Chapter Two
Eric
I winced as I lifted the box from the back of the truck, feeling the pull on my muscles as I carried it inside. As much as I wanted to lay out of work, I needed the cash, and the only way to get paid was to be here.
No matter what kind of pain I was in.
Finding the right pallet, I sat the box on top of it and walked back to the truck, working-out my shoulder in the process. The bullet hole was still there even after two months, and though it had missed anything vital, it still hurt like a bitch.
But the pain was minimal compared to what had happened that day.
Rubbing my hand over my hair, I grabbed the next box, my muscles straining as I carried it over to the waiting pile. If the other guys could see me now, they would laugh and ask why I chose to still work. I was the son of Grayson Barnes, the now banned member of the Devil’s Horsemen motorcycle club and currently on the run from his former friends. Luckily, not many people knew that about me, or I doubted I would be even be living at the moment. Everyone thought I was nothing more than a lackey following Grayson around, when in reality I was his only son, a product of a one-night stand. My mom, if you could call her that, was a bar hooker who’d had the unfortunate pleasure of running into Grayson Barnes one night.
Nine months later I had been born, and a year after that she had been beaten so badly by a ‘patron’ that she had died. I had been tossed around from foster to foster before Grayson had gotten wind and taken me in. Life with him wasn’t easy either, but he had told me to keep my identity secret from everyone else, and so I had.
I had spent my life, though, attempting to get into his good graces so that he would publicly announce me as his son. I had learned how to shoot, how to fight, and how to deal with the best of them. I had given him every ounce that I could, running the show behind the scenes under the pretense that he would one day start his own club.
Not steal someone else’s.
Blowing out a breath, I went for the next box. The night my had father decided to break apart from the Horsemen had been the biggest mistake of his life. Good men had died wanting to be part of something greater. ‘Sacrifices’ was what Grayson Barnes called them.
I fucking hated it.
And now…? Now it looked like I wanted to be part of the Brotherhood, the club that my father had elicited help from.
The Teutonic Brotherhood was a bunch of assholes hell bent on becoming some sort of elite race in Cibolo and beyond. Their dreams were reminiscent of Hitler and the German army, and the more I listened to them, the more I wanted to be far away from what they were going to do. Innocent people were dying because of the guns they were putting on the streets, and many more would suffer the same fate if their plans worked out the way they wanted them to.
“Johnson! You got a guest.”
I turned and saw my boss waving at me. I placed the box on the pallet before wiping my hands on my jeans. Johnson was one of the foster families’ last names, another way to keep me segregated from my father. I walked up to the office and groaned as I saw my father standing in there, his hands clasped behind his back.
What the hell was he doing here? Didn’t he know that he was number one on the DH’s hit list?
“Eric,” he said calmly, as if he were out for an afternoon stroll. “Why didn’t you come to the meeting this morning?”
I closed the door to the office behind me in case someone happened to walk by.
“I had to be here this morning.”
Grayson narrowed his gaze, clearly not happy with my answer.
“I expect you to be at my side when we are meeting with the Brotherhood.”
I blew out a breath. Work hadn’t been the only reason I had missed the meeting that morning.
“Are you sure that this partnership is a good idea?”
“A good idea?” he asked, chuckling. “Are you fucking serious? They are funding this operation of ours right now. Don’t you forget it, son.”
I swallowed, knowing the son at the end of the phrase was not an endearment.
“I just… they started a war with the Horsemen. Grant Travis isn’t going to rest until you are dead.”
“Hell, that was the case before we got in with the Brotherhood,” Grayson responded with a short laugh. “Where is your head, Eric? Are you in, or do I need to be looking elsewhere for my right-hand man?”
I wasn’t buying his bluff for a minute. Grayson Barnes had very few followers left after the shootout at the bunker, and I knew he needed me.
“I don’t like being associated with the Brotherhood.”
Despite his age, Grayson was still fast, grabbing the front of my shirt and slamming me against the wall before I had a chance to react.
“Let me tell you something, son. You don’t fucking get to choose who or what we are involved in. You got that? That is my fucking job, to decide what is best for business. It was me, not you, who made this decision, and if you are smart, son, you will hang onto every word I say, do what I say do, and don’t fucking question me again.”
He then released me, stepping back with a rue smile on his face.
“Don’t fucking miss another meeting, Eric, or I will not take it too kindly. You understand me?”
