Heart Ripper - Coffin Nails MC (gay biker M/M romance) (Sex & Mayhem Book 9) (23 page)

“Y-yes, that’s fine, I’m here with Raja.” David
mumbled and bowed his head lower to hide his face underneath the hood. As much
as he hated hiding like this, he didn’t want to disappoint Raja.

Blade relaxed, and a sharp grumble of a laugh came
out of his lips. “Oh, you’re one of Raja’s pretty boys,” he said and bent his
knees, trying to look beneath the hood. “Let me look at you. We can’t have our
prez fucking a cock-roach.”

So this wasn’t the first time Raja brought a guy
over for an emergency meeting. Did he always tell them to wait outside, like
they were dogs waiting for their owner in front of a supermarket? David took a
step back, but Blade grabbed the front of his hoodie. Before David could react,
Blade pulled his hood higher and grabbed David’s jaw, turning his face toward
the moon.

Blade’s rough-looking face relaxed, and he
blinked, eventually letting go. “I’ll be damned. You’re Hunter’s little
brother.”

Heat rushed up to David’s face, and he couldn’t
take this treatment anymore. “So what?” he barked in a voice he could hardly
recognize. It had to be the pent-up anger from the fight at the church that had
him so aggressive.

“I thought he dropped the bet. I—” Blade covered
his mouth and stepped back with a frown. “Forget it.”

David swallowed, suddenly sensing the ground
crumbling around him. “What bet?”

Blade sighed and kicked a small stone from
underneath his feet. “I shouldn’t have said anything. But the truth is that
Hunter doesn’t deserve to be treated this way.”

“There’s a bet against Hunter?” David shook his
head, ready to grab Blade’s arm if he dared to walk away after teasing him.

Blade groaned and looked at David in a way that
had his stomach plummeting. “Actually, if this is still going on, you should
know. Raja thought you looked gay at the party, and he made a bet that he’s gonna
fuck you to prove it. There,” said Blade, watching David with a stern face.

At first, David’s mind went blank, but then his
heart started racing, forcing his memory to rake every detail of his initial
interactions with Raja. Would the bet be why Raja pursued him so aggressively
at times? Even an ‘oh’ wouldn’t leave David’s lips. Despite the ups and downs,
he’d been certain he and Raja shared a real connection.

Who was he lying to? He was in love with Raja, and
even thinking about this revelation had his vision going blurry. What if Raja
came to his rescue today knowing that David would be vulnerable? Knowing that
he’d get to fuck David and finally win the bet?

“He won,” David mumbled. “Hope he’s happy.” He
turned around and didn’t care about taking a piss anymore. He just wanted to be
out of here.

“Sorry kid,” said Blade behind him, but his voice
was coming with an odd echo, as if he were far away. “Raja’s a good friend, but
he’s a manwhore. I don’t think Hunter would be happy about this.”

David’s heart ached so bad he was getting
nauseated. He’d given Raja his purity ring. What if Raja had been having sex
with lots of other guys while they were dating? Wasn’t that the exact same
thing Lucky said about Raja? David should have known better, but he’d let raw
lust cloud his mind and ignored all the red flags.

David choked on air and sped up to get out of this
hellhole of a place. He rushed through the mud, spraying it all over his church
pants and headed for the gate, past Raja’s bike where he’d been hugging his
first ever lover just minutes ago.

Tears fell down his cheeks as soon as he reached
the road. He didn’t know where to, but he started walking faster anyway. He’d
been so stupid. Why would someone like Raja be into him in the first place? Why
would he go through all the trouble when he surely had a phone packed with
numbers of eager hookups? Yet another reason for Raja to be so vague about
their relationship status.

Why wouldn’t David’s chest stop aching? In a
desperate attempt to soothe the pain, he started doing the one thing he was
good at.

He ran.

Ran until the night swallowed him whole.

David managed to catch a bus after a long run down
the road. He turned off his cell phone, too afraid of all the texts he was
receiving. He wanted to be alone, yet the long trip home didn’t make him feel
any better. His thoughts were an unstoppable tide of worries, regrets, and
memories of the time he’d spent with Raja. He’d probably have to face him again
at some point, and what would he say to him then? ‘How could you have let me
fall in love with you when it was just a game’?

