Counter To My Intelligence (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 7) (8 page)

But I knew one thing for sure.

I needed them…but there were still others in the club just like Shovel.

My job wasn’t done…but my time as a good, attentive father, was.

And I’d pay for that decision every day for the rest of my life.

“I’ve got every available resource, computer geek, and field agent on the lookout for Shovel. Trust me, he’ll be found, and when he is, I’ll give him to you,” Rosenthal explained.

I nodded and stood.

“Crotchet needs to keep off my case. You need to contain him – and keep him contained – and he needs to understand just what he’s dealing with here. Maybe it’s time you share those files with him,” I said softly.

Rosenthal’s eyes held mine and then he nodded once.

“Maybe you’re right. I’ll do that after you leave.”

I nodded and offered him my hand, which he took.

His grip was just as strong now as it was thirty years ago.

“Be careful,” he said.

I shrugged. “Got nothing left to lose, friend. Careful’s not in my repertoire.”

I’d lost everything thirty years ago…and even now with my kids half understanding what I’d had to do, it still wasn’t enough to undo thirty years of damage and probably never would be.

Is that your flashlight or are you happy to see me? Oh, that’s really your flashlight? Bummer.

-Coffee Cup

Sawyer

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” I said, plopping down in the seat across from Silas.

He winked.

“Was here first, girlie,” he mumbled, leaning back against the booth he was in and taking a sip of his beer.

He was right.

I’d seen him the moment I’d crossed the threshold.

“What are you doing all the way out here?” I asked softly.

We were nearly an hour away from our hometown, in a place called Longview.

I knew why I’d come here. I just didn’t know why he had.

“I think it’s a little delicate for your ears,” he chuckled, taking another drink of his beer.

My face flamed as I realized just why.

He was looking for a hookup.

At a bar that was not in his hometown.

Shit!

“Ahhh,” I said, stumbling over something to say and coming up empty.

He grinned, and my nipples started to harden.

“That’s why I’m here, too. Figured I had a better chance with a man that didn’t know my life story,” I murmured embarrassingly.

That, and I just wanted to feel something.

After a little bit of experimentation, I realized that alcohol just made me feel even worse about myself.

Made me relive the nightmares over and over until my drunkenness wore off.

This was the next logical step. Getting lost in someone’s body for a couple of hours.

I was pretty enough.

And my outfit was perfect.

Black five-inch heels. Short skirt. Low cut top.

It was the exact outfit that women wore when they wanted to pick up a man.

When he didn’t say anything, I took that as my cue to leave.

“Anyway…good luck,” I said stupidly.

Jesus, but the man didn’t need luck.

Every female eye in the room was aware of Silas.

He was just that
hot
.

I could feel his eyes on me as I walked away, could practically feel his phantom hands running up the outsides of my thighs to smooth over my ass.

Sweet baby Jesus.

I went straight to the bar and ordered a Jack Daniel’s on the rocks.

I didn’t have time to pussy foot around. If I was going to have the nerve to go home with a man, it’d have to be with a little liquid courage.

The bartender froze when he looked at me, a smile appearing on his face.

I already felt dirty.

So I drank to forget and hoped it’d work like it was supposed to.

After my second drink, I was finally loose enough to venture out onto the dance floor.

There weren’t many dancing, but my devious mind was set on dancing…mainly because the dance floor was directly across from the booth that Silas hadn’t moved from.

Not that he needed to move.

There’s been a plethora of women stopping by his table.

Some had the courage to sit.

Some only walked past and waved.

He never waved back, eyes forward.

The ones that had the courage to sit, he spoke to, but only for a short time.

He was intimidating as hell, which I’m sure they realized after sitting for only a short time.

I weaved in and out of the tables on my way to the dance floor, very aware that I had the attention of many men.

Not the attention of the man I wanted, though.

But we’d just have to see about that.

Silas

I’m not a person known for his good decisions.

I knew I shouldn’t take her.

Knew it was bad on way too many levels.

Yet my dick and my mind were in complete agreement.

And I was a big believer in fate.

We’d both been here looking for the same thing.

An hour away from our normal lives.

She’s a baby.

She’s younger than your kids
.

She was younger than my kids…but she was older, too.

She had eight years of experience on the inside, and if there was one thing I knew, it was that prison changed you.

Made you grow up even when you didn’t want to.

It was either live or die. There was no surviving when you had to watch your back twenty-four hours a day, three-hundred-sixty-five days a year.

I watched as she danced to a song that I hadn’t heard in years.

She moved her hips enticingly, swaying from side to side, sliding her hands into her hair.

The men in the room were captivated.

But they wouldn’t have her.

I would.

Downing the rest of my beer, I moved out of the booth, aware of everyone’s eyes in the room moving to me.

A man that was set to make his move on Sawyer froze in his spot just by a simple glare from me in his direction.

He turned and moved away, the thought of trying for Sawyer dying an agonizing death once he looked into my eyes.

I moved up behind her just as the next song made its way in, and I smiled.

It was perfect.

Mostly because she stopped dancing and turned, seeing me standing there.

Her eyes widened, and she licked her lips.

I walked forward, coming to a stop only inches away from her face.

“You’re sure about this?” I asked softly.

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“You know who I am?” I asked.

She nodded. “I do.”

“You know what I want?” I continued.

She nodded again. “Yeah.”

“I don’t do relationships. And whatever this is, it’s not going to be hearts and flowers. I don’t have time for that,” he said again.

She shrugged. “I don’t have time for hearts and flowers anyway. It’s just not for me.”

I didn’t bother to contradict her.

She deserved the hearts and flowers. But I was a selfish prick.

It was wrong on so many levels that I couldn’t count the ways…but my dick didn’t seem to care.

“Your car or mine?” She asked as we walked past the front door.

