Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Skull dresses in his standard clothing. Jeans. Black shirt. Leather cut. He explained it’s not vest, it’s a cut.
When he’s done, he paces by the door until someone knocks. I don’t know who delivers the clothes but they brought me a cute pair of jeans that smell like fresh line-dried laundry. In the grocery bag is also a pair of panties with the tags on.
I grin like a fool.
“Look! Panties.”
Skull stalks toward me. “Let me see those.”
I shriek and dash past him to the bathroom. “Oh no. I’m not letting you near them. Who knows what you’ll do to them.”
He’s standing in the middle of his living room with his arms crossed when I finish dressing. “Turn around.”
“Jesus. Bossy,” I half-grumble.
He lifts a brow. “You don’t even know.”
I spin, my spine tingling with warmth from his blatantly sexual inspection. “Satisfied?”
“Very. You’ve got a great ass for jeans.”
That compliment goes straight to my head. I’m still floating when he folds my hand in his and drags me into the hallway.
“They’ll have coffee and food at Church,” he promises and my nerves settle a fraction.
He grows more serious with every lengthy stride he takes as he leads me to the room he calls church.
In the hallway there’s a buzz of activity. And lots of guns.
“Nice work out there, last night,” Skull rumbles as he fist bumps a tall guy he calls Slider.
When we walk in the door to the gigantic room he showed me yesterday, the scent of coffee is like a crashing wave. It’s accompanied by the hum of low male voices.
Skull picks up two mugs of coffee and leads me toward the back of the room.
It’s a lot to take in. This place has walls covered in motorcycle club logos for the Kings of Darkness Bad River Chapter. There are framed sayings too. And big maps and throwing darts marking locations.
Red magic marker circles glare against the black and white paper. Photos of men are pinned to the walls with X-marks over some of their faces.
A tingle hits the back of my neck, and to my horror I realize all eyes are on me. Oh lord. I’ve never liked people looking at me.
“Here you go,” Skull says as passes me a brutally hot coffee in a ceramic mug that’s got the club logo on it.
Black as oil. No sugar or creamer in sight.
“Looks strong.”
“Course, this ain’t McDonalds,” he rumbles as he pulls out a chair at the long table, surprising me when he says, “Sit on my lap.”
“Here?” I whisper, glancing around.
“Gonna get crowded in here, sunshine. Want you close.”
Jeepers. Close is right.
I don’t really have a choice as there are no other chairs. Almost like this one was saved for him. I don’t know how this club stuff works, but he does seem to get tons of respect.
“You’re not kidding, this place is getting crowded.”
“We got company, the other chapter. They stayed over after last night’s attack to offer extra security.”
The room is filling up. There are men on either side of us. Others stand along the walls. They’re wearing the same kind of vests as Skull.
It’s wall-to-wall leather, denim, and wallets on chains.
I feel a little less out of place when Reva walks in with a man who has Prez on his vest for the other chapter. The other club wives follow her in, wearing vests for both chapters. All the women wear the weathered expressions of someone who has been in this kind of meeting before.
Haley squeezes my shoulder. “Hey girl. You doing okay?”
I try to sound convincing. “I’m better now that I slept. How about you?”
“Same.” But she gives me a knowing nod. Things like this aren’t fixed with a night of sleep.
I’m holding my mug too tight as more people crowd into the room.
“You fit perfect,” Skull murmurs next to my ear.
“Thanks, I still feel weird about it,” I reply half-distracted by my growing guilt. But Skull takes a drink of his coffee, like this is the most normal thing in the world.
Not at all like I’m the cause of all the terror that ruined the night.
When I shiver, Skull puts his mug on the table and wraps both arms around me.
“Easy, baby,” he murmurs against my temple because he must be picking up on my thoughts. “It’s gonna be fine. See all these mean bastards, they’re gonna be right there alongside me when I take down the men who are after you.”