Taking a Dare - A Hellion MC Novel (5 page)

Ryley.

At seventeen, Dare had been very mindful that his
experience in just about everything had been so much more than the
little beauty's and had tried to stay away from her. But he hadn't
been able to resist either her laugh, budding curves or the light
in her eyes that told him that to her, he was special.

And up until then, Dare'd never been anyone's
special.

After his parents died and the system had separated
the two brothers, little Josh had been shuffled from foster home to
foster home. By the time he was twelve, he became aware that his
'dad' was eyeing him in a way that didn't feel right and had him
locking the bedroom door at night. To avoid the man's attention,
Josh had taken on more than a few jobs: newspaper boy, gardener and
dog-walker. Anything to get money and stay away from the house he'd
been assigned to.

Because having the green meant he could get away. Get
gone.

He'd tried talking to his social worker, giving
little hints about what was going on in the hopes she'd pick up on
it. But she just kept gushing about how wonderful the Fergusons
were and how lucky their house had an opening after the last place
the young man had been in hadn't worked out.

Josh had never, since the time he was five, ever
thought of himself as lucky.

By the time he was fourteen, he'd had enough.

Enough of dodging the fat, balding man who seemed a
little too interested. Enough green (over five hundred dollars!) in
order to see himself out of the system that held him captive.
Enough balls to actually put on his cheap-ass shoes and thin
jacket, walk to the interstate and put his motherfuckin' thumb
out.

But his little stash o' cash hadn't gotten him very
far. Even at fourteen, he'd been short and scrawny, appearing much
younger. Which had gotten him rides but too much attention from
lonely truckers with a twist towards young, vulnerable boys. And
there weren't many hotel clerks that wanted to let him use a motel
room no matter how many dead presidents he'd flashed their way.

By the time he'd hit Missoula, Josh had been on his
own for two months and twelve days. He'd slept in trees even when
the wind was so strong he'd had to use his belt and the straps of
his backpack to hold on. He'd eaten out of the dumpsters behind
fancy restaurants and had learned how to lead on the truckers who
wanted more than just to help get kid from spot A to place B.

He'd been huddling in his thin little parka when he'd
been picked up by one of the Hellions and put into their youth
program. Something that took him but a week to figure out and begin
to succeed at. Although, looking back, what he'd been given in the
way of education, advice and the belief that he was a person worthy
of being guided still held him in awe.

Once he'd completed his six months in the program,
the Jackson's had taken him in and he'd shared a room with
Trey.

To be raised as a biker.

But the difference in the way a boy-biker was raised
and the girls of the biker club were reared was like night and
day.

Girls were protected, coddled and treasured as much
as any brother's machine.

Boys, on the other hand, were taught early about
honor, drinking and brotherhood. About the responsibility that came
with having balls as they learned to fight and to whore around. And
since Dare no longer had a set of parents, the entire club became
his instructors, mentors and guides in all things Hellion. And
Honey.

Ryley.

He'd tried everything he'd known to do short of
riding into Spokane to be with her but had never received any
response back and after a while, he'd stopped trying. Only getting
his 'Ryley fixes' by overhearing Lock talking about her to
others.

Pulling into the Rosemont and using his credit card
to put down a deposit to hold the entire second floor, Dare
wondered again if she'd come with her club. Funny how out of all
the girls he'd been with, of all the women he'd had in the ensuing
years, he'd never forgotten her.

Had, actually, held her memory and their time
together close in a secret, not-to-be-shared place within
himself.

Catching a glimpse of his visage in the reflective
covering of his truck's window Dare wondered what she'd think of
him now. Lock had said that Ryley'd thought he was hot. Shit, the
little vixen's eyes had told him that herself.

Would she still think he was?

He was taller and had filled out quite a bit since
he'd last seen her. He saw one side of his fu-man-chu mustache lift
as he grinned at the thought.

Probably didn't even fuckin' matter. She was more
than likely married by now since he'd heard some years back that
she'd been engaged. Maybe even had a rug-rat or two hanging off her
leathers. Or she could be hella fat and weathered like a lot of
girls got after slapping out a couple of Hellionettes.

