Chapter Three

Carson

 

I woke up with a pounding headache and an aching in my bones that meant I’d been going at it all night. Everything hurt. My hands hurt, my arms hurt. Even my goddamn hair hurt. I rubbed my hands over my face and sighed loudly, trying to process the night.

 

“Morning, handsome,” a voice croaked. I jumped. The duvet slipped to the side, revealing a very sexy, very naked, very tan woman. She was lying on her side and squinting at me. Her long brown hair was in a sensual tangle over her eyes, and I could see her lips looked practically bee-stung. The only problem was that I couldn’t remember her name.

 

“Hi,” I said, raking a hand through my hair and wincing. She looked at me expectantly. “What?”

 

She giggled, a childish sound that grated on my nerves. Between my head and the fact that I had less than an hour to get to work, I was starting to feel annoyed. I couldn’t even remember where I’d met her.

 

“Do you still want breakfast?” she purred, reaching over and dragged painted talons up my leg. “Last night you told me you’d buy me pancakes.” She pouted. “I want sausage and bacon, too.”

 

I rolled my eyes. “Sorry,” I said harshly. “I really have to get to work.”

 

She rolled onto her belly and I couldn’t stop my eyes from flicking down over her body. She looked like she was about my age, but with incredibly toned legs and a great ass. My cock twitched between my legs and I shook my head to clear the thought of ripping the sheet away from her body and taking her right then and there.

 

“Fine,” she said grumpily. She stood up, naked, and I stretched and I glanced away so I wouldn’t be tempted by her perfect, round breasts. “I’ll get dressed,” she said after it became clear I wasn’t going to pay any more attention to her. “Can you drop me off at the bus?”

 

“If you hurry,” I told her. “I have to take a shower.”

 

She frowned at me. “I bet you don’t even remember my name,” she commented blithely.

 

I shook my head. “Nope,” I said, grinning at her. She rolled her eyes.

 

“It’s Lily,” she informed me. “You can remember for next time.”

 

I wanted to laugh. “Sorry, I don’t usually go for a round two,” I told her. She glared at me and whirled back around, looking at her shiny legs. With a laugh, I walked into the bathroom and started the water as hot as it would go. It could have been worse; she could have tried to slap me.

 

In the shower, I closed my eyes and soaped my body mechanically. It was a ritual that I’d done every for as many years back as I could count: get naked in the shower and clear my mind of the shit that was bothering me. It was always calming, even if it didn’t always work. With a monster hangover like this one, I needed all the comfort I could get.

 

When I was toweling off, the woman sat on the edge of the bed and watched me with her catlike eyes. She made a big show of looking me over, and I had to turn around to ignore her. I couldn’t even remember picking her up. I hoped desperately that I’d used a rubber.

 

“You sure I can’t change your mind about breakfast?” she asked while she was applying lip gloss and pouting into a small mirror. “I know a great diner!”

 

I shook my head. “I can’t be late for work, sorry,” I said, toneless. She grumbled but followed me out to my bike anyway. When I handed her my extra helmet, she balked. “Really? This is gonna mess up my hair,” she whined. “I don’t wanna wear it.”

 

“Well I don’t wanna get a two hundred dollar ticket because I’m carrying a bitch who isn’t wearing one,” I spat. Grabbing the helmet out of her hands, I plunked it down on her head and buckled the strap under her chin. She glared at me venomously; I didn’t think that I had to worry about her asking me for breakfast again.

 

I drove her to the bus stop and idled as she got off the bike. When she leaned in to kiss me, I took the helmet off of her head and nodded at her. “Later,” I said, speeding away. Her reply was drowned in the muffle of my bike roaring up.

 

By the time I pulled into Tinder’s parking lot, my headache was thankfully starting to fade. I’d only been up for an hour or so but the worst of my hangover was fading. Still, the idea of a long shift didn’t exactly sound appealing. Working at the jewelry store was only fun when the customers didn’t treat me like shit. I was fed up with stuck-up, skinny bitches who waltzed in and then acted like I was making them feel unsafe. I have no interest in women who need to feel important all the time; it was one of the reasons I rarely asked anyone to stay over. With last night, I couldn’t even remember asking that bitch if she wanted to come home with me, Lily or whatever her name was.

 

When I hung up my leather jacket in the back room of Tinder’s, I looked at my patches with pride. I’d been with the MC for almost ten years now, and I’d earned every single scratch, bruise, and accolade. Those guys were my family. Of course random women wanted to fuck us all the time, especially those of us who didn’t have an old lady. Girls like Lily were a dime a dozen.

