Wild Child
A Skull Kings MC Novella
Sage L. Morgan
Copyright © 2014 Sage L. Morgan
All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or part, without the express written consent of the author.
All characters are 18 years of age or older, even when not specified.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
After a nine hour ride, the bus finally creaked to a stop in a gas station parking lot. The guy in the seat next to me was still dead asleep with his head lolling on his chest. He’d conked out hours ago after talking non-stop about the eight hotels he “owned” all over the country. To make things even better, he’d been using our conversation as an excuse to stare at my chest.
Good riddance, creep, I thought at him as I hopped over his lap into the aisle.
Oldies music played on the gas station’s outdoor speakers as the bus slowly emptied. Some dragged their rolling suitcases to waiting family members while others headed straight for the bus stop on the corner. Every one of them had a specific place to be, whether it was home or work. But my destination was already in plain sight.
The Paradise Motel, a Pepto-pink stucco building with palm trees lining the cracked parking lot, was directly across the street. It looked cheap and lonely. Just my style. I squared my shoulders, making my way to the crosswalk. Then, I heard something that made my heart skip a beat.
The vroom-rattle-rattle of a finely tuned motorcycle.
A flood of memories rushed through my mind, namely my brother Liam with his shirtsleeves rolled up, hard at work fixing up his first salvaged motorcycle. I remembered the smell of baking asphalt and burnt rubber when he took me for my first ride. When I turned my head, I spotted a motorcycle turning a corner and thought I saw the Skull Kings colors on the driver’s back.
But I knew it was my eyes playing tricks on me. I was in Las Vegas, not Arizona. I felt homesick for the first time, and probably not the last. It was a bittersweet feeling. I wasn’t used to having a home. My last few days in Canyon City had been my best ever.
I brushed the feeling away. There was no other way to go but forward, so I began crossing the street. The motel office was barely cool with a window A/C unit that seemed to be running on its last legs. The pimply, slumping boy at the desk didn’t even move when I walked in.
“Can I help you?” he asked in a bored, flat voice.
“Uh...I’d like a room.”
“Credit card?”
I tried to keep my voice steady. “I want to pay cash, if that’s okay.”
The boy shrugged. He slid a registration form in my direction without asking for an I.D. Flooded with relief, I prepared to fill it out with some half-assed, fake information.
Lisbeth Olsen, my mind urged as my pen hovered over the blank form. My fingers shaped the first “L” with the pen, but I forced myself to write “Lucy Hernandez.” My handwriting wobbled as I tried to make up a name and address on the spot. It felt like I was scribbling over my identity.
I exchanged a hundred and forty-five dollars for a room key and went on my way.
Room fifteen, I chanted in my mind as I bisected the mostly empty lot. I could still hear the music playing at the gas station across the street, and I quickly realized that I knew the song when I caught myself humming along with the melody. I could almost remember the words.
Something, something broken heart. Something, something torn apart.
It described my life perfectly.
Dusk was settling over the city. Orangish, late afternoon light sliced through the blinds in the window of room fifteen, making it smell baked and stale inside. I locked the door, heaved my backpack onto the bed, and threw myself onto my back.
Back on the day I left home, I’d bought my Vegas bus ticket full of determination. I’d hoped to go out to California to see the ocean before planning my next move, but for some reason, the route from Phoenix to Las Vegas seemed to glow with promise on the station map. Something prompted me to come back here.
I was a different girl now, but the city was still the same. I’d found my way back, my wallet a little light, with no job prospects and no way to get around.
What was I doing here?
* * *
Union Jack’s, an English pub just off the Strip, was just as greasy and loud as I remembered. I sat down at the bar and ordered my old favorite, the fish and chips special.
“We don’t serve that anymore,” the perky blonde bartender said.
I stared back at her in shock. “Does Benny still work here?” I asked.
“Sorry.” She shrugged, shifting her luminous ponytail. “I don’t know who that is. What would you like to drink?”
“Water is fine,” I said meekly.
I watched her walk away, feeling disappointed. Benny was a stout older man who always let me order a beer without carding me. Oh well. I would be twenty-one in a year, anyway. But legal or not, everybody had to eat, and it looked like I had to look elsewhere for a cheap meal. I cast my eyes around the pub, wondering if I recognized any of the other workers. I didn’t.
Have I really been gone that long? I wondered.
The interior hadn’t changed much. It was all grimy barstools and sticky floors, just as I’d left it. But the view out the window had changed quite a bit. The old billiards hall across the street had been bought and remodeled into some sort of club. A pink neon sign flashed the words “Lip Service.”
But that wasn’t what initially caught my eye.
The Harley eased up to the curb just outside the entrance to Lip Service. Even though I couldn’t hear it, I could imagine exactly how the vibrating bike seat would’ve felt between my thighs as I watched the biker parking his ride. He took off his helmet, revealing short, dark hair and a chiseled jaw. He reminded me of my brother, Liam, in a way, and the thought made my heart sting.
Then, he swung off the bike, turning his back toward Union Jack’s. I gasped.
I was still yards away, but I could recognize that symbol from the opposite side of a football field.
