The Devil in Her Heart (Heartless Devils Motorcycle Club Book 2)

This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons--living or dead--is entirely coincidental.

The Devil in Her Heart copyright @ 2015 by Kathryn Thomas. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Book 2 of the
Heartless Devils Motorcycle Club
trilogy

Prologue

“Come on, Dad,” Jenny said as she opened the door to the Heartless Devils’ Chevrolet Tahoe.

It had been a bit over a week since her father had a heart attack while trying to rescue her from some very nasty business. He had suffered some significant heart damage, but after almost a week in the hospital, he was finally being released.

John Carter eased himself out of the wheelchair the orderly was holding and Jenny helped him into the front seat.

“Everyone is treating me like an old man,” John groused as Jenny shut the door.

“It’s because you
are
an old man,” Asher Lowe quipped from the driver’s seat with a grin. “Too damn old to be running around like you were.”

“I wouldn’t have been running if some asshole
hadn’t stolen my bike. Still, I guess I can’t be too mad since you used it to save my daughter.”

Jenny Carter crawled into the back of the SUV. “Well, the next time, take someone else’s bike. You’re the President after all!” she added.

“There had better not be a next time,” John replied solemnly.

“Amen to that, brother,” Asher agreed as he put the truck in gear and eased away from the curb.

“So tell me what’s been happening,” John said as they turned south toward the clubhouse. “Nobody would tell me
shit
when I was in the hospital.”

“Because everything is under control. Slovoski is running the club until you get back on your feet. You need to worry about one thing, and that’s getting better.” Asher looked at John and grinned. “You need to hurry it up, too. He’s starting to look mighty comfortable at the head of the table.”

John snorted. “We’ll see about that. The ticker might be acting up, but I’m not ready to hang up my jacket just yet.”

Jenny reached from the back seat and placed her hand on her father’s shoulder. “And nobody wants you to.”

“Especially after Jenny got done with them,” Asher added with another grin.

John twisted in his seat to look at her.

“The day after we were fished out of the drink, she showed up at the clubhouse and started kicking ass and taking names. By the time she finished, the entire club was jumping all over themselves to follow her orders. The John Carter genes run strong in that one,” Asher continued.

“I did not!” Jenny protested.

“The hell you say!” Asher replied with a chuckle. “You weren’t the one having to clean up the piss in the floor!”

“What did you say?” John asked her.

“Nothing! I just told them that my father wasn’t going to be laid up by something as minor as a heart attack, that you would be back, and if I heard even a whisper of doubt about that, they would have to answer to me.”

John added his chuckle to Asher’s as he glanced at the driver. “So how long did it take you to clean the floors?”

“Hours.”

“Here you go, Dad,” Jenny said as John carefully stepped out of the SUV. He wasn’t moving well, but he was moving.

“I think this is stupid! I am perfectly capable of staying by myself.”

“Not going to happen,” Asher said as he pulled open the heavy wooden door leading into the clubhouse.

Inside the room was a sea of black leather and smiling faces. The moment John stepped through, leading the way, the room broke into a loud roar of approval. The Boss was back!

John wouldn’t cry in front of this bunch, but the welcome made him want to. There had been a trickle of visitors to the hospital, but this show of support made it clear the entire club was behind him. He smiled broadly as he raised a hand in acknowledgement of the support, shaking hands and accepting light back-slapping hugs.

“Why are you bunch of losers here?” John asked as the ocean of black parted before him. “Isn’t there something you should be doing? This club doesn’t run itself, you know.”

The men chuckled but made no move to leave. They wanted to be here for the surprise.

Asher and Jenny guided John down the hall and turned him into the first room of the dorm as Asher shoved the door open and stepped back.

John made it two steps inside the room before he stopped and looked around. The dorms were set up with four rooms to each side of a hall with a bath between, and shared by every two rooms. But not this room, not anymore. The center wall had been knocked out between two rooms and the combined space had been converted in a cozy, if small, apartment consisting of a bedroom and living area. Fresh paint, new flooring and ceiling tiles, and some personal items from his house, made it home.

John swallowed hard and stepped into the room, Jenny and Asher following. Kenny Slovoski, the Vice-President of the club, and a few of his closest friends joined them.

“What do you think?” Jenny asked.

