All Dogs Bite (Club Chrome 2)

Holy hell, were they having this conversation? Fucking surreal. “Assuming there is another time…yeah, sure.” Even as the words left his mouth, it was as if even his lips knew it was bullshit and turned down at the corners. He could spend days and nights inside Delainey and not complain. And where does that come from, hmmmm? He wasn’t a keeper sort of guy. He was the quintessential love ‘em and leave ‘em type. He couldn’t have Delainey hanging onto him, clinging to his jacket like she was his woman. He had to get his mind back on track, back to what he understood. He shifted and winced as his wound protested with a big fucking Hey-Remember-Me-Asshole? And he had to wait out the roll of pain that followed. “So why no boyfriend?” he asked, trying to keep things simple and to keep her mind occupied while he took a minute to recuperate.

She sighed and began tracing faint lines on his chest with the pad of her finger. “Dating sucks when you’re a big girl,” she answered with an unhappiness that made him want to kiss away the frown he knew she was sporting.

“How so?”

“Because people judge you when they see that you’re not a perfect size four.” She shifted for a better position. “I went on this dating site and at first it was fine. I got quite a few emails from interested guys and then they all just, sort of, fizzled out for one reason or another and I’m not saying that it was all because I’m fat—“

“Hey,” he interrupted her softly. “Is that how you see yourself?”

She nodded.

“You’re sexy as hell. Don’t put labels on yourself that limit who you are.”

“You think I’m sexy?” She giggled softly, the sound tugging at that cold, shriveled thing in his chest that masqueraded as a heart. “That’s sweet.”

“Fuck that, it’s not sweet at all,” he contradicted her. “It’s the truth. Look at my dick, baby girl. Does that look like I’m just being sweet?” Indeed, his cock was already half-swelling just lying there naked together. “My dick doesn’t rise for just anyone. He likes you.”

At that she laughed and actually reached out and curled her hand around the plump rod rising from his nest of pubic hair. “Well, I like him, too. I think we could be good friends, he and I.”

“Hmmm…you think so?” he said, reaching to caress a soft nipple. “You don’t need friends like that, sweetheart. A girl like you needs something real, something worth coming home to.”

“Are you not worth coming home to?” she asked softly and he answered with a resolute shake of his head.

“Hell no. I’m the worst kind of asshole. You don’t want me.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m the kind of guy who ruins girls like you.” It was the bare honest truth. He had no business mucking with her life but he didn’t have a choice right now. “When I’m gone, the best thing you could do is to forget about me.”

She fell silent but her hand remained curled around his cock as if it were safety line, when in fact, it would only drag her down. She finally released him, pulling away to stare at him. “I don’t want to forget you.”

“Yeah? Well, if you know what’s good for you, you will.”

Her gaze narrowed slightly as if contemplating his statement and then she declared, “That’ll be for me to decide, not you. Until then…how much longer do you need before you can go again?”

He stared in shock at the hungry look in her eyes. There was no faking the burn of arousal in her gaze, nor the the way her nipples instantly pebbled, as if already between his lips. “Are you sure?” he asked, shaking his head. He never thought he’d say this, but it would seem he’d run across a woman with a sexual appetite that matched his own. She answered by leaning over and taking his cock straight into her mouth, sending rocketships of pleasure blasting across his nerve endings and he groaned, “I take that as a yes, holy shit, yes.”

At the rate they were going, it would be a damn miracle if he had a drop of semen left in him by morning.

Miss Delainey Jones, for all her seeming innocence, was a fucking insatiable animal in bed, which by all accounts was one of his favorite qualities in a woman.

Ahhhh, Jesus girl…!

-6-

Delainey was softly snoring beside him when he crawled out of the bed, careful not to disturb her. He needed to make a phone call and he didn’t want her listening. Thankfully, she was sacked out and dead to the world. A grin found his lips. The woman was a handful. He liked that. Padding quietly out of the room, he closed the bedroom door softly behind him and walked naked into the living room to snake the cordless phone from the cradle. It was three in the morning but he had to talk to someone from his crew, someone he could trust. He couldn’t wait until he got his hands on a disposable phone either. It was a calculated risk, though. There were precious few people in this world that he gave his trust to, Pyro, was one of them and if he knew the guy, he knew he wasn’t sleeping.

“Who the fuck is this?” Pyro’s voice came on the line, belligerent and suspicious all at once. “And how’d you get this number?”

“Calm down, it’s me, Bronx. You alone?”

“Bronx? What the fuck, dude? Where are you? Shit went down real bad the other night and people are saying, you’re dead. You sure as hell don’t sound dead so what’s the deal?”

“Someone fucking tried their best to make it happen. I sensed something was off and the bullet that was supposed to hit my chest, went clean through my side. Damn lucky. Guess I have a guardian angel after all.”

Pyro grunted. “Sure as shit. So where the hell are you? Whose number is this?”

“Just a friend. Laying low until I heal up. Then I’m coming for the fucker who did this.”

“Do you know who shot you?”

“I didn’t know him. Seemed new to the gang. I wasn’t paying attention because, fuck, I had my mind on the fucking drop but it was all a set up from the start. A damn ambush.”

“Fuuuck,” Pyro drawled and then Bronx heard him scratch his beard from across the line. “So what’s the plan?”

“Don’t tell anyone I called. Let them think I’m dead in a ditch somewhere until I can figure out who might want me dead.”

Pyro chuckled. “You’re an asshole. The list is long.”

“Fuck you,” he shot back but Pyro was right. He wasn’t known for his people skills. “I’ll be in touch. In the meantime, start asking around, quiet-like. See if you can find out anything.”

“Sure, man. Why don’t you just tell me where you’re hiding out and I’ll come get you.”

“No, I’m good where I’m at. No one would think to look for me here. Just do what I asked. I’ll call you. Don’t call this number, you got it?”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t get your panties in a twist.”

“Good.” Bronx let out a breath. “Thanks man. I appreciate it.”

“Sure. I’ll keep the home fires burning while you’re out playing detective.”

Bronx didn’t feel the need to respond and hung up. He trusted Pyro — to a point. But the fact of the matter was, the club made their cash by making deals with shady people and Pyro was right, there was a long list of people who wouldn’t mind putting him in the ground, if not for personal reasons but for business ones, too.

He was the leader of The Road Dogs and things had been chill between his gang and the rival gang, The Kings until recently. Now there was all sorts of weird currents flowing between them. He knew the leaders, Jax Traeger and Hunter Ericksen pretty well. Don’t get the wrong idea — they weren’t friends by any means. Personally, he found them to be too close.