The Outlaw Stakes His Claim (15 page)

Dallas couldn’t agree more, and he sensed that
affirmation from all of the Grizzlies. Hurting a female was one of the lowest
of the lows, and whatever these bastards that hurt them had in store … well,
they deserved it tenfold.

Dallas and the other Grizzly MC members turned and
left the backroom with the sound of fists slamming into flesh. The women were
starting to gather what little belongings they had, and the woman that was
uninjured and helping the others made her way over to them. Her long strawberry
blonde hair was piled high on her head, and her exhaustion was clear on her
face.

“You guys here to help take these girls to a safer
place?” She looked at all of them.

Before anyone could speak Stinger took a step
forward.
“Yeah.”
He only said that one word, and because
she was a human the female might not realize the heat that came from Stinger,
or the fact his bear had suddenly taken an interest in her, but those facts
were not lost on any of the other Grizzlies.

She stared at Stinger for a moment, and her eyebrows
dipped low over her eye. Hell, maybe she could tell that Stinger was on edge
all of the sudden? “Okay, good.” She nodded and turned sideways to face the
women who now had their things gathered and were staring at the MC with trepidation
and hesitation. Although they had nothing to fear from them, that was the smart
reaction, and meant their instincts were working. “I’ll be following you guys
and helping the girls set up once we get there. They will feel more comfortable
with a female presence around.”

Dallas couldn’t agree more, and although they
already knew the plan, no one said otherwise.

“We need to head out. The sooner we get to the house
the Brothers want them at, the sooner everyone can get settled in,” Jagger
said.

The female turned and looked at their President. “I
agree. Let me just make sure everyone has their things in order and we can go.”
She turned to leave.

“How do you know The Brothers of Menace?” It was
Diesel who had asked the question.

Dallas saw the way her shoulders tensed, and then
she turned around and stared at their VP. She was a human, but goddamn did she have
a spark of strength that came from her like a crack of a whip. That anger
slammed into them, and a round of chuckles came from Court and Diesel. She narrowed
her eyes at them and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Shut the fuck up, Court and D.” Stinger all but
growled out the words. Stinger might be the smartest asshole out of the lot of
them, and had a rage that filled him just as fiercely as it did all of them,
but the kind of anger that came from him right now was of the possessive kind.
Stinger may be the only one that hadn’t found himself a female, aside from
Drevin, but Dallas, as well as the rest of the MC, sensed the emotions that
came from the other biker right now. The male wanted this little redhead, had
only known her for a total of five minutes, but clearly the bear had already
taken an interest in her. He either wanted to fuck her, and was making it known
that she was his and no one else’s, or Stinger had gotten a little possessive
over the human for more than just a warm hole to stick his dick in. Either way
they didn’t have time for this shit.

Court and Diesel sobered, and their annoyance over
Stinger telling them what to do came from them like a strong gust of wind.

“Ignore them,” Stinger said to the redhead.

She looked at Stinger, but there was still that
snap
of anger that came from her. She didn’t say anything
for several seconds, but then the anger slowly faded from her, and she dropped
her arms to her sides. “Listen, how I know the Brothers isn’t really relevant
in this situation. I was asked to come and check on these women and make sure
they settle in okay at the new place. If that doesn’t work for you guys then
you are more than happy to talk to Lucien or one of the other Brothers about
it.”

“Talk to us about what?” Malice, the Sergeant at
Arms for The Brothers of Menace, came out of the backroom, covered in blood and
having a pissed off look on his face. He stopped and looked at the Grizzlies,
and then stared at her for several long seconds. There was clear desire in the male’s
face, and then he was moving toward her and stopping when only a few inches
separated them.

She took a few steps back and crossed her arms over
her chest.
“Nothing, Malice.
I was just telling them
that I’m ready to go, and I know the girls are, too.”

The awkwardness that surrounded them had Dallas
realizing that there clearly was some kind of history between the redhead and
Malice. He took hold of her upper arm and led her away from everyone. Dallas
saw Stinger take a step forward, and he sensed Stinger’s bear rise up. Dallas reached
out and placed his hand on Stinger’s shoulder, stopping him from going any
further.

