Lost Hearts (The Unknowns Motorcycle Club Book 1) (9 page)

Slim gulped at his beer, still eyeing Alex over the glass. “If I were you, I’d tell Jameson as soon as possible,” he said. “He’s going to lose his mind if he gets here and you’ve gone AWOL. And what the hell am I supposed to tell him in the meantime?”

“Tell him I left and you didn’t even know it. Tell him you heard me leave early in the morning and haven’t seen me.”

“I’m not lying to the boss.”

“Then do whatever you want,” Alex said. He finished his beer and tossed his money on the bar. He stood up and looked towards the door. “I don’t want to put you in a bad situation. You’ve always been a good friend.”

“You’re going
now?”

“Yes.”

Slim looked at a loss for words and just shook his head. “I’ll cover for you, man. But if Jameson finds out…shit, if he find out and catches up to you…I don’t know what he’ll do. I’m pretty sure he’s had folks killed for less than this. If you don’t plan on ever coming back, that’s abandonment. And you can’t do that to the club.”

“I know. Thanks, man. You tell him what you want for me, but don’t go getting yourself in trouble. That’s not what I want.”

“Then stay here, man.”

“I can’t,” Alex said, literally bouncing on his feet with anticipation to get out the door. He had not been expecting Slim’s sentiment but it was not nearly enough to keep him there. He kept seeing Amanda in his mind and what shocked him more than anything was that it wasn’t just her naked body or her meeting each of his thrusts on the kitchen floor. It was the way she looked when she smiled, the way she had looked when she hadn’t even known he was looking at her in the restaurant before he had saved her.

“Alright, man. Take care.” And with that, Slim turned his back, as if he was done. Actually, to Alex, it seemed as if he were hurt or offended.

Alex gave him a good-natured slap on the shoulder and then headed for the door. In the parking lot, he checked his cell phone. It was 1:52 in the morning, but Alex didn’t think he had ever been more awake in his life.

He had a lot of ground to cover, but he was looking forward to it.

With a smile on his face, Alex cranked his bike and couldn’t help but wonder if he’d make it to Amanda’s house in time for breakfast.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Amanda stirred awake with heaviness in her head. She’d allowed herself a few extra glasses of wine last night, celebrating not only the morning she’d had, but also the fact that she had landed a new freelance client that would bring in some extra and much needed income. She looked to the ceiling for a moment, letting her head decide if it was going to send the hangover headache packing or if it was going to sit squarely in the center of her head.

She also thought about the dream she’d had. It had been similar to the last one she’d had when she had been at Stephen’s graveside but this one had been more surreal. Some might call it a nightmare, but it had been almost enlightening to her.

In it, she had been kneeling by Stephen’s grave and explaining to him that while she missed him terribly, it was time to move on. As she spoke to him, she felt a soft wind at her neck and when she turned to look behind her, she saw that it was not a wind, but Alex’s breath. He was standing behind her, watching her talk to Stephen.

“He’ll understand,” Alex said in the dream. His arms were wrapped around her waist and while that excited her, it did something more. It warmed her in a way that she had not thought possible after losing Stephen.

“I know, but—,”

Alex kissed her then, killing the statement. And as they had kissed, Stephen’s headstone dissolved into mist behind them.

Amanda thought of her dream as she slowly sat up in bed. It seemed the hangover wasn’t going to be so bad after all. A few aspirin would knock it right out. She got to her feet and strolled into the bathroom. She was dressed in a tank top and a pair of panties, the tank top loose and, as far as she was concerned, the most comfortable thing there was in the world to sleep in.

She brushed her teeth and thought she might head out into town today. She’d find a coffee shop and work from there for a few hours. If her incident with Alex had taught her anything, it was that she was done with holing herself up in her house and locking herself away from the world.

She spit toothpaste into the sink and as she rinsed her mouth, she paused for a moment with the water still in her mouth. There was a noise coming from somewhere outside, a low sort of thrum as if her neighbors were cutting their grass. But who the hell cuts their grass at eight thirty in the morning?

