by Mia Malone
I stared at the big patch on his back as he drove off, swung around and parked in front of a bigger house with a long, covered porch on the other side of the yard.
What the hell had just happened?
***
Black
“What the fuck?” Black muttered and walked over to stand next to his father.
The woman had walked out of the cabin and closed the door quietly behind her. She looked around on the porch, tilted an old, rickety chair far to the side, and stomped on it. As expected, it flew to pieces, and the woman picked one of the legs up.
“What the fuck?” Roddy echoed. “What is she doing?”
Black felt his gut clench when she brushed the leg off, straightened and looked around, and sat down on the steps leading up to the cabin, holding the piece of wood in her hands as if it was a baseball bat.
“Ah, hell. Is she –”
“Yeah. She’s getting herself a weapon, any way she can,” Black said. “Jesus.”
Then he walked toward her, and her face hardened as she watched him.
“Hey,” he said. “Don’t need that, babe. You’re safe here.”
“I don’t know that.”
“That won’t do you much good,” he said and nodded toward the sorry piece of old chair her hands held so hard her knuckles were white. “A gun would be better.”
“I don’t have one,” she stated simply. “I can’t let anyone close to my daughter, and this is all I have.”
Black looked at her thick, caramel colored hair, nice but dirty clothes, and hard brown eyes. Except for the eyes, she looked soft, and he suddenly remembered how her ass had felt in his hands.
“Take this,” he said and pulled his pistol out of the back of his pants.
Her eyes widened when he slowly stretched it out, holding it casually between his thumb and index finger. He saw how she twitched from the soft thud it made when he placed it next to her on the wooden boards, and wondered if it was wise to give a loaded gun to a woman that jittery. She stared at it for a few seconds but put the piece of wood down slowly.
“Is it loaded?” she asked.
“No use having a gun if it isn’t.”
“Okay.”
“Do you know how to shoot?” Black asked.
“I assume you point it and squeeze the trigger.”
He chuckled and crouched down in front of her.
“What’s your name?”
She hesitated, but shrugged, and said, “Cassandra Davis.”
“Cassandra,” Black said. “They call you Sandy?”
“Cas,” she murmured.
“Cas.”
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Black.”
“That’s a nickname.”
He tilted his head to the side and was about to tell her that it was the only thing anyone called him when he remembered how her mouth had felt under his.
“My mother is from Norway,” he heard himself murmur. “And a little loopy. She decided to give me the name Einar.”
Her lips twitched, but she nodded, and murmured, “Einar. It suits you.”
“Huh,” he grunted and wondered how the heck she figured a name like the one he’d been given would suit him.
The few people outside the family who ever dared to use it pronounced it ee-nar, which sounded ridiculous. She’d picked up on how he said it and had said ey-ner like his mother did.
“Why are we here?” she asked.
“My –”
“Hey,” his mother called out when she approached from nowhere and Black fought the urge to tell her to go back to wherever she came from. It wouldn’t have helped anyway, and she stopped next to him. “Hello there. I’m Gee, and –”
“You’re Sissy’s mother,” Cas breathed out and got to her feet.
Black straightened too and exhaled. Sissy was the spitting image of their mother, so of course, Cassandra Davis would know that. It seemed to soothe her in the same way his gun had.
“Of course.”
“Gee?”
“Gun, but no one can pronounce that, so I go by Gee. Did my son offer you anything to eat?”
“Son?”
Black winced when his mother stretched a hand up to slide it over his cheek.
“That’d be me,” he muttered.
“You’re Sissy’s brother?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh.”
Huh? What did that mean?
“Are you hungry?” Gee asked quietly. “Can we get you anything?”
“Thank you but no. We have some food, and my daughter is sleeping. I’ll –” She cut herself off but straightened her back and restarted. “Are we safe here?”
“Oh, honey,” Gee murmured. “Yes, you are safe. No one is allowed in here unless Roddy approves. He won’t let anyone through the gates.”
“Okay,” Cas murmured. “I have some problems.”
“We know,” Black said. “Mom,” he added warningly when his mother wanted to butt in. “We do know and we’ll –”
“Time enough to discuss what to do tomorrow,” Gee said breezily and turned to Cas. “Get some sleep, honey. You look exhausted.”
Cas watched them for a beat, and then she nodded.
“I’ll go to bed,” she mumbled. “It’s been a few hard days.”
Without another word she bent to pick up the pistol, turned and disappeared inside the cabin, closing the door quietly.
“Brave woman,” his mother said.
They had heard some details from Sissy, and Black had talked to both Joke and Mac. The girl was wanted for drug-related crimes, which seemed completely off. They knew Cas had said something about a Sheriff lying about it. They also knew who that Sheriff was and that he wasn’t a good man, according to Mac Mackenzie who was a very good man.
Black agreed with his mother. Cas was a brave woman, although not because of her incredibly dumbass plan to pick up her daughter and run toward Canada.
But she’d come up against a group of men who must look frightening to her and sat down outside the cabin with only a fucking piece of an old chair to fend them off if they tried to get to her daughter.
