I was done for. It was over for me the minute I set eyes on this girl. She had broken me down and remade me into something else. In just the space of a few days I was willing to risk my life and maybe even my place in the club for her. I’d tried to tell myself it was just her pussy that drew me in. It wasn’t. It was Gina.

She fell asleep for a moment in my arms. Her sable hair fanned out on the ground behind her. It was the first time I got a chance to really look at her without worrying about what she might read in my face. She had a dusting of freckles over her collarbones I hadn’t noticed before. They stopped just before her luscious tits. I tweaked one wine-colored nipple, then the other. Her breasts fell heavy as I lifted one. It fit perfectly in my hand, just the right size. God, everything about her fit me perfectly.

But she was mine now. It never occurred to me that she was a virgin. Fuck, I’d never had a virgin before. She’d been so tight at first, but so eager. Her hot juices guided my path and she opened up for me, just like a flower.

Mine.

I was Gina’s first. If I had my way, I’d be her only. God, the idea of any man ever touching her the way I did made fresh rage flood through me. She was made for me. I ran my finger between her breasts, marking a trail down her flat stomach, circling her belly button until I found her sweet little clit. She stirred, moaning. One stroke and I could make her wet for me again.

Mine. Made for me. But it was time to go.

Gina’s eyelids fluttered and when she opened them, a blush colored her cheeks that damn near made me hard all over again. She grew shy with me and I wouldn’t have it. Not anymore. I still had my hand between her legs and I slid two fingers inside of her.

“Zig,” she gasped. Oh yeah. Just that little touch and my Gina was soaking wet. I leaned down and kissed her. Gina’s hungry mouth responded to mine. She arched her neck and I licked my way down the column of her throat. God, if we only had more time.

A car slowed in the distance, probably spotting my bike parked on the shoulder of the road. My back stiffened and I zipped my fly. Grabbing my t-shirt and cut, I pulled them on and checked my gun, sliding it back into the holster at my waist.

“Get dressed, baby,” I said. “We need to get back on the road.”

“Zig?” Her voice raised an octave, filled with worry. It cracked my heart in two. I turned to her and ran a gentle finger along her jaw. I leaned down to kiss her.

“Come here,” I said, gathering her into my arms. I had to be careful, gentle with her. I’d acted out of pure lust, but now there was something different between us. Something as powerful as it was dangerous.

“I’m going to take care of you, baby,” I told her. “But I need to get you back to Port Az.”

Nodding, Gina gave me a sweet smile and started to gather her clothes. I loved this side of her too. She was vulnerable, trusting. Gone was the sassy mouth and bravado. Oh, I knew she’d find it again quick enough. But she’d let me see the side of her she hid from everyone else. She honored me with that along with her innocence. I just hoped I could be worthy of it.

“Zig,” she said again, her voice stronger this time. She zipped her own fly and hooked her bra behind her. Fuck, it killed me to have her cover those tits. I had new, dark fantasies about spending days with her at my place, naked. “Can we stop somewhere on the way?”

“Depends,” I said, taking her hand.

“I need to see my mother and brother.” I helped her over the small hill as we made our way back up to the road. The car I’d heard earlier had moved on and the highway looked empty from both directions.

My heart hardened. The last thing Bear would want was me traipsing up to Christine DiSalvo’s front door with Gina in tow. It killed me to hide anything from her now, but there was no help for it. There was a legit concern that her own fucking brother had something to do with the attempt on her life. Except I couldn’t tell her that. Not yet. And one more secret rose between us.

She waited as I started the bike. It lurched for a second, but we were good to go. The thing was going to need a full tune-up when we got back to the clubhouse, but I didn’t anticipate any more mechanical problems along the way.

“First,” I said, “I need to stop at the clubhouse. Then we can figure out your next move. Do you still trust me?”

Gina’s mouth lifted into a smirk. A breeze blew her hair in front of her face. She came to me, sliding her hands around my waist. On her tiptoes, she kissed me. God, she tasted so good. “Do you really need me to answer that?”

I reached for her, squeezing her ass. Gina let out a little squeak that sent blood racing straight to my dick. Fuck. We still had a few hours of road ahead of us. Now that I’d tasted Gina, she acted on me like a fucking drug. I wanted even more of her. I wanted to bend her over the bike, drag those little pink panties down and fuck her while she begged me for it. But I had to keep my head. She was still a job. Yeah, she was a hell of a lot more than that and I knew it was going to complicate things a million-fold. But I had to get her to the clubhouse as fast as I could. Bear was waiting.

