We shower together, making me hard again, but I refrain from trying anything. I could easily spend all day in bed with her, but this shit with the Rail Wreckers is literally at my back door. I can’t get lost in pussy and forget what’s right in front of my face.
I look to Talia as she washes her hair and the water cascades beautifully down her body. Yes, I need not forget what is right here.
Danger.
Ten
Talia
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.” J.R.R. Tolkien – it is far too easy to find myself lost in him, Talia
What in the hell is wrong with me? First last night, I felt my body practically begging the stranger to take me in the bathtub. This morning, if he hadn’t grabbed my hips to control my motions, I was going to let the tip slide inside of me.
I’ve never been so wanton and ready to combust in my life.
Even in the shower, I wanted him to press me to the wall and sink inside of me.
Only, I’m not sure he will fit.
I’m not practiced in having sex, and I haven’t seen many penises in my life, but the one attached to his body seems jumbo size.
But it’s more than what he can do to my body.
I have this undeniable connection to him on such a level I would swear he’s a drug I’m high on. I don’t know why he wears sunglasses all the time, but seeing his eyes this morning, I was addicted to him instantly.
I’ve never seen eyes like his. They draw me in, and I swear they’re never letting me go. Closing my own eyes, I picture his again. They’re almost like a beautiful seashell with layers of color that the more I look, the more I see.
We’re on his bike after making a pit stop at a department store where Koa bought me some biker babe appropriate clothes. I feel like my debt to him growing, but not having my backpack anymore, I’m left with no other options outside of his generosity. Right now, I’m in faded black skinny jeans, black boots, a yellow tank-top that clings to my body like a second skin, topped with a black denim jacket. While it seems a little warm for the jacket, Koa says road-rash is no joke, so the more skin I cover when on his bike, the better. He even bought hair ties and braided my hair for me to avoid tangles.
We arrive at the Kings of Carnage clubhouse, a converted old fire station. Anxiety builds inside me as Koa parks his bike. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, so I wait. He holds a hand out while balancing the bike.
“Grab my hand if you need to, or just use my shoulders, but you climb off, Teineitiiti.”
I figure it out, and as soon as my boots are on the ground, Koa pulls me to him for a kiss, right here in the open. At first, I resist, but the moment I inhale the scent of his leather cut and Koa, I give in, kissing him back with everything inside of me.
“Damn, maybe I wanna keep watching,” someone mutters behind us as I pull away.
Koa laughs, “Nothin’ to see here, Bouncer.”
“I could have fun with that one,” Bouncer teases, and I find myself dropping my head shyly.
Koa slides his sunglasses down so his eyes truly lock to mine. “Promise you no one here will touch you … unless you want them to, but Talia, you need to know I’m not the kind of man to share.”
I bite my bottom lip. A thought hits me, so I let the words tumble out, “You should know, Koa, I’m not the kind of woman to share.”
“Wouldn’t expect you to.”
I don’t know why that gives me confidence, but it does. Hand in hand, Koa leads me inside the clubhouse. Immediately, the guys all give me a chin lift, and I’m not exactly sure what it’s about, but I’m not going to question it.
The one with the beard is towards the back at the pool tables. The first man to approach has a tattoo on his neck that I want to ask him if it hurt, but I refrain.
“Talia, this is Sly,” Koa introduces, and I extend my free hand to him.
He doesn’t shake my hand, but instead, looks to Koa. Before anything else can be said, another guy approaches with the word North on his leather vest.
“Aw, look guys, Mom and Dad made up,” he laughs at the joke I’m not sure I understand as he approaches. “Mom’s not gonna take the truck for a joyride again, Dad.”
Koa laughs, “North, shut the fuck up.”
“Oh hell, someone call the paramedics, Jinx hit his head. The bastard is smiling and relaxing and shit,” North continues and looks to me with eyes wide, “What did you slip him?”
