6. Chapter 6
BONER
Three in the mornin’ and the clubhouse was still filled with people. It was a Saturday, which meant partyin’, and a club party didn’t ever really end until the light had come up and some Old Lady or biker groupie started to make breakfast for the men still drunk enough to be wakeful and the poor bastards woken by their hangovers.
It wasn’t about the partyin’ though; the booze and the weed and the constant thrum’a bass through the worn floorboards.
It was about family.
About celebratin’ the fact we were alive and safe and so fuckin’ loved you could feel it like somethin’ in the air.
It seemed Blue could smell it too, ski-jump nose tipped high as she dragged a breath of smoky air into her little lungs. Her eyes were wide but unsurprised as she took in the bikers loungin’ ’round the large room, hangin’ at the bar draped over stools or slouched into deep leather couches. Nova and Lila swayed on a makeshift dance floor, tangled together almost indecently, makin’ out as they ground their hips together in a lush, slow-kinda tango. Axe-Man, Mei, Harleigh Rose, and Lion were usin’ the dart board for knife throwin’ target practice with Bea cheering them on and Priest lookin’ on impassively, probably ’cause none’a them were as good as him. Bat, Dane, Curtains, and Buck played pool in the back corner, but the red-headed fuck I called my best friend noticed me instantly and made his way over with a curious frown.
Zeus tagged me too, his eyes sharp and alert despite the fact it was three in the mornin’ and he had a set’a twin toddlers that kept him up most nights. He unfolded from the couch where he’d been shootin’ the shit with his son, King.
He and Curtains hit me at the same time.
“You pick up a stowaway at Beaker’s?” Zeus asked, towerin’ over Blue by more than ten inches. His fierce, craggy face was fixed in a scowl that coulda seemed furious if you didn’t know him well.
“What’s in the bags?” Curtains asked next, eyes narrowed at the duffels Blue and I carried. “See, Z, this is why I shoulda gone with him. Boner never does things right.”
I rolled my eyes. “I get things done. Who the fuck cares if they’re right?”
Beside me, Blue smiled. Even outta the corner’a my eye, that shit was gorgeous.
“You deal with business ’fore you picked up a pretty girl?” Z asked.
“A little more business than I was expectin’, but yeah,” I agreed, then handed the duffel to Curtains. “There were trackers in the bag, but they were hot on our tail, so I had to get rid’a them.”
“Dude, I could’a done a reverse––” Curtains started, geeky excitement lightin’ up his eyes.
I held up a hand. “Not sure this is related to Beak, but I came across some thugs robbin’ Evergreen Gas Station tonight.” I winced at the look on both Curtains’ and Z’s faces ’cause they were right, it was fuckin’ dumb to get involved, but… “They tried to fuck up Blue here, and I stepped in. Wasn’t gonna let them hurt or take her, and that’s what they had planned after robbin’ the place. The motherfuckers fucked up my bike, so we took off in their van and found these.”
Lion approached then, his cop instincts probably goin’ off like an alarm after the call I put in to him. “What’ve you got here, Boner?”
I jerked my chin at Blue, who unzipped the top’a one bag to show the glitterin’ hoard within. “Think we might’ve stumbled on the stolen loot from the jewelry robberies you mentioned.”
“Fuck,” Lion and Zeus said at the same time for different reasons.
“That’s about the extent’a it, yeah,” I agreed. “They came after us, but I threw the trackers out and lost them on the Sea to Sky. Figured we could talk next moves here.”
“Good thinkin’,” Lion agreed.
“You’re not gonna call the cops?” I tested ’cause Lion was a private dick now, but old instincts die hard sometimes.
He crossed his arms and glared at me in response.
I grinned.
“We’ll talk ’bout this in private,” Z asserted with a frownin’ nod at Blue, but there was a wealth’a thought behind that gunmetal gaze.