Just thinking about this made David crave a hole
in the ground where he could bury himself forever. Just hours ago, he’d let
Raja fuck him, and it turned out that the encounter that for David was a
magical experience, for Raja was just another time he’d had sex. There were no
emotions attached to any of it and no regrets for him. There had David been
thinking that the relationship somehow made him more of an adult, but it turned
out he’d been played like a little child.

As he approached Hunter’s house, his feet were
like two bricks he had to drag behind him. The last thing he needed now was to
face the brother who’d been nothing but kind to him, and admit that he’d lied
about his sexuality. The sun was slowly rising far away, giving the air a cool
tint. David used to enjoy working in the garden in the mornings, but now all he
wanted was to cover himself with a blanket and never wake up again.

There was light peeking out from behind the
curtain in the kitchen, and it made David’s heart all the heavier. He couldn’t
possibly just sneak into his room and pretend he fell asleep already when
someone was awake in the house. Still, he walked up to the door and searched
his backpack for the keys, blinking to keep his eyes clear.

Just a few hours ago, he’d thought all the things
he’d done with Raja were the epitome of ‘cool’. Raja had punched Joseph, and
David escaped from the scene with him on a freaking Harley! Now? He wasn’t sure
anymore if all his recent actions weren’t proof of him being an out of control
loser instead of an adventurous young guy breaking out of his shell.

He pushed the key into the lock and turned it,
starting an avalanche of footsteps. The door sprang open before he could even
grab the handle, revealing Hunter, who squinted against the light, fully
dressed despite the early hour.

“Where the fuck have you been? Don’t you have a
cell phone? Everyone’s worried sick about you!” he growled through his teeth.

David wished he could just pull the hood over his
head and make it all go away. “I… I’m sorry. I had a bad night.” This was
pathetic, he was fighting tears already. “Everyone?”

Hunter hissed in frustration and roughly pulled
David inside. Asty was peeking out from the kitchen, a worried look on her
face.

“Yes. Mom called us and told me what happened.
What the hell? You’re fucking my friend behind my back and don’t even tell
anyone where you are? I just returned from that bastard’s apartment, but he
wasn’t there! That’s almost an hour’s ride one way, David!”

The ground under David’s feet became shaky, and
the huge hoodie he was wearing was undeniable proof to anyone with eyes. Mom
must have been desperate if she called Hunter.

“What did Mom say?” He hugged himself, unable to
look into his brother’s eyes.

Hunter stepped back, and the brief silence that
followed his question told David exactly how frustrated his brother was.

“She woke me up in the middle of the night and
told me that at church you told them that you are gay, and then had a menacing
Arab man pick you up and beat up the priest. She thought you’d come to your
senses and come back in the evening, but when that didn’t happen, she decided
her best bet was to wake me up and tell me that
I
made you like this...
somehow. I don’t even want to know what she thinks our home life looks like if
that’s
her idea.”

“He’s not Arab!” David growled and spread his
arms. “He’s Indian.”

Hunter groaned and rubbed his face. “No shit. A
dark-skinned man with a beard on a black-and-white bike couldn’t be anyone else
than our common
former
friend. Can’t believe he’d be seducing my little
brother behind my back. What were you thinking, David?”

David looked at Asty, but there was no help coming
from her side. “They were so angry with me. I failed at everything. I didn’t
know what to do. It’s not his fault I’m this way either. I can go if you want.
I’ve got some savings.” He rubbed his eyes.

Hunter grabbed his shoulder and shook him. “David
look at me. Raja is not the right guy for you. He’s a manslut, and he’s clearly
not trustworthy. If you mentioned this to any of us, we’d have told you to
avoid him!”

David looked up, relieved that Hunter wasn’t mad
at him for being gay, yet no less distressed over what happened tonight. “He
lied to me. He made a bet with his friend over sleeping with me.” David let out
a sob, curling his fists over the sleeves of Raja’s warm hoodie. “And I love
him so much I just want to die.”

