Torched: Afterburn (Iron Serpents Motorcycle Club Book 2) (3 page)

For the next three hours, we had an absolute blast drinking, laughing, and shit-talking. The ladies had also commandeered the jukebox and were sporadically taking turns working out their frustrations on the dance floor. Most of the other patrons knew the drill and left us alone, minus a preppy kid who looked like he was killing time after getting locked out of a frat house. None of the girls had ever seen him before and he appeared fairly innocuous, but he’d raised some eyebrows and earned himself a stern warning from Elf after trying to worm his way into a dance with an uninterested Roxy. Yet, he was still sitting there at the bar, eyeing her for all to see like a moron. Hopefully he could handle an ass-whooping, Jet would be showing up any minute.

Drunk but sober enough not to make an ass of myself, I left the ladies to their bumping and grinding and made my way outside for some fresh air.

With the exception of the club’s president, Buddha, the rest of the guys who’d been at church—Torch, Zed, Grimm, Gauge, Squid, Mace, and Biff—had just pulled up. I spotted Torch still sitting on his bike and strolled over.

“Hey, gorgeous,” he said, reaching out to take my hand and pull me closer.

Beyond happy to see him after only a few hours apart, I lifted my leg over the gas tank and slid down to straddle him. “Hey, stud,” I greeted, going in for a kiss.

He smiled and licked his lips. “Careful, babe, I haven’t put the kickstand down yet. I’ve got half a mind to just drive off.”

“Ride your dick while riding your Harley? Don’t tempt me, it sounds fun.”

He chuckled. “Only
you
would risk getting road rash on that beautiful ass just for kicks.”

“A little road rash never killed anyone.” I went for his belt and started undoing the buckle just to fuck with him. Torch could barely keep his bike upright when I rode bitch and my hands wandered, I had no intention of eating a fucking curb for the few seconds of pleasure leading up to it. “Let’s try.”

He gripped my wrist and pulled it away. “I like you in one piece, but maybe I’ll build us a trike just for that purpose.”

“An old man’s bike isn’t exactly a turn-on, babe.”

“Woman, you fucked me behind a goddamn rest stop. You’d spread that pussy for me on the ugliest trike around in a heartbeat.” He cocked his head. “Or maybe you were just talking out your ass, maybe you’re too scared to follow through.”

“You think so?”

“You tell me.”

I leaned my mouth to his ear. “Build the trike. If you can go five miles without busting a nut, I’ll flip around and let you bury your cock in my ass for another five.”

He groaned and weaved his fingers through my hair. “I’m never giving this shit up,” he promised.

“You better not, I’ll cut off your dick and take it with me.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “You scare the shit out of me, darlin’, but I love it.”

“Crazy loves company.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and brought my lips to his again.

His hand made its way between my legs and cupped my needy pussy through the black pants I was sporting. He pulled his head back and grinned. “Crazy loves her
man
… You’re fucking soaked.”

“Yup. Backroom quickie?”

He practically tossed me off his lap and dismounted with lightening speed. Leaning down to nuzzle my neck, he slipped his keys into my hand and murmured, “Naked and spread-eagle on the desk. I’ll be there in two minutes.”

“Yes,
sir
.” I winked at him and sauntered off.

I only made it a few steps before hearing a loud commotion coming from the other side of the glass bar front. It was heavily tinted so I couldn’t see what was happening inside, but next thing I knew, the entire pane exploded. Torch yanked me back and pivoted, tucking me into his chest so I wouldn’t get sprayed with glass. I couldn’t see what the hell was happening but heard men yelling and shit breaking.

“Fuck,” Torch grumbled, releasing me from his grasp. “Stay here.”

Looking towards the melee, I saw Jet on top of the idiot frat boy, slamming one fist after another into his face.

Yup, I’d called that shit.

