Chapter 20
KNIGHT
My body throbbed and ached as I rolled onto my side—but Aiden’s warm skin was all the reward I needed.
I nuzzled into the back of his neck, inhaling the citrus and sandalwood scent of his shampoo. He snuffled in his sleep, which was unbearably cute.
I pressed my lips to his shoulder—before remembering my cut lip. A sharp bite of pain made me tense. Still worth it, though.
I coasted my hand along Aiden’s bed-warmed flank, my dick nudging up against his ass.
“You okay?” Aiden asked sleepily.
“Better if you wake up and play,” I said teasingly.
I slid my hand forward, but he blocked me. “You need to take it easy.”
“Touching you is very easy. Resisting is what’s hard, Angel.”
He turned his head and blinked at me over his shoulder. His lips pulled into a grimace. “You look awful.”
“Way to pump up a guy’s ego.”
Aiden turned over to look at me fully and I could see in his expression that playtime wasn’t happening.
“You should rest today. Maybe call in to work.”
“It was just an ass-kicking. I’m not at death’s door.”
“Is that what it takes for you to miss work?” he challenged.
“Maybe.”
“C’mon, Knight. Those ribs are going to be killing you.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “I have a meeting with my parole officer before work. I can’t miss it.”
“Can’t you?”
“If you knew my parole officer, you’d understand. It’s not worth the trouble of getting Winslow riled up.”
I pushed upright, my battered body protesting. Holy fuck, sometimes the doctor was right. Imagine that.
I sucked in a breath and gritted my teeth as I turned to put my feet on the floor. It wasn’t just the ribs that hurt. I’d been kicked in the gut, in the chest, in the thigh. I might be less sore if a fucking truck had run over me.
“It’ll be better once I shower.”
“Okay.” Aiden sounded skeptical. “Make sure you cover that arm. I’ll change the bandages before I leave for work.” He rounded the bed. “Want help up?”
“No. I’m not helpless, damn it.”
“Okay.” He patted my shoulder and walked out of the room with the ease of a person who hadn’t been beaten to a pulp. The showoff.
I levered myself up, glad Aiden wasn’t around to hear the string of swearing I did. I took a hot shower, and it loosened me up some. By the time I entered the kitchen, I could walk with only a small hitch in each step.
Aiden pointedly sat a bottle of ibuprofen on the counter beside the toaster. “Take two and call me in the morning,” he said with a wink.
“Thank you, Doctor.” I unscrewed the cap and popped the pills in, swallowing them dry.
“Not even waiting for water, huh? Guess you’re hurting.”
“Could be worse.”
Aiden turned, bagel in hand, smoothing cream cheese with sweeps of the butter knife. “You know, you don’t have to tough it out. Not with me.”
“I’m not…” I trailed off. “Well, I guess I am. But it’s not because I’m trying to be tough.”
“No? Then why do you keep dismissing what happened to you? You were assaulted and injured. You’re a giant bruise, Knight.”
“I’m just used to…working through the pain, I guess. Not used to anyone noticing or, uh, caring.”
Aiden’s forehead creased with a frown.
“Not that I’m suggesting you care as more than a doctor,” I said quickly. “This is casual.”
“Right,” he said slowly. “Well, I do care as more than a doctor. It may be casual, but you’re not a stranger on the street. You’re my roommate. My brother’s best friend.”
I smiled tightly. “Yeah.”
He leaned in and brushed his lips to the side of my mouth, careful of my split lip. “I kind of like kissing you, too.”
I relaxed a little. “Yeah?”
“And touching.” He sat his bagel down on a napkin on the counter. “Which reminds me, sit and I’ll change your bandage.”
Damn. So much for the fun kind of touching.
“I’d rather stand.”
“Sure. We can do that.” He grabbed the first aid kit on the breakfast bar, where he’d left it last night, and opened it to get supplies. “Turn to your right a little and rest your elbow on the bar.”
I followed his instructions, and Aiden used scissors to cut away the gauze. He peeled the tape loose—which tugged at my sore skin—and applied a fresh layer of antibiotic ointment before wrapping me up in fresh bandages. “All right. Everything looks good. No sign of infection.”
“Thanks, Angel.”
He tilted his head. “Anytime, Knight. But let’s not make a habit of it, okay?”
“What’s the point of having a doctor for a roommate if not to take advantage of his free services?”
“I have other services that are a lot more fun,” he said with a teasing smile. “Take advantage of those all you want.”
“That’s not what you said this morning,” I grumbled.
“Well, when you’re fit for servicing, I’ll be ready and willing.”
A curl of arousal warmed my insides, but sadly, nothing could come of it now.
“I look forward to leaving you a Yelp review in the near future. Not only nursed me back to health, but fucked me until I couldn’t feel my legs. Five stars.”
Aiden’s eyes widened a fraction. We hadn’t actually fucked—at least not in the traditional sense of dick-in-ass—but I wanted him to know I was up for it.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he murmured.
“Okay, I’ve got to head out or I’ll be late.”
“I’ll drive you,” Aiden said. “You shouldn’t ride your bike today.”
Flynn had gotten Bailey to help him deliver my bike after he’d left last night. I was grateful because I hadn’t liked the idea of it sitting in the Ball Breakers parking lot all night.
But Aiden was right. Riding it today would not be fun.
“Don’t you have to be at the hospital?” I asked.
