Archangel (Black Reign MC #11)

Chapter Two

Archangel

What the fuck was Thorn thinking, having me talk to Sonya? I didn’t want to talk to Sonya. Not for a very long fucking time. After I’d fucked her out of my system, which could take several days, then we’d fucking talk. If Thorn knew the complexity of my affliction, he’d blow my head clean off my shoulders and I wouldn’t lift a finger to stop him. Any man my age having the thoughts I was having about this girl needed to be castrated right before he was eviscerated, because it went beyond lust. Oh, yes. I wanted this girl to be fucking mine . It was bad enough she was the daughter of the president of another club, but I was forty-eight years old. She was twenty-one. Yeah. Not happening.

I took the state road back toward Lake Worth. There was less traffic and the way ahead wasn’t always straight. Meant I needed to concentrate on something other than the woman with her arms wrapped around my waist, precariously close to my cock. Well, not really, but I imagined she was closer. Hell, I could practically feel her slide her hand down to cup my crotch. She wasn’t, but I had an exceptionally vivid fucking imagination.

By the time I rolled into the Black Reign compound, my control was shot to shit and back. My cock was impossibly hard, and I had broken out in a sweat that had nothing to do with the heat and humidity of the Florida afternoon. Sonya had laughed and hollered practically the whole way home, obviously enjoying the ride. I couldn’t think about her other than to make sure she didn’t fucking fall off. Last thing I needed was Thorn’s daughter getting hurt in my care.

I pulled in front of the main compound. It was a huge, obnoxious structure that was more like a luxury hotel. The rest of the compound consisted of several large buildings with various businesses and group housing for the club. Beyond that was a kind of subdivision with houses for the brothers with families. And still farther was open land. A lot of open land.

There was a small picnic area with a wooden deck extending into a pier over the freshwater pond to allow for fishing or swimming. There were a couple of small, furnished cabins a few of the women had started maintaining to have a place to get away from everyone occasionally. Some of the older kids used them for parties and get-togethers away from the adults. I had no doubt more than one young man or woman had lost their virginity in one of those cabins. Or on the pier. Or under the hot noonday sun or bright midnight moon. It was truly a magical place.

I’d normally bring someone to that quiet oasis for meditation and as a way to create a sense of peace before an exceptionally hard conversation. I found the tranquility helped ease one into troubled situations, helping them to focus on the problem and figure out a solution. No way I could take Sonya to the little haven. No. Fucking. Way.

Shutting down the bike, I spoke over my shoulder to Sonya, trying like shit not to let her know the effect she had on me. I knew Sonya well enough to know if I showed weakness, the woman would attack without mercy. “Off.”

“Sir. Yes, sir.” She snapped off a mock salute before shifting her weight on the back peg so she didn’t get burned climbing off.

I gritted my teeth, sure the muscles in my jaw bulged with tension. Thank God, Rycks met us at the door of the clubhouse. “Angel, everything good?”

“Not in any way,” I muttered, taking a deep breath. “Will you please see to it Miss Sonya has a private room away from the club girls?”

Rycks raised an eyebrow but nodded. “Not a problem.” He turned his gaze to Sonya and gave her a kind smile. “Welcome, Sonya. How’s your father?”

“Apparently, more than a little pissed off.” I glanced at her to find her smiling brightly. “I’m supposed to be finding something to do with my life. Archangel here is supposed to be helping me.”

“I see.” Rycks glanced back at me again. I met his gaze with a steady one of my own. The other man shook his head in confusion, so I just shrugged.

“She needs rest, and I need to prepare.”

“She’s not tired,” Sonya interrupted. “She’d love to party with the rest of the club though.”

If anything, Ryck’s smile got wider. “You would.”

“She would not.” I turned to see Lawdawg hopping out of his truck. It was a testament to my distraction I hadn’t even realized he’d pulled up.

“Christ,” Sonya huffed. “I thought I left you back in Moore Haven.”

“Sorry to disappoint you.”

“I think I’d like to call my dad now.” Sonya lifted her chin and gave me a stubborn smirk. “I’m not sure what was supposed to go on here, but you are obviously not up to the task, Archangel. So I’d like to go home now.” The sweet smile was more saccharin than sugar. Little did she know she’d just waved a red flag in front of the bull.

“Challenge accepted,” I snarled. “Rycks, I’m gonna need a side-by-side.”

“I’ll tell Mechanic. Where you takin’ her?”

“To the pond. Is Lyric in the clubhouse?”

“Yep. I’ll have her meet you in the common room. She’ll get whatever you need.”

“Now wait just a Goddamned minute.” Sonya had an outraged look on her face, but something bothered me about her expression. She seemed too… calculating?

“You started it.” Lawdawg grinned, looking supremely satisfied. “Now you gotta see it through.”

Sonya rolled her eyes. “You really need to get that giant stick outta your ass, Lawdawg.”

Rycks barked out a laugh before schooling his expression. Or rather, he tried to. “Yeah. This should be fun.”

“I tell him that all the time.” Eden, Lawdawg’s spunky wife, wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged him from behind. “If you figure out how that works, let me know, Sonya.”

“Hey, Eden! Is Bella here?” If Sonya thought Rycks and Lyric’s daughter would save her, she really needed to think again.

“Doesn’t matter if she is.” I was done with this shit. “This doesn’t involve Bella. This is between me and you.”

