Fuck the past. Fuck the endless stream of sewage the club had been dealing with ever since I hooked up with the Redding crew. Fuck the poison running in my veins.
And fuck Elle Jo more than anything else for giving me the shakes every time I thought about crushing my mouth to hers, much less sliding into that sweet puss I'd been denied for four hellish years. Fuck her for making my dick so hard I could've pounded railroad spikes, and fuck her for knowing I'd never be driving it into her, ripping at her hair, spilling my come up inside her.
Fuck. Everything.
I didn't know what the hell fate had in store after I saw my name inked on her skin and she started calling me her old man. But I could damned well guarantee it meant watching a few worlds turn to ashes by the time it was all over.
III: Down the Aisle (Elle Jo)
“All right. All right, you motherfucking, cocksucking, hard balling sack of shit. You've got your time and place. Which one is it? No, no wait. Don't fuckin' tell me. I'll find out Sunday. I gotta get the fuck off the phone and break the news...”
The coldest chill of my life ran up my spine. I hadn't slept for the last hour, listening to daddy rant and rave, my ear pressed against the door.
The walls in this old house had always been paper thin. Whatever had him upset had shook up him worse than I'd heard since the night he almost murdered Austin.
I pinched my eyes shut, trying to take long, slow breaths, my hot little ear pressed to the door.
Is this what I've returned for? Really?
I was coming home already. But what choice did I have when grad school was a bust, and I didn't want to go all the way to San Francisco for a crappy translation job that wouldn't even let me afford an apartment?
Daddy offered me a roof over my head, and some work. He offered me club money – a lot of club money for my help on a business deal. Enough to finally be an adult and do grown up things, to get the latest boots and drink nice cocktails in upscale Seattle lounges.
Not that I really cared for those things. Mostly, I just wanted my own space, a condo to share with friends in the city, maybe some imported wines and good chocolate. All the things that let me pretend I still had a shot at a normal life, even though I was twenty-two, and about to crawl deeper than ever down the club's throat.
Jesus. What was I thinking?
I hadn't taken four years of Mandarin Chinese and done an entire summer studying abroad for this.
Too bad life has a funny way of throwing the last thing I ever wanted in my face, dragging me back to Tacoma.
Perfect timing, too. My father was ready to put ink on paper for a black market trade deal with the Shanghai mafia. I'd studied the infamous Black Dragons in an international crime seminar.
They were as dangerous as they were masters in the underworld, and they'd been trying to get a foothold on the West Coast for years. They also had a lot of money and a serious demand for weapons – just what daddy needed to make his chapter the richest one in the entire Grizzlies MC.
Or that's what little he told me, anyway. I doubted the fine print here, whatever it is, even if I couldn't say no because so much money.
“Elle Jo! Open up!” I jumped when I heard his fist pounding on my door. “We gotta talk.”
I'd been so deep in thought I hadn't heard him coming. Slowly, I twisted my lock and pulled it open, pretending to rub fake grog from my eyes.
“Sorry, I know it's late...but this is too damned important. Better we get this shit done sooner than later.” He stepped in and walked over to my bed, sat down with his face in his hands.
This was going to be bad. His defeated posture said it all.
My heart ratcheted up, doubling in speed. I tried to prepare myself, like I always had growing up in this house when something terrible happened to him or the club. But, hell, he hadn't looked like this since the day he told me mom wouldn't be coming home from the hospital...
“Daddy, what is it?” I walked over and spoke to him softly, cautiously, gingerly laying my fingers on his shoulder. “You're really upset.”
“Yeah, isn't that a fuckin' understatement. Shit.” He sighed, filling the long pause before he formed words again. “There's no easy way to say this, darling. So let me just lay it out. Elle, You're getting married this Sunday.”
“What?!”
The whole world went out from under me. I stepped back, shaking my head, wondering if I'd heard him right.
“Yeah, I know it's a clusterfuck of a surprise. This wasn't what I wanted for you, or the club, but the fuckers down in NorCal are twisting my nuts so hard they're about to bust off. I told you about this shit with the Chinese, the big deal coming up that I really need your help with. It's for the good of the club, and they're too stupid to realize it. So, me and the boys are going it alone with the Dragons. And Redding'll have my head on a pike if they find out what's going on up here. I gotta stall those fuckers out, keep the peace, just long enough to wheel and deal those mean motherfuckers from Shanghai. You follow?”