“What’s your game, Aspen?” Curtis pipes up now we’re alone.
“Game?”
I feign confusion and bite back the smirk I want to throw at him.
“You won’t say why you came home, you won’t tell me where you’ve been, so why don’t you tell me what you plan on doing now you’re back?”
“By the looks of it, I’m going to be working with my father. Come to think of it, if I’m going to be at his side, what need of you is there?”
Pushing out of his seat, the chair scrapes across the marble floor and he slams his hands on the breakfast table.
“You embarrassed me when you ran off. I wanted to track you down and drag you home, but your father had other ideas. You think you’re so clever, but have you asked yourself why he never came looking for his golden child and then welcomes her back not wanting any answers as to where you’ve been?”
I lose the satisfaction from knocking him off his high pedestal, because I have asked myself this, not that long ago either.
“Things might not go back to how they were before, but I won’t be pushed out, not by you.”
Placing my coffee mug on the table, I rise to my feet and run my hands over my shirt.
“Things will never be how they were before, but you can bet your ass the future will look nothing how you’ve imagined.”
I walk out, choosing to be around bikers who no doubt will want to kill me then be here with Curtis. He has no influence over me anymore, not that he had that much before.
Myles
“Where is he?” Grumps demands and I shrug.
Mason and I were commanded here half an hour ago and Mason is still yet to show his face. Fuck knows where he ended up last night after I walked out and headed for the cabin where the family are staying. For all I know he spent the night with the traitorous whore up in our room at the clubhouse.
“Text him, I want him…”
“I’m here, old man, cool yourself.”
He struts in like he’s the fucking king and I roll my eyes.
“Sit your ass down, boy.”
He falls on the chair next to mine and braces his arms on his thighs as he leans forward.
“I told you to come find me when you got back, you lose your fucking memory?”
“You were asleep by the time I got back, I’m here now.”
It’s funny, when we were kids and got into trouble, it was always Grumps who dealt with us. I can’t remember a time when our actual parents parented us.
We both know what’s coming and it’s easier to let Grumps lecture us and then be on our way.
“What’s going on with you two?” he asks first.
“Nothing.” This comes from Mason and he’s lying through his fucking teeth.
I’m not feeling nothing. I’m feeling a whole lot of fucking confusion over his actions lately.
“Last night you didn’t act as one.” Grumps locks onto Mason and adds, “You chose a woman over your brother.”
“It wasn’t like that,” he says straight on the defensive.
“The fuck it was,” I jump in and spit out. It’s exactly like that and Mason sighs.
“She had information we could have used.”
“It’s more than that. You both brought her here for whatever reasons you desired, but it should’ve ended when you found out who she was.”
“It ended for me,” I mutter, crossing my arms over my chest.
“But not for you?” Grumps asks Mase.
Mason grinds his back teeth together and drops his eyes to the floor. He’s keeping something to himself and for the life of me I can’t work out what it is.
“His dick is hard for her,” I offer when he says nothing.
He jumps to his feet and spins on me. “And yours isn’t?”
Pushing off the chair, it falls over in my haste and I step up, getting in his face. “Not since we saw her with her daddy,” I sneer at him.
“Hey, hey, hey. Cut this shit out and sit your asses down. Now.”
Mase is the first to back down and I pick up my chair, set it right and park my ass.
Grumps opens his mouth to continue this shit show when his phone rings. He’s quick to answer it and listens to what he’s being told.
“Okay,” he says and then hangs up. He looks straight at Mason and says, “The girl is back.”
“Of course she fucking is.”
“Listen to me, boys. This is how it’s going to go. The girl is back for a reason and you two are going to do your duty as Lost Souls, you will think and act like the men I raised you to be and not with your dicks.”
Grumps having finished his piece, stands and walks to the door, opens it and waits for us to get the hint.
Mase is first on his feet and I’m quick behind him. “Don’t let me see you two at odds again.”
With that, Mason heads for the clubhouse and he’s not hanging around. I catch up to him and match his pace once I’m at his side.
“You’re running to her?”
“I don’t run to anyone. Let’s go.”
“So we’re walking then?” I push on, laughing to myself. “I saw you, you know, kissing her last night.”
“It was nothing, she’s only pussy, right?”
“Right.”
Only, she’s not just pussy to him and he’s keeping it from me.
Aspen
Growing up I never thought about coming up here, to see what it was like or who the big bad bikers were. My mom told me her story about being married to a biker and then falling in love with my father. She told me all about how I was kidnapped by her ex-husband and how he had paid the price for his actions with his life. She explained how different they were to us and how we should stay away from them. My father told the story a little darker and embellished a whole lot more. Yet, as I walk up the mountain path towards the very men who were around at the time I was taken, I feel safer than I do at home with the man who should be my biggest protector.
A few brothers are lingering around outside the place they call a clubhouse and my stomach rolls over with nerves, anticipating their reactions to seeing me here on their territory. Cas wasn’t exactly pleased to see me last night, not after finding out I was Jacob’s daughter.
