Death Dwellers Motorcycle Club:: Fifteen Bad Boy Biker Books

by Kathryn C. Kelly

  “Besides,” Stretch added, “if she wouldn’t have burned you with this, she would’ve done something else.”

  “She told me it must be hard living in Zoann’s shadow.” Fee released a sigh and emptied her glass of wine. “She really didn’t have to point out I’m not as pretty as my sister.”

  Stretch searched Fee’s face for signs that Kendall’s stupid, thoughtless statements had hurt her in any way. Bemusement glinted in her brown eyes. Other than that, she seemed unaffected, and as beautiful as always. High cheekbones accentuated her delicate facial bones and button nose. He couldn’t imagine what Kendall meant. Fee was very pretty. “She needs to take a class on diplomacy.” Amongst other things.

  “I still like her,” Fee admitted, looking between him and Cash. “Don’t stare at me like my nose has suddenly become a third boob. I gave her the ammunition she needed to use me to her advantage. While I hate her tactics, we’d all come out swinging if backed into a corner.”

  “Backed into a corner?” Cash echoed. “Are you fucking kidding me? She deserves to be right where she is. Away from Brooks fucking Redding.”

  “I know, but I feel so sorry for her,” Fee repeated. “She’s really sweet when she wants to be.”

  “Key phrase,” Stretch grumbled. “When she wants to be.” Hardly ever, he added to himself.

  “I stay far away from her, so I’m not caught in her crosshairs,” Cash said. “She’s caused a lot of shit. She loves to get into mischief.”

  “She’s just bored,” Fee defended. “She has nothing to do anymore.”

  “Her own fault,” Cash snapped. “She almost got Val and Outlaw killed.”

  Stretch snorted. “What about her own damn self? She was kidnapped too, for having such a hard fucking head.”

  “Come on, guys. She isn’t here to defend herself. Lighten up.”

  Cash drank more beer. “Fuck her. She’s blackmailing all of us.”

  Fee’s lower lip trembled. “I just wanted a friend again. To move forward with my life. I’ve just been stuck, not knowing which way to turn. All my old friends…I look at them and…my life has a clear line drawn.”

  “Before and after,” Stretch inserted, surprised at how much he understood her. Maybe, everyone who suffered trauma divided their lives in such a manner.

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  Their gazes met and collided, before her eyes widened, as if she realized the importance of his understanding. She wasn’t alone anymore. She had someone to identify with. Someone who wouldn’t judge her as she sought to restructure her life.

  It startled Stretch to realize he had the same in her. The revelation soothed something inside him, and he no longer felt so isolated.

  “Has something happened to you, Cash, where suddenly your world is based on before that time and after?”

  “Don’t we all have such instances?” he responded. “I have several befores and afters. Yesterday is gone, so what good does it do to dwell upon it?”

  “It doesn’t,” she whispered. “Kendall has gone through a lot and that affected her. How she views life. That’s why I don’t fully buy into how everyone sees her.”

  Cash’s look softened. “We’re just telling you like it is.”

  “That Kendall’s a bitch,” Stretch added.

  “Underneath it all, she’s just a girl,” Fee countered without censure.

  “Fee, darlin’, be careful,” Cash insisted, that hint of a Texas drawl firing up Stretch’s blood. “You haven’t seen the worst of her, as bad as the shit she’s doing is.”

  “Cash is right.” Stretch forced himself back to the conversation, unsure how Fee would respond if he started sending signals to Cash. Despite their tenuous steps, he didn’t know if he wanted Fee with them. It had been days since he and Cash had made love and his body flushed at the thought of Cash’s hands on him.

  Ignoring his growing desire, Stretch decided to play devil’s advocate. If Fee liked Kendall, despite everything, then someone had to find a way to stop her bullshit. “Kendall isn’t comprehending her actions. Meggie will know how to fix this.”

  “I don’t know,” Fee hedged. “Meggie might go to Christopher. He’d go to Kendall and she’d reveal our relationship. This is extremely serious.”

  “Pull Johnnie aside and tell him.” One thing about Outlaw and Johnnie, if their women spoke, they listened, be it wives, sisters, or cousins. Johnnie might not believe Stretch without proof but he’d believe Fee on her word alone. “Leave Meggie out of it for now.”

