Gonzo (Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club Book 7) (12 page)

C
onnie

I
awakened
with an arm over me, and my leg over a leg, and I froze. The night before came back in a flash, but I didn’t remember anything past lying in his arms on the recliner.

I tried to get up, but he pulled me to him as he mumbled, “It’s early. Go back to sleep.”

“I need to… I need the bathroom.”

He let me up and I stumbled to the toilet. Part of me wanted to be pissed at him for taking liberties and sleeping with me, but I’d slept so good last night it was hard to work up to being angry.

I slid into a thick terry robe while I was in the bathroom, and walked to the door so I could look into my bedroom. His bare chest showed above the sheet, and I said, “Please tell me you aren’t naked.”

“I kept my boxers on. Come back to bed, I like snuggling with you.”

I’d hated his beard when I first met him, but I kinda liked it now. I leaned against the doorframe and told him, “I need to see the boxers.”

He grinned as he flipped the sheets down, and I blushed as I realized they weren’t normal boxers and I could easily see the outline of his… “God, pull them back up!”

He pulled them back up with a mischievous grin. “I’m not bashful, sweet Connie.” His chuckle made me all warm again, and I shook my head. “I can’t believe you slept with me.”

“We just slept. Please don’t make it more than it was.”

“You took my pants off.”

“And left everything else on.”

I looked at the clock, debated with myself, and then walked back to the bed. He hadn’t been inappropriate last night, and I’d liked waking up next to him. He held the covers up, I took my robe off and got under them, and he snuggled me beside him again.

“We can only chance this another thirty minutes or so, and then we run the risk of the twins waking up. I don’t want them to see us in bed together.”

“Yeah, how will we explain how we didn’t get each other’s cooties?”

“We’re a man and woman, not a girl and boy. We don’t have girl cooties and boy cooties anymore.” He burst out laughing, and I snuggled into him even more as I said, “I watched you walking around talking to people at the party. Everyone knew you. Some seemed wary of you, others were friendly, but you didn’t have to be introduced to anyone.”

“I’m usually not very talkative. I walk with Duke or Brain and listen, and might contribute a little to the conversation, but I pick up on nuances they sometimes miss while talking. Yesterday, I approached people on my own and… yeah, it frightened a few of them.”

“Why was yesterday different?”

He sighed. “Harmony says I’ve been dead, a human walking around with no emotions. At first I thought she was exaggerating, but I’m beginning to think she might have been right. The twins have brought me back to life — walls I put up to protect myself are gone. I never intended them to come down.”

I turned toward him as I moved, and rested my head on his chest. I did a double take when I saw a heavy chair in front of the nightstand. He saw me looking and sighed. “I wore my piece on my ankle at the picnic, but didn’t want to leave it out where one of the kids might find it if they got up and walked around. This way, they’d have to move the chair to open the drawer. I sleep light and would likely awaken just by them giggling as they walked down the hall, and I’d probably have heard the drawer opening, but I knew for sure I’d hear them moving the chair.”

He stroked my hair. “If I’m going to stay here much then I’d like to install a safe somewhere close to wherever I’ll be sleeping.”

“They know their gramps wears a gun on his hip, and they know they aren’t supposed to talk about it. In the next week or two we should let them know you sometimes wear one like Gramps, and if they feel it or see it, they shouldn’t mention it.” I felt him physically relax, and I realized he’d been worried about my reaction. “I’ve been around guns all my life. I didn’t choose to buy one and stay trained, but I’m not anti-gun. I know you’ll be safe with it.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Your hair’s really soft.”

I leaned my head so I could kiss his chest, and I could’ve sworn I heard his heart beat faster. I lifted my head and met his gaze. “You liked that?”

“It’s the first time you’ve kissed me.”

He was right. He’d kissed my forehead, cheek, nose, and even the top of my head more times than I could count, but I’d never kissed him.

“I didn’t think about it ahead of time. It just felt right.”

“I’m glad it did.” He pulled my head back down. “We have five more minutes before you say the twins might awaken, so lay your head down and snuggle. I can leave before they get up so they don’t know I stayed, or I can hang out until around eleven because I have to be somewhere at noon and I’d like a quick shower first.”

I wanted to ask if he was meeting a girl, but I didn’t. It was none of my business.

“We’re going to skip Sunday school, but church is at eleven.”

“Okay, I’ll leave before you get them up, then.”

