Reaper's Property

Chapter Fifteen

A loud, pounding noise woke me abruptly. I had no idea where I was or what was happening. Horse groaned and I did too. My head hurt like hell. Too much beer…

Oh shit. The party. The sex. Horse beating a man almost to death. This couldn’t be good.

“Horse,” I whispered. More banging. Someone was outside the front door. His eyes opened, taking me in all rumpled and sleepy. He smiled and his hand squeezed my ass as I felt the evidence of his appreciation grow under my stomach.

“Shut the fuck up!” he yelled toward the door, making me flinch. The pounding got louder. Horse rolled me to one side so he could get up and started toward the door, tucking his morning erection into his pants with some effort. Clearly he planned to make the noise go away.

“Horse!” I hissed. He glanced back at me, his expression questioning. “It’s probably the cops. They’re here to arrest you. Should you just open the door like that? Shouldn’t you go out the back or something while I delay them?”

That made him smile and he shook his head, bemused.

“Marie, babe, we’re not on TV,” he said, a hint of laughter in his voice. “What happened last night was club business. No cop’s ever gonna hear anything about it.”

“You almost killed that guy,” I replied, eyes wide. “People tend to notice stuff like that, club business or not.”

“Not a problem,” he said, shaking his head again. “We handle things like this our own way. If I’d roughed him up for no reason, it would start a shit storm like you can’t imagine. But a fucking hangaround shooting at a Reaper’s woman? Drunk and out of control? He’s lucky I got to him before Boonie. Fucking insult to the Silver Bastards, as much as me. Hell, for all I know, Boonie finished the job after I left. Now run upstairs and put on some clothes. I love that look on you, but your pussy’s flashing me and I don’t feel like sharing. Think we covered that already.”

I blushed and jumped up, having totally forgotten my lack of panties, or even a real skirt. As I ran up the stairs, I heard Horse laughing out loud as he opened the door, and then the clomping of boots as people walked in. I pulled on some jeans and one of my new Harley Davidson tank tops, which actually looked pretty cute and not nearly as slutty as I thought it would. Then I gave my teeth a quick brush and washed my face. The rest of me needed washing too, but I didn’t want to miss anything downstairs so I twisted my hair on top of my head and walked back down.

The living room was empty but I heard voices in the kitchen so I followed them. Horse was pouring freshly brewed coffee for Max and Picnic. All three men looked up as I walked in. Picnic grinned at me. Max stared at me intently, like I was some puzzle he couldn’t quite solve. I nodded, uncertain of my position but wanting to hear any news they might have.

“Hear you had some fun last night,” Picnic said, leaning back against the counter. He wore his gray t-shirt, black leather boots and cut casually, but as always, his looks struck me. That grin didn’t help. I couldn’t quite reconcile the man who stood before me casually drinking coffee with the biker who’d held a gun to my brother’s head two days ago.

“Horse tells me you’re worried about him getting in trouble,” Picnic said, smirking. “Thought we might be the cops.”

I nodded, unsure what to say.

“No worries, darlin’. Horse did the right thing, Boonie already called, explained everything,” Picnic said, grimacing. “Damn, this coffee tastes like ass, Horse. So Marie—for what it’s worth, Boonie feels like shit about what happened. And knowing Darcy, he’s gonna catch more shit about it for a long time. Apparently she’s taken a liking to you, wanted to be sure and let you know you can call her any time. Bitch woke me up at seven in the fucking morning to give me the message.”

He shook his head, looking annoyed. Apparently Picnic liked his sleep.

“Don’t let Boonie hear you call his woman a bitch,” Horse said dryly. “Man’s whipped, might take offense. Remember last time?”

The guys all laughed and I felt completely out of my depth.

“I don’t have her number,” I said, deciding to focus on little details—like Darcy’s phone number—rather than the fact that we were calmly discussing Horse almost killing a man with his bare hands last night.

