Chapter 13 #2
“I definitely won’t be stopping you,” she says and bends her head down, kissing me deeply. We stay in the chair, kissing and exploring each other’s mouths. It isn’t hurried or frantic. It’s quiet, but just as passionate as any other kiss we’ve shared.
When I pull away, she has a dreamy look on her face. I wish we could spend the entire day touching and exploring each other’s bodies, but there’s something we need to take care of.
“I need you to do something for me,” I say.
“What is it?”
“I need you to call Roman. I want to meet him.”
She lifts a brow. “You’re not going to threaten him or something, are you?”
The thought did cross my mind when Cece first told me about him, but I know the only thing that would’ve accomplished is pissing her the hell off.
It’s not that I think he’s a bad guy with nefarious intentions when it comes to my girl—just the opposite, in fact.
But I still want to meet the man who has been spending so much time with my woman and check out his operation.
“No, sweetheart. I wouldn’t put you in that kind of position. But I need to see for myself what he’s doing if you’re going to keep working with him. Can we make that compromise?”
Cece stares into my eyes for a beat, her gaze full of appreciation with a touch of disbelief.
I don’t need to demand she stop training with him.
I’m not going to try to control her. That’s not my role in her life.
But I am going to make sure I know who this guy is and make sure she’s as safe as she can possibly be if she continues to work with him.
Plus, I’ve always found the best way to get my point across is if someone knows exactly who they’re dealing with.
She blows out a huff of air. “Okay. I’ll call him.”
I drop Cece at her house so she can shower and change, then I head to the clubhouse to do the same. When I walk in, Barrett is sitting at the bar nursing a cup of coffee, looking a little green around the gills.
“Morning,” I say loudly, walking up behind him and giving his back a good slap.
“Why?” He groans, hanging his head.
“Rough night?” A chuckle escapes from my throat as I walk around him to pour myself another cup of coffee.
“Great night, actually. Rough morning. I must be getting old or some shit.” He shakes his head and takes another sip of his coffee. “Nah, fuck that.”
Rolling my eyes, I take a healthy swig from my cup.
“Where were you last night?”
“Spent the night at the house.”
He arches one brow. “Alone?”
“Yup.”
Barrett eyes me over the rim of his mug. “You’re a shit liar.”
I’m actually not, but he’s known me for over a decade. Riding together and living in the same clubhouse gives him an advantage that most people wouldn’t have.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say.
He shakes his head. “All I’m going to say is, be careful. Whatever isn’t going on is going to cause a shitstorm. I don’t want to see a certain girl who has been through hell already getting caught in it.”
I shrug, playing off his warning. I agreed to let Cece take the lead on when to tell her sister, but part of me knows Barrett is right. Cece and I are playing a dangerous game by not telling Lucy and everyone else what’s going on.
“I need to get ready,” I say and set my coffee on the bar.
When I start toward the hallway, Barrett calls, “For your funeral?”
“Fuck off,” I holler back.
It doesn’t take me more than twenty minutes to shower and change. I’m back at Cece’s place with my bike less than an hour after I dropped her off.
“Hey,” she says, walking out of her house and over to where I’ve pulled into her driveway. “I’m glad you brought the bike,” she says, and I hand her a helmet.
I fucking love that my woman likes to ride almost as much as I do.
Especially when she’s feeling any kind of anxiety, which I’m sure is the case right now.
This part of her life is something I’ve just come to know about, and now I’m inserting myself completely.
But it’s for her safety and my peace of mind, so no matter how nervous she is, it needs to get sorted.
“Thought we would take a trip to Ayre, then ride around for a while. I like having you wrapped around me,” I tell her.
She smiles before putting the helmet over her head, then climbs on behind me.
We get to Ayre in thirty minutes, and when we pull up to the apartment building, a tall, broad man with salt-and-pepper hair is standing out front.
I park across the street, and Cece hops off the back before she removes her helmet.
“That’s Roman,” she says, nodding toward the man.
“What does he know so far?”