The backpatch was of a skull wearing a dagger-pierced crown, the whole thing enveloped in flames. It was the emblem of the Skull Kings MC.
A Skull King in Vegas? I thought.
The biker walked into Lip Service and disappeared from view. I rose from my stool and drifted toward the exit. There was a tiny flicker of doubt in the back of my mind. In a few minutes, it would’ve billowed into a huge red warning: This is a bad idea. But not yet. Right now, I was too curious to notice that flicker of doubt.
And maybe, I was a little homesick to boot.
I jogged across the street, my heart thumping dully in my chest. The Skull Kings were everywhere. There was my brother’s Canyon City chapter, of course. It was practically the only family I had. I’d caught glimpses of others during my wandering years. A gray-haired senior at a flea market in Portland. A baby-faced prospect waxing cars on Venice Beach. I liked to think of them all as distant cousins.
And now, this one. From across the street, I could tell he was youngish, da
rk-haired, and maybe handsome. Where was he from? As far as I knew, there were no Kings in Vegas.
But there were in Laughlin.
I felt a familiar chill at the thought of my first encounter with the Laughlin Kings. My brother and his club had reached out to them to help me get away from some kidnappers, but the Laughlin Kings had struck a deal with the kidnappers instead.
My pace slowed. Could that Skull King be from Laughlin? I knew it was risky, but I had to know.
A horn blared loudly in my ear, interrupting my thoughts. I was standing right in the middle of the crosswalk. I hurried to the other side of the street.
The façade of Lip Service was a windowless cinderblock wall. The door was propped open, and slow country music warbled inside. I felt a cool lick of air conditioning. I closed my eyes, swiftly inhaled, and stepped over the threshold.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the light. Unlike Union Jack’s, this bar was nearly deserted. Only a few of the tables were occupied, mostly by parties of one. A quick scan showed me that the Skull King from earlier was nowhere to be seen. A tattooed woman with a blue pixie haircut tended the bar. I began to make my way over when—
“Hey!”
A hand closed over my arm, the grip alarmingly strong. I stumbled and caught my gaze on the grabber’s face. It was a sun-wrinkled woman wearing a cowboy hat. Blonde pigtails swung forward over her shoulders, and she leered at me with long, yellowish teeth.
The woman leaned close. “Are you lookin’ for a good time?”
I struggled to find my voice. My heart was beating too hard in my throat. “N-no,” I stammered.
The woman’s fingers wound tighter around my arm, pulling on my skin. “Then, what the hell are you doing—”
“That’s enough.”
The voice was so deep and strong, even the woman flinched. Her sharp, blue eyes snapped away from my face. “Sorry,” she muttered. “My mistake.”
I watched her scurry toward the exit and duck out, swallowed up by the sunlight. A frown tugged at my face. “What just happened?” I thought aloud.
“She’s normally not that crazy. Probably means she likes you.”
I turned toward the stranger to thank him, but all my thoughts sizzled into vapor once my gaze landed on his face. He’d taken off his leather cut and wore a plain black tee shirt, printed with the words “Lip Service Security,” but it was the same guy. Short, dark hair, tattooed arms, and all. When he smiled, I felt my knees tremble.
His hand came forward. “I’ve never seen you here before,” he said. “I’m Gabriel.”
Chapter 2
“Gabriel,” I heard myself say.
He raised his dark eyebrows. “And...your name?”
I jerked back to life. “Lis—” I faltered. “Lucy. My name’s Lucy.”
“Nice to meet you, Lucy,” Gabriel said, pumping my hand.
I gulped, hoping he didn’t notice how damp my palm was. I tried not to stare too much at his chest. It wasn’t because it was so muscular and attractive (though it was). It was because I knew what was probably under his tee shirt.
Tattoos.
Tattoos of burning skulls, to be precise. All the Skull Kings had the ink. A huge back piece proclaiming their loyalty to the club, plus some small individual markings of their choosing, wherever they had room on their bodies.
For one fleeting second, I was overcome with the urge to spill my guts to Gabriel. I wanted to tell him that I knew what he was, and I wanted to ask where he was from. But the feeling went away just as quickly as it came, replaced with bone-chilling fear.
I couldn’t reveal who I was to anyone, not even to a boy with beautiful eyes like Gabriel’s. Not while I was in Las Vegas.
Plus, what if he was with the Laughlin chapter?
I dropped my hand like a dead fish.
“What brings you into Lip Service, Lucy?”
My face flushed with heat. “Oh, um...” He was the reason I’d come into Lip Service, but I couldn’t tell him that. “Just exploring. I’m kinda new in town.”
Gabriel laughed. “I thought so.”
I cocked an eyebrow at his trembling shoulders. “What’s so funny?”
Gabriel pressed his lips together, holding back his laughter, but they spread into a huge smile. He gestured at the bar behind him. “This here is a lesbian establishment.”
“What?”
I scanned the place quickly. Soon enough, I realized that Gabriel was right. He was the only man in the building, and strangely, nobody else seemed to be preening for his attention. Even the beautiful bartender kept eyeing a middle-aged blonde woman from across the room.
“I take it you didn’t know.”
