A Rebel In The Roses (Black Rebel Riders' MC Book 8) (8 page)

Karly is rubbing my shoulders trying to erase the stress of the past two days.

“Nash, is it over?” She questions quietly.

“Just waiting for a text from your old man.” I sigh as some of the tension leaves with her touch.

“You know what has to happen once you do…” She looks to the kids. “We have to leave Florida.”

“Yeah, it’s time to go. I’ll make the call tomorrow.”

I pull her into my lap, glad that I don’t have to convince her we need to go. I was afraid she’d think that maybe it was a good idea to return to Drag Creek, that she’d not want to give Grim up a second time.

“Did you make peace with him?” She looks at me with nothing but concern for me in her eyes, and I love her just a little bit more for it.

She was right, I needed to let go of all that anger. I needed to forgive Romeo even if he doesn’t deserve it.

“Yeah, I did. You were right.” I smirk seeing the satisfied smile creeping across her face at hearing those words.

“Smile,” she teases taking a picture of me with her phone. “I have to document this moment. You actually admitted that I was right,” she mocks with amusement.

“Smartass.” I kiss her proud grinning lips.

Her arms go around my neck as she straddles me and kisses me back.

My hands cradle her fine ass as her breasts rub against my chest.

“You love this smartass,” she teases.

“Dudes, can you at least wait until you think we’re asleep.” Cole shakes his head and bites into his cone.

Sara follows him back in the room dripping chocolate onto the floor from her cone. She’s wearing more than she’s ate of her treat.

Karly climbs off me and leaves me with a hard on to clean our baby girl up.

“Time for a shower chickadee,” she says with a light laugh.

“I not done!” Sara stomps her feet in protest as her mother picks her up. Her crocodile tears start to fall, and I can’t stand to see her pout.

“Let her finish mommy.” That earns me the
you’re not getting laid
stare from my wife, but the chocolate stained smile I get in return from my daughter is worth it.

She climbs up on the bed next to me. I scoot us back to the headboard and flip the TV on to Disney.

“Traitor,” Cole sneers seeing a princess movie is on.

Sara sticks her tongue out at him and giggles as I tickle her armpits.

Twenty minutes later, my sticky chocolate princess is snoring.

I move her to the middle of the bed and Karly wipes her face with a washcloth. Sara doesn’t even budge. She’s out.

Cole goes to the bathroom to clean up, giving me and my woman a minute to ourselves to talk about moving.

“Do you think we will ever be free from Striker and Baby—Drag Creek, the Black Rebel Riders’?” She questions.

“I don’t know babe. I don’t know, but wherever we go we’ll be together.” I pull her in for a hug and my fingers tangle in her hair. “I hope you know I forgive you for everything in the past. I’m really ready to let go.”

“We hurt each other, you burned me deep, but the hurt makes life achingly beautiful. Nash you aren’t an ordinary man or easy to love all the time, but you’re mine, and there is nothing for us to forgive anymore.”

Romeo

I cringe as Tread wraps the pull chain around this prick’s throat. I killed my wife in a similar way. I choked the life out of her. The memory of her damn dead eyes are waiting for me on the other side. I’m doomed to burn in hell with the woman for all eternity.

Won’t she be so
damn pleased
when I someday join her.

I’ll never forget the shock on her face or the way she clawed at my arms.

Some nights I wake up and feel her nails scratching me only to find it’s my own nails making my arms bleed. 

The woman has poisoned my bloodstream, giving new meaning to the vow in sickness and health.

I’ll never escape her.

I’ll never live down what I did to her.

My children have paid the ultimate price for my sins, even though what I did was for them.

LL would have only hurt them, more than I ever could.

Dawn and Jamie are all I have that’s truly mine.

Dawn, my beautiful daughter is every bit her mother’s daughter. Now I know what pain Grim has been carrying around all these years. Mine isn’t quite the same. However, I see him and the way he hid behind searching for Sarah in a new light.

No wonder he couldn’t bear to see Baby often.