I step back, not sure how to reply. Koa releases my hand, and I immediately freeze at the loss of contact. Thankfully, he drapes his arm over my shoulders, pulling me to his side.
“Damn,” Sly says, shaking his head. “That’s all it took. She steals your truck, and boom, another brother bites the dust. Everyone’s finding women left and right, soon we’re gonna have to send the club ass to the streets to get the cock they seek.”
North laughs, “I’m not going down without a fight.”
Sly slaps the guy playfully. “I don’t know who you’re gonna find to put up with all that time you spend at Centerfolds.”
I look to Koa for clarification. “We own a strip club, Centerfolds. North works there.”
I nod and swallow the lump forming in my throat. What am I supposed to do with that information? Before I can think on it too much, Koa points to the others.
“In the back is Chaos, he’s the Pres. Bash is back there, probably losing. I need to check in with everyone, so why don’t you head to the bar,” he points to the opposite side of the room, “Apple can get you whatever to drink.”
Feeling insecure but unsure of what to say or do, I follow his instructions. At the bar, a woman who looks around my age is behind the bar in a set of oversized sweats. I’m amazed how fluidly she walks around in them. She isn’t wearing makeup, and her hair is back in a basic ponytail.
“Want somethin’ to drink?” she asks as I sit on the stool.
“Water, please,” I mutter, and she moves to the fridge, bringing back a bottled water.
She keeps cleaning but engages me in general conversation. The typical where am I from, how long have I been here, everything around those lines.
“You and Jinx, huh?”
I shrug my shoulders because I don’t know how to answer her question.
“He brought me here,” she opens up, and a twinge of jealously hits me.
“Brought you here?” I can’t help but ask. Am I just one of many he somehow brings around? Have I been reading into this connection I feel? Doubts creep in fast and furious.
She throws her hands up in surrender. “No, not like that. I was looking for work. He offered me a job and gave me a ride.”
I nod and sip my water; grateful it wasn’t what I thought between them. Other than that, Apple doesn’t give up much information about herself.
Koa and I leave the clubhouse a few minutes later with a few goodbyes to his brothers. I still don’t exactly understand it, but he says they are brothers and who am I to question it.
Back at his house, Koa grills for me. I swear it’s the best steak I’ve ever tasted in my life, and that was just lunch. He says he wants to put meat on my bones, and if he cooks like this all the time, I don’t see that being a problem.
We’re sitting on the couch relaxing when his phone rings.
“Gotta run, babe. Lock the house up, and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I nod as an uneasy feeling creeps up inside me. “Be careful,” I say, not really sure how to go about telling him goodbye.
After he leaves, I wander around his house, taking note that there isn’t much to it. He has more patio furniture on his back deck than he does in the entirety of the house. The living room has a single couch, no television, no tables, just a couch. The dining room is empty. And the bedrooms are empty except his, which has a massive bed and two dressers.
I’m used to silence, but being in his house, I don’t know, it eats at me.
Then a thought hits me, my bag is prob
ably back at the station. While I appreciate the clothes Koa bought me, I have a bracelet in the seam of my bag that was a gift from my sister. The Rail Wreckers won’t stay here with cops having found Katie’s body. Not thinking things through, I leave the comfort and security of Koa’s house to find my bag.
The station is empty. It’s quiet.
Too quiet.
I spot my bag in the now empty bay. Figures they went through it. I just hope they didn’t find my treasure. I glance briefly to where Katie’s body was, and it’s been cleaned up as if she didn’t lay in that spot bleeding onto the rocks. Tears fill my eyes as I approach my bag.
I’m lost in emotions as I reach my bag. Dropping to my knees, I open the pack to retrieve my jewelry when I hear the crunch of feet. Before I can turn all the way around, something heavy hits the side of my head, and everything starts to spin and fade.
The only thought I have as I lose the battle of consciousness is, why does life give me a taste of something good with Koa only to take it all away in a blink?
Am I forever cursed to be alone?
