Chapter 10

Mary Jane stood several feet behind Storm as he confronted his father and Speed, surrounded by a crowd of shouting Brothers.

“Hey, honey, come over here with us. You don’t want to be in the middle of those testosterone-fueled lunatics.” The brunette she’d seen earlier hanging on Wolf stood at the end of the bar with the other women, waving her over.

Considering what had happened earlier in the evening, she was surprised one of them would be so friendly. She moved over and stood next to her. They were in a pretty good spot. A handful of the Brothers sat on the stools, letting the women see through the small break between their broad shoulders. Giving the woman a smile of thanks, Mary Jane turned to see what was happening.

In the middle of the floor, a man with his hands and feet tied to a chair rested his chin on his chest. What she could see of his face was bloody and bruised. His hair was matted with blood and hung over one eye, which was swollen shut.

“Oh, fuck, that’s Toro’s cousin, Angel Garcia,” the brunette whispered. “Toro is the leader of the Thirty-Second gang. He’s a mean son of a bitch. He’s not going to like that the Brothers have beaten on his cousin. A shame about Angel. He was so good-looking, not to mention he has a rockin’ body. I guess there won’t be much left after the Mayhem Brothers are finished with him.”

Mary Jane watched with her stomach turning as Easy lifted the man’s head by the hair and hit him.

“Quit playing dead and answer our questions,” Easy ordered between clenched teeth. The man remained limp. Easy backhanded him.

“Get back!” Storm shoved people out of the way, making a path. “Step away, Easy. This isn’t your job. The Skull and me can take care of this.”

Mary Jane was so relieved that Storm was putting a stop to the craziness.

“Sure.” Easy raised his hands and moved back. “Let’s see your interrogation skills,” he said, the sneer in those words obvious as he crossed his arms.

The cold and furious look Storm gave his father sent chills down Mary Jane’s back.

Storm stooped down and examined the stranger’s face.

“Fuck! This is Angel Garcia.” Storm stood and glanced around. “Was he driving?”

Razz eased into the circle. “No. Passenger. They wrecked and the driver jumped out and hightailed it down an alleyway and disappeared. We searched but didn’t find him. This one had been knocked out in the crash.”

“Untie him.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Speed pulled a gun out and aimed it at the unconscious man. “He deserves to die. Damaged our property, shot at a Brother, plus all the fucking trouble they’ve caused us the last ten years. He’s high enough in the Thirty-Second ranking to do some damage. Killing him will make it worthwhile for them to stay out of our way!” He double fisted the handle and eyed the sight down the barrel.

Storm stepped in front of Speed’s target.

Her heart pounded in fear. What was he thinking? Did he have a death wish?

“Get the fuck out of the way, Storm!” The Skull’s face turned bright red. Mary Jane was certain he was about to have a heart attack.

“If you wound or kill him, we might as well hire our own bodyguards. The Thirty-Second’s boss will never rest until we’re all dead or we kill them. I sure as hell don’t want to go back to the pen.” Storm towered over the older man with his fists at his sides.

Noise from behind the crowd near the door brought everyone’s attention around.

“Code red! The fucking cops are here,” Cutter said in a firm voice to be heard over the crowd.

Everyone scrambled to hide their dope and weapons. Two of the Mayhem Brothers picked up Angel, chair and all, and rushed to take him out of sight to the basement. Storm and Speed headed for the front door. They wanted to make sure the cops didn’t have a reason to enter.

“Hi there, Jameson. What brings you to visit us?” Storm stepped in front of the Sand County sheriff’s deputy, blocking his way into the building. Though Brook Hill was a suburb of Sand City, neither town had a police force and depended on the sheriff’s department for protection.

“There was a report of gunfire. You wouldn’t know anything about it, would you?” The deputy grinned.

