Inflamed: A Shadow Riders MC (24 page)

"I get that," I told him. "I do, but how the hell am I supposed to approach her if she asks me who I am and why I'm here?"

We stepped inside the club and he draped his jacket over the first empty stool he saw in front of the bar.

He shrugged. "Just tell her that you need my help," he said. "And that I'm offerin' it to you in the best way I know how. She doesn't need to know any more than that unless shit becomes dire."

"Okay."

He pointed toward my throat and I stared down at myself. "I don't see that charm hangin' around your neck like I was expectin' to, babe."

"Oh." I brought my hands up to my neck and wrapped them around the edge of my tank. "I guess I left it in the bedroom on the nightstand."

"Maybe you should go and put it on, make sure the shit's actually workin' so I know I didn't waste my money in havin' it made."

I moved around him and he fell in line behind me as we headed back to the bedroom. I went over to the nightstand to grab the necklace while he waited in the doorway and leaned against the frame, watching me.

"You sure this shit's big enough for you and your girl?" he said, referring to the size of the room.

"I could always use bigger," I joked. "But yeah, it's fine. Thanks."

"You sayin' the bigger somethin’ is for you, the better, doll?" he asked with a smile in his voice.

"Bigger's always better in some cases--"

"Yeah, the most important ones," he interjected.

I stopped and closed my eyes before replying because just from the way that he responded, I knew exactly what he meant.

I cleared my throat and finished clasping the chain around my neck, then turned to face him and flipped the charm so that the
S
and
R
were properly facing him. "How does it look? What do you think, is it natural looking enough?"

"Natural lookin'?"

"Yes. Does it look just like any regular necklace or does it look like an advanced baby monitor hanging around my throat?"

He knit his brows and lowered his eyes as he shoved himself away from the door and slightly grunted as he approached me. I tilted my head back and swallowed hard, and when I saw his hand reaching out for my throat, my entire body went completely stiff.

"What are you doing?" I asked, my voice a hell of a lot more breathless than I had intended for it to be.

"Nothin'," he said, his tone more quiet than usual. "Just makin' sure, that..." He stopped and leaned his head. And as he reached for the charm, his fingers brushed against the skin leading down to my breasts and I held my breath. "Just makin' sure we got the all clear on this thing, doll."

"All clear?" I asked. "Shouldn't you be pulling out your phone to make sure that it's 'all clear' if that's what you say this thing attaches to?" God, I was so nervous, I could barely get my words out to him in one piece. His eyes flashed up to my face in an instant, and I suddenly felt as if I had no voice left to speak after.

"Yo, River," a voice called out from behind him. I peeked around his arm and noticed it was Snake.

"Yeah," he replied, his eyes never once leaving my face.

"The rest of the boys and their old ladies and kids just showed up. Wolf wants to have that quick meetin' about Fontaine before we start sittin' down and servin' the food."

"We in the chapel or his office this time?" he asked.

"Chapel, since the prospects are sittin' in on this one too."

"Alright. Yeah, tell him I'll be there in two goddamn seconds."

Snake shot me a peculiar glance and shook his head. "Alright, VP," he said before leaving.

River dropped his hand from the necklace and reached into his pocket for his phone. It was a lot fancier than the others, not too big or small but somehow perfect for the size of his large hands. And given how expensive it looked, I figured that unlike the burner phones, this one was more personal for him.

After unlocking it and pushing a few buttons, he flipped the phone around and showed me the face of it, which was me looking back at myself in real time.

"So I guess we can say the camera works," I told him, as an echo sounded throughout the room. "As well as the mic."

"Yeah. This shit works a hell of a lot better than I fuckin' thought it would," he muttered. “Which is a good thing considerin’ how goddamn much I paid for it.” He turned off his phone and slid it back inside his pocket. Then he took another step closer to me and adjusted his pants. I didn’t even need to look down at him this time to know that his ‘reaction’ to me was the same as it had been since the very beginning. "You want me to introduce you to any of 'em out there?"

