Chapter Eight
(Jax)
“But, right now, I just really need to go home. Can you understand that?” Chloe asked me for the hundredth time a few hours later when Jax finally woke up.
“Completely.”
“Thank you.”
“So, let’s go for a ride,” I said with a devilish grin.
“Home?”
“You tell me.” In one swift motion, I grabbed her arm and my helmet then pulled her out of the front door before she could object.
With the wind in our faces, we rode up to the foothills of the national park. My ribs and face still hurt like the devil but I knew Chloe was going stir crazy in the house. We both needed the fresh air.
I found an out of the way parking place. We got off the bike and decided to go for a walk.
After a few minutes, Chloe turned to me and asked, “Do I want to know how you got the shit beat out of you?”
“Probably not.” I shrugged.
“Is Roy still alive?’
“As far as I know yeah, but I can guarantee he won’t be using his balls anytime soon.”
Chloe paused and closed her eyes. Then she whispered, “He’s got ties to the Blood and Bones MC.”
“Yeah, I found that out the hard way.” I snickered.
“This isn’t funny!” she exclaimed harshly.
“Babe, I know it isn’t funny. There was nothing funny about what happened there at all.”
“Then why did you do it? Why did you risk your life going after a piece of shit like Roy?”
“Because you matter to me,” I told her simply.
She stopped and turned to me. “What does that mean?”
I shrugged. “I’ve been looking out for you for ten years now. I can’t just stop. Roy hurt you and I went today to give him fair warning.”
“But he hurt you instead.”
I shook my head. “No, Roy didn’t do this to me, the Bloods did this but I gave them as good as they gave me. Of course, five to one odds aren’t that great, so I came out looking the worse for wear.”
She raised her hand to her mouth in horror. “Five to one?”
“They weren’t very good at what they were doing but even still—”
“You could have been killed you damn fool!” Chloe scolded.
We continued our walk. After a few minutes, I asked her, “Do you know who the leader of the Blood’s is?”
Chloe nodded. “He’s a man they call Jumper. I don’t know his real name for sure but I think it’s Giovani Domani. I know I’ve heard him called Mr. Domani, just not sure it’s his real last name.”
I filed the information for later. I would have to ask Bruno about him the next time I saw him. For some reason the man reminded me of Antonio and I wasn’t comfortable with that.
We found a nice place to sit for a while, so we sat down and watched the afternoon turn to dusk. I turned to watch her in the fading light of the day and I couldn’t believe how beautiful she was.
She turned to me and blushed at my stare. “What?” she asked softly.
“You’ve grown up to be a beautiful woman,” I told her, then watched as her blush deepened.
Chloe ducked her head and her hair fell to hide her face.
I reached out to brush the hair away, so I could see her face. “Surely, someone else has told you that before?” I asked her gently.
She wouldn’t look in my direction and shook her head quickly. “No not really. I’ve been too busy at school to date much. I had to study hard to get through the classes and there was never much money to waste on other things. I had to get a job to help make ends meet.”
“So what were you going to school for?” I asked wanting to catch up on the three years, I’d missed.
“Well, the first two years I took general classes as I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go. Then I got into numbers. Do you remember math was always my strong point back in high school?”
I nodded. She’d been a wiz at Geometry and Algebra when I knew her before.
“Well, I thought about accounting but that was so dull, so I went one step further and checked out international banking. And I love it. All the different laws and banking systems are really fascinating. I’ve got less than a year of school left then I can go into an internship with a bank and after a couple more years, I can get a really good job anywhere I want.” Then she shrugged. “Between that and a minor in journalism I’ve kept myself pretty busy.”
“International banking huh?” I shook my head. “I never would have thought that would be an interesting profession. Me and numbers aren’t such good friends. I’m better off earning a pay check the hard way, by earning it.”
Chloe smiled. “Yeah, it’s not for everyone I guess. My mom never understood it either. Although, I did get her to invest in a retirement plan with good dividends.”
“Well, that’s something.” I cleared my throat. “I was surprised to find her still working at the diner.”
Chloe shook her head. “I think she’s afraid of moving on. Her life has been hard after my dad died. She didn’t want anything to do with the MC. She told Jumper she didn’t want his blood money and that she would take care of me and her on her own. We haven’t done so bad over the years. Oh sure, it was hard at first but once you got used to it, it wasn’t that bad. We got by.”
The guilt I felt dug deeper. “I’m sorry,” I whispered lowly.
She glanced at me then looked away. “What for? You didn’t kill my dad. The MC did that. That was the one thing my mom could never forgive them for. They sent my dad into a place that wasn’t stable and that’s what got him killed that night. That and the fact they sent him in there alone. He bled out after the beam hit him, trapping him in the basement. The cops think he heard the two other men fall through the floor and went in to see if he could help them and was trapped himself when he fell through the floor. They could see the three bodies trapped by the rubble but couldn’t get to them. The MC didn’t bother checking on him until the next morning and by that time he was dead.”
Guilt raged through my soul as I listened to her tale. Her father didn’t need to die. If I’d been a better man, I would have helped him get free. I should have helped him get free. He had helped me when I’d been trapped and when I should have returned the favor, I just ran away. I almost told her the truth then and there but she asked a question I shouldn’t have known the answer to.
“I’ll always have to wonder why he was even there that night. What was in that place that would have drawn the MC to it?”
Frowning, I just stared at her for a moment. “Didn’t the police find any contraband in there when they arrived?”
