After the Fall: The Fallen Men, #4 Read online

  “And she’s sick to top it all off.”

  We sighed in tandem, one of those little intimacies of bein’ so in sync with each other after so long that I revelled in.

  “Goods things happen to bad people all the time, Cress. Just the way’a the world.”

  She was quiet, the quality of her silence like an extra weight on my chest so I propped a hand behind my head, dropped the book in the grass, and palmed her cheek. “What’s going on in that crazy beautiful head?”

  “We have to find a way to prove Danner killed Gibson and failing that, what? At least get him put away for police corruption?”

  “Somethin’ like that,” I agreed.

  She bit her lips, starin’ at the ring I’d put on her finger and the way the emerald caught the light. “I just have this feeling about it. Like you’re going to do something outrageous.”

  I tried not to still, consciously dragging air through my lungs in a nice easy rhythm of breath.

  Because I’d considered it.

  The outrageous.

  How I could ensure Zeus would be free to see his kids grow old, so he wouldn’t have to miss even one more moment of their lives the way he’d had to miss years of mine.

  In fact, there was a seed of an idea germinating in the dark, fertile soil at the back of my brain. I didn’t know the shape of size of the bloom it would produce, but I didn’t stop its growth.

  My first thought every morning was Cress.

  My second, my family.

  So, it was no wonder I was willin’ to do whatever the fuck it took to see them all happy and safe.

  But I couldn’t tell that to my Cress.

  If she thought there was a sacrifice to be made, my girl would demand to be the one to make it.

  And that would never fuckin’ do.

  So, I did the only thing a man could ever really do to take his woman’s mind off somethin’.

  I rolled her back onto the grass and closed her mouth and the conversation with a searin’ kiss.

  Cressida

  * * *

  “I can’t believe you and King have sex in public so much,” Benny whispered, his hand to his mouth. “You’re such animals!”

  Loulou laughed as she bounced a fussing Angel in her arms. “Public sex is hot as fuck.”

  Harleigh Rose shuddered. “What have we talked about? No sex talk about my dad and brother, okay? It wigs me out.”

  I patted her on the head as I stepped over her legs propped up on the coffee table in Paradise Found and folded into the couch beside her.

  “Told you that you’d find a man who felt the same way about it, and now that you have Lion, you can’t tell me you guys don’t want crazy hot, monkey sex,” I teased.

  She tossed her hair flippantly and crossed her combat booted feet as if she couldn’t be fussed to talk about it, but there was a blush in her cheeks she wore just for him.

  “I’m more of a lady than you two,” she accused, pointing a finger at Lou and I. “Seriously, the amount you talk about bangin’ should be criminal.”

  “Some of the things we do are illegal in some countries,” Loulou agreed, a gorgeous smile lighting up her face in a way none of us had seen in a while.

  She was a new mum to twins, which would have been hard under any circumstances, but having a husband wrongly imprisoned and taking care of two babies would have tested the patience of a saint.

  It was a good thing Loulou was about as close to one of those as I knew.

  “Did he really drink champagne off you?” Benny asked, his voice dreamy as he propped his head in his hands. “It’s like something out of a book.”

  H.R. snorted. “More like a porno.”

  All of us laughed, and it felt so good to hear the harmony of our humour. It had been such a long time since I’d been able to hang out with both my Garro girls, and I’d missed the sisterhood.

  “Benny, you can’t tell me Carson doesn’t get wicked with you in the sack,” Harleigh Rose said as she picked at a hole in her skintight jeans and then started to draw on the skin through it with black Sharpie. “Boy looks like he’d fuckin’ rock a guy’s world if you know what I mean.”

  A blush rushed over Benny’s skin like wildfire, but his smile was secretive and proud when he leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms. “I think I’m more lady than all of you. I don’t kiss and tell.”

  I laughed so hard my belly ached. “So true. Touché, Benito.”

  “I still can’t get over the beauty of your dress,” Loulou sighed as she swung Angel up on her chest and proceeded to pat her back to burp her. “Here I am with spit up on my clothes, and there you were looking like something straight out of a dream.”

