“He wants to be a member.”
When Booker didn’t reply, I glanced up from the toast I’d torn apart and stuffed into my mouth. Seconds of silence stretched between us, and I watched the conflict of emotions that crossed his face.
“Don’t do this. You and I both know the kid doesn’t belong here. He will never fit in.”
“What the fuck do you want me to do, Booker?” I demanded. I’d lost my appetite completely. “He won’t stay away. I didn’t ask him to return to Smoky Vale. Fuck, I helped get him as far away from this place as possible, and still he found his way back to me. I’m done resisting. He’s old enough to make up his mind about who and what he wants. This is the only way I can keep him safe in this town. If everyone knows he’s mine, they’ll leave him alone.”
“Or they’ll use him to get to you if they know you’re in love with him.”
I scowled at Booker, but he didn’t even bat an eye. Loyal he was, but a coward he wasn’t. There was a reason he was my right hand and knew secrets nobody else did. “Nobody will dare touch him while he’s under my watch unless they have a death wish.”
“Either way, he can’t be a member of the club without first being a prospect,” he reminded me. “Is that what you want for him?”
Goddammit, I didn’t. Prospects were treated the worst, tested to their limits to ensure they were loyal to every Reaper that was a part of this club. They were fucked, they were humiliated, and they were given weapons to kill, drugs to distribute. They were basically at the mercy of every member of the club, becoming their bitch unless they asserted themselves.
Only very few had ever entered the club that way. Not too many had the guts to challenge an original Reaper.
Booker had and had won my respect. Jamie? He was so small there was no way he would survive being a prospect. Not to mention the fact that I didn’t want anyone else fucking my boy. We were used to sharing in this club. We were brothers. We ate together, and we fucked together. We lived together, and we died together. We were one. But Jamie was the one thing I could never share.
“He wants to be our club doctor,” I stated. Who was I trying to convince more: myself or Booker? “That’s an asset I don’t have to explain to you. A club with its own doctor is gold.”
“Then make him an affiliate, but a prospect will not do for Jamie. You’d only break that boy’s spirit.”
I couldn’t completely agree with Booker. I didn’t think we’d break Jamie’s spirit at all. He would survive prospecting, but I didn’t like the idea of what that survival would mean for him. I enjoyed him the way he was, unspoiled by all the violence and death in this shitty town. He was full of life and vitality. I didn’t want to see him react to taking his first life. For as long as I had known him, I had worked for that not to happen.
I didn’t respond to Booker but ate the food, even though I was no longer hungry. My eyes were trained on my boy, where he was sitting in the corner with the other bed warmers. We kept them around to make access easy for our men. They didn’t mind their status, and we provided shelter and food for their loyalty and sex.
They also performed other menial jobs around the clubhouse such as laundry and keeping the place clean. It gave them something to do and left them feeling important in a way very few understood. They lived to please us, whatever we wanted from them.
Whether or not Jamie knew what sitting at that table meant, he took it in stride. I remembered that about him. He never bitched about anything, and although he could be stubborn, he knew when to listen. Except when it came to him staying away from me. He had long since stopped listening to me about that. Having experienced him inside me last night, pleasing me the way many knew nothing about, I couldn’t say I was upset anymore.
Being around Jamie was soothing. Cass was laughing at whatever Jamie was saying. I winced, wondering how things might be different if Jamie knew I slept with Cass religiously when I wanted a quick fuck. He never said no and was willing to hop to several beds in the same night.
“What could they be talking about?” Booker asked, following my line of vision. “They have nothing in common. A doctor in training and the clubhouse’s hooker.”
“Cass isn’t a hooker,” I replied. “He doesn’t charge for his services.”
“He does for room and food. What’s that if it’s not a hooker?”
“Fuck, Booker, why are you getting so technical all of a sudden?”
Booker rose to his feet. “Because your boy wouldn’t be laughing if he found out that just a couple of weeks ago, we both had our dicks up Cass’s ass at the same time.”
