9. Good to Know
Chapter 9
Good to Know
Steel
By the middle of Bike Week, I always felt my age. This year, I wondered if Bike Week was making me crazy.
Earlier that afternoon, my eyes had played a trick on me. I thought I had seen Simone milling around in the campsite crowds. She looked even more gorgeous than in December. Almost as though she were glowing, but the beach did that to some women. She also looked tired and I wondered if she were hungover from too much Jack Daniel’s Honey. Before I could break away from my brothers, a woman stepped in front of Simone, and that woman wore a Riot MC patch.
Of all the damned patches, it was the Riot MC.
But that had to be wrong. It had to be some weird mindfuck as part of getting over my epic hangover.
Greco manned the gateway to our campsite, and he damned sure knew not to let Riot members – or their bitches – into our camp.
Next thing I knew, Torque had signaled for the brothers to clear out because Jordan had showed. I couldn’t dwell on that shit.
He had his money. I’d told him what he needed to know – whether he listened was a whole other matter.
The sun had set hours ago. Under the awning outside my camper, I sat in a folding camp chair with rockers on the bottom. The damned thing posed a hazard to drunks because it was easy to go ass-over-teakettle when sober, let alone tipsy. As I sat rocking, I saw a woman striding my way.
“Fuckin’ A, what are the odds,” I whispered to myself and rose from the chair.
Ten feet from the awning overhang, Simone stopped.
I held myself still. Something about her reminded me of a skittish doe. Instincts told me to wait her out.
“Steel?” she said my name as if it were a question.
“Yeah, Simone.”
She took a step forward and I heard her deep inhale. “Can I have a minute of your time, please?”
I moved out from under the camper awning so only a foot separated us. I stared at her for a long moment. It felt just like that moment she’d told me to show her how bossy I could be.
Fire burned through my body. In the faint light from my camper, I saw she had become even more gorgeous than I remembered.
“Sure. Come with me,” I said, grabbing her hand.
I ushered her into my camper and slammed the door closed.
She pulled her hand from mine. “I don’t mean to bother you, but—”
Actions spoke louder than words, and I wrapped her up in my arms and kissed her hard. Hopefully my aggressive kiss said she would never be a bother. I deepened the kiss. She moaned, raised her leg up alongside mine, and shoved her hands around my waist to my back.
Yeah. I had to have her. Though, I’d limit it to this one last time.
She tore her mouth from mine. “God, Steel. I almost forgot how great a kisser you are.”
That dazed look in her gleaming brown eyes – I could eat it up.
I reached for my wallet and the thought of a condom stopped me. “We need to talk.”
“Yeah, that’s why I’m here.”
I gave a slight head shake and cut right to the chase. “Someone fucked with my condoms back in December. I found out when I got home, but by then… I had no way to reach you.”
Her brows drew together. “Who would – another woman did that?”
I leaned my head back with a sigh.
Time to face the music .
My eyes locked with hers. “Yeah. She’s been taught a fuckin’ lesson. Seriously, Simone, I’d have called you that day, but we didn’t exchange numbers.”
Her eyes rounded, those lips pressed together, and she nodded once. “Yeah, I wish we’d done that since I’ve been wanting to get in touch with you.”
A hollow feeling hit me. She hadn’t freaked about the condoms.
“What about?” I asked.
The way she looked me dead in the eye, I knew she wouldn’t sugarcoat whatever was coming my way. “I found out in January that I’m pregnant. At first it made no sense to me since we’d used protection, but… now it makes sense. Someone actually tampered with them?”
“Yeah. What’s your tie to the Riot?”
Other than the shift of her chin, she gave nothing away. But, I caught that minute movement that said I’d caught her off-guard.
“How do you know—”
“Thought I saw you earlier this afternoon. Then I saw a woman wearing a Riot cut step in front of you. If so many of my brothers hadn’t been jacking their jaws, I’d have tracked your ass down right then and there. But… other things came up and I figured my eyes were playing tricks on me.”
She rubbed her index finger along her brow. Her fingernails were well-manicured with a black and orange color scheme. Harley colors, if I had to guess. “Would those other things include Jordan showing up?”
I clenched my fists and unclenched them. “What the fuck do you know about Jordan?”
She turned her hands up. “Jordan and I lived together for a little over two years, and he’s the douche – no offense – who couldn’t be bothered to tell me things were over. Before I left the campground this afternoon, I saw him talking to you.”
“It was Jordan, but… You’re his ex-girlfriend?”
She rolled her eyes and I wanted to punish her. Sexually.
No. We needed to figure shit out and move on.
I tilted my head to crack my neck and caught sight of the time on the microwave. It was five minutes after midnight.
She wasn’t traipsing through the campground alone this late.
