“Nah. Just wanted to talk with someone who had some fucking sense about them with this whole rat ordeal. We gotta figure out who it is.”
“We do. But we can’t do anything until we convince Diesel to do something about it,” I said.
“Then that’s what we’ll do.”
“I don’t mean hack his financial information and hold it over his head.”
“I… wasn’t going to do that… exactly.”
“Uh huh,” I said with a grin. “I’ll be up for a couple more hours if you wanna stop by.”
“I hear you. Talk to you soon.”
“Later.”
I hung up the phone and stuffed it back into my pocket as a door opened in the distance. My eyes drifted beyond the fence and landed in Makenna’s backyard again. I watched her step out of her house with a glass of wine in her hand and a cardigan pulled around her body. She had glasses on now and her hair was pulled into a low bun at the nape of her neck.
She was settling in for the night, and she still looked gorgeous.
She turned her eyes to look at me and rose her hand to wave. I nodded to acknowledge her before I drained the rest of my beer. I couldn’t sit out here with her over there. I’d want to go over and talk with her some more. Possibly lean her down on her table and give her that kiss we both knew was coming. I made my way inside and shut the door, then tossed my empty beer bottle into the trash.
As much as I wanted to get to know Makenna, Rock did have a point. The man was completely against families with this lifestyle, and if I brought Makenna into my personal circle it put both her and her daughter in danger. Until we could settle who the hell the rat was and wrap up all this shit with The Black Saddles, it was best if I kept them at arm’s length.
Hell, it was best if I kept them at mile’s length.
Raking my hands down my face, I pulled myself upstairs. I needed to sleep on the conversation I’d just had with Rock. I wondered if any of the other guys felt the way we did. If any of them felt that Diesel not getting on board with this rat thing was odd. But they were too busy worrying over the families they had created.
Something I sort of wished I had myself.
I peeled off my clothes and slid into bed. The morning couldn’t come soon enough. We had a hell of a lot of work to do if we were going to shut all of this shit down and keep the RICO case at bay.
Because if the feds descended into Redding, we were fucking screwed.
Chapter 6
Makenna
“Brewer. Please.”
“Like that, sweet girl. Say my name again.”
“Brewer. Yes. Don’t stop.”
His hands slid down the frame of my body, taking with it the silken robe he was sliding off my body. His lips were on my cheek. My neck. My chest. Those soft lips were wrapping around my nipples as my hands gripped his hair. His tongue wrapped around my engorged tits as his fingers slipped between my glistening thighs.
We fell to the bed as his chiseled body pressed into my soft curves.
“Tell me what you want,” he said.
“I need you,” I said.
“How?” he asked. “Be a good girl and tell me.”
“Your fingers. Inside. Please. Go lower. Fill me up.”
My back arched as he slid his fingers into my wet heat, my juices dripping down my ass crack.
“You should see yourself, sweet girl. So willing to cave to me.”
“Lick me, Brewer. Please. I’ll do anything. Anything you want.”
“Anything?” he asked.
“Anything.”
“Anything.”
“Anything.”
“Anything, Brewer.”
My eyes jerked open and I felt my chest panting. I saw Brewer’s fuzzy face hovering over me in bed. I bolted upright, trying to wipe the sleep from my eyes with my hands.
But when I opened my eyes back up, he was gone.
And the linen beneath my body was wet.
“Fuck,” I said as I threw the covers off my body. “What the hell?”
I could still feel the lingering touch of his lips against my breasts.
I slid my hands down my face and planted my feet on the floor. I tried to shake the heated sensation in my legs away, but it only made it worse. I pressed the heels of my palms into my eyes and drew in deep breath, trying to settle my body down from the heated dream it had decided to conjure all throughout the night.
I hung my head and tried to rid my mind of all the thoughts. Images of Brewer bending me over the couch and face-planting between my legs. I could feel his hands still sliding down my skin as he pinned my hips to the shower wall. So many snippets of so many dreams, and all culminating to one point.
The point where I admitted I would do anything to have more of him.
I didn’t like that feeling. It was a helpless feeling. I was a strong woman trying to plant my feet in a new life and already my body was willing to cave to another man. To pledge my allegiance to anything he wanted if he would only give me the release I sought. How weak was I? How idiotic did my mind think I really was? I drew in one last breath and opened my eyes, but when I took stock of the alarm clock next to my bed I gasped.
I’d forgotten to set my alarm.
I had my interview in less than an hour and I still had to get Ana to school. I sprinted out of my room and down the hallway where I found Ana playing in her room on the floor.
“Sweetheart, I need you to do me a favor,” I said.
“You okay, Mommy?”
“I’m fine. Everything’s fine. I need you to pick out the outfit you want to wear to school today and get dressed. I’ll do your hair once I clean myself up.”
“Did you sleep too much?” she asked.
“Yes. I did. Can you help Mommy this morning?”
“I always help Mommy,” she said with a smile.
“Good girl. Now get dressed and wait in your bathroom for me.”
I ran back into my room and started splashing water in my face. I didn’t have time to take a shower, so it was a good thing I had all sorts of different perfumes to choose from. I scrubbed my face and brushed my teeth, then took a washcloth and cleaned up my more sensitive areas.