“Cass is my past.”
“And Jamie has always been delusional and irrational about you.” He shook his head, chuckling. “Fuck knows how they trust him with those medical tools. If something ever happens to me, keep the crazy doc away from me.”
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“Have a talk with Leighton about the net batch of meth he should have hooked us up with from last week. I’m guessing since you’ll have your hands full with that one, it’ll fall on me anyway.”
I rose to my feet as well. “Thanks. I’ll meet you at our regular hangout after I get Jamie home.”
He nodded and strolled from the mess hall while I headed for the table where Jamie was sitting. He spotted me when I was halfway across the room, and his face lit up, lips curving into this big smile that had my heart dancing. I didn’t fucking dance.
I scowled, but that didn’t seem to faze him at all. “Hey, Daddy,” he greeted me when I came to a stop by the table.
“Come on. We need to get you home. You should probably take a nap before your shift begins.”
His face fell, and he glanced back at the other three occupants at the table. “But I was just getting to know—”
“Jamie. Let’s go.”
He promptly closed his mouth and nodded. I sighed with relief that he had been honest about not challenging me in front of my men. Without another word, he climbed to his feet and reached for the tray with his empty plate. He had finished his breakfast.
“Leave it,” I instructed him.
“Leave it?” he asked as if the very thought appalled him. “I can’t let anyone wash up after me.”
Cass jumped up and snatched the tray. “It’s okay. I’ll do it. It’s what we’re here for, and we don’t mind in the least.”
“You don’t?”
Cass shook his head. One glare from me and Jamie’s open mouth closed with a click of his teeth.
“Come on, let’s go.”
Jamie turned to his new “friends.” “It was nice meeting you, and hopefully I’ll be around often so we can hang out more while they”—he indicated a thumb at me—“try to play brutes.”
The others told him good-bye, much more subdued than Jamie. They acted more freely around the other men, but by virtue of being the president, they usually tiptoed around me. Later at night would be a different thing altogether.
I was aware of the eyes on us when we walked from the mess hall. I sensed more than just curiosity in Jamie. The Reapers who had been around for a few years now would already understand how off-limits Jamie was.
They had found out how serious I was about the boy after I had overheard an ex-member, Bandit, discussing what he wanted to do to Jamie, leaving nothing to the imagination. Jamie had been sixteen at the time, and boy, had I fucked him over good. If I believed in ghosts, his would have haunted me. Some of the club members had thought I’d dealt with him too harshly, but I’d needed to nip any ideas anybody else had in the bud.
“Wow, that was some experience,” Jamie said when we walked out of the club and were heading back to my house.
“I’d apologize for Clem, but I hardly think it’s warranted,” I replied. “He’s a fucking tool, and I wish I could say it won’t happen again, but it might. We’re not dealing with a bunch of white-collar businessmen here, Jamie. This is the real shit, and just because some of us seem nice on the outside doe
sn’t mean we don’t get blood on our hands.”
“But that’s just it! Sunny was a hotel manager, and she gave it all up to live this lifestyle. I think I can do it too.”
I stifled my groan, not wanting to feed his enthusiasm. Sunny wasn’t the only one who had left a good life to join us. Some hadn’t quit altogether but juggled their job during the week, then came down to party on the weekend and show off their wild, kinky side.
“We’ll talk about it some other time,” I told Jamie. One glance at him revealed his pouty lips. “Right now, we just need to get you home. Come on.”
Chapter Eleven
Jamie
“You should get inside,” Grimm said, moving me away from him, but instead of obeying, I dug my heels in. My eyes caught the wetness of his lips, which I’d been kissing just a moment ago. Unable to resist, I leaned in and captured those lips with mine again. The groan that shuddered through him filled my being, and I sighed against him, burrowing closer into the powerful arms of the man I’d been set on marrying since I was thirteen.
