Chapter 25: STEEL

Chapter Twenty-Five

STEEL

T he woman in the picture Joslin just showed has rocked me to my core.

It’s a woman I know quite well. The Rebel Barbarians’ favorite grifter. Oske .

What the hell is Oske doing in those pictures? How much of her past has she hidden from us? Her attitude and brashness make a lot more sense now. She looks so young in that picture. Like she was a pretty sweet girl. Now, she looks angry all the time.

But it’s her. Southpaw’s mysterious Indian relative. My tongue feels double its size and my throat clenches with immediate discomfort. There is something very wrong here.

“Do you know this woman?”

Joslin shakes her head. “Do you?”

She sounds slightly jealous, which I like. She’s coming around to the idea of us being together, which is a very smart idea considering this situation only appears to be getting more complicated.

“She’s affiliated with the club.”

“What does that mean?” Joslin says.

“What? Jealous?”

“Why would I be jealous?” Joslin responds with startling practicality. “These pictures are women who have been trafficked.”

“Looks like one escaped,” I mutter. “I’ve seen her recently… and that makes me wonder… Were there any maps in your stack?”

“Yes,” she says. “A couple.”

She takes out a map that looks like it could be in Oklahoma, out near the rez. I can see the outlines of various properties and then yellow highlighter along the highway. There are other routes colored in with orange highlighter, pink highlighter, purple, and then blue. I don’t know what all this means but… it has to be connected.

“Fuck. This is important shit.”

I look at Joslin, not suspicious of her, but suspicious of the damn universe for putting this woman in front of me. We could have spent months tracking this information down before narrowing in on that spot in Arizona that has brought us so close to answers. Joslin is a good luck charm, honestly.

After I went to prison, I thought for sure there would never be any good luck in my life again.

Prison has a way of bringing the bleakest mindset out of a man. Captivity is pure fucking torture.

“Who are these people?” she asks. “What do those maps mean?”

Joslin’s curiosity fascinates me just as much as her distinctive eyes and her sienna colored skin. I want to give her answers, but I’m almost as ignorant as she is.

“Could be routes they use. What interests me is right here.”

“The Indian reservation?”

She glances suspiciously at Oske’s picture.

“Yup.”

“What do you have to do with the Indian reservation?”

“Nothing personally,” I mutter. “But my brother’s best friend knows this woman… I suspect she’s his cousin or something.”

Joslin says. “Okay. Is she in trouble?”

“She is the trouble. I’d better call Hawk.”

“Are you going to leave again?” Joslin asks, her voice carrying the strong suggestion that she doesn’t want me to leave. Or maybe I’m just hearing what I want to hear. I set down the picture and the maps, because I want to make my position absolutely clear to Joslin Overman. Slowly, I take her into my arms, and she eagerly accepts my embrace.

“No,” I say directly into her ear, taking the opportunity to nibble on her cute ass ear lobe. “I’m handing this shit over to my brother and the boss… then I’m taking you across the country to get married and tattooed.”

“I didn’t agree to the tattoo…”

“But you agreed to the ring,” I whisper. “And marrying a crazy biker who would do anything to protect you. So I’ll take my time convincing you about the tattoo.”

She shivers nervously and I wrap my arms around her more tightly. Part of me wants to comfort her, but a bigger part of me wants to let her know that there isn’t a chance in hell I’m ever letting her ass go. It’s just not gonna happen.

“You’re crazy.”

I pull away from her and reach for my phone without giving her a verbal response. Crazy? Won’t deny that.

“Give me a minute,” I tell her as I gesture towards the motel room door. “I’ll call my brother and then we’ll hit the road.”

Joslin nods and waves me away. She’s still mesmerized by the files and evidence laid out on the table. I can’t blame her for her curiosity, but I’ll have to stop that curiosity in its tracks so we can get to more important business – our marriage. Hunter picks up after one ring.

“I knew you would call,” he says. “Did you lose Joslin?”

