Thirty-Six
Oz
Two Weeks Later
I watched the doorway, waiting for her to walk through. The shouting and cheering around me were not important enough for me to look away. This was her first time socializing since I’d taken her home from the prison where her brother had shattered her world. The news that he had killed twenty-one women over the years and gotten away with it had blown my fucking mind.
We still didn’t know where Perry would be moved after he was convicted in all the states where he committed the murders. The majority had been in California, and my guess was that they would send him to San Quentin. I was one hundred percent positive that he wouldn’t get to stay where he was now. The security wasn’t high enough for his crimes.
As for Samson Zephyr he had finally been caught and put behind bars as well for the counterfeit money. He’d be out in six years give or take. He had thrown Perry under the bus and given the Feds every detail they wanted placing much of the blame on Perry. He’d even said he had helped Perry because he was scared of him. That was bullshit but Perry’s recent confession had made it believable.
Winslet was my only concern though. Protecting her through all of this. Keeping the news stations off, making sure no one came around her, and being there to hold her.
Once the media had gotten ahold of it, her apartment had been covered with reporters, wanting to ask her about Perry. I should have expected that, but I had been solely focused on her needs.
Bane, Linc, and Ransom had come and held them back while I got her into one of the black Escalades with windows tinted dark enough to keep her face from the public, then brought her here. Keeping her in my room for the most part, not wanting to force this bunch on her until she was ready. When the house was empty, which I tried to make happen daily, I got her out to the pool and made sure she had some sunshine. I had sent for Marley and had her brought here twice. The media had been hounding her too and Marley had decided this past week to go stay for an extended visit in Colorado with a cousin of hers that lived there.
Winslet had taken a leave of absence from school, and I wasn’t sure if she would go back. Facing those people, ones she didn’t trust, when they all knew her brother was a convicted serial killer was daunting for her. It was for me, too, because if a fucker upset her, I would snap.
“Are you not watching this?” Than asked me from the other end of the sectional in our great room.
I shook my head, not looking away from the doorway.
“Halo and Saylor will be good for her. She’s been stuck in that room with you for two weeks,” Bane told me.
I knew he was probably right, but I wasn’t sure I liked the way he had phrased it. She wanted to stay in my room with me. I had been letting her make the decisions on what she was ready for, and when she had said she wanted to come out today, we had come out.
A stuffed horse whacked me in the leg, getting me to break my focus on the door. I turned to see Hawkins’s toothless smile as he clapped his hands and bounced in his round plaything that didn’t move. He just sat in it and spun around, hitting the shit that surrounded him on the tray table connected to it. The kid was fucking cute. Looked just like Bane’s brother, Crosby, who had been killed over a year ago. Hawkins was the part of Crosby that he’d left behind. Bane was his dad though.
I picked up the horse and held it out to him. “Here ya go, little man.”
He grabbed it and then stuck the ear in his mouth, gumming it.
“FUCK!” Forge shouted at the television.
I cut my eyes to Bane. “He keeps watching football with us, and that’s gonna be his first word,” I told him.
Bane looked at Hawkins, concerned. Not that he would actually care about his son cursing, but because Halo would. I used to think his ass was weak. That he’d let a woman break him. Control his every move. He had changed because of her. The asshole…well, he was less of one now.
And I no longer judged him. I understood. He wasn’t weak or broken. He was complete.
“God, could y’all be any louder?” Saylor asked as she sauntered into the room.
She was holding a dirty martini in her hand as she made her way to Jude. His eyes were on her as if she were his source of life. Again, I got it. The way his sole focus seemed to be her. Okay, maybe I got it a little less. Because Saylor Rice was a fucking handful. She’d been spoiled and raised with…well, all of us.
My eyes were back on the door. Winslet hadn’t appeared, but neither had Halo. I considered going to check on her.
“Relax, Oz,” Saylor’s voice called out over the noise.
I swung my gaze to her.
She had taken a seat on Jude’s lap and was looking at me with an amused smirk. “Winslet is fine. She stayed in there to help Halo finish icing the cookies.”
