Sully (Henchmen MC: Next Generation #13)

Chapter Six

CHAPTER SIX

Bonnie

There was a soft knock at the door a while later, just when I’d managed to slip away into an old comfort show.

But it didn’t sound like Sully. The knock had been too soft, too tentative.

“Yeah?” I called, just as unsure.

The door creaked open.

Then there was a woman holding a to-go bag.

She was tall and willowy with thick dark hair and chocolate-brown eyes under the thickest lashes I’d ever seen. Her face was round and feminine. I swear I instantly felt any confidence I had starting to slip away just looking at her and all her effortless pretty. I was pretty sure she wasn’t even wearing any makeup.

“I’m Layna,” she said, stepping inside and leaving the door slightly open. “Your food is here, and I didn’t want it to get cold while I ran around looking for Sully.”

“Oh, thanks. That was nice of you,” I said, starting to climb out of the bed.

“No. Nope. Keep your ass in the bed. You are supposed to be resting. These men at this club take the ‘let the lady rest’ shit very seriously. It’s cute. So long as it isn’t you stuck in bed for an elongated period of time, being treated like you’re made of glass.”

I couldn’t help it; my mind wandered right back to the bathroom. To how gentle Sully had been when treating my head, how firm and practiced his fingers had been as they worked out the knots in my neck and back that I was sure had been there since I was born.

Though those sweet thoughts were quickly replaced with more embarrassing ones. Like I was almost certain that I’d made little whimpering sounds when he kept massaging me.

I didn’t really mean to. But, God, it had been so long since I’d been touched. It felt better than I remembered.

“So,” Layna said, going into Sully’s closet and coming back with a melamine tray featuring flamingo pool floats all over it. “Oh, don’t worry,” she said, seeing something on my face that she wanted to brush away. “I’ve never fucked Sully. I mean, not that I haven’t thought about it. I mean, have you seen him? Thoroughly fuckable. But he’s a patched member. And I’m a princess. It’s forbidden. The guys around here also take that very seriously. And, amazingly, our fathers don’t seem to care if we all end up bitter old ladies because they wouldn’t let us date club guys. Anyway, what was I saying?”

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “You got the tray from the closet.”

“Right. Yeah, I know where it is because Sully likes to crash girls’ nights, so we always need an extra tray or two for snacks. So… that’s how I know it’s there. He’s like a brother to me.”

“A bangable brother,” I mused, lips twitching.

“What can I say? I have complex feelings. So,” she went on, placing the tray on my lap, then putting the bag on the foot of the bed to reach inside. “We have… baked ziti. Excellent choice,” she said, popping off the plastic top and placing the round tin on the tray. “Noodles and cheese can fix pretty much everything, in my humble opinion.”

“And potatoes,” I agreed.

“Which explains this,” Layna said with a strange little smile as she pulled out another tin. I’d only asked for the ziti, so I had no idea what she had.

“What is it?”

“Tater tots,” she said, placing the container on the other side of the tray. “Three’s also garlic bread, of course. And… oh, an iced tea. And utensils, of course,” she added, dropping the little packet on the tray. “You are all set.”

“Want some tater tots?” I asked, knowing there was no way I could eat all of this food.

“I thought you’d never ask,” she said, kicking off her boots, then climbing over me to get on the other side of the bed. “So, what are we watching?”

“ Gilmore Girls, ” I told her, shocked and charmed by her casual familiarity. Everything about her gave me the impression that she was a woman used to being around lots of other women. She’d mentioned having girls’ nights. There was just something so easy and relaxed about her. Even though I was a complete stranger.

“Always a good choice. The girls and I used to do a rewatch every fall. Until everyone started to get lives and all that other boring shit. These are surprisingly good, coming from an Italian place,” she said, popping another tot into her mouth.

“Yeah,” I agreed, finding they had just the right crunch.

“So, you almost got blown up today, huh?”

The casual way she’d said it nearly made me choke on my food.

“Uh… yeah, I guess.”

“Was it super hot when Sully took charge and disarmed it?”

“You’re asking as a completely uninterested sister, of course?” I teased.

“Of course,” she said with a smile.

“Honestly? I was too busy trying not to pee my pants to notice,” I admitted.

“Understandable. It’s not every day you deal with a bomb.”

“Yet you’re talking about it like it might be.”

“Guns? Sure. Bombs… not so much.”

“The club is that dangerous?”

“Oh, that’s not what I meant. Not really. I was talking more about just… guns in general. I have one. We all do. And we have some girls’ nights where we go to the range. It’s owned by one of the club guys. Which you would think would get us a discount. Alas…”

“I’ve never even held a gun,” I admitted.

“Really? Wow. I can show you mine sometime. After all these tots are eaten, of course. We have a very limited window where we can eat them before they get soggy.”

And so we did.

