Sinister Knights MC #1-3

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

R yker

Sweat from my beer bottle dripped down the glass and soaked into my dust-caked jeans. And still, the bimbo rambled on. About what, I didn’t even give two fucks. The fact that Saint had invited all these chicks was more a thorn in my side than anything. And the fucker knew me better than this. There was only one girl for me, period. Saint called all these sweetbutts over for a booty call, plain and simple.

And booty calls, I didn’t do.

“So I told the guy?—”

“Listen, sweetheart, no offense, but I’ve got some shit to handle.” I stood up from my spot on the couch, abandoning her before I had to hear another word from her overpainted lips.

“Still a dick,” she called after me.

“Always a dick,” I growled behind me, headed for King, propped in the corner of the room, foot over knee and a beer in hand.

“Coulda done without the hoopla.” I collapsed into the chair next to him.

“Told Saint that, man. Told him you’d want nothing to do with this, but he was hell-bent. Prez thought it was a good idea too, family bonding bullshit.”

I took a swig of my beer, assessing the room.

I’d been home for exactly one hour, and already, I was sick of this place. An anxious pit had taken up residence in my stomach as soon as I turned out of County and made the ride for home.

I’d taken the back roads, avoided the highways, and felt at home with the wind on my face. An hour ride had turned into two, and I’d laid it out full throttle in the mountains a few different times, fucking off, working out the kinks in my head before I stepped foot in the clubhouse.

I might have had a lot of thinking to do in the three years I was gone, yet it still didn’t seem like quite enough time.

Well, it would have to be—because I was here now, and she wasn't.

Where the fuck was she?

As if the bastard was reading my mind, King spoke up. “You seen her yet?”

Her.

I swallowed the razor blades in my throat and uttered a quick no.

“Didn’t think so.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

King looked at me sideways, taking another swallow of his beer before replying. “Got a painful look on your face. Figure that wouldn’t be there if you had.”

I rolled my eyes, scanning the room just to avoid King.

“Speak of the damn devil,” King uttered a minute later.

My eyes zeroed in on her instantly.

Fuck, she’d grown in the years since I’d left.

Filled out more, lost the baby face, and blossomed into a woman.

“What the hell is all over her face?” I gritted out, resisting the urge to cross the room and take a wet rag to her flawless skin.

“Piper must’ve gotten to her again. Prez is gonna kill them for being here.”

I suppressed another growl low in my throat, hating that King knew anything about my girl. My Anna.

I wished for the thousandth time I would've skipped the bail hearing, taken off with Anna on the back of my bike, and headed for the border. Life on the run wouldn’t have been so bad, not as long as we were together. At least for me. Woulda been cheating her out of her life, though, and I couldn’t do that.

“Fuck, it hurts to look at her.” I pushed a hand through my hair.

King nodded beside me.

“What the fuck do I say to her?” I mused out loud.

He shook his head. “Whatever has been on your mind for the last three years, man.”

King stood, tossing his empty bottle in a trash can and heading for the cooler for another.

“Fuck this.” I shot to my feet, sucking in a giant breath of air and filling myself full. “Time to take what’s mine.”

I crossed the room in a few short strides, eyes on her until her gaze swept the space and landed smack on me. Locked.

Like a tsunami in my chest cavity, the world tipped and turned, so much that I almost stumbled on the steel-toed boots that carried me. I had so much to say; I wanted to lay it all out for her. How many nights I’d thought about her—1,095 and counting. How many letters I wrote to her and didn’t send. How many times I picked up the phone and dialed her number.

Missing Anna had unraveled my sanity, one thin thread at a time.

And now here she was, standing before me, and a million thoughts were running through my mind…

“What the hell is all over your face?”

Her face fell, the impact of my words having the wrong effect.

Fuck, I’d just insulted her. What effect had I thought that would have?

“Come on.” I thrust a hand out to her, latching our hands quickly and hauling her off down the hallway to the bathroom. We walked in on one of the other guys, Hank, and a woman getting it on on the bathroom counter. “Get the fuck out!”

Hank shot me a glare before zipping his jeans and pulling the chick out of the bathroom. I locked the door, then directed her to the sink. “Who put all this shit on you?”

“Piper.” Anna caught my hand just as I was about to smear the first bit of tar off her eyes. “And you can’t take it off.”

I gritted my teeth, leveling her with my eyes. “You don’t need it. You’re gorgeous, Anna. This shit makes you look like a?—”

“Kardashian?” she interrupted.

“A what?” I bit out.

She continued on. “What if I like looking this way? You haven’t been here in a long time, Ryker. Hell if it’s your place to tell me what I can and can’t put on my face.”

“Why are you testing me, woman?” I moved closer, sucking in a deep breath of her natural scent. Fuck, I’d missed her. So much.

“Testing you? Now you sound like my dad,” she sassed, then ducked around me, hand hovering on the doorknob.

“Fuck if you're leaving yet.” I pressed a hand against the door above her head. “Got a lot to say to you.”

“Well, right now, you’re just giving me orders. Start talking, or I’m splitting.”

My eyes widened, her soft little body quivering beneath mine. Waves of hair fell over one shoulder, and the way her tits filled out that dress with each draw of her breath drove me goddamned insane.

“Fuck, I don’t know where to start.” I pushed a hand through my hair.

Her eyes hardened, gaze dancing across my face and down the underside of my arm to the hand pushed in my hair. “I’ll start. Thanks for writing, asshole.”

“Jesus, help me,” I sighed, looking up to the faded tiles of the ceiling. “You don’t know anything, do you, woman?”