RIDE (A Stone Kings Motorcycle Club Romance) (29 page)

“So, how do we piss back?” challenged Moose.

“We get ourselves ready for a battle. Maybe even a war,” I announced. “If this is the way they communicate, then negotiation ain’t gonna cut it with them.” I turned to Levi. “You’re gonna go make a recon visit to their clubhouse. See what you can see. See if you can identify the van there. Find out what they’re up to. Take one or two of the others with you, your choice.”

Levi looked around the table. “Moose. Repo.” The two men nodded.

I looked at the three of them. “This is recon only. Not looking for payback. Yet. Got that?” I eyed Moose for emphasis. He scowled, but nodded once.

“Okay.” I banged the gavel. “Church is over. Officers, stay behind.”

The men filed out in uncharacteristic silence. Trigger, Winger, Levi, Moose and Repo stayed in their seats.

“How you doing, Trig?” I asked.

“Okay,” he muttered. “Good thing it’s my right leg. I should be able to ride before too long.”

“We gonna have to replace the bikes, or can they be repaired?” I hadn’t bothered to look closely at them when we were at Maisie’s.

“We might be able to save one or two of them,” Repo said doubtfully.

“All right. When we bring them back here, we’ll see what can be done. Whatever can’t be saved, the club will replace.” I changed the subject. “How’d the prospects do?”

“They did good,” Repo affirmed. “Frankenstein went into action and ducked in behind a booth after the windows got shattered. He fired off a few rounds, probably hit the van once or twice.”

Winger grunted. “That’s good. Makes it easier to identify, since I’m guessing no one got their plates, if they had any.”

“Cal didn’t do so shabby himself.” Trig said approvingly. “He grabbed a little kid sitting a couple tables over, took him down on the ground and covered him so he wouldn’t get hurt.”

I nodded. You get a person in a life or death situation, you know more about them from their first reaction than you could learn about them in ten years. Both prospects showed good instincts.

“Okay. Good.” I stood up. “We’ll talk again when Levi, Moose, and Repo get back.”

In the meantime, it was time to go talk to Seton.

T
he hours
I spent at the club waiting for Cal and the others to get back were the most scared I had ever been in my life. Grey had apparently put the clubhouse on ‘lockdown’ before he left to go check things out, and so no one was allowed to come in or leave until they got back. A few of the club members stood guard at the doors, and I could hear the occasional murmur of their voices as they checked in with each other, but other than that it was fairly quiet.

I knew that apparently the attack at the diner was over, and that no one in the club was critically hurt. In theory, Cal and the others were out of danger, but all the same I kept thinking about the day of my father’s death and how awful it would be to have my brother die in the same way. The irony was, though, that this time, it was the club members who were the victims, instead of my “civilian” father.

And then there was Greyson. I knew that as president, he would be an immediate target of anyone with bad intentions toward the club. Having them both out there was making me frantic, and I only managed to contain myself because Jules, Repo’s old lady, made sure I wasn’t left alone.

Jules was amazing to me during the wait. She was so patient and kind. She looked to be about thirty, with ash blond hair and blue eyes that twinkled when she talked. She was funny and genuine, and I liked her immediately.

“How do you stand it?” I asked her. “How can you not go out of your mind when things like this happen?” I felt sheepish that her husband (were they married, I wondered abstractly?) was out there in danger, but she was calmer than I was.

“It doesn’t get easy, but it does get easier,” she assured me. “I trust Repo. I know he can defend himself. This is the way things are. It’s better to just accept them and have faith. Your brother’s in good hands with the men.” She gave me a knowing look. “And don’t you worry about Greyson. He’ll be fine.”

I blushed. Up to now, she hadn’t mentioned Grey at all.

“How long you and he been an item, sugar?” she asked. “I haven’t seen you around here before.”

“I’m not really sure we are an item,” I admitted. I thought about what he had said when we came into the clubhouse earlier:
She’s with me.
“I mean, obviously, there’s something going on between us. I just don’t know what it is.”

“Well,” she drawled, taking a sip of her beer. “I’ve never seen Greyson Stone look at a woman the way he looks at you. So I think it’s a pretty sure bet the two of you are an item.”

“He said he doesn’t do relationships,” I ventured. “I stayed over at his house last night, and this morning he told me that normally he doesn’t have women do that.”

She erupted into peals of laughter. “Now, that
is
an understatement! Honey, if you’ve been in the inner sanctum of Grey’s bedroom, you can count yourself as one of the lucky few. If not the only.” She leaned back and gazed at me speculatively. “I can see what he sees in you. You’re a real beauty.”

I blushed and looked around the room at the half a dozen other women who were there. Most of them were young and blond, with huge breasts and clothes that looked painted on. “I don’t know if I’m in the same category as them,” I observed. “Are they ‘old ladies,’ too?”

