Bitter Kind of Love: Prairie Devils MC Romance (Outlaw Love) (20 page)

“Relax, brother. We're just here early to hang and wait. No need to interrupt anything with the whores for us.”

“You sure about that?” He jerked his head toward my girl, flicking his tongue against his lip ring. “Sure looks like some serious fucking business for the club to me. You want me to call Blaze now?”

“You'll get all the details later,” I said, shaking my head and curling an arm around Alice's waist. “No need to be worried, brother. I got this.”

“If you say so, Veep.” Roller shrugged and grabbed a bottle of Jack before heading to his room.

A few minutes later, I heard him strumming his guitar. That surprised me. Guess he'd gotten his fill of pussy the night before.

I knew I hadn't, despite how many times we'd fucked. Every time I touched her, my cock started to get hard, a total fucking slave to this girl. I moved in for a kiss when Alice pushed gently on my chest.

“Come on, Sting. There's plenty of time for that later. We'd better get ready to do what we came here for...”

I grunted, stuffing an unhappy growl as my dick wilted. The girl was right. She'd gone through everything again at the diner: the Slingers' sick obsession with finding the map her dad left, the threats, the way Mickey was really killed. I'd seen the damned map months ago, before Blaze stuffed it in his office.

The fucks with the pistols on their jackets were after terror. Control. If they got the routes, the whole damned club and plenty more were gonna find their asses raided during runs. The Slingers were too small to be players in shipping, so they hit and ran like scavengers instead. And it didn't make the bastards any less dangerous.

They'd be able to blackmail tolls as high as they wanted, or make mad money smashing the competition with the dirtiest bids imaginable. Sometimes, information was more lucrative in this biz than black market goods.

We hung around and watched crappy movies on the big TV above the bar. Felt good just to take a load off and get some water into my system. Alice started to get tired. She had her head resting on my shoulder, stirring up my sandman too.

I was halfway dozing off myself at the bar with Roller's distant strumming floating through the clubhouse when the door flew open. Saffron came in laughing, Blaze behind her. Alice jerked up and so did I, stiffening on our bar stools, facing them before they saw us.

Saffron stopped in mid-laugh, locking eyes with me first. “Oh...shit.”

“What, baby?” Blaze pushed past her and froze.

When he saw Alice, his eyes lit up like a hound sensing a nearby rabbit, and then he dashed across the room. My girl screamed, barely giving him enough space as he pinned me down, both his fists tight on my cut.

“You fucking asshole!” he roared. “How many fucking times do I have to tell you to leave the girl alone? What the fuck's she doing back here? She's not our club's problem and she sure as shit isn't yours!”

Saffron and Alice both tugged at his arms, trying to get him off me, but he had a tight lock. I didn't fight back. Hurricane Blaze had to burn itself out, and I'd only making it worse by clocking the Prez in his hotheaded jaw, however tempting it was.

“Hold it, Prez! Just fucking hold it. You gotta give me a chance to explain this shit for once –“ His hand flew up and caught my throat.

I wasn't a small dude, but Blaze had long fingers, and he got just enough of a hold to choke my ass. Fuck.

“I'm done listening to your excuses! I ought to have your fucking VP patch for this. You defied a direct order, asshole – on Christmas too! Fuck, is there anything you won't do to piss in my face?” Growling, he jabbed a finger at my chest, feeling for my patch.

That fucking did it. No way was he taking shit without a vote and all the facts.

I bolted up like lightning, slamming my chest into his. Saffron and Alice were both screaming, but they kept their distance, afraid to get between us. Roller was back in the corner with some jeans on, his guitar in hand, wide-eyed and stunned as he watched the two senior officers in the club go at it.

“Do it. Strip my fucking patch and demote me to a grunt, Prez. I don't give a shit.” I shook my head so hard his hand slipped off my throat, and I stared into his very pissed off eyes, his short spiky hair standing on end. “Before you do that, we need to call church. Alice would've been fucking dead right now or worse if I hadn't taken a ride to Idaho last night and did what I did.”

“Idaho? Fuck!” Blaze ripped himself away from me, stretching a hand over his face.

Saffron walked over and laid her hands on his shoulders, trying to calm him down. He broke her grip rudely, stretching his face in one long stroke with his hand.

