Draven Read online

  If I were Jett, I would have beaten the shit out of those two men as a warning for anyone else who was in the area, and that would have been the message I would want spread around. But, he had let them go. He didn’t want to send anyone after them, and he wasn’t going to make a big deal out of what happened.

  “What do you want us to do?” I asked him.

  “We’re going to keep an eye out for them trying to rat us out to the cops, or trying to get a jump on our stash,” he said. “You know if they were after Jade, then they already know what’s going on. One might be as likely as the other if they think they can get a good cut with the cops.”

  “So keep an eye out for anyone who’s in Hell’s Crusaders,” Blade agreed with a nod. Of course, that was something. With all the boys in the MC on the mission, it was going to be a lot harder for anyone from any rival to be in the area.

  But, that didn’t do much to make me feel better. I didn’t like the way they had attacked Jade. It didn’t matter to me that they hadn’t done anything but talk to her. She deserved a lot better than that, and to have them corner her like a rabbit was enough to make me go homicidal.

  The look on her face when we walked up told me how scared she had been with those men on top of her. She didn’t look like she liked it at all, and though she had been keeping it together, the look she had told me she wanted an escape.

  I was glad I had managed to get to her before they were able to start dragging information out of her. She was still new to all this, and I didn’t know how far she would let it get before she started talking, or, even worse than that, agreeing to things I didn’t want her part of.

  I didn’t care what they said they would do, I was the one who called the shots, and I wasn’t going to let them do anything to her. I wasn’t going to let them get her in trouble, and I wasn’t going to stand for anyone using her. She was mine, and that was the end of that.

  There was no room for sharing or negotiation in my world. She was the one I had chosen, long before I had claimed her publicly. But, now that we had crossed that line, I was going to let the whole world know she was mine.

  There wasn’t any going back. I didn’t care who the other person was or what they said they were going to do. Anyone who tried to come for Jade was going to have to get through me first, and I wasn’t going to stand by and let that happen. She might not know it, but she had a whole MC behind her, and we were one of the strongest MCs in the whole area.

  We worked as one, and we fought as one. She hadn’t seen the fights we’d been in, but if she had, she would know there wasn’t anything to be afraid of. Not when she had us all by her side. And damn, did she ever.

  We weren’t going to let anyone else come near her. I had made up my mind about that already, and nothing was going to change how I felt about it.

  I took Jade back to my place shortly after the altercation at the bar. I knew Jett wasn’t worried about it, and we all knew the men weren’t going to come back. They might be stupid, but they weren’t that stupid. They got their answer, and we told them more by telling them to get out than we would have if they had taken a direct punch.

  There would be no business for them in the area, and that was the end of that. I didn’t care who they were or what they wanted. I was done discussing it, and that was how things were going to be from here on out, as far as I was concerned.

  Jade rode silently along on the back of the bike. She seemed shaken by what had happened at the bar, and I felt sorry for her. She knew she was going to be getting into some tough things by coming to the MC, but she had no idea she was going to have to deal with that side of things.

  I had assured her things weren’t going to get too rough for her; she wasn’t going to be anything more than the person we got the pills from. I knew there was a chance things could get tense, but I didn’t plan on any of the other MCs in the area being so bold as to try to come to her for a hookup themselves.

  It was something I knew could be possible, but I hadn’t seen it coming. Now, we were going to have to deal with it as it unfolded, though I was going to make Jade feel safe in my arms.

  We headed into the house before she finally spoke. “Are you mad about tonight?”

  “Why would I be mad?” I replied.

  “Well, they scared me. I was afraid I was going to say the wrong thing or something,” she said. “So, I told them I didn’t know what they were talking about, but I feel like they’re going to keep coming after me.”

  “That doesn’t make me mad at you,” I told her. “It makes me mad at them. I think you did the right thing telling them you had no idea what they were talking about. I can promise you, if they try to come near you again, I’m going to let them know in no uncertain terms that you are off limits.”

  “But what if they come to the pharmacy?” she asked uncertainly.

  “Then I’ll let them know at the pharmacy,” I said with a shrug. “I’m not afraid of them, and I can promise you that as long as I’m in your life, I’m going to make sure they aren’t going to come near you. I don’t care what they say or do, you are mine, and I’m going to take care of you.”

  Jade said nothing, looking down at the floor as though she was going to cry. It infuriated me to think that they had scared her to that extent. She was far more important to me than anyone, and I didn’t care what their reasons were.

  She was mine, and I wasn’t going to let anyone scare her. No one was even going to talk to her if she didn’t want them to. She was queen of my world, and since I was the king, I was the one who called the shots. I was going to prove to her she was mine, and I was going to make her feel on top of the world once more.

  Walking over to her, I pulled her into my arms, pulling her clothes off.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, but I hushed her.

  “Just let me hold you,” I said. I turned her, pulling her against me so her back was pressed against the front of my vest and she faced the mirror I had on the wall. She was beautiful, and as each article of clothing fell away, I wanted her to see just how beautiful she was.

