misunderstoodebook (29 page)

The song wrecked all her thoughts and she could only focus on the words and haunting instrumental part. The moment it ended, she leaned over and pressed the eject button. The CD buzzed out and radio music blasted. Johnnie frowned at her, then pressed the radio button to turn it off. It would all be so perfect—if it were real. If Johnnie really was
her
blond biker and was
really as over the moon about the baby—whom he hadn’t mentioned once today—as she was w
hen she was at her most vulnerable and the thought of having a baby caught her off guard.

Most of all, it would be perfect if Caroline were free.

At the thought, Kendall searched her brain to jumpstart the conversation between her and Johnnie to keep her mind off everything else. “How can you be a biker when you don’t even own a motorcycle?”

“I
do
own a Harley. I also have a garage door that opens onto a secret escape route.”

“Whatever,” she snapped, irritated at his amused tone. “Why do you insist on outrageous tales?”

The idiot laughed at her. “It isn’t my fault you don’t believe me.”

“Show me then. When we get back home.”

“No.” One word. Implacable and unyielding.

“That proves it.”

“Does it, Kendall? You not believing one of the most important aspects of my life isn’t my fault. It’s yours.” He sighed and gripped the steering wheel tighter, his big hands huge clutching the slender wheel. “Let’s enjoy each other’s company. Listen to music if you don’t feel like talking. Maybe, you can think about getting my stiff dick inside you. Coming on my tongue. Maybe, I’ll just finger fuck you while I’m driving. Get something stiff in your cunt.”

She clenched her thighs together and groaned, her womb tightening, the very spot he kept mentioning with a sensual purr dripping wet. He pulled off the road and parked the car in a stand of trees.

“Get out of the car, Kendall,” he ordered.

Her panties were soaked and her breasts felt achy and engorged. He studied her mouth and, for a moment, hope fluttered in her. She thought he would kiss her. She wanted him to kiss her so badly, just to feel his mouth against hers, and thread her fingers through the silk of his blond hair.

He lifted her onto the hood, settling her on the edge, the hot, idling engine competing with the cold air sending quivers through her. He freed himself and stared into her eyes, shoving her skirt up and pushing her panties aside.

“You like to have your pussy licked, don’t you?” he whispered against her ear, lighting her entire body. “Have the pad of my tongue dragging against your pretty clit until you come.”

“Y-yes,” she breathed.

He shoved his cock into her and she screamed after he gave her two, hard pumps, just as he’d taunted her about Benny not being able to do and primed her body for his use. As trembles seized her, he pulled out and she felt the hot rush of his semen on her clit and pussy lips.

He held her to him for a moment and kissed the top of her head.

She clamped her legs together and jumped off the hood, her soaked panties rubbing against her sensitive clit.

“Kendall, I’m going to bring you back to my house. Get your things together. When I return, everything should be clear, so you’ll be able to leave.”

“But—“

“We have a lot to discuss. I…once I get Logan on the plane, we have a lot to work out. The baby. Your sister. Us.”

She hugged her arms around her waist. “You sound like you regret what just happened.”

“We need…this can’t happen between us until we settle everything.”

“You really don’t want me anymore?” she asked in a small voice, truly hurt.

“I want you,” he said quietly. “But I’m not going to touch you. Not now.”

Bile rose to her throat and she backed away, scampering a few feet just in time to heave out the contents of her stomach. After a few moments, it stopped and she wiped her mouth, only then realizing Johnnie was there, holding her hair out of the way and rubbing her back. He waited until she was ready to straighten, then held onto her arm to steady her. He held out his handkerchief.

Then, he shocked her and pulled her into his arms, holding her close against his body and threading his fingers through her hair. He kissed her forehead.

She buried her nose against his neck, not allowing herself to break down. She knew once she started, she’d never want to stop.

He tipped her chin up. “If we can’t be anything else, maybe, we can be friends.” He shrugged. “Somewhere I read that you’re only destined a certain number of words for certain people who come into your life. Maybe ten to someone you just run across and will never see again. Ten thousand here. One thousand there.
Words,
Kendall, mean a lot. They can hurt like the sharp edge of a knife. They can make you cry or laugh. They can also empower you. But, maybe, we’re out of words. You have the power to trust me with the words I need to hear. All you need to do is put them here.” He opened his hand and touched his fingers to it. “That’s it. You do that for me—you trust me enough to give me the
words
to figure all this out—and I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe.” He backed away from her, his eyes fierce. “Give my last breath to do it.”

