ONE
Trouble Walked In
One week later. . .
Lucky
The foul mood I was in could only be erased by one of two things: drowning myself in alcohol or drowning myself in sex. Luckily, one place had all the alcohol or pussy a biker could want so I headed to Neptune’s to indulge in the refuge it offered to try to forget the events of the other night.
After coming home from Seven’s place, I had found a letter taped to my front door, signed only with my name on the front. The whiskey I had earlier instantly soured in my gut as I recognized the penmanship. Without even reading it, I crumpled up the paper and tossed it to the ground. After the stuff that just happened with Seven, I didn’t have time for that bullshit.
Walking into the apartment, I headed straight for the hard stuff, but when I was three shots in and still fuming, I realized that it couldn’t be helped. Now that I had seen the note, there would be nothing that would make me forget it.
In my mind, snapshots formed, reminding me of a time that I didn’t want to remember. This was bullshit. I had walked out of that life a long time ago and found a place in Glory MC, a place where I felt I belonged. This unexpected note only reminded me of the illusion I had made for myself, calling attention to where I had come from, and probably, where I would always belong. I was still shaking when I opened the front door of my apartment and picked up the crumbled paper. Seven words stared back at me.
Come home. Lennon wants to see you.
“Shit.” This wasn’t good. This was so not good.
Like a black and white movie, my past had the potential of playing out in front of me for all to see. I thought I had buried that shit long ago, but fate had a funny way of finding you even when you assumed a different personality. It seemed that no matter how hard I tried, I could never outrun my beginnings.
Since then, the note was all I had thought of, acting as a distraction that I didn’t need.
At this point, I could fuck or I could fight. It really didn’t matter as long as I could do at least one tonight. I just needed something to get my mind off this fucking note. The shaking had yet to stop, so I was once again sucking on the end of a cigarette, hoping it would take the edge off. I could barely concentrate now. For a full week, my emotions were trigger happy, my concentration at an all-time low. The aggression within me continued to build, finding no way out. I needed to pound it out or I’d fucking pop.
I spotted trouble as soon as I walked in through the doors of Neptune’s. With their backs towards me, the fools waiting at the bar didn’t see me coming until the business end of my pistol was pressed up against their leader’s skull. One quick pump of my finger and this moron wouldn’t have known what killed him. “Hands up, motherfucker, or I blow your head off.”
For a brief moment, all three men were frozen in place as surprise hit them like a brick. Then after a beat, they dove into action. One of them came at me with a heavy fist. I ducked before he could land one on me, his punch instead hitting air. The other to my right didn’t bother with aim, he just tackled me mid-body, sending us back and crashing onto the tables and chairs.
Patrons stumbled back as we barreled into them. We staggered to our feet, weaving as several customers whizzed past us to get to safety. With the force of a bull, I charged forward, grabbing the asshole and nailing him through the nearest table. It cracked underneath his weight.
Sensing movement behind me, I turned. My face caught the punch of the other guy who had missed me earlier. He grinned now. “Got you there.” His smug smirk was punctuated with a brain-muddling hit that had me blinking stars. Fucking hell. What the fuck was his fist made of? Concrete?
The taste of pennies filled my mouth as pain radiated from it. “Watch out,” I said before he turned. Grabbing his hair, I yanked his head back and bashed it into the bar, feeling the satisfying crush of cartilage. Behind it, Indy’s eyes were wide like saucers as she stared back at me.
“Clean that up, would you?” Hanna would murder me if I got her bar bloody.
“Lucky, what the hell are you doing?” Indy yelled. But I ignored her and turned to face the last man standing.
Two hands raised in surrender as I aimed my pistol at him. “I just wanna talk.”
Too late for that. “Get the fuck out.”
“Come on, man.”
“What do you want?”
“I just wanna talk.”
I rolled my eyes and maneuvered the pistol in a little rolling motion. “So speak.”
The man eyed the crowd surrounding us and shook his head. “In private.”
“You’re shit outta luck, man. We don’t host private parties here.” My finger tightened on the trigger, readying to blow his head off. My anger was through the roof and my patience had run out a long time ago.