She snorted. “Hell no, most of them are just club wh… uh, women who hang around the men, hoping they will take an interest. Jacie, over there,” she pointed a finger, “she’s Sag’s old lady, but,” her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, “I don’t think she’s gonna last.”

“You don’t sound like you like her very much,” I whispered back.

“Eh, she’s just a club whore who got lucky,” Jules shrugged. “Pardon my French.”

Just then, one of the door guards shouted a word to another. The front door opened and Grey stepped in, followed by two other men. I stood up and ran over to him before I even knew what I was doing.

“What happened?” I asked anxiously “Is Cal okay?”

“Cal’s fine, sweetheart,” he murmured into my ear. “Don’t worry. He’ll probably be back any minute.”

I exhaled all at once. I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding my breath. “Will you tell me what happened?”

“Eventually.” He put an arm around me, hugging me to him. “Right now, I need to talk to the men. Why don’t I take you home?”

“No. I want to wait for Cal to get back.” I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand it, pacing back and forth in my apartment, waiting for a call. I had to see for myself that Cal was safe.

Grey pulled me close and kissed me. “Okay, you win. Stay here for now. I’ll take you back later.”

Relieved, I let him go talk to the other men and went back to my vigil with Jules. About half an hour later, the guards opened the door again. A group of men streamed in, one on crutches, and finally Cal. I leaped up with a shout and went to him.

“Oh, my God, Cal, are you okay?” I cried, hugging him.

He seemed surprised to see me. “Yeah, I’m fine, See. Really.” He frowned. “But, what are you doing here?”

Belatedly, I remembered that he had no idea that I even knew Greyson Stone, much less that there was anything going on between us. I stammered out the first thing I could think of. “I, uh, met Greyson when you left my car here. He told me what happened and drove me here so I could wait.”

Cal didn’t appear to be too happy that Grey had involved me. “Uh, okay, I guess,” he frowned. “But you could have just waited at your place, Seton. I don’t like the idea of my sister waiting here for me to get back.” He looked around, embarrassed. “It looks like I’m some sort of little kid. Plus, it’s dangerous.”

I wanted to tell him about Greyson, I really did. But something held me back. Hell, I didn’t even know if there was anything real between us. I thought back to Jules’ whispered confidence about Jacie:
I don’t think she’s gonna last.
For all I know, someone would be saying that about me soon.

“It wasn’t dangerous,” I retorted, trying to change the subject. “We were on lockdown. The MC had guys guarding all the doors just in case.” I contemplated the irony of me assuring him that I was safe.

Suddenly, Grey’s voice cut through the chatter. “Church in three!” he yelled.

I looked at Cal. “What does that mean?”

“It means the club’s having a meeting in three minutes.”

“Oh.”

A bearded man wearing a cut with a patch that said “Road Captain” came up to Cal. “Prez wants you and Frankenstein at church.”

“Sure thing,” Cal said. He turned to me. “I gotta go.”

The men were away for a while. I was uncertain what to do. On the one hand, I didn’t know whether Grey would be mad that I was still there when they were done. On the other, I didn’t have my car, so I would need a ride home if I left. So, I just decided to wait. I struck up some awkward conversations with a couple of the other women, and eventually sat down at the bar and chatted with the blond bartender to make the time pass more quickly.

After a while, Cal came out with a tall, lanky guy with gaunt features who looked to be in his early twenties at most. They approached the bar, and Cal asked for a beer. He didn’t look too happy that I was still around.

“Seton,” he muttered, “This is Frankenstein.” I tried not to laugh at how well the nickname fit him.

“Nice to meet you,” I replied, not knowing what you were supposed to say when you met a guy named Frankenstein. He nodded a silent greeting to me.

“So, uh, Seton, you gonna be hanging around much longer?” Cal asked. He glanced around the room nervously.

“I, um, don’t have my car,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t offer to drive me back.

“Huh. Well, I’d give you a ride, but my bike got kind of shot up at Maisie’s.” He looked at me curiously. “How’d you get here, anyway?”

“Um… Grey brought me,” I reminded him.

“Oh yeah.” Cal responded with a frown. The words hung in the air awkwardly.

The noise of a door opening in the back made him turn his head, and I looked with him to see Grey emerge with five of the other men. Grey broke apart from the group and approached us, accompanied by the large, muscled man who had caught me when I almost fell off Grey’s bike. He was covered in intricate tattoos that adorned all the visible skin from his neck down. Grey spoke to Cal and Frankenstein:

“You two go on out to the garage. Your bikes should be brought back pretty soon. Look them over with Repo, see whether they can be salvaged. If not, the club’ll take care of getting you new ones.”

