Ride Everlasting (Demon Riders MC Book 3) (9 page)

Elyse nods in agreement.  “That sounds like Lance.”

“Can we get back inside now?  There’s a cold beer waiting for me with my name on it.”  Rick nods towards the bar, not making any bones about his priorities.  Elyse still can’t get over how normal he seems, as if this were just another day in the life of Rick.  It was hard to reconcile the kind, almost fatherly like man, who’s only been kind to her with the ‘Nobody fucks with me or mine’ biker that she knows he must be.

“The beer’ll keep, Rick.”  Suzi has been quiet for a time, and it’s clear that she has something on her mind.  “What about
The
Gazette
?  Like you said, Elyse, dealing with Lance isn’t going to solve the whole problem.  They’ll just send someone else.”  Suzi looks between them all.

“Let ‘em try!”  Dane looks as if he’s ready to spit nails just at the thought.

Elyse puts a calming hand on his shoulder and takes a deep breath.  It was a decision that she’d been mulling over for the past couple of days, but being with them tonight had made her mind up.  “I’ve got a better idea.  One that will get
The Gazette
off the Riders’ back for good.”  They all look at her expectantly.  “But I’m going to need you to trust me.”

Suzi raises her eyebrows, smiling.  “I think we can do that.”

Rick claps her on the back so hard she almost falls over.  “You don’t have to ask us to trust you, ‘Lyse. You’ve proven we can over and over again.”

Elyse feels her eyes misting up at Rick’s words.   Dane pulls her into his arms and leans down close to her, their lips almost touching.  “You’re family now, ‘Lyse.”  She feels her mouth spread into the goofiest of smiles, as he kisses her, and she wonders if life can get any better than this.

EPILOGUE

It doesn’t take long for Elyse’s question to be answered, only a couple of weeks in fact.  It’s the time that it takes her to write and publish her story on the Riders.  It wasn’t anything like the exposé that
The Gazette
had wanted her or Lance to write. If anything, it was a love letter to the club, complete with name changes.  She’d been through a few different pseudonyms for the Demon Riders but finally settled on “The Wandering Tornados.”   Suzi and Rick had gotten a good laugh out of that. 

She’d glossed over the illegal stuff and focused on the sense of community of the club, the brotherhood, and the way they kept criminals off of the street of Portland and protected the common man.  Jen had teased her, saying that she’d romanticized the club, and Elyse knew that she was right.  How could she have written about it and the man who had stolen her heart in any other way?

Elyse had published the story on her blog and word of mouth had spread like wildfire.  After only twenty-four hours, it was picked up by some national newspapers. She couldn’t help but feel a little smug that she’d managed to get her name in
The Washington Post
and
The Wall Street Journal
before Lance, and she’d done it without compromising herself.
The Gazette
had been left with nothing to write. Elyse had beaten them to the punch, and she’d painted the bikers in such warm a way that it made it impossible for MacIntyre to come up with a counter-article. She’d killed it with kindness, her default setting. 
Pollyanna that
, she’d thought.

Elyse smiles to herself as she checks her emails on her iPhone for the hundredth time that day.  “You know that this is bordering on obsessive behavior, right?”  Jen tries to snatch Elyse’s phone away but is too slow.

“It’s just they said they would get back to me by the weekend and, hell, it’s almost the weekend!”  Elyse makes a frustrated sound in the back of her throat and wills her foot to stop tapping impatiently.

“Well, it’s only three o’clock, you’ve still got a few hours, so I don’t know why you’re getting your panties in a twist.”  Suzi takes a drink of her beer before she notices that Elyse’s frustration hasn’t eased.

“It’s three in Portland, but it’s six in New York.”  Jen says the words as if they should mean something to her.

“And what’s in New York?”  Suzi looks between the two women, none the wiser.

“Oh you know, the Empire State, Statue of Liberty, and
The New Yorker
.”  Jen rolls her eyes.  “Elyse has been submitting stories to them since she was in kindergarten, and after all the attention her piece on the club got, she reached out to them. They said they’d read a new fiction story she’s been working on.”

