King

  They’re having a party since daddy over here got pissed when he threw the last one and grounded him for a month.”

  “Cut the sarcasm, Prep,” I said, I had no patience for Preppy’s humor because all I wanted was for him to leave so I could be alone again with my girl.

  “Yes, a par-tay with the bikers and the four B’s.”

  “Four B’s?” Doe asked.

  “Yep. Beer, Booze. Blow. Babes.” Preppy looked between us. “Well, maybe not the babes since you two seem to be an exclusive thing. Are you an exclusive thing? Should I be getting out the fine china and calling the preacher?” Preppy turned to Doe. “Are you with child?”

  “What?” she asked. “No! I’m not.” She laughed while Preppy pretended to pass out on the mattress.

  “But we are exclusive,” I chimed in. I’m not sure why I felt the need to say it, but I did. I needed Preppy to get the message loud and clear. It may be an innocent friendship between them, but the warning to your fellow horn-ball friends about your woman could never be too obvious or too loud.

  “Ahhhhh, so what do you say, my friends? Par-tay with Preppy tonight?” He rubbed his hands together like an evil warlock casting a spell.

  “Do you want to go?” I asked Doe who was all smiles.

  “Really?” She asked.

  “Really.” I replied. If going to a party was all it took to coax that kind of smile from her, I’d take her to one every fucking night if she wanted.

  “Yipeeeee motherfuckers! Get dressed, lovers. We’re going to the clubhouse.” Preppy stood up on the bed, jumping up and down until his head hit a spinning blade of the ceiling fan. He dropped back down to his ass, clutching his forehead. “That’s gonna leave a mark.”

  Doe leaned over Preppy and pushed his hand off his head to inspect his injury. She’d let the sheet fall from her chest, her bare breasts swayed in front of Preppy’s face.

  Preppy was no longer concerned about his wound. He openly stared at her nipples and licked his lips.

  I might not have been mad that they were friends, but my best friend was about to take a fist to the face for ogling my girl like that.

  I grabbed her waist and dragged her back to me, covering her chest with the sheet. She blushed.

  If she thought my homecoming party was wild, she would be shocked to see what went on over at the Beach Bastards’ compound. “Shit, I forgot about those fucking bikers,” I said.

  “Oh stop it,” Preppy said. “Bear’s people are harmless now. You’ve staked your claim, flagged your territory, put your sausage in the onion ring. That’s all they care about. That’s bible to them. She won’t be fucked with. Besides, I’ll be there, and so will Bear, and so will you.”

  “I’m not all that trusting of Bear these days,” I said. “It wasn’t a week ago that he was asking my girl to be his old lady.”

  “But as I said, you gots it in. It’s all good, play playyyyyyy.”

  “Preppy, how much coffee have you had this morning?” Doe asked.

  “Not much, six, seven cups. Why?” He twitched his fingers like he was playing an imaginary piano.

  “We can go, but you’re not to leave my fucking sight,” I told Doe. “I mean it. Either me or Preppy are with you at all times, got it? Worst case scenario, go to Bear, but I swear to god if he lays a hand on you, I will chop it the fuck off.”

  It came out harsher than I intended, but I wasn’t fucking around. The reality of what could happen to her if she wondered off on her own was what was really harsh.

  Not a motherfucker in that place would survive if they touched her. Just remembering what Ed had almost done made me want to kill that piece of shit all over again.

  “Got it,” Doe said, recognizing the seriousness in my tone. She placed a hand on my shoulder. “I won’t go anywhere unless you or Preppy are with me.”

  “Good.” I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

  “So, what are we watching?” Preppy asked, leaning back on his elbows and crossing his feet at the ankles. “Ooh, Demolition Man. This is my jayum.”

  “Get the fuck out,” I said, shoving him off the bed.

  “You guys are no fucking fun,” Preppy pouted, picking himself up off the carpet. “You are all in lovers’ land and forgot all about ole Preppy over here.” He stuck out his lower lip and drooped his shoulders.

  “Have the car ready in twenty,” I barked, throwing a pillow at his head.

  “You mean the truck. My classic caddy is in a million little pieces, and ‘death by bomb’ isn’t covered by insurance,” Preppy said, dodging the pillow.

  “You don’t fucking have insurance,” I said. Preppy didn’t believe in anything that kept him on the grid, no matter how illegal it was.

  “But if I did, it wouldn’t cover it,” he said, waving us off and leaving the room.

  “Remind me to get a deadbolt for that door,” I said.

  “Oh, stop. Preppy’s great, just highly caffeinated,” Doe said in his defense.

  “You can back out now if you’ve changed your mind. We can stay here and stay naked and watch whatever stupid movie you want, as long as we are naked while watching it. We don’t have to go to Bear’s party if you don’t think you will feel comfortable.”