I had to wash down my thighs in order to clean them up from the mess I’d made in my dreams.
I tossed the washcloth into the sink and began to dry my body off. I rifled through my clothes that were still in bags and pulled out the first outfit I could find that was suitable. A button-down blouse tucked into a pair of high-waisted black work pants with sensible close-toed heels and my hair thrown up into a twist. I put in some earrings and splashed on some mascara to not make me look so tired, then I went into Ana’s bathroom and started doing her hair.
I brushed through it and pulled it into a ponytail, then braided it and wrapped it up in a bun.
It was her favorite way to wear her hair when she was going to school.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
I was furiously packing Ana’s lunch for school as I looked up and into her eyes. And the worried look in them stopped me in my tracks.
“What is it?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
“What if they don’t like me?”
“Oh, honey. Come here,” I said.
I held out my arms for my daughter and she ran into them. In all of the rush because I was late getting up, I hadn’t stopped to think about how this was affecting her. About how trying to adjust to a new school in the middle of the year was going to be tough on her. She gripped me tightly around my neck and I closed my eyes, burying my face into the crook of her neck.
“Everyone’s going to love you. I know they will.”
“How do you know?” Ana asked.
“Because they loved you at your last school. And it wasn’t because of them. It was because of you. You’re lovable, Ana. And people here will figure that out soon enough.”
I pulled back and wiped at my daughter’s tears as I tried to hold back my own.
I wanted to take all of this away from her. I wanted to be able to move back to Texas and put her with her old friends. I wanted to be able to have the capability of moving us back to the place where both her and I had made friends and connections.
But we couldn’t.
We had to try and start over here.
“Do you trust me?” I asked.
I watched as my daughter nodded her head.
“Then trust me when I tell you that everything is going to be all right. It might not be today, and it might not be tomorrow. But give it some time and I promise you, this place will be better than Texas.”
“How do you know?” she asked, sniffling.
“Because I’m Mom. And I know everything,” I said.
Ana gave me one last hug before I stood up and finished packing her lunch. I grabbed everything I thought I would need for this interview, then the two of us headed out the door. We were making good time. If I could drop her off with little to no resistance on her part, I’d still be ten minutes early for my interview. And that would surely make a very good impression.
I opened the car door and tossed my stuff in as Ana climbed into her seat. I buckled her in while she swung her feet. A nervous tick she’d picked up from me. I was a leg-jiggler when I was nervous. I could rock an entire house with it if I was nervous enough. Ana swung her legs side to side and around in circles, trying to dispel the nervous energy racing through her little body.
I slid into the seat of my beat-up car and pulled out my phone, ready to play her favorite songs while we drove to school.
But when I went to crank up the car, it wouldn’t turn over.
“Oh, come on,” I said.
I tried turning the key again, but all it did was sputter and spit.
“Shit, come on!”
Ana giggled behind me as she slapped her hand over her mouth.
“Don’t use that word,” I said as I looked into the rear view mirror.
“Mommy said a bad word.”
“And you don’t repeat it, okay? It’s not tasteful.”
Ana kept giggling as I cranked my car up again. Only this time, it wasn’t doing anything. It wasn’t revving. It wasn’t sputtering. It wasn’t even clicking.
There was simply no fucking sound coming out at all.
“Come on!” I exclaimed. “Really!?”
Ana’s laughter grew in the backseat as I leaned my forehead against the steering wheel.
I guess that was one way to cheer my daughter up.
“Mommy, look!”
“Not now, Ana. Mommy’s thinking.”
But the second I inhaled, I smelled it.
Smoke.
I whipped my head up and saw plumbs of black smoke rising from the hood of my car. I scrambled out and grabbed my things, then ripped the door open and reached for Ana. I pulled her out and grabbed her car seat, tossing everything out onto the grass. I had no idea if the thing was about to explode or burst into flames or if it was a result of the grinding of the gears I’d caused trying to start the fucking piece of junk.
Either way, the verdict was out.
My car was shot.
What was I going to do? I had to get Ana to school in fifteen minutes and then book my ass across town for the interview. And it wouldn’t look good if I called them up and told them my damn car broke down. It would make me look unreliable, and for the benefits I was gunning for I couldn’t afford to look unreliable. I had the option of calling a cab, but with Redding being such a small town there was no telling how long it would be before someone could get out to us.
Hell, I wasn’t sure if Redding had cabs to begin with.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and noticed I only had fifteen percent left on my battery. Of course, I would’ve fucking forgotten to put my phone on the charger. Hell, I probably hadn’t even unpacked the damn thing yet! I groaned as my head fell back, the black smoke tainted my vision.
I let out a long, frustrated sigh. What the hell was I going to do? I raised my hands up to my head as I tried to figure out my next move as my eyes fell to the direction of Brewer’s house.
That was my only other option. I didn’t have a car, I didn’t have the battery to search for a cab company in the area, and I knew no one else in the area. The only person I knew was the man who helped put together my house before playing with my daughter and trying to kiss me. I held my hand out to Ana and picked up our stuff, my heart slamming against my chest.
