Brooks (Dirty Misfits MC #1)

by Rylan, Savannah

  And no, one beer didn’t mean I was back down in my rabbit hole.

  “Damn Brooks, always blowing things out of proportion,” I murmured.

  With the push of my feet, I took off toward the clubhouse. I rolled through yellow lights and kicked it into gear so I wouldn’t get caught at any of Santa Cruz’s main intersections. Why? Well, because I didn’t want Chops punishing me for being two minutes late like fucking last time.

  Two minutes late, and I had to inventory and spit shine all of our fucking weapons every damn day for a week.

  I wasn’t sure what I expected from this church meeting, either. I mean, we all practically knew what Chops was up to. We weren’t sure how we felt about the recording Raven took, since things were still pretty vague. It gave us a hell of a lot of information to work with, but it also didn’t do a lot of incriminating. Sid--before Brooks blew him up--apparently had a way with talking around things. And while we could assume most of what--and who--he was talking about, that didn’t give us any traction with any of our police contacts to do anything about this shit.

  However, when I rolled up into the clubhouse, it seemed the party had started without me.

  “You’re a fucking lunatic!” Brooks roared.

  I saw Tanner trying to hold him back and I raced to his side as Chops fired back. “You don’t even know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  “Move,” I murmured.

  Tanner stepped off to the side and Brooks tried to charge Chops, but I wrapped my arms around him. I physically picked him up, turned him around, and pointed him toward the fridge when I set him down. And when he whipped around on me, his eyes as big and as bright as the fucking morning sun, I sighed.

  “Dude, cut that shit out. I haven’t even had coffee yet,” I hissed.

  Brooks wrinkled his nose. “I smell your party has started early, though.”

  I glared at him. “It’s just one beer, get off my damn back.”

  “Chops! No!” Cole exclaimed.

  I turned around and saw our President charging me. Well, not me, but Brooks. So, he might as well have been charging me. Brooks reached over my shoulder with his fist, ready to deck the guy as he got closer. But, I put my arms out and refused to let the two of them duke it out like this.

  “Why don’t you show me the kind of man you really are, huh?” Chops growled.

  Brooks snickered. “Don’t worry, your true colors will come shining through no matter what.”

  How much does Chops know about what we know?

  Chops turned around as I peeked at Brooks behind me. I shot him a look that told him to shut the fuck up, then I stepped off to the side. Chops’ eyes ran down my body before he turned his back on us, gazing out toward the rest of the crew.

  Who looked like they were two seconds away from imploding on themselves.

  “All right, this is gonna be quick so I want you to listen up: I don’t give a shit what the hell happened with those Black Flag fuckers this past weekend. Your job is to not make shit harder with them than we already have it. All right?”

  Brooks scoffed behind me. “What a crock of shit.”

  Chops whipped around. “What was that?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing. He was just talking to me.”

  Chops nodded slowly. “Well, why don’t you share with the rest of the class?”

  Brooks and Chops stared one another down and I honestly thought I was going to have to kill one of them to keep them from fighting each other. But, Brooks kept his composure and I was honestly proud of him.

  “What do you suggest we do then, Chops?” Brooks asked.

  Maybe a bit too harshly, but at least he asked.

  Chops chewed on the inside of his cheek. “I’m in the process of working with them to get new contracts for us to work on. You can’t deny that they’ve got a corner of the marketplace that we want.”

  Cole shook his head. “I thought we decided no prostitution, though.”

  Chops rolled his eyes. “Not that, you imbecile. Car parts.”

  I blinked. “Since when do the Black Flags deal with cars?”

  Chops looked at me with a dumbfounded look on his face. “Ever since they wanted to steal our territory. Didn’t you ever wonder why they wanted our zones in the first place?”

  Archer clicked his tongue. “It makes sense, but I haven’t heard of any deals they’ve been doing lately.”

  Chops turned his back to me to face him. “That’s because they aren’t stealing cars off the streets. They’ve tapped into the local mechanics shops. Chop yards. Shit like that. They’re undercutting our prices selling bullshit parts to our clients, and I don’t like it.”

  I shrugged. “We could just kill them.”

  Chops slowly turned back around and stared me dead in my eye. “Despite how Hyde ran things at one point, I don’t always want to resort to violence with shit like this. If we can do a deal with the Black Flags, we can negotiate keeping them out of our fucking territory and we can get them to stop undercutting us and stealing our damn clients.”

  Finn finally piped up for the first time since I’d gotten there. “I mean, you did bring up the idea of prostitution, so it’s not a far stretch to think that taking out an entire MC is okay.”

  The room fell silent and I thought Chops’ head was going to blow through the fucking roof. That prospect had some serious balls, and I liked that. I respected balls.

  It was the one thing Chops didn’t have.

  “He’s got a point,” Brooks said.

  I saw Chops turn his anger toward him and away from Finn, which I assumed was Brooks’ point. He’d always been the cavalier one. The one to put himself in harm’s way to save someone else’s ass. That was the kind of man that needed to be President of a crew like this. A crew like ours needed a President with a heart.

  Not a President without one.

  “Anyway,” Chops said as he turned back toward the other guys, “I’m meeting with the head of the Black Flags this afternoon to work out the basis of the deal. Once I have it, I’ll call another meeting and we can discuss it before moving forward.”

  Archer stepped into the circle. “Need some back-up?”

  Chops shook his head. “Nah, I got it this time. Maybe next time, though, if this starts to get heated.”

