Page 8 of Crusher

“Why?” Ally looked at me with her eyebrowsscrunched together, and her question miraculously broughteveryone’s attention aimed toward me.

“Yeah, Crusher, why?” Sami looked up atSpeed, her eyebrow raised in question, if I had to guess it wasbecause of his tone when he asked the question. When he looked downat her, she shook her head, rolled her eyes, and grabbed Ally’shand.

“Come on, Ally. Let’s leave the men so theycan have their discussion. We are going to have one of our ownabout barging into the Prez’s office without knocking.” Sami turnedto Speed, “We’re going to the house to finish putting things away.Play nice, it will work out.” Speed bent down and kissed Sami, thenkissed his daughter’s forehead. I watched with the others andwondered if the same thing went through their minds—how Black Hawkwas changing.

“I’ll see you at the house. And, sweetheart,you roll those eyes at me again, I am going to spank your ass.”

“I can show you how to get it a nice shade,Speed.” Flirt’s words had Speed’s head jerking in hisdirection.

“Don’t make me whip your ass in this office.”When Speed stepped toward Flirt, Flirt stood. Fuck me, I did notwant to break up a fight. The other brothers stood, well except thedads who still sat in their chairs shaking their heads.

“Daddy?” Christ, it was like we forgot theroom held a little girl who was watching each of us, but her oneword had stopped Speed in his tracks as he faced her.

“What, baby girl?” I watched his face loseevery sign of his previous mad when he looked at his daughter.

“Ass is a bad word. Momma said we can’t saythat.” A pin could have been heard hitting the floor.

“Okay, baby girl, so noted.”

“So, is Momma still going to get aspanking?”

“Not until you go to bed,” was said on acough. I wasn’t sure who said it until I saw Preacher smack Devilin the chest.

“Shut up, dic…” Speed caught himself beforepresumably calling Devil a dickhead and turned back to Ally.

“Can we talk about this after I come home,baby?” Yeah, he was dodging, hoping she’d forget by the time he gotthere, but Spider didn’t forget much from what I’d seen.

“Yep, but if you have to spanks Momma, don’tmake her cry. I don’t like when Momma cries.”

Sami looked at Speed and by the shade of redher face turned she heard Coast as he tried to whisper under hisbreath but it hadn’t helped, “She won’t cry if he does itright.”

Damn, we weren’t going to get anythingaccomplished by the look on Speed’s face as he turned in Coast’sdirection was any indication.

“See you at the house,” Speed said and didn’ttake his eyes off Coast. Sami turned with Ally toward the door.Nothing was said as we waited for them to leave the office. As theymoved to the door Ally whispered none too quietly, “Momma, I don’tlike spankings, do you?” I watched the others’ faces and each helda strained expression.

“Ally, we will talk at home.”

“And what’s a prezzz’s office, Momma? Iopened Papa Stroker’s door,” Ally continued to talk as Sami draggedher through the door. When the latch clicked, the room filled withlaughter.

Speed was the first to recover, “Crusher,going to answer why you would want to travel to Haven?”

“Especially since what I’ve witnessed, youand the deputy can barely be in the same room together withoutripping into each other. Russ?” Even in the Prez’s office when Iwas called by my given name by him, it meant my dad was inquiring,not the president of the club expecting a member to answer. I oftenwondered how he was able to juggle the two jobs; he’d done themboth without ever faltering. A boy couldn’t have asked for a betterman to be his father. Because of him, I’m the man I am today.

That’s why I wouldn’t make a rash decisionover going after Carly. I knew I couldn’t go to Haven territory butI could fill the time while I waited for her to return working outwhat the hell was going on to keep her safe here.

“Let’s get down to business and talk out whatwe know so far, then what we need to find out to obtain theanswers. Something more is there, we just need all the pieces.”Everyone nodded and started discussing what we knew. I feltStroker’s gaze on me and looked down at him, he smiled andwinked.

“You heard the man, let’s get to it,” Strokersaid, then turned toward the others to join the discussion. It feltgood to know the man I admired most in this world seemed to holdcomplete faith in me. I moved to take a seat with the others,nothing but time until Carly came back.

ChapterFour

Carly

The hotel room door closed and the manwasted no time advancing on me. We’d sat in the bar and had a fewdrinks, laughing and talking about nothing important. His darkbrown hair was cut short, making me think of military. I’d askedand he’d told me he’d just gotten out.

“Been back about a month,” he said and ranhis hand over his hair, “so used to keeping it short, don’t know ifI’m going to be able to let it grow too long. I’d like it to belong enough for a woman to hold onto while I ride her.” He took adrink of his beer and I stared at him. He turned, smiled, andwinked and I’d known then I was in trouble. He seemed easygoing andtalked to me, not at me. When I was talking, I had his fullattention—he didn’t look around as though he had someplace betterto be. I hadn’t dated much because at first school was tooimportant to me and it seemed that every time I accepted a datefrom one of the guys in my classes, it was assumed we were going tohave sex. A few I did sleep with but others, if I didn’t dive intobed with them, they called me the ice bitch.

The job with the sheriff’s department cameat just the right time and while going through my initial training,which happened to be with mostly men, I wanted to pass on mymerits, not because I slept my way through. So to be standing in ahotel room with a man I just met, yeah, so not me.

---