Porter’s eyebrows rose. “Shit, we need to take this to Chops.”
I pointed at him. “I don’t want him involved in this. Not until we have hard proof as to what we’re dealing with.”
Archer balked. “You want us to withhold something this big from our fucking president? Why?”
I scoffed. “He’s not my president.”
Porter narrowed his eyes. “You think Chops is involved somehow, don’t you?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. But I do know that something about this just doesn’t sit right. You guys might not see it that way because it’s been like this for you guys for a while now. Just now coming into it, though? With all of this information being tossed at me? And my presence essentially being erased from this place? Who do you think gave the command to have my room taken over? Who do you think gave the command to have my name spray-painted over?”
The two of them looked at each other before Porter sighed. “Fuck.”
Archer pinched the bridge of his nose. “God damn it.”
And just as the birds chirped outside, a door creaked open in the distance. The pitter patter of soft footsteps came down the hallway. I didn’t even need to turn around to see who it was. I knew damn good and well who it was.
“Can I go home now?” Raven asked softly.
I knew she wouldn’t like my answer, but it was the only one I had for her. “Not right now. It’s too dangerous.”
She snickered. “Am I at least allowed to leave? Or call work?”
I finally turned around to face her. “It probably isn’t for the best until you absolutely have to.”
Porter stood. “There are some leftovers that Brooks set aside for you last night if you’re hungry.”
Raven glared at him. “I want to leave. That’s what I want.”
I stood to my feet. “How about we go for a ride instead? Maybe get some coffee?”
Raven’s face softened as she looked up at me. “Sure, that’s a good start.”
I held out my arm toward the door. “Perfect. I’m pretty sure your coffee shop opens in a little bit. We can take the long way around. Guys?”
Archer waved his hand at me. “You two have fun.”
Porter chuckled. “Bring some coffee back for all of us, too. I think we’re out here.”
I nodded. “I’ll get a to-go jug or whatever and pick up some grounds at the shop.”
Then, I ushered Raven out the door as she ran her fingers through her hair. Trying to make herself look more presentable after a long night’s rest. She didn’t need any of that shit, though. Not the makeup, the fake nails, or the jewelry. She was just as beautiful now as the day I first laid eyes on her in that booth after Gage nudged me and pointed out his “conquest for the evening.”
What a tangled web we all wove together.
Thank fuck I didn’t change out of my clothes last night.
Fourteen
Raven
Riding on the back of Brooks’ bike and getting coffee passed like a daydream. One moment, I was clinging tightly to him, and the next moment I was walking into the coffee shop where Gage had proposed. This place had always been my favorite. I came here every morning for a large dirty chai tea latte and ended my day with a decaf caramel latte and a few desserts for after dinner.
At least, I used to come here all the time.
I hadn’t been in the place since Gage passed.
Nevertheless, Brooks made it as painless as possible. And I tried not to hold it against him that he brought me back to this place. He’d been locked up for a while, how the hell was he supposed to know that I hated this place?
“Raven! Long time no see. Guys! Raven’s back!”
Maggie, the barista that apparently still only worked mornings, rushed around from behind the cash register and came to give me a massive hug. I felt Brooks’ inquisitive eyes on me as she hugged me tightly, so I patted her back with as much feeling as I could muster. She rushed around behind the counter, whipping up my regular morning drink before fulfilling the rest of the order. Brooks got a large black coffee with sugar and a massive cardboard carafe of coffee for the rest of the guys. Then, he got seven bags of dark-roast coffee for the clubhouse before we set our sights back on the road ahead of us.
Only, we took the long way around again.
And found ourselves paused at a scenic overlook.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
My arm twitched around his waist as I sighed. “I didn’t want to seem rude.”
He snickered. “You could’ve told me you didn’t go there anymore. I would’ve understood.”
“I just wasn't ready to answer the questions I’d knew you’d have.”
“Since when have I ever bombarded you with questions when it wasn’t appropriate?”
He had a good point. “Anyway, I haven’t been there in a couple of years now.”
“Wanna talk about it?”
I shrugged. “Just hurts too much.”
“I’ll remember that for next time.”
There’s going to be a next time?
My heart fluttered at the idea, but that fucking guilt swallowed it whole before I could enjoy it.
“I’m sorry for dragging you back into this mess,” Brooks murmured.
I pressed my cheek against his back. “It isn’t your fault. I feel like the blame completely lies with those Black Flag assholes.”
He chuckled. “And I can’t even be of any help right now because I’ve got no fucking clue why they’re already breathing down my throat.”
“Do you think they saw you out there? I mean as they were rushing off?”
He took a pull of his coffee. “I can only operate under the assumption that they did, yes. Which was foolish and reckless of me.”
I nuzzled softly against his leather-clad back. “It’s okay. I know this isn’t your fault.”
A long pause hung between us as the sun rose over the city behind us. We watched mindlessly as the waves lapped at the cliffside that plummeted to the sand before us, and it painted the most serene scene I’d taken in with my eyes in a long time. Gage loved the beach, and I hadn’t been able to bring myself to enjoy it was much as I once did.
