Stryker

5 - She hits like a man!

Stryker

When I saw Coral walking around the side of the clubhouse with Ice, my blood started to boil. She’s too good to be giving herself to an asshole like him. I wanted to break his fuckin.g neck for even thinking about her the way he has since she arrived here. But seeing the evidence that he got her when I couldn’t has driven me to the point of murder.

I’d never kill one of my own, but I’m close. Trust me.

Not that I’ll have to kill him. Once Shepard finds out about this, Ice is a dead man. Shepard warned all of us what he’d do should we touch Coral.

And to find out Ice fucke.d Coral against the side of the clubhouse?

Well, let’s just say I don't envy Ice. Shepard will tear the silly fucke.r limb from limb. But that’s Ice all over. He never thinks of the consequences of his actions.

Coral is a beautiful woman, but is she worth dying for?

Is any woman?

Coral was pissed off about me being with Denise.

Is that why she slept with Ice?

Because she was pissed off with her friend and me?

If that’s the case, she must like me more than I first thought. Though sleeping with someone out of revenge toward a man you’re not even with is not right.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no kid whining about the girl sleeping with my younger friend, but I am the man who’s had fuc.k all in his life worth anything, apart from the Snakes and the Anderson’s. I know I can’t have Coral, but in my dreams – literally – she’s the girl who is worth everything to me. Sounds fuckin.g stupid, but it’s true. However, that’s all it is, a dream. It’s all it can ever be.

All I’ve got is this club. They took me in when I thought I’d end up in prison or dead. It was BlackJack who found me, took me in, and introduced me to the club. Apollo, our previous Prez, was the one who told me I could be anything in this life as long as I tried and never gave up.

I was nineteen and came from a terrible childhood, one I never have and will never talk about. I was fighting any man that so much as looked at me, lying, stealing to survive. Hell, I was living on the damn streets of Tennessee until BlackJack found me.

Like I said before, I tried to rob him. I knew even then it was suicid.e to try and steal from a member of the Snakes Henchmen.

In broad fuckin’ daylight while he was still straddling his bike?

Yeah, I was desperate.

He was older than me and a lot wiser. He grabbed my dirty shirt in his fists and pinned my then skinny ass against the wall. He told me he’d kill me then and there.

Who the hell was I to try and rob him?

Did I know who he was?

Most would have been scared.

Most would have begged for their lives.

I didn’t.

See, the thing was, I had nothing left to live for; my life was empty. I’d seen more violence in my nineteen years than most bikers do in their entire lifetime. I wasn’t scared of what BlackJack would do to me; in fact, I welcomed it and prayed for it. I practically begged him for it like a damn junkie begging for heroin.

BlackJack looked at me like I’d lost my ever-loving mind. He asked me if I was actually waiting for death. I told him the truth, ‘Ain’t like I got anything to live for, old man.’ Not that he was an old man, not even ten years my senior. He shook his head and let go of me. He asked if I wanted more, and reluctantly, I nodded. Then he ordered me onto the back of his bike.

Who in their right mind would get on the back of a motorcycle with a crazy biker?

Any man who wants to die, and at that point, death was all I had to look forward to.

I thought BlackJack was taking me somewhere to kill me. Ain’t like he’d off me in the middle of town. Not even a biker is that stupid. However, as he kept riding through the streets and toward the better part of town, where all the nicer houses and neighborhoods are, I wondered where he was taking me.

We pulled up outside a two-story house, where a couple of kids were playing in the front yard, and a beautiful woman was sitting watching them. His wife, I realized, when she came running over to him and kissed him as though her life depended on it. Her name was Taylor. Tall and graceful, slender, with big brown eyes and mocha skin. Ain’t gonna lie; she was probably the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen up until that moment. I was embarrassed to look at her in case I got a damn hard-on. Oh, come on, I’m a man; any man who looked at Taylor would need to fight the urge to want to fuc.k her.

Taylor let me into her home, sent me off to shower, found out some of her husband’s old clothes for me, and even fed me. The woman gave me a bed to sleep in and told me that I wasn’t going anywhere. She wouldn’t let me go back out there to fend for myself with no one to care about me.

