Fractured & Formidable: The Sacred Hearts MC Book V (16 page)

Blood and saliva arched, both men bleeding freely, Zander
from a cut on his cheekbone and his mouth, the other man from a cut above his
eye and his nose, and maybe his mouth as well. The fight stretched on, two
minutes then five until finally with a savage grin, Zander punched The Suicide
King in the face so hard the man toppled like a tree, his body hitting the mat
and bouncing twice and as I stared, Zander fell upon him.

He straddled the man’s hips and rained blow after blow with
his left fist while he held the man to the mat with his right. Punch after punch,
his jaw clenched, breath sawing in and out of his lungs as he beat the man who
had given up all pretenses of trying to fight back, and instead was just trying
to protect his head and neck with his arms. The taller, bigger man bucked his
hips and scooted backwards across the mat and tried to get
away
from
Zander.

The man in the center of that ring, who beat the bigger man
mercilessly, was
not
my Zander. He was some kind of demon sent straight
from Hell. His deep brown eyes darkened with his pure, white hot rage as the
crowd went wild around me. I felt sick. I stared, open mouthed as Zander
continued to beat on the man even after he’d fallen unconscious. The referee
shouted and made a motion with his arms, the bell started ringing and with a
final punch to the man’s face Zander bolted to his feet. His chest heaved up
and down with his hard breathing, and his eyes were fierce and wild and dark,
his expression twisted into a mask of rage.

He stared dispassionately down at the man before he raised
both his arms in victory. Turning, he locked eyes with me and the look on his
face was so stoic, so serene. It reminded me so completely of my father’s look
after he’d slap or smack my mother or myself, I felt equal parts horrified and
suddenly very ill, which must have shown on my face because Zander’s eyebrows
collapsed into lines of confusion even as the referee gripped his wrist. I
stood up abruptly and Everett let me go. I think somehow she knew, I turned and
crashed into Zeb who gripped my elbows to steady me.

“Air! I need some air!” I blurted above the roar and
stamping feet of the crowd.

“Zeb! Duracell! Stay with her but take her out to catch her
breath,” Dray ordered and the guys nodded, and one to either side led me out
into the cold. Everett stayed behind with Dray, worry for me creasing her brow.
I swallowed hard and let Zeb and Duracell shelter me from the crowd until we
burst out of the too-hot, too-close gymnasium and out into the shrewd December
night. I shivered and hugged myself. Zeb held up my coat for me, the cold air
felt delicious but quickly became too much and I shrugged into my jacket, all
the while taking deep cleansing breaths.

“You okay?” Duracell asked and lit a cigarette, the red tip
flaring in the dark as he sucked on it. I leaned back against the cinderblock
wall and nodded.

“What’s wrong Mandy-girl?” Zeb asked me, I opened my mouth
and closed it. What
was
wrong with me?

“I don’t know, I… One minute I’m watching the fight and then
Zander wins and he looks at me and… I really don’t know!” my hands shook and I
was grateful to have the wall at my back with how unsteady I felt on my feet.
Zeb sandwiched my hands between his and rubbed them to keep them warm. I
sniffed, my nose beginning to run from the cold and huffed out a breath which
plumed the air between us.

"Easy girl. Think you might be having a panic attack,”
I shivered and fixed my gaze out over the parking lot. I nodded and tried very
hard to get my erratic heartbeat to slow down, and to swallow the offending
organ back down into my throat.

“You’re cool, Red. Not everybody handles violence the same
way,” Duracell said and I looked at him. He looked uncomfortable, like he
wasn’t used to being supportive but rather just the opposite. He shifted on his
feet and took another harsh drag off his cigarette. Reaver rounded the corner
and his cool blue eyes that reminded me of the sky above the mountains landed
on me, his face set into lines of resignation.

“Better come with me, Red. Rev is having a real epic freak
out over you bouncing like that. Won’t let Doc look at him until he sees you,”
I nodded and pushed off from the wall a little unsteady. Reaver grasped my arm
and with what now felt like a phalanx of leather and denim clad muscled guards,
I was escorted back to the girl’s locker room.

