Riggs' Ruin (Kings Reapers MC Book 1)

by Nicola Jane

  “It’s Friday night. Surely, you have better places to be than here?” I ask.

  “The Pres is on his way to relieve me. Should be here any minute,” he says. “Then you can ask him all the questions you like!” He grins.

  “What!” I screech. “But I’m staying home. I don’t need anyone watching me.”

  Blade shrugs again. “If the Pres says you need watching, then you need watching. He won’t take no for an answer.” Blade presses his ringing cell to his ear. “Okay, Pres. I’m inside.” He cuts the call and then goes to open my front door.

  I watch from the kitchen as Riggs fills the doorway. “Why are you in the house?” he asks Blade suspiciously.

  “She asked me in for coffee. We’ve become like bezzie mates these last couple of days, haven’t we, Angel,” says Blade, winking at me. Riggs scowls. “I’m free to go then?” asks Blade. Riggs moves to one side to allow Blade to leave. “See you tomorrow. I love bacon with pancakes for breakfast.”

  I laugh at his hint for me to cook breakfast tomorrow. Riggs slams the door shut with his boot. “Asshole,” he utters.

  “Riggs, you really don’t have to babysit me. Nothing’s happened since the break-in.”

  “Riggs,” says Malia, bouncing around his feet and reaching her arms up. I frown at her over-familiar behaviour, but Riggs doesn’t seem to mind and he reaches down and picks her up. “Ziggy wants me to come to play at your house,” she says, patting his beard with her tiny hand. “Can I?”

  “Malia,” I hiss. “That’s rude.”

  “It’s fine with me if it’s fine with your mommy,” says Riggs. “In fact, the club’s having a party tomorrow. There’ll be lots of kids Malia’s age. Why don’t you both come? You could ask Eva seeing as Cree won’t stop asking me about her,” he says.

  I start to shake my head, because being around Riggs isn’t such a good idea. “Please, mommy,” whines Malia.

  “Or I’m happy to have Malia for a few hours if you don’t want to come,” says Riggs. “I know you’re finding it hard to resist me.” He grins playfully. “Let’s watch cartoons, Malia, so mommy can make her mind up,” he says, taking Malia to sit on the couch.

  “How come Blade isn’t supposed to come inside the house but you are?” I ask, standing in the doorway.

  “Because I gave myself permission,” he replies. “I’m in charge, remember?”

  “Of your gang,” I say cheekily. “But you’re not in charge of me. I can have whoever I like around for coffee.”

  He grins to himself and keeps his eyes on the television as he mutters, “Sure you are, Angel. Sure, you are.”

  “I haven’t heard from you all week,” I say and then instantly regret it because I sound needy and bothered.

  “That bother you?” he asks, arching a brow in that sexy way of his.

  “No, just . . . if you’re busy, then you really don’t need to be here. Eva’s coming over for a drink and to catch-up.”

  “I’m not busy, Anna.”

  The front door opens and Eva walks in holding two bottles of wine. She sees Riggs and mouths the words ‘What the fuck’ to me. I shrug and nod towards the kitchen. “Will you be okay for a minute?” I ask him and he nods. He looks more engrossed in the cartoon than Malia does.

  “What the hell is he doing here?” whispers Eva when we get into the kitchen.

  “He’s on Anna watch tonight. Blade left ten minutes ago.”

  “You lucky bitch,” she grins. “How do I get a gorgeous man like that to watch over me?”

  “You know how I feel about all of this,” I say. “It’s over the top and pointless. Reggie can get to me any time he wants, we both know that.” I shake one of the bottles of wine she brought with her. “Let’s get this baby open. You pour and I’ll put Malia to bed.”

  Chapter Eight

  Riggs

  I sigh as Eva leans in closer. She and Anna have drunk far too much wine. “So, Riggs, we were wondering—”

  “Erm, no, WE weren’t,” interrupts Anna. “You were!”

  Eva giggles and waves her wine glass dismissively. “I was wondering what special requirements you need to meet to join the Kings Reapers?” she asks.

  “What do ya mean?” I ask as I scroll through my cell idly.

  “All the men are gorgeous. They all have tattoos. Most have beards. All have muscles,” says Eva, counting them off on her fingers. “If a thin, frail fifty-year-old asked to join, would he fit the requirements?”