Chapter 18

Blood soaked the walls and floor of the kitchen at the house where Logan had been residing. Johnnie glanced around, an eerie calmness settling over him. After leaving the funeral home to view Caroline’s body, he’d gone to get his grandfather, finding the door had been gaping open. With not one sound from inside. Not a sign of life. Nothing. So he’d pulled his .38 and checked the entire house. He’d seen the kitchen moments after he’d arrived but he hadn’t been able to focus on the sight of the gore and the scent of death until after he knew everything was clear.

His heart hammered against his chest, knowing the lack of his grandfather and the presence of
this
could only mean one thing. Someone had gotten to Logan and taken him out. But who? And why wasn’t he feeling anything? Was it because he’d built Logan up on such a pedestal that the thought of a violent death befalling him seemed impossible? No doubt, his grandfather was a fucking monster. No,
had
been a fucking monster.

But weren’t they all? Did the fact that he’d die first before he sacrificed any member of his family—but the women especially—to pay off any kind of debt redeem him and make him better than Logan? Johnnie didn’t see it that way, therefore he didn’t believe so.

Now, he had to find his grandfather, dead or alive. He had to get to the bottom of
everything,
sooner rather than later.

He scrubbed a hand over his face, just as his cell phone dinged with a text message alert from Digger.

Val’s hurt. Torpedoes got 2 him.

Val? Shit. The man had barely recovered from the gunshot. Then, again, that’s why they’d gone after him. He was still not back to his full strength.

John Boy?

Snapping out of his thoughts and clenching his jaw, Johnnie turned away from the bloody kitchen and responded.
How bad?

Face bruised. Went 4 the most recent gunshot spot & his ribs. Don’t see why they didn’t kill him.

WHAT? He frowned at the screen to make sure he’d read the words right. He had.
What the fuck, asshole?

Get your head out your dickhole, assfuck. You know I don’t mean it like that. I mean he able to walk and he able to talk. They fuckin’ told him it was in retaliation for the motherfucker you popped at Logan’s crib.
That
motherfucker dead, right? What kind of fucking game is this and why the fuck Val…still here?

Fuck. Digger was right.
I’m on my way.
They needed to find Logan’s body. Didn’t they? Or, at the very least, discuss this new development.

No need to come.
Digger texted.
K-P & Dinah looking after him & Mort gave him one of his fizzy specials.

Dinah? As in whiny Dinah?
K-P & who?

Yeah, man, I’m kinda impressed. Bitch kno how 2 deal with wounds & shit. I told her she musta learn cause her man was such a lowdown fuck. Kept her all bruised. You kno what the fuck she said?

No, but he bet it had to do with Megs.
What?

She say Meggie taught her in case the girl wasn’t there when Thomas hurt that stupid bitch. Meggie told her she needed 2 kno how 2 dress her cuts & stuff til Meggie could get 2 her. Ain’t that some fucking shit? I can’t believe that bitch somebody mama. Especially Meggie’s.

Neither could Johnnie.
I’m glad she’s useful 4 a change.

Not really & me & K-P almost got in2 it.

The man was very protective of her.
Over what you said?

Nah, not over that. If brother wanted 2 b honest, he’d admit he feel the same fucking way. He just want her pussy 2 bad. Let him keep that shit up & b4 u know it, he gonna let his guard down & 2 things no 3 things gonna happen.

They r?

He gonna end up stuck with that bitch for the rest of his life. He try to break away & she gonna be sending him boiled Bugs Bunnies 2 let him kno she won’t b ignored.

Johnnie chuckled.
The next?

He gonna let up on his watch of Bailey’s pussy & Mortician gonna slip under K-P Daddy radar & fuck that bitch senseless. Fuck, I wish he’d do it even if K-P beat his ass after. He been a mindfucky, moody motherfucker since he met her.

And quite insightful, judging by their earlier conversation.
What’s the third thing?

What the fuck u think? We all get 5 fucking Gs from Mort dumb ass.

