Authors: Harley McRide
Tags: #contemporary, #Erotic, #Menage, #MCs & Bikers, #Romance, #New Age
“You don’t have mine, brother. I don’t feel pity for you. I feel pride. You survived, you made it back,” Slider said.
Cajun snorted, turned, and stared at the man who he called brother. “Not all the way.”
“Fuck, none of us did,” Slider looked at him, "we all left a little something of ourselves in the sand. We came back changed, and it is nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Should I be ashamed of what my stepbrother did to me?” Shady whispered.
“Fuck no,” Cajun yelled and walked to Shady and took her in his arms. “You never feel ashamed about that. You are not responsible, that fucker is.”
“Goes both ways,” Shady whispered. “We both have hatred, and anger, and it comes out in a completely fucked up way.”
Cajun closed his eyes, he had heard all this before from the counselors, he knew it in his head, but it was hard to actually believe it. Too many lives had been changed during that deployment, people lost, hurt, and men completely fucked up. He closed his eyes and then whispered, “We fit.”
Shady was silent, she knew what he was saying, and she was freaked out once again. She had listened to him tell his story and she felt the pull toward him. She wanted him to know she understood, that she knew what he was feeling. But damn it, she didn’t want the attachment, she didn’t want to be responsible for anyone, only herself. That way if she died, she wouldn't leave anyone behind.
“No, we understand each other,” Shady said.
“I know what you are thinking,” Cajun said. “I felt it too, have for a long time, until I met you and felt something different, something I could hold onto. That is why I was a Nomad with Slider, didn’t care if I lived or died because I was not tied to anything. You think that too, but you are tied to shit, the Warriors, the Bitches, they care about you.”
“They don’t know me, when they find out shit, they won’t care,” Shady said.
“Find out what?” Cajun said as Slider slipped in behind her so they were surrounding her. She felt their bodies with hers and they fit, but she wouldn’t let it happen, she would destroy them, she knew it.
“It doesn’t matter,” Shady said. “I know, because when I told someone what happened to me, it changed every fucking thing. He was disgusted.”
“He was a prick then,” Slider said in her ear.
“You don’t know it all,” Shady cried loudly.
“Then tell us,” Cajun said. “Say it out loud and we will deal with this shit once and for all. You know how fucked up I am, you know how much it took me to say what I just did because you have been burying shit deep too. It is time to let that crap go and heal together.”
“I can’t,” she said and put her head to his chest. Cajun looked at his friend and he could see the worry in his eyes, they were missing something, they knew she was abused. She told them about that before. It was fucked up and seriously sick but it was not her fault, didn’t she get that.
“Babe, you don’t control other people's actions,” Slider said and rubbed her back.
They felt Shady stiffen and then straighten up. “Yeah, I know,” Shady said in that dead tone she had been speaking in earlier. Fuck, they lost her, neither of them knew why but they did.
“No, babe, you are telling us what you think we want to hear. Not what you really think. Talk to us,” Cajun whispered and Shady closed her eyes. For a split second, he thought she was going to finally talk but then she took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Fuck.
“I know I don’t control other people's actions, I control mine. And right now, I am getting my shit and going back to the compound so I can see what is going on,” Shady said firmly and the guys both frowned but let her go, they had to pick their battles and right now, they would lose if they continued.
“This ain’t over, babe,” Slider said firmly and Shady smiled at him with a sad expression.
“Yeah, it is. No more talking about claiming or shit like that. If you wanna fuck, sure, but nothing else,” Shady said.
Shaking his head, Cajun walked to the door, pulled it open for her, and said as she walked out, “Keep thinking that, babe, we are gonna break through all this shit and come out the other side together, mark my words.”
Slider nodded and followed as they left the room and headed back to reality.
Chapter Twelve
Harmony and Freedom were waiting in front of the clubhouse when they pulled up. Both women were grinning at Shady but soon their smiles vanished when they saw the look on Shady’s face. Shady knew her friends were worried about her, and they were hoping she had been with Slider and Cajun for the night because it meant she was allowing the relationship to go forward. Fuck, so not okay to deal with this right now, she couldn’t.
