Biker Born: The Lost Souls MC Series (The Lost Souls Series Book 4) (9 page)

I follow in her direction and find her sitting on one of the benches out front.

“I haven’t got long, it’s too busy to take my normal break today,” she tells me, rubbing the back of her neck.

“We just got back, I thought I’d come and check on you. I wanted to make sure you were okay after this morning,” I say, taking a seat beside her.

“Mark’s told you then.”

“He hasn’t said a word,” I tell her, truthfully, “What happened?” I ask.

“It’s over, we want different things and what he wants will never work for me,” she says, the tears soon well up in her eyes but she brushes them away before they have a chance to fall down her cheeks.

“Why? I thought everything was cool between you both.”

“We’re friends, aren’t we?” she asks, half turning her body to face me.

It’s stupid, I know that’s all we have ever been, but hearing her say the word friends still hits me like a two ton punch to the jaw.

What surprises me the most is if that’s all she has to give me, I’ll be her friend until my last breath.

This will be different, I’ve never had a female friend before.

“Of course we are,” I smile, assuring her.

She takes a deep breath and looks out into the distance.

“I had a brother once, Billy,” she begins and obviously it doesn’t end well with her choice of words.

“He left home as soon as he turned eighteen, it’s like he vanished. He didn’t write or anything. Then one day five years after he left, he turned up totally different to the boy we used to know. He was hard and cold. He stole from our mom and when our father told him to leave and not come back he changed again. He begged to stay and for my dad to help him. We were all confused by his behaviour, it was like he was pretending to be the son my parents knew, like he was hiding from something.”

She only pauses for a second but it is enough time for her to come back from whatever dark place she went to and carried on.

“He had been home for a couple of months before he started acting really strange, he would snap at us for the smallest things. He vanished again but only for three days. When he came back he was high and paranoid, he kept saying they were coming for him. To this day I still don’t know what he had done,” she says.

“What happened next?”

“That night he refused to move away from the window. He freaked my mom out and my dad couldn’t take it any longer, he left to go to the bar and an hour later four guys turned up shouting that my brother had to pay. Billy used our mom as a shield against them and eventually they were shot and they both died.”

“Shit Ray, I’m so sorry,” I say, moving to wrap my arm around her.

“It later came out that he had joined a motorcycle club, a job had gone wrong and Billy went on the run. That club had changed him into someone we didn’t know.”

There was more to it than she was letting on but I don’t want to push her. I heard the real reason for her leaving this morning without her having to say it.

“You’re scared that Mark is going to change?” I ask, pretty certain I was right.

“I think I love your brother, Michael, but I can’t watch him change like my brother did.”

Sweet, beautiful Rayna. Another element to her that I would never have guessed about her. All this time and she has been carrying around the truth about her family and yet she shows no emotion about it around anyone. She is strong no like no other woman I have met. She deserves happiness and it pains me to admit it but my brother did make her happy, well, until he didn’t.

“If it helps I think my brother loves you too. You’re just getting to know him but I have known him all my life and I can promise you that he isn’t like your brother. No matter what happens in the future he will always be the man you first met. Mark is strong, physically and mentally. He doesn’t take anything lightly and he is a meticulous planner, he would never put you in danger, nor would I,” I promise her.

“We’ll see,” she murmurs, not looking convinced.

When she buries her head into my chest I regret trying to push her back into Mark’s arms.

“Thanks for the chat but I should go back in, I’m surprised Hank hasn’t yelled for me yet.”

Once again, the smile is back and her secrets are hidden behind it. I push off the bench and by the time I’m riding away from the diner she’s back to taking orders and running around for other people.

Mark was sitting on the front steps of the house when I got back.

“How is she? It doesn’t take a genius to work out why you stopped at the diner,” he says.

“She’s okay and in love with you.”

For a man to hear a beautiful woman is in love with him you would think he would be happy about it but not Mark, he just frowns and looks down to the ground.

“She has a right to be worried about what we’re trying to do here but I told her she’s safe with you and always would be. She has insecurities but if you give her time she will be back.”

