Chapter Fourteen
Cruz
McKelle was off her game. She was down sixty bucks, but at least she’d dried her tears.
While Vega leaned over the table, lined up his shot, and sent the cue ball spinning toward the racked balls, she sat on my lap. I kissed her bare shoulder, and she leaned into my chest.
Vega dropped balls into the pockets.
“He’s going to clear the table.” I kept one arm around her with my hand on her hip and sipped a longneck bottle of beer.
We both had a habit of checking our phones, hoping for a call that wasn’t going to come.
“We don’t have to be here,” I said to her. The board had already convened, and club business had concluded. Music blared through the speakers. Patches were drinking and playing cards.
Everyone was having a good time…except us.
“I don’t want to be anywhere else.” Not the same as wanting to be here. She took my beer from my fingers and tipped it to her lips.
“Your shot,” Vega said. He stepped away from the table.
McKelle stood and walked around the table. Her hair was still braided from our earlier ride. It swished across her back as she flipped her head, bent over the table, and took her shot.
“Look who showed up for church?” Tank stood in the main doorway to the chapel with his arm around a guy.
The older man, sporting a tightly cropped beard, had a bit of a gut from too much of the good life, judging from the cut of his suit and the diamonds and bling decorating his fingers. He pointed to the bar. “Who’s buying me a drink for getting this guy out?”
Only he wasn’t talking about getting Tank out of jail. I couldn’t breathe. Ryatt stepped around Willy and a cheer went up in the MC. Kiss squealed, but Blue wrapped an arm around her to keep her from rushing to him.
Ryatt’s gaze locked with mine, and then he quickly shifted his gaze to the woman standing next to me. She rested her hand on my back and took a step closer to me.
Romeo stood from the president’s table, but Ryatt was already weaving through the crowd, coming toward us.
“Why am I scared?” McKelle whispered. “Why is he here?”
“He’s here for you.”
Ryatt’s gaze hadn’t left McKelle. Time seemed to stop as he approached. He looked good. The bruising was gone leaving only the sharp angles of his face and a clean-shaven jaw. Jeans hung low on his hips, and his shirt clung to his tapered, muscular torso.
McKelle trembled next to me. The moment grew heavy with uncertainty. Maybe he didn’t realize what he’d put us through…what he’d put her through.
“Ryatt,” she whispered and blinked to keep tears from her eyes.
“Can I kiss you? I need to kiss you.”
McKelle broke on a sob, launched herself into his arms, and crashed her mouth onto his.
Ryatt gently cupped her cheek and deepened the kiss.
Their mouths opened, and their tongues sought each other.
Ryatt’s eyes closed and his hand slid along her back, palming her ass, and crushing her against his body.
A soft whimper slipped from her lips. Someone whistled. If anyone wondered how I felt about watching Ryatt kiss the fuck out of my old lady, I’d give them a dick pic of the raging erection bordering on painful behind the fly of my jeans.
When they parted, he pressed his forehead to hers. “I’m sorry.”
“Nah. Fuck that,” I said.
Ryatt snapped his gaze over to me. I took a menacing step toward him. “Fuck you, Ryatt. Fuck you for being a selfish asshole.” I shifted my gaze to McKelle. She sank her teeth into her bottom lip. I knew she was scared I’d push him away, but he’d emotionally bounced the minute shit got hard.
“I get it,” I continued. “I pushed too hard. But you tell me to back the fuck off. You don’t do this to her.
Don’t shut her out.” With my past behavior, I’d already given her a lifetime of hurt.
I wasn’t going to watch Ryatt do the same thing to her.
“It’s not all or nothing with us.” I lowered my voice.
“I can handle there being nothing between us but her. She needs you.” I tilted my head.
“Fuck, Rizz, I need you, too. But if we aren’t what you want, if I’m not what you want—”
Ryatt grasped the front of my cut, jerked me close, and slammed his mouth against mine. Soft lips. Firm pressure. The clean scent of spice and wood. Holy fuck. Ryatt was kissing me. His mouth pried mine open, and his tongue thrust inside.
Hot, toxic, and fiercely possessive. McKelle gasped beside me.
But it was Ryatt’s hand banding around the nape of my neck that had fire shooting through my veins.
He was wild and reckless, kissing me like he wanted to climb inside me.
My pulse turned erratic. With the swipe of his tongue against mine, I lost control.
I fisted his hair, angled his head, licked his lips and jabbed my tongue into his mouth.
His kiss was fierce, and mine was brutally savage.
