Inflamed: A Shadow Riders MC

by Kiki Leach

  "River." Jolene wrapped her hands around his shoulders and pulled him back toward her. "It's okay--"

  "No, it ain't okay," he said. "The shit I just walked in on with you two was every goddamn thing BUT bein' okay. This asshole picked you up from the goddamn side of the road when you were seven fuckin' teen years old. He gave us a place to live, let me work at the garage when I was old enough, gave money to that prick bastard Rodrigo for my fightin' lessons and let me patch into the club even when every other motherfucker said he shouldn't; 'specially Tiny, who's never been right with that shit and never fuckin' will be, despite knowin’ what the fuck I did to get in. All the shit he's done for us and I've always been grateful as fuck to have a place to lay my head at night instead of the goddamn streets or a fuckin' jail cell. But I'll be damned if I stand here and let you defend this piece of shit by tellin' me or anybody else who coulda easily walked in here on you two, that him puttin' his goddamn hands on you like that, and makin' you bruise up or worse is just a-o-fuckin'-kay. 'Cause it ain't."

  Wolf tilted his head and swallowed hard. "We were havin' a goddamn conversation--"

  "What's that shit they tell you in school? You talk with your mouth, not your goddamn hands. 'Specially when it comes to my mother, asshole."

  Wolf peeked over at Jolene again, despite her keeping her eyes turned from him. He refocused on River, whose eyes never left his face. "We'll deal with this shit later--" he shot back at her.

  "No,” said River, “I think we'll deal with this shit right the fuck now. One on one, man to fuckin’ man.”

  "You don't wanna test me right now, boy--"

  "I ain't your boy, asshole. I'm a grown ass, motherfuckin' man just like I fuckin’ told you I was."

  Wolf stared at him for a long time, and then he chuckled and eyed him from his head straight down to his goddamn feet. "Look whose balls finally fuckin’ dropped," he said. He grabbed an opened beer from the back counter and took a swig from it. “And all it took was thirty-eight goddamn years for it to happen.” He turned his eyes back to Jolene again, then with the beer in his hand, shook his head and stormed out of the kitchen.

  River spun back around to his mother and latched onto her arms. He looked down at the tiny scars and bruises forming on her skin and rattled his head in anger. "How many of those goddamn beers has he had today?”

  She ripped her arms from his hands and moved around him. "He doesn't have to be drunk to be such an asshole like that, River."

  "Bein an asshole is in his nature, I get that shit, but this was somethin' on another goddamn level entirely. What the fuck was this shit between you two about?" he growled.

  "Nothing."

  "You know, I ain't in the goddamn fuckin' mood to hear any more bullshit from you about where this asshole is concerned. 'Specially when I know the shit you told Mia about him while you two were at the goddamn park."

  "She shouldn't have said anything to you regarding what I said about him--"

  "I'm glad she fuckin' did. You been actin' funny as fuck lately when it comes to Verna, then you're talkin' about Wolf like he's got a goddamn tail between his legs, then I come in here to this shit with him puttin' his goddamn hands all over you like he owns you or some shit." River crossed his arms and stared. "Are you fuckin' him?"

  Jolene looked over at her son and pushed her brows together. "What the hell kind of question is that and who the hell do you think you are to ask me of it?"

  "It's a goddamn honest question and I'm not only your son, but the motherfucker who just saved your face from that asshole puttin' his FIST right into the goddamn side of it! Are you fuckin' him, mother, yes or fuckin' no?"

  "No," she replied, her voice stern, but shaky.

  “You ever fucked him?”

  She sniffed and lifted her head while keeping her eyes focused across the room. “Let the past stay just where the hell it is, River, in the past. Deeply, deeply in the past.”

  “Jesus. Christ.” Once he realized the truth, he wanted to throw his fist into the nearest goddamn wall. “So you fucked him, and this is the shit that’s been eatin’ at you and why you and Verna have been so goddamn fucked up over the years. Motherfuck, I shoulda seen this shit back then.”

  “You couldn’t have known--”

  “I fuckin’ shoulda.” He moved over to his mother and glared. “Why the fuck is he all up in your face now and grabbin’ all on you like that if this shit ain’t ongoin’ like you’re sayin’ it’s not?”

