Chapter Three #2
That made sense. I knew these guys were all ex-military and they probably didn’t want anyone to limit their practice. As for the girls learning how to protect themselves? My dad had done the same thing, so I got it.
“You said your dad was a cop. As in past tense?” Jewel made it a question.
“He died a few years back. Cancer.” The thought was still a raw one.
“I’m sorry.” Jewel looked stricken.
Jasmine glared at her sister. “Now you’ve made her sad again.”
I tried to smile. “It’s okay. She didn’t know.”
“Mind if I break in here?” Rattler stepped over and handed me another beer. I’d been so intent on the twins, I hadn’t seen him approach. Amazing how such a big man could move so quietly.
“You didn’t bring me a beer.” Jasmine batted her lashes at him, and I felt an unexpected flash of jealousy.
“I like my head attached to my shoulders, and your dad is right over there.” Rattler gestured at the group of men with a jut of his chin. “You know he doesn’t approve of you drinking.”
“Spoilsport.” Jasmine quickly dropped the attempt at flirting. Linking her arm through her sister’s, she stuck her tongue out at Rattler.
Jewel’s gaze moved from Rattler to me. She whispered something to her sister, who gave me a thoughtful look before they both started giggling.
“Let’s go see if we can get Mom to let us have another cupcake.” Still giggling, they headed back to the picnic table.
I slanted a look up at Rattler. “I don’t get it. What’s so funny?”
He just rolled his eyes. “Teenagers!”
* * *
Rattler
What could I say? They were teenage girls with raging hormones and overactive imaginations.
They obviously thought we were an item and fuck knows what else.
Problem was, Lily wasn’t all that much older than them.
I’d always looked on the twins as kids. Children.
Youngsters. But when I looked at Lily, I saw a full-grown woman – one I wanted in the worst way possible.
“They’re imagining us as secret lovers who can’t wait to get our hands on each other’s naked bodies.”
“Oh.”
Was she actually blushing? I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a woman blush.
Damn it. The woman was killing me. She was way too young for the thoughts running through my mind.
I wanted to throw her over my shoulder and take her to my room like some kind of fucking caveman.
I’d strip her out of those clothes and bury my head between her legs.
I bet she tasted as sweet as she looked.
“That is funny. We just met.” Her smile wavered as she met my gaze.
I shrugged. “They seem to think people meet and fall instantly in love. Their father kind of reinforced that when he brought Piper home.”
“How come?”
“They had a one-night stand.” I detailed the story of Beast and Piper, leaving out the parts where Riptide bent the law when it came to making sure justice was done.
“That is so romantic!” Lily sighed.
“I suppose.” I was still picturing her spread out on my bed like a pagan offering. “They sure seem happy enough with each other.”
“What about the couple that are about to get married?”
“Thor and Janet? What about them?”
“Did they fall instantly in love?”
I snorted. “Instantly in lust is more like it. Took Thor forever to get her to agree to marry him. Janet just wanted to be fuck buddies.”
She frowned, and I could tell the answer disappointed her, so I explained the whole mess, again glossing over anything Riptide did that wasn’t real legal and all.
She stifled a yawn before she replied. “Nice that they managed to work everything out.”
I realized how tired she looked, not that she’d complained at all.
She’d spent all night on buses, then I’d dragged her straight from the bakery into a fucking backyard cupcake party with a bunch of people she didn’t know.
“You want to go have a nap or something? You look tired.” I wasn’t sure what was going to go down with rooms and all, but she could rest up in mine until Ace got things sorted out.
She nodded. “That would be great.”
I took her hand and helped her to her feet, picking up the backpack from the ground. “Mom still have Scrapper?”
“Yeah. She said she was going to feed him. She hasn’t come back yet.”
“She’ll take good care of him, unless you want us to go find him?”
Turned out we didn’t have to go looking. We passed through the kitchen on our way to the stairs, and Mom was sitting with the kitten on her lap and Willow at her feet. It looked like one of those sappy pictures you see on Christmas cards. She looked up as we trooped in.
I paused in the doorway, Lily at my side. “You okay with Scrapper for a while? I’m taking Lily upstairs so she can grab a nap.”
Mom nodded, scratching the little feline behind the ears and earning herself a loud purr. “No problem. You coming right back down once you get her settled in?”
I raised my eyebrows. Was she asking whether we had something other than sleep in mind?
She shook her head as if reading my thoughts. “Ace wanted to talk to you about things.”
I took that to mean he wanted to talk about Lily. Nice of her not to come right out and say that. “I’ll be down as soon as she’s settled. Ace in his office?”
“Yeah.”
Lily walked over and dropped a kiss on Scrapper’s head. “Be good, little guy. I’ll be back for you.” Pivoting, she looked at me expectantly.
“This way.” I led her up the stairs and down the long hallway with doors on both sides.
Most of the bedrooms had their own bathrooms, which was a pleasant touch.
My room was at the far end. Being the VP, I had one of the larger ones with room for a desk in it.
I opened the door and let Lily enter in front of me.
She stopped and looked around. “This is… nice!”
I felt a wry smile curve my lips. “You were expecting a pigsty or something?”
She looked sheepish. “I’m not really sure what I expected.” She glanced at the pictures on the wall. Most of them were of my time in the SEALs. “Is this your room?”
“Yeah.” I crossed to the desk and put her backpack down on the chair. “You can rest here for now. I’ll go settle things with Ace. We didn’t know you were coming so there isn’t anything prepared for you. There’s a couple of guest rooms, so don’t worry. Probably just need a quick clean.”
She looked down, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.
I frowned. “Problem?”
She looked up at me, hesitancy in every line of her body. “I’d rather stay here with you.”
I frowned. “There’s only one bed.”