His large hands rested on my narrow hips as he pressed me into the V of his legs. The rigidness of his thick thighs beckoned me as close as I could get. I was drunk on years of anticipation and now finally getting my way. I never wanted to be away from him again. I loathed having to part from him and go our separate ways, even knowing that it wouldn’t be for long this time.
“Daddy Grimm?” I asked when our lips parted again and I wrapped my arms around his neck, peering up into his face.
“Hmm?”
“Are you glad I’m back?”
My question was met with silence. I frowned at Grimm, devastated at his lack of words. I had thought last night and this morning had pushed us past the inhibitions he had of me being back in Smoky Vale. Apparently, I was wrong.
“Grimm?” I pressed. “At least lie to me and don’t break my heart again.”
“You won’t die from a broken heart,” he replied and gripped me harder as if he hurt just from the thought of me dying. “But being with me might kill you.”
“So, are you saying you’re glad I’m back?”
“I’m saying you being here terrifies me,” he answered, his hands traveling up my back lightly. “I’m saying having you back has made me the happiest man alive but also scares the fuck out of me.”
That was all I needed. It was enough for now. I hugged him, sensing his worry, which warmed me inside. If I were unselfish, I would have left town so his mind could be at ease. But I wasn’t a martyr, and I didn’t want to live without him. I’d be grateful for whatever time we had together.
“We’ll be fine,” I stated, resting my chin on his shoulder.
We probably looked odd, embracing in my father’s driveway while he sat on his motorcycle, especially since my father’s car was parked up ahead.
“James Dehaney, get your butt inside the house now!”
Speak of the devil.
Grimm’s body went on alert. I pulled back from him and spun around, the moment shattered. My father stomped down the steps of the porch, dressed in tailored pants, an undershirt, and socks without shoes. It wouldn’t surprise me if, at any point, steam started blowing from his ears or flames came shooting from his glare. He halted a few feet before us, and I situated myself neatly between him and Grimm.
I wanted them to get along, not to fight over whether or not Grimm and I belonged together. My father’s position on the matter would probably never change. I couldn’t even blame him, because he was just being concerned like any good father. Still, it sucked to have him treat me like a little kid in front of the man I’d made love to last night.
“Dad, you’re embarrassing me,” I muttered.
“I’m embarrassing you?” he spluttered, the veins in his face and neck throbbing. “I’m embarrassing you? You’ve been out here sucking face with this hoodlum in broad daylight where any of our neighbors can see you, and I’m the one embarrassing you?”
Heat rose in my cheeks, and annoyed, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Well, this has nothing to do with you. I’m not picking and choosing who you sleep with. I’m old enough to decide who I hang out with.”
“Boy, you talk to me like that again, and I’ll knock the senses you’ve left in Boston right back into you.”
Despite his threat, I was not afraid. Dad would never raise a hand to me. It wasn’t the first time he had threatened to knock some sense into me about my friendship with Joel and my fixation on Grimm. He’d never followed through, though, and I didn’t expect anything less now.
“I’m not a—”
“Jamie, don’t sass your father, boy.”
At the quiet sternness of Grimm’s voice, I swallowed my combative words and peered at my shoes, sulking that I didn’t get to have my way. “Nobody’s telling him he can’t talk to me like that. I’m not a child. I’m an adult.”
“Who happens to live under your father’s roof,” Grimm said gently. “There’s no excuse for you to be disrespectful to him, especially when his anger is really directed at me, and I can’t say I blame him either. I would have felt just the same had our roles been reversed and this was Joel instead.”
“I don’t need your intervention to deal with my son!” Dad snapped at him, then turned his head back in my direction. “I mean now, Jamie. Get inside the house.”
I wanted to balk, to protest, and absolutely refuse to do what he said when he was using that tone of voice with me. I would have too, but Grimm gave me a look that said I wouldn’t like it if I continued arguing with my dad right there in front of him. The last thing I wanted was to make him mad at me.
Joel and Grimm had a wonderful relationship, never arguing like my father and me. I didn’t respect my father any less than Joel did Grimm, but my dad was infuriating.
