Rust: A Bad Boy Romance (Courage MC) (21 page)

M
y heart was beating
at a rate akin to a hummingbird on crack cocaine. I know I said I’d help them, but fuck, there were men with guns in that club. And their friend came in covered in blood from a gunshot wound! Whoever Luke or The Sappy Boys were, I didn’t want to get near them. That went for Bobby too. I didn’t want to let Avery down, but in the end, he was just a one-night stand.

Yet, there was a bit of a problem I had yet to find an answer to. I still had no house. I was lying in Avery’s bed. I was wearing his XL t-shirt that I found in the closet. Okay, those were three problems, but really they were one in the same. Okay, think Hope. How are you going to get out of this one? Well, I had burned all my bridges with my mom, my sister is on drugs in some alley somewhere, and now I’m involved with a pretty heavy-duty biker gang.

They didn’t seem to have their shit together though. In fact, Avery was the only one I barely trusted. He at least had some brains buried in that thick skull of his. Ugh. Why did I like him so much! I tried to deny it. Every second of the day I tried. But his butt in those jeans … and his abs in that undershirt…and, Jesus, that cock. He was the real deal. The kind you see in movies and fantasize about. I know he’s bad news. But he’s also been there for me since day one. He’s at least trying to get my life back in order. I couldn’t even say that about Jack. It had been a couple days since I had really seen him though. It was as if he was avoiding me.

I decided to wait it out. Best case scenario, they figure out a better plan to deal with Bobby. Worst case scenario, I spend some time with another biker. Can’t say that I hadn’t had my fair share in the past few days. I grabbed my half-shattered phone and checked my bookmarks – all the best celebrity news sites I could think of. If people were still talking about me, I’d find out through them.

I clicked each site that came up and, boom, my heart sank deep into my chest. There they were, the headlines I had been dreading. “POP STAR GOES…BIKER?” – “FROM THE BIG STAGE TO THE STREET” – “POP STAR WITH LOW-LEVEL DRUG DEALERS: THE RISE AND FALL OF HOPE LAWRENCE.” Oh, God … I thought, I’m fucked.

This couldn’t have been worse for my career. And yet, for the first time in my life, I felt undeniably free. I could do anything I wanted. Everyone knew my career was at its peak. And then, after a few months, it crashed and burned. Good riddance. Now there was a choice. Now there were options. And building something back up from the ashes wasn’t all that hard to do. Michael Jackson did it, over and over again. Hell, Donald Trump did it. And now I would too.

I didn't even bother to read past the headlines. Everything had escalated to an almost unbelievable degree. If they wanted to make me out as a lowlife, then that's what I'd be. The biker’s girl. I kind of liked the sound of that.

I pressed Avery’s soft and worn out shirt against my cheek and breathed in his scent deeply. It smelled like cheap cologne and burnt rubber. Maybe a little like dirt. Even still, I bathed in the scent. It sent me to a place, to that night I spent with him. His cock growing against my lap, our heavy breathing, and his strong hands gripping my body like a stud. I didn't care about refined taste. A guy like Avery was never going to be one of those sophisticated types. But those sophisticated types couldn't fuck like him anyway.

I looked around the room of his massive house. I still couldn't believe it was his. Whatever he did to pull in that kind of cash must've been something big. Frankly, I didn't really want to know. I've never had a sugar daddy before, but if he was willing, I think I'd take him.

On the desk near his bed was a large note that read, ‘Hope’ on the folded end. I grabbed it, hesitating at first, but ultimately deciding to read it. It said:

“Dear Hope, in the closet you'll find an outfit. I'm taking you out tonight. The nicest steakhouse in the city. 7 PM. Be ready. I hope everything fits.

Yours, Avery.”

I set the note back on the table and lightly laughed to myself. An outfit? Sure, why not. I'll see what he got me. I imagined it was a pair of rhinestone jeans, complete with a leather jacket and black boots. I opened my eyes and felt my jaw drop to the floor.

“Holy shit!” I yelled out loud in Avery’s empty house. I couldn't believe it. It was beautiful. In the closet was an imported black Italian dress made from silk. I ran the fabric through my hands. It was incredibly soft and thin. Avery was a man who knew what he wanted. I admired that. Next to the dress was tight lingerie and a pair of heels. Was he serious? I held it up to my body in the mirror and smiled. It was a tight fit, but I decided to give it a try.

Lastly, all around the clothes were scattered roses and mixed chocolates. I smelled one of the roses and helped myself to a few chocolates. Feeling good, I slipped out of my clothes and into the lingerie. I was right. It was extremely tight fitting, but my body looked incredible. I slipped the small dress over the lingerie and twirled in the mirror. Perfect. Would I go to dinner with Avery? After this bribe, the answer was an obvious yes. I couldn't believe how sweet he was being to me. It was almost as if he wanted something from me.

I sighed at the thought. That's why people were so nice to me before. They always wanted more, always looking for a favor. Avery was different, I reasoned. He was helping me, not the other way around. I laid around the house, passing the time by watching Easy Rider, the only DVD he owned.