He’s such a dick.

“We’re getting married.”

Hunter laughs.

“I’m not joking.”

“Did you hold her at gunpoint when you asked?” he says, laughing again. I hear Juliette yell out in the background. “Hold who at gunpoint?”

I open the motel door to stand outside for this conversation, which might get more annoying than I truly want it to be.

“Nothing, baby,” Hunter yells back at his wife. “Ryder’s getting married.”

“WHAT?!” Juliette shrieks.

She grabs the phone from Hunter. I can hear them fighting over it. I have club business to discuss, but share a small piece of information, and now I have Juliette wrestling the phone from her husband.

“Who did you kidnap?” she says with more aggression in her tone than necessary. “While you’re at it, share your location with Hunter immediately. ”

“JULIETTE!”

“Quiet!” Juliette yells at her husband. “Ryder… who did you kidnap, and does she need help? Anna and I are ready to ride.”

“Your ass won’t be riding anywhere,” Hunter says. I hear him grunting desperately. “Give me that phone back or the only thing riding your ass will be a damn paddle.”

Juliette squeaks, the scuffle continues and then she says while out of breath. “Did this woman consent to be your wife?”

Hunter is the one who shot a man to get this woman into his bed, but she dares to question me? Before I can question Juliette about her audacity, Hunter gets the phone back.

“She has a point. I saw where that woman came from and I strongly doubt she would leave the arms of one monster and run straight into the arms of another.”

“Thanks. We are the same fucking person, you asshole.”

“Yes, but… I didn’t go to prison.”

“You’re such a dick.”

“I actually agree with Ryder this time!” Juliette chirps in the background. Hunter clears his throat in annoyance.

“This phone call was not to discuss the merits of my marriage,” I say, dragging us back to the damn point so I can get my ass back upstairs to Joslin and work on convincing her over the tattoo. “This is about the information we found at Joslin’s. She went through and organized all of it. We might have bigger problems than we originally thought.”

Hunter makes a grunt that means he wants me to continue.

“The Nazis might have been taking girls across the desert and their trail runs right through the land near the Indian reservation. That mean anything to you?”

“Oske.”

“Her picture was in the stack of pictures Joslin pulled from the files. There’s some weird bullshit on the back but… it’s best if I send this shit over to Tamiya.”

“I’ll talk to Wyatt first. If you wrap everything at the motel and leave it in a safe, he’ll send Gideon or one of the Blackwoods to get it for her.”

My brother senses that I don’t want to get any deeper in this part of club business than I am already. I have sacrificed so damn much for this club… I don’t want to sacrifice a fucking thing more. Not when I have someone new to live for.

“Thank you.”

“What about this girl? Where the hell are you marrying her?”

“I dunno. Vegas.”

“You are such a fucking idiot,” Hunter says. Again, he insults me like we aren’t composed of the same goddamn DNA.

“What’s wrong with Vegas?”

“Nothing, except for the fact that it’s a hotbed of degeneracy.”

Hunter has a way of making me feel like shit about myself. I suppose Joslin is a church girl and her first wedding wasn’t perfect but… I need her. I don’t have the patience to wait. I want to have a beautiful marriage, not just a beautiful wedding.

But what does Joslin want? I’m too scared to lose her to risk asking. Maybe that’s wrong of me.

“I want to marry her soon.”

“What about Sedona?”

“Huh?”

“Arizona. Take her West. Somewhere beautiful. It’s close to Cash Hollingsworth’s place if something goes wrong.”

“Don’t be an idiot, Hunter,” I grumble. “We can’t go to Arizona.”

“Fine, he says. “Come up with your own ideas, then.”

“Thanks.”

If something goes wrong, it’s most likely to be because of my proximity to the club, but I keep that thought quiet for the moment. Sedona doesn’t sound like an outright horrible idea.

“I’ll stash the documents,” I tell Hunter. “Tell Southpaw everything he needs to know and let him know uh… I’m getting married.”

