Extreme Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 7) (5 page)

“Shoot,” Curtis grated out. “‘Cause I for one can’t think of one single fuckin’ reason for you to protect Ace Cuddy.”

King sighed. “Nothing leaves this room?”

Right away, everyone shot him looks ranging from irritation to outright disgust.

“
Seriously
?” Jax huffed. “You’re gonna ask
us
to keep our mouths shut?”

“Sorry, sorry,” King muttered. “Just habit.”

“So,” Luke said, taking a seat at last and stretching his long legs out in front of him. “Talk, Kingston.”

At that, King launched into the story in its sordid entirety: for Luke, Dillon, and Curtis, he backtracked quite a bit. First, King explained how Aidan had saved Gabi by threatening to tell the MC about Ace’s sexual orientation. Then, King explained how
he’d
blackmailed Ace by killing Trigger and forcing Ace to turn snitch. Jax, Mac, and Aidan knew all of this, of course, but they didn’t so much as look away when King was talking: it was the kind of thing that none of them fully believed. Still, and despite having witnessed some of it with their own eyes.

Then King talked about the things that nobody knew but him and his team: about how Kirk had figured out who was ratting him out to King’s Men and the cops, and how that had meant Ace shooting Kirk earlier that day. How Ace had called King and told him what he’d done, and told King that he’d made his choice and he stood by it. How he’d told King about the pen drive of pictures, and then how he’d
begged
for someone to go and get Spider and hide him. How King felt responsible for both men now: Spider because he was an innocent victim, and Ace because although he was pretty damn far from innocent, he was in this mess because of King’s actions. That made him King’s duty of care now – no matter
what
Ace had done in his life, he’d done the right thing in the end for Warren and Shay, and that mattered to King. It mattered
a lot
.

“And that brings you to where we are now,” King said heavily. “With Ace and Spider hidden away, and with the Fallen Angels probably hours away from finding the pictures – if they haven’t already – and with Jensen’s men hours away from heading to Denver to kill Ace for killing Kirk.” He paused. “If they aren’t here already.”

“Fuck,” Jax said softly. “
Fuck
, man.”

“No kidding,” Mac chimed in. “When you go looking to make trouble, Kingston, you make sure to call down the goddamn
apocalypse
.”

“And us?” Aidan said, fists clenched. “What do you want from us? Because I don’t give a flying
fuck
what Ace did for you, he’s one of the men who buried Gabriela alive. If you think for one
second
that I’m gonna guard him and protect him, then you’re out of your motherfu–”

“No,” King cut him off. “Never, Aidan.
Never
. I get where you’re coming from.” He glanced at the others. “Same with you Jax, Mac, and Dillon. You guys have got personal history with the MC and Ace Cuddy, and I don’ t expect
any
of you to look past it. But Curtis and Luke… I
am
asking for your help on some back-up bodyguard duty for Ace and Spider.” He hesitated. “And Luke, just to give you a heads-up… I’ll be approaching Dallas Foreman and asking if any of his people are available, so Selena might end up assigned if he agrees.”

“Shit,” Luke muttered. “I’d
hate
that, King.”

“I know, man. I wouldn’t want
my
woman anywhere near this fucking disaster area either – but Naomi isn’t ex-military or a trained, professional bodyguard. Selena
is
, and she’d be insulted if she got special treatment because she’s a woman
or
your girlfriend.”

“Shit,” Luke said again, this time because he knew that King was right. Selena Perez would
never
stand to be patronized or handled with kid gloves, just because she was a woman. Hell, the woman was a better shot than Luke was, for damn sure, and she could take down
any
man with her bare hands. “OK, so if Dallas puts Selena on guard duty, then I’m definitely in. I want to work with Selena. I want to have her back.”

“Understood.”

“Why all the extra people?” Curtis asked suddenly. “You short-handed?”

“Badly.” King rolled his neck. “I’ve got Tex, Honey, Jack, Tank, and Valentina here in Denver. Everyone else is out of the city, if not the state.”

“Why ain’t five people enough to guard two people in one safe house, if they rotate and work in shifts of two or three?” Curtis demanded. “Actually, it’s six people, counting you. I don’t see the need to involve Foreman’s people at all, let alone me and Luke.”

“No shifts,” King said. “My people stay in place. No coming or going done by anyone but you and Foreman’s people, and I’m not going anywhere
near
the safe house.”

