Cursed (4 page)

They went to the clubhouse and Tank parked his bike in its spot. He killed the engine and stood, helping her off before he swung his leg over. He’d left his cut at her house. He stared at her as she rubbed her arms. She needed a jacket. He reached in the side compartment and grabbed a leather jacket he had there. Draping it over her, she smiled her thanks.

“You can stay here while we go handle this.” Tank lifted her chin. “No fighting with the free pussy, okay?”

“I can’t make any promises.”

He sighed. He knew one of the bitches would say something to her about fucking him and
Josslyn
would bloody her nose. He couldn’t count how many times it’d happened in the past. He was fairly sure it would happen again if she was given the chance.

“Think about the kid then. Don’t let him come home to a momma with a busted lip.”

She stared at him. “Says the guy with the busted lip.”

He smiled. “You’re a pain in my ass, you know that.”

He walked toward the club with
Josslyn
beside him. When they stepped inside the guys were waiting for him.
Josslyn
knew her place and without him even telling her, she went down the hall to his room.

“I don’t know what that’s about and I don’t care.” Torque sat in his seat at the table. “But you think Eddy kidnapped his own nephew?”

“Well, he’s got a thing for kidnapping. The bitch in the car was one of Matthias’s girls. The one he sent in here to leak information back to him.”

“The one you had on your dick more often than not.” Silver leaned back in his chair. “So he’s behind this bullshit?”

“I don’t know. The guy was big like me. I don’t know who that could be.”

“I’ll look into it.” Mac started typing away on his computer. The resident intelligence officer was a fucking wiz at electronics. He could hack into anything and find out anything if he really wanted.

“We got a location on Eddy.” Torque met Tank’s eyes. “I made Joker stay back. Am I going to have to do the same with you?”

Tank shook his head. “Nah. I want to beat the shit out of him, but I can control myself. The kid needs someone to protect him. I don’t really trust any of you assholes to do that.”

Torque arched an eyebrow. “Now that is something I never thought I’d hear from your fucking mouth.”

Tank shrugged. “It’s a different ballgame when they’re part of you.” He met Torque’s eyes. “You know that.”

The president nodded. Family was everything to them. Now that Tank had one, he wasn’t going to let anything happen to it.

Chapter Three

Josslyn
stopped in the middle of Tank’s doorway and stared at the two bitches making out on his bed. There was always at least two but he never really played that shit with her. She’d only had one ménage with him for his birthday and while it’d been fun, she didn’t care for a repeat. But he never fucked just one woman after her. There were always multiples and she couldn’t help but wonder why.

“Sorry to end the party you’ve got going, but Tank isn’t really going to fuck either one of you tonight.” She opened the door. “So get out.”

The girls stared at her. “Who are you,” one of them asked.

She arched an eyebrow. “Doesn’t matter. I said get out and I meant it.”

The girls grabbed their shoes. Both of them gave her dirty looks as they left the room.
Josslyn
closed the door and glanced around at the pigsty. Dirty clothes littered the floor. He had two full ashtrays next to his bed that needed to be dumped. Several beer bottles all around. There was a packet of white powder on his dresser which only made her roll her eyes.

She was fairly certain he stopped using a while back. He didn’t have that fucked up look about him anymore. She’d stopped using when she found out she was pregnant. She fingered the packet and pursed her lips. He’d kill her if she got rid of his drugs. She took a deep breath and went to the bathroom, dropping them into the toilet. Without even thinking twice she flushed and started to clean the mess he’d made in his room.

If they put effort into it, they could have a decent apartment. The small kitchen area was enough for a midnight snack or to indulge in a cold beer. He had a microwave she was fairly sure he survived off of. His bathroom was a mess too. She didn’t know when he’d ever picked up a brush to clean anything. Thankfully, though, it was enough to give her something to do while he was gone.

“A woman on her hands and knees shouldn’t be scrubbing a floor.”

She lifted her middle finger at him while she reached for trash that had fallen behind the toilet. “You’re so damn nasty. Why don’t you get your little skanks to clean this dump?”