  “There are a lot of things that I’ve done in my life with certain people, River, him being one of them. Not all of those things need to be made aware of by you.”

  He clinched his teeth and balled his fists. “Well let me make you aware of this shit. I don’t give a fuck if you fucked him. Shit, I don’t give a fuck if you’re still fuckin’ him, but he better know this shit: He ever put his goddamn hands on you like that again, or in any fuckin’ way that I ever see with my own two goddamn eyes or anybody else’s that I choose to use in my place, and I’m puttin’ a fuckin’ bullet in him. Straight through to his goddamn temple and right through that goddamn thick as fuck skull, mother, and I will not fuckin’ miss.”

  "Alright, okay?" She anxiously turned back to her son and wiped her face of fallen tears. "Alright." She quickly shuffled past him and out of the kitchen, leaving him alone to ponder just what the hell his club, with that man still at the helm, was truly starting to become.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  River came storming out from the back of the club as if his hair had just been lit on fire with a set of ten matches, and rushed through the front of the place like a bat flying straight from hell before grabbing a beer from behind the bar and racing outside. My eyes darted around the room as soon as he was gone, and it seemed as if no one else aside from me and Blue, as the rest were all too wrapped up in themselves and each other, had even seen him storming through. When I saw Blue nod at me, I nodded back in acknowledgement before excusing myself from Candy and Miranda and heading outside.

  Seconds later, I found him right out front and sitting on the picnic table alone, smoking what smelled like a freshly lit joint while knocking back swig after swig of his beer and staring off into the distance. I folded my arms and leaned against the frame of the door just watching him before finally walking over and drawing a hand up and down the center of his back to let him know I was there. Slowly, he turned his head in my direction, and while moving his eyes up and down my body and locking his jaw tight, he threw his arm around my waist and pulled me into him. Even without saying a single word to me, I could feel the pain in his chest building back up inside of him, and God all I wanted was to stop it from spreading throughout every inch of him again. The minute he breathed me in, it felt as if he was a grenade, and I was the pin he needed to keep from completely exploding.

  I slinked my fingers up into his hair and practically sank into him as he turned his face toward me and leaned his head, exhaling across my skin and making me shiver. I brushed my other hand across his cheek and jawline and smiled softly to ease him as his brows tensed and he clinched his teeth. He brought his head down to kiss the center of my chest, then moved his mouth against my neck and rested it there for what felt like the length of a single heartbeat before parting his lips. The moment his soft tongue darted out to caress my skin, followed by his teeth which sank into me with such ease, a soft moan escaped me unwittingly. He slid it back and forth and tightened his arm around me and grunted. I pressed my body even further into his and he sank his fingers into the side of my stomach, slipping them up to the edge of my bra before dropping them back down to the rim of my shorts.

  I wrapped my other arm around his neck and before I could even ask him a question regarding his mother and Wolf, before I could even say anything to him regarding how and why I felt they both reacted in the way that they had upon leaving the kitchen at separate times, he wrapped his other hand around my thigh, just below my behind, and quickly, yet easily and gently, lifted me up from
the ground and dragged me on top of his lap. He shoved his face against my neck again and sucked my skin this time, right at the base of my pulse. I clawed my nails into him and exhaled as he rocked us back and forth against one another. Before him, before now and us, this was something that I never would've thought to do out in the open. Hell, even the thought of being with him in that bedroom was something that I once abhorred; but he was changing me, making me better, maybe worse, I didn't know. All I knew was that I could feel again, and I felt him; God, I felt him which was something that I hadn't been able to do or say in such a long, long time about anyone. Just, feel.

  "Fuck," he groaned in that gravely, husky voice that sent my heart shooting straight up to the center of my throat. "Aside from Maddie and my mother, you're the only piece of good I've ever had in my goddamn, worthless life."

  "It's not worthless," I told him. "Nothing about you is worthless, River." I swept the tip of my finger around the edge of his ear and grinned as the heat from him burned into me as it always seemed to. "It never was."

  He slightly pulled back and sighed. "Babe, you don't know the shit I've done over the years. What the fuck I did to get into this club..." He stopped to swallow. "You don't know the kinda goddamn, fucked up person I can really, truly fuckin’ be."

