Inflame Me

by Ryan Michele

  “Tanner.” This comes from my mother who eyes me to silence.

  “Sweetheart, I would have given your momma everything,” he says, which makes my mother gasp. “But that’s not your business. You need to remember that whatever happens in the club is none of your business. The only reason we are helping you right now is because we take care of our own, but none of this shit comes down on the club.”

  So, pretty much I’m shit on the scale of who gives a damn.

  “Whatever. We’ll be gone soon, anyway, and then you can go on with your life.” I dart into the kitchen, needing some space.

  DISAPPOINTMENT. Rhys, you’re nothing but a disappointment. The sentence trails through my head on repeat. Normally, it’s my mother’s voice saying it over and over again, but this time, it’s Tanner’s.

  I ride my bike hard and fast down the country roads, trying to clear my fucking mind. Regardless, those words keep running through my thoughts, pulling me down a path I thought was closed forever.

  My mother always told me how much I lacked. Even if she was strung out all the fucking time, she always made it a point to put in as many jabs as she could. To a kid, that shit sticks with you. It’s a fucking wound that never totally heals.

  I know Tanner wasn’t aware she struck a chord with me, but fucking hell, she dredged up some shit that I didn’t want to put on her lap.

  She’s right, though. Hooking up with her should have been a onetime gig. I shouldn’t have kept going with it. I should have backed the fuck off right away. I definitely shouldn’t have fucking slept with her in my arms. That was a huge fucking mistake.

  She’s way too innocent for this life. Fuck, she’s way too innocent for me, even if she melts like butter under my touch. It isn’t like I am going to suck her into this life and have her stay with me. Fuck that. I don’t want to be tied down. Right?

  I shake my head to clear the webs of Tanner out of there. It’s better this way, anyway. She needs one of those assholes who are put together or whatever.

  I need to erase Tanner from my mind.

  A HEAVY KNOCK comes from the front door.

  Dagger grabs my arm and pulls me into the hall. “Remember, I can’t protect you and your mom unless you do as I say,” he tells me, the sincerity blaring in his eyes.

  “I’ve got it. It’ll be all right.” I move to the door, looking through the peephole. The first man I see is Griff, whom I met at a couple of my mom and James’s parties.

  I turn to my mom and nod as she closes her eyes and lets out an exasperated sigh. I then turn the knob and open the door, my nerves hitting me full force as I stare into the eyes of James’s partner and best friend.

  “Hello.”

  “Evening, Tanner. We need to ask you and your mom some questions,” Griff says with all the formality and power he can muster. Crap.

  “Sure. Come on in.” I hold the door open, and Griff and another officer I haven’t met before come in.

  “Mearna, sorry to have to see you under these circumstances,” Griff says to my mother, moving over to the chair across from her.

  “I still can’t believe he’s dead,” Mom says. I have to say she’s pretty damn good with it. Or maybe she really does feel that way. Whichever, this is good.

  “Me, either. This is Officer Miller.”

  Mom nods at him while I take a seat on the couch at my mother’s feet. Before these guys came, I pulled out my makeup and gave her a hell of a lot of cover up, just leaving enough to make the car accident a plausible story.

  “You said on the phone that you and your daughter decided to go on a road trip. It just happened to be the same day that your house was burned to the ground with James’s body inside.”

  I turn to my mother and see a lone tear fall from her eye. My mother hasn’t had it easy in life, working her butt off for everything that we had, including helping James pay for that house. Shit!

  “Yes.”

  “Why did you decide to leave that morning?”

  My mother wipes the stray tear from her face and sniffles. “Tanner kept asking me about her father, and I finally gave in. I told James where we were going, and he told me to be safe.” That wasn’t a total lie. I had asked about my father over and over again, but not recently.

  Griff’s eye twitches. “James told you to be safe. Is that all?”

  Crap. Griff knows James. James would have thrown a fit had my mother said she was going to see my father. He didn’t like other guys even looking at my mother, let alone for her to pick up and leave.

  “Yes,” my mother says with the calm of a cat purring.

