Priest: A Motorcycle Club Romance (The Viking’s Rampage MC: Tucson Chapter Book 2)

My curiosity was killing me as Priest led me into a room where the officers of the club, and Seek were waiting. I really wanted to know what he was going to tell me before we were interrupted. I’d fallen asleep every night for almost six months wondering why he’d suddenly pulled away. As much as I wanted to know, I was sort of afraid, too. If he told me something like I was too plain Jane to be an old lady it would break my heart.

Then Caitlyn had interrupted and now I had even more questions. Who was she? Why was she here? It was obvious she wasn’t speaking to anyone since she hadn’t uttered a single word, but she’d looked at Priest with such trust and hero worship it was hard not to see she felt safe with him. That made me slip a little further down that cliff I was teetering on.

Trying to find my balance around Priest was damn near impossible. One wrong move around him and I was going to tumble head over heels in love with him and that would be a death sentence to my heart and most likely my ego. He’d told me he planned to finish telling me what’d happened months ago when he broke it off, but that didn’t mean that he wanted me. I couldn’t allow myself to get my hopes up, it was just too dangerous. I needed to guard my heart around the man or I’d lose it and never get it back.

“What the hell took you so long?” Priest’s vice president asked, glaring at him.

A muscle flexed in Priest’s jaw and the sudden urge to lean up on my tiptoes and scrape my teeth over it nearly overwhelmed me. This was why he was so dangerous. He made me feel and act in ways that weren’t typical of me. I wasn’t a virgin, but I didn’t have what anyone would call a lot of experience with men. They tended to go for the lithe beautiful women and that wasn’t a descriptor anyone would use for me.

I’d had one boyfriend after high school and though we’d parted ways after a year, we’d done so on friendly terms. All the other men in my life had just been friends.

“Sorry, Rip. Lock.” Priest nodded at his president.

Lockout was sitting there with a bemused look on his face as he watched Priest and me move together to sit down. I’d only met him once, but Priest had told me quite a bit about some of his MC brothers, so it sort of felt like I knew them even though I doubted they knew a thing about me. Lockout was sort of intimidating. Which was funny to think, because Priest was the one who towered over everyone—except the man from earlier, Hellfire—and had a perpetually pissed off look on his face most of the time.

“You get everything resolved?” Lockout asked with an arched brow.

Before Priest could answer, Butcher opened the door and motioned for Lockout. Thank God, because I didn’t exactly want to hash out what Priest and I had—and hadn’t—spoken about upstairs in front of everyone. Although with how impatient everyone was looking, I doubt they cared about the details.

“Be back in a minute,” Lockout said, standing and following Butcher outside.

My hands were in my lap, twisting together as I fought not to bounce my leg. It was a nervous habit. A strong hand clamped down over my knee and squeezed. I glanced over at Priest and smiled. He knew I was fighting the urge and that was his way of helping.

We’d been bordering on dating before he’d ended things so we were left now in that awkward in-between stage of things where we didn’t know every deep-seated fear, hope, and dream, but we knew just enough to have our own inside jokes. And feelings of longing. Did I mention those? Because they were persistently tapping me on the shoulder right now, as though to remind me they existed. As if I could forget, especially with his giant hand gripping my leg. I could feel a heat building, starting from my thigh and working its way upward to pool between them.

I wanted him to take me in his arms and kiss me. To tell me he’d made a mistake and he wanted me to belong to him. Stupid. It was dumb of me to want that so badly since he had essentially broken up with me, but I did.

Lockout came back in the room and all the quiet conversations the others had been having stopped. Everyone focused on him as he sat at the head of the table. His hazel eyes focused on me as he began. He explained about Seek being Search and Rescue—which I thought was so cool and I couldn’t wait to pick her brain about that later—and what had been happening out in The Silverbells. He went on to explain how they’d found Caitlyn.

I couldn’t contain the gasp that slipped past my lips when he said that they’d found her crouched over her mother’s dead body while the men who’d kidnapped them and killed Sherry dug a grave for her out in the desert. My hand covered my mouth to keep any more outbursts contained. I adored children. I wanted a whole brood of them someday—put these child-rearing hips to use—but until that day, I settled for working with them.

Working for CPS was oftentimes heart wrenching, but when I was able to help even just one child in need it made all the troubling cases worth it. It was also how I’d met my friends and the MC over in Texas. One of their old ladies—Julie—ended up working for us for college credits.

“Is that why she’s not talking?” I asked, my eyes straying over to Priest.

He had a grim look on his face as he nodded. “I took her to a local therapist, she said all we could do was wait for Caitlyn to feel safe enough to talk to one of us. Caitlyn’s been seeing her a few times a week.”

