“Miss Burton?”
I looked up to see Sheriff Jones making his way toward me.
“Apparently one of the inmates wanted to confess a little bit more about Vulture and the Anarchists,” he said. “Would you mind running this down to the Kings?”
Whose side are you even on?
“You’re not coming with me, I take it.”
The sheriff smiled as I took the paper from him.
“You said you could handle them yourselves. Just giving you the opportunity to show that.”
Oh, God, that is so not the reason you are sending me to do this, I thought. As soon as Sheriff Jones turned his back to me, I rolled my eyes.
But as the good officer that I was, I accepted the order, heading to the squad car and making my way back to the clubhouse. When I pulled up to the clubhouse, there were about three guys still playing poker.
Including Parker.
I took a deep breath as I turned the squad car off. Parker put his hand out to the other Savage Kings, telling them to stay back. I grabbed the paper, got out of the car, and walked over to Parker.
“Well, well, well,” he said. “This is mighty bold of ya. Ya don’t want to act out in front of the boss man, but as soon as ya can get away, ya—”
“Save it, Parker,” I said. “I came to drop off some intel for you. Sheriff Jones wanted me to give this to you.”
“Oh, and a phone call wouldn’t have sufficed?”
I didn’t respond. Parker got close enough that he towered over me—but, in turn, left himself open to getting hit in the groin if he tried anything inappropriate.
“Ya coulda just called, but ya still came over here,” he said. “I know, I know, you have to be professional. I get it. I was an active duty Marine once, ya know.”
“Really?” I said, a momentary lapse of weakness that showed Parker I was interested in some detail of his life. Unfortunately, Parker picked up on that. He grinned, turned and sent the rest of the Kings inside, and shamelessly eyed me up and down.
“Really,” he said back. “Would you like to know more, Miss Burton? I know you ain’t got anythin’ else to do. It’s late, your shift is almost over, and the sheriff’ll probably be home by the time ya get back.”
“Nonsense,” I said.
“Check your texts,” he said confidently. “Betcha he’s already said somethin’.”
I decided to humor Parker and grabbed my phone. There was nothing there.
“Told you—”
My phone buzzed. Nervously, I looked down at it. It was the sheriff.
“Calling it a night. You can go home after you drop off the intel. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“I knew it!” Parker said, clapping his hands. “So ya gonna listen to the man who really knows this town? Ya really gonna get to know me? Or ya gonna just do your job and then think about me anyways when you get home?”
Goddamnit.
I suppose it would be good to have more knowledge from an insider’s perspective.
“Ten minutes, Parker.”
3
Parker
Ten minutes was more than enough.
It wasn’t like I was trying to sleep with Liza Burton tonight, though I had pulled that off before. No, I just wanted to plant the seed that, with the benefit of time, would germinate into something the young woman could not control. She would have a budding desire that she couldn’t shake, and I would be the one to benefit from it.
I honestly wouldn’t have asked for it if she hadn’t reacted as she had to the fact that I was a Marine, but her face when she said that was the real one. Not the stern, “officer on duty” face. Not the one that threatened to me in the nuts. That one.
“If you really wanna know this town,” I began. “You have to start with the founder of this club. The great King himself.”
“So an actual king ruled this town?”
“Ya know what I mean,” I said, rolling my eyes, waving her over by the table. I offered for her to take a seat, but she refused. I guessed she didn’t want to get in the spot where I hovered over her. She was smart—or just stubborn. One of the two. “Landon and Brock’s daddy ran this club until about ten years ago, when Vulture—the Anarchists’ leader—murdered him. We had sort of a leadership by committee approach until Brock was ready to take over. But the important thing is to know what happened to the town.”
I cleared my throat.
“Ya see, it realized that it had a problem on its hands. The Anarchists just had more firepower than the police. No Anarchist was going to shoot the police, knowing that it would land the military on its ass, but the police also knew that they just couldn’t do what they needed to. It became this sort of weird standoff. But the town recognized this, and they knew the only group they could trust was the Savage Kings.”
I puffed up my chest a little bit.
“I joined about eight years back. I stood out immediately. See, down in Texas, we don’t take shit and we cut right through the bullshit in front of us. We ain’t let nothin’ get in our way. And so I was on the fast track to become an officer. The SOA right before me got killed by the Anarchists, and it was a no brainer to make me in charge.”
“I see,” Liza said. “And that’s what you wanted to spend your ten minutes discussing?”
“Ten minutes?” I said with a laugh. “Miss Burton—”
“Officer Burton.”
Hmm. That could make for some very kinky moments. I like it.
“Officer Burton,” I said, dramatically bowing and—thankfully—drawing a slight smile from her. “I wanted to spend two minutes giving you the requisite information. Now, I’m goin’ to spend the remainin’ eight minutes learnin’ bout you.”
“Nice try,” she said, turning around. “But you know that I only meant up to ten minutes, not a minimum of ten minutes.”
She started to turn to her car. I was not going to make it this easy for her. I sprinted in front of her and cut her off.
