CHAPTER 17

Zara

“Okay, I’m ready to head out. What are you going to do all day? Won’t you get bored just sitting around, watching me work?”

He pulled me against him and pressed a kiss to my temple that never failed to melt my insides.

“I can think of a lot of worse ways to spend my day than staring at your sexy ass working.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure, right. I’m serious, Mac. What are you going to do all day?”

Because if he planned to simply sit there staring at me all day, I’d lose my damn mind before lunch.

“I’ll probably spend at least half the damn day on my phone sorting various things out. And I’ve got paperwork for the gym to do, lesson plans to write. But my main mission today is to make sure you stay safe, so mostly I’ll be staying in the shadows, making sure no one tries anything with you. Or Marie.”

I gave him a nod as I broke out of his hold to grab my handbag. That sounded like one hell of a boring day for the poor man, but who was I to argue? I made my way downstairs, and taking my hand, Mac took the lead as we headed outside. He brought me to his bike and I winced when he handed me my helmet.

“What’s that look for? Didn’t you like the ride the other night?”

“Oh, I liked it. Way too much to be doing it on the way to work.” I mumbled the last part, but he still heard me if the very satisfied male-sounding chuckle was any indication.

“You’ll be fine, bunny.”

Minutes later we were roaring down the road toward Marie’s with me trying really hard to not focus on either the very pleasant feeling vibrations coming from beneath me, or the very fine man I was sitting pressed up against. Not sure how successful I was at either task, as by the time I got off his bike, my legs were feeling a little weak at the arousal that coursed through me. Damn man.

Without saying a word, I took my helmet off and handed it to Mac to deal with. Then, when he gave me a smirk and a shake of his head, I stormed off toward Marie’s front door. I headed straight for the back room, where I dumped my bag and did a hair check in the mirror. While I did a quick re-do of my pony-tail Marie poked her head in.

“You okay, sugar? You had this thunderous expression when you came in.”

I gave her a grin. “Oh, that was just because Mac was being a tease. I’m fine. Thanks for coming over yesterday, it was nice to just sit down and chat.”

She smiled. “It was nice.” Her gaze narrowed on me as she ran it over me. “Would have preferred to be meeting up to shoot the breeze with you, rather than checking how wounded you are.”

I winced. “You and me both.”

Marie had released her hold on my face as I spoke and now she pulled me in for a tight hug. “Still think you should be in bed resting up, but I need the help so I’ll just shut up and make sure you don’t push yourself too hard today.”

“I promise I’ll let you know if I start feeling ill, or super tired.”

She nodded. “Good. Now, c’mon, sugar. We got work to do.”

With a smile, I followed her out to the cafe, to start my work day. It was about two hours later when Scout came barreling into the place like his ass had caught fire and we had the only water in town. His fierce gaze quickly found both Marie and me before he strode over to where Mac was leaning against a wall near the back of the place. Scout leaned in close to Mac’s ear and said something that had my man frowning deep enough I could clearly see the expression from across the room.

“Sugar, how about you take these coffees over to the boys and have a break? See if you can find out what’s got their panties in a twist this time.”

With a nod, I absently took the tray from Marie and headed over to them. I set the drinks on the table nearest them before I said anything.

“Mac? Scout? Why don’t you sit down and have a drink?”

I frowned when Scout grabbed Mac’s arm, halting him when he went to move toward me. He growled something about “club business”. Mac responded with something about learning from past mistakes. I stayed silent as they glared at each other for a while, then just when I was about to go back to Marie, Scout released his hold with a sigh and they both came over. Mac held a chair out for me to sit in, then both men seated themselves and reached for their coffees.

“For the record, I don’t like this shit.”

Mac raised an eyebrow at Scout. “You want a repeat of what happened with Silk because of old traditions about who gets to know club business?”

Scout shocked a gasp out of me when he actually growled at Mac. “It keeps the women safe if they don’t know shit. They can’t rat us out if they don’t fucking know anything.”

“I’m not saying we start airing every damn thing. But stuff that’s relevant, that affects someone’s safety–no matter if they’re a prospect, old lady or daughter of the club–they should be told about it.”

