Rock point collection, p.72
Rock Point Collection, page 72
“Are you hungry? Want to pick something up?”
I blink awake, I guess I must’ve slept like the dead because it looks like we’re just approaching Aztec.
“Jesus, you either have a serious lead foot, or those drugs they gave me knocked me right back out.”
“Drugs and a head injury will do that,” she says, her eyes on the road and a small grin on her lips. “And it’s possible I may have leaned a little heavy on the gas at times.” She throws me a quick glance. “Your color is a little better, though. The three-hour nap at least did you some good.”
“Hmm. I guess I could eat,” I answer her question. “Although I’m sure Momma has something cooking at the clubhouse.”
“You think so? It’s not like she’s expecting anyone back until late tomorrow.”
“True. Sonic drive-thru?”
“Fine by me.”
Conversation stills until we take the exit to get to us to the fast food joint, when Luna breaks the silence.
“How do you want to tackle this?”
“Tackle what?”
“With Nosh and Momma, are you going to fill them in?”
I look over and catch her glancing back. She’s being cautious with me. I can’t blame her, I haven’t exactly been a ray of sunshine. The events of the past days, my head is pounding so hard it blurs my vision at times—something I specifically avoided mentioning to the doc—and the fact I seem to have lost the careful hold I keep on my life, I guess I’ve been something of a bear.
Putting my hand on her knee, I twist in my seat to face her. “I haven’t thanked you for having my back—‘preciate it. It matters. As for Nosh and Momma, I’ll tell Nosh—he may have some valuable insights—but maybe we can leave it up to him to include Momma. Not that I don’t trust her, but she loves all her boys, and the possibility one of them may be involved in this would hurt her. I don’t want that on my head.”
“She’ll want to know what happened to you though. And so will the boy.”
Automatically my hand comes up to the bandage covering the cut on my head. “I mention I had a spill. Wouldn’t be the first time. Plus, it gives Momma a chance to vent her frustrations. If it were up to her, she’d make wearing a helmet mandatory.”
“She worries.”
“Every time we ride out.”
Luna seems to think on that when she pulls into the drive-thru. Before placing our order, she turns to me. “So why don’t you?”
“Some guys do, but it all boils down to individual choice. The last show of rebellion. If I take that away too, after taking the club straight, we’d be no more than a geriatric putt-putt club.”
She’s still snickering when a server comes to bring us our order.
Nosh comes ambling out of the clubhouse when we pull the rental up to the gate. With my keys back in Ruidoso with Dylan, I have no way to let us in.
The fuck happened to your head? Nosh starts signing the moment he gets a load of me through the windshield.
Fucking open the gate first, old man.
“Be nice,” Luna mumbles beside me.
Where’s Momma and the boy? I ask right away when I get out of the car, surprised the kid hasn’t come tearing outside yet.
Groceries. Damn kid’s a garbage disposal. Now what’s with this? He stabs a finger at my head.
Long story.
Got nothing but time, boy, he returns, clearly not in the mood to wait any longer.
“Jesus.” I throw my head back and let out a big breath. Fine, I could use a drink anyway.
“No alcohol until you get the all-clear,” Luna feels compelled to remind me.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”
Turning my back on both of them, I march straight into the clubhouse.
Luna
Fucking knew it, Nosh says, none too friendly after we finish laying out the entire story, including my professional involvement. Had my doubts in the beginning, but you two fucking pulled the wool over my eyes. Gonna break Momma’s heart. Woman was over the moon you found your match.
We’re in Ouray’s office—both men are sitting on opposite sides of the desk—and I’m leaning against the wall. I blush at Nosh’s words. It doesn’t feel good to have kept this from them, but to be honest, it hadn’t felt like much of a deception to me for a while already. Our so-called relationship may have been arranged, but it sure feels real to me.
I glance over at Ouray when he sits forward and reaches out for me. The moment I put my hand in his, he yanks me to him, pulling me down on his lap.
