Fierce (Storm MC #2) (18 page)

Gerry’s Café was where we did most of our meetings and transactions.  Gerry had been a member of Storm until his death a few years ago in a deal that had gone south.  The motherfuckers had shot him.  He’d died too fucking young at fifty and had left behind a family.  We made sure his family was looked after and in return his wife let us use the back room when needed.  I’d also taken care of the crew that had shot him; they no longer bothered anyone.

Dad and Griff had already arrived, as had Bullet and two of his men.  I scowled at them; Bullet didn’t look surprised.

Standing, he said, “I see that Spider found you this morning.”

I exploded.  “Yeah, he fucking did.  This shit between you and Blade had nothing to do with us but you’ve changed that.  And there’s a world of fucking hurt that comes with that.  You want to fuck with my family and with my boys, well have at it, motherfucker, because it’ll be the last time you ever try.”

“Heard you got a nice piece on the side there,” Bullet sneered.

Blood roared to my head and my muscles flexed, ready to lash out.  “Like I told Spider, you fucking touch her, I’ll kill you.”

Bullet stepped into my space, his nostrils flaring and his eyes blazing.  “Careful what you threaten there, Scott.  Empty threats still get the same response from me as real ones.”

“That wasn’t an empty threat, Bullet.  You should know by now that I don’t fuck around.”

A moment passed as we glared at each other.  The room was silent; waiting.  With one last search of my face, Bullet responded, “I’ll give you forty eight hours to get Blade to see some sense but after that, all bets are off.”  He moved back, away from me.

“The way I’m feeling it, you’ve signaled that all bets are already off.”

Dad agreed with me, “I’d agree with Scott.  I think you’ve made yourself perfectly fucking clear, Bullet.”  The anger was rolling off him too.  Bullet was fucked now; he just didn’t know it.

Bullet signaled to his men to leave.  “I’ll be in touch,” he rumbled, and then they were gone.

Fucking hell,” Griff muttered.  He was pacing the room now; his standard response when shit went down.

“They’re watching Harlow’s café now,” I said to Griff. 

“Who the fuck is Harlow?” Dad demanded to know.

“She’s a fucking innocent bystander in all of this.  And she’s a good person who doesn’t deserve to be dragged into it.”

Griff cut in.  “Scott, you need to lock her down.  Bullet will come after her now.”

“Yeah, I know.” 

“You’ve got Stoney watching her at the moment?”

I nodded.  “I’ll head over there now and take her to the clubhouse.” 

“We’ll meet this afternoon and start working on a plan to take Bullet down,” Dad said.

We wrapped things up and then I drove over to the café.  This was going to be tricky.  Harlow had no clue as to the shit I dealt with; getting her to realise the severity of this situation was going to take some work.

***

S
pider was still outside the café but I ignored him.  There were no customers inside and Harlow and Cheryl were nowhere in sight.  I rang the bell on the front counter and waited.  When Harlow appeared, I muttered, “You really need to put a bell on the door.  Anyone could have robbed you by now.”

“Well hello to you too,” she came back with.  “Why’d you put your cranky pants on?”

She had a way of slowing me down when I was angry.  I knew I had a bad temper and most of the time I couldn’t control it, but with Harlow it was different.  She’d say something like she just did, and it would surprise the shit out of me and make me stop and think.

“There’s some shit going on that I need to talk to you about.  You able to leave now?”

“It’s only ten o’clock, Scott.  I’m supposed to be here to help Mum for another hour.”

“Yeah, I know, babe.  I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t important.”

She thought about it for a moment and then said, “Okay, let me go and see if she’ll be alright without me.”

She went out the back and I waited patiently until she returned with her bag.  “Mum’s okay on her own so let’s go.”

Thank Christ for that.

H
arlow

I put my bag down on the kitchen table and then began opening windows to let some fresh air in the house.  It was a warm September day and the house was stuffy.  I was a little nervous about what Scott wanted to talk to me about.  After last night, I didn’t know where we stood.  He’d made it clear that he wasn’t looking for anything other than one night and from everything that Madison had told me about him, I’d believed that it would only ever be one night.  But he’d surprised me this morning, especially when he’d promised me a ride on his bike.  And I’d understood his meaning perfectly when he said I could have any kind of ride I wanted.  So to say that I was a little confused by it all was an understatement.