I reached over and covered his hand with mine. His skin was warm and it eased something within me even though I’d been trying to comfort him. There was worry in his eyes and I wanted to erase it. He flipped his hand over and squeezed mine, his long fingers entangling with my fingers. The silence around us sank in and embarrassment rushed over me as I realized everyone was staring at us. Most of the guys wore amused expressions—I didn’t even want to contemplate why—and Seek was looking at us with hearts in her eyes.

Priest’s hand clamped down on mine as I tried to pull away. He snared it and kept holding it while the conversation started up again. I shot him a glare, but eventually had to ignore him, so I could focus on what the others were saying.

“We contacted Caitlyn’s Aunt Sharon, but she lives on the East Coast and is disabled. She said she can’t take care of her niece. Aside from her, the girl has no other family, other than her father,” Hush told me.

“Who we suspect is a part of this whole thing,” Riptide finished for him.

“Why?” I asked.

“According to the sister, Sherry was on the run from her husband. She had an elaborate plan to check in with her sister daily in case he found her and Caitlyn,” Priest answered.

“You don’t take precautions like that if the guy’s not a dirtbag.” The guy who spoke looked a lot younger than all the other men sitting around the table. I’d guess close to my own age of twenty-six, maybe a few years younger even. I frowned, reading his name patch. His name was Ricochet. Priest had explained to me once that each ranking member of the MC was retired or ex-military. There were older guys like Priest and Hush, but some of the others looked too young to be retired. Ricochet’s dark blonde hair and bright blue eyes made him look even younger. Or maybe it was the sorrow that lurked in his eyes. It made me wonder what his story was.

“So you’re looking into the father?” I asked.

“Yeah, and we’re going to find out what’s really going on out in The Silverbells,” Seek said, eyes glinting with determination.

“Well, I’ll be happy to help,” I said, perking up a little. Maybe helping them with this would get my mind off losing Grams.

“No way,” Priest growled next to me.

I looked over at him in shock and disappointment. Was he so adamant about getting me out of his life that he was going to reject my help with something the MC had asked me to come in on?

His eyes narrowed as he searched my face. He must have seen the confusion because he explained. “We didn’t ask you here to put you in danger, Jenny. I don’t want you anywhere near The Silverbells.”

“Seek is helping,” I pointed out.

“She was the one who brought it to our attention and we needed her dogs to help find Sherry and Caitlyn,” Hush clarified. He shot Seek a warning glare. “But now she’s not gettin’ involved in this mess.”

“What!” Seek snapped, glaring at Hush.

I winced since I’d just inadvertently started that fight for my new friend. Serves him right for cutting her out though.

“I was the one who started this whole thing, Hush. I brought you in. You’re not cutting me out now.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her boyfriend.

Lockout cleared his throat and everyone looked at him. “This isn’t up for debate, Seek. You asked the MC for help and we agreed. We’re going to take care of this, but we’re not putting either of you in harm’s way while we figure it out.”

We could all but hear her grinding her teeth in irritation. I didn’t blame her, there were things we could help with…probably. I tried to stamp down my own aggravation. “So what do you need me for then?” It came out far more aggressive than I meant. Priest squeezed my hand hard, warning me to watch my attitude.

I gave Lockout an apologetic smile. This was their club, their world. They were asking me for a favor, but I had no authority here. No woman did, it was their organization to run as they chose.

“We were hoping you could help us with Caitlyn,” he answered, ignoring my surliness from before.

“I want to adopt her,” Priest told me.

My jaw dropped so far it almost hit the table. “Adopt her? What makes you think that CPS is going to let a young, unmarried guy like you, with no kids, adopt a child?” I wasn’t asking to be mean; it was just unlikely. Usually they wanted these kids to go to families with both a mother and father present and usually other children when possible. A safe, steady home.

“That’s why Hush called you,” he said, biting back his irritation at my questions. Though his restraint said that he already knew that those were problems.

“He makes the most sense out of all of us,” Riptide said with a shrug.

My gaze flicked back to Priest as I tried to figure out why he would be best suited to adopt a child. I mean out of all these—mostly single—men I guess he’d do as well as any.

“I don’t-”

“He’s one of the few of us with kids around her age,” said a voice from behind me, cutting me off.

I hadn’t realized Butcher had snuck back into the room. There was another man standing next to him that I didn’t recognize. A look at his cut told me his name was Toxic. He looked very much like all the rest. Older, dark hair, gorgeous, and danger emanating from every pore of his being.

Kids around Caitlyn’s age.

My eyes widened in shock as Butcher’s words penetrated my surprise and my heart sank. Toxic shook his head then smacked Butcher upside the head.

“What the fuck,” Butcher snarled at him.