Everett, Dray and Ghost were waiting outside. Everett hugged
me and asked, “Better, Sis?” I nodded, she whispered in my ear, “I saw it too
but they aren’t the same, not by a long wide mile.”

I clutched Everett to me tight and felt so incredibly lucky
and blessed to have her in my life. For so long she had forged a path ahead for
me and for so long she had towed me along when I was too afraid to step out on
my own, and for the longest time she had been my rock, my center, my stationary
piece of ground while everything that was
supposed
to be stable in my
life spun hopelessly out of control.

“Red, Doc needs to check him out,” Ghost said gently and his
voice was tinged with enough worry, that a worry of my own bloomed in my chest.
I pulled back from Evy, squared my shoulders and pushed through the door to the
locker room on my own.

I found Zander on one of the hard, narrow benches in front
of the open showers. He rocked back and forth, agitated beyond measure, Doc
standing nearby trying to argue some sense into him. At the sound of my heels
on the itty bitty sandstone colored and pink ceramic tiles, Zander’s head
snapped up and his chocolate caramel eyes held such a raw fear, a raw pain,
that a very new and different panic seized my heart in its grip. It was just a
glimpse, a flash and then it was replaced by a fine burning rage. Anger spilled
through his warm brown eyes and turned them hard.

“Out!” he stood up, and gave Trigger and Doc each a scathing
look, “Both of you!” Trigger put up his hands. Doc made to argue, and I shook
my head.

“Just… just give us a minute,” I said.

“Fine but I gotta look at him, make sure he ain’t concussed,”
Doc said darkly and I nodded.

“I’m not fucking concussed! Shit I’ve had enough of ‘em. Now
get out!” Zander growled.

“Be right outside,” Trigger said to me and I nodded, maybe a
bit too rapidly.
Zander was Zander. Zander wasn’t my dad.
I repeated it
like a mantra in my head.

The locker room door swished closed behind them and the
hollow thunk of it coming to a complete close was all it took. Zander rushed me
and instinctively I backpedaled, fetching up hard against a set of metal
lockers. Zander gave no quarter and pressed into me. I bit back a whimper,
capturing my bottom lip between my teeth and though I knew in my heart and my
mind that I had nothing to fear, my body still braced for impact. Instead of a
slap or a cuff, his hands gently but firmly cupped my face. That raw, pained
look from when I first entered back in place.

“Oh God, Red. Promise you aren’t gonna leave me. Just say
you’ll let me explain or fix it somehow. The look on your face, please, just
please…
don’t do anything, don’t make any decisions right now, tonight… just not
yet,” and any fear I’d had simply drained from my body. I would give anything
to take that look from his eyes, to strip the desperation from his voice. I
shook my head, helpless to say anything; I mean
what could I say?

Zander relieved me of saying anything by crushing his mouth
over mine. I put my arms around him and held him tightly to me, returning his
kiss with an equal measure of urgency. Maybe if I showed him rather than told
him? He kissed me savagely, with a near bruising force and ground his body into
mine. I sighed out and welcomed it, holding him tightly against me. He shoved
my coat back off my shoulders and down my arms and I let it fall, not even
caring.

Any notion of being a proper preacher’s daughter flew
straight out the window in the face of Zander thinking I was going to
leave
him.
Yes, I’d been frightened, yes, with my history I apparently didn’t do well
around violence, but Zander had never, and I do mean
ever
, given me a
hint, not one little iota of anything resembling violence aimed at
me
.

His large hands smoothed over Everett’s short dress until
they found the silk of the stockings at the too short hemline. He smoothed his
broad palms under the skirt and I moaned slightly into his mouth. He tore his
lips from mine, chest heaving and with a savage yank my panties gave way, my
hips jerking forward, spine jolting at the insistency of it.

“I need you. God, after a kiss like that!” I found myself
nodding rapidly, I needed him too. I felt just as much urgency, just as much
passion and for once I didn’t care about what was proper, or who was listening,
or who might walk in and catch us. I just wanted Zander, needed him like I
needed the very air we breathed. I needed for there to be no doubt, no
lingering worry or fear that we were anything other than perfectly okay.

