by Jayne Blue
Angel
Great Wolves M.C. - California Chapter
Jayne Blue
Nokay Press LLC
Copyright © 2018 by Jayne Blue/Nokay Press LLC
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author or publisher, except where permitted by law or for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Contents
Don’t Miss a Thing!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
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Chapter One
Angel
“One of these days, yer goin’ ta hafta perfect the fine art of sayin’ no!”
Mo McGillivray's voice clanged inside my head like a mallet hitting a bell. My stomach rolled and my eyes watered. I reached for the blanket, hoping to pull it over my head. No such luck. I felt the cold, hard wood of the floor. Apparently, I’d never made it to the actual bed.
“Jesus, Mo,” I said.
Mercifully, she didn’t yell at me again. She did, however, throw a cold bucket of water over me that hit me like a thousand tiny knives in my back.
“That’s fer takin’ the Lord’s name in vain. And it’s the closest yer gonna get to a shower, Avery,” she said. “Ya got church in twenty minutes.”
Avery. She was the only person on the planet who could get away with calling me by my given name. The men of this club named me Angel when I patched in. Girls think it’s because I have the face of one. Half the guys tease me about that. But Sly, my club president, gave it to me one night in a dark alley when I took a bullet meant for him. I bear the physical scars from that night across my back. And I’d bear the road name he gave me for it with honor until the day I died.
“He’s calling church on a Sunday?” I asked, trying to get my feet under me. I might not have made it to the bed, but at least I’d made it to my room. I sat up, grateful my head hadn’t spun. There was a moan from the bed and I looked up at Mo. She stood in the doorway with one hand on her hip and the empty bucket in the other.
The figure on the bed hadn’t woken up through all that racket. A shock of red hair spilled over the side and I buried my face in my hand. Salina lay sprawled across my bed, face down, with one leg tucked under her. She wore a matching black lace bra and thong. The girl had a little blue butterfly tattoo on her left butt cheek. Oh, she was fine. But she was high maintenance trouble and I’d told her months ago we weren’t right for each other. “Shit,” I muttered. “I didn’t.”
Mo let out a sigh. “Relax, lover boy. You didn’t. And yer welcome for that. You and Switch drank each other under the table a few hours ago. I sent Salina up here to sleep it off where I knew I could keep her out of trouble. You staggered up here a little after that but the door’s been open all night.”
“Thanks, Mo,” I said, running my tongue over the fuzz on my teeth.
“Church,” she said. “Fifteen minutes now.”
“Shit. Right.” I got to my feet. Birthday bash or not, Sly wouldn’t want any of us showing up for our club meeting late today.
“Salina,” I said, gently nudging her shoulder. She moaned again but didn’t wake.
“Save it,” Mo said. “I’ll deal with her. She wasn’t looking for you last night anyway. She’s got her sights on Switch now. She’s lucky Scarlett didn’t throw her out on her ass.”
Scarlett was Sly’s wife. They’d only been married a few months. I felt that familiar lurch in my gut when I thought about their wedding. It ended in a spray of bullets when my club brother Gunn’s psycho father-in-law tried to exact his misguided revenge on us. A good woman got killed in the crossfire. Emily. She’d been my last one-night stand and I wasn’t ready to forgive myself for not seeing her home before it all went down.
“What’s Scarlett’s beef with Salina?” I said as I quickly brushed my teeth. Even as I shouted to Mo from the bathroom, Salina still hadn’t woken. Fuck. Ford was working the bar last night. After she was done with me, Mo’d probably take his head off next.
“She got a little too friendly with Sly last night too. She was in no condition to drive so I stashed her up here figuring all that tequila made you harmless.”
“Thanks,” I said, spitting into the sink. I ran my fingers through my hair. It was still wet from Mo’s bucket. I grabbed a clean t-shirt from the drawer and my cut from the bedpost.
“Get gone,” she said. “You’re presentable, at least. Barely.”
I gave her a peck on the cheek as I tried to brush past her in the doorway. Mo was short, stout, with twinkling eyes and deep creases in her face. I’d like to think they were mostly laugh lines, but knew better. She’d been a kind of den mother to all of us over the years. She’d seen the best and worst of the men in this club. Any one of us would lay down our lives for her. But she was also a huge, loving pain in the ass. Mo swatted my backside and waved the bucket at my head. I ducked easily. She was barely five feet tall and her Irish brogue grew thick when her emotions ran high, which was most of the time.
“What am I gonna find when I get down there?” I asked.
Mo let out a heavy sigh and finally put her bucket down. Salina stirred on the bed. She opened one sleepy eye and smiled as her eyes took a second to focus on me.
“Hey,” she said, groggy. “Angel?”