I have. Nosh lifts a dubious eyebrow as he sits back and crosses one leg over the other, his sharp eyes taking us in. Found her, and gonna keep her, Ouray signs, his arms around my middle.
That a fact? This time the old man focuses on me and clearly expects an answer, so I give him a tentative nod. The pause that follows gets uncomfortably long before he finally adds, In that case, you tell Momma yourself. I’ll keep the pup busy.
-
As it turns out, I’m the one keeping Ahiga busy while Ouray talks to Momma.
We were just coming out of the office when they walked into the clubhouse, heavily loaded with bags and boxes of groceries. The moment the boy spots me, he drops the box he’s carrying and runs over, his spindly arms closing around my waist.
Touched, and more than a little confused, I look up to find Momma’s beaming smile.
“Boy got in a scuffle with one of the older kids and managed to deck him. Guess he’s feeling a tad grateful.”
I look down on his smiling face and ruffle his messy hair. Nailed him, did you?
He nods enthusiastically. I think I made him cry.
I bite my lip not to laugh. You’re gonna have to show me how you did that.
He immediately latches onto my hand and drags me with him, out of the clubhouse, and over to the garage. Half an hour later, both of us sweating buckets, I remember I don’t have a single piece of clean clothing with me.
“I stink,” I warn Ouray, who pulls me close the moment I walk in the kitchen.
“Impossible,” he mutters, his nose stuck in my damp hair.
Gross, Ahiga signs on his way to the fridge.
“Exactly. Which is why I’m going to have to run home. I don’t have any clean clothes.”
“Come with me.” The order is curt, and Momma doesn’t even look at me when she grabs an equally smelly Ahiga by the arm and heads past me, out of the kitchen.
“You best listen. She’s on a tear,” Ouray whispers in my ear, giving me a shove after her.
Great.
Like a lamb led to slaughter, I meekly follow the somewhat intimidating woman out of the clubhouse.
The moment we walk into the cottage behind the clubhouse, Momma lets go of Ahiga. You hop into the shower, son. He doesn’t protest, but obediently heads down the small hall and disappears through a door. I can see how Momma coerces the kind of respect she receives from all these grown men. She starts them young.
“Now you.” I swing around at her stern tone. “I keep some stuff here for unexpected guests.” She opens a closet door in the hallway and pulls out a pair of black yoga pants, an old Deep Purple shirt and a fresh package of Hanes panties, shoving the lot in my hands. “You didn’t think I was gonna let ya run off without gettin’ my say in, did you?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Good. ‘Cause that would not’ve gone over well. Why don’t you grab a shower in the en suite in the master at the end of the hall? Clean towels and a fresh bar of soap on the rack behind the door. I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”
I guess it could be worse, I’m sure I’ll get a tongue-lashing, but at least she didn’t take me out back to shoot me.
The shower feels great, I realize I haven’t had one since yesterday morning, and the hot stream helps to relieve some of the tension in my body. Unfortunately I can’t stay in here forever, and eventually will have to show my face. I’d rather go straight to bed, but I guess that’s not happening.
There’s a teapot sitting in the middle of the small kitchen table, two mugs, and a plate of cookies. Not what I was expecting for what I assumed would be no less than the third degree.
“I liked you,” she starts, her folded arms resting on the table. “Now I don’t know if I should.”
“I’m so—” She lifts a hand to stop me.
“I ain’t done yet. This ain’t about me, it’s about my boys. You got one ass over teakettle for ya already, another gettin’ there fast. You walk when this case you’re working gets done, it won’t be skin off my nose, but you sure as shit will answer to me if either o’ those boys get hurt.” I don’t get a chance to respond before she does a complete one-eighty, lifts the teapot, and asks me sweet as punch, “What do you take in your tea?”
“Just tea,” I manage, a little shell-shocked.
“Cookie?”
“No thanks.”
“Baked them this afternoon.”
