Death Dwellers Motorcycle Club:: Fifteen Bad Boy Biker Books

by Kathryn C. Kelly

  Hearing that confused Fee even more. “Is everything else about Meggie true? She’s responsible.”

  Zoann grabbed her shoulders. “Listen to me. Meggie doesn’t know about Dinah’s betrayal. And Dinah isn’t responsible for the deaths of our sisters. Osti had already killed them by the time he got to the club. Dinah didn’t let him in, either. It was me, by accident.”

  “Who’s Osti?” Then, again, that wasn’t important. “Never mind. I need time…God! I don’t know how to process everything.”

  “Fee, what’s so fucking hard to process a name like Death Dwellers? The name says it all,” Kendall goaded, the side of her face red and swollen. “You’re not that naïve.”

  “Shut up, Kendall,” Bunny growled.

  “I know Meggie isn’t who Kendall says she is.” To her own ears, she sounded robotic. “It just hurts me to discover what you’ve endured, Zoann.”

  “I’m so sorry, Fee. There was never a right time to tell you, and I put it behind me. Moved on with my life. Christopher and I made up.”

  Whatever Zoann had been so angry with Christopher about before their mother’s death had to do with her rape. “I’ve searched for a way to be a part of the club. To be on the inside like you. Part of a sisterhood, in a way that I never felt. But for what? The entire evening has been arguing and cat-fighting.” Swiping her cheeks, she glared at Kendall. “Betrayal of confidences. How could you do this, Kendall? Just blab out Zoann’s secret?”

  “Oh, grow up,” Kendall sneered. “You want to be a part of the club? Welcome to it. This is the real side. It isn’t fucking sunshine and roses.” Tears rushed to her eyes and she stood. “It’s about death and betrayal. Infidelity. Sisterhood, huh? There’s no sisterhood. It’s every woman for herself, Fee.”

  “I refuse to believe that, Kendall. It seems to be you for yourself.”

  “Yes. The sooner you learn that, the better. Thanks to your brother, I’ve lost my entire career. I’m so angry with Meggie, I can spit nails. I forgave her for going into labor with only my husband to help her. But this is the final straw. She claims she doesn’t want me back at the firm. I know it isn’t her,” she yelled. “I know it’s Christopher. She’s nothing but a little idiot. His cum receptacle. His cock sucker.” She hurried to where her purse sat on the sofa and snatched it up. “I hate her. I want her to fucking die. Then Johnnie and Christopher would realize how suited I am to help run the club.”

  “Kendall,” Zoann bit out. “I want to fucking kill you. Meggie isn’t responsible for any of your fucking problems. You hate her on general principle alone. However, you usually have better control of your mouth when you’re taking meds. Taking them, or not, is your prerogative. But you know what happens when you skip doses, so I have no sympathy for you. I don’t care if you call my warning posturing. Christopher will kill you if you keep your shit up.”

  Kendall pulled the door open, then paused for effect and gave a triumphant smile. “No, he won’t. I’m pregnant again, so he’ll never touch me.”

  “You can’t be! You’ve been drinking alcohol tonight,” Bunny reminded her.

  “Can’t I be? Believe me. I’m safe from Christopher’s wrath. He respects motherhood.”

  With that, she slammed the door shut, leaving the ruin of her disclosure in her wake.

  “Are you singing tonight, Fee?” Chloe asked the next evening, keeping her eyes on Johnnie. She was the waitress at the bar and grill Fee had accompanied Kendall to, the same one she’d been at with Cash and Stretch the night she met Noah, last week.

  Johnnie’s eyes twinkled between Fee and Chloe. The rat knew the effect he had on women. “Yes, are you singing tonight, Fee?” he echoed, laughing at Chloe’s pleased grin and her suddenly flushed skin.

  “No,” Fee answered. “I’m here to talk to my cousin about his wife.”

  Johnnie lifted a brow. “Is this the important matter you wanted to discuss?”

  She nodded.

  “Couldn’t you have pulled me aside at my house or at the club?”

  “No.” After Kendall’s display last night, Fee wanted to alert Johnnie as soon as possible. The dinner party had been pretty much ruined, and Bunny and Zoann had left within the hour after Kendall’s exit. By that time, Fee was sure she was home, so she’d decided against calling Johnnie. This morning, she’d slipped him a note, requesting the meeting, which made her miss tonight’s naked yoga session. “I need privacy.”

