Chapter Eighteen
“Something’s gotta fucking give,” Zach said as he ran his hand through his hair for the tenth time in as many minutes.
Somehow, he managed to resist the urge to slam his fist down on the table top. A few hours ago, he’d removed the knuckle bandages for good and was managing pretty well. He was even able to ride without splitting the scabs, but his knuckles wouldn’t handle another bashing like he’d given them the other night.
“It’s like they’ve all just up and vanished,” Viper said as he lit a cigarette and blew out a long stream of smoke.
Zach gave up the habit years ago and didn’t miss it until times of high stress. And stress was at an all-time high with Mav still missing. The monster orgasm he’d had inside Toni had helped at the time, but he’d left her house hard and tense all over again two mornings ago and hadn’t been gifted a moment of peace since.
“They didn’t fucking disappear. They ain’t Houdini or some shit. They just went to ground. They’re laying low and we have no fucking idea where.” Copper rubbed his chin. “What I’m stuck on is the why. Why grab Maverick? What are they gaining from holding him?”
Rocket grunted. “To fuck with us.”
“Could it be that simple?” Zach added. “Just Shark getting his rocks off fucking with us?”
With a shake of his head, Copper tapped his index finger on the table. “But there’s been no demand for any kind of ransom. I hate to say it, but I expected they’d either ask for something or we’d find a body by now.”
Nausea rolled through Zach’s stomach. He was tired. So fucking tired. For days, they’d been tapping all their contacts, exhausting all their resources, and calling in every favor they’d ever earned. No one knew shit. Or if they did, they weren’t willing to run their mouths. And Zach, with a little help from Louie, had been very persuasive.
Each day, they’d received one texted picture of Maverick. And each day he’d had his ass beat a little more. He looked like shit, but not bad enough to be worrisome as far as his survival. Just enough to ensure he was miserable. How long would that last? At what point would Shark decide Mav’s survival was no longer necessary?
“I have a theory.” Jigsaw’s glasses sat propped on the top of his head and an open laptop rested in front of him. A sure sign the clever bastard was thinking. Good for the Handlers, bad for the Dragons. For the first time since Mav was snatched, Zach felt a small seed of hope growing in his gut. Jig was the smartest motherfucker he knew. If anyone could figure this shit out, Jig could.
“Spit it out, Jig,” Copper said.
“Think about what’s been going on since Mav disappeared.” He tapped the end of his pen on his computer. “We stopped collecting on debts. Rocket’s construction projects are on hold. We closed the bar and the gym. Obviously, we’ve suspended Maverick’s security gigs. Our women are nervous and being told to either stay home or we’re tailing them everywhere. Basically, we’re dead in the water. All business has been halted in favor of searching for Mav.”
“He’s crippled us,” Zach said. Jesus, when had Shark become such a force?
“Exactly. He’s frozen us in our tracks and completely knocked us on our asses. If we continue on this way for too much longer we’ll lose clients, money, business. He’s attacked us with hardly any effort on his part. And he’ll steal our club right out from under us if this continues.”
As he stood, Copper shoved his chair back so hard it slammed against the wall then clattered to the ground. “Fuck!” He kicked the downed chair, splintering off a leg. It shot across the room before landing with a loud clang.
No one cared. Even if they did, no one was stupid enough to tell Copper how to react.
“So, we need to go back to business as usual. That’s what you’re telling me?” Copper asked.
“I think so,” Jig said. “Shark wants a piece of our pie. Actually, fuck that, he wants the whole damn thing. We need to show him he won’t be getting it. At least not while we’re still breathing.”
Copper circled the table until he was behind Jig’s chair. He clapped the treasurer on the back and said, “Nice work, Jig.”
While the rest of the exec board discussed getting their operations up and running again, Zach let his mind wander to the implications of Jig’s plan. No matter how he looked at it, he kept coming back to one sickening conclusion: Mav was fucked.
“Hold up,” Zach said, resting his forearms on the table. “Not to shit all over this party, but getting back to normal is going to be like throwing a big fuck you to Shark, right?”
“That’s right,” Viper said rubbing his hands together in glee. “Gonna be sweet.”
“But if he thinks his plan failed, what’s to keep him from sending Mav back to us in chunks?”
“Fuck!” The expletive came from at least two of his brothers.
All eyes turned to Copper. It was shit like this that made Zach glad he wasn’t the one on the throne. Rubbing his chin again, Copper trod to an empty, unbroken seat and dropped down. For a few moments, he stared at the ceiling and then his shoulders rose and fell with the heavy force of his sigh.
“This is a war and Dragons drew first blood. We have to present a strong front. We have to protect the club. I’ll give it three days, but then we have to get shit running again. Both to stick it to Shark and because we can’t take the financial hit. Over the next three days we search for Mav round the clock in shifts.” He looked to Zach. “You make a schedule, Zach.”
