Authors: Carly White
ROMANCE: SPORTS ROMANCE: Tight End (Bad Boy Football Romance) (New Adult Alpha Male Sports Romance) (5 page)
Chapter 1
“Lance, we can’t let this stand. If we let them get away with this, there will be nothing to stop another gang from coming in here and taking over.”
He looked back at his second and though he was thinking the same thing, he didn’t like the way the man was saying it. It was enough to have had one of his shipments confiscated from another gang. It was another to hear Billy talking to him as if he had a right to.
“I will take care of it. I always do. The Black Riders are not who they are because I sit on the sidelines while other people mess in our spot. The Demons caught me off guard, that’s it.” His tone told Billy that he was about to lose his cool and he didn’t want to be in the line of fire if he did. They had known each other since grade school and Billy backed off.
“I know you will boss. I just hate that it happened. You don’t even have to do anything. I will go down there right now and end this.”
Lance stopped him. “It may come to that after all, but for now, let’s just do what we came here to do. We came here to make some money. They didn’t get it all, so let’s get what we can and get out of here before we see blue lights flashing. It can always get worse Billy.”
Billy nodded his head. That was the reason that he was the boss, the thought to himself. Lance had a way of keeping everyone around him calm, even when he himself wanted to rip everything around him apart. He had to keep it together or there would be twenty bikers raising hell in the city and it never ended well. There was a reason the cops left them alone most of the time. They knew what their business was, but Lance paid off a few and contained his members. If that broke down, then everything would break down and he knew that he had to hold it together just a little while longer. No matter how good it sounded to let Billy have his way with it.
He watched the blonde man move towards the semi-truck and the open back. He had to turn away, his mind seething and he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. Lance would never admit that to anyone, not even Billy, but he was questioning every decision that he had made up till that point. It wasn’t the first time the Demons had tried to mess with them, but it was the first time that they had been so successful and it made him wonder where the information was coming from. He hoped that there wasn’t an insider, but it seemed like there had to be.
That gave him a headache to even think about. Most of the people in the Black Riders had been in it since its inception and that meant that someone that he knew and trusted was giving the rival gang information. The idea left him feeling sick to his stomach, as well as the dollar amount that the little play had cost him. It was far too much to just let it all go.
Lance was weary and by the time the rest of the shipment was loaded up, it was two o’ clock in the morning. It was not even a tenth of what he was supposed to be getting, what he had to pay for and now it looked like most of it was in the wind. It would never come back and he knew that the first hurdle was to get over that fact. Once he realized it was gone and he wouldn’t be able to recuperate the money, his mind went to revenge. Billy was right, though it was still not his place to say it, but he was right. Lance couldn’t just let it go, but he didn’t want the city erupting into a blood bath either.
He knew there had to be a better way, but it was late and he needed to sleep on it. One way or another it was going to be taken care of, but Lance didn’t want to let his anger make the decision for him. “All right guys. Let’s take it back to the warehouse.”
Billy gave him another questioning look but he ignored it that time. He had enough to worry about without getting all riled up from Billy again.
***
“You did what?”
Carl looked away, unsure what he was supposed to say. When he came to him with the news of fifty keys of snow for free, he was thinking his father would be happy about it, thrilled. That was a lot of money for nothing and he couldn’t believe the older man’s face looking back at him. His dark eyes were slits and his face was starting to get red under his tan skin. He backed up like he would from anything that was getting ready to blow.
“It was just sitting there and when the boys opened up the back and saw all the product, of course we took it.”
“Do you know who’s it is? You can’t really think that someone was going to leave all of that powder out there for nothing. It was supposed to be picked up and you just took it!”
Sam stood up and glared down at his son. He was trying to do more than he was supposed to and now it had all went tits up. There was a small amount of pride for his moxie, but he knew that it was going to cause them a lot of trouble. Sam had an idea of who they had stolen from and the man’s reputation proceeded him and he hoped that there was some way that it could all be worked out. The last thing Samuel wanted to do was get into a brawl with the Black Riders. Lance was not going to let it go.
“You have to take it back.”
“I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?” His eyes became almost unavailable for sight as he narrowed his view on his twenty year old son.
“Well, I already sold it.”
Sam sighed and sat back down. He was going to give himself a heart attack with worry, but there was a number he had to hear before he started to really freak out. “How much?”
“Twenty.”
“Per kilo right?”
His son was melting under the pressure, but Sam had to know how bad he had messed up. When he said it was for all of it, he exploded. “You sold it all for the price of one?”
“To who?”
“The Castor twins.”
Sam put his head in his hands for a minute. Carl had messed up many times before, but never that bad. “Dad, it’s not that big of a deal. They will never know it was us.”
“They saw you leaving.”
“Yeah but…” Carl hadn’t thought it all the way through and that was before he had done the math in his head.
“You have to go get it back, right now.”
“I don’t think they are going to go for that.”
“You better figure it out Carl. There is going to be hell to pay from both sides if we don’t figure it out.” Sam told Carl to leave and he reached into his bottom drawer and took out a bottle of whiskey. How was he supposed to fix everything that time? He didn’t know. It may be even worse than he had first thought when he stopped Carl and told him to send someone else. Lance was not known to leave anyone living who crossed him and Sam realized then that he was going to have to get Carl out of the city, instead of pretending like there was any way that he would be able to handle what came next.
“Son, you are going to have to go north to your grans.”
Carl looked at him in disbelieve. “I can’t just run away father.”
Sam just shook his head. “No, but I can’t bury one of my children. If something happened to either one of you kids, I would never be able to live with it. Lance doesn’t play around and he is going to be out for revenge. I just need you to go up there for a bit until I get it all sorted out.”
