The MC’s Little Brother (Bikers and Babies #3)

Chapter 1

1

Wraith

“ H eads up!”

“Dammit! Rooster, I’m gonna kill you!”

Rooster blasted past me with a maniacal cackle, running down the hall. Not a few seconds later, a seriously pissed-off Vegas tore after him, his face flushed and his teeth bared. Vegas was a relaxed guy, so I was curious about what got him that riled, but I wasn’t about to get into the middle of whatever that was. As Vice President of the Dirty Devils Motorcycle Club, it wasn’t my job to get in the middle of those two. That honor belonged to Butch.

I headed for the lobby, shutting my door quietly behind me. I wasn’t as boisterous as some of the guys in the crew, but none of them seemed to mind. I got a few claps on the back and chin lifts on my way out, and when I looked around the lobby and saw Prez across the room, he lifted his hand in greeting. I sauntered over to meet him, not even blinking when Gracie crashed against my legs. She was one of Butch’s kids, and smart as all get out. We got along well, and she always came looking for me when we were all together. I took her hand without a word, finishing the walk to Prez’s side .

“Everything ready to go?”

I nodded once. I wasn’t very chatty, but he was used to it by now. Prez and I had been friends since we were kids. He knew to fill in the blanks when I didn’t say much.

We were in another town for an annual motorcycle rally for a few days. It was a nice way to meet new people who loved bikes as much as we did, and the club always found a prospect or two at rallies like these. A few guys were retiring this year, so Prez wanted to look around for new members. Not all the guys at the rally would be interested when they figured out we weren’t one percenters and made our livings honestly, but we weren’t interested in those people anyway. Motorcycle clubs got a bad rap because of the one-percenters. We got hassled just because they lumped us all in together, nevermind every member had a clean background. A few months back, they even tried to pin something on Butch, just to get us off their streets.

“Has Rusty gotten ahold of you yet?” Prez asked me.

Rusty was our road captain. He was normally in charge of club runs and planning all this out, but he was one of the old-timers and his health hadn’t been the best lately. He was one of the guys who said they’d never retire and I’d feel bad forcing him out of his position, but we were all worried about him taking on too much. We all took it hard when a member passed, and Prez didn’t want to lose him before his time.

“No. Might have better luck asking Melissa or Tank.”

He nodded. Melissa was his sister and a nurse at the one hospital we had in town. She’d know if Rusty was there. Tank was their dad, the club founder, and had the strongest connection with the old-timers. He also said he knew everything. If anyone knew how Rusty was doing, it was probably him.

“I’ll make some calls. Is this everyone?”

He wasn’t looking at me, his focus on his old lady, who was talking with Skylar and Mel. Ever since she came into the picture, he couldn’t look away. She held the newest addition to the crew in her arms, Skylar and Butch’s kid, a little boy they named Ryder. I rolled my eyes, fighting back a smirk. He could count for himself if he really was paying attention. Case in point, when I stepped outside, only half the guys were waiting. I sighed.

“Didn’t we say nine?”

Ellie made a raspberry noise from where she watched on Butch’s hip. Somehow, with four kids, two in diapers, Butch was still one of the few who managed to be on time. Then again, he was always a stickler for the rules. Prez didn’t make him Sergeant-at-Arms for nothing.

Heading for Butch, I put out my hands. He offered me Ellie with a grunt, not pausing his conversation with Axel. He was the owner of the bar we frequented and a solid member. Like Butch, he knew how to show up somewhere on time.

“Hey, smart girl. You ready for the rally?”

“‘nack.”

Baby talk wasn’t easy to understand, but Gracie was still beside me and didn’t hesitate to translate for me.

“She wants a snack. I taught her that word.”

Smirking, I lifted my fist for a bump, which she promptly returned. “Good job.”

“Gracie girl. You ready to go?” Butch asked during a pause in the conversation.

She bobbed her head, pointing at me. “I’m gonna ride with Matty today.”

My expression flattened, and I gave the guys a dirty look when they snickered. Only Gracie or Zoey ever got away with using that name. I’d hurt anyone else who tried. When Butch raised an eyebrow at me, I sighed, resigned, and looked down at her.

“Let’s go. If we start moving, they’ll follow eventually.”

The rally was only a few streets down, which was one reason we chose the hotel, but we still had to drive to get there. It wouldn’t be a rally if we didn’t show off our bikes. I handed off Ellie to Butch so he could feed her and led the way to where we’d parked our rides with Gracie regaling me with what she’d done in school the other day. It took a patient person to listen to Gracie when she got started on something, but I liked listening to her. She was smart and took to coding like she was born to it. If things kept going the way they were, she’d be my protégé one day.

