Nomads' Fall: Burning Bastards MC (6 page)

Big D gave him a disgusted look. “Knowing you knuckleheads, you probably came in here scaring her worse than Dorsey did. I know how Georgie feels about Gladys. Hell everyone knows but the two of them. Did you tell her they found Gladys, and that she’s alive?” Knight shook his head, and Show tossed his hands in the air before walking away from the door.

Big D decided to do the honors himself. Future would hand him his nuts if he didn’t help the woman that brought Dorsey down. He knocked on the door, “I thought you might want to know they found Gladys, and she’s hurt, but she’s alive. They took the boat to pick her up, and if you want to see her before they take her to the hospital, you might want to come out of there. I’m Big Dog, and I lead the Burning Bastards. Gladys is a friend, and since you’re her friend, you’ll be safe. You have my word, no one will harm you.” He waited for a minute. “Look, just come out and talk to me, you can keep your gun, we owe you for bringing down Dorsey.”

The lock clicked and Knight shot him a dirty look. The door cracked open, and the two men could see bloodshot green eyes looking out toward them. She slid out the half opened door, and stood with her back to the wall. The gun in her hand stayed steady and she tracked the room with her eyes. “Gladys is all right, you swear?” From the looks of the bedraggled female standing on what had to be borrowed energy, he’d bet she was unaware she was covered in dried blood, and appeared to be one of those Zombie looking things. She was too slender, and the haunted look in her eyes made him ashamed of his friends. It wasn’t like Knight to act like this.

“Yes, she’s hurt, but Georgie and the brothers found her. She’ll be heading to the hospital as soon as they get her off the boat. You and Gladys are both safe now, I promise.”

She stared at him for another minute, nodded her head, and walked into the hallway. They heard a door open and shut.

Knight found himself up against the wall with his friend glaring at him. “You dumb motherfuckers ever terrorize a woman like that again and I’ll kick your fuckin’ asses back to the goddamned rock you came from under. That woman’s in shock and she’s frightened. You just seen the same fucking thing I did.”

“Women do this. They’re evil fucking bitches until the threat is over, then they fall apart if they feel safe enough to do it. That one never got the chance thanks to you assholes. Men like us, we relieve stress with sex and beating the shit out of each other, or shooting something. Women scream and cry. Future told me it keeps them from killing men.” He looked Knight up and down, “I don’t give two cents for your ass when Future finds out how you treated that girl. My advice is you exercise that charm you use to get women to drop their drawers, and fix this before my woman sees you. After seeing that girl, I’ll even hand her the knife.” He turned away and left the building.

Knight wondered what the hell that was about. He’d never done anything to the woman but wait her out. Well, beating on the door every fifteen minutes and demanding she come out might be considered terrorizing her. Seeing her in the light of day without the haze of worry about Gladys, and seeing Dorsey lying on the floor trussed like a pig ready for the spit, he felt like, hell, he didn’t know what he felt like. Whatever it was, he didn’t like being the bad guy here.

Chapter
Five

Gladys had told her about her friendly relationship with the local badasses. Knowing they were supposed to be the good guys didn’t instill any trust in her. The big handsome man they called Knight was an evil bastard. Twice she’d had her hand on the doorknob and each time his fist pounded on the door ordering her to get her ass out of the damn closet. Between the threats she felt from the older guy when he’d barked at her, and the younger man’s actions since she hid in the closet out of fear, her nerves were in shreds.

She’d hoped to stay here for a while. Especially now that she felt so much less fear from James and Porter. Gladys had smashed the tracking chip with a hefty ball peen hammer, and tossed it into the burn barrel. She’d be free from detection now, and was grateful. She needed money, and she desperately needed a friend. Jolly prayed that Gladys was going to be all right. It was crazy and made no sense. She felt such a connection to the older woman, but had never met her before yesterday. Maybe because they’d shared secrets that no one else knew.

It still wasn’t much of an explanation, but she was going with it. If Gladys wasn’t able to return home to supervise, Jolly would be forced to find a job nearby and somewhere to sleep until she found a cheap place to live.

