by DD Prince
I didn’t know these people. I barely knew Rider. But, I did know that this was real pain I was seeing here. And that a young woman was dead, murdered after being violated. It was awful. Beyond awful. I effing hated those Wyld Jackals. Hated them.
A tall dark-haired and tattooed older biker lady moved to us and passed Rider a key. She kissed him on the cheek and reached over and squeezed my hand, and then she moved to Jojo and pulled her into a hug.
Rider tugged my hand and we walked inside the vast warehouse, through an open area with exposed rafters and then down a hallway that had drop ceilings. We went down a series of more hallways and then he unlocked a door, taking us into a small windowless bedroom with a double bed, a plain dresser, a smallish TV mounted up in a corner, a wooden chair, and a door that led to an adjoining bathroom. This felt like a dorm room. It felt a little bit claustrophobic. Not only because of the windowless status, but also because of that scene out there. And the two of us being alone in here.
At least behind these tall gates with all these bikers, maybe I was safe. Maybe. Until when, though?
Rider’s phone started ringing. He let go of my hand and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
“Yeah? Yeah. See ya in a minute.”
He dialed another number and then put the phone to his ear. “Deacon?” He gave me a ‘one second’ finger and stepped out of the room into the hall.
I sat on the bed and pulled my lips tight.
A few minutes later, he was back.
He let out a breath as he tossed that black suitcase and a Duffle bag of his to the floor.
His eyes were on me.
I rolled my eyes.
“What?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“Got somethin’ to say?”
“I might, if things weren’t what they are because of what happened this morning with your friend’s girlfriend. I might have a lot to say.”
“Feel free,” he invited, with a wave of his hand.
I shook my head, but glared at him. “No thanks. But, I reserve the right to save it for another time.”
He crouched in front of me, so we were eye level. “Say it.”
“Why are you introducing me that way?”
He smiled. “Because that’s how it is.”
“It isn’t.”
“Tell ya what. Try me on for size. We get through this, we’ll talk about whether it’s permanent.”
How dare he.
“You know, I was tryin’ to be cool with all you’re dealing with, but how fucking dare you!”
He laughed a little bit and there was a sparkle in his eyes. He advanced, and I was pinned under his body. The playfulness was gone and in its place, was a look as serious as a heart attack.
“I dare.”
I brought my knee up and almost got him square between the legs, but he deflected, spun me around, and then he had me pinned on my belly on the bed.
“Wanna wrestle?” he said, huskily in my ear.
I struggled.
“Fuck, forgot the cuffs,” he grumbled.
I looked up and there was no headboard to cuff me to. Thank God.
“Get off me.”
“Gonna have to get creative in makin’ you behave.”
“Get your hands off me,” I ordered.
There was a knock on the door.
He stopped a second, most of his weight still on me, and then his mouth was on my neck. He kissed it affectionately and got off.
Weird. As if that was all a joke. All a game. This guy was a mystery to me.
He stepped out into the hall. And I sat up and tried to catch my breath.
I was pulled from my dark thoughts as the door opened and I saw Rider had let Jojo in, but he stayed out there, talking on the phone. Brady walked by, carrying the purple suitcase and Marshmallow in her crate.
Jojo put the bagel bag down on the end of the bed. “I’m just a couple doors down. She reached in and pulled a bagel out.” I don’t think I can even eat. People know what I’m not allowed to know so I can’t be out there.” She rolled her eyes. “Gonna be a long day.”
I chewed my lip. “Come back and hang with me. Can we get a deck of cards or something?”
Rider entered the room.
“Good idea,” she said. “We need some playing cards, Ride. Maybe you oughta just tell me. Let me deal. Then I’m---”
“No,” his eyes cut to her. He’d been eyeing me.
“You do realize that this is fucking with my head. This is making things worse.”
“Jo---”
“Tell me, damn it!” she shoved him.
He barely moved an inch.
“Jet’s death is related. I know it. Explain. Please, Ride.”
Rider sat down on the wooden chair by the head of the bed and put his fingertips to his temples.
