Page 20 of What He Wants

Jasmine shook her head. “As long as you have something I can change into, I’m good. Just let me get my coat.”

I watched her go to the back to retrieve it, wondering what kind of club trouble took place in the dead of winter that caused a biker club to go on lockdown. I’d heard the term before, on the news, when it had involved schools and other places that were under threat, and the police would surround the area. I seriously doubted that that was what would happen in this case.

Jasmine pushed through the curtain, slipping into her coat. “It’s going to be freaking cold on your bike.”

“Don’t have our bikes today, sweetheart, too fucking cold,” Clay grinned.

“You sure you won’t come with us?”

“I’m good,” I smiled, reassuring Jasmine, suddenly worried for her. I set my gaze on Clay. “You take care of her.”

“I won’t let her out of my sight.”

I didn’t doubt it for a minute. I watched them get into the big SUV and pull out of the drive. The snow seemed to be coming down harder now, silent and deadly, turning everything that it touched clean and white. Jasmine’s car was already coated with it. I had a feeling that if it continued, I would be holed up there alone for the next few days. No one in their right mind would venture out to get their hair or nails done.

That was fine with me. I didn’t mind having a few days off. I could work on the books in preparation for filing my taxes.

Chapter 9

Big John

I was fucking pissed! We’d just spent the better part of a fucking month searching for Shooter, Demo, and Whistler and had turned up nothing. Fucking nothing. The first place we’d looked was in Greenbush, where their clubhouse was located. Clay and I had spent a week sneaking around like pussies, hoping to catch sight of them. If they’d returned there after their release nobody knew about it, and they’d kept a low profile. Next, we headed to Last Hope, to talk to Covacks’ men, but they couldn’t provide us with anything different than what they’d already told Covacks. The descriptions of the men they’d overheard talking didn’t ring a bell with me.

We spent a couple of weeks on the road after that, checking out biker bars and hangouts, but that didn’t turn up anything either. People were afraid to talk, especially in Penobscot County, where those who’d been friends with the Trouble Makers MC knew that some of them were still around. No one wanted to get between two warring clubs when there was retribution involved. Someone was protecting them until they were ready to make their move. It was fucking ironic when I thought about it. They were supposed to be after me, but I was the one looking for them.

Well, they’d finally made their fucking move, and Hawk had decided to go on lockdown until we could flush them out. They were somewhere here in Solon. In our fucking territory. That alone brought a threat to our families. The fucking snow storm wouldn’t keep us from doing what we had to do to keep them safe. Right now my brothers were bringing in their women and children, and I was sitting and waiting for Clay and Cooper to return with Daisy.

The clubhouse was practically empty. Prospects and sweetbutts were readying the bar and restaurant for the overflow that couldn’t be put up in the upstairs rooms. The officers of the club and their families made use of those private rooms. Only a handful of brothers had sweethearts or old ladies, but other members had family who needed protection. Like Cooper’s sister and her family, Ned’s younger brother, and Jumper’s folks. Some refused to come, and we didn’t force them. If we could spare a prospect to stay with them we did at least that.

The door opened and I glanced up to see Clay, Cooper, and Jasmine walk through. I met Cooper’s eyes because he’d been the one responsible for bringing in Daisy.

“What the fuck?”

He shrugged. “She refused, brother, and I didn’t think you’d want me to put hands on her sweet ass to get her here.”

I scowled at Cooper, because he looked too fucking eager to do just that. “She still hurt?”

“I’d say she’s past hurt and on to pissed,” Jasmine said, giving me a scathing look. It was clear that she was pissed over the situation between me and Daisy, too. “You should have gone to get Daisy yourself, asshole. Her putting you in your place would have been worth watching.”

“What I did was for her own good,” I snapped, not giving a damn if Jasmine agreed with it or not. “Someday she’ll thank me.”

“Huh! You men are all alike,” she began, walking up to me and poking her finger into my chest. “You show a woman you’re interested in her, get what you want, and then toss her to the curb with some lame excuse.”

I growled as Clay wrapped his arm around Jasmine and pulled her away from me. He knew that I’d been about to lose my shit. No one talked to me that way and got away with it, and I wasn’t about to explain myself to his woman. The reason that I’d pushed Daisy away from me that night. It had been hard as hell to walk away from something that I’d felt all the way to my fucking gut would have been worth the fight.

“Control your woman’s mouth,” I snarled at Clay. Jasmine’s jaw dropped, her eyes bugged, and she began to struggle against his hold. Luckily Clay covered her mouth with his hand and kept her contained. I held my hand out to Cooper. “Give me the fucking keys. I’ll go collect her ass myself.”

Grinning, he dug the keys out of his pocket and dropped them into my palm. “Want me to come along to help?” he joked.

I just glared at him and pivoted toward the door. “Your sister and her family arrived about twenty minutes ago,” I said as I stormed away. “Tell Prez I’ll be right back.”

As I drove the distance to Daisy’s house, it occurred to me that I wasn’t exactly in the right frame of mind to deal with her. I was pissed that she hadn’t come with her friend, pissed that I’d cut off my involvement with her so that this very thing wouldn’t happen. But her close association with Jasmine, and the fact that her friend was Clay’s woman right now, put her right back into shit. Fuck! I couldn’t get a break.

I thought that maybe I should just fuck her and see where that left us. Hell, I hadn’t been laid in a month, not since the day I’d looked into her inquisitive green eyes for the first fucking time and had silently claimed her as mine. A month, that was some kind of record for me. I liked pussy, liked the relief I got when the stress of the day erupted out of the end of my dick. I’d gone through life fucking any woman I’d wanted, any time, and denying myself had shocked my system. At the very least, it had shocked my dick.

I pulled into Daisy’s drive and cut the ignition. I knew the door would be locked, but I tried it anyway. Then I began to pound on it, ringing the bell in between. After a few minutes, more than enough time for her to make it downstairs, I was about to turn around and march to the back of the house for the back door, when movement inside kept me planted where I was. Daisy was slowly making her way to the door, all wrapped up in a thick fluffy robe, her hair still showing signs of a recent shower.

She looked good enough to eat, and I felt my breath roughen with arousal the closer she came to the door. I could tell the second that she recognized it was me, and I couldn’t help but grin when her pretty mouth turned down and fire brightened her eyes. There was no missing that my presence did not make her happy. Well, that was just too damned bad. If she hadn’t been sostubborn, she would have already been at the club, safe with the rest of the families. This could have been avoided.