Chapter Thirty-Six
B y the time Liz and Trouble went to bed, the night had bled into the morning, and the sun was rising into the sky, casting glorious, fiery reds and oranges over the desert.
Rolling over, Liz checked the time on the bedside clock.
10:00
She closed her eyes, groaning; she was not ready for the day. She knew there was a shitload of stuff to do, including contact the police about a “break in” at the clinic. Odin, Trouble, and Grimm had all explained that the Russians would clean up after their men, but that the broken alarm system, the bullet hole in the wall behind where Danil Oblek’s head was, and the local reports of “suspicious looking men” outside the clinic couldn’t be explained away easily. So, she’d call the police, report a break in, get the insurance payout for it, and eventually reopen the clinic.
If dealing with the headache of explaining a missing partner, and then handling the whole of the business on her own was what she wanted.
Moaning, she threw herself from the bed, ignoring the twinge of pain on her jaw where Danil Oblek had a vice grip on her chin the day before. She heard the TV on in the living room, and knew Trouble had gotten up to feed and occupy their daughter so Liz could sleep. The man really was remarkably thoughtful for a former asshole cheater.
Rolling her eyes at her internal snark, she hurried through her shower, got dressed in jeans, t-shirt, and socks, and headed out to greet a new day.
As she walked into the living room, two identical heads turned in her direction, two sets of identical eyes brightened, and two identical grins melted her heart.
“Mama!” Erika shouted, jumping to her feet to run and plaster herself to Liz. “You’re awake! Can we go to SeaQuest now?”
Her gaze flying to a chuckling Trouble, Liz couldn’t help but laugh, too. Leave it up to the innocent to think nothing of a family field trip the day after her mother was held hostage and her father killed a Russian psycho.
I guess the cops’ll have to wait….
Kissing the top of Erika’s head, Liz murmured, “Of course, baby. Let me get some breakfast first, then we’ll go. Get ready.”
She didn’t have to tell Erika twice, as the girl squealed, then rushed down the hallway like she had wings on her feet.
Rising to all six foot plus of sexy manliness, Trouble flashed a dimple at Liz, and winked.
“Looks like she’s no worse for wear,” he remarked, sidling up to her in the loose hipped way that made her insides jitterbug. Damn, how had she not fucked him to death last night. Oh, that’s right, she’d fallen asleep after bawling her eyes out, her heart breaking for a scared little boy who’d had to do the unthinkable to survive.
Just as she had.
And…now it made sense…why he’d confessed all that to her last night. He knew she’d been torn up about what she’d done to Oblek, that she was having a crisis of conscience about breaking her oath to heal and not harm. And he’d shared something with her, something so similar and yet so different, that she couldn’t help but fall even deeper in love with him.
Slinking up to him, she wrapped her arms around his neck, pressed herself against his body, and peered up into eyes that shone with so much love, it filled her to overflowing.
“I know that putting that scalpel into Oblek was necessary; it was him or me and Erika. I had no choice. Does it stop me from feeling bad about it? No. But it does help me realize that the wrong I’d committed was also right. If I hadn’t done it, he’d have killed me before you even got there, and then he would have made good on his threat to take Erika and abuse her in ways I cannot even fathom.”
Trouble hummed, running his nose along hers, then kissing her forehead.
“You’re a kick ass doctor, baby, and you help so many people—many of them reckless, dumbass bikers, who know better than to get into fist fights with drunken idiots. Doing what you did yesterday, doesn’t undo all the good you’ve done, it doesn’t unsave the lives you’ve saved. It rid the world of one evil asshole, an evil asshole who would have kidnapped, tortured, and killed more girls than the ones AFK already found. You saved lives, baby, whether you know them or not.”
Choking on the fear, the relief, and the absolute love she felt for this man, Liz let the tears slide down her face.
Trouble kissed her lips, a gentle kiss that wiped away the negative, and let all the beauty of that moment shine through.
“You are an incredible woman…and I wished I’d been there to see you grow into such a brilliant, amazing, badass woman,” Trouble rasped against her lips.
Swallowing, she whispered thickly, “Thank you.”
His eyes dancing with happiness unimaginable, he smiled down at her. “I love you, Skizzy, so fucking much that my heart—and my balls—ache with it.”
She threw her head back, laughing, her heart lighter than it had been since her parents were alive. “Your heart and your balls, eh? So, does that mean I should love you with my heart and my tits?”
He chuckled, his green eyes darkening to wicked. “Or your delicious pussy—I’m not picky.”
She laughed again, the sound melting away as she looked up into his face, taking in the love, the adoration, the desire, the need in his expression.
“I do, ya know…I love you.” Her heart racing, she let her eyes tell him the whole truth of it. “I never stopped loving you.”
Agony and ecstasy flashed through his eyes before he squeezed them shut, as a look of profane deliverance etched itself into his face. Deliverance…as though he’d been freed, saved, delivered from something heavy, dark, destructive.
