CHAPTER 15
MAYHEM
When I glance at the clock, my stomach tightens.
Duckie texted me to let me know Wagner stopped in at his precinct even though he’s still, technically, on a leave of absence.
You know, because he’s grieving his wife’s death.
I hate how no one seems to have figured out that they were estranged. At least, they aren’t reporting on it.
The media has paraded Wagner out in front of the case like he’s up for fucking sainthood. It’s disgusting.
And that feeling in the pit of my stomach is growing, the one that says the calm isn’t going to last. I’m not sure what is going to happen, but something is on the horizon.
He wouldn’t have had to dig very much to find the connection between Addyson and the Devil’s Saints MC. It’s not like we’re unknown. Far from it.
We have more than a few cops on our payroll. It’s allowed us to stay ahead of them when they’re investigating us. But, even more than that, it’s allowed us to help people who need it. Far too often cops have a shit ton of red tape preventing them from doing what needs to be done.
The club doesn’t have the same problem.
Not like we’d solely take the word of the cops about what is going down in my city. Hell fucking no. It wouldn’t come as any surprise to me to find out we were being used for the dirty work of some corrupt cop.
I mean, they are on our payroll after all. That’s not fucking loyalty and we all know it. We just don’t point it out in mixed company.
When I told Scythe about Wagner taking a trip to Magnolia Point, I thought the man’s head was going to explode.
His reaction had my hackles raised. I couldn’t help myself, again, and seethed, “You’re too concerned about a woman who isn’t your Old Lady.”
Scythe paused in his raging, and I could feel him trying to get himself under control.
His words were dangerous, but I’ve never been one to back down from something dangerous, “I’m not too concerned about Addyson.
She was the only lifeline my Old Lady had for years.
Apostle wasn’t there for her, and she had so much fucking weight on her shoulders.
She managed it all and the only person helping her was a tiny thing with a big attitude.
Addy is my sister and I would gladly walk through fire for her, for my woman or not. ”
He wasn’t saying it for recognition or even praise. He was saying it as a fact.
I don’t have to like it.
Fuck, I still don’t like it.
But I can’t say I don’t understand where he’s coming from. He feels like he owes my woman a life debt. And he feels protective of her.
I haven’t made peace with it, not yet. It’s possible I never will.
I’m not sure I can help it either. The beast inside of me has a need to claim Addyson; it’s unhinged and insatiable.
It’s what my woman brings out in me. There isn’t a damn thing this world can throw at us that I wouldn’t shield her from.
She’s strong and sweet. She’s caring and courageous. I’ll make sure those things in her, all glorious and wild, are never tainted.
And in return I get the sweetness she brings into my life. The lightness of it all.
I realize I’m grinning as I think of her and the way she blushed last night when we finally showed up for dinner. No one waited for us, which was for the best, but no one pretended to not know what we were up to.
We had only been sitting at the table for a few minutes when Rampage teased her, “Your ‘just been fucked’ hairstyle is really working for you, short stack.”
She happened to be taking a drink and choked on it. I glared at the man and considered slitting his throat as I rubbed her back while she coughed.
Her voice was hoarse when she admonished him, “His parents are sitting at this table with us, what is wrong with you?”
Unsurprisingly, Rampage only shrugged. He didn’t have a care in the world.
Frankly, I didn’t give a fuck about everyone knowing what we were up to.
Including my parents. No one was working under some misguided assumption of me still holding onto my virginity.
Trust me, the two of them slipping away when parties got wild had nothing to do with my activities and was all them.
Which I’m more than thankful for.
But, fuck, Addy was cute last night.
“That’s it,” I grunt and push back from my desk while starting to stand.
The knock on my door makes me pause. Needing to hide how hard I get thinking about my woman has me sitting and sliding back into place under the desk.
“Come in,” I grit out through my teeth, more than a little annoyed at whoever just stopped me from stalking out of my office and tracking down my woman.
The door swings open and reveals Sin. She’s wearing a thong and fishnet fingerless gloves which are long and go up her arms. As if they would replace wearing a shirt.
Okay. Yeah. I’m seeing exactly what my woman was trying to point out to me the other night.
Why would a woman, one who isn’t an angel, want to hang out here? When this is what they have to look at all the time?
I’m getting too old for this shit, and I definitely should have figured it out on my own. But, then again, that’s the plus of having an Old Lady. We need the softness they bring and the expectations. We need them.
“What do you want, Sin?” I growl the question and what should be intimidating seems to be an invitation to her.
She steps deeper into the room and pushes the door almost closed, but not quite. I want to arch my eyebrow in question, but I don’t. I keep my face neutral and impassive, watching.
Waiting.
She’s up to something and it becomes glaringly obvious when she purrs, “I thought now would be a good time to slip in and give you what you really need, what you’ve been craving.”
When she laces her fingers together in front of her, like she’s some coy maiden, her tits squish together and bounce a little as she approaches my desk. She’s cautious, but not nearly enough.
“I know you’ve been missing me,” her words are husky, but there’s a hint of desperation in her tone which makes this whole scene sad, and not even a little bit sexy.
“Sin,” I click my tongue and shake my head, “you’re making the wrong decision here.”
“No,” Sin breathes out. She reaches up and cups her tits as if that would be enough to entice me.
Maybe it would have been. Before.