“Climb on, baby,” I said, kissing her again. Gina moaned when I let her go. She threw one leg over the seat and slid her arms around me, pressing her cheek against my back.

* * *

We hit the Port Azrael town limits just after dark. I’d taken the route along the coast, letting the salty air from the Gulf fill my lungs and lead me home. I felt Gina’s whole body relax behind me. Port Az always has this effect on me. It’s where I belonged. It was part of me. I could see the multicolored LED lights on the Port Az bridge lit up in the distance. The Saints were part of that too, even if most of the people in this town didn’t know it.

Twenty years ago, Port Azrael was on the verge of collapse. A port city, we were ripe for takeover by drug cartels looking to push their products in from the south. We changed all of that. Some called it a deal with the devil, but when my club unleashed, shit got better here for everyone.

Gina’s family was part of that too. We struck an uneasy balance. The DiSalvos came in to clean up the docks and run their businesses. We keep the rougher elements from running them out. The DiSalvos get to look legit, even though they are as dirty as they come. For the civilians, they get increased property values and lower crime rates. Everybody wins as long as you don’t look too close.

Gina tensed behind me when I veered off the main highway and took a rural route that skirted the town. She’d probably never seen this part of her hometown. A girl like her would never have cause to go this way. Her family had made it so the underbelly of Port Azrael wouldn’t touch her. My heart hardened, knowing I was the very thing they wanted to protect her from.

I took the long, winding dirt road leading through the woods. You couldn’t see the Dark Saints clubhouse from the road. The regular people wanted it that way. They needed us. Relied on us to keep things humming in the town where they lived, worked, and raised their families. But they never wanted to see us. That was fine with me. That is, until Gina came into my life.

I slowed the bike, not liking the sound it had been making for about the last hundred miles. I’d get Moose on it as soon as he got back from Dallas. Our clubhouse wasn’t much to look at. It was just a long, L-shaped brick building painted black. I could feel Gina’s sharp intake of air as I cut the engine and climbed off.  She gave me a dubious look as she pulled off my helmet and handed it to me.

Rufus, our club dog, picked that moment to come tearing around the side of the building, teeth bared and barking like some hellhound. He kind of looked like one too. He had German Shepherd, Pit, and probably seven other kinds of meaner breeds in his DNA. He bore the battle scars of quite a few fights in his younger days.

“Roof!” I leaned down and bared my own teeth at him. His eyes weren’t the greatest but as soon as he got a whiff of me, Rufus yelped with delight and immediately rolled to his back for a belly rub.

Gina’s laughter warmed me. She climbed off the bike. “What, pray tell, is that?”

“That’s Rufus,” I answered. “Don’t worry. His bark’s a hell of a lot worse than his bite.”

“Mmm.” She slid her hands along my back and nipped my earlobe, sending heat down my spine. Fuck. I wanted her again. Badly. I stole a quick glance toward the back door of the clubhouse and kissed Gina hard. She grew pliant in my arms, letting me know that she was just as anxious to be with me as I was her. I gave her a playful smack on the ass and cleared my throat. We weren’t alone.

The back door swung open and Mama Bear came out. Unlike Rufus, her bite was a hell of a lot worse than her bark. Luckily, I mostly managed to stay on her good side.

“Zig!” she shouted. “What the hell took you so long?”

Gina took her cues from me and straightened, taking a step back from me. Though we hadn’t talked about it, neither of us was too keen on letting either of our families know what we’d done together. I knew she might be thinking I was in this for a quick lay and so was she. That might have been how it started, but I knew deep in my heart it was much more than that.

Mama Bear came to me. She stood barely over five feet tall but was built like a brick shithouse. Her short, spiked, white hair practically glowed in the moonlight as she reached for me and ran a hand along my jaw.

“Hey, Mama,” I said. “I brought a guest.”

Mama’s hard gaze flicked to Gina. I sensed Gina stiffen beside me. Josie Bullock’s withering stare had brought grown men to their knees. But Gina stared right back; putting a defiant hand on her hip, she reached for Mama with the other and shook it in a firm grip.

“I’m Gina DiSalvo,” she said. “You must be Mrs. Bullock. I’ve heard a few things about you over the years.”

Mama’s brow arched and her mouth twitched. I knew she was holding back a smile but wasn’t ready to give that much of herself to Gina just yet. She was the toughest woman I’d ever known. When I was a kid, it had been her idea to bring me to the salvage yard. She figured I could use some male influence. It had been just me with my mother and my two sisters for so damn long. When my own mother got sick with MS, Josie made Bear put me to work out in the yard earning eight bucks an hour that I could bring home. From the time I was fourteen on, my paychecks helped pay the family bills. Later, I put my younger sister through college with the money I made from the club.

