Corrupt Honor: A Motorcycle Club Romance (Rough Jesters MC Book 3)

by Brook Wilder

  Sure, I had been taken to jail numerous times, but after what happened to Alisha and me over this picture, the last thing I needed was a trip to jail. Someone was out to get us, and I wasn’t sure who yet.

  “Finally, you are right where you deserve to be.”

  Jon grinned at me, clearly pleased with himself.

  “Go fuck yourself, will you?”

  He sauntered over. “You might not want to use that phrase where you are going. Might be taken out of context.”

  I grinned back, not showing an ounce of concern. “You understand we keep a very good lawyer on retainer, right? I’ll be out in a matter of hours.”

  “Maybe,” Jon stated, crossing his arms over his chest. “But she won’t be waiting for you. Look at you, a common criminal. ATF agents can’t cross that line and I can guarantee Alisha won’t again.”

  Something in his voice made me pause. Jon had been on my shit list, but would he be willing to ruin Alisha’s career over her rejection? “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing, nothing,” he said. “All you need to know is that I will take very good care of her when we head back to Virginia. She will be heartbroken, you know, and I will be there to comfort her.”

  I was off the bumper and in his face in seconds. “You’re fucking lucky these cuffs hold me back from punching your damn nose through your face.”

  Jon chuckled, though he did take a step back. “I can’t wait to book you, Owens. It’s the highlight of my day.”

  I growled as he walked away before slumping against the bumper once again. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. Tonight was supposed to be the night we figured out what to do with the Aztecas. Now with Salamanca dead, likely killed by Lopez, we had to come up with a new way to take out the Aztecas. Rex had pushed aside any chance of a truce, knowing we wouldn’t get anywhere with the commander.

  Cue tonight. Had the feds not butted in, we would have been ambushed, with a few Jesters dying before we could gain control. Whoever had tipped off the meeting and the Aztecas attack had saved our damn lives.

  Even if we were in handcuffs now.

  I caught a glimpse of Alisha standing near a cluster of agents, giving orders and a spurt of need shot through me just at the sight of her. In her element, she was fucking hot.

  It was also the first time I realized how she must feel about me and the Jesters. All this time I’d thought she wasn’t being fair about me being a Jester, that we could work through it and still co-exist together.

  But I was the one in the handcuffs and she was the one standing over there. Maybe there was something in her words. This was the sort of thing we had been heading toward and no matter what I did, my chance of this happening again would be pretty high.

  Shit.

  I had also been selfish. Why had I thought she should leave the career she had worked so hard for when I could easily do the same? I could walk away from the Jesters just as easily.

  Alisha was worth it.

  The question was, could I do it? Could I walk away from everything I had known to be with her?

  Well, provided I got out of this shit and was able to cross county lines, there was a chance. The feds wouldn’t find much to hold us, and our lawyer would be all over them by the time the sun rose, but I could be put on probation.

  Probation meant staying put while Alisha went back to Virginia with that asshole.

  Alisha turned and I stood up straighter, hoping she would glance in my direction. There was a shit load of stuff I needed to say to her, needed to apologize for. I had gotten her into a mess, and I should have stayed away for her sake.

  Either that or turned my back on the club so I would be free to be with her.

  Dammit, there was no easy way around this.

  Alisha didn’t look at me and I blew out an angry breath. I felt like a puppy in the store window, hoping to be adopted. If she had looked at me, though, what would I have seen? Something I probably wouldn’t want to see. There would be hurt, likely disappointment, and I hoped not hatred.

  I couldn’t let her walk away again, but in order for me to have anything to say about it, I would have to get myself out of these cuffs.

  “Dammit man, quit staring at her. You are making me uncomfortable.”

  I looked over at Rex, that shit eating grin on his face. “I’m hoping my rugged good looks will get her to come over here and take these cuffs off.”

  Rex laughed, drawing the attention of the agents around us. “Don’t bet on it. They just busted the biggest group of shitheads this county has seen in quite some time. They will be partying until dawn once they get us all booked.”

  “I fucking screwed up,” I said in a low voice. “I should have gone after her.” I should have never let her walk away from me the first time.

  “We all screwed up,” Rex sighed. “I’m just glad the women weren’t here tonight. At least someone will be able to bail us out.”

  Though Rex was joking, there was an underlying worry in his voice about his wife and her club. It was the same worry I felt for Alisha, but in a different sense. I worried about how she was going to feel seeing me in that holding cell, or in court, where she would have to testify about this night.

  I worried about her walking away from me, again.

  ***

  They took us to the local county jail, Jon wasting no time booking me and throwing me into the holding cell with the rest of the Jesters. At least they were smart enough to separate the groups, putting the Aztecas in another holding cell on the opposite end of the building.

