Wild Ride (Wind Dragons Motorcycle Club) (3 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

Tia

I
SIT
up in bed and groan as I wake from yet another dream about Talon. How many times have I replayed that night in my head? One too many. So we kissed, big deal, right? Nothing came of it, and nothing will. I hadn’t even told Bailey, or anyone else for that matter, what happened that night. It was a secret between me and Talon, one that made me want to jump him whenever I saw him. However, I kissed him that night, and now it’s up to him to make the next move, which I don’t think he’s going to do. I think the best thing for me is to just let it go. Unfortunately I can’t control my thoughts or my dreams, but at least only I am witness to them.

I make Rhett breakfast as he gets dressed for school. Bailey is picking him up this morning, which gives me an extra thirty minutes to get ready myself, so I make him pancakes with bacon on the side.

“Thanks, Mom,” he says, sitting down at the table with a wide smile while I serve the food.

I kiss the top of his head. “You’re more than welcome.”

“Can Cara come over to play after school? Maybe we can bring Clover too,” he asks as he bites into a strip of bacon.

“I’ll ask their moms,” I tell him, cleaning up the kitchen. I finish just as Bailey arrives to pick up Rhett. I walk him to the car, open the door for him, and kiss him on the cheek, then say good morning to Bailey and Cara. I tell her that I’ll get the kids after school and ask her if Cara can come over for a little while.

“Sure,” Bailey says, smiling. “Cara will love that. I’ll come and pick her up around seven, if that works for you?”

“Sounds perfect,” I say, waving ’bye to them all and then heading inside to finish getting ready. I take a quick shower, then tie my hair up in a bun and add some light makeup while I’m still in my towel. After I’m dressed, I get in my car and drive to work.

I still haven’t brought my car in for service, because I don’t really have the money to pay for it right now. If worse comes to worst, I’ll pay for it with my credit card, but I prefer not to be in any kind of debt. My credit card has a low limit and I only use it for emergencies. And there’s no way I feel comfortable asking the Wind Dragons to take care of it for me. I don’t like to rely on anyone, and I don’t like to ask for favors. Oliver, Rhett’s father, used to hold things over my head. He made me feel like I wasn’t his equal because he was the one who earned the money while I was a stay-at-home mother. He taught me the hard way that relying on anyone will only backfire; the best way to be is independent, counting only on yourself to get by, because then you’ll never be disappointed. Talon was kind enough to try to help me out, and to give me his number in case I get stuck, but I probably wouldn’t call him either. I’ll just save everything I can this month, and then bring it in for service when I have enough money.

I walk into work with a smile on my face, not that I like the place but because I’m grateful to have a job, especially after I slept with the dentist who owns the practice. Bailey calls him “dentist guy” and no, it wasn’t the smartest move I’ve ever made, but it was a one-time thing that we now pretend never happened.

I used to be a lot wilder than I am now, mainly because I was struggling with a few issues, such as how to balance being a single woman and a mother. For the first several years of Rhett’s life, I didn’t date. I just worked and raised my son. I had no real interest in men, still hurting after everything that Oliver put me through. When Rhett turned five, I had my first date since having him. I realized that I was actually a pretty decent-looking woman, and men were interested in me. I had no idea that I’d have so many options, that so many men would find me appealing.

It was quite a confidence boost.

Since then, I haven’t really dated anyone seriously, but I’ve gone on dates. I’ve had a little fun, or as much as a single mother can have, as I don’t tend to go out that much. What I haven’t done is let any man in. After my ex, I think I’m a little damaged. I can be quite emotionless at times, not letting another man get close enough to hurt me. It’s just easier that way—plus no one has really caught my eye.

Besides Talon.

Shaking my head to get him out of my mind—as if that will work—I start my shift, looking forward to finishing so I can spend the evening at home with Rhett and Cara.

CHAPTER FIVE

Talon

I
LOOK
around the room and stare each man in the eye. “I don’t have many rules for the MC, but not fucking around with drugs is one of them,” I say, tapping my fingers on the wooden table. “We make more than enough money from the guns, we don’t need to get into drugs. And if anyone is doing shit behind my back”—I flash them a threatening look—“or taking any hard-core drugs, I’m telling you now that I won’t be fuckin’ happy. Does anyone have anything to say?”

I know that they dealt with drugs before I became president, but tough fuckin’ shit, because I won’t put up with it. I want to lead a group of strong, powerful men, not pathetic junkies.

Everyone remains silent.

“Slice and Ranger, the two of you are picking up the next gun shipment, on Friday,” I say, looking down at the new address on the piece of paper in front of me. “Take Rep with you this time,” I add, thinking that the man should be more involved. “I think that’s everything.”

The whole time we’ve been in this room, I’ve been paying attention to all the men. Their body language, their expressions, their input. There are two of them who I’m concerned about drug use—Vik and Lash. The fact that Ranger still hasn’t explained what went on between him and Lash has me thinking that he knows something too, but I know he won’t rat out his brother. Still, when everyone else leaves, I ask Ranger to stay back so we can have a little talk.

