Chapter Eleven
A broken jaw.
Fractured ribs.
Four teeth removed.
Fingers smashed.
A leg broken.
Multiple stab wounds.
Badly beaten.
Rat bites.
Raven looked into the hospital room and stepped inside.
It had been a couple of days, and she went to him, but she didn’t dare touch him.
He also was suffering from the cold, as well as dehydration.
The doctors had said if he could make it through the next couple of days, then everything would be okay.
It had been twenty-four hours, but she knew that wasn’t a true indicator.
“Hey,” Carlos said.
Both his hands were bound up, but she touched a piece of his flesh at his upper arm that didn’t have any bruises and wasn’t covered.
“Hey,” Raven said.
“I’m so fucking sorry about that bet. I was coming back home to fix it.”
“Shut up. I think getting the crap beat out of you and left to be eaten by rats qualifies you as forgiven. I mean, I forgive you, but Larissa is a whole other story.”
“I fucked up.”
“I know.”
“I am so sorry.”
“I know.” She looked at him. “You don’t have to say anything.”
He licked his lips. “I did it for them.”
Raven frowned. “What?”
“You’ve seen the way Big Dick is. He doesn’t even realize that he is constantly watching her. He is always watching her. I had to do something to give him that extra push. I did it wrong.”
“You were playing matchmaker?”
“Yeah, but I think I suck at it.”
“You certainly went about it the wrong way,” Raven said. “Rest.” She had been so angry with him when she saw that video, that all she wanted to do was yell at him, to lash out.
When Sebastian had told her he hadn’t arrived, and he’d come back to her, she’d been so scared. She could have lost him. She was not going to be angry at him, for being ... him.
She got to her feet and delicately leaned over him, pressing her lips to his. “I love you,” she said. “Even if you are a shit matchmaker.”
He chuckled and groaned. “I love you too.”
****
One Month Later
Big Dick walked into the Hell’s Bastards MC clubhouse, and he felt fucking fantastic.
He hadn’t caught Cadeon, nor his little posse of Twisted Bastards MC, but what he had been able to do since locating Carlos, was comb the area and find three of their hiding places, which he had torched. Slowly, he was closing in.
Cadeon also hadn’t been in touch, and with his phone now useless, he knew there was a risk of the bastard lashing out, but it didn’t matter. He was ready for him. No matter what it was, he was ready to take him on.
Glancing around the clubhouse, he scrunched up his nose, because the place looked like Halloween had vomited all over it.
“What the fuck is going on?” he asked, moving toward the bar where Kinky was sitting.
“Carlos is out of the hospital. Abriana and Ugly Beast are taking care of the kids, and they thought it would be good for Carlos to have a coming-home party.”
He was still recovering, and would need some physical therapy for his mobility. They had everything organized.
“A party.”
“Yep.” Kinky didn’t look happy.
“What’s going on?” Big Dick asked.
“Hailey’s coming,” Kinky said.
“That’s a good thing, right? You might be able to talk to her?” He knew Kinky had been struggling since he’d been caught trying to find out information about who she was.
The decision had come from the club. They needed to know who Hailey was and why she had suddenly arrived in Fort Clover.
However, it was supposed to be friendly and not get sexual.
Kinky, being Kinky, had taken it to the sexual place, and that was why he was in the position he had been in.
Hailey had cut him off and had nothing to do with him. Just like Larissa.
It was why he didn’t go into the bakery, although he wanted to.
Big Dick was ... surviving. He had to focus on wiping out Cadeon and the Twisted Bastards MC for good.
Most of his time was spent chasing them, figuring out their next move.
While Carlos was in the hospital, they had guys there, then men in town to keep an eye on their assets, including Ava’s Bakery and Hailey’s Beauty Parlor.
Although they had no connections to Hailey’s, other than the fact Harlow worked there.
All Big Dick had wanted to do was go to Larissa. She wouldn’t answer his calls, and her father was constantly giving him warnings.
“I can try and talk to her, but her actually talking to me, well, I doubt it.” Kinky sighed.