“It’s in your new phone,” Picnic responded, grabbing a large, padded envelope from the counter and tossing it to me. I managed to catch it, awkwardly, and opened it to find my car keys, a cell phone and a section of newspaper folded open and highlighted. I pulled out the paper first. It only took about four short sentences to describe the total destruction of our trailer by fire. Resident Jeff Jensen was uninjured, had been found outside, inebriated. No official cause yet, but the fire appeared to be the result of a pipe left burning on the carpet.

My hands shook as I put it back in the envelope.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” said Picnic, and he actually sounded like he meant it. “But we had to get rid of any evidence. Also part of the message to other clubs. Either your trailer or your brother.”

I agreed, remembering how I’d suggested burning the place myself. Anything to protect Jeff. The trailer was just a place to live, and not much of one to be honest.

“I’d like to visit my mom at some point,” I said to Horse. “Can I do that? She’ll be really worried and she doesn’t have a way to get hold of me.”

“You can write her,” he said. “Give her your new phone number if you like, she can call collect after that.”

I pulled out the phone. It wasn’t fancy, but it wasn’t crap either. I turned it on and touched the address book icon. It already had several entries. Horse, Picnic, Darcy and “armory”, whatever that was.

“What about my old phone?” I asked. “Why a new one?”

“You needed a new account for your own protection,” Picnic said. “We aren’t the only people your brother pissed off. Hearing new rumors all the time. This is safer, you should cut contact for a while. Horse will fill you in after we give him the details.”

“Am I allowed to call anyone I want?”

“Depends on whether you want them to stay alive,” Picnic said, shrugging. “Far as I’m concerned, make that first call to your brother. Educational experience for both of you.”

I powered down the phone and stuck it in my pocket quickly.

“Car’s outside,” Picnic added, like this was just some normal social visit. “Painter drove it up here the other day. Piece of shit, broke down on him twice so I had the guys at the shop fix it up for you.”

I pulled out the keys and felt better immediately. Now I had a way to leave. I liked that idea a lot.

“Thanks.”

“No worries,” said Picnic, shrugging. “Don’t do anything stupid, Marie. Got me?”

”Okay.”

“Got that stuff in the barn for you to pick up,” Horse said to Picnic, watching me with speculative eyes. “We’ll talk when I get back,” he told me. “Won’t be long.”

The three men headed outside without another word. I clutched the car keys and ran my fingers over the bump the phone made in my pants. I had my car, I had a phone and I had a little bit of money in the bank. I could call Jeff if I wanted, or just send him a text to make sure he was all right.

I could just drive away and never look back.

Instead I fixed breakfast, finishing up just as Horse walked back into the house. Ari followed him in from outside, looking at the food-filled counter hopefully.

“Good timing,” I said. “Food’s ready. You hungry?”

“Yep,” he said, but he didn’t sit at the table. He came over and wrapped a hand around my neck, pulling me in for a long, slow kiss that tasted like coffee and sex. Every time he touched me I melted. It wasn’t fair. I wrapped my arms around him and Horse reached down, lifting my butt and setting me on the counter. I opened my legs and he nestled up between them.

Unfortunately, he stopped kissing me, pulling away to cradle my face between his hands, examining my face.

“You okay?” he asked.

I nodded. He closed his eyes and then shook his head before opening them again.

“This sucks. Last night was crazy and I scared you, and now I have to tell you something bad,” he said. I stopped breathing. What more could be wrong? I was overloaded already.

“Your brother’s stupider than we thought. He’s got other shit in play, shit we didn’t know about until this morning. You call him, it’s really not gonna help. If he’s smart he’s already ditched his phone and gone off the grid, but I don’t have a lot of faith in his intellect at the moment.”

I opened my mouth to protest, to say something. Horse pressed his finger against my lips, silencing me.

“Not done yet, babe. Believe me when I say talking to him isn’t a good idea for either of you. These guys he’s pissed off, they aren’t gonna give him a second chance if they catch him, and he’s sure as fuck used up his second chance with us. Whole damn cartel’s after him. You want to keep him safe, you don’t reach out to him.”

