In the Devils Arms (Devils Arms MC Book 1)

by Michelle Woods

  He watched as her eyes rolled and she shook her head. Her lips forming one word. She started turning away before he could process what she’d mouthed at him through the window. He realized as he watched her back out that she’d just mouthed the word no again, and was now pulling out of the parking lot as he stood there watching. Phoenix let out a growl as he stared at the fading tail lights of her car. His mind was a mess of tangled needs. The need to hop on his bike and follow her rode him hard. The only thing stopping him was duty and it was quickly being swallowed by the roaring in his head that insisted he make her pay for denying him anything.

  “Boss?” Franky’s voice held a questioning air when he spoke from behind him. He watched as she disappeared down the road, his insides clenched in anger that she was escaping him. Fuck, he needed to get his head in the game. He had shit to do and standing here in the parking lot watching her car disappear wasn’t getting it done.

  “Let’s ride, mother fuckers.” He called out, storming to his bike and climbing on with his eyes still trained on the street where Sin had disappeared, promising himself that he would deal with his sassy girl later. He kicked his bike into gear ignoring the fact that his thoughts of Sin were possessive—borderline territorial—and motioned for his brothers to follow.

  It took them about three hours to get to the truck stop where Viking and his group had stopped. Phoenix pulled into the parking lot slowly, coming to a stop near the edge casting his eyes around looking for trouble. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, so he nodded to his men.

  “Let’s go see what’s going on. Everything looks to be in order, but don’t let your guard down. Shit could still hit the fan at any moment. They might have thought whatever they did to fuck with the bikes would take longer to start acting up.” Phoenix cautioned.

  “Thumper, Franky and I should ride ahead and see if anything is going on down the road a bit.” Cutter said, his eyes sharp as he glanced up the road. Phoenix glanced at him before nodding. It was a good idea. Cutter was experienced enough to keep the other two out of trouble and if they ran into issues, he’d handle it.

  “Okay. I’ll see what the fuck happened.”

  Phoenix moved his bike closer to the area where Viking and his group were waiting on them, his countenance grim. Peanut nodded to him as he walked up.

  “What happened?” Phoenix asked, not in the mood for idle bullshit.

  “I don’t know what to say. We stopped off to get a bite to eat because we’d been on the road for nearly six hours with the pick-up over at the farm. We found a no-tell-motel, and Crank stayed in the room with the package while we all headed to the local dinner. We spent about an hour and thirty minutes inside the place before we grabbed something for Crank and got back out on the road. It was about forty minutes into the ride when Crank signaled his bike was having issues. We all thought it was just a random break down. It’s not often, but sometimes shit breaks even though you take care of your ride. It wasn’t until me and one of the prospects started having trouble that we figured out someone must have fucked with the bikes while we were eating.” Viking’s scarred face grimaced as he relayed the story. He paced back and forth for a moment looking grim.

  “Why the fuck wasn’t one of the prospects with the damned bikes?” Phoenix demanded, his anger burning inside his guts. If these fuckers hadn’t been stupid, he’d likely be balls deep inside Sin right about now. It made his anger hotter that he was madder about being denied that pleasure than he was about the possibility that this run could have been screwed up and the payload stolen. Fuck, he was in trouble. Unwilling to look too closely at those impulses right now, he shoved them down.

  “Shit, we weren’t thinking. We were so far away from the clubhouse and we hadn’t seen anyone following or anything. It’s no excuse. We fucked up.” Peanut muttered, running a hand through his blonde shoulder length hair. Phoenix almost smiled, Peanut was teased about his hair being girly, but he didn’t give a fuck. His eight-year old daughter loved it and that was all that mattered. Jasmine was adorable, so Phoenix couldn’t blame Peanut for catering to her.

  Her mother had dropped her off on Peanut’s doorstep three years ago when she’d found out she had cancer, and didn’t have anyone to take care of the kid. Despite not knowing he’d had a kid before that night, Peanut had stepped up and taken care of his daughter. Phoenix had been surprised when he didn’t even request a paternity test. He just took the kid in and let the mom stay with him until she died a year later, when she lost her battle with stage four ovarian cancer. He’d asked Peanut about it one night and he’d just shrugged and told him that it didn’t matter if she was his or not because she’d needed a home. Phoenix admired the man for his ability to take in a young girl who’d become his daughter even if her parentage was questionable.