I need to get to the bottom of this.

I hang up the phone on Shayla and her millions of questions, and rub the back of my neck in frustration. Yes, I realize that the setup with Shayla isn’t the best plan ever concocted, but I’m doing the best I can with the resources available to me. As much as it pains me to say, my clubhouse isn’t a safe enough place for my cousin to hide out in. I trust some of the men but not all of them, and there’s no way she could stay here with all the shit going on. With my plan to call in Vinnie, I do believe that she’ll be safe, and even if she gets into trouble, I trust that the Wind Dragons will step in if need be. A calculated move on my part, but a necessary one.

After getting jack shit out of Ranger, I go to my side job. I don’t really need the money, but teaching others how to ride motorbikes is a passion of mine, and one that I’ve been doing for years. The riding school is where I got my bike license, and the people there are really great.

“Hey, Talon,” Whitney purrs the second that I enter.

“Hey, Whit,” I reply, pretending I didn’t notice her sultry tone. I slept with her a few times about two years back, and now she won’t let me forget it. Drunk me and sober me had a talk about it, and we both decided we needed to cut her off.

“You’re early today,” she says, tilting her head to the side and biting her lip. “Came in to see me, huh?”

She wishes.

“Traffic wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be,” I tell her, but the truth was, I kind of just wanted to get away from the clubhouse a little bit. I realize how bad that is, considering I’m the fuckin’ president, but it’s the truth, and I know that something has to give, something has to change to make me love being the leader of the Wild Men again. I love being in an MC: it’s the life I grew up in, and it’s all I know. The feeling of knowing you have the loyalty of these men, the bond, the brotherhood, it’s the best feeling in the world. It’s a fuckin’ family, albeit dysfunctional. It’s a place of acceptance. But why doesn’t it feel like that anymore? If the men knew what I was thinking . . .

An eighteen-year-old boy comes in for his first lesson, and I just concentrate on that.

It’s a peaceful two hours.

When I return to the clubhouse that evening, as soon as I walk inside I can tell that something is terribly wrong. The men are all yelling at one another, which isn’t rare, but the atmosphere is tense, almost frantic. “What’s going on?” I yell over them, looking to Slice and Ranger, the two men I can always count on.

“We tried calling you,” Slice says in a tone that has the hair on the back of my neck and arms standing on end. Everyone else goes silent.

“My phone was on silent,” I admit, stepping closer to Slice and looking him right in the eye. “What the fuck happened?”

Slice swallows, then nods his head to the living area, so I follow.

He points to the couch, where I see Zip lying there. Except, on closer inspection, he
isn’t
just lying there.

Fuck.

I bend down beside him, checking his pulse, or at least trying to.

He’s dead.

“Stabbed in the chest,” Slice says, scrubbing his hand down his face. I see the blood on Zip’s chest, so I gathered as much, but I don’t understand what the fuck happened.

“How?”

“We don’t know,” Slice admits, looking down at Zip in sadness. “Lash and I found him; we came about an hour ago. Only Vik was here, but he was asleep. We need fuckin’ cameras installed, because no one has any idea what happened here.”

“Fuck,” I grit out, standing and turning my back on Zip’s body. Who would want to kill him? He didn’t have any enemies that I knew of. He wasn’t the smartest guy, he fucked around and drank a lot, but he wasn’t a bad man. I look at Slice out of the corner of my eye and demand, “I want you to talk to every man in the clubhouse and find out what they know. If anyone noticed anything unusual today, or anything that can help. I want to know his last movements, and who the last person to talk to him was. Check his phone.”

“What are you going to do?” Slice asks, knowing me well enough to know that I’d have a plan.

“I’m going to find Carla,” I say with a sigh. “And tell her that the father of her unborn kid is dead.”

The baby will be taken care of financially, of course. I’d see to that. And we’d need to organize a nice funeral. Fuck. I’ve known Zip for a long-ass time, ever since I was a boy, because he was friends with my stepdad. I turn back around and look at him.

How do I tell this Carla that her man is dead, and that he was killed inside his own home? Not to mention that I have no idea who did it. I could wait until we know more, but what if she tries to contact Zip? Fuck, she only just found out she was pregnant. This is definitely going to be rough on her, and I’m not really good at dealing with emotional women. In fact, I’ll probably end up awkwardly patting her on the back and wishing I was elsewhere. Maybe I should take a woman with me? I wonder what Tia is doing right now. She seems like she’d be good in a situation like this. I realize that I don’t even have her number; it’s she who has mine. Why is she the one springing to my mind first anyway?

I don’t think Arrow would appreciate my wanting to bring Anna along, and Shayla is currently in hiding, and those are the only three women who I’d feel comfortable bringing with me. I guess I was stuck doing this alone. I’d have to ask one of the men if they knew where she lived, or at least her surname.

“Rest in peace, brother,” I whisper, then my voice turns to steel. “Whoever did this to you will pay.”

I’ll make sure of it.