“Parker Knox,” she said. “Do you understand that I could arrest you right now?”
“Put me in handcuffs and make me your slave? Enticin’,” I said, drawing an eye roll. “I simply want to get to know you better. Is there anythin’ wrong with that?”
“No,” Liza said, which seemed to be an answer she regretted.
I was enjoying this little game we were playing. Those short moments when she let her guard down, when the real Liza poked through, told me it was worth continuing to play. I knew the difference between someone who genuinely had no interest and someone who was trying not to be interested but couldn’t help it. Liza was so far into the latter camp that it might as well have been named after her.
“Alright, sit down,” she commanded.
I did as she ordered, not even caring if she had complete control right now. I sat at the end of the table. She folded her arms and took a breath, presumably trying to make sure she scripted her answer exactly.
“I joined the LAPD about five years ago,” she said. “I have an interest in gang violence—”
“We’re not a gang.”
“For some personal reasons,” she said, blowing right by my statement. “Like you, I suppose, I ascended through the ranks pretty quickly. I’m not quite top dog like you are, as the LAPD is a big place and there’s a lot more competition. But I did get high enough up that my boss recommended I come here at Sheriff Jones’ request. So, here I am.”
That was a start. But that wasn’t really what I had in mind.
“Well, that explains Miss Officer Burton,” I said. “But I’m lookin’ for somethin’ a little more personal. Where ya from?”
She sighed.
“How is this relevant to my duties here in Romara?”
“Are you single?”
“Yes—”
She bit her lip. I had some victories I wanted to gloat about, but this wasn’t one of them. Even I had to acknowledge that sometimes, playing the game was better than ditching the game for blunt honesty.
>
“Why do you concern yourself with such questions?”
“I just like to get to know who I am workin’ with,” I said, which was the truth. “Since we’ll be workin’ with ya for some time, figured we might as well get to know ya.”
“And by we, you mean you, seeing as how no one else is here.”
I shrugged. I didn’t need to answer that. We both knew why that was the case.
“I’m from Phoenix,” she finally said. “Born and raised there. Went to school at UCLA. Became a cop. Here I am. That’s all there is to it.”
“Hmm,” I said, getting a little bored with the stale answers, even if I was learning more about her through them. “And your hopes and dreams? What do ya want to accomplish?”
“What is this, a psychotherapy session?” she said.
She checked her phone. I checked mine. We still had five minutes. She knew I’d call her out if she tried to bail.
“I want to become chief of police in a major city.”
“And a man?”
She snorted, her reaction a little too strong. It wasn’t over the top, but it was stronger than felt natural.
“I don’t concern myself with such matters under normal circumstances, and I certainly will not be dating while I am on assignment here in Romara.”
We’ll see about that, Miss Liza. You are some sort of challenge, and I like it.
“A beautiful woman like yourself, and ya ain’t even puttin’ yourself out there?”
A hint of a smile flickered over her face before she replaced it with a deliberate scowl.
“What I do with my personal life is none of your business, Parker. I—”
“But see, in a small town, ya quickly learn that your personal business is everyone’s business,” I said, rising from my seat, taking the chance to hover over her—and with a good half foot over her, that wasn’t that difficult. “That’s not to say ya ain’t got no privacy. But lemme tell ya somethin’, Officer Burton. This town has a lot of single men and not a lot of single women. A beautiful lady such as yourself comes trottin’ in, every man over the age of ten is gonna be lookin’ at you with their jaw dropped.”
I dared to do something that felt a little aggressive. I put my hand on her shoulder. Noticeably, she did not move it.
“Wouldn’t it make sense, then,” I said, leaning in, emboldened by what I had done. “To let a man who knows what he’s doin’ have ya?”
For a split second, I thought I saw a real look of arousal in her eyes. Their widening, her flicker of a smile, and the vibe I got told me I was getting to her. She even leaned in.
But somewhere in between the start of her leaning in and her actually speaking, she found that bitch side of her that told her she had to be lame and professional.
“I do,” she said. “And that man is Sheriff Jones. He knows exactly what to do with me. He knows where to put me, what to tell me to do, and how to do it. And let me tell you, he makes me very satisfied.”
I know she ain’t serious. But Christ, this is fuckin’ annoying.
“You see, Sheriff Jones doesn’t presume anything,” she continued. “He asks what I would like to do. And thus, when I do it, I enjoy it more.”
She stepped back, brushed my hand off of her shoulder, and smirked.
“He asked me to come here. Since I am here to help with the MC problem in Romara, it’s what I did. And that is all I’m here to do, Parker. It is not my responsibility to satisfy the urges of men who cannot control them and act like teenagers around me. So, as much fun as this has been, don’t take it the wrong way when I say that I already have a man I’m going to listen to.”
