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“No.” I got defensive. “I have lots going on. A whole club to run. Our arena burned down a month ago. We’ve got to rebuild since our fights are our money maker at the moment.” Especially with Sadist dead, the basement closed, we relied on that money. Fuck, without Royal Road money us Royal Bastards would have our hands in too much criminal shit like we used to. With Royal Road at least we were doing our own illegal business. We weren’t protecting the mob anymore or even bound to Mr. Fond like the mob was. “I have a whole pile shit on my plate, Maddie. I don’t want to think about it. But when it comes to you, yes, my mind returns to sex. I want a second chance with you. I thought of you every night in that prison. For six damned years. When I got out, I saw you’d moved on. I didn’t bother you. I moved on. I found a woman though I wished it’d been you.”
“I guess you didn’t date in prison. Had no choice but to stay a virgin.”
“Technically.”
“Oh, Beau. I’m sorry.”
I waved off her pity. Everyone’s raped in prison. “The fact you’re sitting right here in front of me means we’re fated. We’re meant to have our chance.”
“Your brother’s said the same thing. That me accidentally running into him means something. I don’t know what to believe.”
“It doesn’t matter what you believe. How do you feel?”
“You two are so different. Beau,” she called Bubba my old name. “He’s swept me off my feet. Kingpin, there’s something about you and your Harley that makes me want to go wild. Honestly, it’s been too long. You’re a different man than you were before. Not that it’s a bad thing. But Beau is calm and patient. As much as I’m attracted to you and truly love you, I need a man who’s… not so I don’t know…”
“Someone who’s not going to kick their brother’s ass over you?”
“Yeah.”
“Maddie. There was a lot more to my fight with Bubba than you realize. It wasn’t just about you,” I said, wanting it to be true. Reaching deep down, I tried to mustard the maturity Maddie craved. “Truthfully, Maddie Mae, I’ve never let myself love another woman. I’m not anything like the boy you dated. I’m what people would call a bad man. Not like in high school, when dad had me acting so I could gather information, so he’d look like the hero. Now I really am bad. I try to do my version of right, but I’ve killed people.”
Maddie put her hand over her mouth.
“It’s not like that. I shot someone who was raping my friend’s girl,” I said, trying to use the latest example as the only time.
“Oh,” Maddie said, calming down.
I decided to keep my other dirty deeds to myself. I was vague as I could be. “Like I was saying, I’m an outlaw. I live a life outside the law which includes many unlawful acts. At Royal Road, I’m the boss. I do whatever I want, to whomever I want, and I have a hoard of men crueler than me at my back. Sometimes, I get carried away, but it wasn’t the first time Bubba came to Royal Road looking to fight.”
Maddie listened. The way her lips turned up as she stirred her drink, let me know she liked me opening up.
“I’ve lost myself many times, and you know what’s kept me going. Knowing that I love you. That I love someone so much, I can’t settle for anyone else. When I’m at my lowest, Maddie Mae, you’re the last thing left of my soul.”
I’d been trying to show her a different side of me but surprised myself. I wiped at a moist corner of my eye. Fuck, was I going to cry?
Maddie’s hand covered mine. “I’d really like to get to know the man you are now.”
Manning up, I grabbed her and took her to my hog.
“Where are we going?”
“My place at Royal Road. You want to get to know Kingpin. That’s where he lives. You okay with that?”
Her smile and the twinkle in her eye said she was.
Chapter 15
Kingpin
We rode my motorcycle through downtown Nashville until we were stuck in traffic. That was one good thing about having a motorcycle in Nashville, I could get out of the horrendous traffic. We dodged the lines of cars as I weaved in and out. But there were blue lights up ahead. I had to stop when we reached them. As an officer walked over getting ready to chew me out for passing the cars, the wind picked up. Fuck, it really started howling.
Maddie shouted, “Look.” She pointed overhead. I realized the sound growing under the growl of my bike was a helicopter landing. What was a helicopter doing landing in the middle of downtown Nashville on the street? I searched for a wreck, thinking someone needed to be flown to Vanderbilt. Thankfully the commotion caused the cop to ignore me. Maddie and I watched the helicopter land in front of us. As much as I had to stop and was curious, I grew impatient. My balls had already been blue once today. I’d been fixin to get Maddie home to the big house. I wanted to show her the real me. We’d take a dip in the pool. I’d play something on the piano for her. She’d always liked that. As I planned our afternoon, I knew in the evening, I’d have her in my bed. Come hell or high water. Once that happened, she’d never see my brother again.
But she would. She’d see my brother because his dumbass stepped out of the helicopter. Just then, I noticed the crew of cameras wasn’t the news covering a deadly car crash after all. The cameras were shooting my brother’s music video. The one he was supposed to shoot at Royal Road. The cop came to us, and I saw it wasn’t a normal officer. This mall cop had been hired by my brother to stop traffic.
He held his finger to his ear and told me, “Beau Strick said to let you two through.”
I rolled slowly ahead as he moved the wooden barricade, noticing we were basically entering a makeshift set. There wasn’t a way through without passing Beau. Holding his cowboy hat, my brother jogged toward us looking like a superstar. When he was in front of us I wanted to mow him down, but I’d impressed Maddie by playing grown up so I stopped my Harley.