“You got no fear in those eyes lookin’ at me and mine,” he said, slow and deep in a voice rough as gravel under tires. When I was a prospect, just the sound’a that voice used to scare the shit outta me. Now it was as familiar and soothin’ as the hum’a Harley pipes.
Blue shrugged one shoulder but subtly shifted her body into mine. The little move set flame to my lungs and made it kinda difficult to breathe. It was probably my wistful imagination, but I thought she smelled like me. Like us. The sweet-salt of satisfaction. I could still feel the wet phantom clutch of her around my spent cock, and it gave a twitch at the thought of takin’ her again.
“I didn’t know Aaron was a brother in a club.” Her voice was sharp-edged, cutting at me even as she leaned into me, like she resented me for the omission, and herself for not carin’ enough to cut me out for it. “But I should’ve. It makes sense.”
“You didn’t ask,” I pointed out, bumpin’ her with my shoulder. “I did tell ya about my brothers.”
“You weren’t wearing one of those.” She gestured to Zeus and Curtains’ leather cuts covered in a variety’a patches that denoted their rank and chapter in The Fallen MC. “Maybe I was being deliberately obtuse. I don’t usually like to associate with criminals.”
Zeus raised a brow at her, then cut his gaze to me.
You vouchin’ for her ? the look asked.
I jerked my chin slightly without hesitation.
Hell yeah .
Maybe I’d only known her a couple’a hours, but that’s the way it’d happened for all the important relationships in my life. Met Curtains when I was on the hunt to save my sister years ago and knew by the end’a the night I’d forged a bond’a brotherhood with the skinny, freckled kid. The story’a how I met Z was more complicated, but followed those same lines.
I knew.
Not with my eyes, just seein’ them like love at first sight or some fairy-tale kinda shit.
I knew it the way certain birds know to migrate south, as if the impulse to love them was programmed in me, layin’ latent ’til the right trigger ignited it inside’a my soul.
That was how I felt about Curtains and Zeus.
And now, I had that feelin’ about Blue.
Like I’d been waitin’ for her.
Zeus read it all in me as easy as a fuckin’ picture book. A grin edged the corner’a his mouth in his dark beard as he reached forward to clap a hand on my shoulder and squeeze hard.
“You might not do shit the traditional way, Boner, my man, but you gotta way’a goin’ above and beyond for those lucky enough to have your loyalty.”
His words hit my gut like expensive rum, warmin’ me through to the bone. I reached up, slightly over Blue, to clamp my own hand on his shoulder too. It closed the loop’a energy between us so I could feel the tangible electric current’a our bond prickle along my skin.
“You give a man a good home, he’ll fight to keep it,” I reminded him ’cause he’d once said those very words to me when I was young and heartbroken with loss and so alone I thought I’d rather die than go on.
In answer, he shook me slightly, movin’ his hand up to cup the side’a my neck ’fore releasin’ me. When he stepped back, he dipped his head to grin at Blue.
“You’re welcome here.” He extended his hand and waited patiently for Blue to take it. Her fingers were engulfed in a big, tatted palm that had killed more men than I knew, but his touch was all gentleness. “You’ll find good people, you’re open to lookin’ beyond the surface.”
’Fore Blue could respond, the door opened behind us, and a blur of blonde hair streaked between us and Zeus. Loulou crashed into her man without care, knowin’ he’d catch her exactly the way he did, hands to her ass, liftin’ her into the air so she could wrap her legs ’round his waist. They kissed then, long and wet and totally uncarin’a the audience ’fore them ’cause they were totally caught up in each other.
Blue blinked at them, then looked up at me. “I forgot how, uh, affectionate bikers can be.”
I chuckled, taggin’ her hip to drag her back against me. She was so tiny the top’a her electric blue head only met the middle’a my sternum, but those sweet, soft curves pressed into me like a fuckin’ dream. When I ducked down to whisper in her ear, the scent’a sweetness like bubble gum met my nose and hardened my dick.
“You feelin’ neglected, Blue, I have a mind to show you just how affectionate I can be.”