  “Mearna, I’ve known James a long time. You want me to believe that he said that?” Griff asks.

  My mother looks him dead in the face. “He did.”

  “I don’t believe you.” He looks at his partner, who eyes him wearily. “There is no way he’d let you out of his sight, let alone to go find Tanner’s father, who is part of the Ravage Motorcycle club from what I hear. Didn’t know you were a biker bitch.” The sneer in his voice has me sitting up in my seat. Here comes the Griff I’ve met, the one who always made my skin crawl just by being in the same room as him.

  “Officer Miller, go out and check the car,” he orders. “Where is it?” he asks my mother.

  “Garage,” she responds.

  “Are you sure?” Officer Miller says, and Griff gives him a stare that would breathe fire. I really don’t want the other officer to leave right now. “Okay.” He gets up and walks out the door.

  “I know you did something,” Griff starts in the minute the other officer is out the door. “There’s nothing of the body left but bones, but I know for a fucking fact that James would never let you step out of the door to go to another man. You are full of shit. Tell me what you did to him.” His eyes pierce my mother and me, and my stomach falls, remembering the knife in my hand and how it felt going in and out of his flesh.

  “I did nothing,” my mother says honestly, because she didn’t.

  “Bullshit. I learned that your baby daddy is part of a gang full of criminals, gangsters, murders, drug dealers, and thugs. You want me to believe that James would allow that? What happened? He put you in your place, Mearna?”

  Fury builds in my stomach and slowly begins to rise. How dare he feel that everything was okay because James was putting her in her place!

  “That’s enough,” I cut him off.

  His icy glare comes to me. “Enough of what?” he spits. “The truth? Maybe I need to start looking into this club you came to.”

  The fury mixed with panic rises.

  “Why? We have nothing to do with what happened to James,” I tell him.

  “You’re a lying, little slut. James told me how you threw yourself at him, begging him to fuck you. Each time, he refused.”

  My mouth falls to the floor, and I suck in a deep breath. “I never—”

  “Save it,” he cuts me off. “I believe James over you any day. You’re both worthless trash.” He rises from the chair, his presence making me quiver.

  He moves quickly in front of me, grabbing my arm and pulling me up from the couch with a yelp.

  “What are you …?” Griff’s hand comes around my mouth, muffling my words, and my mother tries to get up from the couch.

  “You stupid little bitch. Maybe I’ll just fuck the answers out of you,” he says loudly enough for my mother to hear as he presses his hard erection into my ass. Panic like no other hits. I shake my head and scream no.

  “Get your fucking hands off her,” Dagger’s voice comes from the entryway of the living room.

  I stop struggling and thank God that Dagger stayed. Dagger’s arm is extended, and at the end of it, his hand holds a silver gun. Oh, hell. He’s threatening a police officer.

  “Who the fuck are you?” Griff stops for a beat. “Oh, you must be the baby daddy.”

  “Damn fucking right, and if you don’t let go of my daughter, I’ll put a bullet in your fucking head,” Dagger replies.
>
  My eyes move to my mom. She’s not saying it with words, but telling me though her eyes that everything is going to be okay. I sure as shit hope so.

  “You won’t. Officer Miller out there would have your ass,” he gloats.

  “Oh, you mean Matthew Miller, who owes thirty-seven thousand dollars in credit card bills, not to mention a house on the verge of getting repo’ed. Oh, and he has a wife and three children to take care of. That, Officer Miller?” Dagger’s eyes are cold and stony. “You don’t think I have something that will make all his problems disappear?”

  Griff audibly swallows. “Bullshit.”

  “You didn’t do your research very well.” Dagger shakes his head. “We don’t put up with bullshit. Let. Go. Of. My. Daughter.”

  A pin prickle of fear slides up my spine as Griff pushes me head first into the couch, making me hit my mother’s legs.

  “Give me your gun, Taser, and whatever the hell else you have on you. Slide them across the floor.”

  Slowly, Griff does what he says, pulling out three guns, a knife, and Taser along with pepper spray.

