Chapter One
“Bronx! Get your ass over here, man. There’s someone I want you to meet!”
Daniel Morgan had just moved to Longview, California from Manhattan, and while he’d just been Danny at his old motorcycle club, as soon as he hooked up with the Longview Coyotes, they had started calling him “Bronx.” He didn’t mind so much because it could have been worse; one of the guys kept calling him “J. Lo” when he first got there and he was on the verge of stabbing him in the throat. Bronx was a name he could live with.
He’d only been in Longview for a few months, but he’d settled in nicely. After his mom had died, there didn’t seem to be a reason to stay in New York anymore, and California was as good a place to re-settle as any. Some of the guys in his MC at home had suggested Longview and the Coyotes as a starting point. Bronx could have started over anywhere; he was a well-known mechanic and designer and his bike mods were some of the most sought-after in the city. When he’d decided to move, he’d sold his shop for the kind of money most outlaw bikers have to run guns or sell drugs to make. Because of his skill, the guys in the Coyotes respected him, even though he mostly avoided the illegal activity that made the rest of them rich.
But one thing Bronx couldn’t seem to give up was women. Since his mom had died, he’d been burying his grief between the legs of every woman he could find. He tried not to think about the psychology behind it too much; women had always been his weakness. But since drugs weren’t his thing and he hated wasting perfectly good money on gambling, he’d begun playing the pick-up game, and it had gotten worse when he moved to Longview.
The women in California were as beautiful as he’d always heard, and his reputation for being a rich bad boy had preceded him. Everywhere he went with Coyotes, another woman tried to tame him, tried to convince him that she was the one to help him settle down and start a family. He almost felt bad for them, knowing that it was never going to happen…
Almost.
Tonight, Bronx was at a BBQ at David “Dread” McKenzie’s house, and the yard was full of Coyotes and their wives and girlfriends. There were also plenty of strangers milling about, most of whom Bronx had never met. Before he left his house on the mountain, he’d promised himself that he was just going to hang out with the guys tonight and take it easy. He really needed a night off from being, “that guy,” and a summer BBQ with the boys for the club seemed like the answer.
But then, he caught the eyes of the person that Dread was trying to introduce him to. And he felt like all of the blood in his body stopped flowing in an instant.
She looked like she’d time-travelled to the party from a different era, like an actress from a madcap 60s comedy. Her soft blonde hair fell on her shoulders, and her huge chocolate eyes looked even bigger behind a pair of cat’s eye glasses. Her lips were round and full, and her cheeks pink. Her body was full and curvy, amplified by a black floral dress that tied around her waist. For the first time in longer than he could remember, Bronx felt nervous. His voice was trapped in his throat and he didn’t know how to force it out.
Dread waved him closer with a laugh. “Bronx, man! I want you to meet my baby sister, Mia! She’s visiting from Seattle for a few weeks.”
Bronx held out his hand to Mia, who scrunched up her face a little as she stared him up and down.
“You look like Thor. Both the actor and the god, I suppose.”
Bronx looked down at himself and shrugged. He’d heard that before; with his long blonde hair, scruffy blonde beard, and piercing blue eyes, he bore more than a passing resemblance. But somehow, hearing Mia say it… it made him feel like teenage boy who had just been told he was cute by the coolest girl in school, and he felt foolish.
“I wouldn’t go that far, but thank you. What brings you here from Seattle?”
Dread put his arm around his sister and gave her a gentle scrub on the head. “She’s a smart one, this girl. She’s in school studying climatology, and she came here to check out some of the weather centers in the mountains!” Dread was beaming with brotherly pride, and Mia tried to playfully shove him away.
Bronx couldn’t help but tease him a bit. “How did a lug like you end up with a genius for a sister?”
At the same time, Dread and Mia said, “Different fathers,” and then they both laughed. Dread gave Mia a gentle shove toward Bronx before heading back toward the grille. “Take care of her, Bronx! Get her a drink. Tell her to chill out. She never stops working!”