 

“Hey, Carson, you’re late,” the manager told me as I slipped into place by the front door. “Two minutes. If it happens again, I’m gonna have to write you up,” he said with a guilty grin. “I don’t wanna do it, but you know how corporate is. That’s my ass on the line if you can’t show up.”

 

“It won’t happen again,” I said curtly as I stared straight ahead. “Bike trouble this morning.”

 

The manager rolled his eyes and walked past. I felt a flash of anger towards him—and Lily—but it passed. Soon it just looked like every other Monday morning at the jewelry store: lots of men rushing in before heading to their offices. I started to wonder what everyone was fighting about this weekend.

 

“Hey, buddy,” one of the guys said to me. He held up a box with a heart-shaped pendant made of diamonds and a box of diamond cluster earrings with pearls. “Which of these would your girl like?”

 

“I don’t have a girl,” I said drily. Just as I said that, I saw her. The girl from the bar the other night, that redheaded bartender. She sauntered in wearing leather leggings that hugged her curves and a flowing turquoise silk top. All in all, she looked like she was going to work at the bar, rather than take a little shopping detour.

 

When she saw me, she froze in place. Just as I was about to greet her, she tossed her head and started browsing the store. I carefully watched as she walked up and down the aisles. Her lovely figure swung from side to side as she strolled. I frowned. She was a bartender, and most of the stuff in this store had four-digit price tags. Interestingly enough, she just seemed to be browsing the whole store as opposed to one single type of item. She went through the whole store, staring from case to case: rings, watches, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, pins, the list went on. She had a careful eye; it was almost hawkish, especially for such a pretty girl. I recognized the same spitfire in her green eyes that I’d seen the other night. All in all, I had to admit that she was really intriguing.

 

It was really tempting to approach her, but just when I was going to say something, I noticed there was a scuffle between two customers. A couple seemed to be arguing about something. Their voices got louder and louder, and as I approached, I saw a tray of engagement rings on the display case. The woman was screaming about how he was a cheap bastard. When I put my hand on both of their shoulders, they both jumped. She turned to me with an angelic grin.

 

“I’m so sorry,” she said, flashing a cute smile. “Were we being too loud?”

 

I nodded. “We try to keep things pretty laid back at Tinder’s, ma’am,” I told her. “I’m going to escort you both outside now, and we ask that you leave quietly. If you return to the property within twenty-four hours, we’ll have to call the police.”

 

She blushed and her boyfriend started cussing under his breath, but neither one of them objected. I guided them outside without any other incident. But when I went to look for Caroline, she was already gone.

 

Shit, I thought. My second chance in less than a week and I’d missed it. Still, her actions had been strange. I should have asked her a couple of questions; it was exceedingly rare for women to come in and browse alone. I wondered what she’d been up to; the way that her eyes had flickered over all the merchandise was indicative of shoplifting. Or at least, it had been in the past. I couldn’t imagine that a cute girl like her actually suffered any trouble. She probably had lots of boyfriends. I thought about how her breasts bounced under the silk top. I imagined ripping it off her and taking one of her nipples in my mouth, licking and biting until she screamed. The image was enough for my cock to stiffen, and I had to stare at all the men browsing the store until it went soft.

 

After work, I drove out to the clubhouse. The MC always had meetings on Monday evenings, and I didn’t intend to miss this one. After the trouble with the Aztecs, we needed all the solidarity we could get.

 

Just as I was pulling up, I saw the Aztecs waiting outside the entrance on their choppers. I rolled my eyes. Of course these assholes would ride choppers. They couldn’t even pick classic American bikes, they had to go back in time to 2006.

 

“Yo, asshole,” one of them called to me. “You got a problem with us?”

 

I laughed. “You’re on my fuckin’ property,” I said. “You want us to come out and cleanse y’all off?”

 

The Aztec got off his bike and walked up to me, eyeing me sharply. “Not quite, little guy,” he said in a gruff tone. “More like we wanted to let you know that if another incident occurs, like what happened with Rex. He’s in the hospital, man. You watch your back.”

 

His words echoed in my ears as he walked back towards his gang. Watch your back. For some reason, I felt more chilled than I should have. Warnings were always ominous. But showing up on our property just to remind us?

 

Something bad was about to go down.