d.a.m.n, another brother lost inside a month. I watched two of Stone"s men put Red into a canvas bag. He would be buried with his cut on. His only family was his club brothers, which meant a secret burial in the mountains somewhere. It never felt good losing a brother, but it kept things easier when they didn"t have a woman and kids. There would be no monthly stipend to set aside for a widow, as we had done for Peewee"s old lady.
Yank and Fat Boy came around the back of the house carrying an unconscious Bullseye between them. A pet.i.te girl with womanly curves followed close behind. I took time to notice that she was pretty and clearly scared s.h.i.tless.
I didn"t give her any time to look around and start realizing that she might be in some real trouble. "Do you have a bedroom we can use?"
She glanced up at me with big eyes. "II, um, this"
I bent slightly so my face was closer to hers. "Sweetheart, I have a man who"s dying here."
That news seemed to wake her up. "This is my grandmother"s house but she has a spare bedroom," she was walking as she was talking. "It"s downstairs next to the kitchen, so you won"t have to carry him far." She opened the front door to the house and the guys followed her inside. I was right behind them. A quick glance showed me the house was clean and homey, except for a few misplaced and broken items.
"Lizzy, right?"
She showed her surprise. "Yes." She led us into a small bedroom and quickly pulled down the covers. Bullseye let out an agonized groan when he was placed on the bed. "Are you going to phone for an ambulance?"
"No. No ambulance. Our doctor has been called and will be here soon." I leaned over Bullseye to a.s.sess his injuries. Judging from his color and the two bullet holes in his torso, it didn"t look good. I pulled his cut aside." I need scissors." The girl disappeared into another room and returned within seconds.
I cut Bullseye"s tee-shirt open and pulled it apart slowly. The black material was saturated in blood and sticking to his wounds. Both bullets, thank f.u.c.k, had gone straight through, so at least there wouldn"t be any digging, but blood was pouring out of him. Before I could say anything, Lizzy went to the attached bathroom and returned with some towels to staunch the flow.
"Do you want some peroxide or something?"
"f.u.c.k no. I"m not touching him until the doc gets here." I"d just wanted to see how bad it was. I moved away from the bed, for the first time noticing that Yank and Fat Boy were still here. "You brothers go help the others." They took off without speaking.
"Is Kat okay? And who were those men?" Lizzy asked, sitting on the edge of the bed and beginning to remove Bullseye"s boots. "I"m so thankful grandmother wasn"t here for all this."
It didn"t surprise me that she didn"t ask who we were-everyone in the area knew about the Wild Marauders. "Kat"s good," I said. "Look, there"s a good possibility Bullseye will need to remain here for a while. He"s going to need care"
"Yes." Lizzy said simply.
I paused, scrutinizing her carefully. She didn"t look like any of the hang-arounds who visited the club looking for biker c.o.c.k. She looked sweet and f.u.c.king innocent. I ran my hand over the bottom half of my face, wanting to make sure there were no misunderstandings. "Yes?"
"I can care for him," she explained. "I have a job, but I have a lot of vacation time saved up."
I narrowed my eyes. "You understand who we are, right?" She nodded. "You keep your f.u.c.kin" mouth shut and take care of him. Whatever you need, you call me, right?" Again she nodded. f.u.c.k, what was she, an angel? "Why?" I barked the word.
She shrugged. "My dad is on the town board. And it"s been in the paper how much the resident motorcycle club has helped our town and kept us safe."
I nodded slowly. It was true, and this was just one time that it was paying off. It was a "you scratch my back, I scratch yours" kind of arrangement. "My crew will clean up any messes, broken windows, s.h.i.t like that."
"Thank you and, I"m sorry about Bullseye"s friend."
"It happens. You just make f.u.c.kin" sure you give him the care he needs."
Dr. Carr came shortly after that. He was retired, but helped us out and kept s.h.i.t quiet. Back when Cutter was alive, he"d walked in on an attempted rape and stopped it. Turned out the woman was the doctor"s daughter. Out of grat.i.tude, Dr. Carr told Cutter that any time the Wild Marauders needed a doctor for issues that we wanted to keep off the record, and under the radar, to call him. It kept us from having to answer a lot of f.u.c.king questions.