I felt him shove his shorts down in front, but I was too
tall! Especially with the heels. Zander’s hands gripped my ass and the skirt
rode up, he pressed me back into the lockers and kissed me again.

“Trust me Baby, I got you. Just let go,” and I did. I trusted
that he had me and I let my legs go, let them give out from beneath me and
Zander indeed had me in hand. He pressed me back against the locker and
simultaneously hauled me up his body by brute strength alone. I wound my arms
around his shoulders and my legs around his lean hips and after a moment or two
of awkwardly shifting his pelvis against mine, with a triumphant grunt he slid
into me. Hard. While I was wet, I wasn’t
quite
as ready as he usually
made me and so I cried out from the intensity of it.

That just seemed to urge him on. He shoved into me hard and
harder, establishing a swift and punishing rhythm, and oh
God
the angle
he had me at was
perfect.
He rode over that secret place inside me and
his thrusting with me against the bank of lockers, created just the right amount
of friction between our bodies in just the right place. I felt my nails bite
into his shoulders and his teeth set into one of mine, the spike of pain
combined with the pleasure sent me sailing out into the ether.

I cried out, a sharp, piercing sound of deep satisfaction.
The locker room door burst open and someone swore as it swung shut again, but I
didn’t care. All I cared about was the man in my arms, who, trembling, carefully
slid me down his body until I had my feet under me again. I let him help me
stand, my legs shaking and unsteady, both of our chests heaving. Zander tugged
my skirt back down into place for me, and I felt my face flame as he tugged up
his shorts and the locker room door opened again.

“You two about done so I can have a look at my patient?” Doc
called in, hiding behind the door.

“Yeah! We’re good,” Zander called back and I tugged down on
my dress one last time for good measure. I fixed my eyes onto the bench behind
Zander and he held my hand, refusing to let it go, his thumb swiping back and
forth over the underside of my wrist in a soothing little touch.

“About fuckin’ time man!” someone said harshly and a fighter
in blue and green shorts barged past Trigger into the locker room. He eyed me
side long.

“Oh. What’s your name sweetheart?” he asked with a wry grin.
I swallowed hard, my face flaming harder, now that the passion had cooled, in
retrospect having sex in a high school locker room around this much
testosterone seemed like a
really
bad idea. Though, heaven help me, I
couldn’t be sorry. Zander answered the man’s question so I didn’t have to.

“Property of Revelator. She’s my Ol’ Lady, so fuck off!” The
man laughed and dropped onto a different bench toward the other end of the
lockers.

“Easy boy, he’s just being a dick. Save it for the ring if
you go back, now let me have a look at‘cha,” Zander let Doc check him over
while a new kind of warmth and glow took over me. Everett and the others had
spoken of the importance of the title, of what it truly meant to be an Old
Lady. I stood behind Zander and let him lean into my body, effectively using me
as a backrest while he answered questions, letting Doc shine a light into his
eyes… Just everything you might expect. Doc used a couple of butterfly bandages
on Zander’s cheek and pronounced him fit for travel.

Zander rolled his head back against my stomach and looked up
my body at me. “You’re staying with me,” he declared, his voice heavily edged
with some unnamed but powerful emotion. His eyes still held an edge of that
same darkness that I’d seen in the ring, but it was much cooler, much more
diminished now. His control back, and absolute.

I swallowed hard and nodded rapidly. I wanted to stay with
him tonight, needed to stay with him. So his pronouncement was all right by me.

Revelator…

“What happened back there?” I asked her softly, half
dreading the answer. She turned in her seat to look at me.

“It was the look on your face, when you’d won… I just… it
just… it looked like…” I reached out a hand and covered hers where they were folded
in her lap, as I carefully piloted my Chevelle through the snow covered streets
toward home. Red sucked in a deep breath and let out a gusty sigh.

“It looked like the one on my father’s face every time he
got done with me or mom,” she rushed out, trailing off with, “It scared me.”

