CHAINS (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 18) Read online

  She closed the door behind her and reached for her cut off shorts and a t-shirt she could put on over her bikini and tie at the waist to keep it tight. She let her eyes flash up to the clock on the wall and it told her it was nearing midnight.

  “The witching hour,” she said, smiling to herself. “If I know these men at all, you can be sure that whatever they have planned will happen when the clock strikes twelve.”

  She combed out her hair slightly to make it smoother, and then reapplied a little bit of lipstick before she smiled at her reflection, then headed out the door.

  She had no idea what she was going to walk in on, but what she did know was she couldn’t wait to see what await.

  As she pushed the doors open and went into the main body of the club, Star could instantly see the difference. Where there had been bodies jampacked into the enormous space only an hour before, there was now much more room to breathe, and only a few small tables of truckers remained.

  The rest of the bodies filling up the club were all bikers. She could see immediately that they were both a mix of The Forsaken Riders, and their old rivals, the Iron Riders. Over the past few months, the Iron Riders had been appearing more and more, and Star found herself feeling a little nervous about it all. She had heard stories about the feud that had lasted generations and it almost seemed inconceivable that after all this time, suddenly the two clubs could be working side by side.

  She smiled at them as she passed and felt their eyes on her. The bikers were always a lot less hungry than the truckers, but it still didn’t stop them from gawking, especially The Iron Riders. The Forsaken gave her a lot of respect, as they employed her, but the Iron Riders were a different breed altogether, and they definitely let their lust-filled eyes undress her with each move she made.

  “Hell,” Jill whispered as Star slid behind the bar next to her. “I didn’t think it would be both clubs.”

  “Me neither.” Star crinkled her nose. “What do you think is going on?”

  Jill gave Star a knowing look. “Ax told me earlier that this threat they’ve been working together to overcome has gone quiet.”

  Star raised her eyebrows. She had heard a little of the gossip that had worked its way around town and around the hallways of Tanner’s. Apparently, there was a very good reason why The Forsaken Riders and The Iron Riders had buried their bad blood, and it was because there was another gang in the mix that was trying to cause trouble for them both.

  “So, is that a good thing?” Star asked.

  Jill gave a non-committal slight nod. “Ax thinks it’s a ploy, but some of the other’s think they’ve finally driven the Russians out of town for good.”

  The Russians. Whenever there was gossip, those two words were never far behind.

  Star had worked in Tanner’s for almost nine months and she had heard a lot of things, but had never known exactly what was true and what was false. Although, the rapidly rising stories about a gang of power and money hungry Russians had been something of a constant.

  Star had done her best not to know too much, but sometimes, people did talk in front of her. And after a while all the bikers, and even Jill, seemed to think she knew all about it. Star had just never had the heart or the nerve to correct them.

  She reached down for a bottle of beer and broke the cap off before taking a swig.

  “Never a dull moment in here.” She laughed as she winked at Jill.

  “Nope.” Jill grinned.

  “Babe,” Ax interrupted as he slid up next to the bar and kissed Jill on the lips, “come on, we’re waiting on drinks over here.”

  Jill rolled her eyes teasingly.

  “I’ve told you before, no special treatment, wait your turn,” she said playfully and winked.

  Ax grunted and looked down at her ass before he pulled her close to him.

  Star felt herself blushing slightly and forced herself to look away. Jill and Ax always seemed so hot for each other it was kind of intimidating, but it was also hellishly fun to watch. Even if it did make Star a little jealous and for a split second, crave a man of her own.

  She helped Jill with the trays of drinks while Ax waited around them, and suddenly the memory of the last couple she had encountered came flooding back to her.

  The memory of the fighting. Of the lack of sleep. Of the desperation of needing to get out and find somewhere else to live.

  “My apartment,” she said aloud as he looked across at Ax.

  “What’s up with it?” he asked her as he lit a smoke.

  “I hate it,” Star grumbled. “Know of anywhere closer to this side of town, or on Main Street that’s available?”

  Ax looked thoughtful for a moment. “Leave it with me,” he said with a wink, then rose to his feet and disappeared back into the crowd.

  “You want to move?” Jill asked her.

  “Have you seen my neighborhood?” Star laughed. “I’m surprised I’ve lasted there this long.”

  Jill smiled wryly and lifted a tray full of drinks onto her shoulder and took a deep breath. “I’m going in,” she half laughed. “Cover the bar for me, yeah?”

  “Sure thing.” Star smiled as she looked around and at all of the eager eyes waiting to be served.

  She was suddenly finding herself pulled in all directions and by different people shouting and clamoring for her attention. Star tried not to roll her eyes, instead plastering a welcoming and helpful smile on her lips. However, with each demand from each different biker or trucker she felt her feathers becoming more ruffled.

  “And this is why I dance, not serve,” she whispered to herself. “Yes, sir… what can I get you?” She smiled at the trucker closest to her and began to do her duty.

  By the time Jill returned to the bar, she was practically running towards Star with her eyes bright and alive and a grin as wide as a movie screen.

  “Woah.” Star laughed. “What’s got into you?”