“In that case…” I reach over and politely take a cookie from the plate. It seems the safe thing to do. “For the record,” I confess. “Even if I probably should, I don’t think I’ll be able to walk away after all is said and done. I’m probably more than a little…ass over teakettle…myself.”
Ten minutes later, I walk into the clubhouse, feeling like I’ve just gone ten rounds with a grizzly bear and somehow came away unscathed. At some point, Ahiga must’ve come over here because he’s sitting on the couch playing on the game system, with an older boy. He throws me a cheeky grin.
Nosh is sitting at the bar, sipping a drink.
Kids, he tells me before I can ask the question. Same kid he had a beef with this afternoon. Name’s Shilah, been here for eight months. He lifts the bottle off the bar with an eyebrow raised.
No thanks, I’m about ready for bed. Where’s Ouray?
Office, probably. Unless he hit the sack already. He looks a little rough.
I smile my thanks and start heading toward the hallway in the back when I hear a bottle banging on the bar and I turn back. Nosh sets the bottle down and grins. Night. Glad to see my Lettie left you intact.
I bark out a laugh, but only the older boy on the couch lifts his head.
It was touch-and-go.
Nosh’s raspy chuckle follows me down the hall.
The office is empty but the door to the bedroom is open. Ouray is already in bed, his arm folded behind his head and his eyes barely open.
“You okay, honey?” Nosh is right, he does look rough. “When did you have your last painkiller?”
“Before we left the hospital. Don’t like ‘em.” His voice is scratchy and I sit down on the mattress beside him.
“Are you sure? You’re clearly in pain.” I stroke a hand through the beard he seems to have grown overnight.
He sighs deeply and flips open the cover. “I’ll feel better if you get naked and in bed.”
“Really? You can barely keep your eyes open.”
“Just wanna hold you, Sprite. Wasn’t sure I’d see you again after Momma got through with you.” He chuckles at his own joke but right away grabs at his head and curses under his breath. “Fucking hell.”
“She let me live—for now—provided I don’t walk out and hurt her boys.”
“Boys?”
I grin at him. “Yeah, Ahiga—and you.”
“That so? What did you tell her?”
“The truth,” I tease, dodging when he reaches for me.
“Luna,” he growls threateningly.
“I just gotta brush my teeth real quick.”
He glowers at me, but doesn’t try to stop me when I duck into the bathroom. I brush half-heartedly, and quickly shed my clothes, hanging them on the back of the door before I turn off the lights, and dart back into the bedroom—buck naked.
Ouray’s eyes shimmer in the dark room. He doesn’t miss a thing as I walk over to the bed and crawl under the cover he’s still holding open. I barely settle in before I find myself tucked with my back to his front. He may not be feeling well, but it’s clear his dick didn’t get that memo, I can feel it against my ass.
“Now tell me.” I don’t need an explanation: I know exactly what he wants to know.
“I told her I wouldn’t be able to walk away.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I’m head over teakettle for you too.”
The arm around my stomach gets tighter and I feel his lips brush my shoulder.
“Damn right you are.”
TWENTY-THREE
Ouray
“Dylan just texted me.”
Luna walks into my office and shuts the door behind her.
I’ve been holed up in here since breakfast, trying to make sense of the events of the past month or so, and in the process giving myself a whopping headache. I left Luna in the kitchen earlier. She offered to help Momma prepare a welcome home meal for the boys, which she grudgingly accepted. An attempt to get back in her good graces, I’m sure. It would appear I’m still on the outs, earning only an angry glare from the club’s matriarch, as she slammed a plate of eggs in front of me this morning.
At least I got fed.
“And?” I pinch the bridge of my nose and squeeze my eyes shut, the sound of my own voice resulting in a hot stab to my brain. Jesus.
“And I think you should quit being stubborn and at least take some ibuprofen to try and cut through the pain. You go in to see the doc like this on Wednesday, your chances he’ll give you an all-clear are slim to none.”
Without waiting for an answer, she marches past me into the bedroom and appears a few seconds later with a glass of water and a handful of pills.
