Chapter 1 Hunter
ONE
HUNTER
I slammed my finished pint glass on the bar top at the Rusty Pelican. I was about to take a break from drinking when I felt Glock’s strong arm wrap around my shoulder. He placed a bottle of beer in front of me, and I let out a laugh.
“Fuck!” Glock said, raising his glass for the tenth time that night. None of us joined him for this one.
“Fuck the Dragon Knights,” Glock slobbered, followed by a low cheer ringing out in the group. We’d been toasting to our victory over the Dragon Knights for the past six nights, and there was no end in sight.
At least for the five of us, since we were the youngest members of the Bad Disciples, this one had been the first major war we were involved in, and we had come out victorious.
The Dragon Knights had been running a prostitution ring that we had to put a stop to.
We didn’t tolerate treating women that way.
They were also running weapons, too - on our fucking territory, which was our main fucking business.
The show had to stop, and we made sure that it did. They didn’t stand a chance.
“And you got a sweet deal out of it, too,” Sniper said, directing the comment towards Gunner, who was grinning now.
The reference was Brooklyn Jenson, the girl who Gunner had recently started dating.
Her family had belonged to the Dragon Knights till her father and brother died and the MC turned against her.
Gunner had managed to rescue her from the verge of being swallowed up into the prostitution trade, and now they were together and looked genuinely happy.
Not that I knew how he did it. How do you fuck the same woman every night and not want some other piece of ass from time to time? Gunner hadn’t looked at another woman since he got together with Brooklyn, and it boggled my mind.
Now, Brooklyn was welcomed into our MC, part of the Bad Disciples, and is well liked, just like Gunner was.
“I got lucky,” Gunner said, and Glock thumped his back while a few of us clinked our glasses together.
“To Gunner and Brooklyn, and to hell with the Dragon Knights!” Glock’s voice boomed.
This time we cheered with him. The war had made us blood thirsty.
Now we had nothing else to do other than drink ourselves silly every night.
We deserved it. Most of us had come close to losing our lives to the cause.
Something each of us would have happily done.
I felt someone else’s hands on my shoulders then looked up lazily to find Jessica standing over me. Her face was stretched in a beaming smile, her dark eyes sparkling in the dim light of the bar. Ever since our victory over the Dragon Knights, she hadn’t been able to keep her hands off me.
Jessica, like all the other groupies, was a chick the members of our MC passed around amongst us. These girls looked up to us and were always available for a quick fuck, but unlike the Dragon Knights, we would never use them for the flesh trade.
Jessica lowered her face right up to my ears.
“You can collect your prize now, Hunter,” she breathed seductively, and I arched my brows at her. Even though these women knew that we didn’t form attachments nor were interested in full-fledged commitments, it didn’t stop them from having favorites. And I was clearly hers.
With her cleavage spilling out over her top and her daisy dukes high up her thighs, revealing a chunky ass that I would have liked to sink my teeth into…she was a good lay. I knew because I’d been fucking her every night since our victory over the Dragon Knights, but I was bored now.
“You have a giving nature, Jessica. You are very kind,” I said with a laugh and slapped her ass hard, to which she giggled and bounced.
“You know it’s not charity, Hunter…come with me,” she said, leaning towards me again, making sure that I had seen her cleavage on display. I grinned at her, my mind swimming with all the beers and whiskies I had drunk over the course of the night. I wasn’t in the mood to fuck.
“I have something else to do,” I said flatly and turned away from her, averting my attention back to the boys.
As sexy as Jessica was, if I wasn’t firm with her, she wouldn’t take no for an answer.
I could sense her burning a hole at the back of my skull with her stare, but I knew she would eventually walk away.
She knew her place. She was here to please me and not the other fucking way around.
Sniper met my eyes while he cradled the bottle of beer in his hands.
“Her pussy is still tight. What does that say about you?” he said then laughed at his own joke.
I threw the bottle of beer in my hand at his head, which missed because he ducked just in time.
The bottle crashed to the floor, and a few more cheers rang out in the bar.
The others laughed, and I laughed with them.
Sniper looked like he was relieved he’d managed to steer clear.
“Jeez, I get it. You have big balls,” Sniper said, shaking his head, while we all continued to laugh.