He’d asked once about my religious beliefs and I hadn’t answered him, but figured I owed him an explanation. “The church we go to is more about making contacts than worshiping God. I know you think society’s rules are silly, but they need to know about the bible stories, and they need the foundation of going to church every week if they want certain doors to be open to them when they’re older. If we didn’t live in the South it might be different, but…” I rested my hand on his stomach, over the top of the sheet. “I believe in God, I’m not a hypocrite, but I have to admit I chose this church because of the social standing it would give us.”

“You aren’t so different from me. You’ve chose to fit into society, but you at least realize the rules you’re following are arbitrary.”

When the time was up he got out of bed, put the chair back on the other side of the room, and then retrieved his gun and holster and put them on his ankle. He slid into his pants, pulled his shirt on, and said, “I’m pretty sure you can lock and arm the door from up here. I’ll let myself out.”

My stomach flip-flopped as I asked, “How did you know?”

He pointed to the center of my window. “High dollar window sensors, and tiny pinpoint cameras outside, also high dollar. There’s an infrared sensor on the steps, which I assume is armed at night so you know if anyone comes up them, or if the twins wake up and decide to go downstairs. With that kind of hardware, the rest of the system will be top of the line, too.”

“It’s supposed to be undetectable.”

“Would be to most. I’m used to looking for them.”

“Do you break into people’s houses?”

“No. I’ll let myself out. We’ll talk later today, I hope.”

And he was gone.

When he’d massaged my shoulders the other night, I’d wanted more of whatever he did on my neck and around my ears. I’d been disappointed when he stopped. And now, last night, he’d slept with me and we’d cuddled and snuggled, but he hadn’t so much as kissed me.

I was both relieved and disappointed, and I wasn’t sure what to do with my mixed emotions.

I walked through the house and put things away that were out of place. I made sure nothing would tell the twins their father had spent the night, and then I woke them for church.

G
onzo

I
went
in the side door and made it to my room without seeing anyone. I stripped and fell into bed, and slept another two hours before I finally took a shower and got dressed for the day.

The women had mostly cleaned the small stuff, so we only needed to move the tables and chairs, empty and store the huge ice bins, and pull the large tent down and put it away. It still took us an hour. We can’t order the prospects to do this because they aren’t trusted in the storage areas, so this part’s on the full members. I hadn’t been around to help set up, so I had to be here to help tear everything down.

We had a full clubhouse, and I grabbed a beer and headed toward a chair with a prospect in it. He stood and got out of the way as I approached, and I took a seat. We once again had two games going on different seventy-inch screens, and Bash was in charge of deciding which we got to hear. Angelica was curled up with her head in his lap, sound asleep, and I smiled as I figured he’d worn her out last night.

Tiny and Sheila came up from downstairs and I could tell Sheila had been crying. Tiny looked pissed, and Brain muted both televisions.

“I need everyone’s attention for a moment,” Tiny said, his voice even deeper than normal. “What Sheila did is between she and I, but she needs to be spanked and I’ve decided the club needs to witness it.” He looked at Sheila. “Strip.”

She took her shirt and bra off, then slid out of her jeans and underwear at the same time. He sat on a barstool and Tiny lifted her and settled her across his lap, high in the air so she couldn’t reach the ground with her hands or feet. He held her in place with one hand, and everyone in the room flinched when the first smack of hand on ass echoed through the room — Tiny wasn’t messing around. Sheila’s short scream came a split second later, but Tiny’s hand was already on its way back. I doubt anyone counted, including Tiny, and I got the feeling he spanked her until his arm was tired. She screamed and begged, and later cried while screaming and begging, but he didn’t relent.

When he finally finished, he stood her in front of him and said, “You pull a stunt like that again and I’ll tie you up downstairs for twenty-four hours and let the MC have their way with you,
however
they want. Do you understand?”

“I’m sorry, Tiny!”

“Your
ass
is sorry, but I’m still not sure about the rest of you. Now go stand in the naughty corner, and if I catch you touching your ass I’ll spank you again.”

I saw the glint of a butt plug as she walked, and I wondered what in the hell she could’ve done. Sheila and Tiny were together when I prospected in, and ol’ladies are almost never punished publicly.

Tiny grabbed a beer and took a seat as he told Bash to turn the volume back up. Sheila stood in the corner a little over an hour before he told her to put her clothes on and sit on the floor at his feet where he could keep an eye on her.

I was glad Harmony and Gen weren’t here, and when they showed up twenty minutes later and curled into Brain and Duke’s laps, I had a feeling Tiny had given them a heads-up. I made a mental note to tell everyone at our next church session that if I was ever here with Connie, I’d need a heads-up, too.

