Thor (Thorny Devils MC Book 1)

by MLJ Quigg

  “Morning, gorgeous,” he said.

  “Morning,” I replied.

  “You okay now?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I’m good.”

  “Fuck, I love having you in my arms. I slept like a baby when I got to sleep, and don’t you dare apologise,” he said when he saw the look on my face.

  “Okay, I won’t. Yes, it does feel good, and I slept great, too.” “So what’s the plan for today?” he asked.

  “The boys have football this morning, and then Madilyn has dance practice this afternoon, but other than that, no idea. How about we just take it easy and spend the day together. I don’t know.

  Go for a drive somewhere maybe,” I suggested.

  “Sounds like a plan, gorgeous. I’m gonna kiss you now—just letting you know.” He leaned over, lifted my chin with his finger, and placed his mouth on mine.

  Feeling his tongue touching my lips, I opened them, and his tongue darted in and out of my mouth, duelling with my tongue until soon, we are both breathing heavily. I held his hip tighter and leaned into him more. We were pressed tightly together, and his hand trailed down my spine towards my arse. When he placed his hand on it and squeezed gently, I could feel his cock on my stomach, which was hard as a rock. I’d forgotten how big he was. As we started to kiss more heavily, I ground against him, and he began to kiss down my neck.

  “Oh, God, I gotta stop, baby. I’m gonna come if I keep going,” he said with a gasp as he put his forehead to mine and looked into my eyes.

  We heard giggling from the doorway. When Derrick turned his head in the direction of the noise, and I looked over his shoulder, we saw the kids standing there with huge smiles on their faces.

  “Come here, kids,” Derrick said.

  They came running in and jumped on the bed.

  “What are doing, lurking in the doorway?” he asked.

  “Nothing at all. We weren’t watching you kiss Mum or her kiss you back. Nope. Didn’t see it at all,” Madilyn answered with a smile.

  “So it’s all right if I kiss your mum?” he asked.

  “Um, yeah, even though it’s gross and all, but it makes Mum happy, so I’m cool with it,” Jackson said.

  I just laughed before stating, “All right, you guys better get dressed for this morning. We have to leave soon.”

  When it was time for Derrick to leave on Monday morning after a fantastic weekend, I was sad to see him go. It had felt so good having him with us.

  I arrived at the office, and on my desk was a pretty thick folder.

  Opening it, I read through the contents.

  I knew something was up, I thought as I reached for my phone and dialled Derrick’s number.

  “Hey, gorgeous. Can’t get enough of me yet?” he said teasingly.

  I laughed at him. “You’re a dag.” Then turning serious, I said, “Yes, I miss you, but I need you to come down here. Bring your cabinet and your most trusted guys. I have some information for you.”

  “We’ll be there soon,” he said when he noticed my tone.

  I called Mike into my office, and as soon as he came in and sat down, I said, “Derrick and his cabinet are on their way here as we speak. I found out some news, and when they get here, shit will hit the fan. I needed to give you a heads up.” “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “I had a bad feeling about one of the club girls that claims she is pregnant with Derrick’s child. It’s okay. I didn’t believe her to start with. But that’s not the only problem. I found out she is undercover with a Russian mob, is related to them, actually. Also, there was a customer who came into the strip club on Friday night, and Sasha said he hadn’t been in there for a couple of years and that he was always a troublemaker,” I said.

  “Well, that’s going to go down well,” he stated.

  “No kidding,” I replied.

  We continued talking until we were interrupted by a knock on the door. When Mike got up and opened it, I saw Derrick and all the guys.

  Getting up, I grabbed the information as well as the original file on Trina and made my way to them.

  “Hey, guys, this is going to be easier if we go to the conference room. Follow me, please,” I said.

  Everyone smiled at us as I grabbed Derrick’s hand, gave it squeeze, then brought it up to place a kiss on it, and I didn’t let go of it while we walked to the room.