“Relax, honey.” Mo stepped in. “You’ll find clean towels and your clean clothes folded on the bathroom sink in there. When you’ve pulled yourself together, meet me in the kitchen. We need to have a little chat. And you’ll be doin’ yourself a favor if you steer clear of Scarlett this morning.”
Salina’s face dropped as I assumed some of her memories from last night flooded back in. “Did you have a happy birthday, baby?” she said, her voice breathless. She hadn’t taken the not-so-subtle hint from Mo.
“He ain’t your baby, honey,” she said. “I said, meet me in the kitchen. I’m afraid you’ve finally worn out your welcome. Don’t go lookin’ to Angel to do anything for you. That goes for Switch too. Your best option is to head straight out the door.”
Salina pouted and planted her feet hard on the floor. Christ. What the hell had she done to piss Scarlett off this much? I couldn’t help feeling bad for her. Salina had a good heart. She’d just burned through just about every member of the Great Wolves M.C. at one time or another. She got way too clingy for my tastes. Still, her feelings were hurt and I had
a soft spot for those big green eyes of hers. It didn’t mean I wanted to start things up with her though. Salina just wasn’t good at telling the difference.
“Out,” Mo said, sensing where my thoughts were going. “Ten minutes, honey. Then you need to get gone. I called you a cab.”
She closed the door behind us and wagged a finger at me out in the hallway. “Remember, the word is no. Ya drank more’n you should have. And all ya had to do is shoot one smile in the general direction of that girl in there and she starts gettin’ all kinds of crazy ideas in her head again. She’s been on borrowed time down in the den for months. Time for her to move on.”
“Awe, Mo. Salina’s not so bad. She just ... I don’t know. She doesn’t think a whole lot of herself and she’s always looking for somebody else to make her feel better.”
“Uh huh. She’s trouble. She’s always been trouble. She’s a kid, Avery. I don’t care she’s only a couple of years younger than you. When she’s sixty years old, she’ll still be a kid.”
I put my hands up in surrender. “I get it, I get it.”
She shook that finger at me again. “See that you do. I got plans for you, Avery Bishop. They don’t involve you hooking up with biker bangers for the rest of your life.”
I laughed. It was in me to ask her what those plans were, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear her answer. Laughter wafted up from the main floor of the Wolf Den. We ran it as a full-fledged bar, open to the public most nights. It was one of the club’s main sources of revenue since we’d gone completely legit under Sly’s leadership. We had investments in a few MMA fighters, as well as security contracts up and down the northern California coast. It didn’t mean we didn’t have to flex our muscle on a regular basis. We kept Green Bluff clean, but there were always other factions trying to edge into what we had going on up here.
“By the way,” Mo said, smiling. “Happy birthday, old man.”
I hugged her as she moved past me toward the other end of the hall. She started banging on a few closed doors, rallying the rest of the guys to get up, get dressed, and get down to church.
Old man. Hell. Last night, I’d turned thirty. It hit me right then and there as I stood at the top of the stairs.
Thirty.
My old man never made it that far. He died at twenty-eight, stabbed in a bar fight on the South Side of Chicago. He’d been a patched member of the charter out there. My mom did her level best to keep me out of trouble after that. I’d been just six years old at the time. In my memory, Hatch Bishop had been big as a bear and just as fierce. He never got around to actually marrying my mother, but his legacy with the club protected us. Except my mother never could control me. Wild Thing. That’s what she used to call me from the time I was old enough to talk. She sang the song that went with it. By the time I was fourteen, I was out boozing and smoking more than I was home. Got kicked out of three schools and nearly taken away from her. It was the threat of a group home that finally broke my mother and made her call for help.
My daddy’s club prez sent us to Green Bluff. Blackie Murphy was the chapter president. Meanest son of a bitch I’d ever seen. He took scared straight to a whole new level. I hated him for it. Still do. Just a few months later, he was dead and Sly Cullinan took the gavel. He was my savior back then and I know I owe him my life in every way that matters.
Thirty. Shit. I was never supposed to live this long.
“Man, you look like shit,” Switch said. He was sitting at the bar downing a huge mug of coffee. The pot next to him looked like heaven. I went for it.
“Speak for yourself, asshole,” I said.
“Ford said he saw Salina coming out of your bedroom. Tell me you didn’t.”
I put a hand up in surrender. “I didn’t. On my life. Mo just put her up there to keep her out of Scarlett’s crosshairs until she slept it off. What the hell did she do to get in ’em anyway?”
Switch let out a low whistle. “You don’t remember?”
I reached for the coffee. God bless Mo. She had a heaping plate of donuts set out, still warm, freshly baked from Barclay’s Bakery off of I-5.
“I don’t remember shit,” I said. “I remember tequila shots after Ford turned the beer gun on me when the clock struck midnight.”