“Fuck, but you can be bossy,” I grumble, accepting the meds and water all the same.
“Only when you need it.”
Little smartass. If I wasn’t feeling weak like a goddamn kitten, I’d drag her into the bedroom and show her who’s in charge.
Who the fuck am I kidding? I’ve turned to putty in her hands. Lovesick bastard. Never thought I’d catch that particular disease, but here I am, gaining on fifty and drinking the Kool-aid, so to speak.
“What did he have to say?” I finally ask after obediently downing the pills.
Luna sits on the edge of my desk, smiling. “He’s on his way back—with Paco.”
“He got him off?”
She winces a little. “Sort of. It’s more of a transfer of jurisdiction. Technically the aggravated robbery resulting in death that took place here in Durango trumps the aggravated robberies and assault in New Mexico, so Paco’s being transported back to Durango as a prime suspect—in Dylan’s custody.”
“That’s not gonna make him happy,” I observe.
“No. But it is gonna keep him safe. He’ll be handed off to Keith Blackfoot and taken straight to jail. Having whoever is behind this think they’ve succeeded casting the blame in the direction of Arrow’s Edge, will buy us time.”
It’s true, but it brings me to another issue I’ve been racking my brain on. “But what about me? My guys’ll be back sometime this afternoon, and we haven’t exactly flown in under the radar. Other than the select few, everyone else thinks I’m still holed up in a cell in Ruidoso.”
“For now,” she answers. “Momma and Nosh will keep quiet about you being back, I’m sure, but we have to assume the boys will let something slip. We just need to buy enough time for a quick powwow with my team, Kaga, Nosh, and whoever else of your brothers you feel you can trust completely.”
I snort. “I don’t fucking know anymore. It makes me sick.” It does. As much as I was relieved to find out Paco was only guilty of bad judgement but not betrayal—it doesn’t change the likelihood there is still someone within this club playing for the other side.
“All the more reason to push forward and force their hand. The sooner we can solve this, the sooner your life can get back to normal. This is why I need you to take the damn pills, so you can stay sharp. You’re gonna need it, because my guess is the moment they find out you’ve been released, there’ll be a target on your back.” She runs an impatient hand through hair that seems intent on escaping the elastic she wrapped around it. “I suggest we head over to your place, have Kaga and my team meet us there tonight.”
“We could bring Ahiga,” I suggest. “Reduce the chance something gets slipped before we want it to. Leave Momma to worry about the other boys.”
“That’s a great idea. I’m pretty sure he’d like that.”
I sit back and take in the blush high on Luna’s cheeks. She lives for this—the job, the case. The only other time I’ve seen her eyes this bright and her blood this hot, is right before she climaxes around me.
My headache almost forgotten, I reach out, pull her toward me, and guide her to straddle my lap, her legs fitting nicely under the arm rests.
“Got any idea how sexy you are? Confident and bossy—all fired up, all cylinders running?”
Her face shows a hint of calculation when she slowly grinds herself down on me, right before sliding off my lap onto her knees. My legs automatically make room for her. She holds my eyes, slides her hands up my thighs, and kneads my straining cock through my jeans. I grind my teeth and have to grab onto the chair to stay seated.
One by one she flips open the buttons on my fly, prolonging the torture. When she finally frees me, both hands on my dick, I hiss sharply.
She’s not been this bold before, and when she opens her mouth over my crown, I make a mental note to compliment her more often, if only to remind her of her strength and the power she holds. There isn’t a better reward than the sight of her hungry eyes as her plump lips stretch to accommodate me.
Any other time she’s tried to go down on me, the gesture’s been tentative—even a touch uncomfortable. My instinct was to interrupt her and take over, but not this time.
Perhaps lacking technical skill, she seems to rely entirely on instinct—which apparently is dead on—and giving me by far the best blowjob I’ve ever had.
Luna
I can feel my cheeks burning every time my eyes catch the smirk on Ouray’s face.
