I woke up with Rocky’s soft ass in my hand and my cock hard and ready for more of what I’d gotten on and off all night. Soft, willing woman. Pliant woman. Adventurous woman. Ravenous woman. She’d been hungry for me, for the pleasure that ignited between us whenever we touched but I was sure she was hungry for something more. The way Rocky fucked felt a lot like goodbye and I didn’t like it one damn bit. Her back was to me, exposing the tattooed thorny stems crawling up her spine and her breaths came deep and even as she slept.
I wouldn’t let her push me away. As soon as she was up, I’d force her to talk about what she planned to do and what I could do to get her to let me help. But for now, I needed a shower and food. What I really needed was another round with Rocky, but she looked too peaceful to disturb, so I grabbed my clothes and headed to my bedroom.
The sound of a motorcycle drew my attention in the early morning quiet of the residential neighborhood I lived in, made up mostly of young working professionals and a few families. We never heard bikes here. I wondered what was up.
I stepped into my jeans and pulled a tee over my head, greeting Savior barefoot on the front steps. “What’s up man?” I wasn’t in the mood for company, but I had an idea about why he’d show up this early.
He lifted a hand in greeting and dropped down on the top step. “Look Lasso, you’re our brother and we want to help you out here. But we can’t. Not for some chick you don’t even know who’s claiming to be pregnant with your kid. I know you probably don’t want to think about that shit right now but with what you’re asking, we have to ask.”
Yeah, they had to ask. “Bullshit. My word suddenly isn’t good enough? Good to know.” I knew the club had a hierarchy and I accepted it. I’d gone to battle for my brothers on more than one occasion and I would do it again and again to protect my family. But now that I needed them, there were all these fucking conditions on that help. That’s loyalty?
“Come on, Lasso. If Genesis is determined to have her, he’ll stop at nothing. That means war, Lasso. Fucking war.”
No one wanted war. Despite what all the shows and movies sold as a story, war was bad for everyone. No one came out the other side without battle scars, mental and physical, as well as plenty of fucking loss. Lives and money would have to be paid before the war ended. It’d be fierce and bloody. But how could they avoid it when the risk was losing Rocky and my kid? “So, what are you asking here? Get a DNA test and maybe you’ll consider helping Rocky, is that about it?” I pushed off the wall and groaned. “Thanks for letting me know.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Lasso.”
“You mean don’t do anything stupid while wearing my kutte, right?” Because at the end of the day, no matter how much we protested our similarities, the guys in the Reckless Bastards MC were caught up in the same bureaucratic bullshit as the military. “Don’t worry, Savior. The MC’s rep is safe from me.” I let the door slam on my way back inside, stomping through my house on my way to the shower as the anger rolled off me.
I could’ve asked him to reconsider but I knew it wouldn’t fucking matter. The one lesson my old man taught me that actually stuck with me was that begging didn’t strengthen the rightness of your position, it only made you look weak. It let the other person know how much something meant and that was usually right when they took it away.
Either way, you were fucked. In this case, the people getting fucked would be me and Rocky. And my kid. If I didn’t figure out something. Fast.
***
Work. Just like back on my family ranch in Texas, work was the best way to forget all the bullshit occupying real estate in my mind. GET INK’D was exactly where I needed to be. Permanently inking some skin or stabbing some holes through people would allow me to work through some plans for keeping Rocky safe. My family had houses all over the world, any of which we could use.
If I went crawling back to my daddy and probably agreed to join the family business. And that was a nonstarter. That meant moving on to plan B.
“Hey Lasso, who pissed in your coffee this morning?” Jag walked in with a wide, pearly white smile and two cups of coffee in his hands.
“Savior,” I grunted and accepted the cup, relishing the scalding hot liquid.
That was all the explanation Jag needed. He nodded thoughtfully, as usual, before he spoke. “Do you think this baby is yours or do you have doubts?”
“At first I was skeptical as hell, some random chick I fucked one night shows up on my doorstep saying she’s knocked up and it’s mine. I’d be crazy not to, right? But she didn’t, hell she still doesn’t want anything from me. The only thing she’s ever asked for was a place to lay low while she formed a plan.” Saying the words out loud made me feel like a special kind of asshole. Pregnant and afraid and it never even occurred to Rocky that I might have more to offer. “You know why she came to me?”
Jag chuckled. “Because you’re a Reckless Bastard and she knew you’d protect her?”
&nb
sp; I laughed because that would have been better than the truth. “Nope. Because no one knows who I am or her connection to me. I’m the perfect head start for her new fucking life. She thinks I’m gonna let her leave with my kid.”
“Can you stop her?” Savior asked.
Shit, I didn’t know. I raked a hand through my hair, trying to get rid of some of this fucking frustration any way I could. “No, but I have to try.”
“Or…” Jag continued. “You could just let her stay a few days like she needs and let her go. Why get involved at all?”
“Because that’s not my fucking style, man. Could you let a kid of yours just be out there in the world and not be there for them? Protect them?” Yeah it might make my life easier, but I carried around enough regrets in my life that I didn’t need to add abandoning my own fucking kid to the pot. Knowing there are crazy assholes chasing her to make her some psycho’s slave? Could you do that?”
Jag shrugged. “For a chick I’d fucked once? Maybe?” But his dark eyes told the truth. He could talk a tough game, but Jag was the best of us.
“Bullshit,” I said and finished off my coffee.
He smiled his boyish smile that made all the ladies come running. “Yeah, okay so I couldn’t. But I had to make sure you were solid.”
“Rock fucking solid, brother.” We bumped our fists and cleaned up our shit, separating to our stations to get ready for the day. Ever since Golden Boy opened the place, it was never quiet. There was rarely a dead minute at the shop and today, that was exactly what I needed.