Chapter Seven
Will
“Mel, what the hell are you wearing?” I bark out, pulling her inside the clubhouse hallway away from everyone. We haven’t seen each other in months, and this isn’t how I wanted our reunion to go. I had a few hours left before I could officially make her mine. Today is going to be torture, and I don’t need this.
“Excuse me. My name is Melanie, Mr. Steele. Please do not address me again.” She storms away from me, and I’m about to fucking lose my mind. Did I miss something?
“Since when did we become so damn formal with each other?” I snarl, wanting to bend her over my knee and see how quickly she forgets formalities. Damn it, I want to forget all the rules and just take her now. A few more hours.
“Again, you’re speaking to me and I’m not sure why. I don’t know who you are anymore. You must be mistaking me with someone else because I can’t be the same woman you made all those promises to. You led me to believe there was more. Now, please get the hell out of my face because I don’t want to see your stupid, lying face anymore.”
“Why? What did I do?”
“What did you do?” She laughs in my face. “I can’t believe you. Three fucking weeks, Mr. Steele. You’ve been in this small motherfucking town for three whole weeks, and you couldn’t even be bothered to speak to me, call me, or even acknowledge me when you came back. Then I see you give other women your attention just fine. So do me a favor—let’s keep it that way. I’m leaving in just under two months, and I won’t see you for a long time.” I’m struck dumb by the notion that she’s really going away to college in August.
Like a fool, I take too long to respond, so she continues with added venom. “Hopefully it will be a very long time, and then maybe we’ll both be married to other people by then.”
She sets me off with those words because there is no way another man will ever have his hands on her. I have her pinned to the island. “You’re not marrying anyone else.”
“No, you’ll just be fucking them, but I’m sure as hell not ever marrying you. Goodbye, William Steele. Congrats on graduating to being a heartbreaker.” She pushes my chest and moves under my arm, storming off.
“Lanie, wait,” I shout, rushing to the clubhouse door, but her bestie Beth gets in the way just in time for me to lose sight of her in the crowd. “So, future Prez, isn’t it weird to have sex with the same woman as everyone else?”
“My sex life is none of your business.”
“It is when it upsets my best friend after she’s spent the last year waiting for your selfish ass,” she snaps, getting all up in my face. I’d shove her out of the way, but I was raised with manners, and I also need to understand what the hell she’s going on about. If there’s anyone who knows what’s running around in Melanie’s mind, it’s Beth.
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” I snarl. “So, you better explain or get the fuck out of my way before I move you.”
Her eyes turn to slits and then she lets it all out. “Chrissy. We saw you today, and you looked awfully cozy in that chair with your hands on her, and her tits couldn’t be any closer to your face unless they were in your mouth.”
I slam my eyes shut, ready to send my fist into a wall. “It’s not what it looked like.”
She scoffs, “Isn’t that what they all say?”
God, if she was a man, I’d pop her in the mouth. Where the fuck is Connor when I need to punch someone? I don’t have time for that kind of ridiculousness. “I don’t need to explain anything to you.”
“No, but she’s my best friend, and she saw the same thing. I had to watch her heart break in front of me because you’re whoring around town like she wouldn’t find out about it.”
Shit. She has it all wrong, and I’m going to destroy Chrissy now. “Where is she? I need to find her.”
“How would I know, jackass? I was interrogating you and giving her the space she needed to get away from you,” she huffs. Damn sneaky bitch. I knew I didn’t like her.
I move past her and search the yard, but I don’t see Melanie in that tiny outfit that was made to make me jealous and hard. My angry rave is nowhere to be found.
Taking a calming breath, I come up with a smarter plan to find her. I open up the security cameras on my phone and follow Melanie from the moment she leaves the clubhouse through the yard to the front gate. She’s outside with Damon. He’s got his hand on her arm. I’m going to fucking break his filthy hand. He knows better than to touch her. All the Riders and the prospects are well aware that she’s mine.
I storm through the damn door of the gate. “Get your hands off her right now before I end your life.” He’s lucky I’m feeling generous enough to give a warning.
“What’s wrong, Prez?” Damon backs up right away, but it isn’t enough for me. His hands were on her, and that’s a line he shouldn’t have crossed. I haven’t forgotten the look in his eyes when I came in this morning or the comments that he made last year. He’d kept his behavior on the up and up, but I also never thought about him again after Christmas break because I had secured my woman. How fucking foolish of me.
“What’s wrong is you have your hands on my woman,” I snarl, moving closer to him, losing all sense of control.
“I don’t belong to you,” Melanie says as if she really believes it.
“The fuck you don’t, Melanie. I thought we went through this last year.” I’ve had enough of this talk. She’s the only non-family member that’s ever been on my bike and the only woman who will ever ride my dick, so she needs to quit this little fit and we need to talk.
My father comes to the front with Beast following close behind. “What the hell is going on out here?” Beast snaps. He already knows how I feel and where I stand. Hell, last week he even pitched in to finish the house because it meant the world to me to have it done on time for tomorrow.
“Your daughter is being difficult,” I grumble, although a part of me understands I’m being unreasonable. Another part of me is feeling murderous, and that gaze lands on Damon’s bitch ass.
“Will, is there something you haven’t told me?” Beast snarls, chest and nose flaring.
“That your daughter is about to get this fuck killed.”
He scoffs and then tips his chin. “Good. I’ve already told him to stay away from her.” I’m glad we see eye to eye because if he even dared to give this asshole any leeway, I’d lose it. He’s supposed to back me up on this.
“What?” Melanie shouts, staring at her father in shock.
