Rider (Defenders M.C. Book 3) (2 page)

“Fuck Lizzie.”

“Yeah Spec, good idea.”

Spec laughed.  “You and I both know it isn’t me you want.”

Lizzie’s smile faded a little.  “And we know both know you don’t give a flying fuck.”

Lizzie saw it in his eyes.  Spec liked the thrill and the chance that someone would challenge his right to fuck who he wanted or his right to anything for that matter.  He grabbed a handful of Lizzie’s hair and pulled her mouth to his while filling his other hand with her breast.  She felt on fire and she felt alive.

She kept expecting the door to burst open, but it didn’t and before long she was glad no one bothered them….

Rider would skin Spec if he touched Lizzie.  He looked up at Mace as she rubbed against him.  Lizzie had to know he didn’t want this shank, but she looked pissed when she turned that corner with Spec. 

He started to stand when a meaty hand landed on his shoulder and held him in place.

“If she wanted you brother, you should have done something about it then, right now she’s with Spec and you ain’t gonna interrupt ‘em.” 

Moose never got in anybody’s way, but here he was standing in Rider’s way, keeping him from going to Lizzie and it pissed him off more than a little.  Everyone had given him the cold shoulder for what went down with the devils and how he had handled the aftermath.  That shit hadn’t been his fault.  Fucking Ginny.  How was Rider supposed to know she was a Devil whore?  She sure as shit didn’t look it.

“Fuck off Moose.”  Rider shrugged off the man and turned back to Mace.  “Spec knows better than to fuck what’s mine.”

“Think we all know Spec does what the fuck he wants to and she ain’t been claimed.”  Moose spat as he sat back down and turned his back to Rider and the display he wa ofisplay s putting on with Mace.

“Some pricks don’t deserve a good woman.”  Jack said as he sat down two beers and walked away.

Rider snorted.  Everyone knew Jack had it bad for Lizzie, but she wouldn’t give him the time of day while she mooned over Rider like a lost puppy.  Rider found it hilarious. 

“That’s right you pussy, some men deserve them all!”  Rider shouted at Jack’s back, but his brothers didn’t laugh like they once would have.  The mess with the Devils had caused them all to go hard.  Too much shit had gone down.  A man they had called brother had turned out to be a traitor and that was heavy for the brothers.  Rider had missed it.  He had been too busy fucking a woman who was on the Devils’ payroll to do his job.  He had almost died for it and he knew that if he hadn’t his brothers might have called for his blood as retribution.  He knew some still felt his betrayal even if it was only by accident.  He hated the way they looked at him as if they didn’t know whether to pity him for being a fool or hate him.

He felt Shadow’s eyes on him and wanted to punch the fucker.  Everyone knew what had gone down between Shadow and Rider.  Shadow was a crazy fuck and got Lacey because she felt sorry for him.  Who the fuck wanted a woman like that.  Lacey had wanted Rider for different reasons altogether and they had been happy.  Fucking club had stood in his way of that and he had stayed loyal.  Fuck them for questioning him now.

He stood shoving Mace away and stalked to the door.  A man needed to be able to feel at home in his own house.  Maybe it was time to move on.  Maybe it was time to find a new house with new brothers where the past didn’t matter so much.  Where brothers had your back and bitches had their place.

He stepped out into the bright sunlight and squinted up to an upstairs window in time to see Lizzie drop her top and run her hands up her body.  So that was it then.  She would move on that fast.  Fuck her too then.  He didn’t need her and he didn’t need this fucking place anymore.

He climbed on his bike and just rode away.

Two

Lizzie had found her happy place.  It had taken her weeks to get over Rider’s desertion, but she felt as if she was starting to heal again.  She was still watched closely as the war between the Defenders and the Devils raged on, but she found little freedoms in the strangest places.  She still spent time at the clubhouse and was never shocked when she was dragged from bed to patch up a brother who had met with the wrong end of a knife or a bullet, but it became normal to her.  It was still home after all and she was able to enjoy time with her family.  She had missed it over the years and even if she didn’t want to live life in the club she found that she didn’t mind being near it nearly as much as she had thought.

She found that she enjoyed Spec’s company too, far more than she had ever thought.  He was the most intelligent man she had ever met and even though she had known it before she hadn’t known the depth of his intellect until she began spending time with him.  His moniker suited him better than she thought.  Spec was short for inspector and he was nothing short of amazing. She had never found conversation with most of the club to be stimulating on an intellectual level, but Spec fed her need for it.  He was always more than willing to sit and talk about just about anything whereas most of the others would prefer to talk about bikes, guns, and sex with a few exceptions.

Lizzie had begun spending as much of her free time as she could with Spec.  She also spent hours working at the local hospital even though her father hated it.   He hated that she was so exposed and insisted on having a prospect guard her.  She agreed if only to make him happy. Her life was taking a turn for the better and if she wasn’t ecstatically happy at least she was becoming content.  There was something to be said of contentment after all. 

The only dark spot in her life was Rider.  He had moved to another chapter and seemed he was happier there than he ever had been with the Cool Creek chapter or that was how it seemed to her.  Lizzie heard reports from time to time, but no one wanted to discuss Rider with her.  They felt that he had been party to the attack that the Devils had planned to kill Lawless’s and Shadow’s old ladies.  Lizzie knew Rider would never betray his brothers.  She also knew how crazy he could go over a woman… as long as it wasn’t her.  He had been careless, but that was his only crime.  It seemed that it was enough for the brothers to turn their backs on him.  It made no sense.  She had seen them stand up for men who had done far worse.

She huffed out a breath and tried not to let it hurt so much.  What did she care anyway?  She was beginning to think she had dodged a bullet with Rider.  He would never have cared for her.  He would have toyed with her heart until he’d broken her and then he would have paraded a string of women under her nose.  She would have lost her heart and never recovered.  Spec was more what she needed anyway.  He was her friend and sometimes when they both needed more, he was her more.

