Page 13 of Property of Thrasher (Kings of Anarchy MC: South Carolina #1)

THRASHER

T he compound never really slept as a whole—the men seemed to pass out in shifts rather.

That particular morning it felt as if the damn building was still shaking off a hangover. I rolled into my usual spot, the rumble of my bike echoing off the side of the building until I killed the engine. The air was heavy with the lingering smell of burned rubber from last night’s burnouts.

Three and Thrust, another prospect, sat on the far side smoking and pretending like they weren’t on edge waiting for another order. Still, I gave them slow nod, the kind that said, I’ll be sure to find you something to do real soon, fucker.

Entering the space I shook my head. The open space of our clubhouse main room looked like someone hosted a fucking war and forgot to clean up the dead bodies.

An open empty pizza box sat open on one of the pool tables, two bunnies were naked wrapped in each other asleep on the floor.

Spare laid sprawled out on the couch naked with his hands covering his junk but his boots still on.

How the fuck he managed that I didn’t want to know.

Another brother, I couldn’t discern who for sure, but I thought it was Widower but with his hair in his face, I wasn’t getting close enough to make sure.

He was crooked in a chair with a bottle clutched to his chest like a fucking stuffed animal.

The TV in the back was still on, muted, and the porn still playing. I kept walking not bothering to change it. I was halfway to my room, thinking about the day ahead when I heard it.

A low hum of voices, muffled but close. Then the laugh, feminine and light. Not a laugh I recognized.

We didn’t get new sounds around here often. Most of the brothers if they wanted strange pussy they kept it off the compound. It was easier that way. Our bunnies and old ladies were vetted, random bitches, well, it could get complicated once they had been tempted by a King.

I followed the sound down the hall toward the back rooms which so happened to be on my way to my room anyway.

My boots scuffed the floor in a casual rhythm, no rush, no pressure.

Tiny’s door was wide open allowing light to spill across the hall.

I paused letting my own eyes adjust as I took in what was right in front of me.

Tiny was crouched down with some woman’s legs over his shoulders pressing her back into the side of his bedroom doorframe while he ate. Her skirt was hitched high leaving full view of her bush. Her head was back, eyes closed, and the bitch was in fucking ecstasy while my brother devoured her.

She was new. She was different. Not painted up in the heavy makeup shimmery shit the usual club girls liked.

Her makeup was soft, subtle. Even though she clearly was in the heat of passion, her mascara didn’t run.

Her hair was mussed up, most likely from Tiny’s hands, but you could tell she started her day put together.

She blinked, her gaze going directly to Tiny. When she looked at him, she was locked in. She wasn’t just hungry, she was memorizing this moment of him for later.

This wasn’t club bunny behavior.

This was a woman building attachments.

And in my world attachments could be dangerous.

She tried to play her part, her hands gripping his head, then her nails dragging over his shoulders.

She shifted pressing her hips toward him like she’d either been watching too much porn or talked to a bunny.

This wasn’t practiced ease for her. While she was turned on and enjoying herself, it was evident she was holding back trying to give to Tiny as much as he was giving her.

She didn’t have the sharp edges of the others. She was soft. Guarded in a way. It was like she was trying on a role and it didn’t quite fit or she hadn’t figured out the method to it yet.

Now, I was intrigued. What brought her here? What was she before?

Who was she?

I stayed in place, arms crossed, letting this play out. Not because I got anything out of it. In a way, I’d seen enough to be immune to sex. However, I liked knowing everything about the people who surrounded me and my club.

Tiny sensed me first. He moved just enough to turn his head from her heat and face me. He froze for a split second before a spark of irritation lit his face.

“Thrasher,” he muttered removing his head from her pussy and guiding her legs from his shoulders safely to the ground. Using his body to cover hers I watched a man who has literally fucked more than one woman at a time in front of the entire club suddenly become protective.

“Don’t mind me,” I retorted with a smirk.

Tiny growled low, “can I help you with something, brother?”

“Nah, just passing through,” I casually remarked knowing this was pissing him off even more.

