4. Reid
Reid
Parking beside the pink Jeep outside Hannigans’, I stored my helmet and twirled my keys around my finger, whistling to myself as I walked across the lot. Max shot me a side-eye as he kept pace with me.
“For someone who was bitching my ear off all day, you’re awfully happy all of a sudden.”
I kept whistling, not bothering to answer.
I’d been pissed to have to spend my first day off going on an unexpected trip south.
Max was Road Captain, and eventually, he’d move up to President, taking over for his dad.
As the MC’s current Sergeant at Arms, I was expected to be VP one day.
For now, though, Bash and Hawk left any business that required heavy lifting to the two of us.
With how much Angel’s Halo had expanded over the years, with so many members’ sons joining, we’d needed more Enforcers than just Spider to keep things running smoothly.
Jack, Kingston, and Chance were good at their jobs, but Max and I had been the only ones free to go on this particularly dirty run.
After the clusterfuck in apartment eight the evening before, something that had taken until late to fix and clean up, I’d taken a shower and fallen face first into bed.
Everly had been in my dreams all night, and I’d woken with the thought of taking her to breakfast. But before I could even roll out of bed, Max had called, effectively ruining all my plans for the tempting blonde in apartment four.
I’d made my displeasure known loud and often all damn day. Especially when we ended up having to get rid of multiple bodies on our own. I hated the smell of the chemicals we used for cleaning up, but melting bodies was easier than burying them.
After a quick stop at our places for showers and a change of clothes, I’d noticed only one of the pink Jeeps outside the apartments.
Since the door was closed and, more importantly, locked.
I’d already decided to head to Hannigans’ when Max called again, asking if I wanted to get a drink.
Which only meant one thing. Delaney was out with the girls.
There was no way my cousin and best friend would want to go out if his wife were home.
We were barely halfway across the parking lot when our phones started getting hit with incoming texts simultaneously. I pulled the device from my pocket without slowing my steps. My whistle cut off with a snort of laughter when I saw multiple people had sent me a video and pictures.
“Sammy tearing up the women’s bathroom again?” Max asked, flipping through the photos.
“Her tantrums get messy. Glad I don’t have to clean that shit up. Elias is supposed to be playing pool with Dad and Matt tonight, so I wouldn’t be surprised…” My voice trailed off as I clicked on the pictures.
Chance with wet hair, some liquid dripping down his face, his mouth slightly open in surprise, was what caught my attention first. But it was short-lived when my eyes flicked to the blonde standing in front of him, the obvious reason for my drenched cousin.
Everly.
She was wearing a dress that was the perfect blend of sweet and sexy.
It molded to her curves and hit her mid-thigh.
Her icy-blond hair was curled around her face and down her back, showing me how long it was for the first time.
It had been in a knot on her head the day before, but I’d dreamed of wrapping those beautiful locks around my wrist all damn night.
It was the fire in her beautiful eyes that had me zooming in on the photo. The scrunch of her nose. The slight crinkle of her brows. No smile. Staring up at the man in front of her like he was the vilest thing she’d ever come across.
What the fuck had Chance done to piss her off?
Was that rage, disgust, or hurt on her face?
Didn’t matter. If he touched her, he was dead.
Max burst out laughing as he swiped from one picture to another. I had no idea what he was seeing, too consumed with rage—and jealousy—to care what was causing him to crack up.
Fingers contracting around the phone, I jogged to the bar’s front entrance. Throwing the door open, I expected to be hit with the normal sounds of the Friday night crowd. Loud laughter, a hundred people talking at once, pool balls slapping together.
All I was greeted with as I stomped into the building was some old rock song thumping through the stereo.
No one was laughing. Or talking. I wasn’t even sure they were breathing.
Not a single person looked at me as I weaved through the stunned patrons.
All eyes were trained in the same direction.
Not the Originals’ booth, but the tables that had been arranged so the group of women could sit together.
With Sammy sitting there, I wasn’t surprised that everyone was so quiet. Dressed in a red top, she could have raised the dead with how low-cut that damn thing was. But she wasn’t the reason every single person in the bar was looking at the table with gaped mouths.
It was Chance on his knees in front of the blonde sitting there.
On his fucking knees in front of my woman. His hands on her legs, his head tipped back, his eyes wild and oddly vulnerable, his face twisted in pain and desperation.
But it was how she looked back at him that tore at something inside me. The sweet way she bit her lip, the softness in those unusual eyes that had haunted my dreams, her fingers covering his scarred knuckles.
My heart stopped along with the rest of the fucking world.
No.
She was mine, damn it. Mine.
“Why do I feel like things are gonna turn bloody?”
Dad’s grumbled question barely penetrated my mind, along with Matt’s guffaw. “Best Friday night we’ve had in a long time, brother. Look at this shit. Maybe I’ll be getting a pretty little daughter-in-law soon too. You don’t get to call dibs on this one. Elias already locked down Sammy.”
If Chance heard his dad, he didn’t react. He didn’t so much as blink as he stared up at the beauty, his eyes intent, waiting for her to put him out of his misery.
Without conscious thought, I stepped forward, bumping into people who were standing shoulder to shoulder to get a better view.
Kill him. I was going to kill my cousin.
Right here. Right now. Didn’t care that three hundred people were standing around with their phones out.
Didn’t give a single fuck that I was going to spill the blood of a man who was not only related to me but had guarded my back for three decades.
I didn’t give a damn that I loved him like a brother.
He was touching what was mine like he had every right to. And I wouldn’t let him breathe another minute for making that mistake.
