Taking a Dare - A Hellion MC Novel (33 page)

Something that had been brewing for more than a
while.

And something that both chapters disagreed with when
they'd learned of what my father had demanded…blaming my dad for
the schism he was trying to create within the club.

"Blaze is saying Trey's pissed that Dare gave Gus his
vest!" Lock had yelled as the first one to receive news of how
things were going down wherever our men were.

"Brand's pissed that
Trey's
pissed about Gus
getting all up in Dare's grille when they're out on club business,"
Reese called out, holding up her cellphone. "Even used an 'eff'
word in his text. My man is fucking boiling!"

"Trey says that Dare took off before anyone else,"
Dallas mumbled, staring at her phone. "Aw shit! Says Gus didn't
join them in the line up before they rode. " She lifted her head
and looked around at the group of Honeys that had taken over the
bar. The brothers that hadn't been picked to join the run were deep
in their drinks at more than a few of the back tables, their voices
quiet and movements slow as they seemed to wait for the crews to
come back. "What does that mean?"

With my mind on the fact that Dare had left after he
and my pop's had gone at it again and in full view of both clubs, I
answered automatically. "Every man that went today was given a
place, a set spot in which to ride. Usually it's two by two behind
the president or the leader for whatever run they're doing. Today
it was Trey and Gus that led them."

"But if Gus didn't join Trey at the front on the
return…," Dee murmured worriedly from somewhere behind me.

"Either he was denied his place or deliberately chose
not to be a part," I said slowly as I turned towards her. Our eyes
caught and I saw her nod before she joined me behind the bar. I
quickly spoke to reassure her. "I can't see Trey denying my dad so
it's gotta be the other. That Gus specifically decided not to ride
with them."

Which was absolutely the wrong way for my dad to play
Trey and the Hellions. A fact Gus should've known. And would
jeopardize his presidency with the Spokane chapter. There were
rules he had to follow even if he didn't agree with them. And by
not doing so, he was putting his presidency in danger. Men wouldn't
follow a man they couldn't respect and was a fact that was even
more true for bikers.

I saw Dee's eyebrows raise before they came together
as she reached for her purse. "Got something to do," she advised
and immediately left the clubhouse with only a flip of her hand as
goodbye.

Which was only seconds before I heard Dare's
motorcycle and then his bellow of my name. A bawl of such that I
knew I had no chance of denying or escaping.

But then, with Dare, I didn't want to.

Hopping on behind him, the inside of my thighs
aligning with the outsides of his, I wrapped my arms around his
waist, the thinnest part of his body as we roared away. When he
took a hard right out of the parking lot, just beyond the trundling
gates of the compound, I knew where we were headed.

Back to his place.

"What's doing, cowboy?" I breathed into his ear at
one of the many stoplights that seemed to dot Missoula's town
center.

"We are so fuckin' Audi, sugar," he'd announced in a
deep growl. "We'll grab the truck in order to carry my shit before
fuckin' grabbing your stuff from Lu's…" and the light turned in the
middle of my man explaining things to me, cutting off his reply as
he twisted his hand to make the Harley thrust out and away from the
confines of the stoplight.

I tucked my head between his shoulder-blades as he
accelerated, seemingly determined to get us to his tiny apartment
as fast as fucking possible. But the feel of only his t-shirt
against my cheek gave me pause. It wasn't the fleece feel of his
patch or the rockers—the separate pieces that told of the club and
the town where he was based—pressed against my face. Nor was there
a trace of denim in what my arms were holding.

"Where's your cut, Dare?" I asked on a rigid voice
when we were halted by the next damn red light. I'd heard he'd
taken it off in order to give it to my dad but somehow couldn't
believe it to be true. Not until that exact moment.

"Fuckin' threw it to your old man, Ryley," he quickly
replied and I wondered if his lips were as tight as his voice had
sounded. "He can fuckin' have it as far as I'm concerned."

"Baby…" I offered, feeling my heart melt as I
recognized what he was giving me. Providing the answer of 'us' in
the problematic equation that we hadn't asked for. In some ways,
I'd always known that if I'd chosen Dare that it would be without
Gus and Leif's support.