It hasn’t been easy staring into the face of a dead woman, in the form of your child. Dawn is so damn wild just like Laura. I know I need to put my foot down and get her the help she needs before it's too late.

I thought maybe she was curious at first and experimenting with a little weed here and there. Maybe even taking a pill or two, but the call I had from Sunshine this evening paints a different picture.

She said she found a dope baggie in her dirty clothes. One of the small ones I used to find LL in possession of when she was being too careless to hide her addiction.

I can’t do shit about it from here. It’ll have to wait until I get home. I told Sunshine to let her be. I’ll deal with it. She has enough of her own shit to shovel with Patrick moving in.

I’m not sure us taking him in is for the best. Once I get Dawn under control I’ll be making arrangements to get him in his own place.

Maybe Grim will have a job for him.

The boy’s gonna need something to focus his mind on.

My attention is brought back to the here and now by the gurgling of John’s throat as he gasps for air. Tread keeps bringing him to the edge of passing out and only letting off enough to let him catch his breath.

This goes on for several minutes. Tread is screaming in his face and asking if he feels like a big man now.

One of Crow’s Rebels takes control of the chain and Grim straps John to a table.

Lulu is standing off in a corner, she needs to witness this shit in case she had any thoughts of squealing. The same could easily happen to her. People disappear every day. 

My mind drifts to my son and his wife.

No one promised life would be easy.

I can rest easy though, knowing they have a real chance to make it. A real shot to give their kids everything I wasn’t able to provide for my own.

I watch Tread as he surveys the tools on hand. His hand glides over the blade of a chainsaw. He shakes his head and moves on.
Thank the fuck
. Shit is messy. Next, he tries out a nailed slugger for size. He swings it a few times and pricks his finger on the tip of one of the nails. Not satisfied he looks over the rest of the items laying on the table.  Finally, his gaze settles on a sledgehammer.
Fuck,
that’s going to be brutal.

He takes a few practice swings getting a gage on the force he wants to put behind his blows, taking out a chunk of the wall.

With a cocky smile he returns to his captive. John is trying to twist his head but it only squeezes the chain tighter around his throat. Unable to speak or move for that matter, I can see defeat in his eyes.

I can’t seem to look away.

Death is calling and Tread is collecting the reaper’s due.

Maybe it’s mercy on my part allowing him to focus on me. No one should die alone, but many people do.

When the first blow cracks his elbow and shatters his bones I’m certain he’s going to pass out from the pain.

Tread isn’t having it.

“Romeo,” he calls me over and I oblige knowing what he wants from me.

I pull the syringe from the pocket of my jeans and stab it where I guess the man’s heart should be if he had one, pumping adrenaline into his body.

Crow’s boy, Blake, releases the chain as John's head lurches up right in time for Tread to take out a knee.

John screams in agony, but his cries are muffled now by Truth taunting him.

“You like that motherfucker? Heard you shoved my son, my flesh and blood down a flight of stairs. Heard you put your hands on my woman. Guess that made you feel like a real man huh.”

If you’ve never seen a man become unraveled and consumed by rage, you wouldn’t understand the electricity in the air. You wouldn’t understand the way the hair on the back of my neck is standing on end as I watch the death of this man.

“Just get it over with, whatever you want to do to me. Kill me or leave me. But end it.” The man is pleading for the pain to end, but it’s not going to be over any time soon. 

“Unstrap him,” Tread orders and Grim does without a word. He may be Prez, but this is Tread’s show right now. He’s calling the shots.

His femur is pushing through the skin, and I may lose my lunch. I never said I had a strong stomach. Maybe I am losing my touch or I’ve witnessed too much bad shit. I think back on Smokey and wonder what the end was like for her. Did she cry out for me as they shredded her skin from her back and split her wide open? Did she curse my name in vain as she took her final breaths?

This is the shit that goes through my mind.

I can’t forget the past. I can’t help but wonder if I had just took my life that night when I had the gun in my mouth if everyone would have been better off. I was ready to pull the trigger, but I couldn’t because of my kids, and I’m no damn pussy or coward.

