Original Sin (Dark Saints Motorcycle Club Book 1) (8 page)

A woman would have to be blind
not
to want him.

….he'd brought her flowers.

Try as she might, Vicky couldn't keep a surprised smile from coloring her lips. Reaching out slowly, she took the roses from him and brought them to her nose, inhaling deeply. The only person who'd ever brought her flowers had been her father, and she could barely remember the man. “You like roses, right?”

Liam's tentative question made her grin as he slid into the booth across from her. “I do, actually. Lucky guess.”

The man simply smiled winningly, opening his menu. “All girls like roses.”

Vicky arched a brow teasingly. “Are you implying that I'm just like every other girl?”

Almost immediately, he flushed, his face screwing into a look of embarrassment. “Um…no. That's not what I meant. I mean…I was just trying…”

“Calm down, cowboy.” Shaking her head as she chuckled, Vicky laid the flowers to the side with a small curving of her lips. “I'm just kidding.”

Liam breathed a visible sigh of relief. “Of course. Right.”

He was wearing his leather jacket, freshly emblazoned with the patch of the Saints. Everyone in the restaurant knew the patch and looked away from it. “So...” The image brought to mind her brother, who had appeared particularly distraught over an arms deal that had been supposed to go down the previous night. Though Vicky had been gone all night and hadn't managed to get hold of her girlfriend in order to beg an excuse, he hadn't checked on her. Instead, Darren fell straight into bed the moment he'd gotten back to his apartment. She knew because she'd waited up for him, worried for him. Though others might question his sanity and ruthlessness, he was still her brother. She still loved him, and she knew there was a part of him, somewhere deep down, that still loved her. “How did the deal last night go?”

Liam immediately sobered. Quite honestly, Vicky hated using him for information on the Saints ventures, but Darren never said a word. Instead of learning about them through the news, Liam had become an invaluable window into her brother's world. It seemed no less dangerous than Darren consistently warned her it was.

“Shmitty got taken out.” As he took the beer he'd ordered for himself and the herbal tea for her from the tray the waitress offered, he shook his head in frustration. “Bastard thought he'd get buck and hide a crate of AKs. Literally put all of our asses at risk. If it hadn't been for Darren…” He trailed off, his green eyes hesitant as he gazed across the table at her.

Scowling, Vicky set her tea aside, her own eyes hardening. “You know better than to sugar coat it, Liam. Give it to me straight. I can take it.” Ever since she'd begun asking him to report her brother's actions to her, he seemed to be struggling with his loyalties. She could understand. If Darren ever found him out, he would gut him. However had no intentions of telling Darren a thing.

It wouldn't make what she had to hear next any easier.

“Darren…he blew the top of his fucking head off when he was told what Shmitty’d done. In front of the dealer to prove that there was no ill will, and that he didn't book any traitors, he took him out in cold blood. It was brutal.”

As she pictured the scenario in her head, Vicky's stomach churned. She'd heard how quickly Darren was willing to gun down those who double-crossed him; but, after hearing of several situations from Liam, it only made her wonder increasingly about her brother's stability. Certainly, Shmitty had pulled a dumb-ass stunt, taking the guns and assuming his boss would just be down for it—but gunning down your own brother?

That was cold.

“I knew I should have kept quiet.”

At Liam's words, Vicky fixed her face into a neutral expression and picked up her own menu. “Like hell you will. You say that every time.”

“Yeah, probably because I know you don't like what you hear.”

“I need to hear it.” Vicky's menu fell back to the table with a snap, her gray eyes livid. “If Darren's not going to tell me what's going on, I'm not going to be fucking ignorant. I
need
you to tell me, Liam.” Her face softened slightly as she remembered better days with Darren. They may have been poorer, living on the streets and destitute; but, at least he hadn't been losing his mind. It was one thing to be a member of one of LA's most infamous motorcycle gangs. It was quite another to be at its head, faced with all the pressures of wheeling, dealing, and intimidating the hell out of people.

While Darren had always been a serious, brooding person, the Dark Saints had brought out something frightening in him. Something cold, unpredictable, and unstable.

“Oh...
fuck
.”

Vicky was jerked back to the present when Liam's low curse reached her ears. He was glancing toward the front of the restaurant which—while in an upscale neighborhood—was frequented by people from all walks of life.

Including rival gangs.

The three men that entered the establishment now were all fairly lanky—though one was far taller than the other two. This man caught sight of Liam the moment he walked in and immediately made a beeline for their table. When she realized that all the men wore leather vests emblazoned with the Black Eagles logo, she shrank back slightly against the booth. She didn't overtly expect the men to do anything in so public a place, but the Black Eagles were one of the Dark Saints' biggest rivals, and they certainly knew her face.

Currently, they weren’t looking for her.

Once the men reached their table, they only had eyes for Liam.

“Beck. We heard you'd crawled out from under a rock somewhere.”

Across from her, her lover bristled. His eyes flickered to hers briefly and, instantly, she knew that she was about to be privy to something she shouldn't.

Vicky and Liam might have been fucking for a few weeks, but she still knew relatively little about the man. He could spout sarcasm and witticisms all day long, but when it came to talking about himself, he fell a little short. For this, the young woman didn't particularly blame him. Everyone had their little skeletons.

