by Ryan Michele
“She’s not going anywhere with you, you sorry excuse of a man.” This surprises me because it comes from Regg, who has his gun pulled out and on Wolf.
Holy fuck!
Regg holds his piece steady as I keep Bristyl behind me while angling toward the door. Having no fucking clue what’s going on here, precautions need to be taken.
I reach for my piece as I hear my brothers unlock theirs.
Wolf chuckles. “What’re you gonna do? End me? Nah, you’ll fall in line, just like you’re gonna get that bitch of a daughter in line and makin’ Sinister babies, and do what I motherfuckin’ tell you to do.”
“This ends here.” Regg pulls the trigger, and a loud crack echoes throughout the room as the bullet hits Wolf right between the eyes. He falls to the concrete floor in a heap.
“What the fuck’s goin’ on here?” Pops barks out harshly, his gun aimed right at Regg.
Tension runs thick as Stone, Hunter, and Racer have guns in their hands, too. Nevertheless, it’s the shocked expressions on their faces that have me believing this was not a planned incident. At least there’s that.
Bristyl screams, and I pull her to me, pushing her head against my chest. Hell if I know if she’s ever seen a dead body before. I do know it’s not something that leaves your brain, and I need to protect her from that.
Regg lowers his gun to his side. “Ain’t takin’ anymore of his shit. He’s not runnin’ the club right and was sendin’ us down the wrong path. Fuckin’ over it. I failed my kid once; I’m not doin’ it again.”
“What have you done, Dad?” Stone asks in shock.
“Takin’ back this club.” Regg shakes his head. “You know I didn’t like this shit. Didn’t want to tell Bristyl that. Yeah, we got shit goin’, but fuck, it’s all Wolf’s fault. I’m over it. We need to clean shit up and get this club back to where it was before Wolf went wrong.”
“Is Bristyl in serious danger?” I ask, not really giving a shit about their bonding pissing match. They want to stab their president in the back, that’s on them. The fact that we have to be witnesses to it pisses me off because it puts us in something we don’t need to be in.
“She ain’t safe, but we’ll make her safe,” Regg says as Bristyl turns her head while I try to stop her.
She sucks in a deep breath, no doubt seeing the man lying on the floor in a pool of blood. “I’m not staying.”
“You don’t have to leave. Everything can stay the same,” Regg practically pleads.
“That’s what you don’t get. I was already leaving, just not this soon. This”—she gestures between her and Regg—“is broken. I love you, but you made some fucked-up choices that I need to deal with. I get the club, Dad. Mom taught me well, which you seem to forget. But what you almost did … I can’t. I need to build a life for myself. Going away is the only option. If it’s not with Cooper, then it’s somewhere else. I need to do what’s right for me.”
I drape my arms around her and pull her back to my chest as I lean down and kiss the top of her head, trying to give her the reassurance she needs.
“I know it’s fucked-up. I’m ownin’ that shit, but it’s done. I’ll make sure of it,” her father tries.
“The decision is made. My car is already packed with everything I own. The files are all up to date. Numbers and contacts are all on the desk. I’m not changing my mind.”
“Fuck.” Regg runs his hands through his hair, pain and other emotions playing on his face. I’m happy he feels like shit for what he did to Bristyl. It’s the least he deserves. “We’ve got shit to clean up. Pops, we’ll have to do this another time.”
“Fine by us,” Pops says.
“I’m not givin’ you up. You may be movin’, but we’ll be up there to see ya. Family is goin’ back to the way it was, not the fucked-up mess it’s become,” Regg says.
I feel Bristyl lean into me harder, and I take her weight willingly.
“Let’s head out,” Pops announces while my father slaps me on the shoulder.
Bristyl pulls herself out of my arms, and I reluctantly let go. She runs to her father, his gun still in his hand, and wraps her arms around him. I don’t know what she says to him, but his shoulders sag. She does the same with her brothers, while each one gives me the eye of death. Bring it, motherfuckers.
“Come on, beautiful.”
She takes my hand, and I get her the hell away from all this shit.
