Coveted (Charming Bastards #2) (4 page)

Chapter Five

Joker got up when Scarlett did just so he could see her before she left. He opted to take a shower with her and convinced her to fool around some though it took a lot of effort. Once her mind was set, there was not much he could do to change it. In the mornings she was focused on school and not much else. He gave her his gray Nirvana shirt to wear just because he wanted to see it on her. She opted for tight jeans that hugged her body like a glove. His cock took note and responded accordingly. She looked like some cute redheaded rocker.

It was difficult to say goodbye to her, but after kissing her a few times he finally backed away from the car and let her leave.

“You two are disgusting.” Tank flicked his cigarette to the ground and stepped on it. “Like high school lovebirds. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you act that way with a woman. You sure as hell don’t act that way with Lauren.”

Joker ran a hand over his head. “Don’t compare her to Lauren. I never had feelings for Lauren and everyone knows that.”

“And you have feelings for Scarlett?”

“Fuck yeah I do.” Joker sat on a stool inside the garage.

Tank grinned at him. “Shit. I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Me either.”

Joker never wanted one woman in his life. He never wanted to settle down, commit. Part of the Charming Bastards lifestyle was partying, women, and drugs. Hell, he used to do a line of coke off one of the women’s ass just because he fucking could.

That had been a while back though. Drugs had always been for fun. And he quit using them when he saw what hell Torque went through just to get sober. What hell any of them went through just so they could function properly again.

“Yeah, but it’s just good pussy right?” Dooby asked. It was rare that he wore his black-framed glasses, but for some reason, he had them on today.

“She’s good everything.” Joker smiled at his friends. “I think Silver’s rubbed off on me.”

The men chuckled. “God help us if he has.”

“Hey,” Torque came out of the club and headed toward the garage. “We got a lead on Marrow. He’s been hiding out at some junky hotel on the outskirts of the city. I think it’s time we pay him a little visit, boys.”

Joker stood. “Been looking forward to it for a while.”

They got on their motorcycles and rode out of the parking lot toward the main highway. Joker wanted to kick the son of a bitch’s ass for doing what he did to Scarlett and he was pretty fucking sure that he would enjoy it too much. Torque led them to the outskirts of the city to some rotting dump of a motel that had seen better days. He was pretty sure that it was a drug nest and skanky whores stood all around trying to get some business. Torque led them to the far side of the building and the kid they were after spotted them and took off running.

In that moment, Joker wished he didn’t smoke so fucking much. Wheezing, he followed him through the fucking woods surrounding the motel and into the trailer park behind. He was pretty fucking sure one of the guys would at least head him off soon, before his fucking lungs burst. The kid tripped and Joker gained some distance on him. He may have run track in high school but that was a fucking long time ago. Joker got close enough to grab the back of the kid’s shirt and took him down to the ground in a roll.

But the kid wasn’t going down without a fight. Fists started flying as he tried to gain the upper hand over Joker. It’d been a while since he’d been in a good fist fight and Joker felt some of the tension inside him release as he fought with the punk. The rolled around on the ground and at a distance he could hear the roar of the motorcycles. Joker rose up over the kid and punched him with one good swing. Blood squirted everywhere.

“Don’t kill him yet,” Torque commented coming up behind him. Torque dragged him off the kid and Joker spit to the side.

“I didn’t do anything to you.” The kid remarked. “You’re the ones destroying this city with your drugs.”

“Oh, we’re destroying?” Joker came up behind Torque. “What about Scarlett? I suppose that’s us too? You had nothing to do with injecting heroin into her veins and dumping her on the fucking side of the road naked?”

The kid sat up and wiped the blood from his mouth. “She asked for it.”

Joker went for him again and Tank grabbed him, holding him back. “Ease up, man.”

The kid stared at him in wonder. “She used that shit for weeks before she was so fucking strung out that she didn’t know where the hell she was. Begged me for it when she couldn’t get it off the streets. I couldn’t keep her off my dick even though I didn’t have drugs to give her.”

Joker broke free from Tank’s hold and went after the kid. The sick bastard just laughed. It took nearly all the men to get Joker away from him and when they did, Tank forced him back.

“Let Torque handle it.” Tank pushed him toward the motel. “You killing him isn’t going to look good in your girlfriend’s eyes.”

“He was fucking lying. Scarlett didn’t ask for that shit he put her through.”

Tank sighed. “He said it to egg you on.”

Joker shook his head still pissed at the kid. He wanted punch his face in. He walked all the way back to this motorcycle with Tank. Once he straddled the bike, he stared at his friend.

“What’s Torque going to do?”

Tank rubbed his hands together. “He thinks Marrow is part of something else. He wants to follow the lead and see where it goes.”

He didn’t think it went anywhere. Scarlett said it was all for a report. This stupid fucker didn’t look like he was a mole or something bigger for someone else. He didn’t think Scarlett was part of it either.

He started his motorcycle. “I’m going to find Scarlett.”

Tank blew out a breath. “Can you be careful with her? We still don’t know much about the situation, but I don’t want you getting involved with someone that could be bad for everyone.”

“What are you saying?”

Tank was built like a bulldozer and mean as a pit bull. “Watch your fucking ass.”

Joker backed out of his spot and turned around. So his club didn’t trust his girlfriend. He didn’t know what to think about that. He trusted her. He didn’t see why his club didn’t.

He went to campus and found the psychology building. Scarlett walked out just as he drove by. Her arms were full of books and he imagined that her bag was too. He couldn’t help wondering if she had kinky books or stuff for her paper.