“Whose idea was this?” John asked, still shocked over the effort the club had made for him.

“It was Asher’s,” Kenny said. “We were talking about how to keep an eye on you for a while. Asher came up with the idea of opening a couple of the rooms up. Easier for everyone because there’s always someone around. The guys have been busting ass on it all week.”

John glanced around his room as Asher carried his bag into the bedroom. “I can’t thank you guys enough.”

“Hey… we’re the only club in Miami with a Presidential Suit. Just another reason why the HDs kick ass,” Kenny said with a grin. “Come upstairs. There is something else to show you.”

John led the way, slowly, up the steps to the offices, Asher one step behind in case he needed help. Gasping slightly, he made his way to his office, opening the door and stepping in. It was his office, but it had never looked so good. The wood in the room gleamed with fresh varnish and polish, the ratty carpet had been pulled up and hardwood had been put down in its place, and the entire room had received a fresh coat of paint.

“We’ve decided to spruce the entire place up, and we started here,” Kenny continued as John stood open mouthed in amazement. “No more cigars for you… so we figured we would clean the place up a little. One thing led to another and…”

John turned to look at his family. Not just Jenny, but the entire Heartless Devils Motorcycle Club. “I don’t know what to say.”

“How about ‘thank you’?” Jenny suggested with grin and a stage whisper.

Jenny looked up as the deacons clomped down the stairs. She smiled at the strange terms the club used – “deacons” for the group of men that guided the club, “attending chapel” for having a meeting. It was almost as if they didn’t want to admit they were a club… or maybe that was just a tongue-in-cheek way of poking fun at what they did.

“How’d it go?” Jenny asked as Asher approached. She may be the President’s daughter, but that didn’t give her access to the inner-workings of the club.

“I think we have a plan. Your dad is going to turn over most of the day-to-day operations to Slovoski… at least for a while.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah. Ease him back into it. They have put me in charge of tracking down the ‘puppet master,’ as we call him. We have to find out what’s going on there.”

“That’s good, too.”

“Yeah. They wanted to pull me off your protection detail to focus on that, but I convinced them we were already stretched too thin. But there are going to be times when someone else is going to have to provide your protection.” Asher held up his hand to silence her budding protest. “It’s the way it has to be, Jenny. It’s either that or someone else entirely.”

Jenny fumed a moment, but then relaxed. “Okay, fine. Maybe I can help.”

“No. Absolutely not. You have enough on you plate with school. Besides, this is club business.”

“School will be out in just a few months, and I have a vested interest in finding out who this puppet master asshole is.”

Asher nodded. “And we will. But for now this is on the down low, okay? The last thing we want is to spook him.”

Jenny gave him a crooked grin. “What are you saying? Are you saying that I’m not subtle?”

“Of course you’re subtle. Like a bat to the side of the head.” 

Chapter 1

Jenny pecked away at her computer as her professor droned on about
ad quod damnum
. She was back in school, but her heart wasn’t in it. Between her father’s near death, as well as her own, school suddenly didn’t seem as important as it once did.

She had become a minor celebrity in school as word went around about her ordeal. All the girls, already moon-eyed over the way Asher looked, were positively drooling over him now for his daring rescue of her. Even the guys had lost some of their sneering attitude, perhaps wondering how they would measure up. They may have more money, but that counts for jack when the chips are down and your life is on the line. Jenny smiled. She knew how they would measure up, and it wasn’t even close.

She gave herself a mental shake and refocused on the lecture. She had lost some ground during her ordeal and she needed to
focus
to catch back up. Being ranked number two in her class was bad enough, but being ranked number four wasn’t going to fly. Not for long.

She forced all thoughts of Asher, the club, and the puppet master from her thoughts. It wasn’t hard. For the last several days Asher had dropped her at school then left. Because a group always surrounded her now, hanging on her every word as she dribbled out details of her exploits, he felt she was safe enough. Sometimes he was there to pick her up, other times it was someone else.

Today it was him, and she smiled as he took her backpack from her and slung it over his broad shoulder before kissing her warmly.

“I need your help,” he said as they parted.

“Mmmm…. I think I can help you with that.”

He chuckled. “Maybe later. I need the expertise of a lawyer. Know anyone?” 