“Let me see if I get this straight...you not only fucked away what I told you and brought this girl back here – probably the last fucking place in the world she wants to be – but you went into Grizzlies territory without the club's approval?” He shook his head in disbelief, his whole body shaking. “Dumbass! Motherfucker! If anybody wearing their patch spotted your ass, they're gonna think you were spying, and then it's my ass on the line too. Maybe the whole fucking club's if Fang decides to talk to Throttle!”

He started to walk forward, ready to go back to choking me or maybe using his fists this time. Alice stepped between us before I could grab her.

“That's not true! Nobody saw him. I've been working at a Grizzlies club for months and he only stopped outside before he came to my house. The other girls were off shift when he pulled up and asked them about me – they wouldn't tell the Grizzlies shit. It was a miracle he came when he did.” She was on fire, freakishly brave.

I was fucking impressed.

Blaze snorted. Alice didn't look away from his crazy eyes even once.

“Just listen. I came back with him because I
wanted
to. He didn't force me to do anything. And Stinger's telling you the truth, Blaze, whether you want to believe it or not. The men who ambushed me and tried to kill me at home are after you guys. They're after the crap you took from my dad's truck when the Rams still had it. The Rams and Slingers had some kinda falling out...I'm not sure. They were there the night it all went down, when they killed my Dad and took me prisoner. The Rams wouldn't turn it over...and now it's in your hands. You've got to –“

Blaze cut her off, turning away. He wasn't the only one looking pissed. His old lady looked like she was about to lay into his ass, but he walked right past her.

“Fuck this shit. I'll hear the rest later,” he growled, striding toward his office.

He was almost to the door when he turned back and pointed at Alice and me. “Church in one hour. You better lay all this shit out then, and you'd better do it nice and neat. Roller, make sure the other brothers get here now. Tell them it's serious.”

Blaze disappeared into his office and slammed the door in behind him. Saffron sighed angrily and walked off. Alice turned to me, rubbing my neck, and I slowly eased outta her grip.

“I appreciate you saving my ass and all,” I said. “But that was fucking crazy, girl. Don't ever let me catch you getting between Blaze and I again when he's like this. I know how to deal with the Prez.”

“Somebody had to do something!” Saffron yelled from the bar. “I'm supposed to marry that man in a month and I still haven't figured out how to stop him when he goes all raging bull.”

I couldn't help being bowed up for a while afterward, pissed and worried. But I let it go. Alice really had done me a solid – fucked up as it was – but I swore she was never gonna put herself between me and club shit again.

I didn't care if Blaze wanted my patch or my left nut. Keeping the club whole and my girl safe was all that mattered, and laying things out in the next hour damned well better do that.

We were all gathered around the table, all eight brothers. Blaze kept giving me his patented evil eye.

Whatever. I already owned up to this shit and took full responsibility for it. Even the Prez admitted the club would've been a lot worse off if those assholes killed Alice and we hadn't gotten the head's up.

“All right. We know where we stand, brothers,” Blaze said, angrily twirling his gavel. “The Slingers are serious fuckers. Deadly serious.”

“That's right,” Moose chimed in. “They're the best support club the Grizzlies have got, the imperial guard of their little empire out west. We tangled with them in Dakota in the old days. Mean motherfuckers. Ruthless too. I'm surprised Fang doesn't have them fighting the cartels down south.”

“They gotta be here playing rear guard. Or else the bastards have gone rogue without papa bear watching,” I growled. “The Grizzlies aren't in the shape they used to be, and that means fewer profits for the Slingers. They've gone pirate like the fucking vultures they are, trying to make up their losses by hitting all the shipping they can, and Mickey held the key.”

Blaze nodded, reluctantly agreeing with what I'd said. Then he reached over and picked up the old map book that held everything the Slingers were ready to kill us for.

“This, right here, is a buncha bullshit.”

Tank snorted. “Everybody's in agreement about that, boss. Only thing that really matters is how we're gonna deal with –.”