He leaned against the doorframe. “They do when I’m not fucking them.”

“I seriously doubt those bitches play Cinderella.”

He laughed as she stood, glaring at him.
Josslyn
moved around him to the bedroom and decided to pick up his clothes. Her obsessive desire for cleanliness was eating at her in this room. He knew it too.

“I don’t know what would be easier. Washing them or burning them?”

“Don’t burn my clothes.”

“They stink.” She held a shirt out to him. “I’m going to have to shower after handling this.”

He pulled her to him. “You used to like wearing my dirty clothes.”

She swallowed hard forgetting about that. He’d pull off his shirt and she’d put it on to smell like him. She’d hold his pillow to her at night while he was away doing whatever the hell he had to do. It was completely weird and obscene now, but she’d been in love with him.

“That was a long time ago.”
Josslyn
sat his shirt in a pile she’d started for laundry.

He pulled her to him. “We’re going to finish what we started in your bedroom.”

She shook her head. “No. That was a mistake.”

“It’s not like you to play coy with me. When all of this is over, you will be in my bed and I will be balls deep inside you. Several times.”

She turned away from him. “You can keep dreaming. It’s not going to happen.”

“We’ll see about that.” Tank kissed her cheek before he went to his dresser and pulled out a hoodie. “We’re like an old married couple again.”

“No we’re not.” She started pulling the sheets off his bed. She stared at the mattress cover a moment before pulling that off too.

“You’re cleaning my room and doing my laundry like a bitch wanting my attention.”

“Yeah, well, I have a serious need for cleanliness and me staying in this room like this is fucking torture.”

He grinned. “God, I’ve missed you.”

She turned toward him. He stuffed a gun in the small of his back before pulling his hoodie over it. She thought about what would happen to Jeremy. He’d be scared. He’d want her. She should really go with him.

“No.” Tank brushed his finger along her chin. “I know you’re thinking about coming with us, but it’s not going to happen. He’s my kid. I’ll take care of him.”

“So it’s retaliation? Toward you?”

He didn’t reply. “I’ll be back. Stay out of trouble.”

She gripped his hoodie and tugged him toward her. “Jeremy cannot ride on the back of your bike.”

“I’ve got this.” He cupped her cheeks. “Pull me to you again and I’m going to strip you naked.” He leaned in to kiss her. “It’s going to be all right, baby.”

She didn’t think so. After he left she carried a load of clothes to the laundry room. Thankfully, they had detergent and everything ready to use. She didn’t need to search for anything. Tank was more than capable of taking care of himself, but she didn’t like the idea of Jeremy being alone. She’d been that kid. Her father forced her to grow up at an early age. The first man she’d seen murdered was at the hands of her father on the clubhouse floor. He turned around to her afterward and said that that was what happened when people pissed him off.

Josslyn
poured detergent in the wash and shut the lid. She punched a few buttons to get the machine started.

“Did you deliberately not tell Tank about your kid, or was it an accident?”

Josslyn
turned to find Joker standing in the doorway with a cigarette between his fingers. Yeah, she’d forgotten how much the Charming Bastards hated her. Tank had been a prospect for the Reaper Boys when they’d met. Instead, he’d patched in with the Charming Bastards and that started a war with her father. He didn’t like the idea of his daughter fucking a rival MC. The MC didn’t like the idea of a rival’s daughter hanging around their club.

“What goes on between me and Tank is between me and Tank.”

“Right. And what goes on between you and Daddy, is between you and Daddy?”

Josslyn
turned to adjust the settings on the machine. “I’m not part of the MC life anymore. You don’t have to worry about me spying on you or your little club.”

“I’m more curious about your brother, Eddy.”

“What about him?”

“Have you talked to him?”

“No.” And she hadn’t. Her brothers weren’t family to her. Not since Eddy tried to throw her under the bus for his drug problem. She’d gotten arrested and could have served time for it if Tank didn’t take the fall. He’d went to prison for two years for it. He’d had just enough drugs in his system to make a valid case and it got her off the hook.

