by Sam Crescent
“Can I know a little about you? Relationships can’t be based on sex alone. What about when you were a boy? About your family?”
He visibly cringed.
“I’m sorry.”
“We both got the short stick in the parent department, but we deal with it, right?”
She nodded.
“I’ve never shared any details of my childhood with anyone, not even Lord. But we’ll talk at the river. I want you to believe me when I say I’m serious about you, about us.”
“I wish I could know everything.”
“No, you don’t want that, trust me.” He took her hand, forcing her to trace a faint white line on his pec. It was slightly raised and jagged.
“What’s this from?” She expected it to be from a rival biker.
“My mother.”
Her breath caught in her throat, and he was right, she didn’t want to know. Her parents had been junkies and petty criminals, but they’d never hurt her like that. Mostly, she dealt with neglect rather than physical abuse.
“She was pissed off my father left us. Blamed me. Called me a worthless piece of shit who’d ruined her life,” he said. “I thought she’d be happy because he used to beat her, you know. But I guess some women are too fucked up to see their relationships are self-destructive.”
“Brick…”
“See, you’re feeling sorry for me. Don’t do that.”
He was pulling away, and she wanted him to feel safe enough to share with her. “I’m not. I just want to understand. You don’t have to hide anything from me.”
“It’s not easy, so don’t expect miracles. This scar, it’s nothing. It wasn’t even one of the bad days.”
She leaned into him, cuddling up in the crook of his arm. No more words. The strong sound of his heart soothed her. The fact he’d opened up at all said a lot. He was trying—for her. Right now, she just wanted him to feel safe sharing, to know she wouldn’t judge him.
It wasn’t until later that night when Brick left with a lot of the boys when someone knocked on her door. Her nerves were already on edge. She hated being without Brick, but mostly she worried if he’d get hurt—or worse.
“Hey.” It was Ally, Lord’s old lady. They’d chatted a few times but hadn’t spent too much alone time with each other.
“Hi.”
“Could I come in for a few minutes?”
Callie shrugged and stepped aside. “Sure.” She’d been warned to behave herself with Ally because she was at the top of the pecking order with the women. Lord wouldn’t tolerate anyone being rude to his woman.
Ally sat on the armchair next to the bed. There wasn’t much room for company in their bedroom. For some reason, the vibe Ally gave off calmed Callie somewhat.
“When I first came here, it wasn’t under ideal circumstances, trust me. It wasn’t even willingly. Everyone hated me. The other women even beat me up pretty bad in the beginning until Lord dealt with them.” She ran a hand through her hair. “What I’m trying to say is that I understand what it feels like to be the new girl. I know some of the club pussy can be a real pain in the ass, but you learn to ignore those ones. If they push you too far, you come to me.”
She smiled. It was nice to know someone else had her back. The entire MC lifestyle was so new to her. “Thank you.”
“I’m serious. It’s nice to have you around here. And I’ve never seen Brick so happy.”
“Really?”
Ally chuckled. “Definitely. Of all the men, I thought he’d be the one to die alone. He tried his best to convince Lord to ditch me, too.”
Callie bit her lower lip.
“But now he’s different. So focused. I swear you’re always on his mind. Lord said he’s pussy whipped. But I know the truth.”
“What’s that?”
“Brick’s fallen in love. Our boys, they’re not like any other. When they fall, they fall hard. No going back. He’ll do anything for you, Callie.”
Just the thought of that filled her with a unique satisfaction and maybe a bit of arousal.
“What if they don’t come home tonight?”
Ally frowned. “Don’t start worrying now or you’ll never make it. They’re always doing something that’s life-threatening, but Lord always comes home. Sometimes I think they’re invincible.” She laughed.
Callie laughed too. She felt so relaxed, her nerves fading away.
“Do you have family outside the club?” Callie asked.
Ally shook her head. “This is my family now. My dysfunctional little family. Now you’re a part of it.” She rubbed her belly. Brick mentioned she was expecting again.
“Are you excited for another baby?”
“Very. Especially Lord. We’re kind of making up for our own shitty childhoods, you know. They call it breaking the cycle, but we’re just giving our kids the lives we should have had.”
Callie imagined having Brick’s kids. They’d be beautiful babies. For the first time in a long time, she was looking forward to the future.
Chapter Eight
“What’s your fucking problem?” Lord asked Brick that night.
“Don’t have one.”
“Could have fooled me. You look like you’ve just found out you’ve got a limp dick.”
“Fuck off.”
He lifted the binoculars to check the activity outside of Skull Nation. He and the rest of the guys had all done a drive by and confirmed for themselves it was up and running again.
Those fuckers. He didn’t know how they did it. Clearly, they had contacts that went a little deeper than the local hardware store.
“I don’t like this,” Brick said.
“Me neither.”
“Something doesn’t feel right.”
They weren’t in any danger, but considering a clubhouse had just been rebuilt, he would have expected a little more celebration going on. There was nothing. He didn’t understand it.
There was no joy. No happiness.
Why?
