Blood & Bones - Dodge (Blood Fury MC 10)

The lane they were following did branch off to those houses so they had to be part of the same property.

“What is this place?”

“Home to the Blood Fury,” he said.

She glanced around again. “I don’t get it. Does everyone live here?”

“Mostly. A few of us don’t.”

“There aren’t a lot of houses over there. How big is your club?”

“Ain’t big but some of my brothers live in a bunkhouse behind The Barn.” He tipped his head toward the long building to their right. “There’s a coupla apartments on the second floor around back, too.”

“How many of you are there?”

He slowed to a stop near the end of the long shed, put the column shifter into neutral and stomped on the pedal for the parking brake. He twisted his torso toward her. “Thirteen fully-patched. Five prospects, two of those about to get patched-in.”

“What’s a normal-sized club?”

“Ain’t nothin’ normal about any MC. We’re all different. Got different by-laws, rules, limits. They all do their own thing, includin’ us. Our club ain’t been around that long. It’s still growin’.”

“Who started it?”

He pursed his lips for a second and she figured he wasn’t going to answer, but he finally did. “The Originals started it way back in the day, but they also destroyed it. Trip, our president, rebuilt the club from the ground up after his father was responsible for causin’ that destruction.”

“The president destroyed his own club? Something he built?”

“He wasn’t the only one,” he muttered and glanced over his shoulder and through the back window of the pickup’s cab at her band’s bus. “Stay here a sec. Gonna give your guys some instructions. Stay in the warmth.”

He opened the driver’s door, climbed out, then leaned back inside. “Just a word of advice… You guys are here ‘cause of our prez’s generosity. My advice is don’t wander around, don’t be nosy, don’t ask questions. Especially about the club. I gave you too much already.”

He had hardly given her anything at all.

He slammed the door shut. She turned on the bench seat and stared at him through the large rear window as he approached the bus and disappeared inside.

A few seconds later, he and Eddie were standing outside the skoolie and Dodge was pointing at a field beyond the barn.

He wanted them to park in a field? How would that give them the electricity needed for the heaters?

She watched Eddie’s head bob up and down in agreement with whatever Dodge told him. A smile crossed her drummer’s freckled face and he held out his fist for a fist bump.

Syn rolled her lips inward as Dodge stared at Eddie’s fist for a split second, shook his head in the same way someone would roll their eyes and took long strides back to his truck. He yanked open his door, climbed inside and slammed it shut, cutting off the rush of December air into the cab.

Syn’s attention was drawn to the bus passing them and heading toward the field. She gritted her teeth as she watched the vehicle bounce and roll over the rough terrain. If that off-road trip broke the suspension, or anything else, they were thoroughly screwed. They might as well hitchhike south from there with their instruments strapped to their backs.

When she turned back to Dodge, her heart skipped a beat, then raced. He’d been watching her.

He also didn’t bother to hide it when she caught him.

What she saw in his eyes scared her and not because she was worried that he’d hurt her but because she was worried it was the exact opposite.

He admitted to her he was interested.

Right now, that was very fucking obvious. Suddenly, the truck cab got a whole lot smaller.

The heat she was feeling was no longer coming from the vents.

She cleared her throat. “Where are they going? Parking in a field—”

“Ain’t parkin’ in a field.”

“Then—”

“They’re goin’ out there to dump the waste tank.”

She slowly closed her gaping mouth. “Isn’t that illegal?”

His head tipped slightly to the side. “Does it look like I give a fuck if it is?”

No, it didn’t.

“You want it emptied?”

Hell yes. She nodded, unable to pull her eyes from him to check where the bus ended up. Hopefully, the guys had it all under control.

“After they’re done with that, they’re gonna park it next to the shed. There’s water and an electrical hook-up you can use. Any other questions?”

“Is it the right amperage?”

“Yep.”

“How do you know?”

“‘Cause it was installed for one of my brothers and his baby girl.”

“They lived in an RV?”

“Somethin’ similar.”

Syn couldn’t rip her eyes from his throat as his Adam’s apple rolled when he swallowed.

Without dropping his gaze from her, he reached into his cut that had been lying on the seat between them. When she asked earlier why he wasn’t wearing it, he said they didn’t wear their cuts inside of a vehicle. Or, if they did, they wore them with their colors inside out.