping me soundly on the back. “You okay? We all heard about Frank, and that's bullshit, man. How are you holding up?”
“The club is doing fine,” I told him. “And my leg's doing a lot better. I was hit with a stray bullet during the raid. But that's actually what I'm here to talk to you all about.”
“Awesome, no problem,” Victor said, leading me away into the clubhouse. “I already assembled everyone, just like you had asked.”
“Thanks, man,” I told him as we entered their meeting room. I looked around at the faces gathered there—some familiar; some whom I'd never met. “Hi everyone, nice to see you all. As I'm sure you've all heard, Frank Cordell has, sadly, passed away earlier this month, as has his son, Max Cordell. Both were killed at the hands of our local rivals, the Holy Flames motorcycle club.”
A murmur went up around the room.
“Now, the last thing I want is to go storm their clubhouse with my men,” I continued. “Because that's exactly the kind of thinking that got Frank killed to start with. And as you know, any loss within our brotherhood is a heavy loss indeed. We are armed and ready to go, but we need your help.”
Another murmur.
“I'm no more ready to have my men killed than you are, Jake,” Victor said, looking uneasy. There were nods around the room.
“I get that,” I told him. “But that's why we have to surprise them. If they don't expect us to come after them, and don't expect us to have a serious advantage in the number of men that we have, then we can outflank them and pick them off one by one.”
Victor laughed a little in disbelief. “How many men do you think that we have?” he asked. “And how would we escape the notice of the Holy Flames long enough to get into town and get settled and ready for a raid?”
“The Devil's Route branch in Nevada is also considering joining us,” I told him, trying to soothe his worries. “You don't need to pledge all of your men, just anyone who would even volunteer to join us would be welcome. I think we'll have enough men that we should have no problem. The Holy Flames aren't the best shooters anyway. As for how we're going to all get into town and surprise them with an attack, we have the perfect cover story: we're on a memorial ride for Frank, starting up here, going down through Nevada and picking up more of our brethren, and then ending up back in Millha
ven to visit Frank's grave. By the time Emilio even suspects that something is up, we'll be picking off his men left and right.”
There was a long silence, but I could see that some of the men seemed interested.
“If I may,” one of Victor's guys said, standing up. He turned to look at me, tilting his head to the side as he considered me. “My name is Jason Grey,” he finally told me. “You probably don't remember me, but I was staying with a couple of the Millhaven Devil's Route guys back when Frank adopted you.”
“I vaguely remember you,” I told him, trying to think back.
“You've grown up a lot since then,” Jason said. “Frank must have been so proud of you. You seem really mature, and a ready leader for our club.”
I ducked my head a little. “Thanks,” I muttered bashfully.
Jason turned to look around at the other members of the group. “Look, I'd trust this man with my life,” he said. “Because I saw the kid that Frank pulled out of the streets, and he was half feral. Here he is now, in front of us all, asking us for our help because his brotherhood is in danger from another motorcycle club—that's not the kind of action that we might have expected out of the kid when he was fresh off the streets.” He laughed a little. “No, the Jake Ryce that Frank took off the streets only cared about one thing: his own survival.”