“Bad shit?” I whispered. He nodded, face sober. “Like, a drug cartel?”

“Very bad shit with an exceptionally nasty drug cartel. Shit that’s gonna get him dead very soon. Shit worse than anything he’s got with us, which comes as a huge fuckin’ surprise to me, considering how fucked he was already. These guys…” He shook his head slowly, swallowing hard before continuing. “These guys are not the good guys. You aren’t safe if you’re anywhere near him, and you aren’t safe if they think they can use you to find him. You use that phone to call him, they track it… Let’s just say they won’t be offering him a chance to make things right.”

“If I can’t call Jeff, why did you give it to me?”

“Because believe it or not, keeping you hostage and completely out of communication with the rest of the world isn’t exactly a long-term plan,” he replied, smoothing my hair behind my ears. “Might work for a while, but sooner or later it’ll blow up in my face. I know it’s hard to believe because I’m such a giant asshole, but I don’t want you to be unhappy. So it’s up to you to protect him by not drawing him out. It’s up to me to protect you, which includes educating you on just how bad things are for him. And I gotta tell you, he pulls shit that comes down on you, time’s up. He’ll be in the ground up there in those mountains and nobody will ever find his body. You got me?”

“Do I get a vote in how we handle this?”

“Nope.”

“You just expect me to do what you say?”

“Yep.”

I wanted to argue with him some more, but I couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. I didn’t like him being in charge, but that was the nature of our arrangement. And I didn’t know whether to believe him about Jeff or not. If he was lying, I didn’t get to talk to my brother and that sucked.

But if he told the truth and I called, Jeff might die.

“I won’t contact Jeff,” I said. “But at some point I really want to go see my mom. It’s important.”

“You write your mom that letter, I’ll see that she gets it. Just don’t write anything about your brother. You with me?”

”Yeah.” He looked down at my mouth like he wanted to kiss me, but I turned my head away.

“Breakfast is ready,” I said, pushing at him. He stepped back and I hopped down, grabbing plates. We sat and ate together and I didn’t say anything. I was too busy rolling the situation over in my head and trying to make sense of it. Things had looked simple when Picnic held a gun to Jeff’s head.

Go with Horse, save Jeff.

Now Jeff was in even bigger trouble—assuming Horse wasn’t lying to me. I was his collateral, except sometimes he treated me like a hostage and sometimes he gave me fantastic orgasms. We had our own separate rooms but we’d slept downstairs together. Oh, and he almost killed a guy who almost shot me after definitely having public sex with me at a party. Sex I enjoyed.

Nope, nothing weird going on here at all.

“How would you feel about me going to town for a while, by myself, today?” I asked, tracing the grain in the wooden block with my finger. Might as well test this arrangement a little, see if I actually had the choices he said I did. If I could really leave.

“I guess that depends on what your plans are,” he replied slowly. “I have to go by the armory today. You can ride in with me if you’d like.”

“I’d rather go on my own,” I said, stealing a quick glance at him. He sat back, relaxed, thoughtful. The silence stretched between us and I couldn’t take it any longer. Too much quiet, too much weirdness. “I want to start looking for a job as soon as possible.”

“What do you need a job for?”

“To earn money?” I said. He stared at me. “You know, green stuff to exchange for goods and services?”

“All this shit going down around you and the thing you’re gonna focus on is finding a job?” he asked, raising his brows.

“It’s better than sitting around and thinking about all this shit going down around me,” I snapped. I suddenly wanted something normal, something that I controlled. Wanted to be alone and think somewhere that I wasn’t surrounded by him, his sexy smell or his things.

“You need money, let me know and I’ll give it to you,” he replied. “You need shit to do, take care of the house and cook. No job.”

