Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
SAMMIE
“You don’t look so good.” Evie, my best friend since Mrs. Hanson’s sixth grade science class, examines me with her crystal-blue eyes.
“Viper was here today.”
Her light eyes widen then narrow. “Why?”
“The usual. Intimidation, bullying.”
“You know how dangerous he is,” Evie states the obvious.
“Nobody knows better than me.” I bend down and scoop up the broken glass with the dust pan. “I didn’t think he knew I was out. Figured he’d stay in Philly, but, of course, with my miserable luck, he searched me out.”
“You need protection from him.” She motions to the broken glass. “Did he do this?”
“Ohhh, no, that happened when I screwed Deuce, another badass biker, right here on the bar.”
“What?” Evie screeches.
“Yes, it looks like every lowlife within twenty miles wants The End.”
“Whoa, whoa, back up to the part where you screwed the other biker.”
“Seems my bad choices haven’t improved my decision-making skills.”
Deuce revved me up the first time he came to The End. Main reason why I shut him down, main reason why I ordered him to leave, main reason why I refused to tell him my name.
“How? When?” Evie stutters.
“Oh, just your typical day in the life of Cinzia Conte Moreno.”
“Slow the hell down and give me all the details.”
“You’d think screwing another outlaw would be the worst thing, but it’s not. If my research is correct, he just got out of MCC, and him and Viper got into a pissing contest because Deuce, that’s his name, is looking to revive the Kings of Anarchy in AC.”
“The Kings haven’t been around since just after we go out of high school.”
“I remember hearing about it from my father’s nefarious connections. Back then, the Kings had real power in the city, but seeing one up close and personal is another story.”
“And that’s the part I want to hear about—the up close and very personal.” Evie’s eyes widen, and I know there will be no putting her off.
“I was fighting with psycho biker, Viper, then badass biker, Deuce, barged in and threw Viper out . . . so, of course I felt compelled to fuck Deuce.” I stop sweeping. “I always envisioned the Kings as older beer-bellied degenerate criminals, similar to the guys my father knew.”
“And?” Evie fills one of the unbroken glasses with bourbon.
“Not the case with the former president of the Kings.”
I definitely wasn’t prepared for the muscled, over six-foot tatted biker who strolled into The End like he owned it already. His dark brown eyes, and jet-black tousled hair brushing the collar of his t-shirt—a worn, black, Harley t-shirt that fit him in all the right places.
“I want to hear every dirty detail.”
“To sum it up, we had a couple shots of bourbon, then I basically came on to him.”
“I’m sure he didn’t put up a fight with your bangin’ figure.”
In truth, I’ve always envied Evie’s tall, slim figure, and of course she wanted my curvy hips and the boobs I’ve had since sixth grade (and, yes, the boys noticed, namely Jimmy Thompson, who teased me relentlessly.)
Evie scrunches up her face. “Although, I have to say, those baggy jeans and stretched-out t-shirt do nothing for your fabulous body.”
I wave my hand over myself. “I dressed for cleaning, not seduction.”
“Go on,” Evie prompts.
“Let’s just say, he gives tall, dark and handsome new meaning. As in, roughed-up, swaggering bad boy with bulging muscles and a . . .”
“And a what?”
“His muscles weren’t the only thing oversized, and better yet, he knew how to use it.”
My mind drifts to his overall strength as he held me captive and overpowered me in the best way possible.
I can still feel his hands on me, his mouth on me and, oh god, his dick in me.
This veritable stranger I’d never see again wound me up in the best possible way.
Did that make me a slut? Probably, but what concerned me more was the never seeing him again, since I most definitely pissed him off big time.
“OMG, I leave you alone for two days and—”
“I can’t even blame it on Deuce because, to his credit, he tried to resist, but it was like my mind left my body for those glorious minutes of insanity. Glorious and earth-shattering, all the adjectives the romance books brag about came true.”
“After all you’ve been through, I can’t say I blame you.”
“It has been a while, but whatever happened with Deuce never happened with anyone else. Not even with stupid Blade, who I trusted, who I thought I loved, who betrayed me in the end.”
“You mean you finally . . .”
“Yup, and it happened—twice.”
“What?”
“Yup, Deuce knew what to do with his fingers as well as his huge dick, and it was amazing, just like you said.”
Embarrassing to admit, but ten minutes ago, I experienced my first ever orgasm, and it was even better than I expected.
“Good for you.” Evie embraces me in a tight hug like I’ve made some huge accomplishment.
