Force: Blacktop Sinners MC (23 page)

Tess broke away from the intense kiss long enough to speak. “I need you inside of me, please, Derek.”

He nodded and slid into her. He was careful with her, always careful. Then he slid inch by inch into her, and she loved the heat of him as he stretched her, as he moved his length into her. Finally, he was filling her utterly until she felt that there was nowhere else for him to go, that he was consuming her.

He started to rock his hips, and she rocked in time with his, their bodies finding the same beat as they writhed together. Her nerves tingled, and felt like sparks of electricity were surging through all of her, were lighting her up completely like the Vegas strip. His mouth was back on her nipple, his tongue flicking rapidly against its peak all while he thrust into her with a rhythm that was steady but not frantic. This was a slow, gently teasing of her, a way to worship her body after everything they’d both almost lost together.

Tess understood that. He was making love to her the way that he thought she deserved, and it touched her heart deeply.

He came then, and the force and excitement from him sent her over the edge, letting the climax rage through her like a burning inferno. She felt her muscles spasm around him, and she wrapped her legs tightly around his waist.

“God yes!”

He pulled out of her, obviously as satiated as she was, and then laid out beside her. Derek opened up his arms so that she could slide into them as well. He stroked her side and leaned down low enough to kiss the crown of her head. “I love you, Tess.”

“Love you too, Derek,” she said, and when she slipped off to dream, if she saw a little girl with beautiful brunette curls, then maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing anymore. Maybe she had a right to hope.

Chapter Thirty Eight

He’d never shopped for something fancy in his life. A lot of it felt so covert because while Tess was showering, he went through her jewelry to find a costume piece, a ring she had stashed there. He had no hope of eyeballing or of estimating her actual ring size. He wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hell of getting it right.

The clerk eyed the small garnet piece and nodded to him. “Sir, it seems the lucky lady is a seven. We have a lot of selections for you to choose from.”

He nodded and poured over everything assembled there until he found the cut he liked. It made him smile to see it before him, thinking of the future he’d laid out before them. No matter what Tess would say, he knew this was right.

As he was waiting for the clerk to hand him the wrapped box --- hell, for the price he was paying, he deserved to get it gift wrapped to go too --- it was then that his phone rang, and he frowned at a number he didn’t recognize. Pressing it on, he answered, “Hello, Derek Allanson?”

“Derek,” an older voice croaked out.

He blinked. It took him a few moments to place the man. “C.J.? What’s happening out at the salvage yard? I have to tell you that I have all the tail pipes I need. What I got from you last time helped patch her up great.”

“Can you come by the yard? I have some business that I need help with.”

“It’s a bit early for that, isn’t it?”

“It’s past ten. I definitely had something I wanted to run by you, Derek. Word is you’re looking for legitimate work anyway.”

Derek hesitated. He had some savings from his cut of the Sinners’ payroll and things. Of course he did. However, that wouldn’t last long. He’d been thinking of starting at a garage, but if there was even a spot of part time work down at the salvage yard, then that might be a good thing, help keep his personal coffers full for a bit longer at the very least.

“Sure, C.J. I’ll be right over.”

***

The older man reached out and gave him a firm handshake. His whole body language at first glance would have seemed to say that he was pleased to see Derek, that everything was fine. His smile was broad, his handshake strong. Hell, he was even leaning in a little as if eager to hear everything that Derek had to say.

“Glad to see you, son. I have to say that I’m impressed. I’ve been here in town for over thirty years, and the leaders of the Sinners have come and gone, so many members but they leave in body bags. I’ve rarely seen someone who seemed to be able to wriggle out while still part of the team.”

He sighed and held up his hands. “Spike and Smitty understood. I think they figured me and my girlfriend had given enough.” There was another word that he hoped he could use to apply to Tess and soon, but that was all up to her and to the decisions she might make even if it all seemed completely crazy. “It’s not that much left to deal with, you know? They owed me, and I think we all knew it. Besides, I think at least for a while the Sinners only have to worry about the law they can’t buy off. DHC is dead in the damn water.”