  “Yeah, you did.” Hemp grunted.

  “Did you see or hear any bikes?”

  “No, but we both know that doesn’t mean shit. Could have been the Raiders MC using a cage to come up and fuck with the bikes. I don’t know how the fuck they found us. We would have noticed someone following us. I just don’t get how the fuck they found us and had the chance to fuck with the bikes.” Viking grumbled, gesturing wildly.

  “Fuck, I think we need to start thinking about whether or not someone’s talking about shit they shouldn’t be.” Hemp said, his skin tightening over his jaw. Phoenix let out a little growl because Hemp wasn’t wrong. This was the sixth time one of their shipments or jobs had been blown to bits in the past five months. It was normal to have issues every now and then, but lately it seemed to be an epidemic. Phoenix let out a little growl of displeasure. He knew finding a mole was going to slow down his plans to go after Sin and it ticked him off.

  Fuck, he needed to stop thinking about her.

  Why was this woman taking up so much of his mind, was beyond him. Normally he didn’t think about a woman once he’d bedded her. Hell, he barely thought about her before he bedded her. What the fuck was going on with him?

  “Yeah, I will talk to Diablo about it.” Phoenix said, still trying to come to a conclusion about why Sin was still in his head. He rubbed the spot between his eyes trying to ease the headache that was suddenly pounding through his head. He shifted from one foot to the other, his leather cut feeling heavy all the sudden.

  “Think it’s a patched member?” Hemp asked.

  “The jobs that have been tampered with were all common knowledge. It might just be that someone’s talking to their old lady, or some hanger on. That person might not even realize their causing issues. It’s hard to say. None of the big jobs, or any of the ones that we’ve run off the books have been hit. That could be to throw us off the scent, or it could mean that it’s simply someone trusting someone they shouldn’t trust. That job with Donny was the only one that was hit hard and that was a sketchy job to begin with. We knew that it was damned likely we’d run into problems eventually on that one, but never expected it on the start of the ride like we got. You’re right though, it’s happening too often to be random. Shit, I don’t want to deal with this shit right now.” Phoenix snarled. He twisted to look around the lot again, his eyes sharp. When he didn’t see any trouble, he turned back to Viking.

  “Nothing to it tonight. We need to get this payload to the client. It’s a good thing we decided to move it a day early or it would be arriving late which doesn’t make us look good.” Peanut muttered. His head jerked towards the sound of bikes and they all turned to check who it was. Seeing Devils Arms colors, they all relaxed. Peanut shifted slightly to his other foot, his hand moving away from his gun as he moved closer to his bike. He pulled the leather bag, which was filled with three kilos of weed from his boot and handed it off to Hemp. Hemp took it and nodded before stowing it in his own saddlebags.

  Phoenix knew he’d handed it off because they may need to move when Cutter and the boys pulled up. As their bikes came to a stop nearby and Cutter shut it down, Phoenix felt his tense shoulders relax. If he was stoppi
ng and they were getting off their bike’s then they hadn’t found anything significate up the road.

  “We rode about two miles up and didn’t see anything, but it’s likely safer if we take I-95 instead just to be sure. We can take the next exit and catch it in about ten miles. I sent Franky to check it out. Once we hear back in about ten minute’s we should be good to go.” Cutter said as he was standing next to them.

  “Why’s Franky checking the route to I-95?” Hemp asked.

  “It occurred to me when we were coming back that this might have been a plan to drive us off the highway in order to ambush us.” Cutter explained, his tanned face lined with apprehension.

  “So you sent our least experienced member to check that out? What the fuck man?” Phoenix demanded. He didn’t like the idea of Franky getting pinched without backup.

  “Chill, he’s golden. He’s smarter than you think, and I’ve been working with him on his skills. He’s got this.” Cutter said.