Zach nodded. “I’ll get right on it.”
“I don’t care if we’ve talked to our contacts ten times already. Hit everyone up again. When the guys are on shift I want them looking in every hole and under every rock. When off shift, sleep. I need the men rested and sharp. If we haven’t found him in three days, we’ll reconvene before we open the businesses back up. Someone knows where the fuck Mav is, boys. Bring me that person and I promise you, they’ll talk.”
Zach almost shivered. It wasn’t often Copper got his hands dirty these days, but when he did, the results were catastrophic.
Two hours later, assignments distributed, Zach was on his bike heading for home. He was on day shifts, so he had the night off. Even though he hadn’t slept in almost forty hours, a restless energy zinged through him making thoughts of sleep impossible.
What he really wanted to do was bust down Toni’s door, tackle her to the bed, and keep her there until she forgot everything but how to scream his name. But that wasn’t going to happen. He needed to keep his focus on Mav and his club. Spending another night between Toni’s silky thighs would only make his obsession with her grow. And he just couldn’t split his time between a woman and his club.
Not now. Not with Mav’s life on the line.
The club needed him. How would he ever look any of his brothers in the eye again if something happened to Mav because his head was in the clouds?
Or between Toni’s legs?
~ ~ ~ ~
The moment Toni’s front door slammed shut behind her, she dropped her bag, kicked off her flip-flops, and unhooked her bra. She let the offending undergarment fall at her feet and then breathed out a sigh of relief. One of the perks of living alone was the lack of accountability to anyone. She could drop whatever she wanted at the front door and deal with it hours later if that’s what she was in the mood for.
The past two days had been trying. Whatever was going on with the MC and Maverick’s disappearance, it felt like there was a black cloud hovering over the entire town. Many of the Hell’s Handlers had still been in the diner, but only for a quick bite or coffee before they went out to search for Maverick or home to crash.
Each man’s body bore the stress of the situation. Baggy eyes, deep-set scowls, tense postures. Then there were the quick to enflame tempers. She’d stopped a fight that morning between some poor business man who’d been staring at his phone while walking and had plowed straight into Rocket. Hot coffee splashed all over Rocket’s leather cut and you’d have thought the clumsy man had launched an all-out attack on the MC by Rocket’s reaction.
When Rocket went for the terrified man’s throat, Toni had dived between the two. A stern glare and gentle shove backed Rocket off. A free coffee refill from Shell had the businessman out of the diner and away from imminent death two minutes later. Toni had comped Rocket’s breakfast despite his statements that it was unnecessary, and all ended well.
But it had been tense. As had the atmosphere in the diner for the entirety of those two days. Then there was the poor biker who trailed her everywhere she went. To make it easy on him, Toni brought him free food and coffee throughout the day and tried to limit her travels to the diner and home. She had this burning desire to do whatever she could to help and make life and more bearable for the Handlers. Even if it was something as simple as a smile and some coffee.
Worst part about the past two days had been the lack of Zach in her life. As much as she hated to admit it, she’d been searching for him in every face that walked into her diner. But he’d been absent. Working his ass off in the search for his best friend, if the chatter was correct.
Each evening she sat on her porch hoping he’d come home, but he hadn’t. And when she heard his motorcycle pulling in at all hours of the night, she’d been so tempted to make her way to his house and check on him, but something held her back.
And now, at the end of the third day, she felt extremely guilty and childish. She’d basically thrown him out of her house instead of handling their encounter like an adult. So they’d had sex? Big deal.
Though it had been the best two sexual encounters of her life.
Okay, that was a big deal, but still, she shouldn’t have freaked out. Adults had casual sex, even fuck-buddy relationships all the time without losing their shit. Maybe she could find a way to have a causal relationship without repeating past mistakes.
Her sex-starved body sure seemed to think it was possible. Just thoughts of Zach’s hard physique, skilled hands, and talented tongue had her wet and needy. And then there was that cock…
Damn him and his incredible body.
Now that she’d had a sample of what the man had to offer, getting back in bed with him was all she could think about.
Mark’s ringtone blared from her phone. She dug it out of her pocket and answered with a clipped, “Yeah?”
“Well, hello to you too, favorite niece of mine,” came the amused reply.
Her lips quirked. “Sorry, Uncle Mark. Been a stressful few days.”
“Well sweetie, you know what’s the best form of stress relief, don’t you?”
“Mark, I don’t need to get laid, okay? I already—” Oops. Her brain must be foggier than she’d thought, because there is no way she would have admitted that in her right mind.
“Oh, my God, Andrew!” Mark yelled, making Toni wince as his voice pierced her eardrum through the phone. “Toni had sex!”