“Can we help you, Aspen?” Gabe asks from where he sits on his rocking chair on the veranda. He thinks I didn’t see him put his phone away, obviously he’s letting someone know I’m here.
“I need to talk to Mason,” I call out, coming to a stop by the steps.
I have no idea what I’m going to say but I do know whatever does come out of my mouth I want it to be Mason who hears it. Plus, being around him again won’t be a chore.
“I haven’t seen him about today, go home, and I’ll tell him you stopped by.”
“I can’t do that, I need to talk to him. I’ll wait.”
He sighs a little too dramatically for my liking and relents, saying, “It’s cold out here, get inside and whatever you do don’t make a scene.”
“I don’t plan to.”
He jerks his head towards the clubhouse, and I climb the steps and swing open the door just as Cas is comes walking out.
“You again,” he growls.
“I’m here to talk to Mason.”
“About?”
“I’m not saying anything unless it’s to him.”
Standing my ground, I smile when he says, “You’re becoming a pain in my ass, you know that.”
He steps around me and carries on walking across to his motorcycle. I step inside and the guy with colourful faded tattoos drags a chair into the middle of the bar area.
“If you’re waiting around here, you stay where we can see you,” he tells me and nods toward the chair.
Hearing his order loud and clear I take the seat and try not to stare at anyone for too long. After a while the guys don’t find me too interesting and concentrate on their own conversations, although they do keep their voices hushed so I can’t hear what they’re saying. Two coupl
es catch my attention and jealously ripples through me at their closeness. One couple, a dark haired guy with his arm around a pregnant woman is the perfect picture of family. The other couple, a stunning woman with the guy staring at her with such adoration I can feel their love all the way over here in the middle of the bar.
The door opens and Mason walks in and the tatted guy is quick to let him know why I’m here. Cas walks in after him and surprises me when he walks straight by us and sits by the fireplace.
“She says she’ll only talk to you,” he says to Mason and he’s dead right. I’m not dealing with anyone else. Not even Myles, he acts like I don’t exist to him anymore.
Mason comes over to me alone and Myles’ glare could cut through ice. I focus on the twin coming to stand in front of me and I stand to face him.
“I don’t know if you’re brave or crazy, but you need to start talking.” Is the first thing he says to me.
“I’m vengeful, that makes me stupid,” I counteract.
I move closer to him as if I’m being drawn to him and latch my fingers on his belt.
“My father wants me to cosy up to you so I can learn about your club. He wants me to be his spy.”
His eyes drop to my fingers and then back to me. “I think you’re playing games with me.”
“I’m not, I’m just not laying all my cards on the table.”
“So, show me your cards.”
“If I do, will you help me?”
“You’re the one who keeps coming back, you must sense that I will if I feel you’re on the same level as me.”
He’s right. I was raised to think of the bikers on the mountain as scum. They still might be, but not Mason. He’s different, I know he is.
“My father wants me to start working with him, but I want nothing to do with him. He’s using me the same as I am him and neither of us will admit it.”
“What do you want, Aspen?”
“I want to work with your club to take him and his businesses down. I don’t want to be pushed out or used.”
There, I’m giving my him my honesty, I hope he returns it.
“Then you need to talk to Cas. He’s a good man if you’re straight with him.”
I lean in closer and lean up on my tip toes.
“What if I only want to talk to you?”
He fights a smile and places his hand on my hip. From the corner of my eye I can see so many people watching us but it feels like we’re the only ones in the room.
“I’m sure that can be arranged.”
His voice is thick and rough and I’m becoming addicted. “We’ll go for a walk but when we return I need to give Cas something. No more keeping shit from us.”
“You have my word,” I promise.
His hand falls from my hip and claims my hand. In front of everyone. Not one person misses our hands entwined together, I don’t know if I’m embarrassed or if I don’t give a shit.
Outside, the sky is grey and fitting for the conversation we’re about to have. Instead of heading down towards town, he leads us further up the mountain, still clutching my hand in his.
“Are you going to start talking or are you waiting till we’re right at the top?” he asks, with amusement laced in his voice.
“When I was growing up, I thought my dad was a businessman. I never questioned what he did because it seemed so important, he always wore a suit, he was always on the go, always had important meetings to get to. I thought he was a big shot.”
My chest crushes in on itself. Such a wasted childhood, full of lies and broken memories.
“I soon found out that he wasn’t an important businessman the way I thought he was, the funny thing was he never hid it from me. When I look back over the years, he never openly made deals in front of me, or at home, but he never once lied and tried hiding what he did.”
“What does he do?”
“I’m really surprised you still don’t know, I would have thought the Lost Souls would know everything.”
“Well, Gabe hasn’t been too forthright with us.”
He doesn’t sound so happy about that and I can only imagine Cas is far from happy with him either.