  “Agreed. John Boy should know about his wife,” Cash added.

  “Tell Johnnie,” Stretch said firmly.

  Fee bit her lip. “Will that cause problems for you two?”

  “Probably.” According to Kendall, at least. Johnnie wouldn’t want Fee with him and Cash, any more than Outlaw would. But something had to be done. Now that Kendall had something on them, she’d use it to her advantage for as long as she lived.

  The club might’ve been experiencing a new, laid-back Outlaw, but Stretch was sure he’d revert back to the bad-tempered killer, if he discovered all the lies and backstabbing. That meant not only him and Cash dying but Kendall, too.

  Maybe, she should. If she didn’t risk herself and Johnnie, she risked the entire club. Stretch foresaw years of her bullshit. Protecting her shouldn’t be the smallest consideration. Yet, Johnnie loved her, and her death at Outlaw’s hands would create pure chaos.

  “You’ll most likely be saving her ass from Outlaw’s wrath. He will find out,” Cash swore. “Eventually, he finds out everything.”

  “Yeah,” Stretch agreed glumly. “He’s uncanny like that.”

  “If you say so,” she muttered. “I’ll tell Johnnie the first chance I get.”

  Clearly, she wasn’t happy about betraying a witch who deserved no one’s loyalty.

  For the next couple of nights, Cash invited Fee and Stretch to his house, not for sex, but for company. It surprised him how enjoyable he found them. They were funny, flirty, and fun. Cash felt himself falling deeper into their combined lures. Their easy banter impressed him. He wanted to spend as much time as possible with them, no longer feeling as if he was betraying Stretch with Fee, and vice versa.

  Happiness didn’t last, so Cash took these times with a grain of salt.

  After dinner on the third night, the three of them walked to the neighborhood bar, where her sat with Stretch, watching Fee perform a cover of The Fade Out Line on the makeshift stage.

  The spotlight highlighted a reddish shimmer in her hair. Tight black jeans hugged a nice ass and curvy hips. Her cropped top showed off her flat stomach and drew attention to her firm breasts. She was a stunning woman.

  Stretch couldn’t gaze away from her. “You should let Sloane hear her. He might let her cut a track with Phoenix Rising.”

  “He might,” Cash agreed as Fee closed out the song.

  “Thank you.” Her voice through the microphone carried over the whistles and applause. “Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

  Halfway to their table, she pointed to the bar and made a drinking motion. Cash nodded and held up his nearly empty bottle of beer.

  “Need another one?” he asked Stretch.

  “Yeah.”

  Holding up two fingers, Cash pointed between him and Stretch. She made the okay sign with her fingers, then continued on. At the bar, she placed the orders and dug in her pocket for money.

  “Cheap bastard,” Stretch teased. “That’s why you asked her to order.”

  “You know me too well,” Cash responded dryly.

  “Who the fuck is that?”

  Stretch’s outraged voice snapped Cash’s attention back toward the bar, where a motherfucker standing too close to Fee, chatting her up. When she went to grab the three beers, asshole took one and then indicated to her. Less than a minute later, she and strange motherfucker arrived at the table.

  She handed Stretch his beer, then sipped from hers, glancing at the dickhea
d who’d followed her.

  “That’s his beer,” she said, nodding to Cash.

  His good mood fleeing, Cash glared at Fee. “Not. Never trust strange motherfuckers with my fucking drinks.”

  Asshole held out his hand. “I’m Noah.”

  Cash took an immediate dislike to Noah, with his clean-shaven, boyish face and neat brown hair. Grinning, he drank deeply from the beer that should’ve been Cash’s.

  He stormed to his feet, shouldering Noah out of his path.

  “You’re so jealous,” Fee accused, right on Cash’s heel as he stalked toward the bar.

  “Never.” He paused to snap that. They’d chosen a table toward the center of the room and near a pathway that stayed generally cleared. “I’ve never been jealous nor will I ever be. It’s simple. You were with me and Stretch and you’re now with what’s his name…?” He trailed his voice off, waiting for her to fill in the blank.

  A sheepish expression covered her face and she shrugged.

  Cash understood her gestures. “You don’t even know his fucking name?” he asked in outrage.

  “I didn’t get the chance before we came to the table.”

  “How fucking brilliant,” he barked and stomped off.

