STEEL TEMPTATION (A Back Down Devil MC Romance Novel) Read online

  “Nothing else to do in here,” Nate said.

  “Here’s something to eat. Something tells me she’s already full though.”

  Nate grinned. “Thanks.”

  Griffin put the stuff down and then put a finger to Nate’s chest. “I hope you’re right with all this, brother. I’m against keeping her around and alive. You want pussy? There’s plenty of it all around. Don’t fall… don’t be stupid…”

  “Have a good night, Griffin,” Nate said.

  The door shut again and Nate turned.

  Mia was frantically trying to clean herself up. “Nobody believes me but you. Why?”

  Nate stared at her. She was goddamn gorgeous. A woman that did not belong in all of this. Just like so many women he’d seen before. Those who weren’t lucky…

  “I don’t know why,” Nate said, lying. “Maybe I’m just stupid.”

  nine.

  Mia watched as Nate handed her a beer. She threw it back like she had never had a beer before. Cold, crisp, delicious.

  “You can take it,” Nate said with a grin, maybe implying something else.

  The whole thing had been… instant. Wild. Hot.

  The moment boiled over and whatever, right? Mia had an idea about surviving. Sometimes you just needed to deal with it. Go for what you wanted to preserve something like hope. Yeah, sucking off Nate was an attempt to secure her survival, but it was good. Like really good. The way he tasted, thrusted, so big and thick. When he looked at her, it was like they were… actually looking at each other.

  Mia had done things before to survive. Short on rent a few times, she never slept with Chris, but Chris directed her to a few of the patrons who would be willing to throw cash her way for something private. Not the greatest moment of her life, bending over an office chair in the back of the club, bracing herself for a few minutes of fucking. But it paid the rent. It kept the lights on. And that only happened a few times.

  Maybe this with Nate felt different, but it was a lie.

  Mia quickly finished her beer.

  Nate had a couple of burgers and fries. The food was greasy and good. The way Mia attacked it she knew it made it seem like she hadn’t seen the light of days in weeks. Hell, it had been just a few hours.

  Seated next to her, Nate said, “You can’t fuck around tomorrow. You do what we say when we say. We’ll be everywhere, watching. You fuck up once, and you die.”

  Mia licked a glob of ketchup off her lip. “You talk that way to everyone who just swallowed you down?”

  Nate looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “Babe, most of the women who suck me off don’t say a word to me and I don’t say a word to them. Let alone know their name or give a shit.”

  “So you give a shit about me?”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “You kept me alive.”

  “You’re useful to me right now.”

  “Like my mouth was?”

  “That was convenient, babe. The moment got us.”

  “Fuck you, Nate.”

  He grinned. “Maybe later.”

  They finished eating and drinking in silence. Mia felt the day sliding off her shoulders. Uncle Jake texted her back a simple message to take notes and don’t get caught. Nate laughed at the text and kept the phone out of her reach.

  They then sat next to each other, silence all around.

  “You don’t have to stay,” Mia said. “I’m not getting out. I can’t get to my phone. Go do something else.”

  “Can’t,” Nate said. “You might scream.”

  “Would someone hear me?”

  “Probably not. So I’m staying put.”

  “You know my uncle is powerful, right?”

  “So am I,” Nate said, smooth and sexy.

  “No, Nate, he…” Mia turned her head.

  No. Don’t tell him.

  “What?” Nate asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “You really want to start holding back on me now?”

  “Shit,” Mia growled. “I hate being kept like this.” She pulled at her wrists. “I’m not leaving! I swear!”

  “I don’t have keys, babe. Deal with it.”

  “Fuck.” Mia took a deep breath. “Fine. I think Uncle Jake killed my Aunt Theresa.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah. I remember it. They had a son.”

  “Jacob,” Nate said. “I know.”

  “How?”

  “One of our guys, Jace, helped him out.”

  Mia’s eyes went wide. “Holy shit. He’s in trouble because of you.”

  “No, he’s becoming a man. That’s all. Learning to fight and survive.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure my uncle beats the shit out of him.”

  “Wouldn’t doubt it.”

