“They’re gonna be expectin’ us to think they’re gonna show up, they’re gonna be prepared but so will we. The drop off warehouse is off the grid, if it comes to a fight then we’ll be ready. I’m tired of this shit happenin’, we fight and we end this.” I said, not fucking about any longer.

  “If we leave earlier than planned, then we could plot up on higher ground somewhere and wait for them, rather than ride into their trap.” I added.

  I looked round the table and everyone agreed.

  “So we’re all agreed, we all go on the run tomorrow with nothin’ but empty fuckin’ packages and wait to see what happens?” Michael asked, finalising the details from our overly long meeting.

  Nodding heads and murmurs of yes’ went round the table and Michael banged the gavel on the table, meeting over.

  I didn’t stick around long, I left before Michael could put the gavel down. As the meeting went on I felt more and more restless, nothing about this felt right to me, the possibility of it being a set up by the Ghost Riders being raised was no doubt true, they were planning something against us, but if they were going to attack tomorrow, we will be ready for them.

  The thought of staying at the clubhouse filled me with apprehension, I wanted to be back at the cabin. I have a long way to go to gain her trust, the last couple of times I’ve been with her I broke her down, I was under no illusion that she hated herself after I left though, and that’s what I intend to change.

  I pulled up to the cabin to the prospect holding his gun on the porch, he relaxed when he recognised me, again questioning his presence here. I was frustrated not knowing the answer.

  “Finished the decorating?” I asked.

  Alannah seems to have taken to him for some reason, I don’t remember her being friendly with a prospect before she went to college, she knew how it worked, maybe it was being forced here with him. I trusted her judgement and if she had taken to him, he must okay.

  “Yeah, she’s cleanin’, puttin’ everything back in its place.”

  “Good, you can take off for the night, I’ll stay and keep an eye on things.” I told him, lighting up a cigarette.

  His eye began twitching again, everyone was going to know his tale, it was going to be piss easy to know when he was either hiding something or nervous about someone.

  “Michael said I shouldn’t leave her.”

  “Michael isn’t here, I’m your VP prospect and I say you can go for the fuckin’ night.”

  He didn’t want to leave but he begrudgingly done as he was told and walked to his truck.

  “Be back by sunrise.” I yelled.

  He stopped and turned around, he looked embarrassed.

  “Um, what time’s sunrise?”

  I couldn’t help laughing, “Figure it out.”

  Flicking the cigarette onto the gravel, I blew out the smoke and opened the door. The house was silent apart from the occasional clatter coming from the only room with a light on, the kitchen.

  She watched me enter the room and continued tidying up, I shrugged out of my cut and jacket and hung them on the back of the chair, where I took a seat.

  I was content to sit and wait until she was ready to talk, I don’t care how long it takes for her to forgive me. I’ll take it at her speed.

  I watched as she finished the tidying and began pulling packets out of the fridge.

  She finally stopped and gave me her attention.

  “Are you staying long enough to eat?” she asked.

  Definitely progress, there was no sarcasm.

  I nodded and remained silent. Her eyes were red and puffy but they were dry. I hope for her sake, Micky, the man she knew and loved hadn’t betrayed us.

  She cooked quickly and comfortably knew her way round the kitchen, before long she served us both some sort of a stir fry concoction, it smelt great. I rarely ate proper home cooked food. I wasn’t amazed how good the food was. To me she could do no fucking wrong.

  She wanted to say something but something kept stopping her, I took it upon myself to start, it might not be what she wants to talk about but I couldn’t stop myself, I needed to know.

  “Do you think you will be able to forgive me?” I asked, bracing myself for her reply.

  “When I’m with you and you’re telling me you want me and don’t want to be shared, I want to.” she admitted, pushing her food around her plate “When you leave, I don’t know what or who you’re doing, I don’t want to turn into a jealous, paranoid, crazy bitch just to spend scraps of time with you whenever you want me.”

  “I don’t want that for ya either, what I did to you I was forced into and I complied purely for selfish reasons on my part.” I could see confusion sweeping across her but I carried on, “I don’t want anythin’ or anyone to hurt you, especially me, what I felt for you last summer was real Lana, I tried to stay away from you when you came back but I don’t want to, I want what we had before. Can you give me that? And I’ll give you all of me, I swear to you, you’re all I need and want, no one else.” I pleaded, hoping she believed me.

  “I want to.” she said, wistfully.

  I could see she wanted to but the pain I caused her was still there.

  “That’s good, that’s progress.” I urged, making her laugh.

  “Yeah, progress, you throw me a few lines and I forgive it all.” she snorts.

  “Lana, don’t do that. I don’t for think for one fuckin’ second you have forgiven me for anythin’, but I’ll prove it to you somehow how much you mean to me.”

  For the past year, her face is all I’ve seen, no amount of booze and pussy took that away.

  I could still see the doubt deep in her eyes but she accepted it and raised her chin.

  “Are you staying tonight?”

  “I would like to.” I said, taking hold of her hand.

  Deciding not to push her any further, I remembered the stash upstairs we kept here for back up.

  “Come with me.” I said, pulling her out of her chair.

