LEVI: Southside Skulls Motorcycle Club (Southside Skulls MC Romance Book 5)

by Jessie Cooke

  A small, silver, sporty-looking car sat sideways in the middle of the road. The front end was smashed, the windshield shattered, and the roof of it looked like something had sat down on top of it. Smoke poured from the engine and what was left of the rubber on the tires was still smoking. Beyond the car, in the dim light of the overhead streetlight, she could see more metal. It looked like what was left of a motorcycle, one that had been crushed and lost a lot of parts. Zoe wished that she had a phone so that she could call 911, but she’d long since hocked that to pay for the drugs. She looked around, desperate to find a payphone, but like dinosaurs, those were practically extinct. The street was deserted. It was three a.m., and they were in a part of town where they might lie there all night before anyone came along and noticed them. It was the part of town she’d picked so no one would bother her, but now she wished desperately that she hadn’t. She wanted to walk away. She almost wished that she was high so she could. But she was sober and her sober brain knew that she had to at least try to help.

  With her body shaking all over, she made her way to the car first. When she looked into the shattered windshield she felt her stomach turn and bile race up into her throat. The airbag had deployed, but the roof had crushed the skull of whoever had been driving. With her hand over her mouth, she stumbled backwards and almost ran. But her eyes were drawn once more to the motorcycle. What if someone was alive? How could she live with herself if she just walked away? She breathed in and out, deeply and slowly, the way they’d taught her to fight the panic attacks when she was at the rehab facility, and she started toward where the motorcycle lay on its side. She was almost there when she tripped over something on the dark street. A little cry of surprise escaped her mouth and she stumbled again, this time falling down onto her knees. She didn’t even feel the bits of pavement and glass as they cut into her flesh because her entire being was focused on what lay in front of her. It was a man lying face down in a pool of blood. His hair was long and gray and matted with blood and debris. He was wearing a leather vest that said “Defenders” on the patch and one of his legs was splayed out in an unnatural angle with a bone sticking through his thigh. Zoe used her hands to push herself away from him and when one of her hands connected with soft flesh, she screamed again.

  Zoe was scrambling to her feet when she heard a faint female voice. “Help.” When she turned toward the sound and looked down, she’d sealed her nightmares for the rest of her life. It was a girl, about her age, lying on her back. Her hair was stuck to her face in places, sealed there with the blood that seemed to be coming from the back of her skull. Her small body was cut, scraped, and bleeding all over. “Please.”

  “I…I don’t have a phone,” Zoe blubbered out. She was surprised to feel tears streaming down her face. She hadn’t cried in a very long time. “Do you have a phone?” The girl on the ground tried to say something, but Zoe couldn’t make it out. Knowing that she was wasting precious minutes, she dropped back down to her sore knees and said, “I’m going to put my hand in your pocket. I’m just looking for your phone, okay?” The girl was staring at her with wide, green eyes, but she didn’t respond. Nervously, Zoe slipped her hand down into the pocket of the girl’s jeans. She could feel money, or at least something paper there, but no phone. She did the same with the other pocket, and the feeling of something hard and rectangular sent relief rushing through her body. She pulled out the phone and looked back at the girl. Her eyes were fluttering like she was trying hard not to close them. “Hang on, okay? I’m calling for help.”

  As Zoe pressed in 911, the girl on the ground said, “Levi…,” sending blood rushing out through her lips with the word.

  “Don’t try to talk, okay?” The 911 operator came on and asked what her emergency was. Zoe told the operator where she was and what had happened, but when the operator asked for her name, she ended the call. “They’re coming,” she said, taking the girl’s limp hand in her own. The soft flesh was as cold as ice and what Zoe could see beneath the blood on the girl’s lips was blue. She wasn’t getting enough oxygen, but Zoe had no idea what to do to help her. “Just hang on. I won’t leave you.” For a second Zoe felt the girl’s hand tighten on her wrist. Once again, she said:

  “Levi.” And then her eyes closed as she sucked in a shaky, ragged breath. Zoe felt a tingle like an electric current racing up the arm the girl was holding onto, landing in her heart. Then the girl went limp and her chest stopped moving and Zoe knew that she was gone. The tears on Zoe’s face were so thick that it was hard for her to see. Her eyes were stinging and when she heard the sounds of the approaching sirens, she knew that she had to move. Dealing with the police wasn’t an option, for more than one reason. The biggest reason was that her grandfather was an important man in Memphis and the police would want to call him as soon as she gave them her name. She didn’t want him to see her the way she was…not yet. But knowing all that didn’t make it any easier for her to let go of the girl’s hand. The sound of her using her last breath to say Levi kept reverberating in her head.

  Zoe looked down at the phone in her right hand. Letting go of the girl, she pressed the screen and when it lit back up, she pulled up the girl’s contacts. It wasn’t hard to find Levi, since she had him named “Levi, my love.” Zoe grimaced as she pulled up the messages and typed in the address of where they were and simply said, “Come quick.” She dropped the phone down next to the girl then and with one last look at her pretty, now peaceful-looking face, she scurried back to her hiding spot and huddled in the corner until the noise out in front finally died down and the sun came up.

