Out for Blood (Ghost Rebels MC: Kilkenny #1)

1. Chapter One

Chapter One

ACE

T he screams emanating from the shed when I pulled in and kicked my stand out were enough to make me chuckle. Razor and Chains were having fun again. Hawk laughed as we got off our bikes and headed over to the shed’s roller door. It was a converted garage, but our shop was in town, so it was now used for our chats with those who would do us or our town wrong.

Leaving the nomad chapter of the Ghost Rebels and settling in Kilkenny, our home town, was one move that I thought would be met with a lot of angst, but most of the boys stayed with me and the nomad chapter stayed on good terms with us.

I couldn’t say what was bringing me back to Kilkenny. A feeling, nostalgia perhaps, but something pulled me back here. Maybe it was my old ass wanting to settle down. With my old man gone and buried, the club was mine for the taking. Something he had wanted, and something I had veered away from for years.

Hawk threw the roller door up just as Chains whipped the guy’s back as hard as he could. I was surprised he didn’t break in half. The screams wrapped around the cement filled room, echoing off the walls before we pulled the door back down. We were far enough out of the town that they wouldn’t hear it.

“Who is he?” I asked Razor who was standing off to the side to let Chains have his fun.

“Drug dealer,” he replied. “Thinks it's okay to deal without giving us the money for the product.”

“Does he now?”

“Wanna have a piece, prez?” Chains asked, his breathing laboured. I knew the chains he used were heavy, to inflict as much damage as possible, and yet he loved it. I rolled up my sleeves and switched places with him. I knelt down to come face to face with the bloodied and putrid face of his.

“Look at me,” I told him. He didn’t. “I won’t ask again.”

Slowly, he lifted his bloodied and bruised face up to look at me. One of his eyes was swelling fast, a mere slit remained where his eye once was.

“Who do you work for?”

“No-o-ne.”

“I don’t like being lied to,” I told him, my tone level, but he was starting to bug me. “Almost as much as I don’t like repeating myself. Now, tell me who told you to start selling in Kilkenny and the surrounding areas.”

He whimpered. “No-one.”

I sighed, realising he was going to make me get bloody. So much for a quiet night. I stood, moving over to our shelves and grabbed my hammer. I got back down to his level. Both his arms were tied up to the sides of the pillars in the room. Perfect for stringing fuckers up.

“Untie his hands, Chains.”

Quickly, he moved over to do as I asked. They hung to his sides loosely as I waited, cooling my temper down. Once I lost it, I couldn’t control what would happen.

“I really don’t want to ask a third time, fucker,” I said. “Now, spill it.”

“I-I can’t.”

“Put your hand down on the ground.”

“What?” he gasped, holding his hands to his body.

“He doesn’t like to repeat himself,” Razor came up beside me. “Put your fucking hand down on the ground.”

“No, I can’t.”

“It’s either your hand or your head. Your choice.”

His lip trembled as he weighed up his options. My patience was wearing thin.

“You have thirty seconds.”

“That’s generous,” Razor remarked.

I looked up at the more psychotic of my enforcers and smiled. “What can I say? I’m having a good night.”

He chuckled, knowing where this was going and moved away. I moved my head back down to the loser in front of me. Slowly, he put his hand down on the cement floor. I moved the hammer over his fingers, gliding the hard metal over the knuckles. He could feel it by the way he shook, the way he looked away as he sobbed, waiting for the strike.

“It’s really disgusting how much you’re sobbing right now,” Chains spoke from behind me. “Man the fuck up and tell us what we need to know.”

“P-lease…I have a girlfr-iend.”

A collection of laughter echoed throughout the room. I know we all expected that to come out as ‘family’, but a girlfriend? Who the fuck cared?

“Guess you’ll have to learn how to please her with your other hand.”

His eyes shot open just as I brought the hammer down on his fingers. The sound of the squelching tissue, shattering bone and blood erupting over the cement floor mixed with the blood-curdling scream that followed, almost turned me off eating dinner.

Almost.

He passed out from the pain as I threw my hammer to the side of the room. I looked over at Razor. “Take him to Clare to patch him up. Then take him home.”

Razor smirked at me. “Clare’s gonna be a little annoyed at the intrusion.”

“Don’t be stupid, Mark,” I shot back, using his real name. “We both know she’ll enjoy what comes after.”

He and Clare, a nurse at the hospital, had a thing going. Every time we brought her home someone to look after, Razor and she were locked in a room for days. It was a love-hate relationship for them, but we could all see plain as day that she was his weakness.

