Break Me Open (Desert Wraiths MC) Read online

  And then on the last bike - a loan from Denise - sat Katie. A doll on a war stallion. She'd insisted on her own ride and I couldn't deny it. She was here because she had to be. That didn’t mean she wanted to be a liability.

  We roared off in a plume of sand and dust, with Nico and a dozen others outside watching fists pumped up in solidarity. I'd requested a small operation, but as they left the rearview, I couldn't help but feel that we were tasked with doing all the work to save their asses. That was the sort of thing you couldn't say in special ops. Even when you knew you were better than those around you, you did your greater duty because you could, and because it was necessary.

  I didn't have a good fix on Gyro, but word was he was a state over, somewhere in between El Paso and Los Cruces. After hearing about the Cartel connections, it made more sense. Gyro wasn't a big enough deal to be able to hide out in Mexico and come back, but he could at least stay close to backup. I wasn't about to chase him across the border unless I had to. Crossing state lines already made whatever it is we were headed to do a federal matter, if we got caught.

  We burned south through the desert towards Phoenix. Normally, riding was like a meditation for me. Just the wind fighting you down the open road. I didn't feel at ease today. I let Spoke set the pace and flanked our little group, so I could keep an eye on Katie. Soon saw there was no need. She didn't have much wobble in her grip and with the flat earth all around, she kept up with the other two like she'd been born gripping a handlebar. She caught sight of me watching her and she roared on ahead, even beyond Spoke. For a moment I lost track of who was who, with her in the thick black club colors, her hair not that much longer than Trigs. She was fitting in real well.

  It wasn't a comfortable thought on any level.

  The desert started to get broken up by structures, which rose upward bit by bit until we hit the soaring skylines of Phoenix. This city was stranger to me than Kabul. Might have only been 2 hours away from where I grew up, but damned if I came here more than a handful of times.

  We glided off a snaking overpass into a diner for lunch. We snarled down burgers, with the hunger that a good ride will put in you. I sat across the booth from Katie and she twinged at me with a hint of a smile through bites, her hair scattered behind her. I remembered what it was that I saw in her. It was growing stronger with each passing day. She was coming closer and closer to where I stood, not just on a physical level, but with her whole life. That should have been all I wanted in the world, to get a girl that could know me through and through.

  So why did it make me so goddamn uncomfortable? What did it say if I wanted to keep her at arm’s length from this life? She was supposed to give me meaning apart from this world, but now she was becoming my meaning in the club itself.

  The other two were comfortably silent, but their eyes prowled the room, landing on every female face. That was the other hunger a good roaring ride brought out in you. I didn't escape it either. Just the faintest press of Katie's boots under the table had me sweating."

  "Damn, man." Trig said. "We have got to come here more often."

  "Yeah, Gilsner ain't got no talent like here," Spoke said.

  Katie cleared her throat.

  Spoke glanced over lazily. "Heck, I can't see you, girl. You're Mrs. Ghost. That makes you a ghost too."

  "I'm not Mrs. Ghost," she protested.

  "No, she's not," I said. "I'm starting to think she's beyond taming."

  "Good. A wild horse will give you a fine ride." Spoke's smile met my face and dimmed. "I imagine."

  Katie didn't seem much insulted by anything she'd heard. She preened her shoulders across the table so that her breasts thrust out at me. Trig and Spoke were running their mouths off inches away, but my world had collapsed to just me and the girl across from me. Her smile dimmed as she caught sight of what she'd awoken. Her mouth parted, and I could almost taste her hot sweet breath.

  "Hey, move aside," she said to Spoke. "I gotta use the lady's room."

  I guess she wanted me to wait and sneak out, but I was in no such mood. "Yeah, I'll come with you," I said, nearly shoving Trig to get out. I took her by the waist and led her off the bathroom. My hands were already exploring her behind before we tucked into one of the men's stalls. Lucky, there was no one around. Not that it would have mattered.