W
hen the time came
, Avery opened the door to his house and called out, “Hope, you there?”

My hair was curled and cute and I wore a dark shade of lipstick. My new heels were sexy and glamorous. For the first time in days, I felt beautiful. I slowly opened the door to his room and walked outside, running my hands nervously across the fabric of my new dress. To be honest, I was afraid my ass would fall right out. “I can't believe you got me to wear this.” I said awkwardly.

“Wow…” Avery sighed. “You look … incredible.” He stood at the foot of the door admiring me.

“Stop joking around.” I said.

“No, really. You're fit to be a queen.” He said. “If I had any sense, I'd marry you right now.” The scoop on my dress was low and my tits barely even fit inside. His eyes trailed up and down my body. Of course he was smiling, thinking about all the things he could do to me. I wasn't going to let that happen though. If he wanted me, he'd have to do more than buy me an expensive outfit.

“Thanks.” I said. “Don't think this means I'm going to sleep with you again.” I grabbed his hand as he led me out the door.

“’Course it doesn't…” he muttered with a smile. When we stepped outside, I nearly fell to the floor with shock. In the street were at least 20 bikers, all revving their engines.

“What…? What is this, Avery?” I asked.

“For you. My queen.” He said.

“Who said I'm your queen?” It was a bitchy response, but I couldn't give in to him that easy.

“I did. Let's ride, baby.” He winked and picked me up by my butt, cradling me in his arms. I looked over at his bulging biceps and felt that familiar pressure of warmth between my legs. It was going to be hard to hold back tonight.

He set me gently on the seat of his motorcycle and hopped on in front of me. I was getting used to riding on the back of a bike. Actually, it seemed preferable to a car. The wind rushes against your face, the trees whip by, and you get a sense that you’re fully experiencing the ride. “Thank you for this.” I found myself saying to Avery as a patrol of bikers led us to our destination. I did feel like royalty, and holding onto his incredible chest felt strangely right.

I had to snap out of it. I had to let go, metaphorically speaking of course. He was too different from me. He grew up one way and I grew up another. That was the oldest kind of tragedy ever told. So that night I made a deal with myself not to get too attached to Avery. Even if he was helping me, I wasn’t letting him because I loved him. I was letting him because I had to.

“You deserve this.” Avery called out against the wind. “And there’s more where that came from, I promise you that.” Ugh. Who was this guy? I held on and kept my mouth shut.

When we got to the restaurant, we parked the bikes and walked toward the entrance. It was guarded by two short and strange men. They were wearing matching bolo ties and large fancy black hats. They were the kind you’d see in South America, perhaps at a funeral of some sort. Oddly enough, the bikers all got off their bikes with us, as if they came to protect us from some sort of unknown danger.

“Avery? What’s going on? Why are they coming inside with us?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Look, don’t get angry,” Avery said, “but I need you to help me out.” He held both of my arms in place, running his fingers up and down. He could tell my blood was starting to boil.

“What … the hell … is … going on?” I muttered under my breath, trying not to explode. My heart was beating like a sledge hammer. I swear, if he doesn’t tell me what the hell is happening, I’ll kill the bastard!

He pulled me off to the side as the bikers began talking to the two strange men out front. I eyed them as they pulled out two large cigarettes that seemed to be triple the length of normal ones. They lit the ends and acted as if they couldn’t understand Avery’s men. Avery tried to explain things as best as he could. “Angelo got thrown into a messy situation the other day. You saw him. He nearly lost his life. I know I’ve kept you in the dark on a lot of this stuff, but if you promise to help me out on this, I’ll call Rust tonight and check on the status of your house.”

What a fucking liar. “Rust can’t do shit can he?” I asked him. What could he possibly do? Tell the bank to give my house back? I may have been ignorant on money matters, but I wasn’t that stupid.

“He can and he will.” he said, turning away from me. “Now you can help me or you can leave me to die. Your choice.” He simply walked away from me, headed towards the men in front. He whispered in the ears of the men and they opened the door, leading him inside. In a split second, I made a rash decision. I chose to stay.

Fuck. I chose to stay!

S
hit
, she can’t get enough of me. It’s crazy, the kind of charm I exude. It’s always been my number one issue with women. You have sex and then they won’t leave you alone. Problem was, I needed her to do some of my bidding before I let her go.

It was easy making her feel special. I got the whole gang to take us to the Sapo joint, Lorie’s Steakhouse. Always hated the name, but I s’pose it flew under the radar. They were always really smart with how they ran things. Very professional, like the mafia or something.

The boys rode in front of us, in ‘flying V’ formation, flashing their headlights and screaming into the wind. I got the feeling that Hope was starting to really like the life of the MC. We had given her a small taste and now she was addicted. I knew it would happen like this, but, man, did she have a lot to learn.

This wasn’t all about fun and games. It wasn’t about getting your hair ruffled in the wind. If she wanted a lifestyle change, she should have moved to Cave Creek and bought an RV. This was life itself. We were all born into this shit, so I apologize in advance if seeing her smile so much made me a little sick to my stomach. Though I had to admit, seeing her in the dress I bought her got my cock pretty fuckin’ hard. I couldn’t wait to slide that silk right off of her.

