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Unbelievable: A Biker Motorcycle Club Romance (Iron Cobras MC - Book #3) Read online




  UNBELIEVABLE

  The Iron Cobras MC – Book #3

  By Blair Grey

  Copyright © 2019 by Blair Grey

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Chapter One

  Lucas

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  The morning’s gray sky did little to lighten the dreary vibe at Maryland State Prison. As chaplain of The Iron Cobras, I took it upon myself to make visits to our MC brothers who called the place home from time to time. Ryder Winslow had gone into the state’s custody nearly two years prior. He only had four more months to go and I expected to find a happy man coming out to join me at the picnic table that morning.

  But as I sat there, waiting, watching other inmates greet their friends and loved ones my eyes caught sight of the man I’d come to see. Ryder was a nice-looking young man with dirty blonde hair, green eyes, and a good muscular physique. The man coming out to meet me didn’t resemble my MC brother much at all. Licking my lips, I tried to think of how to greet the man best.

  Nodding as he limped toward the table he took a seat at, painfully slow, he tried to smile but the way the act affected his split lower lip only made him wince. “Chap, how you doin’ today?”

  I’d seen my fair share of beaten men in my years. But this beating bothered me in a way others hadn’t. Ryder was soon to be released. He’d done his time and had kept his nose clean. So why he’d been beaten up didn’t make much sense to me. “I guess I’m doing a hell of a lot better than you, Ryder. Do you know why this happened? And do you know who was behind it?” The thing about being MC brothers was knowing that we all had each other’s backs at all times. If there was someone on the outside who could be dealt with over the beating of one of our own while he was in custody, you could bet your sweet ass that we’d take care of them.

  “Yeah, I know who’s behind this. The same motherfuckers who are behind me being here in the first place.” Pulling out a paper napkin, he blotted blood from his lip. “This happened yesterday. It came out of nowhere.” He looked away as if trying to remember it all. “Well, maybe not nowhere. See, I was set up. But you know that already, Lucas. And I aim to deal with the shit-stains who did that to me when I get out.”

  “Ah.” I understood perfectly now. “So, they wanted to give you the hint not to even think about retaliation.”

  Nodding, he sighed heavily and groaned a little as he shifted his weight. “Guess what?”

  Chuckling, I knew what. “It ain’t gonna stop you.”

  “That’s right, chap. I ain’t givin’ them the satisfaction of thinking they got to me. See, one of the guys who led the little party that greeted me yesterday in the yard was the high school friend of Joey Brand. Now Joey helped start up a minuscule MC called the Angry Hogs.”

  “I’ve seen them around. I think there's about a dozen of them. Young, stupid, arrogant punks from what I recall.” I ran my hand over my beard as I tried to picture them.

  “Yeah, a bunch of punks is right.” Ryder leaned in, talking much quieter, “I messed around with Joey’s younger sister before I got married to Hailey. Joey’s sister was a real mental case. Kayla had to have at least three mental disorders from what I could count. Bipolar being the main one. She’d be laughing her ass off one second, then screaming and hitting me the next. I wasn’t about to deal with her shit, so I broke up with her crazy ass.”

  “And like any older brother, Joey didn’t like you dumping his sister.” I understood that aspect of things.

  “Well, it got worse.” His green eyes narrowed as he looked at the table in front of him. “She killed herself only a few days after our breakup. And her brother blamed me for that.”

  “So, you think he set you up on the drug charges?” We’d never found out who’d done it.

  “I do now.” Looking up at the overcast sky, he seemed more than just upset about what had happened to him. “Since it was an old friend of Joey’s who led the pack who jumped me yesterday, I’m almost positive that the Angry Hogs are behind the drug setup. And the thing is that Joey’s not done with me yet.”

  “We’ve got your back, Ryder. What kind of help would you like from us?” We couldn’t take legal action against the Angry Hogs, but we could take all sorts of illegal action against them. “You name it, you got it, brother.”

  “The night the whole drug thing went down, Hailey and I had been out eating dinner,” Ryder began to recall the events that led him to where he currently was. “We took my Challenger that night. When we came out to get into the car, I should’ve realized something wasn’t right. Unmarked cop cars were on both sides of the parking lot. Before I could even pull the key fob out to unlock the car doors, about eight men came out of nowhere and everywhere at the same time.”

  I knew how horrible that felt. “It’s overwhelming, I know.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “They grabbed Hailey and put her into one of the unmarked cars right off the bat as they roughed me up, finding my keys then opening the trunk. When I saw what all was piled in it, I started screaming that none of that was mine. But no one listened to me.”

  “I know how that goes.” Cops never listened to anyone as far as motorcycle club members went.

  “They saw my wife. And whoever was behind the setup had seen her too.” His eyes met mine and I saw more worry in his than I’d ever seen before. “Chap, one of the guys who beat me up told me that I wasn’t to go looking for who put me in prison in the first place. And to be certain I understood that they meant business, my wife would get a visit to make sure I knew how serious they are.”

  It suddenly hit me that I hadn’t paid any visits to Ryder’s wife since he’d been locked up. “You’ve got someone looking after her, don’t you?” If no one else looked after the women who got left behind when one of us got into trouble, I always made sure to find someone to watch over them.