  I twisted her head around and sculpted my lips around hers. I slammed her against a creaking wall panel and kissed down her neck as I shoved her pants down her legs. Her breathing came at double pace, rough and harsh. The sound had me at full mast, and I had to use both hands to rip my zipper down my pants.

  My member sighted her wetness, and she groaned like the hinges of the wall holding back our weight. When I pressed in, a sharp and sexy yelp blew out her mouth. I covered it quiet with a hand, even as I groaned and rammed deep in and out of her.

  I heard the bathroom door open, and I wouldn't have cared, but it sounded like it could be a kid. I stilled the bloom of pleasure at each plunge inside my girl and fucked her silently into the stall. She began to writhe in my grip and I thought I was holding her too hard, but she began to slam back into me. I could feel her body contort over mine, and as it twisted and bucked in roll after roll of muffled ecstasy, she broke me. I ground my teeth to a flat as I slammed my full load deep inside her. When I was spent we fell back to a seat on the toilet.

  Trig and Spoke were lost deep in their ratings when we came back. Maybe despite us, maybe because of us. Either was fine. They knew what we were.

  We cleared out back onto the road. I swelled in the afterglow of a good ride. The city seemed etched in clear fine lines. The sun glared less and felt more like a warm bath. Katie seemed even more at ease on her chopper and I knew she must feel it too.

  The skyline got cut back down to sand and dirt and mesas, but we passed through a few smaller cities before we finally passed Las Cruces. Katie and I marked each other at a couple more spots we stopped at on the way through. Whatever doubts my brain might have about seeing Katie at ease with my club didn't agree with my body's impression. By the time we finally reached Los Cruces and stopped at a motel, we were spent through and through.

  We took three rooms. Trig and Spoke, I tasked with going to a local neutral-ground biker bar. The Wraiths didn't have much in the way of partnerships outside of Gilsner, but we knew the lay of the land. The Dirt Stop was a place where we could at least get info without being too obvious. All the big clubs stopped by and chance was, some of Gyro's guys would be there too, talking too much. The two were more than happy to go, maybe find a chick or two to bang between them along with getting info.

  I went to the shower to wash off the day. The water dousing me was still not hot when the door opened, and Katie stepped in. Behind the fogged glass of the shower, her body was a white blur. Just the pale of her bare skin. She joined me, and we kissed as the streams darkened her hair and matted it to her. I picked her up and pressed her into the glass, entering her, face to face. I bounced her up and down the glass, buoyed by the sounds of her warbling moans, finally free to be as loud as she wished. Eventually she broke into a scream as she scratched over the clawmarks she had already left in me that day. I let myself shoot in her, and we collapsed together, lying in a pool of water and letting the heat and dribble of the liquid over us keep the haze of our lust going.

  Later, after we had food, she started to go through one of her thick books. Her face was screwed up in concentration. The warm glow of being on the run with her started to fade as I saw her in her element. This was the real girl underneath all the new sand sifted on top.

  I was texting the guys - and the only thing I was learning was that they had found jackshit. The Scorpions had buried themselves deep if they really were around here.

  While I waited for updates, I pulled one of the thick glossy volumes out of the pile she had stacked up next to the bed. Animal physiology. I wasn't a complete failure at classes - couldn't make it into the spec ops if you were. I could probably pick some of this s
tuff up too. I rustled through it and landed on a random page. Most of it was filled with a cutout of some sort of bear's reproductive system and all I could pick up was how funny it looked.

  "Need help studying?" I asked.

  She peeked up and took a long blank look over my bare torso. "I will, but not yet." Her lips curled up a little. "I think I've studied you plenty today."

  "Are you really trying to figure out what they did to me?"

  "Just the basics. I'm sure they cut you up with some genes from some animal. Figuring out which would be a start, I think."

  A start. Which meant she wouldn't be done with me for a long time. I liked the sound of that.

