Rebel Heart (10 page)

Not wanting it to end so soon, Kade pulled out and rolled the eager blonde over on her stomach. He arched her pert ass in the air and took her from behind, grabbing a handful of her hair in his hands. He moved hard and slow and clenched her sculpted buttocks in his palms. His release quickly followed.

When it was over, Kade collapsed on the bed beside her and fingered her into an orgasm of her own.

It always ended the same. They got dressed, took the money off the dresser, and left.

Kade made a point of never getting the same girl twice. That would have defeated the purpose of anonymity.

But this time was different.

After Kade’s latest acquisition had pulled on her clothing and slipped her money into her bra for safe keeping, she opened the door and to Kade’s surprise, Stella was there waiting. She pushed the woman out of the way and charged into the room. She reached for a glass ashtray and hurled it at Kade’s naked form, striking him in the shoulder.

He scrambled to his feet and tried to explain, but there was nothing he could say. She pointed a red painted fingernail at him as anger mixed with hurt flashed in her eyes. She was upset and she had a reason to be. She had always been loyal to a fault.

“You fucking asshole!”

Tears began to fall. Her voice came out in high pitched squeaks.

“You have no respect for anyone. Not even yourself.”

“What,” she challenged, closely studying Kade’s expression for any sign of apathy.

“You don’t think I know a hooker when I see one?”

Kade was frozen. All he could do was stare at her from his spot on the bed, naked and in shock. And when the sound finally dissipated and Stella appeared too exhausted to continue speaking, she sat down beside him on the bed and tried to catch her breath as her chest heaved. Her cheeks were red and flushed and her bottom lip quivered.

Kade cocked his neck downward to look Stella in the eyes but she curled her arm and pressed a hand against his chest to keep him away. He sighed and ran a calloused hand over her unruly hair, feeling terrible that he had ever been the kind of person to pick on her for it.

Not that Kade had made great strides to change since high school. No, in a lot of ways, he was still the same conniving jerk. A reality made clear by the broken expression etched across Stella’s face.

“I’m sorry,” Kade whispered.

But it didn’t matter.

That’s all he ever was.

Kade smoothed his fingers over Stella’s neck and gently kneaded at the muscles that lied beneath. His eyes closed as he kissed her collarbone. She flinched as his facial hair momentarily tickled her flesh. He pulled her close and breathed her in for what he knew would be the last time.

Their eyes briefly met as she lingered in the doorway. The way she looked at him was all too familiar. It was the same look she would give him when he would stumble through her front door at 3 A.M—drunk and smelling of another woman’s perfume.

Kade’s discrepancies were never any secret to Stella. She knew where he had been and what he had been doing. And that one look, that wide-eyed overwhelming disappointment, said it all.

It tore away at Kade.

Usually he would apologize profusely. He’d spit excuses into the air and eventually, pity and forgiveness would gloss over his indiscretions. He took advantage of Stella’s kindness. But not this time. No, this time was different. This time there was something final about the way she stared at him.

“I love you,” Stella whispered, unwittingly pulling a pained expression as the words fell from her parted lips.

Kade knew what was coming. All the signs were readily apparent. Her tense stature. The opacity and glazed over look in her once bright eyes. He could tell she was already envisioning her new future. The one without him in it.

“But this isn’t working.”

Stella’s voice was barely above a whisper. She stood up and ran a hand through her hair. And then, with the final turn of a doorknob, she was gone.

Kade knew then that nothing would ever be the same.

Part Two

All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.

Ellen Glasgow

Chapter Eight

T
ime didn’t heal all wounds. It was a lie people told themselves to feel better. One Kade didn’t understand. All time did was gnaw away at wounds. He was trapped by time. By his feelings. By how much he missed her. But there was a certain note of sincerity in her voice when she had said it was over and if her words weren’t verification enough her empty house was.

Mel hung back and adjusted Stevie in her arms. She watched through tear stained eyes as Kade frantically searched Stella’s empty house for any sign of her. He moved from room to room with no fluidity, banging against walls and bumping into abandoned furniture. Finally Mel spoke up, unable to take it anymore.

“She left last night.”

There was a brief lapse of silence as Kade chewed on her words.

Left? As in for good?

“I don’t know where she went. I guess she thought it wasn’t worth telling her best friend. I came here this morning and her closet was cleared out.”

And there was it. They were over and she was gone. She had always said she would one day leave Falls Creek and finally, she had gone and done it. Time, it turned out, didn’t heal anything.

Five years and it still felt like yesterday.

Kade unfolded the note Stella had left behind for him and took another long sip of his beer as he read it for the hundredth time.

This is my acceptance of defeat.

Poetic bullshit. That’s all it ever was with Stella. Even in her departure. With a sigh, Kade stuffed the piece of crumpled paper back into the pocket of his cut. He eyed a boringly attractive girl on the other end of the bar. She had been staring at him from the moment he had arrived at the clubhouse, daring him to approach her, but he wasn’t in the mood.

