Page 30

Pancakes with Whipped Cream and Trouble on Top

Rio—

I wake up at dawn by my ringing phone. I’ve ignored it, but whoever it is, keeps calling back.

“Fuck,” I growl, finally reaching for it. “Yeah?”

“Boss, it’s Zig. The clubhouse caught fire.”

I jackknife to a sitting position. “What?”

“We just got back from the party. When we pulled up, two bikes were roaring off. I think it was those fucking DKs again.”

“Goddamn it.” I surge to my feet, my hand spearing through my hair.

“We got the flames out before they did too much damage, but we’re gonna need a new front overhang. The one that covers the entrance is toast.”

“And the inside? Is there any damage?” I pace the room.

“Just a lot of smoke.”

“I’m gonna kill those motherfuckers.”

“Hated to disturb you. We got it under control. But I knew you’d want to know. Go back to what you were doin’, and we’ll see you later. The boys are pretty exhausted.”

“I don’t give a damn how exhausted they are. You put somebody on guard duty. Rotate ‘em on shifts. Understand?”

“Yeah, boss. Got it covered.”

I hang up and toss my phone on the nightstand, then drop on the bedside, my elbows to my knees. I flex my fist, so angry I want to put a hole in the goddamn wall.

Shelby presses her body to my back, her arms going around my shoulders. “What happened?”

I instantly feel my blood pressure lower, and my fist relaxes. With just a touch, she does that to me. I take a breath, shaking off the anger. “Clubhouse got hit. Somebody started a fire. The boys got it put out, though.”

“Who would do that?”

“Zig thinks he saw two DKs roaring off.”

“DKs?”

“Devil Kings MC. They’ve been spotted around town a couple of times.” I twist to face her. “These guys are bad news, Shelby. You ever see another club besides us, you steer clear of them and call me immediately, understand?”

She nods. “Now you have me worried.”

I cup her cheek and kiss her, then press my forehead to hers. “Nothing for you to worry about. I’ll take care of it.”

“Come back to bed,” she whispers, pulling me down.

I surrender easily to her, like I always will. I can only hope she never realizes how completely she has me wrapped around her finger.

She cuddles against me, her foot stroking over my calf. “These Dks? You’ll tell me if there’s more to it, won’t you?”

My fingertips trail up and down her back. “I will if it’s something you need to know, but there are going to be times I can’t tell you everything. Club business is club business, Shelby. But that being said, I don’t want to keep secrets from you, not when it comes to you and me, and our relationship. That I won’t do. I don’t want there to be secrets between us. A couple starts down that road, and it never ends well. Saw that with my own parents. Lies tore their marriage apart.”

“I don’t want to keep any secrets from you, either. I felt such guilt not telling you about Bella sooner.”

I kiss the crown of her head. “Well, that’s behind us. Don’t worry about it.”

“Rio?”

“Yeah, babe?”

“In the spirit of not keeping anything from you, I need to tell you something.”

My hand stills on her skin. “What is it?”

“Last night at the wedding reception…”

“Yeah?” My breathing slows. I’m afraid she’s going to tell me some guy hit on her and then I’ll have to kill him. I search my brain, but the only time I can remember when she was out of my sight was when she went to the restroom. Now that I think about it, she seemed to be gone a while, but I was distracted by Eduardo and lost track of time. “Babe, if someone put their hands on you…”

“No, no. Nothing like that. It’s about Eduardo’s youngest daughter, the seventeen-year-old.”’

“What about her?”

“I saw her with Blue. They were walking in the pecan groves and then he kissed her.”

I don’t say anything at first, because in my world, that’s not a big deal. A kiss under the stars? Besides, I know the kind of man Blue is. On the other hand, Eduardo made it clear how he felt about his youngest girl not dating until she was older. As a father, he’d probably be livid, and I wouldn’t blame him. “Is there any more to it?”

“They turned and saw me. I reminded Blue she was the daughter of our host and she was just seventeen.”

“And?”

“He seemed surprised at her age and confronted her about it. That’s when I returned to the party. A few minutes after I joined you, I saw her come into the tent first, and a minute later, Blue returned. I don’t want to be a tattletale. Maybe it’s no big deal, but if it was to lead to trouble and I’d kept it from you, I’d feel terrible.”

The corner of my mouth lifts, and I know I will never have to worry about this woman being less than honest with me. “I appreciate you telling me. You did the right thing. Your loyalty is to me first and my men second.”

“I just hate feeling like I ratted him out. You don’t have to tell him, do you?”

