sixteen
(slam)
*NOW*
I put my foot up on the picnic table, almost dumbfounded.
What the fuck was that about?
Belle looked ready to jump down to the rocks. That was a pretty stupid thing to even consider, joking or not. Unless she actually wanted to hurt herself.
Goddamn, were things that bad for her?
Her old man must have overprotected her like crazy…
Her cell phone vibrated on the table again.
Or was it something more?
I leaned over and looked at the screen.
The message was from someone named Kyle.
I made fists and gritted my fucking teeth. I felt a surge go through me like goddamn poison. I knew what kind of poison it was - jealousy. Some other guy trying to get up on Belle bothered me. Eventually someone was going to grab that cherry and pluck it. Someone was going to get inside her. Shit, for all I knew, someone had already been staking their claim. Not that I gave a shit. I wasn’t as much of a settler as a Viking. I came, took what I want, fucked what looked good, and left.
Belle would be no different.
I tried really hard to mind my own business, but I knew the perils of that too. I lost a brother once by not snooping enough. I had let my mind settle and just fucking assumed the world was going to be okay when it wasn’t.
I wasn’t going to let that happen with Belle.
I reached across the table and grabbed her phone. One swipe and I was reading text messages from this Kyle guy that made my blood boil.
The last message he sent?
I just drove by your apartment. You’re not home. I need to see you. Right now.
Who the hell would send a message like that to a woman? My mind raced faster as I kept reading these messages that were all borderline psychotic. Was that why Belle had come to the garage and left with me on my ride? Was she trying to get away from this Kyle guy? Shit, why not tell her old man? Chief Richards would probably castrate someone for touching his precious daughter.
Well, I got that answer a few text messages back.
Your father gave his blessing, Belle. We are destined to be together. There’s nobody else but me.
“Christ,” I said and spun the phone back around.
I shook my head.
So her father approved of this psycho?
Of course he would.
So Belle was being tossed into this life of hers.
Shit, and I was there to fuck it up even more.
Before I could get one thought to myself she appeared from the back of Auntie Ang’s, with Auntie Ang behind her with two plates with pizza.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
“Here you go, Spencer,” Auntie Ang said. “I’d offer you a drink but there’s no way someone as beautiful as Belle is getting on the back of a motorcycle with you after a drink.”
“Agreed,” I said and eyed Belle.
She blushed.
“Thank you,” Belle said to Auntie Ang.
I grabbed a slice of pizza and downed it in three big bites. I was agitated and ready to explode.
Belle took a few bites and the awkward silence between us couldn’t last for long.
“Say something,” I said. “Because in about two minutes I’m going to ruin the rest of the day.”
“What…”
“Just do it, babe.”
“This place then,” Belle said. “That lady.”
“How do they connect to me?”
“Yeah.”
“Auntie Ang is not my aunt. I used to hide out here to avoid my father. My house was hell, always hell. So I would come here. When I’d have no money, Auntie Ang would put me to work. Her husband, Big Tony, was still alive then. He used to talk to me all the time. I’m pretty sure he was in the mafia so that’s where my love for the outlaw began. He died when I was eleven. It was devastating to me. Worse than when my father died. The last thing he ever told me… ‘anyone ever gets in your fucking way, kid, you fucking hit them as hard as you can… and if they hit you back, then you didn’t get them hard enough. And if anyone ever hits you first, kid, you get back up… and you keep getting back up until they fucking kill you. A real man dies with honor, not fucking memory.’ That always stuck with me. I started helping Auntie Ang here more and more. Then I started running outlaw. One night I got into something bad and came here to clean myself up. Auntie Ang was waiting for me. She let me hide out and lied to the cops for me. She took care of me. She was even there when I got patched into the Reap. Like a proud mother watching her kid graduate high school or some shit.”
I laughed, thinking back to those crazy fucking days.
“So your entire life you’ve been a villain?”
“Since birth,” I said. “What about you? Silver spoon fed from Daddy’s pistol and badge, huh?”
“Hardly,” Belle said.
“Look, I’m trying to connect some dots here, Belle,” I said. “You looked ready to try and hurt yourself on the ledge over there a little bit ago. Then your phone is going off like crazy. Who the hell is Kyle?”
Belle dropped her slice of pizza. “What?”
“I checked your phone. Get fucking pissed if you want. We’re not friends, right? You made that very clear. Why the fuck is he checking your apartment for you?”
Belle scrambled to grab her phone. I saw the look on her face when she read the last text message sent. She looked at me and I needed no other reply. She was terrified of this guy.
“Who is he?” I asked.
“Some guy,” she said.
“Handpicked by your father?”
“Something like that. Look, I have to go. I’ll call a cab or something.”
Belle got to her feet and started to walk away. I grabbed the pizza off the plates and took my life into my hands as I walked to the edge and threw them into the ocean. No lie there because if Auntie Ang saw me wasting her pizza she would have put a bullet in my head. She was little and old but she was a vicious woman. There were a lot of ghosts around the pizza place and yard if you know what that means.
I chased Belle down and grabbed her, stopping her.
“You can’t get a cab here,” I said. “Look at me right now.” I spun her around and there were tears in her eyes. “Christ, babe, what is it?”
“He’s just an obsessed guy. That’s it. He tried to come onto me the other night at a party too. I pushed him away and he’s mad at me.”
“So that gives him the right to text you like this? You need help, Belle. And, shit, you can’t go to your father either.”
My hands touched her arms. I stared into those blue eyes and realized how easy it was going to be to get what I wanted from her. She was so broken and vulnerable, it was perfect. Goddammit, I was a fucking monster for this shit. But it had to be done.
