Chapter 11
Talon
I got back to my apartment after meeting with Calista and stood out on my porch. I was looking out all along the highway to see if I’d been followed, either by someone from The Devil Saints or by someone from the DEA. I knew I had to talk to the guys about what I’d figured out, so I shot Mac a text message saying he needed to call church. I told him I had pertinent information we all needed to know, and just as I sent that text message, I saw something that made me smile.
I saw Gemma’s car riding down the road.
I’d shot her my address this morning, just in case she wanted to use it. I knew things with her brother were going to grow rough with her being back in town, and after what happened in the shed I wanted her to know she was always welcome. That she wasn’t just some woman, I was gonna fuck then toss away. She was special to me, and I wanted her to know it.
But I kept my eyes on the road until she pulled all the way in.
Now, I was checking to make sure she hadn’t been followed. With Gemma back in town and already being so heavily rooted in the club, I needed to make sure she was going to be safe. When I was convinced she hadn’t been followed I signaled for her to come up, then simply told her to make herself comfortable.
I didn’t mean to make it seem as if I was commanding her, but it was just a role I simply fell into. I didn’t talk often, but when I did, I expected people to listen. I’d gotten to where I was now in the club and obtained the reputation I had because I listened intently and only spoke when necessary. It was simply assumed that when I spoke, people would listen and heed the information I had to give.
Part of me expected it to be no different with Gemma.
Even though I could tell she was taken aback, I wanted to make sure she wouldn’t leave. The last thing I needed was for the wrong person to see her coming and going from her apartment. If the DEA was snooping around, she could get swooped up and interrogated. If The Devil Saints came around, she could get captured and hurt. And if someone from the club came around looking for me and saw her here, things would get back to Snake and shit would hit the fan.
So, I needed to make sure she stayed here.
Once I knew she would, I left and made my way to the mechanic shop. The guys were all waiting there for me, and the moment I walked in I put my cellphone in the Faraday box I’d made for all of us. After all the bullshit that went down a couple months ago, I felt the need to get us one for our cell phones. I’d wired up our mechanic shop to be a massive Faraday box with the touch of a button, but I guess I was being a bit paranoid.
And right now, my paranoia was welcomed.
“All right, Talon. Spill. What the fuck’s going on?” Mac asked.
“Got into the DEA’s files, and things looked okay there. They don’t suspect us, but there is an issue.”
“The fuck’s up now?” Snake asked.
“They had routes and maps drawn up in there to send out incognito DEA cars and trucks on. Because of the drug bust that happened, they matched the diluted drug content in the truck to a cartel running itself out of Texas and Mexico. Was any of that shit intentional?” I asked.
“Fuck,” Hawk said. “We didn’t mean to cut it exactly alike. Just enough to throw them off our trail.”
“Well, it worked. The DEA doesn’t suspect us one bit. But now they’re patrolling the very warehouse and highways we use to bus our own shit in.”
“Damn it,” Mac said, groaning.
“Before I met with Calista-”
“You saw her tonight?” Fox asked.
“I did. Let me finish. Before I met with her, I took a long drive. Backroads and all the precautions to check our routes. I didn’t see any unmarked parked cars or any new cameras on telephone poles, but it wouldn’t hurt to send out another squad of us in a couple days to check it out.”
“You can head that up, Talon,” Mac said. “In the meantime, I’ll start looking’ for other ways to get our shit in. The good news is, we won’t need to run another shipment of drugs for at least a few months. Our last two scores were massive.”
“Good. It’s about damn time we laid low on this shit,” Snake said.
“I know you’re worried about Gemma,” Fox said. “We’ll keep her safe.”
“You’re fuckin’ right you will,” Snake said.
“As for Calista,” I said, “that’s a much bigger problem.”
“Fucking hell,” Fox said.
“The Devil Saints are going too far as to beat their women to a bloody pulp to get answers from them. She was pretty banged up when I saw her. According to her, they’ve killed five or six of their own just to make examples out of them,” I said.