Aiden handed me the other half of his bagel. “I set my own hours. Eat that, though. You shouldn’t let that ibuprofen sit on an empty stomach.”
I followed him out the front door, taking a bite of cream-slathered bagel. It wasn’t my go-to breakfast, but it wasn’t half bad.
Aiden drove me to the plain government building that housed parole officers, along with some other depressing departments like social work and city code enforcement.
“I’m not sure how long this will take,” I said. “Winslow will have more than a few words to say about all this.”
“I’d be surprised if he didn’t.” Aiden waggled his phone. “It’s cool. I owe my friend Haley a callback, anyway.”
“Okay, thanks for doing this. I know you have better things to do.”
“No, I don’t.”
The statement was simple, but the implication wasn’t. Aiden took his work seriously. His first concern when we hooked up was that it might distract him from his goals. Putting me first today was no small thing.
I squeezed his hand. “I’ll be back as fast as I can.”
I checked in at the front desk, then headed down the hall toward Winslow’s office.
As I neared, his door opened, and he stepped out with Ghost. Huh. I thought he’d just gone to his last appointment a few days ago.
They stood together, quietly speaking, which wasn’t odd for Ghost, but for Winslow, it was noteworthy. The man must have been in high school theater because he projected like he was speaking to an audience, voice booming loudly with every word.
Not now, though.
He placed a hand on Ghost’s shoulder, squeezing. I wasn’t sure I’d seen anyone else brave enough to touch Ghost.
“Hey, guys,” I called. “I didn’t know there was a party today.”
Ghost stepped back, and Winslow’s hand dropped away. “I was just leaving.”
“Ah, bummer.” I came to a stop next to him. “We could have peed into cups together.”
He cast me an amused look, lips twitching, then did a double take. “Your face.”
“Ah, yeah.” I raised a hand to my bruised jaw, rubbing gently. “Got in a scuffle. It’s nothing.”
“Doesn’t look like nothing,” Winslow said, sounding unimpressed. “Get in my office, Will. It looks like today is going to be a shitfest.”
With a sigh, I slunk into the office, knowing Winslow was going to let me have it.
Maybe I really should have tried to cancel like Aiden suggested. No doubt Winslow would have just tracked me down and grilled me about what happened.
I carefully lowered myself into a seat. “What’s up, my man? Everything good?”
Winslow sat down behind his metal desk, giving me the hairy eyeball. “You tell me.”
“Nothing to tell.”
His nostrils flared, and he was gearing himself up to blow.
I raised my hands. “Okay, I know how it looks. I got jumped by some guys. But it wasn’t my doing.”
“Who’s doing was it, then?”
I chewed over whether to brush it off as a random assault. Winslow was too smart, though. He’d never buy that.
“They were some guys from my old biker club.”
He leaned forward, suddenly concerned. “You made contact with them? The terms of your parole—”
“No, I didn’t seek them out. You think I want this? They found me.”
He clucked. “Will, I don’t have to tell you that this doesn’t look good.”
“I know,” I said shortly. “It doesn’t feel great, either. But what can I do? They want me back, and this is their idea of an invitation.”
He winced. “Hell of a welcome home party.”
“Yeah.” I shifted, trying to ease the strain on my ribs. “I could handle it if it stopped there. But they’ll be back.”
He drummed his fingers on his desk. “Well, look, you can’t go back to that life. You’ll end up right back in prison—or dead.”
“Way to cheer me up,” I said glumly.
“Even if you get away with violating parole, that road isn’t going to lead anywhere good,” Winslow continued.
Once he built up to a lecture, you had to let it run its course.
“You’ve made a real effort to start over here.
I’ve got only glowing reports from the Redemption Road director and your boss at the tattoo parlor. You can’t throw that all away.”
“I don’t want to go back to that life either. But I don’t know that I have a choice. They won’t give me a free pass to move on with my life.”
“I could make some calls, get your parole transferred for your safety. You’d be able to leave the state and get off their radar.”
My stomach clenched. “No. I can’t leave.”
“Why not? If it’s about the job, we’ll find you another one.”
“The other guys at Redemption Road need me. I’ve got a roommate. I can’t just flee.”
Winslow narrowed his eyes. “Will, we’ve talked about that savior complex of yours and how it got you into trouble. The other guys will be okay. They’re grown men. Your roommate will find someone else to live with—”
I exploded out of the chair, unable to sit and listen to him dismantle my life.
“I can’t just up and leave Aiden!”
Winslow cocked his head, looking thoughtful rather than bothered by my outburst. “Aiden’s the roommate?”
I wet my lips. “Yeah.”
“Just a roommate?”
I hesitated.
Winslow waved a hand. “I think I get the picture. You need to think long and hard about this, Will. I know you don’t want to leave your boyfriend behind.
I know you don’t want to give up on the life you’ve been building here.
But if the Serpents kill you, none of that will matter, will it? You’ll be leaving them permanently.”
I didn’t need to think about it, though. I couldn’t leave Hollywood, Tex, and Ghost. Especially not Joyride. That kid needed me. And the thought of walking away from Aiden turned my stomach. No. Absolutely not.
We might not be dating properly, but he was the first bit of real joy I’d taken for myself in a long damn time.
I wasn’t giving up everything I wanted—everything I’d rebuilt—to the Serpents. I’d already given them too much of my life.