  “Do you need a drink?” Chloe persisted, still staring at Johnnie, her gaze roaming from his mouth to his hands and back again.

  “A scotch neat,” Johnnie answered, lacking the playfulness he’d displayed a moment before, on full alert now.

  Chloe dragged her gaze away and looked at Fee. “Are you drinking tonight?”

  “I’ll have a wine.”

  “Not the usual beer you always order when you roll in with those two sexy bikers?”

  Leaning forward, Johnnie rested his forearms on the table. Whatever small bit of attention he’d focused elsewhere after the subject of Kendall came up was now completely concentrated on Fee.

  “Who might those sexy bikers be?” he asked in conversational tones.

  “Ghost and Stretch,” Chloe answered.

  “Shut it, Chloe,” Fee snapped, pretending Johnnie’s gaze wasn’t lasering her. “Can you get the drinks?”

  “Sure.” With a last smile at Johnnie, Chloe left them alone.

  “You’ve jumped to the wrong conclusions.”

  “The three of you fucking?”

  Nope, right on target. “It isn’t as lurid as it sounds, Johnnie.”

  “I’ve done it, so it is just as lurid as it sounds.”

  Her eyes rounding, Fee gasped. “You’ve been in a threesome with another man and a woman?”

  “Yes.” He narrowed his eyes. “I haven’t fucked another motherfucker, if that’s what you’re implying.”

  She cleared her throat and shifted in her seat, feeling uncomfortable. “You know about Cash…” Her voice trailed off. If he didn’t know Cash and Stretch were bisexual, she didn’t want to blurt out the information.

  “Yes, I know Cash and Stretch are in a relationship with each other,” he whispered harshly.

  Chloe setting their drinks down saved Fee from an immediate response. “Anything else?” the girl asked, still giving Johnnie all her attention.

  “No.”

  His one word had so much unfriendliness in it, Chloe blinked. “Just holler if you do,” she said, scampering away.

  “I didn’t bring you here to talk about Cash and Stretch. We’re nothing more than friends.” Fee tasted her wine to cover the lie. She knew how to get off this touchy subject. “This is about Kendall.”

  “We’ll get to my wife in a moment. What are you doing with Cash and Stretch? Answer that, then I can decide if I’ll kill them alone or report them to Christopher and we fuck them up together.”

  “We aren’t doing anything! Even if we were, it would be our business. No one else’s.”

  “I beg to differ. Cash has been specifically warned away from you. I didn’t think Stretch was so fucking stupid.”

  “Neither of them are stupid,” she cried. “What if they make me happy? I’m a grown woman. I can do what I want.”

  “As long as it doesn’t get you hurt. Again. Remember Michael?”

  How could she forget him? He’d beat her up the night Zoann gave birth to Ryan. “I know I choose assholes, but Mikey hasn’t bothered me in months. I told Christopher he’d been harassing me and whatever threat Christopher made got Mikey to stop.”

  “Dead motherfuckers can’t bother you.”

  Fee choked at Johnnie’s dry words. It had never crossed her mind…Oh my God! “He killed him?”

  “Christopher cut his fucking hands off first.”

  Fee’s stomach turned. If she hadn’t been sitting, she would’ve fainted. Between last night’s honesty and this, Fee wondered what roles Cash and Stretch played in the club. Were they ki
llers, too?

  Did it matter? Certainly, Kendall knew who and what Johnnie was. It mattered to her so little, she even defended him against Charlotte, a woman whose opinion she valued.

  “Christopher has no tolerance for abusers.”

  Fee nodded, knowing Johnnie was right. If Mikey hadn’t been hitting her—stalking her—Christopher never would’ve known.

  “Let’s put the subject of Cash, Stretch and the club on hold right now,” Johnnie barked. “Is Kendall’s treatment of you as your boss what you needed to talk to me about?”

  “No,” she admitted, wishing to rewind the clock and never discover any of this. Involving Johnnie had been a bad idea, bringing him to this bar an even worse one. It never occurred to her that she’d be associated with Cash and Stretch.