“What the fuck, man?” Dallas looked at Stinger. He
knew all about having an instant connection with a female, but whatever was
going through Stinger’s head right now was bordering on dangerous. He didn’t
need to mess with a woman that was claimed by another man, and although it was
clear the redhead didn’t want Malice, there was no denying that there were still
some pretty possessive feelings coming from the Sergeant at Arms. “Come
on,
let’s get these females out of here.”

Jagger nodded, and the rest of the Grizzlies
murmured their agreement. The redhead pulled her arm free from Malice’s hold,
said something that had her face turning red, and moved back toward them.

“Yes, let’s get them out of here.” She rubbed her
eyes and sighed. “I’m Molly, by the way.” She dropped her hand and smiled, but
it was forced.

Dallas looked over at Malice, and the biker ran a
hand over his short dark hair, over his forehead and scrubbed his palm over his
beard-covered jaw. He looked pissed, and the scent of that tangy emotion tickled
Dallas’s nose. Then Malice turned on his heel and with hard, fast steps went toward
the backroom and slammed the door shut behind him.

“Don’t worry about him. He’s had a stick up his ass
for the last five years.”

Dallas hadn’t known he was staring at the closed
door where the Brothers were until he heard Molly’s voice. He turned to look at
her and realized the other Grizzlies had been watching the encounter between
her and Malice, too. She smiled, shook her head, and tilted her chin toward the
exit.

“Can we get the hell out of here now?” And then she
turned and headed toward the females and started gathering bags.

The MC didn’t wait. They all moved, grabbed bags,
too, and headed outside to the vans. All Dallas kept thinking about was Hope,
and how he wanted to go to her, hold her, and make sure nothing ever touched
her. He wanted to take away that sad, faraway, and painful look on her face.
This life was hard and fucked-up, and the Grizzlies were in the thick of it.

Chapter Eleven

Hope tightened her hold on Dallas’s waist and rested
her cheek against his back. His cut was smooth leather and buttery soft, and
the smell of age and of it being well cared for filled her nose and had her
closing her eyes. It had been five days since they had really spent a
substantial amount of time together. With her finishing unpacking and going to
the office to get acclimated to everything, she had been so busy that she
hadn’t had much time for herself, let alone Dallas. But it was now Sunday, over
a week since she had been in Steel Corner, and although it had only been eight
days since she arrived and met Dallas, it felt like it had been a lifetime. Parker
hadn’t been calling her, much to her relief. Maybe he finally saw that her
leaving and having a wonderful—if small—position in Steel Corner was her
finally growing as a person? But she was a success in her own right, and when
others rose up and did something with their lives that tended to make others
jealous and intent on bringing them down. Today she would tell Dallas about her
past, the personal problems she faced, and of course the verbal and mental
abuse she had allowed herself to endure at the hand of the man she had thought
she loved. They were ugly and foul parts of her life, but if she wanted to have
anything meaningful with Dallas—which she did—then honesty was the only way to
go.

She sat on the back of his Harley with the wind
blowing through her air, the sun streaming down on her back, and the strength
and power she felt from Dallas filling her. They had been riding for the last
twenty minutes, were well outside of Steel Corner city limits, but she knew
they were going to the lake that sat between River Run and Steel Corner. She
had read up about the sights around the town and knew that it was a secluded
area that was mainly used for fishing and easy boating. This wasn’t a spot
where college kids came to hang out on their jet skis, or parents took their
kids for a loud obnoxious day of playing in the little beach off the shore. It
was quiet, and the perfect place for them to talk, but she knew Dallas had planned
it that way.

