Chapter 10 Tex
TEX
The couch in the clubhouse had about as much comfort as a concrete slab with nails sticking out of it. At one point I’d rolled over only to discover an empty bottle and a thong sticking out from under the cushion I had my head on.
I’d slept on worse in my life, but not by much.
Now the place was quiet.
Mostly.
I lay there staring at the ceiling, one arm thrown out above my head, listening to the familiar nighttime sounds of the clubhouse. The hum of the old refrigerator. The occasional creak of the building settling. Wind brushing against the siding outside.
But my mind wasn’t quiet.
Not even close.
Rowan’s face from earlier kept flashing through my head.
The way she’d looked when JD had dropped the truth about her parents. Like the ground had disappeared from under her feet.
I’d seen that look before. Usually right before someone’s world changed forever.
I dragged a hand over my face and sat up, rubbing the back of my stiff neck. Sleep wasn’t coming anytime soon, despite how exhausted I felt.
Down the hallway, a door creaked open and soft footsteps followed. I froze, listening with the trained ear of a man who was used to seeking out danger in the dark. The footsteps were light and hesitant as they crossed the floor above—Rowan.
I didn’t know how, but I recognized the rhythm of her footsteps already. Like my body had tuned itself into her radio frequency.
A moment later the bathroom door upstairs opened and closed.
I exhaled slowly and leaned back again, staring at the ceiling.
She was probably overwhelmed. Anyone would be after hearing what she’d heard tonight. And not just the stuff with her parents. The clubhouse was not the place for a woman like her, and I was looking forward to taking her back to the ranch tomorrow.
Hell, I was overwhelmed, and this was my world. A world I’d grown into a man in.
It was the women and the whiskey, the crudeness of jokes and the undressing with eyes.
The club was wild—always had been—but Saturday nights when the girls from the strip club came around were always worse.
Or better, depending on what you were looking for.
And the men in this club, unless they were chained to a woman, were always looking for something.
I switched my thoughts from the memory of one of the girls, Candy, writhing around in her pink thong and sheer bra on my lap earlier. Thoughts like that weren’t going to help me get to sleep anytime soon.
Instead, my thoughts went to much darker places.
A rat in the club. In my goddamned club.
I had trusted these men with my life, and now I find out that one of them wasn’t who he was supposed to be. It was unnerving.
The thought made my jaw tighten and my teeth grind.
Someone had possibly been feeding information to the cartel all these years. Certainly for the last few months. And if that someone had gotten Rowan’s mother and father killed…my fists clenched. That man wouldn’t leave this building alive once we figured out who he was.
I hated the thought that one of my brothers would do something like that. That they would turn their backs on the men and the club they had sworn themselves to.
A faint sound drifted down from upstairs.
Then another.
And another.
Not footsteps this time.
Until the low, rhythmic pounding grew louder.
There was a low, muffled moan and I groaned quietly and dragged my hand down my face again.
“Jesus.”
Someone upstairs was definitely having sex. Loudly.
Probably in one of the spare rooms down the hall from mine. Typical clubhouse behavior, really, and nothing I wasn’t used to hearing, but for some reason with Rowan here, tonight I felt embarrassed by it.
Another sound followed, this one unmistakable, and I already knew from the high-pitched squeal of pleasure that it was Sasha and one of my brothers fucking. I’d been with her a couple of times over the years, enough to recognize the telltale noises she made during sex.
I rubbed my temples, already imagining Rowan’s reaction if she heard it.
Right on cue, the bathroom door upstairs creaked open again and Rowan’s light footsteps moved into the hallway.
Her footsteps paused as another muffled moan echoed through the floorboards.
A second later they started again, faster this time, heading toward the stairs. I pushed myself off the couch just as she appeared at the top of them.
She was still wearing my hoodie, the sleeves hanging past her hands, her hair messy from sleep. She looked startled when she saw me standing there in the dark.
“Tex?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“Yep,” I said, my voice gravelly and low in the dark.
She glanced behind her like she expected someone to be following.
Another loud moan echoed from upstairs as the pounding grew louder and faster.
Her eyes widened. “Oh my God.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed.
She shot me a glare. “It’s not funny.”
“It’s a little funny,” I said.
“I thought someone was dying.”
“Trust me,” I said dryly. “Nobody’s dying tonight.”
Right then another enthusiastic thump sounded from upstairs, followed by a woman’s voice that wasn’t exactly quiet.
Rowan clamped a hand over her mouth. “She’s so loud.”
“She’s enthusiastic, that’s for certain.” I grinned and crossed my arms across my chest as another chuckle rippled through me. “Welcome to the clubhouse.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “How do you people sleep here?”
