Hot as Hades (13 page)

“Everyone is on a need to know basis,” Shep said. “And just now? You don’t need to know.”

Cowboy sighed in resignation. Sometimes obeying commands could be a real pain in the ass, but at least this one didn’t involve his dick.

“All right, then were adjourned, gentlemen,” Captain said, pounding the gavel one last time. “Let’s all get the fuck out of here.”

***

After nearly an hour of and a half of errands, Daisy finally arrived at Eddie’s place. She had a large white colonial house with an enormous wraparound porch, complete with a swing and big comfy-looking rocking chairs out front.

Evidently, club business could be pretty damn lucrative.

 Daisy had always wanted to live in a real home with a real lawn. As children, she and Rose had dreamed of living like the families they saw on TV. All their mother could afford with the money she made hooking were dingy cockroach-ridden apartments. That is, when they hadn’t gotten evicted and had to stay in a shelter for a while.

As Daisy parked her truck in the driveway, she saw two men with “prospect” patches on their backs, lighting candles in hurricane lamps across the eaves of the porch. Another prospect hung pink balloons in bunches, trimmed with white crepe paper. Shepherd stood in the doorway, a Marlboro dangling from his mouth. He watched the men with an impassive face.

A prospect must be a probationary member of the MC, she deduced. She remembered the hell she’d gone through as a recruit and said a silent prayer that crap had ended. Poor leather-vested bastards. She couldn’t only imagine the hoops outlaw motorcycle gangs made you jump through.

She started to open Eddie’s trunk to retrieve the ice, when the woman waved her off. “No, let a prospect get it.”

Then, Eddie ushered her up the stairs. “I assume you’ve met my nephew, Shepherd?” she asked.

“Yeah, I have,” Daisy said grimly. She nodded to the blond biker who looked a lot less than friendly. Evidently, he hadn’t counted on her showing up at a Horsemen social function.

“Daisy.” He inclined his head and moved over, so they could enter.

Eddie’s home was just as gorgeous on the inside. A small oak table sat in the center of the room, holding an enormous vase filled with jonquils. Another table stood against the wall and it had a couple of baskets filled with mail and keys.

 “They got the food and drinks ready. And they’re working on the decorations right now. Anything else you need?” Shepherd asked.

Eddie shook her head. “I’d say we’re ready to go.” She turned to Daisy. “I’m going upstairs to change. Why don’t you have a prospect make you a drink and relax a bit? The girls will be here in a few.”

Fanfreakintastic.
She trudged after Shepherd while Eddie ascended the front staircase.

In the kitchen, she found a male model mixing drinks. He wore a prospect cut and another patch on the front of his vest read “Pretty Boy”. The name was apt. With a nearly symmetrical face, a muscled body, gorgeous green eyes, black hair, and a wicked a smile he belonged on a runway.

She wondered if the Horsemen had ever considered putting together a swimsuit calendar. She had no doubt they’d make a lot of money on it.

Pretty Boy winked at her. “Can I get you a drink?”

“Sure.”

Shepherd sat down on a stool at the breakfast bar, watching the prospect closely.

“Choose your poison.” Pretty Boy gestured to four large mason jars filled with what appeared to be clear liquid and fruit. They each had gingham fabric on the top, in different colors, corresponding to the color of the fruit suspended inside.

“That depends. What is it?”

“Moonshine,” Shepherd clarified.

“And that’s illegal,” Daisy pointed out. She’d seen some show on the Discovery network where law enforcement officers went hunting for stills in the backwoods of Kentucky. They’d hacked them up and poured out the alcohol.

He chuckled. “Not if you don’t get caught.”

The prospect watched her, waiting for her selection.

Daisy had never had it before, so she shrugged. “You choose.”

He picked the one with the pinkish orange top and poured a liberal amount into a chilled glass, along with a healthy amount of ice. Then he filled it to the brim from a pitcher filled with amber liquid. “Here you go, peach ‘shine tea.”

A peach slice swirled along the top of the glass and she took an experimental sniff. It smelled sweet. She’d bet the tea had been laced with sugar. She took an experimental sip.

Woah.
She could taste the alcohol, but the underlying sweetness covered some of it. It was damn good.