Lizzie gave herself another look in the mirror.  She looked good.  She was making dinner for Spec tonight and she was nervous.  She looked around her bedroom and decided it would do.  The little apartment had been one thing she had demanded when her father had insisted she move back to Cool Creek.  He had fussed about her safety and she had stood up to him for the first time in her life.  She thought he respected her for it, but it was never easy to tell with him.  The only things she knew about her father was that he was a cold blooded killer when he needed to be and that he loved her to distraction.  That was enough.  It was all she needed to know to respect him and know that he would always be there when she needed him.

There was a knock on the door and she felt a flutter in her belly as she always did when Spec arrived.  He made her nervous for some reason, but he made her laugh too and that was priceless around the brothers.  She knew she wasn’t in love with him anymore than he was in love with her, bs t with hut there was something and it almost scared Lizzie.  Spec was dangerous in every way and that seemed to feed something deep inside of Lizzie.  Something dark and primal that shouldn’t be allowed to roam free.  She knew it was there.  She knew it was the same darkness that haunted Shadow sometimes and that made killing part of the family business.  It was the reason she had dedicated her life to helping people.

She opened the door and smiled when he tilted his head to the side and looked her over.  She looked too.  He was not a normal biker and it showed in the way he presented himself.  Spec preferred to be clean if possible and he liked to style his light brown hair to look messy, but it was a very deliberate look.  He wore wire rimmed glasses and tended to adjust them often.  He was also slimmer in build than most of the brothers.  She would almost describe him as lanky although he had plenty of muscle too.

“Well, do I pass inspection?”  She asked when his inspection made her want to fidget.

“Remains to be seen, but I look forward to inspecting you further Lizzie.”

His voice was quiet, but filled with promise.  Lizzie could barely breathe.  He had the look of a hungry predator and Lizzie felt her body grow moist from just his gaze on her.

“I’m looking forward to it myself.”  Her voice was breathless and she knew he’d noticed the change.  He noticed everything.

Spec gave her a half grin and walked in when she stepped aside.

“Dinner can wait Lizzie.  I can’t.  Not tonight.”

She wanted to ask why.  She knew he had been gone for a couple of days on club business and she wondered if something had happened, but she knew he wouldn’t tell her anything.  She hated the looks on the men’s faces after something went sideways.  They seemed haunted.  Some more than others. 

Then she was being pulled against him and all thoughts flew from her head.  Spec was an exceptional lover.  He paid attention to what she liked and he exploited those things.  He knew how to pleasure her more than she knew herself and she loved the nights when he was hungry for her. 

He devoured her.  Lizzie couldn’t process the level of pleasure she was being given.  She screamed and sighed and begged for more and was always rewarded with anything she needed.  Spec was especially hungry tonight and he loved her for hours.  It was dark when he finally allowed himself release and sank down beside her in bed.  He wrapped her in his arms and kissed her head as she drifted to sleep.  The last thought in her mind was that he had completely avoided talking to her, again.  She was too tired to dwell on it though and drifted to sleep.

Lizzie woke to raised voices, one in particular, her father.

“What the fuck was that tonight?  You got a goddamned death wish?damned dwish?d

She listened.  Spec sounded almost bored.  “There was no danger.”

“There is a bullet hole in the seat of your bike.”

“It’s not in my ass so I’d say that’s pretty good.”

“You are too damned reckless.  I don’t like it and I don’t like my daughter getting mixed up in it.”

“I don’t remember asking.”  Spec sounded like he was talking to a child and Lizzie knew it would piss her father off.

Lizzie heard rustling and knew her father was pacing.  Part of the rush she and Spec got from being together was the disapproval from every one.  They all said he was too dangerous even if he looked like a mild mannered man.

“The risks you take don’t make any sense.  Why are you always trying to get killed?”

“I’m not.  I just operate under the assumption that my acceptable risk level is much higher than most.  I don’t take risks that are more than I am willing to take.”

“And what happens when Lizzie pays for those risks?  Do you give a damn about that?”

Lizzie heard a crash. 

“I will not hear that bullshit.  You should know me better than that.  She is safe with me and if you ever suggest that she isn’t again, it will be more difficult for you to pick yourself up off the ground.”

Lizzie heard the door slam and then footsteps.  She closed her eyes but he knew she had heard.

“I meant it Lizzie.  I will never put you in harm’s way if I can prevent it.  You can trust me on that.”

“I always have.”

He looked relieved.  He climbed back into bed and just held her.

And they slept.

Three

Rider sat in a club house near Atlanta, Georgia and watched the women paw at each other as they danced on the bar.  This was not a Defenders’ house, but they were friendly enough.  The men here didn’t try to get in his business and he liked it.  He didn’t want to share his sob story over a beer and commiserate like a bunch of old ladies.  He liked his beer cold and his women blonde.  He got both here and nothing else.  He missed the club, but he was learning to be alone.  It was something a man needed to be able to do, stand his own company. 

Rider had gone from his parents to his riding coach to Preach.  He had never stood on his own feet.  It was time he figured out how to do that.  He was beginning to think he was a dick and he didn’t care for his own company all that much.  It was almost funny. 

Atlanta was a long way from Cool Creek, but the memories had followed him.  He had thought the move would revive him, but he felt more dead than alive.  It was almost like Ginny had killed him and he had been living a sort of half-life since the attack.  Like a fucking zombie searching for something he couldn’t name.  He wanted to go home, but home wasn’t what he remembered.  The brothers looked at him differently now and it felt like he was being burned.  The club was all he had in the world and now he was losing that too.  He’d already lost Lacey and now Lizzie.  He was thoroughly fucked.