“Jules, Will… Todd just called for volunteers,” Dwayne said as he tucked his phone away. Jules is sitting at the table with several members of Forsaken 99, though he longed to sit at the bar and flirt with Rachel. But he had to keep up the charade that he and Will were not getting along.

 

“I can do it. We’re not busy yet,” Will said. “Can you manage by yourself for a while?”

 

“Yeah, I got it,” Rachel replied.

 

“I’ll sit this one out…” Jules said with a pointed look at Will.

 

Dwayne smiled. “Suit yourself. Let’s honk it brothers. This one is late. Todd said to meet him at Trail Four Road… we don’t have time to ride in the trucks.”

 

The moment Forsaken 99 was out of the room, Jules sprang to his feet. “Loan me the van?”

 

“Keys are in the desk. Why don’t you take your bike?”

 

“To conspicuous. Same for your truck.”

 

“Be careful.”

 

He leaned across the bar to give her a quick kiss. “Always.”

 

She watched Jules hurry down the short hall to her office, then reappear a moment later and exit through the back door. She pursed her lips a moment then turned her attention back to running the bar.

 

***

 

Less than an hour later, he was back. “Jules! What’s wrong?” she hissed as he entered through the back of the bar, his eyes wide and his face pale.

 

“We have to talk… now!” he whispered harshly as he pulled her from behind the bar.

 

“Angie! Cover for me a minute!” she called as Jules hauled her away, dragging her into her office and quietly closed the door.

 

“Jules! You’re scaring me!”

 

“Will is in deep shit. I followed them to the intercept. I couldn’t see that well because they were pretty far away, but it looks like the DEA tried to bag them.”

 

Her eyes widened at the news and she began to shake. “Oh no…” she breathed.

 

“It’s worse. There was a firefight. I couldn’t tell who started it, but it looked like the DEA were killed. Worse still, it looked like it was Forsaken 99 that shot them. Or was a least involved in shooting them.”

 

“My god! Are you sure?”

 

“That the DEA agents were killed. Yes. That we shot them… not sure but it sure looked that way.”

 

“Will would never—”

 

“He may not have had a choice. It could have been killed or be killed. You need to find a reason to call him and get him back here, pronto! I have to talk to him.”

 

“I’ll… uh… I’ll tell him I’m sick or something.”

 

“Do it! Before he does something stupid.”

 

***

 

Twenty minutes later, Will arrived pale as a ghost. “Get in her office, now, and stay there,” Jules ordered as he came through the door.

 

“Jules… I need to talk to you man. On the—”

 

“Not here! Office!” he hissed, cutting him off.

 

Will did as he was told while Jules and Rachel tried to act normal. After ten more minutes, when no other club member arrived, Jules stood up and started for the office.

 

“Stay here,” he ordered Rachel as she began to follow. “You don’t want to hear this. It will make you an accessory after the fact.”

 

“Fuck that… he’s my brother,” she said as she stepped past him.

 

Jules gritted his teeth in frustration, but a scene now is not what they needed. “Angie… cover for Rachel.”

 

As he entered the office he closed the door. “Tell me what happened out there.”

 

“You know?”

 

“I know enough. I need the details.”

 

“I don’t know what happened. The DEA was waiting on us I guess. The moment that we found the drugs they showed up. I thought we were fucked. I was putting my gun down when the cartel guy tried to open up on them.”

 

“Are you sure the cartel shot first?”

 

“Yeah. Well, no. He never got a shot off. But we did! We didn’t have to start shooting! The moment the shooting started, we were in a firefight.”

 

“You?” Rachel asked with a quiver in her voice.

 

“Yeah, some. Fuck… what am I going to do? I need to turn myself in. Maybe—”

 

“No. Don’t do that,” Jules said.

 

“Jules! I may have shot a federal agent!”

 

“Going to prison won’t help anything! I need you and Vallecito needs you more now than ever. The club is dirty. We have to have handle this within the club. If you go to the cops with this they will destroy the club. Then who will protect Vallecito? Who will protect Rachel?”

 

“What you going to do?”

 

“We are going to take the club back. We are going to find these bastards and make them pay. If you can just keep your shit together you are going to be tight with the club. Trusted. We can use that against them.”

 

“How?”

 

“Find out the dirty members are. I can’t believe the entire club is in on this. I need to know who I can trust. Just hold it together, Will.”

