Throttle MC: A Stepbrother Romance (14 page)

Randi had noticed something was up with me pretty quickly.  She had tried to talk to me a couple of times, but I’d begged off, telling her I had been working overtime at the clinic and just needed sleep. She would nod sadly and let me go without pressing the issue.  She was nice that way. I felt bad about brushing her off, but what was I going to say to her? That I was so angry at my father I could barely speak? That I was falling in love with my own stepbrother, her son? That part of me wished I had never come back to Cheyenne in the first place? Everything was so fucked up, and I didn’t know what to do about any of it.

Especially Ryker.

Since that day at the clubhouse – the last time I’d seen him – everything had changed for me.  I could no longer pretend to myself that what I felt for him was simply a case of inappropriate lust.  It was much, much more than that. Somehow, I had fallen for the arrogant, headstrong, sexy as hell biker.  Did he feel the same? I had no idea.  All I knew was that he had moved out of the apartment downstairs, just as he said he would.  Much to Randi and Lon’s surprise, Ryker was now living in a house he was renting somewhere across town. I hadn’t seen him since the day I’d come looking for Lon and found him instead, so I hadn’t had the chance to ask him about it. In a way, I guess I should have been thankful to him for making it easier on me. But his absence was an empty place inside me that it felt like I’d never manage to fill again.

A couple of days after the funeral, I finally mustered up the strength and courage to go talk to Lon. I found him at the garage, barking at one of the prospects who had apparently fucked up a repair. 

I waited until Lon was done reaming him out and then stepped into the garage. Lon seemed surprised to see me. I guess that wasn’t too strange, considering I’d barely said hello to him in more than a week. I asked him if I could talk to him in private and he took me outside.

“That fuckin’ prospect,” he muttered as we walked over to the edge of the parking lot so he could have a smoke break. “He doesn’t have the sense God gave a chimp.”

I laughed. “The poor guy looks like he’s about to pee himself, Dad.  Maybe go a little easier on him.”

Lon scoffed.  “Fuck that.  He needs to man the fuck up.”

I felt sorry for the prospect.  My dad was a force to be reckoned with when he was pissed off.  But taking abuse and obeying was what prospecting was all about, after all.  Lon was right in that way.  If he didn’t man up, he’d be out, and quick.

We reached the edge of the parking lot and Lon grabbed a cigarette out of the pack he kept in his shirt pocket. “So, what’s up, baby girl?” he asked as he lit up.

I took a deep breath.
Here goes nothing
, I thought. “Dad, I wanted to talk to you about something kind of serious.  I hope you’ll hear me out.”

“What is it?” he mouthed around the cigarette.

“Look. I don’t know if you know I went to a funeral last week.  For the cousin of my friend Lucy.”

“Yeah, Randi said something about that,” he nodded. “Too bad.”

“The thing is, Dad,” I continued, “The girl who died... she overdosed. On meth.”

If I expected him to react in a certain way, he surprised me.  “Uh-huh,” he replied. His voice registered no emotion at all.

“Dad,” I said softly. “I know the club distributes meth. And I know it’s almost a certainty that the meth Tina was using came through The Throttle.”

“What’s your point?” he said.  His voice had become deadly calm. I recognized that voice. It was the calm before the storm.

“My point is, the club’s bringing something poisonous into this town. Do you really want to be responsible for that?” I persisted.

“Hadley.” His voice was a warning. “This ain’t your business.”

“She could have been me, Dad,” I said bluntly.  “Lucy said that Tina had a bright future ahead of her.  She could have gone to college.  She could have had a great life. You sent me away because you were afraid bad things might happen to me. But no one sent Tina away, and she paid the price.  What makes me better than her?”

“Goddamn it, Hadley, back the fuck off!” my father bellowed. “This is not your business, do you understand me? This is CLUB. BUSINESS.”

I had never seen him so angry with me. Too late I realized that I should have backed off when I saw him hollering at the prospect.  It was stupid of me not to have waited until Lon was in a less temperamental frame of mind to bring this up. But it was too late; it was done now.  All I could do was say what I needed to say. 

