Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
The following week, everything was back to its regularly scheduled programming. School carried on as it usually did, and with it came study sessions. The only problem, everyone kept trying to turn every conversation into talking about the fire.
It was like they had never seen a warehouse burn before.
Well… maybe. The newspaper article the following day stated that twenty-seven prominent businessmen from all over the country perished. Maybe their stock prices were plummeting because Liam helped me send some pretty damaging evidence to all of their shareholders?
Maybe?
Only this time, the reach was further than we expected. All of the big acronyms, like the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had no choice but to organize a joint task force to deal with the fallout.
It was epic.
Just thinking about it, I wanted to do something normal for once.
My brothers and the club had several legitimate businesses within the city, as well as outside of it. One such business was an exercise gym Brandt owned, fully equipped with a boxing ring that we often used for sparring matches. It was important in our line of work to stay in shape and to stay alert to any adversary.
One thing we didn’t do was discriminate according to gender. However, there weren’t too many women who wanted to be a full-fledged member of the Reapers. Too many of them were more interested in getting patched in by being someone’s old lady. Not that I thought anything was wrong with that because we had the need for women who wanted to provide support to the club from the sidelines.
It wasn’t for me though, because I wanted to pave my own path.
Part of me marking my path was to ensure that I knew how to protect myself in a world full of men. I would have to ride longer, be stronger, and put up with more bullshit than anyone could handle to prove that I deserved to wear a cut of my own. When I was just eighteen, the club still considered me a prospect, even though I was a legacy member. Sharing the same blood as a previous and current president afforded me some special treatment in that aspect, and harsher treatment in others.
It wasn’t until this year that they gave me more responsibilities during Church.
One of my goals was to become proficient in defence against people who were bigger than me, namely most of the guys in the club. My brother, however, didn’t know the lengths I would go to in order to be prepared for all scenarios. I had roped some guys into helping me, but one was more against it than others. Unfortunately for Hunter, all the other guys had plans today, so they tagged him in.
After trading a few blows, he grabbed both my hands, spun me around and pinned me against his chest. I struggled in vain, but couldn’t manage to get out of his hold. Undeterred, I pressed my butt against him and wiggled suggestively.
He groaned in my ear and his hold loosened. Taking advantage of his distraction, I put my hip into his and pulled my arms down and out forcing his body down. With both of us off balance, we fell unceremoniously to the mat.
Somehow, I ended up on my back with him on top of me. As the hard ridge of his cock hit my centre, an involuntary moan slipped out of me. His eyes snapped to mine. Next, his attention went to my mouth. Neither of us moved, frozen in the moment.
Would he or wouldn’t he?
All too soon, there was a commotion at the front entrance, snapping me out of my trance.
“Hunter, get the fuck off of my baby sister!” Erik bellowed from the door, drawing the attention of everyone in the gym.
Hunter, obeying our Prez, launched off of me like I was on fire. He was off the mats and heading toward the showers before anyone else could say boo.
“Erik,” I groaned, then used a kip-up to launch off my back up to my feet and faced him head on, glaring. “I’m not a baby anymore.”
“You’ll always be my baby sister, and he has no right to you.”
“I don’t know what you thought you saw when you busted in here, but you couldn’t be more wrong.”
“I know exactly what I saw.”
“Then you need your eyes checked. It’s like you’ve made it your goal to scare off every guy who is willing to spar with me.”
“Are you forgetting who you’re talking to, little girl?” he quirked a brow.
I quickly schooled my features, cognisant of the fact that he was the President of our club and I should show a modicum of respect towards him, just in case he was in that role at this moment instead of the role of my brother. He switched between the roles so fluidly that sometimes it took me a moment to figure out which one he was emulating. I glanced at Ana, who was trying, but epically failing, to keep a straight look on her face.
“You’ll have to excuse your brother, Hellcat. He might need some brain bleach to deal with seeing Hunter between your legs staring into your eyes like he wanted to devour you.” Then she stage whispers, “he also doesn’t want to think about how Hunter is back in the locker room having a cold shower right now.”
“Ana! Now he’s definitely not gonna let me spar with any of the guys ever again.”
“If that’s what you call sparring, deal me in,” she replied, dissolving into a fit of giggles.
“You won’t be dealing my wife in Hellcat. Not now, not ever,” Erik told me in a gruff voice. “Now tell me, what’s this I hear about the hit on that cop who arrested you last month?”
I glanced around, seeing no one within earshot who shouldn’t be, then responded, “I think it has something to do with his undercover work in River City. The thing that really gets me, though, is that no one is supposed to know he’s here. He doesn’t look like he did when he was up there. It’s almost like there’s a mole in the department or something.”
“Is there someone you could talk to?”
“I’m considering talking to Andria a bit more and see if she’s willing to give us more intel. Liam has been trolling for more information, but he hasn’t been able to find anything concrete.”
“Do you think she’ll be willing to help?”
“I think she’s gonna have more than just the flesh market to deal with. I doubt it will be the last time I work with Andria.”
“I want you to cultivate that relationship as much as you can,” he told me in his commanding Prez voice.
“Consider it done.” I nodded. “We could pursue more allies because of what we did.”
“Also, I don’t think I told you how proud I am for the work you and Hunter did.”
“Good. I want more jobs like that. I really enjoyed bringing those pricks down.”
To Erik’s utter bewilderment, the moment I turned eighteen, I stepped through the clubhouse door with a box in my hands, ready to move into my room. He didn’t even know I had boxes packed in my closet for months before my birthday. Since I was a child, all I wanted to do was help him keep the balance. He argued vehemently with me over the appropriateness of a young girl such as myself, living in a clubhouse full of grown men.
Ana pointed out that if he didn’t want me living at the clubhouse, then they shouldn’t have patched me in, nor should they have involved me in the organization.
When he sputtered at that statement, she backed it up saying better yet, he should have just arranged for me to be an old lady to someone, just like her father did. That shut him up real fast. As a final derailment attempt, he put it to a vote and everyone agreed with my decision, much to his chagrin.
Even though he finally agreed, it was a reluctant acceptance. He sporadically managed to passive-aggressively bring up reasons a woman shouldn’t live in the clubhouse, but none of it made a difference.
To be honest, most of the time I thought he just couldn’t handle watching his little sister grow up.
He would probably have a coronary if I told him how my ovaries burst when I got arrested by Braxton. The six foot four one with gorgeous blue eyes and dark hair I imagined running my hands through. Then, after his coronary, he would have a seizure over the kiss I shared with Hunter after we rescued those girls from the auction. He wouldn’t have anything to worry about with Hunter though, because he clarified that we couldn’t go any further, and he only hammered the nail in further by the way he launched off of me earlier.
That kiss was a moment of weakness for me.
I was riding a high that I couldn’t handle, and I let my guard down.
It wouldn’t happen again.
I would rather punch him in the nuts than let his lips to touch any part of my body. The next time he tried to pull the same stunt, I would tell him exactly that. Then, to show him I meant business, I would carry through with my threat. See how he gets off with the next Candy or Cherry or whatever sweet fruit named biker bitch that walked through the door. Lord knew he had been through a few of them over the years. It made me imagine his door like a turn style.
Not unlike a fast-food restaurant: over six million served.
So then, why did I actually want him to kiss me? I was a sucker for punishment, that was why. There would be no good to come out of us getting together. Same with the cop. He could never ignore his moral compass enough to be with me and not want to arrest me for the things that I had done. I was lucky enough that my brother and the crew cleaned up the mess that was made when I saved his life.
It was official. I was fucked in the head.