However, if Liam's skeletons were dangerous enough to include the Black Eagles, she would feel perfectly justified in demanding an explanation from him later.

“So this is where you've been hiding.” The man who spoke had brilliant gray eyes and unkempt black hair held back from his sharp face with a bandana. In fact, the he seemed to be entirely angles, from the sharp jut of his collarbone exposed by the leather vest he wore to his pointy elbows and skinny arms. Though most people might have thought he didn't have the capacity to hurt a fly, Vicky knew better. Men like him, with lean strength and mean eyes, they were the ones you had to watch out for. Her brother might verbally abuse her, but this man would beat her to within an inch of her life if he got the opportunity.

As much as Darren might try to protect her from it, she had snuck downtown to the headquarters enough to see certain acts of violence performed once or twice. It seemed as if men like this one were always the perpetrators. “You know the last time we saw you,” his voice was low, silky and dangerous, “I warned you we were going to bury you deep.”

“Try it.” Liam's voice had its own edge. “You'll see backlash from the Saints before you're tucked into bed tonight, Reggie.”

“Oh, that's right, I forgot. You've ponied up with another crew for protection. The only way you could show your face without me and my boys breaking it.”

“If you think the reason I left the Eagles is because I'm afraid of you, you're welcome to stay in your little fantasy world.”

At the insult, Reggie bristled, and the men flanking him on either side cracked their knuckles menacingly. Meanwhile, nervous patrons of the restaurant called for their bills as discreetly as they could, desperate to escape what they were sure was going to escalate into an all out brawl.

Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.

“Keep talking, Beck. You'll talk yourself right into your grave.”

“Excuse me.” At that minute, Vicky saw fit to interject. She already had enough to deal with without these clowns. Atop that, she was starving. She was not leaving until she got some food and damn these thugs. “I'm pretty sure Liam isn't looking for a fight right now. So, if you could please wait until a more opportune time, I'd appreciate it.”

Reggie's gaze jerked to her, and beneath the cold cruelty of it, she repressed a shudder. However, he only broke into an eerie smile. “Ah, Victoria Platt. Fancy meeting you here.” He looked from her to Liam and back again, his expression wry. “I take it that douchebag Darren is completely and totally oblivious to the little situation going on here. Unless, of course, he's getting a piece of that ass, too.” He smirked as his eyes flickered to Liam, and the man's face reddened at the implication.

Before he could say anything averse, Vicky spoke again, her tone cool and controlled. “Reggie, is it? We've never had the pleasure of personally meeting, but I've heard a lot about you. Big Bad Eagles front man, always rolling three deep to protect his own hide. I get it. You need a pretty scary rep to compete with my brother.” Her eyes narrowed in sudden distaste. “But you need to understand that language like that will get your ass in trouble. The last time I checked, the Saints had enough fire and manpower to wipe your pathetic little organization from the face of the earth. Do you really want to call the man with the trigger-finger a
douchebag
?”

Almost immediately, Reggie scowled, his eyes lighting in anger. When he next spoke, his voice was lowered below the hum of the remaining restaurant customers. It was for Vicky and Liam's ears only. “Alright, honey. You want to talk threats? Let's talk.” His lip curled in smug enjoyment. “How about I send a little birdy to Darren to let him know that one of his boys is fuckin' his little china doll? How would you feel about that?”

Vicky sucked in a sharp breath, making the man's smile turn into something almost predatory. He was like an enraged shark with a mouth full of teeth just waiting to clamp down into an artery and draw blood.

Their blood.

“Bullshit, Reggie.” At Liam's sudden interjection, Vicky's gaze jerked to him in surprise. What’s bullshit? They'd been caught red handed with three witnesses. If Reggie wanted to, he could technically give Darren the entire breakdown of the encounter—from the flowers on the table to the lust filled looks she and Liam had been shooting one another. “You don't have the balls.”

“Don't I?” The gray-eyed man's voice was a low hiss.

“No,” Liam returned flatly, his mouth a thin line of skepticism. “You telling Darren anything means that you'll have to confront him face-to-face. You, the vice-president of one of our greatest rival organizations, waltzing into the Dark Saints' compound on a good will mission? No one will believe it, and you don't care shit to improve relations with us. You just want me. If that's the way it goes, let's take this outside. You can beat me to a pulp—if you can even touch me, that is—and the Saints will be on you within the hour. You can weasel your skinny little ass on downtown to try and see Darren, but I guarantee you'll get a bullet in your gut for your troubles. That's what happens when people sow bullshit like you do, Reggie.”

For a moment, the skinny man appeared on the cusp of physical violence. He raised his hand, and Vicky was sure that he meant to take down anything breakable on the table before them. But then, he merely stopped, his face contorted like a laughing hyena's. However, his smile, held no mirth.

“You'd better watch yourself, Beck.” His gaze met Liam's, and its intensity made Vicky’s heart race. He was plotting something—that much was obvious. She'd never heard of a Black Eagle giving up without a fight. “You might think your new little playmates have your back, but I'll be watching you every step of the way. The moment you slip up, I'll be there to collect my garbage.”

With that, the man turned on his heel, jerking his head for his companions. They almost immediately fell into step behind him with additional murderous looks in the couple's direction. When they finally left the restaurant, Vicky breathed a long sigh of relief.