As Dr. Carr worked on Bullseye I pulled Lizzy from the room. "Someone will be by tomorrow to repair your window. Two brothers will stay here tonight"
"Will they be back?" Her eyes grew round with obvious worry.
"No, the Red Devils won"t be back because I have what they want. You helping Bullseye might have saved his life. We repay our depts." There was a small black board on the wall next to the fridge, and I walked over and jotted down my number. When I turned back around, the doc was coming out of the bedroom.
"He"s lucky." He walked to the kitchen sink and washed his hands. "But he"s not out of the woods yet. I cleaned out his wounds and bandaged him up. Infection is what we have to watch for. Need to keep him from moving around too much." He wiped his hands on a towel draped over the cupboard door beneath the sink. When he swung back around his gaze fell on Lizzy. "You going to be his nurse?"
"Yes."
Dr. Carr pulled a couple of pill bottles from his pocket. "I gave him morphine and a dose of antibiotics, so he should be good for a while. Give him two of these every four hours until they"re all gone." He handed her the first bottle. "And one of these for pain every six hours. Don"t worry about feeding him until he asks for it, but make sure you keep the liquids going into him."
Lizzy examined the bottles he gave her. "What about the bandages?"
"Don"t worry about those. I"ll be back to check on him in a couple of days. If he starts to run a fever, call me right away."
A low moan pulled Lizzy away, and I had a hunch that Bullseye was in good hands.
"Anyone else I need to see before I head home?" Dr. Carr asked me.
"You might want to head to the club and check on a couple of brothers." I walked with him to the door and then outside. "We had a situation."
I knew he wouldn"t question me. He never did, just nodded and kept on going. As he walked to his car I made a quick sweep of the area. The guys were quick at cleaning s.h.i.t up. I had to give them credit. The body van was already gone. Seeing Stone, I walked to where he was talking to some of his crew who"d showed up with my brothers.
"What a f.u.c.kin" day, huh?" he said around his cigarette. "How"s Bullseye?"
"Doc says the next couple of days will tell."
"He staying here?"
The smirk on Stone"s face told me he"d seen Lizzy. "You know a faster way to get a brother on his f.u.c.kin" feet than having a f.u.c.kable nurse around?"
We both chuckled. "Christ, I"m getting too old for this s.h.i.t." I ran my hands through my hair, wishing for a strong drink and a warm woman to sink into. Kat"s beautiful face immediately came to mind. She was a whole other problem.
"You and me both, brother," Stone agreed. We were both in our late thirties and had been part of a MC since our teens. He took a long drag off his smoke and dropped it to the ground, crushing it out beneath his boot. "Speakin" of f.u.c.kable women, you"re not doing too badly in that department."
Smiling, I shrugged. "I have a feeling what happened today is going to be a game changer." I thought about Kat waiting for me. This was a f.u.c.king first for me, bringing a woman to my house. The image of her in my bed made my d.i.c.k jerk. "So, why don"t you and your crew finish out the night at the clubhouse, booze and p.u.s.s.y on us." He was nodding before I finished my comment.
"Few more hours won"t matter so I think I"ll take you up on that." He grinned. "Besides, I could use some p.u.s.s.y to unwind."
I made a call to Lenny, and by the time we arrived back at the clubhouse sweetb.u.t.ts were pouring in. Dark Menace brothers didn"t waste any time getting a bottle from the bar and disappearing into one of the rooms upstairs with a willing woman. Motioning for Lenny to follow me, I headed to my office. As we sat down, he handed me a drink.
"Thought you could use it," he grinned.
"f.u.c.k, yes." I threw the whole thing back, enjoying the raw burn of the whiskey as it poured down my throat. "I don"t want another f.u.c.kin" day like this anytime soon."
"I heard about Red. f.u.c.king shame, he was a good brother. What do you think about Bullseye, he gonna make it?"
"Let"s hope so. What about the two brothers who were wounded here?"
Lenny shook his head. "Superficial. Sweetb.u.t.ts made them feel all better after the doc left."