The sight of the hollow-eyed creature in the mirror might have horrified her, if she actually gave a shit right now. She planned to take a nap and hopefully by the time she woke, there’d be some word about Gladys’s condition. She scrubbed the dark brown crusted rivulets of blood from her face and arms. Her legs, geez, crawling on the floor in the mess had painted the stuff on her. Her hair was another story, one best left ignored. It was too long to spike now, and the color was turning more muddy brown than the dark glossy brown with red highlights she’d put in a month ago.

She barely recognized herself nowadays. Before all the bad stuff happened, she was a bit plump, but now, she was almost all angles. Her cheekbones stood out and her green eyes no longer smiled back at her. She wondered if the old Jolly would ever be allowed to come back to the surface.

The towel wasn’t covering much, but it’d have to do until she woke up from the nap she planned. The shorts and tank from last night were in the trash, and that was the only thing she had to sleep in. She was bent over by the bed, sticking her leg into a clean pair of panties when the bedroom door opened, and Knight walked in with a plate of food and a mug of coffee.

She regretted not having her gun close enough so she could shoot the annoying bastard. He’d gotten the full moon and stars peep show, and she wanted to scream at him to get the hell out of her room. Wasting her breath on the gawking asshole would be too much effort.

Jolly finished pulling the bikini cut panties up over her butt, and slid into the bed between the covers. When she finally looked at Knight, she felt a tiny spark of pride come alive deep inside. He just stood rooted in place with his offering of nourishment and hot coffee.
Ha, take that, asshole, that’s what you get for walking into a woman’s bedroom unannounced
. “Is that for me, or have you changed tactics, instead of beating on a door, you plan to tease me with food?”

He swallowed the drool pooling in his mouth from the sight of her naked ass bent over with one leg raised like that. It had been three days since he’d had sex of any form, but the sight of her hairless snatch and the seam of her ass gave him an automatic hard-on.

That was a novelty in itself. It’d happened a few times since high school, but not in recent memory, now it was happening again. He controlled his cock, not the other way around. He was going to have to watch himself or become a pitiful bastard like Georgie.

“I thought you might be hungry, and brought a peace offering to keep you from shooting me.” He smiled at her and advanced to the bed. She sat up, clutching the sheet to her surprisingly plump breasts, and tucked the sheet under her arms, before reaching for the plate. “I owe you an apology, and I want you to know I mean it. Gladys has been a good friend over the years, and her husband, Ralph, who decided to take the early retirement road and died a few months ago. He was an odd fucker, but they seemed to get along fine, his death left her alone out here.

“When you called, I panicked, and you were standing in the doorway covered in blood after just telling me that Gladys was in trouble.” She had the fork halfway to her mouth and nodded her head when he explained the situation from his perspective.

“And, you have no idea how hard you slammed me and Show’s ego when we saw old Dorsey trussed up like that. We’ve been hunting that motherfucker for months, and there you were with our trophy all neat and wrapped up for us.” She finished the food on the plate and he took it from her hands setting it on the small nightstand. “I should have kissed you right then instead of scaring you. Georgie has an excuse for his behavior, he’s had it bad for Gladys for years now. Me, I have no good excuse for scaring you like that, so I apologize.” He handed her the mug of cooled down coffee.

“Okay, I get the picture, I wasn’t very subtle when I called you the last time, but I was desperate to get help. That man broke the window and came in, and started destroying things. When he saw me, he came after me and I, well, I shot him. I wanted to kill him, but I was sure he was the one Gladys went out to look for, and I wanted her to decide what to do with him. I should have killed him. Now he’ll get out of jail, and probably come back here for revenge.” She finished the last dregs in the mug and handed it to him before sliding down in the bed. She was so tired, she needed to sleep, and if he was going to be around, at least she didn’t have to worry about being alone and vulnerable while she rested. “Lock the door when you leave please.” She shut her eyes, willing the fog of sleep to come over her. Instead, she felt the bed shift. Her eyes opened wide to see him taking off his boots and leather vest.

