The Biker's Chaos (Ghosts of the Prairie Motorcycle Club Book 5) (2 page)

Chapter 1

If anyone would have told Hannah Cleary that she would be riding on the back of a handsome biker’s Harley, a tall, dark and gorgeous biker who she just met and whose last name she didn’t know, she would have asked, “When?”

For all the awful things that had ever happened to Hannah and her sister Melinda, riding to some new place on the back of a Harley had become one of the happiest moments of her life, and it was just now happening. She was so glad to be hitching with the Ghosts of the Prairies with her arms around the rock-hard form of her knight on shiny chrome and pipes. She could hardly find it in herself to apologize for being the reason they had to pack up and leave.

Hannah’s sister, Melinda, rode in the truck that hauled motorcycle club’s camping gear, with Bull. That comforted Hannah because Bull was a big guy. He wasn’t bad looking either, and there was a romantic part of her that something would spark between them. At the very least, Hannah knew her sister would be protected if need be. And given her brother-in-law Cranston Cox, Hannah thought there needed be.

The bikers found another helmet and jacket for her. She didn’t protest one bit when John took it upon himself to make sure it was adjusted on her just right. His fingers lightly brushed her cheeks, and underneath her chin, sending delicious tingles throughout her. The kind of tingles that made all the stress melt away like when she went to the hair salon. Hannah soaked it up.

Club captain, Danny White Feather, laid down their game plan. That they would just go  back home to business as usual. Any follow up with the bullshit, as he put it, from the Badlands sheriff department were to be directed toward Trenton who was the Ghosts’ attorney. 

Hannah noted that bikers seemed to take the huge change in their plans in stride. In fact, they seemed to like it that they were roused by cops, and they sparred a little bit. The feeling was that they welcomed ‘the bullshit’ as the club captain put it. Not that they seemed like the trouble-making type. Hannah’s word for them was mischief.

As he was putting the helmet on her, John the biker spoke so softly to her. He treated her with patience. From the moment she met him, just hours before, he assured her that she was safe.

“What if they come after us?” asked Hannah. “I mean, I have involved you guys in something awful.”

“Sweet, we like to rumble. If it has to be with crooked cops, all the better,” he said.

“Thank you,” she said. “My life is in your hands.”

He growled flirtatiously. It was just enough to be playful, but not so as to overwhelm her.

Finally, they rode off back to Parshall. Hannah completely fell in love with the feeling of freedom she felt as the bike sliced through the night. It was cold but somehow after a while the cold didn’t bother her.

When she tentatively held on to John, after awkwardly mounting the back of his bike, he pulled her up against him so tightly. Her thighs pressed against his firm backside and hips. Hannah didn’t protest.

Hannah was not the promiscuous kind at all. When her brother-in-law made horrible advances, she never liked it one bit. And yet, the second she got the invite from a handsome stranger, who she knew enough to trust he was kind, she jumped. She threw herself into the opportunity. She was fearless.

But Hannah and Melinda really didn’t have any place to go. They could go to Hannah’s one bedroom efficiency, but the bikers didn’t think that was a good idea. Hannah and Melinda were all each other had until Cranston Cox entered into the picture. 

Slowly by degrees, Cranston took over Melinda’s life. Eventually, he rigged it so that the two sisters were almost completely dependent on him. The fact that Hannah was defiant was a source of fighting. Cranston was beside himself that she would dare not just go along with his plan. And when he made his first pass at her, she realized the control was just one big seduction maneuver. He wanted to be sexual with Hannah. If it weren’t for her sister and Cranston’s help he offered, Hannah would have nothing to do with him.

It was so romantic to ride in the chilly darkness. But night sky began to fade. The sun lighted the blackness, coloring it. It was absolutely gorgeous and a completely new experience for her.

John and Hannah seemed to bond in the hum of the bikes as they rolled uninterrupted to the house that John shared with Pike and Bull. Even knowing she had John as her ally, Hannah’s stomach twisted with nerves as they reached Parshall. Cranston also lived in Parshall. She felt vulnerable somehow.

The bikers’ house looked small from the outside but was remarkably spacious on the inside. It was kept neat as a pin. The bikers were good sports about cutting their camping trip early. Once they stepped into the house, they were exhausted. They had, after all, rode home during the time when they should have been sleeping.

“Crashing,” said Pike.

He and his girlfriend disappeared off to his room. John began making up the sofa.

“I don’t want to be any trouble,” she protested. “All I need is a blanket.”

“This isn’t for you,” he said. “You’re taking my room.”

“No, I couldn’t. I’m just crashing here. I can go back to my place after a nap,” she said.

“I thought we discussed that,” he said, in a pretend stern but sexy tone with her.

“I know, but I don’t want to put you out,” she said.

It was the hardest thing ever for her to need someone’s help.

“I assume since you were camping, you didn’t have any place you needed to be today, right?” he asked her.

Hannah couldn’t help but be distracted by the slight smile on his face. He looked like there was something about her he found amusing. Damn. John was sexy as hell. He had to be a good foot taller than she was. He was enormous but lean. His shoulders seem to fill the whole living room as the two of them stood and hashed out crashing arrangements.

“What?” she asked.

“You’re so pretty,” he said warmly.

Hannah blushed involuntarily. Her whole face was hot, and her head spun.

“You’re adorable,” he muttered before giving her the tour. “That’s the kitchen in there.”

Hannah saw beyond the kitchen to a pleasant backyard.

“Help yourself to anything. Down here,” he continued.

He barely cleared the ceiling or the walls of the hall; it seemed as he forged ahead of her.

“This is the bathroom. There’s another in my room. Take a shower if you want too. If you’re hungry, I can scramble some eggs, but decide now, because I’m fading fast,” he said.

