by Debra Kayn
"It's official then?" Cam asked.
Everyone nodded and added a yeah.
Cam lifted his chin. "Get Merk out here."
Willy jogged across the lawn and banged on Merk's trailer. Cam held his position. The others might be finished, but he wasn't done. Merk had the choice to follow the club's decision or end his life. A year ago, he would've known what to expect from his V.P.. Over the course of twelve months, Merk's drinking, his questionable loyalty, his past corroded his thinking like acid. Acid reduced him to a toxic threat.
Merk walked three feet behind Willy, steady and unnerved. Cam expected nothing less from a man who once stood beside him unwavering in his support. Facing Cam, Merk stood with the other Moroad members at his back in a badass show of accepting his fate.
"You'll stay in the trailer. Every second you're awake will be spent looking for Jeremy. At all times, at least two men will guard you. Any information you obtain on Jeremy's whereabouts, you'll bring directly to me. If I'm not around when you bring Jeremy in, you'll keep the information about him being family to yourself. As your president, I'm putting my own demands on you. When you do tell Jeremy he's your nephew, Christina must be present."
A soft gasp came from behind him. He'd assumed Christina would try to listen to everything through the open living room window. Cam continued. "Once your job is done. You and Jeremy will face the club again."
Merk nodded. "I understand."
Cam searched out Meese and Jacko. "I want you two on his ass starting now. Rash and Mister will take over in eight hours."
The others walked off to the fire pit, a few hopped on their motorcycles and left. Cam stepped forward, alone with Merk. In the past, Merk provided the club's tracking. If someone threatened Moroad, Merk found the man. His skills exceeded even Cam's reach.
"Find him," Cam said.
Merk gazed up at the house. "I have no other choice."
"No, you don't." Cam stepped away and walked up onto the porch and into the house.
The door shut and Christina hurried toward him, wringing her hands, bouncing on her feet, only to come to a sudden stop in front of him. She chewed on her bottom lip. Her brows pinched down. She shook. His woman needed him.
He held his arms out to the side. "Go ahead."
She wrapped her arms around his waist, planted her cheek on his chest, and calmed. "Thank you."
"I said I'd bring him back to you." He kissed her upturned lips. "Has anyone ever told you that you're nosey?"
"I had to listen. I won't let anyone take him from us." Her mouth firmed. "I want Merk away from Jeremy the second the truth comes out."
Cam inhaled deeply. "You want him gone? He's gone."
Her eyes widened. "You'd do that?"
"Yes," he said.
Another crime meant nothing to him. In a world where people needed to fight for what they got, protect what they needed, and destroy to make sure they kept their freedom. He'd do whatever was needed to keep his family together.
Chapter Eleven
Three o'clock in the afternoon, four days after Merk showed up at the house, and Jeremy still wasn't home. Christina swept the porch in angry short strokes, casting glances at Cam and Merk talking in front of the travel trailer. No amount of talk would convince her Cam was safe around the man who tried to kill him.
"You're going to wear the bristles off the broom." Gunner put his empty beer can in the trash by the front door.
"Then I'll buy a new broom." Christina pushed down with each stroke and stepped toward Gunner. "That way I can use the handle to smack every smartass biker upside the head when they step on my porch and tell me how to clean."
Gunner laughed.
She glared. "You've got grass blades all over your boots."
"Yeah, because you mowed the lawn an hour ago." Gunner chuckled. "Damn, woman. Take a break and have a beer or something."
She stopped and blew out her breath. "Is it hurting anyone that I want to take care of the place and have it looking nice?"
Gunner's smile dropped. "No, honey. You've done a real nice job here."
Her spine relaxed and she walked over and sat in Cam's rocker. Cam and Merk stood with their heads bent, hiding their expressions.
"Do you know what they're talking about?" she asked.
Gunner sat down on the top step. "Who?"
"Cam and Merk."
Gunner bent his knees and planted his elbows on his thighs. "I'd guess they're running through each other's lists on what they've done to look for Jeremy and making decisions on how to move forward in the search, but I think you know that."
She hated how they all hid information from her. Whenever she entered a room or walked near a group of bikers in the yard, conversations ended.
"Are they getting close to figuring out where he went?" she asked.
"Don't ask," Gunner said.
She stood, grabbed her broom, and began sweeping the porch again, purposely hitting Gunner's lower back in her determination to clean. "Then get off my porch."
Gunner shot off the steps, shaking his head, and grumbling. She cleaned up the grass clippings and leaned the broom against the corner of the porch. Her world had too many stubborn men in it.
A gray car drove toward the house. Christina shaded her eyes, recognized Katie in the driver's seat, and hurried down the steps. Katie got out of the car, glanced over at Cam and Merk, and headed straight toward Christina.
Happy to have another woman around, Christina walked into Katie's open arms. "I'm so glad to see you."
"What's going on?" Katie pulled back, holding Christina's shoulders.
"Nothing." Christina sighed. "The men are hanging around and doing their own thing. I'm about ready to go crazy if they don't start talking."
"Everything is okay with...?" Katie lifted her chin, motioning over her shoulder at Merk.