“Hey, guys,” Shady called and ignored the two men who pulled up beside her and were sitting on their bikes watching her walk away without a backward glance. Damn it to hell, she sucked at relationships and there was no way they would ever understand what she did, hell, she barely did, remembering what she had to do made her sick.
“Shay,” Harmony said and nodded to the guys who finally were getting off their bikes and walking to the back of the clubhouse where the offices were.
“What’s up?” Shady asked and shifted on her boots, she needed a shower and a nap and in that order. That was the only thing she could think of until Freedom and Harmony both began talking at once.
“The guys got a lock on Lola,” Harmony said.
“They are picking her up tomorrow,” Freedom finished.
Shady grinned and forgot her plans as she looked at her friends. “Rally the girls and make sure you put the word out that tomorrow Bitches is closed because of a water line break.”
Harmony nodded and they began to make their plans. They were going to make that cunt talk. Shady and the girls walked into the clubhouse to wait, the place was abuzz with activity, apparently something else was happening as well. She stopped and looked around, “What is going on here?”
Harmony shrugged and frowned. “I have no idea, when we went outside nothing was happening, the guys were having a beer.”
Freedom called to Easy who was standing in the corner, “Hey, babe, what’s up?”
Easy turned and his gaze narrowed at the three of them standing there waiting and then he whispered something to the brother he was with and walked toward them. Shady was trying to figure out if it was a good thing or a bad thing that was going on, but Easy’s face wasn’t showing a thing. She hated it when they did that.
“You guys need to go to the house,” Easy said firmly. “When we have Lola we will let you know.”
Harmony laughed. “Seriously? You think we are going to go and sit in the house like good little girls while all this shit is going down that may or may not affect us?”
Easy shook his head and said, “Creed's orders.”
“Okay,” Shady said slowly and looked at Freedom and Harmony who looked like they were about to shit kittens.
Damn
, she thought she was the volatile one but her friends were coming along nicely in the Bitches category. “We are going back to the house, please tell the big strong men who we rely on for our safety to let us know when all the bad guys are gone and we can come out again,” she said sarcastically.
Easy narrowed his eyes on the women and then looked at the door and back again. “Shit, you aren’t going to follow directions, are you?”
The women laughed loudly and then walked to the back door that would indeed lead them back to the house where they were supposed to stay. But when they reached the door, Shady raised her hand and put three fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly. All of the Bitches in the room snapped to attention, dropped what they were doing, and followed.
*****
“What is going on?” Slider asked as they walked into the office building. There was obviously something because most of them were on the phone barking orders while Creed and Poke were standing at the map and marking things down.
“Lola has a deal going down, one of the guys overheard her planning the drop. From what she was saying there is a good chance that Reyes is going to be there, the buyer wants to meet the big man. Doesn’t trust women apparently. Lola assured him that Reyes would be there,” Poke answered and grinned. “Bastards are going to do it right under our nose too. She has balls, using one of the storage lots we used to have to meet. I would bet that is where they have some shit stored. It is a huge buy—guns, drugs, and other product that sounds like women. Checked the house and there are no women there, so it stands to reason they have a plan to get some. Not sure from where, but honestly, the amount of money that Lola was talking and the fucking glee in her voice, I wouldn't trust them at all.”
“When is the deal going down?” Cajun asked.
“A week,” Poke said and turned back to the wall.
“The players will be moving into town in the next few days. Protection for the buyer,” Creed murmured and then turned. “Fuckers have been using the storage area for a while, the guy knew exactly where Lola was talking about. Looked into it, and sure enough, we missed it in the shuffle. Lola had six containers rented in her father's name. Bitch was doing this even when she was in the club, I can only guess how much she skimmed when she was working in the mine office.”
“Who was her supervisor in the mine?” Slider asked, trying to piece together the shit they were saying.
“Scorpion,” Creed said grimly and looked at the brothers who were looking pissed off.