  “First of all,” I sigh, placing my cell on the worktop. “There are no requirements. Most of the men in my club have grown up around this life. Some are ex-Forces. Tiny, for example, is ex-Forces. No one would just turn up at the club and ask to join. Tiny knew Rock and when he left the Army, he was struggling to cope. You form a band of brothers when you’re out there fighting together. To come home to nothing is hard.”

  “So they come looking for a similar support system?” asks Anna thoughtfully.

  “I guess,” I shrug. “My grandfather started the club for that reason. He needed to feel that he had brothers to watch his back.”

  “Are you single?” slurs Eva, seemingly bored of the serious conversation.

  “Who wants to know exactly?” I ask, staring at Anna.

  “Who was the girl at the club sucking your face?” Eva asks.

  “That was Bonnie,” Anna says, answering before I can. “It’s complicated,” she adds, rolling her eyes and using her fingers as quote marks.

  “Oh, tell us more. We love to solve love dilemmas, don’t we, Anna?” says Eva eagerly.

  “It’s not complicated because we aren’t together,” I say.

  “When I asked you before, you told me it was complicated,” Anna says accusingly.

  I’d said that to stop conversations like this. I don’t want to go into details about why I keep Bonnie around. “I’m telling you we’re not together. End of.”

  “What about Ziggy’s mom?” asks Eva, and Anna nudges her hard and scowls. “What?” laughs Eva.

  “Stop being nosey,” says Anna.

  “Now, that is complicated,” I say. “And you don’t like complicated, do you, Anna? So, there’s no point in me telling you.” I grab my kutte. “I have shit to do. Are you gonna be okay?” Anna nods. “I’ll send someone to get you tomorrow, around two p.m.” She stares at me blankly. “For the party. Bring Miss Nosey too,” I say, nodding at Eva.

  Anna follows me to the door. “Thanks, and I’m sorry about Eva. She believes in love and romance and all that bollocks.”

  I turn to face her. We’re inches apart and I watch the way her tongue runs across her lower lip. “Do you believe in it?” I whisper, but she shakes her head. “Pity,” I add, and then I kiss her lightly on the head. It feels like such a natural thing to do that it’s only when I step outside that I register the shock on her face.

  When I get to The Windsor, Cree is in my pops’ corner, so I go to him. “You find anything out?” I ask. He nods and then offers me the bottle of bourbon. I drink straight from the bottle. “Okay, hit me with it.”

  “It’s Reggie for sure. The dead kid, the break-in at Anna’s— he knew about that guy and Anna going out on a date, so he took the guy’s nephew out.”

  I give a low whistle. “Fuck. Extreme.”

  “For sure. He isn’t kidding. He wants us to send Anna back to his side of the tracks.”

  I shake my head, because there’s no way that’s happening. “What is it with this woman, Riggs? You fucking her?”

  “No. Honestly, brother, I don’t know what it is, but I’m not sending her back to him. Did you find out when the injunction runs out?”

  Cree takes a drink from the bottle and hands it back to me. “Yep. You ain’t gonna like it. The judge granted it for three months. Long enough for Anna to find somewhere else to live. It runs out next month. After then, he can turn up at her house and she can’t stop him. It also means the visiting with his kid at the safe centre will come to an end. Do you thi
nk she knows all this?”

  I rub my beard and sigh. “I don’t know, brother. The only thing saving her at the minute is the banning order and the fact she’s this side of the tracks.”

  “The fact is he’s killing on our side without having to step a foot over the tracks. We can’t allow that shit to continue. How far is he gonna go to get her back?” Cree drinks from the bottle. “We gotta decide what to do, brother. If you aren’t willing to send her back, then we have to show him we’re not gonna take his shit.”

  “I know. She’s coming to the party tomorrow. I’ll corner her to see how much she knows about the injunction order. She isn’t saying much when it comes to Reggie.”

  Cree looks brighter. “Is she bringing her hot friend?” I nod and he grins. “My weekend suddenly got a lot better.”

  It’s almost half past two by the time Chains sets off to collect Anna and Malia. Ziggy is pacing by the gate waiting. He was so excited when I told him about his friend coming to play.