Maybe, we should ease up on him, let him off the hook. 1 less thing 4 him 2 worry over. He might hook up with her.

I don’t fucking kno, John Boy. I’m not saying shit about bitches ever. I’ll go & fuck myself & end up like u fucks.

Not me. U must mean Christopher and Mortician.

No I meant just what the fuck I said. I mean u, Val, Prez, Mort, & K-P.

Look, I don’t have time 4 this. Tell me why the fuck u & K-P almost came to blows?

Cause I asked that fucking bitch was she out her fucking mind when she said she was gonna tell Outlaw bout Val when Outlaw & Meggie call 2 check L.M.

Johnnie snorted. Christopher’s son had gone from Little Man to LM? He wouldn’t comment. Right now, he had bigger concerns. Mainly, Dinah’s big mouth.
I hope to fuck u made her understand Christopher can’t kno about any of this bullshit? Especially while he’s still on his honeymoon with Megs.

Dinah a slick bitch, John Boy. She know what the fuck gonna happen if she open her mouth. Outlaw gonna bring his ass home. That’s what that bitch want. Whining cuz Meggie capisulated 2 staying going on honeymoon with Outlaw. The bitch 2 stupid 2 realize Meggie fucking wanted this, not Prez.

Capitulated.

Huh?

Capitulated not capisulated.

Oh. Uh, anyway, u get the idea, bro.

Johnnie winced, knowing they all hated whenever he corrected them. For the most part, he ignored it. Every now and then, though…Then, brothers would get defensive and close up. Shit.
I’m sure she thought Megs wouldn’t need a honeymoon since they were already married.

Yeah.

Well, this conversation was fucked.
I’m on my way there.

I already told u not necessary.

It is. Logan’s missing. Dead, I think. Blood’s fucking everywhere.

FUCK.

I know.

Just when Outlaw coming back, too. I don’t like this shit, John Boy. Too fucking strange.

It is. Just what I was thinking until you told me about Val.

Listen up. Logan drop the fuck in because he getting letter from a motherfucker whose ghost couldn’t have used super glue to piece back together. Then, he fucking gone. I wouldn’t put it past him to start sending fucking body parts the moment Prez walk through the door. And how
that
bullshit gonna go down? Bad like a motherfucker.

No fucking shit. If the copious amounts of blood in the house wasn’t his grandfather’s, it was someone’s. However…
The only way Logan can send body parts is if he’s still alive.

Digger responded immediately.
I’m betting a month worth of pussy he still is.

Chapter 19

Zoann Donovan ignored the stares of the bikers at the Dwellers’ compound, raising her chin and barreling toward the hallway and the private rooms reserved for members. Since she’d called to blast Val for giving her shit about seeing their son and then not showing up, she was expected.

“He not available to come to the phone. You wanna see him, bring your ass to the club.”

She wasn’t sure who she’d spoken to, but she believed it had been one of the other bikers she’d met during the last Christmas her mother was alive. Before
Christopher
had gotten Patricia killed. That’s what her brother was good for, though. Not being around in anyone’s time of need.

The biker hadn’t thought Zoann would set foot here to confront Val, but…she had. Zoann was just
angry
. Christopher had changed somewhat thanks to his wife, but he’d never allowed their mother any peace.

He’d done more for Megan than Val had ever considered doing for Zoann. The thought pierced her and she wished she’d brought Ryan. No. Never. It would be weeks before she allowed Val the opportunity to see their son again.

Just as she reached his door, a half-dressed girl stepped into the hallway, giggling and licking her lips. Val’s oh-so-masculine laughter floated to Zoann and resentment flared in her. She tossed her hair over her shoulder, glaring at the slut who widened her eyes when she saw Zoann. Without a word, she scampered down the hall.

Zoann pushed the door opened, surprised at how clean the room was. It was dark, though, with no window and no light except the dim hallway one.

“Coming back for more already, Bob Sue?”

The low rumble of his voice made Zoann’s belly tingle. She knew that tone. Knew he’d had an orgasm not long ago.

Furious tears rushed to her eyes and betrayal sliced through her. She slapped her palm on the wall, searching for a light switch.

“Babe?” he prompted just as Zoann flipped the switch and lit the room up.