C.J. nodded and took his hand back long enough to run it through his beard. “I think you’ve changed things up. Not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that the Sinners have this whole area uncontested, but the gang wars have been heating up quite a bit, and that’s cost people on both sides of the fence.”

“That’s true. I…so you said you wanted to talk to me?”

“Indeed I do, son. I have been looking for someone who can go out a few days a week on salvage missions. I used to do that part, do the towing and what not to get the junk for my yard, but it hasn’t worked out the way I wanted. I need someone younger and stronger to prepare all that mess. I just am not what I used to be, you know?”

Derek nodded and considered him. “It won’t be enough to keep me in steady cash, but if I can work around it, get a second job as well, then I’d like to work with you. I think you’re a good man, C.J., and you’ve helped me out a few times now.”

He frowned and then stepped back. “Never mind. The deal’s off. You have to go.” Was it Derek’s imagination that the other man’s brow had broken out with a huge sheen of sweat? It couldn’t be, could it?

“C.J.?” he asked, stepping forward again even as the other man jumped back. “Is there something wrong? You changed your tune awfully fast. Is there something you’re not telling me? Are the Sinners doing something?”

“Derek, just get the hell out of here. You need to run, and I don’t care what he does to me anymore.”

“No one can do anything. Trent Lachlan’s dead, so the DHC won’t come for you, and if it’s Smitty, just let me talk to him. I know that he can be over anxious on far too many things.”

“It’s not that, you idiot!” He said, his voice rising in pitch, growing frantic with his consideration.

“Then what?”

That was as much as he was able to get out because then there was a bang and after that, C.J. fell to his knees. Blood bloomed like carnations blooming over his white shirt, and Derek lunged forward then to try and keep the man from sinking to the dirt and mud. C.J.’s eyes were already dull, and blood bubbled up from his lips. As Derek eased him out to the dirt, the other man’s breath became labored, and then it stopped completely.

“God no.” He stood fast and was about to pull out his cell when he felt the cool tip of a gun barrel pressed to his temple.

“Grinder, I don’t want to have to pull the trigger….yet.”

He froze. He knew that voice. He’d known that voice forever. It was
Ron’s
, and he’d have said until everything lately with Tess that it was his brother’s voice. Now? Now it seemed like someone had pulled a full
Et tu, Brute?
on him.

“Ron, what the hell is going on?”

The muzzle was pressed more tightly against his temple. “What do you think it looks like, Derek?”

“You’re the leak, and you always were.”

“I was, and I underestimated you. I thought that the DHC could take you, that with the right ambush, Spike would be dead, and I’d be board officially for a club that would appreciate my skill and my approaches.”

“We appreciated you.”

“Not enough to give me the real power. You all relegated me to the bullshit grunt work, and then you ruined everything I did to get out from under you. Now you’re leaving everything we had, pissing on true brotherhood for that stuck up nurse bitch.”

“Imagine how I can’t deal with brotherhood or take it seriously when you’re the one holding a gun to my head and threatening me. I can’t imagine why I’d be looking for a way out of my current life,” Derek drawled. “Look, man, we can work this out. We need to talk about all of this and we can…don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

Ron snorted behind him, and then the sting of the gun was sharp against his temple, the heavy metal striking the side of his head with powerful and deliberate force that left him reeling and his head swimming. His vision started to grow dark, and he fell to his knees. Behind him, he could hear heavy boots tromping through the mud and he wasn’t even sure if those were the last of the free Death’s Head Crew or if Ron had recruited a few traitor Sinners to strike out with him.

It didn’t matter much.

Either way, he was at the mercy of the man that he’d have sworn until a week ago was the person he’d bleed for before anyone else. Now he was the angry, gruff bastard laughing down at him, Ron’s heavy boot pressing into his back on top of everything else.

“Is she worth it now, brother? It was a big enough insult that you’d talk a good game, but I had enforcer duties without the title. It’s another to be told to my face that I mean fuck all and I’m not your home. Well, I hope she was worth it, that Tess is worth dying for. If I can’t ruin the Sinners, then at least I can ruin you.”