“I’d sip it if I were you,” Shepherd warned. “It’s 180 proof. We don’t fuck around with the legal alcohol limit.” She started to head out to the porch, when he snagged her arm and pulled her into the foyer. “I’ve been meanin’ to have a word with you.”

“Must you?” she said with a groan.

He ignored her gripe. “Sweetheart, we need to talk a little business. I want to know where you stand, so I need to ask you a hypothetical question.”

She decided to use an endearment of her own. “Fire away, sugar britches.”

He didn’t even lift the corners of his mouth. “Let’s say an apartment building catches on fire. Being a good little soldier, you want to play hero and rescue all the people inside. Bad news though. There’s only time to get in and out of one apartment, so you got two choices. One place is filled with five strangers, and other has only your sister inside. Who will you save?”

Her military training had been filled with these types of moral dilemmas and she considered it a no-brainer. Not even a question who’d she choose, and she got the sense he wanted to know where her loyalties lie.

“I know what you want me to say. The five people? You guys are a close knit group and you live by a code, right? Good of the many, over the one? But I’m going to choose my sister, every damn time. I’m sorry about the poor bastards in the other room, but she is my priority and always will be.”

He nodded and his features softened slightly. Evidently, she’d given the right answer. “Good choice, sweetheart. Damn straight. You always choose family over other people. And this club? We’re family and we
always
choose each other over other people. Got me?”

She raised a brow at him.

“Since you are working with us, we are your family for the time being. We’re throwin’ you a lot of trust for the moment, but remember, we take care of our own.”

“I get it.”

She knew a threat when she heard one, even one delivered as nicely as that. Eddie’s house must be the inner sanctum and she had no doubt the Horsemen would circle the wagons if anything happened to her. Daisy bet they hadn’t counted on Eddie inviting her here.

 She had no plans to sell them out them out to law enforcement. “I’m just here to get my sister back, Shepherd. I have no interest in stirring up any shit.”

“See that it stays that way.” With a curt nod, he walked away.

***

Daisy took her mixed drink and headed for the front porch. Two more women arrived within a few minutes of each other, Elizabeth she recognized from the diner, and the other woman was new. She had short gray hair and stood a bit over five feet. Daisy placed the newcomer in her early sixties. The gray haired woman offered a crooked smile and went inside, while the Elizabeth sat next to her on the swing.

“So, Ryker still wouldn’t tell me what you were doing for the club,” Elizabeth said, making a face. “Eddie and I are dying of curiosity.”

Daisy laughed, but refused to say anything about the mission. She latched on to the name. “Ryker? That’s Eddie’s son?” She remembered Eddie mentioning something about the redhead dating her son.

“Yes, he’s her son and my boyfriend,” she explained. “We’ve been together a few months now and things are going very well.”

Daisy couldn’t picture the woman with a biker. “So, it’s serious?”

She sat back on the swing. “Very. He’s trying to talk me into moving in with him. Yesterday he keyed me.” She held out her key ring, and shook them slightly. “Got one for the house and Lucy, too.”

“And Lucy is…?” she asked, though she gathered from Elizabeth’s tone the second key was a big deal.

“His motorcycle,” she clarified.

“Does this mean you are going to move in with him?”

Personally, Daisy thought it would be a bad idea. Elizabeth seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, why on earth would she take up with an outlaw? Daisy had never signed on for a relationship with anyone but if she did, it wouldn’t be a man working for a criminal organization.

She raised a brow. “Yes, but I’m gonna let him sweat a little bit about it. Speaking of boyfriends, how’s it going with Cowboy?”

“He isn’t my boyfriend and there isn’t much to tell. We’re doing a job.”

 “Hmm, you’re only working?”

 “Yes,
only
working.” Though, it sounded like bullshit, even to her own ears. They were hardly just colleagues. After all, he’d almost jumped her last night at the gym. A small, wicked part of her wished she’d let him
.

“You don’t look so sure,” Elizabeth countered, waggling her eyebrows. “You were awfully cozy with him in the diner. It looked like a date to me, not a meeting.”

“You’re delusional.”

 “You can’t fool me. I’m the town librarian and I know a budding relationship when I see one. Romance novels have taught me very well.”

What? Elizabeth was a librarian?
“Let me get this straight. You are a librarian, dating a biker?” Daisy asked, incredulous. “How does that work?”