Chloe shook her head. “There were rumors floating around at the time he died but the police never found a reason for anyone to be there. The building had been condemned and abandoned for some time before that day. The MC always told my mom they didn’t know why my dad was even there. It didn’t help answer her questions at all so she was left with nothing.”
I looked away for a moment. So the MC never told anyone what they were storing in that warehouse? Well, that is interesting… I had to wonder where the moonshine they had stored there had gone? I’d seen it there myself just before the floor gave out and sent all of us down to the floor below. If no one ever found it, why didn’t whoever moved it find the bodies?
Then I had a thought I didn’t want to have. “What was your dad’s road name?”
Chloe shook her head. “The MC called him Dagger. I’m not exactly sure why but that’s what they called him. My mom always hated that name.”
I shook my head. I knew why they called him that. It was because when shit went down he was fast to draw his gun and a deadly shot but when the bullets ran out, he grabbed the knife he always carried and continued what he’d been doing. I’d heard the rumors about her dad and never put it together until now.
Something else I never put together until now was the fact the Blood and Bones MC let their man die that night. They were more worried about their moonshine than their man’s life. I looked away and let the rage inside me build almost to the point it burst through me at the results of things that happened in the past.
It was at that moment I knew exactly what kind of men the Blood and Bones MC were made of. No wonder Roy thought he could get away with trying to rape Chloe. He probably thought no one would call him on it.
My fingers curled into fists and I had to wonder why Jumper had allowed me to leave that damn garage this morning. He said he knew who I was, he knew I was a Black Devil but what did that mean? And why the hell did he look so much like Antonio? All I had were more questions when I should have had at least some answers.
I needed to talk to Bruno and get some answers. Then I looked over at Chloe. I knew I couldn’t risk getting caught with her in tow. If my own men found us together, they would look at me as if I had betrayed them. Her father might have been dead ten years but he was still a Blood. They’d kill Chloe and then torture me until I begged for death.
Tomorrow we had a job to do and then Friday was the vote. I had a lot to do before I could get any answers but I also had to protect Chloe. She was becoming more and more important to me and I didn’t know how to stop the feelings I had for her. My MC and her mother would never let us be together and I didn’t know if I could live without her in my life.
My eyes went to her face again, and in the fading light of the day, I felt mesmerized by her. The softness of her skin and the blush on her cheeks told me no other man had gazed at her in the same way I was looking at her now.
Her eyes had a question in them as to what I wanted from her but there was also a look that told me she knew exactly what I wanted. The two emotions warred with each other and it made me want her all the more.
I shook my head knowing she was the one woman I shouldn’t want at all. But wasn’t that the way of things? Didn’t we always want the one thing we shouldn’t have? Was fate so cruel to throw that up to us?
I leaned over and she didn’t move away from me like she should have. Was she as curious as I was right now? Did she want me as much as I wanted her? I was the one thing I knew she shouldn’t want, not with the way her mother felt about bikers and MCs. She’d grown up in that life and lost the one man she should have been able to count on. If her father had been alive then the two of us would never have met. He was a Blood and I was a Black Devil. We’d have been sworn enemies and always would be.
I leaned closer and when there was less than an inch between us, I whispered, “Tell me to go away.”
“Why?” she whispered back as she licked her lips.
“Because we shouldn’t be here, we shouldn’t be together but I can’t help myself. I want to kiss you right now.”
“Maybe I want that too. Did you ever think about that?”
I could barely hear her words but in my heart, they were as loud as a shout. I closed the distance between us and my lips brushed hers gently. A zap of electricity sparked between us. I felt it and from the look in her eyes, she felt it too.
I pulled away from her but she quickly wrapped her hand around my neck and pulled me back to her. Then it was her lips that covered mine. Her lips that pressed on mine. The power between us built up to ignite a fire in our mouths. I gasped and when I did, she thrust her tongue into my mouth. I quickly took over the kiss and we devoured each other.
Her hand tightened on my neck and the kiss deepened. All I could think about was how much I needed to kiss her. How good it felt to have her in my arms. I crushed her body to mine and I felt her shiver of excitement as we continued to kiss.
Finally, I broke the kiss and gasped for air. She wasn’t much better and it took us both a few minutes to breathe again. My heart was pounding in my chest. I felt a trickle of sweat roll down the side of my face.
“Oh, my god…” she whispered breathlessly.
I looked over at her and nodded. “Yeah, all of that…”
We both looked away into the quickly fading light. Soon, it would be completely dark outside and I knew we had to get back to the apartment.
Then I heard something that chilled me to the bone. There was someone walking nearby and he laughed. It was a laugh I knew very well.
Antonio. It was his chuckle I heard. Had he seen Chloe and I together? If he had what would he do about it? Had I just put her in danger?
Reaching out, I grabbed her hand. Putting my finger over my lips, I pulled her to her feet. Leaning toward her I whispered, “We have to get out of here quickly and quietly. There’s someone nearby that shouldn’t see us together.”
She nodded and with me leading the way, she followed me close. When we got back to where the bike was parked, I looked around the area before I allowed her to get on.
If Antonio had found the bike, he might have done something to it. He would have known it was mine and I didn’t trust that little bastard any further than I could throw him.
I looked back along the trail but no one came out of the woods after us. I had to wonder what Antonio was doing there in the first place and who exactly he’d been with. I know he’d been with someone. I heard more than just his footsteps on that path.
I rolled the bike a ways away before I started the engine. My start-ups were loud and I knew it. Antonio would know it too.
As soon as the bike started up, we were out of there. If he did manage to catch us, he wouldn’t be able to see who I was with. The night closed in behind us as I took us back to town.