  The first thing Zoe did that morning was to find her dealer. She had one thing of value left that she’d been hanging onto and promising herself that she’d never sell for drugs. But she had to get that girl’s face out of her mind, and the sound of her voice asking for the man she loved out of her head. When the dealer held out the baggie, Zoe dug in her back pocket, only to realize there was a hole there and the silver pendant that her mother had bought her when she was just five years old was gone.

  3

  “Let’s have another drink.” Levi was slurring his words. He rarely got drunk, but he’d been feeling so good that one led to the other and then another, and now his tiny baby was holding him up.

  She giggled and said, “I think you’ve already had one too many. I need to get home, baby. I’m going to call a cab…”

  “No fucking way. Stay here and I’ll take you in the morning.”

  “I would love that, but I promised Casey I’d be ready by six and it’s already one-thirty. There’s no way we’ll be up in time to get me home by six if I stay.”

  Levi tried batting his eyelashes. He didn’t know what Krissy saw in his eyes, but she was always saying she loved them. He wasn’t above using them to get her to spend the night. “Please.”

  She laughed again. “No, and stop batting those eyes at me. You know that spending the night with you would always be my first choice, but I promised Casey and she needs my help.”

  He sighed. “I love that you’re so smart, right up until all that intelligence takes you away from me. First it’s college and now it’s helping people study for exams…”

  “Only a few more months of college, and Casey’s not just people. She took me in when I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and she’s the reason I met you.”

  “I love her,” he said with a grin.

  She smiled. “Me too, which is why I have to be home in time to help her. Her state boards are scheduled for three this afternoon. She could probably pass them without my help, but if it will help her anxiety to study at the last minute, that’s okay too.”

  He sighed again. “Fine, but you’re not taking a cab home. I don’t like that you live on the other side of Garden View to begin with, but I’m not sending you through there with a stranger.”

  “Baby, you can’t drive.”

  “I know. I wouldn’t put you on the back of a bike after I’ve been drinking. Dad’s sober.
I’ll ask him to take you.”

  “Oh no! It’s your mother’s birthday party. I don’t want to drag him away from it.”

  Levi laughed. “Trust me, you’ll be doing him a favor. Quitting the alcohol after his heart attack wasn’t hard for him at all, but damn if he isn’t a bear about the cigarettes. Every time someone lights one up, I swear, he growls. I’ll ask him to take you…right after…” He bent down and kissed her sweet lips. Krissy was up on her toes, kissing him back, with her arms around his neck and her breasts pressed up against his chest. He wanted to change his mind again and make her stay the night. He knew he could probably do it if he tried hard enough. But then she’d feel guilty about not helping her friend, and he hated to see her unhappy worse than anything else.

  When they broke the kiss, she asked him in a breathless voice, “Right after, what?”

  “Right after I make you scream.”

  She laughed. “Your parents and twenty of their closest friends, our friends, are in the next room. There will be no screaming.”

  “Okay, I’ll make you want to scream. I’ll give you something to bite down on…”

  “Levi.” She giggled. “The lock on your bedroom door doesn’t even work. What if someone walks in?” He rolled his eyes and then teetered sideways on his feet. The eye-roll motion made him dizzy. He’d really had way too much to drink. But he was still horny as fuck, and he wasn’t letting her go until he got to be inside that tight pussy, at least for a few minutes. He took her hand and she said, “Where are we going?”

  “Bathroom.”

  “Levi!”

  “The door locks and there are lots of towels for you to bite down on. Don’t you want me?” He batted his eyes at her again. That time it worked.

  “Always,” she said.

  He grinned. “Good, come on, before anyone misses us.” He herded her into the little bathroom and closed and locked the door. “Strip, baby.”

  With a smile on her face, Krissy started taking off her clothes. Levi unbuttoned his jeans and slid his hand down in the front of them. “Slower, sexy, I want to savor every inch of skin.”

  She blushed, but she slowed down, even doing a little swivel of her hips as she pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it at him. He watched with wide-eyed anticipation as she reached back and unhooked her bra. The sight of her huge tits and hard, dark nipples made his mouth water. He rubbed his now throbbing cock and watched her hands go to the button of her jeans. She unbuttoned and unzipped them and then slowly worked them down her thick, luscious thighs and knees before raising her leg and stepping out of one side of them and then the other. Lastly, she hooked her thumbs in the elastic of her rose-colored panties. “Wait. Turn around.” Her blush deepened before she turned her back on him and bent forward to slide the panties down. He watched as they slid over the firm cheeks of her smooth ass and as soon as she got them down to her ankles, he grabbed ahold of her hips and pressed his still clothed crotch into her. He held her there, grinding against her for several seconds, thinking that he might be able to come just like that…but he wouldn’t do that to her. He finally let go of her and stepped back to strip off his own clothes and add them to her pile. When he finished, he turned her around to face him and lifted her up. She put her legs around his waist and, holding her underneath her thighs, he turned then so that her back was against the bathroom door. He kissed her hard and then dipped down to get a taste of her nipples. God, he loved those tits. He licked and sucked until she moaned out his name. He knew it was partly because it felt good, but probably in part to get him to hurry up too. He looked up at her flushed face and grinned at her before reaching down to seek out her wet, hot opening and sliding her down on his waiting cock. She moaned loudly and let her head fall back into the door as he began to thrust in and out of her, using his hold on her legs to slide her up and down. Krissy put her hands on his shoulders and held onto him, so he let go with one hand and used it to find her clit and play with it. She was panting and moaning loudly and if anyone opened the bedroom door, they’d know what was going on in the bathroom. Levi didn’t care. He didn’t care if the whole fucking world knew he was pleasing his girl. Whatever made her feel good, that was all that mattered. He pumped in and out of her until he felt the tightening of her walls and heard her saying his name urgently. He took her clit between his fingers and pinched it, hard. She let out a little scream, but it was loud enough to vibrate off the walls of the small room, and he felt her gush all over him. He let go of her clit and held onto her again with his face pressed into hers until she caught her breath and the shaking of her legs had almost subsided. He lifted her off him and lowered her to her feet.

