Single Mom’s Biker Brigade (The Forbidden Reverse Harem Collection #28)

Prologue Callie

Almost done. As far as Thursdays went, this one hadn’t been too bad. A couple oil changes, a rando guy trying to hit on me when I told him his tires needed to be rotated.

Nothing out of the ordinary and exactly how I liked things nowadays. I wouldn’t say no to more money, though.

Sweat trickled down my spine and the money stuck to my hands as I counted out the last of the bills.

“Mama, I’m bored.” Cody, my six-year-old boy and the best part of my life, stared at me from the cot across the room.

“Sorry, bud.” I lost count, the fives and ones nowhere near enough to cover what I needed for the month. Damn it. I worked my smile into place before Cody caught the frown and started to worry. “Maybe we can find a movie to watch when we get home.”

“I wish Miss Ashley hadn’t canceled.” He crossed his skinny legs and sucked on the almost empty juice box. Air and juice mixed into a slurpy sound that brought out a wry chuckle.

Boys. He’d have fallen over laughing if it was a ketchup bottle making a fart sound.

Oh to be young and so easily entertained.

Cody shifted his weight to one side and tossed the empty juice box into the black trash can. “Can I drive the Mustang?” He motioned at the old Ford sitting in the bay.

It had a rattle in the engine no mechanic could fix, but old Mr. Bray thought he could manipulate me into doing the work for free seeing as how I was a woman doing a man’s job and all that bullshit.

I pointed at the discarded workbook in his lap. “Did you do your homework?”

His nose snarled into a tight crimp that made his hazel eyes squint. “Yes?”

“Cody.” I used my best ‘don’t test me’ voice, and he sighed.

“I only have one question left, but it’s dumb.

” He slapped the workbook closed and kicked it off the cot.

“Who cares about someone called Josh having five apples.” Another kick sent his backpack sliding after the workbook.

His cowlick forced his hair straight up over the center of his forehead, and the dramatic backward flop twisted his Spiderman T-shirt across his chest.

I bit back a grin and concentrated on the money in my hands. “How about some real world skills?” I bundled the dollar bills into a stack. “See if I counted this right?”

He bounded over in a blink. “Really? Cool.” The second-hand sneakers I’d bought him a month ago lit up when he jumped up and down. He’d complained of his feet hurting last night, and the almost new pants already showed his ankles…again.

“We’ll go home soon as we finish this.” I tapped the cash drawer. “I thought we’d finish off the pizza.”

He nodded, his brow knitted as he concentrated on the money.

The sharp bite of smoke mixed with gasoline and the underlying stench of oil that I could never quite wash out of my clothes or scrape from beneath my nails.

I raised my head and scanned the room.

Fading sunlight cut in from beneath the foot of space where I’d left the bay door cracked open to keep air flowing.

Black smoke spiraled from the door midway between the bay and the office exit.

How the hell had something in the supply room caught fire?

“Cody.” I kept my voice calm despite my heart trying to beat out of my chest. “I need you to stay with me, okay?”

He looked up, concern tightening his features. “What’s wrong?” It took less than a second for him to turn and spot the smoke.

I instantly cataloged all flammable materials in the storage room.

Too many.

I should have counted the money in the bay instead of the office.

Only one door in the office, and it forced us directly into the hallway leading to the storage room.

No choice. I stuffed the money into my pockets and held out Cody’s hoodie. “Wrap this around your face.” I didn’t wait for him to follow my directions before I swept him into my arms. “Hold on.” He clung to my neck, his entire body shaking as I took off running.

Orange and black filled my vision as the doorway at the other end of the hall erupted in flames.

Someone did this on purpose.

I had no basis for the thought, but there was no way in hell a fire started on accident.

I was too careful.

And for one to start in the exact place that would trap me and Cody in the building?

Yeah.

That kind of coincidence only happened when someone wanted someone else dead.

And I’d made enough enemies in my life to be on several shitlists.

Heat scalded my skin with every forward step. Cody whimpered against my neck, but I couldn’t slow.

Every step forward brought us closer to safety.

The stench of burning hair stung my nose.

I shifted Cody to my hip, holding him with one arm while grabbing the doorknob and twisting hard.

The knob turned but the door stuck.

It should not have stuck.

I’d walked through it two hours ago with no problem.

Maybe the heat had warped the frame.

I took a step back, braced Cody against my ribs, and kicked the latch as hard as I could.

A groan of metal and the door flew open.

Flames licked the frame and crawled along the walls.

My face blistered as I ducked my chin to my chest and plunged through the fire.

One more room.

I took off at a run for the last door between us and safety, hitting it with my shoulder hard enough to send me flying forward into the gravels.

I landed hard on my right shoulder and hip while Cody whimpered in my left ear.

Throat dry and heart continuing to race, I scrambled to my feet and moved further away from the shop.

Flames engulfed every doorway, even the bays.

Definitely not an accident.

Engines thrummed in the distance, and my belly clenched at the familiar sound.

Seven years and my body still remembered that sound, causing a reaction before my brain caught up.

Stupid muscle memory.

A dozen motorcycles topped the low hill on the east side of my garage and rumbled from asphalt to gravel, parking in a long line far away from the fire and mayhem.

Seven years. Damn it all to hell. I’d managed to avoid the Iron Vultures for seven long years.

And at the first sign of trouble, it wasn’t sirens and fire engines that came to my rescue but men with hard faces dressed in leather.

