Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SHORT
Istand staring after Bronwyn’s car, watching her taillights fade into the distance.
It takes everything in me not to jump on my bike and escort her home, find her asshole of a father, and beat the fuck out of him.
The only reason I let her go, well, there are two…
Firstly, I’ve no right to hold her prisoner, and secondly, she admitted this wasn’t the first time she’d been hit by her father.
I’ve got to accept she knows him better than me, and that he’ll indeed now be too drunk to continue his assault.
Fuck, maybe he’s one of the remorseful types, who cries, promises it will never happen again, and then, hey ho, a few days later, the fists come back out.
Unfortunately, she’s not wrong about our dependence on Doc.
While I’d initially been treated at the hospital, Doc had enabled me to discharge myself before the medical staff began to ask too many questions, and maybe get the cops involved.
He was there to continue my treatment and my recovery at home.
Pippa, well, she wouldn’t be here now if Doc hadn’t been able to work on her.
She might even have died if she’d had to rely on an ambulance and the proper medical facilities.
Of course, back then, we hadn’t really cared whether she lived or died, but Doc had treated her well enough, and she’d survived.
Something my brother Saint is exceptionally grateful for.
When I can see Bronwyn no longer, I turn and walk back inside, only to be greeted by Saint standing with his arms crossed just inside the door.
“What the fuck was that?” The look on his face suggests I have to defuse this fast.
Holding up my hands in surrender, I explain, my words tumbling out one after the other. “If you think I’m the one who hurt her, I suggest you have a rethink pretty fuckin’ fast.”
“I know you wouldn’t hurt her, but someone did.” Saint’s almost vibrating with anger. “My question is, why did she come to you?”
Annoyed with the accusation, I prod my finger into his chest. “Because, as I told you at the time, a month back now, I’d offered a friendly shoulder to lean on should she need one. Didn’t expect her to take me up on the offer, but here we are.”
“Yes, here we fuckin’ are. Why aren’t you heading out to deal with the fucker who actually did hurt her?”
“I’m with Saint.” Freak’s appeared and is right up in my face. “Sweet little thing like her shouldn’t have hands laid on her.”
“I’m ready to go fuck someone up if you’re too chicken to do it.”
Fuck my life, now Rattler’s here too. And the “too fuckin’ rights” coming at me from every direction show most of the other brothers are listening in.
“Alright, alright.” I’m a big guy, and my voice has a bellow to it. When I shout, I can make myself heard. “Bronwyn’s own fuckin’ father took his fists to her.”
Saint’s voice can be heard above the gasps. “What the actual fuck?”
I dip my head up and down. “Yeah, and it’s us who’re guilty. Bastard blames her for the words Bullseye had in his ear, telling him we wanted his presence and not hers.”
“What the fuck?”
Again, I nod in answer to Saint’s exclamation. “Yeah, when Bullseye told him he wanted Doc here in person, Doc blamed her for not doing her job well enough.” Not that she’d actually said it in those terms, but I read between the lines and am sure I’m right.
“That’s just not fuckin’ right,” Tempest states firmly.
“I want to mess him up.” Woody sounds incensed. “Where is she heading to now?
“To a real fuckin’ friend, I hope,” Genie puts in. “I say we go and rough him up while she’s out of the way.”
I have to tell them. “She’s gone back home. Seemed to think it would make things worse if she didn’t get back. And, she’s pretty certain he’ll have hit the bottle and will be passed out by now.”
Freak’s eyes harden, his muscles bunch, then he launches forward.
“And you just let her go? Fuck, Short. I thought you were more of a man than that.” He glares at me, and I step back, not wishing to feel any punishment he might want to dish out.
But I’m clearly not the topmost thing on his mind, as he rasps, “I’m going after her.
Fuck knows what he’ll do to her once he’s got her back in his hands. ”
Using my bulk, I plant myself firmly in the doorway, making it hard for anyone to get around me.
There aren’t many here who can take me down, my size giving me the advantage in any bout.
Piston is only a couple of inches lower in height, but a few pounds heavier, and isn’t here.
Paint is a skinny fucker, but fast, and on occasion, he’s managed to get under my defences, but again, I’m lucky he’s not around.
Of course, if they all charge me at once… I make a point of rubbing my chest where I was stabbed, and cough a couple of times.
“Goddammit, Short.” Saint, on to my game, rolls his eyes.
Waving his hands in a stand-down signal to the other brothers, he turns his attention from me to the rest of the room.
“Calm down and think. We can’t make an enemy of Doc.
If it weren’t for him, my woman wouldn’t be alive.
And he’s saved a lot of your asses a few times.
Freak, when you took the bullet in your leg, what the fuck would have happened if you’d had to have gone to the emergency room?
” He pauses to give the enforcer time to acknowledge his words with a shrug of acceptance.
“And you, Woody, you’d have bled out that time you were stabbed.
” Again, there’s a reluctant chin raise.
“I fuckin’ hate the man for how he tried to abuse Pippa, but what we think of him has to be weighed against the benefit for the club. ”
“Don’t like turning a blind eye to the way he abused his daughter,” Tempest says, tugging at his beard. “Bronwyn’s a fuckin’ good nurse, and such a sweet girl. Though fuck knows how she turned out like that with him for a father.”
Mumbled agreement sounds from all around, and he’s definitely not going to get any argument from me.
“Still don’t fuckin’ like it,” Freak says. “What guarantee is there that he won’t hurt her again?”
“As I said, Bron said he’s an alcoholic. And I gave her my number. Told her to use it. Made her promise to text me when she got home to let me know she was safe. It was all I could do,” I admit. “I tried to get her to stay here, but she refused.”