  At the bar, he ordered another beer, not talking again until he returned to the table. Noah sitting at the table only worsened Cash’s mood. He hated the way he was checking Fee out. Instead of allowing her to sit next to Noah, Cash took the seat, which forced her next to Stretch.

  Cash glared. Fee grinned.

  “Noah was just telling me he’s new to the area,” Stretch said, always the peacemaker.

  Cash couldn’t give a fuck. “You have a last name?”

  Noah smirked at him. “According to my birth certificate.”

  “What is it?” Cash growled, unamused by the smart ass.

  Sipping his beer, he reared back in his chair and considered Cash. “Carson,” he finally answered, then smiled. “Sorry, brother. It’s been a long week.”

  Stretch gave Noah a probing look. “Brother?”

  “You’re in a club, right?” Noah nodded to Stretch’s cut. “Don’t you call bikers brother?”

  “If you’re a biker,” Stretch replied.

  “Oh. Right.” Noah focused on Fee, who’d taken Stretch’s phone and started playing a game on it. “Ophelia, right?”

  “Yes. How did you know my name?”

  “You’re famous in here, girl. Just ask any joker entranced by your beautiful face. Voice,” he corrected as if he were apologetic. Standing, he set his bottle on the table. “It was nice meeting all of you.”

  “Same here,” Fee called.

  “That was kind of strange,” Stretch commented, after Noah’s sudden departure.

  “I’ll say.”

  “I didn’t see anything wrong,” Fee said, “if we overlooked how rude you were, Cash.”

  “I can be much ruder,” Cash said. “He lucked out and got my softer side.”

  Fee rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

  Ignoring the bad vibe he got from the asshole, Cash was fucking done talking about Noah. As Fee said, it was jealousy.

  “You two about ready to head back to my house?”

  Stretch grabbed his cane.

  “Will you be okay to walk back?”

  “Yeah, Fee. I’ll be fine. Thanks for your concern.”

  She smiled. “Always,” she murmured.

  U fuckin sure nothing going on with Johnnie’s bitch

  As Christopher pressed send, Megan walked into their bedroom, dressed in a little nightie that made her tits pop out and his mouth water. He’d gotten in from the club and found her waiting for him in the kitchen. After explaining the kids would spend the night at Zoann and Val’s house, she’d told him she was going to shower.

  Fee continued to send her same bullshit, Nothing to report. Kendall is fine.

  His phone beeped and he glanced down. Seeing those same six words made him want to pitch the motherfucker and stomp the fuck out of it.

  Megan came to his side of the bed. “Who’s that?”

  Tensing, he straightened, no longer comfortable enough to lean against the headboard. Hiding shit from Megan always led to disaster. Though she fucked him, she also cried alone when she thought he was asleep.

  Christopher vowed to torture whoever the fuck was doing this.

  “Christopher?”

  He held his phone out to her. It was better to face her anger over spying on Kendall, than to let her believe he was communicating with some random bitch.

  “Fee?” she asked, frowning in confusion. “Her messages are all the same.” Scrolling through the messages one last time, she wrinkled her nose. “There’s a bunch here.” She held the phone out to him. “All about Kendall.”

  “Yeah, baby,” he admitted, then explained what he’d done.

  “And this is all Fee has to report?”

  “Yeah. I ain’t too fuckin’ sure if she really ain’t doin’ nothin’ or if Fee coverin’ for her.”

  “Definitely covering for her,” she said without hesitation. She walked to her side of the bed and climbed in, not making a move to come near him.

  She’d arranged for them to be alone. Had made herself smell even sweeter and put on that little scrap of silk at eight o’clock in the evening. He’d follow her lead.

  “Why you think Fee coverin’ for Kendall?” he asked, no longer giving a fuck. At least not at this particular moment with his wife so close to him.

  “Because Kendall is Kendall.”

  Her answer was so fucking vague. There had to be more to the fucking story. Megan never accused motherfuckers of shit without reason. “What the fuck that mean, baby? What the bitch do now?”

  “Nothing for you to worry about. We worked it out.”

  “Fee know?”

  “About the argument I had with Kendall?”

  Christopher gritted his teeth to keep his temper in check, reminding himself that he needed to let Megan handle that cunt herself. But, fuck, he hated it.