She finally spit the water into the sink, still listening to the noise. When she realized what it was she was hearing, she grinned even though it made her sad. It was the sound of a motorcycle passing by. She frowned playfully at herself in the mirror, thinking:
Am I going to get both sad and incredibly turned on every time I hear a motorcycle now?

She finished up in the bathroom and as she walked back into her bedroom to get changed, the sound of the motorcycle engine grew louder and then inexplicably stopped. She stood motionless for a moment, her heart starting to lunge.

It couldn’t be…could it?

She felt like a helpless teenage girl as she walked quickly out of her bedroom, down the hallway, and to the living room. She lifted the blinds very slowly and carefully, aware of the fact that she was still only in her tank top and panties, not wanting to give the neighbors a show.

But that caution was obliterated when she peered through the blinds and saw Alex coming up her sidewalk. His motorcycle was parked at the curb, like a steed that had just delivered a prince to her isolated little tower.

Her heart felt like it might explode and she felt tears stinging her eyes. She was totally unprepared for this reaction and could only stand there for a moment, totally frozen. But when she heard his footsteps on the porch, she raced to the door and opened it.

They stared at one another for a moment as twin smiles started to grow on their faces.

“Oh my God,” she breathed, not caring that a stray tear had escaped the corner of her eye and was trailing down her face. “What are you doing here?”

“I have no idea,” Alex said.

He stepped forward and she met him, her eyes open. She closed the door behind him and they stood like that for twenty seconds, simply hugging one another.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “What happened to Chicago?”

“I made it,” he said as they broke their embrace. “But when I got there, I became very aware that it wasn’t where I wanted to be.”

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Yeah. I think…well, I think I’d like to be
here
if you’ll have me.”

She smiled so big that it hurt her face. She thought it might have kept growing if she hadn’t stopped it by kissing him. It was a soft kiss, their lips melting into one another. The house and the entire world around it seemed to fall quiet as they kissed.

When they came apart, she nodded. “I think that would be nice. I’ve been thinking about you and was afraid I had missed out on something after you left.”

“Yeah,” he said, leaning into her, their foreheads touching. He ran a hand slowly through her hair and added, “That sounds familiar.”

She giggled and they embraced again. She could not believe how absolutely right it felt.

“So what now?” she asked.

“Did I make it in time for breakfast?” He asked.

She laughed out loud at this and stepped back to look at him. “Yes, you did. Great timing.”

“There’s one thing, though,” he said.

“What’s that?”

“This is new to me. I didn’t come back because of what happened yesterday morning. In fact, it’s bizarre to me, if I’m being honest. It’s not just the sex…it’s something else. So to prove me right—to help me prove that it’s not just the sex that brought me back—I’m going to need you to get dressed. Because the way you look right now, eggs and bacon are the furthest thing from my mind.”

“Is that so bad?” she asked, nuzzling at his neck.

“No.”

“I’ll get dressed if that’s what you really want,” she said.

“I don’t know
what
I want,” he said. He sounded shy for the first time in his life. Amanda also thought he sounded a little scared.

She took his hand and gave it a squeeze. “I don’t know what I want, either,” she said. “But I am so much more than glad that you came back.”

“Me too,” he said.

And with that, he kissed her. It was a kiss like he had never felt before. He closed his eyes and the world was spinning. He felt her against him and he couldn’t tell where his body stopped and where hers began. And when they parted thirty seconds later, he wanted it again.

They stood in the doorway, kissing slowly and in a way it was reassuring to both of them.

Outside, traffic crept by and people went to work. The morning unfolded and the sun shone down.

But in Amanda’s house, none of that mattered. As they made breakfast together, not a single minute passed without a touch or a kiss. They ate and talked and something grew between them. And as familiar as it seemed to them, the kitchen floor saw no action that morning.

The bedroom, on the other hand, was a totally different story.

