Chapter 36
Pyre
Igrinned as Rae stretched in my arms with a little moan.
She was fucking perfect, in bed and out of it.
I was so damn lucky I got my head out of my ass and decided to make her mine.
All without having to kill any asshole that’d moved in on her while I was taking my sweet ass time.
It would’ve been my own fault if I’d had to go to drastic measures in order to win her over after watching her from afar for a few years.
Instead, I only had to be nice to her. Something she made incredibly easy. I stared at the ceiling of the clubhouse while she stirred. Her leg was thrown over my thighs and she was curled up next to me.
“What time is it?” she mumbled.
“Seven.”
She hummed, pressing a kiss to my chest. “Do we have plans today?”
“Want to go on a ride with me and my brothers?”
She propped herself up on her elbow and gave me a curious look. “Where are we going?”
“There’s a kid in town who has to go to court today,” I told her. “We’ve offered to go as moral support.”
A slow smile spread over her face. “Just moral support?”
I shrugged. “If his step father tries anything we’ll make sure he regrets it. His mom said his hearing is at ten.”
“I’d love to go.” She laid back down, nuzzling back into me.
I tightened my arm around her, pulling her a couple inches closer, not that there was much room between us to begin with.
It would be good for her to see some of the other things our club did for the community.
She’d gotten a first-hand look at the less than legal side of things, though I still needed to fill her in on more.
Cypher had given me the okay to do so now that she was my old lady and willing to help us out when needed.
But now she was going to get to see some of the other things we involved ourselves in.
She was going to get a kick out of the holidays around here.
Demo dressed up as Santa Claus and went to the children’s wing of the hospital each year when we delivered toys.
We always did food drives around Thanksgiving and toy drives at Christmas.
Christmas was a personal challenge for us.
Who could buy the loudest, most destructive toys for kids that would still pass the sniff test for the charities.
No surprise Demo won every year, though Jury had come close last Christmas.
“What else?”
I arched a brow down at her.
“What else do you do?”
It was like she could read my mind. “We dress up as super heroes sometimes and go to the local hospital and homeless shelter to see the kids.”
She pushed up onto her elbow again and had a huge grin on her face. “Oh my God, I want to see that!” She eyed me. “Who do you go as?”
I snorted. “Batman. Of course.”
“Of course,” she repeated with a semi-serious look on her face.
“Warrant is always Deadpool.”
She laughed out loud. “Of course he is. Who is Superman?”
“No one goes as Superman or Captain America unless a kid specifically asks for them.”
She gave me a confused look.
I shrugged. “We’re all too fucked in the head to even pretend to be those two.
They’re the pinnacle of a good guy. The best society has to offer.
” I shot her a grin. “We’re morally gray at best. Charcoal gray.
” I cocked my head as an idea came to me.
“You know… I’ll talk to Cypher and Warrant about inviting Owen to come along the next time.
He’d make the perfect Superman or Captain America. ”
“He would.” She sat up and crossed her legs underneath her. There was an expectant look in her eyes. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” I rested my hands behind my head as I watched her.
“A while ago Jury mentioned something about what you had hidden in a box…”
I searched her face and waited.
“Could I see it?”
I was quiet a moment. Not because I didn’t want to show her. She was my old lady, soon to be my wife. I wouldn’t hide anything from her anymore. But I didn’t share my secrets with many. Even my brothers could only guess at what I kept in the lockbox hidden beneath the bed.
“Only if you want to,” she said when I was quiet for too long.
“I do.” Sitting up, I reached under the bed and pulled it out.
Setting it on the bed, I stood, went to a picture of my family hanging in my room and slid it to the side.
I repeated the combo out loud as I pressed the buttons, then looked at her over my shoulder.
“There’s a gun in here. Money. Pretty much anything you might need if you need to get gone fast. I have a go bag in the closet that I’ll show you as well. ”
She was sitting there, mouth hanging open, just staring at me.
“What? What’s mine is yours now, Reaper.”
“D-do...” She broke off then tried again. “That combo. What made you choose that?”
“It’s your birthday. Month, day, year.”
She gave me a look that said she wasn’t all that impressed. “Well I know that. The question is, how do you? Why do you?”
“Glitch. Gave it to me years ago when he noticed me checking you out. Along with this.” I pulled out a file folder.
She got off the bed, not in the least embarrassed that she was naked, and walked over to me. She was graceful and gorgeous.
My eyes raked down her body as she took the folder from my hands. Her gasp of outrage made me grin. “He keeps us informed.”
“That’s my social security number, Pyre!”
“Boundaries aren’t exactly Glitch’s thing.”
“Boundaries aren’t any of your guys’ thing,” She put her hands on her hips, the folder still grasped in one fist. “What is his thing?”
“That’s a question we all ask on a daily basis. Sitting in dark places?”
“Being a creepy stalker?”