“You think you’re all going to be followed because the MC knows that King’s Men were involved,” Aidan said. “So you think that
you
are going to be followed.”

“Yeah,” King confirmed. “Everyone’s in place already, and nobody’s leaving until it’s OK to do so. And I won’t lead those fucking MC animals to a place where I’m trying to keep people alive.”

“OK, fine,” Mac said. “But I still don’t get it. If you have five people already in place for one safe house, why do you need more? I’m no gun-toting, special-ops type, but I can count, and it seems to me that’s plenty.”

King hesitated. “Because… because there’s going to be a
second
safe house full of people which needs guarding, so I’m splitting my team and I need more support.”

“Who?” Jax said. “Who else needs to hide?”

“The women,” King said, looking uncharacteristically abashed. “I’m sorry, guys.”

“Which women?” Mac snapped. “You break up a sex-trafficking ring?”

“No.” King cleared his throat. “
The
women.
Our
women.”

Everyone froze. It was like to a man, they’d stopped breathing and turned to stone.

Aidan recovered first. “
Our
women?”

He wasn’t shouting; his voice was barely above a whisper, but King almost flinched at the rage and disbelief in it.

“Yes,” King said. “Naomi, Gabi, Sarah, Mirrie… they all have to hide.” He met Dillon’s furious gaze. “And you should ask Maria to stay up at Open Skies Ranch for a while, Saunders. I know that they’ve really beefed up their security since you and Maria were shot at there. I think she’d be safer away from Denver.”

“No fucking
way
,” Dillon barked. “Maria stays here, close to me. Non-negotiable, so don’t ask again, or I’ll break your goddamn
face
, Kingston.”

King nodded, accepting that without protest. He’d do the same; in fact, he
was
doing the same. “So she’ll join the other ladies in the second safe house.”

“Goddammit, King,” Jax said now. “I can see why Mirrie needs to hide, alright? I get that the MC has been gunning for her since she walked away all those years ago. I get that they might want to take out Gabi, too, since she did witness that murder and escaped death once.” He shot Mac and Aidan apologetic looks. “Sorry guys.”

“No, you’re not wrong,” Mac said, his voice hollow. “Mirrie’s always said that she knows that her Dad and Joker are still dreaming up ways to hurt her. This is the perfect climate to do maximum collateral damage.”

“And I’ve always known that Gabriela’s safety was tenuous,” Aidan admitted. “We had Ace’s word that she’d be off-limits… but anybody else in the MC was a big question mark. If Ace is gone as Prez, then she’s fair game now.”

“Right,” Jax said, his voice rising. “But what the hell have you gotten
Sarah
into, King? She has fucking
nothing
to do with this. ”

“OK, look.” King held up his hands. “You’re right, Jax…
she
doesn’t.”

“So who –” Jax stopped. “Me. This is about me, isn’t it?”

“They hate you,” King said. “You beat the shit out of them that night here at Curves, and you kicked the MC out of this place. They’ve been looking for ways to get back at you, Jax, and if they’re running wild and settling scores,
why
not get to you through your fiancée?”

“Fuck,” Jax said, running his hands through his dark hair. “Just –
fuck
.”

“And that’s why Naomi’s hiding too, isn’t it?” Mac said to King. “Because of
you
.”

“Yeah.” King stared at the heavy silver rings on his hands. “Yeah, this is on me, and I know it. All the things that I’ve done have put her in the direct line of fire… if Nails and Joker and Jensen’s people want to hurt me, they won’t take me head-on, and they won’t go through King’s Men or you guys. That’s not their style, and we all know it. They hurt people through the people that they care about the most, so they’re gonna make a bee-line for my woman, and they’re gonna do their worst to her.” He looked up at his friends, and he met every one of their eyes. “And their worst guys… believe me when I say that we haven’t even
seen
it yet.”

That
stopped the men. They’d never seen Matt Kingston look like this before, not once. The man was hardcore and he’d seen it
all
, at least twice. He’d shot men point-blank-range, and never even blinked as he did so. He’d walked into some of the most unimaginable nightmare situations humanly possible, and walked right back out again in one piece, leaving piles of dead bodies and rivers of blood in his wake. He was ruthless and he walked
all
the lines – legal, ethical, moral – very closely; some would say way
too
closely. But here and now, in this moment, he looked…

Afraid?

