8. Ethan
8
*********
“Sit down, babe. We need to talk.” It’s Walker who speaks this time. Cash grabs Skyler by the shoulders spinning her toward the dining room table. She takes off her tank top that’s soaking wet, sticking to her skin, not giving a shit about all the men in the room.
A low growl rumbles up my chest before I can stop it, but she doesn’t turn around.
God, that body. She’s leaner, more muscular than I remember, but those curves are still just as tempting as I remember. And those tattoos? Fuuuuck.
Blake walks in from the porch, through the kitchen, handing Skyler a dish towel and a cold bottle of water. My eyes follow him, glaring. Why is everyone catering to her ass?
Maybe because they’re all getting a piece of it. The thought has my blood boiling for reasons I don’t want to examine right now.
I don’t like how nice everyone’s being to her. He’s from my chapter, he should be on my side, not fawning after Skyler like the rest of them.
He’s following Pres’ orders.
“Thank you,” she says, twisting off the cap, taking a long pull while wiping the sweat from her neck and face with the shirt leaving the towel on the table on front of her. She turns back facing the rest of the room, sets the bottle down and continues wiping herself off. My eyes track her movements with curiosity when I take in the ink along her ribs. I can’t make out the full design from this angle. It looks like a phoenix, but there’s more to it, I can’t see. I lick my lips when she moves the towel over her breasts then down across her abdomen. She catches me staring. Her face turns a beautiful shade of pink. She’s still affected by me.
Or maybe I’m imagining things. And why do I give a shit?
“You have tattoos,” I state, my voice sounding gruff even to my ears.
“Yeah?” She’s waiting, probably for me to say something judgmental but instead, I say the first things that comes to mind.
“You were always afraid of needles,” I want to lick the pattern that trails down her torso to her thigh. She scoots the chair back a little, probably out of habit. When someone asks about a tattoo it’s common for people to draw more attention to them, showing off the full view. I was right. It’s a colorful phoenix, with flowing wings that span across her lower abdomen, diving beneath those tiny ass shorts. With long flames and the tail swirling down her thigh.
Fuuuuuck.
“Like a lot of other things, I guess I got over it,” She shrugs. My eyes snap to hers and narrow, pissed at her casual dismissal of our past. I shouldn’t care. I don’t think about what we had. It doesn’t fucking matter anymore.
Liar.
She’s not the girl I remember. I don’t know this woman in front me.
Cash disappears down the hall, then reappears just as quickly handing Skyler a t-shirt. Without checking to see if it’s clean, Skyler tosses the shirt over her head, putting an end to my perusal of her ink, before I can ask any more questions about it.
She pulls her ponytail out of the collar of the shirt scooting her seat up to the table. My eyes widen at the sight before me and instantly I’m filled with anger and regret. I focus on the anger because the latter is irrelevant.
I lean forward, my arms braced on the table. I catch the small hitch in Skyler’s breath as she studies my forearms and the ink I have going up under my sleeves.
So, she’s not totally unaffected.Too fucking bad. I won’t be giving her the time of day like the rest of them.Ain’t no such thing as magic pussy.
She’s blushing again, until she catches me glaring at her with my fist clenching on the top of the table. I say nothing. My eyes burning into her chest with each passing second.
She tilts her head in question, but I don’t give her anything.
I need to get the hell out of here.
“You know what, Jake? Skyler’s been found. She’s got all of you to tend to her every whim. I’m leaving. Going to the gym. Got shit to do.”
I’m out the door before he can argue with me. I can’t be in that house another minute. Seeing her in my old wrestling t-shirt is fucking with my head.
I’ve been getting angrier and angrier by the minute. I came straight to the gym after leaving Skyler at the house. I needed to get away from the everyone.
From her.
Now, I’m sitting here at my desk where I should be settling bills and working on schedules, but instead all I can think about is Skyler fucking Sinclair. I should be focused on my fight camp and my training responsibilities. The important things going on in my life now, but somehow, I keep getting caught up in the memories.
George was away on a run, and I only had a few short days before I had to return to the MMA camp for the second phase.
Skyler invited me over to her place for dinner and to watch a movie. But when I arrived and she answered the door wearing my wrestling T-shirt and not much else, I knew this was the equivalent of Netflix and chill. Hell yes!
I stalked through the door, forcing her to step back. I closed and locked the door, my eyes locked on hers, stalking her until her back hit the kitchen counter. She had nowhere to go.
Her breathing was a little fast, her cheeks flushed.
She wanted me. And the feeling was mutual.
