Burning Desires (Blue Bandits MC Book 4) (30 page)

“Do I need to be concerned that you’re trying to make a move on my woman, Burner?” Reaper asked harshly from the doorway. They turned to look at him standing before the open door, his eyes narrowed and with his arms crossed over his chest, but Burner saw the tiny up-tilt of his mouth that let him know Reaper wasn’t really afraid he was making a move on Sarah.

“Oh, would you stop being an idiot? Of course not, Reaper,” Sarah said, pulling away from him to walk over and kiss Reaper on his chin since in the pose he was in that was all she could reach. He grabbed her hips, pulling her to him and kissing her forehead.

“He better not be, woman. I would have to kill him and I’m kind of used to him after dealing with him for so long.” Sarah hit him in the stomach and he let out a little grunt.

“You weren’t concerned, you mean-spirited jerk.”

Leaning down, Reaper kissed her long and hard, his hand cupping the back of her head. When he released her, she wore a dreamy look and leaned into him for a moment before she let out a little huff and pulled away, glaring at them both before heading into the house through the open doorway.

“You two talk, I’m going to take a bubble bath,” she called over her shoulder.

“Guess she talked some sense into you about the girl?” Reaper asked, turning to him when she was at the top of the stairs, having watched her until she was up them.

“Maybe,” he muttered, not wanting to admit that that was exactly what she’d done.

“Huh, well that’s at least one thing we don’t have to rehash then,” Reaper said, taking a seat in the rocker while Burner sat back down on the little bench waiting for him to say something else.

“I wanted to talk about Blade’s meet. I talked to Death earlier but something just isn’t sitting right with me for some reason. It’s like my skin’s crawling on this one. He’s never required us to meet him before and it worries me. Do you think it could be a trap?” Reaper finally asked.

“Like I told you earlier, I don’t know. It could be that what he has to say is something we have to see to understand I suppose. It’s hard to predict him and before when I was contacted by him I didn’t know who he was. I still can’t figure out how he knew about me not really being a part of their club. That’s been bothering me because those calls began a long time before I found the mole and left the club. He would text me with dates and times of shipments or with a time and a place they were going to snatch women.” Leaning forward, he rested his hands on his knees.

“Yeah, I wondered how you knew about the other groups moving women. It didn’t make sense to me at first and I worried they’d found you out and taken your phone but the raids went off without a hitch so I dismissed it.” Reaper frowned as he rocked slowly in the chair, silence stretching for a long time before Burner finally spoke again.

“It was odd. One night about six weeks in I was drinking with Viper and his cronies because they were just starting to trust me and I got a text with a time and date that said shipment. That was it. At first I wasn’t sure I should even tell you about it but I decided to send it the morning of the shipment. I was a mess all day worried I had sent the club into an ambush.” Burner closed his eyes remembering the way he’d felt that first time he moved on the intel those texts had given him. “But four hours later I got your text and knew that you’d rescued fifteen women that night. It was the first time I realized what I was doing was going to save lives. That was the night I knew I couldn’t quit because they were assholes.”

Reaper watched him, his face shadowed by the darkness so Burner couldn’t make out his expression. He knew what he’d just told Reaper was the first time he’d actually said anything about what he’d experienced while with the Headhunters. He could still remember the glee that had flooded him when he’d heard they’d actually gotten some of the girls free from the Headhunters. It had been what he needed to give him the strength to keep going but even that feeling had faded by the end.

“I know what I asked you to do was hard, and I never meant for you to be with them as long as you were.” Reaper’s voice was hard and Burner imagined a dark scowl on his face.

“I know that,” he softly replied before adding, “I never blamed you.”

“Maybe you should have,” Reaper grunted.

“No, it wasn’t your fault and you have to stop trying to fix me because you feel responsible.”

“I was responsible, Burner. I sent you into hell and didn’t even think about how it would affect you.” Reaper stood, pacing to the railing before turning back to stare at him. Burner could see the frown on his face despite the darkness that surrounded him.

“You weren’t responsible. I knew that you would pull me out if I told you I wasn’t handling it well but I didn’t. It’s my fault, Reaper not yours. Let’s not talk about who deserves the blame for something we can’t change. It’s done. Blade is still a wildcard to me because I have no idea what he’s up to. It could be a trap or it might be legit.” He shrugged, leaning his head back into the wall behind him, looking at the roof of the porch trying to think. He heard Reaper shift and glanced at him, seeing him move closer.

“I don’t agree that I am completely free from the blame over what’s going on with you but I agree that Blade’s knowing about you being a spy before you left the club is very strange. You had no idea it was him?” Reaper asked, sitting down beside him, his legs stretching out before him.

“No, he barely spoke to me and he was hardly ever at the compound I was at. Like I said, I have no clue how he knew about me. Until that crazy bitch nabbed Roz and he helped her, I had no idea he was even the one sending me the information.” He shrugged, his mind trying to think of any clues Blade might have given him that would have clued him in but he came up with nothing.

“Huh, Death asked me my thoughts and I told him I didn’t know what to think but I would talk to you. He promised not to go alone to any meet but we both know him. He might do it if he thinks it will benefit the club. Damn, I wish you had a better read on Blade.” Reaper punched the arm of the bench, his frustration over the situation clear.

“Death isn’t stupid. Even if he goes alone he’ll make it in our territory and public. He can handle this, even if it is a trap. Blade is definitely a wildcard though.” His mind wandered to Kelsey.

Burner found himself thinking about what Sarah had said about him deserving to be happy and he knew he was going to have to discuss with her sisters where she’d gone because it was the only way he was going to find her. It wasn’t a pleasant thought because Hanna was mean and he was sure that Greta was just as bad. Kelsey had complained several times about them being overprotective and he snorted because she had no idea what overprotective was yet but she’d learn. He would be worse than her sisters now that he had decided that she was his.

