Free Chrome & Leather - The Novel (Adriana Ness ♯1) (Motorcycle Club Romance) by Deep Pink Page A

back and forth across the room, slowly rotating his arm in a circular motion. He grimaced with each rotation. His torso gleamed in a sheen of sweet and the muscles of his stomach tensed with every twist of his shoulder.
    “It feels like I was wrong about the broken ribs. I think it just grazed them,” he said.
    He continued to pace back and forth, each thud of his boot on the floor sounding like a drumbeat. As he paced across the room he began to talk and as each word was uttered he felt himself relax a little more and more.
    “Do you know what this little merry band of reprobates is called?” he asked Linda.
    She shook her head.
    “Most of the gangs out there go for some sort of variation on the name devil. It makes them sound dangerous and evil, to me it sounds like a bunch of overgrown boys trying too hard. Its all surface level bullshit. The stupid names, the tattoos and the gang logos plastered everywhere. To be sure it spooks the normals. I see through all that bravado. We have none of that. We have no logo, no colours, none of that shit. We don't need it. My reputation is built on actions, not some fucking logo of a flaming skull with a dagger through it. Those other punks make me sick to my stomach. The shit they get involved in, human trafficking, dirty deals, selling drugs to kids, its all real seedy shit. We would never touch something like that. I couldn't live with myself if we did.”
    Linda wasn't sure how to take all this. Her files had been light on information on his gangs activities, most of what they reported was second hand information from street snitches. They had no evidence on any of it, they didn't even have a name for his gang. The files simply referred to them with the designated name and number of gang 359. Was he saying all this for show she wondered? For her benefit? Maybe in his twisted way he was trying to charm her, show that he was a thug with a heart of gold. Was he changing up his pitch to her telling her what he thought she wanted to hear. Linda wasn't so sure, she couldn't put her finger on it directly, but for some reason she was believing what he was saying. It could be because of his lack of swagger or forced machismo. He was the alpha male around here and he knew it, he didn't need to layer it on for her. He seemed completely earnest as he spoke and she could see the fire inside him as he spoke. His words washed over her, the deep baritone settling into her bones. The rhythmic way he spoke was unlike anyone she had heard before. He was a leader who led not by brute force, he led by something more intangible. Linda could see why he had his reputation.
    He slowed his pacing and locked eyes with Linda as he spoke, his words tumbling out of him as if the very act of talking to her was cleansing him from the inside out.
    “We call ourselves the revengeful eight. Each of us became members through tackling our demons head on. Only by facing the horror that tried to break you can you burn away the ashen shell of your former fearful self and become a true member. If things go badly tomorrow we will be reduced to seven” he said laughing a hollow gallows bark.

    Blackjack sat on the bed beside Linda and he looked empty for a moment a hollow carapace of a man haunted by his past deeds. The act of even telling her the name of his gang, a name he held close to his heart and a force which drove him, seemed to bow and weaken him.
    Linda reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. Her skin prickled at the touch, he felt electric and alive under her palm. She ran her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him close to her. He kissed her on the lips with a soft pressure which tugged at Linda's cracked lips. She let out a small gasp, both in pain and in ecstasy.
    All thoughts about the case, gathering evidence and any danger she was in fell away as Blackjack embraced her in his strong arms. He drew her in close to him as she pivoted and turned to face him, she kneeled astride him as he