But sitting here with Brooks helped with that.
“I’m so sorry about Gage,” he whispered.
I closed my eyes. “I don’t really—”
“I know you don’t want to talk about it,” he said. “But I do. You have to know how sorry I am.”
“It’s okay. We don’t need to—”
“It is my fault.”
I blinked. “Brooks, really we don’t need to talk about this.”
He slid off his bike and turned to face me. “We do though. I—he was—”
For the first time in my life, I watched Brooks’ eyes flood with tears. He blinked them back and quickly turned around, but they had already been seen. I eased myself off the bike, being careful not to expose myself in my dress, then I went and stood beside him as we both gazed out toward the watery horizon.
“How do you believe it was your fault?” I asked softly.
He sniffled. “I tried telling you all of this while I was in prison. The calls and the letters.”
I sighed. “That would be my fault. It all just hurt so much that I couldn’t take any of those. Or stomach reading any of those letters. And by the time I got around to reading them and responding, I wasn’t sure if you’d even want to take them.”
His eyes peeked down at me. “You wrote back?”
I scoffed. “I was too chicken-shit to ever send them off to you, but yeah. I have a response to every letter you wrote me locked away in a lockbox beneath my bed.”
I looked up at him and found that his tears had cleared. “I would’ve read them, you know. Happily.”
It was time for my eyes to water and I looked away. “Anyway, tell me how you believe this is your fault.”
“Hyde had called us in to help with a job. I never had the chance to check o
ut the job like I normally did. Everything was fucking shady from the start. And when the cops came Hyde panicked, making our situation even worse. Gage ran from the cops, and when he did that is when they fired. Raven, you have to believe me when I say that if I could have taken Gage’s place, I would have. I wish it was me that they killed, instead of him.”
My heart broke at his words. All these years, I had blamed Brooks for Gage’s death. But I realized now that Gage made his own choice. Brooks or the club didn’t force him to do anything. He made the decision to run when the cops arrived. I reached out for his hand to comfort him. “You need someone to blame, Brooks. I get that. But I know now that it wasn’t your fault. I know what happened that night. Gage ran from the cops that showed up when he shouldn’t have.”
His hand squeezed mine tightly. “I was the one that told Hyde to tell everyone to get the hell out of dodge.”
I sighed. “Because you were trying to save him from the cops before he showed up. But Gage was his own man. If they had him cornered, he needed to surrender. Not run off anyway.”
“I had no idea the cops would shoot, Raven. I’m so fucking sorry. All I ever wanted was to make sure you were happy, no matter what it took. All I ever wanted was to make sure Gage always came home to you so I could see you smile, even if the smile wasn’t for me. And I failed you. I failed the one promise I made to you when you married my best friend, and I refuse to fail my best friend now that he’s dead.”
I let go of the breath I had been holding. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it sounds like you loved me at one point.”
And when his eyes met mine, my suspicions were confirmed.
Which sent my heart leaping for joy.
“What if I am?” he asked.
I swallowed hard. “You mean what if you were?”
His face approached my own. “I said what I said.”
My breathing became ragged. “Brooks?”
“Raven.”
His lips hovered just beyond mine and I couldn’t take it anymore. “Kiss me, Brooks. Please.”
And that was exactly what he did.
Fifteen
Brooks
I claimed her lips as my own personal territory and the taste of her stabbed me in the gut. I knew what spit tasted like. And despite how people described it, spit just tasted like spit. This was different, though. This wasn’t just any spit from any woman. I enjoyed the taste of it.
The taste of her.
My hands gripped her hips, and I walked her back to my bike. I pressed her against it, bending her backward as her tits pressed against my chest. My tongue flooded her mouth as her lips swelled against our efforts. And as I raked my teeth across her plump lower lip, the soft whimper that fell from them stiffened my cock even harder.
And I growled at the sensation.
“Oh, Brooks,” she whispered.
I kissed down her neck. “Fucking hell, you taste amazing.”
I smelled her pussy as her juices gathered in her panties. I fisted the fabric of her dress, ripping it up over her thighs before my fingers fell between her legs. Her head fell back as she parted them for me, her sounds mounting as I rubbed that swollen little clit through her panties.
“Brooks, I-I-I—I need—”
I wrapped my hand around her throat. “Tell me what you need, beautiful.”
Her eyes lifted to meet my own. “To be filled.”
I ripped her up from my bike and spun her around. She squealed and yelped as my hand twisted into her hair. I bent her over my bike and threw her dress over her hips, groaning at this sight of her lovely peekaboo panties. Her ass cheeks were rounded like perfect little globes made just for my hands. And as I ran my free hand over them, I committed their map to memory.
Before pulling her panties off to the side.
“Brooks! Shit!”
I staked myself inside of her. “Good shit, you’re tight as fuck, Raven.”
“Oh, God. Please. Fuck me, Brooks. It’s been so damn long.”
