Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
The Time Has Come
E den reached across the table at the diner and snapped her fingers at Liv.
Liv jumped and looked at Eden. “What?”
“Stop. Please. Just stop.”
“Stop what? This is… I mean…”
Liv looked at Sophia.
Sophia leaned against the table. “Eden, who are you? What is going on? What happened to you?”
“Nothing,” Eden said.
A total lie. Her best friends saw through the lie too.
“You have bikers following you,” Liv said. “And then you were at some cabin. For a night?”
“I already told you what happened. I have some time off and I booked it while—”
“Yeah, drunk,” Sophia said. “But for one night?”
“I don’t know why I did it.”
“There’s more,” Liv said. “What is this? Are you and Priest a thing or something?”
“A thing ? Me? With a biker? No. Not a thing.”
“But you’re fucking him!” Sophia announced loud enough for half the diner to hear.
Eden turned away, hiding her face.
“She’s not wrong,” Liv said in a much lower voice.
“So?” Eden asked. “So, what, I can’t sleep with someone? After everything I’ve been through? Is it so wrong? I helped the guy when he was in the hospital and he wants to repay me.”
“Bikers following you is not repayment,” Liv said.
“You know why they’re following me,” Eden said.
“So this is forever?” Sophia asked. “Bikers following you around because of your ex? When does he go away for good?”
Eden felt her heart sink. “The police can’t help. Can we just leave it at that?”
“Fine,” Liv said. “But I want details on the sex. I mean, out of all of us, I can’t believe you’re the one having wild sex with a biker.”
“That’s very true,” Sophia said. “Liv is the whore of the group.”
“Also true,” Liv said.
“It’s as amazing as you can imagine,” Eden said.
“That’s not good enough,” Liv said.
Eden took a deep breath and placed her hands on the table. She inched her hands forward, allowing the sleeves of her shirt to pull up enough to show off her wrists. They were a much better looking color than before, but still painted with the evidence of Priest tying her up.
Sophia’s jaw almost hit the table. Liv kept blinking.
“I’m not talking about it,” Eden said. “No more details. That’s all you get.”
“Just tell us you’re okay with it,” Sophia said.
“Completely okay with it,” Eden said. “Way more than okay with it.”
“Well, look at this,” Liv said. “The shy, sexy nurse turns out to be a freak in the bedroom. I’m proud of you.”
“Maybe I’ve always been this way,” Eden confessed. “Maybe I just hadn’t met the right guy.”
“Wait a second,” Sophia said. “You’re talking like this is something real. Something serious.”
“Her getting tied up and fucked senseless seems real to me,” Liv said.
A few of the same people before turned their heads once more, shocked at the topic of conversation.
“I’m talking about her and Priest,” Sophia said. “You just said you and a biker, never. Now you’re talking like it’s something.”
From the corner of her eye, Eden saw the motorcycle just as she and the others heard it. That lion roaring sound, steel and gasoline, thunder without a storm, an outlaw criminal pulling up to the curb.
Priest.
“I mean, he is really sexy,” Liv said. “He’s terrifyingly sexy.”
“Yes, he is,” Eden said, hearing the way her voice started to purr at the sight of Priest.
He stepped off his motorcycle and placed his bucket helmet on the seat. He looked right at Eden and she felt like someone had punched her right over her heart.
“Good lord, he’s eye fucking you through the window,” Sophia whispered.
“ Yes, he is ,” Eden repeated, smiling.
They all watched as Priest walked toward the little coffeeshop and opened the door. The small bell chimed above the door and all eyes went to Priest.
The way the entire mood shifted in the place was like nothing Eden had ever experienced. For Priest, he was used to it. He knew his size and the way he looked. He knew of his reputation. And he knew that a good portion of people in Cielo weren’t fans of the motorcycle club. What those people failed to learn or accept was that without SOFRAW , the town would have been overrun with yellow bunny , dealers from the SS13 club on every street corner, and nothing but pure violence with the Rattlers constantly trying to take control.
Priest approached the counter and the young woman barista stared at him. Completely terrified yet her cheeks totally flushed. Turned on and in love and not sure. That instantly.
Priest leaned over the counter and grabbed a cup. He turned away from the counter and walked toward Eden’s table. He reached into his leather cut, took out a silver flask and twisted off the cap. He debated pouring himself a drink into the empty coffee cup.
“What do we do?” Sophia whispered to Eden. “I’m scared.”
“Just shut up,” Eden whispered back.
“Eden, I’m not sure what you are with this, but I want you to know I’m very wet right now and I can’t help it,” Liv whispered.
Priest stopped debating and swigged from the flask. A nice room temperature shot of whiskey was all the hydration he needed for the moment. He placed the cup on the table and poured some whiskey into it.
“Anyone need a drink?”
His deep voice almost started to rattle the table and windows.
“Priest, this is Liv and Sophia,” Eden said. “They’re my closest friends.”
“You’re the one who wants to fuck Drix and Dolph,” Priest said, pointing to Liv. “They’re up for it. Everything can easily be arranged. Now are you going to let them pick the holes or do you have a preference?”
Liv’s jaw dropped and her face turned bright red. That was a first for Eden to see. Priest moved his eyes to Sophia and she quickly looked down, not wanting to engage with the biker.
“Have a drink, it’ll loosen you up,” Priest said and he pushed the cup toward Sophia.
Liv grabbed the cup and downed the whiskey. She cringed as she did so.
“I’ll be sure to tell Drix and Dolph about this,” Priest said. “They love a woman who can drink.”
Priest then looked at Eden.
“We have to get back to the clubhouse, doll.”
He offered his hand and Eden knew not to question a thing. She took Priest’s hand and he pulled her from her chair and scooped her right up into his massive, outlaw arms.
