Devil's Angels Boxed Set: Bikers and Alpha Bad Boy Erotic Romance (24 page)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Ellie Thorn was done crying. Friday night had been an emotionally charged night that had seemed to last forever. She hadn’t been able to sleep without Rex by her side which had made her emotional instability that much harder to deal with. When she wasn’t crying, she was so angry that she shook with the need to lash out at something or someone.

By the time dawn had started changing the color of the sky, she was calmer. She got up and made coffee; she tried to follow the routine of her life before Rex had come into it. While the coffee brewed she checked emails and answered the important ones, leaving the others for another time. She wasn’t much in the mood to read letters from her fans or see what the reviews said about her newest release.

It bothered her that her normal routine—a routine that she enjoyed until Rex—seemed boring. She missed his early morning banter and the way he would find some way to tempt her with sweets—or bacon. She missed sharing coffee with him on the patio and making plans for the day which never happened because they always ended up back in bed.

Shaking off thoughts of what she was missing, she focused on working on an outline for her next book. After a couple of years writing straight erotica/romance for women, she was dying to branch out and combine the erotica with something a little darker. A mystery plot with high stakes, a little violence and some big emotionally charged moments.

Basically, her life recently. In college, they’d pounded home the fact that a good writer is usually writing what they know. How she ended up writing erotica was still a mystery to her. It wasn’t like she had any real experience to base her sex scenes off of—until Rex.

When she was a teenager, her mom had been very open about discussing sex, love, and men. Not because her mom had been one to sleep around; it was quite the opposite. Now that she knew what she had been through with Xander, her mom’s aversion to getting into another relationship made sense. She made sure that Ellie was well-informed and as equipped as possible to navigate the differences between being in love and being in lust.

In some ways, despite the lifestyle that her parents had engaged in while she was a child, Ellie was more reserved than a lot of the women her age that she hung around. Her friends were more open and wild than she was; a fact they reminded her of often.

Ellie had no trouble leaving most of her sexual experimentation to her imagination. She always thought that eventually she would settle down and, with the right man, discover all the thrills that she wrote about in her books.

There was definite doubt that her mom’s teachings on the difference between love and lust had taken root. The pain she was feeling right now, the way she missed Rex—lust wasn’t supposed to leave you feeling raw and broken when it walked out the door.

***

“You look like hell warmed over.”

Rex wasn’t ready to deal with anyone, especially his dad. Trying to sleep in the cramped cab of his old pickup hadn’t improved his mood any. “Thanks. Is Randy heading over to Ellie’s?”

“He is. What happened last night? You hung up on me and never called me back—” Manny turned, following after his son when he went back out the door and headed around the corner of the club. “Hey, what happened?” He reached out a hand and put it on his son’s shoulder only to have it angrily shoved off.

“She overheard you on the phone. I didn’t think to see how close she was standing and when you said…” Rex stopped at the foot of the stairs and sat down hard on the bottom step, head in his hands. “You should have seen her face. It made me sick to see her so upset.”

“She kicked you out, huh?” Manny sat down next to his son, clasping his hands and letting them dangle between his knees.

“You think she was angry when you decked her? Well, that was nothing. She was full on pissed off.”

Turning his head so he could see his son’s face, Manny saw the light of desperation and fear in his gaze. “You’re worried she isn’t going to forgive you for keeping the truth from her.” It wasn’t a question, he could read the thought like it was written on a piece of paper.

Rex hung his head. “Yeah, yeah I am.” He got up and began to pace off his frustration. “I don’t know what it is, but I can’t walk away from her.”

Manny smiled, something he didn’t do often enough. Seeing his son suffering wasn’t funny, but realizing why he was suffering made him happy. Deep down, he was a ‘Happily Ever After’ guy.

“You know, when your mom left I was pretty messed up. What did I know about raising a kid? Nothing, that’s what. I relied pretty heavily on letting you do whatever the hell you wanted and then punishing you after the fact. I was no parent. Ellie’s mom stepped in a few times and tried to help me, but I didn’t listen.” Manny tapped his forehead. “I got a pretty thick head and I don’t like anyone telling me I’m doing something wrong.”

Rex had stopped his pacing and was staring at his dad like he’d grown a second head. He didn’t know this man. Prison usually made men like Manny harder, meaner, and less willing to show any emotion at all. So, what was all this?

“You and Ellie were thick as thieves back then. The only time I saw you smile was when you were with her, playing like a normal kid, not a care in the world. That’s why I made sure that you two were together as often as possible. I might not have known jack about raising a kid, but I knew that Ellie made you happy.” Manny got up and stretched, knees popping. “Here in the past few days, I’ve seen that happiness come back to your face.”

Walking away, Manny threw out one last thought. “Someone like Ellie—she’s worth fighting for.”

For the longest time, Rex just stood there, taking in what his dad had said and wondering when the hell he’d stepped out of reality and into an episode of
The
Twilight Zone
.

***

Ellie never thought to check to see if Rex had actually left. A little after nine she heard an engine turn over in her drive and raced to the window in time to see him pulling out. When he turned his head to look back at her house, she quickly moved out from in front of the window. His face had been clearly visible, lined with worry and lack of sleep.

