Brax (12 page)

Chapter Sixteen

“You look ridiculous.” I held my hand against my mouth and
tried not to laugh but failed.

Kellan raised a middle finger and threw a paperweight from
Colt’s desk across the table. The whole crew erupted in laughter when Kellan
missed. Kellan and Colt had just got back from the Florida panhandle after
meeting with our Emerald Coast charter. They’d brought two new prospects with them,
but this was a members-only meeting. Kellan’s face was beet red from sunburn
except for two perfect white circles around his eyes in the shape of his
sunglasses. He looked like a damn raccoon.

Colt stood behind him and put a hand hard on his shoulder,
making Kellan wince. Apparently the sunburn wasn’t just on his face.

“Mallory told him,” Colt said. Mallory was Kellan’s brand-new
wife. “We all did.”

Colt looked pretty dark himself and he started out that way.
He had dark hair and lashes that framed his eyes like guyliner. It made him
look like a damn pirate. As he took his seat at the head of the table, I slid
the gavel over to him, happy not to feel the weight of it anymore. President
was never one of my ambitions. I knew where my talents best served the club. If
the Great Wolf patch intimidated outsiders, I was a huge part of the reason
why.

“It was her damn fault,” Kellan grumbled. “The girls wanted to
spend all their time on the beach. I wasn’t about to let them go out there
without protection.”

I shook my head. “So you thought your smoldering menace would
be enough to fight off UV rays too?”

Colt and Kellan had used the trip as a sort of honeymoon
neither of them ever got the chance to take. I was glad for both of them.
Marriage suited them well. In Colt’s case, he could add fatherhood to the mix
too. And that was one of the biggest new changes to our membership. For years
none of us had wanted to risk the shit we did blowing back on people we loved.
It had been easier to stay unattached. Now though, all that was changing.

My back stiffened. It was changing. But not so far for me. I’d
given everything I had to this club and would until the day I died. It hadn’t
been easy though. Of the guys at this table, only Colt and Kellan really knew
what it was like to live with real blood on your hands. Colt had been part of
the crew in Green Bluff, California. The first club to go legit. The first battlefront
was often the heaviest hit. Though he’d never told us the details, I knew that
war had cost him like ours had cost me.

And in Kellan’s case, he’d seen real war. Two tours in
Afghanistan had cost him half his leg and part of his soul. I remembered that
dead look he had in his eyes. I’d been the one waiting for him at the airport
when he came home the last time thinking his life was over. For both of them
and for me, it had been the club that had pulled us through. We’d give our life
for it and for each other.  Now Kellan and Colt had been the first of us to try
for something more. They had wives. Babies. They’d opened my eyes to the
possibility of something normal. God. Was I really ready to settle down the way
they had? Could I be that lucky too?

“What’s up?” Kellan said, kicking me under the table. Part of
my thoughts must have been written on my expression. Those thoughts, like they
had for the past few weeks, mostly centered on Nicole. She said she could stand
my secrets but not my lies. Was she strong enough to handle being with a member
of the Great Wolves M.C. long term?

I waved a hand. I needed to bring her problem to the table,
but not until after we’d finished the rest of our business. Kellan narrowed his
eyes at me. He knew me well enough to know something was up, but Colt called
the meeting to order.

Things were good. Better than they had been in a while. We’d
dealt with a threat from a rival club, the Devils Hawks, before Colt and Kellan
rode out to Florida. The gym and the club were in the black. A few of our other
charters had branched out into private security and Colt liked what he saw.
Someday soon, it might be something we could think about for Lincolnshire.

“I like it,” Tate said. “Especially if we’ve got some good new
prospects coming on.”

“Agreed,” Colt said. “Brax, what do you think? You’re kinda
quiet down there. If we do expand in the next year or two, you’d be the one I’d
rely on most to spearhead it.”

That threw me. “Me?”

“Of course, dickhead.” Kellan kicked me under the table again.
“Who’d you think? There’s a real need for private security in this town and
further out into Toledo. Maybe even over the border into Michigan. The local
police departments don’t want to pay their guys overtime anymore for what we
can do. The mayor’s looking to expand the area by the docks even more, turn the
old hockey stadium into a major venue. Things like that need security. Tight
shit. We could set it up the way
we
want it. The right way. Sly and Dex
out in Cali said they’re even thinking about starting up a security firm closer
to L.A. guarding VIPs and stuff.”