I snorted.

There was no way I was squeezing into that tin can she called a car.

I’d seen her car.

It was the size of a shopping cart…or at least that was what it looked like.

It was a 1957 Volkswagen Beetle in a putrid shade of green.

I’d listened to Dallas complain about the car, just two days ago, after she bought it with her first pay check.

Though you had to do what you had to do when it came to your freedom.

“We’ll take mine,” I rumbled as I placed my hand on her back to usher her to my bike. “But mine’s not a car.”

She hissed in a breath when she realized what we’d be taking, and I watched as a shiver rolled over her.

“Okay,” she breathed.

She wasn’t drunk.

That I could tell.

Far from it, in fact.

She was loose, though.

Loose enough that she didn’t care about getting on a bike with a man that was five years short of being twice her age.

“We’re in for a long ride,” I said as she came to a stop next to it. “Do you want to borrow my jacket?”

She looked at my leather jacket, then into my eyes, before she nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

First, I took off my colors, followed shortly by the jacket.

Then I wrapped it around her back and watched as she shrugged on the leather like it was a piece of silk rubbing along her skin.

Possession rolled over me as I realized how much I liked her wearing my coat.

It dwarfed her small body, but she didn’t seem to mind.

Pushing the sleeves up, she smiled before walking up to the bike and studying it.

“How do I get on without flashing the parking lot?”

I smiled as I walked up beside her and tapped the back of one thigh.

“Nobody can see what you got except me,” I murmured. “Throw that leg over.”

She lifted her leg, and I got the briefest glance of her pussy…
that wasn’t covered by a goddamned thing
…before the skirt fell and covered her once again.

But it was enough to change my mind about going all the way back to my house; instead, deciding to hit up the safe house we had in Longview.

I didn’t think I could handle an hour on the bike with her open pussy pressed up against my back.

Nor did I want to.

I was all for instant gratification, after all.

Lifting my leg to swing over the bike, I straddled the seat in front of her and started the bike up with a mutinous roar.

I lifted the helmet from the handle bars and offered it back to her.

“Put this on,” I ordered.

She took it from my hand and put it on her head, scrunching it down tightly to fit on her head.

“Ready,” she whispered.

I smiled. “Yeah, hold on to your titties.”

She squealed in excitement as I made my way out of the bar’s parking lot and into traffic.

I ascertained by five minutes into the ride that she’d never been on a bike before.

And, ten minutes into the ride, I’d decided to ignore my dick’s insistence that we take care of him now, and drove all the way back home.

She was enjoying herself, and I found that I liked when she did that.

I’d not seen her laugh one single time like she had in the hour we were on my bike.

Then again, that’s why I rode in the first place.

Riding a motorcycle was a freeing experience.

You let your mind wander and just let the road take your problems away.

It was like therapy, without the therapist.

A high without the drugs.

By the time we pulled up into my place, I felt like I had a completely different person on the back of my bike with me.

I hadn’t forgotten about the way her very hot pussy felt against my backside…or the way her hands felt when they rubbed up and down my stomach, but I also found myself reluctant to get off the bike.

Something I had to do when I finally turned the bike off after backing it next to my house.

“I didn’t realize you lived on the lake,” she whispered, looking out over the view I had.

I reached my hand back to take the helmet she offered me, but neither one of us made a move to get off the bike.

“I’ve lived here for a couple of years now. My son lives across the lake,” I said, gesturing in the direction of Sebastian’s place.

It was lit like the Fourth of July.

Something I hated.

Not that I’d ever tell him.

I liked him being there, I just didn’t like looking at the fact that he wasted money by leaving all those lights on, ruining my skyline with all those fuckers.

Then again, the same went for Kettle’s place that was next to Sebastian’s.

I wouldn’t bring up the fact that her parents were just down the way from me, either.

I didn’t want to ruin the mood after all.

Especially when I realized how sweet she smelled.

“Do you walk over there, or boat?” She asked me, leaning her head on my shoulder and wrapping her hands around my chest.

“I boat…or ride. Walking it would take a really long time. The lake extends quite a few miles that way,” I said, pointing to the left. “It’d take hours to walk over there. And the other way is just swamp-covered land. Either way you go to get out of this lake, you have to cross bridges. So it’s easier to ride more than anything.”

Her hand started to do something with my lower belly, twisting my shirt in her fingers as she contemplated what I’d said.

And slowly but surely, her worrying pulled the hem up over my jeans, and I caught my breath when her fingers met the bare skin of my lower belly.

My dick started to throb the instant she touched me, and I had to grip my thighs with my hands to keep from throwing her onto the floor of my carport.

“Will you take me for a ride on the lake? I’ve never done that before,” she whispered as her fingers dipped over the ridges of my abdomen.

“Yeah,” I rumbled, closing my eyes when she shifted behind me to scoot closer.

Her nipples rubbed along my back, enticing me.

Her pussy wasn’t helping any either.

“It’s been a really long time,” she said, letting her fingers drop until they played along the waistband of my jeans.

I inadvertently sucked in, allowing the tips of her fingers to dip below the waistband of my jeans until they encountered the wiry pubic hair surrounding my dick.

“I know,” I told her. “Are you sure?”

She shivered at the huskiness of my voice, and I couldn’t help the smile that ticked up the corner of my mouth.

“Yeah, never so sure in my life,” she agreed.

I finally let up on my strangle hold I had on my knees and let my hand travel up and down the outsides of her thighs.

My hand traveled up and down, from knee to hip, back and forth, as she finally worked up the courage to start working at the buckle of my belt.

Her hands were shaky, and I let her do her thing so I didn’t rush her faster than she was willing to go.

But when her hands yanked the zipper down, followed by the button, then dove straight for my cock, I was the one to freeze.