Bull (Dixie Reapers MC 4)

by Harley Wylde, Jessica Coulter Smith

  I skirted around him and went to the guestroom to get my clothes. Bull stormed down the hallway and slammed his bedroom door. I winced as it rattled on the hinges and hated that I’d been the one to make him so angry. It wouldn’t matter much longer anyway. Once I talked to his President and VP and told them my story, he’d ask me to leave anyway. No one wanted to keep trash around.

  Dressing quickly, I waited for him by the front door. He appeared about ten minutes later, in a fresh pair of jeans, another black T-shirt, and that leather vest thing he’d had on last night. He didn’t touch me and didn’t speak to me as he stepped out onto the porch. My throat burned and so did my eyes as I realized just how much I’d screwed up by not being completely honest with him. Not that I’d expected our time together to last past this morning anyway.

  I followed him outside, closing the door behind me, then stayed a few steps behind as we went to the building near the gates with the neon sign on top. I didn’t think he wanted to look at me right now. We entered the building, and my eyes took a moment to adjust the dimly lit room. The interior wasn’t what I was expecting, and I saw a handful of people, including two women who looked to be around my age sitting at a table in the corner. One of them had a toddler on her right knee and a baby in her arms, the other had an even smaller bundle in her arms. I didn’t know if I was supposed to sit with them or follow Bull, so I stayed close to him, but I felt the eyes of everyone in the room on me.

  We walked down a hall, and he pushed open two wooden double doors that had Church carved into the frame over them. I stayed on his heels and came to an abrupt stop when I saw the man from this morning and another man sitting next to him at a long conference table. Bull approached and sank into a seat next to the gray-haired man, but I hovered near the doors, uncertain what I should do.

  “She fucking lied to me,” Bull said.

  I swallowed hard and watched as the other two men turned accusing gazes my way. The man I’d thought was tender and sweet last night turned to face me with anger blazing in his eyes.

  “So which part did you lie about, Darian? The men being after you? Was it all a game to get to one of us? Did someone send you here?” Bull demanded.

  “Wh-what? No. No! I didn’t lie about that.”

  “Then what did you lie about?” he asked, his voice harsh and unforgiving.

  My cheeks flushed, and I dropped my gaze to the floor. “I lied about being on birth control,” I said in a near whisper.

  I heard a chair crash to the floor and looked up to find Bull staring at me.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I said I lied about being on birth control. I’m not, but I didn’t want you to stop.”

  It seemed like all the anger drained out of him as he approached me, reaching for me slowly and setting his hands on my waist.

  “Baby girl, I already knew you lied about that. You hesitated last night when I asked. I knew I should stop but I didn’t want to, so I ignored the fact you were most likely not telling me the truth.”

  “You’re not mad that I lied about that?” I asked.

  “No, angel. I’m not mad about that. I wish you’d have just told me that at the house. I’m sorry I lost my temper with you. I thought you were hiding something more serious, something that could turn deadly for me and the club.”

  I leaned my cheek against his chest and wrapped my arms around his waist. I hadn’t liked him being angry with me. Plenty of people had lost their tempers with me before; knowing I’d made Bull mad at me hurt more than I’d thought possible.

  “Why don’t we back up a little?” the gray-haired man said. “What men?”

  Bull turned and took my hand, leading me over to the table. He righted his chair, then sat and pulled me down onto his lap.

  “Darian, this is my President, Torch, and the VP, Venom. Neither of them will hurt you.”

  “What men?” Torch asked again.

  “A guy I was seeing brought me here from Georgia. He told me we were going to a party, but when I got here, I found out I was the entertainment.” I told them exactly what I’d heard and about running into the night with no direction. My cheeks flushed when I talked about Bull taking me to his home, but I didn’t think it was any of their business what happened after that.

  “Who was guarding the gate last night?” Venom asked.

  “Johnny,” Bull answered.

