Every member of the Sinner’s Tribe MC must ride an American bike.
The nightmare tormented her. Lucid dreaming, imprisoning her between sleep and wakefulness. Her heart pounded wildly as she tried to rouse herself, but her body was pinned to the bed, a heavy weight on top of her.
Can’t move. Can’t breathe. She heard a scream and realized it was her.
“Arianne.”
The weight disappeared. Free. She rolled out of bed, her stomach heaving. In the back of her mind, she knew that voice. Safe. Warm. Not Leo’s voice. But still she needed to get away.
Goose bumps pricked her skin, and she grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her, quickly crossing the room until she reached the window. With one shove, she pushed it open and leaned out, breathing in the cool, crisp air.
“What’s wrong?” Jagger followed her to the window, pulling his shirt over his head.
“Just a nightmare.”
He brushed his hand over her cheek. “I was holding you. Was I holding too tight?”
She raised her gaze to meet his. “No. It’s not a big deal. Same nightmare I have all the time. I’ll be fine.”
“Tell me about it.”
Arianne bit her bottom lip. “I can’t.”
Hands on her shoulders, he turned her to face him. “I can’t help you if you don’t let me in.”
Her tension eased under his firm grip. “I don’t need your help.”
“Talk to me, Arianne. Trust me.”
Warmth spread through her body. No one had ever wanted to help her, Viper’s daughter. Not when the risks of incurring his wrath were so high. But Jagger neither feared nor cared about Viper’s wrath, and that made him a man to be reckoned with. A man she could trust. And she wanted to tell him. The only person who knew the story was Dawn, and Arianne had given her the version with the worst parts left out.
“When I turned sixteen, Viper threw me a birthday party.” A shiver slid down her spine, and Jagger turned to close the window, then pulled her into his arms.
“Keep going. I’m here.”
She buried her face in his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist, holding on as if the past might carry her away. “I hadn’t had a party since my mother died. I was beyond excited. I thought it meant maybe Viper cared after all.” Even now she couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid, so naive, so trusting of a man who had done nothing to earn her trust.
“After the party,” she continued, “he told me my present was waiting for me in my bedroom. I ran upstairs. He’d never bought me a present before.” She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to pull away as the memories assailed her. “This is pathetic. I’m not looking for sympathy, Jagger, and I’m not looking for solutions. I’m over it.”
“Apparently not, or we’d be fucking in the bed instead of freezing by the window.”
She glanced up to see if he was joking, and her heart melted at his warm smile. “Fine. Okay. Well … Leo was there. He closed the door and told me he’d been waiting for me since I turned twelve.”
Jagger jerked, his body going rigid in her arms. She wondered if he’d already guessed, but if he had, he wasn’t letting on.
“He’d done something for Viper in the past. Something that indebted Viper to him. I don’t know what it was, but it must have been pretty big, because Viper never puts himself in the position of owing anyone anything. Anyway, he said I was the reward. My virginity. All those years, I’d thought Viper was being a semi-normal dad, keeping the boys away, but in fact, he was just making sure Leo got what he was promised.”
Jagger’s hands clenched into fists against her back. She could feel his heart pounding against his ribs.
“What happened?”
“I couldn’t believe that I had been given over like a piece of property, and the only thing I truly owned, the one thing I had thought I would save for the person I loved, was going to be taken from me. And I had trusted Leo. He was only twenty-two or twenty-three, and he was an outrageous flirt. I’d had a crush on him for years. I was so shocked I don’t think I really understood what he was saying, so when he kissed me, I kissed him back.” Bile rose in her throat at the memory of his cold, hard lips.
“He took that as a sign to go ahead, and he started pulling off my clothes. I pushed him away, told him I wasn’t ready. He got angry. Threw me on the bed. He said I was his to do with as he pleased, and although the deal was only for a night, he would make it so I would want more.”
A growl started low in Jagger’s chest, rising until it became a bark of anger, but his arms around her were tender, and the lips that brushed her forehead were soft and reassuring.