Hunter’s face fell, and he looked back at Asty,
his eyes widening in panic. “Oh, no, no no… David, don’t say that. It’s going
to be fine,” he said in the end and pulled David against his chest, patting him
on the back with his fist.

“What’s wrong with him? Doesn’t he have the whole
gay Tinder thing to fall back on for sex? Why would he be chasing down your
brother?” asked Asty from up close, but David didn’t even want to open his eyes
to look at her.

He sobbed again, making Hunter’s T-shirt damp with
his tears, but he couldn’t hold them back anymore. His big brother’s presence
was the one solid thing left in his life, and he’d hold on to it. “No one’s
ever liked me the way he did. And it was all a lie. I’m so stupid. I thought I
was so grown-up now because I have a job, and I can cook a few things.” He had
to take a deep breath to be able to speak again. “Mom and Dad hate me, and you
lost a friend because of me.”

Hunter’s chest hunched against David. “The
disloyal fucker had it coming. Can’t believe he’d treat you like this. I just
wanna break his arms!”

“David, I know you’re hurt, but you still have
us,” said Asty, cuddling up against David from the other side. “He’s just a
guy, and if that’s how he’s treated you, he’s not worth crying over.”

“I don’t want anyone else. I don’t want anyone
ever. I opened up to him.” The last word got swallowed by another desperate
sob.

“Motherfucker,” hissed Asty, pulling away, but
Hunter held David tight against him. It felt nice. Father never held David this
way, and right now this was just the support he needed to keep him on his feet.

Hunted sighed. “David, you’re only eighteen. It’s
fine if you’re gay... although you should have stopped me from making an idiot
out of myself by trying to set you up.”

“I told you it was a bad idea from the start,”
Asty said.

David sighed deeply. “I’m sorry. I didn’t really
understand what I was feeling very well. The last two months changed me so
much. I only realized when I met up with Mom and Dad yesterday.” He finally
pulled away and wiped his eyes with the sleeve. “I’m not what they’d want me to
be. I never really was, and I can’t force myself to be. I’m not even going to
college.”

Hunter grunted. “Okay? I mean... I disappointed
them too. Welcome to the club.”

David snorted with laughter, even though he didn’t
feel very joyful. The fact that Hunter accepted him so easily felt like at
least one puzzle piece in his life going into the right slot. Too bad the
puzzle would now never be finished with the Raja piece missing.

“So, can I stay here a while longer?”

“Yes,” Asty and Hunter said at once, and David
could feel her slim hand ruffle his hair.

“Let’s make you some cocoa. We were having an
early breakfast just now,” said Asty, and as she gravitated toward the kitchen,
Hunter pulled David along as well.

David nodded, but he knew no amount of chocolate
would ever heal his heart. Maybe now that his silly love dream got shattered he’d
really become an adult?

Hunter sat him in a chair by the table, still
holding David under his arm while Asty took a carton of milk out of the fridge.

“Always pick up your phone, David. We were worried
sick about you,” said Hunter, shoving away a plate of sandwiches to make space
for his elbow. “Did you think I’d hate you because you’re gay? Is that it?”

David took a deep breath and nodded. “You were so
excited about getting me a girlfriend. I didn’t want to disappoint you. And
then the phone… Mom and Dad kept calling. I just wanted a few hours of not
dealing with them. I’m so freaking stupid.”

Hunter rubbed his face and drank some coffee from
the cup that sat in front of him. “You’re not stupid. You just lack experience.
You can ask us anything, and we will help you with difficult decisions if
that’s what you need. Raja really wasn’t... isn’t the man for you.”

Asty looked back from the cooker with a scowl
passing across her face but tried to smile at David nevertheless.

“He felt… right,” David mumbled. “But if that
choice was wrong, I think I’ll take some time before dipping my feet in again.
I’ve got the job, a few projects…” He had to stop talking, because tears
started falling down his cheeks again. Who was he lying to? He couldn’t imagine
being with anyone but Raja.

Hunter knocked his fist against the table. “I’m
gonna kill this-” he started, but when a buzzing sound came from the street,
Hunter got up immediately and rushed toward the door. “Motherfucker...”

