Chapter 1

“Hope? You better be awake! You have 10 minutes to get your ass down to the common room, otherwise I’m leaving without you!” Slade’s voice shouts through my bedroom door.

“Be right down dad!” I quickly finish lacing up my boots before rushing out of my room and down the stairs. Slade has finally agreed to let me tag along to one of the warehouses for delivery check. This means I get to ride Poseidon, the bike Slade got me a year ago for my 18th birthday…which mom was NOT happy about. Mom wants me to stay in the club house with her and the other old ladies, but all I want is to be free. I long for the feeling of my tired gripping the road, the wind in my hair and the sound of Poseidon purring beneath me. I know she worries and I can’t bring myself to tell her, but I do not want her life. I want a life of lawless thrills and adventure!

I make my way down the stairs and into the common room, snagging a croissant off the table as I pass by Amara and Shae. I quickly kiss my mom on the cheek.

“Hope?” I already know what she is going to say, but I indulge her anyway.

“Yes mom?” I smile warmly and wait for the words to spill out.

“Please be careful.” I flash her my usual smile which lets her know I was expecting her to say exactly what she did.

“I will mom. I have Slade and big bad Snake to protect me.” we both giggle and look over to see Snake flexing his muscles with a cheesy grin on his face.

“Let’s ride!” Slade shouts from in front of the front door. Without wasting a moment, we all make our way to the garage and mount up for the ride. The roars of the motorcycles give me goosebumps and oh how I love it. The feeling of the bike gliding across the gravel sends the most delightful surge of energy tearing through me. We make our way down the dirt driveway and ease onto the paved main road. We ride for about 45 minutes before pulling onto another dirt road and after another 15 minutes I can see the top of the warehouse just over the horizon. I can’t help but feel disappointment over how quickly we arrived, but I am hoping that if I can show mom and Slade how responsible I can be, maybe they will trust me to go on more runs with the boys. As we reach the front of the warehouse we are greeted by 3 black SUVs that look drastically out of place. Slade pulls up to the side of the building with the rest of us pulling up alongside him before dismounting and removing our helmets.

“Snake, you take your men to verify the cargo is all there. Hope, you’re with me.” Slade gives his orders and everyone follows, without question. I follow him through the side door, up a set of stairs and down a hall until we arrive at what I assume is Slade’s office. As I follow Slade through the door I see the backs of 4 very large men in what look to be matching expensive black Armani suits.

“Good afternoon gentlemen.” All 4 men return the generic greeting as I take in my surroundings. The room is decent sized with 2 windows that let in a perfect amount of light. Slade sits in a black high back leather office chair in front of a large oak desk that has files and papers scattered about, while the men are seated in smaller black leather chairs. There are file cabinets lining the wall to the right and bookshelves lining the wall to the left. The walls are a boring white, but the floors are a beautiful dark hardwood. I am lost in my observations when Slade speaks.

“This is my daughter Hope.” I am jolted from my daze when he says my name and I flash a quick smile and wave at the men who are all now staring right at me.

“She is a beautiful little thing.” The man on the far left speaks with a very unnerving tone.

“Yes, so…my men are going over the cargo now, but once they verify that everything is accounted for, we can get you paid.” Slade waves his hand at me signaling that I can leave and I do not hesitate to do just that. I make my way down the hall and stop just before the stairs to take in the sights below the railing. I can see Snake and the others sifting through pallets of “cargo” while more men in suits stand at attention on both sides of the pallets. I must have been hyper focused on the men below because I completely missed the sound of mens dress shoes walking across the metal floor toward me.

“I have never known Slade to bring one of the old ladies to one of our business meetings.” The smooth, deep voice startles me.

“I am not one of the old ladies, thank you very much.” I know I should not be so abrasive with a client, but the client should not feel free to assume anything about me either.

“You mean to tell me that a woman as beautiful as you has not been claimed?” I feel my blood boiling.

“I am not a piece of property that one can CLAIM. I don’t know who the hell you are, but with how you dress, I woulda thought your momma woulda taught you some damn manners!” I hope my words and unwillingness to even look at the man will encourage this asshole to leave, but I know they missed their mark when he takes a step closer.

“You are a feisty one. Your name is Hope, right? My name is Marco.” I finally turn to look at the ignorant man who thinks it is ok to invade my personal space. As soon as I turn around my breath catches. This man is beautiful. He has medium length black hair, perfectly golden skin, dark brown eyes and the most perfectly chiseled jaw and cheek bones. His suit is perfectly hugging every delightful curve of him and I struggle to compose myself for a moment.

“So Marco, do you go around assuming that every woman is nothing more than an object to be possessed, or am I just ?” I draw out the last word with angry intent.

“I am sorry if I offended you, Hope. It was certainly not my intention. I have never met any of the women from your compound so I guess I was just caught off guard.” His words almost seem sincere, but his wicked grin tells a whole other story.

“I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction of thinking you offended me. I am merely annoyed by your assumption.” I turn and look back at the men below, but I can feel his eyes on me still.

“So you are Slade’s daughter? I didn’t know he had any children.” I knew this was likely because he did not want people to have more information than what is necessary. Less information means less leverage that can be used against him.

“He took me in when I was young.” that’s right Hope, keep it short and to the point.

“Everything seems to be in order, let’s get your money so we can all get out of here.” Slade shouts from the door to his office.

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Hope.” I hear his footsteps as he walks back down the hall. It takes less than 30 minutes for Slade to wrap things up and as we make our way to our bikes I can feel Marco’s eyes on me the whole time. I climb on my bike and look over to see him watching me with a devilish grin pulling at his perfect lips. I am pulled back by the sound of the metal beasts around me coming to life. I quickly fire up Poseidon and pull my helmet on, securing it snugly. As we head down the dirt road I don’t know how, but I know Marco watched until we were completely out of sight. The ride home was calming and ended much too quickly for my liking. Once we have parked our bikes, we make our way back into the club house where I find mom waiting in the common room.

“How did everything go?” why does she always have to sound so nervous?

“It went fine.” I flash a quick smile as I drop into the chair beside her.

“Yeah, went real fine. Our little Hope caught the eye of Marco Gutierez.” Snake spits out in a snarky tone.

“Hope! You should not be getting involved with the Gutierez family! WHat the hell were you thinking?!” Cherilie scolds and she shoots me a heated gaze.

“I’m not getting involved with anybody! He is the one who talked to me and if I am being honest, I was a complete bitch to him, so if he is interested it sure wasn’t in my personality.” Snake bursts out laughing.

“Hope, I want you to steer clear of Marco. He isn’t a criminal and not a good person.” I roll my eyes as Cherilie continues scolding me.

“You do realize that we just did a drug deal with them right? Doesn’t that mean that we are criminals too?” Snake falls silent for a moment before breaking the silence.

“You have a point there, but the whole Guterez family are murderous psychopaths.” I whip around and give Snake a cold glare.

“Do you think I don’t know what you men do in the basement?” he holds his hands up in surrender.

“We are just trying to keep you safe. I want you to promise me that you will stay away from him.” well, now I am pissed.

“I am not a fucking child anymore! I am 19, not 5 and you cannot tell me who I can and cannot be around!” I storm out the front door of the club house and beeline straight to Poseidon. I quickly throw my helmet on, fire him up and tear out of the parking lot without looking back. The very second my tires grip the pavement I feel my body relax. The cool air rushing past me mixed with the mighty roar of my steel beast are the best stress relief.