“I think you just did,” she teased with a charmin’ kinda reluctance.
I grinned wolfishly. “I don’t mind givin’ you another reminder.”
She squirmed but didn’t move away. “You’re a slut, Aaron.”
“If bein’ a slut means I like sex and I’m talented in the sack, I’ll have to agree with ya.” My teeth found the lobe of her ear and nibbled at the edge in a way that set her hips cantin’ back into the bowl’a my groin. “You got a problem with that?”
“No.” The word was breathy, sweet as sin. “But that doesn’t mean I want any part of it again.”
“Ah, but I think you do, liar,” I countered, vaguely aware that Zeus and Loulou were pullin’ apart finally, and Curtains and Lion were discussin’ what to do about the stolen loot. “How about I play you for the right to seduce ya again? Take your pick: darts, pool, or cards.”
She peered back up at me, strands of blue hair stickin’ in her dark lashes, as vivid as those wide eyes. “And if I win?”
“You win, I drive you home like a gentleman and never bother you again,” I promised, just hopin’ to see a trickle’a disappointment in her gaze.
I was rewarded with a flash’a it, lightnin’ quick and bright across her face.
Masculine satisfaction rumbled through me.
She bit her lip as her gaze slid fearfully to the pool table ’fore dartin’ back to my face. “I don’t know, I’m not really good at any of them. Maybe you pick?”
My wicked heart rejoiced. The idea of watchin’ her bend over a pool table was too good to pass up, and if her shaky look at the table was any indication, it would be an easy win.
As desperate as I already was to feel her around me again, I took the easy road.
“Pool it is, then.”
“We’ll play with you,” Loulou proclaimed, havin’ finally unattached her mouth from her man’s. She beamed at Blue, and my heart gave a little pang ’cause it was just like her to roll out the welcome mat when one’a her boys brought a woman home to meet the family. “I’m Loulou, but the brothers call me Foxy, and you can feel free to do the same. I have to say your hair is incredible. I wonder if I could pull off blue like that.”
Z growled, fistin’ his big hand in the back of her white-blonde hair. “You could pull off a sack over your fuckin’ head, little Lou, doesn’t mean you should.”
She laughed up at him, blindingly bright.
Fuck, but I wanted Blue to look at me like that. Like I’d hung the damn moon in the sky just for her enjoyment.
“Thanks,” Blue murmured, a little shy and a whole lotta cute. “Your hair is gorgeous, though. No matter what I try in the salon, I could never mix such a pretty blonde.”
Loulou’s eyes sparkled, and she stepped forward to slot her arm through my new woman’s, bendin’ to chatter in her ear as she dragged her off to the empty pool table.
“We’ll get a head start on this,” Lion proclaimed as he and Curtains took up the duffels and started to move through the clubhouse on their way to Curtains’ office. I didn’t have a clue what kinda shit those two got up to most’a the time, especially when Axe-Man and King got involved talkin’ numbers and codes and shit. So I was happy to take a load off for a second and enjoy the high of my family meetin’ this blue-hearted girl who’d already left an ink stain on the skin over my heart.
“Sweet as fuck, brother,” Zeus decreed, clampin’ a hand over my shoulder as we moved to follow them. “She a keeper?”
“Known her like five hours and I’m already picturin’ a thousand more nights like this, so yeah, I’m thinkin’, she lets me keep her, it’s a done deal.”
Zeus shook his head, bitin’ off the edge’a his smile. “Fallin’ like flies these days.”
“Flies to honey,” I agreed ’cause there was no way to look at Mei perched on Axe-Man’s back about to throw a knife from her perch, both’a them laughin’ or Nova spinnin’ Lila around the floor like they were alone in a dark room, or Priest pinnin’ a smilin’ Bea to his side and not see the joy the women brought my brothers.
I’d never wanted that, never even thought about that for myself, and now, lookin’ at Blue as she stood by Lou rackin’ up the pool balls, laughin’ a little at somethin’ she said, I wanted it more than anythin’.
