Chapter 35 #2
“For how long?” Jury asked, horror creeping into his voice.
“Until I fucking say,” Cypher barked. “This is the second time this fucking crew hit here at home. We need to make sure our luck didn’t run out with covering everything up.”
“Last time, though,” Scythe said. “They’re done.”
“Now what are we supposed to do for fun?” Demo asked in a mournful tone.
“Nothing,” Cypher snapped. “That’s what I’m telling you. No fucking fun. No excitement. I want boredom from you assholes until the smoke clears. Got it?”
There were groans, but everyone nodded in agreement.
Cypher shook his head, his lips turning up in amusement even though he was clearly fighting it. “Alright, get out of here. Oh. You.” He pointed at me. I stared at him. “Go get your fucking old lady before one of these assholes convinces you to do something stupid in the meantime.”
“Stupid?” Warrant asked in confusion.
“Our ideas aren’t stupid,” Jury added. “They’re effective.”
Glitch laughed. “The fuck they are.”
Cypher muttered something under his breath and headed back to his office.
Shoving away from the table, I decided it was time to follow my president’s advice. He was level-headed enough to give good advice. I ignored my brothers’ taunts and unhelpful ideas as I walked out the door.
“Pyre!”
My name came out as a squeak as Rae stepped out of her house and nearly slammed into me. She placed a hand over her heart and bent a little at the waist. I supposed it made sense that she was a little jumpy after everything that’d happened. Kidnappings and firefights weren’t normal for most people.
She straightened up and eyed me like she was just realizing me being here wasn’t necessarily a good thing. “How are you?”
“How am I?” I asked.
She nodded her eyes darting away from me then back on my gaze like she wasn’t sure why I was echoing her.
I was echoing her because she was acting like she hadn’t just put me through two weeks of fucking torture waiting on a response from her. “Not so fucking good, Reaper.”
“Oh,” she blinked at me in surprise. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re… Jesus Christ,” I muttered, then I grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around. I managed to get the door open in time so I didn’t make her face plant into it as I strong-armed her inside.
“What’re you doing?” She didn’t raise her voice, didn’t glare at me, didn’t show any emotion. She was just standing there watching me with that steady gaze.
I didn’t know how that made me feel when I was ready to pummel something.
Rotor’s face wasn’t completely off the consideration list, since he started this.
Then again, I would have had to tell her at some point.
The only reason I hadn’t taken my brother to the boxing ring was because he’d just made this all come about faster.
We would have landed here eventually anyway.
“Look. I fucked up. I get that,” I told her, voice cold.
“I broke into your office, stole your reports, examined that fucking body, and while I wish I could say it’ll never happen again, we both know that isn’t true.
But from now on I’ll talk to you about it first and give you the chance to work with me versus going into your space like that. ”
Her mouth was hanging open. “So if I don’t work with you, you’ll go around me and do it anyway? Do you think that’s a concession on your part?”
I sighed. “It’s just the truth. Fuck if I know what I’ll do in the future, Rae.
I’d rather we work together. I can promise you I’d never do something like this unless it was important.
We were trying to prevent people from getting hurt.
The people who live here. This town is under our protection.
” I lifted my hands as I spoke. “It’s up to us to do whatever is necessary and we knew a threat was heading our way.
We needed to know if they were here. We needed-”
“Did you eat my apple?”
I dropped my hands, arms hanging by my sides as I stared at her. “What?”
“The day you broke into my office. Did you eat the apple?”
Something was hanging in the balance here, I wasn’t sure what, but I was glad I hadn’t been the one. “Warrant ate an apple,” I said, remembering back. I’d wondered where he’d gotten that damn thing from.
“I knew I wasn’t crazy!” she exclaimed, hitting her hand into her fist.
Did I just pass a test?
“You-” I broke off, unsure what her interruption of my apology meant. Well, I hadn’t gotten to the apologizing part yet. I’d been explaining. Taking a deep breath, I met her gaze. “I’m sorry.”
Her brows rose. “You’re sorry?”
I gave a quick jerk of my head in affirmation.
“But you may do it again in the future?”
I nodded again. “Also…sorry. Like in the future sorry.”
She eyed me suspiciously.
Remaining silent, I just watched her. What else could I say?
She crossed her arms over her chest and I gave a valiant effort not to stare down at her tits as the move thrust them up in the blouse she was wearing. Valiant, but ultimately futile. I snuck a glance. “Did you start dating me just so that you could find out if the Iron Circle were coming to town?”
“No,” I bit out. “Why would I? All we would have done was break into your place without anyone dating you.”
She nodded as though she’d already come to the same conclusion, or one similar. “And why would you work so hard to win me over?”