“Sure,” I said, keeping my anger under wraps.
What I really wanted to do was plant my fist in his face, but that would only cause trouble for me in the long run.
Grayson gave me a once-over before leaving the office, apparently satisfied that he got his point across. I raked a hand over my face before exiting as well, walking back to my job. He must have been really pissed to come out of hiding like that, just to yell at me.
Returning to my post, I grabbed another box. Why the hell had I gotten into this mess in the first place? For a short time, something had been going right in my life, the same something that had been kidnapped by the Brotherhood two months earlier, resulting in a bullet to my shoulder and some serious concern that she might shoot me herself.
Placing the box on the pallet, I allowed myself to think back to when Amy and I had decided to take our relationship up a notch.
***
“You were great! I can’t believe that I laughed at everything you said.”
I took a swig of the beer she had waiting for me, wiping the sweat off my face with a napkin.
“Thanks. I’ve been working on that set all week.”
Amy grinned at me, a beer in her hand and a pink flush on her cheeks.
“Well, it was fabulous. Why don’t you do this more than just this dump?”
I shook my head as I sat next to her at the table. Sure, I enjoyed entertaining a crowd, albeit a small one, with my jokes, but I didn’t want to be a comedian. This was a nice way to get my energy out, to focus on something else, other than my own shitty life, and now that Amy was here, it was all worth the time I had put into practicing.
That smile on her face, urging me, on was all I needed. We had been meeting here every other night. Sometimes I performed, sometimes I didn’t, but tonight I wanted to do something more.
I wanted to kiss Amy.
“What?” she asked. “Do I have something on my face?”
I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers, tasting the beer she had been drinking on her lips.
She gasped but didn’t pull away, leaning into my kiss instead.
I groaned and wrapped my arm around her waist, feeling the curves I had been staring at since the moment I had laid eyes on her. Tonight, she had nearly killed me with the midnight blue dress that showed off her lovely shoulders, a hint of cleavage beckoning for me to touch.
I wanted to do that and more.
Amy pulled away, her breathing harsh as she placed a hand on my chest.
“W-why did you do that?”
I chuckled, capturing her hand in mine and squeezing it gently.
“Because you’re stroking my ego. Any man would be a dumbass not to thank you.”
Her eyes met mine, and in them I saw reflected the heat that coursed through my body every time she was near.
“I don’t want just any man kissing me.”
My hand flexed at her waist.
“Can I be the man that kisses you?”
“Among other things,” she whispered, her cheeks flushing. “Take me home Eric.”
***
And that night I had. We had been damn good together in bed, but it had been more than just sex for me. There had been a connection there, one that had me rethinking what I wanted my future to look like.
And then the damn bunker shootout had happened, and now I didn’t know if Amy would even talk to me again. She thought I was part of the Brotherhood, there was no doubt about that. In truth, that was the last thing I wanted to be tied to, no matter what my father wanted. I had gone to the bunker that day for the meeting and ended up watching Amy and her friends, women of some of the powerful Horsemen no less, being tied to chairs. When I had asked what was to happen to them, the look in Richard Baer’s eyes had scared the shit out of me. He was going to kill them to make a statement.
So, I had taken a chance, one that could get me killed if anyone ever found out about it. I couldn’t be part of their deaths, innocent women being held captive only because of who they were with. Then all hell had broken loose, and before I’d known it, I was looking at a bleeding shoulder and being thrown into a truck to escape the gunfire.
Grayson had been pissed about the ambush, more upset that he hadn’t gotten one over on his former best friend than he was with the men and the weapons we had lost that day.
The Brotherhood had been pissed as well, but no one could do anything other than move on to the next bunker and start planning all over again.
Blowing out a breath, I thought about the look on Amy’s face, the disappointment she had made known. God, I hoped she hadn’t put it together that I was Grayson’s kid. Her father was the one who was hunting down my father, and after she had told me who she was, like a fool I had continued our relationship, knowing the truth would come out eventually.
I had to see her again. I had to explain my presence, though I didn’t know what I was going to say really that wouldn’t give my identity away.
Whatever it was, I had to say it.
I stacked another box, my mood sour from Grayson’s intrusion and from my thoughts about Amy. There was no way I was brave enough to approach her at her house, and she wasn’t answering my texts or calls begging for her to speak to me.
There was only one way I knew how to maybe reach her, and it was a stretch in itself.
But it was my only shot.