Judas: Indignant Few MC Book 1, page 9
“What the fuck?!” I shouted as I barreled into my mother, damn near knocking her to the ground.
She threw her head back and cackled like a witch as I stood before her trembling. “I see you met our mascot.”
A live fucking alligator. Of course these idiots would have a live alligator.
“You’re a bunch of goddamn morons,” I muttered.
“Oh come on, he’s kind of cute once you get to know him,” she said. “Delaney just fed him last night. He’s probably in a great mood.”
“Fuck you, Mom,” I muttered. I was beyond exhausted, but I sure as hell wasn’t sticking around for any more of her strange games. The Terryton Motel was close enough to walk. I stormed toward the front door, but the large figure standing in the way stopped me in my tracks. I looked up slowly, soaking in his broad chest, his wide shoulders, the dark stubble on his chin. The second I looked into his eyes, I had to look away. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t speak.
“Athena?” he asked, shaking his head and wiping his eyes.
I nodded, gulped, and stared at my feet. I didn’t know what to say. This voice in my head was telling me to run, but my legs felt like they were full of cement.
“You gonna be around for a while?” he asked. The way he brushed past me and walked off brought me back to reality. His tone was cold and casual, and I didn’t even think he cared if I answered.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Alright,” he said, shrugging, walking off toward the hallway. I stormed out the front door, more confused than I was when I started on this adventure. More than ever, I knew I needed to get away.
15
Isaac
So maybe Betty Sue’s lips were wrapped around my dick as I drove down the back roads, but I couldn’t get Athena off my mind. I was trying to be a gentleman, trying not to hit any potholes for the sake of her jaw, but I couldn’t stop thinking about that hot blonde that was just in the passenger seat a few hours ago.
I could tell Athena liked me. Why else would she have stayed up all night talking with me? Stealing her right out from under Judas was going to be awesome. Just like I did with this dumb bitch.
“Where you supposed to be?” I asked her. I knew she was staying at the halfway house one town over. She’d been blowing my phone up all night asking when I was getting back into town. I obviously didn’t respond. This bitch was clingy, and I didn’t want to give her the wrong idea.
“What do you mean?” she asked, gasping for air and wiping the drool off her chin as she looked up at me.
“Aw, don’t stop, babe,” I groaned. I was so close.
“You asked me a question, you idiot,” she said. “I thought we had an arrangement. I thought I was coming to stay at your place for a while.”
I brushed her hair out of her eyes, abruptly grabbing for the back of her head and sliding her back down onto my throbbing cock. She sputtered and groaned but got right back to work like the dirty slut she was. She was definitely not coming to stay at my place for a while. Not ever.
“I never that said,” I moaned as I worked her mouth up and down my shaft, down so hard she began to gag. “You need to lay off the drugs.” She tried to pull away, struggled with all her might, and the instant I felt her teeth graze my dick, I pulled out, backhanding her across the face.
I didn’t know what was sexier, her crying or the way she gagged and sputtered, but my cock exploded, just like that, coating my sweatshirt in a sticky film.
“Look what you made me do, bitch.” I laughed through my moans. She wasn’t amused, gripping the side of her face like I’d actually hurt her. “I’ve hit you harder before and you liked it.”
“You’re a piece of shit. If I’d have known what kind of guy you were, I would’ve never fucked you in the first place. You’re no better than your asshole brother.” She hung her head in her hands and began to full-blown bawl. It definitely wasn’t sexy anymore. Now it was just needy, clingy. It wasn’t supposed to end up like this. I just wanted Judas to walk in on the two of us together and snap. I wanted an excuse to take him out once and for all in an act of self-defense.
Instead, he was his usual stoic self: steady, rational, accepting the situation and moving on like it was no big thing. Judas didn’t snap anymore, though. Not since that time on the farm when we were teenagers. Ever since he got out of jail he was calm all the time. There was nothing I could do to get him angry like he did when we were kids. I figured even asking to join the club would send him into a wild fit after everything I’d done to him, but instead he welcomed me back in like a brother, open arms, treating me like nothing had ever happened. It wasn’t right. It was strange. Probably just his way of always showing me he was better than me. He was always the favored twin even if he got in the most trouble. Hell, even before our parents died, I knew they loved him more than me. The only way anyone would’ve paid attention to me as a teenager was if I put him in jail. And that fucker forgave me.
Now I was stuck with little miss meth-head following me around like a puppy dog. Maybe if she actually was a puppy dog he’d give a fuck. This obviously wasn’t working. She had to go.
“Take me back to the clubhouse right now,” she said. “I need to get cleaned up.” I didn’t even think about that. If I was going to dump her in the woods I definitely needed to take care of the DNA situation she had going on. If I learned anything from being in the club it was not to leave a trace of evidence behind. My brother and his men were masters at cleanup, the reason why I always kept a kit in my truck.
I turned down a road that cut back into the woods.
“Where are we going, Isaac?” she asked. “I don’t know this shortcut.”
Her phone started to ring, and before I could grab it out of her hand, she answered it.