  “Ax just told me what all of this is in aid of.” Jill beamed as she took hold of Star’s arm and pulled her closer so that she could whisper in her ear.

  “I was wrong when I said to Renee I thought a new girl was starting tonight.” She paused and let the information sink in. “It’s not a new girl. It’s a new biker.”

  Star felt her stomach flip a little and her skin tingle with excitement.

  “A new biker?” she asked with a wicked grin.

  “Yes.” Jill panted and then she trailed off and her eyes wandered to the front set of doors. “And by the looks of it, he’s here now.”

  Star followed her gaze and let them rest on the small group that had just entered the building. She recognized some of the older Forsaken Riders, and then she saw him standing there in the middle of them.

  He was dark and handsome, with piercing eyes and stubble that only enhanced the epic chisels of his cheekbones.

  “Wow,” Jill whispered to Star. “Would you look at that.”

  Star swallowed and tried not to stare, but it was practically impossible. This man, whoever her was, looked as if he had just stepped out of the pages of a fashion magazine. He was so ripped and good looking it should have been a crime.

  “Now, he does not look like a Forsaken Rider,” Jill said with a smirk. “Nowhere near as rough and ready as the rest of our boys, huh?”

  Star heard her speak the words, but she didn’t respond. She was too busy trying to catch sneaky glimpses of the new guy, and trying to pick her jaw up from the floor.

  “Err, Star?” Jill said with alaugh. “Earth to Star?”

  “I know, I know, I’m serving,” she said instinctively as she waved her hand and Jill’s comment away.

  Jill giggled to herself and Star lowered her head so that no one would be able to tell that she was blushing.

  But he was incredibly handsome, and he was different than the other bikers.

  She brushed her hair behind her ear and let her eyes look up towards the door again, even though she kept her head tilted down.

  One by one
, all The Forsaken were approaching him and they were shaking hands and pulling each other in for hugs and pats on the back. They embraced him and walked with him over to the corner of the room, where they set him down at a booth and they all began to crowd around and link their arms around each other’s shoulders, likened to an almost impenetrable wall. It was impossible to see what was happening on the other side of it.

  “Oh, and Ax said he can help you with a new place.” Jill grinned.

  “He did?” Star beamed as she looked up at Jill with a big smile.

  “Yep.” She nodded. “I know you said you would never get with one of the bikers, but really, they do have their uses sometimes.”

  “Very funny.” Star rolled her eyes, but then she reached out and hugged Jill. “Thank you so, so much!”

  “He said he’ll get you some information over the next couple of days and give you a call.”

  “Perfect.” Star clapped her hands excitedly together.

  She looked back over to the corner of the room and to the group of both The Forsaken Riders and The Iron Riders, who were crowding over there.

  New blood…

  The phrase rolled around in her mind and she found herself feeling a little lightheaded.

  She had gone into work that night just expecting it to be run of the mill, but so much had happened. It truly was a day that she would remember for a long time to come.

  “Get yourself home anyway,” Jill said. “I can handle it from here.”

  “You sure?” Star asked, not wanting to jump at the opportunity.

  “I have to wait for Ax anyways,” Jill said with a shrug. “And there doesn’t need to be both of us, unless you want to stick around?”

  Star looked longingly over her shoulder towards the bikers. She did want to know what was going on, but she was also starting to feel the effects of hardly any sleep over the past few days and stifled a yawn.

  “I’ll get going, doll.” She smiled and hugged Jill, then waved over her shoulder as she headed back towards the changing room. “Catch you in a few days.”

  “See ya, Star.” Jill called back to her.

  Star headed back to collect her things before she went to start out on her long walk home.

  “Interesting night,” she mused to herself as she stepped out into the darkness. “A very interesting night indeed.”

  4.

  “You have no idea how amazing this is.” Star smiled widely as she spun around in the empty room and held her arms open wide. “Honestly, are you sure this is the same price as what I’m paying now?”

  Ax crossed his arms over his chest and smiled smugly.

  “For one of our Tanner’s girls, it is.” He laughed. “I spoke with Bull and he said it was cool. Plus, we’d rather have someone we know in here than some stranger. What’s the point of it sitting empty?”

  Star’s mouth was hanging open in shock as she twirled on the spot and kept looking at the incredible home she was standing in. It was big, bright, and airy. It had been recently refurbished and all the appliances were new and had never been used. The ceilings were high, the lighting was perfect, and the view out over the rest of the street was wonderful. She wandered back towards the kitchen and looked out of the window and into the garden. It was much bigger than anything she had ever owned before, and even though there wasn’t much to it, just a bit of decking and grass, it made her heart ache, and a tear pricked her eye.

  Ax had been true to his word and she could not thank him enough. Within two days, he had called her and said that they had an empty house close to Main Street in a quiet neighborhood mainly full of families.

  Star hugged an arm around herself and wiped the tear from the corner of her eye.

  “It’s a whole house,” she said. “I was expecting you to show me a tiny little apartment.”

  Ax smiled and shook his head. “I told Jill I’d hook you up, and here you are,” he said without a hint of bravado.