“Tank loves you, you know. Don’t fuck him over again for your father. That was a cruel thing to do the first time.”

It was.
Josslyn
thought back to that day when she broke the news to her father that she was pregnant. He knew it was Tank’s baby. He pulled out a wad of cash and slapped it down on the table before telling her to get an abortion. She’d been so confused. Tank didn’t want kids. He didn’t want a family. She showed him the pregnancy test and he’d been so accusatory toward her about not taking her pill. Once he calmed down, he seemed to be okay with it.

Until she told him what her father had done.

He didn’t even look at her. Didn’t ask questions. He simply walked out the door and never looked back. She’d been so caught up in
the what
ifs that her entire world came crashing down. She didn’t know if she could do it on her own. She didn’t know how. But she told herself many times that she was strong. She could get through anything without a man’s help.

She’d been so foolish. Someone kidnapped Jeremy and all she knew how to do was call the two men that she swore she’d never talk to again. Old habits die hard.

“I think he wants to be a father.” Joker licked his lips. “Don’t use that kid against him.”

“I won’t.”

Joker finally left her alone in the laundry room and she stared outside the back door. Jeremy deserved to know Tank, and if Tank wanted to be in his life, so be it. She wouldn’t stop him. Maybe some place deep down, she wanted Tank back too.

****

Tank hung back in the shadows while the guys did the raid. The bitch with the car was inside giving head to one of the assholes Matthias had working for him. He went room to room looking for the kid and didn’t find him.

“Where is he?” Tank asked the guy. “Where is the kid?”

The big man on the camera licked his lips. “In the basement.”

Tank went to the hall and opened each of the doors until he found one that led downstairs. He took the stairs two at a time, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he went to find the kid. The dark, dank place smelt like pot and he flipped the lights on to see a massive growing operation. Silver came down behind him and choked.

“Damn.” He waved a hand in front of his face.

Tank moved through the massive amounts of weed and found the little kid in a room off the side. He was in the corner, wrists bound and a gag in his mouth. He pulled out a knife and cut the binds before undoing the gag.

He was cold. The little guy opened his eyes and tears filled them. Every single one broke Tank’s heart. God, he looked like
Josslyn
. Big brown eyes stared up at him as he pulled his hoodie off. He wrapped the little guy in it and lifted him from the dirty mattress. He held him tight as both he and Silver made their way out of there.

The situation escalated as more Reaper Boys joined the party. Tank lifted his gun with one hand while keeping Jeremy close with the other. He wanted the kid out and safely to the van. After that, shit could go down hard. Silver covered for him while he ran to the van. Mac and Rascal waited for them like they had been instructed.

“Do you need us in there?” Rascal asked.

Tank glanced over. “Go on. Switch places with me. You can ride my bike back.”

Tank tossed him the keys and climbed in the passenger’s seat with Jeremy. “Let’s get out of here.”

Mac drove them back to the clubhouse and Tank couldn’t stop rubbing Jeremy’s little arms. He wanted to make sure he was okay before
Josslyn
saw him.

“It’s okay.” He held him close. “We’re going to see Mommy. Mommy has missed you so much.”

The little boy cried in his arms and Tank could only hold him. He tried to soothe him, but he was horrible at it. Every time
Josslyn
cried, he panicked. He didn’t like tears and didn’t know what to do when they came about.

“Little guy, you’re killing me.” Tank pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Are you okay? I don’t know what to do, man.”

Mac started singing a kid song and it got Jeremy to stop crying for a little bit. Tank watched the prospect, learning from him. He smiled at Jeremy and made funny noises that went along with the song. Jeremy laughed a few times and sniffled in Tank’s arms.

Thankfully, they made it back to the club in one piece. Tank carried Jeremy inside and walked down the hall to his room.
Josslyn
was asleep on his bed, her dark brown hair spilling out on his pillow. She’d finally laid down long enough to get some rest. He almost didn’t want to wake her up.

“Get her, baby.” He sat Jeremy on the bed and watched as the little boy went over to hug his momma.