  "Once this is all over, it'll be easier,” I said. “You can talk to an actual professor."

  "Maybe. But I can't exactly tell them about you. Right?"

  "I guess I'd prefer not to let that get out." I rolled up next to her. “I’m just saying that you can go back to this sort of life once we get the FBI out of here."

  "I had a good time today." She set down her book and curled up into me. The scent of her fresh hair almost threatened to send me into a frenzy again, but I liked the feel of her just nuzzled into me too. It was warm in the same way the sex was hot. "I forgot how free you feel with nothing between you and the air and the power between your legs."

  "And the other stuff? When you were the ride instead?"

  "That was new, but pretty awesome too. So I hope things don't go back exactly the way they were." She patted the mark on her neck. "Well, I guess they can't completely."

  "You can get most of that removed. It'd be painful and expensive, but I could help."

  She was silent a long time. Just the buzz of the motel lamp. And then she said, "Oh, I see."

  "See what?"

  "You really don't want me to get too cozy with the Wraiths."

  "No. I mean, there's no reason."

  "Why not? You kept telling me they're like family. Then again you did offer to go to war with them, so maybe I shouldn't have believed that at all."

  Her head lay on my chest like a weight. "I just don't think much good can come of it. Riding is one thing, but the other stuff we do. If you hadn't noticed we're setting out with the idea to do violence. It ain't right for a girl like you."

  "Why's it right for you?"

  I shrugged. I'd asked that thing for years, even back in the army. Hearing the question from someone else's mouth for once wasn't helping me answer it clearer. "It's all I know."

  "Pffft." Katie was laughing. It wasn't quite what I had expected.

  "This funny to you?"

  "It is when you say it like your life is over. God, Bryan, you're a couple years older than me. Yeah, I know you've lived and died a thousand times over, but your body doesn't. It's got a long life ahead. So if what you know isn't all you want to know, then you got plenty of time to learn something else."

  I chuckled. "Now who's giving advice like an old lady?"

  "I never understood to begin with," she said. "You don't do drugs. You said you hated them. Why would you line up with a club that dealt the stuff when you got home?"

  "I don't hate em - just wasn't too keen on laying down my life for some primitive tribal asshole's opium crop."

  I’d told her to story of my discharge back when we were in the motel. She waited as if I had more to say. I found I did. "I mean I know why they grow the stuff. I even get why they killed half my unit. It's the same reason we're fighting to keep the Wraiths out of trouble. It's one of the oldest instincts in man."

  "What is?"

  "Preserve the tribe."

  Katie turned up, so she could look at me. "You're saying the Wraiths are like the Taliban."

  "No," I said, but her eyes would not release me, and I actually had to think. "Well, not exactly. The Taliban give up all their sins in order to go murder sinners. We take on every sin imaginable to get the money to keep on sinning. "

  "So they're better than you."

  "Fuck no. I'm just saying they're all just places for men without a future to find a purpose. Whether it’s one they like or not."

  "So what purpose do you want then?"

  "Protecting you."

  I did love seeing her face light up. It softened quick though. "You like protecting."

  I nodded. "I do."

  "Maybe you should be in the FBI then."

  "I am not working for any government again, particularly the US government."

  Katie shrugged. "So you'll figure something else out. I'm not the only one who deserves to be safe out there."

  I leaned in and pecked her forehead. "For now you are, at least when it comes to me."

  I eased out from under her and began to dress. It was true, there were people who could use me out there. People who deserved to have the best protecting them, though I'd have to fix my broken augments before I could consider myself anything beyond 'above average.' Before all that, I needed to protect the Wraiths, who were, at least, not the worst thing out there.

  "You going to the bar?"

  Katie was shuffling off the bed behind me. I turned and pressed her back down.

  "I am, but you're staying here."

  "I can help." She looked up like a petulant kid. "A girl can pry open loose lips."

