Chapter 24
Gabriella
Before
“Luke!” I squealed, almost breathless with laughter—and a healthy dose of fear. Clinging to his neck, I writhed against him, but his grip was far too strong. “Luke, do not do this. I will literally beg you!”
“Ma’am, I am a trained professional. Please remain calm.”
“You are a trained moron!” I giggled. “Stop walking and put me down!”
But he didn’t stop. He gave my ass a slap and continued striding along the rocky path, his mouth set in a determined line.
My arms were wrapped around his neck, and he was carrying me bridal style, having swung me up into his arms a minute earlier when I said I wasn’t going in the water.
“Luke!” I repeated. “Luke, please… just… just think about this for a second!” I giggled, almost panting at him.
“I did think. And I’ve come to the conclusion we could both do with cooling down.”
Okay, so this wasn’t just happening because I said I didn’t want to go in the water. It may also be a punishment since we were on the brink of a petty argument over something I could barely even recall.
“I’m calm!”
“Good. I could do with some more cooling, though,” he replied, doing his best to keep his face straight, but a smile twitched at his lips.
“I will love you forever if you turn around and take us back to the beach.”
Yeah, I wasn’t above blackmail.
“I’ve already decided I’m keeping you forever. Take a deep breath.”
My heart lurched then. I had been so busy arguing, I hadn’t seen how close we were to the edge of the cliff. Adrenaline coursed through me, followed by a burst of apprehension.
“No, no, no,” I yelped, my breathing frantic.
Luke took off into a run, and before I had the chance to process, the ground slipped away beneath us, and we were free-falling through the air.
He cradled me close to his body, the wind whipping against my skin. At the last second, I took a deep breath, only for it to come flying from my lungs as the freezing water hit me, pulling me under.
Two large hands wrapped around the small of my waist and hoisted me up, and a warm, smiling, dripping wet face greeted me.
“I can’t believe you did that!” I breathed, pushing the water out of my eyes and slicking my hair back.
“You’re welcome for rescuing you. But my services come with a price.” He grinned wickedly at me. I shuffled closer, bobbing on the water's surface, and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“How’s this for payment?” I breathed a split second before covering his lips with my own.
“I was really hoping for the cash,” he murmured against my lips. “I think forty quid should do it.”
Splashing him with water, I pulled my mouth off his and swam backwards away from him, keeping one wary eye on his movements at all times.
“I’m not paying you for a rescue I wouldn’t have needed if you hadn’t put me in that position.”
He gasped out loud. “Are you accusing me of manipulating my status as lifeguard? That I manufactured a damsel in distress just to make myself look good? Words hurt, Gabriella. You’re a liar of the highest order.”
“Cry me a river, asshole,” I called back, and then took off swimming as he levelled me with a menacing look and dived under the water.
I felt him brush against my legs and then pop up in front of me.
“You know I am an enforcer for the Devils, Gabriella. And an enforcer always collects payment,” he warned me, grabbing my waist again and hauling me up against him. I held my breath, anticipating his kiss, but he simply picked me up once more and threw me like a bomb back into the water.
“Luke!” I spluttered, coming back up for air. But he was already gone. I followed his direction and then…
“Oh no,” I whispered. “Oh, God, no…”
Luke had found his next victim.
Humming the tune to Jaws, he bobbed up and down in the water, heading towards a woman and her young children.
“Luke!” I hissed, quickly following after him, but he had already sunk further under the water. The next thing I knew, the woman was shrieking, and Luke was coming up for air.
“Stand back, lady. There’s a shark,” he told her, looking the picture of innocence.
“Did you just bite me?!” she hissed at him. Luke paused and winked at her children, silently reassuring them this was all in jest, and then looked back at their mum.
“How could I bite you? I was underwater. I am a talented man, m’lady, but alas, I have not evolved to having gills.”
“Well, you nipped me then!”
“It was a shark. If you could make your way down to the beach, all will be well.”
“Mum, it was a shark. I saw it!” the tallest of her boys giggled. Luke went underwater instantly, nipping at the boys’ legs, making them roar with laughter.
“Are you in the habit of approaching women on their own and harassing them?”
“Sharks don’t discriminate, I’m afraid. They see bare legs, they get to chomping. You could have been a hairy, sixty-year-old man, and he still would have bitten.”
