KEEPING WHAT HE WANTS
Roaming Devils MC, 2
Lexie Davis
Copyright © 2017
Chapter One
Ella Hawkins’s soft moans woke Ryker Dennison from a dead sleep. Moonlight flooded the bedroom they shared, highlighting her face. She was gorgeous on any day, but the way her lips parted, the way she mewled in pleasure, made him wonder what his little minx was dreaming about.
He sat up and turned on the bedside lamp. Ella lay on her side facing the window, but whatever she dreamed had her rolling to her back. Her hard nipples poked against her thin shirt while a strip of bare skin peeked out from the hem her tank top, revealing her navel to his wandering gaze. She was completely aroused and completely asleep.
“Ella?” Ryker whispered.
He pulled the blankets back so that her long legs weren’t tangled in them. She rubbed her feet against the mattress while she whimpered. Ryker stroked her calf, sliding his fingers upwards toward her thigh. She didn’t wear panties to bed, and he had complete access to her wet pussy if he wanted it. God, she was tempting. He hated to wake her up, but he didn’t feel right about leaving her asleep either.
“Ella?” he said, louder. He pushed against her thigh, shaking her slightly.
She jerked awake, her eyes popping open. “What? What are you doing?”
“You were having one hell of a wet dream, baby.” He slid his hand higher on her thigh. “It didn’t seem right to bury my face in your pussy with you still asleep.”
He hooked his fingers in the waistband of her shorts and tugged them down and off her body. She closed her eyes as her legs parted for him, her bare pussy gleaming with her moisture. He’d only gone to sleep two hours ago. He’d come home long after Ella had fallen asleep and crawled silently in beside her so he didn’t disturb her. He’d never expected her to wake him up. Definitely not the way she had.
“I was dreaming that you were fucking me on your bike.” She smiled. “You handcuffed me to the handlebars.”
Ryker slid his arms beneath her thighs and tugged her ass so that he could fit his mouth to her slit. “You need to stop watching porn.”
“I didn’t. I don’t.” She gripped his hair, tugging as he flicked his tongue along her clit. “I thought you would like that idea.”
He groaned, pulling her fleshy lip into his mouth. She tasted like heaven. So damn sweet. “There’s no fucking way my bike will hold during us fucking. It would crash to the ground. Then I’d be pissed. Not to mention if you’re handcuffed to it, you’d go with it and then I’d be really pissed. You don’t need to go into work with a broken arm from a wild sex injury.”
He shoved his tongue inside her, thankful she didn’t say anything more. He liked her all sprawled out in front of him on their bed. Or sucking him off in the shower. He didn’t need wild and kinky sex to fulfill his needs: he simply needed Ella.
“Please.” Ella clenched his hair in her fist. “I need you.”
He pushed up from her reluctantly. “How did you imagine it?”
She grinned. “You were straddling the seat. I was bent over in front of you. The hum of the engine vibrated against my clit as you thrust into me from behind.”
He gave her a smirk. “That was some fucking dream.”
“What can I say? You always get me hot and bothered.” She reached for him, and he let her pull him up so that he covered her body.
Her softness surrounded him as she wrapped her legs around his hips. He opened his mouth to kiss her, sucking her tongue as he ground his hips against her. She made him smile when she gasped, her soft whimpers cluing him in to her need.
“I need you.” She stared into his eyes. “Now.”
He grinned and pulled her lower lip between his teeth. “You’ve got me.”
Before he could continue, a fist pounded at their front door, jolting them from their actions. Ryker frowned before extracting himself from Ella. He grabbed a pair of shorts and pulled them on quickly while Ella stood to look for his t-shirt.
“Who is that?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” He went down the hall to the front. Blue lights flashed outside, and he cringed. What the fuck did the cops want now? He opened the door and saw Ella’s father face to face.
“Ryker Dennison, you’re under arrest.” Her father pulled him out of the apartment and pushed him up against the bannister. “Do you have any weapons or sharp objects on you?”