“You deserve that and I saved you from Priest doing worse,” Toxic told him, then went to take his seat.

Butcher rubbed his head and shot us a baleful look. “How was I supposed to know he hadn’t told her about his kids?”

“You have children?” I asked Priest in a strangled tone. The realization was just sinking in that I hadn’t known him as well as I thought I had. Months of ‘getting to know each other’ had almost culminated in us dating and he hadn’t told me anything important about himself. It made me remember back to when I’d been telling him about myself and he’d obviously been holding back from really letting me get to know him. Hurt settled over me.

Priest sighed. “I was going to tell you. I just…” He broke off and shot a glare at Butcher before meeting my gaze again. “We’ll talk about this later.”

“No need,” I snapped, yanking my hand from his. “It’s none of my business.” My heart cracked down the center once again. This man was already responsible for more bruising on the organ than I should have allowed.

Hush muttered a curse under his breath and gave Butcher his own dark look, though I wasn’t sure why he was mad at the man. This was Priest’s fault, not Butcher’s.

“Look, Jenny. We need your help makin’ sure that Caitlyn stays with us. If she goes into foster care she’ll be in danger. If what we suspect about her father is true and he gets to her, she’s as good as dead,” Hush explained.

“Have you reported this to CPS yet?” They all gave me stares that said I was crazy. “Right. Of course not. Okay. I was on leave, but I’ll let them know I’m coming back to work tomorrow.” I looked at Priest. “We’ll set up a time for you to bring her in after I have a chance to start a file on her and notify my bosses. I’ll figure out a way to make sure I end up as her permanent case manager. That gives me time to start thinking the rest of this through.”

When I’d gone to Texas I’d been an assistant to one of their most prominent case managers. Too bad he’d been a dirty, evil bastard who had almost cost the lives of two of the Austin Chapter’s babies and my friend and co-worker Julie. After he disappeared—much to the shock of the agency—they’d promoted me.

“Great. Thank you, Jenny,” Lockout told me. He glanced over at Priest, then Hush. “I’ll leave it up to you two to explain to your women further that when it suits the club to have them help we’re grateful, but otherwise this is our business.”

My eyes narrowed, but I didn’t bother to say anything else. I understood, even if I didn’t like being left out. Who was I kidding? I wasn’t even an old lady, just a friend they’d asked for help with a little girl who’d found herself homeless. Clearly Lockout was confused in thinking I was Priest’s ‘woman’.

Seek had more cause to be angry than me and if the scowl on her face was any indication, she was furious. She too kept her mouth shut, but that could be because Hush had his hand wrapped around the nape of her neck. He was silently telling her not to speak, though none of us missed the gesture. Judging by the look on her face, she was going to be having words with him once they were alone. I didn’t envy Hush at that moment.

Lockout stood up and leaned over the table, catching my gaze. “Seriously. We appreciate the favor, we’ll owe you one. If you ever need any help in the future, anything, we’re here for you.”

“Thank you.” I meant it. It was kind of nice knowing that if I had any trouble I could come to this powerful group of men with my problems and it would be handled. That’s exactly what he meant too, any trouble, of any kind, they would be there.

The meeting room cleared out quickly and despite her rage, Seek stopped to give me a hug goodbye. “We need to get together one of these days. Get lunch.”

“I’d love that,” I told her with a happy grin.

Soon it was just Priest and I left and I turned toward him. “Well, I’ll get out of your hair now.”

“Jenny, wait-”

I didn’t bother. The hurt was churning in my chest. He hadn’t told me he had kids. I could understand not wanting me to meet them until we were official, but to not even tell me something as important as that? In all the time we’d been talking? What else hadn’t he told me? Clearly a lot.

The fact that we’d lived states away should have made it easy for him to tell me something like that. It wasn’t like I could pop over, unannounced, to meet his kids. It was the reason we hadn’t started a relationship sooner and had only barely begun talking about one by the time he sent that text. I walked out of the room and through the clubhouse’s lounging area, where the bar was.

His arm wrapped around my waist just as I reached the door, yanking me back against a hard chest. “You’re not leaving until I explain.” He must have jogged to keep up with me, because I’d gotten a head start on him and had practically bolted out of the building.

Who are you kidding, with those stumpy little legs compared to his? He might have only walked.

“There’s nothing to explain, Priest,” I said, spinning in his hold. As soon as I faced him, I shoved his chest as hard as I could.

He let his arms drop to his sides, but not because I’d pushed him. I had no hope of breaking his hold. He was too strong. He let me go because I wanted him to.

“I’ll see you in a few days.” With that I ran out the door. I couldn’t bear to look back at him. I was too angry and hurt to deal with him right now. Too raw from my recent loss to be able to sort through what I was feeling.