Tread and Grim drag John up a flight of stairs. The man can’t bear any weight on the right side of his body with his bones shattered and protruding.

His head lolls to the left, he’s going to go lights out again, but he doesn’t get the chance. Tread shoves him down the stairs just as the man done Kyler, his son. The crunching of his bones hitting the metal and cement ain’t doing a damn thing for my stomach.

Tread orders me to give the man another injection.

He’s looking pretty fucked up and pale. The blood he’s losing isn’t helping our cause.

I squat down next to his crumpled form and stab the needle into his good arm.

A few smacks to his face gets his eyes open.

Tread joins me crushing his boot into the man’s neck as he struggles to breathe. He gets part of the word do out before choking on his own blood.

“Knew you were a coward,” Tread spits at him. “So I’ll give you a coward’s death.” He pulls his piece from the waistband of his pants and pops six bullets in his chest.

Crow’s Rebels will take care of the body and Lulu. She’ll need to stick around to give a statement to the local police.

I scrub my hands over my face needing my own shot of adrenaline to make the ride home on my new motorcycle.

8

Drag Creek, Kentucky

Kurt

I watch Christa as she sleeps knowing that this is it. I haven’t slept a wink. I didn’t want to miss a breath. My ear is pressed to her chest listening to her heart beating. I have two more hours of freedom left. One question is hanging from my tongue. I don’t have any right to ask it and yet I might die if I don’t get the words out. 

Her fingers move through my hair. “Is it time?” She stifles a yawn.

“Not yet babe, go back to sleep.”

“If you think I am going to waste a minute of this with sleep, you’ve already lost your mind.”

I raise up resting on my elbow. “What would you say if I asked you to marry me today?”

Her lips curve into the most delicious of smiles. “Do you mean that or are you just asking hoping to get lucky again?”

“Maybe a little of both,” I tease.

She rolls away grabbing the clock on the nightstand.

“Two hours. Think we have time?” She cocks her brow at me.

“Let’s find out,” I growl rolling her onto me.

She sinks her pussy down on my cock, and I could die right now the happiest of men.

Her breasts move with every roll of her hips. Her hands press down on my chest as she rides me hard and steady.

“Kurt…” Her movements stop.

“Yeah babe, is something wrong?”

She frowns looking away from me. “I really have to pee.”

I smack her ass with a chuckle. “Go on.”

She sucks in a deep breath. “No it's okay, I think I can hold it.”

“
Fuck no
, I don’t want you giving me no golden shower woman.”  I’m into kinky but not that freaky shit.

She nods and takes the sheet with her for a robe.

I wait a few minutes before grabbing my clothes and the box from my top dresser drawer. We can finish in the shower. When I bought her bracelet I saw this ring, I wasn’t sure if or when I’d ever give it to her, but it just feels right.

I knock on the door before letting myself in.

“What are you doing?” She stares at me doe eyed with a toothbrush hanging from her bottom lip.

“I’m going to take a shower and fuck my woman one more time.” I grin and she starts to cry.

I sit my belongings on the toilet. “Don’t cry on me.  I know I’m not much to look at, but
damn
I have a little pride.”

She goes to hit me losing the sheet. Her tears are replaced by her need for some modesty as she scrambles to cover up.

Grabbing her wrist with one hand I take away her toothbrush with the other in case she decides to use it as a weapon like her Gram, and that damn wicked spoon.

“Let me look at you. I wanna see you. I need to see all of you.”

Her breath catches in her throat as she stops squirming around, leaving the sheet on the floor where it belongs.

“
Goddamn
, you’re beautiful.”  I observe every curve, running my fingers over her skin, needing to touch every inch of her inside and out.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” she whispers against my lips.

Taking a shower is forgotten as her legs wrap around my waist. With her back to the wall I thrust inside her, feeling so completely in love with this woman. So consumed by her.

Her fingers slide through my hair. “Uh, yes. Harder Kurt,” she pants in my ear. I pull my head back a few inches and look deep into her brown eyes and ask her, “Will you marry me?”