Raja’s heart raced. With David neither picking up
his phone nor replying to messages, he had no options left but to check at
Hunter’s. Yes, the meeting took far longer than he’d anticipated, but he hadn’t
expected David to just disappear on him. It was so out of character that as
time passed, the craziest of ideas started coming to Raja’s mind. What if David
left because the time away from Raja made him reconsider and feel bad for his
parents? Why else would he have left without a word? Anything could have
happened to David, and Raja refused to just accept this turn of events. If he had
to tell Hunter the truth about what had been going on between David and him, so
be it. Hunter was bound to be pissed off, but he could at least call up his
parents and find out if David was at theirs.

He parked in front of Hunter’s house, and seeing
light in one of the rooms downstairs, he quickly rushed for the door, which
opened wide before he even reached it.

“You shiteating son of a bitch!” Hunter came at
him, fists first, and despite dodging the punch to his face, Raja still got one
in his stomach.

He stumbled back, holding on to his midsection,
but as soon as he could speak again, he tried to straighten up. “Is David
here?”

Hunter grabbed Raja’s hair and shoved him to the
ground. “You think you have the right to ask that question?”

Raja glanced at the house, breathless. He didn’t
want to fight Hunter right now, but he did grab Hunter’s wrist to keep him from
pulling on the hair. “He fucking walked out on me and wouldn’t pick up the
phone. Is he okay?”

David appeared in the doorway, only half his body
visible as he peeked out with his eyes and face red. He looked so cute in the
big hoodie that Raja wanted to pet him, no matter how much David had scared him
this night.

Hunter grunted at Raja and let go of his hair.
“He’s fine. Without you. I don’t want to ever see you around him. Understood?”

Seeing David so upset unlocked a whole new layer
of rage within Raja. He growled and twisted Hunter’s hand. “He’s an adult. You
can’t police him for his sexuality, you bigoted fuck!”

Hunter frowned and shoved Raja back, but Raja
wouldn’t take it, and as soon as he could, he pushed Hunter as well. Who did he
think he was? Raja extended his hand to David.

“You don’t have to stay here and take his
bullshit, David.”

But instead of taking a step forward as Raja
expected, since David usually only needed a nudge in the right direction, David
hugged the doorframe. His eyes were so utterly sad Raja wanted to steal him
away and shower him with kisses until he’d see a smile.

“Say it’s not true about the bet,” David said.

Raja’s mouth opened, instantly dry as paper. His
brain was empty. How had David found out about the bet? “W-what?” he asked in
the end, already sweating like a pig.
Shit. Fuck.

“He can’t!” Hunter shoved Raja back again, long
hair falling into his face. “Because he’s a lying piece of shit.”

David put his forehead against the doorframe and
sobbed. Raja’s chest felt as if something was trying to push its way outside,
and he ignored Hunter, stepping toward David. “How... I mean... why did you
leave? David, don’t cry.”

David looked up at him with his eyes glistening in
the faint sunlight. “Is it true about the bet or not?” he hissed, staying where
he was.

Blade. It must have been Blade who told him. Who
else?

Raja wanted to deny it so bad it hurt. It would
have been so easy to shake his head, especially since he lost the bet on
purpose because it hadn’t felt right to deceive David anymore. But when he
looked into David’s sincere, shimmering eyes, the lie got stuck in his throat.
He’d been more sincere with David than with anyone else in a long time, and
this was not the time to break that streak.

“It wasn’t like that... Blade made this joke,
because I was telling him that gay guys have no problem getting laid, and he
bet me-”

David’s eyes opening wider distracted him so much
that he didn’t see the punch coming this time, and the impact of Hunter’s fist
smashing into his face felt like being hit by a truck.

“Get the fuck off my front yard before I shoot
you!” Hunter yelled at him. “You made a bet over my
little brother
?”

Raja shook his head, as if it could possibly stop
his brain from rattling in his skull. His jaw stung, and for a brief moment he
thought he’d fall to the lawn from the vertigo, but he managed to keep himself
up. “I didn’t know who he was back then,” said Raja and spat bloody saliva to
the grass. “Who do you think I am? This is a fucking conspiracy against me!”