Switch laughed. “Yeah. Sounds about right. Wasn’t long after that. Sly went back into his office. I think he was trying to wind down. Turns out Salina thought she was going to surprise him. Oh, he was surprised all right. She was waiting for him under his desk. She got his zipper halfway down before he realized it wasn’t Scarlett. That, and I don’t think that’s her style. Well, he let out a holler and Scarlett came running. Gun drawn.”
I choked on my donut. “Shit. Salina’s lucky she didn’t get one right between the eyes. No wonder Mo’s taking away her club privileges. She’s got a cab waiting for her.”
“Good riddance,” Big John said from the other end of the bar.
It was in me to stick up for Salina again. Big John had been with her too a few years back. Now he’d settled down and gotten married. Other than the probies, only Switch and I were still bachelors. That had never really occurred to me before. Girls like Salina had filled my nights for as far back as I could remember. It’s all I wanted. So, why hadn’t I hooked up with her this morning? Never mind the baggage, that never mattered to me before. Until Sly’s wedding.
If I was telling the truth, last night had probably been the longest stretch of sleep I’d had in a row, even if it was tequila-induced. I just couldn’t shake the image of Scarlett’s bridesmaid Emily from my mind. Every night, I woke in a cold sweat seeing her in her last moments, wearing that blood-soaked yellow dress as I held her in my arms.
“Maybe,” I said, sipping my coffee. I wondered if the hair of the dog might be a better choice.
“What about you?” Switch asked. “Sheeit. I get Salina. But what about Carly and ... uh …” he snapped his fingers. “What’s that other chick’s name? The one wearing the top with the sparkly shit all over it. Brandy? Bonnie?”
Tiny stood at the end of the bar. His road name was supposed to be ironic. He was six five and close to three hundred pounds. He wiped down the beer mugs and hung them from the hooks above the bar. “Judd ended up with one of them. Josh took the other.”
Big John nearly fell out of his seat laughing. “You guys are losing it. You let a couple of probies make off with those girls?”
“I did just fine,” Switch said, smiling. “Let’s just say I’ve raised my standards lately.”
I shook my head. “Ain’t like that’s saying much, Switch.”
He flipped me off. Man, I really could have used a little bourbon in this morning’s coffee. I heard some yelling in the back. It was Scarlett’s voice. I cringed in sympathy. What happened with Salina didn’t exactly sound like it was Sly’s fault. More than anything, Scarlett was probably pissed Salina managed to make her way into the inner sanctum of Sly’s office without anyone knowing it. She was right to be edgy on that score. Even though we caught the scumbag who shot up the bar, you never can be too careful.
“You’re off your game, my brother,” Switch said. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”
I turned on my stool, facing away from Switch and out toward the bar. “What’s church about this morning?” I asked, trying to change the subject. The last of the single, patched members of the club, I spent a lot of my time with Switch. I hadn’t had a hook-up since the wedding and I wasn’t really interested. He was right, it wasn’t like me. Sure, part of it had to do with what happened. A lot of it. It’s not that I was gun-shy. I’ve had more brushes with death than I can count. It’s just ... this one hit me harder than the others for some reason. Life was just too fucking short and maybe I’d had my fill of banger chicks like Salina, at least for now.
There was a commotion near the front of the bar. I shot a look to Switch and mouthed, “who’s working it?” He shrugged. I did a quick headcount. Sly was in the back. Our veep Dex was out of town on a run
with Marcus and Teague, one of the probies. Big John, Ford, and Tiny were here in the bar. Josh and apparently Judd were still upstairs sleeping it off. That left Jake and Gunn near the front. The voices died down.
“I said,” Switch said, taking a last sip of coffee, “don’t think I haven’t noticed you’re off your game. Worst slump I’ve ever seen for you. It’s making you twitchy, man. You don’t like Salina, I get that. But you gotta do something. You’re getting damn miserable to be around.”
“Yeah?” I said. “So what’s your excuse, Switch?”
It was just a good-natured ball-busting, I knew. I just sure as shit didn’t want to talk about this with him right now.
“You need to get laid, man,” Switch said. “Carly was supposed to be your birthday present.”
“I can find my own chicks, Switch. If I want to hook up with the next chick who walks in that door, I fucking will. Or I won’t. Ain’t your concern.”
Now, why did I go and say something like that? Bad karma. We all knew it. And sure as shit, no sooner had I opened my mouth when a brunette hurricane with long legs, a tight ass, and a business suit came bursting through the front door of the bar with Gunn and Jake running breathless in her wake.
“Where is she?” she said. She was gorgeous. Her long hair flew around her shoulders as she scanned the room looking for God knows who. I didn’t move. I didn’t do anything to draw her attention but her eyes found me anyway. They were hazel, maybe brown, with thick lashes and a luscious arch to her brow.