  “And I’m pretty sure my uncle killed my aunt.” Mia looked right into Nate’s eyes. “Meaning he made her disappear.”

  She was terrified just thinking about it.

  Nate reached out and stroked her cheek with his thumb. “We make people disappear too. We know how to dig holes and call in favors.”

  “Not him, Nate. He’s…”

  “We’re more,” Nate growled. “You need to learn trust right now, babe. Sleep on it.”

  “Sleep where?”

  Nate looked to his shoulder. “Crash here.” He touched his shoulder. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Mia put her head on Nate’s shoulder. She took a deep breath, still unable to comprehend the day. Now, the night. She had a desire to scream, claw, kick, and fight. Maybe she could get Nate to hold her down. Get on top of her. Press his body tight to hers.

  Her eyes slowly shut. Nate’s shoulder was the size of a boulder. It shouldn’t have been comfortable but it was. She knew there was a really strong chance that Nate was going to kill her. Or one of those other guys would do it.

  “I’m telling you so there’s trust,” Mia whispered. “For my uncle’s life and what he actually does. He made my aunt disappear.”

  “It’s okay,” Nate said. “I’m sorry that happened. My entire family disappeared. The other family I had I attacked. Now I have a family here. Survival, babe. And tonight, you’ve survived.”

  Nate stroked her cheek again and Mia let herself fall to sleep.

  When her eyes opened again, she wasn’t sure if it was the next day or the next hour. Her neck hurt and she winced when she sat up. Her head hadn’t moved, sleeping on Nate’s shoulder. She looked up and saw Nate’s head back against the wall. His eyes shut. He was like damn stone. Beautiful, rough and tough, chiseled stone.

  Mia felt a rolling fire through her entire body. She needed to chase the damn feelings away because they could not happen. None of this could happen. Mia looked around at herself. Still in the same clothes. The clamps around her wrists. Chains on the ground.

  Sighing, she shifted a little to get feeling back in her legs. Pins and needles climbed up her leg.

  She looked back up to Nate. She bit her bottom lip, wanting to inch up and kiss him. Just a quick kiss to his cheek. Or his jaw. Maybe his neck. Smell the leather, taste the sweat…

  “I’m awake, babe,” Nate said. His eyes opened. “I sleep light.”

  Mia gasped. “Oh. Sorry.”

  “Sorry for what?”

  “Did I, uh, wake you?”

  “No.”

  “What time is it?”

  “Morning,” Nate said. “Time to get moving.”

  “I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do. It’s kind of dumb for me to be gone all night…”

  “Probably. But this is a war, babe. You’re going to show up to your uncle’s and tell him whatever he wants to hear. You’ll figure it out. You make it known that Back Down Devil knows nothing of him. Or the bullshit.”

  “What bullshit?”

  Nate leaned down, his head gently touching hers. “When you figure it out, it’ll shock you.”

  “My uncle tried to hurt you?”

  “Not him directly. But the war going on… if my sk
ull wasn’t so damn thick, I’d have been killed.”

  Mia felt herself turning a little, inching closer to Nate’s lips. One quick good morning kiss…

  The door busted open with a metal cling, clang, and boom.

  Three guys stood in the doorway. Mia had picked up enough names to know it was Gaige, Miller, and Griffin. She knew Griffin really wanted her dead. Miller was the President. Gaige the second in command for the MC.

  “Time to ride,” Miller said.

  He threw a set of keys at Nate. A few seconds later Mia was able to move her wrists freely. She was no longer attached the the clamps, the chains, the wall.

  “Sorry the accommodations weren’t better,” Griffin said. “But at least you’re alive. For now.”

  “Hey,” Miller said. “We have a plan. Gaige, Griffin, get out of here.”

  They walked away.

  Nate stood and helped Mia to her feet. She bent her knees and stretched. It never felt so good to stretch.

  “Hope Nate wasn’t a pain in the ass,” Miller said.

  “No. Not at all.”

  “Good. Remember what we said. One fuck up and you’re dead. You need to be right back here before sunset. So what do we know?”