And I wanted it with her.
“Uh-oh,” King said, appearin’ beside me with his crooked grin. “I know that look.”
“What look?”
“The look’a a man who's been enchanted and never wants to break the fuckin’ spell,” he said with a laugh, squeezin’ my neck in comradery. “Welcome to the club, man.”
“Happy for you, but we still got business to discuss,” Z reminded me before handin’ me a pool cue. “We wipe the floor with ’em, then talk in the chapel, yeah?”
“Shouldn’t take long,” I promised, grinnin’ at Blue as she awkwardly took a cue from Loulou and stared at it skeptically. “I’m countin’ on an easy win.”
Twenty minutes later, I was starin’ gobsmacked as Blue folded her curves over the felt, lined up an almost impossible bank shot, and sank the eight ball without blinkin’ a goddamn eye.
“You fuckin’ hoodwinked me,” I accused her, stalkin’ over to pin her against the table. “You little hustler!”
She shrugged one shoulder but couldn’t contain the triumphant grin splittin’ her rosy lips. “It was just so easy, Aaron. Like taking candy from a baby.”
I pressed my groin tight to hers, bendin’ my head to nip at her ear, and whispered, “Do I need to remind ya just how much of a man I am? Just how hard I can be?”
She giggled, and fuck me, that sound was gold, silver, and bronze wrapped up in her soft little package. “Maybe you should, but you didn’t win this little bet. I did, so maybe I should show you some things this time.”
“Oh, fuck yeah,” I agreed heartily, droppin’ my cue to the floor so I could cup the generous swell of her fine ass in my hands. “Givin’ sore loser a new meanin’ if you’re talkin’ about ridin’ me ’til I can’t feel my legs.”
She rocked to her tiptoes, nipped my chin, and grinned. “I am.”
“Definitely a keeper.” I was vaguely aware of Z sayin’ from the other side’a the table ’fore I bent my head to take Blue’s hot mouth with mine.
A keeper. Kissin’ her there after shootin’ the shit with my family, Blue fittin’ in just right like she’d been born to be at my side, it wasn’t hard to imagine more nights like this. Plantin’ her sweet ass on the back’a my bike, wakin’ up to her soft body pressed to mine, her smile a gift I got every single fuckin’ day…
Yeah.
Yeah, that sounded about right.
She thought she wasn’t worth the trouble, but she didn’t get yet that I was the kinda man who thrived on gettin’ into messes and gettin’ out (relatively) unscathed. Whatever trouble she’d bought, I’d take care’a it ’cause even after a single night, I knew in my bones she was worth it.
I was just easin’ into the heat buildin’ between the two’a us when there was commotion outside the clubhouse and a sound that made me go cold.
Bang .
A gunshot.
I was twirlin’, pushin’ Blue behind me as I faced the door ’fore I could even think about it. Z was already sprintin’ across the room, faster than he shoulda been able to at his age with his bulk, his gun in one hand.
“Get the Old Ladies and women to the back right fuckin’ now ,” he roared before pryin’ open the door and disappearin’ outside.
Axe-Man and Priest were on his heels, a gun and knife in their hands, respectively. They slithered out the front door behind him like shadows, soft and deadly.
I took a breath then, knowin’ Z had backup.
“Get to the back, yeah?” I told Blue, facin’ her to find worry etched into her white-washed face. “Stick with Mei and Harleigh Rose. They’re about as deadly as the rest’a the men in the club.”
“Aaron,” she whispered, clutching at my wrist. “Be safe, too. Okay? I had a feeling Otto wouldn’t give up, and…well, if I brought trouble to this doorstep, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about that. Just go,” I ordered, punchin’ a kiss to her lips so she’d feel me even after I followed the rest’a the brothers out the door.
Curtains caught up to me ’fore we muscled through it, shovin’ me in the shoulder in a silent show’a partnership.
