Torched: Afterburn (Iron Serpents Motorcycle Club Book 2) (23 page)

He ate my pussy with such fervor and depth, that his nose simply pressing into my clit provided enough friction to get it buzzing. Between the two points of pleasure, my body responded with equal frenzy. But it was when one of his fingers slid inside my throbbing core and then—coated with my juices—glided to the rim of my ass, that I hit the edge of losing it. He pushed it inside my puckered entrance, sending my senses into overdrive and my self-control right out the fucking window.

With nothing but the tip of his tongue in my cunt and his finger in my ass, my walls seized up and sent pulsating waves of nirvana rippling through me. “Holy shit!” I cried out, fisting the sheets until the most violent spasms slowed.

Taking a deep breath and opening my eyes, I glanced down to see Torch licking his lips and grinning. He got on his hands and knees and crawled over me. “Hope you’re ready for another, we’re not done yet,” he crowed.

“Bring it,” I demanded.

He chuckled and moved his knees between my legs, using them to push mine apart. He rocked his hips back and forward again, hitting just the right spot with his cock and instantly filling me. “Christ,” he groaned, “it doesn’t get any better.”

“You would know,” I quipped.

He smirked and lifted my legs over his shoulders. “Like you were always a fucking angel—”

“You wanna hear some stories?” I asked with a wink, just to get him going.

He bit my thigh and growled. “No.”

Hooking my ankles together behind his head, I pulled him closer with my legs. “Then you better shut me up.”

With a grunt, he lurched the rest of the way and crushed his lips to mine. While we savored each other’s mouths, he rocked his ass a little and thrust that divine shaft back inside me. With my feet up in the air, he got so deep there was nowhere left to go. As his head slammed up against my cervix, the sweet combination of pain and pleasure started to overwhelm me.

Instead of asking him to slow down, I used my elbows as leverage and rolled my hips upward with every stroke to push harder against him.

“Fuck, baby,” Torch moaned. Pulling away slightly and propping himself up on his hands, he rocked faster and with more force. With my ankles still wrapped around the back of his neck, I did the same.

I held out for as long as I could, but it didn’t take long for either of us to get to the end zone. Torch grunted and lost his breath, I screamed out a string of curses, and together we exploded.

: 19 :

| TORCH |

Pouring coffee for everyone, Mace glanced over at Liv, who was setting down her laptop and a stack of print-outs on the kitchen table. “Looks like she got something,” he observed.

“I knew she would,” Torch replied. He stirred some creamer into a mug and walked it over to her. None of that technology shit made any sense to him, he’d tried to watch her work a couple times, but it was all numbers, weird code, and clicking between screens so fast he couldn’t get a decent look at one before she was already on another. No wonder she got paid assloads of money to hack, she probably did the work of three people in half the time. They’d have to find something new for Biff to do, because now that Torch had made the decision to start letting her help with club shit, it was pointless for the guy to waste his energy trying to keep up.

“God, you can’t hide shit anymore,” Zed muttered, as he and Grimm followed. “What happened to the good ole days of just looking for bugs and surveillance vans?”

“That’s what you have me for,” Liv piped up. “Thanks, babe.” She took a sip and set the coffee down. “Okay, so I tried to track the van that ambushed you guys first, but didn’t get anywhere with highway cameras. It got off on an unmonitored county road about ten miles north of where it happened.”

“Figures,” Torch said. “They seemed prepared. What about Mena?”

She smiled mischievously. “Mena was a different story. His credit card was linked for overdraft to a checking account he pays utility bills from, I got his social from one of those. He’s ex-Army, but it’ll take me some more time to get the records if we need them, they’re all classified. He’s been keeping his nose clean since getting out five years ago, not even a speeding ticket.”

“What about our driver?” he asked.

“I got a hit on the prints, his name was Mark Russell. He did six years in Canon City for manslaughter over a heroin deal gone bad. But up until then, everything on his rap sheet was non-violent shit like theft and check fraud to pay for an escalating drug habit. He just got out about six months ago.” She handed him the list of crimes and a mugshot. It was their handless friend alright.