“Ten steps ahead of you,” Blaze growled. “Listen, this club has seen some hard fucking times, especially this charter. We got our baptism in blood and fire from the very beginning when my bro Maverick was heading shit here. If we've learned anything from all the fucked up threats breathing down our necks the last few months, it's that we can handle 'em. The only times we get hurt, when fellow brothers get
hurt,
” he stopped, staring at Tank, who'd been wounded and patched up several times over in our dust ups with the Grizzlies.

“That happens when we play defense too long. The next few weeks are supposed to be a good time for me, but more importantly, for all the brothers around this table. We can't go down to Reno if we're hovering around, waiting them to hit our winter shipments or raid the clubhouse for this damned map. We can't wait. Not again. Can't sit around with our thumbs up our asses just waiting for them to strike. What I'm saying is, we need to hit them first, and put their asses straight into the ground.”

I stared at him intently. Blaze had every right to be pissed that his wedding was about to get derailed, but I seriously wondered if it was fogging his head. Chasing down the Slingers on offense seemed crazy, especially when these bastards had a history of prowling around like panthers, springing out when their enemies least suspected it.

I wasn't alone. The other brothers were looking at him like he'd flipped his lid.

“What?” Blaze looked around the room and then his lips curled in a sarcastic smile. “Figured I'd get some resistance here. Fuck it, I don't give a shit. You all know it's the right thing after what we've seen before – all the brothers and the women who've gotten hurt. Tank. Smokey. Stone. Emma.
Saffron.
”

He clenched his jaw on the last one. Yeah, he was definitely gonna fight like hell for any excuse not to delay the marriage.

“It's not that simple, boss,” Tank said. “Our intel isn't great over in Grizzlies country. With the Slingers? It's complete shit. These assholes are phantoms. Best thing we got on our side is numbers, and if we split up going after 'em, we're bound to get taken down piece by piece. They're not the kind to take any prisoners neither. You know what they did to Alice and her pop...”

“That's right,” I said coldly, staring Blaze right in his eyes, both glowing like hot coals in his head. “We need to put this to a vote, Prez. Playing defense isn't ideal and it opens us to a lotta shit. I get that. But going after these fuckers and then rushing our asses to Nevada, if we're lucky enough to wipe them in time?”

I stopped just short of saying it was fucking
loco.
Blaze got the message. He looked away, fists so tight on the table they were turning white.

“All right, dammit!” His gavel slapped wood. “We'll start with Sting and Tank because they're leading the fight against common sense here today.”

“Nay,” I said immediately. Tank was right behind me too, pounding the table with one fist when he said the same thing.

Down the line it went, slow and uncertain. The only other Aye was Roller, who'd gotten his taste of adrenaline running weapons out west just a few months ago. The dude was probably still on a fucking high rather than any genuine need to kiss the Prez's ass.

“Fuck.” The gavel hit the table harder. “The nays have it. You guys got any other fucking business before I go drown this sorry ass show in Jack, or what?”

Nobody said a word. Blaze adjourned the meeting and stormed off, leaving the rest of us staring quietly at each other before brothers began to shuffle out. He'd taken it about like I expected.

Typical Blaze. Hell, typical for most MC Presidents I'd served under. Democracy was a cruel bitch to the man at the top, but it made the best decisions – the kind that prevented real rifts between brothers.

I walked off to my old room, where Alice was holed up. When I passed the bar, I heard Blaze whispering to a sobbing Saffron, reassuring her.

“I don't give a shit what the bros decide. Nobody's gonna delay us getting hitched, baby, do you hear me? I'll hunt those fucks down myself and skin 'em with my own bare hands.” Blaze said, holding her as they pushed their way into the storage room behind the bar.

Great. Competition among the brothers who wanted to kill the Slingers was heating up.

I wanted first dibs, but I couldn't blame the Prez for being right behind me. No brother in their right mind would. Blaze was a fuck sometimes, no two ways about it, but anyone who'd put their brand on a girl would do the same damned thing.

Speaking of brand...when shit settled down a little, I had to claim Alice right. I'd get my brand on her, loud and proud, screaming to the whole world that she was
my
property. Mine alone. Maybe then I'd finally feel some sanity flow back into my head after that girl shook everything to pieces.

I found her on the crappy old bed where I'd laid with her the first time, right after we brought her home from the Rams. She looked up when I came in.