Down to my Bones (Reapers MC: Ellsberg Chapter Book 1) Read online

  “This isn’t over,” Cooper growls, but he also ditches the RV and storms toward the house.

  MJ smiles at me. “Pop and Cas’s dad are very competitive. It’s a super-long-standing dick measuring contest between those two. Don’t tell Pop, but I suspect the giant’s giant father has a bigger dick.”

  “Your secret is safe with me.”

  MJ wipes my forehead with a wet cloth. “I don’t get why dick size matters. Pop is a better man, husband, father, and crime lord than anyone else. So what if his dick is smaller than a giant man’s dick?”

  “Is this your way of reassuring me just in case I have a tiny dick?”

  “I honestly haven’t thought much about your dick,” she says, and I believe her. “When I was randy, I imagined you going down on me. Or perhaps letting me rub my vaginal area against your leg. Your dick never came into the equation.”

  Studying her face while she wipes mine with a wet washcloth, I can’t imagine another woman like MJ existing in the entire world.

  “I love you,” I say without any hesitation. “You’re it for me.”

  MJ stops wiping me down long enough to smile softly. “I love you too, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life making you happy.”

  I caress her cheek, wondering why her promise holds a hint of panic. MJ pulls off my sweaty shirt and tosses it into a drawer.

  “I stick my dirty clothes there,” she explains before running the washcloth under the sink’s water.

  “Are you nervous?” I ask as she returns to the couch.

  “About you?”

  Flinching at the cold cloth on my hot skin, I mumble, “No, about being out of the hospital.”

  “No.”

  “I notice you flinch at every noise coming from outside. Plus, you’ve checked the door lock twice.”

  MJ doesn’t meet my gaze. “The shooter is walking around, doing whatever he wants. So maybe he wants to come here and shoot me again. Last time, I did nothing to stop him.”

  MJ’s tears come hard and fast, but she doesn’t want a hug. I have to wrestle with her good arm before she finally relents long enough for me to cuddle with her.

  “Your father and the club will find him,” I say once she pushes me away again.

  “I should have shot better,” she whines through her tears. “I practiced with Pop all those years, and I never goofed off during practice, but I still fucked up. That man is out there, and wants to kill me. I deserve to die for fucking up, but Mom and Pop and you will suffer too and that’s not fair. What about Audrey and her belly? I messed up and now she’s stressed and that’s not good for the baby.”

  “Listen to me,” I say as my fingers search for her under her hair. Once I find her jaw, I force her face upward until her teary eyes focus on me. “You know what I think? That guy put a lot of effort into getting you alone because he knew he couldn’t take you on when you had support. No way is that asshole hiding in the woods right now. He’d be afraid of the dogs. Afraid of your family. Afraid of you getting off a better shot. He had his chance to ambush you, and he fucked up, not you. He had the upper hand, not you.”

  “I wish I killed him.”

  “I know, but he’ll be dead soon. What’s important is that you stayed alive. If you had been anyone else, he would have killed you. Do you see that, MJ?”

  “No, I should have done better,” she stubbornly mutters.

  “The only thing I care about is that you kept yourself alive. I don’t give a shit about him. I only care about you.”

  MJ wipes her cheeks and sighs. “My arm is hurting. How much pain should I accept before taking a pill? I don’t want to get addicted or be buzzed all day.”

  “Break the pill in half and take it. If you still feel too much pain in an hour, take the other half.”

  “You make everything sound so simple,” she says and gives me a smile. “I don’t normally cry, and I’m rarely scared. I grew up happy, and Ellsberg is my home. I never feared the people around here, even the losers that scared other people. Now I’m afraid of walking outside the trailer, and I don’t think I can make myself leave here and go to the house. There’re too many places the shooter could hide, and I can’t chance him getting me.”

  “I’ll keep you safe,” I say, taking the washcloth from her and wiping her flushed cheeks.

  “He’ll kill you.”

  Smirking, I shake my head. “The fucker is no doubt pissing his pants right now. A guy like that can’t kill me.”