  “We’ll have to find out if anyone came here looking for her.” Venom swung his gaze my way. “Who at home is going to miss you? How much time do we have before the authorities are alerted that you’re a missing person?”

  “No one,” I said softly. “No one will miss me.”

  “Friends? Family?” Torch asked.

  “I don’t have any,” I admitted. Shame burned through me, having to tell these powerful men that I had nothing and no one to return to.

  “Darian,” Bull said, his voice pitched low. “Honey, where do you live in Georgia? You have to have someone in your life.”

  “I’m just a waitress at a diner. My boss lets me rent the studio apartment upstairs for a few hundred a month. I don’t even own the furniture there, just a backpack full of clothes and some books I got at a sale the library was having,” I said.

  Bull’s arms tightened around my waist.

  “How did you meet the guy you came here with?” Venom asked.

  “He was a customer at the diner. He had flirted with me when he’d come in, and one day he asked me out. We went on a few dates, but he kept pressuring me to have sex, and I recently confided that I was a virgin and that’s why I was holding out. I thought he understood, but he just wanted to use me.”

  “Do you need to call your boss?” Torch asked.

  “I had yesterday and today off, but if I’m not there for my shift tomorrow, he’ll assume I skipped out and replace me. Turnover is pretty high at the diner. I didn’t have much in the apartment to lose, but it was everything I owned.”

  Bull nuzzled the side of my neck. “I’ll take you shopping for some new things. Angel, why did you have so little?”

  My cheeks flushed again. “I was a foster kid, and I never finished high school. Most places I applied never even called for an interview, so it was hard to find a job sometimes. There would be weeks or months that I wouldn’t have a place to stay, which meant going to the shelters. People steal stuff there all the time, so what little I had was taken from me.”

  Venom looked from me to Bull, then back again. “How old are you, Darian?”

  “Twenty-one.”

  Venom raised a brow at Bull, who growled softly.

  “Shut it,” Bull said. “I knew when you found out her age that I’d never hear the fucking end of it. I’m sorry I gave you such a hard time about Ridley. You’ve spent the last three years proving that I was wrong. She adores you.”

  Venom smirked. “We make cute babies too.”

  Bull snorted. “Like I’m going to say my grandkids are ugly regardless of who the daddy is?”

  “So, what’s the deal, Bull?” Torch asked. “Are you requesting a property patch?”

  “Property patch?” I asked. What the hell was that?

  “We haven’t had the full talk about how things are with a MC, even though I did tell her I’m part of one. She didn’t know where she was or who we are,” Bull said. “We didn’t have the discussion about old ladies.”

  “Old ladies?” I asked.

  “It’s just a term,” Torch said. “Doesn’t mean the women are actually old. It’s what we call the women in our lives, the ones we claim.”

  My brow furrowed. “But you referred to your wife earlier.”

  Torch smiled a little. “That’s because I married the woman I claimed as my old lady. Took me three years to get her here to do it, though.”

  “And you’re married to Bull’s daughter?” I asked Venom.

  Both his eyebrows went up.

  “Um, no,” he said.

  “But you have kids together? And you didn’t think
she’d want to marry you?” I asked.

  Bull chuckled a little. “Yes, Venom, don’t you think my daughter, the mother of your children, might want a ring on her finger?”

  “Fuck you,” Venom growled at Bull. “Ridley’s perfectly content as an old lady and doesn’t need a fucking ring to know that I love her.”

  Torch pointed to the leather vest he was wearing. “This is called a cut. The patch on my chest shows I’m the president of the club, and our logo is on the back with Dixie Reapers across the top and a rocker on the bottom that says where our chapter is from. Our women receive a cut that has Property of and whoever they belong to on the bottom rocker on the back, as well as a smaller property patch on the front.”

  “And I’d have to wear that if he claimed me? Like all the time?” I asked.

  Torch smiled. “Isabella doesn’t wear hers unless she’s going beyond the gates or when she comes to the clubhouse. Although, when her pregnancy advanced, she had to leave it at home because it didn’t fit anymore.”