Nah, he'd be better off if Ryley hadn't made the
trip.

It would help keep his mind on what they'd found in
Billings, which Dare was sure would more than meet the club
requirements. Since the business side, Hellion Construction, would
also be part of the new digs it only made sense for the club to
look at buying a place big enough for the compound, which would
include the clubhouse and a yard slash warehouse to contain all
their equipment, trucks and inventory.

His team had zeroed in on two properties and Dare
wondered what Brand and Bishop had found in their run to Great
Falls.

Each group had taken their trucks instead of their
bikes even though the weather was perfect for a ride. But the area
Dare'd had to travel through had the added complication of the
Black Czars. The one's who had made it more clear to the Hellions
that they were not to go into Czar territory without expressly
given permission but then had tried to invade Hellion space.
Luckily, the four Czars they'd found at the Big Bear café had left
without incident after receiving a call from their own shithead of
a pres.

The Czar's were a motherfuckin' pain in Hellion ass,
Dare decided.

And while he had a real reason to take his truck on
his mission, Dare thought the other team only rode in Brand's in
order to be comfortable. There was no way he was going to let that
shit go and planned on giving his brothers a fuck-load of grief
about them protecting their pansy asses instead of using their
machines.

Idly noticing the bikes of their guests as he
maneuvered the long length of driveway at the compound, Dare backed
his big truck into a space back by the rooms. Though he had only
been gone a couple of days, he was in the mood for a Honey hello
and figured that he might as well make a night of it. Especially
since he'd ensured the rooms wouldn't be taken up by overnight
guests of the Spokane variety.

Dare stepped into the clubhouse and was greeted with
a wall of sound. Music and voices that were heard along with pretty
giggles and feminine squeals from the direction of the kitchen. He
spied Trey sitting at the bar with Gus, the man who held the gavel
of the Spokane chapter. Dare noted that the older man was now
sporting long ribbons of gray in his ponytail.

Getting jostled from the side, Dare caught the arm of
the Hellion who'd almost ran him down. "Shit, Hardwood. Where's the
fuckin' fire?"

"Dare! You're back!" Hardwood's normally quiet voice
was loud and his face was flushed. Dare also noted the bright smell
of tequila on his recruit's breath. "Just wanted to clue the
brothers in on the Spokane Honeys. God, they're hot!"

"You better not fuckin' let Lulu hear you say that,"
Dare cautioned with a laugh, knowing the HC receptionist and
live-in lover of Hardwood, also known as Mel, would have his balls
for breakfast. The rule between the two youngsters was one of 'look
but don't talk and especially do not goddamn touch'. "If she
catches you eyeing another Honey…"

"I wasn't," Hardwood replied quickly, before lifting
a hand and scratching the back of his head. "Well, not much. I
needed to make sure Lu was driving tonight and Donny asked me to
scope the shit out since I was like going to the kitchen 'n'
all."

Yeah, junior was a couple of sheets to the wind which
had Dare laughing again. Not that long ago the kid had sworn he
didn't drink the hard stuff. A couple of runs later and it was
determined that tequila was the kid's personal flavor in adult
beverages. And the Texas in Hardwood's speech always made an
appearance when he'd had a few.

Dare took a few steps towards the bar and seemed to
be dragging Hardwood along with him. Shaking his arm in order to
remove the kid didn't work. Nor did his muttered, "you're not my
choice in arm candy, shithead."

"There's a girl in there with aqua eyes! No shit.
Dead-on aqua like the color of the ocean you see in those travel
posters." At Hardwood's words, Dare froze in his tracks.

Ryley
.

"Really?" was all Dare could seem to force out of his
mouth, out of his fuckin'
lungs
.

"Yeah. Really! And she fucking asked about
you
, man. Wanted to know if you were still with the
club."

Fucking hell.
Ryley
. She'd had made the
run.

Dare glanced over his shoulder at the swinging doors
to the kitchen but couldn't see anything doing. Though he wasn't
sure if he was disappointed or relieved she wasn't in view. But his
heartbeat was racing at just the thought she was just one fuckin'
room away.