He drove his bike down the gravel road for another
five minutes and finally pulled off to the side and cut the engine. He was off
the Harley first and had his hands wrapped around her waist and hauled her off
the bike before she could even move. The sound of the wind whistling through
the trees and of the water lapping against the shore had a hypnotic quality to
it. He opened one of his saddlebags and pulled out a blanket, and then walked
around to the other side of his bike and grabbed the cooler bag she had brought
with a packed lunch for them. Maybe this conversation wasn’t going to be the
picturesque picnic situation, but they had to eat. Besides, it would distract
her and give her something to do when the time actually came to lay it all out
there for him.

He held the cold pack and blanket in one hand and
reached out with his other to twine their fingers together. It was such a
simple act, and one that might not mean a lot to anyone else, but to see this
big biker dressed in leather and denim being gentle with her was enough to have
everything melting inside of her. He led them through this little path until
the trees opened up and the sight of the lake came into view. It was a chilly
day again, but the sun was shining and glistened off the water like a thousand
little crystals. Dallas found a spot for them to sit and laid the blanket down,
and then gestured for her to have a seat. They sat side-by-side, neither saying
anything, and both of their focus on the water. The tension was evident in the
air around them, and her appetite was nonexistent.

Over the past several days, and although they hadn’t
seen much of each other, it was like there was something off about Dallas. He
was more reserved, stared at her as if she might up and leave, and always had
to be touching her. There was no doubt she liked it, a lot, but she also wanted
to know what had gotten into him. Like right now he still had his hand on hers,
but his focus was on the lake.

“Is there something on your mind? Something that isn’t
what we came up here to talk about?”

It took him a second, but he finally turned and
faced her. He lifted his other hand and cupped her cheek. “I have a lot of
things on my mind, but not ones that would make this situation any lighter.”

Hope thought maybe it had to do with the “club
business” he had done earlier in the week. He hadn’t told her what it was he
would be doing, and she hadn’t asked because she didn’t want to know, but when
she had seen him after that he had seemed different. What had he seen or done that
could shake a man of his size and power? He started rubbing his thumb along her
cheek, and she lifted her hand and placed it over his. “What’s wrong?” How
strange to be able to feel someone’s emotions as strongly as if they were her
own.

“My life.”

She knitted her brow, not quite sure what he meant.
“Your life is wrong?”

He nodded, but searched her face with his green gaze.
“My life and how I live it is what’s wrong.”

Those words held a lot more meaning than just the
literal sense. “Everyone’s life has parts that are wrong, Dallas.”

He let go of her and faced the lake once more. It
seemed like ages that they sat there in silence, but she knew that whatever he
was going to tell her didn’t need to be rushed, just like what she had to say to
him didn’t need rushed either. “The shit I’ve seen and done sometimes keeps me
up at night.” He didn’t face her, and she didn’t respond, because she knew he
wasn’t done. “But out of all the bastardly things I’ve done in my forty-one
years on this planet, it is the fact I was a piece-of-shit father to my son
that is the thing that makes it hard to accept this life.” He did look at her
then, and the raw pain on his face was like a hot poker to her chest.

For the next ten minutes she listened to him talk
about the woman he had married and the son they had together. She learned that
after they had gotten a divorce when
Maddix
was still
young Dallas had traveled nonstop, indulged in drugs and drinking, and random
sex with women willing to give it up to anyone. He didn’t spare her the details
of the scandalous, dangerous, and violent life he led, or at least she didn’t
think so given the things he described.

She didn’t know much about motorcycle clubs, or
shifters for that matter, aside from what she had read and watched on TV, but
what she did know was that it wasn’t a pretty little life where everything
worked out the way it was supposed to. But what Dallas kept going back to, kept
pouring his heart and letting his pain escape, was the fact he said he was a
bad father. She didn’t know his life, didn’t know how true those words were,
but what she did know was that he felt so much guilt that there wasn’t a bone
in her body that didn’t believe he hadn’t loved his son more than anything
else. His pain had eaten away at him until he had been slowly dying from the
inside out. Hope didn’t know what to say to make him feel any better about
this, but what she did know was that people tended to be harder on
themselves
than anyone else would have been. She wasn’t
going to sugarcoat anything because he felt what he felt, and it was real.