“I screamed and fought,” she said. “God, did I fight. I punched and scratched and kicked and bit. And I hurt him. Very badly. So he kneeled over me and pulled off his belt and wrapped it around my wrists, and then he tied them to the bed with my scarf. My legs were free and I kept kicking him and then he hit me so hard, I lost my breath. I thought that was it … and then Jeff burst into the room.” She held on to Jagger as years of anguish spilled out, her body shaking in his arms as he pressed his lips to her temple and murmured soothing words in her ear.
“Jeff was only twelve, and small for his age, but very protective of me. He knocked Leo away with a steel pipe. He must have known he had no hope of winning that fight, but the odds didn’t stop him. Leo went crazy. He grabbed the pipe and almost beat Jeff to death. Viper finally came upstairs and knocked Leo off him. Jeff was in the hospital for weeks. Because of me. I always thought I should have fought harder—”
“You were only sixteen, and Leo’s not a small man.”
“Still…” She looked up at him through lashes wet with tears. “If I’d been able to get him off me, Jeff wouldn’t have been hurt.”
“If he was only twelve and in the hospital, didn’t social services get involved?” Jagger’s nostrils flared. “The police?”
“Yes, they got involved,” she said. “On behalf of both of us. I was injured, too, and they kept me in the hospital a few days. But Viper has a long reach and a lot of money and influence. Reports were misfiled, people paid off. The social worker disappeared. Viper went to the hospital and made a big show of being a caring dad. In the end, no one could save us.”
Jagger pulled away and looked down at her, aghast. “So you went back?”
When she finally had herself under control, she tilted her chin up and met his gaze. “The day I was discharged from the hospital was the day I put a gun to my head and he let me go. But not Jeff. He said he’d kill Jeff before he let him leave with me.”
“And Leo?”
She gripped his T-shirt, afraid she’d lose herself in the memories if she didn’t have an anchor. “He never gave up. He stalked me for a while, beating up the guys I was dating. But when I got my first gun and threatened him after he broke my boyfriend’s fingers, he backed off. He still harasses me, but not so much.”
“And the nightmares?”
She shuddered. “It’s always the same. Dark. Pinned to the bed. Can’t move or breathe. Might be better if you didn’t hold me. The first night we slept together was the first night I didn’t have a nightmare.”
Jagger hugged her face between his hands. “Do you like to be held?”
“Yes.” More than anything. But only in his arms. She’d never felt as safe as when Jagger held her as she drifted off to sleep.
“Then I’ll hold you. You deserve to be held. Not just tonight but every night.”
“Maybe,” she whispered. Just a few hours ago, she’d been happy, content, satisfied in a way she’d never been before, and now everything was an emotional tangle. Maybe one day when Conundrum was just a distant memory, someone would hold her every night and she would no longer feel afraid.
* * *
“No party.” Jagger slammed his coffee cup on the worn, wooden kitchen table.
“It’s Dawn’s birthday. I’m not going to miss it.”
Jagger stared at the infuriating woman in front of him and tried to think his way through the impasse. But quietly. Although they were the only people in the clubhouse kitchen, he had no idea who was outside.
“I don’t want you going to some sleazy bar and dancing with men who have only one thought on their minds. Viper is still a threat. Axle is hurt, which makes him more dangerous, and we might have a rat in the club. There’s no way the Jacks just found us at that hill above the ice house. Tell Dawn to come here.” He gave himself a mental pat on the back for coming up with a perfect solution. None of the brothers would dare touch Arianne, and he’d be able to keep an eye on her. Plus he would be saved the hassle of beating up strangers who touched what was his.
“I thought we had an understanding: You pretend to own me. And I pretend I believe it.”
His eyes narrowed. “There is no pretending. Especially after you told me you were going to meet Jeff and trade that piece of paper in your pocket for a passport outta town. There is no way I’m letting you meet him alone. I don’t trust him. Viper’s influence over him is pervasive. He goaded Jeff into shooting that civilian. Who know what else he’ll make him do?”
Arianne gripped her coffee cup, her knuckles whitening, and cut him off with a huff. “This isn’t about Jeff and the passport. It’s about Dawn. I’m not going to sit around locked up at the clubhouse on my best friend’s birthday, especially since it might be the last one we celebrate together.”
