by Addison Jane
“She thought she was going to show up with all the dramatics, and we were going to bend over and let her fuck us in the ass.” Texas laughed loudly as we walked back to the clubhouse.
It was true.
She had no fucking proof that Brooklyn was here, so she dragged all those officers out here with her papers and her threats that it would be enough. But obviously, she didn’t know her shit. She didn’t know that a few police, and a hope and a fucking prayer, didn’t work when you came for a motorcycle club. We weren’t scared of the police. We weren’t scared of lying. We sure as hell were not scared of some bitch who knows big words.
“How’d it go?” Shotgun asked as we stepped back inside. I was still forcing Kennedy’s body forward, scared that the second I let her go she was going to head straight back out the door again and go after that bitch.
“Kennedy told the Child Protective Services lady to suck her dick,” Texas announced loudly before he started to laugh again. “It was fucking classic!”
Everyone else had a laugh before things finally turned serious again. “They know Brooklyn’s here,” Huntsman explained as he ran his fingers through his beard. “We need to move her ‘cause now that bitch has been made to look stupid, she’s gonna come back with vengeance to try and make herself look better.”
“We can stay in the city tonight,” Shake offered. “Depending on how salty Carla is, it’s probably better if we get out of here and head home early tomorrow morning.”
Shotgun nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I think that’s the best idea. We appreciate you helping out with this one, Huntsman.”
“Yeah, I really appreciate you doing what you did for Brook,” Kennedy added, stepping forward. I let my grip on her finally loosen.
Huntsman dipped his head. “No problem. Family is family…” he paused then added with a devilish grin, “Plus, I thrive on fucking off law enforcement. It gets me hard.”
Meyah groaned loudly as her, Brooklyn, and Dakota made their way down the stairs, Diddit chuckling softly behind them. “My father, ladies and gentlemen.”
KENNEDY
I looked up at the huge building in front of me. I couldn’t even count how many stories it would be. It’d been a long time since I’d been in Vegas, and I swear the place was bigger now than it used to be.
“Excuse me, ma'am, I need your keys?” I spun around to find a young man with a maroon coat and a wide smile. He was a valet.
“Oh, right. Sorry,” I said, handing over my keys while the girls all giggled behind me.
“Do you need help with your luggage before I take the car?” he asked as Meyah threw all our backpacks onto the sidewalk. “I guess not,” he chuckled.
“We pack light,” Meyah assured him with a smile as she handed him some cash and winked.
He took the money, his cheeks flushing before he scampered around the car and climbed into the passenger seat.
“You made the poor kid blush,” Dakota teased, rolling her eyes. “I’m telling, Shake.”
“Telling Shake what?” I spun around to find the boys walking toward us. We’d used the valet because we had the car, while the boys had taken a side road down around the building, a place they’d obviously been plenty of times before, where they said their bikes would be secure. I still wasn’t quite sure what was going on, or how these rough and ready guys felt too fucking comfortable at a place as fancy as this.
“Come on,” Repo encouraged, grabbing my bag off the ground and tossing it over his shoulder before he reached for my hand. I was still getting used to the way this worked. I wanted to touch him, I wanted to be close to him, my body pulled me that way, but I had to fight it. He needed to make the first move, he needed to be the one to reach for me, that way he didn’t freak out.
We made our way inside the entrance, and I tried to keep my jaw from falling.
The place was grand—more than grand. Whatever the hell that would be.
There were chandeliers, there was artwork, and everything sparkled and lit up like the Fourth of July. I didn’t want to touch anything because it all looked so goddamn expensive.
“Holy. Shit.”
I looked over at Brooklyn who was simply spinning around on the spot with her mouth open, taking everything in. We weren’t used to places like this. Hell, I don’t think we’d ever been in a place like this. Our apartment was small, it was old, and we’d learned a long time ago just to be happy with what we’ve got and thankful for the little things.
“This is fucking awesome,” Brooklyn whispered when she finally stopped spinning and looked over at me with a grin. It was a smile I hadn’t seen on her face for a long time. This was like every Christmas and ever birthday present put together for the last ten years.
Because we lived in a club apartment, we didn’t have to worry about rent or power or water, and they gave me a small amount of money for food, but anything extra we needed, like school fees or gifts, that came from tips. And honestly, the type of men who came to the bar weren’t the type of men who appreciated women and how hard we worked. So tips were few and far between.
Seeing the sparkle in Brooklyn’s face, at that moment, just made me appreciate Repo even more. It reminded me that he could have walked away, he could have just let me turn around and leave with Crow to live however long back in hell. But he didn’t. He took a chance on me, and it was about time that I considered maybe doing the same with him.
Repo chuckled at my little sister’s awe and fascination, and we stood back as Shake approached the counter. A woman looked up at him, and just when I thought I was going to see that same old reaction that always came—shock, fear, surprise, one of those—she smiled. That was when I knew there really was something I was missing here.
I turned just slightly toward Repo and pushed up on my tiptoes. “Is this a club-owned place or something?”
He looked down at me with a raised eyebrow. “This look like it would be something the club would fuck with?”