“The President’s trying to weed out the mole,” Mac said.
“Yep. She also told me that while she was lying on the floor after her husband fucking beat her-”
“Her husband beat her?” Hawk asked.
“Yeah. And she told me what he did to her was mild. The woman couldn’t even breathe right, and that was fucking mild.”
“Holy hell,” Mac said breathlessly.
“After her beating, she was laying on the floor, and she heard him murmuring about us. She thinks he suspects we are behind the planted truck,” I said.
“Fucking shit!” Snake roared.
He got up and kicked his chair, letting out all his anger while the rest of us sat in silence. Out of all the times for Gemma to come into town, she had to descend around this time. And while I was so excited she was back, Snake was worried about her safety.
And quite frankly, so was I.
“What can we do about The Devil Saints, then?” Hawk asked. “If they even sort of suspect us, where do we go from here?”
It was the first time I’d ever known Mac to be rendered speechless.
“I don’t know. This is a hell of a lot of information. Talon, did you tell Calista you can’t meet with her anymore?”
“Yep. Already done,” I said.
“Good. That gets you out of it. Put together a crew of three others and plan a ride to trace our routes and warehouses. Look for anything: parked cars. Abandoned cars. New faces. Shining new cameras. Cameras that aren’t facing where they should. New employment at the warehouse. Any fucking thing you can find.”
“On it,” I said.
“As for The Devil Saints, gimme the night to think about it. I’ll call church in a couple days. Until then, lay low, don’t talk about shit, and keep your noses to the ground,” Mac said.
I didn’t even wait for the meeting to finish before I picked up my cell phone and started for my bike.
I needed to get back to the apartment. I needed to get back to Gemma. I needed to lose myself in her beauty for just a little while. I needed to erase the taste and smell of Calista for good and replace her memory with the sounds of Gemma moaning my name in my ear.
I busted into my apartment and slammed the door behind me as I heard the running water of my bathtub.
“Talon?” Gemma called out. “Is that you?”
Without another word, I walked around the corner and made my way down the hallway. I saw Gemma poking her head out, and the smile that crossed her face was delicious. Her eyes lit up, and her skin seemed to glisten, and suddenly all the fears and hesitations and thoughts of The Devil Saints I had fell to the wayside. I backed her into my room and shut the door, rendering the bedroom pitch black, save for the light pouring from the bathroom.
I cupped her cheeks and brought her lips to mine and felt her melt into my body.
“Take off your clothes and go soak in that bath. I’ll be in there soon,” I said.
I felt her nod before she left, leaving a trail of clothing behind her before I watched her beautiful body step into the steaming water filling the tub.
Slowly, I peeled off my cut. I tossed it into the corner, allowing the leather to bunch up as I untucked my white shirt. Tonight, all I wanted was her sounds. I wanted to feel her writhing underneath my fingertips while water sloshed over the sides of the tub. There was plenty of time to mark her. Plenty of time to pump her full of the juices I’d saved only for her.
Right now, I wanted to watch her climax over and over and over again.
I ticked off my shoes before I took off my leather belt, then made my way to the tub. Gemma was leaned back as her foot reached up, turning off the water while the bubbles danced just above her tits. She looked positively angelic, with her lightly tanned skin and her dark brown hair spread out in the water. I sat behind her on the edge of the bath, and she tried to turn around and catch a glimpse of me, but I cupped her cheeks and stopped the movement before I turned her gaze forward.
“Just relax,” I said.
I cupped my hands and soaked her hair with water while she sighed in content. I took to washing her hair, making sure I massaged her scalp good before I rinsed and conditioned it. I slipped the hair tie she had from around her wrist and tied her hair up at the crown of her head, allowing the conditioner to sit there for a spell while I began to lather up a washcloth.
Then, I took to washing down her body.
I took time in the areas I wanted to feel most. The crook of her neck. The underside of her breasts. Around her nipples, while they stiffened to painful peaks. She sighed and giggled while I cleaned her down, allowing my lips to trace the shell of her ear and whisper how beautiful she was naked in my bathtub.