Hawk and I left the shed, the cool night air refreshing us as we headed toward the clubhouse.

Music was pumping loudly as we got inside. The night was young, but the party was in full swing as we entered. Viper and Savage, our other enforcers, were in the back playing a game of pool with a smattering of girls all bending over to show off their asses any time they could. The bar was filled with women, members and our men, all having the time of their lives. This was the place to go to forget about your worries, to forget about the town and the drama going on there. A lot had changed since we left Kilkenny 17 years ago, and yet, some things stayed the same.

Kirby, one of our newest prospects, was serving drinks behind the bar when we walked in. He moved to the end of the bar, handing Hawk a beer and me a bottle of whiskey. Heading over to a booth, I sat down with my Sergeant at Arms, Bear, who always had women dripping off him even though he never gave them the time of day - a new club bunny named Tall was trying her luck with him this time.

Her hand was in between his legs when we sat, and I could see his eyes were almost glazing over in desire. Shaking my head, I made a movement with my head to tell him to take it to a room. Without saying a word, he gave her the heave-ho to leave. She pouted for a few seconds, before she got up and left.

Hawk sighed, keeping his eyes open for anyone he could share the night with. He was always ready for a good time after we laid down the law. I never understood, all I wanted was a stiff drink followed by some peace and quiet.

“You know there’s something that’s different about this town,” he said. “There’s something going down, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

“That fucker in the garage knows,” I told him. “He didn’t want to tell me because he was low level.”

“Then maybe we need to ruffle a few feathers,” Hawk said. “Follow him. See who he sees.”

He had a point. It was the only way we would truly know who or what we were dealing with.

“I’ll let Razor know tomorrow,” I said, pouring myself a drink from the bottle Kirby had given me. “For now, I think Clare’s got her hands full.”

“Just her hands?” Hawk replied with a cheeky smirk.

“Grow up,” I hissed at him. “Go and find someone to shut you up already.”

He laughed as he pushed out of the booth and went to find himself a woman to spend the night with. I sighed, finished my drink and went in search of some solitude.

It was incredible the amount of people who stood and stared at you when you pulled up on a Harley. My cut and the fact that I was heavily tatted probably didn’t help matters, or maybe it was the heavy metallic rings on my fingers. Maybe it was the fact that I was the president of a MC and they were all scared of me, just like my father. He ruled with an iron fist, which was why I cut and ran when I was eighteen. I didn’t want to be like him and if he continued to try and poison me, I knew I would.

Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the odd fight here and there, but since coming back here, we haven't needed to lay down the law much. It was quiet, and we could set up and run our business relatively peacefully. That’s if we could get customers. For some reason, our drug and gun business was slow. Slower than I thought it would be.

I’d probably get tired of the town life eventually and rejoin the Nomads, but for now, I needed a place to call home for longer than a year.

Call it old age if you wanted, but knowing where I was and that the bed I was in was mine was pleasant.

I pulled my helmet off and hung it over the back of my bike, kicking out the stand before I dismounted and headed up into the mall. Kilkenny had a larger mall down the road, but this one had my favourite stores so I made the extra drive to come here. It also reminded me of my childhood. This mall was the original one that we all hung out at when we were in school. It held a lot of sentimental memories of me, Bear, and Hawk and our friends Sheridan and Orla. They were like sisters, always together, always doing everything together. Our group had been strong, especially when Bear had joined in our senior year.

God…the memories of Sheridan. They haunted me. The one I never got to experience.

We’d been close, but she’d stuck with that asshat Paul in school. The asshat who never deserved her.

Hell, I didn’t deserve her. I knew what I would become, and that wasn’t exactly a world I’d want someone as pure as Sheridan in.

I laughed at myself.

Pure.

She was sweet all right, but I knew she had a dirty side. She’d hinted at it one night when we’d gotten stuck into the bar at the old clubhouse when one of my father’s biggest parties was happening. She’d told me a lot that night, but there was no way I could have dishonoured her by devouring her like I’d been dreaming of doing. She would have regretted it, and I wanted her to remember everything about me.

I shook my head to clear the memories of her and headed into the tattoo shop. My tattoo guy, Rory, lit up when he saw me at the desk.

“Come in, take a seat,” he called out. “I’m almost done with this guy.”