I frowned. “No, that’s why I’m so confused as to why we’re here, and why you guys have your own parking and why…” I narrowed my eyes, reading the name tag of the women behind the counter, “… Lucy there, is not demanding that the riff-raff leave.”
Shotgun snorted from beside me as Dakota started to giggled. “For one, I take offense to the term riff-raff,” Shotgun noted in amusement. “And two, this is another good lesson about the difference between assholes like Red Riot and us.”
“Enlighten me, please,” I urged.
“Let’s get upstairs first,” Shake interrupted, nodding toward the elevators.
I pursed my lips but nodded and followed along. All of us filled two elevators, and when Shake hit the button for the eighteenth floor, my stomach sank just a little. “Uh… I tell anyone I don’t like heights?” I asked, squeezing Repo’s hand as we went up and up and up until I felt like fucking Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the glass elevator.
He just laughed, though. The eighteenth floor was quiet, it was simple, and when we were all out of the elevators, Shake pulled a bunch of key tags out of his pocket and started handing them to each of us. One for Rip and Dakota, another for Shake and Meyah, Shotgun and Myth each got their own before Shake finally held out another to me. “You guys are in the suite. It’s got two bedrooms. I figured it was easier to have Brooklyn with you and Repo than have to put one of the boys in to look out for her.”
I chewed my lip, nodding my head. “Thanks, I appreciate this,” I murmured, trying not to let my voice crack. These guys, they kept going above and beyond. They were something fucking else. Not only were they eager and willing to help me out and have my back, now that Brooklyn was with us, they were considerate of her too, making sure she was now a part of the equation.
“Don’t thank him just yet.” Meyah laughed. “You have the suite. So, when we get our shit sorted, we’re all meeting in your room.”
Dakota nodded with a wide grin. “Yup, that’s the rules. Give us a few minutes then we can d
iscuss what we’re up to tonight.”
“Excuse me?” Ripley questioned, raising his eyebrow down at her.
“Actually,” Myth interrupted, surprising everyone. “Can I talk to you guys for a minute?”
The boys all looked between each other before Shotgun nodded, and Repo pressed his hand against my back. “Take Brooklyn down and get sorted, I’ll be there soon.”
We could all see just how intense the look on Myth’s face was. His jaw was clenched tightly, and I noticed that since we’d stepped out of the elevators, he’s started flexing his hands and rolling his shoulders. Myth was usually pretty damn quiet. He didn’t really have much to say so when he spoke up, I noticed that the boys tended to stop and listen.
“You girls aren’t to leave the casino,” Shake ordered, making sure he looked all three of us in the eye. “I’ll call, let them know you’ll be there.”
Let who know?
I was still confused as hell, seeing these bikers in this pristine apartment that Shake had called a ‘suite’ and made to sound like a normal hotel room just with a separate bedroom, but it wasn’t that at all. It was bigger than the apartment that Brooklyn and I had spent the last fucking five years in.
It had a full kitchen, a full living room, separate dining area, and a laundry. Then on top of that, it had two separate bedrooms with king-size beds and their own bathrooms. Everything was clean, and new, and polished so that it sparkled.
I felt like I shouldn’t touch anything in case I broke it and ended up having to somehow find fifty thousand for a fucking cabinet handle or something ridiculous. They were all casual about it, but to me a place like this looked like it should have rich people in it, like millionaire businessmen, rock stars or like… the queen.
I knew I was being dramatic.
But when you come from nothing, the little things become big things, and the big things… well, they become the things that you never imagined in a million years you would have.
Dakota rushed over and held out a sparkly red halter-neck dress. “I picked this out for you when we were at the clubhouse. I was going to get it taken up because it comes well down past my knees.” Meyah snorted out a laugh and then tried to cover it with her hand. Dakota didn’t even turn to her, just held up her middle finger and continued to smile at me. “Which means it should fall almost at your knee and look amazing on you.”
“Go get dressed,” Meyah clapped excitedly, shooing me away.
I skipped down the hall, kind of excited that I was going to be able to go out with some girls, like my first freaking girls’ night.
Brooklyn trudged on behind me. “This is so unfair,” Brooklyn pouted, throwing herself back on the bed dramatically.
“Brook, you’re underage, you can’t get in downstairs,” I reminded her. Even though my little sister had to grow up fast and insisted that she was much wiser beyond her years, the bouncers outside the casino didn’t take that as a form of ID, so she was shit out of luck. “Ripley called in Rylan to come look af—”
“You’re kidding, right?”
I spun around and raised my eyebrow. “What’s wrong with that?”
“I don’t need a damn babysitter!” She leaped off the bed and began pacing the room. At one stage, she stopped and wrapped her arms around herself. But yet, she still didn’t explain what her animosity toward him was.
I frowned, confused at her sudden outburst—Rylan seemed like a good kid. “Brook, he rescued you, he put his ass on the line for you, and took a bullet to the shoulder in the process.”
“Yeah, all so he could get his patch,” she grunted, turning her back on me but not before I saw the hurt cross her face.
I placed the dress I was holding down onto the bed and walked around to where she was standing, just staring out the large window. The city sparkled now that the sun had finally set, and the shadows had crept in. I couldn’t help but smile as I stared out over the city, the lights decorating it like a giant Christmas tree, making the darkness seem not so scary. Making it almost kind of beautiful.