“Thanks, prez,” Cal said, his tone sincere.

“I’m not your president,” Grey retorted, his voice suddenly sharp.

Cal immediately apologized. “I’m sorry, sir,” he said in a contrite voice. My eyes widened. This was the second time I’d heard him actually apologize for something with no argument.

Grey softened a bit. “Apology accepted. Now go look at your bikes.” He looked from Cal to Frankenstein. “And good job today. You did okay.”

Cal and the other prospect left. The large tattooed man looked at Grey. “You need the lockdown to continue?” he asked.

“No, I think the men can stand down for now. Let me know when the recon run is planned. We’ll talk about security then.”

Tattoos looked at me. “Ma’am,” he murmured, then turned and left.

“Who was that?” I asked.

“That’s Levi,” Grey said. “He’s my Sergeant at Arms.”

I frowned. “What does that mean?”

“It means he’s in charge of safety and security,” Grey replied. His arm went around me possessively.

“He doesn’t talk much, does he?” I asked. I was a little intimidated by him. He looked dangerous.

Grey chuckled. “No. He’s not exactly a ray of sunshine. But he’s tough as hell, and when he does talk, you know that whatever comes out of his mouth is important. I’d trust him with my life.”

I watched Levi’s retreating form with curiosity.

“I should take you home,” Grey said suddenly.

My heart sank, and I chastised myself. I didn’t know what I had expected — that he would ask me to come back to his place? That I would stay here with him?

I tried not to let my disappointment show. “My car’s still at the Cactus from last night,” I pointed out.

“I’ll have one of the boys bring it to your place,” he said. “Give me the key.” His eyes twinkled. “I’ll have them put it in the side pocket on the driver’s side.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the reference to how we’d met. “Okay,” I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out the small ring that held my car key and my house key. I detached the former and held it up to him.

“Tiny!” He called out. A short, compact man with long, dark hair came up to us.

“This is Seton. Get this car delivered from the Cactus Bar downtown to her place. Silver Mazda Protege.”

I gave him my address.

“Now,” Grey said when Tiny had gone. “Let’s get you home.”

W
e didn’t say
much on the way to her place. Seton seemed so relieved about Cal that I didn’t want to do anything to break that feeling, so I just let her snuggle in next to me on the bike and wrap her arms around me. The feeling of her holding on to me for protection, trusting me, worked on me the whole way to her house, and I felt like more and more of a fraud with every mile. By the time I pulled over to the curb outside the address she’d given me, I had made up my mind that it was time to come clean.

Seton climbed off the bike, by now doing it like she’d been doing so all her life. She handed the helmet to me and I hooked it over the back seat after I’d climbed off.

Seton lived on the ground floor of a small, compact duplex with a tiny side yard that boasted a minuscule but well-tended garden.

“Welcome to my place,” she said shyly. “You want to come in for a bit?”

I grunted my assent. I wasn’t going to tell Seton, but I wanted to make sure the apartment was safe and no one was waiting for her inside.
If you would leave her alone, you wouldn’t have to worry that she was safe
, my inner voice reminded me, and I frowned angrily that because of me, Seton could potentially be in danger. I followed behind her cursing myself. I watched with a mixture of desire and frustration the sexy way she swayed her hips when she walked, and watched as she fit the key into the lock on her front door.

We entered the apartment to find a woman of about Seton’s age on the couch. She had long, wavy blond hair and a pattern of geometric tattoo sleeves on both arms. She had earbuds in and was listening to something that was causing her to bob her head and smile slightly, her eyes closed as she appreciated the beat.

Seton tapped her softly on the shoulder and she opened her eyes. “Hey,” she smiled up at Seton, then turned and looked at me, startled. “Oh, I didn’t hear you come in,” she said, her voice registering her surprise.

“Carly, this is Greyson,” Seton smiled, glancing over at me.

“Grey,” I corrected, nodding at her.

The woman raised her fingers in a small wave. “Hey,” she breathed, then cut her eyes toward Seton questioningly.

“We’re uh, going to go back to my room for a bit,” Seton grinned at her shyly.

“Sure thing,” Carly replied. Her lips started to curl into a smile, but she suppressed it.

“Come on,” Seton said, looking at me seductively through a lock of hair that had fallen into her face.

I followed her back, noting the locations of exits and windows as I went. Seton led me into her bedroom, a reasonably tidy but small space with one wall lined with bookshelves. A double bed with no headboard was shoved against the far wall under a window to make as much space as possible. Seton sat down on the bed and I sat next to her.

“So,” I said. “Your room.” I was feeling conflicted about being here, but I wasn’t ready to launch in to what I wanted to say just yet.

