Page 76 of Chaos & Carnage

“Never touch one. It’s a cardinal sin amongst bikers. One of the most offensive things you can do.”

“Why?”

“The clubs are very protective of their colours. They’re like flags. If someone wants to pick a fight, they’ll often try ripping off or rubbing a back patch. The man who loses his is in as much trouble from his own club. Of all the things you need to remember, it’s that one.”

I swallowed, the creeping cold targeting my throat now.

“Is there often trouble at these things?” I asked, lowering my voice so the people on either side of us couldn’t hear so easily.

“All the time. Nature of the beast. And why half the lads love coming. But nothing that horrendous.” Suzy winced again, this time just a little intake of breath. “Chaos and Carnage are good lads, you know.” She said, changing the subject sharply.

I think I just stared at her; my mind too slow to return with anything. But then suddenly she whimpered, bending over and clutching her stomach.

“Are you ok, Suzy?” I hissed.

“Oooh. Yeah. Sorry. Just a funny pain.”

She straightened slowly. The colour on her face had changed ever so slightly. The tiniest grey tinge.

I studied her, the hardness on her face, the concentration. She was in pain somewhere. I could see it. And even though she straightened up, taking a few deep breaths, I could tell she was hiding it. And she knew I could see that too.

“Please don’t say anything to Magnet,” she muttered.

“Why not?”

“He’ll worry about me. Always does. And I want him to enjoy his weekend.”

She looked at me pointedly, a note of pleading in her eyes. I nodded in agreement.

Chapter Twenty Nine

I watched her cuddled in behind him, her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, tense from cold or fear. I couldn’t tell. I hoped it was cold. I’d seen the fear on her face those few nights ago and it had reached into my chest and wrenched my heart clean out. I couldn’t bear to see her like that again. She’d been utterly frozen at first, her face filled with horror, and then something like relief kicked in, slogging its way through her veins until she’d come alive under it. We could have done without a fire, though. No time to dispose of bodies and evidence properly, and now we had to rely on her arsehole of a boss to sell a good story. And I fucking hated relying on anyone who wasn’t a King.

Alice shifted her weight slightly on the back of Cade, the tight leather trousers he’d bought her hugging that beautiful little peach of an arse. I was in the wrong position on the road if I didn’t want to get distracted. I couldn’t see her thighs, only the curve of that bum, those tight glutes as if she squatted for hours every day in the gym. Fuck. I was getting a fucking hard-on, and this was going to make this ride the most uncomfortable ride of my life.

Bikes roared behind and in front of me. Reap now on my flank, pulling away from Tez, concentration on the road. Beanz rode next to Cade, and that made me nervous. He swayed about the road, his head moving ever left and right, never fully focused on the riders in front. Riding two abreast at this speed took skill and concentration and if the fuckers in front and behind weren’t paying attention, it quickly became a lethal domino effect of a multiple bike pile-up.

By the time we disturbed the quaint Cumbrian town of Kirkby Stephen, I could see Alice was uncomfortable. She wriggled, shifting her weight from one seat bone to another. Cade patted her leg, the action reassuring, but my stomach dropped, watching him touch her, where I no longer could. His girl on his bike. And all I could do was watch it all happen, knowing I’d had my taste. But that one taste had me hooked, and now I felt an obsession like I’d never felt before, deep in my stomach, and fire in my veins. Fuck.

How had he found her before I’d had a chance to? If only I’d taken Kinobi to the vet that day. If only it had been me. Instead, I’d stayed to help Demon, and she’d met Cade instead of me. And now I sat behind them, watching him touch her. Knowing he was fucking her. Knowing how it felt to be inside of her. Shit. There was that fucking boner again. Fuck’s sake. I was getting off this bike either angry or horny as fuck, and unless there was someone I could find quickly, it was going to have to be a quick hand job in my tent.

We pulled up at the top of the hill, into the space Tomahawk’s crew had made for us, leaving enough room to put up tents and dragging out the beers. It had been a cold, thirsty ride, and I needed something to numb the pain in my crotch and the fiery poker taking stabs at my heart. Cans hissed around me, brothers choosing beer over shelter, and I was pleased my priorities were just about in the right place.

Cade helped Alice off the bike, the black leather trousers pulling even tighter round that magnificent arse and hugging her thighs. My eyes couldn’t leave her. Any of her. Her helmet still covered her face, but I could almost see those light blue eyes concentrating on him, and only him. That deep thrum started in my stomach again, and I took another mouthful from the can in my hand.

Alice’s body shook, just the tiniest of little movements, but as my eyes fixed on her thighs, on her back, on her arse, on the only parts of her I could really see as she concentrated on my brother, I could see the tiniest convulsions of a shiver. He’d barely noticed. He should have done something to warm her up. My cock stirred again in my leather bike trousers. Fuck. I knew how I’d warm her up. She would be shaking, not shivering, by the time I’d finished.

“Freezing,” I heard her murmur, the shiver even in her voice.

And I missed that too. The gentle tone of her voice. The softness and the versatility, the change to soft commands when she talked about her patients. One night was all I’d had. All I’d had to fall head over heels with my brother’s woman.

“I’ll get the tent up and our things in,” Cade responded, and I scowled at his solution. Leave her standing around in the cold while he fucked about with a tent.

“I really need a coffee or something,” Alice continued, her body convulsing.

“There’s some just down there,” I pointed over their heads, to where the tops of marquees peered out from the other side of the hill.

Alice pulled her helmet from her head, loose brown hair falling out from under it. And then she turned, her eyebrows knitting together. A darkness swarming in those beautiful blue eyes and an entire load of emotions hit me all at once. Jealousy, anger, defeat, and this consuming filling heaviness that I felt every time I looked at her, even from the very first day when I watched her walk out the vets with my brother.