“I didn’t say anything.”
“Dani,” he said. “I love you. I’ve known it since the first time I saw you.”
Yes, he does. “I love you,” I said. For the first time.
“Wait,” he said. “Here.” He slid out of me, cock glistening with my wetness, and stepped out of his clothes. He lifted my dress over my head and led me to the bed. “I love you.”
“I love you.” I didn’t believe in this love shit, right? And we hadn't known each other long enough. This was too crazy.
Blaze slid back inside me, back where he was before. Back where he belonged. My safety. This time, we made love slowly, tenderly, for what seemed like forever, in sync, like we were part of each other.
“Blaze,” I gasped. “I’m so close.” He thrust into me, short bursts, bringing me further and further until I was past the point of no return, and I climaxed as he came inside me, the heat from my orgasm radiating from my belly, an explosion so strong I could barely hang on. I bit down on his shoulder to muffle my cries.
Afterward, Blaze looked at me, my pussy still throbbing as I came down from my climax. “I love you,” he said again.
“You know what? You didn’t even wait until I finished saying it before,” I said. “What if I was saying something else? Like how I loved your cock?”
“I knew you weren’t saying that.”
“How do you know?” I teased. “You have no idea.”
“It’s obvious you love my cock. It doesn’t need to be said.” He grinned. “Now, it’s obvious you love me too.”
“You’re all kinds of cocky now, aren’t you?”
“Not cocky. It’s a fact. It’s not arrogance if it’s true.”
“You’re going to be insufferable now, aren’t you?”
“That’s right, sweetheart,” Blaze said, kissing me. “And I’m all yours.”
I groaned loudly, in mock protest. “Can I take it back?”
“Nope, sorry. No refunds, no returns.”
“Damn it.” I was silent, hanging on to him, wanting this moment to last just a little longer. I knew what waited for me on the other side of the door, what we had to do. “Blaze?”
“Yeah, sweetheart.” Somehow his use of sweetheart didn’t sound so sarcastic anymore.
“We have to talk to Benicio.”
He nodded. “While you were in here, we were talking. We have a plan.” “Will she be okay, do you think?” Benicio asked, nodding in the direction of the bedroom. We sat in his office drinking scotch. Right now, I could drink a bottle myself.
“She’ll be okay. She’s a strong girl. She just needs some space.”
“You and her,” he said. “Do you love her?”
“Yes.” It came out, an automatic response. Do I? It's only been a few weeks.
Benicio nodded. “I can see that. You look at her the same way I used to look at her mother. Dani is very much like her mother, I think- not just in looks. Her mother was so strong, through everything. So fiery. You should have seen her in the beginning. Guillermo took some of that from her, even before…” His voice trailed off.
“That’s Dani,” I said. “She’s all fire.”
“Your club-” Benicio said.
“The Inferno MC.”
“You’re involved with Guillermo now, on his payroll. Yes?”
“We’re tied to him now,” I admitted. “We made a deal with him to start providing security for his business.”
“What if I made you a better offer?” Benicio asked.
“Are you sticking around here?”
“I would like to stick around, provided I am able to get rid of certain problems. I’d like to get to know my daughter.”
“I’d have to bring it to the club.” Benicio seemed different than Guillermo, but I wasn’t about to consider another deal without some research first. Without knowing whether we were making another deal with the devil.
“Fair enough,” he said. “Now, let’s talk. I have a plan. Can you call your club, set up a meeting?”
I nodded. “You get my bike back here and it’s done. But get somebody that won’t fuck it up. If that bike has the tiniest scratch, I’ll cut the guy who's responsible for it.” Shit. I couldn't believe I was about to let someone ride ride my bike back here. But I needed to see Dani. I had things I needed to say. “Are you nervous?” I gripped Dani’s hand as we walked toward the clubhouse, and she squeezed it tightly.
“Not at all,” she said. “I mean, there’s nothing to be worried about, right? It’s only my first time being inside a motorcycle clubhouse and the first time meeting your family, where you’re about to discuss a plan that probably involves killing the only father I’ve ever known. No, I’m not nervous at all.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Blaze said.
“So you say.”
We walked in, flanked by an army of Benicio’s personal security, still dressed in suits. They were way overdressed for this shithole. The clubhouse was nothing more than an old warehouse we had re-converted and it didn’t look all that far removed from its original appearance. I glanced at Dani, watching her expression as she looked around. Thank God it was not a party night. As wild as I thought Dani had the potential to be, there was no way I’d want her first exposure to the club to be one of those nights. I was afraid she’d turn around and walk straight out the door.