“Hey, Judas,” she said dramatically. “Just out for a ride. No, I swear I didn’t take your watch. I think you were wearing it this morning.” She pulled a gold Rolex from her purse and dangled it in front of my face. “I’m not coming back,” she said. “I’m out with a friend. Don’t babe me; I’m tired of your shit.”
She hung up the phone, turning to me with a scandalous smile on her face. That right there was the thing about her that turned me on the most, her willingness to feed into the destruction of my brother. He obviously still had a little something for her or he wouldn’t be calling her up looking for her. If he didn’t care, he’d have just let her walk away and never said a word to her again. I knew the way he operated.
I was glad I didn’t have to kill this bitch today. She was fucking annoying, but it was pretty easy to shut her up, either with my fists or some drugs. When she was damn near catatonic she was kind of pretty. Every time I stuck my dick in her I felt like I was fucking my brother a little bit harder. I’d save her for a rainy day.
“Seriously, Isaac, where are we going?” she asked as I stopped my truck, backing it up into a little divot where the trees cleared just enough that nobody could see us parked. “Are you gonna fucking kill me?”
“Not today,” I said with a shrug. I cupped her chin in my hand and kissed her on the lips. “I gotta take a piss. Stay here.”
16
Judas
I was dead exhausted after a morning on the road all by myself.
All I could think about the whole time was what the fuck Betty Sue could possibly be up to in my room. If she overdosed there, I wasn’t sure what I’d do. I forgot to hide my watch, the last thing I still had from my parents’ estate, an heirloom passed all the way down from my great-granddaddy. I forgot I basically had to nail everything to the floor whenever she came around or it’d be gone.
I was tired. I stank like a garbage truck. My body ached from standing on the concrete all day yesterday. I was getting too old for this shit. Then I saw her there, standing in the doorway, looking like a woman who had nothing left to lose.
Her face was red, and up close she looked a lot thinner than she did online. Her clothes were wrinkled, eyes were puffy, and still she was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. I was so overwhelmed by Athena’s presence back in the house I fucking blew it.
Walked off like I didn’t give a fuck. Brushed past her before I could process just how cut up I felt just by the sight of her. If this was the ‘present’ Colt had promised me the night before, she didn’t look too thrilled. She had that look of leaving, that look she always had, like being in this house sucked all the life right out of her fragile body. Who was I to stop her.
I ran to my room, and Betty Sue was gone. I figured as much. Did a security check and, lo and behold, the bitch grabbed my watch. She didn’t take my pistol, to my relief. I would’ve definitely had to track her down. I called her up and tried to make nice for the sake of my granddad’s watch, and of course she lied about taking it. I’d just have to show my face at the local pawn shops this afternoon to make sure nobody bought that shit.
I got in the shower, blasting myself with cold water, trying to cool my temper, but I just found myself more and more frustrated. Not at Betty Sue. She was a club slut and she’d always be a club slut.
I was pissed at myself. How in the ever-loving fuck did I just graze past Athena like it wasn’t even a thing? How did I let that sad broken girl just walk out the door? I let her go once, but back then it wasn’t my place to say anything. I felt so bad about the shit she saw growing up in the club. I figured anywhere she went was better than here.
Now?
It’s none of your fucking business. If she wanted to talk, she would’ve followed you.
I tried to remind myself of old Athena, the wild child who could never be told what to do. I remember the first time I stepped in between her and this little punk bitch who thought it was cute to put his hands on her. She wouldn’t speak to me for two months. The first time I told her I thought he wasn’t that bad, she promptly broke up with him and sent Colt and me over to his house to shake him up a little bit.
Games. Athena was all about mind games. She fucked with my head then, and she was fucking with my head now. We had some shit to straighten out, and I needed to stop her before she got away again.
I toweled myself off quickly and threw on some jeans and a t-shirt. I slapped a bandana around my head and grabbed my jacket. I sprinted to the garage, hoping she didn’t make it too far, and fired up my blacked-out Harley Iron 883. The morning sun was bright, and I pulled my sunglasses down over my eyes. I didn’t have to drive too far before I saw her; hell, if I would’ve pulled out of the parking lot I would’ve missed her. She was sitting on the front porch of the clubhouse, a cigarette hanging from her lips, looking like she was half asleep. She jumped up from the rocking chair as I pulled closer, looking around like someone had just detonated a bomb.
“Jesus Christ, what kind of exhaust you got on that fucking thing?” she shouted.
I shrugged. Athena never paid much mind to motorcycles. She thought men who rode them were trying to make up for the size of their dicks, and women who rode them were just trying to impress those men. I never had the chance to show her, not my dick, even though she’d probably be pleasantly surprised, but the freedom that getting on a motorcycle could bring. The power it brought, not just because of how folks looked at a man on a motorcycle, but because all alone out there on the road, you were staring death in the face every second and telling it to fuck off, or in the case of some guys, bring it on. She’d learn to love it if she had the chance.
“You need a ride somewhere?” I asked, letting my engine idle.
“Why’d you do that?” she asked. I slid up my sunglasses and raised my eyebrow.
