Whiskey Neat (The Uncertain Saints MC Book 1) Read online

  I got down on one knee beside his head and bent slightly forward to stare directly into his eyes.

  “I don’t care if you die. I don’t care if Noreen dies. Y’all chose y’all’s bed, now y’all gotta lie in it. The person who didn’t have a choice was Tanner, and he didn’t deserve what happened to him. Now, I know you probably never thought they’d really take it that far, but you did know there was a threat – a possibility – and you didn’t tell anyone. Specifically, me. So now I’m telling you that you will tell me. Your life as you know it is over. Now all you can do is tell me the entire truth before you go down for it. I’ll make sure it’s a padded fall if you do that. But if you don’t, I’m going to make you wish that it was you who laid there dying in that school parking lot. Do you understand?” I said slowly to him.

  He nodded, swallowing thickly.

  “Justin!” Noreen’s shriek sounded form the doorway.

  I didn’t look up, keeping my eyes connected to Justin’s.

  “Oh, my God, what have you done to him?” Noreen wailed. “Broder, call 911!”

  Broderick didn’t come, as I knew he wouldn’t.

  He saw the look in my eyes before I walked in. He knew what I was about to do, and I’m pretty sure it was relief and gratitude that I saw in his eyes.

  So I wasn’t at all surprised when I heard his car pulling out once I got inside.

  Noreen and Justin were alone.

  “Tell me,” I insisted.

  His eyes closed, and he turned away from me to look at Noreen for long seconds before he said, “They threatened my wife if I didn’t sign, and I knew they’d do it. After they did that to Tanner, I knew they wouldn’t stop until I complied.”

  “What are their names?” I asked.

  Noreen pulled on my arm.

  “Get off him!” She shrieked.

  I threw her off me, and she hit the floor with a thud.

  “Go sit. Your ass. The fuck. DOWN!” I roared.

  Noreen blinked.

  But she followed directions.

  For fucking once.

  She sat on the floor next to the couch with her knees up to her chest, watching me as I questioned Justin.

  “Names,” I snapped.

  He took a deep breath.

  “I don’t know their names. I only have an address and a number,” he whispered painfully.

  “Give them to me.”

  “In my phone,” he whimpered. “Under notes.”

  He pulled his phone out of his pocket and passed it up to me. I quickly went to his notes, forwarding the note to my email as well as Wolf’s.

  I threw the phone onto the ground next to his face, and it bounced to hit him in the nose again.

  He hissed in a breath, and I smiled.

  “You’re going to jail, you know,” I said.

  He nodded. “I know.”

  “Good,” I said, standing.

  “What’s going on, Justin?” Noreen asked.

  “Your man here got our son killed. Do you care?” I asked.

  Noreen looked up at me.

  “Of course I care, but my husband wouldn’t do that!” She decreed.

  I laughed humorlessly. “Of course he would. He just admitted to it. Maybe if you’d learned how to keep your cunt where it belonged, we wouldn’t have lost Tanner.”

  She jerked back as if I’d slapped her.

  “How could you say that to me?” She asked, her big crocodile tears pooling in her eyes.

  I laughed.

  “Because it’s fucking true. And don’t try to run, Justin. I’ll only find you.”

  With that parting shot, I left to start the long drive back to Uncertain.

  My thoughts on the one person I wanted to see right now.

  Lenore.

  ***

  Lenore

  My eyes drooped closed once more.

  The last hour of work always got me.

  There was something about that last hour, between one and two A.M., that always had me fighting off sleep.

  Something slapped down onto the counter in front of me, and I had to control the urge to shrink back from the weirdo in front of me.

  He’d been in the store for so long now, and I was ready for him to get gone.

  How I could even think about falling asleep with him here just across the room from me was beyond me.

  I could practically feel the nastiness wafting off his body.

  I wasn’t looking forward to going into the bathroom, either, especially since I’d seen him disappear in there about twenty minutes ago.

  “Can I help you?” I asked warily.

  The man smiled, revealing crooked teeth that looked like they hadn’t been brushed in well over a decade.

  “This one is open, does it get a discount?” He asked, pushing the pocket pussy, with its open box, across the counter to me.

  Now, there weren’t many instances that owning a sex toy store made me uncomfortable, but now was definitely one of those times.

  “Yes,” I said. “I’ll give you a ten percent discount.”

  I wanted to vomit.

  The man had probably taken the toy into the bathroom and used it, but there was no way I’d open the box to confirm that.

  My video cameras didn’t cover the bathroom either.

  And it’s not like I would be able sell the toy to any other customers.

  Once the box was opened, it was unsellable as far as I was concerned.

  I didn’t sell open toys. Period.

  “Thanks,” he said, smiling his disgusting smile.

  I didn’t pick the box up, I just scanned it with the handheld scanner and pressed enter to ring up his total.

  “That’ll be eighteen fifty,” I said, praying he wouldn’t ask for anything else.

  I was out of luck.

  “You got any good tasting lube?” he asked. “My girl likes strawberry. My favorite is grape.”

  I wanted to gag.

  “Yeah,” I choked. “Over there.”