I finished opening windows and came back into the kitchen were Scott was leaning against the kitchen bench, arms and legs crossed, a determined look on his face.

“What were you thinking last night when Nash and I cleaned up those three guys at the club?”

Okaay, didn’t see that question coming
.

“That I’d hate to really piss you off.”

He chuckled and it was good to see the serious look disappear for a moment.  I liked it better when he let his guard down.  I wanted those crinkled eyes again.  They didn’t make an appearance often enough as far as I was concerned.

“So it didn’t turn you off me?”

“Where is this coming from Scott?  No, it didn’t turn me off you.  I think that the fact I spent the night with you proves that.”

The serious look was back on his face and his eyes bore into mine.  “I want you.  I want you in my bed, on the back of my bike and in my life.  But my life is a hard one and completely different to anything you’ve ever known.  What you saw last night is just the tip of the iceberg and I need to know that you can handle that shit.”

The mood in the room burned with an intensity that I was fast associating with Scott.  His words stunned me and I was speechless for a moment.  My brain raced to process what he’d said because it was not even in the ballpark of what I’d ever expected to hear from him.  If you’d told me that Scott would tell me he wanted me in his life, I would have laughed at you.

Everything I knew about Scott jostled for attention; his temper, his honesty; his compassion, his loyalty to those he loved, his fierceness, his bossiness, his protective streak, and I knew without hesitation that I wanted him too.  He wasn’t perfect, and I had no idea where we’d end up but I wanted to take a chance on something that could be beautiful.

I walked over to where he was and took his face in my hands.  “I can handle that shit.”

He groaned and his mouth smashed down onto mine in a rough, passionate kiss.  His hands pulled my hips into his and I felt his erection.  I ran my hands through his hair and inched my body as close to his as I could get.  Being with Scott was thrilling and I knew that I could handle any of his shit so long as I had him in my life.

I could have stayed like that forever but Scott broke the kiss and pulled away from me.  “I’m counting on it, babe, because we’re about to hit a shit storm.”

“Talk to me.  Tell me what’s going on.”

He blew out a breath before continuing.  “My club has some enemies and one of them saw me with you the other day and then again this morning.  They haven’t come out and made threats against you but I take their actions alone as a threat.  I can keep you safe while we deal with this but I can only do that if you drop out of sight for awhile.”

“What does all of that really mean?”  Drop out of sight for a while?  I wasn’t sure where he was heading with this.

“Babe, it means exactly what you think it means.  The guy that’s made this threat is a nasty motherfucker and I take everything he says and does seriously.  Deadly fucking seriously.  What I want you to do is stay at the clubhouse until this is dealt with.  You good with that?”

“How long do you think I’d be staying at the clubhouse?  Because I can’t leave my mum to deal with the café by herself.”

“I don’t know how long this will take.  Could be a couple of days or more.”

“Then I’m not okay with staying there.  I can’t just put my life on hold like that.”

“I’m not asking you to put your life on hold; just to drop out of sight for a little while so we can keep you safe.  I can organise help for your mum at the café.”

“No, Scott, she needs someone who knows the café.”

He was getting agitated.  I could tell by the vein popping in his neck and the way he was rubbing the back of his neck.  It was too bad though; I wasn’t bailing on my mum when she needed me.

“I know I said I wanted you, and I fuckin’ do, but Christ, you’ll be the fuckin’ death of me, woman.”

I stood my ground.  “I’ve laid down and let too many men walk all over me in the past, Scott.  I won’t do it again.  Maybe you need to be the one to decide whether you can handle
that
shit.”

He didn’t even think about it; he just growled, “Babe, I can handle that shit and more.”

Butterflies took over my stomach and his growly voice set my nerves alight with excitement.  I smiled at him.  “Good, because there’s a lot of baggage for you to sort through.”

As we stood watching each other, we were interrupted by a knock at my front door.  I moved to go and answer it but Scott put his hand on my arm and shook his head.  “Wait here, I’ll get it.”

I didn’t say anything but on the inside I was rolling my eyes.  Seriously, if someone was coming to get me, why would they knock on the door?  I moved out of the way and let him go and be my caveman.  A moment later I heard Cassie’s voice and laughed out loud.  “Thanks for saving my ass, Scott.  You’ve got to watch out for Cassie cause you never know when she’s going to pull her ninja moves out and try and hurt you,” I yelled out.

