Page 4 of Rise In Arms

Present

I need to get the fuck out of here. I’ll miss the club, but I need to get away just for a while, to get my head straight. She just had another baby—his fucking baby. First a boy, a strong boy who will one day run this club, and now a girl—a girl who I know will steal all men’s hearts, as she looks exactly like her mom. Beautiful.

I should be happy. Quill is a great president and man, he’s strong, and makes a hell of a husband for Jasmine. She deserves him, and he her, but why is it when I think of them together my gut turns into knots and I feel all the breath leave my body. She’s not mine, Jasmine never was and never will be. I need to get her out of my goddamn head, and the only way to do that is leave. Seeing her here at the club, day in and day out, makes it impossible to forget her. Her warm smile and the way she bites down on her bottom lip when in thought drives me fucking wild. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve taken a whore to my room to suck me off just to give my hard cock what it craves, and each time I picture Jasmine’s full lips around it. But it has to stop; I could be killed for wanting her. Not to mention she’s Prez’s old lady, and I can’t be disrespecting Quill like that.

So I’ve decided to leave tomorrow. Now that things have calmed down around here with Santana gone, it’s time I leave. I need to stop craving something that I can never have.

“Hey, brother, where your mind at?”

I look up from my bike and see Bear approaching. I didn’t even realize he was here, too busy in thought while I was working on my bike, making sure all is well before I head out on the long ride home.

“Hey, brother,” I state getting up off the ground, dropping my tools down before grabbing my beer and taking a swig.

“So you’re really leaving?”

I nod. “Yep, gonna go see my little sis. It’s been a while since I’ve checked up on her.” I watch as his gaze narrows on me. He knows.

Bear and I go way back. I’ve known Bear—or should I say Brandon—since junior high, he was being picked on by a kid who constantly made fun of him and his size. His two friends had Bear’s arms pulled behind his back, while some douche was hitting him nonstop in the gut. I couldn’t stand the fact that it was three on one, and even though it was none of my business, I made it my business and stepped in, giving Zac and his friends a taste of their own medicine. From that day on they never looked Bear’s way. That was also the day Bear became my best friend. After I stuck up for him, the kid wouldn’t leave me alone. Kept saying how I was his best friend, and how no one had ever stuck up for him before. I didn’t mind. I was usually a loner, didn’t care much for company, but with Bear it was different. He was quiet like me and had the same goal I did: to get the hell out of school and make some money.

So as planned, I’d left school and started fighting underground, gathering some cash to set myself up. One night, after a fighting match, which I won, me, Bear, and Slade—my manager and a buddy of mine—headed out for drinks to celebrate my winnings. It was also the day that Hazel moved in with me, the day I fought Tank, the big fucker whose name doesn’t do him justice. I’d fought him before and was smashed the fuck out, but this time I was adamant I was gonna win—if not for me then for my sister, to set her up for a lifetime. And I did. Without my knowledge, there was a gang of bikers there that night, the Blood Brothers. They’d rode in from New York on a run and heard about the underground fight, and happened to be there that night.

Later on that evening, while drinking with my boys, Hawke approached me and said I was a natural, how he’d made some good money on my fight. I asked him what made him bet on me, when I was a third of Tank’s size. He looked me in the eye and said, “Size don’t matter, it’s what’s in here.” He pointed to his temple. “You have that look on you.”

“What look?” I’d asked. I remember thinking, this biker is mad.

“The look that says you’re hungry, you’re desperate—and you, brother, need to win. That’s why I bet on you.”

It wasn’t long till I was over at a table with the rest of the bikers. I finally felt at home, felt safe, like I was part of a brotherhood—something I had never felt before. Their easy demeanor, their way of life and the respect that followed them everywhere they went, was something I wanted. I had never had a family growing up, well, except for my sister, Hazel. She was all I gave a shit about in this fucked-up world. But being there with the Blood Brothers was the missing piece in my life, and Bear felt it too that night.

Gunner, Blaze, and Tracker were just some of the men Hawke introduced me to, but the man who held a real sense of authority around him was Quill, president of the Blood Brothers. He wasn’t an asshole leader, he had a natural way of leadership about him, and I saw how his men respected him, like he was their own father. I knew in age he’d be more a brother, but something about him made you want to be him, and I knew in that moment I was going to do everything in my power to be part of that club. Whatever it would take, I would do it. No questions asked.

And here I am now, another brother, and part of the MC. Something I fought so hard to be, yet a woman is making me leave.

I’m shaking my head in disgust when Bear walks up to me, his hand landing on my shoulder.

“Brother, running is not the answer. You know it, and so do I. I’m not a dumb fuck, you think I don’t see the way you look at her?”

With my beer stalled an inch away from my mouth, I growl out, “Watch it, brother, you don’t know what you’re sayin’.”

Bear sighs, resting his hands inside his jeans pockets. “I don’t, do I? C’mon, man. She’s the fuckin’ president’s ol’ lady—”

Bear doesn’t get to finish that sentence because after slamming my beer bottle on the floor, I get in Bear’s face, mine only inches away as I fist his T-shirt in my hand. “I told you to fucking watch it. You keep going with this conversation, we ain’t brothers no more.”

Bear’s eyes widen, and he shoves me back. He’s strong, but I’m stronger. I don’t flinch. “You gonna let a fucking woman come between us, Trigg? After everything we’ve been through together?”

Pointing my finger in his face, I spit out, “No, brother, I’m not the one putting anything between us, you are when you fuckin’ mentioned her. Now shut the fuck up and help me finish my bike, I plan to leave in the morning.”

“Where are you going?” a soft voice asks from behind. Bear looks over my shoulder, and a smirk reaches his lips.

Narrowing my eyes at him before I turn around, I inhale raggedly when I see her before me. She’s wearing ripped denim shorts, a black tank, and her hair is up off her neck in a messy bun. Her tanned legs go on and on, and her curves accentuate her tiny waist. You would never think that she gave birth to a baby not that long ago.

“Trigger? Are you leaving?”

Clearing my throat, I look anywhere except in her eyes. “Yeah, just gonna go see my lil sis, it’s been a while. Just checking in on her.”

“Oh,” she whispers, which has me finally looking into her beautiful green eyes. Eyes that I want to sink into, and grab hold of her soul. If only she felt the same about me. There was a time I thought maybe there was a chance, but silly old me; I have nothing on Quill. I see the way she looks at him, it’s the same way I look at her—wanting, needing, hungry for her.

“I’m just gonna go get me some… ah… some more beer. Yeah… beer. You want another, Trigg?”

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