He wasn’t so sure that he could, but he knew he had to try, for all their sakes
.
Chapter 2
“Dad, what is going on?”
Stella had been awoken with the loud noises in the room next to hers. Her brother shouldn’t have even been home that early, so she was surprised to see the two men packing up tings in the middle of the night. Something was wrong, it was clear.
“Everything is fine baby. Why don’t you go back to bed? You have school in the morning.”
Stella wasn’t sure that she wanted to go back to bed or that she could even do so. “I want to know what is going on. Why are you guys packing up Carl’s stuff?”
Sam stepped out of the room, taking his daughter with him. He had always wanted to keep her from it all, but she was a smart girl and knew more than even he probably realized. “Your brother got himself in some trouble and we need to get him out of the city for a while until things calm down.”
She had a feeling it was going to be something like that. Her brother was known for doing stupid things and it worried her that her dad looked so worried about it. “It’s going to be okay, isn’t it?”
He nodded that it was, hoping he was more convincing then he felt about it. He felt like everything was going to hit the fan, but he had to stay positive for her. Sam wondered then if he should get both of his kids out of the city. “Why don’t you go with him to Gran’s? You are always saying that you don’t see her enough.”
Stella shook her head and rubbed her eyes. “No, I have testing all week. If I want to get into a good college, I am going to have to test high.”
She was right and he hated to affect her studies which were so important to her. He knew that she wouldn’t forgive him if she wasn’t able to go to Duke like she wanted. “Fine Stella. But I want you to stay close to home when you are not in school, agreed?”
He saw that she wanted to ask more, but much like her mother, she had learned not to push. Stella had a way about her much like his late wife and he couldn’t help but smile down at her. “Everything will be fine Stella, just got to let this all blow over.”
“Okay dad. I will see you tomorrow after school.”
“I might be a little late coming home. I have some clean-up to do and it is quite a mess.”
“Isn’t it always with him?”
He didn’t answer, but smiled to himself. She got it and it made him feel a little better that he wasn’t the only one that thought his son was a bit of a mess-up. Not even he could have thought that he would mess up so badly though. It was going to take a plan and some reparations to fix the tie between them. The relationship between the two motorcycle gangs was already tedious at best and this was not going to help the matter.
Sam moved back into the room and kept tossing his son’s clothes in the bag in front of him. His son wasn’t as understanding and fussed about having to go somewhere. They both knew that he was not ready at twenty to go up against a man like Lance and if Sam thought that he could actually survive the confrontation, he would have made him deal with himself. It was a good character builder, but Sam didn’t think that Carl would make it.
***
The next morning the house was quiet when she finally got up and when she looked in Sam’s room, she saw that most of his stuff was gone. It made her wonder how long he was going to be away, but she tried not to think about it. There was no telling what he had done and though she knew it had something to do with the gang, for the most part she stayed out of all that.
Her father had made it clear years ago that he wanted her to take over, but once she became older, Stella realized that it was not the life for her. She was a bit gentler in nature and the last thing she wanted to do was tell a bunch of tough guys to do bad things for her. It wasn’t her cup of tea so Sam had been forced to worry about his son taking over. It had been one disaster after another and Stella felt a little guilty about it all. She knew that if she had taken up the torch, they would not be in the position that they were currently in, but she just didn’t want to. Stella dreamed of being a lawyer one day and she couldn’t have a criminal record and have a license. That had made the decision for her.
That and the fact that she had gotten her heart broken one too many times before. Bad boys were fun, they were full of passion and adventure, a little mystery, but in her experience, which was limited at best, it never worked out well. She had promised herself that she wouldn’t date that type anymore, but find her a nice, normal guy.
Her boyfriend now was a gentleman and would never do to her what Drake had done to her the year before. Franklin was sweet and generous, not even making a move on her more than a goodnight kiss. While she missed the passion and lust that had been in her other relationship, there was a feeling of safety and assurance with Frank. As she got ready for her day, she hoped that they would have time after class to see each other for a while.
She got to school right on time and had tests most of the day. Franklin was a year older than her and was already going to the local community college, so when Stella was done, she made her way over to Campton Community College to wait for his last class to get over. He was a few minutes late, but then she saw his face and it was worth the wait.
“It’s good to see you here Stella. I didn’t know if you were going to make it with the testing going on. How was it?”
She shrugged. Stella was sure it was fine. She had made it a big deal the night before when she was talking with her father, but Stella knew that her college was on lock and that it was going to happen. “It’s fine, nothing that I was really unsure of.”
“Should be that way. You have been studying for a whole week. I was hoping that you would want to go out tonight and celebrate?”
Stella remembered what her father said, but she was sick of Carl’s mistakes costing her in the end as well. She wanted to go out with him and was hoping that Franklin would finally get up the courage to give her more than a chaste kiss. It was hard to act like she didn’t want what she knew she was missing, but there was a part of her that knew that he wanted the delicate flower he thought she was. “Sounds good. I can’t stay out too long because of all the testing, but I would love to go out. When did you want to go?”
“I don’t know. We can go now if you want.”
She agreed, but wished that it would have been more planned and she would have had more time with her clothes. If it was a night time date, Stella figured that there would be more chance of him making a move, but in the end she was going to have to settle for an early evening dinner that she hoped turned into more. Franklin curled her fingers in his own as they went towards his sleek new car. “You look beautiful today Stella, though you always do.”
Stella couldn’t help but smile, wishing he would have stopped and gave her a kiss to show her how much he liked her. Her mind was far from the problems at home and with her brother. All she had eyes for or time to think about was Franklin. He was the kind of man that could change everything and take her away from her sullied past.