“Sharks also don’t fucking talk!” she snapped back.
“Don’t be ableist. Sharks can do whatever they put their minds to.”
“Just fuck off, you weirdo, leave us alone.”
She turned her back on him, and he followed along, keeping just his eyes out of the water, nipping at her legs the entire time.
“Grow the fuck up!” she barked, but she was speaking to herself. Luke was in the moment, her kids were loving every second, and I was clutching my sides, laughing so hard I thought I might pee.
“You’re a twat!” she hissed at him, climbing out of the sea and onto the sand. “Come on, boys!” she yelled, almost tugging them out of the water.
“You have a lovely day now, you hear?” he called back, waving at her. Her response was to stick her middle finger up at him.
He swam back towards me as I tread the water and came up right between my arms, his face a mere inch away from mine.
“This is precisely why we can’t have friends whenever we visit a new city,” I grinned at him. “They all think you’re unhinged.”
“Maybe I am. It worked, though, didn’t it?”
“What worked?”
“We’re all alone.”
I looked around, seeing he was right.
It wasn’t the hottest of days, and there had been few people in the water to begin with. But everyone was now giving us a very wide berth, or climbing out of the water entirely.
“You’re a menace,” I chuckled, wrapping my arms around his neck.
“I was teaching her basic survival skills. I told you—”
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered, playfully rolling my eyes. “You’re a trained professional. I heard you the first time.”
“Good. Now let’s see what you’ve learned,” he said, a split second before hauling me up and flipping me onto my back, straight into the water.
A while later, I was lying on a towel, the sun warming my chilled skin, drying me off as Luke spread out the food he had packed for us.
He spent the past half hour all but wrestling me in that water, and my body was beyond sore, but my heart beyond happy. He said he had been “intimidating a rival gang with aquatic dominance”, but it felt more like “throw my girlfriend around as an excuse to touch her body.”
I wasn’t complaining.
I loved Luke. I loved him touching me. I loved being alone with him like this, his smiles lighting us both up. In these moments, without the pressure of our gangs, our life, or any other obstacles in our way, we could just be ourselves. Carefree and in love.
It was perfection.
“You know,” Luke murmured once all the food was prepared. “This picnic almost cost me my life.”
“Oh, yeah?” I murmured back, turning my head slightly and opening one eye. “Why’s that?”
“Mama caught me.”
Mama. What a ridiculous fucking name. Ever since she had all but adopted Luke, he had taken to calling her Mama K or, Big Mama.
Which was now just shortened to Mama. And it seemed, since being the president’s old lady, this had caught on with the rest of the club, and was now her official biker name—even though old ladies were not supposed to receive one.
“Why? Are you not allowed to eat without permission?” I asked, plucking a grape from the plate and placing it between my teeth.
“Oh, it wasn’t the food that was the issue. It was the questions—why did I need that much, where was I going, who was I going with?”
“You’ve dodged those types of questions before, though.”
“Yeah, but before I never called the president’s old lady a nosy little witch, and I never threw a cream cake at her.”
I sat up on my elbows at that.
“You threw a cream cake at Kitty?”
“Maybe a couple of the grapes, too,” he admitted, a smirk on his lips.
“Oh, you’re in so much trouble when you get back.”
“She swatted me around my ear, and hit me with a tea towel. This was strictly self defence!”
“Uh-huh, tell it the jury, mister!”
“You’d be on my side, wouldn’t you?”
“Nope,” I replied simply, popping the P.
“What do you mean, no?”
“I’m not going up against Kitty. The woman scares the crap out of me. You’re on your own. I might visit you in jail, though. If I find the time…” I added cheekily, only to gasp as something wet hit my side.
Sitting up, I glanced down, seeing the last remnants of a cream cake dripping from my skin onto the towel.
“Oh, you’re going to regret that!” I warned, grabbing one of the sandwiches and smushing it in his face before he realised what I was doing.
“Run, Princess. You’ve sealed your fate.”
Pushing to my feet, stopping for a second to grab the fruit bowl, I took off running down the beach, throwing strawberries over my shoulder at him.
My feet slipped in the warm sand, the grains sliding between my toes, making my movements heavier and sluggish. But Luke was struggling just as much. Throwing cups of water at me, he attempted to chase me down, dodging my ammo.
