Inflamed: A Shadow Riders MC (20 page)

"I put a call into a motherfucker I know out here who owed me a favor, and he was able to get the shit done before the meetin' tonight."

"The meeting. Yeah, Trucker mentioned something to me about you all calling it 'church'. Why is that? I mean, do you really see this club as some form of a congregation?"

"Yeah, darlin'," he said, a faint smile arching up the corners of his lips. "In a way we do. It may not be all God centered and focused, but it's somethin' of the same damn thing--"

"Do you believe in God?" I interjected.

He took a step back from me as if I had just doused him with a bottle of holy water and pulled his head up. "If I said I didn't?"

"I'd say that you were crazy. Not that you don't have any right to believe in what you want but, you don't think there's somebody up there controlling all of this?"

"I think if there was somebody up there controllin' any goddamn thing down here, all the shit that’s been happenin’ wouldn't continue on like it's been since forever and a fuckin' day."

"Yeah, but we all have something called free will and not even God Himself can exactly control how we use it," I said. "I mean, I'm not trying to stand here and preach to you about it or anything, but--"

"Really?" He arched his brows, though it seemed more playful than antagonistic.

I grinned and rested my head against the frame of the door. "My father had a church – one with an actual pulpit inside – where we lived just outside of Crescent Beach, in Mainville," I told him.

"Your old man's a preacher?"

"Yes. And every night, he'd read me the Bible right before I'd go to sleep. He read it to me, because he wanted me to know that no matter whatever happened in my life, God was real. And that above anything, He'd see to it that I would be okay.”

"And you really believed that shit? Even after every goddamn thing that's happened to you since then?”

I nodded. "I mean, you're letting me stay here, aren't you? And your club members--"

"Threw a fuckin' shit fit when they found out."

"But it doesn't change the fact that I'm still here or that it's thanks to you. Maybe it's because you're getting something out of it. Maybe it's because you really do care what happens to me, or at least to my child." I wrapped my fingers around the charm and sighed. "I don't know the reason, really, despite what you've said to me already. And I guess the truth of the matter is that I probably shouldn’t really care all that much either way. But I think you underestimate yourself and the impact you have on other people. If you, or your club weren't notorious for being outlaws, no way in hell would Ricky have dumped me here. If you didn't have at least some amount of decency inside of you, no way in hell would you have taken me to the hospital after finding me out there. And you wouldn't have bothered dropping your name to the nurse, knowing that I could easily look you up once everything came together."

"You sayin' in so many goddamn words that I'm like your Guardian Angel or some shit?"

"I thought you said before that you were nobody’s angel, River?” I smiled up at him and the skin around his eyes crinkled as if he was trying to hide one from me. “What I’m
saying is that it might be worth it to believe in something someday. Even if it's not in God Himself, maybe believe in the truth of those of us who do." I placed a hand in the center of his chest. I wasn't even sure why I had done it, but when I felt the erratic beating of his heart pounding against my palm, I knew I couldn't pull back even if I wanted to. And the truth was that I didn't. Not all that much.

His eyes went down to my hand and I felt all the air leave his lungs as his chest descended beneath me. He took another step back and leaned against the wall and as my hand slid down his rock solid stomach and to the edge of his shirt, he cleared his throat. I pulled back before it could go any further and rattled my head.

"I'm sorry."

"You're good darlin'. Real fuckin' good," he told me, his voice lower than it had been all day and a hell of a lot more seductive. I knew I wasn't crazy this time when I heard it, but didn't know if it was on purpose, or if he had even realized he had spoken to me like that (
again
). But my skin pricked at the sound of it. My heart went flip flopping and banging around inside my chest like a tetherball against my ribs. I can't even discuss what the hell was happening inside my stomach, and that warm feeling creeping up the inside of my thighs? I wanted to rip every shred of clothing from this man's perfectly sculpted, Adonis like body with my teeth and cover him in nothing but me.

"Um..." I closed my eyes momentarily, hoping to erase my thoughts and folded my arms over my chest. "I know how much of an inconvenience this is to you and your club and I just..." I shrugged. "I don't know, I just wanted to say thank you, I guess."

"You’ve done enough thankin’ for one day, darlin’. Besides, I know this shit's not exactly ideal for you and your young one," he said through a soft chuckle.

"No, it's not, but in spite of the circumstances surrounding, it's better than absolutely nothing at all either. And after tonight, I think I’ve realized that I need to just shut the hell up and learn how to be grateful for actually getting something I asked for instead of bitching about what having it actually entails."

He furrowed his brows as if he thought something of what I had said, and bobbed his head. "
Yeah
." He pushed himself away from the wall and dropped his hands inside his pockets. "You good here for the night?" he asked me.

I looked over at Avery again, then down at the necklace in my other hand. "I think so. Are you staying in the club tonight or--"

"No, I uh..." He stopped. "I'm headin' home, but Styx is gonna be here for the rest of the night with Trucker keepin' an eye on you and the place. They'll bring your shit in too once you get settled. And I didn't mention it to Wolf, but I've got some boys I know personally out in Tampa too, ones I asked to keep an eye out for your folks. Mostly as a precaution in case some of Ricky's motherfuckers try and pull some shit without you knowin' about it."

"Thanks, but, how the hell did you know where they lived?"

"Shit's not too difficult to find out when you've got all the right resources at your disposal, doll. You should know that." He flashed a quick smile and I noticed a sharp dimple in his right cheek. I nearly fell into a puddle of my own sweat right then and there.

"
Right
."

"And just so you know about it, Verna gets here early in the mornin' every mornin', so if you smell some shit cookin' by the time you wake up, it's more than likely comin' from her in that kitchen out there. Some of the boys get here not long after and she feeds 'em."

