Wheeler
We’d rolled in hearing about this little shindig through word of mouth. Apparently, the little rich boys of Silicone Valley wanted to party, and party hard. Nice little festival to show off their money to their buddies, pat each other on the back—pass around a little blow.
That was what had brought us—Satan’s Sons—here. The rich boys wanted to party, and usually that wouldn’t be an issue, but the boss man had gotten word that they would be selling some high-end product under the rug while here too. Not a smart idea. Not in our territory.
Honestly, any other day I would have been fine with moving along and letting the rich boys have their fun. But orders were orders and I wasn’t a Son to question orders, at least not openly. We’d already started making a little noise to crash the party and would make more by the end of the night. The others were excited for the opportunity, but I was looking forward to going home.
At least I had been. Before I saw one of the main attractions performing on the stage. She’d been talking to some suit when I’d come over, but up there ... Goddamn.
Pretty girl on the stage was on fire. Hair, thick and bright red, blazing. Her skimpy little bikini in scarlet and gold. Her little phoenix tattoo, peeking over her shoulder, matched too. She was hot ... all over. I didn’t have my heart in this child’s play, but I couldn’t say that I was interested in complaining about it anymore, either.
She saw me watching her. Every twist and turn that had her gaze pulled from me led her right back anyway. I grinned at her—made her flush as she spun her fire around her. Fuck. That was pretty.
Her skin was all creamy white and smooth. In the firelight, it was porcelain perfect and I wondered if it would be just as perfect up close. I wanted to touch her.
Feel just how hot she was, you know?
She was skilled, and I could see why she had been hired for this. She was an acrobat, flexible, and the way that she moved showed off a lot of her body. She moved like she had been doing this for years.
I wanted my hands on her. Right on that tiny little waist of hers, specifically. It curved in and probably looked smaller than it actually was just because her bust and hips were so full. My kinda girl, really.
Who even knew that women like that existed where I could actually see and touch and lust after them?
I licked my lips, watching Fire Girl, thinking up all the ways I could get a piece of her before we dipped out for the night. We were supposed to make some kind of scene—maybe I could take her on the stage.
I chuckled. No. that performance would be for me and for me alone. Just like this one was. I could tell that she was dancing for me whether she intended to be or not. Still, her eyes hadn’t left me. She was as fucking entranced as I was.
Maybe a little too much.
Fire Girl faltered, her eyes a little too hard on me (or maybe it was the other way around, I thought smugly, knowing that maybe I’d broken her concentration. And honestly? I was fine with that.) She recovered before she could drop her fire, though. Good. I liked a girl that could recover quick.
I clapped with everyone else as Fire Girl stood and bowed to the crowd. Her chest rose and fell with her panted breaths. I couldn’t help but wonder if she would pant just as hard and pretty if she were under me ...
Who said I couldn’t have some fun with my work, after all?
I started toward Fire Girl. I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to know her name. I wanted to know if her mouth would taste as hot as flames, if she was spicy like cinnamon, and if she was as wild in bed as she was on the stage. I knew women like her—performers that didn’t stay in one place for long. They were always up for a good time, and if it was her breaktime, I’d make it the best that she’d ever had.
Unfortunately, my fun was interrupted. The same man that had spoken with her before I settled into the crowd got to her before I could. He and a group of his buddies walked over. Fire Girl didn’t look too impressed as she hopped down from the stage and tried walking away, over to a tent just a little ways from the stage, and the man stopped her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and forcibly pulled her close to him. His hand came to rest on her ample, scantily-clad breast to squeeze. He laughed and started talking with his friends, as if this were acceptable behavior.
Fire Girl didn’t look too happy about this touchy-feely man having his hands on her, definitely not nearly as much as this man seemed to enjoy having his hands on her, that was for certain. She knocked his hand away from her breast and sneered at him as she tried to move away from him. He only laughed, tugged her back to him, and placed his hand back where he seemed to think it belonged. He squeezed and pinched at her, making her jump—but I could see by the look on her face that it wasn’t out of any kind of pleasure, that was for certain. The audacity of this man disgusted me.
