by M. N. Forgy
“Yes?” I snap.
Turning where he stands, he faces me with a pale face. His blue eyes sharp, and angry.
“He’s here, isn’t he?”
My eyes bulge. I admit, I’m nervous for Zane, but then again knowing what I know about Zane, I’d say I should worry more about Bobby.
Not waiting for me to answer him, he pushes past me and throws my bedroom door open.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Bobby grabs Zane by the arm and throws him out of my bed.
Within seconds, Zane is back up throwing a fist at Bobby.
“Oh my God!” Clasping my face with both hands I watch, it’s all I can do. “You two stop!”
Bobby punches Zane in the eye, and Zane jumps on Bobby putting him in a headlock. Both of them falling into my dresser.
“You got any milk?”
Yelping, I turn and find Shadow mulling the contents of my fridge over. His dark hair spiked up, and his biceps showing from his cut off T-shirt. Milk? He’s worried about milk right now?
“Aren’t you going to do something?” I wave at the two kids wrestling in my room.
Shadow glances in the general direction of the chaos and slams my fridge shut.
“What the fuck did you two think was going to happen?” he snides in passing.
I scoff, purse my lips and look back at Zane now under Bobby getting punched.
Shadow grabs Bobby by the cut and pulls him off Zane.
“That’s enough!” he barks. Zane jumps up and delivers an uppercut to Bobby’s jaw the last second. The sound of skin and bone making me wince.
“I said enough!” Shadow screams in Zane’s face.
All three men stand in place staring at each other, their shoulders rising and falling. Zane’s eyebrow is bleeding, and Bobby’s lip is split. It’s a shit show.
Bobby glares in my direction, his eyes hooded with anger.
“Get your ass to the club. Now!” he demands, his grave tone has me nodding and not saying another word. I’m afraid if I do it will set either Zane or Bobby off for a match two. I already feel bad as it is that two men in my life are beating the crap out of each other over me.
Shadow slaps Zane upside the head. “You, with me now!” Shadow grasps Zane by the back of the neck and escorts him out of my room… in his underwear.
This is ridiculous, why can’t we be together, why is it such a big deal?
Because it’s too weird for our parents?
Well, it’s about to get a lot more uncomfortable for them.
8
Zane
Pulling up to the clubhouse I look for Bobby’s bike, he isn’t here yet. Which means, Addie isn’t here. Jerking my helmet off, I throw it to the ground and set my bike on its kickstand.
I’m beyond pissed. Nobody tells me who I can be with, and what to do. I don’t care if Bobby is a brother of the club or not. It’s not like Addie and I have not put a lot of thought into what we’re doing. Addie isn’t just any girl to me, and Bobby should know me enough to know that.
My dad pulls his bike in next to mine and cuts the engine, the scowl on his face causing me to glare back.
“What—”
“I need her,” I cut him off, the desperation in my voice making his face take on a softer look. It’s true. All I ever think about is Addie. When I’m with her, and without her. My dad gives me an awkward eye, but he doesn’t say anything else. He’s letting me explain. Finally.
“When I’m with Addie, I want to be a better person. When you met Mom, and she saved you… Addie saves me,” I try and explain, but the words just aren’t coming out right.
Dad scratches his dark hair and looks out at the club with a perplexed look on his face.
“Well, if she is what you say she is… you’re going to go through a lot of shit to get to keep her. Hope you’re ready for that.” He lifts his right shoulder before climbing off his bike.
“I am.” I nod, confident that I would go through hell for Addie.
Just then, Bobby pulls in with Addie on the back of his bike. Addie is angry, I can see it in her flushed cheeks and heavy eyes.
* * *
Climbing off the back of her dad’s bike they continue to argue with each other. Losing her temper, she shoves Bobby, causing herself to slip out of her flip-flops.
Jogging up to them, I jump in between before things escalate any further.
“You better get out of my face!” Bobby points at me, his nose inches from mine.
