It’s been two months since Bella started working at the garage and each night ends with her text letting me know she’s home. Though I’ve enjoyed getting to know her, it’s hard as hell keeping our relationship on a friend level. Bella is not the kind of woman you take to bed, then forget about. She’s too fucking good, too sweet for me to treat her that way. Problem is, I can’t seem to take any woman to my bed lately. My cock knows what it wants, and it’s not club pussy. My heart and my head are playing tug of war with each other. My heart is telling me to take what I want, make Bella mine. My head is telling me to stay fucking clear and not to go down that road again. Am I a bastard for sometimes sending mixed signals? Hell yes. Do I care? Fuck no. I never said I wasn’t a selfish man.

Smiling, I put my phone back in my pocket, and motion for the prospect to bring me another beer. I came to the clubhouse after work to have a few drinks with my brothers and to sort shit out with our run this weekend. Tensions have been high ever since Los Demonios were caught trying to break into our warehouse. Dealing with all this bullshit right now is another reason I’m keeping Bella at a distance. I can’t risk anything happening to her.

I’ve just finished my third beer when Gabriel takes a seat next to me at the bar.

“Look, man. I’ve got to ask. We got this run tomorrow and I want to make sure your head’s in the right place after all the shit we’ve been dealing with lately.”

“Yea, brother. I’m straight,” He answers looking me dead in the eyes.

Satisfied with his reply, I stand up and take one last pull of my beer. Time to call it a night, so I head upstairs to my room and take a quick shower before laying my tired ass down for the night.

* * *

Fuck. I can’t sleep. I’ve been lying here staring at the ceiling for the past couple hours. I’m feeling too uneasy about the run we have coming up. Ever since Los Demonios moved their club into Dixon, they have kept to themselves. They’re mostly into selling drugs and pussy, but as long as they don’t bring their drugs to Polson, we don’t give two shits about what they do. The Kings have an understanding with our local police. We help them keep Polson clean and in return they look the other way when it comes to our less than legal operations.

What has me pissed the fuck off is their sudden interest in our operations and why those pussies thought they could come into our territory and try to steal from the Kings.

I sit up on the edge of my bed. Sighing, I run my hand through my hair, deciding that if I can’t sleep, I may as well take a shower and start my day.

After spending a good fifteen minutes under the spray of hot water to relax my muscles, I dry off and pull on a pair of jeans, my boots, and a long sleeve black Henley. I slide my cut on, lock up my room, and head to the kitchen.

I see Reid sitting at the table. Looking over, I notice a fresh pot of coffee sitting on the counter. I fix myself a cup before taking a seat across from him. We sit in silence for a moment before I speak.

“You still not sleeping?”

“You know how it is,” he says, shrugging his shoulders.

“Yea, brother...I do.”

We’ve all got our own demons keeping us up at night. My brother is struggling right now. Reid was in an accident almost four years ago causing him to lose his leg, but that’s not what he struggles with. He lost his little brother in that car accident. I lost one of my best friends. The whole club was devastated when Noah died.

Changing the subject, I ask, “Do you have today’s route mapped out for us?”

Reid is the club’s road captain, and he plans all our runs. We take a different route every time, making sure we stay off police radar.

“Yep, we’re all set, brother. I think we should take a prospect with us today,” he suggests. “You know with all the shit that’s going down, we could use the extra eyes.”

“Let me run it by Prez.”

Lisa comes walking in with Bennett, “Hey, boys. I’m going to make some breakfast. You hungry?”

“Hell yeah. You know we’re not about to turn down your cookin’.”

After I finish two helpings of eggs, bacon, and toast I take my empty plate to the sink where Lisa is washing the dishes.

“Thanks, Lisa,” I say, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“Anytime, sweetheart. You boys be safe out there today.”

I leave the kitchen and make my way down the hall towards Jake’s office.

When I pass Cassie in the hall, I try to ignore her, but she reaches out grabbing my arm to stop me.

“Hey, baby. I’m going to miss you,” she purrs while running her hands up my chest. I take her wrist and move her hand off me.

“Not now, Cassie.”

“Come on, Logan. Why don’t you let me take care of you before you go?”

“Fuck, Cassie! Go find some other brother’s cock to suck, that’s what you’re here for.” I bark at her, completely fucking annoyed at the way she’s been acting lately.

“You’re acting this way because of that bitch, aren’t you?”

“What the fuck you are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about that little bitch you work with.”