I gritted my teeth together as I yanked her head back. She cried out my name for the wilderness as I pounded into her, listening to my bike squeak with our movements. Her ass cheeks bounced against my pelvis. Her juices leaked down my balls. My toes curled into my boots as I released her hair, wrapping my hand around her stomach.
Before I slipped my fingers beneath her panties.
“Oh, shit. Oh, fuck. Brooks. Brooks. Please, Brooks! I’m so close!”
I pressed my fingers against her clit. “Fuck yourself on me. Do it. Take what you want.”
She pressed her hands against the leather of my bike and fucked her body against my cock. I stood up and relished the scene as her pussy grabbed me tightly. The tension was too great. Her warmth was too much. And as my knees buckled, I caught myself against my bike and pressed my lips to the shell of her ear.
“Come with me, Raven,” I growled.
Her head fell back against my shoulder and I captured her lips. She unraveled against me, the pulsing of her pussy pulling me over the edge as I growled down the back of her throat. I swallowed her sounds. I rutted against her as my dick painted her walls. She collapsed against my bike, huffing and puffing as sweat dripped down the nape of my neck. And as I emptied myself into her, the smell of her womanhood wrapped around my head like a wild snake refusing to let me go.
Still, I stumbled back, watching as a trail of arousal connected the tip of my dick to her swollen entrance.
“Holy fuck,” I breathed.
She swallowed hard. “That was…”
I quickly stuffed myself back into my pants. “Guess that means no coffee for us.”
She giggled as she pointed to the puddle of coffee on the ground. “Too bad. I think we both could’ve used it.”
Her giggle made me chuckle, and before I knew it she was situating herself while laughing with me. I held onto her hand as she rearranged her dress and her underwear. Then, she tousled her hair to try and make it look like we hadn’t just fucked.
I just fucked my best friend’s wife.
“We should be getting back,” I said.
Her laughter ceased as quickly as it came on and Raven cleared her throat. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”
I threw my leg over my bike. “Come on. We’ll get another coffee for ourselves before we head back.”
She climbed behind me. “You think the coffee in the back’s already cold?”
I shrugged. “Don’t know, don’t care. Hold on.”
After running to get us coffee so the guys wouldn’t question what we were up to, we headed back to the clubhouse. And the second I walked through the doors with my coffee in one hand and the to-go container in the other, I was rushed by a bunch of weak-kneed, muscle-bound men who couldn’t function without caffeine.
“Here, here. Take it. I sure as hell don’t want it,” I grumbled.
I set it on the table as the men rushed it. And while they sucked down the glorious black substance, I saw Raven make her way back down the hallway. She peered over her shoulder, our eyes meeting for the first time since our sin, and I saw the sorrow in her eyes.
It matched the sorrow in my gut.
You fucking asshole.
Chops’ voice rose above the chaos. “Guess this is as good of a time as ever to call church!”
He clapped his hands as the guys lumbered over toward the couches and the recliners, flopping down to make themselves comfortable. My eyes trailed after Raven until she disappeared into the darkness, I guess making her way for my bedroom. So, I turned my attention to the guys and went to stand in the corner by the main window. Peeking outside and making sure we stayed safe during our meeting, like I had always done.
Then, Chops got creative. “So, I wanna run some of my new ideas past you guys and see what you all think. We won’t take any formal votes because these aren’t the kinds of things I need votes with, but I do want input from my guys.”
We all nodded in unison before Chops looked at me.
“I don’t know how much you’ve been told about things since you’ve been gone, but a few things have changed.”
I stuck my tongue into the inside of my cheek. “Yep. I figured as much.”
“So, you know we’ve been making money not just with the chop shop, but some wheeling and dealing on the side.”
I blinked. “Nope. Did not know that.”
“Wheeling” was a code word used in our area for running guns, and “dealing” was the unanimous word for peddling drugs. But had he just told me—straight to my face—that he had broken two of the biggest fucking rules of this club while I’d been locked up?
I looked out at the sea of faces of my men, but almost all of them couldn’t look me in the fucking eyes.
What the hell happened to my club? “I take it you’ve got better ideas now?”
Chops nodded. “Actually, yes. We’ve made a killing while you were locked up on the wheeling and dealing, but I know of a market that’s making its way into this area that we could really make bank on.”
Archer leaned forward. “High-end cars? You thinkin’ about takin’ things up a notch?”
Cole grinned. “It’s about damn time. Those puppies, especially when modded, sell for a fuck ton. And we’ve been getting a lot of whispers about having them on the streets now.”
Porter raised his hand. “I’ve got a couple of clients already lined up looking for some high-end tech in their high-end cars if that’s what we’re about to get into. They’ve practically been hounding me about it.”
But Chops simply shook his head. “No, no, no. That’s little time shit. This club is much better and has many more uses than what Hyde used to do.”
It took all I had not to lunge at this bastard when he mentioned that name. “So, what is it? Spit it out.”
Chops eyed me hotly. “Who’s in control of this meeting?”
Brooks (Dirty Misfits MC #1) Page 8
