BEAST (A Coyotes of Mayhem MC Novel) (Motorcycle Club Bad Boy Romance) (19 page)

We walked in and were immediately greeted by Bouncer, a 450-pound mountain of a man who’s been a patched member of the club for more than 20 years. He came out from around the corner and gave me a hug.

“Beast, it’s good to see you brother. I didn’t think you’d ever be walking through those doors again. Everything good?”

“Everything is good brother. Charges are dropped for now.”

“That’s fucking fantastic. And who do we have here?” he asked, nodding his head in Paige’s direction.

“Bouncer, I would like you to meet Paige. She’s my girl and she’s about to officially be my old lady.”

“It’s good to meet you, Paige,” he said as he gave her a hug. “We doin’ what I think we’re doing here?”

“Oh, I think you know,” I said with a smile.

“We brandin’ your future old lady?”

“We sure are. Let’s give her a tramp stamp.”

“Cool, same as the other girls?”

I was about to say yes when Paige spoke up.

“What do the other girls have?” she asked.

“We give all the old ladies a brand that says “Property of” and then their man’s name written inside of a moon with a howling coyote in the background.”

“No, you’re not putting that on me. I don’t want an animal on my lower back. If I’m going to be your biker chick, I want something that makes me feel like a badass. You can do the words, but I want barbed wire wrapped around it. No moon, no coyote.”

Bouncer looked over at me and I gave him a nod. Paige wasn’t the kind of girl who would simply go along with what somebody told her to do. She was very strong-willed and that was one of the things I liked about her.

He went to the back to draw the tattoo up while Paige looked around the shop. She was impressed with some of the artwork in the books and couldn’t believe that they were all tattoos that Bouncer had done. Seeing the quality of his work seemed to put her mind at ease.

When Bouncer came back with the tattoo, we both approved it and Paige got up on the table. Once he prepared the area, he got started. Paige took it like a champ, not even flinching as the needle pierced her skin.

“You doing okay babe?” I asked.

“Fine. I’m not sure what I was so worried about.”

“I knew you’d do great. Listen, this is gonna take quite a while. Do you mind if I run someplace and take care of something real quick?”

“That’s fine. Will you be back by the time I’m done?”

“I’ll be back way before you’re done.”

I winked at her and told her I’d be back soon. I had to do something that I knew was very important to her. While she was throwing on her clothes back at the house, I grabbed her address book and looked up her dad. His address was written and it was only about five minutes from the shop. I wanted to go and meet the man in person.

The meeting itself went much better than I could have anticipated. I was nervous when I pulled up to see such a beautiful house. I was even more nervous when he answered the door and was well-dressed and clean-cut. I introduced myself and told him I was a friend of his daughter. Naturally, he thought something was wrong when he saw a biker standing before him, but I set his mind at ease and told him that we were actually dating and I wanted to come and meet him man to man. He asked about my cut and I told him about the club. He kept telling me that I looked familiar, but I wasn’t about to fill him in on the fact that my face was the one that had been plastered all over the television.

As we talked, I was surprised to find out how much we had in common. He used to ride motorcycles after college before he met Paige’s mother and he always admired the camaraderie that people in motorcycle clubs have for one another. His wife didn’t care for motorcycles so he gave them up and hadn’t ridden for years. I vowed at that moment to get him back on one as soon as possible. The thought made him smile.

I told him that it was nice to meet him and that I needed to get back as his daughter was waiting for me and didn’t know I was coming to meet him.

“So you did this on your own?” he asked. “You came to meet me just because you wanted to meet her dad? Not because she wanted you to?”

“Listen,” I reasoned with him, “she has no idea I even know where you live. Actually, the real reason for my visit is that I would like to ask your daughter to marry me. I also know how she is big on tradition so I wanted to make sure I met you and could get your blessing before I asked her.”

He held his hand out and shook my hand. “I have nothing but respect for you after coming out and handling things like a man. As long as I can walk my daughter down the aisle, you have my blessing.”

I pulled him in and gave him a hug. “I know I’m a biker and that automatically makes me an asshole in the eyes of some people. In a lot of ways, I can be a big jerk but I promise you I will treat your daughter right.”

“You better,” he replied with a tap on the arm.

I left his house knowing that Paige would be happy once she found out what I had done. I made it back to the tattoo shop just in time to see her art being finished. It turned out great and she seemed to be happy with it. I threw Bouncer some cash and was about to walk out the door when Paige stopped me.

“You said that if you make me your old lady, it’s forever right?”

“Damn right.”

“Then I want you to do something for me. I want you to get my name tattooed on you.”

“Paige, we don’t do that.”

“Didn’t I save your life? Without me, you would’ve been stuck in a foreign country for no reason. The least you could do is get a tattoo for me,” she pouted.

Getting a woman’s name tattooed on you was not something any of the guys had done, but like I’ve said all along, she was different and the usual rules weren’t necessarily going to apply to her. I told Bouncer what I wanted and he drew it up. Before I walked out of the shop, I had a lifeline tattooed above my heart with her name written on the flat line.

“I love it, Beast! It’s meaningful…and awesome!”

