One Night in the Outlaw's Bed (11 page)

“No, it’s early still, and sleep sounds a lot better
than food right now.” Maggie leaned on the counter and rested her head in her hands.
She closed her eyes for a second, and although she wouldn’t act like this if
there were people in the store, Mora wasn’t a customer, and, well, she just
didn’t care. That was how much she wanted to go back to bed right now.

“Why are you so tired?” Mora pulled at a strand of
her hair that had come down from her bun.

Maggie looked up. For a second all she did was stare
at her friend, but honestly she was trying to think of how to go about telling
Mora exactly what had happened.

Mora’s eyes grew wide, and she took a step back.
“Oh my God.
You got laid.” Mora said the last word loudly,
and Maggie shushed her even though at the moment no one but the two of them was
in the store.

“Keep your voice down, Mora. Lord.” Maggie pushed
herself up and crossed her arms.

“Well, then tell me, because I know I dropped you
off at your dad’s house. Did you go out after that, or maybe have someone come
in?” Mora wagged her eyebrows, and Maggie couldn’t help but laugh, but then she
thought about exactly what had happened last night.

“Um, well, it is kind of complicated—”

“No, it’s not.” Mora was still grinning. “Just lay
it out. I know you are kind of on the prude side compared to me.”

“Mora, everyone is on the prude side compared to
you. Well, maybe not Diesel.” Maggie snapped her mouth closed when the latter
came out. Oh shit, she had really just said that aloud?

It only took a second for Mora’s eyes to get as big
as saucers, and then her mouth gaped open. “No. Shit. You slept with Diesel?
Like the Grizzly MC Diesel?” The excitement coming from Mora was thick, but she
also could tell there was a little uncertainty in there also.

 
“But, uh, you
saw the way he was last night, and you were just as freaked out as I was.
Why all the excitement?”
Maggie said, and Mora’s happiness
faded as she grew serious.

“You weren’t hurt, clearly, and would have called me
if he put some kind of bullshit alpha attitude on you, so aside from the fact
he was intense as hell last night, I’m just glad you got your lady bits taken
care of.”

Lady
bits?

Mora’s eyes narrowed. “But then again, why are you
just now telling me about getting it on with him? I should have gotten a call
last night when it was all said and done. I want the details.
Need
the details.”

“Do you sound this desperate with the guys you are
trying to go after?” Maggie grinned and teased Mora.

“
Pfft
, honey, they beg
me
for more.” Mora winked. “But
seriously, I know you wouldn’t have gone with him if you didn’t trust him. I
want to know, was he like, all badass in bed?” She snapped her fingers, and her
eyes grew wide once more. “I knew he wasn’t going to just give up. Didn’t I
tell you?”

“Mora, please, stop making this a big deal. It really
isn’t.” It was, of course, but Maggie wasn’t going to say that aloud. She
needed to wrap her head around what had happened, and how she was going to
process her feelings.

Mora looked at her incredulously.

“He came to my house, took me for a ride on his
Harley, and I went back to his house to have sex.”

Mora opened her mouth again, and a low sound came
from her. “You make it sound like it was nothing.”

Maggie shrugged. It was something big, at least for
her, but it was probably just about a romp between the sheets for Diesel. She
didn’t want to squeal and giggle with Mora, and look like an idiot over it when
nothing more would happen.
 
“I had sex
with a man. Of course it was something, but I don’t want to talk about it. We
did it, he dropped me off, and that is that.” She hoped she was hiding herself
well enough from Mora, but her friend really was good at reading people.

“So that’s it? It wasn’t anything extraordinary, and
was just as good as having sex with John?”

Just hearing her ex’s name had Maggie wrinkling her
nose.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” The sound of Mora
tapping her foot and glaring at her told Maggie her friend wouldn’t just let
this go. She may have moved away for the last five years, but she had always
kept in contact with Mora. Whenever Maggie had come back to Steel Corner for
holidays and breaks during school, they always found time to get together. “You
know if you don’t give me something to go on I will just keep bugging you. This
isn’t just some romp between the sheets.” No, it wasn’t, but she was trying to
not think about Diesel—which was impossible of course. There was no point in
remembering their night together, even if she had the soreness and marks to
prove it, because there wouldn’t be another time. But she did want to tell
someone, and Mora was her closest friend.

“Okay, come on. I’m not getting into this out here.”
She led Mora to the backroom. They’d have privacy, and she could still hear if
someone came in. Maggie shut the door so there were only a few inches of it left
open, and exhaled.

She started from when she saw Diesel come to her
house, but also told her friend that she had wanted him for years. She never
thought she’d have a chance with him, because the women she had seen him be
with were total opposites of her, and they were also ready and eager enough to
give it up to the MC members. She told her everything, didn’t mince anything,
and when she was done she actually took a step back and waited for Mora’s
response. The fact she was silent was a little unnerving. Mora never was one to
bite her tongue.

“Okay, but it was good?”

She nodded, but that was a bland way of putting what
she did
done
with Diesel.

“So good that you two forgot to
wear a condom?”

Maggie licked her lips and nodded again.

“Dammit, Maggie, you know how stupid that is?” But
Mora kept right on talking. “It doesn’t even matter that you’re on the pill.
Shit like that isn’t even one-hundred percent foolproof against pregnancy, and
definitely not when it concerns STDs.”

“I know that, Mora.”

“And who cares if he said he was tested last week.
Why would you believe him? You said yourself he’s a mega man-whore.”

Maggie rubbed her eyes and exhaled deeply. “I know
all of that. I can’t say anything else than tell you it was a stupid move.
There isn’t anything I can do about it now.” She dropped her arms to her side
and stared at Mora. “Since I don’t have insurance anymore, and am not paying an
arm and a leg for the private insurance, until I can get something else put
together it is the Free Clinic in River Run for me.”