“I’m just looking out for her,” I reply casually, trying to keep my calm. But inside I’m anything but calm.
“You don’t need to do that. It’s not your place!” he snaps back.
“It’s always been my place!” I holler, and Bobby takes a swing at me.
I duck and then charge him, grappling him by the mid-section and taking him to the concrete.
“For fuck’s sake. Stop it!” Addie screams. Bobby wraps his arm around my neck and squeezes, so I jab my knee into his gut.
“You don’t deserve her. She needs better,” Bobby grunts in my hold.
“You don’t think I fucking know that?”
A gunshot echoes into the air causing Bobby and me to pull apart.
“What the fuck is going on out here?” Grandpa Bull demands.
Falling over on my ass I stare up at him with a deathly glare. He’s shirtless, only a pair of dark jeans on and his cut. His hand raised in the air with his gun in his palm.
I hadn’t realized we gained an audience either, all the brothers and Ol’ Ladies are surrounding us.
* * *
“This little prick is fucking my daughter behind my back. He broke law!” Bobby tries to kick me like a damn child.
“Zane?” Bull tilts his head to the side.
“I—”
“Zane, don’t,” Addie begs me, and I shut my mouth. I don’t need to verbalize what Addie and I are doing in front of the whole club.
“Get your sorry asses inside the fucking club.” Bull jerks his thumb over his shoulder and we start to get up. My dad, Addie, and Bobby all pass by entering the club, but Bull stops me by a tight grip on my cut.
“You stay.”
“Fuck,” I mumble. We stand like that until everyone goes inside.
“You are a smart kid. You have a lot going for you as far as this club is concerned, but you’re also two shades of fucked up, boy.” My head draws downward, my grandpa knows my dark secret. “That being said, even the worst of us need to be cared for.” He pauses, and I rub the back of my neck. Do we?
“You care for her? Because if this is just about ass to you, you better tell me straight, son.”
Snapping my eyes to his, my nostrils flare.
“I have always cared for Addie.”
He smirks, taking me by the shoulder.
“I know you have. You remind me a lot of your dad when he met my daughter.” His face wrinkles as he thinks back to old times. I’ve heard the story over and over. Grandpa shot my dad for messing around with Mom. Breaking the club rules comes with consequences.
My eyes widen with the realization of what’s to come to me.
“Yep, you broke a rule, son. You may be my grandson, but that just means you are expected to abide by the rules even more.” He reads my mind.
“So you going to shoot me?” I shrug. I can take a bullet.
“Let’s go see, shall we?” he chuckles, taking me inside the club to a pissed off father.
* * *
Addie
Sitting at the bar, I chew on my nail nervously. It’s stuffy in here from all the bodies as everyone is still on lockdown, and my mom has been going off for the last thirty minutes about how stupid I am for not following rules and they’re there to protect me. I don’t listen. I’m just terrified of what ruling the brothers are going to come back with toward Zane. I never meant for him to get hurt, especially by the people he loves most. He and I are in this together, we both deserve what happens.
* * *
“So, you couldn’t keep your clam shut?” Delilah sits down on the stool next to me. Turning my head toward her, I mindlessly pick lint from my black dress. I knew she’d chime in, and this won’t be the last of it. I don’t hate her for it, she is club through and through and loves her brother.
“Wait, you knew about this?” My mother points her index finger between Delilah and me. Her blonde hair is perfect, her blouse unwrinkled, and I have to say trying to live up to her expectations is a life in its own. I admire her, I do, but I can’t be her.
Delilah snorts, her shorts sliding up her pale thighs, she pulls her jersey down in the back so her ass crack doesn’t show.
“This has been in the works for years, it wasn’t if it was going to happen, it was when.” Delilah’s aloof tone has me rolling my eyes. She’s so dramatic. I can’t wait until someone sweeps her off her feet one day so I can give her a hard time.