I couldn’t help it, I let out an incredulous laugh, “Shit
Baby Doll, the look on
your
face right before you bolted out of there
liked to have given me a fuckin’ heart attack!” I glanced sideways at her when
she didn’t say anything, her eyes were downcast and a look of incredible guilt
stained her lovely face. I shook her hands and her eyes snapped up to mine as I
rolled us to a stop.

“Stop. I get it; it’s okay. I just never wanna do anything
to put that look on your face again,” truthfully I was just so fuckin’ grateful
that Mandy was as intellectual as she was at such a young fuckin’ age. That she
hadn’t just gone on pure fucking emotion and high tailed it out of there. That
she’d actually stopped to think about
why
she was losing her shit so
that I
didn’t
lose
her.
She was just so fuckin’ smart and gutsy
and
strong
and she didn’t see a single damned one of those things in
herself, I’d bet you dollars to doughnuts.

I pulled through the intersection when the light turned
green and continued to hold her hands fast in mine. At least one of us had kept
their cool tonight. I was kicking myself for fucking her in the locker room.
She deserved so much better than that and I’d not only done it, I hadn’t
exactly been gentle about it. I owed her for that. I owed her for that big. I
especially owed her something for which I could never repay her for throwing
caution to the wind and forgoing a condom. I knew she was on birth control but
still. I was a fucking douchebag. No way around that. I probably should, at the
very least, buy her a new pair of panties.

“What are
you
thinking about so hard all of a sudden?”
her quiet lilting voice permeated the cabin of my car, strong but still soft
beneath the muscle car’s growl. I’d heard her though and she deserved an
answer.

“I was a dick back there. Tearing your panties off, and
while I can’t and don’t regret what we did, I
do
regret not treating you
better, not waiting to take you to a bed and I really regret not protecting you
better.” She raised her eyebrows in question and I shifted in my seat.
Adrenaline gone, and I was starting to get sore.

“I should have put on a condom, I know you’re on birth
control but it still wasn’t right of me… Red?” she shifted in her seat,
kneeling up on the black leather and leaning towards me. I pulled up to another
stoplight and braked and when we were solid at a stop, turned to look at her,
just as her soft and gentle lips met mine.

“I love you Zander,” she whispered softly and sat back to
look me in the eye. I stared back at this fucking fire haired angel sitting in
my car, and wondered for a minute how in the fuck I got so lucky.

“I love you too, Red. I love you too,” the light turned
green and I put the car in gear and managed to get us the rest of the way home
in one piece. Once in the driveway I shifted the Chevelle into park and turned
my head to look at my girl, gaze roaming her face, committing every freckle,
every nuanced thing about her into memory.

“What?” she asked softly.

“You. You’re just so fuckin’ beautiful it breaks me,” I
admitted to her.

“Oh Zander,” she closed her eyes, a sad and somewhat pained
look flitting across her features.

“I was fractured when you found me and the break in me was
mending so badly. It took you a while, but I feel like you’ve finally set me.
Like I’m on the right path and I can heal the break now. You’ve made so many
improvements in my life in such a short amount of time… I don’t know how I
could ever express my gratitude and just joy that you – “

She didn’t get to finish her sentence. I’d reached out,
lightning quick and hooked a hand behind her head and pulled her mouth to mine.
I kissed her fiercely, pouring every bit of love and pride I could muster into
her mouth from mine as the interior of my car cooled, the engine ticking softly
in the night. She pulled back, breathless, lips slightly swollen and I felt my
cock twitch in my shorts.

“Inside Baby. I need a hot shower and to bury myself in you
all over again.” She shivered at my words and I smirked, knowing it had shit to
do with the cold creeping in. We got out of the car and I put my arm around her
as we went for the front door, which opened before I could put the key in the
lock.

“Hey, thought I heard your car,” Disney said.

“Sup Puddin’?” I asked.

“Did you win?” he countered. Mandy broke into a beautiful
smile that held just the edge of sadness now.

