Chapter 9 Nyx
NINE
NYX
Unknown Sender: You should reconsider your decision.
Me: I don’t deal with the ‘unknown.’
Unknown Sender: My identity will be revealed upon our initial meeting.
Me: Yeah, I don’t think so. This stinks of a setup by the pigs. Oink off, motherfucker.
Irritated, I shoved my phone into my pocket and edged into the downstairs living room that we’d claimed early on after moving into Rachel’s place.
The house was fucking massive, and she hadn’t bitched about it, so I didn’t feel guilty for stealing it.
I had to admit though—I was getting used to all this space and privacy. Enough that I’d fucking miss it when we moved back into the clubhouse.
Closing the door behind me and seeing her on the sofa, something inside me settled.
Giulia was a handful, a precocious pain in the ass who caused more trouble than a pixie on acid, but she lit my world up. Made me want more than to exist.
The moment I took a seat on the sofa, I hauled her onto my lap.
“Hey! I was comfortable,” she groused.
I snorted at the lie. “Bullshit.”
“How’s that bullshit?”
“You’re never comfortable now.”
She blinked at me. “You have a point, and I’m not happy about it. You owe me.”
“How do I owe you?”
“For stretch marks and backaches and constantly needing to use the bathroom.”
“What stretch marks?” I scoffed.
Her eyes narrowed as she tilted her head back to glower at me. As suspected, she lifted her top up. “See?”
I peered over her admittedly big belly, grimacing when I realized I'd seen my mom's double in size. If she thought she was big now, she didn't have a clue what was coming.
Christ, she was uncomfortable all the time as well.
That was only going to get worse.
Guilt hitting me, I determined to make it as easy on her as possible. I slipped my hands higher and grabbed a firm hold of her tits. “That’s all I can see.” It was only half a lie.
Fuck, she was hot.
My dick ached from the sight of her alone.
She elbowed me in the abs. “Jerk.” Then she squirmed against my lap.
Burying my face against her throat, I rumbled, “You like it when I’m a jerk.”
“I like it when you jerk something,” she agreed, wriggling some more as my dick became a more, shall we say, solid presence against her hip.
Nipping her throat, I licked the place I bit then told her, “You’re gorgeous.”
Squeezing her tits again, I let one drift down over the curve of her stomach. The skin was so taut that I knew it had to be discomforting.
Sometimes, when she thought no one was looking, she scratched the skin, but I noticed everything about her.
That’s why, tonight, I’d come armed.
Letting go of her tit, I snagged the tube of cream I’d bought her. I had no idea why it cost fifty fucking dollars a fluid ounce, but with how the clerk had amped it up, I thought it had diamonds in it.
She stiffened when she saw what I had, then, the second I splatted some on her belly, she groaned as I rubbed it in.
“I really shouldn’t let you do that,” she panted.
“Why not? I did the crime; I should do the time.”
That had her snorting. “You’re so matter-of-fact about this stuff.”
I shrugged as I smoothed the cream into her taut skin. It still fucked with my head that there was a kid inside her. This was Giulia. She already packed enough punch when there was just one of her, never mind two.
“Why shouldn’t I be?”
“Oh, you know, because I’m gross?”
I sniffed. “Says who?”
“Me.”
“You feel that boner?”
“Yeah.”
“You can think you’re gross, but me and it are in complete agreement.”
“That I’m fuckable?”
I heard some amusement edging out the concern. “You’re more than fuckable.”
She groaned as I smoothed my hands along her side, flicking the edges of her tits.
“These sore today?”
“No. And you should have asked me that before you squeezed them earlier.”
“True.” I grinned. “I should have realized when you didn’t knee me in the balls.”
She sighed as I rubbed her tits too. It was less massage and more aftercare. Like I said—I’d done the crime. Not that my kid was a crime. But the havoc it was wreaking on the love of my life was crazy.
I pressed a kiss to the side of her cheek and mumbled, “You’re fucking beautiful.”
“I’m fat.”
“Maybe, but you’re beautiful.”
She chuckled. “You’re not supposed to say ‘maybe.’”
“Damned if I do and damned if I don’t,” I joked as I teased her nipples which were bra-free for once. I figured that was because we usually ended up falling asleep on the sofa as we watched a movie.
This living-in-a-house shit was kinda cool.
We’d lived out of my room before the explosion, so we didn’t have much personal space. Now, with the return to the compound imminent, I wasn’t looking forward to it as much as I had been.
I’d lost all my shit in the blast.
Everything I fucking owned.
I had plenty of cash, so it wasn’t the material crap I’d lost but the personal stuff that pissed me off.
Mostly photos, but I’d had a dreamcatcher my Native American grandmother had made me for my firstborn.