I sat sipping my coffee, wondering if I should leave them to their argument. “Would you like me to give you two a few minutes?”

While still staring at Scout, Mac reached over and wrapped his large palm around my forearm. Okay, guess I wasn’t going anywhere then. This scary silence was worse than the arguing. With a sigh, I spoke up again.

“Any word on Sledge? I’d certainly feel better knowing he wasn’t roaming the streets.”

With a huff, Scout readjusted his bandana and scanned the cafe. No one was anywhere near us. “Sorry, darlin’ he’s still on the loose. However, we did work out how he got free.”

I carefully put my coffee down before I turned my full attention to the Charon president. “And how was that?”

“Seems we have a rat problem. Well, us and Satan’s Cowboy’s both.”

“Rats?” I frowned as my gaze flicked between the two men. I needed to find a book or something that would teach me this biker code they seemed to speak all the damn time.

Mac’s palm stroked up and down my arm before he spoke. “A rat, as in someone who was one of us but was betraying us to someone else.”

“Ah. Okay. Was I right? Was it whoever was missing?”

Scout shook his head with a low curse. Mac grinned proudly as he spoke. “Told you she had it figured out.”

The president turned a serious expression on me. “We went over the video feeds from cameras hidden around the clubhouse. No one but me and Keys know where the fuckers are. Actually, it wouldn’t surprise me if Keys added some even I don’t know about. The paranoid bastard put so much security on accessing the feeds, it took a while to get to it. Then some more time to go over it all but we’ve now managed to piece together most of what went down both last night and this morning.”

I stiffened until Mac moved to lace his fingers in with mine, giving me a squeeze.

“We know Em sold you out. But I don’t think she realized what the fuck she was getting involved with. It was the Satan’s Cowboy’s prospects that killed our boys, and we assume Em. No cameras outside the fence line. Although, I’m sure Keys has that covered now. It was also one of those prospects that fucking busted Sledge out this morning.”

I frowned, again, as my mind reeled with the details. “How’d he manage that on his own?”

“He had help. Two of the club whores were with him.”

At Scout’s words, Mac flinched and suddenly couldn’t look me in the eye. He tried to pull his hand away but I tightened my grip, not letting him. “What does that have to do with you?”

Scout answered my question when Mac stayed silent, grinding his jaw.

“Because the two whores are ones known for liking Mac’s cock.”

The crude language had me wincing but before I could react to the information, Mac cursed and rose up from the table, jerking free from my hold on him, before he stormed off outside. What the fuck?

“I’m not sure I understand what just happened.”

I didn’t think Mac had cheated on me with one of them. He wasn’t that sort of man. But our relationship was so new, and we’d gotten together under pretty extreme circumstances. So, I could be wrong.

“The stupid bitches were jealous of you and wanted you gone so Mac would go back to using them. Mac seems to think that makes this shit his fault.”

I rubbed my chest. That hurt. I knew Mac hadn’t been celibate before meeting me but still, listening to Scout talk about him screwing whores hurt. “Why are you telling me all this again?”

“Because we kept information from Eagle and Silk and it nearly got her killed. More than once. Mac seems to think if you know who’s gunning for you, you’ll be safer.”

Clearly Scout didn’t agree. At least not fully. With a small nod, I rose from the table. This was all too much to process.

“I gotta get back to work.”

Without looking back, I went behind the counter and started giving the coffee machine a cleaning. One, it, no doubt, didn’t need. I couldn’t believe the mess my life had become. And I knew it was only going to get worse. Especially, since I apparently wasn’t safe at the clubhouse like everyone had promised me.

Mac

I stormed around to the cafe’s parking lot, where I started pacing. I’d brought Zara to the clubhouse to be safe. Instead it’d put her in more danger. Because of me and my fucking cock. Fucking whores. They knew the score. At least, they were supposed to know the score. And that was, that they were there to ease the brothers’ needs. Not get fucking attached to any one of us. Dammit! And I’d stormed out before Scout could tell me what had happened to the bitches. I needed to be sure they were gone from the clubhouse before I took Zara back there.