Except the motherfucker uttered the one word that ultimately saved him. “Please.”
My eyelids fluttered shut before I could stop it, the fight in me dying out like a flame without oxygen.
Bronson Alborn was Ward Three’s newest leader, replacing the idiot, Brennan, who got his Ward into a slew of problems he couldn’t find his way out of. “Tell your cronies to take a hike,” I growled. “It’s just you and Glory MC in this. No one else. Whatever you gotta say, you say it to all of Glory MC, got it?”
The Ward leader nodded.
Aim never wavering far from his face, I pulled out my phone and called up Glory MC, requesting an emergency meeting. In minutes, Neptune’s would be swarming with more bikers. I realized belatedly that this was what I should have done when I first spotted them, but aggression took first run, logic only now regaining control.
As we waited, the two men who gave me a good round of boxing started to wake. I sent their leader a look. “Leave,” he told them in a strict, authoritative tone. “I need to speak with Glory MC alone.”
Their hardened gazes cut to me as they reluctantly left the dive bar. Meanwhile, Hanna was dealing with crowd control, telling her customers that the brawl was over and to go about their own business again. “Next time, I’ll have to charge for the show,” she joked as she flashed an easygoing smile that calmed everyone down.
As the crowd settled, my aggression slowly died out. With that came the realization that I had made a big fucking mess. It would require more than just sweeping it under the rug and praying that nobody would notice.
I eyed the busted-up table, the bloodied floor, and the bashed in bar. Hanna shot me a nasty glare over her shoulder, confirming my thoughts. Yeah, I’d messed up big time. And I’d no doubt have to pay for it now when the rest of Glory MC rolled in.
As if the situation could get any worse, over on the far side of the bar, my gaze landed on someone I hadn’t noticed when I first walked in.
Seven stood off to the side, holding a pool stick in her hand. Her oceanic eyes were wide as she took in the damage I had caused.
Her eyes locked on me as if she wanted to say something, but her parted lips made no sound. I was glad for it. I wasn’t in a good mindset right now to deal with it. Torrid emotions ran rampant within me. Many of them I had no idea how to handle. I didn’t need to mess up things between us even more. God, why the hell did I have to kiss her?
Seconds later, Knuckle, the president of Glory MC, came barreling through the doors, looking like a pissed off bull. “What the fuck happened here?” he growled. I figured an “Oops, my bad?” wouldn’t suffice as an apology. “Jesus fucking Christ, Lucky,” he roared as he took in the damage and locked his infuriated gaze on me. “Who pissed you off?”
The rest of Glory MC rolled in one after the other, taking in the damage with sharp eyes. Even with Hanna and Indy working hard to clean up the mess, there wasn’t a quick way to fix the tables that were snapped in two.
I had messed up the clubhouse, caused shit for Hanna’s business, and got Glory MC involved in another Ward’s problems all in one tonight. Congratulations, Lucky, you just won the award for being the biggest dick in the club!
Knuckle spared one glacial look at Ward Three’s leader and barked, “Inside,” before we all crammed ourselves into the meeting room. Glory MC often used Neptune’s as a clubhouse. It provided a space for business and for pleasure. But tonight, after the mess I had made, I knew it would be all work and no play. Something had to be going on for another Ward leader to come here and ask to talk.
As I trailed behind, I caught Seven’s eyes. The cerulean blues darted away quickly. So she didn’t want me to know she was looking at me. Did she want to talk? Even when I took advantage of her?
“Lucky!” Knuckle barked and I jerked my head in his direction. “Get your ass in here!”
After one last look at Seven, I turned away.
Seven
I figured that the first time I saw Lucky since that messed up kissed we shared, it would come with a whole lot of trouble. I just didn’t expect it would have a bucketful of blood and a knuckle sandwich to go with it. Talk about a crazy combo! The brawl happened so fast, if I blinked, I was sure I would’ve missed it.
Lucky was fast. So fast that he nearly flattened the entire bar all by himself. Three against one hardly seemed fair until he started to move. His fought like a bruiser, a heavy bull of a man who moved with the swiftness and the precision of a boxer.