Without hesitation, I walked over. It was one thing to flirt, but another one entirely to harass. Rich fucks didn’t get that, but I would show him.
“There a problem?” I asked. I didn’t look at the men, but straight at Fire Girl. I wanted her to answer me. I wanted her to say when.
I saw the man and his buddies eyeing me from my peripheral. They gave me looks filled with a contempt and caution that I was used to from others. You got that as much as you got reverence when you were so obviously a part of an MC.
“Problem?” the man said. He sounded as slippery and slick as a weasel: untrustworthy. “No, there’s no problem here. We were just—”
“I wasn’t talking to you, I was talking to the girl.” She hadn’t spoken yet, but had kept her eyes on me, cautiously curious about my interventions.
The man, whoever he was, didn’t look too happy about being interrupted, and frankly, I didn’t care.
“I—”
The girl used the distraction to wiggle her way out of the man’s hold. He was too focused on staring me down to pull her back to him, offering her the escape that she deserved.
“No problems now.” She smiled and moved herself nimbly away from the man—and closer to me. I smirked.
“Good to hear. I’d hate to have to play bad guy on such a nice night.”
“Excuse you, I employ her—”
“And now I’m going on my break, so it’s fine. Right, Jameson?”
I stared the man down after that question was posed. He looked between me and the Fire Girl, his gaze narrowing a little. He didn’t like that one bit. I would give him credit for one thing, though: he didn’t look afraid. So he may have been brave in that regard, but he wasn’t stupid—he smirked at me when he backed off.
“An hour, Ember. Then you’re back on that stage or Wanda’s getting an earful about not delivering what was promised.”
The man nodded his friends away and I watched to make sure that he and his friends stayed away. They walked off and Fire Girl—Ember—looked up at me.
“Thanks. Jameson is an entitled, gross little shit,” she said.
I laughed.
“He’s rich and pretty, of course he is. Nice performance, by the way. I couldn’t take my eyes off you.”
“So I noticed.”
“You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”
Ember stared at me, the honey ember of her eyes blazing. It looked like she was contemplating—did she give me the same treatment as her pal Jameson, or did she indulge in my flirtations? I got part of my answer in the form of another one of those pretty blushes of hers. Up close I could see that the redness on her face revealed a spattering of pretty freckles along her nose.
Cute.
“Well?” I prompted when she still didn’t answer.
She opened her mouth to answer, but was distracted by a sound behind us.
“Whoo!”
“Hell yeah, man!”
There was the sound of something big and metal falling over with a loud crash. I didn’t even bother looking back. I knew what the boys were here to do. Technically, I should be helping. Funny little thing about distractions, though.
Ember’s eyes came back to me. I hadn’t taken mine off her.
“Your boys are rowdy.”
“They always are. Though, not my boys. I’m not their keeper.”
Ember laughed. It was cute as hell and made her nose scrunch up a little and wrinkle.
“Not mine, either. I’m going on break—”
“You don’t want any company on your break, then?” I leaned forward. “I really liked your performance.”
Ember scoffed, putting her hand on my chest. I liked how small it was in comparison to my body, and I didn’t move it out of the way.
“What? You think you save the damsel in distress, you get a reward or something?” She started to walk back toward her tent, and I followed.
She was being coy. I found that adorable.
“I hardly think you’re a damsel, let alone a prize,” I said. “I just noticed that while I was watching you, you were watching me, and maybe we could do a little more together than watch each other.”
Her lips quirked.
I had her.
I stepped closer to her. We were near her tent then, just outside it. Her hand was still on my chest and I put my hands on her hips. They were thick and ample and pretty as fuck. I squeezed, feeling the way her flesh gave beneath that grip. She pushed into my hand.
“You got a firm grip.” She chuckled a little and slid her fingers over my hand. “But I get paid by these people and if they see me—”
“No one’s gonna say anything to you.”
“You’re pretty sure of that, big boy.”
“I’m sure of a lot of things.” Like how sexy you’re going to look moaning my name, or how hot and tight you’re going to be when I take you from behind, or—
We were distracted again.