“Is that because of my brother or because you don’t want me working or what?” I demanded, the words tumbling out so fast he didn’t have a shot at answering before I hit him again. “I thought you said this is all my choice. What are the limits of this little arrangement? You gave me a phone and my car, so why can’t I get a job? How long will this go on? How will I support myself when it’s over? Everything is up in the air and I can’t call Jeff and my mom doesn’t know where I am and—”

Horse stood up and reached across the butcher block and pulled me over to him. He kissed me, hard, shutting me up. A dish fell to the floor and shattered, but he just maintained his assault on my mouth, falling back into his chair, pulling me down onto his lap and arranging my legs on either side of his hips. He kept kissing me as he rubbed his hands up and down my back, soothing me. Finally he stopped, and I stared into his eyes, emotionally exhausted.

“You can’t do this,” he said.

“What?” I whispered.

“Freak out over stuff you can’t control.”

“So I’m just supposed to do nothing and wait for my brother to get killed by these really bad guys? That’s assuming you don’t kill him first, right?”

“No, you’re supposed to take care of yourself and keep safe, so that if your brother pulls his shit together he’ll have a sister alive to celebrate with,” he replied, his voice serious. “And in the meantime you can keep busy taking care of me. Cook, clean, all that crap. I’ll watch your back and maybe we’ll get through this without everything blowing up in our faces, okay?”

“Cook and clean. Are you serious?”

He sighed, shaking his head, sighing.

“Fuck if I know what women do all day,” he said, shrugging. “Figure it out, keep yourself busy doing something else then. You can start by hitting up the clinic today, get on the Pill, get tested. Only a couple of rules. Don’t call your brother, don’t disappear on me, and keep wearing tank tops like this one, because I really like what they do for your boobs.”

He leaned forward, kissing me at the base of my throat, then sliding his nose down the front of that tank, nuzzling my cleavage. I softened against him, hating how easily he could distract me, but my body didn’t care one bit. It liked the idea of going for a ride. He was right, I needed to get on some birth control asap—not to mention get tested for STDs. Thanks again, Gary. If I did have something, I guess Horse’d be out of luck, because we’d swapped a hell of a lot of fluids in the past forty-eight hours.

“Most women work all day, Horse,” I murmured as his hand grabbed my butt, tilting my pelvis into the always-impressive erection he seemed to have permanently installed in his jeans. Was the man even human? “They have jobs or take care of kids, which is a job all by itself. I’d go crazy stuck here alone, and I get the impression that sooner or later you’re going to have to do some work yourself.”

“Today,” he murmured, reaching up and pulling down my tank and bra, freeing my breast. His warm breath teased my nipple and I squirmed, trying to think.

“What?”

“Today. I need to get back to work today,” he said right before he sucked my nipple deep into his mouth. Oh damn, that felt good. Every tug of his lips shot fire through my body, tightening things between my legs. I felt my hips start to rock against his, thinking there was far too much clothing between us. I wanted to forget about this whole situation—an orgasm or two would go a long way toward making that happen. The world lurched as Horse picked me up, walking me into the living room. Then I was on the couch, sliding out of my pants. About two seconds later he had his cock out, grabbed my hips and lined the head up with my slit before shoving it straight into me without a word.

Holy fuck I needed that, even though I was sore and swollen.

The weight of his lower body pressed me back into the couch as his arms braced on either side of me. He took long, slow strokes, steady and relentless. I wrapped my legs around his waist, wondering if I’d gone crazy. So many things happening, yet he only had to touch me and I lost myself in him again and again. This wasn’t like any sex we’d had before. It wasn’t fast, it wasn’t hard and it wasn’t urgent. It was relentless, however. Every time he hit bottom, every time he stretched me open, sliding his cock along my clit, I had to bite my lip to keep from screaming. I wanted him to go faster, pound me hard so I’d fall over the edge and get the relief my body needed. Fuck out my frustration in general.

I reached down, urging him to go faster. He ignored me, pumping at his own speed, the corner of his mouth turning up as I glared at him.

