Chapter 58
Aiden
“I hope every one of you understands that we didn’t need to bring this to you.
” I look around the table, in a place I never thought I’d be—seated at the opposite end of Gabriel Wolfe in the Hounds of Hell’s clubhouse chapel room.
Our top men surround us, all of them shell-shocked by what Mason and I are explaining.
Even though this is a friendly meeting, tensions are high with all of us in one room for the first time in decades.
It’s unprecedented, and why all weapons and phones are outside the room.
“This couldn’t be helped?” Wolfe asks from the other end of the table.
He leans back in his leather chair and folds his arms over his chest. He’s someone I’ve truly come to respect, and his acceptance would band us together.
Our two clubs, fighting on the same side of things for the first time in fifty years.
“He killed my sister. All due respect, Prez, but it couldn’t be helped,” Mason speaks up.
“And you’re okay with this?” Wolfe asks Mason, nodding toward me.
Mason clenches his jaw and eyes me up. “Fuck no, but as headstrong as Mia is, I wouldn’t have a choice anyway. I’m not losing another sister. Accepting she’s part of this world is all I can do.” He looks to me and nods. “And we’re good.”
I nod back. I have no problem with him either. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say I like him.
“Looks like you two worked out your differences with your fists,” Kai, the Hounds’ enforcer, says, taking a drag of his smoke and then chuckling.
I don’t know him, but I’ve heard things.
The guy’s batshit fucking crazy. Cut a prisoner’s dick off and eat it for breakfast wrapped in a hot dog bun kinda crazy.
Mason and I both have some good bruises from the fight in my office, and his cheek is split where I hit him.
“Looks like it was a fair fight.” Stone chuckles.
“I respect that you settled your differences like men,” Gabriel adds. “It says a lot about our two clubs, how far we’ve all come. Maybe a little more one-and-the-same now than we’ve ever been.”
“Agreed,” I answer.
“So, then what do we do about the mob?” Kai asks, stubbing out his smoke.
“We’re not working with them,” I say. “Word on the street is Angus Ramsey has ambitions that some of his top men don’t necessarily agree with. My contact says he’s risking their entire empire. That he’s greedy, and the power has gone to his head.” I pull my smokes out of my cut and light one.
“He married the daughter of the former don to rise to power, and now he wants more,” Stone pipes up. He’s done intensive work investigating the south’s most deadly crime family.
“They’re taking over the Atlanta area. Picking up the slack we dropped a few years ago. Dealing mostly with the K-6’s,” I elaborate, to drive the point home.
“There’s no saying where they’ll stop. They want arms from us, and I can’t say they’ll take lightly to your clinics flushing the area clean.” This is a truth we all have to face, and they know it. “The mob is a threat to us all right now,” I add, looking around the table.
“I’m down for taking care of this problem.” Kai offers his input first. “But it’s gotta be done right, from the inside.” There’s a hint of something personal in his tone, and I wonder what his dealings with them have been, if any, or if he really just loves getting his hands dirty.
“We’d need to get more intel. It would take time,” Gabriel says from his end of the table. “We need to know his men, his habits. I think there’s a way we can do it.” He looks at me directly. “But that’s for you and I to discuss, and then we’ll bring it back to the table.”
All the men murmur in agreement, and Gabriel nods to me. “I’m putting this motion forward. We join forces and end fifty years of needless war between our two clubs. We’re brothers in this fight. Understood?” he asks his men.
“We fight for each other, all the same,” I say to mine.
Gabriel raises the gavel. “Aye?” A unanimous round of ayes goes up before he drops the hammer and grins. “Now, let’s be gracious hosts. We’ll get some grub going. You’re all welcome to stay and break bread with us.”
“Hear, hear.” Kai offers up a wide smile. “It’ll be nice to not have to think about killing any of you fuckers for a change.”
Everyone around the table laughs and stands up, shaking each other’s hands.
I meet Gabriel’s gaze across the table, and we share a moment of understanding.
There’s never a fucking dull moment, but at least this time we’ll be on the same side.
Ending fifty years of back-and-forth between our clubs is a big step, and both of us should be damn proud it happened under our watch.
I raise my glass of whiskey to him, and in turn he raises his to me.
Hear, hear indeed.
Now to find my little goddess and make her fully mine, forever.
* * *
Mia
“Do you feel like she can finally rest now that you know the truth?” Brinley asks, running a hand over her ever-growing belly. I’ve always liked her. Her eyes are so kind, and she’s softened Wolfe in a way no one ever thought possible.
“The way she died,” I say, “I don’t think she’ll ever rest easy. But knowing the monster who killed her is dead is satisfying. I only wish he could have suffered longer.”
“You know, I try not to think about it much, because it was honestly horrifying…but I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw what your brother did to Gator. I couldn’t look away.
” Her blue eyes have gone somewhere else entirely.
“I think the state Gator was in when he died would also have given you satisfaction.”
“I’m not gonna ask why you were there, but it does make me happy to know he suffered.” I feel the tears beginning to surface. “Because my sister did.”
Brinley offers me a soft smile and places her hand over mine. “This life can be terrible. The things I’ve seen in my short time…would horrify most people. It takes a strong, special kind of woman to weather it.”
I nod and sniff back my tears.
“She’s not suffering now,” Brinley says.
“Your grief will never go away, but I truly believe she’s watching over you.
You and Mason have each other. Not to mention, we’re all here for you.
And he’ll be there for you too.” She nods to the door of the Hounds chapel, where Aiden is currently exiting.
“Something about those big, protective men with that hint of bad… They’re impossible to escape, am I right? ”
I smile back at her then turn to look at Aiden. Those steely blue eyes pierce mine from the other side of the room, and my stomach somersaults.
I speak without taking my eyes off him. “Something about them, for sure.”
* * *
Aiden
“If you think you’re uncomfortable now, wait until you feel the rumble of my bike pressed against that tight little ass.” I bend down and kiss Mia before clipping her helmet to her head.
The party inside the clubhouse had started with a huge barbecue, when I had Mia say goodbye to Gabriel’s very pregnant ol’ lady, Brinley, and her friend Layla. I told my men to have fun and behave, but that Mia and I wouldn’t be back.
Because I had a gift for her earlier today, and with the largest-size plug in her ass now, she’s gonna be a gift for me when we get home.
I’ve been prepping her over the last two days, fucking her every chance I get with the little jewel-tipped plug buried deep inside her.
Making her crave more, training her body to take me in the last virgin hole she has.
“You’re doing this to torture me, aren’t you?” she asks.
“Sure fucking am,” I answer honestly, kissing her once more, and reaching my hands around to grip her ass tight through her jean shorts.
She whimpers.
“I want you wrung out and begging me to fuck this tight little ass, Mia. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but first, I have a present for you.
” I kiss her nose and climb onto my bike.
She climbs on behind me, and I feel her squeeze her legs tight around me, clenching, searching for friction where there is none, and I just know those flimsy little panties she wears are already fucking soaked.
Christ, there’s nothing better than my goddess desperate and begging.