  Taking her upstairs, she probably thought I was taking her to bed, which I was tempted to do. Instead, I opened the door to an oversized cupboard.

  “I forgot this was here.” she said, looking around at the assortment of weapons.

  “You knew about this?” I asked, quite frankly surprised.

  “Of course, I did grow up in the club you know. I used to stay here sometimes with my dad.” she smiled, “Obviously I was warned to death not to touch them, it used to have a big lock on the door.”

  Of course she knew about them, sometimes I forgot she has been a part of the club since birth, only being hidden from serious club business.

  “Do I need to ask if you know how to use one?” I asked.

  She didn’t reply, she smiled taking hold of a glock and loaded it with the ammunition next to it, within seconds the gun was ready for shooting.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.” I laughed, as she giggled unloading her handiwork.

  “That’s pretty hot you know.” I told her, as she put the gun back in its place.

  For the rest of the night we settled on the sofa watching a movie, neither of us were interested in but were happy enough just to be together. This is the first time I have given my attention to a woman in this way, before I would fuck them and be on my way, but now, sitting on a sofa that had seen better days with Alannah snuggled against me, I find myself craving for this moment to never end. Tomorrow’s run filled me nothing but stress, having her in my arms made everything seem possible, that everything would work out, it had to now. All I have to do is prove to her I mean what I say and I will be able to call her mine, then sort out how I am going to tell Michael.

  After a while she fell asleep snuggled against me, I carefully picked her up and took her up to bed.

  My cock begged me to wake her up, slide beside her and take her from all sides. Literally having to tell my cock to shut the fuck up, I stripped to my boxers and pulled the covers back to join her. She isn’t like the club whores and
I’m not intending to treat her like one, it’s not hard to see how much I get to her but I need her to want me like she did last year. The closest I got to her was pulling her back against my chest, she murmured something incoherently and held onto my arm across her stomach. Oh god, this is where I need to be, with her like this every god damn night.

  Sleep didn’t come easy, if I wasn’t thinking about the next day’s upcoming event, Alannah was moving against me and setting my cock off again and again.

  Finally succumbing to sleep, I heard the prospect’s truck pull up, surely it can’t be that time already?

  Groaning quietly as to not wake Alannah, I gently rolled her to the side and rose from the bed. Quietly dressing, I kept my eyes on her the whole time. She truly is beautiful.

  Bending over the bed, I stole a kiss barely touching her.

  “I think…I love you.” I whispered, barely loud enough for myself to hear.

  Chapter Five

  Cas

  We rode to the warehouse as we usually did on any normal run. Everything looked the same, nothing around us looked out of place. We rode closer to each other, keeping our formation tight in case of an ambush and stopped in front of the warehouse doors. Normally we make the drop off and our brothers from the Devils Bastards take over and deliver the packaged drugs to where they need to go. Lincoln, their president has been told of the changes and will take over as normal at the end of the week.

  Inside, the warehouse was empty as usual, a few tables and chairs here and there but nothing else. Lizard and Slade brought in the fake, empty packages and threw them on the table, we’d normally wait around for a while, have a smoke, stretch our legs and leave. Today, we do exactly that, if any Ghost fuck was around watching us, we wouldn’t look suspicious.

  Keeping our cool was difficult, everyone was tense, their hands continually twitching on their guns, ready to pull out if anyone turned up.

  I took a seat on one the chairs, carefully testing it to make sure it took my weight, while Lizard took position at the door, he kept a lookout, the road in is straight so we would have plenty of warning if they came cruising in now.

  “There’s a slip off ‘bout a mile up the main road, we take that then we can get a good view if they turn up.” Slade informed us tapping on his phone.

  Michael looked at his watch and then looked at us.

  “We’ll give it ten minutes then we go.”

  So far the drop off has gone without a hitch, not one peep of a Ghost Rider in sight. Mostly sitting in silence on our bikes, everyone was beginning to feel the strain of the cold setting in.

  “How much longer we gotta wait boss?” Sparky asked, blowing into his hands to keep warm.

  Michael has been getting more and more inpatient as time has passed, I don’t know what he expected, it’s not like the Ghost Riders were going to turn up as we were leaving, well, I wouldn’t plan that myself so I gathered they wouldn’t either.

  “Another hour then we’ll fuck off home.” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

  Our chapter was relatively small in numbers, each of us bringing a certain flair to the club. It has only been in the last year Michael began taking in prospects again, other chapters of the club have up to forty members each, ours only holding sixteen.

  After the drop off at the old, battered warehouse we backtracked and set up watch on higher ground where Slade had told us, we could see everything. Just as the hour was nearly up, just before three in the morning, we saw headlights driving up the secluded road.

  “Here we go boys.” Slade spoke, with a touch of excitement.

  It had been so boring even I felt my heart pick up in beat feeling the buzz of excitement soar through the men. I don’t think it had sunk in yet that seeing our rivals here meant that Micky had turned rat. I’d keep my mouth shut until we are clear of this situation.

  We kept watch on the van and as it became closer we all felt positive it was the Ghost Riders.