Suddenly, I see red. In one swift movement, I wrap my hand around the bitches throat and push her against the wall. Her eyes go big, shocked by my actions.

“Bella is none of your fuckin’ business. You, Cassie, are a clubwhore, and your only business is laying on your back or getting on your knees. Is there any part of that you don’t understand?”

After nodding her head quickly, I let her go.

“Now get the fuck out of here.”

How does the bitch even know about Bella? She’s probably been snooping around. Pissed I haven’t touched her pussy in months.

Once she scurries away, I continue to Jake’s office. I knock on his door before going in.

“Hey, Prez. Got a minute?”

“Sure, kid. What’s up?”

“I was talking with Reid, and he suggested we take Austin with us today. With all this shit going down lately, I think it’s a good idea.”

Jake leans back in his chair folding his arms over his chest contemplating my request.

“Alright. Take the prospect. Call on the burner if there are any signs of trouble.”

Leaving his office and walking into the common room, I see the prospect cleaning up from the night before. “Austin,” I holler from across the room. “Get your shit and be out front in five.”

He doesn’t say a word, just lifts his chin, and does what he’s told. Making my way outside, I see Reid leaning against his bike smoking a cigarette. Looking around I notice Quinn isn’t here.

I turn to Reid. “You see Quinn?”

He looks at me with his head cocked. “Do you really need to ask? You saw the redhead he had hangin’ all over him last night,” He says with a grin.

Fuck no, I don’t need to ask. I head back inside going straight to dipshit’s room. I open the door without knocking and sure as shit he’s banging the hell out of the redheaded bitch while wearing dreadlocks and an eye patch.

Shaking my head, I let out a sigh. “Hey, Johnny Depp. Wrap this shit up. We leave in five.”

Quinn pulls out of the chick not even bothering to cover himself, smacking her on the ass. “You’re fuckin’ lucky I was finished, bro. There is no way in hell I was leaving this fine pussy and riding with a case of blue balls,” he says as he walks over to the chair sitting by the bedroom door and starts pulling on his jeans.

Deciding I’ve seen enough, I tell him, “Don’t forget to take off the dreads, brother.”

I turn around and head back outside leaving him to finish getting ready.

As I’m fishing a cigarette out of my cut I look over and see Quinn mounting his bike. I can’t help fuckin’ laughing at him because the fucker is still wearing the eye patch.

He shrugs his shoulders and starts his bike.

Quinn is who he is and makes no apologies. We all like to bust his balls from time to time, but he knows he has no judgment from his brothers.

“Listen up,” I raise my voice above the rumble of the engines, “You all know the shit going down with Los Demonios. We need to keep our eyes open today. Stay observant. They’re some shady motherfuckers.”

Our first stop is the warehouse to load the guns in the van that I have the prospect driving. We normally would have three brothers on this run, that way things look less suspicious, but with the recent threat to the club, we have five men today.

Pulling up in front of the warehouse, I see a couple of our guys sitting outside.

“Alright. Let’s get this shit loaded. I want to be back on the road in an hour.”

Forty-five minutes later we’re loaded and ready to roll when Gabriel pulls me aside.

“Just got a call from a friend in Dixon. He’s doing me a favor by keeping an eye out for any Demonios today. He told me he saw about seven of their men riding through today in three trucks headed in this direction. My guess is they are about thirty minutes out. What’s the plan?”

“We stay ahead of them. Plus, they don’t know our route. We can’t miss this delivery. We do, and then our buyer’s will be looking to take their business somewhere else. I’m not willing to risk it.”

“I’m with you, brother,” he says.

I motion to everyone as we prepare to head out. “Let’s roll.”

The plan is to meet up with the Asians in Eureka. We don’t go all the way to the border because of check points. That’s their problem, not ours.

Two hours later, we make it to our agreed meeting place. Looking at my phone, I see we are about twenty minutes early.

Climbing off my bike, I decide to have a smoke while we wait.

Feeling irritated, I check the time again. It’s been forty-five minutes, and still, our buyers are a no show.

“I don’t fuckin’ like this. Something’s off.”

“Agreed, man,” adds Reid.

“This shit reeks of Los Demonios.”

Throwing my cigarette down, I grab the burner from my cut. “I’m going to call Prez. See what he wants to do.”

I barely get those words out of my mouth when two trucks come flying up the dirt road. I reach into my cut for my gun.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you.” A man, with a heavy Spanish accent, says. Taking my hand slowly out of my cut, I turn around to find a man with a gun to Quinn’s head.

