Chapter Twenty-Four
The thrill of the whole fucking night was getting to me.
I was finally gonna get to wipe that smug grin off that cunt’s face, but more importantly, I had a woman here supporting me.
He had Jamie, the former cop he’d corrupted, but me?
I had V, the toughest fucking woman I’d met.
I think she could even take Tori in a fight, and why was my mind going there?
“Mafia?” V hissed at me, darting a concerned look at Grease, who was smirking right back like he could see she was worried for me.
“Shhh it’s okay, babe. He may have boss level training, but I’ve got something he won’t see coming.”
She turned back to face me, grabbing my t-shirt in both fists and leaning close.
“What? A gun?”
Ha. Adorable. I rested my forehead against hers, feeling like a fucking king with this woman here, on my side, backing me. Showing everyone here that she fucking chose me.
“No. Me.”
She laughed breathlessly.
“I’m pretty sure he knows he’s fighting you, dickhead.”
So fucking sexy when she smiles and laughs.
“Nah, I mean he thinks I’ll be easy, because he’s seen me fight, but he doesn’t know everything I’m capable of. He’ll underestimate me, and I’ll fucking break him.”
“Oh god,” she whispered under her breath.
Another nervous glance behind her, and then she leaned close again.
“Wipe that smug ass grin off his dickish face, babe.” Babe. She fucking called me babe.
I grabbed her face and slammed my lips down on hers, kissing her hard, letting her feel a little of my exhilaration, and probably giving every other fucker a good show.
Certainly there were hoots and whistles around us, but I kept my focus on her, wrapping an arm around her back and crushing her against me as my tongue surged deep.
She dug her fingernails into my neck like she often did, and I fucking loved it. As she pulled back, she rested her forehead against mine again. With her height, and heels on, we were pretty much even.
“Please don’t get hurt, Rocket. Gotta keep filling me up, remember?” Jesus, don’t give me a boner here, not right now.
“Alright, if you wanna get your tongue out of your woman, can we get this started?”
I flipped Grease off behind V’s back, but then Micro stepped into the middle of the circle that had formed around us.
“Rocket, Grease. You two fuckers have been playing at this shit for too long. It ends tonight. Right here where we can all fucking witness it, and then? It’s over. You both grow the hell up, and act like brothers, and if you can’t do that, you can at least be civil.”
“Aw he’s practicing his daddy skills on us,” Grease taunted, and despite myself, I grinned at him. Maybe Micro wouldn’t be as bad as his own dad, in fact… it wasn’t a maybe at all. It was a definite thing.
“Bite me.”
I kissed V one more time, and nudged her off to the side.
“Stay back, no matter what happens. Don’t risk yourself.”
She rolled her eyes. “I always put me first, babe.” Fuck me, she was so perfect.
“Alright, let’s get this done, so Grease can go and cry in his office.”
Micro groaned, stretching his arms out to push against both of our chests as we fronted at each other. I caught Grease’s glare at being touched, but if he didn’t like being touched, he was about to really not enjoy this.
“Rules. No weapons. Fists only. No breaking bones, and leave the family jewels alone. No cheap shots, or sucker punches, Grease.”
Grease mock gasped, but we all knew the fucker was willing to do that shit. Hell, so was I if the fucker deserved it.
“This ends when I call it, and then it’s over. The next time you fuckers face each other, it’ll be as brothers, and you’ll be making an effort. I don’t wanna lose either of you, but I won’t have this club torn any further apart by this bullshit.”
“Jesus, are you done?”
I grinned at Grease again, because he literally said what I was thinking. Micro sighed, lowering his arms.
“Have at it, you two assholes.”
He’d barely moved out of the way, and we were already coming at each other. We both wanted our pound of flesh, we both wanted to win, and we both wanted to show we were stronger than the other. We had something to prove, in front of the entire club, most of both chapters, in fact.