“So how’s Cora’s war vet connected to the junkie?” he asked.

“Well, that took a little digging. You said you thought he might be covering for a relative, so I put together their family trees from birth records. They’re cousins who grew up next door to each other, I would assume they were close just based on that. Anyway, I couldn’t figure out why Mena would have his cousin—who was on probation, mind you—try to set up Cora and turn the MC on his own boss. It didn’t make sense. Mena gets paid well under Cora and Russell’s just a dumbass who’s never been tied to any organization or gang. Why would two guys risk the wrath of both the club and Cora’s crew by pinning the hit-and-run on him? What would they have to gain? That was when I realized there had to be another person pulling the strings. Since Mena seemed to be clean, I pulled mugshots of everybody who did time with Russell. I was printing them all out for you guys to look at when I recognized one. He was only in there for about eight months a few years back, but I think it’s the connection we’re looking for.” She handed him another picture.

“Son of a bitch.” He passed the mugshot to Grimm, his blood pressure shooting through the roof.

“Largo Scully?” Grimm asked. “What the fuck?”

“Scully wanted guns,” Zed pointed out. “Why the hell would he figure running down our women would make us wanna play ball?”

“And why would Russell go along with pinning it on Cora?” Grimm added. “Russell had to have known it could put his cousin in a shit spot.”

Liv took another sip of coffee and nodded. “He knew, that’s why he wouldn’t talk. According to prison records, Scully got Russell protection on the inside. I looked up the address on Russell’s probation report and it’s an apartment rented under one of Scully’s aliases. He took Russell in when he got out. That’s why the dumbass was willing to do his dirty work but wouldn’t implicate Mena.”

“Implicate Mena in what?” Torch cut in. “Babe, I’m fucking lost. Break it down.”

“Well, this is mostly speculation, but here goes… Mena makes good money but he’s bad with finances, I saw his bank account. He also works for Cora, who probably wouldn’t want one of his guys associating with somebody on probation because of the heat. So, he wants to take care of his cousin but can’t. And here comes Scully to the rescue. Now, Mena’s either grateful to Scully for taking care of his family and wants to repay him, or Scully demands it. Mena doesn’t have money, but he
does
have valuable information—”

“He found out about Cora and Buddha’s deal,” Torch surmised. “Shit.”

She nodded. “I think Mena overheard Buddha and Cora talking about the loan and told Scully. And I think Scully took it from there and was behind everything, including the ambush. I’ll venture another guess and say there was a tracker planted in Buddha’s saddlebags and taken out along with the coins. Think about it, Scully came out here just a few days before that. He
has
money, what he needs are guns. Getting those coins wasn’t his endgame, he wanted to get the club ass deep in debt to Cora so you’d be forced to sell to him. And when he realized you guys weren’t falling in line, he had Russell do the hit-and-run as a last ditch attempt to make you panic and reconsider.”

Jesus, what the actual fuck? Every part of her theory fit, but it was such a convoluted plan that it made his head spin. Scully was a well-connected guy, why would the MC be his only option? “It all fits,” he muttered, “but I don’t see why Scully couldn’t get guns from somebody else. He was offering
over
street value when he first came to us, any other crew with connections would’ve jumped on it.”

“Oh, I forgot one other piece.” She handed him another printout. “Those are notes from the Gang Task Force in Scully’s police file. According to an informant, a month before Russell got out, Scully was forced out of the Silent Posse for killing the second-highest ranking member. The informant claimed nobody followed Scully out, so I assume he can’t get guns from anyone in town because word’s gotten around and nobody wants to piss of the Posse. But that’s where I hit a dead end. He’s a man with no home and one grunt with a chronic drug problem on his side, I have no idea where he got the men to ambush you.”

“So, he’s either rebuilding or trying to buy his way into another crew.” Torch stared at the notes and shook his head.

“That motherfucker,” Zed muttered. “We really need to start keeping better tabs on what’s going on outside of Linwood.”

Grimm huffed. “We’re in a podunk town eighty goddamn miles away, you’d think shit wouldn’t keep spilling out this far. Let me go make some calls and see if anybody knows what the fuck Scully’s up to.”