“Something smells good.” I said, prowling toward her, slowly.
“I picked up some burgers and fries from Magpie’s. Patsy says hello.” Her hands twisting in the fabric at the hem of my wrestling shirt making it rise even higher on her thighs. My eyes tracked the movement. I put my hands in my pockets to keep from grabbing her and taking what I wanted. I needed to go slow. Make her remember every touch. Every kiss. I needed to be under her skin as deeply as she was under mine.
“I appreciate the food, but…” I lick my lips, almost able to taste her in the air around me. “I’m hungry for something else right now.”
Placing my hands on her hips, lifted her up onto the countertop. She let out a small whimper, and I was on her in a flash. She gives as good as she gets ratcheting up my need for her. With my mouth ravaging hers. All thoughts of my previous plan to go slow have gone out the window. This isn’t going to be slow and sweet like the first time at the lake. She’s mine and I mean to devour every inch of her.
I yank her against my body. Where I’m chiseled and hard, she’s soft and smooth. I lean in letting her feel how much I want her, need to be inside her.
“Ethan.” The way she says my name, it’s both sweet and full of fear. She’s afraid to lose herself to me, to this. She’s afraid I’ll take her heart and shatter it. She doesn’t trust that she’s enough for me. That I’ll come back for her after I get my contract. She’s always been afraid things will end between us.
“Shh, Sunshine. I’ve got you.” Her eyes meet mine, and my lips descend on hers again. Tasting, sipping, taking what’s mine. I groan when she opens to me again, her sweet tongue finally sweeps into my mouth fighting to take control.
Her hands are around my neck pulling at the hairs on the nape, and her teeth nip at my bottom lip. It stings, but she licks it, easing the pain and making me harder. The confines of my jeans becoming tighter with each passing second.
I have one hand on her neck, the other making its way, pushing up her shirt… my shirt… to the edge of her panties. The cotton material between her legs, soaked with her arousal. That knowledge has me seconds away from losing my damn mind.
I lift the edge of her panties, sliding one finger through her slit, caressing slowly, teasing her. She moves her hips seeking more. Her eyes are closed, her head tipped back. I lean back and watch her expression as she gives in to my touch.
“Take me out, Sky.” Her head pops up, eyes meeting mine for a split second before her hands fumble with the buttons on my jeans. She finally pops it open, fighting to lower them down over my hips. My cock springs free and her soft hand grips my length and begins an agonizingly slow tug and twist motion.
“Fuck, that feels good, baby.”
“Please Ethan. I need…” I push my finger inside her and begin to pump slowly at first, building with each stroke. My thumb rubbing circles on her clit, as she grinds down on my hand. Her breathing speeds up, her hand releases my cock and grabs onto the edge of the counter holding tight. When she finally starts to crash over the edge, I pull out my fingers and slam my cock home. With my mouth on hers, swallowing her cries and moans she comes, with me following not too far behind her.
A knock on my office door breaks through my memories.
“Come in.”
Hawk strolls in, sits down and kicks his feet up on my desk like he owns the damn place.
“You think you’ll be ready to face Vargas again by December? It’s not too far away.” I don’t give an answer other than to nod. The last time I faced Victor Vargas, it was a close finish. If he hadn’t gotten the submission in the last round, I might’ve won by the cards. It still pisses me off to think about it. It was my own fault. I knew he was a great grappler, but I trained more to my strengths as a striker and let the fucker get me on the ground. This time Kieran is making sure we cover all our bases but placing more focus on strengthening my ground game.
Unfortunately, I’m finding it difficult to focus on anything since a pretty little blonde I’d love nothing more than to throttle has returned home.
No. Stop thinking about her as a pretty little blonde. She’s the bitch who betrayed you.
Even though I know that to be true, I still can’t seem to fight this pull we’ve got going on between us. I can’t explain it, or the anger that eats at me when I think about her being with Cash or the others all this time.
I’m struggling to get past the tumultuous emotions swirling inside me, to gain some kind of understanding.
I shouldn’t be surprised Skyler came back. She may not have visited him, but she loved George. He was everything to her growing up. When her mom died, all they had was each other and Ghost for a long time.
She had you and Emily too.
But we came onto the scene years later when we were all in middle school.
Skyler used to bitch about Ghost and some of the guys from the club driving her to school on their bikes or when they’d show up two or three at a time making all kinds of noise, disrupting class to bring her food when she forgot her lunch money. She said she hated it. It was embarrassing, the way some of her teachers and the school kid’s moms would salivate over the men in leather. But I think she secretly loved it.