Two steps forward. One step back. Last night she’d confided in him, accepted his comfort and protection. He’d held her as she slept in his arms, soothing her when he thought she might be distressed. He’d thought that would be the end of any talk about leaving Conundrum, and then she’d pulled out that damned piece of paper. Totally ruined his morning. And all before he’d had his first cup of coffee, which was rapidly cooling as they spoke.
“I can’t keep you safe in a crowded bar.”
“I know how to keep myself safe.” Her eyes gleamed as she pushed her chair away from the table. The skin on the back of Jagger’s neck prickled in warning, but by the time he was live to the danger, she was sitting on the table in front of him, a feast of curves to sate even the hungriest appetite.
She lifted one long, beautiful leg and rested her bare foot on the arm of his chair, spreading herself for his viewing pleasure, teasing him with a hint of what lay beneath the denim covering the curve of her sex. He licked his lips, remembering her taste, sultry and sweet, the exquisite softness of her pussy, the ripples of her climax around his cock.
Incapable of rational thought, operating solely on instinct, he reached out and she slapped his hand away.
Denied, Jagger rumbled a warning.
“You can send some guards.” She reached behind her to push his coffee cup away and her thin cotton tank top stretched taut over her breasts. A noise erupted from his throat, part growl, part groan, all desire.
Arianne gave him a cheeky smile. “Hungry?”
He licked his lips, contemplating which part of her he wanted to taste first. “Not for food.”
“Maybe you could come, too.” She trailed a finger along his jaw, and Jagger clasped it and drew it into his mouth. She tasted of sex and honey, and his cock throbbed beneath his fly.
“You want me to come?”
Her eyes flashed and a slow, sensual smile spread across her face. She lifted her other leg and placed her foot on his seat between his thighs, her toes only a whisper away from the bulge in his crotch. Her words came out in a sensual purr. “Yes, baby. I want you to come.”
How unseemly would it be for an MC president to fuck his woman over the kitchen table while the brothers were talking outside? He drummed his thumb on the arm of his chair, considering. What if he just threw her over his shoulder and carried her upstairs? Probably better for appearances. Not that he was ashamed of his cock, but anything under Arianne’s clothes was for his eyes alone.
“Upstairs. Now.”
“Party. Later.” She wiggled her toes, easing them closer to his throbbing erection. Christ. If she didn’t stop, he would have her naked and over that table before she could say “saucy temptress.”
“I’ll set something up.”
She slid her toes closer and bit her lip, her eyes darkening to forest green. “Something’s already up, it seems.”
He gripped the armrest of the chair so hard, his knuckles turned white. “The Sinners own three bars and a strip joint in town. You choose one, I’ll close it down. You can have it all to yourselves.”
“It won’t be fun without any guys.” She tilted her head to the side and gave him a beseeching look. “Dawn’s friends are mostly single.”
The chair seemed to vibrate under his body as he fought for calm. Not here. Not in the kitchen. Not with lust raging through his veins. “You want guys,” he said, struggling to keep his voice even. “I’ll get you guys. Safe guys. You tell me how many you want. I can send all the Sinners, although some will come with old ladies attached, and if that’s not enough, I can call up the support clubs.”
“Bikers? Dawn’s friends are pretty straitlaced compared to her.”
Losing the battle for self-control, Jagger reached up and cupped Arianne’s chin in his palm, then pulled her down for a kiss, savoring the sweetness of her mouth. “I’ll make sure the brothers know. They’ll behave like perfect gentlemen.”
“Yeah, right. What about drinks?” She ran her tongue along the seam of his lips, and his cock strained in his jeans as he invited her in, tangling his tongue with hers, tasting her sweetness.
“Since we can’t go where we want to go,” she murmured against his lips, “drinks should be free.”
Ravenous, he pulled her off the table and onto his lap, nuzzling the soft skin of her throat. Her scent of sex and wildflowers made him crazed, and willing to do almost anything to get her back upstairs.
“You’re pushing it, but if you ask real nice, I might consider a discount.”
“How nice?” She rocked against him, grinding her pussy into his erection.