 

“Yeah,” he breathed as he stared at the floor.

 

“You can do this. You have to do this.”

 

“I will keep my ear to the ground when Forsaken 99 is in the bar. See if I can pick up anything. Jules’s right. We have to clean this mess up and still protect Vallecito.”

 

“Here’s how we’re going to play it. I’m going to call a board meeting. You came back and I could tell something was wrong. But you wouldn’t tell me shit. Okay? Simple. If Todd admits to what happened, I’m going to go off on him. You back him up, got it? You take all that rage you are feeling and you put it on me. Just do what comes natural. So will I. I want you tight with this… shadow group… got it?”

 

“Yeah. I got it.”

 

“Will… suck it up man. This is all riding on you.”

 

***

 

“Are you fucking stupid?” Jules roared as he leapt to his feet, breathing hard. Todd had admitted to the gun fight, but his story was completely different than Will’s, and what he saw with his own eyes.

 

“You need to calm the fuck down,” Todd said quietly as he looked around the bar. Customers were beginning to edge away from the brewing confrontation.

 

“Calm the fuck down? Do you know what you have done?” he raged. “How could you do this?”

 

“Hey! You weren’t there! You don’t know what went down, so shut the fuck up,” Will shouted.

 

“Yeah, if I had been maybe this shit wouldn’t have happened!” He wanted to kill Todd. He was leading the club to destruction and everything he cared about, everyone he cared about, was going to get hurt in the process.

 

“You got a problem with me, Jules?” Todd said coming to his feet.

 

“Whoa, brothers… this is not the time or the place,” Marsh said getting between them.

 

“You need to back off, Jules,” Todd said, his voice low and dangerous.

 

“Or what? You going to try to fuck me like you are the club?”

 

“You want to go? You’ve been spoiling for this for a long time,” Todd said as he began removing his colors.

 

“Jules… no!” Rachel called, coming from behind the bar.

 

“Stay out of this! I’m going to enjoy watching this asshole get his ass kicked,” Will snarled.

 

“Out back,” Todd sneered.

 

“Jules!”

 

Will grabbed his sister and held her. “No,” he whispered in her ear. “You don’t want to watch this.”

 

“You have to do something.”

 

“I can’t.”

 

“He’ll kill him.”

 

“Who will? Todd? Not fucking likely.”

 

***

 

“Nobody interfere,” Todd snarled as they stepped behind He’s Not Here. “I’m going to show this Army pussy how Marines do it.”

 

“Whenever you think your dick is big enough,” Jules said rolling his shoulders and working his neck to get loose. He had wanted to do this for a long time.

 

Todd was a big man, heavily built, but going soft with age. He came at Jules with a roar. Jules fired a hard right into Todd’s face as he came in, pivoted and caught Todd with his left arm around his neck, holding his head to his side. He fired two, three then four hard shots into Todd’s face as he held him.

 

With a roar of pain and rage, Todd picked Jules up, but he wasn’t strong enough to hold him and dropped him with a stumble. Jules landed off balance and stumbled, going to his knees as he dragged Todd to the ground with him. With a hard shove with his legs, Todd drove Jules to his back on the ground.

 

Jules roared, veins standing out on his neck, as Todd grabbed his nuts in a vise like grip. He punched him once more in the face, but couldn’t get any power behind the punch, so he let him go and used both hands to tear Todd’s hand loose. The two men bounded to their feet, Todd spitting blood, his face covered in blood from his nose.

 

“So that’s how it’s going to be?” Jules snarled as he danced on his toes.

 

“I fight to win, Jules,” Todd panted.

 

“So do I.”

 

Jules waited for Todd to come at him again. His balls ached, but he was uninjured and able to move. Todd, on the other hand, was already losing vision out of his left eye.

 

With another roar, Todd charged in. Jules sidestepped and brought his foot around in a high arc, his riding boot connecting solidly with Todd’s face. Todd grunted with the impact, the force of Jules’s kick almost enough to stop his charge. He went to the ground in a heap and lay still. Jules bounced on his toes a couple of times, his hands up and at the ready, but it was clear Todd was out for the count. Settling to his feet, he lowered his hands then spit on Todd for good measure.

 

“Somebody take that sack of shit home.”

 

***

 

Less than five minutes after Todd challenged Jules, Rachel saw Jules step back into the bar. He looked completely untouched until she saw the blood on his boot. Obviously Todd had come up a bit short.