“Yes,” she murmured to Disney and the lilt in her voice held
such a weight, such a strain. I loved her, and while I couldn’t or wouldn’t
stop fighting, I had to be okay with the fact that my girl wouldn’t be at any
more of my matches, because I wouldn’t and couldn’t put her through it again.

“You gonna move or are we gonna have to stand out here
freezing our asses off all night?” I asked. Disney grinned and moved aside.
Aaron looked up from a nest of blankets on the couch, the movie they were
watching paused on a blur of blues and blacks.

“Congratulations, I think?” Aaron said eyeing me dubiously.

“Yep! Another one bites the dust, knocked his ass out cold.
Night girls, I’m taking my woman to bed,” I raised a fist and pumped it into
the air and Disney and Aaron laughed.

“Night.”

“Good night!” they chorused and I leaned on Mandy a bit as
we went down the hall toward my room.

“Shower first right?” she asked softly. I nodded. The tired
was starting to set in, after all the Adrenaline and emotions ran out. I
generally slept after a fight like a fucking baby. But I wasn’t ready for
sleep, not yet.

“Shower with me,” I said and it wasn’t a request. She smiled
and nodded softly.

“Miss the curls?” she asked and I nodded. I loved her curls,
the straight look was okay but it had really thrown me for a loop. I’d said as
much after our locker room throw down and Doc had gotten done messing with me.

I probably should have phrased it better than “What the fuck
did you do to your hair?” but I hadn’t. I was a dick and apparently I was
batting a thousand tonight with my actions as well as my fucking mouth.

Still, despite all my douchebaggary, she carefully helped me
strip out of my jacket and cut and the hooded sweatshirt I wore underneath.
Undressing me before stripping herself in the bathroom. We got into a hot
shower and pretty much kept it to all business. Well, she did. I stood there
and let her look after me. I could tell it brought her a sense of pleasure by
the gentle curve of her lips, and after taking a pummeling, damn if it didn’t
feel fucking fantastic. I was also about five grand the richer for the bottom
tier fight. Next one would be worth seventy-five hundred. Not bad for barely a
nights work… well if you didn’t really count the almost month of training in
with it.

I’d stopped fighting for the year it took me to prospect for
the club. I’d been totally committed to earning my patch, didn’t half ass a god
damned thing and I was fucking proud as hell that I’d made the cut. I held
Red’s body close to mine and watched her wash her hair while I thought about
things.

All in all I was fuckin’ blessed. I had my brothers, I had
my girl and pretty soon I would have a new shop too. Trig and I had found a
location in Old Town, down and across the street from The Spot and around six
blocks over from Sugar’s, the strip joint we all went to from time to time but
never told the girls about. Pretty fuckin’ sure that they knew about it. I knew
for a fact that Trig nailed Ashton’s tight little ass to the fucking wall as
soon as he got back to her. That fucker had never been shy about doing it in
front of people.

“What are you smiling about?” Red asked and I think I
actually blushed… fucking busted. She started laughing.

“I’m afraid to tell you, honestly,” I told her.

“Oh now you’re telling me mister!” she put her hands on her
hips and yep, no hiding it, my cock started to rise to the challenge. She
lifted an eyebrow and gave me the ‘you better tell me’ look and I pulled her
tight against me.

“I was thinking about how the guys sometimes secretly go to
Sugars,” I said carefully.

“The strip club? Oh that’s no secret,” she said and I
returned the ‘you better tell me now’ look. Red laughed.

“Look, all of the Old Ladies trust their men, none of them
have ever been given a reason not to, the general consensus among the female
population of the club is, and this is Chandra talking here, ‘the boys know
they can have their McDonalds anywhere but they get their steak at home’.
Ashton doesn’t mind that Trigger looks because he doesn’t touch and Hayden and
Everett pretty much agree with Ashton because as soon as their men get home,
they reap the benefits of their little outing.” She wound her arms around my
shoulders as we stood sideways in the warm liquid spray from the showerhead so
we both stayed warm.

“What does my preacher’s daughter think?” I asked, voice low
and teasing.

