Chapter 23 Rock
ROCK
With every call and text message that rolled in from Piper, it made me sicker to my stomach.
But I knew I couldn't take her calls. I knew I couldn't answer her.
Because the second I did, if someone was tracking us?
Her and Gavin would be in a hell of a lot of trouble.
The more I made it look like she was a desperate one-night stand, the better.
Brewer and I sat at the booth in the back of the diner and polished off the massive jug of coffee as my eyes started at the blinking screen.
Then, the tracker location began to move.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said.
“About damn time. The hell was he doing?” Brewer asked.
“Dinner, most likely. But he’s on the move now.”
“I’ll throw down some money.”
“Gotta hit the bathroom, then I’ll be ready,” I said.
I pulled up Piper’s text messages the second I shut the door.
And my stomach fell. Reading all of the ones she sent me made me want to be there with her and Gavin.
My eyes scanned the texts as I did what I needed to do, my eyes bouncing between the small tracker screen in the corner and the flood of messages that kept coming through.
About to order pizza! What kind would you like?
Rock? Are you there? Is everything okay?
Will you be late? That’s fine if you are, just let me know.
You know you don’t have to have pizza with us, right? That’s fine. You aren’t obligated to see us every night.
You’re worrying me now. Answer my damn text messages.
Rock, I’m not going to ask you again. Where the fuck are you? Gavin keeps asking about you, and I don’t know what the hell to tell him. Do you know what the hell to tell him?
I knew she was pissed, but there was nothing I could do about it.
I shook myself off and stuffed myself back into my pants, then pulled the tracker screen back up.
Mick had blown four miles ahead of us, which meant Brewer and I had to get a move on it.
I strode out of the bathroom and jogged to my bike, then struck it up so Brewer and I could get onto the road again.
It was dark now, which would make our journey a hell of a lot more difficult.
“Come on,” I said. “He’s fucking four miles ahead of us.”
“I hope you know some shortcuts, because if we lose him Diesel’s gonna lose his shit,” Brewer said.
“I do. Just make sure you can keep up.”
The two of us blazed through town, taking back roads to try and catch up to Mick.
I had no idea where the fuck the guy was headed.
I didn’t recognize any of the back streets he was taking.
But with speeding down back roads and taking a few shortcuts through people’s backyards, we were able to get ourselves within a couple miles of him.
Then, he turned onto a road both of us recognized.
“Holy fucking shit,” Brewer said.
“God damn it,” I said.
Mick had just turned onto the road that led straight to The Black Saddles lodge.
Neither of us had any idea as to the condition of that lodge.
For all we knew, it was still torn to shreds from the gunfight to save Everly’s ass when she had been taken.
But if they were still regularly meeting there, then it meant they’d repaired it pretty quickly.
I pulled over onto the side of the road before Brewer shot me a look, then he pulled over beside me and shut his bike down.
“What gives?” he asked.
“Look,” I said.
I tilted my phone to him to show Brewer where Mick had stopped, but before he could get a good look at it, another call came screaming in from Piper.
And before I had a second to debate what I was doing, I ignored her phone call and shot her to voicemail. It was the only thing I could think to do in the heat of the moment to let her know I was still alive without putting her and Gavin into hot water.
But the look Brewer gave me made me shake my head.
“She’s going to kill you for that.”
“Yeah, well. Better than putting the two of them in trouble if there’s trouble to be had,” I said.
“She’s still going to kill you,” he said.
“Trust me. I know.”
Brewer studied the screen on my phone before his face turned red.
Even without knowledge of this part of the backwoods of Redding, he knew exactly where that dot was blinking.
And it was obvious Mick had stopped there.
Brewer’s fists clenched so hard his hands began to shake before he rolled his shoulders to rid himself of the ache in his muscles.
“You good?” I asked.
“Still a little sore, but I’m working through it.”
“We can sit here for a few minutes before we walk ourselves up to the lodge. We only have to be within seven hundred feet in order to listen in on what’s going on. But if we strike up our bikes and ride up, they’re gonna fucking hear us.”
“Don’t worry. I know all that shit. I don’t need a few minutes, though. What I need is to know what the fuck this asshole’s telling that club.”
“I know. And we’ll figure it out. But there’s no use in running you so ragged you can’t get the fuck out of dodge when we need to get out,” I said. “So, take a few minutes to breathe, then we walk our bikes. Got it?”
“Fine.”
I mounted my phone back onto my bike and stared at the screen.
But I wasn’t looking at the dot. I was looking for another text message from Piper.
Another phone call. Anything to clue me into the mood that ignored call might’ve put her in.
But it was as if she had fallen off the face of the planet.
I raked my hands through my hair and drew in a deep breath, trying to center my mind as best as I could.
I needed to focus. Once Brewer caught his breath and was good, I needed my mind to focus on the task at hand. On the mission in front of us.