The woman, though, she didn’t say a word, just tried tugging her skirt down and covering her tits with her arms. Clearly, she wasn’t used to being caught. She kept her eyes on me though, it was like she couldn’t figure out if they were in trouble or I was simply an asshole.

She would be right about the asshole part.

“Got something goin’ on, Pres?” Tiny asked clearly wanting to be done with me.

“Yeah, got a run. Warehouse ride. You in or you gonna play house today?”

His jaw tightened.

That’s when DK’s voice came from the far end of the hall. “Thrasher?—”

A second later he was there beside me with eyes that didn’t miss a damn thing. He took in the scene, Tiny, the new girl, and my smirk like a proud fucking peacock. His gaze, though it stopped on her and stayed for a moment. I caught his thought, who the fuck is she?

She straightened up stiff under the scrutiny of our gaze. Lifting her chin, a mask fell over her features. Trying to project confidence or tramp down fear, I wasn’t sure which.

“She’s with me,” Tiny explained to DK.

“Didn’t ask,” his tone was light but the weight behind it told me he would be asking me or Tiny some questions later.

“Prez,” DK said taking the attention back to me. “Run got pushed up an hour.”

I raised an eyebrow in question.

He leaned in and whispered so only the two of us could hear, “Shift change for the sheriff and he asked we get our shit clear before the state boys ride in today for some audit bullshit.”

“Call up Sweeper, have him take over on this one,” I ordered and gave a nod to Tiny as I walked past him and his play thing to head to my room.

After a quick shower and change I went back outside.

I spent the night sitting at my daughter Elaina’s house because her ass got a new puppy.

She works night shift at the hospital. Normally she took the dog to her mother’s house for her shifts, but apparently my ex went out of town and that left me with the fucking dog duty.

I didn’t mind dogs, generally speaking. This dog, well, he needed some time to grow up and into himself.

Elvis was a blue tick hound dog and uncoordinated as fuck.

When he finally grows into his paws maybe he won’t be so clumsy.

The sun had come up leaving behind the morning haze. The lot was filling up, brothers straggling out of the clubhouse with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths.

I made my way to my bike, checking her over out of habit. I could hear the banter of the others around me.

Hacksaw was griping to FrootLoop about not topping off his gas tank. “You wanna walk home from the middle of nowhere. I told your ass full service clean. That meant topping her off. I ain’t got time to fuel up you dumb fuck.”

Frootloop didn’t reply which was smart, but damn if he didn’t look like he either wanted to punch Hacksaw or pee his pants.

“Maddox’s after the rally point,” Widower called out to everyone.

“Good,” Rage called out to no one in particular. “Haven’t touched Maddox’s girls in a bit.”

I shook my head, “damn brother. You think with your dick all the fuckin’ time. One day you’re gonna either get shot, or you’re dick’s gonna fall off.”

“Then I’ll die happy that my dick got wet regardless,” he fired back.

“Crazy motherfucker.”

The feel of someone watching me crept over my body. I looked to see Tiny emerging with his piece trailing him a half-step behind. She didn’t quite meet anyone’s eyes, but she had glanced around before locking back on me.

She was taking us in.

Soft, she might be.

Stupid she was not.

She touched Tiny’s arm before he mounted his bike, he leaned down and said something low that only she could hear. She responded and his expression shifted. It was a fraction but enough to tell me there was something more there than a fuck.

I pulled my gloves on the familiar stretch of the leather over my knuckles felt like an awakening. The fatigue of a crying puppy gone and in its place the freedom to ride giving me life.

“We ride in groups of five all different routes. Keep it tight, keep it fast. Everyone knows where to meet.”

One by one engines started up, the atmosphere filling with the growl of our machines.

I slid my shades into place giving one last glance to Tiny’s new attraction.

She stood on the edge of the lot, hands clasped in front of her like she was whispering a prayer as she watched him like he was a movie star.

Soft.

Too soft for our world. She was definitely hiding something.

If she stuck around, it was bound to come out.

It always did.

* * *

T he rumble of pipes filled the air as we pulled off the highway and into the back lot of Maddox’s.