“Eh, I think Warrant has the monopoly on that title. By the way, remind me to do a sweep of your house.”
Her brows drew together. “A sweep? For what?”
“Cameras.”
Now her eyes were bugging out of her head. “There’s cameras in my house?”
“Probably not. Maybe not. But it’s best to check. The funeral home too. Just…don’t be naked in your house until I check.”
Her mouth was hanging open, then she shook her head, and tried to keep the file away from me when I went to take it back. “Nuh uh.”
“That’s mine, Baby Girl,” I told her and quickly took it out of her hand before she could jerk it away. Then I shut the safe and pulled her up against my body. “Everything about you is mine now.” Her eyes narrowed, so I added, “Just like all of this is yours.”
She relaxed in my arms. “You guys are crazy, you know that?”
“One of the nicer terms that’s been used to describe us.” I held my hand up and let two keys on a chain dangle in front of her face. “For you.”
She took it and I let her go as she went back over and sat on the bed. She looked up at me as she inserted the key. I just folded my arms over my chest and leaned against the wall, ignoring the fact that I was also naked.
She opened the box, only to find another, slightly smaller lock box inside. “Seriously?” she asked me.
“I take this seriously. Double the protection.”
“This isn’t like Russian nesting dolls is it? Am I just going to keep opening boxes here?”
“No. I promise. Key to that one is next to the other.”
Taking the second key she inserted it and opened the lid of the second box. Her eyes widened. Those perfect lips formed an O as she stared down inside the box. “Oh…um…” She reached for what to say.
“Anything in there change your mind about me?” I asked.
Her head snapped up and her eyes hardened a bit. “No. I just…no.”
“Good,” I said, pushing off the wall and striding over to her. I plucked her off the bed and dragged her into the bathroom with me. “Then we have time for a shower before our court appearance.
Her laughter echoed in the bathroom as I bent my head and scraped my beard over the sensitive skin of her neck.
I was so damn lucky she hadn’t told me to fuck off.
That she’d agreed to be mine. That she’d forgiven me and now was going to tie herself to me forever.
I’d spend the rest of my life showing her why that was a damn smart move on her part, of course.
But I’d also be grateful to her every day for being mine.
I grumbled as traffic in front of us slowed to a crawl.
The hearing was over for today. The stepfather was in jail so the mother and son had said we didn’t need to follow them home.
Not only had the boy and his mother felt safe enough to tell the whole story, for reasons that will forever be a mystery, the stepfather confirmed their stories and made a full confession.
Life was funny that way. We were heading back to the clubhouse now. “What’s going on up there?”
“Oh! Ramona mentioned something about an interview today. Some news anchor came down from Cheyenne to cover the ‘story’ here about Owen and the others busting up a drug ring and recovering a bunch of Ecstasy.” She leaned forward enough on the bike that I could see her in my peripheral as she eyed me.
“Would you happen to know anything about that?”
“Just what everyone else does,” I said, trying to put an innocence into my tone.
It didn’t go well. “Someone found a ton of Ecstasy over at the old saw mill off twenty. Bunch of equipment, and weapons too. Looks like the DEA decided it was better to work with local law enforcement on the bust rather than take all the credit.”
“Probably less weapons than were originally there,” she said with a squeeze. She had settled back behind me and had her arms around my waist.
“Rotor did get in there first.”
“Uh huh. And only he took weapons?”
I shrugged. “Anyway. Owen said he got an anonymous tip.”
“Fortunate for Owen. And Sentinel,” she added.
“Yup.”
“What…” She trailed off and I saw why.
I was at the back of our group, with only Warrant behind me.
Cypher was at the front and he’d just passed where the reporters were standing in front of a guy with a broadcast camera pointed at two women.
I recognized Ramona Thomas, our local newspaper reporter as she spoke with the other woman.
They were standing near the edge of the sidewalk.
One of my brothers broke formation and swerved toward the sidewalk. Amused, I watched as Jury reached one arm out and scooped Ramona right off her feet and onto his bike before speeding away and catching back up to Cypher and the others.
“What’s he doing?”
Grinning, I grabbed Rae’s leg and gave a comforting squeeze.
Cypher was going to be pissed when he saw the news later, but that was Jury’s problem.
I knew exactly what him snatching Ramona straight off the street, on live TV, meant.
Though I wondered if Ramona did. Either way, I had my old lady to focus on and make happy tonight and I planned to keep her too busy and satiated to wonder too much about what’d just happened. It was time to take her home.
I turned my bike toward her house and gave an acknowledging wave to Warrant as he continued to follow the rest to the clubhouse. I had plans for my lady and I didn’t want anyone overhearing us tonight.
She squeezed her arms tighter around me, making me wonder again how I’d gotten so fucking lucky. My reaper was made for me and I was going to see to it that she never questioned being mine again.
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