  “If that’s what you were asking, yes, Fee knew that Kendall and I had a disagreement.”

  A disagreement she hadn’t told him about. Anything involving Megan needed to be reported to him. Maybe, he hadn’t made that clear, although he thought even motherfuckers visiting from outer space knew that. “You ain’t mad I set Fee up as a spy?”

  “No. I trust your judgment. If you think Kendall needs to be watched, then do it.”

  He swallowed at her flat words. Hating the gap between them, he slid down and rested his head on the pillow, staring up at the ceiling as she was. “You trust my judgment,” he echoed. “You still trust me?”

  Silence met his question, then she sighed. “I do.”

  Relief settling into his, he clasped his hands behind his head. “Why you feel so distant, baby? Why you cry?”

  “We’ve been through enough. We should be past this. I can’t understand why she’s doing this”

  She? Megan could’ve been talking about Daphne, but Christopher got the feeling she was referring to psycho bitch.

  “All this unnecessary drama,” she continued on a sniffle. “All because she thinks Ryder belongs to Johnnie.”

  If Megan had suddenly hopped up on the fucking bed and exploded into a fucking little green demon, Christopher wouldn’t have been as shocked. “What the fuck you said?”

  “Kendall,” she said, tears sliding down her cheeks. “I never thought she’d take her jealousy this far. But I’ve had days to think about this. I keep thinking about her mentioning her job. Then when I add that to her accusation, I feel she’s the one behind this entire situation. Whatever other disagreement she and I might have, I’d never try to destroy her marriage. Hurt her like she’s done…” She halted and drew in a deep breath. “Tried to do to me.”

  No, that bitch had hurt Megan. That’s why she was crying now. Her tears deflated the anger that rose up in him when Megan said Kendall believed she’d given pussy to Johnni
e. Cuz, fuck, that was the only fucking way he’d be Ryder’s old man.

  “I’ve defended her to you and everyone else, and I want to be wrong about her, Christopher. And…”

  More sniffling that broke Christopher’s heart and made his fingers twitch to kill Kendall. “And what, baby?”

  “This is so stupid.”

  “Ain’t nothin’ you say or do stupid, Megan,” he said gruffly.

  “I-I know you wouldn’t cheat on me. Yet, there was this small seed of doubt that I hated. Daphne has just been all over the place lately. Kendall hasn’t made her act the way she’s been acting. I’ve been so torn, wanting to tell you to let her come back for the club but just hating…” Her voice trailed off.

  “Megan, if I see that cunt, I might fuckin’ shoot her.” That’s how angry he was. He shifted onto his side and found Megan still crying, and still staring at the ceiling. “I ain’t understandin’ why the fuck Fee lyin’ to me. All this shit tie together. Motherfuckers fuckin’ with you to get the spotlight off what the fuck they doin’. I think Cash and Fee still fuckin’. All them motherfuckers know I can’t fuckin’ remember my goddamn name if you hurtin’.”

  “If that’s the case, where does Kendall fit into this? And why would Daphne try to make me believe she’s sleeping with you if Cash is trying to divert your attention from him and Fee? How does Fee play into all this?”

  Satisfied that Megan was opening up to him, Christopher considered her questions. His head felt a little clearer. Remembering he’d decided to deal with Kendall because he was as manipulating and calculating as her, he tried to make his mind work like a psycho bitch’s.

  “Megan, baby, remember how you fuckin’ covered for Kendall, no matter what the fuck she did?”

  “She cried so much, Christopher. I would feel so sorry for her.”

  “I know. I’m thinkin’ she doin’ the same thing to Fee. My sister don’t know what a devious bitch Kendall be. She can make herself cry like no-fuckin-body I ever fuckin’ met.”

  “A lot of Kendall’s tears were real.”

  He wasn’t going down that goddamn road tonight, so he let it drop. “I think she got Fee on her side. My lil’ sister probably feelin’ like you did. Wantin’ to be loyal and thinkin’ that’ll stop her bullshit.” Not even God could stop that bitch, whom she’d soon meet if she didn’t stop fucking with Megan. He had a special fucking bullet for her. Clearing his throat at how his heart started to pound as he thought of her dead at his feet, he went on. “Some kinda way Kendall pulled Daphne in on this bullshit. Shit that ain’t got nothin’ to do with Cash.”