“Gonna make you eat those teeth, you smug cunt,” Grease murmured as he threw a punch at my face, and as I backed off, he tried tripping me. Bush league stuff. I easily dodged that, and flipped him off.
“You wanna go crying to the big man after this? Beg for your home back?”
Grease glared at me and threw another punch, lunging at me as he did, so I moved back to give him room, then ducked as he pressed forward, and slammed a fist hard right into his gut.
Yeah, he might have training, but I had skills from the streets, and I was willing to play dirty, though I avoided his lower rib, which would have been far more effective and really brought a tear to his eye.
“Cunt.”
“Aw, you wanna tap out already?” I taunted, and he smirked.
“You wish. I’m just playing with ya right now. Cat and mouse stuff. Easing you in, so you don’t shit your pants with fear.”
“Wow, you’re gonna try and talk me to death, aren’t you?”
Grease’s next punch caught me right on the jaw, and I staggered for a moment before I landed another on him, and punches were flying as we both tried to break the other’s face.
I dimly heard cheering and yelling, with some backing me, and some backing him. None of that mattered now. What mattered was the fact that he was still smirking at me, like he thought he was fucking winning.
I suckered him in, swept his legs, and drove him into the dirt, pinning him on his back, an arm over his throat, with my bodyweight behind it. He clawed at my face, choking a little as I constricted his fucking breathing.
“You wanna know why I fucking hate you?”
He rolled his eyes, punching the side of my face, almost dislodging me.
“Don’t really care. You literally don’t even matter.”
“That’s okay. You don’t either. See, I get it. This life seems like a fun break and all, but you’ll fuck off back to your cushy life, and we’ll all still be here living it.”
Grease snorted, rocking from side to side and trying to drive a knee into me, as he tried to dislodge my balance, but I was steady right now. That could change any moment though.
“Rocket! Don’t fucking kill him!” I heard Micro yelling, but fuck that. I wasn’t about killing, but I wanted to put this shithead in his place.
“Thinking you’re one of us, just because you get to wear a cut, and skip prospect phase. Fucking pretending at this life, but it’s all some of us have. You get it? It’s not a fucking holiday. It’s everything.”
Grease paused his efforts, frowning at me.
“That’s what you think?”
“It’s what I know.” He wasn’t fighting me now, so I eased up on his throat a little, letting him speak.
“This life is everything to me too. I was born to the wrong fucking people. Do you get that? This is home. This is what fucking matters.” Born to the wrong people. I could understand that, more than any of them would know.
“Easy to say, but you could still walk away. You could still live it up when you get bored with this.”
Grease heaved a sigh, and slammed both hands against the sides of my face and ears, momentarily deafening and disorienting me, and that’s all he needed to turn the tables.
V
Ithought there would be more of the flailing fists and stuff, but they were mostly trying to choke each other out and stuff.
I mean, they’d still taken plenty of hits each, and both were bleeding somewhere on their faces.
They were muttering god only knows what at each other, but when Grease turned things to his benefit, the guys around them all seemed to think it was hilarious.
“It’s not fucking date night, guys. Wanna stop making out?”
Whatever Grease said to Rocket seemed to take the wind out of his sails, just like he’d done to Grease, but then Rocket surged up and slammed his forehead against Grease’s and with that, they were scrapping again, rolling around in the dirt, throwing punches and trying to get a knee into the other’s gut, and cursing at each other.
“Kinda lame, really. We all know Grease could break him in half,” someone said beside me, and I turned to glare at him. He lifted both hands, palm up, and smiled at my reaction.
“Whoa, love, I’m just being cute. You’re Rocket’s old lady?”
I hesitated, because we hadn’t gone that far, had we? Was that what was happening? Wouldn’t I know for sure if that had happened?
“Okay, clearly that’s still up for debate. Don’t worry, love. They’re pretty evenly matched to be honest. They have very different skills, but they’re pretty much matched.”
The guy had long blonde hair, and a scruff of blonde beard on his jaw and chin. I glanced at his cut, and it said VP, and the name Stitch.