I don’t know why I am telling him this. I should be taking advantage of their split.

“You told her that?” he asks, looking up at me disbelieving as usual.

“I did. Know this though brother, if she does come back and you hurt her or let anything happen to her, I won’t care if you’re my blood, I’ll make you pay.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” he smiles.

We hug it out briefly before going our own ways. I meant every word I said, if he so much as makes her cry I will hurt him.

Mark

Before me sat fourteen guys ranging from nineteen years old to the oldest at thirty-one. All here for reasons unknown to me yet but here all the same. Micky is leaning against the bar off to my left and Michael and Oak are occupying a small table to my right. This meeting has been due for over a week now and with men turning up randomly it needs to be done now. We all need to know where we stand otherwise there will be chaos.

“You all know why you’re here, we all want the same thing. Freedom and cash. I’m not your fuckin’ mother. I’m not here to wipe your eyes or your asses. There will be a few rules but not like you’d expect and pretty essential for us to make this work. By the end of this night, you will either still want to join us or you will leave or you won’t be welcome here again.”

I wait for every man to acknowledge this and carry on, “Firstly, you don’t talk our business to anyone unless they are the men in this room. Club business stays in the club, if any of you talk, you won’t like what happens.”

“Goes without saying boss,” one guy calls out. I like it, loyalty already.

“Apart from when you’re needed you are free to do what you want, like I said I’m not your fuckin’ mother, but you will not bring trouble to our door or the fuckin’ cops. Later on, I’ll want to know who of you have been in jail before now too.”

I swing one of the chairs round and take a seat. Most of these guys I have only known for a few weeks but we all have a common goal and I already feel the need to make sure they don’t go off the rails more than what they already have done. All they need is a little guidance from the right sort of person. It’s no good being told by a judge to do this or that because they don’t have any respect for authority but I can guide them without them feeling like I’m being patronizing.

“We’re all in this together, every man here is as valuable as the next, and here with us no one is above you. The work we’re going to be getting may involve some danger so you’ll need to be prepared to fight not only for yourselves but for each other as well.”

At the mention of a fight, they all holler and a few of them bang on the tables in support.

“Okay, okay, quiet.” I wait for the noise to die down before carrying on. “Basically, we get a call for a job, we do it and get paid. The rest of time is up to you how you spend it, this is our home and here is our main base…”

“We need a club name,” Benny calls out, sitting beside Tommy in front of me.

“Yeah and nothing like those fuckers, Raging Riders,” another calls out sarcastically.

“What about The Lost Souls? We’re all fuckin’ lost ain’t we or we wouldn’t be here?”

I turn to look at Oak, it’s fucking perfect. I scan the room and not one man objects.

“Any of you have any questions?” I ask.

“Yeah, where does the pussy disappear to during the week?”

“What are you talking about man, there’s been pussy around every night for weeks.” Benny replies for me.

It’s true, since more men have been staying here, the chicks have been flocking in droves wanting a piece.

Oak steps up beside me and waits for the guys to shut up.

“Every club needs a President and Mark here is a guy who can fill that position well, any objections? No, good.”

I laugh at him not waiting for objections and I am silently shocked that no one did. I hide my smile when he goes back to his seat and turn back to the guys.

“If for whatever reason I’m not around, my brother Michael is the next in line. What he says, goes.”

Both Oak and Michael raise their eyebrows and look to each other to see if they heard right.

Later on I’ll explain to them my reasons, firstly that being my second, it will give Michael something to focus on and give him the sense of being needed. Oak on the other hand will always be my go-to guy for advice but he doesn’t need a title to feel needed. Another reason for making Michael my second is that it will guarantee he will stick around where I can keep an eye on him.  

I get up and grab a beer from Michael whose holding one out for me and raise it into the air.

“To the Lost Souls, may we find all the cash we need and never be lost again.”

Soon after AC/DC came on in the background and the guys struck up their own conversations. Michael stares at me for a long time and it begins to make me nervous.