  If they hadn’t, they would have been mopping up the blood.

  I hadn’t used my one call, the only person I would have cared to call somewhere in this building. Rex had called Kris to let her know what had happened, and to start gathering the bail money to get us all the hell out of here.

  The sooner the better.

  It was two hours before the door opened and I stiffened when Alisha walked through, her boots ringing on the concrete floor. Her eyes met mine and I stood, coming over to the bars. “Someone knew.”

  She sighed, the exhausted look making my stomach twinge uncomfortably. I was probably the cause of her exhaustion. “Seth, I… there’s nothing I can do about this. I hope you know that.”

  I gripped the bars, wanting to reach out and touch her face, to show her I was stronger than she thought I was. “We will be out of here in no time. Don’t worry about it.”

  “That’s just it,” she said, dropping her voice. “They are transporting the Jesters to Dallas tomorrow. You are too close to this town and the ones surrounding it. They want you to be in an unfamiliar playing field.”

  “We can bond out,” I said quickly. “We will be gone before they can transport.”

  Her eyes grew sad. “Bond was denied. I’m sorry.”

  Well shit. I gave her a half grin. “Don’t worry about it. We will figure out a way.”

  To my surprise, her eyes filled with tears. “I found my sister’s killer.”

  I gripped the bars tighter. “Who is it?”

  “Lopez,” she swallowed, looking away.

  “I’ll fucking kill him,” I vowed, the iron biting into my hands. I wasn’t surprised. He was a bastard and now I had another reason to end his life.

  “No, you won’t,” Alisha said, turning back. Our eyes met and I sucked in a breath, not liking what I saw. “It’s over, Seth. I can’t do this anymore.”

  “Alisha,” I started, my heart icing over. “Don’t do this. Don’t give up.”

  She let out a tortured sound. “We can’t be together. Do you not see what’s between us right this moment? This will always be between us, no matter how hard we try to ignore it. It’s best we just break it off for good this time and walk away.”

  She was fucking killing me. “I understand you’re scared, but this will work itself out.”

  Alisha shook her head. “I’m sorry, Seth. I truly am. Just, take care of yourself, will you?”

  She was
saying goodbye again.

  I couldn’t have her say goodbye to me. “Give me a chance to fix this, Alisha.”

  She leaned forward, pressing her lips against mine before moving back so I couldn’t reach her. “Goodbye, Seth.”

  “Shit,” I swore as she started to walk away. “Don’t leave me.”

  But she did, walking through the door and letting it close softly behind her. I stared at that closed door, hoping she would come back through and say she couldn’t live without me.

  She didn’t and I let go of the bars that separated us, the same bars that had just slammed on my heart. Alisha was gone.

  I slumped on the bench, running my hands through my hair roughly. Alisha had been part of my life for, well, all my adult life. She had always been there, even when she was gone during those ten years. My mind drifted back to the first time I saw her, dressed in a short skirt and a top that showed off her gorgeous rack, and instantly I knew she was going to be mine. Her come hither look had reeled me in so tightly I hadn’t realized the hold she had on me until it was too late, and by then I didn’t care.

  Now, though, I felt like I had just lost everything.

  “I wasn’t eavesdropping, I swear,” Rex said as he dropped beside me. “But the look on your face tells me that didn’t go very well.”

  “She’s leaving me,” I said sullenly. “There’s nothing else to say.”

  “Didn’t she come back the last time?” Rex asked, stretching his legs out before him. “I wouldn’t put too much faith in her words, man.”

  I shook my head, unable to form the words on my tongue. This time I was on the other side of the bars, unable to take her into my arms and remind her why we needed to be together. I loved her, far too much, yet I couldn’t even fucking show her because of who I was.

  And who she was.

  I hated myself at this moment. I hated that I hadn’t gone after her all those years ago, instead staying where I was comfortable and losing the best thing that ever happened to me.

  Now it had happened again. I should have given my resignation the moment Alisha walked back into my life, giving us a damn chance to co-exist, yet I hadn’t. I thought it would work itself out.

  Instead I was sitting in this cold cell without her.

  Chapter 17

  Alisha

  I was getting drunk.

  Downing the tequila shot, I motioned for another, dropping the shot glass next to an empty one. The bar was vacant considering the night, but I didn’t care if anyone ever showed up.

  I wasn’t in the mood for conversation.

  The bartender came up with the bottle and pushed it in front of me. “Looks like you just need the whole thing,” she said softly. “When you get ready, I’ll call you a cab.”

  “Thanks,” I muttered, grabbing the fifth. That was the best part about a woman bartender. They could damn well read your mind.