  “You okay, baby?”

  She nodded and smiled. “Better than okay.”

  He grinned. “Good, turn around. I need to come.” She turned to face the door and Levi entered her, not gently. She grunted and pressed her forearms and palms into the door. He began to pound into her, repeatedly, relentlessly. She felt so fucking good that sometimes he could hardly believe how lucky he was. He was thinking about that and the fact that she’d be finished with school soon and home all the time, just as his own orgasm slammed into him and took his breath away. He came so much that it was dripping down her thighs by the time he was finished. He held her against the door until he’d emptied every drop and then he turned her back around and as he kissed her sweet lips, he felt the cool steel of the pendant she wore around her neck, against his throat. When he pulled out of the kiss he let his eyes run over her one more time. She was gorgeous and the silver heart that hung down almost to her breasts looked sexy against her smooth skin. “I love you,” he finally said. “I’ll go get Dad ready to take you home while you clean up.”

  “I love you too,” she said, breathlessly. “I’m going to love you forever, even after I die.”

  “You’re never going to die,” he said, right before he heard his mother’s voice.

  “Levi, honey…wake up…” He pulled open his eyes and his mother was staring down at him. She looked so sad. She turned her head toward the bedroom door and said, “Did he take something?” She was standing right over him, but her voice sounded so far away. Who was she talking to?

  “Not that I know of,” the voice in the doorway said. It was Grant, one of his brothers from the club.

  “He looks out of it.”

  “He’s been sleeping, a lot.” That was Hashtag, his new friend from the Invaders. Hash and Zack had spent a lot of time with him since…Oh fuck! Krissy…and Dad…fuck!

  “Levi, look at me, honey. Are you okay? Are you awake? I need you to get up and get in the shower, okay?”

  Levi struggled to find his voice but finally said, “I don’t want to shower. Mom, please leave me alone.”

  Her big, brown eyes filled with tears as she said, “We have to get to the funeral parlor, Levi. Dad is being buried today.” One of the tears slid down her face and went straight to his heart. He was being so selfish. His mother had lost the love of her life too. He sat up in the bed and reached up to wipe the tear off his mother’s face.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. I’ll get ready right now.”

  She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.” He saw his friends and their worried faces in the doorway as she left and closed the door. He rolled to the side of the bed and sat up, fighting through the nausea he felt. He sat there for a few seconds with his head in his hands and thought about the dream. Something about it was not right…or at least different from the way that last night had really happened. It took a few minutes, but it finally came to him. He got up and went over to the hamper, digging out the pants he’d worn the day he went to the police station and collected his dad’s and Krissy’s things. They’d given him his dad’s wallet and phone and then Krissy’s phone. The police officer said they found it lying next to her. The screen was cracked across the photo she kept as her wallpaper…a photo of the two of them at Graceland, smiling from ear to ea
r. The officer told him that whoever called 911 had used her phone, but they didn’t think it was Krissy.

  “Why not?” Levi had asked. She’d sent him a text. Why wouldn’t she call 911?

  “Because…” The officer hesitated, but Levi kept staring at him until he finally said, “The M.E. believes that she was killed on impact.” Levi had gotten a chill that ran all the way down his spine. He looked down at the heart-shaped, silver pendant that had fallen out of the envelope with Krissy’s phone, and he picked it up. “We found that underneath the phone,” the officer said, sadly. Levi turned it in his hands. The back of it had an inscription that read, “Zoe Bennett, 2000. Love, Mama.” The inscription was well-worn, like someone spent a lot of time touching or rubbing it. He was about to tell the officer that it wasn’t Krissy’s, but as his fingers ran across the words he felt a sense of calm, like the one that used to come over him when he ran his fingers over the tattoo on his neck. He’d put it in his pocket and almost forgotten about it. He closed his eyes as he held it now and pictured Krissy that night. She was gloriously naked when he had her up against that bathroom door. He opened his eyes and looked down at the pendant. Why would she be wearing it in the dream?

  “Levi.” His mother tapped on the bedroom door.