“Well,” Mama said. “Let’s hope I can live at least some of them down. Come on inside. You’ve gotta be dog-tired and starving. Bear says you’re going to be staying with us for a little while. I’ve got a room set up for you and a fresh change of clothes.”

Gina’s mouth dropped open. I hadn’t yet told her about Bear’s plan. Mama caught on quick and narrowed her eyes at me. She smacked me on the back with one hand and helped guide Gina to the back door with the other.

We went inside. The back door opened to a great room that we used as a bar and game room. On the other end of the building, we kept a few apartments for members who needed to hide out or crash. The other end of the building was our conference room where we held club meetings.

Right now, the clubhouse was almost empty. Mama was there with Domino and one of the newest prospects, Marcus.

“Hey, Dom.” I raised a wave. Domino stood in the doorway of the conference room. He held an unlit cigarette in one hand but even that earned him a sharp glance from Mama. You get caught smoking in Mama’s house, be prepared to lose a ball.

I wanted desperately to talk to Domino alone. My phone had stayed quiet the whole ride back from Abilene. Still, I could feel the tension in the air here at the clubhouse. It was Mama Bear. She wouldn’t say as much, but I knew she hated when Bear was gone. The two of them were otherwise inseparable, finishing each other’s sentences, always finding ways to touch each other every so often when they were in a room together. They’d been through hell and back with each other. I knew Mama had tried to leave him when they were younger, not sure if she could stomach life with the Dark Saints. She’d gone as far as Kuwait in the 90s as an army medic. But she always found her way back to Bear. Shep was the only one of us who hadn’t been raised in a broken home.

I never understood the bond they had. I respected it, but it was like some magical, ethereal thing. Something I could recognize, but never hope to have.

Gina came to my side. Maybe a bit of that magic swirled around me now because I couldn’t touch her. Not here. Not in front of Mama and Dom. But I felt her. Almost like she had started to become a part of me. Wherever I was, I became aware of where Gina was in relation to me. It was as if my world had changed its orbit, putting Gina at the center of it. And it had happened so damn fast.

I introduced Gina to Domino and Marcus. Domino was polite, but didn’t give her much more than a grunt of recognition. Something was brewing inside of him and I knew he wanted to talk to me alone as much as I did.

“Come on,” Mama said, sensing the tension in the room. “Gina, it ain’t Club Med, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with what I’ve set up for you. I’m sorry, it’ll probably be beneath what you’re used to.”

She said the last bit with no small trace of scorn and it got my back up. Mama didn’t know Gina. She only knew what she assumed about her like I had. The need to defend her against the woman who’d been as close to me as my own mother startled me. It was just one more shift in my universe.

“I’m not as spoiled as you think I am, Mrs. Bullock,” Gina said, fully capable of defending herself. “And I really appreciate your hospitality. Show me the way.”

Gina shot me a knowing smile. Mama caught my eye over Gina’s shoulder and her expression grew dark. I had a distinct feeling I was fooling exactly nobody.

When Mama and Gina disappeared down the hallway, I turned back to Domino.  He jerked his chin, motioning for me to follow him back into the conference room.

“What’s the word?” I asked. Domino didn’t sit. He leaned against the long wooden table. His expression darkened and I didn’t like it one damn bit.

“I should ask you the same fucking thing.”

I closed the door behind me, not before hearing lilting laughter coming from the other end of the hallway. Gina was already starting to charm Mama Bullock.

“What went down in Dallas?” I asked. “I haven’t heard one word from anybody all day. Why’s everyone gone radio silent?”

“There was trouble all right,” Dom said. “But Bear got it handled. He ran into some heat. Some friends of the Devils Hawks, we think. Of course, Bear can’t prove any of it. But Maddox and Chase got roughed up a little by some locals right before they got to our warehouse up there.”

“Shit.” My heart raced. My fists tightened, itching to have been in on the action. It would have suited my mood and helped clear my head. I needed a good old-fashioned fight. “They okay?”

“Oh yeah,” Domino said. “You know Maddox. He’s always gonna give worse than he gets. Then Chase managed to run down one of the assholes and drag him back to the warehouse. Kept him there until the rest of ’em could get up there. Axle had a go at him.”

My blood ran cold. Axle Hart, our club enforcer, was the darkest son of a bitch I’d ever known. Marriage and impending fatherhood hadn’t softened him one bit.  I’d never met a man who could hold out against Axle’s particular brand of persuasion. It almost made me feel sorry for whoever the son of a bitch was.