“What?”

“You heard me. I love you.” I draw my cock out and slam back in. “Will you marry me?” I ask her one more time.

“Yes!”

As soon as that word leaves her lips I’m cumming harder than I ever have.

Christa

Biting my thumbnail, I can’t believe I’m really doing this, that we are going through with this. Kurt will be sentenced in less than thirty minutes, and we are waiting for JT to get to the courthouse with Grammy, so I can marry this man.

My stomach is in knots.

I never dreamed I’d be propositioned for marriage while being fucked against the bathroom wall of a biker club. A smile plays on my lips remembering how it felt when he popped the question—heaven on earth.

Fidgeting with the rock on my left hand is bittersweet. Happiest day of my life happens to also be the saddest.

I don’t even have a dress, not that it matters. I’m perfectly content in my black pants and red blouse. Kurt teased me and said I was getting married in Black Rebel Riders’ colors.

“Having second thoughts? It’s okay if you aren’t ready babe. We can call this off. I’ll understand,” Kurt says trying to keep it together, wearing the ghost of a smile on his face.

I take a deep breath afraid that everything that I want to say is going to tumble out and sound all wrong.

“I love you, you know that don’t you?”

“As I love you,” he speaks so softly for such a hard man. “But…”

“No
buts
Kurt, I’m ready to do this. I told you I’ll wait for you. I know no other man could ever do. I gave you my heart to keep.” I grab him by his collar. “You’re it for me.”

He closes the gap between our lips with a primal kiss meant to be shared behind closed doors. His teeth slide across my lip and I go weak in the knees.

“Save that for after,” a hoarse voice calls out. Gram is snickering as she approaches us. I’m, so glad she’s here, I could use some of her strength today.

In front of Kurt’s lawyer, my Gram, JT, and the Justice of the Peace we say I do.

It’s over in a matter of minutes. A few promises of forever and signing on the dotted lines, I’m Mrs. Kurt Preston.

There’s no time for any congratulations or sneaking off for a minute to ourselves. No time to let it soak in that we’re married now.

His lawyer is ushering us down the hall to another courtroom. The room that holds my lover’s fate. His lawyer has been trying to get him a shorter sentence. Supposedly the judge owes him a favor and loves him some Black Rebel moonshine. I can only hope he holds true to his word. It isn’t like Perry has anyone pressing the matter. I never met any of his family. My mom never mentioned them. I won’t be surprised if she shows here today and makes a scene. But knowing her, she’s probably already got herself a new man.

Knowing what’s coming doesn’t make this day any easier.

Kurt’s lips brush across my knuckles. “I love you,” he promises with unshed tears in his eyes.

I try to hold his hand a second longer, but he pulls away, leaving me feeling so cold. So alone. So empty.

“
Kurt
,” I gasp his name as he walks away and to the table in the front of the room where he has to sit.

He doesn’t look back and it kills me. I don’t blame him though. I wouldn’t want to look back either.

Gram and JT sit on either side of me for support. I don’t know if I can stay. My feet are begging me to run.

My emotions eat at me as my fear sets in.

What’s going to happen to him on the inside without his brothers by his side and at his back? I know he’s served time before, but he wasn’t part of an MC then. He could be targeted by their enemies on the inside. All of these thoughts are running through my mind. I’m scared for what the future will hold.

Did he marry me on a whim?

I’d like to believe he married me because he loves me, but that could change while he’s serving time.

Just when I think I am out of steam Truth, Amy, and Liberty appear with a few other brothers and top bitches.

Amy squeezes my shoulder as they take a seat behind me.  “Sorry we’re late. I was afraid you would be here alone.”

I can only smile and bite back my tears. Kurt promised his club family would have my back,
our
back.

“All Rise,” the court bailiff announces.

The judge tells us to be seated and he begins without wasting any time.

Gram lets me squeeze her tired boney hand. This is it.