“Seriously? What are you fifteen?”
Laughter was her only answer. “Okay, tell me about your new man.”
“I’m not telling you anything about, Zach. It’s my private business. Okay?” So, she may have sounded like a huffy teenager, but really, what woman, at any age, wanted to discuss her sex life with her uncle?
“You know I have my ways of finding out. You might as well just tel—wait a second. Did you say Zach?”
Aw crap.
“Your next-door neighbor’s name is Zach.”
Really? Why the hell did Mark have to go and remember that?
“He’s a fucking outlaw biker, Toni. Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how dangerous those guys can be?”
Are you trying to make the same mistake you made before?
He’d never say it, but the accusation hung heavily between them.
“It’s nothing, Uncle Mark, seriously. Barely a blip on my radar.” Oh, that lie was gonna come back to bite her. “Can we please talk about something else?”
“Shit, my work phone is ringing. Don’t think that means we’re done talking about this, missy.”
Toni laughed. Mark always called her missy when he was trying to move into parent mode. Unfortunately for him, he never quite got the knack of parental lectures. “Whatever you say, Mark. Love you!”
He shouted, “You too!” into the phone, then disconnected. But that wouldn’t be the end of it. He was as tenacious as they came.
Done with her call, Toni leaned against the door again and wished she could skip the walk to her room. She was just that tired.
A few minutes later, the growing rumble of motorcycle pipes chased away her exhaustion and had the ache in her feet shifting to an ache between her legs.
Zach.
It was the earliest he’d been home in days.
She could go to him. See how he was holding up under the strain of Maverick’s disappearance. See if he’d rip her clothes off and take her in ten different ways before morning.
“Ugh. You’re pathetic,” she scolded herself.
Pushing off the door, she walked across her living room and stared out the window at Zach’s dark house. After a few seconds, the light in Zach’s bedroom flipped on, illuminating him where he stood.
Toni gasped and jumped away from the window.
Did he see her?
She rolled her eyes. Probably not, it was still dark in her house. Slowly, she tiptoed back in front of the glass and stared transfixed as he prowled around his bedroom. There was a restless energy to him, like a caged tiger denied its freedom. He seemed like he was close to losing his shit.
As she continued to watch, he stripped off his shirt and stalked to the doorway where a pull-up bar hung from the frame. Ten pull-ups in and Toni needed to wipe the drool from her mouth. He was hands-down the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen. The way his biceps and forearms balled up then released with each up and down movement was a perfect representation of male strength in its purest form.
She lost count of the number of pull-ups he completed, but after a few minutes, he dropped to the floor and started on push-ups. Jesus, if she didn’t know better, she’d think he was doing it on purpose. Showing off the play of his muscles to drive her insane with lust.
About a hundred push-ups and a thousand sit-ups later, Zach seemed to have burned through some of the agitation he’d arrived home with.
He stood facing away from the window, stripping out of his shorts while Toni still stared at his perfect ass.
She should move. She had to move. Watching someone naked through their window wasn’t okay. Not only did it top the creeper charts, it was technically illegal.
No matter how many signals her brain sent to her feet, they didn’t move.
And then he turned.
Oh my God, he was hard.
Need slammed into her with the force of a tornado. Toni clenched her legs together, trying to ease the longing. Like that had a chance of working. After a night with Zach, nothing but his cock would do. Except maybe his fingers. Or, oh God, that tongue.
Her eyes widened and she gasped as he wrapped a large hand around his even larger erection.
“Holy shit,” she muttered, grabbing the frame around her window to steady herself.
For a few moments, he stroked up and down his length, his body growing tauter with each caress. Toni couldn’t have torn her gaze away if her house was on fire. He was just so captivating as he pleasured himself.
He released his dick and strode to his nightstand which was next to his bed and very close to the window. She had a perfect view.
Still naked and hard, he opened the drawer and pulled something out.
“What the hell?” Toni muttered. Then her jaw dropped and she gasped as an almost embarrassing amount of wetness gushed between her legs.
Her panties.
The ones he’d stolen after fucking her into oblivion with his mouth.
He lifted them to his nose and inhaled before fisting his cock again. This time, he rubbed her panties all over his shaft.
Toni couldn’t help it, this was the hottest, filthiest thing she’d ever seen. She moved her hands to her shorts and unbuttoned the top button before diving on down to her clit. It wouldn’t take long, watching his show had her so worked up she thought she might explode with just one touch.
When her fingers grazed her clit, she groaned. Zach’s strokes grew faster, stronger.
Then he turned his head, looking straight out his own window.
And he gave Toni the most wicked grin possible.
Hand in her shorts, she froze.
Holy shit.
He knew she was watching.