The Fallen MC Compound took up two acres’a land beside the West River that cut through Entrance and delineated the posh fuckers from the normal folk. Our main front, Hephaestus Auto, set back from the road behind an eleven-foot chain-link fence, took up most’a the front lot, but the clubhouse was tucked just behind and to the right’a it. Obviously, the motherfuckers had climbed the damn fence to get inside the locked gates.
They were idiots for thinkin’ that was our first and only line’a security.
Our prospect, Carson, had been keepin’ an eye on the monitors from behind the bar inside the clubhouse, but it was Wrath who’d been skulkin’ outside to brood and first seen the intruders. He stood head and shoulders above the one he held in a chokehold lookin’ like he could’a taken a nap even though the man struggled in his arms.
Dude was built like a brick shit house, and nothin’ ever got to him.
Not even four men with guns in our front parkin’ lot.
Another man lay on the ground moanin’, clutchin’ his right shoulder. Bat loomed over him, boot planted in the middle of the man’s chest, and his gun trained right between his eyes. Dane stood behind him like his shadow, mouth curled into a sneer as he trained his two Smith & Wesson pistols at Bat’s captive.
I wondered what the two of them had been doin’ outside when they came over the fence, but even brothers were entitled to their secrets.
Besides, the second my eyes caught on the bastard locked in a stand down with Zeus, I lost my motherfuckin’ mind.
It was Otto.
I swung over the railin’ on the clubhouse landin’ and stood easily, already springin’ across the lot in a jog ’til I reached Z’s side.
“Stand the fuck down, or I’ll gun you down right here,” Zeus was growlin’.
Otto didn’t say a word, but even in the low light, I could see his hand tremble.
“I’d do what he goddamn says, Otto,” I said pleasantly enough, but my grin felt feral on my face, and I was one second away from foamin’ at the damn mouth. “He’s not the kind to fuck around with threats.”
“I’m just here for the girl.”
The three other men were standin’ free with their guns trained on our semi-circle’a Fallen brothers, but it was obvious they were takin’ their lead from Otto.
So I made a split-second decision from the gut ’cause instinct had driven me my whole damn life and rarely led me astray.
I stalked forward, ignorin’ the three guns suddenly aimed at me, knowin’ my brothers would have my back, and I didn’t stop ’til Otto was within my reach. The gun shook in his grip but steadied when I pressed my chest into the barrel.
“Watch your––” he started to demand.
But the only authority I listened to my whole damn life was Zeus’s, so I didn’t heed his order.
Instead, I cocked my fist back and hammered it down on his weak motherfuckin’ chin.
He crumpled to his knees with a whine that deepened into a guttural groan. While he was vulnerable, I kicked him in the sternum and then pinned him there with my boot when he fell onto his back on the asphalt.
Someone cocked their gun to my left, but I heard Nova growl, “You’re dead before you pull that trigger.”
Silence and stillness reigned.
Only then did I crouch, still half raised by Otto’s body beneath my right boot, and wave my gun in his face. “What’s this about a girl?”
“I-I need the girl, man,” he stuttered. “It was part of my deal with the Raiders.”
Tension rose behind me like a tsunami wave bearin’ down on my back. The White Raiders were an Albertan gang with no ties to British Columbia that any’a us knew about. Why the fuck would they be enroachin’ on our territory?
Occupyin’ the Sea to Sky Highway leadin’ tip to toe along the province and then deep into the States all the way to Mexico meant we were used to protectin’ our territory. But the Raiders were small fish suddenly swimmin’ in our shark invested waters. There was zero fuckin’ reason they should think they could take down our crew.
“What’s a BC boy got to do with Alberta bikers?” I asked, grateful Z was lettin’ me take the lead, ’cause I wasn’t capable’a backin’ down when this asshole was a direct threat to Blue.
“I tried to blackmail the prez,” Otto admitted pitifully. “I knew he’d been looking for his daughter, and when I figured out I’d found her, I reached out.”
