Chapter 11
APRIL
Stepping into the Grave Prowlers’ clubhouse. I didn’t know what to expect. The scantily clad women shouldn’t shock me, but they still do. The clothes they’re wearing should be illegal. Some are wearing only lacy bras that put their nipples on display.
At the Devil’s Riot clubhouse, they don’t dress this provocatively. Kenny and Izzy would both hand them their asses if they did. But here, there are no kids or even women around who look to be claimed by club members.
Sitting at a round table, I spot Hazard with a few others I had met a week ago, playing cards. A couple of women are either leaning over the men, sitting in their laps, or just standing nearby. Other women walk around or preoccupy themselves with other guys I haven’t met yet.
A few of the women see me and shoot me dirty looks. I know from the stories I’ve heard in the past that these women don’t take kindly to others coming in on what they claim is theirs.
“Come on, we’ll go set your stuff up in my room,” Fool says, guiding me across the room toward a set of stairs.
“Your room?” I tilt my head slightly to give him a questioning look.
“Yeah, sweets, you’re staying in my room this weekend. We don’t have any extra rooms right now.”
Well, that makes sense, but I’ve never slept in the same bed with a guy before.
What if I snore? Kayla and Mercy would know, but they’ve said nothing, and I haven’t asked them.
Maybe I should text our group chat to ask.
Then again, they’ll know where I am this weekend and start prying me with questions I’m not sure I want to answer.
No, I just need to suck it up and hope I don’t, because that would be totally embarrassing if I do.
In no time, Fool has us up in his room and tosses the bag of mine he’s carrying onto the bed.
He doesn’t have much in here besides a bed, dresser, and a nightstand.
There’s a TV mounted on the wall, and that’s it.
What surprises me is how neat his room is.
Nothing looks out of order. Well, nothing but his bed.
“Toss your backpack on the bed, and we’ll go down, get you a drink or whatever you want, some food, and talk to Cannon,” he says, keeping a small distance between us.
Other than the ride on his bike, he’s kept his distance, even though I wish he’d close the gap and kiss me as he did a week ago.
Since we’ve been apart, his mouth on mine has been the subject of my dreams. I even daydreamed about it during classes when I should have been paying attention to my professors.
Thankfully, I have a note-taking app on my laptop that I use if I miss something, so I can go back to it for reference.
“Sure,” I say nervously, and slip my pack off my back, setting it gently on the bed. I want nothing to happen to my laptop. It cost me a pretty penny because it’s top of the line.
Turning back to Fool, I realize he’s closed in on me, leaving barely a gap between us, as if he read my mind or something.
My breath seizes in my lungs as his arms wrap around me and he pulls me into him.
“Never had a woman on the back of my bike, not even my ex,” he says, one hand still curled around my waist, the other moving into my hair. “Never wanted anyone riding at my back. But I enjoyed having you there.” His admission is clear in his tone, and it tightens my chest.
“I haven’t ridden with anyone else besides my dad,” I tell him, speaking the truth. “Riding with him was always fun. He didn’t mind my riding with him whenever he was around.”
Kayla and Mercy would sometimes ride with their dads when they were little, but as they got older, that changed, and neither of them rode with anyone.
Not even their brothers. Those seats are sacred to some men, reserved strictly for their ol’ ladies.
Dad, though, didn’t have that rule. He’d take me out whenever he could.
My mom hated it and would bitch at me every chance she got.
“Want you on my bike every chance I can get.” His hand tightens in my hair, and he forces my head back as his comes down. His lips brush against mine. “Been waiting all week to get another taste of you. Missed this mouth, sweets.”
My lips part, and Fool takes the opportunity to plunge his tongue into my mouth.
The taste of him explodes across my tongue—mint and something uniquely Fool.
My hands grip his cut, fingers curling into the leather as his kiss deepens.
This isn’t like the gentle first kiss we shared.
This is hungry, demanding, as if he’s been starving for me all week.
When he finally pulls back, my lips feel swollen, my breathing ragged. My senses make me feel dizzy.
“The taste of you is even better than I remember.”
“Beck,” I breathe, holding tight to him.
“Like the sound of my name on your lips. Can’t wait to hear it when I’m doing other things to you,” he rasps, brushes his lips against mine once more, then pulls away. “Let’s get back downstairs before I find other things for us to do.”
Between my thighs, I feel a throbbing ache, a desperate need that makes my knees weak. I bite my lower lip, trying to compose myself as Fool’s eyes darken, clearly noticing my reaction.
“We should definitely go downstairs,” I agree.
“Come on.”
He takes my hand, his fingers intertwining with mine as he leads me back downstairs. My body still hums from his touch, from that devastating kiss. The clubhouse feels different now—louder, with music and voices, but everything feels sharper, more intense.
As we descend the stairs, I notice several of the women eyeing us suspiciously. One in particular, a redhead with a body that could stop traffic, glares at me with open hostility. She’s practically draped over a guy at the bar, yet her gaze is fixed on Fool’s hand as it holds mine.
“Don’t mind them,” Fool murmurs, leaning close to my ear. “They’ll get used to you.”
I nod as he guides me to the table where Hazard and Cannon are still sitting with the same guys I saw earlier, but the women are all missing. He pulls out a chair, sits, and tugs me down onto his lap.