“Yeah,” he said with a sigh.
“You’ll sort this out?” Gee asked when they walked back toward his parents’ house.
“Yeah,” he repeated firmly.
“Good.”
“I’ll go and look into a few things,” Black muttered and veered off toward the cabin at the far end which was where he lived.
“You do that,” his mother said over her shoulder. “I saw the bruises on the girl when they got here, so you look into shit for her sake. You’ll do it for her mama too. No one should have to fight for their kid that way, you hear?”
Her mama. Soft and sweet and with hard eyes hard full of fear and anger.
He thought about Cas as he talked to Mac again, and then to Doug Hanes who ran the Wolves MC, which was a club where they specialized in finding shit and finding out shit.
She wasn’t his usual type. She was too... he didn’t know what it was Cas wasn’t, and his dick also didn’t care. The way she had felt under his hands made him ache for more.
When he couldn’t come up with anything else to look into and didn’t have anyone else to call, he went over to his parents’ house and had a beer with them and a few of the others, but he was restless and went back to his cabin early.
What would she be like if he got his hands on her again? Shy? Prim? Or was there more underneath that soft surface?
“Fuck it,” he muttered and started stroking himself.
What the hell was it about her that had him jacking off all alone when there were a number of women he could call?
He didn’t have time to get on his bike, he told himself. It wasn’t that his mother would have said anything, or at least not much, but he still didn’t want to parade whoever he fucked under her nose, so none of the women he usually hooked up with lived close by.
When he couldn’t hold back
any longer, he thought about Cas. How she’d felt in his arms. Her mouth, and what it would be like to slide inside her. How she’d sound when she came.
“Shit,” he grunted, tilted his head back and bucked his hips into his hand.
Then he groaned hoarsely as it rushed through him.
Jesus, he thought when his breaths had calmed down. He really was a fucking douche. The woman was on the run with a daughter who had had a fist plowed into her face repeatedly. She was scared and strung up so tightly it looked like she’d snap any second.
And he’d just jacked off thinking about her.
His cock twitched, and he snorted.
Yeah. He’d have to sort Cas’ shit out at the highest possible speed.
Then he’d go after her.
Chapter Three
Just say you were smoking tea
Black
He walked toward Cas’ cabin, cursing his mother. He was fifty-goddamned-five years old, had been his father’s Sergeant for more than twenty of those years and people were fucking afraid of him. And his goddamned mother still ordered him around like a boy.
“Go wake our guests up,” he murmured in a whiny fake-female voice. “Ask them to please join us for breakfast.”
“What?” a young voice said, and he straightened.
Desi was standing outside the cabin. Her hair was wet, and the bruises on her face showed clearly in the bright morning sun. He used a hand under her jaw to tilt her head to the side and winced. They were fading, but the asshole would have punched the girl hard to put those marks on her.
“Ouch,” he murmured. “We’ll make sure he pays for this.”
“I wanted to –”
She cut herself off and bit her lower lip.
“Sit down for a while?” Black asked. “Is your mother up?”
The girl clearly had something on her mind, and he wanted to know what it was. She’d brought her backpack outside and held it firmly as she sat down next to him on the steps.
“No, Mom is still sleeping. I fell asleep immediately last night, but I think she was restless. I heard her move around during the night, checking the locks.”
“She’s worried.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re called Desi?”
“Desiree.”
He almost laughed out loud.
Cassandra and Desiree.
Sweet, good-girl names for women from a privileged background.
“Pretty name,” he said because it might be preppy, but it still was a cute name.
The girl was cute too with her brown, curly hair and, he realized, her mother’s eyes.
“Thanks,” Desi mumbled. “I –”
She stopped and looked down on the backpack.
“You did something you shouldn’t have done.”
“Yeah,” she sighed.
“Wish someone would have given me a buck every time I did that, sweetheart. I’d be a millionaire,” Black said with a grin. “Tell me and then we deal with it.”
She watched him in silence for a beat, and he waited, watching her young, innocent face, thinking that whatever she’d done wouldn’t be too bad. She’d jaywalked or something.
“I smoked pot.”
“Huh?” he said before he got his stunned brain under control.
“It was just once, and I didn’t even like it. I panicked and forgot what to do so I almost destroyed the –”
“Huh?” Black said again and felt a quiver in his belly.
“I blew out instead of inhaling.”
Black barked out stunned laughter but got himself under control when he saw the look in her eyes.
“Sorry,” he murmured. “That wouldn’t do you much good.”
“I know that,” she mumbled, but added with a small lip twitch, “Now.”
“Okay, so you failed at smoking pot once. That’s not too bad, Desi.”
“Someone took a picture.”
Ah, shit. Of course, someone would have taken a picture. Black wondered how his own life would have turned out if there had been phones with cameras all over the fuck when he grew up. He would have ended up in jail for sure.
“Okay,” he said calmly. “Is it being spread around?”
“No,” she said. “Only DeeDee has it, and...”
She swallowed and looked away.