  Now, she had to tell Johnnie about Kendall, when Kendall still had information about her, Cash, and Stretch. With the warpath she was on, Fee would be a fool to cross her. Discovering Christopher killed Mike because he’d beat her up added to her unease. Cash and Stretch wasn’t hurting her but they were disobeying Christopher.

  Johnnie was here now, though, so she’d skirt around most of the details Kendall had blackmailed her over and hope it didn’t lead to bloodshed. “Kendall hates Meggie.”

  “I don’t know who’s carrying these rumors to you, but—”

  “No one,” Fee interrupted, then hung her head in her hands. “I shouldn’t tell you but I don’t know what else to do. What she’s doing is dangerous. If I tell Meggie, she’ll tell Christopher.”

  “Get to the fucking point,” Johnnie shouted.

  “All right. You don’t have to yell,” she said, rushing to explain the events of the night before. When she got to Zoann’s rape, she couldn’t stop the tears rushing to her eyes. The thought of what her sister must’ve endured had kept her awake most of the night. She sniffled.

  “Fee,” he crooned, offering her a napkin to dry her wet cheeks.

  “Did you know about Zoann?”

  “Yes, sweetheart. Not right away. I found out recently.”

  “What happened?” She wanted the details, to help her better understand her sister and all the years of her anger and bitterness. “Was her attacker ever caught?”

  He swallowed more of his scotch. “It’s a tangled fucking web, Fee.”

  “I would ask Zoann, but I don’t think she wants to talk about it.”

  “I can’t believe Kendall,” he growled. “She had no fucking business blurting shit out.”

  She swiped at her eyes and drew in a breath. “Well…”

  “Don’t fucking tell me there’s more.”

  “I wish I didn’t have to. Kendall wants her job back and she’s plotting with Charlotte to screw over Christopher and Meggie’s marriage to…to…” Her rush of words slammed to a halt. Discovering what Zoann had been through made Fee doubly glad she hadn’t chosen her and Val in Kendall’s ultimatum. “She wants to have Christopher distracted so she can work on a deal that’ll make him want to give her her job back.”

  “WHAT?”

  The one word sounded like a thunderclap, the red suffusing his face and his rapid breathing, worrying her.

  “Everything okay here?” Chloe asked, her eyes bulging at Johnnie’s rage.

  “Get him some water, please.” Fee had never seen Johnnie so angry before. “Here,” she said when Chloe returned and handed her the glass.

  He knocked the glass away. “Get that the fuck out of my face. Bring me the goddamn bottle of scotch.”

  The glass falling to the floor and breaking drew even more attention than his loud voice. “Johnnie, please.” Meeting him here had been a bad idea. She should’ve met him at her apartment.

  “Mind your own fucking business,” he yelled to everyone looking in his direction.

  “Don’t be angry with Kendall,” Fee declared after Chloe cleared the mess of water and broken glass. “I wanted to talk to you to help her, not to turn you against her.”

  “Christopher shot the fuck out of me, just a few months ago, because of Kendall. Now, she’s back to her same bullshit again? Fuck no. She’s going to get me fucking killed. I happen to like living. She knows better than to talk about Zoann’s rape, Dinah’s betrayal, and the killing of Traveler. I told her everything in confidence and she’s fucking using it as ammunition. And to fuck with Christopher and Meggie. Jesus Christ. I can’t believe her.”

  “Zoann punched her,” she admitted, glad that Johnnie was calming down.

  “What do you mean?” He snapped his brows together. “Kendall told me her bruise happened when you didn’t know she was so close to you and you accidentally elbowed her in the jaw. She was kneeling at your desk.”

  Listening to the explanation Kendall gave to Johnnie made Fee drain her glass of wine.

  “Fucking deceiving little bitch!” he snarled, pounding his fist on the table.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Do I look fucking all right, Fee?”

  No, he looked on the verge of an apoplectic fit. “You can’t hurt Kendall.”

  “Why not?” he said through clenched teeth.

  “Johnnie!”

  He glared at her, but Fee held his gaze, knowing this was important. Johnnie was angry enough to chew bullets.

  “I’m not going to hurt her,” he growled after a moment. “I will deal with her, though. Her fucking behavior has once again put the members and their families in jeopardy. You, too. My children. Don’t fucking get me started on the fucking scene I witnessed between Christopher and Megan at the clubhouse.”

