Chapter Twenty-Two #2
“It already is,” Beck says quietly. “She’s never been happier. You did that.”
His words should make me feel better. Instead, they make the guilt dig deeper because when Marley finds out I’ve been lying, all that happiness could disappear.
The party swells. Victoria cranks “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” and everyone dances. Sin spins his Old Lady with surprising grace, and Marley glows in the middle of it all.
She catches my eye and gestures for me to join her. I shake my head, but she pouts, and I can’t resist, so I make my way through the crowd, and she grabs my hands.
“I don’t dance,” I tell her.
“You do tonight, old man,” she counters.
For her, I’ll do anything.
We move together, slow and intimate despite the fast song—our own bubble in the chaos.
“Thank you,” she says over the music. “For making tonight perfect.”
“You deserve perfect,” I lean down to her ear. “You deserve everything, Small Town.”
You deserve honesty, my mind whispers.
You deserve better than what I’m giving you.
Goddammit!
She shivers, and the air between us shifts, heavier, charged. I want to kiss her, pull her somewhere private, and show her exactly how much she means to me.
But not yet.
Soon.
The song ends, and Ro takes the stage. “All right, you beautiful degenerates, it’s performance time.”
Marley’s eyes widen. “Performance?”
“You’ll see,” I murmur, guiding her to sit near the front.
Ro launches into “Barracuda,” her voice raw and powerful. The clubhouse loses its mind. Even Queenie, dressed in vintage seventies, is clapping along.
When Ro finishes, she grins breathlessly. “Now I’ve got a special guest. Get up here, Nitro!”
My stomach flips, but I stand, pulling my flute out of its case.
Marley’s jaw drops. “You’re performing?”
“For you,” I say simply, making my way to the stage.
We launch into “Faithfully,” rearranged into upbeat rock with flute accompaniment that shouldn’t work but does.
The clubhouse goes quiet, and I keep my eyes on Marley the whole time.
Watching her expression shift from surprise to wonder to clear love.
Tears stream down her face, but she’s smiling so wide it lights up the room.
The song ends to deafening applause. But I only see Marley making her way toward the stage, tears still on her cheeks.
“That was beautiful,” she says. “The most beautiful piece I’ve ever heard.”
“You’re beautiful, Marley,” I tell her, meaning it completely.
Before I can say more, the alarm for a clubhouse breach goes off. Ghost moves quickly to the surveillance as the rest of us reach for our guns, but the clubhouse doors slam open, and dickhead Derek walks in.
The music cuts off.
Every conversation stops.
Every person turns, guns drawn to stare at the asshole in the designer suit who just crashed my girl’s party.
“Where the fuck is Liam!” Sin shouts, and as if on cue, the prospect who was manning the gate stumbles inside, hand to his head, a line of blood running down his temple.
“Shit... sorry, Pres. The cunt caught me off guard. Whacked me with a baseball bat—”
Mace surges forward. “You motherfucke—”
“Mace, simmer down, the chicken shit came inside without the bat… let’s hear him out.”
“Liam’s bleeding on our fucking floor, Pres!” Mace growls.
Sin tilts his head. “Oh, I know. So you better get to the point fucking fast, Derek, or my hospitable nature is going to wear thin real quick!”
Derek hesitates, his hands up in surrender as he scans the room, the costumes, decorations, the bikers now staring with expressions that could curdle milk.
When his gaze lands on Marley, his lip curls. “Marley,” he says. “We need to talk.”
“No…” I step in front of her, “… you don’t.” I flick off the safety of my gun.
Derek’s eyes skim me, and I see the moment he realizes his mistake. I’m six-four, two-forty, and dressed like a deranged Guns N’ Roses member. Behind me, my brothers form a wall. Their guns all flicking off their safeties one by one.
Sin steps forward, bringing his Glock up a little higher. “Wrong place, my friend.”
“Private party,” Victoria adds coldly, crossing her arms over her chest.
Derek’s face reddens, as though he wants to push the issue, but is very aware of the multiple guns aimed right at him. “I just wanted to wish Marley happy birthday.”
“After how you treated her?” Sage’s voice cuts like a blade.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t be worried about those guns aimed at you, asshole.
I’d be more worried about the best friend and the two older brothers who want to murder you because we have bikers here who can hide your body, but we get the satisfaction of taking you out,” Sage snaps confidently.
Derek swallows hard as he looks past me to Marley. “Really? Bikers, Marley? This is what you’ve degraded yourself to?”
The words hang like poison.
Marley stiffens behind me, her hand gripping my shirt, and rage floods white-hot through me. But before I can move, my brothers close in. Sin, Koa, Bear, Ghost, and the others form a semicircle around Derek, guns still aimed at him, expressions dark.
“Get the fuck out.” Sin’s voice is deadly calm.
Derek looks at the wall of leather and muscle, and fear flickers across his face. “You can’t—”
“We can,” Koa rumbles. “Leave. Now.”
“Before we make you,” Bear adds helpfully.
Derek backs toward the door, face twisted with impotent fury. “This isn’t over, Marley.”
“Yeah, it is,” Victoria says flatly. “Come near her again, and you’ll see how degenerate these bikers can be, firsthand.”