He stayed out there the whole night. Even after she had told him to leave, he had been worried enough about her safety to stay and keep her from any harm from her dad and his minions. He could have gone, could have left her there alone to rely on the police to come quickly enough to save her, but he hadn’t.

Within minutes, another truck pulled into her drive. She recognized the guy, an old timer from Manny’s club. It was obvious that no matter what she said, he wasn’t going to leave her unprotected.

How was she supposed to deal with all this when the way she felt and the way she thought she
should
feel were in conflict with each other? Returning to her desk, she sat down and opened a new document on her laptop. When she was younger and something upset her she would type it out on her old IBM, not looking at what she typed, just letting the words flow. When she was done, she would go back and read what she’d put down and see if it made more sense.

Closing her eyes, she let the words flow. Any and every thought went onto the screen. It was almost like being in a trance. When she finished, she looked at the clock. She had typed for over 30 minutes.

Words, some badly misspelled and out of order, covered the screen. It didn’t take long for a theme to appear. Despite the fact that they were nearly strangers, that his dad and hers were mortal enemies
and
that he had lied to her about her dad being a psychopath—she was already in love with Rex Pershing.

***

Manny sat at his regular spot, surrounded by the usual suspects and repeated the same tired lines. The speech he’d given his son earlier was nothing compared to what had taken up residence in his head over the past few years.

The first couple of years of his prison stay had been rough. He had a reputation and that reputation got tested every single day by one inmate or another wanting to make a name for themselves. More scars than he could count, broken ribs, bruised kidneys, a nose that permanently leaned to the far left and several teeth that were now made of some kind of cement were what he had to show for those first years.

He didn’t have many visitors. His son came when his foster parents encouraged it, but the visits were awkward and he always felt like he failed to show Rex that he cared about him.

Somewhere around the halfway mark he realized that most of the trouble in his life was caused by his own stupidity and rage. He could have revenge on Xander if he went about it the right way. Using his remaining time inside more wisely, he read everything he could get his hands on, learned ways to control his rage and planned out the best strategy to make sure Xander never saw the light of day again.

A commotion at the door drew his attention back to the present. A crowd had gathered at the door, blocking his view. Standing, he motioned for the others at his table to follow. People moved out of his way and he laid eyes on a tall blonde, face twisted with rage screaming at another woman who was still out of eye sight.

The blonde made a threatening motion with her arms and Manny waited to see what would happen. It wasn’t his place to step in to stop a catfight. Safer to let it play out and have them get it out of their systems. He shook his head, the man they were fighting over probably wasn’t worth a damn.

The blonde and the woman whom she was screaming at both took a step to the side. Ellie stood across from the blonde, arms crossed at her waist and an indulgent smile on her lips. That look was pure Xander and it usually meant big trouble.

He made up his mind to step in just as the blonde screamed something about Rex leaving her bed and Ellie being a fat cow. Before he could blink, Ellie had the blonde by her ears and was pulling the taller woman’s head down while raising her knee, smashing it into her face. Blood spurted from the blonde’s mouth and nose, her body hitting the ground with a thud.

Ellie saw Manny rushing towards her. Moving over the half unconscious harpy that had attacked her the minute she’d come into the club, she leaned down and got in her face before Manny could pull her away. “You should never run your mouth if you don’t have the balls to back it up. My balls are bigger than yours—and they’re real.”

Chuckles rang out all around and some of Manny’s tension eased. Still, he took Ellie by the arm and pulled her away from the circle of people, worried that someone might take up the blonde’s cause. She was the daughter of a man most people in his club despised and that would be enough for some to put a beating on her. “Come on. We’ll go to my office.”

Ellie pulled to a stop. “I need to find Rex, then I’ll get out of here. I don’t want to cause any more trouble.”

“Coming here was stupid, Ellie. What if your dad has someone following you?” Manny gestured her forward, unwilling to let her go until he got some healthy fear into her. “We’ll go to my office where I know I can keep you safe and call Rex. Okay?”

Ellie nodded and followed him down the hall. She hadn’t been in the club since she was a little kid and it was in bad shape then, worse now. It was a real shame. “Only your guy is following me.”

Manny unlocked the door and pushed it open, letting her enter before him. He closed the door behind them. “My guy isn’t trying to keep from being seen, Ellie. You can’t say the same about a spy sent by Xander.”

Ellie sat down hard on a lumpy, extremely old couch pushed up against the far wall. “This is all so surreal. Can you understand how this seems to me, Manny? I wasn’t exposed to my dad much, but I never saw him as this evil human being. Manipulative, yes. Dangerous, no. It’s like I’m trapped in some dime store mystery novel.”

Grabbing his cell out of his pocket, Manny typed in a text to Rex while she talked, but didn’t hit send. He felt sorry for the girl. He really did. “It can’t be easy to find out everything you thought you knew was a lie. The problem is, now that you know, the stakes are even higher than before.”

“I’m not happy that you two kept the truth from me.” She kept her face, and words, calm.

Her words made Manny chuckle. “We weren’t hiding the truth from you because we didn’t trust you, Ellie.” Her shocked look was all the proof he needed that he was spot on with his assessment of why she was pissed. “We kept it from you so you wouldn’t be in any more danger than you already are. I think smart people would call that ‘Plausible Deniability’”.