When he looked up to the door, David was gone, but
instead, Asty was heading his way, looking no less menacing than she usually
did, despite wearing skull-print pajama pants and a tank top. The baseball bat
in her hand was enough for Raja to take a few steps back and raise his hands.
Sure, he could fight back, but he did not want to deal with the fallout of
possibly hurting the daughter of the Detroit chapter’s president.

“I’ll show you a fucking conspiracy, you cunt!”
Asty yelled at him.

Raja glanced at Hunter, backing away. “Whoa, keep
her on a tighter leash. Christ!” he added when Asty swung the bat at him.

“Get off my property!”

“David!” called out Raja, ignoring the fact that it
was around five in the morning, and most people were still asleep.

Hunter sneered at him. “Shut the fuck up! You
broke his heart, asshole. Don’t you dare make contact with him ever again. He’s
eighteen, for fuck’s sake. Straight out of Catholic school. He can’t handle
your kind of bullshit. He needs a good guy in his life!”

Heat flushed Raja’s head. “I’ve done nothing to
him. He was fine just hours ago, until he disappeared on me. Who do you think
he called over when your parents ganged up on him with the priest? You or me?”

“He would have called me if he knew what a giant
ass you are!”

Asty scowled at Raja. “Of course he called you.
He’s got teenage hormones raging inside of him!” She was one to talk. Barely
twenty herself.

Raja poked himself in the chest, staring straight
at her. “I’ve been treating him with the respect he deserves. You should let me
talk this through with him.”

“You’re not coming near him, Raja. And I’m not
breaking your nose only out of respect for our past friendship. Fuck. Off.”
Hunter squinted at him.

Raja panted, unsure what else was there to say. He
looked toward the house, hoping to spot even a hint of David, so that he could
somehow communicate that this whole bet thing was nothing like they all seemed
to think, but there was no one to communicate that to.

David was slipping from Raja’s grasp, and there
wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it right now. His throat ached when he
thought of just how much damage the misunderstanding could do to David’s
fragile self-esteem as a gay man, and he couldn’t stand the fact that his hands
were tied as a result of this clusterfuck.

He stepped back and shook his head. “This is a
mistake...”

A raspy voice shouted from behind him, and when he
glanced over his shoulder, there was an elderly man standing in front of the
house across the street, clad only in his pajama and a thick robe. “We’re
trying to sleep. It’s not even six yet!”

Asty walked past Raja. “I’m very sorry. This man’s
leaving.”

Raja hissed and rushed toward his bike. “Fuck all
of you.”

Once he got on and revved the engine, he took one
more look toward the house, and there David was, quickly hiding behind the
curtain in his room once he’d been spotted.

Raja didn’t remember the last time he felt so
bitter.

*

Raja was approaching Toledo with a brain as busy
as a hornets’ nest. He couldn’t believe what had happened. Blade had set him
up. Got him to look bad in front of Hunter, and messed up whatever it was that
Raja had with David. Raja’s hands hurt from the way he squeezed the handles of
his bike every time fury burned through his body. Just when last night with
David had been so hot and sweet. He thought the bet thing was long forgotten
yet it still came back to bite Raja in the ass. What kind of fresh fuckery was
this?

He was fuming with rage. This wasn’t even only
about David. Something like this could really affect Raja’s relationship with
the Detroit chapter, as if he didn’t have enough on his plate already with the
first round of cargo coming any day now. Blade hadn’t been drunk last night, so
an accidental slip was out of the question, and the guy wasn’t dumb enough to
treat it as a joke either. No matter how Raja turned this situation in his
brain, he came to the same conclusion.

Blade had told David the truth out of spite. Was
he secretly angry about being under a gay man in the chapter’s hierarchy? If
that was the case, pushing Raja at Hunter’s brother of all people did make some
sense.

He parked his bike in front of the clubhouse which
looked much worse in daylight than it did at night. Judging by the sounds
inside, the drinkathon was still going strong, and he hoped Blade was there so
he could whip his ass in front of everyone.