"Thank f.u.c.k." I gave him a hard glare. "I want Wildman dead, brother, and we"re not going to wait around for another f.u.c.kin" surprise attack. Next time, we go after him. If we hadn"t found out about Kirby, Wild Marauders would have f.u.c.kin" ended tonight."
Lenny nodded his agreement, his expression grim. "At least we don"t have to f.u.c.kin" worry about him anymore."
"Send a couple prospects to Kat"s place tomorrow. Repairs are needed to her apartment and to her land lady"s house. Get with Johnson Brothers and tell them there"s a f.u.c.kin" bonus in it for them if they get the work done in one day."
"What about the garage?"
"They can come by and take a look at it, see what it will take to repair it." I stood up. "Right now I want to get home to my woman. We"ll hold church in the morning to discuss the rest."
"Ten o"clock?"
"Yeah, see you then."
He followed me out of the office and took a left while I went right, towards the entrance door. Knowing Lenny, he had a f.u.c.king sweetb.u.t.t waiting for him in his room. It hadn"t been long ago when I would have had a sweetb.u.t.t waiting for me in my bed, and I wouldn"t have cared who it was. I was just looking for a willing body to sink my c.o.c.k into to help relieve the f.u.c.king stress of the day.
The club had five regulars who were available for the brothers at all times. The other nine held down civilian jobs but made themselves available for special events and club parties. The girls hung around and gave their bodies away willingly. Some went on to become old ladies, but most didn"t. The cold, hard fact was that when a brother was ready to settle the f.u.c.k down he didn"t want a wh.o.r.e who"d been with his brothers multiple times.
The fact that I"d quit using club wh.o.r.es made me wonder if that was what was happening to me. Was I ready to settle down? I"d gone through most of my life content to be free and, with the exception of others I hadn"t worried about a f.u.c.king d.a.m.n thing. My life was the club, it was all I knew, and I loved it. I loved my brothers, and I didn"t want for anything. Civilians had no idea how lucrative MC businesses were. Their preconceived ideas were all the same. All they saw were outlaw bikers, heavy into drugs, prost.i.tution, and other illegal s.h.i.t, when the f.u.c.king truth was that we held down jobs, owned our own businesses, and contributed to our community.
The day I"d met Kat I"d been returning from checking out a bar that was for sale on the other side of town. The first time that I"d looked into her eyes my d.i.c.k had wanted her. That was nothing new, my d.i.c.k liked p.u.s.s.y. But the circ.u.mstances weren"t in my favor, and I"d left her on the side of the road thinking that I"d never see her again. When later she"d been dumped at my feet, I knew she"d be mine. In fact, she"d done me a favor by stealing my bike.
The s.h.i.t that had gone down at her place was f.u.c.king serious, and not something civilians handled well, which was one of the reasons that I"d wanted her removed from the situation as fast as possible. If her injuries had been worse I would have had doc look her over, but my gut told me that more damage had been done to her mentally than physically. She"d been frightened and stunned, and I knew a gamut of other emotions would soon follow.
My house was completely dark when I pulled up the drive. Moody"s hog was parked in front of my front door. I continued around to the back of the house where the garage was. The door was already opened by the time I got there. I pulled inside next to my truck and hit the garage door opener so it would close behind me. Then, punching in the alarm code to the entrance door leading into the kitchen, I went inside.
I could hear the TV and went to the living room to find Moody watching it in the dark. Flipping on a light, my gaze zeroed in on Kat. She was sound asleep on the sofa, wrapped up tight in the throw. I glanced back at Moody, who was in the process of standing up.
"Kat have anything to say?"
Moody stretched and shook his head. "Not a f.u.c.kin" word, prez."
I didn"t know if that was good or bad. I went with him to the front door to take care of the alarm. "See you in the morning, brother."
I returned to Kat and stood looking down at her. Jesus, I didn"t want to wake her, and whatever she wanted to say could f.u.c.king wait until the morning when we were both refreshed. I decided to leave her there on the couch and went upstairs to get a shower. When I was done I went in and pulled the covers down on my bed before going back downstairs to get her. No way in f.u.c.king h.e.l.l I was going to leave her on the couch to possibly wake up during the night and panic because she couldn"t remember where she was. I wanted her besides me, where I knew she was safe.