“This nice.” He ran his thumb over her bottom lip, forcing her mouth open, then up over the bow before sliding his thumb inside.
Arianne closed her lips around him and sucked hard, stroking him with her tongue.
A low, guttural sound erupted from his throat, and he licked his lips, his gaze riveted on her mouth as she worked his thumb until his cock throbbed in time to her every pull. “Fuck yes. My girl’s got a dirty mouth.”
Arianne pulled away and smiled. “It gets dirtier if the drinks are free.”
* * *
“Riders Bar?” Zane gave Jagger an incredulous look. “You want to close down Riders?”
“We’re not closing it down. Just limiting admission to Arianne and her friends and any of our brothers who want to go.”
“How many girls?” Cade leaned back in his chair in their new executive board meeting room, a dining room in their new and soon-to-be renovated clubhouse. The long polished oak table was large enough to accommodate twelve brothers and the room could hold at least a dozen more chairs if the board needed to bring in guests or advisors as they often did.
“About thirty. But she wanted me to point out that they aren’t all lays.”
Gunner cracked a smile. “They’re all lays if you treat them right.”
Zane tapped his pen on the polished wood table, and Jagger groaned inwardly. Zane would never challenge him in front of the executive board, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t feel free to share his thoughts the minute the room cleared. And apparently he had thoughts. Lots of ’em.
Hoping to deflect Zane’s concerns, Jagger pushed himself out of his chair and paced the room. “We just blew up the Jacks’ ice house, claimed Viper’s daughter, and injured six of his men. The Jacks will be out for blood, and things are going to get ugly. We need to celebrate when we can. Last night was just blowing off steam. We need to do something big, invite a few clubs we want to patch over. Word will get around. Viper’s licking his wounds and we’re boozing it up.”
“I like it,” Cade said. “Especially the part about thirty girls who may or may not all be lays.”
Sparky’s eyebrows furrowed. “I thought you were banging Arianne’s friend.”
“She’s just interested in keeping it casual.”
Gunner clutched his chest. “No. Say it isn’t so. Casual? When everyone knows you’re a one-woman kind of man?”
“Anyone got a gun?” Cade scowled. “Care to shut Gunner the fuck up?”
Sparky leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head. “So, Jag. You gonna make her your old lady? You two were going at it so hard last night, I couldn’t get any sleep.”
“I’m not looking for an old lady. She’s property of the Sinners, but she belongs exclusively to me.”
He caught Gunner and Sparky sharing a puzzled glance and tipped his head back to stare at the cracked plaster on the ceiling and the dusty chandelier. “Like a sweet butt.”
Everyone nodded. Sweet butts helped the club and the brothers in exchange for protection and a place to stay. Occasionally, a brother would claim a sweet butt for his own, with a view to making her an old lady. In those cases, although the “keep off” rule for old ladies didn’t apply, the brothers respected the claim and stayed away.
Zane leaned over and whispered. “Can I be there when you tell her you’ve given her sweet butt status? You’ll need someone to handle the funeral arrangements.”
“Fuck you.”
He laughed. “You’re the one who’s fucked.”
Jagger dug his nails into his palm under the table. He was more than aware that he was walking a very fine line between duty and desire. Zane, who knew him best, saw as much. He wondered if the others saw it, too. Making her his old lady would solve the problem, but he simply wasn’t prepared to go down that road. Not after Christel. And not with a woman who was still talking about leaving Conundrum. Declaring an old lady was like announcing a marriage in the civilian world. Both people had to want it. And they had to want it forever.
When no one spoke, he flipped through his agenda, searching for the next order of business, his body shaking with an emotion he couldn’t even begin to understand.
“Here’s how it’s gonna be.” He placed his hands, palm down, on the table. “I’m not interested in another long feud with the Jacks. We’re the dominant club in Montana and we’re gonna stay that way. I don’t care that they think they have dominant status. We need to bring them to heel.”
The chorus of assent from around the table pleased him, and he relaxed back in his chair.