  Holding the back of his neck, he looked grim. “Before I even went to trial I sent her back to Massachusetts where her parents live. She’s not your typical biker babe – you know what I’m saying?”

  The truth was that Ryder had only brought his old lady around when we’d gone on club runs. No one really knew her well at all. “I guess so. You kept her to yourself mostly, Ryder. And if she’s not around Baltimore, I don’t think you’ve got much to worry about. If she’s with her family, and they’re not into things like we are, then she’s safe.”

  “Only she’s not with them anymore.” He looked mad at himself for that fact. “Her parents went on a second honeymoon for their thirtieth anniversary. So, Hailey came back to our place to stay and wait for me to be released. She’s home alone, unprotected, and unaware of the danger that’s lurking. I tried to call her last night but her phone’s not working or something. I’ve got to get the message to her that she needs to leave town.”

  It sounded like she might not have anyone to go to. “Does she have someone else she can go stay with? Someone who’s capable of keeping her safe?”

  “No.” His eyes closed. “Lucas, I don’t know what to do here. That woman means more to me than you will ever understand. We met online through a dating app. It was the first time I’d ever done anything like that. After Kayla and how that all turned out, I wanted to make sure I knew a hell of a lot about the next woman I dated. So, I thought that a dating app would help since you have to put so muc
h personal information in the bio. And I was right. I met the one for me. I knew it only a month after I’d met her.”

  I recalled him taking some time off to go up to meet her. “I remember now. You went up to where she lived for a couple of months. And then you brought her back home with you. Then we had your wedding only a few months after that.”

  “Yeah.” He smiled, but then winced as his lip began to bleed again. Holding the napkin against it, he went on, “She and I had only been married a year when I got sent here to this hell-hole. I don’t want anything to happen to her, Lucas. She’s not like us or any of the women who hang out with men like us. She’s sweet, innocent in many ways, and trusting – maybe too trusting. I’m not sure she would see that anyone wanted to hurt her if they came up to her or our home. You know what I’m saying?”

  I could put one of our MC brothers on guard duty for her, but I wasn’t sure she’d be happy with the way they behaved. “So, she’s not tough in the least, huh?”

  Shaking his head, he looked like he felt as if he’d failed her. “I had many plans about teaching her how to defend herself, shoot a gun, throw a knife. I never got around to it though. It was like we were still in that honeymoon phase of marriage. You know, I thought more about keeping her in our bed than taking her out to the country to learn to shoot.”

  But I could teach her those things. “Would you like it if I taught her how to defend herself, Ryder?”

  Relief filled his bruised and battered face. “Would ya do that for me, chap?”

  “I could do that for you.” But there was still the matter of who should watch over his woman. Our club was full of rough men. Not even one came to mind who would be able to rein in their behavior for even a matter of four months until Ryder was set free. “Would you like me to put a guard on her?”

  “I’ve thought about that.” He nodded. “She needs one. But I can’t think of any of our brothers who would be able to act right with her. I know I’m a tough guy, but with her, I’m not.”

  There was an unspoken rule about the women who belonged to MC members. If one of the men became incarcerated, any of his MC brothers could have relations with his woman while he was away. There were never to be hard feelings about this either. But I had the idea that Ryder wasn’t happy with this rule. Perhaps that was the main reason he’d sent her back to live with her parents when the whole thing began.

  “Does it bother you that if one of your MC brothers guards your wife that he might have sex with her?” I had to ask so that I would be able to figure out a suitable protector for the woman who desperately needed protection.

  A glazed look came over him. “I know how things work. It’s not like I can do anything about it. And I did have my own relations with two of my MC brother’s women while they were locked up before I met my wife. It’s not like I haven’t been on the other side of things like this. I guess the main thing is that I just wouldn’t want to know about it, is all.”

  I knew that wasn’t a thing that could happen. No one was going to hide anything they did. “In a perfect world, Ryder, that could happen. In our world, there’s no way in hell anyone will keep something like that hush-hush. You know that.”

  Another deep sigh came from him. “Yeah, I know that. Like I said, I’ve been the other man, so I’m well aware of how there can be no secrets between brothers. And I know that there are at least two of my MC brothers who would feel like they should have a shot at my old lady since I’d had a shot at theirs. My past transgressions may have caught up to me, Lucas. It’s just a hard pill to swallow is all.”

  “But those women that you had relations with were biker women through and through. They knew how things worked in the MC world. And you’re saying that your wife doesn’t know about these types of things, right?” I had to take into account that his wife wasn’t like the other women who knew what to expect when their men went away for a while.

  “Again, I didn’t educate her on our way of life. And if anyone took her without her consent or pushed themselves on her, then I would have a problem with that.” Rubbing his bruised brow, it was obvious how torn he was.

  So, it made it easy for me to offer my services. “Look, I’ll watch over her. I’ll pick her up from your place and take her out to mine. I’ll keep her with me at all times too. I won’t let her out of my sight. And while I’m doing that, I’ll teach her about self-defense. And I’ll put some other men on finding out what they can about this Angry Hog MC whose made it their mission to make your life miserable.”