  If only someone could read my heart right now.

  Pouring another shot, I watched as the amber-colored liquid filled the two glasses. After seeing Seth, I wanted to dim this pain pressing on my chest, to forget I had just left my heart back in that jail cell.

  Oh, how I wanted to tell him it was going to be okay! Actually, I hadn’t wanted to see him at all, but after I learned about the transport and bail denial, I knew I couldn’t just leave without telling him. I knew the Jesters too well, and their lawyer on retainer. Heck, I had used him a time or two.

  This time, it wouldn’t work. This time they would be sent to Dallas and face jail time for everything they had done.

  The only consolation was that the Aztecas and Lopez would have the same fate. Some would be deported back to Mexico, but I was betting Lopez, with everything I had on him and now the knowledge of him killing my sister, would be sentenced to die. Knowing he was dead was going to be the only way I could move on.

  Without Seth.

  Throwing back another shot, I tried to dim the memories of him, of when I met him for the first time, when it all started, and I had lost myself to him. Seth would never know how much he had impacted me that night, and how I knew he was the one, even at sixteen.

  ***

  “Whoa. I got you.”

  I clung to his strong forearm as he escorted me out of the clubhouse, my own two legs refusing to work. My head was spinning, as it always did after a night of partying, but tonight I wasn’t having sex with some random dude in the back room somewhere.

  No, this tall gangly fellow was helping me out of the clubhouse, away from the party. “What are you doing?”

  He pulled me closer as we navigated the stairs. “I’m taking you home. You’re fucking drunk off your ass and might make the wrong decisions tonight if I don’t.”

  I let out a laugh. “I always make the wrong decisions. Why do you think I’m in a place like this?”

  He chuckled. “Darling, we aren’t all bad.”

  He was warm, his laugh was warm, and my body sent out all the signs of interest even through my drunken haze. “Who are you again?”

  “Seth,” he responded. “I’m Seth.”

  “I like you, Seth.”

  “I like you, too.”

  He poured me into a truck and fastened my seatbelt before shutting the door, allowing me a moment to gather my thoughts. I was tired of partying, that was my thought. Night after night I came to this clubhouse, hoping something would come of it, that they would ask me to become part of the Jesters.

  I partied with the best of them, hoping they would see I was tough even at my age, but I had yet to be asked and I was starting to get pissed. My parents hated me, I was in danger of being dropped a grade in school, and my sister even beginning to get on my case.

  No one could even remotely understand what I was going through.

  Seth shut the driver’s side door and cranked up the truck, the old model rumbling under my seat.

  “I don’t think I can tell you where I live,” I slurred, laughing.

  “No worries,” he answered as he pulled away from the curb. “I think I can figure it out.”

  I leaned my head against the seat of the truck, enjoying the smell of motor oil and grass emanating from the cab. This guy was a real man’s man, even though he didn’t look much older than me. “You’re too nice.”

  He chuckled. “Darling, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Now go on and take a nap. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

  As I drifted off into the black darkness that always accompanied me nowadays, I was lulled by Seth’s voice singing along with the radio.

  Now this guy was a keeper.

  ***

  Back then, I hadn’t thought anything could tear us apart.

  How wrong I was.

  Sighing, I looked at myself in the mirror behind the bar. Right now, I should have been feeling relief this job was finally over with, that I had captured everyone, and after some paperwork, could go home.

  I didn’t feel any happiness, any elation over what I had done. The people, the Jesters in that jail cell, had been my family at one time.

  Seth was in that jail cell. He had begged me not to go, not to turn my back on him, and I did it with tears streaming down my face. That hallway had been the longest hallway of my life, but I had forced myself to move.

  I couldn’t help him. I wanted to. I wanted to put my keys in that lock and break them all out. Every fiber in my being knew if I let them be transported, that was it.

  I would be saying goodbye to Seth.

  This was extremely hard for me and I hoped he understood that. I didn’t want to walk away, but we were in two different worlds, and with him being arrested this time, I had no choice.

  This was bigger than me and if I helped him escape, I would be facing federal jail time. There would be nowhere for us to run, nowhere we could hide with the government trying to track me down.

  That was no way to live. It was better that I let him go and hope the courts go easy on him than to be a criminal on the run. I could put in a good word, which I would
do, but I wouldn’t be there to watch him go to jail.

  God, what was I doing? I was running away again, from the only thing that made me happy in life.

  “Whoa. You celebrating by yourself already?” Jon slid onto the stool next to me.

  “Yeah I am.”

  He signaled for a drink, loosening his tie in the process. “We did it, Alisha. We took them all down.”