Jack and Taylor asked about my family; of course, they did. I merely told them I had none, which wasn't a lie. Taylor then mothered me and fussed for days over everything. She made sure I ate thrice daily and learned to be respectful in her home. It’s not that I was disrespectful, but I hadn’t been taught manners like normal kids. But I soon learned with Taylor there to remind me.

She taught me martial arts every day because she said it would help me channel the anger inside of me. I must admit she was good at jiu-jitsu, but the woman was a black belt. I wouldn't like to meet her in a dark alley, that's for sure.

I never had a mother, so it was strange that Taylor treated me like one of her own, but I liked her, Jack, and their kids. Dante and Dominic were crazy little shits even then, but I loved the little idiot.s right away.

I was a prospect with the club within days. Jack told me I needed something to focus my mind on, a way to learn that there’s more to life than crying over things a man can't change. Not that I’ve cried since I was a small child, but I knew what he meant. With my place in the club and Taylor’s teaching of martial arts, I knew I’d soon be someone other than the skinny kid from the streets.

I loved the club right away. I didn’t care about the shi.t jobs I was given to do. I did them with a smile on my face. I earned the respect of my elders within days and received my road name just as fast.

Stryker.

Why?

Because I had a habit of striking when a person least expected it. Strike them with my fists, feet, knife, and gun. Strike fast and fierce.

The day I got my road name, some jumped-up cunt had broken into the garage the club owned. I’d been given an apprentice job there with Cueball as my mentor, a way to earn my own money and keep.

I’d been in there fixing up the motorcycle Apollo had given me. Just some old broken-down Harley that he said would be good practice for me to learn the art of mechanics. If I fixed up that bike, as soon as I became a patched member of the Snakes, he'd buy me a real motorcycle. Any Harley that I wanted.

I mean, shi.t, come on, what kid of nineteen years old would ever turn that down?

The guy who broke in hadn't seen me. I was there alone. I hid, watching him. He was there to cause damage that would kill half the damn club. God knows how he’d gotten in without being seen by one of the others hanging around outside. How he’d even gotten through the gate without being seen was beyond me. The garage was on clubhouse grounds, so someone should have seen him.

Cunt didn’t see me coming. I got him from behind, a wrench to the head a couple of times. I was angry, even with the martial arts training. So much anger I wish I could have directed at the one person who tortured me my whole life. I still had so much of it built up inside of me that it would eventually come spilling out. It just so happened to be right then.

I hadn’t even realized the garage was filling up with people. Not until I swung my knife across the guy’s neck. That’s when I noticed Shepard, VP back then, clapping and smirking.

It might have been funny to him, a proud moment, but I won’t lie and tell you I didn’t feel sick, didn’t feel my stomach drop. I’d never killed anyone in my life before that moment. That kill would haunt me for many months, but it wouldn’t be my last kill.

‘A real tough striker.’ BlackJack had said.

‘Stryker,’ Cueball, one of the older members of the MC and the man in charge of the garage, had said. He spelled the name out loud and told me it would make me stand out. ‘Welcome to the family, Stryker.’ I’ve been one of them ever since.

I’ve never asked for anything in this life. Anything I’ve wanted, I’ve gotten myself. I’ve worked damn hard to sort my life out for everything I have now. The only thing I want is the one thing I can't have. Shepard would kill me, just as he’ll kill Ice when he finds out what he’s done.

The little hands around my waist tighten, little fingers flexing on my abs and my dic.k twitches in my jeans. I have never allowed a woman to ride on the back of my bike before. But I couldn’t stop myself from ordering Coral on the back of mine.

She flexes her fingers again, and I grit my teeth. Damn girl. I can’t give in to what I feel; it would be more than my life’s worth.

Would a taste of this beautiful woman be worth losing everything for?

Of course, it wouldn’t.

I pull up outside the house she’s staying at with her friend, whom I left back at the clubhouse after turning down her offer of taking her home and fuckin.g her senseless. I didn’t even ask Coral if she wanted to go home; I just wanted to get her away from Ice.

“How did you know where I live?” She climbs off my bike and hands me the helmet. I shrug.