Mia forced a smile, and Bronx couldn’t stop staring at her beautiful lips. He couldn’t help noticing that she was so short; he could practically put her on his shoulder and walk away with her.
Now he felt even more like a moron. And Mia was just looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to stay something, anything. Finally, she gave up and started talking instead.
“So, is this Coyotes thing all you do? Do you run guns like my derelict brother?”
Bronx was taken aback for a minute. He wasn’t used to anyone talking so openly about the Coyotes’ illegal enterprises. Generally, he tried to stay out of it as much as possible, but more than once, he’d been forced to help them watch their backs when rival MCs came to town. For the most part however, Bronx did what he could to just stick to mechanics, mods, and the occasional tussle when necessary. But most of the Coyotes? Well, they already knew who Daniel Morgan was when he showed up to town. He wasn’t used to explaining his job to people, let alone a woman who was obviously smarter than him.
“I… well… I’m a mechanic.”
Mia raised a rounded eyebrow at Bronx. “Those are True Religion moto jeans. You aren’t just a mechanic.”
Bronx looked down at his clothes again. He never really put a lot of thought it what he bought or wore. He just wore what was comfortable. But come to think of it… yeah, those jeans had been pretty expensive.
“I can’t say I thought about the jeans much. But no, I’m not just a mechanic. I owned a pretty famous bike shop back in Manhattan. I did a lot of modifications for some well-known people. So yeah, I mainly just fix bikes out here now, but I’m skilled in other areas as well.”
Mia slapped her hand on her thigh and started laughing. Bronx hated this part, the part where they made the connection.
“Oh my god! I know you! You were engaged to that actress, right? And then she… Oh. Oh no, I’m sorry. I’ve never met anyone famous before, so I suppose I forgot that you’re a real person.”
Bronx nodded. He was used to that. Not long after his mom had died, his fiancé, an actress named Josie Graham, had cheated on him with one of her co-stars. It had been all over the gossip rags; in fact, Perez Hilton had known before Bronx did, which only furthered his desire to get the hell out of New York. Everything there was too full of memories. At least California offered a change of scenery, and there was zero chance of running into Josie in Longview.
Mia was staring at him like he was a wounded bird, which was a reaction Bronx wasn’t actually used to. Most women saw him as fresh meat, not a project. He wasn’t sure how he felt in either case.
“It’s fine. Really. The past and all that. So, how are you enjoying Longview?”
Mia shrugged and looked around Dread’s backyard. “I’m supposed to go up to the mountains to do some work, but Davey has been keeping me busy with this biker stuff. His house isn’t exactly in a nature preserve. It’s kind of… dusty.”
Bronx burst out laughing; both at the description of suburban Longview as “dusty,” and the idea of Dread ever going by Davey. Bronx wasn’t sure what came over him, but he found himself asking a question that was probably going to get him in trouble.
“Listen, my place is actually up in the mountains if you want to come up for a day. I have plenty of property and it’s really safe, so you should be able to do whatever it is… that you do.”
Mia chuckled, “That’s a sweet offer, but I don’t know how Davey would feel about it. And second, I don’t ride on the back of motorcycles. They’re stupid and dangerous. I’ve only been walking around here, as it is.”
Bronx rolled his eyes. “I have a car. I can come pick you up and bring you up there, then drive you home later, whenever you’re ready.”
Mia was just about to answer when Dread yelled from the other side of the yard, “Chow’s on!” Mia shouted back, “Hey, D! Do you care if I spend the day tomorrow at Bronx’s place to get some readings at mountain level? He said he’d pick me up!”
Bronx felt like he was going to puke. The Coyotes were fiercely protective of their family, and Dread was already glaring at him. But Mia had a clueless, giant smile on her face that said all business, so Dread deflated with a fierce scowl.
“Yeah, I guess. But… Just… Science, only. Got it, Morgan?”
Bronx saluted with a straight face as the rest of the Coyotes began to gather around to fill their plates with food under the watchful stare of the warm setting sun.