Was it possible to both be aroused by a challenge and pissed off at how the “competition” was playing? Because that’s how I felt right now. I loved the thrill of getting someone who would push back, but for Liza to use language that suggested she and the sheriff were in bed, even if that wasn’t at all the case…
“Well, luckily for us, Romara is a bit of a free love city,” I said, a hint of annoyance in my voice. “So—”
“So your ten minutes are up,” she said. “I did enjoy getting to know you Parker. I look forward to having a very professional relationship with you. You understand, right?”
Not even she, though, could help the truthful smile that crossed her lips when she said “professional.” I may not have gotten what I wanted here, but I knew that we were far from over. We would interact again, and I would not let the opportunity pass me by. It would just take me a few more rounds than normal.
“I understand,” I said with a chortle. “I very much understand. Ya have yourself a good evening, Liza.”
“Officer Burton.”
I winked at her. She turned, but not before a hint of a smile formed on her face.
Like I said, it would just take time.
4
Liza
That is one dangerous man.
I had to pull myself away as soon as ten minutes went by. I didn’t want to admit it out loud or even to myself, but Parker might have… just a little…
No, I was going to be a professional officer through and through. He had some good qualities. He had a way with words, and he had a way of getting me to admit things that I would not have otherwise. He provided a certain thrill and excitement that I hadn’t had in a while.
If I really wanted to be bold, I might even say that he was handsome. A little stockier than my personal preference, but he was a well-kept stocky. He knew what his body type was, and he accounted for it well.
But that was as far as I was going to go. I had already put myself in a bad spot by allowing him and only him to speak to me, and I was not going to let it go any further. Nope. I was not here in Romara to date or even consider the possibility of dating. I was here on strict official duty, nothing more, nothing less.
Still, as I dropped the squad car off at the station and then drove home, I could not shake what had just happened. I had never let any motorcycle club member get to me quite like that. No one had even gotten me to admit that I was single. There must have been something about Parker.
When I got home and stripped down to my pajamas and a single t-shirt, I thought about Parker. I tried to tell myself that it was more of a personal curiosity than anything else. It wasn’t something that I was actually going to follow through on.
Right?
Which is why you felt a certain way when you were near him. You felt that thrill, that… arousal. That excitement. You kept it at bay, but can you really do that forever? Can you keep him off?
You haven’t had release since you broke up with Jack. That was months ago. It’s small wonder that you’re feeling this way, Liza. Without any release, you’re going to be crossing boundaries.
I let my fingers drift down below and start to massage my clit. Gently, slowly, seeking release. I thought about the last time I thought about sex. I thought about Parker…
I quickly slid my hand out from my pants.
“What the hell, Liza?” I said out loud.
Just because Parker wasn’t here didn’t mean that I could just masturbate to thoughts of him. If I did that, as soon as I saw him, I was going to be thinking about him in a sexual light.
No, not even in the privacy of my own room could I let my guard down. The only way—literally—the only way I would give thought to sleeping with Parker or even kissing him was if he saved my life. And even then, if it happened in the line of duty, I suspected I would be able to handle myself.
That wasn’t going to happen, anyways. I’d been in shootouts, and I knew how to handle myself. Even if the Anarchists and Savage Kings broke out into all-out combat in the streets of Romara, I was not going to need help. I’d handle myself.
Sorry, Parker. Maybe if I had a different job. But I don’t, and that takes precedence.
We’ll just see how long I can hold out before my body can’t handle it anymore.
I made it through the night without thinking of Parker or touching myself
too much. I was horny as hell and wanted to get release, but every time I started up, thoughts of Parker came back. I couldn’t start without him towering over me, without his physical presence, without his aroma entering my mind.
When the morning came and my mind was clear, I was able to reach orgasm in bed. Parker entered my mind after the fact, but by that point, it just felt like a professional thought, like a client I’d have to deal with during the day, rather than something specific I needed to concern myself with.
I entered the station shortly before eight in the morning, seeing the sheriff with a half-finished cup of coffee.
“Morning,” he said. “Any trouble yesterday with the delivery to the Kings?”
“Morning, and nope,” I said.
I didn’t elaborate. Sheriff Jones didn’t need to know what silliness I had gone through.
“Good. Well, we’re going to set up some speed traps on the outskirts of town here. We’ve been getting word that some of the Anarchists are coming through our legal jurisdiction en route to other places, and if we can get them, we can then arrest them if they have any outstanding warrants. It won’t work for everyone, but it’ll get us some.”
“Sounds good to me.”
I hurried to drink a cup of coffee to wake me up before the two of us headed out. I took the north side of town, while Sheriff Jones took the west. For an hour, none of us had any motorcycles pass us by. I wanted to pull over one car going about 62 in a 45 mile per hour zone, but the sheriff advised me not to.
“You pull over a resident of Golden Valley, and they’ll be annoyed and pay the ticket later. You pull over an Anarchist, you’ve cleaned up the streets.”
It made sense. I just hated that people could just blatantly speed and get away with it. Maybe I was a stickler for the rules, but the rules existed for a reason.
Twisted Romance: An MC Romance (Savage Kings MC Book 9) Page 2