I laughed, the sound meaner than I’d ever heard it. “Let me guess, that didn’t go to fuckin’ plan?”
“He told me I wanted to live, I’d do a job for him.”
“The robberies,” I guessed.
He nodded, eyes rollin’ wild as loose marbles in his skull, then fixin’ on somethin’ behind me.
Someone.
Zeus squeezed my shoulder but didn’t say a word, just lendin’ his intimidatin’ as fuck presence to scare the man outta his mind.
“Why?” I asked, lowerin’ my gun ’til it was pressed between his eyes.
He swallowed hard but didn’t answer, so I pulled back and drilled a round into the concrete beside his ear. He writhed, his hands flyin’ up to cup his ears.
“Why?” I roared, leanin’ down into his face.
“He needed money to fund the move!”
“The move?”
“Fuck,” Otto cried out when Zeus handed me his wicked curved knife, and I pressed it to his throat. “Fuck! The move to BC. They’re here, forty fuckin’ minutes south in Newstone.”
Fury emanated from Zeus like heat waves buffetin’ my back.
A rival club movin’ forty minutes from Entrance was as good a declaration’a war as them showin’ up with guns at our doorstep like these idiots. And based on the rage I felt from Zeus, this was more than just a mistake.
This was a deliberate insult, a personal vendetta.
They were gunnin’ for us.
And, it seemed, they wanted Blue.
“Why do you want the girl?” I demanded.
He blinked at me like I was the dumbass pinned to the ground by a boot heel and a knife point. “She’s the president’s kid. Rooster Cavendish’s daughter, Faith.”
I almost reeled back, but Z was there, clampin’ his hand over my shoulder to steady me.
“And she’s married,” he continued, spittin’ the words. “To their VP, Hazard.”
Rooster’s daughter.
Married .
The fuck?
“Where’re they stayin’?” Zeus demanded, takin’ over ’cause suddenly I was mute and struck dumb. “I’d’a heard if they were stayin’ close by.”
“They’re still moving. Rooster’s in town with some’a the others stayin’ above Morton BBQ.”
“Fuck,” Curtains said from somewhere over my shoulder.
He loved their smoked beef ribs.
“Rooster should be dead,” Axe-Man declared, movin’ forward with a glower to step slowly down on one’a Otto’s prone hands.
He let out a squeal of pain. “ Fuck. Well, he isn’t! Man kept a low profile in Alberta, people just called him Whitey. But h-he’s alive and he wants his fuckin’ kid back.”
“You’re sober enough to drive. You’re on your bike,” Zeus called out. “Bat, Dane, you round up these motherfuckers and remind ’em what it’s like to operate in Fallen territory without our go-ahead. When you’re done with ’em, hand the lot over to Lion, and let ’im get the cops involved.” He looked down at me, then at Otto. “Rooster go to war to get his kid back?”
He asked ’cause that was what Zeus would do.
He’d battle the whole goddamn world if someone took one’a his kids from ’im.
Hell, he’d battle the whole goddamn world if someone took one’a his brothers in the club from him, too.
“Fuck yeah,” Otto agreed with a wince. “He’s been searching for her since she ran away years ago.”
Z cut his gaze to me, but I could only grind my teeth.
I was too stuck on the fact the girl I was already fallin’ for was fuckin’ married.
Cyclops appeared beside us, movin’ to take control’a Otto, so I got up and let Z steer me toward the clubhouse. Axe-Man followed us, mouth twisted with hatred. Rooster’d been the one to betray him years ago when he was prez’a The Fallen’s Calgary chapter. Been the one to turn him over to the triad when he’d fucked up and caused beef with them. Been the one to get Axe-Man sent down to prison for three years, leavin’ his daughter, Cleo, without a parent.
He was basically the definition of my brother’s arch nemesis and it couldn’t feel anythin’ but wrong to know he’d survived the ambush all those years ago.
Probably felt somethin’ like the feelin’ turnin’ rancid in my gut as I thought about turnin’ Blue over to someone as evil as Rooster.