Chapter Seventeen
Ryker drives my car while I ride on the back of Cooper’s bike, helmet firmly in place. Ryker mumbled something about going to get his bike later, but I really didn’t it pay it much mind. As we pull away, my heart breaks a little more. The ride is short to the hotel that’s just outside of town. It’s a mom and pop shop that’s been around for years.
Cooper tells me to hop off and I do, numbness seeping through me. I don’t know what to think. It’s all a clumped up clusterfuck of emotions at once. I’m pissed at my father and brothers. I’m even more pissed at Wolf. I’m scared to death my father will go to jail for killing Wolf. Not to mention, I saw it. That’s a torment in and of itself. The blood everywhere on the floor, just running to the floor drain like it’s an everyday occurrence.
Wolf came around a lot back when mom was alive. Over the years, he changed, and I made it a point to steer clear of him. He wasn’t a man who liked to have his hands in everything, so he left me alone. It’s bad, but I don’t feel sad that he’s dead.
On the flip side of the fear and anger, I’m happy to have Coop in my arms. Part of me wishes we could just hide away somewhere for a while and block everything in the world out. I know better than that, but a woman can dream.
His warm hands grip mine as we walk up the rickety stairs to the top floor where he opens the door. The smell of musk instantly hits my nostrils. I’m pretty sure the only time this place gets business is when bikers come to town.
Sitting on the bed, I stare at my hands. Cooper has to be pissed at me for not telling him I’m a Sinisters’ daughter. I never lied, but I didn’t tell him the truth, either.
I blow out a deep breath. “I should have told you about my father and brothers. The reason I didn’t is because I liked that you didn’t know they were in my life. Every time a guy came around, my brothers would scare them off or beat the hell out of them. We are new, and I didn’t want my affiliation with them to affect us. Not that I’m a part of them—they’ve made that perfectly clear—but …” I trail off, knowing that I’m rambling, yet unable to stop myself. “I know the life. I know my place. Well, I thought I did. What my mom taught me isn’t what has happened to me. Everything is confusing. It’s more of a mess because they want me back, and I’m not going.”
Cooper kneels on the ratted carpet in front of me, cupping my knees as I look into those beautiful blue eyes.
“No, I’m not happy you didn’t tell me, but beautiful, we’ll work that shit out. I need to know you’re okay after what you saw.”
I shake my head. “No, I’m not, but I love my father. He did some fucked up things, but I love him and know him. He wouldn’t have done that unless he didn’t have any other choice. I don’t know how to feel about Wolf being the one to call those shots about my life. I don’t know how to feel about a lot of it right now. I need time to process it.”
Cooper brings his hands to the side of my face. “You take all the time you need.”
When he rises, fear hits me that he’s going to leave me. Instead, he pulls me onto the bed with him, my back to his front, his safety and warmth surrounding me.
I let it out. The swirl of emotions that come from the pit of my stomach and roll like a tidal wave all around me. Tears fall, then sobs, then hiccups, and it all continues for much longer that I would like to admit. At some point, I cry myself to sleep.
***
I wake to voices around me. Soft murmurs, actually. My head feels like I swam in the clouds for a while before it all comes back to me. Everything that was said. Everything that hap
pened. Wolf’s opened eyes staring up to the ceiling while blood ran from his forehead.
My body jackknifes out of bed as my eyes fly open, looking around in a panic. Then strong arms are surrounding me. I tug and fight, my senses not clear.
“Shh … beautiful.” The words are soft, and I instantly sag upon hearing Cooper, who pulls me closer to his body. He maneuvers his legs out in front of us, me in between them, his arm wrapped around me, and my back to his front.
As my eyes dart around the room, I see several of the Ravage MC standing in front of me, including Pops, the guy who hit on me at the rally, the scary guy, Ryker, and the guy who helped Leah—Green. Turning my head, I see a couple of other guys, all looking at me intently.
“What’s going on?” The question is intended for anyone in the room at this point, but I prefer Cooper to answer.
He doesn’t.