At the time, I’d never imagined having kids, but here this one was and the fucking dreamcatcher was in the wind.
“How do you feel about getting our own place?” I asked her softly.
She tilted her head back to look up at me. “That’s what you’re thinking about when you’re manhandling my tits?”
“I’m capable of multitasking.”
“Thinking and copping a feel? You’re proof of the next evolutionary step.”
My lips twitched. “I swear your snark upped a notch since you started baking this kid.”
“I’ll sit on your bladder for the next nine months and you tell me you’re not snarky.” She harrumphed. “Anyway, our own place? Won’t you miss the clubhouse?”
The tension that throbbed through her might have been minute.
To anyone else, it might not have been noticeable.
To me, it was a massive red flag.
“I’ll miss it, sure.”
“Then why move out?”
“I’ll miss this too.”
“What? Teasing my tits on the sofa?”
I laughed. “Yeah. Personal space. It’s nice.”
“I know what you mean. Do you think we could have one of the bunkhouses? That’d be close enough for you to still feel like you were a part of things, wouldn’t it?”
“We can live in town if you want to.”
She shook her head. “You need to be there. I get it, Nyx.”
My brow furrowed. “I think I just said the opposite.” Or was I speaking Japanese and didn’t realize it?
“I don’t think it’d be wise for you to be away from the MC.”
Even more confused than before, I told her, “I ain’t glued to the fucking place, Giules. I can deal with a ten-minute ride to get there. When the kid comes, living out of one room won’t be ideal anyway, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable having sex when the baby was there.”
“Is that why you want to move?”
“No,” I retorted, but I grinned. “It’s one of the reasons why.”
“Uh huh, with that topping the list, I’ll bet. Could we build on the compound?”
I shrugged. “Why the fuck would you want to? Bikes coming in at all times of the day or night sounds like a nightmare when you've got a baby it took four hours to get to sleep.”
She'd never had baby brothers and sisters; well, I had.
“How about behind this place? That’s still Sinner land, isn’t it?”
“It is. Far away enough that you get some peace, close enough that I could walk if I wanted to.”
“You really mean this?”
“Don’t see why not. Look, if you want to live out of one room, we can until the kid needs his own space or whatever. I don’t even remember how long that’ll be. Six months?”
“Do you think they’re ready to move out when they’re toddlers? Parenthood’s gonna be an eye-opener for you, my man.”
I squeezed her tits. “Cut the snark, babe. I’m being serious.”
“I know.” She peeped up at me, looking, Christ, vulnerable.
I didn’t get what the problem was.
Trying to understand Giulia, sometimes, was like attempting to maneuver around a labyrinth blindfolded.
“I’m talking about moving in with you. You did get that part, didn’t you?” I clarified, wondering what was being lost in translation.
“Duh.” Giulia huffed. “I’m just worried that it’ll send you spiraling.”
“The brothers don’t keep me in line.”
“They do,” she derided.
“They used to.” I gave her tits another squeeze. “You and the kid do that now.”
“You gonna always call it ‘the kid?’”
“Don’t see why not.”
She sniffled. “I know you miss the hunt.”
“Sure I do.”
A lot.
Some days, it was a fucking ache in my soul. The need to avenge the innocent was as solid a craving as the need to lose myself in Giulia’s pussy. But I wasn’t the man I used to be.
I had responsibilities.
I had a duty to Giulia and this kid and Indy, but also the MC.
She peered back at me again. “That’s all you’re going to say about it?”
“There’s not much to say. We both know it’s difficult for me not to…” I blew out a breath. “Planning helped,” I said wistfully.
“I know, baby.” She twisted to press her lips to my jaw. “I wish I could make it better for you.”
“You do,” was my soft retort. “More than you know.” I rubbed my mouth against hers a couple times, but before things devolved and I ended up fucking her on my lap, I muttered, “You seen that kid hanging around the compound?”
Giulia tensed. “Kid?”
“He’s in his twenties.”
“You’re gonna need a new noun. A kid can’t be both our baby and a twenty-year-old dude.”
She had a point.
Grinning, I informed her, “I hunted the pedophile who killed his sister.”
Her eyes rounded. “Jesus! Talk about burying the lede, Nyx!”
“Nah. No lede to be buried.”
“What’s he doing here?”
“Wants to take part in the hunt.”
She frowned. “He knows about you?”
“Apparently.”
“That’s bad, ain’t it?”
“Very bad.”
“Why don’t you sound worried?”
“I’m not. Everyone else is, but not me.”
“How come?”
“Because our sisters were both victims. Ain’t no way in hell, no matter if you’re a sinner or a saint, you’re going to turn evidence over to the state against the man who took care of the bastard behind her death.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”