“My room,” she agreed. She looked through her hair at me again. I felt myself get hard with desire but forced myself not to do anything about it. She looked momentarily disappointed, but seemed to shake herself out of it. Then she seemed to remember something and her lips curved into a conspiratorial smirk. “You know, Cal was really surprised when he came back to the clubhouse and I was there. I totally forgot he didn’t know about us.” Her face flushed slightly when she said ‘us,’ and it made me want to kiss her.

“Huh. Yeah, I imagine that was kind of weird for him,” I agreed.

A soft giggle escaped her then. “It feels weird to have you here.”

“Weird how?”

“Just…” she blushed, then continued bravely. “I’ve thought about you a lot when I’m in bed, so… now that you’re here, it makes me want to do the things I thought about.”

I almost groaned as I felt my dick twitch in response. This was not going the way I wanted it to. I realized I had to get out what I needed to say. Rip the bandaid off before I pushed her down on the bed and did exactly what she was trying to get me to do.

“Seton,” I began, my voice almost cracking with desire. I grabbed her hand and held it. “I need to tell you something.”

Her smile faded a little, but she kept her voice light. “What is it?” she asked.

I hated that she was worried what I was about to say would hurt her. I hated even more that she was right.

“It’s something… something I should have told you a long time ago.”

Her eyes opened wide. “Do you… are you with someone else?”

“No,” I growled in frustration. “Fuck, no, Seton. I wasn’t lying when I told you there’s no one else.”

She sat up straighter then. Her smile was gone, and she looked at me bravely, her eyes serious. “What, then?” she challenged.

“I knew about your dad’s death. I knew who you were as soon as you said your name,” I said. I took a deep breath and looked at her. “Because the person who killed him was my uncle.”

A small sound escaped her throat. “Your uncle?” she choked out.

“Yes, my uncle Lawless. My mom’s brother was the one who did it. And there’s one more thing.” I turned to face her. “I was there.”

“You… what?” she whispered.

“I was there. I was in the crowd when your father died. I… You looked at me. We looked at each other, when you were on the ground with your father.”

It was done. I’d finally told her. All I could do now was wait for her reaction.

If I’d thought Seton would yell at me, or cry, or throw things, I was mistaken. The blood drained from her face, and she looked away from me toward some point on the wall. She slowly, firmly detached her hand from mine. “Go,” she said in a strangled whisper. “Just go.”

It was what I had wanted, in a way. What my head wanted, anyway. But my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest as I stood up, quietly walked to the door, and closed it behind me.

In the living room, Carly’s curious gaze met mine. “You leaving?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said tiredly. “Look in on her in a while, will you?”

Without waiting for a response, I left the house, got on my bike, and rode away.

* * *

B
ack at the clubhouse
, I tried to convince myself that drowning myself in pussy was just what the doctor ordered, to convince myself that Seton Greenlee had been nothing special. But my heart just wasn’t in it. I pushed away the club whore that was grinding on my lap and grabbed a couple shots of whiskey from the bar.

Eventually, some intel started to come in from the recon mission. The van used in the driveby hadn’t been found, so we assumed it was either in a chop shop somewhere or had been ditched or torched. But Trigger, who still couldn’t ride because of his leg, had managed to find out some info by shaking the trees. Turned out, there was evidence the Cannibals had joined the Aztecs cartel. Which was fucking interesting, because we had a truce with the cartel that had allowed us to avoid a turf war for years now. If the Cannibals truly had joined the cartel, and they had been behind the attack that killed Hammer, much less the driveby, they were breaking the truce. Lupine and neighboring Fox Bluff, where Maisie’s was located, were strictly off-limits to them. The potential for this to be a much larger and complicated problem had just reared its very ugly head. Before, the only question was to find out who had been responsible for the driveby at Maisie’s and Hammer’s death. After that, the response was clear: justice. Blood. It was a formula I was comfortable and familiar with.

Now, if everything we knew was true, the question was, had the Cannibals committed both of these crimes as part of the cartel? And if so, was the cartel behind it, or were the Cannibals going rogue… or worse, working on a power grab?

These were questions, I knew, that required shifting from a short-term view to playing the long game. The Cannibals, if they were responsible, would taste our vengeance. That part was certain. But what was also clear was that the Stone Kings had to get ready for the possibility of an upcoming war.

I
n a fucked-up way
, I was glad for the distraction from Seton that these new developments presented. I knew it had been the right thing to come clean to Seton, so that she would push me away and I would be forced to forget her. Even though it felt like I was fucking dying inside, I would force myself to shut her out. That was the only form my love for her could take: I had to protect her. The way I felt about her, what I wanted for myself: that was immaterial. Just as I had to put the club’s needs before my own in any decision, I needed to put what was best for Seton before my own desires. And the only way I could do that was to make sure that she stayed far, far away from me.