I noticed Jessica still eyeing me from the other corner of the bar, and my mind wandered.
None of the groupies were hitting on Gunner anymore, because he had made it very clear to everyone that he wasn’t interested.
He had every intention of staying loyal to Brooklyn.
How the hell did he do that? With these tits hanging out and these tempting asses.
Brooklyn must have a magic fucking pussy.
I had no idea what that felt like, to want to bang only one woman for the rest of your life.
Would I want to bang just Jessica for the rest of my life?
No fucking way. She was not even close to being good enough for that sort of crap.
I felt my phone vibrating in the pocket of my jeans, so I pulled it out to find that Marco was calling.
I stood up and walked away from the group to take the call. It was past midnight. What was he calling about?
Marco and I had known each other since high school.
We were best friends, always getting into trouble together.
Even though he hadn’t joined the MC with me, we had decided to join the marines together instead.
Which led to us touring together in Iraq.
Which led to him losing his leg, the leg that was blown off when he stepped on an IAD bomb.
Marco was confined to a wheelchair now, and his life had significantly changed.
But he knew he could rely on me. I never let anyone I cared about suffer.
“Hey,” I said, pressing the phone to my ear as I took another swig of my beer.
Marco’s voice sounded muffled; that was the first thing I noticed.
“How’s it going?” he said. I took in a deep breath.
“Just hanging out with the boys,” I told him, and I heard Marco breathing hard. “You called me up to ask how it’s going? Don’t you get all tucked into bed at like nine or something?” I asked him with a laugh, but Marco wasn’t laughing.
“Yeah, Hunter. I’m in bed by nine. Big fucking ha ha,” he said and I realized that I’d offended him.
Ever since he lost his leg, Marco had also lost his sense of humor, but I couldn’t exactly blame him for it.
The guy was a big hulk of muscle, a fucking marine, and now on a good day, he could just about manage to haul himself out of bed and wheel himself to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee.
Even though he had made it clear to me that he didn’t want me pitying him, I couldn’t help but feel sorry.
Marco was a good man, a good friend, and I hated to see him like this.
“Right. What’s up?” I said, dropping the laugh now.
“Well, I was in bed. You know, getting my beauty sleep as you would put it,” he said.
I said nothing. I was still feeling drunk and trying to focus.
“And then I got up to take a piss,” he said, and for a few moments, there was silence between us.
He assumed that I had understood what he was trying to say while I was waiting for him to continue.
“And did you? Piss, I mean,” I said when I realized that he wasn’t going to say anything.
“Yep. I took a massive piss. In my fucking pajamas,” he growled, and I took in a deep breath, to steady myself. I had an idea of how humiliating it definitely was for Marco, to have to admit this to me. But I also knew that he had no other choice.
“Right. So, what’s the big deal?” I said, trying to lighten the air. I didn’t want him to think that his condition was affecting me in any way. I didn’t want him to know just how sorry I was for him.
“The big deal is that I’m on the floor now, Hunter,” he said with a voice that was dripping with rage.
“And I can’t get myself back up on the wheelchair,” he added as I clenched my jaw.
I was just glad that he had the presence of mind to always carry his cellphone with him, even if it was just to go to the toilet to take a leak.
“Give me ten minutes and I’ll be there, and I’ll tuck you right back into bed. Maybe if you’re a good boy, I’ll read you a story, too,” I said, keeping it casual.
“Yeah, and maybe we can then hold hands and dance around a tree. I’ll bring out my collection of Barbie dolls before you arrive,” Marco, said and I was relieved to find a tinge of genuine humor in his voice.
“Don’t go anywhere,” I told him.
“Fuck you,” I heard him say, and then he hung up.
As I slipped my phone back into the pocket of my jeans, I couldn’t help but feel a depressing darkness descend upon me.
Marco, like myself, was a twenty-six-year-old man, who had his whole life ahead of him.
He had lost his ability to walk, because all he was doing was serving the country.
To the outside world, the man was a fucking hero.
What the others didn’t see was that their hero occasionally pissed himself and couldn’t get up off the toilet floor.
I walked back to the group, banging my bottle of beer down on the table.
“Heading out,” I said in no mood for a joke anymore.