The Devil in Her Soul (Heartless Devils Motorcycle Club Book 3) (5 page)

“My problem is
you,”
Hearts said leaning in close. “I don’t like your attitude. I don’t care if you are the Boss’s daughter, or who you are fucking. You are no better than anyone else around here. So you can take your attitude and shove it up your tight little ass.”

Jenny could feel the slow burn starting. She had been wrong, but Rachel seemed to be willing to accept that people change, so why couldn’t Hearts?

“Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot,” Jenny said standing up and extending her hand. “You’re right, I had a bit of attitude, but I was wrong. If you could give me another chance I think you will see that—”

“There is only one chance in this life, sugar, and you’ve blown yours.”

Jenny pulled her hand back, but didn’t sit down. “Fine. You mind your business and I will mind mine.”

“That’s not how it works. I’m the mother, and I take care of my girls. Their business is my business. I don’t want you messing things up for them. It would be best if you just stayed away. You’re not welcome here.”

“For Christ sake, Hearts. She’s Asher’s old lady and John’s daughter. She’s as welcome here as any of us.”

Hearts stared daggers at Rachel. “When you get to be mother, you can make that call. But until you are, I decide which women belong and which do not. Remember your place, Rach, or I’ll have to remind you.”

The door to chapel opened and the Deacons filed out, all but Asher and John. “Don’t come back,” Hearts warned Jenny before she swayed over to Chains.

Jenny waited a moment to see if Asher or her father would appear, but then turned to Rachel. “What the hell is her problem?”

“She’s a bitch.”

Jenny couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, that much I got. What’s this about being the mother?”

Rachel sighed. “Helen, she goes by Hearts, is kind of in charge of the girls when we are in the clubhouse. She lives here, in a little apartment in the back, and runs the clubhouse.”

“Whose old lady is she?”

“Nobody. Or I guess I should say, nobody now. She is open to everyone. Her and Chains get it on regularly.”

“So what’s her beef with me?”

“I think she sees you as a threat. Kenny doesn’t have an old lady, and John doesn’t anymore, not that Melissa was ever here. So with you being Asher’s old lady, you are a threat to her position. Plus being the Boss’s daughter?”

“She’s afraid I’m going to try to push her out?”

“Maybe. She runs the place like a fucking tyrant. None of us girls like her.”

“So why don’t you do something about it?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know…tell her to go fuck herself.”

Rachel laughed. “Easier said than done. The last girl that stood up to her ended up in the hospital with a broken jaw.”

“What?” Jenny squawked. “How?”

“Hearts hit in the face with a beer mug.”

“Shit! And the guys put up with that?”

Rachel looked at Jenny in the way people look at loveable idiot. “So long as they get some pussy, their cock sucked, food and coffee is available, and the bar is stocked, they don’t give much of a shit what happens among the women. She’s good at all of that.”

“That’s bullshit,” Jenny murmured. “I’ll talk to Asher.”

“No! Don’t do that! So long as we stay out of her way, we all get along pretty well.”

Jenny looked at Rachel quizzically. “Why not?”

“Because! She may not take it out on you, but she will damn sure take it out on me and the rest of the girls.”

“Rachel, it’s stupid to be walking around afraid of her. Let me talk to Asher.”

“Jenny, please, don’t, okay? You don’t know how she can be.”

Jenny ran her tongue over her teeth. “Okay. I won’t talk to him. But if all the women stood up to her, she would back off.”

“No, she wouldn’t. She would pick us off, one at a time, and make our lives miserable.”

“Wouldn’t Gator stand up for you?”

“No, probably not. If one of the men were hassling me, yeah, he would step in to protect his pussy. But from one of the other women? He would expect me to solve my own issues.”

“That’s messed up!”

“It is what it is. Please don’t say anything.”

“Okay. You have my word. But if that bitch gets in my face again…”

“Be careful, Jenny. She’s fights dirty.”

Jenny grinned. “She hasn’t seen fighting dirty until I fight dirty. I’m going to be a fucking lawyer. I can take fighting dirty to a whole new level.”

Rachel began to giggle and she patted Jenny on the hand. “Just be careful,” she said as she rose then sauntered over to Gator, Tank, and Dozer, melting into Gator’s side as his arm went around her and his hand came to rest on her ass.

Jenny gave her head a shake then turned back to her almost forgotten Sprite. She had just taken another sip when Asher and John appeared. Her father went immediately down the hall to his apartment, and Asher walked toward her.

“What’s the matter?” she asked as he coasted to a stop beside her.

“Your dad is being a dick.”

Jenny sighed. “What now?”

“Nothing. Come on. Now I need a ride.”

Jenny rose, moved behind the bar and dumped the drink into the sink. She thought about leaving the glass out so that Hearts would have to put it in the dishwasher, but then changed her mind. No point looking for trouble, or reinforcing her opinion of her.

After putting the glass in the washer, she followed Asher outside.

“Tell me what’s going on,” she demanded as she put on her helmet.