“I can’t take this back once it’s out. And it might be better that you hear this after the funeral. Dad, Spence, Deacon, and me…we’ve all agreed.”
“I wanna know what’s going on. Me. I’m not a kid, Ride. Don’t you see that this is torture? My mind is spinning. And if I know, I don’t have to be cooped up. I can be out there helping get things ready for tomorrow and keeping my mind busy.”
I felt like I shouldn’t be here for this conversation. This was private.
“I’ll just…” I pointed to the door.
“Stay.” Rider said.
“Then, maybe you two should just…” I pointed to the door.
Rider shook his head at me.
Awkward.
Rider looked to me. “What do you think? If you were her, knowing what you know, would it be better before or after the funeral?”
I looked at Jojo.
“Jenna, be honest. If you say right now that he shouldn’t tell me, I’ll let it go.”
“You don’t know me, Jojo. That’s a lot of stock you’re putting into someone you just met.”
“You’re a sister. A sister’ll know much better than a guy.”
I looked at Rider. “She’s gotta feel whatever she’s gonna feel. I get you don’t want her angry at him and then regret that later, and I haven’t been to many funerals, but funerals are supposed to bring closure. I think either way, it’s gonna be hard, but the sooner she can get started on working to coming to grips with everything, even the bad stuff, the better.”
He stared at me a beat and then nodded and looked to his sister. “You ever meet Kailey?”
Wow. I was a little thrown by his confidence in my opinion.
“Kailey?” Jojo asked.
“Blonde. Hangs out with Gia.”
“Gia’s stepsister. Yeah.”
“Gia’s what?” Rider asked, anger glittering in his eyes.
“Gia’s dad married her mom when they were kids. They split, but those two are still tight.”
He gave his head a shake. “Skinny bitch, long straight blonde hair. Beauty mark on her upper lip? Harley tramp stamp?”
“That’s her,” Jojo confirmed.
Didn’t know they were related. This changes Gia’s welcome status.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Kailey is an old lady to a Jackal.”
Jojo blinked.
“She fucked around with a few guys, took four at once, secretly taped it, hooked up with a Jackal who made her his old lady, then she presented the tape as a gang-rape. Incorrectly.”
Jojo’s mouth dropped open.
“First, we thought she was lyin’ because he heard rumors about her, that she was tryin’ to save face, sayin’ she was raped rather than admitting she was playin’ with four guys at once. But once the tape came out, it was obvious. It was staged. She set up four brothers to play a sex game. She recorded it without their knowledge. She presents a good case, because that’s how she staged it. It’s bullshit. It was a game. Not the first time that kind of game got played in the back room at Charlie’s. Not the first time she played it with brothers from our club. Jackals have come after us, using
it as retribution, tryin’ to get the other clubs on side with us to change teams.”
Jojo blinked a couple times. “How does that get misrepresented when it’s a tape?”
“It was a game. Role playing. Rough sex. She’d played it before and asked for it rougher.”
I sat there, my heart racing, my stomach churning with something vile and acidic.
“Which four brothers?” Jojo asked softly, tears forming in her already red eyes.
“Joelle…” Rider said gently.
“Who! I already know at least one, obviously Luke, but who else? Edge?”
“Yeah.”
“Who else?” she looked at me and then light dawned and her eyes cut back to Rider. “You?”
“And Scoot.” His eyes moved to the wall and his jaw muscles were flexing.
“That’s why Scott got beat up.” Jojo’s eyes were on her brother and they were haunted.
He nodded.
“When?” she asked.
Rider’s face contorted.
“When did you guys and Luke fuck her?” she demanded.
“Mid-July.”
She practically flew off the bed and was in the bathroom, door slamming hard. Rider closed his eyes.
Obviously, her relationship with Lick / Luke had already begun in July. We were now in early September.
Obviously, Edge had been with Jet at that time.
Scooter had been single. Rider: also single. But now Jojo wasn’t just coping with losing her secret boyfriend; she was also coping with the fact that he’d been cheating on her. In dirty drunken four-on-one gangbangs.