  He turned to peruse the lubes on display to the right of the register, all the while pumping his finger in and out of the toy pocket pussy.

  It made a disgusting squelching sound that had my stomach heaving.

  I did not want to know what was inside of that toy making that sound.

  Not at all.

  “I’ll take this one,” he smiled again.

  It wasn’t a nice smile, either.

  It was a pervy one.

  I scanned the barcode with my handheld scanner once again, and gave him his total.

  “Twenty-five fifty,” I said.

  He handed me a twenty and five crumbled ones, followed by fifty cents.

  “Thank you,” he said, smiling one more time at me before he turned.

  But he came to an abrupt stop when he saw the man that was directly beside him.

  I smiled at the man.

  “Hey, Griffin,” I said.

  I’m sure he could hear the relief in my voice.

  I didn’t really like being here by myself this late at night, but this was the time that my business excelled, so I did it despite my misgivings.

  With Griffin here, though, I felt totally safe.

  I was more focused on how he looked in those tight jeans, the t-shirt that looked like it had been painted across his chest and that leather vest.

  I’d not seen him in it since that night when I saw him and those other men beating the crap out of my neighbor.

  “Hey, baby,” he rumbled.

  The pervy guy hustled himself around Griffin’s body, and Griffin grimaced as the filthy man passed him by.

  The front door chimed, signaling the man’s exit, and I waited for Griffin to say what was on his mind.

  “That’s gross,” he said. “Did he have a pussy on his finger like a fuckin’ ring?”

  I nodded. “He did. I think he took it into the bathroom and tested it out. He�
��s been here for nearly an hour now, and he disappeared into the bathroom for over twenty minutes of it.”

  He scrunched his nose up as he moved closer, then leaned on my counter to look at me.

  “How much longer do you have before you leave?” He asked.

  I stared into those beautiful blue eyes, studying his beard, his lips, down the column of his throat, and stopped at the vest that was covering his chest.

  “An hour more,” I said to him. “Uncertain Saints?”

  He nodded. “My club.”

  “Your club?” I persisted.

  “My motorcycle club,” he clarified.

  I nodded. “I didn’t realize you belonged to a motorcycle club. What do you guys do? Ride around town in a group and stuff?”

  A grin played at the corner of his mouth.

  “Somethin’ like that,” he said. “Mostly, we just count on each other. If I need somethin’ they’re there. Kind of like a band of brothers. We do go on runs quite a bit. We’re actually going on one tomorrow. Want to go?”

  I raised a brow at him.

  “I have no one to watch the store,” I said sadly.

  Riding on the man’s motorcycle did sound fantastic.

  But I couldn’t leave my store unattended.

  Saturday nights were my biggest paying nights. I had to have priorities.

  And although it’d be beyond awesome to have myself wrapped around Griffin for any length of time, I was hesitant.

  “I can have someone come over, watch the store for you. Or you could ask Remy,” Griffin said,

  He almost looked…hopeful.

  “Remy’s going back to Oklahoma tomorrow,” I said sadly.

  He grimaced. “Then you’ll let one of the prospects watch your store,” he said, not taking no for an answer.

  “We’ll see. But tell me, what’s a prospect?” I asked.

  He grinned. “You don’t know what a prospect is?”

  I shook my head. “No, should I?”

  “You’ve never watched Sons of Anarchy or anything?”

  I shook my head.

  I’d heard there was cheating in the show, and I wasn’t a big fan of that.

  I read and watched TV for pleasure. So knowing that the main male lead character cheats on his wife just didn’t do it for me.

  Which was why there was never any cheating and always a happily ever after in the books that I read.

  “A prospect is someone who’s trying to get into the club. Usually, they serve about a year as our bitches before they’re taken into the fold. Sometimes, if they prove their worth earlier, like I had, then you’re in much faster than that,” he explained.

  I tilted my head in curiosity. “Why did you get in so fast?”

  He grinned. “You really want to know?”

  I nodded, unsure if I really wanted to know or not.

  At least if I didn’t know, I could claim deniability.

  “I was beating the shit out of a man for information on a case I was investigating. They were after the same man. Liked the way I handled the situation, and offered me a position as a member of the club. We were still pretty new then, though. They didn’t start with prospects until a few months after I came on,” he answered.

  My eyes widened. “Is that the way you solve things? With your fists?”

  That didn’t sound like a good person to me, but who was I to judge?

  I’d gotten in a fight with Jenna and Diane when I was in high school because Jenna and Diane had pantsed me in gym class.

  I’d gotten two good hits in, all the while my pants were around my ankles, before the fight was broken up by the coaches.

  So I couldn’t say I didn’t understand his motivation. I just thought that it might get him into trouble one day.

  “Yeah, if that’s what needs to happen,” he answered.

  I pursed my lips. “You need to be careful.”

  He knew what I meant.

  He was a cop.

  He shouldn’t be doing stuff like fighting with people.

  He was supposed to uphold the law, not break it.

  “I know. And I don’t do it unless it needs to be done.”

  He offered no apology. Not that I expected it.