“You still pissed at me for last night, babe?” Horse asked. “You wanna fight about it? Now’s a great time. I’m in a pretty good mood, probably agree with anything you say.”

“You’re insane,” I muttered, straining up toward him. Dammit, I needed to come. He must too. If he was any harder he’d start popping blood vessels, the bastard, yet he just smirked at me and went even slower.

“Maybe,” he replied, grinning openly at me now. “But I’m the bastard fucking you and pretty much your only hope of getting off, so you might want to stop trying to kill me with those eyes of yours.”

“Jerk.”

“Hot piece of ass.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“I was referring to myself,” he replied, thrusting deep before stopping. He grabbed one of my hands, then the other, pinning them on either side of my head as I squirmed.

“Just do it!” I demanded. He dropped his mouth down, taking mine in a long, slow kiss. I tried to thrust my tongue into his mouth, wiggling against him. I wanted more and I wanted it now. He pulled back, and now his face wore a definite smirk.

“Do what?”

“You know,” I gritted.

“I’m confused,” he replied. “I think you need to explain to me. Otherwise I might just give up and go away.”

I closed my mouth and squeezed my inner muscles around his dick as tight as I could, gloating when he stiffened and groaned. I let go and then started squeezing him in a slow and steady rhythm. Two could play this game.

“Fuck, Marie,” he moaned, then pushed my hands down deep into the couch as he lifted himself, finally thrusting into me like I needed. I still couldn’t move much, but that didn’t matter because the games were over. Now he hit me with deep strokes, each one more forceful than the last. I felt my muscles growing tight as I lifted my hips to meet his. Oh damn… I was close—so incredibly close. He pushed my hands together over my head, imprisoning them as he hammered home. I hovered right at the edge then slipped over, screaming out my orgasm.

I have no idea how long it was before Horse came, because I was floating in my own little world. He collapsed on top of me, managing to keep enough of his weight to one side that he didn’t crush me. Our breathing slowed. Then he leaned up on one elbow, sliding me so we lay face-to-face.

If I’d spent a million years trying to guess his next move, I still wouldn’t have seen it coming.

“Why don’t you go down to the community college and pick up an application,” he said. That broke right through my post-coital haze.

“Why would I do that?”

“You’re here. You’re not going anywhere any time soon, and you need something to do. You told me you want to go to school, so look into going to school.”

“It’s not that simple,” I said, shaking my head. Horse’s reality and mine were two very different things. Why were we even having this conversation, let alone right now? “I can’t just go to college.”

“Why not?”

“Well it costs a lot of money, for one thing,” I snapped. “And right now I’m worth a total of eleven hundred bucks if I’m lucky. You have to do tests, you have to apply and get accepted and even then you have to… I don’t know, you have to do all kinds of stuff. And my brother’s in big trouble, I don’t have time for school…” I ran out of steam at that point, so I glared at him instead. He kept changing things on me and I couldn’t keep up.

“You can’t do anything about Jeff,” he said firmly. “But the rest? You gotta do that shit to get into school, start doing it. Go down there, see what it takes. Get the papers and fill them out. It’s not gonna happen if you sit around listing all the reasons it can’t.”

“What part of ‘I don’t have any money’ did you not get?”

“What part of ‘I’ll give you money if you need it’ did you not get?”

“Horse, that’s crazy.”

He sighed and shook his head.

“You’re here, Marie, and I know you like to earn your own way. But—and don’t get pissed when I say this—you don’t have the skills to make good money, which means any job you get is going to be minimum wage, despite the fact that you’re smart and hardworking and could do just about anything if you had the chance. But you won’t have a chance without some education, so you might as well start now.”

He trailed his hand down along my body as he spoke, fingers tracing my curves, pulling my hips closer into his. I shook my head, wondering if I’d lost my mind. Jeff might get killed, I’d just had mind-blowing couch sex with his potential killer and now I was supposed to apply for college.