  It was true, the dress was something from a fantasy, a confection of webbed lace over nearly sheer chiffon that hinted tantalizingly at my body beneath. It was sexy and whimsical, the perfect slightly contrary pairing I’d been searching for to marry King in.

  We’d gone dress hunting, just the three girls, that morning while Benny manned the store and then returned to all have lunch at Stella’s diner. We closed the bookstore early but hadn’t left yet because it had become a kind of clubhouse for The Fallen women.

  “Two weeks.” I shook my head, shocked that after nearly five years, I’d finally be King’s wife. “I can’t really believe it.”

  I held my hands out for Lou to pass me Angel and beamed when she passed the perfect little parcel of pink, plump baby over to me. She was the sweetest, prettiest baby I’d ever laid eyes on, a thicket of white blond hair on her head the same shade as her mama’s, her pink pale as the inside of a seashell and just as smooth. I brushed my thumb down her silken skin as I tucked her against my breast and cooed down into her smiling blue eyes. My womb was hot inside me, achingly empty as I held another woman’s baby in my arms.

  “Zeus and I’ve been married for three, and it still feels surreal,” Loulou admitted as she stretched hugely, working the kinks out of her back from hauling around one or two babies at a time.

  “Maybe because you got married when you were seventeen?” H.R. offered with a sweet and sour smile.

  “Oh fuck off.”

  “You’re too easy.”

  “You’re a brat.”

  H.R. shrugged. “Sure, but a lovable one.”

  “I’m just so glad you’re home,” I told her, falling carefully to the side so that I could rest my head on her shoulder while keeping a sleeping Angel tucked up safe to my chest. “Missed you like crazy.”

  “Same, Cress. But I’m home now and I’m here to stay.”

  She and Lion had officially moved back to Entrance, staying in an apartment off Main Street while they did some minor renovation of Lion’s ranch property. It was so good to have them home that I’d immediately brought Lion into the fold by asking him to play the guitar at our wedding.

  He’d been so touched, I think I’d rendered him speechless.

  It felt right to include him when he was so obviously going to be with Harleigh Rose for the rest of their lives.

  Everything was finally falling into place, outside of Zeus’s absence, except for one last component.

  “Do you think I should invite Lysander to the wedding?”

  Lou paused in checking on a sleeping Walker in his basinet, whipping around to stare openmouthed at me. “I thought you were hard lined on your stance about him.”

  I sighed. “He’s my brother, and even though I have you guys now, he was the only person who really cared about me for most of my life. He’s made some horrible mistakes, and I don’t know if he’s exactly on the side of The Fallen, but…he used to be my hero.”

  “I say invite him,” Harleigh Rose declared and then shrugged when I pulled back to frown at her. “What? If it wasn’t for him, Loulou, Bea, and I all would have died that day with Mute. No matter what else has happened, I think he deserves to at least witness his little sister gettin’ married as boon for that.”

  It was a valid point, one that made me feel
like crap for not inviting him before now even though I was still, and maybe always would be, suspicious of his motives.

  “Okay.” I stood and carefully handed Angel over to her sister. “Let me just take out the garbage and close down the back office, then we can head out?”

  They all nodded, Harleigh Rose and Loulou launching right back into their interrogation about Benny’s love life with Carson.

  I laughed softly as I moved through the shelves, fingers to the book spines as I walked by, loving the scent of parchment and the feel of the glossy covers. I made quick work of wrapping up the massive garbage bag filled with the week’s detritus and then pushed through the back door into the alley.

  Immediately, I crashed into someone, almost falling back thanks to the weight of the bag. Whoever it was reached out to steady me with a firm grip on my arm, their face obscured by the bulk of the bag.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled, righting myself and heaving the garbage into the dumpster beside me.

  “No problem, Miss Irons.”

  I froze, trying to swallow the scream lodged halfway up my throat.

  “Danner,” I said coolly, surprised by my composure. “What can I help you with? Do you need a book? Perhaps one on ethics?”