Before Addyson burst through the doors of my clubhouse and changed everything. Maybe then I would have gladly slipped my chair back and made room for Sin to show me what she’s got.
The thing is, Addyson did burst through the doors of my clubhouse.
And my cock is not even a little bit interested in whatever bullshit Sin thinks is so enticing about her. It’s nothing I’ll be missing.
“You want me,” Sin’s voice is a plea. “You’ve always wanted me.”
“Things change,” Addyson slides into the room with a sigh, resignation in her voice along with embers that could turn into rage.
I hold my hands up like this is a stick-up and she’s holding a revolver and talking like the lead in a bad mobster movie. The corner of Addy’s mouth twitches as she looks at me before her focus locks in on Sin.
Well, fuck.
I can see this going badly. Very fucking badly.
Not that I give a shit about what happens to Sin. She’s continued to push boundaries and now she’s crossed the line.
“Mayhem,” my woman coos my name with a voice that has every part of me sitting up and taking note.
“Yes, Tempest?”
“What would you say about me instituting a new rule around here?”
Sin’s mouth falls open for a split second before her lips curl into a smile that looks like hard-won victory but is far too presumptuous. “You don’t get to make rules around here,” Sin says it like she knows best.
She doesn’t.
“I would say you can do whatever you want,” I answer Addyson like Sin never said a word.
Sin’s gaze snaps toward me, but I’m not looking at her. I can’t. Not with my Tempest in the room.
“You can’t be serious,” Sin gapes.
That has my attention. When I look at the club angel who has forgotten her place, my eyes narrow. “As if this little display wasn’t bad enough, you want to add disrespecting me, and my word, to your list of fuckups?”
Realizing the depth of her troubles, Sin goes pale as she shakes her head. She takes a step back from me as if it would be enough to stop the inevitable.
“I-I-I,” she stutters, “I didn’t mean that.”
“I’m sure you didn’t,” Addyson snorts.
Sin glares at my woman and it’s about all I’m going to take. When I stand up, Sin’s eyes turn toward me again. I’m about to lay into her and then kick her the fuck out.
Before I can, Rampage walks in like it’s his office and not mine. Which is wild because I know it’s mine.
“Uh oh,” he practically giggles as he looks between the women. “My god, Sin,” his voice is overly dramatic, “you need to put on some clothes. And I’m saying that as someone who fucked you like,” he pauses and tilts his head to the side slightly, “maybe seven hours ago.”
Addyson throws her hands up and exclaims, “Thank you! I was just about to take care of that little problem.” She lets out an exasperated huff and looks at me, “This is what I was talking about.”
“I’d say it’s a big problem,” Rampage holds his hands out in front of his chest to indicate giant tits.
Sin stares at the floor, trying to look small or go unnoticed. It’s not going to help her.
Addyson slaps Rampage’s shoulder with the back of her hand and bites out, “No. Rude.”
The big, bad biker, my VP, hangs his head and shoots my woman a sheepish as fuck smile. I’m tempted to shoot him right between the eyes.
The blowback would make a mess, sure, but that’s part of the fun of having prospects.
“I’m seeing it now, Tempest,” I assure her. She nods and purses her lips. “But her chances are up anyway.”
I’m about to call Ripper into my office so he can escort Sin to get her shit before being escorted off our property, but my phone and Rampage’s phone goes off at the same time. I pull mine out to find Duckie calling me while Rampage looks to see who is calling him.
We answer at the same time.
“Prospect?” He questions.
“Duckie, what’s going on?”
“Prez,” Duckie barks out, “I’m a little ways down from the clubhouse. You’ll never guess who is talking to Buckley at the gate right now.”
Well.
Fuck.
My eyes immediately go to Addyson.
“Got it,” I bite out before hanging up on my brother.
He’ll get himself into place to have an eye on the situation, of that I have no doubt. He won’t be the only one moving into position.
Rampage hangs up after grunting into the phone. He looks at me, his voice rough but with a giddy edge like he’s been waiting for some action, “Dirty cop is at the gate.”
I nod at him and then toward Sin, “Get Road Rage to escort her to her room, get her shit packed, and then out of the compound.”
“What?” Sin gasps like she didn’t make her own fucking choices.
I look at her and make sure she hears every word, “You stepped over the line. I know why you walked in here; everyone knows. No one is fucking dumb, least of all you. If you wanted to stick around, then you should have cut your losses with me, seen what Addyson brings into my life, and been content with what you had. But you couldn’t do it.
You wanted more. Wanted my patch.” I shake my head, my eyes boring into hers.
“It was never going to happen, and you know it. Now, you’re out because what you’ve shown me is how loyalty was a mask you wore to keep the party going. ”
Road Rage slips into the room before I’ve finished talking. He gives me a chin lift and winks at Addy before gripping Sin’s elbow. She tries to struggle against his hold, but it’s not going to do any fucking good.
He drags her out of my office, and I wish I could breathe a sigh of relief at one crisis being averted. But I can’t.
Because Wagner is at my fucking gate.
And I know why he’s here.
Dread slithers up my throat and makes it hard to breathe. I look at Addyson, the woman who has become my whole world and declare, “You’re going to sit your ass down right here until I come back for you.”
I might not be stupid, but that doesn’t mean I’m smart either.