Chapter 1 #2
Her scholarship to CalArts here in Santa Clarita meant Ava Jade couldn’t keep an eye on her friend as closely as she’d like, but it wasn’t the woman herself who asked us to check in on Becca. It was her three boyfriends. Our cousins.
To them, if Becca was important to Ava Jade, she was important to them, too. Never mind that the threat against Becca and her bestie had already been handled…
But I understood, to an extent. Becca was a known ally of the Saints now. Someone important to the woman who was now known as the Saint’s Dagger. Which meant that she could never truly be safe ever again.
I scrolled back up the pages of messages, pausing just before Becca’s photo could light up my screen, shutting it off instead. I remembered what she looked like. Her image burned into my retinas the instant it glowed over my screen for the first time.
Something about those eyes…
I clenched my jaw, casting the image from my mind. Rolling my shoulders back, I settled the rattle of nerves going up my spine as I pushed through the door at the top of the stairs.
A gust of scotch and cherry cigar scented air slapped me in the face as I entered. The music that’d been muted in the stairwell was louder now that I was inside, but not so loud that I couldn’t hear Sam rearranging the stock behind the bar running along the left side of the attic-like space.
Sam lifted his chin in greeting, his blond hair loose around his shoulders instead of pulled back in its usual leather tie.
He inclined his head to the back of the space, and I peered through the haze of smoke to find my brother.
The only soul who appears to be left in the Copper Crown besides its owner.
Kaleb’s tatted arms rested lazily over the back of a dark sofa facing the other way, his sun-stained brown hair messy. His head lolled back, hands fisting the leather.
I stalked toward him, hearing a sucking sound, followed by a gag and a low female moan. Kaleb’s eyes were shut as the little brunette knelt between his thighs, her head bobbing up and down on the head of his cock as she worked the base with a manicured hand.
My brother’s lips parted on a silent exhalation of pleasure, and I kicked the couch.
He jerked, but didn’t open his eyes, moving a hand instead to the back of the girl’s head, guiding her to take his thick cock more deeply into her throat.
She gagged on him again, but she didn’t fight him, even as he fisted a hand into her hair and held her there, thrusting up into her throat until her cheeks turned red.
I kicked the couch again.
“What the fuck, man…” Kaleb slurred, letting the girl get a gulp of air. She gasped as her lips popped off his dick, and he cocked his head at her, reaching forward to run a thumb over her glistening lower lip. “Did I tell you to stop, Poppy?”
“It’s Pippa,” she corrected.
“That’s what I said.”
“ Kaleb ,” I hissed, heat fizzling across my back as I stepped around the sofa and gave the girl a hard stare. Her reddened, watery eyes met mine with a bolt of fear.
She disentangled herself from Kaleb’s grip and held a slip of red fabric over her naked tits, keeping her head bowed as she rose to her feet, collected her purse from the low table, and muttered a Sorry, Hardin, as she fled.
“Bro, what the fuck?” Kaleb said, fumbling an empty pack of cherry cigars from the small pocket on the front of his tank. “Shit, I’m out.”
I kicked his leg.
His face twisted into a sneer as the empty pack drifted to the floor to mingle with the empty scotch glass and beer bottles there. “What are you doing here?”
I lifted a brow at him. Was he fucking serious?
He lifted a brow right back. “What? The silent treatment? As fucking usual.”
It was my turn to sneer. He knew damn well why I wasn’t talking. My heated gaze darted to Sam behind the bar and back again.
“Shit, man,” Kaleb groused. “Sam doesn’t care if you have a?—”
I dragged him from the sofa before he could finish, hauling his drunk ass onto his feet before he could say something he wasn’t able to take back.
Kaleb cursed as I towed him along with me, my fist in the back of his tank the only thing keeping him on his feet.
“Okay, okay, Christ , I’m going ,” Kaleb grumbled as Sam nodded his thanks and farewell.
I kicked the door to the stairwell open ahead of Kaleb, and stepping out, he immediately gripped the handrails on both sides and swayed on his feet as he looked to the bottom.
“Shit.”
The door shut behind me, and I growled low. “I got you, just move your fucking ass.”
“He speaks!”
“ Kaleb ,” I warned, my stomach twisting, the shriveled thing in my chest aching for my brother.
As much as I fucking wanted to, it was hard to be pissed at him.
To everyone else, this was just how Kaleb sometimes got, but I knew the truth.
I knew why he needed to drown himself in expensive scotch, push himself to the edge of oblivion. But after the last time, nearly nine months ago now, I thought it was finally over.
Now I doubted it ever would be.
Some trauma stuck with you and Kaleb’s had fused itself to his bones like a demented shadow. Rearing its ugly head whenever it got hungry, feasting on whatever stability he’d managed to regain since its last meal.
I helped him down the stairs, practically having to lift him to get to the bottom, otherwise we’d have been there for a fucking hour.
He slipped on the bottom step, coughing, hunching over to one side to vomit onto the cement landing. I shut my eyes on a hard sigh, waiting for him to be finished retching before I lifted his left arm over my shoulders, hauling him onto my back in a fireman’s carry.
The sun scalded my overtired eyes as I used my brother’s ass to push through the door back out onto the street.
The students milling around looking for hangover food and coffee scattered from my path as I carried Kaleb to the still-idling Bronco and all but tossed him over the side into the back seat.
If he puked back there, the fucker was going to clean that shit himself. I twisted my neck to get out the kink there and pushed my black hair away from my eyes, spitting the lingering cigar smoke flavor onto the pavement.
And there she was.
Becca Hart.
She stood perfectly still on the sidewalk a few shops up, frozen as our eyes locked together. Hers wide and wild, fearful and hungry as her thighs pressed tight beneath the curve hugging black dress she wore. Her full lips parted. Powerless to look away until I released her.
My cock twitched in my jeans, and I wired my mouth shut, hating how my body reacted to her. I’d had my fair share of women, but they were a means to an end. And none got me hard without a considerable amount of work.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly and I knew if I rested my callused palm over the mounds of her tits, I’d feel her heart racing.
My upper lip curled and her fear intensified.
Good.
If she were smart, she’d stay the fuck away from me. The Saint’s Dagger wouldn’t like what I wanted with her best friend.
The need to claim her, mark her, break her , seared through me like white fire.
I ground my teeth, breaking eye contact, sending her stumbling back into a bench. I lifted myself over the passenger door, slinging my body into the driver’s seat, rocking the Bronco with my weight before I shifted her into drive and peeled away from the Row.
Forcing myself to leave before I decided to throw her into the backseat with Kaleb and take her with me.