I kissed him hard. With my mouth and tongue, I punished him for all the fucked-up doubts he had about us.
I claimed him in front of my brothers, and fuck anyone who had a problem with it.
McKelle’s breathy whimper next to me seeped into my psyche.
I broke from kissing Ryatt and slanted my mouth over hers.
But then Ryatt wrapped an arm around her and tugged her between us.
He drew her mouth back to his, only this time, it was a soft and leisurely connection. He sipped her lips while he smiled.
When he parted, with the exception of the music coming through the sound system, a hush blanketed the room. I guess we weren’t the only ones surprised by Ryatt’s return.
All three of us had questions, but none of us wanted to speak. I think we realized we already knew the answers. Did any of it really matter if he was here now?
Romeo launched over the rail. “Fuck, dude. It’s good to see you.” He went in to give Ryatt a hug. “But don’t kiss me. I didn’t miss you that much.”
“I don’t want to kiss you either, but I do want to see your old lady.”
Romeo chuckled, hearing club lingo coming out of Ryatt’s mouth. “She’s home with the baby. I sent her a text ten seconds ago. She’s on her way.”
Kiss came up behind Ryatt and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned, pulled her close, and hugged her hard.
“I’m sorry. Sorry for my part in all this.” She put a couple of inches of space between them. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
“You’re good, Kiss. We’ve both been in some dark places. There’s no reason to go back.”
“Ryatt.” Willy called his name from over at the bar. “I’m adding this to your bill.” He drank a shot, and Seven immediately poured him another.
Blade stood, and Jazzy’s whistle pierced the increasing chatter and noise in the room.
“We have club business,” Blade said.
Dozer came out of the boardroom carrying a cut in one hand and a couple patches in the other.
I smiled at Ryatt. “This is about you. Come on.”
“Just a minute.” Then he quietly spoke to McKelle. “It might not seem like it after what I did, but I swear, nothing matters more to me than us. You made me want so much, and that I want something more with Cruz started to fuck with my head.”
“We can talk about this later. I’m not mad, not now that you’re here.”
“Baby, this can’t wait. I’m sorry I let you down.
Sorry I was so fucking scared of the separation.
I know it won’t make sense to you. That I’d shut you out when you’re all I think about.
I don’t know if I can explain what was going through my head because it didn’t make sense to me either.
I was just sure I was fucked. I didn’t want the last time you saw me to be in that courtroom being told I’d have to serve five years. ”
“You weren’t the only one scared of being apart. I promise. We’ll talk. For the first time, everything fits. With you. With me.” She glanced at me. “With us.”
Ryatt nodded and linked their fingers. Then they followed me across the room to the president’s table.
“Ryatt—”
“Rizz,” I said, interrupting Blade.
Dozer laughed. “Your mom chose your name,” he said to Ryatt.
“MC has rules—for everything. Just ask Jazzy. Our SaA likes to bust our balls. You won’t win an argument so don’t bother.”
“You won’t be given the choice to argue,” Rogue said and laughed. “Prospects do as they’re told. To get you out, the board voted you in.”
I nodded toward Willy. “Thank you doesn’t seem enough. Tonight, your drinks are on me. And I heard you like to pet Bullet’s kittens so that’s on me, too.”
I took a step back. Ryatt was my prospect, but this was his moment. These were his brothers.
Romeo pulled out a chair for Ryatt. “This won’t be the first time you’ll bleed for the MC. You get your cut, your top and bottom rocker, and your road name.”
Tank laughed. He had Bristol on his lap, and a cigarette between his lips. “It’s up to your mom to decide when you’ve earned your center patch.”
Tank and I both had the night off. I assumed Kodiak was working since he wasn’t here.
When dealing with mob bosses, I’d rather not work with a guy who couldn’t follow the rules.
But my hesitation was more than his fuck-all attitude.
Bullet might trust him, but I didn’t. Kodiak could drag me down with him, and I didn’t want anything to keep me from McKelle and Ryatt ever again.
Ryatt sat in a chair, and Jazzy handed him a needle and thread. She showed him where the patches should go.
I wrapped my arms around McKelle. “He’s going to be sewing for a while.”
As the hours went on, the atmosphere in the MC shifted.
Patches went back to drinking and playing cards.
Music filled the chapel. McKelle gave up pool for the night.
She stayed next to Ryatt. He had to be touching some part of her.
He twirled her braid around his fingers, then he’d drag his fingertips along her nape, or his hand was high on her thigh.
I sat to the right of him, bumping my knee against his knee every time I shifted on the chair.