“What’d he find out?” I asked.

Domino shrugged. “No smoking gun. These guys were freelancers trying to impress the Hawks over in Laredo. They weren’t from around here though. Cali plates on the shit van they drove. Bear’s putting some feelers out to the Great Wolves M.C. up in Green Bluff. These fuckers came from somewhere close to there.”

“Freelancers,” I said. “Fuck me. When it rains it goddamn pours around here.”

Domino pushed himself off the table. “Right. So now you wanna tell me what the fuck you think you’re doing?”

My insides turned to cement. I tried to keep the expression on my face neutral but Domino seemed able to see right through it. He had a chameleon face, hard and dark. Sometimes he had the look of his half-Comanche father. Other times, he favored his mother. She’d been a mix of French, Irish, Cuban, and Portuguese. He could pass for white, black, Latino, you name it. That’s why Bear called him Domino.

“Just following my orders, same as you, Dom,” I answered, hating myself a little for it.

“Sheeit.” Domino shook his head and got damn near in my face. “It’s no good, Zig. You’re a shitty fucking liar. You’re boning that chick, aren’t you? Look, no judgment, man. She’s hot. Can’t say the thought wouldn’t have crossed my mind if I were in your place. But like you said, when it rains it pours. And we’ve got a real shit storm brewing.”

White rage colored my vision. Dom had licked his lips when he talked about Gina and I couldn’t fucking see straight.

“What the hell, man?” Domino asked.

“Just don’t,” I said. “Don’t say another fucking word about her.” I should have just kept my damn mouth shut. If my expression wasn’t a dead giveaway, this was.

Domino put a hand on my shoulder. “The fuck? Come on, Zig. You took a taste. I get it. Like I said, that is one sweet piece of ass. Who knew Gino DiSalvo’s DNA had that in it. She looks tight too. I don’t blame you.”

My blow landed straight across Domino’s jaw. He staggered sideways but recovered quickly, bouncing up on the balls of his feet, fists up.

“Are you fucking serious?” he asked, eyes bulging.

“Walk away, Dom,” I said.

He didn’t, but he did take a step back. Rubbing his jaw, Dom cracked a smile. “Holy shit, Zig. Are you into her? Well, fuck me. I guess that was another way to go.”

“Shut your mouth, Dom. I swear to God.”

He held up a conciliatory hand. “Okay, okay, man. You’ve been riding a long-ass time. I think the heat’s gotten to you. But you really planning on rattling Bear’s cage over a piece of pussy?”

Again, blood rage poured through me. Domino must have seen it cross my face. He put his fists up again and his lip curled into a snarl. Oh yeah. We were going to have a fucking go. Domino shoved a chair to the floor and took a step toward me.

“Get a fucking grip, Zig,” he said through gritted teeth. “This is me you’re talking to. I’m on your side, brother.”

“What the hell’s going on in here?” Mama Bear’s voice drew me out of the fog of anger I felt. Dom dropped his fists and straightened his back.

She came into the conference room and stood between us. Mama’s eyes flicked over my face. She put one hand on my chest and the other on Domino’s. “Everything under control?”

“Yeah,” Domino said. He had a spot of bright red blood on his bottom lip. He wiped it with his thumb and snarled at me. “Just a little disagreement. It’s all good, Mama.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek.

“Good,” she said. She took Dom’s face between her hands and tilted it left then right, checking the alignment of his jaw. “Go sit by the bar. I’ll get some ice for that cut on your lip.”

Domino knew better than to argue with her. He shot me a hard look but gave us the room. Mama turned back to me, eyes blazing.

“Don’t,” I said, knowing I was on thin ice with her.

“You sure you know what you’re doing?” she asked.

Bullshitting Domino was one thing. Lying straight to Mama Bear’s face was another. So I said nothing. I dropped my head and let out a sigh.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she said. “That girl’s scared out of her mind but there’s something else going on with her too. I can only assume you have something to do with that. I’m not going to get into your business, Zig. But when it threatens to mess with club business, I start to get worried. I’m not gonna lecture you. I’ll leave that to Bear and E.Z. Get your shit straight though, Zig. For all of our sakes.”

She reached for me then, pulling my right fist into her hand. It was already starting to swell where I’d laid into Domino.

“Bar,” she said. “I’ve got ice for you too. As far as you and Domino go, fight nice. You’re under my roof, goddammit.”

It was my turn to lean down and kiss the top of her head. She was a sucker for it. Mama slapped my ass and shoved me toward the door.