“She’s a good kid,” Axe-Man told me, watchin’ me warily. “Didn’t recognize her across the room with the blue hair and the tatts and the curves. She was fuckin’ emaciated back then, skinny and bruised and livin’ in hell. She ran the night shit went down at Turner Farm and I asked Cedar to help her out. Always wondered what happened to her.”
“She’s been workin’ at Evergreen Gas Station for a minute,” I divulged. “She was fucked over by this fuckin’ moron.”
“And before that she was basically given to Rooster’s VP as a fucked-up gift for his loyalty,” Axe-Man told me, clampin’ a hand on my shoulder briefly when I unleashed a growl of rage at the thought. “You gotta get this. Rooster won’t stop ’til he gets her back. He’s not the type’a man who suffers loss well and he always felt he owned her. Blood and bone. That she was his to do whatever he fuckin’ wanted with.”
“Well she’s not his anymore,” I grunted, and almost finished with ’cause she’s damn well mine .
“You’ve got five minutes to talk to her, then we’re ridin’ out,” Zeus muttered, movin’ his grip from my shoulder to my neck. The weight’a his huge hand should’a felt like a threat. Instead, it settled somethin’ in me like a stroke to the side’a a startled horse. “You want her, she wants you, we’ll fight to keep her, yeah?”
Just that simple.
Just that easy.
This was the reason every single man in the club would fight and die for Zeus Garro. ’Cause he’d do and had done the same for every one’a us without blinkin’ a motherfuckin’ eye. We were his, and he was ours.
“Yeah,” I grunted ’cause otherwise I might’a done somethin’ a helluva lot less manly. “Five minutes.”
A smile flickered in his beard ’fore he turned around, already barkin’ out orders to our crew. We were ridin’ out to deal with the Raiders before they could get a foothold in our territory.
But ’fore I could do that, I had to decide if Blue was my territory to defend too.
Everythin’ was muffled in my ears as I walked up the stairs into the clubhouse. Only Ransom, Pigeon, and Carson, our prospects, stood in the main area, standin’ guard if things went to shit. I clapped Ransom on the shoulder as I walked by. He’d taken a bullet for the club a couple’a months back when I’d take a knife to the gut protectin’ Mei and the Old Ladies. It was only a matter of findin’ the time to fully patch him in ’fore he’d be a true member of The Fallen.
The Old Ladies and other women were in a room down the hall leadin’ to the bunkrooms. Zeus had a fuckin’ steel framed door put in to protect our vulnerable in case’a emergency, so I had to punch in a code ’fore I opened it.
Soon as I did, Mei was there, a martial arts-ready stance, a knife held in one hand, and a snarl on her pretty as fuck face. It’d taken a while to get used to the fact that such a small, delicate-lookin’ woman could land me on my ass, but I’d learned the hard way.
“Easy,” I told her, holdin’ up my hands. “It’s all good.”
She studied me. “You’ve got blood splatter on your face.”
“It’s old,” I assured her.
She lowered the weapon, and Loulou, Bea, Harleigh Rose, and Lila immediately surged past me to go to their men. The rest were slower to move, but I spotted Blue right away lookin’ uncomfortable in the back corner. I tilted my chin at her, and she pushed off the wall to make her way to my side. I tagged her hand without a word, pullin’ her into the hall and down to the room I kept at the clubhouse.
The second I pushed her inside, I closed the door and turned to yell at her. Only, she was lookin’ around the room like it was a foreign land, and she couldn’t wait to study the culture. Her fingers trailed lightly over the signed baseball in its stand on a shelf beside the door.
“Yankees? I wouldn’t have guessed,” she murmured.
“Are you married?”
The words fell between us like a defunct bomb, the threat alive but unpredictable. She froze, her fingertips still hoverin’ over the ball.
“Blue,” I growled, lungin’ forward to pull her hard against me. “You married?”