She was shivering by the time I ran the washcloth between her legs, and by them, she was shamelessly grinding to find any sort of friction.
I smirked into the drenched crook of her neck and took in the scent of her clean skin. I parted her folds with the washcloth, finding that sensitive little clit of hers as she placed a kiss on the side of my face. I turned my head, capturing her lips in a heated kiss while my tongue sought out hers, then I began swirling the rough washcloth around on her clit while she trembled in the water.
I swallowed her moans and groans while her legs shook and quaked. I could feel her pulling taut against me, her back arching into me as our lips broke apart. The breath that rose up from her throat smelled of grilled chicken and vegetables, and I smiled at the fact that she had eaten while I was gone.
She made herself comfortable, and that’s all I wanted.
She moaned and whimpered with her first climax, and I watched as the water began to tease the edge of the bathtub. I allowed the washcloth to float away as my hand cupped her pussy, and in an instant, she was ready for more. She was twisting her body unnaturally, trying to find my fingers against her body while I dropped to my knees at the side of the tub.
Then, I slid one of my long, dexterous fingers into her swollen entrance as she lobbed her head back.
“Oh, Talon,” she said, moaning. “Holy hell.”
I wanted to shove my cock down her throat and silence that dirty little mouth of hers. I wanted to fuck her into the wall until all the pictures fell off and shattered on the ground. I wanted to roll orgasms over her body until she passed out in my arms, then I wanted to wake her up with the same thing that brought her to such a luscious sleep in the first place.
But I settled for simply watching her. Her and her beauty while she slung one of her smooth, slender legs over the edge of the tub.
She opened herself to me as I pressed another finger into her pussy. I could see her silken juices swirling in the water while the bubbles began to fade away. Soon, her entire body was mine for the taking while her tits bounced along the surface. My thumb found her clit, and I began to toy with it, feeling it swell underneath me as the water started to drench my clothes.
She was bucking so hard that waves of it were gushing over the edge of the tub, and I couldn’t help but smile while my cock throbbing against my jeans.
“Talon! Yes! Holy… holy shit. Just like that.”
These were the sounds I wanted. The sounds she couldn’t make in the shed. I wanted to memorize the way she chewed my name. The way she clung to it desperately while I forced her to the edge. The water was sloshing, and the bathroom floor was soaked, and my clothes were clinging to me while Gemma chased her high from nothing but my hands.
I pressed my thumb into her clit and sent her over the edge, and soon her conditioned hair was in the water as she arched her back so far I thought she would break it.
“Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.”
Her words were breathless. Droning. Like someone had her by the throat. I gave her one last stroke of my fingers before I slowly removed my hand, and she dropped into the water with such a fury that she splashed herself in the face.
I smiled and rose up, pressing a kiss to her tired, trembling lips before I slid behind her and began to wash the conditioner out of her hair. Her soft tresses slid through my fingertips, untangled and flowing even while her body boasted of its lustful red tint. I couldn’t take my eyes off her as I pulled her from the water. She fell into my arms, and her eyes were lobbing shut, and oh, how I wanted to lay next to her that night.
But I knew we couldn’t.
Not without someone finding out.
“I’m gonna dry you off, and you’re gonna take a nap before you head home,” I said.
“We’re-... you’re not-... I-I-I mean-”
“Trust me,” I said as I wrapped her body up, “there’s plenty of time for what I want from you.”
I scooped her into my arms and took her downstairs, settling her on the couch. I knew the kind of girl she was. Always considering others even while someone told her to take time for herself. I grinned as I opened up the microwave, seeing the plate of food that was staring at me, and I went to settle next to her while she slept.
I ate the food she cooked for me while I watched her sleep, her chest rising and falling while the droplets of water dried from her soft, beautiful skin.
“I’ll protect you,” I said as I took a bite of the chicken. “No matter what.”