Knight saw her mouth open and the narrowing of her eyes, but he shook his head at her. “I’m just going to hold you until you go to sleep. In spite of the fact that seeing you standing in the doorway like some warrior princess that’s been through a bloody battle and still lived to tell the tale, made me hard as a rock. I can control myself, and you look like you need a cuddle. I know I need one. Scoot over..."

She found herself scooting. “I don’t need—” but his lips touched hers in the softest kiss she’d ever experienced.

His, “Shhhsh, just go to sleep,” was the last thing she heard for the next five hours.

It’d been awhile since he’d stayed with a woman while she slept. In fact he couldn’t remember staying or allowing his sex partner to sleep in the same bed with him ever. It wasn’t a big deal, but still. Once she’d cleaned up, he could see she was quite pretty. His original thought that she was too skinny was confirmed when he walked into the room. Even her collarbones stuck up prominently and those big green eyes were stark against her white skin. He picked up her hand and held it in the palm of his. Nothing but bones covered in skin. Her wrist was so delicate it was hard to believe she was holding a Walther P99 on them earlier. The gun she’d kept in her hand was not a typical woman’s protection piece, it was heavy and built more for a man’s hand.

The more he thought about it, the more she reminded him of the refugees he’d seen overseas. Was she in trouble? Or just down on her luck, and why did it matter to him?

*****

Future knew Hugh was up to something when they got to the clubhouse. He was acting so happy that it caused her to eye him like a bug on a pin. He just laughed and told her the boys had a surprise for her.

He’d wound a bandana up and tied it around her head so she couldn’t see what he was going to show her before he was ready for her to see it, and carried her down the stairs into the basement of the club. She’d been there once before, so she knew where he took her.

“Okay, babe, you remember how I promised you I’d do my damndest to make your every wish come true?” Someone stuck a baseball bat into her hand and her husband took the makeshift blindfold off her eyes. She blinked several times and looked around. Show still hung onto the shaft of the bat that her hand held, and he grinned at her. Seth was standing in front of someone, and Big D smiled at her before he nodded Seth’s way. The bald man stepped aside and she saw the gift the men had brought her.

The sight of Dorsey standing in front of her was too much to resist. Within seconds, she snatched the bat in from Show’s hand, and was in striking distance of her prey. Dorsey screamed loud and long as she finally got her revenge. Big D had to pry her fingers from the bat, and he wiped the tears that ran down her face from the emotions her actions had unleashed. They were cleansing tears, not sorrow. He led her back to the stairs, and she heard the scream that was cut short, and replaced with a solid thunk sound. She didn’t look back, she didn’t care what happened to the fucker. The threat was now eliminated.

She gave Big Dog a look that let him know he was getting a little something extra tonight. He grinned back at her, he sure did like those ‘extras’. He rubbed his chest in remembrance, unless he missed his guess, one of those private thank you sessions was how she ended up pregnant. Who knew that antibiotics and birth control pills didn’t play nice together? He damn sure had no idea, and from the way Future slugged him when she found out, he doubted she had any idea either. Whatever she planned, he was ready for it. It took everything he had not to rub his hands together in anticipation.

Chapter
Six

Knight woke before his sleeping companion, and eased out of the bed. He snugged the pillow he’d been using under the arm that’d been thrown over his chest while she slept. It was strange, this feeling inside of his chest. Why should he care if she woke when he left? Hell if he stayed, she might get more than she was promised when he crawled in beside her earlier. His cock was painfully hard, and he took a few extra minutes in the shower before he put the same clothing he wore yesterday on his damp body.

He went into the kitchen and called the crib to find out about Demon, Gladys, and the good Samaritan. It was still dark outside, but someone should be around. The phone rang ten times before a sleepy Pinky answered the line. “They celebrated last night, I wasn’t feeling very good and was in bed when it all went down, so I don’t know anything. I can have someone call you if you want. The only body moving besides me is Tinkerbelle and she’s holding up the wall until it stays in one place. I missed a hell of a party.” Knight shook his head slowly. Give a club a happy Prez and his old lady, and everyone parties.

It was barely seven a.m., but the hospital gave him information about Demon since he was listed as next of kin on his ID. Demon had lost a lot of blood, blah, blah. He was resting. The doctor would be making his rounds at eight thirty this morning.