Nash: Great Wolves MC

by Jayne Blue

Her eyes flashed and she fingered her key fob. She turned toward her car. “Maybe some other time. I’ve stayed too long already.”

  I closed the distance between us and stood so close she had to crane her neck to keep my gaze. My fingers itched to touch her. I knew I had no right. Hell, she’d just seen Darcy Miller rub herself all over me. Fucking Darcy. She was a straight-up biker banger. She’d been trying to work her way through my whole crew for months. Sure, I liked the attention, but I’d have to be pretty hard up to take Darcy up on her offer. I choked back the urge to explain all of that to Harper. But it seemed like she cared and for some reason, that bothered the shit out of me.

  “Well, I don’t want to keep you. But I’m glad you stopped by. It’s good to see you again, Harper. You class up the place. You always did.”

  There was something swirling inside this girl the closer I got to her, she got just the slightest tremor in her bottom lip. I really had to hold back the urge to kiss it away.

  “I really shouldn’t have come. I didn’t mean to pull you away from your bar. I’ve gotta go.”

  She turned and slid into her car. It was a shitty little red Honda. Her window was open and I leaned in as she turned the ignition.

  “Nice wheels,” I said, raising a brow. Anger flashed across her face and ignited more heat in me. Fuck. I shouldn’t let her affect me this much, but I couldn’t help it. This girl was trying to throw a wall up a mile high. “Is this what lawyers drive up north nowadays?”

  She white-knuckled the wheel and let out a breath. “I wouldn’t know,” she said, damn near spitting venom. What the hell was that about?

  “Harper?”

  She slammed the car into reverse and just about ran over my foot. I spread my hands wide and backed up. Shit, she was mad. I let out a low whistle and moved out of her way. I half think she would have mowed me down if I hadn’t. Was she that pissed about seeing me with Darcy Miller? I let out a breath, replaying the last time I’d seen her. Club violence had come so damn close to touching her and I’d said things I didn’t mean. I never thought I’d see her again. Was she still angry about it? A girl like her didn’t belong around me and she knew it.

  Harper didn’t give me the chance to ask. Her tires squealed as she tore out of the parking lot and took a left turn. I put my hands on my hips and shook my head. Then I almost drew down when I felt a hand slap my back.

  “What did you do to piss that one off?” King stood behind me and faked a punch when I whirled on him.

  I slugged him in the shoulder and shook my head. “Hell if I know.” Oh, I knew all right.

  “I saw her checking you out from one of the corner tables. I’ve seen her somewhere before. Did she used to work for us?”

  I hesitated. Something made me hold back. King couldn’t place her and that didn’t surprise me. All those years ago, I kept her to myself, not wanting a lot of questions from the guys. Enough time had passed, King and the others probably wouldn’t remember her at all. For now, I liked it that way. I didn’t want the questions or the ball busting. Finally, I shook my head. “Nope. She never worked for us.”

  “Hmm. Did you fuck her?”

  I let out a laugh and lied. “Nope. Don’t think I’ve ever seen her before.”

  King narrowed his eyes and looked back in the direction Harper left. He knew something was up, but didn’t call me on it. He shrugged. “Well, if you’re done with your little break, you think you could squeeze us into your busy schedule, Prez? The rest of the crew is waiting on you.”

  “Oh shit. Yeah.” I’d called a club meeting tonight. Seeing Harper made me lose my senses. That shit couldn’t happen, especially not now. I slapped King on the back again and we headed into the bar.

  When we walked through the front door, I gestured toward Luce. Luce was one of our most promising probies. He manned the bar while the rest of us went to the back to talk. Luce gave me a thumbs up and threw a towel over his shoulder. Between him and the rest of the probies and hangers-on, the bar was in good hands at least for the next hour. If anything went down, Luce knew to ask for help. I saw my old man sitting at the end of the bar and gave Luce a shrug. Paps Tillman still liked to think he ruled the roost. He was mostly bark and no bite these days and it made him feel good to stay at least near the action. I gave a signal to Luce not to overserve the old bastard. Luce gave me a quick wink then leaned down to refill the ice well.