Storm and Jameson had a mutual agreement to lie to each other and keep the peace. They didn’t like each other but found the arrangement mutually beneficial. Storm didn’t want the cops bothering his Brothers or the clubhouse every day. And Jameson preferred to be left alone so he could visit his girlfriend while he was on duty so his wife wouldn’t know. Storm had no respect for the asshole, but he did make life easier. Thanks to him, there were no interfering cops snooping around.

“No. Not at all,” Storm said. “Maybe someone heard a car backfiring when it passed by. You know how noisy those pieces of shit can be.”

“I bet you’re right.” The deputy sneered and looked over Storm’s shoulder. “Well, hello. I haven’t met you before.” He held out a hand to Mary Jane.

Storm wanted to knock the deputy on his ass. The thought of that sleaze putting his hands on her made him sick. He moved in front of her, facing down Jameson.

“She’s my old lady.” He reached back and pulled her into his side, placing his arm over Mary Jane’s shoulders. Strangely, it felt right.

“Touchy, touchy.” Jameson laughed and turned around, waving to the other deputies to follow him. “Tell your gang to keep it quiet. I hate leaving Mindy any longer than necessary.”

“Give my regards to Annie!”

Jameson scowled at Storm and ducked into his patrol car.

“Who’s Annie? The deputy didn’t seem happy that you mentioned her.”

“Annie’s his wife.”

“Mindy’s their daughter?”

“No. Though she’s young enough. She’s his girlfriend.”

“Oh.”

He looked down into her face, his arm still around her shoulder. He had no urge to move it. Had he ever wanted to hold anyone so? Being this close would normally have him panicking and pushing away.

Taking in her expression, pride filled his chest. She wrinkled her nose, her disdain for the deputy obvious. Damn! He wanted to kiss the tip of that pretty nose.

“Did no one in your commune have a wife and girlfriend?”

“Not that I know of. Though Mr. Houseman has five wives. I guess some people would say he did.”

“Five?” He’d heard about the TV shows where the men had more than one wife, but he thought that was made-up shit.

“Actually, one licensed wife and four common-law wives. They have twelve kids. All under the age of eight,” she said.

“Fuck!” The thought of having that many wives and children horrified him.

“What?”

He shook his head. “How can any man keep five women happy? He’d never get any rest.”

Her body trembled. He looked down again. Hazel eyes twinkled with amusement. That was when he noticed she hadn’t placed her arm around his waist. Good girl. He wasn’t sure if he could have continued to hold her if she had.

“And five women having PMS,” she said with laughter in her voice.

“Shit! I remember how my sister would be a total bitch leading up to that. She would always apologize afterward, but it was crazy.” Cassidy was the best older sister any kid could have. He hadn’t appreciated it at the time.

“I swear we can’t help it.” She smiled. Then her cute forehead wrinkled. “Sister? Where is she now?”

“She moved away.”

“Where to?”

He shrugged. Whenever he thought of his sister a brick landed in his gut. He missed her and worried. She’d visited him several times in prison and sent money to buy the little extras they’d allowed. His sister had a baby boy. That asshole Thorn’s kid. She wouldn’t talk about the man and say where the asshole was hiding. Storm was the worst brother in the world. If he’d been any decent kind of brother, he’d track down that bastard and make him pay child support or marry her. But she was probably better off without the low-down scumbag. After Storm had been released, Cassidy disappeared, sending a note through Speed for him not to look for her.

No man in Cassidy’s life had ever treated her right, including him. So he’d done as she’d asked.

“Storm?”

Snapping out of past regrets, he squeezed Mary Jane for a moment and released her.

“She didn’t want to be found.” He nodded to the clubhouse. “Go on to my room. I’ll come up after I straighten out this Thirty-Second shit.”

She searched his face. “Okay.” With a slight hesitation, she tugged on his sleeve and smiled as if to give him assurance that everything would be fine and then walked away.

Damn, he wanted to follow her. He watched the tempting sway of her hips and the easy stride of those long legs. Only when he was between her legs did he forget all about the club, his dad and sister, and the coward inside himself.