  Figures, fucking two-faced dickweed.

  After the church meeting came to a close, I stormed out of the clubhouse. I didn’t know what pissed me off more: the fact that Chops was openly advertising the fact that he was meeting up with the gang he was conspiring against us with, or the fact that he thought he could lie to us. He wasn’t meeting up with them about some fucking car parts and them undercutting our prices. Oh, no. I knew exactly what that slimy snake was up to.

  And I didn’t want to stand in the same zip code with him, much less the same room.

  I didn’t bother with my helmet as I threw my leg over my bike. I pulled my engraved flask out of the breast pocket of my leather jacket and took a swig from it. The whiskey burned going down and it made me shake my head, but damn it, the stuff woke me up.

  Then, I took off riding.

  The entire ride, though, I smelled that whiskey. Every time I exhaled, the scent slapped me in the face. And I didn’t get five miles into my stress-free ride before I pulled off to the side of the road. I felt grounded. I felt strong. I felt better than I had in a long time. Except that whiskey kept tempting me from my breast pocket and the smell on my own breath stirred needs within my gut that I knew I needed to steer clear of.

  That’s why you lost her.

  I closed my eyes and memories of Astrid bombarded my mind. Her strawberry blonde hair that curled up like wet beach hair. Her hazel eyes that sparkled with the colors of the forest in the moonlight. Her sloping curves, rounded with muscles underneath that she painstakingly kept up in the gym.

  “Damn it, I miss her,” I whispered.

  As my eyes opened, I thought back to how we first met. Astrid and I encountered one ano
ther when Brooks and myself were only prospects. And the first thing Brooks ever made me promise him in our years-long friendship was that I wouldn’t touch his sister.

  No matter what.

  And while I took that promise seriously, that didn’t stop me from staring. It didn’t stop me from dreaming about her at night. It didn’t stop me from growling her name every time I stroked my cock whenever it woke me up at night. She was a beautiful woman, inside and out. Intelligent, sassy, head-strong, stubborn as fuck, and gorgeous to boot. She was perfect in every way for me.

  Except for being Brooks’ sister.

  When he went off to prison, I took it upon myself to watch over her. To watch out for her and make sure she didn’t need anything. But, when she moved away from Santa Cruz altogether, I learned to bury my crush. And it wasn’t until later on during a visit I had with Brooks that I figured out my drinking was a massive no-no for her.

  Guess it reminded her of their mother, or some shit.

  Either way, I never could get her out of my head. I never could get her out of my dreams. And as I stared at the flask in my hand I had pulled out of my breast pocket, I uncapped the top and took another massive gulp.

  Maybe if I drank enough, it would drown out her memory for good.

  Want more? Porter is releasing on January 13th! Add it to Goodreads!

  More Books by Savannah Rylan

  Box Sets

  The Bad Disciples MC Box Set

  The Road Rebels MC Box Set

  Marked Skulls MC Box Set

  Dead Souls MC Box Set

  Dead Souls MC: Prospects Box Set

  Black Hornets MC Box Set

  The Lost Boys MC Box Set

  The Callaghan Mafia Box Set

  Series

  Link (Dragon Riders MC #1)

  Bowser (Dragon Riders MC #2)

  Ash (Dragon Riders MC #3)

  Knuckles (Dragon Riders MC #4)

  Sly (Dragon Riders MC #5)

  Declan (The Callaghan Mafia #1)

  Brody (The Callaghan Mafia #2)

  Gael (The Callaghan Mafia #3)

  Flynn (The Callaghan Mafia #4)

  Cage (Dead Souls MC: Prospects #1)

  Bear (Dead Souls MC: Prospects #2)

  Saint (Dead Souls MC: Prospects #3)

  Ryker (Dead Souls MC: Prospects #4)

  Toxin (Dead Souls MC: Prospects #5)

  Texas (The Lost Boys MC #1)

  Stone (The Lost Boys MC #2)

  Bronx (The Lost Boys MC #3)

  Notch (The Lost Boys MC #4)

  Jace (The Black Hornets MC #1)

  Maverick (The Black Hornets MC #2)

  Duke (The Black Hornets MC #3)

  Colt (The Black Hornets MC #4)

  Thor (The Black Hornets MC #5)

  Jagger (The Black Hornets MC #6)

  Knox (Dead Souls MC #1)

  Grave (Dead Souls MC #2)

  Brewer (Dead Souls MC #3)

  Rock (Dead Souls MC #4)

  Diesel (Deal Souls MC #5)

  Girth (Marked Skulls MC #1)

  Rodeo (Marked Skulls MC #2)

  Abe (Marked Skulls MC #3)

  Oz (Marked Skulls MC #4)

  Dash (Marked Skulls MC #5)

  Hawk (The Road Rebels MC #1)

  Talon (The Road Rebels MC #2)

  Snake (The Road Rebels MC #3)

  Fox (The Road Rebels MC #4)

  Gunner (The Bad Disciples MC #1)

  Hunter (The Bad Disciples MC #2)

  Tank (The Bad Disciples MC #3)

  Glock (The Bad Disciples MC #4)

  Marco (The Bad Disciples MC #5)

  About the Author

  Savannah Rylan is a romance writer that spends most of her time writing and reading with her cat, Gris. When not penning the next great American novel, (HA), you can find her on the beach with a drink in her hand or at the gym testing out some strange new position. Yoga, obviously. She lives in Southern California with her husband and Gris, the true love of her life.

  You can join her mailing list here!

  Check out her website!