"Okay." I smiled up at him again and his eyes flashed down to my mouth.

"I'll, uh... I'll be back here tomorrow and we can discuss what the fuck to do with your furniture," he said. "We can auction everything here out front, or have it down at my house, maybe even along with a barbeque and some beers with it. The old ladies can bring their kids so your girl won't be all alone... We can invite some people in the area who aren't so goddamn scared of the club and make a day out of it or some shit."

I nervously tucked my hair behind my ear and forced an even bigger smile on my face. "That sounds like fun. But um--"

"What?"

"It's just that I know I can't stay here forever and I'm just wondering what I'll eventually be going back to. I have no apartment, no furniture--"

He reached out and placed a hand on my shoulder. "We'll cross that goddamn bridge when we get to it, yeah?" His hand tightened around me before loosening completely.

God, his skin against mine is like being kissed by the sun.

"Sure."

His fingers trailed down the side of my arm and curved around my elbow; just before he pulled back, I felt like my entire body had been set on fire.

I looked up into those perfect steel blue eyes, searching for God only knows what and holding my tongue to keep from whispering to him just exactly what I wanted from him, and how good it would feel to actually have it once I finally did.

His eyes lowered from mine and he shoved his brows together. His mouth twitched as if he had wanted to say something to me, but he didn't. Instead he brushed past me and hurried down the hall without saying another word.

I watched after him and as I fell back against the frame, I looked down at the necklace in my hand. And I exhaled, not even realizing I had been holding my breath until that very second.

“Mama?”

I turned back to Avery, then immediately went inside the bedroom and closed the door. I placed the necklace on the nightstand and went around to the other side of the bed to climb on top. Avery turned over on her back, rubbing her eyes and kicking her feet beneath the sheets. I leaned back against the headboard and brushed my fingers into the curls of her hair.

“Do you like that man?” she asked me, her voice groggy.

“What man?”

“The one who pulled me out of the car.” She flipped over on her side and blinked up at me. “The one you were talking to just now.”

“Did you hear what we were saying out there?” I asked her.

She shook her head against the pillow. “But do you like him?”

“I don’t know, baby. I think I might... or I could. Why? Do you like him?”

She lifted her shoulder in a shrug. “Do you think he likes me?”

“Everybody likes you, baby.”

“Not everybody.” Her eyes lowered, and in an instant I knew the exact reason why. Guilt overcame me and I brushed her cheek. “I think that man likes you,” she said.

“Yeah?”

She nodded. “How long are we staying here?”

“I wish I knew,” I told her, my voice going faint. “In the meantime, you need to get back to sleep.”

“Can I sleep all day tomorrow?” she asked me, her eyes shining again.

“Yeah. All day and into the night if that’s what you want.”

She turned her smiling face into the pillow and immediately closed her eyes. I wrapped my hands around myself and stared across the room. River liking me wasn’t exactly a question I needed answering. Me surviving the truth of what that actually meant, not just for him or me but for his club as well, was an entirely different story altogether.

Chapter Eleven

When River returned to the front of the club and found Trucker and Styx laughing it up with Blue and Snake, he frowned. "Where the fuck's Meathead and the rest?" he asked.

"After they rounded up the other prospects and got the bitches sent home, they headed out," said Blue. He drank back the rest of his beer and tossed his bottle into the trash behind the bar. "Were you lookin' for 'em to stay?"

"No."

"Alright. Well, you get everything squared away with Mia and her kid?"

"Yeah, yeah. We're good." He wiped his hand down his mouth, then dropped it down to his chest and looked over at Styx and Trucker. "I'm gonna need you both here tonight to look after Mia and Avery. After you fucked up by threatenin' those people at the goddamn school today, stayin' up all night inside this place and keepin' an eye out on the monitors is the least you can fuckin' do."

Styx leaned back against the bar and muttered. "
Shit
." He tossed the cap of his beer bottle into the trash and shook his head. "What were you actually expecting out of us with this shit, VP? Those motherfuckers weren't gonna just let us just walk in there and take some goddamn
kid
that didn't belong to either one of us without us pulling some damn weight."

River moved over to the bar and slammed his hands down on the edge. Snake and Blue jumped. "It's not even what the fuck you assholes more than likely said to 'em that pisses me the fuck off," he said, his jaw clinched. "It's the way you made the goddamn club look in the process of it all. We still have yet to recover from this Daytona shit and you goin' in there and makin' threats to some goddamn teachers in front a classroom full of KIDS is me tellin' you that YOU FUCKED UP--!" He pointed.

"Okay, Prez, okay," said Trucker, doing his best to keep the peace. He looked between River and Styx and saw both men literally turn red in the face. "Shit slipped our minds, is all, we didn't mean a goddamn thing by it bein' in front of the kids. We just wanted to make sure we got Mia's kid outta there without any other problems."

"Obviously that goal's been accomplished
real fuckin’ well,
asshole," replied River.

Before anyone else could say another word, Blue stood up from his stool and walked over to River. He slapped him on the back and nodded toward the door. "Let's take a walk outside, VP. Cool off that goddamn hot head of yours."

River turned and stared at him for a long time before finally bobbing his head in agreement.

Once away from everyone else, a fuming River paced the parking lot while Blue pulled a cigarette from the pack inside his cut.

"You damn near ripped Styx's head straight from his goddamn neck in there."

"He's lucky I didn't reach over the motherfuckin' bar and perform that task with my bare fuckin' hands! The goal was not for those two assholes to go into a goddamn fuckin'
classroom
full of eight year olds and start makin' threats--"