Forever - Book 3 (Star Crossed MC Lovers) Read online

  “Weird? Do you know my family at all? Every fucking night is weird.” I rolled my eyes.

  “Can we do it? You willing to wear the wire?” He tugged it out of his pocket and held it up toward me.

  “Yeah. I guess. It’s not like anyone is going to feel me up. They all know better.” I let out a long sigh and lifted my shirt. “Don’t you dare tell Lucky that I showed you my tits, either.”

  Dane’s eyes moved up from my chest to lock onto my eyes. “You’re an incredibly beautiful girl, but I’d never do anything to hurt Luck. He’s my best friend. He comes first. Always.”

  I smiled, not quite minding the lecture at all. Lucky didn’t have many people in his life, but as long as he had me and Dane, I figured he would be alright. Dane was to him what Grandma was to me. I smiled at the thought of her, and turned as Dane continued to strap wires to my back and chest.

  “Now, just speak normally, act normally and I’ll adjust the feed when I get back to the truck. Don’t let them know anything is up, Selene. Okay?”

  “I snuck away to your stupid training. I get it. I’m not a dumbass.” I lifted my eyebrow at him.

  “I’m aware. You busted several curves in our chemistry class back in high school. If you weren’t so damn cute, I’d have given you hell.” He tugged my shirt down and pulled me into a friendly hug. “Dear God, please be careful. Lucky will kill me if anything happens to you.”

  “I will. Just promise me that if something does go wrong you won’t let Lucky come into the house. Nothing good can come of him facing off against my family. They already hate him for reasons not even related to me and him.” I tugged my jacket back on and let out a long sigh.

  “Does anybody suspect you and Lucky are secretly dating?”

  “Fuck no.” I turned and walked toward the house, pulling my phone from my pocket. I’d spent the last weekend with my Grandma, but just in case things went badly, I wanted to talk to her one more time.

  The phone rang ten times, but never went to voice mail. A sickness rose up inside of me over it. She was old and lived alone. If anything happened to her, I would die.

  “Just check in with dad and then go over there. Plain and simple.” I stopped at the front door and pursed my lips. I hated being so worried about her, but outside of Lucky, she was it.

  She loved me like momma used to–unashamed adoration filled with warm hugs and lots of kisses. My father wouldn’t have a problem with me going to check on her, and if he did, I would just offer to take one of his goons with me.

  I steeled myself and forced my nervousness down as I opened the door, and walked into the house. I hadn’t gotten but a few steps into the foyer when my father’s voice rose up.

  “Selene, is that you, baby?” My father called from the formal dining room.

  Slipping off my leather jacket, I took a deep breath before responding. “Yeah, Dad. It’s me!” I called out and rolled my eyes. The falsity between the two of us was getting rather stale, and yet neither of us was willing to bend. He was up to something, and I was too, but we would just have to keep pushing forward to see who lit the spark that would blow the relationship to hell and back. I could only pray that I would come out on top. Or alive, at least.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket, which pulled a subtle jerk from me. I checked the screen quickly, hoping to keep it from the prying eyes of my cousins and father. A text message came through from a contact named ‘Romeo.’ It was my code name for Lucky, just as Juliet was his code name for me. Maybe it was silly, but it kept us able to deal with all the shit that seemed to be stacked against us.

  Romeo: See ya around 1 AM @ your place. I have business to take care of. Call me if you need me.

  Juliet: K. I’m calling. I need you. Always.

  Romeo: Sexy bitch. Stop being cute. I’m going to get a hard-on and now is not the time.

  Juliet: Agreed. I’m not there to help you work out the tension those cause. The stiffening is horrible I hear.

  Romeo: Hardy Har. Luv U.

  Juliet: Ditto

  I sighed. Business. I knew exactly what that meant. Club business. Oftentimes the target of the club’s business was my own family. Not that they didn’t deserve it, but it still sucked to be related to the most notorious bastard in the whole town. I loved my father, but having learned the hard way that he wasn’t a good man left me with little choice. Not only was he one of the bad guys, but he was an asshole to boot.