“I didn’t do anything,” I said. “You were on your way out. Again. Not my place to stop you.”
“Judas, I know why Colt brought me here. I’d at least think you’d give me a proper hello.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. Sure, I might’ve casually dropped some comments to Colt and Reena about how she hadn’t been acting right lately, but I never once said I was trying to fix her. Seeing her here in front of me made me want nothing more than to scoop her up in my arms and lock her in my room, do whatever it took to make her happy again, but that wasn’t my style. I could forgive and forget, but Lord knew I couldn’t make anyone better. Betty Sue was a prime example.
“Okay,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Well, don’t let me hold you back from whatever you’re doing. I’m just gonna take a nap and wait for the rest of the guys to get back.” She grabbed her knees and sank back into the chair, closing her eyes.
“You ran off. You left us all when we needed you,” I muttered.
“I needed stability, Judas. I needed to be around people who weren’t completely fucked-up.” She looked like I’d slapped her. I spat on the gravel and slid my sunglasses back down. I tried to bite my tongue, but I’d been waiting a long time to get this off my chest.
“People who weren’t completely fucked-up? You ran off with a pedophile and started a porn business. Were we really that bad to you, Athena?”
She closed her eyes again, sinking back into the chair, her white blonde hair cascading down over her eyes as she curled her plump lips into a straight line.
“You can go sleep in my room if you want,” I said. “Bugs will eat you alive out here.”
“Is that part of your sick plan? Your old lady already tried to get me in bed once this morning.”
“I don’t have an old lady,” I said.
“Whatever.” She yawned and stretched her arms over her head. Her face was so cute pinched up like that. Everything about her in her natural state was cute, even if every part on her body was so unnatural, like a caricature of the girl I once knew. She needed to put on some weight. I wasn’t sure how her frame supported those big old bolt-ons. I didn’t dislike them by any means, but I’m sure her back hurt all the time. “You, personally, Judas, you were never that bad to me. You were always very good to me. You looked out for me even when I didn’t want you to. You weren’t the club, though. You weren’t my family. You were just an ex-con who my brother was friends with.”
“Well, I am the club now, Athena. I’m the vice-president of this club, and I take my job seriously. I am your family even if you don’t want me to be. And if you want to split hairs, my record was wiped when I turned eighteen. Fuck off with your outdated nomenclature.”
“Exactly,” she said. “You are the club now. I hate how you look in those leathers. You got your record wiped and decided to start working on another one? I expected so much more from you.”
As much as I wanted to explain to her how different things were now that Colt and I ran the roost, I wasn’t going to waste my breath on someone who didn’t even want to be here. She could judge me all she wanted, but when she started throwing ideas around like they were facts, insulting my choices when she had absolutely zero right to, that’s when I just shut down. Not worth my breath. Not worth my anger. I saved that for those who understood the atrocities they’d committed.
Just then, I caught the low hum of Colt’s exhaust coming down the road, the pause of his idling motor as he unlocked the gate that led up to the house. The rumbling of my brothers returning from their Vegas trip put me at ease a little bit, even though this broad had me standing here with more questions than answers.
She cringed and frowned as she caught sight of the crew, shrinking down low in her seat like she wanted to disappear.
“Aw, I see the two of you are finally reunited,” Colt teased. “You like your surprise?” I shook my head and flicked him off. He was my best friend, the only friend I’d ever had in the world at one point in my life, and I had no idea where I’d be without him, but sometimes his decision-making skills were strange. “It was all Reena, by the way. I just saw it as an excuse to work on our kidnapping skills.”
“What?” I stammered. “They kidnapped you?”
“I wouldn’t give ’em that much credit,” she said. “They had good timing.”
“Now I’m wondering what the fuck you’re doing sitting outside in the open here, missy. I thought you were supposed to be in hiding,” Colt scolded. She pouted her lips and rolled her eyes.
“Mom was driving me nuts. She tried to put me in Rubin’s old room.”
“Aw, old Moses would probably enjoy the company. He just got fed last night, didn’t he? He probably wanted to play.”
Now she was flicking him off, and I was more confused than I was before. Who was she hiding from? What was that all about? I knew better than to ask right now. She’d tell me when she was good and ready, but it just added to my concern for her.
“Come on,” I said. “You can have my room while we get this shit sorted out.” I parked my bike and grabbed her by the arm. Her skin was softer than I remembered, but her body felt so delicate, like all her bones might break if I grabbed her the wrong way. “You need to eat and you need to sleep, then you need to tell us what the hell is going on.”
I led her to my room, showed her around, and went and grabbed her a big plate of scrambled eggs, a pile of bacon, a stack of pancakes, and six pieces of peanut butter toast from the buffet Reena had laid out for the men’s return. She was fresh out of the shower when I got back, her long blonde hair dripping all over the tile, her eyeliner a huge black smear, shocking against her pale skin. Her tattoos looked so bright up against that stark white towel, and I couldn’t help but imagine myself tracing that big floral masterpiece that started on her upper chest and twisted down her ribs with my mouth. I already knew exactly where it went. I’d seen it on display every week since she got it, just not up close and personal like this.