  “So, are you?” Venom asked. “Claiming her?”

  I turned wide eyes toward Bull, who was looking at me thoughtfully.

  “You don’t have to do that,” I told him. “Just because we slept together… I can still walk out of here, and you can go back to your life the way it was before.”

  “Is that what you want?” he asked. “Do you want to walk out of here and never see me again? Or do you want to stay?”

  I wanted to stay, more than anything, but there was still so much I didn’t understand about being part of a MC. Was I expected to act a certain way? Were there rituals or something I’d have to learn? It was like being part of a completely different world, and I didn’t know if I was strong enough to survive.

  Bull waited patiently for my answer, and I felt Torch and Venom watching me too. I really didn’t have anything to return to back home. My apartment was a joke, and I hadn’t lied about my meager possessions. If I didn’t go back, I wasn’t missing out on anything. But if I did… if I did return and I walked away from Bull, I had a feeling I would regret it for the rest of my life.

  “Not to try to force your decision,” Torch said. “But if the two of you slept together last night and you’re not on birth control, it’s possible you could be pregnant.”

  The breath stalled in my lungs as I thought about that a moment.

  “Would you be okay with that?” I asked Bull. “You already have a daughter and grandchildren. Do you want to start over again with a baby in the house? If it’s too much, if that isn’t something you want, then I’ll walk away, and you won’t ever have to hear from me again. I mean, there’s a chance I’m not even pregnant, but I don’t want you to feel cornered.”

  Bull gave me the most tender look ever before softly brushing his lips against mine. “Having a baby with you wouldn’t be a bad thing, Darian. Yes, I already have a grown daughter and two small granddaughters, but if you decide to stay, then I’d really like to have a family with you. I didn’t get to do things the right way with Ridley, but I’d make sure any kids we had would have both their parents and would know they were loved.”

  “Ridley always knew you loved her,” Venom said. “It’s why she came here when she was in trouble.”

  “Yeah, but I made a lot of mistakes,” Bull said. “I can’t claim any part of raising Ridley. It’s a miracle her mother didn’t fuck her up.”

  I winced. “No love lost between you?”

  Bull snorted. “No. I fucking hated her mother, and that bitch did everything she could to keep Ridley from me, even moved to another damn state. Then she tried to sell my fucking daughter.”

  My eyes went wide. Obviously, there was a huge story there, and I wanted to hear it sometime. The rage I saw in Venom’s eyes said now wasn’t the right time. It was apparent that he loved Ridley and didn’t like the reminder of what had nearly happened to her.

  “So, are you staying?” Torch asked.

  “I’ll stay,” I said looking at Bull. “If that’s really what you want.”

  He stared at me thoughtfully. “Before, when you said no one had ever wanted you… you meant as in ever, didn’t you? Not even your parents?”

  I slowly shook my head. No, no one had ever wanted me.

  “I want you,” he said softly. “I want you to be mine, but I’m not an easy man to live with. This life can sometimes be hard, and it can be dangerous, but I will protect you with my life.”

  “We need to figure out what happened to the men looking for her,” Venom said. “They could be a problem.”

  “You write down any names you know or remember hearing,” Torch said, sliding a pad and pen over to me. “I’ll have Wire see if he can find anything on these assholes, and we’ll handle it.”

  I only knew my supposed boyfriend’s name but as I struggled to think about last night, I realized I’d heard mention of two others, at least their first names, so I wrote them down too. I didn’t remember the street the house had been on, but I did recall the house number and jotted that down, along with a description of the decrepit structure. I didn’t know if anything I gave them would help in the slightest, but it was nice to know they wanted to find the guys who had wanted to hurt me.

  “Are we done?” Bull asked.

  Torch nodded. “I’ll order the property patch for her. You know Isabella and Ridley are going to want to meet her. Isabella just turned twenty-one a few months ago, and Ridley’s only two years older. I’m sure they’ll have a lot to talk about.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” Bull muttered.