There was a loud crash behind us and raucous shouts. The boys were probably getting their party on hard now. Suit themselves. I had no interest in whatever it was they were going to do tonight anymore.
I only had one thing on my mind: getting this pretty Fire Girl into her tent and under me before I had to either slow things down or hightail it on out of there.
I was pretty certain that I was close to getting a kiss from her until she was distracted again by something else behind us. She suddenly pushed me away and yelled,
“What the hell are they doing?!”
I almost ignored the outburst, ready to pull her back to me, until I caught a huge flicker of light out of the corner of my eyes. I turned, and my eyes widened a little more.
There were Sons running around, pulling down displays and other stages and booths. More than that, though, was the blazing fire that was from the stage that Ember had just performed on, and a bigger blaze that was kicking up dangerously close to the tree line of the forest that this music festival was being held in.
“Assholes!”
I couldn’t stop Ember when she dashed toward the stage, intent on trying to put out the blaze herself. Bad idea, but it was the idea that she had in her head anyway. Her equipment was being used to light shit up, that much I could tell. People were running around and shouting and on their phones.
The air was hot.
“Shit.”
I groaned. This was more than causing a little bit of trouble. This was about to get far, far too much out of hand. And when I saw who was leading the bunch, I narrowed my eyes.
“Yeah, gas this shit up! Light it up!”
Leech, skinny ass, lanky piece of shit, was egging everyone on at the top of his lungs. I watched as he brought a bottle to his lips and downed the remaining beer in the bottle, tossing the glass into the flames to shatter. This riled up more people behind him, whooping and hollering, throwing glass everywhere while there was more fire soaked by gas and alcohol. Goddamn it. I didn’t have the time to babysit this trouble-making little fuck! This was all way out of hand and way out of line for what we were supposed to be doing here.
I ran forward, following after Ember. She was struggling with one of the other Sons, who was trying to douse more gas on the already growing flames. He was a hell of a lot bigger than she was, though, and she had no luck in pulling her equipment away from him.
I’d give her this much: at least she tried. That counted.
“Let go, asshole! What the hell are you doing?!”
“Just havin’ some fun, baby girl. Let loose!”
“You piece of shit—!”
Her hand reeled back, ready to hit him. Bad move. I pulled her away from the biker before she could escalate the situation past the point of no return and make it even worse. He was too drunk to listen to her, and fire wasn’t something to play around with.
“Come on. They’re gonna light the place up—”
“Then fucking stop them!” she shouted.
I laughed. “If you actually think that I’m able to stop them—”
“Then let me go!”
Ember was a slippery woman and pulled herself out of my grip before I knew what had hit me. She ran back toward the growing flames, trying like many others to put them out. I shook my head.
So much for a fun night and some no-strings fun.
I rolled my eyes and went back to the Son that Ember had been warring with.
“Hey, fucking scram, all right?”
He looked like he wanted to argue with me, until he saw who I was. That sobered him a little.
“Ah, Wheeler—”
“This place is gonna be crawling with cops and a pile of ash soon. I said fucking scram, and take people with you, asshole.”
“Okay, okay!”
I sent him packing, annoyed that this was the shit I was having to deal with. I was an enforcer, not a babysitter.
I did this with a few other rowdy Sons, using my bulk and my sway in the MC to tell them to cut the shit and hit the road. Only a few gave me lip—and I gave it right back, until they decided that they were going to listen to me like they were supposed to do.
I had all but forgotten about Ember. Stubborn ass girl, she wasn’t my problem, not really, but I didn’t want her hurt, either. I turned my attention to the stage where she had been. People continued to flee yet there she was, fighting trying to put out the fire, to salvage what little she was able to. It would have been admirable if it wasn’t so damn stupid—didn’t she know the danger she was in?
I’d always been told I was too protective of women. I needed to let them do their own stupid shit on their own. But that wasn’t the man that I was. Especially not when I saw that the tree that hung over the stage was blazing, and blazing heavy—leaning dangerously low over the stage, ready to snap and fall right on top of where Ember was working so hard.
“Shit.” I started running. There wasn’t even a second thought.
“Ember! Ember!” Get out of the fucking way before it’s too late.