OWNED & UNTAMED (A Back Down Devil MC Romance Novel) (18 page)

“Mr. Smith?” I asked. “How convenient.”

“What? It’s a fucking name. I met him, showed him the land. He offered to help me. Said he’d charge me nothing because of my military experience. A week later he had everything lined up. Some environmental company wanted the land. They were going to preserve it. I figured that would be best for Belle, too. They wanted to test the air, trees, water. I don’t know. Whatever. They offered asking price and things were almost too good to be true. Then Mr. Smith told me there was a small issue and to be patient. Something with a down payment issue. Again, look at me, Duke. Fucking look at me. I wake up half drunk. I drink for the entire day. Half the time I’m spaced out, waiting to die. The other half of the time I’m over there, right in the convoy before it all happened.”

Then there was silence.

Jim killed off his quarter-full beer and went right for the next.

“Okay,” I said. “So you only dealt with this Mr. Smith guy?”

“Yes,” Jim said. “Probably stupid, I know. But things were moving fast. I talked to my lawyer and everything seemed legit to me. I could only think about the cash. Getting that money to pay off some stuff. I don’t want to let Belle down anymore.”

“Jesus Christ,” I said. “The two of us… we really fucked things up. And here I thought blowing up frogs and playing pranks on the neighbors was the worst we’d ever do.”

Jim chuckled. “Hey. You remember old Mr. Anderson?”

“He owned that little corner shop.”

“Yeah.”

“We drove him nuts. Remember the time we filled his garbage cans with water and then waited for him to try and drag them to the curb?”

“He fucking poured water all over himself,” Jim said and smacked the table.

“Then he lifted his fist and muttered something in another language.”

“Yes,” Jim said. “Fuck, yes. That was good.”

“What happened to him?”

“Cancer,” Jim said. “Right after Dad went.”

“Shit. You know, getting older is tough once people start dying.”

Jim reached across the table and grabbed my arm. “We weren’t that old when people started dying, brother.”

We both swallowed hard. We then lifted our beer bottles and nodded to each other.

Silence again.

Then Jim asked, “So how do you feel about my sister?”

I grinned. “Yeah? That’s where you want to go?”

“I owe you a punch to the fucking head for what you did to her. Taking off like that. She ended up with this fucking fake guy, man. He was too good.”

“Too good?”

“All proper and shit. I could never relate to him. He talked to me like I was mentally messed up. Always over the top. But she fell for him hard. He was the distraction from you. I thought for a long time they were going to get married.”

My hand tightened around the beer bottle.

Belle? Married? To anyone but me?

“I don’t want to hear this,” I said.

“Yes you do,” Jim said. “You love the jealousy right now. I know you, man. This guy was good. Great job. Could buy any house he wanted. He encouraged her in nursing school and their first real problem started when she dropped out to be here. I thought about calling you then but I was too messed up. Worse than now, if you can believe it.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“So you understand what’s at stake here.”

I pointed to the folder. “Do you understand what’s at stake here, Jim? My club wants to kill you. And there’s other people out there that want you dead, too. Your little decision has some big impacts.”

“So does yours,” Jim said.

“What’s that?”

“Your little decision to come up here and save the day. You spent the night already. You think I don’t know what’s going on? I hope whatever you’re doing, you know which way the path goes. She deserves more than what she’s been given.”

“Maybe she should hear that from her brother,” I said.

Jim shook his head. “I’ve bitched and whined enough to her. She’s done enough for me. I thought by unloading a piece of the land I was going to do something for her for once. Pay off my debts. Try to move out and on. She doesn’t need to live up here for the rest of her life. Stuck in a giant memory. She’s living as though Mom and Dad are alive. They’re gone. There’s no more kids. It’s all fucked.”

Jim got to me. He really got to me. I sat there and stared at my beer bottle. This wasn’t me trying to just save Belle. Or to just get a piece of ass. There were enough
relievers
in the clubhouse that would do anything at any time. This was so much deeper.

I pushed my chair back and stood up.

“Back on track, man,” I said. “I need to know my next step.”

“Which is?”

“Your decision on how you handle this.”

“I’ll call and pull the deal right now,” Jim said. “Simple.”

“Not so much. There’s big money floating around and my name and my club has been pulled into all of this. It’s going to take more than just nixing this deal.”

“Meaning what?”

“I have to take this back to my MC. To my table. That’s where we’re going to vote on our actions. I can turn on my club and get you out of here. Let you hide somewhere for a while and see if this all blows over. Or you can think about everything you just said to me and really think hard about it. Maybe there’s nothing that’s false. Make sure there’s nothing that’s missing. And then I’ll tell you what you need to do next.”

Jim threw his beer back and slammed the bottle on the table. “Be straight with me, Duke. Am I going to end up dead?”

“Maybe.”

Jim stood up. He thumbed toward the living room. “I better go out in style. I’ve got some firecrackers. Wanna blow some shit up?”

The gleam in Jim’s eyes was like when we were kids again.

I couldn’t help myself.

I nodded.

So there we were, for an entire hour, pounding beers, and finding things to blow up with firecrackers. From fruit to a bag of chips to lighting them and seeing how far we could throw them.

It was just like old days.

But in a way, watching those little firecrackers explode, it was like watching the past explode. Being next to Jim and hearing those booms didn’t make me think about Iraq. That was new for me. Looking back and seeing Belle standing on the deck, the moonlight hitting her, making her looking even more beautiful than she already was. I had a sense of family, a sense that was greater than what the MC gave me.