I shook my head, feeling anger rise. I was jiggling my legs, trying to keep a lid on all of it. That poor girl in there.
His phone made noise. He looked at the screen and then leaned forward on the chair and put his hand on my knee. “I hate to ask you this, but can you just hang tight here and keep her here if you can? Keep her company? I gotta hit church. Be back as soon as I can.”
“Huh?”
“I need to go to an urgent club meeting,” he clarified. “Stay in here. I’ll be back in a few. I know we got shit to work out, but don’t fan those flames.” He gestured toward the bathroom door.
“Go,” I snapped, jerking my leg to make his hand slip.
“Jenna…”
“Go, Rider. I have nothing to say right now.”
“Really?” he asked snidely.
“No. Not really. I actually have lots to say. But, I can’t say any of it, because right now, all that matters is your sister’s feelings. Don’t worry, I won’t make her feel worse. I don’t even think that’s possible.”
He tilted his head curiously at me.
“Go. I’ll take care of her.”
He looked a little frazzled. He ran his hands through his hair and then abruptly hooked a hand around the back of my neck and brought my head forward and touched his lips to my forehead. He just as abruptly let go and went to the bathroom door.
“Joelle, I’m headin’ to church. Stay with Jenna till I get back, okay?”
I heard a banging sound, like kicking the door, as a reply.
He turned and left the room, running his hand through his hair and shooting me what looked like an apologetic look.
And I sat there and tried to get my shit together. So, I could be supportive to a girl I’d just met whose heart went from crushed to completely annihilated.
There was a knock on the door. I got up and opened it.
Brady was there with Marshmallow. “Ride says Jo’s in here. I was waitin’ in her room. You want the cat, or should I drop her back in there?”
I reached out and took the carrying cage and the bag of cat accessories from him.
He gave me a tight smile and was gone, moving quickly down the long hallway.
I shut the door and put the crate on the bed and opened the door. She cautiously came out.
Not long later, Jojo cautiously came out, too.
“It’s just us,” I said, petting Marshmallow.
Jojo sat on the bed beside me.
“You okay?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. We got started in June.”
Shit.
“We’d only kissed a couple times by then, but…” she thrust her fingers into her hair and her chin started trembling.
And then she looked at me. “Emotionally, we were something. Were you and Ride seeing each other then? Is that why you’re havin’ a rough go of things?”
I shook my head. “No. We met the end of last month, I guess. We’ve only hooked up a couple times and his … is this weird?” I asked, ready to spare her the details.
“No. I can deal. I need to understand this, make sense of all of it. That might not even be possible, but go ahead…” she invited.
“I kind of crushed hard,” I said. “And he’s totally not my type. But, it was almost like something snapped into place. And I tried to play it cool, because I’ve been hurt, so I have my heart shrouded in Kevlar, and… and he stomped on it anyway. And now all this is happening and I’m apparently in danger. He’s trying to act like it’s not just about hooking up, but yet… things he’s saying don’t add up. I don’t think we’re on the same page and doubt we ever will be.”
I was not about to tell her that Rider told me I was bad in bed, so it made no sense to me that he was acting like he wanted to be in a relationship with me. I mean, why would he? He liked kinky rough sex and I guess I’m too tame in bed. Too selfish. Too materialistic. Too… me.
We spent the next few hours playing cards while she talked about her life, her family. She was solemn, but she was still good company. She had to have been dealing with all this the past few days and thought it wouldn’t be any easier with the bomb that just got dropped, I knew already it was easier than not knowing, than wondering. At least now she could try to move forward. Not wait for the funeral to be over and then have a whole new set of things to cope with.
Listening to her talk about her family, about her life, it wasn’t hard to conclude that the Valentines were held together with love that came from their dad and the club. Shelly didn’t sound like she was around much and when she was, she’d done things to make herself an outcast. Jojo was the baby of the family, but she took care of the house the way Shelly should’ve. When Shelly and Deke broke up, she started working at the bar that was the local hangout for the Wyld Jackals. This was after she’d already been suspected of cheating on Deke with one of them on top of a bunch of other drama including stepping out on Deke with one of the Dom members, too. She was a shitty wife, a shitty mother.