Just like that.

“You’re serious? You want me to go to school?”

“Why not?” he challenged. “So long as you take care of shit around here, I’m fine with it. Might want to move on that whole divorce thing too while you’re at it. Club’s got a lawyer, I’ll set up an appointment for you. I can pretty much guarantee your ex won’t put up a fight.”

He smiled when he said it—not a nice smile.

“Okay, I’ll go check it out,” I said slowly. “This is weird, you get that? You kidnapping me, holding me hostage and then sending me to school? This isn’t how things like this usually work.”

Horse grinned at me, eyes lazy and satisfied.

“Just roll with it,” he whispered. “And keep doing whatever exercises you do to make your cunt squeeze like that. They got a college degree for that?”

“You’re a pig,” I whispered back. “You know that, right?”

“So far bein’ a pig works for me, babe,” he said. “Gotta go now. Check out the college. Hit the clinic and get some pills. Don’t call your brother. Cook something fuckin’ great for dinner and don’t wear any panties. That’s all I ask.”

With that he pushed himself up off the couch. I watched him pull up his pants, stunned and bemused. He walked out the front door. I heard his bike roar to life and then I was on my own.

That whole cooking dinner/no panties thing didn’t quite work out.

My trip to Coeur d’Alene was great. I didn’t really know my way around, but it wasn’t hard to find downtown. It was right next to the great big giant lake that gave the place its name, sort of a “once you drive into the water you’ve gone too far” kind of situation. I stopped off and bought a cup of coffee and a bagel at a little coffee shop right down on Sherman Avenue, the main strip through town. The waitress there helped me find the college campus—surprisingly, just a few blocks away, also on the lake. I ended up walking there along a broad, paved trail that had a beach on one side and a really pretty park on the other. Everywhere I looked there were kids running around and having a good time, punctuated by painstakingly casual groups of teens in tiny swimsuits trolling with their friends. Just offshore, a seaplane took off from the water. Farther along I saw someone parasailing.

The trail took me into a residential neighborhood and then I started seeing college buildings. From there it was easy to find the admissions office. I talked with a lady for close to an hour and left with a handful of brochures.

On the walk back I saw a bank, so I went and checked my balance on their ATM. Exactly $1,146.24 total. Seeing my balance felt good, and I got out $200 in cash, just in case. Horse said he’d give me money, but I hadn’t given up on finding a way to earn my own. It might be okay to play house with him for a while, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think I should count on him. I couldn’t define what we had, and I couldn’t afford to fool myself about my situation. I was a still-married woman held as collateral by a motorcycle club for her brother’s debt.

I might have to leave town in a hurry at some point.

I finished up by visiting the women’s clinic and got a prescription, reminding myself I was way too early in my cycle to seriously worry about a pregnancy. That seemed like enough for one day, so I headed home to start dinner. Horse hadn’t said what time he’d be back but I didn’t want to call and ask. That would be a little too real or something. Playing house scared me.

There were two strange cars in the driveway when I pulled up—a small, red convertible and a classic Mustang, beautifully restored. I parked my little car next to them, wondering who I would be dealing with now. No sign of Horse’s bike, and he hadn’t mentioned someone coming to visit either. I pushed through the front door to find four strange women sitting in the living room, laughing and drinking beer. All of them had that biker chick vibe going on—not slutty, but definitely not shy about showing some skin. They smiled and started coming toward me. Thankfully, Darcy walked in from the back of the house, carrying a tray with a bowl of chips and some dip on it.

“Marie! I’m so glad you’re back, we weren’t sure how long you’d be!” she said, setting down the tray on the coffee table and pulling me into her arms. It was a little overwhelming but it felt good too. Then she let me go and turned me toward the other women, who’d collected around us.

“Girls, this is Marie,” Darcy said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “She’s Horse’s property now, think I filled you in on that. Marie, this is Cookie, Maggs, Dancer and Em.”