I don’t want to tell her that I follow her home every night to ensure she’s safe. She’ll think I’m a damn stalker. I’m not; I just don’t like the thought of anything happening to her. She’s part of the club, Shepard’s surrogate daughter and we all know what some motherfucker.s would do to get to him. They wouldn’t think twice about hurting Coral.

She folds her arms around that tight little body of hers and huffs. “I know you’re not a man of many words, but having a one-sided conversation can be annoying.”

I keep my eyes on her while I climb off my bike and then lean my ass back against it with my arms folded around my chest.

“Seriously?” She raises her eyebrow.

I can’t help smirking. She's so hot. She’s going to be the death of me. I know that right now because there is no way I can go through my life without touching this woman.

Coral rolls her eyes at me. I grab her hand and pull her against me. She gasps, eyes looking at my mouth before finding mine. “What are you doing, Stryker?” I slide my hand into the side of her hair. So soft it’s unreal. “You just had se.x with my friend. Why the hell are you touching me like this?”

Oh. That.

“Why would that stop you? You just slept with Ice, or have I got that wrong?”

Ah, fuc.k!

Why do women always have to slap a guy with so much force you can feel it in your toes?

For such a little woman, she sure has a powerful slap.

“How dare you!?” She takes a step back. “I did not sleep with that man. I don’t sleep around, and I most certainly do not sleep with men out in the open.”

Thank God for that!

“I didn’t sleep with your friend either. She offered, and I turned her down. She wasn’t pleased, but it is what it is.”

“You didn’t sleep with her?”

I shake my head and grab her hand again, pulling her against me. This is going to blow up in my fuckin’ face; I know it, but I can’t seem to stop myself.

With my hand on the back of her head, I pull her to me, our lips almost touching. Her eyes close, and I breathe in her scent. Lavender and Jasmine.

Her little fingers clutch at my chest over my shirt and under my cut. She wants me to kiss her. She’s breathing heavily, with her bottom lip between her teeth. I want to kiss her, fuc.k, do I want to kiss her. Taste her, fuc.k her like she's never been fucke.d before, but I can’t.

I can’t go against what Shepard has ordered. I have more restraint than that. Although, right now, it’s frayed.

I release her. She opens her eyes and narrows them. “I have to go.” I swing my leg over my bike and start it up.

“What just happened?”

“Nothing, Coral, and that’s the way it has to stay.”

“Why?” There’s a little whine in her voice. She’s disappointed, but so am I.

I’d give anything to take her right now, but it wouldn’t end well. We’d fuc.k, I’d leave, she’d get hurt, Shepard would kill me twice over.

She tucks her long blonde hair behind her ear and smiles slightly. I’ve offended her. At least this way, she’ll despise me and stay away from me.

“Well, thank you for the ride home.”

I tip my head and ride the fuc.k out of there.

Being near her is too dangerous. I want her too badly to keep my hands to myself, and I have to keep them to myself.

It’s nothing but lust.

That’s what I’m feeling, lust.

Ain’t the first time I’ve felt it, and it won’t be the last. Even if there is something special about this girl that makes me feel something I have never felt in my life.

I’m the kind of guy who locks away his feelings.

What’s the point of them?

I’m the kind of guy who sleeps with whom he wants when he wants, without forming attachments.

I don’t know what the hell love is about, not because I’m incapable of it, but because I was never shown any of it. Ever. Well, not until Jack and Taylor. But there was no one to guide me when I was a kid, and no one there told me they loved me when they tucked me into bed at night. No birthdays celebrated, no Christmases. No one to walk me to school on my first day, no one to praise me when I’d done something good.

There was only ever hate.

A girl like Coral gets attached and thinks she can fix a guy like me. I’ve seen it plenty of times in the past, and I even had one or two think they could fix me. It won’t happen. There is no fixing a man like me. I don’t consider myself broken. I’m a man, not a clock, but there’s no way I could let her fall for me. What a fuckin’ disaster that would be.

No. Coral deserves much better than the likes of me. Shepard knows it, too; that’s why he warned me, along with everyone else in the club, not to touch her under pain of fuckin’ death.