“We’ve just hit them a hard blow. Next I want to launch an assault closer to home. We’re gonna pick off Viper’s senior officers one by one, starting with Leo and Bear. Find them. Bring them in. Alive. Then we’ll have some fun.” A plausible reason for bringing them in. No one needed to know his real motive for getting Leo under his fists. And if Leo didn’t survive the interrogation, the world would be a safer place.
“Damn right, we will.” Zane thumped his fist on the table, and the rest of the executive board murmured their approval.
“Any news on Axle?”
“He’s outta the hospital,” Cade said. “Sherry went to see him. Apparently, he’s even more pissed than before. Sherry thinks he’s gone crazy and he’s obsessed with revenge.”
“Makes sense,” Zane said. “Most animals are more dangerous when they’re wounded. Makes them fearless.”
What the fuck? Jagger slammed a fist on the table. “Sherry went to see him? Even though he’s out of the club on bad terms? And no one saw that as a problem?”
The room went quiet and Jagger contemplated his next move. He’d warned Sherry to stay away from Axle. No one in the club was allowed contact with any member who was kicked out on bad terms and that included house mamas and sweet butts.
“What do you wanna do?” Cade raised his brows. “He treated her like shit, but she had feelings for him. She’s a sweet girl and I’m damn sure she went to see him out of compassion, and not with any intent to betray the club. Jill said—”
Jagger cut him off with a sharp gesture, the burden of leadership lying heavy within his chest. “She knows the rules. She’s out of the club. I want—”
“I didn’t get to finish,” Cade interrupted, his voice uncharacteristically sharp. “Jill said she showed up after her meeting with Axle with a black eye, and her arm in a sling.”
Fuck. He had to kick her out of the club. It was the right thing to do. But if Axle was abusing her, Jagger couldn’t just leave her out on her own. She’d had a rough life before joining the Sinners, which meant she’d put up with a lot more than most women would, and he didn’t want her winding up with Axle because she had no place else to go. “Cade, send Wheels to find her. After I speak to her, she can stay in the safe house until she gets herself sorted.”
More surprised murmurs around the table. Everyone had assumed he was keeping Arianne at the safe house. But the last few nights, he’d had her in his bed at the clubhouse, and he didn’t want her anywhere else.
Changing the topic before he changed his mind, he looked over at Gunner. “Any luck on sniffing out our rat?”
Gunner shook his head. “I went back to the ice house and checked our position from every road. You were right. No way could anyone have known where we were unless they’d been told. And I’m wondering if the same rat called the cops at the vacant lot. Did anyone notice the cops came just as we started winning the fight?”
Jagger had noticed. He’d also noticed that Arianne had been at every location where they’d been ratted out. But he couldn’t believe she was a Black Jack spy.
“Get Tank to help you and maybe another one of the junior patch. I can’t believe someone slipped through our net, but when we find the bastard, we’ll make him wish he’d run when he had the chance.”
After business was done and the brothers had tossed around names of possible support clubs, everyone headed out to Riders. Jagger stayed in his seat, sensing Zane’s impatience, and resigning himself to a lecture about things he didn’t want to hear.
As expected, Zane waited until the room was clear and then launched his attack. Did Jagger realize he had become the subject of numerous discussions that bordered on disrespect? The president should be above gossip. His behavior should be exemplary. He shouldn’t be fucking the daughter of the club’s greatest enemy in the guise of claiming her as a blood price. If she’d been any other woman, the club would have set her to work. She should be cooking and cleaning and washing their clothes. Instead, Arianne had freedoms the sweet butts didn’t have, and she slept in Jagger’s bed.
Steeling himself to keep his temper in check, Jagger fired out question after question, giving Zane no time to consider his answers. Zane was a thinker, intellectualizing everything until the moment had passed to react. He wanted Zane’s honest answers, his true impression.
Yes, Zane said, she did contribute to the club by fixing the brothers’ bikes. And okay, she saved Bandit’s ass on the hill, and probably the lives of a couple of brothers by shooting at members of her own club. Maybe she was a better pool player than anyone he’d met, and she’d drunk the prospects under the table at the party even though she was half their weight. Her shooting was good … okay … spectacular, just like her dart game. But the only reason she outraced everyone on her bike was because she didn’t ride American.
And didn’t that say it all.