Ties That Bind Excerpt
Prologue
I never considered myself to be a player. Sure, I appreciated the company of a beautiful woman from time to time, but I never led any of them on. I didn’t make empty promises or insinuations that I was looking for anything more than a good, hard fuck. Never had to. I’d always made sure the women I hooked up with knew exactly what they were getting into—a night of the best sex they’d ever had—followed by my immediate exit.
Just to be clear, I wasn’t some lost soul who was searching for the love I never got as a kid. Nothing happened to me in my past that fucked me up and I wasn’t able to shake it. I wasn’t seeking some kind of validation or affection to heal my wounded heart. I was simply a man who didn’t want any complications. I didn’t have time for it and most likely never would.
Don’t get me wrong. There were times when I found myself wondering if I was missing out on something—like the night my brothers and I had gone to Memphis to party with the brothers of Satan’s Fury. While I was there, I’d met a woman who made me question my wicked ways. She was beautiful, but it was her spirit and strength that got to me the most. For the first time in my life, I’d actually considered a life full of complications, but then I discovered she belonged to someone else. Normally, that wouldn’t have been enough to stop me from trying to make a play for her, but she was tied to Clay, my president’s nephew, which made her completely off-limits. I’ll admit, after meeting Landry Dawson, I started to wonder if I’d ever find a woman to claim as my own.
Hawk
Loyalty. Faith. Family. Those are the ties that bind. I'd never realized just how important those ties were until I joined the Ruthless Sinners MC. With them, I’d found a family who’d stand by my side when things went south, as I would them. No matter the circumstance, our loyalty to one another never wavered. We were family—our ties stronger than blood—and I’d never been prouder than the day my brothers voted me in as their sergeant-at-arms. I’d always done my best to fulfill my duties, even when it wasn’t easy—just like tonight.
The brothers had gathered at Stilettos, the club’s main front business, to check out the new strippers our manager had just hired. The guys were eager to see the fresh meat before we opened for the night. They looked like kids on Christmas morning when the music started playing and Candy stepped up on the stage. The hot blonde was all smiles as she made her way over to the pole, and of course, all the guys started hooting and hollering the second she slipped off her halter top. I, on the other hand, just wasn’t into it. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t that I didn’t find Candy attractive, I did. Hell, when it came to chicks, it didn’t matter if they were tall, short, thick, or thin, I could find something appealing about all of them.
But tonight, I had more important things on my mind than getting laid. I was pissed that I hadn’t heard back from Danny—the club’s supplier. He and I needed to have words, and he knew it.
I reached into my back pocket for my phone and was about to dial his number when I heard Axel ask, “Something up?”
“Just waiting to hear back from Danny.”
No one would ever guess that Axel had a good ten to fifteen years on me. The guy was built like an ox and could take any asshole who was stupid enough to go up against him—which was one of the many reasons he was the club’s VP. Axel was aware of the issue with Danny, so I wasn’t surprised when he asked, “You think we should have Shotgun pay him a visit?”
“Definitely.” While Stilettos brought in a good bit of cash for the club, it was nothing compared to the money the girls brought in when they sold coke to our customers. The club had been using Danny for years. We’d done our homework, knew he was supplying for several others in the area, and they’d been pleased with not only his reliability but his product. Everyone knew he wasn’t the main supplier, that he was getting the take from a distributor in Texas, but he’d always been dependable when it came to keeping up with our supply and demand. But recently, it seemed we were having to deal with one fuck-up after the next. It started with a couple of late deliveries, which quickly progressed into him missing one altogether. That in itself should’ve been enough for us to walk away, but we were in a bind for time and bought one last shipment from him—one big fucking shipment that cost over two hundred grand to get our hands on.
We’d assumed it would be our last time having to deal with Danny ... until we discovered that part of the shipment was counterfeit. That discovery hadn’t come until days later, when we started breaking down the shipment. Viper was pissed to find that over half of the take was counterfeit, especially since it was the half we hadn’t tested on delivery. That was on us, but the fact remained, Danny was the one who’d swindled us. He’d crossed a line, a big fucking line, and he damn well knew it. The motherfucker knew he would have to answer to the club for what he’d done. That’s why he was laying low and hadn’t returned any of my fucking calls. I glanced over at Shotgun, the club’s enforcer, and Rafe, then shook my head when I saw him gawking at Candy’s ass as she stepped off the stage. “The sooner the better.”
“Can’t disagree with you there.” A concerned look crossed his face. “This whole thing is fucked up.”
“Yeah, but one way or another, we’ll take care of it.”
“I don’t doubt that ... It’s just ... we need to keep in mind there’s the possibility that Danny didn’t know the product was counterfeit.”
“Maybe, but there’s also the possibility that the asshole just got fucking greedy and was hoping to pull one over on us.” I reached for an Ultra-Light and took a long pull. “But I hope, for his sake, that’s not it.”
“Yeah. If that’s the case, it won’t end well for him.”
“Well, we won’t know for sure until Shotgun gets his hands on him.”
Axel glanced over at Shotgun, snickering as he watched our brother pull Candy onto his lap. “As amped up as those two are right now, they’re liable to kill the stupid sonofabitch before he ever gets a chance to talk.”
I chuckled as I stood and walked over to Shotgun. Our enforcer wasn’t a small man, but he wasn’t as big as one might think. He was tall with an athletic, muscular build, and he could handle himself just as well as the rest of us, but his physical appearance had nothing to do with why he’d been chosen as the club’s enforcer. The choice was simple really. Shotgun had talents the rest of us just didn’t have. He was missing that part of the brain that made a man feel empathy or the slightest bit of remorse for the pain he dished out, especially when that person had gone against the club. When vengeance took over, torture and all the other things that might make another man squeamish wouldn’t affect him in the least. There was nothing he wouldn’t do when it came to extracting the intel we needed from a particular individual. That, and the fact that the man could do some real damage with a shotgun, like wipe-out-an-entire-army kind of damage, made him a force to be reckoned with. With his particular skill set, the guy was invaluable to the club, and I knew I could trust him to figure out what the hell was going on with Danny. Candy was trying to squirm out of his lap when I said, “’Gun ... I got something I need you to do.”