Angelica woke for the spanking, but then put her head back in Bash’s lap and seemed to have crashed again when it was over. Bash got a phone call and motioned to Dawg, and when he got up, Dawg sat in his spot and Angelica snuggled into his lap. I still didn’t quite understand, but it seemed to work for them and I’d become accustomed to it.

Five minutes later I got a text telling me to come to the control room, and they buzzed me in as I approached the door.

“I need to go take care of some johns who apparently decided to follow one of our girls home last night,” said Bash. “She gave the all clear when she got home, but they came in on her after she made the phone call. Wanna help?”

I nodded and handed my phone to McGyver. He put it in a drawer along with Bash’s, and gave us both an earpiece.

McGyver showed us images of three men, and gave us the address he’d tracked their phones to. “Ghost is already there doing recon. He’ll find you when you arrive.”

Right, ’cause we wouldn’t find Ghost unless he wanted to be found.

I pulled my hair into a ponytail and checked my weapon, which was back on my hip where it belonged. Bash and I both donned ballcaps and sunglasses, and we made our way three blocks over to the address. We know where to walk to avoid the city’s cameras, but we only had to avoid two, thank goodness.

“Do you know what Sheila did?”

“Nope. Brain and Duke were told she was going to be publicly spanked and they should send Gen and Harmony away, but that’s all I know.”

“Did you catch that she was wearing a plug?”

“Yeah. I hope they get it worked out. What’s the deal with your Connie?”

“I have no
fucking
idea.”

He laughed. “Oh, you poor thing.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Ghost indeed found us about a half block from the house. “There are five people inside. Three in the front room, two in the kitchen at the back of the house. Everyone’s downstairs.”

Bash nodded. “I’ll go in the front, the two of you take the back. Disable and disarm all five, and then we’ll punish the three who need it.”

We busted in and jumped them so fast, no one had a chance to fire a single shot.

They couldn’t tell us why they’d done it, but also said no one had paid them. I didn’t buy it, and I broke the pinky finger of the one I thought I could make talk. He screamed in pain and I grabbed his ring finger and prepared to break it, too.

“Mick! Mick paid us! She used to work for him!”

I looked at Bash and he asked the asshole, “Mick wants her to think we can’t protect her, so she’ll go back to him?”

The man I was holding nodded, and I asked, “Where’s Mick?”

“Rossville Boulevard,” said Bash. “Just this side of the state line. He has lots of muscle protecting him. We’ll need serious recon and a lot more than three of us to make a point.”

I nodded. “I’ll work over the one I already started on. Ya’ll can draw straws for the other two.”

I beat the ever-living-hell out of my guy, and Bash and Ghost did the same with theirs. We divested the other two of their cell phones and told them to go to the bathroom, and not to come out unless they wanted a beat-down, too.

Brain collected all five cellphones, and we stopped at the backdoor long enough to
change
our hands and arms to wolf and back to get rid of the scuffed knuckles and most of their blood on us, and we went out a back alley.

We walked in the opposite direction of the compound, once again careful to avoid cameras. The control room had someone pick us up a couple of blocks over. We’d all worn black shirts, and we stripped them off and put the white, grey, and hunter green shirts on waiting for us. The van drove into a bay of the bike shop, and we dumped our shirts into a bleach vat before going downstairs and through the tunnel to the bar. We came up, walked through the bar, and Ghost stayed to bounce while Bash and I walked out the front door and went back to the clubhouse.

The control room would fuzz out the last couple of hours of activity at the bar in case someone with a warrant came asking for it.

I didn’t expect anyone to call the cops, but it never hurts to create reasonable doubt. I much prefer doing this kind of thing at night, but Bash wanted to jump them right away, so we did.

I had a missed call and a text when I got my phone, and the text was Britches saying she wouldn’t be able to clean my house for a while.

Her phone went to voicemail when I tried calling, and I walked out to the main room and showed Duke. “Do you know what’s up with Britches?”

He shook his head and looked at Angelica, still cuddled up to Dawg. “They were going to do the thing today. I wonder if it worked?”

“Can you call your friend and check?” I asked.

She was sent to voicemail, and she left a short message to call her back and let her know how it had gone with Britches.

I looked at Duke and he said, “If we haven’t heard from her in an hour we’ll send Bash and Angelica to check on her.”

Thankfully, Britches called me about fifteen minutes later to tell me, “It worked. I don’t know how long I’ll have to talk, but I’m okay, just working on keeping control.”

“You’re safe where you are?”

“Yes. I’m good. Thanks for checking on me.”

“You’re one of ours. If you need us, call.”