The brothers were congregating, waiting for us. It wasn’t scheduled, but Mad Dog had called an emergency meeting of voting members of the club. That meant thirty or so guys sitting around the house. Not a party night, but loud and raucous, like any time everyone was in a room together.
“This is your place,” she said.
“Yep.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, it’s about time!” Tank clapped me on the shoulder. “It’s been weeks. Thought you must have gotten lost in pussy.”
Goat wolf-whistled as he walked over, his eyes appraising Dani. “I’d get lost in that pussy anytime.”
I felt heat on my cheeks, even though I knew Goat was harmless. Behind me, Benicio cleared his throat. That was his daughter Goat was talking about, and Benicio was armed. But before I could say anything, Dani’s voice rang loudly above the din of the clubhouse.
“Honey, I imagine you’d get lost in any girl’s pussy, what with that tiny little prick of yours,” she said as she stepped close to him and cupped his crotch.
Goat bellowed, slapping his knee amid the hoots and hollers of the guys. “She don’t take no shit! You better watch yourself. Protecting this one could be trouble.”
Tank motioned toward the group. “Everyone’s here, Veep.”
“What about Mad Dog?”
“He’s in the back. I’ll get him.”
I turned to Dani. “I wanted you to see the place, but you can’t be here while we meet.” We’d already discussed it in the car, but I didn’t know if she’d take kindly to being told she couldn’t be there, especially since this involved her so much.
She shrugged. “Yeah, I know. Show me where I’m supposed to wait.”
“In the back,” I said, gesturing to one of Benicio’s men to escort her. It was part of the rules, no women at a vote. Even having her wait in the back was unusual, but then having Benicio here was unusual as well. Besides, I wasn’t going to leave Dani behind, even with Benicio’s men on her. It was too dangerous right now. I didn’t want her out of my sight. “Here’s the situation,” Mad Dog said. “We voted on the job with Guillermo Arias, the protection we’ve been providing at the warehouses the past few weeks. Blaze has been protecting the daughter-”
A few whistles and snickers rippled through the group and I glared in the direction of the noise.
“But he’d asked for a hit on this kid, played it off as an easy hit on a college kid who’d beat up his daughter. College kid’s not any regular college schmuck. He’s a Randolph. Who are these people again?”
“Think the Kennedys. He’s from that kind of family,” I said. “They would come down on the club, and we think that’s one reason Guillermo contracted this out to us.”
“He was supposed to have an issue with the Furia MC, who’d been doing his security work before. We were being contracted for protection because the Furia had some dealings with the Armenians, and Guillermo thought it was too high profile. He thought it would bring heat down on him. We got some confirmation of the alliance before, and it looked legit. But we dug more, and that info fell apart. We think this was bullshit he was feeding us.”
“Why?” Axe leaned forward.
“If I know Guillermo,” Bernicio said, “This is probably a play at getting rid of the club.”
“But we didn’t have any dealings with him before this,” Axe said.
“He’s paving the way to something greater,” Bernicio said. “Guillermo is a master planner. He’s always thinking about the end game. He has something planned, and my guess is you’re in the way- maybe a route or something he needs to control.”
I nodded. “I think this is what’s happening. It doesn’t make any sense that he would cut off the Furia and the Armenians because he wanted to lay low, but then contract us to do a high-profile hit that could bring down heat on him. I think he plans to let us take the fall for everything, or he’s using us as misdirection for something else. Something bigger. We’re all sitting on those warehouses, using all our resources.”
“So you have a plan,” Axe said.
I nodded, gesturing to Bernicio.
“This is what I would do,” he said. Then he laid it out for us, as clear as day. Thirty minutes of meeting, and by the end, we were in unanimous agreement. “We’re straight,” I said. Dani was hunched forward in a chair in front of a television set, PlayStation controller in her hand, fingers moving. “You entertaining yourself?”
“Ethan here showed me this game,” she said, nodding to the security guy in the corner. “It’s pretty fun.” Her animated figure shot something on the television, then she turned to me. “I needed a distraction.”
“We’re going to roll,” I said.
“You sure you’re okay with going back to Benicio’s place? You don’t want to get back to your house or anything?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. He’s got better security too. We don’t want Guillermo finding out we’re back in town.” I also didn’t want her seeing my little shithole apartment a couple of miles from the clubhouse. She would run screaming. There was no doubt about it.
“Do you think he is having us followed?”