Saint steps forward and grabs both sides of my cut. “Maybe she didn’t want to stay with you. You make a move on her, Short?”
Stunned by his vehemence, I shake my head.
“Fuck, VP, it was nothing like that. I didn’t touch her except to doctor her injuries.
Just look at me. I’d break her in fuckin’ two if I tapped her ass.
As we all know, she’s so fuckin’ innocent, I doubt she’s ever been kissed.
She’s not for me, Brother.” I pause, then glance around. “Or for any of us.”
Another murmur of agreement. We don’t sugarcoat things. We know what we are – outlaws with barely any morals who don’t hesitate to operate outside the law. Someone like Bronwyn should never be brought into our orbit.
At last, Saint lets go of me. “I don’t like it.
” He waits to get everyone’s attention. “None of us likes what’s happened to that girl tonight.
But Bullseye’s not here, and before we do anything, I’d like his take on it.
If his conversation with Doc is what caused the violence, maybe it’s best for Prez to have words with him again.
There’s nothing more we can do tonight, so, let’s have a fuckin’ drink and, for now, put it behind us. ”
Thank fuck. There’s nothing I want to do more.
Except… I’d rather be putting my fist in Doc’s face.
I would have been, had Bronwyn not reminded me about his value to the club.
I’m brusque when Freak talks to me, asking again why the fuck I’d just let her go.
How can I explain it went against my every instinct?
I stare down into my beer, wondering how Bronwyn is right now, hoping like fuck nothing else has happened to her. As if on cue, my phone pings.
Bronwyn: I’m here and all’s quiet.
The tension I’d been feeling subsides, and I’m able to breathe easily for the first time in what feels like hours.
Gradually, my brothers move on. Even Freak starts an animated game of pool with Tempest, the money riding on the winner taking precedence over anything else.
As the evening draws on, the beaten and battered girl who stepped over our threshold earlier seems to have been put on the back burner.
Except for myself. I can’t get her out of my mind. I should have gone home with her.
“Hey, Short? Wanna have some fun?” Star is suddenly next to me, rubbing herself on my body as if she were a freaking cat. “Come on,” she purrs into my ear. “I can take your mind off everything.”
She probably can, and she’s a woman, not a girl. I could take her however I want. She’s not afraid of my size, and I know from experience that she likes it hard and rough. Just the type of woman I like.
The first smile of the night graces my lips. “Why the fuck not?” I respond, physically turning her and pointing her toward the stairs.
As I watch her slim ass climb up in front of me, my head is suddenly filled with the recollection of a much younger girl, one with luscious, thick thighs and a peach of an ass. And one who is totally out of bounds.
As I open the door to my room and usher her in, Star asks, “You still need me to be on top?”
Smirking, I give her the answer. “No. I want you on all fours.” Maybe then I’ll be able to picture the body I really want under me. Oh fuck, what did I just admit to myself? Well, who could blame a man for thinking about it? As long as it’s a secret, I keep quiet.
Shucking off her clothes, she positions herself just as I’ve asked, then, preparing myself by placing a condom by the side of the bed, I kneel behind her, wincing silently at the stretch on the almost healed bullet wound on my leg.
But the image of a naked ass and an already glistening pussy sends blood to my dick, which starts to throb, anticipation overwhelming the pain from my thigh.
I love my brothers, but fuck, I don’t want to taste their cum, so it’s my fingers I use to stimulate her clit, bringing a second hand into play so I can simultaneously curl two of my chubby digits right up inside her, quickly finding her favourite spot.
My dual attack has her clenching, screaming into the pillow, and fisting her hands in the sheets in record time.
Thank fuck she went over fast. I don’t even care if she’s faking it, as now it’s my turn. After I’ve freed my cock and gloved up, I slowly ease my big dick inside her, taking a moment to bottom out, while listening to her insincere and practised encouragement.
“That feels so good, honey. Right there, that’s right, just like that. Fuck me with your fat cock, Short. That’s it, give it to me, hon.”
I can be an animal, but since my lungs are not completely back up to full strength, I take it easy, slowly pushing in, then almost pulling the whole way out, finding a rhythm that allows me to keep breathing without struggling.
What would Bronwyn feel like beneath me? The unwelcome thought almost makes me stop my pace. What the fuck am I thinking? A little girl like her would never be able to take me. I certainly don’t want a virgin in my bed. I wouldn’t know what to do with her.
Star? She knows what she wants and doesn’t hesitate to go after it, demonstrated now as she reaches a hand down and starts frigging her clit.
Along with my movements hitting all the right spots, her stimulating herself soon has her body clenching. Without stressing myself, I increase my pace and thrust harder.
She pants, I echo her. She moans as she squeezes my dick tight as if she’s trying to imprison me inside her, then she exhales a heavy sigh as I feel her pulsating beneath me.
I’m not quite there myself, but I’m getting to it. Concentrating now on me and not her, I use her body as though it’s a fleshlight, chasing my pleasure. My balls tighten, my spine tingles, and then with one final thrust, I hold myself steady, letting my release fill the condom.
Sated, I pull out and immediately leave her lying there as I go to deal with the used rubber, flushing it, and its contents away so there’s nothing to be used against me or to trap me.
The club girls have two instructions from the club – to get tested regularly and to be on contraception.
As I’ve absolutely no desire to add to the population – having kids is not in my future – I make sure to avoid any and all chances of a pregnancy.
By the time I’ve finished in the bathroom, Star’s already dressed. She knows the score. I’m no cuddler, and I never want company in my bed. Before she heads out the door, she blows a kiss at me. I respond to the gesture with just a dismissive wave of my hand.
It’s only now I undress, get under the sheets, and in a post-coital bliss, have no problem falling asleep.