And
that
– more than anything – told the men that this was bad. Because if King was afraid, then they sure as hell should be too.

Everyone should be
.

“What’s coming our way, King?” Mac asked his friend, and his handsome face was more serious than anybody had seen it in ages. “Just what are we up against here?”

King thought back to that lonely mountain cabin, thought back to standing in that kitchen over Kirk Jensen’s dead body. Thought back on his words, thought that he’d been surprisingly bang-on with what he’d said then, in that time and place.

So – with nothing but dread and fear and the heaviest of heavy hearts – King repeated what he’d had said to Ace and Jack:

“All-out war.”

Chapter Four

The next morning, Tex was standing in the safe house kitchen, thanking the good Lord above for coffee. He and Honey had been up all night, of course, and that was no biggie because they were well-used to pulling all-nighters. He wasn’t tired, but a cup of black coffee with sugar was starting to sound damn good right about then. Maybe with a cheese omelet.

He had just opened the fridge to see what they had in the way of food, and what he’d have to ask to be delivered from the grocery store, when he heard a noise behind him. He and Honey – all the Men, actually – knew to identify themselves when entering a room from an unseen position, so he knew it wasn’t her. Besides, she and Jack were out in the yard checking the security equipment, cameras, and fences, and no way they’d have walked the entire perimeter yet. Lightning-quick, Tex spun, arms extended, gun steady and aimed to kill.

“
Jesus
!” Spider leapt back, raising his arms in front of his chest automatically… like
that
would do any damn good if Tex fired. “You gonna shoot me, man?”

“Let’s get something straight.” Tex slid his gun back in its shoulder holster. “You never – and I mean
never
ever
– sneak up behind any of us on bodyguard duty. You make sure we see you coming into the room, and if our backs are turned, you speak up and say you’re behind us. We clear?”

Still shaken, Spider nodded. “Yeah. Sorry.”

“Rookie mistake,” Tex said, gathering up eggs, milk, cheese, and bacon. “But don’t do it again.”

“No way.” Spider came into the kitchen at last, still keeping his distance. “I’m not looking to have a gun pointed at my chest again.”

“I was pointing at your head,” Tex said cheerfully. “I
always
go for the head, son.”

“Oh,” Spider muttered. “Awesome.”

“Hungry?”

“I
was
.” Spider looked at the food on the counter, looked away as his stomach clenched a bit from the still-fading adrenalin rush. “Maybe later.”

“Coffee then?”

“Oh, yeah. Please.”

“Help yourself,” Tex said. “It’s fresh.”

Spider poured a cup, held the pot up. “Want one?”

“Hell, yeah,” Tex said, busy stirring the eggs in a bowl. “Black and strong and with two spoons of sugar.”

Spider fixed the other man’s coffee, set it on the island between them. Then he perched on a stool, and took a huge sip of his milky, sweet coffee and sighed.

Tex glanced up from tipping the eggs into the pan. “Doing OK?”

“I guess.” Spider drank more coffee, reconsidered. “Well… I will be. Right now, I’m still a bit – shaky.”

“Shaky?” Tex sprinkled grated cheese on the eggs, watching Spider closely. “You scared, man?”

“Sure I am,” Spider said. “I think I’d be crazy
not
to be scared, don’t you?”

“Yep.”

“But I’m not just shaky from that.”

“So what else is it?” Tex flipped the omelet perfectly and in one smooth move, and Spider almost applauded. “You get any sleep last night?”

“Not much. But again, that’s not it.”

“No?”

“No.” Spider set the mug down with a crack. “I’m pissed, Tex. Like really, really
pissed
. I’m shaky with anger, and I swear to you, I’m barely holding myself back from storming down the hall to that idiot’s bedroom and throwing a punch.” He gazed at his hands. “I know he’d kick my ass, of course, since I’ve never been much of a fighter. But
God
, I’d take my chances because it would feel so good to land even just
one
punch on his face, and this is bizarre for me, ‘cause I am
not
a violent person.”

“Totally understandable.” Tex started frying the bacon, and at the smell, Spider’s stomach growled. “He really screwed you over, huh?”

“Yeah. And it’s not like it’s the first time.”

Tex glanced over at the other man, and yet again, he fought down his curiosity about just how the hell this gentle, law-abiding, hard-working, business owner had ended up head-over-heels in love with one of the most despicable human beings that Tex had ever had the misfortune of coming across.