  Phoenix watched Cutter carefully for a minute wondering if he should trust the other man’s assessment. Although Franky seemed like a dopey kid most of the time, there was a reason Diablo and Rage had let him into the club. His prez and vice weren’t idiots and if they let someone join the club it wasn’t because they wanted to earn brownie points. He’d seen for himself that Franky could handle himself in a hot situation the night Donny was shot. Phoenix nodded, accepting the other man’s assessment of Franky’s skills.

  “Alright then. As soon as we hear back, we move out.”

  “We will wait on the prospect Bo is sending with the truck to pick us up and the bikes. I can’t believe we were such fucking idiots.” Viking said, still looking ticked off about his bike, but he knew he had no one to blame but himself.

  Phoenix stood there waiting on Franky to call, wondering when he’d have the chance to find his wayward woman. Fuck, he was still thinking about Sin as his, and that shit needed to stop. He shoved her out of his mind and focused on the job at hand, unwilling to allow a woman to tie him up in knots.

  Chapter Eight

  Sin juggled the bags as she tried to open the door to her small bungalow while holding the groceries she’d just bought. She finally managed to get the key into the third lock on the sixth try and she turned the lock with a triumphant cry. She kicked the door open wide and entered the foyer. Stopping to step over the trip wire which was still in place, she scanned the room looking for anything out of place. Nothing seemed disturbed, but she still went into the kitchen setting down her bags and dug her gun from her purse. She then checked every room like she always did. Old habits die hard. Her brother and father had trained her well. As she reentered the kitchen she placed the gun on the countertop near the bags. She heard her phone begin to ring and dug the phone out seeing that it wasn’t Sandra or anyone from work, she debated letting it go to voicemail.

  Had her family finally found her? Shit, she really hoped that they hadn’t because she liked her life here and she wasn’t ready to leave it, even if she had made a bad decision to sleep with a biker. Sin knew she’d likely never see him again anyway. It wasn’t like she’d been anything more than a quick fuck to him anyway. Her phone stopped ringing.

  Whoops.

  Guess she’d waited too long, she reached into the nearest bag and began grabbing the cold items. She’d just picked up the ice cream she’d splurged on when her phone started ringing again from the same number. Sighing she placed the ice cream into the freezer and lifted the phone to her ear.

  “Hello,” she grunted into the phone before grabbing some chicken she’d bought and carrying it back to the fridge.

  “You need to answer your phone when I call.” Phoenix’s voice said through the line. Sin rolled her eyes because now that she knew this was his number, she’d likely never answer it again when he called. Sin grinned, deciding to fuck with him for a moment before she hung up on him.

  “Um, I think you have the wrong number. I don’t know who this is.”

  “What the fuck? It’s Phoenix.” He snapped, sounding livid that she didn’t recognize his voice. She bit her lip wondering if she dared push it farther. He wasn’t a nice man who she could push over the edge, cause if she did he might just spank her like he’d told her he would. Of course, that sent a shiver of desire down her spine instead of fear.

  “Phoenix? I’m sorry I don’t think I know a Phoenix.” Sin said, trying not to laugh outright at the growl she heard him release.

  “The fuck you don’t, you little tease. When I get my hands on you again I am going to spank that pretty ass of yours.” Phoenix’s voice was harsh with anger as he snapped out his warning.

  “Oh, that Phoenix. Yeah, I’m busy and have to hang up now so have a great day. Maybe try being civil and say hello next time you call a woman. Just a little tip from me to you.” Sin said as she pulled the phone away from her ear. She could hear him yelling into the phone even as she hit the end call key.

  “Don’t you dare hang up this—,” yep she’d bet he was really pissed off now. She grinned.

  She continued with her task listening to her phone ring over and over for almost ten minutes. She ignored it because she knew exactly who was calling and she refused to talk to him. She was not some silly girl he could boss around. She wasn’t going to hang on his every command like most of the women he slept with. Her phone finally stopped ringing and she gave a little sigh. He’d finally given up. She wanted to be happy about that, but she was a little disappointed instead. She didn’t want to be just another woman he had fucked. Sin was woman enough to admit she might not mind spending more time with him in the bedroom. Maybe even start a friends with benefits kind of relationship because the man was seriously hot and he knew how to give good orgasms. Sin could see herself allowing something like that if he wasn’t so damned arrogant.