Whiskey burned his throat with every sip. His palms were clammy and his thoughts jumped around in his head like static. He remembered an argument he had with Stella a few days prior to her departure. She had told him that being happy wasn’t in his nature and she was right.

Half a decade later, she was still right.

Everything good left Kade eventually. Pain fogged his vision and made him temporarily forget his setting. It was an emotion he had become all too familiar with. It clouded him and made it impossible for him to string two coherent thoughts together. It had gotten so bad that he couldn’t even remember
why
he was hurting. Just that he was.

Kade took another long drink and eyed the crowd of people who surrounded him. It was a typical scene for the SOW clubhouse on any given weeknight. Half-naked women hung onto the arms of leather-clad prospects playing pool. Music poured from an unmanned sound system behind the bar—classic rock, none of that top-40 bullshit—and the scent of marijuana and burning cigarettes filled the air.

The only thing off was the lack of Nash’s presence, but he had informed Kade that he would be away that week, celebrating his four-year anniversary with his old lady Maria. It was Kade’s responsibility as VP to hold down the fort while he was away, a feat that had never proved to be a problem for him.

He wasn’t the kind of guy most people tested.

Richie pushed his way to the front of the bar with a beer in hand and took a seat beside Kade. He had been demoted to prospect after one too many fuck ups at the expense of the club and Kade knew he was bitter. His drinking had gotten worse since Nash had passed down the news, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that he was currently completely fucking blitzed. Kade gave him a nod, keeping his eyes on the crowd.

“You good man?”

Richie shrugged and swallowed back a shot of vodka from a tray on the bar. He eyed the group of girls across from him and winked at the blonde who had taken an interest in Kade. She didn’t react. Richie rolled his eyes.
“Bitch,”
he muttered under his breath. He reached for another shot but Kade was quick to snatch it from his hand.

“Maybe you should slow down.”

“You know Nash wants you to cool it with the drinking for a bit.”

Richie snickered, slurring his words.

“Fuck Nash! That motherfucker isn’t even here! I’ll do what I god damn please.”

Kade sighed. A few prospects noticed the commotion and stepped forward to help but Kade shooed them away. Richie was a scumbag and a ditz sober but he was even worse when he was intoxicated. Still, your brothers were your brothers.

Kade pushed up on Richie’s shoulder, straining the tendons in his right arm. He spoke evenly, keeping his voice low.

“If you would just
behave
you know you’d get your patch back.”

Richie shrugged and changed the subject, pressing his pointer finger against Kade’s chest accusingly.

“Forget me for a second. Where were
you
last weekend?”

He was referencing the club Sunday dinner Kade had missed. It was the third in weeks. Nash took it pretty seriously. It was the one time of the week that all the brothers put their differences aside and came together.

Kade placed a ring box on the bar and nodded at it.

“I was picking this up.”

Richie arched a brow and looked at Kade sideways.

“Go on, open it.”

Richie opened the box. The wedding ring Kade’s mother had worn on her hand for over twenty years glimmered beneath the harsh fluorescent lighting of the bar. Kade had taken it to a shop in town to be resized, a feat that had quickly turned into an expensive and all day affair. Richie snapped the box shut and slid it back to Kade, clearing his throat. As usual, he was all jokes.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m real flattered brother, but I don’t really see our relationship reaching this new level.”

“I guess I’m just not that into you.”

Kade rolled his eyes and stuffed the ring box back into the front pocket of his cut. He gave Richie a nudge and swallowed back another shot.

“Ha-ha, very funny, dipshit.”

Richie held up his arms, feigning non-judgment.

“Hey, different strokes for different folks.”

Suddenly, he was all business.

“Really, man. You sure about this? Mel is sweet and all but since when does the infamous Kade Colton feel a need to be permanently indited to anyone?”

Kade shrugged. He didn’t owe anyone, especially Richie, some pretty little explanation as to why he was marrying Mel. A bullshit response was easier.

“I’m marrying her because it’s what she wants...”

“The free sex for life is sure as shit a plus.”

Richie reached for a shot glass and this time Kade didn’t stop him. He raised it in the air.

“I’ll toast to that!”

Kade snickered. A waft of air from the doorway caught his attention, signaling someone’s arrival. Kade jumped to his feet, immediately on guard. A detective had sauntered into the clubhouse, flashing his badge when a prospect tried to deny him entrance. Richie spoke before Kade could stop him, slurring his words in a drunken haze.

“What the hell do you want, pig?”

There it was. Any filter Richie might have had in the light of day was gone. The scent of bad cologne filled the air as the Detective, whose badge read Lewis, took a step forward and removed his aviators. He grabbed Richie by the collar of his cut and shoved him backwards. He stumbled and knocked over half-empty cans of beer in the process. A few men took notice and flashed both men pissed looks, but Detective Lewis countered them with a shit-eating grin worthy of some type of award.