“Do you know if Larissa is coming?” Big Dick asked.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged.
“I know Abriana and Ugly Beast are not coming. As for anyone else, I don’t know.” Kinky got to his feet and wandered off.
Big Dick spotted Ava across the room, and he made his way toward her. With how busy he’d been, he’d not talked to many of the women here.
“Hey,” he said.
Ava turned to him, and her gaze wasn’t frosty, but it also wasn’t welcoming.
“Big Dick,” she said.
“It’s going to be one hell of a party.”
“I’ve invited Larissa, but I don’t know if she’s coming or not.”
“You don’t?”
“No. She’s ... different,” Ava said.
“How is she holding up?” Big Dick asked.
Ava turned toward him. “She’s different.
I don’t know what more you want me to say, other than she is not the same woman I remember.
She is different. The easy smile is gone.
The happiness that was always in her eyes is no longer there.
She is completely different than the person I remember.
I don’t know if she is going to come or not. ”
And with that, Ava stepped away and made her way across the room.
He didn’t have any costume, but from the looks of it, most of the guys were sticking with their leather cuts. There was no point in him sticking around. People were talking to him, but in some cases, it was reluctantly.
Big Dick made his way toward the back of the clubhouse, going to the end of the main hall, and finding the communal shower was free.
Some of the rooms within the clubhouse had the luxury of en-suites.
His room didn’t, unfortunately. At least they had updated and put a damn lock on the door.
There was a time they didn’t even do that.
He stripped out of his clothes and turned the shower on, not waiting it to get warm as he stepped beneath the cold spray.
All the time, he tried not to think about Larissa.
She didn’t want to talk to him. She didn’t want to have anything to do with him.
He’d already talked to Carlos, and the other man had laughed at him.
“I wasn’t making that bet for real,” Carlos said.
“I saw the way you two look at one another. The way you dance around each other. She didn’t have a fucking clue how she felt, but you, you had an idea.
It was only supposed to make you realize how you felt about each other. That is the only reason I did it.”
After he and Larissa came together, the bet would be off, because Carlos knew he wouldn’t go through with it.
Running a hand down his face, he tilted his head back. It didn’t matter anymore. Cadeon had seen to that. There was no way Larissa was ever going to look at him again. He took a deep breath.
Each time he thought of Larissa not wanting anything to do with him, a sharp pain struck him right to the chest, and it was like he couldn’t think.
The pain wasn’t manageable. It was so acute.
He tried not to think, but it was impossible.
Larissa was part of him, and he couldn’t make her just disappear.
He missed her so badly. That sweet smile. The giggle from making her laugh. The startled gasp when he touched her, and she wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as she did. All of this combined together, until it was hard to focus.
Big Dick had never missed anyone, not like this. When he fucked things up with Harlow, he’d missed her. She was his sister and his favorite family member. This was different.
The feelings he had for Larissa were not going away. This wasn’t just a case of fucking. This was ... desperation. Pure, unadulterated need. And he wasn’t used to a woman making him feel this way.
After washing his body, his cock was not even hard, because the pain in Larissa’s eyes danced across his mind, and it instantly turned him the fuck off. He never wanted to cause her any pain, and yet he was the one to cause her the most.
There was a hard knock on the door, and it wouldn’t be long before the shower was in demand. Big Dick was done. He’d already soaped up his body and taken care of his hair.
Climbing out, he gathered up his clothes, wrapped a towel around his waist, and opened the bathroom door. Brick and two women hanging off each of his arms was trying to get inside.
Big Dick walked past them, heading down the hallway to his room.
In the beginning, after he had qualified as a full-fledged member, they were given the option of any room they wanted.
Obviously, the room couldn’t be taken. It wasn’t about taking another’s room away from them.
Big Dick had chosen this room, because he had thought it would be the best. It was close to the main floor of the clubhouse, which meant he didn’t have far to go to take pussy, nor kick them the fuck out. Now, he hated it.