Asphalt was hot like the sticky summer heat that clung to your skin after the wind from a ride.

We’d just finished a smooth club run. No trouble, no tails, everyone accounted for and money in my pocket.

Engines cut out one by one, the lot eventually going quiet except for the ticking of the cooling metal and occasional rousing of one of the brothers to another.

Maddox’s neon sign flickered out front. The smell of exhaust mixed with dumpster trash and the stale beer that always seemed to leak out of the club’s back door.

I noticed, though, Tiny pulled in, gave a quick chat with K-9 before pulling off instead of staying with the club.

“The hell’s goin’ on with Tiny? Why did he take off?” I asked DK as I climbed off my bike.

“Don’t know,” he said looking to the rear brake light of Tiny’s bike as he pulled out. “Not like him to not even step inside.”

“Nope,” I responded keeping my eyes on the space Tiny just pulled off from. “We just rode two hours, flawless run, and he bailed before tits hit his face. That is definitely not Tiny.”

Beyond that, he didn’t look back, throw up a hand, or crack a joke. He pulled out with gravel crunching under his tires. Dk let out a low whistle as he dismounted but also kept his gaze where the rearview light was no longer in focus.

“Yeah, that’s different.”

We fell in step with one another heading to the side door of the club as our usual entrance. The bass was already thumping through the brick walls.

“You know something I don’t?” I asked him watching the side eyeing smirk he gave back.

“Possibly.”

“Don’t give me some cryptic shit, brother. What the fuck is up with Tiny?”

He gave me a slow, lazy grin. “Our boy might be locked down tight on some cunt.”

“Guess he likes to mix business and pleasure.”

It was my turn to side-eye. “What?”

“Met her at the Velvet Inn.”

“She a guest? He’s always all business about the Velvet.”

“Sure,” DK drawled out. “He does more than check the books. Lyric is there. She was one of the employees he had that weren’t bunnies.

Trades out some of her work for a room. Her and her cousin.

Started out sharing a room, now Tiny done gave Lyric her own room.

She’s basically available anytime for him and brother seems to like that. ”

I frowned, the name sounding familiar as I had heard it in passing, but I did not know the face.

“Pretty little thing, sharp tongue if she feels caged. She laughs at his dumb jokes and that apparently is all it took.”

I huffed out a laugh, “you’re telling me Tiny’s skipping naked women and free whiskey for a clerk?”

Dk’s grin widened. “Not just skipping. Man’s acting and talking like it’s serious.”

That single word landed heavier than I expected. Serious wasn’t necessarily a regular thing in our world. We did hookups, warm bodies, and the occasional few who landed an old lady who could handle the life. But Tiny, that man was married to the club and not anyone or anything else.”

We stepped inside Maddox’s. The wall of sound surrounding me, music pounding, men whistling, and the laughs of strippers all around.

The air was thick with sweat, booze, and the kind of perfume that made your nose burn.

Girls worked the room, leaning in close to whisper promises they would never keep.

One thing about Maddox’s he kept the room full of women.

On slow nights as a patron you could have two draped on you while watching a third give you the show of a lifetime in front of you.

I couldn’t shake the thoughts of Tiny. Him having a woman wasn’t the issue. It was the distraction. Women made some men better and other men fall off their game. In our world, distractions made you sloppy. And sloppy got you or a brother killed.

We found a spot near the bar, leaning back against the wood, I watched the chaos unfold. Grown men tossing bills on stage, girls crawling for a damn dollar, with a handful ready to brawl in a back corner over a damn dancer.

It was a typical night at Maddox’s.

DK circled back to Tiny. “You ever notice, Thrasher, how a man can go years just running through pussy. No name, no connection, no entanglement. Then one shows up and suddenly the fucker gets twisted up inside. Like she somehow makes everything make sense?”

“Sounds to me like you want to get twisted up around someone. That kind of shit can make a man better or destroy a damn brotherhood. Tread carefully.”

He gave me a nod before taking a pull of his beer.

I was happy for any of my brothers who found a partner. That shit simply wasn’t for me.