“Why did you do that?” he finally asks.

“What?” I shrug.

“Why did you make me your second? Oak is your right hand man, not me.”

I push him to the side of the bar area and wait till Oak and Micky walk off leaving us alone.

“Are you that insecure you can’t believe I wouldn’t want you, my brother at my side? I want us to build this together, me and you, the Blake brothers. To do that, I want you in this with me.”

“So it isn’t a way for you to keep your eye on me?” he smirks.

“There is that as well,” I laugh, “I’ve got your back brother, always have and always will. Look around us, these guys need us like we need them. We can do this together.”

He scans the room and takes it all in. The reality of what we’re going to do hits him and he blinks twice before settling his attention back onto me.

“Too fuckin’ true we can do this, I’m in.”

“Then let’s go drink to the future and take on whatever comes our way.”

Building a future with the club is well on its way and focusing on the guys and the meeting with Denzel takes my mind off of Rayna’s absence. Staying busy to keep my mind off of her is getting harder to achieve and for tonight at least, getting blind drunk should get me through the night without having to stare into the dark night over thinking everything.

Mark

It had been two weeks since we met with Denzel and I was starting to believe he was full of shit not having heard from him. That was until two of his guys showed up in Willows Peak to give us instructions of our first job. We were to pick up two vans full of cargo from a warehouse south of the Johnson place and make sure it reached its destination on time and without fail. It sounded simple and not at all what I was expecting. We left that night and was back home within four days. Arriving at the warehouse we were met by Denzel and his men, it wasn’t as simple as I thought. The vans were filled full to the roof with guns of all different models. We needed the cash and with the determination to stay out of trouble, I told myself it would be fine. The thick envelope of cash as our half down payment made it even easier not to ask questions and we were on our way. We made it down south in good time and the drop off went without a hitch. It wasn’t until our ride back to the club that sparked anger for me. As soon as we hit town, the guys wanted to stop off at the diner to get some food before they got back to what we now call the clubhouse and celebrate our first successful job with booze and women. I carried on without them, keeping my word to stay away from Rayna. Of course I wanted nothing less than to go in there and to see her, to make sure she is doing okay amongst other things, to share our good news with her and then maybe celebrate on our own privately. Oak wanted to head back with me but I told him to stay and eat and that I would be fine. Micky, as much as he is my friend, he is still wrapped up in Flo and couldn’t wait to see her again. Then there is Flo, she has been on at me for days to go and see Rayna, telling me at every opportunity how I have hurt her and it is my fault that her best friend is upset.

It is out of respect that I have for Micky I haven’t told her to shut her fucking mouth and that it was in fact Rayna that wanted out, not me. The club is the only constant in my life and therefore my priority.

After the ten grand pay-out from Denzel, the guys have had a taste for money and they all fit in well. This is what my purpose is in life and I won’t leave them to chase a chick who doesn’t want to be here.

“Where shall I put this boss?”

I turn from where I am sitting up the bar to see Benny and one of the other guys hauling a fucking jukebox through the door.

“Where the fuck did you get that, Benny?” I ask, not sure whether I want to shake his hand or slap him. The guys have been on to get music in here, every time someone brings a boom box in from somewhere they end up broken.

“I found it,” he says, innocently.

“I get that, but where did you find it?” I ask.

He pretends he didn’t hear me and hauls it to the back wall where it can be plugged in.

“Benny,” I warn.

“Okay, someone may have left a door open and I saw an opening, but to be fair boss, if they wanted it they wouldn’t have left it laying around for anyone to take.” He says, defending himself.

I sigh at his logic and sit back at the bar.

“Can it come back to the club?”

It’s all I want to know at this point.

“No, we were so fast, I didn’t even believe I had took it until I looked at it in the back of the van.” He laughs.

I watch as everyone hangs around looking to see what’s going on. Benny makes light work of it and soon has it working and then he is being mocked because of the records playing.

“Fuckin’ hell, Benny. What’s this shit?” Micky roars, coming into the bar with Flo on his arm. As usual I am met with her cold ass scowl.

