Page 2 of Hidden Desires (Bikers of Mayhem #2)

ACE

T he steady purr of the hog behind them had Ace glancing in the side mirror every few seconds.

At first, there was nothing but blackness and an open road, with a flash of red every so often when Cade decided to press the brakes and attempt to murder their buddy behind them.

A chuckle escaped Cade.

“You know, one day, you're actually going to cause an accident, and then who will you bro out with whenever you want to watch sports and burp and do god knows what?” Ace asked, watching as Blade appeared once again in his side mirror.

The man swerved, then straightened, then disappeared once again, no doubt pulling up beside them, probably to tell off Caden.

Caden glanced over at Ace and gave him a face.

“Do I look like the kind of guy who sits around watching sports? I’m more of a UFC, deathmatch-watching kind of guy.”

Ace nodded beside him. He didn’t disagree with him there.

“Plus, now that I’m dating Lucas, I no longer burp or do anything disgusting.”

Now, it was Ace’s turn to chuckle.

“Didn’t you pee off your porch and into your flowerbed last week?”

The purring of Blade’s bike got louder as it approached on Caden’s side of the truck.

“Luc told you that?” Ace nodded. “That little mouse, always squealing on me to his best friend.”

Ace shrugged his shoulders. He and Luc had gotten closer over the past few months, and both enjoyed gossiping and sharing secrets about the guys they had conquered. In Lucas’s case, he had Cade he’d conquered; in Ace’s case… well, he conquered whatever horny daddy or bloke was available that night.

“Anyone ever tell you, you drive like a blind panda?” Blade shouted over the roar of the truck and the snarling of his bike.

Blade rode a Harley-Davidson Cruiser. It was black with red flames stenciled on the sides. It rumbled when he rode and intimidated people as he passed them by. It was a total badass bike that always made Ace’s dick hard every time he saw the man spread his legs over the thing.

Fuck, the man’s thighs were thick, and his butt was full-on man-ass.

Yes, Ace might be a bottom, but he could appreciate a good man-ass when he saw one.

“Just testing your reflexes, brother. I heard you were a little slow on the trigger with that MILF from Tennessee,” Cade responded, giving his friend a shit-eating grin.

Blade flashed him the finger, which was kind of hard given his riding gloves.

“I swear, you two should just fuck and get it over with,” Ace added, turning to face the road once again.

“Bet you and Lucas would love to watch that.”

Ace chuckled. “Well, I’d be there front row center, dick in hand, but your boyfriend might have issues. He’s not exactly the sharing type.”

“Yeah, you're right. He’d probably offer me something to drink, then I’d wake up, my body buried in the desert with scorpions crawling all over my face.”

“Yup, that sounds about right.”

Caden and Luc had been dating for a few months now, and, while Caden might joke about sleeping with other men, they both knew that he didn’t have the heart to even look at another man.

Lucas was Caden’s whole world, and based on the growly way Caden got around other guys who showed his boyfriend a bit of attention, Ace was pretty sure that there would be a body count if anyone ever so much as touched his man.

“How much further?” Caden asked, tapping on the brakes and chuckling as he watched his buddy swerve once again.

The guys were going to kill each other one day.

Ace pulled out his phone and looked at the GPS.

“About another fifteen minutes. Take the next exit and then head west until you reach the industrial area.”

They had been hired to deliver some merchandise—guns, ammo—nothing too crazy, to a man who went by the name Red Angel .

Even today, the name still sounded stupid to Ace. But who was he to complain? The man had reached out to the Shadow Vipers and requested that the biker gang deliver his goods in person. A simple transport of goods across state lines. Nothing dangerous. Nothing too difficult.

Ten minutes later, Cade pulled the truck into the empty lot and backed it into the delivery bay.

The bay door opened, and two men wearing gun holsters stood waiting for them to approach.

One of them nodded over his shoulder.

“Thanks,” Ace responded, walking past the man as he and his partner began unloading the truck.

