Page 47 of Malice and Surrender
“Are you interested?” Removing his hand from my cheek, Jace linked our hands together, and my heart soared. I felt like parts of the old me were learning to breathe again. They made me feel alive, and I didn’t want this to end.
“Yes, I am. I didn’t think I would be, but the answer is yes,” I said. Even in the dark, his silver eyes seemed to penetrate my mind.
“Good. Then we will find a way to make it work.” Leaning forward, Jace kissed me softly. The temptation to deepen the kiss was too much, and I licked at his bottom lip.
“Mmm, my sweet little Peaches, you’re getting an appetite,” he teased, but he wasn’t off the mark. My body was already gearing up for another round. Jace opened his mouth and let me explore his as he shifted closer to my body. “Careful, or you may bite off more than you can handle,” he whispered, breaking the kiss. “That’s not a challenge, just a fact,” he said, like he needed to make sure I understood the difference.
I’d gained a lot of courage, but he was right. I was playing with fire, and Jace was the type that was nice for only so long before he took what he wanted. I’d seen it in his eyes, and it made me hot, but it was also terrifying.
“Then again, what’s one more time?” Jace said, and I shuddered as his fingers slipped between my thighs. “I want to feel you cum on my fingers, Peaches,” he said, his voice deep and gravelly.
My entire being felt full. The shell I had been was cast aside and replaced with someone who wanted it all out of life and this potential relationship. I didn’t even know what that meant, but I wanted it all the same. My heart was learning to beat all over again.
Kaivan
Leaning back in my chair, I crossed my arms and gazed around at the images on the wall. Most were old posters from a much earlier time for the club. There were a few framed cuts and patches, but everything in here honored the Lost Souls. Where they came from and all our leaders right up until today and our Grand Fucknut Mathers.
Usually, the church meetings didn’t bother me. It was all just what you expected when you joined a motorcycle club, but that was when I wasn’t in the middle of stalking Raine Eastman. We’d only had a dozen of these since my release. Most were to plan an attack or figure out a cleanup after the attack. So I was curious why one was called today, or I was until I realized Beast was just trying to keep the unrest at bay as Chase remained in Canada despite giving us no details other than he went to help his cousin.
I didn’t want to hear any more of this garbage, so I hurried the meeting up. “Yo, Beast. Cut to it already. When are Mathers and the rest of them coming back?”
All thirty-one of the remaining members’ heads turned in my direction. Thirty-two, if you counted the stray orange cat that decided this band of burly assholes was better than living on the streets. That said a lot about this part of the city if we were the preferred choice.
“I was getting to that,” Beast barked, his voice rippling with annoyance.
“Not fast enough. I have things to do today, and listening to you kiss Mather’s ass even when he’s not here is getting old. Either cut to the meat of the matter, or I’m out of here.”
The room went dead silent. You could’ve heard a pin drop as the guys sitting around me held their breath. Beast slowly stood from his chair. He looked like a giant bear up on the small platform, but he didn’t bother me.
None of them did except Mannix and, some of the time, Roach. If they came at me, I might pause, but if anyone else did, I would slit their throat and feed them to the gators. They all knew it too, which was also why they tended to keep their distance.
We had our honeymoon phase when I first got out. I mean, anyone would be happy to be out of prison. I was the first to grab a gun and yell, ‘point me in the right direction.’ Like any relationship, the longer you were there, the more you saw the bullshit people wanted to hide.
I’d only been on the outside one year, three months, twelve days, and eleven hours. That was enough time to realize that Chase never wanted to be our leader. I’d never spoken to the man before we went to Ashen Springs. As shocked as I was to learn that the leader I never knew existed was alive, I wanted to prove myself and fought as hard as any other member.
Once we got back, I spoke to Chase a handful of times about meaningless crap before he took off on a drinking and drug binge that left a trail of dead in his wake worse than Jack the Ripper. Now he was gone again, had been for weeks with no end in sight. Worse yet, he took two hundred and fifty of our men. We had no one left, and his parting words to me were, ‘keep them safe.’ Were you fucking kidding me? Me and what army was keeping the club safe from all the assholes that wanted our territory?
“If you walk out that door, then—”
“Then what?” I pulled a smoke from inside my jacket, lit it, and put it in my mouth to dangle between my lips. I rose to my feet as the two of us squared off.
“You’re already down the majority of your men. You gonna cut your enforcer loose, too? Doesn’t seem like a smart decision with three other gangs nipping at our heels ‘cause they all fucking know that Chase is off gallivanting across Canada where they can’t help us.”
“He’s up there helping family. That is what we do for family,” Beast argued.
I snorted. “Aren’t we his family?” I looked around at the down-turned heads and defeated looks. “Are you blind to what he is doing to this club? We can’t sustain protecting our doors or turf for very long with ninety percent of our members gone with no return date.” A few braver guards had been taking extra shifts and had been shot at more than once already.
“Tell me, Beast, why didn’t Mathers leave us with an ally to have our back? Oh, that’s right, he has none. He’s either pissed them off or lost their respect. Why isn’t he here earning the respect of the current members he claims he now wants to take care of?” I held out my arms. “That’s right. His cousin called and said he needed help. A motorcycle club that isn’t ours in a territory that isn’t ours. He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t come back to find the Desert Vipers in his chair.”
“He can’t control how long it takes, and helping his cousin will give us an ally,” Beast said.
Taking a puff of my smoke, I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jeans.
“Great, so we could all be dead, but when they get back, they’ll have earned an ally for some time in the future. Only three things are keeping the other gangs at bay. The first is the fence and the gators. It makes us harder to hit.” I walked around to the back of my chair and leaned on the old leather. “The second is the amusement park next door that everyone is convinced is haunted. People go in and never come out.”
If they only knew the reason they didn’t come out. To the best of my knowledge, only a small handful, including Chase and me knew Wilder even existed.
I glared daggers at Beast. I had no problem with him, really. What I hated was his devotion to a man who had yet to prove he had the stones to be our leader and not a knock-off of his father’s legacy.