“Um, I’ll be in touch when I can,” Eden said, looking back at Liv and Sophia.
Her two best friends watched Eden get carried out of the diner. They watched as Priest put his bucket helmet onto Eden’s head. He lifted her like a feather and sat her on the seat of his motorcycle. Priest climbed on and started the motorcycle. He walked the motorcycle back and throttled the loud engine, then took off down the street.
In a few seconds, their best friend was gone. Out of sight. Taken by a biker. Willingly .
Liv and Sophia looked at each other. Sophia felt kind of jealous, even though a guy like Priest would never ever be her type. Liv felt sick from the whiskey.
They both stared at each other, not sure if they were ever going to see their best friend again.
Priest put Eden at the bar and told Maggie to get her nice and drunk for him when he was done with prayer. Eden raised an eyebrow, thinking to herself, Prayer? These guys… pray…?
When she watched the outlaws walk into a room all together, she had an idea of what was going on. By then, Maggie had poured Eden a shot of whiskey, made her a mixed drink, and was kind enough to offer her a glass of water too. She also told her that Muffin had a bunch of burgers on the grill cooking. That was probably as normal and sane as things ever felt for Eden being inside the clubhouse.
In prayer, normalcy looked like all the guys taking their seats, everyone looking around at one another, and everyone once again noting the empty seats at the table.
Cyrus hit the bottom of his beer bottle off the table a few times to get everyone’s attention.
“I’m opening the floor here to Darrow,” Cyrus said. “Probably the busiest man at the table. And dealing with a pregnant, hormonal woman.”
Monte threw his hand up. “Can I ask something first? Is it true Mara threatened to cut off Muffin’s dick? And she threatened to cut off Skylar’s huge, beautiful tits?”
“If that’s the case, I call dibs,” Priest announced. “On the tits. Not the dick.”
Everyone at the table chuckled.
Darrow shook his head. He sighed. “Pregnancy hormones are intense. Muffin put cheese on a burger and cheese is making her sick. And when she threatened Muffin, I guess Skylar heard and laughed. Then she set her sights on Skylar. Everything is fine now. If I can speak my mind for a second, it’s not helping that her goddamn ex is tied up on our property.”
“I second that,” Priest growled.
“Hey,” Cyrus snapped. “I don’t give a shit about anyone’s feelings here.”
“Here’s where we’re at,” Darrow said, folding his hands. “I hacked into Stevey Go Go’s security system and watched Candy Velvet . Tracked her as much as I could when she was murdered.”
“Tits cut right off,” Priest said.
“Aren’t you preoccupied with someone right now?” Slade asked. “How would that nurse feel if you had a collection of cut off tits?”
“She’s in the medical field,” Priest said. “She’d understand.”
“Sick fuck,” Cyrus said, shaking his head.
“What I can tell you is that Candy Velvet went into a private room for a little while. Thing is, I couldn’t find anyone else entering or exiting that room. Just her. And when she came back out, she was skittish and hurrying around. She hurried out of the club and just vanished. My guess is, whoever got her knew where the cameras were and worked around it.”
“What’s Chief Dick have to say about this?” Linc asked.
“Well, the good news is that this seems to be contained to just our town,” Cyrus said.
“Nobody cares about a hacked up stripper, huh?” Deed asked.
“Let that work to our benefit,” Slade said. “We need the ability to move around and do what we do best without other outside departments and agencies sniffing our ass.”
“Do we let this one go then?” Monte asked. “What does it have to do with us?”
“Technically nothing,” Cyrus said. “But I’m not a fan of someone cutting tits off strippers in my town.”
“Unless it’s Priest,” Linc said with a smile.
“See, I don’t get the assumption,” Priest said. “Yeah, I love tits, but I love everything else too. I want the tits, the throat, the slit, and the ass. I want it all.”
“Well said, Priest,” Cyrus said. “We need to keep our eye out on this situation. Make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. You know eyes and fingers point right at us for shit like this. But I guess we have other business to deal with. Someone tried to take out Priest. Again.”
“Guy is one big target anymore,” Custer chimed in. “Or maybe it’s the nice little piece of ass he’s with.”
All eyes moved to Priest. He felt the tension around the table. He curled his lip and gritted his teeth. Prepared for a fight with anyone who dared to question what was happening between he and Eden.
“Do we need to talk about who has brought what into this clubhouse?” Priest asked. “Should I show you the fucking scar on the back of my head? Want to know about the constant headaches and the white lights I see from the corners of my eyes? Should we talk about the fact that we have the Russian mafia up our ass too?”
“Easy, Priest,” Linc said. “Nobody is suggesting the nurse gets shipped out of here. Nothing like that at all. If she’s your new toy, then we agree you should be able to play.”
“The guy who shot at you has no connections,” Darrow said. “No crews, gangs, nothing. The truck didn’t have a legal plate on it. If I had to guess, someone hired those guys to kill the nurse. I don’t think they were trying to get to you, Priest.”
“And you’re sure she had no clue about her ex’s affiliation?” Slade asked.
“Are you calling her a liar?” Priest growled.
“Priest,” Linc said. “Come on, brother. Help us out. She’s not even inked up and we’re helping her. We’re breaking our own rules right now.”
“I trust her,” Priest said. “I’m leaving it at that. Okay?”
“I’ll dig deeper,” Darrow said. “If I can find the driver, we can bring him in and question him.”
“I want to rip his jaw off his face with my bare hands,” Priest said.
“That brings us to the last part of our business today,” Cyrus said. He reached over and punched Priest’s left shoulder a few times. “It’s time, brother.”
“Time…?” Priest asked.
“Dr. Smile has arrived to settle up with the rat.”