  He was actually a handsome man, a lot like his son Lion, beautiful in a way of classic movie stars like Robert Redford and Paul Newman, right down the to the squint and swagger. But all that goodness was stained with hatred as he glared at me, his hands in his gun belt, legs braced and slightly bent as if ready to attack.

  “You’ve got my wife.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You sons of bitches took my wife. Is there any line you won’t cross? She’s ill, and you take her to make some kind of threat against me?” he demanded, stepping forward so I’d feel pinned between the dumpster and him.

  “What are you talking about? Susan came to King. She said she didn’t feel safe seeing anymore, and she stayed with us for a week until Lionel moved up her with H.R. She’s living with your son,” I said reasonably.

  But there was no reason to be had. I could see the manic hatred in his eyes, how it had corroded his soul after so many years. He was a corrupt cop and I think maybe that was the most dangerous kind of criminal, a man convinced he was doing right just because he wore a badge and blue uniform when really, he would do anything to better himself.

  “You listen to me,” he said, voice so low I felt it like excess gravity. “You let your dogs know I have eyes on you. Cops following each and every one of you across town, not just the bikers, but their family. We’re watching Louise Garro and those little babies walk across the street. Seeing Tayline Brooks get on her knees for that one-eyed freak in their bedroom late at night. Following you as you try on pretty dresses and eat cake.” His smile was like a gun held to my temple, aimed to frighten me to my core. Unsurprisingly, it worked. “Entrance is my town. Not the Garro’s, not the fucking Fallen’s. Mine. And if you think for one moment I won’t end each and every single one of you, you’re wrong.”

  “We haven’t done anything,” I said because it was true.

  Sure, The Fallen were criminals. It was basically Canadian lore at this point how the club produced the best weed in the nation and owned more territory than the next largest clubs or gangs totalled together, but that didn’t mean they deserved this.

  To be stalked by a crazy man with a vendetta.

  “Two unidentified bikers shot three bullets through the door of my apartment. You’re saying that wasn’t the work of The Fallen?” he sneered.

  “Are you saying you didn’t ask two of your cops to illegally search my bookstore for evidence of criminal activity by the club?” I countered coldly.

  “Besides,” I said, playing a sudden hunch, remembering that slash of dark hair and conjoining it with the fact Susan had said he’d been arguing with a trashy woman with the same feature. “Why are you so upset about your soon-to-be ex-wife? Haven’t you moved on from Susan? I heard Paula’s been the one to keep your bed warm lately.”

  Danner’s face placed white, then red like police lights with shock and rage. “You shut your mouth. Susan’s ill, and she doesn’t need you feeling her head with lies.”

  “They aren’t lies though, are they?” I pressed. “You even asked Paula to go to our engagement party and steal Zeus’s gun so you could frame him for Riley Gibson’s murder. What was it like taking the life of one of your brothers in blue just to see Zeus Garro swing for it? Did you know you were going to kill him before he showed up at our party and the opportunity presented itself to you?”

  “You shut the fuck up,” he roared, slamming me up against the dumpster so the breath expelled from my lungs like a shot. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

  “You took King and H.R. into your home once,” I reminded him breathlessly, searching his features for some kind of crack in the ice as I stood back up. “How can you threaten them now?”

  “Thought for a moment they could learn better, but I should have known criminals breed criminals. It’s in their blood. That biker bitch even corrupted my son and almost got him killed.”

  “I’m done with this conversation,” I announced, moving sideways to the door. “You call us scum, but you’re the one who’s corrupted your badge and put a good man, a new father, behind bars.”

  I even got my fingers on the handle before he was there, hand to my throat and squeezing. I gasped around the pressure, suddenly filled with cold dread because there was nothing humane left in Danner’s eyes, only hatred and fury.

  “You tell them they don’t bring my wife back to me, I’ll start by taking you and Lou. The Venturas could always use pretty girls for their enterprise.”

  “You fucking bastard,” I wheezed, clutching at his hand, prying his fingers off my throat.

  He released me so abruptly I fell back against the door. “You want war with me? You tell your kind, they’ve got it.”