When we got to the actual restaurant, I had to let her down. I’ll admit, I was a little cocky about my delivery, but walking and giving her the choice to leave was my favorite way of initiating sales. She had so much she wanted to fix in her life: her house, her career, probably even her love life. And it was obvious she absolutely needed me to get those things for her. I was the missing piece to fill her void of unhappiness. Of course, it was all bullshit. She would have to create her own happiness, all from scratch. But the illusion was still there. I smiled and walked away, leading her into the restaurant. My men, however, were made to stay outside.

It was dimly lit inside, with a faint red light leading you into the main room. There was no sexy hostess tonight and I sighed at not being able to check out her ass like usual. Instead, one of The Sapo Boys led me to the table in deafening silence. I actually started to feel afraid. I’d been in a lot of dangerous situations, but never without a weapon or a sidekick. I had empty pockets, some cash, and a girl. S’ppose that was as good a weapon as anything else.

We sat down at the table and we were face to face with the three main Sapo Boys. I had no idea what to say or do. The Courage MC was one tough crew, but as far as gangs went, The Sapo Boys were twisted. They didn’t care about rules or morality. They didn’t even give a shit about business. It was all pride with them. That, and tradition. The biggest pain was that, once you were in the crew, you lost your birth name. So ya’ never knew what the hell to call them, other than “Sapo.”

The head of the family spoke first. “You have betrayed us.” he put it bluntly. “Where we’re from, that means instant death.”

“And how would you do that?” I asked, strangely curious. The men scowled at me and took their hats off in disgust. Each of them had long and thin black hair, which reflected off the red light like silk.

“That’s easy, of course.” The man on the right said. “You’d die from pure joy.”

“Joy? Don’t sound too bad.” I said, sizing them up a bit. Hope looked worried. She simply sat staring at the menu, shaking against her seat.

“You ever inhale 50 lines of pure cocaine in under one minute?” the man said.

“Can’t say that I have, but I could always try.” I remarked, winking at Hope.

“Your men killed three of my best warriors.” the man in the center said. “Is that a laughing matter to you, Avery?” The three sat with hands folded, looking calm and poised.

“Well, now that’s the part I don’t think is funny. That I agree with you on. We gotta find the son of a bitch who did that to your crew and we gotta deliver justice to him.” It was the truth. As much as I hated admitting it, Luke deserved the punishment for the crime. He went off on the wrong people and now he was going to get hunted down. Can’t say I didn’t warn everyone about him.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Avery. Us and us only will be the ones delivering his justice. You bring him to me personally in exchange for both of your lives. That is our demand.”

Now that just got my blood pumpin’ a bit. How could he sit there and threaten me, when I had absolutely nothing to do with it? It just didn’t seem right. “Now what the hell, Boys? Was I there when your deal went down? Was I the one who pulled the trigger? Did I even know you all were meeting?” Silence. “The obvious answer is no. No I didn’t. I’ve always respected your crew, right from the get go. Always had kind words to say ‘bout you folks. But now you’re going to go and threaten my life along with the man who’s really responsible? Hell no.” I slammed both of my hands on the table. “I’m starving. Let’s order some food.” I said, irritably.

“Your food has already been ordered, Avery.” As soon as the words were uttered, the chef nervously brought the steak out, complete with red wine. I instantly dove in, ignoring the threat of the Sapo Boys. In the back of my mind, I figured they wouldn't do anything rash. Not at our first meeting at least.

“Enjoying your meal?” One of the men asked me. I nodded chewing loudly. Hope looked mortified. Here there were, three men who were known to be ruthless killers. And here I was, being rude. “You’re being shameful.” Hope whispered. She didn't get it. The Courage MC wouldn't be seen as weak. One of our men made a mistake. That didn't mean I was going to be taken advantage of.

“The terms?” I said.

“Excuse me?” They all seemed to ask at the same time. What an odd gang.

“What are the terms for us to conduct business again? We’re very fond of your product. I ain't going to mess around and lie about that. When can we resume our previous dealings?

“I’m speaking to you in English because it is my understanding that you don’t understand the Latin tongue. This is a shame. Translations turn into mud. We do not discuss terms here. This is a simple meeting. You’ll have to meet with us again if you’d like to know more.” the man in the middle said.

“A second meeting? God dammit…” It was hard not to sock them in the face right then and there. But, as a leader should, I remained calm and collected.

“You seem to forget that we lost many of our men. Their souls were lost at the hands of your self-proclaimed ‘crew.’ We are constantly sacrificing for our product and extreme business ventures. We expect you to give sacrifice as well, Avery.”

“I ain’t here just to eat. Let’s do business. I’m ready to sacrifice. Whatever it takes.” I said, standing up. I started to feel slightly dizzy, as if my blood pressure jumped up too high, too fast. I looked at Hope and her face started to stretch before my very eyes. “What’s happening?” I asked. But before I could even answer, I found myself falling towards the floor. Next thing I knew, I was unconscious.