Not a fuckin’ chance.
Shit .
That meant she’d have to stay here… or I’d have to find someone to take her to wherever she was staying.
“Are you camping out here?”
She sighed. “I’m staying somewhere else.”
“And your tie to the Riot?”
Her lips were almost pouty. “You won’t like this either, but I’m Volt’s daughter.”
I couldn’t stop my wheeze of laughter. “That’s fuckin’ rich. No, seriously. How do you know Abby?”
She nodded her head like I was dense. “Yeah, Aunt Abby is Uncle Blood’s old lady, and he’s Dad’s right hand slash VP. If it had been up to Dad, I’d have just called you using his phone because he said there was no way you’d take a call from an unknown number.”
I shook my head. “That’s true, but plenty of people refuse calls from unknown numbers.”
“Anyway, I insisted on telling you in person.”
She was stunning, but her exhaustion could be seen plain as day. “Why did you have to tell me in person?”
Her eyes slid to the side for a beat. “I’m not yet at fifteen weeks. Some men might encourage me to have an abortion.”
My stomach roiled at her words. “Stop. I’m not some men, or most men. I’m not going to ask you to do that. This isn’t exactly a shock since I’ve known about the condom fuck up for a while. But it’s still a shock since I’d hoped I hadn’t harmed you because of that bitch’s scheming.”
“Harmed me?” she asked.
Fuck me, I wanted to kiss her.
“Yeah, harmed you. Pregnancy can go bad, Simone. My check-up was clean in June, and again in December, but I hadn’t been a choirboy.”
“Oh,” she whispered. “My girlfriend encouraged me to get tested too, once I found out I was pregnant. But that wasn’t real harm.”
I gave her a half nod. “Yeah, but you also haven’t delivered the baby, so I don’t like that I put you in that position.”
“You didn’t know.”
I kept eye contact with her even as my head moved in infinitesimal shakes. “Yeah, well, I should have done better.”
She leaned toward me. “Unless you’re psychic, there’s no way you could have.”
I turned and stalked to the tiny-ass fridge in the kitchenette.
“Anyway, I’ll get out of your hair. If you see an unknown number from the nine-oh-four area code, it’s most likely me.”
I speared her with a look. “You aren’t fuckin’ leaving, Jade.”
“Why not?”
“It’s late, which wouldn’t mean shit any other time, but it’s Bike Week and plenty of people don’t know their limits. You aren’t getting into an accident when you can sure as hell sleep here tonight.”
“You’re serious?”
I nodded. “Very.” I jerked my head toward the back. “You can sleep in my bed. I’ll take the couch.”
She shook her head. “I’m a big girl, Steel. I can get back to my car just fine, and it wouldn’t be the first time I was on the road at the same time as drunks.”
I crossed my arms. “You’re staying here, woman.”
She laughed. “Okay. If you say so.”
When was the last time a woman fucking laughed at me?
Her hands went into her pockets and she dug her keys out. If she hadn’t done that, she might have gotten the jump on me. She took one step toward the door and I stopped her.
I had my arms wrapped around her from behind. “You aren’t going anywhere.”
She rested her hands on my forearm at her belly. We were both enjoying this moment. That was wrong and I forced myself to let her go and step away.
She moved to the couch and sat. “If you’re going to keep me here, the least you could do is tell me about your club. Everything I’ve heard is from my dad – and that’s,” she gave a scoff mingled with a chuckle. “Precious little information to say the least.”
I twisted my lips while I debated how much to share. “I run the mother chapter. Twenty chapters roll up – including the Augusta chapter.”
“Augusta, Georgia?”
“Yes.”
“You live there?”
“Outside of there, but yeah.”
Her eyes locked with mine. “Good to know.”
Those words, and her in my camper.
Fuck.
I wanted her, but I knew better.
Not only did I want to avoid another run at parenthood, I didn’t want to put her in the cross-hairs of me and Volt.
I’d have hit her with the dark shit some of the chapters did, but being the daughter of an MC president it wasn’t likely to faze her much. Bastard that I was, I did it anyway.
“Shit varies by chapter, but we don’t shy away from running guns, dealing drugs, every chapter runs the largest titty bar in town and if they slip to a competitor, they get fined.”
Her head went up and down in the slowest single nod. “Anything else?”
I nodded. “We provide security and run legit businesses for… tax purposes, you might say.”
Her eyes lit with borderline humor. “Wow! That’s looking out for number one. Gotta clean the cash.”
I widened my eyes at her. “What do you think Cal’s window and door business is all about? Or that damned storage center?”
Her expression shifted to offended. “My dad wouldn’t…”
She trailed off.
I smiled, but it was mean. “Yeah. They’ve ‘cleaned up,’ but it could go back the other way, Jade. At any time.”