Jim got drunk enough that I had to carry the son of a bitch to his bed. He was muttering and trying to tell some bad joke and I got pissed off. I screamed at him to stop dragging his fucking feet.

He looked at me and said, “I can’t half help it.”

For some reason it struck me. I laughed so hard I let Jim go and he fell into the coffee table. He flipped it over, making me laugh even harder. He crawled to his bedroom and I stood there damn near in tears.

This was what people called
the calm before the storm.

I knew it all along, but I went along with it.

Once Jim was settled I went upstairs to check on Belle.

She was in bed, sleeping.

I touched her shoulder and she grabbed for my hand.

“Stay,” she whispered.

I kicked off my boots and took off my leather cut and shirt.

I climbed into bed next to Belle, wrapped my arms around her, and felt something way too familiar. Something I wanted for the rest of my life.

She was asleep in seconds but I was awake for minutes.

And there was one single thought in my mind.

I fucking love her… I love Belle…

chapter twenty-one.

(belle)

It had to be nothing but a wild dream, right? I mean, standing on the deck, watching two grown men throwing firecrackers around like they were ten years old… like it was the first time they were left home alone by their parents… yet they were two grown men, drinking beer, telling jokes, making fun of each other, having the time of their life together.

That’s the way I came to know and fall in love with Duke to begin with. The guy that was always at the house. The guy that picked on me for my braces, first pimple, bad haircuts and outfits. The guy that also helped me out of so many bad situations. The guy that made my brother feel whole again after our mother died. The guy that was supposed to be mine for the rest of my life.

The guy that left and never came back.

But he was back.

He was…

I rolled over and popped up.

“Not in my bed,” I whispered.

Duke was gone.

Gone?

I touched the sheets. I grabbed the pillow and pulled it to my face. I took a deep breath and picked up the musky scent of him. All man. The leather, the motorcycle, the beer, smoke, and that lingering scent of sweat and sex. It was all there.

So I hadn’t been dreaming at all.

I knew things were far from okay as I tore the covers off my body. Whatever was happening with Jim and Duke’s motorcycle club, it wasn’t going to just go away in a day. Not to mention the stuff between me and Jim personally.

All that slipped away when I saw the shirt and leather cut on the floor.

Duke’s shirt and leather cut.

Then I heard the whir of a saw or something right outside my window.

I rushed to the window and was able to see some of the yard but not all of it. I strained my head a little and saw what looked like wood chips flying up in the air.

What the hell?

I rushed out of the bedroom and down the steps. I turned and hustled down the hallway and into the kitchen. I got to the sink and leaned over, moving up to my tip toes. Standing right outside my house was Duke. Shirtless. Holding a chainsaw. I watched as he lifted it up into the air. The motor whirring and growling for more action. His back muscles flexed, looking like he was built from beautiful stone. He then put the chainsaw to the fallen tree I had been complaining to Jim about since it fell.

The chainsaw ate through the tree limb and popped off. Duke put the chainsaw down and grabbed the limb. When he turned, I finally got a good look at those biceps in action -
other than tossing me around between the sheets
.

He was fucking huge and he was fucking gorgeous.

He tossed the limb into a pile with the others.

The tree had a good few chunks already missing from it.

Duke went right back to work, making the chainsaw scream as its teeth ate through another thick branch.

I stood there, my panties soaking wet from the sight of his sweat and muscle. He moved fast, efficient, and the more the minutes ticked by the more his body glistened and the more the veins in his arms and hands showed.

I was gripping the edge of the sink. My toes were all tingly, going numb.

For a split second I thought about touching myself. That was just how good Duke looked and what he did to me.

I was glad I didn’t though.

A few seconds later I heard someone clear their throat.

I turned, expecting to see my brother.

It wasn’t.

It was the second biggest man I’d ever seen in my life… wearing a leather cut… a gun in his hand.

**

“Where do you keep the sugar?” the giant man asked me.

I was frozen. Behind me I heard the sound of the chainsaw again. I knew if I screamed, Duke wouldn't hear me. And if I tried to move, the guy would probably shoot me.

“I think I found it!” another voice yelled.

I turned my head and another biker was in my kitchen! He wasn’t bigger than the first one, about the same exact size as Duke. He reached up into my cabinet and pulled out a box of sugar packets.

He then turned and tossed them into the air.

The first biker caught them.

“Great,” he said. “It’s too early for this bullshit.”

The biker pulled out a chair and plopped right down like he owned the house.

There was a knife block only a few feet away. I could just grab a couple knives and throw them. Distract these guys enough to get outside.

I felt my left hand twitch, really tempted to do just that.

Before I could make a move though, the second biker reached out and grabbed the entire knife block. He pulled it away from me and then winked.

“I’ll keep this safe here,” he said.

“Where’s that coffee?” the first biker asked. Then he looked at me. “I’m waiting for Jim. He’s getting me all my paperwork.”

“Duke is here,” I blurted out. “He’ll kill you. He won’t let you hurt me. Or Jim. I swear I’ll scream. You don’t want to see what he can do.”

At the exact same time both bikers started to laugh.

The one pouring the coffees turned completely around and pointed to his leather cut. There I was in such a panic I didn’t even take a second to realize who was here.