Biker Born: The Lost Souls MC Series (The Lost Souls Series Book 4) (8 page)

“Sure,” she smiles.

I head for the shed we keep our supply of beer and liquor in and I can feel someone following me.

Turning sharply when I round the corner, it takes a few seconds for my stalker to catch up. When he turns the corner I’m two seconds away from hurtling him against the wall before I see that it’s Oak.

“What are you creeping up on me for man?” I grumble, catching my breath.

He laughs and holds his hands up.

“Jesus Mark, I just wanted to talk to you on our own.”

I carry on towards the shed and make sure we are alone. We are.

“What do you want to talk about?” I ask, leaning down to grab two bottles of beer from the cooler.

“I want to know how much you trust the guys Michael has brought back with him.”

I can understand why he’s asking me. Michael is my brother and Oak will hold what I say as gospel.

“Michael can be a lot of things but he wouldn’t have it with people he didn’t deem trustworthy in his own way. We trust them until they prove otherwise. I have to give Michael this chance to prove himself.”

I don’t know who I’m trying to convince, him or myself.

“Look, he’s my brother but so are you. You have known us for many years, he is hot headed, not stupid.”

“I don’t know Mark,” he sighs.

“I said we’d trust them until we don’t. I didn’t say we wouldn’t watch them like hawks.”

He looks placated hearing this and I know the conversation is done. He grabs his own beer and follows me back to where everyone is still sitting around the fire.

When I see Rayna disguise a yawn from everyone I can’t help smile. As I get closer I can see the tiredness around her eyes.

I hold out my free hand void of our beer bottles and she lets me pull her to her feet.

“Do you want to get out of here?”

She nods enthusiastically and we make our way through the different groups to the main house.

The house is in darkness but I lead Rayna past the table and anything else that she could bump into without any light helping us, but I didn’t count on a five foot angry chick hurtling towards us. The only giveaway I knew it was Kitty coming our way was her bright red hair.

“Your brother is an asshole,” she shrieks, the pain and tears evident in her tone.

She passes us and slams the door shut behind her leaving Rayna and I alone again.

Before we make it out of the kitchen Michael slowly stomps down the stairs lighting a cigarette, half dressed.

“What did you do to her?” Rayna asks him.

“Nothing she didn’t want,” he smirks, passing us and opening the fridge.

“Michael…”

He sighs and then cuts her off, holding his hand up to stop her from talking any further.

“She’s upset because I didn’t want her to stay the night.”

I release a long, heavy breath. For a split second I thought he may have hurt her. I hate that I could think that of my own blood but with Michael I just don’t know sometimes.

“No wonder she was upset, no girl wants a guy to tell her to leave after they’ve just had sex,” Rayna scolds him.

Before my very eyes and the first time in my life I see him look reprimanded and a wash of guilt covers his face.

“I’ll go find her,” he mutters, walking out the back door.

It strikes me that it wouldn’t have mattered what I said to him. He would have carried on with attitude and arrogance. It was Rayna who got through to him.

“Do you think he will apologize to her?” she asks me.

“He will in his own way. Come on, let’s go upstairs.”

I shove my brother and everything else out of my head and carry on with my girl up to bed.

Mark

Her skin is soft and smooth as silk, the finest you could ever let slip through your fingers. Watching the sun rise through the uncovered window and stroking her soft arm as she sleeps against me has become the best way to start my day. To find myself this relaxed I normally have to drill my body with hard exercise. Now the mere close proximity of her whenever we’re together is all I need.

“What do you expect to gain from doing this?” she asks, keeping her eyes closed.

She knows a little more than I would like about our plans for the future, not that I don’t want her to know about me but the thought of her knowing what I could possibly be getting myself into scares me. It scares me because she might not be able to handle it and walk away. With more men staying here and looking to make cash with us, I’ll go as far as I need to keep them all safe.

“I had no clue what I was doing when we came here. It wasn’t only me who felt lost, others felt like it too. Being here, meeting you and everyone else, it feels like it’s where we should be. I want a place where men can come and feel needed, a place they know they can always rely on.”

“The ones who are already here aren’t exactly guys you want to know are they? Why would you want them altogether in one place?”

“Have you ever thought why men do what they do sometimes? I’m not talking about rapists or anything but guys who bend rather than break the laws. They have no guidance, no one to reign them in. There is no one to offer them the respect they need. We can offer them that, we will be better together than individually,” I tell her.

I’m sure I’m not explaining it right because she detaches herself from me and slips out of bed searching for her clothes.

“Where are you going?” I ask, sitting up reaching for my jeans.