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CHAPTER ONE

It was the part of town where hearing a motorcycle engine roaring through the night caused little alarm. The streets were empty after seven o’ clock in the afternoon due to the fear of crime. The streetlights shone down on darkened empty streets, flickering only when the man on the motorcycle passed under their light. It was after ten thirty on a Thursday night and not even the cops dared to show their heads in this part of the city at such an hour.

But the man on the motorcycle either did not know this fact or did not let it bother him. He blazed down the road, passing by empty warehouses and vacated housing developments. If he passed any people, they were hidden in the shadows and went unseen. As far as the man on the motorcycle was concerned, he was the only man along this stretch of road and that suited him just fine.

The ride had been a long one and although he was tired, there was work to be done. He’d done a lot of thinking on the ride, spending nearly ten and a half hours by himself and wondering how he could rectify a situation that had recently been taken out of his control. He was irritated and frustrated, but more than anything, he felt hurt.

And Jameson Cane did not like that feeling. When his old man had beat him half to death at the age of thirteen, Jameson had sworn that he would never be a victim again—he’d never be hurt again. And those that
did
manage to hurt him would pay a very dear price.

He’d spent the last twenty years or so of his life living by that rule and it had paid out well. He had an entire club behind him and made more money than half of the respectable businesses in his club’s territory. There were times when he wondered if the ass-whippings his drunken daddy had administered to him was really responsible for it all.

Jameson had no qualms with violence. And if the situation deemed it necessary, he had no strong arguments against killing. It all came down to the situation. He was really a reasonable man, all things considered. He was willing to show mercy when it was warranted and absolute vengeance if it was necessary.

But this time was different. This time, he had been betrayed by one his own. He sincerely hoped that there was some vital and logical reason that Alex had bailed on him, not finishing the job with Marco. Marco should have been close to dead right now because of Alex. Instead, Marco was being treated for his wounds in a Chicago hospital. And to top it all off, Jameson had received a call from Slim, letting him know that Alex had essentially abandoned ship.

As Jameson brought his bike to a crawl and turned down a decrepit alley, he saw Slim. He was perched on his own bike at the end of the alley. When Jameson entered the alleyway, Slim’s dark figure visibly tensed up.

Jameson parked his bike by Slim’s and wasted no time with formalities. He hopped down off of his bike and stretched his legs and back. The muscles in both were wound tight from a life spent on a motorcycle, but it did him a world of good to stretch.

“How are you?” Slim asked, his voice like that of a ghoul in the darkened alley.

“I’m pissed off,” Jameson said. “I appreciate the hell out of you calling me and filling me in on all of this, but on the other hand, I could beat the hell out of you for it.”

“Sorry, boss.”

Jameson waved the comment off. “It is what it is. No use in complaining about it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“So you’re sure he’s gone?”

“Yeah,” Slim said. “I had a drink with him before he left. He didn’t come out and say that he was done with the club, but that’s the impression that I got.”

“Any idea how bad he beat up Marco?”

“No. But to tell you the truth, Alex looked sort of disgusted when he told me what he had been doing.”

“I’ve seen something similar before,” Slim said, lighting a cigarette that burned like a red evil eye in the dark. “Sometimes you’ll get involved in too much violence and it sort of breaks you. You go soft. It happens a lot with married men…especially when they have kids. But damn…I never thought it would happen to Alex.”

“I’m not too sure that’s what happened with him,” Slim said.

“Then what the hell was it?” Jameson asked.

“I don’t know, sir. I wish I did. Alex was a good friend.”

“
Was
being the key word there. Unless he has a
damn
good reason for this, he’s as good as dead to me.”

Slim looked like he wanted to say something, but he remained quiet. He knew better than to say anything unless spoken to when Jameson was in one of these moods.

“Come on,” Jameson said. “I’m here an entire day early, so we might as well get started. Let’s go take a look at the Unknown’s new HQ.”

Slim gave a nod and mounted his bike. He looked incredibly relieved that the awkward conversation about Alex was over. The two men peeled back out onto the street, headed for the first building they would use to establish a presence in Chicago.

There was going to be trouble and quite a bit of fighting to get it started.

Jameson could barely wait.

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