Page 1 of Jacked and Jaded

1

“Jackson! You fucker! I can’t prove it, but you’re cheating!”

Jackson tossed his shot of tequila back and almost choked when Trick had him laughing. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and pointed at Trick, his mouth curving into a smile. “Don’t blame me because your poker game sucks and only gets worse the more you drink.”

Trick shot his friend the finger and smiled, knowing full well Jackson spoke the truth.

He shook his head wondering why the man continued to play poker with the rest of them when all he did was lose his money. Jackson had tried to teach Trick how to play, but his lessons never stuck. Trick couldn’t bluff for anything and the more he drank, the less he tended to keep his cards to himself, usually flashing them to just about everyone. Get a woman on his lap and he might as well turn his wallet over because what was left of his concentration was gone. His mind turned completely to fucking the woman until she was screaming his name.

“Trick. We’ve told you, man. You don’t have to play. You can still sit at the table and shoot the shit.” Dagger laughed, tossing in his chips. He was the Sons of Redemption VP and he was feeling lucky tonight. He should, he’d won nearly every hand since they started playing.

Because Trick was such a shitty poker player, the brothers only allowed themselves to take a certain amount of money from him. When whoever won the pot pulled the winnings toward themselves, they would split the money into two piles, their actual winnings and what Trick lost. In the morning when he sobered up, he’d find the money he lost already back in his wallet. They all knew he couldn’t afford to lose too much because his ex-old lady would ream him a new ass if she didn’t get her child support on time. Trick might appear to be an unapologetic partier, but the man always did right by his kids. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for his three-year-old little girl, Reagan, and eight-year-old son, Keegan.

The other thing about Trick’s drinking, other than he lost money like water through a sieve, was he could go from happy-go-lucky to ready to kick someone’s ass in less time than it took to say his name.

Race, the Sons of Redemption president, reached out and pulled the pot toward himself and immediately broke the winnings into two piles. It was second nature for everyone to do it and nobody minded it in the least. Brothers looked out for each other. Not that the brothers hadn’t been known to settle an argument with each other using their fists from time to time. As a general rule, though, they liked to kick other people’s asses the most.

“Here you go, Jackson.” Turning his head, he smiled up at Lynnette and wrapped his arm around her slim waist as she stood next to him offering a fresh beer. She was a cute little red head with a great ass and a perky personality. She’d started out as a hang-around, but quickly found she loved the lifestyle and soon became one of the club’s favorite sweetbutts.

“Thanks, darlin’. ’Preciate it.” He gave her ass a firm squeeze and laughed when Trick pulled her down on his lap. Yep. Trick’s game was gone. He was out and they wouldn’t be throwing any cards his way for the rest of the night. He took a deep pull from his bottle before he decided now was as good as time as any to take a piss. “Back in a minute.”

Jackson worked his way through the crowd, heading for his room. Looking around as he went, he could see the place was crowded for a Thursday night. All the brothers were here, as well as the usual sweetbutts and then, there were an unusual number of looky-loos hanging around tonight. It happened sometimes, people, usually women, looking for a walk on the wild side by brushing shoulders with the Sons of Redemption. They would show up hoping to latch onto one of the brothers for a hot and nasty fuck. It kept things interesting and ensured the brothers always had a wide variety of pussy hanging around.

He bumped into a short brunette woman who looked drunk off her ass. She was smiling and her makeup was smeared under her eyes. He watched as she jiggled her tits to get them situated in her dress the way she wanted them. Looking behind her, he saw Jed coming out of his room securing his belt. He smiled wide at Jackson, obviously having had a good time with the woman. Jackson stopped him with a hand on his arm as his friend started past him. “Make sure she gets a cab home.”

“Yep. Just heading that way now. Already called a cab. Gonna grab her friend and walk them out to the gate.”

The Sons didn’t mind hang-arounds coming in and partying with them, but when they couldn’t figure out on their own when they’d had too much to drink, the brothers always made sure they got home. No way were they going to chance having the law on them if someone drove home drunk and ended up getting killed or killing someone else. They didn’t want to be blamed for their drunken state and end up in a lawsuit or have the law snooping around their clubhouse. Although they might be branching off into a new legitimate form of business, they still had a few ventures that were a whole lot less than legal.