I was floored. I’d never thought for a minute they’d want me
to branch off into my own business.

“Awe, I think he’s gonna cry!” E.J. said, busting my balls. I
don’t know about cry, but the offer choked me up. Colt was president. Kellan
was V.P. I wanted no part of what they did, but this? This could be something
that was all mine. And I could do it right. Make the club proud.

“Yeah,” I said. “Hell, yeah.”

“Good,” Colt said. “I’ll put you in touch with Chick Jarvis.
He’s running Great Wolves Security for Emerald Coast. They even branched into
Miami. The numbers they’re pulling in will shock the shit out of you. And I
think you could make it even bigger here.”

I nodded, still feeling a lump in my throat. It meant the
world to me that he trusted me with something as important as this.

“Now what the hell’s on your mind?” Kellan said. “You’ve been
sitting there glum as shit since we walked in.”

I twisted a ring on my finger. “There is something. It could
be isolated. It could be something worse. But some shit has happened that I
think we need to talk about with the whole table.”

I laid out the gist of what was going on with Nicole. I knew
there was a fairly good chance it sounded like I was thinking with my dick
again. Though I hadn’t been open about it, everyone knew I was seeing her. No
one had asked me questions about it yet. They listened. Colt leaned far back in
his seat, running his fingers along the dark stubble on his chin. His eyes
stayed hard, unreadable. I knew he might not like the request I intended to
make. I wanted to get club approval to deal with the threat to Doug Ridley. To
get the Red Brigands off his back, it would have to go to a club vote. And as
long as the Brigands were after Doug Ridley, Nicole herself might not be safe.

“So other than this Hodges character, nobody’s seen movement
from the Red Brigands. I mean, nothing other than shit directed at this Ridley
kid,” Colt asked. It was a legitimate question but cut to the heart of the
problem with my request.

I shrugged. “Not really. No. But Ricky definitely said Hodges
has been hanging around
The Shires
regularly.”

“Since you had your little run-in with him?”

“No.” I immediately didn’t like the way this conversation was
going. But I couldn’t deny Colt was asking the same questions I would.

“You’re sure. You’ve been in touch with Ricky?” This from
Joker.

I nodded. Then I told them about the incident with Doug at the
ice cream parlor and my suspicions that someone had come into the place with
him. Suspicions I couldn’t back up with anything more than a gut feeling.

“He’s dealing,” I said. “Maybe not huge numbers yet. But if
he’s got a Brigands lackey trying to shake him down in
The Shires
, we
need to do something about it.”

The room went silent and my blood ran a little cold. Looks
passed between the guys that I didn’t like one fucking bit. I clenched a fist
in my lap and let a breath out hard.

When Colt raised his head and met my stare, I saw the pain in
his eyes. I also saw the resolve. He was my friend and he was my president.
Right now though, those roles were gonna split.

“I don’t like it,” he said. “But we have to be careful. Club
wars have started over lesser shit than this. We lean on anybody on behalf of
this Doug, that’s what could happen.”

I lost my cool. “Yeah. And he’s a douche. I’m fully aware. A
fucking junkie. But if the Brigands are using him to push product through
our
town, how can we not react?”

Colt put a hand up in surrender. “I hear you. And you’re
right. We can’t let that happen. And we won’t. But right now, we’re not there
yet. Right now we’ve just got a two-bit junkie who got in over his head. If we
got involved every time that happened, we wouldn’t have time to run the club or
any other business. We’d be right back to where we started before I took over.”

“And they’re watching us even closer now,” Colt went on. “You
know that.”

He wasn’t wrong. That was the shitty part. If it were anyone
else at the table asking for what I was, I’d probably have brought up the same
points. But it wasn’t anyone else. It was me. And this was a girl I was
starting to care about more than I thought I could. And I’d made her a promise.

“Hey.” Kellan reached across the table and put a hand over
mine. “We get it, man. All of us. And you want extra eyes on the parlor or just
her in general, you know we’re with you. In fact, those two new probies out
there, have them set up.”