“Let’s just forget about it.”  Elyse pockets her cell, waving away Jen’s words as if that will stop her from worrying herself sick over the email that she hasn’t yet received.  “We’re here to enjoy ourselves, not to stare at a goddam cell phone.”  As if to highlight her words, she takes a swig of her beer.  She keeps stealing glances towards the room at the back of the bar, and her foot keeps on tapping.

Suzi gives her a frank look.  “Are you more nervous about the New Yorker thing or the vote?”

Elyse smiles sheepishly.  “I’ll take the Fifth on that.”  She looks at the clock on the wall again, which has only advanced by a minute since the last time she looked.  “What’s taking so long anyway?  I thought this was pretty much a done deal?”

Suzi shrugs.  “It’ll happen, don’t worry.”

It better,
Elyse thinks.  Today was the day that Dane was going to get patched.  That morning, Dane had woken up so excited, like a kid who knew he was on his way to Disneyworld.  It was the one thing he’d been working towards his whole life.  It was such a big deal for him that Elyse had tried to persuade him to invite his mom to the Patch Party.  Whereas once he might have railed against the idea, gotten mad, and told Elyse it wasn’t any of her business, he’d thought about it.  He’d really considered it, but eventually he’d told Elyse that he wasn’t ready to share something this big with his mother, not yet.  Elyse had told him that when he was ready, she’d be standing by his side every step of the way.

Elyse smiles as she thinks back to that morning when Dane had wrestled her back to bed.  He’d swiped her hair away from her face and looked down at her oh so tenderly.

Suddenly, he’d turned serious.  “If it doesn’t happen today…”

“It will!  What are you talking about?”  Elyse had nudged him, playfully wondering where this self-doubt had come from that was so unlike him.

“But if it doesn’t, then I want you to know that it’s alright.”  His dark eyes remain trained on her.

“What do you mean, it’s alright?  This what you’ve always wanted!  It’s more than important to you; it’s everything.  I know that already.”  She’d traced the line of stubble that he always seemed to carry no matter how often he shaved.  To Elyse, it just made him even sexier.

“It’s not everything.”  He looked at her pointedly.  “There’s something more important in my life now.”

Elyse had to swallow the lump in her throat before she could speak.  “And what’s that?”  She raised an eyebrow at him.  “And if you say my car, then I’m going to seriously hurt you.”

Dane threw back his head and laughed, and Elyse thought yet again how lucky she was to have this gorgeous man in her bed.  “Well, the car is a bonus.”  He catches her fist before she can punch him.  “But I was talking about you, Elyse Powell.  You’re the most important thing in my life.  I need you to know that.”

Elyse pulled his face down to hers, kissing him with all the emotion she felt bubbling up inside of her.  When they’d broken apart, breathless but both wanting more, she smiled at him.  “Consider me informed, Dane Fletcher.”  She giggles, as he kisses the sensitive spot on her neck.  “But I’m pretty sure I signed up to be a full-fledged patched biker’s girlfriend, and that’s what I’m intending to be in a few hours from now.”

Dane blinks in surprise.  “I think I’ve just fallen in love with you all over again.” 

“Don’t tell me, Fletcher, show me.”  She’d stretched out underneath him, and he’d done just that.

***

“Hey, Powell!  Get your mind out of the gutter.  Some of us aren’t getting any!”  Suzi gives her a disparaging shake of the head, and Elyse knows without having to look in a mirror that the goofy smile is back on her face.  “Speaking of which, how are things going with you and young Maxwell?”  Suzi gives Jen a knowing look, and Jen obliges by turning a particularly unflattering shade of red.

“I don’t kiss and tell, Suzi!”  But her giggles tell a different story.