I scrubbed my hands over my head. It really was past time I bought a house. I wasn’t a prospect anymore, and didn’t have to live at the clubhouse. Maybe something near Eagle and Silk? The club could work on buying all the houses on that little dead-end street they lived on, and create a mini gated community for club brothers and their old ladies. It would be easier to keep everyone safe that way.

My phone ringing ended that line of thought, especially when I saw it was from a private number. There were few possibilities of who would be calling me from an unlisted number, none of them someone I wanted to speak with.

“What?”

“Jacob Miller, you are a hard man to get hold of.”

Mr. Smith. Our FBI contact was at the top of the list of who I’d guessed would be calling. And the reason I answered the damn call. I’d heard stories of how the feds would come arrest their undercovers if they went silent on them. That was the last fucking thing I needed right now.

“I can’t talk right now.”

“Oh, I think you can. You are, after all, all on your own, pacing around a parking lot. Is there a reason you haven’t been keeping me updated with the club’s activities?”

My hand tightened on my phone as I pondered how to answer without just telling him to fuck off. I was pretty sure that wouldn’t go over well. When I heard a crack, I eased up the pressure. Breaking my phone wasn’t going to help any.

“Any reason why you’re spying on me?”

“I needed to talk to you, so I simply watched you until you were alone. You, Mr. Miller, are not alone much these days. Now, I’ve answered your question, how about you answer mine?”

I moved to lean against the back wall of the cafe, where I could keep an eye on anyone approaching. I did not want this conversation overheard.

“What activity in particular are you wanting to know about?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. You won’t like how that ends. I’m talking about the little trip the Charon MC made down south in the early hours of last Saturday morning. How you have one Ms. Claire Flynn in your custody, yet didn’t inform me about it. You need to turn that girl over to us. We’ll take very good care of her, I assure you.”

I counted to ten, trying to stay fucking calm, when what I really wanted to do, was to figure out where he was watching me from, go there and pound him into the ground.

“Not sure I trust the FBI with an actual person, Mr. Smith. Considering how fast the L.A. mob knew about the information we gave you, I wonder how long it would be before the Iron Hammers knew about you having Claire? And how long until someone got to her and took her out? She’s safe where she is.”

“We could simply come into that cafe and arrest her, you know.”

That was a good point. “Then why haven’t you?”

“Because we don’t want to lose you boys as assets.”

I scoffed at the idiot. “Should have thought about that before you leaked that info to the mob, then. It left a bad taste in our mouths.”

“Yes, that was unfortunate. The FBI is not unlike any other organization. We have our disloyal members. I believe you’re familiar with that?”

It took all my willpower to not growl out loud. “Sounds like you know everything without my help. Not sure why you’re even talking to me. Cut the shit and tell me what you really want, since you know I won’t hand over my woman to you.”

“Ah, so she is warming your bed. Good. I need you to tell me everything she’s told you about the Iron Hammers. And about the work her father was doing.”

I froze at that reference. “What has her father got to do with anything? He was murdered by the Iron Hammers three years ago, along with her mother.”

Sure, after Zara told me about the murders I’d started to wonder about the possibility that her father may have been up to something involving the club, but it wasn’t a priority to work that shit out. He was dead and buried. Finding and eliminating Sledge was my number one priority right now. Well, that was my number two. My first priority was keeping Zara safe.

“You are not that naive, Jacob. Or that stupid. I need you to use Claire to dig into her father’s dealings. There’s a link there between him and the club.”

“Why don’t you question the prospect that went away for his murder?”

“We did. He didn’t know anything about the crime. He was a scapegoat the club used, nothing more.”

I got the impression Mr. Smith knew more than he was telling me. But I also knew he wasn’t going to tell me whatever it was, so I didn’t bother trying to get him to.

“I can try, but Claire doesn’t know anything. She still believes that it was a robbery gone wrong that got her parents killed.”

“I very much doubt that. A robbery where nothing at all was taken? Not even jewelry? And where the getaway vehicle is a bike? She can’t be that stupid.”