  "I know it. And I know that beneath all the shit you put out there that you can be a good person, that you are one. It's almost as if you go out of your way not to be a good person to protect your image, hide your truth from those you think could turn or use it against you, but I know who you are deep down. I've seen you with your mother, and I've seen you with your daughter and more importantly, I've seen you with my daughter. Yes, you've made mistakes, but those mistakes don't make you who you are as a man, and they don't lessen the man that you've become."

  "What the fuck kinda man have I become, babe?" he asked me.

  "One who's finally learned to accept that he's worthy of being loved by someone else, regardless of the shit he's done in the past, regardless of the shit he'll do in the future, regardless of who he'll do all of that shit to. Even if it's to me--"

  "No, babe. No." He shook his head and wrapped a hand around the back of my neck, keeping me steadily focused on him. "There's alota shit I may not know in my life, but the one thing I know is that I'll never do shit to you, fuckin' never."

  "Don't make a promise you can't keep, remember."

  "I ain't makin' a promise I can't keep, Mia, this shit's a goddamn motherfuckin' fact, babe." He dropped his hand down to my back, then moved up the other to press against me and slightly lowered himself even further to elevate me just a little bit higher on his lap. "Every goddamn bit of pain I ever had in my entire fuckin' life seems to go away with just one look at you, babe. Just a single fuckin' look. And every goddamn touch I get from you, other shit doesn't even fuckin' exist for me anymore. And every goddamn taste you give me..." He brought his hand back around and brushed it across and between my breasts, then leaned in to flutter his tongue between my lips. As my mouth dropped open, he slipped it inside to mingle with my own, but he didn't kiss me. He just... God, he just tasted me. "Every goddamn taste of you," he said again, pulling back, "of that sweet fuckin' tongue, and the entire fuckin' world just starts spinnin', and I don't ever fuckin' want it to stop."

  "It won't," I said. His other hand dipped to the small of my back and when I saw the look in his eyes, I knew exactly what he wanted from me. Again. "River." I almost felt guilty for sounding as if I wanted it just as much as he did, maybe even just a little bit more.

  "Nobody can see us out here, baby." He rocked himself against me, forcing me to feel his cock lengthen and press directly against my sex. I squirmed against him and he growled. "Shit, if you were wearin' one of those goddamn skirts, so fuckin' short with nothin' on underneath, I'd be right the fuck inside you again right now, makin' you come." He leaned forward and wrapped his teeth around the edge of my chin, slightly tugging until I moaned and flinched. When I dipped my head back, he released me, then growled again and slapped my ass. "Let's get you back inside."

  I tightened my arms around him and giggled in his ear as he lifted me up from the table and carried me across the lot. But before we could even get back through the door of the club, around twenty or so Harley's suddenly roared past the gates, screeching and crackling across the gravel as their wheels spun against it. River let me down to the ground as quickly as possible as they all pulled into a single file line in front of us before spreading out like an eagle's wings on either side, with ten on one side and nine on the other, leaving a single open space in the middle for one of them to roar up from the back of the line. He blasted past all of them like a bolt of lightning being struck down from the sky, only stopping just mere feet from River, who had almost immediately shoved me behind him as a way to keep me from seeing, or being seen. I grabbed onto his arms to keep from falling back, and he looked behind him and held me tighter to keep me from dropping straight to the ground.

  When the man in front of River, with his pale skin and awful black hair, stringy black goatee and eyebrows as bushy as uncut grass, cut the engine on his bike, he raised his leather clad hand, then made a fist, which forced the other bikers behind him to do the same. He removed his helmet and draped it across the edge of the handle, then gradually lowered his sunglasses to the tip of his nose. I felt River's grip tighten when the man peeked around him to try and get a good look at me. My eyes shot straight down to his cut, and on one side, embroidered with yellow letters read, Stark Bastards MC, MBC. On the other side, just above his pocket and much like the Shadow Riders, read 'President'."

  He ripped off his sunglasses, revealing a hard set of green eyes, and placed them on top of his head. Then he folded his hands one over the other, looked up at River and chuckled. "Well, well, well, motherfucker. Been a long, long, goddamn time but I see some shit's finally changed around here. For starters, the lot's bigger. And I see you've finally managed to switch your team colors on me," the man said in a voice much deeper than River's and Wolf's combined. "And you know I ain't talkin' 'bout the letters in that goddamn cut and jacket." He kicked the stand out on his bike and threw a leg over it to stand straight to his feet. When he got in River's face, they were around the same height and build, though River was slightly taller, at least by a few inches, and a hell of a lot more fit. "What's her name, brother?"