CHAPTER 26

PAIGE

Did I really just let a man permanently brand me with his name?
What in the hell is wrong with me?
I never would have let any other man talk me into getting their name tattooed on my body
,
but Beast isn’t any other man. He’s different. To everyone else in the world, he is this big tough guy with arms thicker than my legs and a neck almost as wide as my neck who always acts like an asshole but to me, he is much more than that. I see sides of him that he keeps hidden from the rest of the world. Hidden under all of those hard, wonderfully muscular layers, there is a softness that you wouldn’t expect. It surprised me the first time I saw it, especially considering how the two of us met.

When I was getting the tattoo, I started worrying about the implications that would come along with it. I know that it’s hidden on my back but what if the wrong person sees it? What if I’m out somewhere and have to bend over to pick something up, causing my shirt to lift? What if a member of the Aces happens to be standing there and sees it? Will that make me a target? It was too late to worry about that because the tattoo was done. Bouncer led me to a full-length mirror and handed me a smaller mirror that I could use to see the tattoo. Surprisingly, it looked great. I felt like a badass. I knew that most of my friends wouldn’t understand why I got the tattoo, especially considering that it said I was the property of a man, but that’s okay. They didn’t have to understand. I am in love with Beast and I’m proud to belong to him.

If I had any question as to whether or not he was as devoted to me as I am to him, all I had to do was look at him sitting in that chair with a needle permanently etching my name into his chest. For the rest of time, we would have this in common. As Bouncer was working on Beast, my phone started to ring.

“Hello?” I said, not bothering to look at the screen to see who was calling.

“Hello Paige, this is Nolan Retter. Is this a good time for you?”

“Sure, what’s going on?”

“I have some news. Is your boyfriend around as well?”

“Yeah, but he’s getting a tattoo right now.”

“Wow, didn’t take him long to get out at all. Anyway, the detectives have just completed their interrogation. All charges are officially being dropped against him and no other charges are forthcoming. That means no attempted murder charge, no assault charge, anything like that.”

“That’s great news!”

“Oh, it gets better. Our alleged victim has actually been placed under arrest and is being charged with filing a false police report and conspiracy to commit fraud. On top of that, some members of his club have been detained as well on the same charges. By the way, did you realize that some of their members were hiding out in your boyfriend’s house?”

“Oh my God, really?” I exclaimed, trying to act shocked.

“Yeah, they’ve apparently been there for a while. Looks like they were hiding out, hoping to catch him off guard. Some cops watching the house spotted them going in and arrested them. Sounds like they messed up his house pretty bad.”

“Okay, I’ll be sure to let him know. Is there anything else we need to do? Does he need to sign something or anything like that?”

“No, I’m going to go to the courthouse and get a document showing that the warrant has been quashed and all charges have been dropped. I’m going to have a courier bring a copy to your house so you have it. Sometimes it can take weeks for law enforcement to actually take warrants out of their systems so he should keep the document on him at all times in case he gets stopped.”

“Okay, I’ll make sure he does. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for us Nolan. We appreciate it so much.”

“It’s no problem. If you ever need me for anything, please don’t hesitate to give me a call.”

I hung up the phone and told Beast the good news. He immediately picked up his phone and placed a call to Stone. He told him that everything was dropped and that some of the Aces had been arrested. Beast then told him that we were at the tattoo shop getting me branded. Stone told him to come to the clubhouse as soon as he was done and to bring me along with him.

Bouncer finished up with Beast and asked me to come see his ink. It looked fantastic on him. I never dreamed that a man would ever get my name tattooed on him, let alone a big bad biker. As silly as it sounds, it made me feel special.

Driving to the clubhouse, I felt a hint of uneasiness. When I went to the club before, everyone treated me like an outsider, except Stone. It was as if everyone went out of their way to make me feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. I wondered what Beast would do if he saw any of the members of the club disrespecting me. On one hand, I figured he would stick up for me but on the other hand, I had never actually seen him with his biker buddies. I would find out soon enough.

As we pulled into the parking lot, I could hear music blaring and there were motorcycles everywhere. As soon as we walked in, the music stopped and everyone turned to look at us. I’m a self-conscious person as it is so the sudden attention made me very uncomfortable. Suddenly, everyone started cheering and making their way over to Beast to hug him. I stepped back, allowing him to have his moment with his boys. Apparently the whole party was put on in his honor, although I’m pretty sure they didn’t need a reason to party.

Beast grabbed me by the hand and took me around, introducing me to everyone. I was amazed by how differently everyone treated me. Each person I met gave me a hug. If they had an old lady, she hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. As he introduced me to people, he explained what their roles were within the club. The vice president was pretty much the president’s right-hand man. The secretary and treasurers are about what you would expect.

“Come with me,” Beast led me to the center of the room. A hush fell over the crowd as he got down on one knee and pulled a ring out of his pocket. “Paige, you have done so much for me in the short time that I’ve known you. You’ve shown me loyalty that I sure as fuck didn’t deserve. You’ve stood by my side even when it meant you might be taken down with me. You’re exactly what I’ve always wanted. Will you marry me?”

Holy shit, he was actually proposing to me. Not only was he asking me to marry him, but he was doing it in front of everyone who meant anything to him.

“Yes, of course I’ll marry you,” I replied with a tear rolling down my cheek.

I was so happy. One by one, everyone came up to shake Beast’s hand and to hug me, even though most of them had just hugged me moments before. It was a sign of respect and congratulations. I liked it. I felt like I belonged. To me, it seemed like I had found a new family.