  “You think he’s weak because he couldn’t kill an idiot like me,” she growls and pushes away my hand.

  “Starting a fight with me won’t make you feel better.”

  MJ struggles against a smile. “It might.”

  “I don’t fight fair.”

  “Neither do I.”

  “I think you probably fight fairer than I do.”

  “No, I cry and scream and punch crotches.”

  “I do that all plus vomiting and explosive shitting.”

  Laughing, MJ wiggles closer on the couch. “I don’t want to fight with you, and not just because your shit is like dynamite.”

  I wrap an arm around her shoulders and lightly caress the bandage on her arm. “This is a nice little camper you’ve got.”

  “It’s too small for the both of us, isn’t it?”

  “It’s not bad.”

  “It’ll go wherever you want. If you need to go to Shasta, I can go too,” she says with complete honesty.

  “You don’t want to go to Shasta.”

  “Who would? It’s awful and smells, but I want to be where you are. Besides, Go-Go and his crew aren’t so bad.”

  “You can’t remember who any of them are.”

  “I can’t remember most of the crew in Pema or Conroe either. They’re all beards and B.O. to me.”

  Chuckling, I kiss her head as she relaxes against me. “I’ll never need to worry about you getting a wandering eye around my club brothers.”

  “No, I’m not the cheating sort.”

  “Neither am I.”

  “Think we can manage to grow old together?”

  “That’s a given.”

  MJ sits up, and a smile warms her face. “I’m going to take a half a pill. If I get weird or buzzed, it’s your job to keep me safe.”

  “I got your back.”

  Studying me with her achingly dark eyes, MJ makes me feel as small as a child begging for their parents’ love. Her widening grin, though, pumps me up to the size of a fucking giant.

  THE ODDBALL

  After cooling down Quaid with the washcloth, I heat him back up by climbing on his lap. He insists I take a pill before we get frisky since every movement makes me flinch. Half a painkiller later, I’m grinding my hips against his.

  “You’re so hard,” I murmur as my free hand wraps around the back of his neck. “There’s something really rewarding about knowing I’ve created such a positive reaction.”

  “Good thing you locked the door.”

  I press his hand against Pineapple and arch my back as soon as his fingers tease my always hard nipple. I unbuckle his pants, searching for the erection I feel through his pants.

  Fortunately, my hand never wraps around it. The knock at the door pisses me off so much that my fingers immediately curl into a fist.

  “Rando, dinner’s almost ready,” Lily says before correcting herself. “MJ, dinner’s almost ready.”

  “Be there in a minute,” I say and again tug at Quaid’s army green boxers.

  Quaid nibbles at my breast through my shirt. We’re on the same page about continuing our fun until at least one of us gets off.

  “Did you tell her?” Pop yells at Lily who yells “yes” very loudly despite him clearly walking toward her and the RV.

  “For the first time in my life, I wish I was an orphan,” I mutter, climbing off Quaid’s lap and roughly rubbing my crotch to force it to behave.

  “Later,” Quaid says, standing up casually as if his pants aren’t filled wi
th hard cock. “We have a lifetime of later to finish what we started here.”

  “You just want fried chicken,” I taunt, having heard his stomach growling prior to his dick taking over the party.

  “Well, if I can’t get laid, the fried chicken will have to do.”

  Grinning, I reach for the handle only to almost immediately pull my hand away. Quaid squeezes past me and opens the door. Lily stands nearby, reading her phone. She looks startled once Quaid steps out. If I weren’t panicking at leaving the safety of my RV, I might steal her phone and see what she’s up to.

  “Give me your hand,” Quaid says, standing outside and waiting for me.

  “No.”

  “I need a shirt.”

  “No,” I say quickly, preferring him shirtless.

  Quaid struts to his bag of supplies and reveals a white T-shirt. Despite my telling him “no” again, he decides to dress. I suspect he just doesn’t want to deal with my arriving pop.

  “Dinner’s nearly ready, and your aunt and uncle are on their way over,” Pop tells me while very obviously ignoring Quaid.