He snorted. “I’m in a pair of shorts. Not a lot of places to hide things.”
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” He kicked Ryker’s feet apart and patted him down.
“What’s going on?”
Ryker cringed at the sound of Ella’s voice. “Go back inside.”
She stared at the scene. Her father loved making the arrest—Ryker could see it in his eyes. He could only imagine how that made Ella feel.
“Why are you arresting him?”
“He’s a dopehead, Ella.” Patrick Hawkins pulled Ryker away from the bannister and shoved him toward the steps. “You should know this by now.”
“Don’t.” She shook her head. “You’ve wanted to make him pay for everything for the last month, and it’s not going to work. Stop doing this.”
“Ella, go back inside,” Ryker pleaded with her. “I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not.” She looked like she was ready to cry. “He’s just punishing you because he doesn’t want you with me.”
“The law doesn’t work that way, Ella. He has nothing to do with me and you.” Pat handed him off to another officer.
Ryker glanced back at her. She was pissed. The damage between her and Pat was done. After the incident at the club, when Pat had attacked him, Pat hadn’t spoken with Ella for two months. It had nearly killed her, but Pat wanted to play those damn games.
Now this.
The cops shoved Ryker in the backseat of an unmarked police car. Why her father was dragging her into the mess, he didn’t know. It pissed him off to even think about it.
****
“There are no drugs in my apartment. I don’t even know why you would think that there were.” Ella stood with her arms over her chest. She’d given her permission for the search, but they didn’t have to be jackasses about it.
“I don’t know anymore, Ella.”
“Yes, you do know.” She turned to face him. “You’re being an asshole, and for what reason? I’m your daughter.”
“You’re not above the law.”
She snorted. “Wow.” Her fury only grew as she played his words over and over in her mind. “What do you really think I’m doing? You think Ryker and I are running some kind of drug ring? When? I bust my ass in the ER daily. I barely get to see him.”
“Girlfriends know more than they’re willing to share. You think you’re protecting him when all you’re doing is creating a mess for yourself.”
“Protecting him from what?”
“Getting in trouble. If you know where the processing house is, you need to tell me. I may be able to get a lesser sentence for you. But I can’t help you if it all blows up in your face.”
“You don’t need to help me. I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.” And she really didn’t. Ryker didn’t talk to her about anything like that. He didn’t bring the club home with him. He didn’t involve her with that part of his life.
“I hope you’re telling the truth.”
“The apartment is clean, sir.” The two officers came back to the door and glanced over at Ella. “There are no drugs here.”
The K-9 unit left, and she stood with her father outside her apartment door.
“Was this necessary? You really thought I would allow him to bring drugs in to my house. Where I fucking sleep at night?”
“I don’t know.” Her father glanced away. “I don’t know you anymore, Ella. I never thought you’d be that girl.”
“What girl?”
“The one that lets some guy beat up on her. Use her for sex and alibis. I never thought you of all people would support him and that damn motorcycle club.”
“He never beat me up. I told you several times that it was an accident. I reached for him, he moved his arm back. My face just happened to connect with his elbow. It really is that innocent.”
Her father shook his head. “You tell yourself that. He is a despicable human being who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of his life. And when I find out where he does his dope processing, he’ll land a one-way ticket. I promise you that. I’m going to give him the fucking ride to the pen.”
Her father turned and left her staring after him. Such hatred shined in his eyes. There was nothing she could do to make him believe Ryker was a good man. At least not as good as she saw him. The war they fought would always exist, and her father wanted nothing to do with her because if it. She went back into the apartment, clenching her teeth as she seethed from the entire event.
The charges were fabricated. They had to be. Her father had bet on the off-chance that the president of the Roaming Devils MC actually had drugs on him when Ryker had been clean for months. She went to her bedroom and found a pair of pink sweatpants and an oversized shirt to wear. She supposed that if her father couldn’t reason with her, then he’d pull out his badge and show her how terrible he thought Ryker was.