I smiled uncertainly at the women as they crowded forward, most of them hugging me and kissing my cheek. They ranged in age from Em, a young girl who looked strangely familiar to me and had to be in her early twenties, to Darcy and Maggs, both of whom were probably in their forties.

“Come on,” said Cookie, taking my arm and pulling me toward the couch. Dancer grabbed my purse and hung it on a hook by the door. Maggs handed me a beer and they settled like a flock of birds, watching me. Awkward… I couldn’t even remember all their names, let alone think of anything to say.

“I’m Dancer,” said a tall, black-haired woman with chocolate-brown skin. Her features were sharp and she wore her hair long and straight down her back. She looked Indian to me, and I wondered if she was part of the Coeur d’Alene tribe. I’d seen several historic markers around town, and a lot of them seemed to be sponsored by the local tribal casino. “I’m Bam Bam’s old lady.”

That startled me—Horse was pretty darn pale to be this woman’s brother, but he’d said his sister was married to Bam Bam.

“You’re Horse’s sister?” I asked. Then I blushed, realizing how rude I must sound. She laughed.

“Half-sister,” she said. “I’m Coeur d’Alene, he’s not, but it works. Bam and I have been together forever, got three beautiful little babies to prove it. I’m really happy to meet you, honey.”

I smiled a little uncertainly.

“I don’t know how much you know,” I started to say, thinking I should probably clear things up pretty quick here before they got the wrong impression.

“We know it all,” said Maggs. She was petite with shaggy blonde hair, bright eyes and a great big smile. She reminded me of Goldie Hawn. “I hope you don’t mind, but Darcy told us. I mean, some of it’s club business and we don’t have those details, but she told us everything you told her.”

I frowned. I guess I hadn’t exactly sworn Darcy to secrecy, but I hadn’t expected her to make all the details public either. Maggs reached forward and took my hand, rubbing it between hers with a look of concern.

“Oh honey, don’t worry,” she said quickly. “We’re all family here. If you’re with Horse, you’re with us and trust me, these boys cause enough trouble that they need all of us to keep them straight. It’s a group effort.”

The others murmured agreement.

“Old ladies have to stick together,” Darcy said. “Things can get rough, but no matter what we have each other. This is your family now, and we’re here to welcome you.”

I shook my head.

“I’m not Horse’s old lady,” I said. “I don’t know what I am, but we’ve only been together for a couple of days.”

“Bam says Horse is crazy for you,” Dancer said. That caught my attention in a big way. “Never seen him this way. You may not get this, but my brother doesn’t exactly have trouble finding women. He doesn’t need to drive across the state to get laid, Marie. And this collateral bullshit? The club doesn’t work that way, this is a special situation. He’s never brought anyone home before. Never.”

“Really?” I asked, still uncertain.

“Never,” she replied. “It’s a rule of his, actually. ‘No bitches in the house.’ Drives me crazy, he’s such a dumbass, sexist pig about it. Been that way since high school.”

“Wow.”

“Wow is right,” chimed in Em, a tall, slender girl with a shy smile. “I never thought Horse would hook up with someone. We’re excited to have you here. I’m Picnic’s daughter.”

“I saw your pictures!” I said, placing her now. I could see Picnic’s features in her face, although softened and feminine. “He showed them to me once when they came to visit. He’s really proud of you.”

“Thanks,” she replied, blushing. “It’s good to have you here. Dancer’s right, the club is like a family and sometimes it feels like we’ve got a lot more brothers than sisters. We’re excited to get to know you.”

“No kidding!” chimed in Cookie, a bouncy, petite girl who had bright red curls, green eyes and lots of freckles. “I’m Bagger’s old lady. You haven’t met him, he’s over in Afghanistan right now. We girls have to stick together, for sure. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have Maggs and Dancer and the others to keep me sane.”

“I guess that means it’s my turn,” Maggs said. “I’m with Bolt, you haven’t met him yet either. He’s down in Kuna, at the prison.”