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  Ax shrugged and scratched the back of his neck. “Well it’s up to you, but the offers there,” he said as he put his hands in his pockets and raised his shoulders.

  “Of course I want it,” Star said quickly.

  “Cool.” Ax smiled as he dug around in his pocket, pulled out a key and threw it across to her. “There you go. It’s all yours.”

  Star’s mouth sagged again, completely taken aback and stunned by how quick everything had been. It was generosity like she had never known, and it was also a huge milestone for her to even contemplate living somewhere that had more than two rooms and a yard, never mind actually moving in!

  “When are you scheduled to work next?” he asked her as he headed for the door.

  “Tomorrow night,” she said, still half stunned.

  “Cool.” He winked. “We can sort the paperwork out then.”

  He opened the door and disappeared out onto the driveway, and when the door closed behind him, Star found herself looking around and around, then fallingto the floor and staring up at the ceiling.

  “Holy. Fucking. Shit!” she whispered before she started to laugh and squeal with excitement. “I have a goddam house!”

  She covered her mouth and kicked her heels against the carpet and laughed as she rolled from one side of the room to the next.

  When she stopped rolling, she reached into the back pocket of her jeans, pulled out her cellphone and sent a quick text to Jill:

  S: Your man is a gift from God! You have no idea how much it means to me to get out of that shitty apartment. Thank you both so much! Xx

  She hit send and within a couple of minutes she had a reply:

  J: It’s the Tanner’s family code ;) Thanks for helping me out the other night too. I can’t wait to see the new place! You can fill me in on it tomorrow at work, and I can fill you in on all the gossip with the “new blood” ;) xx

  Star grinned as she read Jill’s message and held her phone against her chest. With all the excitement surrounding her potentially moving and catching up on her much-needed sleep, she had almost forgotten about what had happened at the club the last time she had been working.

  The meeting, the initiation, the new guy…

  “Well if it rains, it pours.” She laughed to herself before she hugged her arms across her chest and started to cry with glee. She was so happy she almost didn’t know what to do with herself.

  “No more trailer parks and back street apartments from here on in,” she said, smiling to herself.

  She was making a promise right there and then, that this was going to be the beginning of something amazing.

  “Come on,” she said as she rose to her feet. “Let’s go and get whatever you can carry, because there is no way you’re not sleeping here tonight!”

  By the time the sun was going down over the desert, Star had been back and forth to her old apartment no less than five times. She had carried suitcases full of clothes, boxes of bedding, and decorations.

  She had set them all on the floor inside by the front door to her new home, then she stopped at the store on her way back on the second journey to collect some wine and food, along with other essentials, which she had stocked in the refrigerator and cabinets.

  The house was almost completely empty, but there was a couch in the front room, a bed in each bedroom, and a refrigerator, table and chairs. She was going to have to set up her own TV and buy the rest, but she didn’t mind.

  A good excuse to shop and spend, she thought to herself and smiled and tapped the top of an old shoe box which she stored in her new closet, the box she used to bank all of her tips from each night at work. She lifted the lid and looked inside and felt a rush of relief. Whenever she saw the stacks and stacks of notes in there, it always made her feel like a million dollars, even if she was a fair few short herself.

  She had counted the cash the previous week and she knew she was sitting on ten thousand. That would give her plenty to play with when it came to decorating and filling out the ho
use, and more than enough to buy a car if she decided that it was time for her to do so.

  “But you love to walk,” she told herself as soon as the thought crossed her mind. “And you need to keep up the exercise.”

  It was funny, but Star was so comfortable with what she did for a living that she often forgot she was actually pretty much naked in front of a lot of people every night. Most girls in her line of work were so body conscious all they did was watch what they ate and constantly hit the gym, but Star was more relaxed and natural. She had soft curves and long, toned legs, and she rarely had to worry about dieting. It was as if she had been blessed with a good metabolism. After all of the bad luck she had been dealt in life so far, she was more than happy to revel in that fact, but she still didn’t want to tempt fate when it came to taking her figure for granted.

  She wandered around her new front room and still could not believe that she lived here. She stopped by the front door and picked up a suitcase and started to heave it up the stairs.

  She had chosen the biggest room with an adjoining bathroom, and she had already made up the bed with her blankets and cushions. She had plugged in a small light that she had in her old apartment, and she had dotted some candles around the room should she wish for some ambience.

  “Tomorrow is for sure going to have to be a shopping day,” she said aloud to herself as she opened the closet doors and started to unload her suitcase and unpack her entire wardrobe.

  When she had finished, her stomach was growling with hunger and she realized that she hadn’t eaten for the majority of the day. So much had been happening and so much had transpired, that she had completely forgotten about food, even if though she had bought some.

  She left her new bedroom and walked down her big, sweeping staircase with a huge grin on her face. Compared to her apartment, this place was like an absolute palace. She felt like a queen as she glided through the hallway and down to the ground floor.

  She walked through the front room and out into the kitchen, where she turned on the oven and opened the refrigerator. She had bought some fresh groceries to make a salad and she had half a focaccia bread, which she shoved into the oven to warm while she opened a bottle of red wine and poured herself a large glass.