“Practice. Besides, there’s something soothing about knowing someone somewhere’s enjoying themselves, don’t you think?”
Her mouth popped open as Sasha’s screams grew even louder, the thumping growing even faster. “Are you sure she’s okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah. She sounds like she’s having the time of her life, don’t you think?”
Standing there in the darkness, listening to the sounds of sex, with Rowan wearing my oversized hoodie and staring at me with a look I couldn’t decipher made something come loose inside of me.
I swallowed down the desire pooling in me, already knowing that now wasn’t the time.
I enjoyed a challenge, and Rowan sure was a challenge, and any other time I would have made it my mission to get her on her back and naked, but she was vulnerable right now, and I wasn’t about to seduce a vulnerable woman.
That wasn’t a challenge, that was an asshole move.
“I mean, I guess,” she said, laughing now as Sasha let out a high-pitched scream, and a deep bellowing voice cried out Shut the fuck up already! “Oh. My. God!”
We both laughed as Rowan’s gaze moved around the darkened room, the red glow of the beer light shining off her hair and skin. She looked back at me. “I came looking for you.”
That caught my attention. “Everything okay?”
She hesitated and then nodded. “I think so. I mean, no, obviously not.”
“Obviously,” I agreed.
Her eyes drifted toward the dark windows and the shadows beyond them. “Everything just feels”—she struggled for the word—“wrong. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, I get that,” I said quietly.
She walked down the rest of the stairs slowly, bare feet silent on the cold wooden floor, and I watched her shiver. When she reached the bottom step she wrapped her arms around herself.
“I keep thinking about what you said.”
I glanced toward the hallway where the other guys were sleeping and lowered my voice. “About what?”
“If someone in your club betrayed my dad,” her voice faltered before she continued, “well, it makes sense that they’re here right now, right?”
I grabbed her bicep gently and led her away from prying ears and toward the small sofa I’d been attempting to sleep on, and we sat down. I didn’t answer right away, because the truth was, I’d been thinking the same damn thing all night.
“They won’t touch you while you’re here,” I said.
She looked up at me. “You don’t know that.”
“I do,” I replied with certainty. “They don’t have a death wish—this is about money for them, so they won’t risk showing themselves. And besides, if they do, I’ll make damn sure they regret even trying.”
For a moment she studied my face, and then her shoulders relaxed a little.
Another moan floated down from upstairs and Rowan groaned.
“I am never sleeping again,” she groaned.
I chuckled. “C’mon.”
I grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch and tossed it over her shoulders.
Her fingers clutched the fabric. “What are you doing?”
“Keeping an eye on things while you try to sleep,” I said, leaning back on the couch.
She hesitated and then slowly leaned back against the sofa. She was close enough that I could feel the warmth of her body through the blanket. For a few minutes neither of us spoke, both of us just sat listening to the sounds upstairs until they finally started to quiet down.
Rowan exhaled in relief. “Thank God. I mean, I’m not a prude or anything, but I’ve never heard sounds like that coming from someone.”
A rumble of laughter echoed through my chest. “All I need is five minutes alone with you, sweetheart.”
She snorted on a laugh and nudged my arm with her elbow. “Shut up.”
Her head tipped back against the couch and within seconds her eyes started to droop.
I watched her for a moment, then reached over and gently pulled the blanket higher around her shoulders.
She didn’t wake, just shifted slightly closer to me without realizing it, and I felt a small smile tug at the corner of my mouth when her head rested against my chest.
“Are you going to sleep?” she asked, her voice sleepy.
I shook my head. “Nah, I don’t sleep too well anyway, sweetheart.”
“Why?” she yawned.
I tightened my grip on her, wondering what it was about this woman that made me feel so protective. She was beautiful, sure, but I’d been with many beautiful women before. Yet it was hard to deny that there was something about Rowan that made me feel different.
I tilted my head down, my nose close to her dark hair, and I took a deep breath, inhaling the sweet scent of her into my lungs. My dick hardened in my jeans and I reached down to adjust myself as a wave of dizziness washed over me.
Fuck, what am I even doing right now?
“Too many demons in my head,” I mumbled, knowing by the soft rise and fall of her breathing that she couldn’t hear me.
My gaze drifted toward the dark hallway, toward the rooms where my brothers were sleeping.
Somewhere in this building, a man had betrayed the club.
Had betrayed me. I knew right there in the dark, holding Rowan’s body close to mine, that I would find him.
And no matter who the hell he was, I was going to kill him.