I opened my mouth, trying to figure out how I was expected to respond to that. Might as well ask why I breathe air. She continued before I could settle on a reasonable answer, so I let her talk.
“I forgive you, Finn.” She smiled when I narrowed my eyes at her use of my given name.
It wasn’t that I minded it, I just hadn’t expected it. “What does that mean, exactly?”
“Do you still love me?”
“What kind of fucking question-” I broke off as her eyebrows shot up.
“Yes,” I muttered. I was in a foul mood because she was so damn calm and reasonable and I was losing my shit.
The idea of losing her was driving me insane.
Had been for two weeks. Meanwhile, she seemed to have made her mind up already. “I love you.”
“Good. I love you, too.”
I blew out a breath, searching for the patience to make it through the rest of this without blowing a fucking gasket. “Good.”
“I’ve decided that I will work with you in the future.”
Staring at her, I waited for her to elaborate because this was all going…well. I hadn’t expected it to.
“It’s going to be easier to help you, and the club, if you happen to come to me again in the future. However,” she held up a hand, “I have some stipulations.”
“Alright.” I kept my mouth firmly shut. Running it now could fuck this whole thing up. Silence seemed to be the only way that would allow me to keep this woman as my old lady.
“I won’t give you any information on citizens of Sentinel, or their families, aside from confirming that they were not involved in anything nefarious. If they were, and it was suspected to be a danger to the townspeople, then I’ll tell you whatever you need to know about them, or strangers.”
I considered that. Again. Reasonable. “That’s fair.” I was still waiting for the part that was going to bite me in the ass.
“You will let me know if you’re looking into anything that involves me, my friends, or my business in any kind of way. Before you help yourself to my reports.”
“Done.”
“You’ll marry me.” She lifted her chin a little as she said the last. “I know that old lady status, for you bikers, is basically the same. But for me? I want the ring, the wedding, the title of Mrs. Fletcher. And that’s Fletcher with an F, not Mrs. Pyre.”
My lips turned up in a grin as I dug into the inner pocket of my cut and pulled out a small box.
Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open again for the second time today.
“Good thing I came prepared.” I dropped down onto a knee and stared up at her as I flipped the top open.
Her gasp was music to my ears. Inside, the ring I’d chosen for her was fitted with a black diamond, surrounded by amethysts.
It was as…unusual…as she was. If she hated it, I’d get her anything she fucking wanted, but this ring had spoken to me when I saw it. It felt like it was hers.
“Oh my God,” she breathed. “That’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen.” She met my gaze. “I hope you know that when I said I wanted a ring it wasn’t because I needed some expensive-”
“I know. Otherwise you wouldn’t look like you were about to cry right now,” I said with a smirk. “You’d be pissed that it wasn’t a white diamond as big as my head.”
“I’m not sure they make them that large,” she quipped, arching a brow.
Busting out laughing, I nodded. “Doubtful. Do you have any more conditions, Little Reaper?”
She tilted her head as she thought. “No, but I reserve the option to bring more up at a future date. When you cross a boundary I never expected you’d cross,” she added.
“I can live with that. What I can’t live without, is you. I was a fucking idiot to wait so long to do this, Raeleen. I love you. I want you to be my old lady. My wife. The mother of my children. Ten or more.”
She let out a watery laugh as her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, and when I say I’m ready for a baby, or another baby, I expect you to put one in me.”
“Deal, now, will you marry me?”
She nodded, stepping forward and holding her hand out. I slipped the engagement ring on her finger, then stood, crushing her against me. She sighed when I laid my lips on hers.
Something brushed against my jeans. Glancing down, I saw Penny there. I scooped her up and held both my ladies, one in each arm. “Thank you for forgiving me. For trusting me.”
She smiled. “I didn’t want to lose you either.” She frowned. “There may come a day when I struggle with the ethics of helping you and your brothers…”
“If that happens, then we’ll work through it. I’m sure Cypher will find a way to make sure we don’t need your help. He’s good at that shit.”
She nodded. “Thank you. Otherwise, I’m sort of looking at helping you the same as I do when I help Owen. They may not go behind bars with your club, but the bad guys will be held responsible.”
“That’s a good way to look at it,” I told her. “We won’t break your trust again.”
“Pyre?”
“Yeah.”
“Can we go celebrate now?” A wicked smile lifted her pretty lips.
Bending, I set Penny down then tossed Rae over my shoulder and smacked her ass. “You don’t have to ask me twice, Baby Girl.” I grinned as I headed back toward her bedroom.
Cypher had been right. I’d needed to do this. To go to her and apologize. To make her understand my intentions. And now I was going to have a wife. Shit, my life had changed rapidly. And I wouldn’t have it any other fucking way.