by K. J. Dahlen
Chapter Three
Chloe
What the fuck? It was 4pm. I’d waited over two hours for Dino in this damn apartment. I’d asked the man to do one thing for me. One thing. How long did it take to pick up a few groceries from town? I’d done my bit and cleaned up the entire place… Three full trash bags later, the apartment was tidy and finally free from old papers and takeaway boxes.
I shrugged. Shaking my head in disappointment, I crossed the living room to the bathroom. I washed my hands in the sink and as did, I caught my reflection in the mirror. Geeze! I looked rough... my face haggard and forlorn from a lack of sleep, no exposure to the sun, and no access to makeup to conceal the evidence. On my body, I wore Jax’s shirt which was tucked into my own worn down jeans. My unwashed hair was swept tightly back into a ponytail.
Get yourself together. I turned off the tap and dried off my hands before I left the room.
I grabbed one of Dino’s clean towels and some clothes to take a shower. I washed, conditioned and brushed my hair, then dressed in a pair of clean underwear and one of Jax’s clean shirts. I needed to order a second bra and some mascara or something online, I felt naked without them.
I walked through the doorway into the living room again. My body was still hot from the tiny, and extremely humid, shower room. This apartment was getting my last nerve. What kind of bathroom had no ventilation? I was burning up, and flung myself down on the sofa to cool my body for a minute.
I lay there, eyes closed, while my thoughts spun out of control. What if one day, Jax and Dino didn’t come home? What if Jumper got Jax before Jax could get him? What if I never saw my mother again? I’d seen enough of the dark side of club life to last me a lifetime. But I was in love with Jax and he came as a package deal.
The dull clunking sound of a key turning a lock came from the front door and my heart jumped. My eyes shot open and fixed on the door. Rather than sprinting for the bedroom to get some jeans in case it was Dino, I froze in place. I could feel the thudding of my heart – it was going berserk in my chest. I’d been like this ever since I’d accidentally let Jumper into Jax’s apartment the day he kidnapped me. I wondered whether I would ever be able to answer the door myself again.
I told myself that the sound of the key in the lock could only be Dino or Jax. Even if it were them, I felt sure that if this was going to happen to me every fucking time they came home, I’d be dealing with some major health issues pretty soon. Every time I heard somebody by the door; neighbors, the postman, whomever, I would experience at least half a minute of my heart beating uncontrollably. This was followed by a flood of calm the instant I realized it wasn’t somebody trying to break in or Jax or Dino stepped through the door.
I was more than happy to be safe in the apartment rather than being unsafe outside of it. Even if it was driving me half mad. Still, the nearer it got to seven o clock each day, when darkness fell outside, the edgier I felt.
My deepest fears would kick in. As night would start to fall, I would imagine somebody hiding in the shadows of the parking lot, waiting for night to fall before they came to get me. Or worse, shoot me.
Relief overwhelmed my body as Jax stepped into the apartment and smiled at me without a word. I straightened immediately, letting out a deep exhale in relief.
He locked the door behind him and started to shake one arm out of his leather jacket. “Alright?” he asked. Jax’s face lit up in surprise at my near bare bottom half. He gave my body a once over with his eyes.
I could feel my depths throb for him as he did. Jax had a command over my body that I would never be able to regain control of. The hold he had over me was simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying.
He came right over to me with a devilish look in his eyes.
“Dino will be back any minute,” I stated.
He smirked and sat down on the sofa, dangerously close to me.
“How did your meeting go with Bruno? Have either of you managed to track down Jumper?” I asked, trying to sound all business while my body was having different ideas.
“Everything is going to be fine. We’ll get him,” Jax reassured me.
It was strange but my unease vanished around him. Moments like this would make me feel like the eleven year old kid I’d been when Jax and I first met…me, a terrified and untrusting young girl after losing my father and Jax, a seemingly fearless biker who always knew exactly what to say.
Jax leaned toward me and kissed my lips softly.