“No,” I assured her. “Benicio’s men are good. They would know. But just to be safe, it’s better we stay there. The plan hinges on him not knowing we’re back in town.” Dani stood on her toes, kissing me. I ran my hands over her breasts, down her flat stomach. She took me by the hand and led me to the bed without a word, pulling me down to her. I kissed her hard, wanting her more than anything. This girl had crawled under my skin, and I didn’t want to let her go. Dani moaned, her hand on my cock, guiding me inside. If only she knew what it did to me, hearing her like that, those little moans, the sounds she made when she came on me. It wrecked me.
I moved inside her, and she grabbed the back of my neck, clawed at my shoulders. I felt the heat from her body, her skin slick with sweat. I watched her, the way she scrunched up her face when she got close, how she panted, reminding me of an animal in heat. This girl owned me, and she knew she owned me. When she came, I lost it, my climax erasing everything else in the world, nearly blinding in its intensity.
Afterward, I drew her to me, her head nestled in the crook of my arm as we lay there in this huge room in Benicio’s place. Dani looked up at me, her eyes wide, face flushed from her orgasm.
“I’m worried about tomorrow,” she said.
I kissed her forehead. “Don’t worry about it. Everything is going to be all right.” “Are you ready for this?” I asked. Dani’s face looked pale.
“Yeah,” she said. “It’s no big deal. I do this kind of shit every day.”
I tucked my piece in the small of my back.
“Where’s my gun?” Dani asked.
“You don’t need a weapon,” I said. “You’re going to be out there, talking to your dad, and then you move back to the warehouse where you’re safe. Safer.”
"I'm not going there without a weapon. It's crazy."
"Do you know how to use one?" The last thing I wanted was for her to get herself shot.
Dani looked at me, her lips pursed. “Of course I fucking know how to handle a weapon. My fa- Guillermo raised me around weapons. I’m an expert shot."
“Okay, ma’am,” I said. "Let's get you a weapon." I rode into the parking lot, the bike rumbling beneath me, Dani’s arms wrapped tightly around me, her breasts pressed up against my back. In any other situation, that would have made me instantly hard. But this wasn’t any other situation. I had an uneasy feeling about this, like we were walking into a trap. Our plan was far from foolproof, and was based entirely on the assumption that Guillermo did not know I’d come back with Dani, or that the club was colluding against him.
Benicio had made a call to Guillermo and told him he wanted to meet, that he was willing to trade everything- all the money- for a shot at knowing his daughter. For Guillermo to buy Benicio’s story, he would have to think Benicio was a total sap. He’d have to believe the man was still so much in love with Dani’s mother that it clouded his judgment. I wasn’t sure if he would believe that or not. I was hoping my feelings about Dani weren’t clouding my judgment.
“It’s like the O.K. Corral or something,” Dani said.
“Yeah, if it had been all bikers at the O.K. Corral.”
Guillermo was there, surrounded by six of his meatheads, six that I counted anyway. I wondered if he had others stashed someplace else, the way we did. He would if he were smart. The club was supposed to do a sweep of the area this morning, but I wondered how thorough they’d been. Some of the prospects were morons who couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag without directions. I expected Benicio and the club to be roll up here any minute now.
I turned to Dani. “You remember what to do, right?”
She nodded, her face tense.
“Ok, let’s go.”
I couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride when Dani opened her mouth, playing her part well. “Daddy, what the fuck is going on here?” Her words practically dripped with outrage. “First I get stuck in some shithole with this biker, and now I’m brought to the middle of nowhere? Someone needs to tell me what the fuck is going on.”
“Dani,” Guillermo said, reaching toward her, and I feared he would hug her and find the weapon. She drew back sharply.
“Don’t-” she said. “Just don’t. This is it. I want answers. Did you find the man who killed my mother? Is that why we’re here? I want him to pay.”
“Yes,” Guillermo said. “He’ll pay.”
“I want to see him dead,” she said, sounding angry. I knew the anger was genuine.
“That can be arranged,” Guillermo said as he turned to me. “Where are your guys?”
“They should be here soon.” As if on cue, I heard the rumble of engines, and a line of Harleys rolled in, one after the other- ten of the club members, with Mad Dog at the helm. Mad Dog sauntered up, with Axe beside him and Tank and Tiny following.
“Brother,” Mad Dog said, greeting me as if he hadn’t seen me last night. “It’s good to have you back.”
He turned to Guillermo. “I’ve brought my men. They’re prepared in case anything goes down.”
Guillermo nodded. “He should be here soon.”
“You want us to take care of him, Boss?” Mad Dog asked.
“I’ll be the one to do it. I want to watch him die.”
“Aren’t you going to tell me what’s going on, Daddy? Who killed