“Sorry, boss. Chaparro ‘Shorty’ here, got me while I was taking a piss.”

“Cállate cabrón Shut up asshole,” the man says, then clocks Quinn in the eye with the butt of his gun.

“Son of a bitch! That wasn’t necessary, man.” Quinn tells him while holding the side of his face.

“Now, here’s what’s going to happen. My men and I are taking those guns. If I see any one of you reaching for your piece, you’ll be going back home with one less gringo.”

I motion for all my men to take it easy. I look specifically at Gabriel and I can see the wild look in his eyes.

I shake my head at him.

Now is not the time for him to lose his shit.

Thirty minutes later, they have our guns loaded into their trucks and it’s taking all I have not to put a bullet in his head, but I won’t risk Quinn’s life.

“You know you won’t get away with this,” I say, gritting my teeth.

“Fuck you puta, bitch,” he laughs. “Looks to me like we are.”

My men and I just watched those sons of bitches take our guns. I’m about to call Jake when Quinn approaches me with anger and regret written all over his face.

“Look, Logan. This is all on me. I fucked up, brother.”

“Damn straight you fucked up. Had you been paying attention that motherfucker wouldn’t have gotten the drop on you.”

Quinn hangs his head at my sharp words but it needs to be said, and he knows it. Sighing I tell him, “Shit, man. Regardless, it happened. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that we’re all going home in one piece.”

Back at the clubhouse, Jake calls emergency church. We need to figure out our next plan of action. Once we all make our way into the room and take our seats, Jake regards Quinn. “You okay, brother?”

He nods his head in response.

“Alright. Once Logan informed me of what happened, I called our buyer. Turns out they got a text telling them the meetup time had changed. That’s why they were a no show.”

“You believe him?” I ask.

“Yeah, I believe him. They’ve been dealing with us a couple of years now without incident, so I don’t see them risking their business to start up any sort a relationship with an unknown MC.”

“So, what do we do?” This coming from Reid.

“We wait for now,” Jake says. “If we go in hot, letting our anger cloud our judgment, things will get sloppy. So, we play this smart. Let them think they’re getting away with fucking us over. In the meantime, we contact the Russians. Let them in on what’s going down. I have a feeling they’re not going to take to kindly to Los Demonios fuckin’ with their business. I know you don’t like waiting, letting them pussies think they’ve won, but it is what’s best. Are we all in agreement?” Jake asks.

With collective ‘ayes’ from all the brothers, Prez slams the gavel. “It’s decided. We wait.”

Walking out of church, I stride up next to Quinn and slap him on the back.

“Come on man. Let’s go grab a beer.”

Some heavy shit went down today and my brother is feeling the weight of it. Even though he fucked up, he needs to understand that what happened out there could have happened to any one of us. Hell, we all fuck up from time-to-time but at the end of the day, you suck it up and roll with it.

“Not tonight, brother. I’m going to go for a ride. Clear my head.”

“Alright. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow.”

As he’s walking away I call out to him. “Hey, Quinn.”

Turning, he looks back at me.

“You know you can call me if there’s anything you need, man?”

“Yeah, brother. Thanks.”

I take a seat at the bar next to Reid, “Quinn doing okay?” He asks.

“Yeah, just going to sort his shit out.”

Quinn is known for cuttin’ up, crackin’ jokes, and always fuckin’ with one of us. Behind that humor is a man that is very passionate about his club. Seeing him so torn up about today doesn’t surprise me. I know he’ll be okay once he clears his head.

Needing a shot of whiskey, I turn my attention to who’s behind the bar and see our prospect, Blake.

“What can I get you, Logan?”

“Give me two shots of whiskey and a beer, man.”

Several shots and too many beers later, I decide to crash in my room. Too fucking tired and drunk to bother with a shower.

I strip off my clothes, put my piece on the nightstand and climb into bed. Looking at the time, I see it’s a little after one in the morning. I know Bella is asleep by now, but after the day I’ve had I just want to hear her voice.

Grabbing my phone off the table beside my bed, I find her name in my contacts and press the call button. It rings four times before I hear her sleepy voice.

“Hello?”

I let out a deep sigh because this is exactly what I needed.

“Hey, beautiful.”

“Logan, is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine, babe. I just wanted to hear your sweet voice, and tell you goodnight.”

With a raspy giggle, she says. “If you’d have waited a few hours you could have told me good morning.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I say chuckling.

“I’m going to let you get back to sleep. I’ll see you at work Monday. Goodnight, Angel.”

“Goodnight, Logan.”