“Let’s put it to a vote,” Colt said; the emotion had left his
voice. “Do we put pressure on the Red Brigands?”

But he didn’t have to say it. No one at that table was willing
to get involved to take the pressure off Doug Ridley. Not even for me.

Son of a bitch.

Not even for me.

As the “nays” went around the table I tasted bile in my
throat. I’d promised to help Nicole. The only way to get her brother out of his
jackpot with the Brigands was with the backing of my entire club. And it wasn’t
going to happen.

There wasn’t a man at this table who didn’t know the
consequences of this vote. Doug Ridley was a dead man without our help. So the
first promise I’d ever made Nicole I wouldn’t be able to keep.

Chapter Seventeen

Nicole

“I’m fine. Don’t hover!”

Doug winced as I arranged the pillows under his left leg and
handed him the remote control. He’d been out of the hospital for two days and
seemed more clear headed than I’d seen him in a long time. Of course, he still
looked like shit. The bruises on his face had dulled to a purplish yellow and
the stitches in his upper lip poked out like caterpillar feet. But for now, at
least, he was safe, he was whole, and I’d gone a whole week without having to
worry where he was or have my heart stop every time the phone rang.

“Hey, it’s my job to hover. Behave yourself.” I set a bowl of
ice cream on the TV tray next to him and jabbed a spoon straight into the
middle of it. Pirate’s Plunder. Doug had invented the flavor when he was about
ten years old and on a pirate kick. We made it with peanut butter ice cream
swirled with vanilla, and topped it with those little chocolate coins.

“Mmm, I knew there was a reason I liked you.”

“Yeah?” I reached over and messed up his hair. He tried to
dodge but I was too quick. “There better be a long list of reasons why you like
me. Brat.”

He grabbed the spoon and held it like a dagger, pretending to
stab me with it. “Thanks. And I mean that. You didn’t have to put up with my
sorry ass this time.”

“Don’t I know it. You sure you’ll be okay by yourself up here
for a while? Mel’s got everything closed up downstairs and I’ve got to do
inventory tonight.” I put Doug’s new cell phone next to the bowl of ice cream.
Brax thought it would be a good idea if he changed his number. “Just text me if
you need anything. I’ll be right downstairs. Tomorrow we’ll see about getting
you moved back into your place. I think you’ve healed enough to wipe your own
ass for a while.”

Doug flipped me off. Thankfully, his injuries weren’t
that
bad, but he had trouble putting a shirt on over his head and cooking for
himself had been out of the question. He’d been sweet and almost like his old
self while he’d been here. He’d even come down to the restaurant yesterday to
chat up some of the old timers. But even that little bit had taken its toll on
Doug. In addition to healing from his wounds, he was detoxing. Thank God it
hadn’t been as bad this time since he’d gone through the worst of it in the
hospital.

“Go. Be gone with you,” he said through a mouthful of peanut
butter ice cream. “I’m okay.”

I kissed him on the head and he let me. I ran my hand over the
thick blond locks at the nape of his neck and backed away quickly, not wanting
to press my luck. Then I headed back downstairs to deal with the inventory.
Melinda had offered to stay and help me, but I figured it was better to get her
out of here while Doug was staying with me. They’d come to an uneasy truce for
now, but until Doug had a solid amount of sober days under his belt, it was too
soon.

I twisted my hair into a top knot, grabbed my laptop and a
clipboard and started in the walk-in cooler. I needed to get my monthly orders into
our suppliers by morning. Not twenty minutes into my count, I heard a solid
knock on the front door, hard enough to jingle the bell.

“We’re closed!” I called out, then went back to my work. Two
and a half cartons of chocolate. I logged it on my spreadsheet and moved to the
next flavor.

The bell rang again. I stabbed my pencil through my hair and
went out to investigate. The smile staring at me through the glass was hot
enough to melt half the ice cream in the cooler. Brax cupped his hand over his
eyes and peered inside. My heart tripped a little as I reached up to unlatch
the deadbolt at the top of the door.

“Hey, you,” I said. I hadn’t seen him much since Doug was
discharged. I knew he had a lot of club business to take care of now that his president
and V.P. were back in town. Plus, he gave me space to deal with Doug and
respected it as kind of a family matter for now. But when I opened the door and
Brax pulled me against the solid wall of his chest, my knees went weak.

