The Secrets That Find Us (The Devils Dust MC Legacy)

“Don’t fucking forget that, D,” he grates through clenched teeth and my body buzzes with arousal. Like I should be scared of what he’s capable of.

He’s a beast lurking behind the mask of a southern cowboy but I’m not scared, if anything I feel right at home with him. I’m little red riding hood wanting the big bad wolf to eat her up. Only I would never wear a red hooded cloak, I’m more of a backward cap, leather jacket, and my Chucks kind of girl. Complete with tattoos and black fingernail polish. I cup his cheek, and I can’t help but grin. He looks back at me intently, his eyes softening.

“You really are dangerous, D. You know that?” he whispers, his face slowly descending toward mine as if he’s in a trance, or under my spell.

Just as I think he’s going to kiss me, a knock at the door has us both look toward it.

“Who’s that?” I gasp, lust fading from my high ass and reality slamming me back down to earth. Thane and his men, my stitched face, and forbidden Big Chief all making me suddenly push him away.

“It’s the pizza,” he says unfazed, climbing off the bed he opens the door, not at all concerned the room smells like sex and drugs.

Right, the pizza. I forgot about that. His strong back comes into full view as he takes it from the delivery boy, pays him, and shuts the door. He places the food on the bed. I tug it open and dive in, the smell of smoldering pepperoni and cheese making my mouth salivate, I take a big bite not even caring how hot it is.

Big Chief sits next to me, taking a slice of his own. I can’t help but side-eye him. There’s definitely chemistry between us, but what do we do with it? Ignore it? Take advantage of it while we can? What does he want?

“Why do you have a scorpion tattoo?” His question throws me for a loop.

Not a lot of people know I have it. When I got it, I made sure to put it somewhere nobody would see unless I was naked.

“Um…” I stall, not sure if I want to tell him something so personal but then again he did just save my life, take care of me, and fuck me. How much more personal does it get? Actually, I can tell him a lot more about myself, but the tattoo will suffice.

“In school, I stood out like Wednesday Addams. Girls my age were wearing pink, wanting to be a cheerleader, and dying their hair blonde. I wasn’t.” Softly laughing, I tuck a stray hair behind my ear. “One day our fifth grade teacher told us a story about The Scorpion and The Frog, have you heard it?”

He shakes his head, so I put my pizza down and get comfortable.

“A scorpion wants to cross a pond but he can’t swim, so he asks a frog to carry him across. The frog says no, afraid that the scorpion might sting him, but the scorpion argues he wouldn’t do that because they would both drown. The frog finally agrees to take him and tells the scorpion to hop on. Midway across the water, the scorpion stings the frog anyway. The dying frog asks him why he stung him knowing they’d both die now, and the scorpion replied: ‘I can’t help it. It’s in my nature.’”

“So, you liked the story and got a tattoo?” He still doesn’t understand why I got the scorpion.

He still doesn’t understand why I got the scorpion.

“Well, growing up, kids called me the scorpion because my father and uncles gave off the impression we cannot help ourselves but be evil. We had black leather, dark motorcycles, and Uncle Lip was even in prison once and was all over the TV.”

Big Chief begins to nod as if he’s finally starting to understand.

“I was called scorpion all through grade school and high school. I am the scorpion.” I shrug and pick up my piece of pizza and take a bite.

“Kids are fucking cruel, man.” He grabs another slice of pizza from the box.

“Tell me about it. I couldn’t imagine raising one these days. Some kid would call mine a name, and I’d catch their ass on the playground and scare them until they pissed their pants. Therefore getting me banned from the school probably.”

He laughs. “Banned? I think you’d be arrested!”

“I know a couple bad guys that could hide me.” I wink, referring to my family of bikers.

We eat and the thought of names rolls around in my head before landing on how I knew Thane’s first name but not his last, or his road name. Why do they call him Big Chief, what is his real name?

“So, I told you something personal, tell me, why do people call you Big Chief?”