“Take your time,” I called out to him, taking a seat at the side of the small shop. Rory did my first couple of tatts when I was a teen living here, so when I learned he had his own shop now, I knew I was booking in with him. I looked around the walls at his artwork, marvelling at how much better he’d gotten since the day I came in for my first one.

“Sorry, Ror,” I heard a female say as she pushed the door open. I turned around to greet her, only for her to smile broadly in surprise.

“Cooper?”

Recognition sparked and I felt myself transported back. That had been happening a lot since I got back. “Orla?”

“Damn, so it’s true, you really are back.”

I nodded. “Yeah, we’re out in the woods, built our own clubhouse and all.”

“It’s good to see you again,” she said. “You know our girl is still in town, too.”

The twinkle in her eye told me she was talking about Sheridan. My heart hammered, and I wondered if she could hear it. Orla moved off to put her things behind the desk. I sat back down, sighing. This was not the place to have this conversation. I know Rory was listening in.

“She was never my girl.”

Orla chuckled. “Yeah…right, only because you were too pussy to fight Paul for her.”

I smirked over at her. “You know, Or, you’re the only person brave enough to say that to me.”

“You don’t scare me, Coop. I’ve seen your skeletons.”

Orla never backed down. What you saw was what you got with her, and that was why we’d been such good friends back then.

“Orla,” Rory called out. “Mac needs to book in.”

Finally, her challenging gaze left mine, her lips lifted up in a smirk as I passed the other guy in the shop and headed down to Rory’s chair.

“Sorry about her,” he said, quietly. “She doesn’t know when to shut up. I can’t get rid of her though, she’s the only other artist in Kilkenny that can tattoo worth a damn.”

“She’s an artist too?”

Rory nodded. “Yeah, man. She helped save my shop when they were going to charge me an arm and a leg to keep it open. Business boomed. Probably helped that she would flounce around in a mini skirt and barely there top.”

“She still does,” I said, watching as he pulled up the design I’d emailed through.

“Not nearly as bad as it was,” Rory laughed. “Believe me. She’s only gotten wiser with age.”

“That doesn’t sound like Orla.”

He chuckled and handed me the design he’d pulled up.

“Yep,” I told him. “Here.”

I pulled my arm out and showed him the spot I wanted it. He got to work on printing the stencil and prepping my arm as I relaxed into the chair and waited. Sometimes the most relaxing moments I had were in a tattoo chair. There was no one to bug me. No one to ask questions. No drama at the clubhouse.

Just…peace.

Once Rory was done, I said goodbye to Orla, who winked at me as she continued her phone call and headed back to my bike. I’d only been gone for an hour, but it was long enough for some kind of drama to erupt at the clubhouse. Usually because of Bear and Hawk arguing over something trivial, or one of the prospects. There was no rest for the wicked as they said, and being president, I definitely had no fucking rest.

As the doors opened to the sunny day outside, I all but collided with someone running inside.

“Fuck!” I heard her swear as she backed up. Slowly, she looked up at me and her eyes widened in recognition. My breath caught in my throat as I looked down into those bright green eyes that I so adored growing up.

“Sheridan.”

“Shit, Cooper, is that really you?” she asked, laughing a little in relief. “I didn’t know you were back.”

“Yeah, we got back a few months ago. We’ve been a little quiet here in the town, trying to get the feel for Kilkenny and clean up after my Dad made a mess of things.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I heard the clubhouse relocated to the outskirts.”

I nodded. “It’s better this way.”

“I get it,” she replied. “This town isn’t the same one we grew up in, that’s for sure.”

I wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but she looked past me and groaned. I turned my head to see someone come out of a shop and tap his fingers impatiently against his watch, as if he were reminding her she was late for something.

“Sorry,” she said. “I wish I could catch up, but I’m already late for my shift.”

“All good,” I told her. “Come out and see us at the clubhouse anytime. Drinks are on me.”

She smiled, that megawatt smile tearing down the walls I put up seventeen years ago when I left Kilkenny. “You never know, Cooper, I may just take you up on that.”

Fuck. Not many people called me Cooper anymore, but when she did, my entire body radiated with warmth. Softened even.

She moved inside and toward the man who was chewing her out for being late. My mood was lifted, more than the tattoo had done earlier. Now I could barely contain the excitement thrumming through my veins.

Sheridan was still a stone cold fox, and I had every intention of making my move this time.

SHERIDAN

Goddamn fucking Terry.

If I didn’t need the money the way I did, I would have left his sorry ass job. The nerve of him to stand there and point at his watch as if I didn’t know I was late. He fucking knew why I was late.