With no hesitation, I kissed him back. Our tongues soon danced in each other’s mouths as he leaned his body onto mine commanding more and more of it with his hand up my shirt ‒ but not in a rushed, crazy way. Instead, his fingers danced over my skin.
I shouldn’t have let him kiss me. When I did, I melted into him. I didn’t want to let him take me right now. But I was going to. I had no other choice than to surrender to my body’s desires. To his body’s desires too.
Keeping his eyes on mine Jax broke contact with my lips to pull off his clothes. The flare of intense desire we felt at that moment didn’t die when he pulled away. With anybody else, the moment would be disrupted, but with Jax it was enhanced. His eyes held an otherworldly power over me at that point. I know it sounds silly but they really were a glimmering color of emerald…gems that could enliven every nerve in my body. And they did. His eyes had a spark which could penetrate the pores of my skin and surge into my body through every cell until I felt him in my bones.
I lay there, recovering my breath from our kiss. My eyes broke free of his eyes to meet his bare chest. Though perfect in musculature, I was always reminded by the marks on his skin that there wasn’t a part of Jax that did not have a scar. Then there was the magnificent tat over his chest. I never could figure out all of its twists and turns of ink. Jax was as ripped and chiseled as you would expect from a man who’d lived a life of war as he had. The look of his body always made me imagine that somehow his muscles were protruding from under his skin like armor fighting back against year upon year of abuse.
Jax sunk his body down on top of me and kissed me again. This time, I could feel the bulge of his hard cock against me. The combination was the most amazing sensation. I could hardly move. I cried out softly, before he trailed his fingers down the side of my thigh…
ZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZ. His phone…
God, not now! I hoped he would carry on. My hopes were dashed when Jax let out several labored breaths into my ear before he tore his body away from mine and sat up on his knees. “Don’t move,” he whispered.
I don’t how many club laws Jax lived by, but there were many. Everything Jax had belonged to his club, his heart, his soul. Everything.
Jax was panting hard too, as he answered the call. “Bruno?” Less than a minute later, he hung up with, “Ok, I’ll let the boys know.” He dismounted my body and stood up typing on his phone.
I sat up, knowing our moment was over. “Everything ok? What’s that about?” I asked.
“Bruno. We’ve got a last minute meeting at the club in a couple of hours, that’s all. I’ll just be a moment. I’m not finished with you,” he lied – as I had learned in the past week, club business always took priority over our sex life.
“What’s the emergency?” I asked, casually.
“Don’t worry. Bruno has something planned and wants us to talk. I always knew he’d have trouble letting go.”
“Planned?”
“Bruno has one last job in mind… before he retires. It’s just how he is.”
“You mean he wants to go out with a bang, don’t you?”
Jax shrugged. “It’s all right. Don’t worry,” he repeated.
This statement made me even more suspicious of what Jax and Bruno could be up to. No way in hell was I going to let him shrug this one off. It wasn’t just my life that needed protecting right now, it was my mother’s too. Considering everything that had happened in the past ten days, I couldn’t believe that Jax was about to chase more trouble for himself ‒
even it were for Bruno. I understood he’d respected Bruno since he was seventeen years old. Jax loved the man, but I loved Jax. I felt like he was willing to gamble everything we had. Again.
“I don’t want to lie to you any more Chloe. If I know Bruno, this is going to be a big job. But it will mean we get Jumper killed before anymore shit can go down. That’s what you want. Isn’t it? We will kill two birds with one stone. Bruno gets his last big score so he retires happy, and killing Jumper in the process ‒ you will be safe. I need to do this Chloe. I need to do it for you and I need to do it for my club.”
I reasoned that perhaps Jax was right. I also knew I couldn’t keep living like a nervous wreck. Jumper’s threat on my life weighed so heavily on me that there was no room for anything else. My mind had returned to those thoughts with such tiresome regularity that I wanted to cry out, ‘Enough already, I get it!’ “Did he specify what exactly you are going to be doing?”