He parked out front and got off the bike. She walked toward him and smiled when she recognized him. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see you.” He leaned in and kissed her. “What are all these books for?”

“Class.” She walked over to a bench and sat them on it. “I’m working on my stupid paper. I’ll probably be back at the club around five. I wanted to use some of the library’s databases for some work.”

Joker blew out a breath. “I need to know something.”

“What?”

“Did you fuck Marrow?”

Her eyes widened. “No. God no. Why would you think that?”

He rubbed his forehead. “He said that you fucked him for drugs.”

She snorted. “He did, huh.” She shook her head. “And you believed him?”

“My club did. They think you and him are working with one of our enemies to get to us.”

“Unbelievable.” She turned slightly. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I went to his house that night and woke up in your parking lot. I—” She stopped and brought her hand to her mouth.

“What?”

She shook her head and sat on the bench. Joker watched her. She knew something. He was fairly certain that it was important too.

“Tell me what you know.”

Scarlett wouldn’t look him in the eye. “He got the drugs from Eddy Grier.”

Joker arched an eyebrow at her. Eddy Grier was the son of the Reaper Boys MC president, Matthias Grier. A well known enemy of the Charming Bastards and definitely someone they had to play nice with for peace. “How do you know that?”

She glanced around. “He came over to Ollie’s house that night. They wanted to party and I wanted to do my work. I went to the bathroom and Eddy followed me. He didn’t really do anything but he made me feel uneasy. I got rid of him long enough to use the bathroom and when I was through he was determined to do more.”

Joker felt his blood pressure rising. “Do I want to know how this story ends?”

“I don’t know how it ends. I felt something poke me and I asked him about it and he ignored me. My memories grew fuzzy after that.”

Joker blew out a breath. “Do you think he did something to you?”

“He gave me drugs against my will and left me naked on your doorstep. I wouldn’t put anything past him.”

He rubbed a hand over his face. “Come here.”

He pulled her up and wrapped his arms around her. Having her in his arms made everything better even as shitty as things were. He breathed in the scent of her hair. She felt good against him. Scarlett gripped his shirt and held on.

“I don’t feel safe.” Scarlett whispered the words and each one felt like a knife to his gut.

“I’ve got you, baby.” He kissed her forehead. “You’re safe with me. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. I can promise you that.”

He cupped her cheeks and leaned in to kiss her. He would protect her and keep her safe. Joker didn’t want to let her go. He knew perfectly well he had to pull away from her and get back on his bike to meet up with the guys. His damn phone had been vibrating against his leg for nearly the entire time he talked with Scarlett. But he didn’t want to. He wanted a few more minutes with her. A few more minutes of simply not being in the real world and just being with Scarlett.

“Will you help me to my car with these books?” Scarlett asked, pulling away from him. “I can do it on my own, but I want you to walk with me.”

He bent to collect most of the books while she grabbed her bag. He let her lead the way to her car and waited while she unlocked it and then popped the trunk. He put the books in and reached for her bag.

“Where are you going? Class? Library?”

“The public library.”

“Be careful. You don’t have any reason to be scared, but be observant of anything abnormal. If you need me, call me.” He leaned in to kiss her. “I’ll see you later, baby.”

Joker waited for her to get in her car. He watched as she backed out of the parking spot and left. He didn’t know what her involvement with Eddy Grier meant but he figured it wasn’t going to be something good when he told Torque.

****

Scarlet spent the entire afternoon in the library. She got the majority of her paper done and closed her laptop. She didn’t even realize what time it was. She glanced out the window and saw the sun about to set. She blew out a breath and grabbed her stuff to leave. She really wanted to take a warm bubble bath and ease the tension from the day. She tried to push aside the thought of Eddy potentially doing something inappropriate to her. Every time she thought about it, she wanted to puke. She didn’t remember anything and that was probably a good thing. The thought simply made her feel grimy and uncomfortable.

Her phone beeped and she grabbed it from the table. A quick glance at the screen and she saw the text was from Ollie.
Don’t tell the MC about Eddy.

Scarlett frowned and typed back.
Why?

She stared at her phone and waited several minutes before he finally responded.
You’ll be sorry.

A chill ran down her spine as she stared at his text. Joker had already questioned her and she’d already mentioned his name. Rumors floated around about the notorious motorcycle clubs in the city. The mayor called them gangs and so did Ollie. She’d been against them in the beginning, but once she found herself entranced by the world, she found a lot of misconceptions existed about the environment as well.

Eddy was simply a thug. She was fairly sure that nothing could happen to her living at the Charming Bastards clubhouse.

She gathered everything into her bag and walked out the door to her car. It wouldn’t take too long to get something to eat before going back to the club. She pulled out her phone and dialed Joker. He answered on the first ring.

“Hey. I’m going to get something to eat before going to the club. You want anything?”

“Just you.”

She smiled and stared out the windshield. “I’m not on the menu. Not tonight.”

“Then I don’t want anything. I’ll be at the club late and pick something up on my way. Are you working on your paper?”

“I’m almost done with it so I’m going to bed early.”

“Okay. I’ll see you when I get there.”

They disconnected and Scarlett drove to a popular fast food restaurant. She placed her order and after getting it, drove toward the club. She needed a break from life. A nice little retreat or getaway for the weekend. She shouldn’t still feel withdrawal symptoms but the fatigue and insomnia still existed.

She parked in the lot and got out with her bag and food in hand. Maybe one of the guys would help her with her books or she could wait until Joker got there. She walked in the club and found a few of the prospects talking with the girls. One said hi to her and she smiled at him.