Asshole.

I pushed past the girls crowding the lunch room that were all talking about the cute boys at their school, grabbing my apron and nametag before I grabbed my till and headed out to the counter. There’d been nothing quite like having to take this job after giving it up when I’d married Neal all those years ago. Now I was back here, slaving over a register, dealing with idiots and even worse, a pervy boss who counted your time in the store by the second.

But it wasn’t forever. I knew that. I just had to grin and bear it for now.

My chest was still rolling with butterflies from seeing Cooper again. Cooper fucking Malone. God…I never thought I’d see him again, not since the day I watched him ride out of Kilkenny, never to return, breaking my heart in the process.

Sure, he’d been back for a week or two over the last decade but he never stayed. And he never visited me.

I’d been so close to losing my virginity to him, but he never made the move, no matter how much my best friend Orla had told me he was into me. Granted, it didn’t help that I was dating that asshole Paul at the time, but I would have broken it off with him if Cooper just told me he wanted me.

I wished it had been him who popped my cherry. Maybe my life would have turned out better if I’d gotten up the courage to approach him, and just planted one on him. We’d been close so many times and yet…he’d never taken the hint.

I shook my head to rid myself of the memories. It was useless playing the what if game. Nothing ever came of it other than misery, and I had enough of that to last me two lifetimes.

The doors opened to the store and I glanced up to see my best friend Orla walk in. Her legs were long, her tiny short shorts way too short to be considered decent for the daytime, making her legs look even longer as she strode up to my counter.

“Girl, tell me you saw who just walked through the damn mall.”

I rolled my eyes. Of course she knew he was back.

“Yes, Orla, I did see him.”

“Now, maybe you’ll let him in your panties and make you remember that not all guys are dicks like Neal.”

“Jesus, would you stop?” I said in a hushed tone, looking around to see if Terry was nearby. “I am at work.”

“Yeah, a shit job with a shit boss,” Orla said, entirely too loudly.

“A job I fucking need, Orla.”

She shrugged. “Maybe…but now Cooper’s back, maybe he’ll be your knight in shining armour.”

I rolled my eyes, a scoff leaving my throat. “Yeah, because that’s real life.”

“We should go to the clubhouse tonight,” Orla said. “Get reacquainted.”

“Well, he did say that drinks were on him if I came by.”

Orla’s eyes lit up. “So you spoke to him, too? He’s only gotten better with age, don’t you think?”

“He’s absolutely gorgeous,” I found myself laughing as though I were a teenager with a crush.

“Mmm-hmmm,” she said, a smirk on her face. “I bet he could blow your mind if you let him.”

Terry rounded the corner, taking in Orla’s inappropriate outfit and moved over to her. “You only just got here, and already you’re using your work hours as a time to catch up?”

“Oh bite me,” Orla spat at him. “Fuck off and go perve on the underage workers you already probably whack off to.”

Terry took a step back. It was no secret he was a hornbag, and he did like them young, but he was harmless really. He didn’t have the guts to actually do anything stupid.

“Orla,” I said. “Go back to work. We’ll talk later.”

“I’ve already decided,” Orla said. “We’ll go to the clubhouse tonight. Come to mine first.”

She flipped Terry the bird and made sure to move her hips slowly as she walked back to her shop. I bit back the laugh as I watched his little face glow brighter than a tomato.

“She needs to stop coming in here like that,” Terry said to me. “It’s not hygienic.”

“She just needed to tell me something,” I told him. “We’re quiet today, I don’t think it upset anyone.”

“The way she talks…it’s not ladylike.”

“Orla would be the first person to tell you she ain’t no lady,” I laughed. “I’ve got this Terry. You can go back to your office.”

He nodded, straightening his tie. “I don’t think it would be good for you if you were to be seen at the clubhouse, Sheridan.”

My smile dropped, and I looked over at him. It was no secret that the Ghost Rebels had always had a bad reputation when it came to this town, but they weren’t animals. I knew so many in this town who did worse shit than them. I hated that they treated Cooper and his best mate Casey differently because they were part of the club.

“And why not?”

“Just…friendly advice given everything that’s going on with Neal and all.”

I rolled my eyes, sighing. “I think I’ll be okay. I’m a big girl.”

Terry nodded and scurried off like the rat he was. My mood had significantly changed since running into Cooper earlier, so a night with Orla at the clubhouse and maybe a little friendly flirting with the one that got away…yeah that sounded like exactly what would bring me out of my gloom.