  “You’re not going to like it,” Nate said. “At all.”

  Miller reached for his gun. “Do I have to kill her right now?”

  Mia froze and Nate stepped between her and Miller.

  “It’s the judge,” Nate said. “The one that I saw. The one that tagged Jace and left him in prison. This is deep and messy. We need her alive and on our side.”

  “I want the entire fucking story,” Miller said. “I’ll be outside waiting. This place stinks.”

  Miller turned and left.

  Nate faced Mia. “It’s going to get bad, babe.”

  Mia knew that already. It had always been bad. It always would be. But right now, looking at Nate, something felt good. Before she could stop herself, she grabbed his shirt and jumped up to her tiptoes and kissed him.

  ten.

  They were supposed to keep on Mia’s ass, but when the white van passed right through the heart of Frelen, plans quickly changed. Nate didn’t want to lose sight or Mia or not be within striking distance if things went bad, but club business always came first. It was exactly why he never cared enough to have a woman. He would never become Gaige, Erik, Jace, or the other fucking guys tied down to a woman.

  Mia had been dropped at her car. She had been warned, again, not to fuck anything up. If things went bad, she’d die. Miller made it clear that if her uncle or anyone else figured out that she had been with the MC and wanted to kill her, they wouldn’t protect her. This was all part of the mental fuck of handling a war.

  For Nate, it bothered him. And that wasn’t a good thing.

  It was him, Blaine, and Griffin on the road when they saw the van. They were just outside the fancy neighborhood where the judge lived. They couldn’t actually get into the neighborhood without attracting attention, so they lingered.

  The van cruised right by, two meat necks behind the wheel, without a fuck to give. The cockiness drove Nate insane. Because they had help from Chief Jerry and Judge Jake, they thought they could just do this.

  “We’re going for it,” Nate said. He started his ride and throttled it hard.

  “Fuck,” Griffin yelled. “You can’t…”

  “Fuck this,” Nate bellowed.

  They couldn’t win the war today, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t fight.

  Nate led the way, Blaine and Griffin playing catch up. Nate tore through traffic, cutting in and out of cars, taking chances through stop signs and red lights. He was on the van in a matter of a minute. Then came the time to wait and see where it was going. But they were all quickly made. Three barreling motorcycles that weren’t actually trying to hide didn’t give them any kind of cover.

  The passenger in the van leaned out and produced a sawed-off shotgun. He aimed and fired. Nate cut his ride to the left and took out his gun. He shot at the back left tire and it exploded with ease. Shards of rubber flew up and by him like shrapnel. The passenger pumped the shotgun for another chance, but Nate was too quick. He aimed, fired, and hit the guy in the shoulder. He dropped the shotgun out of the window. It bounced like a toy and all three motorcycles rode by it.

  Nate shot out the second back tire. The ass of the van cut left, right, the rims dragging on the pavement, sparks flying around.

  The motorcycles had more power and speed. Nate crept up the left side of the van. The driver was trying to concentrate on too much at once. The van, the road, keeping the van moving, his passenger leaning against the dashboard, bleeding from a gunshot wound.

  Nate got close enough and kicked the door. The driver had a phone to his ear and then threw it out the window at Nate. It hit the ground and exploded into pieces. Nate shot the front left tire of the van and that finally did it. The van moved back and forth, as Nate hitting the brakes so he didn’t get crushed by the bigger vehicle. The van pulled to the side of the road. All three Back Down Devil MC riders were right on the van.

  Nate ripped open the driver’s door and pulled the hunk of muscle driver and threw him to the ground. The Coast Road MC member fought his way up and pushed back at Nate. Always being a fighter, Nate threw the first punch. He hit the guy in the jaw and sent him back against the van. The guy pushed off the van and attacked Nate. He wrapped his arms around Nate and squeezed. Lifting Nate, he turned and threw Nate. Nate hit the van and pain shot through his shoulder. The Coast Road guy came at him and Nate made a fist and swung with a wicked backhand. It hurt Nate’s hand, but the Coast Road guy collapsed to the ground.