  “Now sit your ass in that chair and tell me everything about the case.” Dagger pulls out his phone, and then it looks like he’s sending out a text. “Tanner, go outside and stall Officer Miller. When you hear the bikes, you’ll know it’s time to bring him in.”

  I nod, not really knowing what the hell else I am supposed to do. My mother says to trust him, and I really don’t have much of a choice at this point.

  I rise and head out to the door. Shakily, I move up to Officer Miller, surprised that Dagger wanted me out here alone, but he must not see this guy as a threat.

  “Get everything you need, Officer?”

  He turns at my words from examining the car. I suck in a gasp at the look of it. When we drove to the house it was fine, but Dagger said a couple of the guys fixed it. I hadn’t seen it until this moment. The front end of the car is completely smashed in, looking exactly like it ran into a tree, just as we told Griff over the phone. I try to hide my reaction quickly.

  “Looks cut and dry to me. Are you all right after this big of a hit?” he asks in concern.

  “I’m fine.” I place my hands in my back pocket. “My mom got a little banged up, but we’re good.”

  He goes around the car, snapping a couple of pictures and writing some things down in his notebook while I stand there and watch him.

  “Shame what happened to James,” he says at the front of the car.

  “Yes. My mother loved him.” That isn’t a lie. She did until he kept hitting her.

  “Understandable.”

  While the seconds tick into minutes, I feel the anxiety building up quickly. Finally, the low rumble of a motorcycle comes from the distance, and I close my eyes, feeling the comfort surround me with the sound. As the bikes pull into the driveway, Officer Miller comes to stand next to me.

  My eyes are glued on Rhys: the way his muscles flex as he maneuvers the bike—heck, the way he looks on the bike. I’ve never pictured myself having a thing for a guy like Rhys, but it’s there.

  Even though when he left earlier, it freaked me out, I have never been so happy to see him. He along with several of the club members turn off the engines to their bikes.

  “Your father?” Officer Miller asks.

  “No,” I answer.

  I don’t wait and practically run up to Rhys and wrap my arms around his neck tightly, sticking my head into his leather and shirt. I feel the tears threatening to fall, but I breathe deeply in and out as his arms come around me. His gloved hands come to the top of my head as he just holds me, my body deciding it’s the time for tremors to begin. I don’t care that he went out of here pissed only a little while ago. None of that matters. What matters right now is that I feel safe in his arms.

  “Sprite, where’s Dagger?” he asks into my hair.

  “In the house. He told me that, when you guys showed up, I was supposed to bring Officer Miller back into the house,” I tell him, not lifting my face up, sucking in his scent like I’ll never get a whiff of it again, instead.

  “Has he been bad to you?” Rhys asks. When I shake my head into his chest, his hand rubs up and down my hair. “Good, baby. Good.”

  “Rhys,” Pops calls out.

  I jump, almost forgetting that all of the guys are there and the hell that I’m in.

  “House,” he answers. “Officer Miller, come with us.”

  “What’s going on?” the officer asks from behind me.

  “In the house and we’ll explain.”

  Shuffling happens behind me, but I don’t move my head out of Rhys’s shirt. I hold on to him with everything I have.

  “If Dagger wouldn’t have been here, he would have raped me,” I confess, a tear falling from my face.

  “Who?” Rhys’s body goes taut as the word is barked out, making me jump.

  “Griff. In the house.”

  He pulls away, and my arms try to tighten to keep him close, but he’s definitely stronger than I am. His index finger comes to my chin as he raises it so I’m staring into his fiery depths.

  “That fucker put his hands on you?” he growls.

  I merely nod my head because his angry face is scary, but I also feel so safe with him. What in the hell is wrong with me?

  “Let’s go.” He leads me into the house, and I notice all the other guys except Breaker are already inside. Breaker follows us.

  Rhys wraps his arm around my shoulders, and I feel cocooned in his warmth.

  Entering the living room, I stop dead. Griff is tied with duct tape to a wooden chair that was in the dining area, and Officer Miller is sitting on the couch, wide-eyed. Holy shit, what’s going on?