Elyse reaches over and hugs her best friend, impulsively.  “I’m happy for you, Jen.  It was about damn time.”  A week ago Max had turned up at their door, and he’d done what Jen should have done years ago. He told her that he couldn’t stop thinking about her, and not just as a friend.  The rest, as they say, was history.  Max had become a permanent fixture in their little house, and things were made even easier with the fact that he and Dane got along like a house on fire.

“Hey, it looks like something’s happening.”  Suzi’s urgent whisper jerks Elyse’s attention back to the fateful door—now being pushed open. Various high-ranking club members file out looking serious.  Dane is the last one out, and Elyse’s heart only slows when he winks at her, telling her that everything is going to be alright.

Rick stands tall.  Since he’s the one who nominated Dane, he’s the one to make the announcement.  Dane had explained the protocol of the vote to Elyse the night before.  “Demon Riders, it’s time to welcome another brother to the club.  For the first time in the history of this club, the vote was unanimous, and I’m proud to say that Dane Fletcher is now a fully-patched member of the Demon Riders!”  Rick holds up Dane’s leather jacket which now bears the symbol of the Riders on the back. He hands it over ceremoniously to Dane who shrugs it on and smiles broadly.  “And not only that, he’s now co-owner of The Shop.” 

The whole bar goes crazy.  There’s whooping and hollering, and Dane is virtually knocked off his feet as the rest of the bikers surge forward to congratulate him.

“Aren’t you going to see him?”  Jen nudges Elyse who remains calmly seated on her stool at the bar.

Elyse shakes her head.  “This is his moment; he needs to share it with his brothers.”

“But none of my brothers are as pretty as you, ‘Lyse.”  Dane’s voice from behind her makes her jump, and she spins around to face him.  “And I sure as hell don’t want to kiss any of them like I do you.”  The huskiness in his voice is enough to make Elyse warm between her thighs. 

“Well, I’m glad to hear that.”  She smiles, tilting her face up to his, and he kisses her deeply.  He takes what he wants from her, and she gives it up freely.  Elyse is vaguely aware of whistling and clapping and whooping around them and, although there had been a time when it would have embarrassed her, now she couldn’t care less.  Dane’s kisses had a habit of making her feel like they were the only two people in the room.  A fact that means it takes her a few moments to realize that someone is shouting her name.

“Elyse!  Elyse!”  The urgency in Jen’s voice makes her look over to her friend who is waving her cell phone in her face.  “You’ve got mail.” 

Elyse snatches the phone away from her friend, ignoring Jen’s chuckle at her sudden change in focus.  She has to read the message three times before the words really sink in.

“Well?  What’s it say?”  Jen nudges her, showcasing just how far down on the list she values patience in the list of virtues.

It takes a few seconds for Elyse to find her voice.  “They love it.  They love it!”  She repeats the words as if to convince herself that’s what she’s actually read.  “They’re going to publish it, and they want to know if I have any more!”  Elyse starts jumping up and down like a little girl, before she’s swept off her feet.

Dane holds onto her as he walks with purpose towards one of the back rooms of the bar.  “Hey, where are we going?”  She twists around to see the amused faces of her friends and the bikers over Dane’s shoulder.

“Somewhere I can tell you how proud I am of you.”  Dane’s voice in her ear makes her shiver.

“And you can’t do that here?”  Elyse frowns, feeling a little ridiculous at being carried.

“Not for what I have in mind.”  His tone is serious.

“And what is that exactly?”  She looks up at him, tracing the line of stubble on his cheek.

“Show, don’t tell.  Isn’t that what you said to me, ‘Lyse?”  The dark look of lust he gives her makes her glad that he’s carrying her, as her knees would surely have given way. 

“I remember something along those lines.”  She smiles up at him.  “Oh, and by the way, I decided to take a page out of your book today.”  Dane looks down at her curiously.  She reaches up to kiss him lightly on the lips and whispers against his mouth.  “I’m going commando, too.”  She laughs at his expression, his eyes widening as if they’re about to bug out of his face.  He pulls her towards him, settling her against his chest, her ear against his heart, which beats in time with hers.

THE END