“Yes,” she breathed, fingers spasmin’ against my chest like she didn’t know whether to cling to me or push me away.
I held her tighter. “You always cheat on your husband?”
My anger seemed to spark somethin’ in her. “I haven’t seen that asshole for years. I wasn’t even sure he was still breathing.”
“Great, so let’s add desertion to infidelity.”
“Fuck you, Aaron.” She struggled against me, but I didn’t relinquish an inch. “I was a goddamn kid, okay? My dad married me to his vice president when I was sixteen years old because he was worried about Hazard making a move for his presidency. I was married for thirteen months before I got away successfully. I’ve been hiding from both of them ever since. If you want to call that desertion, so fucking be it.”
“Jesus Christ.” I pressed my forehead against her, fingers clamped over her hips to keep her from headbuttin’ me. “Blue baby, I’m so damn sorry.”
“Yeah, well,” she grumbled, glarin’ at me with those huge, gumball blue eyes. “So am I. Otto threatened to take me to them when he robbed Evergreen Gas. I think the money was just a cover to kidnap me for Rooster. I never doubted he’d keep looking for me. He was always territorial.”
“Yeah, well, so am I,” I growled. “You don’t owe them shit.”
“Try telling that to them. The second time I tried to get away, one of their men found me, beat me, and delivered me to Rooster’s and Hazard’s feet. I couldn’t walk for a week after they were done with me.”
A roar built in my throat. “You’re not goin’ back to those bastards. You don’t wanna stay with me, fine. But no way in hell are you gettin’ within fifty fuckin’ kilometres of those fucks.”
Blue stopped breathin’ then, lookin’ up into my snarlin’ face like she’d never seen me ’fore. Her hands flexed against my pecs, then slowly curled into the fabric’a my stolen hoodie. “You mean that?”
“Fuck, yeah.”
The very thought of those motherfuckers even lookin’ at Blue again made rage blacken the edges’a my vision.
She swayed into me, soft breasts flattenin’ against my chest. “You’re a good kinda man, Aaron.”
“The best kinda trouble,” I promised. “Stay and let me show you. I swear to God or whatever the fuck power you believe in that I’ll keep you safe.”
She bit that plush lower lip, eyes searchin’ my face, but she didn’t answer.
I shook her a little. “Blue, I gotta ride out with the club to deal with some shit right now. Tell me ’fore I leave you’ll be here when I get back. You’ll give this thing between us a chance.”
“What thing?”
I cocked a brow. “That thing that’s tellin’ both ’a us we’re meant to be together.”
“Romantic,” she snarked, but I shook her again.
“Nah, no jokes this time, Blue.” I bent my knees so I was closer to eye level with her, needin’ her to see my sincerity. “Already lost one woman I cared about in this life, I won’t lose another if she doesn’t want to go. You get me?”
“Yeah, Aaron, I get you,” she whispered breathlessly. “Kiss me, okay? Kiss me before you go. I wanna feel like I’m yours.”
The words seared through me, scarrin’ me, brandin’ me. I knew as I bent my head to claim her succulent mouth that I’d never be the same after this night. Blue’d transferred some’a herself to me, and I’d guard it and whatever else she’d give me preciously ’til the day death took us.
“Be mine,” I murmured against her lips before lickin’ into her mouth. “Stay.”
“I’m yours,” she agreed before rockin’ to her toes to deepen our kiss.
I still felt the impact’a it minutes later when I was stalkin’ through the clubhouse and out into the front lot to borrow Wiseguy’s Harley ’cause those fuckers had slashed the tires on mine back at Evergreen Gas. Pigeon was already on the way with the tow truck to pick it up.
Maybe ’cause I was so hooked on the phantom taste’a her kiss, I didn’t realize she hadn’t promised to stay ’til I was starin’ into the flamin’ remnants of Morton BBQ with the rest’a the men.
And even though I raced home ahead’a the group without askin’, by the time I stormed back into the clubhouse, Blue was nowhere to be seen.