But Dare was a Hellion.

It defined him and the club who had made him into the
man he was. To have the man I was so tightly clinging to be without
his cut was like denying nature, the natural way of things, in some
way.

"Dare," I whispered again, my lips at his ear even
though he was maneuvering us throughout the traffic of town,
sliding in and around the cars beside us. At my softly said word
all the teeming arguments of why we couldn't be together fell by
the wayside as he did a long stroke of my thigh. And just that one
firm caress reminded me of what I'd wanted, had
always
freakin' wanted when it came to him.

When it came to Dare.

At that moment in time, I didn't care where my man
drove us.

Just as long as we were together.

Chapter Thirty Two

For Gus, it was a long, lonely journey back to
Missoula.

A ride that had him cursing, so filled with anger and
bitterness that he found himself roaring outloud at the betrayal of
his men, his club.

He wasn't the one at fault!

It wasn't him that had created the break between the
Hellion chapters but that fucking low-life, the ramble-rouser who
was trying to steal his daughter!

Why couldn't the other men see that?

Even his own son had turned against him, unable to
see that Gentry was like a snake in their midst, creating
dissension where none had existed before. And to out and out claim
Gus couldn't keep Leif from Ryley? What the fuck was
that
?
Of anyone, Gus had counted on the fact that his own son would
support his decision.

But obviously not now. Not at the expense of banning
Ryley.

Leif was still a young man and couldn't see that Gus
was only trying to do the right thing, the honorable thing in
demanding his daughter cease and desist in running after that
boy!

He was the one that controlled their family! Their
fucking club!

Or he had, at least until he'd forced Ryley on this
run. Where she'd reconnected with the one person who'd almost
destroyed her so many years ago.

Gus's shoulders sagged at his thoughts while his
machine ate up the miles between Deer Lodge and Missoula.

No, he'd never understood the connection of Dare and
his daughter…and probably never would. The shell of the young girl
he and Maggie had taken back home after that first run, of how
she'd cried and locked herself in her room had grated at him.
They'd been just kids, for god's sake! And he'd never understood
how such a short time with someone could cause his girl to fall
apart.

But she had and had done so in such a way that it'd
scared him to fucking death.

As Gus hit the Missoula city limits, he tried to
decide where he needed to be. Or, more truthfully, where he wanted
to be. The brothers would reconvene at the clubhouse but Gus wasn't
sure he'd be welcomed. Especially not after the censure that had
been heaped on him, both in word and in body posture, in the
parking lot of a no-notice bar by his fellow Hellions. With that in
mind, he turned his bike towards the Rosemont hoping to not
encounter anyone since he was in no mood to argue with them
again.

Sitting on his large 2010 Dyna-Glide, he carefully
turned the big machine's engine off and found that the wind as it
skidded over the pockmarked asphalt was the only sound he could
hear. He swung his leg over, feeling the twinge of pain in his hip
as he did so, and made his way to the dog-legged stairs. But at the
landing, the one that had the steps going a different direction, he
spied someone at the top.

Someone that was simply sitting as if waiting.

"Hey, Gus," he heard the rough feminine voice call
out and recognized it instantly.

"Hiya, Dee," he rumbled but felt his heart take
flight knowing she was there. Aware that she'd been waiting for
him.

She should've been at the clubhouse, helping the
Honeys as they both fed and watered the men who'd returned. But she
wasn't. She was there, waiting for him.

He moved up the second portion of the staircase and
saw, from the litter of cigarette butts that she'd been waiting on
him awhile. "What brings you here, pretty girl?"

She raised her deep brown eyes, rimmed in the black
pencil she wielded like a fiend, and blinked. "Came to see you, old
man."

Old man? What the fuck? In the past Dee had called
him 'stud', or even 'gorgeous guy'. But right then, he knew that
she meant the words as she'd said them.

Old man.

A man past his prime and no longer in control of his
family, his club or his life.

Gus shoved his key card in the slot so hard the
plastic protested. "Since you're here to see me, you wanna come
in?"