“Surprisingly well,” she murmured with a salacious smile. “Now, I need to get this party started and get a drink.” With that, she dashed off the swing and went in search of refreshments.

Daisy took another sip of her ‘shine and a delicious warmth spread throughout her body. Suddenly, she didn’t mind being at this party so much. She hadn’t been this comfortable in years. Leaning back in the porch swing, she decided to let go and see where the night would take her.

Chapter Eleven

Twenty minutes later, Daisy discovered the older woman, Sailor, owned a motorcycle, and served in the navy. She’d been an old lady for nearly forty years and was married to Goat. Apparently, she also loved cigars, which she dunked in blackberry moonshine.

Shepherd brought Eddie a Full Moon Rising cocktail, which had pomegranate moonshine and a maraschino cherry garnish, along with some seltzer water. Elizabeth settled on apple pie moonshine, sweetened with honey and flavored with cinnamon. Pretty Boy mixed the drink with some fresh apple cider, to give it a kick.

Finally, Captain arrived with his daughter, Lexie Cooper. She had long light brown hair, which hung down her back, big brown eyes, and a thin frame. She rocked a pair of cat’s eye glasses, dark leggings, and a black and white geometric type. She had a funky, hot nerd sort of vibe.

Sailor scowled at the president from her rocking chair. “You know, we gotta enough dicks here. This is chick’s night out.”

“I ain’t gonna be here long.” He stood behind his daughter, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You’re going to take good care of her, aren’t you?” he asked Eddie.

 “Of course I will.”

He turned Lexie around, staring into her upturned face. “You have a good time tonight. Do what Miss Eddie says and remember what I told you, don’t mix alcohols, or you will puke. And, for God’s sake, pace yourself.”

He spared a glance at Shepherd. “See that she gets home safe.”

“Will do,” he promised.

Eddie ambled over to the balustrade, crossing her arms over her chest and offering Captain a rueful smile. “And my sons say
I’m
overprotective.”

He let go of Lexie and she sprinted up the stairs, blowing past Daisy. Captain came to stand in the yard, directly in front of Eddie. He crossed his muscled arms over his broad chest. “Are you givin’ your president lip?”

She leaned against a column, and idly stirred her drink. “I’m not a member, so you aren’t my president.”

“I might not enforce it, but don’t forget the club commandment. Any old lady who outlives her old man answers
exclusively
to the president.”

The rest of the women quit talking, scoping out the interplay between Eddie and Captain with interest.

Eddie swayed on her feet, a bit tipsy. She leaned over the railing. I don’t answer to anybody.”

He offered her a wicked, wolfish smile. “One day very soon you’ll answer to me.”

For once, Eddie didn’t have a quick comeback. Daisy didn’t know the woman that well, but didn’t seem the type to be easily flustered. Yet, she appeared to be taken aback by his flirtation.

He winked at her, and turned to the rest of the women. “Goodnight, ladies.” Then, Captain got back on his bike and drove off into the night.

Eddie cleared her throat and pulled Lexie into a big hug, but Daisy could see the slight flush on her cheeks. “How ya doin’, kid? You settle into the dorm room okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah, but Dad embarrassed the hell out of me in front of the staff. I mean, he finally agreed to not bring his brothers, and the bikes, but he was still in overprotective father mode. He insisted they replace the locks on my doors and give me a new set of keys to be sure the room had been “secured”. Then, he fixed a loose window latch and set off their alarm system.” She sighed. “He even downloaded this new app, which pinpoints sex offenders in the area, and gave me a map marked with “red zones” on it, where I shouldn’t go.”

Daisy couldn’t help but overhear and winced in sympathy, but she understood Captain’s concern, she’d been overprotective of Rose too.

Eddie laughed, shaking her head. “Tell you what, kiddo, let’s get some alcohol in you. It’ll all seem better after we stun your senses.” She ushered the girl into the kitchen.

Daisy turned to Elizabeth. “Okay, so I need the scoop. Captain wants to date Eddie or something?”

Elizabeth took a sip of her spiked cider and paused a minute, reflecting. “I don’t think so. From what Ryker said, he’s a manwhore, and believe me, my boyfriend would know, but I’m not sure what the hell we just witnessed.” She shifted in the swing and then winced.