By the end of it all, Lucky’s face was a bloodied mess, his opponents flat on their backs surrounding him as one stared back at him with fear. As it all happened, my own heart pulsed in my chest until I thought it would explode.
As Hanna tried to calm the crowd down, my gaze was fixated on Lucky and his movements. His muscles moved beneath his tanned skin, made exposed by the ripped shirt hanging off his shoulders. I wasn’t the only one who was taking in the sights either. Other women of varying ages were enjoying the view before us, no doubt filling their minds with fantasies for later on.
I steeled my gaze, shielding myself from the Lucky pheromones that seemed to permeate the air. I’d been a victim of that lust once and had nearly lost control. I wouldn’t fall prey to it twice.
Yet the way he moved seemed to call attention to him. It screamed look at me! Even if his ego didn’t need any more stroking. Lucky just seemed to draw attention to himself whether he liked it or not.
When he caught me looking, I glanced away, embarrassed that I was one of the women who’d been caught ogling him. I waited for that trademark panty-melting smirk to make an appearance, but that know-it-all grin was absent today. Lucky just held my gaze, keeping me trapped in an intense standoff that made me break out into a sweat. I realized belatedly that he was trying to read me.
I slammed up my mental blockades, trying to keep my face as emotionless as possible. The second he knew he could affect me, he would run a gambit with it and use it against me. Bikers were like that, I realized in the recent months that I had been hanging around Glory MC. They used what emotions you had for them and manipulated it to their liking. If you hated them, they toyed with that emotion, goading and taunting you with threats until that intense hate spiraled into something they could wield against you—fear.
With women, Lucky wasn’t that different. He knew his power over the fairer sex. And because of that panty-melting smile that could incinerate you on the spot, I knew Lucky loved to mess with a woman’s mind. I wouldn’t give him the opportunity with mine.
As the prez of Glory MC made a commotion, waved his arms in fury a bit and pointed to the meeting room, the club moved silently to do as he commanded. The door closing meant that trouble was over for now. But I didn’t have to be educated in meteorology to know that a storm was brewing. Everyone in Neptune’s could feel it in the air.
I sat at the bar and tried not to look over my shoulder again at the closed door. I’d come here hoping for a chance to talk to Lucky and straighten shit out about the other night. As much as he annoyed me, the last thing I wanted was to make an enemy out of Indy’s boyfriend’s best friend.
But it was clear from the way Lucky stomped into Neptune’s that something was terribly off with him. I could see it in his eyes. Though light in color, there were storms in his irises. Something dark was bothering him. And by the Tasmanian devil demolition job he did, it was clear he wasn’t handling it well.
Neptune’s sprang back as if nothing had happened just a few minutes ago. Music played and people were drunk and happy. Only I seemed to be concerned about the wreckage Lucky had caused. What had set him off like that?
Indy placed another draft before me and I thanked her before taking a sip. Despite the fact that most people had a hard time finding food and drink, Neptune’s was fully stocked because the dive bar acted as Glory MC’s clubhouse and since Glory MC was our Ward’s leader, making them the equivalent to politicians or celebrities. “Who do you think they are?” she asked, referring to the men who Lucky had fought.
I lifted my shoulders in a shrug. “Hell if I know. But Lucky looked pissed as hell when he spotted them.”
“I didn’t see any identifying marks on him. You think he could be an ex-brother? A Glory member coming back for a second shot at the club?”
Nah, it wasn’t possible. There weren’t ex-brothers in the club. Only dead ones. “Another enemy?” I threw out.
I watched as Indy’s frame froze. “You think it’s one of the Phantoms?”
“I don’t know, but we can’t rule it out. They have come here before.” The last time someone showed up here, they’d tricked Indy and nearly blew up Neptune’s into a crater.
“Whoever he is, Glory MC was pretty pissed to see him here.”
“Yeah, it can’t be good,” I agreed.