  Bonnie takes a seat on my lap, making sure to rub her ass against me. We’ve come to an understanding— she can fuck who she likes, but she spends the night in my bed. She rests back against me lazily.

  Ziggy jumps up on the gate as it opens and then he runs after Chains’ truck. I smile at his excitement when he sets his eyes on Malia. The kid really loves her. I move Bonnie from my lap and make my way over to where Anna and Eva are. “Ladies,” I greet. I kiss Anna on the head and she smiles shyly. “Drinks are in the bathtub over there.” I point to the overflowing old tin bath which Lake is topping up with ice. “Food is cooking on the grill and Gears will give the shout when it’s ready. The kids can’t get out of here, the fence is all the way around, so we usually let them run wild.”

  Anna smiles as Ziggy and Malia run past us towards the bouncy castle. Cree saunters over holding two bottles of beer. He hands the girls one each and winks at Eva. She blushes and I decide it’s the perfect time to whisk Anna off for a chat. “Follow me,” I say, gently taking her hand. I lead her to an empty picnic blanket, and she takes a seat.

  “There’re so many people here,” she says, looking around.

  “Yeah, these parties are popular and our other charters usually come up for the weekend.”

  “Charters?” she repeats. I forget she doesn’t know this life.

  “Our club is spread over different counties. All of us are the Kings Reapers, but I run the London Charter, Gunner over there runs the Nottingham charter, and so on. We’re a big club.”

  “Wow, who knew there were so many people that loved bikes.”

  I smile and lean back on my hands. “Visiting day for Malia tomorrow?”

  Anna looks sad for a moment. “At the contact centre this time, though,” she clarifies. “He can’t do anything there.”

  “Is that a permanent thing?” I ask. “Or will he eventually be able to see her outside of there?”

  Anna drinks some of her beer. “Do you stay with Ziggy when he visits his mom?”

  I scoff. “He doesn’t let me leave. The kid clings to my neck so tight, he practically chokes me.”

  “That’s sad that he doesn’t feel safe to stay with her. I’d hate that if Malia wouldn’t stay with me.”

  “He’s traumatised from living with her before he came to me. When she first gave birth to him, we tried to make it work. It was good for the first year and then she got into a bad crowd.” I take a deep breath. I hate talking about this shit, but with her it feels good to explain. “She left me, took my kid and ran. I didn’t see either of them for a year. When I found her, she was living in a run-down house with her so-called friends coming and going whenever they pleased. Ziggy was pale from never going outside. She didn’t feed him properly, so he was too thin.” I shake my head. The memory of the first time I saw Ziggy after I found them breaks my heart. “I don’t know what happened to him in the year he was with her, but he was a nervous wreck. I applied for custody and she didn’t fight it. I’ve had him ever since.”

  Anna gives me a sympathetic smile. “That’s so brave of you. Not many men would stand up and do that. He’s doing so well now, you wouldn’t know any of that happened by looking at him,” she says.

  “I can’t take all the credit. My mom, Frankie,” I point to where she’s sitting, “and my sister, Leia, help me a lot. I’m lucky to live here with the Kings because we’re one big family and we all take care of each other’s kids. It’s a free for all in there,” I smirk. “Ziggy loves it.”

  “Sounds amazing.” That sad look passes over her face again. “I don’t see my family all that much.”

  “No?”

  She shakes her head. “I grew up in care, so hearing Ziggy’s story touches me. I wish I’d had a dad like you to save me.”

  “You don’t know your parents?” I ask.

  “I know my mom. I went into care when I was three, but I still saw my mom for visits every few months. I was allowed to go back to her when I turned fifteen, but by then I was on a slippery slope to nowhere good.”

  “All teenagers go off the rails,” I reason, and she gives a snort. “So, you got in with a wrong crowd?”

  “I guess. My mom wasn’t one for rules, so I was free to come and go as I pleased. By seventeen, I was out drinking and hanging out in bars. That’s how I met Reggie.”

  “You were seventeen?” I ask. Reggie must have three or so years on me, which makes him at least six or seven years older than Anna.

  She nods. “Almost eighteen. He was twenty-four. I was pregnant and married within months. I didn’t have time to think it through.”

