Man of the House(139)

Leopold lived long enough to see me wear the Demon patch. He died a few days later of a heart attack.

Like I said, Leopold was a big man.

From there, I worked my way into the club, did what I could to earn their respect. I moved up through the ranks because I wasn’t afraid of violence. I did what the club needed done, cracked skulls and killed other violent men. The club was my life and my family. The club was everything to me.

Later on, I found out that my momma died, killed by one of her sex clients. The guy stabbed her to death because he couldn’t afford to pay her after he used her up.

That was five years ago, five years after I joined the club. Now, ten years since I was a little eighteen-year-old kid, I knew more than I could ever have guessed, done some things I never imagined I’d do.

I had no dad, no mom. My only family was the club, and that was all I needed.



I still remembered the first time I saw her.

I was a pledge back then, brand new to the place. I was sitting at the bar getting drunk with Leopold and two other guys I couldn’t remember anymore when she walked in that door.

Long legs, long blond hair. Beautiful, absolutely fucking beautiful, and every guy in the place turned and looked.

“Ah,” Leopold said. “There she is, the little biker princess.”

I looked at him. “Who is she?”

Leopold grinned. “You don’t know?”

“Tell me, Leo.”

“That’s Janine. She’s Larkin’s adopted daughter.”

“Shit,” I said, looking at her again. “She’s gorgeous.”

Leopold laughed. “Look away, kid. She’s out of your league. That girl is royalty. Ain’t no pledge in the world ever going to touch her body.”

“She’s free to do what she wants, right?”

Leopold just laughed and shook his head. “You don’t know how the club works yet, do you, kid?”

I didn’t, not at that point, but over the years I’d figure it out. And although I never forgot that first time I saw Janine, I also never forgot what Leopold said about her.

She was the biker princess. She was fucking royalty.

We knew each other. Janine knew everyone in the club. She was three years younger than me, which meant we had more in common than some. We were friendly, as friendly as you could be with her at least. Larkin had the habit of beating the fuck out of any member that pushed the line with Janine.

I respected Larkin too much to make a pass. And truth be told, for those ten years we were orbiting around each other, I was too busy finding my own damn place in the club to really see her too clearly.

It wasn’t until I was twenty-eight and she was twenty-five that she came back into focus.

She came back to me, sharp and alive. I had forgotten what it was like to really want someone until that night. But of course, that night wasn’t the beginning, though it did begin a lot of things for us.

No, it really started a week before that. One week before my whole fucking life got a hell of a lot more complicated.



“Clutch.”

I looked up and grunted. Janine grinned at me across the table, cocking her head to one side. She had this way of saying my name, like she was being sarcastic or some shit.

“What do you want?” I asked her.

She laughed. “You in a bad mood tonight?”

“Just don’t have time to mess around,” I said, knocking back my whisky.

Truth was, I had all the time in the world, but I’d learned a long time ago not to mess with Janine, even if she did want to flirt with you. Larkin had given me many of his famous bone-chilling looks, even if it was Janine’s own damn fault that she ended up in my lap.

I never asked for that shit, and I sure as hell didn’t understand the girl.

“Just wanted to say hi, is all,” she said. “Haven’t seen you around much.”

“War got us all busy,” I said.

“Yeah. War does that.” She tossed her blond hair, smiling at me. Of everyone in the club, I’d say that she liked me the best. Maybe I just thought that because she flirted with me the most, and because I was willing to walk the line between harmless and getting my ass beat.

Never wanted to cross that line, though. Never wanted to betray Larkin’s trust like that.

Even if Janine was one of the sexiest fucking women I’d ever laid my eyes on. Full lips like you wouldn’t believe, long, thick blond hair, and a body that made grown men cry. I’d be a liar if I said I never imagined what it would be like to sink my thick cock between her legs, fuck her like I was sure she loved getting fucked.

But I was a good soldier, and I kept my dick where it belonged.

“So where you been?” she asked me.

“Dallas,” I said. “Been scouting out the Snake Spit and all that.”