“It’s the same shit. Reaming my ass about getting you involved in the club. He is still fixated on us sleeping together. Never mind that Melissa was his old lady and she couldn’t have been less involved in the club.”

“Don’t worry about him,” Jenny said as she hauled her bike upright. “He’ll come around. And if not, then too bad for him.” Before Asher could answer, she pressed the starter button and her hog bellowed to life.

Chapter 5

Asher stomped into Jenny’s apartment and tossed his helmet carelessly onto the small table by the door where their helmets were left.

“What?” Jenny asked from the couch, looking up from her laptop.

“Nothing.”

Jenny sighed. “Nothing my ass. Is it Dad again?”

Asher didn’t want to bad mouth his lover’s father, but John was getting to be a real pain in the ass. “Yeah.”

“What this time?”

“Nothing new. He’s freezing me out and that is affecting the rest of the club. I don’t think he even knows he is doing it.”

Jenny pursed her lips in annoyance. She had tried to talk to her dad after they had returned from their ride Saturday, but he was just as chilly toward her as he has been toward Asher. She had thought she had made some progress, but that was three days ago, and it was clear whatever progress she thought she had made hadn’t stuck.

“Maybe it is just time for us to move on.”

“Leave Miami?”

“No, not leave, but maybe you should think about leaving the Heartless Devils.”

Asher frowned. “Is that what you want?”

“No. But do you want to continue like this? I don’t know what’s wrong with Dad, but I’m beginning to think this isn’t going to work.”

“This what?”

“Us and you in the club.”

“And you are asking me to choose between you and the club?”

“No, of course not. What I would like is for Dad to get the pinecone out of his ass. But if he can’t, do you want to be treated like this for the rest of your life? I don’t.”

“Maybe we should just cool it for a while.”

Jenny’s eyes narrowed. “Cool it? What does that mean?”

Asher sat down beside her. “Not what you are thinking. But maybe, just put a little space between us until your dad comes around. The club needs him focused on this Hamasaki problem. Right now he is dividing his attention between that and worrying about us.”

“So you want to…?”

“Calm down,” he said gently. “I just want to get this Hamasaki problem behind us. Once we get that sorted, then we can worry about your dad.”

“So you want to…?” she asked again.

“I’m not sure what I want. I want you, that much is certain. But I’m trying to figure out how to get your dad focused on the real problem. I feel like a distraction. Every time we are in a room together, it’s like he can’t focus. I’ve talked to Kenny, and he has noticed I,t too. He said he’s like that when I’m not around, but not as badly. So it has to be us. He’s so twisted up still that he can’t think. I don’t know what to do for him except to try to give him what he wants.”

“Which is what?”

“Us apart, I guess.” He quickly held up his hand to forestall Jenny’s comment when she opened her mouth. “I’m not giving you up. I will leave the club first. But maybe if we backed off a little. Maybe I move back to my house and I don’t live here anymore. Something like that.”

“And how are you supposed to be my bodyguard if you are twenty minutes from me?”

“That wouldn’t change. I would still be here to take you to school and get you home. But as you pointed a long time ago, this is a secured building. You should be safe enough.”

“Yeah. That certainly kept me safe the last time.”

Asher grinned ruefully. “Yes, I know. But they have installed bulletproof glass around the security station and security is armed now. What happened the last time shouldn’t happen again.”

“I still don’t like it,” Jenny said.

“I don’t like it either. But I don’t know what else to do. We will never have peace so long as Hamasaki is free. Having our girls smacked around, putting the cops onto the Bucs and the Trifectas, and setting fire to our properties. He could make another play for you for all I know. Do you want to go on living like this?”

“Why don’t you, the HDs, I mean, just kill him?”

Asher looked a Jenny and shook his head with a snort. “You certainly have gotten blood thirsty. Because the Demonios are clearly backing him now. We can’t get at him and still keep it quiet. We don’t want to bring the cops into this, so it has to be done off the radar. We don’t want him dead, we just want him to disappear.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

“To him it is. But to the outside world? No. It’s two completely different things.”

Jenny snapped her laptop closed and set it onto the table. “I hate this shit! Why can’t people just leave us alone?”

“Once this is behind us, they will. We will be totally legit business. The Bucs have already taken the last of our drug customers. We just have to handle this one last detail and then we will be free of it.”

Jenny sighed. “Yeah, I guess. But you’re not leaving tonight. We’ll talk about it some more tomorrow and try to figure something out.”

Asher smiled, his feelings for her clear in how he looked at her. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Are you sure you want to come?” Asher asked the next morning as he stacked the breakfast dishes in the washer.

“Yeah. Finals start tomorrow and I am stressing about it. It will do me good to get away from it for a while.”

“We’ll go for a ride afterwards, how about that?” Asher asked.

“Sounds lovely. Once school is out, I want to get away. Go somewhere for a couple of weeks. Just you, me, the bikes, and the open road. Maybe ride up to the North Carolina Mountains or something.”