That caught my attention. Why was her man in prison? I felt for her, thinking about visiting Mom in jail. Prison had to be so much worse, and for longer too. I knew for myself that good people could do stupid, stupid things.

“My mom’s in jail right now,” I told her, taking her hand. “She’s going to get out in a few months though. Have you been on your own for long?”

“About two years now,” she replied, looking momentarily tired. “But we’re working on an appeal. I know everyone says this, but Bolt honestly didn’t do what he went down for, and we can prove it. It’s actually been kind of a big case. Every time there’s a hearing we have reporters come around like a bunch of fucking scavengers—there’s a big scandal about prosecutorial misconduct and mishandling DNA evidence. At least I don’t have to deal with it alone though.”

“Exactly,” said Darcy. “None of us are alone. And this isn’t all the girls either. This is just the posse I managed to round up on short notice. Between the Reapers and the Silver Bastards there are about fifteen old ladies, and we stick together.”

“What about those girls at the party last night?”

Em made a gagging sound.

“They’re definitely not family,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Bunch of sluts and losers.”

“Some of them are nice girls,” Cookie protested. “I met Bagger at a club party.”

“That was a real party,” said Em. “Not one of those drunken fuckfests my dad likes to pretend I don’t know about.”

“Whoever they are, they aren’t old ladies,” said Dancer firmly. “They aren’t like us, and you aren’t like them,” she added, catching my eye.

“And that’s why we’re here,” said Cookie. “We decided you probably need a break, so it’s ladies’ night. We’re going to take you out and show you just how much fun your new sisters can be.”

I sat up straight, shaking my head and leaning forward to set down my untouched beer. They might not understand my situation, but I certainly did. Going out to party was not on the agenda. Horse left me with orders and I intended to follow them.

“I don’t think Horse would like that,” I said. “He told me to make dinner, I think he was planning something…”

I trailed off as Dancer walked over to my purse, pulled out my phone and scrolled through the numbers, hitting one and putting it on speaker. It rang and then I heard Horse’s voice.

“Babe, what’s up?”

“This is your sister,” Dancer announced, flashing an evil grin. “We’re kidnapping Marie and taking her out tonight. You’ll just have to jack off if you get horny. She’ll be busy.”

There was a pause from the phone.

“Give the phone to Marie,” he said. “I need to talk to her.”

I lunged for it, but Dancer tossed it to Cookie, who jumped up on the couch to hold it out of my reach. “Too bad! I’ve got a cooler full of jello shots and a flask, so we’re gonna have fun fun fun! You might as well camp out at the armory tonight, stud.”

The girls all laughed, but I felt a little sick. I couldn’t afford to piss Horse off. They might think I was part of the “family” now, but I knew better.

“Put Marie on the fucking phone,” Horse said again, and the tone of his voice was not amused one little bit.

“This is Dancer again,” said his sister, grabbing the phone from Cookie and taking it off speaker. “You might as well give up, Horse. We’re going to take her, she needs a break and you’re a dick if you won’t let her have one. I heard what you did last night. Poor girl probably needs therapy after that. I promise I’ll take good care of her and drive sober. Find something to do that doesn’t involve shooting anyone, okay?”

Then she hung up the phone.

I stared at her, stunned.

“You can do that?” I asked.

“What?”

“Hang up on Horse.”

Dancer burst out laughing.

“Oh, he’ll be pissed. He and Bam’ll probably bitch to each other all night. But we’re just going out for a little fun and he’ll look like a pussy-whipped baby if he makes too big a deal out of it. And our boys may be pussy-whipped, but they sure as fuck don’t want to look like they are. It’s all good.”

I wasn’t too sure about that.

“Time for shots,” said Cookie, hopping off the couch and walking toward the kitchen. The others pulled me to my feet and dragged me down the hallway, my phone left behind. Then the music started and things got a little crazy.