“And the man who hit you,” Black filled in.
“Yes.” Desi’s eyes filled with tears and she added, “They will arrest me.”
The police wanted her for drug-related crimes, but a photo wouldn’t be...
“Honey, you do realize they can’t charge you with anything based on a photo?”
“But I smoked a –”
“Yeah, yeah. I get it,” Black interrupted her. How anyone would ever think that this naïve girl was dealing drugs was beyond him. “You shouldn’t have smoked that shit, but you did. So, darlin’, if the police ask then you just say you were smoking tea or something.”
“Tea?”
“Yup,” he said and leaned back to grin at her. “Stupid, but hardly illegal and what are they going to do? It’s not like they can test the image for drugs.”
Understanding seeped into her eyes together with a smile of relief so bright he had to smile back at her.
“Anything else?” he asked.
“I took his computer.”
Black blinked and felt his mouth fall open.
It had seemed over the top to chase Cas and the girl across the country, but if Desi had his computer and there was evidence on it, then Sheriff White would be frantic to get it back.
“You have it here?” he asked and nodded toward the backpack.
“I didn’t tell Mom,” Desi said. “I didn’t want to tell her about that picture, and I wasn’t sure what to do. I was so scared, and I thought... I planned to give it to Mom when we were safe” She paused and looked him straight in the eye. “My mother doesn’t back down for anyone, but the man called Roddy made her come here. He looks like a guy who can make it safe for us.” She paused again and added in a whisper, “And so do you.”
“You’re safe here,” Black promised. Her bottom lip wobbled slightly, but then she straightened her back in the same way her mother had done the night before. Black vowed to kill the fucking dirty bastard, and added harshly, “Swear to God, Desi. You’re safe here.”
“Thank you.”
Black nodded and hoped that he managed to smile gently, even though he wanted to get to his feet and find the dirty Sheriff and shove something long and hard up his ass. Repeatedly.
“What should I do about the computer?”
“Give it to me. I’ll talk to some people.”
She slowly pulled a gray laptop out of the bag and handed it to him.
“His password is bootylicious-sixty-nine. Numbers, not words and no capital letters.”
“You got his password.”
“He had it on a post-it on the back of his big screen.”
“Stupid.”
“Totally.”
They shared a grin, and Black took the computer.
“Leave this to me, we’ll get it sorted out. No need to worry about anything other than breakfast. Mom is making pancakes, and she said to send you over if you want some.”
“Your Mom?”
“Roddy is my old man. Mom and Dad live over there.” He pointed and added, “Mom’s called Gee. Just walk right in, they’re waiting for you.”
When the girl had disappeared inside, Black turned around slowly and looked at the half-open door. Desi hadn’t heard it open, but he had and was impressed by Cas’ restraint. He’d expected her to rush out and start yelling at her daughter.
“You heard,” he said and watched her walk out, hair mussed from sleep in a way that made her look younger and slightly vulnerable.
“Yeah.” She sighed. “Stupid girl. She could have told me.”
“Would you have told your mother something like that?” When she didn’t answer, he got up and raised the laptop. “I’ve go
t this one now, and we’ll make shit go away.”
“You’ll make shit go away,” she echoed and raised a brow.
“You don’t know us, but babe,” he said calmly. “That’s what we do. Make things disappear.”
She watched him in silence, but then she pouted in a fucking adorable way.
“Do I want to know what that means?”
“Probably not.”
“Okay.” She nodded and looked toward his parents’ house. “Pancakes sounds good.”
“Go on over,” Black said. “I’ll go and deal with this.”
He wiggled the laptop again, and she smiled.
“Einar,” she said quietly, and he turned back. “Thank you.”
He nodded and walked home to pack a bag, deliberately pushing back how the way she’d said his name had shot straight to his dick.
***
Cassandra
I’d been with Thor MC for a week, and in this time, I hadn’t relaxed for one single goddamned minute. I pretended that I did and laughed with Gee who was hilarious, and Roddy who had a gruff sense of humor I really liked.
Gee ran the Lodge which turned out to be a very casual hotel with ten bedrooms. I’d been stunned to hear that Gee was still working because she was moving around like a young woman, but she wasn’t one. She must be somewhere between seventy and eighty, which wasn’t ancient but well past the age when most people retired. She saw my surprise and informed me that the day she stopped working was the day they put her to rest, and even then, she might come back to haunt the Lodge if the new management didn’t run it as per her wishes.
I wondered if it had been wise to inform her about my job as a manager at a chain hotel down in C-Springs, but it was too late. Gee promptly walked me through the place and asked for my opinion, which I gave her. We argued some, but I held my ground on the things that mattered, and she did on the things she felt strongly about, which turned out to be a lot. I liked Gee and her witty, sharp humor, but suspected that she could be just as formidable as her husband when she so wished.
Next to the Lodge, there was a low building which turned out to be a surprisingly busy road-side bar which served burgers and a few other bar-type dishes. A pretty scary woman named Ronnie managed the place with what appeared to be an iron fist, but it seemed like a nice place to be.