He watched as she picked up each and every one of her
butts before grabbing the leather bag next to her and standing. She
gave him a sharp nod before entering the room first but didn't
speak until he'd closed the door.

"Got anything to drink?" she finally asked as her
eyes scoured the wreck of his room. He'd meant to straighten before
he'd left but with Ryley showing up that morning, he'd had other
things on his mind.

"Tequila, I think," he mumbled moving to the vanity
that surrounded the sink before rinsing glasses and reaching for
the ever present bottle of Patron that was his drink of choice.
"I'm guessing since you're perched on a chair instead of the bed
that this ain't a social visit."

He saw a small smile cross Dee's face. She was still
a beautiful woman in spite of all that she'd been through over the
years, and Gus had known Delores Rodriguez Miles for a long damn
time.

"Not really," she murmured, draping her hands over
her crossed knees.

The only sound in the room were the glugs from the
bottle he was pouring. Stepping across the space, he handed her a
glass before taking a seat on the unmade bed. While he'd seen the
cart at the other end of the hall, it seemed the maid hadn't had
time yet to make it to his room.

He reached to clink his glass against hers before
adding, "then, out with it, Dee."

She took in a deep wavering breath, her eyes pointed
at her glass. "This shit with Ryley and Dare is wrong, Gus. So
fucking wrong."

The glass that had been lifted to his mouth stopped
as he heard her words. "Not your affair, Dee."

"I know that," she mumbled, a trace of pink coloring
her cheeks as she took a slow sip of her glass. "But someone needs
to talk this shit through with you and it appears I'm the only one
with the balls to do it."

"Don't wanna hear it," he said, taking his own deep
swallow.

"Yeah? Well, you're gonna," she promised, setting her
tumbler on the table after using her forearm to push aside a tower
of pizza boxes in order to find the space to do so. She seemed to
consider her words before she next spoke. "What would Maggie
say?"

What the fuck?

How dare she bring up Maggie! Maggie had been his
wife, the mother of his children and the woman he'd adored!

"What would she have to say about how you've
threatened Ryley with excommunication not only from your family but
from HMC?" Dee's voice was hard in the silence of the room, giving
Gus no opportunity to concentrate on anything but on what she was
saying. "Do you honestly believe Maggie would allow you to forsake
your daughter all because she's fallen in love and wants a future
with a good man, a solid and successful man like Dare?"

"But she's…" he blustered but was cut off.

"Maggie was my best friend, Gus. I probably know more
about the doings between the two of you than most so I can say this
without guilt. Maggie would've hated you for this," she proclaimed
firmly. "If Dare is Ryley's choice, who the fuck are you to deny
her?"

"He's a no account asshole who's just trying…" he
started, but was again interrupted by the palm that Dee held
up.

She stared at him and Gus almost felt Dee's eyes as
they searched his face.

"What if Buddy had held the same opinion of you, Gus?
Hmm? What if Buddy had said that Maggie was off-limits and couldn't
be yours? What would you have done, then?"

He couldn't say a goddamn word, knowing that his
voice would give him away. If Maggie's dad, Buddy, hadn't approved
of the two of them then Gus would've just taken her. That’s how
much he'd wanted the dark-haired, bright blue-eyed beauty tied to
him. Had fucking
needed
her by his side. "This is
different," he rumbled, finishing the last bit in the glass and
standing in order to get a refill.

"No. It ain't," Dee announced firmly, up-ending her
own tumbler and following him to the vanity area. "It's the fucking
same, Gus."

He glanced at her in the mirror as he refilled their
glasses and saw that her jaw was set as if in resolution. "Maggie
would be screaming at you now, Gus, for the shit you're trying to
pull."

The neck of the bottle of Patron clicked against the
edge of the tumbler he was refilling as her words hit. But they
didn't stop and he winced with each one.

"You don't get to tell your kids who they love, big
guy," she announced. "Mags knew that which is why you had to hide
Dare's letters and not tell even her that he'd called. That she
went to her grave not knowing you were making a play at keeping
Dare and Ryley apart."