CHAPTER TWO
I’m standing casually against the wall of the deserted alleyway; a half-smoked cigarette wrapped in the fingers of one hand, the other shoved into the pocket of my jeans. I’m watching my President Kick play cat and mouse with the asswipe standing in front of him in a pressed linen suit, a briefcase holding the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars he stole from us on the ground beside him.
Okay, technically, he’d stolen it from Kon, Kick’s brother, who was the Mafia Don of all the U.S., but the money was ours for work we had done for Kon—I can tell he’s about to piss himself, and I can’t help but chuckle.
I look down as I throw the cigarette butt to the ground, stomping on it with a heavy booted foot. The sound of a gunshot had me whipping my head up just in time to see the suited pretty boy dropping to the ground; blood already pooling around his head.
I close my eyes tight. Shit! I know exactly what this means. We’re going to have to call Max, Kon’s trusted cleaner. We used him in the past when needed, thankfully rarely. Seeing him just brought back thoughts of the little spitfire I met almost ten years ago, a girl that has grown into a woman, who is every man’s wet dream. A woman I can’t seem to get out of my mind even though she’s married and has the perfect life. What the fuck did you expect? You told her to get lost after you took her virginity.
But truth be told, I wasn’t ready for a relationship back then. Heck, I wasn’t ready for a relationship now. A life as a biker’s ol’ lady isn’t the life for a woman like Zoe. Kick’s voice infiltrates my thoughts.
“Call Max and get his cleaning crew out here ASAP.”
“Already on it.” I reply, retrieving my phone from the pocket of my cut, and dialing the cleaner’s number. After a few rings, I was about to hang up when someone finally answered the call. But instead of the man I was expecting, it was Zoe’s soft, lilting tone on the other end.
“Little one, it’s Chains. We need your dad here ASAP.” I dive in headfirst. Best get this shit over and done with. The line was so quiet, I thought she hung up on me.
“Give me the address, I’ll be there as soon as I can,” she replies, and I frown.
“Didn’t you hear me, I said we need Max?”
“I heard you loud and clear,” she grits out, and I can tell she’s holding onto her anger by a thread.
“My father has retired; I’ve taken over the business from him. Now give me the damn address, or do you have someone else you trust to call?”
I give her the address, and this time, she hangs up the phone on me.
“Fuck me, I’m screwed.” I mumble, returning to where Kick was standing. “Spoke to Zoe, seems she’s taken over from her dad. She’ll be here soon.”
My Prez and club brother arches a brow. “And how are you with that?”
“I’m fine, brother.” I tell him when inside I’m anything but fine, but I wasn’t going to tell my president that.
Less than half an hour later, a dark blue nondescript van was pulling up at the entrance to the alleyway, and I moved toward the woman sliding out of the front driver’s side. Before I knew what I was doing, I had my hands around her waist, helping her down to the ground.
Wearing overalls and a yellow T-shirt underneath, my mouth waters for a taste of what her clothes are hiding. It”s been over ten years, but damn, thinking about her body still turns me the fuck on.
Her auburn locks that used to reach almost down to her ass are now cut in a pixie style around her face, which doesn’t detract from the beauty that she is. It’s a shock seeing her hair so short, as I was used to the long locks. She frowns up at me, batting my hands away. But before that, I could see the lust flare just for a second in her beautiful green orbs.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” I drawl, arching a brow in question.
“Whatever it is, just stop it. You lost the right to touch me like that a long time ago.” she informs me. Attempting to move past me, but I don’t let her, caging her in between her van and my body.
“Worried you might feel something if I do?”
She snorts, placing both her hands on my chest in an attempt to push me away.
“Hardly. Now move.”
It was all I could do not to grin like a loon. We’ve been playing this game for the past eight years, since she married that asshole. I get in her space, prove that she still feels something for me, while she denies it all day long. Why I do it, I have no fucking idea. I should just
leave her alone to live her life. But something keeps me coming back for more. I tap her left ass cheek, and she yelps before I move aside, letting her pass.
Sending one of her withering looks my way, she storms toward Kick, who is crouched beside the dead guy.
“What have you got for me?” I hear her ask my Prez, one of her bright smiles planted on the lips I would die to kiss right now.
“Hey darlin,” he greets her, and I tighten my hands into fists at my sides at his use of the endearment.
“Can you make this go away?” He asks, motioning towards the prone dead body.
She chuckles, doing her best to ignore me. But I notice her side eyeing me.
“I’m not Max Cullen’s daughter for nothing, after all.” She replies, pride emanating from every pore in her body.
“That’s all I needed to hear. Say hi to the old man when you see him next.” Kick replies before walking away, leaving me alone with the woman who has starred in every dream I’ve had for the past ten years.
She makes a point of ignoring me, and I chuckle, but I leave her to her job, moving farther away so that I wasn’t in her way as she worked. But I couldn’t help watching her, the way she moved efficiently knowing her work inside out. Whenever she bent over, I got a good look of her peachy ass, and it was all I could do not to groan aloud. Adjusting my hardening cock behind the zip of my jeans.