  “Between a rock and a hard place. That’s where I am,” I sighed quietly to myself as I tucked my phone in my back pocket and walked toward the dining room.

  It often felt that no matter what I did, I would be bound to uphold a vendetta that was over four generations old. Most people didn’t even remember what the fighting started over. Most people didn’t even realize that the founding member of the Stone Wolves was a Delgado.

  I loved my father – there was no question – but I was no longer loyal to him. I was a patched member of the Black Hearts, which was a rare thing in the world of bikers, but I’d proven myself. I had a load of emotional scars to prove it. After talking to my father about becoming a member just after graduating high school, he and his boys put me through the wringer.

  I shivered and forced myself not to think about any of it. How many times had I almost ended up dead, or raped, or in jail because of my father’s testing periods? Mother fucker.

  The truth of the matter really boiled down to the fact that once I ponied up to be a patched member, there was no backing down. I would have been ostracized or taken into the woods and shot. You didn’t start to pledge, learn all the secrets of the club and then politely decline the rest.

  It didn’t happen. Woman or man. Family or not. Once in… you were in for life.

  The other thing was that it was a largely male-dominated world, and the women were just for play. Not me, though. I had a plan. Nowhere in that plan did I have any intentions of keeping up the fight against the Stone Wolves. If push came to shove, and my Dad made me choose between my love of family and Lucky, I knew I would follow my heart and stand by Lucky’s side.

  Why wouldn’t I? After all, Lucky had been there for me through everything. All the times that my father was too busy managing a club and various misdealings to keep track of how I was doing, Lucky was there to help me. Every time I broke down on the side of the fucking road? Lucky. Every drug deal gone wrong? Lucky. Every almost rape or almost police bust that threatened to ruin my life forever? Lucky.

  I hadn’t fared well at all over the last three years, but one thing kept me going, gave me hope, laid a promise deep inside of me.

  Lucky Morrison.

  I pulled my phone back out as I paused by the entrance to the dining hall, wanting to read through Lucky’s texts one more time. I loved him so much it hurt. I’d moved his ring to the other hand just after getting home, but it’d be safer to put the fucker in my room and not have to answer questions about it later. I just couldn’t part with it. It seemed wrong.

  A smile touched my face as I quickly scanned the notes, and put the phone back. I glanced up in time to see a large figure darken the doorway of the dining room in front of me.

  “Oh, there you are…” Mateo, my burly cousin said in a deep-timbered voice. “What are you doing out here?” He gave me a suspicious look that was almost comical. He was the nicest member of the motley crew that I called my family. Him and I were close, but not too close. I wasn’t really close with anyone in the house. They weren’t trustworthy. Their loyalties lay with my father, as mine should but didn’t.

  I rolled my eyes as I dismissed him. Nosey ass.

  “I’m hanging up my coat,” I replied innocently, giving my cousin a defensive glare as I tugged my coat from my shoulders. “What’s it look like I’m doing? Baking cookies for your fat ass?”

  Mateo brought his mitt of a hand to his chin as he regarded me with a look of deep reflection on his face. “Hmmm… Fuck I’d love some cookies.”

  I rolled my eyes and pushed
against him. “Seriously… Don’t hurt yourself, Mateo. You never have been the thinker of the family.”

  “We can’t all be geniuses, Selene!” Mateo replied, sounding offended. He quickly shrugged it off though and pushed at my shoulder.

  “It’s true. It’s tough being queen,” I said and gave him an over-exaggerated wink.

  “Please. You wish. You’re still the princess around here, girly. And it looks to me like you’re standing in the dark…” Mateo said darkly as he glowered at me. Suddenly, a mischievous look crossed his face. “Ready to pounce on me!” Mateo quipped as he grabbed my neck and proceeded to tickle me.

  “Mateo! Stop! I am not a little kid anymore. I’ll be twenty-one soon. Shit!” I protested.

  “You’ll always be our little Lena,” Mateo said with a laugh as he messed up my hair with his gigantic mitt of a hand.