"Need to recap with Trey," Dare mumbled and pried the
kid's fingers from his arm before continuing on to the bar. He took
time to show his respect to the visiting club, greeting the
brothers he knew on either a hug with a back thump or a handshake
and a fist bump. He saw that Gus wasn't as enthusiastic in his
greeting as the rest of his men. And Leif, Ryley's brother, gave an
equally chilly hello. He was convinced the almost cold salutation
was because they were still holding his brief connection to Ryley
against him.

It had been over ten goddamn years for Christ's
sake!

"Gotta do a recap with my boys, Gus," Trey said,
coming off his bar stool and slapping the back of the older man
next to him. "Catch up with you later."

Dare was one of the first ones at the large table in
the back of the big room and he'd planned it that way. He wanted a
seat that faced the kitchen even if he was unwilling to admit to
himself why he had to have it.

He let Huff and Silo go first to recap their journey
to Great Falls with Bishop punching in the info into his laptop and
obtaining the satellite views of the properties they'd found.
"There's no other brotherhood presence that we could fuckin' find
and by having a place there, we'd have better goddamn bids for work
along highway 2 or highway 200," Huff summed up.

"Do we have a lot of bids for those corridors?" Trey
asked with a frown. Even Dare knew that those highways careened
through a lot of forestry lands and bordered a couple of Indian
reservations.

The men all looked at each other before Bishop called
Hardwood over. With his new job as a Collection Agent instead of an
electrician, the recruit also assumed the duties of logging in all
the request for bids.

"Yo', meat!" Bishop called for a second time and
Hardwood's head popped up from the group he was elbow deep in at
the far edge of the bar. Without delay, the huge young man wove his
way through the tables and stood next to where the council were
seated. "How many RFB's did we get in the fuckin' vicinity of
highway 2 or 200 in the last two weeks?"

Hardwood blinked a couple of times before answering,
"none, that I know of. The only ones I've sheen are for Billings up
through Glendive and then Butte. And for those there were
forty-sheven with the shplit between commercial and reshidential at
62% to 38% reshpec…ah, respectively."

"Thanks, Mel," Brand rumbled with a one-sided grin at
how the recruit was weaving on his feet and trying to talk clearly
before dismissing him so he could go back to his fun. As soon as
the younger man was out of earshot, the big Croatian turned to Dare
and said, "he carries all of that info in his fucking head?"

"I know, right? The kid's always doing or saying
stuff that shocks the shit out of everybody."

"Told you. Handles every fucking thing we throw at
him and masters it," Trey told the group. More than a couple sets
of eyebrows were raised at Trey's words because they all knew the
praise was not cheaply given.

It was Dare's turn to give his recap which was
shorter than the other two, but he saw Trey's eyes light up at his
description of the property sandwiched between the river and the
freeway. "We'd still have to get all the approvals to run lines for
power, water and sewage but I know its fuckin' do-able since there
are more than a couple of occupied properties within a half goddamn
mile of the site we're looking at."

"Suck up," he heard big, bald Silo mutter under his
breath as the large guy rubbed his nose.

"Ass-kisser," Huff said with a cough.

Dare laughed as he gave a one finger salute to both
men in reply to their muttered comments.

Trey viewed the laptop screen Bishop turned toward
the president and nodded. "Get the particulars on it, Bish. I'll
get with Burleson for his info. Biggest fucking concern though is
the motherfuckin' Czars and their shithead of a chief." No one made
mention of their play when the Czar's had come into their neck of
the planet.

"Yeah, 'bout that," Silo said, leaning his forearms
on the table. "With Spokane here we have more than seventy fuckin'
brothers on tap. Maybe now's the time to call the shithead out for
a sit down." Shithead was the only name the Hellion's used when it
came to the Czar's gavel-holder in spite of the council knowing his
name.

Trey's eyebrows rose and Dare saw him glance at the
other president who was still holding court at the bar. "You just
might be onto something, Si."