Savage Angels: A Savage MC Erotic Romance by Alice May Ball Page B

out of the way. Their idea was to provide security and protective services to those who may be in need of such, to run a bar and, to sell some weed.
    Because of where they’d all come back from, they called the chapter Warhog . Butcher was a charter member, and he ran the security operations.
    Cox said, “The way that John put it, and the way Luke heard it, the way that they both heard Butcher agree to it, providing security to the local business community would mean just that. Providing security.”  
    Butcher, though, he was fired up by the old stories of rum-runners and gun-runners in the 1920’s. Wanted to see himself as a big old gangster. He took to visiting the local business community to demonstrate their need for security. Helped the sale along with some persuasive demonstrations.
    He showed them some of the terrible things that could happen to a business if it wasn’t adequately defended.
    Everyone who went out on the call of duty came back changed, and not too many for the better, but Butcher seemed as though he’d found his thing. When he came back he wanted nothing more than to bring the wars back with him.
    That’s why eventually John and Luke, as the other charter members, wound up the Warhog chapter. Patched Savage over it, covered it over like it had never been.
    That had all left a lot of bad blood between Butcher and the club. Now he was running his own privateer protection racket, which was a thorn in the club’s side. Savage MC was trying to keep on the good side of the Placid law enforcement. They kept local gang crime down and violence down, they kept the very bad drugs out of Placid, and there was Butcher, making everybody look bad.  
    When Cox paused, I spoke slowly, and carefully. He and I had a pattern of misunderstandings recently, and I really didn’t want another one at this point.  
    I said, “Okay, Cox, I hear you, and I’m really grateful for you trusting me. That does set a lot of things straight. But all of that must be pretty well known around town. I bet my daddy could have told me all of that.”
    I bit my lip, it was a mistake to say that. Cox hated it whenever I mentioned my daddy. I went on, “None of what you just told me now is like state secrets, is it?”
    “No, it isn’t, Nikka, but this is: the club is headed for a big problem right now, and we may need Warhog again. We might need Butcher.”
    “That’s pretty hardcore, Cox.”
    “That’s why I’m telling you, Nikka. This may be your last chance to get out before it all blows up. There’s just one chance of a meet tomorrow sorting this thing out, but none of us really believes that it will work.”
    “Cox, I don’t want out. How clear can I be with you, I want in .” I wanted to tell him that what I wanted was to be with him, whatever it meant and wherever it was. I figured it would only scare him away if I said that, so I held my tongue.
    His tongue was what I wanted more than anything right then. He reached out for me, pulled me to him. He must have felt my heart, banging in my chest. I could practically hear it thumping. The look in his eyes was hard to read, like he was scanning me. He said,
    “You know Beanie still hasn’t found Cap. Have you any idea where he is?”
    I thought that I’d handled the situation with Snori and Trols so badly, I just didn’t want to tell Cox anything about it. Still, it didn’t seem as though anybody had seen Cap since then. I shook my head. He said,
    “Nikka?” I looked away. He snapped,
    “There’s always something you keep back, Nikka. Didn’t you understand any of what I said about trust? Am I not getting through to you at all?”  
    As Cox stomped out he slammed the door behind him.

Crosstown Traffic

    I took a joint outside the clubhouse, sat in under a tree as the sky was turning dark blue. Walked around the lot, kicking dust. Bumped into Snori. “When are you fucks going back to the land of the ice and snow?” was what I wanted to ask him. Instead, I