“Fine.”
I stiffly marched toward the house.
“Half-Way?”
Hopeful, I turned back toward Grimm. “Yes?”
“Apologize to your father.”
I stared at him in disbelief, my eyes bugging out. He wanted me to apologize to the man who’d just insulted him and would no doubt continue to be insulting once Grimm was gone?
“Don’t,” Dad snapped. My head spun in confusion about who to listen to. “Just do what I told you and get inside.”
“You know that’s no way to talk to your father,” Grimm insisted. “If Joel spoke to me that way, an adult or not, I’d have washed his mouth out with soap, and you know I would.”
Yes, he would. He had. It had been my fault, of course, cussing a blue streak, which Joel had imitated just as his father walked into the house. We had both been twelve, a few months after meeting both Joel and Grimm for the first time. Grimm had taken us both to the bathroom and washed our mouths out with soap. I still cussed every now and then when provoked, but Joel, to the best of my knowledge, hadn’t uttered a cussword since.
“Jamie, do as I say,” Dad remarked.
I groaned. “Dealing with you two is making my head hurt. I’m going to bed. Dad, I’m sorry. You know I don’t mean to be rude to you. If you’d just stop pushing so much.”
Without another word, I headed for the steps. I took them two at a time and didn’t look back until I was inside the house. I should have gone to bed just as I had said. I needed to get some sleep in before assuming my shift at the hospital, or I’d never be able to complete the sixteen hours without incident. Already one senior doctor disliked me, as was evident in the way he talked down to me.
I hurried over to the nearest window from where I could see the driveway and pulled the curtains apart slightly. Frustrated that I couldn’t hear what they were saying to each other, I stared in vain at their lips. Their discussion was heated, my dad’s hands all over the place as he gesticulated with wild, angry movements. Dad poked Grimm in the chest, but Grimm remained calm, although if the tension in his shoulders and the way his jaw clenched were any indication, he was nearing his patience with Dad.
Even
tually, their conversation ended, and Grimm settled his helmet onto his head and straddled his bike. He gave Dad a salute to which Dad flipped him the bird. I burst out laughing. And they think I’m being childish.
Dad strode toward the house faster than I’d anticipated, and he was inside just as I dropped the curtains. His nostrils flared as he scanned the room and found me.
“What the hell are you doing with your life, Jamie?” he asked, but surprisingly, his tone was gentle and calm, which completely threw me off. I had expected him to yell and rant. Emotional, angry dad I knew how to deal with perfectly. Calm, rational dad was harder to convince that he was the one in the wrong.
“Learning what it means to love.” The answer rolled off my tongue naturally. I had spent years gearing up for this moment, and there was nothing but confidence that I was right where I belonged. That my heart had found its home.
“We both want the best for you,” he continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “We want you to live and thrive. You know he’ll understand if you change your mind and go back to Boston. In fact, he may be relieved.”
“I’m not leaving Smoky Vale,” I replied on a sigh. “I really wish you’d accept that, Dad, and stop trying to get me to change my mind.”
When he came toward me, I braced myself, but he simply placed his hands on my shoulders. “Son, you know I want the best for you at all times. I’m trying to do right by you as a father. Go to bed and get some rest. I’ll take you to the hospital to start your shift.”
I blinked at him in surprise. “You will?”
He nodded. “It’s the least I can do. Go on up.”
I threw my arms around him and hugged him, not even fazed by the fact that one minute ago we had been arguing. He embraced me, patting my back, and a part of me felt guilty that I worried him so much.
“I’m really sorry I can’t do what you want, Dad,” I told him. “But what else am I supposed to do? I’m in love.”
He sighed, squeezing me to him, then releasing me. “We’ll talk about it another time. Now go to bed. I’ll be at work, but I’ll pop in to drive you to the hospital. You still have that nurse who drops you off when you’re done?”
Biker Daddy (The Grimm Tales of Smoky Vale Book 1) Page 9