“I’m here on business boys.”

He spat tobacco through his teeth. Some of it caught in his stupid ass crowbar mustache but he wasn’t too quick to wipe it away. Kade rolled his eyes. This was nothing new. Law enforcement came sniffing around the clubhouse once or twice a week, always on some new form of business. Kade cracked his knuckles and spoke up.

“Yeah? What this time?”

Detective Lewis took a seat at the bar. Richie crossed his arms over his chest and flexed his biceps inadvertently. Kade could tell by the look on his face that he knew what the man was getting at.

“Rich?”

“You want to tell me what he’s talking about?”

Richie snickered and remained quiet. Detective Lewis lit a smoke and spoke up.

“I want to ask you boys a couple questions about Nash.”

He paused and surveyed the clubhouse, sweeping his calloused palm over a fine layer of dust that covered the bar countertop.

“I see he ain’t here right now. Could that have something to do with what happened last night with Mason Roberts? You know, that new prospect of yours? The one who was beat down and left for dead? You boys wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

Beat Down? Left for dead?

What the fuck?

Kade scowled at Richie.

“Rich,” he said evenly.

“What the fuck is he talking about?”

Richie shrugged and remained cavalier but there was a level of guilt in his expression that only Kade could read.

“I don’t have shit to tell you, Detective.”

Detective Lewis shook his head and laughed stoically. He ran a hand over his facial hair and cracked his neck. In a flash, he socked Richie off his feet and snapped his arms behind his back, pressing his face against the bar. Kade subtly gripped the switchblade in the pocket of his cut and flicked the ash off the end of his smoke, tying his hair back for a fight. A few other men stepped forward but Detective Lewis was quick to flash them his badge to keep them all at bay. Richie groaned and squirmed beneath the man’s surprisingly strong grip, spouting off expletives.

“Get the fuck off me you motherfucker!”

Kade reached out to grip Richie’s arm. He gave him a stern look, indicating that he had already said enough.

“Detective, how about you let my brother go?”

Kade nodded at Richie. For a man that was known for his diligence in a fight, he sure was doing a damn good at keeping the peace.

Maddox would be proud.

“As you can see, he’s pretty shit faced. I doubt you’re going to get anything worthwhile out of him. How about this, you give me your card and I’ll talk with Nash and give you a call. See if he can shed any light on this.”

Detective Lewis chewed on the end of his cigarette and thought the offer over for a few moments. Finally, he relented and pushed away from Richie. Kade exhaled a deep breath and watched as the man sauntered for the door.

As usual, it was Richie’s erratic behavior that put a wedge in things. He charged away from the bar before Kade or anyone else could stop him, tackling Detective Lewis to the ground.

The series of events that followed were a blur. As VP it was Kade’s job to protect his brothers at all costs, a reality that wore hard on his conscious when it came to dealing with someone as off the handle as Richie.

Kade told himself that as soon as Nash came back into town, they would have a long good talk about revoking Richie’s role in the club entirely, but for now, it was his job to ensure that no permeant damage was done that would land any of the men behind bars. In one move, Kade heaved Richie off of Detective Lewis, securing his arms as he flailed.

“Calm the fuck down!”

Detective Lewis stumbled to his feet and grasped for his crushed aviators on the ground, patting his back pocket for his cuffs. Kade shoved Richie over to a waiting prospect, fully aware of the fact that someone would be stuffed into the back of Detective Lewis’ patrol car if he didn’t find a way to make nice with the man in the next three seconds.

“Now just hold on a minute.”

Kade spoke evenly, not wanting to ruffle the Detectives feathers any further. The room fell completely silent as everyone stared on, wide-eyed and anxious. Someone had stopped the music. Kade took a step toward the man and held up his arms to indicate that he didn’t mean any harm.

He was met with a bloody fist that damn near shook his teeth. When he opened his eyes, Detective Lewis was smiling at him menacingly, satisfaction etched across his aged face.

Kade winched in discomfort but didn’t grace the man with a reaction. If a run of the mill beating from a dirty cop was what it was going to take to square everything off, then so be it.

The sound of flesh against flesh turned every head in their direction. If everyone wasn’t already watching the scene unfold, they were now. Kade’s
“opponent”
was good. There was really no denying that fact. The only difference was that he was better.

Much better.

Detective Lewis’ punches were clumsy, thrown haphazardly without any kind of method. Kade had danced this dance more times than he could count and had come to understand what to expect. Not being able to fight back? Well, that was something he sure as shit wasn’t used to. A few prospects tried to break up the one-sided battle but Kade wasn’t having it.

“Stay back!”

A glass bottle whizzed past him and shattered on the ground. Someone had thrown it from behind the bar with the intention of making impact. Kade knew that someone was Richie. What he didn’t know was what man he was trying to clock.