“I know but I’m telling you, something is off, I can feel it,” Reaper said.

Burner turned to him, not discounting Reaper’s words because Reaper’s ‘feelings’ had saved their asses more than once in the past.

“Talk to Death about it. He trusts your gut as much as the rest of us and he should listen to you. I’m going to go if that’s all you needed though. I need to stop by Tricky Bitches tonight.” Reaper raised a brow at him and he shrugged. “Yeah, I am going after her. Your girl is convincing.”

“Yeah, she is,” Reaper said, a grin splitting his face before he asked, “You going to stop starting fights over her now? Cause you need to patch her if you’re not.”

“Shut up, I’ll put it up for a vote next week at church. Happy?” he snarled as he stood, moving down the stairs of the porch.

“Immensely. I’m hoping she will keep you out of trouble.”

Burner climbed on his bike but not before he shot a bird at Reaper for being an asshole.

Chapter Twenty-three

Burner walked into Tricky Bitches at about eleven-forty looking towards the bar, dismayed to find that both Greta and Hanna were working the bar. It was busy so he sat down at a booth and watched them serve drinks for a little over an hour. Burner had sipped two whiskeys, hoping that this wasn’t going to be as bad as he thought it would be. He was watching Flame charm some girl at a table nearby, thinking of how to approach Kelsey’s sisters when Hanna sat down across from him drawing his attention.

“What are you here for?” Hanna demanded.

“I need to talk to you about Kelsey,” Burner said after a long pause because he hadn’t really thought of a better way to start this conversation with her.

“Why?” Greta demanded, sliding into the booth beside Hanna.

“Because I need to know where she is,” he flatly replied, eyeing the two women warily.

“And you think we’re going to tell you?” Hanna snorted out a laugh and rolled her eyes.

“I was hoping,” Burner mumbled, feeling a tightness in his chest at the thought they may not tell him. He had already looked for her when she first left but had found nothing to point him in the right direction. He could likely work some of his contacts but he didn’t want someone to think the club was looking for her and mistakenly hurt her in some way to get on the club’s good side.

“Not going to happen. You’ve already hurt her enough,” Greta growled through her teeth, her eyes narrowed.

“I need to talk to her and I promise I won’t hurt her again,” Burner told them, his hands gripping the sides of the table trying to soothe his tight nerves.

“Ha, and you expect us to believe that? She left for a reason. She doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore. I’m glad because personally I don’t think you’re good enough for her,” Greta snapped and leaned forward, a scowl making her eyes look a little squinty.

“I know,” Burner said, old insecurities raising their ugly heads before he pushed them down because regardless of whether or not he deserved her, he was going to keep her. Kelsey was
his,
she just didn’t know it yet, but she would and so would her sisters. His jaw hardened as he sat back eyeing the two of them in contemplation, wondering what to say to them to get them to help him find her. It wasn’t an easy thing for him to do as they both wore hard unyielding expressions that put some of the looks from Reaper to shame. These two had really good poker faces, that was for damned sure.

“If you know then why are you here?” Hanna asked.

Burner noticed that Greta had tilted her head slightly while watching him in an oddly assessing manner that had him shifting in his seat. Why was she inspecting him that way? Like he was a bug she wanted to understand. Burner shifted again, his eyes darting around for a second before they landed on Hanna again.

“Look, are you going to help me or not?” Burner demanded.

“Not,” Hanna snapped. Greta just watched him and he felt like his skin was crawling a little. Burner stiffened his spine and leaned forward putting on his best ‘I mean business’ look, his hands pressing to the hard surface of the table.

“You might as well tell me because I will find her eventually and I will talk to her. Either when I figure out where she is or when she comes back here to see you two. I refuse to give up on this and you not telling me where she is now isn’t going to stop me, it will only delay the inevitable.” He waited as the sisters glared at him for a long minute before Hanna leaned forward too, her nose almost pressing against his.

“You don’t want to piss me off, Burner. The only thing saving you at the moment is a promise I made to my sister, but don’t push me or you won’t like the results.” Hanna’s voice was tight, almost arctic.

“Besides, who says we can’t go see her?” Greta asked, before she stood up. Hanna did the same and both of them walked to the bar without looking back at him. Burner wanted to follow them to yell and argue but he sensed that was the wrong approach with them so he got up and threw some credits on the table to cover his tab and walked out. He climbed on his bike and headed to Kelsey’s house for some sleep. He’d deal with this in the morning; tonight he was exhausted.  

Burner screeched as he hopped out of the bed, brushing at his stinging chest only to find it was covered in something really sticky. He looked down to see honey spread all over his chest along with more than a dozen ants stuck in the goo. Another one bit him and he glared at Hanna who stood at the foot of the bed with an evil grin on her face as she watched him.

“I warned you to stay out of our sister’s bed, asshole,” Hanna growled.

Greta was standing near the door and she wore a slightly horrified expression as she watched him dance around. Burner turned, heading for the shower to get these damned bugs off him before they bit something important.

“Where are you going? I said get out!” Hanna screeched.

Burner turned for a second to glare at her. “I am going to get a shower so that I can get these fucking ants off me and you can like that or not but it’s happening. If you follow me in that bathroom you’re going to see more than you bargained for because I am taking a shower before I leave here,” he growled before rushing into the bathroom.

Burner ripped off his boxers hopping on one foot, trying not to fall over in his haste to get the biting insects off. He turned on the water before getting in, not caring that the water was cold as shit as he lifted the soap and began washing off the honey and the ants. He was bitten a few more times on the chest before he finally got them off. He let out a little sigh of relief and finished washing himself before turning off the water and getting out. He grabbed the towel from the rack on the back of the door, hearing the sisters’ voices as they talked.