“I think you should test out the ride for the cans we’re gonna tie to the back of your bike after your wedding.”
Mountain got situated and extended his hand to give Topaz assistance mounting his bike, jealously stabbed Onyx in the heart as she put her arms around, the best she could, on his belly. He didn’t like this at all. The comfort of the two of them had his dumb ass not recognizing he had real feelings for her. But to get them back to Turnabout, he would have to deal. She was unclaimed, a fact he was going to be processing the whole ride and possibly remedying when they returned.
Onyx would never forget the long ride back to the clubhouse. Balancing on the back because there was no way in fuck he’d wrap his arms around Freaky. The man could pitch the bike in the ditch for all he cared. The last thing he would be doing was snuggle. His shoulders, already damaged from being hung by his wrists burned as he clutched the sides of the bitch seat. As if he needed one more reason to feel like less than a man…all he had to do was turn his head to the right to see Mountain and Topaz.
Riding in twos next to the man he wished they’d chose the tandem style, so he wouldn’t have to catch the sight of her resting on Mountain’s back. The helmet was a simple strap on with no visor so the beaming smile on her lips had a fury like he’d never felt before racing through his body. He wanted to kill the other man, even though he had no right because he had committed no violation. It didn’t matter. Mountain would be on his shit list after this.
Joy or contentment it didn’t matter, as he wasn’t the one putting the look on Topaz’s face and it wasn’t something he wanted to see. Turning back toward the road, he stared at the back of Freaky’s head, clenching his jaw praying Topaz’s hour to the compound guess was right.
The landscape flew by them as he watched in the distance for the ranch to emerge.
How could he have ended up here in his life? On track to be SWAT to a member of a fucking motorcycle club. The Steels were a closer brotherhood than the boys in blue, but riding bitch behind Freaky had him needing distance. This just wasn’t what he had in mind with his life. This was stupid. He’d been beaten and degraded in front of a woman, who could never see him as a man now, by a derelict group of men. He wanted his revenge and wanted it in front of Topaz.
No matter what they had shared briefly in a moment of fear and relief, or her calm now there was no way, she hadn’t been effected. He wanted to be the one to show her the justice she deserved. Their lives interrupted, it didn’t matter that they had broken through a barrier telling her story to him in a cabin set to blow was not the way she should have unburdened herself.
It didn’t matter his aversion for explosives, when they got back he was going to talk to Brick and see if there was a way to bomb the shit out of ACT UP and get rid of them completely. The motherfucker loves blowing up mouse like vole holes after Creature and Bailey chased the rodents into their hiding place. The ACT UP assholes couldn’t be much different.
12
It was early evening when they arrived in Turnabout. Topaz had been right, it had been a little over an hour from St. Xavier to Turnabout Creek, or at least the Ranch where Red was raised now housing the Steels. Rolling past Maggie, Red’s mother’s, home at the front of the ranch, they passed the rescue trailer and back further into the compound where the clubhouse sat like a pot of gold at the end of a very long rainbow.
For her, she got hugs and kisses from the women as she dismounted and checked on Mountain’s other passenger. His focus completely on getting the kitten a saucer of milk.
“Come on Spot, let’s get you something for that tummy.” His massive hand delicately holding the mewing cat who seemed a bit upset to not still be riding. More than once on the ride Mountain had to reach into his jacket to tuck the wild child back in his pocket because the kitten seemed to like the wind in her whiskers.
“Spot?” Topaz laughed a bit.
Mountain shrugged. “I think there’s a reason Cass didn’t ask me what to name Maddox.”
“How’s your pocket?” she asked and peeked inside.
“Dry thankfully,” he said, then stepped inside the compound with a few women following the kitten more than him.
In a way, she felt sorry for Mountain. The Hoez accepted him as a Steel, but having not patched in fully, there was a consensus among them to keep a wide berth. The Roadkillers were twisted and fucked up and Mountain had left before the MC had been taken down and even though he had been vouched for by Free the Hoez never gave more than a night or two with the man. Still he’d accepted their ways for a long time and she wondered if that was why Red was holding back the full patch.
When she turned to see Onyx, his return had a very different reaction. Club members degrading the man for riding bitch behind Freaky. Although his eyes were narrowed, he was taking the ribbing well, waving his hands toward him in the ‘come on, get it all out’ style.
“Exactly how nervous are you about Dreamer finding out?” one man said.
“Freaky, know you like pitchin’ like that before you hopped on the back of his bike? Or was he promising you a game of catch that had you hoppin’ on like a school girl?” Another said.
“Good one,”