“You put Zane at risk, and this club last night,” she continues to scorn me as if I’m a child. I feel guilty enough about Thad and Zane, she doesn’t need to rub it in.
“I need a drink,” I tell myself more than anyone else around me. How can something so personal as me and Zane sleeping together be the topic of the motorcycle club?
“Oh my God, you guys are so old,” Piper cuts in, dramatically dropping her head onto her arm stretched out across the counter. “You made stupid rules, and stupid rules are meant to be broken. We grew up together, what the hell did you expect?” She directs her comments toward our parents.
“Piper, stay out of it,” her mother, Cherry, scorns from behind the bar, wiping the inside of glass cups.
“My boy knew what he was getting himself into. If he didn’t think Addie was worth it, he wouldn’t have done it.”
My head snaps behind me, Dani sits on the couch picking her nails. Her dark hair braided over her shoulder. She looks fierce in her black shirt and jeans. She’s the poster child of biker bitch.
Her eyes lift to mine, and I swallow the lump in my throat. I’m glad someone has our back.
“I just hope you’re prepared to be owned by a Kingsmen.” She raises a brow, calling Zane by his last name. Shadow and Zane are complicated men, anyone can see that, and I’m willing to bet being their woman is even more trouble. I only ask that Zane doesn’t break my heart.
Slowly, I nod and turn back around. I think I’m ready to be Zane’s lady.
“That means being his Ol’ Lady,” Delilah informs, and suddenly I’m aware I have no idea what that entails. Do I help him bury bodies, go on drug runs?
Shit.
9
Zane
Standing at the end of the table I can literally feel my dad and Bobby staring at me. Their glares matched with my own.
“Good luck son,” Lip whispers in my ear, his hand sliding across my back as he finds his seat at the table.
Grandfather Bull slams the gavel down, declaring the meeting in progress.
“So, we are here because Zane” —he gestures toward me— “has broken club law. He laid with a sister.”
I scowl, they make it sound so dirty. She’s not my sister.
“We knew this was going to happen with one of the kids,” my dad defends.
“No, we all came an agreement and made the law years ago!” Bobby shakes his head.
They all begin to argue, and I cross my arms.
Saint chuckles, grabbing my attention.
“Something funny?”
He crosses his arms, one hand rubbing his chin.
“Yeah, that you are about to die over pussy.” He holds his hands out, giving me a look. “Come on brother, you could have had any chick.”
“It’s not about getting ass,” I growl. I don’t expect him to understand.
“Mm, maybe you’re right.” I can tell he has something on his mind. “Maybe after you get your hand slapped it will lead the path to me take that sexy little ginger out.”
He’s talking about Piper.
“I’d threaten you, but I’m not worried. You can’t handle Piper.” I smirk, and he lifts his head like he accepts the challenge.
“Zane!” My grandfather’s voice has my eyes snapping to his.
“The decision has been made.” He slams the gavel, and everyone stands. It then occurs to me I have no fucking idea what is happening because Saint was yapping my ear off like a damn bitch.
Addie
The doors to the chapel finally open after an hour of us ladies sitting around. The men walk out, all of them carrying serious faces, and lifted shoulders. I’m assuming the meeting didn’t go well. I slide off the stool and run to Zane.
“What happened, what are they going to do?”
His jaw is clenched tightly, his eyes hooded and angry as he sweeps the area.
“Just, stay inside, yeah?”
My heart begins to beat faster, that can’t be good.
“No, I’m not going anywhere!” I refuse.
“Outside!” Bull hollers. Everyone congregates outside, including me.
Everyone circles Zane, and Bobby steps in front of him with a .45 in his left hand.
“You can’t be serious!” I cry out and push my way into the circle. “It was both of us, so shoot me too!”
“Addie!” my mother scorns, trying to pull me back.
“You stay out of this!” Bobby points to me.