“I’m not...I mean, not that it’s wrong, but—”
“It’s okay. I figured you were new in town. I’m kind of relieved, to tell you the truth.”
Why?
Well, it was obvious, wasn’t it? The heat in my cheeks intensified when I noticed Gabriel’s eyes grazing along my body. It was barely a glance, but I was quick enough to catch it. I felt myself coming to life in his eyes, like the first blossom of spring cracking through winter melt. No guys had looked at me in Canyon City. Anybody who wasn’t Liam or a Skull King just remembered me as a skinny ten-year-old troublemaker. It’d been a long time since I caught a guy’s eye, and it felt nice.
“Anyway,” Gabriel said, blinking quickly, “if you need a tour guide, I’m free in a few hours.”
Pft. If anybody could give a tour of the city, it was me. After everything I’d been through, I knew the fire escape routes of practically every building in town. “I’m kind of busy.”
“With what? You got a job or something? Is that why you’re wandering into lesbian bars in the middle of the day?”
His arrogance knocked me over. Part of me wanted to rise to his challenge, but I had to talk myself out of it. While I was in this city, I had to keep a low profile. “No. I’m...job hunting.” God, I was pathetic.
Gabriel shrugged. “Cool. I know of some places that are hiring.”
I studied him carefully, and I knew he could tell. He straightened his spine and shoulders, raising himself another inch. Come on, give me a chance, he seemed to say.
I released a deep sigh. “Fine. I guess it wouldn’t hurt.” I felt like a rubber band snapped inside of me. Relief flooded through my system. Why? Why did it feel good to accept Gabriel’s offer? I had to admit that I could use some money, but my head was screaming at me to get away. He could be from Laughlin! He could be dangerous!
But all the warning sirens in my head were muted out when Gabriel’s face broke out into a grin. Just looking at it made me feel like I was taking a naked bath in sunshine.
“Great. Come back in four hours?”
“Okay.”
He raised a skeptical eyebrow. “You promise?”
I threw up my hands. “Well, I have nowhere else to go.”
Gabriel laughed. “Looking forward to it, I see. I like it. See you tonight.” He waved a vast hand at me before leaving me standing alone by the exit. The first few notes of the next song played to near-silence in the bar.
She’s addicted to nicotine patches...
I took that as my cue to leave. With one last glance at the interior of Lip Service, I escaped into the warm, Las Vegas sun.
* * *
I walked across one of the Las Vegas Boulevard bridges, blending into a flock of tourists. Here, I was invisible. Lucy Hernandez, a simple faceless stranger. I tried not to look at the teenagers sitting at the railings with cardboard signs. Especially the girls.
Deep down, I knew what their fates would be. They’d succumb to True North, one by one. A kind stranger would appear out of nowhere, with fliers, with promises. Find God’s plan for you at True North Healing Clinic. They’d go and they’d get tricked into using drugs, getting hooked or for most of them, relapsing. They’d work up a hefty debt, and True North would present them with the only way to pay it off. I knew because I’d b
een through it, and I’d escaped. Barely.
I drew my sleeves over my hands. The thought gave me chills. My memories of this city weren’t of glitz, glamor, and poker chips. I could only remember darkness, coldness, backrooms with strange men. Lady Luck had forsaken me here, along with dozens of other young girls. Patron Saint of Fanny Packs, Anna had called her. Lady Luck was for the tourists, and we were nothing but glass smashed into the pavement.
I felt a tug on my jeans. I stared down into the face of a pregnant girl.
“Spare some change?”
I tossed what I had into her cup. “Good luck,” I said.
I bought a slice of pizza and killed time watching some Michael Jackson impersonators performing on the street. A few hours later, it was time to go meet Gabriel and take him up on his offer. I took a bus back to Lip Service.
By the time I stepped off the bus, the sun had already set, and the nightlife crowd began to crawl the streets. I walked down to Lip Service only to find the entrance blocked by a huge line of women. A bouncer I didn’t recognize was checking I.D.’s at the door.
I frowned. Where was Gabriel? Then, I heard it.
Va-ROOOOM!
Several people in line jumped from the sudden noise, but not me. To me, that kick-and-sputter was as commonplace as the twitter of birds in the morning. I knew the Harley would be motoring around the corner even without looking. I turned around just in time to watch it slide to a stop at the curb.
Gabriel nodded at me from the seat. He was out of his Lip Service security tee and back in his cut. Now, I knew for sure he was a Skull King.
“Hey, Lucy,” he said.
“Hi.” My voice was deceptively calm. Gabriel looked like a young Brad Pitt in his leather and sunglasses. I pointed my chin bravely at him. “Got a helmet for me?”
“A biker always keeps a spare, just in case.” He tossed me a beat up bucket of a thing.
I strapped it on and moved to settle in behind Gabriel. Seeing the flaming skull emblazoned on his back made my throat feel scratchy all of a sudden, but there was an extra patch that was unfamiliar to me.
Nomad.
Usually, a Skull King’s backpatch included his home chapter. Liam’s said Canyon City below the skull. But Gabriel’s was no chapter, town, or city I’d ever heard of. Just that one word.
Wild Child: A Skull Kings MC Novella Page 1