She frowned. “So, your chapters are—”
“Don’t you dare say dirty.”
Again with that slow nod. “Okay, but I’m guessing the strippers do more than dance.”
I shrugged a shoulder. “If they do, that’s news to me.”
She stared me down with a ‘That’s bullshit’ expression. I fucking enjoyed that, and so did my cock.
Everything about her did it for me.
No, I shoved that thought out of my head. I was not doing parenthood again.
I shrugged a shoulder. “It would be news to me because the Augusta chapter has a few prostitutes who work for us.”
She blew out a small sigh and looked away for a long moment. When she met my gaze again, she asked, “Do you want this baby?”
Part of me wanted to watch her grow more pregnant with each passing day, but I couldn’t.
Time to pull the Band-Aid off. “I’ve done the dad thing before, and I won’t do it again.”
The way she stared at me. Her disappointment was palpable, and I knew she could see right through me.
She gave a slight head-tilt. “Good to know.”
That struck deep and I hated myself even more.
It became clear Simone would talk my ear off instead of go to bed – even if I could see the fatigue all over her face. Using my bossiest tone, I told her she had to go to bed and she complied.
I stretched out on the cramped sofa in the living room, and recalled how Simone had snuck out on me back in December. I grabbed my phone and texted Jackhammer and Warden – two brothers from the Jacksonville Devil Lancer chapter. They were the only two long-standing brothers in that chapter not serving jail time, and that was by sheer dumb luck. Subsequently, they were on overnight gate duty all week.
You see a brunette leave my camper without me, follow her.
On the surface, this didn’t make sense. If I didn’t want to do parenthood all over again, why did I give a shit where she ran off to? If I were honest with myself, I’d have recognized that her being pregnant with my kid affected me. But she didn’t need a man twenty years older than her in her life. Hell, our kid deserved a younger dad. The idea of another man raising my child pissed me off, but shit. They both deserved someone far better than me.
In the morning, I found my bed empty, the sheets rumpled, and no sign of Simone.
Frustration mounted, but I held it at bay.
Warden had sent me a text at four-fifteen this morning.
Following the brunette. Do you need the address?
I smiled. Then I frowned since I had to meet with Crank, Walker, and Shark – presidents of chapters out west. That couldn’t be put off since I didn’t feel like riding out to San Diego, Dallas, or Las Vegas in the coming months.
I texted Warden back.
Yes. But keep watch on her until I can get there. Won’t be until around one.
He texted back a thumbs-up emoji, which surprised the fuck out of me. I fully expected guff since he’d been up a good eighteen hours now.
Maybe the brothers from Jacksonville weren’t all colossal fuck-ups, after all.
“I think the shit with Corrupt Chrome is just in Georgia, Steel,” Walker said in his deep Texas drawl.
Of all the presidents, he had an arrogance I didn’t encounter often. Most of the time I could overlook it, but it rubbed me the wrong way today.
“That’s great, but I’m ordering you to stay vigilant about it. Shit can change and I don’t want any chapter to be caught unaware.”
He swirled a toothpick in his mouth. “Not often you issue orders .”
Walker and I were sitting under the awning outside my camper. It wasn’t ideal for privacy, but Walker had arrived with a lit cigar and I opted to sit outside before the temperatures rose. I hadn’t smoked in over six months, but the stress was getting to me.
I took a long drag off my cigarette. “That should tell you how serious this is.”
He stared off to the side for a beat. “No disrespect, but if you nip this shit in the bud in Georgia, I don’t have to be vigilant about it in Dallas.”
“You want to tell me how to run the club, Walker? Come to Augusta and take the fall for killing off five or more members of the Corrupt Chrome MC?”
He sat back. “No need to bite my head off.”
I stubbed out my cigarette in the ash tray on the camp table.
“If you think that’s biting your head off, you’ve gone soft. Torque and I will ride out to Dallas in June. In the meantime, you know where to find me.”
Walker blew out a plume of cigar smoke and wandered back to his RV on the other side of the camp site.
Shark, the president of the Las Vegas chapter, should have been here by now. I dug my phone out of my back pocket and saw a text from him.
Hung over, Steel. Got time to meet tomorrow? I’ll pay the fine for wasting your time.
I ran my hand through my hair. That asshole should have been able to meet with me even if he was hung-over. That meant he probably had a woman, or more than one woman, with him.
Part of me wanted to stalk over to his camper and bang the fuckin’ door down, but this worked out. I could go check on Simone.
I wasn’t known as Steel for nothing though. I had a will of steel and I liked to run the club with an iron fist.
Damn right you’ll pay a fine – *triple* the fine, motherfucker. Be here at nine tomorrow morning with breakfast.