There wasn’t even a crowd of guys. Just a couple of bikes in the parking lot and a few of the men wearing the leather cut, marking it as theirs.
“Abort,” Lord said.
Brick glanced to the side as he pulled out his cell phone. He dialed each man, giving the alert.
“They know we’re out here,” Lord said.
He hung up on the last call. “The guys are heading back to the clubhouse. What do you want to do?” he asked.
“I want to stay a while, check it out.”
Brick gritted his teeth. Tonight, he was supposed to be taking Callie to the lake, but that was going to have to wait. Work always came first, and he wasn’t about to start changing the rules to suit her needs.
You want to be out there with her, fucking prick.
The truth was he wanted to spend as much time with Callie as possible, but now she wanted to know about the past and he had no interest in sharing anything about that. He’d learned long ago nothing good came from looking back. People thought it did, but it didn’t.
His life hadn’t been a picnic. It had been hard and painful. His mother was an abusive bitch who sought out even more abusive bastards to hurt him.
He’d gotten away, but it had taken him a long time to fight for himself. One of the many reasons he hit first, asked questions later. So long as he got the first punch in, he always came out a winner.
Callie wasn’t like that. He got that her past wasn’t as clean sailing as he first thought. Her own mother kicking her out of the trailer she was raised in was the first indication, then of course was the way she acted around violence.
Thinking about her mother, he made a note to go and visit the bitch. He was determined to make Callie’s life the best it could be.
No one was going to get in the way of that.
“You’re just going to be there silent?” Lord asked.
“What do you want me to say?”
“I’m waiting for you to tell me you’ve got a date.”
“C
allie can wait.”
This made Lord chuckle. “Already fucking up.”
“Club business comes first,” Brick said.
Lord sighed. “Club business comes first, but you also need to learn to have a life, Brick. To balance it out.”
“Why? Because you’re a prime example of it.”
This made Lord chuckle. “You don’t see or hear my woman complaining.”
“You spoil her.”
“In case you didn’t notice, some women are worth spoiling. Don’t you want to do the same with your woman?”
“That’s beside the point. Callie knows the club will come first.” The lake wasn’t going to dry up straight away. They had time.
As he thought that, he recalled the memory of her being wrapped around him. The sweet promises he’d made when he left their bedroom. Even now, he didn’t think of it as his bed, but theirs.
What was his was now hers, and vice versa. He ran a hand down his face. Now he started to think like a married man. If he went on any longer, he was well and truly fucked.
“I don’t know if I feel sorry for you or not,” Lord said.
Brick looked at the Skull Nation, trying to figure out what was going on. Their compound was back up and running. There should be many bodies tonight. The destruction would have been easy.
“Do you think they know what happened to Jeff?” Brick asked.
“They know everything, and I bet they’re anticipating us to hit back. What I want to know is what they’ve got planned for retaliation.” Lord cracked his neck to the side.
Brick waited.
Lord did this from time to time. Where he spent moments of silence trying to get into his enemies’ heads, attempting to detect their next move.
“If you were him, what would you do?” he asked.
“I’d expect an attack tonight. My guess is the guys who are wearing the leather cuts are prospects or willing volunteers. You don’t put your best guys out to be slaughtered. They must be in a safe haven. Somewhere that would make them feel safe, anyway. That’s the only explanation for it, but why? If I expected an attack and didn’t take the chance to defend, then it’s because you have a bigger plan. What would that bigger plan be?” Lord ran a hand through his hair before pulling out his cell phone.
Brick looked over to see him dialing Righteous, the club’s chaplain. The one man who probably knew a whole host of sins.
“Anything happen?”
He didn’t hear what Righteous had to say.
Lord didn’t say anything and then hung up. “I don’t like this. We need all the guys to be in church.”
“Lord, that’s not a good idea. The rat.”
He still needed to deal with the lead Copper mentioned.
“Fucking piece of shit. I want to know what the fuck these bastards are up to. It’s time to go visit Jeff.”
“You want to go to the hospital?”
“It’s the only place we’re going to be able to go. He’ll know something. I just know it, and as for all of this shit, we’ll deal with it.” Lord looked ready to commit murder. His prez was crazier than him, which said a lot.
They straddled their bikes and took off, riding right to the hospital. They had left Jeff in a bad way. Dumping his ass at the hospital afterward, which was more than he deserved.
There was no chance in hell he was going to squeal.
Brick felt the wind across his face, but rather than embrace being on the open road, he was ready to explode with anger. He wanted to be back in Callie’s arms. The thought of any of the Skull Nation getting close to her filled him with dread. This should have been a done deal tonight. Instead, they were chasing themselves, trying to play catchup.
On arriving at the hospital, Lord made another call to Righteous to make sure all brothers were accounted for. They were. It was just him and Lord now.
They entered the main reception to find an older woman, dark shadows beneath her eyes, looking like she’d enjoyed much better days than sitting behind a hospital reception desk.
“Hey, sweet lady,” Lord said.
It never failed to amaze Brick how quickly Lord could turn on the charm.
“How can I help you?”