  When we arrived, I sat at the head of the table while Mike sat to my right, and Derrick sat on my left. On the other side of Derrick, there was Dozer, Trigger, Wombat—their tech guy. Blade sat at the other end of the table facing me, and Macca, Bluey, and Ryan— Bluey’s dad—sat between Mike and Blade.

  “All right, guys. I have a story to tell you before I get to the information, okay, so bear with me, please.” I said.

  Once they all nodded, I looked at Derrick and began. “You are not going to like this, but please, remember I had every intention of telling you when I had this information. I thought there was no use saying anything until I knew.”

  “Hey, it’s okay, gorgeous. Just tell us, please,” he said.

  “Okay. When I first went to the clubhouse and met Trina, I didn’t trust her. There was just something slimy about her, so I did a background check on her. Sorry. I knew you guys would be upset with me going behind your back, but I just couldn’t let it go... Well, it came back clear, but I still had a feeling, so on Friday, I was having an early dinner with the kids when Trina came into the restaurant with another woman. Trina came over and said some shit about her baby and said she had a catch-up with her sister. I knew from the background check that she didn’t have any family, but this girl looked like her. I kind of tuned her out after that. Stupid bitch... Sorry. So I discretely took photos of them, and when they left, I took the glasses they used. I came back here and passed the photos and glasses off to my tech guy, who used face-recognition software and ran their fingerprints. Okay, getting on. Friday night, a guy came into the strip club. I tagged him straightaway because he just looked like trouble. Sasha came over and told me to watch out for the guy, that he hadn’t come in for a few years, but he was always trouble. I got on the security tapes that night and noticed he arrived with a couple of guys but split off from them at the door. I tracked all their movements and took photos of all of them, then forwarded them to our tech guy. I received the information on all of them this morning and called you in to tell you.” I took a breather.

  “Okay. Who are they?” Derrick asked.

  “Let’s start with the guys at the strip club. The main guy I noticed is Ivan Semenov.” As soon as I said the name, I was interrupted.

  “Fuck,” Derrick said.

  “I’m guessing you know this name?” I asked.

  “Oh, yeah, we know that name, all right,” he answered.

  “All right, then. Ivan’s brother Boris was killed three years ago in a certain shootout where Ivan was injured and then went underground. Ivan and Boris have two sisters, Katrina and Katia Semenov. They also have three cousins—Anton, Alexi, and Vicktor Semenov. I found out the two who came with him are Anton and Alexi. Now two more surprises are coming, so wait until I finish. The girl at the restaurant with Trina is Katrina, and Trina’s real name is Katia,” I said.

  I passed the files over to Derrick, and he flicked through them, and then passed them to Dozer. When he’d finished going through them, they got passed down the line. I could see the guys’ faces darkening and knew there was going to be a huge blow-up soon.

  Just as Ryan was about to open his mouth, I held up a finger. “Hold on a minute, I have one more for you, then you can go for it. I found out who the third cousin is. He was a bit harder to find, but as soon as I saw a photo of him, I knew who he was. Vicktor Semenov is one Arthur Dander, a.k.a. Danger.”

  I passed the folder to Derrick, and he opened it.

  “Fuck. Oh, my God. No,” he said as he passed it to Dozer.

  “I’m sorry, Derrick. I knew I recognised him as soon as I saw him,” I said quietly.

&n
bsp; “This is not your fault, gorgeous,” he said, taking my hand and kissing it.

  “Now, this wasn’t Wombat’s fault for not finding this. My guy had to do some pretty illegal stuff to get this information. They had an iron eagle background for both, and I would never have known but for Trina’s fingerprints and the face re-cog on Vicktor. My guy is good, but even I was surprised,” I said.

  After talking some more, I left the information with the guys. After they left the room, Derrick pulled me into his arms and kissed me hard.

  “Thank you, baby. I know you don’t know what’s going on, but when it’s sorted, I’ll have a long talk to you, okay? I love you, Monique,” he said.

  “You’re welcome, and I know you do, Derrick. I love you, too,” I replied.

  Kissing me one more time, he turned and left with the guys.

  “Well, that went better than I thought,” I said.

  “Yeah, for us. Not so much for the others,” Mike replied.