A wet slap had me almost choking on laughter, and a quick peek over my shoulder saw a bright red spot in the middle of his chest, and strawberry juice dripping down his abs.
Even in the chaos, I could still appreciate how… delicious that made him look.
Running back into the sea, gasping at the shock of the cold once more, I heard Luke splash behind me. I put up a minimal fight, but he caught me, just like I wanted him to, and brought me back up against him.
I was waiting for more sarcastic words, more of his playful banter. But instead, he pushed the hair away from my face, his expression growing more serious, and simply stared down at me.
“Luke?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at him.
“I love you, Gabriella,” he told me, his eyes shining with nothing but sincerity.
My breath caught in my throat, my heart starting to pound, but my response was as natural as breathing. “I love you, too.”
And then he kissed me.
A sticky, cream and strawberry filled kiss.
One that invaded my soul and sank into my heart as a new, core memory I would treasure forever.
Hours later, we were back in familiar—and unwelcome—territory. As always, Luke dropped me off at home, coming closer and closer to the door every time.
“You know you shouldn’t be here,” I said, but I was clinging to his hand, reluctant to let him go and end the day that had been complete perfection.
“Your club is at Church. I know the schedule like the back of my hand,” he said, a wry smile on his lips.
“Of course you do,” I muttered, rolling my eyes. “Just how much time do you spend watching me?”
I wasn’t even the slightest bit concerned with Luke’s obsession with me.
I knew he watched my house—not just in the moments where I snuck in and flicked the light for him.
He watched when he knew we had visitors.
He was here when the rallies were happening.
He was always around, putting my safety first and foremost. If that came with a bit of stalker territory, I wasn’t complaining.
For the first time in my life, I felt so unbelievably safe and secure, knowing he had my back, no matter what.
“That’s for me to know,” he replied, tugging on my hands to pull me closer. I tipped my head back, expecting his kiss, but instead he cleared his throat awkwardly.
“I have something for you,” he said, his voice soft, reaching into his back pocket. “It’s not much, but…” his words trailed off, and he silently handed me a velvet square box.
I accepted his gift, looking at him quizzically for a second, and then popped the box open, gasping out loud at what I saw inside.
“Luke…” I breathed, picking up the silver bracelet with dozens of charms attached.
“There’s a piece of paper in there as well, detailing everything. This one,” he said, pointing to one of the charms in the shape of a swing. “Is for when we first met. This one,” a small mobile phone. “Is for all the texts we shared.”
He went on, explaining the charms. One in the shape of a lipstick, which was a memory of the first youth party we had shared together.
All the girls had different coloured lipsticks, and we had to kiss as many boys as possible.
It had been a silly night that I’d almost forgotten.
There was a small charm in the shape of a motorbike, not just representing our lives, but also our secret nights together.
Stars for the nights I didn’t go home, a crown for the princess, a lightbulb, and even one from the seaside.
I glanced at him when I saw the broken heart.
“For when you inevitably break me one day,” he chuckled.
There was also a birthday cake, a knuckle duster, a raven, a devil… there were at least twenty charms, including a small, little pill one—“the good and the bad,” he whispered, referencing his mother and the night I’d helped get her home.
“Luke,” I breathed. “This is… this is us.” My eyes filled with tears, and as I glanced up at him, a tiny one spilled from my lower lashes, rolling down my cheeks.
He swiped the tear away with his thumb, bringing it to his mouth to lick it away, and then cradled my face.
“It’s us,” he repeated. “I can never find the words, Gabby. But I can show you. I remember everything. Every detail, every moment. I’ll never forget a single second.
I want to spend a lifetime filling this bracelet with all things ‘us’. ”
He kissed me then, the box cushioned between our two bodies, and I knew, I just knew, this was the boy I was going to love forever.
The roar of engines had us pulling apart, and a dozen quick pecks were shared as I made my way into the house, our lips almost getting crushed in the door as I shut it on us, until I was in the house alone.
“Oh, my God,” I whispered with a giggle, flopping against the door and sinking down to the floor. My heart was racing, and every inch of my skin tingled. “I am in so much trouble.”
I knew I should have been terrified.
Instead, all I could think was that if loving Luke felt like this, then maybe trouble was worth it.