  I don’t move from the doorway. My gaze scans the lush woods surrounding the property. So many places for a shooter to hide.

  “Before you come out,” Quaid says as if unaware of my hesitation, “get your pain meds, just in case. Antibiotics too. That way, we won’t need to deal with the heat by coming back here for a few hours.”

  Pop clearly approves of the idea of me staying in the house for the rest of the day. I don’t know if I support his support. I just do as I’m told because I’m too nervous to put up a fight. Once I get my meds and return to the doorway, I freeze again.

  Quaid shoves my pill bottles into the deep pockets of his camo pants. Then he wraps his sweaty hand around my trembling one before tugging me down the final step onto the gravel driveway.

  “Your mom is waiting,” he says softly.

  Grabbing Pop, I turn him into a shield. “You walk ahead of me.”

  “Sounds good,” Pop says, unafraid of the shooter taking aim at him.

  “Don’t die,” I tell him, now certain we should all hide in the RV.

  “I’ll die when I’m ninety in bed with your mom.”

  “Lucky her,” I say, and Quaid laughs.

  Pop shoots him a dirty look as we reach the porch. I hurry him through the front door and hide behind the coat rack.

  “This needs to stop,” I say, enjoying the house’s air-conditioning.

  Pop growls, “The asshole will be dead soon.”

  “No, I mean your ridiculous hostility toward Quaid.”

  “Not now.”

  “Listen to me,” I say, pressing my still shaking hand against his chest, “your behavior makes you look weak, and you’re not a weak man. Rather than upset, you should be happy I found someone who loves me for me.”

  “MJ,” Pop says, ready to blow me off.

  “No, Pop, this is amazing. Can’t you see? Quaid is a retired soldier, and you love America. Go red, white, and blue. Plus, he’s a Reapers, so we don’t have to hide things like with Lily’s dentist. And Quaid’s tall, which is important since I’m tall like you and Aunt Tawny rather than short like Mom and Audrey. Mom is short, you know?” I say, feeling a little fuzzy headed. “I found someone special, and he could have run away when I was gross looking at the hospital. Or when I didn’t wear deodorant at the hospital. Or just run away, but he loves me, and that’s amazing. Don’t you think it’s amazing how amazing love can be, Pop?”

  My father frowns at Quaid who wears a grin. Noticing Pop’s glare, he shrugs. “I suspect the pain pill has officially kicked in.”

  “And isn’t that amazing?” I ask Quaid and hug him. “The world is so amazing.”

  “Go sit on the couch,” Pop mutters.

  “There are too many windows in the living room. I’ll hide out in the downstairs bathroom,” I say even as I walk to the couch and sit down.

  “How are you feeling?” Mom asks from the kitchen. “The chicken is nearly done.”

  “I should have been a vegetarian like Lily. Animals need love, and I love them, but I always eat them, and eating them isn’t love. It’s not special at all, but I do it, and Lily doesn’t, and she doesn’t even like animals, but she doesn’t eat them.”

  “I’m not doing that anymore,” my sister announces, clearly unfazed by my babble. “Someone offered me a double wide from Chubby Joe’s, and I couldn’t keep my mitts off it. There’s no changing a tiger’s stripes.”

  “What?” I ask, confused by her quick words.

  “I’m a carnivore, and a vegetarian lifestyle won’t cut the mustard.”

  “You shouldn’t stand near the windows,” I respond, having no idea what the hell she’s talking about anymore.

  Audrey walks past me and sits in a chair her giant man is already occupying. Her baby bump looks bigger than I remember, but I also think she probably changed her shirt. The clingier one shows off her angry belly button pushing through the fabric.

  “Weird,” I mumble.

  “The shooter might be dead,” Cas says while holding Audrey as if she’s his baby. “Bled out from the gunshot wound.”

  “There wasn’t much blood on the road,” Pop says from his spot in the kitchen with Mom.

  “Doesn’t matter. I knew a guy who got stabbed in the side. He didn’t lose much blood. Didn’t seem too serious, so he got the wound stitched up by a friend and downed a few painkillers. Woke up the next day on death’s door. The blade sliced something important inside, and it had been leaking into his gut. He was dead before they got him to the hospital.”