Spider looked up, and smiled a bit at the expression on that hard, gorgeous face. “It’s OK, Tex. You can ask.”

“Yeah?” Tex slid the omelet onto a plate, set it in front of Spider, then returned to flip the sizzling bacon. “You sure, man?”

“Totally.”

“OK. But first, let’s get something straight between us.”

“Alright.”

“I was raised by my Daddy, who was one hell of a good ‘ol boy back home. You get me? He was what is not-so-nicely called a redneck, and he raised me to believe that it was God’s will that men and women muct be together to procreate, and any other combination is unholy.”

Spider narrowed his eyes. “Go on.”

“I believed that for a long, long time. I ain’t proud of it, but I said some horrible things to gay men and women over the years – but then I had a gay man in my special-ops unit in Afghanistan, and he changed my thinking.”

“How?” Spider asked. “I’d have thought that being around a gay guy in the military would have made you furious… that you’d have thought that he had no earthly business being there at all.”

“And you’d be right.” Tex plated up the bacon, then joined Spider at the island. He sat, drank some coffee. “I
did
think that at first, and I thought it for a long time.”

“And?”

“And…” Tex took a deep breath. “And then Koppel saved my life.”

“Koppel?”

“That was his name. Ryan Koppel.”

“
Was
?” Spider said quietly. “What happened to him? To Ryan?”

“What happens over and over again in war?” Tex responded. “He died, and he died horribly. I won’t talk about it, Spider, and I hope you can understand that. But here’s the thing: he died saving me. He sacrificed himself for me. I’m here helping you now because of
him
, and I think about that every single day. I will never stop being grateful to him, and I owe him a debt that can never be repaid, and I know it.” He stared down at his plate, not seeing the food there. “He had a choice that day… to save himself, or save me, and he chose me. He did it without hesitation and he was fierce and fearless in that choice. He was the best human being that I’ve
ever
had the priviledge and honor of knowing – and the fact that he was gay is the
last
thing that I think about when I think about Sargeant Ryan Koppel now. You get me?”

“Yes.”

“So.” Tex raised those incredible eyes to Spider’s again; all Spider saw there was hurt and pain. “I may never really understand the attraction to men, but I have
zero
problem with men together – saying that aloud just made Daddy roll over in his grave, I’m sure – but what I don’t understand
at all
is the attraction to
that
man.” Tex vaguely pointed his fork at the ceiling above them. “I don’t understand why the hell you’d want to be with Ace Cuddy, of all men wandering the planet. I’m asking you to please explain it to me, as much as you feel comfortable sharing.”

“I know it’s baffling to you,” Spider said, a bit of his humor surfacing. “And not just to you. I see the way that King and Jack look at Ace, then at me, then back to Ace. I know that none of you see what I saw in him. To be fair, though,
I
don’t see what I saw in him. Not anymore.”

“What
did
you see?”

“Well… maybe you want to hear how things started between us,” Spider said. “Then maybe you’ll understand better.”

“Wherever you want to begin, man,” Tex said. “And as much as you want to tell.”

“God,” Spider said softly. “I haven’t talked about him in – well. Years, Tex. Years and years.”

“You don’t have to.”

“No.” Spider turned his coffee cup around and around in his hands. “No. I want to. I think – I think that I even
need
to.”

“OK.”

“Well…” Spider sighed. “Well, we met at The Grinning Skulls.”

“The Fallen Angels bar? In the MC clubhouse?”

“Yeah.” Spider grinned at the look on Tex’s face. “Can’t quite imagine me there, huh?”

“In some ways, I can,” Tex said. “You’ve got the ink and the silver…” He lifted his chin to indicate the spider web tattoo across the other man’s face, the tiny spider tattoos all around his neck, the multiple silver piercings in his ears and on his face. “But I
can’t
imagine you voluntarily walking into that den of rampant homophobia.”

“Right? But I was there with a friend of mine who was seeing one of the members, and she didn’t feel great about going to Skulls alone. She asked me to be her protector, if you can believe it.”

“You were the
muscle
?”

“To this day, I wonder what the hell I was thinking when I agreed,” Spider said wryly. “But I just didn’t want Melanie going in there on her own, and so I said yes. That was how I ended up at the bar, see. Mel went to one of the backrooms when her boyfriend, and I stayed out there drinking beer and trying not to attract attention.”