“Trauma and grief will allow the brain to believe all sorts of things, Mr. Smith.”

He sighed into the phone. “Get me something, or we’ll be forced to pick her up and get the information ourselves. Understand?”

At that I did growl, unable to hold back my anger. “Don’t you ever threaten my woman.”

“Mr. Miller, I am not threatening anyone. Just giving you some facts. Goodbye.”

I hung up the phone and nearly tossed it across the parking lot. Fuck! Forcing myself to pocket the phone before I gave in to temptation smash the thing, I started looking around for something I could fucking hit. I needed to vent in a bad fucking way, but there was nothing for me to channel it at.

“How about you head up to the gym and I’ll take Zara home?”

I spun to see Scout coming toward me with Zara walking beside him. My gaze landed on her and refused to leave. She was so fucking gorgeous. And innocent. So fucking innocent in all of this. And she looked a little shell-shocked, making me wonder if maybe Scout had been right and we shouldn’t have told her so much about what was going on. But, dammit, she needed to know that the whores at the clubhouse weren’t loyal, that we had some rats that we needed to clean out. I winced. Technically Eagle, Taz and I were rats. Really fucking bad ones because we hadn’t told the feds one single thing about the Charons yet.

I ran my gaze over her face and noticed her skin was more pale than normal. She loved her parents. What would it do to her if we found out her father was a piece of scum like Sledge? It would fucking destroy her. How the fuck was I going to do this without actually involving her?

“I’m not leaving her side, Scout. We got anyone downstairs I can work out with?”

With a chuckle, Scout shook his head. “Sorry, brother. Cowboys took the others with them.”

Zara cleared her throat, cutting Scout off. “I can go to the gym with you. Work out for a bit, while you do your thing.”

I nod. “That’ll work. Let’s go grab our gear and head over there. What happened to the women?”

I needed to know they wouldn’t be waiting at the clubhouse when we returned later. “They haven’t been stupid enough to show their faces yet. The prospects on the door know what to do with them if they do show up.”

I gave Scout a nod. “Good. C’mon, babe.”

I held out my hand and she came straight to me, no hesitation.

“I’ll leave you to it then. I’ll catch you both later.”

Scout went to his ride and headed off as I tucked Zara under my arm and led her over to my bike.

“You know, how I said I couldn’t remember everything that happened while the Iron Hammers had me? Well, I just remembered something.”

I paused in the process of getting out her helmet to look over at her. “What’d you remember?”

“When I was cuffed to the bed, I told Sledge that I hadn’t made my report to the police official. That I wasn’t going to, so there was no reason for him to hurt me. He responded that I’d caused enough trouble already and I was going to pay for it on my back. But he also said something about my dad. He said it’s especially sweet after what your pops did. Then earlier you were talking about their murders, now I’m wondering if there isn’t something more to it.”

I forced myself to move, to hand her a helmet before I spoke. This was the perfect opportunity. “It’s probably worth looking into.”

With a huff, she put the helmet on and buckled it. “I have no idea where to start. Would be easier if we could just beat it out of Sledge, huh?”

She gave me a smirk as she tried to joke but I couldn’t muster even a smile at the moment. She slid up against me, rubbing her soft body against mine as she leaned up to cup my face in her palms. “What’s wrong, babe?”

“I’m worried about you, about how you’ll handle whatever dirt we dig up on your father.” I leaned down and kissed her before she could respond, not wanting her to respond.

“C’mon, bunny. Let’s get moving.”

Zara

By the time we got back to the clubhouse after spending time at the gym it was well past dark. I snuggled into Mac’s side as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder when we came into the main room. Though there were people all over the place, it wasn’t as loud or noisy as last night. But it was clearly party time. Jake, or I guess it was Bash now, was sitting in one of the booths with a woman on each side of him. He was kissing the hell out of one, while the other was working to get his jeans undone. Heat raced over my cheeks when she pulled his dick out and lowered her mouth to suck on it. Guess this was his party for his new road name, so he didn’t have to do any prospect work tonight.