Asher smiled. “Deal. Assuming the Hamasaki plan goes down like we think, I should be free of it. Maybe that will give you dad some time to get his head right when he isn’t seeing me every day or two.”

“Maybe,” Jenny muttered as she shrugged into her riding leathers.

“You okay?” he asked as he gently turned her to face him.

“Yeah, I guess. Between finals, this shit with Hamasaki, and most especially with Dad, I’m about fed up. I’m about ready to tell the whole world to just go fuck itself.”

“Does that include me?”

“No. You, I want fucking me,” she said with a slight smile. “But all this other shit makes it hard for me to enjoy everything else.”

“What can I do?”

“Just put up with me for a few more days and get this Hamasaki problem fixed. Then I will deal with Daddy because I am fed up with him most of all. He is sucking all the fun out of having you around.”

“Well, we can’t have that,” he said as he picked up the two helmets, handing Jenny hers.

“No. And if he doesn’t straighten his ass out, I’m going to stomp him into a greasy spot.”

Asher chuckled as he opened the door. He wouldn’t bet against her.

“Hey Jenny. I want you to meet—” Rachel began as she sat down in one of the four comfortable arm chairs.

“What happened to you?” Jenny gasped, cutting her off after seeing the bruise on the side of her face.

“It’s nothing,” Rachel said, feeling the spot.

“Nothing hell,” a third woman said. “She and Hearts locked up.”

“Meet Sophie and Angel,” Rachel said. “Sophie is Tank’s squeeze and Angel is Dozer’s.”

“Nice to meet you,” Jenny nodded then turned her attention back to Rachel. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing.”

“Goddamnit, it’s not nothing!” Jenny snarled. “You should kick her ass.”

Sophie and Angel settled into the other two chairs. “That’s fine, coming from you,” Sophie said bitterly.

“What do you mean? Just because I’m John’s daughter?”

“Yeah,” Sophie sighed.

“But if all the girls got together?” Jenny asked.

“And do what? Hearts is here because the club wants her here. Nothing we can do about it,” Angel added.

“You mean to tell me your men won’t listen to you?” Jenny asked.

“No. Hearts will put out for anyone. Even Marbles. Plus she does a good job running the clubhouse. The men, they just don’t see the problem. When I talked to Dozer about it he just gets pissy and tells me to handle it.” Angel looked at her fingers. “It’s easier to just steer clear of her.”

Jenny shook her head in disbelief. “And when you can’t?” she asked with a nod at Rachel. “Hearts did that to you because you were being nice to me, right?”

“Probably,” Sophie said.

Jenny tossed her hands up in frustration. “Have it your way. But I still think you should grow a spine and kick her ass.”

“Whatever,” Rachel said. “Listen, I was telling Sophie and Angel about you and we wondered if you wanted to go shopping later.”

Jenny smiled. “I would love to go, but Asher and I already have plans.” She saw the three women begin to cool toward her. “But,” she said, pushing as much good cheer into her voice as she could, “finals will be over middle of next week. Can we go after that? I would really enjoy it. Maybe we could do lunch or something?”

The three women brightened immediately. “Sure. I think that will work,” Rachel said, her smile lighting up her face.

“Great! After finals I will need some R&R. I know this great little place that has the cutest waiters. We can go whisper about their asses.”

The three women twittered out a laugh. “What will Asher say?” Angel asked.

“They’re cute, but they’re no Asher,” Jenny replied with a grin of her own.

“It sounds like fun,” Sophie agreed.

“It’s set then! Does Thursday or—” Jenny began.

“I thought I told you that you weren’t welcome here?” Hearts said as she stepped into the main room from the hall that led to the dorms.

“—Friday work best for everyone?” Jenny continued as if Hearts hadn’t spoken.

“Uh…” Rachel said, all the life going out of her face.

Hearts strode up. “Don’t you three have somewhere else to be?”

“No, they don’t,” Jenny said firmly. “I asked them to sit with me.”

Hearts stared at Jenny as if she was unable to believe anyone would defy her. She sucked on her teeth a moment as if deciding on the best way to handle the situation. “You three. Beat it. Jenny and I have a few things to discuss.”

“Leave if you want,” Jenny said as the three women began to rise. “But you can stay if you like. We still have to figure out which day works best for our shopping trip.” Jenny thrust her chin at Hearts. “Anything she has to say, she can say in front of you.”

“I said beat it,” Hearts growled when the three women hesitated.

“Leave her alone, Hearts,” Rachel said. “She isn’t hurting anything. We were just talking about going shopping.”

Hearts eyes narrowed as she glared at Jenny, ignoring Rachel’s comment. “I don’t like you. This is my clubhouse and I won’t have you undermining my authority.”

Jenny smiled. “What undermining? We were just talking about a shopping trip while we wait for chapel to be over. It has nothing to do with you. You have a problem with that?”

“What I have is a problem with you.”

“Well guess what? I don’t give a shit.” Jenny sneered.