Where I could keep her safe.
I lifted her carefully and carried her up to my bedroom. She didn"t wake, not completely anyway. Her soft breaths were against my throat as she nuzzled closer against me. My d.i.c.k twitched, but I didn"t care how hard I got, I wasn"t going to f.u.c.k her. She moaned low, and then her lips were teasing me.
"You"re home," she said in a sleepy voice.
I glanced down, but her eyes were still closed. "Go back to sleep, baby."
"Where are you taking me?" she mumbled.
"To my bed."
"Oh...good."
After that Kat didn"t say anymore. I felt her relax in my arms and I knew that she"d fallen back to sleep. Even though she was still wrapped up in the throw, I pulled the covers over her after laying her down. I crawled in next to her and pulled her against me. It dawned on me that she was the first woman that I"d ever had in my bed, or house for that matter.
I released a heavy breath.
I was screwed.
Royally.
Chapter 15.
Kat I opened my eyes, realizing immediately that I wasn"t in my bed. I lay there, letting my mind rewind to the previous days happenings until it all came back to me. The shooting, the deaths, falling down the stairs, Lynch.
Lynch. I was in his house, his bed.
Sensing another presence, I turned my head, falling deep into his warm, dark eyes.
""Bout time, Sleeping Beauty." He leaned forward, kissed me briefly, and pulled back. "How do you feel?"
I was almost afraid to move, and couldn"t help but wonder if he"d asked because my face looked bad. I tried to smile. "Do I look that bad?"
"No, baby. You"re as f.u.c.kin" beautiful as ever." Reaching forward, his fingertips moved lightly over my cheek. "Just a little swelling and bruising." He moved on to the corner of my mouth. "A tiny split here."
"I tried to stay awake to talk to you last night."
"I was late getting in."
I started to turn Lynch"s way and sucked in my breath. "Jesus, that hurt!"
He pulled back the covers. "Where?" I pulled up my tank, exposing my side to him. "f.u.c.kin" h.e.l.l!" he snarled, his expression turning dark. "What the f.u.c.k did the b.a.s.t.a.r.d hit you with?"
"The stairs," I responded, unable to see what he was looking at. "He pushed me down the steps after giving me this." I moved my shoulder enough so Lynch could see the bite mark.
It was a mistake.
I felt his whole body go taut. His jaw clenched so hard that I worried it might crack under the pressure. But the look in his eyes is what frightened me the most. There were no words to describe the intense emotion churning in them, turning them so dark that they appeared like glittering black ice. He literally looked like he was going to explode.
Before I could say anything, he turned and left the bed, b.u.t.t-a.s.s naked and perfect, even if he did look like he wanted to kill someone. It was obvious that he was struggling with what had happened to me, as he stood silently looking out the window. His hands were fisted tightly at his sides, and even from where I was I could see his knuckles turning white. What was he thinking? After a couple of minutes he swung back around and said between tightly clenched teeth, "I"ll be right back."
My gaze followed him out of the room, and then I released a breath unaware that I"d been holding it. I began to move, slowly, testing the rest of my abused body. Other than that first initial sharp pain, probably due mostly to lying in one position all night, there was just a dull ache in my back. I slipped from the bed and walked over to the full length mirror standing against the wall.
"Wow," I said beneath my breath. The deep purple bruise adorning my side was about the size of a small dinner plate. I turned my shoulder to examine the bite. It looked just like what it was-a bite mark. I could clearly see the indentations in my skin of the top and bottom teeth, and there was bruising around it. Thank G.o.d the skin hadn"t been broken! Then I lifted my shirt at the back to find that there was also another bruise there.
Lynch came up behind me, and our gazes met in the mirror. "Come with me, babe." He reached for the hem of my tank and pulled it up and over my head.
It landed on the floor, and I watched his face tense as his gaze moved over my body. His fingers gently touched everywhere that there was discoloration, and then his lips kissed the areas gently. His quiet tenderness brought tears to my eyes. This big, hard-a.s.s biker with the unfiltered language and violent way of life was touching and kissing me like he worshiped me. When he was done, he wordlessly slipped my boy shorts down my legs.