“He controls who sells drugs in town, he runs prostitution rackets, and the last part I found out, he deals with very bad men in human trafficking.”
He lets out a soft whistle and comes to a stop. The opening in the trees gives way to a breath-taking view of the town far below us.
“You don’t deal in people like he does then?” I ask, not sure if I want to know and not sure if I already know they don’t.
“Fuck no. What gives you the impression we do?”
“Nothing.” I sigh and move closer to him. “I don’t know why I asked. For a while, after I left town, I saw everything and everyone differently. I didn’t trust anyone’s motives. If my own father could do such things, anyone else could.”
“We’re not all like your father, but we’re not all boy scouts either.”
I can handle a little bad boy and I’m liking Mason’s streak of badness.
“Do law abiding people actually exist?”
“I’m sure they do somewhere, but I reckon they’re a rare breed. Everyone breaks the law in way or another sometime.”
“How often do you break the law?” I ask, watching him closely as he smirks.
“Only on a day ending with Y.”
I should run as far as I can from this guy, instead I move closer to him and we continue to talk with nothing but the town for our view.
Myles
The beer in front of me has gone flat, I needed something to ease my building inferno of frustration and anger, but I can’t bring myself to drink it. I need to be clear headed. With the shit going on between with Gabe and Aspen’s father in town, and with Aspen messing with my brother, I have to be the one who watches his back while he’s too busy checking out her ass. It’s bullshit though, I’ve never felt alone like this, not knowing where my twin is or what he’s doing. It doesn’t feel good not knowing how she’s wrapping him around her finger while they’re alone somewhere out there. He put his neck on the line for her last night, after knowing her for a couple of days. Pure and utter bullshit.
“What’s wrong?”
The chair beside me screeches as Harper takes a seat and hands me a fresh bottle of beer. She untwists her water bottle lid and takes a large gulp.
“Nothing,” I mutter.
Like fuck do I want to put my troubles on her after everything she’s been through. She’s finally smiling and making conversations with everyone again; I don’t want to bring her down. There are very few people I class as friends but she’s a friend of mine and I care what happens to her.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without Mason before.”
“Now you have.”
I tip the beer bottle to my mouth and let the flat beer seep down my throat.
“What’s crawled up your ass?” This comes from JJ as he drags a chair around the table and places it next to his old lady. They’re good together, she doesn’t take any of his bullshit and he’s totally whipped with her.
“This bullshit place.”
Nothing has gone right since we left Willow’s Peak. We should be shutting this chapter down and returning home to make some money with the British guy.
“It’s not so bad, once you get used to the weather,” Harper feels the need to tell me.
“So, where’s Mase?” JJ asks and I squeeze the glass bottle in my hand.
“With Aspen…again.”
Harper leans closer and lowers her voice. “Why aren’t you with them?”
“She fucking played us, and he isn’t seeing it, or he doesn’t care. He’s different around her.”
There isn’t a single person alive I’d admit that to apart from Harper. JJ isn’t interested in our conversation, he’s happy to be close to her and people watch.
“So, you don’t trust her with him, or you don’t trust him with her?”
Thin
king on it, I come to the same conclusion and say, “Both.”
“Mason isn’t stupid, I think he’ll be okay. After everything he’s been through lately, I don’t see him letting her play him.”
“Have you seen him around her? The fucker forgets his own name. It’s like she’s put a spell on him, and he blindly follows her and hangs on her every word. We can’t fucking trust her and she says she’ll only talk to him and he’s letting her get her own way.”
“She could be genuine; I wasn’t upfront with the club, but I wasn’t against you.” Pointedly, I stare at her until she rolls her eyes and mock punches my arm.
“I appreciate you trying to help but this is nothing like your situation, we knew you. We know nothing about this girl, she’s playing games, I fucking know it.”
“And what if she isn’t and Mason really likes her?”
I tip my beer to my mouth and take a long pull as I mull over that thought. Shaking my head, I say, “She is, and he doesn’t.”
Only, I don’t believe my own words and they taste bitter in my mouth, not even the beer can wash it away. She can go fuck herself, I’m not going to let her drag my brother down.
“You pissed he doesn’t want to share her, Myles?” JJ snorts and I ignore him.
It’s not like that at all and talking of the bitch, she will appear. It annoys me how close she sticks to Mason. He searches me out and stiffly nods before leading the bitch over to Cas. Cranking my neck, I look over my shoulder and Cas is as happy to see her again as I am. Mason does the talking while she stands there watching Mason.
Cas’s anger rises with every word he hears, and he stands calling over JJ. He swiftly leaves with Sparky and my dad and none of the Mercy brothers. Mason talks with Aspen and she too leaves.
He watches her go and then his eyes swing my way. I don’t make a move to go talk to him, he comes to me.
“I’ll leave you to talk,” Harper whispers and disappears across the bar, she sits with Zach and Nina and has no cares in the world, lucky woman.
Their Fractured Souls: Sons Of Lost Soul MC Book Six Page 6