The sincere and softer tone of his voice rattled me, but in a good way this time. A fantastically good way. "No," I told him. "No, I'll be fine. Verna can introduce me to them. Besides, I need to get Avery cleaned up before we go out there and see anyone."

"Alright.” He cleared his throat and gulped. “Look, if you need to borrow my shower, it’s cool,” he said.

“What?”

“To clean her up. If you need it, the door’s opened and unlocked, you can go on in there and use it. Or the bathroom, or any other goddamn thing you want.”

Any other goddamn thing I want.

It wasn’t the most sincere approach, but considering what he had told me about that shower before, I was willing to take it now.

“Thank you.”

“Yeah, um...” He furrowed his brows and stared down between us. He brought his hand up to scratch his temple and gritted his teeth. “After the meetin', we'll sit down to eat and then uh..." He paused as if he'd somehow lost his train of thought. "
Shit
." He shook his head. "Babe, I'll just see ya out there when we’re done."

"Okay."

He kept his eyes on me for a little while longer, then headed for the door and backed out of the room.

My heart hit the bed before my ass did when it dropped down to the edge of it. I rubbed my hands back and forth across my legs, creating a sharp friction between them, and pressed them together as hard as I could as I felt the lower half of my body succumbing to the temptation that this man presented to me before even opening his freaking mouth. I didn't know how the hell I was going to be able to keep doing this with him without losing both my panties, and every single bit of my entire damn mind.

Chapter Fourteen

As River and the remaining official members of the club filed in one by one into the chapel and took their respective seats around the highly coveted table in the middle of the room, the prospects hung back near the door and leaned against any open space around the walls that they could find.

Wolf followed in only a few seconds later and took his place at the head of the table. Once he sat down, he grabbed onto his gavel and slammed it down twice on top of the table to make sure every motherfucker in that room had their eyes on him. With the exception of Tiny, who had his eyes slanted toward River, they all did.

“Fontaine’s gettin’ out in three weeks,” said Wolf. “Accordin’ to my guy that’s on the inside, they’re releasin’ that son of a bitch on Friday mornin’, the 28
th
at 9am sharp out the back gate to keep him outta the eyes of any motherfucker aimin’ to go after him. Which means if any one of us show up to ‘greet’ this motherfucker, we stay the fuck outta sight.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Why the fuck is he bein’ released in the first goddamn place?” asked Blue. “Have we even found out that shit yet?”

“Turns out he’s got more connections and info on more important people in this state and beyond it than even
we
fuckin’ thought, which means he probably knows where Mia and Avery are right goddamn now.” He bent forward and placed his gavel back down onto the table and wrapped his hand around his fist. “We’ve gotta be ready for this slick son of a bitch when the time comes. Now, I contacted the Miami and Orlando charters, and they’re willin’ to help us out. I also talked with Chino.”

“The Dragon Lairs’ prez?” asked a puzzled Snake. “Weren’t they in pretty deep with Fontaine and the rest of those Cuban motherfuckers he’s got on his payroll at some point? What the fuck do they wanna do with us?”

“They wanna help bring him down for good,” he said.

“What for?”

He readjusted in his chair. “Word didn’t spread wide and far about it, but Fontaine and the Dragons broke ties with each other about a year and a half ago. Seein’ as how he was still off our backs and radar, and the shit was none of my concern ‘cause it didn’t involve the club, I didn’t give two fucks about mentionin’ it or even askin’ how or why that shit came about. But last night when he called me up, I finally did.”

“Why’d he call you?” asked an overly suspicious Tiny.

“He still keeps in touch with Miami’s prez, Roughneck and that son of a bitch let him know what was up.” Wolf looked over at River and nodded. “You remember that motherfucker Nikko who used to run the club before Chino took over? The one they eventually had to shank?”

“Yeah.”

“Turns out he and Ricky were into just more than makin’ business deals together for their respective sides,” he said.

River scoffed. “You fuckin’ serious with this shit, Prez?”

“Holy fuckin’ shit.” Blue dropped back in his chair with an opened mouth and wide eyes, and shook his head.