  “I want to get to know your friends better. I want to get out of the house for a while. I want it all.” Doe smiled. “And I want it with you.”

  I wanted to puff out my chest and beat on it like a gorilla. Her words were empowering. She wanted it all.

  With me.

  I felt so good about where we were and where we were heading that I almost felt okay about living the rest of my life lying to her.

  Almost.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  King

  Bear’s clubhouse was an old two-story apartment complex with a courtyard in the center and a small, kidney-shaped pool that had been graffitied a million times over.

  Plastic patio chairs with gaping holes in the seats and backs, some missing legs, were scattered everywhere. A few were floating upside down in the deep end the pool in a foot of green sludgy water. There was no sophisticated speaker system. An ancient boom box sat on top of a small round table blaring Johnny Cash. Its cord ran into the shallow water of the pool and across the courtyard where it was plugged into a wall outlet inside one of the rooms.

  Scantily clad women were everywhere, and bikers of all ages, shapes, and sizes lingered about in various states of drunkenness. Two muscle heads wearing their cuts with nothing but their bare chests underneath, arm-wrestled in the corner on top of an overturned laundry basket.

  Two women with matching bleach blonde hair, both topless, were making out on the second floor balcony against the railing, while a skinny prospect stood close by looking on with heavily lidded lust filled eyes, with a hard-on he wasn’t even trying to hide, straining against his jeans.

  Bear was the first person to greet us. “King, you motherfucker!” he shouted, standing in the open doorway of one of the motel rooms, his arm draped around the neck of a girl with innocent chubby looking cheeks, but a very weary look in her eyes. “In here!” He waved us over and practically shoved the girl out of the room. She would have landed face-first on the concrete if Preppy hadn’t caught her and set her back on her feet.

  “Thanks,” she said, looking up at Preppy. Preppy scrunched his nose as if he was confused by her thanks, then stepped around her. She looked back at him as she walked away.

  “What the fuck was that?” I asked.

  “No fucking clue,” Preppy said seriously, his usual humor nowhere in sight. “Let’s get this party started.”

  “Doe, baby! You’re here!” Bear exclaimed, pulling Doe into a hug that lasted a beat too long. I clenched my fists. Bear didn’t seem to notice, and if he did, he didn’t seem to care. “Bump, get my friends a drink!”

  A freckle-faced redheaded prospect I’d seen a few times before, filled three red cups from the keg and handed them to us.

  “Got anything
in a bottle for the lady?” I asked, emptying my cup in just a few swallows.

  I needed something to take the edge off, but I wouldn’t put it past one of these little prospect fuckers to try and slip Doe something. We were friends of the club, but some of these newbies may not know the extent of which we weren’t to be fucked with. I was about to explode out of my skin. Why did we come here again? Oh yeah, because Doe wanted to.

  I was turning into such a fucking pussy over this girl.

  “You heard the man. A bottle for the lady,” Bear ordered, taking the cup from Doe’s hands before she had a chance to lift it to her lips.

  Bear chugged the contents of her cup while Bump handed her an unopened bottle of beer. I discarded my cup and used the buckle on one of the belts around my forearms to pop off the cap for her. “Overreacting much, buddy? Wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Not on my watch. Not at my place. You should know that.”

  I shrugged, and Preppy chimed in before I could say anything. “Don’t get all fucking butt hurt about it, Bear. King doesn’t even trust me around her, and I only wanted to take her out on a date, and maybe put the tip in a little, but noooooo.”

  It was a lie. I hope Preppy knew that. I trusted him with my life, and I knew he wouldn’t do anything with Doe that meant upsetting me. But that didn’t mean I didn’t want to slit his throat every time he smiled at her. Especially when every single day since the day I decided I needed her in my life, I’d felt like my every move had to be thought out around her so I wouldn’t send her running scared.

  Or worse, accidentally tell her the truth.

  “You wanna get this shit started?” Bear asked, holding out his hand he pointed to an old nightstand where several lines of white powder were already cut. I shook my head. I hadn’t touched anything but alcohol and weed since I got out, but Preppy stepped up and did two lines. He knew me better than anyone, and he knew that a bump was the last thing I needed with all the adrenaline already coursing through my veins. But he also knew that doing coke with the bikers, especially Bear, was like their version of bringing a nice bottle of wine to a dinner party. A show of respect. Biker etiquette, if that makes any sense. I lit a cigarette and glanced over at Doe, who was looking around the place like she was discovering the lost city of Atlantis.

  Another one of Bear’s crew popped his head into the room. I recognized him right away as a guy named Harris, who’d been voted in just before I went away. “Bear, your old man’s here. He wants to see you and said to bring King and his crew so he can say hi. He’s back in the office.”

  Bear chugged his beer and let out a long belch. He threw his now empty cup at Bump. It bounced off his head and landed on the ground.