  I followed King into the back room where the rest of my crew were already assembled around my round table. Some of the other Great Wolves charters questioned it, preferring their presidents to sit at the head. I told them I didn’t need a fucking rectangle to keep my boys in line and that usually shut them up. I took my seat and King sat on my right.

  Puck sat at my left. He, King, and I were the new guard. The first officers of the club since we’d finally shrugged off the one percenter shit we’d inherited from the past. Now we ran our club clean. Well, as clean as we could. It hadn’t been easy and we’d lost a few guys along the way, but now we made our money here at The Den, and through security contracts with a bunch of the local businesses. Sure, some people still thought it was a shakedown. It might seem that way, but participation was voluntary. Without my crew though, the drug trade up and down the Emerald Coast would basically tank the tourist economy. Everybody made out as far as I was concerned. Someday, I hoped we’d be able to expand into our own private security firm. We’d tried to start it a couple of times but hadn’t had the capital to do it the right way yet. I lost a good member, Chick Jarvis, over our last failed attempt.

  “We’re getting asses and elbows from the mayor’s office again,” Puck said. He had a stack of spreadsheets in front of him. Puck served as my sergeant-at-arms, second only to King as my VP. Puck tended to be better with diplomacy than either King or I was.

  “Fucking A,” King said. He ran a hand through his mass of dark hair. He wore it long past his shoulders. With his beard, he reminded me of a damn werewolf sometimes. “Don’t tell me he’s pulling our permits again.”

  Puck nodded. This was an ongoing stream of bullshit. We had plans to expand The Den so we could maximize profits the way some of the other GWMC charters had done throughout the country. Just last month, we had Sly Cullinan, the president of the Green Bluff, California charter out to share ideas. Those boys were practically millionaires now with the expansion they’d done. The boys in Lincolnshire, Ohio drew in up-and-coming bands. Scouts from major record labels even hung out there. One of the bands they discovered at the Lincolnshire Wolf Den had a top ten hit on the rock charts just last year.

  Murmurs rose around the table. We weren’t all on the same page about how to handle Mayor Dodge. Puck and Hammy thought they could put political pressure on him. King and I weren’t opposed to getting physical, but times were different. I couldn’t just pop off like this was the old days. Fuck. Sometimes I really missed the old days. I put up my hands to quiet the table.

  “Puck, give it to me straight. What do we need to do to make this guy happy? You tell me.”

  Puck shrugged and spread his hands over the table.

  “How much?” King said, slamming his fist. This got another round of grunts from the rest of the guys. Any bribe we paid was going to cut into everyone’s bottom line.

  Puck sat back in his chair. “If it were that easy, you don’t think I would have already closed that deal? This asshole doesn’t seem to want to play.”

  “Bullshit,” I said. “They all want to play. It’s just about hitting the right price. Where’d you leave it with him? Who are you talking to from his office?”

  “Deputy mayor,” Puck said.

  “That little fuck?” I said. “What’s his name? Mahoney? Baloney?”

  “Malone,” Puck answered. “Brad Malone. Little fuck is right. He’s like five foot two in lifts.”

  “You think he’s actually properly conveying your message to his boss?”

  “He says he is.”

  I hooked my hands behind my head.
“Well, I think I don’t believe him. I think this is going to take a stronger hand. No offense, Puck. I think I need to pay a visit to Mayor Dodge myself. Can you set that up?”

  “He doesn’t need to.” This came from Shakes clear at the other side of the table. Shakes was a transplant from our Liverpool charter. The only one who took more ribbing for their accent than me was Shakes. His road name was short for Shakespeare and he was a better fucking sport about it than I was too. Mine was short for Nashville. Paps and I moved here from Shotsville, Kentucky when I was fifteen. Our rat bastard of a past president called me Nashville just to get under my skin. It stuck. Then it grew on me.

  “What do you mean, Shakes?”

  “Mayor Dodge does some public outreach bullshit on Thursday mornings. He calls it Muffins with the Mayor. Anybody can just show up to his office and get a face to face.”