He kicked the door closed behind him and wasted no time
finding my lips with his. He lifted me off the ground and carried me to the
nearest counter.

“I missed you,” he growled into my mouth as his hands went to
the rubber band holding my hair in place. He gently yanked it, letting my hair
spill around his shoulders.

“Mmmm. I missed you too. More than I realized, apparently.”
Brax tasted like spice and salt. His own long hair swept back from the wind. I
ran my hands over the hard outlines of his shoulders under his soft leather
jacket. A blast of cold air from the open freezer hit my back and made me
shudder. Brax felt it and slipped his jacket around me, pulling the ends
together, caging me in it. His warmth enveloped me and kept me safe.

“I have to work tonight,” I pouted. “I’ve got to get my supply
orders in by morning. I should have done it last week, but it’s been a little
crazy around here.”

Brax’s face fell and he looked over my shoulder toward the
stairs to my apartment. “He still here? How’s that going?”

I threaded my arms through the sleeves of his jacket. “It’s
going. As far as I know, he’s been clean since they discharged him. I mean,
I’ve been here every day and no one has come or gone up there but me.”

Brax nodded, digging a hand through his hair. “Good. That’s
real good.”

“What about you? How’s it going with the club?”

Brax’s face went through a series of quick changes. He shot me
a furtive, worried glance, but then his eyes went soft and the lines around his
eyes deepened as he cracked a thousand-watt smile. He came to me, dragging me
across the counter. I brought my legs up and wrapped them around his waist as I
threaded my hands through his hair and leaned up to kiss him again.

“What is it?” I asked. “What’s got you smiling like that?”

“You. Mostly. But something else too. I can’t tell you
everything yet, but it could be big. We’re looking at branching out into a new
business. And this one could be all mine.”

A tiny pulse flickered in his throat and his blue eyes
sparkled with mischief. “Mmm. Sounds intriguing. You wouldn’t be planning on
giving me any competition, would you? Because if that’s the case, I’ve gotta
warn you, bigger men have tried.”

“Oh, yeah?” Brax pressed himself against me. With my legs
wrapped around him, I could feel his . . . uh . . . formidable size lengthen and
grow hard against me. It sent a shockwave of heat straight through me.

“Yeah. Remember the Tastee Boy that used to be at the corner
of Secor and Jessup?”

“Um. No.”

“Exactly. I kicked his tasty ass.”

Brax’s rich laughter vibrated along my spine. He leaned down
and kissed me again.

“Seriously,” I said when I pulled back to catch my breath. My
heart raced and a thundering pulse roared through my ears and between my legs.
My brother might be the addict, but when Brax was near me, I couldn’t seem to
control myself. My body craved his. “I’m happy for you.”

He lifted me off the counter and spun me. He held me so far
off the ground it made me dizzy and giddy. I threw my head back and laughed.
Then he set me down and I put my hands on the counter to steady myself. The man
quite literally took my breath away.

“I want to tell you all the details. And I will. But I’ve got
a few things to line up and straighten out first. But it’s big. And it’s, I
don’t know how to say it. But it’s
me
. Something I think I’m suited
for.”

He paced the floor of the parlor, gesturing with his hands.
The muscles of his biceps flexed as he talked and his face lit up with the
promise of whatever opportunity had him so jazzed. I rested my chin in my hands
and watched him. Brax Anderson was a magnificent being. Tall and strong, nimble
and fierce. Right now, he looked every inch of his Norse ancestry from his
flowing blond hair, brutal beauty, and solid strength.

I was falling in love with this man.

It hit me like a heart attack. I actually pressed my fist
against my chest and took a deep breath. I
loved
this man.

What had started out as nostalgic lust had quickly turned to
something else. When he was with me, I felt pulled into his orbit. I liked to
hear him talk. Feel his strength beneath my fingertips. And when he wasn’t with
me, the world seemed dimmer, cast in shadows. At that moment, I thought about
telling him. It would have been so easy. Three simple words. But they carried
the weight of my heart and I’d lost so much before. Every single person I’d
ever said “I love you” to had torn me apart. My parents. My brother. Even the
guys I’d been with. Liars. Cheaters. Some dark part of me wondered if saying it
made it a curse for me. Maybe if I never said it, my world wouldn’t come
crashing down again.