“I told him you were part of the Black Roses. He knows about the club. And I told him about you catching me with Danny and what I planned to do—which he was none too happy about—but that you stopped me. I also told him we went back last night, which he also wasn’t thrilled about, but understood.”
I nod and set my helmet on the seat before grabbing her hand. “Let’s go then.”
When we walk up to Roman, he holds out a hand to me, and Cece handles the introductions. “Roman, Cash. Cash, Roman,” she says.
“Heard you had quite the night,” Roman says.
“Nothing particularly out of the ordinary for me,” I reply, and he looks pointedly at my cut.
“I suppose not. Come on in,” he says and opens the door. “Cyn and Colton aren’t here, but I’ll show you around upstairs first, then the gym,” he says, leading us up the stairs.
When we step into the apartment, it doesn’t look like anything much, save for the massive computer monitoring system set up in the living room and all of the fancy cameras sitting on the coffee table in front of a couch.
“So tell me about what you do exactly,” I say. There’s a whole day left, and I want to spend it alone with my woman, not in a little apartment in Ayre.
“I have contacts in various places—the police station, hospital, even a women’s center in town.
If one of my contacts sees someone coming in repeatedly with injuries that are suspicious, they give them my phone number and tell them I can help.
They let me know, and if the woman calls, we help them. ”
“By beating the shit out of their abusers?”
Roman nods. “Sometimes. If they want to get away and start a new life, we help set them up. Give them a little seed money, and I’ve been known to dip my toe in helping people get a new identity.
Sometimes we send a message to their abuser, then one of my associates will track them through bank accounts and various other means to make sure they’re staying away.
We keep an eye on things so they can feel safe again. ”
“What if the guys you go after don’t get the hint?”
“Then we make our point more clear. But that’s only happened twice since I’ve been doing this.”
He doesn’t go into detail, but he seems to be confident that his methods work.
“How much do you charge?” I ask.
Roman shakes his head. “I don’t.”
“So you’re a vigilante out of the goodness of your heart? This is a pricey outfit you have here.”
“Let’s just say there are people out there who feel a call to support our work. I let them,” he answers with a shrug.
I nod as I look around the room. “Tell me about you training Cece.”
“Ah, that’s what you really want to know about,” Roman quips.
“She’s my woman. I think I have the right to know how you were planning on using her in this.”
“Cash…” Cece says. “You’re making it sound like he was trying to take advantage or something.”
“No, he’s right to want to know,” Roman answers.
“And having a woman on the team does give us some advantage. They don’t expect anything from you.
However”—he gives Cece a pointed look—“I would have never sent you out by yourself. That’s not how we do things.
One of the guys does the fighting, but the other is always a lookout or will jump in if shit goes sideways. We work as a team, never alone.”
Cece looks to the side then back to Roman with an apology clouding her normally bright eyes. “I fucked up.”
He nods in agreement. “You fucked up.”
“So she’s going to have a partner when you send her out?” I ask.
“Absolutely,” Roman replies.
“Great. Then I’m her partner.”
“Cash, you aren’t here to take over. Roman makes that decision,” Cece tells me.
“When it comes to you? No, he doesn’t.” She narrows her eyes at me, not happy with my response.
“Look,” I tell her, cupping the side of her face.
“If anyone is going to be responsible for making sure you’re safe out there, there is no one I trust more than myself.
I’m not trying to stop you from anything.
I know why you need to do this, but I’m not going to hand off my responsibility as your man to anyone. Ever.”
She blows out a breath and tips her mouth in a half smile. “I get it.”
And I know she does. She’s been around long enough to witness how the men in the club treat their women.
We’ll never stand in their way, but we’ll always stand next to them and support them.
If that means protecting them when they decide to go off and beat the shit out of people who abuse women, then that’s what it means.
I kiss her lightly on the mouth, then turn back to Roman.
“That okay with you?” I ask, more for Cece’s sake than mine.
“Happy to have the extra hands. Maybe you can join us in some training. What do you have experience in?”
I quirk my brow. “I’ve been in the club for fifteen years. Pretty sure that’s all the training I need.”
Roman chuckles. “Fair enough.” He holds out his hand, and I shake it. “Glad to have you, Cash.”