"Well, he hasn't tried to kill anyone since he showed up." Christina sighed on a shrug. "I don't know. All the men move on like nothing happened. He tried to kill Cam. I can't forgive him for that, and I'll never forget."
"Honey, you don't have to." Katie hugged Christina to her side and walked up onto the porch. "Sit down. I'm going to go inside and get us both a drink."
"There's lemonade in the fridge." Christina sat down in the rocker. "It's fresh squeezed."
Katie laughed. "Girl, you're the only one who would buy actual lemons instead of tossing some powder and water in a pitcher."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Katie waved her hand. "Nothing, except sometimes you try too hard."
"No, I—"
Katie walked into the house, leaving Christina alone to object to Katie's statement. She wasn't working too hard, despite what Gunner and Katie believed. There was nothing for her to do to help search for Jeremy, and she focused on the near future when he was home again. She wanted him to feel comfortable living here.
Katie walked out of the house carrying two full glasses. "Here you go."
"Thanks." Christina drank. She hummed in appreciation and wiped her mouth. "That does taste good."
"You've been working too hard." Katie sat down in the chair beside the rocker.
Both of them sat back, looked out at the men in the yard, and fell into a comfortable silence. Christina spoke first.
"Anything exciting happening in town lately?" she asked.
Katie sat down her glass on the small table to the side of her. "The miners have their union contracts coming up next month, so they're rowdier than normal with the added stress on their shoulders wondering if they'll have a job or go on strike. Lilly and Ink have extra Bantorus members working at Silver Girls to keep any fights from breaking out."
"That must make your job of entertaining the men harder if the customers are thinking about their work and not the dancers," Christina said.
Katie crossed her legs at the knee and swung her foot. "It also makes them stingier with their tips. It's tourist season though, so the extra visitors help make up the diffe
rence."
"At least business is good." Christina rubbed at a spot of dirt on her bare thigh. "Did Tiff ever go back to working at Silver Girls?"
Katie shook her head. "I ran into her yesterday, while I was putting gas in my car. She barely talked to me and when I asked if she'd found another job, she made some excuse about being late and walked away from me. I don't know if she's suffering a broken heart or she's mad at the whole world."
"I get the same attitude from her." Christina sighed. "You don’t think she's hiding Jeremy somewhere?"
Katie turned and frowned. "If she was the Moroad members would find him, don't you think?"
"Yes. I went over to her mom's house and talked to her, too." Christina crossed her arms. "Either she lied to my face or he's not there. Her mom's a bitch though. I swear she wanted to punch me before Tiff stepped in and said she'd talk with me outside."
Katie's brows lifted. "Her mom hits the bottle first thing when she gets up. By four, she's ready to take on the world."
"That's sad," Christina said.
Cam stepped up on the porch. "What's sad?"
Christina looked out across the yard and found Merk getting on his motorcycle. Mayor and Paul followed Merk out of the yard. She stood. "Tiff's mom is an alcoholic. It's sad for Tiff. Did Jeremy ever mention Tiff's relationship with her mom to you?"
"No."
She stood and pulled Cam over to the rocker. "Sit."
Cam sat down and pulled Christina down on his lap. She stayed sitting on his thighs. For how much he put on a show that he was healed, he didn't need her weight leaning against his stomach.
"How are you feeling, Cam?" Katie asked.
"Fine."
"He's lying," Christina added.
Cam growled, smacking Christina's leg. "I'm better."
"I'll take that." Christina smiled.
"I suppose I better go get Johnson and take his ass to town, so he can get the part he needs to get his motorcycle running again." Katie kissed Christina's cheek. "Call if you need anything."
"I will," she said.
Cam took Christina's half-full glass and drank the rest. She moved to take the other chair, and Cam stopped her. "Stay."
When he gave her nothing more, she picked up his hand and sprawled his fingers across her thigh. Black oil and grease stained his fingernails. He'd worked on his motorcycle while she picked weeds earlier.
Cam looked at their hands entwined, frowning and closing himself off. She tilted her head. It wasn't what he said, but what he refused to tell her. "Do you want to talk?"
"About what?"
She covered his hand. "Whatever you're not saying. You're distracted."
He cleared his throat and leaned his head back over the top of the rocker. "I asked Merk to update me on Roni's life after she got pregnant with Jeremy. Supposedly, Merk called her every week from prison, until she started ignoring his calls. He mentioned she'd started hanging out with the wrong crowd and not listening to Merk's opinion that she needed to clean up her act. He always suspected whoever her friends were had ties to Reds."
Her ears roared in shock. "Are you kidding?"
"No."
"She's dead now, so I guess it doesn't matter." Christina inhaled and tried to relax. "I can't imagine Jeremy being around anyone from Reds. I'm so glad he's not in that kind of environment anymore. Others might not view Moroad MC as a healthy setting for a young man his age, but I know differently."
"Right," he mumbled.
He held back. Christina waited. The longer she thought about Jeremy around any of the members of Reds, she became angrier at the way his mom raised him. What kind of woman put drugs before her baby?
"Who did you turn to after your parents were killed?" Cam asked.
"I...I don't even like thinking about that time in my life."
"Answer the question," he said, low and demanding.