Hawk swung off his bike first.

He’d never bothered with a helmet, and his steel-blue eyes snapped to me the instant his boots touched down.

The hard angles of his face, the trimmed beard, and the slightly crooked nose were as familiar as my own face in the mirror.

“Diesel, I want eyes on the surrounding buildings. Colt, get us a perimeter. Anyone else inside?” He held my gaze with zero emotion in his expression.

Colt stood behind Hawk, his hazel eyes going wide when Cody wiggled free from my grasp and landed with a scrape of sneakers on gravel.

I placed a hand on Cody’s head, not meaning to be possessive but making it clear that they needed to keep their distance.

All the boyishness in Colt had faded since the last time I saw him.

Still lean and athletic but hardened in a way that rattled me.

Faint lines fanned out from his mouth, and he ran his hands through his already tousled hair as he stared at Cody.

The newly weathered tan of his skin faded to a sickly shade of gray.

“I didn’t call you.” The urge to scream at them tightened my throat. They did not belong here in this place I’d carved out for myself.

Diesel kept his head turned away, his broad back filling out the club jacket.

He’d never stepped foot in a gym but built his body by hard labor and violence.

I’d seen it firsthand.

Long, steady strides carried Diesel closer.

He continued to stare upward at the roofline, his right thumb rubbing the scars on his knuckles.

He paused at the raven tattooed behind his left thumb, then resumed the motion. “Didn’t have to call.” The quiet gravity in his voice pulled at me, drawing me in with his strength and steady presence.

Cody clung to my leg with both arms, his chin ducked and body shuddering. Waiting.

My heart broke as I realized the truth. Cody saw the jackets, the tattoos, and the hard faces, and he expected violence.

Not his fault.

The one time he’d ever encountered a member of a club, it had been a loud and violent experience that ended with me shoving my step-father through our trailer door when he tried to grab Cody.

I almost told him it was okay, that Hawk and the others were the good guys.

But that would not be true.

They’d been good enough to me, until their bylaws forced me out because I refused to be property.

Colt took a step toward us. Hawk stopped him with a hand against his chest. “Do the job first.”

A grimace twisted Colt’s mouth, but he trotted off to do Hawk’s bidding.

“You need to leave.” I didn’t even try to lift my hand and point.

I shook too much for that to be effective, so I settled on keeping my voice steady and forcing down the sheer panic tightening every muscle into a coiled knot.

“I didn’t ask for this, and I don’t owe you anything.

” I would never owe them if I could help it.

Hawk looked me over, the ring on his right hand glinting when he took a step closer.

“We’re not here to take anything from you.

The garage is under our protection. Always has been.

” His head tipped to the side, the slight graying at his temples contrasting the darker strands. “Let me see your hands.”

I hid one behind my back. The other stayed on Cody’s head, comforting him the only way I knew how.

His sobs continued in a slow, agonizing sound.

He sniffled once and buried himself in his black hoodie, pulling his hands into the sleeves and chewing on the string as he drew the hood closed around his face.

My shoulders stiffened and my jaw set hard enough to make it ache.

There were no exits out here, nothing but endless stretches of road and woods.

I had no escape from them, and they knew it. “You don’t get to touch me. Or him.” I didn’t have to move to let him know who I meant.

Hawk’s gaze dropped from me to Cody. His eyes narrowed into thin, hard slits. “You have burns on your hands. If you don’t let one of us treat them, you’re risking infection.”

I hated when he did that. Why did he have to make so much sense while also making me feel like a heel? “I can take care of myself.” Current situation aside, I’d been doing it well enough for the last twenty some years.

“Perimeter secure. Police and fire department en route.” Colt jogged over to Hawk to relay the information.

Cody peeked at him from his hood and stopped chewing the string.

The arm he’d locked around my leg tightened to the point of cutting off circulation. “Mama, who are they?” He whispered it, but the sudden silence left by Colt’s comment carried his question across the parking lot.

The fire crackled behind me, occasional blasts of heat sending waves of scorched air over my skin and blowing fine bits of my hair into my face. “They’re the Iron Vultures.”

Colt moved away from Hawk, closing the distance too fast for Hawk to stop him a second time.

He dropped to a knee in front of Cody and crossed his wrists on his thigh.

Two feet separated them.

Anything less and I’d have pulled Cody into my arms.

“Hey, man. We’re not going to hurt you or your…mom.” He almost sounded like he choked on the word.

Wait. Had he not realized Cody was mine already?

Huh.

Maybe the club didn’t know everything about me and what happened after I left.

My skin prickled.

Colt’s face tightened, his expression going carefully neutral. “Are you okay?”

Cody shimmied out of his hood, pushing it down to pool around his neck. “We almost burned alive, but Mama kicked down a door and we escaped.”

Hazel eyes flashed emerald when Colt’s head snapped up. “You were trapped?”

“The door to the storage room stuck. The fire must have warped it.” My throat burned with the reminder, and I rubbed it, wincing as the burned skin on my palms peeled away. Maybe I should do something about them instead of resisting out of stubbornness.

Hawk and Diesel closed in behind Colt. Hawk had removed his jacket, revealing the matching black bands tattooed around his forearms.

The reminder of his status as the leader of the Vultures did nothing to calm my nerves.

He looked from me to Cody, then back to me. “Whose kid is he?”

There it was, the question I’d been dreading and avoiding all this time.