Page 1 of Steele

Chapter One

Steele

Bikes, booze, and brotherhood. I used to dream about nights like this. Maybe not exactly like this, but I’d fucked up enough of my life to know that being patched into the Heller Raiders MC was pretty fucking good, especially considering where I’d been. I’d had too many close calls. Too many run-ins with the cops, too many enemies who’d rather see me dead, and I was still here. There had been times I wasn’t sure if karma was my friend or trying to fuck me over.

All I knew was that my little girl was the best thing to happen to me, even if her mother was part of my karma coming back around. I’d obviously liked Natalie enough to make her my old lady. I thought I loved her enough to marry her. And now, I hated her… Nah, I strongly disliked her enough to want a divorce. I couldn’t hate her. She gave me Lili. Although I did hate our current relationship. For most of our marriage, I’d been the problem.

Which was why she was divorcing me. This time our dysfunction was on her. I wasn’t putting up a fight. I wanted out as much as she wanted me gone. Life was a bitch, and it turned out I married one, too. Pretty sure I’d made her that way.

Water under the bridge and all that. She’d moved on, and I’d found my place with the Hellers.

Friday nights at the MC had the chapel of the old church filled with music and laughter. Meats grilled on the smokers out front of our clubhouse, and inside, old ladies of the patches filled tables with a potluck-style buffet.

The new prospect, Seven had a couple of his kids here tonight. The guy had a harem of ex-wives, seven to be exact, which was how he got his road name, but he was still always smiling. Maybe once the divorce was final I’d find a reason to smile again. For now, I’d had enough trouble with Natalie. I couldn’t say she didn’t have reason to want out. During our marriage, I’d run with the Night Crawlers MC, and I’d found more than my share of trouble.

Those days were behind me. Nothing I did now would change my situation. Natalie had moved on. I wasn’t bitter about the divorce, but I was getting tired of the games. Considering we both wanted out, one would think she’d be more committed to seeing it finalized. Six months of delays because we couldn’t agree on visitation and custody.

I walked away from everything but my kid. Nat wanted the house. I had no problem with that. She wasn’t getting an argument from me. We’d purchased the three-bedroom, two-bath house together with the help of her parents. Lenders wanted to know where you scored ten grand a month in extra income. Working as a plug on the corner of Washington and Sixteenth Street parting out eighths wasn’t going to satisfy underwriting. Her parents never asked.

I’d done a lot of shit for money, and not much of it had been legal. Crawlers had gotten too deep in the illegal pharmaceutical business. Not that I hadn’t been living a life that was going to get me dead or detained. It might not have cost me my life or my freedom, but I’d lost too much.

It was hard to think about the dark days, the things I’d done for the Crawlers MC, and the friends I’d lost. Those losses were the reason I’d betrayed one club and patched into another. I miss you, Tommy. I tapped my water glass on the table then drank. Normally, I’d have a whiskey neat for my fallen brother, but I had to take Lili back to her mom’s tonight.

Tommy had been my prospect. The kid was too young to go down so hard and so fast. When he died, I’d had enough. Too late to save Tommy, too late for my marriage, but not too late to be a good dad to my kid. Not too late to remember that being a part of an MC was supposed to be about family, friends, a brotherhood.

Clover crossed the room. Her long auburn hair hung in a straight shimmering curtain to her ass. “I didn’t think you were here when I didn’t see your bike.”

My Harley was at Natalie’s. Lili was too young for more than rides around the neighborhood. When she was with me, I usually had Nat’s car, technically my car, but another concession in the divorce.

That Clover would look for me felt good, but before she could slide onto my lap, I put a hand on her hip. “Lili is here tonight.”

She ran her fingers through my hair. “Oh. Lucky you.” Her smile was wide and genuine as she whipped her head around and glanced at the girls dancing. Normally, my tutu-wearing menace would be hanging with the old ladies, but tonight, she was running around with Seven’s twins.

It wasn’t my scheduled weekend with Lili, but when her mom had asked me to take her for the evening, I jumped at the chance for extra time with my kid. Until the courts decided how we’d split custody, Natalie wasn’t generous with visitation. I tried not to give her any reasons to make shit difficult with Lili.

Still, no doubt tomorrow I’d pay the price when Lili retold her mother about her night in the MC. Natalie had hated the Crawlers, and she painted every MC with the same tainted brush. Whatever she had going tonight was important enough to overlook Friday night and Church at the MC.

Lili was at an age where she parroted everything her mother said. And she loved to dance. She lived in ballet slippers, tights, and tutus, even when she was pirouetting down the pitch while playing recreational community soccer.

I kept my hand on Clover’s hip and tugged her closer but kept my eyes on the main door to the chapel to watch for Lili. “I’ll be taking her back to her mom soon. Maybe later?”

“You can sit on my lap,” Kodiak said to Clover.

“Pass.” She smirked.

Clover and I had a casual thing going. Neither one of us felt territorial. Good thing, since she was one of Bullet’s kittens, and she had a casual thing with a lot of dudes, sucking Heller cock and fucking online for Good Girl Studios.

While she’d been hanging around the Crawlers MC, she’d been a go between Bullet and the Hellers when he’d patched into the rival MC to take it down from the inside.

Clover and I were friends, neither of us expected anything but an occasional night between the sheets. When she wasn’t fucking guys on camera, she was fucking Hellers in the MC. I could be a good time, but neither she nor I were looking for more. Strictly friends who fucked, which was great for me. I had enough complications in my life. The last thing I needed was another emotional entanglement.

Bristol and Stormy came into the chapel with Bullet. My club princess trailed in behind them. Twigs were scattered through her braids, and she had dirt on her hands and knees. She laughed as she headed to the cookies on the buffet table.

“There she is.” Clover slipped out of my arms to join them.

“Are you playing or not?” Sully asked, ready to deal cards.

I tossed a nickel into the center of the table. Kodiak and Murph tossed in their antis with mine.