  I’d never met another woman who was able to take my breath away like she had been able to, and I wanted her to know she was the most gorgeous creature on the planet. I held her, sliding my hand down her stomach and to her pussy, pleasuring her with my fingers as she watched in the mirror.

  At first, Jade didn’t seem to know what to do with the attention. She was enjoying it, but she hadn’t ever been celebrated like this before. I wanted her to know she was more to me than just someone who was helping the MC, and I wasn’t going to put up with anyone treating her as anything less than a goddess, so I told her so.

  “You are the most beautiful creature in the world,” I said. “And, I’m not going to let anyone come near you, okay?”

  She moaned, nodding slightly under my touch.

  “I’m going to take care of you, and I want you to keep doing what you’re doing for us. I’m going to make sure you don’t have to deal with any of those pricks again. You’re not going to get in trouble, and I’m not going to let you get caught in the middle of anything. Those men are going to leave you alone, and you’re going to be just fine, okay?”

  She nodded again, though her gasps told me she was getting close to orgasm. I worked on her pussy a little longer, pleasuring her until she came. I didn’t need to be inside her. I wanted her to feel all the pleasure and know that she was that important to me.

  It wasn’t about me. It was about making her happy, and I would do just about anything in life to make sure she was. This was the woman who had caught my eye, and I was going to take care of her.

  Nothing was going to stop me from doing what I’d set out to do, and no one was going to hold us back. I didn’t care what was coming next, or what life threw our way. This was the woman I had chosen, and that meant I would take care of her. I owned her, and it was my job to make sure she was okay no matter what.

  And, I would do that very thing.

 
; No matter what.

  Chapter 13

  Jade

  The next Monday, I tried to focus on work only, but it was hard for me to get the Friday night before out of my mind. I hadn’t seen Draven all weekend, and I hadn’t told my father anything that had happened at the bar, either.

  All I had told him was that I was going out with friends, and he hadn’t asked for more details, so that was fine with me. But, I had to admit, it was still weighing heavily on my mind even a couple days later. I couldn’t make sense of what had happened, and I kept trying to figure out the answer on my own.

  It wasn’t just that those men had asked me about the drugs that was the problem. Sure, it had freaked me out that they did. It bothered me a lot that they had come to me directly – and in public – to ask about pills.

  I hadn’t given them anything; I had denied that I knew anything about what they were talking about, in fact. But that didn’t change the core problem. Those men had come to me, and they hadn’t been asking about finding the drugs, either.

  No, that’s what bothered me. They came to me already knowing.

  And, that led me to question so much about everything.

  When Draven taught me how to steal the prescriptions, he showed me how to write it out to appear as though I was filling a prescription for another person. It was really simple. So simple, in fact, I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if I had gone through with this sort of thing before Draven ever came into the picture.

  I wondered if I would have become some sort of pill mastermind. Sure, I would never have had the guts to go through it on my own without him there to push me. But at the same time, if I had gone down that road, I could only imagine where I would be now.

  If I had managed to get away with it, I would have more money than I knew what to do with. I would likely have kept being a pharmacist so I could have the access I needed to get the drugs in the first place, but where would I have gone from there?

  My father might not have gotten as sick as he was now because he would have had access to better treatment along the way. Hell, my mother might have even survived my childhood, too. Then again, I couldn’t really go back that far. It wasn’t until I was old enough to do this myself that I would have turned to a life of crime, and that didn’t reach far enough back to when my mother was still alive.

  Perhaps I would have been the one to seek out the likes of Draven, not the other way around.

  Of course, I couldn’t let myself think about things like that. Because that wasn’t what happened.

  He was the one who came for me, and now I was trying to figure out where I went wrong along the way. After all, something had to have gotten fucked up if those men were able to come to me for the pills.

  It wasn’t a guess. It wasn’t a stab in the dark. They knew they should come to me if they were going to get what they wanted, and even though I tried to tell them I didn’t know what they were talking about, I could see in their faces they weren’t buying my story.

  So how did they know? That was the question that plagued me. Because if they were able to figure it out, that meant there was word out there somewhere that I was the one behind it all. And if that was the case, then it was possible Drew himself would hear the news.

  Even if it was just a rumor, I knew he would lose his shit if he heard that I was doing what I was doing. He would fire me right on the spot. And, even if he went back to look through the cameras, I knew if he watched the footage with the suspicion I was the one doing something, then there was no way he’d let it fly.

  Hell, that might even be enough for him to go to the cops. I wanted to believe he wouldn’t go that far and rat me out to the authorities, but then, I never thought I would be in the position where I would have to worry about it, either. For all I had ever thought, I would walk the straight and narrow and never have to deal with any of this.

  No, there had to be something I was doing wrong. Something that would lead someone else to believe I was the one who was behind this, and I was the one to go to if they were after drugs. As much as it made me sick to think of that happening, there had to be something I wasn’t seeing.