  A second later Griffin came rushing around the van, gun drawn. The Coast Road guy was on his elbows, face bleeding.

  “Don’t fucking move!” Griffin growled.

  Nate stretched his shoulder and walked to the back of the van. He opened it. The back was full of white containers. And just like what Jace had previously said, and what Nate fucking knew was going to be there, he opened one of the containers which had seafood on top and drugs underneath. That’s how Coast Road was moving things.

  “Fuck,” Nate said.

  Nate backed up and checked the other side of the van. The other Coast Road MC member was on the ground, holding his shoulder, crying. Actually crying. Blaine stood with his foot between the guy’s legs, crushing his balls.

  “What the fuck do we do now?” Blaine called out.

  Nate looked back and saw two police cars flying up on them. One cruiser had lights and sirens, the other was just an unmarked black car. An officer came out of one car and had his gun drawn, unsure who to point the weapon at.

  The other vehicle came up next to the van and stopped.

  It was Chief Jerry.

  Nate instantly thought about the cellphone. The driver had been on the phone and then threw it out of the window. That was the call to Chief Jerry. To let him know what was happening.

  “What’s wrong?” Chief Jerry asked.

  “Come back here,” Nate said. “Now.”

  Chief Jerry walked slowly to the back of the van. He looked, saw the drugs, and nodded. Then he looked at Nate. “How’d you know?”

  “Know what?”

  “This…”

  “We’ve told you before about it.”

  “The last time it was empty.”

  “Now it’s not,” Nate said. “And one of the guys is shot.”

  Chief Jerry gritted his teeth. He turned and pointed to the officer. “Malone. Put your fucking gun away. Go take the shot one to the hospital. Ask for Peters. They’ll know. I want him patched up and quiet until I get my hands on him.”

  “What are you doing?” Nate asked.

  “Hey,” Chief Jerry said. “This is my investigation now. Got it?”

  “Investigation… Coast Road MC is moving drugs. Like we’ve been saying.”

  “I see that,” Chief Jerry said. “I have sight now. I fucking see it. I kn
ow it’s there. You all need to get out of here.”

  “Why?” Blaine asked as he approached.

  The officer was helping the shot guy to the police cruiser.

  Nate watched the scene with cautious eyes. Nothing seemed right. Nothing felt right.

  “You want to be dragged into this?” Chief Jerry asked. “As far as I can see… you’re all carrying illegal weapons. Those weapons were used on the van. Two blown out tires. One guy shot. Another one attacked.”

  Nate looked at the other Coast Road MC guy. He was just sitting there on the ground. Too quiet. Looking fucking guilty as hell.

  “Do you want to be here for this?” Chief Jerry asked. “That’s what you want? Stay.”

  “How are you going to cover all this up?” Griffin asked.

  “That’s my fucking job,” Chief Jerry said. “You guys did good. Did great.”

  Chief Jerry walked to the guy on the ground. He shook his head and reached for his cuffs. He made a head nod and the Coast Road MC guy stood up. Hands behind his back. Accepting to be arrested.

  There was no way this was normal.

  Chief Jerry cuffed the guy and walked him to the undercover car. He put the guy in the backseat.

  “There,” Chief Jerry said. “Two pieces of shit taken off the street. I’ll have the other guy patched up and brought down to the station. Then I’ll pit these two against each other and see what happens.”

  “What about the van?” Nate asked.

  “I’ll take care of it. We’ll try and see if we can find out where the drugs came from. You know? Hand it off and see what kicks down. You guys said it’s coming in via the water, right? If that’s so, that’s way beyond Frelen. That’s serious heat. That brings a lot of attention and eyes.”

  “So you don’t want to report the drugs,” Griffin said. “Jesus Christ.”

  “This is why I deal with Miller,” Chief Jerry said. “You can’t see the bigger picture.”

  Nate stepped toward the chief. “And just what is the bigger picture?”

  Chief Jerry stared him down. “How’s your headaches? You remember anything that could be of use?”

  “I don’t need anymore serious heat,” Nate said. “But when I see Coast Road MC cruising through Frelen like they own the town, something’s going to happen.”