  Sin picked up her phone from where she’d sat it and began programming his number into it. She knew she shouldn’t, but she couldn’t help it. She labeled him as ‘that jerk I had sex with’ then sighed and relabeled him as ‘Nix’. She wouldn’t be that childish. As she was saving her changes a text binged on her phone.

  NIX: You know when I get my hands on you, I am going to spank your ass raw.

  SIN: You can try.

  NIX: I will be doing more than trying, dollface.

  SIN: I don’t think so. How did you get my number anyway?

  NIX: You know how. I got it from Sandra.

  She felt a twinge of anger at her friend for a moment before she realized that Sandra was scared of Phoenix and his cronies. She wasn’t aware that their bark was way worse than their bite unless you betrayed them. That was a whole other ball park and being a woman wasn’t going to save you from that kind of wrath. She bit her lip and let out a long sigh before typing in her reply.

  SIN: Well lose it.

  NIX: Not gonna happen, doll.

  SIN: You really are an asshole, aren’t you?

  NIX: Yeah, but you like it.

  Sin gritted her teeth as she stared at her phone. Did he seriously think she liked being treated like she was a piece of meat he could call on whenever he wanted? Because if he did then he was seriously delusional. Moving into the living room she sat down on the couch with her phone, still staring at his last reply trying to tell if he was seriously that stupid or not. After about five minutes she finally sent the only reply she could.

  SIN: I’m done. Don’t text or call me anymore, it’s really kind of desperate of you, honestly. Go find another woman to worship you because I am not that girl.

  NIX: Fuck this, I think I will. Later.

  Sin read his reply with a feeling of sadness in her gut because she didn’t like thinking about him with another woman. She’d never thought they would be some kind of great love story, but no woman wanted to feel like she was so easily interchanged with another woman. Setting her phone on the table she headed into her room to change for the date Janet, one of her coworkers, had set her up on tonight. She hated blind dates, but she
’d agreed to go out with Brent more than three weeks ago. Right after she’d first met Phoenix in fact. It had been her need to forget him that prompted her to say yes when Janet asked if she could set her up on this date for the fifth time.

  Damn that man. He was the reason she was going on a date with some vanilla banker who Janet ‘Just knew would be her perfect match,’ yeah right. She was pretty positive after their phone conversation that he was going to be too whiney and soft for her liking. Why did she always have to be attracted to men like Phoenix instead of the nice benign male she should prefer?

  Sighing she headed into the shower stripping off her clothes and leaving them on the floor. Fifteen minutes later she was pulling on a red dress she’d bought about two years ago for another date. Her hands rubbed the soft material, eyeing herself in the full length mirror. She loved this dress. She untangled one of the spaghetti straps that held up the fitted top. It had a black band around her waist which connected to a circle skirt that flowed around her legs when she moved and ended just above her knee. Smiling at her reflection she headed to the living room to grab the little bag she’d put her wallet and her palm sized berretta into and threw the small black purse over her shoulder.

  Sin was determined to have a good time on this date tonight. Perhaps Brent wouldn’t be so bad once she got to know him a bit better. She really needed to stop shoving him into the soft and boring category because of his chosen profession. If she went into this date with an open mind perhaps she’d find that they would hit it off. She walked over to the table where she’d set her phone earlier lifting it. She couldn’t stop herself from checking to see if Phoenix had texted her, again feeling disappointed when there wasn’t one. Damn it, she didn’t care she lectured herself. She didn’t need him. He could go fuck any woman he wanted to. Even as she allowed that thought to slither through her thoughts, she knew it was a lie. She did care, and it left a hard pit in her stomach as she paced back and forth in her kitchen. She would never admit it to the big bastard, but she really liked him, despite him being a total dick. Hearing the doorbell ring she sighed and did one last check in the hall mirror before heading to the door. Hoping that this date wouldn’t be as boring as she was thinking it would be.