Hard Ride (Filthy Dirty Desires)

As I drive, I think about Silas and the gun shipment. He’s a dangerous man, and I need to stay away from him.

So why am I secretly hoping he’ll be shopping for a banana at my store when I show up there?

Four

Silas

* * *

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Betty since the moment she left me standing in the bathroom after having the best sex of my life. I haven’t wanted to stop thinking about her, if I’m being honest. Fucking her was highly unexpected, but now that I’ve had her, there’s no stopping me from trying to have her again.

She felt like a dream, and my head’s already ten miles high in the clouds as Dragon tries to get the meeting together for the LVMC.

“What did Lewis say?” someone asks, but I can’t get my brain to work right. All I can think about is her.

“Are you even listening, Silas?” Dragon says to me in a gruff, no-nonsense voice.

I run a hand through the thickness of my hair. “Yeah, man. I’m trying.”

“Late night?” Duke asks with a grin.

Every motherfucker around this table knows I went to the Cool Cactus last night looking for answers.

“What happened last night?” Henley asks, before taking a sip from his cup of joe.

I blow out an exasperated breath. “Nothing.” There’s no way I’d tell these assholes I hooked up with Betty. They’d think I was making it up because a girl like Betty doesn’t hang out in low-life clubs like the Cactus.

Hell, she’s too good for a place like that.

She’s way too good for a guy like me.

“What did you find out last night?” Dragon asks me, his eyes holding a hint of worry.

I shrug. “Lewis is checking a few leads. Nothing concrete.”

“Fuck.” Dragon slams a fist on the table and the guys all stare at him. “I won’t go down for a job like this. Stealing a government shipment is hard time. We don’t mess with guns.”

“I don’t think the police would believe you,” Jagger says.

“Look, we’ll figure this shit out,” I say, trying to bolster my club’s confidence. “We won’t go down without a fight.”

They all nod, and we turn the topic onto stupid club shit. I shouldn’t say stupid, because I love this club. The men are like my brothers, but for some reason I just can’t focus on any of it. We end the meeting, and I stand, pushing my chair in.

As I’m walking out, Dragon pulls me aside, and his dark eyes study me. “What happened last night?”

“Nothing,” I answer.

“That’s a lie,” he says, like some kind of psychic. “You did that thing.”

“What thing?”

“Tugging your eyebrow. Like Dad did about Mom.”

This is the thing about working with your blood. They notice little shit, ‘cause they know you inside and out.

I shake my head. “You wouldn’t believe me.”

“Try me. You’re hiding something.”

I stare into my brother’s eyes. “Betty was at the bar last night.”

Dragon steps back with shock on his face. “No shit?”

I run a hand across my jaw, resisting the urge to tug at my eyebrow. “Yeah, she was…” I don’t even know where to begin, but I trust my brother. He knows me like the back of his hand and won’t stop digging until he unearths the truth. “A little out of control. I ended up helping her regain that control in the bathroom.”

Dragon punches my shoulder. “No way. I don’t believe you.”

“Believe it.”

“Fuck, what are you thinking?”

“I don’t know. When it comes to her, I don’t think much.”

Dragon chuckles. “What did she say afterward? Her father won’t find out, will he?”

“She didn’t say anything. She said thanks and ran out the door.”

This makes Dragon laugh harder. “Listen, once was good.” His face drops the humor, and he clasps my shoulder. “You got your fix and can get rid of whatever the infatuation is with her, but you can’t keep doing it. Her father would kill us all, and they’re already giving us trouble with the shipment.”

“Yeah, I know.” I do know. I’ve been thinking about that all morning. About how Chief Hutton is looking for any excuse to lock us all up.

Fucking his daughter would be a good reason.

“I mean it, Silas. No more.”

“Yeah, I got it.”

But I don’t, because as soon as I leave the clubhouse, I hop on my Harley and head to the Hungry Grocer.

I just need to see her one more time.

As I browse the produce section of the Hungry Grocer, my thoughts are a complete mess. I’m trying my best to look like an ordinary customer, checking the quality of various items, but I’m sure I’m failing miserably by the frantic look in my eyes as I scan the store, searching for the raven-haired beauty I can’t stop thinking about. The only woman who will satisfy my appetite.

Last night was a dream, one I keep checking to make sure I didn’t imagine the whole thing.