Jax hesitated. “No.”
I swallowed hard, looking directly into his eyes, and asked, “But you’ve agreed to this?”
“Of course, I did. It’s for Bruno.” At least, Jax had given me an honest answer.
Fuck. There was no stopping him. None.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I’m scared Jax.”
Jax took hold of both my hands, sliding his thumb over them to sooth me. It only half worked.
“God damn it Jax, you’re not even considering the consequences. Mom was talking to me about getting a job, maybe out of town, once I am safe from Jumper and the Bloods.” I stood up. “If I ever wanted to leave all this, would you come with me?”
Jax rubbed his jaw. “We’ve had this conversation before. I swore a vow of loyalty to my club and to you. To protect my brothers and to protect you. The Black Devils’ own Coronado in the outlaw world. I could never leave my club, Chloe. I’m not going to take any risks with your life. You trust me to protect you, don’t you?”
I didn’t speak. I let what he’d said settle in my mind. I trusted that Jax would make sure everything worked out. “If you want to protect me then you need to stay alive.”
I saw the moment the beast inside of Jax rose. “I promised I’d always be here for you. Here I fucking am and I’ll kill any possible threat to you or Sheila!”
‘I promise.’ Such easy words. So difficult to keep. Split between his club and his love for me and my mom.
Finally, with deep reluctance, I nodded in resignation.
There was an uncomfortably tense silence between us.
“You should go to your meeting,” I muttered.
Jax let out a frustrated sigh.
He asked me if I was ok. I lied and said I was.
“Be careful,” I cautioned my voice low.
I’m not sure why. It was only a meeting. Maybe it was because we’d been through hell and back the past week, and if there were any lessons to be learned it would be that things could always get worse. I had a dismal premonition that there would be more disasters to come. If we survived them, I only hoped that our relationship would survive too.
Jax gave me the look he always did when I would worry. He chuckled and gave me an uncompromising response, “I’ve been taking chances on my life for the last ten years. I’m a Black Devil, Chloe. It’s in my blood to survive.”
Chapter Four
Jaxson
Chloe’s words reverberated through my brain as I headed outside to my ride. It killed me to upset her and made me hate the man I was. I was very aware that she was now pissed as hell at me and scared shitless for what was to come.
I’d felt things for Chloe that I’d never felt before in my life. It was the reason I’d chosen her to be mine. In the past, the word ‘relationship’ wasn’t in my vocabulary. It wasn’t right to bring a girl into my dark world, but Chloe had known exactly what she was getting into when she gave herself to me. Myself, and her mother had given her enough warnings about bikers. Nonetheless, she still wanted me for what I was, and she was so damn beautiful, smart, and inspiring that I couldn’t resist her. What man could?
I wished I were back in the apartment with my girl. My body fused to hers, caressing and kissing her soft skin like I’d been doing before Bruno’s phone call. It was pure magic. I imagined taking her perfect body on the couch like an animal surrendering to its lusty desires. Raw. Wild. Uninhibited. Everything about Chloe was so fucking sexy I was desperate to have her body under mine again. Those eyes. Those Lips. Those tits. Everything about her was everything I wanted…Shit. I was hard as a fuckin’ rock just thinking about Chloe and I had to shut down those thoughts immediately.
After our small ‒ but very real ‒ blow up between us, who knew what the woman wanted? Judging by what Chloe had said, she didn’t know anymore either. Only I saw the way she looked at me. The obsessive, yearning look in her eyes told me her feelings for me were as out of her control as mine were for her. But happy ever after’s were rare exceptions in this life. My world wasn’t one of roses and sunshine. The tragic fate of her father should have taught her that. If Chloe had wanted a normal life, she should be sharing a bed with a fucking dentist. She would be safe, but bored out of her mind. Wouldn’t she? Where’s the thrill in an existence like that?