He came back into the room with a scowl on his face.  “I can tell that you’re taking this seriously.”

I took pity on him because he really did look annoyed and I knew that he was just trying to look out for me.  “Sorry.  Just trying to lighten the mood,” I apologised, and then ignoring the surprised look on his face, I waved my hand between the two of them and said, “Scott, meet my best friend, Cassie.  Cassie, meet my caveman, Scott.”

Her eyes widened.  I hadn’t had a chance to fill her in on anything that had happened the last few days.  She was a good friend though; she didn’t quiz me on it in front of Scott.  That would be girl catch up time conversation.  Instead she asked, “What have I missed here?  What’s Scott saving you from?”

“Just some biker stuff that’s going on.  Now tell me, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”  I was trying to give her the hint that I wanted to talk to her about this in private.

She picked up on my message and smiled at me in that knowing friend way.  “I haven’t heard from you in a little while so I thought I’d drop in and see how you are.  Your mum told me you had the day off.”

Scott broke into our conversation.  “Ladies, as much as I’d love to shoot the shit with you, I’ve got business to get back to.  Harlow, this conversation is to be continued but for the moment, I’ve got one of my boys watching you so you’ll be safe.”

“What do you mean, you’ve got one of your boys watching me?”  I was so not used to the way Scott did things and I was struggling to get my head around it.

“I mean, if you look outside, you’ll see one of my men on his bike guarding you.  Anyone tries to get to you, they’ve got to go through him first and he’s not an easy fucker to get past.  You go out anywhere, he’ll be following you.”

“Damn.  I need me a caveman like you,” Cassie said, and I didn’t fail to notice the breathlessness in her voice.  Oh, good Lord, she was sucked in to the Scott Cole bossy charm.

I shooed him.  “Okay, fine.  Got you.  I’ve got my own personal bodyguard.  Thank you.  Now, go and leave us girls to talk about you.”

He shook his head in a ‘what the fuck am I getting myself into’ kind of way.  But then he pulled me in for a kiss and smacked my ass before he began walking out of the room.  “Get some sleep, babe.  I’ve got plans for you tonight.”  And then he was gone and my skin was tingling with excitement.

After we heard the front door close, Cassie turned to me and shrieked, “Fucking hell!  Spill the beans, girl.”

We spent the next hour over coffee and cake while I caught her up on what was happening between me and Scott. 

“So, you’re together now?” she asked.

I shrugged.  “He was pretty clear that he wants me in his life, but you know what?  For once in my life, I’m just going with the flow and not forcing something.  I don’t know him that well yet so I want to take my time working him out.”

“And are you worried about this threat that’s been made?  It sounds scary; like do you really want to get involved with someone who brings that type of stuff into your life?”

“I know I should probably be running the other way but I’ve seen Scott in action and I believe that when he says he can keep me safe, he’ll keep me safe.  And, I’ve lived my whole life picking guys that I thought were the better option.  I’ve always gone for the men who I thought were the good guy.  And, they all screwed me over one way or the other.  Scott might be a biker and be involved with trouble but he’s shown me so many other sides to himself that are worth something more than anything those other assholes gave me.”

“Yeah, you can’t always judge someone by their outwards appearance can you?”

I smiled mischievously.  “Well, Scott’s pretty hot to look at... I’d say you’d be right to judge him as the guy most likely to give you an amazing orgasm.”

“Oh my God.  I need to know more!”

I got up from the table.  “We need more coffee for this.”

Cassie was grinning at me like a mad woman; talking men was one of our favourite things to do.  I laughed at her and sent a message of thanks out to the universe for blessing me with the best friend a girl could want.

S
cott

“Scott.”  I turned at the sound of my father’s voice.  We’d just finished meeting with the club to plan our next move. Nash had shared his findings with us.  He’d discovered that Black Deeds owed close to half a million on their porn production company and that they were struggling to pay it off.  It seemed that their drug business was the only way they were currently able to meet their monthly debt bill.  That was why they were so hell bent on keeping Blade out of it.  Our goal now was to hit them where it hurt; we just had to come up with a plan to do that.