“Welcome!” a tall, slender man greeted, extending his arms wide as he flagged Caden and him over. “How was the drive over?”

Ace was the first to reach the guy and extended his hand as a courtesy.

“It was good. Quiet this time of night. Only took us a few hours.”

“Excellent. And you didn’t have any trouble getting the items I requested?” the man asked, glancing over Ace’s shoulder as his men continued to remove the crates.

“Nope. We got twenty-five 9mms, ten shotguns, and one hundred cases of ammunition as requested,” Ace listed off.

He handed the man an envelope containing his invoice and waited for him to hand over his payment.

The man known as Red Angel pulled the invoice from the envelope and skimmed over the items listed. His lips pulled back in a wicked grin as he folded up the piece of paper and stashed it into his back pocket.

“Everything looks good on our end. You boys finished back there?” Red Angel asked, glancing over at his crew.

“Yeah, boss,” one of the men replied, stepping away from the truck Ace and Caden had used to deliver the merchandise.

Seeming satisfied, the tattooed gang leader picked up a gray duffel bag beside him and threw it to Ace.

“Pleasure doin’ business, gents,” the man said, before turning to walk back toward his office.

“Wait. Not so fast,” Caden grumbled, stepping up next to Ace and pulling something from his back pocket. “Open the bag.”

Ace pulled open the duffel, revealing a bag full of hundred-dollar bundles. Hundreds of Benjamins, all staring up at him. So proud. So glorious.

Caden reached in and pulled out a bundle.

Steps away, Red Angel stood watching as Caden flashed his tiny UV pen over the stack of hundred-dollar bills and grimaced. He tossed that back into the bag and pulled out another bundle. Once again, he ran the light over the stack he held in his hand.

“Fake. All Fakes!” Caden growled, turning toward Red Angel and pulling his gun out of the back of his jeans. “What the fuck is this? You trying to cheat us out of our money?”

Ace startled, taking a step back and still clutching the duffel bag in his hands. It hadn’t registered that the cash he was still protecting was nothing more than usable toilet paper.

Behind them, the rest of Red Angel’s crew pulled out their guns and pointed them all at Ace and Cade. It was a symphony of scales, listening to the crew all cock their guns at the same time.

Red Angel chuckled.

“It looks like you idiots forgot you were outnumbered.”

Ace glanced around the room. There were four members in total standing behind them, pointing their guns at Ace and Caden.

“Now, you have two choices. Either leave here with your tail between your legs and never return, or stay and have your heads blown off,” the newbie gangster listed, giving Ace a confident stare.

“You forgot option three,” Ace said, smiling back as two of the men behind him let out a cry of pain.

Red Angel glanced over Ace’s shoulder as two of his men writhed around on the floor in agony. Sticking out of their thighs were two seven-inch steel daggers, each surrounded by deep red pools that were quickly spreading.

Gunfire erupted as the two remaining crew members fired blindly into the dark corners of the facility, hoping to kill whoever it was that had thrown a knife at their comrades.

Caden grabbed Ace and pulled him back behind a concrete pillar.

“You missed me!” Blade’s voice called out as he taunted the men from the shadows. “Come on. Give it your best shot. Who’s going to try to hit the big bad wolf?”

Ace gave Caden a roll of his eyes. He found it both funny and annoying when Blade went all playful-psycho when hunting his prey. Why couldn’t the man just use a gun to shoot his enemies like everyone else?

No. Instead, the man, formally known as Blade, insisted on using his knives and daggers to stab, run through, and maim all those who had wronged him—or in this case—tried to rip off the biker crew he worked for.

More gunfire erupted.

“Nope. Still missed.”

“Blade!” Ace shouted, starting to get annoyed and wanting to get the fuck out of there. “Just end them so that we can get the fuck out of here!”

“Argh. You’re no fun,” Blade huffed, somewhere off to Ace’s left.

Another round of shots rang out.

“Over there!” someone shouted, cocking their gun once more before letting out a cry of pain and dropping it.