  “Clean that shit up,” Bear ordered, leading us from the room. “Come on, kids. Let’s say hi to my old man and get it over with.”

  Bear’s dad was the president of the Beach Bastards. One day, he would take the gavel from him and become the man in charge.

  When we walked into the office, the door closed behind us and a clicking noise echoed in the room. Preppy turned back to the door and turned the handle, but it was already locked.

  Shit. Bear swore.

  Behind the desk, on the far side of the room, a chair sat, facing away from us. It slowly turned, and where I’d expected to see Bear’s dad, was Isaac.

  “Motherfucker,” Preppy swore.

  Isaac’s feet were propped up on the top of the desk. He was caressing his long braided beard. A toothpick hung haphazardly from his bottom lip. His eyes immediately narrowed in on Doe.

  Fuck.

  His eyes darted from me to Doe as he spoke. “And who is this?”

  I felt my face getting hot with rage. If I ever saw that cocksucker Harris again I was going to tear him limb from chubby limb.

  It was at that moment I realized how stupid bringing Doe to the party really was. Isaac was a dangerous man, and although I thought I had time before he rolled into town, I’d known him being around was a possibility. I’d planned to send Doe to Grace’s house in a couple of days, at least until this all blew over.

  Obviously, it wasn’t soon enough.

  It was a complete lapse in judgment on my part. My brain had been put on hold because all the blood had been in my cock, which for the better part of a week had been deeply lodged inside Doe’s tight as fuck pussy.

  “She’s with me,” I answered, keeping my voice as casual as possible. Trying not to let my words scream SHE’S WITH ME, IN A FOREVER KIND OF WAY SO BACK THE FUCK OFF OF HER, ASSHOLE. Instead, I kept my face hard and unemotional. “They with you?”

  I gestured to the two blondes with sketchy looking matching pink BITCH tattoos on their biceps. They were making a show of touching each other’s huge fake tits.

  “I guess they are,” Isaac said with a laugh. He clasped his hands together and gestured to the chair in front of him. “Have a seat, Mr. King.”

  I sat and pulled Doe down onto my lap where I kept a hand possessively around the back of her neck. It was a gesture that said she was with me, but it was disrespectful enough to Doe to tell Isaac that she wasn’t all that important. She let out a surprised little yelp, and I rubbed the back of her neck with the pad of my thumb to comfort her. Her pulse raced in her neck.

  Isaac’s gaze roamed up her calves and settled between her legs where I was sure he’d caught a glimpse of her panties. I wanted to cross her legs or throw her off of my lap so that he’d stop looking at my girl like he wanted to eat her, but that would show him that she was my weakness. Instead, I slightly parted her knees with my hands to show Isaac more of her. He licked his bottom lip, and his gaze met mine.

  “It’s been a long time, KING,” he said, his eyes glimmered with amusement. I pushed Doe’s legs back together.

  The way Isaac said my name sent chills up my spine. Doe went along with what I was doing. She trusted me and thank god for that, but the way her body tensed, I knew she was horrified over what I’d just done.

  So was I.

  “It has. I hear you recently lost your nephew in a tragic construction accident. My condolences,” I offered.

  Isaac smirked. “It was tragic, Mr. King, but it was no fucking accident. Wolfert was stealing from me. Simple as that. So, I had his throat slit and buried under three feet of concrete. The only real tragedy of it was that I was stupid enough to give him a chance at all, and that his mother calls me weeping three fucking times a day.” Isaac lit a cigarette and scratched his head. “I’ve learned my lesson, Mr. King, and I won’t be that stupid again. The number one rule in this business is to make sure that the people who fuck you over get fucked right back, or get dead real quick.”

  Doe stiffened.

  Isaac waved to the blondes who brought over a bottle of expensive whiskey. One of them poured while the other passed around shot glasses. When she got to me, she made a show of brushing her fake tits up against my hand. I was about to tell her to get the fuck away from me when out of the corner of my eye I noticed Isaac watching my every move.

  I grabbed the shot glass from the blonde and set it in the other blonde’s cleavage. I made a show of licking the salt off her breast before dipping my head between her tits to bite the glass with my teeth. I threw back the shot all while holding Doe tightly to my side. I waved my hand dismissively when I was done, tossing her my empty glass and then redirecting my attention toward Isaac, who for the meantime, seemed satisfied.

  Preppy and Bear stood in the back of the room. I had an uneasy feeling about the situation, and obviously so did they because they were in position to where if the shit hit they fan, they would be able to shoot their way out.

  “Let’s not sit in here and hash this shit out right now,” Preppy said. “Let’s party tonight and schedule a formal meet for tomorrow, when we’ve all had a chance to get drunk and get some pussy.”

  I could sense Preppy’s wariness. I was able to read him better than anyone, and what he was really saying was let’s get the fuck out of here.