He rushed through the door, and the cigarette fumes
made him cringe. Pete. Of course. He could have at least opened the damn
window. But the choking air became a trivial problem as soon as Raja settled
his eyes on Blade, who looked up at him along with the others. As if nothing had
happened.

“You piece of shit,” hissed Raja and tackled the
motherfucker as soon as he started rising from the sofa. The world spun, and
they fell to the floor, bringing the beat-up piece of furniture with them.

The vodka breath coming off Blade in clouds made
it easier to pack a punch in his gut, but the fucker still wriggled under Raja
like an agitated maggot.

“What is this?” Spin yelled somewhere behind them.

“What’s going on?” Smurf added in a voice
suggesting he’d just woken up.

Raja ignored them and grabbed Blade by the collar,
slamming him down on the hard floor. Staring at him with wide eyes, Blade
punched Raja in the forehead, but Raja headbutted him even before the ringing
in his head was over.

“How dare you? What kind of friend are you that
you told him about the bet?”

Blade bared his teeth, and his fingers went for
Raja’s eyes, but they slipped down his face, tangling into the beard. “It
slipped out,” he hissed, spitting some blood. Motherfucker knew exactly what
he’d done.

“What bet?” Spin bellowed all too close.

Raja punched Blade in the face and held him down,
exhaling deeply before he was calm enough to speak to his VP. “This fucker told
Hunter’s brother we bet on him before I knew who he was. If he spills something
like this into the boy’s face, how can he keep secret important club business?”

Smurf held his hands up with a deep frown. “Wait,
wait, wait… Blade was trying to bed Hunter’s
brother
?”

Blade screamed and began twisting under Raja
again, his wrists trapped in Raja’s firm grip.

Raja clenched his jaw and kicked the fucker in the
nuts hard enough to make him squeal. He got to his feet and kicked Blade’s side
for good measure, pacing around the room. “
Fuck
. No. Not him. Me. He got
me to fuck Hunter’s brother, and then he told the guy it’d been on a bet!”

Spin groaned and twirled a finger in his beard.
“This is not good at all. Fuck, Blade, are you against this club or something?
There’s five of us. We’re brothers. We should be building each other up.”

Smurf shook his head. “That’s not on, man. If you
had beef with Raja, you should have settled it with him only, not make our
whole club look like a bunch of lowlifes.”

Raja rubbed his face, frustrated beyond belief.
Blade’s sheer presence in the room was like a sore wound that wouldn’t stop
bleeding. “And all that after I lost the bet because I found out who the guy
was. And you were pissed off when I did. What’s your fucking agenda, Blade? Do
you have a problem with me? Because if you do, let’s settle this like men, not
through this kind of backstabbing. That’s not what we all stand for here!”

Pete spat out his cigarette and put it out with
his boot on the tiled floor. He too scowled at Blade and shook his head. “Why
now? We’re starting a new operation within days. We might need assistance, and
this is creating a stink between us and Detroit.”

Blade was panting and seemed at least half-sobered
up by the punches thrown his way. “I’m the problem? He’s the one who fucked
another member’s brother!”

Smurf kicked the sofa with so much force it moved.
“Don’t try to turn this around. Raja’s our prez, and you fucked him over. If
you have a problem with him, you could have backed out of the club during the
patchover. This is such bullshit!”

Raja leaned against the wall, trying to calm down.
Seeing the others support him like this was a huge pick-me-up for him,
especially with how dreary the last few hours had been. “I tried to straighten
things out, and Hunter’s woman chased me away with a fucking baseball bat. I
can’t touch her. She’s the Detroit president’s daughter, and I have no doubt
that she’s gonna mention this to her papa. What a fucking clusterfuck,” he said
and kicked the wall behind him.

Spin gave Blade a stern look as he was slowly
picking himself up from the floor. “We need to be able to trust each other. To
have each other’s back.”

“True,” hissed Raja, holding Spin’s gaze for a few
seconds. The immediate fury was gone, but the raw ache in his bones that
replaced it wasn’t any better. He looked at Blade, who rolled over and got to
his knees, clenching his jaw so hard his teeth could break from the sheer power
behind it. “Take a hike. I don’t wanna see you here for the next three weeks.”