“I hear there’s a pretty good one in Fort Lauderdale.”

Asher grinned at her. “I have been trying to find out who this Hamasaki dude is. But, Jesus, the legalese… I’m ready to swallow a bullet.”

She frowned at him. “What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to find out who owns the home where they put you on the boat. I have to start somewhere, and that seems like as good a place as any, especially since I don’t have anything else. But the bureaucracy is driving me crazy.”

“You’re doing a title search?”

“I don’t know. Is that what I’m doing?”

Jenny giggled as they stepped out into the bright sunshine. “Yeah. Sounds like it.” She glanced at her phone to look at the time. “We have enough time to at least get started.”

***

Asher sat the table and watched Jenny scribble notes onto a pad before flipping the large bound book closed. She rose, carried the book into the vault, as she called it, and then reappeared a short time later with another book. At least he assumed it was another book, even though it looked just like the previous book and the three before that one, as well. He had no idea what she was doing, but she seemed to be doing it with great efficiency and she had compiled more data in an hour than he had in three days.

“This should be it,” she said as she dropped the book on the table.

“Okay.”

She snickered. “Is that all you can say? ‘Okay’?”

“Okay, great job?”

She snickered again. “I can tell you’re impressed.”

“Actually, I am impressed. I just don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I’m finding out who owned the property before this Hamasaki guy. It all looks perfectly normal. This should be the first sale of the house. I don’t expect to find anything, but it pays to be thorough.” She flipped back a page in her note pad. “Hiero Hamasaki purchased the property two years ago from Walter and Glenda Anice for two million, six-hundred fifty three thousand dollars.”

“Nice digs,” he said blandly.

“Not bad,” she agreed. “Especially since the Anices bought it twelve years before that for less than two mil. That’s inflation for you, I guess.”

“But nothing looks out of the ordinary?”

“No.”

“Don’t bother looking anymore,” he said as he waved at the book. “I don’t know what I was looking for, but there isn’t anything likely to come up by looking at who owned it before Hamasaki. Maybe that’s a dead end and his boat was stolen just like he said.”

“Do you believe that?” Jenny asked, her doubt clear in her voice.

“Not for a second. But I’m not sure where to go from here.”

“Me neither.”

Asher drummed his fingers on the table a moment. “Maybe I need to pay Hamasaki another visit.”

“Don’t do that!”

“I don’t give a shit about a restraining order. Stalking my ass.”

“You may not, but the cops will. The last thing you want is to go to jail. How will you find out anything in there?”

He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “Yeah, I know. It just pisses me off, though. I don’t care what he said, I didn’t threaten him!”

Jenny patted Asher on the hand before picking up the book. “No, but you’re a foot taller than him, thirty years younger, and a biker. Just showing up at his house probably made him feel threatened. He doesn’t know you as the big softy that I do.”

“I’ll show him a big softy when I shove my hard dick up his ass,” he muttered, causing Jenny to giggle.

“See! That’s what I’m talking about.” She leaned in close to his ear. “I have a better place for you to shove that anyway.” She backed away and swayed her way down the aisle to return the title book, putting a little extra movement into her hips.

As she slid the large book back into its place on the shelf, she chewed her bottom lip. Asher was right, though. They were stuck with a dead end. Heiro Hamasaki, the owner of the house, wasn’t the man who had ordered her death. But she wondered at the connection. Clearly there had to be one as the man was too comfortable in the house for there to not be. The younger man was his son, perhaps? She stood there thinking for a moment. Maybe, but that put them no closer to the puppet master than they were.

She returned to the table where she had done her research. Asher was already standing, her purse in hand. “Thanks,” she muttered, still turning the problem over in her head as she and Asher left.
We need a break!
she cried to herself.

Jenny was thumbing through her mail as she waited for the elevator to arrive. Most of it was junk mail, but an official-looking envelope caught her eye. She slid her finger under the flap as the elevator dinged its arrival.

Stepping in, she pulled the paper from the envelope and quickly scanned it. With a grin, but no comment, she passed the paper to Asher.

“So, you can legally carry now,” he said after he glanced at the paper and handed it back to her. Her carry concealed permit was attached.