Eleven
Jinx
“To be lost is as legitimate a part of your process as being found.” Alex Ebert – Getting lost in her is easy, finding myself in her that is what scares me and I’m not afraid of anything, Jinx.
My boots crunch under the gravel as I make my way to the boxcar to check inside. With so much activity in the area recently, I need to make sure our inventory is secure. Right now, the men known as Chrome and Drifter sit in separate cells at the Atlanta Police Department.
Personally, I wish the lowlifes were still here at the train station. Alas, a call had to be made in a heated moment without all the facts. To protect the club, we called in Asher, since he’s on our payroll.
Detective Asher detained them without incident the same night we called. According to what he shared with Sly, the two were under the storage bay around a fire, while Katie’s body sat beside the office building. She was dead on the scene, but Asher said it had been a slow, painful way to go.
They didn’t try to cover anything up. How fucked in the head is that? Did she mean so little?
I can’t say my hands are clean. Taking another person’s life, regardless of the reasons behind it, means something. Even in matters of full-blown vengeance, there is a level of emotion into the killing.
These men have no honor.
As insane as they may seem to some, in my world, even as an outlaw, everything is done with respect. Whether it’s respect for a brother, the club, a line that’s been crossed, or simply ending someone quickly out of respect for who they were before they earned their death sentence. It doesn’t matter, every kill is done with honor.
Katie’s death was senseless and selfish. They didn’t have to kill her. Fuck, they shouldn’t have raped her. These men were driven by their own desires with no regard for Katie.
While I want nothing more than to give them the level of pain they gave to poor Katie, I know the guys we have inside will handle them appropriately. We already made the call, put out the order, and gave up the marker. Within twenty-four hours of the two making it to general population, they will stop breathing. The last words they will hear are, “Remember Katie.”
I’m frozen as I look in front of me. A man stands over what looks to be Talia’s body. She’s hunched over, face down, over a backpack. Not moving.
Seeing her incapacitated is a kick straight to my gut and nuts at the same time. I can’t breathe, the pain inside me is so intense. I don’t hold back as I rush the man standing over her holding a pipe. He turns to face me as I get close. With my fist balled tight, I hit him with a right hook. The pipe falls to the ground with a thud as I pound away at the man’s flesh.
He’s moaning on the ground as I straddle him, delivering blow after blow to his face. His blood splatters on my arms and face. Still, I keep my pace. The onslaught is brutal.
I sense my brothers moving to check on Talia while I continue to break every bone in the man’s face. He tries to lift his hands to cover his face, giving up fighting me off. I pin his arms down with my knees.
“Wanna hit a woman with a pipe?” I yell out, delivering another punch. “A real man faces a man with his fists. I want you to feel it all.”
He gurgles something I can’t understand.
Talia comes to not far from me. “Koa,” I hear her say my name, and only then, do I stop swinging.
“You touched what’s mine, motherfucker,” I tell the man under me before lifting up off him. “Talia is mine, and no one hurts what’s mine.”
“Koa,” she says again. Her voice is heaven to my ears. The man goes slack beneath me; his face is unrecognizable.
“Koa, that’s Caleb,” she explains, but I’m not following. “He kill-kill-killed Katie,” she stammers. “He’s her boyfriend. She trusted him. She left home to be with him. He raped her with them and laid under her, Koa. He was under her as Drifter cut her up.”
Bash squats on the ground beside Talia. “Woman, you need to know that’s your man. This is our world. I see you’re scared, and I imagine it’s a lot to handle this kind of violence. But woman, your man’s gotta do what he’s gotta do, and sometimes that’s bashing shit in.”
Well said, I want to say but I don’t. Instead, I keep my eyes on my woman. Talia trembles and remains quiet.
“Don’t be afraid of me, Teineitiiti.”
She looks to me and back to Caleb. “I’m not afraid of you, Koa. He killed Katie.”