We tore through the tots, Layna eating roughly sixty percent of them. Then we got to work on the baked ziti. I used the fork while Layna hilariously tried to make a plastic spork work for her. All the while, she kept up a nearly unrelenting commentary on all things Gilmore Girls and Stars Hollow.

It was nice.

It was—dare I even think it—almost like having a friend of my very own.

The door nudged open sometime later, bringing in Sully, who paused to rock back on his heels, his head nodding.

“Not gonna lie, two women in my bed is never a bad thing to walk in on.”

“Perv,” Layna teased, tossing the plastic knife at him. “Where have you been? I had to help Bonnie here eat half of her food.”

“Knowing you, it was two-thirds,” he said.

“Guilty,” Layna admitted, shooting me a repentant look.

“How was it?” Sully asked, looking at me.

“Really good,” she said. “Does this place offer online ordering, by any chance?” I asked.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Layna shooting Sully a curious look. That he promptly ignored.

“Think they do. And if they don’t, I can tell them to start.”

“Are you friends with them?” I asked.

“Oh, was this from Lucky’s place?” she asked. Then, after she got her confirmation, to me, “Lucky Grassi. He’s in the mob. And the mob is an ally to the club. So… yeah, if Sully asked them to implement online ordering, they totally would. That said, knowing Lucky, he probably already has it. They’re good businessmen, those Grassi guys.”

“Get that dreamy look out of your eyes. They’re as off-limits to you as we are,” Sully said, good-naturedly teasing Layna.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the whole club was like this. Less like a business organization and more like a giant family. If it was the latter, how nice that must be for all of them.

No lonely Friday nights alone.

No holidays without any company, without gifts, without anyone to celebrate your highs and lows with.

“Okay, well. I’m going to go see if Gracie showed her ass up yet or not,” Layna said, climbing over me and off of the bed, pausing only to take the tray off of my lap, taking it with her out of the room.

“How’re you feeling?” Sully asked.

“The food helped.”

“But your head is still pounding,” he said, moving over to sit on the side of the bed.

“Yeah, a little.” It was a lot, but I didn’t want to complain.

“Got anything against some over-the-counter pain meds?” he asked.

“I have home, car, and purse ibuprofen,” I admitted.

“Getting older is fun, right?” Sully asked, shaking his head. “I have a knee that tells me when it’s gonna rain. But because your head got bumped, we’re gonna skip the ibuprofen and go with some acetaminophen instead.”

“Okay,” I agreed, pulling my arms out of the blanket to reach and start to slide up the sleeve of my shirt.

“What’s up?” Sully asked when I strained to look.

“My arm is sore,” I told him, twisting to attempt to get a better look, but it was no use.

“Can I look?” he asked, scooting the lamp closer.

“Sure,” I agreed, yanking my sleeve up higher. “Do you see anything?” I asked when he leaned over, making his hair fall forward to curtain his face, and bringing a new rush of that peaches and vanilla scent. Was it his shampoo that smelled so good?

“Uh, yeah,” he said with a sigh as he moved to straighten again. “Unfortunately, yeah.”

“What does that mean? What is it?”

“I’m no expert, but it looks like a needle mark.”

“A needle mark?”

“I was kind of wondering about that, actually. But didn’t want to freak you out.”

“Well, you’re freaking me out now,” I said, feeling my chest already starting to grow tight.

“So, you know that thing in movies and TV where someone gets hit on the head… then they wake up hours later?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, it’s mostly bullshit. I mean, for moderate or severe brain injuries, it’s possible. But most people who knock out from getting hit on the head are out for less than fifteen minutes.”

“But I—“

“Was kept for hours, yeah,” he finished for me. “Which made me wonder how he kept you out for longer. This,” he said, waving toward my arm, “seems to explain it.”

“He drugged me? Shouldn’t I… feel something?”

“I think you probably slept most of it off. Then, when you woke up, the adrenaline you felt about the bomb and shit kinda counteracted any lingering effects.”

“What could he have used?”

“There are a few things,” Sully said, shrugging his shoulder. “None of them are anything to worry about since you’re here, you’re awake, and you’re not experiencing any weird side effects.”

“Okay,” I said, but the way my heart was pounding said nothing at all was okay about that.

“But it might also give me… something to go on.”

“How so?”

“There’s really nothing he could have had legally to knock you out like that. Which means the club can start hitting up local dealers, see if anyone had a client who fit your rough description.”

‘Rough’ was hardly an adequate word. I mean, I’d had almost nothing to give him. Average height and husky with tight clothes? No hair or eye color. No tattoos. Nothing useful.

But maybe we could hope for a little miracle.

“I’m just gonna grab you those meds,” he said, walking into the bathroom, rattling around, then coming back with two pills that I happily took, though it seemed like they got stuck in my too-tight throat.

“Thanks,” I said, then stiffened as the door pushed open behind him. I really didn’t think I could handle another person right then.

Only, it wasn’t a person.

It was a dog.

A big, chunky Rottweiler, in fact.