“Sweetheart, as a prospect, he knows that you and Will are a couple, but then he pulls some shit like asking you out.” I’m on Damon in a heartbeat as the last words leave DA Brandon’s mouth. My hand is around his throat, lifting him off the ground as I watch the color drain from his face.
“You what?” I snarl through my clenched teeth. He can’t get a word out because I’m cutting off his air supply. He dared to hit on my future wife, ask her out, and try to take her away from me. He must want to die or be the stupidest motherfucker on the planet.
“Please let Damon go,” she screams, tugging on my arm.
As good as it should feel to have her touch me, the sound of his name coming from her lips feels like a betrayal. “No. You were going to date this piece of shit. Now I want him dead even more.”
My father grips my shoulder. “Come on, now. Let him go, Son. He’s done with the Riders. He betrayed his brothers; he betrayed the future president of the Riders.” I let him fall into a heap on the ground, ripping the prospect patch from his vest and kicking him in the balls.
“Daddy, take me home please,” I hear her say through the blood rushing in my ears.
“Sure, sweetheart.” He pulls her into his arms, and she refuses to look at me. My chest burns so painfully with anger that I storm through the gate, passing everyone at the party to get into the clubhouse, needing to get away from her before I say or do something I regret.
I’m grateful there’s a gym on the second floor because my temper needs an outlet. My first hit to the punching bag nearly sent it off the hooks, but by the fourth shot, I demolished it. That bit of steam seems to cool me off enough to be around people again and not hunt down that piece of shit Damon.
When I come out, she’s gone and the men have long sent Damon from the clubhouse and soon, he’ll be run out of town. Although the party is partially for me, I don’t feel like celebrating. I need to go for a ride. I wish I’d brought my damn bike. My father and cousin Connor are the first to meet me and my dad presses his hand to my chest. “I need to go for a ride.”
“Are you sober enough?” my pops asks, staring into my eyes, reading them.
“Of course. I wouldn’t dare jeopardize my life just because I’m pissed off.”
“Another reason to cool down,” my cousin adds. He’s way more levelheaded than me, but that’s because he’s no obsessed yet.
“That’s why I want to ride.”
“Don’t go doing anything stupid.”
“I’m not. If I stay here any longer, I might hunt that fucker down and kill him. Does anyone else know how long he’s been after my woman?” I question, looking at my father who has several of the elder Riders around him. They are all like uncles to me and have taught me so much, but right now, my guts are tied in knots and I want to fight someone.
“No. I doubt he would have made his plans known to any of us.”
“Beast fucking knew,” I say.
“Yeah, and he shut that shit down.”
“True, but that doesn’t mean much because he didn’t tell me anything.” My father’s phone rings a moment later.
“What’s going on, Beast?” He listens to whatever Melanie’s father says and then ends the call. “So, it seems your woman saw Chrissy clinging all over you at the salon and then ran into Damon and agreed to a date out of hurt.”
I nod. “Yeah, that’s kind of what Beth said without mentioning the date,” I say, biting back my anger. She left that key fucking detail out, but I’m sure that was intentional.
“Beast showed her the footage from inside the salon.”
“There are cameras inside the salon?” I
“Yeah. You remember when your mother went in there and there were some fuckers flirting with her and they dared to touch her?” I growled, remembering the fuckers that had the nerve to put their hands on her.
“Max kicked them out and the fucker dared to challenge him, but those fools had no idea that Law wouldn’t call you.”
“Yes, and I was on them in a heartbeat, ready to bash their heads in for trying to intimidate my wife.” I chuckled because my father wasn’t the kind of man who allowed anyone to mess with his wife.
And I was just like him. Thinking about Damon putting his hands on Melanie riled me up again. “I need to get out of here for a bit.”
“Take my bike. It’s just been retreaded and tuned up,” my pops says.
“Okay. I’ll be back in just an hour.”
“Give her time,” a soft voice comes from the doorway, and it’s Melanie’s mother. “She loves you, so whatever happened, I’m sure it will work itself out.” I press my lips together, nod and leave, needing to clear my head.
Strolling out to the back of the yard where the bikes are set up, I grab my father’s and climb on. I need an hour or so to clear my mind and get the tension to roll off my neck. Every muscle in my body is tight and ready for war. Speeding around toward the front and away from the party, I head toward the gate where the prospects monitoring it open it up.
The wind hits my face as I speed through Steeleville, and I decide to ride around the perimeter instead of driving through town. There’s just no way I want to run into anyone. The one thing I do is avoid driving past the Brandon home because I’ll be tempted to tear down that door and claim my woman, giving no fucks about the problems between us or the hours before she turns eighteen.
I’m a little more than an hour into my ride before I get my temper under control. Once I ride into the Riders yard, the party is fully underway and everyone is cheering when they see me. Several of my cousins are waiting for me as I park my father’s bike, but first my father stops me and pulls me aside.
He grips my shoulders and stares deep into my eyes. “Are you good?”
“Yeah. I calmed down, but I can’t wait until the morning.”
“Just have some fun here. Then you’ll see your future wife, and everything will be okay.”
“Thanks, Pops.” We head into the crowd where my cousins surround me and hand me a drink.
“Congrats, Cousin. You’re the first of us to finish college, and now you’re about to take the lead in your father’s business,” my cousin Daisy says. “Too bad you screwed it up with Mel.”
“Don’t worry. I’m going to fix that tomorrow, and she’ll be your cousin soon,” I insist, taking a drink of my beer while staring off into the distance and thinking of the future with my wife. Melanie and I will have our happily ever after, and no one will get in the way—no one.