  Even as beat up as his face was, I could see how relieved he was that I would be the one taking care of his woman. “Lucas, thank you so much. You have no idea how much I appreciate this. And if you ever do get yourself a steady old lady and you’ve got to do some time then you can count on me to watch over your woman while you’re gone.”

  “That’s nice of you to say, Ryder.” I hadn’t found a female who’d fit me right just yet. “You can count on me to keep your woman safe.”

  “I know I can.” Getting up, he gave me a nod. “I’m gonna go to the infirmary now to get something for all this fucking pain I’m in. I haven’t taken anything for it yet. I was too worried, I guess. Knowing you’re on the job is already making me feel better.”

  “Glad to hear that.” I got up too and started to head out.

  “Hey, wait a sec, chap,” Ryder called out before I got to the gate.

  Turning back around, I waited to hear what he had to say. “Yes?”

  “Hailey’s been up here a couple of times for conjugal visits since she’s been back home. Don’t bring her back up here until I’m released. I don’t want anyone up here to see her face any more than they already have.” Then he turned to leave as I headed out.

  Now on to see how his sweet bride takes this turn of events.

  Chapter Two

  Hailey

  When the windows in the dining room began to rattle, my heart jumped. Ryder!

  Running toward the front door, I only got in a couple of steps before my brain clicked back on. “It’s not him.” I turned around, going back to the kitchen to finish cleaning up after the late breakfast I’d made myself.

  It had only been a month since I’d been back in the house we’d shared before my husband got locked up. The whole time I was back at my parents’ house I hadn’t heard even one Harley. Since I’d been back in Baltimore I’d heard a few of them and each time it sent me back in time to when my husband, Ryder, would be pulling up to our home.

  The sound of the loud engine cutting off in front of the house had me wondering if someone from Ryder’s MC, the Iron Cobras, had come to pay me a visit. I didn’t know any of them well enough to warrant a visit.

  The doorbell rang, so I grabbed a dish towel to dry my hands as I went to see who it was. “Coming.” Opening the door, I saw a man standing there, looking away from me. “Hello?”

  “Looks like the sun’s going to come out today after all.” The man turned back to face me, and I instantly recognized one of the members of Ryder’s MC.

  Ryder was my first and only biker dude. The small amount of time I’d spent with his club had been done while on something he’d called club runs. Everyone rode their Harleys as we went on trips, stopping at various bars along the way. It was fun and unlike anything I’d ever done before. I found a love for the open road, riding behind my husband as I got to look around at all the things one misses seeing when inside of a car.

  Lucas was the club’s spiritual counselor, they called him chaplain – chap for short. “Hello, Lucas. It’s nice to see you. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” I stepped back to let him come inside. “Please, come in. I’ve still got some coffee I made with breakfast. I’ll make you a cup.”

  “That would be nice. Thank you, Hailey.” Following me in, he stopped just inside the door, taking off his leather boots. “This white carpet and my dirty boots won’t mix well.” He left them by the door as he came to sit at the island bar. “I see I’ve just missed breakf
ast.”

  Pouring him a cup of coffee, I looked at the microwave above the stove. “You haven’t missed it at all. I made too much and have a plate in the microwave. Shall I heat it up for you? It’s scrambled eggs, bacon, and a biscuit.”

  Taking the coffee from me, he nodded. “That would be extremely appreciated, Hailey. Thank you. You are quite the hostess.”

  I knew my mother would be proud to hear that. “Mom made sure I knew my way around hospitality. Plus, I was a waitress while I went to college.” Starting the microwave, I leaned against the counter as I waited for the food to warm up. “I’m sure you must be here for some reason other than just to see me, Lucas.”

  The way his blue eyes went in the opposite direction and his brow furrowed I knew he wasn’t here to tell me anything good. “That smells wonderful. Bacon is my favorite breakfast meat.”

  Whatever he had to say wasn’t going to be good at all if he was avoiding it this much. I pulled the plate out of the microwave using the dishtowel to carry it to the bar where he sat. “Let me grab you some silverware and a napkin. And while I’m doing that, you might work on how you’re going to tell me what you came here for.”

  Nodding, he took a long sniff of the steaming food. “I can already tell that this is going to hit the spot. I haven’t had anything to eat yet.”

  So, maybe he was just waiting to get some food in his stomach before he had to upset me. I could wait for that. Placing the things beside the plate, I took the chair opposite him, picking up my coffee cup and taking a sip. “Baltimore hasn’t changed much in the last couple of years since I’ve been gone. Ryder hasn’t kept me up to date with the happenings of the Iron Cobras either. How are things with you guys?”

  “We’re keeping busy.” He took a sip of coffee as he waited for the food to cool. “And how are you keeping busy, Hailey?”

  It had taken some time to find something to take my mind off of Ryder sitting in prison for a crime I knew he hadn’t committed. “After I got back to my parents’ place, I took some me-time to come to terms with how my life was going to be since I’d married a biker. And I found myself searching for a career that would help me to not get so blown out of the water if something like this happens again.”