  We fall silent and I process what she’s told me. Reggie would have moulded her into exactly what he wanted. I’m conscious of the fact he could still hold some power over her. “Do you know the judge only gave you a short-term injunction? Reggie can have full visiting rights from next month on.”

  Anna chews on her lower lip. She almost looks vulnerable. “Yeah. It’s all Reggie would agree to. I took whatever I could get.”

  “What was the point?” I ask.

  “It gave me enough time to get away from him. We’ve separated a lot over the years. Usually, I find a place and he allows that space for a while, but then he makes me go home. It’s like he humours me— he calls it my tantrums. But this time, because of how serious it was when he hurt me, I decided to push for the injunction to give me time. A new female cop had joined the force and she wanted to do things by the book. She stood up for me all the way. She was amazing. She suggested I come here, where he couldn’t get to me so easily.”

  “So, you came here, got the space you needed, but now what?”

  Anna begins to chew on her thumb nail. “I don’t know. I’m done running. I guess it’s something I’ve always done. I know he knows where I am. I know he can come anytime he wants, but we seem to play this game of cat and mouse. I feel like I should do things differently this time so that he knows I’m serious.”

  “And moving over the tracks was your solution?”

  “I know he can still get to me. He can use other people. But so far, he’s left me alone. I know it won’t continue, but the peace has been nice. It’s only been a short time, but I feel like it’s different this time. He can’t just turn up here and drag me home like he’s done before.” She smiles sadly and I want to be the one who makes her smile again. “I think he agreed to the three-month banning order to give me thinking time. I think that he thinks I love him and I’ll go back to him.”

  “Do you love him?” I hold my breath waiting for her answer.

  “No. I did, but I don’t anymore.” She uncurls her legs from under her and straightens them out. I brush my finger over her foot and her skin breaks out in bumps.

  “He didn’t deserve your love,” I say quietly. I gently slide her foot out of her sandal and place it in my lap, then reach for the other and do the same. “You deserve a man who can treat you like a queen,” I add, rubbing her foot between my thumb and fingers. She groans and closes her
eyes, leaning back on her hands. I admire the way her cheeks turn pink and the flush spreads down her neck. I desperately want to see all of her, to see how far that blush goes.

  Eva and Cree come over and hand out shot glasses. They take a seat on the blanket and top up each glass with a clear liquid. “You two looked sad as fuck. We thought we’d cheer you up,” says Cree. The spell is broken, and Anna pulls her feet from my lap and crosses her legs. We clink glasses and drink. I wince as the liquid slips down my throat, burning as it goes.

  After a few more drinks, Anna relaxes. She throws her head back and laughs at something my mom says to her. There’s a feeling building in my chest and whenever I look at Anna, it gets stronger. I’ve not felt it since Michelle and I’m not sure if I’m strong enough to ignore it.

  “Pres, am I in your bed tonight?” asks Bonnie, sidling up to me on the blanket. I feel Anna glance briefly in our direction, but with Cree and Eva talking and my mom and Leia, I’m certain she didn’t hear.

  “I’ll let you know,” I mutter quietly.

  “It’s just I’m horny as fuck and I need—” I cut her off before she can finish her sentence.

  “Enough,” I growl. She presses her lips together and moves away from me.

  Anna pushes up from the ground. “Toilet?” she asks, and I point towards the clubhouse.

  “Straight through to the back. The red door.” I wait for her to leave and then I turn to my mom. “She’s nice, right?”

  “Really nice. Her kid’s sweet too. You wouldn’t think she was Reggie’s kid.”

  “You wouldn’t think she’d spent years with Reggie either. She’s so innocent to this kind of life. If he did anything right, it was that he shielded her from it all,” I say. “Can you keep an eye on Ziggy and Malia? I need to talk to Anna alone.” Mom gives me a knowing smile and I head inside after Anna.

  I meet her as she comes out of the bathroom. She looks up in surprise as my hands brush each of her cheeks gently. Her chest rises and falls and her tongue darts over her lips again. I move my mouth inches away from hers and she sucks in a breath. I smile right before I press my lips against hers. I kiss her with everything I have. I pour my soul into her because it’s all I’ve thought about since the second she sat on the blanket next to me today. Hell, it’s all I’ve thought about since she walked into The Windsor with her bad attitude. I back her to the wall until she’s cornered.