As she got older, girls in school began teasing her. Although, I think they only teased her because they were jealous. Some of those same women, are often seen at the bar pushing up on said bikers.
“Can I help you?” I ask shoving Hawk’s feet to the floor. He laughs.
“Came to check on you. Figured you’d still be in your head about this shit with Skyler, wanted to see where you’re at with all of it.” He leans forward on his elbows checking to see what’s on my monitor.
It’s nothing exciting, just the security feed from the different rooms in the gym.
Nosy bastard.
“I honestly don’t know. My first thought was to throw her ass out on the street. The rage I feel toward her is stifling. My body was shaking with it. But then when I heard about George…”
“You felt bad for her. You know what it’s like to lose family.” He’s right. She stopped her tears and put up her armor when her eyes met mine. It’s a habit she developed at a young age. But I recognized her pain. It spoke to a place deep inside me.
When her mother died, adults treated her like she would break at any moment. She hated it. Hated feeling like she was some fragile piece of glass everyone needed to coddle. She built her walls refusing to let anyone see her when she was in pain.
The same walls she’s hiding behind now. Just like you, asshole.
She never could hide her true feelings from me though. Those violet eyes would give her away every time. I used to get lost in those beautiful orbs.
She’s not the girl you used to love. She betrayed you.
I have to keep reminding myself.
I rub the stubble on my chin as Hawk watches me warily. I tell him, “I do, and I did, but it was more than that. Seeing her with Eli and his men. The way they’re so protective of her. The way they talk about her. Hawk they fucking know her. And I can’t help wondering how long…if she’s been with all of them. You know what I mean?”
Hawk shakes his head. “I don’t think Skyler’s club pussy. She doesn’t strike me as cut slut material.”
“How the fuck do we know? If she’s been with them this whole time…she was right under my fucking nose. What’s worse is George, Ghost, even Gabe fucking knew! They had to know!” I shout, running both hands through my hair. “I could’ve gone to her, made her talk to me, tell me what the hell happened that night. Talked her into testifying.”
“Yeah, but maybe it’s better you didn’t.” His words catch me a little off guard, especially since he knows how hard I looked for her. Hell, he helped me.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you weren’t ready to hear it.” His hands come up in a placating manner. “Hear me out. You were angry. Your head was so far up your own ass you couldn’t see straight. Getting in fights. Drinking until you passed out almost every night. You were a fucking wreck. You wouldn’t have heard what she had to say, and honestly, you probably would’ve scared the shit out of her, in the state you were in.”
“Ok, you’re right, but why not tell me after I got my shit together? Why hide her from me? From the club? With all the computer guru shit you do, even you couldn’t find her. Yet, there she was, hiding in plain sight.” I grip my hair with both hands and pull. “Ghost got his name for his ability to make people and evidence disappear without a trace. I don’t know why I didn’t think he could do something like this until now.”
Maybe because he’s a convincing asshole.
“He’s her uncle, man. You must know he would go to any lengths to keep her safe. Even hide her from those he trusts the most. He’d have to.” He grabs a pencil off my desk and starts rolling it on the desk. “There are a lot of things I’m sure you don’t know about. There are three sides to every story. Take Emily’s death. There’s what we know, what we think, and what really happened. No one saw everything, not even Skyler. Whatever she did see, must’ve been pretty fucked up for everyone to want to hide her away. And at the time, I don’t think it would’ve mattered. You wouldn’t have accepted any of it.”
“What the hell does that mean? I don’t understand.” I throw my hand up exasperated. “What the hell was she running from? Me? That’s bullshit!” I stand up and pace the room. “She knew she could’ve come to me. She fucking should’ve.”
“I don’t know. That’s something you’ll have to ask her. But if you consider all the shit going on around George’s death. All the unknowns still hanging in the balance. Just the fact he felt the need to involve Vincenzo Parisi as a way of protecting her… come on, man. Obviously, there’s a reason they kept her whereabouts hidden. Maybe it wasn’t Emily’s death, or you she was running from. She could’ve felt responsible for not stopping it from happening. We don’t know. Hell, maybe George got himself into some trouble, with him constantly on the road, they might’ve thought sending her to Eli was the best option. Hell, it could’ve been a club rival he got mixed up with. You know there’s bad blood with the Devils since Maggie’s death and only the original patched members know how deep that rivalry runs.” He gives me a look and I know he’s right. The old timers don’t talk about any of the shit that went down when Maggie died with anyone, not even us. “Maybe they didn’t tell you because they knew you would go to her. Everyone knew how sprung you two were on each other. If you’d chased after her, trouble could have followed you right to her. I don’t have those answers for you. But we both know there’s more to this shit than just a girl who ran away from home. The question is are you willing to accept whatever it may be?”