It feels fucking good to tell people. I stick my phone in my back pocket and rush upstairs half worried that Joslin disappeared. But she’s there – and prettier than ever. I still want to tattoo her so damn bad, but if I want her to agree to that…

“I have an idea.”

“Another one?” she asks.

“I quit drinking, you get the tattoo I want.”

“Right. What if you relapse and I’m stuck with that tattoo? You had a drinking and driving relapse. What’s stopping you now?”

I want her to know I mean it. Because I do. No more relapses. No going back. Looking at this woman, I know exactly what the fuck I want out of my life. It’s her. Joslin. I want to make her Joslin Sinclair and if I have to give up liquor to do that, it’s the easiest choice I’ve ever made in my goddamn life.

“It’s a commitment, Joslin. You get that ink, I promise, I will never drink again. Nothing on this fucking earth could make me break a commitment to you. I promise.”

“A verbal promise?”

“In my world, a man is nothing without his word.”

She smiles, her smile getting my ass completely fucking weak. “Okay, cowboy,” Joslin says.

Her voice is pretty. Midwestern. She sounds like she could sing in the choir. Her pretty ass voice could get my dick hard over the phone.

“Cowboy?”

“You call me “church girl”. I get a nickname too.”

She swats my cheek playfully, but it stings a little and her openness surprises me, but doesn’t disappoint me. I want her to feel playful around me. I close the distance between us and Joslin slips easily into my embrace as I grip her ass.

“You can call me whatever you want,” I whisper. “As long as you agree to my terms.”

“You better mean it about your word, cowboy.”

“I do.”

She gazes up at me with wide brown eyes.

“This has to be a trauma response,” she says.

I laugh. “It’s called going on an adventure. Nothing traumatic about it…”

I run my thumb over Joslin’s pretty lips. “Nothing bad will ever happen to you again as long as you’re mine.”

She leans against my chest and my dick gets impossibly hard, making it difficult not to touch her ass. My hands move over her hips and as Joslin moves closer to me, slowing down so her body can fit in the right grooves of my body, every part of me craves her.

Gripping her chin between two fingers, I tilt Joslin’s lips up so I can kiss them. Those sweet, succulent lips are such a deep, dark color that I want to suck and lick them just as much as I want to kiss them. Her lips are so damn full that I don’t want to act right with them. My grip on her chin tightens as I imagine her lips around my cock.

My heart pounds.

It’s so damn tempting. It’s better if we wait. It’s what I promised her. But fuck… her lips. I kiss Joslin again, sucking on her lower lip after a long, deep kiss that’s nearly impossible to pull away from.

“I want to marry you, Joslin.”

“How do we do that?” She says. “You haven’t been married before and my first marriage was… different. Plus. I’m legally dead.”

Those concerns are all minor. Easy to iron out with some money if you know the right people out West. Plenty of folks come over the border that need papers.

“What do you think about Sedona, Arizona?”

“I think you have a problem bringing me to Arizona over and over again when it’s dangerous.”

“My twin brother said you were too classy for Vegas.”

Joslin bites her lip, clearly trying not to laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“I appreciate the sentiment,” she says. “But… after the hell I went through with my church, I started dreaming hard about a Vegas wedding. No frills. Just me, a man who loved me and… well, in your case, we can leave the liquor out of it.”

“Since when are you in favor of liquor?”

“I was until I met you,” she says. “You’re more of a drunk.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re going to change,” she says, planting a kiss on my lips of her own volition. “I believe it.”

“Why the hell would you believe such a crazy fucking thing?”

“Because, cowboy,” Joslin says. “You went to prison, and you must have done some messed up things, but you have gone out of your way to protect me from my past and keep me alive. No one has ever done that for me before.”

“You deserve that and the entire fucking planet,” I whisper. “So what do you say? Fuck everything and head to Vegas?”

She turns red as she says the f-word.

“Fuck everything and head to Vegas,” she says. “Let’s do it.”