  And if I was doing it, I wanted to know sooner rather than later. The last thing I needed was for a cop to come to me and ask about the pills. Perhaps they would be undercover, and I would say too much. Perhaps they would catch me in the very act and take me off to jail right then and there.

  There would be no chance for me to explain. No chance for me to tell my father goodbye or that I loved him. No chance for me to even tell him why I was doing it in the first place. He would die of a broken heart, thinking that his daughter was nothing more than drug dealer who had ended up stealing pills for a living.

  I tried not to be suspicious as I filled out another fake prescription and put the pills in the bottle. I knew the camera was trained on me. It was always trained on me whenever I was working, but there was something about the way it felt today that made me feel uneasy.

  It was as though there was someone right on the other side, staring at me. Someone who was watching my every move – someone who was keeping track of every little thing I did.

  The more I thought about it, the more nervous I was as I filled the prescriptions. Every time the door opened, I half-expected a cop to walk through and ask me to come out to the lobby to talk to them. I felt every customer was an undercover cop who was just waiting for me to say or do the wrong thing so they could turn me in.

  I was half-certain that every prescription I filled was going to be used for something illegal, and it was somehow going to end up coming back to me. I worried I was going to be arrested for stealing, for distributing drugs, and even worse, for the murder of someone who overdosed on the pills.

  Of course, I hadn’t heard anything about any overdoses. I knew by the time someone had done something like that, it would be so far removed from me I wasn’t going to be arrested for it, but I still couldn’t shake the thought out of my mind.

  It was enough to make me feel sick to my stomach as I tried to get through the lunch hour, and I knew I was going to have to talk to Draven that night.

  We texted often throughout the day, but we never talked about the pills. I didn’t want to risk anyone seeing the text in my phone and asking me more about it, and he seemed to know better than that, too.

  Of course, since I’d never dealt with drugs or anything like that I the past, I had no idea what the protocol was to talk about it. I just knew he told me to keep my mouth shut abut it to anyone and everyone but him or one of the members of the committee in the club. I had followed that rule to the letter.

  I wasn’t allowed to talk about it on the phone or through text, and never through anything written, either. No, it was all to be face-to-face, or not at all, and that was just the way things were. I knew what we were doing was wrong, and I had been okay with it at first, but now, I just felt like I was going to be caught.

  If I was going to be able to keep doing this, I was going to have to talk to Draven about it. I had to let him know what was bothering me. I had to let him know if this was going to keep happening, then I couldn’t do it. I didn’t know what that would mean for the loan, but I would have to tell him.

  By the time I finally had his attention, I was nearly frantic.

  He picked me up after work as he usually did, taking the prescriptions from me and putting them in his vest. “Well done,” he said.

  “How do you think those men knew?” I asked simply.

  “What?” he looked at me in surprise, but I continued.

  “Those men on Friday. How do you think they knew it was me?”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “You know what I mean,” I tried not to be exasperated, but it was hard for me to keep calm. I wasn’t going to tiptoe around the subject.

  “When they came to me, they weren’t asking me if I knew where to get the pills. They weren’t asking me if I knew there were pills being taken. All they s
aid was that they wanted to be part of it,” I said.

  “I know,” he replied.

  “So, that means they know that it’s me!” I snapped. “If they know that it’s me, then there’s a chance other people will know that it’s me, too!”

  “Calm down,” he said. “You know I’m not going to let anything happen to you, and you’re not going to do yourself any favors by getting all worked up about this.”

  “I’m not going to do myself any favors if I wind up getting arrested for this, either,” I said with a sigh. “If they know that it’s me, that means they can go to the cops, or they can get me in trouble with Drew, or something.”

  “You’re not going to get in trouble,” Draven said again, talking as though this was the most basic thing in the world. “I told you I was going to make sure you were okay, and I mean it. You’re not going to get caught, and nothing is going to happen.”

  “I’m still afraid. I need this job; my dad needs me to have this job. Without it, he’s not going to get the treatment he needs, and Draven, he could die!” I knew I was getting myself more and more worked up the more I spoke, but he put his hand on my arm.

  “I told you not to worry, and you’re going to have to trust me on this,” he said simply. “I’m not going to let that happen, and I’m not going to let anyone come after you. You’re fine. I don’t know right now how they knew, but we’re figuring it out, and we’re not going to let them do anything to you. Not now and not when we know how they know.”

  I sighed. I wanted to keep talking. I wanted him to keep telling me this was all going to be okay, but I also knew when to let the subject drop. I trusted him. Of course, I did. He was the one who had gotten me into this in the first place, and he was the one I felt gave me my strength.

  I might not like this, but I trusted him, and I knew he was going to take care of me.

  But, I was still worried. I couldn’t let this ruin my life. I couldn’t lose everything over this, and there were moments when I worried that was going to happen. I worried I would lose it all, and it would all by my fault. And, I didn’t think I could bear it if that were to come true.