Inflamed: A Shadow Riders MC (4 page)

"I'm sorry," she said as the sobs built up inside her throat. She practically stumbled over her words in trying to think of the right ones to use. "I'm sorry, I just... I felt you last night, and this morning, really felt you. You were all up inside every part of me and I just wanted to feel that again."

River stormed out of the bathroom for the second time, ignoring every fucking thing she said, and grabbed his shirt. "Where the fuck is your goddamn purse, bitch?"

She wiped the fallen tears from her face. "I didn't bring one with me."

"Where the fuck are your pants, then? Or whatever the fuck it was that you had on last night? I know good and fuckin' well you didn't come all the way out here without any motherfuckin' ID."

“Are you wanting to see for your own eyes if I’m telling you the truth?”

“Well I’m sure as fuck not eager to know how the hell you look in pictures,” he shot back.

She stalled and took a deep breath before finally coming out and grabbing her skirt from the floor on the other side of the room. She searched inside both pockets and once she found her ID and held it up, he snatched it from her and glanced down at her name, birthday and current residence.

"If this shit is fake, you know I’ll find out about it. And you should know the consequences of a bitch tryin’ to fuck me over.”

She gulped and nodded her head. “It’s real, I promise it’s real.” She took a deep breath in and held it so tight inside her chest that she nearly fainted. Yeah, that ID was real. She knew if it wasn’t that she’d be ripped to pieces by every single willing member of that club, the whores and Old Ladies too, and it wouldn’t be just those pieces hitting the goddamn concrete on her way out.

“Courtney Justine Jenkins. Turned nineteen years old on April 15
th
." River stopped and grimaced. "Bell Channelside apartments in Tampa, Florida. Yeah, I know that place
real
fuckin' well. So do some of the other gun totin’, knife wieldin’ motherfuckers around here. Which ain’t a good goddamn thing for you.” He flung the card in her direction and as it dropped to the floor, she gradually bent down to pick it back up. "How the fuck did you get here last night?"

"I told you, my friend."

"Then that same friend can come and pick your raggedy ass back up and take you right back to where the fuck you both came from. I've got too much shit to deal with today, and not one goddamn second of that shit is gonna be spent takin' your ass back to another goddamn city. Get your shit, get dressed, and get the fuck out."

“But Riv--”

“OUT!” The boom in his voice made her shudder in place. “I won’t ask a bitch twice,” he said. She held her legs together to keep from taking a piss all over his goddamn floor.

He threw his shirt over his head, grabbed his cut and headed out the room, slamming the door behind him so hard that he shook the frame and nearly broke the handle in his hand.

Chapter Two

River rubbed his hands up and down either side of his face to keep from absolutely losing his shit any more than what he had already, and headed off to the front of the club, where despite how clean the place
looked
, the smell of booze and pussy continued to linger throughout from the night before.

"Shit must be soaked into the goddamn walls," he mumbled.

"Morning to you too, Sunshine," Verna called out from behind the bar. "And believe me, you can't imagine the hell I've gone through this morning in trying to get that rancid smell out from every surface of this place. Maybe if the club didn't have so many parties back to back, it wouldn't stick around for as long as it does. At least not every day of the goddamn week.” She sighed and shook her head in slight fury. “Shit didn't used to be like this with us, you know."

River's eyes went solemn and he nodded. "Yeah, I know. But alota of this shit is due to your goddamn husband and the fuckin' changes he refuses to make within the club--"

"Yeah.” She held up her hand and nodded. "I know." She reached for a towel from the opposite end of the bar and began to wipe it down. "You hungry?"

"No."

"Well that's good. Because I've yet to get to the store this morning and anything left over from last night worth cooking isn’t exactly meant for human consumption."

A woman of a certain age with hair the color a cotton ball that she had slicked back into a tight bun, and eyes the color of seaweed, Verna was used to being the first one up before the sun for reasons just like the night before. The minute she married Wolf and became the club's first “official” Old Lady, she put herself in charge of getting the place cleaned up for the boys after their nights of hard partying with random club bitches. Though some she grew close to due to how long they managed to stick around, others she outright despised, convinced that they were nothing more than money grubbers and unfortunate distractions for the brothers who needed to concentrate more on the women they had at home, and less on the ones just looking to warm a few beds in a single damn night.

River trudged over to her and threw his hands on top of the bar. He hiked up his shoulders as he inhaled, then let them down slowly as he released a load of hot air.

Verna looked up at the man she once called a '6 foot 5 Adonis', and sighed heavily. "You look like complete shit," she told him, feeling it was no exaggeration on her part. She reached out her hand and gradually moved it around his face. "You feeling okay today?"

He jerked his head back and frowned. "I've got a bitch in my room," he said. "One from the party last night. Ran my goddamn temperature up when she told me she was just shy of bein' legal."

Verna's eyes grew in size. Blush arose in her milky white cheeks and her mouth fell open. "Oh, shit. Another one?"

"I'm not Tiny for fuck’s sake, I don't get off on that shit. I checked her ID and she's good." He shook his head. "She said that shit just to fuck with my head, but the bitch had me goin' for a good goddamn minute. Almost felt like she was tryin' to twist off my goddamn nuts or some shit."

"Are you sure this young bitch is not still fucking with you, River? What if that goddamn ID of hers is fake?”

“She knows the consequences of tryin’ to fuck with me just like any other bitch that comes strollin’ through this place.”

“Obviously she doesn’t know a hell of a lot if you’re saying that’s what she just did--!”

He slammed his fist on top of the bar. “SHE KNOWS. THE CONSEQUENCES.
NOW
!” he roared.