“April,” Cannon greets me with a slight nod of his chin.
“How was school this week?” Hazard asks, shuffling a deck of cards, a smirk tugging at his lips.
“Long,” I answer, leaning back into Fool like I’ve done it a million times, even though it’s really a first.
“Fool texted, saying you had to work on a paper and could use some help with it,” Cannon says, eyes on me as he lifts his beer to his lips.
“Ugh, yeah.” I nod and shift in Fool’s lap to look at him. “It’s a last-minute paper my professor wants. It has to be ten pages on how a business runs while keeping the margins in the black.”
Hornet, whom I’d also met, whistles from his seat across the table. “Ten pages on that shit has to be brutal.”
I shrug and wring my fingers together. “At least it’s not the twenty pages he’s known for assigning.”
“Well, what can we do to help you with it?” Cannon asks.
“I’m not sure, really. I was just going to go to the library and knock it out, but . . .”
“I told her that we could show her how a business is run right while keeping profits up,” Fool says, interrupting me.
“You in on this game?” Hazard asks, holding the deck of cards up in front of him.
“Yeah,” Fool answers. “Gotta get April something to drink first.”
“What do you want?” Rimfire asks, getting to his feet. “I’m grabbing something anyway.”
“Oh, um, a bottle of water would be good.” I don’t mind drinking, but this is my first time here, and I honestly don’t know these guys. If Kayla or Mercy were here, it’d be different. At least then I’d have someone at my back.
Sure, after a week of texting with Fool and getting to know him, I’m a bit more comfortable around him, but I’m still in a new set of surroundings.
“Coming right up.” Rimfire nods.
“We ordered pizzas for dinner,” Cannon announces, taking his cards as Hazard deals them out. “Rex and Lola left for Mississippi this morning, and I didn’t feel like dealing with getting someone in the kitchen to cook.”
Fool snorts and takes the ones set in front of us with ease, and I settle into him.
Before long, Rimfire is back with a bottle of water and a beer for himself. He hands me my drink, then returns to his seat and picks up his cards. Conversation flows among the guys throughout the game, sometimes pulling me in as well. I begin to relax even more, growing comfortable around them.
That is until the redhead comes over, putting her hands on Fool’s shoulders. “Baby, I thought you promised we’d spend some time together,” she whines.
I stiffen in Fool’s lap as he tenses.
“Venus, go somewhere. No one wants you at this table,” Hazard remarks without looking in her direction. “All you’re trying to do is stir up trouble.”
“But Fool promised.” She pouts.
“The hell I did,” Fool snarls, tightening his arm around me as he straightens in the chair, twisting us to face her more fully.
“You’re acting like a bitch because you see I’ve got my woman in my lap.
Back the fuck off and stop acting like we have a thing between us.
Every one of my brothers here knows I wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole. ”
Cannon snorts. Hazard chuckles. Rimfire laughs outright. And Hornet shakes his head, grinning.
Venus shoots me a glare before huffing and flouncing away. I have a feeling she’s not done, but given the way Fool spoke to her, I believe him. It wasn’t just in his words but in his body language, how he held me tight to him and tensed at her touch.
“You okay?” he whispers, lowering his head to speak into my ear.
“Yeah.” I mean it. Whatever Venus thought she was going to accomplish, she failed.
“Don’t mind Venus or the others around here.”
“I know the drill,” I tell him with a small smile.
Fool presses a brief kiss to my temple and turns us back toward the table, sitting back and fanning his cards out.
I take a sip of my water and try to refocus, but my eyes drift to where Venus has settled herself across the room, perched on the arm of a chair belonging to some guy who doesn’t seem to mind her presence.
Her eyes, though, keep cutting back to our table. Back to me, specifically.
I’ve dealt with girls like her before. In high school, there was a whole group of them.
The kind that decide you’re a threat before you’ve even opened your mouth.
The kind that make it their personal mission to chip away at you until you question your right to take up space.
Not to mention the girls at the DRMC clubhouse.
When we were kids and playing there, they weren’t around as much, but now that we’re adults, we see them, and they try to act better than us. Well, me at least, since I’m technically not related to any of the members of the club.
I learned early how to hold my ground. At home. At school. Anywhere I had to deal with women like her.
Venus’s gaze slides away when I meet it head-on, and I feel a small flicker of satisfaction at that.
“Pizza’s here,” someone calls from the front of the clubhouse, and the entire room seems to shift as people move toward the source of the announcement.
Fool sets his cards face down on the table and nudges me off his lap. He stands, keeping a hand at the small of my back as Cannon and the others push back their chairs and head toward where a prospect is stacking flat boxes on the bar, with paper plates at one end of the stack.
“You good with pepperoni?” Fool asks me.
“I’m good with anything, honestly. As long as there are no veggies.”
“Not a supreme lover?” He raises a brow and grins at me.
“Veggies don’t belong on pizza.” I shrug, wrinkling my nose.
“So noted.” He chuckles.
Fool steers me toward the bar, grabs two paper plates, and loads both without asking, as if he already has a read on me. He hands me mine before guiding us back to the table. This feels so natural and easy, as if I was always meant to be here. He makes me feel that way, and I don’t want to lose it.