I hoped Brewer was in a giving mood, because I didn’t have any other options.
We walked across the lawn as the car finally stopped smoking. I was sure someone had probably called the fire department by now, but I couldn’t concern myself with it. I’d leave a note or something telling them to haul the piece of junk away. I gripped Ana’s hand tightly as we stepped onto his porch, then I set my things down at my side.
“Where are we going?” Ana asked.
“We’re going to see if Mr. Brewer can help us,” I said.
“Like take me to school?”
“And get me to my interview today,” I said with a grin.
I looked through the windows beside his front door and didn’t see any lights on. Was he even awake? Shit, was I about to wake him up? That wouldn’t put anyone in a good mood. Their new neighbor waking them up to ask for a favor. I sighed as I lifted my fist to the door, my mind spinning at a thousand miles a second.
I didn’t have any other choice.
He was my last resort.
Chapter 7
Brewer
A steady knocking at my door jerked me awake. I groaned, pressing my hands to my eyes to try and rid them of their sleep. I laid there until the knocking stopped and turned back over on the couch, the whispers of the television lulling me back to sleep.
But then, the knocking started back up.
Fuck, Rock always did this shit to me. I would invite him over, then he wouldn’t turn up until the early morning hours wanting to go get some fucking breakfast to soothe his damn hangover. I rolled off the couch and adjusted my boxers, then started for the front door.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Rock! Why the fuck are you here so early in the goddamn morning?”
I ripped the door open, expecting to see Rock standing there with beer in his hand and hickies all over his fucking neck.
But instead, Makenna was standing there.
Holding the hand of her daughter.
“Uh… sorry,” I said as I looked down.
Fuck, I was wearing nothing but my damn boxers.
“Could you give me a second?”
Makenna’s wide eyes were lost behind my door as I closed it in her face. Shit. What the hell was she doing here with Ana? I rummaged around and found a shirt to pull over my head, then made my way back to the front door. I opened it and drew in a deep breath, my eyes squinting from the harshness of the sun.
Why the hell was my yard so smoky?
“We’re in trouble,” Ana said.
My eyes drifted down to the little girl as my veins began to pulse.
“Trouble? Is everything okay?” I asked.
“My car is… well? It’s a piece of junk. And I have to get Ana to school before I get to an interview. And I can’t miss this interview. It’s the best one I’ve got.”
“So, you need a ride.”
“If you drive something other than that motorcycle, yes,” she said. “I’m really sorry. I know it’s last minute and I woke you up, but I don’t know if Redding has cabs and-”
“It’s okay. It’s fine. I’m… sorry about yelling through the door earlier. I thought you were someone else,” I said. “Stand at the garage. I’ll get you guys where you need to be.”
“Thank you so much,” she said breathlessly.
I shut the door and ran up the stairs to get some jeans. I knew this wasn’t good. Helping them out and continuing to interact with them wasn’t going to do me any favors. But she was a single mother trapped in an unforgiving situation and I watched my moth
er struggle in too many of those scenarios not to help. I zipped up my pants and pulled on some boots, then headed out to the garage.
Good thing I’d picked up my fucking car from the shop earlier.
I pressed the garage door button as I fumbled with the keys. My pride and joy was my bike, but my 1967 Chevy Impala was my guilty pleasure. I worked on this thing day and night when I got the chance, but there were some things I only trusted one guy in town with. I needed a part of the engine rebuilt, so it had been in the shop for about a week.
And I was glad to have her back.
I opened up the door and rolled down the windows. It was too pretty of a morning to ride with the them up. The garage door opening slowly to reveal Makenna and Ana standing there, and Ana’s jaw dropped when she saw the car. It was crimson red with chrome detailing and the engine had been supped up to withstand top speeds if I needed a quick getaway from anywhere.
I watched a grin pour over Makenna’s features as she stood there holding Ana’s car seat.
“A 1967 Chevy Impala. Nice choice. How’s the engine running?” she asked.
My eyebrows ticked up as she tossed Ana’s car seat into the back.
“I might have a thing or two for old muscle cars,” she said nonchalantly.
“The engine’s running fine now that it’s fixed,” I said.
“Good. We don’t need two cars breaking down on us today,” she said.
I smiled as I watched her buckle Ana into her seat.
“Mommy, can we keep the windows down?” she asked.
“Yes, we can, sweetheart. Though it might mess up your ponytail,” Makenna said.
“I don’t care. This is gonna be fun.”
“I’ll make sure it’s fun,” I said. “We’ll listen to music and everything.”
“Trust me, you don’t want to do that,” Makenna said.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Can we listen to the Disney channel?” Ana asked.
“If we can find it, sure,” I said.
“We can?” Ana asked.
“Why not?” I said with a shrug.
I opened Makenna’s door for her and she slipped into the seat. Ana was flailing her legs behind her mother, clapping her hands and ready to get on the road. I fell into the driver’s side seat and cranked it up, then revved the engine and watched as Ana laughed. Makenna smiled back at her daughter before she put her sunglasses on, then she started giving me directions.
Brewer (Dead Souls MC Book 3) Page 4
