Page 1 of Warrant (The Berserker’s Rage MC: Wyoming Chapter #1)

Warrant

I glanced up as the cop car pulled in next to my beater of a pickup truck. Flipping my steaks on the grill, I called out, “Almost missed dinner, Fucker. Next time I’m not waiting to put the meat on.”

“I’m five minutes late, Warrant,” Owen said, walking over. He was still in his uniform, his gun holstered at his hip.

It had never bothered me that my best friend had decided to go into law enforcement once he got out of the military. I figured he’d join the Berserker’s Rage Motorcycle Club with me, but he’d really wanted to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps, so he’d become a deputy.

We’d been such terrorizing little shits in our younger years, I was shocked they’d let him swear in.

We’d grown up here in Sentinel, Wyoming.

It was a ranching community, not to be confused with Centennial, Wyoming, though it often was, and the town had gotten a lot bigger over the years.

It still wasn’t a huge city, but that was for the best. I didn’t want to live amongst concrete and buildings.

Looking out over my fields, I grinned. This was the life for me.

Smaller town, fifty acres, a small herd of cattle, and my MC.

It helped that I also worked for my president, Cypher, for his security firm.

Kept all those violent urges I had satisfied, so that I didn’t remain a menace to my town.

Well, not as much as when I was a teenager anyway.

The violent urges couldn’t be quelled, but they could be redirected at least.

“Smells good,” Owen said, flopping down into one of the rocking chairs on the porch. He reached over and scratched behind my hound dog’s ears.

I didn’t get the chance to respond because Beau surged to his feet and started up that deep, gravel bay of his.

Owen sighed. “You had to get a blood hound.”

I chuckled as I turned my head to watch the sheriff’s Tahoe head down my drive. Frowning, I straightened. “Expecting company?”

Owen was welcome on my property, but I didn’t want his co-workers sniffing around. We had a tentative agreement with the former Sheriff and his deputies. The club didn’t bother them, and they didn’t bother us.

The shit we did with Sentry Securities was enough to keep us mellow on most days. Though if trouble came to our town, we’d fucking handle it if the cops couldn’t. This was our town. And we protected it, no matter the cost.

“Fuck,” Owen muttered. “That’s the new Sheriff.”

Studying the SUV as it pulled up, I shook my head. “Still can’t believe you didn’t try for that position. You’re the most experienced deputy Sentinel has. The town would have voted for you.”

The last sheriff had been counting down the days to his retirement. The last few years here had been pretty much a free- for-all for us. We did whatever the fuck we wanted, and mostly the cops stayed out of our way. I had no clue what it was going to be like now.

“Don’t want to be the sheriff,” he muttered, taking his ball cap off and hanging it from the arm of the rocking chair. He didn’t bother to get up though.

My eyebrows shot up as the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen got out of the cop car. “ That’s the new sheriff?”

“Warrant,” Owen said in a warning tone.

“Deputy Ward,” the sheriff called out as she walked up. “The other deputies told me I’d find you here.”

My eyes raked over her. The uniform hugged her form closely, showing off a body that was fit and trim.

She was tall, too. Had to be five-eleven or so.

Her black hair was smoothed back into a long ponytail that hung down her back.

Shrewd gray eyes moved over me then lingered on my cut that was hanging off the back of the empty rocker next to Owen.

“Sheriff Zimmerman,” he said. “What can I do for you?”

She focused back on my friend, allowing me to eye fuck her in peace. She had that typical ‘no nonsense’ attitude drifting off her, the one a lot of cops wore like a second skin. But she wasn’t barking orders at Owen either. She clearly wanted her deputies to like and respect her.

“Sherwood was telling me you know where Denison kept the keys to his filing cabinet,” she said.

Owen shook his head. “Sorry, Sheriff. He didn’t share where he hid the damn things with anyone.”

She sighed. “And he’s on vacation in Bali and not answering his cell.”

“Something you needed out of there?” he asked.

Something flickered over her face. Embarrassment? I grinned as a light blush spread over her cheeks. “I just wanted to get caught up on some of the cold cases the town has. Look into a few things.”

“You’d be the first one to look at those files in years,” Owen said with a nod. “I’m sure the families will be appreciative.”

“I can help you get into it,” I offered.

Her eyes swung back to me and I tried to figure out if they were the same color as the fog that rose over my fields each morning, or the misty color of the sky near the coast before a good rain. Either way, she was drawing me in.

Well, damn.

I didn’t normally obsess over a woman as quickly as this, but what the hell? I smiled at her.

“Into my filing cabinet?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest. She was in one of the uniforms with the short sleeved shirts, and her arms were toned, with just the right amount of muscle. I loved chicks who lifted. It was clear she was strong, and it made me want to test her skills.

“That’s right.”

She snorted in disbelief, then nodded at Owen. “Sorry to interrupt your dinner. See you at muster tomorrow.”

I watched her ass as she walked away. She thought I’d been kidding, but getting into places I shouldn’t be in happened to be a specialty of mine.

Drove Owen, and all his fellow deputies, insane, because they were usually the recipients of my pranks when I was bored and no area was off-limits or sacred to me. None of their areas anyway.

Owen scowled at me. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

“What?” I grunted, flipping the steaks before they burned. I might have overdone them. Nothing worse than well-done fucking meat. Served me right for getting so damn distracted. Though it wasn’t my damn fault a gorgeous female had just waltzed onto my property like she owned the place.

“You realize she’s my new boss?” he asked.

“Uniform kind of gave it away,” I muttered, glaring at my likely ruined steaks.

“And you’re in a one percent club,” he continued.