“After Ricky got locked up, Nikko’d hightail it out there to see him on a regular basis--”

“And they’d fuck?” asked a confused Tiny.

Wolf shook his head and dropped his shoulders. “Yeah, motherfucker, they’d get it on Marvin Gaye style every goddamn week with candles and shit all around ‘em. Romantic as fuck, right?” He rolled his eyes. “Apparently the shit went on for a few good years.”

“Seems like.” River bent forward and stared up at him. “Is that why this son of a bitch was killed?” he asked.

“No. Chino found out from his own goddamn contact through the prison that Nikko was breakin’ code left and right by givin’ Fontaine and his boys’ classified info about each and every member of their club that could be used against ‘em down the line.”

“Why the fuck would Fontaine need info on ‘em when he was already welcomed into their club with open arms?”

Wolf shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine, son. Chino still says he’s not sure what made Fontaine flip. Or Nikko for that matter.”

“So why are they comin’ after him now? Is it just the shit with Nikko or is it somethin’ else?”

“It’s the shit with Nikko,” he told him. “His goddamn club has been comin’ apart at the seams quicker than ours has ever since that shit went down. Chino thinks if he helps us chop off the head of the snake, he can get his club back up and runnin’ again, just like us.”

“That shit sounds all well and fuckin’ good,
Prez
,” snapped Tiny. He tapped his fingers on the table a few times and cut his eyes between River and Wolf. “But how do you fuckin’ figure that he ain’t full of shit either?”

“
Jesus Christ
,” River mumbled as he dropped back in his chair.

“I’m sorry to be the only one askin’ coherent questions about this shit, motherfucker, but I ain’t got a bitch I need to look after like a goddamn wounded animal. Somethin’ about this shit don’t add all the way up to me, and if you were even botherin’ to think about it with the head on your goddamn shoulders instead of the one you’re lookin’ to stick inside this bitch--”

River slammed his hands down onto the table so hard, it shook. He sat up quick, startling everybody in the room sans an already pissed off Tiny. “What the fuck about this shit doesn’t add up to you, asshole?!” asked River.

“The part where Fontaine was willin’ to stick his dick inside another motherfucker for Intel,” he said. “The Dragons barely pinged on the goddamn club radar as it was because they were so goddamn inept, and suddenly, a mastermind like Fontaine sees ‘em as such a fuckin’ threat to himself and his organization that he needs to know every goddamn thing about ‘em that he already didn’t? Motherfucker’s got people all over the goddamn world for that kinda shit. He knew what the fuck they were about before hoppin’ into bed with ‘em which is why he did it in the first fuckin’ place. They were weak as shit, and it wasn’t just for his dick, and he knew he could railroad ‘em just by snappin’ his motherfuckin’ fingers at ‘em like a goddamn dog and they’d come runnin’. So no way in fuck do I believe that this motherfucker was needin’ to
cross the goddamn border
with some halfwit club president like Nikko to learn shit about ‘em that he couldn’t find out with the help of his own goddamn fingertips. With the exception of Chino, not a single one of those motherfuckers would’ve been able to keep their mouths shut around Fontaine about what they knew regardin’ each other if it meant they’d get to the top, which is why they started fallin’ apart long before the little ‘fuck buddy’ relationship between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Fuck came to light.”

“Shit. He’s got a point, Prez,” said a reluctant Blue. River’s eyes shot across to him and he sneered. “I hate agreein’ with this motherfucker as much as I hate when a bitch doesn’t know how the hell to put her teeth behind her lips when she sucks my cock, but he’s right. There’s gotta be more here that Chino’s neglectin’ to tell you about when it comes to Fontaine and Nikko and what the fuck ever else. Every single one of their members is cool, I’ll give ‘em that. But this shit doesn’t make too much goddamn sense whatsoever. I can see Fontaine maybe wantin’ some fresh ass from a willin’ motherfucker, ‘cause he’s the type of asshole that would stick his dick inside a lawn mower if it got him off. But gatherin’ inside info on a club that not only barely ranks, but one that was all too happy to work with him in the hopes of earnin’ more dough just doesn’t seem like his style.”