It was childish and immature.
She grabbed her purse and her keys and left the apartment to go get Ryker. She didn’t know a lot about drug laws, but she did know some. They had nothing to keep him. He didn’t have anything on him, and he didn’t have anything in their apartment. Whatever they had, they were trying to tie to the club, which was another situation all on its own.
She parked her car in the lot of the local jail and went inside. After talking with the lady behind the counter, Ella stared at her as she told her Ryker wasn’t there.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s not here.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I can’t do anything until he’s in custody.”
“Where is he?”
“I can radio the arresting officer if you’d like. What was his name?”
“Patrick Hawkins.”
The woman picked up the walkie-talkie and radioed dispatch while Ella waited. Not only had her father taken Ryker out of their home for fabricated reasons, he’d taken him to some undisclosed location where she couldn’t find him.
“Detective Hawkins says he doesn’t have a criminal with him. He’s off duty.”
Ella’s heart jumped to her throat. Where had he taken Ryker? What the fuck was he doing? Ella thanked the woman and left. Her cell phone was in the console of her car, and she grabbed it as soon as she situated herself inside.
After dialing her father’s number, she got his voicemail. She didn’t know if Ryker had his phone on him, so she dialed him too. Voicemail. The headache between her eyes was growing sharper as she tried to figure out what the hell was going on.
She left the jail and decided to go to the club. A party was in full swing as it was just about every night, and Vampire had a chick rubbing her ass against his dick. As the new Sergeant at Arms, he sure looked like he was living it up as a club member. Of all of Ryker’s friends, he was the one she could tolerate the most. She watched for a moment as he seemed to enjoy himself before he finally looked up at her. Superman followed his gaze to her and narrowed his eyes. The two of them weren’t exactly friends.
“Have the police been here tonight?” she asked Vampire.
He frowned. “Does it look like the police have been here tonight?”
“Ryker’s gone.” She scoffed as the naked woman grabbed Vampire’s hand and lowered it to her bare crotch. “The police came and arrested him, but he’s not in jail.”
Vampire shoved the woman off him. He walked over to Ella, grabbed her arm, and led her down the hallway to one of the rooms in the back. Ella jerked out of his grip, reminding him with her eyes alone that he didn’t touch her. Ella wasn’t part of the club life, and Ryker wanted to keep it that way.
Vampire blew out a breath and motioned for her to step inside one of the back rooms and closed the door behind them to block out the noise. When they were alone, he asked, “What are you talking about?”
“They arrested him, and I don’t know where he is.”
“Who arrested him? Your father?”
“Yes. I went to the jail to bail him out, and he was never brought in. They called my father, and he told dispatch that he was off duty and he didn’t have a suspect with him. I tried calling his cell phone, and he won’t answer me.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.” She glanced around the room. “I’m not exactly privy to the criminal life. Where did he take him?”
Vampire scratched his chin. He’d gotten his name because of how bloodthirsty he was rumored to be. In reality, he teetered between being a decent person and being a criminal.
“What would you do?” she asked him. “You go out and get your enemy. Where would you take him?”
He blew out a breath. “Someplace quiet.”
Ella tried not to react. The idea that her father would intentionally harm Ryker wasn’t something she could believe. He was pissed: her father and Ryker had had a huge physical fight that had ended with her sedating them both. God only knew where they were and if they were finishing their original argument with their fists.
“Atlanta is a big city. Where is someplace quiet?”
He didn’t say anything. She knew better than anyone that there was only so much info that a club member would give an outsider. They didn’t share their secrets. They didn’t let on what they were thinking. If Ryker didn’t come back on his own, they would go find him. And she knew that when they did, her father’s life would be in danger.
“Are you going to charge in there and sedate them again?” Vampire opened the door and waited for her exit.