It sounds like Benny has picked up an old hippy jukebox and running through the records, it doesn’t get any better.

“Get it sorted,” I tell him and turn my attention to Micky.

“Denzel wants to meet again, he says he wants to make that trip a regular thing, once a month regular.”

I choke on my beer and feel my eyebrows hit the top of my forehead.

“Fuckin’ hell, Mick,” I manage to say.

“I hate to say, but I did tell you we could earn good.” He smirks.

“Yeah, yeah.”

Oak and Michael are next through the door, carrying a large box each. Michael yells out for others to get the rest from the van and as they get closer I can hear bottles clinking together as they walk.

“Got some supplies, Oak’s going to work out how much to charge to make a profit later.”

“Sounds good, what did you get?” I ask, as Oak heads back out to help.

“A few kegs of beer, mostly hard liquor though. It’s a good start, these guys drink like it’s water so we got as much as we could.”

I slap Michael on the back acknowledging he done well and take a bottle of tequila and pour him a shot.

“Hey man, someone wants to see you outside,” Oak shouts to me from the door.

I slide the tequila bottle across the bar to Michael and leave him telling Micky about their trip.

Once I am outside Oak jerks his chin in the direction of my visitor and disappears.

Sitting on the hood of her Camaro is Rayna. This is why I know I wouldn’t be able to be around her if she wasn’t mine because she chokes me up just looking at her beauty and knowing I have had her makes it worse.

I walk over to her but keep some distance between us and cross my arms over my chest waiting for her to talk. She is the one who turned up here after all.

“You haven’t been into the diner,”

Her voice is sweet and wavering as she speaks.

“I told you I wouldn’t,”

I sound short with her and I don’t want to be.

“I didn’t believe you would stay away. I’ve missed you and I don’t like feeling like this.”

“Feeling like what?”

“Like I’m never going to smile again, Mark.”

This in turn makes me smile and want to hold her in my arms. I take a couple of steps towards her closing the distance between us a little.

“What are you doing here, Ray?” I ask, because she has to be here because she wants to be, I won’t put any words in her mouth for her.

She slides off the hood and closes the gap between us, when she puts her hands on my chest, I can feel the heat from her skin radiate through my tee and into my pores.

“I want what we had back. You kept your word and stayed away. I believe you now when you said you’d never let anyone hurt me. I want to be with you even though we don’t know what our future looks like. That’s if you still want me?”

That’s all I needed to hear. I take her face in my hands and kiss her hard. I don’t pull away until I feel like we have made up for lost time.

“If you want to be with me, you need to understand that I come with the club now. You will always come first to me but they come a very close second, and Ray, just so you know, if anyone hurt you I would kill them.”

I stare her in the eye to show her just how serious I am. This time she kisses me and I know I have her back.

“I need you Mark, I must be mad but I don’t care, I love you.”

“Then this is it, no more leaving. If you want to be with me and you love me then marry me. Be completely mine.”

I know women like to be asked this in a romantic setting but I’m too far passed that shit, I need to know now.

“Yes,” she breathes.

Pulling her tight against me, I lean her back on the hood of her car and find her sweet spot on the base of her neck with my lips.

“And Ray,” I murmur between kisses.

“Yeah,” she sighs.

“I love you too.”

Her legs come up around my waist and her hands guide my mouth back to hers, I have missed her so fucking much I could blow just after a single second inside her.

Luckily that second won’t be right now, a truck I don’t recognize pulls up beside us and Rayna detaches herself from me.

“This isn’t finished,” I warn her, taking her hand and pulling her behind me.

“Can I help you?” I yell to the guy climbing out of the truck.

He doesn’t look like anyone I have dealt with or met before.

“I was told to deliver this stuff to John Johnson,” he yells back, coming around the back of the pickup truck to pass me two boxes.

“Who’s John Johnson?” Rayna asks, quietly in my ear.

“Oak,” I tell her, gripping onto the boxes being passed to me.