I nod. “Need you to go with Bash. Gonna get your head looked at. Need you to trust I’m gonna handle this shit. And need to know you aren’t afraid of me, Talia.”
She lifts her hand to her head before looking to Bash. “I’m not afraid of you, Koa. Do what you’re gonna do, and I’ll be waiting at home for you.”
With those words and a nod to Bash, he helps her to her feet. Chaos and Bash give me a nod, guiding Talia away. They will take her to my house, since it’s close, so the doc we have on standby can look her over. With her gone, I slide my gun out of its holster. Flipping the safety, I cock the hammer and pull the trigger. One shot to the head and Caleb is no more.
“That’s for Katie.”
North, as the Enforcer, gets to work with practiced ease moving the body. Sly and I clean up the area, leaving no trace of anything being amiss. Before I leave the train yard, I stop and scoop up the backpack Talia had been hunched over. While I don’t know for sure, I can’t shake the feeling she came back here for this. She wasn’t expecting Caleb, and I don’t think he was expecting her.
The sounds of a locomotive pulling in gets my attention before we leave. I wait as Sly helps North with the disposal. The train comes to a stop, and the conductor hops off. He freezes in place spotting me. While I wiped the blood of Caleb from my skin, I’m sure I have some on my shirt. Even though I wear black, it’s obvious there is some sort of splatter on me.
He starts to speak, and I throw my hand up silencing him. “We have a good thing going. You put your kid through college with this money. Got your wife that fancy ass car she drives. The Kings pay you well to keep shit under the radar. Told you Rail Wreckers were a problem. Cops had to come down here. I don’t like fuckin’ cops. More than that, I don’t like to be ignored. No one comes to this station. No one hitches a free ride on any train carrying my loads. I don’t give a fuck how much more work it is for you to check the boxcars and the area, you fuckin’ do it or we find someone who will. Am I clear?”
He nods.
“I won’t repeat myself. One fuckin’ person, one body, ends up on one of the trains with my loads, or even on this station yard, and that’s it for you. Might wanna make sure your life insurance is paid up if you can’t handle the task. Understood?”
“Understood,” he replies with a tremble to his voice, so that I know I really got through to him.
With the understanding clear between us, I make my way to my bike and then home to see my woman.
Inside the house, Talia rushes from her place on my couch to me. She wraps herself around me like a damn monkey and inhales deep, relaxing as I take her weight, holding her to me. I’ve never felt this way before. While I don’t know what to do with it, I know I damn sure don’t want to be without it.
She leans back just enough to lift my sunglasses from my eyes. She pulls the black frames off my face and throws them to the floor. “I want to see you, Koa,” she whispers, gazing deeply into my eyes.
“Window to my soul, Teineitiiti,” I whisper before pressing my lips to hers. Our tongues dance as our souls connect.
Talia Peppertree is mine. Fate gave her to me as a gift, and I’m not letting her go. While I want to fuck her senseless right now, I want to do so without Caleb’s blood between us. Pulling away, I say, “Gotta shower, you gonna join me?”
She nods with a smile. Fuck yes, she’s strong enough to handle the life I live. Talia Peppertree was made for me the way Kalini was made for Arthur. Some things are simply meant to be.
Chaos and Bash walk past us to the door. “Doc says she’s gonna have a bump for a few days, but no signs of a concussion. You got there before he did anything other than whack her in the head,” Bash explains.
Chaos smirks in a way that I can see through his beard. “That means she’s gotta take it easy. Maybe give it to her soft, brother.” He winks before the two of them take off.
I never put Talia down, carrying her with me to the bathroom where I’m very careful with every inch of her body in the shower.
I’ve never wanted something so much in my life, but at the same time, I restrain. While I want to have sex with Talia, I also want it to be the kind of memory that remains untainted. An orgasm in the shower, another in the bed, but I have yet to be completely inside the woman who has shown me there is someone out there who can see me for me and accept all of it.
The good.
Jinx: Kings of Carnage MC Page 9