  No. Please. Don’t start on that. Fee still felt guilt at allowing it to happen.

  “What are you going to do? I thought it was a good idea to talk to you.”

  “Do you know if Kendall still follows her doctor’s orders now that she’s pregnant?”

  Kendall had stopped following doctor’s orders weeks ago, but she’d made the situation bad enough. “I don’t know,” she lied, afraid of what Johnnie would do if he discovered the full truth.

  “I’m going to take care of this. This is between us. Our secret,” he swore, the finality shutting down the discussion of his wife. “Back to you, Cash, and Stretch.”

  “There’s nothing to get back to. We’re friends. Nothing more.”

  “Cash isn’t relationship material.”

  “According to who?”

  “According to Cash,” he spat. “Cash better keep his dick to himself. If he fucks you, you’ll believe you have a chance with him. That’s the reason he’d deserve whatever Christopher does to him.”

  “I know him better than you.”

  “You know him differently than me,” he corrected.

  “What about Stretch? Why are you and Christopher so focused on Cash?”

  “I can’t speak for Christopher, but I’d prefer to see you with Stretch. As for why Cash is our focus? He’s the motherfucker who’d lead you two on, turning you into a fucking pathetic bitch.”

  She jumped to her feet. “Go to hell. It’s my life. I know what I’m doing.” With a final glare, she rushed from the bar, half-expecting Johnnie to come after her. He didn’t, lost in his own problems with Kendall’s coup-in-the-making, so Fee headed to her car, parked half a block away.

  “Ophelia?”

  The sound of her name being called as she reached her car, startled her, and she jumped.

  “Noah?” she asked, smiling as the dude got closer to her. He seemed so familiar, but she couldn’t place his blue eyes, neat brown hair, and handsome, clean-shaven face.

  “Were you looking for me?”

  “Um, no.”

  “My house is nearby,” he said, nodding to the right.

  “Really? I didn’t know that.”

  He shifted and the light beamed off his chest. The patch with the word ‘President’ registered. “You’re a biker?”

  “You didn’t know that?”

  “How could I if you never told me?” She’d only talked to him once. “
Who are you affiliated with?”

  “Affiliated? I’m the leader.”

  She grinned. “Who do you lead?”

  “Remember the club who was nearly wiped out thanks to a bomb?”

  “Oh my God! Yes! The Torps. It was all over the news a couple years ago.” Crap. The Torps. The same club who’d been contacting Christopher. The same club Kendall’s old firm once represented.

  “The Torpedoes,” he corrected, watching her closely.

  His behavior gave her pause, reminding her of the way Kendall’s friend, Counts, had looked at her. Although he’d been wearing sunglasses, Fee had been quite aware of his scrutiny. Oh shit! Counts was a member of the Torpedoes MC.

  She cleared her throat. “I think I know one of your brothers. Counts,” she added when he lifted his brow in question. “And you know a very good friend of mine. Kendall Donovan.”

  “Counts?” he said with a disbelieving laugh. “What kind of name is that?”

  “I know, right! Every time I say it, I think of a kid’s television program.”

  He sniggered. “Is that his road name?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “If it isn’t, I feel sorry for the poor bastard.”

  “So you don’t know him? You kind of remind me of him.” Fee couldn’t put her finger on why she felt that way. Noah was neat and well put together. Counts had been scruffy and unkempt.

  “I don’t know the dude,” Noah said with regret. “Sorry, love.”

  “No problem. Do you know Kendall? Are you the one contacting my brother?”

  “What do you know about the Torpedoes and the bombing?” he asked, not answering her pointed questions.

  “Not much. When I heard about it, I was so worried about my brother.”

  “Oh, babe. That’s the second time you’ve mentioned a brother. Is he a biker, too?”

  “Yep,” she stated, noting Noah’s genuine surprise. She could’ve sworn she’d heard Meggie and Zoann say someone from his club had been trying to get in with the Dwellers. Maybe, she was mistaken. “He’s a leader, too. Christopher Caldwell. Or you might know him as—”

  “Outlaw. Holy fuck,” he breathed. “You’re his sister?”

  The awe and reverence in his tone shocked her. It also convinced her Noah wasn’t the man behind the calls to the club. She giggled. “He’s not a god.”