Soon after, my brothers decided it was time to return to the Dallas chapter’s clubhouse. I volunteered to stay as security for Zoe as she worked. But everyone knew the true reason I stayed, though I wasn’t going to admit it to them or to myself.
We worked in companionable silence; I helped her with the clean-up even though she never asked for my help. I couldn’t in all good conscience leave her to do it herself, even though she was fully capable of handling it alone.
Just as we were finishing up, headlights illuminated the alleyway. I froze, reaching for my gun in the back of my jeans. But I stopped myself from putting a hole in the head of the douchebag getting out of the black Grand Cherokee Jeep. His outfit of jeans and button-down shirt similar to mine, but the two of us couldn’t be more different. He used the law to get his way, while I skirted on the periphery of it. Caleb, Zoe’s husband. My ex-best friend.
I wanted to growl and tell the fucker to fuck off. But I stopped myself. Barely. It was the shock on Zoe’s face when she saw her husband at one of her job sites that had my hackles rising.
“Caleb; what are you doing here? How did you know where I was?” she demands. Standing her ground, even though I could see that she was nervous.
The man chuckles, but there”s no trace of amusement. “You didn’t think I wouldn’t have my wife tracked for her safety?” he replies, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans; as if what he’s just said is the most natural thing in the world. I frown at those words, but like an idiot, remain silent.
Zoe looks down at her phone, and I can see clearly the moment she wants to throw the thing on the ground and break it. But she stops herself, returning the offending object back in the pocket of her overalls.
“You knew I was working.” she counters, lifting her chin, and standing taller as she faced off with him.
The asshole barely gives me a cursory glance, but I notice the way his lip curls in with her backtalk, and it’s as though he’s only just noticed me. Yeah, that’s right, asshole, I was with her all fucking night. Let him think of that what he likes.
“Yeah, I knew, but I didn’t know it would be with him, now did I?” He motioned to me without even glancing in my direction. “If you’re done here, I’ll take you home,” he announces, and my fists itch to clock him, just once I wanted to rub that smug look off his face.
The betrayal I felt over the two of them getting together after I’d left to join the Marines still burns like a motherfucker. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. That was the final nail in the coffin of our friendship.
Zoe looks around nervously, and I can tell she doesn’t want to leave with him. But she’s the douche’s wife, and there’s not much I can do to stop her from leaving; besides kidnapping her. Which I’m sure would go down well since Caleb works as a detective at the Dallas PD. He’s just waiting for me to do something so that he can throw my ass in jail. But I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction
I’ve had Knox do some digging into him, I wanted to see how deep into corruption he really was—I naively believed he’d never use the law for his own gain, but again, I was wrong on that front. Despite the numerous commendations he received for his work, his methods left me with a bad taste in my mouth. But there was no way to prove anything.
At least I’ve had minimal contact with him since he and Zoe moved to Dallas and I’d stayed in Briar Creek. But whenever we come into contact, he never fails to harass me and my brothers constantly for stupid shit, stopping me on the road like he was a traffic cop or something, for going over the speed limit by a mile or two.
He’s even broken the headlight on my bike once, with a bat, just so that I would have to pay the fucking fine he wrote up.
“Yeah, I’m finished. Just give me a second to pack up, then we can leave.” she tells him, and I see the immediate change in her. With me, she’s all sass and fire, with this asshole she’s meek, and does everything he tells her. What the fuck’s up with that?
I’m leaning against the wall, my booted feet crossed at the ankles, hands in my jeans’ pockets, watching her lug her heavy shit into the van, my anger growing with the piece of shit just standing there, refusing to help his wife.
“Fuck this shit.” I spit out, tightening my jaw, and I push off the wall, stalking toward the woman. We finish clearing the space up in ten minutes, what would have taken her at least half an hour on her own.
Silently, I help her into the van. Anything to have my hands on her, ignoring the way she freezes at my touch, her gaze quickly moving to Caleb to check his reaction.
That she keeps checking for his reaction pisses me the fuck off. It’s almost like she’s afraid of the fucker. But that can’t be. Could it? My eyes narrow on Caleb, if he’s hurt her, I’m going to make it my mission to put him in the ground.
I thought leaving her was the best thing I could’ve done for her. Telling myself I did it for her own good and kept telling myself that when I did a tour of Afghanistan. But when I came back and saw her with that asshole; all the regrets I pushed down over breaking things off with her the way I did; resurfaced. And I’ve been pushing them way down for way too long now.
I missed my chance with her, and I probably won’t ever get that chance again. I stand back, shutting the driver’s side door, and watch as she drives away, ignoring the knowing look her douchebag of a husband keeps throwing me.
I stand there in the empty alleyway for a moment, another regret at not confronting her over my suspicions, just piling onto the other regrets I was feeling. Shaking myself out of my thoughts, throwing my leg over my sled, sliding a brain bucket over my head, and ride back to the Dallas chapter’s clubhouse, regret burning my stomach all the way there.