Entering his room, he put the clothes in the laundry basket Ava had insisted they all have in their bedrooms, to make it easier for those cleaning to do the laundry. This was kind of implemented for Larissa as well.
Stepping toward the closet, he grabbed a pair of jeans, a shirt, and got dressed quickly. He was already dry just from the walk from the bathroom to his bedroom.
The music was playing in full swing. The hum echoed through the whole clubhouse. He used to love Halloween. Today, his only interest was attempting to catch sight of Larissa. All she wore was pants now. He’d not seen her in a dress since the incident. He missed those dresses.
He left his bedroom, closing and locking the door. There had been a couple of times that some of the club pussy attempted to get into his bedroom in order to surprise him. He wasn’t interested in any surprises. He wanted them all to leave him the fuck alone.
Walking into the main clubhouse, where he thought the guys were not going to dress up, he was wrong. They were all in residence tonight, but they were all dressed up.
Glancing across the main floor, he saw Smokey was dressed as a dead pirate, and on his arm was Ava, complete with a matching female pirate costume.
Raven and Carlos were there, dead cheerleader along with dead jock, which was kind of funny, as Carlos was also in a wheelchair at this time.
He was receiving physical therapy to help him gain use of his leg again.
Vampires. Werewolves. Witches. Zombies. Movie characters, he assumed.
He no longer watched a lot of television.
He was the only one not dressed up. However, he did think it was cute that Harlow had decided to dress up as a potato.
Beside her was Larissa. And she stole his breath away. She looked like a fairy. Her hair was curled and fell around her in waves. She wore a long dress, a bright pink dress. She had glitter and wings, and she looked like every kid’s dream. She was perfect.
He stepped up close to Harlow. His sister gave him a corner-of-the-lips kind of smile.
This was the closest he’d been to Larissa since it happened. No one else would let her near. He hated that she tensed up the moment he got close. There was no reason for that. He was not going to hurt her.
But you did. You made that stupid fucked-up bet, and now you’re paying the price.
“A potato? That was what you decided to come as?” he asked.
“Well, this little snuggle puzzle is not letting me get much sleep.” She rubbed her stomach. “Besides, with how big I am, I feel like a sack of potatoes. Be pleased I haven’t worn a bunch of hessian fabric.”
“And you would still look cute,” Hunter said, coming in behind Harlow and kissing her cheek. Big Dick couldn’t help but be a little repulsed by the affection on display. That was, after all, his sister. There was only so much he could take.
Larissa had made her escape and went to the bar.
Harlow sighed. “She didn’t want to come.”
“Thank you for bringing her here.”
“Go easy on her, she’s not ... herself.”
Big Dick frowned and made his way toward Larissa. “Can we talk?” he asked.
“No.”
There was no anger, not a single bit of hesitation. Just straight and to the point, no. He hated that, but he knew he deserved it as well.
“I miss you.”
“Why is that? Do you want to make another bet that will help you achieve your goals?” Larissa asked, turning her head toward him.
He had never seen such a cold look from her before. Not even when he was a piece of shit to her, before they started a relationship. He was never horrible to her during their relationship. Before that, he always felt he needed to put some distance between them, and that feeling hadn’t changed.
“Larissa, please,” he said.
“You know, I keep reliving it in my mind, and I can’t help but think you must have seen me as a fool. I played right into your hand.” She laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound.
This was painful.
“Well, you had your fun, but I don’t want to hear anything. I don’t want you anywhere near me.”
Big Dick didn’t know what to say, but right at that very moment, Rocky walked past carrying a large open tray of pizza. Knowing Rocky, it had a hell of a lot of different combinations. He loved to have a meat feast with at least five different kinds of meat.
Big Dick watched as Larissa went instantly green, her hand covering her mouth. Harlow saw the same thing, and he was on her tail as she charged for the ladies’ room.
He had no problem with stepping inside, and as he did so, Harlow pushed past him, and he made room for the potato. They heard Larissa throwing up.
“Wow,” Harlow said. “Are you sure you’re not pregnant?”