“That’s just the thing, Dad,” I retorted.  Tears sprang to my eyes, and I angrily brushed them away.  I tried to keep my voice calm and even, though I could hear it shaking a little.  “It’s not just ‘club business’.  Not anymore.  You’ve made it everybody’s business. You made it Tina’s business. You are making it Cheyenne’s business.  And they have no choice in the matter.  But you do.”

With that, I stormed out of the clubhouse.  I heard him call my name, but I ignored it. I had nothing more to say.  I knew Lon would never listen to me anyway.

As got in my car and rolled down the windows to let some of the oppressive heat escape, I made my decision.  I could no longer stay here.  I had thought Cheyenne could be my home, but I was wrong. 

Chapel that week was a pretty fucking tense affair.

Lon had been in a piss-poor mood for days, for one thing, and no one knew exactly why.  I had my suspicions, which were only confirmed when Wrench mentioned that he and a couple of the other brothers had seen him and Hadley having an argument out in the parking lot a few days before. 

For another thing, there had been an explosion and fire at one of the meth labs across the border in Mexico where most of our product came from. As a result, we had buyers that were pissed off.  They were breathing down our neck, saying they had customers to sell to, that the demand needed to be filled.  That didn’t bode well for us, especially when we knew the Chrome Warriors were all but beating down the doors of our territory.  Predictably, this had resulted in Jimmy relaunching his campaign for us to start our own meth-cooking operation.

“I’m telling you, this is the perfect solution,” he said, looking around the table for support. “There ain’t no reason we can’t cook our own.  Eliminate the middle man, increase our profits... What’s stoppin’ us?”

There was some skepticism around the room.  “And what, that fire that happened in the Mexico lab can’t happen to us?” Wrench challenged.  “Two guys died.  Why the fuck do we want that kind of risk? That’s why we pay to have the shit made somewhere else in the first place.”

“If we can’t hold our market, you know the Chrome Warriors are sure as shit gonna come in,” Jimmy countered. “They ain’t havin’ any problem meeting demand, from what I can see.  Shit, stands to reason maybe they’re cookin’ themselves,”

“Leave ‘em to it, then,” I said. “They’re stupid enough to bring that kind of heat down on themselves, more power to ‘em.  They’re just givin’ the feds an excuse to come investigating and bust up their club.”

Jimmy turned to me with a look of barely concealed contempt. “The fuck, Ryker?” he sneered. “You’ve changed, man. I thought our VP had some balls. Whose pants you tryin’ to get into with this pussy shit?”  His eyes locked on mine, and I froze.

Jesus
.  I didn’t know how much he knew, but it was clear from the look he gave me that he suspected something.  He’d been sniffing after Hadley since she got here, and the fact that she wouldn’t give him the time of day lately had been severely pissing him off.  I had caught him watching me a couple of times when Hadley came into the clubhouse, but I had mostly brushed it off, knowing that he couldn’t possibly have seen anything.  But that had been before what had happened in the back apartment.  Had he heard something? Did he know?

My mind raced, but I force myself to calm down and look at things objectively.  If Jimmy had something on me, he wouldn’t hesitate to use it against me. I knew that.  But he wasn’t the brightest bulb, either.  I wasn’t sure he had the sense to sit and bide his time if he had a card to play.  If he knew what had happened between me and Hadley, it stood to reason that he would have already told Lon about it.  He had nothing to lose, and everything to gain, from telling Lon that his VP and stepson had been fucking his daughter behind his back. Never mind that it wasn’t just fucking. Never mind that I was in love with her.  Jimmy didn’t know that.  And Lon wouldn’t believe it, anyway. He’d shoot first and ask questions later.  Maybe literally.

In the absence of any other solution, I decided to call Jimmy’s bluff.  “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” I said. “And there’s a difference between balls and smarts.  What you’re proposing is just plain stupid.”