Verna swallowed hard and eyed River something fierce. She knew better than anyone not to piss him off so early in the goddamn morning before he at least had a bottle of rum to calm himself down from the night before, but she loved the club and those boys as if each one was her own. River being the one she took to heart the most.

“Fine,” she said. “If she knows now, then why the hell hasn’t she gotten her shit and gotten the hell out of here? This club has enough problems as it is already, and this bitch doesn’t need to be another one looming--"

"I straightened her the fuck out and she's on her way outta here soon," he told her. "Just calm the fuck down."

“I think you need to be pointing that finger in the other goddamn direction,” said Verna. “Or at least look into a goddam mirror.”

He made a face. “The bitch’ll be outta here before the boys get back.”

And as if her ears had been set on fire by a match, Courtney came out from around the corner wearing nothing but a yellow thong with those strawberry locks now tied up in a high bun on top of her head.

Verna craned her neck to get a good look at her face and soured. "Jesus. I don't think this dumb bitch is going any goddamn place any time soon without something other than her fragile looking hands covering those paid for, plastic looking tits of hers. At the
very
least."

"What?" River whipped around and clinched his fists the moment he got an eyeful of her tits again. "Fuck, bitch, what the fuck? Are you mental? Is that what this shit is? Did you break out of the goddamn loony bin in Tampa instead of those high class apartments?"

"I'm not crazy," she said defiantly. "I'm just not ready to go yet. Not until you hear me out."

"What the fuck is there left to hear, you stupid, crazy fuckin' bitch? Get the fuck out ain’t that difficult a task to abide by."

Verna thought to say something else to the both of them but had learned over the years when to continue sticking her nose into business between the boys and the random bitches they chose to keep overnight, and when to keep her goddamn mouth shut. Considering River’s actions toward this crazy bitch, she knew that this was a time when the latter was a hell of a lot better option than the former.

River stormed over to Courtney and she backed into the wall like a scared puppy, gulping as she stared up into those blue eyes again, which seemed to harden the moment he got a better look at the softness in her pale, round face. She was still young, that was for damn sure, but she didn't seem to be as beautiful out in the open as she was back in his bedroom. Maybe it was the awkward lighting, or maybe it was just the way she worked his cock into her mouth that made her look so goddamn good.

"Please," she whispered, her hazel eyes filling with more tears. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"If you knew me, you'd know that the one thing I can't stand more than a lyin' bitch, is a cryin' bitch." River clinched his teeth and grabbed onto her arm. "Let's go." He tried dragging her away from the wall, but she remained firmly in place.

"I just want to make it up to you, River," she told him in a soft voice. "What I said was stupid and I shouldn't have even gone there with someone like you, but I... I just like you so much, and..."

He ignored her pleas and continued jerking on her arm until she dropped her hand down the front of his pants and latched onto his cock.

"Fuck." His entire body jerked forward the minute she began to stroke him and he threw his hands on the wall behind her. "
Fuck
in', bitch." He groaned as his body sank into the warm feeling her hand provided for him and his cock grew into a full on erection.

She smiled up at him knowing she had had him right back where she wanted him, and licked her lips from one corner of her mouth to the other. "If you let me, I can show you just how sorry I am." She slid her fingers up and down his cock and he tensed.

"
Shit
." He grunted. "Show me with that goddamn mouth or that shaven pink pussy, bitch?"

"Both. I can show you both, River, if you just let me."

"
Fuck
." He tipped her head back and drove his tongue deep into her mouth, kissing her so wildly that her arms became entangled with his.

Sick of what was happening right before her very eyes, Verna finally threw caution to the wind and dropped her hands down on the bar to grab their attention. But when neither of them seemed to take notice, she slid her fingers inside the corners of her mouth, bent forward and whistled. River pulled back from a panting Courtney and snarled like a dog who had just had his tail yanked by its master. She swiped her hand over her mouth and reached up for him again, but he pushed her arms down and stood back.

"I told you before that you've got a visitor outside, River," said Verna. "And it's rude to keep good people waiting to see you--"

"Let me ask you somethin'," he started, "what the fuck kinda visitor is showin' up here at 10 in the fuckin’ mornin' unless they're lookin' for some kinda goddamn fix?"

"I've got a feeling that this woman isn't here for the kind of fix you're probably thinking she's in dire need of."

He arched his brows and whipped his head around to her. "Woman?" It was as if a home cooked meal had just been waved in front of the nose of a bloodhound.

Verna nodded.

River paused to think for a second. Just like it had been awhile since he woke up to a mouth around his cock, it had been even longer since a woman he didn't know showed up looking for him at his Compound so early in the goddamn morning. The last time one had, she didn't leave until the next day, half dressed, wearing his shirt and with her panties still bunched inside his hand.

"What's she look like?" he asked.

Verna's eyes traveled over to Courtney, who glowered. "Nothing like what you've got standing in front of you, which might be for the better."

"Shit. If that's your opinion on it, this bitch must not be worth lookin' at."

Courtney laughed at River's reaction and nuzzled her face into the leather of his cut.

"
You'd be surprised
," Verna said under her breath.

River slipped a hand beneath Courtney's face and pressed his lips against her ear. "You get your sexy ass back in there and wait for me. If this bitch out here waitin’ for me is worth lookin' at, maybe we'll get some company before I send your ass back to Tampa tonight."

She pulled back and stuck out her bottom lip. "What if I don't want to share you with another bitch?"

"Then you can get the fuck out and I'll get Verna or some other club bitch to come and take your nineteen year old pussy back home right this fuckin' second. And then I’ll come back here and fuck her from the back while I’ve got your goddamn ID still in my fuckin’ hand.”