“I’m Stitch, love. I know you just worked that out. I’m glad Rocket’s found himself a nice friend here. He needed that.” He’d already downgraded me from old lady to friend, while I was still wondering which even applied.
“Are they going to stop soon?”
He laughed, pointing Micro out, who was shoving his way to the front of the crowd again.
“Any minute now. This was never about violence, you get that, right? It was about burying the hatchet and moving on to healing. Rocket and Grease were tight back at the old club, but learning Grease’s past seemed to turn Rocket against him. They needed this.”
I watched as Micro threw a bucket of waste beer over the two scrapping men, and they cursed, pulling apart and swiping it from their faces.
“Okay. I’m calling it. Nobody won, and you both put on a great show. Really, very entertaining. Adorable, even.”
“I’m giving it zero stars,” someone called out, and there was scattered laughter.
Micro passed the bucket to someone, and reached out to help Rocket up, who begrudgingly reached out to help Grease up, on a fierce glare from his President. It was like a forced attempt at friendship, like when you tell kids to shake hands and stop fighting.
“Okay everyone, thanks so much for the betting funds. They’ll be a nice start towards our rebuild budget.”
There were grumbles and some middle fingers flying, but Micro just laughed.
“Kidding. Kind of. If you want to get your money back, go see those two pricks. Anything left will go into club funds though.”
Stitch nudged my arm and passed me two bottles of beer, opening them as he handed them to me. At my frown, he laughed.
“The other one’s for your man there, I mean, unless you prefer to double fist them?”
His grin turned wicked, and I found myself smiling back at him. He was actually really nice, although I hadn’t met many club members I didn’t like, if any. Grease annoyed me, and that prospect who’d been so mouthy. That was it really.
“I’ll leave the fisting to you, Stitch.” I took the beers, and walked away to his laughter, approaching Rocket, who was tentatively mopping at his face with the front of his t-shirt, revealing those taut abs that made my mouth water.
“That for me?” I flipped Grease off, and turned away from him, passing Rocket his beer.
“You know, you can be nice to me now. We’re good,” Grease said, and I shrugged. I wasn’t ready to be nice to him yet. I was too busy taking in the swelling and bleeding on Rocket’s face, and the cut on his jaw. There were scratches and scrapes on his arms too.
“Look what you did to him!” I snapped, turning to glare at Grease as Rocket chuckled beside me, greeting that older guy as Doc, as the man showed up with the backpack.
“He got a few hits in too,” Grease said, smirking as ever, but he definitely had plenty of blood and bruising showing too.
“Alright, Doc, you gonna do me next?”
“Wait your turn, I can only treat one dickhead at a time. Be grateful it’s not Grace here patching you idiots up.”
Grease leaned around me, catching Rocket’s eye.
“Look, for the record, it was never a fucking game for me. It was like coming home, and I know you get that. Maybe I didn’t start out however you did, or any of these guys did, but I’m as much a biker as you are.”
Rocket grunted, nodding at him, while the doc was cleaning the cut on his jaw with a wipe.
“Another scar for your collection, dipshit,” the man grumbled, gesturing past me to Grease, while Rocket groaned.
“Yeah, I hear ya, man. I don’t like how you lied to me for all that time, but I guess I can see why it had to be that way. Just felt like we were tight back there, and yet you were lying to me the entire time.”
Grease stepped past me, slapping Rocket’s back, and making the doc curse as he in turn dropped the wipe on the dusty ground when Rocket lurched forward.
“Fucking morons, the lot of you.”
“Had to lie, man. Doesn’t mean we weren’t friends. I had to lie to everyone, or die. That’s how it works.”
Rocket nodded, then Grease nodded, and I guess that was it. Beef over? Who the hell knows with this lot?
“Can I finish patching your dumb ass up now?”
Rocket grinned at the doc.
“I knew you wanted my ass.”