“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“It means, asshole, if Skyler was to tell you the truth, would you really listen? Let her explain? Or are you going to hold out until she gives you the explanation you want to hear?” He gives me a pointed look. “Skyler may have had absolutely nothing to do with Emily’s death. What if Emily’s death just happened to be on the same night George or Ghost got in some shit, and it was all coincidence? There are a million possibilities. Can you accept the truth even if it’s not the truth you’ve been believing?”
“She was the one who called it in Hawk. She called in Emily’s death. It can’t have been coincidence.”
“How do you know? What if Skyler was already on her way out of town when she ran into Emily? They were always together. Everyone knew it. Except on that night. Don’t you want to know why?”
“But then…”
“But what? You know there’s a possibility I’m right. But will you accept it if I am? Can you?”
“But if she did see something, knew something about Emily’s murder and she fucking left town… Sky and Emily’s piece of shit boyfriend disappeared the same night. It can’t be coincidence Hawk. You heard the same rumors I did about Skyler and that piece of shit screwing around on me and Emily. Maybe he’s hiding in Mountain Heights too.”
“Do you hear the bullshit you’re spewing? Do you honestly believe anything you’re saying right now? Or are you just so pissed you can’t see past your own ass to hear the truth?”
“What the hell else am I supposed to believe?” I shout, throwing my chair against the wall. “She’s been gone for six years, Hawk. She left the night my sister was murdered. The same night the piece of shit Emily was dating disappears, without a fucking trace mind you, and neither of them ever comes back…until Skyler needsthe club’s help. My club. My brothers.” I begin pacing again, shoving my hands through my hair. My heart is racing. My breathing ragged. I’m trying desperately to keep myself from storming out the door and dragging her ass out of her house to make her fucking tell me the truth.
“She comes into the clubhouse, surrounded by Eli’s men who are all hugging on her and laughing with her. Cash acts like she’s fucking his. She had a life there.” A life without me. I don’t say those words out loud though or Hawk will know what a pathetic asshole I really am. It’s gutting me to think she has a life without me. One where she’s happy and I don’t know what else, but she did it without me.
Why?
“What if she is?” Hawk’s words stop me in my tracks. A sudden pang hits my chest and I find myself struggling to keep myself from punching him in his face.
“What if she is what?”
“What if she’s Cash’s?”
“She’s not.” It comes out on a growl.
“But what if she is?” He leans back, arching a brow, smiling. Asshole. “He’s staying with her at the house. He plans to hang around after the funeral is done. He says they’re good friends. What if he’s just waiting til after the funeral to lay his claim? If Skyler belongs to Cash, then what are you going to do? You can’t go caveman apeshit on another brother’s woman, and you know it.”
“She’s not his.”
“What makes you so sure?”
I’m not. But I won’t say those words out loud. There was something about the way she looked at him when he wrapped his arms around her the last time we spoke. Almost as if reprimanding him for his display of ownership. She didn’t seem into whatever game he was playing. But I can’t be sure. Because they all seem to have some type of relationship with her that goes deeper than friendship.
Instead of explaining any of this to Hawk, I rattle off a bunch of miscellaneous facts. All of which I know are absolute bullshit.
“She drove her own truck. She didn’t ride in on the back of his bike.”
“She may have just wanted a vehicle to get around town in, in case he was dealing with club shit.” He shrugs.
“She didn’t ask to be put in his room; in fact, she didn’t want to stay at the clubhouse at all.”
“Because they’re staying at the house. More privacy. Less drama. No club whores to deal with.” He smiles. He’s enjoying this. Enjoying my discomfort with this conversation.
“She’s not wearing his colors. No property patches.”
Hawk shrugs. “Colors are just a formality. Like I said, he could be waiting until after the funeral to make it official.”
“Would you wait?” I question. “If someone was after your woman, or you thought they were, would you be waiting to make your claim? Or would you put your patch on her back and make sure everyone knew damn well who she belonged too?”
Not taking the bait, Hawk pushes in another direction.
“All right. What if she’s not his? What if she belongs to more than one of them? It wouldn’t be the first time a couple of brothers shared a woman. The truck could be simply because you can’t ride two bikes with one ass.” He shrugs again, biting the corner of his lip as he continues to think this idiocy through. “We’ve all noticed how much she’s changed. Maybe she likes them two at a time.”