She ducked her head and stared at the ring on her finger. "I went to the policeman in charge of the case."
"No, who did you run to for comfort?"
She inhaled deeply and shook her head. He hooked the back of her neck and brought her eyes around to his. His face blurred through the tears filling her vision. The hurt and anger she'd experienced fresh on her mind, even though it'd been almost eight years ago when she'd found her parent's laying in their own blood in the store they owned.
"Baby, answer the question."
She blinked. "After the police were done questioning me, I went to Mrs. Vanderway's house. She lived on the next block and used to babysit me when I was little. She told me she was sorry, but she couldn't help me."
"Why the fuck not?"
She shrugged. "Mrs. Vanderway heard the news station say the police suspected the murders were gang related. She was scared of me coming around her house, in case bad men followed me. She didn't want to get killed."
"Jesus," he mumbled. "Who else did you go to?"
"Nobody." She flopped her hands in her lap. "My parents put all their energy into the store. They didn't have time for friends, and I'm a single child of parents who had no siblings. I had nobody."
He pulled her down to his chest. She shuddered. When she'd found herself alone, not knowing the simplest thing on how to keep the store going or any desire to return to the place where her parents died, the police found an attorney who work pro bono with her. She'd sold the store to pay the bills her parents accumulated when they opened their own business. She'd walked away losing everything familiar to her and worked any minimum wage job she could find to keep herself in the low-income apartment.
"You've got a family now, baby." He kissed the top of her head.
She sniffed. "Why were you asking me questions?"
Cam's hand slipped between her thighs and he held her. "None of us know how Jeremy lived between the time he was born and the time he lost his mom. If we can figure out who Roni claimed as friends or if his mom had certain people in her life that Jeremy depended on years ago, maybe we can figure out who he ran to when he left here."
She raised her head. "But if you think Reds—"
"Yeah. I think Reds are involved." Cam held her face. "Listen to me. I will get him back."
"This keeps getting worse and worse. When will it end?"
"Soon, baby. We're getting closer," he whispered.
She clung to Cam, closing her eyes. In desperation and hurt, Jeremy would run to someone who knew his mom and understood his anger. The need to cling to the familiar was a powerful emotion. When her brain wouldn't process the truth about her parents, she'd listened to her heart and ran to someone from her past. For her, she ended up alone.
She needed to find Jeremy before someone else could do more damage to his young heart.
Chapter Twelve
Christina moaned.
Cam pinned her against the flat surface of the refrigerator. She broke the kiss and ducked under his arm. "I'm serious, Cam. I need to go to town, and you need to meet with the men."
"We have time." He grabbed her wrist and yanked her to him.
She flattened her palms against his chest to cushion the force. "Careful. You'll hurt yourself."
"I'm healed. Now open your mouth."
"I need to—"
He sealed her mouth with his lips and stroked her tongue, rendering her speechless. His broad, rough hands slipped into her shirt and squeezed her breasts. Hit by a sudden need to stay home, she groaned.
Cam's lips curved against hers.
"Asshole," she mumbled into his mouth, though the word came out sounding more like a moan of encouragement.
He removed one of his hands. The clink of his belt coming undone pushed her plans to leave for town right out of her head. She shimmied out of her shorts, kicking them out of the way.
She no sooner got her shorts off and Cam spun her around. She grabbed the counter.
"My panties," she said.
"Leave them." Cam pressed his hand to her upper back and bent her over.
His boot nudged the ins
ide of her ankle, widening her stance. She held on to the edge of the counter, hanging her head between her arms. Cam hooked the thin material between her legs with his finger and pulled it to the side. Already wet from Cam's constant attention the last half hour, she took the force of his cock and moaned in pleasure.
He withdrew slowly, teased her opening and in pure torment, inched back in. The slow glide better than any plans she had in town. Her legs trembled. God, there was no other feeling to compare to having him inside of her.
She swayed back and forth. Greedy and wanting more, she moved constantly, never wanting to lose contact.
His jeans rubbed against the back of her thighs, the material rough, reminding her of his large presence behind her. Not that she needed reminding. He consumed her. Bowed over her back, one hand on her hip and the other stretched and cupping her breast, Cam held her tight. She flipped her hair back, arching against him.
Cam's hand left her hip and he wrapped his arm around her waist. His fingers found her clit. She bucked back, rocking on her toes.
"Like that?" His lust-filled murmur tickled her ear, making her spark inside. Tingles engulfed her entire body from the base of her spine up to her head.
She moaned in affirmation. He stroked her faster, fucked her deeper, held her tighter.
She came apart in his arms, locked in his embrace, captive beneath him, and flying free. The pleasure swept through her, taking every breath, and proving once again he had the right idea. There was always time for this, when he did that, and took her there.
Everything he'd done reminded her of how he felt toward her.
She was wanted.
She was safe.
She was his.
"Hang on." He straightened, grabbed her hips, and thrust. No sooner had he pulled out and he plunged back inside of her, over and over, ravaging her body without mercy. Unable to think or move, she absorbed the impact. Incoherent noises pushed out of her. She lost her breath and he gave it back to her with each savage thrust. She panted under the unrestrained rhythm Cam set.