“I’ve got to go, my shift starts soon.” She mumbles, yanking up her shorts.

I’m not buying it, she normally doesn’t leave until the last minute before she will truly be late.

“Why are you really leaving?”

“I told you, have you seen my bra?” she deflects, lowering to the floor to search under the bed.

“Here,” I pick it up from the end of the bed and throw it over to her, still waiting for her answer.

“Look, I understand what you’re trying to do here and part of me thinks it’s a good idea for you all but do you understand the extent you will most likely have to go to in order to establish yourselves?”

I narrow my eyes and watch her carefully.

“You sound like you know about this shit.”

“I’ve had some experiences with guys like you and who you’re bringing to town, in the end it will be nothing but blood and violence. You can’t step into that world without it.”

She goes to leave and like a shot I’m in front of the door barring off her only exit.

“Is that what you think is going to happen here? You couldn’t be more wrong, this is nothing like that Hunter’s club. That’s not what I want either.”

“It won’t matter if it’s not what you want. The violence will find you and when it does you won’t have a choice. Someone will get hurt and I want to leave before that someone is me.”

The shock of her words takes me off guard and she uses this as an opening to leave. Managing to pull myself together, I run down the stairs, past Micky and Flo and Oak and catch up to her as she opens her car door. Holding onto the door, I stop her from leaving.

“I told you when we got together that I have nothing to offer you apart from myself. I don’t know for sure where all this is going,” I say, holding my hands out towards the whole place, “But, I know sure as shit that I would never let anything happen to you. I would lay down my life before I let that happen. Do you know how many guys here would look out for you too if I weren’t around?”

Her sigh is shaky but her eyes are hard.

“That’s the thing Mark, I don’t want to be with a guy if he has to constantly look out for me let alone his friends watching. It’s not a world I want to be a part of.”

I step back and give her the space she needs to get in.

“Then you should go,” I say, holding my hands on my hips.

This is what I dreaded, her leaving. As much as I want her to stay, I can’t change because of her. This is what I need to do for me and for everyone else who is here. She could be right but she could be wrong. If she can’t stick around so I can prove to her that she would never have to fear anything then she is better off out of it. I’m not selfish enough to make her stay if she wants to leave.

Before she climbs into her car, she steps towards me and lightly kisses my jaw. My airways restrict when she moves away, she climbs in her car and slams the door shut. I move to lean on the open window rim and prepare to drive the final nail into our relationship.

“Know this Ray, I can’t be dealing with you coming around here at the weekends if we’re not a thing and I won’t come into the diner when you’re working. I think it’s best if we don’t see each other for a while.”

Her face falls and her eyes glaze over but I carry on driving that fucking nail into the coffin.

“Mark…”

I cut her off.

“I’m not going to play friends after you’ve been mine. You drive away now and that’s it. I have a lot of shit to deal with now and I can’t be losing my head about you if you’re not prepared to give me all of you.”

An awkward, tense silence fills the air around us and nothing happens. Then she starts the car and I have my answer.

I step back as she wheel spins out of the gate and heads for town. The slap on my bare shoulder stings more than it should but it feels better than knowing I have lost Rayna.

“That didn’t look good, brother.”

I should’ve known Michael would be around to witness that. I sigh, that isn’t fair. He hasn’t caused any trouble for us like I thought he might.

“It wasn’t,” I grunt, “Be ready to go in an hour.” I tell him and make my way back into the house.

“Why was my best friend high tailing it out of here?” Flo starts, as I walk through the door.

Not being in the mood to speak to a woman unless it is Rayna, I look to Micky who has his arms wrapped around her. I’m starting to think they have been surgically stitched together.

“Tell your woman to stay out of my business, we’re leaving in an hour, be ready.”

Flo not being one for keeping her mouth shut begins to go red first then shouts up the stairs behind me.

“Who do you think you are? Micky won’t be telling me nothing! If you’ve hurt her, so help me God, I’ll…”

I hear Micky yell at her to shut up and then their voices trail off as I close my door on them.

The bar Micky took us to was in the middle of town. I’ve passed by in the past but never went in on account that it always looked too up market for the likes of me.

“Are you sure this is the place?” I ask Micky.

“Yeah, come on. He’ll be waiting for us.”

I shrug my shoulders at Michael and follow them into the bar. My eyes take a minute to adjust to the dark contrast to the midday sun outside. At the other end of the bar is Denzel Parker. My first impression of him is he is a money grabbing sleaze, dressed in what seems an expensive suit with his hair slicked back away from his face he looks wrong. He looks like he is missing something, like he wants to be the big man but is only playing, I guess time will tell. As long as he can pay us cash, I don’t care.