And that was all he knew.

***

“So he’s really going to leave the Sinners?” Lizzy asked as she sat down for coffee with Tess at her place.

The other girl’s nose was wrinkled up in a way that made her look a bit like a constipated rabbit. It was distinctly not a good look for Lizzy, and it didn’t make Tess feel reassured. She knew the cliché. Women said all the time that men who had less than legal or favorable jobs were going to change this time. Tess knew it was a risk, that people rarely changed their true nature deep down, but she was willing to take this chance on Derek. He’d seemed so sincere and, even if she had never been a factor in this at all, Derek wasn’t wrong. The Sinners had treated him terribly, and maybe he was moving on in large part for himself, too.

He definitely deserved it.

Hell, if his record wasn’t so tarnished, with his quick thinking and eye for detail, Derek actually would have made a great addition to the honest section of the Boone P.D. Hmm, maybe he could consider private investigator work. He definitely had tracked her down and made her rescue possible. Of course, Lizzy’s pinched up expression definitely screamed clearly and loudly to her that she felt that Tess had only been in such a dire position due to Derek’s “night work” at all.

“I know how it sounds,” she said, taking a sip of her mocha. “The point is that he wants to try, and he went over to the clubhouse to quit and is starting his job search. He said he’d check some local legit garages today and see what he can do. I mean, he’s turning his back on his entire lifestyle for me. I have to give this a shot.”

Lizzy nodded and set her mug down. It was an old one that was a joke she’d actually given to Tess for the holidays. It said “Nurses Do It with Needles.” That had been Lizzy before, the crass and boisterous sense of humor. Right now, though, she was feeling as if that flirty, devil may care part of Lizzy had been snuffed out. She looked like she’d aged five years in three days. How odd.

“I hope you’re right. I can’t help but feel responsible for everything that happened. You’d never have even gone on a real date with Derek if I hadn’t played cupid. If you’d died, I’d never have recovered. You’re my best friend.”

Tess sighed and set her mug aside. Reaching over, she pulled Lizzy into a bone crushing hug. “I know you feel that way, but I wouldn’t blame you. I still made the decision to go, and to keep being involved with him when I realized he was a Sinner. It’s nothing to do with you. I make my choices, and I’m really happy. There’s this connection here, and I can’t even explain to you how deep it feels, how good. Hell, he’s a foster system brat like I was. There’s so much more to him than you and Ricardo have gotten to know.”

“I want you to be happy,” she said, sniffling. “And I know that this is that I haven’t seen you smile like this, like you are right now since before Jason died. No,” she added, brightening. “Actually, this is the happiest I’ve seen you since he bought his motorcycle and you both started into all that fighting.”

Tess beamed back at her. “I feel that way too. You have no idea how just hopeful I am for the first time.” She would have said more but then her phone rang. Tess was grinning, expecting it to be from Derek, an update on his job hunt. Instead, her face fell when she realized it was from Ricardo’s work cell. She’d rarely seen him use that unless he called to give them a heads’ up on a massive set of accident or other injuries coming into the ER.

“Tess? Are you okay? You look white as a damn ghost.”

She shook her head and clicked the phone on. “Ricardo? What’s up?”

His voice was steady on the phone, but low and serious. “You need to get to C.J.’s Salvage Yard. There’s been a murder.”

***

Tess’s heart was pounding in her chest, and it felt so strong that she was terrified that something might break right out of her sternum. Her breath was contained but barely in ragged gasps, and she felt the same vertigo that she had the day Jason had been rushed into the E.R. She knew from Ricardo that it was C.J. who had been gunned down, but there were things at the crime scene that made them think that Derek had been targeted there too.

She hopped out of Lizzy’s car (her friend hadn’t trusted her to drive) and rushed forward to the edge of the yellow tape. C.J. must have been carted off by now because she saw no ambulance or anything else. However, there was still blood splattered on the dirt outside of the barrier.