Chapter 31 #2
“No, but you did what counted and because of that, she is sitting right over there tonight.”
“That doesn’t mean I didn’t almost fail.”
“Key word here is almost.” Lulu said it wry. Almost a tease.
I grunted, and she laughed. “Sorry to break it to you, honey, but you weren’t close to failing. There is zero chance that scoundrel would have gotten her off this property the way he intended. Idiot would have had twenty-five Crows chasing down his tail in nothing flat.”
“She shouldn’t have been here for the chance of that to happen in the first place.”
She shouldn’t be subject to me or any of this bullshit that would ruin her life.
Lulu arched a brow, her wrinkled features deepening with disbelief. “Like that’s your fault when you stepped in to protect her? Took on that extra burden, invited more danger into your life? God knows where she’d be right now if it weren’t for you.”
A growl got free with the toil of hate the thought spurned, and I gripped the glass tighter, so hard I was surprised it didn’t shatter.
“And that reaction right there tells me that girl is exactly where she is supposed to be.” Lulu bobbed a finger at me, like my expression alone offered up proof.
Handed it to her on a silver platter.
My jaw clenched in restraint. Refusing to claim it myself. “She shouldn’t be within five states of this place.”
“And tell me you want her to be anywhere else?” Lulu was all challenge and snark.
“I just want all of this over with.” To put an end to Kent Ellison and his foul, sickening reign.
Ensure my sister was safe from his clutches.
Set Brinley free.
My guts twisted into a snarl of possession with the last.
Soul lashing out in refusal of the idea of her leaving this place.
Because the only real place I wanted her was in my bed.
Lulu angled her head. “And there isn’t a thing else you want to come of it?”
“Nope.” I popped the p before I took another swig of my old-fashioned. Hoping it might cover the blatant lie.
Of course, Lulu picked up on it, anyway. Woman as insightful as they came. She never hesitated to make sure I knew it, either. “You just go on tellin’ yourself that, sugar. You think I don’t see it written all over you?”
Disbelief shot from my chest. “And what’s that?”
“Somethin’ that hasn’t ever been there before, that’s what. Somethin’ you’ve been missing since the day I met you. Somethin’ I’m sure has been missing for a long, long time.”
My chest stretched in a flurry of pain and regret.
“You’re seeing things,” I grumbled.
“I sure am, as plain as day. You’re the one who’s not paying attention.”
My head shook. “I don’t know what you’re angling at, but you might as well drop it. Nothing is going to come of it.”
“And why not?”
My teeth ground, and the words were spilling free before I had the good sense to tamp them. “Because I refuse to condemn another person to the calamity that I am.”
I couldn’t believe I let it slide from my mouth. But Lulu had that way about her. Always plucking and picking until she’d peeled the skin back to expose what was rotten underneath.
She scoffed. “Condemn them, huh? Like you did me, coming in to rescue me when I was at my lowest? Saving me and supporting me when I lost my husband? Giving me a home?”
“That’s because we take care of family.”
“And maybe that girl right there needs one, too. Maybe she’s missing that same piece so many of us are when we come here.”
My insides stirred.
Swam and thundered with the music that pounded from the speakers.
Shoving it off, I ground out, “She’s been hurt enough. I refuse to be another. Besides, the last thing I need is another burden on my shoulders.”
I added the last like it could mask what had basically amounted to a confession.
“Huh…” Lulu’s musing cut off the hazardous spiral of thoughts. Only they got so much worse when she muttered, “Maybe someone else will fill that hole for her.”
I whipped around to find Brinley in the middle of the floor, dancing with two prospects.
Two prospects who wanted to get dead.
Lights strobed over her lush, perfect body. Brunette curls so fucking wild around her face. Red and gold streaks glinting beneath the strikes of colored light that kissed over her soft skin.
Wearing those heels and that dress.
Each of the prospects held one of her hands, beers in their other, their cuts saying “Prospect” across the back since they’d yet to patch in.
They definitely weren’t winning any points toward making that happen, either. As far as I was concerned, they had reached a quick, defining deficit.
Nah, it didn’t seem to matter that they were all laughing and joking and dancing a bit goofy.
Completely innocent.
No harm, no foul.
Everything about it still felt indecent.
A landslide of greed slammed me, and I nearly climbed to my feet, though I forced myself to remain sitting when Elena joined her, Brinley stepping away from the guys so she could dance with my sister.
Elena giggled as she tried to match Brinley’s perfect beat, her ponytail whipping around her, her laughter rising above the din.
I needed to let them be. Let them have some fun. Blow off some steam.
God knew Brinley deserved it after what went down this afternoon. Elena just as much with all the bullshit she’d been through.
But what Brinley was engaged in didn’t quite add up with her reaction from earlier.
Storming her way into the club with her head held high.
I got the unsettled sense that she had armored up again and was trying to prove something.
That should be of no concern of mine.
I needed to turn away. Get up and get on my bike and just fucking ride.
They were safe and fine. Trevan wasn’t more than three feet from my sister.
She was being closely looked after, and I knew he would do the same for Brinley.
But I was ensnared.