“I can sleep on the floor if you don’t want to share.”
Fuck. The woman was killing me. Seriously! Like I’d let her sleep on the floor. Did she have a clue what she was asking? If she was in this room, she’d fucking well be in my bed.
“Like hell you’ll sleep on the floor. If it makes you feel better, I can stay with you, but you get the bed. I’ll have one of the prospects bring a cot up for me. I have to clear it with Ace first, though.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t want to be a problem, I’m just scared Tim is going to find me, and he swore he’d kill me if I ever left him. Having you close by makes me feel safer.”
“If Tim’s lucky, he’ll never find you.” I’d put Shadow on it as soon as I talked to Ace. I swear that guy could track down a single ghost in a graveyard. I wasn’t sure who this Tim asshole was, but anyone who raised a hand against a woman had better hope I didn’t find him.
“Make yourself at home.” I gestured at an open door to the left. “Bathroom’s through there. Not much in the way of girly shit but there’s soap and shampoo and lots of towels. We can work out the sleeping arrangement when I get back.”
That put a sparkle in her eyes. “Thanks, Rattler.”
Yeah, my name sounded good on her lips.
* * *
Ace was on the phone when I got down to his office. He gestured to me to take a seat. His gaze stayed locked on me as he finished up the conversation and disconnected the call.
“Tell me about the woman you brought back. Mom said she’s Jack Patterson’s sister. Did you verify that?”
I stared at the Prez for a long moment. This was going in an unexpected direction. “No. Why would she lie? And she obviously needed help, so even if she wasn’t related to anyone we knew, I’d still have brought her back.”
Ace shook his head. “Thought so. You’re too smitten to consider all the angles.”
Smitten? Was it that obvious? “Might be. She touched something deep down inside me. The thought of anyone daring to lay a hand on her was enough to make me want to kill them. Slowly. So they’d suffer for a long time.”
Ace slapped a piece of paper down on the desk in front of me. A picture of Lily stared up at me from a missing person’s poster. “Is this her?”
Yeah, that was her, minus the colorful bruising. I looked up and met his gaze. “She’s not missing. She doesn’t want to be found.”
He nodded. “I’m having Shadow look into it. A lot doesn’t add up here. Sheriff’s report says someone broke in, attacked this Timothy fellow and possibly kidnapped her. There’s an APB out across the four states for her.”
“She said he was beating her. And not for the first time. She knocked him out cold with a pot and ran. She knew better than to call the cops. She’d tried that once before, and they’d sided with him.
Asked her to consider what she’d done to piss him off and told her to make sure she didn’t do it again.
She’s got bruises all over to back her story up. ”
Ace let out a deep sigh and steepled his fingers. “I believe it. Chances are, this asshole has the local cops in his back pocket. Joker have a look at her yet?”
“No. Didn’t think he needed to.”
“Make it happen. Just in case she needs someone with medical qualifications to verify she’s been beaten, and the timing. Get some photos of the bruises. It’s likely that this asshole will try to say it happened after she supposedly disappeared.”
I nodded. “Will do.”
“He can do a DNA match to Jack while he’s at it. Just to cover our bases. He has DNA profiles on all of us in his files.”
“Roger that.” It was standard procedure in case a mission went south and there wasn’t enough of a body left to identify.
“Two guest rooms are empty. She can take her pick. I think the one at the front end of the hall is bigger.”
“She asked to stay in my room.”
Ace lifted his brows and stared at me.
“Not like that. Said she’d sleep on the floor. She just feels safer with someone close by to protect her. She’s scared shitless that fucker is going to find her. He threatened to kill her if she left him.”
Ace’s expression would put a thunder cloud to shame. “We do not let a woman sleep on the floor like a dog.”
I raised a hand. “Yeah, settle down. I told her she could have the bed, and I’d get one of the prospects to haul a cot up to the room for me to sleep on.”
He looked skeptical. “You okay with that?”
“Hell yeah. I’ve slept on worse.” I didn’t add I doubted I’d be spending too many nights on a cot. “Have you seen how bruised up she is? Of course, she’s terrified and wants to hide behind someone. I almost hope the asshole shows up so I can beat the shit out of him.”
Ace was no fool. Riptide had seen lots of damsels in distress over the years, and we always did whatever we could to help them. But this was different. He knew it and I knew it.
I’d known Lily for less than twenty-four hours, but we’d clicked from the moment she drew that gun on me in the alley. I intended to make her mine, and if anyone fucking tried to hurt her, they’d have to go through me first. And I wasn’t alone. I had the whole of the Riptide MC at my back.
“Sounds like you have it under control for now. They have those Missing Person posters all over the place, so she’d best keep her head down for now.
No trips into town until we have things under control.
I’ll get Shadow on it and let you know what we find out.
She said the ex isn’t mafia or cartel, right? ”
I nodded. “He’s some high-rolling finance guy. Friends in high places and all that kind of shit.”
Ace looked thoughtful. “I’ll run his profile past our FBI friends as well. Doesn’t hurt to be sure of what we’re dealing with.”
“Sounds good. We done?” I didn’t want to leave Lily alone for too long.
“Yeah. For now. You can grab a cheek swab kit from Shadow for the DNA sample.”
I nodded, getting to my feet. “Oh, and she brought a cat with her. The ex was going to shoot it, which is what escalated the whole thing.”
“A cat?”
“Kitten, actually. Mom’s got it right now. Cute little thing.”
Ace rolled his eyes. “First a dog, now a cat. Next thing you know, someone’s going to show up with a bunny rabbit. You’d think this was a petting zoo, not a fucking motorcycle club compound.”
I struggled not to grin. Ace tried to be tough, but I’d be willing to bet my favorite ride he’d be in the kitchen to see Scrapper before I got back upstairs.