  My mother’s eyes meet mine, but she doesn’t seem as shocked as I do.

  “What’s going on?” I ask Dagger who is walking behind Griff, the anger rolling off him.

  “Tanner, take your mother into her bedroom and shut the door,” Dagger orders me, making my spine stiffen. I want to know what the hell is going on.

  Rhys squeezes me. “Go.”

  I look up at him. Something in those commanding eyes makes me listen. I help my mom up and move her to her bedroom.

  “Mom, what is going on?” I ask after setting her on the bed and shutting the door. “We can’t let them kill them!” I screech, but it’s quiet, only for my mother to hear.

  “Come here.” She pats the bed beside her, and I sit. “Honey, I brought your father into this mess. We have to let them deal with it. I believe fully that he will protect us no matter what.”

  “But, Mom, they’re police officers! Don’t you think it’s gonna be suspicious if they don’t go back?” I mean, seriously, am I the only one here who is thinking clearly? “And Dagger already said the club comes first! He’s not going to put us over the club.”

  “Calm down. You have to trust that he will protect us.”

  “You want me to trust a guy I’ve known for days?”

  “You trust Rhys? His arm around your shoulder tells me he’s pretty protective of you.”

  I fall to the bed next to my mom and stare at the ceiling. “Things with him can’t work, Mom. There are just so many things wrong with him and me.”

  “You don’t think I know that? You don’t think it killed me to leave your father? You don’t think I have my own regrets?” my mother says.

  I turn to her. “You’re mad you left? I thought you were happy you left?”

  “I don’t know anymore. Just being around that man …” Her voice trails off.

  I need to deflect her. “What do you think the guys are doing?”

  “I have no idea,” she responds.

  I PUNCH THE motherfucker in the chest, hearing him wheeze. “Don’t ever lay a fucking hand on her,” I growl.

  “Brother, chill,” Pops says, putting a hand on my shoulder.

  Fuck, I could tear this piece of shit apart. He’s lucky at the moment that I’m being pulled off, because if not, he wo
uld be straight out dead. The moment I saw that terrified look on Tanner’s face, I couldn’t hold it back. Like a magnetic pull, I had to feel her, smell her. Protect her.

  Pops steps back and pulls out a piece of paper. “Says here that you are here unofficially.” That shocks me, and by the look on Dagger’s face, him, too. “You took a week off to come here.”

  “What?” this comes from Officer Miller. “We’re not getting paid to be here?” The shock on his face matches that of ours.

  “No,” Pops responds, surprising me.

  Officer Miller sits on the couch, dumbfounded. “You told me that the station said we had to come down here and question these two. What the hell is going on?”

  “What’s going on is this idiot thought he could threaten and touch my daughter. He thought he’d get some stupid confession out of them or take it out on their hide,” Dagger answers.

  Officer Miller stills, and if I had a heart, I might have felt something for him. “Fucking hell! I need to get back. I can’t miss work!”

  “Shut up! I had your vacation cleared for you,” Griff spits out at him.

  “You wasted my fucking vacation for this shit!” Miller responds.

  “As much as this little pissing contest you have going on is humorous, we’ve got shit to do,” I cut in. “Whose car did you drive down here?”

  “Mine,” Miller answers. I swear, if he were a cartoon, smoke would be pouring out of his ears.

  “Good,” Pops says, looking at the man. He pulls out a couple bricks of cash, handing it to Miller. Miller doesn’t take it.

  “What’s that for?” he asks, eyeing the cash, his mouth almost salivating at it.

  “You, to drive back. You speak nothing of this. Take your family on a little trip with the rest of your vacation time. You say nothing of what happened here.”

  Miller eyes the money then Pops. “My wife knows I’m here.”

  “Then you convince her that you lied,” Pops responds.

  “Don’t you dare fucking leave. They’ll kill me,” Griff says.

  Miller looks between all the guys. He ponders for long moments, but I see the instant he looks at the money and realizes so many of his problems would vanish because of it.