  “Is that true?” I ask, never trusting the Hayes people because they’re giants and overly fond of moonshine.

  “Wouldn’t lie about something affecting family.”

  “You know what, I really appreciate you telling me that, Cap,” I say, emphasizing his preferred name.

  Audrey and her man share an approving smile. Unfortunately, I’m already having second thoughts about my kind gesture.

  “No, I just can’t call you that. I’m sorry,” I admit, holding onto Quaid’s knee for some reason. “I know you want to be Cap, but Cas makes more sense for someone named Casper. Your mom made a mistake.”

  “She was probably drunk,” Colton suggests while entering the room. Immediately, Cas shoots a glare in my brother’s direction.

  “No, no, I should call you what you want to be called,” I mumble, changing my mind again. “You did right by me, and you love my sister, and we never really thought anyone would.”

  “Thanks,” Audrey grumbles.

  “You were a little bit of a temperamental bitch before you met him,” I say, measuring out a few centimeters with my thumb and index finger.

  “That was last year!”

  “Yeah, and look at how much you’ve grown,” I say and then add, “Both in spirit and width.”

  “You’re making me sad.”

  “No.”

  Audrey gives me a grumpy glare. “I could be sad.”

  “No.”

  “Well, whatever.”

  “That sounds about right,” I say and rest against Quaid. “I like your story, Cap. I hope the guy who shot me is dead and starting to stink.”

  “Your dreams are small,” Colton says. “That’s why they’ll come true.”

  “Don’t stand near the window,” I grumble.

  “He’s not out there.”

  “You don’t know.”

  “Didn’t you hear Audrey’s man’s story?”

  “Cap’s story is just a story. He doesn’t know.”

  Colton very deliberately stretches in front of the back windows, just to mess with me.

  “Stop making your sister tense,” Pop growls at my brother.

  “Sorry,” Colton says while continuing to stretch.

  Before Pop can growl more, the front door opens, and Aunt Tawny calls out, “We’re gone for less than two weeks, and Rando manages to get a boyfriend and shot in the arm
. I swear you people fall apart without us.”

  Tawny and Uncle Judd stroll into the room, scan our faces, do a few head nods, and finally focus on me.

  “How are you feeling?” Tawny asks, kneeling in front of me. “You look stoned.”

  “I don’t know what anything means.”

  “You were shot in the arm, right?” Judd asks. “Or was your head injured again?”

  “Jackass,” Pop growls from the kitchen.

  As if just noticing his boss man, Judd smirks and strolls toward Pop. I ignore the men’s dick-measuring efforts. Instead, I focus on my aunt.

  “You are taller than Mom.”

  “Yeah. You’re tall too, baby,” she says, patting my face while grinning at Quaid. “You sly sonovabitch,” she murmurs.

  “I came. I saw. I conquered,” Quaid replies and pats my hand fondling his leg. “She’s a keeper.”

  “I have a hole in my arm,” I tell Tawny while flipping her hair around. “You’re sweaty and smell like summer. Go away.” When my aunt tries to stand, I grab her arm. “Don’t leave me.”

  “Pain meds will fuck you up,” she says, sitting next to me. “Where did you two meet?”

  “No,” I say since I vaguely remember I lied about how I met Quaid. Right now, though, I can’t even recall the true version. Was it at a picnic? That’s right. We met in Shasta when he let me feed his pet geese. Yes, that’s the answer.

  THE OUTSIDER

  Apparently, half of a pain pill is all MJ requires to slide into a babbling stupor before dozing off on the couch. The fried chicken will need to wait.

  Her head rests against my shoulder with her face covered by her thick hair. I caress her hand still placed on my thigh. Sure, my behavior likely pisses off Cooper, but the man can’t be reasoned with. He hasn’t even mellowed out since MJ’s amazing speech on amazing love.

  “So you two are an item,” Tawny says, studying me. “I honestly thought you were gay.”

  “Thank you.”