  "Oh I'm well aware. But you might pry open a lot more than that. If there really are Scorpions around, they might even recognize you."

  "I want to help with the mission."

  "Don't you get it," I said softly. "You are my mission."

  It didn't earn me a kiss, but she sighed and went back to her books. I finished and went out the door, pausing to look back at her face scrunched under the yellow glow of the lamps. It must have been for longer than I thought, because she spotted me and shot a smile. A real honest one that told me she forgave me.

  That was purpose enough for now.

  I think I wouldn't have been so bold if the research was going anywhere. After a day and a half of poring through tomes of gene sequences and animal morphology though, my head was less swimming with ideas and more drowning under them. Trying to diagnose Ghost was way more difficult than my initial flash of insight had indicated. A dingy motel room with a window I couldn't even risk opening wasn’t really helping my focus.

  Ghost and the others had been out most of the past couple days trying to fish up leads. And while it was kind of nice waiting around for my big man to come home and ravage me like some princess, after day two it was starting to feel more like a grounding.

  "For your own protection," Ghost had said again, when he left this morning. "We can’t risk you being noticed."

  That's what had given me the idea.

  I read at the table, glancing out at anything that sounded like tires squealing into the lot. I flipped aimlessly through my animal physiology book, just scanning the pictures like I was in elementary school. It always seemed to land me on cats and often on the eye structure. That much, I had figured out in Ghost. All nocturnal creatures had an extra layer that allowed them to gather more light at night, at the expense of being reflective. Not really a problem before humans came along, but then we invented fire and the night could be bright again. That’s why cat eyes always appeared to glow in pictures.

  What I couldn't figure out was if the scientists had transferred this sort of structure to Ghost or somehow gotten them to grow them organically with a genetic modification. On top of that, this nocturnal modification should have made fine detail - like say words - hard to see. Since Ghost could read just fine, they must have done some other tinkering on top. Somehow.

  All I knew was that all of it should be medically impossible. If I had access to research papers I could investigate more, but this probably went beyond any unclassified material out there. Several mad geniuses had cobbled him together. I wasn't looking to repeat what they did. I just wanted to tune him up, but even that looked to be a long slog.

  A dozen more pages passed, and I heard the growl. The wolfpack was back. My heart still lea
pt to see Ghost's massive form slip off his ride and head my way. He didn't look particularly energized, which meant another day wasted.

  But this day wasn't over yet.

  I rushed out and met him on the 2nd floor veranda, flying around him in a hug and a kiss. He dragged me up deeper into his mouth by my chin. The flurry of heat nearly melted my thoughts.

  "No luck?" I said, tearing myself away.

  "Not yet."

  "Well, it's ok. Let's go for a walk."

  "I just got back." He sounded weary, but his palm slid along the side of my body.

  "We'll get to that," I said. "I need some sun first."

  He shrugged, but scooped me around the waist and led me back downstairs. Trig and Spoke sat along the curb near the lobby, sucking at lit cigarettes. I would have loved to go on that walk first, maybe let Ghost settle, but I needed those two for support and this was the perfect chance. I steered Ghost their way as if we were going out to the road.

  "I have something to propose," I said.

  "You found out more about what they did?"

  "No, not yet. Come on. I'm not that smart. "

  He must have caught a faint whiff of where I was headed, cause his face darkened straight away. "What then?"

  We were near Trig and Spoke. I tossed them a nod and got twin plumes of smoke in return. I stopped Ghost, then spoke loud and clear. "I know how we can find Gyro."

  "Oh yeah?" Spoke asked. "How's that?" Ghost glared at him, but he shrugged. "Just asking."

  The glare turned on me. "Fine. What's your idea?'

  "Use me as bait."

  "What? No."

  " They still have a use for me. Just like you can use Gyro to break them up, they can use me to break the Wraiths up. That makes me valuable."

  "Don't worry about none of that. We got a lead on a Scorp already," Spoke said. "We just got to find him and get him to talk."