Not that anyone in my crew knew what I did. They knew it was tech-related, but I wasn’t big on sharing the details. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them. It was just confidential. Being a hacker for the FBI made me a target, and the thing that best protected me was my anonymity.

“Where’s Flash?” I queried as I helped her with her helmet .

“Playing with Rooster. He jumped on him when Vegas chased him outside,” she replied, shaking her head. She acted so much older than her six years of age. Rooster was Butch’s half-brother and couldn’t be serious if he tried. Making him club Secretary hadn’t helped with that as much as we’d hoped.

“Got the story on that?”

“I think I heard Vegas yelling about throwing diapers,” she commented.

I bit back a snort. Idiots.

Getting our crew to where they needed to be was a little like herding cats. It took Butch’s barking orders to get the crew together and on the road. The club was made up of a bunch of knuckleheads, but I loved every damn minute and once we were on the road and moving, I felt a smile spread across my face. As the VP, I was right behind Prez, with Gracie riding with me and Butch on my left. Flash must’ve abandoned his uncle because he was hanging on his dad and looked pleased as punch to be there. The kids were still a little rattled after Butch disappeared for nearly a week. No one wanted to tell them he was arrested on false accusations. It would’ve scared them for no damn reason. The rest of the crew fell in behind us, and the roar of the engines was music to my ears.

The rally had a large spot for parking reserved for us. It wasn’t the biggest rally we’d ever been to, but it stretched across the main street of the town, with bikes in front of the buildings and side by side in the middle of the road. I hopped off my bike, offering my hand to Gracie as she slid off behind me. She needed help with her helmet still, but when I pulled it off, she was beaming at me.

“That was fun!”

I nodded once to acknowledge her. “Stick close to an adult, so you don’t get lost.”

She nodded, shoving her glasses up her nose with a serious expression. “I’m going to be with Daddy. He promised to take me for ice cream.”

She dashed off without another word, and I watched her until she was tugging on her dad’s hand.

Butch was one of the few guys in the crew who had more than one road name. When he joined, he was named Butcher, mostly because when he was pissed, he looked like he’d cleaver you to pieces. But once he met Skylar, he softened a little, and he didn't feel comfortable going by Butcher around his kids. Prez renamed him Papa Bear, and people went back and forth on what they called him depending on if the kids were around. He would still pound you into the ground if you got out of hand, so Butcher hadn’t gone away completely. Probably never would. Butch was an intense guy.

After two of the guys drew short straws and were ordered to watch the bikes, the crew spread out. There was a live band playing, restaurants and bars with open doors for drinks and food, a few booths set up for charities, and they were setting up for a few shows at the end of the block. Stunt shows were popular at shit like this. One of our own, Circus, was already there. He’d be showing off his moves later. He was a damn clown on a good day, but no one could pull off the shit he could on the back of his bike.

There was plenty to do at rallies like this, and most of the guys had a part in all of it, from bike shows to tattoo competitions. But me and Prez were here for the connections. We needed new prospects, and we liked connecting with old friends. We headed for a familiar face outside of a restaurant, and I lifted my chin in greeting when he noticed me.

“Hey.”

He jerked his chin in return, but a shit-eating grin passed over his face when his gaze landed on Prez.

“Well, if it isn’t little Wyatt,” he teased, pushing off the wall and away from the woman who was plastered to his side. His voice lacked any venom, and he pulled us both into back-slapping hugs the minute we got close enough.

“Good to see you, Jesse .”

He wrinkled his nose as he pulled away. “Alright, yeah. I hate that. How’s it goin’?”

Me, him, and Prez were old friends and knew each other when we were kids. Jesse moved with his folks before high school and we drifted apart. Stunned the hell out of me when me and Prez were prospects and ran into him at a rally a lot like this one. We were a lot more alike than I’d thought, and he was prospecting just like we were in a crew from the West Coast. We kept in touch and when Prez took over the crew, Jesse came out to celebrate with us and we did the same for him a few years later. Now we met up a few times a year at rallies and swapped stories of our idiot crews .

We caught up for a while, grabbing a beer from inside the restaurant, and we were about to head to the stunt show to watch Circus do his thing when a familiar and very frustrated voice cut through the noise behind me.

“Listen here, buddy. Slap my ass again and I’m gonna kick you in the nuts so hard they’ll crawl back up inside your body to escape.”