I refused to sugarcoat anything from then on. I decided that I’d be one hundred percent upfront with her about everything I was up to. I had to know whether she could handle this life or not, for the sake of her sanity and mine. It was a soul destroying thought but even though Chloe might hate me for it, as long as I was alive she would be safe ‒ whether she chose to stay with me or not.
I mounted my bike and drove east across Coronado to the clubhouse. Within a couple of minutes, I was lost in the ride. It was a big part of why I loved it so much. No matter how crazy the world had gone around you. No matter how fucked up your situation. Something spectacular happened to you on a motorcycle at ninety miles per hour. The world disappeared. The ride held you possessively. It owned you as much as you owned it. I’d go as far as to say it was the most silencing feeling that existed on earth. Chloe had told me that my bike was everything I was. Perhaps she was right. Dangerous. Rebellious. A misfit on the road, living its life while free from society’s rules.
It only took a quick quarter of an hour to reach the clubhouse. Sixty seconds before I pulled into the parking lot outside, I slowed just before the dirt track that led directly to the clubhouse. A white SUV with blacked out windows was parked up on the curb which made me suspicious. There were no houses or shops in this part of town. The road leading here was a most impassable and perilous looking place, full of potholes and water logged spots. For all I knew, Jumper could be inside, preparing to lay waste to everyone there. So, I thought it unwise to park up alongside it and tap on the opaque windows to check.
My black Harley rumbled to a stop outside the clubhouse. I’d seen that only Bruno’s bike was here. My eyes moved from the road to my wristwatch. I’d arrived early. There was still half an hour until the meeting. Taking my time, I made my way toward the front door, glancing over my left shoulder, with my right hand on my holster, for any sign of the occupants of that ominous looking SUV.
I pulled open the door and walked through the empty common room. Craning my head around the place, I spotted Bruno standing inside his office through the open blind of the interior window. His lips were moving as though he was talking to somebody, but how could that be possible? Did he have his phone on the desk on loud speaker? His eyes fixed on mine when he saw me nosing through the window.
I shot him a smile.
Bruno didn’t return my smile and his mouth stopped moving. Holding up one hand, he asked to be left alone for five minutes.
Knowing Bruno that meant he needed at least a half an hour.
Before I could nod in response, Bruno stalked toward the window and drew down the blinds.
Well, fuck this! I shoved one hand into my jacket pocket and pulled out my cigarettes as I walked back outside to have a smoke. I wo
uld probably have a long wait…
Thirty minutes later, my club brothers had started to arrive in ones and twos. Dino was one of the first to arrive and we went inside. Dino told me that Chloe had been in our bedroom all afternoon since he arrived home and she’d said she had no appetite for dinner. The girl was upset but at least I knew she was safe. It’s a harsh truth but there was no damn point in her liking or loving me unless I could keep her alive.
From the couch, I stared through the open door of the bike repairs section of the clubhouse at the meetings table we used for Church which was stored at the back of the room. After a little thought, I decided against asking some of my brothers to bring the table into the common room for this gathering. There were too many raw memories percolating in my mind from a week past.
Over the days that followed Antonio’s shooting, I’d told Spider to board up the windows in the place. No natural light beamed into the clubhouse during the day anymore. But keeping me and my brothers alive was the priority ‒ Jumper wouldn’t be sniping though any windows anytime soon.
By 7pm, everyone had arrived. I’d done a double take as I counted only nine other heads in the room. It made me wonder who I would choose to give a patch in the next few weeks to take Antonio’s place.
Bruno hadn’t emerged from the office and the blind was still shut. Finally, at ten past the hour, Bruno stepped into the common room and the bustling voices in the room quieted immediately. He placed himself at the back of the room in front of the bar on the far wall; probably so he could get a good look at us all, seeing as we were all seated in various spots around the main room.
Bruno gave me a nod before clearing his throat and starting to talk, “Now, I am sorry to call you boys in here so late but I have an exciting announcement. The Viper is going to be working with us on our next job!”