“Why don’t you crash in your own room? I’m still a little bit wired, believe it or not. That way you can sleep, and I can take care of myself without bothering you,” she said.

“You are a bossy little thing, aren’t you?” he teased. “Completely disregarding my insistence that I take the couch.”

“Honestly, I’m so used to couches and floors from way back I’m not sure what I would know what to do in a bed,” she said.

Immediately both their faces flared with the double meaning of her words. Hannah thought she would choke. She was clumsy like that.

“Do you sleep on a couch or the floor at your place?” he asked.

She was a little embarrassed to admit her bed doubled for a couch.

“Sort of,” she said. “I have a great bed in a bedroom which I’m sometimes too lazy to get off the couch to sleep properly. Besides, I like the feel of a couch, to be totally honest, because it’s like sleeping in a hug.”

John shook his head though his expression remained amiable.

“You win,” he said. “Please ask if you need anything. That’s my door.”

Just as he left her, Melinda and Bull pulled up in the driveway with the truck. He pulled all the way into the garage so they could enter the house through the kitchen. Melinda rushed Hannah’s arms and hugged her.

“I’m not going back to him!” she declared. “I want to live with you.”

“I want you to live with me too,” said Hannah. “Ef him.”

“Oh, we don’t tolerate that kind of language in this house,” teased Bull. “Please don’t say ef in our house in anymore. I see the couch is all made up. You gals go use my room. I got the couch.”

Melinda and Bull hugged.

“Thanks,” she said.

She and Hannah slipped off to Bull’s room. Hannah dropped to sleep the second her head hit the pillow.

Chapter 2

Hannah awoke to the most incredible smell. It smelled like comfort. Someone was cooking, and they sure knew what they were doing. Hannah crawled over her sister who was so tired, she only complained a little and went back to sleep.

When she got off the bed, and stood on the floor, Hannah saw that someone had thoughtfully set her bag inside the door. She grabbed it and dashed for the bathroom to freshen up. She decided to throw on her jean skirt and hoodie over a T-shirt. Her boots and a pair of tights worked fine with what she chose. She wandered carefully through the house. She felt like if she just bounded out toward the food which smelled like heaven that she would overstep her welcome.

The curtains in the living room were wide open and the day light filled the space. The front and the back doors to the house were wide open. Hannah could see bikes on the lawn out front and handsome bikers milling around a smoking grill out back. It was chilly in North Dakota. If it had been any later in October, there would have been no camping in the Badlands.

Hannah quickly gathered her loose hair up into a pony but then decided to release it. Her hair fell in a tousle, sweeping her shoulders just as she and John locked eyes from across the kitchen. The guy he was standing next to apparently was talking to him and had to nudge him. The poor guy lost John’s attention to Hannah.

Something about the way John gazed at her made Hannah feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. Not like the drama-prone, living hand-to-mouth poor girl she grew up as and was struggling not to be. He moved toward her, almost floating. Hannah met him somewhere in the middle.

“You’re gorgeous as ever in the daylight,” he said.

She wanted to say she liked looking at him at all times of day and night. She had gotten to experience the spectrum now.

“Did you sleep okay? Are you hungry?” he asked.

“Yes and yes,” she said.

Hannah felt giddy. She had to make a conscious effort not to giggle or lisp when she spoke.

“Not a vegetarian or anything like that are you? We’re grilling up some luscious North Dakota tri-tips. We do have salad and baked potatoes too.”

“I’m gonna get fat,” she said.

“You got some room to grow there,” he said softly.

It was true. Hannah was on the thin side. Almost embarrassing. That’s why she wore the black leggings, which technically made her look thinner, made her feel hidden.

“And we have ice cream too,” he said. “Homemade.”

“Homemade? Didn’t you take a nap?” she asked.

“I did. But we’re very domestic here as Casa de Fantasmas,” he said.

Hannah knit her brow. “You lost me,” she said.

John tweaked her nose.

“House of Ghosts,” he said. “Silly I know, but that’s what we call it. Come.”

He took her gently by the hand and led her out to the back where everyone else was. How many Ghosts of the Prairie did it take to grill a couple of tri-tips?  All of them, because Hannah got the feeling that they did everything together.

Through the back gate, more bikers. Some she recognized. The one who said he was a lawyer and his wife Jennifer and their kids. That cinched it for Hannah. She was with a decent crowd, Danny and his wife, and a handful of other bikers she hadn’t met yet.

In addition to the grills that Pike and John were working, there was a fire pit, fully ablaze. It was almost too cold to be comfortable outside, but the bikers had the backyard rigged so that all was comfortable.

She wasn’t sure how he did it, but John moved behind her, so smoothly, so that she was caught unaware. She realized then that she was very warm. She was encased by a gorgeous biker watched as he poked and prodded dinner.

Trenton, the lawyer, approached them. He was absolutely a huge bear of a man. It was all she could think of when she looked at him. He was like a linebacker.

“So I had a conversation with the local sheriff here, Billy Weston,” he said to Hannah. “Do you know him?”

He asked the question sort of like she was on trial. But the answer was no and she said so.

He continued. “He may stop by for dinner. We like to keep him fed and happy,” he said.

John and Pike both nodded.

“He wants to know what exactly happened with this Cranston Cox dude,” said Trenton. “You were running from him, right?”

“Right,” said Hannah.

Her mood dropped down considerably.

“And you said the Badlands deputy was there?” asked Trenton.

“I went camping with my sister,” she explained. “Cranston was being a jerk to her. Wanted me to go along which I didn’t want to do. But then I did. For moral support for her. And he kept trying to cop feels. I tried to stay awake as long as I could, but I nodded and there he was. Overtop of me. He forcibly made me walk to this spot away from the camp, and there were these creepy men there. One of them was the cop that was the first to show.”