They had been in there for almost forty minutes. Meanwhile, my curiosity was getting the best of me. I read once that curiosity was a sign of intelligence, but right now, the only thing it meant was that I would have to wait longer for a chance to speak to Lucky in private. As I waited, I chatted with Indy as she worked, trying not to seem too anxious as I polished off the rest of my drinks. As soon as the meeting door opened, I pounced up from the barstool, nearly toppling it over with my eagerness.
Big men in leather emerged one by one, splitting up into groups. Some walked directly to the bar while a few went to chill at a table. Others left, but amidst all of them, I couldn’t spot Lucky, Hastie, or the prez at all in the group.
“What happened?” I asked Beck as he approached us and leaned against the bar. Indy immediately moved to get him a drink.
The sergeant at arms gave a shake of his head, sampling his whiskey before saying, “Big problems over in Ward Three.”
“Like what?”
Beck simply gave me a look. Oh, right. Glory biz was exclusive. If you weren’t a member, well, tough shit.
I decided to switch topics. “What’s going on with Lucky? Is he always that aggressive?” I kept my voice casual, trying not to seem too overly interested. Beck would suspect something and close up like a clam if I wasn’t careful of how I approached this.
He sighed heavily as he slipped onto a barstool. “That man has some serious shit he’s going through that I don’t even know the extent of. For the past week, something has ticked him off so bad that even I don’t want to be in his face when he explodes.” Shit. What did that even mean? Could it be that he was still upset about the other night?
I turned to face the meeting room. “Where is he anyway?”
“He’s still inside. Knuckle is no doubt rippin’ him a new one as we speak. Whatever is bothering Lucky seems personal.”
“Personal?” I echoed.
Beck nodded. “It’s like he’s been simmering this whole time, just waiting to pop. He’s aggressive, talking back, missing church. Everyone saw it coming. Today was the day he just snapped.” He shook his head again. “Something’s up and I think he’s spilling it to Knuckle as we speak.”
Interesting. Glory members usually put the club first. Whatever was going on with Lucky meant that it was distracting him enough to mess with his duties with the club. What could have riled him up so much? I wasn’t vain enough to believe it was still about the kiss now.
Lucky was usually so unaffected by everything. The injuries he had acquired not too long ago in his motorcycle accident with Brennan were severe, yet he strode around with blinding confidence and a smile on his mug as if it’d been nothing.
“Best stay clear of him,” Beck warned. “I don’t know where his head’s at right now. He isn’t thinking clearly.” That kind of warning from the baddest biker of the club had me taking notice. But instead of veering me off track, it only strengthened my need to speak with Lucky more.
A few minutes later, the door swung open and Lucky stormed out. I nearly toppled the stool over again in my haste to see him. Except Lucky was moving too quickly for me to stop him and pull him aside.
By his movements, I could tell he was furious. Tension mounted on his shoulders, ready to be let loose on anyone who provoked him. His boots thumped loudly in the dive bar, signaling to everyone to move out of his way. They parted like the sea, allowing him through. He seemed so uncontrolled and dangerous, ready to wreck and demolish at the flip of a trigger that I could only watch on in wonder.
Hastie’s cool green eyes met mine as he emerged from the meeting room and I knew something had gone dangerously wrong even before he called out for Lucky. “You have to hand over your cut, man!”
My jaw would’ve hit the floor if it weren’t attached to the rest of my head. Why did Lucky have to give up his cut? A fully patched member like Lucky would rather die than be stripped of his patch.
People stilled, watching as Lucky stopped at the entrance, turning his head over his shoulder. I spared a glance at Beck, who looked just as surprised as I was. A nasty snarl erupted from deep within Lucky’s chest before he reached up and slipped out of his vest, tossing the leather in the air for Hastie to catch. The dark look he shot me before he made a getaway was so chilling, it made me want to shrink back into myself. Except I was still frozen in place, stunned speechless that I couldn’t even get a word out as he stormed through the doors of Neptune’s, leaving everyone in shock.
I felt Indy’s presence beside me as she emerged from behind the bar. “What just happened?” I asked her in an astounded whisper.
“I think Lucky just got kicked out of Glory MC.”