“But you obviously attracted some,” Tex teased him. “Ace Cuddy’s, to be precise.”

“I did. I was just standing there, minding my own damn business, trying not to see anything that was going on around me. I was alone, so was he. We looked across the bar at each other at the exact same time, and our eyes met. And… well. It was just
there
between us – despite it being the
worst
place in the world for this kind of thing to happen, surrounded by bikers and criminals – it was there and it happened anyway. That – spark that you feel with some people, you know? That connection, that sense of feeling like you knew them before, and you’re just then being reminded of it. Like… you’re coming home. ”

“Did you guys talk?” Tex asked.

“Oh, not that night. I think it freaked us both right the hell out, and I had no intention
whatsoever
of following up on the attraction. I thought that Ace had just been drunk and that he’d just slipped up and I’d probably seen something that he never showed the world. I figured if I pushed it, he’d kill me, either to keep living in denial or to protect himself from his MC finding out. I
knew
he was gay, or at least bisexual – of that, I had
no
doubt, even from the get-go – but I
also
knew that he wasn’t living the life. I knew he was hiding all of it, and I didn’t blame him.”

“So how did you two get together, then?” Tex said. “If he was hiding and you were running fast in the opposite direction?”

“Melanie,” Spider said. “She and the biker kept on seeing each other, and it went on between them all summer, much to my surprise. So for almost three months, she’d drag me along to Skulls and to MC parties and barbecues – and to the biker camp one weekend. That’s – that’s when things finally happened between us. Me and Ace. We’d been avoiding each other for all those months, never said one word to each other. Not once, not ever. Every time one of us showed up, the other disappeared. Every time one of us changed locations, the other moved places just as fast. But we were always watching each other, always totally aware where the other was, all the time. We were circling each other that whole summer… just going around and around. But then that weekend up at the cabin… we stopped circling. For the first time, we stood still.” Spider fell silent.

“C’mon, man. Spill it.” Tex was rapt, and he was a bit surprised by that. “Don’t leave me hangin’ here.”

But Spider was still quiet, remembering that amazing, astonishing night up at the lake. Everyone else had paired off, then taken off to one of the numerous bedrooms in one of the dozen or so cabins scattered around the water’s edge. By midnight, just he and Ace had been left at the campfire, under an endless sky of perfect stars. It had been achingly romantic and beautiful – and Spider had quickly escaped to his own small room, set away from most of the others. As he’d left, he’d joked about the overwhelming heat of the roaring fire, but really, he’d been almost breathless at the heat in Ace’s eyes… those black eyes that were normally as cold and bleak as death were suddenly hungry and wild and alive. Wolf eyes.

So Spider had scampered away like scared prey… and like a predator giving chase, Ace had followed him.

God
, Spider still remembered the quiet knock on his bedroom door, and how his heart had leapt at the certainty of who was standing on the other side of it. He had known in that moment that if he opened that door, then his whole life, his whole world, his whole reason for existing, were all going to change forever.

He’d opened the door.

Ace had launched himself at Spider like a man who had held things away from himself for too long. Like a man who was done waiting. Done holding back.

Despite his urgency, Ace had been sweet and gentle, almost shy. Spider had half-expected roughness and dominance, maybe even violence, and had been ready to hit Ace over the head with a hidden baseball bat if necessary. But there had been none of that – and that was because Ace hadn’t ever been with a man before. He’d pushed down hard on those urges in himself for his entire life, but with Spider, denial was no longer an option. It was impossible.

So, from the very beginning, Ace had broken all the rules, taken all the risks, and he’d done it for Spider. How could Spider
not
fall for a man who broke and risked it all, just to be with him?

And if Spider were being honest with himself, he’d enjoyed the rule-breaking and the risk; the forced secrecy and the more-than-a-tiny hint of danger. Ace Cuddy was nothing if not a bad boy, and Spider had a
serious
thing for bad boys. All of this added to the excitement, of course, and the thrill. It was fun and it was reckless – and when it all began that night at the lake, neither man thought for one second that it was going to be anything real. Spider especially had thought that Ace was going to come to his senses at any time, or get freaked out at being discovered, and then threaten Spider within an inch of his life to keep his mouth shut about everything.