“Selene says you haven’t been sleeping at home.” Hollywood leaned up against his bike. We were at the rendezvous point, the same meetup spot we always hit on our Sunday runs. There was over half a million in guns and marijuana in the storage container behind us.
The buyer was supposed to meet us here five minutes ago. If he didn’t show in the next ten, Hollywood and I would have to hunt him down, and I really didn’t want to do that.
I raised an eyebrow and tilted my head to the other side, inhaling on my cigarette but refusing to comment on Hollywood’s implied question.
“You haven’t been at the clubhouse, either,” he added.
I cleared my throat and took another long inhale. My phone buzzed in my pocket so I pulled it out to check.
Alba: You’re a hit, Kaleb.
I laughed at the screenshot.
Look at all those horny little pervs appreciating my namesake.
“That her?” Hollywood nodded to my phone.
I clicked it off and put it in my back pocket, taking another long drag.
“C’mon, man, give me something.”
“You don’t have enough drama going on in your own life, so you gotta snoop around in mine?”
“I’m bored,” he whined, throwing his head back like an impudent child. “This Sunday run eats up too much of my weekend.”
“Get a hobby. Try a podcast,” I said.
He scowled but shut the fuck up when bikes pulled into the lot. These were our extended brothers from out west, the Ohio chapter of the Steel Roses. It was good to see them, and we did the deal the same as always. They backed their truck in. They loaded up. We took the money and stuffed it into our saddlebags. We headed home. End of story.
Except this time, we got about halfway there before I noticed strange headlights behind me, an Aston Martin DB11. In this part of town, it stuck out like a sore thumb. At first, I’d been intrigued. But they’d been there for a while, and when we took the off-ramp to head into our turf in Madison, they continued to follow me.
We stopped at a light, and I pulled up alongside Hollywood to flash three fingers at him, a signal between us that I thought we had a tail. He nodded, indicating he saw and agreed.
We split up.
The tail stayed on me, which made me more fucking concerned since I had the bulk of the money. I turned on a road that weaved through the woods and up the side of a mountain. I gunned it on the straightaways while the Aston struggled to keep up, especially when I handled the steep turns with ease. I’d grown up on these roads. I knew them like the back of my hand.
Plus, I was on two wheels and they had four.
With my heart racing and exhilaration surging through me, I cut left, taking another hidden road that jutted out of nowhere.
The tail handled it well, apparently no longer giving a shit about being anonymous. Finally, I got on a road where I could let loose, really hit the turns and open the old girl up.
Five minutes on the windy street and my stalker was so far behind that I couldn’t see them. I took a path that led me to a peak where I watched them from higher ground. They circled back on the roads, convinced I had taken a turn I hadn’t. Eventually they gave up and turned around to head home. Part of me thought about following them, but I had to get to the clubhouse to tell Slip and Thor about it.
When I finally made it back, Hollywood had beaten me by twenty minutes.
“You lose them?” he asked when I climbed off the bike.
I nodded and took off my helmet.
“You know who it was?” Slip crossed his arms over his chest, his hawk eyes focusing in on me as I shook my head.
“They kept up with me for a long fucking time,” I said. “I’m almost impressed.”
Slip nodded as Thor and Crow came out of the clubhouse to get my version of events. We walked inside while I repeated the details, the sounds of music and partying a familiar comfort to my nerves. We headed to the back so they could sit around the table while I rehashed the story.
“Could be the Caputi fuckers,” Thor said.
“Could be the PD.” Crow rubbed his fingers over his forehead.
“Not in an Aston.” Slip looked at me. “Keep your eyes open. Let us know if it happens again.”
I nodded. “Saint and Aris make it back okay?”
They had another run with the New England chapter earlier today.
“They’re on their way home now,” Thor said.
That eased the stone in my stomach. If it was just me, that was one thing. I was smart. I knew these roads. I could lose anyone if I wanted to. But I didn’t like the idea of anyone fucking with my brothers.
We talked for a few more minutes before Crow dismissed me and I went to the bar. Bear and Hollywood entertained themselves in the corner, random girls on their laps. A few guys from a visiting chapter sat in another corner, the club girls doing their best to show them a good time.
I debated hanging around for a while, but I’d meant what I said to Alba. I didn’t intend to fuck around while I was working with her, so what was the point? She’d texted me to say how much money we’d already made and how much more we could still make.
I wanted to go to her, and I was all fucked up in the head about it.
It had only been two nights. I shouldn’t be thinking about her the way I was. I shouldn’t get this stupid fucking flutter in my chest whenever I thought about sliding in between those creamy thighs. I shouldn’t feel like my skin was on fire any time I remembered how she tasted and smelled, how I desperately wanted to spear my fingers through her pussy and swallow down her moans.
What the fuck had she done to me?
“I don’t fucking care, Thor,” a girl said in a hushed tone to my right. I glanced up to see Thor and Selene standing at the far end of a darkened corridor together, as if hiding from the rest of the world. She had her arms crossed over her chest and he leaned up against the other wall, mirroring her posture.
“That’s a lie,” he said. “I’m your uncle. That’s how everyone sees it.”
She gave a sad laugh. “You were never my uncle. Not really.”
What the fuck…
I wasn’t supposed to be hearing this. Things had been fucked up between them for a long time, longer than I could remember. When Gemma was around, they were friendly. We were kids and Thor was in his twenties. But after Gemma left and Selene started bringing guys home, things got complicated.