“Your point?”

“We’ve known each other since we were shitting our pants, Warrant. I know what that look you gave her means.”

I grunted again, ignoring the fact that my best friend was right. I was into her.

“She’s a cop,” he echoed.

“So are you and you’re still my friend.”

He shook his head. “Against my better judgement.”

“Naw, we’re just lucky your moral code doesn’t outweigh your common sense. I work for a legit security firm. We’re on the same side.”

He snorted at that and grabbed the plate I offered him. “There’s zero chance you follow the law.”

I thought about that then gave a decisive nod. “We’re work adjacent.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” He headed inside my house to get the potatoes he knew were baking in the oven. “What about the vegetables?”

“Meh.”

“You can’t just eat meat and potatoes, War,” he grunted as I heard the oven door open.

“Potatoes are a vegetable.”

“They’re a starch.”

“Vegetable,” I argued.

“I’m putting this asparagus in,” he announced.

“When did you become a woman?” I yelled. I wasn’t going to point out the reason I had the asparagus washed and cut was because they were going to be on our plates tonight. I’d let him think he’d convinced me to eat something green. It’d make him feel good.

Owen had been on a health kick lately. Not surprising.

We weren’t kids anymore. How the fuck I’d hit thirty years old, I’d never know.

But I couldn’t survive off fast food and MREs any longer.

Made me wake up feeling like shit the next morning.

Not to mention I had to keep my abs ripped so the ladies would love me.

Or very soon a certain lady. My eyes strayed down the driveway even though the Tahoe was long gone.

I had plans already running through my head for the sexy sheriff.

I rubbed my hand over my stomach as I stared out at my cattle while they grazed. I hadn’t exactly had time for the ladies lately. Between my president, Cypher, sending me on missions and helping out with our allies down in Tucson, shit had been busy.

It was only five months ago, I’d been down in Tucson, helping the Viking’s Rampage MC take out another motorcycle club that had been targeting the president’s old lady.

It’d been mostly quiet since, and I was starting to get bored.

It was never good when I was bored. That was how motorcycles ended up parked on sheriff’s squad cars…

I was just putting the steaks on plates when Owen brought out the potatoes and asparagus. It was May, and while it was still a little chilly, the weather was fucking gorgeous today.

We sat down and quietly watched the cattle graze as the sun set. This was an almost nightly occurrence for us. Had been pretty much our whole lives.

Owen’s mom had worked two jobs most of her life to make ends meet, so he always ended up at our house for dinner. Mom and Dad never minded and Mom considered him one of her brood.

“These from your Mom?” he asked, crunching into a piece of asparagus.

“Potatoes, too,” I said. They had their own cattle ranch and Mom had one of the biggest gardens in Sentinel. She loved to can and freeze dry vegetables and was always sending me home with everything I needed, and more.

“Damn good.”

“Steak’s better,” I said with a grin.

“This last year’s?”

“Yeah, that ornery steer took one too many trips down the road. Butchered him early,” I said with a shake of my head.

“You sticking around for a while?” he asked, looking down at his food.

“Been here for five months, Owen,” I said with a chuckle.

The last time I’d gone to Tucson had been in December of last year to help out The Viking’s Rampage.

Hadn’t been back since even though I’d gotten an invite to one of their friend’s weddings.

There’d been too much to catch up on here with my ranch at the time.

“You were in and out there for a while.”

“Yeah, had some friends who needed help.”

He snorted. “Sure. Friends. You don’t have friends.”

We both laughed at that. I picked up a beer out of the ice chest next to the table and handed it to him.

“They ran into a little trouble-”

“No,” he said, cutting me off while pointing a steak knife at me. “Still law enforcement. Don’t tell me anything about what you do.”

Scowling, I focused on buttering my baked potato and slathering sour cream on it. “Then stop fucking asking, dipshit.”

“Stay away from my boss,” he added.

My brows shot up. “Holy shit, you calling dibs, Ward?”

He rolled his eyes. “No, I’m not calling dibs. What are we? Twelve? I just want to make a good impression with my new boss.”

“What’s that got to do with me?” I asked, tone innocent.

“You fucking kidding me, War? You’re as bad of an impression as I could make.”

“Fuck you,” I said, laughing. “She’ll see what a damn fine deputy you are. Well, damn mediocre deputy you are. No need for me to be involved at all.”

He flipped me off and took a swig from the beer bottle, then shook his head. “You get involved and everything you do will be blamed on me. That’s what always happened with Denison.”

“Sheriff Denison was a fuck up,” I told him, opening my own beer. “Made it easy to do whatever we wanted though.”

“I don’t think she’s going to let you guys get away with as much,” he said with a smirk. “You may be Berserker’s Rage, but I’m betting she’ll have never heard of you.”

Clapping a hand to my heart, I gave him a horrified look. “You think? Well damn. Guess I’ll have to use my charm to impress her instead of my status with the club.”

He chuckled. “I have a feeling she’s not going to be impressed by you. Or your club. Or Cypher’s security firm.”

“Hard to impress, huh? We’ll see about that.” Grinning at him, I clinked my bottle against his.

“Don’t fucking cheers that,” he muttered, pulling his bottle away so I couldn’t do it again. “You’re going to get my ass canned. I just know it.”

“Naw, trust me. It’ll be fine.”

He eyed me, looking baleful. “Yeah. Right. Trust you. Fucker.” He got up and started walking toward his cruiser. “Thanks for dinner. You’ve got the dishes this time!”

Relaxing on the bench, I settled in to enjoy the sunset, a beer, and plan my next moves.