“We have a meeting and need to figure out what to do with you,” Pops says with a small smile tipping his lip. His long, black beard has some gray mixed in, the same as his hair. His eyes, though, are powder blue and stand out intently. He appears strong, yet under it he looks a bit tired.
“Can’t I stay here?” I look over my shoulder at Cooper.
“Yeah, but I don’t want you here alone until we figure out what the fuck is going on. We have our own mess to deal with, with the Red Devils. Now we’re in a deeper mess until we figure out what trouble Wolf has put you in.”
“You really don’t think he singled me out or anything, do you? I mean, he wanted me to be part of the club and … you know.” I can’t say the words. The thought of having sex with Sterling or anyone in that club makes my stomach roil.
“What do you think?” Cooper responds.
That roil turns more.
“Bristyl, are you okay?” One of the guys who looks a lot like Cooper comes up to me. “Son, she’s turnin’ pale.”
My head feels light. I shake myself clear. No way in hell am I passing out or doing something stupid.
I suck in a deep breath. “Can I please have some water?”
The big guy beside me twists off a cap on a bottle and hands it to me.
“Thanks.” Taking a few sips, my equilibrium comes back on track. Focus, that’s what needs to be done right now.
The guy smiles, and it reminds me so much of Cooper. “Are you Cooper’s dad?”
The man laughs. “That obvious, huh?”
“The smile. It’s the same.”
The arms around me tighten. “That’s my ol’ man. Cruz, they call him.”
I look at his cut and see it has no other title on it, so his rank is just a member, like Cooper.
“Hi.”
These men have to think I’m the most pitiful thing.
“Got some color back in your cheeks,” Cruz says, rising. “Coop, you’ve gotta come. No choice. We can have Ryker, Green, and Jacks stay back with her.”
“Babysitting duty?” Ryker whines, and my eyes cut to him.
“I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Good, because I’m not the sittin’ type,” Ryker fires back.
“Low man on the totem pole. Left the prospects back at the club,” the guy who hit on me at the rally says. His cut reads Dagger. Geez, I wonder if that means he’s good with a blade. I sure as hell don’t want to find out.
“Seriously, you’re pullin’ that card?” Ryker retorts. He must have balls of steel, because the scary man, whose cut reads Rhys, doesn’t look happy.
“Not pullin’ shit. It is what it is. Get the fuck over it,” Dagger fires back.
“Alright, cut the bullshit,” Pops interjects. “This is what’s happenin’. Coop, you come with us. Derek, Jacks, and Ryker are stayin’ here, watchin’ your brother’s woman. And if you got a fuckin’ problem with that, then we got problems.”
The tension in the room gets thick, so much so that the hair on my arms raise. It makes me wonder how often Ryker has an opinion that the guys don’t like and if they’re tired of his shit.
“Fine, but I get a shot when we figure out what the fuck’s goin’ on.”
Cooper chuckles behind me, and I wonder what the “shot” means. A bullet? I don’t want to know.
“I’m really sorry. I didn’t know any of this was going down. My brother told me yesterday that I was in danger and laid all this at my feet. I haven’t had a chance to process it all, and I sure as hell didn’t want to get any of you involved.”
This has turned into a bigger mess than I ever imagined. Way too much going on and way too many variables at play. Not to mention, if Cooper gets hurt, I may lose my shit.
“Shit happens. We roll with it,” Rhys says with a slight grin, catching me totally off guard. Who knew the scary man could actually smile?
“Beautiful,” Cooper says, and I turn toward him. “Meant what I told you in the parkin’ lot. You’re mine. I take care of mine. No matter what the problem, I’ll fix it. You’re Ravage now, and we don’t back down.”
I turn in his arms fully and wrap my arms around his neck. Never would I have thought a stupid phone call from a customer at the laundromat would lead to this.
Squeezing him hard, I whisper, “I’m not moving in with you. I’m getting my own place.”
To that, he laughs. “We’ll see.”
“Sorry to break this up.” Cruz coughs on a chuckle. “Got shit to do.”
