Raw and Dirty (Bad Boys MC Trilogy #1) (12 page)

I sit up a little straighter and lean against the metal back of my chair, a jumble of old bike parts that Dober welded together in some sort of fucking art piece or something. Uncomfortable as hell, but it looks nice, so I let it slide.

“Landon,” I say and Glacier nods, his face dropping at the mention of our lost brother. “Landon,” he confirms.

“Anything else?” I ask, filled with the sudden need to get the hell out of here. I've never felt that way about the clubhouse, not once in my entire life, and I started hanging around here when I was seventeen years old.

“Just that,” Glacier says, glancing over at me like he can tell what I'm feeling. “At this point, Smoky and I are stumped, not sure where to go from here.”

“Check into that FBI douche,” I say, slamming back my whiskey and setting the glass back on the counter. “But don't let him know that you're even glancing his way. The last thing we need is to bring a full investigation crashing down on our heads.”

“Got it,” Glacier says, glancing over his shoulder as the music slows and the sound of high heels echoes against the vaulted ceilings. I follow his gaze and find Mia waiting in the doorway to the common room, arms folded under her small breasts, teeth worrying at her lower lip. Just what I fucking needed tonight, more shit to deal with. “You get out of here and let us worry about that guy for now.”

“Thanks brother,” I say, slapping him once on the shoulder and heading over to where Mia stands in her red heels and black leather pants. She's a fucking looker, this one. But a looker who doesn't know how to listen to shit. “I thought I told you to take a fucking holiday?”

She flicks her eyes up to mine, pleading, begging, the fingers of her right hand reaching out and brushing down my bare arm.

“I don't have anywhere to go but here,” she whines, stepping closer to me, pushing her breasts into my chest. “And I thought you might be missing me?”

I reach down and pry her hand off, taking a step back to put some space between us. I feel a little bad for Mia, I do. She has a shitty home life and an even shitter job. But none of that's my problem, and if I don't make an example out of her, nobody here will take me seriously.

“When I said
holiday,
I meant
vacation.
Do you understand that a little better or should I write it down for you?”

“Royal,” she pleads, but a few of the guys have just walked in the front door. Word spreads quick here, so they'll know I told Mia to stay away for a while.
God, I hate this shit sometimes.
Things were a hell of a lot easier before I became president.

“If you were a man, I'd beat the shit out of you for disobeying me.” Mia's jaw drops and her eyes fill with tears, but I pretend I don't notice, tucking my fingers into my front pockets like I'm already bored with the conversation. “Get your ass off the compound and don't show your face here until you're pretty damn sure I've forgotten about this little incident.” I lean in closer, my lips right next to her ear. “And you better be fucking positive that I have because if I see you before then, you're out. You will not step foot anywhere near the club's property ever again.”

I stand up straight and watch as her face crumbles.

This is one of those moments where I decide to turn off my emotions. Don't need to feel anything at all for this girl right now. Mia and me, we've only slept together a handful of times, but I always thought she was the prettiest of all the leather lovers. Somebody soon's going to snatch her up as their old lady.

But that person's not going to be me.

“Sorry, love, but this is the way it has to be. Live with it or leave—permanently. Your choice.”

Mia nods once, rubbing her hands up and down her upper arms like she's cold.

“I'll go,” she says, looking up at me one more time. “But if you need me, you know where to find me?” Mia reaches out and squeezes my arm, but when I don't react, she turns and walks away with her head down.

It's odd for me to turn down a blatant invitation—especially from a girl as gorgeous as Mia—even one who blatantly refuses to listen to club law. In the past, even that wouldn't have stopped me from taking her home myself and grabbing a quickie along the way.

Lyric Rentz, what in the bloody fuck have you done to me?

When I head outside to leave for work in the morning, I find the pile of gear that Royal left here for me. There's a leather jacket, a pair of leather pants with some sort of padding or something in them, gloves, even a pair of black boots. I have no idea how he knew what sizes to get, but it all looks like it would fit.

“Asshole,” I mumble, dragging the stuff inside and dumping it on my couch. I'll return it all tomorrow during our meeting. If there was any way I thought I could get out of it then I would. But I've worked too hard for this, risked too much to blow it all now.

He knows.

That thought's been running through my head all night long, giving me nightmares that forced me up in bed with sweat running down the sides of my face. When Royal asked me point blank about Brent, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

Damn it, Brent. What the hell are you doing?

Things weren't supposed to be like this. He was supposed to come to town for a few days and poke around, make the Wolves
think
they were under investigation, just to give them enough motivation to sign on with the city.

And now?

I want to scream.

But I don't. My family trained me too well. We don't let our emotions get the better of us—if we even have any at all. We keep our chins up, shoulders back and we keep pushing through with smiles plastered across our faces.

For whatever reason, my fingers itch to reach out and tear my hair out of its bun, let it tumble around my shoulders and engulf me. I want to rip off my ugly yellow sundress and light it on fire, dress up in Royal's club jacket and hop on his bike.

What. The. Hell.

Something's seriously wrong with me right now. The man
threatened
me last night. At least, I think he did. When I replay the conversation in my mind, all I can hear is him telling me that he's not the kind of man who takes
no
for an answer.