Because completing this mission and wrapping it the fuck up meant I was one step closer to getting what I wanted.
My family.
I’d be closer to getting my family.
I wanted to get this shit handled before figuring out things with Piper.
I wanted a plan that outlined exactly what the Dead Souls would do to get us on a good path before solidifying my presence in their world.
I didn’t want to get to know her and my son and grow attachments I couldn't fulfill if it put them in fucking danger.
And knowing our club was in fucking danger and still trying to cultivate relationships with them was reckless. Irresponsible.
Which weren’t traits a successful father and lover had.
“You good?” I asked.
“Yep. I’m good. Let’s get to walking,” Brewer said.
Then we kicked up our stands and started walking our bikes down the road.
We stuck to the shadows, pushing through the grass and sweating down our fucking backs.
I heard Brewer struggling to catch his breath.
Diesel needed to be on this mission with me, not him.
Brewer wasn’t fully recuperated. He wasn’t physically capable of pulling some shit like this off.
But I understood the fire in his gut. The anger he needed to satiate by proving Mick’s disgusting rat-hood and nailing that bastard to the wall.
I didn’t want to rob him of that, but if his panting got any louder we’d be in some fucking trouble.
Especially if some of the Saddles were patrolling the side streets leading up to their damn lodge.
I kept my eyes on the tracker and saw that Mick was going nowhere.
At least, his cell phone hadn’t moved. I kept my eyes peeled for any shadows or glints that could indicate a person holding a gun.
I stopped us a mile out, waiting for Brewer to catch his fucking breath before we continued our motions.
Shrouded by the forest of trees surrounding us and cloaking us in their shadows.
I knew Piper was pissed off. My phone hadn’t once gone off since ignoring that phone call of hers.
Shit. When she was pissed, she acted. Which meant there was a chance she’d come looking for my ass.
My mind flew back to the last time she was upset with me.
The last time I had pissed her off the way I had probably pissed her off a little while back.
“Rock!”
My head whipped up from the bar as the front door crashed into the wall.
“Where the fuck is Rock!?” Piper exclaimed.
“That the girl you’re fuckin’?” Knox asked.
“Oh shit. The fuck did you do now?” Brewer asked.
“She’s a spitfire,” Diesel said with a grin. “Of course, you’d find the one woman to fuck that would come after you for ditching her.”
“I didn’t ditch her,” I said. “I… forgot we were supposed to be doing dinner.”
“No, you didn’t,” Grave said with a smile. “You intentionally ditched her because you like her. That’s how you work.”
I watched Piper’s hair flutter around while her curves jiggled in her clothes.
Her eyes connected with mine and she stomped through the crowd, moving effortlessly through the plumps of cigarette smoke.
She was a beauty. Red lips to match her red cheeks that matched her eyes reddened with anger.
She strode to me in her heels and her cut-off jean shorts with her hands at her sides.
And before I knew it, her knuckles cracked against my jaw.
“Oh shit!” Grave exclaimed.
“That’s a mean left hook,” Diesel said.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Piper asked.
I shook my head out as my jaw began to throb.
“Evening,” I said.
“I sat in that damn restaurant for an hour and a half, Rock. An hour and a fucking half. And you’re here drinking some fucking beers with your pals? I know you didn’t forget about me. No man ever can. My pussy’s a little too tight for that.”
Knox threw his head back and laughed, but she was right.
Her pussy was something I would never forget.
“You’ve got one shot, Rock. One shot to explain to me what the fuck happened between last night and now before I haul off and heel-stomp that dick of yours.”
“Holy shit,” Brewer said breathlessly. “It’s Rock with tits.”
“And don’t you forget it,” she said darkly.
That woman had been fire on a stick then, but she was a raging forest fire now.
A fierce mother with sloping curves and thick thighs that could crush my head in an instant while I drowned in her juices.
That woman lit a fire underneath me I never found a way to put out.
I’d taken her in my arms that night and tossed her onto the bar, kissing her and jamming my hand down her pants in front of God and everyone else in that fucking bar.
I wanted everyone to see what I did to her.
She sure as hell wasn’t going to haul off and punch me in the jaw without me putting on a good show for the bar as well.
But the second her eyes connected with mine, it was as if we were the only two in the room.
That woman had been adventurous as hell.
Willing to try anything once and always ready to brag to anyone who would listen.
She was loud, crass, and proud of the woman she was.
And it throbbed my cock day and night. But the woman she had grown into?
The strong, confident, protective, career-driven woman she had become?
There was nothing holding me back from loving her again.
Nothing from stopping me for feeling what I felt that summer with her.
“I’m good,” Brewer said. “You good?”
“I’m always good,” I said with a grin. “Now let’s go trap this son of a bitch before Diesel starts blowing up my phone, too.”