“I think that I haven’t had to deal with it yet, so I don’t
really know how I am going to feel until it happens… I think that if I had to make
up my own mind that I agree with the rest of the girls. I’m finding that the
world isn’t as black and white or set in stone as my father thinks it to be. I
think that I love you, and I trust you and I have faith that you feel the same
and that means you wouldn’t cheat on me.” Her hazel eyes were so wide and so
sincere and I think half of what she was saying was a brave front. She didn’t
have a god damned thing to worry about though so I told her so.

“Sugar, you ain’t got a damn thing to worry about. I love
you, and I don’t want anybody else but you. Sure it may be fun to look at but
the only body I want moving under mine is yours.” Tension smoothed out of her
posture and I reached down and shut off the shower.

“Sometimes I’m afraid I’m not quite… adequate. That my
inexperience can be a turn off or…” I laughed outright I couldn’t help it.

“Baby, I’m one seriously possessive prick underneath it all.
You have no fucking idea just how hot I think it is that I’m your only one,” I
sniffed and handed her a towel, rubbing myself down as we talked, mostly
because if I touched her now we’d never make it to the bedroom. The hot shower
had limbered me up some. My hands weren’t quite so stiff and my shoulders were
a bit more relaxed. I had every intention of taking her one more time before
bed, and figured since we were talking insecurities…

“Ask you something?” I considered her carefully.

“Anything,” she uttered as she wrapped herself in the towel
I’d given her and stepped out of the tub.

“I didn’t scare you back there, in the locker room, taking
you hard like that, did I?” Her fall colored eyes roamed my face and her voice
when it came was soft,

“A little bit,” she murmured. I hung my head and heaved a
sigh.

“I just reminded myself that it was you though, and that you
weren’t going to hurt me…” I looked up sharply.

“Never,” I vowed, she smiled and it was just like Trigger
had explained Ashton’s smile to me once, as if the sun had come out from behind
the clouds. The grace and beauty of the smile my Red turned on me, warmed me
all the way through.

“Sometimes when we’re together I feel like you’re holding
back,” she admitted gently.

“Sometimes I do,” I confessed.

“Don’t next time, okay?”

“You sure you know what you’re asking?” I searched her face
and she smiled and it was a little sad this time.

“No, but I am sure that we can talk about it and I’m sure
that if I ask you to slow down or go easy that you will.”

“How did you get to be so pragmatic?” I asked. She laughed
and gave this little endearing shrug that made me smile.

“Come on,” she held out her hand to me and I took it.

“I meant it when I said, we were doin’ it one more time
tonight.”

“You sure you didn’t get knocked in the head too hard? I
mean I know the fight was in a high school, but ‘doin’ it’? Really? Who says
that any-!” she shrieked and laughed as I picked her up over my shoulder,
grinning. I swatted her on the ass and she yelped indignant as I flipped out
the bathroom light and carried her across the hall in to my bedroom.

“Zander put me down!” she cried and I laughed, tossing her
gently into the center of the bed. She landed giggling and I lost the towel.
Her giggle ended on a gasp as she looked at me, fully engorged and got up on
her knees. She handed me her towel and I dropped it to the floor. No need for
that anymore.

I got up onto the bed and knelt across from her, kissing
her, my hands cupping her face and sucked in a hard breath when her fingers
tentatively wrapped around me, stroking. Shit that felt good!

“Lie back?” she asked and it was shy, but not, at the same
time. Like she was working up the nerve to try something and damn, I wasn’t
about to deny my angel a damned thing so I did what she asked.

In all the weeks we’d been together and with all the sex
we’d had so far, there were still several things we hadn’t gotten around to.
Her mouth on my cock being one of them. Seemed that she was in the mood to
rectify that now. God it felt good. Her tongue gliding along the underside of
my length, velvety soft, her mouth hot and slick and perfect. No, it felt
amazing
but I was just one of those guys, you know? Felt good but it didn’t really get
me going, great foreplay but not once had I ever come from a woman’s mouth on
my dick. Still, I lay back and let her do her thing until I was so damned worked
up I couldn’t stand it anymore.