Once I have a firm hold and Rayna signs for it, the guy is in his truck and gone.

“Before we go in are you sure about this? I’m giving you one last chance to walk away before I promise to never let you go.”

She smiles wickedly and walks ahead of me.

“I’m not going anywhere Mark Blake, I promise you that.”

As soon as we are in, Flo’s screeching fills the room as she sees Rayna is back.

Dumping the boxes on the bar by Oak, I pull Rayna back to me and throw my arm around her shoulders.

“You’re back?” Michael asks her.

She smiles up to me before replying.

“Yeah, thanks for coming round to see me, I really appreciated it.” she tells him.

I throw a confused look to my brother before he gets up and walks out. I knew he had been to the diner but I didn’t know he had been going to her place.

“Look what I’ve got us,” Oak calls, getting my attention.

He pulls out a leather cut. “I thought we should look the part,” he murmurs, throwing it at me.

He pulls out more and hands them around. Everyone puts them on and the unity that passes through the men signifies the beginning of our journey as one brotherhood.

“Aren’t you going to put yours on?” Rayna asks, holding out her hands to help me.

I slink my arms through the holes and when it is on I can feel the enormity of what it signifies.

Rayna moves in front of me and takes a closer look.

“President,” she murmurs, running her finger across one of the patches, “President of the Lost Souls, it suits you. Does this make me your first lady?” she laughs.

I pull her into me and whisper, “It makes you my only lady.”

The moment is interrupted by Oak informing everyone that if they want any more patches put on they’d have to do it themselves.

I notice a few cuts left over and Oak putting the box safely behind the bar.

“Who are they for?” I ask, intrigued.

“Well, if anyone else wants to join us they’re gonna have to prove themselves, yeah?”

“Yeah…”

“So, I got a few made up with ‘Prospects’ on the back so it’s clear who they are. If they prove themselves then they’ll earn our patches,”

I nod and smile and decide this night is truly for celebrating. I call for quiet and with Rayna by my side I tell them all our good news. If I thought these guys liked to party on a normal night, give them something to drink too and they go crazy.

While Rayna chats animatedly with Flo and the guys drink themselves stupid, I slip away to find Michael. He needs to hear about our engagement from me, no one else.

I eventually find him sitting at the table in the kitchen in the main house stubbing out a cigarette and then reaching for the tequila bottle I passed him earlier.

“I told you she’d be back,” he grumbles.

He smiles but it looks forced.

“You did,” I agree, “I asked her to marry me and she said yes,” I add.

“I should have known that when you found someone you wouldn’t hang around.”

“Are you okay with it? I know you care about her.”

He sighs and swigs from the tequila bottle.

“I’m fine. Shockingly, I’m happy for you two. A little jealous but that’s my problem, not yours,” he admits.

“I want you to be happy, Michael. I don’t want you to feel like I’m doing this to spite you. I really do love her.”

“I know you do, otherwise I wouldn’t have told her to believe in you and I don’t feel anything, stop worrying about me. It might be our time to build this club up, but it’s your time to be happy. Let’s face it, you’re not getting any younger,” he teases.

“Will you come back to the clubhouse and celebrate with us?”

He doesn’t say anything as he stands and along with his tequila steps in front of me.

“Mom would’ve loved her, and dad would’ve slapped you on the back and called you a lucky son of a bitch. Don’t make me hurt you for hurting her,” he warns.

“I won’t,” I promise.

We head back to the clubhouse and walk into full blown celebrations. Rayna spots us and dances towards us. Michael scoops her into his arms and swings her around. The sound of her laughter floats around us like music.

“Congratulations darlin’, welcome to the Blake family, you’ll officially be the third member,” Michael laughs.

He puts her back on her feet and she slips her arms around my waist.

“Oh look, red head just turned up,” he says, looking over my shoulder.

“Be nice to her,” Rayna warns him playfully.

He raises his eyebrows at her and smirks.

“I’m always nice,” he winks, “I even know her name now,” he laughs.