Really fucking complicated from the sound of it.
Was I… supposed to deck my uncle for whatever this was?
Or was I supposed to stay out of it?
I cleared my throat, and both of them lifted their eyes. Thor straightened like his ass was on fire and stalked toward me, lowering his arms and nodding as he passed. That left me alone with my sister.
She raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
I wanted to ask. Every protective instinct I had wanted to berate her. But… did I really want to know? What if they were fucking? Would that change how I saw Thor? Would that change how I saw my sister? Ignorance was bliss sometimes.
“You okay?” I said instead. A better question, leaving room for open-ended interpretation on her part.
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “Why?”
I frowned. We didn’t lie to each other, not about the important shit. So either this wasn’t important, or it was really fucking important and she didn’t know how to tell me, not yet. I trusted my sister to say something if it got bad, so I dropped it. For now.
“No reason, I guess.”
She nodded at the keys in my hand. “Where are you headed?”
“Home.”
Now was her turn to be confused. “You’re not planning to make Fingers’s night?”
I laughed. “Nah, not into robbing the cradle.”
Selene’s cheeks flamed, and she looked away, rubbing the back of her neck. I acted like I didn’t know why she’d be embarrassed about me saying that.
“See you at home?”
She shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe I’ll get lucky. One of the New England guys is super hot.” She waved at him from across the room, and when I followed her gaze, he winked and grinned.
Clapping her shoulder, I shook my head and took a step toward the door. “Good luck. Be careful.”
“Always am.”
Another lie, but whatever. I had my own bad decisions to make.
* * *
I’d been about to climb on my bike when someone called my name from behind. My spine stiffened at the voice, a small groan of annoyance echoing from the back of my throat.
“Jer,” she said again.
I turned to face her, taking a deep breath. I’d gotten over Nikki. I didn’t feel a damn thing for the lying, cheating bitch anymore, but that didn’t mean I enjoyed talking to her.
“Hey, Nikki,” I said. “How’s it going?”
She sighed as she waddled closer, her six-month pregnant belly protruding from under a T-shirt that had once fit her perfectly.
“Oh, it’s going.” She eyed me up and down, a small smile on her lips. “How are you?”
“Fine.” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back against my bike. “What’s up?”
She shrugged. “Just wanted to see how you were doing. We haven’t talked since—” Since I did a weekend in lockup because of her. “Well, it’s been a while.”
“Over a year. How’s married life?”
She grinned and rubbed her hands over her stomach. “Honestly, it’s great.”
It should have stung, but it didn’t because my thoughts went to last night and how great I’d felt in Alba’s arms. I cleared my throat and shoved my hands in my pockets. “What do you want, Nikki?”
“Hollywood says you’re seeing someone?”
“Hollywood doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about.”
Nikki shrugged. “Who is she?”
I narrowed my eyes, apprehension slithering up my spine.
Why the fuck did she care?
It was on the tip of my tongue.
“I just—I hope she makes you happy. That’s all.”
I appreciated the sentiment, even if I’d rather swim through shit than talk to Nikki again. “Have a nice night, Nik.”
I swung my leg over my bike and stuck the key in the ignition as she took two steps back and frowned. There was guilt in her eyes, regret over the fact we’d tried so hard for so long and it still hadn’t worked out. Mostly because of her.
She turned to head back inside, and I kicked my bike into first and took off. I didn’t even have a destination in mind. Alba’s house. Mine. Nowhere at all. I just couldn’t stay there.
Inevitably, I ended up there anyway, at the top of the mountain on Mount Zion Lane, smoking a blunt while I stared at the view. I told myself it had nothing to do with Alba. Nothing to do with her at all.
I just liked this smoking spot.
That’s all, right?
Even in the dark, the outline of the trees gave way to the valley below. Technically, Aris owned all this land, even the garage and the sheds out behind it. But that was to protect the MC. Out in those sheds stood whatever the Roses needed to hide that week. Drugs. Arms. Money. At any given moment, they could be empty or full.
Eventually, the light from Alba’s front door caught my attention, and I resisted smiling as my librarian cam girl came closer, bundled up in a knit blanket, her hair in a messy bun on top of her head and her glasses perched low on her nose.
“What are you doing out here, you creeper?”
“Well, I’m creeping.” I passed the blunt to her, which she took, inhaling. “Isn’t it obvious?”
She chuckled and nodded back toward the house. “Wanna come in?”
I should have told her no. I should have broken this off and gotten as far away from her as I could. Tonight I’d been chased by God knows who and tomorrow, it could be worse. I could be alive this second, dead the next, and if she got involved with me? Her life would be linked to mine and to the MC forever. I thought of Alba pregnant with some other dude’s baby, all because I’d sworn her off and she had nowhere else to go.
But then my thoughts went to an image of Alba pregnant with my baby, a Property of KC tattoo on the inside of her wrist, one I kissed every fucking night after I fucked my old lady to sleep. Something hot and wicked went through me, and I wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her in close and ghosting my lips over her nose and forehead.
Stay professional, I reminded myself when I wanted to go for her mouth. This is going to end soon. This isn’t forever.
She’d said it. I’d said it.
I should go home. Get some space.
But that’s not what I told Alba. Out loud, I said, “Yeah, sunshine. Take me inside.”