Dirty Desires (Devil Kings MC #3) - Nicole James Page 0,5
looking for my mother’s old beater of a car. No one is allowed to wait in the parking lot, so they have to go and come back. I wonder if she’s passed out drunk at the motel.
I hear her before I see her. The knocking engine is loud and the muffler half falling off. She pulls to the curb, and I hop in and slam the door. She hits the gas and circles around and down the drive.
She looks over at me. “Well? He tell you?”
“He’s got some stipulations first.”
“Goddamn it,” she hisses and throws her cigarette out the window.
CHAPTER TWO
Tess—
One week later—
I sit in a window booth of the Sunset Diner, across from my mother. She’s thin and wearing a black tank top, all her tattoos on full display. My mother is in her late forties, but I can still see that she must have been beautiful when she was younger. Now years of drugs and alcohol have taken their toll. She brings the coffee cup to her mouth, her boney fingers covered in silver rings.
Her blonde hair is in a braid, held back from her face by a pink bandana with a spangled patch in the symbol of a cross sewn on the front. She’s totally rocking her inner biker chick.
I inherited her high cheekbones and good bone structure. I also have blonde hair and blue eyes like her; though my hair is a golden blonde and hers has been lightened so many times it’s almost white-blonde. She was young when she had me, and sometimes people confuse us for sisters, which I find creepy.
“So, what exactly did you tell this guy?” I ask.
“I told him I needed a favor. Played on his guilt and the fact that I used to hold some respect in the club. Maybe we never had the family thing that most MCs have, but Growler was his president and I was his president’s ol’ lady. Surely he could spare me one fucking favor.”
“And?”
“He said he’d do it. Besides, he owes me a favor. I told him I wanted this to be under the radar. That I didn’t want the rest of the club to know I asked for help. I still have some pride you know.”
“And?”
“He’ll keep his mouth shut.”
“You think you can trust that?”
“I know this brother. If he gives his word, it’s golden.”
I wasn’t so sure about my mother’s character judgment, given her track record in picking men. I stare at the tabletop, wishing I was anywhere else.
The bell over the door tinkles as someone enters.
“That’s him.”
I lift my head and watch her eyes focus over my shoulder toward the entrance. Suddenly I’m frozen, afraid to look. I’m terrified I’ll have to spend time with some greasy old man with a greying ZZTop beard and a beer belly. I don’t want to think about trying to flirt with a man like that, trying to cajole information out of him. Maybe if I get him drunk, I can get him to tell me whatever information my father wants. Problem is, I’m sure every last rat bastard member of the Devil Kings can drink me under the table with no trouble at all.
My mother’s eyes shift up, and I feel a presence standing at my side. I have my hand to my temple, averting my face from his gaze. Finally, I glance up and take in the man who has promised to drive me down to the prison to see my father.
My eyes widen. Oh. My. God. I want to crawl under the table.
I have to give him credit though, his eyes barely give away the fact he recognizes me, but I see it.
“Gypsy!” My mother stands and hugs him. Over her shoulder, he stares at me, giving me a smirk of a look that warns me I’m in such trouble.
My eyes slide shut. Fucking hell. Of all the men in my father’s club, why did it have to be him?
“This her?” he asks.
My mother pulls free of his arms and turns to me. “Yes, this is Tess, my daughter.”
And suddenly I’m catapulted back to the first time I laid eyes on him.
Three years ago—
“Here ya go, biker princess!” My BFF Hayley pushes a shot of Fireball into my hand as we stand around the high top table in the crowded dive bar, music blasting.
I take it but roll my eyes. “Knock it off, Hayley. You know I’ve never wanted anything to do with my father’s MC.”
“You can say that again,” Carla adds,