Torch and Grimm both grabbed their brother and pulled him away as people started pouring out onto the sidewalk and police sirens pierced the air. They had to have been at the twenty-four hour donut joint around the corner to get here this fucking fast, Linwood cops weren’t exactly known for being hustlers. And since nobody inside the bar was a snitch, it was probably safe to assume a straggler walking the street had seen it and called in. Fan-fucking-tastic.

A few minutes after Linwood’s finest pulled up with their lights flashing, Torch broke away from the crowd with a freshly lit cigarette and approached me.

“Think I’ll have to take a rain check on the quickie,” he muttered.

“Is everybody okay?”

“Yeah, some kid grabbed Roxy’s ass and Jet lost his shit. I don’t know how the fuck they ended up smashing through the window, Jet says he pulled him away from it and didn’t shove him outside until after glass started flying.”

“Was it cracked or something?”

“Don’t think so, Monk would’ve noticed when he opened.”

“Weird.” Not entirely familiar with procedure when it came to these sorts of things, I asked, “What now?”

“We gotta do the usual statements and shit, it shouldn’t take long. Except for the bozo who got his ass beat, we know all the civilians inside. They’ll say they didn’t see anything or that Jet was defending his woman, nobody’s going to jail tonight.”

I snatched his cigarette and took a drag. “Good, that means the night’s salvageable and you can finish what you started.”

“Are you ever
not
thinking about my dick?”

“You ask that like it’s a bad thing.”

He chuckled and wrapped his arms around me. “Oh, it’s a very,
very
good thing. Feel free to share your thoughts.”

“I think I’ll show you instead.”

“Even better.” He sat down on his bike and pulled me into his lap.

As long as they weren’t making arrests, the cops could take their time. I didn’t mind a damn bit.

: 3 :

| TORCH |

The next morning, Torch sauntered out of the clubhouse for a smoke while Liv finished getting dressed. After a mind-blowing suck-and-fuck in the shower, he figured he should peel himself away before being tempted into spending the entire day getting lost in her pussy. Christ, he still couldn’t believe that shit was all his, all the time.

It was a beautiful, balmy morning, the previous night’s clusterfuck seemingly left behind in the darkness. He lit up and walked over to a picnic table where Buddha was soaking in the sun with a cup of coffee. It didn’t look like the man had gotten much sleep; the dark bags under his eyes gave it away. Come to think of it, he looked like he was dragging ass the day before too, but maybe it was just the lack of a beard throwing Torch off.

Buddha wasn’t much into the barber shop experience, he preferred to shave his head once a year and then let it do its thing. This time around, he’d also taken a razor to his face and kept it up. There was a strong jawline under all that hair so it didn’t look bad, it just looked… different.

He probably had the right idea though. With the blistering fucking heat wave they were experiencing, Torch had considered cutting off his own mop to help make the worst of it more bearable. But his woman loved getting her hands all up in that shit when they were going at it, and he loved it when she did, so why ruin a good thing just to avoid a little sweat? After all, more sweat meant more showers, and he
really
loved what went on in those when she joined him.

“Morning, sunshine,” Buddha greeted with a mocking grin. “I see you still got those twinkly eyes and pretty glow about you.”

Torch smirked and leaned on the table. “Make all the jokes you want, man, you’d be lit up like a fucking Christmas tree too. You alright? You look kinda beat.”

“You’re a lucky bastard, I’ll give you that. I’m fine, son, just haven’t been sleeping much.”

Torch wasn’t entirely convinced, something in his tone sounded off. “Is something worrying you?”

“Nah, just getting fucking old.”

Before he could keep prying, Mace came tearing into the parking lot.

He jumped off his bike and headed straight for them. “We’ve got a problem.” Handing Buddha a folded-up piece of paper, he explained, “Just came from the Nest, our liquor license got revoked.”

“What the… Let me see that shit.” Buddha snatched the paper and read it over, then handed it to Torch and fished out his phone. “Mr. Gellar, you and I need to have a discussion. Call me back,” he said into it. He immediately dialed another number and walked off.

