Dark Fall (Back Down Devil MC #3)(16)

“Welcome to the clubhouse, sweetheart,” Shay said with a laugh as Erik carried Kaity across the threshold.

Once in the clubhouse, everyone began to cheer. Landon, Miller, Griffin, Case, Jude, and Aiden applauded as though Erik had just come back from getting married. One of the guys behind the bar even took a handful of beer bottle caps and threw them up as though it was rice.

They scattered everywhere and Erik stopped walking. He put Kaity down on the arm of the couch and walked to the bar. He put a fist down and gritted his teeth.

“Give me two,” Erik said.

The guy who had thrown the caps twisted two new caps off and handed the bottles to Erik.

“There you go,” he said.

Erik spotted one of the bottle caps and grabbed it. He put it between his thumb and pointer finger. Then he aimed and flicked his finger, sending the bottle cap perfectly into the man’s eye behind the bar. The man grabbed his face and screamed. It pissed Erik off to see these weak guys that wanted to be part of the MC. Like they thought it was a joke or something cool. This wasn’t cool. This was real. Hearing the guy scream wasn’t good enough for Erik. He reached across the bar and grabbed the wannabe Back Down Devil member by his shirt. He pulled him forward and then took a handful of his hair. The bar erupted in yells, trying to call Erik off, but he didn’t give a f*ck. He slammed the guy’s face into the bar. Erik let go and the guy flew back into a shelf of booze, and then fell to the ground.

“Anyone else want to throw shit at me?” Erik yelled.

Everyone quieted down. As Erik walked back to Kaity, it was so quiet that the sound of his boots hitting the beer bottle caps and scratching the floor echoed all around.

Erik handed Kaity the open beer bottles and then he scooped her up again. She cried out and some beer spilled on her. Erik didn’t care. He set his sights forward and walked her down the hall to the bedrooms.

At his door, he put her back down.

“This is my room,” Erik said.

He opened the door and surveyed the room for a second. It was a mess of clothes and other shit. The bed was a mess and the smell of booze, cheap perfume, and sex lingered in the air. Erik half expected to see the relievers from this morning still in the bed.

But they were gone.

He took the beer bottles from Kaity’s hand and put them on the nightstand. She managed to hobble her way to the bed and sat down. Erik stood and handed her a beer.

“Have a drink,” he said. “Before we talk.”

“Talk about what?”

“Look, this isn’t a f*cking vacation. This isn’t cool and exciting. This is real life.”

Kaity pointed to her leg. “You think I don’t know that?”

The way her lip curled made her look badass and beautiful. Erik turned away and caught his reflection in the mirror. Before he knew what he was doing, he threw the beer bottle across the room at the mirror. He missed the mirror by an inch, but the beer bottle exploded when it hit the wall.

He was breathing heavily. The urge was still there. It was getting stronger. He wanted to put an end to all the bullshit. The urge was real. His right hand opened and he slowly started to reach down. He was going to do this. He didn't care if he did it in front of Kaity. Her nonchalant demeanor in the midst of all the excitement proved that she was hiding her own demons.

Erik felt Kaity touch his hand. She squeezed once and then let go.

“It’s okay,” she whispered.

“It’s not.”

Kaity lifted the beer bottle to her lips, took a drink, and then placed the bottle in Erik’s hand. He closed his fingers around the bottle.

“Don’t throw this one please,” Kaity said.

She offered a quick smile and then swallowed hard.

Erik lifted the bottle to his lips and pounded the entire bottle of beer at once. Then he aimed and threw it into the trashcan. He set his sights to the nightstand and opened the top drawer. It was full of bullets and condoms, but there were also a couple spare bottles of whiskey. When he glanced at Kaity her eyes were wide at the sight of the condoms.

Erik grabbed a bottle of whiskey and took two huge gulps. It burned going down, but it started to settle the urge inside him.

“Erik…”

“I have to look at your leg,” Erik said.

He crouched down and put his hands to Kaity’s waist. She jumped and gasped.

“Calm down,” Erik said. “If I was f*cking making a move at you, you’d know it. Slide the f*ck back.”

Kaity slid back a few inches. Erik straightened her leg and touched it. It was impossible to not think sexual thoughts when he was pissed off. He had already punched someone today and shot someone. Now all he needed was a good f*ck to satisfy him.

“How bad does it hurt?” he asked.

“It just stings.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you need take your pants off. I need to see your leg and get the bullet out if there’s one in there.”

“Okay.”

Kaity started to slide forward but stopped. Her left hand had slipped under the sheet. When she pulled her hand out, a neon green bra was hooked over her pointer finger.

“Yours?” she asked.

“Fucking funny,” Erik said.

Erik wasn’t ashamed of what he did. He was a biker. He was part of a MC that lived and died by honor and bullets. In between living and dying, there was some time to enjoy booze, *, and fighting.