“I guess you could blame my lapse in sanity with Viper’s unnerving visit, or the way Deuce tossed Viper out, but the fact remains. Viper was definitely intimidated by Deuce, which would make Deuce even more dangerous, right?” I ask Evie the obvious question.
“Viper’s just a bully like Bullet and the rest of the Dogs. They’re fine pushing people around until someone bigger and stronger comes along, then they back down,” Evie says.
“That explains the Dogs perfectly,” I agree. “Still doesn’t help my present situation though.”
Evie waves her hand around the room. “Although I have to say, aside from the broken glass, the place looks a lot better than it did a week ago.”
“Like I told Deuce, I got nothing but time.”
“You told him?”
“No.” I lower my voice. “You’re the only one who knows. Well, you and my PO.”
Evie’s gaze drifts to my foot, and I pull up the leg of my jeans. “Still there, monitoring my every move.”
We both stare at the prison-issued ankle monitor. The reason I got out six months early, the reason I can’t go one hundred feet away from the perimeter of The End, the reason I can’t sell to Deuce, the badass biker. Or Viper, the psycho.
Probably why I had wild monkey sex up against the bar with a man I hardly know.
“Didn’t Deuce see it during the monkey sex?” Evie asks.
“I purposely kept my jeans pooled around my ankles.”
“Is this Deuce going to help you clean the place up?”
“He wants to buy it. Something about bringing the Kings of Anarchy back to AC, but of course that can’t happen.”
“Did you tell him about the suspected money—or the flash drive?”
“Hell no. Bad enough Viper knows about it. Why do you think he keeps circling back? The only thing that keeps him at bay is my threat to turn the flash drive over to the police. A threat that holds a lot of weight with his record.”
“Did you find any of it yet?”
I shake my head. “But he doesn’t know that, so for now it’s working.” I wave my hand around the room. “It’s gotta be here someplace. Main reason I started cleaning up, hoping something would surface. I’ve looked all over the bar area. Under the ice bins and behind the shelves, but nothing.”
“Knowing your father, he probably hid it somewhere unusual,” Evie offers.
“Knowing my father, the money and the flash drive are another one of his lies.”
“I always liked your father. He was so funny, and very good-looking.”
“Ewww, please stop.”
“He is handsome and very charming. You look just like him—the female version, of course.”
Yup, wasn’t the first time I heard that comparison. Aside from being a different gender, my father and I were clones. Tawny skin, dark eyes, thick unruly hair.
“And he was way more fun than my boring accountant father.”
“With one big difference. While my father was out charming himself into his next disaster, your father was out supporting his family.”
“I love my dad, but your dad was exciting.” Evie eases her lean body onto the only stable barstool. “So you plan on seeing him again.”
“Who?”
“Deuce, who else?”
“Hell no. I threw his ass out after we did the deed.”
“Let me get this straight.” She twists a strand of her blond hair, a nervous habit she’s had since high school.
“Viper threatened you and wants The End, then badass biker Deuce comes to your rescue. He also wants to buy The End, which could cause a biker war, but then to thank Deuce for stepping in, you screw him.”
“Yup, you’re all caught up. Except I didn’t screw him to thank him. It was more like . . . one of those energy release things. Like when you’re all pent-up after a fight or how, after a funeral, people have wild, sheet-gripping sex.”
“Maybe in your family. My boring family just goes home and eats.”
“I’ll take your boring family any day.” Another difference between us. Along with Evie’s pale, creamy skin and my flawless tawny coloring, her father had a steady job while my father had a steady stream of deadbeats parade through our lives.
Our entire friendship, I wanted her more generic looks and white bread upbringing, while she envied my ethnic features and what she called an exciting life, proving the point that we always want what we don’t have.
“So, you really don’t think Deuce will come back?”
“Don’t sound so disappointed. The last thing I need while wearing a court-appointed ankle monitor is getting with another bad boy.”
“A bad boy who gives multiple orgasms.” She throws me a pointed look.
“There is that . . . but no. I threw him out, and his huge ego won’t be able to take the blow, plus I’m a changed woman.”
“Really?” Evie smirks in a very annoying way.
“From now on, I’m going to be calm and sensible like you. No more jump first, ask questions later, ass on fire, take no prisoners way of thinking.
“Sounds very boring.”
“It sounds just like you.”
“Right,” Evie agrees. “And every sensible friend needs a crazy-ass bitch in her life, and you’re mine. So don’t you dare change.” She envelops me in another hug, and I let her, then a big fat tear slides down my cheek.