As I got closer, more of the people at the table came into focus. Sammy discreetly pulled her sister-in-law’s chair back from where Everly was sitting, putting distance between Abi and Chance.
The action caused Chance to move closer to Everly, instinctively shifting to protect her. When it came to Sammy, no one ever really knew who her prey would be. He wasn’t going to risk Everly. Movement beside my cousin caused me to lift my eyes from Everly to the woman standing on his right?—
Also Everly?
I blinked, then blinked again. Confused at what I was seeing, I felt like my head was splitting down the middle as I looked back and forth between the woman Chance was on his knees in front of—unknowingly about to die for—and the clone standing beside him.
“What the fuck is going on?” Choking out the question, I rushed forward. My heart was beating the hell out of my chest, the damn thing feeling like it was getting kicked in every direction as I struggled to wrap my mind around everything.
Chance stood slowly, suddenly sensing my mood and putting himself between the girls and me. Around us, every person in the bar tensed, bracing for the impact. I sensed my MC brothers moving closer, waiting to see what would happen.
They approached, knowing how bloody it would be if Chance and I threw down.
Hellfire would ensue because there were too many innocents in the line of fire.
Chance was dangerous. He and Max couldn’t get along for five full minutes because they were too much alike, the two of them wired like every other Reid male.
And then there was me. Methodic yet unpredictable. Mellow, easygoing, the sane Reid—until I wasn’t. And then I was a storm, a fucking hurricane. Slow to build, quick to destroy, impossible to stop.
I met Chance’s gaze—and I saw it. That switch had been flipped for him like it was for me. Obsession. The kind that drove a person past the point of no return, the kind that rotted a soul from the inside out all too easily if not tended to. Calmed. Nurtured by the one who had infected them.
We’d laughed when Max had become possessed with the madness for Delaney. Joked and pretended we thought it was hilarious that the crazy bastard was capable of feeling anything, but especially something as stupid as love.
Before that, we’d gotten a taste of that intensity when Lyric had appeared out of nowhere, uprooting his life to be close to Mila.
After a single night with her. Less than that, a look.
A vision of a new future after a single smile.
Gian showed us his crazy for Monroe. And Maverick had always been lost to River.
That was still something that messed with my head.
That Mav had known from childhood who his forever was.
He’d never looked at another girl. Never tasted anyone but River.
How the fuck did he know? I’d asked myself that a hundred times, but I’d never understood until I saw Everly.
We didn’t blink at how gone Ryan was over Nova.
No one questioned it, but that was around the time I really started to get envious.
That was when all the fucking around had stopped being fun and I’d been waiting for my turn.
When Jack had found it with Nishia, I’d gotten antsy, hoping I’d find mine soon.
It had burned when Elias found his place with Sammy, not because I felt anything for her. For all of two seconds, I’d tried to tell myself there was something, but it hadn’t sat right. And now I knew why.
I’d been waiting for Everly.
Chance finding his switch-flipper wasn’t something I could blame him for.
It was that she could possibly be mine that had the angel of death standing over him.
Fuck, from the look in his eyes, the jealousy that flickered in those icy-blue depths, maybe the angel was there to take us both.
If he felt even a fraction for the girl behind him as I did for Everly, then I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to gut me to keep her.
Ripping my gaze from his, I looked at the blonde still seated then to the one standing.
They were beautiful, no doubt about it. Young.
Sweet. Too good for Chance. Definitely too good for me, too.
But that didn’t stop the ache deep inside me.
Or the madness from festering. Rattling around in my head, scratching at the walls of my sanity to take. What. Was. Mine.
I watched them both closely, searching for some kind of sign that would tell me which of the two girls was my Everly. They looked exactly alike—a literal copy-paste, matching pair. Hair curled the same, makeup identical, outfit from the dress to the shoes a replica.
What kind of fuckery was this?
Not even a hint of recognition was visible on the face of the one seated when she glanced at me.
Just a cute frown as she narrowed her eyes on me.
That instant pull I’d felt the day before when I first saw Everly wasn’t there.
Nothing inside me was drawn to her other than the need to understand why this young woman looked exactly like the girl who already owned me.
Some of the pressure in my chest eased. Chance wanted her, and he could have her. I wasn’t going to kill him over someone who wasn’t Everly. I turned to look at the other girl, and everything inside me strained to get closer.
Mine.
Her lashes fluttered down, but when they lifted again, she blanked her expression. Turned everything off.
Yeah, no, that wasn’t happening.
“You didn’t tell me you were a twin, Ev,” I scolded, brushing past Chance to get to her.
She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, her nose crinkled ever so slightly in an adorably hot way that made my cock hard in two seconds flat. “Lucky guess. You had a fifty-fifty chance of getting it wrong.”
I stepped closer, crowding her in. “Don’t use that tone with me, little girl. We’re not playing those games. Not divulging that kind of information almost got someone killed.”
Her eyes widened as I stepped into her space.
That breathtaking blend of browns, greens, and blues flared when I called her “little girl.” I’d have to remember that.
“You’re lucky I came to my senses quickly enough to realize what was going on.
Otherwise, Chance would be dead, and you would be getting spanked. ”
Pink filled her cheeks, her gaze shooting toward Chance with a scowl before zooming back to me where it belonged. “I’m not against you killing the bloodhound wannabe, but out of curiosity, why would I be getting a spanking?”
“For tempting unworthy motherfuckers, sweetness.”
“I wasn’t trying to tempt anyone,” she scoffed, but her voice had gone husky, her breaths coming a little quicker, and my cock had never been so goddamn hard in my life.
“Ah baby, that’s the problem. You don’t have to try. Your existence alone is a temptation.”