“You don’t need to be looking at another man’s cock, bunny.”

“Trust me, it wasn’t intentional. Looks like he’s not so bashful anymore.”

That got a chuckle out of him as he guided me over to the bar. We’d both had showers back at the gym, but I’d only had my work clothes to change into. “Mac?”

“Yeah, babe?”

“I’m just gonna run up and change out of my work stuff, ‘k?”

He pulled me around and kissed me, hot and heavy like always. He pulled back with a grin as I stayed where I was, trying to get my brain to re-engage.

“Hurry back.”

He gave my ass a tap when I turned to go. I rolled my eyes at him over my shoulder, before I jogged up the stairs. When I got to the room, I didn’t get changed right away. I went and sat on the edge of the bed, before flopping back to stare up at the ceiling. Mac hadn’t spoken another word about my dad, the Iron Hammers, or the traitors within this club since we left Marie’s parking lot. Didn’t change the fact it’s pretty much all I’d thought about since then. Well, except for when Mac was sparing with Taz. No red-blooded woman was going to be able to ignore those two hot, inked-up men shirtless, sweaty and knocking each other around the ring.

But I didn’t have the luxury of focusing on that right now. I needed to work out a way to find out what my father had been doing before his death, and hopefully that would lead us to wherever Sledge was hiding out. I also needed to figure out where I stood with the cops. Because to sort out anything to do with my dad, I was going to have to visit my place in Galveston and go through the boxes from my dad’s office that I really should have gone through before now, but had always found a reason to put off. I’d even been too much of a coward to box it all up. I’d gotten a moving company to pack up the whole house and all the boxes were cluttering up my small place.

I had gone through a lot of the boxes over the past three years. I’d barely been able to move around my apartment with them all in there to start with, so it was kind of a necessity. But I hadn’t touched any of the ones from their bedroom or his office. Looked like I was going to have to suck it up and go through them now.

The last thing I needed when I did go down to get them was to be picked up by the police and put in lock-up. I wasn’t sure exactly what happened the morning I was rescued, whether the Iron Hammers got wiped out completely or if there were still enough of them left that wanted to come after me. Because Mac had been right earlier–clearly Sledge was after me for a more personal reason than what I’d said after the shooting, and now I remembered him mentioning my dad, it seemed that was a good place to start looking.

A soft knock on the door had me pulling myself up from the bed and going over to it.

“Who is it?”

I called out before I opened it. Saturday night was too fresh in my mind for me to blindly trust the unknown person on the other side of Mac’s door.

“It’s Silk. On my own. Let me in?”

I flicked the lock and opened up the door. “Hey.”

Silk came at me, forcing me back into the room as she wrapped me in a hug.

“I am so fucking sorry, Zara!”

Feeling totally out of my element, I patted the woman on the back. “It wasn’t your fault, Silk. Any more than it was Mac’s.”

She pulled back, and holding my shoulders, ran her gaze over me from head to foot. Between working out and showering at the gym, my make-up was non-existent, so Silk could see all the bruising on my face. And since she hadn’t been around yesterday, this was the first time she was seeing it.

“Damn, they did a number on you, huh? How are you feeling, really?”

I pulled free of her grip and headed to my suitcase. “I’ll be fine. I was only knocked around a little. It looks worse than it feels. You here for the party?”

“I’m here because I had to work all day yesterday so I couldn’t make it over to check on you, and I’m worried about you. I did not come here to watch Jake–sorry, Bash–getting groped by whores all night long.”

I grinned at that.

“Gotta see the funny side to it, though. They name the guy Bash because he’s bashful, and he celebrates by screwing whores all night. Not real bashful behavior.”

Silk barked out a laugh. “I did wonder how they came up with Bash. Eagle wouldn’t tell me. Bastard.”

“I doubt Jake will want people to know the why. It’s kind of Mac’s fault. He was teasing the kid when Bulldog came in and overheard. It all snowballed from there.”

I started pawing through my clothes. Where the hell were my jeans?

“That’d be right. Sounds like my uncle. What are you looking for?”