  Venom smirked at him, and Bull flipped him off.

  “If I’m staying, I’ll need to get a few things,” I said. “I had to borrow your hairbrush this morning, and I brushed my teeth with my finger. A change of clothes would be nice too.”

  Bull kissed my cheek. “We’ll go out and get everything you need.”

  “I don’t need a lot,” I assured him.

  “Angel, I’m going to take care of you. You don’t have to struggle anymore, all right? I’m not an overly rich man, but I have enough in the bank to make sure my woman has everything she needs.”

  “You’re actually a little richer than you thought,” Torch said. “Wire was depositing funds into everyone’s account this morning. That shipment we spoke about last week found a new home, and since you were a big part of gathering those items, you’re getting a decent chunk of change from it.”

  I didn’t think I wanted to know what they were talking about. He’d told me their hands weren’t exactly clean, and if something illegal was going on, I’d prefer to remain ignorant of the details. I’d never been in trouble with the law before, and I didn’t plan to start now.

  Bull tapped my hip and I stood up. He rose to his rather impressive height, then escorted me out of the room. I noticed he quickly bypassed the table with Isabella and Ridley and only stopped at the bar long enough to bark at the guy behind it that he needed the truck keys.

  “We aren’t taking your motorcycle?” I asked as he hustled me out the door.

  “Need room for your new things. I’ll take you for a ride soon, though.” He gave me a warm smile, then boosted me into the truck.

  I’d never been shopping before, not at a real store anyway, not even when I was in foster care. None of my foster parents had cared if my clothes fit properly, so I was both excited and a little anxious. What exactly would it be like to shop with a guy like Bull?

  Chapter Four

  Bull

  I couldn’t remember a time I’d ever gone shopping with a woman before. I’d never had the chance to take my daughter shopping since she’d been a tiny thing when her mother took her to Florida. When Ridley had come back into my life, she’d been fully grown and immediately attached herself to Venom. I’d never been married, never even had anyone steady in my life. I’d figured I would hate going from store to store, expecting to shell out a wad of cash to get the stuff Darian needed. Nope, not my woman. No, she wanted the 24
-hour store where you could get everything from food to shoes and gardening supplies. I don’t think she even looked at anything that cost more than twenty dollars, and I’d had to fight with her to even get that far. Hell, she hadn’t even wanted to come here. She’d wanted the damn thrift store.

  She put back a pair of jeans that I could tell she really loved, and I fought not to growl at her.

  “What’s wrong with those?” I asked.

  “They cost too much. I was serious, Bull. Just take me to the thrift store. I can find tons of stuff there for a fraction of the cost.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. I’d used the app on my phone to check my bank account before we’d even come through the front door of the store. Torch had not only paid me for the last shipment of guns, but he’d paid me very well. I could have easily taken her to some upscale stores, but the stubborn woman wouldn’t budge on the issue. So we’d compromised and were in this store.

  “Darian, if you like the jeans, buy the damn jeans. Hell, if you like them as much as I suspect you do, buy several pairs. You’re not going to put a dent in my bank account, sweetheart. I promise I can afford anything you want in this store.”

  She looked up at me with uncertainty in her eyes. I knew she wanted them, but I also knew from what she’d said earlier she wasn’t used to owning much of anything. It sounded like she’d had to fight for anything she’d had, and it hadn’t been much. I wanted to beat the hell out of the parents who had given her up, and I wasn’t too pleased with the foster parents who had let her drop out of school either. Not that I thought any less of her for not finishing high school, but I could tell from the way she’d said it that it bothered her. Just another way for her to feel inferior. While she had been rather bold last night, asking me to stay with her, I could tell that she was still insecure in some ways.

  A myriad of expressions crossed her face, and I moved in closer, placing my hand on her hip. Hope. Fear. Indecision. Vulnerability. Gently, I pressed my lips to hers in a soft, brief kiss. Nothing like I wanted to give her, but I didn’t want to be asked to leave the store either.