Hawkins started to fuss, and his bottom lip stuck out. Before Bane could get him, Saylor was up, handing her glass to Jude.
“I got him,” she said and walked over to take him from his stationary contraption. She smiled at him, then kissed his head. “All right, you. Let’s go play over on your mat.”
That right there was the main reason we’d all welcomed the former priest into the family with open arms. Before him, that shit wouldn’t have happened. He had tamed the Mafia princess, and we were all real fucking grateful.
“We have cookies!”
Halo’s voice snapped my head back around, and the relief at seeing Winslet behind her with another tray, smiling, was sweet. She was okay. I’d been right to sit here and let them take her. Even if I wanted her ass back on my lap and her hair in my face.
Her eyes met mine, and the smile softened.
The guys got up and clamored for the cookies like they were all fucking five years old. I watched as she handed the tray to Halo to set with the other one, and then I held my hand out for her. Having her come to me and climb onto my lap, trusting me, needing me—it was all I wanted in this life.
“Did you enjoy yourself?” I asked with my arms around her waist as I kissed her neck.
“Yes,” she replied. “They’re fun. I needed that. It helped me feel normal.”
I chuckled, then pressed another kiss on her soft skin. “Darlin’, nothing about you is normal. You are exceptional.”
She snuggled back into me. Fuck, this was perfect.
“I’m just gonna say it,” Than said loudly. “I miss the tits and ass. I mean, I love your girls and all, but if we are gonna have to cut out the female additions to nights like this, then I’m gonna have to hit the strip club after.”
“I’m in,” Forge said, raising his whiskey glass.
Ransom reached forward and grabbed a cookie. “I’ll drive.”
I watched as Winslet’s eyes darted from one to the other as they spoke.
Gathe, Locke’s younger brother, stood up and went to the bar. “We could always just move this to my house halfway through.”
“As long as you bastards bring your own whiskey,” Locke added. “You drank every fucking bottle we had last time and didn’t leave shit. And you two get it free.” He wagged his finger between Ransom and Than.
Winslet turned her head to look at me. “What tits and ass?” she whispered.
I smirked, then ran the tip of my nose up her neck. “Strippers mostly. Some other girls we bring around. Well, they do. I don’t participate anymore.”
A frown touched her face. “Oh.”
I leaned in close to her ear. “Are you jealous?”
She shook her head.
I ran my thumb under her boob, and she stiffened.
“These are the only tits I want to see.”
Goose bumps covered her arms, and I grinned. We were done socializing.
“Time to go to our room,” I said, taking her waist to help her up.
“Y’all leaving already?” my brother asked me as I stood behind her.
“Yeah,” I told him, then put a hand on her back to lead her toward the hallway that took us to my room.
“Than brought up tits and ass,” I heard Ransom say.
I heard laughter and rolled my eyes. I didn’t need to be reminded of how much I wanted Winslet or her hot little body.
Their voices faded in the distance as we got farther from them. When we reached my door, she opened it, then glanced back at me.
“You don’t miss that?” she asked, sounding insecure. “I mean, the tits and ass.”
I pushed her all the way into the room, closing the door and locking it behind me without taking my eyes off her. “Hands on the mattress and your ass out,” I replied. “For even needing to ask me that shit, seems you need a reminder of the only body that gets my cock hard.”
She pulled her plump bottom lip into her mouth, biting down on it, and her brown eyes lit with excitement. I knew there were days ahead that would be difficult and that I couldn’t take the pain of her brother’s actions or his future away from her. But I would hold her through it so damn tight that she’d not have a chance to fall apart.
“Oz.” Her voice saying my name always sent a warm buzz through me.
“Yeah, darlin’?” I asked, walking over to her.
She tilted her head back and stared up at me. The sweet adoration made my knees weak.
“I love you.”
The corner of my lips curled up. “It’s a real damn good thing you do,” I said, lowering my head to kiss her lips. “Because if I had to live the rest of my life watching you sleep and stalking your ass, it would suck. Especially now that I know you’re as perfect as you look.”
She laughed and placed a palm on my chest, and I covered it with my own.
“I love you,” I told her, but she knew. She so fucking knew.