I’m around my desk, my hands grabbing the collar of his shirt putting me nose to nose with him.
“Ah, so you still have feelings for her. That’s what’s got you all fucked up. Needing answers to why she left isn’t the real issue. The real issue is you still want her.”
I release his shirt, and move back to sit behind my desk, running my hand through my hair and down my face. I look to the computer screen, then back to Hawk.
“Admit it, Ethan. You still love her.”
“No. I don’t. I despise the woman. Having her here is bringing up old shit I don’t want to deal with.”
“Maybe now is the perfect time you should. Get it out in the open. Ask your questions. Get some peace and move on. Emily wouldn’t want you still tied up in knots over this shit. She’d want you out living and having adventures.”
I smile to myself at his last comment because it’s true. Emily was all about adventure and would kick my ass if she knew I was still hanging on to the past and not moving forward. But how do you move forward and leave the best parts of yourself behind. I don’t know.
“If the woman I loved ripped my heart out and left me without a clue, and then suddenly popped up out of nowhere, with trouble on her heels…you bet your ass I wouldn’t let her leave again until I had some answers.”
I know he’s right. I do need to talk to her to get some answers, but I don’t know if I would trust her to tell me the truth. Hell, I don’t know if I can trust my own brothers to tell me the truth after hearing how Ghost hid her. I can’t help but think there’s more secrets to uncover. If there are, and I uncover them, will I ever be able to trust my club again?
The Kings saved me. Became my family when my own fell apart.
Maybe she’s not the only one who betrayed me.It’s a realization that guts me. One I’m not sure I want to know the truth about.
I see movement on the monitor. The cameras in the gym are open on my screen. A couple of women sparring in the cage.
“What do you think happened to make her want to learn to fight?”
“Maybe she just likes it for the exercise. A lot of people use boxing as cardio.” He leans forward watching the women on the screen. “I haven’t seen her fight other than to strike you in the nose though, so I don’t know what level of skill she really has other than that.” He chuckles. “Nice shiner by the way.” I reach across to sock him in his chest. He moves and I miss.
It’s not a real shiner. The palm to the face she gave me left a small black mark under my right eye. She didn’t hit hard enough to break my nose, but she pulled her punch. I could tell. She wasn’t aiming to hurt. She was issuing a warning.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing what Skyler could do. Xander says she’s a hell of a striker. Walker says her ground game is pretty deadly too, but neither of them said what her specific training is or who trained her.”
That gives me an idea. One that might get me some answers to whether she’s really been in Mountain Heights this whole time and where else she might have been in between.
Hawk taps a few keys on my keyboard turning the monitor to face him. When he zooms in, I catch a glimpse of what’s caught his eye, or rather who. Sadie’s in the cage sparring with Ana, one of my female trainers.
“What’s Sadie doing in town? Shouldn’t she be in Baron’s Edge by now? Funeral’s a few days away.”
He shrugs playing off his interest, but he’s not fooling anyone. “She came up to grab some shit from Mack’s place for a thing at her school and get a tune up on Loretta. Gave some bullshit story about their being a downed transformer at the school so they shut down until the power company can figure their shit out.”
Loretta is her car’s name. She was given a Dodge Challenger for her sixteenth birthday and takes immaculate care of the thing. You’d think it was her child the way she obsesses over it.
“They shut down? Wouldn’t a rich kid school like that have generators or some shit as a back-up?”
Hawk looks at me as if he’s just had an alarming thought. Somehow, I think I know what he’s assuming, and I have to hide my amusement.
Sadie’s hacking skills rival Hawk’s. It’s hard not to laugh at what must be going through his mind right now. So, I change the subject.
“Think she’s staying for the funeral?”
“Probably. She’ll want to make sure Skyler’s okay. She never misses a chance to party with Jinx either. Which means I’ll need to double up the prospects watching her while she’s here.” He says not taking his eyes off her. I laugh because he’s right. Sadie alone is more than one man can handle. Add Jinx to the mix and shit can get crazy fast.
“Come on.”
“Where are we going?” Hawk asks finally pulling his eyes away from the screen.
“I need to see a manager about a dancer and a private room.” Hawk’s furrowed expression makes me laugh. “I’m headed to the Pearl tonight. I need to blow off some steam and I don’t feel like being around everyone else. So, are you coming, or not?”
He pushes a couple of buttons shutting down my screen and follows me out.
Maybe tonight I’ll finally get my chance to bury my woes in Scarlet’s sweet cunt and forget about Skyler’s all together.
*********