I shiver and shrug my white cardigan up my shoulders.

It's Thursday morning, so I'm all dressed up for family brunch. It's been a tradition since I was twelve, meeting together like this no matter what our schedules are. None of us have ever skipped out on one although at times it feels like certain people in my family are less than present, phones in their hands or laptops on the table.

I used to wonder why we didn't do this on the weekend until I learned that my dad keeps Saturdays open for golf and Sundays open for church.

As I open the driver's side door of my car, I see my neighbor Mrs. Elden glaring at me from across her yard. She's been in the same book club as my mother since I was in high school and she's never once looked at me the way she's looking at me right now.

When I smile and wave at her, she purses her lips and turns away.

Great.

She must've seen Royal and me in the yard last night.

Brunch with the family … this should be fun.

“I don't care what they have to say about that,” my dad says, his phone glued to his ear while he sips coffee and leaves his plate of pancakes completely untouched. “I won't take no for an answer.”

My head snaps up and my mind flickers with images of Royal. It's eerie, hearing my dad say something so similar to the president of the Alpha Wolves MC. But, like I said, I guess they really are both politicians. Well, good for them. They can be
men
who don't take no for an answer. I'll be the woman who doesn't take no for an answer.

“Mom is not happy with you,” Kailey teases, folding and unfolding her napkin on her lap while my brother pounds away at his computer and my mother passes me strange glances from across the table. Her pale brown hair is swept up like mine, but in a less boring, more graceful sort of a way, and we're very nearly matching in our choice of sundresses.

“Why wouldn't she be happy with me?” I ask blandly, like I have no idea that Mrs. Elden probably called her in a panic and ratted me out. I stare down at my bacon and eggs, moving the yellow fluff with my fork. I feel like I'm suffocating right now. How sad is that? Sitting on the dock above the water, waves crashing against the shore and gulls crying from the beach. I should feel free out here, beautiful scenery all around me, untouched and wild. My beautiful, beautiful Lost Coast. I wish it would stay lost, but I know that'll never happen. The population's gone from the hundreds when I was a kid, to a hundred
thousand
and growing.

“Sandra Elden called her last night, ranting and raving about how the
mayor's daughter
was standing in her front yard with a felon.”

“I'm pretty sure Royal McBride
isn't
a felon. He's never been convicted of anything.”

Kailey gasps and covers her mouth when my dad glances over at us, furrowing his brows briefly before we're entirely forgotten again.

“So you were with Royal!” she whispers excitedly back at me as I glance down the dock, past the guard rails and out at the sea. It's much quieter today than usual, the navy blue waters kissing the shore with white frost.

“So what? I'm an adult. I can kiss … or do whatever with whomever I want.”

“Oh my God,” Kailey says, leaning back in her chair and biting her lower lip. “Dad's going to kill you when he finds out.”

“I'm twenty-eight years old, Kailey. Dad can't do anything to me.” But I know that's a lie. He could fire me. Or make my life here a living hell. There are all kinds of things he could do to me.

I risk another glance at my father and brother, but neither of them are paying much attention to me. My mom, on the other hand. She stares me down like she's never seen me before, her green eyes wide and her mouth pursed tightly beneath her gentle, unassuming nude lipstick. She's pretty, but just pretty enough to make Dad's friends look twice. As much as I love my mother, she doesn't stand out. Just like me. We're cut from the same cloth.

My mind drifts suddenly back to Royal and those leather clothes sitting on my couch.

I force my attention back to my food and just manage to finish my plate by the time my dad and brother excuse themselves and abandon the three of us at the table in a wash of awkward silence.

“Lyric,” my mother begins, her voice soft and unthreatening.

“Mom, I—” I start, but she cuts me off, something that's completely out of character for her on a normal day.

“Don't say anything, Lyric Lenore Rentz. Don't … I couldn't bare it.” She glances away from me and lifts her napkin to her lips, dabbing at an imaginary bit of nothing. “I don't know exactly what happened or who you were with, but I don't care.”

“Mom,” I begin again, but she's clearly not done with whatever speech she's prepared.

“I don't want the details, Lyric,” she snaps, far more agitated than I've seen her in years. The last time she looked like this, Sully was being dragged home by the cops for driving drunk. Dad covered that one up, of course, but she was still furious at him for weeks. “Do whatever you need to do in your private life, but don't let it screw up your father's career.” She lifts her gaze and looks straight at me, her pale porcelain face highlighted by a stray shaft of sunlight. “If he gets word of this …” She trails off and shakes her head, her pale blue earrings swinging with the motion. “Well, I've managed to take care of it for now, but I'm trusting you to have better judgment in the future. Do you understand what I'm saying?”

I
don't
understand. I don't
want
to understand.

I don't want to be quiet or unassuming or easy going.

I want to be heard.

Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath.

“Of course. It won't happen again.” Even if I don't like this, don't like being shutdown or told what to do, I can play nice for now. I'm telling her what she wants to hear because I have to do this for me, to make
my
dreams happen. Getting my dad re-elected, getting the Wolves under control, that's the most important next step in my career. I want to be a state senator, at the very least. At the most … I can't even dare to dream that far right now.