Torch gave him a nod. “See if anybody’s seen him too, we need to track his ass down. I’ll call Cora and let him know Mena’s been going off the reservation. Hopefully, that picture of his cousin didn’t spook him into making a run for it last night. If he’s still around, we might be able to get some answers out of him.” He turned back to his incredible old lady and pulled her in for a kiss. “Thank you, baby. You’re something else.”

She smiled up at him. “Anytime. Let me know what you find out. If he’s trying to get in with another crew and that’s where he got the manpower, I can probably dig up some shit on them too so you’re not going in blind.”

“Yeah, I’ll definitely do that,” he replied. “I’m gonna head over to the clubhouse, you wanna ride with me?”

“I think I should swing by the hospital and check on Dana. I’ll meet you over there in a bit, okay?”

He brushed a wisp of hair out of her face and frowned. “I don’t want you out on the streets alone, but I need Zed and Grimm at the table. I’ll get one of the guys over here to go with you.”

“There’s no reason for Scully to go after us again with Cora paid,” she argued.

“We don’t know if he knows that yet,” he pointed out. “Haven’t you gotten enough out of me? Just let me have some goddamn peace of mind for once.”

She sighed. “Alright, I’ll wait.”

He kissed her again. “Thank you. I love you, sweetheart.”

“Love you too. See you over there.”

: : : :

Grimm hung up the phone and threw it down on the table. “Nobody’s fucking seen Scully or knows what he’s doing. How’s that asshole just flying in the goddamn wind?”

“Have we heard from Cora yet?” Gauge asked.

“Not yet,” Torch sighed, wishing he had something to tell the man. They hadn’t talked babies, but if it had been Liv who’d lost his kid and he couldn’t get his hands on the piece of shit who’d done it, he sure as shit wouldn’t be anywhere near as calm as Gauge. “Don’t worry, he’ll find Mena. Cora’s not the kind to let that shit go unpunished. He’s got his whole crew looking for him to save us a trip.”

Apparently, Mena
had
gotten spooked and made a run for it—just their luck—but at least Cora was going above and beyond in the cooperation department. He’d vowed to not only find the guy, but get answers out of him.

Mace piped up. “Can we just talk about the fact that half of us are idiots for voting against bringing Liv in? Christ, I can’t believe I suggested making a deal with Scully, we would’ve played right into his fucking hands. Sorry, Torch, we should’ve listened to you, brother.”

He waved him off. “Nah, I get it, that’s why we vote. Gauge and Dana are the ones who got the shit end of our decision—”

“I should’ve backed you up instead of waiting to see if we could pull it together,” Gauge muttered. “Fuck.”

Torch didn’t know how to comfort him except to light up a joint and pass it over, maybe a good buzz would take some of the edge off. “Look, boys, we did the best we could with what we had, which wasn’t shit. We live and learn, it’s all any of us can do. I’m pretty impressed either way. I mean, look how quick we pulled all that money together, now we’ve got Buddha’s medical bills covered too. We made it harder for ourselves than it had to be, but it could’ve ended up a hell of a lot worse. Nobody’s dead or in jail, right?”

Squid smirked. “Not yet anyway.”

“Don’t even put that out there,” Grimm groaned.

A knock on the door got their attention just as the weed made its way back to him.

Toto poked his head in. “Sorry to interrupt. Cora’s here. He’s parked and waiting in the garage, I cleared everybody out.”

Torch gave him a nod. “Thanks, brother. Hope he’s got some good news.”

He led the way outside and into the shop. Cora and two of his guys were inside, standing behind a black sedan with the garage door directly in front of it open. Toto stayed outside, keeping an eye on things in case it got heated.

“Cora, man, good to see you,” Torch greeted, shaking his hand. They’d sure come a long way in less than twenty-four hours, but in the outlaw world, it wasn’t uncommon for enemies to turn into allies pretty quick when they found themselves going after a mutual enemy. “We weren’t expecting a visit, you could’ve just called. What’s the word?”