  “You have got to be shitting me,” Hammy said. The rest of the guys erupted in laughter. “What’s next, Pancakes with the Pussy?”

  “All right, all right,” I said, hitting the gavel against the table to get them to shut the hell up. Then I couldn’t help myself. “Is it bring your own muffin or does this douchebag actually feed the public?”

  This earned another round of laughter and off-color shit I can’t repeat.

  “I think you can just show up, Prez,” Shakes said, grinning wide.

  “Then I’ll do that. Lemme see if my powers of persuasion gets his attention. I’ll bring a fat stack of cash too.”

  “Dammit, this is gonna hurt,” Gordo said, echoing the concerns of the rest of the group.

  “I get it,” I said. “But you gotta spend money to make money. Let’s get this asshole on the same page and I promise you, we’re gonna have a much better year.”

  I got a slap on the back from Puck and we moved on to other business. We ended up talking until way past midnight. When we broke, I headed back into the bar. The place had all but cleared out and I gave a thumbs up to Luce. Shit, if I could make good on my promise to the rest of the guys, we might just be able to afford to patch Luce in. He sure as shit deserved it.

  We closed the place down and I drove back to the little white house I bought up Sun Coast Drive. It wasn’t much more than a shack right now, but it was beachfront and far enough away from the resorts. With the club expansion we dreamed of and some of the other side projects I had up my sleeve, I planned to build this into something special. And if I were really lucky, someday I’d have someone to share it with.

  I parked my bike under the carport and headed inside. Kicking off my boots, I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and sat out on the front porch to watch the tide come in.

  Harper was on my mind. I pulled out the faded picture I kept in my wallet and fingered the fraying edges. It was Harper on the morning she left. She was lying on the beach wearing a pink string bikini, shielding her eyes from the sun. She seemed surprised I remembered her tonight. Jesus. How could she ever think I could forget her? It only took three days, but that girl ruined me. I’d never met anyone like her before or since. And now she was back in town. Why? Thinking about her was a distraction I sure as hell didn’t need.

  Tossing the picture on the end table beside me, I leaned back in my chair and looked at the stars. Harper should have listened to me all those years ago. Leaving Emerald Point was the best decision she’d ever made even though it gutted me when she did. No. The last thing I needed was that sort of complication. She said it was a mistake for her to show up at the bar tonight. It sure as hell was. Except now that she had, I’d have to fight to get her out of my head all over again.

  Chapter Three

  Harper

  * * *

  The apartment was quiet when I finally got home. Tiptoeing through the foyer, I set my keys on the hall table and kicked off my shoes. It was late and I probably should have just gone to bed. I had an early morning at my new job and I needed to stay sharp. But my nerves were still frayed from seeing Nash tonight. I went to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of wine. As quietly as I could, I opened the sliding glass door and stepped out on the back porch. From here, I had a nice view of the courtyard connecting the other condos. It wasn’t exactly beachfront, but we had a few palm trees and tall grass that swayed hypnotically in the breeze. I sank into the winged wicker chair and put my feet up on its matching table.

  The wine heated my blood but so did the memory of Nash’s voice as he called my name. I didn’t think he’d remember me. I had to be nothing more than just a weekend conquest to him a million years ago. But then why did his eyes flash with fire when they focused on me?

  God. The only reason I even walked into The Wolf Den tonight was to rip off the Band-Aid quick. I’d spun my mind in so many ways wondering what would happen when I saw him again. Hell, never in a million years did I think I would end up back in Emerald Point. I’d left all of it behind except for one last thing. Now that I’d seen him, it didn’t seem to help one damn bit. It was all right there, just below the surface this whole time.

  Shutting my eyes, I exhaled and let my brain drift to the dangerous memory of all those years ago.

  * * *

  Six Years Earlier . . .

  “Harps? Harps!”

  My eyes snapped open as Lisa put her hand on my arm and shook me. “What?”

  Lisa stood with her hand on her hip. She reached up with her free hand and pulled a beer mug off one of the hooks above the bar. She handed it to me with a smirk on her face.

  “I see you drooling. Don’t say I’ve never done anything for you. You owe me for this. Big time.”