Scorpion had been killed in an accident right around the time that Lola had been kicked out of the club. Looking back now, they realized that possibly there was more to the accident than what they thought. Which pissed them all off, because if they would have dug deeper they would have been able to discover this shit was happening before all of this began.
“We got the guys going back and seeing if they can get information about the man who was involved in the accident as well and died. There has to be a connection we didn’t see before,” Fork called from across the room. He had been talking on the phone and hung up and was ready to share the rest of what he found.
“Called the owner of the storage shed, Lola had one shed she got about three months before she even came to the club. At this point, I figure this whole time she was a plant. When she lost status here, they upped their game. Guy has cameras stationed throughout the lot, he is pulling the disks for us to pick up, maybe we will catch a break and find a pattern,” Fork said and the guys were silent.
“Reyes has known she was here for a while. So why now is he coming for her? He could have gotten to her at any time when it was quiet and nothing was going on. Hell, at the club, the security is good but not foolproof. Why now?” Cajun asked the guys and they looked at the map and studied it.
“Don’t know,” Creed said slowly. “But Scorpion was killed two years ago, and she had the sheds before that. So we are looking at tracking this shit for three years at least. How could we have not seen this shit?”
“They've been playing us for a while,” Fork muttered. “The corridor for smuggling is good but not that fucking good. Why put all your eggs in a basket and hope we don’t find out shit?”
“Dude isn’t stupid, the older Reyes, we can’t fucking find hide nor hair of the bastard, or his wife. Not making me feel good here,” Creed said.
“Not to point out the obvious but seriously, has anyone actually found out who Shady’s father is?” Cajun asked and everyone in the room froze.
“What do you mean?” Fork asked.
“Well, Reyes is for some reason all hot and bothered about Shay, and even though they are fucking crazy, none of this makes much sense. They want her for something other than what we are seeing,” Cajun said slowly. “That is the only thing that she has never talked about. Does she know?”
Creed was silent and thought for a few seconds, “She has never mentioned it.”
“We will go and talk to her. Before all this shit hits the fan, we need to know what is going on. Now, they said you have a plan for Lola?” Slider said.
“Yeah, tomorrow she is supposed to be getting her hair done,” Creed snorted.
“Maybe she will be able to share some information about what is behind all this,” Cajun said.
“Yeah, but we need to be ready if Reyes discovers we have Lola, he may move shit up, so we need to be prepared. There is little contact with him, so it may not be noticed for a while that Lola is gone. The men at the house ignore her, this could work in our benefit if we can maybe get the Savages to help us, give them false information or something,” Fork added.
“I’ll call Tonto,” Creed said and turned then paused and looked over his shoulder. “You two get things sorted with Shay?”
Cajun snorted and shook his head. “Well, depends on how you look at it. We told her the way it was gonna be. She wasn’t real receptive.”
Creed grinned. “Receptive?”
“In other words, they got shot down,” Poke laughed.
“You could look at it that way.” Cajun laughed and then smiled. “Or you could look at it like she is trying to make us work for it. That is what I am going with. We plan to make sure tonight she understands what it means when we say we are claiming her.”
The men laughed and Fork shook his head. “Please, for the love of God, do not piss her off.”
Slider laughed, “That is the best part of Shay, when she is pissed. Angry sex is fun sex.”
“Yeah, tell me that in the morning when she decides to show you her new move she has been researching,” Fork said dryly. “Didn’t understand why she asked me about it a few months ago, now I do. Forgot it until I had to borrow her computer today. Pulled up her browser and damned if she wasn’t making sure she knew how to hurt a guy.”
“What are you talking about?” Slider frowned.
“Take a look, we all did. Trust me, you will sleep with one eye open,” Creed said and shivered. “Gonna make sure she hasn’t shown Harmony how to fucking do it or I am sleeping with a fucking cock cup on.”
Slider frowned and went to Shady’s computer and opened up the browser. Cajun was standing behind him and both men sucked in their breaths when they saw what the fuck she was looking up.