I put my coffee down on the counter and picked up my tools, heading over to the car suspended over me. Work. It was the only thing that kept me going some days. The dreams were getting worse, the longer it went on. I needed to find some kind of dick to ride before I lost my mind completely. Dempsey was gone, and he likely wasn’t coming back. As much as that thought killed me inside, it was something I was going to have to get used to.
I thought with his brother being here in Kilkenny, and his sister Tierney seemingly sticking around for her new found relationship with Brogan that he would come back. I knew he had, but he always kept away from me and the clubhouse. I didn’t know if it was a rival MC thing or if he was giving me the space because he knew I was patched in there now, but his beautiful face hadn’t been around.
I missed it.
I didn’t want to, but I missed the fucker who had grown on me.
Never in a million years did I think I would ever put down roots or fall in love again, and yet here I was, on the verge of settling on an apartment in Kilkenny and healing my broken fucking heart.
He’d been different though. I knew that. He wasn’t like the other bikers I grew up around, or the ones I thought of like my brothers.
He was…just Dempsey.
Viking.
I felt a chuckle rise in my throat at that. His call name was Viking because of his tattoos, and the way he could sneak up on his enemies and surprise attack them. I laughed because my call name was Valkyrie.
It’s almost like we were destined, and yet, here I was, hating how lonely I was and desperately wishing I could see him.
The one thing I hated the most, though? I wasn’t able to hate him. I didn’t hate him for leaving, even though I wanted to.
He’d been soft, gentle, when he broke things off with me. He’d been sweet, and because of that, I couldn’t possibly think of replacing him in my bed. I wanted it to be his.
Ineededto be his.
“Hey,” I heard Fury call out to me from the office. I looked over just as I saw him coming out. “I gotta head off for a bit. Bear can’t go see the boys, so I’m taking over the day.”
I nodded, wondering why Bear wouldn’t be able to see Chains and Razor in prison. It was usually only him, Hawk and Ace who went in, on the odd occasion Viper or Savage would go, but Fury was a newer recruit, only patching in as Fury just over a year ago.
“Josh is in the office, and I know Viper said he was coming by later to check in. If you need anything, give me a buzz, yeah?”
I nodded and watched as he moved over to his bike sitting in the driveway. I liked Fury, he was a good kid,and usually the first one I would call for a card night, the kid just had no poker face and I usually cleaned up when he started drinking. He rode away and I looked over at Joshua in the office. He was on the phone and it looked pretty heated.
I was not meant for the admin portion of the job, much preferring to be under the hood of a car or tinkering with my own beast outside. Fuck the cliche that a woman was good with paperwork, I wasn’t even good with technology, much preferring you to come and talk to my face over a phone call any day.
I got back to the car and tried to finish the service job before I moved on to the others needing work done. The shop was busy, finally after a few months of hosting town fundraisers to show we weren’t assholes like the old prez had been, the townspeople were finally starting to trust us especially since that asshole Neal Foley was behind bars. We were slowly rebuilding Kilkenny.
He should have lost his life for what he did to Sheridan, and Orla, but I knew Brogan had been trying to tow the line with corruption in the police force in Kilkenny. He wanted to show that the MC were good people and he’d helped us in the long run now. We had a future in Kilkenny, and it looked fucking bright.
If only I could stop thinking about Dempsey, I’d have a better time with it.
THREE
Dempsey
The clubhouse felt ominous being so quiet and dark. This place was always on or someone was always here. It was situated in the middle of the woods, and hidden from view unless you came down the long road to get here. Most Uber drivers wouldn’t come out this way anymore, and it was how they liked it. I got off my bike and moved up to the clubhouse steps. The buildings off to the side had been completed now, and looked like they had warehouses off to the side of the clubhouse. They’d also extended the clubhouse to include more rooms. Once I stepped inside, I saw there were afew lights on in the back, leading to the room they held church in.
I stepped through the clubhouse and into the room, and saw Wolf sitting off to the side, my brother Alex, or Bear as he was known here, was in his seat and next to him was Hawk, the VP. I motioned my head over to them in an acknowledgment and stood at the end of the table.
“Sit, for fuck’s sake,” Alex said. “We’ve been in contact this whole time, I’ve been asking you to let me help you and now I have to hear how much shit you’re in from Wolf?”
“I didn’t want to drag you into it if I could have handled it myself, little brother.”
“Fuck off with that shit,” he said. He had the anger my father had. A good man but once riled up, you’d better clear out. “I am not a fucking teenager, Dempsey. Sit the fuck down and tell us what we need to know.”
I nodded and took a seat at the end of the table. Hawk was oddly quiet, letting Alex do the talking. Alex had a lot of respect from his Prez and VP, and I know it was because they grew up with him, a fact I was jealous of as well. I wished I could have grown up with him, but his mother had been an absolute bitch and cut us off because my dad wouldn’t leave my mum.
“What exactly happened?” Alex asked.