“Something to wear downstairs. Preferably jeans.”

I finally located them and tossed them onto the bed as Silk laughed. “Make the most of wearing them. If Mac’s anything like Eagle, he’ll keep at you until all you wear is short skirts.”

With a raised brow, I looked over at Silk, who was wearing jeans and didn’t look like a short skirt kinda girl.

“Oh, while I’m pregnant I’m wearing jeans. That man doesn’t get to throw me up against walls to fuck me when I puke with any sudden movement. And he’s learned already not to argue with a pregnant woman. This gig does have a few perks.”

“I’m struggling to see you in a skirt at all, to be honest. You don’t seem like that kinda woman.”

She smirked at me. “Yeah, I wasn’t. And I don’t wear girly-girl looking shit. My skirts are all leather or dark denim. The only flowers on me are my tatts, thank you very much. Speaking of which, you don’t have any ink?”

“Ah, no. I don’t. Why?”

“I’m a tattooist. I own Silky Ink here in town. You should come in some time, let me color you up a bit.”

I spun to look at her, as my jaw dropped open a little. I wasn’t really sure how to respond. I’d never even considered getting a tattoo before. Never had the spare cash for one, either.

“Don’t look so shocked, doll. Think it over. I’ll take real good care of you. If you decide you don’t want any, that’s cool. I’m not going to force you, or anything. Just wanted to put the offer out there.” She smirked as she came over to my side. “That, and I love doing people’s first tattoos. Nothing quite like watching someone get their first taste of ink.” She reached past me and grabbed a shirt out of my bag. “Here, wear this one with your jeans, then we’ll head down.”

I took the shirt and went to grab my jeans. “Not sure I want to go down there if there’s gonna be an orgy going on in the main room.”

Silk laughed again. “Bash’ll be in the back room by now. We’ll sit at the bar and take bets on whether Eagle or Mac will be the first one to kick Taz’s ass for flirting with us. It’ll be fun.”

With a smile I headed to the bathroom. “That man is a shameless tease.”

“That, he is. Can’t wait for him to meet a woman strong enough to wrangle him into line. Gonna be a hell of a good show.”

I changed quickly, unable to imagine Taz settling down with just one woman. Too much of a flirt. And manwhore, if what I’d heard from the others was to be believed.

We were half way down the stairs when Silk stopped with a gasp.

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

I was nearly panicking that something was wrong with her baby when I saw the wide grin spread over her face. “A Playboy bunny.”

I frowned at her as I tried to figure out what the fuck she was on about. “What?”

“For your tattoo, you should totally get a sexy little Playboy bunny. Oh, you totally should get it on your ass, or maybe just inside of your hip bone. That would look sexy as fuck.”

I shook my head and kept moving. “That’s not why Mac calls me bunny, and no way am I getting a slutty little rabbit inked on me. Dream on, Silk.”

“Girl, you’re no fun. Mac would totally dig it, even if it isn’t the reason behind you being his bunny.”

I gritted my teeth as we entered the main room. I was going to throttle Mac over that damn name. “Do all the old ladies really think that’s why he calls me bunny?”

Silk was laughing when we got to the bar. “Probably. I mean you’re a knockout. Clearly the man likes what he sees, so why wouldn’t he call you his pinup girl?”

“Pinup girl sounds so much better than fucking Playboy bunny.”

The prospect behind the bar was obviously trying really hard to not laugh as he handed Silk a bottle of water and set a soda down for me. Taz didn’t bother trying to hide his amusement. Damn man came to stand between us and wrapped an arm around us both as he chuckled.

“Ladies, after that comment, I really want to know what you two are talking about.”

A second later Taz was gone and Mac was wrapping an arm around me. A glance over to the side showed Eagle had done the same to Silk.

“Taz, you have got to fucking quit messing with our old ladies.”

The man didn’t seem to be affected by Mac’s dark tone as he laughed and moved away.

“You know he only does it because it sets you both off so easily, right?”

I had to agree with Silk. But the way both our men growled, I didn’t think it a good idea to vocalize the opinion.