  Griffin wasn’t the type of man to apologize for anything. Everything he did had a purpose, and it didn’t matter if it hurt or pissed someone off in the process. It needed to be done, or he wouldn’t have done it.

  And I needed to decide if I could be with a man that might one day have everything backfire on him.

  Could I stand by his side?

  Surprisingly, I found that I could.

  I may not think that the way he was going about it was the right course of action, but I wasn’t the type of person to stop anyone from doing what they thought needed to be done.

  “So, do you need to do it often?” I asked, my eyes scanning over his right pectoral.

  The vest declared him as ‘Griff,’ on a red patch with white lettering. The patch directly underneath that declared him as the ‘enforcer.’

  I wasn’t stupid.

  I knew what enforcers did.

  I read!

  “Griffin,” I hesitated. “If we’re going to do this, I need you to know that I don’t like you running away every time something personal is asked about your life that you don’t want to answer. If you don’t want to answer, just say so. Don’t leave on me.” I continued, “And if you’re going to do this,” I indicated his shirt, specifically the enforcer patch. “You need to know that I don’t like visiting people in jail. The place is gross. And I hear that police officers aren’t treated well in there.”

  He laughed. “I’ll take that into consideration.” His eyes shone. “As for the leaving bit…I’ll try. I’m not used to having to explain myself, and sometimes it’s easier to leave than to blow up at innocent people who were only enjoying their cobbler.”

  I smiled sadly at him. “Noted.”

  “You want me to go check that bathroom?” He asked, eyes moving to where I’d said the man had disappeared to earlier.

  I shook my head. “No. I’m used to it. I have gloves that I use, and a bottle of bleach I spray generously. I’m not sure my smalls will fit onto your hands, and I’d hate for you to stain your clothes.” I said, picking up his hand.

  It was big. Way bigger than mine.

  Scarred, too.

  And strong.

  “You look like you got into another fight tonight,” I said, my fingers brushing lightly over the scraped knuckles.

  He grunted in reply.

  Well, that wasn’t a denial, at least.

  “You wanna…come home with me?” I asked, looking up at him.

  He grinned. “Actually, I was hoping you’d come home with me.”

  I smiled. “You think I’m gonna say no to you?”

  He shook his head. “No, I didn’t think you’d say no.”

  “So you think I’m easy?” I shot back.

  He shook his head. “Not easy, no. Just unable to resist me.”

  I laughed. “You think I can’t resist you?”

  He nodded.

  “Prove it. I’ve got a will of iron.”

  He snorted. “Iron isn’t as solid as say, steel. But it doesn’t matter. If I wanted to take you right here, you’d do it. I have no doubt in my mind, and I don’t need your challenge. You stand no chance.”

  “Talk’s cheap, big boy. Time to put your money where your mouth is,” I said, wadding up a piece of paper from an order I’d filled online earlier, and tossed it at him.

  It bounced off his chest, and his eyes followed it as it fell to the ground.

  “So you want to play, do you?” He asked. “You want to get fucked in your store, where anyone can see you?”

  I blinked.

  I hadn’t really thought out the logistics of it all, but I could tell that he’d done so.

  And I found my heart beatin
g harder.

  I was breathing faster.

  And by the look in his eyes, I could tell he knew that I was excited about the prospect.

  I’d never been what was known as a ‘bad girl.’

  I was always somewhat conservative.

  At least until lately, my subconscious whispered.

  I’d never done anything out of what was expected of me.

  But, right then, with that look in his eyes, I knew I was going to give him me.

  Give him exactly what he wanted.

  Even if, later, I might regret it.

  Chapter 9

  If you mean ‘donut’ when you say I’ll give you the big ‘D,’ then yes, I’ll take the D. If not, then I’m not interested.

  -Lenore to a customer

  Lenore

  “Go lock the door.”

  I swallowed hard, staring at the intent look on his face, and thinking I was stupid seven ways to Sunday.

  You don’t taunt someone like Griffin-Fucking-Storm! Jesus, Lenore! What are you thinking?

  My thoughts carried me to the door as I locked the door, twenty minutes early, and started to pull the shades.

  “Leave them,” he ordered.

  I swallowed nervously, turning to face him.

  As I started to step forward, he stopped me with the palm of his hand.

  “Hit the lights,” he said gruffly.

  I cleared my throat, turning around to ‘hit the lights.’

  The store, minus the lights illuminating the dildo display along the back wall, turned off.

  I stood in the near darkness, admiring the back wall that was lit up like a fucking shrine of dildos.

  I wanted to laugh.

  I never turned the lights off in this order.

  Normally, the lights above the dildos were the first ones to go off, followed by the one over my desk.

  The ones above my desk went off next, and we were left in near darkness.

  “Now what?” I asked, worrying my lip with my teeth as I waited for his instructions.

  “You got the back door locked?” He asked.

  I nodded.

  “I can’t see you, darlin’,” Griffin said with amusement.

  “Y-yes.”

  Damn, there goes my stuttering.

  Shit!

  I don’t know why he made me so nervous.

  It wasn’t like he was going to hurt me, and we’d definitely done this before.