So I watched and listened and Brax strode in front of me, his
face alight with hope and wonder as he talked about building something that
belonged to him. I knew exactly what he meant. I’d kept the business afloat for
my brother in the beginning. Or more specifically, because my father asked me
to. But now, it was mine. Sure, I had the family name established by my great-grandfather,
but
I
was the force behind the business now.

Finally, Brax turned and shot me a sheepish smile that melted
me. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m rambling.”

“No. I kind of like it.”

He cocked his head and gave me a quizzical look. “What were
you thinking just then?”

The air went out of my lungs as I opened my mouth. I could
tell him. I
should
tell him.
I was thinking I love you.
But I
didn’t. Not then. I wasn’t ready yet and maybe some childish part of me wanted
him to be brave enough to say it first. So I was a coward instead.

“Come on,” I said instead. “I’m thinking about how I’m going
to be up all night doing inventory if I don’t get back to it.”

I tossed a pen and a clipboard to him.

“Oh, baby, I love it when you talk small-business owner.”

“Yeah?” I turned around and walked backward toward the cooler.
“How about this? 401k. 1099s. Schedule C.” I made my voice as breathy as
possible.

Brax smiled and advanced on me. He slid his hand around my
waist and pulled me close to him with a strong jerk that set my nerve endings
ablaze. But I wasn’t kidding about the inventory. I squirmed out of his grasp
and headed into the walk-in.

Growling, he followed behind with the clipboard. As soon as I
got him properly focused, he ended up being extremely helpful. At his height,
he could easily see the canisters on the top shelf and read them off to me. We
made quick work of the first shelf and got started on the second. After an
hour, we were both freezing and needed a break.

“I know it seems counterproductive, but how about a sundae? My
treat,” I said as he slid onto a stool at the counter.

“Whip me up something special.”

I laughed. “Oh, inventory night is when we make the magic
happen. You’re about to get a mixture of whatever we’re low on.”

I took the clipboard from his hands and scanned the figures.

“What is it?” he asked, seeing the expression on my face.

I ran my finger down the columns, double checking. “Oh, it’s
nothing. We had a busy week is all. I expected to be lower on some of the
staples like vanilla and chocolate. No big.” I turned my back to him and
reached into the small cooler.

Brax came around to the other side of the counter and pressed
himself against me as I bent over and reached down to scoop out some peach ice
cream. Goosebumps skittered across my flesh as he gathered my hair and pulled
it away from the back of my neck. His lips were hot and soft as he kissed me
there.

“You’re going to melt all my product,” I said, giggling.

“Mmm. That’s the idea.”

He put his hands on my waist then turned and lifted me in one,
agile movement. He had me up on the counter, spreading my thighs with his
hands. He took the ice cream scoop from my hands and reached down into the
cooler.

“I think I want to make my own recipe,” he said, his eyes sparking
with lust. He looked toward the stairs. “Are we alone?”

I bit my lip, feeling a slow, heated blush creeping up my
neck. “Doug can’t handle the stairs yet.”

Brax nodded. “Don’t move. Stay right there.” He went to the
front door and double checked the lock. Then he lowered all of the blinds at
the front of the store so no one could see in. Hummingbird wings fluttered
behind my rib cage as he turned and came back to me, stalking with the grace of
a tiger.

“Take your clothes off,” he ordered, sending a wave of heat
through me. My fingers shaking, I complied. I slipped out of my t-shirt and
wriggled out of my jeans. Self-conscious, I looked behind me, but the blinds
were shut tight. Even if he could handle the stairs, Doug wouldn’t be able to
open the door to the apartment without me hearing it.

Brax held a scoop of vanilla ice cream in his hand and
approached me. He licked the spots where it started to melt, his tongue leaving
a sinful track. I shuddered, remembering what his tongue felt like when he gave
me the same treatment. He held the scoop out to me and fire lit his eyes as I
slowly ran my tongue up the base of the scoop and swirled it over the last of
the ice cream. He reached into the cooler and pulled out the canister of
whipped cream I kept there along with a jar of red cherries.