“Yup!” she said as she patted her purse with her handgun inside. The weapon and purse were a gift from Asher, a Glock 42 and a purse with an easy to access holster hidden in the side. He had given them to her after she passed the conceal carry exam. After his expert tutelage and her law classes, passing the test had been ridiculously easy. The rest was just filling out the forms.

Asher smiled and shook his head with a snort. Jennifer Lynn Carter, little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, had been packing illegal heat for over two months, and made it clear she intended to continue to carry illegally on campus, not that he blamed her, not after what she went through.

The elevator doors opened and Asher stepped out first with Jenny pausing just a moment before following. It was a rhythm they had fallen into and Asher approved. She learned fast.

As they entered her apartment, he pulled his own weapon and hidden holster from the small of his back. He couldn’t say much about her carrying on campus when he had always done the same. 

As he placed the weapon on her dresser, something warm, soft and sensual melted into his arms. He smiled as his arms went around her back, holding her loosely but comfortably. They had become tentative lovers before her fateful boat ride, but since then their passions for each other had fully ignited. He hadn’t slept on the couch in over two months…unless you count the naps during football.

She looked into his eyes and she felt her smile mirror his. Their lips met, a gentle kiss at first, but quickly gaining in intensity and promise. As they pulled back, she felt flustered and squirmy, and she knew just what she needed.

“I need a bath. I feel grungy from all those dusty old title books.”

“You want me to start dinner?”

She smiled her best come hither smile. “No. I want you to wash my back.”

Asher smiled, but he wasn’t going to make it easy for her. He didn’t want her to think of him badly, even if he wanted her bad. “Are you sure you don’t want me to start dinner?” He watched as she began to unbutton her blouse. “I guess not,”
So much for not being easy,
he thought as he began unzipping his pants. 

He had just gotten the water to the proper temperature when Jenny stepped into the bathroom. They were still finding their way in their relationship, and this will be the first time they have fucked anywhere other than her bed. From the impressive hardness of Asher’s manhood, he appeared to like the idea, as well. 

“Down boy,” she teased as she stepped into the shower and then frowned.
It’s going to be tight in here,
she fretted. When Asher stepped in, he pressed himself into her back as he closed the door.
Then again, that may be a good thing,
she sighed as she pushed back into him, enjoying the feel of his hardness against her ass.

She turned, allowing the warm water to cascade down her back and wet her hair. Asher may have offered to start dinner, but he wasted no time in taking charge. She relaxed into his embrace as they stared into each other’s eyes before he pulled her lips to his for a torrid kiss. As they kissed, she pressed in hard, his erection pressing into her lower abdomen.

She pushed away from his lips, breathing hard, the squirmy feeling replaced by a weight in her pussy. “Fuck,” she breathed as she tried to catch her breath.

“Oh, we will,” he murmured as he picked up the soap. “But first…”

He began lathering her up, forcing her to step back slightly so the water didn’t immediately wash the soap away, working up a rich lather on her back and ass before crouching down and running his hands up and down her legs. As his big hands glided along the inside of her thighs she felt her knees shake, the slickness of his hands on her legs making her feel as twitchy as if she were holding a live electrical wire. As he rose, he spun her about, the water rinsing the suds from her back as he applied soap to her front.

She leaned into the wall with her hands, no longer sure of her footing as his hands continued to glide over her. Asher wasn’t her first lover, but he was by far the best, and he was proving, once again, that he was a master in the art of seduction. She had never fucked anywhere other than bed before, but she was looking forward to this encounter like none
before.

Asher smiled as Jenny leaned into the wall. She was without doubt the sexiest woman on planet earth. The way she responded to his touch set his blood boiling, like now, glancing over her shoulder, looking him in the eye while her face twisted in a feral snarl of lust and desire as he caressed her with soapy hands.

I can’t stand it anymore!
Jenny pushed herself off the wall and turned to face Asher before dropping to her knees. She had gone down on him several times before, but tonight, in the shower, with the water splashing around them like the rain, she was going to blow his fucking mind.

Asher took a step back as Jenny went to her knees, giving her a little more room. He barely had time to drop the soap bar into the tray before her lips were around him. She took him deep, much deeper than she had before, causing him to groan in pleasure. The girl had skills, that much was certain, and she applied them liberally as he closed his eyes and his hands found the back of her head.