“Who’re we gonna get to cook all this meth, if we start makin’ it ourselves?” asked Rev.

“I dunno,” Jimmy retorted.  “That’s what prospects are for, ain’t they?”

“No,” Lon barked from the head of the table.  He had been quiet during the whole exchange, sitting back in his chair and listening to the back and forth. “We ain’t cooking. Not near Cheyenne.”

Jimmy opened his mouth, then closed it again.  He knew better than to challenge Lon. He shot me a look and narrowed his eyes.

“We’ll just have to put off the dealers for now,” Lon continued.  “Tell them more product is coming as soon as we can get it.  And remind them of our business relationship. Meantime, let’s keep an eye on the Warriors. Make sure they don’t get wind of the situation and try to take advantage.”

“Pretty sure they already know,” T-Bone, the sergeant-at-arms, muttered next to me. I glanced at him and nodded once.  We were gonna have to watch the Warriors closely.

After chapel, I headed out into the bar area and grabbed myself a beer. I had a feeling Jimmy was gonna pay me a little visit, and sure enough, when I turned around, I saw he had followed me out.

“What the fuck, Ryker?” he called after me. I ignored him and took a swig of my beer. When I didn’t respond, he tried again.

“I know about Hadley,” he sneered.

That stopped me mid swig.

“What about her?” I asked coolly.

“I’ve seen the way you look at her when she comes in.” He went behind the bar and pulled a draft for himself. “You think she’s gonna give you the time of day?”

Inwardly I breathed a sigh of relief. Dumb fucker didn’t know anything.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, brother,” I replied. “Sounds like you’re just pissed because she hasn’t jumped into bed with
you
.”

“How do you know she hasn’t?” he retorted.  I almost laughed out loud.

“I don’t,” I lied. “But judging from the way she looks at you, seems to me like a pretty safe bet.”

Jimmy’s eyes flashed with anger. “You know, Hadley asked me about the meth thing a couple weeks ago,” he continued. “She was pretty pissed to find out the club was distributing.  Tried to convince me The Throttle shouldn’t be involved in that shit.” He eyed me.  “Seems like quite a coincidence that you’re against it now, too.”

“I’m against setting up a fucking meth lab outside of Cheyenne,” I corrected him. “Whether the MC keeps distributing is a club decision.”

Jimmy scoffed. “Yeah.  Club decision.” He took another mouthful of beer and eyed me. “I see what you’re doing, you know.”

“Yeah? What am I doing?” This should be interesting.

His chin jutted out. “You think if you get Hadley into your bed, you’ll have a better hold as VP,” he sneered.

Jimmy had never been all that smart, but this floored me, even from him. How in the hell could he be so stupid as to think Lon would be
happy
if Hadley and me got together? Shit, if Jimmy had a brain in his head he’d be
trying
to get us together, hoping that he could expose us to Lon, who would lose his shit and remove me as VP, or worse.

“Jimmy, all I can say is, you’re a fuckin’ idiot,” I laughed and shook my head.  If I had been worried before, now I realized that this was all just typical Jimmy bullshit.

His eyes turned dark.  I knew he was itching for a fight.  And he was tapping on my last fuckin’ nerve. Who knows? I just might give it to him.

“Yeah, well, if you get in there, good luck with my sloppy seconds,” he taunted.  “Anyway, she might act all high and mighty now, but down deep she’s just a fuckin’ whore. Always has been.”

I gotta say, the feeling of my fist connecting hard with Jimmy’s jaw was just as satisfying as I always thought it would be.

Two days later, I had my first shift at the clinic since my failed argument with Lon.  Time had only made me more determined in my decision to leave.  I had run into Lon back at the house, and he had given me such a cold look as he passed through that even Randi had been left speechless. When she asked me what had happened between us, I simply shrugged.  “I think Lon’s the person to ask about that,” I told her.  I was through trying to talk to him.  My opinion didn’t matter.  I was just his daughter, after all. Just a woman.  Club business was not my business.