“Tell me where he lives and I’ll make sure he never bothers you again,” I said.
“Slam, no. It’s not your problem. Or your life. Just stop being tough.”
“I’m not being tough, I am tough, Belle. This guy is fucked in the head for you. And your father is okay with it?”
“Why are you so worried about my father?”
I swallowed hard. “Look, if this guy scares you at all, you need to call me. I’ll be there to help you. I promise. If something happens to you I’m going to feel guilty.”
“You have feelings?”
She offered a sly little smile and it was like a punch to gut.
From the corner of my eye I saw Auntie Ang come out of the back of the pizza place.
“Ah, fuck,” I whispered.
“What?” Belle asked.
“I have to do this… don’t push me away, okay?”
“Do what?”
I didn’t give Belle a chance.
I just kissed her.
Her fucking lips were delicious. I knew Auntie Ang worried about me, especially when I didn’t come around for months at a time. So to show her I was happy would ease her heart. Plus, it gave me a good excuse to kiss Belle and not have her freak on me for it.
I put my hands to her face and kept kissing her.
Belle seemed as eager as me. The first few seconds there was a little hesitation and it drove me wild. All I could think was that she was a virgin. I wanted to know how much of her body was untouched. I wanted to explore it all.
When I felt her mouth start to open, her soft tongue coming forward to meet mine, that was damn near almost it for me. My cock started to swell in my jeans.
I took complete command of the kiss, feeling the way her breathing started to get wild.
She was enjoying it.
Belle then grabbed my hands and pulled away from me. Her eyes were still locked to me though. Those pretty blue eyes. Her lips, now red and puffy from my kisses.
I winked at her and then grabbed her hand so we could say goodbye to Auntie Ang.
There was only one problem with that kiss.
It wasn’t enough. It was like the first sip of whiskey after a long goddamn day. They only got better as you had more and before you knew it the bottle was empty. And that’s exactly what I was going to do to Belle. Keep sampling that sweetness until I got to her honeypot and then drain her. Fuck, my tongue was tingling in my mouth just thinking about getting between her legs and tasting the other set of her lips.
Auntie Ang cried as we were leaving.
“You two… I can feel it,” she said. “Such beauty.”
Yeah, yeah, yeah…
There were lots of hugs and kisses on the cheeks. Auntie Ang then cracked me across the face and put her pointer finger to my nose. She warned me not to fuck up what I had with Belle.
I didn’t say a word to it. I just hugged her tight, shut my eyes, and lost myself for a few seconds in the smell of the pizza place. A mix of heat, dough, sauce, and grease. The smell of my childhood.
I gave Belle my helmet and stood there for a few seconds.
“For the record, babe, I do have feelings,” I said. “And right now I can’t stand the feeling of some asshole like this Kyle guy making you feel the way you do right now.”
With that, I climbed on my ride and Belle climbed on behind me. Her small hands reached all the way around my body and she gripped my leather tight.
The cruise back to the clubhouse was anything but calm in my mind and body. I was going to get my revenge on Belle’s father and I was going to help Belle, too. If I was going to make Belle mine then I needed all distractions and threats out of the picture. But I couldn’t get into trouble, right? Yeah fucking right.
I hadn’t seen the twist in my day with Belle go the way it did. I had planned on pushing her hard and breaking her down a little but not with the emotional shit. And I couldn’t believe I just spilled all that to her about Auntie Ang’s place. I guess I had to give a little to get a lot. No big deal.
Back at the clubhouse, Belle’s car was parked in the middle of the lot, ready to go. Nick even took the time to vacuum it out and wash it down. He was a good one, not MC material, but when I threatened his life, he always went the extra mile for me.
I pulled up to the car and sat there. I killed the engine on my ride and felt Belle climb off. She handed me my helmet and it stunk of her shampoo. Her hair was blowing around in the soft breeze and she fought with it. Goddammit, the sight was driving me crazy.
“Thank you,” she said. “For today and everything else.”
“Sure thing,” I said. Belle started to turn and I grabbed her wrist. “Hey, babe, I wasn’t lying either.”
“About?”
“This Kyle thing. You call me if you need me. You’re not going to get the help you need from the law. I learned that a long time ago. I’m not going to be some fucking knight in white armor for you, but if you need to get out of a bad situation, I can make that happen.”
I saw the way Belle swallowed hard. She was hooked already.
She turned her hand and interlaced her fingers with mine. “Okay, Slam, I’ll tell you something before I leave.”
“What?”
“My mother was murdered when I was a young girl. Cold blooded murder to go against something my father had done. My mother loved the ocean and went to the coast anytime she could. I wasn’t trying to hurt myself. I was trying to get down to the water. Makes me feel close to her.”
Belle took her hand from mine and got into her car. I was frozen fucking solid like a block of ice in Alaska. The goddamn woman left me speechless.
As the car drove away I started to feel a little guilty. Guilty for what I was going to do to her. But what choice did I have then? I couldn’t just bail on her. And I couldn’t let Chief Richards get away with his bullshit anymore. Especially now that he was letting this psycho Kyle chase his daughter down.
“What the fuck is running through your mind?” a voice asked me.
It was Knox.
“You don’t want to know, brother,” I said.
“How’s your plan going?”
“Fine,” I said. “Just fucking fine.”
That was all I said to Knox about it - or anyone for that matter.
Ten hours later I rolled a condom down my thick cock and plowed forward into some woman I didn’t even bother to get a name from. Her pussy was wet and tight and she screamed my name as I fucked her. She had dark hair so I flipped it all forward and kept my eyes on her ass.
With each thrust forward I thought of Belle.