  "I ain't your brother, asshole," River shot back. "What the fuck are you even doin' here, Laz? The Shadow Riders got no goddamn business here with you or yours, and you got no goddamn good enough reason to be on this side of town again. Let alone, this side of the fence."

  "Actually, I got a damn good reason for it, VP. For bein' on both as a matter of fuckin’ fact, so that's where you're wrong," he replied in a mocking and disdainful tone. "See, my own goddamn VP heard there was a party goin' on here tonight, which there seems to be unless I'm goin' fuckin' crazy again, which is entirely fuckin' possible, but from the looks of, it ain't. We also heard that uh, Chino and the Dragons are in town for it too, yeah? That they're right inside at this very fuckin' moment, dancin' and fuckin' with their own bitches and maybe even a few others." He chuckled. "And let's see...hmm...." He pressed his finger to his chin and then snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah, we also heard that the reason they're here is 'cause they're lookin' to help you take down that motherfucker Ricky Fontaine and his crew for good. And that the shit all started 'cause of this bitch you're so goddamn unsuccessfully tryin' to hide behind you." He peeked over at me and winked. "Hey darlin'." He turned his eyes back to River and dropped his hands around his waist. "Any of this shit startin' to ring any goddamn bells for you, motherfucker?"

  Oh.

  Shit.

  River looked between every man on his bike, then turned back to Laz and sneered. "Where the fuck did you even hear all of this shit from, asshole?"

  "From Fontaine himself. Son of a bitch called up my Old Lady the other night while we were gettin' it in, askin' if she had a place that he
could stay for the time bein' since, if you recall correctly, they were fuckin' on the regular not long before he got locked up and she hooked up with me."

  He shook his head and snickered. "You still with Marlene. Jesus Christ."

  "Bitch's got every single one of my kids and another goddamn one on the way." He laughed. "Anyway, this asshole let it slip to her that you and the Lairs hooked up, and that you wanna take him down for good over some pussy and his kid." He bent forward and opened his arms wide and grinned. "We're all ears about hearin' just how you plan on actually makin' that shit happen."

  River released me from his grip and crossed his arms. "Are you shittin' me with this bullshit, motherfucker? You cut outta here just before we officially patch you in to start up your own goddamn club on the other side of town before eventually headin' off to Miami to expand your sector. Now you're comin' back here to seek our help so that you can be in on scrappin' Fontaine? For what, motherfucker? 'Cause you think he might get to your girl again? Or 'cause you're afraid he's already got her--?"

  Laz laughed aloud and jerked his broad shoulders. "Ain't that the same goddamn reason you're really lookin' to fry up this motherfucker, Riv? Sometimes a bitch just ain't a bitch, amirite, motherfucker?"

  River waited a moment and slightly bobbed his head. Then he spun around to me and stared straight into my eyes. "Do me a favor and get Blue," he said. "Send him out here for me and you stay inside. See if you can find my mother and make sure she's alright after that shit with Wolf."

  "Okay." As I raced back inside for Blue, who sprinted out the door as soon as I told him what the hell was up, I searched the club for Jolene, only to find her in what was once known as River's bedroom, and sitting on the bed with Wolf. "Oh." I couldn't tell if they had been engaged in much of anything despite the door being only slightly open, but from the flushed look on her face and the intense gaze in his eyes, I knew that whatever the hell it was, was something neither of them hadn't intended for me or anyone else to see much of. When I tried closing the door, Wolf hopped up from the bed, grabbed onto the knob and jerked it back. I stumbled inside and stared up at him. He glared down at me for a few seconds before glancing back at Jolene, but didn't say another word and quickly bolted not long after, leaving us in there alone. "He smells like a liquor cabinet if the bottles were left open." I dropped against the frame and crossed my arms while staring at her. Tears suddenly rolled from her eyes and down her cheeks, and I knew without her saying a single word about it exactly why. "And he's River's father, isn't he?" I asked her.