“You broke the rule that was set forth from your brothers. You agreed to it when taking the responsibility of a prospect, and then defiled it with a blind eye,” Bobby preaches, and for the first time in forever, it hits me that club law is just as serious as the laws of civilians. “Let this be a lesson to anyone who wants to break the rules.” Bobby points his gun at Zane, and blood rushes to my ears, the sound of the crowd drowning out by my own fear. My hair flies in my face as I try and pull free of my mother, her tight grip on my arms making it impossible to get away. Zane stands there like a man, arms, out chin raised, ready to take his punishment, not a lick of fear to be seen.
Bobby cocks the gun, the sound echoing in my head like the sound of an arm breaking. I scream until my face feels like it’s about to burst, tears filling my eyes and blurring my vision. Bobby closes one eye to take aim, and adrenaline pumps through my veins so lethal I’m able to shove my mother off me and run to Zane.
Hugging him close, I close my eyes and wait for our punishment together.
Nothing happens.
Arms snake around me and Zane turns his back on Bobby. He pulls me close as if he’s a shield, and in that moment, I realize that I love this man so much I would risk my own well-being to be with him.
I guess that’s how it’s always been.
Things changed for me and Zane, and I gave him my heart without knowing that I never really got it back.
“Can I keep you?” he whispers into my ear, and a tear falls down my cheek.
“Yes,” I mutter.
A shot fires and the crowd goes quiet, but nothing happens. Zane doesn’t tense as if he’s been hurt, and I don’t feel anything either.
Until I do. Burning hollow pain shoots through my torso.
“What the fuck Bobby!” my mother screams hysterically.
“I didn’t, I mean?” Bobby stutters, lowering his gun.
“You asshole!” My mother slaps Bobby.
“Babe, think of the baby!” Bobby tries to calm my mom down and it hits me that Bobby just revealed my mom is pregnant! My side feels wet, and the familiar burning feeling rushes to one point. Zane falls to his knees, pushing my dress up to inspect the source of the blood. My eyes fall to the red swollen flesh. I was shot.
My dad shot me.
10
Zane
Everything is red, and I don’t mean that in the sense of Addie’s blood staining my fingers. I’m going to kill Bobby.
“I shot it in the air, I didn’t—”
“It fucking ricocheted you, dumb fuck!” I shove him hard, and his face blossoms with a shade of red. He presses the gun to my ches
t, his nostrils flaring.
“I should have fucking shot you when I had the chance!”
“Yeah well, you better of make it count, fucker!” I stand up to him, ready to do whatever it means to protect Addie.
“You two shut the fuck up and help me get her inside!” Doc demands. Shit. Turning to help Doc I feel like an asshole. My girl is hurt and I’m here fighting her father.
Turning my vindictive temper toward Bobby off, I direct my attention toward my girl.
“You okay, baby?” I brush some hair from her sweaty face.
“Mmmhmm.” She smiles, and I can’t help the crooked grin that fits my face. She should be furious, slapping me or at least bitching at me and yet she’s strong.
“You’re my sunshine, you know that.” I caress her cheek, her own blood smudging her face.
The boys pick her up and rush her inside the club. Her mother yelling orders to everyone.
“Get me my bag. Get me some towels.”
Addie lays on top of the table in the chapel, and I hold her shaky hand.
Bobby glares at me from the other end of the table.
“Sweetheart, I am so sorry. I didn’t want to shoot either of you. I was just trying to make a point!” Bobby whispers to Addie, thinking I can’t hear him.
“You made a very stupid point!” Doc shoves him out of the way, she’s pissed, and she has every right to be.
“If you two would have just brought this to the table instead of hiding it—”
“Mom,” Addie interrupts. Her mother gives her a glance before closing her mouth and cleaning the wound.
“You’re pregnant?” Addie asks through the pain. Her eyes snap to Bobby’s before mine.
“Yeah, I am.” She smiles, and Addie smiles too.
“Ouch!” Addie hisses, her face scrunching up in pain.
I expand in the chest, my eyes darting between Addie and Doc.