Jackson entered his room and headed straight to his bathroom. He flipped the light switch and stepped up to his toilet. He braced one hand on the wall and sighed with relief. “Ahhhhh.” He couldn’t believe how much better he felt after emptying his bladder. Once he was finished, he flushed the toilet, shut off the light and headed back out to the main room.

He was standing at the mouth of the hall when something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Over by the bar stood a group of four women he’d never seen before and immediately knew they were hang-arounds, local women, out looking for a good time. He wondered if any of them were married and hoping to spice up her sex life because good old Gary, or whatever his name was, had gotten too damn vanilla in the bedroom.

Skimming over them again, his body tensed like it did every time he spotted a black-haired woman. He stood not so patiently waiting to get a look at her face. From the back, at this distance, she could pass for Calliope, he supposed. The way the light played off the color, he could see a blue-like sheen dance across the sultry curls. He held his breath until she turned and he could see her eyes were brown, not the unusual turquoise he’d grown to love. His breath left in a rush as he shook his head, wondering when he’d stop looking for her in every crowd. And why did he think she’d show up at the clubhouse, after all this time, out of the blue? That was about as likely to happen as he was to shoot rainbows out of his ass.

“Hey, buddy, what’s got you so tense?” Tuck clapped his hand on Jackson’s shoulder, turning to see what caught his eye. “Oh, I see.”

It was no secret that he checked out every black-haired woman he laid eyes on to see if she was his long lost Calliope. He probably shouldn’t call herhisCalliope since he didn’t really have a claim to her. Not that he didn’t want to have a claim, it was just by the time he figured out she was old enough to pursue, and could handle his club life, she’d taken off on him.

From the time she was sixteen years old, she’d been getting under his skin. It didn’t matter that he was twenty-four at the time. He’d have been a complete eunuch not to notice the natural girl-next-door vibe she had going on. He knew as she got older, she was going to be one of those women that had no clue just how desirable she was. It was something most men were hard pressed to stay away from. It was like catnip to men like him. He was sure it was because he had an overwhelming desire to dirty them up. He’d had his fair share of that kind of woman over the years, but Calliope was different. Even if she was twenty years old when he’d first met her, he’d still feel the need to steer clear of her. She was the kind of girl a guy hung on to and never let go and Jackson wasn’t ready for that at the time. Too many things to do and women to fuck and all that. Plus, and he’d never admit it out loud, she kind scared the bejesus out of him.

He’d been so good at pushing her away all these years, it had become second nature. By the time he figured out he was ready to pursue her, she’d moved away. It left him with a complete loss as to what to do next, if anything. Should he give her time and try again? Leave her alone and let her enjoy her life?

The one time he went to Boulder to try to talk her into coming home, he’d found her standing outside her apartment building. She’d been wrapped in some guys arms, smiling up at him. As he watched, the man threw her over his shoulder and entered her apartment. He’d taken too long to get his head out of his ass. Pissed at himself, he’d gotten back on his bike and headed back to Redemption.

“Come on. Let’s get another beer.” Jackson took off to their table, knowing Tuck was close behind him.

“What the fuck took so long?” Dagger asked.

“Jackson saw another black-haired beauty at the bar.” Tuck filled everyone in.

Sometimes his brothers gossiped like a bunch of busy-body old women. They’d been watching him for years as he pushed her away and held her at a distance. They also knew the struggle he’d dealt with concerning their ages. His dad tossed a look his way, no doubt wondering if he was good. He’d watched Jackson battle his feelings for years just like all the other brothers had. His dad, though, was the only one that knew about his trip to Boulder and how badly it had hurt to see her with that man. From what his mom told him, Calliope was now living in some guy’s house. He wasn’t sure if it was the same guy or another one. That was one of the downsides of his mom and Calliope’s mom being such good friends; he sometimes found out things he’d rather not know. He’d told them both, he didn’t want to know any details of Calliope’s life, and for the most part, except for the occasional slip, they abided by his wishes.

“Hey, Jackson,” Tuck smiled at him from across the table. “You in?”

Mentally shaking his head to clear the memories, he focused on what was in front of him. “Yeah, deal me in.”

Race, the Sons of Redemption president, shuffled the deck and dealt them out to everyone but Trick, who didn’t even notice considering he was busy getting his dick sucked off by Lynnette. Everyone checked their hand and placed their bets.

---