Seconds ago, the woman looked like she’d been sucking wasps. A few choice words from Lord, and she was ready to be putty in his hand. He wondered if she’d have been so happy to see Lord if she knew he was very happy, married, and in love with Ally.
“We heard that our friend got beat up pretty bad, and well, we only just got the news and we’ve been riding for a couple of days straight to get to him. No one gave us a room number or a person to contact.” Lord reached into his pocket, pulling out some cash as he gave her a name.
Brick waited to see if the woman would accept the bait.
Tick-tock.
She took the money. “Let me see what I can do for you. He is your brother after all.” She gave Lord a wink.
“You are a fine woman.”
The receptionist giggled.
He needed to start taking pointers from this guy. They had Jeff’s floor and room number. With a final wink, they went to the elevator and stepped on.
“You make me sick,” Brick said. “You’re one of the scariest motherfuckers around and look how you worked that woman.”
“It’s a gift. One day, you’ll have the same kind of gift, just not as good,” Lord said.
“Is that why you and Ally never argue?” Brick asked.
“Ally and I don’t argue because I know how to treat a woman good. You need to start shutting up and taking notes. A wealth of knowledge here.” Lord tapped his head.
“You’re down nearly two hundred dollars for this information,” Brick said.
“But without my charming personality, we wouldn’t be here at all, would we?”
They stepped off the elevator and went to find Jeff’s door number.
Lord leaned against the door with a sigh. “We know what we want?”
“All the info on the Skull Nation. Easily done.”
A nod from Lord, and then they entered Jeff’s room. He was watching television. He dropped the remote, his hand shaking as soon as he saw them.
“I didn’t do anything. I didn’t say a word. I swear. I swear.” The machines he was hooked up to started to beep.
Brick smiled. “We’re not going to do anything.” Lord sat down in the chair nearest the bed. “We have a few questions.” He reached into his jacket pocket and placed the muzzle of the gun against Jeff’s knee. “This is either going to be easy or hard. I know what I want, and I know what is good for you. Tell me, Jeff, are you going to be a good boy?”
Jeff was already perspiring.
“I think Jeff pissed himself,” Brick said.
“I know, so I guess I’m not that scary. We all know it’s way more fun when they shit themselves.”
“No, please, please, please,” Jeff said, putting his hand near his leg as if to ward off any threat of being shot.
“Then how about you be a good boy, and you tell me everything I need to know about my good Skull Nation brothers.”
****
Brick never came home.
Callie waited until close to midnight before getting changed into some night clothes. Losing her virginity had been a big deal, and Brick hadn’t even cared enough to come home. The following morning, he still hadn’t come home. There was no sign of him. She went down to the kitchen, and like so many other times before, was ignored by the rest of the club. They only paid her attention when Brick was around.
The way they were with her made her wonder if he did this regularly with women. Brought them to the club, slept with them, and then did the vanishing act.
She took her breakfast of a couple of slices of toast outside. It wasn’t a warm day, and she wrapped the cardigan around her to try to ward off the chill.
She wished Ally would pop by again to give her some words of wisdom. Being in a relationship with a biker was like walking on eggshells. Maybe Bric
k just wasn’t relationship material like Lord was for Ally.
There was no point to it. Nothing had changed. She and Brick were the same as before.
Was he sending her a message she hadn’t read clearly enough? He wanted her gone?
Callie’s appetite faded fast.
Without another word to any of the club, she made her way into the clubhouse, past the main room, and up the corridor stairs, going straight to his room. There, she grabbed the bag off the floor, placed it on the bed, and reached for her things. She refused to stay with a man who didn’t want her.
The idea of going to the lake on a date with Brick had meant something to her. They didn’t know everything about each other but enough to move onto the next step, and she was more than ready to do that, but clearly, Brick was happy to not have a future together. She’d given her virginity to a man who only wanted to use her.
Tears filled her eyes. Was that what he wanted? To use her?
Just the thought of it made her feel the fool. No, more than a fool, a stupid, blind idiot. The first guy to come into her life and show her some nice attention, and she’d fallen for his act.
That was exactly what it was … an act. He didn’t care about her. He lied to her. There was no love here.
“What’s going on here?” Brick asked.
Callie jerked up. She had been so upset and distracted by her own sadness she hadn’t heard Brick enter. Glancing at the bed, she squared her shoulders. “Nothing. I’m going to head back to my place. I think it’s better this way.”
“Better? Callie, babe, you’re not going anywhere.”
“I have to go.” She ran fingers through her hair. Her hands trembled, and she hated that he saw her like this—teary-eyed, struggling, close to losing it. Brick had made her feel so much, and slowly, he’d torn her apart.
Brick slammed the door closed.
She held her ground, refusing to move as he came toward her. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but I don’t want any part of it. I’m not … this isn’t who I am.”
He stood right in front of her, grabbing her bag, and she watched as he tipped out the contents so they landed on the floor. “Let me get one thing straight, Callie. You’re not going anywhere. What part of me telling you that I loved you didn’t you get?”