Hooked on the hypnotizing sway of Brinley’s hips and the tantalizing roll of her body.
Energy thrashed and streaked. Carried on the lights that flashed through the clubhouse bar.
A ton of women had moved onto the floor. Flirting and dancing with my men.
But Brinley was the only thing I could see.
The chick who was dancing with Fuse shifted around, rubbing her ass on his dick while she reached for Brinley. She slid a hand down Brinley’s bare thigh, no question inviting her to join in on the fun they were about to deteriorate into.
Brinley didn’t quite oblige, dancing out in front of her, though that gaze snapped toward me.
A beacon.
An invitation.
A trap.
Her lips parted, and the desire that had coated her expression earlier in the office had grown tenfold.
And fuck, I was hammered with another swell of possession. Feet knocked out from underneath me, body tossed and toppling in the tide that sucked me under and dragged me into a sea of greed.
So thick it might as well have been quicksand.
I drained my drink and slammed the empty onto the bar as I stood.
Could barely make out Lulu’s chuckle from behind and her muttered, “That’s what I thought,” as I stalked in Brinley’s direction.
The woman’s gaze seared a hole through the middle of me as I approached.
Brinley swayed.
All sultry like, teasing away my restraints.
My stride was slow and measured, like in the space and time that separated us I might be able to squash whatever the fuck it was that I was feeling.
No chance of it because it was only multiplying with each step that brought us closer.
When she was within two feet of me, I snatched her by the wrist and hauled her against me.
All that soft, decadent flesh against every hard inch at the front of my body.
So fucking sweet.
Brinley gasped, eyes going wide, lust running rampant through their depths.
I growled as I wound an arm around her waist and tugged her even tighter against me, mouth pressed to her ear so only she could hear. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
It was grit.
Gravel.
Rutted breaths heaved from her, and with each jagged exhale, it pressed her tits against my chest.
Tendrils of her aura slipped through my nostrils and wound into my lungs.
Apples and almonds and cream.
I wanted to take a giant bite. Now that I’d had a taste, I was terrified I would never get my fill.
“Dancing.” It wisped from her. Both a challenge and a plea.
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
She lifted that defiant chin. “You told me I could go anywhere on this property except for the places it was clear I shouldn’t be.”
“And you should know full well this isn’t one of those places.”
“You said I was allowed in the clubhouse.”
“Not if you’re looking for trouble.”
“And what kind of trouble am I looking for, Silas Mercer?” Both brows lifted as she dispatched what was nothing less than a taunt.
“You know exactly what kind of trouble you’re looking for. Know exactly what you’re doing to me.”
My nose hit the angle of her jaw as I mumbled it, and I was only faintly aware that I was breaking at least a hundred of my own rules by doing it.
Right out in the open and in plain sight of my crew.
Guilty as fuck, and I’d be the first to deliver the verdict.
My palm splayed out over the silky fabric at the small of her back.
She edged forward, hiking up on her toes and pressing that tempting mouth to my ear. “And maybe that’s exactly what I want. Maybe I’m looking for that exact kind of trouble. Maybe I came here looking for you.”
The growl that ripped from me was so explosive it was a wonder the walls of the building didn’t crumble.
A wonder every person there didn’t scatter to take cover.
“Believe me, baby. You don’t want what I have to offer,” I warned.
“You’re wrong. I think I want to experience every single thing that you are.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking.”
She lifted that brazen face. “I don’t care.”
“You’d care when you found out the depths of my depravity. You’d care when I left you mangled and broken.”
I already promised her that I would.
“Now I want you to take my little sister and go back to the house where you belong.” I breathed it a little too close to her mouth, my cock straining so hard in my jeans there was no chance she didn’t feel it begging at her belly.
A shiver rolled down her spine.
A shiver that raced up my arm, my palm still firmly pressed to that sweet spot, a fiend who kept her locked tight against me after I just told her to get lost.
She curled closer like she had no intention of listening, and I rumbled, “That’s an order.”
I forced myself to release her.
Brinley stumbled back a step, expression full of a scoff and disbelief.
She cocked her head.
Sheer provocation.
“You know,” she drew out like she was musing it. “I think I’ll stick around and see if anyone else is interested.”
Then she turned on those heels and strutted her way back into the melee, like there was a chance she belonged in the middle of it.
It was not going to fucking happen.
I was on her tail, shoving through the crowd. Surprise choked out of her when I grabbed her by the hand and spun her around.
Her entire being morphed into victorious glee, no doubt thinking she’d won some sort of seductress medal.
Then she squealed in shock when I had her off her feet and tossed over my shoulder before she knew what hit her.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she rasped, frantic hands trying to grip onto the rigid leather of my cut but never finding purchase.
There was no need for her to hang on since there was no chance I was letting her go.
I prowled toward the main door.
Didn’t give a fuck that every eye in the bar swung in our direction, that one action lifting a ramble of speculation. Their mouths wagging with the rumors that were going to fly.
There weren’t a whole lot of shits to give when Trevan gave me that look, either.
Smirk seated firmly on his face.
I told you so.
I didn’t give a fuck about much of anything except giving this girl a little of what she was asking for.