Pulling away from Cooper, my heart squeezes for the man in front of me. Who would’ve thought?
Cooper lays a kiss on my lips as the guys leave the room. “Gotta go. Two of them will be in here with you, one outside.”
“Do you really think it’s that bad?”
“Don’t give a fuck if a rabbit hops by your door, beautiful. These men will protect you with their life.”
“Or from an unsuspecting bunny.”
He laughs. “Or that. Hopefully, when we’re done here, we can get the fuck out of this town.”
My heart sinks a little. I thought we would spend some time together alone.
Listen to me. All this shit going down, and I’m thinking of myself? Stupid.
“Sounds good.”
He leans down to my ear. “Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan.”
Between my legs tingles as the warmth from his breath caresses me.
“You do, huh?”
Cooper pulls away and puts his lips to mine, stealing my breath.
“Be back.”
The door closes. You’d better.
“I’m on outside first,” Derek says, moving toward the door. “You kids play nice now.” His words are directed at Ryker.
“Yeah, yeah.”
Ryker grabs the remote to the television and throws his body on one of the two beds in the room. “Might as well catch up on Judge Judy.”
The other guy, who I haven’t been introduced to, but they called him Jacks, burst out laughing. “No wonder you don’t have a woman. Judy? Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?” Jacks moves to the table, stretching his long legs out in front of him.
“She’s gotta sharp tongue,” Ryker responds as he flips through the channels. He has dark hair, dark eyes, and tattoos all over his arms and neck.
“One that’ll bite your dick off.”
“I bet it’ll hurt so good,” Ryker groans.
“You’re fuckin’ nuts.”
Jacks and Ryker carry on as if I’m not even in the room, and I kind of like it. With everything going on, they aren’t giving me anything heavy. Instead, they are lightening the mood. I appreciate that.
“What about Judge Joe Brown?” I ask, sitting down on the empty bed, my back to the headboard.
“He’s off,” Ryker says, still flipping. “He got into some legal shit. Jail or banned or something.”
This surprises me. I swear I just watched his show the other day. Maybe it was a rerun.
“Really?”
“Yep.”
Ryker finds Judge Judy, and we watch her kick ass.
Chapter Eighteen
> “This is what we know,” Buzz starts, holding his laptop as we meet in Pops’ room. Bristyl is only a few doors down, and I can feel the pull to go to her. Strange, yet not. “The restaurant has a back room. There are two exits. One through the main dining area, the other through the back. Cameras don’t show anything, but we all know how well that goes.” He’s referring to when I was a kid. The brothers told me all about the asshole who shot my mother and tried to take my grandmother. He pulled some pretty twisted shit back then, but he’s six feet under now.
“Why, again, are we doin’ this shit in a restaurant full of people?” Rhys asks, stretching his arms behind his back. Damn man is still built like a brick shithouse.
“So, we don’t kill them on contact,” I throw in, pissed at Poe asshole for hurting Bristyl. He’ll be lucky if I keep my gun in its holster and don’t blow a hole through his head.
“This shit’s peaceful. Just a chat to get shit straight. We don’t know what the Red Devils have to do with Sinisters, and we don’t give a fuck,” Pops says. “We get in there, do our shit, and get out. Then we deal with the rest.”
We ride out and head to meet the Red Devils.
The restaurant is glowing with lights bursting in every direction. Large windows allow the florescent to glow outside, even though it’s still bright outside from the sun. Hell, not even my shades are blocking out this much illumination.
People sit in checkered, black and white booths, with shiny blue tables. Five tables are occupied and, counting the drinks at the tables, there are eight people sitting at them. There are nine cars in the lot and seven bikes. Two waitresses could possibly account for two of the cars, making seven cars accounted for. That leaves two.
A brunette waitress yells out at us to take a seat over by the windows, but we don’t listen. Instead, we follow Pops as he leads the way toward the back room. As we go, I clock two people at the grill, getting all my cars in order. Now for the seven bikes.
The hallway leading to the back room isn’t as bright as the front, but once we enter the back room, we are bathed in light again.