&
nbsp; Bear chimed in as well, “Yeah man, let’s go out to the courtyard. Strippers should be here by now. Bump and the boys are setting up mud wrestling out back. Let’s get loaded, and get our dicks wet before all the serious talk goes down.”

  “Sounds good.” I stood and started toward the door, dragging Doe with me.

  Right when we reached the door, two of Isaac’s men stepped into the room and closed it, blocking our exit, raising their guns.

  When we turned around, three more of Isaac’s men emerged from the room right behind the desk. Their pistols drawn and aimed.

  “That’s it? You fuck me over and expect that I would just party with you and forget all about it?” Isaac asked. He stood and walked in front of the desk. “You can’t just shit all over a business I’d spent decades running. I’m not your whore. You can’t choose to get in bed with me when it best suits you then leave me hanging after you have thoroughly fucked me.”

  “I was locked up,” I argued, knowing that wouldn’t be a good enough reason for Isaac. “You wouldn’t deal with Prep. We needed to earn. We didn’t cut you out. We made a business decision. A temporary one. I’ve been trying to reach you since my release, but you’ve had your balls in a knot. I’m not your girlfriend, Isaac. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. Now, let’s move the fuck on, and if you want to talk, we’ll talk. But let them get back to the party.” I waved my hands at my friends and Doe. “That way, they, at least, can enjoy themselves tonight.”

  “You think it’s that fucking easy do you? This county may belong to you, but this is my coast. Anytime one of you little trailer trash bastards wants to so much as take a shit, you need my fucking permission!” Isaac spat, pounding a fist onto the desk. His face reddened. He turned his head to the side and passed the heel of his hand against his face, cracking his jaw from side to side.

  Bear went for his pistol but he wasn’t fast enough. One of the men who blocked the door pressed his gun to the back of Bear’s neck.

  “Don’t even fucking think about it,” he warned.

  Preppy spoke up, “What the fuck do you want, Isaac? You want us to make it up to you? You want money? Fine, we’ll up your cut. Make you richer than you already are. I honestly didn’t think you’d care. We’re small-time compared to your other operations. King was locked up. The idea was all mine. This entire thing is on me.” His voice grew louder as he got bolder. “You want someone to blame? Blame me.” He wasn’t cursing, and his tone was serious. That worried me more than the guns to our heads.

  Preppy was being reckless.

  And he was doing it for us. So he could take all the blame and all the punishment.

  I couldn’t allow him to take all the blame, and I couldn’t’ allow this motherfucker to shit all over us like he ran the world. I wasn’t a fucking drug lord, but I wasn’t someone you could point a gun at and not pay for it with your life. I held Doe’s hand and gave it a squeeze, trying my best to reassure her that I would protect her.

  I very well intended to.

  “But once I knew about it, I didn’t stop it,” I chimed in. “The Money was good, man. But we’re ready to go big time. Need your help to take us there.” I tried appealing to Isaac’s sense of business. But there was a reason Isaac was successful. He cut down everyone who’d ever stood in his way like an angry lumberjack.

  Even his family.

  Isaac bent over and cackled like a possessed witch. The girls on the sofa scooted to the far edge in an effort to escape. “Stay right the fuck there, ladies!” Isaac warned. His laughter vanished instantly. Deep lines etched themselves into his forehead. His lips pursed. “This won’t take very long.”

  “This ain’t on them,” Bear said, nodding to the girls and then to Doe. “Let all three of the bitches leave, and we’ll handle this in any way it needs to be handled. Don’t forget this is my house, my people. I don’t know what you think is gonna go down, but it ain’t going down without a fight. I got a few dozen of my brothers out there that don’t sit idle when they hear gun shots.”

  Isaac strutted toward us. I instinctively shoved Doe behind me. Bad idea, because with that move, I showed Isaac she was more important to me than myself. It was instinct to protect her, but in that situation, instinct wasn’t doing me any favors.

  He smiled as he approached.

  “King of the Causeway,” Isaac said, quoting the air with his fingers around the label that had been given to me when I’d started to make a name for myself in Logan’s Beach. “You ain’t King of shit! The only King around here is me, and if you fuck with what’s mine, the only way I see it is that I need to fuck with what’s yours.” He turned toward Doe. “Or fuck what’s yours.”

  “You’re not going to fucking touch her!” I roared, stopping just short of taking Isaac down when I felt the barrel of a gun at my back and Issac’s knife at my throat. My gun was still lodged behind my belt buckle in the waistband of my jeans.

  There was no way of getting to it without getting us all killed.

  Isaac waved to his one of his men. “Bring her to the back room.”

  The man stepped up and grabbed Doe, pushing her forward. She stumbled in her heels and fell onto her knees. The shoes fell off her feet and clattered against the floor.