Derek huffs, then spins, storming out.
The moment the door slams behind his ass, the clubhouse erupts, not in anger, but laughter, the brothers all lowering their weapons in unison.
“Did you see his face?” Sage doubles over. “He looked like he was going to piss himself!”
“That was so fucking hot,” Beck chimes, fanning himself. “Seriously, all of you, the hottest thing ever.”
But as I turn to Marley, she’s shaking, my hands tighten on her to pull her closer, but then she breaks out into a fit of laughter. Laughing so hard, tears stream down her face.
“Oh. My. God.” She gasps. “The look on that dick’s face when you all raised your guns…” She dissolves into a fit of giggles.
Relief floods me, and I lift her off her feet. “You okay, Small Town?”
“I’m perfect.” She wraps her arms around my neck. “That was amazing. You’re all amazing.”
“He’s never coming back,” I promise. “If he even thinks about it, we’ll handle it.”
“I know.” She presses her forehead to mine. “I feel so safe with you. With all of you.”
The party resumes, but the energy has shifted, protective, familial. Marley is surrounded by people who love her, who’d go to war for her.
And I’m about to make it official.
Even though I don’t deserve her.
Even though I’m keeping this secret from her.
Tell her, my conscience screams.
Tell her now, before you do this.
But I can’t.
I’m too afraid of losing her.
So, I’m going to claim her first, bind her to me in front of everyone, and pray to God that when the truth comes out, and it will, she loves me enough to forgive me.
It’s a dick move.
I know it is.
But I’d rather be a dick who gets to keep his woman than an honest man who loses her.
I set her down and pull out the small, wrapped box.
Her eyes widen. “Nitro, you didn’t—”
“I wanted to.” I hand it to her. “Open it.”
She smiles up at me as she unwraps it, revealing a velvet box. When she opens it, her breath catches.
Inside is a white gold bracelet with a single charm—a tiny flute engraved with her initials and today’s date.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispers.
“To remind you… “ I say, fastening it around her wrist, “… that music brought us together. That you’re part of my world now. My family.”
Tears begin to trickle down her beautiful cheeks. Happy tears. “I love it. I love you.” She bites her lip.
But Beck appears with an envelope. “My turn. This is from me.”
Marley takes it and pulls out a photograph. When she sees it, she goes still.
It’s from the gala. Beck captured the moment when our foreheads pressed together, my hand on her face, her eyes closed. We look like the only two people in the world. The love radiating from that image is undeniable.
“Beck,” she breathes. “When did you—”
“Look at it, Marley,” Beck says softly. “Really look at it.”
She stares at the photograph, tears streaming. “We look…”
“Like you’re in love,” Beck finishes. “Because you are. You have been for longer than you both realize.”
She looks up at me, the photograph trembling in her hands.
I take her hands, the picture between our palms, and look into her green eyes.
“Marley, from the moment you collapsed into my back seat, I knew you’d change my life.
You make me want to be better. You make me whole.
You see all of me, the biker, the musician, and you don’t flinch. You don’t run. You love me.”
“I do,” she whispers.
The clubhouse has gone quiet.
Everyone watching.
But this moment is ours.
“I love you, baby. Every curve, every quirk, every beautiful piece of you.” I release one hand to pull out her Property Patch. “Be my Old Lady. Officially. In front of everyone who matters to me. Claim me the way I’m claiming you. Be mine, Marley.”
Silence.
Then Marley laughs and cries, nodding hard. “Yes. Yes, of course, yes!”
The clubhouse explodes. Cheering, whistles, shouting. But all I hear is Marley saying yes. All I see is her smile as I pull her into my arms and kiss her. Really kiss her. The kind that stakes a claim, tells everyone she’s mine, and I’m hers.
The kind that binds her to me before she knows the whole truth.
I’m going to hell for this.
But at least I’ll have had heaven first.
When we break apart, she’s breathless and beaming. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
“Believe it, Small Town. You’re stuck with me now.”
“Good,” she says fiercely. “Because I’m never letting you go.”
Those words should fill me with joy.
Instead, they fill me with dread.
Because when she finds out about Blackwell, she might not have a choice.
Sin steps forward, a genuine smile on his face. “Welcome to the family, Marley. Officially.”
Victoria hugs her next, then Sage and Beck, and suddenly Marley is surrounded by people celebrating her, not just because it’s her birthday, but because she’s one of us now.
She’s Defiance.
I stand back and watch this woman I love being welcomed into my world, and I feel something I haven’t felt in years.
Complete.
Whole.
Home.
But also, so fucking terrified of losing it all.
I need to tell her.
Before someone else does.
Before Derek digs deeper and discovers the damn truth.
But not tonight.
Tonight is hers.
Tonight is ours.
Tomorrow, I’ll figure out how to tell her, about Blackwell, about the job.
Tomorrow, I’ll face the consequences of my cowardice.
But tonight? Tonight I’m going to hold on tight and pretend that everything is perfect. That I’m not the asshole who’s been keeping this shit from the woman he loves.
And when she looks back at me, her eyes shining with joy, love, and promise, I know this, right here, right now, is exactly where I’m supposed to be.
With her.
Forever.
No matter what it costs me.