  There was no use pretending I didn’t know what she was talking about. But there was no use in her pretending that if we were keeping score, she owed me a hell of a lot more in the favor column. I raised a brow and took the beer mug from her. I pulled the tap and filled it.

  “Oh, come off it, Lisa. You wouldn’t even have this job if it wasn’t for me.” She scrunched up her face and stuck her tongue out at me. Then she slapped my rear end with a towel as she headed back to her tables in E Section.

  Lisa and I had just finished a year of community college in lower Michigan. We’d lived there our whole lives. Two months ago, a campus recruiter got my attention and told me about spending the summer in a paradise called Emerald Point, Florida. He offered me a chance to make enough money to pay for a whole year at a university, with just four months of work. That, plus the scholarship I’d applied for to U of M could change my life if I got it. Of course, if I’d known the offer meant slinging drinks and cheese sticks at The Pirate’s Cove wearing this skimpy outfit and getting groped, I might have given him a different answer. He’d been right about the money though. Plus, I’d never done anything on a whim before. Not ever. It was slightly irresponsible, half-baked, but so far fun as hell.

  Now I walked headlong into the favor Lisa just did for me. Heat flushed through me as I snuck a peek at table 13 again. Lisa wasn’t the only waitress drooling over them. Those boys might have a dangerous reputation around town, but they were easy as hell on the eyes and everyone said they always tipped at least fifty percent. My eyes fixed on the leader of the group. He was easy to spot because he commanded the conversation as well as the attention of every red-blooded straight female in the room. He wore black motorcycle boots, tight jeans, and a leather jacket with a logo on it even I knew meant trouble. He tied his dark blond hair back into a ponytail and had just enough ink over his hard muscles to get my blood pumping. Oh man, he was definitely not my type. I’d had exactly two boyfriends since the tenth grade. One of them turned out to be gay. The other one was the class valedictorian and currently studying to be an honest-to-God rocket scientist. This guy though, he sat with his back against the wall at a table with two other bikers dressed just like him. He shot me a devastating wink as I leaned down and set their beers in front of them.

  The patch on his jacket said, “Nash.” Below that he had a white strip sewn into the le
ather that identified him as club president. My heart fluttered. These were the Great Wolves MC. I saw Nash’s brilliant green eyes travel over me and settle just below my own breast where I’d pinned my nametag.

  “Harper,” he said in a southern drawl that melted my knees. “That your first name or your last name, baby?”

  He called me baby. My inner feminist should have been offended. But coming from him, it seemed just right. “To Kill a Mockingbird was my mother’s favorite book. So, Nash, is it? I don’t suppose your mother was into poetry?”

  Fuck. I wanted to slap my hand over my mouth and take it back. I always went to sarcasm when I was nervous. Now he’d just think I was a bitch. But Nash leaned back and smiled. His companions broke into full-throated laughter.

  Nash shook his head and took a sip of his beer. I watched his long neck work as he downed half the glass and set it down. “No, darlin’. She wasn’t.”

  “I’m sorry. That was a bad joke. You know … Ogden Nash? Ugh. Of course you don’t. I mean … you might. Shit. I don’t know why I said that. Why don’t I just take your order and I’ll get out of your hair.” Smiling, Nash ordered a burger and his friends got the same. Practically stumbling over my own feet, I got away from their table as quickly as I could. Dammit. My smart mouth had probably just screwed me out of a good tip. I had half a mind to tell Lisa to switch with me again.

  I made it through the next hour. The Great Wolves table was nice to me. In fact, Nash was downright gentlemanly. I found myself coming up with reasons to walk into his field of vision. That man was sin wrapped in leather and swirling ink over hard muscles and those killer eyes. He was everything I knew I should avoid. Except this was supposed to be the last summer before I got serious about my life. Lisa and I made a pact with each other at the beginning of the summer. For three months, we were going to leave our old selves behind. Be bold. Be daring. Say yes to things that would make our mothers cringe. When fall came around, we’d go back to Michigan and be the good girls everyone expected us to be. But for one carefree summer, we’d never have to regret the what-ifs when we were nineteen years old.