“Denzel, this is Mark and Michael Blake,” Micky leans on the bar introducing us.

“Micky’s told me quite a bit about you. I hear you want to make some cash and he tells me you don’t mind how you make it, is that correct?”

His voice surprises me, it sounds more demanding than his look does.

“That’s right,” I say, taking the stool two away from him.

Michael and Micky step back but remain close enough to listen in.

“The thing is, I can get muscle at the click of a finger.” He pauses to show us his point and clicks his fingers making me want to reach over and break them. “What seems to be hard to find is muscle and brains. I’ve got some important business coming up that needs to be handled with caution so I need you to be able to think fast and handle whatever occurs.”

I hear Michael snort behind me then cover it with a cough when Denzel glares at him.

“Mark, can you think when you’ve been put on the spot? Make a decision with a gun stuck to your head?”

I don’t hesitate, I don’t need to, I’m confident with my answer.

“Yes I can. I have done and here I am, sitting here with you. Does that answer your question?” I keep my reply clipped and to the point.

He smiles happily with my answer and holds his hand out. I take his hand and shake it.

“I like you already, Mark. I think this will work out nicely for the both of us,”

We sit talking for half hour longer about trivial shit, he is interested in our club and where we are based. I tell him as much as I want him to know and luckily that holds him off for a while.

One of his guys comes in and taps him on the shoulder and whispers in his ear.

It must be news he has been waiting for judging by the twisted smile that creeps across his face.

His guy steps back and Denzel slides off his stool.

“I think you should come with me,” he says, looking only at me.

Michael comes closer and Micky begins to object. I hold my hand up to let them it’s okay and stand and follow Denzel through a door at the back of the club.

At the bottom of a dimly lit corridor another guy is standing guard in front of a door.

“He’s a fucking squealer, Mr Parker.”

My blood begins to run cold as I have a pretty good idea what is on the other side of the door.

The guy opens it and I fight the urge to bunch my fists at the sight of a man tied to a chair, shirtless and gagged. His lip has to be split in at least four places and his eyes are so swollen he can’t see out of them.

Denzel lights a cigarette and circles the guy, blowing smoke in his face.

“Mark, this motherfucker thought he could steal from me and I wouldn’t notice. He thought he could take what is mine and live it up snorting my coke off some whore’s ass cheek before paying for her fucking services with my fucking money,” he yells in the guy’s face.

He inhales deeply on his cigarette and puts it out on his chest, the guy hisses through the pain gaining himself a back hand from Denzel.

“As you can see Mark, I don’t like it when people double cross me and I don’t let it go unpunished. I always know everything, remember that and our partnership will be glorious.”

His smile is twisted and I believe every word he says. He nods for the guy behind me to open the door and that is my cue to leave.

“I’ll be in touch, soon,” he calls out.

They guy tied to the chair screams around his gag and I can still hear him through the closed door and at the other end of the corridor, I’m glad I’m still not in the room to see what they are doing to him.

Both Micky and Michael look relieved when they see me back in the bar.

“What the hell, brother,” Michael hisses, as I head passed them and straight for the exit.

Once we are outside and by our bikes and clear of Denzel Parker, I fill them in on what happened.

“He was warning you,” Micky says.

“You don’t fuckin’ say.” I mutter.

“So, what’s happening next?” Michael asks, more soberly than his usual eagerness for information.

“He said he’d be in touch soon, so let’s get back to the others and go from there.”

Being back here and meeting Denzel has me wanting to get back to Willows Peak as soon as possible.

MICHAEL

The roads are dusty and only the sounds of our bikes fill the air as we ride into Willows Peak. What I saw this morning between Mark and Rayna didn’t look good and the way she high tailed it away from him suggests that she might not come back.

It would be the perfect opportunity for me to slide straight in and be the guy she needs. We approach the diner and I expect Mark to pull in and go and see her, but he carries on riding straight past without so much as glance at the place. Micky follows behind him like the good little bitch that he is.

I slow down and spot her Camaro parked at the far side of the lot. I pull in next to it and watch as Mark turns his head to see what I’m doing. I point to the diner as if it isn’t obvious and he carries on towards the old Johnson place with Micky.

The diner is busier than usual and I’m left with the last stool at the counter. A whole fifteen minutes goes by before she sees me sitting here and walks over.

“What can I get you?” she smiles.

She doesn’t look any different to any other day, a little tired maybe but apart from that you wouldn’t have guessed that she had a major argument hours earlier.

“Coffee.”

She pours me a large coffee and tells me she’ll be back in a minute. When she does walk back over she nods towards the door.