  I knew he was right, so I just nodded.

  Derrick

  I stopped the bike about three blocks from the clubhouse and hopped off. I started to pace, trying to come up with a plan.

  “Someone give me a fucking smoke, please,” I said.

  Wombat passed me one, and the others grabbed one, as well.

  “What the fuck are we gonna do? We can’t just come out and grab them,” I said.

  “Trina is easy. Catch her out in her lie. Play up to her. She’ll put herself in it,” Dozer said.

  “All right, let’s come up with a plan,” I agreed.

  After an hour of talking, we came up with one, so we hopped on our bikes and rode to the clubhouse. When we arrived, I went up to my room. Once again, someone had been in there, so I walked downstairs and signalled Wombat to follow me.

  “I want the footage taken in my room from Saturday morning to now. Let me know when you have it,” I said.

  “Sure, Prez,” he replied.

  I walked over to Dozer and Trigger.

  “We all set?” I asked quietly.

  “Sure am,” Dozer replied.

  “All right, let’s wait until Wombat finds out what we need, and we’ll go from there. Are they here?” I asked quietly.

  “Danger is. Haven’t seen Trina yet,” Trigger replied.

  As I nodded, Wombat came over and leaned in between Dozer and me.

  “It was Trina. Looks like she put some bugs in your rooms,” he whispered.

  “Thanks for letting me know,” I replied.

  “Not a problem, Prez,” he said, tapped me on the shoulder and walked off.

  “Find her,” I ordered.

  “Will do,” Trigger replied.

  “Right, let’s get Danger down to the holding cells. Doze take Trigger, Blade, Knife and Bluey with you and lock Danger up tight, make it look like you’re goin out or something and turn on him, and after I’ll call church. I want this sorted before Trina turns up,” I stated quietly. He nodded his head and stood.

  “All right, Trigger, Blade, Knife, Danger, and Bluey, you’re with me,” Dozer yelled out through the clubhouse.

  As they all took notice and stood, I watched as they walked toward the basement. About five minutes later, Dozer, Trigger, Blade, Knife, and Bluey returned and sat down next to me. They all gave me a chin lift.

  “How’d it go?” I asked Dozer.

  “Yeah, no problems at all. Was a bit miffed why he was locked up but didn’t give us any trouble.

  “Church in an hour. Call everyone in. Mandatory,” I yelled out.

  I walked into church and waited, then five minutes later, everyone started trickling in.

  “I want five guys to stand guard out there. When Trina comes in, I want her held in the holding cells next to Danger. Remove all electronics from her. Strip her down completely. Take her clothes. I want everything she has. Then you come in here, and we’ll explain what’s going on,” I said.

  I got a nod, then five guys walked out, no questions asked. Fuck, I loved these guys. They were so loyal.

  After shooting the shit for about half an hour, they came back in and handed me a plastic bag with a nod. I up-ended it in front of me and checked the clothes thoroughly before putting them back. Next, I opened Trina’s handbag and grabbed her phone. It was password protected, so I passed it to Wombat and asked him to crack it open.

  Wombat nodded, then left the room but was back in no time at all. When he returned, he plugged a device into it, and before we knew it, he handed the phone to me.

  I opened the messages and read through them. The ones to her sister, brother, and cousins were interesting. She had relayed everything that had happened here, but I noticed in the ones to her brother that Danger still didn’t know who she was.

  Okay, maybe he’s not part of it. God, I hope so. I trusted him.

  I passed the phone to Dozer and stated, “It looks like he’s not part of it.”

  “Fuck, I hope so. That was a shock and a half,” he said.

  “All right, guys. We found out some information today about a couple of people here at the clubhouse,” I said to everyone, then went on to explain everything Monique had found out, and by the end, everyone was fucking pissed.

  “So we get rid of Trina—or Katia or whatever the fuck her name is. Please, let me end her. Fucking hate that bitch,” Cane said.

  “Not without me, you don’t. I can’t stand her. I’m with you,” Able, his twin, said.