  I smoothed my hair back down as I escaped my cousin’s reach, and pushed past him roughly. His big dough-like frame filled up the doorway, but with the right pressure, any man would move for a lady.

  “Oh, by the way,” Mateo called. “My friend asked if you could take a look at his truck. It’s been acting funny.”

  Turning on my heel, I screwed up my face as I looked at Mateo. “Why me? Why can’t you do it? Or one of your brothers?”

  Mateo shook his finger at me playfully. “I work on bikes, Lena. You’re the one who knows all about those custom parts. Besides, your dad has me busy…” he explained with a suggestive wink.

  I raised an eyebrow, “Yeah. I know what that means…”

  I turned and walked through the elegant double doors of the dining room as my thoughts moved from simple things back to complexity. The Black Heart motorcycle club was much more than a simple headquarters for a notorious motorcycle gang. The clubhouse was elegant and refined. My Grandma had designed the interior when my mother was still alive as a Christmas present to the family one year.

  Beautiful Italian leather sofas lined the foyer walls with French double doors in the dining room and a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling in each room. Where the Stone Wolves fit the cloth of the stereotypical biker image – the Black Hearts were more like Mafia on motorcycles. They were hell on wheels with knife-edged cunning and tempers that could light a dead fuse.

  “There’s my Selene!” My father called with his arms spread wide.

  He was dressed in a fine suit with a beautiful burgundy silk shirt and a black damask tie. Being well-groomed, he had a clean goatee, and his salt and pepper hair was neatly coifed.

  “Hey, Dad,” I said in the most charming way I could muster. I had to work hard to remove any hint of animosity from my voice, but it wasn’t an easy task.

  “Selene, we have company for dinner tonight. Say hello, please.” My father nodded toward Dante, who sat at his left. Dante had been a fixture in my life, and a biting pain in my ass since I started to pledge with the Black Wolves. It was rare for my father to take on a pledge that wasn’t a family member, but he supposedly knew Dante’s father. I’d never met the man, nor did I care to.

  Chapter 9

  Selene

  Dante was a couple of years older than me, and where I’d struggled a little with my pledging to the MC, he’d done it with flying colors. He was devious and dark, handsome and yet I felt nothing for him. I honestly wasn’t sure if I’d feel anything even if Lucky wasn’t in the picture. Dante was a class-A prick, and he wanted me more than he wanted his next breath. I was just glad that he respected my father enough to back off.

  I’d hate to have him think he could paw at me, like he’d tried to a few times in the past. I was beyond being a little girl. I’d stab his ass if he tried anything else on me. I pulled from my thoughts and glanced down the table, taking in the likenesses of my cousins and yet noting the various differences among them.

  They all sat at the table, dressed sharply in white suits with burgundy shirts and ties. They wore gold rings on their pinky fingers, and stared up at me from hooded eyes. It was as if someone had warned them that I was coming.

  “Alright. Here she comes. Prepare your most nefarious, we know you’re up to some shit, look. Got it? Good!”

  I smiled politely at each of them, but wanted to scream on the inside. How fucking nice it must have been to live in a house where the people were normal. Here, everyone was borderline bat-shit crazy. I wouldn’t know. I’d lived with my father all my life.

  “Well, I wouldn’t want to interrupt your dinner meeting…” I said with pseudo shyness, and tried to exit the room gracefully.

  Mateo stood in the doorway with a serious look on his face. His massive body blocked the exit. “Nope.”

  “What the hell? Move!” I whispered roughly almost with my face pressed to his thick chest.

  “Actually, Selene, we were hoping you could join us,” Paz said brazenly, and I turned, forcing a look of surprise on my face. I rarely ate with them, and played it off as if I respected the time they needed as men to talk about manly things.

  “Yes, Selene. Come sit with us. Alejandra will be along any minute now with supper,” my father explained, beckoning me to come and join him. There was no hope after catching his expression.

  There was no escaping his need for control of all things, most of all… me.