“I did what I had to do.”
He snorted. “I’ll find Ryker. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it. Go save lives.”
She didn’t trust him. Ryker might be the president of the Roaming Devils MC, but she was nothing to them. If they found him first, all hell would break loose, and her father would be in the middle of it.
****
The Roaming Devils Motorcycle Club had been one of the top one-percenter clubs in Atlanta. The former president, Razor Dennison, had left the club in a mess with the police and the members in general. Not only had Ryker forcibly taken over and become president himself, he’d banished his father from the Atlanta charter hoping that solved the problem. And it had. For the most part. With Razor out of the way, it made sense that Ryker could steer the club into a more legitimate path. That had been his goal, but the cocaine they produced wasn’t so easy to get rid of and the deals they had with their customers had to be fulfilled before they could pull out completely.
It was a work in progress.
But he was trying. God knew he was trying to right all the wrongs and make up for the things his father had done. It wasn’t an easy feature, but he thought that eventually, one day, the club would get there.
The cops knocking on his door and questioning him about drugs was a normal thing. Pat Hawkins, Ella’s father, had been looking for the Roaming Devils’ coke warehouse for a while now. The building sat north of town and had enough drugs to put away the entire club for life. The police never seemed to catch a break, and they’d always been careful when going to and from.
So sitting in a dank room, handcuffed to the table in front of him, didn’t really surprise him. Nor did the bogus drug charges. Pat had really pulled out the big guns to get him where he wanted him. They grasped at straws because they always grasped at straws when it came to convicting them of anything. Ryker knew it. He wasn’t scared of his girlfriend’s father. Judging from their actions, something else going on, something that probably didn’t have anything to do with him or the club. Ryker couldn’t help wanting to learn more.
The grungy off-white door opened, and Pat walked in. Without preamble, he slapped a photo onto the table before Ryker. The picture was of a dead woman who had been shot in the head. Blood coated nearly everything in the photo while a gun lay off to the side of her shiny and clean. Ryker glanced up at Pat.
“Tell me you’re the one that is importing those off-the-market weapons, and this whole process ends right now.”
Ryker snorted. “Guns? No, thanks.”
Pat pulled out the seat in front of him. “There are women dying on the street. Dopeheads that you sell that poisonous shit to. Prostitutes that you stick your cock into. This weaponry is military grade, and they don’t need to be in the hands of criminals. Where the fuck can I find them?”
Ryker sat back in his seat. “The only woman I stick my cock into is your daughter, and she is far from being a skanky prostitute.”
Pat’s fist landed a blow against Ryker’s jaw, knocking his head back with the force. Blood filled his mouth as he chuckled. Pat still had a chip on his shoulder. Ryker spit blood to the side of him and stared at his girlfriend’s father. For Ella’s sake, he wanted to believe that the two of them could come to an agreement. He’d do just about anything for her, and deep inside he knew Pat felt the same. Their war with each other was strictly between them.
“Who is importing these weapons into Atlanta? How are they getting into the city?”
Ryker wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. “What makes you think I fucking know?”
“Because you know everything going on in the black market.” Pat’s beefy presence was less than intimidating to Ryker. He wasn’t scared of the cop. He knew without a doubt that if anything happened, Ella would be devastated. Pat didn’t want that. “Or at least your father did when he was club president. If you’re half the leader he was, then I assume you know what I need.”
He just had to bring up Ryker’s father. “We’re not exactly friends. Why would I tell you anything if I did know?”
“Give me the fucking info, and I’ll offer you immunity for crimes prior to your Roaming Devils leadership.” Pat leaned forward. “Ella won’t have to watch you walk away in handcuffs to spend the rest of your life in jail when we find your father’s body floating in the river, or wherever it is that you put him. Did he go up in flames like your grandfather?”
Ryker stared at him. “You can’t offer me shit.”