  King

  * * *

  “Skell’s been arrested,” Buck announced after Bat closed the door to the Chapel and everyone had taken a seat.

  There was a low series of curses.

  “Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?” I growled. “What the fuck did he do?”

  Buck ran a weary hand over his face, and I noticed how much the leadership role had robbed him of his health—skin ashen, eyes red with exhaustion. “Decided we weren’t doin’ enough and confronted Danner in Mac’s Grocer… ended up throwin’ him into a canned good display.”

  “Fuck,” Bat groused, rubbin’ his temples. “We need brothers outta the clink, not fuckin’ goin’ in.”

  “Such an asshole,” Curtains muttered, which said somethin’ because the kid was not one to judge or talk shit about anyone one.

  But Skell was an asshole. Buryin’ the club deeper in shit just to have an outlet for his vehemence? What about the rest of us marinatin’ in our own goddamn fury?

  I sighed and pulled at my lower lip so hard I wondered if it’d bruise. “Danner Senior went by Paradise Found today and threatened Cress when she was takin’ out the garbage.” My words scored like dragon’s breath out my throat. It’d seen red when Cress told me, even though she’d driven over to the garage herself just to tell me in person so I could see she was unheard. “Motherfucker out his hands on her. Shit is gettin’ outta hand, brothers. We need to do somethin’ about it.”

  “Yeah, fuckin’ end Danner properly,” Heckler demanded.

  “No. That is exactly what got Skell arrested,” Bat retorted, slidin’ Heckler a look that no man could misconstrue; a look that called him a fuckin’ dumbass.

  Heckler was out of his seat, looming over Bat in an instant. “You got somethin’ to say, Combat?”

  “Think I just said it.” Calm, cold, ruthless; the Bat trifecta.

  “Settle down,” Buck ordered.

  No one followed.

  “You think endin’ the man who put our Prez in the can is fuckin’ stupid?” Heckler dema
nded, slappin’ at Wiseguy’s shoulder because the pair of them were tight and both, it had to be said, could be dense as bricks. “You hearin’ this?”

  “Did the drive-by you clowns went on make any difference?” Axe-Man asked, leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, biceps bigger than Christmas hams. “You keep goin’ after Danner like that, it’s just what he wants. Like shootin’ fish in a barrel.”

  “Listen, Cress said the woman Danner’s been shackin’ up with is fuckin’ Paula,” I cut in, standin’ up to lend my voice even though I didn’t raise it. There was an art, I’d learned over the years, of talkin’ to bikers and included talkin’ low and talkin’ slow so they didn’t think you were orderin’ them and they could process your words with their own bias. “Paula, same woman who basically stalked me through my entire teenager years. Apparently, she snuck in the night of the party and took the gun. We get to Paula; we got an in. We start targeting some’a the cops, we find dirt on them and blackmail them to flip on Danner. We. Get. An. In. Killin’ Danner isn’t goin’ to get Z outta jail, and isn’t that the priority here?”

  “Sit down, boy,” Buck commanded wearily. “Let the men who’ve been here longer than you’ve been alive talk about things in a reasonable fuckin’ way.”

  “How is this not reasonable?” I countered. When he didn’t answer, I cocked a brow and studied the dissatisfied looks on every single member’s face before taking a serious gamble.

  “Callin’ for a vote of nonconfidence.”

  A pause that felt lethal, then Wiseguy broke it to grunt, “The fuck?”

  “A re-vote,” Bat offered, eyein’ me down in a way I couldn’t tell if it was respect or skepticism. “King wants us to re-vote on who’s actin’ Prez while Zeus’s behind bars.”

  “Let me guess, you’re nominatin’ yourself,” Buck said, but he wasn’t bein’ combative or even insulted, just mildly shocked and maybe even a little disappointed.

  “If anyone will stand with me,” I proposed. “Mean no offense, Buck, but this is not the way to handle the situation and you’re not providin’ any answers when we’ve got a real fuckin’ need for them. This club is under fuckin’ attack and we need to move.”