 

“You okay?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Todd?”

 

“Out cold when I left.”

 

“Jesus…”

 

“Go out there and help Todd,” Jules directed Will. “Bad mouth me up. If this doesn’t tip the scales so we know where everyone stands, I don’t know what will.”

 

Will picked up Todd’s colors. “You weren’t out there very long.”

 

“I wanted to kill him, but I didn’t. But I didn’t hold back either.”

 

Will frowned. “Were you holding back with me?”

 

Jules grinned. “Only a little. I didn’t want to mess up your pretty face for Pam.”

 

“You’re really okay?” Rachel asked as Will left with Todd’s colors.

 

“Yeah. Except for trying to make me a eunuch, he never laid a finger on me.”

 

“What?”

 

“Todd… he fights dirty. He grabbed me by the balls. That’s when I stopped playing around.”

 

“Everything still works, though, right?” she teased.

 

“You want to find out tonight?”

 

“Oh… yeah.”

 

***

 

“I am going to fuck you so hard,” Rachel said as she jumped into the bed with Jules, landing on him and kissing him lustily.

 

“What’s with you?” he asked as she broke the kiss.

 

She giggled. “I’m almost ashamed to admit this, but you kicking Todd’s ass tonight? That has turned me on so much. You remember when he said I could pay extortion with something other than money, and you punched him out?”

 

“Yeah…”

 

“Then you were my knight in shining armor, riding in to protect my virtue, but I have never forgiven him for that. For some reason, having you beat the shit out of him… well, I have been practically dripping all night.”

 

Jules smiled and rolled over, pinning her to the bed. “That is part of what made that so satisfying tonight. Anyone that threatens you, in any way, will get that, and more. Nobody is going to hurt you, not so long as I can draw a breath.”

 

She grabbed his cock and struggled to steer it into her. “Oh god... just stick that thing in me and fuck me until I scream!”

 

He allowed her to guide him into her, plunging into her with a hard shove before holding himself deep. “That what you want,” he growled. “You want me to fuck you hard?”

 

“Oh god, yes. Hard. Please, hard.”

 

He began to move, picking up speed, each inward thrust harder and faster than the one before. He smiled. For once she didn’t have him blinded by lust and he could enjoy playing the game. He rose onto his hands, holding himself up as he drove into her with jackhammer like speed. “Like that?” he panted when he stopped to tease her and catch his breath.

 

“God yes! Don’t stop!”

 

“Want me to make you come?”

 

“Please… please make me come,” she keened as she thrust her hips, trying to get him to start again.

 

He lowered himself to her and took her lips in a deep and passionate kiss as he began to pound into her once more.

 

“Oh god…” she growled, her voice deep and hoarse with passion as she moved and thrust. She was going to go off like a fucking rocket… he if he would… just … fuck her! “Faster… please, faster.”

 

Her growling and begging was turning him on in a serious way. He forced himself up out of her arms and increased the speed and power of his thrusts. Having her so turned on was winding him up and he could feel his orgasm coming. “I’m going to come,” he panted as the first shivers of his approaching climax washed over him. “I want you to come with me.”

 

She was burning, her approaching orgasm scorching her with its heat. “I’m going to come,” she gasped, her climax drawing her out, stretching her taunt, preparing her for an explosive release. “I’m going to come so hard… make me come so hard… make me come…” she mewled, the approaching maelstrom stealing her voice.

 

Jules changed his tempo from lightning fast jabs to long hard thrusts, trying to push her, and himself, over the edge. Her eyes snapped open wide as her head tipped back, her back arching as she began to cry her release into the quiet darkness.

 

Her climax hit her so hard it took her breath, every muscle straining as she crackled with orgasmic fire. As she burned, her skin as hot as if she were baking in the Texas sun, she found her voice… and she howled out her pleasure. She clung to Jules, her knight, her protector, her savior and lover, holding tight lest she become lost in a sea of pleasure and never find her way back.

 

With a massive shudder, Rachel relaxed just as his own release hit him. With a soft moan of completion, his hips coasted to a stop as the warmth of his orgasm passed through him. He held himself deep as he luxuriated in feelings he couldn’t explain but held close and dear. He settled lightly on her and took her lips, kissing her softly, gently, reveling in feelings so profound and deep that he never wanted them to end. She was becoming his world, his everything, and he would fight for her until his strength failed him and his heart beat its last.