“In the case of the commonwealth versus Kurt Preston, we the court find you guilty of murder in the second degree and hereby sentence you to serve five years, with the possibility of parole in three years. I’ve been made aware that you have chosen to surrender today.”

I knew the words were coming, but I still feel like I’m drowning in the middle of a nightmare. My heart is broken as cuffs are placed around his wrists. His hands come up and he blows me a brief final kiss before being led away.

“
Kurt
!” I call out his name in a strangled sob. His head whips around. His sad eyes meeting mine. “
I love you
.”

The officer jerks him through the door before he can say he loves me too.

JT

I’ve never seen my sister so devastated. Today just fucking sucks. I just dropped her and Gram off at the house. Inkman gave me the day off to spend with my family, but Christa wants to be alone. I wish there was something more I could do for her. I wish I could take her pain away.

I’m not good at helping people in need. All I manage to do is make shit worse.

I thought I was helping Dawn; she has a secret that she guards with her life. It’s eating away at her. She’s so consumed in her own darkness that she can’t see what’s right in front of her—me.

She’s my beautiful broken girl with hair just like honey. However, there’s nothing sweet about her. She’s all spice. I should go patch things up with Dawn, but I’m not sure I want to. Instead I drive to the scrapyard to see my big brother and see if he needs a hand.

I started working here at first, but when Rebel saw my artwork he said the yard wasn’t my place. He talked to Inkman for me and the rest was history.

I never thought much about tattooing before. I had fucked around and given a few friends some ink back when I was in school, but nothing serious.

Now I feel like I have a purpose, like I could really have something, and carve out a place for myself.

A few weeks ago, I was all about pussy and fun. I still love both those things, but I see the bigger picture. I see the life I could have when I look at Rebel and his wife Chelle. They got a good thing going.

I want that too.

I guess Dawn is too young to want the same things that I do. There’s nothing wrong with her having a good time and finding her way, but she’s partying a little
too hard
. Becoming
too dependent
on the shit to get through the day.

She’s got a
bad problem
.

I ignore a third text from her begging me to come get her.

If I don’t give in she can’t get high. At least not with my help.

I park my truck near the office and leave my phone in the cab so I’m not tempted to go pick her up.

“JT, brother, what brings ye by. Surely you aren’t missing this place?” Rebel calls from the doorway with tired eyes.

Dude looks like he could use some sleep. Deep lines halo his eyes. Under his bottom lashes his skin is puffy and white. 

“Looks like you could use a nap,” I observe.

“Rough night, but I’m good.” He steps aside as I escape my problems for a little while and shoot the shit.

“Want to talk about it?” I take the chair behind the desk and he kicks back on the couch like he’s in therapy. Dawn could probably use therapy, but I know better than to bring it up to her. She’d just get pissed and pick a fight.

“Ye ever just get a feeling that something ain’t right?” I nod sure, everyone does at times. “I just had this weird feeling. I kept thinking about my brother, my other brother.” His eyes casts in my direction.

“The one who died.”

“Yeah man, the one who died,” he says in a somber tone. He stays quiet for a minute, thinking, probably about his brother. “Enough about me though. Why are you really here?” He grins wide sitting up.

“Honey, she’s going through something, I don’t know what, but it’s nothing good.”

“Aww girl trouble. Romeo’s girl. Got yourself a real wild one. You can see it in her eyes. I know that look, she’s got that rebellious streak in her that Baby had.”

“Who’s Baby,” I interrupt.

“She was Grim’s daughter. My brother’s old lady. For some time, she had her eyes set on me.” He shakes his head. “
Damn man
, she was crazy. Always looking for a good time and the next best thing. She was never satisfied, but she was something.” He smiles and stands up reaching me his phone.

Looking down at the screen I see what he means. There’s two chicks in the picture. Looks like the one with blonde hair was getting married or something, but the redhead, she has fire in her eyes. Like if you touch her, you’ll get burned by her heat.

“Who’s this other chick, the sweet one?”

My brother frowns, lines creasing in his forehead and around his mouth. “That was my wife, Rumor. Her name was Sarah.”