Hearing all the bad men fall one by one was like listening to a famous symphony build to its finale. You know it’s coming, and your heart starts racing.

Another cry of pain. This one much closer.

Ace peeked around the corner and watched as Red Angel struggled to free his hand from a wooden beam. He grunted and growled as he tried his damndest to pull out the thin silver blade that jutted out of the center of his hand.

Blade’s knife-throwing skills were unreal.

Light glimmered off the steel object as the lightbulb overhead gently swayed back and forth.

“Did you guys get what you came for?” Blade’s voice made Ace and Caden jump. “That was a pretty fucked-up double cross.”

“Argh,” Ace growled, rolling his eyes at Blade. He stood up, then walked past him, heading toward Red Angel. He stopped two feet from the tattooed gangster. “One last chance. Do you have our money?”

The man shook his head.

“Fine,” Ace growled. He turned and glared at Caden and Blade. “Pack her up, boys. The merch is coming back with us.”

Caden huffed as Blade pulled one of his daggers free from a sobbing gangster who had tried to shoot him earlier. The kid didn’t look any older than twenty.

“I’ll be taking this back,” Blade noted, kicking a gun away as he bent down and yanked another one of his knives out of the second injured man. “These babies are expensive.”

Wiping the blood off his daggers with the back of his jeans, he slid the weapons back into his belt.

“You’re dead,” Red Angel snarled behind Ace’s back. Ace turned around and scowled at the bleeding asshole.

“I’d think twice before you go causing shit with the Shadow Vipers.

Our crew has many friends, and a small-time criminal like yourself has no chance standing up against a crew with our reputation.

I suggest that you take this, here, as a learning opportunity and never reach out to the Shadow Vipers again. ”

A glimmer on the man’s hand caught Ace’s attention.

The man wore a thick gold ring with a dragon’s head on top. In place of its eyes were tiny rubies that seemed to come alive when reflected in the light.

Ace stepped up to the furious man and pulled the ring from his finger.

“Consider this payment for gas and wasting our time.” Ace slid the ring on his pointer finger and admired how the dragon appeared to smile back at him. Yes, this ring would do nicely on his hand.

He turned and began walking back toward Caden.

“Ace! Watch out!” Caden shouted, eyes going wide as he dropped the final case at his feet.

A sick, gurgling sound emerged right beside Ace.

Ace spun around, startled and confused. He grimaced as he stared into the dying eyes of a man with a dagger sticking out of his throat.

Eyes wide open, the man stared back at Ace, motionless, appearing confused, as he struggled to breathe.

Blade ran up beside Ace and grabbed him by the arms.

“You, okay?” he asked quickly, fear and panic spilling from his mouth.

Ace nodded, still stunned, as he watched the man beside him drop to his knees and then fall onto his stomach. The man kept shaking as he fought to take his last breaths.

A large pool of red spread outward from the man’s neck, slowly sliding toward where Ace stood watching.

“You sure?” Blade asked once again, stepping in front of Ace, and trying to get his attention.

Blade gave him another shake.

Recognition finally set in.

“Oh, yeah. I’m… good.” Ace glanced down at the dead man once more.

He hadn’t seen him sneak up beside him.

Had he really just come that close to death?

“Yeah. I’m fine.” Ace looked up at Blade, finally focusing. “Whatever you do, don’t tell Marcus about this.”

If his big brother and fearless crew leader ever found out how close he had come to dying, he would never be allowed on another crew run again.

Blade shot a glance at Caden as if seeking his opinion.

“I’m serious,” Ace snapped. “Don’t either of you fucking tell Marcus about this.”

Nodding, Blade seemed to relax before returning to Cade to finish up.

Ace stole one last look at the injured gangster who was still trying to yank the dagger out of his hand.

How was he going to explain to his brother that they were returning home with a truckload of unsold merchandise, and that there was a warehouse somewhere filled with dead and bleeding wannabe gangsters?

His brother didn’t like it when things didn’t go as planned.