“Well, that’s all right. There isn’t anything wrong
with that. In fact, where do you think I got my birth control pills when I
started having sex? No way was I asking my mom to take me. You know how she is
with that shit.” Mora started laughing at what she had just said. “She would
have flipped if she knew I was having sex with Craig in the back of his pickup
at sixteen.” Craig had been Mora’s boyfriend all through high school but had decided
he wanted a more experienced woman. Last Maggie heard he was with some thirty-year-old
who had a six-year-old from her previous marriage. “So, when do you go?”

“Well, they are booked for at least two weeks for an
initial visit, which is what I have to do since I’ve never been there before.”

Mora nodded. “That’s great.”

“Great? I wanted to get this shit done and over
with.”

“I know, but the whole reason I came in here was to
see if you wanted to come hang out with me at my parents’ cabin in the
Springs
.” Mora pulled her keys out of her pocket and jangled
them. “I asked my dad if he’d mind you and me heading up there for the week. I
know you’ve been in the dumps because of the job, John, and moving back in with
your dad. Besides, you and I need a little girl time. We didn’t have a lot of
that when you would come over for the holidays.”

Maggie smiled, and was really touched by Mora
wanting them to spend some quality time together, but she couldn’t just leave.
She had just come back. “I can’t just leave my dad without someone to help him
at the shop for a whole week. And I don’t really have extra money for a trip
like that.”

Mora waved off her concerns. “Girl, I already
mentioned this to your dad this morning. In fact, he seemed pretty adamant that
you get out of town for a while. Not sure what that was all about, but I’m not
complaining since you and I will be spending our days floating in a raft on the
lake, and our nights getting fat as we eat junk food and sit in front of the
fire.”

Maggie knew why her father had been good with her leaving
town, especially if he thought there was something happening between her and
Diesel. Did he actually think leaving for a week would just make everything go
back to normal? Maggie had already learned that once something was set in
motion it just couldn’t be undone.
But going to Mora’s
family’s cabin in Colorado Springs sounded like a dream, and a pretty good way
to help get Diesel out of her head.

****

Brick and Diesel pulled their motorcycles up in
front of the club owned by Jordyn McNamara, or McNamara as he was known to
everyone in River Run, and anyone else that liked filthy and illegal things.
The city of River Run was only about a half hour ride from Steel Corner, but
bigger population wise, and had more of the raunchy type of businesses as it
wasn’t leaning toward a “scenic retirement community”, which was what the
residents of Steel Corner would have liked. Brick and Diesel dismounted and
took their helmets off. There were a few crotch rockets parked in front of the
club, but Diesel knew they belonged to McNamara’s men. It was only a little
after noon, but the place was open. The MC had been to “The Shake” a few times
when doing business with McNamara years ago, but now Jordyn and his crew stuck
to the local shit. Last Diesel heard they were running a smalltime heroin
operation to some of the smaller towns around the area. Drugs had never been
what Diesel wanted to get into, but when they started the drug runs it had been
a majority vote to try it out with the club. Fortunately, they were now out of
that and focusing on the underground fighting.

Brick pulled the front door open, and Diesel followed
the other male inside. The room was dark as fuck, but his eyes adjusted
instantly and he saw the two bouncers standing on either side of the entrance.
There was a stripper on the stage with a red light spotlighted on her, and she
danced slowly against the pole. The bar was on the opposite side, and a young
man in a wife-beater was drying glasses. Diesel looked at the four men sitting
in front of the stage. Their voices were low and barely distinguishable, but he
could see McNamara’s slicked back platinum colored hair. Brick and Diesel made
their way over to the group of men. Those two bouncers looked ready to tear
meat from bones, and they were only humans.

The stripper was wearing a blindfold and had clamps
on her nipples, but Diesel knew when Jordyn threw these little private shows it
was to cater to the men he was doing business with. They stopped in front of
the human males, and McNamara looked over. He gave them a chin lift.

“You boys want to sit down and see how flexible
Tatiana can be?” He grinned, but Diesel only shook his head.

“No, we need to get this done. I have shit to do.”
McNamara might have been big in River Run, but that didn’t mean anything to
Diesel or the Grizzlies. He said something low to the other men still seated.
Diesel knew this was a drug business deal, and not because there were lines of
coke on the glass table in front of them, but because they reeked of that
trade. He didn’t have to be a shifter to smell the type of male that made his
living off drugs. They were led to a back room, and McNamara went behind his
desk and sat down. The little asshole was only in his late twenties, but had
already made a pretty big name for
himself
in the
area.

“So, gentlemen, what can I do for you today?”
McNamara was a smug little bastard that acted like he was some kind of
businessman on Wall Street.

“Don’t fuck around. Jagger told you why we were
coming up,” Brick said in his deep, harsh voice.

“We need you to tell us whatever you know about The Brothers
of Menace.”

McNamara gestured to the chairs in front of his
desk. Once he and Brick were seated he began talking.

“I don’t know a whole lot. I heard that they were in
different MC charters, or maybe it was Nomads,” McNamara shrugged, “I don’t
know, but the end result was that they formed their own charter, have bought a
piece of property out on Sterling Hill for their headquarters, I presume. The
President goes by the name of Lucien Silver. Don’t know if that’s his real name
or not, but it sounds fake as fuck if you ask me. They keep to themselves and
don’t really head into town all that much.”

“Do you know how they get their revenue?”

“All I know
is
they have a few
working girls in their clubhouse now, for the time being at least. Not sure if
they run a prostitution business or if those women are just for them to play
with.” McNamara shrugged again and leaned back in his chair. “They haven’t been
here that long, and I know Jagger just heard about them because they came to
your territory, but that’s really all I know. If I hear anything else I’ll call
the club.”