“No, I can.” He pulled out a piece of paper in the folder he had sat on the desk. “Right here. You give me the info, you cannot be held accountable for the Roaming Devil’s past sins. Because right now, it’s not looking so good for you and your club.”
“Mmm.” Ryker laughed. “You’ve got nothing. You’re so desperate for information that you’re grasping at straws hoping that you’ll find something to make me bite.”
“What about my daughter?”
“What about her?”
“You really want to do that to her? Let her get attached to the monster you are just so she can pine away after you’re locked up for the crimes you’re guilty of? Give me something on the guns, and Ella doesn’t have to see you behind bars for now.”
“Ella’s not going to see me behind bars because you’ve got nothing on me.” Ryker glanced around. “And since you’ve got nothing on me, I’d like to be released.”
“Goddamn it.” Pat slammed his fist on the table. “These men are using these weapons to terrorize women on the streets. What if they went after my daughter? What if they shot and killed her? You can be first-class scum on your own time, but every decision you make affects her.”
Pat pushed the folder toward Ryker. The woman was pretty. Blonde hair. Skinny. Ryker could see the profile he had on her. She was a former beauty queen who’d gotten hooked on coke. If he had to guess, she couldn’t pay her bill. And when she couldn’t pay her bill, she’d paid with her life. But it didn’t explain why the gun had been left behind. He stared at the bullet hole in her head. It was a horrible setup if someone was trying to pin a suicide on her. The hole was too far back to be self-inflicted at that angle.
Ryker rubbed his swollen lip. “What’s the profile you’ve got on this?”
“That’s none of your business.”
Ryker glanced up at him. “Then undo the fucking handcuffs.”
Pat blew out a breath. Ryker was pretty sure it killed him a little inside to share what he knew with Ryker. “We’ve got a few deaths where the women are posed the same. The wound is the same. The gun is the same make. The women are all former successes. This one was a beauty-pageant winner. Former Miss Alabama, to be exact. We’ve had a brilliant scientist show up on the streets with the same profile. And we’ve had an attorney.” Pat stared at him. “What’s stopping them from going after a doctor next?”
“And you want to get the guns, not the one’s doing this?”
“The guns lead us to the ones doing this.” Pat collected the papers in the folder and closed it. “Who are they? What is their motive?”
Ryker shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Pat sighed. “You’re a fucking worthless piece of shit.”
He stood, leaving the small room. Ryker thought about all the connections he had and who would have the most info about this. The gun wasn’t branded, but it was unique. He’d never seen it before, but it stood out enough that if he did, he would remember. The shiny metal was a stark contrast to most guns’ muted steel color. It was almost as if they’d polished it to be noticed.
The door opened and a uniformed officer came in. He undid the cuffs. “You’re free to go.”
Ryker rubbed his wrists. “I’m assuming I get to find my way home.”
“There is a payphone out front.”
Ryker stood and walked out the door. He didn’t like how Pat wanted to play this game. Arresting him for crap he had no proof of was breaking the law. Trying to con him into helping him solve cases was a pathetic attempt at justice. He had nothing, and Ryker wouldn’t bite.
He walked over to the payphone and dialed Vampire. If they got to the troublemakers first, then it would save everyone a lot of time and a headache. No burden on the justice system, just a quiet elimination of the problem.
“Yeah?”
“Come pick me up.”
“Where are you?”
Ryker glanced around and rattled off the street name.
Vampire didn’t say anything immediately. “Your girlfriend stopped by. She’s worried about you.”
Ryker blew out a breath. “Yeah. I know. Come pick me up.”
He hung up and stared across the street at the warehouse where they processed their coke. Pat had brought him dangerously close to the exact thing he was looking to find. While Pat had given no indication that he knew where the plant was, he did know the Roaming Devils had ties to it. If they got some fucking judge to give them a warrant to search the place, then everything would spiral out of control. Ryker pursed his lips and walked away from the phone. It was just a matter of time. He was fairly sure of it.