“Brook, him coming to get you, that was his job.”
“Then maybe he should have treated it more like one,” she snapped, spinning around to face me with tears in her eyes.
It was times like these I had to remind myself that while Brooklyn seemed older and more mature, she was still only a teenage girl. She was still figuring out who she was, what she liked, and how to control her emotions. Yet, she thought that she had, and she was ready to face the world and all it had to throw at her.
Maybe that was my fault. Maybe I should have played more of a parental role in her life and hid things from her—things that she shouldn’t have to see or have a part in. But instead, I confided in her. She was the one thing that kept me going. She was who I came home to at night and cried to when I’d had a bad day. She was my everything. She was the only one I had.
Maybe if I’d kept her more in the dark, then I wouldn’t be so shocked when I saw that child inside her. The one who still believed that puppy love was completely real. The one who thought that her and her friends would never drift apart. The one who had a knight in shining armor come and rescue her, only to find out he wasn’t a knight in shining armor at all.
She was the kid who didn’t get to be a kid because while I did what I could, she spent a shit load of time forced into adult situations where she was forced to lie and to look after herself, and sometimes me.
She had to protect me too.
Brooklyn had some naiveties, and she still hurt easily.
She hadn’t hardened yet.
And maybe I never wanted her to.
I wasn’t sure I would be able to handle my little sister without the sweetness and softness that only I really got to see. She tried to be tough, tried to throw on this bad-girl protective shield, but she couldn’t hide from me.
I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to my chest. She was also getting too damn tall now. I couldn’t cradle her anymore because she and I were almost the same height, but that didn’t ever stop me from trying. I wiggled us back to where the bed was and fell backward, pulling her into my lap and holding her bridal style.
She wiggled. “Kenzi, stop!” I refused, continuing to hold her as she struggled and rocked back and forth all while making a shushing sound. “Kenzi,” she cried, at the same time fighting the giggles.
“It’s okay,” I murmured, fighting the urge to giggle. “Just take my love.”
She threw herself onto her feet and backed away from me, shaking her head. “You are so fucking weird, you know that? So fucking weird.”
At least she was smiling again, and for a couple moments she’d hopefully forget about this stupid crush and just move on.
“Kennedy, we’re leaving in twenty minutes,” Dakota called through the doorway.
“Okay! I got it,” I called back before pushing off the bed and following Brooklyn back to the window. “I can just sta—”
“Hell no,” she exclaimed, spinning around and shaking her head. “You need to go, and you need to have some kind of fun. You’ve never had a girls’ night, Kenzi. You deserve it. I’ll be fine.”
My brows pulled together. “You won’t be fine. But you’re gonna pretend like you are anyway, right?”
The beautiful bold smile that I knew grew on her lips and she winked. “I’ll be fine. Maybe I’ll even get the opportunity to throw Rylan off the balcony or something. I’m sure that would make me feel better.”
There was my Brooklyn.
“Note to self,” I muttered under my breath. “Lock balcony doors.”
It wasn’t long before the girls rushed in and practically gathered me up and whisked me out into the hall. The boys had already disappeared, to where? I wasn’t really sure, but I knew that this was the first time in a long time that I felt like I could be excited, and I could look forward to the future because damn it, it started to feel and look pretty fucking good.
KENNEDY
We’d been sitting a
t the table for close to thirty minutes after making our rounds of all the other different games and machines. I was tired, but I was having fun. Dakota and Meyah were sweet, and they were funny, and they were just beautiful souls.
It actually made me miss Laken, and suddenly I felt this guilt in my stomach twisting and turning.
“Are you okay, Kennedy?” Meyah asked, reaching over and placing her hand on mine.
I nodded, but I was pretty sure the cringe on my face told another story. “I had a friend back at the club. The last week has been so crazy I keep meaning to talk to Repo about whether we can somehow get her out, or get in touch with her to see if she’s okay. She was with me from the beginning, and I never would have made it through without her.”
The girls’ faces both softened. “What was her name?” Dakota asked.
“Laken,” I told her with a smile. “You girls would love her. She’s feisty, and has a sharp tongue which got her in the shit a lot with the boys. And beautiful. The girl should have been a model.”
Meyah grinned. “Sounds like she’d fit in perfectly. Maybe tomorrow morning we can have a chat with the guys about it and see what they think?”
“Yeah, if Crow is really hanging around down here, now would be the perfect time to send someone up to get her,” Dakota urged, her head bobbing eagerly.
She was right.
Now could be a perfect time.
I missed her. She had my back constantly, and there was no way in hell I was leaving her up there to suffer while I lived this life where I could finally smile and laugh and be me. She needed to be here too. She deserved to be here.
“Excuse me, ladies, I need to take a brief break. Won’t be a moment,” our poker dealer Dan commented, dipping his head slightly as he backed away from the table. I looked over at Dakota whose eyes were narrowed on the guy as he walked away, looking back over his shoulder a couple of times before rushing faster toward the employees’ exit.
“Did that seem strange to you?” I asked, trying to force the nerves which were building back down into my stomach.