“I can’t promise that. But he’s the one who fucked up, not you, babe.”

“Still, they all just met me. I don’t want to be the woman they can’t trust and can’t stand to be around.”

“Babe, it was just a kiss, right? Don’t blow it out of proportion.”

“If you say so, but who knows what happened after we left.”

“Well, since Eduardo isn’t banging the door down right now with a shotgun, demanding I turn my man over to him, let’s not worry about it. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“What time is Bella coming home?”

“I’m supposed to pick her up after breakfast.”

“They were going out for pancakes, right?”

“Yeah, the diner.”

“How about we join them?”

“They won’t be there for hours. It’s too early.”

I grin. “That’s okay, baby. I know a way to kill some time.”

“Sleeping?” she says, hopefully.

“Not exactly. But you can lie there and let me do all the work.” With that, I slide down her body, spread her thighs, and give my baby all the attention she deserves.

At 9am we arrive at the diner.

I notice immediately the glass in Dolly’s door has been boarded up, but there’s a handwritten sign that says, yes, we’re open .

“That’s funny. I noticed two other places on this street with plywood boarding up some glass.”

The aroma of bacon sizzling on the grill hits us the minute we walk in. I guide Shelby with a hand at the small of her back, and we join Jenny and Bella in a booth by the window. We’re barely seated before Dolly hustles over to the table.

I can tell by the tightness of her face that something’s wrong. She looks pissed.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” She jerks her head for me to step away from the table.

“Order me the breakfast special,” I lean to tell Shelby, then get up to follow.

Shelby nods, looking worriedly over my shoulder.

Bella slides into our side of the booth with her mother. “Can I get whipped cream on my pancakes, Mommy?”

I follow Dolly to the far end of the counter near the kitchen, and she whirls on me, a hand landing on her hip.

“I was about to call the number on that card you gave me. You saved me the trouble.”

“Something wrong? Did one of those deputies come around again?”

“Nope. It’s that.” She points to the front door. “Came in this morning and found three bullet holes.”

My brows lower. “Was anything taken?”

“No, but I talked with others and places up and down this street were shot up. Barry at the hardware store said he caught ‘em on camera. Two bikers rode past, firing pistols.” Her hands land on her hips. “You know, for weeks I’ve been hearing all these stories around town. How you helped Wendy Phelps when her car got a flat and how you filled Georgia Reed’s gas tank so she could get her kids to her mother’s house. And how you helped put out that fire at Sanchez’s place. So, I’m a little confused when I find out you do this kind of idiotic destruction for no reason. Is this the kind of thing we can expect in the future? You act like you’re going to help, and this is what you do?”

“Now wait just a damn minute.” I jab a finger toward her boarded up entrance. “That was not us.”

“Oh, really? I’m supposed to believe that?”

“Look, I have an idea who it was. The damn Devil Kings.”

“You gonna take care of that?”

“Absolutely, and you can pass that word to the other businesses.” I yank out my phone and stalk outside. Glancing down the street, I see several other stores with damage I hadn’t noticed before.

Zig answers on the third ring. He sounds like I woke him.

“Yeah?”

“I’m at the diner in town. Someone shot up a half a dozen places on this street down here. Somebody got it on the security camera. Couple of bikers shooting handguns.”

“The DKs.”

“We are finding those assholes and taking care of this fucking problem.”

“You comin’ to the clubhouse?”

“I’m gonna have breakfast with Shelby and her daughter first. Then I’ll be there. Everybody better be ready to ride when I get there.” I disconnect and go inside.

When I slide into the seat, Shelby gives me a questioning look.

“Everything okay?”

“I’ll tell you later. Did you order?”

“Yes.”

I grin at Bella. “How was your sleepover party? I heard you went to see a movie and got ice cream.”

“We did. It was so much fun, except I spilled my popcorn.”

“How was the wedding?” Jenny asks.

“Beautiful. We really had a great time,” Shelby answers.

“Good. I’m glad. I hope you got at least one photo together.”

Shelby takes out her phone and shows her a picture we roped Zig into taking of us both. “It came out good, don’t you think?”

“That’s a great shot,” Jenny says.

“Send me a copy,” I tell Shelby.

We eat a delicious breakfast, and Bella chatters happily all through it. When we’re finished, I pay the bill and turn to Shelby.

“Can you get a ride with Jenny? I’ve got to get to the clubhouse.”

“No problem,” Jenny replies for her. “I’ll take them home.”

“Great. Thanks.” I pull Shelby to me and kiss her. “I’ll call you.”