Up to this point, I’d done everything in my power to stay away from the woman. I’d been attracted to her since she’d come back from her second semester of college. She and Caroline had spent the entire summer with Bella because she’d been in a motorcycle wreck and had been broke all to shit and back. Though I knew Sonya and Caroline were closer, the two girls had pulled Bella into their circle and the three of them were fast friends. The only reason Bella hadn’t been in that mess today was because she was still recovering from the most recent surgery to her leg.

“Just because my dad doesn’t like my life choices doesn’t mean he can dictate to me. If my own father can’t, you most certainly can’t.”

That was it. I ducked and put my shoulder against Sonya’s abdomen and lifted her so she was draped over my shoulder.

“Hey! Put me down, you bastard!”

I swatted her ass. “Mouth shut, missy. You’re in enough trouble as it is.”

“I will totally carve out your balls for this, Archangel.”

I ignored her. “Rycks. Is Mechanic on the way?”

“Yep. He is.” The man looked too amused for my peace of mind.

“If you, Thorn, and Doc had spanked those girls when they were little, I wouldn’t be in this fuckin’ situation.”

“Hello?” Sonya beat a fist on my back and squirmed, trying to get down. “I’m right here! I can hear you talking about me!”

I swatted her ass again. “Told you to shut it, woman. I meant it.”

“Leave me outta this, Angel.” Rycks put his hands up in surrender. “I personally think Thorn needs to be shook up from time to time, but I suspect he gets more of a kick outta her antics than he wants to admit. And Bella is a contained, well-behaved young woman.”

“Uh-huh. Seem to remember going to get her out of more than a couple scrapes when she started college.”

Rycks waved me off. “You can’t count Freshmen Orientation. Those parties are supposed to be wild.”

“Seem to remember Bella’s roommate got her head shaved after passing out drunk, and Bella didn’t even attempt to deny it. As I remember, she told the girl she was going to do it if Bella had to help her back to the room.”

“Look. To be fair, I told Bella not to let people walk all over her. She tends to lean toward the side of caution.”

“Not that time.”

“I’ll pass on to Thorn and Doc instructions to spank their kids more often. All right?” I could tell Rycks was amused, but I wasn’t feeling it. Much.

“You do that. Call and talk to him. When Thorn asked me to take this on, the man was furious.”

“Furious?” For the first time, Sonya looked less than confident. I looked over my shoulder to see she had a sliver of worry in her expression. I probably liked it too much.

“Nervous now?” I raised an eyebrow at her. Hopefully, the scope of her transgressions was finally dawning on her. “Think you finally pushed your daddy too far?”

“Why are you so fucking pissy, Archangel? I didn’t do anything to you.” Oh, she was angry. She was also worried and lashing out. Anger was a classic response in someone who was such a force of personality, especially when someone she cared about was upset with her. Good. She needed to understand what she was facing as the consequences of her actions.

“I already told you. I got called out only to be told half my day is about to be gone and I’m being expected to sacrifice the other half -- and God only knows how many more days –- bringing a stubborn wild child to heel.”

She snorted. “Well, good fucking luck with that, hot shot. Besides, I’m not the one who called you outta bed and away from your fucking beauty sleep.”

Rycks, the fucking bastard, outright guffawed. “I think maybe I understand now why you’re such an ugly bastard, Angel.”

“You’re not helping, Rycks.”

“Not trying to.” The bastard was still grinning, not to mention looking entirely too smug.

We were interrupted when Mechanic pulled up in the requested side-by-side. “Someone call for a ride?” His grin was wide and all too knowing. What the fuck was up with everyone having so much fun at my expense?

“I’ll take a ride back to Salvation’s Bane.” Sonya braced herself on my back and pushed up, looking back at Mechanic.

I swatted her butt again. “Keep it up. You’re about to write a check your ass can’t handle.”

“I swear to God, Archangel. You smack me one more time, when I get down -- and I will get down -- me and you are gonna come to blows.”

“You know better than to throw down that shit, Sonya.” Rycks leaned over to look at the annoying woman. “He’s just gonna spank your ass again.”

It was my turn to laugh, only I sounded almost sinister. Or coulda sounded like I was turned on beyond belief. I was really hoping it was the former. “That ain’t a spankin’,” I drawled. “Trust me when I tell you she doesn’t want a real spankin’.”

I knew she was only going to continue to be a brat until she got her way. Right now, all she knew was she didn’t want to go with me. Once we got to our destination and I gave her her own space, she’d settle. For a while anyway. Remainder of the day, we rested. Tomorrow, we talked.

Rycks helped me get her into the passenger’s seat in the side-by-side. I stalked around the other side of the vehicle to hop into the driver’s seat.

“Where are you taking me?” Sonya glared at me while she adjusted her seat belt.

“The Oasis. It’ll help you calm the fuck down.”

“Oh no, you didn’t!”

I flashed her a cocky smirk, a look that said I was in charge and found her attempts to pretend she was in charge amusing. “Yeah. I did. Get used to it, little girl.”

Sonya did something unexpected then. Instead of getting even more angry or threatening me or even physically striking out at me, she gave me an assessing look. “Hmm. Might be time to see what you’re really made of, Archangel.”

“Always up for a challenge. Just be prepared to deal with the consequences of anything you start.”

I’d meant to threaten her, but she didn’t look at all intimidated. “I always am.”

Something about the way she looked at me and the grave way she spoke told me Sonya was, indeed, prepared to accept whatever happened from the bomb blast she was about to create. And I had a feeling the fallout was going to be nothing short of nuclear. There was every possibility neither of us would survive.