  “Guys, we’ll all have a shot. Just hold your horses for a bit. Looks like Danger isn’t a part of this. I say bring him in and let him explain,” I stated.

  Everyone nodded in agreement.

  “All right, then. Trigger, bring Danger in,” I ordered.

  Trigger left the room and came back with Danger, and as we all looked at Danger, we could tell he had no clue what was going on.

  “Danger, we need some answers from you,” I said.

  “Okay, Prez. What do you need?” he asked.

  “I need you to tell me who the fuck you really are,” I stated.

  “Um, okay. You know this. I’m Arthur Dander, nicknamed Danger,” he said.

  “How about Vicktor Semenov?” Dozer asked.

  I looked at Danger, and he snorted.

  “I am no fucking Semenov. That arsehole may have been my birth father, but he no longer exists to me. I didn’t put a bullet in his brain for nothing,” he stated.

  “What the fuck? Back up and tell us everything,” I said.

  Taking a deep breath, he said, “So you all know that I hated my real dad, no real surprise there. Anyway, I met him ten years ago. I had no idea who he was. He was involved in a child sex ring and bought my mum when she was fifteen. She was a runaway living on the streets when she was kidnapped and sold to that monster. He decided to keep her, and she got pregnant with me. I found out later, at the time, he was married and had a couple of kids. The housekeeper got Mum out of there and hid us from him. Everything was good as far as I was concerned. Yeah, it was hard for Mum and me, but we made it work. He finally found her when I was twenty-three. I had a wife and daughter at the time, and Mum was staying with us. He shot them all. I was at work and came home to him sitting in our lounge room holding my one-year-old daughter. She was covered in blood, and the bodies of my wife and Mum were just lying there on the floor at his feet. He held a gun to me and actually told me he didn’t want to shoot me, that he wanted me to join him. I told him to go fuck himself, that he’d killed the only leverage he could have ever had on me. He just shrugged and pulled the trigger. I fell to the floor, and the next thing I knew, I was at the hospital, coming out of recovery. The cops came in and told me my wife and Mum were dead and that they were both raped and shot execution style in the head. The doctor came in and told me that my baby girl was in intensive care with a gunshot wound to her chest. They tried to repair the damage as best they could, but they could only keep her comfortable until it was time for her to go. I spent fourteen days in intensive care with my dau
ghter, Chelsea, while recovering myself, until she eventually died from her injuries.”

  He started getting visibly upset, but he didn’t cry.

  As we stoically wiped our tears away, he took another deep breath, and then continued, “I recovered from my injuries, and it took me two years to track him down. I finally cornered him in a house in Brisbane exactly two years to the day of when he killed my family. He was sitting down with two guys who were a bit older than I was. I knew from surveillance that they were my half-brothers, Anton and Alexi. And then the fucking arsehole thought I was there to join them. He wanted to welcome me to the family. I told him that I’d said before he could go fuck himself, that I wanted nothing from him—only revenge. He laughed in my face until I pulled out a gun and shot him between the eyes. I shot Alexi and Anton and told them if I ever saw them again, I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot them between the eyes, then I left, just walked out the door, jumped on my bike, and rode. I got work wherever I ended up, then I’d get restless and move on to another area and work, then move. Finally, I met your dad, and he asked if I wanted to hang around for a while. We got close, and after I told him my story, he asked me to join. And now here we are.”

  “Fuck, sorry about all that, man. That was fucking horrible,” Dozer said.

  “Try living it. Wasn’t pleasant, that’s for sure,” Danger said.

  “So all right, then. I don’t know how to ask this, but when was the last time you saw your brothers?”

  “Um, I’m looking at them. I was with most of you this morning. Last time I saw all of you would have been at the last party. Why? I’m lost here. Why are you all looking at me like that? Oh... oh, you mean my half-brothers—those fucking tossers Anton and Alexi. The last time I saw them was when I shot them, April twenty-first, two thousand and ten. As I said before, it was the anniversary of my family’s death, so not a date I’ll ever forget. Why. What’s going on?” he asked.

  I explained everything to him.