“Oh, hey, bud,” Sully said, putting a hand on the dog’s big block head. “This is Nitro. He belongs to one of the club guys. And he’s… oh, okay. Is that okay?” he asked.

Not that Nitro cared for permission as he hefted his considerable body up onto the bed, climbed up toward the top, and dropped down next to me with a long-suffering sigh.

“It’s fine,” I said, smiling at the dog as he eyed me for a second, then half-rolled onto his back, silently asking for a belly rub. “More than fine,” I added, rubbing all over until I found the spot just under his rib that got his foot tapping. “That’s a good boy,” I cooed. “You’re just a big, silly lover, huh?” Glancing up, I caught Sully smiling down at me. “I really love dogs,” I said, embarrassed he’d heard me using my baby voice on Nitro.

“You don’t have one at home that hasn’t been fed or let out, right?”

I was kind of insulted that he thought I could forget something so important. “No. My building doesn’t allow dogs.”

“Lame,” Sully said as Nitro rolled completely onto his back to give me more access. “You’d never know he was a junkyard dog by looking at him now.”

“Were you a big, scary boy?” I asked as his tongue lolled out of his mouth.

“Voss didn’t like how he was being treated. So he went back and stole him.”

“A totally acceptable reaction,” I said.

“What kind of dog would you get if you could have one? Big? Small? Purebred? Mutt?”

“They’re all good,” I decided. “My only real dealbreaker is that I want a dog that is dog-friendly, so I can bring them to work with me.”

“Kinda got the perfect job for a dog lover, huh?”

“It really is. I hated every other job I ever had before this. Now, I’d usually rather be there than at home.”

“You’ll like hanging here. Someone is always dropping by with their dogs. Or leaving them here if they are going away on vacation or shit like that. Oh, that then there’s Charlie on occasion, too.”

“Charlie?”

“An umbrella cockatoo. Belongs to the wife of one of the OG members. Really sweet. But destructive as fuck. When we were watching him once, we made the mistake of walking away for, I dunno, twenty minutes. He chewed through one of the legs on the pool table.”

“I love birds too. I think I just work too much for them. They need a lot of social time. And I can’t exactly bring a bird to work, since not all the boys are as good as this boy,” I said, giving his belly quicker rubs.

“Nitro… where’d you go, you big doofus?” a female voice called, moving closer, then stopping in the doorway. “Look at you, you big traitor.”

“He goes where the belly rubs are.”

“And the most comfortable bed to rest on,” the woman said.

“Syl, this is Bonnie. Bonnie, Syl. This is her dog.”

“And he is standing between me and my coffee. Come on, buddy,” she called, patting her leg. Then, with a knowing smile, “I’ll get you some whippy!”

That had Nitro scrambling to get up, nearly knocking me off the bed in the process, dragging a laugh out of me.

It was the calmest I’d felt since work the night before.

“Thanks for loving on him,” Syl said as she followed her dog out.

“That was a mood elevator, huh?” Sully asked.

“Forgot all about everything else for a minute.”

“Hmm…” he said.

“Hmm, what?”

“Nothing. Just… hmm,” he said, but there was a wicked kind of gleam in his eyes. “Your eyes are looking a little heavy. Want me to leave you alone so you can take a nap?”

“Is there a spare room around here?” I asked. “Or a couch somewhere?”

“Not that you need to know about,” he said. “You’re staying here in my room. For as long as you want or need. There’s plenty of other places for me to crash.”

“I can’t put you out of your room.”

“I’m the reason you had a bomb strapped to your chest today, baby. You can have my kidney if you want it.”

“But—“

“No buts. When we’re staying here, you’re in my room. You got a fully stocked bathroom. A TV with every streaming service known to mankind. Not because I actually watch them all, but because I forgot the passwords for most of the accounts to cancel them. You can even steal some of my clothes to hold you over for the time being. Believe it or not, I do own things other than my fantastic Hawaiian shirt collection.”

“Thank you,” I said, more than a little tempted to steal one of his shirts to wear.

“But you’re also free to leave the room anytime you want. There’s a whole world of fun out there: bar, pool table, poker table, darts, gaming consoles, a kitchen. Even got a hot tub out back. And I’m working on getting an adult playground built.”

“What is an adult playground?”

“I’ll have to show you the plans,” he said. “Maybe over breakfast,” he added, speaking like it was bedtime, even though it was hardly dinner hour.

That said, I was actually exhausted. I always was even after just a small panic attack. This whole ordeal seemed to suck the life out of me.

“Okay,” I agreed, giving him a small smile.

“Call me if you need me, okay? Or wander out if you want. I’ll be close by.”

With that, he was gone.

And I was alone.

Sniffing his pillow to get another hit of that peaches and vanilla scent.

Where I normally tossed and turned, overthinking about what other people might think of as forgettable little embarrassments, in Sully’s bed, I was out cold in moments.