When his eyes opened, her breath caught at the light and joy in his emerald green gaze. Clear. His eyes were clear of the darkness that had been in them for so long.
“Trouble?” she whispered, her voice husky with emotions.
Shaking his head, he smiled, showing those damn dimples. “I’m good, baby. So fucking good—and I’ll be even better if you agree to wear my property patch.”
Giggling, Liz blurted, “You mean my very own Savage Raiders ol’ lady kutte?”
His eyes widened in surprise.
“Why are you shocked? I hang out with Tessa, Fae, and Skathi all the damn time, and those girls never shut up about owning their men.”
Trouble guffawed into the ceiling. “You do own me, baby, savage heart and soul.”
She smirked. “You’re damn right I do.”
He grabbed her, crushing her to his chest.
“Come on,” Erika called, shuffling into the room and effectively breaking them apart. “Let’s go!” Without another word, Erika ran to the door, threw it open, and disappeared into the day outside.
Liz laughed, and Trouble joined her. “Guess we better get going before she drives herself to the aquarium.”
“Damn, that girl sure is trouble,” he remarked, the smile on his face lighting up the goddamn planet.
Her heart full, her soul soaring, she gazed into the eyes of the man she loved, the man who broke her, saved her, then helped put her back together again.
Taking his big, rough hand in hers, she purred, “Everyone needs a little trouble.”
Liz smirked, turning to flash her new kutte at the women gathered around the table. Their men were all in Church, doing whatever it was that club officers did in their secret biker man cave.
“Ooo, bitch, when’d you get that sweet ass kutte?” Tessa teased, snatching Liz into a rib cracking hug. “Trouble finally pulled his head out of his ass and make things official?”
“Something like that,” Liz cooed, winking. “He gave me the kutte, and then demanded we move in with him—not that I argued with him about it.”
They’d spent the previous day at SeaQuest, enjoying their first outing as a family, and when they’d gotten home that night, and Erika was down for the count, Liz and Trouble made good use of his bathtub, the bathroom vanity, his dresser, and his bed.
By the time she’d had her sixth orgasm, she was so boneless, she couldn’t even lift her arm to touch it when Trouble had presented her with her property kutte. She knew from the other ol’ ladies the meaning and importance of the property kutte, but it took on even greater meaning when Trouble had told her when he’d gotten it.
He’d held onto that kutte for ten years. He’d held on to them for ten years.
She’d cried her eyes out, and when she could finally see clearly again, she’d gasped then grumbled at the name on the front.
Skizzy.
Today, though, she loved it. Loved the kutte. Loved the man who’d given it to her.
Skathi, nursing a ravenous baby Nielsen, grinned at Liz, her smile lighting up her striking golden eyes. “Congratulations, my friend. I’m glad to see that you kicked Trouble into shape.” They laughed, but Skathi quickly sobered. “I mean it…I’ve known him not a long time, but what I know of him…he was a broken man, a man who hid behind club duty, women, and false bravado, but you brought him out of that, made him stronger, made him take responsibility for his own mistakes.”
“Damn right,” Tessa cracked, slapping the table. “I’ve never seen him so…I dunno… untroubled . Before, there always seemed to be a cloud hanging over his head. Yeah, there was Amelia and the parties and shit, but it didn’t matter what he was doing, it never reached his eyes, ya know?”
Sucking her lips, Liz nodded. “Guilt eats at you, and you don’t even know it.”
“It ate at Hawk…about him abandoning his family,” Fae supplied.
“And Fang about his Hive ,” Tessa sneered, rolling her eyes. “And about not fighting harder to get his mother out of prostitution.”
Skathi hummed, pressed a kiss to Nielsen’s downy head, and admitted, “And Odin…he felt guilt for not meeting his father’s expectations, for not protecting Tessa and me from Madrigal, or Fae from Brian Tyler—FBI nutcase, or Tessa from her pedophile stepfather—he carries the guilt, all the weight he places on his own shoulders as the club president.”
“But that’s not on him, not really,” Liz remarked, understanding what Skathi was saying. “Our men carry their guilt like dark cloaks, and it’s up to us to help them lift it off their shoulders and burn it.”
“Damn straight; Savage Raiders and their savage women,” Tessa said, and Fae giggled.
“So,” Fae grinned wickedly, mischief twinkling in her eyes. “When’re we gonna get another Savage baby in this place?”
Liz gasped. “Oh no, oh hell no. We just got back together—there is no way he’s getting me pregnant, at least not for another few years.” Suddenly, Liz’s grin grew impish. “What about you, Tessa? Got any little wolf pups in there?”
Tessa’s face flushed so quickly, Liz couldn’t believe her eyes.
“Oh my God!” Liz squealed, her mouth dropping open.
Tucking her chin into her chest, Tessa looked up from beneath her lashes and muttered, “I’m in so much trouble….”
Laughter bubbled up from her soul as Liz exclaimed, “I love trouble!”