Jojo told me her parents fought like cats and dogs and that months back, her mother had told her she wasn’t even Deke’s daughter. She blurted this at a family dinner for Spencer’s birthday, causing a rip-roaring argument and it rocked the foundation of the world for all of them. A DNA test had revealed that Deke was, in fact, Jojo’s father, but significant damage was done to the whole family.
Jojo went on to tell me more about her brothers and how their family (minus their mother) had unconditional love, telling me that Deacon and Spence fought a lot and that Spencer was a dick to Deacon and yet Deacon always forgave him.
Spencer had demons and Jojo believed a lot stemmed from his issues with his mother. She’d abandoned him as a toddler on regular occasions and cast him aside when Jojo was born and was verbally abusive to him. He’d had rough teen years, and then had turned angry, often turning to booze and drugs.
She talked about Deacon’s history with women and I’d already heard a bit about it, but hearing more from Jojo as we played Gin Rummy, alternately giving affection to the little white purr machine, I felt sad for Deacon, hearing more about the story of his first girlfriend.
“How, then...” I started, feeling emotional, “could Rider be into that kind of scene, knowing what’d happened with Deacon?”
It made no sense to me.
She shook her head. “Rider is a live fast, ride hard and have fun guy. He avoi
ds drama. Hates it. He’s all about the fun. Always has been.”
Rider sounded like me in male form.
She went on. “He uses humor as a weapon against stress, against drama he can’t run from. When things go haywire he acts like it all rolls off his back. Things get crazy with the club. Maybe that’s how he blows off steam. He’d never hurt a girl on purpose.”
I made a face of disgust. But her characterization of him made sense. He’d been joking with me throughout all this. Was it his coping mechanism? Or did he really just not take much of anything too seriously?
She kept talking. “They all get liquored up and there are these girls that just stick around and wait. Like vultures. They’re either all over them or they wait until the brothers are drunk enough. Dressed slutty, wanting to be with them, willing to do whatever. Some of those girls think that’s the way in, the way to becoming an old lady, and they’re wrong. Some girls want to get high or got nowhere to go. Some are just party girls, hang-arounds. I’m friends with Gia. She’s a biker bunny. She’s always around during the club parties. She’s absolutely gorgeous, could be a model, but the way she found her way in means none of them would ever look at her as old lady material. And it’s sad, because she’s a great girl with a lot to give. And they’ll never see her as anything but a piece of ass.”
I shook my head.
“Gia’s been with all three of my brothers at least once. I think she fucks Spence occasionally. She’s probably been with every single guy under fifty in the club at one time or another. She’s broken. And they don’t see who she is. What she has to give.” She shook her head. “I keep telling her to go somewhere new. To find herself a decent guy. She’s convinced it’ll happen for her with our club eventually. She loves this club. But in the meantime, she’s lonely and she just takes whatever dregs she can get. That’s probably another reason why my brothers are so protective of me dating. They didn’t want me getting labelled biker bunny. That’s the way my dad explained it to me when I was sixteen and complaining my brothers wouldn’t let me date a biker.” She snickered bitterly.
“Daddy said that one day, if I set my sights on a brother, that brother shouldn’t have to worry I’d been with any of his brothers already. Daddy told me to date outside the club. Outside the life. But to keep my eyes peeled on club members in case any of them were worthy. I’ve never been attracted to a man who wasn’t in a leather cut, so I didn’t date outside the club. It’s weird. My father drilled into the boys to not ever get serious about club whores. That they were better than that. That comes from his bullshit with my mom, of course. She was a club whore and she got knocked up with Deacon and trapped Dad.” She shrugged. “But, I never got interested in any guy who doesn’t ride. Never. To me, they’re real men. They live by their rules. They go after what they want. They live large. We have a big awesome family that loves one another. We have a blast together. We’ll take a bullet for one another. It’s slightly dysfunctional in some ways, but aren’t all families?”