Torch scanned the official notice, which specified that the bar’s license was being suspended pending an investigation over the incident the night before, the violation being public endangerment. “Shit,” he muttered under his breath. He looked up at Mace. “Did somebody come by with this or was it posted when you got there?”

“A process server brought it by about twenty minutes ago.”

Torch checked his phone. It was barely ten in the morning. “When the fuck has city hall ever worked this fast?” he wondered out loud.

Just then, Liv walked out and joined them. “Hey. What’s going on?”

He handed her the notice. “We lost our liquor license.”

She frowned. “Over a bar fight? That’s a little extreme.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sure they’ll drag up all the past ones too. We’ve had one or two.”

“How many is that in biker math?”

Smart ass. “Alright, it’s a regular occurrence,” he conceded. “But this is the first one that’s spilled out into the street.”

“Huh.” She raised a brow. “Somebody jumped on it pretty quick this morning, don’t you think?”

“Nobody knows shit,” Buddha huffed as he walked back over. “The asshat who started it wants to press charges on Jet, but the PD doesn’t know we have hidden cameras in there and nobody’s talking so they don’t have a case. This just doesn’t make sense, Gellar’s on payroll. Why the hell would he do this? Business is already down, we can’t afford to close for who knows how long it takes them to investigate. Fuck.”

“Who’s Gellar?” Liv asked.

“The City Manager,” Torch explained. “He would’ve had to sign off.”

She pursed her lips and took another look at the notice. “Is the guy who started it a local?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Buddha replied. “The chief said his name’s Alex Mitchell, he works at the bowling alley.”

She nodded, the wheels in her head clearly spinning. “So he should’ve known the risks of walking into your bar and pestering the wrong woman, even before Elf warned him. I don’t know guys, between that and how quick this suspension was issued, I think there’s a lot more to it.”

“Oh, what fresh fuckery is this?” Buddha groaned.

Torch followed his line of sight to a red Cadillac pulling in through the gates. “Great.”

“I get the feeling this day’s on a downhill slide,” Mace grumbled.

Liv touched his arm. “You go deal with whatever that’s about, I’ll pull the video from last night and see what I can find out about this license bullshit.”

“You don’t have to do that, we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

She smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I need something to do, I don’t have any hacking jobs lined up and boredom breeds trouble. I think this is more of a diplomatic mission than the knee-breaking kind anyway. Let me see what I can find out and maybe we can fix it quietly.”

Boredom bred trouble? Coming from the woman who liked to fuck with cops for kicks, he didn’t even want to know. But what would be the harm? This was club business, but not
business
business, it couldn’t hurt to let her loose. Maybe she’d save them some time with that computer magic she was so good at.

“Okay, baby,” he agreed. “But just information, don’t do anything crazy.”

“Why would I do anything crazy?

“Is that a trick question?”

She grinned. “Point taken. Don’t worry, I’ll be discrete.”

“Alright, go get ‘em.” He smacked her ass and watched it stroll away before turning back to see Largo Scully—head of a Denver gang called the Silent Posse—stepping out of his car.

Scully whistled as he approached. “That’s some piece… Nice work, Torch.”

Buddha intercepted him before shit got heated from the get-go. “What are you doing here, Scully? Eighty miles is kinda far for an oil change.”

“I’m not here for a lube job, I was hoping we could talk business.”

“We haven’t had any in three years,” Torch pointed out. “And I can’t say we miss you
or
your way of doing business.”

Scully smirked. “Let’s not forget we made a
lot
of money from our partnership. That’s why I’m coming to you first, I need guns.”

Buddha shook his head. “Nope. We’re out of gun-running, man, there’s too much heat right now. And last I checked, you’re the one who got us caught up in the middle of a fucking turf war we had no stake in. If you need guns and you’re coming to
us
of all people, you’re probably up to the same kind of shit. We’re not interested.”