  They stopped by the warehouse and three men got out warily looking around the place.

  “Prospects!” Sparky hissed.

  Michael began cursing, this isn’t what we was hoping for, what are we going to gain from fucking prospects. No doubt they had been sent to scope out the area, there was no fight to be had tonight.

  They quickly exited the building and one of them was tapping on his phone.

  “Fuck this.” Michael snapped.

  Before I could get to him, he had his gun in hand and was aiming for the three men.

  They weren’t who we were after, it was an unnecessary attack.

  He pulled the trigger and the one with the phone went down, he had been shot in the leg.

  The rest of us pulled our weapons out ready in case of retaliation, the other two were frantically looking around helping the wounded man into the back of the van. It was apparent they weren’t armed, by the time I finished telling the others to fall back, the three prospects were in the van and speeding away.

  “That wasn’t your fuckin’ call.” Michael bellowed.

  “You wasn’t gonna fuckin’ call it, the pussy’s weren’t even armed.”

  “Shit…Fuck…This has been one hell of a wasted fuckin’ night!” he yelled, kicking at the dirt beneath his boots in frustration.

  “It’s been a night of revelations.”

  Everyone looked at Pope, he didn’t speak often but when he did, everybody listened. I knew what he was referring to.

  “Proves Micky fucked us over.”

  Having said that, he sat on his bike and kick started it and rode off. None of us wanted to believe it was true, but tonight’s events clarified it was.

  “Back to square one now, we’ll drive back and get some sleep, then tonight we’ll figure this shit out.”

  The air was thick with tension as it sunk in Micky’s betrayal and the flop that happened tonight.

  No one said a word as we prepared for the ride back. We wouldn’t make it back to Willows Peak until the afternoon and by then no one would say anything but go to bed.

  Too much is up in the air in my life and I’m not liking it. When I first came to the club, life wasn’t this wild, we had run-ins with other clubs whilst on runs of our own but that was our life and we took it on. Shit these days were much more intense than those days, they seem like a walk in the fucking park now. Each attack on the club, every decision Michael was making felt wrong, the only thing that felt right was getting close to Alannah. If I knew a year ago how life would be like now, I would have gone against Michael and called his bluff of tossing me out of the club and kept Alannah with me. I would have found a job somewhere close to her college and began a new life with her. The family I choose over her was not the same as it is today, the club is changing and I don’t think I’ll last much longer being a part of it unless the changes are for the better.

  The ride home held none of the joy it normally did. Riding behind Michael we were the first ones to see the bullet holes covering the entire gate that enclosed the clubhouse, windows were shot through and none of the prospects were to be seen.

  Slade came up behind us, got off his bike and punched in the code to open the gates. As we rode in, the garage door shutters were all closed, the clubhouse was barricaded up and no one was in sight.

  No wonder the Ghost Riders sent prospects, they were planning an attack here all the time.

  “Everyone check the clubhouse, I’m going to check on Kitty.” Michael said, half running towards his house.

  Getting over the shock, my mind opened to the possibility Alannah could be in danger too. Quickly retrieving my phone from my side bag, I tore my glove off between my teeth and scrolled down the list for the prospects number.

  It rang and rang, no answer. I tried three more times before I lost my temper and left him a message telling him to answer his fuckin’ phone!

  Shoving the phone back in the side bag and yanking on my glove, I roared my bike back to life and rode out of the compound.

  Curs
ing all the way to the cabin for being too far from the clubhouse, I eventually made it there in one piece, shocking myself at how I didn’t run myself off the road with the speed I was going at.

  The prospects truck was still parked in the same place as when I left a couple of days ago. Nothing seemed out of place, no sense of danger. Nothing.

  I took my gloves and helmet off and then pulled the bandana around my neck. I was about to call Sparky to see what was going on back at the clubhouse when I heard a gunshot and my heart slammed into the floor. Rapidly recovering, I pulled my gun out of the side bag and made off round the side of the cabin where I thought the shot came from.

  Alannah

  The last couple of days I have been on a confused high, Cas wanted me and not only that, he wanted, no, he needed me to forgive him. I was truthful when I told him I wanted to, but there’s still a small part of me that doesn’t understand why he did what he did to me. He said he was a playing a game –although not with me- and it started a long time ago, maybe it has something to do with that? If it was, then it’s a cruel game I definitely don’t want to play.

  Sitting at the table in the freshly decorated kitchen, I looked round and found it made the rest of the house look dim and dingy. Billy still hadn’t left, he stayed regardless of me telling him I will be fine on my own.

  His insistence of staying this long was beginning to make me feel like there is something my uncle is hiding. I’ve sat all morning, mug after mug of coffee pondering scenario after scenario of what could be going on, with nothing concrete but most often each scenario would always end with me in danger, why else have me protected? Deciding to give up thinking, I washed the mug and put it to dry on the drainer. Making my way to the cupboard that has always been off limits to me, I opened the door to find what I needed.

  Putting them in a duffle bag, I went back downstairs to Billy. Since the kitchen was finished, he spent most of time on the front porch. Opening and closing the door behind me, I nudged my foot against his and his eyes shot open.