  I tried to keep my face devoid of the anger that ripped through my body. Turning, I gave my cousin, Mateo, an annoyed glance and poked at his chest just to be an ass.

  Mateo stared at me with a cool gaze emanating from his dark eyes, looking very much like the other robot mother fuckers at my back. His earlier playfulness had vanished, and now his arms were tightly crossed over his broad chest, his face a mask of indifference.

  It was one thing to have a run in with one of the more aggressive, insane members of my family, but having Mateo push me around and act as if he wasn’t going to let me through the door was a bit much. The chunky boy I’d played baseball with and built forts with in the woods was now guarding the door, preventing me from leaving. Something about it left me ready to fight, and yet there wasn’t really anything happening to me other than a little muscle being thrown around.

  “I’ll kill you in your sleep.” I winked and turned toward my father, taking a few steps back into the room. I wasn’t going to let the MC know that I was intimidated or suddenly feeling like a deer caught in the hunter’s snare. It wasn’t happening.

  “Selene, honey… Come sit down. Don’t be shy,” Rafael said in a genial tone of voice. A warm smile broadened my father’s face, which was more disturbing than the usual grimace we all got. He could be so damn charming when he wanted to be, and yet I knew him too well.

  Something was up.

  "So what's this I'm hearing that you stole Lucky Morrison's Harley this morning?" My father chuckled and rose from his chair. He walked around to stand in front of me, and fear rushed through the center of my soul. He had no light left in his eyes, only impending darkness. He’d admitted to killing my mother a few years back, and where I tried to ignore the fact simply because I had nowhere to really go, looking at him now, I couldn’t.

  He was a murderer, and I was just another name on his long list.

  I forced a nonplussed look onto my face, and gave him the faintest of smiles. He was crazy, but I could play his game as long as I needed to.

  My expression was enough to send her father into fits of laughter. He never failed to remind me how much he loved it when I played tricks on the Stone Wolves MC bikers.

  "I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about," I said and shrugged innocently. I made sure to make my voice saccharin sweet as I tried to convince my father of my innocence.

  "I'm sure," Rafael said. "Imagine that. My darling daughter, stealing a rival MC member's bike. I'd say you were cut from the same cloth as your old man," Rafael quipped as a booming laugh echoed from his mouth.

  You wish. Different cloth. Different design.

  "Dante! Come here, son." Rafael turned and motioned for Dante to join th
em in the center of the room.

  I let my eyes scan the rest of their faces, and found myself a little put off by the stares I got in return. They should have all been busy talking amongst themselves or playing on their latest electronics, but they weren’t. All eyes were on us, leaving me to feel as if I’d been stripped bare and was being prepared for the mother-lode of all beatings.

  Dante Iglesias strolled toward us, languidly wearing a pristine white suit with a crimson tie and shiny leather dress shoes. His black hair was gelled messily into place and he had a sultry look in his eyes. He looked nothing like the biker that he was, and everything like the drug dealer I knew him to be.

  The smile that lifted his mouth caused disgust to roll through me. His eyes moved down the length of me, and he licked at his lips as if starving. “Selene. You look lovely tonight.”

  “Really? I’m in jeans and a t-shirt.” I let some of the sarcasm slip into my voice that pulsed through me.

  "Watch your tone.” My father took me by the chin. “Come, let us sit and enjoy an evening together. Dante was just being nice. You look like shit. Don’t come to dinner dressed as such again. Are we clear?”

  I might be a patched member, but my father very much still treated me like a seven-year-old child. He always would. Where I wanted to fight back, to defend my pride, there was really no reason to. Everyone in the room was quite often treated the same by the king -pin. We just nodded and took our lashes, praying like hell that it would all be over soon enough.

  Dante winked at me and reached for my hand. There was no need to fight him for something as simple as holding my hand. The man thought he had rights to me, but that was mostly my father’s fault. His large hand felt rough against my skin as he entwined his fingers with mine. Dante paused by the table and raised my hand to his mouth, kissing it ever so gently as he watched me closely.